//------------------------------// // Taking back Equestria // Story: Lux Aeterna // by chip22 //------------------------------// 205 hours, Aboard carrier Swallowtail Drop pod deployment bay I looked down at the ground residing thousands of feet beneath me. I looked up at the other drop pods in the bay. We were all hanging there, ready to go down and fight. Even the six Equestrians were on these things, plus their friends. They were all suited up in armor and ready to go. I looked at the blue one with rainbow hair. I learned that her name was Rainbow Dash and she was apparently the fastest flyer in Equestria. She gave me a thumbs up and smiled. I smiled back. “I wonder how crazy it's gonna be when we get to the ground.” I heard a voice say through the radio in the drop pods. It was one of the wonderbolts, who I also met and learned about when we were getting ready for deployment. His name was Soarin. I had also received word that many more reinforcements were on their way. I heard that it was six fleets, with nine ships in each fleet. “Well, it definitely won't be easy to fight down there now. The Ing are everywhere.” Isach said. I also got more soldiers under my command. A whole new company, except the survivors of my old one stayed. We had one objective. Take down all AA and Anti ship cannons. “You all will be dropping in five. Get ready.” A voice said through the comm. I started mentally preparing myself, getting myself ready for the struggle to take back the city. I sat there, bored and tense, and waited. Finally a voice came. “Drop’s in one minute.” “Once we get down there, everything will turn to hell. Is everyone ready?” I asked I heard a ton of affirmatives and yeahs. I put my helmet on. I looked at everyone. They were all sharing smiles and reassuring each other. “Ten, nine, eight...” I heard the counting. My heart was pounding. I was nervous as hell. I’ve never been dropping while in weapons range of other ships. Enemy ships, that is. I heard a bang and the whole drop pod bay shook. The enemy ships had the Swallowtail locked and were opening fire. Streams of bullets passed the underside of the ship and anti air guns the Ing had installed on the ground started to open fire on all the airborne ships. “We just got hit hard, sir!” I saw a group of engineers trying to repair the ship as it was under fire. “Five, four, three...” I looked at everyone for the last time. I could tell that everyone was at least a bit nervous. “Two...” Oh god “One...launch!” We all shot down to the ground. There was gunfire everywhere, with every single round threatening to hit one of our drop pods and kill whoever was inside it. I started taking fire. “Shit, they've got me targeted!” I said. “Me too. A couple others are also being hit!” I heard Rainbow Dash say. I looked at everyone being hit. A couple Gaians, Dash, me, and some wonderbolts were all taking fire. I looked at the shield levels of the drop pod. They were dangerously low. “I'm not gonna make it down!” I yelled. “Me neither! We’re gonna have to hope for the best!” Dash yelled back. I heard a beeping noise from the pod. That wasn't good. I looked down. A missile was headed straight for me. “OH SHI-!” The pod exploded and I was left falling. My personal shielding stayed intact and saved my life. I looked around as I streamlined myself into a forward dive. Dash was doing the same as me, with her pod destroyed as well. I looked at the wonderbolts who were hit. They were doing the same as us. The Gaians, however were not as lucky. Almost all of them who were taking fire had not lived. I could tell that I had lost about seven guys already. I brought my attention back to the ground. “We’re nearing the ground! Brace for impact!” I said. “Chip, how the hell? Are you okay?” Aseri said. “I don't even know.” I said. I dodged a missile that was locked on to me and fired a bolt of energy at a destroyer on the ground, right on the location that we were supposed to drop at. The bolt blew its armor open, but left it standing. I fired a beam of plasma out of my hand. This time it went down. As we all landed, I landed right on top of an Ing, completely flattening him. I pulled my knife out and finished the job. Everybody exited their drop pods and readied their weapons. “How the hell did you survive? I thought your drop pod got destroyed.” Isach said. “It did, but I was fine. So were the rest without drop pods.” I looked at Dash, then at the wonderbolts. We were all fine. “Alright let’s get moving!” I yelled to everyone. We started running but soon ran into a heavily fortified position, with machine gunners everywhere. “Get to cover!” I yelled. I readied my rifle and peeked around the brick wall I hid behind. The gunners were a bigger type of Ing, so it would take more firepower to take them down. I fired my underbarrel grenade launcher at one of them. He was blown into pieces. The one next to him saw what happened and directed his fire at me. I ducked behind the wall and heard bullets pound the other side of it. After the gunfire stopped I popped back out and put a few shots into its skull. Some missed but a couple hit. It went down. Another gunner saw this and started firing at me. I took cover again. An explosion blew up part of the wall, giving me almost no cover to hide behind. “Help! Help!” I yelled. An AT soldier fired his rocket launcher at the Ing firing at me, resulting in a bloody mess at where it stood. The firing stopped. “Good shot.” I