The First S.P.E.A.R. OF ORION Colony

by Silver Centurion

Leadership

"ALRIGHT! LISTEN UP! WE'RE DROPPING FROM 5,000 METERS IN 2 MINUTES, GET SET FOR A FIGHT!" Reyes said in a loud voice to his squad of soldiers, as they prepared to drop. The bay doors opened a short while later and on que all 21 men dropped out of the dropship in a neat line.

As Reyes fell he looked from side to side and saw hundreds, if not thousands of other USIF soldiers Burning-In. Unfourtantley he also saw a few puffs of black smoke as dozens of men died, and burned up in the atmosphere. What a shame. As Reyes approached 1000 meters, he opened his brakes and glided gently down with the rest of his squad. Finally Reyes touched down and pulled out his assault rifle. Just by looking at what lay ahead of him, he knew it was gonna be tough.

"Castle...figures..." Reyes said as he requisitioned for mech support.

---

"Are all the citizens evacuated?"

"Yes princess, all citizens have been dispersed into the countryside."

"Good. Fetch the unicorn royal guard and tell ALL of them to meet me in the throne room immediatley." Luna said as she silently sighed a breath of relief.

"At once." the unicorn captain said before bowing, and hastily exiting the room.

As Luna slouched back in her throne, a loud explosion rocked the castle. But it wasn't Canterlot Castle. oh no that had been wiped out, along with Princess Celestia, most of the Unicorn Guard, and the entirety of the Pegasus Guard. No this was Luna's old 'Elements of Harmony Castle', rebuilt and repurposed for war. Although not as big as Canterlot castle it would serve its purpose as a base of operations. It was a sturdy structure, hoof crafted by the best stonemasons. But nothing, NOTHING, that the Equestrians had access to would stop a SPEAR mech, as was quite apparent by the hole in the wall. There standing in the improvised doorway was a 10 foot tall metal man, staring at Luna with unblinking eyes.

Of course Luna was terrified, and was rooted in her spot as the mech began to walk forward.

" Attack!" a unicorn said before a wall of ice smashed into the metal man. No effect, the mech didn't even flinch. It simply turned, and leaped towards the ponies. They scrambled to get away as the mech desended upon them. It landed on top of a pony, crushing him and his armor.It was a gruesome sight for Luna, who was still rooted to her throne out of fear, to behold.

At this point the ponies were terrified, as they began to ready another spell. But before they could shoot out a wall of flame at the robot, the robot grabbed a handful of ponies, and rased them to 3 little barrels mounted under his free arm. The barrels began to rotaten faster and faster until, a hail of small projectiles tore through the 4 ponies as they went limp and flopped to the floor when the robot released them. As soon as the last body hit the floor, a swarm of smaller metal men flooded the hole in the wall and raised their weapons to the dozen remaining guardsmen, and Luna herself.

"Open Fire!" one of the machines said in perfect equestrian, which startled Luna a great deal. Shortly after all of the strange two legged invaders lit up the unicorn guard and continued to pummel Luna with round after round. When the first bullet hit, Luna's protection spell flared, which shocked her back to reality, and prompted her to flee. She began running as fast as she could, but just for a second while she looked back and saw a swarm of bipedal machines romping up to her, she smashed into something mettallic.

She fell backwards onto her back as she looked up at another large metal man. But this one was different, somehow. It was a light blue, unlike the grayish color the other one was and, it was also more rounded and smooth than the sharp, jagged points of the other mechanical beast.

"Pleased to meet you." a voice came from the hulking contraption. "Ah, hold on." the voice said again before two other large mechs rounded the corner and joined the first. Almost immediatley after meeting up the 3 mechs mowed down wave after wave of SPEAR soldiers. Shields flared, armor tore, and blood spewed from the quickly diminishing number of enemy forces. Luna averted her eyes as soldier after soldier was ripped to shreds by the strange projectile weapons mounted on each arm of the mechs.

At this point Luna was fairly sure that they weren't going to hurt her and relaxed a little as she finally got the courage to speak up as the gunfire died down.

"H-h Hello! I AM PRINCESS LUNA OF EQUESTRIA!" Luna said in her royal canterlot voice.

"Woah there, calm down. Anyways we have orders to escort you back to a dropship. Come with us." the voice said again as the large beast began to walk away with the other two in tow. "Oh, and by the way, I'm Reyes. Let's get a move on.... Luna." Reyes said as Luna began to follow them.

---

"Alright, they got the message and said that they're trying to airlift the civilians out, and get the leader to a conference with the general. I still can't beleive that they're goddamned horses, but whatever." Blackburn said as he followed the rest of Delta squad through the forest.

"So, how much farther to Foxtrot and the FOB. Oh, and where the fuck is Echo? Coms have been down for over an hour." Blackburn inquired.

