=== BABW: A New Conflict ===
=== Chapter 35: Costal Flare ===
[ March 01, 2082 – Shrine of the Elements ]
==========================================
Gaea looked at her globe, as it was focused on the ongoing battle in Los Angeles, and lamented how the conflict amongst her charges (in Humanity) was directly responsible for her recovering her strength and vitality as their Immortal.
“There has to be some other way to re-establish the flow of mana properly on Earth, than to let this internecine conflict continue,” said Immortal thought aloud, as she sighed, a sigh picked up by a fellow Immortal appearing in the Shrine of the Elements.
“It seems something has you despondent, or at the very least, concerned,” Celestia mentioned, as she sat next to the centerpiece of the Shrine, the Font of (Terran) Magic.
“It is… more of a bittersweet feeling. This war between the Society and those forces arrayed against them, including the Alliance you founded, could easily escalate out of control and destroy what Humanity knows as civilization, which’d obviously be the bitter. At the same time, for both the world and me to regenerate quickly, the magic must be used and used effectively by its native species. I’d find that to taste very sweet myself,” Gaea said, as she stood up, and vanished in a rainbow-laden flash, only to reappear next to Celestia at size scarcely taller than the two-meter tall Alicorn.
Celestia was impressed by the vigor she could see in the form and visage of Gaea now, a far cry from the old crone that she saw when the Conduits were revealed to Luna and herself. Instead, she was woman of a rather fair, but still healthy skin tone, raven’s feather black hair, and a figure that’d impress pretty much any male that would see her, should she reveal herself to them in any case. As impressive as Gaea’s physical stature was to Celestia, the clothes she decided to ‘shroud’ that figure in were equally impressive. She wore a breastplate that accented her considerable bust, with four small gems in the font that represented the fundamental elements of Terran Magic. Along with that, her dress remained what it was, though now the black and navy that made up the bulk of the color of it was further broken up with pinpricks of glowing lights in all manners of prismatic hues, looking like a fantastical cloudless night sky.
And something of that feature reminded the white Alicorn a bit of her ‘little’ sister. “You know, Madame Gaea, it seems that you and Luna would get along swimmingly, when it comes to the aesthetic of the night and the stars.”
“I figured as much when I began conversing with her properly some months ago, after the Day of the Black Sky. In fact, I’ll readily admit that her advice led to myself redesigning my clothes,” Gaea said, as she projected her globe to float the image of the ongoing battle above the peak of the fountain of pure, mostly transparent mana flowing and gushing from the Font like water.
Celestia gave a faint smile, as she looked at the images from Los Angeles being projected from Gaea’s globe, which now freely floated in front of the torso of the young(-looking) woman. “It seems that the forces of the Society and the Flames of Southern California, if I remember the loyalists name correctly, have reached some kind of stalemate in the fighting.”
“For the time being, though much of the Flames effort continues to be concentrated in trying to beat back the tanks the Society have brought to the field of battle. If this continues, eventually the Flames will exhaust their will and their capacity to fight,” Gaea figured; wondering what would turn around this battle for the forces not clad in black.
If my intuition is correct, then she truly is the person, or better phrased - the Pony, leading that particular band of resistance fighters. I wonder if she honestly believes that being a front-line fighter is for her, and what she ultimately intends to do if she and her fellow travelers are successful in eliminating Society influence from that region of the world… Celestia thought, as she could feel the telltale signature of a former Protégé of the Sun in the vicinity of the battlefield that she saw on Gaea’s projection.
----
Alright, Shimmer… it’s just like the war games sims Enrique and the others put you through… but it’s real. *Ugh* I hope I am not making a huge mistake doing this… Amanda, or better phrased – Sunset Shimmer, thought to herself as she stood on the field of battle, her hair barely peeking out of the helmet that was fashioned for her, as she stood in back of the nearest line of fighting the Flames had formed.
“Althea, I need a status report and have you seen any of those thauma-tanks nearby,” Amanda asked of one of female fighters in her command.
“Ma’am,” the young lady of African descent said, as she ducked behind a building, and jogged toward the commander in the gold and red jacket. “We’ve managed to stem the rate of casualties, but that’s due to the extreme caution we’re taking with the thauma-tanks nearby. Given the fact they’ve practically bulldozed a straight line toward our position, I do not think it would be wise to directly engage them.”
“Damn, that’s exactly what I was afraid of – they’re making us choose between running to our deaths quickly or being ground down into nothing. But I’m going to find a way to bring those war-machines down. I just hope that the HEA honors our request and sends some heavy support and medics,” Amanda thought aloud in response, as Althea nodded as she scanned the mind-map created from her cyber-implants.
“Ma’am, we have a SPH squad of at least 10 heading to us from the west, they must have found our position in the last few moments!” Althea shouted.
