X-PONY/X-COM: The Extraterrestrial Combat Unit

Please, if you can, see this video before reading. See it as an intro for the chapters.
X-Pony Intro

Terror in Draceville

1999 January 13th 03:28 (morning) Evergreen Forest time

The blaring of the base’s sirens woke me up from exhausted slumber, along with somepony yelling over the base intercom. ''Warning! Warning! UFO detected!''

Groaning as I scrambled out of bed, I grimaced, remembering that I had ended up sleeping in armour again, and now I was paying the price. Muttering as I stretched the kinks out of my back and hearing it crack and pop as if things were going to burst out of it, I grabbed my glasses with my magic and hurried out of the dormitory, placing them on my muzzle as I bolted for the armoury.

''UFO offloaded in Draceville, Draconit!'' The operator called over the intercom. “All combat ponies to the Skyranger hanger prep for immediate launch.”

I skidded, almost missing a turn from the shock I felt at that statement. Draceville, the capital of Draconit an island country bigger then Iolaire, most of Draconite was desert even near the sea. The dragons of Draconit are said have a very unusual powers. Draconit’s gem supply is also one of Magica's biggest.

Entering the armoury, I found the remaining twelve members of the unit had beaten me there, and Bomb Wing was busy loading the rocket launcher, though he hadn’t picked up one of the gyro-saddles that had come in last week. I couldn’t say that I blamed him on that, since the first time he had tried mounting the rocket launcher on it, he had almost ended up going through the firing range’s back wall by the recoil off it… they needed to do something about that as it made using them in the air with heavy weapons more of a liability than a benefit.

Lighter weapons however, it was another story. Trip Shot, the mare that had eventually taken down the alien that had fled us in our last mission – by making it trip as it tried to throw one of those strange orange balls at the squad – loved them and had started equipping an autocannon on each side, one loaded with armour piercing ammunition, the other with high explosive rounds.

Most of the unit were now equipped with the gyro-saddles, simply because mouthing the grips of weapons made for those with talons or claws was just too inefficient, both on reaction fire and on reload times, not to mention the harm that came to the weapons and the ponies trying to handle kickback from them in their mouths. More than one Earth pony had ended up with broken teeth trying to use something heavier than a pistol.

Going through the weapons racks, I grinned as I found one of the sniper rifles we had gotten in the same shipment as the gyro-saddles, along with one of the newly produced motion scanners, two clips for the rifle, two of the electro-flares and a pair of explosives, one a grenade, the other a proximity mine.

It was much better than I had managed to get on the first mission, but it was still far from perfect. Unfortunately nopony could figure out how the alien weapons actually worked, our research team couldn’t even tell which way around the clips were supposed to go or which one fitted which weapon, much less the mechanics behind the weapons and our own laser weaponry was still in the testing phase, too dangerous to be in a pony’s hooves given their tendency to melt after a few seconds of continuous fire.

Making our way to the hanger, the thirteen of us boarded the Skyranger for the three hour flight to Draceville, most of the others taking seats along the sides of the plane as its engines warmed up, causing the plane to vibrate as a roaring filled the hanger.

Sticking my head into the cockpit, I glanced up as light shone in my eyes, the sealed hanger doors grinding open above us before checking with the pilot and co-pilot. It seemed it would be late at night when we reached Draceville, even with the plane going at top speed for the entire flight, and we were supposed to try to save as many civilians as we could. The last made a lot of sense actually, given Draconite was one of the founding nations and biggest contributors to X-Com.

*****

1999 January 13th 07:39 (morning) Evergreen Forest time
1999 January 12th 23:39 (night) Draconite time

Reaching the capital city of Draconite had been rougher than it should have been, mostly due to the fact there was a massive storm right on top of Draceville. As the hatch lowered, letting us out into the night, I gasped. The city was nearly destroyed, something that was driven home as another massive rumble of thunder split the air above us. “How can there be a storm here? This place is supposed to be a desert.” I muttered in confusion, getting a few equally confused looks from the others in the plane.

As the others exited the plane, blinking as rain soaked their coats from the storm that was rapidly getting worse. The pilot had said something about the winds being ‘gale force’, though fortunately the ruined buildings broke them up, giving us some shelter.

I motioned the group to split into teams before having to blink as lightning turned night to day briefly, dropping on something on the other side of the city. The thunder shook several of the buildings around us, suggesting that the bolt had either landed very close, or had been larger than normal.

