December 12 2232 Hours
Pain. All I could feel was pain. I opened my eyes. I was on my back, covered by rubble. I pushed the rubble obscuring my vision off me and looked at the sky. It was dark out and the sounds of war echoed throughout the night. I looked around me. No signs of life were near me, which was a good and bad thing. I got up, groaned audibly, and dusted my armor off.
"Isach, Aseri, do you read me?" I said through the comm link in my helmet. They didn't answer.
I pushed all of the rubble off me and got up. I looked for a weapon, since all of mine somehow flew off of my armor. I finally found my pistol on the ground. I loaded it and started looking for what remained of my company.
I walked a few steps until my foot hit something. I looked down. It was my rifle, its barrel still broken. I put it on my back. It could get fixed later. I started off again, running down a street that was torn by war. I couldn’t find any of the natives, which seemed odd. Hell, I couldn’t even find anyone. Even though the distant gunfire indicated that someone was here, it seemed like this place was deserted.
“Aseri, Isach, do you read me?” I asked again through the comm link. They still didn’t answer. I heard a rustling noise to my left, coming from a dark alleyway. I ran into it, not knowing what to expect. There was a door, left partially open. I walked into it and turned on my flashlight on the pistol. I scanned the dark room. I saw no one. I walked up to another door, only to be tackled by a dark figure. It pinned me on the ground and put a pistol to my head. I pushed it off and pointed my pistol at it.
It was the blue native, only she looked much different. She looked like her dark double, only without the dark features. Her skin shined from the flashlight.
“What the hell... how did this happen?” I asked her.
“I-i don’t know. We all woke up and were like this.” She said.
“Why are you using a weapon? Do you even know how to use it?” I questioned her once again.
“Yeah, your friend Aseri taught me how.” She replied calmly.
“Aseri? Where are they?” I asked her.
“Planning a counterattack on the Ing. Follow me.” She walked through a door with me following behind her. We walked through another dark room before entering the room where what remained of my company resided.
"Hey, look who I found." She said gesturing to me.
I walked in and looked at what remained of my company. I started out with ninety men. Now I was down to twenty. They were standing around a hologram that was projecting a map of the city.
Aseri was the first to greet me. "Oh, hey captain. Where were you? We looked all over the place for you."
"I was buried under a pile of rubble. Why didn't you find me?” I asked, sitting down on a barrel.
“We thought you were fighting somewhere else.” Aseri shrugged.
I grumbled. I wasn't too happy about being left behind, but they had their reasons.
"So, what's the plan?" I asked.
"That’s what we're trying to figure out. Every idea we have, the have already countered." Isach said.
"That’s a problem." I said. I looked at the hologram. There were Ing everywhere and we were losing ground.
“How the hell are we even going to turn this around? We’d have to bring in a massive amount of Gaians to push them out of here.” I said.
“Didn’t you have a massive amount of soldiers when you got here?” A white native with blue hair said.
“We did, but if they tried to drop from the sky up there, Ing starfighters would pound them.” A Gaian said.
“Where did our carriers even go after the explosion? Were they disabled?” I asked.
Isach gave me a sorrowful look. “They went down. Every single one of them. There are probably survivors, but they fell from an extremely high altitude.” He said.
“Damn...” I didn’t want to say it, but if the Ing were overpowering us, we might have to pull out.
I looked at all of the things on my HUD. Everything was fine and I was tired of having my helmet on for hours. I took it off and smoothed back the plumes of white hair that made my mohawk. The natives just stared at me. I was confused at first, but then remembered.
"Y-you're younger than them aren't you." The purple native said.
I looked at her. "Yeah, i'm sixteen. They're in their twenties or thirties." I said, gesturing to the remains of my company.
"YOU'RE SIXTEEN? I AM TOO! SO ARE SOME-" The pink native started, but was cut off.
"Pinkie, keep yer voice down!" A orange native with a wide brimmed hat said.
The room fell silent, save for the sound of footsteps coming from the floor above. We all raised our weapons upward.
