> Battlefield 2145: Strike on Equestria > by TheMossiah > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prologue > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "We have to go!" I yelled as explosions detonated around me. It was like fire just rained from the sky. Olive-green VTOL's flew overhead bombing and killing anything that moved. I watched in horror as one of our last Titan's shields gave out. PAC drop ships did not hesitate. They quickly flew over and released multiple drop pods before high tailing it back to wherever their base was. I continued to run through the burning city. I turned my head to see the Titan begin to explode in the reddened sky. Finally it began to dip forward. *BANG* It exploded causing a shockwave to throw me into the ground. I watched through blurry eyes as a PAC soldier looked me in the eye and slammed his boot in my face. "Wake up man! You've been tossing and turning all night. Had that dream again?" My eyes flew open and landed on Callaghan. Callaghan and I grew up together, we were basically brothers. When he learned I was joining the army he did not hesitated to enlist at my side. I rubbed my eyes. "Yeah, I will never forget that time in Berlin. It shows how inhuman PAC can get... I know I was only captured for 3 days, but those days were hell. They treated us like wild animals. I watched some of them force civilians to beat each other within an inch of their lives just to eat. They are savages and they deserve to die like savages." I said as I crawled out of my bunk. We were aboard 'Legacy' a MK.II Titan warship. The only differance between the MK.I's they used in 2142-2143 is that these Titans had four new guns. Two on each side of the Titan. They were used mainly for Titan vs Titan combat, which seemed to be an extremely common thing these days. "Its ok buddy, I wish I had of been there when they broke you out. I would have made ever single PAC soldier there begging to die after I was done with them. Comon we don't want to miss the arrival of 'Dawn Bringer'! Lets go!" He yelled as he left the room. "I'll be right out!" I threw back as I was equipping my gear. The rooms were very small. Just enough room to to store and put on the massive military armor suit. I put on a re purposed recon visor. Over the years of fighting I had received many cuts and bruises. I used the visor to cover these as they could frighten civilians. I grabbed my SCAR 11 and attached it to my magnetic holster and ran through the door. The halls were packed more than ever today. I continued down the hall in a speed walk. "Harrison! Wait up!" It was Nicholas and Ford. They pulled up beside me and matched their pace with mine. Ford slapped my armored shoulder plate. "Hey did you hear about the new Titan MK.III super cruiser? I have heard a lot about it but haven't seen a single thing! Dawn Bringer is one of the only ones built at the moment." Nicholas gave a light punch to Ford''s shoulder. "What is it with you and Titans! Titan this! Titan that! My god man just shut up!" I gave a little laugh and so did they. We finally pulled out of the hall and we now stepped into the docking bay. Callaghan spun around with a coffee in his hands. "So you guys finally made it! Here look on the radar and then look outside... Nothing right? Well guess again!" I saw Callaghan put his fingers to the side of his helmet were his intercom is located. "Captain sir! Prepare to power down noise suppression systems and stealth drives sir!" From here I could only hear audible noise come from the intercom with all the noise around here. Callaghan excitedly gave us a thumbs up and he removed his fingers from his intercom. "Ok look up there!" He pointed at the sky. For a moment nothing happened but out of nowhere I heard one of the loudest noises I have ever heard in my life! The sky began to shimmer. Moments later the ships stealth engines powered down. Everyone in the docking bay just looked at the monster of a ship with dropped jaws. "Holy shit" I said as I eye's over the massive Titan. It was about 15x the size of a normal Titan. On each side it had an extremely larger docking bay, probably able to hold 10 VTOL's on each side. It had 10 duel broadside 400mm anti-Titan cannons on each side of the beast. The thing that stuck out the most was a large dome on the top of the Titan. Ford began to speak his mind. "Holy fuck! Look at that thing! And is that what I think it is?" He was now staring at the large dome on top of the Titan flagship. "That is the new experimental Rail-gun firing dome! I thought they destroyed all of them after finding out how powerful they were and what we would do if PAC managed to copy it." He looked like a kid who had just eaten candy for the first time in his life. "Calm down Ford, you can look at it all you like because we were just assigned to Dawn Bringer's fleet."Ford turned to Callaghan with wide eyes. "Really? This is awesome! I can't wait to see it totally annihilate some PAC assholes!" He said in a light yell. I watched as a EU drop ship made its way to our Titan. It flew through the shields and set down inside the bay. Two elite soldiers stepped out and waited for someone to leave the ship. My jaw dropped as I saw Field Marshal Logan step out of the drop ship. We all went into a salute. "At ease soldiers." The Field Marshal barked as he moved towards us. "You are the last Titan to learn of this so I thought I would personally deliver the message. As you know we have perfected cross dimensional travel. So have PAC. The second I return to my ship, the dimensional portal will be opened. How we do this is classified. Prepare yourselves men." Everyone in the docking bay was stunned at what they just heard. The Marshal climbed back into his drop ship. "I hope to see your Titan on the other side!" he said as the doors closed to the ship. It took off and began to fly back to the Titan flagship. As is neared the flagship, about 50 other Titans dropped their stealth drives and sound suppression systems. I turned to my squad. "Well you heard the man! Get ready!" Everybody scrambled for their gear. So we finally get to leave this snowy wasteland. I'm all for it. I Continued to bark out orders as I saw the portal open. Ships began to move through. It seemed the flagship would enter last... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Thank you for coming Princess Celestia and Princess Luna! I knew you would enjoy watching this years meteor shower with us!" Twilight said excitedly. All her friends had also arrived in her library. They waited for the Meteor show to start. "Do you think a comet will fly by this meteor shower? They go so fast!" Rainbow Dash began to frantically search in the sky for the fast moving comets. Princess Celestia turned to Rainbow Dash. She had a warm smile on her face. "Now calm down Rainbow Dash, maybe one will come soon just wait." She said and continued to watch the night sky. Luna was enjoying party games with Pinkie Pie when they all heard a low rumble. They all jumped and searched for the source. It had come from deep in the Everfree. They looked towards the forest. In the Distance they could see a massive glowing thing fly through the sky. "What is that!" Twilight grabbed a telescope to see it better. She jumped back at the sight. It was a large machine. That seemed to glow a bright light blue. She watched as more and more just began to appear for out of no where. She looked at Princess Celestia. "What do you think they are?" Princess Celestia took a look into the telescope to get a better look. She just turned to Twilight with a face of confusion. "I- I don't know." She said calmly. Finally even without the telescope they saw a massive glowing object appear. Its size swamped the already massive things that flew near it. The things slowly continued forward. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Dimension jump was a success captain!" The navigator yelled while typing in commands on his console. "Good, get coms back up with Dawn Bringer! We need new orders." The captain stabilized the ship and began to scan the air. "Lucky brake. The air seems breathable. It has about the same oxygen and nitrogen levels that Earth currently has." The navigator began to go ballistic. "Sir! There is an anomaly about 2.3 miles due north sir. I think its another portal opening!" The captain grabbed his intercom. "Field Marshal! Are you getting this?" For a moment the ship fell silent. Finally the entire ships coms sparked to life. The marshals voice echoed through the docking bay. "I'm getting it. We did not plan a second jump into this place. We can only assume PAC finished their portal device." With that said some of the crew worried. We all waited, I continued to be silent. Ford turned to me. "Do you think its PAC what do you think we will do to them-" Ford was cut off as 3 ships materialized 2 miles out from them. One large Titan about twice the size of ours came through, followed by 2 other normal Titans. The larger Titan, most likely the flagship brought its loud speakers to life. Dawn Bringers speakers also sparked to life. All of our Titans turned so they were side to side with the PAC threat. I knew this could only end badly. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Princess Celestia's horn began to glow. "I will cast a simple spell so we can all hear what they sound like." She said as her horn began to glow extremely brightly but quickly dimmed. All the ponies in the room could hear the deafening roar that was the glowing beasts. Rainbow Dash looked at Twilight with a confused look in her eyes. "Comon Twilight you have got to know what it is! You know about everything!" Twilight just shook her head and was about to speak when they heard a new noise. A voice. "We found this place first!" The voice boomed. Twilight was stunned. "They could speak Equestrian?" Once again the mysterious voice spoke again. "Therefore we claim this land. We claim this land in the name of the Pan Asian Coalition!" It boomed. Now a new voice spoke up after it gave a small laugh. "Ah ha ha! You can shove your coalition up your ass! Full broadside! Open fire!!!" The ponies turned to the window and peered at the glowing objects again. They watched in awe as hundreds of colorful lights soared across the sky. Twilight looked in horror. "Wait a second-" She watched as the first of the lights came in contact with the 3 olive-green ships. The lights exploded causing the 3 ships to shimmer a bright blue. They all now watched in horror as the largest olive-green ship stopped shimmering and began to become engulfed in fire. Finally after a small explosion it dipped and began to crash. Its crash was interrupted with a massive explosion that sent a massive shockwave in all directions. They watched the shockwave push over trees as it got closer and closer to them. "Everypony get down!" Princess Celestia said as she moved away from the windows. The other ponies complied and ran away from the windows. The windows all shattered and a deafening boom rang through the library. Everything went silent. