With Salvador defeated, the 8th armored scans for the rest of the SPEAR... but theyre all gone......
The 8th Armored Infantry division has been scanning for any sign of SPEAR Activity but all has gone quiet, until word from an old foe suggest otherwise. Apparently having failed destroying New Madrid's civilian populace, the remnants of SPEAR retreat to a long abandoned colony world..... or so they thought. No, this planet is anything but uninhabited... at least, if you don't count humans that is...
"Sir! We're approaching the destination!" , a white armor clad soldier called out.
"Good. Check to see if the planet can still sustain life..."
Monitors and holopanels were brought up by several engineers who tapped the occasional button which yielded in statistics to come up here and there, until finally an engineer replied, "Planet is in fact habitable. But, well..."
"Well, what?", the commander barked out, rising from his seat.
"It appears life forms do exist on the planet below.", the engineer replied with strict tone."But we have no clue as to what kind of life. Could just be bacteria, but it could also be an indigenous species capable of resistance. Or even worse, it could be the 8th."
The general stepped down from his command chair and went over to observe the planet below.Through the hardened space glass that covered the front half of the ships bridge he could see a planet that resembled Old Earth. The general turned around to his engineers and said, " Whatever waits on the planet below..", he unholstered his handgun, " We'll give em' hell before they take our colony away from us." he said as he cocked his gun for dramatic effect. The Spear forces took this as an inpirational speech and roared as loud as they could through their suits radio.
The general continued to take his seat on his throne once more and place his handgun on one of the armrests.
"Captain!"
A tall soldier adorned with large pauldrons clad in crimson armor and with a red elongated T shaped visor appeared from nowhere and strode up to the captain at attention. "Yes sir! Orders sir!"
"Deploy a Force Recon team and make contact with the life forms. If they are in any way sentient, you are to terminate them on sight. I want all traces of whatever is down there gone before we begin to set up a base.", the general commanded sternly.
"I shall not fail you sir.", with those last words the captain departed and began to gather men left and right and escort them to the armory.
In Equestria...
Twilght had just finished a long day of studying, royal duties, and exploding cakes, dont ask. As she sat at her house in the almost iconic Ponyville library, staring into deep space with her telescope. Although she was exhausted, she enjoyed stargazing every once and a while. Little did she know of what was about to unfold...
"Amazing, just amazing..." Twilight whispered to herself as she observed the ursa minor constellation, "Although, I prefer you up there, rather than down here." Twilight giggled as she remembered the day The Great and Powerful Trixie came to town.
"Hmmm... that's strange..." Twilight said as she shifted her telescope to another portion of the night sky where she saw... comets? Meteorites? She didn't know what to make of it. But, being as tired as she was, Twilight merely shrugged it off, and turned her back on what could've saved Equestria, had she known at the time. But She didn't.
"Eeeeyaaaaawwww....", Twilight let out a loud yawn as she shut her window, and draped a tarp over the telescope." Ugh, finally time for bed. I wonder though, what were those?" Twilight asked herself as she cantered up the stairs to her bedroom. "Probably wasn't anything important." Twilight dismissed the idea, but she still had a nagging feeling in the back of her mind that all was not right.
However she concentrated on sleep as she kissed the sound asleep dragon on the forehead, and then snuggled into her own covers. She was exhausted and sleep took her so quick it was alarming almost.
So quick,she didn't even notice the shadow slip in through her unlocked window...
All was silent over Ponyville as a lavender unicorn drifted away to sleep. But silence usually means one thing. A battle is coming. The silence was soon broken by the all too familiar sound of an object hurtling throught the atmosphere at great speeds. But this time it wasn't just a stray meteor or comet, oh no, it was something much worse. It was the SPEAR OF ORION's troops deploying across the general ponyville area.
" Listen up! And listen good!" A captain shouted to his men in a SPEAR dropship. "We have been informed that we are to drop, and then rendevouz with Alpha and Charlie squads right outside this forest." The captain then pulled up a holopad map of Ponyville's geography. No settlements were present of course, as contact hadnt been established, and only very general maps had been mad from low orbit.The captain pointed to the Everfree's treeline and then to where the 3 squads woul be deployed. "Alpha will drop here.." he said pointing to the general area of Zecora's hut. "Bravo here..." pointing to the center of Ponyville. "And Charlie over here..." the captain said pointing to a swapmy area. The captain then deactivated the holopad and prepared to jump.
"Alright men, LET'S DO THIS!" He exclaimed as the bay doors opened and he jumped out headfirst. What he saw shocked even him. Several hundred meters below was a village that resembled ancient human structures.
"Captain what the fuck is this?", a soldier commented over the com.
"Ya, seriously commander, what on Earth is this?", another soldier chimed in worriedly.
The commander remained silent, dumbfounded by what he was approaching until he finally spoke up and said " Hit the brakes men looks like this recon op just got a lot more complicated..."
The other 10 soldiers did as they were told and and activated their brakes fairly high ,up. As they drifted closer to the ground they noticed creatures moving. Albeit there were few, the soldiers didnt know what to think of it, yet.
The soldiers impacted the ground as softly as you possibly can from a HALO drop. As the soldiers took out their weapons, they scanned the area briefly and decided that it would be best to take refuge util they knew what they were up against.
The captain softtly whispered over his com to Alpha who had certainly landed by now. "Alpha, there is lfe on the planet, i repeat sentient life forms are present."
"I read you bravo, we'll inform the commander.", said a low gravely voice over the com.
"Charlie this is Bravo, we've discovered sentient life on the planet. Do you read?", said the captain once more over the com, this time to Charlie squad.
No reply for a few seconds until a despera sounding soldier replied " We're under attack! Bravo send help qui-" , the com cut out abruptly leaving the captain wondering what had attacked them.
"Charlie? CHARLIE? Dammit.", the captain said as he brought up Charlies statistics on his HUD. 3 soldiers were KIA, and another 4 were injured.
The captain radioed to Aplha and stated coldy " Alpha, this is Bravo. We are postponing the rendevouz. We'll send you the new coordinates once a safe zone has been established."
" Alright Bravo. We'll hold our current position for the time being. Be quick about finding a safe zone though, a couple of the soldiers think they saw something moving in the brush. And we heard what happened to Charlie. Find a safe zone, ASAP. Alpha out."
A few soldiers started to shuffle around the commander, until one taped him on the back. The captain turned around to face a SPEAR soldier clad in Aegis armor.
"David, I think we found a refuge. Lights are off, looks deserted, windows seem to be unlocked." a soldier sated gesturing to a large treelike structure...
"A tree?! A fucking tree?! C'mon Aquilla, you cant be serious.", another soldier this on carrying a sniper, commented.
"Can it Jason! It's our best shot for the time being.", Captain David growled at Jason.
" My god lets just get this over with..." Jason muttered as he followed the rest of the group towards the tree.
The soldiers, knowing using a jetpack to get to the window wouldn't work (too loud) hopped up on the limbs of the tree. Each of the 13 armor clad figures found ther own ways in. The captain found a window which seemed to be unlocked and slowly creaked the shutters open until he was just able to fit through and close the window again, all without a sound.
All of the soldiers regrouped in a back room where most had found their way in.
"Alright, Brown, take inventory of the men and equipment. Aquilla, you got your shotty?", David asked quietly.
" Always." Aquilla said taking out his large pump action instrument of death.
"Good... I want you to sweep the house. See if anyone is still here, just in case."
"Roger that captain." , Aquilla whispered as he opened he door which lead into the main library. He began to search the large circiluar room until he had determined nothing was present. He then proceeded to advance up a set of stairs that led to a small platfrom which overlooked the main library. After a quick scan Aquilla singled out two lumps that were... breathing?
He approached cautiosly with his shotgun raised. Every step he got closer to the lump in a large bed , he could hear it breathing more and more clearly until he finally got close enough that he could practically hear it's hearbeat. He examined it for a few seconds, but couldn't really make out what it was. As he was about to lift the covers, a voice came from behind him and thesoldier whirled around concernedly and without a second thought fired his shotgun. Aquilla had completely forgoten that this was a stealth mission and mentally faceplamed as he arroached the bloody mess he had created.
But before he could make out what the creature was in the dark, he heard somethng waking up behind him. He was hesistant to turn around.
All Aquilla could say before spinning around was "Oh' shiiiiiit..."
Aquilla whirred around and, learning from his previous folly brought out his knife and approached the shifting lump. He went in to remove the covers from the creature, but before he could, the creature removed them itself.Tthe lavender colored creature was laying in bed staring up at the large robotlike man in confusion.
Make no mistake, Aquilla was a battle hardened veteran of war. He had seen his comrades ripped to shreds right in front of him. But what he was looking at currently, was something far more bewildering. Before Aquilla could fully process what lay before him he said to no one in particular "This, this is a first..." trailing off.
Aquilla, although stunned, approached the creature slowly with his knife raised, and just as he was about to get close enough to slash its throat it spoke.
"H-h-hello? Who are y-y-you?" , whispered a shaky female voice.
At this point Aquilla wasn't sure if his suits systems were malfunctioning, he could've sworn the creature just talked. He ran a quick suit diagnostic, which beeped a low sound, causing the creature to back away a little. The suit diagnostic ended along with the beeping, and as a result the creature relaxed slightly. Nothing was evidently wrong with his suit.
"My god..." Aquilla muttered to himself.
"W-What are you?" The female voice stammered, as the sun was now starting to rise and she could make out now, that the pony standing in her room, was definetley NOT a pony.
Aquilla recoiled at the voice again. This time no so much that it could talk, but that it could speak perfect english. Aquilla, not wanting to risk another blood bath for the time being did something so unexpected, not even the creature was prepared. He spoke to it.
"Who am I?I am Aquilla of Bravo Team.I am a close quarters specialist.I am a soldier for the SPEAR OF ORION and just WHAT are you?" Aquilla spoke , using the calmest tone he could at a time like this.
The sun was starting to reveal more of itself as the minutes went by. By this time the room was becoming a pale orangey glow which illuminated the room... save for the corner where the mess had been made. Aquilla was quite grateful for that, he didnt know how the creatures would react to violence.. or witnessing it.
"I-I-I'm Twilight Sparkle. I am a unicorn. And I am also the protege of Princess Celestia." Twilight said, gaining more and more confidence as she spoke the sentence.
Aquilla sat down on the floor and pushed aside his shotgun. " Well, I'm sorry Twilight was it? But you have two choices.." Aquilla said slowly bringing his knife into an attack position." You can come with me..." Aquilla spoke "OR DIE!" Aquilla let out a warcry and charged the unicorn with his knife. He closed the short distance between them in less than a second giving Twilight no time to react. Aquilla plunged his knife into her side and then back out. He continued to hold down the unicorn as she struggled to get free. He also covered her mouth with his enourmous metal hand so that Twilight's screams of pain came out muffled and grew weaker every time he slashed or stabbed the small equine.
After 2 mnutes of nonstop slashing the soldier backed away and the body fell limp. Aquilla was still stunned by the creatures that inhabited the planet and was less han willing to accept the thought of unicorns being real. Although he really didnt have a choice considering he had just sliced one up.
"Well, you ain't too damn tough at least...." Aquilla muttered to hiimself as he shook the blood off his knife and picked up his shotty to report back to David.
Aquilla made his way down the small flight of stairs and bck to the room where the other soldiers were now either resting or taking inventory.
Through the crowd of other SPEAR forces Aquilla was able to spot David before he did him. He approached the commander slowly, being sure to step over any sleeping men. Once he had finally reached David he quickly briefed him on what had happened. Quite frankly the captan was just as shocked as Aquilla. Not wanting to startle any of the other men just yet, David decided it was best if they didnt see just yet.
" Corporal, are the bodies still there?" David asked hesitantly.
"Wha? Of course! Why wouldnt they be?" Aquilla whispered to the captian to keep the others from hearing.
"Take me to where you found these two, creatures."
"Very well captain." Aquilla said truning around and making his way back to the door with David in tow.
Aquilla opened the door silently and lead David up the same flight of stairs that he had taken earlier. The sun now shone brightly through the window, and it appeared to be around noon. As they reached the top of the stairs Aquilla was unprepared for what he saw, or rather what he didn't see.
"Corporal, what am I looking at exactly?" David inquired.
"They're gone!They're bloody gone!" Aquilla muttered as he fell to his knees in despair and confusion.
David was confused as to why there were bloodstains on the walls and floor as he watched his companion fall to the floor. He figured they're really must have been a fight between him and the creatures. But that still didn't answere the question as to where they went.
"No..." Aquilla said in an angry tone as he stood up with his shotgun at the ready. " You are not going to get away from us creature. YOU WILL NOT! But it appears that you are attempting to. Just know this!" Aquilla said getting calmer as he went.
"If you choose to escape we will not kill you..." Aquilla said calmy.
"We will kill everyone around you. All who you hold near and dear, and make you watch as the life drains from their eyes. Know this creature! You have doomed your planet by choosing to run! And now..." Aquilla said menacingly as he cocked his shotgun.
"You're all gonna pay."
Aquilla regained his composure after his fit of anger and walked back towards the back room. He opened he door and waited for David. But he didn't come. He figured he wanted to examine the scen so he just closed the door and rejoined his squad.
Meanwhile David surveyed the scene. Not much, just blood stains and... an open window? He stared for a second realizing it was probably the creatures means of escape. David was tempted to look outside the window, but since it was midday he resisted the urge, fearing that the creatures might attack him.
Since all he was left with was blood he scooped up a few samples into viles and clipped them to his belt magentically. He then ran one of the through a scanner which determined which species it was. To his asonishment the scanner came up empty, reading " SAMPLE NOT COMPATIBLE." This had never happend before, even on New Madrid where there were some pretty obscene creatures.
David stood dumfounded for seconds on end until he decided it was best to check in with Charlie and Alpha. Turning his com on he radioed Charlie.
"Charlie this is Bravo do you read?"
No response for a few seconds until a soldier replied over the com " This is Charlie, we read you. Uh hold on Bravo we have some info that might be useful."
"Go ahead soldier." David said calmy.
"Okay. Well last night when we dropped something attacked us. We lost 6 men, so we've taken heavy casualties. Another 2 men are injured with some kind of poison. It looks like they won't make it. But as for the creature we downed, it's huge. Big as at least 3 Ragnarok Assualt Tanks."
David shuddered at the thought of a creature that could single handedly kill of half a squad of SPEAR soldiers. And it didn't help soothe his mind that it was bigger than a goddamned tank.
"Also it appears it has multiple necks, and heads. We ran multiple searches as to what it was, blood, DNA, even brain matter. None of our scanners have seen anything like it sir. One of the men suggested something though. At the timeIi thought it quite silly, but now I'm not so sure."
"Well? What did he suggest?", David inquired slowly, almost not wanting to know the answer.
" Sir? He suggested a hydra." the soldier replied coldly.
David couldn't beleive what was happening. First Charlie gets nearly wiped out, by a hydra of all things. The bodies go missing. Whats next? ,David thought to himself.
" Alright, Charlie, I wan you to rally on Alphas current position. Be stealthy and avoid anymore contact."
"Sir yes sir." The soldier finished as the com went silent.
"Ugh... what the fuck is this planet anyways?" David thought out loud.
David turned his attenion to Alpha and radioed in to them.
" Alpha this is Bravo. Charlie is going to your current location. Watch out for them, they have wounded. Anything to report yourself?"
Almost immediatley Alpha's leader replied. " Alright, and yes we do in fact have something to report. We discovered sentient life early this morning found her in a hut. Says shes a zebra of some sort. I have no idea how that's possible though, considering Zebra's don't talk but Ive learned to expect the unexcpected so i guess i just have to go with it for now. Don't worry we have her captured. We're interogating her as to what this planet is right now. After that, we'll dispose of her. Don't worry we'll keep an eye out for charlie. Alpha out."
'Alright, everything's coming together now. Better get the men prepared to move out.." David thought to himsef as he descended the flight of stairs and re-entered the back room.
Little did he know that they were being watched...
Info On Certain Characters And Things That Will Appear During The Story (Continually Updated)
* Remember to visit the site I have provided a link to in order to familliarize yourself with the characters that come straight from the Section 8 Prejudice universe, such as Blackburn and Commander Corde.
Also note I will continually update this chapter with links to pictures that I feel better help the reader understand the story.
As Captain David stepped through the door into the back room he saw all the soldiers at attention, rifles raised, with Aquilla heading them.
