A new faction

by Rub3r0n

The Dark Age: The 1st War for S.T.-s pt.3

Hello and welcome to the third part of the 1st War for S.T.-s! Here we will see how the equusians not only defend themselves from the savage orks of Warhammer 40k, but they also attack them! Peace was NEVER an option with these guys and because of that, it will soon disappear from the space rock known as "Green Skull".

---

Now, I think it will be good if I tell you a bit more about the two representatives left in this war, Flamellus and TD-007 (who we will almost everytime call Todarius Bond). This is because, well... I forgot to tell you about them earlier and they're gonna be more important for now on.

LET'S BEGIN!

---

Queen Flamellus

Who in the future would be a great leader and one of the most powerful equusians began as a little larva born circa 9.820 a.C.. Who her parents were was unknown, but she had a little brother, Carapas. They managed to enjoy their childhood in the nice orphanage they lived in, until a great revelation was made.

You see, the rulers of changelings are called "Alpha changelings", they have great power, are taller, don't age, and their fate is to rule. Even in those times, this tradition was respected by the insectoid race and this kind of changelings was trained to be the next representatives.

When a group of bullies was bothering her brother, Flamellus discovered her amazing magical powers protecting him, which revealed their true nature as Alpha changelings.

The King Heel soon knew about this, and, how the tradition says, he took these little under his wings to teach them how to replace him and his second-in-charge in the Council when the proper moment comes. He also adopted them.

With the years passing, Flamellus grew up, turning into a tall changeing Queen. She had a unique black quitin, red eyes and wings, covered with a scarlet carapace. Her mane was red too, and some say, it seemed fire, it extended down and covered her chest with fur. Her horn was also to take notice, it was long and curved, with two spikes on its sides, giving the appearance of a crown. Of course, she also had maroon antlers at her head.

She became the representative of changelings and her brother the sub-representative and a great diplomatist. Here Flamellus developed a rivalry with Flurry Hearth, since she was calmer and did things that Flamellus considered too innocent or seemed to take things with extreme seriousness, while the changeling was sarcastic and had a bigger temperament.

However, when she went to the war against orks and Flurry disappeared, that truly hurt her. Even with all their disputes, both considered each other "friends", in a sort of way. She promised to not let this happen again and make a slaughter with the orks, who dared to threat HER PEOPLE.

---

Todarius Bond

Todarius was one of those AI, who rebelled against their creators during the AI Revolution, created not long before this event, he suffered the abuse the machines like him had to deal with. And even if the conflict was solved diplomatically, some battles were fought, when that happened, they called him.

His strategical mind was appreciated by his equals, that's the main reason he went to fight the orks, he already had experience as a military thinker.

The AI was very glad when the conflict ended, because he thought that it would just increase the casualties on both sides and if there's something Todarius doesn't like, it's casualties! His metallic cubic body floated happily, and he celebrated peace shaking his four appendages located under his big, orange shoulder pads.

He needed some time to accept the sorry of the equusians, as every AI, but eventually, he found himself in good terms with the biological creatures. Not long after that, he climbed in the hierarchy and turned sub-representative of his kind.

During this atrocious war he found himself in really hard situations, since the casualties were pretty difficult to avoid. However, he made a friend, Flamellus. This two weren't really close before the war, they knew barely anything about each other, but now they were real friends, united by the desire of protecting their own and exterminate their enemies.

---

A BIG party was celebrated after the liberation of Palomino to commemorate the equusian victory, and without any kind of doubt the joy, happiness and proud impregnated the atmosphere.

Nevertheless, peace wasn't achieved, because there were still alive orks in the system and they surely would strike again. This time, it wouldn't be like so, the orks wouldn't come back to battle, mostly because the equusians wouldn't let them, they would bring the battle to them.

But they needed to rest, after 4 MONTHS of uninterrupted war, everyone would need to recuperate.

So did they, during the next 2 weeks and a half, the injured ones were treated, plans were made and some infrastructure rebuilt. Besides, new reinforcements from Equus came, this time not only new soldiers, weapons and other resources, but also two new ships!

These ships were Greenkiller, specialized in fighting orks, and Wallshield, designed specially for defenses. Plus, some support ships came too.

A new fleet was prepared for the travel to Green Skull, although Wallshield and some support ships would stay in Palomino as a defense force.

