What an awesome chapter! The ending with Gilda's speech and praise of Marco and her promotion was by far my favorite.

She returned the honor instantly. “And then there’s Starshina Karin Kazal and his two fellow Capricorn adepts, who came to this Kingdom as enemies but now risk their lives in its defense. They, too, saved not just me, but all of us repeatedly with their unique magical talents. Thank you for my life, Starshina.”

The format let it look like a space is missing

Magnificent chapter! I got through many emotions reading through it ,further giggling like a school girl at Marcos huge balls to have the gall to bluff with a empty chambered pistol against a real life dragon literally having him at his throat.
No marine could have done it better.
Mad respect for writer and fictional character.

This chapter was a masterpiece, damn fine addition to a already epic storyline... the lore alone makes my mlp brony heart squee in glee.

Thanks for your efforts bringing up top grade entertainment ♡

You know, the Cloven remind me a lot of the Raptures from “NIKKE: Goddess of Victory” with there ability to not only us the corpses of fallen NIKKE units (NIKKE units being biomechanical humans that where created to destroy Raptures and defend the last remnants of Humanity. They follow the commands of a human commander) and the ability to Corrupt NIKKE units and turn them against Humanity. They can also can get smarter and more powerful the more technology they assimilate and the more NIKKE units they turn into Heretics for their Queen who is a NIKKE unit herself. Which she is in fact the very first unit ever created, Lilith.

Also you should definitely check out the soundtrack for the game, it’s absolutely kick ass! For example the song Daybreak made by Cosmograph and Varien.

If The Commander you play as and his NIKKE fireteams were there, they would kick the Clovens ass and wreak havoc in general.

Hoooboy. That bit with Marco and Stromboli. I figured where that was headed, it was an excellent gamble, but man does he like to live life dangerously.

Let’s goooooo also I don’t recall Christopher’s last name being Lakan

Everything about this story has been so well written. From the epic battle scenes to the the erotic encounters, I have seen few stories as well written, emotionally riveting and unbelievably gripping as C&C. it is my belief that Continuation & Chronicles is worthy of the same praise as that of Tom Clancy's novels. And this latest chapter is yet another testament to the incredible storytelling skills of Firesight. I await the next great chapter with my breath held and my excitement high.

Keep up the excellent work, Firesight! You are a fantastic writer.

While the timeline was expanded, I do greatly appreciate Gilda being made to earn her rank. I do not know just how well DEH understood the Roman ranking system when making those early decisions.

Either way, great work on this chapter.

I hope Cipio, his wive and his aid can fix their relationship, even if it's kinda pony style herd...

All in all a very nice chapter.
Is Gilda getting a semi auto pistol with magazines? (Muh 1911 officer pistol lol)

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What an awesome chapter! The ending with Gilda's speech and praise of Marco and her promotion was by far my favorite.

Thanks! I saved her gaining her old rank from the original story for the point I thought she'd earned it.

11871304

Hoooboy. That bit with Marco and Stromboli. I figured where that was headed, it was an excellent gamble, but man does he like to live life dangerously.

Yep. And that's also why he likes taking liberties with Gilda and others, even if he knows that they might get him in trouble. It's a turn-on and a hell of a rush to him when he gets away with it.

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Let’s goooooo also I don’t recall Christopher’s last name being Lakan

ACK! Fixed. Glad you enjoyed the chapter otherwise.

11871215

The format let it look like a space is missing

There was. I fixed it, along with a few other missing spaces I found. Not sure how all those got through. I usually catch them on the parent Google Doc.

Magnificent chapter! I got through many emotions reading through it ,further giggling like a school girl at Marcos huge balls to have the gall to bluff with a empty chambered pistol against a real life dragon literally having him at his throat.

Glad you liked! I enjoyed that writing that sequence, too. It's Marco at his best, mouthy and so ballsy that he's able to get away with (figurative) murder.

No marine could have done it better.

No marine would have done it at all! At least, not without a lot more beer or booze...

Mad respect for writer and fictional character.

*takes a bow* Thanks!

This chapter was a masterpiece, damn fine addition to a already epic storyline... the lore alone makes my mlp brony heart squee in glee.

