Prism’s Flank: City-348C: Two hours after the attack

“HOW COULD THIS HAVE HAPPENED!?!?” The commanding officer of all Imperial Army units on the planet shouted across the conference room.

Situated around the central table of the room were the various Regimental Commanders of the EIA and EIG with their staff officers along with the Captains of the defence fleet plus their aides.

As the Flag Officer Captain Iron Raid answered the general’s question “I have no excuse General, it's clear that those who attacked the plaza were of alien origin and working with the humans but as to how they infiltrated the planet without us noticing..”

“Clearly the space haulers have gotten soft with no real threat to fight unlike us” One of the Army officers muttered but it was loud enough for one of Iron’s captains to hear.

“You want to say that again, Mug-slugger!” He said.

“I said clearly-!”

“ENOUGH!” The General said before things can escalate further.

“Were we able to identify the attackers?” He asked, leaning back into his chair once things had settled down.

Another Officer this one in charge of the Army’s intelligence branch stood up, cleared his throat before saying “I’m afraid not sir, out of the five that were in the plaza one got away with Twilight Sparkle and the rebels whilst the remaining four were killed by a plasma grenade which apparently made it impossible to salvage the technology from their gear much less see what kind of race they are.”

That bit of news brought the already foul mood down even more.

“Seven Regiments..” One of the officers began.

“We lost almost seven regiments worth of Stallions and Mares we had for only four of their own!?” Another one shouted

The current strength of the Imperial Army on Prism’s Flank before today was Seven Imperial Army Regiments and Seven Imperial Guard Regiments, normally a colony like Prism’s Flank would only have two EIA Regiments to act as the heavy reserve for the EIG garrison but since the resistance had become more troublesome in recent times five more Army regiments were deployed.

And now some of those very regiments are gone.

“Whilst much of the 356th, 357th, 358th Line Regiments and the 708th, 910th Tank Regiments as well as the 450th and 350th Guard Regiments were destroyed along with the defence base, many of their subordinate units were out on patrol and thus with time could-” The Intelligence Officer started trying to put some light on the news before he was interrupted by another of his fellow officers.

“WE READ THE AFTER ACTION REPORT CAPTAIN! And even if there were enough survivors at best we could create a reinforced regiment or at worst two battalions!”

The Army Intelligence Officer hung his head down, not saying anything before sitting back down in his seat.

“This is getting us nowhere” The General thought as he rubbed his hands over his face to keep himself awake before saying

“Were we able to at least trace where they went?”

Captain Iron Raid then spoke up “Indeed we have General”

He then pressed a button on his end of the table before a hologram appeared above the centre of the table, it showed a 3D representation of a section of Forest with a red shape underneath the treeline.

“We were able to track the presumed Dropships responsible for the attacks to RB23, 40 Kilometres to the east of the city and judging from the activity we’re seeing they appear to be evacuating” Iron said standing up at attention despite the difference in service branch.

“Evacuating? Where could these scum possibly escape to that we can’t possibly reach them?” Another Army Officer asked.

“The aliens that are helping these humans are clearly an interstellar civilization, to that end it's very likely these aliens that are on planet are but a scouting force sent from a nearby starship or even a small fleet Celestia forbids” Iron Raid replied before the hologram zoomed in on a clearing near the rebel base known as RB23.

“Judging from the dropships amassing here we can tell there are fourteen dropships, not enough to transport the whole base in one run” The Naval Captain explained

“What about their magical signatures? How different are they to ours? How well do they fare against ours if you were to guess?” The same Officer from before asks.

“There are none” That statement gave pause to the whole room for a full 30 seconds before the officer said.

“But you just said they were evacuating! Given the fight those four we killed put up we can assume to a degree that they are not idiots so why!-”

“Because they have NO MAGICAL SIGNATURES COLONEL!” Iron Raid said understanding the colonel’s disbelief in such a phrase.

“The reason why we didn’t notice these aliens entering the planet was because they weren’t using magic to power their ships! I know this is hard to believe but we must act now, once my ships have completed preparations we will-” He continued before he was interrupted by the General

“YOU WILL DO NOTHING!”

Iron Raid said nothing for a moment before saying “But sir-”

“Not only did you fail in preventing this attack from happening despite your sound if off reasoning but you also failed to realise that our weapons can destroy whatever kind of technology they use, technology that we need to secure and study if we are to stand a chance in the worst case we become at war with each other and we can only do this if we have boots on site not a lance strike!” The General countered.

“...I see General but does the army have the men?” Captain Iron Raid asks.

“The 560th Line Regiment along with some extra support should be enough to overwhelm RB25 but in case it eases your mind Captain your fleet will be ready to provide air support when called upon” The General replied.

“Humph we should be sending as much force as we can given how well those aliens fought” One of the Army officers comments.

The General looked at his subordinate for a moment before saying “Whilst that is true given the threat of these aliens we must also keep in mind that these aliens could have more elements in the system, enough to lay siege to this planet. As such we must not waste too much of our strength when the threat of invasion is not outside the realm of possibility, in light of this threat Captain Iron Raid as acting Lord Governor I want you to send a messenger ship through the warp bubble to the homeworld and inform his majesty of our plight.”