"I take it we're ready to move corporal?" David said quickly.
"Sir, yes, Sir." Aquilla responded.
"Good, lets move out. Its still pretty light out men, i know, but we cant stay stranded any longer. Be very stealthy and do not be seen. Understood? Good." David said in his authoratative tone.
Immediatley all 13 soldiers slowly proceed out the back door. Once outside, they quickly darted from cover to cover to avoid being seen. At this point in the day though, it looked like most creatures had retired to their abodes. Most of the men still didn't know what the creatures were, and remained wary, ready to pull the trigger at a moments notice. The few creatures that were still out and about weren't aware of what lay in the shadows... yet.
As Jason stopped, the whole group did as well. Jason quickly motioned to the treeline that lay just a few hundred meters ahead of them, and then to a small cottage that was in their way. The men seemed wary to try to brdge the gap at first, but after David advanced slowly and quietly darting from bush to bush, eventually making it to the treeline without a scratch, the rest of the group hesitantly followed his example. Slowly but surely, every soldier one by one advanced towards the treeline until only sergeant brown was left out in the open.
"C'mon Brown stop fucking around!" Aquilla shouted as quietly as he could to the soldier who was dangerously close to the cottage.
"HA, ya like anything's gonna ha-" Brown was cut off by the sound of a door opening behind him and a quiet feminine voice whisper something so softly he couldn't make out what she had said. Before Brown could whirl around the door had shut and was locked. "Crap... hold on I'll be right over, can't risk any witnesses right?", Brown said nervously before knocking on the door. No reply. A million thoughts raced through browns head, he wanted to beleive it was a human, he had heard he really did, but he knew deep down that it was most definitley an alien. Annoyed with the lack of response Brown gave up the diplomatic approach, and did things his own way.
THUD! The door caved in as Brown gave it a mighty kick, breaking small pieces of wood off of the door. Brown quickly surveyed the room. Nothing.He proceeded to look around briefly. Under the couch, behind chairs, drawers, everything. After nothing turned up he found a small set of stairs which he proceeded to ascend. As he got higher up he could the faint sound of something breathing, not enough to be sure, but it was definitley giving Brown the creeps.
Brown shouldered his machine gun and hgesistantly started to scan the small room, until he determined the breathing was coming from under the bed. He approachyed it cautiously, not knowing what to expect. Slowly he began grip the bed's side until he quickly flipped it over and revealed what lay underneath. Brown couldn't beleive what he was seeing. Brown remembered how weird Aquilla had acted when he came back from a sweep. He figured this is what he was worked up about.
"Holy mother of god..." Brown muttered to himself. This was a mistake, as the butterscotch colored creature shifted and caused Brown to realign his machinegun at the creature.
"H-Hello? Wh-" the creature whispered in fear but was cut off.
Brown not knowing what the creature had just done instictevely pulled the trigger on his machinegun, unleashing a hail of bullets on the creature. The creature fell limp before Brown even stopped firing. He looked over what he had done and simply shrugged it off.He was a soldier after all and the gory mess that lay before him now didn't bother him at all. What troubled him is that he could've sworn it said hello in english. No that's not possible, it couldn't possibly talk, Brown thought to himself reassuring himself he was hearing things. He quickly descended the stairs, exited the cottage and overdrived towards the treeline to regroup with his fellow soldiers.
As brown exited his overdrive and took out his machinegun Jason asked the obvious " Did ya get em?"
"Course I got em. And now i have a question of my own captain, what in the hell are these things, they look like freaking horses, and I coulda sworn it talked." Brown growled at David.
"I'm sorry but I can''t answer that sergeant, only Aquilla here knows what's really going on." David said, deciding it was time to let the men know."Aquilla, tell them what you told me."
"Yes sir." Aquilla sad before retelling of his encounter with the strange beings. As he was finishing up Jason asked him "So, they're freaking horses?That talk?"
"Yup, pretty much. But oh ya, this one said she was a unicorn."
There was a collective chuckle from the crowd of soldiers. "Dude, you must be off your rocker!" Mitchell commented through his laughter.
"I'm seroious! You all heard the gunshots when Brwon fired on one of these horses! Now correct me if im wrong, but you all have access to Charlie's vitals, check em."
All of the soldiers hesitantly brought up a holopad, not quite sure what Brown was getting at. Every holopad read, 'KIA:6 HEALTHY:5 INJURED:1' The soldiers were all shocked at what they had just beheld.
"See! Something is out there, and it killed our men!" Aquilla said sounding confident.
"Woah, hold on a second, they could've drowned when they dropped into the swap, o-or died on impact." a soldier said shakily not wanting to beleive that there was life on this planet, despite all the evidence around him.
"Not likely, not a single SPEAR soldier has ever died on impact, and our suits come with oxygen tanks that can last up to 2 hours. Something definitley attacked em, I don't know what exactly, but something did." Aquilla responded after a short pause.
"I think I can answer that question. Charlie was attacked by a hydra, according to Charlie squad." David said slowly as to not frighten the men.
"That's it, I'm done. Ponies? That talk, and now some fucked up lizard that has multiple heads, pardon me captain but I think everyone around here is freaking insane." Jason responded with a hint of frustration in his tone.
"Well, like it or not Jason, its real, you just saw Charlies vitals, something killed em. For now let's not worry about that though, we have to get going if we're to reach the rendevouz point by dusk. C'mon men, move out." David ordered as he headed in the direction of Alpha.
As the troops trudged throught the dense forest several soldiers could've sworn they saw the trees moving. Remembering back to what Jason had said though, they put it out of their minds, attributing it to the wind. The column of troops was nearing a clearing when one of the soldiers bringing up the rear shouted " CONTACTS OPEN FIRE!!!" as he unleashed a hurricane of rail rounds on a large creature that appeared to be made of wood. Most of the soldiers stood and watched in shock, although a few joined in with their weapons blazing. The rounds ripped throught the creature and it got noticeably weaker with every round it took. However before it went down it managed grab a soldier in it's jaws and grind him and his suit up into a bloody mess of electronics and guts.
As the gunfire died down some of the soldiers knelt down to pay their respects before continuing on. They didn't get far before a soldier blurted out "WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT COMMANDER!?!?!?!?"
David was at a loss for words at this point.Even he didn't know what was going on. " I don't know Oscar, just eep moving, hopefully Alpha will have some answers for us." David replied after a long pause.
The dense forest had a canopy so thick that it muffled sound very well. This would prove to be both an advantage and a disadvantage to the Spear forces.
"Halt. Jason go up ahead and check it out,I think I saw something move." David said to Jason.
"FIne." jason replied reluctantly before heading away from the group out of view. Not even seconds had passed until he came running back towards them with his back turned to them firing at something.
" Don't just sit there! KILL IT! Jason said as another wood creature that appeared to be wolflike tried to swipe him up with it's claw. The other soldiers all obliged this time and the creature fell quickly with the full force of the squads firepower bearing down on it.
"Look whatever the fuck these things are, they're damn tough, next time captain, send more than one, barely got away with my life." Jason said as he motioned a medic over to repair him.
"Will do. C'mon, we're less than a klick away from Alpha now, if we hustle we can regroup before sundown." The soldiers continued their march through the forest alhough a slightly increased pace, all of the men were now very alert and were ready at a moments notice, the preceeding events had shaken them, and also taught them to be aware of their surronding. No one wanted to end up like Springfield... As the march continued the soldiers seemed to relax slightly as they didn't see any movement
A clearing came into view through all of the trees just minutes later. The soldiers proceeded to calmly exit the brush , but what they saw stunned all of them. There was indeed a squad of armored infantry waiting for them. Problem was, they weren't SPEAR.
David was stunned at what he saw. Several dozen USIF soldiers were searching the small clearing. Their forces easily outnumbered theirs and they knew it. David taking note that none of them had noticed, ordered his men to silently reatreat back into the bush. The soldiers quickly reformed a few dozen meters into the forest.
" Captain what the hell are they doing here?" Aquilla asked, with a bit of frustration permeating his othewise calm tone.
"I-I, I don't know. I wasn't informed that the USIF was here. Hell I didnt even know the indigenous species was here. That doesn't matter though. We can't inform command until we get a com array up. The only spot where we could set up a FOB would be the clearing without any of the creatures noticing." David spoke, while gears shifted in his head formulating a plan.
"Well that means we have to kill the USIF guys then doesn't it? Look captain, I don't mean to be out of line or anything, but did you see how many of them there were?" Brown commented.
"Yes there were quite a few weren't there. Hmmm. Alright Brown you lay down suppressing fire with Aquilla while Oscar and jason flank them and take them down with their snipers. The rest of you encircle the group and open fire when I give you the signal. Go." David said, his plan coming together little by little...
David quickly assumed his position, along with the rest of the men. The captain slowly advanced on an armored infantry who had his back turned with his knife raised. He quickly grabbed the soldiers motuh, jabbed him in the back with his knee forcing him upwards into his blade before letting him fall limp. Aquilla took it that that was the signal and opened fire. The other soldiers quickly joined in firing with their weapons on full auto as they slowly advanced inwards, revealing themselves from the jungle. The USIF soldiers were killed off fairly easily and wthout even being able to return fire, as they were shot down one by one very quickly. Within a matter of less than a minute all 18 soldiers lay dead. The SPEAR forces looked upon ther handiwork and mentally patted themselves on the back for the chaos they had caused.
"Thats all of em commander I think we ca-" Jason was cut off by a startling observation he had made midsentence." Look at this guys! Look!" Jason exclaimed gesturing o one of the bodies which seemed to flicker with a yellowish light until it revealed something that would seal Bravo's fate...
"No. That's not fucking possible captain." Oscar said in disbeleif as he beheld a Spec-Ops Spear engineer laying on the ground. One by one every USIF body flickered with the same strange light as the engineer had... and one by one, more friendly fire casualties appeared on the ground.
"What the fuck is this? Aquilla call down a com array i want to know just what the hell is going on around here." David spoke without a hint of emotion.
Aquilla obliged and within a minute a large satellite dish was on the ground. David hailed the general's ship and began to talk in a calm tone to the general.
"Sir, we've discovered sentient life but before you ask any questions I have some of my own. What just happened? I ordered my men to oen on USIF forces and we took them all out. But then they started to flicker and they all turned into fucking SPEAR spec-ops units like us. What the hell is going on!" David said losing his composure on the last sentence.
"Wait... You said you killed my men? Captain this does not bode well for you or your men..." The general said in a low ominous tone.
"What are you getting at sir?" David inquired, not really wanting to know the answer.
"It means... I have to strip you of your rank captain. Now normally I would just do that and send you on your merry way, but you and your men have seen too much for me to just let you go... I'm afraid I have to dispatchh your sqaud Captain. Sincerest apologies, but it is the only way..." The general sad in an authoratative tone that was firm.
David couldn't beleive what he was hearing. He understood what had just happened, but he didn't want to beleive it. Although David being well, himself he replied in an angry tone to the general. " Oh yea old man? Come and get me!" David then proceeded to bash in the com array so that he couldn't be tracked.
The other soldiers recoiled from the sound of electronics being smashed, and stood bewildered as they watched their commanding officer rip the com array apart piece by peice.
" Uhm... Captain? Why did you just you know..." Aquilla asked just as dumbounded as the rest of the men.
"What? Why I ripped it apart? Because apparently we're wanted fugitives now who are gonna be terminated! That's why Aquilla!!!"
Aquilla just stood and stared. This was not his captain, and it was certainly not David. His best freind and comrade had changed. For the better or for the worse, he couldn't quite tell yet. He then moved on to the content of the sentence. Fugitives. Oh man how he had a history with that word.
"So now what?" Oscar said blandly.
"Now... now we, I don't know Oscar, I don't know." David said his rage simmering down slowly. "Hold on, Brown, see if you can access whatever those guys were using. That cloak. I have an idea, it's a longshot but it just might work."
"Aye aye captain." Brown said in a mocking pirate voice.
"The rest of you, look around, scavenge what you can, take all of their ammo, grenades, tools, weapons, everything. We won't be getting a ressuply for a long time." David ordered, his rage no longer noticable.
The men spent at least 2 hours rummaging through the dead bodies of their comrades, still unable to comprehend the severity of the situation. Shortly after all the men had reported back to David, most of them loaded up with 5 or 6 weapons and beltfull upon beltfull of ammuntion and grenades, Brown called out to the captain to come look at something.
"Alright, lookie here. This cloak they use actually has a lock on it. To acces it i need to upload a virus to crack it open. I've already got mine open and ready for use. And oh yea, it only works for about 24 hours before it needs to recharge for a fourth of that time. It can change into anything, but you need a DNA sample of the subject first. hy did you want me to.... no way you can not be serious captain." Brown said realizing what David was getting at.
" Send me and the other soldiers the virus and crack the code, and make it quick." David said as he unclipped a vial of blood from his belt eyeing it up and down.
"Sir..... yes sir...." Brown said knowing fully well what the captain had in mind. Within a few minutes all the cloaks were unlocked and ready for use. " They're ready sir.... just... " Brown gulped " Place the sample on your chest vent and you will instantly change once it has registered..."
"Good... good..... Alright listen up men! take a vial of blood from me and place it on your chest vent... and wait." David ordered his men as he handed out vials of blood and watched as one by one each soldier popped the vial and poured the contents on their chest vent which sucked up all the blood greedily.
David watched his men before he himself popped the vail he held and pured it into his chest vent. The vent quickly sucked it all up and immediatley he felt...... nothing?
David wasn't sure if it worked or not as he stared at his hands, expecting something to happen. David was frustrated by the effects the claoks had yielded..... until he looked up that is. He no longer saw his sqaud of Spear soldiers, what he saw almost made the combat veteran squee with delight and gasp with shock... almost. What he beheld was a large group of horse looking creatures that he quickly figured out must be what the blood had originated from.
A large grey pony with a red mohwak and and blue eyes approached him.
"Brown? Is that you?" David said almost not expecting a response.
"David? Is that you? And uh, yea it's Brown." The large stallion replied in Brown's voice. " Well, looks like it worked but it appears that the actual user cant see himself as the creature, inconvenient. Just tell the men to keep an eye on the charge David ok?"
"Yea, sure... and uh hey check out your new look Captain..." Brown said handing David a mirror.
Honestly David was quite impressed with what he saw... He was a large muscular pony with a black coat, red spikey mane, and vibrant green eyes. He also noticed a little tatoo on his rump. It was a Spear Lion that he had noticed was alos present on his captain pauldrons.
"Not bad, for a horse." David whispered to himself.
Brown noticed that all the other men were walking on fours and that so was David. He wondered if he was aswell. He strode up to a pony who was conversing with another in Jasons voice.
"Hey, Jason, are you standing up?" Brown asked the pony who was standing on all fours.
"Brown? Damn you look different, and uh, yeah I'm standing up." the large pony with a white coat, yellow mane and tail, and plain blue eyes.
" Good to hear. Uh, dont ask why" Brown replied.
Brown strode away from the group back to black pony that was captain David.
" Sir, what do you reccomend we do now? We are running on a schedule now." Brown asked hesitantly.
" Hmmm..... I say we head into town, see what info we can gather on where we are just exactly what we are. Beyond that, I'm still working on it." David sad as he stroked his metallic chin.
" Alright then, I'll inform the men of your course of action."
" Will do sergeant." David said. ' I wonder though... where exactly is the USIF?" David thought to himself before rejoining his troops, and heading off in the direction of the settlement they had resided in the night before.
David did not have an answer to his thoughts... at the moment. However the ARM OF ORION did have answers.
The sound of a dropships jets broke through the silence that reigned now that General Salvador was dead, and SPEAR forces were nowhere to be seen. The dropship was aprroaching its destination, a small space aircraft carrier.
"Matthews, take inventory of how much ammo we have left, I'm gonna pick some up for everyone once we get into an orbital carrier." Commander Corde spoke with a bit of weariness showing
" Roger that, Blackburn how many clips you got left?"
"Uhm, 3 for my AR, and 5 for my shotty. No grenades left, and my repair tool still is working" replied the tall armored soldier.
Matthews scribbled down something on a holopad with the tip of his finger hastily.
"Here you go captain, this is all me and Blackburn have got left. I'll come with you to pick up the supplies, it looks like your gonna need help carrying it all." Matthews said as he handed Corde the holopad.