“Then I am about to give them a proper greeting to Los Angeles, personally,” Amanda responded, as she brought up the map in her helmet, and ran off to meet the squadron.
“Hey, hey commander!! Enrique, Amanda just ran off to meet an incoming SPH squad head-on, how am I supposed to stop her?!” Althea exclaimed, trying to figure out how to deal with her (suicidally) overconfident superior.
“You don’t deal with it; you give her support fire and give her enough room to work her magic,” Enrique responded, as he arrived at a different location, a good couple of miles south of where Amanda was, to lead the battle from a slightly different front.
-----
Yeah, that’s her alright… A part of me is disappointed that her overconfidence has not subsided in all these years. At the same time, that may be what the Flames need to overcome this trial the Society has put before them… Celestia thought to herself, as she was now certain the red-haired woman in the gold jacket-armor was the humanized form of the student she all but disowned those years ago.
“The woman who is leading the vanguard against the Society’s forces now. I can feel that strange mixture of magics that remind me of something…” Gaea said, as she focused her perception on the same gold jacket-armored figure that Celestia was looking at.
“Oh, and what do you feel from her?” Celestia asked.
“A feeling similar to the Element of Magic when she is weaving her own. That instinctive combination of Terran and Equuan Magic is remarkable. If I were a mortal, I’d easily mistake that woman’s power for Twilight’s,” Gaea responded.
Celestia chuckled as her face relaxed some, as she was intrigued by Gaea’s incredible instinct and sense of perception for something unfamiliar. “Madame Gaea, the story of that woman is a long and winding one, and one I am intimately familiar with. If you are willing to indulge me, I can give you the basic rendition of it.”
Gaea thought for a few moments, as she watched Amanda engage the Society’s soldiers. “Why not, time is not of the essence to us, at the moment.”
-----
“Where did she come from? I haven’t seen a magi from the Flames with a shield that strong. It’s even stopping our medium arms fire cold!” one of the SPH soldiers shouted over his com link, as they watched the bullets from their rifles and handguns stop against the opal-blue aura of the Pony-turned-human-come-militia leader.
The half of the SPH squadron felt the temperature suddenly increase, as they could see shimmering specks of red all in their field of vision. Before they realized what was going on, there was a rapid-fire po-po-popping sound, like a string of firecrackers going off in very rapid succession as tiny red flares exploded all around the cluster of five (out of ten).
“I’ve only seen her do that in the sims before. I didn’t think it’d actually work for real,” Althea wondered out loud, as she occasionally fired a shot or three to help clear the way for Amanda.
“When it comes to issues of magic-crafting, I’ve learned not to question her,” another Flames soldier said, as he watched Amanda’s other flank.
If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the city… And I’m not done cranking it up, either… Sunset thought to herself as she concentrated her own mana and ambient fire-aspected mana above her head.
“Let it be known, so long as the SPH tries to lay claim to Los Angeles, or anywhere else in our reach. My Flames will burn them away, figuratively…” Amanda shouted, as the cluster of opal and red mana coalesced into a shimmering fireball, swirling in reds and yellows. “… and LITERALLY!”
Myriad small fireballs rained down from the larger one over Amanda’s head, bombarding the downed soldiers of the SPH, as they exploded and burned through their armor and equipment, the pain from the fire and the ambient heat searing through all five of the soldiers caught up in the woman on the warpath.
“Damnit! Fall back! Fall back!” the one of the SPH soldiers shouted over a neutral channel, as the five of them ran as best they could back to the thauma-tank formation that was still rolling toward the Flames position in Pasadena District proper.
-----
“Impressive for one who has seen little combat in the body she is occupying for the time being,” Gaea mused, nodding as she watched the proceedings from her scrying crystal ball.
“Both she and Twilight are so alike in their ability, even if their personalities are like oil and water,” Celestia added, noting that she used a weaker version of that Scattering Fireball spell during the more sportspony-like dueling sessions at the School.
-----
“Sir, the Thaumatic tank line still hasn’t slowed its approach toward Pasadena District. I had hoped that little display from the Flames leader would scare them off, but it seems they are hell-bent on trampling them with those things, if not worse,” Todd told Captain Julio through the com-link, as he continued to monitor the situation, watching Amanda continue picking off straggling SPH soldiers with Fire-mana laced magi-blasts from her hands.
“Alright, I’m sending in reinforcements now,” Captain Julio said, as he opened another channel toward the ‘departure bay’. “Terry, your crew is up, get ready for transport!”
“10-4 Captain!” Terry responded, as he strapped his helmet on, and turned on his visor.
“Alright then ladies and gentlemen, it’s showtime!”
-----
“How are we doing, control?” Amanda asked through the her comm system on her helmet, as she chased away some more SPH soldiers that were scattered out in front of the slow, but still advancing formation of twenty-odd thaumatically-powered armored assault vehicles.
