Chapter LXV: Contact (unedited)
After spotting that the Xartik were the source of the disturbance, I wished I had time to have a mild panic attack. Sadly I didn't had the time as I pulled my head back behind cover, just to see a few rounds of hot plasma zipping past the spot where my head was. Activating my radio, I ordered, "Golden, we have Xartik forces on us. Tell every base to be on high alert and send over an assault copter now!"
"Yes madam, the copter will be there in five minutes, do you need the two squads on the ground to come to your position?" Golden asked.
"No, but make sure that their squads are together. We might need them to help prevent any hostiles from escaping. However, bring in the fourth squad if you can, but don't drop them here. I don't know what firepower the hostiles have, so I rather not have a transport copter shot down if I can help it," I answered, while hearing one of my recruits firing back at the drone.
"Understood madam, they'll be dropped off approximately two hundred feet away from your position," Silver replied, allowing me to turn my attention to my troops.
"Anyone, report to me any hostiles you find, and someone get some suppressing fire on the hostile that is already shooting us!" I ordered, as I took my rifle off my back, setting it to single shot mode. The scientists had made several kinds of rifles for the military to use, but most people either prefer to use a semi-automatic rifle or a rifle that can shift between single shot and burst fire modes. I always preferred the single shots since while they lacked the spread that a burst fire could offer, they make it up with a stronger impact.
I was just about to return fire when someone said, "Contact, two o'clock!" Jerking my head in that direction, I spotted a pair of drones making their way through the trees as they raised a their own weaponry and fired at us. However before they could fire, some magical shots hit them, causing their shields to flare up while forcing them into cover. Thankfully since my troops were spread out, the first drone could only pin down a few of us at a time. Still, I wasn't certain if our current numbers would give us an advantage over them, but if there were more, than we would definitely be overwhelmed fast.
Whatever the case, I didn't have time to waste, so I jumped to my left, firing a few shots at the general direction before I duck behind another tree, while using a third tree as cover from the pair of drones. With a bit more cover, I peeked over the right side of the tree, taking a moment before I spotted the first drone using a fallen tree as cover while it fired at one of my soldiers while another one was trying to suppression it. Taking this as my opportunity, I pulled a magical grenade from my belt, triggering it before using my telekinesis to send it over to the drone. It immediately recognized what it was and tried to jump away from the grenade, but unfortunately for it I still had it in my magical hold so I just tossed it at the drone before finally letting go of it. Thankfully, it seems that Xartik shielding wasn't enough for a magical grenade, based on how the resulting explosion sent parts of the drone flying through the air.
My satisfaction over the destruction of the drone was short-lived when several shots came my way, forcing me to get behind cover once more. "Anyone that isn't pinned down, try to flank the two drones now! Everyone else, try to suppress them whenever you can!" I said before ducking out of cover to fire a few shots before returning back to it. Occasionally I see a few soldiers firing back, but otherwise the drones kept us suppressed with their own fire, until from above shots came down at them. Looking up, I could see the aerial-capable members of our group weaving around the trees while firing down at the two drones, chipping away their shields while the drones try to fruitlessly fire back.
This allowed the rest of my troops to open fire at the duo, which I was about to do when a mare cried out, "Captain! To your left!" Jerking my head towards that direction, I saw a rather heavily armored drone charging right at me. I barely had enough time to roll out of its path, causing it to hit the tree. To the dismay of any of my soldiers that were watching, the drone simply teared right through the tree before coming to a halt, the tree crashing down behind it.
"Just my luck, why do I always get the 'fun' stuff?" I muttered to myself while firing a few rounds at it. While the shots did no real visible effect on the drone's shielding, I knew it was better than trying to duck behind cover if it can just barrel right through it. The drone just stared at me with its cold mechanical eyes before a blade came out of its right forearm, causing my eyes to widen a bit at the sight before it charged at me again. Off the bat I knew that it was going to try to keep me in melee range, which would give it a major edge since it could grab me with its other arm that would result in my death. However, magic gave me a major advantage over it since it was likely that the Xartik knew nothing about it. So instead of jumping out of its way, I simple jumped and latched onto its head. This surprised the drone, long enough for me to pull out two more grenades as I charged up my horn with magic. I activated them before sticking them into the drone's shoulder joints, before jumping off it as I release a teleport spell, teleporting thirty feet away just to see the drone blow up in a magical explosion.