I frowned, motioning Trip Shot, Bomb Wing and one of the Earth ponies in the unit to come with me, bringing my sniper rifle up, the hazel glow around it and my horn matching my eyes as I levitated it along in a ready position.

As the remaining nine broke off into trios to explore the rest of the city, we headed east slowly. After the last mission, running muzzle first into one of those green bolt shooting grey aliens wasn’t high on my things to do in life, particularly given my weapon was designed for distant.

Pausing for a moment as we moved to investigate where the lightning had hit, I glanced at the motion scanner, waiting for the blips on it to steady from the movement I had been making before frowning as one yellow dot moved back at forth in a rather spastic pattern, coming closer all the time.

Flicking my ears forwards, I dropped the leg with the motion sensor on it back to my saddlebag, pulling one of the electro-flares out of it as I heard a growl from the thing ahead of us.

Lobbing the flare into the darkness, I gasped sa it activated, revealing a big grey creature that looked very much like a mutant crab, especially with the massive claws on the ends of its forelegs and the tiny eyes.

On seeing us, it ran towards us, faster than anything I had ever seen on the ground. My rifle came up and spat fire at it, but even with the supposed power of its bullets, they didn’t seem to slow it down. The noise of my rifle, however, seemed to wake the others up. A plume of flame erupted from Bomb Wing’s rocket launcher, streaking into the side of a building as the thing danced out of the way, the explosion causing stone and brick to rain down along with the water and all too common lightning bolts.

A roar of fire came from Trip Shot’s position as she flew up over a ruined wall to get a better angle at it. Green blood turned black in the yellow light of the flare splashed on the ground as one of the explosive rounds blew an arm off the things, more ran down its torso as armour piercing rounds punched through its shell, slowing it down enough that a shot from the Earth pony’s heavy cannon caught it square in the chest, causing it to screech in agony as it combusted. I snorted softly at the sight, must have been the incendiary rounds.

As the smoke cleared and the screeching stopped, a glance at the motion scanner told me what I needed to know, the ugly thing was dead. I looked back at the grey Earth pony that had killed it. “Good shot, Fire Bullet,” I complimented her.

''It was easy. I have seen snails run faster.'' Fire Bullet responded with a shrug.

''Ha. And since when do snails have a running speed?'' Asked Bomb Wing, hovering down now the current threat was passed.

Fire Bullet frowned.

“Both of you keep it until later,” I cut in, sensing a potential flash point. “We have more important things to be doing than arguing over whether snails can run or not, like that thing’s buddies.” No sooner had I said it than the storm reminded us that it was still intent on getting its fair share of destruction if nothing else as another lightning bolt ripped the side out of a building in a brilliant explosion.

*****

Making our way towards where we had seen the last lightning bolt hit the ground, we made our way around to where the wall had been blown out by something, probably lightning, though I had never seen it do this sort of damage in Equestria. Stepping through the opening, Trip Shot stopped, going grey under her fur before bolting back outside to get sick.

Stepping into the building myself, I soon saw why. Over a dozen bodies littered the floor, only a few of them dragons. Most were the same shell-covered aliens that we had just encountered, and all of those looked like they had been killed either with fire or electricity given the charring on their exoskeletons.

The rest looked dragon-like, except for the metal on them, though the amount of blood around them suggested that whatever had hit them had been more vicious than a manticore with a thorn in its paw.

Glancing up, I scowled as saw what looked like a pair of angry blue eyes floating in the darkness of the building, just before a lightning bolt struck the ground right in front of me.

My yelp was lost in the crash of thunder that flattened all four of us, catching me midair as I jumped back. That had been too damn close, seriously too damn close. Most of the time lightning didn’t do too much when it was called as part of a spell, but this was different, this was nature untamed. This could have turned me into a roast pony. Picking myself off the ground, I shivered as I checked my moustache, fearing that it had gotten scorched.

Hearing semi-hysterical laughter behind me, I turned and glared at Bomb Wing, who was lying on the ground, curled up. “Laugh it up, but remember, Bomb Wing, when we get back to base, I can and will have you scrubbing toilets for the rest of your career.” I growled, causing him to quiet at once.

