With All Its Glory, And All Its Horror

Chapters

I - Into the Breach
II - Scouts Out
III - First Contact
IV - The Shot Heard Around the World
V - Cowcolts and Aliens
VI - The Last Son
VII - Public Appearances
VIII - Building Bridges
Interlude I - Chau Sara Sweetheart
IX - Allies and Enemies
X - Joint Operations
XI - Welcome to the Jungle
XII - Timberlings
Prologue - Correspondence

I - Into the Breach

Kill, fight, die: That's what a soldier should do.
"Devil Dogs," Sabaton

Braxis
12 January, 2530

Sergeant Matthew Hobbes scanned the sector in front of him through his LRAS binoculars. From his position in the hastily made hide-site in the deep snow, he couldn't see any signs of life. To his left and right, the hide-site took the form of a thin trench that stretched wall to wall of a narrow, claustrophobic canyon and occupied by almost two dozen scout troopers. Three hundred meters behind their position were the six Diamondback fighting vehicles he and his platoon had dismounted from. To the front, the canyon stretched into nothingness, obscured by a dense fog. The snow before them was curiously undisturbed, despite the ISR from the Braxis planetary outpost reporting it being the landing zone of a moderately sized Zerg force.

"I can't see shit through this fucking fog," grumbled Corporal Stuart Archer, the maneuver team leader of Matt's squad.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I'm not seeing anything on thermals," Matt replied.

"Ain't that weird though? I mean there should be dozens of Zerg in there at least and we ain't seen so much as a footprint."

"Just keep your guard up, Stu. We know that whatever's in here hasn't left."

"Yeah, I know, but this place gives me the willies. Somethin's telling me this ain't gonna be just a search 'n' destroy op. Is that weird?"

Matt had to agree as he glanced up to the top of the canyon. Jagged ledges of sharpened ice silhouetted against the cloudy sky like they were trapped in the jaws of some giant beast. He shivered, either from the thought or if the cold was finally getting to him he wasn't sure.

They sat there in the trench for hours, scanning the sector as they waited for a mission update. The base's sensors had detected several Zerg biosigns suddenly descending into the end of the canyon, barely five hundred meters from the troopers' current screen position. Nothing had been detected since, not even by the Raven drones sent out overhead. It fell to the scout platoon attached to Braxis' meager security detachment to look for what the drones missed.

Matt's imagination ran the longer they stayed in the screen, conjuring up new and increasingly improbable situations by the minute. He shook his head, trying to dispel the thoughts of death and destruction his bored mind cooked up. He broke a piece off one of his ration bars to distract himself, working the frozen slab around his mouth to soften it up enough to chew properly. It helped, as his thoughts turned from impending doom to whether or not the bar would pull his teeth out of his head.

Finally, the platoon leader's voice rang over out through his radio.

"All stations this net, this is Red Strike, FRAGO to follow, break.
Platoon is to advance to phase line Raynor and complete the following PIRs, break.
Determine presence of enemy forces and locate possible items of interest in NAI two, over."

A series of green indicators flashed on Matt's HUD as each trooper indicated their acknowledgement. He pressed his own once each member of his squad had already done so.

The troopers began shuffling around, preparing to leave their position as the diamondback crews began maneuvering their vehicles to pick up the dismounted troopers. No sooner had Matt stood up did he hear, no, feel a sudden vibration through his boots. His blood ran cold as his worst fears were imagined.

"BREEEEACH!" screamed a trooper to Matt's right.

To his horror, a zergling had erupted from under the feet of one of the troopers in his squad. Its toothy maw had clamped around the unsuspecting trooper's boot like a bear trap as it flailed the sickle-clawed appendages on its back in downward strokes against his lower body. Blood and viscera rapidly covered the snow as the zergling's razor-sharp claws sailed through the trooper's light infantry armor.

In moments, the returning fire from the neighboring troopers killed the zergling on the spot, the newly adopted laser rifles scoring holes clean through the alien's carapace. Once the offending creature lay dead in the trench, the troopers began firing into the hole it had left behind, presumably seeing its companions within. Red flashes of light lit up the trench as Matt heard the screeching of dying zerglings.

"All stations, this is Red Two Eagle, zerglings have breached our line! Watch your feet for tunnelers!" Matt barked over the radio as he dashed to the fallen trooper.

Matt nearly vomited when he saw the trooper. His entire gut had been torn apart below his rib cage until he could see the trooper's spine from the inside. He already knew he had flatlined from his squad-tracker display on his HUD, but he still instinctively checked for a pulse, finding nothing.

God fucking dammit! he cursed to himself.

He turned to the breach, seeing red through his rage. The zergling had burst through the bottom of the trench wall, and through the hole Matt could see several zerglings, some dead and almost blocking the entrance, but several more that were attempting to used their dead comrades as cover from his squadmates' laserfire.

Around him Matt could hear similar sounds as zerglings breached in other locations. His mind raced a million miles a minute as he thought of how to counter the assault. The molten holes in the sides of the ice tunnel, made by a stray laser bolt, suddenly gave him an idea.

"Throw perdition!" he yelled to one of the troopers over the laserfire.

The trooper glanced back at him for a moment before reaching for a cylindrical grenade on his web gear.

"Cover me while I prep my grenade!"

"I got you covered!" Matt replied as he started firing into the breach.

The trooper pulled the pin and shouted "Fire out!" as he released the spoon and cooked the grenade for just a moment. Matt and the surrounding troopers dove away from the mouth of the breach as the grenadier lobbed it in. There was a loud pop followed by a roar as the grenade filled the tunnel with blazing perdition combusto-plasma. The screeching cries of roasting zerglings pierced the air.

In moments, the perdition flames vaporized the ice and snow within the breach until a deep bowl of ice had formed between the trench and the main body of the tunnel. If anything tried to get from the tunnel to the trench, they would find themselves trapped by the bowl's slick walls. At that point, it would be like shooting fish in a barrel.

Matt grinned as he looked to the opposite side of the bowl, where he could see several zerglings looking down into the depression from the tunnel. The one nearest the edge looked up and Matt made eye contact with its yellow, reptilian eyes before raising his laser rifle and putting a bolt between them. The creature twitched once before falling forward into the pit. Its companions quickly shrank back until they were shrouded by the darkness in the tunnel.

Looking up and down the trench, Matt noticed that the laserfire had died down somewhat at the other breaches. Hopefully that means they're getting it under control, he thought with a bit of optimism. That feeling was quickly forgotten as he noticed the zerglings' tunnel had begun caving in on itself, its snow walls probably weakened from the grenade's heat.

His eyes widened as he looked over the top of the trench and saw the tunnels collapse from above. A spiderweb of tunnels revealed themselves as the entire network caved in on itself. For a brief moment, everything went silent before the collapsed snow churned as around fifty zerglings dug their way to the surface.

"Well... shit..." Matt mumbled to himself as the horde of zerglings charged the trench on the surface.

"Weapons free!" shouted the platoon sergeant over the radio.

The canyon blazed with crimson light as every trooper fired into the oncoming swarm. Blood and shattered carapace littered the snow as the zerglings were cut down in droves. The oh-so-satisfying brrrt of the diamondbacks' coaxial machine lasers carved through the aliens like butter, punctuated by the occasional thunderclap of their railguns as they sent snow and zergling flying every which way.

Though the engagement felt like it lasted hours, the entire charge was wiped out in less than a minute. The troopers all kept their weapons trained downrange, waiting for anything to pop its head above the snow. After several minutes of this, the platoon leader gave the all clear.

"Squad leaders, Red Strike, send in LACE reports, over."

All the other squads reported green across the board with the exception of Matt's, who begrudgingly reported amber for casualties. There was a long pause as the PL spoke to headquarters over a separate channel. Matt knelt down next to the fallen trooper and started securing his weapon and ammunition.

"God damn... We didn't even see it coming..." Stuart said after approaching Matt, an unusual tremble in his voice.

"None of us did," he quietly replied and looked up at Stuart. "The Zerg are wily bastards even on their worst day but this was still the best they could do."

"They must've been waiting there this whole time. But I don't get it, why would they attack now?"

"No idea. Desperation, maybe? They probably thought they could catch us by surprise when they heard us all start moving, you know how the Zerg are. But given how quickly we wiped them out, they couldn't have expected to defeat us in a frontal assault."

"So what the hell was the point of it all? Distraction? Delay us maybe?"

"The real question is," Matt mused as he swallowed the ration bar that was still in his mouth, having finally been soft enough to chew. "What for?"

"Well, whatever it is, they're probably pissed at how quick we wiped the floor with them," Stuart said with a grin. "Good idea with the perdition grenade, by the way. Probably would have been a hell of a fight otherwise."

Matt laughed dryly. "I'll be honest, the cave-in was completely unintentional."

"Oh, well. Task failed successfully I suppose."

Their conversation was interrupted as the platoon leader approached Matt.

"CASEVAC is on their way to pick up Private Booker's body. You got all of his SI? We've gotta charlie mike."

"Aye aye, sir. Second squad's ready to go."

"Good to hear it." He paused, about to give the signal to continue mission before he turned back to Matt. "You alright?" He asked tiredly.

"Pissed, sir."

The platoon leader let out a dry laugh. "I'll take it."

The dismounted scout troopers climbed into the backs of the diamondbacks and the platoon advanced down the remainder of the canyon, the hovering fighting vehicles gliding smoothly over the snow. It wasn't long before they came to a halt and they promptly dropped ramps for the dismounts. Matt's jaw dropped as he saw what lay at the end of the canyon.

Though the canyon itself stopped abruptly, a wide cave mouth at ground level awaited them. The footprints of over a hundred zerglings surrounded it, as well a bizarre set of tracks that Matt couldn't identify, appearing like those that would be made by some kind of giant centipede. The cave looked like it had recently been excavated, as mountains of ice were piled along the outside. The platoon leader and platoon sergeant were busy discussing their findings and communicating with headquarters, leaving the rest of the platoon to talk amongst themselves as they pulled security.

"Well, it looks like we've answered the PIRs," Stuart said with a laugh.

Matt gave a laugh of his own and said, "Sure looks that way. At least now we know why the Ravens couldn't pick anything up."

"But now I'm wondering, what the hell are the Zerg after? Why come all the way here to Braxis, risk being wiped out by orbital and ground defenses, to dig a fucking hole?"

"Who knows? Maybe they're after the Protoss ruins under the ice sheet."

"Say what now?"

"Braxis used to be a Protoss colony before the climate turned to shit thousands of years ago. You didn't know that?"

"No, why would I?"

"... Good point."

"Well... If that's the case, then why here specifically? Wouldn't it make sense to find a ruin further from our main base rather than basically in our fucking backyard?"

"It would..."

"So they must have already known what they were looking for."

"And more importantly, thought getting it was worth the risk."

They both fell silent for a long minute. Stuart eventually broke the silence, wondering, "Do you think any of that's still working down there?"

"Possibly? The Protoss live for centuries, so they build to last."

"Makes you wonder what's leading these Zerg though."

"It does... This doesn't seem like the kind of shit feral Zerg would do. Someone... something must be leading them." Matt thought about it for a moment. "Come to think of it, I haven't seen a single overlord this whole time."

"That would typically mean these are feral Zerg, right? Overlords are like NCOs, they need them to keep the grunts in line."

"It would, but they're not. That would mean that whatever's in control here has stupidly powerful psionics to be able to control so many Zerg at one time."

"You think it's a rogue brood mother, then?"

"Maybe, but I was under the impression that they were all accounted for."

Stuart laughed. "Maybe Amon's come back from the Void to smite us once and for all."

"Heh. Is it too late to switch sides?"

They chuckled a bit before falling quiet again, pulling security in silence. Eventually, the platoon leader gathered all the NCOs, Matt included.

"Alright, here's what's going on," the officer said. "From here on in, we have no idea what's ahead of us, but HQ still wants us to identify any items of interest down that cave. On top of that, they also want us to identify the Zerg's command and control node. Be on the look out for anything that might match the descriptions of overlords, brood mothers, swarm queens, or anything else that indicates a high psionic potential. We're expecting no less than a hundred zerglings in the AO, plus an unknown controlling factor. Unfortunately, we aren't going to be able to get the diamondbacks down the tunnel, so this will be a dismounted action only. Orbital scans have indicated that the tunnel apparently leads all the way through the ice sheet down to the surface, with evidence of numerous structures in the vicinity, so be prepared for close quarters combat. We go in, find the bastards, and stack bodies while we wait for 327th Infantry to show up, Rah?"

"Rah, sir," came the unanimous response.

"Right then. Get your squads ready to go, we move in ten mikes."

The troopers stood up from their security positions and all began marching into the tunnel in a staggered column. Matt couldn't help but look around at the walls of the cave in fascination. The ice looked like it had simultaneously been melted and scraped away, which, considering the Zerg penchant for spitting acid, seemed appropriate. The tunnel very quickly took a steep descent, with switchbacks every hundred meters or so. The harsh grade and pitch darkness forced the troopers to step carefully so as not to slip on the ice. As far as Matt could tell it still maintained a mostly straight line despite the frequent zig-zags, lending credence to the idea that this had been done with a purpose.

A pit formed in his stomach as he wondered what kind of Zerg could have coordinated this, and more importantly had enough knowledge of what lay in the ancient Protoss ruins to know where it was going. So far the only clue were the giant tracks, but none of that matched up with anything he could place.

Matt's mind wandered as he considered all the stories his father had told him about fighting the Zerg in the Great Wars decades ago, back when the Zerg were still mostly unknown. The Zerg Swarm as it currently stood was controlled by the Overqueen Zagara, with its constituent broods being ruled by their respective brood mothers. However, that was a fairly recent change to the Swarm, and more importantly, were allies of the Terran Dominion. Rogue brood mothers weren't unheard of, but the Swarm tended to deal with those themselves.

But then, what other possibilities did that leave? Despite their appearances as a giant insect hive, they placed extreme care in crafting the genetic sequences that made each strain of the Zerg. Every form they took, from the zergling cannon fodder, to the brood mothers, and their living buildings to space ships were designed with every bit of deliberate detail as a Terran engineer would. What room did that leave for something outside their designs to have the capacity to control, or for that matter, to be allowed to? The Zerg took unity within the Swarm extremely seriously. Anything that could fracture it was dealt with swiftly and lethally.

The only other possibilities were the Overmind and its cerebrate generals, the original rulers of the Swarm. The only problem with that theory was that they were thirty years dead.

... And the minions of Amon, the godlike Xel'Naga that came from beyond the plane of the universe itself to extinguish it of all life. But it too was as dead as the Overmind thanks to the Queen of Blades, of all things.

Really is a fucked up galaxy we live in, Matt thought grimly. Between the Xel'Naga, Zerg and Protoss, we humans got dealt a pretty shit hand. Still, at least they're mostly on our side now.

It took hours for the troopers to traverse the tunnel. Just as Matt was starting to wonder if they would ever reach the bottom, he found himself standing not on ice, but solid ground. To his astonishment, it was completely flat and smooth, as if it was paved. Looking up from the ground, his jaw dropped once again as he realized they were standing in a massive cavern, with the two thousand meter thick ice sheet stopping at least five hundred over their heads. He looked around, drinking in the environment. They were surrounded by dozens of ancient Protoss structures, long abandoned and powered down, but still in remarkable condition despite being thousands of years old. Golden and elegant in their design, they stood as a monument of a bygone era.

A whole Protoss city, right under feet! Matt thought in wonder. And we're barely a hundred clicks from base!

Suddenly the whole formation froze as they heard the scuttling of zerglings echoing off the walls of the cave and buildings. The troopers scanned in every direction, struggling to isolate the source. Unfortunately, nothing could be determined from the atrocious acoustics.

"Platoon, advance with bounding overwatch. Stealthy and deliberate," were the platoon leader's orders.

The troopers slowly advanced through the ancient ruins, stepping as lightly as possible. Two of the four squads would take cover and scan the sector ahead while the other two would leapfrog past them, then they would alternate. The advance was slow and arduous, but the troopers were not in the mood for taking unnecessary risks in the alien environment.

They had maybe covered a kilometer of ground in this fashion when the derelict buildings gave way into a large, circular plaza. In the center of it was a simple, yet large structure unlike any of the others. It appeared to consist only of a round, raised platform with a towering horseshoe-shaped arch atop it.

A Protoss warp gate. By Terran standards, an almost magical portal that allowed one to travel instantly to another of its kind anywhere in the galaxy. And judging by the white, glowing plane within the arch, it was active.

Then they saw the Zerg.

Well over a hundred zerglings milled about the plaza, encircling the warp gate, while dozens of Zerg worker drones huddled around its aperture. And wrapped around the gate was the most bizarre creature Matt had ever seen.

As the tracks they had found outside the tunnel suggested, the creature appeared like a giant centipede over thirty meters long and three wide. Two rows of countless short, spindly legs ran the length of its underside and seemed almost comically too small for the corpulent mass of its body. Rather than being made of armored segments like a true centipede, its body instead looked like a giant, bloated mass composed entirely of wrinkly brain matter.

If that thing really is a giant brain with legs, then it's probably safe to say that thing's our command and control node, Matt concluded with a combination of disgust and fascination.

Once the entire Zerg force was in full view, they suddenly froze in unison and slowly turned in the direction of the platoon. A sea of glowing, yellow eyes blazed in the darkened cave, and above it all were four pairs glowing on the face of the grotesque brain creature.

The troopers hunkered behind cover at the edge of the plaza, weapons trained on the swarm. The platoon leader frantically relayed their findings to headquarters in hushed tones.

The Zerg just stared.

Then it spoke.

"Terrans." A voice like rolling thunder echoed in Matt's head, drowning out every other thought save dark, cold dread. "You have become an annoyance. I regret now not eradicating you animals when I had the chance."

"What a shame, then," the platoon sergeant, a man with apparently titanic balls spoke up from the stunned silence in the platoon. "But while we've got you talking, maybe you'd like to enlighten us as to what you're doing in Dominion space?"

"Insolent animal, as with all the rest," the beast rumbled, more irritated than angered. "My ambitions are beyond what your fleeting minds can comprehend. But I shall humor you, for your ignorance amuses me. Beyond this gate lies the key to our ascension. With it, we shall be more powerful than the gods themselves, and all creation shall belong to the Swarm.

"You fumble in the dark, thinking yourselves secure in your towers of metal and stone. But you have grown arrogant in your victories, and I shall not entertain products of evolutionary chance assuming the mantle that rightfully belongs to the Swarm."

"Bold words for someone in firing range. I'd write this down for the brass, but I'd probably lose it in all the rest of my reports."

The creature laughed, the thunderous sounds of its mirth shaking the bones in Matt's body. "Such naivete. Such.. arrogance. Little Terran, what makes you think you are leaving these ruins alive?"

Its eight eyes glowed like the sun as the horrific sound of cracking ice rumbled overhead. Matt's blood froze in his veins as he watched thousands upon thousands of tons of ice break off the underside of the gigantic ice sheet and plummet hundreds of meters down. Ice shards the size of skyscrapers shook the earth as they exploded on impact, rapidly crushing what remained of the ancient Protoss ruins around them and cutting the troopers off from their escape route. As the wall of falling ice grew closer to the troopers' position from behind the zerglings charged from ahead, blood lust blazing in their glowing yellow eyes.

What ensued was the bloodiest fighting Matt had experienced in his few years in the Corps. Forced to advance from their ideal fighting positions by falling debris, the troopers now faced the zerglings on open ground. The troopers fired into approaching swarm with reckless abandon, hoping to kill as many of the monsters as they could. Like a hydra, for each one they killed two more seemed to take its place as the troopers faced the full force of a dreaded "'ling rush."

The standard issue laser rifle and accompanying light machine laser were practically a gift from God when they were put into full production a scant five years prior. They gave the Dominion scout troopers in their light infantry armor far more firepower, range, and sustainability than could be provided by the old Ferromag SMGs, and probably saved as many troopers' lives as power armor did for the infantry. The troopers cut down scores of zerglings before they could reach their lines.

No simple weapon upgrade, however, could ever have defeated the full force of the Zerg Swarm on its own. The wave of zerglings crashed into the scout platoon's line in a singular mass of teeth and claws. The opposing sides were quickly forced into a bloody melee, where each trooper stood alone against four to one odds. Laser fire blasted in every direction as zerglings darted this way and that, one side in a desperate fight for survival while the other sought to overwhelm them with sheer numbers.

To Matt, time seemed to slow to a crawl as he and Stuart, somehow managing to stay together despite the chaos, fell into a vicious cycle of acquiring a target, shooting, and dodging a lunge or swipe of claws with an occasional reload sprinkled in. The words of one of his old drill sergeants rang in his head each time he pulled the trigger of his rifle: Shoot 'em 'til they stop moving or change shape.

While aiming for one zergling, Matt felt the grip of his rifle vibrate through his glove as he pulled the trigger: the sign his current power cell had run out of juice. He rolled to the side as he dodged a leap from the zergling and scrambled to retrieve another cell from his web gear. Not finding one, he pulled the entrenching tool from his belt, and swung the small shovel with its sharpened edge like an axe down on the zergling's neck, severing its spinal column. The creature let out a short squeak as it spasmed, then collapsed to the ground dead.

Matt spun around, wielding the shovel like a viking berserker as he looked for his next target. His focus quickly turned to confusion when none presented themselves. Nervously, he surveyed the battlefield. It was littered with the corpses of zerglings and dead troopers, torn apart in gruesome fashion. A lake of blood surrounded them, and the entire Protoss ruin lay buried under a mountain of ice, save the plaza and warp gate with no sign of the brain-Zerg or its drones.

Somehow. Some-fucking-how the troopers had won. Whether it be through the grace of God, dumb luck, or sheer fucking willpower, they won. Out of the twenty six troopers they had gone down with, only five remained standing, each looking as dumbstruck as Matt, but they had won.

Author's Note

This story is pretty heavily inspired by the "Forgotten Ruin" book series by Jason Anspach and Nick Cole. Give it a read if you like military stuff like this.

Also, for those of you that don't speak military:
LRAS(3): Long Range Advance Scout Surveillance System
ISR: Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance
FRAGO: Fragmentary Order
PIR: Priority Information Requirement
NAI: Named Area of Interest
HUD: Heads Up Display
LACE: Liquids, Ammunition, Casualties, Equipment
PL: Platoon Leader
CASEVAC: Casualty Evacuation
SI: Sensitive Items
"Charlie Mike:" Continue Mission
NCO: Non-Commissioned Officer, i.e. sergeants
AO: Area of Operations

II - Scouts Out

If you can't eat it, shoot it, or wear it, don't bring it.
Gen. James Mattis, USMC

The five survivors gathered between the warp gate and the pool of blood that held the remains of the Zerg and their platoon. They each solemnly examined each other, looking to identify them as well as assessing for injuries. Thankfully - and miraculously - the five had emerged from the bloodbath unscathed, though each was covered in sanguine splatter.

As they were a small unit, stationed on Braxis for over half the year, they had all come to know each other fairly well. In addition to Matt and Stuart, the three others each came from the remaining three squads.

First squad's "representative" was the automatic rifleman Specialist Sergei Ivanov, a hulking beast of a man that held the brigade deadlift record at over four hundred kilograms, and at forty one was the oldest in the unit. With three children of his own, each of whom were as old as most of the lower enlisted, he had established himself as the "dad" in the platoon. His experience meant he always had some story to tell or advice to give, leading the younger troopers to turn to him for guidance as much as they did the sergeants.

Matt, being the leader of second squad, was thankful that Stuart had made it. The Marine Corps in its infinite wisdom had decided that they be stuck together ever since boot camp, and so they knew each other better than anyone else in the unit. Though Matt had been promoted ahead of him, that never stopped them from being thick as thieves, always being the first person either one talked to and bouncing ideas off each other.

Private First Class John Clay was the designated marksman in third squad, and also the unofficial company "morale officer." He was always able to somehow find some humor in any situation with an uncanny gift for improv and impression. Though pleasant to be around, his quick wit combined with lack of a verbal filter often found him getting smoked on a weekly basis by most of the NCOs. Matt always found his antics funny, but he was still begrudgingly responsible for a few of his disciplinary sessions at the behest of the First Sergeant whenever he caught wind of it.

To the surprise of all the others, fourth squad's Private Mike Connelly had made it through the ordeal. Having only graduated from scout training three months prior, he was easily the youngest and greenest member of the platoon. Everywhere he went he always seemed to have a nervous look on his face, the present situation not helping, and often found it difficult to hold conversations. Most of the platoon liked to rag on his awkwardness, but Matt always tried to be patient with him given that he had been much the same when he arrived at his first unit. To his credit, Matt would occasionally be reminded that he had the highest test scores out of the whole platoon. He would often come out of left field with some creative solution to fix or improve a piece of equipment, like somehow rigging multiple batteries to one radio to boost its range.

