~~~
General Shinning Dawn of the Canterlot 3rd infantry battalion stood on the field surrounding the Everfree Forest in perfect formation. They were ordered to expect an attack at any moment, so he had drilled his ponies and kept them alert for the past three days now. In that time he had seen many large metal constructs descend from above the clouds and land in the cursed forest.
He had considered sending his pegasi to investigate but every time he did they were kept away by the barrels off to the sides of the iron contraptions, spitting fire and tiny round balls at them. Those barley grazed reported intense pain and agony, along with wide holes visible. Thankful no one had died yet however after his fourth pegasus returned with an eye hissing he never ordered another to take a closer look. Thankfully the craft never pursued, only returning to their path once left alone.
For three days he watched as they came down then left, always on edge for the attack he knew was coming. In truth the general had never actually been part of a war of any kind. He achieved his promotions through study and wargame exercises. His grandfather told him the stories of his grandfather’s time on the front lines during the third griffin war, and he admitted to only joining to see some action in his younger days. With his mane now turning grey those days of imagined adventure never happened.
But now faced with an enemy so utterly alien it stood on two legs, with magic so strange they didn’t even need to cast?... it was a good thing his coat was brown.
~~++
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Designation: Deccius Thrane
Rank: Sub Dominus
Location: Unknown World assigning designation: VP- 23336789432
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+None May Stop Our March+
Deccius Thrane watched the xeno’s army through the lenses of an infiltrator hidden in some flora right in front of them. To even call it a “formation” was laughable. Their organizer clearly had no idea how to properly structure an army, he had arranged all his troops in neat little lines in the middle of a field without any cover. It was possible they had no ranged weapons as their biology had no hands to speak of. Along with that in mind, their armor was clearly ceremonial, made of decorated gold and leaving much or the neck exposed. Their weapons were mainly spears, since they themselves served as cavalry it did make sense. With all the information gathered, Thrane ordered the lone sicarian back, cutting the connection, and began preparations for his spear head march.
++~~
The first thing Shinning Dawn noticed was the shifting of the trees, from the inside of the dark forest they were pushed aside as if some great beast were shoving them aside to make way. Then he saw the beasts. They were unlike anything anyone had seen before, flat faces and cyclopean off centered glowing eyes bulging from slits, from the top several iron spikes jutted, at their fronts some had lights, others stubby mismatched clawed arms, all had four legs but they where that of a crab. They were also bright red contrasting the dark green and browns of the forest, or the bright green of the well tended grass of the field. They smelled of dust and smoke, and moved unnaturally swift for something that size, chewing into the dirt. No matter how their quad legs moved, the main body remained largely stationary. Then as one the alien beast machines stopped and Shinning Dawn finally got a good look at them. At their sides the general saw strong black boxes with metal dishes at the end, the general suddenly realized these weren't creatures at all, they were some form of alien tanks.
For several tense seconds they just stood there, unmoving golems with a single glowing eye focused on them. Dawn gulped not sure what to do, several of his solders stood beside him just as afraid as he was. What was he supposed to do? Would they speak?
Then their was yet more rustling. Then shining bipedal warriors from the report emerged from the brush, they wore trench coats of red with cog teeth lining their sleeves and edges, some among them also had golden gear plumes mirroring their own helmet design.
Before he could even utter a single order all Tartarus broke loose. The walking tanks let out yellow streaks of light that annihilated everything they touched, the silver armored clockwork solders brought those bulbus sticks to their shoulders and let loose a torrent of glowing beams. Anyone unlucky enough to be struck by them found their existence ended almost instantly if they were lucky, if not they fell on the ground in agony as their flesh burned and their fur falling off in clumps. Shinning saw in horror the destruction they reeked, just their very steps were begging to scorch the earth below their feet. They stood no chance and he knew it. He had to think of something, ANYTHING. But soon it was too late. One of the yellow cones of destruction managed to hit him. In a blink General Shinning Dawn thought no more.
~~~
Some distance back Corporal Falcon Streak of the Cloudsdale 2nd squad stood with her ponies forming a defensive line around the river that ran ran between the Everfree Forest and Ponyville. Her solders were trained and disciplined, unlike those pappy softies at the capital. How someone like General Shining Dawn was even aloud to command anything was a mystery she dare not contemplate at a time like this. She needed to be utterly focused on the task at hoof, which was doing everything in her power to defend the ponies at her back with her life. She had ordered all the citizen to remain in their homes, but of course, some curious onlookers had set up picnics chairs. For now she ignored them and remained focused ahead. In front of her was a series of grassy hills, they would have plenty of warning if the first line was broken, which she fully expected it to be, since the incompetent general had moved his forces so close to the forest that four ponies could lay down in a row and reach the edge.
"Defiantly going to bite him in the flank later." She mumbled to her self.
"ma'am?" A private asked her.
"Nothing, just thinking out loud." She said. "Any word from the front line?"
"None yet ma'am." Before he even finished, Streak saw a pegasus making their way over the hill as fast as they could. The corporal saw they were clearly in a panic and trying to get as far as possible, she was about to send a squad out to retrieve them, only for a loud pop to ring out over the field and suddenly the unknown flyer was falling fast before crashing into the soil. Streak swallowed, but decided now was not the time to show fear, it was time for bravery. Fear only shown on her face for a heart beat before it was replaced with grim determination.
“Prepare for battle!” She shouted.
