//------------------------------// // 15 - Assault // Story: Gladiator // by Not_A_Hat //------------------------------// "You're saying you sparred with the Captain? How are you still alive?" "Well, he wasn't trying to kill me. Also, I mean, he was good, but I did get a few hits in myself. Really glad I didn't get kicked, though." I glanced upwards, attempting to spot Rainbow, who was cruising overhead on lookout. The company of guards I was attached to was hiking through rocky foothills on our way to the changelings fortress. Princess Luna had worked backwards from the stars I'd shown her, calculating approximately where I'd entered Equestria. Given a location, careful scouting and high-altitude flyovers had found what we were pretty certain was the fortress. While the scouts worked, Rainbow and I had trained under Captain Shining in order to participate in the assault. "No, but...oh, oh! Hey, he didn't use any magic on you, did he?" "Not a bit. Which was good, because I'm pretty sure he would have whipped me." "Heh, that's not the half of it." Rainbow's voice came clearly though the communicator in my helmet. We were allowed to use the private channels for 'chat' as we marched, as long as we were discrete. I was glad the ponies were keeping a reasonable pace; if they pushed, they would leave me behind easily. As it was, I was trying pretty hard to keep up, but a week of conditioning had left me in better shape than before. Growing and changing was still a little strange for me. While I'd been in the changelings...'care', I'd healed instantly, but it had also stopped my body from adapting. The fact that I could now get better, faster, stronger, was pretty cool to me, and I was enjoying being even a little more fit than before. "See, the thing is," Rainbow jerked me out of my reverie, "magic is a huge part of any unicorn martial art. It's integral to who they are, and gives them ranged options like nothing else. From what I've heard the Captain is a master or maybe even a grandmaster of Battle Stream. It's this awesome unicorn art based around telekinesis. There's even rumors he's studied the Path of Void, since he's one of the few unicorns powerful enough to teleport. If you’d been fighting for real, you'd have been nothing but a smear." "Wow. That's...pretty cool, actually." I glanced towards the front of our column, where the white unicorn led the march. "I hope I get a chance to see that when we attack." "Oh, I bet you will. You're in the 'bait' group, right where he can keep an eye on you." "Yeah, I guess." I wasn't sure to be flattered or bothered by my appointment to the decoy group. The plan for attacking the changelings was pretty simple, honestly; lure them out into the open, and call Luna. This was apparently one of the few situations that merited direct intervention from one of the Diarchs. I wasn't entirely sure what she would be doing, but since her commitment to using "The Dance of the Dark Moon" had drawn such shocked looks from the ponies in the war room, I was convinced it could crush the resistance. Originally, some ponies had suggested a siege. However, we weren't even sure if we could starve them out. Would they be able to feed off the attackers? If not, could we even afford the time it would take, with one of Equestrias strategic-class magical artifacts possibly out of commission? Working from there, we had come up with a plan to shatter the fortress as quickly and thoroughly as possible. We were currently en-route, posing as a small mercenary company, using normally traveled roads and normally scheduled caravans to get as close as possible to the fortress without alerting our target to our intention. Soon we wouldn't be able to get closer by road, and would cut cross country directly for the stronghold. We knew we would be noticed. Complete stealth was impossible. With any luck, by the time they did realize what we were up to we would be too close for them to preemptively attack or to flee. The stealth was really just one way of trying to keep them from pulling something unexpected. If they didn't see through our disguise or intent, they would be reacting as we predicted. And if we could predict them, we could outmaneuver them. What we expected to find at the fort was changelings preparing for a siege. There might be some struggle for air-superiority, but we were confident of at least suppressing their patrols. Once they started to turtle, we would have to act fast. Before they had time to settle in, to realize what was going on, to get really organized, we would need to strike first and strike hard. I glanced back at the wagons that trailed us. Much of that was supplies and camouflage, although we would ditch the vehicles when we split from the road; the guard could carry their own meals. The one at the very back, however, contained something like a siege machine. 'Something like', because even with Twilight's borrowed magical knowledge, I still wasn't sure what to make of the engine of destruction we were bringing with us. From the outside, it looked like brass clockwork studded with a few glowing crystals, but I was assured that it was more than powerful enough to open a hole in the fortress. It was apparently a 'class three emplacement, tactical thaumic clockwork cannonade'. This level of weapon was normally reserved for strategically hardened emplacements, and crewed by dozens of trained and dedicated personnel. Who or what exactly the ponies needed this sort of firepower to defend against, I had never actually found out. However, I was assured that with Twilight and Shining working together, we would be able to get at least one breaching shot off before responding fire made it impossible to continue. It showed a measure of the commitment Celestia had, that she was willing to commission both