"Alright you can come with. As for you Blackburn, ready a dropship and requisition 3 mechs. That's all I can think to do right now. Just resupply and get ready for another fi-" Corde was cut off by a loud explosion that shook the whole dropsip.
"SHIT! Looks like the SPEAR ain't done with us just yet! Brace for impact!' Blackburn shouted over the explosions.
The dropship plummeted at an alarming rate down towards West Eden. Closer and closer they came to the ground as the men inside quickly secured their helmets and readied themselves for what was to come. It came only seconds later. Corde tumbled around a bit before coming to a stop just a few feet away from the wreckage. He quickly jumped up from where he lay and began scanning for Blackburn or Matthews... Until he was tapped on the shoulder from behind.
"Ah, Matthews, it's good to -" Corde wasn't able to complete his sentence as he turned away from the smolderin wreck to face the soldier behind him. It was not Matthews.
"Hold on don't shoot! The commander wanted me to give you this!" said the ARM soldier that was standing face to face with Corde.
Corde hesitantly reached out and grabbed the holopad, knowing he was in no state for a fight right now.
" There oh and sir. One more thing, if you don't beleive me about what I'm about to tell you. Take a look at this." said the faceless soldier gesturing towards an anti-air battery operated by SPEAR soldiers. Commander Corde in all his years of service had never seen such a thing as he beheld dozens of ARM forces swarming the battery and killing off the few SPEAR operators.
"What? Wh-" Corde sputtered out befrore being interupted.
"The ARM OF ORION has abolished our treaty with the SPEAR , we are hoping that we can band together to destroy this threat. Commander... will you vouch for us? The ARM is truly ready to become the USIF's ally."
Corde was more than stunned. He was at a loss for words so all he did was nod slowly. After witnessing the brutal raid on the AA guns there was no doubt in his mind that ARM had split from SPEAR.
"Where are my men?" Corde said with a hint of concern.
"Oh, uh, hold on, we'll bring them right over." the ARM soldier said before dissaperaing behind the wreck of the dropship and returning with several other ARM soldiers carrying Matthews and Blackburn on stretchers.
"Oh, sorry, it appears they both took a concussive blow to the head on impact, but not to worry, they'll be fine." the armor clad soldier said to Corde.
"So now what?" Corde said not knowing what else to ask.
"Now..." the ARM soldier said " Open he holopad, and you'll have the info you'll need to find SPEAR. In the meantime, ARM forces are deploying on a SPEAR colony world to take out all enemy forces. I trust you will assist us as soon as possible commander."
"But wait why woul-" Corde was cut off.
" The holopad will explain it all commander, as for you getting to your ship, we have a spare dropship that will pick you up in 20 minutes and bring you to the carrier right outside Eden. Good luck commander. The ARM is at your service." the soldier said before the other soldiers set down Blackburn and Matthews and walked off into the distance until they were out of sight...
Corde had a million thoughts to what just happened. A trap? Or was it really the ARM defecting? He didn't know , and the only way to find out was to was to see what the holopad had in store. Corde settled down next to Matthews, well enough away from the wreckage and opened up the holopad. An audio file began to play as various images of a strange planet that resembled Old Earth flashed on the screen.
A gruff voice began to speak, " This is Corporal Aquilla of the SPEAR OF ORION , we have been ordered to retake an old SPEAR colony, now that Salvador's dead, we have to retreat to any planet still avalaible, and this was the closest one. All I was told during breifing was that this was apparently the first planet to be terraformed by the SPEAR, before they abandonded it for some unknown reason. Engineers think they're might be life on the planet below, I think thats a bunch of shit. Well looks like it's almost time to Burn-In, looks like this is just gonna be another boring mission. This Corporal Aquilla of the SPEAR OF ORION signing off. There David I did the freaking audio tape, oh wait ths things still on? Oh haha,..." The audio cut off abruptly, and then the screen of the holopad showed a set of numbers in dark red, over the Earth looking planet. Corde figured it must be the coordinates for a slip space jump. Perfect.' The SPEAR can't run for much longer..." Corde thought to himself as the engine of a dropship roared in the distance.
"Hey, Blackburn, Matthews, wake up, rides here." Corde said shaking each of his men awake.
"Wah? huh? Oh man, I must've tak-" Blackburn began before pausing mid-sentence looking at the approaching ARM dropship.
"Corde? What's going on?" Matthews said as he also noticed the approaching former enemy dropship.
"I'll explain on the way to the carrier, for now you've just gotta trust me on ths one. Just board the dropship."
The men tried to argue but before they knew it Corde was already on the dropship before it even landed, so seeing that their commanding officer was on board with, well whatever was going on, they hastily boarded the dropship and took off in the direction of the carrier.
"So captain , what the hell is going on? Why are you all of sudden trusting ARM? And why the fuck are we on an ARM dropship?!!?" Matthews aked slowly losing his composure in disbeleif of what he was expereincing.
"Ugh, where do I begin... " Corde said as he pulled out the holopad and began to explain everything after the audio had finished.
Several dozen minutes later the dropship appraoched the carrier, and Corde hailed the ship to not open fire on them, he lied that they had commandeered the ship. The dropship came to a rest right inside the cargo bay as the thunderous roar of the lift-off engine could be heard as the space carrier began to ascend farther and farther up into the atmosphere.
Corde was the first to step off the dropsip into the wide cargo bay area, which was crowded with dropships. A fe soldiers ran over to greet core with their weapons pointed at the ground. This son changed as they saw the ARM step out from the cockpit.
"Halt! Corde, what the hell is he doing here?" a random soldier exclaimed as he was poised to squeeze the trigger.
"He, is our ally soldier." Corde said as he grabbed the barrel of the soldiers gun and yanked it away from him.
"Corde, you can't be serious!" Another soldier shouted as he lowered his machine gun.
"Oh, I am, you whoever you are, come with me, we have to talk to General stone about this proposed alliance, Blackburn, Matthews, stick to the orignal plan, I'll meet you in the cargo bay in an hour be ready." Corde said as he gestured the ARM soldier to follow him.
Several minutes later a large door slid open and Corde entered.
"Corde, how good to see you. What do you have to, Corde, what is he doing doing here?!?!" General Stone exclaimed pulling out his handgun.
'Hold on don't shoot! He's on our side now! Just take a look at this and hen you can explain what exactly is going on.' Corde said handing Stone the holopad and gesturing towards the ARM soldier.
"Settle in captain. This may take a while..." Corde said as he took a seat.
And for the rest of the hour the 3 men sat around an imaginary campfire, General Stone asking the occasional question, and Corde answering as best as he could. However the ARM soldier remained quiet until the end of the hour when a familliar voice came through his com, just as Corde was about to leave.
" Captain, I know you have no reason to beleive me or, you Stone, but I insist you consider an alliance with the ARM OF ORION, it's the only way we can defeat SPEAR on their own terms on their colony. Do you accept Stone?"
"Thorne? But, Corde told me you died, what in god's name is going on around here? Corde?" Stone said in disbeleif.
"I think I can answer that question General." Thorne said. " You see... when you sent Corde after me, I hid in a sub bunker beaneath the real one, causing me to be able to escape after the 8th had moved on. As for my apparent demise, that was an ARM spec-ops soldier utilizing our latest bit of cloaking technology, thankfully you ddn't stick around long enough to see the body revert Corde. As for the allaince, I know it may seem obscene after all these years of war, but General, hear me out. The SPEAR is not to be trifled with, especially on their own turf, imagine it. It would be impossible for either of us to take on SPEAR alone on these terms. That is why I am suggesting a temporary alliance , at least until the last of SPEAR has been disposed of."
Thorne held out his hand to shake Stone's. "Truce? For now?"
Stone looked to Corde who nodded hesitantly.
"Truce. For the time being. Corde prepare your men, we're going to make a slip space jump to the SPEAR's coordinates. Thorne alert your men as well, get them deployed, and let's make one thing clear, I'm in charge from now on, you report to me." Stone said as he shook Thorne's hand firmly.
"Fair enough..." Thorne said as he exited the room.
"Corde, do you really think we can trust ARM after all they've done?"
"I don't know General... I don't know..." Corde said as he looked out a large window to the increasingly small planet of New Madrid.
"Quiet down Oscar, I see the town it's show time."
"Shhhh!!! Alright everyone, remember, this is an intel op. I don't know what to expect so be prepared. If the creatures are in fact social, which they are according to Aquilla, you are to gather all info on where we are, what we are, and anything else that may be useful. Split up into your Burn-In squads and fan out. Meet back here in exactly 12 hours. Good luck." David said in his commanding tone before 2 groups of four formed, and dissapered into the rural village.
" Alright, Aquilla, Brown, Jason, you're with me. Let's move." David said before his group also fanned out to look for answers, before the SPEAR found them...
As Oscar's group moved through the small town they came closer and closer to the town plaza. And that's when he saw them. They looked much like the other men in his groups, who now resembled small horses. Oscar was amazed at all of the ponies,yes that's the right word. He was amazed at the color pallet of the ponies, the varying shapes and sizes, the different appendages,wings,horns. Heck he was even amazed that they could pick stuff up without fingers!
"Damn.... just my luck I get stuck on a mamby pamby planet like this..." Oscar muttered to himself as he gestured his squadmates to split up and regroup in the plaza in 60 minutes.
Oscar strode up to a pony that seemed nice enough as he lost his group in the plaza's crowd.
" Hello there miss. Do you know anything about where I am? I uhm, I'm new here." Oscar said putting on his best gentleman's voice.
"Huh? Oh! Hello there, didn't see you. Hmm, about your queston yes in fact I do. But not here. You'd have to come with me if you really want to learn about Ponyville's rich history." replied a friendly feminine voice.
'Ponyville? Really? Ugh....' Oscar thought to himself as he considered taking the violet pony up on her offer.He knew he was were supposed to regroup in another 45 minutes, and he didn't know where she'd be taking him. Then again he needed answers, if only for David's sake.
"Uh, sure, let's go..." Oscar said trailing off.
"Oh fantastic! Just let me get my groceries and we can ..." she said before looking up, mouth agape.
'What are you looking at? Oh..." Oscar said before looking up himself and seeing the familliar deployment method used by the SPEAR. A burn-in... "Shit. Squad, regroup now we have incoming SPEAR forces. And they're not friendly." Oscar said over the com, gaining a strange look from some nearby ponies.
Oscar began to run off to the arranged meeting point when he noticed that the violet coated pony was still following him.
"Uh, miss, I really don't think it's a good idea to come with me. I have some very important buisness to atend to."
"Oh, oh alright. I, guess I'll see you later then." the violet pony said.
"Sir! The forces are on the ground and quickly advancing on our position! Orders, sir?" a soldier said through the com.
Oscar quckly noticed the quickly dispersing mobs of ponies that were running in terror from something. 'SPEAR' is all Oscar could attribute to the sudden dispersion of ponies.
" De-cloak and engage." Oscar said over the com. "Oh, and miss..." Oscar said before prssing a button on his chest and decloaking, revealing his large metallic suit. " You'll definitley be seeing me around..." he said before turning, and pulling out his assault rifle in a movielike fashion.
The violet pony had an expression of both shock and fear plastered on her face as she watched the large machinelike being walk away. Oscar was just as shocked as Cheerilee. He had no clue that there was even life on the planet just a day ago. Now he had just freaking talked, to one of the creatures he didn't even know existed. He had a lot on his mind, that was for sure, but he had only one thing that really mattered amidst his jumble of thoughts. Survive.
As Oscar met up with two of his men in the river of fleeing ponies he heard a sound that he dreaded. Gunfire had obviously opened up between the two forces. He quickly sprinted over to where he thought the noises had erupted from, with his two men right behind him. When Oscar finally cleared the crowd of ponies he saw just what was going on. It wasn't Spear killing his men. No, Spear forces were killing someone different. The ARM.
"The fuck?" was all Oscar could mutter at the situation. He knew the ARM and the SPEAR had a bit unstable of an alliance, but this... this was riduculous. Oscar quickly surveyed the scene. Neither side had set up any sort of defenses or had any armor. Good. He had a chance to escape then.
Although it looked as if Oscar and his men would be able to get away, a complication arose.
"Sir! I'm trapped in a building due west of your position. Oh god, Please get me out of here! I don't wanna die!" a nervous sounding soldier said over the com.
"Shit..." Oscar said before turning to face his men.
"Alright. we're gonna get out of here, but first we have to go and get Jenkins. He's stuck in the crossfire between ARM and SPEAR forces. Roy, report back to David and tell him to meet us at the cottage we saw on our way in to the forest. Lee come with me. Dismissed." Oscar said before the three went on their way.
Oscar initiated overdrive and Lee did the same to keep up. Within a few minutes Oscar was close enough to Jenkins to track his signal. Shortly after locking on to his signal Oscar came upon the building he was trapped in.
"You have got to be kidding me. Sir are you sure this is the right building?" Lee said as he stared at the candy themed building that lay before him.
"I dunno Lee, but Jenkins is in there. Wait what?" Oscar said as he noticed jenkins signal started to move. Shortly after he saw a group of ARM soldiers come around the corner of a building and open fire... on Jenkins. Oscar stared in disbeleif as he saw Jenkins charging towards the ARM soldiers with his shotgun in one hand and his knife in the other.
"LEEEEEEEEEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOY JEEEENKIIIINNNS!!!!!!!!!!!!!" was all Jenkins could say before his shields were popped, and his armor ripped to shreds shortly after. He was most certainly dead.
"Dammit Jenkins! Alright Lee let's get out of here before they see us. Alr-" Oscar said before Lee tackled him to the ground. A loud sound echoed shortly after and a bullet trail was left where Oscar was standing just moments before.
"Let's move move move!" Lee said before he began to help Oscar up. Lee was grabbed from behind and thrown against a nearby wall, losing his grasp on Oscar. As Oscar thudded back on the ground and stared at the sky he saw more fireballs... except these one were bigger. His stomach knotted up as he realized what was about to impact. Mechs.
Oscar began to get up and as he did so he witnessed an unconsious Lee get ripped to shreds by an ARM soldier's machine gun.
"OVER THERE!" an enemy soldier shouted as half a dozen soldiers began to rush Oscar. BOOM! Oscar's shields flickered and then failed as he was hit by a rail round in the leg. Oscar quickly regained his fotting and stated to overdrive away... until he was tackled by an ARM soldier.
Oscar quickly pulled out his knife and attempted to slash the soldier, but instead got a facefull of fist. And shortly after, a bellyfull of lead. Quite a meal.The ARM soldier stood up and gazed upon his kill with pride. It was short lived though as he quickly rejoined his squad to go where they were needed.
"Oscar come in! OSCAR! Dammit! Roy bring up the their vitals." David said as he was becoming worried about his soldiers.
Roy brought up Oscar's squad's vitals on a holopad and recoiled at what he saw. "T-They're KIA sir. Both of them." Roy said in a shaky tone before putting his holopad away.
"Ugh, dammit Oscar..." David said softly as he picked up his assualt rifle. David was beggining to get demoralized as he observed what was left of Bravo squad. Still big enough to participate in a firefight, but still a former shadow of itself. "Alright listen up! We're going to uncloak so that our suit's cloak can recharge, and move out in the direction of the castle that Jason spotted earlier. Hopefully we can find this planet's leader or at the very least get to a more defensible position. Move!" David said as he began to realize the hopelesness of their situation. ' So what? We get to a better position so we can die?' David thought to himself before shaking the thought out of his mind.
David crept through the forest with the remainder of his men , not really knowing where he was because of the thick tree cover. Byt he knew that wherever he was going was better than where he was currently.
"STOP! I see something!" Jason said before the other soldiers leaned in to see what all the fuss was about. There, just outside the treeline was the tallest mountain any of them had seen. And protruding from its side was a huge castle woth all sorts of toweres and telescopes. It was truly amazing to the soldiers who had been so accustomed to death and war. Beauty was a nice change of pace for them.
"Alright jason, I take it that's what you saw?" Aquilla said mockingly.
"What do you think?" Jason replied in a sarcastic tone
"Both of you shut up. let's just get to the castle quickly." David said before he moved out into the open. This was a BIG mistake on his part.
BOOM!BOOM! Two loud bangs rang out at almost the exact same moment. David fell to the ground in a heap as the two bullet trails dissipated.
"Fuck! David! We've gotta help him! C'mon!" Aquilla said hysterically as he tried to run for David's body, but was quickly restrained by Brown and Jason.
