Finding the Engineer (Rewritten)
The air detonated with hundreds of explosions as the entire skyline above a massive river as dark ‘clouds’ of explosives were shot upwards from somewhere along the river banks. Large wooden airships armored with bolted metal plates that flew above the river rained down their own fire from armored turrets down to the ground below, but due to the thick foliage below they couldn’t accurately direct their fire. On top of a small forested hill sat a large hidden ball turret fitted with a single weapons platform that had numerous wires and armored hoses that appeared to be filled with light blue fluid that maneuvered to aim with massive motors. A brilliant blue ball of what appeared to be lightning erupted from the end of the barrel with the sound of a slight whine of the air ionizing. Alongside the large armored turret were smaller turrets that looked similar to the larger turrets firing a staccato of rounds rapidly from their quad-linked cannons against the airships with their armor-piercing high explosive shells. As the large gun rotated to target another airship and released its bolt of ionized energy again, this time aimed at a ariship that had been hidden behind another airship that had been torn into two by the earlier blast of energy, and scored a direct hit into the middle of the armored airship.
The effect was instant. The flying vessel armor boiled away while the wood instantly burst into flames and detonated as the searing energy from the naval particle projector cannon (N-PPC) detonated the black powder within. None would survive the explosion and the subsequent crash.
Four of these massive weapons were all firing upwards as armored Griffon airborne infantry descended to the ground wielding halberds, black powder rifles, and small round shields to fight their enemy on the ground to either capture the turrets or destroy them.
But it was not to be.
From well-hidden concrete bunkers hidden by camo nets, effective camouflage patterns, and local foliage; large caliber machine guns were locked, loaded, and aimed at the descending Griffons. With a press of a button, the weapons roared out their tracer rounds into the steel armored Griffons while releasing a stream of ammunition casings into the floor of their bunkers. The ‘battle’ was utterly one-sided. Their steel armor became their undoing as metal shattered and bent, turning the shattered armor into a weapon against its wearer, which was compounded by the large caliber rounds of the heavy machine guns that tore the attackers in half or into lumps of feathers and flesh. The attackers desperately fired their own weapons to little effect. Their rudimentary ‘autoguns’ lacked uniform rifling, and were highly inaccurate unless fired in groups or in close range. And in these situations where the enemy was protected by several feet thick reinforced concrete and metal; that also fired out hot stinging death at speeds their own weapons were not capable of?
It was a massacre for troops descending or even in the air.
Within minutes, nearly all of the infantry had been utterly annihilated, their airships retreating as fast as they could with only three airships afloat with massive damages across their hulls, and their morale utterly crushed from losing an airfleet of fifteen ships. Their enemy was far too entrenched and protected behind strange powerful weapons. Nothing short of a full scale invasion with soldiers in the millions would be capable of breaching the hidden fortress.
Hundreds of dead bodies littered the ground with their armor, weapons, and their airships rendered into nothing but burning scraps of wood and melted metal slowly cooling. As the day turned to night from the ‘siege’, the three allied hives had arrived onto the field of carnage with mixed opinions and trepidation.
---
Calliphora understood why Myxine and Ambrosia would throw up at the sight before them. She was used to seeing the decomposition of a corpse and was familiar with the stench of death due to where her hive used to live, but this?
"Thei- *Urp* Their Griffons, aren't they?" Myxine held back the sour aftertaste of bile in her throat while Ambrosia was being tended by her drones with cups of water mixed with the sweet taste of love.
"Well, dead Griffons." Calliphora levitated a somehow clean piece of shattered armor and wiped some of the blood off using magic. "Now this is interesting."
"What is?" Ambrosia weakly asked as she turned her head away from the gruesome sight. She might be somewhat used to dying bodies, but the sheer carnage before her was too much for even her.
On the piece of armor was a rather ornate insignia with brown wings and a single circle in the center with two golden 'claws'. The official insignia of the Griffon Empire and it brought many questions to Myxine. Why were the Griffons even here? As far as she knew, this land was unclaimed and-
"So that's it." Myxine nodded as she turned to face the two other queens. "These Griffons were most likely here to 'claim' these lands until they seemed to have ran headfirst into our quarry."
"Then..." Ambrosia paled under her black coat. "Little Patina's hive did all this?"
