Erika Gefallen: Atlantean Unicorn

by Legionary

Chapter 3 : Combat RW

Celestia’s mind whirled at what Twilight had said. It had only been over a month since the unicorn had been unwillingly sent to this world yet she had said she had been here for years. Even so she still should have recognised both herself and her friends, as covered with dust and filthy as they currently were. Yet she was now looking at them like they were strangers she didn’t particularly like.

“What the hey Twilight!?” Dash shouted. “We go through all this to get you and this is how you treat us?”

“Don’t call me that.” ‘Twilight replied. “Even if I had been left with anything other than a box I had been abandoned in I doubt I would have grown up with it. And get me? I’m not going anywhere with you… least until I know what I am getting into.”

Celestia’s confusion deepened at Twilight’s words, not only did she not remember them she didn’t even know her name and grew up with a different one. What did that even mean? Had her memories been erased and replaced with something else? It was all Celestia could come up with considering her lack of information in what was going on but as far as she knew humans had no magic, then again everything she had seen so far did not align at all with what she knew about humans and their world.

Before anyone could say anything else ‘Twilight’ scoffed and her helmet suddenly snapped back up and over her head. Then she turned around and walked a short distance away before placing a hoof on the side of her head.

Celestia watched curiously as the mare she once knew stood in absolute silence for several moments.

Λ

“Captain Sparkly to the Sadistic Melody.” Erika said into the coms pointedly facing away from the ponies she had been talking to.

“Sparkly this is Captain Alexandria.” A voice answered calmly.

“Ma’am! Did not expect you to be at the coms.” Erika said in surprise at her commanding officer answering transmissions.

“I was waiting for yours specifically.” Alexandria replied. “Did first contact with the P-One race and the G-Class go well?”

“Both are secured ma’am and no violence so far.” Erika reported before adding. “They happen to be my race ma’am.”

“Hmm… your status Sparkly?” Alexandria asked.

“Still one hundred good for combat ma’am.” Erika answered. “… Though truth be told I am rather eager to know about my race after all this time. I know my priorities though ma’am, I’m just calling to call in transport and have them sent up for safe keeping.”

“You’ll get your transport Sparkly and stay sharp, this fight is still a long way from finishing just yet.” Captain Alexandria stated.

“Of course ma’am.”

“Captain Alexandria out.” The Captain signed off.

Λ

After a long moment of silence, filled only with somewhat distant explosions and the sounds of war ‘Twilight’ finally lowered her hoof and faced the Celestia and other mares. Once more the seams in her helmet appeared before it slid away and revealed her face. She seemed to study all of them for a moment, her eyes lingering on Fluttershy and Dash’s wings and on the bear foreheads of Applejack and Pinkie Pie.

“A transport is coming in.” She finally said. “We will stay here and protect you until it arrives and ensure you board safely. Now we don’t intend you any harm but this is obviously not a safe place for any of you so you’ll be sent somewhere far safer.”

Though they were having trouble with keeping up with everything that was happening if there was one thing the mares could understand, it was being somewhere that wasn’t as dangerous and as violent as this place was. Celestia was also grateful for such a reprieve as she needed to figure out how exactly she was going to bring everyone home without the Elements of Harmony to power the spell. However she also noticed that ‘Twilight’ didn’t say she was going to be on the transport with them.

“And what about you?” Celestia asked with a concerned frown.

“What about me?” The armored unicorn replied with a raised brow. “I’ve still got a battle to fight and soldiers to command.”

Before Celestia could form a response to an answer she found rather distressing a voice suddenly appeared from around her, speaking an odd language she hadn’t heard before. ‘Twilight’ frowned and starting speaking the same language and the voice responded causing her expression to harden. She then barked something that sounded like a commanded to the black armored beings around her and immediately her helmet snapped back up over her head. As the other armored beings leapt into movement Celestia approached ‘Twilight’.

“What’s going on?” She asked her. “What is happening?”

“Take cover.” Was Celestia’s only warning before the wings on ‘Twilight’s’ back suddenly lit up and she flew up into the air and darted away as a loud shrill whistle filled the air. Celestia and the mares could only shout in alarm as explosions suddenly started erupting from around them and showing dirt over everything in sight.

Λ

Erika darted through the air, dodging shells and explosions before quickly darting behind some rubble for cover. She had been informed by an Air Mage that the squad of mercenaries they had been supressing had managed to weather their barrage little worse for wear and was rapidly closing in on her. Seeing the squad closing in on her from down the street she could understand why they withstood the bombing.