“We’ve been able to stem the collateral damage some, and the evacuation of the most expected path for them to take is complete. Plus, the transports from the HEA just appeared on our local sensors, so we should be getting some more support in a few moments,” one of the operators back at the Flames’ home base relayed back to Amanda.
“Some good news, finally,” Amanda said, as she looked at the tanks that were several hundreds of yards away, which made them too close for comfort for her tastes.
-----
“Leader-1, we have the thaumatic land assault vehicles in position, are we to proceed as planned?” the field commander for the SPH battalion asked, as he was on a direct line to SPH Central Command in Manhattan.
“Yes, and I am giving you authorization to use the H-Drone Prototypes. I want to see how the first-run models perform in a real firefight,” Peter said, as he looked on at the footage being relayed from the drone cameras the SPH had set up over the battlefield.
“Understood sir,” the field commander answered in a knowing tone, as he ended the ‘call’, and made to ready the drones in each tank for deployment.
“Peter, do you really think those things are ready for primetime? I know Kenneth and his factory has been very good for us, but humanoid war drones is something not even most countries have gotten right in the last few decades, let alone recent times,” Claire asked, as she looked on with concern like the other two principals of the SPH.
“Now is as good a time as any, I figure,” Peter said tersely, clearly aggravated by the resistance provided by the Flames of SOCAL.
Claire was duly unimpressed by the answer given, so she decided to change the line of inquiry to something more personal. “Is all of this about Richard?”
Peter turned her a dirty look, as he could perceive the woman trying to pry open his personal life, as it had become something of a game for her to decipher the total assets and the motivation behind all of the society’s VIPs and leading militia officers. After thinking for a moment, he softened his look back to a default of grave concern, and decided to indulge her.
“I look at all of this, all of this we have built in less than a year. And it is this close to coming apart at the seams,” Peter said, as it was clear from to the tension in his eyes and face that he was boiling-over mad, even if his tone was one of seemingly mild annoyance.
“I know, and… we’re doing what we can with the forces that we have, but personnel wise we’re more or less even with the total of the White Knights and rebels who claim they want to restore the old power structure,” Claire responded, trying to flush something else out.
“That’s the thing… I have clearly under-estimated Richard yet again. I wouldn’t have taken him for someone to get sucked into the ideology or the machinations of anyone else, or in this case anythings else,” Richard said, as Claire silently noted that he seemed to be staring at a phantom of the man in question.
We have to do something to put the organization back on the winning track, as it were, or I fear that Peter is going to start getting truly reckless… Claire thought, as she calmed herself, not wanting to get sucked up into Peter’s anxiety or fury.
“To wit, that’s why I’ve ordered both the Land Thaumatic-Armed Vehicles and the Thauma-Drones to the front lines in Los Angeles. I need to take the measure of both his forces, and ours. I cannot suffer any more losses or overall setbacks. If we do not entrench our power now, then there is no telling when the true counterattack will come from the HEA or their rebel allies,” Peter concluded in a much more calm and matter of fact tone, one which relieved Claire, somewhat at least.
I have to talk to Nathan, I fear for Peter’s ability to coordinate the militias if he’s going to be this stressed about it…
-----
“This is a problem… If I go full bore with my Equestrian magic, I could make all of them sick or worse. I go full bore with my Fire magic, I could torch one of mine by accident,” Sunset thought to herself as she looked at the Land TAVs (L-TAVs) and something humanoid disembarking that looked the size of a tall human child, or an exceptionally short adult.
“Anyone with some binoculars or zooming implants – can they see what those things are that are coming out of the tank, my cameras on my helmet are being obscured by dust and some kind of EM Interference,” Amanda ordered.
Althea took a position at a gap in one of the walls serving as a semi-natural barrier between her crew and the incoming small and medium arms fire from the SPH forces a few dozen yards away. “Yeah, give me a sec… oh no that’s not good…”
“Whatcha got, Althea?” Amanda asked, as she took up a position next to the dark-skinned woman with the binoculars to the gap in the wall.
“They’re war drones, and they look like they are the latest model, or some refined version of them. Totally humanoid except for the face. Can’t tell if they are truly autonomous or controlled remotely, we’d need a comm expert out here for that,” Althea reported, as she handed the binoculars to the pony-turned-human-woman.
“Ugh, I see what you mean, they look like tall 13 year olds dressed completely in black and faces covered in cameras…” Amanda said, as she grumbled inwardly.
This is a problem, not only can they carry human arms, but there is no telling what the SPH stuffed into their bodies for weaponry or traps… Sunset thought to herself.
“Be prepared to fall back, we have no idea what those drones are capable of, and we aren’t in position to lose men and women trying to find out!” Amanda ordered, before her helmet pinged with an incoming communication.