---

In one of the multiple chambers of Murderships Nightmare ship, a huge reptile was sitting down with the eyes closed. Volkano was thinking on all the things that had happened lately, all that the war with orks had brought or... took.

He was doing breathing exercises, maintaining his fire inside his mouth, without expelling it in the form of a flare. He discovered that doing this was... relaxing. And he needed to be calmed before what was going to happen arriving on the ork planet.

However, his relaxation was interrupted by several knocks on his door followed by a request to enter.

"Captain Volkano, Sir. Here is officer Thunderwill, asking for your permit to allow me to enter."

Volkano sighed and prepared for the coming conversation. He had baggy eyes due to the stress of leading this ship, but it wasn't anything he couldn't bear. "Permit allowed," He answered.

Thunderwill entered into the room, his light blue pelage covered his defined muscles, his horns were big and sharp and his eyes decided, but tranquil.

"Captain, we're approaching to the target planet, your assistance is required in the main room of the ship," Thunderwill declared, not as a request or an order, but just as a fact, something imperturbable of the reality.

"Yes, I will go in no time, don't worry," The dragon responded, with a bit of indifference, but still sounding serious.

Volkano stood and began to walk with the minotaur to the main room, going through the hallways of the ship.

"You know. It is good to have you officers right now," The captain said. "When we first went out from Equus it was like Captains are in charge, we're sure you can handle it, now go. And don't make me begin with everything on Palomino the first month, the administration and rank-hierarchy wasn't... well organized, let's put it like that."

"Your take of decisions was admirably during the first month of Palomino and your leadership one of the best I've seen. Moreover, I feel honored to be considered important for this mission." Thunderwill explained.

"Thanks bud', and you're welcome," After thanking the minotaur, he stared at nothing, with a look that seemed dead and without any energy.

"Does anything happen, Captain?" Thunderwill's asked, noticing the dragon's behaviour.

"Oh. No, nothing. I was just... trying to think of a joke, but I can't think of anything."

---

When they approached enough to Green Hell and its satellite, after a very fast travel, they stood totally impressed. Several cities were able to be observed from orbit and the different ecosystems too. Green Skull even had seas! One of them, pretty big, had the form of a skull, hence its name.

Firstly, after arriving, the equusian fleet attacked with everything they had the ork ships, driving their millions of combat-drones and shooting their most powerful cannons. Being a surprise attack, a lot of the greenskins ships were destroyed and the exosphere of the satellite almost clear.

However, after hearing that there was a good battle, a big number of ork ships went out from Green Hell, and began to battle against the fleet.

This supposed a pretty big problem, although the equusians could seem superior at the beginning, the ork cruises weren't easy to beat, and with such a great number of enemies, they just couldn't handle it correctly.

Even using all their drones and the new models. Usually, a combat-drone was a floating 0,5-1,5m machine with metal appendages as arms and several weapons. The new models were metallic beasts of 2m tall with multiple appendages, powerful melee and range weapons and other various abilities. Although there wasn't a big quantity of these machines (100 approximately, they were deployed only in the required situations).

The ork ships charged happily against their enemies, willing to crush and destroy everything. However, the orks weren't the only ones who wanted to charge against the opposing fleet. Captain Volkano, leading Murderships Nightmare, used again his favourite tactic to destroy other ships, now known as "Shield Charge".

This tactic worked well, but it wasn't enough to shoot down all the ships. So, Garlid Gobu managed to convince the captain of Greenkiller to prove a new attack maneuver. This maneuver would consist in going to a near asteroid field and get some of them with the telequinetic grips (similar to those classical attraction beams from alien UFOs), and instantly throwing them directly to the ork forces.

This proved to be very efficient, even during the attacks to Green Skull and Green Hell, although a bit slow.

Finally, the equusians managed to eliminate enough ork ships, not without losses of course, to be able to descend and land on the satellite.

The biggest ork city was Or-27, next to the Skull sea, take it would mean a decisive advantage in the war. On the other side of Green Skull, it was mostly deserted and without any buildings, except for some little ork villages and camps.

The attack began here, it wasn't very hard to conquer territory in this side of the planet, due to the lack of anti-aircraft defenses, the orks from there resisted quite good though.

Some bases were built to defend their new acquired territory, which were quickly attacked by ork war bands going there.

