Far Away

Machine gun fire roared in the distance as I watched insects crawl out of the hole into the dark night. Fire from incendiary grenades did little to stop their advance, the bugs using their fallen comrades as a bridge across the burning valley. I took a few well placed shots with my rifle occasionally. Gunther picked off the few bugs that managed to get too close to our perch. Unicorns fired beams to dim the crowds, while anti-tank crews engaged large clumps of enemies.

Despite all of this, they managed to charge on. In some places they managed to even break the line of defense and kill a few soldiers, but were briefly cut down by machine gun teams. Heavy MGs defended my commander position. My sector was practically a fortress, but Kyle's position a few yards over was a citadel, guarded by machine guns, snipers, flamethrowers and grenadiers. We were largely untouched, but Equestrian knights and U.S.C riflemen alike had to storm failing positions to keep it that way. I grimaced. This was going to be a costly battle, despite the fact that we were winning.

Twilight came up next to me in elegant golden battle armor, casting beams from her horn into the onslaught of bugs. I watched with wonder. For adorable little ponies, they sure did kick some serious ass. My radio sputtered out.

"Eryx sector has been overrun! I repeat, Eryx sector is lost!" someone shouted. My hope was shattered. Fuck my life.

"Lima and Alpha, take E back!" I ordered into the comm link. "I don't want these cock suckers getting a step further!"

"Lima here. Affirmative." a cold female voice replied.

"Alpha here, ready to fuck up some bugs!" an excited gruff man hollered. I grinned, watching Vince lead the charge in the distance, gutting aliens with his shotgun. A tan man with a D.M.R came up behind me.

"Hey Ed, thought I'd join in." he said, taking up position behind some sandbags and picking off stragglers.

"Hiya Brian." I said, before nailing a bug in the jaw. "I was wondering where you were." He chuckled. Brian Hurtado was a Spanish American that didn't have very much experience, but the stubbornness of a locked door when it came to combat.

"I was bored of guarding the camp." the marksman replied. He slapped a new mag in his SVDK, before firing off more rounds. After long, the horde had begun to thin. The occasional survivor was caught trying to worm its way through the bodies and back into the ship, promptly being picked off by a sniper.

"All teams, tally up friendly casualties and report in." I ordered into the universal radio.

"Alpha. Two dead."

"Buster. Fourteen K.I.A."

"Calliope. No casualties."

"Dover. All good over here."

The average defensive sector was manned by twenty people split into two fire teams. I listened silently to all of the reports, hearing the numbers vary anywhere between zero and twenty, occasionally cringing at larger numbers.

"Zeta. Four K.I.As."

"Three hundred and twenty two friendly casualties reported." Bryce said quietly, glaring coldly into the smoking valley. "We lost over half our men."

"Yeah." I replied, almost whispering. Twilight sighed and sat down with a pained expression. "Are you ok?" I asked.

"Yeah, using lots of magic just wears ponies out." she said, cringing. I nodded slowly.

"Get all wounded accounted for." I ordered the defense force via radio with a soft voice. "Let's not lose more than we have." Kyle walked up, looking less than thrilled.

"That could have went a lot better." he said, sighing. I didn't say anything, still staring at the battlefield. "I'll tell Headquarters what happened, you keep a read on that fucking hole and make sure that not one person goes in that field."

"Yes, sir." I murmured, reloading my rifle. "All teams, burn the bodies. And for god's sake, stay out of the valley." I ordered coldly, looking over at Twilight. Her expression was grim.

"Perhaps this is worse than I thought." she decided with a sad expression.

"What did your mentor decide?" I asked.

"She said she would like to see it for herself before making a choice." the mare said hesitantly. I wrinkled my eyebrows.

"Well I'd be happy to send her the bodies of half of my men." I said angrily. "And those numbers don't even take your troops into account." The princess didn't reply, but instead turned her attention to a unicorn that had approached us.

"Princess." he said, bowing respectfully. "Our scouts report a body count of one hundred and six." She tensed up.

"Thank you, Private." Twilight said. "Burn the remains." He seemed taken aback by her request, casting a glance at me. I nodded.

"Yes, ma'am." the gruff stallion said, before walking back into the undergrowth and disappearing down a trail.

"Where did they all come from?" the purple princess asked. "I thought they wouldn't be able to attack for at least twenty four hours."

"No idea." I sighed, sitting down and leaning back against a tree, gazing into the night sky as rain started to fall. "Apparently we knew less about them than we thought. The armored support that arrives in the morning should make the next attack go a lot better." My words seemed to soothe her, but I wasn't so sure I was correct. They struck so much sooner and with so many more numbers compared to the initial attack. "I guess they just didn't strike full force the first time and they had time to reproduce a lot more." I spoke more out of hope than honesty.

I blinked sleep out of my eyes and wandered out of my tent and into the camp. The morning sky was grey with rain clouds over the calm woodland. Twilight told me the forest was called Whitetail woods. I walked through the dewy grass, much more comfortable in my blue officer fatigues as opposed to my combat armor.

I stepped down the worn trail and through the undergrowth into the treeline surrounding the D.C.C Walrus. Troops milled about, checking weapons and watching the breach. I walked over to my sector. Breiner sat against an ammo crate with his helmet in his lap, a tired expression on his face.

"Morning, Gun'." I said, sitting next to him.

"Hey." he said quietly.

"You've been on duty all night, go sleep." I said.

"Nah." Gunther replied.

"You sure?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "The bags under your eyes are almost as big as the ship. Go sleep, that's an order." H grunted and stood up.

"Yes, sir." he said with a chuckle, walking to the camp. My radio crackled.

"D.C.C Armada to Equus side."

"This is Mothership, go ahead Armada." I heard Boon reply over the command frequency.

"Support dropships are inbound, and armored units are patched in for orders."

"Roger that." I heard Kyle then speak into the universal channel. "All troops, clear the valley. Shuttles incoming." I watched the few soldiers in the clearing fall back into the trees while transport craft slowly hovered down from the sky. Machine guns protruding from the sides engaged the occasional bug trying to get out of the ship.

After the spacecrafts landed, the doors on the cargo bays slowly opened to reveal plenty of infantry and armored vehicles leaving the ships in an orderly fashion. Several waves of soldiers checked weapons and transported equipment and supplies like static weapons, munitions, rations and weapon boxes. The assorted armored vehicles rolled to the front of my sector, before the commander of the Shilka popped out of the hatch in the top and waved at me. I ran over, seeing Kyle approach us at the same time. The Shilka's commander looked strikingly familiar.

"Armel O'brien! I'll be damned!" I said with a laugh. Armel was a Canadian soldier I met back in the 2030s when I was in the U.S. army. We were friends pretty quickly, and up until I joined the U.S.C in 2041, did our best to stay in touch. He was put in a different section than me, so our dreams were crushed.

"Cartwright!" he said with a grin. "Good to be kickin' ass with you once again!" Kyle spoke with a smile.

"You know him, Ed?" he asked. I nodded.

"Yep. Fought the Polish with him." I said, still smiling. "It's been a year or two."

"Glad you're happy, but we got shit to do." Boon said. "Move your vehicles into the treeline so we can keep the ship locked down."

"Roger that." Armel said, saluting before climbing back into his vehicle and shutting the hatch. We stepped out of the way, and the vehicle drove for an open spot in the woods overlooking the hole. The rest of the vehicles followed suit, weapons trained on the objective. I returned to my position to find a rather impressed Twilight.

"I've never seen hardware like that before." she said. "I take it this is the armored support?"

"Yep. Very decent models, too." I replied. "They'll have a lot more trouble just getting through next time."

"I hope so." The Princess said with a nervous expression.