“Is this Cmd. Amanda of the Flame of Southern California?!” she heard a vaguely Germanic accent ask, one the transformed Pony immediately recognized as that of a native Kattsphrache-speaker speaking fluent Equish, and with a formality of someone from the Gryphon Federation Military.
“Yes, yes this is she!” Amanda answered excitedly, before regaining her composure given the circumstances. “Whom may I ask is speaking?”
“Commander Frederika Lehkatte[1] of the Gryphon Federation Army, House of Leo 3rd Division, currently on loan to the Human-Equestrian Alliance’s militia in an advisory and field command role,” Frederika responded with swift and determined certainty, one befitting a 8-year tenured officer of the Gryphon military.
“That’s a mouthful but if you’re on loan to the HEA, then that means the reinforcements we requested should be in theatre, right?” Amanda replied, always off-put by how rigid the military Gryphons could be.
“Yes, I’m at the vehicular outpost now, the frontliners should be at your location momentarily,” Frederika responded.
Amanda went to the rear of the formation to see if she could get a visual without exposing herself, and then noticed what was incoming – A man on a motorbike in chalk white armor, followed by a gryphon, a pair of ponies, another human, and a humanoid-form dragon in an ATV behind him.
Those six can’t be all they sent down here… Sunset remarked to herself in an exasperated tone, before jogging back to the front of the position that Althea and the others were holding.
“So what’s going on, I see the SPH forces starting to scramble and not approach this direction. Did the Alliance finally send down those reinforcements?” Althea asked of Amanda.
“Yeah but I only saw six of them inbound to our position, should be here in minute or two. What are we gonna do with six extra bodies?” Amanda responded, then asked aloud.
“Six? There has to be more than six…” Althea responded, as she looked at a pad one of Flames fighters just handed her.
“Well all I saw is six, so if you have a better explanation I’d like to hear it,” Amanda rattled back, annoyed at the situation.
“Take a look at this then, Commander,” Althea responded, as she handed her the pad she was just looking at.
The commander took a good look, and then realized what was going on. There were indeed more than six inbound to her, in fact, they had spread out fairly wide, forming a front almost twice as wide as the positions of the Land TAVs and the SPH fighters acting as their vanguard.
“Wait, just how many fighters you have with you, Cmdr. Frederika?” Amanda asked, as she found the comm. line that the HEA left open for her and the rest of the Flames to communicate with them on.
“About one hundred, fifty humans and a rather motley assortment of others,” Frederika responded curtly but politely.
Another hundred… that should put us on even footing with this force from the SPH… I just hope they have enough equipment and arms to deal with these armored vehicles.
“Commander Amanda! Commander Amanda… oh there you are ma’am,” the young man in the chalk-white armor said, as he ran up to the woman who was both field and overall commander of the Flames of SoCal.
“Yeah… oh you must be the HEA contingent sent here to this position,” Amanda replied, as she did her best to stifle her surprise and meeting the young man who was apparently the leader of the squad of six that joined her impromptu squad of ten at the dugout Althea and she created.
“Correct, ma’am, I can see you all are having some trouble out of the SPH’s human fighters, and apparently they aren’t done fielding bogeys…” the young man in the white armor said, as he removed his helmet once he was sure he was out of any firing lines.
Amanda was taken aback for a moment, as she got a good look at the young man in his mid-twenties, of fair skin and dark hair. She figured he was of Central or Northern European heritage, dissimilar from the Mestizo complexion of her lieutenant in Enrique, but only in that regard.
“Anyway, the name is Terry, the human woman is Sammi, with an I,” he said, as he pointed to the woman who was a few inches shorter than he but wearing similar chalk-white armor.
“The Pegasus is Cumulus Sweep, the Earth Pony is Sound Tower, the Gryphon is Tobias, and the Dragon is Tung,” Terry rattled off, as he introduced the rest of his squad one by one.
Althea piped up, not quite understanding the last name. “Is Tung in place or short for anything?”
“Tungsten. That’s about it. I just think Tung sounds better,” the medium gray and silver-spined male Dragon responded with a shrug.
“Good enough for me,” one of the Flame’s fighters replied, which got a nod from Althea.
“Ok, now that introductions are done, we should probably get to doing something about those tanks and those drones that are still marching toward us…” Amanda said with a churlish tone.
“Alright then, Sammi, Tobias, and Sweep, you’re coming with me, Amanda, and anyone going with her from her side. Tower see if you can figure out if those drones are autonomous or being controlled, Tung, reinforce this position and watch our sides and rear,”
“Yes sir,” the other five responded, as they made ready to move out or dig in.
“Althea, Tory, Randy, you’re coming with me. I have the urge for some vehicular demolition; those tanks have been aggravating me way too long,” Amanda commanded in kind.
“Yes ma’am!” the three humans responded, as they put on their helmets and calibrated their visors.
“Are any of you remaining good at channeling Terran mana?” Terry asked of the rest of the Flame’s squad at the position.
