The pegasi scouts that Eric had sent out had managed to tail the changelings back to their hive. The two airships that went off in this direction had landed and parked themselves about 15 kilometers away. It was close enough so that the ground troops didn't have to march for ages, when they would attack the hive, but far enough away that enemy ground artillery would hopefully not be able to fire on their position. The airships' parking location was hidden from the hives and hopefully, they wouldn't be at threat from enemy artillery, if they had any. They had to work fast as the more time that passed by, the more time that the changeling hive could prepare for a fight.
The changeling hive was nestled in between some mountains, near where the reported possible dragon dens sat. The scouts reported that the exterior of the hive already had defenses set up. There were crescent shaped trench lines, that had the tips pointing away from the hive dug into the desert and hundreds of ponies(most likely disguised changelings) and griffons were milling about outside the hive. The changelings that had returned from the aerial engagement, had probably notified them of the impending danger. Between the many small trench lines were lots of the rogue hive's forces, building more hasty defenses like berms, setting up sandbags, or digging holes.
The REA debated completely destroying the hive and burying the changelings, but Princess Luna changed their minds. Pharynx had told her that the changeling hive could be home to hundreds, possibly thousands, of captured ponies and POWs (Prisoners Of War) that were being used as food sources. Also, if they wanted to destroy the hive, they'd have to destroy all of the entrances and they only knew of the one entrance that they could see at the moment.
Since this hive looked to be huge, housing possibly thousands of changelings, Princess Luna had decided to send a signal back to the airships that had been left behind in Appleloosa. They were told to send reinforcements and possibly send one of the two airships to their position, to help assault the hive. The ponies didn't have radios and sending a pegasus messenger team would take hours. Luckily, the princess had her magic and she sent a magical message, exactly like how Princess Twilight did in Baltimare. The message had their coordinates and the call for reinforcements, and it was incapable of being intercepted like what's possible with messengers. It was instantaneous too unlike a pegasus messenger which would take almost an hour. This location was only a couple hundred kilometers away from Appleloosa, so they'd be expecting the reinforcement's arrival in the next few hours. Though this wasn't accounting for how long it would take the airship to gather up their necessities to mobilize.
Eric had planned an assault for the changeling hive. It would start out with the airships shelling the hive's defensive positions with their guns. Each airship was equipped with a small number of large bore, long range artillery but they had a limited number of shells. Then, when the changelings would most likely try to give counter battery fire, like most people would do after an artillery barrage. That was when the pegasi would fly in and drop their bombs to destroy or disrupt their artillery fire and defensive positions. At that point, Eric and his troops would assault the position on foot while the pegasi flew overhead to provide additional bombing support. Once they took the trench lines that the changelings had built up, they could siege the changeling hive. How they would siege the changeling hive would be for the future. They didn't need to waste the resources in planning/preparing that far ahead.
Eric mobilized all of the soldiers from the experimental battalion, including all of the soldiers from Tran's section and half of the medic teams from Wilson's section. The other half of the medics were still on the airship, in its infirmary, attending to the wounded personnel. In addition to the experimental battalion, half of the airships' escorting defensive pegasi would be involved in this offensive, assisting in keeping the skies clear from enemies.
All of this started with a 15 kilometer ruck march. Eric and the experimental battalion gathered only the essentials and started walking.
-X-X-X-
Inside the changeling hive and outside of it where the outer defenses were built, hundreds, possibly thousands of changelings and griffins were milling about. They were preparing for a fight, one they somehow knew was gonna be big and bad. They hadn't had much time to prepare, with the REA surprising them. They still had a short time to have staged a significant chunk of forces out in the pre-dug trenches that existed beforehand.
The changeling spies and scouts had reported the power of what they faced, the scouts having given more information. The spies were barely able to probe the REA forces, with nearly all of their spies had been caught. With what little information that was gathered, the average soldiers in the hive and outside where the defenses, felt anxious about what they were facing. The tiny iota of successful spies and scouts that were able to gather intel and return had made things worse. From what they could amass, there was a battalion of soldiers on the only airship they were able to infiltrate. They then assumed that each airship held a battalion of soldiers, not including the pegasi that were escorting them, if they considered the worst case scenario as was usually done in wartime.
That meant the rogue changeling hive thought they were facing four battalions of soldiers and the hundreds of escorting pegasi. Then, there were the humans. So many rumors of what those... Things could do. Before they(the rogue hive's chain of command) knew it, their soldiers were fighting. Not just one or two, but a very significant quantity of them were fighting with luckily only hoof and claws, not using their talons, knives, guns, bayonets, and or whatever variety of lethal weapons that were at their disposal.