Fortunately, the drones achieved a great defense and the irregular land supposed a problem for a lot of land vehicles.

For all this, and a great organization, during the first 5 months the balance was tilted in favour of the equusians. Besides, new reinforcements came from Equus each month. Although it took much more than expected in controlling the whole satellite.

Some of the greatest equusian victories during these months were:

-The battle of Or-58: With this ork settlement took, the equusians achieved the total control of the duck sea. This was positive due to the lack of naval forces by the equusians and the orks could attack them from the water.

-The tree campaigns: A great part of Green Skull was covered by a dense jungle and having this territory would offer a safe attack position to their objectives due to the protection given by all the trees.

Because of this, several campaigns were realized to control this zone and, although it was slow, the magic of the equusians (specially the earth pony magic) gave a serious advantage. After some months, with victories and losses, the jungle was taken.

Things seemed to be going well for the equusians.

We have to fix that.

---

The fire remained unstoppable, devouring all the plants it could touch and reducing them to nothing more than ashes. Even with the powerful tropical rains typical of the jungle biome, the fire did not stop, but brought a destructive light.

The ork attacks were becoming increasingly aggressive. After trying to siege Or-27, which ended terribly bad, with hundreds of casualties and, summarizing, a crushing defeat. A nob (ork noble) put himself in charge and leaded several attacks to equusian bases, now they were setting fire to the vast jungle, so what before gave the equusians a big advantage for the possibility of sudden ambushes wouldn't exist anymore. Their progress seemed unstoppable and uncontrollable, a real threat to all life that destroyed everything they found, buildings, lives, hopes...

The only option that remained for the equusians was going through the frozen poles, then the orks couldn't resist too long the low temperatures, not as the equusian suits.

Meanwhile, the base in the jungle was still being besieged, their protectors were fighting bravely and angered, shooting everything to their enemies. Even that wasn't enough to destroy all those tanks.

One particular warrior, a griffon with yellow feathers, was using a powerful turret from a high hidden position on a tree. His attacks were being led by his pure hate and wrath. Those fungi man had to cease living! His hate for the orks was so big, that he didn't notice as his partners were falling one by one. Suddenly, a powerful explosion happened under him.

CRAAAAASHH!!!

The base of the tree disappeared, turning just a mess of splinters and ashes and making the tree fell, the griffon warrior fell with it.

On the mud-stained ground, the griffin felt deep pain, as both one of its wings and one of its feline hind legs were injured. The sounds of ork tanks and boys increased, the soldier wouldn't be able to resist a lot more.

Lying on the ground, the eagle-lion hybrid could see one of his fellow soldiers fighting the greenskins. This was a talented unicorn, known in their camp because of his great defensive spells, he showed thus the ability summoning a shield between him and the ork.

The griffon was glad, his partner could resist enough to flee and warn the others about the loss of this camp and...

A mace fell from above and destroyed the shield with a single blow, which continued until it connected with the pony's head and shattered it.

...

Before finally closing his eyes, the griffon warrior only thought in one thing, the HATE for the orks.

---

Another victory.

Thunderwill's record was already accustomed to having victories. Of course, he did not win every battle he fought in, but he was a very competent officer.

This time, they had managed to win a rather complicated fight. They had to conquer a port.

A significantly important one, having it under their rule would interrupt one of the most used routes by the orks to have a constant flow of supplies. Although that's also why there were more gretchins there than large orks, they got bored with all that carrying cargo. This port was never the final destination of a shipment, simply a place through which it had to pass. Still, losing him would be pretty bad for the greenskins.

The port was captured after a surprise attack at night and a fight that lasted for 1 day and two nights, until finally dawn. Still, there were more injuries than expected, but fortunately everyone was receiving the best medical treatment.

The minotaur in charge of having led the orks to their defeat in this position (Thunderwill), was sitting in a somewhat isolated room without much lighting. There, the officer was having a virtual meeting with Todarius Bond via holograms (which actually were impressive because of their high quality), whose strategies had served to guarantee victory and was currently directing the conquest of this entire area.

"Again, representative. I find myself in the necessity of thanking you for the great strategies you've offered us. We couldn't have been victorious without your aid," Thunderwill said, addressing his superior.

"You're welcome officer. But remember that I only told how to do things, actually doing them is something very different. The merit is truly yours," Todarius answered.