“Yeah, according to Amanda I’m decent at Earth and Water pulling,” one of the other female fighters said, as she came forward.
“Alright, help Tung with position reinforcement; I get the feeling they are gonna start shelling us both figuratively and literally before long…” Terry responded, before an explosion rocked the area.
“How about right now… Monica, Tung, if you don’t mind?!” Amanda barked, which got the Dragon and human woman to work reinforcing the concrete and metal to better sustain itself against the thematic and ballistic assault that had begun from the Land TAVs in earnest.
~-[ A few minutes later… ]-~
“Just what in the heck are those things. They’re like clockwork soldiers…” Tobias complained, as he watched the motion of the smaller and non-human faced fighters on the SPH’s side move throughout the battlefield with stunning (and inhuman) precision.
“Whatever those things are have the motions and battle strategies down, but we’re benefiting from better protective gear, at least right now,” Amanda remarked, as the combined group continued trying to take out the drone soldiers of the SPH, to less than effective degree.
“Fine, if they are going to use their new toys, then so are we. Capt. Frederika, are we clear to use the new gear and weapons?” Terry remarked, and then asked of his CO back in the forward command ‘truck’.
The gryphoness thought for a few moments, as the techs sat in the truck, directing the others, and waiting for the go-ahead from said officer in charge of the operation.
There’s no use and developing a tool and not using it, especially when the situation calls for it… Frederika thought to herself, as she gave the signal to go forward. “Clear them to use the equipment as they call for it.”
---
“It appears that the field commander has given them the all clear. I do hope the fighters for the Society have made peace with those whom they hold dear,” one of the Zebra armorers replied, as the armory of Safe Haven kicked into high gear, readying the equipment that would be on call for such.
---
“Alright then everyone, it’s show time,” Terry said, as he flipped over a mini-pad built into the left arm of his armor, and dialed into the armory back at Safe Haven.
“You have chosen the – DA-40 Dual-Action Thaumatic Rifle! Please wait a moment for teleportation to complete!” an electronic operator replied, as the automatic teleportation system grabbed the rifle for Terry, and within a few seconds, it was in his hands in a grayish-purple flash[2].
“Been waiting to try this thing out in a real fight, and now is as good a time as ever,” Terry said, as three more grayish-purple flashes went off.
“Then let’s not keep the Society and their drones waiting,” Sammi said, as she got adjusted to the weight of bazooka-like launcher and the backpack that it came with, as she gave everything the once over to ensure proper transport.
“To say I was feeling cooped would be an understatement,” as Tobias’s left talon was now covered in a gauntlet shaped firearm, and he began testing out the Terran magic through his personal 1 m long short sword.
“Glad I don’t have to fly feeling the full weight of these packs on my back. I’d bet I’d barely clear 10 knots if I did,” Sweep said, as there were two gun-muzzles over her shoulders, and a pair of (relatively) large, cylinder-shaped ballistic batteries along her sides.
“Miss Amanda, we’re ready,” Terry said, as the re-outfitted SPH crew made ready to take on the tank nearest Monica and Tung’s formation several dozen yards back.
“We are too, I’m not going to be upstaged by you White Knights,” Amanda replied, in a somewhat teasing tone near the end of her sentence.
The young (apparent-)lady then quickly conjured a compressed ball of fire, and lobbed it at the formation of live soldiers and drones like a grenade.
“When you see the boom, everyone engage,” Amanda said, as she waited a few seconds with her side arm ready, and her own natural Unicorn Magic charged into her right hand.
Said few second passed, and with a loud boom and several shouting Society soldiers later, Amanda and Terry’s joint strike force engaged the battle proper
-----
“Now I wouldn’t have expected you to be here,” Blue Vague said to one Twilight Sparkle, both of them watching the surveillance and recon drones in the near-Pasadena theatre of action as they showed the mixed Alliance and Flames forces engaging and starting to turn back the Society’s forces, even if it was ever so slight in the early moments of the engagement at large.
“Call it a mare’s intuition, but something told me to watch this. I’m glad I just happened to be Earth-side, because it’s been difficult to get a hold of Princess Celestia and Luna today,” Twilight responded, as she watched the spellcraft on both sides intently, trying to see if there was anything to be revealed to her in the mostly intra-human fighting.
“Yeah, I’ve noticed. Usually mid-week is when Princess Luna and I have our little one-on-one session in the dreamscape. But either she’s forgotten, or more likely something else has caught her attention for the last little while,” Vague responded.
“You think it was this?” Twilight asked, as she looked over at the blue Unicorn.
“Not necessarily. From what I can tell the Council hasn’t acted with much formal coordination with any of the governments involved. No, I think that Celestia and Gaea have something else they’re concerned about that they’ve been discussing,” Vague figured, not thinking that Celestia would necessarily be keyed in on each battle the Society was fighting except in the aggregate.