her sister and strategic-class weaponry for this action. Not to mention that this weapon was marked expendable. Once we were inside the fort, things would get really hairy. In order to completely exterminate the nest, we had two objectives; destroy the actual, physical fort, and assassinate the Queen. If we accomplished both of these, we could be assured that the changelings would be crushed beyond recovery. The demolition of the building itself, while important, paled beside the significance of killing the leader. If we failed to kill the Queen, these bugs would simply scatter when we stomped them. We could break their stuff all we liked after they left; but if we didn't get her, they'd just set up again somewhere else and come back worse than ever. Thankfully, we didn't have to actually fight the Queen. That was Luna's job. And I, for one, was glad to leave it to her. Sure, I wanted revenge, but I wasn't suicidal. I'd seen the Queen in the stands of the arena every few days; if I thought I could take her, I'd have made a go of it long before. The trick would be actually getting our champion into contact with theirs. We were convinced that Luna would be able to deal with the changeling Queen. However, our enemy was also smart enough to realize this. She hadn't survived in Equestria this long without realizing that her hive's existence hinged on the fact that she could never, ever let the Royals catch her. So it came down to this: we needed to draw the Queen out, and we needed to get her to somewhere Luna could access. We had decided to target the arena. We knew very little of the layout of the fortress, but we knew that the arena was relatively large and open to the sky. Normally, getting caught in a fight in the arena would be something to avoid. For our smaller force, keeping to the corridors of the building proper would allow us to limit exposure to the bugs, while the open area of the arena invited them to surround us and take advantage of their numbers. No matter how good Captain Shining was, and I hoped he was even better than Rainbow thought, not even he could deal with that sort of pressure. Nevertheless, the Princess should be able to. So, five steps. Scare them, crack the fort, bait the queen, head for the courtyard, and call for backup. If everything went well, we would be able to draw the Queen out before she fled, and call in Luna to smack her down and mop things up. "Wes? You've gone quiet." Rainbow called to me through the helmet, and I tried to spot her in the sky again. She'd been trained as a scout and courier, in case we needed to get a non-magical message somewhere fast. Shining was nothing if not thorough in his planning. "Sorry. I was just thinking about the plan. It's a pretty good one, and I hope it works. Thing is, there's this saying in my world...'No plan survives contact with the enemy'." Things were not going according to plan. Diligent stepped back from the changeling we were currently facing, and readied his axe for another swing. My team of one human and three ponies was pushing down a corridor in the changeling fortress, the floor slick with ichor, dead bodies strewn behind us. "Diligent, TAG!" I shouted, signaling a switch. When my partner stepped back, I moved in front and lashed out with my war hammer. The force of my swing crunched through the bugs natural armor, shattering his guard and breaking his foreleg. I finished it off on the backswing, sinking the my weapon's spike deep into its eye and silencing its groans of pain. We weren't doing as badly as we could be, but being separated from the main force was not something I enjoyed. We were all still fit to fight, thankfully, and moving forwards as well as we could, but I didn't want to be trapped here. I tapped my helmet, trying to get something from my comm, but all I got was random pops and crackles. I turned it down again. The changelings apparently had some sort of magic interference field they used. It wasn't enough to stop full-power casting, but it caused any passive spells to go haywire. Diligent Aegis, our ranking member, leaned out past the corner we'd come to, looking ahead. "Good news," he called softly back, "I see allies ahead. We need to get to them; they look like they might be in trouble." Our medic and archer, Ace Wrap and Hawkeye, nodded and readied their swords. As the two close combat specialists Diligent and I had taken point, but the other two were more than ready for a scrap if need be. I signaled my readiness with a thumbs up and we dashed out of cover, closing on the changelings with a yell. Diligent and I quickly fell back into our one-two; one of us would push hard, while the other waited for an opportunity. When it came, we'd switch places. This let us take short breaks to keep up the pace and cover each other. It also tended to confuse our enemies. Diligent, with his guard-issue axe, fought entirely differently than I did with my custom war hammer. I admired my new weapon once again as I used it to shatter the horn of a charging changeling. Shining had ordered it made to my specs, and I'd asked for something light enough to swing all day with enough kick to get through thin armor. Perfect for crushing bugs. It had a thin but strong wooden handle with a fairly light head, spiked on one end and flat on the other. I whipped it around, switching from a one-handed grasp to a two-handed, and smacked it through the chest plate of my attacker, leaving only shattered chitin. "Thank you for the assist!" The ponies we'd rushed to help turned towards us, but showed no sign of dropping their guards. "If you don't mind, what's the password?" "Harmony in all things." Diligent replied formally. They relaxed, just enough for one of Hawkeye's arrows to slam through the nearest, breaking his crystalline eye and showing