Turning my head towards the other two drones, I could see that my squad was able to take them down judging by their broken bodies nearby. The nearest soldier came towards me while the rest remain on guard in case there was still more hostiles out there. "Captain, are you alright?" an earth pony stallion asked while giving me a salute.
"I'm fine, but now we, or I at least, know who came over here, I need to get back to Equus. Sergeant McColt, are you capable of holding this position in case there's more hostiles till reinforcements arrive?" I asked as I looked at a blue earth pony mare.
"Yes Captain, we are capable of holding this position as long as necessary," McColt replied, to which I nodded to before activating my radio.
"Golden, things seem to have calm down here. Send a transport copter here for pick up. I need to get to Canterlot as fast as possible."
"Are you certain about this, Aether?"
"Without a doubt. The intrusion was related to the Xartiks, and odds are they know where we are now," I answered as I sat at a table with Celestia, Luna, and Twilight present. It was right after sunset when I arrived at Canterlot, though I did picked up news that there weren't any more hostiles in the area after a thorough search of the forest. Though to be certain, he called in two more airships to screen the greater area.
"But how can you be certain that we were discovered? There could be a possibility that the Xartik will passed it off as a lost probe?" Twilight replied, only for me to shake my head at her.
"No Twilight, the drones made the effort to send a transmission to wherever they came from to alert their creators. I found a hidden device that was transmitting messages to another dimension. Odds are they were purposely looking for us, and had made preparations to increase the chances of sending a message back in case some malfunction occurred upon arrival," I said, while Celestia and Luna were taking on grim expressions.
"Is there any possibility that this could be a misunderstanding? Could we establish some form of communication with the Xartik?" Celestia asked.
"No, the Xartik aren't prone to peaceful first contact. They tend to just takeover anything that can be of use to them, or eliminate any potential threats. Only when facing opposition of similar strength would they avoid open conflict. Since most sapient species on Equus is strongly connected to magic, odds are we are considered to be either one of those cases."
"Could your skirmish with the probe's forces be enough to make them to consider us a force that is as strong as them?" Luna asked, only for me to shake my head once more.
"Not likely. Even if we go into full-blown war, they won't consider us a large enough threat unless we bring the battle onto their own turf. Which won't be easy unless the scientists have a way to retrieve the frequency of the Xartik invasion forces."
"So what can we do to win if we enter a war with the Xartik?" Celestia asked, causing me to pause to think for a moment.
"Best I can offer, is that we find a way to reach a Xartik world, where if we can commit enough counter-attacks, it might get them to give up on the possibility of conquering us. The other choice is that we hold them off long enough for other species to learn of our presence. That has mixed results though, for all we know we could end up with another hostile species that want to take over, or a species like the Deviations will come to our aid, which should put an end to the war."
"What kind of forces should we expect the Xartik to field against us then? Perhaps if we can make their loses tremendous, they may forego the idea of war with us," Luna said.
"Sadly that won't work so well with the Xartik since they rely on robotic armies to fight for them. That means they can simply rebuild their armies despite the loses, and the only way they would pull out in that case is if they lost millions or even billions of drones while not gaining back any raw material from the battlefront. That would mean that we have to prevent them from gaining any foothold on Selene," I explained, causing the royal sisters to look at each other for a moment before Celestia turned her attention back to me.
"Then we have no choice but to make preparations for war. I will contact the other nations so we can mobilize all our armies," Celestia announced.
"And I will make way to Selene with you, Aether, so that I can participate in the battles to come. The enemy will tremble against the might of the Princess of the Night!" Luna declared, shooting a hoof into the air as I just cocked an eyebrow at the sight.
"I take it there's an alicorn battle suit just made for you, unless you have something else that would make due," I responded, to which Luna gave me a nod.
"Indeed, both my sister and I have commissioned our own armor for this possibility, though we were the ones to cast the enchantments on them," Luna explained, while Twilight was looking uncertain about the situation.
"What role should I play?" Twilight asked. Over the years, Twilight made great strides in learning on how to handle her position of being a princess, though I'm was betting that she didn't poured much thought on the military aspects on that matter, which her answer just confirmed.
"You, along with Cadence, will remain on Equus to help manage things while Luna and I will participate in the war effort," Celestia answered, causing Twilight to droop a bit.
