Third Sphere Expansion
Applejack
Applejack grunted as she pushed her body up again, her forelegs shaking violently as she glared with determination at Rey’myrs, the Tau looking like he was struggling just as much as he lowered himself towards the ground again.
“Two…hundred…fifty…two,” he grunted, before collapsing to the floor.
“One more and you win, Applejack,” Ala looked at Applejack as she spoke, the squad commander sitting down on one of the bunks and watching the contest with a wary eye.
“Just one?” Applejack asked, lowering herself down, before pushing back up again. “Ah think ah could keep goin’ for a bit longer.”
“You won the challenge, you satisfied your honour,” Ala stood up. “Now, no more is needed, any more may see you injured.”
“A self-injured soldier would an affront to the Greater Good, you would have no use to Empire,” Freynat intoned from across the room, her eyes remaining closed as she sat cross legged on the floor.
“Do you ever speak in anything but riddles?” Applejack asked, getting to all four hooves again and helping Rey’myrs back to his feet. “No hard feelings?”
“None, you won fair and square,” he shook his head, massaging his arms and wincing. “Still, would be interesting to see how your farming muscles help you in a survival situation. When you can build a fire in under a minute, we may have a contest there too.”
Applejack laughed, before walking back to her bunk, her rail rifle laid on top of it, completely stripped down and disassembled. She had been in the process of cleaning it before morning inspection, before Hurnak had made a comment about his sharp eyes and how he could probably carry the rail rifle for the squad. Applejack had immediately rebuked that, and the challenge had begun.
Rey’myrs jumped in to defend his brothers’ honour, lasting far longer than he did, while Freynat and Valnoth stayed well clear of it, the former sticking to her meditation, while the latter opted to watch with Ala, staying quiet as the squads commander presided over the contest. Now that it was over, she went back to talking with him, drilling him as she always did for his experiences out in the field.
It had been almost two months since they had finished training, and so far they had not seen any sort of combat, instead being stationed on a frontier planet. Applejack often liked the planet to Styro, the terrain being very similar. She was still drawn back to the farming fields where Earth Caste members were toiling, but this time she watched over them, her rifle always at the ready, knowing full well how fast a strike could come.
Returning to the task at hoof, Applejack quickly began to reassemble her weapon, glancing over at Hurnak as he wiped his pulse rifle down. He did have a point, he was a far better shot than Applejack was, but the sheer weight of the rail rifle down would simply force him to move slower, and by extension, the squad. It was the reason rail rifles weren’t common in Fire Warrior squads, being favoured more by pathfinder sniper teams.
“Hey, chin up,” she began, before the Ala stood up, pressing his hand to the communicator in his ear and nodding, before addressing the squad.
“The Sept is mobilising, the human world of Ratnak was offered a place in the Greater Good in return for a peaceful cohabitation between our empire and their planet. They have refused, so it is up to us to take this world for the glory of the Greater Good.”
“What designation of world is it?” Valnoth asked, tightening the straps on her armour, before attaching the larger left shoulder pad and grabbing her helmet and rifle.
“It is one of the human forge worlds. That could mean facing anything from tech guard and servitors to their titan and Skitarii legions.”
Applejack shuddered as she heard about titans, a flashback of the monstrous war machine on Styro causing her to break out in a sweat, before she forced the memory back down again and grabbed her own gear, attaching her weapon to her side and placing her hat on her head. When she was wearing her helmet, her hat had to stay behind, but whenever she could, she wore the one piece of home she still had.
Ala looked around at the squad, nodding that they were all ready as the two drones that followed them purred into life, one carrying a pair of pulse carbines, giving the squad some extra firepower, while the other mounted a powerful shield generator capable of deflecting some small arms fire, while allowing the squad to fire outwards, something about the charge direction of the shield polarity or something, Applejack had gotten confused when Freynat tried to explain it to her.
As soon as they grabbed their personal gear, Ala turned and led them out of the room towards the muster yard. Drones would ensure that their personal effects were taken to the ship, meaning all they had to worry about was their combat gear.
***
Applejack sat shoulder to shoulder with Ala and Rey’myrs, a dull red light filling the troop compartment of the Devilfish the squad had been assigned to for the assault. It was the first time Applejack had seen one of these vehicles up close, and she had to say, she was impressed. The back was easily large enough to ferry the whole squad into battle, but more importantly, it provided gyroscopic protection from the outside, meaning Applejack couldn’t feel the movements of the Manta that was currently soaring towards their objective.
