This is a story about a war that spread to the very edges to the universe and changed the lives of a uncountable amount of people.
The princesses discovered the "Ing" not too long ago. They first came into Canterlot and announced to the ponies that they meant no harm. The "Ing" never answered any questions about themselves and usually kept their identites hidden to everyone except the princesses. They told the ponies that they were involved in a war against the Light, who are planning to destroy all life throughout the universe. But what happens when the ponies of Equestria, a peaceful and love based race, gets thrown into the war. Will a universal conflict after one thousand years of peace be too much for them?
Warning: Involves anthropomorphic ponies! They don't appear at first but they'll come in later.
I will be including tags when needed.
My first story. Constructive criticism is allowed and appreciated.
“What do you mean Trottingham is under attack?” Princess Celestia asked.
Princess Celestia sat on her throne and listened to an exhausted messenger inform her about an attack. The messenger had just flown into the castle and was deathly tired after flying across one quarter of Equestria to tell her the news.
“It’s those Ing things. They’ve been acting like they were our friends and they attacked us in the middle of the night.” The messenger replied in between pants. “Shall I take your response?”
Celestia was stressed out. For the past two weeks she had been having trouble accepting a mysterious race that decided to start occupying Equestria. They were a dark race, not telling anypony about them, not answering any questions about them and rarely revealing their identities. They called themselves Ing. Celestia had managed to speak to their leader. She had even been able to see different types of Ing. Still, there were dozens of more that she hadn’t seen, and she assumed they were much more grotesque and frightful than those she had seen.
After seeing all the different types there were, Celestia was frightened. All types of them fought in “The War for Darkness”. That was what they called the war with a race called Gaians. The Gaians were the most hated enemy of the Ing and they would do almost anything to eradicate their whole race.
Celestia also got her hooves on one of their ‘datapads’, telling her what kinds of weapons they used and it could also show her what kinds of ing there were. It held tons of information about the Ing and was given to her by their leader. Celestia didn’t know his name.
That was the most information they could squeeze out of them. If this “Ing” race had anything else to tell, they kept it to themselves. It was this secrecy that disturbed her so.
“I never trusted them.” Celestia said under her breath. “Tell Captain Shining Armor to mobilize his troops and get the guard ready. We need to be ready for anything they throw at us.” She told the messenger.
“Yes Your Highness. Right away.” The messenger spoke. She trotted out of the door to go to inform Shining Armor.
“Luna, come here.” Celestia said after the messenger left.
“What is it, sister?” Luna asked.
“Do you think this is the beginning of the end for us?” Celestia questioned her.
Luna put a hoof on her sister’s shoulder. “I do not think we are going to end, Tia, but we think a miracle must happen if we are to come out of this war as the victor.”
“Their forces are much stronger, much bigger. How do we repel an enemy that is five times our size?” Celestia asked as she raised the sun over the Canterlot skyline.
“The bigger they are, the harder they fall.” Luna answered forthrightly. It was her bluntness that Celestia needed sometimes when others would only be her yes-ponies.
“But they won’t fall. Luna, the only hope we have of surviving is the Elements of Harmony. The Ing don’t even use weapons like us. They have much more powerful weapons and we can’t get the elements to work on them at a safe distance. It would be too far!”
“Twilight and her friends aren’t even soldiers anyway, so why does it matter?” Luna knew where this was going, but she asked anyway.
“It matters because if they can’t do it, we will.” Luna’s eyes went wide as the side of a barn. The sisters had not used the Elements of Harmony, the strongest weapon in the Royal Equestrian Army, for over a thousand years. Luna knew now that Celestia was serious if she was thinking that.
“You know, Tia, we could always find this Gaia race. They would probably help us.” Luna suggested uneasily, “In case the Elements do not…”
“I am quite certain we can use the Elements together, sister.” Celestia said, “But, to be safe, I would think that is a prudent suggestion. But, have you any idea as to how we contact them?”
“I have no idea.” Luna lowered her head in despair.
Celestia used her telekinesis to grab a piece of paper and a quill.
“What art thou doing?” Luna asked.
“Writing a letter to my student,” Celestia replied.
“What makes you think that she can help?” Luna asked.
“Well since she is the smartest pupil I have seen since Starswirl the Bearded, I believe she would have a faint idea as to how we contact these Gaia.”
She sat down at a desk, where she began to write to Twilight Sparkle, her most faithful student in all of Equestria. Dear Twilight Sparkle… ***
“Does it really have to be reshelving day? Can’t we just-” Spike, Twilight’s dragon assistant, was stopped short as a letter came out of his mouth.
“Yes, Spike. All the books have been placed out of order so we need to put them back.” She turned, and asked, “What’s that you got there?”
Spike picked up the letter. “Dear Twilight Sparkle,” spike read, “There is an important matter that I wish to discuss with you and your friends. It concerns the dark and mysterious race that has appeared in Equestria. We will talk more about this when you and your friends arrive. Sincerely, Princess Celestia.”
“The Princess needs to speak with me?” Twilight said nervously, “Hurry, Spike! We can still catch the train to Canterlot!” ***
“I hope they come soon. It’s been two hours since I sent the letter.” Princess Celestia said.
“Well the train ride will take some time. Approximately two hours, I would think.” Luna said.
Suddenly the door burst open, revealing Twilight, and her five friends: Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie. All of them were the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, and had used them time and time again to vanquish foes to Equestria.
“Princess Celestia,” Twilight and her friends bowed in reverence, “You wished to speak with us?”
“Yes,” Celestia said. “You wouldn’t know anything about a race called ‘Ing’, would you?”
“Ing?” Twilight cocked her head in confusion, “No, I haven’t.”
“They are a dark race,” Luna explained, “That has appeared out of nowhere. They extended an olive branch, and has now burned it in our hooves. Trottingham is already under siege. We can’t possibly defeat them.”
“So you need the Elements of Harmony then.” Rainbow Dash replied, “To kick their hinds, right?”
“Rainbow!” Twilight hissed, elbowing her friend in the ribs.
“Oh, it’s quite alright.” Luna replied, “I would use that terminology if I was not bound by my royal duties. Come, Twilight Sparkle, I wish to show you something.”
Luna trotted over towards the table, and reached for a gray rectangular device. She activated it, and showed it to Twilight.
“This device shows us where the Ing hide,” Luna explained. “This screen shows large concentrations in and around Trottingham.”
“Wait just a darn minute y’all.” Applejack interrupted, “How did ya get yer hooves on somein’ like that?”
“It was a gift from their leader.” Celestia explained, “I now see it is a way to mock us. There is nothing we can do for Trottingham. It is lost.”
All of the Element Bearers’ eyes went wide. They then closed their eyes, and bowed their heads in pity. It was then that the doors flew open again, this time showing Captain Shining Armor, who just happened to be Twilight’s brother.
“It seems their leader had the audacity to show his face in Canterlot, Your Highnesses.” He dragged the leader of the Ing, who looked distressed, into the Throne Room, bound by an iron chain and ball.
“Your Highnesses,” he pleaded, “You have to listen to me. I did not order the attack. There has been a coup d’état against my rule. They have attacked Trottingham to show their willingness to shed innocent blood!”
“How can we tell that you’re not lying?” Rainbow Dash said. “It takes a lot of nerve to think we would believe that!”
“But you have to!” He cried. He then hung his head, and said, “Though you could always execute me, and have the rebels run amok in your country, destroying you city by city. It is up to you.”
Luna looked over at Celestia disbelievingly. Celestia couldn’t help but feel pity for him, and decided to believe him.
“Free him,” she instructed, “If he is a pony of his word, he will stop this at once.”
“You’re just going to believe him!?” Shining Armor asked, but silenced himself after receiving harsh glares from everypony in the room.
“Yes, of course Your Highness.” He replied.
Once free, the Ing reached into his pocket. He grabbed a silver circular object, and placed it onto the floor.
“I believe this should help.” He said. Suddenly, multiple screens appeared around him. He navigated through the database, until he opened a file, and stepped back, making the one screen enlarge and place itself on the wall.
Everypony in the room stared at him, dumbfounded.
“It’s quite wonderful, isn’t it?” He asked. “Although we are working on smaller and more powerful models right now, this is the best I can get at the moment.”
“It can get smaller?” Twilight asked. “How did you make that?”
“Twilli, I wish we had the time,” Shining Armor said, “But there is no time to talk about their tech.”
After he said that, the screen began to flash red with yellow characters spread across the screen. The leader of the Ing rushed to the console, and tried to find out what went wrong. His facial expression blanked as he soon found out.
“Don’t be freaked out,” he said, “But there’s something called a ‘time relay’ about to happen near Canterlot.”
“What’s a time relay?” Celestia asked him. “You can’t just say things like that and not explain it.”
“I can’t really delve into it right now,” the Ing said as his fingers raced across the holographic screen.
“Well tell us what hath happened, then.” Luna ordered.
“A time relay is a source of power the Ing use.” The leader explained, “But when it gets overheated, it begins to take one universe and rocket it into another, and it is possible that we appear during different time periods. That’s how we got here.”
“Are you saying we’re going to be time travelers?” Rainbow Dash asked, “Cool!”
“I wouldn’t think that,” the leader said, “When we jumped here, massive amounts of us died.”
“Oh,” Dash replied. “Well, can’t you fix it?”
“I can see if I can lessen the impact,” the leader explained, “But I can’t stop it. It’s already too late.”
The console closed, and he looked outside the window. He watched as a large, spiraling black and blue hole appeared over Canterlot. It began to suck in the mountains and plains surrounding Canterlot. The ponies in the room panicked as they watched Equestria be swallowed up by the hole.
“It’s here.” The Ing said.
“Oh really,” Dash said, “You think?!”
“Rainbow!” Twilight scolded, “What’s going to happen?”
“We’re going to get swallowed up,” the leader said, “And spit out in another universe. It’s not too bad after the first time.”
That was the last thing anypony heard before the hole, which was growing exponentially, swallowed up the castle.
My squad of Gaians and I were busy trying to find any Ing intel when we heard a very loud bang and felt something like an earthquake shake the ground.
“Well, it definitely involves the Ing. They probably all just blew themselves up or something.” My squadmate and good friend, Isach, said.
“Ignore it; intel says that there is an enemy camp up there. If it’s correct for once, something in there will probably tell us what that was.” I said
We all walked on.
We were in a forest with trees scattered everywhere. The smell of smoke and charred wood overwhelmed any other smell, even the stench of rotting Ing and Gaian bodies. The trees that were still standing were charred and black. There were huge ditches from the impact of artillery and heavy weapons everywhere. They were filled with mud, and some had bodies littered in them.
“There must’ve been a firefight here earlier. This blood is fresh.” Our marksman-- err markswoman, Aseri, said, pointing to a spot on the ground that was stained with crimson blood. She ran her hand through it, and smelled it.
“This is Gaian blood,” she declared, wiping her hand on her leg, “Looks like the person was dragged. Should we follow, sir?”
“Yeah,” I said, “Aseri, take point. Everyone follow behind her.”
We started jogging along the blood trail. It went for about twenty feet until it stopped at a Gaian with one of his legs blown off. He was bleeding badly, but still conscious. He looked to be around his thirties. He had slick black hair, and had it combed back. It would’ve looked attractive to ladies, but it had mud and blood caked in it. His rank told me he was a colonel. I deduced he was a pilot, given that many colonels in the infantry would rather ride a desk than fight.
“Sir, is there anything is can do to help?” I asked
He looked up at me. “Yeah, I need to tell you something. To relay back to base.”
I looked back at my squadmates. They all looked like they didn’t know what to do. I didn’t either. This might be sensitive intelligence, and I just didn’t feel comfortable hearing that.
“I know what you’re thinking, but please, just hear me out.” He pleaded. It sounded like he was laboring to even get those words out. I decided to listen, because if we didn’t, then who would?
“Alright, tell us.” I said
He took a deep breath. “I am a fighter pilot. Well I was, until the Ing got lucky. But that doesn’t matter yet. I was deployed on a mission to provide air support for allies. My squadron’s mission was to make sure the skies were clear of any Ing activity. Everything started off well. We scrapped a couple ing fighters, shot some jammers out of the sky. Then, about thirty minutes into the fight, my wingman noticed something. You see, Gaian scientists and manufacturers are currently developing an extremely powerful jet. It’s like a JSF, but-”
“Excuse me sir, but what is a JSF?” Aseri asked
“A Joint Strike Fighter, I think.” I replied
“You are correct Captain. It was designed to replace every jet we have out there.” The downed colonel said.
“Sir, with all due respect, what does this have to do with your mission?” Isach said
“Just wait. You will understand soon. Where was I?” He rubbed the top of his head with his hand, and snapped his fingers. “Oh, right, the JSF! Well it’s currently under production as we speak. We pilots knew about this new jet, what it would look like, how powerful it is, what its weapon systems are. Anyway, earlier I said something about my wingman noticing something. Does anyone understand where this going?”
Everyone was still. He smirked, and shook his head.
“Jeez, what we say about you grunts must be true, then.” He sighed.
“I understand. What your wingman noticed was more Ing fighters incoming. The Ing fighters turned out to be the top secret JSF that is under production. The Ing must have some of them completed before us, which puts us at a huge aerial disadvantage.” I said
“Finally!” He said, “An infantryman with a lick of sense!” it seemed to me that as he was talking he was gaining energy instead of losing it.
“Thank you sir.” I nodded.
“Sir,” Isach interrupted, “With all due respect, what the hell are you talking about? How did the Ing get this JSF or whatever it’s called? How did they know about enough to steal it if it hadn’t even been seen in combat?”
We all sat in silence pondering this thought when enemy gunfire was suddenly directed at us. I looked back at the colonel and saw that a Ing marksman’s bullet made its home, being lodged into the colonel’s skull.
“Get to cover!” I yelled as bullets and dark energy bolts flew past me.
I pressed my body against a fat tree trunk and sat there for a few seconds. Gunfire hissed past the tree, disorienting me for a few seconds. I shook my head, and grabbed my assault rifle. It had been far too long since they’ve shown themselves to me.
I heard a voice snap me from my thoughts.
