//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: War Begins // Story: The Conversion Bureau EarthGate Saga: Through the EarthGate // by Dolphy Blue Drake //------------------------------// After passing through the EarthGate and arriving in orbit around the dead birthplace of humanity, the fifteen ships descended through the barrier, once again with only slight interference.  Beneath the pink sphere covering the entire planet, the daytime sky was still a peaceful blue, as if the barrier wasn’t actually there. On the ground far below, those with a window to look through could see that the infernal town that had been placed where Washington used to be had been fortified heavily.  As they descended towards the Atlantic ocean, everyone braced themselves, going through the various chants or prayers for the dead that their religions called for, filling the vessels with a mournful atmosphere. Jews recited El Maleh Rachamim.  Christians recited The Lord’s Prayer.  Muslims turned to face where Mecca once stood and recited the Salat al-Janazah.  Hindus recited passages from their holy texts on life and death.  Pure Land Buddhists chanted Pure Land Rebirth Dhāraṇī while Tibetan Buddhists chanted Om mani padme hum.  Taoists chanted either Qinghuahao or Jiukujing.  Finally, the few Zoroastrians among the soldiers added their own prayers to the mournful chorus, cementing the atmosphere of dread about what was about to happen.  There was going to be death.  No matter who won, some were going to die. But, as if to counter the dread among the soldiers, the Sikhs among them raised their own voices.  Not in mourning, but in joyful acceptance, as was their way.  They recited Waheguru and passages of scripture from the Guru Granth Sahib.  Though they were few in number, their contrasting tone brought balance to the emotions among the troops, easing the tension and driving all to be ready to accept death when it came that day, whether their own or a friend’s, an ally or enemy, they were prepared for when death started to claim lives in the coming battle. In New Hoofington, newfoals stationed as lookouts caught sight of the Clerisiac spaceships approaching and sent word to Princess Birthright. “So, they’ve finally arrived,” Birthright mused as she got out of the chair in her room in the new barracks.  “About time they decided to show up.” Birthright got to work styling her long mane in front of a mirror, styling it into a shorter ponytail so it wouldn’t stick out of her helmet.  With that completed, she turned to her armor stand and levitated one piece of armor on at a time.  First the chestplate, then the rear legs and skirt, followed by the boots, the slippers, the wing guards, and finally, her helmet. Fully armored, Birthright broke into a wicked grin as she levitated her gun saddle onto her back and strapped it on, then attached the twin shoulder cannons. “Oh, they are so dead!” she giggled insanely as she picked up her magic axe.  “They won’t know what hit them!  This’ll be so much fun!” Finally, she put on her Alicorn Amulet and felt her power skyrocket.  Giddy from the sudden influx of insane power, Birthright bolted from her room and through the halls, squealing with glee while ordering everypony to get in battle positions. Once outside, she cackled, “All towers, open fire!” Magic-based cannons turned to aim at the fifteen ships, aiming for the dropships in particular, charged up to incredible levels of power, then opened fire on the cluster of ships, unleashing solid beams of sinister red energy that buffeted the ships as they were trying to touch down.  A smoking dropship started to break away from the group, two of the faster, more powerful ships breaking away from the pack as well so as to shield the damaged craft, resulting in them getting shot as well, forcing them to hide behind the rest of the fleet, which also started taking heavy beatings from the ground-based cannons. “NOT SO INVINCIBLE NOW, ARE YA?” Birthright cackled, taunting the cluster of ships while employing the Royal Canterlot voice since she had just learned how to use it.  And it was so  much fun to use! The five ships that resembled flying jellyfish with flat, square tops released their first wave of air units, and now it was Birthright’s turn to be unprepared.  Instead of just a few of those odd-looking fighters, a couple flying humanoid robots and a few birdlike fighters, they released entire squadrons of the two kinds of fighters, a small legion of the flying mechs, and swarms of flying creatures resembling dragons and griffons, but different enough from the ones from Equestria to make it obvious to all that these were genetically crafted by the Proteans. “Pegasi!  Intercept them!” Birthright bellowed.  These two other units might’ve been kept from them before, but they still were flesh and blood, so they’d easily fall to the might of magic-based cannons. Onboard the dropship the deponified trio were riding in, the three of them bumped fists and grinned. “Nice suggestion, Martha!” Henry commented.  “Now that they’re distracted by the air units, we can land!” “Don't mention it,” Martha replied with a huge grin.  “They’s just stupid, dat’s all.  