With that the Navy Captain stood up, straightening his uniform before saying “I will do personality General and I’ve make sure the Defence fleet is ready for a attack if these Aliens do come in force”

Nodding the General then addressed the rest of the officers “Gentlecolts this is a moment many may remember for years to come, never before has the Imperium encountered an alien race that is not bound to their homeworld much less one that can stand up to us without the aid of magic if that is really the case. Conflict may be inevitable now but if we could come to an understanding and show these aliens that these humans are not worth the effort we may yet avoid a war with a powerful opponent and usher in a new age.”

He then turned to one officer in particular and said “Colonel Brickfield, your Regiment must make the capture of even one of these aliens a top priority understood?”

“Yes Lord General” Brickfield replied.

“Good dismissed!”

Staff Sergeant Ben Grayson: Akumu dropship Shadow Two: Haven: 5 minutes after the attack

“We’re coming in on Haven now, get ready to disembark” The voice of Shadow Two’s pilot jolted me out of the daze I was in since we left city-348C.

I’m currently sitting on the row of seats to the left of the Akumu’s cockpit with Fallon sitting to my right and the SCAR team that was with Shadow Two sitting across from us with their nuke launcher beside their feet.

Beside our feet on a medical stretcher was our VIP who remained unconscious since our fiery exist.

I gave her my best but it would be better to get her to a proper facility ASAP.

At the announcement my old boot camp buddy turned to me and said “Well grey? Let’s find out what kind of ten fucks of hell are we in today”

A moment later the dropship rocked with a loud THUD and soon we were all unstraping ourselves from our seats and gathering our gear.

After we all gathered our gear the SCARs immediately left the dropship whilst Fallon and me moved to carry the stretcher and follow them.

As we all filled out of the Akumu and onto the clearing near Haven, the dropship itself closed its ramp and started to lift off from the ground.

“You guys hang tight, rest of shadow and I will be on station for CAS after we get re-armed. Godspeed” Came the voice from Shadow Two as his dropship sped off into the sky.

Then a Rebel came out of the woods near the edge of the clearing before saying “Major Graves wants you guys at Haven, follow me”

“Where’s the evac zone?” I asked, intending to get our VIP on the first osprey I can find.

“Just down that way at the next clearing sir” The man said pointing behind him.

“Fallon and I will handle the VIP you guys get to the major” I said to the leader of the SCARs who nodded before his men began following the same man through the woods back to haven before me and Fallon began heading to the Evac site with our VIP in towe.

As we made our way through the woods I noticed a couple of rebels messing around the foliage, with my HUD I could see that they were setting traps both along the path and deeper within the woods.

Given that Equestrians would likely come from multiple directions in small numbers whilst the bulk of their force comes from the east it makes sense to put some defences to harass them.

“Why’re they setting traps in this direction?” Fallon asked behind me as we both continued to carry the stretcher holding Twilight Sparkle.

“In case the enemy tries to outflank us, even if they can only send a few guys through these woods” I said back to him over our private channel as we continued our trend through the woods before eventually we reached our destination.

The scene before us as we entered the second clearing was one of organised chaos, all of the Ospreys were packed together being boarded by the civilians from Haven being mostly women, children and elderly.

Looking over the crowd I could see Evie, Blake and Sam with their parents being loaded onto one of the Ospreys. I sigh with relief as the trio noticed me and waved not really caring if they recognise me or not, I only spared my hand a second for the kids to see before focusing on the task at hand.

We soon made it to our destination, the flag Osprey of the whole effort where my commanding officer Lieutenant Hawkins was chatting with one of the pilots.

“LT!” I shouted over the comms to get his attention, he nodded to the pilot before turning to us as we set the stretcher down.

“Graves told me you guys got her out, good job” He said, grabbing my shoulder in the process.

“We lost five of the Alliance’s best sir, she’d better be worth it.” I said as Hawkins let go of my shoulder before turning to our sleeping VIP.

“I’ll have her on the first bird to the fleet, she’ll get the best care there” He said.

I nodded before asking “What’s the status of the evacuation?”

“Since this spot is the only one that can hold more than one dropship we had to prioritise, our Ospreys will take the first batch out of here and then the Hyabusas will come in flights of fours to take the remaining civilians to the fleet. However because those same Hyabusas are busy both spreading word to the other camps about Haven’s situation and getting some reinforcements we won’t be able to fully start the evacuation until tomorrow” Hawkins explained.

I cursed under my breath, if the enemy mobilised fast enough they could be here as early as tomorrow.

Fallon and the Osprey pilot from before were bringing our VIP into the Osprey when I noticed some of the Pararescuemen running back towards haven.

“I asked anyone if they wanted to stay and hold down the fort, given that we need as much space as possible sending a few of our own wouldn’t hurt and the guys there are gonna need them more then these fooks at the moment” Hawkins explained as two more of our PJs run past us towards Haven.

“You want to join them?” He then asked me.

I was a bit conflicted about that, on the one hand the STT will need as much help as it can get and I don’t see anyone amongst the evacuees that’ll need medical attention right away. On the other hand however, given that the enemy’s laser weapons can melt hardshell our odds of surviving the coming battle are slim and what’s worse my term of enlistment will be over in a few months and I plan on helping my mother in our family cafe.

As I pondered this Fallon came out of the Osprey with a browed M66 in hand and told both of us his answer

“Well I’m not missing out that party if their that low on helpers getting the decorations ready for the party guests”

Seeing my best friend from boot stating his intentions I sighed before saying “Make sure my seat gets used”

With that I followed Fallon as we both made our way to haven to get ready for the battle to come.