"Most likely not." Calliphora said as she motioned to their drones. "It takes a full three months to birth a single drone and we know she is young. If I remember, her hive was at fifty drones last meeting, was she not?" Myxine nodded. "Even if she spent an entire year sitting here and gorging on love to produce more drones, she would only have a maximum of a hundred at the cost of damaging her ability to birth more."
Funny how Changeling reproduction worked. When a queen birthed eggs during their moments in ‘heat’, they would have normally been in the dozen. But if they had gorged on love, they would be able to birth more, usually at the cost of damaging their reproductive organs. All that is then required is a 'goop' produced by Changelings from the holes in their legs and a little bit of love to begin the growth process which is three months and then they emerge fully grown.
"No. Patina would not risk that. If anything, she would have relied on her technology." Myxine concluded as she lit her horn in a deep blue glow and tore a piece of cloth from their carts and wrapped it around her muzzle so that some of the smell didn't get to her. "We should look for the entrance of this fortress before it gets too dark."
The drones and the two other queens followed how Myxine was blocking the smell of partially cooked flesh and death before them. They stopped before a crashed airship that was still burning and decided to determine how far the Griffons had advanced technologically compared to what they had seen with Patina's technological progress with the found documents.
"It's certain that the Griffons are much more advanced than the ponies if all of this wasn't in pieces. Look at this." Myxine motioned to where her drones had dug out a rather sizable engine with several massive metal propellers. "If four of these lifted this vessel in the air, carried weapons, and ground troops; then imagine their larger vessels with larger engines or multiple versions of these."
"Impressive... For a bunch of bird brains." Ambrosia grinned behind her mask until one of the wooden pile of scrap exploded outwards to reveal a fully armored Griffon wielding a large autogun with a large war-hammer strapped across its armored back and the Changelings could see the madness behind the helmeted head of the Griffon.
"Bird Brain?! I'll show you scum BIRD BRAIN!" The Griffon screamed as he jumped at them while squeezing the trigger of his weapon. His wings were broken due to how they looked, but didn't seem to hinder him at all. Ambrosia dove to the side as large rounds erupted from the barrel while the rest of the Changelings all quickly maneuvered to defend their respective Queens. "We came here to claim these uncontrollable lands and you scum claimed you were on it for more than three years ago! I'll kill of of you an-"
The Griffon's infuriated rant was halted by something that was most definitely out of a fictional book. A bipedal machine standing almost 11 meters tall and armored head to toe by blocky armor and had a large rectangular glass panel that revealed an armored changeling wearing a fully enclosed helmet with a vest worn on its barrel within the ‘head’. Its left arm was different from the right as it possessed a small shield with a four-fingered hand. The right arm was nothing more than a large bore cannon emerging from where the hand would be that was aimed at the Griffon. The surviving armored Griffon could only whimper pathetically as the machine simply brought its massive feet down on him without any ceremony and the Changelings couldn’t hear the crushing of bones and metal due to the sound of the bipedal mech’s joints.
The three queens could only swallow the dry lumps in their throats as they watched the massive machine aimed its cannon at them and motioned quickly to the right. One of the Changelings under Ambrosia's hive hissed foolishly, and was met only by silence as the machine merely aimed its blocky torso at the ruined airship and fired two lances of green energy that burned far too easily into the remaining armor platings of the airship. It turned back to the assembled Changelings with two slightly cooling circles in its chest with a haze of heat swirling around them. It once again motioned to the right with its cannon arm while Myxine began to hear more and more heavy stomping.
When they crested a hill to where the giant war machine was motioning them to go, every Changeling froze at the sight of nearly seven more of the giant machines walking around with its massive weapons.
"Look. Several seems different from the one we just saw." Calliphora pointed out as she glanced at the machine watching their movement with its massive cannon still aimed at them. And indeed in the distance were slightly more bulkier machines alongside smaller ones that moved much faster than their larger cousins. The other seven occasionally fired their weapons downwards, most likely killing any Griffons that had survived the battle. "We should move. The one behind seems to be agitated."
