//------------------------------// // Chapter 71; Overrun // Story: The War of 1002 // by Fireheart 1945 //------------------------------// James ran forward, gun in hand and with an army surging behind him - actually, by now a substantial part was ahead of him, given that ponies ran much faster than humans. A number of unicorns were behind the front lines; Shining had had the idea of using them to cast defensive shields in case any of the enemy had survived. Oh, some of them will have survived, alright, he thought. Probably more than we'd like. Probably a whole lot more than we'd like. We'll suffer some casualties from this fight, and that's the truth. But we've just given them a big surprise, and we're not going to give them a chance to recover from it. The Equestrian army was advancing, with zebras on the right and Saddle Arabians on the left. Artillery was firing at the obliterated defenses, more to keep the survivors' heads down than to kill them. As the allied troops approached the first line, they stopped firing entirely. The forward line was in shambles, like the fortress. However, the explosions hadn't killed all the griffons defending it. Admittedly, most of those still alive were lying around - and sometimes in - the craters that had so suddenly blossomed in their midst. A few, or more than a few, unfortunately, managed to maintain enough of their wits to start shooting at the allied soldiers. A pony assigned to carrying a ladder screamed and fell, followed by others. James fired his own gun, less to actually hit anything than to make the enemy keep their heads down. To their credit, many pegasi soldiers took to the sky, unslung their rifles, and began to rain fire on those places where the griffon defenders were shooting from. Unicorns started to cast shielding spells; some were more effective than others, James noticed - some unicorns were more talented than others. Earth ponies, with no other alternative, kept going forward, though more and more of them were taking out their weapons and firing back. However spunky a few of the defenders were - James actually admired them for maintaining enough of their senses to fight back at all - they were in the minority. Most of the enemy were either dead, lying unconscious, or were too stunned and shocked to make any sort of reply. Those who did fight back were overwhelmed in minutes. James hadn't even gotten to what remained of the trench line before the resistance was silenced. "Keep going," he shouted. "Don't give them any chance to recover! Hit them! Keep going, and let's take this stinking excuse for a fortress!" A cheer went up as the allied army pushed its way through the trenches, or what remained of them. Long craters were mostly what was left; occasionally, ladders had to be used in order for the attackers to make their way through, but the momentum of the assault was hardly slowed. A Gatling that would have wreaked havoc on the attacking force had been brutally thrown from its original mount and was now lying in a mangled mess in James' path. He leaped over it, feeling a brief yet intense feeling of joy that the weapon never had any chance to injure the advancing force. Up ahead, Ragna Fortress, ruined, broken, damaged beyond repair, stood, walls smashed and crumbling, the giant guns that had been terrorizing the Equestrians and their allies silent and tossed aside like toys. In spite of where he was and the dangers, James laughed even as he continued running. It was a laugh that, like the joy he'd felt over seeing the ruined Gatling, was born more out of relief than anything else. Perhaps the war really was almost over. Tears of relief and joy began to fall over his face. He knew the feeling wasn't going to last long, but he enjoyed it as long as he could. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grayfeather got up from the ruined mess of a room that, until moments ago, had been a fully functional headquarters. Part of the walls surrounding the place had fallen in, and he had to move a couple of bricks before he could stand upright. His forehead throbbed mercilessly; he'd taken a glancing blow from flying masonry, and had a headache. He knew that if the blow hadn't been merely glancing, he would have been dead. "Ugh... Get me a report, what in the name of the gods just happened?" "General, I don't rightly know," a captain nearby said, trembling. "Could be the biggest earthquake that's ever rocked this world, or could be a volcano is emerging right under us." "Calm yourself, boy, or I'll be getting a new aide." Grayfeather looked outside. When he did, he groaned. The rest of the fortress looked just as battered and smashed as his headquarters. He squawked in dismay to see that all the major guns on the walls had been destroyed or rendered inoperable. Whatever had happened, the fortress was far weaker than it had even been since the time of it's construction. Dead, wounded, and