"Aquilla! AQUILLA! He's gone there's nothing we can do for him now, we just have to- " Jason was cut off by the loudest explosion he'd ever heard in his life. Shortly after the explosion's sound reached his ears so did the shockwave. He along with the other soldiers struggled to maintain their footing as the trees were blown backwards overhead.
Aquilla's gaze darted around for a few seconds before refocusing on the source of the explosion. The Castle. It wasn't just the castle that was gone, it was the whole freaking mountain. And it wasn't destoyed or anything like that. It was literally gone, only a large crater resided where the regal castle once stood.
" Aw man, look..." Brown said as he gestured upwards. There, in the sky, was a SPEAR battleship, it's orbital cannon still a-glow.
"Damn, what do you th-" Brown was interupted by the same consecutive bangs, one after another before a body fell to the floor lifeless...
"Shit! They've spotted us move back into the forest Brown said as Jacob's dead body lay beside him.
The half a dozen men made a hasty retreat, some going faster than others. Just as the soldiers began to slow down the two men leading the group were set ablaze by the payload of napalm a passing bomber had dropped. Both men quickly died as the remaining soldiers rushed away in the other direction, away from both the fire, and the crater.
The remnants of Bravo slowed down after running through the dense foilage for over a mile.
"Hhhhh,*cough*, Jason how you holding up?" Brown was able to sputter in between breaths.
"Considering theres only four of us... NOT THAT GREAT BROWN!" Jason said in a frustrated voice.
Brown sat down on the ground and removed his helmet so he could breathe better. Aquilla did the same and leaned against a large tree.
"So now what?" Jason said
"I don't know man... I don't know." Brown replied.
As soon as Brown had finished his sentence, he saw something move in the underbrush.
"Jason, come check this out with me." Brown said as he got up while gripping his machine gun.
Jason obviously didn't hear him because he mad no move to assist him. As Brown neared the moving bushes a large creature jumped out and pounced on Brown. In the few seconds Jason had to observe the creature he could make out that it had a lions head and upper body, and the scales of something reptilian in nature. He was also able to notice the scorpion stinger before he severed it with his sniper. The beast howled out in pain as it's tail was cut off by a frag round. Although it seemed like it would turn and run it didn't, at first. No, first it reared up on it's hind legs, and then came dwon on Brown who was still pinned. It bit down on Brown with it's powerful jaw and pierced his skull.
Jason and the other two soldiers were continuing their assualt on the creature but they knew at this point that they would be lucky if any of them survived. Jason continued to fire round after round into the hulking beast. This was not the best of ideas, as the beast quickly became enraged and dropped it's chew toy, and charged straight for Jason. However seeing ths comign brown quickly barrel rolled out of the way to safety. However, the beasts attacks did not go unrewarded. it managed to headbutt Aquilla, who was standing behind Jason so hard into a tree, that the tree fell over with a loud thud, as it was uprooted.
'Damn.' Jason thought to himself as he was becoming desperate. Jason wanted time to process what the hell was going on, but the beast wouldn't give it to him as it quickly whipped around back to Jason and began to charge again. Jason tried to barrel roll out of the way again but the creature swiped a large paw out to the side to deflect him. It worked.
Jason fell backwards on to his back as the beast towered over him. Jasons sniper skittered across the ground a few feet until it came to a stop just out of reach. 'This is it ain't it... damn. well at lea-' Jason's thoughts were interupted by a loud explosion... followed by the spattering of guts and blood all over him.
Jason wasn't quite sure what had just happened. But he decided to just roll with it. After all the beast was now a bloody mess all over his armor, and he was alive. Pretty good for a SPEAR fugitive.
"Hey. On your feet! Almost lost you there." a soldier said as he extended his hand to help Jason up.
"Hector. Damn I assume that was you , what timing you have, I was almost lunch there." Jason said as he got up and gestured to the mess of guts.
"You betcha." Hector said as he pulled out a holopad.
"Wait what?!?!?!?" Hector said as he scrolled through the holopad's music section.
"What is it?" Jason said curious.
"FIVE ALBUMS! A HUNDRED SONGS! YOU AIN'T GOT NO FUCKING Y- I bet you got some J-Kwon's- YOU AIN'T GOT NO FUCKING YEEZY?"
"Wow..." Blackburn muttered as he pounded his clip into his assault rifle.
"I know, I don't get it either, but if Thorne is willing to defect, even temporarily, then it must be something big." Corde said as a small tv monitor turned on in a corner of the dropship and the USIF pilot's masked face appeared.
"Commander. We're prepped for take-off. General Stone has ordered that we be sent in first, so I suggest we get a move on." the pilot said before the screen flashed back to black.
"Well, looks like we're going in deep...again." Blackburn said as the dropsip's engines roared to life and the bay doors opened.
"Corde, you know anything about the planet we're being deployed on? I mean I know you told us Thorne's already got men on the ground but have you gotten any word from him detailing the planet?" Matthews said as he leaned his sniper on the wall of the dropship.
Corde sat and thought for a few seconds before responding. "No, I don't really know anything about this planet. I even checked on the latest USIF and even the latest ARM maps. It's not there. To be honest I-" Corde was interupted as a large explosion shook the dropship.
"Well, looks like the orbital engagement's begun." Blackburn said in a slightly peppy tone. He was known for loving the heat of battle after all.
The monitor in the corner of the dropship flashed on once again. " First-Recon, Burn-In altitude reached. GO!GO!GO!" the pilot said as the dropship's cargo doors opened revealing a lush green forest below.
"Let's do this!" Blackburn said as he fastened his weapons and jumped out the dropship first. Matthews simply stared before shrugging and jumping out himself. Corde then proceeded to jump out and follow his team as they plummeted to the ground in their black USIF armor.
"Hit the brakes!" Blackburn said over his com as he spread his arms and legs and slowed significantly. The others followed his example and did the same. The 3 soldiers floated slowly down into the trees before Blackburn, then Matthews, and finally Corde, landed with a loud crack as they shattered the earth beneath them.
As corde regained his stance he could see Blackburn leaning against a large tree and Matthews crouching down, as if trying to hear something like a hunter would. Blackburn ceased to lean on the tree as he pulled out his shotgun and shouldered it at a bush that had just moved.
The 3 soldiers fell deafly silent as they quietly approached the the living bush. Matthews was the closest to the bush to begin with so he was the one who inevitably had to confront it. And he did as he snapped his sniper on his back and pulled out his handgun with one hand and grabbed a large branch on the bush. In a split second he ripped it out of the ground fully and saw what was hiding behind it. Nothing.
"Huh, coulda sworn I saw something move..." Matthews said as he holstered his handgun and placed the bush back in its rightful place.
"C'mon, we have to meet up with Echo squad." Corde said as put away a holopad and he gestured to the north, which was nowhere in particular in the huge forest.
The other 2 soldiers gave nods of approval as they shifted into overdrive and First-Recon's boots thudded against the ground rapidy towards Echo squad.
As the 3 large metal men cut a path through the trees, branches deflecting and snapping against their armor, a small creature that may have been equine, not quite, but close, crawled out of the uprooted bush to reveal its dark grey stripes and light grey coat. Its mowhawk flew backwards as the strange creature sailed in the opposite direction of the metal men.
Corde snapped to a halt as he came into a clearing. Matthews and Blackburn stopped a few feet in front of Corde as they beheld the gruesome sight. Half a dozen SPEAR soldiers in pristine white aegis armor lay scattered around a large swampy area. Most of the deceased soldiers still clung to their weapons... even the ones that were no longer whole. Yes it was true, some of the men had been ripped in half, their guts strewn about what was left of their bodies.
"My god..." Matthews muttered just loud enough for his squadmates to hear. As if on que Blackburn noticed a large reptillian corpse slowly sinking into the muck.
"You think that might be what did the trick?" Blackburn said as he gestured over to the slowly dissappearing corpse. The other men just remained silent, already accepting the overgrown lizard as the cause of the SPEAR forces' deaths.
"Alright... Matthews take a note on this, we'll get in contact with command about it once we regroup with Echo, let's go." Corde said as matthews quickly scribbled something on a holopad and quickly fastened it to his belt as he and First-Recon continued to Echo's location.
The 3 soldiers ran through the dense forest in silence for a few minutes before Mtthews, who was at the rear of the group stopped in his tracks as he raised his sniper to a tree where he thought he had seen something move. 'C'mon, now you're seeing things.' Matthews thought to himself as he was quickly falling behind the group.
Suddenly a gunshot rang out somewhere ahead of where Matthews was and he turned in the direction of the sound only to see the endless spraw of trees. "Shit..." Matthews said as he began to run back to his squad.
Matthews was not allowed to regroup as he was grabbed from behind, thrown into a tree and was disarmed as his shields flaired. Mattews quickly scrambled to his feet as he was regaining his vision, and tried to get behind cover to no avail. He was quickly seized again by what appeared to be a SPEAR soldier. From what Matthews could make out through his blurry vision, the soldier was wearing badly damaged aegis armor, with dings and dents all over it. Beyond that was anyone's guess through Matthews' vision.
The large SPEAR soldier picked up Matthews off the ground and raised him to his crimson visor, while he took Matthews' pistol out oh his holster and raised it to his head. Matthews, dangling from the soldier's hand and with a gun to his face was running out of options. All Matthews could think to do at this point was try to reason with the soldier.
"Look, man, just put me down, and you and I can go on our meery ways alright?"
The stone faced soldier just stood their, motionless, until he finally spoke. "Where is my squad? Do you know where they are soldier?" The SPEAR soldier demanded.
"No, I don't but if you let me go I can -" Matthews was silenced with a swift blow to the face, which knocked his helmet off as it bounced away from him. Matthews soared through the air for a few seconds until he came to a stop a few yards from the soldier, as his back hit a large tree trunk.
"The you are of no use to me..." the soldier said as he pointed his pistol at Matthews' forhead. "Now die..." the soldier said before a loud gunshot rang out.
'I'm... alive?' Matthews thought as he opened his eyes to see a large hole in the soldier's head that was gushing blood. The SPEAR soldier fell to his knees as he feebly tried to raise the gun to Matthews once more. Mtthews, seeing he wasn't out of the woods, scrambled up, and ran over to the nearly dead man, and tackled him to the ground. Matthews pinned the man and confiscated the gun as he waited for him to bleed out.
Corde cam running out of the forest with Blackburn right behind him shouldering his assault rifle and firing on something. The two soldiers gave eachother a nod that signaled everything was fine... but it wasn't. Just as Matthews thought the soldier had ceased to exist, and let go of one of his arms, a large metal knife came sailing towards Matthews' face. The knife made contact with the soft gellationous mass of Matthews' eye as the knife dissappeared inside First-Recons's sniper.
Blood began to spurt out of the eye as the SPEAR soldier released the knife and went limp. Matthews quickly fell over and became just as lifeless as his enemy. Corde, upon seeing the SPEAR soldier try to assault Matthews had tried to run over and help, but couldn't as his energy shields flaired from a shotgun blast, and he was forced to take cover.
"He's dead ain't he!" Blackburn said as he poked his head out from cover to unleash a stream of bullets into the dense forest.
Corde quickly brought up the sniper's vitals. KIA. "Yea, he's gone! Fuck!" Corde said as a grenade came to a stope beside him and exploded before he could react. The blast sent Corde flying until he landed on his back, his sheilds down and his armor compromised.
"Corde!" Blackburn said as he tried to rush over to Corde's aid. Blackburn was stopped short as a sniper round impacted his leg and he just barely managed to roll behind cover before another bullet impacted his previous location.
A hail of gunfire was now ripping the little cover Blackburn had left to shreds. And then... it stopped.
Corde, now unconsious, still lay in his defensless position as Blackburn wondered what the hell was going on. This question would soon be answered as a slow but steady thud of feet gout louder and louder until a mech rounded the corner of Blackburn's cover, and slowly turned to him.
"Aw hell no..." Blackburn said as the barrels of the gatling guns started to turn. Blackburn tried to limp away from the mech, but was quickly picked up by the hulking machine and had 3 gatling gun barrels pressed against his helmet.
'Well, this is it...' Blackburn thought to himslef as he braced himself for death. It never came. Instead two loud 'stabbing' sounds could be heard, like metal cutting metal, followed by the mech's eyes going dark and it falling backwards, releasing Blackburn as it fell.
The section 8 soldier rolled, and then came to a stop a few feet from the mech. Blackburn slowly rose to his feet and beheld two badly damaged SPEAR soldiers unleashing hell on their comrades. One was going around blasting them in the face with a shotgun, the other was doing the same, except with a sniper rifle. The experienced soldier just stood in disbelief as one by one, all twelve of the 'enemy' SPEAR soldiers fell.
Blackburn tried to approach his shotgun, and then Corde , while the enemy was occupied... with itself. Blackburn was able to limp over to his shotgun and pick it up, using it like a cane almost. He quickly hurried over to Corde who was beggining to come to, and started to drag him away from the action. he didn't get far. The gunfire quickly died down, and Blackburn knew he had only a few seconds left to get himself and Corde to safety before those SPEAR maniacs targeted them next.
Blackburn turned his head back quickly to see where he was going, and instead of just seeing trees he saw a SPEAR soldier clutchng his shotgun staring at him. The two just stood there for a few seconds in shock until another SPEAR soldier came rushing up in front of Blackburn, effectively sandwiching him between the two armed soldiers.
The 3 stood in silence for a few seconds until the soldier holding the shotgun said "Need some help?" Blackburn was once again dumbfounded. 'Did he just offer to HELP me?' Blackburn thought before slowly nodding, unsure of his choice.
Within a few seconds the SPEAR soldier had gotten out a medical kit and began to patch Blackburn up. Al the while the experienced major just sat and thought about what was going on as he observed the other SPEAR solder examining Corde. As soon as the SPEAR soldier was finished with organic tissue, he quickly put away his medical kit and began to repair the large hole in Blackburn's armor with his repair tool.
Finally after several uncoftoramble minutes the SPEAR soldier stood up and said " Well, that should do it, you're gonna be fine, but i'm not so sure about your friend he loo-" The SPEAR soldier was interupted by the groans of Corde as he awoke and sat upright.
"Corde! Don't freak out! They're... on our side." Blackburn said not sure of the last part.
Corde having already noticed the SPEAR soldier hovering over him took heed to his comrade's words. He didn't freak out. Instead he punched the soldier in the face.
"Fine. Whatever... Not like anything is gonna get any more normal the way this is going." Corde said as he stood up and walked over to Blackburn. "So, who are they?''
"I'm Jason you asshole." one soldier said as he recovered from the powerful blow.
"I'm Hector. Hey you wouldn't happen to have any music on your holopads would you?" Hector said hopeful.
The 2 section 8 soldiers just sared at eachother for a few seconds at the odd manner of the question.
"Uh, yea, I do have some music on my holopad..." Blackburn said as he handed a small holopad over to Hector, who quickly began scrolling through the short music list.
"Ugh... still no Yeezy, thanks anyways." Hector said in a dissappointed tone as he handed the holopad back over to Blackburn.
Blackburn was surprised that he hadn't taken hs holopad which contained secret USIF info. he had given it to Hector as a test. He had passed. Maybe these two were trustworthy... maybe.
Corde walked over to a tree and radioed Echo squad. "This is Corde. We need you to converge on our current position, we're down a man. Oh and by the way, apparently we have rougue SPEAR forces who appear to be friendly with us."
"Negative First-Recon. We're engaged. We're redirecting Delta to your position, don't bother contacting Foxtrot, all six of em' are KIA. Echo out." the soldier stated coldly over the com before it fell silent.
'Damn.' Corde thought as he realized they would have to wait even longer. Delta was over 5 klicks away. It would take them at least half an hour for them to reach Corde's position in the dense forest. Corde walked back over to the group of 3 men and sat down.
"Alright. We've got backup incoming, and I've told them you guys are to be trusted. I'm still not entirely convinced, but since Blackburn is, I'll at least give you two a try." Corde said in a commanding, yet unsure tone.
"Hm..... well, since you seem to trust us, I'll trust you too. Hector certainly seems to." Jason said as he gestured over to Hector and Blackburn who seemed to be talking.
Corde held his hand out to shake Jason's. Jason extended his arm and shook his hand firmly.
'Good man.' Jason thought to himself before retracting his arm.
