//------------------------------// // The Dark Age: The 1st War for S.T.-s pt.2 // Story: A new faction // by Rub3r0n //------------------------------// The moral wasn't low, it was sunk. Since the equusians first arrived to the planet Palomino, everything got worseeee. All fault of the orks, those war-lovers greenskins ruined everything, spreading a tsunami of blood and death. Now they took Flurry Hearth. Yes, a lot of creatures there disagreed with her when she decided to continue trying diplomacy, but she still was a representative, pillars of unity, wisdom and hope, and one of the most respected ones. Her disappearance hit severely, and everycreature felt a mixup of anger and sadness. Yes, Todarius and Queen Flamellus were helping a lot, not everything was lost, but things were getting every time worse and worse. This was clearly observable during the battle of the valley. One of the battles between the equusians and the orks, which happened on an extensive valley surrounded by high mountains. During a weird period without the typical dust storms of the zone, the valley allowed a direct way towards an important mining facility used by the equusians to obtain resources. Its loss would suppose several problems. The orks brought a war gang from one of their camps, it was... pretty simple being honest. They decided to go directly through the valley's open field, where they could be easily detected and attacked, the equusians took this as the usual orkish impulse and behaviour..... But that's exactly what the orks wanted you yo believe! The equusians prepared some defenses in the mountains, where they had a clear range to shoot their enemies and stop them. But the orks thought better out! Some little but experienced and strong squads infiltrated in the mountains, ending with the groups ready to attack the other boys. Soon, the equusians saw themselves forced to deploy a big part of their forces on an open field to stop the orks. Luckily, the lack of dust storms allowed them to use their combat drones and ranged weapons. By the way, do you remember I said that this orkish army was simple? Well, not exactly. The greenskins were hiding their war vehicles and a lot of boys to trick their enemies and make them overconfident. So the situation was something like this: -A big equusian army with combat drones, artillery and other powerful ranged weapons. AGAINST -An enormous army of orks with war vehicles, including tanks, buggies, flyers, walkers as Mega Dreads and MORE, thousands of weapons, the dominance over the mountains surrounding the valley, plus the attack was being led by the cult of the speed. Yeaaahhh.... things weren't easy for the equusians and they started very bad for them, they even had to call for reinforcements! And I mean, there was almost ALL the equusian military force, being led by Queen Flamellus. But from their deepest despair, arising between the strongest red dust storms, a mighty thunder resounded, filling the hearts of their enemies with pure terror and expectation. THUNDERWILL!!! One of the mightiest minotaur soldiers, with an indestructible will and an unconditional respect fir those he considered superior to him, what was reflected in his way to talk. Bravery, honor, strength and keeping your word were his most outstanding values alongside the desire to fight his enemies in face-to-face combat. For this, he would use the newest invention they had, alongside other fellow trained soldiers, all piloting... Cubed Giants! The cubed giants are powerful war walkers, machines built only to help fight the enemies of the equusians, in this case, the orks, and more specifically, their war walkers as Gorkanauts. It was when they first saw these giant beasts, that they comprehended the necessity of their own giant beasts to face them. These war machines were not only ultra-resistent beasts of between 4 and 10 meters high with a super magical shield around them, but they also carried all sorts of BIG and HEAVY guns, missiles and others, for not mention their ability to use melee weapons as spears, hammers or swords. Their structure was interesting. The main part would be a big cube where the pilot would control the robot and see thanks to various exterior cameras and interior screens. By the way, the reason for giving the cubed giants pilots in person and not controlling them remotely was the same reason to stop using a lot of combat-drones in battle (although this one was an exception), the storms of the planet would damage the connection. In the future this will continue because it had turned into a tradition and honour and bla bla bla... Continuing, this central cube would have four rectangular extremities, two of which had four fingers at the corners. These extremities would serve as "arms" meanwhile the other two, connected by a mobile waist, as legs (legs, which weren't like humans, more like the leg of a cat, a dog or the hind legs of a pony), at least in the bipedal form. You see, the giants could choose and alternate between two forms, the bipedal and the quadrupedal, I think the characteristics of each one are clear. Plus, the "joints" were well protected. The giants were built thanks to Spacestar's plans for new exploration vehicles, although... with some changes of course. Besides, this plans served too to create the Rinno tanks, special tanks charged with cannons and other weapons, the most resistant revetment and a sharp horn in the front used to charge against their enemies. Their