//-------------------------------------------------------// Sentinals: a squads respite -by Techpriest Eh- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// Prologue //-------------------------------------------------------// Prologue In the ruins of an earthen city, the roar of engines could be heard as a large airship appeared with a loud crack, the ship looked like a regular age of exploration ship(not a game ship, but time reference) but without sails and more made of metal then wood with a black balloon on top keeping it afloat, 4 engines and propellers were connected by thick support struts and the engines pulsed with energy as they effortlessly kept the ship moving forward, four 50mm cannons scanned the sky for bandit airships while the deck was busy with action as men ran to there post jump stations. Coils of rope were thrown over the side but still connected to the ship as they unwound, as they hit the ground 6 soldiers stepped up the ropes and rappelled down to the ground, one by one the soldiers went down and upon hitting the ground they aimed there weapons outwards, looking for any signs of there infected people. as the final soldier reached the ground the ship's ropes wound back up as the soldiers on the ground dispersed and started looking for survivors that weren't infected. "Eagle's nest this is Eagle 4, we've found remains of a survivors camp, looks new but there were no survivors, and the infected have already moved away," a soldier named james reported in as he searched an abandoned camp filled with bodies of both survivors and infected, suddenly gunfire lit up the street as a soldier opened fire upon a group of infected that had walked into sight, "You idiot," someone shouted over there comms as the infected started swarming towards the group, the once deadly silent city was lit up with the sounds of gunfire as the soldiers attacked the infected, "Eagle's nest this is eagle 5, we've been compromised, we are reporting back to the drop zone for pick up, over," LT miller shouted over his radio as they fought there way to the drop zone, just before they reached the zone, an infected grabbed james and tried to bite him only to receive a 7.65mm bullet to the face as another soldier killed it, "Thanks," James said to the soldier, "no pro- urk," the soldier was cut off as a spike pierced his neck, before anyone could react he had died by drowning on his blood. "Ah fuck it, Jerome, we just lost the sergeant, think you can help us with that fancy rifle of yours," James said into the comms and was answers by a loud bang accompanied by an infected's upper body exploding in a shower of gore as a anti-tank rifle round ripped through it. Just before James could react, the whole squad vanished and re appeared on the ship underneath a glowing gem that was spinning, "eh, what the fuck was that," a soldier asked as he took off his helmet and threw up into a bin, "that was the teleporter we have been working on, we have enough power to do one more jump before the gem corrupts and becomes inert," a mechanic to the side said with amusement at the soldier throwing up. suddenly over the intercom a voice started to talk, "All personal, we are about to flash to the next city, i want you ready for departure in 5 minutes, and keep the children out of the armory will you, that will be all," the voice concluded before a siren started screaming, "Fuck, we have an infected on the ship," muttered a James as he quickly reloaded his rifle before jogging to where his helmets HUD is saying the infected is, "God damn it, this is Melinda's room," exclaimed Miller before he broke the door open, inside the squad saw the old lady known as Melinda with the signature rotten skin of the infected, as soon as he saw her he pulled out his pistol and aimed the old lady, "guys, Melinda's the infected on board the ship," he said before firing a whole clip straight into her before he reloaded and holstered his gun. as soon as he turned around they could tears on his face, they all felt sympathy towards him as she had used to look after him before the infection(infection started 17 years ago in the story). suddenly the ship rocked as though it was hit by an explosion, "Uhh, everyone... we may have run into a slight technical difficulty, as soon as we flashed the teleporter went haywire and blew up, whats gonna happen is we're gonna die, pierce the barrier between worlds, or just explode horribly," the announcer said before the ship rocked again. [canterlot, equestria] "Princess Celestia," a biped being shouted as he ran into the throne room, "princess, something from the human world has breached the veil," he said as he bowed to the princess, "hmm, Guard, gather 50 of your finest unicorns, we have a possible threat to equestria," she said as she stood up