“Captain, we have to fall back!” Aseri screamed over the gunfire and explosions.
“I’m right behind you.” I replied, running from my safe tree as it exploded into pieces of splintering wood.
Bullets were flying past me, some of them lowering my shields, but most of them missing. Mortars started falling from the sky. I saw one of my squadmates get hit by a mortar blast as I was running for my life.
“Keep moving!” I screamed. A mortar exploded right near us, splattering us with mud and dirt.
“What, you think I’m gonna stop running?” Isach said
As we were running, I noticed something. On our HUD’s in our visors, we have a motion tracker. Right now the motion tracker was showing a squad of friendlies up behind some cover. There weren’t many of them, but enough to stand a chance against the Ing.
“We have friendlies inbound sir!” Aseri said
“Thank God,” I said.
The friendly units popped out of cover and motioned for us to get into cover. I was about to slide into cover with a friendly behind it when he pulled a sword out and slashed at my neck.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I yelled, barely dodging the sword slash.
It was then that all of our friendlies changed form. The forms they appeared as had horns and had holes in them. Their feet, if you could call them feet, had holes in them, and they walked on all fours. They had wings and those had holes in them, too. Their skin was as black as the night. I could tell that they were hostile.
I hit the one in front of me in the head with the butt of my rifle. Its horn flew off and it fell on its back. It was then that I pointed my rifle at its head and clicked the trigger. I fired about half the magazine into its skull. By then it was unrecognizable.
“Keep moving, these guys are hostile, too!” I screamed
We kept running. As I jumped over a log, I sent a hologram of me running forward and ducked into cover against the log. The trick worked. The Ing and shapeshifters fell for it and ran after the hologram. I waited a couple seconds. I decided to pop out of cover and started firing at the Ing around me.
“Come at me, motherfuckers!” I yelled at the Ing.
I heard a click and my rifle stopped firing.
“Oh shit.”
I threw it at an Ing that was running at me and took out my submachine guns that were located at my hip. I aimed both of the SMG’s at the Ing and fired. It was quickly put down and I started scattering my shots. I saw many Ing fall because of my little killing spree, but the shapeshifters were…different. It’s like they were from the light world, as the light bullets would not affect them as much.
You see, Ing come from a world we call “the dark world”. We call it that because its atmosphere is made of dark energy. It’s not just one planet though, it’s their whole universe. That is why this war is so important. We must win it if all light life is to survive. If we lose… well, then everything out there would be killed.
I was up against a huge group of enemies. It must’ve been a whole company at the most. I was enjoying shooting around and eliminating tons of Ing, but it was then that my SMG’s decided to run out of ammo.
“Oh come on!”
I almost didn’t even have time to think that, though, because an Ing destroyer, one of the toughest Ing types to kill, decided it could just rudely barge in and try to kill me. Like, really? Those things had to be at least twenty feet tall, and extremely difficult to take down. It was damn near if you didn’t have ammo either.
It charged at me and I was forced to dive out of the way of its path. I recovered and reloaded my SMG’s. The situation was looking desperate for me. I mean seriously, what a dumbass I am, throwing my rifle at that bastard’s head. And now I’m stuck with my SMG’s against one of a Gaian’s most feared enemies.
I shot the huge creature in the back. It turned around, snarling at me.
“Bad idea, very bad idea!”
It pulled its weapon, a dark multifunctional cannon, up and fired a dark energy beam at me. I rolled out of the way, and started unloading on its headpiece covering its head, one of the weakest spots on it. The thing had shields, though and my bullets only lowered them a tiny bit. Basically the only thing it did was anger it.
A destroyer has a massive amount of shielding and armor, making it very slow. Its slowness is its only weakness. Their cannon have many different modes of fire. Some of those including a laser, a spread of rockets, a dark flamethrower, a pulse cannon and a shit-ton more.
I threw a grenade at it to lower its shields around its head. I raised my SMGs, and fired a three-second burst into its ugly face.
I fired a few more shots into it, and then it started sparking and fell off balance.
“Well thank God!”
“I need help. Come out and help me!” The wounded destroyer said.
“More of them? You’ve got to be kidding me!”
I turned around and saw two more destroyers come out of, well, nowhere, it seemed. The destroyer behind me hit the ground, sending out a shockwave that threw me into the air. I noticed that the whole company that was shooting at me stopped firing as me and the destroyers were fighting.
I fell on the ground, when the destroyer that I almost killed walked in front of me. I was dazed and I dropped my SMG’s when I was sent through the air. In a desperate attempt to make it out of this alive, I pulled out my pistol and finished off the one destroyer with one single bullet. I’m pretty lucky, aren’t I?
One of the others noticed this and charged at me. I guess these next shots were lucky because two of my shots lowered its shields and the third somehow made its way through the destroyer’s shields. The fourth shot cut through its armor and hit it straight in the middle of its head. That one also fell, leaving the last one.
It noticed what I did and jumped high into the air. I started to unload the clip of the pistol into it when I heard the all too familiar sound of death. The noise any soldier dreads. That Goddamn clicking noise. I saw my life flash before my eyes as the destroyer descended towards me. Just then, a white light came from the sky and enveloped everything around me, killing all the enemies in the area.
I sat there, tired and beaten, and rested.
“What the hell was that?” I heard a distant voice say. The voice was Gaian.
I looked up and saw my squadron looking around, most likely trying to find me.
I laid my head back down on the ground. If they didn’t see me I would hope to God that they weren’t just dicking around. Plus, I showed up on their motion tracker so they should see me.
“There he is. He looks like he’s hurt.”
They walked over to me and looked to see if I okay.
“I’m alright. Just a little banged up.” I said as they were walking over to me.
“Good, I thought you were dead for a second there.” Isach said
I stuck out a hand. “Help me up.”
He got me up. “I’m guessing we have a clear path to that camp up there, then.” Aseri said
“Most likely, unless that blast only took out the Ing around here.” I said picking my rifle up from a spot on the ground.
We started walking again, keeping our eyes peeled. After hiking for about three miles through the dense forest, we reached a cliff.
“Is that the base down there?” Aseri asked looking at the bottom of the cliff.
“Looks like it.” Isach said.
The base wasn’t that large, but large enough to hold a company. There were a few buildings scattered inside the gates, and there seemed to be a few Ing milling about, oblivious to the firefights on top of the cliff.
“It seems we finally have a reason to use our wings while we are on duty.” I said
“I don’t know about you, sir, but I’ve had to use my wings many times on missions before I was assigned to this unit.” One of our recruits said.
I looked at him. “Really? Well you’re lucky then. I haven’t been able to use my wings for a while. Anyway, let’s get going.”
I jumped off the side of the cliff and pressed my wings and arms against my body. I felt my stomach lurch and wind begun to blow through my hair. Damn it felt good to fly again. The rush of cool air, the sensation of being in full control of your body. It just felt, amazing, for lack of a better word.
“I’m too young for this.” I murmured to myself
And I was. I was only sixteen and I was already fighting. The reason why is because apparently I was some kind of super soldier and I am supposed to save the world and some shit. I don’t believe it. I’m too young to save the world. Who would?
I looked down and saw the ground speeding towards me. I spread my wings out to slow me down. I started to rapidly lose speed. Eventually I was floating down towards the ground very slowly. I touched down on the ground and drew my rifle from my back. I waited for the rest of my squad to touch down.
“So where are we going first?” Isach said after we had all landed.
“We fan out, search for anything that can give us info about the Ing. Go in groups of three.” I ordered. The squad grunted in compliance. I chose Isach and Aseri to go with me, while I allowed the others to sort themselves out.
“Alright, everybody fall out.” I ordered.
We moved along silently across the base. There were few Ing around, which was weird. They were usually crawling everywhere around their bases. Something was up, and it didn’t seem good.
We searched around the premises for any Ing, but, after finding none, we moved into the base. We searched for anything telling us what happened, or where they were. It wasn’t like the Ing to just abandon one of their bases.
After a half an hour of searching, we walked up to the largest building in the base. It was jet black, and square in appearance with several smaller squares branching out from it.
“We just found their Operations Center.” I said, “Wanna have a look-see?”
“Are you crazy sir?” Aseri asked, “You’re just going to walk in there, and expect no Ing to be there?”
“Well, there were no Ing on the premises,” I said, “So logic dictates that there are no Ing inside. If there are, you were right, ok?”
“Fine.” Aseri said. Sometimes she was a pain.
We walked up to the door, but found it locked. It was then that Isach grabbed his Cryptographic Desynchronizer, a military-grade hacking device, and put it next to the console. He turned it on, and nodded in my direction.
“How long?” I asked.
“About three minutes sir.” He replied, “This is some heavily encrypted stuff.”
“Can’t you tell that thing to hurry up?” I asked complacently, “What if we run into a lot of Ing while waiting for that thing?”
“I can’t hurry it up.” He answered, “We’ll just have to wait.”
I sighed, and crossed my arms. I was always impatient with technology. While everyone else was so caught up in it, I stood by my, unconventional, methods of getting things done. That usually meant with a gun. But, a gun can’t hack into Ing consoles, unfortunately.
And so we waited. When it was done, Isach grabbed the Desynchronizer, and placed it inside a pouch, and grabbed his assault rifle. I walked beside him, and he nodded. We grabbed the bottom of the door, and lifted it up.
When I said that the Cryptographic Desynchronizer was a hacking device, I sort of meant that, but didn’t at the same time. What it does is that it basically shuts down the hacked console, thus making a locked door unlocked, but unable to be opened through the same console. It’s sort of confusing, but maybe only to me.
Where was I? Oh yeah.
Isach and I held the door open for Aseri, and we both let go of the door and ran inside to avoid being crushed. The door fell with a heavy thud. We raised our weapons, and searched the room.
“Looks like no Ing, sir.” Aseri said, “Seems you were right. As usual, I hate it when you’re right.”
I chuckled at that remark, as we moved throughout the compound. Again, there was no Ing to be seen. There weren’t even any traces of the Ing having been here. It was weird. I knew it wasn’t like them to just leave without a trace. There had to be something up.
We were just about finished scoping throughout the Operations Center, when we came upon a dark red door. Aside from this door, it was just an empty hallway.
“Alright,” I said, “Isach, Aseri, be on your guard. There still might be Ing beyond that door. I don’t want to write anything home to your families.”
“No promises.” Isach replied, earning him a punch on the arm from Aseri. “Hey! I thought it was funny.”
“Just open the door.” I ordered. He sighed in defeat, and went up to the console. He pushed a few buttons, and the door opened.
There was nothing in the room except for three screens, and three dead Ing sitting in front of them. Blood was splattered across the screens, and pistols lay next to the bodies. It was obvious they had committed suicide.
I went up to a screen, and shoved one of the dead Ing aside. I pushed a button, and almost a billion folders popped up along the screen. I was so bombarded by content, I didn’t know what to do.
“Isach, can you take this data and send it back to base?” I asked.
“Yes sir.” He answered, “It might take awhile though.”
“Don’t worry,” I said, “We have all the time in the world.”
Everything was silent for what seemed like an eternity inside the Canterlot Castle. There was an eerie feeling, as if the ponies inside the room felt like they didn’t belong there. Princess Luna got up from the floor, and rubbed her head, which was aching.
“Is everypony alright?” She asked, watching everypony in the room get up slowly.
“I’m feeling peachy keen!” Pinkie Pie beamed.
“Ah’m fine.” Applejack said. “Nothin’ that won’ keep me down.”
“I’m good.” Rainbow Dash said, swiveling her head to make sure.
“Nothing feels different.” Twilight said as she felt herself with her hands, looking for any wounds.
“That’s a good sign. It means that we didn’t end up next to a sun when we jumped universes.” The Ing leader said nervously. “But I will need to figure out where we are.”
“Wait, are you saying you don’t know where we are?” Celestia asked harshly. “We could be in the middle of nowhere, and you wouldn’t be able to tell?”
“Well I’m pretty sure we’d be frozen solid if we weren’t close to a sun.” The Ing said sarcastically, “Why is this a problem?”
“My sister and I need to control the sun and moon.” Celestia explained, “It’s how we draw our magic.”
“I’ll find out in a few seconds,” the Ing said. “Oh, are we really there?”
Before Celestia could ask what the Ing leader meant by that, Luna’s eyes went wide, and turned to her sister.
“Sis, can you feel that?” Luna asked, “It feels like there’s something else here.”
“What do you mean…” Celestia asked, but then cut herself off. “What is going on? There’s something else here that isn’t a sun or moon. Where are we?”
“Well, it seems we’re in a very bad spot.” The Ing said, “We seem to be right next to the home planet of the Gaia.”
“Well what does that mean, um…” Luna asked, before forgetting the Ing’s name.
“Just call me Dark Gaia.” He said, smirking for just a moment before looking back at the console to perform more calculations.
“Well, Dark Gaia,” Luna continued, “Could you tell us what you mean by the home planet of the Gaia?”
“Well, it’s obvious, really.” Dark Gaia chuckled, “When we jumped through the time relay, we landed right next to Elyon, the home planet of the Gaia. Of course, there are other planets colonized by them in this system, but it is Elyon that holds the most Gaia. So, they are just going to probe us with a few satellites and maybe a few ships until they figure out what just happened.”
“By probe, do you mean an attack?” Shining Armor asked, eyes wide with fear, “And what are satellites? And what do you mean by ships? Ships that go on the water, do you mean those kinds of ships?”
“No, ships that travel space,” Dark Gaia explained, “And when they find me among you, they will most certainly attack to take me back. But do not worry, the forces still loyal to me will defend your people.”
“Wait, so now we’re fighting two enemies at once?” Rainbow Dash said. “And you’re just telling us to be calm?”
“I’m afraid so.” Dark Gaia said, “I mean, you can’t fight the Gaia with a few flimsy spells and spears. It just can’t be done.”
“Flimsy?” Twilight interrupted, “What do you mean by flimsy?”
“Well,” Dark Gaia said, shutting off the console, “You can’t take on an assault rifle with a levitation spell. Especially since a Gaian sniper can take your head off at over three miles away.”