Twilight thought for a short while, before something caught her eye. She saw a woman in typical retrofitted and refurbished army surplus armor, and a stylized, armored long-tail coat with flame patterns stitched into it, firing a concentrated blast of what appeared, to her, to be Equestrian magic at the side of one of the Land-TAVs that were trying to supply suppressive fire to the battlefield in support of the Society’s forces.
Wait… that can’t be right… Twilight thought to herself, as she used one of the control pads to rewind the feed from the particular drone-camera she was interested in.
Twilight watched, and watched, and watched again the footage of the seemingly typical human, with apparent brilliant red hair, fire what would look like to some layman like a slightly off-colored beam of Light magic.
But Twilight Sparkle knew better than that, or at least, she figured she did.
That… that beam looked just like Sunset Shimmer’s MagiBolt Blaze spell… Twilight thought to herself, as she paid much closer attention to that particular feed.
-----
“Where is this fire coming from,” the commander of the Land-TAV shouted, as he was being continually rocked by rocket fire from something.
“That faded-orange Pegasus and the woman in the white armor in the enemy cluster in front of us are using some kind of weapons we aren’t familiar with,” one of the ‘tank’ operators said, as she tried to divert some of the propulsion mana tanks to magical shielding.
“That Pegasus has some kind of missile-battery attached to it, and it’s not the only one. There are least five more like it flying around the whole theatre. Our sensors are having a difficult time tracking their movement due to their size and erratic flight pattern,” the other, male, operator added.
“Let me guess, none of our gunners are good enough to shoot her down?” the commander replied, as one gunner was continuing to try and lay down suppressive fire, and the other was using a smaller gun to try and shoot down the relatively low flying, living aircraft the armored Pegasi and Gryphons appeared as.
Another explosion rocked the sides of the vehicle, all 10 tons of reinforced metal rocking, as combination of mini-rocket and thauma-bazooka fire continued to pelt the armored vehicle.
“Damn, what are our forward fighters and drones doing for us to be getting hammered like this?”
Roughly 120 yards away from where the tank was getting bombarded, Terry, Amanda, and Tobias were engaging the drones and the fighters.
“Need to work on some kind of talon/foreleg guarding shield, it makes it hard to advance the way I want to with all of this gunfire around,” Tobias said, as he used the pellet gun built into the armor on his left arm to halt the advance and stun the drone targets, before using his magically super-heated blade to finish them off.
Just as he was finishing off one drone, he was blasted in the side by the mini-rocket launcher carried by another drone, knocking some of the wind out of him, and making it difficult for Tobias to counter-attack.
Terry heard the half squawk of his Gryphon partner, and, used the zoom in his visor to figure out who fired the shot. And before the offending drone could take advantage of the stunned Gryphon…
Pyoo!
A bolt of flame-laced magic screamed through its head, blowing it and much of the upper body apart.
“Tobias, are you alright?!” Terry called, as he found a ‘dead zone’ in the crossfire to focus on the response from said Gryphon.
“Yeah, I’ll live, the armor wasn’t breached, but there might be some cracks, I’m gonna make sure they check it once we leave the theatre of operation,” Tobias said, as he tried to regain his breath.
“Good to hear, make sure you let Tung take a look at it, he might be able to patch it before we get to the armorers back at base,” Terry said, as he waited for a break in the fire to find another bogey (drone or not) to take out.
“Damn White Knights, I’m going to really enjoy watching the lot of you drop like flies over however long this lasts…” a Society sniper said, as he tried to zoom in on the head/neck/chest of Terry from almost a mile away.
Althea noticed a single drone that appeared to be still, as if it was triangulating position for something, or someone… before she realized what was going on.
There could be a sniper… she thought immediately, and was trying to look for anyone that appeared exposed, and found it in Terry who was coming out of his cover.
“THERE!” the Society sniper shouted, as he pulled the trigger.
“DUCK!” Althea shouted at Terry over the comm-link, as she stamped one of her boots on the ground.
Terry, on instinct, ducked to a crouch, covering his head and neck as best he could, while he saw a pile of earth form a dome around him, pointed slightly like a minaret but open at the top. Almost in the instant that the dome stopped forming, he heard what sounded like a large thud on the outside of the minaret-like earthen dome formed around him.
“The hell was that?” Terry asked, not sure what he was supposed to do now since there didn’t appear to be an exit out of the dome that had suddenly formed around his crouching body.
“Hold on for a minute,” Althea said, as she hailed another of his partners. “Sammi, Tobias there’s a Society sniper around here somewhere, his drone is acting as a spotter.”
Meanwhile, over in the command truck, one of the operators noticed what Althea did as she listened in on the channels the HEA were operating on.
“Audrey, can you give me a model of high-caliber ballistic fire near where Terrance is?” the operator asked.
