I looked back at my company. They all had their weapons raised, ready to fire. They sure didn’t look like they knew what they were doing. Hell, I had little to no clue as to what to do either.
“Lower your weapons.” I said to them. "They don't know what they are doing."
The natives kept their spears pointed at me. They didn't look like they were going to drop them anytime soon. I sighed in frustration, and scowled at them, with my left hand outstretched, palm facing them, and my right hand reaching for my handgun.
“You’ll really regret it if you kill me. I'm not the one trying to kill your people.” I gestured at a armored native that had a bullet wound in his shoulder. He looked like he was having trouble standing. With precise telekinesis, I took the bullet out of his shoulder and healed the wound. All Gaians had a basic knowledge of magic, but I was one of the ones who were better at it. I hovered the bullet in between all of us.
“This is what they do to you guys.” I said as I was inspecting the bullet. “They were toying with you all this time and now they’re gunning you all down. Can you not see this?”
I looked outside from the broken window. My eyes went wide, my ears dropped and the bullet fell from my telekinetic grip as I realized that I was staring right into a Ing main battle tank’s barrel.
“SHIT!” I exclaimed as I dove into cover, the tank shell barely missing me.
“Get to cover, they’re coming!” Aseri yelled. Gunfire started sweeping the room. I managed to put a telekinetic barrier over the group of natives before the gunfire reached them.
“Someone take out that tank!” I yelled.
A anti tank soldier got out of cover and readied his lock-on launcher. He was gunned to pieces by an attack helicopter that suddenly descended from behind a building.
“Fuck! We need to get out of here!” I said. “We haven’t got a damn day!”
Suddenly the helicopter exploded and fell onto the street. I looked up into the sky and saw a formation of three Gaian fighters overhead. A fighter-bomber fired a dispenser bomb at the large concentration of Ing next to the main battle tank. The explosives that fell from the dispenser eradicated the Ing and left the tank a flaming mess of metal.
I looked at my motion sensor and spotted five blips around a huge blip. Before they blew open the door, I knew what they were.
“Destroyer!” I called out. “Take them down!”
The door was blown to pieces and a destroyer and five phalanx shield Ing came in, their shields protecting the destroyer. The destroyer snarled as its hulking body charged at us. I pulled a ion grenade off my belt and threw it in the middle of the ring of Ing. The explosion killed all of the phalanx Ing, but left the destroyer still standing. It fired a pulse blast at me. I teleported forward and dodged it.
Everyone in the room, except for the natives, fired at the destroyer. It fired a High-Explosive blast at the ground in front of a couple Gaians. It sent them flying in the air, killing them all instantly. I grabbed my knife and charged the thing. It saw me coming and tried to fire at me. I teleported behind it and climbed on it’s back. I got on it’s shoulders and plunged the knife deep into its skull. It stood still for a second before falling onto it’s face.
I pulled my knife out of it and looked out of the window. I saw houses on fire, Ing terrorising the place and some taller buildings falling. Now I really felt bad for the natives. To see your capital go up in flames while you can’t even fight back must be terrible.
I looked at the natives. They were all looking out of the broken window. I saw a tear fall from the taller white one with a horn and wings.
“Captain Chip! They’re coming in again!” A Gaian soldier said. I turned to face five heavy trooper Ing armed with rocket launchers. A golden energy blast came out of nowhere and killed all of them, evaporating them all in a golden light.
“Who the hell?” I turned around to look at the native who was just crying. Her horn was glowing with energy.
"How the hell do you know how to use magic?" Isach asked.
"Did you think you were the only beings to know magic? Are you that ignorant?" She asked us.
"All of us know magic from birth" I said almost defensively. She rolled her eyes, and looked back at the burning ceiling. Suddenly, through what was left of the doorway, a squadron of nine winged natives wearing uniforms all ran in. They saw us and took hostile action. Their squadron leader, a native with orange hair, jumped towards me. I teleported behind her and used a stasis spell to lock them all in place.
"We are not your enemies. Stop fighting against us!" I was having trouble holding the stasis spell because they were all trying to break out of it.
"Princess, what are you doing? Help us!" Their captain said while squirming.