“Two minutes to deployment,” the pilot’s voice was crystal clear over the comm-link in her helmet.
Following her training, Applejack began to power up her helmets display, the systems in the armour connecting to those in her weapon and providing her with a readout of her ammo and power levels, while scanners connected to her body provided a biometric readout, allowing her to check her vital signs for rudimentary medical analysis. Small lights blinked from red to green as the other members of the squad activated their systems, and would stay that way until they were manually turned off, or if the squad member’s life signs disappeared. Applejack hoped that that wouldn’t happen.
Truth been told, Applejack had been thinking hard about the prospect of dying and killing for a long time, ever since she had completed training as a Fire Warrior. She knew that death was a fact of life in the Fire Caste, and she had seen people die before back on Styro. She had never taken a life though, and she was terrified that when the moment came, she would hesitate to pull the trigger, and that would either cost her her own life, or even worse, someone else’s.
“Hey, it will be ok,” Ala called, turning his single red lense on her.
“What do you mean?” she asked, cocking her head in confusion.
“Your posture changed, you're shaking slightly, it’s perfectly normal,” he explained. “Everyone gets slightly nervous before their first fight, I’d be worried if you weren’t.”
“I ain’t scarred,” Applejack shook her head.
“No use lying, little pony, I’ve seen enough first timers to know the signs,” Ala chuckled. “And if you’re worried about being able to take the shot, just remember that they won’t hesitate in return. Reflex actions will get you through most things, you’ve just got to find the will to pull that trigger. Remember, we offered them peace, they chose war. They brought this on themselves.”
“But what if I don’t find the will?”
“Then this will be a very short fight for you,” Ala shrugged, before turning his gaze towards the door.
Even through the hull of the Devilfish, Applejack could feel the thump of the Manta touching down, the lower deck elevator dropping to the floor, allowing the Devilfish to move forward. There were no screens for Applejack to see out onto the battlefield, but she could hear the soft pings through it.
“This is it, opening the back hatch,” the pilot called. “Disengaging pintle drones and assigning them to your squad. Good hunting out there.”
The back ramp quickly dropped down, light streaming in as the squad disembarked the vehicle, forming a semi-circle around the back of the transport, allowing Applejack to see where they were.
The three massive Manta’s were sitting on the edge of a concrete compound, their turreted weapons firing at unseen targets. Hundreds of other fire warriors were taking up positions or advancing forward, and they were no different, Ala breaking the semi-circle and leading them forward, stopping as they reached a crater and diving inside it.
“Anyone have eyes on the enemy?” Ala asked.
“Four hundred and twelve meters in front of us,” Valnoth poked her head just over the craters lip. “Look like human guardsmen, textbook deployment. They’re already engaging our forces.”
“Pick your targets and light then up,” Ala nodded, rolling into a better firing position and moving his helmet closer to his gun, ensuring the targeting reticule within was as accurate as possible. “Applejack, target their heavy weapons.”
Applejack nodded, her gut clenching as her helmet zoomed in and focused on the far away enemies. The sophisticated systems allowed Applejack to see every face of the humans before her, some snarling in anger as they fired, others looking impassive or worried, or even scared. Forcing herself to ignore their fear, she quickly sighted on one of the boxy human weapons, a heavy bolter if she remembered her briefing on the way to the planet.
Her Rail Rifle purred into life as she focused on the weapon itself, bracing herself, before firing. The bright blue light shot across the battlefield and slammed into the weapon, melting through it like it was nothing. The humans around it fell back in alarm, pointing out to other heavy weapons teams where the shot had come from.
In an instant the ground around the crater they were in began to be peppered by bolter shells, tearing up the concrete and forcing Applejack to duck back down below the lip.
“Good shot,” Ala nodded, pulling a grenade off his belt and pressing a few buttons. “Prepare to relocate when this goes off.”
With a practiced movement, Ala hurled the little grenade towards the enemy lines, where it exploded a few seconds later. In an instant the squad was running, darting from foxhole to foxhole, before finally skidding towards a concrete pillbox, the top blown off by some heavy weapon or another.
“In here, Applejack take prime firing position. Keep taking out their heavy weapons from here, let the Kroot handle the up close fighting.