and walked into the courtyard, as she looked up at the sky above canterlot she saw a portal open and spit out an airship, on the side of said airship was the writing 'hells fury', when the ship appeared the pegasi guards around her shot off at the ship, before they reached the ship she heard the sound of muskets firing and saw her guards were firing at the ship, before they could they were shot down by an unknown enemy. before she could even frown a slot opened in the hull of the ship and a small grey box appeared out the hole, "Attention unknown beings, surrender now as you have just initiated war with the final remains of the human race," a voice came from the ship, 'the final remains, but there were billions last i checked,' celestia thought before using a spell to see earth, what she saw made he gasp in shock, every city was filled with evil creatures, "Guards, fire the cannons at them," she heard the guard captain say. before she could stop them the cannons fired, ripping holes into the ships hull. //-------------------------------------------------------// chapter 1: Wrath of the machine //-------------------------------------------------------// chapter 1: Wrath of the machine The cannon tore a hole through the hull of the airship, as the cannon ball left the the ship on the other side, sirens started blaring out into the day light, cannons immediately took aim at the cannons on the walls and ground before firing, each shot rocked the ship to it's side before the engines fixed the problem and the ship tilted back up right, on the ground was another matter as the guards jumped away from the cannons as they blew up from the HE rounds impacting, loud cracks rang out from the 'hells fury' as the dirt around the ponies hoof's blew up in small clouds of dirt, Celestia, deciding to end the battle cast a shield spell then amplified her voice with magic, "HUMANS, HOW DARE YOU SHOW UP AND ATTACK US OUT OF NO WHERE, YOU WILL SURRENDER NOW OR BE KILLED," she shouted at the ship before a larger cannon was aimed at the shield, said cannon fired and celestia smirked at the thought that they could beat her shield with a cannon, what she didn't count was that this shell was a depleted uranium shell, and as we all know, radiation cancels out magic, the round went straight through the shield as if it was just water and celestia had to teleport her guards away before they were killed, suddenly 6 ropes swung down from the side, and before her very eyes, soldiers started to zip down the ropes. [Hells fury, main deck] "James, we have a situation," shouted miller as he ran on to the top deck with his custom built ak47 strapped to his back, he was wearing Australian DPCU while his gun was painted a blood red with luminescent paint that dimly glowed in the afternoon light, the ak47 itself had an acog scope with a bayonet coated in a luminescent purple that also glowed in the afternoon light, on his hip was a m1911 pistol painted the same as the Ak47 but had a laser sight attached to the barrel, JAmes was wearing Swat armor, complete with gas mask and riot shield on his back, His gun was a MK14 EBR rifle with a Cobalt paintjob and white finish. the cobalt paint also glowed from the paint, he had an acog scope with a black bayonet, his gas mask also glowed from cobalt colored paint, "Yeah what is it?" asked James, his voice muffled by the mask, "That portals pooped us out above a city, they are demanding our surrender, i'm surprised you didn't hear them." Miller said before looking over the edge, at the strange beings, "Meh, wait hold up..." james started as he put his finger to his ear before nodding and grabbing his gun, "The captain has ordered us to open fire on them," he stated before taking aim and firing at the ponies on the ground. It was here that he forgot what was happening and suddenly awoke(or awake as much as you can from having a bloodlust filled moment) on the ground with his weapon facing a pony in armor but had a large plume of purple on it's helmet. The pony charged up it's horn before firing a bolt of pure energy at James, before he could dodge the spell hit him and sent him back a few meters, "Ooohh that hurt," James moaned as he got up, the pony just stood there with an open mouth, James just smirked before taking aim and firing at the pony... but didn't hit as the pony teleported away just before the bullet could hit, at this he attached his bayonet and charged the pony, when he was in range he went to stab the pony in the gut but was blocked. after the block he decided to draw his pistol, when he had his pistol he aimed at the ponies leg before firing, the bullet tore through flesh and bone before exiting the other side and impacting into the dirt, "I would offer you a hand but you need more of a leg," James joked before