“What do we do if they do attack?” Celestia asked, fear in her eyes.
Dark Gaia looked out of a window into a golden ray of the sun. It was almost calm, as if the city had just seen a thunderstorm, not a trip between universes. There were citizens nervously walking the streets, alongside Ing armed with rifles.
“Then hope for the best.” He said solemnly. “It’s all we can do.”
***
The questions finally came when the rest of my squad had entered the small room. We had yet to figure out its purpose, so Isach had taken to calling it “The Studio”. I know what you’re thinking, and you’re thinking “What kind of name is that?” I was asking myself that too.
“Sir, what in the name of everything just happened?” Aseri asked, “Look at it!”
In the span of a second, a planet just appeared between Elyon and Elyon II. It was mostly blue with oceans, though there was no shortage of green land. I looked closer, and typed in commands to zoom in the image.
“Let’s find out, shall we?” I asked.
The image zoomed in, and I found myself looking at a continent. There seemed to be no modern technology whatsoever, as there were no sprawling cities that spanned for miles upon miles or fleets of civilian vehicles, as there were on Elyon.
“Is that a planet?” Aseri asked, “How did it just appear there?”
“Was it a time relay?” Isach asked, “It’s not everyday we get a new planet in our star system.”
All the while, I was trying to get any information I could find on this planet. There had to be a reason it just appeared out of nowhere. Isach’s theory of a time relay seemed likely, but I couldn’t be sure. We never knew what the Ing were up to.
“Could we get a closer view of the planet?” Aseri asked, “Maybe the planet’s inhabited.”
I shrugged, and tried a few commands on the console. The image did zoom in, and what we found was truly shocking. The natives of the planet were all different colors, and some had wings, and others had horns, while a third archetype of the natives had no special cosmetic differences.
“What are those things?” Isach asked, “Can we get anything on these things, sir?”
“I’ll see if I can.” I answered, “If this did happen because of a time relay, it’s more likely than not that the Ing have intel on these things. Let’s have a little look-see.”
I opened a few programs, and tried my best to get what little intel there was on the natives. I eventually found a journal log about them, written by an Ing scientist.
“Today I came into contact with the natives of this strange world. They call themselves ‘Equestrians’. It’s a very odd name. And they seem to be millennia behind our modern technology. These natives resort to magic when we would resort to technology. They are ruled by two monarchial sisters, named Celestia and Luna. They rule together over the land of Equestria. While they tell me there are other natives on the planet, I have yet to leave the walls of Canterlot, their capital. I trust that I can find more information on this strange planet and their stranger inhabitants.”
“Well,” Aseri said, “What does it say, boss? We can’t read Ing, you know?”
“From what I could read,” I said, “They are called Equestrians. They seem to take a horse-like appearance, and they are ruled by two sisters, who reign as Princesses. They seem to be skilled in magic, and they are millennia behind modern technology.”
“Explains no high-rises,” Aseri answered, “You think High Command has intel on this?”
“I would believe so.” I answered, “It’s no secret that we can hack into Ing databases.”
“Well,” Isach said, “Are there any Ing on that planet? If they jumped here from a time relay, they have to be there.”
His question went answered when we saw a column of Ing marching through the streets of a small town. We all looked intently, until Aseri broke the silence.
“What the hell do they think they’re doing?” She asked abruptly, “Don’t they know that they’ll have their cities burning in days?”
“Apparently, some already are.” I said, looking at intelligence files I had just uncovered, “Right now, the city of Trottingham is under siege by Ing forces.”
“And what are these princesses doing about it?” Isach asked.
“Well,” I said unsurely, “I would think that the Ing have deceived them in some way. Considering their primitive technology, it seems likely. Other than that, it is likely they are occupied by the Ing.”
“We’ve got to tell High Command.” Aseri said, “We can’t just sit here on our hands.”
I looked at her, and nodded. I got off the console, and walked out of the room. Everyone followed in tail, while numerous plans raced through my head. Something had to be done; Aseri was right. Even though the natives were primitive, we couldn't just let an Ing-occupied planet just appear in the Gaian Capital System and have us, who have the most intel on the situation, sit here and do nothing.
“We’re going to need reinforcements.” I said, “And maybe a few cruisers, maybe even a frigate or two.”
“Sir, what are you thinking?” Aseri jogged up next to me as I walked swiftly through the corridors.
“I’m thinking we’re going to need reinforcements if we’re going down there.” I said, “We can’t just go down there and kill all the Ing, now can we?”
“Since when were we going down there?” Aseri asked, “What has gotten into you, sir?”
“Well, we’ve decided to go down there since I thought about it,” I said, stopping to ponder on her questions, “And I think a little empathy goes out for the natives. I can’t just let them suffer, can you?”
She rolled her eyes at me. She hated it when I pulled a guilt card on her. She reluctantly agreed, and walked off to tell High Command of our situation. All the while, Isach, the rest of the squad and I walked outside to await the reinforcements.
In about half an hour, there was a sizable amount of troops waiting to head onto the strange planet of Equestria. There was about half a division, and, according to Aseri, another twenty divisions aboard a frigate fleet in orbit. I have to be honest, I’m surprised High Command could come up with this in such a short time. Well, being High Command does put you in control of all Gaian armed personnel, so I guess they just have these guys sitting around, waiting for combat.
Aseri had told me that there were teleporter consoles around the base, and that she had calibrated them for the capital of Canterlot. She told me that if we were going in, we needed to start big.
“There’s no time like the present, men.” I said, “Let’s mount up!”
We started moving into the portals. I looked up, and saw a squadron of aircraft fly above the base, to drop off its payload in some occupied town. It never really mattered where the bombs landed, as long as the Ing died, it was a successful run.
As we were shuffling inside the portals, I couldn’t help but think about what was on the other side of the portal. Aside from the limited intel I had read, I knew next to nothing about the Equestrians. That worried me, not knowing everything.
When it was my turn to head into the teleporter, I almost wanted to run away. I was a kid anyway, what was I doing in a war? I needed to have fun, not end life. A thought crossed my mind that scared me. What if this was my idea of having fun?
I had no time to ponder further on that, because as soon as I stepped onto the console, I was suddenly thrust into the city of Canterlot. It was a little city compared to the gigantic metropolises back on Elyon. This wouldn’t even pass as a small town.
There were few pedestrians, and even fewer Ing. We immediately dispatched the Ing threat, and spread out on the street.
I took cover in an alley, and looked across the street to Isach and Aseri. They pointed up, and I saw the fleet in low orbit. I nodded, and waved my hand to signal them to follow me. I crept along the street, and dove to the ground when I heard the alarmed voices of the natives and Ing.
“Everyone get down!” I heard an Ing say, “It’s the Gaia! They’re here to kill us all!”
I looked down at the intersection of the cobblestone roads, and saw Ing soldiers move into the middle of the intersection. I raised my fist to signal to attack them. I raised my assault rifle, and fired three shots into an officer’s back and neck. He fell to the ground, and the other Ing turned to see my company firing at them.
“Take them down!” I ordered, “No civilian casualties!”
The company responded with more gunfire. I stood up, and killed another Ing with four shots to the chest. By then, we were at the edge of the intersection, and looking for any possible threats.
“Hold this position!” I shouted, “We stay here until the fleet arrives!”
We laid down portable cover, and made a little fortress out of the intersection. We had men watching every direction, eyes peeled for any Ing. It wasn’t too long before we came under fire by a large group of Ing and a main battle tank.
“Take cover!” I instructed, “And take out that damn tank!”
I hid behind a portable barrier, and nodded at an anti-tank soldier. He grabbed his rocket launcher, and fired the missile. It flew high above the tank, and dove down on top of the tank. The explosion from this impact engulfed the tank and a few Ing surrounding the tank. I then got out of cover, and fired a burst at a single Ing soldier that was running towards the intersection. The burst impacted the Ing in the chest, and it fell to the ground.
Right after the Ing fell, a Gaia fighter flew above the city, and strafed the street, taking out a large portion of the attacking Ing force. I took advantage of this situation, and instructed the company to move forward.
We jogged down the street, and combated the Ing that met us with resistance. Something didn’t feel right, because the Ing weren’t trying to eliminate us. It all seemed too easy. I blocked those thoughts out of my head, and jogged faster down the street.
Soon, we reached the large castle that dominated the skyline of the city. The company moved up to the entrance, but we couldn’t go any farther. The entrance was blocked; there would be no way to get in without forcing our way through.
“Place explosives on the entrance.” I ordered, “We’re going into that castle.”
“Yes sir,” Aseri nodded, and looked at the explosives squad. They placed small yet powerful ion bombs at the base of the gate, and ran back. We all took cover behind statues, walls and other means of cover before the ion bombs imploded.
The fireball wasn’t enormous, but they got the job done. The gate was gone, and we were free to enter the castle. We got up from our cover, and walked cautiously inside the elaborate gardens surrounding the castle. The lush green garden was a sharp contrast to the gray and black of the city; and a nice relief from the ruined streets and flaming tanks and buildings.
I reloaded my assault rifle, and waved my squad over.
“We’re going to split up inside here.” I said, “And confuse the Ing as to how many of us there are. I want this area secured by the time the fleet lands outside the city.”
“Yes sir.” Isach replied, “Don’t worry sir. We’ll get it done.”
I nodded, and moved into the gardens. I kept my rifle aimed in front of me, and crept silently inside the maze. My eyes continuously looked up at the castle; I couldn’t help but fear an Ing ambush from inside the castle.
We got through the gardens with few problems, and came to the elaborate entrance to the city. It was strangely unlocked, and we walked slowly inside the castle. I turned a corner, and raised my rifle when I saw an unarmed Ing walking through the halls.
“Freeze, Ing scum!” I shouted, “And get on the floor!”
The Ing put his hands above his head, and knelt down on the floor. I walked up to the Ing, and looked around to see if there were any others.
“What’s got you so worried?” The Ing chuckled, “When we’re already there.”
My eyes went wide, and I turned and ran back to cover. A hail of gunfire erupted inside the hall, and shots hissed and cracked past me. I got behind cover, and exhaled. I looked over the overturned table I was using for cover, and raised my assault rifle.
I aimed at a large Ing with a machinegun, and fired seven rounds into its abdomen and chest. He snarled, and turned the machinegun in my direction. A barrage of gunfire pounded the wooden table, and I knew it wouldn’t hold. I got up, and sprinted behind a wall.
“Return fire!” I shouted as I fired at the machine gunner again. The squad opened fire, and the Ing began to fall. A few fell in the first few seconds, but they fled behind cover, and the gunfight began to last longer than I expected.
My thoughts were interrupted by one of my squadmates shrieking as he was hit in the shoulder by a burst of gunfire. Blood spewed from his wounds, and there was no hope for him. Being somewhat crazy, I ran out of cover, and dragged him behind cover to allow aid to be administered to him.
It was then that we began using other means to terminate the Ing. I primed an ion grenade, and threw it at the hulking machine gunner. It imploded between his legs, and he died before he hit the ground. With that hulk down, the others soon followed. Knowing that there were armed Ing inside the castle, we sprinted down the halls, until we arrived at a set of large doors.
My squad relayed our location, and soon, most of the company was beside us as I kicked down the door and ran into what was obviously the Throne Room.
We were greeted by about fifteen natives turning, along with a few Ing. We raised our weapons at the Ing, and they immediately surrendered their weapons. I walked up to the natives, and they engaged in conversation with coherent speech, which surprised me.
“What art thou doing?” A dark-skinned native asked. She wore an elaborate dress, and had wings and a horn protruding from her body.
“We’re freeing you from Ing captivity.” I explained, “These things have already destroyed one of your cities. What’s stopping them from destroying another?”
“That was because of an insurrection.” Another female native interjected. Her hair was flowing and was colored pink, blue and light green. She too had wings and a horn. “And these Ing have been trying their best to put down the insurrection.”
“That’s a lie!” Isach shouted. I turned and looked at him harshly, chastising him. He lowered his head in defeat and apology.
The Ing that the natives were talking about walked up to me, and chuckled.
“So, they send a lowly Captain to capture me?” He asked, “The amount of disrespect is astounding. To send a Captain and a company of troops to capture Dark Gaia is pathetic.”
“Dark Gaia?” I asked, “You’re Dark Gaia?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” He asked. “It took you that long, Light Gaia? I figured a being so pure as yourself would be able to identify me immediately. Such a pity.”
I gave him a hard stare. He realized that I was actually Light Gaia. A Light Gaia is the purest of the Gaia race. There are only one in a few thousand, and they typically held high ranks in the military, politics or religion. It was unusual for one to be only a Captain, such as myself.
“And you’re so young as well.” He said, lifting up my chin with his hand before dropping it. “I didn’t know the Gaia drafted children to fight their wars.”
“Everyone stand back.” I said, reaching for my high-powered pistol. “He’s extremely dangerous!”
My company stepped back in obedience, but the natives did not move. They glared at me in resentment, and one blue native with wings walked up to me.
“He’s dangerous?” She asked, “You’re the ones who go through our city and butcher our protectors! No wonder these Ing are fighting you.”
“Do you really believe that?” I asked, “You need only look at the countryside! They butcher your people, and you swear allegiance to them?”
The Dark Gaia then began to chuckle loudly, and reached for submachine guns at his hips. He looked at me, and said,
“Unfortunately they do.” He turned to the natives, and said, “For intelligent beings, you sure are naïve! Did you really think there was an insurrection? I ordered the attack to see how foolish you all were!”
He began to laugh uncontrollably, and I drew my pistol. I trained the sights on his head, and shouted at him to put down the weapons. He smirked, and replied with a staunch no. He then turned to the natives, and began to fire his weapons. He hit a few, though the others soon got out of the way.
I fired my pistol at the Dark Gaia, but he flexed his wings, and flew up into the air. I flexed mine, and flew up to him. I fired a few more shots at him, but he flew straight for the windows, and broke through one as he escaped. I snarled, and landed on the ground.
I turned around, and saw a horned native point a staff of some sorts at me. She was purple-skinned, and had dark purple hair.
I raised my hands in surrender, and said, “You’ll regret it if you kill me.”