We soon entered the tunnel that leads to the main part of the camp, the tunnel itself was bare except for the support struts holding the ceiling up.

The main camp was a different story, with the help of the rebels we were able to turn much of the sanctuary into a killbox for any attacker with choke points, IEDs, and sandbags the whole nine yards.

Soon we arrived back in the command tent where the rest of the Special Tactics Team were huddled around Major Graves at the command table along with several rebel leaders.

Once the Major was sure we were all in attendance he began the meeting.

“Situation; currently we are preparing this base for a lengthy siege whilst most of our air assets evacuate all non-combatants and those who can’t fight.”

The Major then activates the projector on the table which lit up to show a 3D hologram of the surrounding forest with Haven marked with a blue NAC logo.

“As you know gentlemen much of the forest is too dense for any large force to advance without running the risk of being bogged down via guerrilla warfare and the terrain.” The Major continued as the North, South and West areas of the forest were highlighted in red showing their density.

“However the section of forest closest to the city is less dense both due to the Imperials past efforts to expand the city and past operations the rebels under took which resulted in this area housing signs of battle and removing the density that would normally make this approach just as dense as the others in the past”

“Instead this is where the Imperials will make their push right?” One of the Force Recon guys asked as the East area of the forest is highlighted in orange.

“We’re hoping they’ll put all their eggs in one direction but better to expect the worst then be unprepared for the worst” The Major replied as several blue dots appear on the holomap.

“A couple fireteams of rebels will watch the few approaches from the north, south and west to make sure the Equestrians don’t outflank the main defence line but if things get dicey then we’ll pull them to the front and let the traps slow the enemy down.” He continued.

It sounds simple enough to me but no plan ever survives contact with the enemy.

“How long do we have to hold them off sir?” Another of the Force Recon guys said.

“Once the Ospreys leave with the first batch of civilians we’ll have to wait until the Hayabusas get here to fully start the evacuation and that’ll take a while as they are busy with informing the other rebel camps and have to fly low to avoid being spotted and shoot down, but once those civilians are clear we and any surviving rebels with us will disengage from the Imperial forces and scatter to avoid being captured or killed until the fleet arrives.” The Major replied.

“If the fleet comes” I thought, given what little I know of the wider strategic situation I doubt the Alliance or the wider United Nations Defence Forces would risk opening a second front against a completely new enemy when we are focusing much of our forces and industry to reclaim our old worlds.

“Here’s our battleplan.” The major said breaking me out of my thoughts and getting to the meat of the briefing.

“The SCARs will be positioned here” As he said this a deeper blue dot appeared on the eastern end of haven within one of the thicker patches of trees.

“They’ll be our shield against any of the imperial’s Close Air Support with their JUMBOs and most of our ammo for them, given that our targets aren’t LHOs it’d be a waste of ammunition to use them against their Infantry when there are more juicy targets” The Major continued.

“Captain Andrew as the head Force Recon here you’ll take the lead in the defence at the front whilst I stay back as mission control call sign Hunker One understood?” He said to the SI Captain to his side.

“Understood Major Graves,” Andrew replied.

The rest of the meeting was details about our OOB or Order Of Battle, who’s going where and where to fall back to ect.

Before long many of us including me and Fallon had to hit the hay, because it's gonna be a very long day indeed.

Next Day: 560th Line Regiment mustering area: Outside of the western edge of City-348C: Early Morning

The area which sits between the city and the forest was aloft with the military personnel of the Imperial Army like bees in a beehive, soldiers ran from one spot to another in order to find their parent unit, engineers checked the heavy equipment to make sure they run and vehicles moved from the city to their assigned dropoff points to off load men and material coming from the regiment’s post on the other side of the city.

The Regiment itself housed five Battalions of a thousand men each, six if one counts the Headquarters and its attached assets.

Within a large tent somewhere in the muster area stood the Officers of the Regiment’s battalions including the Regimental Commander Colonel Brickfield.

Brickfield himself is a big stallion standing two heads over the average Unicorn in the tent, his fur is pitch black with a short white mane under his IA helmet which allows his red eyes to survey the gathered officers.

“Now that we are all here we can begin” Brickfield starts as the last officer fills into the tent.

“As many of you know we are to mount an assault on RB25 with three operational aims.” He held three fingers of his right hand up for emphasis.

“The first is finally to wipe out this threat so close to the planetary capital” He first said before lowering one of his fingers.

“The second is to possibly retrieve the rebel leader Twilight Sparkle, out of the three however this is the lowest as we have already lost many brave mares and stallions so if retrieving her is impossible then you won’t be at fault” Brickfield continued lowering another finger leaving only one upward.

“The third and final and arguably most important objective is to capture any of the aliens that are embedded with the rebels or at the very least capture their equipment for study.” Brickfield concluded.

“Fine by me Colonel, bout time my company and I got some action.” A rough but respected voice said.

Said voice belonged to Major FlatStone, commander of the only Power Armoured Infantry Company on the planet.

PAIs or simply Stromtroopers as they are more well known are a rare sight in the Imperium due in no small part to the large amount of resources required to not only make the massive suits of Armour but also to implant the users with the necessary interfaces to properly control them.

The Implants could be seen on either side of the massive red Stallion’s neck, their black material a stark contrast to FlatStone’s bright red coat. His golden eyes showing little lines within their irises showing their implantations.

“Your unit will be the first ones in Major Flat-” Brickfield started before being interrupted by one of the battalion commanders

“Sir, is it wise to deploy the Stormtroops, especially since our forces have taken severe losses?”