"I don't know man. But we gotta keep going, the FOB is right over that hill, let's hustle!" Corde said as he activated his overdrive. The other soldiers followed suit as they cut a path in the forest. Finally the soldiers reached the top of the hill and beheld a small clearing packed with supply depots, minigun and missile turrets, and most importantly....

" AW SWEET A TANK! Can I drive?" Hector asked.

Blackburn and Corde glanced at eachother trying to decide if they should say yes or no. Hesitantly Corde replied. " Sure."

"Stop! Are you the renegade SPEAR soldiers Corde has informed us about?" a soldier with his assault rifle shouldered shouted, poised to squeeze the trigger on the SPEAR soldiers.

"Indeed. Now if you don't mind lowering your weapons." Blackburn said as several USIF dropships buzzed by overhead.

"So, I take it mass deployment has commenced?" Corde asked gesturing towards the sky.

"Affirmative. 50,000+ USIF troops have been depolyed planetwide. We have a tenth of that number in this general area. In other words, within 500 miles of this emplacement. Anyways, Corde, you're being redirected to a landing pad north of here. A couple dropships with Lima squad and the ruler of the intelligent life on this planet will be waiting for you. That tank over there should get you there. As for Delta, they're being redeployed to some castle west of here. better get a move on Corde. The dropships won't wait forever." the USIF soldier replied.

"Corde! Let's roll out!" Jason said from the gunner seat of the tank.

Corde quickly made his way over to the tank and took his seat. he was responsible for anti-vehicular rockets. This should be fun...

"Alright! Armor rolling out!" Hector said as the tank began to knock down tree after tree as it plowed through the dense forest.

After about 20 minutes of the tank demolishing anything that came in its path things got less boring. Like shit just hit the fan interesting. Anyways, as the tank began to emerge from the dense forest into a wide open space, the crew that manned it was able to make out a small landing pad with a single dropship on it.

"Dropship spotted! I'M PUTTING THE PEDAL TO THE MEDAL, HOLD ON! " Hector said as the tank lurched forward at incredible speeds. And that's when it happened.

"MORTARS!!!"

Dozens of riot mortar shells shout up into the air around the tank and came crashing back down as orange fireballs. Explosions rocked the tank, killed the shields, and damaged the armor badly as hector continued to press forward.

"Mech! Jason take em out!" Blackburn said as he manned the mortars on the tank and began firing at a row of SPEAR mechs that was advancing on them.

"We're here! Let's move!" Hector said as he scrambled out of the tank.

"Go!I'll hold them off!" Jason said as he refused to board the dropship.

Blackburn rushed the dropship and rolled inside as Corde also reached it. However Hector was not with them.

"C'mon kid! This ain't the playoffs, let's go!" Hector said as he pried Jason from the tank and threw him over to the dropship, before quickly placing a det-pack on the tank. Hector then quickly overdrived into the dropship as the mechs swarmed the tanks.

A hail of gunfire was directed at the dropship as it made its get away. As the bay door closed fully, Hector detonated the detpack miles away by now, killing dozens of enemy mechs.

"Boom..." was all Hector said trailing off at what he was looking at. " Okay what the fuck is that!?!??!" hector said as he and Jason backed away from a large purple blue horse, sporting wings and a horn.

"That..." Reyes said from a corner of the dropship. " ... is Princess Luna. Apparently she's an alicorn AND the co-leader of this planet..."

Reyes stood up and walked over to the two SPEAR soldiers and examined them. " Corde, you sure we can trust them?"

Corde hesitated, although after all they'd been through, he was fairly sure they really were renegades. but he replied with a simple, "Yes."

"Alright. Nice to meet you." Reyes said extending his arm "If Corde will vouch for you, your alright with me."

Jason hesitantly extended his arm and shook Reyes' hand firmly.

"Alright then. Well, like I was saying, this is the co-leader of the planet. Apparently the other leader was decimated by an orbital blast on another castle a day ago by the SPEAR." Reyes said as he gestured to Luna and then sat back down. "Now I know what you're thinking. One, no your not hallucinating. And two, yes, I know its shocking, but orders are orders, now settle in, its a long ride to main base." Reyes continued as he kicked back and began to drift away to sleep.

Jason and Hector tried to do the same, although it did take them longer, they did eventually accomplish it. As for Blackburn he just stared out his window at the never ending flat plains they were flying over. And Corde... well he took another approach to passing the time.

Corde strode over to the corner where Luna was huddled and sat down next to her. She backed away a little at first but quickly relaxed, seeing him as an ally for the time being. They just sat there in akward silence, waiting for theother to speak first.It was Luna who took the initiative.

"Soooooo....... who are you, what are you, and what's going on." Luna asked in a soft voice, as to not disturb the others.