"So, Jason is it? Why were you killing your own forces? And why are there only two of you left?" Corde asked abruptly, knowing SPEAR squads were at least 11 men strong.
"Well... you see we're not exactly part of the SPEAR OF ORION anymore." Jason said, gaining a weird look from Corde.
"What do you mean?" Corde asked curiously.
"It's a long story. How long until those reinforcements arrive?
Corde hesitated still having a bit of distrust towards them because of their 'previous' affiliation. But considering that they didn't kill him while he was asleep, Corde considered them trustworthy and replied, " 30 minutes."
"Alright... hey you two get over here it's fucking story time!" Jason yelled at Blackburn and Hector, who quickly crawled over to the two.
"What is it?" Blackburn asked.
"I already told you, its story time." Jason said silencing Blackburn.
"30 minutes right?" Jason asked.
"Yea." Corde replied.
"Alright, I can work with that."
Author's Note: I would just like to thank everyone who has read my story, and also for 1000+ views, I never knew I would become this popular. Anyways, I have scaled down the two wwek wait for a chapter, down to one. Most of the time. besides that I would also like to thank Nethelli who inspired me to write my own fanfics. Go check out some of his amazing works like Far From Home. And also Nethelli if you're reading this, yes, Luna is best pony. Have a good week everyone.
"ALRIGHT! LISTEN UP! WE'RE DROPPING FROM 5,000 METERS IN 2 MINUTES, GET SET FOR A FIGHT!" Reyes said in a loud voice to his squad of soldiers, as they prepared to drop. The bay doors opened a short while later and on que all 21 men dropped out of the dropship in a neat line.
As Reyes fell he looked from side to side and saw hundreds, if not thousands of other USIF soldiers Burning-In. Unfourtantley he also saw a few puffs of black smoke as dozens of men died, and burned up in the atmosphere. What a shame. As Reyes approached 1000 meters, he opened his brakes and glided gently down with the rest of his squad. Finally Reyes touched down and pulled out his assault rifle. Just by looking at what lay ahead of him, he knew it was gonna be tough.
"Castle...figures..." Reyes said as he requisitioned for mech support.
"Are all the citizens evacuated?"
"Yes princess, all citizens have been dispersed into the countryside."
"Good. Fetch the unicorn royal guard and tell ALL of them to meet me in the throne room immediatley." Luna said as she silently sighed a breath of relief.
"At once." the unicorn captain said before bowing, and hastily exiting the room.
As Luna slouched back in her throne, a loud explosion rocked the castle. But it wasn't Canterlot Castle. oh no that had been wiped out, along with Princess Celestia, most of the Unicorn Guard, and the entirety of the Pegasus Guard. No this was Luna's old 'Elements of Harmony Castle', rebuilt and repurposed for war. Although not as big as Canterlot castle it would serve its purpose as a base of operations. It was a sturdy structure, hoof crafted by the best stonemasons. But nothing, NOTHING, that the Equestrians had access to would stop a SPEAR mech, as was quite apparent by the hole in the wall. There standing in the improvised doorway was a 10 foot tall metal man, staring at Luna with unblinking eyes.
Of course Luna was terrified, and was rooted in her spot as the mech began to walk forward.
" Attack!" a unicorn said before a wall of ice smashed into the metal man. No effect, the mech didn't even flinch. It simply turned, and leaped towards the ponies. They scrambled to get away as the mech desended upon them. It landed on top of a pony, crushing him and his armor.It was a gruesome sight for Luna, who was still rooted to her throne out of fear, to behold.
At this point the ponies were terrified, as they began to ready another spell. But before they could shoot out a wall of flame at the robot, the robot grabbed a handful of ponies, and rased them to 3 little barrels mounted under his free arm. The barrels began to rotaten faster and faster until, a hail of small projectiles tore through the 4 ponies as they went limp and flopped to the floor when the robot released them. As soon as the last body hit the floor, a swarm of smaller metal men flooded the hole in the wall and raised their weapons to the dozen remaining guardsmen, and Luna herself.
"Open Fire!" one of the machines said in perfect equestrian, which startled Luna a great deal. Shortly after all of the strange two legged invaders lit up the unicorn guard and continued to pummel Luna with round after round. When the first bullet hit, Luna's protection spell flared, which shocked her back to reality, and prompted her to flee. She began running as fast as she could, but just for a second while she looked back and saw a swarm of bipedal machines romping up to her, she smashed into something mettallic.
She fell backwards onto her back as she looked up at another large metal man. But this one was different, somehow. It was a light blue, unlike the grayish color the other one was and, it was also more rounded and smooth than the sharp, jagged points of the other mechanical beast.
"Pleased to meet you." a voice came from the hulking contraption. "Ah, hold on." the voice said again before two other large mechs rounded the corner and joined the first. Almost immediatley after meeting up the 3 mechs mowed down wave after wave of SPEAR soldiers. Shields flared, armor tore, and blood spewed from the quickly diminishing number of enemy forces. Luna averted her eyes as soldier after soldier was ripped to shreds by the strange projectile weapons mounted on each arm of the mechs.
At this point Luna was fairly sure that they weren't going to hurt her and relaxed a little as she finally got the courage to speak up as the gunfire died down.
"H-h Hello! I AM PRINCESS LUNA OF EQUESTRIA!" Luna said in her royal canterlot voice.
"Woah there, calm down. Anyways we have orders to escort you back to a dropship. Come with us." the voice said again as the large beast began to walk away with the other two in tow. "Oh, and by the way, I'm Reyes. Let's get a move on.... Luna." Reyes said as Luna began to follow them.
"Alright, they got the message and said that they're trying to airlift the civilians out, and get the leader to a conference with the general. I still can't beleive that they're goddamned horses, but whatever." Blackburn said as he followed the rest of Delta squad through the forest.
"So, how much farther to Foxtrot and the FOB. Oh, and where the fuck is Echo? Coms have been down for over an hour." Blackburn inquired.
"I don't know man. But we gotta keep going, the FOB is right over that hill, let's hustle!" Corde said as he activated his overdrive. The other soldiers followed suit as they cut a path in the forest. Finally the soldiers reached the top of the hill and beheld a small clearing packed with supply depots, minigun and missile turrets, and most importantly....
" AW SWEET A TANK! Can I drive?" Hector asked.
Blackburn and Corde glanced at eachother trying to decide if they should say yes or no. Hesitantly Corde replied. " Sure."
"Stop! Are you the renegade SPEAR soldiers Corde has informed us about?" a soldier with his assault rifle shouldered shouted, poised to squeeze the trigger on the SPEAR soldiers.
"Indeed. Now if you don't mind lowering your weapons." Blackburn said as several USIF dropships buzzed by overhead.
"So, I take it mass deployment has commenced?" Corde asked gesturing towards the sky.
"Affirmative. 50,000+ USIF troops have been depolyed planetwide. We have a tenth of that number in this general area. In other words, within 500 miles of this emplacement. Anyways, Corde, you're being redirected to a landing pad north of here. A couple dropships with Lima squad and the ruler of the intelligent life on this planet will be waiting for you. That tank over there should get you there. As for Delta, they're being redeployed to some castle west of here. better get a move on Corde. The dropships won't wait forever." the USIF soldier replied.
"Corde! Let's roll out!" Jason said from the gunner seat of the tank.
Corde quickly made his way over to the tank and took his seat. he was responsible for anti-vehicular rockets. This should be fun...
"Alright! Armor rolling out!" Hector said as the tank began to knock down tree after tree as it plowed through the dense forest.
After about 20 minutes of the tank demolishing anything that came in its path things got less boring. Like shit just hit the fan interesting. Anyways, as the tank began to emerge from the dense forest into a wide open space, the crew that manned it was able to make out a small landing pad with a single dropship on it.
"Dropship spotted! I'M PUTTING THE PEDAL TO THE MEDAL, HOLD ON! " Hector said as the tank lurched forward at incredible speeds. And that's when it happened.
"MORTARS!!!"
Dozens of riot mortar shells shout up into the air around the tank and came crashing back down as orange fireballs. Explosions rocked the tank, killed the shields, and damaged the armor badly as hector continued to press forward.
"Mech! Jason take em out!" Blackburn said as he manned the mortars on the tank and began firing at a row of SPEAR mechs that was advancing on them.
"We're here! Let's move!" Hector said as he scrambled out of the tank.
"Go!I'll hold them off!" Jason said as he refused to board the dropship.
Blackburn rushed the dropship and rolled inside as Corde also reached it. However Hector was not with them.
"C'mon kid! This ain't the playoffs, let's go!" Hector said as he pried Jason from the tank and threw him over to the dropship, before quickly placing a det-pack on the tank. Hector then quickly overdrived into the dropship as the mechs swarmed the tanks.
A hail of gunfire was directed at the dropship as it made its get away. As the bay door closed fully, Hector detonated the detpack miles away by now, killing dozens of enemy mechs.
"Boom..." was all Hector said trailing off at what he was looking at. " Okay what the fuck is that!?!??!" hector said as he and Jason backed away from a large purple blue horse, sporting wings and a horn.
"That..." Reyes said from a corner of the dropship. " ... is Princess Luna. Apparently she's an alicorn AND the co-leader of this planet..."
Reyes stood up and walked over to the two SPEAR soldiers and examined them. " Corde, you sure we can trust them?"
Corde hesitated, although after all they'd been through, he was fairly sure they really were renegades. but he replied with a simple, "Yes."
"Alright. Nice to meet you." Reyes said extending his arm "If Corde will vouch for you, your alright with me."
Jason hesitantly extended his arm and shook Reyes' hand firmly.
"Alright then. Well, like I was saying, this is the co-leader of the planet. Apparently the other leader was decimated by an orbital blast on another castle a day ago by the SPEAR." Reyes said as he gestured to Luna and then sat back down. "Now I know what you're thinking. One, no your not hallucinating. And two, yes, I know its shocking, but orders are orders, now settle in, its a long ride to main base." Reyes continued as he kicked back and began to drift away to sleep.
Jason and Hector tried to do the same, although it did take them longer, they did eventually accomplish it. As for Blackburn he just stared out his window at the never ending flat plains they were flying over. And Corde... well he took another approach to passing the time.
Corde strode over to the corner where Luna was huddled and sat down next to her. She backed away a little at first but quickly relaxed, seeing him as an ally for the time being. They just sat there in akward silence, waiting for theother to speak first.It was Luna who took the initiative.
"Soooooo....... who are you, what are you, and what's going on." Luna asked in a soft voice, as to not disturb the others.
Corde recoiled a little bit, knowing that she could talk, but not in english. Well, looks like she did.
"I, am Alexander Corde, of the 8th Armored Infantry Division of the USIF. And I am a human." Corde replied in his usual half strict, half casual tone.
"Alexander? Human? Are your sure you're not making up words?" Luna said as she mentally giggled at the strange words. However, another part of her told her that these words meant something. Something dangerous. Armored.... Infantry.... they didn't sit well with her, but she shrugged it off and continued the conversation.
"And , about your other question.. even I'm not entirely sure, but I can tell you what I think is going down." Corde said as he readied himself. "From what I can gather this planet was supposed to be deserted. But it wasn't. You're here. i believe the SPEAR thought that they could retreat here after Salvador was killed. Now that's all fine and dandy, but what's puzzling is that there was NOTHING on this planet in our database. No maps, no mrecords of terrain, noyhing. It's like this place didn't even exist until a few days ago." Corde paused as he looked out his window at the far off horison. he could see low buildings rising from the otherwise flat plains as the sun set.
"The only explanation I have for the SPEAR knowing about this is that this must be a colony world. You see, the SPEAR was organized to terraform desolate planets to make them habitable. And from where I see it, it looks like this may be the first of those planets. I mean, even relatively old terraformed planets, like New Madrid haven't developed the amount or kinds of plant life that yours has, nor another species entirely." Corde said as the dropship was quickly approaching main base.
Luna took a moment to take it all in. In the past few days, a lot had happened. She had been subjected to many shocking events, but this, was by far the most shocking as she reailized what Corde was saying.
"S-So, you mean, I, we, exist, because of you?" Luna said in a shaky voice as she was bown away by the realization.
Corde just nodded approvingly as the monitor on the opposite corner of the dropship flicked on.
"Corde. We're landing in 5 minutes. Get your men together and escort the VIP to Stone, it is imperative that you get her to him in good condition. We need answers." The USIF pilot said before the screen flashed off again.
"That's another thing I've been meaning to ask you. What is all of this? It's so... strange." Luna said, regainng her composure as she gestured around the hold of the dropship.
"This, is USIF technology. It allows normal humans to increase their effectivness in combat. Don't you have military tech?" Corde asked, not knowing what to expect.
"Well... we have some technology, like spears and axes, but for the most part we use magic to fight. And even then, Equestria is a mostly peaceful nation." Luna said as she looked out the window to see dozens of planes soaring by over head." Or at least it used to be..." Luna said trailing off in a depressing tone.
Corde, sensing her sadness was about to say ssomething when all of a sudden the monitor flashed on.
"Corde! Tell everyone to get their suit on! we have a biological agent inbound on our destination." the USIF pilot said before fastening on his helmet as the screen went black.
Corde quickly rushed over group of sleeping soldiers and ordered them to seal their suits up as he fastened on his own helmet. The soldiers woke up quickly and followed Corde's instructions drowsily as they sealed their suits.
"What about Luna?" Reyes said as he gestured over to Luna worriedly.
Corde checked the bay door. Sealed tight.
"Alright, if we just keep her in here we can prevent her from being infected. We have a weeks worth of oxygen on board so we should be fine. Blackburn, Reyes, get to the command center and inform them we need an underground airlock landing pad. Go! We've got to seal ,this ship up tight soon. Radio in as soon as we have access. Now go!" Corde said as the bay door slightly opened and the two soldiers rushed out as the doors closed again. Sealed. Good.
"Alright, Jason you take the left window, Hector, you take the right, keep an eye out for infected." Corde said as the SPEAR soldiers obliged and took their respective places in the dropship.
Luna, who began to wonder, what 'infected' meant, came out of her corner and observed the foggy salmon color world that engulfed the dropship, which was siting neatly on an outdoor landing pad. She could see nothing past the thick fog, which she guessed was the 'agent' the pilot on the screen had reffered to.
Corde, who was sitting by the door of he dropship with his asault rifle at the ready, as if he was expecting something to penetrate the door at any moment. The eerie red drop lights filled the dropship with a cozy sort of feel as Luna approached him, half worred, half calm and releaxed, knowing that these were her new protectors.
She sat down next to him and readied herslef for a big question, that she didn't really want to hear the answer to.
"So, Alexander, what are... 'infected'." Luna said as she gulped before saying the last word.
Corde froze up at the question. But he quickly regained his cool as he prepared himself to break the dier news to the seemingly emotinal being.
"Ha, infected are... walkers. They're still human... but not REALLY human." Corde answered, trying to shield the truth as much as possible.
"What are you getting at Corde?" Luna continued.
Corde, knowing he could no longer shield Luna from the terrible truth replied coldy.
"W-What?" Luna stammered as she didn't want to believe what she was hearing.
"Yes. That biological agent we destroyed on New madrid, It wasn't just to kill the civilian populace. It was to turn them against us. We captured a small sample and ran some tests. Patients showed zombielike effects. In other words, they're dead, but still walking. And they want to eat you." Corde explained to Luna as a figure came out of the fog.
"Corde! We've got multiple contacts!" Hector shouted as Alex ran over to Hector's window and peered out at a horrifying sight.
"AAAAAAHAAHH! FUCK! LET ME IN! PLEASE PLEASE! LET ME IN!" The USIF soldier cried as dozens of figures began limping out of the fog towards him. Some walked on two legs, but most hobbled on 4.
The soldier began pounding on the door mercilessly as the figures came into view. Some were soldiers with chunks and bits of their armor missing, revealing decaying masses of flesh as black ooze poured from their wounds. But no blood ran. Even as the soldier turned around and started to fire at the dozens of walking figures with his machinegun.
One by one, wlaker after walker fell to the ground as black ooze pooled around them, and stained their armor a ghastly black. The soldier directed his attention to smaller walkers, who shambled around on four legs. Unlike the undead soldiers, the small ponies fell to the ground after only a few rounds were pumped into them
"WHAT THE HELL ARE THESE THINGS?!?!??!?!" The soldier exclaimed. Corde wasn't sure if he was reffering to the ponies or the undead.
