| [INCIDENT REPORT]--------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| TIME OF ATTACK ------------- 03:02 - 03:14 LMT ---------------------------------------- |
| LOCATION OF ATTACK ----- NLTT-512-3A --- CAMP EBONY --------------------- |
| HOSTILE FORCES ------------- UNIDENTIFIED ----------------------------------------- |
| FRIENDLY FORCES ----------- UNITED EARTH NAVY -------------------------------- |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| FRIENDLY CASUALTIES ----- 05 KILLED --- 03 MISSING --- 12 WOUNDED --- |
| HOSTILE CASUALTIES ------- 83 KILLED --- 00 MISSING --- 02 WOUNDED --- |
| CIVILIAN CASUALTIES ------ 00 KILLED --- 00 MISSING --- 00 WOUNDED --- |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| CONCLUSION -------------------- DEFENCE SUCCESFULL ----------------------------- |

///LOCATION - NLTT-512-3A/LOW-ORBIT/UENCCV-02///TIME - 04:30 LMT///DATE - 20-05-2232///

"Admiral Bishop, we have just received the incident report from Camp Ebony." said the Comms-Officer on the bridge of Atlas-Beta. "As you know, the base has experienced a surprise-attack about one-and-a-half hours ago. Details are still coming in, but so far, it seems that the attack was performed by the local civilization. From the reports, we have concluded that we are dealing with quadrupedal creatures, similiar to horses, though smaller. Weirdly enough, all of them have different hair-colours."

"That is indeed odd." the Admiral replied. "Any idea as to what causes this? Is it some form of hair-dyeing? Some tribal tradition, perhaps?"

"No, that is unlikely, as the green blood had no effect on the colours."

"Hold on, 'green blood'? I'm not a doctor, but back when I had to shoot some On'San, they usually had red blood, as with most creatures that I know off." said Admiral Bishop with confusion.

"Indeed, the doctors at Ebony who aren't working on treating the wounded are investigating some of the alien corpses in an effort to find out more about their anatomy. They are also working on patching-up 2 captured and wounded aliens."

"We have captives?! Why didn't anyone inform me about this?!" the Admiral asked angrily.

"I'm not sure, sir. What are your orders?"

"My orders, are to prepare a goddamn dropship for planetfall!" he practically yelled across the bridge, startling several officers there.

"Uhm... May I ask why, sir?"

"I am going to talk to those fucking aliens, and I will see to it personally that they tell me why the hell they killed 5 of my men and women!"

Few people on the bridge of Atlas-Beta had ever seen the Admiral that angry. It was a terrifying sight to behold, though some of the officers present there had a pretty good idea why Admiral Bishop was acting up like that. Why? Because they had seen him like this before. Back when the Admiral was just a Sergeant, enlisted in the 21st Earth Defence Battalion, back when humanity was at war with the On'San.

Without much more hestitation, the Hangar-Crew of Atlas-Beta were informed of the Admiral's request. They immediatly got to work preparing a H250A, a basic orbit-to-planet transfer shuttle. The Admiral was going down to the front-lines, which could only indicate one thing:

Shit was about to get real.

///LOCATION - NLTT-512-3A/EQUESTRIA/CANTERLOT///TIME - 07:14 LMT///DATE - 20-05-2232///

Black Bess arrived in Canterlot, coming to a screeching halt at the entrance to the palace itself. Study Shield was quick to dismount, practically flying out of the truck. He had to be carefull, the rain almost causing him to slide down onto his face. After retrieving his balance, he quickly trotted towards the door.

The Guards at the door tried to stop Sturdy, but after they noticed the LRS patch on his uniform, they quickly moved aside, informing the Princesses of the Lieutenant's arrival. The doors to the throne-room flung open, revealing the special-forces unit to none other than Princess Celestia herself.

"Princess, I must ask for your time immediatly!" he shouted. He would normally think twice before talking to the Princess like that, but considering the possible consequences if he wasn't fast enough, he believed that it was more than appropriate to hurry up.

