Vanquish

Humanity was facing a very common challenge. Surviving.

Earth had gotten over populated with humans and because of that, starvation eventually kicked in. Different countries had a different number of casualties, but the highest death count due to starvation currently belonged to Russia. As the Russians were starving and were therefor, in a state of crisis, a terrorist group known as "The Russian Star" took over Russia's military forces and stole all their technology, weapons and equipment. When they seized all the power in Russia, they wanted more.

That's when they turned their eyes to the newly built American colony, Providence. It was originally built to help the US as it was getting over populated. The same as every country on Earth.

Because of its energy designs, they figured it was possible to use it as a weapon of mass destruction. They finally accomplished this when they sent their troops or rather, R.I's, to take the colony. Nobody knows how many civilians got evacuated or got killed. They attacked too fast for anyone to anticipate.

Eventually, they did use it as a weapon of mass destruction. It was used on San Fransisco and killed thousands of people. Maybe even more. No one really knows to this date.

After they had used it, the supposed 'leader' of this terrorist group contacted the president to tell her that if America didn't surrender, he would use his new found weapon again. On New York. The president took Colonel Robert Burns, a war veteran, and put him in charge of a task force called Bravo Company. DARPA also offered to help by sending one of their researchers, me, Sam Gideon. I was sent to help Bravo Company retake Providence and to stop the terrorist group using the weapon of mass destruction on New York.

Originally, I thought that this would be a walk in the park. Take out a few dozen R.I's, get to the manual control panel in the control room at the center of the colony and deactivate the weapon.

Boy, did I think wrong.

Providence colony. 1300 hours.

"You have R.I's closing in on your position!"

Sam tossed the remains of his cigarette away and peeked around a corner, only to have bullets miss him by an inch as he quickly put his head back into cover.

"FUCK! I can't reach the gate. Elena, hack it!"

"I can't Sam. They've put analogue locks on it. You're going to have to blow that gate up."

Sam sighed and looked towards the commanding officer of the squad he was helping, Lieutenant Colonel Burns. "Nothing's ever easy, is it?"

Burns snorted and rolled out of cover, shooting the R.I's who were closing in on them. "If it was easy, we'd have already done it."

A shower of bullets nearly hit Sam in the face as he activated the boosters in his suit and slid to another piece of cover. Once he was satisfied that he was in an unflankable position, he started firing all of his bullets into the never ending stampede of R.I's. He must have shot 10, 20, 40, even 70. But they just kept coming. "Jesus mother of shit! How many of these damn robots are there?!"

Burns grunted and rolled over to Sam's position, barely missing another barrage of bullets. He peeked over cover and started spraying the incoming robots with his minigun. Every time he destroyed one, another one replaced it. It was like there was an infinite amount of them. He put his minigun down by his side and brought his head back down. "Fuck knows. Doesn't matter how many there is. Just more shit to kill."

Sam snorted and threw a grenade into the oncoming storm of R.I's. Its blast radius took out quite a few dozen R.I's, but that didn't stop them. Not one bit. Sam looked anywhere and everywhere for an exit. If they stayed here, they'd be dead in a couple of minutes. He believed in the term "take one for the team", but he didn't particularly feel like dying. Not yet, anyway. After about 40 seconds of trying to spot an exit, he saw one just behind them. It was a door behind one of the bunkers. A few meters away.

He tapped Burns on the shoulder and he turned around to look at Sam with an expression that said "The fuck do you want?" Sam pointed to the exit. "Burns. We've gotta retreat to that door over there!"  Burns didn't like the idea of retreating. He always thought retreating or surrendering was for pussies. But, Sam was right. If they stayed here much longer, they'd probably get killed very quickly. After a few seconds of thought, Burns nodded and motioned for Sam to lead the way. Sam slid over to the exit, avoiding bullets, missiles and lasers on the way. "FUCK. FUCK. SHIT!" One missile flew over his head as he made it to the exit. He turned to face Burns and the rest of Bravo Company.

The next thing he knew, Burns was running as fast as he could to him. When he was about to make it, a stray bullet hit his leg, causing him to fall face flat.

"BURNS!" The rest of bravo company were getting slaughtered as Sam rushed over to Burns and tried to help him up. "Come on Burns. Get up!" He put his arm around Burns and tried to help him to the exit. For a second, Sam had forgotten about the masses of robots behind him and all the bullets that were flying past him. That was until one hit Burns in the other leg, causing him to scream out in pain and fall down onto one knee. Sam got him back on his feet as fast as he could.

"Come on Burns. You can make it!"

As he came closer to the door, he heard something behind him. He turned around to see a giant wave of energy coming his way, destroying everything in its path.

"Oh bollocks. That's not good..."

He moved as fast as he could to the door, still having his arm around Burns. As he got to the door and was just about to open it, the energy wave hit both him and Burns. The next thing he knew, he was in extreme pain. It felt as if his blood was molten lava and it was burning through his skin. Before he could even attempt to let out a scream, blackness took him as he passed out.