Myxine and Ambrosia quickly took a peek backwards and immediately began to trot as the mech behind them was aiming the cannon directly at them. The three queens were led to a rather large clearing where they finally noticed two Changelings with smaller wings than normal, feminine shape, and bright orange mane and tail; wearing what appeared to be a bulky olive green vest wearing fully enclosed helmets with tinted visors. They merely shared a look before one of the helmeted Changeling’s horn lit up a reddish orange hue. Instantly, the ground behind the strange drones rumbled and the queens and their hives noted that the ground was nothing more than a facade for two massive metal doors that were sliding into their housing sideways. Under the massive gates was an entirely armored ground that was smooth and revealed a tunnel going downwards, deeper in to the ground.
"Where are you taking us?" Myxine simply asked seeing as there were the two giant machines behind them. Any antagonization would be a disaster for them. The lead Changeling, merely pointed deeper down the tunnel. "Are you..."
"They are my drones, Queen Myxine." A voice from within the tunnel immediately alerted their attention to the voice that they had been searching for. "I apologize for the messy situation upstairs. The Griffons were getting too pushy for my liking and attacked me to 'claim the land for their Emperor'."
And in that instant, their goal stepped out from the shadows flanked by strangely armored Changelings. Patina herself still had her goggles on the top of her head and also had the same olive drab colored jacket draped over her body. It had a strange sewn badge that looked like four silver diamonds placed in a cross pattern with a black circle in the middle. And on the top of her head was a beret cap with the same symbol on it as well. The two armored Changelings to her sides had the similar uniform on, but also had strange dark grey colored armor plating that held two mounted devices attached to mechanical arms. One of which sported a rectangular device with a slim barrel that had a coil of wires that were attached to the right mounting while the left weapon was a slimmer weapon with a strange white block attached to the side. The Changelings also wore armored helmets in the same color as the back mounted devices that shielded their horns and had smooth clear orange visors over their eyes. The device didn't seem to hinder their wings, but seeing as the devices moved with their heads, it was easy to tell that the devices on their back were weapons.
"Patina Gear?" Calliphora seemed to be most surprised at the young queen, who looked to be far too tired and frustrated for her liking. "Are you alright?"
Both Myxine and Ambrosia could also see the signs of lack of sleep and some form of burden on the younger queen’s shoulders. Under her eyes were bags and even her entire body seemed to be lackluster in movement. The Patina from an year ago somehow always had a bright look in her eyes, a spring in her step, and the eagerness to do something. But now?
"Me? Oh, I'm absolutely fine." The sarcasm in her voice was very thick and impossible to miss. "For an entire year, I laid about twenty more drones, fought off wave after wave of Griffon attacks, concentrated on building this base, building defenses while being attacked, maintaining battlemechs, and did I mention that I have not slept for a full week?" She was snarling now. "But you don't seem to care about that do you? I might have used your search for me to 'unite' some of the major hives and show what I can do, but I can tell that’s not why you are here. So don't mind me, I'm just going to go to my command center and determine what the Griffons are cooking up next after this loss."
With her piece said, the young queen angrily stomped back further into the tunnel, prompting Calliphora to move forwards, but was halted by a bulkhead closing behind the young queen after she had turned into a hallway on the side of the tunnel. Another entrance, headed in the opposite direction of Patina, opened up revealing a drone, dressed similarly like Patina with a patch that possessed a blue triangle with two slim blue bars above said triangle with an smaller golden triangle on the top of the larger triangle finished with a slim golden bar on the top of it all, stepped forwards with an awkward smile on her face.
"Please follow me. I'll show you to your quarters while you are here." Her voice was low, yet smooth as she waited for the three queens to walk up to her. "Please excuse mother. She has been under extreme stress due to the Griffon attacks for the last few months."
"Mother?" Myxine looked at the drone strangely before looking at an equally confused Calliphora and Ambrosia.
"Oh, our 'queen' hates to be called 'queen' and seeing as we are her flesh and blood, have been cleared to call her as such. We also call her mostly by 'Miss Patina', the military sector calls her ‘Kommandant-General’, and the science division calls her 'Professor Patina'." Myxine nodded in slight understanding and moved to follow the drone that was now leading them in the brightly lit tunnel.
"So, your 'mother' has been under stress?" Calliphora asked in a worried tone as she walked alongside the drone.
"Indeed. At first, she was dismayed at being found out on her Love Generation Engine project; but that was turned into 'lessons' for your chasing hives. Did you not find it strange how each hive found different things that led you here eventually?" There was no arguing there. They had found it strange how each hive found different things that 'combined' into one thing, but that was a 'lesson'?