Ya gots ta take advantage of them bein’ dumb.” While the pegasi were busy trading shots with the deployed air units, the ships managed to touch down on the surface of the water and all began to deploy units through the Potomac River right onto the ground next to the fortified town. In the sky, the pegasi soon found that though their ranged weapons had an impact on most  of the units, even forcing most of the fighters to retreat to repair the damage they’d taken while causing others to explode in midair, the dragon creatures were more formidable than they first thought, and the griffin creatures could shapeshift into a land-based creature and fall to avoid shots, then shift back to their air form and rush in for an attack.  Sure, the enchanted armor repelled most of the damage, but it seemed almost as if these “griffins” had been made to not be as strong as they could have been, possibly to keep them manageable for their Protean handlers.  The very thought left the pegasi mortally terrified of what would happen if the Proteans decided to make one with full-capacity strength. As for the dragons, they had incredibly tough hides, able to shrug off blow after blow and still show virtually no signs of giving in.  At least when the fight was taken to them and they were forced to fight defensively, as most of the pegasi foolishly presumed was their best option.  The dragons were much better defenders than attackers, letting their nearly impervious hides soak up hits while launching from their mouths streams of what seemed to be fire, but had an incredibly corrosive effect on the enchanted armor, weakening the magic and damaging the metal plates, themselves. “What are you doing, idiots?” Birthright snapped.  “You’re giving those giant lizards the advantage!  Don’t fight them on their terms!” Her orders were instantly ingrained in the minds of her troops, and they changed tactics for the dragons, waiting for them to attack before striking, which was much more effective.  The dragons were apparently very impulsive on the attack, and left the weaker parts of their bodies unguarded while letting out terrifying shrieks and recklessly attacking with huge bursts of the oddly corrosive fire.  The pegasi took advantage of this reckless attack style and fired shots of magic from their cannons at the insides of the dragons’ wings, their bellies, and even down their throats, resulting in several exploding in midair, sending blood and chunks of flesh everywhere. After a few more dragons took heavy damage and fell hundreds of feet to their messy deaths, all of them were called back to the carriers, leaving one part of the assault taken care of. The Proteans, of course, weren’t happy with this.  The Typhoei were great creatures for air control, and they had been outwitted and forced to be recalled.  But the land troops had arrived on shore and were ready to begin the other part of the assault. After receiving a signal from those on land, the carriers launched a slew of Stings―Monopolium-based cruise missiles that created massive gravity-based explosions―at the fortified walls and the interior of the town, causing great interior damage and weakening the structure of the fortress. “Don’t let those things get through!” Birthright barked as several troops were thrown into the air.  “Unicorns!  Form a protective barrier to block those things!” A portion of the unicorn troops nodded, and all of their eyes turned blood-red from the power of their Amulets, releasing powerful red energy from their horns that formed a dome over the town, preventing any more of the missiles from getting through. Still, the damage had been done, and the Proteans dispatched ten Ur-Titans to smash the walls to rubble. The ground shook as the behemoths approached, almost causing a small earthquake with each set of synchronized steps.  At the dome, the Ur-Titans punched the barrier with their massive fists over and over, roaring in rage as it refused to yield to their might.  They could shrug off city shields with ease, but for some reason, the barrier was stronger than even the might of the All-Field, which also was no match for their strength.  The barrier slowly started to crack, but after Birthright barked more orders, the cracks sealed back up. “I’ve had enough of this crap!” A singulon suddenly yelled before lifting a foot in anger.  All the other ground troops dashed away as fast as they could, for they knew what was coming. The gravity manipulators in his suit redirected a large portion of the mass of the suit to the boots, resulting in the singulon’s one stomp triggering a 10.0 earthquake which reduced the entire fortress to rubble, damaging everything inside and having quite the impact on Birthright’s ground-bound troops, throwing all of them into the air from the shockwaves, breaking the unicorns’ concentration and dispelling the shield. Strangely, though the ground of the former District of Columbia was cracked from the short quake, there were no deep fissures, nor was any of the ground raised up significantly. The Protean troops rushed into the city, regular singulons using the usual tactics of heavy punches and kicks, while the Ur-Titans simply stepped on any opponent who they didn’t punch. Some of the pegasi broke off from engaging the flying units to distract the Ur Titans, but soon found that the giants had quick reflexes, getting snatched out of the air after only getting in a few shots and having to resort to the blades hidden in their boots to cause enough damage to get the behemoths to let go before they could be crushed to a pulp. Those who stayed to fight the air units found that as more and more of the other units either were utterly destroyed or escaped,, more and more “griffins” and “flying giant death robots” started to take their place.  