The sun outside was shining down on the land of Equestria. The controller of said sun, Princess Celestia, was in her throne room, reading letters from worried ponies. They were mostly complaints concerning Luna's return as many ponies were worried that she might still be Nightmare Moon. Celestia had replied telling them that it was nonsense to think that Luna was even remotely evil anymore, but they wouldn't have any of it. Some had even gone out of their way to protest. That was the one thing that got Celestia annoyed. Only slightly, however.

She sighed as she threw the current letter that she was reading to the side of her. "I really need a break."

Celestia loved ruling her subjects. It wasn't that she wanted a break from THEM. She just wanted to have nothing to deal with for just one day. But, something ALWAYS happened in Equestria. it was either something as bad as Discord escaping his prison or something as tiny as Twilight forgetting to send her a friendship report and then said mare would freak out, making it worse.

Before she could pick up another letter, the door to her royal throne room burst open. One of her royal guards appeared in the doorway as he quickly ran up to her.

He bowed. "Your highness. I have some important news." As he got up, he noticed that the princess started waving a hoof.

"At ease, my royal guard. What news do you have for me?" She gave him a serious but sincere look.

"Thank you, princess. Some ponies reported seeing something in the outskirts of Canterlot, near the exit of the Everfree Forest. We didn't believe what they described at first, but we sent a couple of guards to scout around. They came back and had a look of fear and shock on their face. We asked them what they had found and...well..they said that they saw an unconscious...creature of some sort. They said that it was a bipedal, alien looking....thing. It had some sort of advanced armor on. That's what they presumed, anyway."

Celestia's face was filled with shock and surprise. If it was an..alien, this would be their first contact with another species. Well, another species from a different planet. And that's even if it was from somewhere else. She had to check this out before making any assumptions. She stood up from her throne quickly and went over to the guard who was now cowering in fear. Celestia noticed this and plastered a warm smile onto her face.

"I'm sorry if I startled you, my guard. But if this is as you explained, then it is very important that I go and 'inspect' this creature myself. It could be a species that we have never seen before. You said it was unconscious, correct?"

The guard nodded. "Yes, your highness."

She gave him another serious look that made him feel uncomfortable. "Is it safe? The Everfree Forest can be a dangerous place, as we all know what creatures live there."

The guard nodded again. "Yes, your highness. After the scouts reported this to me, I sent a squad of royal guards to the area where the scouts had spotted this creature to make sure that no creatures attempt to harm it or it doesn't attempt to harm anything or anypony when and if it awakes.

Celestia nodded. "That's good. Thank you, my guard. Oh, where are my manners. What is your name?"

The guard waved a hoof dismissively. "No worries, your highness. My name is Steel Blade. I'm a Lieutenant."

Celestia walked closer to him and smiled. "Well then, Lieutenant Blade, do you mind if I come with you to meet this creature? I would at least like to try and ask it a few questions, when it's awake, if it can speak."

The guard shook his head. "Of course I don't mind, your highness. Follow me."

And with that, the princess of the sun went off with her royal guard to find what could be something that might go down in Equestrian history.

The sounds of birds and wind could be heard as a certain bipedal super soldier woke up.

"Ugh...what happened? Where am I?..."

Sam put his hand to his head to try and stop the headache that had just come on. Well, you could call it a headache, but a better term would be a giant elephant jumping up and down inside your head thinking that your brain is a soft bed.

After a few seconds, the memories came flooding back to him. The R.I's, Burns getting shot and most importantly, the energy wave that had knocked him out. And the overwhelming pain that he had experienced just before he passed out.

"What was that energy wave anyway? What did it do to me..." He sat up and looked around. He saw nothing but tree's and grass.

"That's strange...I wasn't anywhere near the colony's residential garden and that has buildings in it. This place looks like a dark, desolate forest."

He mentally shrugged and stood up onto his feet. He was surprised at how easy he got up considering the immense amount of pain he had gone through not long ago.

"Right...I need to check that all of me is in one piece. Head? Check. Both legs? Check. Both arms? Check." He moved his arms and legs to check that they were functioning alright. He smiled inside his helmet when they complied.

"That's good. At least my limbs AND the suit is working." He wanted to test to see if the boosters in his suit were still working properly. He instantly slid over to the tree in front of him. He smirked.

"Right. Boosters are working fine. That should come in handy if I encounter anything in this place. Then again...I don't even know if I'm still on the colony."

It seemed highly illogical that he was on the colony anymore. First of all, he would have probably been shot to death when he passed out by the R.I's to make sure that he wouldn't get up (unless they got destroyed by the beam too). Two, he had moved locations. He was originally scaling up a giant hill with bunkers on it and now, he was in a giant forest. And finally, this place felt...different. He knew it sounded stupid, but this place didn't feel...right. It felt as if there was some sort of 'evil' watching him. He hadn't felt that feeling the whole time that he had been on the colony.