"I'm sorry, but who might you be?" Celestia asked.

"Sorry your majesty, I am Lieutenant Sturdy Shield, leader of the Lunar Recon Squadron. I am here to personally inform you of our recent findings."

"I believe that such manners should be discussed with your Commanding Officer, not directly with me."

"I know, your majesty, but I believe that, in the current situation, it would be better to skip that to save time."

"I don't see what would need my attention this quickly. I will tell you again, though this time it wont be a request. Talk to your Commanding Officer."

"I'm sorry, but I can't. The situation is too important."

"Honestly Lieutenant, I simply don't see what would be important enough to-"

"LIVES ARE AT RISK!" he shouted. He had just shouted at the Princess, and disobeyed a direct order while doing so. He hadn't even thought about it. All that mattered to him at that moment was the protection of the ponies he knew. That was one of his key traits, and whether it was a positive or a negative trait, he wasn't sure, but he would always step up for the ponies he cared about, no matter the cost.

"Oh. I see." the Princess said in a calm voice, somewhat taken back by the Lieutenant's outburst. In her mind, she tried to think of all the possible reasons that lives could be in danger. The first thing that came to mind were the Changelings. Shortly after that, she heard another alien vessel roar overhead, reminding her of their presence. "Go ahead then. I presume it has something to with either the Changelings, or the aliens, has it not?"

"Both, actually."

Princess Celestia was taken back by the short and clear response. The problem was both the Changelings, AND the ominous and recently arrived aliens? "Very well, you have my attention. You may speak, Lieutenant, though I must warn you. Next time, such attitude will NOT be tolerated."

"Understood, your highness. As I said, I am the Squad-Leader of the Lunar Recon Squadron, a team assembled by your very own sister."

"Yes, I have heard of your team."

"We were sent on a mission by Major Bladed Sword, our current CO. He told us to go out and investigate the alien-activity within the Crystal Empire. We eventually found a base being build by the aliens, but shortly after we arrived, a group of changelings also found the encampment, and they attacked it."

"I understand. So the civilians in the area are in danger then? We should-"

"If I might interupt, I wasn't done yet. Yes, the civilians are in danger, but not just the locals. Everypony is in danger. That includes you, your majesty."

"How so? I don't see how a war between the aliens and the Changelings would be bad for us?"

"That is because the war won't be between the aliens and the Changelings, but between the aliens and US." Sturdy said, as dramatic as he could.

"But we didn't attack the aliens, did we?"

"We didn't but the Changelings had disguised themselves as Royal Guards before attacking, thus making the aliens think WE attacked them. And I'm sorry to say this, but a war with them, is a war we can't possibly win, no matter how hard we try. They are so technologically advanced, we wouldn't even be able to get close to them."

"This is a rather unfortunate situation. I shall talk with my advisors, and we shall think of a plan to contain the situation. Is there anything else I need to know off?"

"No, your highness. That was all I had to say."

"Very well then. I have one last order though. Bring the captured alien to me. I believe I should have a little... discussion with him."

"Ofcourse, your majesty." And with that, Lieutenant Sturdy Shield left the throne-room, trotting back towards the palace-entrance, where he found that Black Bess and her crew were still waiting, along with the rest of the LRS.

"How did it go?" one of them asked.

"We have new orders. Escort the captive to the Princess for interrogation." Sturdy Shield explained.

"You mean the alien?"

"No, I'm talking about one of the Changeling-corpses outside the wall! Ofcourse I mean the alien! Sheesh."

"Are special-forces always like this?" Black Bess's mechanic asked, a unicorn mare.

Sturdy Shield replied. "Not always, just sometimes, especially when somepony is a little slow. But we're just joking around, we are a team after all!"

And so the LRS drove off in the truck towards the Royal Biological Laboratory, where the alien resided.

Admiral Bishop was sitting in the ATS, or Atlas Transport System, a metro-like transportation system running troughout the Atlas. He was on his way towards the auxiliary hangar-bay, where his H250A Dagger transport was waiting to take him to Camp Ebony. A flight-plan had already been submitted, a route plotted, and the ship prepared for departure.

