For the past millennium, the small and technologically-advanced Equestrian Empire has waged war against the old and corrupt Cleomanni Confederacy, employing weapons of terrifying might in their struggle. It has been three years since they lost.
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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
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Various things happened over the past couple months that conspired to delay this chapter. Apologies for that. Anyway, I built a new computer during a major electronic parts shortage, dealt with a ton of extra workload at my day job, became hopelessly addicted to Kerbal Space Program, et cetera. Oh well. I got in some good research.
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KSP is guaranteed to get you addicted for awhile, I still need to get to the Mun.
Yay new chapter!!! đ
What is hvt?
Its perfect for melee combat
This is honestly funny and made me laugh đ¤Ł
Then someone needs a promotion
Would it still count if they were trying to kill her first?
Mandatory game night! đ¤Ł
I'm oddly reminded of griff from rvb
I'm liking prima now. Her remarks are seriously funny now
I wonder if prima is a changeling?
Noooo!!!!! Not him đđđ
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High Value Target. Its a term most often related to kill/capture missions, Operation Neptune Spear, the killing of Osama Bin Laden (The HVT in this case) was such an operation.
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I've heard of high value target before. I just never heard it shortened before. I also never heard of that operation
I wonder where luna discord griffons diamond dogs and minotaours are
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This was a bit of a next-level addiction, lol. I landed SSTOs on Eve, Duna, and Laythe, and the one I landed on Duna and Laythe carried a rover internally. I installed a bunch of mods and added extra star systems because the Kerbol system wasnât enough to sate my hunger.
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literally the only reason I donât have mods is that I canât figure out where to put them, steam workshop mods would be nice.
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You have to put them in the steamapps/common/kerbal space program/gamedata folder. The gamedata folder is where the unpacked asset files for mods go, but it also contains the gameâs own vanilla files, in the Squad folder (which shouldnât be messed with). It can be complicated to fiddle with by hand. Especially updating mods, which often requires that you delete that modâs assets before copying in the new version, rather than overwriting (which can lead to unintended side effects if there are mismatched or superfluous files left over). Check out CKAN.
I don't remember Haybale at all. I'm not sure if I should feel bad or not.
I'm starting to wonder if the AI doses Storm with Alicorn dna or something. It's about the only thing I can think of that can breathe in space and not show up as some kind of augmentation.
Would maybe also explain how Celestia can reach her. Though I'm also somewhat wary that Celestia is a secret finger puppet for one of the Entropy beings. Her described appearance gives me doubts.
I wonder if there any android ponies?
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I totally agree. This is beyond underrated and needs more attention
Exceptional storytelling... I really, really, want to see this continued, as I really want to know where the hell Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Twilight Sparkle is, and what the buck sheâs been doing
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Raks are way smaller than a Timber Wolf. At a little over 3 meters, they're actually a little shorter and stubbier than Heavy Gear/VOTOMS/ProtoMech sized, which is why they have an internal combustion engine instead of a reactor and a 25mm autocannon as a primary armament. They carry firepower comparable to an IFV, and can be configured either as a mobile mortar carrier or ATGM carrier depending on the selection of shoulder weapons. Think of a Space Marine Dreadnought, or the Enhanced Power Armor from F.E.A.R. 3; stubby legs, broad torso, no head. A Timber Wolf, on the other hand, is around 12 meters high and has a protruding, B-29-like cockpit. Confederate mech cockpits tend to have a "boat-like" shape, with a flat top and heavily sloped armor. This is apparent on the much larger Ifrits:
https://www.deviantart.com/1jaz/art/Riposte-777086463
Some fun facts about Storm's Mirage:
Chargers are very OP next to pretty much anything from BTech. If the Mirage was in BTech, it would be a 40 ton Medium that has four small lasers that can switch to being four flamers, two autocannons with the range of AC/2s but the punch of AC/5s, two "lasers" that hit as hard as a direct hit from a Long Tom (if you're hit by a Heavy Beamcaster, big chunks of your armor instantly go bye-bye), two cheap and disposable Arrow IVs that can be ejected to reduce mass and increase speed, 30 movement points, the ability to jump-jet everywhere, boost laterally, and perform parkour moves off buildings. It can turn invisible, and it almost never overheats. Not only is this impossible under BTech rules (no engine exists that can power something like this), it's not even remotely fair. Even two full lances of Assaults would be hard-pressed to survive an attack from one Mirage. The first problem is finding it, and the second problem is hitting it. If you can hit it, then its armor is mediocre and if it loses even one leg, it's in real trouble. Chargers are powerful, but very expensive. The Mirage costs as much as two Leopard DropShips. Chargers are comparable, tech tier and threat-wise, to ACs or Zoids. They're in that hazy zone between Real Robots and Super Robots where the very high-tech mechs go.