Squees are good! It means the chapter is a hit.

Thanks for your efforts bringing up top grade entertainment ♡

And thanks for your efforts to keep giving all this feedback!

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You know, the Cloven remind me a lot of the Raptures from “NIKKE: Goddess of Victory” with there ability to not only us the corpses of fallen NIKKE units (NIKKE units being biomechanical humans that where created to destroy Raptures and defend the last remnants of Humanity. They follow the commands of a human commander) and the ability to Corrupt NIKKE units and turn them against Humanity. They can also can get smarter and more powerful the more technology they assimilate and the more NIKKE units they turn into Heretics for their Queen who is a NIKKE unit herself. Which she is in fact the very first unit ever created, Lilith.

Interesting. Well, I can't say I'm at all familiar with this game. In fact, I'd never heard of it before you mentioned it, but to hear this and read some of the wiki, yeah I can see the resemblance to the Cloven.

Also you should definitely check out the soundtrack for the game, it’s absolutely kick ass! For example the song Daybreak made by Cosmograph and Varien.

Not bad at all! And I just realized I didn't put any mood music in for the chapter... oh well. Not sure how many people listen to that anyway.

If The Commander you play as and his NIKKE fireteams were there, they would kick the Clovens ass and wreak havoc in general.

I'll take your word for it. Just keep in mind that we haven't seen the worst of the Cloven yet, given they constantly evolve.

11871643

Everything about this story has been so well written. From the epic battle scenes to the the erotic encounters, I have seen few stories as well written, emotionally riveting and unbelievably gripping as C&C. it is my belief that Continuation & Chronicles is worthy of the same praise as that of Tom Clancy's novels.

Wow! That is very high praise! I used to love his reading his novels back in the day. Pity I can't get paid for this like he does, though!

And this latest chapter is yet another testament to the incredible storytelling skills of Firesight. I await the next great chapter with my breath held and my excitement high.

Keep up the excellent work, Firesight! You are a fantastic writer.

I greatly appreciate all the praise! Thanks for checking in, and very glad you enjoyed the new chapter!

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While the timeline was expanded, I do greatly appreciate Gilda being made to earn her rank. I do not know just how well DEH understood the Roman ranking system when making those early decisions.

Nor do I, but I'm a detail freak, so you can be sure I'll always try to use the real deal as much as possible. The interwebs are wonderful for researching such things.

Either way, great work on this chapter.

Thanks! Appreciate your preread, too.

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I hope Cipio, his wive and his aid can fix their relationship, even if it's kinda pony style herd...

Honestly, that remains to be seen. I've had some thoughts on the subject, certainly, but I haven't actually settled what's going to happen with them.

All in all a very nice chapter.

Is Gilda getting a semi auto pistol with magazines? (Muh 1911 officer pistol lol)

I'm of two minds there. Marco's got his own revolvers, but may try to give her his best full-size semi-auto pistol instead. The entire reason I cut the conversation off at that point was because I didn't have an answer yet. I also need to figure out what to give Giraldi. I'm learning towards a kick-ass .44 Magnum revolver with an extended barrel and scope. They're very heavy and put a lot of torque on the hand holding it, but for as strong as he is, they might be perfect for him.

11872141

I also need to figure out what to give Giraldi.

"Do you feel lucky cub?"

I kinda imagine the Human soldiers as looking like the HECU from Half-Life and pacifically how they look in the remake ”Black Mesa”.

I also think the Combat OSTs from Black Mesa would fit perfectly as themes for are Marines, especially the ones related to the HECU.

11872141
Giraldi with a Magnum... awesome
Give me resident evil 1&2 vibes.
There are mods where one plays Barry with his Magnum. I think it fits him very well.

Celestia snd the Equestrian will be pissed that Griffon get human weapons, their entire military structure becomes obsolete.
Guess Equestria will invest in bullet prove armor soon after the Cloven war.

Hm... Even with gifted guns, I doubt they have a lot of ammo with them. I certainly would not have more than 10 reloads per weapon, unless I suspected it will be used.
Than I probably would have taken a P-90 submachine gun and 30 reloads [1500 bullets].
When used in semi auto it would last a long time.