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I gave a cheer as I watched their flagships reactor exploded. The remaining two Titan's fell with ease. We were about to prepare to go ground side when the navigator received a warning on the monitor. "Captain! Multiple anomaly's are showing up on the radar sir. I estimated 30 PAC Titans are coming sir." This was met with the captains fist slamming on the console. "Damn it! Lt. Harrison! Get your team to that clearing! I want a sitrep upon arrival! Hurry launch the drop ship before their Titans are on top of us!" I threw a salute and gave a quick nod to my team and we boarded the drop ship. I checked the visor. Still snug as ever. I activated the thrusters and took off. I put us to max speed and we sped over the forest. I turned my head to see the PAC Titan's materializing in the distance. Multiple VTOL's took off from the Titan's. "Shit man hurry! I don't feel like getting shot down by those PAC fuckers today!" Too late, a PAC Doragon gunship sped towards us. My lock-on warning began to sound. The ship fired 5 of their 10 air to air missiles. I activated the defense shields. The gunship responded with 5 more missiles. "Damn it! Eject! Eject!" I yelled as I yanked the eject cord. I was slammed into the compact tube and was fired towards the ground. From the drop pods small window I watched three other pods fire out. As the last pod shot away the missiles hit the drop ship destroying it outright. I opened up squad coms. "Fuck that was a close one!" I was met with the nervous voice of Nicholas. "I don't like this! We are barreling down towards the ground of an unknown planet! In the middle of a fucking forest for fuck sakes!" Now Ford spoke up. "Hey maybe it could be okay." He had jinxed us. Our pods crashed down in the middle of a pack of wolves. We drew our weapons. Without hesitation we made quick work of the wolves. Upon closer inspection we noticed the wolves were... Wood. They were wooden wolves. "What the fuck? Is this even possible?" Ford said as he wiped the blood-like sap from his gloves. "Actually nevermind, different dimension yadda ya!" He quickly added. I gave a pat on his back. "Comon, stop inspecting the wolves we have a job to do. Lets get to the clearing." Ford gave a nod to me and the four of us paced ourselves at a light jog for the clearing. As we passed through a small rocky overhang I heard a loud roar. We all turned around to see a massive half lion half scorpion beast stand just meters away. "What the fuck are you waiting for? Kill it!" I brought my rifle up but was cut short from gun fire to my left. The beast grunted in pain and collapsed. I saw Callaghan holding his Bianchi LMG. The barrel had smoke billowing from the sides. "One step ahead of you sir." With a quick laugh I gave him a high five and we continued for the clearing. We moved for about 20 minutes. A hell of a jog through such rough terrain. "Damn that was hell, at least were almost here. I hope its smooth sailing for now on!" Ford said joyfully. Once again Ford had jinxed us as he has many times in the past. We heard a low rumble and watched with confusion as rocks began to fuse together. It seemed to resemble the form of a human. It pounded its fists together and gave a low roar. "Great another thing that wants to kill us." Callaghan said sarcastically. The rock creature turned to Callaghan and began to move towards him. I took aim and fired a burst into the creatures head. It acted as if nothing happened. With that I yelled... "Run!" We ran full speed for the clearing. The creature gave chase and surprisingly kept up with us. We jumped over a bush and had entered the clearing. "Think its still after us-" Callaghan was turning around and was cut off as the creature kicked him in the gut. He went flying about 10 meters in front of us. It began to move in for the killing blow. I could see some kind of colorful horse in the distance but shoved it out of my head for the time being. "Hey pebble dick! Come over here and pick on me instead!" The creature turned as if it understood my insult and began to charge me. "Hey Harrison? I got this." I turned to see Callaghan holding a fucking Pilum H-AVR anti-tank rifle. He went to a knee and the rifles bi-pod shot into the ground. Without hesitation he fired the rifle blowing the rock creature to a heap of gravel. He fell to the ground. I ran over to him. "Hey Nicholas! Help me with him! Grab my med kit for me!" I grabbed my portable x-ray scanner and found out he had multiple ribs broken. He was unconscious and was going to be fine with a few days of bed rest. I got up to confirm this with the rest of my team and noticed the 6 small horse like things and the 2 larger ones standing close by. Was another species trying to kill them now? Tell me what you guys/gals think about this fic in the comments. Any positive/negative feedback would be fine. > Chapter 1: Marching Orders > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I took a good look at the 8 equines that stood just meters from me. Now Nicholas and Ford saw them. They brought their rifles up but stopped short from pulling their triggers as they dropped to the ground unconscious. Judging from the glowing horn like feature on the large white one, it had acted in defense. I brought my hands to the air. "Hey, I'm sorry that we come out as hostiles. Everything in this planet has attempted to kill us so far." I hoped they would understand such as the rock creature did. The purple unicorn nervously spoke up. "What are you? What are you doing here? Why have you committed such acts of violence?!" It said assertively. It had a feminine aspect to it. I could only assume it was female. I was also shocked it could speak English. I shoved that fact aside for now. "We are Humans. We came here in search of resources and a warmer planet. We have only committed these acts in self-defense." I tried to sound as calm as possible hoping to remove hostility. "But you carried this out with such... Precision and speed... Like you did it everyday!" it retorted. "On my world we are known as soldiers. We are trained to fight our enemy's and keep the peace. We are currently at war with an army known as the Pan Asian Coalition or PAC for short." I hoped it would clear things up for them, these creatures seemed to have understanding. Finally the larger white unicorn with wings spoke up. "But why would you be at war? You said you kept the peace." It said. The voice had sounded so caring. Like a mother. "Well, three years ago Earth was struck with a phenomenon known as the ice-age. The planet rapidly cooled. Our government's began to fight over who gets the warmer areas for their nation. It started as a debate but quickly elevated to war" "Where is the peace keeping?" The purple unicorn retorted once again. "I'll get to that but first... What are you?" I said trying to not sound too pushy. "We are ponies. These two are the Princesses." The unicorn pointed a hoof at the large white one. "This is Princess Celestia. The darker one is Princess Luna." I was startled. Princesses? Strange. "Well... PAC had begun to invade peaceful city's. They killed many civilians. Our government was furious. They sent us in response to fight the PAC threat back. As years went on we began to start running out of the precious resources we needed to continue the fight. Both nations scientist's had discovered the secret to cross-dimensional travel. That is how we got here." An orange pony with a blond mane stepped out from the group. "I want ta see yer face so I can know you are tellin tha truth!" It said, once again it had quite the feminine quality to it. "You may not want to see my face. Over the years of fighting it has done a number to me." I hopped they would see understanding in it. "I can't believe you until I see yer face!" It said again. "If you wish to see my face then fine." I said with a sigh. I reached to the back of the visor and clipped the things that held it in place. I slowly removed the visor. I dropped it to the ground. The 8 ponies gasped at the sight. The orange one spoke up again. "I-I... I'm sorry. I didn't know it was so bad..." She backed away a bit with her head facing to the ground. The white Princess moved towards me. "I wish to read your memories. I want to confirm what you just told me. I cannot believe what you have just said without seeing it for myself." As she moved closer I noticed she was about the same size as me. She laid a hoof on my forehead. I felt a weird feeling in my head. For 2 minutes it was completely silent. Finally she drew herself back. "Your world has had 3 world wars? I did not know your planet was so... Dysfunctional..." She said with a worried tone. I replaced my visor. "Now that you know I am not hostile. My friend here needs help. He is injured. While I am a good medic, I can do nothing more to him with my current equipment." I pointed at Callaghan who laid on the grass still unconscious. A bright yellow winged pony moved out from the group. It had a pink mane. It also spoke with a feminine voice. "I- I could take care of him..." She then let out a low sqeak, attempting to avoid eye contact with me. She moved over to Callaghan and started to eye him over. "I can take him to my cottage..." She began to drag him away. With Callaghan dealt with I turned to the Princess. "What about these two? What have you done to them?" I checked their pulses. They seemed to be sleeping. "I only put them to sleep. It should ware off in 2 hours." She said calmly. The orange one spoke up again. "We could put them in ma barn." She and a cyan winged pony grabbed them and dragged them off to a nearby farm. 