It had been three weeks after the battle where Forge made himself and his forces known to the Caribou and met the Resistance. The Resistance had joined them at the main base with the Changelings making tunnels for them to live in and for if the base needed to be abandoned however unlikely that is. He had saved 2,368 ponies and 2,016 Changelings from the Caribou He had 5 Firebases set up around the badlands with one in between Applesoola and Dodge Junction. Forge knows reclaiming the towns from the Caribou is the first step to ending the reign of the Caribou.

He looked over his forces as he planned the attack. He knew no plan lasts contact for more than a few minutes but at least having a idea of what to do will make things easier for them. He was about to head over to his room for a quick nap when his com unit beeped.

"Sir." One of the Marine units contacted him. "Princesses Luna and Twilight along with Queen Chrysalis would like to speak with you, Sir." It told him.

"Understood. Where are they?" Forge asked. After being told they want to meet him in the CIC room he made his way to the command building. He passed by a few ponies and changelings who he give nods to as they did the same or smiled. A couple came up to him to give thanks for reunited them with family or friends as they did before. He just smiled with a shake of his head in amusement along with telling them there is no need for them to keep this up. Soon he entered the building and made his way to the CIC. He looked at them in a manner which Luna understood to be him asking what's up.

"We are wondering when you plan to attack Appleloosa and Dodge Junction." She told him as the other two nodded.
"I plan to launch the attack in two days. I have drones in sub-orbit watching the towns and the surrounding areas." Forge told him as he begin to explain his plan as he brought up Appleloosa and Dodge Junction. "I'll have my forces hit both towns at dawn. Doing so will allow my forces to take out the Caribou quickly for they won't be expecting it." He told them as he showed his units dropping into the towns from a high height as the landed inside the town. "They have thrusters on them to move in the air if needed so they won't crash into the buildings unless they are to." He told them when he saw the question on Twilight's face.

"But why in two days?" Chrysalis asks him as the other two look at him agreeing with the question.

"That is because a high ranking Caribou will be in Appleloosa by then and also he has someone I believe you will like to see again." Forge told them as he brought up a cam feed from a drone and showed a group of Caribou with a carriage in the group and a orange colored anthro earth Pony with a black collar tied to the front of it along with another three earth ponies each pulling it by a harness.

"That's AppleJack!" Twilight said as they watched the screen. Forge cut the feed.

"I would had done the attack yesterday but if I did they would had turned around." Forge explained to them. "I also plan to join the attack." He told them causing them to widen their eyes in shock.

"Why? You are doing good even if you aren't fight them directly." Luna told him as they looked at him.

"I'm more of a man who fights in the front lines not one who stays in the back, hell I kept myself as a Sargent for that reason." Forge told them. "Besides this is someone important to you people and will rise moral for your people." He told Luna and Twilight. They looked at each other before Twilight ran over to me and give me a hug in thanks. "Your Welcome." He told her. The three left the CIC a couple of minutes later as Forge looked over his plan making slight adjustments before heading to his room for the nap he had planned.

Two days later, 10 minutes before dawn, 6,000 feet above Appleloosa

Forge look out of the bay of the Pelican as he looked over the town. The Pelican was one of 12 flying over the town along with another 12 at Dodge Junction. He noted were Applejack and the other three was in a pony sized dog houses next to the carriage chained to it. 'Well time for that to end.' Forge thought as he entered the modified ODST Drop Pod attached to the Pelican with modifications to hold it. "Operation is a go." He ordered.

The drop pod was released from the Pelican as the ODST units jumped out of the drop ships. The fall lasted for several seconds as the pod landed with a bang as the ODSTs landed. The door opened as Forge jumped out of the pod and moved to Applejack. She was panicking some as he moved close.

"Easy now! We're here to help." He told her as he knelt beside her and checked the chain. His HUD scanned it and picked up magic in the chain. From what he knew of Earth Ponies strength is very strong so it is likely unbreakable. The question is if it's only to pony magic or everything. He aimed at the chain connected to the carriage and fired a shot at it. It was blasted apart by the shotgun shells giving him a answer. He did the same for the rest and was about to figure out how to get the harnesses off them when.

"NO! I'm not letting you take my slaves!" Forge heard from behind him and turned around to find the Caribou 'noble' and another running towards them pulling out their swords. He quickly aimed and fired his weapon at the Caribou noble who's chest suddenly gained a hole in it as the other one lost his head to the next shot as it disappeared into a red mist of blood. He looked at the pony next to him as she looked at the bodies in shock as he checked and grabbed the key and unlocked the harnesses from the ponies before removing them.