This meant that exceedingly valuable time was being wasted on the required amount of effort to halt said fights. The fight had been caused by some soldiers trying to forcibly switch roles. It was an unwinnable situation. Everyone knew that being assigned to the inner defenses or the support mortar line was a much safer prospect than the outer defenses but in the end, someone had to man it. Usually, the changelings were much more disciplined, not just from training, but culture as the changelings warrior and role caste system and pheromones helped control behavior. However, even the changelings were unnerved right now. It was like there was someone in the air that was making them anxious, something that wasn't the usual pheromones. Not something physical but something intangible, almost like a powerful aura.
-X-X-X-
All Eric had to do, was to signal the airships to start the artillery barrage. He and the soldiers with him had made the long ruck march and found a good point where they could start their assault. They were as close to the changeling hive, as they could be without their numbers being discovered. They were maybe slightly under a kilometer away now and were just staging their forces.
After a long and arduous trek through the Badland's desert, everyone should have been tired. They had marched for hours through the rough Badland's desert while ladened down with all of their gear. However, with Eric in their company, the soldiers felt... Powerful. They felt like warriors. They wanted this fight. Just being around the human was enough to make them stronger than ever before, as if they were always meant to fight.
Eric checked the chamber of his Ak74 to make sure it was loaded. He looked around and saw that all of his troops were in place and that machine gun teams had been set up to provide covering fire. Everything was in its place. He pulled out a flare gun and fired it into the air. The green flare soared high in the sky, signalling everything off.
The changeling hive and its forces immediately saw the flare that was fired into the air, but their attention was soon taken away as the airships in the distance had started firing. From the range they were firing at, it took quite a few noticeable seconds before shells started impacting. None of the airships were to fire directly at the changeling hive, with caution not to destroy the entrance, only at the outer trench lines. Of the shells fired, none had made any direct hits as the airships were firing from near their max range. However, the threat of the shells made all the difference. All of the changelings and griffons in the hive's outer defenses had battened down for safety. There were many changelings and griffons that were flying in the air who were now forced to the ground under threat of the artillery.
It had taken a little over a minute for the airships to stop firing and when they did, Eric blew a whistle. At that moment, hundreds of pegasi took to the air. These were the pegasi of Tran's section of their battalion, which were further reinforced with additional pegasi taken from the airships escorting security detail. When all of them took flight, all of the machine guns that were on Eric's side started firing. The forces of the rogue changelings gave back return fire, but while they were under assault, all of their flying forces that were previously airborne, didn’t get the opportunity to take to the skies again.
The only side that had forces in the air was Eric's and hopefully, it'd stay that way. At the moment, the forces of the rogue changeling hive had their entire attention diverted to combating the machine gun teams that Eric was currently with. As the rogue changeling hive's forces were firing on this two way rifle range. The bomber teams had started dropping some of their payloads. The first targets to start exploding, were those crescent shaped trench lines that the rogue hive had built up.
When the first bombs hit, Eric had fired another flare into the air while throwing a smoke grenade. Everyone on Eric's side had started preparing to or had been charging to assault those damaged trench lines. The first ones to get out and charge came from Eric's machine gun teams and Tran's scouts. Of each of the individual machine gun teams, half of each teams' members were packing up the machine guns they had emplaced while the other half had just charged.
Noticeably, the yaks of the machine gun teams were a part of those specified halves that were out and charging. The yaks were easily the largest targets (being two to five times bigger than a pony) and would hopefully be the first ones to be noticed by the enemy and attempted to be shot at. The yaks had planned for this, so they wore enough steel armor to make them bulletproof, at least to small arms fire. They were also the fastest runners/chargers out of anyone there, so they'd be in the front, again, making them more noticeable than anyone else. They were naturally meant to soak up the enemy fire, while also taking all of the attention so that the other much squishier soldiers could survive.
The bombers had been circling the rogue hive's outer defenses, dropping bombs every now and then. Some had flown away to other sectors to destroy key targets, like mortar batteries or other targets of opportunity. By the time they moved on/stopped their bombing, the yaks, with Eric leading them, had made it so close to the first of the hive's trenches, that they were well within the possible wounding blast radius of the bombs being dropped. The outermost defenses were several short individual trench lines that were made in the shape of crescents. The trench's crescent shapes had the points of the crescent pointing outward, towards the attackers. This design meant that anyone that reached the trench line in the middle where most attackers would go, would be in a beating/firing zone of defenders from the crescent's tips. Worse yet, the changeling factions had set up machine guns in each of these crescent's tips, but fortunately, none of them were firing. They had been pinned down or destroyed by the dropped bombs.