'And then there was one' I thought to myself. I brought my hand to my intercom and opened a link with command. "Hello can anyone hear me?" I was met with static. Something was jamming the coms. Damn it. "Well I guess I'm stuck with you ponies for now." I began to walk over to the barn. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Field Marshal! We lost 5 Titans in that engagement. We succeeded in taking out 9 of theirs but they seemed to have fallen back to a ground base. Orders sir?" The marshal gave a small chuckle. "Tell the other captains to land their Titan's! Its time we started to fight back! Tell them to prepare their Tigers and power up their battle walkers! Today we are taking the fight to PAC!" The captain gave a salute and began to bark orders over to coms. The Titan's began to land in unison. "Sir, Titans are descending and are almost ready to launch their armor." "Good! Soon we will make PAC regret coming to this world!" He began to laugh as he looked at the destroyed PAC Titan's that littered the forest floor. " Yeah lets make them regret coming here!" some of the soldiers yelled and cheered. Titan's began to touch down on the ground. Tanks and walkers scrambled from their hangers. One surviving PAC soldier attempted to crawl away. A walker spotted him and brought its armored leg down... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I sat in the hay next to my two unconscious friends waiting for them to wake up. I had been talking with the two ponies. They told me much about themselves. The one called 'Applejack' seemed to have a Texas accent. She seemed to be an apple farmer in this village. The other, named 'Rainbow Dash' seemed to have a tom boyish attitude. If I didn't know any better I believe she took a liking to me. "Ugh... What happened..." I turned to see Ford rubbing his forehead. He could see me now. "Harrison? What happened... Ugh, this headache kills..." I gave a laugh. "Your fault! If you hadn't of raised your rifle, the Princess would have never done that to you!" I gave him a shove. Now Nicholas was up. "Princess? What? What the hell are you talking about man?" With I sigh I began to explain to them the current events that unfolded. For most of the conversation they just sat there, not believing what they were hearing. I told them how the Princess only had but them to sleep in self-defense and how they were a peaceful species. Finally I finished up. Ford stood up. "But wait... Where the hell is Callaghan?!" He ripped out his rifle. I put my hand on the barrel and motioned it downwards. "Don't worry. He is in good hands. From what I've been told, the one named Fluttershy was taking care of him. They told me she was very caring. We can go check on him if you would like." With that Nicholas stood up as well. "Lets go see him then!" I gave Nicholas a pat on the back and motioned them towards the cottage. Behind the bushes Rarity and Twilight subtly spied on them, trying to learn even more about them. "I wonder what kind of stuff they eat here. Do they have cars? Do they wear clothing? How are there reactions to us?" Nicholas threw a punch to Ford's shoulder. "Shut up man! Why do you gotta ask so much questions? The better question is when are we gonna get the new camo for our armor? And hopefully the new armor looks much nicer than this!" I gave a small chuckle "Ok calm down, were here. Lets knock on the door." I moved towards the door. The door seemed to be a foot smaller than me. I lightly knocked on the door hoping I wouldn't scare her. From what I heard she was also very shy. "Hello? Fluttershy? Were here to check on Callaghan." Once again I tried to sound as calm as possible. I heard a lock click and the door slowly opened. "He- Hello. Your friend is much better. Twilight was able to use some of her magic to speed up the healing process." I was startled. Healing magic? That must mean what ever that Princess did it was some sort of magic that put them to sleep. "Magic? Awesome! Do you have any books or anything like that on magic? I would enjoy reading some." Ford tended to get quite excited when he learned about new things... Fluttershy was startled at the amount of attention she was getting and back up a little bit. "Ugh... I- I think Twi-" She was cut off by Twilight as she moved up from behind them. "I have some books on it in my library. And hey, I can use magic too." Ford turned around to see a purple unicorn. A white unicorn also followed. He had a curious look in his eye. "Can you do something right now? Hmmm, can you levitate me?" Twilight tilted her head and then gave a nod. She lowered her head and her horn began to glow. Ford began to lift off the ground. As fast as it happened he set down on the ground once again. I have to admit, even I was shocked. "Wow! Ok, lets go to this library of yours!" He began to follow her with a hop in his stride. Nicholas wiped off some of the dirt on his neck. He cringed at a tear in his collar. "Don't think you have a needle and thread at this library? I hate when my suit is ripped." Now the one known as Rarity spoke up. "Now darling. I can fix that for you at the boutique. Come follow me." Nicholas quickly glaced at me and gave a shrug. He followed the White unicorn back to the town. I turned to face Fluttershy again. She seemed relieved that most of the attention had been averted. "Now... About Callaghan." She nodded and moved aside. "Ugh, you can come in. Careful." She said with a small sky squeak. I slid inside the room. My head was just an inch from the ceiling. I saw Callaghan petting a bunny that stood nearby. The bunny slapped his hand away. "Hey comon now! I just wanted to pet your furry little head!" He joyfully reached for the bunny again. The bunny dodged his hand and stuck his tongue out at him in defiance. It then moved into another room. "Don't mind angle, he can be like that sometimes." Fluttershy seemed to be cured of her shyness around Callaghan. "Ah! Harrison! Your here!" I took a seat on a nearby chair. "Yep, how have you been doing? I heard Twilight, the purple unicorn fixed you up pretty good?" I relaxed in the chair. "Yeah, I feel good as new. Fluttershy also helped with my recovery. I don't think I could have pulled through that state of unconsciousness without her." I gave him a confused look. "What do you mean?" I asked curiously. He pulled up farther in his chair. "I could hear her voice in my head. She spoke softly to me like 'Its going to be alright, just rest.' and stuff like that. It gave me the will power to wake up." He said as he took a sip of some beverage Fluttershy made him. "And she makes some damn good tea!" Fluttershy shyly nodded. "Th- Thank you. It was the least I could do after you told me all those stories of you backed when you worked for an animal shelter." Memories filled my head. I remembered dropping Callaghan off at the shelter some days. Everyday the dogs would scramble around him like they hadn't seen him in years. He was quite the animal person. After a long chat I was about to speak again when my intercom sparked to life. "...Prepare to open... The PAC position... Fire the... And send..." Once again static filled the speaker. I figured I had to find away to get back in contact with the Field Marshal. "Thanks for the tea Fluttershy but I really must go. Callaghan... Enjoy yourself ok? You deserve a break." Callaghan gave a nod and continued to chat with Fluttershy. As I left the cottage I narrowly avoided a flying creature who crashed down next to me. "My bad." The grey pegasus said as it took off again. Rainbow Dash landed next to me. "Don't mind Derpy. Be lucky she didn't pull what she pulled at the town hall..." She said as she watched the grey pegasus fly away. "So your part of the weather team correct? Is that how weather is controlled here? You do it manually?" She turned to me with a confused face. "Yeah, don't you humans use your big 'Titan' things to move the clouds around and stuff?" I shook my head. "Nope, in my world the clouds rain, snow and move themselves." I was met with a larger look of confusion. "Weird, but I have something to ask you. Can you help me with something?" She kicked the dirt on the ground. "What do you need?" I had nothing better to do, and until I could find a way to communicate why not? "Well... I had dinner reservations for 2 but since Fluttershy is occupied..." Was she trying to pull a move on me? I didn't care, if it was anything better than military rations then I'll do anything. "Well I guess I can help with that, lets go." With a look of success on her face she did a flip in the air and landed on the ground. "Yes!... I mean ugh... Lets go." She said. We moved towards the town. She seemed to skip occasionally. What have I gotten myself into? > Chapter 2: Introductions > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I continued to follow the joy filled pegasus as she skipped down the street. I began to observe the area. It looked like a late 1700's type town, with a few exceptions. We finally arrived at a large building. I waited by a fence post. Was I ever hungry. "Our table is over here." She pushed me forward with her wing. Finally I was going to get some real food! I took a seat at the table. My happiness began to fade as I saw the menu. No meat? No! I saw something else that caught my attention. A simple pasta meal with tomato sauce would have to do, better than the unknown crap in the ration packs. I closed my menu as the familiar grey pegasus trotted over to our table. "Hey Rainbow Dash!!" Rainbow Dash turned to her. "Hey Derpy, I'll get the hay sandwich." 