That left Matt, having only been promoted to Sergeant two months ago, as the senior ranking trooper.

He sucked in his breath, feeling the weight of the world suddenly on his shoulders. As of right now, Matt was responsible for the lives of the four troopers in front of him. He racked his brain, trying to find something in their standard operation procedures that would give him some guidance in this conspicuously non-standard situation.

"Well guys," Matt said, releasing his breath. "Looks like its down to us now. The four of you take five. Sit down, eat some of your snacks, hydrate, and for the love of God try to relax and collect yourselves. I don't know for sure where we go from here, but I'm gonna work on seeing if I can't get comms with HQ or the D-Backs."

The four gave a chorus of "Rah," and started pulling ration packs out of their rucksacks before sitting on top of them and eating in silence.

Matt turned and walked several paces away. So far, he hadn't heard any incoming comm traffic from either the Diamondback crews or headquarters. Already that wasn't a good sign, as the cave-in would not have gone unnoticed by either and should have prompted them to start trying to raise comms with the dismounts. Unfortunately, Matt had the suspicion that there was just too much interference from the fallen ice for any radio signal to get in... or out.

"Any station this net, this is Red Two Eagle, radio check, over," Matt squawked over the company net, hoping to raise the Diamondback crews. When no response came he tried two more times with similar results.

Switching over to the headquarters net, Matt tried again, hoping that the main base's transceivers were sensitive enough to pick up his signal, and strong enough to penetrate the ice. Again, he had no luck. As he ran out of ideas he thought about duplicating Mike's radio trick. It wouldn't boost the reception, but it might put out a loud enough signal to be picked up on the surface.

Fighting to keep his stomach under control, Matt waded into the pool of death until he found a fallen trooper buried under a pile of zerglings. He pushed the dead aliens off his body and pulled it away from the puddle of blood before pulling the small radio battery out of his helmet. He repeated the process until he had six additional batteries to work with, then pulled his own helmet off and started jury-rigging them to his radio.

When he was satisfied that it looked about right he thought about a message to send through, knowing he wouldn't hear the acknowledgement. After a few minutes of thinking he put the helmet back on and keyed the radio over both the company and headquarters channels.

"All stations this net, this is Red Two Eagle. We have engaged and eliminated primary force of Zerg hostiles past phase line Raynor, break.
We have identified Zerg C2 node as... an elongated brain-like organism with extreme psionic power, break.
Item of interest found in AO is an active Protoss warp gate, destination unknown, break.
Engagement with Zerg forces resulted in..." he did some quick math in his head. "Eighty percent casualties, unit trapped due to massive cave-in, and loss of comms at this time, break.
Zerg C2 node has evaded neutralization by traveling through warp gate, break.
Recommend boosting transmission signal to penetrate interference, break.
We will be standing by for mission updates, over"

Matt breathed a huge sigh as he finished. There was no way of knowing if anyone heard his transmission until they heeded his advice and got a signal through to them. For the time being, Matt decided to take his own advice and take a breather with the other troopers.

My troopers now, Matt reminded himself. With how events had played out, he was concerned about their mental health, having just seen the rest of their unit cut down in front of them. If it happened to be that rescue wouldn't make it to them before they ran out of water, that would only exacerbate the stress on them. He vowed to do whatever he could to make things a bit easier for them all going forward, and to Matt, that involved breaking a few rules about professionalism.

He sat down with them and pulled the rest of his ration bar out to chew on, as well as pulling out the hose for his hydro pack.

"Any luck, Sergeant?" Sergei asked, breaking the silence.

"None yet. I tried Connelly's radio boost trick, but until they boost their own signal we won't hear anything back."

"So what the hell're we supposed to do now, Sar'nt?" John asked. "Sitting down here, thumb in ass, isn't going to get us back any faster."

Matt closed his eyes as he chewed on his ration bar, wondering the same thing. "For now, we'll take stock over all our equipment and supplies, if nothing else figure out how long we can last down here without support."

"... Does that include the, uh, 'rest of the platoon's' equipment, Sergeant?" Mike asked, looking green around the gills at the prospect.

"'Fraid so, Connelly." Mike seemed to shrink in on himself when Matt confirmed his fears. "I know it's not gonna be pleasant, but it's gotta be done. If we're gonna have any chance of getting out of this situation alive we need to know how long we can last, and that means we've gotta use everything available to us."

"... Rah, Sergeant."

Matt reached forward and put his hand on Mike's shoulder. Looking him dead in the eyes he said with as much confidence as he could muster, "Hey, we'll be alright. It's gonna be tough, but I promise you we're going home alive. I just need you to dig deep and give me everything you got, you hear me?" He turned and addressed the others as well. "That goes for all of us. I'll keep it real with y'all, we're deep in the shit now and it's gonna take some major fucking guts to get out of this alive. Right now, the five of us are all we've got for the foreseeable future so we've gotta support each other the best we can, Rah?"

"Rah, Sar'nt!" the troopers replied with a bit more enthusiasm than Matt expected. The troopers turned back to their rations, but at least this time they were talking and in somewhat higher spirits.

When they finished, and Matt was confident they were thoroughly mentally prepared for the coming ordeal, the began the process of recovering the platoons equipment. One by one, they started pulling the bodies of their comrades from the pile of death, lining them side-by-side, facing upwards. The least they could do for them now was to at least preserve their dignity.

Once all twenty one troopers were accounted for, the five survivors began removing everything from the dead troopers' web gear and rucksacks. They paid attention to gathering up all of their weapons, ammunition, rations, hygiene supplies, and anything else that would help them survive the wait for rescue. Everything they found they consolidated into like-item groups to better keep count of how much they had to work with. After exhausting everything in their fallen comrade's inventory, the survivors emptied out their own gear and added what they had left to the lay-out.

Once they recovered and laid out everything they could, Matt started listing a count of everything that was still serviceable.

Laser rifles: 15 - 152 cells

Marksman lasers: 4 - Same as LRs

Laser pistols: 7 - 25 cells

Machine lasers: 3 - 24 cells

50mm UBGL: 5 - 32 HE, 14 HEDP, 7 Perd

Hailstorm: 1 - 4 rockets

90mm RecR: 1 - 4 HE, 4 HEAT, 2 Nuke

Frag gren: 19

Perd gren: 7

LRAS binos: 3

IFAK: 19

24hr MRE: 41

Water: ~50L

Matt studied the list of equipment, doing the math on how long they could last on their current supplies. They had enough MREs to last three weeks, assuming they rationed based on their level of activity, but what worried him was their water supply. At most, they had maybe two weeks if they drank the bare minimum to survive. Stuart discussed rationing with him when Matt was interrupted by a soft, static-y voice crackle over comms.

"Red Two Eagle, this is Bastion Actual, radio check, over."

He nearly choked on his water when he heard the callsign; Bastion Actual was Major Gutierrez: commander of the Marine security detachment stationed on Braxis.

He cleared his throat and gave the appropriate response, "Bastion Actual, this is Red Two Eagle, read you quiet but readable, how me, over?"

"Red Two Eagle, I read you same. Your last transmission was reported by your D-Back crews. I assume all higher leadership is incapacitated, over?

"Roger, Bastion Actual, all others are KIA, over."

"... Understood, Red Two Eagle. Listen, we've got engineering crews topside of your location with high detail scanners. The plan is to attempt boring through the ice to get you boys out of there ASAP, but they need time to assess the condition of the ice sheet. How much food and water do you boys have down there, over?"

"Bastion Actual, between everything we could recover, we can last at most two weeks on current supplies. Limiting factor being water, over."

"Roger that, Red Two Eagle. Can you confirm first transmission? You found a, ah, brain creature that's controlling the Zerg, over?"

"Affirmative, Bastion Actual. The Zerg does not accurately match any known strains and is capable of extreme psionic potential, since it was what caused the cave-in, over."

"Understood, Red Two Eagle. And can you confirm that it..." There was a short pause in the Major's transmission. Matt assumed he must have been looking at a transcript of his earlier message. "That it escaped through an active Protoss warp gate, over?"

The incredulity in the Major's voice was palpable even through the poor signal, but Matt confirmed. "That is affirmative, Bastion Actual, I'm looking at it right now, over."

The Major paused briefly again. Then, "Is it... still active, over?"

Matt briefly looked over the warp gate and replied, "Well, the whole ring is glowing blue, and there's a big white glowing wall inside it, so unless the Protoss like using them as street lights when they aren't using them, that's affirmative, over."

A much longer pause came before the Major finally stated, "Red Two Eagle, your new callsign will be Red Strike until further notice. Your orders are to hold position and secure the warp gate until the engineering crews can determine a course of action, how copy, over?"

"Copy, Bastion Actual, we're to hold position and secure the warp gate until a course of action is determined, over."

"Affirmative, Red Strike. You boys sit tight now. Over and out."

"Wilco, out," Matt said and breathed a heavy sigh of relief. He turned to Stuart and couldn't help but grin. "Finally got comms up and working. The engies just have to figure out a way to get to us now."

Stuart laughed. "Finally some good fucking news for once, we got an ETA?"

"Not yet," Matt said with a shake of his head. "For now, we'll keep an eye on the gate. Hopefully nothing comes back through there, but it pays to be prepared."

As it turned out, it took almost a full twenty-four hours for them to finally receive an update.

"Red Strike, this is Bastion Actual, over."

"Bastion Actual, this is Red Strike, go ahead, over."

"Red Strike, I've got a bit of bad news I'm afraid. I'll spare you the details, but the engineers report that the ice sheet above you is incredibly unstable, and that so much as sticking a shovel in there could lead to further cave-ins. They think they can get through, but the process would take up to a full month to complete."

Matt sputtered in shock. A month! We can barely last two weeks down here! He struggled to collect himself before replying, "Bastion Actual, we can't wait nearly that long down here, over."

The Major sounded resigned as he said, "... Copy that, Red Strike." Matt could almost hear the Major take a deep breath before asking, "Red Strike, your previous PL stated in his last transmission that the Zerg spoke to you. Can you provide any details about what it said, over?"

The fuck does this have to do with anything? Matt thought angrily, but tried to remember the gloating of the foul creature. "Bastion Actual, it was mostly gloating and taunting, but it said something about the gate leading to the Zerg's 'ascendance' and that they would rule the galaxy or something to that effect, over."

"Roger that. Red Strike, we have new orders for you. Before I continue, is the gate still active?"

Oh, Sweet Mother Mercy, do not say what I think you're about to say... "Affirmative, Bastion Actual."

"Red Strike, you and your team are to go through the warp gate and conduct zone reconnaissance. Find that damn slug, and if you can, kill the bastard. In about a month's time, we'll be sending reinforcements through to you, but until then, you'll be on your own. You've been given permission to act as you see fit, so long as you represent the interests of the Terran Dominion to the best of your ability." He paused. "... This includes brokering alliances on the Dominion's behalf, should the opportunities arise. How copy, over?"

I'm sorry, did he fucking say we're ambassadors if we find any aliens there? "Solid copy, Bastion Actual. May I ask where this permission came from, over?"

"The Emperor, over."

... oh...

"How the fuck do they expect us to do that?" Stuart asked incredulously after Matt finished explaining the mission to the remaining troopers.

"I honestly have no idea," said Matt, still reeling from the absurdity of the orders. "But I'll say this, we're goners if we stay down here and wait it out. Ain't no way in hell we can survive long enough without resupply."

"Honestly, it sounds like this might be our best chance," Sergei said in his typical calm tone.

"How do you figure?"

Sergei steepled his hands. "Look at it this way: We're dead for sure if we stay here, but if we go through the other side, there's at least a chance we might be able to get supplies from the local area."

"That's assuming wherever that gate leads is somewhere habitable. For all we know it could drop us in the middle of deep space."

"Then that's a chance we'll have to take."

"Well... to be fair," Mike said, speaking up. "If this gate's as old as the original Protoss colony here, then wherever it leads must've been a part of their empire at some point. That would imply that it's habitable at least."

Stuart, still unconvinced, said, "That would also imply a Protoss presence on the other side, and they've probably never even seen a Terran if they've been cut off since they abandoned Braxis. Hell, First Contact between the Confederacy and Protoss was them glassing Chau Sara to wipe out the Zerg. I don't see meeting them going over well for us. Besides, this planet turned into a ball of fucking ice since the 'Toss left, so that's no guarantee wherever that thing leads is still habitable after all this time."

"The only guarantee we have is that we're all dead if we don't go, Corporal," Sergei insisted.

"C'mon Corporal, where's your sense of adventure?" John asked with his loopy grin. "Think about it: freedom to act as we see fit, exploring an uncharted world, hell, maybe we can find some hot alien babes for you."

Stuart rolled his eyes and said, "Again, that's assuming it's habitable and actually inhabited by people, who'll most likely be Protoss and I ain't going for that."

"What, you sayin' you wouldn't do nasty things to Executor Selendis?" John teased.

"... That's besides the point."

Matt pinched the bridge of nose and groaned, "Look, all of this is irrelevant. Let's assume for a minute that whatever that Zerg said is true, that if they manage to seize control of wherever that gate leads they'll be unstoppable. If any of that's true, then we're the only thing standing between them and the destruction of everything we've ever known. If they're left unchecked there for a whole month, there's no telling what we'll be facing when the fighting really kicks off. If we can at least gather intel, maybe run interference, then we might give the boys back home a fighting chance.

"And I don't know about you, but I want some fucking payback."

Stuart fell silent and looked up at the cave ceiling, hands on his hips, lost in thought. Finally he said, "Fuck it. I'd rather die fighting than in this shit hole. The fuck are we waiting for then?"

Smiling, Matt shook his head. "Alright, we're gonna have to carry as much with us as we can. Nothing gets wasted."

They approached the spread of equipment and start cross loading all the ammunition, food, water, and equipment so that they each had an equal spread of everything they needed. The rifle cells, batteries the size of small medicine bottles, were split four ways between Matt, Stuart, John, and Mike, while the machine laser cells, about the size of a beer can, all went to Sergei, being the only one who could use them. They each now carried a pistol with five cells on their hip. Matt, Stuart, and Mike now had a UBGL attached to their rifles as well as carrying a pair of the LRAS binoculars. Stuart took the RecR with its ten shells were split between Matt and John, while Mike mounted the Hailstorm launcher over his shoulder. They couldn't take the leftover weapons with them, so instead they opted to strip them for parts and holding onto whatever went to their weapons.

By the time they finished loading their gear and rucksacks, not one of them carried less than sixty five kilograms, making it the heaviest amount of gear they'd ever carried into a mission.

Loaded and ready to go, they ascended the warp gate's platform and stood in front of the glowing wall.

Matt keyed the radio one last time. "Bastion Actual, this is Red Strike. SP at this time, five PAX, how copy, over?"

"Red Strike, I read you SP now, five PAX. Godspeed, gentlemen. Do the Corps proud. Over and out."

"Wilco, out." Matt took a deep breath and faced his men. "Alright boys, let's fuck shit up."

"Rah!" the troopers yelled, and ran as one into the gate.

Matt was momentarily blinded as he entered the gate. He at first thought it was the glow of the portal itself, but quickly realized that wherever they had ended up was brightly lit by a harsh sun. After adjusting the opacity of his visor, he scanned the area around them.

They stood atop an identical warp gate to the one they had just entered, but rather than being buried thousands of meters under the ice, it was open to the sky and surrounded by crumbling sandstone ruins, partially buried by desert sands. Beyond the ruins were towering sand dunes that obscured their vision of anything past a few kilometers at most.

So now we're in a desert. Starting to think Stu might've been right... Matt thought.

After spreading out to establish 360 degree security, they quickly confirmed that the Zerg where nowhere present near them. After all, there was no reason for them to stay in a location such as this. The Zerg needed biomass, and a desert was far from a bountiful source.

The troopers regrouped in the shade of one of the more intact ruins. They quickly noticed that many of its walls were covered in bas-relief carvings, not dissimilar to pictures of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, and with similar art styles. Curious, Matt inspected them in more detail. Scattered throughout the carvings were clearly the depictions of Protoss, unmistakable with their digitigrade legs, large heads, and mouthless faces. With much greater frequency, he noticed many images of creatures he recognized from Old Earth mythology. Unicorns, pegasi, griffins, minotaurs, and a slew of many other fantastical creatures populated its walls.

"Huh. I guess Connelly was right," Stuart said, intrigued. "The Protoss definitely were here."

"Looks that way. But look at all this; these are creatures from our mythology. What the hell is this place?" Matt wondered.

"Do you think there might have been a connection between this place and Earth?" Sergei asked.

Mike shook his head. "I doubt it. The Protoss didn't even know Earth existed until the UED came to the sector."

"Then how else do you explain it?"

Mike simply shrugged, just as perplexed as the others.

Resigned, Matt said, "Whatever this place is, we probably won't get any answers here. Whoever built all this is long gone, and it clearly wasn't the Protoss."

Indeed, the architecture of the ruins was indicative of a much more primitive civilization. While the warp gate stood untouched by time, the surrounding ruins were worn down by wind, sand and time.

"Hey, uh, guys?" John called from in front of another wall, having wandered off unnoticed. "You think this might be important?"

He stood in front of a single, massive bas-relief that covered an entire wall. It's lower half was dominated by a mass congregation of the same mythical beings on the other carvings, all bowing down in reverence. Centered above them was a towering image of a Protoss with outstretched arms, decked out in the regal clothing they frequently wore.

"So... these Protoss came here at some point thousands of years ago, and... what, enslaved the locals here?" Stuart postulated.

"I don't know... this doesn't look like servitude," Sergei thought out loud. "This looks more like worship."

"Sounds about right for the Protoss, honestly," John muttered.

Matt had to agree; the ancient Protoss were not remembered fondly by the Daelaam, their current governing body. Still, he didn't see any of this as being particularly useful information, especially considering its age.

"Whatever it was, I doubt it's got any relevance now. This place looks thousands of years old, so whoever did worship or serve them is long gone. We need to keep moving."

"Rah, Sarn't."

They climbed to the top of the tallest dune they could find and began scanning the horizon with their LRAS binoculars, looking for any kind of distinguishing landmarks or signs of Zerg presence. Before long, Matt spied a small mountain range in the distance, with a number of narrow canyons carved in its recesses.

"Well boys, I think I've got our first target," Matt said. "Do you guys see anything else?"

The troopers confirmed finding nothing, so Matt locked in his compass direction on one of the canyons. Unfortunately - and concerningly - the mountains were too distant for the laser rangefinder in his LRAS to gauge a distance, so they would just have to march until they arrived. Matt hoped there would at least be a water source there, given the presence of the canyons.

"Right, wedge on me, lets go."

The ensuing march lasted four days, thankfully uneventful. After rucking from sun up to sun down, only stopping to relieve themselves, Matt determined they had covered a staggering 350 kilometers, setting a new record for the entire division.

Any march of that duration would have been a massive undertaking, made even worse by the hot sun, towering dunes and enormous weight they carried. Just as the sun was about to set, the troopers entered the designated canyon exhausted, their muscles screaming and running dangerously low on water.

"Slava Bogu za vse!" Sergei shouted as they saw a stream of clear water flowing through the bottom of the windswept canyon.

Matt looked around, breathing heavily. The canyon was an eerie reminder of how the whole journey began on Braxis, but, undeterred, he ordered them to sit down and rest in the shade.

"Hey Sar'nt..." John said between gasps. "How far did we go?"

"A little over... three fifty clicks," Matt gasped. Never in his career did he ever think he would have to ruck that far. If - when - they made it back to garrison, he vowed to never again complain on their monthly ruck march.

"Heh heh... Can't wait to see Sergeant Major's face when we tell him we beat his record," he said with a grin.

"Hah, yeah, one more thing to look forward to." Despite himself, Matt couldn't help but grin at the thought.

They refilled all the hydro packs from the stream and placed a purification tablet in each. In spite of their bodies protesting their every movement, the troopers were all in high spirits, clapping each other on the back and congratulating each other. They set up a patrol base in a hidden nook and rolled out their sleeping bags for the night, finally optimistic for what lay ahead.

When they awoke the next morning, they repacked their rucksacks prepared to continue on. Matt made the executive decision that they would follow the canyon up, and hopefully reach the other side of the mountains where they would plot their next move.

The troopers traveled single file through the canyon, the stream to their right. They traveled at a slower pace than before, keeping their eyes and ears open in case any Zerg happened to be in the area. By midday, the canyon broke into a wide opening where two smaller canyons converged into one, each with its own stream adding to the one they had followed.

Matt gaped at the sight before him. What could only have been a village made out of molded sandstone filled the canyon's fork, with additional structures dug out of the stone walls themselves. High in the vertex of the fork, a grand, imposing structure had been carved out of the stone, situated where it could be seen from anywhere in the village in its elevated position. If Matt didn't know any better, he would say that it looked like a palace of some kind.

The architecture was utterly alien, conjuring images of insect hives. If the Zerg ever made buildings, Matt suspected they would look similar to what they discovered. Still, such a thing was unheard of among the Zerg, especially considering that they never used tools. Within the winding streets, doors and windows were artifacts that could only have belonged to a civilized species. Carts, tools, baskets, stalls, pottery, carpets, tapestries, and a host of other assorted items filled the stone village. As they neared the buildings, they noticed that the doors were barely shoulder-height, meaning that whoever lived here was significantly shorter than the Terrans.

Except, no one was living there.

Once Matt noticed this, he put the troopers on high alert. Though there was no sign of life, Zerg or otherwise, they began glimpsing evidence of a struggle. They found overturned carts, shattered windows, collapsed walls and the like throughout the village. Covering almost everything was what could only have been described as splatters of dried, green blood, yet no bodies were to be found. Everywhere they looked, they saw the unmistakable two-toed footprints of zerglings covering the streets, and deep claw marks gouging out window sills and doors where they had gained entry.

Matt led the troopers through the village and towards the "palace." Whatever the structure was, it was undoubtedly of high importance. If any answers were to be found, it would be there. They ascended a spiraling flight of stone stairs, weapons raised, and stepping as lightly as possible as they infiltrated the building. They reached its highest room, hoping that it would be the home or office of someone of high status, and found themselves looking into an unexpectedly tall, but shattered, ornate wooden door.

Within the room was a circular bedchamber, almost completely surrounded by windows that had an unobstructed view of the village. A green, four poster bed sat against an unwindowed portion of wall to the left of the door. Tapestries and alien artwork depicting fantastical creatures filled the room. On the far wall, opposite the door, lay a wide semicircular desk pressed against the windows, covered in stacks of parchment, quills and ink pots.

Standing in front of it, with their back to them, was now the second strangest creature Matt had laid eyes on.

In shape, it resembled a small, slender horse, but beyond that, nothing else matched. Instead of fur it was covered in glistening black chitin, with bizarre holes going through its legs as if enormous termites had burrowed through them. Its mane and tail were made of a flowing green membrane that behaved in the same way hair would. Two pairs of long translucent insect wings like that of a dragonfly were folded along its back. A pair of pointed black ears stuck out the top of its head, from the front of which sprouted a long, single horn shaped like an ancient khopesh sword. Intriguingly, the horn was glowing a bright, lime green, and a sheet of parchment that looked curiously like a letter hovered in front of the creature, shrouded in the same glow.

Given its bizarrely insect-like appearance, Matt assumed it was some kind of new Zerg strain that the brain creature might have cooked up from the local fauna since its arrival. Though the troopers had only arrived a day behind, Matt had a suspicion that it could travel far faster than they, thus putting it several days ahead of them.

Was that enough time for it to make something like this? Matt wasn't sure, but he wasn't willing to take any chances. He carefully stepped into the room and raised his rifle at the bug-horse as the rest of the troopers followed suit.

As Matt flipped the safety off his rifle, the soft click made the bug-horse's ears twitch in his direction and the creature whirled around to face them. A short-muzzled face stared back at him with a look of sheer terror.

Then its bright blue, cat-like eyes rolled up into its head as it fainted.