With the bombing runs ceasing, the defenders were finally able to peak out from their hiding spots, but they were immediately met by pegasi diving from the sky and attacking them. These pegasi weren't any of the flying teams from Tran's section of the human's battalion, but were the pegasi that were borrowed from the airship's flying security escorts. There were enough of these pegasi, attacking with such aggression and force, that they were able to distract the defenses long enough for Eric and the first of the charging yaks to make it the rest of the way to the changeling's defenses without problem. With Eric and the yaks joining in the melee in each of the trench lines, it was turning into a one sided slaughter. The instant the yaks jumped into a trench line, they would charge straight down one direction to gore any enemies with their horns. They were absolutely unstoppable juggernauts in those small confined trench lines.
The changelings and griffons knew this and many of them started climbing out of those trench lines and retreating to the hastily built up defenses between the trench lines and the hive's entrance. These final defenses were just hastily and poorly made berms or firing holes. With the enemy falling back/retreating to rear line defenses, Eric, the yaks, and the pegasi started defending the trenches they captured as they waited for the rest of the charging soldiers to arrive.
As the bulk of the remaining forces started arriving, Eric fired another flare into the air. At that moment, the bombers who were still airborne resumed their bombing runs with whatever bombs they had remaining, targeting the final defenses of the hive before the entrance. The bombers had to make good use of their bombs, mostly to keep the defenders from trying to mount any form of counterattack.
Eric took the time to look at the conditions of his forces, using a set of binoculars to look across the battlefield, at the other outer crescent trench lines. Almost all of them had been captured with very minimal casualties. What few casualties he took, had been dragged away by Wilson's teams of medics. The yaks did their job and soaked up a lot of enemy fire. He had seen one that had dozens of bullet and shrapnel impacts. The airships in the rear line, after having watched this successful assault, had started flying forward to a new position closer to the changeling hive.
Eric could easily see and identify the two airships that they had marched from. However, he saw a third. It was a familiar airship, being one of the other two airships that arrived at Appleloosa with them. That third airship was rapidly approaching their position as fast as it could. That third ship should have meant good news. They had freshly arrived at the battle and should be carrying reinforcements for this assault. It was supposed to be good news to have had that third allied friendship's arrival.
Suddenly the third airship started firing its guns. That third airship had freshly arrived to battle and like the first two airships that started out this battle, it was armed with some artillery guns. They had a fresh supply of shells they could use. However, they hadn't been involved in the beginning and planning phase of the battle. The commanders and pilot of the third airship did not know the battle plan. The third airship, having just joined the battle, wanted to help out. They couldn't be directly involved in the battle but they could provide secondary support by providing artillery support
As the third airship's shells started impacting, everyone on both sides realized the tremendous mistake that this airship was making. They were firing on the changeling hive's defenses. Hive defenses, that included the many small trench lines that Eric and his soldiers had taken over and were now filling. They were firing at an extreme range, meaning their accuracy was also sub par, landing all over the general direction of their target.
The first ones to react were the bombers and aerial superiority teams. They flew high up and far away as fast their wings could drive them, to avoid the friendly fire. Unfortunately, not everyone had wings. The hive's defenders were forced to batten down to save themselves from the artillery fire, as were Eric's forces. A large chunk of Eric's forces were still charging towards the trench lines, the tail end of the assault force that had lagged behind. Eric grabbed a few of the pegasi that were bunkered down in the trenches and sent them to fly back as fast as they could to the airships, to stop this mistake. Unfortunately, even flying as fast as they could, it would take them a good while before they crossed the many kilometers distance that separated them and the airships.
Eric charged out of the safety of the trench line he took, to the danger of the open ground, to hurry along the remaining members of his forces. He screamed at the still exposed ponies to ditch whatever equipment they were carrying to bring up to the battle, so they could get to safety faster. There were some of the still exposed forces that had simply dove into shell or bomb craters, hugging the ground while praying that they wouldn't get hit.
Worst of all, the ponies that were furthest away from the trenches had been soldiers trying to carry wounded. These wounded had taken injuries during the initial assault and were stuck out in open fields where they were naked targets to war. Some brave souls had tried to help bring them to safety, working in teams. Eric had tried running up to a grouping of six ponies. Of the six, two of them were severely wounded, being barely able to move on their own, and were being slowly dragged to the closest safe haven each by a pair of heroes.