'Derpy' gave a joyfully nod and looked at me. "Oh! Ugh, I'll have the spaghetti." She joyfully nodded and walked in the opposite direction of the kitchen. She corrected herself and entered the kitchen. I ran the scenario of her cooking our meals and accidentally adding rat poison or something. The thought slightly disturbed me. "So what do you humans usually eat on a hot summer day?" Rainbow Dash's head tilted in curiosity. "Oh we usually have hamburgers and hotdogs back when the world wasn't freezing and all." She dropped her head slightly. "Oh right... Ice age... Forgot. And hamburgers and hotdogs? What are those?" I was about to respond when it hit me. All the ponies here are herbivores. Well I got myself into an awkward situation. "Oh there nothing... So ugh... Hows the weather?" I tried to change the subject. "The weather is good... Your trying to hide something. What is it?" I sighed. "Do you truly want to know?" I asked. She gave a quick nod. Once again I sighed. "We humans are omnivores, that means we eat vegetables like you. But... We also eat meat." She drew back in her chair a bit. "So what? Are you going to eat me or something?" I gave a laugh. "No no. We do not eat anything that has a lot of intelligence. We did not eat dogs, cats or dolphins that kind of thing. Besides, you ponies are sentient. That is a major difference." She now eased up. Derpy arrived with the food. "Thank you, Derpy." She nodded at my compliment. "No problem!" She said as she barreled into another family of ponies table. I tried to hold back the laugh but failed and totally lost it. Rainbow Dash also burst into laughter. I finally settled down and began to dig in. It tasted amazing, better than anything I had ever eaten in my life. Then again I haven't eaten anything but rations for the past 7 years and have totally forgotten what real food tasted like. "This is amazing!" I said as I shoveled another load of pasta into my mouth. "Glad you like it, but its just pasta! You act like you haven't eaten anything in years!" I chuckled. Maybe when I get back I can let her try one of the rations. "You wouldn't believe the shit I had to eat in the marines. This stuff is the best stuff I've eaten in years!" Some families drew back in recoil from hearing me curse so openly. "Excuse my language." I blurted out. I finished off my meal and Rainbow Dash payed for the dinner. "Thanks but I wish I had money here, I would have payed for the meal otherwise." She shook her head. "Its fine, not like I have anything to spend my money on anyways." We left the restaurant. I wiped some sauce off my suit and inspected the rest of my armor. Clean. "Lets go find the rest of my team." She nodded and we walked towards the library. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Sir! Ground forces are ready to attack the base sir. It seems PAC doesn't know were here. We still have the element of surprise." The captain got ready to begin barking orders. "Good, I want this base captured. I do not care what we do with the survivors, just take that base!" The marshal yelled to the captain. The captain was disgusted with the marshal's value for human life but gave the command anyway. "All forces attack!" The marshal laughed as he saw the explosions lighting up the darkening sky. The captain tapped into an under mounted cannon's camera to get a better look on the massacre. He watched as EU forces slaughtered the surprised PAC soldiers. Many of them scrambled for their vehicles but were killed swiftly by gunfire. He watched as one PAC soldier managed to jump on a EU command walker. He ripped the hatch open and hijacked the walker. He quickly made a break for the forest. "Rogue walker!" He yelled as he pointed at the escaping walker. The marshal shrugged it off. "Hes abandoning his men, thats considered betrayal to them. Let him go, betraying his nation is enough." With that the marshal continued to laugh at the massacre that was the PAC base. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We arrived at the library it seemed both Ford and Nicholas was there. Ford seemed to have his head buried in the countless books while Nicholas was having a chat with the one named Rarity. Their heads turned as we entered the doorway. "Oh hey Harrison. I got my suit fixed, no thanks to her." He continued to marvel at the repair work. "Oh darling, it was nothing!" Ford looked up from his book. "Oh hey L.T. Just reading about the history here. Its quite fascinating, it seems ever since the downfall of the one named 'Discord' they have lived in peace and harmony. Humanity could learn from these ponies." Nicholas gave a laugh. "Aww but I like the old ways. A little explosives here, a dab over there." I shot Nicholas a look. What is he doing? Trying to scare them? He seemed to get the message and silenced himself. Twilight began to speak. "Well how has everypony and every... Human been doing? What have you two been doing?" She looked at Rainbow Dash and then me. "Oh just got a bite to eat." Rainbow Dash seemed to lower her head in disappointment at my words. I guess she had thought I didn't think much of her. Hopefully I could make it up to her later. Besides we had a lot in common. Ford and Nicholas perked up. "Eat? You had something other than rations? You lucky bastard! Were can I get some chow?" Nicholas seemed to jump with joy. Twilight spoke again. "Calm down, Fluttershy invited us over for something to eat. She said she prepared a meal for us with the help of your friend." Nicholas became even more excited. I think I knew why. Callaghan had been a head chef before he enlisted with me. "Score!" Nicholas yelled out as he bolted for the door. We all laughed as we followed. Nicholas was out of sight when I heard a tree collapse. "Get down!" I tried to say as quietly as possible. The five of us dropped behind some tall grass. I looked in the treeline. I couldn't see anything but the overgrow of bushes by the forest edge. "What do you think it is? It can't be an ursa, we would be able to see it. I don't know of anything else that could topple a tree." Twilight continued to peer over at the forest. Ford tapped my shoulder. "Can you hear that? It sounds like a walker. Damn it, I wish Callaghan was here with his tank rifle..." I continued to watch the treeline. Finally, a large white walker broke through the trees. "Its one of ours!" Ford jumped up and wave at it. It aimed its weapons at Ford. "Shit! Get to cover!" I shoved Ford behind a nearby building. The rest of us quickly followed. The walker's guns began spin. "Shit shit shit!" I turned to Twilight. "Think you could distract it?" Twilight nodded her head. "Good, I want you to divert his attention to the building over there." I pointed to a building that was directly behind the advancing walker. "Ok, but what are you going to do?" I chuckled a bit. "Taking back whats ours." I ran around the building. Twilight used her magic to topple some barrels over causing the walker to shift itself to aim at the sound. I quickly bolted to it. The walker once again turned itself towards to where Ford and the ponies were hidden. I Jumped on the leg and began to scale up the walker. Its barrels began to spin and it took aim at the building. "Hey asshole? Guess who?" I flung onto the top of the walker. It frantically spun around to shake me. I ripped the hatch open to see the surprised PAC soldier looking up at me. I grabbed him and with all my strength threw him off the walker. He fell to the ground with a *Crack*. I quickly shut down the engines and lowered the walker to the ground. "Ugh! You EU bastards! You will die for this! You capitalist pig dogs!" The PAC soldier had an extreme Russian accent. I hoped down from the walker. "Come here! Twilight? Think you can put this one to sleep?" As she trotted over she lowered her head and her horn glowed. The PAC soldier stopped moving. "Thank you. Ford? Help me subdue this one." Ford jogged over and pulled out some rope. With a simple hogtie we tied him up. "That sleeping spell lasts for a few hours right?" Ford said as he checked the rope. Twilight nodded. "Good, then we can eat and question him later." I shrugged. "Me and Rainbow Dash already ate. You go, me and Rainbow Dash will bring him back to the library. I also want to check this walker out." With that Ford gave a slight nod and continued towards the cottage. I slung the PAC soldier over my shoulder and began to walk towards the library. I just began to notice the large crowd that started to form. "Ugh... nothing to see here." The crowd gasped. I turned to see one of the Princesses, the smaller black one land with a few guard like escorts. She turned to me and nodded her head. The guards began to call out the the pony crowd. "Nothing to see here! Continue on with normal business!" I was grateful for the Princess, I didn't like dealing with crowds in Earth either. "Thanks." I discretely said as I passed the Princess. I placed the sleeping soldier against the wall of the library. I turned to Rainbow Dash. "Well you have been quite the quiet one." She seemed to be in awe. "You just... How did you..." She continued to stumble over her words. I began to laugh. "Same shit, different day." I said and patted her on the head. I am quite the bad-ass aren't I? I walked up the walker and closely observed it. It had a large speaker on each side for relaying orders in the heat of a battle. Other than that it had a few more antenna's than the usually walker. "What is it?" She flew around the walker trying to get a better view. "Its one of our L5 Riesig Battlewalkers. They are quite the show stopper. This one has speakers, maybe I can play some music on it!" I grabbed the small usb stick I kept in my helmet that I used to hid my favorite tunes. I climbed up the walker and slid into the interior. It was large enough to hold 3 people in here, yet only 2 seats. One for controlling the walker and firing the under mounted gatling's and one for a gunner. "What do you mean play music on it? Is it some kind of instrument?" I laughed. "Oh yeah you can't record music, hear listen to some of the classics!" I plugged the usb in the port. I decided to play some good ol' ACDC. She seemed to enjoy it as she landed and began to lightly head bang. "Yeah! This is awesome! Much better than the stuff we have!" I gave a laugh and