Author's Note

C2: Command and Control
UBGL: Under Barrel Grenade Launcher
HE: High-Explosive
HEDP: High-Explosive, Dual-Purpose
HEAT: High-Explosive, Anti-Tank
*RecR: Recoilless Rifle (Carl Gustaf in spaaaaace) [pronounced "wrecker"]
IFAK: Individual First Aid Kit
MRE: Meal, Ready-to-Eat (i.e. field rations)
KIA: Killed In Action
"Wilco:" Will Comply
ETA: Estimated Time of Arrival
SP: Start of Patrol
PAX: Personnel

*Literally just something I made up

13 March 2024: Having recently completed my spur ride I can safely say that the most unrealistic thing ever written on this website is the squad's four day ruck. Holy FUCK I am in pain rn.

III - First Contact

War is a pretty good course in public relations.
Audie Murphy

Princess Dorylus wept at the state of the hive.

Having been given the order by her mother, Queen Formicidae, to leave and never return, she had attempted to fly to the nearby frontier town of Appleoosa. She had only traveled a day, the small farming community in sight, before deciding to fly back. She could not, in good conscience, abandon her mother and hive.

By the time she returned, it was clear that the worst had come to pass. The once thriving hive with its several hundred changelings now lay deserted, with not even a body left behind. Splatters of dried changeling blood covered the walls and streets.

As she strode wearily through the streets towards her mother's palace, Dorylus felt a crunch under her hoof as she accidentally stepped on a piece of broken pottery. She paused and looked around at the hive's now abandoned small marketplace. Stalls and carts that were once filled with changelings' hard work now lay overturned, their contents spilling out. She fought back tears as she remembered sneaking out as a hatchling to wander the streets, playing with other hatchlings that were likely as much a handful to their respective guardians as herself. And, of course, getting scolded by her mother for disrupting the hive's activities.

Dorylus swallowed past the lump in her throat and continued on, finally arriving at the spiral staircase built into the very walls of their sanctuary canyon. Her hoofsteps echoed off its stone walls as she ascended, the sound that once frightened her as a hatchling now reminding her of just how alone she really was. She could only hope that her mother anticipated her disobedience and had left a message for her in case she came back.

Beholding the splintered remains of the once magnificent wooden door, a scarce commodity this close to the desert, Dorylus gasped involuntarily. No sign of Queen Formicidae was to be seen inside her bedchamber. A part of her was morbidly pleased to see splatters of crimson blood, no doubt from the monsters that had struck as her mother fought them back, but neither her mother nor the creatures' bodies were present.

Questions roiled in Dorylus' head. What were these monsters? Why did they attack? Where did they come from? How did they know the hive was here? Was someone controlling them? She suddenly felt sick knowing that she knew absolutely nothing of her enemy besides a willingness for atrocity unmatched by anything imprisoned in Tartarus.

Slowly, Dorylus approached her mother's desk. She'd always spent countless hours here, poring over letters to and from the other hives, various reports from their patrols and collector drones, as well as newspapers from all over Equestria. She spied a small pile of letters her mother seemed to have drafted. Most of them were balled up and discarded missives to King Thorax, who technically was her cousin.

But centered on the table was a tear-soaked letter addressed to Dorylus herself.

Dear Dory,

If you are reading this then I am most likely dead, and that I was right you would disobey me. I only hope that you were gone long enough to avoid the fate that befell us all. I have already sent word to King Thorax about everything that has transpired, but I fear that there is little he can do to help this far into the frontier. If you can, try to join him. There at least I hope you will be safe.

But if there is one thing I've learned over the past 20 years it is that you will disregard that instruction entirely. More likely, you will seek revenge, and I agree that such action is warranted. I must remind you then that there is still some of our hive in Appleloosa, as well as the surrounding buffalo tribes. Now, they are your subjects to protect, guide, and care for.

From now on, you are Queen Dorylus. Remember that I loved you with all my heart, and that I made sure you were prepared for the role you would one day inherit. Bear your title gracefully, and the changelings shall follow your leadership.

Your Loving Mother,
Queen Formicidae

Tears streamed down Dorylus' cheeks as she read the letter. She was queen now? Was she truly as prepared as her mother thought she was? Whatever her own thoughts were, her mother seemed confident that it was so.

She was about to set the letter back down when she heard a soft click behind her.

Whirling around on instinct, Dorylus found herself staring at five imposing creatures that had somehow snuck in behind her. A far cry from the horrific bug-lizard hybrids that had killed her mother, these were tall, bipedal beings not too different from a minotaur and garbed head to toe in black armor with tortoiseshell-like helmets atop their heads. Their eyes were obscured behind an angry looking red visor built into their masks, looking not unlike a pair of snow goggles. Huge packs stuffed to bursting like blood-filled ticks were strapped to their backs, and a web of straps and pouches were wrapped snugly around their breastplates.

They clutched long, boxy devices in a similar manner as a minotaur would wield their crossbows sans a bow, suggesting to Dorylus that these were clearly foreign weapons of some sort. That sudden realization made her forget everything that had recently transpired as she saw that the one nearest her pointed its weapon directly at her face, its threatening posture making its intent abundantly clear.

Her mind and body were suddenly overwhelmed by fear at this new, unknown force and her legs gave out beneath her as her vision went dark.

Dorylus awoke to the sound of a heated debate spoken in foreign tongues. Her eyes blinked open and she realized she was lying on her mother's bed, looking up at the ceiling. Had these creatures moved her here? They looked like they had wanted to kill her just a moment ago, but here she was, unrestrained.

She held as still as she could as she observed her surroundings, hoping to go unnoticed by the five beings circled in the center of the room. Under better examination, Dorylus saw that their black armor was more of a charcoal gray, and that the plates covering their upper arms were a crimson red. On each of their right shoulders was a hexagonal insignia with a downwards facing chevron below a five-pointed star. Squinting a bit, she noticed the chevron was actually a stylized arm holding a whip that wrapped around the star and back under the arm to its hand. Was this the crest of some nation she'd never heard of?

Small lines of blocky lettering in an unknown alphabet were stenciled on the right side of each of their breastplates, possibly their names. On the front of their domed helmets were upwards facing chevrons with varying numbers of stripes. Dorylus thought they looked a bit like the rank hashes the Equestrians used. That would suggest then that these were soldiers of some kind, especially considering their uniformed armor.

The one bit of non-uniformity she could see were small rectangles on their left shoulders, each bearing unique designs and symbols like a flag. From what Dorylus could see from her position, one was a simple blue with a white torch flanked by an open book and microscope, another being a blue X over a red field with a single white star in its center, and another a golden yellow with what looked curiously like a black rattlesnake with four pairs of legs.

Dorylus quickly noticed that they had discarded their packs and lined them up neatly next to each other near the door. Unidentifiable bits of equipment were strapped to or resting against them. Most prominently were a long, square box with four holes in its smallest side like the face of a die, and what looked like a segment of pipe with a tapering cone on one end, and a curved pad and two handles sticking out of the side.

The "soldiers" still had their strange weapons in their hands, though they appeared more at ease as they hung from thin straps over their shoulders. Three held identical shorter ones, with a wide tube attached to their undersides. Another held a longer variant, but with a small telescope on top in lieu of the tube on the bottom. The last, whose height and bulk would put a minotaur to shame, carried a long, heavy-looking version. Strapped to each of their right thighs were small L-shaped devices, and the three with the shorter weapons carried a pair of odd binoculars on the left. Amidst all the strange devices was, curiously, a small spade attached to the back of each of their belts.

As Dorylus observed them, one of the figures leaned slightly to one side and locked eyes with her through its visor. It promptly interrupted two of the others that were in the middle of a discussion, no doubt about her. She shrank against the bed's headboard as the five beings turned to face her. One that had had its back to her, with three stripes on its helmet, carefully stepped over to the side of the bed nearest her face, its heavy boots eerily quiet as it did so. Another with two stripes stood close behind.

Thankfully it stopped a comfortable distance from her, but she still felt its towering frame looming far taller than even her mother's. Now visible, she saw its "flag" was primarily black with a strange horned wolf howling at a crescent moon on a red ground. The one with two stripes bore a blue one with a gold border and a red silhouette of the arm and whip making a circle in its center.

A stream of words in their foreign language emanated through its helmet. Though Dorylus had no idea what it said, the slight rise in pitch at the end sounded like a question.

"I can't understand you," she said, tired and slightly annoyed. She quickly cast a translation spell, something every changeling worth their disguise knew. The creature tensed and started to take a step back as her horn glowed from the spell. "There. Can you understand me now?"

The creature turned its head sharply to its comrades, each of whom shrugged their red shoulders in unison.

"Yes... I can," it said in a deep, controlled male voice. "What did you just do?"

"I cast a translation spell. Every changeling knows how to do that."

"A spell?" He sounded skeptical. "As in, a magic spell?"

"Exactly. Why, do you not use magic where you're from?"

"No. Well, I guess psionics come close, but nothing like what you just did."

Dorylus cocked her head. "'Psionics'?"

"Psychic powers?" he offered, but sighed and shook his helmeted head as he saw her blank expression. "Never mind, it's not important."

"Well, as for what is important... Who are you? For that matter, what are you?"

The figure glanced back at the other four briefly before turning back to Dorylus.

"We're called Terrans. My... comrades and I are Marine Corps scout troopers of the Terran Dominion. I'm Sergeant Matthew Hobbes, and this is my, uh, second-in-command Corporal Stuart Archer," he said, gesturing to the one with two stripes, who simply nodded to her. "The other three are Specialist Sergei Ivanov, Private First Class John Clay, and Private Michael Connelly." Sergeant Hobbes pointed to the other three respectively, who each gave a small wave.

Dorylus was intrigued, albeit confused. She'd never heard of such a people, or such a nation. "Where is this 'Terran Dominion'? I've never heard of it."

"You wouldn't have. It's an interstellar empire that's currently the dominant power in a region of the galaxy we call the Koprulu Sector."

Dorylus' jaw dropped. Interstellar empire? Galaxy? These Terrans were aliens! She had always thought such things were the work of science fiction, yet here they were, as real as could be! Suddenly, she felt very disturbed in their presence as she wondered at their motivations.

"So then... why are you here? You're not planning to invade, are you?" she asked, panic seeping into her words.

"Relax, we're not here to conquer or anything like that," Sergeant Hobbes said, gently raising a hand. "We're here to track down an enemy of ours. Judging by the damage of this place, I'd say that it was responsible for what happened here."

Dorylus jumped to her hooves and closed the gap between them until they were almost nose to nose. The Sergeant jumped back with a start and the other troopers raised their weapons, only to lower them as he gave a wave of his hand.

"You know what these creatures are? Please! You have to tell me! They... they killed everyone, i-including my... my mother."

"Hey, hey, calm down," he said soothingly. She blushed a bit and sat back down on the bed, eliciting an odd head tilt from the Sergeant. "They're called the Zerg, a... species? Collective? What's the technical term for the Zerg?" he asked the other troopers.

"I think 'species' is the closest you'll get," Corporal Archer said, his voice slightly higher and smoother than his Sergeant's.

"Right, a species of aliens that're entirely biological in nature. They're a hivemind that has the intelligence of entire civilizations, but they're so fundamentally different from us that it's hard to really understand them entirely. That said, they have the ability to mutate themselves into whatever form is best suited for the environment or task, and can assimilate the genetic material from other species. That's... about the simplest way I can describe them; any more than that and we'd be sitting here until next year."

Dorylus' mind spun at the Sergeant's words. They had at first assumed these were simple beasts, possibly a thrall of some cruel being. The thought had never occurred to her that they were actually all a part of some vast intelligence.

"But then... what are they doing here? You said they could assimilate genetic material so..." her words died in her mouth as a thought more horrific than what she had just experienced came crashing down on her. "So they must want to assimilate all of Equis then... And that would mean what happened here is going to be repeated the world over..."

"I'm afraid so," Specialist Ivanov said sadly in a booming voice. "I saw entire planets fall during the Great Wars."

"We have to stop them," Dorylus said, finally finding her resolve. "I'm not just going to sit here while these monsters run around doing who knows what."

"And that," Sergeant Hobbes said, "Is what we're here for. Granted there's only five of us right now, but our plan is to figure out where these bastards are hiding and kill 'em all if we can."

"And if you can't?"

"Then we slow 'em down long enough for reinforcements to arrive. 'Til then we stack bodies like we're playing fucking Jenga, right, Marines?"

"Rah, Sar'nt!" the troopers shouted in unison.

Dorylus couldn't read his mind, but she could read emotions as well as any changeling. Though Sergeant Hobbes did an excellent job of presenting a stoic, confident front towards his subordinates, she could sense overpowering anxiety and uncertainty radiate from within him. The others exuded apprehension as well, but theirs was at least tempered by their trust in the Sergeant.

They sound confident, but they're almost shaking in their boots, she thought, and wondered at what they had seen before meeting her. Gee, doesn't that sound familiar...

Despite the concealed turmoil that raged behind their masks, Dorylus was shocked at how casually they spoke about war and killing. No civilized species on Equis enjoyed death and violence; not even the griffins with their penchant for "honorable combat" sounded as bloodthirsty as these Terrans. The only other creatures that did were the Zerg. Were the Terrans always like this, or had their own conflicts with the Zerg bred this into them?

"If you don't mind, I've got some questions of my own," Sergeant Hobbes said, interrupting her thoughts.

Dorylus snapped back to reality. "Oh, um, yes, of course."

"Well for starters, who are you? And what exactly is a 'changeling'?"

"I'm Pri-" She balked, remembering her mother's last words. "Queen Dorylus, though... only because of my mother's death." She felt a soft glow of pity emanate from the Terrans. It wasn't love, but it was a positive enough emotion to feed her at least a little bit of energy. "Changelings are one of the many species of Equis, though we're frequently shunned and banished by the others and have to live in hiding. Hence, why my hive lives in this canyon on the desert side of the mountains."

"I assume 'Equis" is what you call this world?" the Sergeant asked, to which Dorylus nodded. "Why do they reject your people?"

"Because most of the world sees us as parasites," she said with a sigh. "Changelings are emotivores; we feed on the positive emotions of other species rather than food. We also have the ability to disguise ourselves as almost any other species which we use to get close to them. Finding out a loved one has been replaced by one of us is almost a primal fear the other species' have."

"I... see... Do you do that?"

"No! Some of the other, larger hives do, but not mine. My mother always believed it was safer for the collector drones to fabricate an entirely new persona for their disguises rather than to impersonate one."

"Huh." The Sergeant rubbed his chin in thought. "I can see why. Lower chance of being caught if you came up with an entire identity instead of trying to copy one." With a nervous laugh he asked, "So, wait, you're telling me you literally feed off of other people's happiness?"

Dorylus groaned. "In laymare's terms, yes. It's a bit more complicated than that though, since it has to be directed at us."

"Ah. So, love then."

She face-hoofed. "Sure, let's go with that."

"A species that feeds on emotions..." Sergeant Hobbes mused, looking up at the ceiling.

"To be fair, Sergeant, that's not too far off from what the Protoss do," Private Connelly said, speaking up from near the foot of the bed. Compared to the Sergeant and Specialist Ivanov, he almost sounded squeaky.

Private Clay quickly picked up his train of thought. "Right, something about drawing energy directly from the Void right? Like, they don't even have mouths."

"That's just the Nerazim. You know, Dark Templar? The... 'normal ones' get it straight from light. But I mean, they all have the ability to sense each other's thoughts and emotions at all times."

Dorylus cocked her head. "Who are the Protoss?"

"One of the other aliens in the Koprulu Sector," Sergeant Hobbes said. "They're the oldest and most advanced civilization in the known galaxy."

"Even more advanced than the Terran Dominion?" she laughed sardonically.

The Sergeant chuckled and said, "Significantly more. They were exploring space while we were figuring out how to build walled cities. Actually, that reminds me: Do you know anything about some ruins out in the desert? Ancient civilizations, maybe?"

Ruins? "None that I've ever heard of. Though, with how the dunes shift I suppose anything could be out there. There is an old legend about faceless gods giving the gifts of language and reason to the peoples of Equis, but no one really knows where it comes from. Although, I did read a Daring Do book about it, but that took place in the Zebrican jungles so... probably not what you're looking for." Then, sheepishly she added, "Sorry."

Sergeant Hobbes just sighed. "It's fine. I don't think it's important anyway; these 'faceless gods' could have been the ancient Protoss at the height of their empire, but that's thousands of years from any relevance now. Aaanyway, getting this train back on the rails, is there anything else you can tell me about Equis? We'll need all the intel we can get if we're gonna have a snowball's chance in Hell against the Zerg."

"Well, where do I even start?" Dorylus said with a huff. "As far as major powers go, you've got Griffonia up north where all the griffins live, as well as the Crystal Empire, and Labrynthos to the east with the minotaurs. But the largest and most powerful nation is Equestria, which we're technically in the more frontier regions of. Then you've got Zebrica, Saddle Arabia, Canida, the Dragonlands, and the different changeling hives that are scattered all around, among others."

"'Equestria', huh? Who lives here then?"

"The ponies, though technically many other species live within its borders. Like the buffalo, for example, who live in nomadic tribes on the other side of the mountains."

"'Ponies'?" Private Clay asked in surprise. "You're telling me that a bunch of little horses made a country more powerful than griffins or minotaurs?"

Dorylus snickered at the rude description, but confirmed his question. "Yes, but I think it's more because no one wants to be on the bad side of the Princesses who raise the sun and moon."

The troopers fell into a stunned silence as they stared at her in shock. Dorylus looked between them, bemused at their reaction. "What? What did I say?"

Corporal Archer threw his hands up and said, "I'm sorry, I must've heard that wrong. It sounded like you said these Equestrian Princesses 'raise the sun and moon'."

"That's exactly what I said."

Private Connelly sounded almost offended at the thought. "But... that's impossible! That completely violates the laws of gravity and orbital mechanics! And even if it were you really expect me to believe that a couple of people could do that themselves? How?"

"Whoa, easy, killer," Private Clay said as he put a hand on Connelly's shoulder in an attempt to calm him down.

Dorylus shrank back at his sudden outburst, and even the other troopers seemed surprised by his tone.

"Uh, sorry about that. Science is... kind of his thing," apologized Specialist Ivanov as Connelly ducked his head down in embarrassment.

"He does raise a good point though," said Sergeant Hobbes. "Who exactly are these princesses?"

Composing herself and clearing her throat, Dorylus continued. "Princess Celestia and Luna, who raise the sun and moon respectively. They... aren't like the rest of the ponies, given that they're virtually immortal. They've been around for well over a thousand years and have ruled Equestria that whole time. Well, minus Princess Luna, but that's a, uh, story in itself. There's also Princess Twilight Sparkle, but she was only crowned a couple years ago."

"Immortal beings with power over the sun and moon... The way you describe them makes them sound like gods. No wonder the others don't want to fuck with them."

"There are... those who believe that, yes."

Sergeant Hobbes looked down at the floor. From him, Dorylus could sense a growing sense of dread until it eclipsed his ever-present anxiety.

"Is... something wrong, Sergeant?" she asked, nervous.

He looked back up with a start. "Uh, n-no, I'm fine, just... thinking. If the Zerg were able to acquire that kind of power..." He trailed off, his emotions in deep turmoil.

"... Then they really would be able to dominate the galaxy," finished the Corporal, whose fear suddenly mirrored his Sergeant's.

"'They really would'?" Dorylus echoed. "Wait, what do you mean? Did you know about this?"

"Uh, not exactly," said Sergeant Hobbes with some hesitation. "See, we... may have encountered the creature controlling the Zerg before we arrived here. Before we lost sight of it, it said that this place was the key to their 'ascension' and that they would rule all of creation. At the time I thought it was just taunting us, but now..." He turned to face Corporal Archer. "Sounds like this is turning into more than a search and destroy mission."

"Man, I hate being right..."

Dorylus and the Terrans all fell into a brooding silence.

So that's why they're here, Dorylus realized. Somehow Equis is home to life that violates the rules of the universe as these Terrans understand it, so if these... Zerg manage to control it they would become their greatest threat. Still, it seems the Zerg haven't been here long enough to make use of what they've found yet, so we have that in our favor at least. She eyed the Terran troopers, who were all still lost in thought.

Dorylus stood up and composed herself, drawing the attention of the Terrans. Even standing on the bed, she still had to look up slightly to meet Sergeant Hobbes' gaze. She puffed her chest out and held her head as high as she could like she had seen her mother do many times before.

"Sergeant Hobbes," she began. "By... my title as Queen Dorylus I must formally ask for your assistance in defeating the Zerg. I understand that your numbers and resources are limited, but you are currently the leading experts on our... common enemy, and your help would be invaluable in driving them from Equis." She proffered her hoof to the Sergeant. "Will you help us in this effort?"

He looked down at her hoof momentarily before glancing back to his fellow troopers, all of whom quickly gave a thumbs-up. Turning back to Dorylus, he removed his helmet, revealing a hairless, tanned face with a short black mane, piercing brown eyes, and a short pointed nose. He grinned, showing slightly pointed white teeth as he firmly gripped her hoof.

"On behalf of the Terran Dominon, by the authority of Emperor Valerian Mengsk the First, I, Sergeant Matthew Hobbes of the Dominion Marine Corps, accept your request for aid, and will commit all resources at our disposal to defeating the Zerg that have invaded your homeworld of Equis."

Author's Note

Bonus points if you can identify the colonies of the flags. Most of them are completely made up, but I tried to keep them in line with the lore.

IV - The Shot Heard Around the World

If you men think that I rely on numbers, then all Greece is not sufficient, for it is but a small fraction of their numbers; but if on men's valor, then this number will do.
Leonidas of Sparta

Princess Luna sat in her study, carefully reading through the old tax codes and occasionally adding to the small mountain of notes. Lately the nobles of Canterlot, as well as some of the wealthier business owners, had been complaining to Celestia in her day court about the recent downturn in the economy. Ordinarily, she detested the idea of playing nice with that stuffy lot, but in her mind she reasoned that the average pony must have been chafing even worse than they.

Hence, while her sister handled the public, Luna worked on solutions to the problem.

She realized she must have lost track of time as the sun hung low above the horizon, and, appropriately, Celestia tiredly opened the study's door and trotted in where she flopped none too gracefully on a dais next to Luna.

"Long day, sister?" Luna said with a smirk.

Celestia sighed, long and dramatic. "You would think I'd have gotten used to this after the first hundred years or so, but here I am."

Luna laughed. "Sounds like your age is catching up with you, 'Tia."

She snorted. "I should send you back to the moon for that."

"Ah, but then you'd be doing all this paperwork by yourself."

"... Small price to pay."

"So, what new and exciting trivialities did the stuffed shirts have to whinge about today?"

"Actually, it was mostly commoners. It would seem your hunch was right after all; a lot of ponies are facing layoffs and can't find replacement jobs." Celestia rolled onto her back, staring at the high ceiling. "Among many other things, of course."

Sighing, Luna said, "You and I both know that the economy is a fickle thing. We could just leave it be and let it sort it out itself, it always does."

"While I technically agree, I defy you to try telling that to an unemployed mare with two foals to feed."

"Could be worse," came a disembodied voice. "I could still be in charge."

Discord's head suddenly popped out of Luna's pile of papers, sending them flying and eliciting an exasperated groan from the blue mare.

"Discord! I had all that organized!"

"Luna, they were in a pile," Celestia deadpanned.

"Organized chaos! See, I knew there was a reason I liked Luna more than you." He coiled around Luna, agitated as she was. "But fine, here."

With a snap of his fingers, the mess of papers vanished and reappeared into several neat stacks arranged by relevance. Luna audibly facehoofed while Celestia laughed.

The moment, brief as it was, was interrupted by an urgent knock on the door.

"Enter," Luna called.

A huge, dark gray unicorn royal guard swiftly entered and brusquely approached the princesses. The large red plume atop his golden helmet easily identifying him as Iron Aegis, Commander of the Royal Guard.

"Your highnesses, we just received an emergency telegram from Appleloosa, authenticated by both Sheriff Silverstar and Chief Thunderhooves. You... need to read this." The famously unshakeable stallion had a noticeable waver in his voice. Luna wondered at just what could possibly have spooked the living statue.

He levitated a small slip of paper to Celestia, who had already righted herself on the dais. Her brow furrowed as she read the message. As her eyes worked their way down the page they steadily grew to the size of dinner plates, before visibly fighting back a gasp of horror. Discord, who had been drinking from a glass of chocolate milk he conjured up from somewhere as he read over her shoulder, spat out his drink.

"Sister?" Luna asked nervously. "What does it say?"

"It... it says Appleloosa was attacked by a horde of unknown creatures, and that they killed over a dozen ponies and buffalo. They've been cutting down portions of their orchard to make barricades and attempting to use dynamite to fend them off."