“Who am I supposed to trust? First the Ing tell us that they are the good guys, and then they start killing us.” She said, “I don’t know who to trust.”
“Well you’re not the only one.” I said as other natives raised spears at me.
I looked back at my company. They all had their weapons raised, ready to fire. They sure didn’t look like they knew what they were doing. Hell, I had little to no clue as to what to do either.
“Lower your weapons.” I said to them. "They don't know what they are doing."
The natives kept their spears pointed at me. They didn't look like they were going to drop them anytime soon. I sighed in frustration, and scowled at them, with my left hand outstretched, palm facing them, and my right hand reaching for my handgun.
“You’ll really regret it if you kill me. I'm not the one trying to kill your people.” I gestured at a armored native that had a bullet wound in his shoulder. He looked like he was having trouble standing. With precise telekinesis, I took the bullet out of his shoulder and healed the wound. All Gaians had a basic knowledge of magic, but I was one of the ones who were better at it. I hovered the bullet in between all of us.
“This is what they do to you guys.” I said as I was inspecting the bullet. “They were toying with you all this time and now they’re gunning you all down. Can you not see this?”
I looked outside from the broken window. My eyes went wide, my ears dropped and the bullet fell from my telekinetic grip as I realized that I was staring right into a Ing main battle tank’s barrel.
“SHIT!” I exclaimed as I dove into cover, the tank shell barely missing me.
“Get to cover, they’re coming!” Aseri yelled. Gunfire started sweeping the room. I managed to put a telekinetic barrier over the group of natives before the gunfire reached them.
“Someone take out that tank!” I yelled.
A anti tank soldier got out of cover and readied his lock-on launcher. He was gunned to pieces by an attack helicopter that suddenly descended from behind a building.
“Fuck! We need to get out of here!” I said. “We haven’t got a damn day!”
Suddenly the helicopter exploded and fell onto the street. I looked up into the sky and saw a formation of three Gaian fighters overhead. A fighter-bomber fired a dispenser bomb at the large concentration of Ing next to the main battle tank. The explosives that fell from the dispenser eradicated the Ing and left the tank a flaming mess of metal.
I looked at my motion sensor and spotted five blips around a huge blip. Before they blew open the door, I knew what they were.
“Destroyer!” I called out. “Take them down!”
The door was blown to pieces and a destroyer and five phalanx shield Ing came in, their shields protecting the destroyer. The destroyer snarled as its hulking body charged at us. I pulled a ion grenade off my belt and threw it in the middle of the ring of Ing. The explosion killed all of the phalanx Ing, but left the destroyer still standing. It fired a pulse blast at me. I teleported forward and dodged it.
Everyone in the room, except for the natives, fired at the destroyer. It fired a High-Explosive blast at the ground in front of a couple Gaians. It sent them flying in the air, killing them all instantly. I grabbed my knife and charged the thing. It saw me coming and tried to fire at me. I teleported behind it and climbed on it’s back. I got on it’s shoulders and plunged the knife deep into its skull. It stood still for a second before falling onto it’s face.
I pulled my knife out of it and looked out of the window. I saw houses on fire, Ing terrorising the place and some taller buildings falling. Now I really felt bad for the natives. To see your capital go up in flames while you can’t even fight back must be terrible.
I looked at the natives. They were all looking out of the broken window. I saw a tear fall from the taller white one with a horn and wings.
“Captain Chip! They’re coming in again!” A Gaian soldier said. I turned to face five heavy trooper Ing armed with rocket launchers. A golden energy blast came out of nowhere and killed all of them, evaporating them all in a golden light.
“Who the hell?” I turned around to look at the native who was just crying. Her horn was glowing with energy.
"How the hell do you know how to use magic?" Isach asked.
"Did you think you were the only beings to know magic? Are you that ignorant?" She asked us.
"All of us know magic from birth" I said almost defensively. She rolled her eyes, and looked back at the burning ceiling. Suddenly, through what was left of the doorway, a squadron of nine winged natives wearing uniforms all ran in. They saw us and took hostile action. Their squadron leader, a native with orange hair, jumped towards me. I teleported behind her and used a stasis spell to lock them all in place.
"We are not your enemies. Stop fighting against us!" I was having trouble holding the stasis spell because they were all trying to break out of it.
"Princess, what are you doing? Help us!" Their captain said while squirming.
"Hey, let them go!" A rainbow haired native said. She leapt forward and tackled me. The stasis spell broke and hell broke loose. The native squadron started trying to kill or maim us in any way. I did a combat roll to the right and dodged the captain. She flew up to the ceiling and dove down on me.
“Don’t hurt them! They don’t know who the real enemy is!” I said as I wrestled with the native. She managed to get on top of me and tried to punch me with her hoof. I grabbed it and pushed her off me, making sure not to hurt her.
Suddenly, a storm of bullets flew the room. I used a kinetic barrier and shielded everyone in the room from the gunfire. I got up and took cover behind a wall. It exploded, sending me flying and sending shrapnel everywhere. I looked over at everyone.
My company was in confusion. We were all taken by surprise and the natives still trying to kill us didn’t help either.
“Can’t you see that we’re not enemies! We aren't harming any of you!” I said to their captain.
She looked back at the ponies. My shield was still holding and they were fine. I turned around as I heard a snarl from behind me. I turned to see an Ing, armed with a HE rocket launcher, come from the hole in the wall behind us. It fired at my company. The barrier took most of the blast, but it still killed some of us and shut it off.
“Barriers are down! We have to get out of here!” I said as I tried to shoot the Ing. It grabbed the barrel of my weapon and snapped it off, damaging the internal components of the gun. I tackled it and pulled my knife out. It had no chance. I plunged the knife down into its skull. It looked at me with the hatred of a demon. Then it went lifeless.
“Right! On me everyone!” Aseri said running out of the throne room door. My company started following, along with the ponies bringing up the rear. The squadron that started attacking us had seemed to calm down and stopped attacking us. I looked at their captain.
“I need you to relay that you will not be seeing combat, err, Ma’am.” I said while running out of the castle.
“What? We need to fight. This is our capital!” It didn’t seem like she was going to agree to this easily.
“It’s too dangerous. I’m not having any more deaths than what has already occurred.”
When we stepped outside, all we could see was terror. Natives were screaming and running through the streets. Guards were doing their best to protect the city. Gaians were trying to help and eliminate as much Ing as they could, but there were too many. I suddenly heard a voice over the comm link.
“Captain, how’s it going down there?” I heard the frigate fleet admiral ask. I knew it was him because it said so in my visor.
“Terrible, sir. We need reinforcements immediately!” I said. “There’re too many of the bastards.”
I saw a Gaian gunship fly over head and its weapons opened fire on an Ing position to the southwest of us.
“Sir, where should we go now?” Aseri asked.
I looked up at the frigate fleet.
“We need to get up there! We need to get these natives to safety!” I said.
“How would we get up there? Even the ones who can fly would be annihilated by the starfighters up there.”
I looked up into the stratosphere. There were Ing starfighters everywhere. I could tell that it would be suicide if anyone tried to fly up there. I grunted in frustration, and shook my head.
“We need to get our air force up there right now!” I said.
“Isn’t that too high for them?” Isach said.
“Not for our starfighters, it isn’t.” Aseri said.
Suddenly, I heard a distress call from one of the ships above.
“Mayday, Mayday. This is the GSS Aurora. Our reactor has gone critical. These black shapeshifters have infiltrated our ship and have sabotaged it! We can’t hold up much longer!”
“Shit.” Isach said.
“Black shapeshifters? Doesn't that sound like the things that we fought against earlier.” Aseri said. “Sir, what the fuck did we just walk into?”
“You mean changelings?” We all looked over at the taller white native with wings and a horn.
“What’s a changeling?” Isach asked her.
“Its a creature that feasts off of love. It captures or kills somepony, then it disguises itself as that pony. They use this ability well and without flaw and are probably some of the stealthiest creatures alive.” She said. “We were barely able to repel their first invasion.”
I looked at the Gaians trying to hold our location. They were getting pushed back and I could now see Ing trying to push to the castle. We all started firing at them.
“Wait, so these bastards you’re talking about already invaded here?” Isach yelled to the white native.
“We had repelled their attack,” the dark-skinned Princess said, “But they hath the determination of a pest. They knoweth not when they should roll over and die.”
“Well you better get ready to fight them off again! Here they come!” I said, looking at the huge swarm of the creatures speedily heading towards us. They were taking dozens of different shapes, and I saw a few more Isachs and Aseris than I thought possible.
“T-t-theres too many of them, sir.” A Gaian said. “What are we going to do?”
I Pulled out my SMGs. “We can take em.”
I looked back up at our frigate fleet. We were getting pounded. I looked at the GSS Aurora. It suddenly exploded, making a massive explosion and a deafening boom. I looked back at the swarm. I saw a group of about ten of them, plus a bigger one head towards us. They all landed near us. I noticed that one of them was wearing a crown. Everybody held their fire.
“Celestia.” The taller changeling snarled, its eyes glowing green with hatred and envy.
“Chrysails.” The white native said.
“It has come to my attention that our we are now at war with each other. Do you know why?” The changeling said.
She thought a bit before answering.
“No, I don’t. Why?”
“Because, we were at war with the Ing.” I said. “Then they dragged you into this mess. And now you got them dragged into this. And soon the whole fucking universe is going to be fighting against another universe. All because of one single bastard.”
“I think that honor belongs to me, I’m that bastard.” I heard a voice from above. All of us looked up. It was him; Dark Gaia. He was accompanied by fifteen other... I don’t even know what they were. They had bodies that closely resembled a Gaian, but some of them had... horns? Wait, that’s not possible. Could these be dark versions of the natives? They were also all flying, using jetpacks and suits with aircraft-like wings on them so the ones without wings could fly.
“Some of you already know who I am, but some don’t. I am Commander Dark Gaia of all of the Ing forces. I hold all the responsibilities of controlling this-” I cut him off.
“Shut up! We all have militaries here and know how they work. We don’t need a lecture from you!”
“Fine! I’ll cut to the chase. Do you see these squads behind me?” He asked.
“No I’m fuckin` blind. Yes I see them!” I replied harshly. He recoiled from that remark, but then smirked.
Their helmets started unfolding from their heads and folded into a metal square on the backs of their armor.. All the natives faces went paled. The squads accompanying Dark Gaia all looked like all of the smaller ponies in front of me. We all raised our weapons. I pulled out my pistol, and aimed the sights as Dark Gaia’s head.
“A-are you all changelings?” A blue winged native asked.
“No, we are just the true versions of yourselves.” Her double said.
My finger tensed on the trigger when she spoke. They had the exact same voice.
“You’re not the true versions of them. You’re just copies.” I said pointing my pistol at Dark Gaia.
"Fine, prove it." He said. I was at a disadvantage, and I knew it.
“Well, this is the light world, the original realm. And these natives are from it. Thus, they are the originals.” I said.
“But, are they really the originals? Could we both be the originals and this is just a major coincidence?” The purple native wondered aloud. The other natives glared at her, and she smiled weakly.
“Sir, our G-ACV’s are in the air.” An Ing said to Dark Gaia.
I looked up and saw an Ing aircraft that i’ve never seen before. It made a tight turn and scrapped two Gaian fighters. They crashed into a large building, and it imploded, with structural pieces flying into the air before crashing onto the street.
“Sir, is that... is that the JSF?” Aseri asked me.
“It must be.” I replied.
I looked back at Dark Gaia. He was smirking.
“You Gaians are fighting a losing battle and you will be taken down. Surrender now, and maybe I won’t kill your pathetic race.”
“No! We will come out as the winner and end this all! We just want peace and you are taking that away from us. Now look at what you dragged us into!” I said.
“Hah, even if you fought to your very last soldier you wouldn’t be able to take one of us down. How do you expect to win if I have two squads of super soldiers to back me up.” He was winning the argument and I needed to win if I wanted all Gaian soldiers to still have hope.
“We. Will. Win. This. War. And you can take your team of stupid super soldier doubles and go back to whatever place you came from.” I looked at the blue native. She was trying to back me up.
“Rainbow! Don’t!” The purple native said.
“No, we have to fight back!” She turned and pointed a hoof at me. “This was their war, but it just got personal. If you think clones of us are cool, well its not. I don’t want some copies of us fighting for the bad guys and killing tons of good people. I want to be on the good guys side fighting for the right reasons!”
Dark Gaia pointed his rifle at her. “Heh, thats cute, she thinks she can make a stand. I guess I will have to make an example. I would have preferred all the bloodshed to have happened at Trottingham, but it seems you are more resilient than expected.”
Suddenly, visions flashed through my head. I saw things, things that i wasn’t supposed to see yet. I saw all the natives in forms that looked like their clones. I saw them fighting. I heard voices. Strange things that made no sense to be, but one stood out.
“What are you prepared to sacrifice?” The phrase echoed in my mind.
I looked back at Dark Gaia, still pointing his rifle. I could tell he was about to fire. Everybody didn’t know what to do. But I did.
I ran and picked the native up and slid behind cover before any bullets could touch her. At that moment all hell broke loose. Guns started blazing and casualties were already mounting. I produced a barrier over the natives and looked back at the blue one.
“Stay here.” Was all I said.
I looked at my company. Most of them had gotten to cover. I poked my head over cover. I saw Dark Gaia and his squadmates all start flying up. Suddenly, exoskeletons of planes formed around them.
“The JSF.” I murmured to myself.
We started to clear out the remaining Ing. There weren't any heavy units, which was good. But they still posed a significant threat. I took out my submachine guns and fired at them. I saw two go down by my fire, but many still remained.
I looked at the natives in the area. Most of them were fine. A couple guards were shot to pieces by the initial outburst, but the rest were fine. I started firing at the Ing again. Their numbers were dwindling significantly. I was running low on ammo, so I waited under cover and talked to the native.
“Why did you make that stand back there?” I asked her.
“I’m not one to just stand by and watch. Plus, I don't like it when there are clones of me.” She said.
Another vision obscured my sight. I saw us, me and the natives, all fighting. I shook it off.