"Stay down and don't leave this spot and till things calm down, we'll check you four over off we finish off the Caribou." He told her as he placed them under the carriage. He swapped his shotgun with a battle rifle and joined his forces as they cleared out the Caribou from the town. He had headshoted one when he was alerted of a Caribou who was holding a filly hostage with a blade to her neck. He moved to the location and saw the caribou hadn't noticed a alley behind him and moved down the street and entered another one to the other street and entered the alley. He placed his rifle on his back and pulled out his combat knife. He slowly moved behind the Caribou before grabbing the arm with the blade and pushed it outwards as he stabbed into it. The Caribou dropped the filly as Forge grabbed her and pulled her away as several shots ring out as he got out of the way. He look back to the body before checking on the filly finding no injuries.

"Sir! That was the last one in the town and the units from Dodge Junction reports they had just cleared the town as well. Several Male ponies fought us and we knocked them out and binded them. No loses from both forces sir." One of the units reported.

"Good to hear. Call in the next wave and get both towns ready to be defended." Forge ordered as he put down the filly who ran to another pony. He smiled at the sight before heading to the town hall. He saw Twilight, Luna, and Chrysalis appear with some ponies and changelings along with some of the corpsmen.

"Twilight!" He heard a voice cry out as Applejack ran to her friend and hugged her. The two spoke as Luna and Chrysalis walked up to him.

"You had done something we had not hoped to be able to do for a long while if the Caribou hadn't found us." Chrysalis told him. "Now we can start hitting them harder." She said with a nod from Luna.

"True. However first we must fortify the towns and move the former slaves to the base. If you wish you can place some of your people to help keep them out of the Caribou's hands or at least check on the defenses and keep a eye out for anything they may had missed while we deal with the Caribou." Forge told them as more drop ships came in and started dropping off units, corpsmen, and builders along with supplies. Twilight and Applejack joined them.

"You have my thanks for freeing me and killing those bastards." Applejack told him. "Once you reclaim ma farm and free ma family I'll send you some of our apple cinder for free whenever you want some." She told him.

Forge chucked as he spoke. "No need to do that but if I do I pay for it." He told her causing her to shake her head.

"Ah insist if you are going to pay for the cinder then it'll be half the price," She told him as she give him a stern stare.

"Very well." Forge replied to her seeing she won't change her mind. "Now then lets get everyone out of here for now and get this place ready for the Caribou." Forge told them as ponies were being moved to the Abacross drop ships.

Two weeks later, Appleloosa

Forge watched from a tower built near the sand bag wall as he watches a army of 25,000 thousand Caribou marches towards them. "Ready the cannons." He speaks into his com unit. The sub-orbital drones again picked up no slaves as apart of the army headed to them but there was some in the camp they left behind which he sent some of his units to get to save from the Caribou.

One of the Caribou stepped forward and. "Give up! Return the slaves and tell us how to use those machine and you may be spared." He shouted. "What is your answer?!" He shouted again.

Forge shakes his head and aims the sniper rifle at the Caribou messenger before firing. The Caribou's head disappeared in a red mist. "How is that for a answer." He spoke to himself. The Caribou army was in shock before one of them yelled in anger and the rest joined a minute later as they charged. Forge watched before saying one thing. "Fire."

The Fox cannons fired and a minute later the front lines of the army was covered in fire and smoke. "Again." He ordered as the cannons fired again, this time slamming into the middle of the army. The smoke cleared up and most of the Caribou can be seen as bits, pieces, and blood with a fair mount injured to different degrees. The few able to move started to run or limp away from the town and carnage hopping to not suffer their friend's fates.

Forge sighed as he got a report from the forces at Dodge Junction of the fight ending in a similar manner. 'Hell when I did this I thought it would be different.' He thought to himself. 'Oh well, just have to deal with the hand I was given.' He continued his line of thought as he climbed down the latter.

Alpha base

Luna, Twilight, Chrysalis, and AppleJack watched as the Caribou ran. "Horseapples you weren't kidding about that. Those Caribou are go as gone." AppleJack said as they looked at the remains of the two armies. "Still if they have this much power and are losing I hate to run into this Covenant." She thought aloud.

"Indeed. I hope they don't come here." Luna agreed as she remembered one night when she entered one of Forge's dreams and saw him at a battlefield in a city. The sights she saw made her quickly remove the dream. "I won't tell but from what little I saw before I ended the nightmare if they do come, I don't think my sister or I can stop them." She admitted. They watched as Forge make his way to a drop ship before leaving the room each with their own thoughts about him and how things will end.

Author's Note

To those who may be wondering if I'm going to bring in the Covenant to the story then yes I will. It will be the Storm Covenant for slipspace is pretty much unknown and hard to predict for the UNSC for anything could happen, so I putting it so Forge's ship came out of slipspace after halo 3. In the first chapter Forge told a story of his ship fleeing from the Covenant to Luna who got some idea of how bad the Covenant is from dreams made by his new memories for as shown in the prologue he was given knowledge about the UNSC his is apart of so to speak. The Storm Covenant will crash land on the planet but that is all I'm going to say about this and I won't tell when it will happen.