Eric had tried running up to them to assist in their futile quest for safety. As he came within spitting distance of the six ponies, a shell landed nearby and those six no longer existed. They were simply vaporized by a shell's impact, showering the entire area with the body parts, dirt and shrapnel. Eric was caught in the blast of the shell's explosion and it was a miracle he wasn't hit by shrapnel. Instead, he was showered in the vaporized remains of the six unfortunate souls. Eric froze on the spot as he realized what had happened. Shells were still impacting around and Eric's body robotically walked to the crater of the shell impact that was filled with the remains of the six and lied down, only instinct driving him.
The 3rd airship's artillery barrage didn't last long. Those airships carried a limited amount of ammunition so they wouldn't weigh down the airship's ability to fly. When the last of the shells impacted, a silence filled the air. No one on each side was shooting. Nothing made a noise. When Eric finally stood up, breaking out of his stupor, he checked himself over. He didn't find any physical wounds. Emotionally, he was effectively destroyed. He was covered in the viscera of the six soldiers, reminding him of the nightmare he just witnessed. Eric looked down at his hands, finding they were all red, completely covered in the blood and gore of his former soldiers.
From the captured trench lines, some of the REA forces ran out of the trench lines and away from the battle. They made their way to the shell out sections of the battlefield to search for any survivors of the shelling. When a yak and his assistant gunner arrived to find Eric, they were shocked. From a distance, they had seen the human's general shape and size. Up close, they didn't expect to see a monument of the war. They were absolutely frightened from how much blood and body parts that Eric's appearance/outfit was now composed of. Eric was covered in so much viscera that he was entirely blood red, arms, legs, torso, and head.
When Eric stared at the two soldiers that approached him, he stared at him. The two soldiers, even the yak, were petrified from the hollow stare they received. They didn't expect to see blood red eyes to stare back.
When Eric finally came to, he slowly picked up his dropped rifle from the shell crater and he crawled out of his temporary earthen prison. When Eric reached the soldiers, he walked past them and back to the battlefield. When he walked past the two soldiers, the yak and pony were scared of what was to come. Eric stopped walking, causing the two soldiers to flinch. Eric's slow turn around to face the two soldiers further unnerved them.
When they could see his face again, they now saw eyes filled with aggression and war. They knew Eric was out for blood. Apparently, being showered in his fellow soldier's eviscerated remains and being forced to lie in a pool of gore wasn't enough. Slowly, Eric's dead face turned to one of rage. A haunting snarl came to Eric's face, as if he had started growling. He screamed to the high heavens and charged back to the battlefield.
Although they were scared, the two soldiers that went to check up on their commander knew what was to happen. They shared the same feelings, wanting revenge. They could feel the same blood lust that Eric felt and charged forward, trying to catch up to Eric as they also started screaming to the heavens for blood.
-X-X-X-
The final outer defenses before the changeling hive were slow to recover from the artillery barrage. While most of it had landed on the REA's forces, some still landed on what remained of the hive's defenses. When soldiers started popping out to continue fighting, they hadn't expected the REA forces to be all charging at them. An unearthly screeching/howl came from the charging REA forces and they didn't know what to do. Leading the charge at the front of the REA was an unearthly red monster that drove in nightmares of haunting butchery.
In terror, some of the defending hive's forces started running away in terror. The defender's chain of command tried to stop their forces from retreating, but fights broke out as the soldiers fought their allies for their own personal survival. They could not face the hoard of attackers and just seeing that red monster drove them to a new heightened state of panicked dread. The closer and closer that inhuman creature came to them, the more they felt scared for their own personal being. They felt like they were prey, being hunted by a predator and running away almost felt pointless as their survival almost felt futile. There were more of them fighting each other instead of wanting to fight their incoming onslaught.
When the hoard hit the final hive's outer defenses, it was like a wildfire spreading to kindling. None of the hive's remaining defenses were able to mount any decent defense. It was a complete slaughter as the final defenders fell and the hive's entrance fell into REA hand's.
-X-X-X-
With the outside of the hive captured, the REA airships had closed the distance and landed close by to the hive. The REA forces held down the outside of the Rogue changeling hive, while others were herding prisoners of war into the airships. Eric, the leader of this assault, had walked over to where the REA airships had parked. He was like a hollow ghost that nobody wanted to interact with. Just one look at his gore covered form was enough to rile up buried feelings of helplessness, as if they were a broken child being trampled by an angry mob.