“You did a damn good job at it. My men weren't even helping me with that one.”
I stood up and fired a burst of gunfire at an Ing trying to retreat back into cover. I hit him in the body four times and the neck twice. He was a goner.
After a minute or so, the area was clear and we all regrouped in the central square.
“Sir, look at this!” Isach came running up to me, an Ing datapad in his hands. I looked at it. It read:
>Corruption Dark Energy Charge
>Model 364 Mk:2
>Status:Ready to detonate
>Location:Crystal Empire
>Additional notes: This dark energy charge is designed to overload power sources from the light realm. This specific model has samples of the natives of this planet in it. When detonated, it will release a dark energy into the power source that will corrupt the area that the power source is powering, consuming it in eternal darkness. Since the crystal empire is powering the whole planet, the whole planet will be consumed by total darkness.
I looked at Isach.
“How do we stop it?” I asked.
“We can’t. Look.”
I looked back at the datapad and looked at the status of the charge. It read:Detonated. I looked off into the distance and noticed a black wall headed straight for us.
“We’ve got incoming.”
>Gaian Files Index
>>Search: File #1
>>>Searching.....
>>>>File Found
>>>>>File Name: Gaian
>>>>>>Notes: A Gaian is a being who walks on two legs, has two arms, has a pair of wings, a tail and knows magic. A Gaian usually learns the ability to fly by the age of eight and understands magic at the age of ten. No Gaian is the same, with them all being different sizes, and colors and having different personalities. While there are different classifications, the strongest and most honored class of Gaian is called a light Gaian. Light Gaians are respected in the highest manner and usually excel at their jobs. If a Gaian is a Light Gaian, it means that when they are born they have no form of darkness inside their bodies. After the war with the Ing started, Gaians started testing newborns and found out that almost all newborns are born with some sort of darkness inside them. It goes away after a month or so, but can last for up to a year. If it continues lingering or growing after a year then the child is killed. This has caused many families to take away their child's’ lives, but apparently this was how Dark Gaia was born. However, we aren’t jumping to conclusions because he could have been brought into existence by other means.
>Gaian Firearm industries file index
>>Search:Carbine
>>>Weapon Name:M82 LAAR (Light Adaptable to Ammunitions Rifle)
>>>>Special Users:Light Gaia #1742:Name:Chip
>>>>>Notes:This carbine is said to be one of the most reliable carbines to ever exist. One of its most helpful factors is that it can use almost any ammo type. It also has the ability to change ammo types into other ammo types by using a panel on the left side of the weapon. It rarely jams and can use a plasma battery or standard bullet ammunition to operate. This feature is rarely seen in modern weaponry. It has a top, side and bottom rail for various attachments. Many Gaian commandos have praised this carbine for its efficiency on the battlefield.
Pain. All I could feel was pain. I opened my eyes. I was on my back, covered by rubble. I pushed the rubble obscuring my vision off me and looked at the sky. It was dark out and the sounds of war echoed throughout the night. I looked around me. No signs of life were near me, which was a good and bad thing. I got up, groaned audibly, and dusted my armor off.
"Isach, Aseri, do you read me?" I said through the comm link in my helmet. They didn't answer.
I pushed all of the rubble off me and got up. I looked for a weapon, since all of mine somehow flew off of my armor. I finally found my pistol on the ground. I loaded it and started looking for what remained of my company.
I walked a few steps until my foot hit something. I looked down. It was my rifle, its barrel still broken. I put it on my back. It could get fixed later. I started off again, running down a street that was torn by war. I couldn’t find any of the natives, which seemed odd. Hell, I couldn’t even find anyone. Even though the distant gunfire indicated that someone was here, it seemed like this place was deserted.
“Aseri, Isach, do you read me?” I asked again through the comm link. They still didn’t answer. I heard a rustling noise to my left, coming from a dark alleyway. I ran into it, not knowing what to expect. There was a door, left partially open. I walked into it and turned on my flashlight on the pistol. I scanned the dark room. I saw no one. I walked up to another door, only to be tackled by a dark figure. It pinned me on the ground and put a pistol to my head. I pushed it off and pointed my pistol at it.
It was the blue native, only she looked much different. She looked like her dark double, only without the dark features. Her skin shined from the flashlight.
“What the hell... how did this happen?” I asked her.
“I-i don’t know. We all woke up and were like this.” She said.
“Why are you using a weapon? Do you even know how to use it?” I questioned her once again.
“Yeah, your friend Aseri taught me how.” She replied calmly.
“Aseri? Where are they?” I asked her.
“Planning a counterattack on the Ing. Follow me.” She walked through a door with me following behind her. We walked through another dark room before entering the room where what remained of my company resided.
"Hey, look who I found." She said gesturing to me.
I walked in and looked at what remained of my company. I started out with ninety men. Now I was down to twenty. They were standing around a hologram that was projecting a map of the city.
Aseri was the first to greet me. "Oh, hey captain. Where were you? We looked all over the place for you."
"I was buried under a pile of rubble. Why didn't you find me?” I asked, sitting down on a barrel.
“We thought you were fighting somewhere else.” Aseri shrugged.
I grumbled. I wasn't too happy about being left behind, but they had their reasons.
"So, what's the plan?" I asked.
"That’s what we're trying to figure out. Every idea we have, the have already countered." Isach said.
"That’s a problem." I said. I looked at the hologram. There were Ing everywhere and we were losing ground.
“How the hell are we even going to turn this around? We’d have to bring in a massive amount of Gaians to push them out of here.” I said.
“Didn’t you have a massive amount of soldiers when you got here?” A white native with blue hair said.
“We did, but if they tried to drop from the sky up there, Ing starfighters would pound them.” A Gaian said.
“Where did our carriers even go after the explosion? Were they disabled?” I asked.
Isach gave me a sorrowful look. “They went down. Every single one of them. There are probably survivors, but they fell from an extremely high altitude.” He said.
“Damn...” I didn’t want to say it, but if the Ing were overpowering us, we might have to pull out.
I looked at all of the things on my HUD. Everything was fine and I was tired of having my helmet on for hours. I took it off and smoothed back the plumes of white hair that made my mohawk. The natives just stared at me. I was confused at first, but then remembered.
"Y-you're younger than them aren't you." The purple native said.
I looked at her. "Yeah, i'm sixteen. They're in their twenties or thirties." I said, gesturing to the remains of my company.
"YOU'RE SIXTEEN? I AM TOO! SO ARE SOME-" The pink native started, but was cut off.
"Pinkie, keep yer voice down!" A orange native with a wide brimmed hat said.
The room fell silent, save for the sound of footsteps coming from the floor above. We all raised our weapons upward.
"What the hell is that?" Isach whispered.
I put my helmet on. "I don't know. Just stay on your guard and-" I was cut short by a burst of liquid flame that came through the ceiling. Luckily, it hit no one, but the room quickly caught fire. I started firing into the ceiling. After a few rounds the fire stopped pouring into the room. But it didn't change the fact that the room was on fire.
"Lets get out of here!" I said.
We ran out of the burning building. Once we got outside, there was a crack of thunder.
"Oh great." Isach said. “Are you kidding me?”
A downpour suddenly came upon us and flooded the area with rain.
"Hehe. This is an easy task for a pegasus like me." The blue native said. She started flying upward, leaving behind a rainbow trail.
"Wait here." I said to everybody on the ground. I flew up to her, getting dangerously close to the storm. I wasn’t worried about the storm though. I was worried about the Ing fighters that could detect us and shoot us down.
"Hey! Get back on the ground. Its too dangerous up here!" I had to yell over the strong winds.
“How is it dangerous? I've been doing things like this my whole life!” She yelled as she kicked a cloud. It disappeared.
I looked at her in confusion. “How did you just...” I shook my head in surrender. “Never mind. We need to get down there now!”
“Why?” She asked.
“Because enemy aircraft can detect us and shoot-” I was cut short as two Ing fighters zoomed past us. They were both the JSF.
“Aw crap.” I said.
“Are those the things you were talking about? Cause they look pretty harmless.” She said.
The Fighters made a extremely sharp turn and fired missiles at the ground, right where my company was.
“Oh come on. We can take em.” The blue native said, smirking at me.
“What? Are you insane?” I said to her. “Look at them!”
"I can easily outfly these things." She said.
“I’ve never flown against an aircraft since basic training.” I told her. She ignored me. Great, I’m in the middle of a storm with a headstrong native who thinks she can control the weather. Some luck I have. One of the fighters zoomed past us. The native fired at it with her pistol.
“You realize that pistol will barely damage that thing." I said, but the JSFs started flying away. I sighed, not believing what I saw.
“Isach, Aseri, you guys okay?” I asked through the comm link.
“Yea, a little bruised up, but we’re fine.” I heard Isach say.
“Hurry up! They’re getting away!” The rainbow haired native said, following the two aircraft.
“She’s insane.” I murmured under my breath as I followed her.
She was faster than I expected and kept up with the two JSFs easily. I flew up next to her.
“You ready?” She asked.
“For what?” I answered.
“This.” She replied. She put on a burst of speed and shot forward, flying into the JSF’s line of sight. Its dual cannons opened fire. She dodged every bullet with amazing agility. She fired two single bullets into the JSF’s cockpit. It ceased fire and began to plummet towards the ground.
The visions kicked in again, and I started seeing things that nobody else would have believed. It was me and her, flying in the JSFs. We were fighting against oncoming hordes of Ing, both on the ground and in the air. The vision left as quickly as it started.
“Hey! Look out!” She said. I looked behind me and saw that the JSF had a lock on me and fired a missile.
“Shit.” I murmured under my breath.
I flew faster and threw a fireball behind me using my magic. The fireball acted as a flare and the missile went off course. I charged up a ball of energy in my hand. The aircraft started firing its cannons. I evaded all of its gunfire, but some rounds came extremely close. I threw the ball of energy straight at the JSF. It collided with it and the JSF went up in a ball of flames.
“Enemy down.” I said.
The rainbow haired native flew up to me. “That was awesome!” She said.
“I know ri-” I looked over and saw a squadron of eight fighters heading straight for us.
“Incoming!” I yelled as they all fired missiles at us.
We both flew straight up. I threw another flare behind me, making the missiles go off course. I looked at the native. She had flown forward, making all the JSF’s go for her. I was about to tell her to come back when another vision hit me like a brick wall. The name “Dashie!” kept repeating in my head.
I flew faster, trying to catch up with them. Once I got in range, I fired a beam of raw kinetic energy at one of the JSFs. The beam struck its wing, tearing it off. It spun out of control and hit a building.
"Got one!" I shouted.
I looked back at the native. She was handling the situation pretty well for being chased by seven aircraft. Using her maneuverability to her advantage, she did a quick turn and caught them off guard. The Ing fighters made one major mistake. They were unorganized and when they tried to follow the native, some of them hit each other, sending them out of control. One crashed into the ground.
She started flying extremely fast, nearing the sound barrier. It was significantly harder for me to catch up with her, but I still flew after her. She went even faster now, forming a cone around her.
The explosion was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. A ring of rainbow spread all around the surrounding land and beyond. All the Ing fighters were suddenly destroyed. I looked around for the native. She seemed nowhere to be seen. I felt a presence behind me and turned around.
“How’d you like that?” She said.
“I-I’ve never seen anything like it.” I sputtered.
My comm link started crackling with static.
“Chip! Chip! Are you alright?” I heard Isach say.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I said. I started flying back to where my company remained. The native followed me.
“It seems like comms are back online.” I said to Isach while listening to the radio chatter.
“Yeah, they are. Do you know what that explosion was though?” He asked me.
“It was the Equestrian.” I said.
“What?” Isach asked critically.
“The Equestrian. She did it.” I answered.
“How?” Isach asked again.
“She broke the sound barrier. I guess they have a ability that allows them to do that.” I shrugged, though I knew he couldn’t see that.
“Oh...” Isach didn’t ask anything more.
We flew in silence until I asked a question.
“How did you do that?” I asked
“Oh, the Sonic Rainboom? Easy. Once I pick up enough speed, it will trigger that blast of rainbow that you saw.” She said. I was about to say something when my comm crackled to life.
“Captain Light Gaia, this is Sergeant Elsear. Did you see that blast?” A masculine voice said through the comm.
“Yes sergeant, I am actually next to the one who caused it.” I said.
“What!? Somebody did that themselves?” He exclaimed.
“You mean some Equestrian.” I corrected.
“You can’t be serious, sir.” Elsear said.
“But I am Sergeant. She also shot a pilot while he was in his aircraft.” I added.
“That’s not even possible.” Elsear said.
“For you, probably not. Now were you just going to just tell me how pretty those rainbows were or did you have something else to say?” I was getting irritated.
“Right. The Ing were heavily damaged from that blast and do not have the firepower to push us around any more. We should get the advantage soon.” Elsear reported, like a good soldier should.
“Good. Is there any word on reinforcements?” I asked him.
“That’s what I’m worried about, sir. If we don’t get reinforcements, we might not get the upper hand and have to pull out of here. And we still don’t have comms up with command yet.”
“That’s never good.” I said as I landed alongside the equestrian.
********
Springhaven, Elyon
December 12 1625 Hours
“Earlier today, a fleet of warships and three battalions got lost and are currently stuck on a planet that suddenly jumped into our solar system.” A high-ranking Gaian officer said. Inside the room, sat the Queen of Elyon, the leader of the Gaians.
“Is there any way to get them back safely?”The Queen of Elyon said.
“We’re not sure, as we lost all comms with them, Your Majesty.” The officer replied grimly.
“Do we know if there are any survivors?” She asked him.
“I would presume that there are some, but I am not entirely sure of that, Your Majesty.” The officer said.
After a long silence, the Queen spoke.
“I’m afraid that we cannot risk a rescue mission. It’s far too dangerous since we don’t know what we’re going up against.” She said.
“There is one thing I forgot to tell you. There was a Light Gaian present at the battle.” The officer said.
The Queen’s ears perked up once he said that.
“There was? Who?” She asked.
“Light Gaian Number Four Thousand Three Hundred and Six. It was Chip, Your Majesty.” The officer answered.
The Queen looked intensely at him.