Before Twilight could make any protest, I added, "With you and Cadence here, we will have some major firepower in place just in case the Xartik manage to bypass our sinkhole effort. Furthermore, your connection with the Tree of Harmony, along with Cadence and the Crystal Heart, may be end up being a powerful defensive measure if such a situation were to occur. So tactically it would be best for the two of you to remain on Equus," causing Twilight to nod to that line of logic. "Though, you could try to get in contact with Discord and see if he wants to help. I don't know the limits of his magic, but if he could cause enough chaos to the Xartik forces, it would go a long way in saving lives."
"Is there anything else we need to discuss?" Celestia asked, only for none of us to give a reply. "Then this meeting is over. For the good of Equus and all of its species, I hope that we are ready for this war," Celestia said, only for me to roll my eyes at her. "Something the matter, Aether?"
"You had to add that 'good for everything' thing in the end. It's too sappy for my tastes," I commented, causing everyone to groan at me, to which I simply gave them a shrug in response. If I didn't adopt the generally happy and cheerful tone most ponies have even after fifteen years here, then odds are I'm always going to be the grumpy mare that I am.
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I will admit I am shocked by this, but happy none the less. Will the third book be the finale? I like the stories but don't want to see it overdone.
Sequel hook much?
Sigh... It's going to be long wait for the third book.
You better release the third book before season 6 comes out
Bit of a sudden end, but I think the author's reasoning is justified. I look forward to book 3.
6943243 You are right...
But such is the way of great fanfiction-authors, they make stories better than professionals, and you have the feeling they create them faster. We probably won't have to wait five years
Well, here comes the hypetrain!
Calling the first chapter in the next book!
Luna: [as the fight begins] Call it, Aether!
Aether: Alright, listen up. Until we can close that portal, our priority's containment. Shining, I want you up high on that cliff, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Luna, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three miles out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash.
Shining Armor: [to Luna] Want to give me a lift?
Luna: Right. Better clench up, Legolas.
[Luna takes Shining Armor up to the clifftop]
Aether: Celestia, you gotta try and bottleneck that portal. Slow 'em down. You've got the sun. Light the bastards up.
[Celestia flies off and Aether turns to Sunset Glimmer]
Aether: You and me, we stay here on the ground, keep the fighting here. And Discord?
[Discord turns and glares at Aether]
Aether: Have fun!
[Discord grins and teleports away]
Hey pretty soon would be the one year anniversary! Like in 2 months?
Be sure to do something special for us!
You just keep on telling how you tell it partner, cant wait to see how you pull this one off!
Gentle breeze guide your path, a warm smile welcome your return.
And lets send these robotic bastards back to the labs in body bags!
It's begin...
All shall fall before the power of the united Equestria!
Cant wait for the next story!
I loved the first 2! 
No need to hope that the next one is good cause we all know it will be
Turn their own forces against them. Let Discord play Necromancer Robotnik on their shiny metal behinds, lets cross destroyed drones with Timberwolves, so the drone parts get returned for reuse, then when included in new drones, they combine to Timberwolf Kings. And start tearing the manufactories and armories apart from the inside, while absorbing the energy thrown at them to supply their magical forces.
Then theres Project Sleipnir, which i would link to the deviant art image, but cant remember where it is, and Googles broke oin my machine due to blocking some ad script. just it looks awafully familiar, except I cant claim any mention as I havent placed my ideas here in any form in the prior years.
Of course, theres always the Last Stand trick with Selene. Its a Dimentional Sink, a honeypot. With some careful design, Im pretty sure an array of iterdictors in low orbit, and a singularity at the core, will lead to any dimentinal excursions ending up in the ergosphere at best, or in the event horizon, depending if all black holes are not dimentional bridges. Could then place it in a star, with an appropiate driven magical field so you have even more fun.
Discord can have all sorts of fun, like advanced entropic degredation in the enemies reality field. Or even just drop the local equivalent of Humans on them. Play XCOM.
Solid waste, meet air oscillating unit. Looking forward to more.