The soldier began to reload, when a walker flanked him and lunged at him. He missed, but this prompted the soldier to activates his jetpack, which created a noise even louder than his firearm, as he ascended several feet on the dropship.
"Get down! Hide in the corners. Go!" Corde whispered loudly as the 4 occupants of the dropship each took their respective corner. Luna began to shake in her corner as she was beggining to realize the severity of their situation.
"Come get some!" the soldier yelled as he began tossing napalm grenades and firing napalm mortars at the beasts, which seemed to be getting more numerous.
"Marcus! Stay there! I'm coming to getcha!" A disembodied voice shouted as a transport came barreling through the fog, smacking multiple zombies to the ground as it came to a stop just short of the dropship. It's cargo door opened and a dozen soldiers burst out of the back guns blazing, mowing down the dozens of zombies in mere seconds.
As the gunfire died down, Corde saw an oppurtune moment. He remembered that USIF transports could create an airtight seal to the back of dropships. That meant he and the others could evac Luna to USIF HQ. It was worth a shot.
"Whiskey! This is Alexander Corde! Do you think you could give us a hand? We have a.... civilian onboard wth no protection from the virus. Airlock onto the dropship and we can all go home!" Corde ordered as the driver radioed back.
"Aye commander." A thick scottish accent replied as all dozen men rushed back into the dropship with Marcus, and the bay door closed as the dropship began to back into the bay door of the dropship.
Corde hit the button that released the lock on the bay door as it lowered into the back of the waiting transport.
Immediatley half a dozen soldiers raised their weapons to the two SPEAR soldiers.The others just stared in shock at the small horselike creature which cowered by Corde's side.
"I'll explain on the way. Right now we have to go!" Corde said as he and the other soldiers and the 'civilian', stepped inside and took their seats as the transports back door closed. Rising out of the floor, eventually touching the top and making a clicking noise as the transport began to move.
"We're moving back to HQ lads! Sit tight!" the driver said excitedly.
"Ahem?" a soldier said as he gesured towards th SPEAR soldiers and then to Corde.
"Oh. Right. Well, you see, apparently they commited a warcrime by killing their own people, a whole squad actually. They used to have more, but they've been getting hit from all sides between us, the ARM and SPEAR. Eventually they found me, explained this to me, and here we are." Corde said as he began to breathe agsin.
"Ok... well what's that?" another soldier commented.
"That, is Princess Luna, co-ruler of this planet. For now we have to escort her to -" Corde was cu off by a loud explosion as the transports shields flared.
"Corde!Ah don't think getting back to base is goin to be easy." the scottish voice said as the occupants of the crafte peered out the window at a barrier of explosives. And zombies.
"Shit. Alright driver we need you to-" Corde began but was interupted by the driver followed by the moans of dozens of zombies.
"Corde. Secure the men and your VIP. Im gonna drive through it. There's no other way. Besides. I'm infected."the driver said coldy as he gestured to a large gash in his left arm.
"There's an extra gas mask back there. Get it on the VIP and move." the driver said as Corde, although stunned, obliged and fastened the facemask over Luna witohut much trouble. Corde knelt down to the pony.
"Alright, stay close. We'll defend you." Corde said softly, in a soothing tone.
"Alright listen up! Box formation! VIP in the center! don't let anything touch her."
"OORAH!"
"Good to go." Corde said to the driver as the back door quickly retracted into the floor of the transport.
"MOVE!" Corde said as the dozen men formed a small box around Luna.
The transport accelerated forwards towards the barrels as a few shocked soldiers looked on.
"What the hell are you doing??!?!?!" a soldier exclaimed over the com.
"PULLIUNG THE PLUG ON THEM MEN! I'LL SEE YOU IN HELL!" The driver exclaimed over his com before he crashed into the explosives, intsantly creating a huge orange fireball as his coms went to static.
"Damn...." A few soldiers muttered under their breath as they continually advanced towards the opening in the explosives. When they finally got to the opening they noticed something on the other side. A pony.
In the few seconds they had to observe her, the soldier could make out that she had a neat pristine white coat ,mane and tail. She had two large appendages attached to either side of her body. Wings? She also wore a bright green mane band that secured her neatly combed mane into a slighly curving upward fashion. Her maneband matched her bright green jade eyes that glistened with hope. And adorning both sides of her flank was a cobweb.
For a second, Corde actually thought she looked beautiful. He quckly shook the thought out of his head as he snapped back to reality.
"Luke! Go secure that civilian! Gerry! Go with him!" Corde ordered as the two soldiers in question dispersed from the box and began to run over to the small horse. The box became smaller to compensate for the loss of men as small red blips appeared on everybody's radar.
Most were headed for Luke.
"Luke! Get her! Get in and get out fast!" Corde said in a tone that startled the already fearful luna, who was still cowering in the center of the soldiers.
The group of men began to walk over to Luke, keeping their formation. It didn't last long.
HUNDREDS of zombies shambled out of the salmon color fog and rushed the small box of soldiers as they shouldered their weapons and unleashed hell on them. Zombie after zombie. Pony after Pony. Brother, after brother, fell to the ground as bullets ripped through them and the wounds began to spew black ooze. Luna covered her eyes with her hooves as she breathed through the strange contraption.
Corde looked over to Luke and Gerry, who were firing their weapons wildy. Each flanked the small white pony on both sides as she looked away in horror.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" a soldier cried out as he was dragged away into the fog as he clawed at the ground to no avail. Then another. And another.
Within a few minutes the box had diminished to a triangle of only 4 men.They lowered their overheating weapons as the last zombie hit the floor, and he drowned in is own ooze.
"Luke! Come on over , bring the civilian!" Corde shouted as Luke ran over with the pony in full gallop behind him.
"Gerry didn't make it...." Luke said as Hector knelt down to examine the new pony.
"Hello." Hector said kindly as the pony recoiled.
"Bonjour. I'm Acidio. Who are you?" the small horse asked curiously, regaining her courage.
"She's french? My god what the fuck don't they have on this planet?" Jason said as he sat down on the ground and layed his sniper beside him.
Corde walked away from the two so they could talk in private as Blackburn radioed in.
"Corde! My god finally! We're sending in a dropship to evac you to the nearest indoor landing pad. Sit tight." Blackburn said as the com went silent.
"Hey Corde! She ain't wearing a gas mask!" Luke exclamed as he and th other men backed away from Acidio.
"Why are you afraid? Why do I- SACRE-BLEU! WHAT IS THAT THING YOUR WEARING YOUR HIGHNESS??!?!?" Acidio exlaimed worriedly.
"That, is what's keeping her alive. And Acidio, we're going to have to-..... wait! How long have you been outside?" Corde asked excitedly.
"Uhm, less than an hour?" Acidio replied hastily.
"Good! Come here! Quick!" Corde said as he gestured Acidio to come closer.
She hesitantly approached him as he pulled out a large shot.
"This will only hurt a bit, but if i can inject you with this anti-virus, you should be able to make it back to HQ." Corde said as he uncapped the shot and hastily plunged it into Acidio's front left leg without warning.
"OWWW!!!" Acidio cried out in pain as the serum was injected into her.
"Good. Let's go" Corde said as he threw the shot aside and gestured to the incoming dropship.
"This is Lima squad. Get aboard!" the pilot said as the bay door opened and a dozen USIF soldiers sat tightly packed into the left half. The dropship hovered a few feet into the air as the remains of whiskey and 1st-recon boarded their ticket to salvation.
The dropship quickly closed its door as it took off with haste, just as more zombies began massing below.
By this point all squads planetside had been informed of the rougues who were helping Corde, and the dozen soldiers greeted the battered soldiers warmly.
"So, how is HQ holding up?" Corde asked absentmindedly.
"It's holding up fine. We have a perimeter set up and everyone seem to be healthy.Ugh... what are those?" A soldier asked gesturing towards Acidio and Luna, who was fumbling with her gas mask.
"They're ponies soldier. No more explanation needed." Corde said as he was getting tired of explaining the mess of a situation that they'd gotten into
The soldier was about to continue when the soldier next to him patted him on the shoulder which signaled him to let it go. Reluctantly the curious grunt dropped the subject as he sat back and observed the foogy world below through his window.
After a few uneventful minutes the dropship finally began to descend as a large metallic door opened and a coninc stream of light flowed ou of it as the dropship finally touched down. The men all breathed a collective sigh of relief at the thought of finally being home.
"Corde! Stone wants you to bring the VIP to him immediatley." Blackburn radioed to Corde as the door overhead closed and the platform began to sink into the hangar slowly.
"Roger that, I've got lima Squad, and the remains of Whiskey with me, I'm sending them to you.Once this shitstorm ends we're rolling out together." Corde replied.
"Copy." Blackburn said as the coms fell silent.
Corde turned to his men and stated, " Alright listen up!I want all personnel to rendevouz with Major Blackburn in the armory. Once I'm done with the general want all of you back to this dropship. You have 2 hours to get ready. Move out."
As soon as the cargo door opened everyone rushed out and began to head to the armory in a neat single file line.
"As for you two, come with me. We have some things to do." Corde said as he lead Luna and Acidio out of the dropship and began to walk towards the bridge with the two ponies close behind. Within a few minutes of jogging he had arrived at the same metal doors he had stood before only days ago.
It was strange, but for some reason Corde began to think of them as the good ol' days. Before this whole mess had happened. But, as he knew, problems, need to be dealt with if anything is to get better as he braced himself and opened the doors, ushering the two small horses inside.
Stone was sitting in his seat, intensely observing a holomap of what appeared to be the general Canterlot area. As corde walked in, his metal boots thudding on the floor, Stone quickly closed his map and stood up. He then proceeded to walk over to Corde.
"So, what have you brought me?" Stone asked, genuinely curious.
"Well, that one's the co-ruler of the planet..." Corde said gesturing to Luna " And that one appears to be just a stray civilian we managed to save on our way back." Corde said looking over to the pristine whit pony.
"Are they infected?" Stone asked softly.
"No. We put a gas mask on Luna, and we injected Acidio with an anti-virus just in time. They're both healthy."
"I think you'll find there is more to me than what you percieve..." Acidio said, finally gaining enough courage to speak to the large robots, who towered over her.
"What do you mean... ma'am?" Stone asked, pausing before saying the last word.
"I'm..... I'm.... I'm an Element Of Discordance. Fear." The pony said rather ashamedly.
"I don't believe you." Jason , who was leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed said.
"Me either."Hector said as he entered the room with his weapons holstered.
"I thought I told you to go meet up with Blackburn! Ugh, whatever. I suppose introductions are in order. Stone, that's jason, and that's Hector. Rogue SPEAR soldiers who have been helping me out for a while now. And also-" Corde was cut off by Acidio.
"Don't believe me? Fine! See for yourself!" Acidio said as her coat began to turn blacker than night. Her mane turned blood red as her eyes shifted. Her pupils became white as her iris' dissappeared and the rest of her eye turned an ungodly black.Just moments later, a demonic cloud of red and black smoke filled the room as all 4 soldiers flicked on their headlights.
"SIT THE FUCK DOWN BITCH!" Jason yelled as he ran up to Acidio, grabbed her by the throat and tossed her so hard into the wall beside him, she left a dent.
Acidio's vision began to blur as she began to revert back to normal. Then everything went black. The cloud of smoke dissipated and the soldiers flicked off their lights. The four soldiers saw Acidio fall out of her dent and hit the floor with a loud thud as she regained her normal color scheme.
Corde just hoped her personality had come back as well. For some reason he thought Acidio was different,, than the rest. He didn't know why, but he had begun to care about her. Whether it was for better or worse, Corde didn't know as he sat down in a chair next to Stone.
"That one's dangerous. I like it. Epsilon squad! Get up to the bridge to secure a package for reserch." Stone said into his com.
Corde shuddered at the word research. " Uh, general, what are they going to do to her?" Corde asked slightly nervous.
"Don't worry, they're just going to try to develop some kind of armor for their species. There are a lot of them who want to go back down and fight for their planet, but without power armor, they don't stand a chance. Plus, i'd like to see how she did that whole act." Stone replied as two white armor clad soldiers walked in and began to load acidio into an electric cage.
They then quickly exited and no more of them was seen as Corde began to leave the room.
"Oh and one more thing Corde!" Stone yelled to Corde as Luna began to get settled in the large room.
Corde stopped to listen as Stone finished his sentence.
"I have an old friend that you might like who I'm assigning to your squad. Now move out, the air's clear." Stone said as Corde continued on his way.
Corde walked back to the armory, wondering who was assigned to his squad. As Corde entered the armory, several soldiers shot him a salute as Corde began to refill his assault rifle clips. After that he grabbed a machinegun and loaded it up fully. And to top it all of he grabbed a repar tool, fastened to his armor, and secured his napalm mortar packs to his belt as he walked out of the armory.
He began to jog back to his dropship, knowing that his force would be waiting for him. As Corde rounded the corner to the hangar, he quickly opened the large bay doors and began searching for his dropship. He uickly found it and began to run to where the top of it poked out above the others.
As he came around another dropship, his dropship's cargo hold came into view. Corde immediatley stopped as Hector and Jason came out from behind the dropship and climbed in.
But that's wasn't what shocked him. What shocked him is that there, standing just outside of his cargo hold was a soldier clad in the most iconic silver USIF armor. No one knew his real name. Not even General Stone.
As Corde began to realize who was standing only feet away from him, Centurion slowly turned around, and with one great hop, he was on the dropship. Corde quickly hurried over to the dropship as he grabbed the side grip and hoisted himslef onto the dropship, which was nearly full, save for his spot... next to Centurion.
As Corde hesitated sitting next to such a legend he took his seat a bit nervously next to the famed soldier.
"Hey Corde. Alright, close up the doors!" Blackburn said as the cargo doors slowly closed as Blackburn shifted in his seat.
"Alright. We're going in with Foxtrot and what's left of our squads. As you can see, we have a special guet onboard." Blackburn said gesturiing to Centurion as the doors closed fully and the dropship began to lift off with several other dropships.
"I noticed..." Corde said nervously, trying to keep his composure next to his CO.
"Anyways, thought you might like to meet Foxtrot's squad leader. That's Eddie." Blackburn said as he looked over to a soldier in green armor who was juggling roughly a dozen knives with ease.
"Yea, he likes knives..." Blackburn said akwardly as the dropship began to lurch forward and sunlight flooded through the windows.
"Alright! Listen up! We're being deployed to overtake a SPEAR stronghold. Easy enough right? Just keep an eye out, there are still infected out there. Lock and load, we drop in 20." Corde said sternly to the soldiers who readied their weapons in anticapation.
"WE'RE BEING OVERRUN!!!!!!!!" a SPEAR soldier shouted as he and his comrades retreated back into a bunker, occasionally firing a few shots at the huge mass of zombies that was making its way towards them.
"MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!YEAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" a soldier yelled as he and half a dozen other soldiers stomped out of the bunker in mechs and began unleashing hell on the horde. As the bullets flew, killing zombies by the dozens, the foot soldiers regrouped and began firing in unison with their mechanized allies as the horde got increasingly smaller.
Jus as the horde was on the verge of dying down completey, the ground began to shake. The sodiers looked overhead to see at least a dozen troops being deployed. " AWW, SHIT! FALL BACK! FALL BACK!!!!" a soldier shouted as the mechs began to file back into the bunker as the soldiers impacted the ground with a huge explosion of rock and dust... well most anyways. A few soldiers completely missed the ground... and burrowed their way clean through 3 mechs.
"Damn! That hurt!" Hector said as he scrambled out of the wreckage of a decimated mech.
"Oh, don't be a baby." Jason said as he pushed a mech arm off of him and stood up.
As the two stood up they looked at a mech that stood completely still... until it lurched over and crashed ino the ground, kcicking up dust as it revealed Eddie standing behind it, knives in each hand as he steped over the mech and walked past the two awe-stricken soldiers.
"GOGOGO! RUSH THAT BUNKER!!!" Corde said as his men sholdered their weapons and mowed down the retreating infantry. Blackburn sprinted up to a mech, which turned around, and tried to hit him as he dodged to the left, climbed up its arm, and plunged his knfe into it's head as the mech's lights went dark.
Blackburn jumped off the mech as it impacted the ground, and sheathed his knife and brought out his shotgun as he blasted a retreating soldier in the back. The soldier fell limp and twitched for a few seconds before blood began run in stream from his body, filling in he grooves of the cement.