“Send in reinforcements. Lets pull ‘em out.” The Queen ordered.
“Yes, Your Highness.” The officer bowed, and left the room.
We were running. Retreating from the enemy that I have hated my whole life. Thoughts raced in and out of my head.
What was that weapon?
Did it cause that explosion?
How many men have we lost?
I looked over at my squad. They were also tired and beaten, yet we were running a mile to hopefully get on a VTOL to take us out of here. That is, if the Ing haven't destroyed it already.
Gunfire started raining upon us. A blast knocked me over and separated me from my squadron.
“Chip! Chip!”
“Chip? Chip, you okay?” Isach said.
I shuddered. “Yeah.” I said.
"We should get moving. We're sitting ducks out here." Aseri said.
"Good idea. But first we need to get them somewhere safe." I said.
"How? There's nowhere safe to hide them." Isach said.
"Well, we can't just leave them out in the middle of nowhere while we fight." I said.
My radio crackled with static.
“Captain Chip, this is fleet admiral Carius. how’s it going down there?” I heard through the radio.
“We’ve lost plenty of men, sir. We need reinforcements.”
“Well, good news. We’re coming in with two carriers and five assault ships.” He said. I couldn’t help but smile.
“That’s the best news I’ve heard all day, sir.” I said with a grin.
"Sir, even though we are gaining the upper hand in this battle. Expect enemy reinforcements." I said.
“Guys, whose portal is that?” One of the privates in my company said.
I looked up into the sky and saw a glowing sphere of shades of purple. The nose of an attack carrier poked its way out of the sphere.
More portals started to appear and more carriers and ships were coming out of them.
“Those aren’t ours.” I said dreadfully.
I started speaking through the comm link once again.
“Sir, I have eyes on a fleet of enemy ships in the vicinity.There’s at least fifteen of them. We’re going to need more reinforcements.”
“At least fifteen? Damn. They really must want this planet.” The fleet admiral said.
Upon hearing this I immediately facepalmed and pulled up my tac-pad.
“Sir, have we scanned the planet yet? Do we have live data of it?” I said as I hit a few buttons.
“I believe so, captain. Why does it matter?”
“Because, I need to make sure of something.”
I pressed a button to pull up a hologram. A projected image of the land named “Equestria” popped up. I zoomed in and looked at what areas were under attack.
My ears fell. Every city and town was under Ing control.
“Sir, we’re going to need way more men than I thought.” I said through the comm link.
"What? Why?!"
"Every single city is under Ing control." I eyed the map closely. "I am also seeing a city made out of clouds. How does that even work?"
"I don't know, but we need to focus on how to survive this."
I looked back up at the Ing fleet. They were already deploying units to the ground.
"Sir, they are already deploying! ETA?"
"Three minutes. Just hang in there!"
I heard a loud noise from behind me. I turned around and saw a drop pod with six Ing advancers, heavily armored Ing armed with heavy weapons, and a Destroyer.
"Oh this is just perfect." I said sarcastically.
I flew backwards into cover.
"Everybody get to cover!" I said.
A spray of bullets hit the crumpled wall I jumped behind. All I had was my pistol, so I was basically defenseless against any heavy Ing trooper. Unfortunately, all of these Ing we were up against were all heavy troopers.
The advancers used teleportation powers and suddenly disappeared from my sight as I was peeking around cover. I looked around for them and saw nothing except for some squadmates firing at the destroyer. Suddenly everybody's weapons went silent. I looked back at the destroyer to see what was wrong.
The advancers were back, along with six Equestrians in front of them. They were holding them as shields and were pointing their weapons at us.
“Drop ‘em or i'll blow your fucking head off!” I yelled.
The destroyer chuckled. “You really think you can take us all down with just peashooters? Hahaha, you guys really are weak. You think that you can win this war, but you’re just saying that to encourage yourselves. This war will be over in an instant.”
“NOOO!”
A blonde haired and grey skinned Equestrian with wings came from the sky and dive bombed the ground. A energy blast came from the area she landed on. The ring of energy passed through the destroyer and five of the advancers and killed them all.
I looked at the Equestrian in disbelief before training my sights on the last advancer.
“Get him!” I yelled.
He was already knocked off balance from the blast and dropped the Equestrian he was holding. Everybody at the scene opened fire. Even though we were reduced to small arms, the Ing was almost blown open by all the firepower.
I looked back at the Equestrian who saved the other six. She was just standing there, like she didn't know where to be.
“Hi guys! I haven't seen you in awhile!” she said.
“Derpy? What are you doing here?” The lavender Equestrian asked.
“Well, me and the doctor were out shopping. He said that something seemed off about these things and then there were loud noises everywhere and he told me to run and then there was a loud blast that knocked me out and now i'm here.” She grinned.
“I don’t believe this. Is everyone alright?” I asked.
Everyone looked each other over. We all seemed fine.
“Seems like we’re all in good condition.” Isach said.
“Good because.......” I started to phase out again. More visions. I saw a large force of Equestrians and Gaians all on scene at a massive battle.
“Chip! Chip, what wrong with you?!” Aseri said, snapping me out of it.
“Nothing. Nothing. I’m fine.” I replied.
“You did this earlier. You sure you're okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I said again
I felt it. It was coming closer. They were coming closer and I knew it. I looked off in the distance, into the darkness. There they were, watching, waiting. I shook my head. I thought it must've been another vision. I looked back. I was wrong.
I looked at the group of us. They were confused and some were staring with me. I looked back. They were gone.
“Fucking run!” I exclaimed.
We all scrambled before they could even get to us. I pulled out my knife. My pistol wouldn't do anything. He jumped over me. I readied my knife. They all formed up on him.
“Light Gaia, what lovely weather we’re having today.” He started to waltz in the rain.
“Funny, Dark Gaia. Real funny.” I said. I couldn't taunt him or anything because he had the upper hand in this battle by a long shot.
“No, it’s not funny. It’s terrible. You guys just come in here out of nowhere and think you can just slaughter all of us. You just go around killing just because its fun. Well, let me tell you something buddy. It’s not fun. What would you do if I clicked the trigger?” I looked over. The rainbow haired Equestrian was holding a heavy pistol up to her dark double’s face.
“Don’t!” I said, but it was too late. Her double grabbed her arm, threw her down and took the gun.
“You were saying?” She said.
I wanted to run, but i couldn't. I wanted to fight, but I would get everyone killed. I wanted to scream, but I am not a coward. It seemed like I was out of options.
All of a sudden, we started slowly disappearing. I could tell we were teleporting, but I didn't know where to, or what was teleporting us. I looked at Dark Gaia. He and his squad weren't teleporting.They all started to shoot at us, but were too late. We were already gone.
I looked around. We were in a machine, but it seemed extremely strange. I could sense a couple of different energies floating around in the air.
“Oh, hello. Didn't try to get you all here. Hope I didn't interrupt anything” A male Equestrian said.
“Don’t! They need our help, doctor.” The blonde haired Equestrian said.
"What is this place?" One of the soldiers asked.
"It's called the TARDIS. T. A. R. D. I. S.. Time And Relative Dimension In Space." The brown haired Equestrian said.
"Wait, wouldn't mean that teleportation and time jumping is possible with this?" I asked.
"Yes, it would. Why do you ask?” He said.
I looked at Isach. He looked back at me.
“Sounds like a time relay, doesn't it.” Isach said.
“It does, but this looks much different.” I said.
“You've been in one of those before?” One of the combat engineers from my company asked.
“Yeah. Every light Gaian needs to at least see one.” I said.
“Hey, could you take us up to our carrier? Assuming you could fit this thing into one of the rooms in there.” Aseri said.
“Yes, of course.” I now realized that he had an accent of some sort. I didn't recognize it or where it was from.
“But, first things first. How did you all get on here?” He asked.
“We are as confused as you are.” I answered.
“Could you just take us to the carrier?” Aseri said impatiently.
“Of course. Just one minute.” He said.
He went over to what looked like the control panel. For being an Equestrian, he was very ahead in technology.
“If you're Equestrian, how do you have all this?” I asked him.
“Oh, i'm not Equestrian. I'm a timelord.” He said as he pressed buttons on the control panel.
I heard a noise that sounded like the noise when we teleported away from dark Gaia, but soon enough it stopped.
“Okay, we're here!” He opened the door and stepped out. I followed behind but we ran into a group of soldiers before all of us could even get out of the door.
“Who the hell are you?” One of the soldiers asked the timelord.
“I’m the doctor. Who are you?” He asked.
“You don’t need to know who I am. Now step aside and let us look at this box of yours.” He said.
I looked back at the “TARDIS”. It was a small box. Wait, that can't be right. I looked inside, then back out. Then inside, then back out. I was right, it was bigger on the inside.
I stepped out from behind the timelord. The soldiers saw me and immediately recognized me.
“Light Gaia, sir. It’s an honor. The fleet admiral wanted to get you and get out of here as quick as we can.”
“Thank God. I thought we wouldn't live to get out of this mess.” Isach said.
I looked at Isach, then to Aseri, then to the Equestrians. I took off my helmet.
“We’re not leaving.” I said.
“Why not?” Isach said.
“Look out the window.” I said. There was catastrophe everywhere. Rain pelted down on the ground, soaking everything. Explosions were lighting up distant regions of the city.
“See. Our guys are still out there. Plus, this isn't for our guys, this is for them.” I looked at the Equestrians.
“They aren't just normal civies. Not you guys. You are...different. There’s something special about you all.”
I started having a flashback. It was me as a child. I was being taught about a legend. The legend I was born for. How I would organise a team of six individuals and me. We were all bearers of something special. A team of six......
I looked at the six Equestrians. The ones who had doubles.
“You six, come here.” I said.
They all stepped forward. By now other soldiers had come into the room and there were a significant amount of them watching.
“I...I learned about a legend when I was young. A prophecy. I was born to fulfill it....and I need your help. You see, I am supposed to arrange a team of seven. Six plus me. I now know who i am supposed to choose for my team. I need you guys.” I looked at each ot them. They looked distraught, confused, unhappy and a ton of other negative emotions.
“Count me in.” I heard a scratchy voice say. It was the blue one. We locked eyes, then smiled.
“Ah’m in too. Ah ain't leavin a friend behind.” The orange Equestrian said.
“It sounds scary,” a sheepish voice from the back said, “But I’ll come too.”
“Why leave when there’s still fighting?” The purple one said, “Sounds cowardly to me.”
“Yeah, let’s go!” The pink Equestrian nearly bounced off the ceiling, “Sounds fun!”
“Wait, are you all crazy?” The white Equestrian asked, “We nearly died there, and you want to go back?”
They turned around, and glared at her with the force of a thousand suns.
“Right, let’s go.” She said in a tone more sheepish than the yellow Equestrian, “Sounds lovely.” ***
For the longest time, the Gaian race was not unified. For thousands of years, various warlords with varying amounts of arms and technology vied for total control of the planet. Small conflicts dotted the Gaian homeworld, leaving little time for peace.
That is, until, in the year -3 (Gaian Modern Calendar), the first Light Gaian appeared. He rallied a large group of Gaian under the banner of peace and prosperity. After having gone through millennia of war, many followed the Light Gaian.
But, not everyone wanted to be united. This sparked the three-year long Great Gaian War. The forces under the command of the first Light Gaian fought with the various warlords, who had conjoined to become the Conglomerate of Gaian Brotherhood. The war devastated the planet, until the last Brotherhood stronghold at the Spaceport of Neka fell on what would become the first day of the first year of the modern Gaian calendar.
The Stellar Pioneer was first designed in the year 2789. It went through rigorous testing digitally to ensure that the Gaian Space Fleet wanted a new class of Superfrigates. After being approved by the Head Admiral of the Fleet at that time, Chrege Rezal, actual construction began in 2794. Final construction was completed on the seventh day of the fourth month, year 2802.
The Stellar Pioneer is armed with thirty 30cm Fusion cannons, which fire a bolt of pure energy created by subatomic fusion. Apart from that, it is armed with various arrays of conventional and energy weapons of varying caliber.
The Stellar Pioneer’s fastest speed accomplished was 30 light years an hour, or 30LYH. This was never achieved before by a Gaian naval unit, as the previous top speed was 24LYH, achieved by the Supercarrier Antagonist.
The Stellar Pioneer first saw combat in 2804, when it, along with a fleet of ten other frigates and carriers, came into contact with an Ing fleet numbering fifteen ships in total. Armed with the fusion cannons, the Stellar Pioneer claimed two ships within the first three hours of combat. The battle came to an end sixteen hours after the first shot was fired, when the Pioneer took down the final battlecruiser. Gaian losses, despite achieving victory, were high. Four ships were totally destroyed, while three others reported heavy to moderate damage.
Currently, the Stellar Pioneer is stationed over the Spaceport of Astrild, along with the 6th Naval Warfare Division, along with its sister ship, the Neka, of which the class of superfrigates is named after it.
I looked down at the ground residing thousands of feet beneath me. I looked up at the other drop pods in the bay. We were all hanging there, ready to go down and fight. Even the six Equestrians were on these things, plus their friends. They were all suited up in armor and ready to go. I looked at the blue one with rainbow hair. I learned that her name was Rainbow Dash and she was apparently the fastest flyer in Equestria.
She gave me a thumbs up and smiled. I smiled back.
“I wonder how crazy it's gonna be when we get to the ground.” I heard a voice say through the radio in the drop pods. It was one of the wonderbolts, who I also met and learned about when we were getting ready for deployment. His name was Soarin.
I had also received word that many more reinforcements were on their way. I heard that it was six fleets, with nine ships in each fleet.
“Well, it definitely won't be easy to fight down there now. The Ing are everywhere.” Isach said.
I also got more soldiers under my command. A whole new company, except the survivors of my old one stayed. We had one objective. Take down all AA and Anti ship cannons.
“You all will be dropping in five. Get ready.” A voice said through the comm. I started mentally preparing myself, getting myself ready for the struggle to take back the city. I sat there, bored and tense, and waited. Finally a voice came.
“Drop’s in one minute.”