structures similar to caterpillars (similar to those tanks used in Avatar: the legend of Aang during the assault to the fire nation) gave them a good movement freedom and inside, they could carry a lot of soldiers. The cubed giant piloted by Thunderwill was Thunder Jotnar, the biggest of them all, with 10m. It had several weapons, two machine guns, a missile and a grenade launcher, a retractable machete on the left arm, where there was also implanted a powerful magic cannon, its beam could cross through almost every material and reach ranges of kilometers. But the most important and epic weapon it had was Lightning Strike. This powerful sword was huge (I mean, it was a normal sword for a giant, but that's the thing, it's a giant), its name came because the shining of a lightning would be the last thing their victims could see. It had a more literal meaning too, the sword had magical properties to summon electrical storms, absorb electricity and use it to power up its hits, seeming a lightning, this power even could be used to manifest lightnings from the sword and lead them towards an objective, at the moment, the orks. With the ferocity of Thunderwill, who preferred to engage in face-to-face combat against the orks and their walkers, and the brutal power of the other cubed giants and Rinno tanks added to a great organization and some of the most dangerous strategies, the battle ended positively for the equusians. During one month, Thunderwill, alongside Flamellus and Volakno, who sought revenge against the orks for killing his best friend Spacestar, led several military campaigns against these aliens, doing strong and fast attacks to all their camps. Some of the most interesting battles that happened in this period were: -The battle of Gyu: Gyu was a mountain full of orks, its location gave a strategical advantage against other 2 ork settlements. Queen Flamellus infiltrated with a great group of talented spies, causing an internal conflict. The orks killed themselves and the little remaining ork resistence couldn't defend itself when the infiltrated revealed themselves and attack. -The battle of Or-5 (Or-XNumber is the form of the equusiansto designate ork locations): The ork camp designated Or-5 was giving a looooot of problems to the equusians, its defenses were too difficult to overpass, so the equusians decided to use an unconventional method. Todarius, leader of the assault to Or-5, commanded to dig tunnels under their enemies. The process was long, but finally, the plan worked, a lot of bombs were detonated, burying the orks and leaving the defenses useless. Then the equusians went and ended with all the aliens there, this battle was the one with less casualties, 3.5 in total. -The Nightmare bombings: Usually the space ships of the equusians stayed fighting against the ork ships in orbit. Murderships Nightmare for example, now under command of captain Volkano again, developed a new war tactic for space ships. Taking an ork ship away from the others, Murderships Nightmare activated all its shields and sped up, heading to the ship of their enemies. This ship was crossed and crashed, exploding into thousands of pieces, although Murderships Nightmare remained useless for some time before recovering its energies. But that's not so important, the thing is that, after it recovered, the ship managed to organize orbital attacks to the ork camps. This was succesful and uncountable ork bases were destroyed while Sneaky One and Void Master prevented more orks to descend to the planet. -The battle of the River: The battle of the River was without any type of doubt, one of the most important battles of the first War for S.T.-s. It was the last battle of equusians vs. orks on Palomino and took place on the biggest glacier of the planet, which came from the arctic and extended for kilometers. This operation was conformed by ALL of the equusian forces on the planet and jointly led by Flamellus, Todarius, Thunderwill and the officials in charge of small squads, help from orbit by Volkano commanding Murderships Nightmare. Their objective: the last, but not the biggest, ork camp of the planet. The attack began after sunset, then the orks couldn't see good enough during the night or were sleeping (maybe), meanwhile the equusians had advanced equipment of night-vision. The plan was making the orks go to the glacier, well their camp was next to it, and when they entered, they couldn't escape. On the other side of the ice river, a strong force would wait to the orks and when they arrived, the force would trap them into the ice, melting and freezing it over and over again until no one remained. The fight was amazing, explosions everywhere, so many shots that their noise seemed background music, mighty tanks from both sides punishing their enemies with brutal fury, ork walkers fighting against the cubed giants in extraordinary melee combat, orbital attacks from Murderships Nightmare, etc. . The ice was dyed with red because of the blood from both sides. At one moment, a bunch or orks managed to escape of the battle field and exit of the glacier, this was seen by Thunderwill, who pointed to them with the magical cannon in his left arm. It unleashed a terrifying powerful magical beam, which thank to its great distance range, reached them, vaporizing the orks with an immense explosion. Then he continued impassive to slay ork walkers with his sword, which seemed a lightning. The battle lasted for hours, but it ended. The equusians