stunned soldiers lay everywhere, along with all sort of debris, up to and including personal weapons and effects. "Call back the soldiers we sent to-" The sound of gunfire reached his ears, along with a mighty cry from the south. A suspicion made its way into the general's mind. The captain was the first to state that suspicion out loud; "Sir, the Equestrians went and did this. Don't know how they did it, but this can't be a coincidence." "No, it can't." Grayfeather held a claw to his aching forehead. "Rally whatever troops we have. We need to repulse this assault!" "Can we do it, though, sir?" Grayfeather looked at the captain - no, glared was more accurate. "We can, and we will, because it must be done. Go about it!" There was a gulping sound from the captain. "Yes sir." He watched the aide leave. "We'll hold," he told himself. "This fortress has surely seen worse than this and survived. It's the one impregnable place in the Empire. We'll hold it, no matter what befalls us." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shining Armor got a good look at what had once been a mighty fortress from up close. Most of the walls were down, and craters, much bigger than those replacing the forward trenches, were now what was left of them. In spite of the damage and the concussion the defenders had suffered, some of them were still fighting back. Rifles went off from the walls and the far edges of the craters. Pegasi continued to fire from above. Unicorns, including Shining himself, utilized shield spells in an effort to ward off enemy bullets. Shining knew, without false modesty, that he was very good at it; unfortunately, as he saw, not all unicorns were as talented. It was a very complex spell, and while certainly good in combat situations, it was not easy to cast, and most of the unicorns in the army weren't up to Royal Guard standards. Still, it was better to cast a bad shield than none at all, because even a bad one might deflect a few bullets. Zebra warriors began to hurl smoldering objects into the craters. Moments after landing, the objects exploded, releasing clouds of dark - though harmless - smoke, obscuring the enemy's vision and allowing Equestrian soldiers to scramble through and place their ladders. Immediately, ponies began to climb up as fast as they could go. Some unicorns helped with the process, levitating earth ponies up to the surface. Shining got onto a ladder himself and began to climb. It didn't take too long, but it felt like an eternity in a combat situation. The griffons hadn't quit firing just because the smoke blinded them. Their bullets came down, not hitting much but still reminding the attackers that the defenders were still in the game, even if barely. He got to the top and was almost skewered by an eager griffon soldier who wielded a bayonetted rifle. He dodged, then blasted the griffon with a spell. The enemy soldier went down, shaking intensely as his body reacted to the spell. Shining wasted no time in getting onto solid ground again. What he saw almost made him grin. Almost. While there were some defenders still active, griffons and mercenaries lay everywhere, senseless, wounded or dead. No artillery pieces were in any position to counter the breaches in the wall, or at least this particular breach. Pieces of stone that had once belonged to the walls were scattered everywhere. The enemy were in position to resist the assault. "Amandla Ngawethu Pundamilia!" The zebras shouted as they climbed the wall. "Amandla Ngawethu Pundamilia!" "Hurrah!" the Equestrian army, not to be outdone even by allies, replied. "Hurrah, Hurrah!" From the defenders who had some measure of fight still left, responded, "For the Emperor and Empire!" The zebras and the Equestrians shouted their battle cries as if nothing could stop them. The enemy's response was halfhearted. Shining did grin this time. It was obvious that both sides knew how this was going to go down. Equestrian soldiers began to storm through, firing at anyone foolish enough to shoot at them and taking prisoner anyone who was still alive and breathing - anyone who wasn't fighting back, which was most of those who were, or had been, near the wall when the explosives went off. Shining walked along, disarming as many defenders as possible and loosing stunning spells at anyone who still tried to put up a fight. It was hardly a battle, not one like those that had been fought before during this war. "RAAAAAAAGH!" Shining barely had time to duck as a minotaur, somehow still combat effective, rushed him with a battleaxe. As it was, he felt the tip of his horn brush against the axe as it went over his head. He unleashed a stunning spell. It would have worked against almost any griffon. however, all it did was enrage the minotaur, who swung again. The shield spell that he was just able to bring up in time managed to blow the blow, but the shield shivered under the weight of the assault. There was the sound of a gunshot; the minotaur clutched at his shoulder. That did him no good; other bullets came in, ever more effective than matchlock balls had been, sweeping him off his feet and putting him on the ground. Breathing a sigh of relief, Shining released the shield spell. All around him, allied soldiers were easily overwhelming the resistance facing them. Shining's heart swelled. We'll win this. We'll win this, and then it's just plains all the way to Gryphos and the Emperor. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Come on you worthless louts!" an officer shouted. "The ponies might think they've surprised us, but we'll hurl them back, curse me if we don't! Roland clutched his gun tightly. He'd just barely survived the battles before now; whenever the top brass wanted anything done, penal battalions were the first in and the last out. The company he was part of was now down to about quarter strength, and even General Grayfeather had thought it useless for frontline defense; as a result, it had been posted to guard duty in the rear of Ragna Fortress to watch in case the rebels plaguing the countryside had any ideas about taking the fortress for themselves. As it turned out, rebels were the last thing the griffon army had to worry about. The explosions, when they came, had almost deafened him, even from as far back as the company - more accurate, understrength platoon - had been. Naturally, the garrison at the rear had been called in at once when the commanders who had survived had remembered them, which hadn't taken long. "Get going!" the officer continued. "Faster! The Empire won't miss your stinking corpses when you've fallen, you bet your backsides it won't, so get moving or we'll just shoot you down here and have done with you!" "Nice to know you care," Marley called back. "Silence in the ranks!" The officer screamed. "Silence or get shot down where you stand!" Naturally, no one dared to say anything in response. The unit continued it's march to the battle. Roland groaned as he saw the damage the fortress had sustained. He also felt his heart plummet as he saw how many Equestrian soldiers and their allies had managed to get in. "Ready, aim..." Roland raised his matchlock. He paused for a brief moment to reflect on the fact that it was badly outdated. "Fire!" The penal battalion fired. The cloud of smoke that resulted blocked out the view of the oncoming enemy for a few moments, so it was difficult to tell just what effect the volley had had. They found out, in short order. "Celestia and Luna! Hurrah!" came the cry from pony throats. Rifle came came through the cloud of smoke, striking the penal soldiers. Cries of pain rang out as some fell wounded; others just collapsed and moved no more. The cloud of smoke lifted. While it was clear that the battalion had inflicted some casualties, they hadn't done that much damage. Why am I not surprised? Roland thought. The Equestrians came on, some firing to cover their comrades, others pushing forward. They had the bit between their teeth, and they knew it. Roland laid down as he began to reload. "Give these filthy scum what they deserve you pathetic lot!" the officer shouted. "Give them lead!" Roland fired again. In the same time he had used to reload his own weapon, an Equestrian soldier could fire at least five shots. The weight of fire was telling. The penal soldiers were being picked off right and left, while their own fire was inaccurate and not inflicting enough damage to be anything worthwhile. Of course, the Emperor had already declared any soldier sent to a penal battalion deserved it, along with whatever fate they suffered. They weren't supposed to be well armed or elite units, they were sent to the front to die, and make the enemy do some dying before they fell. Equestrians and zebras began to close on the position. The zebras shouted something in their unintelligible language that was undoubtedly a battle cry. Some of them threw objects that would explode and unleash black smoke that obscured griffon vision and allowed the enemy to approach without the defenders being able to aim properly. Roland felt something crash into him from above; he rolled over and clawed at the attacker, who punched him in the face with a hoof. Roland jerked his head back, crying in pain. He also got a good look at his attacker; a pegasus from the regular Equestrian army, wearing a blue uniform and with a gun slung over his back. The pony tried to hit him again. Roland rolled again, avoiding the blow, and scratched his attacker in the face. The pegasus howled, and raised his front hooves to his face. Roland reached for his matchlock, hoping to get a good blow in. He never got to it; another pegasus flew down, smashed the gun with a hoof, and kicked it away before bashing Roland in the head with his hind hooves. Stars began to fly before his eyes. "Don't move!" the second pegasus