Chapter 1: Gone WrongView OnlineFar AwayChapter 1: Gone WrongI coughed and shakily got up, my helmet's HUD flickering weakly. Every part of my body ached as I looked around. The emergency lights must've went on after I was knocked out. Come to think of it, I thought, what happened anyhow? From what I remembered, we got pulled into an especially strong gravitational field from an unseen object. But a planet showing up out of nowhere had only happened once, and not during mid-flight, so the crew and pilots had agreed that that wasn't it. They figured some sort of anomaly occurred, because the ship was equipped with just enough energy to fight out of a gravity field of almost any planet, besides maybe Jupiter. I looked out of the observation deck window into the containment zone. Metal crates were strewn about the large room. A disemboweled scientist lay on the floor in a pool of blood, eliciting a gag from me. I looked to the back of the storage room to a terrifying conclusion; The cryosleep tanks were shattered, which meant blood thirsty insectoid aliens were running loose. I gulped, and checked that my handgun was still in its holster. Thankfully, it was. I grabbed my gun, and checked the ammo. A full clip. I felt stupid. Of course it was full, I couldn't have shot anybody if I was out cold. "How long was I out?" I mumbled aloud after seeing that the door was closed. I checked the time on my HUD. 10:15. It had been four hours since the outage. Somewhere in the distance I heard gunshots. Jolting awake, I looked out of the door's window. Nothing. Hesitantly, I opened the door and looked around the corner. The hall was littered with broken equipment and the occasional dead crewman/scientist. I stepped out, feeling something soft under my boot. I looked down to see that I had stepped into the smashed head of a security member. I stared down for a second, choking back vomit. Slowly, I stepped over him, cringing at the squishing noise my foot made as I lifted it. Or at least, I thought it was a him. Couldn't exactly tell. I crept down the hall, pistol at the ready. My armor would protect me, but I wasn't taking bets. Massive chunks of the walls had been taken out by explosions, revealing shattered fuel tanks and ruined cables. There was no windows on the ship, so I had no clue where we were. Hell, I didn't even know if we were on the ground or not. There wasn't really many windows on the ship except for on the bridge. The silence was broken by another barrage of gunshots down the hall and around the corner. It was followed by a loud, inhuman shriek. I ran down the hall, before stopping and peeking around the corner. Two massive insect-like creatures - not unlike ants - were scratching and banging on a door. Their two forelegs each boasted a scythe-like blade which undoubtedly were used as weapons, while the other four legs were used to walk. Errocubi, I thought. We just called them bugs for the most part. Hesitantly, I aimed my handgun and fired several times, unable to see from the constant muzzle flash and hoping that my rounds connected. After I used half my clip, I stopped firing. The two creatures fell to the ground, black blood gushing out of several gun wounds. I stepped over them and knocked on the door (labeled Crew Quarters 03), trying to ignore the sick feeling from looking at the slaughtered bugs. "Open the door!" I yelled. "Who the hell are you?!" someone on the other side shouted. "Lieutenant Edward Cartwright, U.S.C!" I answered. The door opened after a moment to reveal a familiar man. "You're still alive!" Vince said with a chuckle, before stepping aside to let me in. Sergeant Vince Abel was in the same unit as me during the Mars conflict, and we had been good friends for a few years now. I saw another man in the room; Corporal Gunther Breiner, a foreign volunteer from Germany during the invasion of NT-1, who decided to stay in service. We had gotten to know each other pretty well, protecting routine logistic shipments between worlds against nonexistent threats. Breiner cracked a halfhearted grin, clearly exhausted. I tried to smile but it turned into more of a grimace. "What the fuck happened?" I asked. Vince shrugged. "No idea. Comms are down with the command room, but we didn't have enough guys with us to go and check it out and survive." he explained. "Gunther is damn sure that we crashed, and I guess that makes the most sense." I nodded, looking over at the man in question. "The cryosleep chambers couldn't have released on their own. The glass would have to be shattered, as the controls for their tanks unlock when the ship is grounded. Judging by the fact that nothing works and a lot of the interior has taken as much damage as it has, I suspect we didn't just land softly." Breiner said. "Fuckin' nerd." Vince jokingly said, tapping him on the shoulder. "Takes one to know one, Mr. StarCraft." I said with a laugh, sitting down on a bed and using a small metal chair as a leg rest. "How old is the first game? Forty?" "Thirty nine." he said with a scoff. "God damn plebeian." We all chuckled, before somebody came out of the crew quarter's