Eric made his way through an airship's bowels. It was the third airship that had joined in on their assault, the fresh one from Appleloosa meant to help reinforce them. Eric had no idea how the inside of the airship was laid out. He had no instructions or anyone escorting. However, he kept on walking through the airship, just walking in a direction driven by instinct. Everywhere Eric went, the ponies would immediately leave the area upon seeing him. Everyone could see that he was a man on a mission and wherever he was heading, it would end in a fight. He just had that look to him, the look of a dangerous predator out on a hunt.
Eric had no idea where his instincts were driving him, but wherever it pointed him to, he followed it without a second thought. He did know, however, that wherever he was going, there was going to be war. Before he knew it, he was in the air ship's control room. Inside, there was naturally the ship's pilot, along with random REA and REAF officers and some of the airship's crewmembers. They were all standing around, having been discussing something when Eric entered the room.
What they were talking about, Eric had no idea as the instant he stepped foot into the room, everyone inside went silent as they tried to figure out who had walked in on their meeting. He cast a very imposing sight, being entirely covered in blood and gore and the ponies inside were scared of what he would want. The room felt mysteriously warmer as they could feel the rage that radiated from Eric. The ponies inside felt further unnerved as the human was unfazed by what he was covered in. The smell of blood drove the ponies' brains into flight or fight mode, but there was something else that was driving them into a state of ever growing aggression in their very beings. Something about Eric, not just his appearance, was digging up deeply long buried primitive instincts. For each of the ponies, Eric just being present felt like they each had someone standing behind them, goading/taunting them into fighting.
Eric looked at the various officers in the room, his ghostly gaze peering down into each of the ponies' very beings. "Who ordered the artillery barrage?" Eric asked, finally breaking the silence. No one wanted to answer but the perpetrator was betrayed as some ponies looked over at the pilot. Eric keyed in on this and stared down at the pilot. "Were you ordered to provide artillery fire?"
The pilot, being brought up on the spot, felt like a socially anxious child being forced to speak to a large audience. "N-No," replied the pilot.
Eric stared at the pony for a few more seconds before anything else was spoken. "You are part of the reinforcements we sent. Did you know we had planned this assault?" Eric had asked.
The pilot swallowed. "N-No," the pilot repeated. "We saw the fighting and thought we should join in to help."
A deep rage started to well up in Eric. It didn't show on his face. However, for the ponies in the room, it felt like the room was growing ever warmer. With Eric standing in the command room's only doorway, he was forcing the room's occupants to interact with him. Instead of feeling like a boring meeting, being in this room with Eric felt like they were standing at the frontlines during a major battle. "So you started firing indiscriminately? Did you know where friendly forces were positioned?" Eric asked.
The pilot shook his head, beads of sweat starting fall down his muzzle. "We only s-shelled the hive's defenses," the pilot said.
Tears fell from Eric's eyes that ran down his face and dripped to the floor red, like he was crying blood. His eyes, they should have been white like any other creatures, but at the moment were deep red. The first assumption anyone level headed and rational would make was that a vessel in his eye must have blown from being in such close vicinity to a shell impact explosion. No one in this room was level headed right now and Eric just looked like a red demon that came straight from hell.
Finally, something showed on Eric's face and it was rage. It was a rage that scared everyone in the room. "We were taking the changeling defenses!" Eric shouted at the pilot. Eric surged forward and grabbed the pilot by his uniform. "You shelled us! You shelled your own forces, you fucking Idiot!"
The pilot tried to break free from Eric's grasp but was unable to. He should have been scared, but the longer and longer Eric held onto him, the pilot felt more and more angry. Eric's touch was driving him to feel belligerent, as if he was being taunted and forced to fight. Adrenaline pumped through the pilot's veins and he saw red. The pilot roared and punched Eric in the face with a nasty right hook. Eric's head split open from the hoof's impact, who roared back at the pony while throwing him forward. The pilot soared across the room, impacting the airship's steering wheel. The pilot fell to the ground, but he recovered quickly and charged back towards Eric.
Eric dodged the buck the pilot tried to threw and slammed his elbow down onto the pilot's back, collapsing the pony to the ground. Eric raised his foot to literally kick the pilot while he was down, but he was then knocked down himself. Eric looked to his assailant, finding that one of the other officers in the room had joined in on the fight by bucking him. Eric snarled and grabbed the second pony's front legs and pulled him to the ground. While the brawl's newest fighter fell to the ground, Eric pulled himself up to his feet and approached the new fighter only to feel pain in his side. He looked to find the pilot up on his feet, brandishing a knife. Eric slowly approached the pilot, drawing his own knife in the process.