"What the hell is that?" Isach whispered.
I put my helmet on. "I don't know. Just stay on your guard and-" I was cut short by a burst of liquid flame that came through the ceiling. Luckily, it hit no one, but the room quickly caught fire. I started firing into the ceiling. After a few rounds the fire stopped pouring into the room. But it didn't change the fact that the room was on fire.
"Lets get out of here!" I said.
We ran out of the burning building. Once we got outside, there was a crack of thunder.
"Oh great." Isach said. “Are you kidding me?”
A downpour suddenly came upon us and flooded the area with rain.
"Hehe. This is an easy task for a pegasus like me." The blue native said. She started flying upward, leaving behind a rainbow trail.
"Wait here." I said to everybody on the ground. I flew up to her, getting dangerously close to the storm. I wasn’t worried about the storm though. I was worried about the Ing fighters that could detect us and shoot us down.
"Hey! Get back on the ground. Its too dangerous up here!" I had to yell over the strong winds.
“How is it dangerous? I've been doing things like this my whole life!” She yelled as she kicked a cloud. It disappeared.
I looked at her in confusion. “How did you just...” I shook my head in surrender. “Never mind. We need to get down there now!”
“Why?” She asked.
“Because enemy aircraft can detect us and shoot-” I was cut short as two Ing fighters zoomed past us. They were both the JSF.
“Aw crap.” I said.
“Are those the things you were talking about? Cause they look pretty harmless.” She said.
The Fighters made a extremely sharp turn and fired missiles at the ground, right where my company was.
“Oh come on. We can take em.” The blue native said, smirking at me.
“What? Are you insane?” I said to her. “Look at them!”
"I can easily outfly these things." She said.
“I’ve never flown against an aircraft since basic training.” I told her. She ignored me. Great, I’m in the middle of a storm with a headstrong native who thinks she can control the weather. Some luck I have. One of the fighters zoomed past us. The native fired at it with her pistol.
“You realize that pistol will barely damage that thing." I said, but the JSFs started flying away. I sighed, not believing what I saw.
“Isach, Aseri, you guys okay?” I asked through the comm link.
“Yea, a little bruised up, but we’re fine.” I heard Isach say.
“Hurry up! They’re getting away!” The rainbow haired native said, following the two aircraft.
“She’s insane.” I murmured under my breath as I followed her.
She was faster than I expected and kept up with the two JSFs easily. I flew up next to her.
“You ready?” She asked.
“For what?” I answered.
“This.” She replied. She put on a burst of speed and shot forward, flying into the JSF’s line of sight. Its dual cannons opened fire. She dodged every bullet with amazing agility. She fired two single bullets into the JSF’s cockpit. It ceased fire and began to plummet towards the ground.
The visions kicked in again, and I started seeing things that nobody else would have believed. It was me and her, flying in the JSFs. We were fighting against oncoming hordes of Ing, both on the ground and in the air. The vision left as quickly as it started.
“Hey! Look out!” She said. I looked behind me and saw that the JSF had a lock on me and fired a missile.
“Shit.” I murmured under my breath.
I flew faster and threw a fireball behind me using my magic. The fireball acted as a flare and the missile went off course. I charged up a ball of energy in my hand. The aircraft started firing its cannons. I evaded all of its gunfire, but some rounds came extremely close. I threw the ball of energy straight at the JSF. It collided with it and the JSF went up in a ball of flames.
“Enemy down.” I said.
The rainbow haired native flew up to me. “That was awesome!” She said.
“I know ri-” I looked over and saw a squadron of eight fighters heading straight for us.
“Incoming!” I yelled as they all fired missiles at us.
We both flew straight up. I threw another flare behind me, making the missiles go off course. I looked at the native. She had flown forward, making all the JSF’s go for her. I was about to tell her to come back when another vision hit me like a brick wall. The name “Dashie!” kept repeating in my head.