restroom. A man adorned in combat armor with a sub machine gun slung over his shoulder walked into the room with us. "Hate to cut off this very important conversation-" he paused for a second when he saw me. "Oh hey, Ed's alive. Anyway, we have a bit of a situation here, if I must remind you." Bryce Owens was a Welsh soldier that joined the U.S.C, after brief service as a commando under H.M.'s government during the NATO-Indian invasion of Pakistan in the early 2030s. He was jumpy, but quick to act, and a damn good shot. "He's right." I said. "I want to get off this ship." "It's dangerous out there." Vince said, standing up and pumping his shotgun. "You got a better idea? I'd rather die trying to escape than doing nothing." I said, grabbing a rifle from the gun rack and checking the safety. Gunther stood up and grabbed his anti-material rifle. "I'm with him." the sniper said, before putting on his helmet. "If we get out of the ship, we could hunt animals for food or some shit." The group all collectively nodded. "Then it's settled." Bryce said. "Let's get out of here, lads." Twilight observed the platoon of soldiers surrounding the strange object. She'd read lots of stories about aliens landing in Equestria, but none were actually true. The large metal object was stream-lined, obviously for quick travel. It was truly immense, almost the size of her castle. It had been very hard to keep civilians away at first, but increasing the presence of troops seemed to deter any curious ponies. The trees surrounding the object were filled with spearmen watching vigilantly. Pegasi waited in the canopy wielding swords and axes, ready to swoop at any threatening force. Pikemen sat in the treeline, prepared to stand to attention at a moment's notice. Archers and crossbowmen took cover behind them, ready to attack at her command. Yet Twilight had never felt so unsafe in her life. Since she was princess, the soldiers would defend her to their last breath, but nopony knew the power of whatever was inside. It was obviously some sort of vehicle. Short legs held one side up, while the landing gear on the other side was mangled and destroyed from the crash. Doors dotted the sides, some of which had odd green material oozing from the edges. It definitely wasn't an everyday sight. Twilight had personally agreed to oversee its defense, ready to command infantry if something dangerous escaped. A voice came from behind her. "Princess, we are ready to breach." she turned to see a squad of heavily armored unicorns with axes and swords standing and waiting. "Excellent." she replied, standing up. "I'll give the order in ten minutes." "Where the hell did they all come from?" I yelled over the roar of gunfire. We stepped down the hallway, rhythmically spraying rounds into the attacking insectoids. "The bastards fuck like rabbits!" Vince shouted in response, blasting one apart with his shotgun. After a moment, the onslaught ended. We ran for the control room, ready to shoot anything that lunged out in front of us. I shakily unlocked the bridge room doors with my keycard, the magnetic entrance sliding open. We pored into the room, expecting a lot more bugs. Instead, we were greeted by lots of security staff aiming their weapons at us. "Holy shit, you're alive!" one yelled with a laugh, taking off his helmet and walking up to me. He was Kyle Boon, a veteran from the Indo-Sino conflict in 2019. We met on my first trip to Mars and slowly but surely became friends. I chuckled. "Good to see you, too, Kyle." I said. "You guys got food?" Vince asked. "I'm starved." Boon shook his head. The other men in the room began to mill about in conversation. "Nope, unless you're a cannibal." he said, motioning at a dead scientist in the corner. Massive scratch marks decorated his back. Oddly enough, no bugs were to be seen. I grimaced. "No thanks." Gunther said. "How was it out there?" another man asked, walking up to us and removing his helmet to reveal a familiar face. "Hey, Brian." I said. "Lots of insects but we didn't lose anybody." "I wanna get off this damn ship." Kyle said. "My boys are starting to go stir crazy. We got in here thinking there'd be a way to talk to HQ, but didn't find jack shit. The trip here was costly enough as it was, so we didn't want to leave again." the bulky man explained solemnly. I nodded slowly. We got lucky. "Then let's fuckin' do it." Bryce said, reloading his S.M.G. "Maybe we'll meet some aliens?" The men in the room hesitantly began to get up and grab weapons. Kyle and I glanced at each other. "Alright." Boon said, un-holstering his handgun. "I got some fight in me." "Likewise." I replied, changing my rifle's mag and cocking back the handle. Vince topped off his shotgun and Breiner slung his sniper over his shoulder, grabbing a machine pistol from his hip. Everybody in the room checked their weapons, and gave the all-clear. At that, we opened the doors and strode out, flicking on flashlights on our rifles and scanning the area. It was quiet so far, which was surprising. I expected heavy resistance. We made way for the loading bay, clearing the hallways of the few bugs that