July 30th, 4042
Location: Equestria, Manehatten and Baltimare
Time: 2150
Unit: 375th LDT Brigade, 4th battalion, 3rd company "Embers of the Shard".

The Shard of hope, that was the name of the ship that jumped into our star system when we screamed as our people were slaughtered by an alien threat, we knew nothing of. We had just sent our first message to the stars, introducing ourselves to those around us in the hopes of peace and cooperation. We were instead met with hellfire, death, and pain. When we were on the brink of annihilation, we prayed to the heavens for some positive omen, a sign that things would be okay. That's when The Shard of Hope came through, responding to our cries for safety and our tears of sorrow. It erupted into existence with a flash of purple light, engaging the ships that laid siege to our world. The crew onboard that ship faced the enemy 20 to 1, and in the end, she was destroyed. The Shard of Hope was reported to have taken two cruisers and a frigate down with her in the fighting; She herself was just a frigate.

Her arrival heralded the arrival of more and more ships that arrived after her departure from this plain of existence. She left with us the Embers that fell from her wreckage, which we gathered as they rained from the sky. To this day, every one of us carries the embers of the ship and the crew that gave their lives to give us one more day. We are her Embers, and we carry her with us whenever we don our armor.

The large avian slid into cover next to a Human, tossing him an energy cell for his rifle before popping out to shoot two griffins just down the road. Overhead, Diablo fighters roared through the sky as they challenged the griffins for air dominance, daring them to fight the reliable and agile fighter craft.

"Marcus, you've got multiple contacts headed this way. You're away they brought a fucking dragon right"? Said the avian as it returned fire before ducking as multiple arrows and a spell flew past him.

"I am aware Chima. Luga has the rocket launcher for the damn thing, we're just waiting for it to get closer, so we don't waist a shot on accident and take out some griffins instead of the scaley bastard of a lizard heading towards us". Marcus stated as he gladly took the ammunition offered to him by Chima, his long-time avian friend.

Chima was more or less a bipedal toucan with bright feathers that adorned his wings, piercing blue eyes, and the voice of a songbird whenever it wasn't yelling orders. He was still capable of flight but could walk just fine. His species had been saved by the empire several decades ago which allowed them time to regrow their population and become a member of the empire they now fought for.

Both soldiers came out from behind cover as they fired their AR-45s into the group of griffins who crumpled beneath the power of the weapons. When the Griffins were clear, a rocket flew out and slammed into the dragon, blowing its chest open in a display of purple energy and viscera.

With the dragon down, all three individuals regrouped with one another. They had been an air assault force, meant to cause chaos behind enemy lines within the large city of Manehattan. There was another offensive going on in the next city over in Baltimare that was seeing greater success due to the use tanks for the initial push. Manehattan was an entirely different story, mainly because of how crowded it was against the water.

While the M35s were great tanks, a city was not a place where they belonged as it would restrict their movements. The other problem was the potential for civilian casualties if a tank fired a 205mm round into a building. They still had the IFVs to help them in their fighting to reclaim the city, but those couldn't climb buildings like the M35s.

Behind them, they heard the sound of one of said IFVs arriving along with the main force. The air assault teams had done their jobs well, even if it had been a grueling fifteen hours of fighting. As the IFVs came to a stop, several soldiers dismounted from the back of the vehicle with some carrying marksman rifles and heavier guns like the DLR machine gun.

As the soldiers regrouped, they received an updated mission order to investigate a large methane signature nearby their position in order to secure it for future use. The other concern was that the Griffins might use it to create a large bomb to kill or injure people in an effort to slow the advancing U.S.E forces. They would speak for a few minutes, getting to know one another briefly while speaking of their plan to take the large methane filled area as they restocked their ammunition.

As they advanced through the city, occasionally engaging scattered Griffin resistance, Chima caught up to Marcus to speak to him one on one with someone who he considered his friend even if he did outrank the Human corporal.

"Marcus, do you think it's possible that it's not just some methane deposit? What if it's something else we're not equipped to handle"? Chima asked Marcus.

Continuing to move through the battered and rubble filled streets, there was silence from Marcus that was filled with the sound of the IFV that accompanied them before he spoke. "I'm more worried about something else, though I hope I'm wrong Sergeant. I don't think they have the capabilities to do what I'm thinking of, but I've been surprised by primitives before in good and bad ways."

There was a screech as a group of twelve Griffins dove towards them only for the sound of the 50mm autocannon on the IFV to open up with its loud "thump, thump, thump" to reverberate off the crumbling skyscrapers around them. The sound alone was enough to shake the dust and some small debris from the crumbling structures. The IFV had been loaded with ammunition belts that held airburst and Flechette rounds mixed together in order to deal with the Griffins. The Griffins didn't have any advanced armor, so using armor piercing munitions were considered overkill and a waste of the ammunition.

The IFV's gun was effective as the eleven of the Griffins were killed while one became seriously wounded and plowed headfirst into a wall which caused quite a mess. With all twelve Griffins dead, they continued to move towards the methane deposit. Behind them, the sounds of energy weapons could be heard discharging as the fight for the city continued with room-to-room fighting being intense.

Chima would grab Marcus and suddenly drag him backwards as a cannonball flew right past his head. The force of the impact would have snapped his neck had Chima not grabbed him in time. As soon as he had tossed Marcus behind him, he opened up on the cannon crew with his AR-45, letting out a screech towards the Griffins who were cut down. One managed to escape into an alleyway where it didn't reemerge after several minutes.

"You alright Marcus"? Chima would ask worriedly to his Human friend and subordinate, extending a clawed hand to help him up.