Forgetting about the forest for a second, he checked to see if his comm's link was working. All that came back was static. He sighed. "Great. I can't even contact Elena. That's going to be a bitch."

He turned around to see his weapon, the BLADE system, on the floor just a few inches from where he woke up. He went over to it, picked it up and tried to change weapon modes. He chuckled and smiled when it changed into a rocket launcher.

"Glad to see that the BLADE system is still working. That will help if I run into anything what is a threat."

He let the BLADE go into his suit. He really needed to check if the AR function in his suit was broken. If it was, he'd be fucked if anything came his way as it allowed him to intercept attacks and it even had saved his life a few times before.

He wasted no time in evading to the side to try and activate AR mode. He was glad when it activated as everything went into slow motion. He de-activated it and grinned.

"That's good news. Was worried that the energy beam or whatever it was might have broken it."

He tried to de-activate his visor. It complied and revealed his face for a few seconds before he re-activated it. He had to be careful around this unkown place. His grin remained.

"Great. Everything is functional."

His grin suddenly vanished as he remembered what had happened to Burns. He got shot in both legs. He was carrying Burns to the exit when the energy wave hit them both. His normal expression turned into a sad and serious one.

"I hope Burns is alright. If I made it out alive, I'm sure he has. Then again, I wasn't the one who got shot in both legs..."

He tried to forget about it for now as he needed to focus on finding out where he was and how he could get back. Just as he started to walk forward, he heard a rustle in tree's above him. He looked up as his weapon came out of his suit and materialised into his hand. He changed it to its assault rifle form. Before he could say or do anything, he heard the rustling again, but it was closer this time.

After what had happened, Sam honestly thought nothing would surprise him. He was proved wrong as 4 equine looking beings came out of the tree's and dropped onto the ground. They looked at him in bewilderment. They had golden clad armor on and spears. They all had the same helmets on, which looked like an ancient Roman's helmet. He noticed that one had a horn, one had wings and one had neither a horn or wings. They raised their spears towards him and shot a serious stare his way.

One of the horses attempted to get near him with his spear.

"Creature, do not attempt to run. If you don't comply, we will be forced to restrain you."

Sam flinched a bit at that. "Did that fucking colourful horse just talk to me?" When he didn't reply, it spoke again.

"Can you understand me?"

Sam's brain was still trying to register that a techni coloured horse just spoke to him in English. Twice. When he snapped back into reality, he just nodded in agreement.

The horse got a bit closer than Sam was comfortable with. "Good. I'm guessing that if you can understand me, you can talk?"

Sam just nodded again.

"Then why don't you say something?"

Sam snorted. "I don't really feel like talking to a bunch of colourful animals."

The horse flinched at Sam talking and suddenly got an angry glare on its face.

"Uh oh. I think I pissed it off."

"Creature, we are not "animals". We are the Royal Guard that protects the princesses and you WILL refer to us as so. Understand?"

Sam's BLADE system came out of his suit and turned into its assault rifle form. He pointed it at the guards face. "No fucking way am I going to be some weird horses bitch." His face also took on an angry glare, but due to his visor being activated, it wasn't able to be seen by the Equines.

"I haven't got time for this." He aimed his weapon upwards and shot a few bullets, making the horses flinch and back off a bit. He took this as a chance to run into the woods as fast as his suit would let him, which was a bit faster than what the normal human could run at speed wise. He decided to dodge past the tree's constantly to try and confuse them. What he hadn't noticed however was the flying horses above him.

"Welp, this is gunna be harder than I thought." After a while of constantly dodging barraging flying horses and tree's, he spotted an old building of some sort in the distance. From what he could see at this distance, some of it had fallen down, but some of it appeared to still be standing.

"Think I found myself a hiding spot." But then he remembered that he had to get these flying ones off of his back first. If he went into the building now, they'd just follow him in. Although, the ones who were running after him had lost him a bit ago in the woods. He remembered when he looked back when he started running away earlier, one of the horses with the horns somehow lit his horn up, but nothing happened.

"I wonder what it was trying to do..."

An idea suddenly came into his head. Not a pleasant one, but he had to get away.

"Sorry to do this to you horses, but it's the quickest way to get you off of my back." He turned to face the oncoming flying horses and evaded backwards onto his knees, activating AR mode. He aimed his weapon up at them and pumped a bullet or two into each horse's wings. He grinned when they fell down to the ground. He saw that they had been knocked out by what he guessed was either the pain or the fall. He checked them to see if they were alive and not bleeding badly. He wanted to get away from them, but he didn't want to kill them unless he had to. All of them were alive. He got his medical syringe out of his suit and used it to stop the bleeding.

"I forgot to check if the syringe had been lost when I somehow got here. Thank god it wasn't. And thank you, DARPA. Whatever stuff you put into this, it sure as hell works."

After that was sorted, he ran to the building in the distance, hoping that it was a good place to hide for a while until he figured out what to do next.