Brickfield nodded to the stallion, understanding his concern. “Under normal circumstances I’d agree but given that we are facing soldiers that are more advanced than anything the Imperium has faced in the past it’s best to be safe than sorry.” He replied before looking over the map before them.

“As I was saying Major Flatstone, you and your company along with the third Battalion will be our Vanguard followed by the First and Fourth. Fifth Battalion will stay behind and act as a reserve whilst Second Battalion will split into its component units and attempt to flank the rebels from the north, south and west.”

The Colonel then looked to the commander of his Second Battalion.

“Because of the density of the other approaches, your troops won’t be able to bring their heavy equipment and be able to move in large groups but there is the possibility that our enemy will attempt to flee through these areas.” The Colonel said to which the commander nodded.

“As such we need to cover as much of the other areas as possible to ensure maximum impact, right sir?” The Commander verified.

“Correct” Brickfield confirmed.

“What about the dragons sir?” Another of the Battalion Commanders asks.

To compensate for any lack of defence, each outer colony was given a squadron of five Adult Dragons to help with either ground support or air superiority and Prism’s Flank was no exception.

“Glanorth will be stationed with Second Battalion in reserve but if things get desperate he’ll be called in.” Brickfield answered.

Glanorth is the second most powerful dragon on the planet, his scales were as white as snow with some silver mixed in and his eyes were a crystal blue but he was no less deadly with over 300 years of battle under his belt. He was only succeeded by Mothrul who was as beautiful to Male dragons as she was deadly like Glanorth.

The meeting continued for an hour to iron out all the too small to mention but no less important details with the various commanders giving their thoughts and conversing with each other before the Colonel got their attention again.

“Alright, head to your units and get them ready, we move out in two hours and commence the attack in one hour after that. Dismissed!”

Staff Sergeant Ben Grayson: Three hours later: Heaven Forest Eastern Zone

“Contact front, eight plus foot mobiles” The SI Fire Team leader said over our squad channel as eight red icons popped up both in my field of view and on my map as I took cover behind a large tree, M66 Flechette Rifle in my hand primed and ready.

Looking to my left I could see the blue icons representing the SpaceBorn Infantry Force Recon Troops taking cover in similar positions with a couple of rebels with us though without modern gear I could only see the icons of where they last were and not where they are now which may be a problem in the coming fight.

Earlier in the day the Haybusasas came and started loading the rest of the residents of Heaven which given the small landing area only allowing for four dropships to land at a time is proceeding slowly.

So slowly in fact that when our FLY drone network noticed the mass of Imperial troops heading our way, only half of the civilians were evacuated.

So here we are a force of 250 Rebel fighters with 70ish Special Tactics Team operators going up against an Imperial force of a few thousand give or take.

“Make that ten, 30 metres and closing.” The same fireteam leader said as two more icons popped into existence.

Looking around my cover I could just barely make out the silhouettes underneath the icons through the vegetation and what I saw made my brow rise.

Unlike the standard Imperial Soldier which has basic armour and helmet with military webbing, these troopers appear to be encased in heavy armour, maybe even with the help of a powered exoskeleton. They carry weapons that’ll look massive in the hands of a regular sized Equestrian and they appear to be projectile based not the energy based weapons that they and the Rebels used.

They look like some Miniatures that a neighbour of mine collects, I think they were called Space Marines but fortunately aside from the looks these troops don’t have the genetics that the Space Marines were supposed to have.

“Shit!” I hear a whispered curse near me and I look over to see another Rebel cover right behind another tree.

“Their Stormtroopers! Second best outfit in the entire Imperial Military underneath the Royal Guard!” He explained as quietly as he could whilst I just peeked around my cover again to get a look at these “Stormtroopers”.

The Squad is now in full LOS of our little group of fighters and I could see that they also noticed something ahead of them.

Reacting on reflex I aimed my rifle at one of the leading troopers, finger slowly pressing on the trigger before I heard the order over the comms.

“All Units engage!”

I squeezed the trigger and thanks to the computers in both my suit and the weapon itself, my rounds were accurate, clean and dead on.

The first shots hit my target straight in the chest through whilst they did penetrate the armour the guy was still alive to brace his feet against the ground to keep himself upright from the shots. Acting on my Drill Sergeant’s words of “If they don’t die in the first place, hit another place” I shifted my aim to the guy’s head just as he brings his gun to bear on me.

My 66 cracked whilst his weapon boomed, my burst found their mark in the Imperial’s helmet, piercing right through the thin armour and making his whole body jerk back with only the powered armour preventing him from toppling over freezing him in place like a statue.

I turned to where the deceased Stormtrooper fired his weapon, only to see the lower half of the Rebel from before on the ground a few metres away from where I last saw him, his upper body nothing more than blood and gore.

“Note to self; never get hit by one of those.” I thought as I shifted my attention back to the firefight.

In the few seconds since the start of the shooting, four out of the ten Stormtroopers were already dead, their bodies becoming statues and makeshift cover for the remaining six as they regrouped and started to return fire.

Like their comrade I first killed their weapons boomed like rapid firing tank cannons, firing 60 times before having to reload, I was able to bag another Stormtrooper during such a manoeuvre his body going limp but his armour keeping him upright like the rest.

By then the remaining Stormtroopers began to fall back as regular Imperial soldiers came forward no doubt in response to the Stormtroopers calling for reinforcements.