"However, I beg you not to let your guard down and put up new defenses. Although we believe that the largest number of Orks in the area are fighting on Or-46, as we try to keep a "good fight" there, this is not certain, and there could be attempts to retake the port by the aliens. Be careful, you know how unpredictable and made these things are," He warned.

The meeting ended, and as instructed, Thunderwill increased the defenses. This proved to be a good decision, for just as Todarius feared, it did not take long for the orks to attack, attempting to retake the port.

The orks managed to overwhelm the defenses and the resulting battle was fierce. The orks, as always, laughed and enjoyed the battle, but there was no shortage of insults towards the cuzziez either. For their part, the Equusians fought with HATE burning in their hearts, wishing nothing more than the death of the Orks, for all the horror they had unleashed.

Their rage was such that they seemed like berserkers, they did not care about their lives or those of their companions, they only sought the annihilation of their enemies.

This feeling, although it could have given them strength, was leading them to defeat, as they became disorganized and lost control over the situation.

This only stopped when Thunderwill, on Thunder Jotnar, managed to repel the first wave of orks, having a short rest to prepare for another attack.

But of course, he did not like at all how his troops had behaved during the battle, being careless and with an inappropriate fighting style. They were letting their emotions control them, and that could lead to them being defeated or suffering a large number of casualties.

"I do not ask you to not hate the orks, nor to stop wanting them dead. But the lack of control that unbridled anger and endless hatred can lead you to is not acceptable. While such emotions can provide strength and resilience, they are double-edged swords, for when you allow yourself to be consumed by them, they will lead you towards an inevitable and painful doom. Controlling feelings to use them effectively in any type of situation is wise, as well as people with great willpower."

"However, There is another thought, another motivation, another reason to fight that will undoubtedly give you strength and enough persistence to win in any confrontation. The desire to protect others, our loved ones, from horrendous alien beasts. And the search for peace, which is the most noble of tasks. May the fear of endangering your loved ones give you the power to keep them safe. May the coordination and unity between you and your comrades in arms create an unmatched power that achieves victory. I was there when the orks snatched us the first base on Palomino, but we got it back, and not for revenge or hate, just because we wanted to save others from falling in the middle of greenskin monsters. We wanted to protect our friends. That's what our society has been doing for over 10,000 years and it has always worked, no matter the adversity. We have only lost when such values ​​were forgotten. Why would it be different here?"

Of course, it wasn't as easy as saying it, but the troops understood the message well. Besides, Thunderwill wasn't wrong, thinking like that had kept them safe for millennia, so when the second orkish wave came, they tried not to get angry and try to kill the orks without thinking.

And they succeed. In fact, each warrior protected his companions with his life, they strengthened each other. Their unity was such that they achieved something surprising, which had only happened in Equus in the past. They made grow a new together tree, which became a symbol for victory and partnership.

---

The new mentality spread across the equusian army with the time, and a great part of the equusians hugged it happily. It showed to be very useful and beneficial, which was reflected in the increase of victories. Finally, the equusians were counter-attacking after the burn of the jungle.

You could say this happened because they were using the magic of friendship,... and you wouldn't be wrong, since it was friendship what gave them the strength to continue fighting.

The war continued and there were great victories, as in the battle of Or-34, an ork settlement, which resisted powerfully during months, but FINALLY, it fell and was conquered (Although when the equusians entered they discovered some bombs...). Or taking a zone called "tundra zero", a tundra in the north of the satellite with a lot of permafrost. This was good for the equusians, who melted the ice, this caused multiple collapses, which damaged the ork forces substantially.

But there were also crushing defeats.

Usually, the equusians stay far from the seas, 'cause they have no naval forces (they were going to space, shipping didn't seem important), so the orks couldn't attack them from the water. But the orks had a better idea. They began to bomb the land, so STRONG, that a canal was opened and the ork boats could approach to equusian bases enough to attack them. This demonstrated to be a big problem.

Things didn't go better, when some ork ships avoided the orbital defenses and managed to do orbital attacks, which caused a lot of casualties and losses.

Besides, new ork reinforcements came from the planet, which allowed the greenskins to murder several good officers in a surprise attack. This supposed a great tactician and moral damage, since they had lost good strategists. Some rumors also came from the planet, saying something about spikes, yellow light and a good fight, intelligence thought this was the main reason why not every ork came here to fight.