The quantum-based lasers from the mechs dealt noticeable damage on their own, but to make matters worse, when the pegasi tried to fly in too close to be shot to use their hidden blades, the machines retaliated with punches that didn’t deal much damage to the armor, but succeeded in throwing them back enough so the mechs could resume shooting.  Even worse for the pegasi, these flying machines of death took virtually no damage from the blades, for the strange substance that made up their armor seemed to be a heavily-pressurized superfluous metallic solid, which according to some of Birthright’s research into human history while her Daddy was helping her Great Aunty, was thought to only be achievable by solid hydrogen, but they had never managed to produce it on Earth.  They just proved its existence from data collected on the first manned mission to Jupiter. “Earth Ponies!  Smash those black-suited freaks to pieces!” Birthright commanded as she glared up at the flying robots.  “I’m taking to the battle, myself!” Taking flight, Birthright sped towards the cluster of flying enemies that were decimating her pegasi.  She opened fire with all four of her cannons and threw combat spells at the robots that only an Alicorn could survive, and even then, only with great injury. To her shock, the machines shrugged off every hit.  The attacks would leave holes, gashes and all sorts of other breaks in their armor, but there seemed to be something generating enough pressure to force the atoms back together in the blink of an eye. She tried to use a spell to destabilize the metal hydrogen, but that didn’t work.  She soon realized why:  they used the same supergravity technology those suits used, making each one rapidly repair itself after taking damage as well as creating the gravity necessary to keep the hydrogen solid. She eventually found a way to stop one of them, though. With a powerful burst of magic combined with shots from all four cannons, she tore a hole in just the right spot to kill the pilot of the machine by striking the cockpit, relishing in the woman's shriek of agony before her life was swiftly cut short. The machine repaired itself quickly, but with no pilot, it fell to the ground with a resounding crash. Unfortunately, Birthright was now surrounded by about ten of them at once, who all opened fire at the same time, giving her no chance to try the same tactic again before her enchanted armor took the blows from ten pairs of quantum laser blasts. Back on the ground, pony troops were desperately trying to hold off the advances of the numerous black-clad soldiers who were accompanied by creatures that looked like green Velociraptors with laser pistols.  Even with their magic weapons and incredible spell power allowing them to mow down hundreds of troops, by the look of what was going on in the air, even if they managed to slay every single Protean and raptor on the ground, those robots would prove nigh impossible to defeat at the current time. Birthright came rushing back with cracks in her armor, followed by the surviving pegasi, also showing signs of heavy damage. “Retreat!” Birthright screamed.  “New Hoofington is lost!”  But before she led the full retreat, she enveloped the soldier who had ruined their perfect defense with the stomp of a foot in her magic, levitated him over to her and wrapped her legs around him, saying, “You’ve been a very bad boy.  You deserve to be punished!” With a singulon in tow, she flew away from the city, shouting, “You may have won the battle, but the war is just beginning!  I’ll just be taking this young man back with me as a souvenir!  Ta-ta!” Birthright’s troops followed after her, quickly marching and flying to the north, the singulon in her grip squirming and screaming insults at her while trying to escape her grip, which was magically reinforced.. Henry, Martha and Takoda finally joined the troops on the battlefield once they were victorious.  Henry watched as the soldier was being taken away as a POW, then asked the lead singulon, “Aren’t you going to stop them?” “Corporal Zachary Jenkins is a good friend to a lot of us, so we all don’t want him to suffer this fate,” she replied, removing her helmet to reveal a blue-skinned woman with green hair and red eyes (her parents had obviously liked having unnatural colors, resulting in her being born with that as her default form).  “I’m General Natalia Perkins, and I could easily order us to save our buddy, but like all of us, he has a biorobotic implant connected to MILQUETOAST.  We can use the information on this experience of his to track down where they’ll be taking him, then send spies to infiltrate, and possibly even manage to free him.  In the meantime, we have to get the dead ready to be sent back home to their families.  But for now, we did it, troops!  New Hoofington has fallen!  Washington, D.C. is liberated!” The soldiers started to cheer, but cut short when a clicking and whirring sound came from beneath their feet, resulting in the ruined road parting and revealing a set of steps leading underground. “Did you say, ‘liberated’?” a male voice asked.  “Is it really safe to come up to the surface again?” “Who are you?” Henry demanded of the voice. “No time for an explanation,” the voice replied.  “Those of you in charge of the operation, come with me!  The President will want to see you!”