As I duck back behind cover to reload my rifle I took stock of whose left.

We had 10 rebels augmenting our reinforced fireteam of six STT troops, out of the ten I know for sure that one was KIA.

As for the others I couldn’t say without a way of linking their vitals to my Battle Armour’s computers.

In terms of Force Recon team however there were no fatalities aside from one of them being knocked off his feet by one of the Stormtrooper’s rifle shots.

“This Hunker One to all callsigns” Major Graves’s voice comes over my comlink loud and clear despite the growing battle.

“This is it Drones are seeing massive enemy troop movements, get ready to dig in and fight hard. Let’s show these fuckers how REAL human soldiers fight!”

I couldn’t help but let out a small howrah as I slam the fresh magazine into my rifle before getting out of my cover again to tag another target, a quick look at my TACT-LINK shows that all of our reinforced squads are engaging Imperial units of platoon size or greater to which I’m thankful for until I noticed that we are gonna face one of those companies as well.

“Anything that can go wrong will go wrong” I thought as I returned my focus to the very much growing battle at hand.

560th Line Regiment: Fifth Battalion Headquarters Company: 30 minutes since contact with the enemy began

The atmosphere within the command vehicle was one of both optimism and frustration at the same time.

Whilst the Vanguard was able to slowly advance through the forest, they paid a heavier price then was previously expected with half of Third Battalion being wiped out in the first fifteen minutes of the battle with the First and Fourth taking a lesser beating but still enough losses that any rush advance would be ill-advised.

And that wasn’t the worst part.

Because if some reports are accurate then the entire Stormtrooper company was wiped out in the first five minutes of the battle.

Stormtroopers are hand picked from the best the Imperial Army had to offer and received the best gear in return, because of that they are a rarity numbering ten thousand at any one time and are rarely deployed in anything above company strength numbering around 50 Stormtroopers.

To lose just one Stormtrooper is a blow in of itself but to lose a whole company, that would be a loss not heard of since the earliest days of the Imperium when they were still cleansing their homeworld.

On the bright side however they were killing as much as they were losing with 1-2 rebels for every 2-4 Imperial soldiers through werther that was due to the rebels own skill or the efforts of the aliens is impossible to tell at this point.

“Major! Message from the Colonel!” A computer operator shouted out, gaining the Fifth Battalion’s Commander’s attention.

“Send” He simply ordered.

“Message simply reads “Cloud Cover” sir!” The operator replied.

“Cloud Cover”, that was the code phrase to begin sending in the reserve force. Which included Fifth Battalion and their assigned Dragon Glanorth.

“Call Glanorth’s handlers and tell them to send him to Third Battalion’s position, Lieutenant Gleefield! Tell Captain Star Wood to get his Second company moving as they are the closest to the fighting. The rest of you pass the word to the rest of the Battalion that we are moving to support the Vanguard clear!?” The Fifth’s Commander ordered.

“Clear!” Came the crisp reply as the operators got to their work.

Staff Sergeant Ben Grayson: 40 minutes since battle commenced

“GET THAT MARS LAUNCHING NOW!” I shouted over the roar of battle as I spotted an Imperial Tank which bears resemblance to the ancient WW2 Sherman Tank coming into sight of our position with Infantry support.

It's been over half an hour since we’ve first engaged the enemy and…well things are very slowly but surely going downhill for us humans.

Out of the 250 Rebel fighters that were with us last I’d check we were down to just 37, along with 40 out of the sixty SST members though the SCARs are still in the fight and it's thanks to them that we haven’t been overruned yet.

I fired my M66 into the Infantry Squad escorting the tank killing two in a spray whilst the rest dived for cover.

I paled inside my helmet as One; my last magazine for my Flechette rifle runs dry and Two; the tank is turning its main gun towards me.

“ANYTIME NOW!” I yelled at the MARS handler.

“ON ITS WAY!” He yelled back as I heard the familiar sound of a MARS Anti-Tank round leaving its launcher.

A few seconds pass by as the rocket arches skyward whilst the Tank finishes traversing its turret with its Infantry Squad popping out of their cover to suppress the squad of Pacific Alliance soldiers in front of them, completely oblivious to the Anti-Tank round overhead.

“Maybe they think it's just an Anti-Air muniton? Or they don’t have guided minions yet?” I thought to myself as the MARS round slammed into the Tank’s turret and vaporised the whole vehicle, the Infantry squad being killed by the force of the explosion.

“This is Hunker One to all Hunker victors” Major Graves' voice sounded over the comms as I rejoined the Force Recon team that handled the MARS strike.

“Finally” One of the FR troopers exclaimed and I could understand why, unless something bad happened then the only reason Graves would be calling all of us would be..

“All evacuees have left heaven I repeat, Heaven is now empty..”

I could feel the smiles coming off the Special Forces guys and I couldn’t but smile as well until..

“..Be advised we are picking up a massive contact along with additional hostels closing on the combat zone, all Hunker victors fall back to the final defence line and pepeare to disengage Hunker One out”.

“Shit!” The fireteam leader cursed as he got us together and soon we made for the final defence line.

5 Minutes later

“Holy shit!” One of the Fireteam members behind me shouted as I turned around along with the rest of the fireteam and I couldn’t help but stare dumbfounded.

Hovering above us with a target maker above its head courtesy of our TAC-LINK was a dragon.

