Burning Up

by A Space Cephalopod

2

Once more, mid-brain activity gave way to fore-brain thought as what had just transpired processed through Erin’s head.

She had burst from the treatment room’s doors and into a waiting room filled with horses and strange hoofed bipedal creatures. Another winged horse, like the doctor only much larger, approached her, quickly closing the distance only to be met with violent reaction. Deftly she struck him in the center of his brow, her precise punch knocking the armored horse unconscious. As he fell to the floor, two of the bipedal creatures fell upon her, wielding shock-batons in their hands. Quickly she dodged under and around their swings, incapacitating them both with an axe-kick to the shoulder and a strike from the handle of her pistol. As remaining creatures began shouting and screaming in fear she took to the doors across the room, barging through them and into a gurney. The rolling bed fell over, spilling its four-legged occupant onto the floor of the hall. She pushed past two creatures in lab coats, tossing them aside before sprinting do the hall to the end. Turning left she passed through another set of doors and into yet another waiting room. Across the open space she spied two glass doors. Making haste she reached them in a short amount of time, crashing into and through the plate glass and out into the open sunlight beyond.

Now stood in the center of a large circular square, directly beside a stone fountain. The babble of the talking horses and bipedal creatures filled her ears, nearly overwhelming her as she reeled about in circles, trying to find a way to escape the alien city of white stone and gold.

“Halt! Go no further Creature!”

Erin turned to face the opposer, striking a stable, tall stance. Before her, maybe ten meters away was a bipedal creature with wings. It sported a hooded green cloak on its back, brandishing a wooden bow drawn and loaded with steel tipped arrow. Instinctively she raised her pistol, taking aim at the creature’s hand before firing. The flash startled a horse next to her; the thwip of the weapon firing just before the creature before her fell back clutching its hand.

Swiftly she turned on her heel, making full speed down the cobblestone street. Moments before she had spotted a gate down the road. She took her exit, knowing that it wouldn’t stay clear for long. As she neared, more guards took to arms before her, barring her path through the opening in the massive wall surrounding the city.

“Stop! Or we will fire on you!”

She located the source of the demand; a gold armored white creature with blue hair and tail behind the archer line. She paid no head to his warning, continuing her mad dash to the doors.

“Dammit. FIRE!” The command came down and none hesitated, but neither did Erin. She raised her weapon, firing the remainder of her silenced clip into the archers. Each round struck home, and each a non-lethal wound. The archers fell, eight of twelve, each clutching extremities as they cried out in pain. Several of the arrows continued to fly true though, one striking her shoulder, another her chest. The shoulder hit deflected off her pauldron, but the chest hit stuck in her armor. As she reached a meter distant she leapt, axeling over the line of wounded archers and the spear-wielding captain before landing not a foot behind them. Without time for pause she continued her sprint, exiting the city and diving into the dense trees beyond, just left of the road.

“Captain Armor,” one of the uninjured archers said. “What was that?” The captain huffed through teeth clenched in frustration, bands of saliva flying from the force as he turned to watch the brush settle from its rude interruption.

“I don’t know,” he said, loud enough for all of them to hear. “But I know we can let it escape into Equestria. It’s too dangerous.” He turned back to his soldiers, looking over the scene. Eight if his stallions lay wounded, but not mortally so. Several civilians had come to the aid, now tending as best they could to the wounded. His eyes fell upon the remaining guards at his disposal, four of the best archers he knew. They were each near or at seen feet tall, muscular and swift as eagles. “Get yourselves to the hospital,” he said to the wounded. “You’ve earned a bit of rest today. As for you four,” he motioned with his spear to the remaining archers before pointing the blade back over his shoulder. “We have to hunt that thing down and bring it back. Celestia will want to know who caused this.”

...

Appleoosa is a quiet saloon town, more than happy to spend it’s days serving salt licks, Apple Whiskey and water to passers-by in the dry and expansive frontier. Appleoosans go about their day tending to their various jobs and professions, and when their shift comes up, tending to the massive orchard that they all pull their food and livelihood from. True, if anything happened to the apple orchard outside town, the settlement would fall apart.

And that is exactly what was happening.

In the sky above the orchard floated a monstrous craft, nearly 2 kilometers in length. As it slowly neared the town, an immensely powerful beam of supercharged plasma streaming down from the bulge in its center. Light from the beam danced over the violet carapace of the ship, casting an eerie flowing glow of blue green in the night sky. All around the ship and surrounding areas, Banshee and Seraph craft bombarded the land, supporting the army of Grunts, Jackals and Brutes that marched from the bays of Phantom and Spirit dropships. Plasma fire and brute weapons launched devastating projectiles at the Appleoosans and Buffalo natives that fought back to try in a feeble attempt to save their precious food source.