Luna's jaw worked silently as the words washed over her. "What!?" she eventually exclaimed, then whipped around to face the Guard Commander. "When did this happen?"

"The telegram came in less than an hour ago, your highness. The attack was apparently this morning. I immediately brought it to our standby teams and have been ensuring their coordination."

All traces of exhaustion vanished from Celestia as she stood up, a fire burning in her eyes the likes of which Luna had not seen since the changeling coup attempt.

"Commander, send a company of guards to Appleloosa at-"

With an audacity that could only be achieved by Commander Aegis, he interrupted the Solar Princess. "Already done, your highness. The chariots went wheels up ten minutes ago."

Celestia stood there slack-jawed, surprised at the Commander's brazen action. Still, she was pleased with his quick thinking and initiative. "I see. Very good, Commander. Put the remainder of the rapid response units on standby. The moment anything comes in from Appleloosa, I want you to send a runner to Luna or myself. If you feel it is urgent enough, you have permission to mobilize more guards as necessary. Dismissed."

"Understood, your highness." The Commander about-faced and left the study in a hurry, the tramp of his shoes echoing down the hall as he galloped at full speed.

Celestia dropped back down onto the dais, hard. She held her forehead in her hoof as Luna picked up and read the telegram herself. Discord dashed to the window and threw it open, whereupon he sniffed the outside air in one long, dramatic inhale.

"Strange," he said. "I can sense the chaos, but not its source."

"Is that unusual?" Luna asked, not even pretending to understand what passed for logic in the Lord of Chaos' head.

"Extremely. What's more, I felt something similar from that nearby changeling hive a few days ago. Didn't think much of it at the time."

Luna cocked an eyebrow. "'Changeling hive'?" she echoed. "One of King Thorax's?"

"Oh no, it's run by Chrysalis' sister I believe. What was her name again? Formica something-or-other? Maybe I should start keeping an address book..."

"Formicidae," Celestia answered with a groan. "I... 'met' her once before, after Chrysalis' coup attempt. She seemed rather benign at the time; her changelings were more in favor of creating original personas to blend in rather than actually replacing ponies. Still, due to her... familial relations, they haven't been able to integrate as well as those under King Thorax. A shame, really"

"You don't think she's responsible do you?" Luna asked. "I know naught of her, but this atrocity does not agree with what you have described."

Discord snorted. "Doubtful. She's almost as non-confrontational as Fluttershy. Besides, her hive isn't nearly powerful enough to do something like this."

"What, then?"

The Lord of Chaos hummed. "Well, since I can't detect it, it would have to be something inherently unchaotic." He glanced over his shoulder and side-eyed the Princesses. "Dare I say it, something Harmonious?"

"But then how could creatures of Harmony commit such an act?"

"Come now, you act like Twilight and her friends haven't caused enough chaos of their own. Or you two, for that matter." He gave the air another whiff. His asymmetric eyes shot wide open and his mouth twisted into a lopsided grin. "Oh, hel~lo, that. Is. New."

"Discord? What is it?"

"Oh, just the most delicious source of chaos I've smelled in a good, long time. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to investigate this personally. Toodle-oo!" In his typical impulsive fashion, he leapt out the window.

"Wait, Discord!" Celestia shouted, darting to where he had stood moments ago.

"Yeees?" he said, hovering upside-down with a crooked smile still on his face.

Celestia paused. What she wanted was to stop him from causing any more damage. On the other hoof... maybe that was just what they needed right now.

A devilish grin grew on her face. "Try to bring one back alive, would you?"

He laughed mightily. "Oh, I do love it when we agree on things, Celestia. Ta-ta!" With that, Discord shot off towards Appleloosa, his serpentine body corkscrewing through the air.

"So... Sorry about pointing my gun at you," Matt said, more than a little embarrassed. "Gonna be honest, I thought you were a Zerg when I first saw you."

Matt had placed Sergei and Mike at the windowed walls on opposite sides of the desk, each with a pair of the LRAS binoculars to keep surveillance on the small village. Stuart and John were resting against their rucksacks, eating a portion of their rations. While this was far from what Matt would consider a good patrol base, the amount of intel available in the deceased changeling queen's quarters made it worth the risk, especially now that they had someone who could translate for them.

"Queen Dorylus" looked over her shoulder at him with an indignant look on her face, then sighed with a shake of her head and returned to her task. She was scanning through a shelf with honeycomb cubbyholes, each with a small label in the changelings' language and containing large rolled-up sheets of paper or parchment. What, precisely, she was looking for Matt wasn't sure.

"Well, good thing I fainted then." Thankfully ignoring Matt's faux pas, she asked, "Is that what your weapons are called?"

"Mm hm. Technically they're lasers though, not true 'guns'."

She let out a humorless laugh. "You're assuming I know what either of those things are."

"... Right, my bad. 'Guns' fire solid projectiles at supersonic speeds while lasers shoot focused beams of light."

"Interesting..." Dorylus said absently. "Sorry, I'm not ignoring you, I'm just trying to- AHA!"

Her horn glowed green once again as a particular roll of paper radiated the same hue and gently levitated out of its cubbyhole. She walked Matt over to the desk and unrolled it, revealing a detailed world map complete with national boundaries and color-coded for environment.

Matt peered over her shoulder. "I take it this is Equis?"

"Indeed. What do you think?"

I think it's got a lot more water than Mar Sara, that's for sure. "I wouldn't use it for land nav, but it'll work. Where are we?"

Dorylus pointed with a hole-filled hoof to a short mountain range running north to south near the center of the largest continent. To its west was a vast desert, evidently the troopers' point of entry. To its east was what looked like a swath of plains, if the small drawings of grass scattered in the light green region were any indicator.

The Changeling Queen's hoof was directly over a small, hand - Hoof? Horn? How exactly did they make this thing? - drawn star in the western face of the mountains. Matt assumed this was the location of Dorylus' "hive" they were currently based in.

"Alright, so then what's the nearest city?"

"Here, Appleloosa. A pony settlement," Dorylus said as she pointed to a small black dot on the plains side of the mountains. Matt couldn't tell distances with the alien units of measurement marked on the map, but it looked well under a hundred kilometers. Nothing compared to what they'd just endured. "I'm a bit worried though. It's not far, so there's a good chance they have encountered the Zerg... And that's also where the remnants of my hive are."

Matt sympathized with her plight. Seems we both got saddled with more responsibility than we were ready for. "So you wanna go there and make sure they're safe. What about Appleloosa itself? How many ponies live there?"

"Not many. A few hundred at most, plus the nearby buffalo tribe. It honestly isn't much bigger than the hive."

"And why exactly are your people there if you're so unwelcome?"

"Why do you think? They and the buffalo are our primary source of nourishment."

"Ah." Matt considered the map for a long moment, eyeing the large gold line that marked the border of Equestria. It might be our best bet to get in contact with them. These princesses sound like they would be powerful allies, assuming Dory here is right. "Then I guess that's our next stop. Getting 'Celestia' and 'Luna' on our side sounds like our best chance. And you need to see to your people"

Dorylus nodded in agreement. "Good idea. Appleloosa is connected to the Equestrian railways too, so it shouldn't be hard to get you from there to Canterlot, the capitol." She closed her eyes and sighed, a relieved look appearing on her face. "And... thank you. I... don't know where I would be if not for you."

Matt smiled at her. "All in a day's work, ma'am."

They were interrupted by the sound of something - or rather, someone - falling on the floor, followed by John swearing. Matt and Dorylus instinctively looked behind them to see what all the commotion was about. They were met by the sight of John attempting to stand up from a sitting position facing the wall next to the door. Embedded deep in the stone wall in front of him was a strange bladed device.

"John, what the hell're you doing?" Matt asked, not particularly surprised by his trooper's antics.

The jokester turned his head around to face Matt and he quickly popped up to his feet. "Uh, trying to get this thing outta the wall sar'nt," he said, gesturing at the bladed device. "There's another one on the other side too."

True to his word, a second identical device was lodged on the opposite side. Curious, Matt approached the bladed instrument John had attempted to extract. It consisted of three gleaming curved blades radiating out from a central hub, each of which tapered to a fine point. Only the edge on their outer curve was sharpened, and the flats were engraved with ornate, flowing floral patterns. Looking closer at the central hub, Matt saw that the three blades were all forged from a single continuous piece of metal. A pair of flat disks sat on either side of the hub and were made of a silvery metal and inlaid with green gemstones, probably emeralds. Matt touched one of the disks, and found that they both spun together free and smooth, as if on roller bearings.

Surrounding both of the blades were copious amounts of dried, red blood. Clearly, whoever owned these had fought back against the Zerg.

"What're these?" Matt asked, perplexed.

Dorylus approached the unyielding blades. "My mother's glaives. These have been passed down our family for generations. I've never seen her fight with them, but she still taught me how to use them. Probably expected to pass them to me at... some point."

Matt noticed tears starting to well up in her feline eyes. Unsure of what to say, he simply placed a hand on her shoulder, which was barely higher than his waist. Despite being made of black chitin, he was surprised to learn that it was fairly warm. She sniffed and wiped her eyes, saying, "Thanks."

Memories of the dead troopers from his original platoon flooded Matt's mind and a surge of melancholy washed over him. "I can't say I know exactly what you're going through, but... I get it."

"You do, don't you." It wasn't a question. "I guess that means these are mine now..."

Dorylus' horn glowed as she grabbed the glaive with her green aura. Her face contorted as she attempted to force it free of the wall with her alien brand of telekinesis. The glaive, however, stayed lodged in its rocky crevice, defying her will.

She gasped as she suddenly released her hold on the blade. "Mother must have put a lot of force behind that," she said with a forced laugh.

Matt shook his head and grinned. "Alright, John, give it another go."

John laughed and reached for the blade, saying, "I'm'a King Arthur this bitch." He grabbed it by one of the inner curves and braced his foot on the wall. With a loud groan he attempted to pull it free once again. After a few seconds of continuous pulling, he released the pressure.

"Guess you ain't worthy, John," Stuart laughed, who had been silently observing until now.

"Oh, I aint done yet," John said as he prepared to pull once again. This time, when he started applying pressure he brought both feet to the wall so that he was completely off the ground, suspended only by the friction between his boots and the wall.

With a loud ping! the glaive broke free, and John flew away from the wall with a less-than-masculine yelp, still clutching the blade in his hand. Dorylus caught him with her telekinesis before he could hit the ground, and he held it up victoriously.

"Huzzah! England has a new king!"

Matt snorted with a smirk. "Great job, Thor. Think you can do it again?"

"You betcha, sar'nt."

John repeated the feat, being caught by Dorylus again. He picked up both of the glaives and held them out for the changeling queen.

"Mi'lady," he said with his trademark shit-eating grin.

Dorylus blushed, but smiled as she took them. Matt was intrigued at how she only held the hubs, as they were the only part that glowed green. The blades rotated lazily as she turned them around and examined them with a troubled expression.

Then Matt was presented with the glaives in use, as a gentle green glow emanated from their inner curves. In a second, the blades built speed until they ran like a blender, making a bloodcurdling BRRRR.

The troopers whistled, impressed.

"Nu blyat, that's scary," Sergei remarked, looking back from his observation post.

"That it is," Matt agreed. "Much as the Mar Saran in me likes an armed society, have you ever actually been in a fight?"

Dorylus suddenly looked nervous, nauseous, even. "N-no. Never."

Matt sighed. "Guess there's a first time for everything then."

"Hey, don't you worry," said John. "We'll show you the ropes. Killin' Zerg is a helluva lotta fun."

Stuart piped up, saying, "Shit, you'll learn ropes, lasers, grenades, nukes, shovels..."

The changeling gulped, saying, "War isn't exactly something that's common here. Even when it does happen, casualties are few. The last time a 'war' broke out around here was when the buffalo tribes were trying to push the Appleloosan settlers out."

"And? How'd that go?" Matt asked, intrigued.

"The buffalo tried tearing the buildings down and the ponies threw pies at them," she said with a bashful smile, seeming to recognize the absurdity of it. "Turns out it worked, since they hit Chief Thunderhooves in the face with one and he liked it so much the buffalo decided to let them stay."

The troopers fell silent, slackjawed at the retelling.

Then they burst out laughing.

"Never thought a pie would be enough to win a war," said Mike through a fit of giggling.

After collecting himself a bit, Matt said, "Somehow, I don't think offering the Zerg pie is an option though."

If that's the worst conflict they've ever seen, Matt thought, We've really got our work cut out for us. I just hope they'll do what's necessary when the time comes.

"Actually, speaking of Appleloosa," Matt said addressing the troopers. "That's going to be our next target. We'll make contact with the locals and changelings there and hitch a ride on their railways to the Equestrian capitol. Questions?"

"Any word on Zerg in the area?" Sergei asked.

"As of yesterday, no. None yet," Dorylus answered. "But it's only a couple days away on hoof, so I worry they might make it there by the time we arrive."

"Then I guess we'd better 'hoof' it then," John said with a straight face.

"John, I swear to God..." Stuart groaned.

"But seriously, we should probably get there as quick as possible," John continued without a shred of humor. "The last thing I want to see is another ghost town."

"He's right," Sergei chimed in. "The Zerg are easily a few days ahead of us, so unless we get on the move ASAP Appleloosa will get torn to shreds."

"Then ASAP is our target," Matt said with finality. "Mike, Sergei, swap out with Stu and John. Get some food in you. We'll SP in one hour to cover as much ground today as we can. All goes well, we'll make it there by tomorrow."

Dorylus was impressed at how the Terrans operated. While the Zerg were apparently bred to kill, these new aliens were like a well-oiled machine. Clearly, these were a people to which warfare was studied like an art or science. Even the food In their rations, Private Connelly had said, were carefully chosen to match the nutritional and caloric needs of a soldier on the battlefield.

She was most surprised at how willing they were to rush to Appleloosa, and on hoof - or foot, rather - no less. Such a journey wouldn't have been taken lightly by the ponies, for sure.
When she asked about it, she was shocked to learn that they had just walked almost five days through the open desert to reach the hive, and that this was just the "victory lap."

True to their word, at the end of the hour the Terrans were fed, packed, and ready to move. Dorylus tried picking up Sergeant Hobbes' rucksack and could have sworn it weighed more than her. The amount of discipline and conditioning these troopers had, both mental and physical, that they could handle such burdens without complaint put even the Equestrian royal guard to shame. For her part, the only cargo she carried were the canvas scabbards for the glaives that hung on her sides like saddlebags and a water-filled bladder with a hose on it the troopers had given her.

She led the Terrans out of the hive through the northeast canyon. As they left the outskirts, Dorylus looked back at the devastated hive, somberly realizing that this would likely be the last time she ever saw her old home. At the encouragement of the Terrans, she pressed on, the troopers following her single file.

Though the troopers seemed content with marching in silence, Dorylus' mind roiled with questions about them. They weren't what she expected from aliens; if anything, she found their mannerisms almost familiar.

"Sergeant, do you mind if I ask you some questions?" Dorylus asked, breaking the silence.

"Go ahead," Sergeant Hobbes replied, somehow breathing heavily without sounding tired. "Might break the monotony."

"What do those symbols on your shoulders mean? I can assume one represents the Terrain Dominion, but what about the others?"

"Oh, these?" he said, looking at his left shoulder. "These are the flags of our home colonies."

"'Colonies'?" She remembered he had said the Dominion was an interstellar empire. "You mean worlds, right?"

"Yeah. I'm from Mar Sara, Stu's from Korhal, the capitol, Sergei's from Tarsonis, John's from Antiga Prime, and Mike's from Tyrador Eight."

"Ah. You mentioned something about Mar Sarans liking an 'armed society'."

The Sergeant laughed. "Damn straight. Birthplace of revolutionaries and freedom fighters."

From the middle of the formation, Private Clay yelled, "Vive la révolution!"

Private Connelly snickered in the back, but Dorylus felt a surge of irritation from Specialist Ivanov and Corporal Archer. Based on their reactions she realized there was likely a dark history behind the Dominion. Hoping to avoid provoking any more negative responses, she switched topics.

"How much experience do you have fighting the Zerg?"

"Personally? I've been on two deployments into Zerg infested territory for six months each. As for the Dominion itself, we've fought them off and on for thirty years. Though, to be fair, most of that is against ferals or renegades. The Zerg Swarm itself is actually an ally of ours."

That revelation caught her off guard. She was barely paying attention as he explained the Swarm's organizational structure with its broods and brood mothers, and their inexplicable psychic link between them that kept the rank and file in control. After everything Dorylus had seen, the idea that peace was even an option with the Zerg blew her away.

"Sorry, I find it a bit hard to believe that you can actually reason with those monsters."

"To be fair, it's not so much 'reasoning' as it is 'bargaining.' In my opinion it's really more like making a deal with the Devil."

That allayed her concerns somewhat. At least the Terrans knew what they were dealing with when it came to the Zerg. Still, something didn't add up in her mind.

"So if you've made peace with the Zerg Swarm, then why are you fighting them now? For that matter, how did you even get here if it's just the five of you?"

The Sergeant sighed loudly and said, "Ho boy, that's a helluva story. Buckle up, buckeroo."

Dorylus then listened with a combination of fascination and horror as he described the ill-fated adventure leading up to their arrival in Equestria. Throughout the retelling she hoped there would somehow be a good ending to his story, but she nearly vomited in shock when Sergeant Hobbes described his unit being nearly wiped out by the Zerg under the command of a hideous brain-like creature.

"I- I'm sorry," she stammered. "Do... do you think they're really sending help?"

"Well, it was enough to get the attention of the Emperor himself. I can't imagine they wouldn't at that point. But like I said, reinforcements are almost a month out. Even then, they'll only be able to immediately send what can fit through the warp gate. It'll take even more time for us to isolate the location of Equis to bring our ships in."

Despite the circumstances, Dorylus found herself excited about the prospect of seeing the Terran spaceships. Still, she was upset at how long it would take more help to arrive.

"Will it be enough?" she hesitated to ask, fearing the answer.

"I hope so," Sergeant Hobbes said. "Because if we have to ask the Protoss for help, I don't think there'll be an Equis left."

"What makes you say that?"

"When we first encountered them, the Protoss incinerated the surface of every planet they found the Zerg," he said darkly. "Some of them were settled by Terrans."

"That's horrible!"

"Hey now, don't worry. We might not look like it, but we Terrans prefer to be more surgical with how we fight. Granted, when it comes to the Zerg, sometimes you need a bonesaw rather than a scalpel."

Dorylus knew he was trying to assuage her fears, but the implications of what he'd said disturbed her. She didn't say another word until they reached the end of the canyon on the opposite side of the mountains. By now, the sun had already set behind the mountains now to their west, and the rolling expanse of the Equestrian plains stretched before them. They set up camp in a rocky crevice at the base of the mountains, taking turns on watch throughout the night.

She awoke at the break of dawn, finding the Terran troopers already packed and ready to move. Anyone on Equis would have been apprehensive about the coming march across the plains, but the aliens were practically champing at the bit, eager to continue their mission.

When they finally set off for Appleloosa, the troopers broke apart into a broad wedge formation with Sergeant Hobbes at the front. Though they carried enormous burdens on their backs, the Terrans somehow managed to sustain a quick marching pace. Dorylus' legs burned at the high tempo of their movement, but she refused to give up. Too much was at stake for muscle fatigue to get the better of her.

So quick were they that by mid afternoon the titular apple orchards of Appleloosa came into view. Ecstatic, Dorylus lifted off and flew ahead to see the town. As she approached, however, her ears were met by the sound of rumbling explosions.

A sinking dread held her by the gut as she got closer. To her horror, the frontier town was surrounded by a ring of chopped down apple trees cannibalized from the orchard, and a small horde of Zerg milling outside the perimeter.

To their credit, the ponies had decided to abandon the pie-throwing technique in favor of lobbing sticks of red dynamite into the midst of the Zerg, forcing them to scatter. Still, they were hardly making a dent in the Zerg forces.

Dorylus easily recognized the almost reptilian zerglings that composed the bulk of the force, with their long spiny tails and scythe-shaped claws. What she didn't recognize were the squat, black, beetle-like creatures with a pair of crescent moon shaped claws sprouting from their backs and heads recessed deep in their shells like a turtle's. She gasped in horror as she watched one spit a jet of green bile at the wooden barricade, causing it to sizzle and melt.

Immediately she flew back to the troopers as fast as her wings could carry her and told the Sergeant what she saw.

"Shit, those are roaches," he growled, radiating frustration and anger. "That means the Zerg are dug in somewhere and getting more developed." He pressed a button on the side of his helmet and said, "Alright boys, we've got Zerg up ahead. ISR reports twenty zerglings, six roaches engaged with local forces. Civilians are in the AO, I say again, civilians are in the AO. Check your fire and time your shots. Double-time it, people, we've got ponies to save."

That must be the "radio" he said they were using on Braxis, Dorylus thought.

As if the marching pace they'd held for the whole day wasn't fast enough, the Terrans broke into a run as they approached Appleloosa. Before long they were running through the apple trees on the town's outskirts, and came to a stop at the opposite wood line. The troopers took cover hiding behind the trees as they surveyed the area. So far, the Zerg still had yet to break the ponies' barricades, but not without having caused severe damage. It wouldn't be long before they broke through.

"Right, boys, twenty meter spread," Sergeant Hobbes instructed. "Mike, Stu, take the far edges. Everyone drop rucks and get down. We've got the drop on 'em, let's not waste it."

The troopers spread out across the tree line and dropped their bloated packs on the ground in front of them. They laid down prone behind them, resting their weapons on top as they took aim at the unaware Zerg. Dorylus laid on her stomach next to Sergeant Hobbes, her glaives levitating at her sides.

She trembled, fear threatening to take control of her as she beheld the ravenous monsters in front of her.

We need to kill them, she thought. Her stomach lurched at the prospect, but she held firm. Now was not the time for second thoughts; it was do or die.

The Sergeant must have noticed her trepidation as he nudged her.

"Listen," he said. "We'll handle the front, but I need you to watch our backs. Once we open fire there's a good chance they'll try to surround us. Can you do that?"

"I... I think so."

"Yes or no, Dory," he said, his voice stern.

"Yes," she said after taking a deep breath. "Yes, I can."

He nodded. "Good." Then he took a deep breath. Dorylus felt his ever-concealed anxiety swell tenfold. She wouldn't have been surprised if he was asking himself the same question.

After quelling his apprehension the Sergeant began issuing orders like the conductor of an orchestra.

"Mike, Stu, load HE and set rifles to burst. Save your 'nades for if they split to do a pincer maneuver. Sergei, target down the highest density of targets. John, you'll focus on the roaches. Don't let them get near us, you got me?"

"Rah, sar'nt," came Private Clay's muted voice from his position.

"No one open fire until I say so, that way we won't give away our position until they've overcommitted, Rah?"

"Rah, sar'nt," came the soft replies from the hidden troopers.

"Now, we get their attention." He turned to Dorylus and said, "Showtime." His anxiety had been replaced by childlike giddiness as his temperament transformed into an almost completely different person.

"John, kill one of them."

A beam of blazing red light flashed from Private Clay's weapon with a loud snap like a souped up camera flash. If Dorylus had blinked she would have missed it. The red bolt struck the head of a zergling that was attempting to climb up the barricade, launching bits of brain and bone in every direction. It spasmed and fell to the ground, leaving behind a splatter of crimson blood and a smoking black hole on the barricade.

The Zerg froze and turned to look in the direction the shot had come from. Dorylus froze in fear as she saw their piercing yellow eyes and the horrific gape of the roaches' split mandible maws. Some of the zerglings stood up on their hind legs like meerkats, trying to see where the shot had come from.

"Relax, Dory. You gotta learn to be meaner than the Zerg.

"John, hit 'em again."

Another flash of red, another dead Zerg, this time a roach. Spurred by the realization they were under attack, a few from the group started running in Private Clay's direction. As Dorylus started to worry, Sergeant Hobbes fired his own weapon. While not as bright or loud, it fired three beams in rapid succession, killing one of the charging zerglings.

Now the Zerg were incensed. Over half the group charged their line with rage blazing in their eyes.

"That got 'em. John, keep firing. Sergei, you're up. Let 'em eat it."

"Ding dong, suka," growled the giant Terran. "Tarsonis says hello."

A stream of red beams as intense as Private Clay's weapon erupted from the huge machine the Specialist carried. Though they lacked the precision of the Private's, they more than made up for in volume. A single burst from his weapon cut down several of the Zerg. Through it, Private Clay continued shooting at the roaches.