heard someone yell. I looked around the remaining cover. The rest of the company had eliminated the other gunners. “Move up!” I shouted. We all started moving up, but were stopped by a destroyer that had jumped from the top of a nearby building down onto the ground. He started firing into us. We all fired at it. It was taking serious damage and soon enough its shields were down. I saw another drop from the sky and land near us. It opened fire, too. “Shit! Another one! Take it down!” I yelled. Some of us changed targets to the other destroyer, while most of us kept lighting up the other one. The first charged a huge energy bolt and fired it straight at me. I watched as the huge missile flew toward me. Instead of flinching, I fired my own bolt of energy out of my hand. The light and dark energies mixing created an explosion, saving a large portion of my men, but still wounding some. I opened fire again and the first destroyer went down, leaving the second one. This second one, however, used an invulnerability shield, which is a lockdown shield. It couldn't walk in any direction, but could still turn and fire its weapons. It yelled something and soon there were three more destroyers around us. “Take em down! Take em all down!” I yelled. We were in the middle of a bloodbath, with the destroyers cutting through us with their powerful weaponry. I fired at one of them, who was charging up a high powered energy beam. It fired at me. A purple shield appeared in front of me, protecting me and blocking the laser. The dark creature charged me. I put my rifle on my back, pulled out my knife and jumped over it, slowly flipping in midair and sticking the combat knife into its skull. It fell as I landed on the ground “One down, three to go!” I yelled. I turned, pulled my smg’s from my hip, and started firing at the next one. He fired a spread of gunfire at me. I put a shield up in front of me. It blocked most of the bullets, but the last few hit me and shut my shields off. An explosion knocked me off my feet. I landed face first into the ground. I slowly looked up. The destroyer had a charged up energy beam and pointed it straight at me. “This is your end!” He said. My life flashed before my eyes. “This is it.” I thought. “This is how I die.” “We need him alive!” I heard another one say. I looked up. The destroyer aiming at me changed his aim and tried to fire into my company. Another purple barrier popped up and blocked the blast. I saw who used it. It was a purple equestrian. One with a horn. I took my rifle off my back, rolled around, and fired at the one who almost killed me. A soldier fired a rocket and hit it in the stomach. It exploded. “Two down, Two to go!” I yelled, in pain. I turned to the third one. It fell to the ground as I turned. A Gaian soldier went up to its head and fired one shot into its skull. It, too, was killed. “Last one! Take him down!” I yelled again. The last one standing still had his lockdown shield still up and was wreaking havoc upon us. “Someone shut that shield down!” Isach said. A combat engineer used a overload power, which overloaded the shields of the destroyer and knocked it off balance. Everybody opened fire into it. It was quickly eliminated. “Alright, lets go take down that AA.” I got up and led the way. We kept moving. I noticed that there was now a marker on my visor that was located on top of the castle. I was guessing that was where the AA was. We all ran up to the castle doors. I tried to open them, but something was on the other side, preventing them from moving. “Something’s on the other side. Aseri, go see what it is.” I said. She walked up and used her x-ray visor system in her helmet. “The whole hallway inside crumbled. There’s no way we’re getting in from here.” She said. “Can you see anymore entrances?” “All of them are loaded with traps that are impossible to disable from the outside. I don't think we can get in, Captain.” She said. I looked up. The roof wasn't very high up. An easy flight distance, for most of us. I turned around. “We have to fly onto the roof. Who of the equestrians can fly?” I asked. Some raised their hands. Some didn’t. “I think I can teleport the rest of us up there.” The purple equestrian with a horn said. “You saved my life earlier. Twice, actually. Thanks for that.” I said “When you see us get up there and hear gunfire, go up.” I took off and started flying upward. The roof was nearing, but my wings were already getting tired. “Flying upwards sucks.” I thought to myself. I raised my rifle and flew above the roof. I fired at the Ing operating the pylons that powered the anti-air guns. Since they weren’t expecting an attack, they were slow to react, and were wiped out quickly. The guards were also slow, and they were taking a lot of fire. The other equestrians teleported in and finished off the rest. “Admiral, we have taken down the AA. What are our orders?” I asked. “We have gotten intel that there is a portal to another world nearby. If the intel is correct, that world has some Gaian POW’s on it. We need you to save them, but don't linger around in there. I recommend that you go in with a few others, but no more than five. You are going to have to remain unseen. If you get caught, your chances of making it back will be extremely slim. I'm marking the portal on your HUD.” He said. “Yes, sir. Isach, Aseri, you guys are coming with me. The rest of you go back to the carrier. I’m sending out a beacon for a