“The attack is going well,” A Brute Chieftain growled in his native tongue as he watched the slaughter play out before him. “Soon this world will be ours, and we shall have yet another colony dedicated to the gods!” The Chieftain’s Honor Guard shouted in agreement and praise as a roaring filled the air. In a blur of motion and enormous plumes of dust, four Scarab’s had dropped from the sky, slowly hefting their bulk up until they were once more properly standing. Sluggishly they moved until they faced the now retreating crowd of horses and bison, firing huge globs of the burning plasma from the cannons on their backs.

On the ground the forces rallied around a lone Stallion wielding a lever action rifle, following him as he lead the retreat to the town where they could ready a more effective, yet equally as feeble, defense. “C’mon,” he shouted over the fire. “We gotta get back to the town and call for reinforcement!” He waved his compatriots forward, joined by two other stallions that were similarly armed. As his fellow settlers scrambled up the hill he shouldered his rifle, cocking the lever before firing on the advancing wave of small blue skinned creatures. Each round launched downrange struck home in their necks and heads, the only exposed areas he could find.

“We gotta fall back!” One of the stallions shouted over his on weapons-fire. “We can’t hold this hillside on our own!” The former glanced to the latter as he reloaded his rifle.

“We gotta give these ponies enough time to get to the town, and I don’t know ‘bout you partner,” He cocked his rifle, holding it at his hip. “But I plan on taking as many of these motherless monster’s with me as I can if I’m gonna die tonight.” The stallion beside him nodded once, a look of determination setting into his face as he returned fire on the enemy. Step by step the trio staved off the enemy as they retreated slowly, holding the hillside as long as their ammunition reserves would let them before turning tail and fleeing toward the town.

They sprinted across the canyon pass as quickly as they could, easily losing any trailing Grunts and Brutes at a dead sprint of fifty kilometers per hour; but they still heard footfalls behind them. The lead stallion looked back, spying a contingent of bird-headed aliens hot on their hooves. With a few quickly issued hand signals the trio split down a three-way fork in the pass, the following Jackals separating to chase each one down.

“Powderkeg, can you hear me on this dern thing?” The stallion held a radio in his hand, stumbling slightly as his Stetson fell of his head. He reached back quickly enough to grab the falling felt article, cramming it back onto his head. “Dammit you old coot! Pick up your radio!” He ducked as a glowing shard of crystal sailed past where his head had been, narrowly avoiding death for the thousandth time that night. “Ugh, I'm getting to old fer this stuff.” The radio hissed static as plasma and needles continued to sail past and around him, the stallion grasping a revolver at his side in his right hand and emptying the chamber behind him. He heard several screams from the aliens behind him; satisfied he had gotten some in his blind-fire.

“Hello?” The radio chirped, the voice sounding rather elderly if that’s any kind of description. “Darn contraption. Hello! Is this thing on?” The stallion lifted his radio, keying the button before firing a round from his rifle behind him.

“Keg! Thank Celestia!”

“Yeah its ol’ Kegger. Whatcha need Braeburn?”

About a Kilometer up the pass a gray maned stallion was splicing thick wires into barrels, hooked onto the canyon wall by a series of ropes and pins. He hummed a merry tune as he worked, setting a trap to collapse the pass on anyone that followed too close to the ponies. “Kegger, do you have the welcome mat laid out? We got a helluva lot of guests commin’ to the party!” Powderkeg capped the wired with black tape, climbing back into a basket before pulling himself up with a pulley.

“Yer dern tootin I do!” He drawled, climbing out of the basket as it reached the lip of the cliff side. “I reckon this’ll be a bigger bang than any Sun Celebration them Canterlot snobs have ever put on. Damn fine work if I do say so.” He walked casually along the canyon side, stopping when he reached a plunger to raise a set of binoculars. “And it looks like I got done just in time too.” He whistled through his teeth as he saw the crowd trailing Braeburn and his companions, hooting like an owl as he spied the massive Scarabs plowing their way into the pass. “What kinda shitpot did you stir to get them monsters after ya?”

“Never mind that!” Braeburn said as he rejoined the other two runners. “Just blow the darn pass when we get by ya, hear?” Keg shook his head, chuckling to himself with giddy excitement.

“Shew! This reminds me of the griffin wars!” he crouched down, sitting on his haunches as he took the plunger’s handles in his hands. With a rebel yell to shame all he pushed the plunger down, Braeburn and his partners barely passing the blast site before the fifty one-hundred pound barrels of blasting powder ignited. The Jackals skidded to a halt as the fire burst overhead, Squawking and squalling as they fled from the falling boulders and enormous slabs of sandstone that crashed down upon them. “That’ll teach ya ta mess with Appleoosa! YEEEEEEE-HAAAAWWW!”

...

Erin crashed through the undergrowth, noisily making her way along to the west. Night had fallen, and even though she knew she was being hunted, she knew they wouldn’t be able to hear her over the deluge that had unleashed itself upon her. After all, If rain could obscure her from a Brute, then these horse creatures surely wouldn’t find her by sound. She slowed her pace as she tripped over a vine, swearing as she freed her boot from the green tendril. She growled in frustration as she fell backwards, her armored shin stuck knee deep in muck; this is why she hated jungles. After minutes of pulling and twisting, failed and feeble looking attempts to free herself from her predicament, she simply fell onto her back.