It was a group of seven extremely heavily armored and armed mercenaries. Each one stood around seven feet tall thanks to their immense high tech power armor, some armor plates easily two inches thick. Guns were under their forearms, attached to their shoulders and one large one on their back. The wrist mounted guns could easily supress large groups of infantry and the cannons on their shoulders could deal with armor just as easily, the large cannon on their back was a mortar, a relatively short range low caliber artillery gun with a range of a handful of miles. They all had the colors of the Dire Loons Mercenaries Company, garish stripes of red, yellow and green with a red wall eyed smiley sneering and sticking it’s tongue out mockingly.

“SPARKLY!” One of the Mercs boomed out of his vocaliser. “I’VE FINALLY CAUGHT YOU FUCKING TYRANT BITCH!”

‘Oh not this asshole again.’ Erika scowled as she shifted her position behind her cover and built up a spell, her form beginning to arc with slight sparks of violet. ‘I’ve had it with playing tag with the bastard, he is not leaving here alive.’

“BUTCHER THOSE LITTLE FUCKS OF HERS!” The Raging Merc boomed to his subordinates. “I’VE WAITED TOO LONG TO TEAR THIS BITCH A NEW ONE!”

Translucent spheres of blue energy formed around each of the mercs as they jogged forward. Immediately they were met with a wave of colorful death, sky blue balls of fire trailing long tails of flames, beams of dark green, large pulsating crimson orbs and Erika’s own stream of violet spark bolts, all of it impacted the shields and did nothing but tear up the ground around each merc. Erika knew better though, the shields were being drained though it would take time and they had the advantage of both numbers and the enemy commander being angry.

The Merc Captain strode forward purposefully, utterly ignoring the magical death raining down upon him. The visor of his helmet locked firmly on Erika’s position behind some wreckage letting off streams of spark bolts at his approach. The two shoulder cannons then glowed briefly, air and dust being sucked towards the muzzle and loud high pitched whines filling the air. Just before the cannons fired Erika leapt into the air, her armor’s wings alight as she took into the air and an explosion overtook her former cover.

Erika continued letting off dazzling streams of spark bolts as she darted madly through the air, occasionally adding a much larger version that instead of smacking into the Merc’s shield with a crackle of electricity, exploded.

The Merc Captain wasn’t idle in the least as he was being bombarded, his armor’s systems tracked Erika’s erratic flight patterns and made predictions. Using this information he let loose his anti-infantry guns on his arms, sending long thick rounds flying towards Erika.

Erika frowned as the rounds started filling the air around her and despite her best efforts she was being hit. Unlike the local tech where a soldier had to be using fairly large anti-armor rail drivers to get a piercing hit on the first try on Atlantean Warmages, core tech was advanced enough that infantry grade weapons could tear through Warmage armor if it hit the right place.

‘Ugh… looks like he’s determined to make this do or die too.’ Erika thought as bullets ripped right through a joint and smashed one of her knees. ‘He isn’t trying to dodge or take advantage of the terrain and his shield is starting to flicker, he’s standing where he has a clear shot of me and where everyone has a shot of him.’

Deciding that trying to stay ahead of a core enhanced targeting system was a bad idea Erika took to the ground again and briefly limped behind another piece of wreackage. The Unicorn Warmage focused on her magic, sending bolts arching up and over her cover and rapidly healing her destroyed knee as well. She quickly blurred into movement when she heard a familiar whine and moved towards some more wreckage when her former cover exploded.

“Weren’t some of you just bombing these Mercs a minute ago?” Erika calmly questioned on her comms. “Where is my air support?”

“Working on it captain.” Sky Ranger responded. “Enemy fighters and bombers moved into the combat zone, we had a priority intercept.”

“Support me when you can.” Erika grunted when core rounds started tearing through her cover and started taking a few bits and pieces of herself with them.

Leaping out of her quickly destructing cover Erika sent a spark bolt as big as herself flying into the Merc Captain’s shield. There was a brilliant explosion and when the dust cleared the Captain’s shield was gone, having been strained beyond its capacity by all the magic fired into it.

“RAAAAGH!” The Merc bellowed as he charged her, firing off his four guns as he went. “YOU ARE NOT KILLING ME! I AM KILLING YOU!”

‘I’m not the one with armor that can’t heal itself.’ Erika mentally sniped as silvery material started slowly filling in the holes and tears made by gunfire in her armor. ‘Neither am I the one making tactical errors left and right for the sake of revenge you amateur.’