Glancing up at the sky as the rest of the unit picked themselves up and gathered their equipment again, I twitched my tail. “Something must be behind all this…” I muttered, watching white lightning cut across black clouds that blocked out both the moon and the stars.

Bringing my attention back to the ground, I motioned the rest over to another building, not wanting to push our luck further with the one we had been investigating. Something didn’t want us in there, and whatever it was, it was probably responsible for the deaths of those crabs.

Searching the building, we came up empty, nearly. Something lay against one of the walls. Nodding to Trip Shot, I shifted as she tossed an electro-flare into the room, revealing a red dragon lying against the wall. Moving closer, I lowered myself on my front legs to check for life-signs, only to find none. Part of its face was just gone, along with one wing. Blood covered the ground, black, but still tacky, along with what looked like something else’s arm and shattered scales.

One arm of the dragon was pointing to something on the wall, following it up; I frowned, noticing a single word drawn in blood. “Snakes,” I read aloud. I frowned, looking at the others, who looked equally confused. What did the dragon mean by ‘snakes’? Whatever it was, it was making my mane stand on end just at the base of my neck.

Turning back and leaving the building, I glanced around; yelping as lightning illuminated the area for a moment, just long enough for me to see a glint of metal. Jerking my head back as I stepped back quickly, I yelped again as a bolt of green almost grazed my muzzle, taking a chunk out of the wall near one of the windows. It passed so close I could feel the heat of it, hotter than fire.

Doing an abrupt about face, we all bolted back into the building, taking cover behind its walls against any more of the green fire.

Moments passed in silence, the only sounds our heavy breathing as we tried to recover from the near miss. Twice in the space of a few minutes, I had nearly been hit in the head by something that could have cooked me where I stood. This so wasn’t good for my heart, never mind anything else.

A volley of green splashed against the wall of our cover, a few shots making it through and nearly grazing us. I heard a yelp from behind and glanced over, grimacing as the light of the electro-flare revealed smoke coming from one of his wings. I grimaced, motioning Fire Bullet to check him, and noticed her pulling pain killers from the med-kit she was carrying, using one hoof to inject them before stomping on the few embers along the feather, not once taking her eyes off the wall that formed our cover.

I changed out the clip on my rifle nervously as something outside roared, followed by the sound of a lightning bolt striking the ground, the thunder almost drowning out the pained screams of several aliens, the sounds different from the crab or the grey, more gurgling.

Glancing back at the others, I noticed all three of them watching the door tensely, both Pegasi twitching their wings nervously as they checked their weapons and aimed them at the door, Trip Shot spinning up her autocannons, and letting them stop as more roars and screams came from outside.

I checked my motion scanner as things got quiet again, leaving us with thunder and our own breathing once more. Something was moving outside, something big, and given the sounds we had just heard, something powerful. I gulped, mentally running over our supply status.

Of all of us, Fire Bullet was in the best state, having only fired one shot from the heavy cannon, of course, being the base sharp shooter probably helped that along. Bomb Wing had also only fired one shot, but he couldn’t carry anywhere near as much as missiles were heavy. Trip Shot and I had gone through an entire clip on each of our weapons, on just one enemy. If this thing was able to avoid or withstand our weapons long enough for us to run out of ammo, we were screwed.

Lightning lit the area as the door flew open, causing Trip Shot and I to fire in response. It took us both a moment to realise that we were shooting at an empty doorway. Not only was this thing powerful, it was smart as well. Not good, really not good.

“Are ye done shootin’ at nothin’, little soldiers?” A gruff voice asked from outside, the accent much like those in certain parts of Equestria. “Yuir opponents go’ in me way, they wonnae be botherin’ anydragon in this town again.” It continued, carrying despite the storm.

I gulped, not really believing this was happening. “C-C-come in… slowly,” I ordered, attempting to keep my voice level. It wasn’t easy, especially with how nervous I was feeling.

The feeling didn’t get any better when a big black creature moved into the doorway, electricity arching over its body as two hard blue eyes scanned the room, and twin silver glows resting on its arms as blood dripped from razor sharp claws. It was either a daemon, a dragon or both.

“Sae, whot be Lothrae doin’ gettin’ themselves mixed up in hedrachin pharsyn o’ this type?” The creature asked, the black fading from its scales, revealing gold underneath, along with a pair of massive wings, traced with silvery patterns that looked similar to the lightning outside, coming from silver wing arms.