"Hey, let them go!" A rainbow haired native said. She leapt forward and tackled me. The stasis spell broke and hell broke loose. The native squadron started trying to kill or maim us in any way. I did a combat roll to the right and dodged the captain. She flew up to the ceiling and dove down on me.
“Don’t hurt them! They don’t know who the real enemy is!” I said as I wrestled with the native. She managed to get on top of me and tried to punch me with her hoof. I grabbed it and pushed her off me, making sure not to hurt her.
Suddenly, a storm of bullets flew the room. I used a kinetic barrier and shielded everyone in the room from the gunfire. I got up and took cover behind a wall. It exploded, sending me flying and sending shrapnel everywhere. I looked over at everyone.
My company was in confusion. We were all taken by surprise and the natives still trying to kill us didn’t help either.
“Can’t you see that we’re not enemies! We aren't harming any of you!” I said to their captain.
She looked back at the ponies. My shield was still holding and they were fine. I turned around as I heard a snarl from behind me. I turned to see an Ing, armed with a HE rocket launcher, come from the hole in the wall behind us. It fired at my company. The barrier took most of the blast, but it still killed some of us and shut it off.
“Barriers are down! We have to get out of here!” I said as I tried to shoot the Ing. It grabbed the barrel of my weapon and snapped it off, damaging the internal components of the gun. I tackled it and pulled my knife out. It had no chance. I plunged the knife down into its skull. It looked at me with the hatred of a demon. Then it went lifeless.
“Right! On me everyone!” Aseri said running out of the throne room door. My company started following, along with the ponies bringing up the rear. The squadron that started attacking us had seemed to calm down and stopped attacking us. I looked at their captain.
“I need you to relay that you will not be seeing combat, err, Ma’am.” I said while running out of the castle.
“What? We need to fight. This is our capital!” It didn’t seem like she was going to agree to this easily.
“It’s too dangerous. I’m not having any more deaths than what has already occurred.”
When we stepped outside, all we could see was terror. Natives were screaming and running through the streets. Guards were doing their best to protect the city. Gaians were trying to help and eliminate as much Ing as they could, but there were too many. I suddenly heard a voice over the comm link.
“Captain, how’s it going down there?” I heard the frigate fleet admiral ask. I knew it was him because it said so in my visor.
“Terrible, sir. We need reinforcements immediately!” I said. “There’re too many of the bastards.”
I saw a Gaian gunship fly over head and its weapons opened fire on an Ing position to the southwest of us.
“Sir, where should we go now?” Aseri asked.
I looked up at the frigate fleet.
“We need to get up there! We need to get these natives to safety!” I said.
“How would we get up there? Even the ones who can fly would be annihilated by the starfighters up there.”
I looked up into the stratosphere. There were Ing starfighters everywhere. I could tell that it would be suicide if anyone tried to fly up there. I grunted in frustration, and shook my head.
“We need to get our air force up there right now!” I said.
“Isn’t that too high for them?” Isach said.
“Not for our starfighters, it isn’t.” Aseri said.
Suddenly, I heard a distress call from one of the ships above.
“Mayday, Mayday. This is the GSS Aurora. Our reactor has gone critical. These black shapeshifters have infiltrated our ship and have sabotaged it! We can’t hold up much longer!”
“Shit.” Isach said.
“Black shapeshifters? Doesn't that sound like the things that we fought against earlier.” Aseri said. “Sir, what the fuck did we just walk into?”
“You mean changelings?” We all looked over at the taller white native with wings and a horn.
“What’s a changeling?” Isach asked her.
“Its a creature that feasts off of love. It captures or kills somepony, then it disguises itself as that pony. They use this ability well and without flaw and are probably some of the stealthiest creatures alive.” She said. “We were barely able to repel their first invasion.”
I looked at the Gaians trying to hold our location. They were getting pushed back and I could now see Ing trying to push to the castle. We all started firing at them.
“Wait, so these bastards you’re talking about already invaded here?” Isach yelled to the white native.
“We had repelled their attack,” the dark-skinned Princess said, “But they hath the determination of a pest. They knoweth not when they should roll over and die.”
“Well you better get ready to fight them off again! Here they come!” I said, looking at the huge swarm of the creatures speedily heading towards us. They were taking dozens of different shapes, and I saw a few more Isachs and Aseris than I thought possible.