“I hate this planet.” She mumbled to herself as the rain beat down upon her. She huffed a sigh, licking her teeth as she quietly wished she had a hydro-pack, some food.

A cigarette. By all the religious deities she wished she had a cigarette.

But all that was left on the ship.

She let her head fall to the left, spotting a massive letter V on a plate of Titanium-A Battleplate.

Action stations! All ORB personnel to combat areas. We have encountered a Brute fleet over world Sigma-Phi-three. Fleet Admiral Weston had ordered engagement and we are moving to fire. Let’s kick some ass!

Erin remembered the transmission from the rookie crewman on the gunnery computer of the Vengeance, The Paris class Frigate she was on during the firefight.

“Just a kid…”

She shook her head, disgusted that he had to die the way he did.

Erin was lain back in her pod, waiting on the rest of her squad to get to the launch bay for the drop. Se had already preloaded her weapons slots and the compartment under her seat with ammo and supplies, and was idly chewing on the butt of an Eridanius Select menthol cigarette. As the ship rocked from explosions off the port hull, Erin flipped through her photo albums, her VISR up-link allowing her unrestricted access to fleet wide files. She had stopped on a particular image of a couple kissing. A blond with pale skin and ruby lips, the other a raven-haired beauty with tanned skin and half lidded brown eyes. She was shaken from bittersweet memory as an explosion ripped through the Vengeance, another following soon after before fire tore the bay in half.

“Don’t move.”

Erin blinked twice, shifting her chin down to have the point of a spear tap on the glass of her visor. She opened her hands, raising them until they hovered beside her helmet. The spear pushed against her visor, causing her to stop all motion.

“I said, be still.” Five shadows hovered over her, one behind the spear, the other four holding knocked arrows at full draw. With the twist of her wrist an LED blinked on, projecting a cone of red light at her captors. Before her stood four of the bipedal horse creatures, the spearman’s hoof planted firmly on her chest to hold her in place. “Comet, radio White Tower. We got it.”

“I'm a her,” she said, startling the four archers slightly with her voice. “Not an it. And I would appreciate it if you would take your spear and shove it somewhere other than my visor.” The white creature snorted angrily, lowering the tip to her throat. Erin closed her hands to her helmet slowly, as not to provoke them further, sliding her thumbs into the grooves along the jaw-line of the article. Pushing in two buttons she pulled the helmet from her head, dropping it by her side with a relieved sigh. “Better.” Two of the archers stared at her with curiosity, the spearman unfazed as another archer’s white cheeks flushed slightly. “Don't get any ideas bub” She glowered at him with malice, the creature cowing slightly before steeling himself and taking aim on her face once more.

“This is Fleetwing. We have the run-away.” Her eyes traveled up and to the right, spotting an archer with a handheld radio. He was holding the device to his ear, listening to the quiet chatter intently. His body became stiff as the transmission continued, turning to reveal his face a mixture of fear, sorrow and shock. “Captain,” he said, holding the radio out and turning a dial op with his thumb. “Appleoosa’s been razed, sir.” The transmission was on a loop, a female voice playing over the speaker for all of them to hear.

“I bring sad news for us all, and fear for our very survival on this night. An hour ago my sister and I received word from a runner that Appleoosa, the settlement on the western frontier, was under attack from an alien force. The report stated that they fell from the sky in a large craft, an army of millions descending from within, along with heavily armored vehicles, aerial craft and monstrous machines. The pioneers fought bravely, defeating many, but they quickly ran out of ammunition. Without Mage ranks to reinforce them the town was taken, prisoners captured and murdered in cold blood. An advanced scout reported thirty minutes ago that the settlement was burned to the ground, and everything for a mile in all directions was burned to glass. I ask that we all take a moment to honor our fallen brothers and sisters tonight, and pray that we can route these enemies before their fate is also ours.”

Author's Note:

Awww snap!

as always, point out anything wrong like spelling errors or mied punctuation. my keyboard sucks,d i possibly missed smething.

and also, criticize, critique or tear it apart in any way you want.

Comments

[Requiem17]

Shinings gonna pin it on the human. Paranoid fucker XD

[Pony With A Box]

You were right... Things did go to shit, and then that shit went to more shit.
Hah, this reminds me of that movie Avatar. Huge, powerful, advanced "alien" force invades a "helpless" primitive planet, slaying the natives. Not saying you stole the idea

[Pony With A Box]

Hit add comment too early on my prev. comment -_-
Just like to say that I'm loving this so far, and I subscribed or whatever it is. Can't wait to see more!

[A Space Cephalopod]

4127091 holy shit. i hadnt noticed this.

[ShimmerShade]

Hm. Liking the premise. Interesting to say the least. I'll be watching this story evolve quite closely. :3