Having realized they were facing a larger force than they initially expected, the rest of the Zerg jolted into action. Rather than joining the frontal charge, however, they split into two smaller groups and ran to the sides in a wide arc.

"There we go. Mike, Stu, you're up."

A pair of loud thoops shook the air coming from either side of the trooper's line, followed shortly by an ear-splitting explosion as the small groups of encircling Zerg exploded in a cloud of dust and viscera. Sergeant Hobbes pulled a trigger on the large cylinder under his weapon and a similar, louder noise erupted from the tube. Unlike with the beams of light, this caused his weapon to buck into his shoulder. A third explosion rocked the oncoming frontal charge a second later, rattling Dorylus' teeth.

"Hell yeah," the Sergeant said, satisfied. "Weapons free, boys! Wax these critters!"

"FOR THE EMPEROR!" came the thunderous warcry from the Terrans as the open field before them went ablaze with beams of light, carving through the remaining Zerg left, right, and center.

As the Zerg charged, Dorylus saw a roach suddenly disappear into the ground. At first she was confused, but then with growing horror she remembered how the zerglings had burrowed through the sandstone cliffs of her hive. She looked over at the troopers; they hadn't said anything about it.

They must not have seen, she realized. That thing could pop up anywhere and they wouldn't know.

With a deep breath, she flew into the air high enough to see the whole line of Terrans. She hovered and scanned left and right, spinning her glaives beside her. Fortunately, the troopers seemed to be making quick work of the Zerg, but still there was no sign of the burrowed roach.

Just as the last of the surface Zerg keeled over dead, the roach burst from the ground in a spray of dirt...

Right behind Sergeant Hobbes.

"Sergeant! Behind you!" she yelled as she dove towards the roach.

He whirled around and saw the hideous insectoid at his feet and shouted, "Oh, fuck!" before diving to the side. A jet of acid erupted from the roach's maw and missed the Sergeant by a hair's breadth, hitting an apple tree and vaporizing most of its trunk. He fired his weapon at the offending creature as fast as he could, but the creature's armored shell absorbed too much of the impacts to stop it.

It was almost on top of him when Dorylus barreled into its side, knocking it off balance. Her fear and shock were suddenly replaced by blinding rage as she plunged her spinning glaives into the roach's underbelly, causing it to squeal like a pig. Blood and viscera fountained from its gaping wounds as she grit her teeth, pushing the glaives in deeper until they broke through its upper shell. The foul creature collapsed to the ground, lifeless.

"Fuck..." Sergeant Hobbes muttered. "Thanks."

Dorylus fell on her haunches and dropped the glaives, breathing heavily.

"'Be meaner than the Zerg', you said."

"That I did. Clever girl."

Then she laughed. After witnessing her hive massacred she finally had a taste of victory, however small. Maybe, just maybe they could fight back the invaders.

Author's Note

Wrote most of this in the field.

Fuck Yakima. That is all.

V - Cowcolts and Aliens

Destiny is that which we are drawn towards and fate is that which we run into.
Wyatt Earp

Matt sat against the half-dissolved tree, simultaneously impressed and frightened by the changeling queen. She sat in front of him, covered head to hoof in the blood of the slain roach, and cackling maniacally. The sun had already begun sinking below the horizon, casting her in eerie long shadows.

"Uh, you good, Dory?" he asked, starting to question her stability.

Her laughter died to a giggle as she said, "Yep. Never better."

Oookay, then. "We'll, if you're sure, let's gather up the boys and meet the locals." He looked her up and down, then added, "... And get you cleaned up while we're at it."

The troopers regrouped with Matt and Dorylus, donning their rucks once again. He looked them over, making sure none were injured. Satisfied, they approached the Appleloosan barricade, stepping around the Zerg corpses littering the battlefield.

When no one greeted them at the barrier, Matt turned to Dorylus.

"We weren't too late, were we?"

"No," she said, a flash of irritation crossing her face. "Ponies are skittish on the best of days. I've heard of them boarding up their windows over a single zebra showing up in town."

Matt grumbled. "So they're racist, too. Great. Can't wait to see what their leaders are like..."

"From what I've heard, the Princesses are much more reasonable," Dorylus said, but sounded like she didn't believe her own words. "Although, even they aren't too fond of changelings. At least, the ones not under King Thorax, anyway."

"Who?"

She waved a hoof. "I'll explain later."

I'll hold you to that. "So what do we do, yell to get their attention?"

Dorylus stepped closer to the barricade and said, "Let me. They wouldn't understand you, anyway."

Right, translation spell. "I thought you said they didn't like your kind?"

"They don't," she huffed. "But I've got to at least try."

Dorylus looked down between her hooves looking troubled. After a long moment she took several deep breaths and shouted at the barricade.

"Ponies of Appleloosa! I am Queen Dorylus of the High Desert Changelings! I and the people with me mean you no harm, and we ask that you let us in!"

When Dorylus had said "ponies," Matt was thoroughly expecting to be looking at the reincarnation of Mr. Ed. As it was he was pleasantly surprised that the three heads that popped up looked far less animalistic than he anticipated.

They were unmistakably equinoid, of course, but no one would have mistaken them for the beasts of burden that had accompanied humanity since time immemorial. Their heads were far larger and bulbous, with comically huge expressive eyes and short muzzles. To Matt's surprise, their coats and manes were in a wide range of colors, as if each one had grabbed a random color sample or two from a paint store and chosen it as their color scheme. Amusingly, almost all of them seemed to be wearing wide-brimmed cowboy hats.

Huh. Replace the apple trees with prickly pear, and I'll feel right at home, Matt thought, grinning behind his helmet. However it quickly faded with his next thought. Wait, apple trees? He looked at the orchard behind them, confirming that yes, those were indeed apples hanging from their branches. How the hell...? Okay, creatures from Old Earth mythology being here are one thing, but regular plants and shit? Way beyond coincidence. Where the FUCK are we really?

One of the "ponies," a blonde one with green eyes addressed Dorylus in their alien language, the pitch of its voice sounding more masculine than anything else. Based on his tone and scowl, it didn't sound like he was particularly pleased with her proposal.

"No, we're not one one of Thorax's. We-"

The pony interrupted her, shouting something angrily.

"We had nothing to do with that! Look, if you let us in we can ex-"

Another angry interruption. Matt glanced down at Dorylus and saw one of her eyes twitch.

"WILL YOU SHUT UP AND LISTEN, YOU FLEA-B-"

This time Matt interrupted her, tapping her on the shoulder.

"Dory, calm down," he said, pulling her aside. "Getting mad's gonna get us nowhere fast."

She groaned in frustration. "They won't even listen to me! How am I supposed to convince them to let us in if they won't let me get a word in edgewise?"

Matt turned and eyed the ponies, who wore a smug smirk on each of their faces. Matt scowled, not looking forward to having to work with the obstinate lot.

Yep. Just like home.

He sighed. "Ask what it'll take to let us in."

"What!? We just saved their flanks, and now we're letting them make demands?"

"I know, but look, sometimes you've just gotta be the better man, you know what I mean?"

She looked him in the eyes, clearly not convinced. After holding his gaze for a long moment, she closed her eyes and sighed. "Fine. I'll ask them." Turning back to the ponies, she reluctantly asked, "What do you want?"

The blonde pony leaned forward with a knowing smile and cupped a hoof around his ear. Whatever he asked sounded suspiciously taunting.

Dorylus rolled her eyes, but humored him with forced words. "What do you want from us that will convince you to let us in?"

The three ponies popped down behind the barricade. Behind it, Matt could hear soft whispers as they talked it over.

"What a bunch of assholes..." Matt muttered.

For some reason, Dorylus found that incredibly amusing.

They waited several minutes before the ponies showed their faces again. Matt didn't know what words they used, but based on how the blonde one was pointing his hoof at him, he didn't like the direction this was going.

Dorylus looked between Matt and the pony. "... You're sure? He doesn't speak our language, I have to use a translation spell."

The pony gave a short response that probably meant something along the lines of "figure it out."

"Alright, well... The ponies want you to go in and talk to the sheriff... alone."

"And how exactly am I supposed to talk to them?"

"They just said to, and I quote, 'figure it out'."

Figures... "Any ideas?"

Dorylus scratched the back of her neck nervously. "Just one. I can cast the translation spell on you directly, but it'll only last a couple hours."

"Better than nothing, I guess. Here's hoping I can convince them before time runs out." Matt chuckled weakly. "Not sure how far I'll get with grunts and hand gestures alone. Did they say anything about my weapons?"

She shook her head.

"Alright, tell them I agree to their terms." As she announced their approval, Matt turned to the troopers and dropped his ruck. "Well, here goes nothing. Stu, you're in charge until I get back. GOTWA is just me going into town to see the sheriff. If I'm not back in two hours, or 'diplomacy breaks down,' you boys come in. Try not to kill anyone, though."

"Rah, Sar'nt."

Dorylus waited for him to finish, then asked, "Ready?"

"Do it." Her horn glowed as he felt a tingling in his ears and throat that quickly faded. "Is that it?"

She nodded. "Should be. Try it out."

Matt took a few steps towards the barricade and shouted, "Can y'all understand me?"

The ponies' eyes widened but they didn't hesitate to reply. "Yep, sure can," the blonde one said in a thick drawl. "Come on over, Ah'll show ya to tha sheriff."

"Good luck, Matt," Stuart said teasingly. "Lay that 'charm' of yours on 'em."

Matt tsked and said, "Yeah. Ask any girl I've ever dated how well that goes."

"Ha! What girls?"

"Exactly." He turned back to the barricade, slinging his rifle across his back. "Alright, I'm coming over!"

The barricade was only about two and a half meters high and clearly made from the trees in the orchard. Given that the Zerg must've first attacked fairly recently Matt was astonished at how quickly they'd established their defenses, primitive though they were.

Not bad, but I'd still prefer a prefab bunker any day.

The rough bark of the logs made it easy to get a hand and foothold; scaling the wooden wall was easily done. When Matt reached the top he swung his legs over and observed the other side. True to Dorylus' word, the small frontier town he saw looked only big enough to house a few hundred at most, and the nearest building was hardly ten meters from the barricade. Despite its small footprint, the surrounding area was packed with what he assumed were the buffalo. The huge ungulates eyed him fearfully from within large, colorful teepees. Curiously, many of them sported long bird feathers tied to their curving horns.

Matt dropped down, conscious of the many eyes staring at him. He couldn't blame them for being nervous; not only had they just been attacked by the Zerg, a frightening idea for anyone, but now another unknown creature was entering their midst.

"Alright, Blondie, lead the way."

"Sure thang, pardner. Name's Braeburn, by tha way. Sorry fer tha less'n pleasant welcome, but ya've seen what we been dealin' with out here. Still got no idea what ya are or why ya'll're here, but now ain't tha time to be picky."

"Braeburn" waved his hoof, gesturing for Matt to follow. Now that he stood on flat ground next to him, Matt saw that the ponies were even shorter than Dorylus; their heads being barely as high as his waist. Curiously, they all had some kind of symbol on their flanks, of which Braeburn's was a single red apple. He led Matt through the buffalo camp, feeling their eyes follow him. A pang of sympathy shot through him when he saw some of them attempting to hide small forms with wide eyes behind them.

Fuck, of course they've got kids here...

"I'm Sergeant Hobbes, and I'm not the one you should be apologizing to, but I'll save it for later."

"'Sergeant', huh? Take it yer some kinda soldier type? I ain't never seen nopony like you 'round these parts."

"Yeah, something like that. It's a long story."

"... And ya've been wand'rin' around with a changelin' queen? Ya mind explainin' that bit ta me?"

"Like I said, it's a long story," Hint, hint, dumbass. "If you want to hear it, stick around when I talk to the sheriff. If you think your day's been bad, wait'll you hear about ours."

"Still though, ya sure 'bout tha changelin'? Did it tell ya 'bout what they did few years back?"

"Can't say it came up in conversation, no."

"They attacked tha capitol, tried staging a coup."

Hmmm... I'm guessing that might be what Dory said she had "nothing to do with." She's been nothing but honest so far, so I'll give her the benefit of the doubt, but still, probably wouldn't hurt to ask her side of the story.

"That's a pretty damning accusation."

"Ah'm tellin' ya, it's true. Sure, them reformists under Thorax are a'ight, but I don' know 'bout tha rest'a them."

Matt sighed. "Give her a chance. Her hive's been through a lot recently."

Braeburn stopped in his tracks and looked back at Matt.

"... Them critters hit them too, huh?"

"Yep. Wiped out every living thing there."

Braeburn's eyes shot wide before covering them with a hoof in shame.

"Aw, shoot... Me'n mah big mouth again... Look, Ah'm real sorry, it's just..."

"Yeah, yeah, look, I dont mean to be rude, but I'm kinda on a timer here with this translation spell she gave me. The sooner I talk to the sheriff, the sooner we can all get on the same page, yeah?"

"Right, right, sure, come on." Braeburn pulled his hat low over his eyes and ducked his head slightly. He looked like a beaten dog.

As they passed the buffalo camp, they came to the rustic buildings that made up Appleloosa proper. The town reminded him of the few spaghetti westerns the Koprulu Terrans had from Old Earth. Except, of course, for everything being nearly half the height he was used to.

It's like walking into a damn time machine. I have to wonder though, why apple trees out here? They couldn't think of a crop better suited to the dryness?

"Alright, here we are. Normally Ah'd give ya tha traditional Appleloosa greetin' but uh, Ah don' think now's tha best time."

"It's fine. Let's just get this over with."

Braeburn led him up to a green building with barred windows. Matt was, admittedly, a little disappointed that he didn't see "SHERIFF" written in big, old-timey letters on top.

Of course not, you dolt, they don't speak English.

"Wait righ' here. Ah'll, uh, give him a warnin'."

"Okay, but keep it short. We're on a time hack here."

Braeburn disappeared within the building, and Matt could hear frantic, muffled voices within its walls.

He crossed his arms and tapped his foot, rapidly getting impatient. Looking around, he realized that the narrow streets were bare, and whenever he looked at an open window a rubber-necked pony immediately slammed it shut, only to crack it open when they thought he wasn't looking.

Dory wasn't kidding. These ponies are skittish. I suppose I cant blame them here, though.

A few minutes later, Braeburn opened the door and waved Matt inside. As he entered, he removed his helmet, more out of habit than respect. He had to almost squat just to fit through the door, and even once inside, he still had to duck his head to keep it from scraping the ceiling. The interior was fairly bare bones, with little more than a pair of iron-barred jail cells and a broad oak desk. Behind it sat a tan pony with the most majestic handlebar mustache Matt had ever seen. On his blue vest was a silver five-pointed star, clearly a badge.

"Sheriff," Matt said, nodding his head respectfully. Much as Mar Sarans like him tended to dislike authority, the marshalls and sheriffs held a special place in their hearts.

The mustachioed pony balked at Matt's imposing frame, but managed to clear his throat and say, "Silverstar, Sheriff of Appleloosa at your service good sir. Braeburn here says we have you to thank for fighting off those critters. "

"An' not a moment too soon, too. We were jus' about outta dynamite when they showed up," Braeburn added.

"Sergeant Matthew Hobbes, Terran Dominion Marine Corps. Pleasure to meet you, sir."

"'Terran Dominion'? Can't say I've ever heard of it."

Matt sighed. How many times am I going to have to explain this? Might as well start timing myself. "I'll keep it brief since I'm on a time limit here, but long story short, my men and I are aliens. We were stranded here while fighting the Zerg, the creatures you've been dealing with. It'll be almost a month until my people can send reinforcements, but until then we've been tasked with hunting down and killing the Zerg to the best of our ability. We're here to help you fight them as best we can, but we need to get to, uh, 'Canterlot' as soon as possible to coordinate with your leadership."

Braeburn and Silverstar gaped at him long enough for Matt to grow impatient. Eventually, they looked at each other before the sheriff pressed his hooves into his eyes, groaning.

"I knew it. Ain't nothing under Celestia's sun that could do something like this. It ain't natural, I tell you."

"To that, I agree," Matt said, nodding.

"Alright, start from the top, Sergeant. Who, exactly, are your people?"

"Like I said, I'm from the Terran Dominion. We're the largest and most powerful Terran nation in a region of the galaxy called the Koprulu Sector. My men and I were fighting the Zerg on one of our fringe worlds when our unit took heavy losses and were forced to come here through an old warp gate that dropped us in the desert on the far side of the mountains. We've been on the move ever since then."

Silverstar massaged his temples as he processed what Matt said.

"Had I not been witnessing this with my own eyes, I'd say you're a complete loon. But I've got twenty five dead ponies and buffalo, and so far you've apparently been the only one capable of fighting these... 'Zerg', so you have my attention. How much do you know about them?"

"We fought two major wars and who knows how many localized conflicts over the past thirty years. I'd say we know quite a bit."

"You're telling me that you, an alien empire, fought entire wars with these bugs?" Silverstar's face blanched. "What kind of enemy are we dealing with?"

"The kind that consumes entire worlds and civilizations. If you want proof, talk to Queen Dorylus."

"Right, the changeling." He frowned. "Why exactly should I let one of them in my town? We have enough problems as it is, the last thing I need is another bug trying to suck out what life we have left."

Why, you little- Matt felt a vein pulse in his forehead as he struggled to keep his temper in check. Rather than shouting, he opted for leaning forward over the sheriff, bracing his hands on the table. Silverstar's pupils shrank to pinpricks as Matt loomed over him.

"Sheriff, let me make myself abundantly clear to you. Queen Dorylus has been nothing if not honest and respectful to me and my men, and I'm proud to consider her a friend and ally of the Dominion. As of right now, her and whatever changelings happened to be hiding among you are the only survivors of her hive. We want to help you fight off the Zerg, but we need to be able to cooperate. Quite frankly, I don't care what happened between the ponies and changelings, because if you and everyone on this planet don't put your differences aside and work together, everything you've ever known and loved will be wiped from existence.

"I'm not speaking in hyperbolics here, Sheriff, we Terrans know firsthand what the Zerg are capable of. If you want to know, ask Sergei Ivanov, one of my men. His homeworld used to be one of the most heavily defended planets in Terran space, and the Zerg scoured it of life in a matter of weeks. The Zerg are the single greatest threat your world has ever faced, and you can take that to the bank.

"I want to help you, Sheriff. We don't have to, but I want to. But I need your help too. My men are tired and need rest, Queen Dorylus needs to regroup with what's left of her hive, and above all else we need to speak to your leaders to coordinate a defence."

Matt pulled back to give the sheriff his breathing room back. Silverstar closed his eyes and lowered his head, tapping his hoof on the desk. He shot a skeptical look at Braeburn.

"Sheriff, are we really gonna turn down help now? Ah mean if that changelin' was willin' to march right up to the wall with no disguise and jus' ask ta come in, Ah don't think it's a ruse."

Silverstar turned back to Matt, then slammed his head into the desk with a frustrated groan.

"Alright, Sergeant, you've made your point. I'm not gonna turn away somepony asking for help, especially when they can pull their weight and then some. Go ahead and retrieve your stallions, we'll see about setting up some lodging for you. Just wait for me or Braeburn to get you when we've got things squared away... And go get the changeling too. But we'll be keeping an eye on it- ...her. If she tries to pull anything, it's on you though, understand?"

"Rah, sir."

Matt pulled his helmet back on as he turned to leave. Behind him, Silverstar said, "Braeburn, go get Thunderhooves. We need to talk." He waited until he was in the main street before keying his radio.

"Stu, this is Matt."

"Hey man, how'd it go?"

Why does he sound so down? "All things considered, I'd say pretty good. They'll let us in, and they're setting us up with lodging. Go ahead and bring everyone in to the center of town, we'll regroup and wait for them to set things up."

"And Queen Dorylus?"

"Her too. Took some convincing, but they agreed to take her in. Guess it's hard to turn down help when you just watched them mulch the insides of a roach."

"Heh, yeah that'll do it. We're heading out, see you in a minute."

"Ah, thank you, Specialist Ivanov," Dorylus said as the enormous Terran wiped the Zerg's blood off of her with a small brown towel he'd pulled from his pack.

"I think at this point we can do away with formalities, dyevushka. Just call me Sergei."

"Okay... Sergei. What was that you called me?"

"Dyevushka? It means 'young lady.' You seem like you're about my daughter's age."

"Really? How old are you?"

"Forty one, by our calendar. I'm not sure how much that is to you."

"He's old enough that his kids are our age, if that helps," Stuart said. With a laugh, he added, "It's kinda a problem when we have company parties and everyone keeps trying to hit on his daughters."

"Fortunately they're smart enough to not want anything to do with you gopniki."

"Ha!" barked John. "I don't know 'bout that Sergei, Mike and Svetlana seem to get along pretty well."

Dorylus snickered. She didn't need to be a changeling to see Mike's embarrassment even through his helmet. Even in spite of everything the Terran troopers had been through they somehow managed to keep their spirits high. She could tell they were exhausted by their ordeal, and that the horrible tragedy of their comrade's deaths weighed heavy on their minds. And yet, here they were laughing and joking with each other like any group of friends.

... Or family. She choked back a sob.

"Something wrong, Dory?" Sergei asked, his tone growing concerned.

"It's fine, I'm just... thinking about Mother again."

"Ah..." A wave of grief from Sergei hit Dorylus like a tsunami. "I understand, dyevushka. More than you might think."

"Do you?" she countered, a bit more rudely than she intended.

"I do. I'm from Tarsonis, you see."

"I know, Sergeant Hobbes mentioned that."

"What he didn't mention was that Tarsonis was the worst loss in the First Great War." He was sitting beside her now, watching the Appleloosan log wall. "The Zerg swarmed the planet. It's defenses had never failed in dozens of major battles, but the Zerg crushed them all. It had a population of almost two billion at the time, and in weeks it was a barren wasteland. Most of the planet didn't have enough time to evacuate, since they attacked through New Gettysburg: the densest population center of the entire world."

Sergei took a deep, ragged breath. "I was eleven at the time. My family and I barely had enough time to run out the door before the Zerg swarmed our housing block. But my father, he... he and the other men in the block took up their weapons to fight back the Swarm, long enough to buy the women and children time to reach the evacuation shuttles. I- I watched a hydralisk drive its claws into his chest before the dropship doors closed. My mother was almost inconsolable after that, so I had to step up and be the 'man of the house,' so to speak."

Then he turned to Dorylus and removed his helmet. Unlike Sergeant Hobbes' tanned, smooth skin and thick black mane, Sergei was shaven bald, with pale skin weathered by life and age, and gray eyes. Then he reached forward and placed a gentle, albeit heavy arm around her shoulders, giving her a comforting squeeze.

"I don't tell you this to make you feel bad for me, Tsarina, but to let you know that you aren't alone in what you're going through. One way or another, we're in this together, and you can count on us to help hold you up."

Dorylus sniffed and wiped her nose, then leaned into the Terran.

"Thanks, Sergei."

They five of them waited in somber silence, then they heard a one-sided conversation from Stuart.

"Hey man, how'd it go? ... And Queen Dorylus? ... Heh, yeah that'll do it. We're heading out, see you in a minute."

He picked up Sergeant Hobbes' pack and said, "We got the green light. Over the top, boys and girl."

Matt and company sat on the porch of the sheriff's office, watching him, Braeburn and a huge buffalo with a large feathered headdress run around frantically. The sun had long since set, leaving them sitting under the light of a few oil lamps. Braeburn and Silverstar seemed to be spending an awful amount of time in a larger, three story building.

As they waited, a cluster of a little over a dozen ponies and buffalo started nervously edging towards them. At first, Matt was irritated by the audience. After watching them for a while, however, he noticed that they weren't staring at the Terrans.

They were staring at Dorylus.

The young changeling queen noticed them as well, and a rare expression of happiness graced her face. She stood and made to approach them, but to Matt's surprise, they all rushed forward and crowded around her before she could take two steps.

With a bright flash of green, each pony and buffalo was suddenly replaced by the unmistakable black chitinous form of changelings, albeit with a few differences. For one, they were all about the same size as the ponies, meaning Dorylus towered head and shoulders over them. Their horns, manes, and wings were shorter, but most strikingly were their eyes being solid green domes with a white spot that moved in relation to where they looked.

The entire time, they assaulted Dorylus with questions. Thankfully, the translation spell had yet to wear off.

"Princess, what are you doing here?"

"Has something happened?"

"Why haven't we heard from the hive?"

"What are these monsters?"

"Who are these people? Why are you with them?"