“T-t-theres too many of them, sir.” A Gaian said. “What are we going to do?”
I Pulled out my SMGs. “We can take em.”
I looked back up at our frigate fleet. We were getting pounded. I looked at the GSS Aurora. It suddenly exploded, making a massive explosion and a deafening boom. I looked back at the swarm. I saw a group of about ten of them, plus a bigger one head towards us. They all landed near us. I noticed that one of them was wearing a crown. Everybody held their fire.
“Celestia.” The taller changeling snarled, its eyes glowing green with hatred and envy.
“Chrysails.” The white native said.
“It has come to my attention that our we are now at war with each other. Do you know why?” The changeling said.
She thought a bit before answering.
“No, I don’t. Why?”
“Because, we were at war with the Ing.” I said. “Then they dragged you into this mess. And now you got them dragged into this. And soon the whole fucking universe is going to be fighting against another universe. All because of one single bastard.”
“I think that honor belongs to me, I’m that bastard.” I heard a voice from above. All of us looked up. It was him; Dark Gaia. He was accompanied by fifteen other... I don’t even know what they were. They had bodies that closely resembled a Gaian, but some of them had... horns? Wait, that’s not possible. Could these be dark versions of the natives? They were also all flying, using jetpacks and suits with aircraft-like wings on them so the ones without wings could fly.
“Some of you already know who I am, but some don’t. I am Commander Dark Gaia of all of the Ing forces. I hold all the responsibilities of controlling this-” I cut him off.
“Shut up! We all have militaries here and know how they work. We don’t need a lecture from you!”
“Fine! I’ll cut to the chase. Do you see these squads behind me?” He asked.
“No I’m fuckin` blind. Yes I see them!” I replied harshly. He recoiled from that remark, but then smirked.
Their helmets started unfolding from their heads and folded into a metal square on the backs of their armor.. All the natives faces went paled. The squads accompanying Dark Gaia all looked like all of the smaller ponies in front of me. We all raised our weapons. I pulled out my pistol, and aimed the sights as Dark Gaia’s head.
“A-are you all changelings?” A blue winged native asked.
“No, we are just the true versions of yourselves.” Her double said.
My finger tensed on the trigger when she spoke. They had the exact same voice.
“You’re not the true versions of them. You’re just copies.” I said pointing my pistol at Dark Gaia.
"Fine, prove it." He said. I was at a disadvantage, and I knew it.
“Well, this is the light world, the original realm. And these natives are from it. Thus, they are the originals.” I said.
“But, are they really the originals? Could we both be the originals and this is just a major coincidence?” The purple native wondered aloud. The other natives glared at her, and she smiled weakly.
“Sir, our G-ACV’s are in the air.” An Ing said to Dark Gaia.
I looked up and saw an Ing aircraft that i’ve never seen before. It made a tight turn and scrapped two Gaian fighters. They crashed into a large building, and it imploded, with structural pieces flying into the air before crashing onto the street.
“Sir, is that... is that the JSF?” Aseri asked me.
“It must be.” I replied.
I looked back at Dark Gaia. He was smirking.
“You Gaians are fighting a losing battle and you will be taken down. Surrender now, and maybe I won’t kill your pathetic race.”
“No! We will come out as the winner and end this all! We just want peace and you are taking that away from us. Now look at what you dragged us into!” I said.
“Hah, even if you fought to your very last soldier you wouldn’t be able to take one of us down. How do you expect to win if I have two squads of super soldiers to back me up.” He was winning the argument and I needed to win if I wanted all Gaian soldiers to still have hope.
“We. Will. Win. This. War. And you can take your team of stupid super soldier doubles and go back to whatever place you came from.” I looked at the blue native. She was trying to back me up.
“Rainbow! Don’t!” The purple native said.
“No, we have to fight back!” She turned and pointed a hoof at me. “This was their war, but it just got personal. If you think clones of us are cool, well its not. I don’t want some copies of us fighting for the bad guys and killing tons of good people. I want to be on the good guys side fighting for the right reasons!”
Dark Gaia pointed his rifle at her. “Heh, thats cute, she thinks she can make a stand. I guess I will have to make an example. I would have preferred all the bloodshed to have happened at Trottingham, but it seems you are more resilient than expected.”