“It’ll take a little bit, and you know he doesn’t like to be called Terrance, Millie,” the other operator responded.
“Then he can argue that with me when we get back to the Haven, I just need that ballistic model. The society might have a sniper somewhere in theatre,” Millie responded back, with a curt but polite tone.
Back in the theatre of action, Sammi took up a semi-resting position, while she checked the calibration on her launcher, and was thumbing over a panel readout, showing the inventory of shells she had loaded into the backpack-like storage unit she had been carrying.
“Sammi, come in Sammi, this is the Command Truck,” she heard over her in-helmet comm-device.
“Yeah, this Sammi,” she quickly responded, as she held a small arm at the ready in case one of the drones, or an actual SPH soldier found her position.
“I need you to load up a long-range stealth mini-rocket, we suspect there is a sniper in an abandoned building nearly a 1400 m NNW of your position,” Millie requested of Sammi.
“I see, can you give me a more specific bearing?” Sammi replied, as she loaded the purple painted miniature rocket into her launcher.
“Yeah, +15 deg from due North, 1400 m away, and about +65 m in elevation,” Millie replied.
Sammi entered the bearings into her guidance feature for long range fire built into her helmet, and saw where the sniper was probably camped out. “I see, the old Anderson Memorial Hospital, alright, here goes…”
“Damn it, what am I supposed to do now… I might have blown my cover with that last shot…” the sniper said, as he stalked the empty hospital room, some of the abandoned machines appearing they could spring back to life at any moment, even with no power to the building.
With a loud boom, he got all the evidence he needed to formulate his next course of action.
“Oh to hell with all of this, it’s not worth my life to try and get a third kill for the day!” the sniper said, as he ran out of the building; the roof was almost ready to cave in on top of his head, jarred loose from the ballistic shock of the unseen rocket impacting the abandoned hospital.
-----
“Tell the field commanders to start withdrawing back to Hollywood. There is no need to waste further resources on this battle,” Peter ordered, as he was disgusted by what he saw from the Flames and the Alliance.
They have prepared themselves to a capability I honestly underestimated. I cannot afford to tread lightly in my actions any longer, they no longer deserve kid gloves… the leader of the Society thought to himself as he tried to re-orient his thoughts to a more favorable zero-point.
“Yes, Peter, the order has been given to withdraw. But I must say, I think we’re getting beyond the point where we can treat them as small children throwing a tantrum. They are a legitimate threat to us, and it is time for us to respond in due manner,” Claire suggested to her partner-in-crime, as it were.
“You took the words right out of my mouth, Madam. Tell Nathan to get Kenneth and the other arms suppliers on the line, we’re about to accelerate the outfitting of our people and the building of our drone army. Plus, begin searching out subjects for that little… project we were discussing a week or so ago,” Peter said.
“So you’re finally deciding to move forward with that? Color me surprised, I thought you wanted to give it a few years before we had a tighter handle on research facilities and this… magic… itself,” Claire responded, with some measure of bemusement.
“I remember those four… those four Ponies who claimed that they had tapped into some fundamental force of this world. I will not have humanity… us shown up by them. I will prove to everyone that all of the power of this world rests in our hands, and we will employ any means to ensure this today, tomorrow, and for as long as we are!” Peter resolved, as the steel in his eyes was unmistakable to the lone female boss of the Society for the Preservation of Humanity.
You can have all the resolve you want to Peter… but we need more effective means to flex our muscles… Claire thought, as she sent a message through neural net to Nathan who was elsewhere in Manhattan.
== [ A couple of hours after the retreat of the SPH Forces to Hollywood, in Safe Haven ]==
“So what’s our casualty report looking like,” Capt.-Commander Julio asked of Capt. Frederika, as he walked alongside the Gryphoness, who while on all fours, was still right along his waist in height.
“Let’s see, zero dead, fourteen injured, mostly minor bruises and cuts from armor not being put on right, and zero missing. All in all we’ve preserved our own numbers about as well as could be expected,” Frederika responded.
“And have you gotten the casualty report from Amanda in the Flames?” Julio asked of the Gryphoness.
“Hrm, ten dead, sixty injured, two believed missing at one point, but later found near the theatre of action; oddly enough saying they were pursuing a man in a black cloak who looked like he was carrying a fancy super-long-range rifle,” said Gryphoness responded.
“Probably the sniper that your operators in the command truck helped flush out,” Julio figured. “By the by, how did you managed to get a bearing on where that sniper was firing from.”
“That was a bit of an experiment on my part. I saw that the camera-drones we had developed were mana-sensitive, so I wanted to develop a sort of, model, for the crossfire of human and human-derived weaponry everyone was using. So I had the Pegasi and Gryphons drop tiny canisters that flooded the area in loose, Wind-aspected mana. Turns out, it’s pretty good for finding snipers, assuming they use firearms that fire in a predictable path,” Frederika replied.