“Once we get down there, everything will turn to hell. Is everyone ready?” I asked
I heard a ton of affirmatives and yeahs. I put my helmet on. I looked at everyone. They were all sharing smiles and reassuring each other.
“Ten, nine, eight...” I heard the counting. My heart was pounding. I was nervous as hell. I’ve never been dropping while in weapons range of other ships. Enemy ships, that is.
I heard a bang and the whole drop pod bay shook. The enemy ships had the Swallowtail locked and were opening fire. Streams of bullets passed the underside of the ship and anti air guns the Ing had installed on the ground started to open fire on all the airborne ships.
“We just got hit hard, sir!” I saw a group of engineers trying to repair the ship as it was under fire.
“Five, four, three...”
I looked at everyone for the last time. I could tell that everyone was at least a bit nervous.
“Two...”
Oh god
“One...launch!”
We all shot down to the ground. There was gunfire everywhere, with every single round threatening to hit one of our drop pods and kill whoever was inside it.
I started taking fire.
“Shit, they've got me targeted!” I said.
“Me too. A couple others are also being hit!” I heard Rainbow Dash say. I looked at everyone being hit. A couple Gaians, Dash, me, and some wonderbolts were all taking fire.
I looked at the shield levels of the drop pod. They were dangerously low.
“I'm not gonna make it down!” I yelled.
“Me neither! We’re gonna have to hope for the best!” Dash yelled back.
I heard a beeping noise from the pod. That wasn't good. I looked down. A missile was headed straight for me.
“OH SHI-!”
The pod exploded and I was left falling. My personal shielding stayed intact and saved my life. I looked around as I streamlined myself into a forward dive. Dash was doing the same as me, with her pod destroyed as well. I looked at the wonderbolts who were hit. They were doing the same as us. The Gaians, however were not as lucky. Almost all of them who were taking fire had not lived. I could tell that I had lost about seven guys already. I brought my attention back to the ground.
“We’re nearing the ground! Brace for impact!” I said.
“Chip, how the hell? Are you okay?” Aseri said.
“I don't even know.” I said.
I dodged a missile that was locked on to me and fired a bolt of energy at a destroyer on the ground, right on the location that we were supposed to drop at. The bolt blew its armor open, but left it standing. I fired a beam of plasma out of my hand. This time it went down. As we all landed, I landed right on top of an Ing, completely flattening him. I pulled my knife out and finished the job.
Everybody exited their drop pods and readied their weapons.
“How the hell did you survive? I thought your drop pod got destroyed.” Isach said.
“It did, but I was fine. So were the rest without drop pods.” I looked at Dash, then at the wonderbolts. We were all fine.
“Alright let’s get moving!” I yelled to everyone.
We started running but soon ran into a heavily fortified position, with machine gunners everywhere.
“Get to cover!” I yelled.
I readied my rifle and peeked around the brick wall I hid behind. The gunners were a bigger type of Ing, so it would take more firepower to take them down. I fired my underbarrel grenade launcher at one of them. He was blown into pieces. The one next to him saw what happened and directed his fire at me. I ducked behind the wall and heard bullets pound the other side of it. After the gunfire stopped I popped back out and put a few shots into its skull. Some missed but a couple hit. It went down.
Another gunner saw this and started firing at me. I took cover again. An explosion blew up part of the wall, giving me almost no cover to hide behind.
“Help! Help!” I yelled.
An AT soldier fired his rocket launcher at the Ing firing at me, resulting in a bloody mess at where it stood. The firing stopped.
“Good shot.” I heard someone yell.
I looked around the remaining cover. The rest of the company had eliminated the other gunners.
“Move up!” I shouted.
We all started moving up, but were stopped by a destroyer that had jumped from the top of a nearby building down onto the ground.
He started firing into us. We all fired at it. It was taking serious damage and soon enough its shields were down. I saw another drop from the sky and land near us. It opened fire, too.
“Shit! Another one! Take it down!” I yelled.
Some of us changed targets to the other destroyer, while most of us kept lighting up the other one. The first charged a huge energy bolt and fired it straight at me.
I watched as the huge missile flew toward me. Instead of flinching, I fired my own bolt of energy out of my hand. The light and dark energies mixing created an explosion, saving a large portion of my men, but still wounding some.
I opened fire again and the first destroyer went down, leaving the second one. This second one, however, used an invulnerability shield, which is a lockdown shield. It couldn't walk in any direction, but could still turn and fire its weapons. It yelled something and soon there were three more destroyers around us.
“Take em down! Take em all down!” I yelled.
We were in the middle of a bloodbath, with the destroyers cutting through us with their powerful weaponry. I fired at one of them, who was charging up a high powered energy beam. It fired at me. A purple shield appeared in front of me, protecting me and blocking the laser. The dark creature charged me. I put my rifle on my back, pulled out my knife and jumped over it, slowly flipping in midair and sticking the combat knife into its skull. It fell as I landed on the ground
“One down, three to go!” I yelled.
I turned, pulled my smg’s from my hip, and started firing at the next one. He fired a spread of gunfire at me. I put a shield up in front of me. It blocked most of the bullets, but the last few hit me and shut my shields off. An explosion knocked me off my feet. I landed face first into the ground. I slowly looked up. The destroyer had a charged up energy beam and pointed it straight at me.
“This is your end!” He said.
My life flashed before my eyes.
“This is it.” I thought. “This is how I die.”
“We need him alive!” I heard another one say.
I looked up. The destroyer aiming at me changed his aim and tried to fire into my company. Another purple barrier popped up and blocked the blast. I saw who used it. It was a purple equestrian. One with a horn.
I took my rifle off my back, rolled around, and fired at the one who almost killed me. A soldier fired a rocket and hit it in the stomach. It exploded.
“Two down, Two to go!” I yelled, in pain.
I turned to the third one. It fell to the ground as I turned. A Gaian soldier went up to its head and fired one shot into its skull. It, too, was killed.
“Last one! Take him down!” I yelled again.
The last one standing still had his lockdown shield still up and was wreaking havoc upon us.
“Someone shut that shield down!” Isach said.
A combat engineer used a overload power, which overloaded the shields of the destroyer and knocked it off balance.
Everybody opened fire into it. It was quickly eliminated.
“Alright, lets go take down that AA.” I got up and led the way.
We kept moving. I noticed that there was now a marker on my visor that was located on top of the castle. I was guessing that was where the AA was.
We all ran up to the castle doors. I tried to open them, but something was on the other side, preventing them from moving.
“Something’s on the other side. Aseri, go see what it is.” I said.
She walked up and used her x-ray visor system in her helmet.
“The whole hallway inside crumbled. There’s no way we’re getting in from here.” She said.
“Can you see anymore entrances?”
“All of them are loaded with traps that are impossible to disable from the outside. I don't think we can get in, Captain.” She said.
I looked up. The roof wasn't very high up. An easy flight distance, for most of us.
I turned around.
“We have to fly onto the roof. Who of the equestrians can fly?” I asked.
Some raised their hands. Some didn’t.
“I think I can teleport the rest of us up there.” The purple equestrian with a horn said.
“You saved my life earlier. Twice, actually. Thanks for that.” I said “When you see us get up there and hear gunfire, go up.”
I took off and started flying upward. The roof was nearing, but my wings were already getting tired.
“Flying upwards sucks.” I thought to myself.
I raised my rifle and flew above the roof. I fired at the Ing operating the pylons that powered the anti-air guns. Since they weren’t expecting an attack, they were slow to react, and were wiped out quickly. The guards were also slow, and they were taking a lot of fire. The other equestrians teleported in and finished off the rest.
“Admiral, we have taken down the AA. What are our orders?” I asked.
“We have gotten intel that there is a portal to another world nearby. If the intel is correct, that world has some Gaian POW’s on it. We need you to save them, but don't linger around in there. I recommend that you go in with a few others, but no more than five. You are going to have to remain unseen. If you get caught, your chances of making it back will be extremely slim. I'm marking the portal on your HUD.” He said.
“Yes, sir. Isach, Aseri, you guys are coming with me. The rest of you go back to the carrier. I’m sending out a beacon for a transport.” I pressed a button on my tacpad.
I jogged to a door and opened it for Isach and Aseri, who went in. I got back in front and led the way. It was pitch black in the hallway, and for a second I had trouble navigating through the halls. It wasn't long before Aseri used an illumination spell, which created an orb of light above her head. I looked back at the marker. It was very close, with a door blocking it.
“Its through that door.” I said.
I looked at the door. It was definitely Ing tech, not normal equestrian doors.
“Isach, see if you can hack that.” I ordered.
He went up to it and pulled out his desynchronizer.
“How the hell did they manage to install this with such little time? I don't even see how they would get power to this door with equestrian tech.” He said while hacking into its systems.
“Just get the damn thing open.” I said.
“Alright...Got it!” He said, lifting it open.
We stood in front of the portal.
“Lets go, but be ready. We don't know what's waiting on the other side.” I said.
We all entered the portal.
The first thing I felt when I got out was the pain of hitting the ground. I looked around as I got up. We were in a jail of some sort. The place was strange, with the only light source being two strips of blue light beams on either side of the room. They were in the ground, and looked like they belonged in some sort of advanced chamber, not a jail. It was a long hallway, too. There must've been at least fifty cells.
“This must be it.” I heard Aseri say.
I looked into the cells around us. All of them contained Gaian remnants.
“Damn. These must've been the prisoners.” Isach said.
“All of our brothers and sisters, killed off by the Ing.” I said as I walked, looking into every cell and seeing the same thing. “We need to turn this war around, fast.”
“How? We can turn it around easily if we play our cards right, but I don't see how we could do it fast. For god’s sake, Chip, this war can take fifty more years!” Isach said.
“I know that, but there must be a way. Just some way that we can hit the Ing where it hurts.” I said.
I got to the end of the hallway and looked into the final cells. The right one, again, contained rotting corpses. The left one had a body slumped in the very back of the jail cell, with its hands and feet tied. I looked at it and noticed that its chest was moving. It was breathing
I opened the doors.
“Hey, we’re here to help.” I said.
It looked up. It was a Gaian female.
“Y-you finally came. Just as the legends foretold.” She said. She was obviously in pain.
“I-I don't understand.” I said.
“Oh come on, you can't tell me that you don't know the ancient scriptures.” She said.
I turned around.
“She might have lost her mind by now. There’s nothing about this in the legends.” I said.
“Chip...” The POW said. “I know who you are.”
I looked back at her.
“What?”
“You’re the one, right? The one who’s supposed to save all things light and protect them for eternity. Lux Aeterna as the legends call it.” She said.
Lux Aeterna. The words always hit me like a brick wall. I started having another vision.
We were fighting, but were surrounded. The Ing had us outnumbered and outgunned from all sides. I turned to her. There was a shot fired, louder than all the rest.
“Merri!” I shouted.
“Chip, snap out of it, there are Ing coming!” Isach hissed, shaking me.
I heard footsteps approaching from the stairway.
“Quick, turn off your suits and hide in the cells.” I hissed.
I dropped into the cell with the POW, while the others hid in the cell across from us. We all turned off our suits.
Turning off a suits systems will make it nearly impossible to effectively fight in, but we had to because every combat suit has lights on it that can give away a unit’s location. If we decided to leave them on, there would be no point to hiding.
“Have you seen all of the new armor configurations? They look sweet!” One of them said. I looked at them.
“Changelings. Damn them.” I thought.
“Yeah, I should be getting next week.” The other said.
They walked down the jail hall in silence. I noticed that as they walked, the colors in the hallway changed from blue to red. Soon enough they were back in front of the cell I was in.
“Wait, is that one still alive?” One of them said.
“Yeah, shes been locked up for a good time now. Two years if i'm correct.” The other said.
What? Two years? I would never be able to stay sane if I was held for that long.
“What do we do with her?” The first one asked.
“Well, she’s fine here, I don't see her getting out anytime soon.” The other one said.
They walked back upstairs. We all turned our suits back on.
“You’ve been here for two years?” I asked the POW.
“Yup.” She said.
“You’re kidding.”
“Nope. I was captured on my first mission when I was fourteen. Now i'm here.”
“Well, you’re not a prisoner anymore.” I cut her binds. “Can you walk?”
She got up.
“Yeah, I should manage. I got a little to eat a few hours ago so hopefully I won't collapse.”
“You managed to find food? How?” I asked.
She turned invisible.
“This is how.”
I turned around.
“How long can you do that for? It must take a good amount of mana.” I said.
“Yeah, after a while it will start to eat up my reserves, but I can hold it for ten minutes max.” She said.
“Well, that’s a lot better than I can do.” I said.
She nodded.
“Lets get out of here, man. I really don't feel like getting caught.” Isach said.
We all started towards the portal. I walked up to it, my nose basically touching it.
“So, how are we getting out of here?” Aseri said, remaining calm.
“We’ll find another portal. It might be far, and we have no idea where another one is, but its our best shot.” I said.
“Plus, I know my way around this base. But let me tell you, its a lot different than what it looks like back at home.” The POW said.
“You know, we’ve never learned your name.” I said.
“Merri.”
Another vision overcame me.
“Incoming!”
A nearby explosion tore a tank apart.
“We’re under heavy fire, we won't hold out much longer!”
“Hey Chip, you home?” Isach asked.
“Sorry, uh, I was just zoning out, that’s all.” I said.
“No you weren't.” Merri said.
“It’s what I said. He’s having glimpses of the future. It can happen to us sometimes.” She said.
“Us? It’s never happened to me before.” Aseri said.
“Yeah, me neither.” Isach said.
She pulled up her sleeve, exposing the glowing mark of a light gaian on her shoulder. “I meant us light gaians.” She said.
A small smile appeared on my face. “I knew there was something about you ever since you spoke. You knew me somehow. But from where?”
A sly smile appeared on her face. “The legends. They told of you, that you were coming.”
“You mean the same ones that told me that i'm supposed to save the world?” I asked.
“Exactly. Throughout my travels to get food up above, I've found many parts of the legends. They were all broken and separated, but I took them and put them together. That’s how I knew you were coming.”
“Huh. I thought those stories only went as far as telling me that I was supposed to save the light world. I had no idea that there were more of them.” I said.