"Changelings!" Dorylus finally shouted, silencing them and causing them to shrink back slightly. Her ears drooped at their reaction. To the surprise of everyone present, she lunged forward and embraced as many of the changelings as she could with her long forelegs, tears streaming down her face.

"I'm so sorry," she said between sobs. "I... I have terrible news."

She then launched into retelling everything that had transpired over the past couple days. Matt hadn't heard the full story either, and as such he was almost as shocked as the changelings. He felt his anger well up inside of him as he heard the story. The changelings themselves were shocked and horrified. Matt felt awful for them learning days after the fact that their friends, families and queen had been brutally murdered.

After listening for a while, Matt noticed that their words stopped making sense. He concluded the translation spell had finally worn off, so he tried to turn his attention away. Looking around the town, Matt found that the changelings' commotion had drawn the attention of the townsponies, who were now openly watching and listening to Dorylus tell her story from windows, alleys, and even the rooftops. Even some of the buffalo braved leaving their teepees to listen in. All of them bore looks of shock.

Then the changelings started talking, presumably telling their side of being attacked by the Zerg in the town. Though he couldn't understand the words, the atmosphere of the town shifted from shock to grief. No small number of the ponies and buffalo had to turn away with tears in their eyes.

Eventually Dorylus started talking again, this time more upbeat, and Matt and the troopers became increasingly aware that everyone's attention was now on them. Dorylus seemed to pick up on the presence of her audience, as she raised her voice to make it easier for the town to hear. When she finished, the ponies, buffalo, and changelings all were watching them with wonder and awe.

Matt shifted uncomfortably, then saw John stand up out of the corner of his eye, remove his helmet and bow dramatically, eliciting a thunderous cheer from the whole town.

"John! Sit the fuck down, you idiot!" Matt hissed. The last thing they needed was to make a fool of themselves.

"Hey, folks need heroes, sar'nt. To give 'em hope."

"Uh huh."

"'Sides, it's the closest thing any of us scouts are ever gonna get to some kinda respect. God knows the Corps won't give it."

Despite himself, Matt snrked. "Yeah, when you're right, you're right. Just don't let it go to your head."

To his credit, John didn't stay standing for long. He quickly sat back down with the rest of the troopers. Dorylus spoke a few additional words to the changelings who quickly dispersed, casting hope-filled glances back at the Terrans. With green flashes, they reverted back to their disguises, surprising the ponies and buffalo with the knowledge of what some of their friends actually were. Whether or not that would stay the same, Matt wasn't sure.

As they left, Braeburn approached and spoke to Matt. Unable to understand him, he turned to Dorylus.

"Oh! Right, he says that they got some rooms in the hotel portion of the saloon for us to stay in and to follow him."

"Thanks. Hope you didn't tell anyone stuff we can't live up to."

"Oh, no, only that you're our last only hope for survival," she teased with a wink.

Matt blanched. "That's not funny."

Dorylus just giggled. "It's a little funny."

Author's Note

GOTWA: where I'm Going, Others going with me, Time of return, What to do if I don't return, Actions on contact

Hiding from the Sergeant Major as I write this. Sham shield engage!

Also a little bit of Starcraft lore for y'all. Wasn't expecting this to turn out as heavy as it did.

VI - The Last Son

The battlefield is a scene of constant chaos. The winner will be the one who controls that chaos, both his own and the enemies.
Napoleon Bonaparte

Matt had slept like a rock. After the events of the past week, the small hotel bed felt like the best he'd slept on in years, putting to shame the bunks in the Braxis barracks or the racks on ship. He woke up sore from head to toe, but at least felt like he could finally think straight.

Wincing, he pulled himself out of bed and stood, hissing with pain as his head hit the low ceiling. He slowly pulled on the black body glove worn under his armor and pulled up the zipper along the left side of his body. Rather than bringing it all the way up to his collar, he let it rest near his shoulder, letting the flap of the right side hang over his chest to breathe.

Fully dressed, he set about cleaning his weapons and armor. They were caked with dust from the desert, mountains and plains. Matt was amazed his rifle could still emit the laser through all the grime. His armor hadn't fared much better; if he hadn't known it was supposed be a dark charcoal gray, he'd have thought it was ceramic-coated flat dark earth.

He'd finished cleaning his weapon and was busy on his armor when he heard a knock on the door.

"Sergeant? It's Dorylus."

"Come on in, door's open."

She entered, closing the door behind her as she trotted up to Matt.

"Sleep well?" he asked.

"As well as I could. Not as well as Stuart by the sounds of it."

Matt chuckled. Stuart snored like a chainsaw ever since he'd broken his nose during boot camp.

"Heh. Yeah, that sounds about right." He looked up from the half-cleaned breastplate in his lap. "Anyway, what's up? They serving chow yet downstairs?"

"They only started a few minutes ago, I think. I don't know, I just... wanted to talk, I guess. You know, now that we're not fighting for our lives at the moment."

"Oh? Anything in particular?"

"I just... want to think about something besides the Zerg, the war and all that."

"Fair enough, I guess, but I should warn you that I've basically been in the military my entire adult life."

She hopped up onto the bed and sat down next to him as Matt continued cleaning. "Well, what about before that then? You had to have been a hatchling at some point."

Matt blinked. "A what?"

Dorylus facepalmed - facehoofed? - and amended, "A child, I mean. Changeling term."

"Gotcha. Not much to say, just a cactus farmer from Mar Sara."

She raised an eyebrow. "You farmed cacti?"

"Prickly pear, to be exact. It's one of the few things you can get grow on Mar Sara without a greenhouse or hydroponics. Most of the planet is desert. Even the more habitable regions look like this place. 'Bout as populated too; it's one of the fringe worlds so there's only a couple hundred thousand people on the whole planet."

"That sounds... unpleasant. Why would anyone want to settle there?"

"You'd be surprised what we Terrans are willing to tolerate. Habitable worlds in the sector are few and far between, and we never really lost the pioneer spirit. That, and a lot of the people who live out there do so to get away from the central government."

"I see. Did you like it there?"

"Loved it. Most towns only have a couple thousand at most, so almost everyone knows each other, or someone else who does."

"Sounds a lot like my hive, actually," Dorylus said with a wistful smile. "Granted, I guess it was a bit different for me, being the heir to the throne."

"I take it you don't have any siblings then? No jealous half-sisters that want to stab you in the back?"

She laughed. "No, nothing like that. Though my mother would occasionally joke about wedding me off to another hive when I didn't behave. At least I think she was joking. What about you?"

"Heh. Oh yeah. Big family. Eight kids, me being right in the middle."

"Eight?" she sputtered. "And here I thought pony herds were big! Is that normal?"

"Not historically, no, but after the Great Wars the Emperor started encouraging families to have as many children as possible to get our population back up. They cut our numbers almost in half by the time we won."

She sighed. "There we go again, back to the war. Does everything in the Dominion revolve around it?"

"In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war," Matt quipped in a dramatic voice.

She deadpanned and slapped the back of his head, earning a laugh from the Terran.

"But seriously though, it was the defining event of the century. You can't blame us for having it live rent-free in our heads."

"I suppose... There must be more to your civilization though, right?"

"Well, yeah! Once this is all over I'll take you to Augustgrad on Korhal, show you some real Terran culture."

"Oh ho! If I didn't know any better, Matt, I'd say that sounded like a date proposal."

Matt's eyes shot wide as he realized what he just said. His face suddenly felt on fire as he buried it in his hands.

"... If you tell Stu what I just said, I'll fucking kill myself and then you two."

"Tsk tsk. Promises, promises."

"Whatever." He went back to scrubbing his armor with vigor. "You know, I just realized that's the first time you've called me by my first name."

"Well, I figured it's only fair since you keep calling me 'Dory.' I am a queen, after all, Sergeant." She gave her membranous mane a dramatic flick in emphasis.

Matt let out an amused snort. "Yeah, yeah, whatever you say your majesty."

They laughed and continued talking until Matt had finished cleaning all of his equipment. Once done he stacked everything neatly next to his ruck in the corner of the room.

"Welp, might as well go downstairs and get some chow, see if the boys are up yet."

"Oh! Before we go, let me give you the translation spell again. Can't always be at your side, can I?"

"What, already sick of me?"

"You'll note that I haven't turned down your offer yet. Now hush and hold still." Matt felt the same tingling in his ears and throat as before as Dorylus worked her magic. "There. Now we can go."

Locking the room door behind them, they walked downstairs into the main floor of the saloon. To their surprise, it was completely packed with ponies, buffalo, and undisguised changelings, all talking and laughing with each other.

"Huh. Looks like your hive's disguise technique worked out well in the long run."

"So it would seem. I have to admit, I didn't expect the ponies would warm up to them so quickly."

"'They enemy of my enemy is my friend,' I guess." Matt leaned in close and whispered in her ear, "No offense, but I can't tell any of them apart from each other."

Dorylus giggled at that. "Don't worry, if you're not a changeling yourself it's pretty difficult."

With a quick scan of the room, Matt spied the rest of the troopers sitting at the bar, surrounded by a throng of Equestrians, changelings included. Curiously, they all seemed to be speaking as if they could understand each other.

The other changelings must have cast that spell on them. Dory did say they all knew it, after all.

Matt's ears were assaulted by the sound of John strumming on an acoustic guitar he'd gotten from... somewhere and singing a song, to which the entire saloon was joining in on the last verse.

"The war's already over so let's go home,
I can't wait to go on leave so I can geeet stoned!"

Oh Sweet Mother Mercy, he's singing that song?

As he finished, John passed the guitar to a pony with, amusingly, the image of a guitar on her flank.

How the hell would something without fingers play the guitar? Whatever, I probably dont want to know.

"There he is, our fearless leader!" John shouted, eliciting a thunderous cheer from the saloon, and tossed a pair of beer bottles over their heads in Matt and Dorylus' direction. "Don't worry, it's non-alcoholic."

He couldn't read the label, but Matt easily identified the scenery of an apple orchard.

"Of course it would be apple cider..." Dorylus said with an amused grin, and popped the cap off with her green magic and proceeded to drink. After a moment she looked at Matt, who was staring dumbly at the cap. "Here, let me get that for you," she said and popped his off.

Taking a hesitant sip, Matt nearly choked on how sweet it was.

"Cough cough. Is this real sugar?"

"Of course it is! You don't have it in the Dominion?"

"We do, but it's fucking expensive on Mar Sara. And who would buy it when the synthetic stuff tastes 'just as good'?"

"Not sure a world without sugar is one I'd want to live in," she teased.

"Any more than living in constant exile?"

"Touche."

They worked their way through the crowd towards the bar. Once there they found a pair of open stools and plates piled high with steaming breakfast foods. Despite the warm welcome, Matt felt guilty about the idea of eating it when the town was fearing for its life.

John's words from last night rang in his head. "Folks need heroes. To give 'em hope."

Matt turned to the troopers as he sat down. "Getting acquainted with the locals, eh boys?"

"Well, I'm not much of a country boy," Stuart said. "Buuut I wouldn't mind coming back here when all's said and done."

"I know you ain't chasing tail already, Stu."

"'When in Rome'," he said with a wink. "Don't worry, I'll save some for you. But somethin' tells me that won't be an issue, right, Dory?"

Matt choked and coughed on his cider, unable to deliver a retort. The troopers all laughed as he struggled to catch his breath, finally managing a strained "Fuck you."

They ate their breakfast and chatted with the locals, finally able to relax after the trials of the past week. When they were finished, Matt checked his watch; it read 0750.

"Alright boys," he said, standing up. "Make sure your kit's clean and ready to go. We'll meet up outside the sheriff's office at zero nine with all our gear and see how we can help out for the time being, maybe see about arranging transport to Canterlot."

"Maybe something got stuck in translation, but can I point out how weird that pun is?" Mike remarked.

"Mike, with all the weird shit I've seen so far, I'm trying not to think too hard on it. I don't need a fucking aneurysm on top of the Zerg."

"Alright, first things first, where are the Zerg actually coming from?" Matt asked the Sheriff once the troopers and Dorylus were fully assembled.

Sheriff Silverstar pointed to the plains north of Appleloosa. "From this direction, though unfortunately we've no idea where exactly."

Matt sighed and pulled his hand down his face. "Well, it's a data point at least. Should be enough to work with as far as defense goes." But damn, what I'd give for some bunkers and siege tanks right about now. "How much dynamite do you have left?"

"A couple barrels. Thank Celestia for the mining company that moved in a few months back, otherwise we'd really be in trouble."

Mining company? A grin split across Matt's face as an idea formed in his head. "They wouldn't happen to still have any wire and detonators left over, would they?"

"I can go check, but they should, why?"

"We're gonna set up a minefield. Have them wire as much dynamite as they can together and bury them spread out just under the surface on that northern approach. If they can pile rocks and shit on them for extra shrapnel, even better. If the Zerg attack again, we'll wait for them to get right on top, then boom!"

"Hell yeah," Stuart said with a loopy grin. "Gonna light 'em up like the jungle scene in Spidermines IV."

"Hoo-fuckin'-rah," John said, fist-bumping a grinning Mike.

Silverstar blanched, clearly nervous of the Terrans' childlike glee when it came to devising improvised weapons. Still, he nodded in approval. "I'll see what I can do. Wouldn't be surprised if their foremare had a similar idea. She's been pretty upset with how we've been using them so far."

"Good. Let's make it happen," said Matt. "Any word on reinforcements?"

"Telegram came in last night from Canterlot. They've got a whole company of royal guards on the way. Should arrive this afternoon."

"Nice. Just need to hold out until then." Wonder what Dad would have to say. Man's lost count of all the holdouts he's been in against the Zerg.

"What about your people, Sergeant?" Silverstar asked.

"We'll be along the northern half of the barricade. Myself, Sergei and Stu will take the twelve o'clock position, and Mike and John will take the ten and two."

"My changelings and I will be spread out across the southern half," Dorylus added. "We'll make sure nothing sneaks up on us from behind."

Matt eyed her with surprise. "You sure, Dory? Have you been over this with them?"

"Of course. The Terran Dominion are our allies, after all. And besides, they came up with the idea."

"Long as they're okay with it. I don't like the idea of getting civilians involved in an active combat zone."

"Matt, I hate to break it to you, but this whole town is an active combat zone."

He sighed. "Yeah, thanks for reminding me..." If we can't hold out and these people get killed, Saint Peter won't even consider calling our names... "Alright. Let's make it happen."

The mining company fore-"mare" practically rejoiced when they told her the plan, saying "Finally, somepony who actually knows what they're doing." Matt, Stuart and Sergei watched from the ramparts as the mining ponies went to work. Within an hour, they'd set the dynamite up in a neat triangular grid with ten meter spacing three hundred meters from the wall.

They might be the most naive people I've ever seen, but damn do they work fast.

When they finished, the foremare passed the detonator, a black wooden box with a T-handle like something from a cartoon to the Sheriff. With a tone reserved for Matt's "kill hat" drill sergeant, she "instructed" him on the necessity of safety. By the time she finished, Silverstar looked like he'd shrunk by half.

And so they waited, counting down the minutes until the royal guard would arrive in force. Matt wasn't sure what to expect from them. Would they be coming by train? For all he knew they'd come riding in on a squadron of hot air balloons. He snickered at the thought, imagining them all shaped like horse heads.

At some point past noon Matt spied a small black speck on the horizon. He called it up to the Sheriff, who was watching the town from the rooftops. As it approached he was hopeful it might have been their reinforcements, but that was quickly dashed as it came into view.

It wasn't a pony, or airship, or anything to that nature. It was a single changeling.

An infested changeling.

Swollen, cancerous growths covered its black carapace. Sickled claws stuck out from random locations on its torso. Root-like tendrils laced through the holes on its legs. A pair of mandibles characteristic of the Zerg had grown out of its face on either side of its muzzle. Matt was secretly grateful that Dorylus was on the other side of town.

It came to a stop, several hundred meters from the wall, and over a hundred high. Matt was already taking aim at it to shoot it down when it spoke loud enough to be heard by the whole town from so far away.

"TERRANS!" thundered a familiar voice, dripping with rage, hate and malice.

Oh, FUCK.

"You dare defy my will!? To tread the lands that belong to me!? I do not know which foul god protected you on Braxis, but he will NOT protect you here! The bounty of this world will belong to the Swarm, and with it I shall see your pathetic Dominion reduced to ashes and biomass!

"Know the harbinger of your annihilation, Terran worm! I am the Last Son of the Overmind, returned from my exile to finish His work!"

Matt's world shrank to a pinprick as he heard the Zerg's words.

"The Last Son of the..." No. No fucking way.

The infested changeling's body swelled, revealing noxious green membranes between the pieces of its carapace. Then it dive-bombed towards the barricade, managing to avoid all the shots the troopers fired.

"Oh shit! Get back from the wall! Get back from the wall!" The troopers jumped off their perch and sprinted backwards, knowing what was coming next.

"... And this world is MINE!"

The changeling hit the wall and exploded in a cloud of acid with the force of an artillery shell, splintering and dissolving the wooden barricade. When the dust settled, the wall had a gaping ten meter wide hole. Beyond it, Matt saw the forms of a hundred zerglings and roaches burst from the ground where they'd been lying in wait.

"Aw hell! Open fire, troopers! Stu! Get the Wrecker ready!"

Stuart scrambled to unhook the RecR from his ruck as Matt pulled a high-explosive shell from his. The other troopers opened up into the swarm, firing lasers and grenades with reckless abandon. Stuart managed to get the weapon on his shoulder and dropped to one knee, aiming at the coming Zerg. Matt swung open the back of the RecR and loaded the shell, then slammed it shut.

"Gun ready!" he yelled to Stuart.

"Back blast area clear!"

"Clear!"

"Fire in the hole!"

An ear-splitting explosion shook the town, rattling walls and shattering windows as a gout of fire erupted from the back of the RecR. The 90mm projectile rocketed out of the barrel into the midst of the swarm. A second later an enormous explosion rocked the earth, sending scores of Zerg flying in tattered pieces.

Though it made a substantial dent in their numbers, the Zerg were already within the minimum range in moments. Unable to get another shot off, they were forced to drop the RecR and resort to their rifles, joining the rest of the troopers in the defense.

"Sheriff! The dynamite!"

Silverstar slammed down the T-handle of the detonator once the Zerg were over the minefield. The earth shook once more as the ground north of the town was launched skyward with a roar, taking huge numbers of the swarm with it. Matt switched to thermals momentarily and saw the heat signatures of scores of Zerg through the dust.

Matt keyed the radio. "Mike! John! Get your asses to the twelve! We are not letting these bastards inside!"

"Moving, sar'nt!"

Ten to one odds. We weren't even this mismatched on Braxis... Those reinforcements better get here soon or we're done for.

The troopers blasted their lasers and grenades into the fray, advancing until they stood in the gap in the logs. The Zerg were barely fifty meters and closing fast. Matt fell into the same laser focus that had saved him on Braxis. Scan. Shoot. Repeat. They dropped dozens before they reached their line.

But reach the line they did, and the troopers braced for close quarters combat. Matt was already reaching for his shovel when a familiar flash of green and silver sailed over his head from behind and slammed into the front line of zerglings.

They were sliced to ribbons as Dorylus' glaive darted left and right, staining the plain grass with dark red blood as the dismembered corpses of Zerglings fell around them. Matt glanced behind him, and saw Dorylus carefully approach on hoof until they stood side-by-side. With her help, they were able to keep them at bay, but each Zerg they killed fell a little closer than the last.

"Matt, look out!" Dorylus suddenly cried as a zergling pounced at him. His eyes went wide and he froze in place as he saw it's maw come within inches of his face, snapping and snarling. He raised his rifle, but he'd hesitated for a split second too long

Then, with a loud bong! it stopped like it had hit an invisible wall and collapsed to the ground at Matt's feet. Around him, a similar scene was playing out, with a dozen zerglings and roaches somehow held back by an invisible barrier less than a meter away. Matt saw John raise his marksman's laser to shoot one of the nearby roaches, but Matt motioned for him to stop. For some reason, he felt that whatever was keeping the Zerg back could just as easily reflect their lasers back at them.

Instead, they nervously backed away with weapons raised, shaking from the adrenaline coursing through their veins. As they retrograded, Matt felt his back hit something solid.

I don't remember there being a wall behind me... he thought, a pit forming in his gut. Slowly he turned his head, and his jaw hit the ground.

As if the brain-Zerg and changelings weren't strange enough, his eyes were assaulted by the most confusing thing he'd ever seen. Towering over him was a slender, serpentine creature without an ounce of symmetry in its body. It looked like a Frankenstein's monster made from animal parts, as if some mad scientist had gone to a zoo with a hacksaw and collected a single appendage from each exhibit.

"What... What the fuck?"

"What the fuck indeed," the creature spoke, and strode past them towards the halted Zerg. They stared at it just as intently at the Terrans, unsure of what to make of the new arrival.

"Hmmm... Curious. Most curious, indeed," the creature said, stroking its goatee with a furred paw as it inspected the Zerg from behind its invisible barrier. Then it raised its other arm, this one looking like the foot of a bird, and snapped its talons.

Nothing happened.

"Now, that is interesting. I don't suppose you would happen to be the ones responsible for all this mayhem, now would you?"

The Zerg responded with a screech.

"Yes, I thought as much. Well, much as I hate being direct, it seems you leave me no choice..."

The Terrans continued backpedaling away, leaving... whatever this thing was to its designs, and eventually made it back to one of the town's buildings. They continued keeping an eye on the creature, though, and watched in astonishment as it snapped it's claws again. This time, stone spikes burst from the ground, impaling all but one of the surviving Zerg where they squirmed for a bit before going limp.

Matt sat down hard on a sideways barrel. He ripped his helmet off and doubled over, struggling to catch his breath. Flashbacks of the attack on Braxis raced through his mind, but the words of the Zerg echoed through his thoughts.

Last Son of the Overmind... It doesn't seem possible...

Dorylus approached him, panting heavily and covered in Zerg blood once again. Her legs trembled beneath her before she finally collapsed to the ground next to Matt.

"I... I can't believe it... If it weren't for Discord-" Her words died in her mouth.

"I know what it is..." Matt mumbled.

"What?"

"The Zerg in control. I think I know what it is."

"You do? How? What is it?" Dorylus demanded.

Matt gulped and stared between his feet. "It's a cerebrate. One of the Overmind's generals. If what it's saying is true, then... I might know which one."

"Who's the Overmind? What's a cerebrate? Matt, please, be straight with me here, you're not making any sense!"

"I- I'm sorry. I need some time to think this over. I might be wrong. Fuck, I hope I'm wrong... If I'm not..."

Dorylus glared and made as if she was about to call him a jackass or something to that nature, but oddly enough her gaze softened. She stood up and wrapped her forelegs around his shoulders, having to rear up to do so.

She gave Matt a squeeze and said, "Hey, hey, calm down. So far we've handled everything this thing has thrown at us, right? Whatever it is, I'm sure we can beat it." Then Dorylus nuzzled his neck, eliciting an amused snort despite himself. He wrapped an arm around her withers and returned the hug. They stayed like that for several minutes, until the adrenaline left both of their systems.

"Thanks, Dory. Never thought you'd be the one giving me the pep talk."

She giggled a bit at that. "Hey, that's what you troopers do, right? Help hold each other up?"

"You've been talking to Sergei, havent you?"

"A little bit."

Matt chuckled. "Good to see his paternal instinct crosses the species barrier. Anyway, what was that about 'discord'."

"That's Discord with a capital D, my fine hairless friend," came that smooth, deep voice that came from...

The barrel?

The head of the barrel Matt used as a seat went rocketing off to the side, causing Matt and Dorylus to jump to their feet and hooves in surprise. Like a genie emerging from a lamp, the large, serpentine form of the chimeric creature snaked its way out. Once fully extracted, it stood tall and proud before them, towering at least twice as high as Matt.

How did it get in there? Hell, how did it fit in there? And how the hell is this still not the weirdest thing I've seen all week?

It spoke again with a lopsided smile. "I do sincerely apologize for interrupting you two. I must admit, it's mighty touching to see someone show such... unconditional compassion to a changeling of all things."

Then it bowed, long and deep until its goatee touched the ground.

"Discord, Lord of Chaos, at your service. And, you are?" He straightened up, then proffered his "hand," which actually appeared to be a lion's paw.

Matt looked at the paw, then the creature's lopsided face, then Dorylus who motioned to proceed with a wave of her hoof.

He cleared his throat and said, "Uh, Sergeant Matthew Hobbes, Terran Dominion Marine Corps scout trooper." Then he hesitantly shook "Discord's" "hand." "I have to say, you live up to your title, sir."