continued to check out the communications on the walker. I tried to contact command again. "This is LT.Harrison of the EU marines do you copy? Over." I was met with static. Something in the forest was jamming the signal, damn it. I crawled out of the walker making sure to remove my usb. "Hey! Why did you stop the music!" She flew up and landed next to me. "I can't seem to get a signal through that-" I was cut off by a huge *Boom*. We both looked towards the forest to see a large mushroom cloud rising in the distance. "Holy shit..." I quickly looked away from the blinding sight. "This is very bad." I jumped down from the walker and sprinted off towards the cottage. Rainbow Dash recovered from the sight of the large explosion and quickly followed. > Chapter 3: Under The Shadow Of The Iron Sky > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10 Minutes Before The Explosion. "Sir our forces are sweeping the base for any survivors. We suffered only minor casualties." The marshal stood up from his chair. "Good, I want our men to secure the area. I also want some communication towers set up immediately." The marshal looked down through the observing platform. The captain also watched the ground below. The first thing that caught his eye was a PAC soldier trying to crawl away from the scene with his crippled legs. An EU soldier simply walked up to him and put a bullet through his head. The captain cringed at the sight. Suddenly the navigators console pinged rapidly. "Sir! Incoming anomalies to our right! Possible PAC Titans!" The marshal turned his head to the right view port. A large portal opened and three PAC Titans came through at an amazing speed. The navigator continued to watch the console. "Ugh sir! The enemy Titans seem to be coming towards us at ramming speed sir!" The captain shook the marshal "ORDERS SIR!" The captain stared into the horrified marshal's eyes. The marshal ripped away and calmly sat down on his chair. His eyes filled with rage. He grabbed the special microphone that was used to speak to Earth. He calmly spoke into the microphone. "This is Field Marshal Logan signing off. My final order consists of this and only this... Send. Everything." He crushed the microphone and he eased up and watched as the Titan's neared the flagship. The captain swung to the waiting crew members. "Fire full broadside! Destroy them damn it!" The flagship fired all its weapons at the incoming Titans. The left most Titan began to succumb to the broadside barrage and exploded in a massive fireball as it crashed towards the ground. The ships AI's monotone voice rang through the ship. "Ten seconds to impact." The captain felt time slowdown. "Six seconds to impact." He watched people run away from the right side of the ship attempting to stay away from the impact zone. "Four seconds to impact." By now people were on the ground praying for their lives. "One second to impact." He closed his eyes. He felt like he was hit by a car. His eyes flung open as he flew to the ground. He saw a pipe rip through the wall spewing fire on his fellow crew members. He saw the marshal screaming as he rolled on the ground attempting to put out the fire that engulfed him. Finally he watched as the second Titan soared for the bridge, meters from where he lay sprawled out across the deck. The Titan drew closer and closer. "I'll see you in hell." He whispered as the Titan neared the bridge. He shut his eyes and everything went numb, seconds later the pain left him... The Titan impacted with the bridge section of the Dawn Bringer. The massive flagship shifted its weight to the left causing it to begin to topple over. Once again the monotone voice just barely audible from all the explosions rang through the ship. "Reac-ZZZZzZZz- Core 3 is critical. Reactor C-zzzZ- 2 is critical Reactor-ZZZZZZ-" The AI shut down. The cores simultaniously detonated. The master core's shield was unable to keep out the explosions causing the core to explode. The Dawn Bringer exploded, taking everything within a 2 mile radius with it. Three EU Titan's managed to escape the blast radius and continued to fly their separate ways. One flew straight towards the location they lost contact with the dropship. The other two were not so lucky... A massive portal opened up 5 miles from the base much deeper in the forest. Hundreds of PAC Titans came through. Two of the surviving EU Titans were annihilated. The remaining Titan's captain hoped for the best and activated cloaking systems. It flew towards the forest edge. The PAC Titan's seemed to block out the sun from the distant sunset. "So this is what its like to be in the shadow of the iron sky." Brian sat back into his chair and closed his eyes. He hoped this was just a nightmare. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I continued to run to the cottage. I quickly dodged ponies that seemed to sit there staring at the explosion with a mix of awe and fear. I finally spotted the cottage. I sucked in a large ammount of air and doubled my speed. I accidentally clipped a tree, and to my surprise the tree seemed to splinter and collapse. I shook it off as I ripped to door of the cottage open. The 3 ponies and my three squad members darted their heads at me. "Whats wrong?" Callaghan shot. "Thought you would miss my cooking?" He silently chuckled. "This is very bad. No one here noticed the big ass explosion outside?" Fluttershy covered her bunny's ears. He ripped himself out of her grasp and stuck its tongue out at her. 'What explosion? What happened?" Ford began to get up now. I pointed outside. He ran to the doorway. "Holy shit! Is that what I think it is?" Now Twilight and Rarity scrambled to the door. Callaghan with the help of Nicholas limped over to the door. The ponies looked with awe while Callaghan, Nicholas and Ford looked with terror. "It most certainly is! Only one thing can make that size of an explosion without leaving a massive cloud of fallout. That had to be caused by the Dawn Bringer's super reactor!" Ford continued to stare at the cloud with terror. "But... But how did PAC destroy Dawn Bringer! If PAC destroyed Dawn Bringer then... My god..." Ford fell to the ground. Callaghan stood by himself now and helped Nicholas drag Ford's unconscious body into the room. I fell silent. Callaghan spoke out. "But wait, Harrison your brother... Oh shit man..." I clenched my fists in rage, my eyes went bloodshot. I turned to the explosion. "I... I am going to kill every fucking one of those waste of space pieces of shit." I stomped off towards the library. "But first, I have one already." Callaghan tried to limp after me. We were half way to the library when he shouted to me. "Nicholas told me about the guy you captured! You can't do this to him!" I gave a laugh. "Ha! But I can." I now saw the library. "Comon Harrison just think about it for a second!" I picked up my pace as I neared the door. "I already have thought about it." I kicked the door down revealing the startled and very awake PAC soldier. "Ugh, I didn't mean what I said earlier!" I laughed. I picked him up holding him by the throat. "The hell you didn't" I threw him outside onto the dirt. He scrambled trying to get to his feet. I walked up to him and slammed my boot into his chest. I felt some of his ribs crack. He flew into the air and then slammed into the ground. "Please don't kill me!" He painfully muscled out. Once again I picked him up. This time I threw him into the nearby wall of a building. The impact caused the wall to warp inwards. I drew my P33 revolver. "Please! Please don't!" He yelled. I laughed. "Ever wonder if there is such thing as the afterlife? Well I guess you're going to find out." I began to pull my trigger as something slammed into me. "Stop!" I was thrown to the ground. The round dispersed and landed just an inch from the soldier's head. He fainted. I looked to see who knocked me over. It was Rainbow Dash. I snapped out of my blood rage. I dropped the revolver and stood up. I inspected the fainted PAC soldier. Other than a few broken ribs he would be fine. "I'm sorry, I wanted those bastards to pay." She stood there staring daggers into me. "What made you get so mad?" She blurted out. I dropped my head in silence. My brother was serving on the Dawn Bringer. Since it was a secret at the time I couldn't tell anybody I knew, not even Callaghan. "My Brother was on the Dawn Bringer." I said calmly. She tilted her head in confusion. "So what point are you getting at?" I shook my head. "Didn't you hear me back there? The Dawn Bringer has been destroyed. My Brother is now dead. That means now my entire family is dead. Get it now? I'm the last Harrison of my line. EVERY SINGLE PERSON I HAVE EVER LOVED IS DEAD!" I slammed my foot into the wall next to the fainted soldier. She seemed to lower her head in regret. "I'm... I'm sorry, I didn't know..." She moved away from me. I was confused of why. "But what about me?" She asked. Then it hit me, shit... "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that." She continued to back away. After a few steps back she took off in the sky and flew up to her house in the clouds. 