I just remembered a question:
What Clove units don't need corpses?
The Cloven have to use non corpse units after all.
Or are they only able to produce Parasites without corpses?

11872268

Giraldi wirh a Magnum... awesome

Almost as awesome as Giraldi with a minigun!

Give me resident evil 1&2 vibes.
There are mods where one plays Barry with his Magnum. I think it fits him very well.

Haven’t played the games, so I don’t know the character, sorry. But not everyone can wield a magnum effectively. I’ve fired them. They’re heavy but hit hard and with an extended barrel are surprisingly accurate. We were able to hit metal targets at 100 yards with them.

Celestia snd the Equestrian will be pissed that Griffon get human weapons, their entire military structure becomes obsolete.
Guess Equestria will invest in bullet prove armor soon after the Cloven war.

You forget that Equestria already knows about human weapons if they banned their importation except in very narrow circumstances, and you can bet they’ve given some thought as to how they’d counter them. So if anything, they’re got a head-start in adapting to them. You *might* be seeing the fruits of that later.

Hm... Even with gifted guns, I doubt they have a lot of ammo with them. I certainly would not have more than 10 reloads per weapon, unless I suspected it will be used.

They probably have at least a few hundred rounds per caliber, but they’re not actually limited to that. Why? Let’s just say for now that there’s a good reason they’re collecting their own expended brass shell casings.

Than I probably would have taken a P-90 submachine gun and 30 reloads [1500 bullets].
When used in semi auto it would last a long time.

Civilians in the US aren’t legally allowed to own full-auto weapons without jumping through a lot of hoops and paying a significant fee. That doesn’t stop certain people from modding semi-autos into full-auto, though, and there’s even a trigger assembly for the AR platform that is technically semi-auto but enables you to pull the trigger so quickly that it may as well be full-auto. They’ve been trying to outlaw that one.

I just remembered a question:
What Clove units don't need corpses?
The Cloven have to use non corpse units after all.
Or are they only able to produce Parasites without corpses?

Pure cloven units don’t need corpses. Those include the parasites, flyers, and various ground trooper types we’ve already seen.

Help from afar for a locaion that has to held and denied from the enemy has many possibilities given the magic cancelation means even Rainbow Dash cant do a airborne delivery,a nd if its as strong as the old Changeling Throne, Discord would have to stay out even with Devils Locked Room soution, leaving only two real delivery methods? Pinkie, or IRBM cargo missiles?

11872261

I kinda imagine the Human soldiers as looking like the HECU from Half-Life and pacifically how they look in the remake ”Black Mesa”.

Another game I haven’t played, but I certainly know it by reputation.

I also think the Combat OSTs from Black Mesa would fit perfectly as themes for are Marines, especially the ones related to the HECU.

img.youtube.com/vi/vP8Bu5z8Xy0/mqdefault.jpg

I listened to the first few. They’re very atmospheric and I daresay suitable for some planned scenes to come. Thanks for sharing!

11873680

Help from afar for a locaion that has to held and denied from the enemy has many possibilities given the magic cancelation means even Rainbow Dash cant do a airborne delivery,a nd if its as strong as the old Changeling Throne,

... where the Changelings could nullify any magic inside their hive except their own. That was a really good episode. One of the best season finales there was, actually. Seeing more minor characters like Discord, Trixie and Starlight work together and play off each other’s personalities to save the day instead of the usual crew was great.

Discord would have to stay out even with Devils Locked Room soution, leaving only two real delivery methods?

In order to make it so Discord can’t just snap his fingers to fix everything and end the Cloven War in an instant, there are some important limits on his power in this verse and rules regarding what he can and can’t do. You will hear of him later and what those rules are. He will still have a role to play in this, if from afar.

Devil’s locked room solution? If that’s a trope, I don’t know it. An Internet search didn’t turn up anything on it.

Pinkie, or IRBM cargo missiles?

One of my grievances with the show was that they completely forgot about Pinkie’s hammerspace travel ability after the first couple seasons and basically neutered her. But in this instance, once again, there are some important limits to what she can do or how far she can travel. Just like with teleportation, she also has to be familiar with where she’s going in order to get there. So no, she can’t just travel to Aricia and appear out of Tara’s handbag bearing troops and supplies.

