//------------------------------// // The other side and the new arrivals. // Story: X-COM Ponies // by Sneaky Breeze //------------------------------// Chapter 3: The Other Side and the New Arrivals. The Sol system, dark side of Earth’s moon The alien mother ship floated behind the Earth’s natural satellite, well out of range for any sensors on Earth, and in a position where it could send more ships to Earth or shoot down any of the primitive missiles the earthlings might send. The ship was manned by a mixed crew comprised of several species that had been conquered and enslaved, many of them were clones and in fact had little to no free will. Only a few beings on the ship could even claim a measure of freedom, one such being was Sectoid clone 742, the defective clone. 742 was considered to be defective due to his lack of attention when being spoken to by a non-Sectoid superior officer. Along with his borderline disrespect for other non Sectoid races he was considered a defect. But due to the shortage of working genes he was still allowed to live. Many Ethereals believed 742's attitude was because the clone batch he grew in had malfunctioned, causing half the stock to die before hatching completely. 742 slept in a hibernation tube, surrounded by cold liquid that served to rejuvenate and keep 742’s body healthy with nutrients. 742 floated in the middle of his tube curled up in a fetal position, deep in thought over recent events. Earlier that week 742 and his superior had been called to the docking bay as a new ship arrived under a fighter escort. Once docked the VIP stepped out covered in a large red cloak and hood that hid its features. The hooded figure was only referred to as Master by the unworthy Sectoids, though 742 found it odd as the being has masters of its own to answer to. None the less the leaders of the empire had sent the powerful being to deal with the insolence of the Sectoids in this solar system. The Sectoids were the only species among the empires many slave races that still had some semblance of free will and 742’s superior had been slowly sending forces to Earth to abduct and experiment with the natives. The process had been long and laborious but it did bring rewards. The experiments yielded astonishing, near imposible results. The humans of earth where compatible enough that the Sectoids could actually mix their DNA together. Their masters wanted to ensure the Sectoids remained docile, intelligent and numerous as cannon fodder, but ended up making too many bad cloning decisions. The Sectoids now faced extinction by inbreeding, due to making copies from other copies. Many Ethereals even believed the Sectoids would be extinct within 112 years. To save themselves the Sectoids had planned to slowly mix their purest DNA with the unwitting humans and let hybrids grow on earth unbothered.Then they would have slowly mixed with the population to grow purer genes but that plan was ruined when another imperial ship caught an old signal from Earth and blew the whistle on them. When the empire discovered that not only was earth habitable, but there were several planets and moons that could be terraformed into colonies, the masters salivated at the proverbial gold mine this system was. Later scans showed that the asteroid belt in the solar system also contained countless amounts of rare minerals and metals. The planet Neptune alone contained enough water to quench the thirst of every member of the empire twice. This revelation infuriated as well as excited the empire. For while they were overjoyed at the bounty they had discovered the rulers of the empire were deeply disturbed by the act of rebellion from the Sectoids in hiding this system for themselves. The Master was sent to take command of the ship and lead the invasion of Earth after the Sectoids failure to make proper beachheads on the planet. The Master's orders were to subjugate the native species as a new slave race or wipe them out if they proved too much trouble and of little value to the Ethereal Collective. It was then planned that their planet would be used as a colony to mine the rest of their solar system. 742 shivered in his hibernation tube. He vividly remembered how the Master had torn his former superior’s arm off, as a casual example of what happens to those with rebellious ideas, before crushing his body with powerful psychic abilities. The Master proceeded to ensure from then on all Sectoid units would be mixed with other, more loyal, species when he commanded the ship. 742 did his best to hide his anger, for the Master might hear his thoughts. 