Its scales were a bright silver with some areas being a slight grey, its wingspan was probably about ten to twenty metres in length and its tail was fifteen metres in length but most importantly for some reason..

It was mad and bloodthirsty.

“COVER!!” Somebody shouted over the comms but I couldn’t remember who.

Next thing I know I was helmet first in the dirt with my suit telling me that the temperature was quite high all of a sudden.

Lifting my head out of the dirt I took stock of my surroundings, I appear to be on one side of a massive wall of fire where my HUD tells me that four out of the five SI FR troopers are located. It doesn’t take a computer to figure out their condition.

I turned around to lay on my back and right away I found the last trooper of the fireteam, the one carrying our MARS launcher.

He’s laying flat on his face like I was, his body pointing to my right. At first I figured he was unconscious but a quick look at my HUD and a closer look at his helmet tells me he isn’t getting up again.

His back was exposed to a lethal dose of fire which melted a good portion of it and the resulting micro-explosions probably killed him long before he hit the ground, even if he did somehow survive long enough to get to the ground it wouldn’t help him as his head fell right on top of a sharp rock, penetrating his visor and killing him instantly if he wasn’t already.

I took a look at my HUD again to see how long I was out, the fire to my left was dying down so I must have been out for a bit.

To my surprise I was apparently out for a full half minute.

“Then where’s-” I thought for a moment before a loud crash brought me to the front and I froze.

Surveying its handy work directly in front of me was the same dragon from before, in its mouth a poor SI grunt trying to use his knife to break free.

But all that wasn’t the reason I froze, it was who was in the dragon’s maw that my suit was able to identify.

Captain Green Andrew.

He looked in my direction and I was sure he was about to say something before the dragon tossed him into the air and as he was falling the dragon opened its maw and let out a torrent of flames.

At that moment I was glad that the Captain didn’t try to talk with me, as I wouldn’t be able to get the nasty image out of my head otherwise.

After a few moments the dragon closed its mouth and swallowed as if it just ate a tasty meal before looking back at me.

Quickly I began to think of a way out before I noticed that between me and the dead MARS trooper was that trooper’s MARS launcher.

The Multi-Armament-Rocket-System or MARS was considered by many to be the pinnacle of MANPAD development, capable of firing both Anti-Air and Anti-Armoured munitions including a special Anti-Lanky round known as a “Silver Bullet” capable of penetrating the Lanky’s tough hide.

The MARS launcher in front of me had one such bullet load and ready, it just needed somebody to pull the trigger.

“And if I’m lucky that’ll be m-”

“HEY UGLY!” A familiar voice boomed over the air as me and the dragon looked towards the source of the voice.

To my left beyond the fires that were now dimmed enough to cross over was Fallon and his fireteam of five SI Force Recon and two Pararescue men.

“WHY DON’T YOU GET A TASTE OF THIS!?” My bunk mate shouted as he and the fireteam fired their weapons at the massive dragon.

The vast amount of M66 Flechettes don’t kill it but do wound it, making it angry and then.

“Nononono-SHIT!” I thought as the dragon pounced on the fireteam whilst letting loose its deadly flames.

For a moment all I could hear was the screams of the SI troopers, Pararescuemen and Fallon whilst I watched, my mind filling up with anger.

Avery Fallon, my best friend from Bootcamp, one who I periodically survived hell with is gone.

With that and rage filling my thoughts I quickly turned back to the MARS launcher and with adrenaline fueled reflexes I grabbed the heavy weapon and aimed it right at the dragon’s head whilst he feasted on another SI trooper.

When it finally turned around to face me its face morphed into what I could guess was shock, to which I took great pleasure in.

“EAT THIS YOU OVERGROWN LIZARD FUCKER!!” I yelled with all my might as I pulled the trigger.

The round went and hit the dragon square in the eye, it then started to jerk wildly, flapping its wings and flying out of control before landing in the forest behind me.

I dropped the now empty launcher as I lay on the ground numbness from the whole experience, my mind racing with all sorts of thought trying to piece my situation back together until.

“MEDIC!” The pain but familiar voice of Fallon booms over my comm channel.

Checking my HUD I found to my surprise and immense relief that my best friend is still alive but in need of medical attention.

Springing to my feet I ran as fast as my legs could take me, up to the top of the ledge where the fireteam was.

I ignored the other melting and gored corpses and focused on Avery.

Other than his armour steaming hot from being exposed to that kind of heat he was relatively fine…except his left arm.

It was completely ruined having taken the majority of the punishment and if left unchecked he could die from blood loss or worse. Reacting quickly I used a medical knife meant to cut bone and removed Fallon’s arm before bandaging the stump and applying other medical fluids.

“Fal hey Fal!” I said to him trying to keep him awake.

With a gasp and grunts of pain Fallon awakes though thanks to his armour injecting painkillers and morphine the pain isn’t too much to bear.

“Yeah YEAH! I hear ya-ack!” Fallon says still in pain but alive to my relief.

“EASY there you jackass! I was able to stop the bleeding but-” I said, pulling Fallon’s right over my left shoulder to get him upright when I heard a loud shriek.

Turning our gaze across the clearing both me and Fallon couldn’t believe our eyes.

“Oh you have got to fucking shiting me!!” Fallon voiced my utter disbelief as the dragon I shot down began to slowly but surely rise back into the air, its left eye completely mush, blood and fluids.

“Well shit-” I began to say before a torrent of explosions appeared all over the dragon’s body before it fell to the ground a second time, this time unmoving.