“Not bad… certainly a thing to refine in the future,” Julio thought, noting how very useful such a technology was for support.
As the two of them continued to talk, especially regarding the rough draft of their after-action report to the Council, they were approached by a certain mulberry-purple Unicorn VIP.
“Excuse me, Captain, Captain-Commander, would you all mind a request from me?” Twilight asked in her most polite-almost-begging tone.
“Uhhh, yeah sure, Miss Sparkle,” Julio responded, not sure what he might be getting himself roped into.
“Given the Flames of Southern California are a pseudo-military organization, I think it’d be best if you made this request. I, Twilight Sparkle, request an audience with the leadership of said organization, especially the leader herself, Amanda,” Twilight Sparkle requested; trying to void her tone of anything other than the utmost in formality.
“I can’t make any promises Miss Sparkle, but we will certainly pass the request along to the Flames. We’re most likely going to have continuing business with them anyway, so I should hope they’d recognize the value in getting in your, and possibly Princess Celestia’s good graces,” Julio responded, with a brief nod from Frederika.
I’m sure the organization itself would want that. No telling about their leader, though, if she’s who I think she is… Twilight Sparkle thought to herself, as she shook the hand of Julio and walked off to the general media areas.
-----
“I wish we could have blown up some of those thauma-tanks, it aggravates me that we weren’t able to completely destroy any of them today,” Amanda griped, as she undid the tie in her hair now that she was reasonably sure she wouldn’t need to be in the field under a helmet for some time.
“At the same time, we have shown that even with all the time and care they believe they put into that equipment, we will break it. And ultimately, we will break them,” Enrique added.
“Sure, I mean that goes without saying. I still wanted the satisfaction of watching one of those things explode. Or at the very least fall apart,” Amanda replied, having to settle for blowing up a half-dozen humanoid drones instead, earlier that day.
“In other news, Miss Commander,” Enrique started, as he pulled out a piece of paper he had recently printed. “The HEA is making a formal request for an audience.”
“Dunno why they need a formal request, our door is as open to them as one could expect,” Amanda replied, not sure of where they were going with all of this on paper, until something struck her.
Wait a minute… that sigil on top of the paper… Amanda thought, as she spied what appeared to be a fuchsia and white star near the top of the printable margin of the paper. No way, it couldn’t be… could it?!
“Apparently Miss Twilight Sparkle herself wants to be a party to this meeting, hence the formal request on paper, and what appears to be her personal insignia on top of the paper along with the HEA’s logo,” Enrique concluded; as he handed the sheet to Amanda.
Just what in the blue Tartarus is that purple little… No, no Sunset, keep calm, she doesn’t know for sure who you are. Just keep everything on the level and she’ll have her little meeting and then go back to wherever it is she came from or lives now… Sunset Shimmer thought, as she tried to keep Amanda from looking unduly consternated.
“So how do you want me to reply, Amanda?” Enrique asked of his commander.
“Tell them I accept, and I would be honored to have such an esteemed guest willing to talk turkey with all of us,” Amanda replied, taking her best neutral tone to mask her growing paranoia and anger at this development.
I refuse to let you ruin what I’ve built here Twilight Sparkle… absolutely refuse!!
~~--== ==--~~
[ Extra 1 ] After-Action Brief [ ***** ]
Human-Equus Alliance Forces:
Total: 250 ( 150 H(uman), 70 P(onies), 30 G(ryphons), 10 Z(ebras), 10 D(ragons) )
KIA: 0
MIA: 0
Injured: 10 (all minor, most due to humans and ponies not equipping the armor in the proper fashion)- Captian Julio reported that the combat preparedness of the forces in theatre and their actions were exemplary, given it was the first large-scale conflict using the new armaments and equipment
- Regrets that more territory was not captured for the FlamesFlames of SoCal (Southern California) Forces:
Total: 350 ( 350 H )
KIA: 10 (All in the initial hour of fighting)
MIA: 0 (2 thought to be missing, but instead pursuing a possible sniper outside the main theatre of conflict)
Injured: 60 (3 Critical, rest moderate to minor )- Cmd. Amanda was not pleased with furthering impacting the Society’s new equipment, especially destroying more of the drone fighters and the Thaumatically-Armed Vehicles
- Overall pleased with the moderate expansion of Flames controlled territory, which she hopes to parlay into capturing Hollywood properSociety for the Preservation of Humanity:
Total: 750 ( 600 H, 150 Dr(ones) )
KIA: 90
D(estroyed) IA: 70
MIA: 9 (All believed captured by either the HEA or the Flames)
Injured: 100 (10 Grave, 20 Critical, rest minor to moderate )- Regrets the nominal loss of territory, but Peter feels that with better equipment and vehicles, that any lost territory can be quickly regained
- Has begun incentivizing his arms supplies for the development of even more potent weaponryshe wastank