Cargo missiles or airdrops? They’re too far behind enemy lines right now for that to work via standard griffon methods. If you tried to send in an escorted convoy with loaded air carriages, you’d probably just be sacrificing them to the Cloven and watch as they got turned against you. Fortunately, there’s a third option you’ve already seen hints of that will be used later. What? Sorry to be coy, but just you’ll just have to wait and see.

11873763

The Devils locked room is a short story in an collection from the early mid 1900s, Scifi. A guy signs a contract to gain luck and happiness all his life, to be collected at a future time. I forgot if it was his deathbed, but he wakes up in a cube shaped room, with the devil and contract, where the devil points out there are no exits whatsoever, just complete the contract. Teh devil also states that the man has been given the power to escape from the room, but only if he uses it.

As for Discord and Pinkies use, Storage Gems are just like a box of chocolates. If you dig through the wrappers you can always find one you missed earlier.

But Im sure a lot of people got annoyed with Sherlock Holmes and Artemis Fowl for abusing that kind of recursive Checkov?

As for the long range delivery, it never happened but technically there doesnt seem to be anything fully preventing a certain event, where a long range Blue Streak was air dropped by a vehicle propelled by Gryphon power. Because Merlins power wasnt enough.

11873755
Yeah, a lot of Black Mesa’s soundtrack is atmospheric . For the levels were you are on Earth, the music is a more artificial, scientific, and military sounding, while the ZEN levels have a alien, nature, and angelic feeling to there music.

While the Earth levels have music that could fit in a lot of your scenes in the story. I not quite sure how the songs for the XEN levels would fit? The only songs that I would think would somewhat fit would be Internal Conflict and Ascension. Though they would be more fitting for a Final Stand scene or a theme for a fight with a Cloven Overlord or a Final push type scene to destroy a Cloven Stronghold.

Also in my previous comment on NIKKE, when you said in a reply to it that we haven’t seen everything the Cloven can do are we going to see stuff like this with the Cloven?

Or this?

Or even this?

Or even double this?

Or even triple this?

Or the bane of all NIKKE players… THE TRAIN

What are the royal sisters up to? If anyone would be a great help in any war it would be them.
Even if they only deliver food and water into the warzone. Maybe even more?
camo.fimfiction.net/vly-KywvejkTmCEkBSFiDwTVqbCcHAw6AJT4aCmjonk?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2F9d%2F16%2F45%2F9d16459c7508e4ebc3d264e8703eb080.gif

11874168
That animation, perfection!

11874168

What are the royal sisters up to? If anyone would be a great help in any war it would be them.
Even if they only deliver food and water into the warzone. Maybe even more?

This is just another case where you'll have to wait and see. All I will say for now is that I haven't forgotten them in the slightest. And if you know my depiction of Celly from Firefly, you also know that completely unlike the show version of her—which I despise —she's not useless here. She's powerful and wise with plenty of military experience, and you'll even get an answer as to why she lost to Chrysalis during the invasion of Canterlot. Suffice it to say, it isn't because she couldn't win, but the price she would pay to do so.

camo.fimfiction.net/vly-KywvejkTmCEkBSFiDwTVqbCcHAw6AJT4aCmjonk?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2F9d

That's the perfect pic for the recent eclipse!

11875034
The dragon used Canterlot as bargaining chip, even taunting her that she have to sacrifice the City to fight of the Dragons.
The cloven unlike the Griffon old empire have no reason to keep anyone alive.
But for plot reasons I doubt e get Celestia flying over and grilling the Cloven for the Griffons.
I guess it will be for clean up, like destroying remaining bases or troop concentration when the Overlord if the cloven have been reduced to near zero.
Same reason Discord isn't almighty or willing, or in movies common sense isn't used, to keep the story going.
We want something else than Celestia pulling a Command and Conquer GDI Ion Canon everything into victory.

I use it even as a excuse in one of my stories why others don't mess around with Celestia glassing a Griffon City that contained a Pinguine army entire offensive movement.
Shooting myself in the foot to prevent a war story, keeping I down to skirmishes rather than anything as elaborate and complicated as this story.
I paint a picture the size of a paper page, you pain a picture the size of a house bright site.