I flew faster, trying to catch up with them. Once I got in range, I fired a beam of raw kinetic energy at one of the JSFs. The beam struck its wing, tearing it off. It spun out of control and hit a building.
"Got one!" I shouted.
I looked back at the native. She was handling the situation pretty well for being chased by seven aircraft. Using her maneuverability to her advantage, she did a quick turn and caught them off guard. The Ing fighters made one major mistake. They were unorganized and when they tried to follow the native, some of them hit each other, sending them out of control. One crashed into the ground.
She started flying extremely fast, nearing the sound barrier. It was significantly harder for me to catch up with her, but I still flew after her. She went even faster now, forming a cone around her.
The explosion was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. A ring of rainbow spread all around the surrounding land and beyond. All the Ing fighters were suddenly destroyed. I looked around for the native. She seemed nowhere to be seen. I felt a presence behind me and turned around.
“How’d you like that?” She said.
“I-I’ve never seen anything like it.” I sputtered.
My comm link started crackling with static.
“Chip! Chip! Are you alright?” I heard Isach say.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I said. I started flying back to where my company remained. The native followed me.
“It seems like comms are back online.” I said to Isach while listening to the radio chatter.
“Yeah, they are. Do you know what that explosion was though?” He asked me.
“It was the Equestrian.” I said.
“What?” Isach asked critically.
“The Equestrian. She did it.” I answered.
“How?” Isach asked again.
“She broke the sound barrier. I guess they have a ability that allows them to do that.” I shrugged, though I knew he couldn’t see that.
“Oh...” Isach didn’t ask anything more.
We flew in silence until I asked a question.
“How did you do that?” I asked
“Oh, the Sonic Rainboom? Easy. Once I pick up enough speed, it will trigger that blast of rainbow that you saw.” She said. I was about to say something when my comm crackled to life.
“Captain Light Gaia, this is Sergeant Elsear. Did you see that blast?” A masculine voice said through the comm.
“Yes sergeant, I am actually next to the one who caused it.” I said.
“What!? Somebody did that themselves?” He exclaimed.
“You mean some Equestrian.” I corrected.
“You can’t be serious, sir.” Elsear said.
“But I am Sergeant. She also shot a pilot while he was in his aircraft.” I added.
“That’s not even possible.” Elsear said.
“For you, probably not. Now were you just going to just tell me how pretty those rainbows were or did you have something else to say?” I was getting irritated.
“Right. The Ing were heavily damaged from that blast and do not have the firepower to push us around any more. We should get the advantage soon.” Elsear reported, like a good soldier should.
“Good. Is there any word on reinforcements?” I asked him.
“That’s what I’m worried about, sir. If we don’t get reinforcements, we might not get the upper hand and have to pull out of here. And we still don’t have comms up with command yet.”
“That’s never good.” I said as I landed alongside the equestrian.
********
Springhaven, Elyon
December 12 1625 Hours
“Earlier today, a fleet of warships and three battalions got lost and are currently stuck on a planet that suddenly jumped into our solar system.” A high-ranking Gaian officer said. Inside the room, sat the Queen of Elyon, the leader of the Gaians.
“Is there any way to get them back safely?”The Queen of Elyon said.
“We’re not sure, as we lost all comms with them, Your Majesty.” The officer replied grimly.
“Do we know if there are any survivors?” She asked him.
“I would presume that there are some, but I am not entirely sure of that, Your Majesty.” The officer said.
After a long silence, the Queen spoke.
“I’m afraid that we cannot risk a rescue mission. It’s far too dangerous since we don’t know what we’re going up against.” She said.
“There is one thing I forgot to tell you. There was a Light Gaian present at the battle.” The officer said.
The Queen’s ears perked up once he said that.
“There was? Who?” She asked.
“Light Gaian Number Four Thousand Three Hundred and Six. It was Chip, Your Majesty.” The officer answered.
The Queen looked intensely at him.
“Send in reinforcements. Lets pull ‘em out.” The Queen ordered.
“Yes, Your Highness.” The officer bowed, and left the room.