"So... we have been going through the mucky south to learn to work with each other?" Ambrosia asked with a slightly awed look in her face. "That's so brilliant~"
"But alas, the recent skirmishes with the Griffons had... upset her." At this, Myxine looked at the Changeling with a curious glance.
"Since when?" The drone stopped and pawed the ground with her foreleg.
"Nine months ago." Her voice was lower than before. "They came out of nowhere and 'ordered' us to cease all we are doing because they ‘declared’ that they had just claimed these lands for their emeperor. Miss Patina took offense to that and tried to negotiate with them, but..."
"That sounds like them, headstrong and thinking they own everything that the ponies don't touch." Myxine muttered as she remembered her own dealings with the Griffons.
"Yes, that describes them well. And when she merely threatened to drive them off, they attacked us at the negotiating table." Ambrosia moved next to the drone and peered at the drone’s barrel not covered by the jacket. It had been slightly bugging her the entire time that the drone had hidden her wings under the jacket, but had noticed something strange. The drone merely sighed as she stopped and took off the jacket to reveal broken chitin under the jacket, but that was not what shocked them the most. It was the layer of silver metal that adorned most of her barrel. "I... might not be alive right now if she had not sealed my wound with an artificial replacement of half of my organs."
"B-but how can a blade-"
"Not a blade, Miss Myxine. An autogun round that was designed with the express purpose of exploding within one’s body, but I was lucky as it detonated just as it exited my body. And technically speaking, I'm a cyborg seeing as I have machines within me." She put the jacket back on and continued to move. "Let's continue. I will have some of the staff bring up some food for you along with water. You must be thirsty after all of that walking." They could hear the faux cheerfulness and it rather worried them.
Two days later, the three queens could only look around their surroundings with both a mix of wonder and horror. They could see how efficiently the seventy plus drones work on various machines, but also some machines piloted by said drones setting up scaffolding and others working with strange tools that attached metal platings onto walls and worked with small wires using their magic.
But what really took them back was the massive cavern that currently housed two massive warehouses and three massive buildings that appeared to be living quarters combined with various facilities within. One of which was being used by them now.
"...I... really don't want to take the artificial love thingy now." Ambrosia whispered as she watched the Patina’s drones carrying various crates out using wheeled vehicles and were loading up larger ones into vehicles that hovered above the ground. "It doesn't seem right to just take it from her."
Both Calliphora and Myxine were in silent agreement. They had seen what Patina had been planning for an entire year by reading, studying, and learning the material she left behind to 'unite them’; but their goal had always been to take the artificial love generator for themselves. But seeing the wounded, tired, and some graves nearby; it made their greed seem so petty in the long run. Without Patina, all of their efforts would have been wasted and it would lead to their downfall seeing as they had abandoned nearly everything back in Equestria.
But what could they do?
Just as they were about to turn around and head towards their temporary quarters without any words being spoken amongst them, a shrill alarm that sounded sent Patina's hive into a frenzy of movement with wide eyes and frantic movement.
"All to your positions! The Griffons are back with their Bombard Ships and skirmishing cruisers! All to your positions!" Patina's voice screamed from the loud speakers mounted on metal poles that also mounted electric lights.
"I don't know what Bombard ships and skirmishing cruisers are, but I do know that it doesn't sound friendly." Calliphora had a serene feel about her as she closed her eyes and looked at the high ceiling of the underground base. "Nekorpolis... To me!"
Instantly, crimson colored Changelings moved quickly from their resting positions and moved before their queen. Calliphora opened her eyes to reveal her semi-clear eye lid over her real eye and hissed. The hive mimicked their queen and moved. The entire Nekropolis hive, excluding Calliphora zoomed to where Patina's drones were loading the boxes as quickly as possible and began to assist Patina’s drones. Immediately shaking their own shock off, Patina's uniformed drones took control as they barked out orders to which the Nekropolis hive moved to fulfill.
"Queen Calliphora, cease your actions! This is general quarters against an enemy that will kill on sight! I will not have the deaths of your-" The loud speakers were silenced by a smug looking Ambrosia who grinned as she floated over a bunch of cut wires from the tower and landed where one of the box-loaded hover vehicle was.