raised their voices to the sky, celebrating their glorious victory by shouting with pure joy and satisfaction after having defeated the greenskins. "Surrender alien, and maybe your death could be calmer," Thunderwill, at the great Thunder Jotnar said to the crippled ork, one of the last survivors of the last battle, with a great determination and a bit of sorrow. He didn't enjoy the act of killing, why ending with a life would be enjoyable? But it was needed and, at least for Thunderwill, an act of mercy. The nature of the orks made them want to fight and makr war, what kind of life full with suffering would that be? The incapacity of enjoy the life peacefully. This was opposed to one of Thunderwill's biggest wishes, a calmed life. "Da Waaagh doezn't end big cuzzie, and I won't even try to end it zurrending!" Answered the ork. "So be it, fungi man." The lightnings that followed burned the greenskin to death, the same with all the other remaining orks. After freeing the planet of orkish presence, 1 month and 2 weeks after his first victory in the battle of the valley, Thunderwill was highly decorated because of his victories. He was allowed to own his cubed giant (which isn't normal, it's like if the army gave a soldier a tank) and was named "HERO OF PALOMINO". This allowed him to paint his giant, well the machines were pretty simple, all white with no style, eeeexcept from some special symbols to use something similar to cutie mark magic. Thunder Jotnar's was a minotaur antlers with a thunder coming out from below. The new color palette would be dark grey with some parts of midnight blue, besides some white and silver details. Quickly, everyone moved to deal with the ork ships still orbiting their planet, which... wasn't hard. I think I said it before, but I will say it again. The equusians are DAMN GOOD in space battles. After 3 days, this operation ended and Palomino could finally be considered really free from the ork presence (HAHAHAHA! 🤣Sorry, but it's at least funny to me because they don't know about orkish spores). However, even with the big party that followed, every creature knew that this was NOT the end of the war, it wouldn't end until every ork in the system was eliminated. And where are the other orks? Exactly! In their next targets to attack, S.T.-3, now called as Green Hell, and its satellite, Green Skull. Now, for laughing a bit, let's see some classical ork moments! During the first War for S.T.-s, the orks from a tribe called "Punch or punch" faced a small and newbie xeno race, although they sure knew how to defend themselves. They called these creatures "cuzziez", as a parody of their real name, "equusians". In response they call the orks "fungi man" and other insults as "greenskin", "war-simps" or "shroom trash". At a certain point, the equusians began to use special weapons capable of petryfing, leaving the orks as no more than rocks. When this happened to an unlucky ork, the other one next to him, instead of protecting himself, having fear or something like that, had a better idea! Use his petrified buddy as a surf table to slide down the side of the hill he was on while shooting! Another one! There was this ork who had an ABSOLUTE love for his choppa (knife), being his favourite weapon. Then a changeling spy saw this and decided to trick the ork. The changeling took the knife and transformed into it, making the ork believe that he still had his knife, but the reality was that it was the changeling disguised! At one perfect moment, the changeling revealed himself, stealing all the love of the ork for his choppa (yes, they still can do that, even reformed they just don't need to). With the ork on the floor without energies, the changeling revealed to have his choppa and fled with it. Oh, soorry. I made a mistake, that's not how the story actually went. Let's see... Oh yes! Right! The changeling killed the ork with his stolen knife! The orks have the interesting and terrifying power of belief, if they think something works, then it works. This has a special behaviour with colours, well orks think colors give specific properties to things, like exploding stronger, giving good luck or going really fast. One time some orks managed to broke the space suit of a batpony, leaving his body at the sight of the aliens. However, the orks terrified and began to sweat, then under the suit there was nothing, REALLY NOTHING. What happens is that the batpony's coat was purple. To end, once a kelpie managed to trick some orks and convincing them to drink her (because kelpies are made of water). The kelpie put herself in a bucket and an ork drank her. Okay, this was the end of the kelpie. WROOONG! The kelpies have the magical powers of water bending, which allows them to alternate between water, ice and steam and, in some grade, change their own forms, plus of course, usual water bending. Suddenly, the ork began to feel extremely bad and a great pain inside of him until... he EXPLODED VIOLENTLY! The kelpie recomposed from the corpse and looked at the other orks, these, instead of killing that thing, began to laugh, what happened was just too cool. The kelpie, surprised, was like: "This guys are weird... I LIKE IT!" Then the orks began a "competition" between them, they would drink the kelpie and the first one to survive wins. Hundreds of orks died doing that, but hey! That's because they were losers, by the way, the kelpie survived, she just got tired and fled, leaving some bombs around, but nothing more.