The Lord of Chaos threw back his head and laughed. "You flatter me, Sergeant, but in truth, you and your compatriots have proven to be the most delightful source of chaos I've felt in a long, long time."

"Welcome to the corps: If we don't know what we're doing, then neither does the enemy."

Discord's grin grew tenfold, then he draped his arm across Matt's shoulder. "Oh, you and I are going to get along marvelously, I think."

Author's Note

"Get off my lawn!"
~Carl Gustaf

VII - Public Appearances

Everyone has an influence on public affairs if he will take the trouble to exert it.
Calvin Coolidge

"So, not that I don't appreciate you looking after these mortals," Discord said, his tone growing more serious. "I am very curious as to what you are doing here, and what it has to do with these little balls of hate, if anything."

With a snap of his fingers, a lasso appeared in Discord's hands, which he promptly threw over his shoulder. With a yank he pulled it back, bringing with it the lone surviving zergling trapped in a giant snowglobe, to which it was clearly displeased with. It let out muffled shrieks and attempted to kick and scratch its way to freedom but to no avail, eventually deciding to lay down and glare at its captor.

Matt eyed the zergling warily. "First off, you're better off killing that thing. For safety's sake if nothing else." And what does he mean by "mortals?"

"Not that I disagree, but I was asked, rather politely I might add, to bring one back alive if at all possible."

"By who? To where?"

"By Princess Celestia, believe it or not. Normally she tells me to not get involved with things, but it seems the events that transpired here convinced her otherwise."

Matt opened his mouth to speak, but Discord cut him off. "Now. To my earlier question?" He rested his lion's paw on top of the snowglobe, tapping a finger impatiently much to the zergling's annoyance.

"Well," Matt croaked with a gulp, suddenly very nervous of how Discord would respond. Grateful as he was for the intervention, he wasn't sure how trustworthy the so-called "Lord of Chaos" could be. "They're called the Zerg. We followed them here. They breached the perimeter of one of our, uh, 'installations' and we were sent to track them down. Unfortunately we're all that's left of our initial force."

"Is that so?" he challenged, raising an eyebrow. "And where might this 'installation' be?"

"Braxis," Matt sighed. "One of our fringe world military outposts." Then, a far-fetched idea formed in his head. If he implied that he's immortal... It's a hell of a gamble, but it might work. "The Protoss used to call it 'Khyrador,' I think."

That got Discord's attention. He stiffened and straightened up, fixing Matt with an unreadable gaze.

"'Khyrador' is a very old name." He bent over until his eyes were inches from Matt's. "A very hated name. Be grateful very few people still know it. If I were you, I'd keep that knowledge to myself."

Whoops. "Got it, sir."

He waved his hand dismissively, saying with some annoyance, "No need for such honorifics with me, Matthew. Now, since you are currently the leading expert on these 'Zerg,' I suspect Ol' Sunbutt will want to speak with you personally."

Matt suppressed his irritation at how familiar he was addressed, occupied by another thought entirely.

"Sunbutt"?

"And as for you, Your Highness, what is your stake in all this?"

It took Matt a moment to realize he was addressing Dorylus.

"The Zerg killed most of my hive, Discord," she said. Matt was impressed at how well she managed to hold herself together as she recalled the event. "My mother included."

To his credit, Discord had the decency to look apologetic. "Ah... Then you must be..."

"Dorylus. Daughter of Queen Formicidae."

"My sincerest condolences then. I regret that I did not know her as well as I'd liked. But still, that doesn't fully answer why you're so... chummy with our dear Sergeant here."

"I met these Terrans not long after we attacked. On behalf of what's left of my hive, we've agreed to an alliance with the Dominion to defeat the Zerg."

"An alliance? With an alien civilization?" Discord turned back to Matt and grinned. "Seems you've been making waves, Matthew. Never thought the changelings, of all things, would be the first to come to Equestria's defense. Tell me, what are your plans going forward?"

"We've been trying to get to Canterlot to speak with the Princesses. I figure the more connections we can make, the better our chances."

Discord hummed as he stroked his goatee and glanced down at the trapped zergling, which was silently glowering at each of them in turn. "Yes," he said finally. "Yes, I think that will work nicely." He clapped his hands and smiled. "You six, and our 'friend' here, are coming with me to Canterlot. Is there anything you need to do before we leave?"

Dorylus gulped nervously and said, "If you don't mind, I need to inform my changelings of what's going on." She turned and walked towards the south side of town where her hive was posted, but not before whispering, "We'll talk later," to Matt as she passed. He watched her leave for a moment, feeling a troubling combination of emotions.

Has she always swung her hips like that? Matt's heart skipped a beat as the thought crossed his mind. What the hell am I thinking!? Have I finally lost it?

Matt glanced over at the other troopers, who'd been recuperating nearby and watching in silence. As he made eye contact with Stuart, the Corporal pointed discreetly in Dorylus' direction and flashed the "okay" sign with his fingers whilst grinning like an idiot. Matt's face flushed red as he flipped him off.

"Just to police call the area and make sure we've got all our equipment together. Other than that, Appleloosa was supposed to have a garrison of guards on their way. Don't suppose you know where they are?"

Discord gave him a knowing smile, recognizing Matt's redirection for what it was. Thankfully, he didn't comment on it. Instead he snapped his fingers again, and all their rucks, spent power cells, grenade cases, and the discarded RecR appeared in a neatly organized pile next to the snowglobed zergling. It hissed angrily at the sight of the large weapon.

"As for the guards, I happened to pass them on the way here. In fact, I believe that's them landing now." Matt turned his head as Discord pointed behind him.

Coming in for a landing was, to Matt's surprise, an entire squadron of flying golden chariots. Each was pulled by a pair of white... Pegasi? and escorted by an additional three or four flying alongside. Seated in the back of each were two to four dark gray unicorns. Each and every one of them was garbed in gleaming golden plate armor.

Yeesh, I haven't seen this much gold since I deployed with the Protoss...

As they landed in the middle of the main street, the unicorns disembarked and their pegasi parked their chariots like it was a motor pool. They unloaded a wide variety of medieval-looking weapons. The pegasi carried spears and lances while the unicorns had what looked like simplified versions of Dorylus' glaives. Once completed, they all gathered in a rank and file formation a hundred strong. A single pegasi guard with a blue plume like a Roman officer stood at the front, inspecting his troops.

"Now, is that satisfactory?" Discord asked.

"Not sure how well they'll do against the Zerg if they come in force," Matt sighed. "But it'll have to do for now." He stayed and looked across the town for a few moments, then - with an embarassed cough - asked, "I, uh, dont suppose you can do anything about the broken windows? Those may or may not have been our fault..."

Discord barked a single laugh and snapped again. Each shattered window was instantly repaired, but rather than being reverted to normal each shard turned a different color. The result was each window being a chaotic kaleidoscope of color.

"If there's one aesthetic choice Celestia and I do agree on, is that stained glass is the best glass," he explained.

Well, the locals might not like it, but I got what I asked for... Better be careful about asking him for help in the future though; this dude is like a talking monkey's paw.

"Right... That'll work. Well, as soon as Dory gets back, we should be good to go."

Matt waved his arms at the other troopers, motioning for them to gather around. While they waited, they stuffed the spent cases and cells into pouches on their rucks and replenishing the empty spaces on their web gear with fresh ones. Matt eyed the expended ammunition and frowned.

He turned to Stuart. "We haven't used much so far, but if this keeps up we might run out before we can resupply."

Stuart nodded. "Wouldn't be a bad idea to look into alternatives sooner rather than later."

"Or see if we can rig some kind of charging station." Matt rubbed his temples. "Either way, I doubt we'll be able to handle that here. Might as well at least wait to get to the capitol first."

"If nothing else," Stuart added, "They'll have more resources to work with there."

Matt checked his watch. She's taking an awful long time... He was about to go look for her when she trotted up to them, walking right in front of the formation of guards. To his amusement, the entire formation followed her with their heads, dumbfounded by the changeling queen casually walking right in front of them. Matt tensed involuntarily when the officer barked at them to straighten up like a drill sergeant.

"All good?" Matt asked as she rejoined them.

"Yes. For the time being, they'll be staying here to help the town. They've already made connections here, and it seems the ponies and buffalo are willing to let them stay."

"Ah..." Matt said, a little disappointed that they wouldn't be picking up any new help. "That's... good? At least now you know they'll stay well fed."

"Still leaves me wondering how I'm going to get by though." Matt thought he saw a ghost of a smirk on her face for a moment.

Apparently, so did Stuart as he placed an elbow on his shoulder and leaned on him. "Hey, play your cards right and you'll be set for- oof!" Matt elbowed him in the ribs. "... Party pooper..."

"We're ready to go, Discord. Is there a train on the way, or...?"

Discord laughed maniacally and said, "Oh, dear, no. Nothing so mundane."

Instead, he wrapped his tail around the snowglobe and flew up into the air. Putting on a blue and white striped hat, he swooped down and scooped up all six of them, tucking them all under his arms.

"Next stop: Canterlot!" he shouted.

As Discord's body coiled like a spring, a jolt of terror shot through Matt.

"Wait. Waitwaitwait- FUUUUUCK!"

Then they shot off like a cannon.

A veritable horde of reporters swarmed the throne room. Word from Appleloosa had evidently leaked out. Granted, Celestia wasn't overly surprised. It was to be expected that the town's beleaguered residents would attempt to communicate with their friends and families about what had been transpiring in the frontier town.

The telegrams that had been coming in since last night were... unsettling. To her astonishment, not only were they under siege by horrific monsters, but a small band of uniformed beings identifying themselves as "Terrans" had seemingly come to their rescue before the Royal guard - or Discord, for that matter - could arrive.

What she heard about them spooked her almost as much as the monsters. They claimed to have been at war with the creatures - what they referred to as 'Zerg' - for decades, that they belonged to a galactic empire, and that the world was currently on the brink of annihilation. Chillingly, they'd also expressed a desire to speak with her. What's more, they arrived in the company of a changeling queen she didn't recognize and wielded devastating weaponry with ruthlessly efficient tactics. Celestia considered herself lucky that only the Sheriff had apparently been privy to the Terrans' words. The amount of panic that would ensue at the revelation of their claims would grind Equestria to a halt.

The journalists, on the other hoof, were another story.

"According to several of my sources," said a unicorn mare with a press badge cutie mark. "These so-called 'Terrans' apparently possess extremely advanced weaponry. Not that I or anypony else is ungrateful for their help, or that their weapons made a difference, but can we really trust anypony who has devoted so much effort to advancing that kind of technology?"

That is actually a good question, and one I've been wondering myself. "While I share in your concerns, my little pony, I think for now the most prudent course of action would be to humor them. As yet, they've shown no sign of hostilities to Equestria, and have asked for little more than food and lodging in exchange for their help."

"To that note, Your Highness, they did also arrive with a changeling queen, who, by her own admission, is unaffiliated with King Thorax. Even if the Terrans prove trustworthy, can the same be said for the company they keep?"

"By her own admission," Celestia said, trying to recall her speech mentioned in one of Sheriff Silverstar's updates, "Her hive was destroyed by the same creatures that attacked Appleloosa, where they lost their former queen. For now I am willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, but will refrain from any agreements until we get more information."

"Thank you, your highness. That will be all."

The reporter bowed and stepped aside for another journalist to take her place, this time a pegasus stallion wearing a fedora with a tag labelled "press" stuck in it like a feather. He bowed politely as he stepped forward.

He cleared his throat and introduced himself apprehensively, "Thank you Your Highness. Deep Look from the Canterlot Times. If you'll pardon the strange question..." He hesitated, but Celestia motioned for him to continue. "At the risk of sounding like a, well, crackpot conspiracy theorist, some ponies have - some more reasonably than others - theorized that both the creatures that attacked Appleloosa and the ones that came to its defense, may be... extra-equistrial in nature. Could you provide any insight on those claims?"

Fighting to suppress a laugh, Celestia said, "You mean aliens, Mr Deep Look?"

Deep Look, seemingly aware of the question's absurdity, let a small smile crack on his face as he confirmed it. "Given that the creatures are vastly different from any lifeforms currently known to science, from appearance to temperament, and that the 'Terrans' possess technology reserved only for science fiction, ponies have been wondering where they could have come from."

Silverstar said they explicitly stated they were, but I'm not so sure disclosing that is such a good idea. I'm still not sure I believe it myself.

"While I believe the question as to the creature's origins is a matter of concern, so far there has been no evidence to support the claim of them being aliens." She saw the journalist open his mouth to speak, so she added on, "However, I am not ruling it out entirely."

"Thank you, Your Highness. One more question, if I may?"

"Proceed."

"Since they both seem to have suddenly appeared at approximately the same time and place, is it possible that their arrivals are related?"

Celestia was about to answer, but paused. Correlation does not imply causation, but it is indeed quite the coincidence. If Sheriff Silverstar's report is true, then they must be deliberately fighting each other. But why here?

She took a deep breath and carefully answered, "Based on what we know so far, I believe it is a very likely possibility. What exactly their relation is is currently known only to them, but from what we have seen it is clear that the two are in opposition to each other."

If Deep Look was dissatisfied with the answer, he didn't express it. He jotted her answer down on a notepad and stepped aside with a bow. Before the next reporter could step forward, the attention of all present in the throne room was grabbed by the distinct sound of...

A train horn?

Celestia braced herself mentally, fully aware of what was coming. The towering throne room door burst open as Discord rocketed in wearing a train conductor's hat. Clutched under his arms were six dark figures, and held in his tail was an enormous snowglobe.

"Princess!" He cried excitedly As he flew through the doors. "I have returned!" Before he even came to a stop, he released everything in his arms - and tail - and allowed them to tumble forward on the red carpet.

Celestia stared, shocked as she watched the figures. The snowglobe rolled all the way to the steps before the throne, it's interior completely obscured by the fake snow. Of the six, one was very clearly a changeling queen she didn't recognize, but bore a familiar resemblance she couldn't place.

The other five were what held her attention though, as did they all the reporters. Even without standing, it was clear to Celestia that they were bipedal, with a body structure more like a tall ape than a diamond dog or minotaur. They were dressed in uniform black and red armor smeared with dust and grime and wearing masked, tortoise-shell shaped helmets that obscured their heads and faces. Slung across their shoulders were peculiar long, boxy devices, and strapped to their armor were various pouches and tools.

The two that landed nearest Discord when he finally came to a stop went sprawling unceremoniously, much to her concern. The next two fell and stumbled, but managed to recover somewhat albeit with some difficulty. The changeling queen and last of the odd creatures landed closest to the throne, just behind the snowglobe. Spreading her dragonfly-like wings to act as airbrakes, the changeling gradually slid to a halt on ber hooves, while the armored creature expertly broke its fall with a roll where it came to a stop on one knee.

Then, to everypony's shock, they spoke.

"A little warning would have been nice..." grumbled the nearest of the creatures as it straightened itself up, rising to its full height.

"I think I'd rather have taken the train," the changeling agreed, rather grumpily.

The two behind them staggered to their feet. One, an absolute giant the size of a minotaur bodybuilder, clutched its lower back as it leaned backwards. Its shorter counterpart leaned forward, bracing its hands on its knees.

"Suka blyat, I'm getting too old for this kind of thing," the giant groaned, as if from a bad back.

Sounding sick, the smaller one croaked, "That was worse than when Booker drove the D-Back..."

Of the two that had gone sprawling, one popped up to its feet laughing, "That was fucking awesome!" It reached up to high-five Discord, who happily obliged.

The last one retched violently on all fours.

"John!" Shouted the first one with an air of authority, pointing at the sick figure. "Take care of him!"

"John" looked momentarily at their leader, then gave a thumbs-up, saying, "Roger, sar'nt!" and dashed to his comrade.

As the six collected themselves, Celestia drew her attention to the inexplicable snowglobe. She watched as the snow settled on the bottom and squinted. It might have been a trick of the light, but she could have sworn something was moving under the white powder.

Then she recoiled, biting back a yelp as a reptilian form burst from within. Thankfully, the glass of the snowglobe kept it contained, and gave Celestia a perfect view of the pony-sized creature.

It was covered in a ruddy brown carapace with a pair of two-clawed, kangaroo-like legs. Its shorter front legs ended in taloned paws, and protruding from its back were a third pair of appendages, each with three massive, wickedly curved claws. A thick, tapering tail like a dragon's with two rows of spines protruded from its backside. Its large head had wide, lipless jaws that revealed row upon row of sharp, pointed teeth. On either side of its jaws were a pair of forward swept horns, and two glowing yellow eyes with slitted pupils blazed with malice as they glared at Celestia.

Well. He actually did take one alive.

Never. Again, Matt thought as he got his bearings. As if the flight hadn't been bad enough, Discord wasn't particularly gentle with the dismount. Matt and Dorylus stuck the landing fairly well, but he still felt his gorge rise in sympathy as he heard the sounds coming from Mike.

He examined his surroundings. Discord had apparently deposited them in a grand, marble throne room the likes of which he'd only ever seen in fantasy. A high ceiling with gothic arches led down to tall, narrow stained-glass windows, depicting fantastical scenes that covered the walls. He stood on a bright red, velvet carpet that ran down the length of the room, leading up a short staircase. At the top of which was a regal, golden throne, with a white pony far larger than any of the others he'd seen sitting atop it.

Surprisingly, it possessed both wings and a long, lance-like horn, a trait shared with no others aside from the changelings. It wore ornate golden horseshoes, necklace and tiara atop its head. Its billowing mane and tail were the colors of an aurora, and flowed as if an ethereal wind passed through them. On its flank was the image of a yellow sun with orange corona.

Ah. "Sunbutt." This must be Princess Celestia. Better not say that out loud...

With another quick glance around, Matt saw a cluster of normal ponies gathered off to the side of the throne room. With their notepads and badges, he decided that they were reporters of some kind. They must have interrupted a press conference of sorts. A sour taste filled Matt's mouth as he eyed them; Mar Sarans had never looked fondly on newscaster types.

Don't mean Kate Lockwell ain't a helluva milf though, Matt thought as he recalled his childhood crush.

He quickly noticed, however, that none of the ponies' attention was on the Terrans. Rather, they were transfixed by the captive zergling, whose snowglobe had come to rest at the foot of the throne's stairs. Even the Princess' magenta eyes were staring as it glared and snarled at her.

Growing impatient, he walked up to the snowglobe and jabbed it with the muzzle of his laser rifle with a loud tink, tink! When the zergling whirled around to face him, Matt used his first two fingers to gesture at his eyes, then the zergling's. Then he pointed down at his laser and made an exaggerated slashing motion across his throat.

Oddly, the zergling followed his gestures with its eyes. In defiance of everything Matt knew about their intelligence, it ceased its guttural growling before curling up on the fake snow, resting its head on its paws. Wrapping its spiny tail around itself, it let out an irritated snort. If it hadn't just tried to kill him, he'd have thought its pouting was oddly adorable.

Hoping his translation spell was still working, he cleared his throat and spoke.

"Princess Celestia, I presume?"

She looked up from the now demure zergling and locked her gaze on him, as did the reporters who scribbled in their notebooks with feverish intensity.

Despite the violent creature resting mere meters from her, her voice was regal and controlled. "Ahem. Yes. I beg your pardon, but you have me at a disadvantage, mister... ?"

Getting real fucking tired of introducing myself. "Sergeant Matthew Hobbes, Terran Dominion Marine Corps. This is Queen Dorylus of the High Desert Changelings."

Dorylus dipped her head slightly. Matt noticed she did so rather stiffly and with a stern look in her eyes. He wondered at it, thinking, They don't know each other, do they?

Princess Celestia raised an eyebrow, intrigued or skeptical, Matt wasn't sure. "I see. I take it you must be these 'Terrans' who helped defend Appleloosa."

"Helped"? That place would be a ghost town if it weren't for us!

"That would be us... I take it Sheriff Silverstar sent word ahead of us?"

"He informed us of your arrival, and your involvement in fending the creatures off." A troubled look flashed on her face for a brief moment as she looked towards the ceiling. "He also mentioned that you are familiar with these creatures," she continued, gesturing at the zergling with a hoof. It growled softly in protest of the attention.

"That we do. They're called 'Zerg,' and these little guys," Matt said as he nudged the snowglobe with his boot, eliciting a surprised squeak from within, "Are zerglings. Smallest of the combat strains."

"I see. And what exactly are you, and the 'Zerg,' doing here?"

Matt took a deep breath. Here's hoping the elevator pitch works. "My fellow marines and I were part of a security detachment posted on one of our fringe worlds. While there, we received reports that the Zerg had landed within our perimeter and we were sent on a seek and destroy mission. When we found them, they'd uncovered an old warp gate buried under the ice sheet and what we believe is their leader. Before we could kill them, they brought the ice sheet down on our heads and killed all but the five of us and cut off our escape route, and also went through the gate. We were ordered to follow them through and continue our mission, and so far it's led us to Queen Dorylus and Appleloosa."

The reporters wrote, the scratching of their pencils almost deafening. Princess Celestia maintained ber composure, eyeing the Terrans sternly. Discord slinked over and whispered something in her ear. Her eyes shot wide, then narrowed menacingly. She stood up and approached Matt, looking him dead in the eyes. He'd grown used to the locals all being shorter than him, so being at eye level with the Princess caused his breath to catch momentarily.

"Sergeant Hobbes," she said, nearly growling. "Let me make one thing clear to you. We do not wish to be involved in your battles. But, in light of your recent actions, I owe it to you to at least hear you out." Turning to the reporters, she said, "As of right now, these Terrans are to be considered dignitaries of a foreign nation. Much as I would like to continue answering your questions, the Sergeant and I have much to discuss, don't we?"

Matt shuddered at how much she sounded like his mother when she was angry and gulped nervously. "That we do, ma'am."

Author's Note

"Police call": Organized trash search and removal. See also: "FOD walk"

VIII - Building Bridges

Those whom nature hath so joined together, let no man put asunder.
John F. Kennedy

Luna awoke to the sound of frantic knocking at her door. The ordinarily nocturnal mare yawned and checked her clock. 4:32 p.m.

It is still broad daylight! Who would wake me at such an hour!?

Angrily, she pulled herself out of bed and to the door, wanting to face the offending party personally. She threw the door open and came face to face with Celestia. Luna's ire faded as she saw the haunted expression on her sister's face.

"Tia?" Luna managed through a yawn. "What is it? You've been stressed lately, but this is ridiculous."

Celestia took a deep breath. Whatever was bothering her was enough to make her shake in her shoes. "There's... been a development. You should really be here for this."

"Stop," Luna said, holding up her hoof. "Bad news first."

"The bad news is these creatures we've been hearing about may prove to be a far greater problem than we expected."

"How much worse?"

"Global, I fear."

Luna stared at her sister, looking for any sign of jest. It wasn't like her to joke about this kind of thing. "And the good news?"

"We... may have found some help. That's actually what I need you for."

"Oh?"

"Yes. Make yourself presentable, Luna. We have guests."

Luna raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "Does this have anything to do with these 'soldiers' we've been hearing about?"

"The very same," Celestia relented. "Seems Discord brought back a little more than a 'live one'."

In a flash, Luna donned her regalia and straightened her mane and tail. She was practically bouncing up and down like a filly at the prospect. When rumors had started circulating about the "Terrans" that fought back against the creatures, she'd been especially intrigued by the idea of them being aliens. To think, that life amongst her beloved stars had come to Equestria!

"I'd take this a bit more seriously if I were you, Luna. These... 'Terrans' may prove to be more trouble than they're worth."

Luna tsked. "Come now, there is only five of them. How bad can they be?"

Celestia couldn't resist smiling at her antics. Still, she admonished her saying, "Luna, they came from Khyrador."

She froze. Old, Old memories resurfaced from when they we're just fillies. The faceless gods that had enslaved the world over, taking what they could through their warp gate to Khyrador on the other side. Few knew the full story behind the ancient tyrants, but none of what she'd heard of the Terrans matched her memories. Surely they couldn't be the same?

"Don't worry too much, Luna. These certainly aren't the same people, but after all they've said, we can't rule out them being related, at least tangentially."

"Still, I would like to speak with them. It has been thousands of years. Surely times have changed."

"If these new aliens are anything to judge by, those changes have not been gentle."

They trotted from Luna's spire down to the meeting room where they would often speak with foreign ambassadors. Entering the room was a large oval table surrounded by chairs. At one end were the two large seats reserved for the sisters. And at the other...

