The sun was just beginning to rise over the rocky plain of the Equestrian badlands. Stationed in one of the guard tower’s surrounding Outpost Theta 540, an armor clad unicorn was quietly humming to himself. A willing participant of Princess Luna’s Experimental Warrior Project, staff sergeant Tapp was a proud member of Phoenix squad, an elite team of commandos assigned to Outpost Theta 540, one of the larger base sites still bordering on the outer fringe of Equestrian controlled land. Their purpose: To defend the outpost from hostile attack and disrupt, cripple, or otherwise neutralize the enemy. They did their job with the utmost pleasure.
SSG Tapp glanced at his helmet’s Heads Up Display, or HUD, and read that it was now 5:50 in the morning. The soldier sighed in relief and shook his head violently to clear his mind and leaned into the tower’s built-in 50 caliber machine gun. On his right there was a medium sized mirror leaning against the wall. The armored pony caught a glance of his reflection in the mirror and took the opportunity to look himself over. The menacing figure staring back at him looked more like some kind of twisted machine rather than a pony. Similar to his squad, Tapp was adorned from head to tail in an assortment of metal plates that made up a protective shell of armor. The most notable piece of his body armor was the metal helmet that he wore. Unlike the standard helmets that were issued to regular soldiers, his helmet was fully closed which completely protected his face. The helmet seemed to angle itself upward and back slightly to compensate for his ears and had a blue tinted visor over the helmet’s faceplate giving him a particularly ominous look. The ashen breastplate jutted out prominently from the rest of the armor like a shield and wrapped itself over the unicorn’s shoulders and neck.
From closer inspection he noticed that the armor was riddled in faded scorch marks and numerous dents from previous missions. His legs were encased in rust hued pauldrons followed by a mix of interlocking plates that snaked down to his hooves. Tapp’s torso was guarded by two halves of overlapping metal strips that were layered under his breastplate and traveled downwards along the base of his spine and stomach. The armor weighed nearly fifty pounds and covered most of his body. Underneath the protective covering Tapp wore a black body glove with an internal climate regulator. He studied himself a little while longer before silently turned back to the tower’s mounted turret. Without looking the armor clad pony levitated a black rectangular box in front of his visor and scanned the harsh environment for any signs of life.
Peering through the magically powered binoculars the unicorn watched as the darkness that currently wrapped itself around the land slowly began to retreat from under the growing light of the morning sun. The valley that he and his brothers were currently stationed in was a mixture of dirt, sand, and rocks. The expanse of land was knotted in hills and ridge lines. Patches of grass accompanied by small bushes and the occasional tree sprinkled parts of the arid field as rocks ranging from tiny pebbles to massive boulders littered the rest. The ground itself rose and fell in a wave like motion that seemed to go on for miles. Tapp looked up and saw a few clouds floating around aimlessly in the cool blue sky. He took a moment to check the equipment inside the tower before leaving it for his replacement.
The metal cage of the watch tower was littered with brass and belt links that had been dispensed from the tower’s turret gun during the night shift. The enemy was growing bolder. He had seen a small changeling reconnaissance team and fired in their direction. They disappeared but he wasn’t sure if he actually hit them or if he’d just scared them off. It wouldn’t matter really. Put a changeling into the ground and ten more would take its place. There were always more. The unicorn considered how depressing his mood had become and decided to continue checking the tower. Lying on the ground were seven ammo boxes stacked neatly against the far left corner of the tower floor, his rifle and military grade saddle bags sat against the opposite corner waiting for him to pick them up after his shift. He took another glance at his HUD and saw that the helmet’s internal time display now registered it to be 6:00 a.m. He yawned inside his suit and waited for his replacement to relieve him of his post. The ladder behind him started to clang reassuring him that his replacement was on his way.