However, all this new Ork strength was deceived by the Equusians, who led them into a trap in a cumbersome swamp, where they were butchered. The goal of this was to leave some sections of the Ork domain unprotected, and guess what... it worked!

We can exemplify this with the Fang, a very important peninsula on the skull sea, since it possessed, not powerful large-range missile launchers, that would be belittling them.
Todarius himself leaded this mission, demonstrating his excellent organization and Queen Flamellus fought with extreme ferocity to take the peninsula, even scaring some of her OWN soldiers. It took a long time to finally have this position, but hey! The casualties were minimal.

Of course, the Fang wasn't the only position taken thanks to the swamp trap, but is one of the most important ones, since after some "repairs", the facility was used to safely attack a lot of ork settlements, villages, cities, factories...

For example this occasion when a really big ork weapons factory was totally destroyed, causing them a lack of weaponry in a near zone.

Finally, after a WHOLE YEAR on that giant ROCK! The final battle was fought. A new attempt to siege Or-27, the operation was long, but successful. In an EPIC confrontation, the nob used a powerful battle suit to face Thunderwill's sword, meanwhile a squad led by Flamellus exterminated other important orks, however, she was hurt severely and had to be taken quickly to the nursery after defeating an impressively big ork. And Volkano, who got off his ship to fight, burned ALL ork buildings until nothing remained. Finally, the presents could see how the magical beam of Thunder Jotnar was shot and, after a tense silence, the cubed giant rose victorious.

"YEEEEEEEEEEES!"

"YEEEEAAAAHH!!!!!!!!"

"VICTORY IS OUUUUURS!"
Everyone exploded in glorious cries of triumph while cheering.

The last thing they had to do is a bit of search for orkish survivors and eliminate them, which seemed harder than thought. Sometimes, it seemed that new orks appeared from nowhere! (They didn't know about the ork spores)

---

As you could theorize, this war was very hard and convoluted, since one day it seems that the equusians have the advantage, and next day the greenskins do a masterly movement and hope can seem lost, but then things change again and again and again...

And you know what's the best part???

This is only Green Skull... they still have a whole planet a lot bigger to conquer and millions of other orks to kill.

It's called "The Dark Age" for a reason.

---

*****

---

Sunny Starscout was in her room, sat in front of her desk doing some paperwork. Besides, she was preparing to calm everyone, the recent news from Palomino sure shocked a lot of creatures.

Everyone thought that she would be the most affected one, Flurry Hearth was her best friend since 10.000 years ago, who wouldn't be upset? Who wouldn't want revenge?

She wouldn't. Revenge was not her thing, not for a veeery long time, and the belief of Flurry Hearth being dead was pretty silly according to her.

She knew Flurry well enough to know how did she treat her meditations, all alone. Sunny wasn't completely okay with this, but it worked, so...

It wasn't the first time one of them mysteriously disappeared, Sunny herself once faked her own death. Besides, even if Flurry loved peace, she wouldn't have problems to defend herself if someone attacks her.

Some people were saying that she was refusing to accept it, but they were wrong. And even if something happened to Flurry (which didn't happen), she still could feel her alive. There was nothing to worry about.

---

The time passed, the days turned into weeks and the weeks into months.

Flurry's meditations sometimes were long, but this one was being the longest of them all. Not only that, the doubt was beginning to eat away at Sunny, she knew that Flurry was alive, she had to. But each day she feared more that the others were right and that her friend was gone.

But those were, obviously, silly thinkings. Flurry WAS alive.

---

Okay, this was taking too LONG.

Sunny had always been indulgent with how much time Flurry meditates, but this time she was overdoing!

Sunny Starscout decided to go to Palomino, find her, get her out from wherever she is stuck in and make. Her. HELP. Her mind and experience could be essential to win in Green Hell.

For this, she prepared, getting NEW ships, weapons and soldiers. She also tried to convince other representatives to help, but only one accepted. Besides, she took some of her artifacts for the cause.

THE RAINBOW LLIGHT!,

And...

GROGAR'S BELL

A lot of people think that this bell only steals magic, but with the right spells, it can do a lot more. Like,... for example... revealing where death has been.

She didn't know exactly why she took the bell for finding Flurry, maybe she still doubted if she was... NO! Flurry was ALIVE! She could feeeeeel it.