knocking the pony unconscious. As he looked around he noticed that the rest of his squad were knocking out the remainder of the guards and had cuffed the princess, "now, why did you attack us when we simply got pooped out of a portal" he said before noticing a purple energy bolt flying into his face, "SHIT the Sgt's down, get him back to the ship," shouted miller before he grabbed his rifle and firing at the castle hoping to keep whoever hit James down in cover, "HQ this is Sentinal team Raven we need a cannon strike on the castle asap," he said into his radio, "Team raven this is HQ, Cannon fire is confirmed, cannons have permission to fire," a voice crackled back before the cannons on the ship fired at the castle. *THUMP* THUMP* THUMP* the cannons resounded as the HEAT rounds left the chambers, *BOOOM* the castle wall was destroyed with 6 other ponies hiding behind a fallen statue, "Go round up the enemy survivors, i will deal with these 6," Miller ordered as he grabbed his AK47 and marched up to the 6 hiding ponies, "Why... why are you doing this," asked the yellow one, "because your guards started it," he Growled before pulling out some handcuffs, "Now you are going to be cuffed then trialed for war crimes, Don't expect an easy sentence" he said to the purple pony before going to cuff the yellow one, as he got closer the yellow one started to cry before Miller got tackled by a rainbow blur, "You big bully, don't you dare make fluttershy cry again," she snarled as she punched Miller in the face repeatedly, "Hey guys, may wanna check on Miller," stated a soldier as he ran towards the Rainbow pony, "Get off my LT you piece of shit," he shouted before ramming into her side, hearing a deep crack. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 2: Reports //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 2: Reports James blinked his eyes to clear the blurriness that accompanies you after waking up, "God my head hurts," he groaned as he sat up, his stiff muscles screaming in protest, "Sir i'm going to have to get you to sit down," a doctor with a trench coat said as he walked with a clipboard in his hand, "If you were a regular human that blast would've killed you, only reason your alive is because your a sentinal, that virus really works wonders in healing and combat prowess," the doctor said with a sigh, "Oh right, i forgot to introduce myself, My name is medical officer David, you've been down here with multiple fractured and broken ribs and your arms were completely boneless, don't worry though, we've replaced the bones with a ceremite bone and have added in B3 nanite's to replace the one's lost in the field," David rattled on with great detail before remembering his patient, "Listen doc thanks for patching me up but whats the status on the ship," the previously injured man said as he winced at the stiffness in his jaw, "well the ships hull has taken a large amount of damage, exactly 40% was destroyed, engines are running on back up power and we lost 4 civilians..." the doctor started to scowl, "4 children at the age of 5 were killed by the cannon ball, your son was among them," that one sentence had made something within the wounded soldier snap. "I"m GOING TO FUCKING KILL THEM ALL!" James roared as he got and and ran down to his room, when he opened the door he saw the purple mare that had almost killed him, she looked shocked when he burst in, "Whats going on," the mare asked confused before turning to fear as James held his pistol and leveled the sights to aim at her head, "I'm going to kill you, first you kill my son, then you almost kill me with that stupid powers you have," he said as he walked closer to her with the gun still aimed. Before he could pull the trigger he was tackled by two men wearing a band on their arm that said Security, "Sir, calm down and please return to Medical ward," an aged man said to the angered soldier who kept struggling against the two others, "Never, her kind killed my son and 3 other children," he snarled with venom before spitting at the mare who flinched as the offending wad of saliva splat against her face, "Sir, stand down or we will knock you out," the younger of the two guards said, "Fine, but she is leaving my room now," James said with a defeated tone before he holstered his pistol and turned around. [Bridge] The bridge was in chaos as men scurried around like flies buzzing around a meal(not the best reference idea thing) and reports who rattled off like gunfire, "Sir, the forward gun battery is at 80% ammo and the ammo refill system is working at 100% the hull is at 40% stability, we lost 20% in a previous fight and 40% just now," the ships AI said into the captains private intercom, "Fine, we are going to release the prisoners then fly off to the so called southern isles, if