Confederate Rakshasas are inferior even to Elementals from BTech, but still a very nasty threat to infantry and light vehicles, comparable to a Bradley with TOW launchers in terms of firepower. Nobody wants to get hit by frag from a 25mm Bushmaster.
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I mean a sufficient number of âMechs could kill a Charger if they got a good âstealthâ alpha strike but if it failed the âMechs would almost definitely lose unless they had null-sig or some other advanced stealth lostech.
Also with the cost of a charger being so high to have it fight a unit of appropriate value would leave it heavily outnumbered and outgunned any way you look at it, and in the BattleTech universe âMech techs are very good at scavenging and fixing broken âMechs. The only issue would be that Chargers would come with a small cockpit standard because their made for ponies. Also Chargers have âAIsâ, BattleMechs donât, just Neurohelments which Chargers have a similar system too.
Dammit, now I want to see a story where Storm and her Mirage wind up in the Inner Sphere just in time for the Clan invasion and how she would react to the scenario.
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I can tell you exactly what would happen in that scenario. She would be immediately screwed because the Mirage is not repairable.
The first bit of serious leg damage, and whoops. No one has a Duostrand loom or LAMIBLESS printer. So sheâs stuck with myomer and standard armor; FF wonât fit unless you bolt it to the outside like a Chameleon kit, and if you did, the whole thing would be massively overweight and would not move at all. Its speed would be cut in half and its maximum useful load would be reduced to 30 tons, necessitating the stripping of everything. It would no longer be able to absorb the shocks from hard landings and would lose basically all of its super-maneuverability, so every jump would need a great deal of retro-thrust before touchdown, just like a âMech. Duostrand is, pound-for-pound, comparable to running MASC for an indefinite length of time.
âMech Techs are good, but the Mirage is basically like a heaping pile of Lostech to them. They wouldnât even know where to begin, and any retrofits they could do would only turn it from a Charger into an equivalent sized âMech with some very impressive and very expensive guns strapped to the outside. Even though it costs the equivalent of 100 to 120 million C-bills for the Empire to manufacture one, a single example in the BTech galaxy would be an absolutely priceless research specimen.
Best case scenario, Storm pawns it off for a few billion and starts a mercenary company.
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Other option, a portion (say a base or two) or heck the entire resistance wind up in the BattleTech universe? Now that would be very interesting and it means Charger parts can be made if somewhat slowly.
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Heck, I could tell you what would happen.
BattleTech's a human-centric universe. Anyone in the ELF who knows of humans from their own 'verse would take one look at such a scenario and immediately start to force themselves into drug-and-drink-induced stupors cus they'd be certain that they're either A) gonna get turned into mostly-mechanical abominations, or B), they're all gonna get soul-murderfucked by space-cthulhu. Hell, even if decent first contact happens between the ELF and one or more of the clans, most ponies would be absolutely distrustful of humans and have a mass, collective bout of survivor's guilt now that, back home, no one's standing in the way of the Confeds steamrolling Equestria.
On paper, everything's great! In practice, holy fuck things are still awful for the tiny horses.
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Thatâs an interesting thought.
Most of the ELF are not aware of the Vargr, and would probably get confused and mix them up with the cleomanni, given that cleos are near-human in overall appearance. More concerning is how the locals would react to them. That scenario could go a whole bunch of different ways depending on where the ELF end up. The Clans would likely try and duel them for all their stuff. The Inner Sphere houses would be very alarmed at the sight of numerous unidentified vehicle types, but probably wouldnât attack on sight unless a trigger-happy pilot jumps the gun and lays into them, which would be a total disaster. Steiner, Davion, or Marik territory, and they might be okay. Houses Liao or Kurita may freak out and try to seize all their stuff. Best-case scenario, they end up either in a Periphery State like the Outworlds Alliance (whatâs a few more misfits among misfits?) or the parts of the Deep Periphery not controlled by the Clans (and hopefully close enough to a planet with enough of an agricultural and industrial base that they wonât starve). It also depends on the time period. Anywhere near Sol during the Amaris Civil War or the Jihad? LOL. One of the Houses being invaded by the Clans? Double LOL. Deep Periphery in the Scorpion Empire? Ouch, that stings.