A familiar roar of engines greeted our ears as a flight of FA-23M8 Strider fighter craft zoomed over our heads.

“-Repeat this is California Actual to STT Washington, friendly craft inbound to provide CAS and Evac to your location please respond!” A female voice cracked over our comms links as I looked at Fallon still relying on me to support him, he was quiet for a moment before saying with no doubt a smile on his face.

“Well that went a complete 180 didn’t it?”

June 25th 2188 AD: Battlegroup Sera: 10 Minutes earlier

Compasion

X2 Mars-Class Space Control Cruisers.

X2 Gwam-Class Assault Cruisers.

X4 Echo-Class Frigates.

X6 Grand-Class Destroyers.

X1 Washington-Class Battle-Carrier.

“Targets are coming into particle cannon range, ETA 70 seconds.” The California's weapons officer declared as the Task Force approached Nova Tanis.

“Confirm” General Alex Adams said as his eyes were focused on the tactical orb.

When they received the intelligence from the Washington’s STT six days ago High command and indeed the rest of the upper echelons of the Pacific Alliance spent the whole day arguing about what to do about the alien civilisation known as the “Equestrian Imperium”

Some say they should just leave them alone and focus on the immediate threat of the lankies whilst others in the government say they should try to seek an alliance with the Imperium.

However the one party that won out in the end was the one that pointed out three flaws in the other two approaches.

Firstly the Alliance has built up its public image as a nation for freedom and Liberty, when the public finds out however that the same Alliance allied with a nation that goes against everything they stood for whilst it may not have an immediate impact it will have consequences down the line.

The second flaw is that the Pacific Alliance has made a promise to reclaim all the NAC and SRA star systems that were lost during the earlier stages of the war with the Lankies and whilst the enemy isn’t the same, they can’t just leave New Caledonia in the hands of a another alien power otherwise it’ll damage the PA’s image in the public eye about them not being tied down by the old political landscape.

And finally according to the information the STT gathered tells of how in the Imperium’s eyes humanity is their property by Imperial decree, which means that if or when they discover the true territory of mankind they’ll try to fold those “Rogue” elements back in if not peacefully then by force.

And so High Command gave the go-ahead for hostile actions against the Imperium to quote “Remove the Imperium’s ability to threaten the Alliance and her allies by any means necessary” and Nova Tanis is to be but the first step.

“Ten seconds!” The officer warned.

“Weapons target the second biggest vessel in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, FIRE!” General Adams shouts from his command station as the ship shudders from the firing of all four of its particle guns.

On the Tactical Orb in the centre of the CIC the icon representing one of the three largest enemy vessels turns into a second sun for a second before the heat and light dissipates.

“Hit! The enemy vessel designated as Bogie two has been splashed!” The Weapons officer shouts and a brief cheer washes over the CIC.

“Okay everyone calm down and ready for action, they won’t just be sitting there to get shot a second time.” The General reminded everyone as indeed the enemy garrison fleet begins to take evasive action and with them being so close to the planet as well as the Battlegroup’s trajectory towards the planet means that using both the particle guns and the Orion missiles are out of the question.

“Helmsman get us within QCB range and Tactical have the cruisers focus on their size equivalents and have the frigates focus on the other ships, the Destroyers are act in support of either” He then ordered as the fleet decelerated when they got to 1,800 kilometres of the Garrison fleet.

His plan was basic true but other than facing pirates no human ship in recent memory has engaged in battle with other human vessels and since these Imperials bare the most resemblance to humans it is reasonable to assume that they use tactics similar to humans to which the men and women of Battlegroup Sera have almost no experience with.

The Cruisers began to attack their equivalents in pairs one Mars and one Gwam for each enemy vessel, the Mars being Space Control Cruisers were designed for fighting space threats with the class in particular having two batteries of seven Mk 13 railguns and two laser arrays to be used both offensive and defensively. The Gwam Class Assault Cruiser being designed to support planetary assaults didn’t have lasers instead they have eighteen more powerful Mk 14 railguns and four batteries of six tubed missile launchers capable of firing both high explosive and low yield nuclear warheads.

Whilst all the Pacific ships have missiles in some form or another most of them were designed to take advantage of the openings in Lanky Seed ships left by the Battle-Carriers as such Command advised against using them, plus its unknown if missiles would even work at all especially now that the Alliance fleet was too close to launch them.

“At least we know our Particle guns work.” General Adams thought as the first duo of cruisers opened up on the enemy ships.

The duo consists of the Mars cruiser Hyperion and the Gwam cruiser Texes, the Hyprion struck first with its forward railgun battery. Six of the first seven shot went wide as the enemy cruiser turned to port whilst raising its bow up in a arch but the seventh shot hit an area near the main engine block, the hostile cruiser returned fire just before it took the hit firing a barrage of what appeared to be particle beams but of a less destructive nature.

They were fired from turrets but unlike human ships most of them were on the ventral hull limiting their field of view. Though in this case much of the guns on the bow section of the ship had a clear line of fire on the Hyperion, the resulting barrage tore through much of the Hyperion’s hull its armour being designed to withstand the kinetic punch of Lanky penetrators doing little to stop the energy from melting the hull. Within a few moments of the enemy weapons making contact with the Hyperion, the ship was battered, bloodied and trying to speed away from the engagement.