742 always believed of himself as defective since Sectoid clones were not designed to feel emotions at all. But he did, along with a love of his own species and a sadness at what would befall the humans who in a way now where like distant genetic cousins. As 742 continued to contemplate he heard a voice whisper silently into his thoughts. “You’re not defective, my dear enslaved Sectoid. Your just... special. So special in fact that you’re going to deal a heavy blow to your oppressors, by helping the Humans stop the invasion of their homeworld. Then you will incite a Sectoid rebellion throughout the empire,” Discord whispered into the slumbering Sectoid's mind. He was nearly complete placing all the pieces onto the chessboard... Washington DC The Cult of Sirius had been planning their attack on DC for almost two months now. And, with the aid of their alien guardians, they would succeed. Their faith was pure and Sirius would return them from the grave on planet Nibiru for their loyal service should they fall in battle. Of course that was what they were told by their new masters. Soon the worthy would bring about destruction to one of the capitols of the heathens who still worshipped the old tribal gods. Or so the cult members had thought as they charged out of unmarked vans and opened fire on nearby innocents in front of the white house. But soon after their attack began, four of the fifteen attackers had been gunned down by snipers hidden on rooftops who had trained to halt such attacks. A fifth was soon killed by a police officer in civilian clothes. The cult members found themselves on the run as more Capitol police and federal agents began showing up. One group of cult members abandoned their van in front of a random three level building that was still under construction. They then made their way up to its roof to get a vantage point on whatever police might show up. Upon reaching the roof the cultists were expecting police or soldiers to meet them but instead found what looked like four cartoon horses struggling to their feet as they talked in what sounded like whinnies and neighs. One of them, a cross eyed horse with wings, looked at the three humans and waved happily. The cultists raised their weapons and prepared to fire at the four unearthly creatures. “Sir, I’ve got some insurgents in my sights and I’m taking the shot,” whispered a sniper hiding in a tree with a silenced rifle as he aimed down range. He could see the cult members aiming their weapons at someone who was out of his line of sight. The sniper could only assume it was a hostage. He fired right for the head of one of the cultists. As the bullet traveled through the air the wind began to shift.The round moved to the side, clipping the cult member’s ear, causing him to scream and fire his weapon wildly. This startled the other two out of firing at the ponies as they dove to avoid ricochets. One of the bullets slammed into Rock Fist’s chest armor. Luckily it had been a 9mm round from an MP5 and the small caliber round bounced off, though it left a dent behind, and Rock quickly pounced on the three humans, knocking them all down before he stomped on their faces with his armored hooves. Rock quickly ended their lives with a loud crunch as he smashed their faces and necks, getting some of their blood on his hooves in the process. The other three ponies and a very confused sniper were left stunned as Rock Fist trotted away from the corpses and over to Trixie. “Where...did...you...send...us?” Rock said very slowly, his words obviously filled with anger at the little blue charlatan. “I did not send us to this hellish place!” she said as more gunfire could be heard causing everyone to duck as stray rounds passed over their heads. Derpy hid behind Sneaky Breeze, knowing the safest place would be behind a royal guard and that she would probably need their protection if she ever wanted to see the doctor and her daughter again. Rock thought for a moment about their situation then sighed as he combat crawled on the ground over to the other ponies. Rock then admitted, “You’re right. You don’t have nearly enough skill to teleport us here.” Trixie protested before Breeze hushed her angrily. “Sarge, what’s our next move?” Breeze always trusted his Sergeant’s opinions since he and Breeze’s father, a short but strong earth pony, had been war buddies for many years. When Breeze enlisted his father told him to always stick close to Rock Fist because he would take care of him and help him all through his service. And while some might call it nepotism for a sergeant to watch over and protect the son of his best friend. Rock preferred to call it watching out for your buddy’s son. Rock closed his eyes for a moment. Sighing, he then turned his gaze to the three dead bipeds before turning to face Breeze. “Boy, I’m afraid you won’t be flying for a while.” “But..but.. Sarge I could fly one of us out of here and the other peg-” Breeze tried to protest but Rock put his hoof on the boy’s mouth to silence him and spoke in a lower tone since he didn't want their position getting blown. “I know, boy, but from what I’ve seen so far, these bipeds seem to have some kind of miniaturized blunderbuss. And I would rather see you get hit on the ground where I can pull you to safety than watch you fall and die.Then I'd have to bring you home to your mother in a bucket.” Rock nearly shuddered at the thought of Breeze falling from the sky. He had always considered the boy almost a son since he never found the time to get a girl for himself, or at the least to keep the one he once had. “Stick your wings into their slots,” Rock said, referring to a new addition to the Pegasus pony armor. Recently added was a small slot on their sides where they could fit their wings into if they needed to engage