The Chronicles of Swarm: The Equestrian Front

by kildeez

Chapter XLII: Hammer and Anvil

“We can’t keep falling back!” Webb gasped. The enemy ambush had forced his men all the way down the hill and through the Everfree, a near constant onslaught forcing the paratroopers back step by step, though they’d fought to hold on to every inch. Webb leaned out and took an extra potshot at an enemy tango, dropping him as he tried to sneak up on the Americans with a bayonet in hand. He grinned, only to watch two more tangoes leap from the brush with assault rifles blazing. Swearing, the American barely had time to duck back into the dry creek bed his men were using for cover before another handful of bullets whizzed by. “We’re gettin’ too far from the city!”

“We have to,” Bannon grumbled as a terrible low whistle filled the air. The troopers all hit the deck as a massive explosion nearly deafened them, little arrowheads sailing out in every direction as a specialized mortar shell exploded in the air by their trench. Webb pulled his head up just in time to watch a leaf drift by, covered in a strange, shimmering glow before it burst into flames. “Those weird chemical mortars are getting close again.” He watched the leaf crinkle up and blacken and tried not to think about what a direct hit would do to human skin.

“Eh, shit,” Webb swore. The man was right. So long as the enemy had the advantage of both numbers and mortar support, the most they could do was fight a steady retreat and pray it didn’t turn into a rout. If it came to that, he knew he’d have to surrender; and worse yet, he knew how this enemy dealt with POWs.

“Sirs?” One of the troopers nearest to the pair asked.

“Yes, Private?”

“Well, I just wanted t’point out something I’ve been noticing…” the Private asked.

“Could it wait? We’re kinda in the middle of gettin’ our asses handed to us,” Webb sighed, ducking back out for a few more blind shots into the woods.

“I don’t think so, y’see…I’ve kinda noticed something about the enemy artillery. Doesn’t it sound like it’s getting louder?”

Webb and Bannon took a quick look at one another. “Lieutenant, do you still have that map on you?” Bannon asked.

“Indeed I do,” Webb promptly reached into his belt and pulled out the map of the Everfree, spreading it out over the mud. Another mortar impact threw dirt over their soldiers as it rocked their lines, which Webb wiped away as best he could before pointing to a couple points on the map. “Okay, so here’s where we started, here’s where we wound up, here’s where we’re…oh shit…”

“What?” Bannon asked.

Webb traced a line across the map from one little patch of trees to an open clearing. “This looks like a decent spot to setup some artillery, don’t it?”

“Yeah,” Bannon sighed. “And artillery usually has machine gun nests to protect it, doesn’t it?”

“That’s their angle, then,” Webb sighed as he folded the map back up and pocketed it. “We’re fighting the hammer right now, and somewhere back there is the anvil. They’ll crush us like bugs once we’re close enough to the artillery.”

“Shit, that’s clever. How do we get out of this one?”

“No idea,” Webb sighed, readying himself for yet another retreat. “We’re already in the trap. It looks like the only thing to do now is wait for its jaws to clamp down on our throats.”

“Or for a miracle,” Bannon replied absentmindedly.

“Shyeah,” Webb chuckled. “Maybe Jesus’ll c’mon down and lend a hand, who knows?”

Bannon didn’t reply, his eyes widening as he stared upwards. His gaze continued following something downward, something falling from somewhere in the sky to eventually join its comrades in battle: a pair of figures alighting softly upon the ground. “Maybe not Jesus, but close,” he said breathlessly.

“Wha…” Webb turned to find Chen and Celestia standing behind him: Chen in his regular business suit, Celestia with her ethereal mane still billowing in some unseen wind. “Mr. Swarm!? Princess!?”

“Who in the…how in the…” Bannon asked, completely stunned.

“I am glad to see I was correct in assuming the activity centered around this area was enemy fire,” the man in the business suit replied. “Am I also correct in assuming that you have been briefed as to who I am, Lieutenant?”

“Yeah, they mentioned the Major had a bro,” Webb said, a grin spreading across his face as he grabbed the man’s hand and shook it. “You may not be Jesus, but it’s still damn good to see ya.”

“I’m sorry, but who in the hell are these people?” Bannon asked.