we had come across. Their numbers increased as we got closer, but we still had no trouble. Out of nowhere, an explosion echoed through the ship from ahead. Everybody had began to talk in hushed tones, wondering what it could've been. I picked up a few ideas. "Did we get breached?" "Maybe someone else is alive!" "Stupid bastard's gonna get the attention of every bug on the ship!" I felt a stone drop in my stomach at the sound of thousands of angry howls. The insects had heard it. Gunshots roared out behind us as bugs swarmed the hallway. We all fired frantically, killing off most of the attackers and scaring away the rest. After a second of reloading and waiting, the clump of survivors ventured further towards the source of the explosion. "Where are we headed?" Vince asked, catching up with me. "To find whoever blew something up and get 'em out of here." I answered. "We don't know what's out there and we'll need all the men we can get." When we got into the cargo bay, the scene was a disaster. All of the crates and containment cells had flown to one side of the room, and insects swarmed for a gaping hole in the wall. Several horse-like creatures desperately tried to hold them back with swords and spears with little affect. We opened fire hesitantly, killing plenty of bugs in our barrage. Despite this, they broke through the weak line of defense and spilled out of the ship, few of them caring to notice us. We gave chase, shooting more aliens until they were all dead. We checked the massive room for more opponents to find nothing. "Land ho!" Kyle yelled, stepping through the huge blast in the wall and into a field. I followed hesitantly, as well as the rest of the troops. The field was littered with dead aliens and bugs alike. "Medics, take care of these locals!" Boon ordered, securing a defensive perimeter around the corpsmen as they did their work. I stared at the unrecognizable creatures on the ground as my squad mates caught up with me. Definitely some sort of horse. They weren't dead, since they had been protected by what could only be very heavy but primitive armor. "The hell do we have here?" Bryce asked nobody in particular, standing next to me. "Unicorns or some shit." I said casually, walking up next to Boon. "Looks like we have company." The man said, pointing at the treeline. I hadn't seen it at first, but then I noticed lots and lots more of the horse-like animals along the trees, watching intently. "They friendly?" I asked. He shook his head. "No clue." he said. I sighed. "Only one way to find out." I decided, starting to walk towards the edge of the clearing. "This is a bad idea." Boon reminded, walking up next to me. "Would you rather wait for them to kill you when we're sleeping?" I asked. "No." Kyle sighed. As we got closer, a figure emerged from the treeline. This one had no armor, and had a purple coat and darker purple mane. I raised my eyebrow. Weird colors, I thought. It eyed us wearily, before speaking in a female voice. "Stop!" she said. We stopped walking, sharing a glance. "Who are you?"
Chapter 2: EarthlingsView OnlineFar AwayChapter 2: EarthlingsKyle and I cast each other a glance. We'd seen a few kinds of aliens, but none like this. She was far too similar to creatures from our own world for comfort, yet extremely different. She was definitely some sort of horse-like creature, but she had a horn and wings. And that wasn't even taking her color into account. "I'm Lieutenant Edward Cartwright, and this is Commander Kyle Boon." I said. "And you are?" "Princess Twilight Sparkle." she replied, offering her hoof. I hesitantly accepted it, and bowed slightly. "My apologies, your highness." I said awkwardly. I had never met royalty, let alone alien royalty. Kyle dipped his head respectfully. "Oh, don't worry about it." she said dismissively with a wave of her hoof. Her attention was turned to our weapons and armor. "I've never seen a creature like yourself before. What are you, if you don't mind me asking?" "Humans, from planet Earth." Kyle explained. "So you're aliens?" the princess asked excitedly. Boon and I looked at each other and nodded. "Basically, yeah." he said. "I had a feeling. I mean, we don't exactly see things hurtle from space often." Twilight said, grinning widely. I stifled a chuckle. A soldier came up from behind us. "Commander Boon, we count zero local casualties." she said. "Good. Wait one moment." Kyle replied, before turning to the Princess. "Do you have somewhere to take the injured? As you can tell, our ship isn't exactly safe at this instant." She nodded slowly. "Yes, we set up a military camp not far from here to monitor the crash site." the mare replied. "Great." the commander said, before addressing the medic again. "Follow us, Corporal. Get the injured cared for and scan them for toxins." The woman nodded, before heading back to the clump of medics and injured aliens. After the medics got the victims onto stretchers, Twilight spoke up. "Shall we?" she asked. Kyle nodded, following her down a rough dirt path into the trees. I followed, reloading my rifle. "What were those that attacked us, anyway?" the