“Apparently they go so far as to telling what happened, and what's going to happen in the whole war.”
“That’s impossible. How could have our ancestors predicted this whole thing?” Isach chimed in.
“No idea, but we can't stay here forever. We have to find a way out.” I said.
“Yeah, about that....” Merri’s voice trailed off.
“What?”
“I’ve looking for a portal for months, and haven't found any around here. The only way they open and close portals around here is from the outside.”
“Wait....that means that someone closed the portal we went in from the outside. It didn't just destabilize.” Aseri said.
“But we checked. There were no life forms in the castle.” Isach said.
“And all the places that you could get in were blocked and if they tried to get in from the roof, our forces up there would tear them apart.” I said.
There was a long silence.
“Changelings....” I murmured
“Huh?” There were looks of confusion among the others.
“Changelings.” I started, “The fleet admiral put together our company. He made sure that he put a couple of changelings in there with specific orders-”
“You know, that seems pretty far fetched.” Isach said.
“But wasn't he acting a little strange? He wasn't even a little worried when were outnumbered by all those Ing ships. I think Chip may be right.” Aseri said.
“Anyway, He gave the changelings specific orders: make sure that they close this portal. The fleet admiral and many other high ranking officers are dead, replaced by changelings in their form. They closed the portal and since they’re all working together...” My voice trailed off. I went pale under my fur.
“Get down!” I yelled as streams of dark plasma and hot lead flew down the jail hallway. There were three Ing who stood where the portal once was.
“Ion grenade is live!” Isach said as he threw one down the hall.
It exploded and the gunfire stopped.
“All clear!” Isach said, poking his upper body out of cover.
“Get back!” I yelled. I could tell that there was still one left. They don't die that easily. A shot rang out, piercing Isach’s shields and hitting him in the shoulder.
“AHH! I’m hit!” He screamed.
“Shit.” I said, looking over to see what had happened.
“Chip, where’d Merri go?” Aseri asked.
I looked back. She was gone. I heard a noise from where the last Ing was. I looked down the hall. Merri was busy slitting the Ing’s throat with his own knife.
“Good kill.” I said.
There was the sound of laughing over the radio, accompanied by a voice.
“I knew you weren't as stupid as they say you guys are.” The voice said. It was the fleet admiral.
“What have you done with the fleet admiral?” I questioned.
“I slit his throat and left him floating in space. Soon, you will all join him in the afterlife. And your little squadron thats supposed to save the world will join you as well.” The changeling said in a mocking tone.
“Where are they? Where are the Equestrians?” I asked. If this Changeling thought we were as good as dead, he wouldn't mind telling us info that wasn't going to matter.
“We have taken them through another portal. Once we capture you four, you will all be executed by the Nox Squadron themselves.” He said menacingly. He was trying to scare us and make us lose hope. It wasn't working.
“Who’s this Nox Squad?” I asked.
“You don't know about them? Dark Gaia and-” I cut him off.
“Oh I know them all right.Those bastards.” I muttered.
He chuckled “We’ll see about that. Well, it’s been fun, Chip. I can't wait to slaughter the Gaian civies as they cry out for their dead leader to save them.”
“We’ll send every last one of you to hell, mark my words” Merri said into the comm link.
He cut the comm link off.
“Damn them, damn them all.” Isach said, wincing.
“Okay, first things first, we need to find those Equestrians.” I said.
“They were probably put in the containment area, its to the northeast once we get out of here.” Merri said.
“What about me? Do you know where any medical kits are or anything?” Isach said, clutching onto his shoulder. He was a pretty tough guy, and was hit pretty hard.
“If I knew, half this prison would still be alive.”
I walked over to him. “How bad is it? Can you tell?” I asked.
“Well, it hurts like hell, can't really tell much.” He said.
I looked at the wound. “Oh, you’re fine, it was a energy wound, with the weapon set on medium power. It wasn't meant to kill you. Just meant to disarm you.” I said.
I put my hand over it.
“What are you doing?” He asked.
“Helping you.” I said as a green light shone from my hand. The wound started closing.
“Whoa, how’d you do that?” He asked when I finished healing him.
“Advanced Magic. Took me awhile to learn it.” I replied.
I looked around. The dimly lit jail seemed odd for being an Ing jail. The red and blue light strips were obviously not Ing tech, and it worried me.
“Merri, what is this place exactly?” I asked.
“What do you mean?” She looked back at me, and cocked her eyebrow.
“I mean, this place isn't an Ing jail. It can't be. Whose world is this?” I asked her.
“No idea,” she answered, “but it’s not the Ing’s. Plus, I think they’re making allies with whoever’s world this is.”
“Why didn't you tell me that earlier? C'mon!” I started to run for the stairs leading out. Something knocked me off my feet. I belly-flopped onto the ground.
“Don't go up there, there are Ing everywhere. You’ll need an invisibility spell for that!” She said.
I rolled over.
“Then how do we get out of here?” I asked.
“I’m guessing that there’s some kind of secret door.”
“Well, lets find it.”
I got up and started looking through the jail cells, doing my best to ignore the rotting corpses of Gaians. After five grueling minutes of searching, someone finally said something.
“I think I found something.” Aseri said. She pressed against a wall near the back of the jail, the wall moved, but wasn't going to open any time soon. I looked at it, and back at her.
"It's magically locked. Since when do the Ing use magic?" I said.
"This isn't good man. If they use magic, and are making allies...what do we do?!" Isach exclaimed.
"We fight until the end." Merri said, pressing her hands against the wall. There was a unlocking sound and the secret door opened. We all stood there, wide eyed, looking at her.
"How?!" I exclaimed.
"A cloaking spell and eavesdropping. That's how." She said.
I looked at her, dumbfounded.
“Well, we don't have all day.” She said impatiently.
“Let’s get moving.” I said to everyone.
We walked down a long and dark hallway, with no light sources around save the dimly lit lights on our suits.
“What the hell is this place?” Isach said to no one in particular. No one answered and an eerie silence remained.
I had my gun at the ready, expecting anything to pop up and attack me. We were in hostile territory now, and it made me nervous.
We soon came to a set of large doors. I kicked them open and aimed my rifle inside. I was greeted by the surprised faces of a ton of pastel colored Equestrians.
“Nice to see you guys here.” I said once I noticed that it was the same ones that were fighting alongside me. No one replied. Some looked like they lost all hope.
“Thats more like it.” I said “Now lets move.” I proceeded through another door, with no idea where I was going. After wandering through another hallway, I came to another door. I opened this one and looked inside.
There were four pods on the sides of the room. It was circular, and seemed strange. We all walked inside, with the door closing behind us. I looked for a way out. There didn't seem to be one.
Suddenly the pods opened and four creatures walked out. They wore strange clothing, walked on two legs, and appeared similar to a gaian, minus the fur and wings. I also noticed their ears looked much different and were in different places. The creatures appeared to be female. They walked up to me first and started deconstructing my armor. I wanted to retaliate, but something told me not to.
They stripped me of most of my armor, but left on my chest plate, my boots, and my armored pants. They started to put different armor on me. I felt lighter with it on me. I looked and noticed that it had merged and fused with my old armor. They proceeded to do this to the rest of us until all of us had this new armor.
“Have fun at the games, program.” One of the creatures said.
“Games, what games?” I asked. She didn't reply.
“What do we have to do?” I asked.
“Survive.” She said.
I reached for my rifle but found that she had taken all of our firearms. I had no idea what she meant. What games? What was going to happen? Would we really die if we weren’t careful?
“Shit, we’re unarmed.” I said, looking at the usual spots for arms. The rest noticed this too. The platform we were on started rising.
“Oh God, what the hell is this?” Isach said.
We reached the top and were greeted by a crowd of people, cheering. I looked across the arena. There stood another team, their armor had strips of orange lights, as ours bore our own colors. They started running at us and threw sticks from their belts in the air. They grabbed the sticks in midair. Bikes formed around them and they zoomed between us, with the less fortunate having to jump out of the way and avoiding an early death.
I looked at Isach, and we found grins on our faces. When we were younger, we used to ride motorbikes all the time. This was one of our specialties. He taught me how to ride and I eventually became better than him.
“Lets do this guys!” I exclaimed, running forward. I did the same as our opponents and soon found myself on a bike, just like theirs. A helmet came over my head from the armor on my back.
One of the bad guys drove in front of me, an orange beam shooting out of the backside of his bike. I jumped over it. I quickly discovered that there was a radio in the helmets. I also noticed that most of my side was still standing there, almost getting killed by the bikes.
“Hey, don't just stand there, we gotta take them out.!” I said.
Another one cut in front of me. Instead of jumping it, I turned and drove beside him. I punched him in the head. He wasn't expecting this at all from me and fell off the bike, landing on the orange energy that was coming from the back of it. He shattered into little pieces.
“Don't touch the energy coming out of the bikes, It’ll kill you!” I said.
I looked on the information panel on my bike. I saw a button. I pushed it and felt a burst of speed. I looked behind me and there was my own red beam of light, coming from the back of my red striped light bike. I discovered the name through the HuD on my helmet.
“Lets do this.” I murmured under my breath. Isach pulled up beside me.
“How’d you do that?” He asked.
“Everybody, once you are on your bike, press the button on the right! It’ll make that light trail.” I said. He did as I said and soon had a green light trail behind him.
“Woo! Lets do this guys.” He said.
We sped around the large arena, looking for targets to seek and destroy. I found one of them, trying to take out some of our guys. It seemed like he was showing off, performing tricks on his bike.
"Let's take him out." I said to Isach. He nodded.
We both came up beside him, on either side of him. Isach sped way ahead of me and turned to the left, blocking his path. I turned to the right and jumped over Isach's energy beam. This completely blocked the enemy off and he helplessly crashed into the two beams.
"Yeah! Lets keep taking em out!" Isach laughed gleefully. It sounded like he was having the time of his life.
"What are these guys anyway? They definitely aren't Ing." I heard Aseri's voice over the radio.
"You're right, the body shape is off, and their ears are on their head, like ours." I replied.
"These can't be our own guys. They saw us and started attacking!" Isach said.
"Could they be Equestrian?" Aseri asked.
"Nah, definitely not us. I don't see any of them using magi-" She was cut off. I looked over at where she was. She was falling.
"Rainbow!" The purple one yelled.
"Shit." I said
I looked over where she was hit. For some reason she decided to fly instead of ride one of these bikes and something shot her down.
"Anyone see what hit her?" I asked.
"I think it was a bolt of kinetic energy. Only unicorns can use kinetic bolts like that!" The purple Equestrian said. A bolt of orange energy flew past me, barely grazing my shoulder.
"Shit, they're using magic!" I yelled. I looked behind me. There was one of them right behind me, going in for the kill
“There’s one behind me!” I yelled, turning to the right. He turned after me, right on my six. Another bolt of energy went right over my head. “Oh fuck.”
I looked back again, this time turning to the left. In his hand was a very large bolt of energy. I needed to do something fast to survive.
"Someone, get him off my tail!" I yelled.
"I'm trying! These guys really don't want us alive!" Isach yelled.
I looked at the HUD in my helmet. It read [missile] at the top of it. It started beeping slowly.
I ignored it and turned left. I saw a ramp leading down to a lower level of the arena. I went for it.
"Chip, he's right behind you!" Merri said.
I turned around. She was right. He was about to fire the large bolt of energy at me. I jumped off my bike, started flying, turned on my back, and fired a quick bolt of my own. It hit him in the chest as he fired his and his went off target. It ended up hitting another one of his teammates.
“Good kill!” Aseri said.
I flew close to the ground and deployed my lightbike again. We were still in trouble with those mages around. I looked at one of them. A horn surrounded by armor appeared on his helmet.
“I think those are Equestrians. Look!” I said.
I saw two more riding beside each other. Wings suddenly appeared on their backs and they started flying.
“Yup, they’re definitely Equestrian!” Isach said.
The ones who were flying held out their sticks. Small jets appeared around them.
“That’s just not fair.” I said in a low voice. The jets started strafing the ground.
“Get to the lower levels!” I yelled.
“Has anyone recovered Rainbow?” An Equestrian asked.
“Ah got ‘er!” Another answered with an accent of some sort.
“Those jets are giving us some trouble!” Merri said.
I looked at one of them. He was closing in for the kill on Merri.
“Merri, look out!”
Suddenly, there was a large explosion, taking out several ground targets and a jet.
“What the hell?” Isach said. Now, I was starting to get annoyed by Isach, as it seemed all he was doing was sitting around and asking what the hell was going on.
My train of thought was broken when another explosion cracked the sky, this one hitting another jet and taking out a few more. The crowd started booing, thinking that this was some sort of cheap shot planned by us.
“Captain Chip, do you hear me?” A voice said over the radio.
“Who is this?” I asked.
"Three shot down! This is Second Lieutenant Henna.” The voice said. “We are coming to assist you!”
"Thanks for the help Lieutenant! This is Captain Chip!” I replied.
“Wait, did he say Chip? Like the light Gaian Chip, in the prophecies?” Another voice said.
“Thats my name.” I said.
“Ember, focus on the mission!” Henna said.
“Right, Sorry Lieutenant.” The one seemingly called Ember replied.
“Alright, Ember, Jackils, you guys are up in the air with me. Markar, Cyrus, you guys go on the ground. Eliminate all targets!” Henna said. I already liked her leading capabilities.
I looked to my left and right. Everyone found out how to use the bikes and formed up on me. I looked up. Henna and her squad were in a formation too.
“Everyone, lets do this! Break formations!”
We sped off.
Gaian File Database 0516…..
Weapon systems and Ammunition…..
Standard Grade Ammunition: This type of ammunition is very well rounded and does not negatively affect the round or the firearm in anyway. It is a very poor round against Ing, but is one of the most frequently used ammo types across the Gaian front.
Electro Ammunition…..
This type of ammunition has been frequently updated again and again because of many negatives when the round misfires. The first electro rounds used would frequently jam the gun and could heat up while jammed, melting important components of the weapon.Now they have been updated to a point where there are rarely weapon jams and they work very well at taking down Ing.