Erika blurred into movement, darting from wreckage to wreckage as the Merc Captain fired overwhelming amounts of bullets and began overheating his anti-armor cannons in his rabid attempt to kill her. Dirt flew through the air and showered over everything as explosions rang out around her but Erika stayed calm and steady even as bullets began to hit her armor and tear into her again. She coughed and choked a little when one such round managed to piece her side plating and rip into her lung before lodging in the other.

Gritting her teeth she kept her focus on firing off more spark bolts into the Merc’s charging form, tearing apart more and more of his armor before quickly darting into cover again. Taking the brief moment this gave her to her advantage Erika rapidly inflated her collapsed lung with her magic and pushed the bullet out of her other into her chest cavity. Then she had to leap away as her cover erupted in more explosions.

Erika turned and saw that the Merc’s shoulder cannons had finally shut themselves down to prevent a violent meltdown, depriving their user of much needed firepower to his vulgar ire. The armored unicorn took this chance to strafe his knees and make him collapse onto the ground and barely holding himself up with his hands.

“THINK YOU’RE HOT SHIT, I’VE STILL GOT THIS GUN!” The Merc shouted as the mortar on his back suddenly hummed with energy, leaving Erika with only enough time to jump before her ears started ringing and the world went spinning.

By the time she began her rapid magic aided recovery Erika found herself being held aloft. The Merc Captain was now holding her by the neck and no doubt glaring into her visor out of his own. Alarms started going off on her hud as the Captain started squeezing down on her neck before he suddenly stopped.

“I am not going to choke you, I want to hear you scream bitch.” He said as he adjusted his grip and brought his other hand to grip around her head. “Just like they did.”

Erika frowned as she felt and heard her helmet strain under the pressure of the Merc’s strength, this was somewhat of a bad situation but she had honestly been through worse. She just needed to build up a bit of magic and she would be out of his grip in a moment, she could count on her armor lasting that long especially if he expected her to scream a bit before dying.

Suddenly there was a brilliant flash of light and a beam of intense sunlight appeared from somewhere off to the side and struck the Merc Captain. It scythed over one of his shoulder cannons and clipped the other when he recoiled from the hit and then moved downwards, managing to shear off the massive mortar on his back. The attack was powerful and had completely melted the one shoulder cannon it hit completely while overheating the other into uselessness and cutting deeply into the thick plating of the armor.

“ARGH! WHAT THE FUCK?!?” The Merc shouted and turned his head towards the source of his attack, offering the perfect opportunity for Erika to assault him.

The armored unicorn released the magic she had been building up into a beam of her own which blasted near point blank into the Merc’s face, making him drop her and back away clutching her heavily damaged helmet. Erika pressed her attack, charging into him with her horn alight and stabbing it deeply into the plating over his stomach before releasing another burst of magic.

The Merc Captain jerked as the sound of a muffled explosion went off and he pushed Erika away from him. Clutching his stomach he staggered a few steps backwards before falling over onto his back with a loud bang.

Erika exhaled lightly at another of her hunters meeting their end at her hooves before turning to the side and seeing a dust covered Celestia looking at her from the wreckage she had been taking cover in, her face a mask of deep worry and concern. The armored unicorn stared at her a bit before giving her a nod of thanks and turning towards the rest of her squad.

There was only two of the Mercenaries still standing, one was in the process of attempting to retreat but was being utterly torn apart by ranged magic and the other was being physically torn apart by her second in command. Her second had seen fit to close the distance and engage in melee, as well as make use of his Jotun Armor’s ability to enlarge both himself and his weapon. Ending the fight by impaling the merc on his massive sword her second then rapidly shrunk down to normal size in a whirring of motors and flipping of armor plates.

“Are you alright Captain?” He asked her.

“I am okay Jacobs.” Erika responded and then added a little jokingly. “Thanks for the help by the way.”

“I would have been embarrassed for you if that killed you.” Jacobs said with a chuckle.

“You and me both.” Erika sighed, glancing at her own bested foe before walking away. Suddenly she was stopped when said bested foe grabbed her by one of her hooves.

“Y-y-you Killed t-them…” He choked out weakly. “A-all of them… h-hundreds of u-us gone in… in a minute…”

“You all signed contracts, every one of you knew what they were getting into and the risks.” Erika stated, her voice lacking all sympathy yet any heat as well. “If our positions were reversed and you saw a chance to slip behind to deliver that decisive blow you and your own wouldn’t have been any different.”