"My dearies... Can you help the poor little Patina's hive out? I can't bear seeing such brave Changelings go to Tartarus so early." Ambrosia 'begged' her hive with a cute pout on her muzzle as she looked on with large ‘tear-filled’ eyes. "Oh, and make sure those mean birds get roasted well." With that said, the Honeycomb hive flew to wherever Patina’s drones directed them to the massive machines rotating and rumbling as dusts fell to the ground from the shockwaves from incoming fire and retaliatory fire from the fortress. She herself began to trot to the command center of the underground base where most could feel the helpless anger from the young queen.
"Ugh." Myxine rubbed the base of her horn with annoyance and glanced at her hive, who seemed to be unsure of what to do. "What in Tartarus are you bumbling idiots doing! Get out there and help! And if I hear that you idiots slacked off, I'll see to it that you dig all of the rock with your bare hooves!"
Myxine's Hagfish hive moved as if they were being chased by mountain sized dragons that had a taste for Changelings. Myxine herself joined Ambrosia on the way to the circular command centre that had various drones coming in and out. Just as they and a slightly winded Calliphora reached the door of the base, a tired Patina greeted them with an annoyed look on her face.
"We'll talk after we burn the birds to dust. But I'll let you know that I am not happy right now."
Ambrosia giggled as she merely brushed her tail across Patina's muzzle as she walked past her and into the command centre.
"Patina dear, just know that we are no longer here for your device." Calliphora said simply as she walked past the annoyed queen and walked through the metal blast doors. Myxine merely walked up to Patina and glared at her.
"I can frankly careless if you are happy or not. But right now, you need our help and we need yours." Myxine took a deep breath and sighed. "I'm willing to put aside my pride to work alongside you, Patina Gear. Those two might have accepted you for one reason another, but as of yet, I am not impressed." Patina merely glared back as she hissed.
"Well, then. Allow me to impress you after the battle." Myxine merely glared and moved to enter the room. Patina watched Myxine enter and hid a tired smile. "...At least we can work together..."
Perhaps it was this moment to which the Changelings began to properly unite. Perhaps it was not. But nonetheless, it was the first step into a much brighter future for the Changelings.
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I... might not be alive...
i like this chapter.
5145691
THANK YOU FOR NOTICING! FIXING NOW
I never thought I'd see anything crossing over with the Universal Century around these parts.
Zaku Is and Zaku IIs, huh. Interesting choice. I suppose there aren't suits more iconic than the Zaku lineage in the Universal Century.
I'm curious where you'll go with the psycho-frame T(omino) in your story, since things seem to be coming together rather quickly. I'm also curious how maintenance for the mobile suits will go as well, but maybe that's expecting a little too much. I was sort of expecting Zakus, but the psycho frame T indicates events are post UC 0093. The only "Zakus" around are rusting surplus Action Zakus and Titan surplus Hi-Zacks, relatively speaking.
Zaku's, the most easiest for me to recognise due to their simple green colour scheme and their noticeable shoulder armor. That and their one beady little eye moving about. What kind of ammo do those Griffons have for their muskets?! Never thought muskets fired nothing more than ball bearing propelled by gunpowder...
The Changelings also wore an metal helmet
that I have not slept for full week
I can frankly careless if you are happy or not
1. A.
2. That I have not slept for a full week.
3. Care less, two words in this case. Careless would mean something akin to clumsy.
Anime Sue
Well I just came to check on the fic of your son and see that rewriting it. Must say I'm excited and love you choosing mechwarrior/battletech technology from what I read thus farm. Think it's an underappreaciated genre and look forward see what else you wrote
I’m not impressed with this version griffons representing the Imperial Guard. The reason why the Imperial Guard was badass for mortal humans was due to the sheer amount of shite they had to go through... that and they mostly fought with two things - absolute zealous faith in the emperor and a shite ton of artillery... this is sad and an insult to them...
Fun story however, keep up the good work.
The proper spelling is they're for the bolded words
There's overkill and then there's that. Why not just use a mech's or vehicle's pulse laser to quickly decimate their meager wood and metal ships?
That's unnecessary. We've seen plenty of times that ponies (and therefore Changelings because they can blend in with ponies) can manipulate objects dexterously despite their lack of fingers. Including such things as string instruments...somehow.