*General's personal HQ Vanhoover*
In a side room sitting at a table waiting was Dove and Skyler sitting quietly waiting for the questioning to begin. A single guard stood at the door in the from of a commissar cadet who glared at them form under his cap the whole time with a hand resting on his sword. Finally after a good wait the door opens and the general steps into the room along side with his right hand man who dismisses the cadet with a nod leaving the four in the room by them selves. "Now... lets begin" Stubbs says slowly eyeing them. The girls share a look before looking back at him. "Where do we start?" Dove says.
"First i want to know what the hell wiped out a full company single handily with out even taking any heavy damage." He asks with a even tone and dove sighs. "A native animal of the country... dragons sir... the first one killed was just out of its teen hood while the next one... was its parent and a fully grown beast. Its skin is as thick as most of your tanks or more and flames to melt anything." She says slowly then Skyler joins in. "And the mountain range has many of them calling it home." She tell him and he stand quietly in thought of her words. "How many live in the mountain range so far?" He asks for her to look to the side thinking. "To say... i have no clue on the right number but a little under a hundred." With that the general looks to his companion. "Get naval command on the VOX we're going to need orbital fire to bring them down."
The two girls share a look before he asks. "What do we have beyond the mountain range? I need to prepare for what is ahead of us." They look at him a moment before Dove speaks. " Behind the range is the Galloping gorge. Its rich in gems and other metals and is mined so it may be defended. Also little further back from that in the sky is Cloudsdale." She states and he raises an eyebrow. "The mining area will need to be captured but... Cloudsdale?" He is unsure about the name and with what he has encountered so far he must be careful. "Its a city of... well clouds where most of the pepesi in the country live and also manage the weather. Also is beside the town of Ponyville which is one of the rail road hubs that is in the center of the country with a line heading to nearly every corner and with one capital of Canterlot." She says and he nods thinking over what he has learned. "We now have new targets for our navy... Have them give this Ponyville a orbital barrage and same for this Cloudsdale. If we take them out we can disrupt their supply chain and their control over the weather." At that the girls get a worried look but don't say anything about it. "Now is their any other important target we can remove from the problem?" He asks and the two talk to them selves quietly before Skyler nods. "Yeah in the north..." She begins.
*Crystal Empire*
The city was quiet as the moons drifted across the sky as the shield stood guard over it and its residents. Princess Cadence laid in her bed fast sleep but her husband wasn't by her side as he stood on the balcony with a cup of coffee in his magic looking south with a hard look on his face. He was watching the base of the shield surrounding the city cause he felt something but was unsure what. He scanned back and forth slowly before he spotted black objects in the sky just beyond the shield causing him to frown. His horn lights up and a flare fires into the air and soon alarms follow and ponies below run about or wake up to see what is going on. He soon hears somepony behind him and he looks to see his wife walking to him with a worried look on her face. "What is happening shining?" She asks and he shakes his head in return.
"I don't know but it isn't good. I saw a few objects flying beyond the shield and they looked like those machines the humans use for transport." At that Cadence covers her mouth with a hoof as she gasps. "They come here!?" She near yells and he sighs. "I hope not but... it seems that way." He says using a hoof to pull her in for a hug to comfort her. He looks out to the shield where he can see the out line of the ships landed almost right out side it but beside seeing them milling about nothing else is happening. He looks to his wife. "Sweetie i have to go alright? I'll be back soon... stay here please and look after her." he jesters to the crib on the side of the room where they can hear faint crying. She looks at him then to the crib and nods but before she heads into the room she freezes when she looks up. "Shining..." She is cut off by a explosion and he feels the shield nearing its end and he looks up.
Pillars of blue light ran from the skies aimed at the city and many strike the shield and soon he watches the cracks grow and then it starts to crumble and he stares in complete shock as the empire falls into chaos as buildings and ponies are wiped out in mere seconds. He watches as three come down aimed at the palace and he rushes in and grabs his wife and runs to the crib where Flurry heart is crying and grabs her in his magic. Then the building shakes from the first impact sending them to the ground. Cadence has their daughter in her hooves crying and Shining armor hugs them both close as the other two lance rounds impact.
From the Imperial guard forces that landed out side the city to give firing coordinates to the ships above they get to watch as the spire in the center slowly start to lean and then it crashes down on many other buildings. "Send word to the general that the threat has been eliminated. And word of the dome falling apart all over the planet has been reported." The officer on hand says to the VOX operator. He waves to a few squads of guardsmen with sentinel support to move in on the city ruins for clean up. After they leave he heads to the nearest Valkyrie and grabs something and lights it and lets out a puff of smoke. "Not every day you get to order a full city to be wiped out." He says giving his newly acquired major rank markings on his shoulder a look.