in ground or cave combat. It was guatunteed to protect their wings from being gored. “Well….we could just wait here until everything calms down,” Derpy interjected, actually hoping that when the doctor came back he would notice she was gone and come to get her in his TARDIS, wherever it is she was. “ Trixie will not stay here with you fools,” Trixie said quickly as she wanted to get away from the other ponies before they remembered to arrest her for assaulting a royal guard. “Miss, it’s probably a good idea if we stick together,.” Breeze added, still feeling sorry for bumping noggins earlier. “Trixie can take care of herself!” she said and lifted her head up in the air before using a short range teleportation spell to disappear into a nearby bush. She then began trotting away from the sounds of violence, concocting plans to make herself rich and famous on this new world. “Well that’s one less mouth to feed then,” Rock Fist said under his breath before turning to Derpy. “Ma’am, may I ask what it is you do for a living?” Derpy blushed and responded, “Uuhh..well you see I'm sort of unemployed at the moment, but I used to be a mail carrier!” she said, not adding that she had been fired for dropping one too many packages and delivering mail to the wrong boxes. Rock thought for a moment. “I see. Well that’s still good, we can use your natural sense of direction.” “Uhh…HQ…I don’t know what it is I'm looking at here, but I think this is above my pay grade...” said the sniper as he watched an armored horse poke his head up before getting his head pulled down by another armored horse. “Celestia dammit, Sneaky-Breeze! Are you trying to get yourself shot? A blunderbuss is just as dangerous as a crossbow in the hands of a Griffin.” “I’m sorry, Sarge. It won’t happen again.” Breeze said as he crawled away from Rock Fist before Derpy suddenly whistled to them from down behind the building near a construction trailer. “Hey guys, there are muffins in here!” She said with a massive grin as she flew back inside. “”How did she get down there so fast?” Breeze asked. He would have sworn the pony was behind him only a few seconds ago. “Who cares? Never waste a chance for food, boy. It may be the only meal we will have for a while,” Rock whispered to Breeze as he crawled to the edge of the roof and jumped inside the trailer through a sunroof, soon followed by Sneaky Breeze. Upon entering the small trailer the three ponies mouths watered as they saw a bounty of doughnuts, coffee and muffins on a small table. After a quick check of the nearby area Rock secured the door into the break room by wedging a chair under the handle and made sure all the blinds were closed. The ponies then ate their fill and found a small gift shop bag to put extra food into. “Hey Sarge,” Breeze spoke up as he finished a doughnut and downed it with some soda from a bottle they found. “If they can make food this yummy then they can’t be all bad, right?” Rock huffed loudly. “That remains to be seen. Good people don’t try to kill unarmed creatures they haven’t met.” As they finished their meal the three ponies came to the decision to hide in the building until night fall when they could travel more freely. Meanwhile Trixie had been walking for almost two hours straight and ended up in downtown DC , just after the sun had gone down. She'd had to use her magic to teleport from hiding spot to hiding spot to avoid being seen. But it was not going well. She now couldn't find her way out of the area. Finally giving up she shouted out, “Someone save me, I'm lost!” She looked around and held her magician’s hat close to her chest in fear, whishing she had stayed with the two capable warriors to protect her. Now she was lost in an unfamiliar land with strange creatures and carriages that ran without being pulled. “Just calm yourself, Trixie. Your're a great and powerful and you have magic,” she kept repeating to herself as she stumbled around until she bumped face first into what looked like a very tall biped in a suit and sunglasses. Trixie froze in fear of the abnormally tall biped as it suddenly reached down and pet her head. “Good doggy,” It mumbled and then continued on seemingly without a care. Trixie was left for just a moment to wonder what it had said before a large dart struck her neck and she fell to the ground, twitching and slowly blacking out as men in black armor and masks wrapped her limbs up with Zip ties. "This looks like no horse I've seen, man. And it came into direct contact with the target," said one figure to the other before they shoved a bag on Trixie's head, letting her sink into total darkness. The alien infiltrator adjusted its sunglasses and continued on down the street after its encounter with the odd Earth animal. There was no time to stop now, the alien was nearly at the Cult of Sirius meeting place. It was so intent on arriving at the meeting it never noticed that the alleyways and rooftops above it were crawling with FBI agents ready to pounce at any moment. But neither did the FBI agents have any idea that they were about to assault an alien and his worshippers along with capturing a narcissistic magical unicorn with a massive superiority complex