'Damn it' I thought. My thoughts were interrupted by a loud roar. I looked up in the sky to see a sight I thought I would never see again. It was 'Legacy'. I stared at the Titan with disbelief. Was our Titan here? My intercom sparked to life. "This is Captain Brian of the HMS Legacy. Does anyone come in? Over." It was Legacy! I spoke into the intercom. "This is First Lieutenant Harrison of the EU marines. Good to hear you Captain." I heard a gasp over the intercom. Not only by the captain, but by the entire crew that heard me. "Holy shit! Harrison? We all thought you were killed by that gunship! I'll send a dropship down right away!" With that I happily nodded to myself. "Good to hear, I'll be down here. Also, a tip. Hold your fire." With that Ford, Nicholas ran over. Callaghan limped over. Callaghan seemed to be glad I didn't kill that soldier. He had a huge smile over his face. "My god! Legacy is here! I never thought I'd see her again!" Callaghan just stared at the Titan with a warm smile. Twilight and Rarity trotted over. Fluttershy must have stayed back in the cottage still scared from my sudden outrage. "Be careful, stay behind me. The Captain may think of you as a threat, I need to speak with him." They gladly nodded and trotted behind Ford and Nicholas. The dropship flew out of the barrier and descended to the ground. With a satisfying *Thump* the dropship's doors slid open. Brian left the doors with a warm smile and it changed to a frown as he unholstered his revolver. "Harrison! Behind you!" His gun was at the ready. "Its ok Brian. They're friendlies. They are some of the inhabitants of this world." At first he continued to be ready to fire but after about ten seconds he finally realizing what I said. He nodded and holstered his revolver. "What are they?" He ask as he curiously studied Rarity and Twilight. "They are ponies. They are also sentient and are capable of speech. The best part is they speak English." The Captain was still eying them over. "Speak pony." Twilight moved out from behind Ford. "Ugh... Hello? My name is Twilight Sparkle." Brian moved back, amazed that she spoke. He dropped back into his leader-like stance. He extended an arm. "I am Captain Brian of the EU Navy." She shook his hand with her hoof. "Good to meet you Captain Brian." She moved back but not too much to show that she was afraid. "Now, Harrison. What have you been doing since the crash?" I laughed. "Well its a long story. Come I'll explain it." With that, the majestic white Princess landed close by. "Oh and this is Princess Celestia." He looked at her with awe. "Nice to meet you Brian." He stumbled over his words. "Ugh nice to meet you... Princess?" We moved to the library and I told Brian all that had happened since the crash. The encounter with the wooden wolves, the half lion half scorpion creature and the attacking rock monster. And finally the PAC soldier who arrived in the EU command walker. He was amazed we have survived that long. "Well Harrison, it sounds like you have been through hell and back." I laughed. "I just need to know, what happened? You know, with Dawn Bringer." Brian lowered his head. "PAC Titans rammed the Dawn Bringer. After the reactor detonation ten more of our Titans fell. Only three survived. After that I was on one side of the base and two others were on the other side. A massive armada of PAC Titans arrived and destroyed the two other Titans. We're the last one left." I sat there in disbelief. How could this be happening? "Thank you, I just hope my brother died gloriously." I gave a salute to Brian. He respectively threw one back and continued to speak with the Princess. Before I left I had to ask Brian one more thing. "Think I could borrow a Talon?" Brian was caught off guard by this. "Ugh, just ask the pilot to send you up to retrieve it." I smiled and gave another salute and left the library. I found Twilight first. She was speaking to Ford outside just meters away from the library. I called out to her. "Hey ugh, Twilight? Can I speak to you for a moment?" She nodded and moved away from Ford. "What do you need?" She asked curiously. "So whats the deal with walking on clouds? Can anyone do it?" She shook her head. "No, only pegasai can do it. BUT, I can place a spell on you that will allow you to stand on the clouds. I don't know how long it will work for humans though." This put a smile on my face. I nodded my head. "Do it." She nodded and lowered her head. Her horn glowed bright and a strange purple light enveloped me. This went on for about ten seconds and it dispersed. She was extremely surprised. "Something is wrong. It is much more powerful on humans." I tilted my head with curiosity. "What do you mean?" I waited eagerly for a reply. "Well it seems that instead of the normal three days it will last on you for a week, maybe even two." I was amazed, even three days would be fine. She continued to speak. "I might even be able to make it permanent later." I was amazed. Ford overheard what she said. "What?! You mean Harrison could walk on the clouds permanently? That's amazing! I wish we humans had this magic." I turned away from them and jogged to the dropship. "Thanks Twilight! I owe you one!" I turned my head to see Twilight and Ford speaking again, totally oblivious to what I had just said. 'Couple of bookworms' I thought then let out a laugh. I hurried up to the Pilot. He looked at me with a warm smile. "Welcome back Harrison, good to see you." I gave him a salute and slid into the dropship. "Take me up to the Titan, a talon is calling my name!" With a laugh the pilot engaged the thrusters. We lifted off the ground. I finally got to take a look at the town from a birds eye view. It looked beautiful. Multi-colored ponies everywhere walked the streets of the calm town. We neared the docking bay. "Preparing to land, enjoy yourself Harrison" With that the dropship hovered over the landing pad. I shot him a salute and hopped out onto the pad. The dropship left the bay and went back down towards the ground. I marveled at the sight of the talon. "Never thought I would get to see you again." I said cheerfully as I climbed into the cockpit. I engaged the thrusters and hovered out of the bay. As I got a safe distance from the Titan I went into full flight mode. I could move at amazing speeds in this world. I decided to do a few loops for fun sake. I neared Rainbow Dash's amazing house in the sky and brought the ship to a hover. As I brought the ship down to the clouds I had expected I would have had to kept it in hover. That was not the case. The talon seemed to easily rest on the cloud like a big cushion. I hopped out of the talon half expecting to fall through the clouds. Instead I seemed to bounce for a second before settling. With a smile I bounced my way towards the door. As I neared the house the door swung open revealing a startled pegasus. "How- How did you... What?" I laughed and continued to bounce towards the house. "What? I like the sky too!" I said sarcastically. I finally came to a complete stop meters away from her. "Look, I came to apologize. I didn't think you felt anything for me, I mean I'm a human and your a pony! How was I suppose to know?!" She began to laugh. "Its ok, I should have let you speak." I was surprised. Much easier than I thought this was going to be. "Well that was easy. I thought I was going to have to convince you otherwise. Come on! I want you to meet the Captain of the Titan that's here. I hope you were able to notice the massive warship that entered this air space!" I gave a laugh. She nodded. "Ok lets go." I ran and hopped into the talon. I took it into a hover and moved towards the ground. I set it down in the grass and once again hopped out. She flew down after me and we entered the library. The Princess and Brian turned to see who entered. "Hey Brian? I'd like you to meet Rainbow Dash." He extended an arm. She happily shook it. "Nice to meet you." He said as he turned again to the Princess. I turned to Rainbow Dash and shrugged. We left the library. "Well that was awkward" She said with a laugh. I also laughed. "I have never seen Brian so engaged in a convorsation since... Ever!" I continued to laugh. My laughing was cut short by the sound of a large *Boom*. I turned to the location from which the sound came from. It was another portal. Brian and the Princess ran out of the library. "What was that Harrison!" Brian grabbed my shoulder. I shrugged it off. "I don't know, more PAC?" He shook his head. "I don't think so, back at the base it looked like the entire PAC armada was there. No way they have anymore." I continued to stare at the dark-purple portal. White EU Titans poured through by the hundreds. "Holy shit." I thought the same thing. "My god, thats the entire EU navy! Command must really want this place if this is happening!" Ford yelled as he and Twilight motioned over. Nicholas and Rarity also came over. "Hey don't forget about me!" Callaghan yelled as Fluttershy helped him move towards the now growing crowd. We watched as almost immediately the Titans opened fire. They all fired at the now uncloaking PAC force. "Get communications up! I need to speak with whoever is in charge with that fleet!" Brian yelled as he hopped into the dropship. The pilot quickly took off and sped for the docking bay. Every thing else on the ground watched the battle with awe and a mix of terror. This was a full fledged strike on Equestria. > Chapter 4: Assaulting A Titan > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile on board A PAC flagship... "Comrades we shall wipe this EU eyesore out of our new land! Soon comrades, we land on this planet an take what is ours! For you! For me! For Mother Russia!" The PAC soldiers gave a cheer and ran to their stations. The major general continued to observe the stain that was the communication base. A sargent ran into the bridge with a salute. "What is it sargent?" The sargent dropped his salute and spoke. "Major General! We have captured one of the many creatures that live here, It seems to be sentient sir." The major general turned to speak with this sargent eye to eye now. "What?! How could this be? Bring him to me at once." The sargent saluted again. "I knew you would want to speak with him sir, I am one step ahead of you. Bring it in!" With that two soldiers walked into the bridge with a chained up half lion half eagle creature. "Here it is sir." "What the hell is that? Speak worm." The creature spoke up with a grunt. "I am a gryphon! Not a worm!" It cried in a feminine voice. The major general gave a smirk. "What is your government like? What is your home country!" The gryphon seemed to take a deep breath and spoke. "We are lead by our Emperor. Our home country is Gryphony." One of the soldiers was now eying the gryphon with curiosity now. "Gryphony? Doesn't that sound like, I don't know Germany?" The Gryphon looked at the soldier now. "What? Germany? I have no Idea what you things are talking about, and why do you sound like your from Stalliongrad?" Now the Major General was staring at the Gryphon with great interest. "What was that? Did you say Stalliongrad? That sounds like Stalingrad! These creatures mock Russia! Where is this Stalliongrad?" The Gryphon gave a sigh. One of the soldiers pulled up a holographic scan of the area. The Gryphon pointed at a location that vividly resembled Europe. "There, happy?" The major general gave a laugh. "Once we are done with these EU fools we will make these creatures regret mocking the homeland! Throw this 'Thing' in a cell." The soldiers gave a salute and one slammed the butt of his rifle into the head of the Gryphon knocking it out. They dragged it out of the bridge. The major general continued to watch the clash of Titan VS Titan combat in the distance... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Hello?! This is Captain Brian of the Legacy! Do you copy? Over." More ships began to bellow from each portal. Strange new EU ships began to come through. They looked slightly smaller than a Titan but still kept the distinct look. They began to land and it looked like massive metal ramps extended, they must be troop carriers of some sort. "Ca- Captain Brian? Your ship 'Legacy' has been MIA for 7 months!" Brian was shocked. It had only been 2 days since they went through the portal. "What are you talking about! Its only been 2 days!" Ford began to jog up to us. "There may be some time distortion between our dimensions." Brian shrugged and waited for a reply. "What are you talking about? We received an order from Field Marshal Logan to send all forces, so we have been mass producing ships to bring in our ground forces. We received that order 4 months ago!" We were all startled by this. 7 Months? What has happened in the mean time? "Who is in command then?" Now a new person responded into the coms. "I am. I am Fleet Admiral Duncan. It is good to hear that at least one Titan survived. Earth's situation has gone to hell. PAC forces have once again begun to develop nuclear weapons. They decieded to nuke the remnants of the United States... It wiped out half of North America." Nicholas now was more shocked than ever. "What?! How is this possible? Half of North America? What the fuck!" Ford tried to calm Nicholas down. He simply swatted him away and began to breath deeply. "Admiral, I recommend you disengage. According to an inside source there is a large desert close to your position. Set up camp there, it is probably the only flat area for miles. I'll send you the coordinates now." There was a long pause, followed by a ping. "What have I got to lose? Men! Fall back! Head to the coordinates I have sent you." With that we could see the metal ramps fold back up and the large carriers lifted back off. The Titan's did a 180 and flew towards the Desert. "I will speak to you again once we are set up Captain. Over and out." By now the Titan's were flying to far to see. Brian gave a sigh. "Damn, 7 months." He slowly walked over to the dropship and leaned off the hull. "I can't believe it." I began to walk over when a low rumble began to echo across the town. We all looked towards the source. The PAC Titan formation was going deeper into the forest, except one... One Titan began to fly towards our location. Brian grabbed the coms once again. "Cloak the ship! Hopefully their Titan couldn't see ours through the high rising trees." The Titan immediately began to blend in with the surroundings. Twilight stared at it with awe. "How does it do that?" Ford gave a chuckle. "Its the stealth drive, its hard to explain how it works. I will tell you later, but for now you all need to find shelter. This Titan most likely isn't coming here for negotiations." Brian nodded "We will ambush their Titan, we will take its shields down and capture the ship." With that Ford, Nicholas, Callaghan and me saluted. "I will pilot the UD-6 and destroy their broadside guns. Once their down drop their shields, that way the dropship can get Callaghan, Nicholas and Ford inside. Once their in I will land and enter too. Get the dropship to double back and pick up more troops to storm the insides. Remember, take it alive. Do not destroy the reactor." I quickly ran to the UD-6. Callaghan, Nicholas and Ford climbed into the shepard. Rainbow Dash quickly trotted over as the cockpit hatch closed. "Be careful." I gave a salute. "Don't worry, I'm always careful." The cockpit sealed and I flew behind some trees and waited... It felt like hours in there. Finally the Titan neared the Trap. I primed the rockets. 'Soon' I thought. The incoming Titan looked menacing. I switched on the US-6's com system. "Ready?" Brian replied in a whisper. "Ready." I brought thrusters to full speed. I charged towards the Titan. It stopped and I could see its AA turrets come online. I quickly put a missile into each AA turret as quickly as I could. I swung along the side of the Titan that faced Legacy and put 3 missiles into each broadside cannon. The two twin cannons exploded causing the shield to ripple. "Cannons down! Open fire!" The Titan uncloaked and fired its broadside cannons. Four supercharged shells flew straight and true for the aft sections of the Titan. The first three shells detonated on the shields. The fourth hit one of the under mounted guns causing it to rain on the houses below. Damn it. "Preparing to fire second salvo! Get that shepard in the air!" I continued to circle the Titan waiting for the shields to drop. "Fire!" The broadside guns rang out againg and another four shells soared towards the Titan. The first two shells slammed against the shields and the shields dropped. The last two Slammed into the Cargo sections blowing a hole into the Titan. I made my move and fired my rigged auto cannon into the hole hoping to drop as many PAC soldiers as possible with minimal damage. "Fire the drop pods in the cargo bay!" I yelled into the com. The shepard replied with flying over the Cargo platform and fired 4 tubes. Callaghan, Ford, Nicholas and some unknown soldier were revealed as the tubes cracked open. A squad of 5 PAC soldiers ran to meet this threat. I simply wiped them out with a precision missile. I quickly made my way to the cargo bay and set down. "Welcome aboard Harrison!" Callaghan yelled as he opened fire on two more PAC soldiers, killing them with ease. "Good to be here! Lets do this!" I pulled out my SCAR 11 and opened fire on what felt like endless waves of PAC soldiers. With a few good placed shots the PAC soldiers dropped one by one. A PAC gunship began to take off but was quickly engulfed in AA fire and exploded into shrapnel. With a quick Hooah, we charged into the ship. I was suprised at what I saw. The reactor door was open and an officer like man stood in the room. "Hello EU scum. You will never take this vessel! Kill them! Lock the reactor!" The man laughed as the reactor shutter closed. A monotone voice rung through the ship in Russian. "Перегрузка активной зоны реактора инициативе." Ford's eyes went wide and grabbed my shoulder and pulled me into cover. "Harrison! I know my Russian is a little rusty but I think that thing just said Reactor core overload initiated! They're going to blow the ship! We have to get off this thing!" I shook my head. "No! If this thing blows here it will take this village with it! I can't let that happen! Get off the ship! I'm going to fly this thing into the forest. I have a plan." Ford nodded and sprinted for the dropship. Nicholas followed. Callaghan continued to fire. "If your going down with the ship then I sure as hell am too!" I shook my head and retorted. "No! You will get the fuck off this ship right now! Thats an order!" Callaghan shook his head as well "Sorry Harrison but I'm with you tell the end." I finally nodded. "Lets go then! We have a ship to fly!" I patted him on the shoulder and moved up from cover to cover. I continued to suppress the PAC forces. Callaghan quickly followed up with a frag grenade. We ran up the corridor towards the bridge. Two PAC soldiers stood guard at the bridge entrance. I put a bullet into each one of their heads and kicked the door open. The 5 men manning the controls looked startled. Callaghan went in guns blazing and eliminated the pilots. I quickly checked the console. 5 Minutes until detonation, damn it. "Looks like there is 5 escape pods here for the Pilots." I tapped in some commands and brought the ship to a turn and moved full speed into the forest. I turned to Callaghan. "Thats what I was counting on. Callaghan take the Talon, get back to Brian. I'll launch the escape pod once I deal with the reactor, don't want him canceling the overload and regaining control of the ship." Callaghan nodded and ran out of the bridge. I heard some gunfire from his Bianchi. With a smirk I watched the Talon take off and fly towards the Legacy. I put the Titan in auto pilot and moved towards the reactor. "EU scum! You will never take this Titan!" The officer continued to laugh. I shut down the first reactor shutter control. "Thats fine, I'd much rather see it crash and burn anyway." I deactivated the second shutter control and moved for the next two. "What are you doing?!" I laughed. "Making sure you don't cancel the overload, I know you have the codes." Third shutter control down, one to go. "No! Stop!" I finally shut off the last shutter control and the shutter dropped revealing the unarmed officer. I sprinted down the hall to see the officer making a break for the escape pods. I fired my SCAR into his legs. He dropped to the ground. I walked past him and checked the console. 