they haven't colonized there we can get to it first and claim it as our own," was the reply the AI received, "Oh, and Richard, send James to the front deck in full gear, we're deploying him in gryphonia." the Captain said before the AI closed the com channel, "Ensign, what can you tell us from the interrogations?" the Captain barked at a passing man, "Sir, we have managed to know that the prisoners are VIP's in this world, the two larger one's are apparently the princess's and can raise the sun and moon, the other 6 are keys to some sort of goody goody super weapon that can turn people to stone and keep them alive," the young ensign reported quickly before being dismissed by the captain. The ship started to land to allow the 8 prisoners off before it started to take off and fly to the south, "Princess, what were they," asked Twilight as the ship flew off, "They are humans, they succumbed to Discord's poisoning in there minds so we had to dump them on the other side of the veil, the veil is a magic barrier that separates this world from the next, the world we put them in was the opposite of this so they grew up fighting and killing, we wanted the humans dead 13 years ago so we released the virus," The princess told Twilight as she looked at the ship. "But princess, how could you do such a thing?" twilight shouted at her mentor, "Because they know nothing but violence, there bodies will adapt to this world again, there magic flow will repair itself and augment them, they will evolve faster then any species at all, within 2 days i reckon that they will be able to take on you in a magic," she said with a cold voice before walking off into the damaged castle. (Stats) Name:Sergeant James Skills: Long to medium range combat description: Wears full SASR gas warfare outfit with a MK14 EBR Rifle as his weapon, he has named the Weapon Wrath. Bio: James was 13 when the infection started, he had survived by running errands for survivors and bandits where he forged his name as a Seeker, he was never killed because of his usefulness but he went underground for a long time, after this not much in known. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 3: insertion //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 3: insertion James groaned as he stepped into the cramped space of a High Altitude Tactical Insertion Pod, his weapons were stowed in 2 small racks next to the seat while various monitors displayed the status, altitude and hull integrity. "now remind me why a HATIP Drop is best for me to get down there, I mean what happened to the much safer jumping off the side into a lake or tree." James muttered as he sat into the angled seat, the gel padding moving to accommodate his armor. He was wearing a dome shaped helmet with a single slit in front of the eye's, on his chest was a Kevlar vest over the top of a Digital cam shirt, he had Long stone grey cargo pants with a pair of combat boots on his feet. Strapped to his leg a M1911 pistol with a laser pointer, strapped to his wrist was a small combat knife while on his chest a bandoleer of various grenades rested. He quickly closed the Pods door before typing the start up code into the main terminal. numbers and words rolled past his screen before all lights went out for a second as a single red light flooded the interior of the HATIP, on the monitor in front of him was a single word: 'Launch'. Slamming his hand onto the enter key of the terminal a single minute passed before a loud thump echoed out. Red lights and grey walls quickly changed into a blue sky with various cloud types. A jet of flame burst out the underside of the pod as its momentum slowed considerably. James looked up to see the Indomitable slowly drifting away before he was slammed forward into the restraining harness. His ears roared as he punched in the hatch door open code. a small beep was his only warning before the door was blasted off it's hinges. Moving quickly James turned around and grabbed out his MK14 EBR which had a single 12x zoom scope and a suppressor attached to it, he quickly put it over his shoulder before grabbing a f88 Austyer from the rack, a HBAR scope and grip was attached to it along with a m203 underbarrel grenade launcher. Grabbing a alice pack from a small hatch in the seat, he stuffed the bag with as much ammuniton as possible for his weapons along with a pair of NVG's, some ration packs, a pair of binoculars, a compass, a Hexxy stove and an old 77 set with several modifications. He pulled a small terminal from the roof and typed in a self destruct code. Quickly slinging his bag onto his back and grabbed the Austyer and set off into the rocky terrain of Gryphonia. Looking around his landing zone revealed nothing of interest to james as he marched west, the sun setting over the horizon.