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.