Applejack quickly took the lead, heading into the broken pillbox, before almost vomiting inside her helmet. Bits of bodies were scattered across the blood soaked floor, one of the hands still reflexively moving.
“Don’t think about it, just get firing,” Ala urged, pushing her into the bunker.
Fighting the urge to run from the pillbox, Applejack quickly found a firing slit that gave her a good view of the battlefield. Unclipping the rail rifle from her saddle, she hefted it up to the slit, unsteadily standing on her rear hooves and bracing the gun against her barrel, using a leg to steady herself.
Again she focused on the enemy, her helmet picking up the targets and zooming in on them. As before she quickly found a series of heavy bolters spraying death at the advancing Kroot and began to fire, shots lancing out as quickly as the rifles cool-down allowed her. Shots began to hit the bunker, sending small shards of concrete into the bunker with them, but they did little more than scratch Applejack’s helmet as she continued to fire.
In short order, the heavy bolters were little more than molten slag, their crews fleeing from the oncoming Kroot, who had managed to close the gap with remarkable speed as soon as the heavy guns fell silent. Applejack turned her gaze away from the slaughter, convincing herself that all she did was destroy machinery, not the operators.
“Three Sentinel walkers,” Hurnak called, looking out of the bunker at the approaching machines. “Armoured-class, two autocannons and a las-cannon. All three targets are approaching fast.”
“Applejack, switch targets and slow the walkers down until the Broadsides can redeploy to destroy them,” Ala ordered, moving up beside Applejack and taking her position, firing his rifle into the Imperial lines.
With a grunt, Applejack swung her rail rifle around, standing beside Hurnak and starring at the approaching walkers, each one moving incredibly quickly, eating up the ground between them as they easily bounded over the rubble strewn ground.
“Are you going to fire?” Hurnak asked, his own pulse rifle doing little more than bouncing off their armoured cockpits.
“If ya want me to hit anything, shut it,” Applejack muttered, sighting on the las-cannon wielding sentinels left knee joint and firing.
The machine shuddered and ground to a halt as the hot super-heated the metal and fused it together. It stayed upright however, its gun firing a huge laser at the bunker. A hole was blasted through the thick concrete as it struck, sending Hurnak sprawling to the floor, small holes being smashed in his armour, blood beginning to seep through.
“Rey’myrs, medical attention for your brother, now,” Ala ordered, glancing round for a moment. “Keep firing, Applejack, well done on hitting the weak spot.”
“Don’t think ah can stop them all firin’ and movin’,” Applejack called back, cursing as one of her shots went wide of its mark. “Power cells are burnin’ up quickly, ah’m gonna be running on fumes soon.”
“They’ll break soon enough,” Ala assured her. “The Kroot are overrunning their main line, then it will just be picking up stragglers. If you run it dry just keep your head down and try not to die.”
“Got it,” Applejack turned her attention back to the sentinels, the two mobile machines darting around in front of the bunker as they fired into it, making it difficult to get a clean shot at it.
“Stand still ya overgrown chicken,” she growled as yet another shot went wide.
The power counter on her HUD continued to count down as she fired, quickly getting towards zero, stopping on one as she broke out in a sweat, both remaining sentinels still pounding away at the bunker, large chucks of masonry now crumbling inwards.
“We could really use those sentinels taken care of Applejack,” Ala called, wincing in pain as a piece of rock sliced through the fabric beneath his arm.
“It’s difficult to hit an erratic target on my hind legs,” Applejack growled back, trying her hardest to focus on the darting vehicle, before grinning. “But not that hard.”
Depressing the firing stud, the thin blue light shot out towards an empty space. Just as the shot passed by the sentinel, it darted to the left, moving its leg into the path of the shot. The machine was spun round as the leg was blown off, landing a few meters away from it. For a few seconds it teetered precariously on its one remaining leg, before falling to the ground. The second sentinel tried to leap over the wreckage that was suddenly in its way, but clipped its toe. In a screeching of tortured metal, the foot ripped through the front of the fallen sentinel, exposing the pilot within, before crashing into the ground as well.
“I’m out,” Applejack panted. “There’s still the last sentinel firing, I can’t take it out Ala.”