His squad had been assigned to Outpost Theta 540 for about three months now and kept to a strict schedule. Wake up, train, patrol, train again, conduct security, train once more, and finally sleep. Not necessarily in that order. Pheonix squad liked to keep the enemy guessing. Technically, commandos weren’t supposed to do garrison work. The job of conducting security should have gone to the lower ranking soldiers, but Theta 540 was low on stallions and resources and needed everypony to put in their fair share of work to keep the garrison running smoothly. Including commandos. Tapp’s stomach growled but he ignored it. He was too tired to be hungry. Right now he had a bed with his name on it and he’d be stupid to turn it down. He’d eat something later.
Tapp turned around just in time to see a yellow earth pony pull himself into the tower’s cage. The earth pony was clad in bronze colored armor. Tapp could see that the earth pony was well built underneath his armor and guessed that he’d probably been a farmhand before the war. The earth pony’s armor was very different from Tapp’s fully customized commando armor. The earth pony wore the same standard issue Equestrian military body armor that everypony else had. Similar to the old royal guard armor despite its modifications, the standard equestrian armor consisted of a reinforced Centurion helm with a matching set of overlapping plate armor and body glove. The earth pony’s armor was nowhere near as strong as Tapp’s, not that it was supposed to be though. Regular soldiers in the equestrian army were issued lighter ‘Class I’ armor to maximize their speed and agility in battle. It gave soldiers the advantage when engaging the enemy in large numbers but only gave its wearer so much protection before catastrophically failing. His ‘Class III’ armor, on the other hand, was built to experience severe amounts of damage and bring its wearer away from it alive allowing him to withstand relentless onslaughts while surrounded. Tapp noticed that the soldier was saying something and cleared his thoughts before speaking.
Tapp spoke into his helmet’s voice amplifier. “Sorry. I didn’t catch that.”
The earth pony paused for a moment. “I said I’m here to relieve you of your post sergeant.”
The unicorn grinned behind his visor. “Thanks, I could definitely use some shut eye right about now.”
“I see you got yourself some action last night.” The earth pony said taking a quick look around the cage.
“Yeah, looked like a recon team. I put some rounds down range but I don’t know if I hit anything.”
The stallion frowned deeply, “A recon team? That doesn’t sound good.”
“I don’t like it either, for all we know the enemy could be right outside our doorstep and we won’t be able to tell until after patrol.”
“Well hopefully that’s not the case.” The earth pony said as he sat down in front of the tower’s machine gun. Tapp could sense the doubt in the stallion’s words. The changelings weren’t known for giving the enemy time to rest once initiating contact and it had been a whole week since their last attack. It was strange at the least and highly unnerving at the very worst to know that the changelings were giving them a break from the fight. The calm was starting to get to ponies.
Tapp tried changing the subject, “In any case I’ll report my findings to senior command and they’ll prep the patrol team just in case a few of those buggers are waiting outside. If you see any of them out there be sure to give them my best regards.”
“You bet sergeant. Now get some rest, you deserve it.”
“Roger that, enjoy your shift.” Tapp said cheerfully as he trotted towards the ladder.
“I’ll try.” The earth pony said with a bit of a sigh.
And with that, staff sergeant Tapp made his report to senior command and made his way back to his room to get some well deserved sleep. . Little did he know there would be no sleep for any of them this day.
_________
An hour hadn't even completely passed before a series of earth shattering sounds set off the fortress' built in alarms followed by the firing of the tower's 50 caliber machine guns. Another series of loud sounds and the tower's gun nests went silent. Responding to his training, Tapp Immediately lurched out of his cot and dove towards his saddle bags. He levitated his rifle over to his side and was about to grab his armor when what sounded like an explosion rang out from down the Northern corridor. That sounded like it was by the main entrance. How are the changelings doing this?! They've never showed this amount of power before. I have to make it back to my squad. Tapp quickly strapped on his armor before levitating his helmet onto his head and taking a moment to check his comm link. Tapp quickly spoke into the helmet's comm, Hello? Pheonix Squad, do you read? This is Tapp, where are you guys? Whats going on?!"
For a few seconds all Tapp could hear was static but then he heard a familiar voice. The static made it hard for him to hear but he'd recognize that voice anywhere.