“W-w-what… a-a-are you?” Fire Bullet asked, raising her cannon to point it at him in an attempt to be menacing. One that wasn’t working particularly well given he simply snorted at her.

The dragon… daemon… thing… leaned against one of the inside walls. “Name’s Ghrathryn Cal’drith an’ I be a Franthoryn, little Loth, one tha’ isnae too ‘appy ‘boot certain unwelcome… guests tha’ invited themselves along on what was supposed tae be a diplomatic recon.” He growled, lips pulling back to reveal an array of curved fangs easily as sharp as the claws on his hands and feet. “Course the damn hedrachin cannae make weapons big ‘nough tae be useful, even if they’re bloody backward.”

I was paralysed in fear, and consumed by curiosity at what Ghrathryn had said. What had he meant by ‘diplomatic recon’ and who were the parties involved? Were the aliens trying to turn the dragons against us or were the dragons trying to broker for peace with the aliens already? I didn’t know, and that scared the hay out of me.

I gathered myself to speak before being interrupted by a beeping noise coming from the leg I had the motion scanner on. “What the…?” I asked, looking down in confusion. Bringing the leg up, I frowned at the screen of the motion scanner. It wasn’t because of more movement, though there were slight pulses of sound when one of us shifted, instead there was an icon that looked like a phone showing in one corner of the screen. “Trip Shot, do you know what this means?” I asked, showing her the scanner.

“What, you haven’t read the instruction manual?” She asked, sounding more than a little surprised, her eyes widening and her ears flicking up to complete the picture.

“Instructions?” I asked her, “Is it supposed to do more than showing where moving things are in relation to it?” I asked in surprise.

Trip shot face hoofed at my question and groaned. “It’s an emergency call,” She explained tapping the icon on the motion scanner, “From our pilot.” She added, tapping the button to play the message back.

“Commander Kim, where are you?” Our pilot screamed out of the device around my leg, causing my ears to lay back. “The others have returned to the plane and they’re all heavily injured. You need to get back here now, we’ve got orders to pull out and if you don’t get here in the next thirty minutes orders are to leave you and everypony with you behind.”

Oh, oh bugger. That did not sound particularly good, in fact it sounded terrible. “Well… why are we standing around here?” I asked, looking at the other three ponies. “Let’s get moving! I don’t wanna swim back to the base and I don’t think you do either.”

“If’n yuir goin’, I’m comin’ with ye, Loth.” Ghrathryn put in, having been listening, his tone flat, but carrying an authority I had only heard in the Princesses before. “I cannae do anythin’ else ‘roun’ here an’ yuir gonna need help gettin’ back tae yuir plane. The place still crawls.”

I swallowed, looking up at the dragon, recognising the tone. This was not a dragon to mess with, especially not right now. “Two questions first,” I said, trying to make myself sound steadier than I felt. “Was it you that called down the lightning on these… things? What type of diet do you have? I don’t want to have anything in my base that could eat me or my soldiers."

Ghrathryn’s lips twitched in what might have been a smirk, or something a lot more sinister. “All Franthrae ‘ave tricks they c’n use, bein’ a Jhoshor Frenthryn means weather be me main one.” He replied, his body blacking out again as electricity started to crawl over it once more, “As more’n one hedrachin has found ou’ tae their cost. As fer eatin’, meat, bu’ not Loth meat, ‘less there be nothin’ else, an’ no’ hedrachin meat, I eat prey beasts, no’ ridin’ beasts.”

“Then, welcome to the Extra-Terrestrial Combat Unit, or X-Com, Colonel Ghrathryn,” I said, getting raised eyebrows and more than a few mutters from the other three. Dropping back a little, I sighed as he snorted. “I still don’t trust him,” I whispered to Trip Shot, who was nearest to me. “Giving him a high rank is probably the best way to avoid upsetting him, since I don’t want to take the chance of getting eaten, no matter what he says.” I pointed out as he disappeared into the storm again, his black form practically invisible in the murk.

Leaving the building behind him, after reclaiming the electro-flare inside, we stopped as a bolt of lightning illuminated the mess that had probably once been aliens. One body smoked from where lightning had struck it, orange scales charred black along the snake-like lower body. Another lay on its back, its torso covered in metal armour that hadn’t protected it from the dragon’s fury. I swallowed, wading into the mess to grab what I could from their clawed hands, only to find that the weapons were so much scrap, still glowing red from where they had been melted by fury untamed in the form of pure lightning. At least we knew what the dragon had meant by ‘snakes’ now.