Fun fact: We in Germany have many in cities like Dortmund, Recklinghausen etc.
I love to take pictures of them.
Art of huge proportion in size and dimensions in depth.

11873839

The Devils locked room is a short story in an collection from the early mid 1900s, Scifi. A guy signs a contract to gain luck and happiness all his life, to be collected at a future time. I forgot if it was his deathbed, but he wakes up in a cube shaped room, with the devil and contract, where the devil points out there are no exits whatsoever, just complete the contract. Teh devil also states that the man has been given the power to escape from the room, but only if he uses it.

Interesting. I can't find any information on it, though. At least, not through DuckDuckGo.

As for Discord and Pinkies use, Storage Gems are just like a box of chocolates. If you dig through the wrappers you can always find one you missed earlier.

Once again, there are rules and limits to those things. The main one being that they can only contain so much mass. By my reckoning, the most one gem could contain would be a small pallet of supplies. You can't store an intact vehicle in them; not even a small one. Even storing one in pieces would take a dozen gems.

But Im sure a lot of people got annoyed with Sherlock Holmes and Artemis Fowl for abusing that kind of recursive Checkov?

You could store a few guns. You could store a stack of ammo cans or maybe a few food supply boxes. But even a thousand such gems would be s nowhere near enough to sustain a city's population, or keep an army in the field.

As for the long range delivery, it never happened but technically there doesnt seem to be anything fully preventing a certain event, where a long range Blue Streak was air dropped by a vehicle propelled by Gryphon power. Because Merlins power wasnt enough.

No Merlin here as near as I can tell, unless you count Starswirl the Bearded. And he's not around for this.

You're saying that maybe Rainbow could Rainboom in to make a delivery. Again, even if she's carrying a pack of storage gems, there's only so many she can take, and so many supplies they can store. It would be a drop in the bucket compared to the city's needs. The other problem is that pegasi do not have long range travel stamina like sky griffons, so she can't just travel supersonic the whole way there and back. Aricia is several hundred miles away from Arnau.

You'd also be risking her being captured by the Cloven, which could be disastrous. By gaining control of an Element of Harmony, that means the Elements can't be used, never mind them turning her Rainboom on the griffons. You know what a low-level supersonic pass can do to defending troops? Blown eardrums and bowled over by the shock wave.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, there really aren't any easy outs or avenues of assistance here. I'm not going to allow any Deux ex Machinas in telling this story (except maybe a mild one at the end). None of this is to say I don't have something planned for Aricia. Only that it has to fit in the boundaries for this story I've set.

11874025

Yeah, a lot of Black Mesa’s soundtrack is atmospheric . For the levels were you are on Earth, the music is a more artificial, scientific, and military sounding, while the ZEN levels have a alien, nature, and angelic feeling to there music.

Makes sense. I'm not sure there will be much opportunity for angelic theme music, though I could think of one potential instance late in the story.

While the Earth levels have music that could fit in a lot of your scenes in the story. I not quite sure how the songs for the XEN levels would fit? The only songs that I would think would somewhat fit would be Internal Conflict and Ascension. Though they would be more fitting for a Final Stand scene or a theme for a fight with a Cloven Overlord or a Final push type scene to destroy a Cloven Stronghold.

Noted. As there will be such scenes in the future, I might well call upon this music list then.

Also in my previous comment on NIKKE, when you said in a reply to it that we haven’t seen everything the Cloven can do are we going to see stuff like this with the Cloven?

So... a giant mech, an enormous arachnid, a mobile base, capital airships, monstrous boss characters (Overlords), and huge siege engines.

Short answer: Yes, you will be seeing all of those at one point or another. Sometimes they will be captured equipment. Other times, Cloven creations.

11875287

The dragon used Canterlot as bargaining chip, even taunting her that she have to sacrifice the City to fight of the Dragons.
The cloven unlike the Griffon old empire have no reason to keep anyone alive.
But for plot reasons I doubt e get Celestia flying over and grilling the Cloven for the Griffons.