"CHARGE!" Corde ordered as he brought out his machinegun, and began running at the bunker , gunning down all in his path ferociously. The men under his command all followed and within a few seconds they had regrouped with Corde, who was tossing grenades at the 4 remaining mechs.
"GO! Give him some covering fire!" Blackburn ordered as a soldier next to him fell to the floor limp, as a straight line if smoke could be seen where the soldier's temple had been in his last seconds of life.
"SNIPER!!!" Hector yelled as he slid into cover with Jason by his side.
A soldier turned just in time to be tackled to the floor by the remainder of the horde. As the half a dozen zombies bit through his armor feverishly, Centurion simply walked over to the soldier, took out a grenade, and pulled the pin. As he dropped the grenade into the writhing mass of metal and flesh, he began to walk away. The grenade detonated with a loud bang as it ripped the zombies and the soldiers to shred.
"Damn..." a soldier muttered, as he looked on in shock. Not two seconds later, he fell to the floor lifeless, a clean hole in his head as blood pooled around him.
"Blackburn! Secure a mech and light these fuckers up!" Corde said as he raised his gun over the cement barricade and fired without looking. As the other soldiers all found cover before they fell prey to the sniper , Blackburn boosted up to the cat walk overhead and began to look for a good ambush point.
"MORTAR!!!" A soldier shouted before a dozen tiny explosives exploded in a cone around him and two other soldiers, tearing them apart.
"Shit! How many more we got Corde?" Jason asked as he quickly sprinted to another barricade and returned fire.
"We've got 7 men left not including us!!!" Corde shouted over the gunfire as a soldier rose out of his cover and hoisted a rocket launcer onto his shoulder before firing 6 times in quick succesion at a single mech.
As the first rocket approached, a figure could be seen droppng down from above onto the next mech. As the first rocket hit, the mech stumbled to the side as its shields flared and crashed into the next mech, which Blackburn was holding onto for dear life, and both mechs toppled to the ground as the other rockets homed in on the heap.
"NO!" was all Corde could say before five rockets impacted, one after the other, the fifth one turning the heap into an orange fireball.
""Blackburn is down! I repeat the major is down!" a soldier yelled over his com to command.
There was a reply, but from where Corde was, he wasn't able to hear it as he ducked from cover to cover, trying desperatley to make his way through the hail of gunfire. He just barely avoded a sniper round as he ducked into cover, and the round hit another soldier behind him. Everything was quickly deteriorating as soldier after soldier fell to the floor lifeless.
"LUKE!!! USE THE BOMB!!!!!!!!!" Corde shouted over the gunfire as a mech crashed to the foor in a smoking heap. As the last SPEAR forces began to retreat back into the bunker, Luke threw a smal black object, which flashed red every two seconds, eventually hitting a SPEAR soldier in the back, just as he made it inside the inner bunker doors.
"3,2,1.... boom" Luke said as he counted down with his fingers. As he said boom, the whole base shook and the last remaining mech, vacant, fell over onto its back, smashing the controls.
"Jason... take a casualty poll." Corde said coughing as he jogged over to his few remaining men. Centurion not among them...
"Where's Centurion?" Corde asked as is stomach knotted.
"I dunno, he mustve bugged out in all the confusion." Luke responded as he checked his armor integrity.
"We've got 18 KIA, 1 MIA, and 5, thats us, still alive." Jason said as he closed his holopad.
"Corde. I heard about Blackburn, god bless his soul... Aside from that I'm sending you reinforcements. They're not exactly what you might expect, but they'll get the job done. They're inbound in a tank. Keep a look out for them and hold your position until Zulu squad comes to take your place." Stone said to Corde over the com as Jason and th other found a good spot to sit down.
"Good. Hey! Listen up, we're getting some reinforcements. They're enroute in a tank. I've also gotten word that Zulu squad is coming to take our place as soon as they can." Corde said sternly to his men, as he looked out across the wide, unmoving expanse of land that enveloped the small SPEAR outpost.
"Well, what do we do until the tank gets here? I can already see a few dozen infected off in the distance..." Hector said absentmindedly as he stared off at a few specks way off in the distance, that seemed to be coming over a lone hill that gently rose in the distance. As the light blue sky slowly began to transition to a vibrant orange, Hector and Jason found their own respective spots to lie down and rest their eyes.
As resting quickly turned into uneasy sleep, Corde and Luke began to approach the front courtyard of the base, where the slowly stumbling zombies from earlier had begun to mass.
"Hey Luke, you take left, I'll take right." Corded said as he pulled his machinegun off his back and readied it by cocking it, and loading the first round into the chamber.
"Got it..." Luke said as he shouldered his assault rifle, and placed the small blue dot over a zombies forehead.
"Good Night.." Luke said, before squeezing the trigger, causing a zombie to fall over, dead -for good- with a good sized gash in its head.
Corde also opened fire on the zombies, as he moved from infected to infected, he never once let go of the trigger. After only what seemed to be about a minute, both Luke and Corde had dispatched the small group of zombies.
"Corde? What's that noise?" Luke asked as he sat down and began to load some explosive rounds into a spare clip.
"I... don't know..." Corde replied, as he strained his ears. And then he heard it. The low rumble of a tank as it sped across the battlefield. But there was another noise too... was that music?
Corde clipped the machinegun to his back as he rounded the corner of the base, and saw a USIF tank making its way to him. From what he could tell, the tank was where he music was coming from. It aproached the 100 meter mark, as Corde walked back around the corner to tell Luke.
What he found shocked him. Corde nearly fell over backwards in horror from the gorey scene that lay before him. What used to be Luke was scattered across the ground... a leg here, an arm there, and what appeared to be his chest and stomach, was overflowing with guts as blood pooled around it. What was even more horrifying was that Corde was next. There, standing nearly 7 feet tall was a human-like robot... but it wasn't moving. oh no, it was just standing there, spattered with blood, holding Luke's severed head in his hand as he stared down Corde.
And then like a brick wall, it hit him. Corde had heard about androids that were built on colony worlds to defend them in the event of an invasion where the armored infantry weren't viable. There standing before Corde was what was known as a terminator...
The machine dropped Luke's head as it clenched its fist and rushed Corde. As the terminator swung a metal fist at Corde, he held his arm up to block it, However that proved to be quite... painful. The fist impacted his arm and with a literally bone shattering sound, ripped Corde lower arm clean off. Blood spewed from the severed arm as Corde fell on his back and tried to pull out a grenade to no avail. The terminator loomed over him as it raised its arm, ready to strike th final blow. It never came... Instead a tank rolled around the corner, gun at the readt, and blasted the terminator point blank in the face.
The endoskeleton erupted in a ball of orange flames as it crumpled to the ground next to Corde. To Corde, it was over, to the terminaor, it wasn't. As the terminator's eyes began to flicker, he reached over to Corde, and with one swift jerk, pulled the pin on a grenade. The terminator's eyes went dark and the endoskeleton went limp as Corde closed his eyes and accepted his fate. The grenade detonated several seconds later, leaving both a charred terminator and a one of the USIF's finest, dead.
Three figures hopped out of the tank to inspect the situation and status of the commander.
"Is he dead?" one voice asked.
"Ya..." another voice replied solemnly.
'Well.... let's get going then, we've got to find the rest of his squad." Yet another voice said as the figures hopped back in the tank.
The tank began to roll around the corner slowly as a gruesome sight came into view. The operators of the tank peered out of their windows and periscope to behold Jason standing atop a pile of destroyed terminators, pistol in one hand, knife in the other. His helmet was gone to reveal a sight possibly even more disgusting than his dead comrades, including Hector, who had been torn in half and guts strewn about the area. Jasons face was a pale green and veins bulged from his face and head as his dark crimson eyes eyed the tank like a wild animal, before dropping down on top of the pile of dead terminators and closing his eyes.... for the last time.
"This is Titan squad, we have eyes on Zulu and First-Recon... they're all dead sir, Corde, and all the rest of them too. No sign of Centurion yet though. Orders?" a female voice said over the com as she slouched down into her seat in the tank.
"Corde's dead? Dammit... Alright, your orders are to head out to a nearby ARM LZ and rendevouz with Commander Thorne. From there, you will proceed with his forces to assualt the SPEAR's HQ. Once that's gone we can cut the power to all other outposts and take out whatever straggler's are left. Oh, and about Centurion, I just got a fix on him. He's heading through a nearby forest called the Everfree. Thorne's assault doesn't start for another 12 hours so if you want, go get Centurion and bring him with you, God know's what the hell he's doing. Stone out." the com replied as the connection died and went silent.
"You guys get all that?"
"Ya, I say we go get him, from what I've heard he's the best of the best."
"I agree too."
"I'm in. Tavi' how bout' you?"
"... Sure ..." a voice replied as the top hatch of the tank popped open and a soldier clad in seafoam green USIF armor crawled out, followed by three others.
As Zulu company, which consisted of 4 tanks, 3 bikes and a dozen foot soldiers, secured the area, the seafoam green soldier, who walked on all fours, passed by another USIF soldier who stood dumbfounded as the small creature said in commanding tone, " You guys can have our tank, just make sure you've got 4 hover bikes prepped and ready to go when we get back, we're kind've on a tight schedule. Kay thanks." The seafoam green soldier said quickly as she led her squad away from the outpost and towards a forest which was about 3 blocks away.
"Listen up and listen good. We are going in there to retrieve what might be our only chance of getting through this war without countless other lives being lost. Now I don't want you hesitate to bring him down if he starts shooting at us though. Now let's do this. Stay together and keep your guns raised." the seafoam green soldier said as she stood up on her hind legs and unclipped her shotgun from her back.
The other 3 did the same. A soldier armored in white aegis armor stood up and clicked a small button on the side of her helmet, which caused the two white eyes on her helmet to tint a dark purple which created a soft glow. She then proceeded to unclip a customized USIF assault rifle which was painted white with purple accents.
A second soldier, clad in grey armor, also stood up and unclipped two standard pistols from her sides and held them at her sides.
Finally a third soldier stood up on her hind legs and took a machinegun off her lavender armor before flicking on her helmet lights, as it was begining to descend into... twilight ...
"Let's get a move on then!" the seafoam green soldier said before she led her squad into the forest, ready to begin the search for Centurion.
Just miles away, a figure opened a long forgotten hatch to an underground labyrinth long forgotten by time. As he heaved the hatch upwards, a single sliver of light caught his silver armor as it reflected the sunlight. Just moments later the figure slipped down into the hole and closed the hatch overhead.
The figure slid down a very long ladder in darkness, aside from his armor lights. His metal boots finally hit the floor and he quickly walked over to a long forgotten monitor that read ' S K Y N E T' across the top of the huge screen. Almost instantly the silver figure pressed a button on the side of the monitor, flipped a few switches, and chose a few buttons to press, as the screen came to life.
And as it did, the figure spoke in a deep, commanding tone. " SKYNET, bring up inventory statistics..." and no sooner had he said that, a long a list appeared on the screen.
The figure scrolled through it, checking that ample weapons, ammunition and vehicles were at hand. Until he finally reached the section he had been looking for. The list read something like this.
TERMINATOR INVENTORY
QUANTITY
T-1: 100
T-70: 250
T-105: 150
T-400: 500
T-500: 500
T-600: 700
T-700: 150
T-800: 1,000
T-850: 750
T-888: 650
T-900: 600
T-950: 500
T-1000: 200
T-1001: 175
TS-300: 200
TOK-715: 100
I-950: 100
T-X: 75
HK-TANK: 450
HK-AERIAL: 300
HK-MINIHUNTER: 400
HK-DRONE: 400
HK- BOMBER: 250
HARVESTER: 500
MOTOTERMINATOR: 475
T-7-T: 450
HK-CENTURION: 1
The figure cracked a smile at the last one as the lights came on and revealed him to be the one at the end of the list. It was in fact Centurion. But more importantly he was something else.
"Hold up." the lavender soldier said as she raised a metal hoof to halt the group.
"What is it Twi'?" the seafoam green soldier asked as she surveyed her dark surroundings quickly.
"I don't know... but I... I can feel that something is close by." replied Twilight.
"Vinyl, Octavia, go up ahead and see if anything is there, me and Twi' will cover our rear." Lyra ordered as the two soldiers in question plodded up ahead, a soft glow emanating from their armor. As Titan squad continued to move, a voice that wasn't hers began talking from Lyra's helmet.
"Lyra?Are you there? This is General Stone. I have some info for you."
"Go ahead." replied the unicorn as she halted and signaled the rest of her squad to do the same.
"Alright, it's been confirmed that there is a large cave system spanning the whole Everfree. We don't know what's down there, but we need you to find out. Forget about the ARM assault, we need you to find out what the hell is going on, and more importantly Centurion. I've got an exact fix on him, patching it through to your H.U.D. now." General Stone said, stopping for a second or two every sentence.
A small white blip appeared and began flashing on all four of the soldiers' radar.
"Also, there's a hatch that appears to lead down into the cave system not far from your position. Oh and one more thing, find that hatch and get inside we're napalming what's left of the Everfree shortly. Stone out.
The four ponies stood there silent for a few seconds before Lyra broke the silence.
"Well, you heard the man! Let's find that hatch before we end up like... him!" Lyra said gesturing over to a charred soldier who had been lit on fire during the first napalming and had probably limped here right before he died.
"I didn't even see that... Yea, Lyra's right lets get going." Twilight responded before the group put away their weapons and galloped through the forest towards the hatch, breaking tree branches and flattening bushes as they went. Only seconds later the group arrived at the hatch and all four stood up and began heaving at it ferociously. Slowly, inch by inch, the hatch came up ever so slightly until Lyra was able to get her hooves underneath the hatch and lift it up with the help of her squad. Finally the door swung open and came to a stop as it remained upside down.
"What are you waiting for let's go!" Vinyl said as she tried to grasp the ladder to no avail.
"Colt-dammit! I think you need those hand things to use this." Vinyl said getting frustrated.
"No time for that. Just jump!" Twilight said hastily as she gestured to a formation of distant bombers that were fast approaching.
Lyra was the first to act as she hopped down into the hole and began to plummet. As she plummeted she held her hooves out to stop her, or at least slow her, before she hit the bottom of whatever the hatch led to. Her hooves touched the walls all around her and she rapidly began slowing down, so much that she had to jump down a few feet to reach the bottom. Overhead she could hear her squad coming in fast. The screeching of metal against concrete hit Lyra's eardrums like Hulk hit Wolverine. Hard.
As Twilight touched down right behind Lyra, she was able to un-clamp her hooves from her ears, as the noise level was now bearable. Seconds later Octavia and then Scratch reached the bottom following the same technique as Lyra.
As Twilight was about to reach for her helmet light, Lyra swatted her hoof away with a low metal clang.
"We don't know whats down here, be qui-" Lyra whispered before she was interrupted by a bright flash of light that illuminated their surroundings. Or rather what surrounded them.
As Lyra regained her sight she noticed something strange. Tall figures stood around her and her squad, at least a dozen of them. As her sight un-blurred, she realized what the figures were. Machines.
Standing 8 feet tall, the T-70's were an imposing sight to the ponies who were only half as tall. Hell, they would've looked scary to necromorphs. But that's another story for another time.
"W-What are you?" Octavia stammered with a twinge of fear in her tone. Promptly, one of the T-70's lowered its mini-gun and with one great stride, it bridged the gap between them and picked Octavia up by her throat. The machine raised the small equine up to his face so that she could stare into its lifeless red eyes. As Octavia looked into the machines eyes, she recoiled with a sudden realization.
'This thing doesn't care if it... or every single one like it die, as long as we die with them...'
Octavia's face twisted with fear underneath her helmet as the terminator raised its free arm to her head, and removed he helmet with one great yank. The helmet was ripped from its place and wires on the neck guard jutted out as a strange viscous liquid poured from a tube underneath the chin piece on her helmet.
The terminator lowered its arm and as it did so, crushed Octavia's helmet and let it drop to the floor.
The rest of Titan Squad watched in horror at the scene that was unfolding before them. Although they were now soldiers, their pony instincts still applied and were proving to be a great hindrance to them.
As the T-70 lifted its mini-gun up to Octavia's head once more, she closed her eyes and resigned herself to her fate. At least it will be quick she thought... and then she'd be able to sleep in bliss for eternity. But seeing as how life like's to be a troll, the shot never came. Instead hundreds of loud explosions shook the base, knocking several terminators onto the floor, including the one holding Octavia. As he fell he released her and she smacked the ground with a loud thud.