Marcus took Chima's hand and was pulled to his feet before speaking. His tone was appreciative of the Toucan like avian.

"How did you notice that before I did"? Marcus would ask, only to see Chima tap his beak with a small laugh.

"Sense of smell my friend, we have a better one than you Humans do most of the time. You all have the advantage of sight though; I just smelled the gunpowder that they had lit. I get the feeling that those twelve Griffins from before were supposed to buy them time to get into position". Chima would state before giving Marcus back the rifle he had dropped when he had been yanked back.

It would be several more minutes of scattered firefights before they reach the location of the Methane deposit. It was behind a large number of debris and a couple towers that looked like they had seen better days. Some of the towers still held a semblance of their former beauty despite them having been almost stripped clean of anything with value. The fountains and plants that adorned the once decorated halls now sat empty of any sound except for that of the IFV's engine and those who entered its walls.

The IFV would wait out front with a couple of soldiers in order to cover it should they get engaged. The rest of the squad would climb the outside of the tower and towards a penthouse using their armor's grip and scaling systems. When they reached the penthouse, they made their way to the edge to get a better view of the location from the floor they were on.

Marcus was the first to reach the edge of the penthouse and he seemed to stop cold which caused Chima to notice. As he approached the Human, he could hear Marcus speak in a whisper and hushed tone.

"Those motherfuckers.... who the fuck does this? What the fuck is wrong with them"? Marcus would mutter before jumping off the building and onto the ground several stories below. His armor would absorb the impact as the jets on his back activated to slow his descent.

Up in the penthouse, a soldier gagged and began to vomit into a left-over garbage can. The man was just a private and hadn't seen something like this before, so his reaction was pretty normal to such a sight.

Chima stood still, watching his friend below survey the carnage in the large field of what used to be a massive park. The park seemed to have been the place of a failed summoning ritual, the magical symbols painted all over the ground in bright purple and white. Chima wasn't familiar with magic like Marcus was, so he was fine with letting the corporal get into the area first. Chima would soon hear from Marcus on a private channel.

"It's a god damned blood sacrifice! There're fucking thousands down here, all of them are lining the symbol. God, fucking damnit, THERE'S FUCKING CHILDREN IN HERE! FUCK"! Marcus roared over the communication link to Chima.

Chima could hear the anguish in the corporal's voice and began to speak. "Can you tell if it was successful or not? I'm not experienced with magical anomalies Marcus".

A sigh was heard as Marcus spoke. "Negative, it was a total failure, the symbols would have burned if it had succeeded. This looks fresh, like they did it just as we entered the city. It looks like they were trying to summon something big, something that would have required a lot of fire power to take down. If it had worked, these people would have at least fucking died for something. I know it's fucked up, but their lives were just wasted, like they were a fucking experiment conducted by some lunatic with a novice grasp of magic".

Chima would glide down the building to find Marcus on his knees, holding the body of a deceased colt in his hands. Both of them knew that there was no bringing him back, his body broken by those who were growing desperate. Taking a knee next to Marcus, he placed a clawed hand on his shoulder in an effort to comfort the grieving soldier. He knew Human's took the death of children extremely harshly, which is one of the reasons they had initially shown up to his home despite being outnumbered.

Chima could hear Marcus say a soft prayer for the colt before setting the child back down.

"I'm sorry Marcus, there's nothing we could have done. We can't save everyone we come across, and we didn't know this was going on. I'll let command know about what we found and give you some time to yourself while we secure the area". Chima stated in an empathetic tone to the tortured soldier and his best friend. Giving his shoulder a squeeze, he stood up and began to give orders for the soldiers to secure the area for the Military Division of Investigations.

Marcus sat in the middle of the magic symbol, the colt resting at his knees while he looked at the football field sized symbol with the bodies that covered it. After a few minutes to himself, he stood up and made his way back to help establish the perimeter. On his way, he would pass by Chima who looked at him with a sorrowful expression.

As Chima watched Marcus move to the perimeter, he took his necklace and looked at it before pouring something into it. Opening his claws, he blew some glowing Embers towards the magic Symbol. The Embers of the U.S.I.S Hope would swirl and settle on the ground surrounding the carnage.

The Embers were his hope that these souls would find rest in the afterlife and the hope that they might be able to stop this from happening in the future. As the Embers landed, Chima thought he saw lights float from the bodies and swirl with the Embers before they vanished into the air. After witnessing this, Chima returned to the perimeter they had established around the area, focusing on finding his friend.

Author's Note

Hey guys. It's been a while. I've had a lot happen recently involving family and work, but I'm trying to get back to this. I'm sorry this took so long. This is a bit of a darker chapter, hope you all don't mind.

Background for the U.S.I.S Shard of Hope and it's destruction.

In 4020, the U.S.I.S Hope received a distress call from an alien planet under siege. They alerted high command who dispatched a fleet with orders to wait. The distress call came with casualty numbers and estimates as to the current planetary population remaining.

The Hope chose to engage due to the population being down to a couple hundred million individuals with the number falling rapidly. The Hope would erupt out into real space where it would become embroiled in an hour-long fight against the enemy fleet of twenty. She took three enemy ships with her that were targeting a civilian megacity for bombardment. The Hope was lost with all hands, her ashes and wreckage raining on the planet.

Chima's people witnessed this battle and it in turn gave them the belief and the hope that help was on its way. Help arrived twenty minutes later in the form of the 1,867th fleet which engaged without losses to their own personnel.

Those who come from the planet have taken to referring to themselves as the Embers of the Shard. As it stands, there are currently 22 active and 5 reserve companies with each of them bearing the name of the Shard. This includes The Shards fury, Embers of the Shard, The Shard's call, etc.