At the guardsmen pushing into the ruins they spot a few ponies that have survived scattered about picking through whats left. But when the guardsmen take aim and fire at the ponies only to have their eyes widen when they harmlessly deflect off their natural skin. The ponies who were once running from the invaders now turned to charge them after seeing their nearly immune to their weapons. The line of guardsmen soon clash with the crystal ponies and they find their bayonets near useless unless aimed for the eyes and most are trampled under the ponies hoofs. The scattered bolter teams and sentinels are the only thing keep the wave from over running them as missiles, auto-cannons and lascannons on them fire as quick as they can cutting down most of the pony combatants charging the line. Over head some of the Valkyries fly over head and do strafing runs that cut down the pony numbers drastically.
After a while of both sides taking heavy losses the guardsmen stand firm after braking a few times if not for the single commissar wielding a bolt pistol and a power fist that destroyed the ponies. "If you will not serve for the Emperor! You will serve on the firing line!" He yells out as a bolt destroyed a head of a guardsmen sergeant who turn to run and the guardsmen once again pushed the ponies and with them nearly wiped out finally gained a large amount of ground. Soon the ponies are on the run and many safely get away as lasblasts simply deflect harmless into the air and in few cases back at the guardsmen wounding to even killing them. And the guardsmen give chase for what they can but soon brake off to dig though the ruins. As they near whats left of the spire that dominated the city they fire the opening to the balcony was still open and at ground level.
A squad of guardsmen go into explore and they find a flow of blood and start to follow it. After a few minutes they find a large part of what was the wall that is now above them has fallen on what looks like two ponies one pink one with both wings and horn with a white unicorn that wore purple and gold armor, but something else caught their eyes. As they made their way to a small glowing pink bubble that was under some fallen supports. One brave guardsmen picks up the small ball shaped object and looks at it. "Hey! I see one of those ponies with wings and horn in this thing... looks like a kid.." He says bringing it close to his face to look in. The other look at each other oddly at that. "Lets bring it to the commissar... cause this must be a important one. They say the ones with both wings and horn are some sort of royalty." They agree and leave with the ball.
Not long after they arrive at the plaza turned landing zone for the transport but among the ships with the markings of the 252nd a thunderhawk painted black with the large symbol of the holy inquisition is in the center of the area and the unmistakable armored storm troopers are around it standing guard. As the guardsmen near it they gain many eyes of their package and it also acquires the storm troopers eyes in their direction as well. When they arrive at where a tent they are met by the commissar who looks confused at their cargo. "Men explain what... this thing is." He asks sternly. "Uh... well sir look inside." He holds it up close to him to look into it. His eyes widen. "Is that one of those things... why did you bring it to me! Kill it and be done with it!" He aims his bolt pistol at it.
"Lower that weapon commissar... if they brought it back here they must have a good reason." A voice comes from behind. All turn to look and sees a robed man in dark armor under it with a large 'I' on his chest. "My lord... as you wish." He lowers his gun. The inquisitor walks up to the guardsmen holding the small bubble and looks in to it. "Ah... this is a very young alicron... i presume you found this near the dead leaders of this little city?" He asks the guardsman. "yes mi'lord we found them dead... i can guess they saved this one before they died." He answers and the armored man nods. "Good... now get it abroad my ship. Understood?" He is rewarded to see the guardsmen salute and start towards the thunderhawk. "Another one to... fix." he says to himself glancing at a small group of storm troopers.
*Unicorn Mountain Range*
The imperial guard was digging their heels into the rocks of the cliffs of the mountain as massive beasts fly over head burning all below and what ever is missed is taken out by cannons or repeaters mounted on their backs. Few guns could hurt them as the hydra auto guns only angered them. Only a few have been taken them down and those were lucky shells form artillery and leman russ vanquishers. The guardsmen were still pushing forward as they started to dig tunnels and move forward. If it weren't for the over sized dogs and their gem mines.
After a while of the guardsmen tunneling they stumbled onto a large network of mines populated by large dogs who at first were confused then they got aggressive as the guardsmen started to explore more of their tunnels. They were stronger then a normal man and even could dig small tunnels at speeds that rivaled the machines and they seemed to be large numbers of them. This was solved by simply arming many guardsmen with flamers and large number of frag grenades. As the guardsmen fought deep in the mines they found that the walls were rich in gems, metals, and other resources the war factories will be happy to put into use. After quite a while the men found that many exits are scattered about and some even are located near and behind the pony front lines and plans were put into place to use them to their up most effect.
*Pony FOB*
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT WAS WIPED OUT!" Luna yelled in the royal voice at a crystal pony messenger who looked like he has been through hell with blood and dust covering him. "Ma'am... the crystal empire was wiped out by what the humans call orbital fire. Prince Shining Armor and Princess Cadence were found dead before the humans routed us. We also have conformation that... their daughter was captured and last our spies saw entered a black ship and entered orbit." He states sadly looking down and Luna stared in shock at the news. "She... was abducted.. by the humans?" She says slowly but uses her magic to reach out and look for her. She soon finds that she is in a coma state of sleep and alive letting her sigh in relief. "I... found her... she is still alive." This gets many to feel better, but it soon comes to an end as a pony covered in wounds runs into the tent. "We're under attack! from the rear!" Only for Luna runs out of the tent to see guardsmen and their bigger friends of ogryns charging the rear of the camp. "Oh foast..." Is all she can get out.