Seeing her opportunity, Vinyl reached for her assualt rifle quickly, snatching it up in one hoof and taking aim at a still standing terminator. She fired a quick burst into its head. No effect. Another burst. No effect. Another one. Finally the bullets pierced its metal armor and burrowed its way into the terminator's head as various liquids began to leak out and spill onto the floor. The terminator began to fall and face planted hard with a loud crash.
"KILL 'EM!" Lyra shouted over the shrill noise of the bombs. Coming to their senses once more, the rest of Titan squad quickly shouldered their weapons and began unleashing a hail of bullets on the terminators that were still standing. One by one the terminators fell until only three remained, struggling to get to their feet.
Vinyl approached one of the terminators, drew her pistol and fired a single shot into the back of its unprotected head as it stopped moving. Twilight did the same with a nearby T-70. Just as she did so the sound of bombs overhead could no longer be heard, and only an eery silence remained.
"Celestia-damn, what were those things?" Octavia said as she caught her breath.
"I dunno, but I've got a feeling that's not the last we'll see of them." Vinyl replied reloading her assault rifle.
Just as Vinyl finished her sentence a loud clanging of metal could be heard some distance away. All four ponies looked in unison to face a long, well lit hallway. With a T-800 slowly making its way down it. Although noticeably shorter than the T-70's, the T-800 struck fear into all who gazed upon it. Including titan squad. As it reached the halfway point of the hallway Lyra began to rally as she handed Octavia her helmet.
Octavia's gray hair flowed freely behind her back as she took her helmet from Lyra. She examined the helmet for a second before she threw it onto the grounds and crushed it with a single stomp. Rubbing her face with a metal hoof, Octavia examined the terminator and readied herself. Nodding, Octavia, along with the rest of Titan squad lined up, shoulder to shoulder, weapons at the ready as the T-800 came ever closer.
"Hey, if we die, don't touch my stuff." Vinyl said without emotion.
"Shut up! No one's dying!" Lyra said as she gave the signal to open fire.
In that instant, time seemed to slow as Twilight focused on two things. Aiming, and squeezing the trigger. Her mind went blank as if this was all she knew. All she had ever known. Just as quickly as it had come, it left, and Twilight once again regained her senses as her machine-gun beeped, awaiting a fresh magazine.
Twilight obliged as she opened the side of her gun, and replaced the large circular clip with a new one. As soon as she locked her ammo in, all hell broke loose. Less than yard away, the terminator charged the four ponies. Expecting the machine to fall over, Titan squad braced for impact, Octavia shielding her face. They were sadly mistaken. The terminator barreled right through the tightly packed ponies and grasped Vinyl's forelegs as it held on to her as it smashed into a metal wall.
Dazed and in sever pain, Vinyl blacked out as the terminator continued its assault. It literally grabbed her hoof and picked Scratch up with one arm, and then proceeded to slam her repeatedly into the wall, snatching up her assault rifle as it did so.
Meanwhile Lyra tried to regain her hoofing, but found this to be extremely hard. Her vision blurred in and out of black as she stumbled around until she finally decided to stop and let her conciousness slip. Her vision faded to black as she let her eyes close.
Across from Lyra, Octavia lay limp and motionless as blood trickled from her nose and a cut across her left cheek. The blood slowly pooled around her head and stained her gray hair a dark red.
The terminator continued slamming Vinyl into the wall repeatedly until finally her shields flared and her armor began deteriorating. In another corner of the room, Twilight lay, barely able to see the tragedy that was occurring. She just watched the horrific sight, unable to do anything. She closed her eyes as she pondered what she could do, and something sparked in her. Something that ponies hadn't known for as long as she could remember. Rage. Rage and blood-lust fueled her as her eyes shot open, her usually round pupils narrowed into predatory slits as adrenaline coursed through her body. She bolted to her feet and as she did so, she pulled her helmet off to reveal her face. A manic grin spread across her face as wiped the blood off her face and lapped it up with astonishing speed.
As soon as she had finished, she darted over to the terminator, every hoofstep leaving an imprint in the floor.... which was made of titanium. She raised her front hooves up and wrapped her forelegs around both of the terminators arms as it dropped Vinyl and her assualt rifle as Twilight lifted up the terminator and threw it behind her back, not letting go as she did. As a result both of the terminators arms tore off of it's body in an explosion of sparks and fluid.
Twilight dropped the arms before the terminator even had a chance to land, and bolted over to it with astonishing swiftness. The terminator landed on it's back as it burrowed a dent into the wall. As the terminator fell out of it's dent, Twilight was right below it, ready to continue the onslaught.
The terminator fell and Twilight caught it, before smashing it into the floor face first. She whirled the terminator over and for a second, she stared into it's fear imbuing red eyes... before placing a hoof on each one and yanking on them hard. The two spheres of red light disconnected from the terminator's face and went dark as what remained of the T-800 squirmed around violently.
Twilight's pupils regained their normal shape, but her manic grin remained as she wrapped a foreleg around each side of the terminator's neck and yanked it. With an explosion of electricity, sparks and fluid the terminator's head detached and the body stopped squirming and became motionless as Twilight's smile receded.
She dropped the machines head and fell over onto her back.
Lyra regained consciousness and tried to stand up. After stumbling around for a few seconds she got to her feet and walked over to Scratch as she regained clear vision. After examining Vinyl's body for only a few seconds she could tell that she was dead. Blood poured from her front left leg and her helmet was dented and destroyed.
As Lyra turned to check on Octavia, she felt something grab her left back leg. Lyra spun around only to see Vinyl removing her helmet with one hoof, and grasping her bleeding leg with the other. Vinyl stood up, her injured leg wobbling a little as she did so. The two ponies had tears in their eyes as they embraced eachother in as tight a hug they could with power armor on.
"I thought I lost you..." Lyra said as she let her tears flow freely down her cheek, staining her coat as it did.
"Yea.... me too..." Vinyl replied in as calm a tone as she could. She tried to fight back the tears, but they continued to gush forth as the two shied away from the hug.
"OH MY CELESTIA OCTAVIA!" Vinyl gasped as she noticed Octavia lying on the floor, motionless, and with blood polling around her. The smell of blood filled the air as Vinyl with hobbled over a to a battered grey earth pony and knelt down beside her, clutching the backside of Octavia's head.
As Vinyl checked on Octavia, Lyra walked over to Twilight to check on the damage. She expected her to be unconscious too, but when she came close enough to her she found that she was wide awake. Twilight's expression was blank and her eyes seemed to stare off into forever. Lyra had seen somepony like this a while back. Twilight had the thousand-yard stare.
It occurred for various reasons, this case of it most likely mental trauma. Lyra waved a hoof in front of Twilight's expressionless gaze and gave a sigh when she didn't respond. Knowing there was no way of doing anything about the thousand-yard stare, Lyra simply trotted away after making sure no severe injuries were afflicting Twilight.
"Octavia! Wake up!Please wake up!" Vinyl shouted into Octavia's face desperately.
As Vinyl continued kneeling by Octavia's side, her head in her hoof, Lyra put a foreleg over Vinyl's shoulder and waited for her to turn around. As Vinyl slowly turned her head to face Lyra, Lyra closed her eyes and shook her head with her face to the ground.
"No, s-she can't be dead. She just can't!" Vinyl said as she jerked Lyra's hand off of her.
"I'm sorry Vinyl, there's nothing we can do. As it is you and I are both pretty banged up, and you need to get medical attention! Look' I'm sorry, but there's no way we're gonna be able to carry her back up that ladder. We have to leave her." Lyra responded calmly and with as little emotion as possible.
Vinyl began shaking her head slowly as the occasional tear slipped off of her cheek and impacted the metal floor. Lyra sat down against a nearby wall in her usual human-like manner and waited for Vinyl to finish her goodbyes.
With a deep breath and a lot of courage, Vinyl unclasped her hoof and stood up, gently letting Octavia's head slump down on the floor into the pool of blood.
"What about her..."Vinyl said in a shaky voice motioning to Twilight who was no longer there.
"Where'd she go?" Lyra said in a frantic tone.
"I dunno, she was here a second ago!" Vinyl said starting to panic. She looked around the small room frantically, looking over every dead machine to see if she was hiding behind one. Just as Vinyl was about to start panicking again, a loud rumble could be heard overhead. It became louder and louder until finally, Vinyl and Lyra turned to a wall, which had opened up to reveal Twilight standing by a large control panel which presumably controlled the lift she stood upon.
"There you are! Is that an elevator?" Vinyl said hopefully.
"Sure is, come on! Grab your guns and Octavia and let's get out of here!" Twilight replied as Vinyl and Lyra gingerly balanced Octavia on their backs. Shortly after placing Octavia on the lift, Vinyl ran back and examined her assault rifle before scooping it up and clipping it to her back.
"Everypony ready?" Twilight inquired as she began fiddling with the lift controls.
"Yea, lets get out of here now!" Vinyl said as she gestured towards a small group of incoming aerostats.
"UP WE GO!!!" Twilight yelled as the lift ascended at an astounding pace, as the aerostats below began to give chase.
The small hovering machines began firing at the lift from below with built in sub-machineguns . Bullet after bullet embedded itself in the bottom of the lift as it rose ever higher.
"Shoot them!" Twilight ordered Lyra as she opened up a small portion at the center of the lift, revealing 3 small aerostats shooting at Titan squad.
Lyra quickly brought out her shotgun and took aim. *Plink* An aerostat plummeted to the ground below as debris fell off of it in mid-air. *Plink* Another machine out of commission. Just as Lyra began lining up her next and final shot, the lift stopped abruptly and a large door overhead slowly began to open up, letting Titan squad breath sigh of relief.
"Get her out of here! Just go! I'll meet you in a second." Lyra said before turning back to the aerostat, which was now no less than two hooves in front of her.
"Fuuuu-" was all Lyra could say before the aerostat unleashed a flurry of bullets, killing Lyra within seconds.
Vinyl planted Octavia firmly on her back as Twilight pulled out her pistol and shot the aerostat right in it's single sensor eye. It dropped to the ground like a rock and exploded in a small orange fireball.
Twilight promptly rushed over to Lyra and placed her hoof on Lyra's jugular. She waited for it to move, but it remained still. Twilight retracted her hoof and merely shook her head before placing Lyra on her back and walking out into the vast expanse of the Everfree where Vinyl was waiting with Octavia placed beside her.
"I-Is she ok?" Scratch asked nervously, afraid of the answer.
Again, Twilight merely shook her head and placed Lyra beside Octavia.
"Well that's it then? There's no way we're getting out of this mess...." Vinyl said glumly, slumping up against a tall tree.
"No, we are..." Twilight said as she pointed to a convoy of drop-ships that passed by overhead. As one by one the drop-ships passed by, finally one stopped, and began hovering, until it began descending upon Twilight and Vinyl. As it touched down, the bay doors opened up to reveal a large group of armored ponies, donning standard USIF power armor.
"Need a lift? We've only got enough room for 2 though." A pony near the front of the seating said.
Twilight and Vinyl looked at each other pale, both knowing what had to be done.Vinyl's face twisted with every emotion from anger to sadness. She looked back to Lyra and Octavia before closing her eyes and letting a single tear slip down her cheek. Vinyl turned back to Twilight before boarding the drop-ship with the lavender unicorn close in tow. As the bay door sealed, Vinyl and Twilight caught a last glimpse at their fallen comrades. They almost looked peaceful. Happy in a way.
The drop-ship didn't take long to get right back in the air. Twilight had managed to get a window seat, and as she peered out her window all she could see was small patches of green forest amongst a smoldering landscape where skeletons of trees rose from the scorched and blackened ground.
But as the drop-ship, began to turn around, heading back to Zulu company, Twilight noticed hundreds of small human-like figures marching through the incinerated forest. She continued to observe them until she noticed even larger figures, they literally crushed entire trees underneath them, as they marched in the opposite direction that the drop-ship was flying. The huge machines cut paths in the forest for the huge column of terminator infantry to march through. Bringing up the very rear of the army were several huge HK-TANKS, which crushed tress underneath their massive treads as they held their formation.
Twilight soon realized this wasn't going to be just an invasion. It was going to be an extermination.
Far below the convoy of drop-ships, a small creature stalked 2 immobile targets. A seafoam green unicorn, and a grey earth pony. As the figure crept out of a bush and came closer to the 2 still ponies, the soft glow of the moon shone down upon her grey and white stripes. Her golden jewelry sparkled in the moonlight as her mohawk mane blew gently in the breeze. Various markings adorned her light grey body as her cyan eyes observed Lyra and Octavia.
After quickly examining the two ponies, the zebra scooped both of them up onto her back and disappeared back into the largest chunk of the Everfree that wasn't on fire.
Miles away from the Everfree, Thorne stood atop a large platform, gazing out at his massive army, ready for the assault on the SPEAR HQ. As he walked back into his command center he came to face to face with a human-like endo-skeleton.
There standing nearly 5 feet from him was one of SKYNET's most dangerous killing machines.
"There's no other way ... tell the men they have five minutes to get into a drop ship and get off the planet. DO whatever you can to contact them, even use the global broadcast system if need be, just get the message through. W'eve got no time for this, and this planet's already gone to hell." Stone said coldly. "But sir!" "No buts! This is our last option. I'm sorry it's come to this, but this is the only way we can be sure the virus never leaves the planet. Now get the message out, the planet-destroyer class battleship has already arrived." Stone retorted. "Yes general ... " the soldier said with a sad tone before exiting the command room. Stone looked out at the battleship through his window and let out a deep sigh. He didn't want to do this, but the virus had spread so rapidly, and mutated so quickly that there was no other option. He pounded the glass with a metal fist before sitting back down and communicating with the battleship. "This is Stone. Prime your weapons and fire in five minutes no matter what. It must be done." "Roger that, priming weapon batteries and firing in t-minus five minutes." the ship responded over the com.
Twilight Sparkle looked out the window, lying her head on her hoof, contemplating over the events of the day. Her thoughts were soon interrupted by a loud crackle over the coms. The monitor inside the drop ship turned on and the pilot spoke with a great sense of urgency. "We've been given orders to pull out. And I mean like get off the planet pull out. So that's what we're doing. Everyone buckle up, we're going to have to engage the afterburners if we're going to get out of here in time." "In time for what? " one of the soldiers questioned . The pilot remained silent for a second before replying in a solemn tone. " The planet's being destroyed. Look up and you'll see the battleship..." Twilight looked up, watching as the entire sky was covered by a massive ship which was glowing bright red in several places. "God damn! They're already charging up the weapons. Pilot lets go, engage the afterburners get us off this planet!" One of the men shouted frantically. "Afterburners engaged. Don't worry, we'll make it." the pilot replied before the screen went dark. Everyone in the drop ship was forced into their seats by the massive force of the afterburners. Twilight managed to keep looking out the window at all of the other aircraft rushing to get to safety, a few of them with men clinging to sides of them desperately.
A loud crash penetrated the drop ship as time seemed to stop. In the middle of the drop ship a terminator's upper body poked through, tearing away at the floor of the aircraft as if it were paper. It's red eyes bore into each and every one of the soldiers on board. Time resumed and the robot grabbed a soldier's foot, as he struggled to shake him off. The machine dragged him through the hole he had torn in the drop ship, letting him fall to his demise. It did the same with another soldier before someone kicked it of the transport and watched it claw at the air as it fell.
"Jesus, those things just don't give up do they?" a soldier spoke, holding onto the railing, the drop ship increasing in speed.
"No ... no no no! Pilot! Faster!!!" A man shouted, standing up and gazing out the window as a tremendously loud whirring noise seemed to appear out of nowhere.
" What is it?!?!" Twilight asked, genuinely concerned.
A beam of red ethereal energy cut through the planet, shaking the aircraft badly, incinerating anything in its path. Even the planet itself.
From space, stone watched with a sad expression on his face, the red energy going in one side of the planet, and going out the other. Three of these beam penetrated the planet,one directly through the center. Stone knew what that meant, and felt truly sorry for anyone that was left behind. The planet started to collapse in on itself, its molten contents spilling out into space, surely killing anyone or anything still on the planets surface.
( Just putting this short little update out there to see if anyone is still following this story.)
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