"Where have you been blockhead?" It was a deep raspy voice and it sounded like it belonged to a psycho. "I thought I was going to end up being the welcome committee all by myself over here. Got started without you, hope you don't mind." On the comm's radio Tapp could hear the buzzing of wings, gunfire, and the occasional spattering sound that changelings made once their bodies expired.
"Graves! Wow, am I glad to hear your voice. Where are the others?"
"On the far west side of the complex. I'm giving them a run for their bits over by the chow hall. Sending our coordinates to your HUD now. Meet up with me and we'll make our way over to them."
"Roger that Graves. I'm making my way to you now. Leave a few of those buggers alive for me will ya?" Tapp said jokingly.
"No promises." Graves responded curtly. Suddenly the tone in his voice became very strained, "Oh, and be advised. Don't go outside."
"Understood. I'm on my way." Tapp heard the underlying seriousness in his friend's voice. There was something out there that they weren't yet ready for. Not alone at least.
Author's Note
I hope you guys liked what you read, this was the first opening chapter to what I thought would be a neat look at pony commandos. I'm hoping to do a few more of these to focus on war in the mlp'verse. I'm trying to get better at setting up the story in the beginning and would love to get some advice on how I can make the story better. Thanks for reading and feel free to review if you have any positive or negative feedback.
The first thing that Tapp noticed when he left his room was the overwhelming smell of sulfur and smoke. He quickly switched on his helmet’s filtration system to get rid of the stench. Ugh, this definitely ranks top five in the category of worst smells ever. I think I might have even lost my appetite. A deep gurgling noise erupted from his stomach convincing him otherwise. Okay probably not, well I guess it’s a good thing I’m headed to chow then anyway. Better not keep Graves waiting. And with that, he started making his way to the chow hall.
Tapp had walked through the white corridors for about twenty minutes now. Every so often he would notice scoring on the walls or a dismembered pony or changeling corpse. It was obvious that the fighting had already come through here. He’d made it about halfway to the cafeteria when he heard a loud buzzing noise coming from up ahead. The corridor veered off to the right so he couldn’t see anything but that only meant whatever was up there couldn’t see him either. Tapp quickly moved into an open room on his right and waited for the sound to pass but instead the buzzing started to get louder. He checked his radar to see how many of them there were. To his surprise the radar counted eleven of them and they were coming his way.
Luckily for him, the room he was hiding in was connected to both corridors which would make it easier if he just wanted to slip by their patrol. I could just let these guys pass and keep a low profile until I reach Graves. The unicorn took a moment to consider this. But if I do that I’ll just be leaving them to attack someone else…Yeah, not going to happen. Besides, I‘m itching for some payback!
Tapp quietly produced three black disks about the size of hockey pucks. He quietly removed the strip of plastic covering the disk’s adhesive side and stuck them into the ceiling of the hallway in five foot intervals. The buzzing sound was starting to become deafening. He checked his radar again. Any second they’d be turning around the corner to meet him. Tapp ducked back into the room and pulled out another device except this one was a small black cylindrical device. He trotted over to the other door and waited for the group of changelings to pass by. He opened up the door once the radar showed that his unsuspecting enemy had turned around the corner. He followed them making sure to keep a safe distance to keep himself from being heard. Peeking around the corner, Tapp got a good look at the enemy. What he saw, surprised him. These weren’t the same changelings he had been fighting.
What he saw now was an assortment of differing changelings that could only be described as nightmarish. They all varied from one another in some way shape or form. Ranging in a multitude of varying sizes with a few of them being almost as tall as Celestia, some of them had tentacles protruding from their mouths and legs while others were brimming with spikes some even seemed to be oozing green slime. Some of them were hooved while others had claws or crab like pincers for legs. They were all enamored with the same skeletal armor as their counterparts only theirs was thicker. The sight of them made him sick.
