//------------------------------// // SPFP: A Briefing On Your Mission // Story: Tales of the SPFP's EDF: Equestrian Defense Force // by EdBoii //------------------------------// SPFP: A Briefing On Your Mission Tales of the SPFP's EDF: Equestrian Defense Force The alarms were blaring. The sound of it called everyone to combat. The red lights flashed and the equines rushed to their arms and armor. It was a frightful day. A terrible day. Explosions could be heard in the far distance as the enemy forces advanced. Their war-cries echoed in the air and the sound of it was more terrifying than anything anyone could have ever dreamed of. The Solar Empire's forces rushed down Everfree Castle's main street to take place along the barricades and anti-aircraft weapons set on top of the roofs of homes and businesses. Civilians had been long evacuated to the upper sectors of the city. All that remained was war. The Solar Kingdom–Celestia's realm–was at the ready. The Solar Infantry took position along the parapets with their siege crossbows at the ready. Solar Archer sergeants screamed at the top of their lungs to get their troops into position. Bowstrings were drawn, crossbows were taut, and the buzzing of wings echoed in the distance. The Changeling Swarm neared at a horrifying speed. Black carapaces and deep blue insectoid eyes fixed on Everfree Castle threatened to annihilate every Equestrian they could find. Not only they, but the massive aircraft that clumsily drew closer and closer from the south carrying packs of Diamond Dogs with the only intent to reclaim their mines deep within the castle also. The Harpoon Boys inside the craft howled in eager battle-lust and readied their harpoons and knives. The Solar Infantry was not ready for them. It never would, but they'd face them all the same. The Solar Empire's Battle Engineers manned the war machines and everything stood still for a few minutes. All equines held their breaths and waited. Then the bombardment commenced. The Changeling Swarm's Bombardiers–hideous insectoids with protruding sacks of venom under their stomachs–began to spit globs of poison against the city's walls. Screams rose high into the air as the liquid fell upon the Solar Infantry and set their flesh to boil beneath their armor. The nauseous gases that emanated from the poison then forced the nearby fighters to vomit and retreat as their eyes burned and their throats clenched. Then the Swarm was upon them all. The Swarm's Claws were the first to deploy. The size of a small carriage, these arthropods were similar to a centipede, but shorter in length and with prominent mandibles and legs that ended in claws specialized for cutting. The Claws were dropped from the Swarm's fleet of Beetles–fat, bulbous creatures the size of an airship with hangar-like compartments in their abdomen–into the fields outside Everfree Castle, where the equine's artillery still had no reach. The Claws rushed the walls. The Diamond Dog's aircraft loomed closer and closer until the first of the Solar Empire's mangonels fired explosive shot at them. Fire burst all around the Dog's aircraft and consumed several of their ships. The screams of dying dogs and the smell of burning hair infested the fleet and drove them to madness. The Harpoon Boys, the Cleaver Boys and the Sawer Boys rushed the cockpits of their ships and forced the pilots to go faster and faster. The engines of several ships caught fire and exploded. The mangonel fire destroyed several more. When the Diamond Dogs finally reached the walls, they found only Swarm Claws advancing over the corpses of hundreds of Solar Infantry. With an enraged howl, the Harpoon Boys shot at the insects and the Cleaver Boys and Sawer Boys leaped onto the walls and buildings and set their task to slaughtering the Swarm's forces. Green, black, red, and white blood stained the outer walls of Everfree Castle as Diamond Dogs rushed the city, slaughtering everything on their path, while their airships lent support in the form of grenades, handcannons, and small artillery pieces. The Solar Infantry was retreating and losing ground fast. The battle at the walls had been short-lived, they had expected that. The walls were new and not designed to resist a Changeling Swarm. The city, however was designed to resist much more. Rising in a constant slope upwards to the castle, every block of homes and businesses was guarded by a barricade and trenches. On them were several Magic Autoguns–fully automatic machines that fired magical blasts at the enemy–fixed unto the ground. The massive pieces of heavy weaponry were akin to turrets. The moment the Claws rounded a corner, the autoguns tore them to shreds. Every meter of the way up the slope costed the Swarm hundreds. All the while their advance was peppered by the arrows of the Solar Archers that exploded upon impact, and the crossbow fire of the Solar Infantry that was strong enough to tear through the thick carapace of the Claws. The forces of the Solar Empire held hundreds of strategical positions within the city that the Swarm could not best. It was not until the Diamond Dogs tore through the last Claws the Swarm had sent up one street that they came into contact with the barricades. The Diamond Dog Harpoon Boys howled and shot at the barricades; their projectiles covered in flames and detonated as they met their targets. Sawer Boys and Cleaver Boys rushed the barricade as their airship launched grenades and cannonfire at it from a distance. The Solar autogun mowed down the approaching dogs even as the Solar Infantry and archers around it were blown to pieces by the sustained fire from the Harpoon Boys and the airship, but alone and without unicorns to feed it, the autogun powered down and died. The Diamond Dogs pressed onward, howling and barking with delight. The battle grew worse by the minute for the equines. The Claws had overrun a few of the barricades and were moving towards the next ring of defenses, but the Diamond Dogs had already pierced through them and were clawing at the second wall of Everfree Castle. In the far distance, the sound of carriers could be heard.