Inside the ATS, the Admiral was considering his options whilst being transported trough Atlas-Beta at high speed. He had received another report, this one more detailed than the first report, which stated that some weapons had been recovered from the attackers, and that they had appeared to be similiar to muskets, similiar to the ancient ones used on Earth centuries ago, though they were not exact copies.

Nevertheless, they had done some real damage to the base, or more specifically, the people inside it. Many of the rounds that were fired into victims never left the body, staying lodged inside and destroying internal organs with every move. The bullets, which were nothing more than pure lead balls, had to be carefully removed, though in some cases, less care was taken, as time was of the essence. Any and all movement would cause the fragmented round to cut even more into organs and flesh, which could be fatal.

After every hostile was either killed, neutralized or scared away, the wounded could be taken care of. 12 people were hurt, some more than others, with a few victims having bitemarks from the sharp teeth of the creatures that had attacked them. Five people were killed in the attack, but the weirdest part was the fact that 3 people had gone completely missing. Not even their Tracking-Implants could be tracked. It was as if they had just completely vanished.

Included in the report were photos and a video. A short clip, taken by a cook who was making a short video about what the enviroment looked like, which he wanted to send to his girlfriend back home. The video shows him telling about the experience of flying in a Midway-Class Carrier, when he is suddenly interupted by the sound of a C-RAM-12 system firing at a threat. The video cut off at that point, with the last image being one of pony-like creatures running down from a nearby hill with weapons pointing towards the base, muzzle-flashes included.

After watching the video, Frederik Bishop decided to take a look at some of the photographs. The first file he opened, was a picture of the open area in front of the base where most of the pony-like hostiles were eliminated. The ground was covered with bullets and fragments, corpses ridled with holes, and limbs. The grass was soaked, with what indeed appeared to be green blood. He still believed that it was odd for a creature to have green-coloured blood. The only thing he could think of that caused green blood was a weird and rare virus. Maybe it was due to a disease?

The next file was a diagram of the insides of the hostiles, which Admiral Bishop noticed the doctors had labeled 'Equis pugnare'. Clever joke. The dissections revealed that this Equis pugnare is quite similiar in terms of anatomy to a standard horse, though obviously a lot smaller. Their blood was, indeed, green. No explanation had been found thusfar, but investigations continued. There had to be a reason why their blood was green. If only they knew...

The last picture was a schematic of the weapon that proved to be extremely usefull in fighting off the enemies. It included a message: "Our LRG-50-AT's have proven extremely usefull against the attackers, and with their current technology, we expect the enemy to have some form of armoured vehicles. Hereby requesting 5 additional LRG's." The request was signed by Commander Briggs, who was in control of Camp Ebony.

Admiral Bishop considered refusing sending more supplies down whilst the base was still unsecured, but quickly decided that, if the Commander considered it a good idea to employ more LRG's, he wasn't going to go against that. He knew the Commander. They had known each other since the First Interplanetary War, where they had fought together. He pressed 'ACCEPT REQUEST' on the screen, and continued on.

It appeared he had seen all the files he had been sent, which was good, as the ATS had arrived at the Hangar-Bay. He could see the H-250A standing ready to depart. Walking over to the vessel, he once again looked up to take in just how massive even the Auxiliary Hangar-Bay was. Saying it was massive, would be an understatement. He sat down and strapped himself in, reminding himself what he would do as soon as he arrived. Meet the prisoner, check his condition...

And then find out where the hell his soldiers were.

Author's Note

Chapter 20! Yay! Included a schematic of the LRG-50-AT that I made, with correct scales. This is also the first time you get to see how large people are in comparison to ponies. Don't mind the fact that the pony used to represent the size is RD, it's just because it was the only good Pony-Model I could find on the 3D Workshop in Google SketchUp. For anyone interested in looking at the model, JUST CLICK HERE!

Featured Characters:
Sturdy Shield - Wild Balance