shouted. "You'll be dead if you try anything!" Roland thought briefly about defying him. Briefly. It wasn't a hard decision to reach; the Empire already treated him like garbage, and his own officers made it clear that they didn't care about his life. It wasn't as if he'd even wanted to be in the army anyway, and he'd been thrown into too many fights with the intention of being put there to die. "Alright, alright, just stop hitting me, you jerk." "You deserve worse for scratching my buddy's face off like that," the attacker replied. "Just be grateful that you're still here. I'm going to tie you up, and you're not going to move a muscle unless I say so, or I wont have any hesitations about blowing your head off." Roland lay there as the ponies went to work. He didn't try to move at all as the pegasi tied him up. He did get a look at what was going on; pegasi had come out of the sky and were overwhelming the company in close combat. He wasn't the only one who had given up; in fact, most of the survivors, including Marley, were surrendering. The officer in charge of the unit was beside himself. "Filthy, worthless cowards and traitors!" he screamed. "You prove your uselessness to our great nation! The Emperor will execute you all!" "Give up, you idiot!" a pony shouted. "No surrender! I am no traitor! Death to the invaders!" The officer slashed at the pony who had yelled at him. It was the last thing he ever did. Five other ponies fired all at once, and the petty tyrant crumpled, his sword and pistol falling from his claws as his body collapsed. "Anyone else want to play stupid?" a pony officer asked. No one answered him. "Good, now follow your new guides to the rear. Don't try to pull anything, or you'll get what he did." Roland and the rest of the survivors did what they were told. He breathed a sigh of relief. While he loved the Griffon Kingdom, it just wasn't what it used to be; it was now a dictatorship run by the Emperor and military. And with officers like the one commanding his company, he wasn't ashamed to be going into captivity. Maybe the ponies really were weak when it came to things and maybe they weren't, but they didn't have a reputation of mistreating prisoners. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Rolling Barrel tapped his hoof impatiently on the rim of the turret hatch as engineers brought large bridges forward to span the craters. "Come on, come on," he muttered. Unicorns began to push the long structures into position using magic. Others brought up supports to place underneath the bridge in order to keep it from collapsing. The whole operation had been planned out carefully. Barrel wasn't sure if the bridges would hold, but the tanks would have to get across somehow, and he doubted that the engineers, especially those with Blue Fur, were idiots. And the unicorns would be helping to hold up the bridges through their magic in any case, so he wasn't very worried. The Gallop he was in didn't have the firepower or the armor of the Barrel, but he liked the speed at which the smaller, though more nimble, tank provided. They were lined up, ready to go one by one across the three bridges. The central bridge would have Barrels going across; the right and left ones had Gallops crossing. The armored units would provide extra firepower and stability for the front line, and would help to overwhelm what was left of the enemy opposition, which was increasing as the defenders began to really wake up. Not enough to change the tide of the battle, though, Barrel thought, grinning savagely. A unicorn shot a green beam up into the sky. Barrel nodded. "Get going," he said at once to his driver. "Yes, sir." A moment later, the Gallop began moving, engine growling furiously. Barrel grinned again. Here we come, he thought. You guys on the other side better run or give up, 'cause its your only hope... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "We have them!" James shouted. "Keep pushing them, boys, we have them!" It was the truth, or close enough. The enemy were fighting back; more and more of those who hadn't been on the front line were coming up to contest the assault. But they weren't capable of the resistance that they would have been if the fortress had remained intact. "Ha!" A changeling nearby said. "They were talking about eating us. Let's see how they like us having the chance to eat them." James frowned. That wasn't going to happen if he had anything to say about it. "I don't think the commanders would like that," another changeling said. "I said, having the chance to eat them," the first one said. "I said nothing about actually eating them. Let them think we will, though. That'll show 'em!" James would have replied to that, but the sound of a bullet passing above his head and ricocheting behind him refocused him on the task at hand. He had acquired a rifle by now, and was using it. He fired at the place where the enemy