transport.” I pressed a button on my tacpad. I jogged to a door and opened it for Isach and Aseri, who went in. I got back in front and led the way. It was pitch black in the hallway, and for a second I had trouble navigating through the halls. It wasn't long before Aseri used an illumination spell, which created an orb of light above her head. I looked back at the marker. It was very close, with a door blocking it. “Its through that door.” I said. I looked at the door. It was definitely Ing tech, not normal equestrian doors. “Isach, see if you can hack that.” I ordered. He went up to it and pulled out his desynchronizer. “How the hell did they manage to install this with such little time? I don't even see how they would get power to this door with equestrian tech.” He said while hacking into its systems. “Just get the damn thing open.” I said. “Alright...Got it!” He said, lifting it open. We stood in front of the portal. “Lets go, but be ready. We don't know what's waiting on the other side.” I said. We all entered the portal. The first thing I felt when I got out was the pain of hitting the ground. I looked around as I got up. We were in a jail of some sort. The place was strange, with the only light source being two strips of blue light beams on either side of the room. They were in the ground, and looked like they belonged in some sort of advanced chamber, not a jail. It was a long hallway, too. There must've been at least fifty cells. “This must be it.” I heard Aseri say. I looked into the cells around us. All of them contained Gaian remnants. “Damn. These must've been the prisoners.” Isach said. “All of our brothers and sisters, killed off by the Ing.” I said as I walked, looking into every cell and seeing the same thing. “We need to turn this war around, fast.” “How? We can turn it around easily if we play our cards right, but I don't see how we could do it fast. For god’s sake, Chip, this war can take fifty more years!” Isach said. “I know that, but there must be a way. Just some way that we can hit the Ing where it hurts.” I said. I got to the end of the hallway and looked into the final cells. The right one, again, contained rotting corpses. The left one had a body slumped in the very back of the jail cell, with its hands and feet tied. I looked at it and noticed that its chest was moving. It was breathing I opened the doors. “Hey, we’re here to help.” I said. It looked up. It was a Gaian female. “Y-you finally came. Just as the legends foretold.” She said. She was obviously in pain. “I-I don't understand.” I said. “Oh come on, you can't tell me that you don't know the ancient scriptures.” She said. I turned around. “She might have lost her mind by now. There’s nothing about this in the legends.” I said. “Chip...” The POW said. “I know who you are.” I looked back at her. “What?” “You’re the one, right? The one who’s supposed to save all things light and protect them for eternity. Lux Aeterna as the legends call it.” She said. Lux Aeterna. The words always hit me like a brick wall. I started having another vision. We were fighting, but were surrounded. The Ing had us outnumbered and outgunned from all sides. I turned to her. There was a shot fired, louder than all the rest. “Merri!” I shouted. “Chip, snap out of it, there are Ing coming!” Isach hissed, shaking me. I heard footsteps approaching from the stairway. “Quick, turn off your suits and hide in the cells.” I hissed. I dropped into the cell with the POW, while the others hid in the cell across from us. We all turned off our suits. Turning off a suits systems will make it nearly impossible to effectively fight in, but we had to because every combat suit has lights on it that can give away a unit’s location. If we decided to leave them on, there would be no point to hiding. “Have you seen all of the new armor configurations? They look sweet!” One of them said. I looked at them. “Changelings. Damn them.” I thought. “Yeah, I should be getting next week.” The other said. They walked down the jail hall in silence. I noticed that as they walked, the colors in the hallway changed from blue to red. Soon enough they were back in front of the cell I was in. “Wait, is that one still alive?” One of them said. “Yeah, shes been locked up for a good time now. Two years if i'm correct.” The other said. What? Two years? I would never be able to stay sane if I was held for that long. “What do we do with her?” The first one asked. “Well, she’s fine here, I don't see her getting out anytime soon.” The other one said. They walked back upstairs. We all turned our suits back on. “You’ve been here for two years?” I asked the POW. “Yup.” She said. “You’re kidding.” “Nope. I was captured on my first mission when I was fourteen. Now i'm here.” “Well, you’re not a prisoner anymore.” I cut her binds. “Can you walk?” She got up. “Yeah, I should manage. I got a little to eat a few hours ago so hopefully I won't collapse.” “You managed to find food? How?” I asked. She turned invisible. “This is how.” I turned around. “How long can you do that for? It must take a good amount of mana.” I said. “Yeah, after a while it will start to eat up my reserves, but I can hold it for ten minutes max.” She said. “Well, that’s a lot better than I can do.” I said. She nodded. “Lets get out of here, man. I really don't feel like getting caught.” Isach said. We all started towards the portal. I walked up to it, my nose basically touching it. It closed. “Ah fuck.”