his true changeling form. "No countersign?" Diligent asked. We stepped forward, joining battle again as their disguises flickered and faded. We had come prepared; a sign, countersign, and three not-so-obvious motions were needed to convince anypony we were legitimately allies. Shortly, the corridor was cleared of changelings. Living ones, at least. "Guys!" Hawkeye called. "Up ahead, can you see? I think that's a connecting hall. Pretty good chance there's more ponies there. Let's see if we can link up." We slowly approached; sure enough, we soon reached a wider hall. Unfortunately, there were no friendlies in sight. Fortunately, we didn't see any more bugs. "I recognize this!" I exclaimed. "This is the passage from the cells to the arena. If we head that way, we'll pass the cells and reach the target. The only question is, has the main team managed to draw the battle there, or would we be arriving alone?" "Can't say." Diligent replied. "But we need to keep moving. Let's go that way for now. We can always take a side passage if we need to, and maybe find a place to hole up near the arena until we reach phase two." He stepped forward, and I moved up next to him. In the wider hall, we could easily walk two abreast. After a few seconds, we reached a side passage. "This leads to the cells," I said. "Do you mind?" I motioned to the door. "Let's have a look." The door was locked, but the hinges were on this side, obviously meant to keep ponies in, not out. I pushed the pins out and kicked the door open. Looking in, I was hit by a familiar feeling of disgust and trepidation. I stepped in and stopped, staring at my cell. One year. For one year, this had been my...life. I'd lived here, imprisoned. It was odd to see it from the outside. Splinter's body was gone, and his cell was scorched black. A fine layer of soot, maybe all that was left of him besides his horn, lay on the floor. My hand dropped to my sheath. I hadn't told anypony about the horn besides Twilight; she'd told me that it was unusual, but not impossible, for a horn to survive the death of a unicorn. She'd urged me to keep it private or to give it to his kin, if I could find them. I hadn't done anything with it since then. It might have been macabre, but I liked the idea of carrying it around. Sorta like he was still at my side. "Diligent!" Hawkeye called from the other side of the room. "We've got a live one over here!" I whipped my head around. In the cell across from mine, a drab pony cowered, his body covered in bruises and cuts. "Thank you, thank you," he sobbed. Ace practically ripped the door off it's hinges, and rushed over to him. "Wait!" I yelled, pulling him up short. He shot me a quizzical look. "Surely you don't think..." He glanced at the pony cowering on the floor, and then back to me. "Don't rush in, Ace." I said. "That's the sort of thing that kills ponies. Remember what Shining said?" The captain had briefed us all on how to check for shapeshifters. I walked over, and cautiously poked the prisoner with the haft of my hammer. The easiest way to tell was by touch. The changeling illusions were good, but they didn't do much for texture. I gulped as my hammer skittered off of smooth chitin with an immediately recognizable scraping noise. I roared in rage, yanked the handle back and raised it over my head. "P-please!" The changeling however, made no move to fight back. Instead it cowered even more. It's disguise flickered out and revealed that, even though it had been hiding its nature, it truly was as wounded as it looked. Its tough hide was scored and even cracked in a place or two, and its jagged teeth were broken and bleeding. "Wes, stop!" Diligent's voice yanked me to a halt, mid-swing. "Look at its eyes." I paused, and took a step back. Although it was exposed, the supposed assassin wasn't making any move to attack. Its eyes were blue. Not the red I was used to, or even the green Captain Shining had reported, but a deep royal blue. "Squad leader?" I asked, questioningly. Our orders were to kill on sight, and this definitely was a changeling. "This one is different, and I don't like that. Leave it be for now." He looked down, tapping a hoof in thought. "You, prisoner. Are you from a different...hive, nest?" "Diligent, you can't trust-" I started to rebuke him, but he motioned for me to be stand down, and I did. "Yes." The voice was quiet, tremulous. "I was captured from a caravan. They thought they were getting someone they could feed on. They were enraged to discover me. P-please don't kill me. I'm not dangerous, I promise! I-I'll do whatever you want, just please don't kill me!" I grit my teeth, trying to deny the raw despair and fear I was hearing. I knew the changelings were consummate actors, but the emotion in its voice cut even me. We stood in silence for a moment as our leader thought. "Ace, give him what you can. Hawkeye, Wes, find a way to lock the door. We're leaving him here. If someone comes in, changeling, you are to tell them that Diligent Aegis has accepted your parole, and will stand for your actions. Do you understand? We will be back for you after we take this fortress." "Please, please don't leave me here! Take me with you!" "Sorry, can't do that. You're a liability. I'm already trusting you farther than I should; our orders were to kill every," and here his voice went as cold as stone, "and I mean every changeling we find. I've already stuck my neck out by willingly letting you live. Don't ask for more." The prisoner shuddered visibly. Ace left a small pile of medical supplies on the floor of the cell. Hawkeye held the door up for me, and I hammered on it until it was well and truly wedged into the frame. It ought to keep this wretch in, and anyone who felt like simply killing him out. "Let's go." Diligent turned and led us out.