ordinance had been fired from. A griffon lifted his head and began to aim. James fired, and the griffon toppled. Cannons began to fire from behind the Equestrian line. Shells smashed into the defenders, tossing bodies and debris in all directions. Tanks began to advance through the allied lines whenever possible, breaking down defenses with gun fire. It was too much for the griffons. They'd suffered having the forward side of the fortress blown to shreds by a mine, and having to battle the Equestrians on the ponies' terms. The tanks were simply too much to bear, given that they had almost no artillery in the fight and had no way to halt them. It happened gradually, at first. Single soldiers began to run or fly away to the north, then small groups, then larger; finally, almost the entire enemy line crumbled, as the defending soldiers fled en masse, throwing down their weapons to make their get away faster. It was a rout that James had had yet to see in the war so far. He smiled in a giddy sort of way. Thousands upon thousand of enemy soldiers were just running, and now Equestria had an almost free pass forward. "Come on! After them!" he shouted, getting up from his cover and advancing. The response was almost deafening; Equestrians, zebras, and Saddle Arabians gave a rippling shout that could be heard for miles as the enemy broke and ran for their lives. Still shouting battle cries and cheering, the allied army surged forward. The handful of enemies who continued to resist were overrun almost immediately; nothing the enemy had left even scratched the advancing forces. Throughout the fortress, the scene remained the same; virtually all the enemy ran away, while a few - very few - resisted to the last. Tanks destroyed every building housing griffons and mercenaries who were inclined to fight back. The collapse of the griffon army was total. The rear wall of Ragna Fortress was the last place where any enemies so inclined could make a stand. Some chose to do so. A hail of bullets greeted the Equestrians as they advanced. Screams of pain and anguish filled the air as enemy ordinance struck. James ducked behind a cluster of barrels and gamely returned fire. All along the line of advance, allied soldiers and warriors did the same. The defiant griffons lasted for about fifteen minutes. As bold as they were, they weren't able to resist the tanks the Equestrians had brought forward. While there were large guns on the walls, the mounts on which they were fitted could only fire outward, toward anyone outside the walls; apparently, no one had thought that they might have to one day be used against threats from the inside. As the remaining defenders were shelled, they quickly began to realize that their situation was hopeless. More and more dropped their weapons and either surrendered or fled as fast as they could go. James climbed a ladder on the rear wall as pegasi who had flown up there began to herd prisoners away. He walked to the opposite side - the one facing outward - and got his first look at the Griffon Kingdom - Empire, though he suspected it wouldn't remain so long, not now - beyond what had been Ragna Fortress. Plains and grasslands met his eyes. While there might be more mountains ahead, they were beyond the horizon... for the moment. Praise be to God, we got it. He breathed a sigh of relief. Anything could have gone wrong with the plan, and instead it had gone better than he'd expected. The clip-clop of hooves made him aware of Shining Armor's approach well before he arrived. The white stallion gazed out at the plains ahead. Both of them were silent for a few minutes. "So, we did it," Shining finally said. "We did," James said. "We got it. Or what's left of it." "On to Gryphos, you think?" "Oh, yes. We take that, we end the war, assuming we get the Emperor with it." "We've come too far to let him get away now," Shining replied. "We'll get him, and his Empire will fall." "Hmmm," James responded. There was another period of silence between them, broken by the conspicuous opening of the rear gate of the Fortress; tanks and soldiers began to pour through. "What happens when this is all over?" Shining asked. James continued to look toward the north, deep in thought. "I guess we'll find out soon enough. In the meantime, the war goes on." The sound of marching hooves and the flapping of pegasi wings perpetuated the air, as if in sympathy with that statement. The amount of wingbeats in the air disguised the sound of Crystal Clear's approach; James didn't know he was there until he heard the pegasus' hooves strike the stones of the wall. "Sir... Sirs, Generals," he said, sounding excited. That alone told James that some good news was coming; Crystal wasn't easy to excite. "What is it?" he asked. "Sir, we got him!" "Out with it, got who?" Shining demanded. "Sir, we've captured General Grayfeather." ------------------------------------------------------------