Corde recoiled a little bit, knowing that she could talk, but not in english. Well, looks like she did.

"I, am Alexander Corde, of the 8th Armored Infantry Division of the USIF. And I am a human." Corde replied in his usual half strict, half casual tone.

"Alexander? Human? Are your sure you're not making up words?" Luna said as she mentally giggled at the strange words. However, another part of her told her that these words meant something. Something dangerous. Armored.... Infantry.... they didn't sit well with her, but she shrugged it off and continued the conversation.

"And , about your other question.. even I'm not entirely sure, but I can tell you what I think is going down." Corde said as he readied himself. "From what I can gather this planet was supposed to be deserted. But it wasn't. You're here. i believe the SPEAR thought that they could retreat here after Salvador was killed. Now that's all fine and dandy, but what's puzzling is that there was NOTHING on this planet in our database. No maps, no mrecords of terrain, noyhing. It's like this place didn't even exist until a few days ago." Corde paused as he looked out his window at the far off horison. he could see low buildings rising from the otherwise flat plains as the sun set.

"The only explanation I have for the SPEAR knowing about this is that this must be a colony world. You see, the SPEAR was organized to terraform desolate planets to make them habitable. And from where I see it, it looks like this may be the first of those planets. I mean, even relatively old terraformed planets, like New Madrid haven't developed the amount or kinds of plant life that yours has, nor another species entirely." Corde said as the dropship was quickly approaching main base.

Luna took a moment to take it all in. In the past few days, a lot had happened. She had been subjected to many shocking events, but this, was by far the most shocking as she reailized what Corde was saying.

"S-So, you mean, I, we, exist, because of you?" Luna said in a shaky voice as she was bown away by the realization.

Corde just nodded approvingly as the monitor on the opposite corner of the dropship flicked on.

"Corde. We're landing in 5 minutes. Get your men together and escort the VIP to Stone, it is imperative that you get her to him in good condition. We need answers." The USIF pilot said before the screen flashed off again.

"That's another thing I've been meaning to ask you. What is all of this? It's so... strange." Luna said, regainng her composure as she gestured around the hold of the dropship.

"This, is USIF technology. It allows normal humans to increase their effectivness in combat. Don't you have military tech?" Corde asked, not knowing what to expect.

"Well... we have some technology, like spears and axes, but for the most part we use magic to fight. And even then, Equestria is a mostly peaceful nation." Luna said as she looked out the window to see dozens of planes soaring by over head." Or at least it used to be..." Luna said trailing off in a depressing tone.

Corde, sensing her sadness was about to say ssomething when all of a sudden the monitor flashed on.

"Corde! Tell everyone to get their suit on! we have a biological agent inbound on our destination." the USIF pilot said before fastening on his helmet as the screen went black.

Corde quickly rushed over group of sleeping soldiers and ordered them to seal their suits up as he fastened on his own helmet. The soldiers woke up quickly and followed Corde's instructions drowsily as they sealed their suits.

"What about Luna?" Reyes said as he gestured over to Luna worriedly.

Corde checked the bay door. Sealed tight.

"Alright, if we just keep her in here we can prevent her from being infected. We have a weeks worth of oxygen on board so we should be fine. Blackburn, Reyes, get to the command center and inform them we need an underground airlock landing pad. Go! We've got to seal ,this ship up tight soon. Radio in as soon as we have access. Now go!" Corde said as the bay door slightly opened and the two soldiers rushed out as the doors closed again. Sealed. Good.

"Alright, Jason you take the left window, Hector, you take the right, keep an eye out for infected." Corde said as the SPEAR soldiers obliged and took their respective places in the dropship.

Luna, who began to wonder, what 'infected' meant, came out of her corner and observed the foggy salmon color world that engulfed the dropship, which was siting neatly on an outdoor landing pad. She could see nothing past the thick fog, which she guessed was the 'agent' the pilot on the screen had reffered to.

Corde, who was sitting by the door of he dropship with his asault rifle at the ready, as if he was expecting something to penetrate the door at any moment. The eerie red drop lights filled the dropship with a cozy sort of feel as Luna approached him, half worred, half calm and releaxed, knowing that these were her new protectors.

She sat down next to him and readied herslef for a big question, that she didn't really want to hear the answer to.

"So, Alexander, what are... 'infected'." Luna said as she gulped before saying the last word.

Corde froze up at the question. But he quickly regained his cool as he prepared himself to break the dier news to the seemingly emotinal being.

"Ha, infected are... walkers. They're still human... but not REALLY human." Corde answered, trying to shield the truth as much as possible.

"What are you getting at Corde?" Luna continued.

Corde, knowing he could no longer shield Luna from the terrible truth replied coldy.

"They're zombies."

Comments

[MiiaTheLamia]

What? Where did zombies come from? WHAT A TWIST!