Everyone got into their proper positions, they formed a circular perimeter meaning any enemy would need to spread themselves to attack. Then she saw the metal creatures cresting over the hill. They were monsters in every sense of the word. Crab like monstrosities with glowing eyes and stabbing limbs chewed up the ground. In between them were odd iron bath tubs on balloons gliding across the planes. They passed over the corpse of the fallen pegasi without slowing. In that moment she knew for sure they were doomed. However unlike the late General Shinning Dawn, Corporal Falcon Streak was able to actually think on her toes.
Falcon Streak grabbed the same private from earlier by the collar of his uniform and pressed her nose right up to his looking him dead in the eye.
“Send a runner to Princess Twilight and tell her to engage plan C NOW!”
The private nodded nervously then took off at a gallop. The corporal composed herself, now wasn’t the time for fear. She suppressed her emotions then hovered above the ponies. Giving plans of attack. The first two line would advance and buy as much time as possible while the fourth protected civi’s, the third row was to maintain position for now in reserve. Everypony was too afraid to object, a few were frozen in place. Every one of those in the front line had already resigned themselves to their fate. This wasn't war, it was mechanized butchery.
What followed was a slaughter beyond words. Infantry didn’t even get a chance to clash before getting cut down, reduced to piles of smoking black armor by yellow cones of destruction. Walls of blessed iron came hurdling toward them crushing bones. Projectiles the size of pebbles moved at the speed of sound, toppling them over in electrical agony. At the front some of the warriors even possessed strange swords or clubs that dismembered or unleashed caged lightning. In a panic several unicorns accidentally unleashed spells. Slamming the warriors into one another, creating walls or flame or cones of ice. These were the only ones who seamed to do damage. However with how tightly packed the ponies were they often did more damage to their comrades than the enemy. Even worse after they unleashed a spell the metal warriors would then focus their attention on the obviously higher priority target and quickly eliminate them.
Falcon Streak saw all of this as she flew over the battlefield. She wanted to join in, help her doomed comrades, save as many soldiers as she could then get out. Their were wounded she could easily grab. But she couldn’t, she stayed behind. She just needed to buy time, as much time as she could afford. She was of no use dead.
~~++
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Designation: Deccius Thrane
Rank: Sub Dominus
Location: Unknown World assigning designation: VP- 23336789432
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+Our Might Has Come Online+
Decius Thrane torso protruded from the hatch of the Skorpius Tank he rode in. Though he hated to admit it, his organic parts were enjoying the sensation of the clean wind in them. Even if the gravity of this world was still a bit much.
The advance of his troops was much slower than he would prefer, due to the worlds abundance of gravity. This meant the blessed rounds of the Omnissiah also traveled much less than they would in Martian standard gravity. Still resistance was light, as expected. His Alpha’s and fellow dominii were reporting minimal resistance, no surprises yet. Aside from the occasional panicked xenos psyker.
Ahead was the xeno settlement he had visited just a few months ago. The architecture was abominable, but it had the rustic charm of certain agri worlds he visited. He thought back to his visitation and the knowledge it opened up to him when a sudden flash of pink energy emanated from above the town.
A curtain or opaque energy flowed down from above like a waterfall. Deccius ordered his troops to double time, the machine spirit of his own Skorpius disintegrator was pushed to its limits, fans kicked up a cloud of dust, the reactor beginning to over heat. It wasn’t enough thought.
Just as the last equine was killed the wall of energy reached the ground. Deccius reached the shield shortly afterwards. As the force field formed he received an icon in his vision alert him about noospheric messages. With a thought he opened it and was met with the voices of his dominii.
“What in the Omnissiah’s name is that!” asked Attalade.
”That’s not fair!” Before Thrane could respond Xeth chimed in.
“The xenos appear to have some form of shielding technology...”
Then came Fash Mu-8887 trailing off into another one of his speculatory rants forgetting the connection was still open. Soon the voice of his alphas and primus alphas came in.
"Unknown xenos wall of energy detected, should we proceed?"
“My lord, what are your orders?” One asked.
“Instructions honorable tech priest?” added another.
”We stand by until new orders are given.”
Dominus Deccius Thrane had enough and cut his connection to everyone so his cogitators could think clearly. As his tank slowed to a stop meters from the shield edge and disembarked. Already several Skitarii were going over the wall of force with their auspex and other censors.
The leader of the Martian ground forces looked up, the organic half of his face formed a grimaced, noticing the shield was centered on the crystal tree structure with the eight pointed star. Gazing to his right the capital was in a similar pink bubble also surrounding it and cutting off the flow of the waterfall underneath which was already beginning to flood.
It had to be some form of void shield. But this appeared beyond anything they were capable of. Void shields took the energy exerted upon them and deflected them back strengthening the shield. The stronger the force, the stronger the shield in that area, however they had two main weaknesses; one being of too much force was applied then the generator would over load. Another being if not enough force was exerted then it was entirely possible to pass through them. With a shield of this size passing through it should be a trivial matter. However pressing his hand against it he found it to be solid as a wall of iron. This confused him but he wasn’t worried. Omnissiah willing they had more than enough ordinances onboard the Byzantium to over load the generator.
He ordered three troupers bearing transuranic arquebus to the front row of the formation. Within heart beats the mono pods were set up aimed directly at the wall of force. This would give some idea of just how much energy the shield had. With a burst of binary they fired in sync.
However instead of falling harmlessly on the ground their energy spent. The tank piercing rounds were blast back at them, the shield indenting like a wall of gummy.
Two Skitarii were struck in the leg by the same round. A third was hit in the chest, bionics and organs exploding outward and coating several in oil and gore. The third round sailed past Deccius’s head.
This was going to be more difficult than he thought.
Transmission Interrupted