0:11 Shit! "What happened to going down with your ship?" I released four of the pods and quickly jumped into the fifth. I quickly slammed the release and was jettisoned towards the ground. I saw a bog of some sort was my LZ, damn. I peered up to see the Titan start to explode. Explosions began to ring out throughout the ship. If I was correct I had 30 seconds until detonation. My pod slammed into the ground and the tube broke up. I quickly sprinted for a ditch after taking a quick peak at the burning Titan. I dived into the ditch as I heard the reactor supercharge. I covered my ears. *BANG* the Titan exploded causing trees to explode from the heat. The nearby water went into a boil from the extreme heat. Even in the ditch the shockwave and heat hit me like a train. I began to black out from the conditions. As much as I fought it everything started to go dark... > Chapter 5: Left For Dead > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I awoke to a static like noise and the crackling of a nearby fire. My visor was heavily damaged from the shockwave. A large crack ran down the length of the visor and the HUD began to crackle out. I could see in my peripheral that many fires spanned throughout the site. I reached for the release and was struck with a massive surge of pain in my right shoulder. I quickly recoiled back. With my left hand I fumbled around and found my medi pack. I opened the pack. The pain was unbearable. As I fumbled around in the pack I began to scan my surroundings. By now the inside of the visor seemed to fog up, making it difficult to see anything. "I can't see anything with this damn thing!" I removed my hand from the pack and grabbed my visor and ripped it off of my face. A beam of sunlight landed on my face inside the boggy ditch, the very beam seemed to warm me. 'I haven't felt something like this since I was a kid.' I shrugged it off when something tapped against my head. A large shard of metal seemed to stick out of my right shoulder. 'Well theres my problem.' I wrapped my good hand around the shard and sucked in a deep breath. In one quick motion I tore the shard out of my shoulder. Pain shot through out my body and once again everything went dark as I slipped unconscious. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Callaghan had arrived in the Talon long ago. They all had witnessed the Titan's reactor detonation, totally oblivious to the drop pod thinking it was some scrap. They all truly believed that Harrison died in the explosion. Ford eyed the sight with disbelief, his head hung with sadness, he finally spoke. "There is no way he could have survived that..." Callaghan shook his head angrily. "No! I know Harrison! He can't be dead! He must have done something!" Nicholas slowly walked up to Callaghan, he too looked as if he had lost everything. He placed a nervous hand on Callaghan's shoulder. "I know my explosives. A reactor detonation would have killed everyone on board. I'm sorry to say but there is no way he could have lived through that." Callaghan ripped his hand off of his shoulder. "We need to search! We have to! There must be some possibility!" Brian seemed to appear from no where and entered the small group. "Ford is right. Harrison is one tough soldier, but even he couldn't have survived that." Callaghan shook his head. He still had believed Harrison had to have done something. He remembered back to the countless times Harrison was able to quickly devise a plan back in training. No matter what he did, he always came out on top. "No, I'm going to find him! He has to be out there!" He turned from the group and moved towards the forest with his gun in hand. He began to march forward as a hand settled down on his shoulder once again. "You are to stay here and help defend the Titan! He gave his life defending it, and you will too. If your foot even touches that forest floor I am declaring you AWOL." Callaghan tore forward, out of the captain's grasp. "That is an order soldier!" He stopped in his tracks. A smile spread across his face. He once again looked back at the small group. "Fine, I will remain here." He moved back towards the small village and took a quick look at the combat walker, a thought came to mind. 'He said my foot can't touch the ground. I never heard him say a combat walkers foot can't.' His smile grew larger as he watched the sun go down, waiting. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For a second time I awoke in the bog filled ditch, only this time it was much darker. Many fires had gone out, but at the same time new fires grew. The pain in my shoulder had halved and it seemed the bleeding had stopped. I finally got a better look around. 'Fuck...' I began to notice the blood that pooled from my broken body, the fatigue began to settle. I had to go, I could not wait here, there is no doubt PAC will send a forced recon to spot survivors. "Command spotted a pod, if it was the captain we must find him! Найдите его!" With a couple more mutters the 3 man team consisting of what looked like some mid-level officer and two lower ranking conscripts quickly rumaged through the wreckage. Good enough motivation to get the hell out of there. I quickly searched around me but to no avail, my Scar was nowhere to be seen. I tapped my holster, it was there... One of the conscripts grew closer... "Hey! Over here you PAC slave!" I ripped the P33 out of the holster and fired two rounds into his upper chest. The conscript toppled over into a fire, I cringed as he slowly became engulfed and screamed his last words. I looked away and searched for the remaining 2 PAC soldiers. I saw a boot peeking from a sheet of metal, I quickly fired 3 shots in the general area where I believed was his center of mass. With a loud grunt I turned my attention to the absent officer. "Die EU scum!" The sound came from behind me and I made a break for cover. *Pow* I flew foward into the ground. My armor suprisingly saved me from the bulk of the shotgun blast but some pellets planted themselves into my already wounded shoulder. My sight began to fog out. I could hear laughing. The laughter came closer as I heard a brief *Ch-Ching* and the sound of metal slamming into metal. "Any last words before I send you straight to hell?" "Yeah, I like this place and you're not taking me away!" I rolled over and continuesly pulled the trigger. After the 7th 'Click' my sight finally began to slowly return. I could make out an outline of a crumpled body. I got him. I began to pry myself back up to be met with the same pain I felt from before. I had nothing to assist me now. I jammed my fingers into the wound and plucked out the pellets. I could just barely keep myself from dropping from shock. 'Not again' I kept telling myself. I searched the officer and removed 3 mags of T20 ammo and his T20 sidearm. I grabbed up his Clark shotgun and took the remaining shells from his ammo pouch. I managed to find one of the experimental camoflage systems and pocketed it. It was time to make the long trip back to the little village. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was time. Callaghan had waited for the precise moment. Brian had returned to the Titan and the others had gone to sleep... Atleast he thought... Up in the clouds Rainbow Dash peered over at the soldier with curiosity. She was there when he lashed out to find Harrison. He knew the risks if he entered the forest. Something about being... A wall? It must've been some saying for "You're fired!" or something. She could see him climbing up the large bipedal machine Harrison was playing music on earlier. She had to find out what was going on. "Now to get this thing started" He ingnited the engines and was blasted by the stereo. He flew across the console and shut it off. He emerged from the hatch to see two dark pink eyes staring him. He gave back an embarrased smile. "Ugh I wasen't doing anything, just ugh... Trying to listen to music?" The cyan pony was not amused. "Listen, I know what you're doing, I'm not going to tell. I want to help find him too." He began to relax. "Quick, get inside. We need to find him. He has to be out there." He powered up the legs and shutoff any visible lights. The walker rumbled to life. Like a professional, he grabbed hold of the controls and began to walk foward. The Walker sped forward at a steady speed of 30Km/h. Rainbow Dash was fasinated by the interior but had another plan. "Let me out, I can scout ahead, see if I can locate him. I'll wait for you at the wreckage." Callaghan nodded and opened the hatch. She let out a nod and flew out. As nice as it was inside, she prefered the sky. She shot forward peering at the walker which seemed to get smaller and smaller as she gained speed. She had to get to Harrison before something else in the woods got to him first... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I was running. First another one of those damn lion/scorpian mix things came after me and now these insect like things are chasing me. Does it ever end? Why are things here so hostile! I turned my body enough to get off a shot at the persuing pony/insect creature. It exploded into a greenish cloud of blood and shrapnel. I could see some kind of ruined keep, I sprinted towards it. One of the creatures made a jump for my right leg. I dropped the empty clark and quickly drew my T20 and fired a round off into its head. It crumpled over lifelessly. I flew into the cover of the keep and prepared for the last two of my persuers. I launched out of cover and fired two rounds into the chest of one of the creatures and jammed my knife into the remaining creatures skull. I returned to my cover as voice echoed from the forest. "You will love us!" I popped out of cover to see 4 more of the creatures come closer. "Do you things ever give up?!" I opened fire puting 2 rounds into each of the creatures exept for the last one. I fired 2 rounds, the creature strafed to a tree but continued towards me. *Pow, -click-* The first round impacted in the creatures side slowing it momentarily but not stopping it. It dove towards my neck, jaw wide open bearing its sharp teeth. It was over. I closed my eyes and waited for the end... It never came. Instead I heard a loud *Crack*. I opened my eyes to see a familiar pegasus bucking the creature into the wall. The powerful buck combined with the already damaged abdomin of the creature caused her to literally kick it in half. I was about to thank her when she was grabbed and put to gun point. Two other soldiers walked out and aimed at the struggling pegasus. "Surrender or we will kill your friend!" I slammed a mag into the pistol. "No!" I trained my T20 on the head of the one who held Rainbow Dash. I tensed my trigger finger but stopped... Something in me made me drop the gun. One of the soldiers ran over and kicked the gun away before slamming the butt of the rifle into my head. I dropped to the ground. I could see and hear Rainbow Dash scream as the soldier drew back his boot...