princess asked. "Errocubi." Boon said. "An errocubus is an insectoid from a foreign world we colonized a while ago. Scientists from Earth think they can use just about any organic matter to produce nests. Nasty things." He grimaced. "Chances are they got loose on the ship and killed someone, before using the corpse to produce a hive." Twilight's expression went from that of wonder to horror. "Could they escape with their current numbers?" she asked quickly. Kyle shook his head. "No, not after a battle like that. It should take them a day to fully recover their numbers, so as long as we're ready to defend from a distant position once or twice in a day, we shouldn't have trouble." Boon answered. The trees thinned into a clearing filled with tents and warriors wearing light armor. Most were equipped with swords and axes, but there was a few wooden towers with crossbowmen as well. I shuddered. If the errocubi found this camp at its current state, the local guard would be decimated. The train of field surgeons and injured troops followed us, hastily settling down and getting to work. I radioed in to Owens. "Bryce, it's Cartwright." I said. "Send it, Ed." "Get all our men to the treeline to cover the breach, Lieutenant's orders." I commanded. "Roger that. Staff Sergeant Owens out." he dismissed. I sighed and turned to Twilight, who looked at me with her head cocked to the side. "The ship is locked down and won't be a threat." I said. She nodded. "How did you do that?" she asked. "What?" I questioned dumbly. She pointed to the comm link on my wrist. "Oh, it's a communications unit. It uses radio waves to transmit messages to other people with similar devices." "Such advanced technology." Twilight observed. Something clicked in her expression. "You said something about toxins to that soldier. What did you mean?" Boon got a grim expression. "If they bite, their saliva produces a toxin that takes over your nervous system somewhat slowly." I explained for him. Errocubus venom was a touchy subject for Kyle. "If we find someone that's been injected with said toxins, we quarantine them. To put it bluntly, they turn into zombies that assist the bugs. Extensive monitoring has shown us that weaker infected subjects will try to feed themselves to the queen. These symptoms don't appear to be contagious, but the U.S.C doesn't like to take chances." She took a moment to process this all. "U.S.C?" she finally asked. "United Space Corporation." I said plainly. "Our organization primarily focuses on research and space exploration." I left out the part about mercenary operations and sabotage. That probably wouldn't sound good. "What were these creatures doing on your ship?" Twilight asked with a slight edge to her voice. Apparently crash landing on her world and threatening her people with flesh-eating bugs didn't go over so well. "We were moving specimens to a colony world, Mars, for captivity away from our main population." I explained. "I have no clue what, but something went wrong and we crashed on your world." "We have the situation under control for now, but I'm going to try to contact our superiors to see if we can be granted further support." Kyle said. "It's a bit of a gamble, but if this planet is in the path between Earth and Mars for whatever reason, another larger cruiser with plenty of troops on board should be passing for the next four hours." Twilight and I nodded. "Sounds like a plan." I said. "I'll communicate with my mentor to see if we can garner some more infantry." the purple mare decided. "Alright. I'll join the defense to command troops if I'm needed." I said, slinging my rifle and walking down the beaten dirt path once more. I sat against a tree and used a small log as a leg rest, watching the sun set behind the massive cruiser. Gunther lay down next to me, sniper trained on the breach. He would occasionally snipe a bug trying to sneak out, his thermal optics catching it red-handed. I chugged a soda, before lazily throwing the can into the bushes. "How the hell do you drink those that fast?" the German asked, cringing. "That has to hurt." "I hate flat soda." I said simply, coughing a little at the burn. Kyle walked up and sat in the dirt next to me. "Good news and bad news." he said, taking a long drag from a cigarette. "Good news first." I decided, not moving. "HQ's granting us armored support and two hundred more troops." Kyle said with a grin. "Bad news is, we're stuck here until the ship is cleaned out and the local armed forces are protected and equipped." "Armored support?" Breiner asked, not looking away from the breach. "Yeah. Old stuff, but it'll get the job done. Ten AT-105s, four BTR-80s, one T-55AM and a Shilka." "A Shilka?" I asked with a chuckle. "We don't need the other vehicles." "Right? Apparently they're expecting a shit storm. The support shouldn't get here until tomorrow, so we still have tonight to hold off on our own." he said with a sigh. "I doubt they'll be able to get out, though. We have this motherfucker locked down."
Chapter 3: AloneView OnlineFar AwayChapter 3: AloneMachine 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.