Celly and Luna are enormously powerful and potentially living WMDs regarding the kind of destruction they can wreak. The Gryphon Empire allied with dragons to contain Celly, knowing that she couldn't and wouldn't sacrifice her capital for all her beloved ponies that would perish.

Luna is not so constrained, however. She is more than willing to do it if she thinks that will win it, but at the same time, you can't just annihilate any single army or Overlord to defeat them, and Celly and Lulu are fully aware that they're not invincible. If they miscalculate and make just one mistake again the Cloven, they could then gain control of a heavens-controlling demigod who could move the sun or moon, and then God help not just the griffons but all Tellus.

I guess it will be for clean up, like destroying remaining bases or troop concentration when the Overlord if the cloven have been reduced to near zero.

Their eventual entry into this will have to be carefully planned and kept secret. But I wouldn't say that they're going to arrive just for cleanup purposes.

Same reason Discord isn't almighty or willing, or in movies common sense isn't used, to keep the story going.

I readily admit I've come up with canon that keeps Discord from just snapping his fingers to defeat the Cloven. To make a long story short, there are limits to his power in this verse, especially outside of Equestria.

We want something else than Celestia pulling a Command and Conquer GDI Ion Canon everything into victory.

Heh. Having played some C&C games, I know what that is! Sadly, the Global Defense Initiative and Tiberian Ore will not be present here. The war will ultimately be won on the backs of the gryphons with a strong assist from other endangered races and nations. But will there be superweapons like the Ion Cannon? Stay tuned!

I use it even as a excuse in one of my stories why others don't mess around with Celestia glassing a Griffon City that contained a Pinguine army entire offensive movement.

You'll see Celly's power eventually, and also learn why she let Chrysalis win when they dueled. Suffice it to say, she learned a few lessons from that, including that they needed to rebuild their military and that she'd been neglecting her lesser magics and combat training for too long.

Shooting myself in the foot to prevent a war story, keeping I down to skirmishes rather than anything as elaborate and complicated as this story. I paint a picture the size of a paper page, you pain a picture the size of a house bright site.

I do my best! I guess I just have enough writing experience and an expansive enough imagination to be able to juggle a lot of different story elements and characters in my head.

Fun fact: We in Germany have many in cities like Dortmund, Recklinghausen etc.

Ah, so you're German. Glad to know fans of my writing are even found in the heart of Europe!

I love to take pictures of them. Art of huge proportion in size and dimensions in depth.

Interesting. Don't think we have any of that around here.

11877548
It's a acquired taste and niche art form that is rather expensive. Though it always is a impressive way to get customers attention.
Steampunk, fallout Vegas, a dentist artful presentation with adress, germany can be funny that way.

What mysterious things can be found for human in the antic Crystal Empire? Or the modern Equestria?

I wonder how the Equestrian alphabet looks like, I personally imagen something alongside this in writing:
camo.fimfiction.net/Rc3hkukHXTZDQSFwcADIzNC3LYBqXGhORNkcg-_pMKg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ibb.co%2Fc8HPLrv%2FUnown.png
camo.fimfiction.net/Lr-RbBZwxv4akiMvyqrUv_HbJal4o0y8RRq39po-NUM?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ebayimg.com%2Fimages%2Fg%2FWcUAAOSw9BJfKQLd%2Fs-l400.jpg

“If it comes down to it, I will speak for the two of us, Marco,” Gilda decided. “No offense, but I’ll know what to say to other griffons. I think you’ll agree that this would be a very bad time for any more accidental offenses.”
“Listen to her, Lakan,” Imlay warned. “I mean it. This is a delicate moment. We have to be careful.”
“Uh, yeah,” Marco said with a grimace, leaving Gilda guessing he was remembering how earlier cultural misunderstandings had worked out for him and Chris. “That’s fine. I don’t want an entire city mad at me.”

So Marco stood there, completely silent as Gilda gave her rousing speech.
He didn't say one single word....
....as he casually reached up to scritch on Gilda's spine between her wings....
....in the middle of Gilda telling everygriff how the Cloven would be defeated.
No cultural misunderstandings here.

The entire city was GREATLY aroused!
Then she gets promoted!
At least the changelings were VERY well fed that day.