Keep up the good work. Deus tecum.
pinkie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/rsz/mlfw10670_medium.jpg
6944024
quickmeme.com/img/f7/f7a8fc9c02fbed19184492f614caf4e399bdfa06de76d32db91c0f717816a608.jpg
*Flips a table and walks out grumbling....*
6943534 How about we simply not let them have the body bags in the first place?
6944670 And make it hard to transport them, its bit of a pain...
6944720 Not to mention the fact that letting them have the robotic corpses would also be giving them scrap metal to start all over again
this story is like chocolate...
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6944743
Why, is it because when you finish you always want more?
6944740 Then let me go deeper into detail..
*cough cough*
"LETS GO AND SEND THIS ROBOTIC BASTARDS BACK HOME FOR THE BOYS IN THE LABS IN BODY BAGS!" better?
6945234 Magic?
Explain Logic Bombs to Discord and see him make drones go boom.
I can't wait to see the Ponies get Dangerous. But what they really need is the Blue Bomber and the Blue Blur, those two are robot fighting experts!!!
6943353 This is awesome!!!!
6943353 *In the middle of a battle the robots start line dancing*
Discord: Crossed wires?
*Ships start liquefying*
Discord: Meltdown at control?
*Actual Xartik appear in nothing but old raggedy whity-tighties*
Discord: How embarrassing!!!
Adopt a kid, Aether. I want to see you with a kid.
Also, you need a straightman.
6947411 Not a drop of XCOM influence.
6945044 *eats a Snickers bar* Better
Mad Discord=THE LETHALITY HAS BEEN DOUBLED!
once again you have earned all the nose boop's i can muster
i492.photobucket.com/albums/rr289/axlthehedgehog_2008/responses/nose%20boop/boop2.gif
stayclassy
I enjoyed this. Looking forward to the third book.
And so... we're at the end, man what a story this was! :D hahaha, this is the third story I've finished thisd week I think, or maybe its the fourth? Regardless, this was an amazing read and an awesome journey, thanks for writing this man!
And I cannot wait for the third book :D
Till next time friend, keep up the great work!
Nice work and magic grenades geniues
Oh I enjoyed these stories from you greatly!
Great job, great job!
6945562
Just tell 'em to divide everything by zero.
Even the strings.
Well, that was kind of sudden. The story drops off my radar for a few days and suddenly it's over. I wasn't really expecting that - there was no real indication that anything special was about to happen or that the story was about to come to a close. I think you could have handled this better. There is no real sense of transition.
6952105 ... I'd rather find out where a they have an inhabited planet and torch it by sending the sun or a moon at it... seriously... sounds like drone scraping takes to long and costs to much effort which risks to many lives to try and prevent footholds. better of obliterating one of there planets to say 'back OFF', It would have better odds given you have deity's moving the celestial bodies as is.
or have discord switch the compounds in there food to something toxic, intertwine there water and sewage pipes... and pop in random clogs, and add some volatile compounds into there electric grid. TAKE THEM OFFLINE, then pick off and vessels that come to help with some feral golems or just start changing hull integral parts to chewing gum and bubble wrap ... heck do that to and orbital towers they have to transport things to and from space.
6988079
it would at least make gem prices drop somewhat though, right?
6988316 No. People are even now growing gems in a lab, by the time this story is projecting, gems like diamonds would only be used for things like industrial purposes, as they would be so easy to create, on top of the possibility that there ought to be some other worlds like Equus, with ridiculous jewel stores. They could also go into an old or dying universe, and abduct white or black dwarf stars, i.e. planet-sized diamonds.
6990526
Fair enough. I didn't quite grasp the idea that we, or they, could just grow gemstones.
6990908 Not many do, I just have a thing for random trivia. Right now, people call grown diamonds "fake" because they're less rare, and anyone who has or wants one doesn't want the price to plunge down to the point where it's actually reasonable to buy one, because then there's no reason to buy it.
6998009
That explains how they get the rocks, but not what their purpose is. I think i got a pretty valid idea.
It's once again time to conduct the symphony of warfare...I look forward to reading about Equus dealing with an inter-dimensional war. May the power of Friendship overcome these bastard Xartik!
...I have a great excuse to link this, now! For the United States of...Equestria!
Why doesn't this story have a dark tag?
Well I'm sure a few magic nukes will make Xartik think about leaving real fast. Maybe even give up if a one found its way to their homeworld. Yes, I'd do that with a one of their ships loaded fully with nukes.
Well... The sequel is taking awhile.