//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 // Story: Shroud of darkness // by LeTriggs //------------------------------// Remnants The captain stirred in his sleep. His eye slowly opened darting round the dark cavern he was in. His body ached all over but he ignored the pain. He tried to drag himself into a sitting position but pain shot through him causing him to gasp and collapse onto the make-shift cot. A lone soldier in the room heard his struggles and rushed over to him. “You need to stay still.” He moved into the flickering light letting the captain see the soldier’s face. He was a black pegasus covered in blood that was clearly not his own wearing the Equestria military uniform. The Uniform was simple just a camouflage coat placed over them, the coat was a combination of black and grey most likely designed for urban warfare. “What is your name?” His voice was kind unlike his own. It almost seemed to nurture him which was strange for a soldier. “Captain Iron-hoof. What about you soldier?” The pegasus snapped a salute as he found out who he was talking to. “Uh…Henderson sir, Private first class” Iron-hoof looked up the Private noticing the Red Cross on his uniform. “Medic huh? Who’s in charge here?” “That would be Leftenant Steel sir I’ll get someone to take you to him, I can’t really leave here being the only medic.” He helped the captain up then rushed over to a table where he picked up an impromptu eye patch made out of a piece of shrapnel which he brought over to him then lead him over to the entrance of the make-shift medical area getting another private to take him to the command centre. He moved through the series of tunnels all dimly lit by torches through which he saw more soldiers and a couple of civilians some he recognised such as Fleur de lis and Vinyl Scratch but he didn’t break stride as he walked. As he entered one of the larger chambers he overheard a few soldiers talking amongst themselves. “So what attachment are you from?” “7th armoured what about you?” “Whoa the 7th? I heard you guys had it the worst out there.” “No way man we had it easy I heard first recon had it the worst.” “You’re both wrong I was part of 1st recon all we had to do was help civvies escape from the north eastern ridge it was the Royal guard who had the worst at the castle along with the 5th armoured.” The three soldiers turned to stare at the captain as he walked through the room shocked at seeing him alive let alone moving on his own. Iron-hoof ignored their hushed whispers and turned to where the soldier pointed indicating the command centre. He walked in to see Leftenant Steel a tough looking green earth pouring over maps lit by a small candle getting frustrated with them. He looked up as the captain entered and moved away from the table. “Leftenant Steel. I am Captain Iron-hoof.” “Captain? I guess you would like a report of what’s going on? Simple really we’ve retreated into a network of caves below Canterlot after being…. Well the best word would be wiped out. There are barely 60 soldiers and 10 Civvies. About 20 of the soldiers are in the medical area being attended to by Private Henderson along with 3 of the civilians. Now Captain I’m still in the dark on what happened out there I was in the north west of the city during the attack so I’m hoping you can shed some light on what happened at the castle. ---------------------------------------- Iron-Hoof sprinted up the tight staircase he had to act fast. He reached the top moving onto the small circular metal platform and approached the console. He punched different buttons and turned levers making the machine come to life. He then punched a few more buttons in as the machine acknowledged his command setting the sun and moon to work on their automatic cycle. Satisfied with his work he moved out of the door behind him to which another wall slid down as he bolted through the castle sealing away the room from sight. He moved through the castle as fast as he could passing a number of guards setting up different staging areas preparing for a breach. Part of the wall exploded in several meters in front of him causing him to stop and looked out the hole seeing the amount of destruction befalling his home. He pressed on moving through the castle heading towards the armoury. Iron-hoof entered the armoury as the last remaining soldiers grabbed their armaments. He pulled an assault rifle off the rack and grabbed a number of magazines with it. “Right men you’re with me! Stay low and watch your spacing’s.” They each acknowledged him in their own way some with a salute others with a “sir” or merely by nodding. He loaded the rifle then charged out of the armoury and out of the castle. The battle being waged was ferocious, within minutes the Royal guard had sprung into action in defensive positions along the front entrance. Many of the foot soldiers were taking cover behind walls or in craters created from mortar fire. Machine gun emplacements had been set up in a number of windows within the castle and on the rooftop and sniper groups were situated around as well providing cover for the ground troops. Iron-hoof and his squad made their way out of the side entrance into a hail of dark energy bolts and gun-fire. His earpiece radio blazed with noise as commands and information was passed over the airwaves from the many troops fighting then began buzzing with words he could understand. “This is the 5th armoured coming to give fire support to you guys.” As if on cue a tank rolled round the corner moving past the group to which they followed behind using it as mobile cover. As it turned the corner to take up position they sprinted forwards standing on their hind legs firing as they moved. They slid behind the low wall the bolts scraping the top of it, Iron-hoof peeked over the top of the wall to gauge the situation. A squad of ponies were pinned down by the pony-like creatures. He opened up the radio channel to them and spoke in a decisive manner. “Hey we can see your squad from back here you need to move over into the alley to the south we’ll provide cover fire for you wait for my mark. Enemy 100 meters! On my mark! Covering fire!” The group sprung up and started firing at the enemy bringing their attention towards them. “Move now!” He screamed down the radio ordering the four pony squad to move keeping low and fast. Just before the last one entered the alley