Even as she spoke, a trio of battlesuits landed behind the sentinel, their jump jets flaring to slow their descent. Before the sentinel could even try and turn, the three battlesuits raised their weapon arms, a bright blast emanating from each of them. In an instant, the sentinel was reduced to slag, leaving just the legs remaining.
“Looks like you don’t have to,” Ala smiled, before looking out of the bunker and smiling. “Weapons down, they’ve had enough.”
True to Ala’s word, the humans were dropping their weapons, putting their arms in the air and stepping out from behind their cover. A few were still trying to fight, even resorting to turning their weapons on their own kind before being overpowered and wrestled to the floor. There were only a small number of humans left, all of their vehicles had been reduced to wrecks, and Kroot and Fire Warriors were now taking command of all remaining defensive positions, ensuring that even if this was a ruse, the humans would have nowhere to fight from.
“It’s over,” Applejack breathed a sigh of relief as she glanced at the sentinels, a human pilot slowly emerging from one of them, his hands in their air.
“Yeah, the killing stops for now,” Ala nodded, before gesturing for the squad to follow him from the bunker and towards the majority of the Tau force.
Applejack silently followed after the squad, picking pieces of rock out of her dented and pitted armour, while congratulating herself that, to her knowledge at least, she had fought a battle, and not killed a single target. The thought filled her with hope that maybe she would be able to continue this way, until she could finally get home.
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Forge World=Space Marines, the Imperium won't let it go without a fight.
6308326
Not all fore worlds have space marines, they just have Titan legions, skitarii, robots, tech guard and super advanced weaponry as standard
For the Greater Good!
6308332 But it doesnt rule out the deployment of a chapter to defend a world of strategic or economic importance.
6308390
No, that it doesn't
I think this is the first time an MLP/ 40k Cross over has ever been features! Good job!
6308406
Well echnically Swooping Pegasus got featured too, so this would be number two
Forge Worlds are one of the few things that would bring out a Space Marine response in the boonies that is the area around the Damocles Gulf.
The Damocles Gulf campaign book(s) are an interesting read for Tau and Imperial players. Aun'va pretty much declares the whole Third Sphere a failure, Khan and Shadowsun have a grudging respect for one another, even as Shadowsun starts to see what Farsight meant when he ditched the Tau Empire.
It's one of the few times that the Tau get a feel for the Imperium; how vast it is, and how little they care about the 'great' victories the Tau have gained. In return, it's the first time the Tau have pricked the Imperium large enough to turn its head.
That and you get to see a lot of Imperial Knights blowing apart Fire Warriors and Battlesuits. And not a single Ultramarine to be seen! Just lots of White Scars and Raven Guard.
Good too see typical Tau hypocrisy, you've really captured their reasoning and justification for fighting quite well. Oh and this being a forge world I hope to see some of the new Skitarii units running about, Kastelans and Dunecrawlers AWAY!
Also I still hold out hope for a Necron appearance, somehow, if you could make that work that'd make my day.
Should be
Fuck yeah some Tau up in this shit!
Glad to see Applejack has finally seen battle, but a still waiting for the time to come where she must "kill" in her eyes, even though so probably already has
6310305
Thanks for catching that, will change it now.
And true, technically she killed people by taking away the heavy weapon support and helping the Kroot overrun the lines, but in her mind all she did was target machines.
6310318 Yeah, but like Rainbow Dash, I suppose there will be a 'baptism of fire', so to speak?
Where the true horrors of war are thrown upon her and she is forced to kill. At the moment, she's seen but a fraction of how horrifying it can be.
6310320
Oh yeah, that there will be. Different from Rainbow completely, but hopefully it will still be a good one.
6310322 Can't wait. Think we can skip out on some Rainbow Dash chapters for a bit? Hahaha
6310323
Two more AJ chapters, then some RD time, think there's quite a few lined up there
6310332 Wicked
the tau looking like he was
Do you ever speak in anything riddles
was offered a place in the greater good
as they two drones that followed them
Your posture changed, your shaking slightly
1. Forgot to capitalise.
2. Forgot to change this: Do you ever speak in anything but riddles. Said by Bazing 10w, 6d ago from this post.
3. Forgot to capitalise.
4. The.
5. You're.
I worry that the Tau are going to lay claim to All of Equestria if they ever find a means of traveling there
Oh poor naive AJ... how I wish you could remain so innocent. Even after this battle.