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Probably imprisoned and getting experimented by the day
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Ah, well then. I was mostly referring to the ELF members who would have that knowledge on humans, but yeah, that's about accurate to what I'd expect. Granted, I'm not exactly familiar with Battletech; about all I know is 'big stompy mechs in space'.
...fuck, now I find myself wondering what would happen if the entirety of Revanchism's galactic sector was somehow transplanted into... say, the Titanfall 'verse. Be one helluva sight to see a Stryder-class Titan face off against a Rakshasa, let alone seeing a Pilot literally run circles around Confed infantry.
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Either that, or hidden in a secret laboratory, slowly going crazy over the fact that she messed up and got her entire race enslaved
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Itâs funny you should say that. I just got back into Titanfall 2 recently and got up to Generation 7. I really love the District 9-ish art style of the first two games, but I never really got into Apex Legends.
A Rak is much smaller than a Stryder, even. Titans are a good 6 meters high. At about 3.2ish meters, a Rakshasa stands about 1 story high. They are tiny and cramped things, shorter even than an AMP suit from Avatar. In wheel mode, theyâre very fast, though; their ATGMs hit at least as hard as an Archer, and their gun is somewhat comparable to an XO-16, but with slightly more damage and an inferior fire rate. Titans are kind of fragile compared to most mechs.
Remember Phantom Crash? Remember the Ventuno Holy, how the stock model came with the biped legs with the wheels in the feet? Theyâre a little bit like that.
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Main reason, at least from what I could tell, is that most mechs are meant to serve as a supplement to, or an outright replacement of, MBTs, whereas Titans seemingly fill the role of IFVs at their heaviest and ultra-heavy infantry at their lightest. In any case, the mention of Rakshasa height makes me think that they'd more or less be consistently matched - at least in terms of deployment - with Reaper drones instead of Titans. Can't remember if there was a class of Confed mech that was heavier than the Rak, though, outside of that gigantic tripod mech that was mentioned in an earlier chapter.
...and now I find myself salivating at the idea of a Reaper squadron ripping through a host of Damarkind fighters.
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Would it still count if they still attack her after she spared them??
I'm really enjoying it so far! I'm not so sure right now, but I wouldn't be all too surprised if the unknown nanites inside Desert are related to 'the seeds of the enemy' that the archon's are so worried about as well as the whole harmony/synchronization Desert survived when she truly connected with her charger. All that and also why Celestia can only communicate with her. I wonder if she is the last living pony with these things inside her or if there is more, and whether this means she is somehow related to one of the elements as well.
Speaking of her synchronization event, that part and a few others really got me in the feels, it's so rare for that to really happen for me as well, so rare in fact, that I can't recall another story that has done that for me! Sure you may have thrown the stakes so high that this story amounts to a single ant taking down humanity in its current state but you still manage to make me care every now and then. Seriously though, I can't expect Equinity to come out the other side of this the same it began. They will have to change a great deal in order to succeed, so much so that the world they are fighting for in the first place may never come to fruition.
It would seem that soul retain their memories after death even though there is a dilemma where such memory doesn't carry on when placed inside an artificial pony, normally I would be highly suspect of Cicatrice's words on the matter as he is likely aware of Storm's deeper secrets and doesn't want to lose her body to save her soul; however, this is true for chargers as the story states the charger's soul is taken from criminals and whatnot. Just wondering how Celestia can retain such detailed info about her life when she seems dead and long gone.
Anyway, I just wanted to let you know I am waiting with bated breath for anything you decide to do next! I hope you are doing well, and everything in your life is working out. Hope to see more amazing chapters from you!
I had this on my 'read it later' list for a while, and as I was off on a camping holiday the last week, I downloaded it so I had some material to go through while I was away.
Initially, I was a bit 'ehhh...' as (no offence intended) it seemed a bit too 'edgy' or trying too hard to be 'gritty'. But, as I've read on, it's actually grown on me a lot. Desert Storm is turning out to be a more well-rounded character now that some of her edges are being ground off and she's getting a bit more likeable, and the same for other members of the cast. The world the story takes place in is being better fleshed out and expanded, there's more logic and world-building coming through, and the motives are being better explored and explained, and the bad guys are getting a bit more interesting as well.
I'm glad I've stuck with it so far, as I'm starting to actually get into things a bit more, and growing more of an interest in finding out what the seeds planted so far will grow into, and what happens to these characters. I'm on part 11, so exactly halfway there, which seemed like a good point to leave a comment on how I've been enjoying it so far.
Good work with the story, and I'm glad it's turned my thoughts about it around as much as it has. Keen to see where it's all leading, and how much of Desert Storm will actually be in one piece by the end xD