“…N-no… we wouldn’t have…” The Merc agreed after a moment and then with a strangled choke his grip slackened on her hoof.

“…” Erika stared at the corpse of her enemy for a moment before bring a hoof to the side of her head. “Sky Ranger cancel that request for air support, we handled it.”

“Roger that Captain.” Sky Ranger replied. “Your transport will arrive within the minute.”

“Right, Captain Sparkly out.” Erika said and turned towards the ponies still hiding in the wreckage. “All of you can come out now! The transport will be arriving soon to pick all of you up.”

All six of the dust covered mares nervously got out of the cover. They were rather twitchy now, flinching at the sounds of war and death around them. Erika couldn’t blame them for the reaction as she figured the lot of them were civvies and therefore completely unused to war, she became rather curious why they would willingly go into a warzone for her despite this lack of experience though.

Blurring out of the sky a black shape came to a near instant stop over them, it was their transport. It was a sleek small ship, capable of holding twenty people comfortably, forty if they didn’t mind getting knocked about. It was covered in gleaming black plating, it’s two wings stuck out at the sides and ended in large powerful turbine like engines that could easily adjust their orientation, and had a smaller pair on its tail as well. Its cockpit didn’t appear to have any windows for the pilot to see out of but was covered in very heavy looking armor.

The transport eased down till it was only a foot or so above the ground and then its boarding ramp lowered onto the ground with a clang, revealing a faintly lit bare interior with the walls lined with seats.

“Alright just get on and you’ll be brought to safety of the command ship, the Sadistic Melody.” Erika said gesturing towards the opening with her head.

“But what about you?” Celestia asked as the mares quickly boarded the transport.

“Like I told you before I have a battle to fight, though I do appreciate the assist you gave me.” Erika said with the slightest smile. “Don’t worry I’ll met up with you again soon, even since the day I could talk I wanted to find my race and I’m not about to let that go to waste.”

“Very well…” Celestia said with a frown and boarded the transport as well but turned back towards Erika. “Please stay safe until then.”

“Don’t worry it’s going to take a lot to-” Erika began.

“This Captain Alexandria to all forces.” Alexandria suddenly broke in one the comms. “The situation in orbit is deteriorating rapidly, we are pulling out, I repeat we are pulling out all forces prepare for extraction.”

“Right, looks like we are coming along.” Erika stated and boarded the ramp along with her squad. “Everyone buckle in, the trip back might be a bit rocky.”

The Warmages wordlessly took their places on the seats on one side of the transport and the mares took to the seats on the other side. However they did start to have issues trying to sit down right and one of the Warmages sat back up to assist them.

The ramp closed as Erika stepped into the cockpit of the transport. The cockpit looked like it was it nothing but two seats sitting in midair supported by nothing. Erika entered the cockpit without a word and took the seat next to the pilot, stepping on the special plating that displayed the world outside. The pilot was wearing a dark gray jumpsuit along with a gunmetal gray helmet with large black reflective glass like visor. The helmet also happened to have dozens of stickers on the back of it, quite a few of them rather childish looking.

“What’s the situation in orbit?” Erika asked the pilot.

“It was under control until a few minutes ago.” The pilot answered as he manipulated his holographic controls. “Then dozens of Dire Loon escorts and a few troop carriers popped in. The Melody and her own escorts could handle them but not without possible losses and damage.”

“So we’re pulling out.” Erika stated with a nod. “Understandable, this is just a raid, too much effort to bust up some docks and industrial districts.”

“Yep.” The pilot replied and the transport lifted off and immediately shot towards the clouds, more transports arriving and passing them to pick up the various units still on the ground. “Get ready; it might be a bit more crowded on the way up.”

Erika nodded and stared out as the clouds passed them and the sky began to fade away to a field of stars and sudden flashes of lights.

-TBC-

Author's Note:

AN: Another rewrite that I feel is much better than the original

Comments

[Legionary]

412615 Thanks!

But personally I'm disappointed in myself for not taking advantage of two perfectly good moments to play off Pinkie's ability to twitch when danger is approuching >:C Oh well a lesson for next time...

As a side note a new chapter should be up tomorrow mid afternoon at the latest.

[Fireheart]

twilight, if i ever get my hands on you you will suffer

[SPudRum]

Hmm a bit different take than the original but good job nonetheless