“Watch your damn mouth, Bannon! You’re in the presence of royalty!” Webb replied, gesturing to the Alicorn. “Now, this is Princess Celestia of Equestria and Swarm of…uh…”

“…An alternative Earth to your own where an experiment in nanorobotics resulted in the production of a hive consciousness that achieved god-like levels of sentience through the networking of millions of human minds, all before dividing itself into several pieces for better management. Now, my cohorts and I seek to bring balance and harmony to a multiverse filled with the chaos of temporal fluctuations and madmen rising to power in various societies, utilizing ‘offshoots’ of our root consciousness to patrol all of reality while occasionally sending out more hardened, vastly more powerful ‘roots’ for jobs that require a more personal touch, one of which you now see before you.”

Bannon stared back at the man in the business suit, his eyes glazing over.

“Now, did you get all that?” Celestia asked, a sarcastic look on her face.

“Fuck no.”

“And neither did I, at first. Don’t worry: it starts to make some twisted sense after a few repetitions. Kind of like a David Lynch film.”

“Princess, did you just make a reference to human indie culture?” Swarm asked, beaming.

“I did,” she replied proudly just as a pair of low whistles entered the air.

“Oh shit, here comes the finishing blow!” Bannon screamed, ducking into the creek bed and pressing himself into the mud as low as he could. By contrast, Webb just stood nonchalantly as Swarm’s hand rose over his head and Celestia’s horn glowed. A short instant later, there was a low dunking sound, like something heavy being dropped into a pond. Bannon peeked up through his fingers to find a pair of mortar shells hovering in the air over his head, spinning on their tips like a pair of tops. “What the…”

“I am quite impressed, Princess,” Swarm said as he dropped his hand, leaving the shells completely within her magic. “You have shown an ability to absorb and process alien material I have only ever seen in the rarest of omnipotent beings, and never in any mortal!”

“Yes, well,” she shrugged as she effortlessly laid the mortar shells on the ground just over the edge of the ditch. “I have had millennia to sharpen my studying skills and abilities, which has increased my rate of information absorption far beyond what most mortals could hope to achieve in their short lifespans.”

“Very impressive,” Swarm smiled, turning to Webb as Bannon pulled himself out of the dirt. “Now, judging from your current position and the direction of the enemy attacks, I believe you are being driven directly towards an enemy artillery battery, where I am sure the aim is to pick you and your men off with the machine gun nests emplaced throughout the area.”

“Knew it,” Webb grumbled. “I take it you got a better plan, though?”

“But of course,” Swarm smiled. “We’re going to fall right into their trap.”

The humans looked at their semi-omnipotent comrades uncomfortably. “Um, sir?” Bannon asked. “Isn’t that the exact opposite of what someone should do when they realize they’re walking right into a trap?”

“Ah, but they have no idea of our presence here,” Swarm replied, gesturing to himself and the Princess.

“And so, when they think they are about to spring their trap upon us, we will actually spring a trap upon them,” Celestia cooed. “Got it?”

“Fuck yeah.”

“Good,” she said before she and Swarm took off. “Continue falling back, Lieutenant! We’ll handle the rest!”

“Yes, ma’am!” Webb and Bannon screamed after her. The paratroopers all watched the pair disappear into the pre-dawn sky before returning their attention to Earthly (or, is that Equestria-ly?) matters.

“Alright,” Webb said, grabbing a rock as another mortar blasted a crater in the creek bed behind him, more of that terrible chemical misting into the air and igniting trees ablaze. “I want this to be a textbook retreat. No screw-ups, nobody else dies today. This rock’s our current position, and here…”

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Celestia nodded satisfactorily as she tuned the humans’ voices out, her acute hearing switching to the sky in front of her. “Princess?” Swarm asked as they continued through the sky.

“Ah, yes Swarm? What is it?”

“I heard you talking with my brother earlier,” he said plainly. “I also heard your interest in seeing him exercise his true abilities.”

“Oh, you heard all that?” She asked, grateful that the red glow from her pre-morning sun acted as perfect camouflage for her reddening face.

“But of course. Now, one thing concerns me about the way you were talking: you have apparently assumed you have already witnessed the full extent of my power.”

“And I haven’t?” She asked, successfully keeping the surprise from her voice.

“Princess, please. My brother may have the toys, but that doesn’t mean he knows the first thing about power.”

“So can I expect an impressive display from you soon?”

“Impressive,” Chen replied, cracking his neck, “would be the understatement of the year.”