Suddenly, visions flashed through my head. I saw things, things that i wasn’t supposed to see yet. I saw all the natives in forms that looked like their clones. I saw them fighting. I heard voices. Strange things that made no sense to be, but one stood out.
“What are you prepared to sacrifice?” The phrase echoed in my mind.
I looked back at Dark Gaia, still pointing his rifle. I could tell he was about to fire. Everybody didn’t know what to do. But I did.
I ran and picked the native up and slid behind cover before any bullets could touch her. At that moment all hell broke loose. Guns started blazing and casualties were already mounting. I produced a barrier over the natives and looked back at the blue one.
“Stay here.” Was all I said.
I looked at my company. Most of them had gotten to cover. I poked my head over cover. I saw Dark Gaia and his squadmates all start flying up. Suddenly, exoskeletons of planes formed around them.
“The JSF.” I murmured to myself.
We started to clear out the remaining Ing. There weren't any heavy units, which was good. But they still posed a significant threat. I took out my submachine guns and fired at them. I saw two go down by my fire, but many still remained.
I looked at the natives in the area. Most of them were fine. A couple guards were shot to pieces by the initial outburst, but the rest were fine. I started firing at the Ing again. Their numbers were dwindling significantly. I was running low on ammo, so I waited under cover and talked to the native.
“Why did you make that stand back there?” I asked her.
“I’m not one to just stand by and watch. Plus, I don't like it when there are clones of me.” She said.
Another vision obscured my sight. I saw us, me and the natives, all fighting. I shook it off.
“You did a damn good job at it. My men weren't even helping me with that one.”
I stood up and fired a burst of gunfire at an Ing trying to retreat back into cover. I hit him in the body four times and the neck twice. He was a goner.
After a minute or so, the area was clear and we all regrouped in the central square.
“Sir, look at this!” Isach came running up to me, an Ing datapad in his hands. I looked at it. It read:
>Corruption Dark Energy Charge
>Model 364 Mk:2
>Status:Ready to detonate
>Location:Crystal Empire
>Additional notes: This dark energy charge is designed to overload power sources from the light realm. This specific model has samples of the natives of this planet in it. When detonated, it will release a dark energy into the power source that will corrupt the area that the power source is powering, consuming it in eternal darkness. Since the crystal empire is powering the whole planet, the whole planet will be consumed by total darkness.
I looked at Isach.
“How do we stop it?” I asked.
“We can’t. Look.”
I looked back at the datapad and looked at the status of the charge. It read:Detonated. I looked off into the distance and noticed a black wall headed straight for us.
“We’ve got incoming.”
>Gaian Files Index
>>Search: File #1
>>>Searching.....
>>>>File Found
>>>>>File Name: Gaian
>>>>>>Notes: A Gaian is a being who walks on two legs, has two arms, has a pair of wings, a tail and knows magic. A Gaian usually learns the ability to fly by the age of eight and understands magic at the age of ten. No Gaian is the same, with them all being different sizes, and colors and having different personalities. While there are different classifications, the strongest and most honored class of Gaian is called a light Gaian. Light Gaians are respected in the highest manner and usually excel at their jobs. If a Gaian is a Light Gaian, it means that when they are born they have no form of darkness inside their bodies. After the war with the Ing started, Gaians started testing newborns and found out that almost all newborns are born with some sort of darkness inside them. It goes away after a month or so, but can last for up to a year. If it continues lingering or growing after a year then the child is killed. This has caused many families to take away their child's’ lives, but apparently this was how Dark Gaia was born. However, we aren’t jumping to conclusions because he could have been brought into existence by other means.
>Gaian Firearm industries file index
>>Search:Carbine
>>>Weapon Name:M82 LAAR (Light Adaptable to Ammunitions Rifle)
>>>>Special Users:Light Gaia #1742:Name:Chip
>>>>>Notes:This carbine is said to be one of the most reliable carbines to ever exist. One of its most helpful factors is that it can use almost any ammo type. It also has the ability to change ammo types into other ammo types by using a panel on the left side of the weapon. It rarely jams and can use a plasma battery or standard bullet ammunition to operate. This feature is rarely seen in modern weaponry. It has a top, side and bottom rail for various attachments. Many Gaian commandos have praised this carbine for its efficiency on the battlefield.