A lot of people say that, in a knife fight, no one wins due to the danger that a knife poses as it is always a "loaded" weapon. Eric was still wearing his gear and body armor so the pilot's slashes didn't find any flesh, unlike the first lucky cheap shot he executed earlier. As for Eric, his knife tasted a lot of blood. The pilot was only wearing his uniform, effectively providing no protection. By the time the pilot collapsed, the other ponies and officers in the room started taking their own actions upon realizing the gravity of the situation as the two closed in on each other.
One officer tried to draw his sidearm but Eric saw the threat. At supernatural speeds, Eric drew his own revolver and had it aimed before his opponent's revolver cleared its holster. Without a second thought, Eric fired. The officer froze for a second, as if his body wasn't able to process what was happening. A second later, the officer fell to the ground, twitching and leaking blood.
The gunshot was the metaphorical flip of a switch for this dangerous situation. The next thing anyone in the room knew, everyone's flight or fight response was thrown into overdrive. That said, none of them had the thought to run. Eric's presence had an almost taunting aura to it, as if someone was ordering them to fight. Others tried to draw their own sidearms, but Eric keyed in on each of them and dropped them with a shot before any of them could clear their guns from leather.
Only the officers were carrying sidearms, the airship's crewmembers were unarmed, so they tried rushing the raging human down. A few were dropped before one of them managed to tackle Eric from the behind. Eric was once again being knocked to the ground, but he was able to quickly regain his senses. Turning around in his attacker's grasp, he smashed his revolver into the crewmember's face, knocking him out.
The crewmember's body fell limp on top of Eric, pinning him to the floor. That didn't stop him from aiming his revolver at another crew member that was quickly approaching. The charging pony froze at the sight of the gun even though his instincts were telling him to fight. "Enough!" Eric yelled, still pinned to the ground. The few remaining ponies in the room that were still conscious or alive and able, also froze in terror as Eric pushed the unconscious pony's body off of him. Getting to his feet, Eric still kept the revolver level while drawing a second handgun with his other hand. Eric kept both handguns level as he just started walking away, done with this bloodshed. The other ponies in the room still felt like they should be trying to fight him, as their instincts were compelling them to do so but they managed to keep it well off. Much to the surprise of the remaining ponies, Eric simply walked out of the room.
The instant Eric closed the door of the room, signaling that he had truly left, the metaphorical flip of a switch was flipped off. The ponies in the room no longer felt compelled to fight. All of their adrenaline was gone, replaced with a feeling of shock and confusion. The room felt supernaturally colder as if their tempers were being forced to cool off. One of the crewmembers, one who was barely involved in the fight, had one question. "What the fuck just happened?" loudly asked one of the surviving bridge crew.
Elsewhere
On the deck of the primary command airship, Luna and Tran watched as soldiers were being fielded onto the ground so that they could properly have a proper hold/control of the rogue changeling hive's entrance. As that happened, soldiers were being brought back onto the airship so they could be properly relieved and that wounds could be treated. Tran looked over at the Princess. "Did you order the other airship to provide artillery support?" Tran had asked.
The princess shook her head. She saw the consequences of the late artillery barrage as they were speaking, as wounded soldiers were being brought onto the airship. "They did it of their own volition, most likely the pilot trying to take initiative, chasing for some chest jewelry," the princess replied.
Tran's usually dead expression turned sullen. "Friendly fire, isn't," Tran said. The two of them were distracted by something else. They heard the sound of someone with wings landing behind them. When the two of them turned around to address their new guest, they were shocked. Instead of one of their fellow pegasi, like a messenger or scout, they found a lone griffon standing there. It wasn't Gilda but a different griffon, one that wore the Imperial Griffon Air Force's uniform and a prominent red scarf around his neck. The griffon looked to be heavily wounded, with several bullet holes in his chest and wings, but also looked unbothered by the injuries he sported. From what they could see, his fur and wings were white, under his uniform. However, his eyes also looked white and hollow, as if there was no life in him. Hauntingly of all, his eyes had no pupils as if they were rolled back into his head.
Worse of all, the wounded Jaeger was wielding a rifle in his talons and it was leveled out at chest height, looking ready to fire. "Trraaaan," the griffon growled out.