they were hit by one of the energy bolts throwing them in the air killing them instantly. Iron-hoof cursed to himself then stood up firing at the enemy again killing the rest of them. “Soldiers! Move up!” They hopped over the wall and began running to the wall the squad of enemy ponies had been before. As they ran a mortar fell directly hitting one of the ponies in the squad blowing them to pieces. As they reached the wall the pony carrying the LMG peeked over the wall and fell back down with a terrified look on his face. “There’s nothing their! Where the buck are the bodies!” Iron-hoof looked over to see nothing but the ground then dropped back taking cover. “Don’t worry about that now! Keep firing!” They popped up at their own accord firing at any of the ponies they saw attacking. Iron-hoof noticed something each time he popped up. Every single one of the attackers was black, and exactly the same as each other the only difference being the ones in the air having wings which even more strangely the pegasus ones were able to fire the magic bolts. He pushed the thoughts aside and focused on the task at hand, driving back the attack and protecting the princesses. The rifle gave a click as the magazine ran out of ammo. He ducked behind the wall using his magic to reload the weapon then stood up and kept firing. The tanks of the 5th armoured division began rolling forwards to push back the assault. One of them stopped next to Iron-hoof and fired a shot from its main gun making his ears ring and disorientating him. The tank moved forwards another few meters before it was hit with a large bolt causing it to explode adding to the captain’s disorientation. He sat trying to regain his sense making sure he stayed behind the wall his vision returned to him. When he looked up to see Luna flying away from Canterlot at an unparalleled speed, a moment later a scream was heard as a light shone out of the building blinding him. He shook it off and turned back to the battle at hand, he had to fight right now if not for anything but to save his own life. He stood back up ready to fire when he saw a sight that stunned him. One of the tanks that had pushed further forwards past the layer of smoke flew through the air hitting another killing the occupants inside both. His jaw hung open at the sight as ponies climbed out of another tank before it was hit with a bolt and exploded all around ponies were dying. He looked forwards taking more shots when he saw what had thrown the tank. Coming forth from the smoke was a gigantic armour clad dragon roaring as it walked slowly towards the castle. It stopped as the final tank of the 5th armoured shot it making it open its mouth inhaling, an orb of light began growing in its mouth. It pushed its body forwards and the light turned into a beam shooting through the ground with an explosion following the line a second later. A single pony threw open the lid of the tank and attempted to climb out whilst on fire screaming as he struggled to free himself. Iron-hoof looked about and gauged their situation, they were outnumbered, outgunned and the entire tank division had been destroyed leaving only a small number of the guard left. He made his decision. “All forces retreat! Staggered line! I repeat all forces retreat!” The others in the area heard his order through their earpieces and began running most of them not bothering to stop every couple of meters and provide cover for their allies like he ordered. His squad kept to their orders and commenced a staggered retreat. He opted to be first to stay and provide cover along with the pony carrying the LMG, They began firing madly ahead of them waited ten seconds then made a run for it. The explosions were tearing the ground and buildings apart, small pieces of rubble would hit him but he ignored it and continued sprinting the bullets tearing past him as his allies provided cover. The pony running next to him was hit. He dropped to the ground in pain then stood and started running before he was hit again, His head exploding and his body skidding across the ground as it fell. He ran past the others who then started running with him they ignored the orders to provide cover. They ran to the left of the castle making to run past it when a mortar hit the ground near Iron-hoof causing him to be thrown to the ground. His helmet slid away from him as he hit the ground unable to stand from the force of the explosion. The last thing he saw before he blacked out was a guard running over to him and picking him up. ---------------------------------------- “That’s everything I saw before I woke up.” The Leftenant looked at the Captain taking in everything he said up until this point where he spoke up. “You were brought here half dead by a guardsman whose name we never got. He dragged you here then collapsed from his own injuries, Henderson did his best…..but. Well. He just didn’t make it. We lost allot of good ponies due to a lack of both equipment and medical ponies.” He sighed pausing for a second. “Let’s face it. We’re not gonna last long down here. We don’t have much food, water or supplies at all. We need to move from here but I can’t think of anywhere we can go.” Iron-hoof stood up and headed over to the map on the table with Steel in tow looking at him with confusion as he stared at the map. He tapped his hoof onto the map. “Aha! There it is.” “What’s there?” Steel looked at where the captain pointed on the map only seeing what looked like an ink splodge. “That is an old base from the Alpha wars. Celestia told me about it herself. It was abandoned hundreds of years ago so nopony should be able to find it. We should leave tomorrow.” “It’ll be a tough journey sir we won’t be able to take the more critically injured. Henderson is good but there is no way he can get the ones that are going to live able to walk by tomorrow.” Iron-hoof then stood up and walked towards the main chamber. “I’m gonna go help him out myself. I have some medical training so I can at least help him out in making the ones that are gonna die go peacefully. You stay here and plan out a route then inform the troops, we will move out the day after tomorrow.” Steel snapped a salute before returning to the command section whispering to a pony along the way telling him to spread the word of their movement soon then returned to the map he had poured over for so long muttering to himself.