Checking the clock on the motion scanner, I hissed out a breath. According to it, it was now one forty-nine in the morning on January the thirteenth, nineteen ninety-nine local time. According to the call log and mission timer, we had been here for two hours, and the call was already twenty-five minutes old. We needed to get back to the Skyranger, now.

*****

Fortunately it only took us four minutes to make it back to the Skyranger at full gallop, unfortunately they were the longest four minutes of anypony’s life in our group as it seemed that more snakes and those crab things came out of any conceivable blind alley.

Most of them we managed to avoid others we went through. By the time we reached the plane, all of us were wounded and we had barely any ammo left, though the sight of Ghrathryn ripping the arms off a crab that managed to grab him by the wings, followed by cutting its head off with some strange silver glow would probably stay with me for the rest of my life, especially given the thing’s scream still echoed in my ears.

I watched the dragon bound up the ramp of the Skyranger as we reached it, managing to move faster despite taking a more awkward route and staying on the ground. I had to wonder about that, he could have flown, so why wasn’t he?

I shook my wondering thoughts off as screams echoed from inside the plane, not that it surprised me given that even on all fours, he was big, and he hadn’t dropped that black out thing he did, which only made him look creepier. “Be quiet and be brave!” I yelled, trying not to trip over my own hooves.

Bomb Wing and Fire Bullet reached the plane next, hurrying up the ramp, Bomb Wing’s wing still smelling of burned feather despite the rain and the run since it had been singed.

Blinking rain out of my eyes, I watched as Trip Shot landed, and nearly collapsed at the top of the ramp, her body covered in sweat as well as rain, her colour greyer than normal from pure exhaustion.

I need a bath once we get back to the base, I thought to myself, slowing a little as I reached the lowered ramp. It looked like I was the last one here, and me the commander. I sighed, then started as lightning struck almost on my hocks, the thunder from it threatening to flatten me again. That traitor! I thought, before hearing a low groan followed by a thud along with the scent of cooked shell fish. Risking a glance behind me, I gulped at seeing one of the shell-covered aliens, smoke coming from various places around its body. I looked up to see Ghrathryn watching me, his eyes cold, though he nodded to me.

Twitching my tail, I hurried into the plane, giving the dragon a thankful nod as I passed him, he had, after all, just saved my life for the second time today. Making it to the cockpit, I wrenched open the door. “Get us the hay away from this bucking place!” I yelled at the pilot, who nodded, the roar of the plane’s engines picking up as the hatch slammed closed.

Heading back to the last available seat, on Ghrathryn’s right, I collapsed with a sigh, trying to ignore the water and sweat running down my coat as the plane lurched into the air. “Well… I doubt the leader of Draconite will like this, if he’s still alive.” I muttered.

Ghrathryn snorted softly. “He’s alive, an’ if he’s go’ any complaints, he can take ‘em up wi’ me uncle. ‘Course it might take a while fer the message tae get tae Harrenthias from here.” He commented dryly. “Sides, little Loth, ye did yuir best, everyone left in town when ye go’ there was already dead bar me, bu’ then I’ve always been ‘ard tae kill.”

I glanced up at him. “Why would the leader of Draconite need to talk to your uncle?”

Sighing, Ghrathryn’s scales returned to their normal colours. “’Cause I was t’one tha’ go’ the town evacuated when those hedrachin showed up, an’ me uncle be t’king o’ Cal’drith… then o’course, I’m sure me lifemate would ‘ave some words fer him, as would ‘er sire.”

I blinked in shock, hearing gasps from around the passenger area of the plane. Even though he wasn’t the leader of the country we had just left, sitting right next to me was a prince of a kingdom, probably two if his lifemate was a princess. What was going to come next? Was he going to tell us that he was like the Princesses? I shook my head and closed my eyes, not willing to face that possibility right now.

This mission was getting better and better.

To Be Continued

Credit to Ghrathyrn for making this 120% awsome and he chosed to use this caracter. I'm unfamiliar whit this kind of caracter and he got to be a Colonel as I said. I don't wana be eaten. And if it was not for him this fic wuld be very bad writen. It was a good bit of gratitude to him for making this awsome and as I wanted to see my story.