The one who seemed to be leading the patrol of abominations was covered in reddish plated armor. He towered a good head over the others and wore a distinguishing red centurion helm with black armor that had been speckled red, probably with equine blood. Unlike the changelings that he was used to fighting, these changelings didn’t seem to be starving they looked fit and ready for battle. They also didn’t consist of the same black color schemes that their counterparts had. These changelings bore skeletal armor with colorful shades and hues that probably were used to distinguish rank, class, or a combination of the two. Tapp couldn’t tell, but then again, he didn’t really care. The only thing he cared about was making them pay.
He waited for the mass of changelings to pass halfway through his trap before he detonated the explosives. CLICK. There was a quick high pitched chime and then the entire hallway lit up in a burst of bright explosions. There was an ear splitting scream as fire engulfed the hall. Tapp shut his eyes and backed up a few feet not wanting to get caught in the explosions back blast. He spun around the corner ready to finish off whoever might have been lucky enough to survive the blast. To his dismay he found that these new changelings were quite resilient.
The unicorn commando could barely believe what he was seeing. The area where his explosives had gone off caused massive amounts of damage to the surrounding area but seemed to have little effect on the creatures. The explosives ripped through the surrounding walls and flesh of six unlucky changelings leaving the corridor scorched and littered with the remains of charred and burning body parts but that was it. The others seemed stunned but were generally unharmed.
He took careful aim and fired three consecutive rounds into a bulbous looking changeling that was throwing up black and yellow ichor from its mouth. The rounds found their mark ripping through the creatures slime sacks causing the slime to combust inside the creature tearing it in half and showering the rest of the changelings around it in its innards. The changeling leader pointed towards the commando and shrieked horribly. The mass of changelings started rushing towards the unicorn but he had the advantage at a distance.
“Come on you buckin freaks of nature…come and get me!”
A wave of bullets from his rifle and ripped through the forelegs of one of the tentacled changelings effectively crippling it. A bright green flash came up to meet him in return. The beam of energy struck him hard in the shoulder but glanced off the armor leaving little more than a new dent. The first two to reach the unicorn commando came flying at full throttle.
The first one to reach the commando attempted to slice through him with a sickle shaped foreleg. He instinctively ducked forward and forcefully jabbed the muzzle of his weapon into the changeling’s throat before pulling the trigger and blowing its head off. The headless corpse slumped to the ground next to him as he swung his weapon into the second flyer’s skull stunning it. Tapp spun around and bucked the changeling in the head with his rear legs causing the changeling to crash into the wall and crumple to the ground. The last changeling left was the patrol's leader.
Tapp grunted as the last changeling hit him with a beam of energy that normally would have disemboweled him had he not been wearing his armor. Tapp sprinted back around the corner as the armored changeling continued to send volleys of greenish energy in his direction. He noticed that his visor’s HUD started to pulse yellow around its edges indicating the armor’s level of damage.
“You know, you buggers are a lot stronger than your cousins. I’ll give you that at least.”
Tapp quickly reloaded his weapon and unsheathed his knife holding both weapons up with his magic. He swiveled around the corner and saw that the changeling leader was now only a few feet away. Upon seeing the small commando, the larger changeling stood up on its hind legs and lurched forward swiping at him with one of its forelegs. Tapp managed to slide under the creature’s scythe like foreleg was able to punch his knife through the creature’s abdomen. The changeling shrieked and proceeded to double over in pain as Tapp twisted his knife in the changeling's guts for added measure. He then proceeded to grab onto the creature’s armor and swing himself onto to its back. Lurching for the changeling’s helmet, Tapp quickly tore it off and fired several shots into its skull and neck. The changeling stumbled forward a couple steps before collapsing on the cold floor with a loud thud. Greenish yellow blood slowly pooled around its body and mixed in with what was left of the bug’s former comrades.
Tapp slowly got off the changeling patrol leader, retrieved his knife, and examined the mess around him. Surely others had heard the noise and would be heading towards his position. He had to leave…now. Without another thought Tapp began galloping to the cafeteria to find his friend.
Author's Note
I enjoyed writing this piece of the story and I hope you guys enjoyed reading it. Please don't hesitate to critique or comment if there's something you liked or didn't like, please tell me. I love getting feedback. Thanks.