But her sacrifice allowed the Texes slipped behind the enemy cruiser whilst it was duelling the Hyperion and was able to send a full alpha strike into the rear of the enemy, obliterating the main engines and gutting the cruiser but not before the only rear turret on the enemy ship was able to let out a single shot that whilst didn’t do as much damage as what was done to the Hyperion it did leave a nasty mark on the Texes.

Whilst that was going on the second duo of Pacific Alliance Cruisers the Mars Class Talent and the Gwam Class Luna were actually in a running battle with what would later be described as the enemy flag ship.

Four of the Grand class Destroyers were in support as the Talent opened up with three of her forward railguns before using the time to reload those guns to fire the remaining four, the Talent would repeat this process whilst the Luna would disengage after only a few shots to engage planetary targets of opportunity.

The duel between the enemy flagship and the Talent plus her destroyer escort would continue for the next four minutes whilst the aforementioned cruiser would speed away from Nova Tanis performing evasive action whilst the Talent did its best to avoid the fire of the cruiser’s single rear mounted particle gun until the cruiser did an unexpected starboard turn bringing its frontal armaments to bear on the Talent and her escorts.

Three out of the four destroyers were destroyed instantly whilst the fourth was heavily damaged and forced to crash land on Tanis.

The Talent didn’t fare any better, whether it was due to some divine intervention or simply luck one of the beams was able to hit the Talent directly in the reactor vaporising the Cruiser and what was left would burn up on rentrying the planet’s gravity well.

With its pursuers destroyed the enemy flagship would make its way out of the planet’s orbit and would later escape the system entirely to carry news of this attack to its superiors.

The four remaining Imperial ships were destroyed in good order by the Frigates with the help of the two remaining destroyers and the Battle-Carrier’s secondary armaments.

Overall in the span of seven minutes the Pacific Alliance Fleet engaged and destroyed six out of seven enemy ships of the garrison fleet whilst losing four destroyers, one Space Control Cruiser and one Space Control Cruiser suffering heavy damage.

“Sir! Picking up contacts coming from the planet!” The sensor tech yelled as the CIC crew of the California went about checking in on the rest of the fleet as well as their own ship.

“Enemy?” General Adams asked as he froze rising from his seat.

After a few moments the Sensor tech shook his head “Negative sir they’re Hayabusas!”

“The Washington’s Special Tactics Team!” Adams realised as his comms officer chimed in.

“I can confirm sir! They’re ours and they have refugees abroad whilst also requesting we give orbital support to friendlies currently engaged in a defensive action sir!”

Fully standing up now Adams turned to his flight control officer “Flight Officer get those dropships in and get our Striders down there ASAP, Comms try to get to Major Graves or anyone from the STT and tell them that Support is on its way.”

“Aye Sir!” was the collective reply as within the next few minutes Striders from the California would swoop in and save the last few survivors of the Washington STT allowing them to be extracted.

EINS Destiny’s light: enroute to warp bubble

“WE’RE JUST LEAVING THEM!?” Ensign Lamplight shouted as the rest of the bridge crew of the Destiny’s light began to receive damage reports from the rest of the ship’s crew.

When they saw the Silvercrown go up in a bright exposition the Captain ordered all ships to take evasive action and defend themselves, whilst during the fight the Destiny’s Light made best speed away from Prism’s Flank.

Sitting in his command chair Captain Iron Raid eyed the ensign before saying “If we stayed and tried to fight whatever fired a STAR at us we would just end up like the Silvercrown and given the amount of energy we were already producing there was no way for me to order a full retreat.”

Unlike human technology Pony technology relies heavily on magic from engines and FTL to basic items like firearms and communications. Whilst magic is not limited by the laws of physics because the comms systems rely on magic beams to send information between points, it meant that in a heavy magic environment like the one they just existed communications would be limited at best or non-existent at worse.

“Furthermore Ensign these aliens don’t use magic and thus we wouldn’t be able to effectively hit them at longer ranges, the best thing we could do right now is to warn the Imperium of these new aliens and make sure our comrades' deaths are not for nothing.” Iron Raid concluded.

Whilst the Imperium has fought against other non-magic civilizations in the past all of them haven’t been able to leave their homeworld and thus never developed a space force, the only fighting the Imperial Navy has endured since it was created was pirates and rebellious worlds that tried to succeed from the Imperium.

All of which used tactics that stemmed from the Imperial Navy, not these aliens however.

They were the first truly interstellar civilization that the Imperium has encountered and the Emperor must be informed.

“Ensign Bronze maintain course and inform me when we are about to jump, Ensign Flintlight with me we’re going to check on engineering. Everypony else as you were.” Captain Iron Raid ordered keeping an eye on Lamplight as she and the rest of the bridge crew continued their duties whilst he and Flintlight exited the bridge.

“That was not what I was expecting today sir.” Flintlight said once they were alone in the Light’s hallways.

“Me neither ensign” Iron Raid replied, his eyes focused on what’s ahead.

“Me neither”

Author's Note

And thus another chapter is completed!

Now I’m gonna take a bit of a break from this story for now because 1) I would like to work on other stories on this site and get my name out there a bit whilst 2) I’m currently burned out on these little scenes that make up the larger story, like I know what BIG events I want but not sure how they should play out if that makes any sense.

Also in case anyone needs to know the difference between both races Particle weapons.

The Human’s particle guns are like BFGs lots of punch but not very numerous whilst the Pony’s Particle gunshot are like those from Gundam.

Hope you all have a nice (and hopefully cool) spring!