Luna gawked at the aliens, for she was certain that was what they were. They certainly looked the part, but she was intrigued by how familiar they still looked. Though different shapes and proportions, their features were easily recognizable and where they should have been if they'd come from Equis.

They all had identical black and red armor smeared with dust and dirt, as if they'd come straight from the plains. Their domed helmets lay on the table in front of each of them, revealing their faces.

At the end opposite where the sisters sat was one with thick black hair, tan skin and brown eyes. As he watched them enter, Luna saw tiredness and nervousness etched on his face, despite his efforts to look composed. This was their leader? He hardly looked the type.

To the leader's left and right were a young changeling queen and another Terran, this one with rich brown hair and green eyes. Further down the table was a Terran that dwarfed all the rest in bulk with a shaven head and weathered face, clearly the oldest of the bunch. The last two looked fairly young, one with an odd birthmark over the side of his pleasantly smiling face, and the other with wispy blond hair and blue eyes who looked a bit nauseous.

In fact, with the exception of the obviously senior one, they all looked young. Luna had no idea how to judge age among their species, but they all looked to be in their early twenties at most. At first, she was dismayed at the revelation, but remembered that the Elements of Harmony were about the same age, and capable of much more than they appeared.

"Sergeant, this is my sister, Princess Luna. Here in Equestria we rule as equals, so please regard her words as you would mine."

A confused look grew on each of the Terrans' faces as Celesia spoke. As one, they all turned and faced the changeling queen. With a glance around the table, she looked like she'd suddenly remembered something, then her horn glowed as she cast a spell, the effects of which weren't readily apparent. Out of the corner of Luna's eye, she saw Celestia tense at the sight.

The changeling repeated Celestia's words to the Terrans, who "Ah"ed as they understood.

Changeling translation, Luna concluded. How fortuitous that they should be the first to encounter the Terrans. I suppose that is why she is in their company.

"Uh, right. Of course," said the "Sergeant," their apparent leader, in a surprisingly deep voice.

Celestia and Luna exchanged a look, then took their seats.

"Now, 'Sergeant,' if you would be so kind as to bring me up to speed?" Luna asked as politely as she could.

The Sergeant closed his eyes for a moment, and a flash of irritation crossed his face. Then he pressed a button on his wrist watch, which produced a soft beep.

At a breakneck pace, "Sergeant Matthew Hobbes" proceeded to introduce himself, his troopers, the Terran Dominion, and Queen "Dorylus" before launching into a harrowing tale of them tracking the "Zerg" on a snowy planet, being the few survivors of a horrific tragedy, traveling through an ancient warp gate, marching four days through the desert, meeting the changeling queen, traveling to and defending Appleloosa, and lastly, their encounter with Discord.

By the time he finished, both Luna and Celestia's heads spun from the deluge of information. As he said his last word, he pressed a button on his watch again, and made a satisfied face as if he'd beaten some time limit.

"Sorry about that. I've been feeling like a broken record the past few days with how many times I've told this story."

Luna shook her head to clear her thoughts.

"That is... quite the tale, Sergeant Hobbes. My sincerest condolences for the loss of your comrades. And to your hive as well, Queen Dorylus."

He nodded with a sullen expression. "We did what we could for them, but we still have a mission to do."

"On that note," Celestia interjected with a clearly displeased tone in her voice, "Perhaps you could disclose your 'mission' in a bit more detail? While I accept it is of the utmost importance to you, I do not yet see why we should be involved in your wars."

"Because," Sergeant Hobbes said, a slight glare burning in his brown eyes. "The Zerg won't give you a choice. They have the ability to assimilate traits and genetic material from those they fight, so they're here for you, not us. They said so. And stopping them from doing that is why we're here, so if you want the same, you'll join us."

"Did they, now?" Celestia was incredulous. "Why would they speak to you, but completely ignore all attempts at communication with us?"

"I don't know!" he exclaimed, catching the sisters by surprise. "But it did, and that's what it said."

Once they got over the shock of his outburst, Celestia glared in indignation. Luna, however, processed his choice of words.

"What do you mean, 'it'?" she asked.

Sergeant Hobbes broke away from exchanging scowls with Celestia and met Luna's eyes. He pursed his lips, seeminugly looking for his words.

"The creature that's controlling the Zerg. We spoke to it on Braxis, and again earlier today when they attacked."

"'Braxis'?"

"The, uh, planet we came here from. Anyway, it said it was the-"

"Sister, I thought you said they came from Khyrador."

"That... Was what Discord said."

"That was what the Protoss used to call it. We call it Braxis."

"The Protoss?" Luna asked.

"One of the three species we share the sector with. Anyway-"

"We never had a name to put to the Faceless Ones. You know of them?"

"Will you let me finish!?" he growled angrily. Then he rubbed his temples and groaned. "Yes, we know of the Protoss. They're actually our allies now, or, at least the Daelaam are. A lot of worlds we've found in the sector used to be part of their empire, but over the past few thousand years they've been abandoned as they regressed. Braxis was one of those. You can still find ruins, but the entire planet's covered in ice. We only found the warp gate because the Zerg dug down to it and we followed."

"You are allies with the Faceless!?" Celestia almost roared, planting her forehooves on the table.

"Will you forget about the damn Protoss!?" He stood up. Spreading his arms wide he shouted, "They aren't here anymore!" He sighed and sat back down, folding his arms across his chest. "Look, when we found the planet, it was an uninhabited ball of ice. Then the UED took it, then the Zerg, then us again. When we went through the warp gate, it dropped us in the middle of the desert with ruins all around. I don't know what your history is with the Protoss, and quite frankly I don't fucking care, because it doesn't fucking matter! What does matter is the Zerg. They're here, right now, and if you'd let me talk, I'll tell you everything I know."

The Princesses gaped at the Sergeant. Nopony, not even Commander Aegis, Discord, Tirek, or any other villain had ever spoken to them in such a tone. Even Queen Dorylus and the other Terran troopers looked shocked at his tirade.

He might be young, Luna thought, But he certainly has a spine.

Celestia opened her mouth to deliver a retort, but Luna cut her off.

"Sister. Let him say his piece."

Sergeant Hobbes gave her a small smile in gratitude as Celestia returned to her seat, frowning.

"Thanks. So, when they attacked Appleloosa, they sent an... infested changeling as a messenger."

That got Dorylus' attention. "An... infested changeling... ?" She sounded almost frightened.

Sergeant Hobbes took on a pained, sympathetic expression as he looked at Dorylus. "Sorry, Dory, it's... probably for the best you didn't see. It's something the Zerg do, as a quick and easy way to bolster their numbers during an invasion. They infect people with hive spores that mutate them into slaves to fight for them."

"That is horrible!" Luna exclaimed, disgusted at the prospect.

"You don't know the half of it, ma'am. Anyway, the Zerg in control spoke through it. It... said that it was the 'Last Son of the Overmind,' and that it had returned from exile."

"Right," Dorylus said, struggling to compose herself after hearing of the fate that had befallen at least some of her hive. "You said you thought it was a 'cerebrate'."

"Right, yeah. I think I kinda need to explain a bit of history here, and how the Zerg work, so bear with me."

"Take your time, Sergeant," Luna encouraged, intrigued.

He took a deep breath and cleared his throat. "Okay, where do I start... ? So, first of all, the Zerg are a hive mind. Each one has a psionic link to a higher power up their command chain, and each higher power is in command of those under it. The way the Zerg Swarm currently works is you have the Overqueen at the very top, and then brood mother's in control of each brood, kinda like a general I guess, then overlords that handle all the rank and file. The current Overqueen is Zagara, but before that was the Queen of Blades, who technically was an infested Terran."

"I beg your pardon?" Celestia interjected, finally paying attention. "They infested one of your own, then put them in control?"

Hobbes shook his head. "It's more so that she took control. Before her, the Swarm was ruled by the Overmind, and the broods were controlled by cerebrates. The Protoss actually managed to kill the Overmind, but not before the Zerg forced them into exile from their homeworld."

This surprised both Princesses. "The... Zerg did that to the Faceless?" They shared a worried look. The Zerg were that powerful?

"Oh, it gets better," Hobbes said with some dark humor. "See, a lot of the surviving cerebrates combined together to create a new one after that. Then the UED came in and mind-controlled the fucking thing-"

"Who is the UED?" Celestia interrupted.

"United Earth Directorate, government from the Terran homeworld. So then-"

"Wait, hold on," Dorylus said, raising a hoof. "I thought Korhal was your homeworld?"

"That's the Dominion Capitol. Earth's the homeworld."

"So there are multiple Terran nations?"

"Yeah, but other than the UED, none of the others really played a major part in the Great Wars. So, the UED takes control of the new Overmind and all the Zerg under it, including the other cerebrates, except for the Queen of Blades, who had originally been made by the Overmind itself. Queen of Blades goes on to manipulate the Protoss and Dominion into killing the new Overmind, thus turning all the Zerg feral and turning on the UED... I'm not going too fast, am I?"

Luna's head had already begun to spin again. "Go on, please."

"Then after reclaiming control over the freed Zerg, the Queen of Blades turns on all the other factions, who at this point have been weakened to the point where the only way they stand a chance is to work together against the Zerg. Make sense so far?"

"So... this Queen of Blades seized control of the Zerg after the UED lost the second Overmind?"

"Right."

"So, you think this cerebrate is one of the survivors from that war?"

"Yes, but not in the way you think. See, the Queen of Blades wasn't working alone. She led the Swarm, sure, but she wasn't commanding it. When the UED took control of the Overmind, she managed to save a single cerebrate from their control. That cerebrate was what actually commanded the Zerg through to the end of the First Great War."

Now it was one of the troopers under his command that interrupted. The older one named "Sergei."

"Now, hold on, Sergeant. That cerebrate was killed during the interwar period. I remember. That's why the Swarm has brood mothers and not cerebrates now."

"Yeah, but who actually knows that for sure? The Swarm wasn't exactly open with their internal politics at the time."

"But how would it even have survived?"

Sergeant Hobbes shrugged. "I don't know... Maybe the Queen of Blades tried to kill it to clear the way for the brood mothers, but it fought back? It did say it went into exile."

Sergei scratched his jaw. "I suppose it's possible... And it makes the 'Last Son' comment make sense in context. What else could even be considered a 'son' to the Zerg?"

"So that's it, then," Luna asked, hoping she had the details straight. "The leader of these Zerg is the last surviving general of their original ruler?"

Sergeant Hobbes nodded. "In a nutshell, yes. Or at least, that's my working theory."

"Good," Celestia said, her anger somewhat tempered by the flood of information. "Let's say your theory is correct. How do we beat this 'Last Son'?"

The Sergeant seemed to visibly deflate as he downcast his eyes to the table. "... I don't know..."

"Excuse me?"

Sergei answered for his Sergeant. "Princess... we lost the First Great War. That cerebrate, somehow, defeated the combined might of the UED, the Dominion, and the Protoss. The entire galaxy was at the Zerg's mercy, but they left us alone for four years before they came back."

Luna watched Celestia's pupils shrink to pinpricks, and she couldn't help but imagine what went through her head. It was apparent she wanted nothing to do with these Terrans, the Zerg, or the war, but they'd presented her with the nature of the enemy. It was ravenous, it was ruthless, and it was smart.

"And I assume then that you are here to help? Be our knight in shining armor?" Celestia asked sardonically.

"Princess," Hobbes said, his tone far gentler now, "Try to see this from my point of view. My men and I have two choices: either we go it alone against the Zerg, or we make as many friends as possible.

"And I would very much like to be your friend, Princess Celestia."

Whether or not Sergeant Hobbes knew what he just said, Luna knew he'd struck a chord with Celestia. She could see her mouth twitch as she processed his words.

"Sergeant Hobbes," she said reluctantly. "I will consider your proposal."

Celestia called a stewardess to escort the Terran troopers to some of the dignitary suites. They were, technically, foreign ambassadors after all. As they left, Sergeant Hobbes stayed behind until only he and Luna were left in the meeting room.

"Uh, Princess Luna? Can I have a word with you, privately?" he asked once they were alone.

"Of course, Sergeant Hobbes, what is it?"

"I, uh, feel like I haven't been entirely honest with you."

"Oh? Was some of what you said a lie?"

"No, no, everything I said was true, it's just... I might have left a few things out."

"Speak then, if it will clear your conscience."

He took a deep breath. "Our reasons for being here... aren't entirely altruistic. Remember what I said about the Zerg? How they assimilate traits from other species?"

"Yes?"

"We're more concerned about what the Zerg will do with... whatever they find here on Equis, and, uh, how they'll use it against the Dominion. If I'm being honest, saving your world is a secondary priority."

Luna felt like she should have been angry, but seeing the nervousness in Hobbes kept the emotion at bay. He clearly wanted to help, but she understood that his loyalties lay elsewhere. Still, from a practical standpoint she failed to see how it would affect their actions on Equis.

"I see," Luna said. "But I am afraid I do not fully understand. If what you say is true, then stopping the Zerg from succeeding here would be in the Dominion's best interest, would it not?"

"Well, yeah, but..."

"Then what is the issue?"

"It's just..." He trailed off, trying to find his words. "It feels wrong somehow. Like we're telling people we're here to save them, but in reality we're just trying to save our own skins."

"And how do you feel about it, Sergeant?"

"What do you mean?"

"Your loyalty lies with the Dominion and your Emperor. Such a superficial detail should not have an impact on your behavior, unless..." She smiled as she recalled how familiar Hobbes and Queen Dorylus spoke to each other. "... You have a conflict of interest?"

He blinked. Then, sighing, said, "If we'd just been dropped off on an uninhabited world this wouldn't be an issue, but..."

"But you've made friends here," Luna finished for him.

"Yeah." Then, rubbing the back of his neck as his face turned beet red, "Well... a friend, anyway."

I knew it, Luna thought, fighting back a delighted squee. Perhaps I should ask Cadence to have a word with them.

"Ah. I think I understand now. Thank you for your transparency, Sergeant."

"I- That's it? You're not mad?"

"I am not happy but I appreciate that you felt it necessary to disclose this with me. You need not fear any sort of reprisal because of this, I assure you."

"Oh, well, thanks..."

"Now, with that out of the way, perhaps you should follow your troopers and get some rest."

"Actually, there was one more thing..."

He sounded especially nervous now. What could be a harder subject to broach than what he'd already said? Hobbes was certainly much more up front with Luna than anypony else. She wondered at that. How long had he been keeping all this in? And why discuss it with her?

His jaw worked soundlessly for a moment, before eventualy he threw his hands up in the air in exasperation.

"IhavenoideawhatthefuckI'mdoing!"

Luna blinked in confusion. "... What?"

"Look, I just got promoted to sergeant a couple months ago. Before that, my biggest responsibility was making sure the guys shaved and showed up on time. Now I get orders from the Emperor himself to track down and kill one of the biggest threats known to man. And now here I am, with just four guys under me, no resupply, no reinforcements, I can't even talk to my leadership, and if we fuck up here, billions of people are going to die! As if that weren't bad enough, now I have to play politician and convince an entire world to start playing nice! Dory and I practically saved Appleloosa, and they still gave her shit to try and keep her out! How the fuck am I supposed to accomplish any of that with what I've got!?"

Hobbes paced back and forth as he ranted with growing spleen. By the end, he was practically shouting. At a certain point, it didn't even seem like he was speaking to Luna, just venting his frustrations for the world to hear. When he finished he slumped down in a chair and buried his face in his hands, appearing to forget Luna's presence.

She watched him sit in silence. Though he had held his own in front of Celestia, and thus far had shown himself an exemplary soldier by any metric, Luna remembered that Hobbes and his troopers were still (mostly) quite young. She couldn't help but compare him to Twilight, and how she would work herself to insanity over seemingly trivial things. Granted, the scope of her responsibilities were far greater now and she had certainly risen to the challenge.

But the thought of billions of lives riding on a single man's choices was a daunting one. Luna wondered what Celestia would have said, having mentored countless students over the centuries. He wasn't a pony, nor one of her subjects, but for some reason Hobbes felt like he could express his concerns to her. And for some reason, she felt like that meant something. Had he ever told anypony any of this?

"You feel unprepared for the trials ahead," Luna concluded.

"... Yeah."

"And what makes you think you are not?"

"Oh, I don't know, the fact that I can barely give an op order? Don't have a clue how politics here work? Hell, I barely understand Dominion politics!"

"I should remind you that you are not alone in this now, Sergeant Hobbes. Inexperienced you may be on the world stage, I am confident my sister will be willing to help, as will I. And of course, you already have Queen Dorylus. Regardless of your own confidence in your abilities, somepony saw something in you that made them think you were ready for the responsibility of your rank. And, I think you may find that the politics of Equis are far less cutthroat than you may be used too.

"Besides," Luna continued. "It may not even be necessary for you to do much negotiating anyway. The threat posed by the Zerg is self-evident, if not now then in the near future. I have a feeling your talents for warfare will not fall by the wayside."

"Still means that a lot of people are gonna die if we make a mess of things."

"I hate to say it," Luna said glumly, "But if what you say about the Zerg is true that may be the case regardless. Do the best you can with what you have, that is all anypony can do. And I hope you know that you will have whatever resources we can send your way should you ask for it, whether or not my sister agrees." Hoping to lift his spirits a bit, she quipped, "Though, if whatever deity you worship is listening, perhaps pray for a miracle or two."

Luna could tell Hobbes tried to suppress his reaction, but he still cracked a weak smile with an amused snort.

"I don't know if the Queen of Blades is listening, but she's sure as hell got a loose end to tie up. Still though, miracle or not, five troopers and a pre-spaceflight civilization against the most cunning Zerg in existence? I don't like our chances."

Odd that he would consider the Queen of Blades a deity. Perhaps she was reformed, like Discord was? No matter. A question for another time.

Luna hummed. His worries, though not unfounded, still plagued his mind. "Do your leaders trust you?"

The question caught Hobbes off guard. "In... the sense that they trust me to do my job as a scout, yeah."

"Do you think they expect a hoofful of soldiers to win a war all by themselves?"

"I- ... No. Not unless they thought they'd recruited an army of fucking Hercules clones."

Luna pushed past the odd name drop, assuming it was a reference to some mythic hero. "Then what makes you think they expect that from you now?"

Hobbes looked between his feet and frowned. "Are you saying they expect us to fail?"

"I am saying they expect you to do your job. You are a scout: you find the enemy and disrupt them where you can. You relay what you learn to your leaders so they can deploy their main forces properly. Can you do that here?"

Hobbes looked up to meet Luna's gaze. Then his face hardened as a newfound steel entered his eyes.

"Yeah. Yeah, I can do that." He stood up and made for the door, but paused just as he reached for the handle. "And... thanks."

"My pleasure, Sergeant Hobbes."

If Matt thought the bed in the Appleloosa saloon was good, the one in the palace suite felt like the wings of an angel. After cleaning his equipment again and showering, be flopped down on the luxurious bed, eyes closed in bliss as he sank into the sheets. He forced his eyes open and stared at the high ceiling, considering everything that had happened over the past week.

Now that he had time to finally think without the threat of the Zerg looming overhead, the sheer insanity of what he'd experienced settled in. So far he'd taken it all in stride; if there was one thing the military taught it was getting you used to weird. Still, the idea of having been thrust into a world of myth and magic was a bit much even for that conditioning.

Jesus, Celestia's like a mother ursadon. I guess a virtually immortal ruler would have to be, but damn. Talk about a hard sell. At least Luna was willing to give me the time of day... I can't even imagine what it'll be like getting the other nations on board.

His reminiscence was interrupted by a harsh knock on his door. When Matt opened it, he found himself looking down at a very, very angry Dorylus.

Who then smacked him across the face.

"The fuck was that f-" his words were cut off by an unseen force holding his mouth shut. Looking at her glowing horn, he realized Dory was doing it. His eyes widened as he started to panic, actually afraid of the changeling.

"One of my changelings was corrupted by the Zerg and you didn't tell me!? I have to wait until we're already in an audience with the Princesses for you to even mention it!? WHY!?"

As she spoke she walked into Matt's room, forcing him to step back from the enraged changeling queen. Despite her rage, he could see tears welling up in her eyes. He fucked up, and they both knew it. She kept holding his jaw shut as she continued.

"I thought... I thought I could trust you! But you won't even tell me what's happening to my own people!"

Dorylus released her telekinetic grip on his face as her tears started to flow freely. She'd backed Matt up until his feet hit the bed and he had to sit down, forcing him to eye level with her.

"I- I don't know what to say..."

"That's it? You don't know?"

"What else is there?"

"How about you start with what was going through your head at the time?"

"I... I thought... you wouldn't be able to handle that knowledge. When it comes to the Zerg there are some things worse than death."

"And so you said it anyway. So not only did you not tell me about what happened, you also conveniently forgot your one reason for doing so in the first place."

Matt hung his head. For some reason Dory's words hurt more than anything they'd been through in the past week. He thought about why that was. They'd only known each other for barely three days, but already he felt like he had a unique reapect for her, unlike his relationship with his troopers or anyone else in the old platoon.

Then it clicked in his mind. She was the only person on this planet that knew what he was going through. And likewise, he knew what she was going through. They both felt unprepared, forced into their position by fate, watched some of the people they held closest in their lives die, and now carried the weight of the entire world on their shoulders.

"I'm sorry," he finally squeaked out, and he meant it. "I fucked up."

Dorylus glared at him as Matt forced himself to meet her gaze. After a long moment, she closed her eyes.

Then lunged forward and hugged him.

"Sniff. You're lucky changelings can sense emotions, Matt."

"Heh, small miracles, huh?" he quipped, remembering his discussion with Luna.

"Oh don't get me wrong, you're still in the doghouse for now. But at least now I still want to see you tomorrow."

"'Doghouse'?"

"I was thinking about getting a meal earlier, but I think this is good enough." She released his shoulders and sauntered out the door. "'Night, Matt. See you tomorrow."

"Uh... Yeah. See you."

'Doghouse'? 'Meal'? The fuck is she on abo- OH.

Luna found Celestia in her study. Looking at the ancient looking scroll she read, she realized it must have been one of the few remaining texts documenting the Faceless Gods, or the "Protoss" as the Terrans knew them.

"So, Luna, what do you think of our guests?" Celestia asked, looking up from the log-sized scroll.

"I think they are a far cry from the little green mares in fishbowl helmets that I expected."

Celestia snickered at the image. "Besides that, I mean."

"I think... they are just soldiers, Tia."

She raised an eyebrow at Luna's seeming non-answer. "That's all? Not even after that 'private discussion' with the Sergeant?"

Undeterred, Luna continued. "Think about the average royal guard, Tia. They come from all walks of life, some join to make a difference, some want a stable career, and some just do it for the benefits. Yes, they learn discipline, follow orders, and wear a proverbial mask on duty, but underneath it all they are mostly ordinary ponies. They have their own ambitions, concerns, and lives. I believe these Terrans are no different. What is different is that they have been cast into an abyss with no map, compass, or guide and told that the only way out is to outsmart a god.

"But I feel that in spite of all that, they want to help us, and not just because it serves their own interests. More than that, they cannot succeed in their task without our help, or if they can, it will come at great personal cost as it has already. I think these are good people, Tia, and it would be remiss of us to turn them away when they so eagerly wish to help.

"And, remember, though through the unfortunate hoof of fate they are currently representative of a vast and powerful empire. One whom I am certain would be very grateful if we were to assist their subjects. Let us join in this alliance, sister, and show these Zerg that Equestria shall not go quietly."

Celestia held her gaze for several long moments, then sighed. "Very well, Luna. Then we shall declare our support for the Terrans."

Author's Note

The exchange between Matt and Luna was based loosely on an IRL conversation between me and my team leader.

Sorry I turned you into a pony Sergeant.

Also, apologies for the lore dump. TLDR: Matt's theory is that the BBEG is the player character from the Brood War Zerg campaign

Interlude I - Chau Sara Sweetheart

Braxis
19 January, 2530
1 week since perimeter breach

What museum did they pull this thing out of? thought Major Gutierrez as he beheld the two hundred year old machine parked just outside the Alpha Site footprint.

The gargantuan vehicle was fifteen meters tall and wide, with twelve thirty meter long segments. Each one was held together by a giant gimbal joint, and with black webbing strung between the gaps to allow the crew to switch cars without being exposed to the elements. With the exception of the leading car which had an extra ten meters of length and additional axle, each trailing segment was suspended by four five meter tall wheels. The lead car itself had a full glass cockpit like the bridge of a ship. Emblazoned on its side were the faded, flaking colors of the Terran Confederacy's stars and bars, accompanied by the name "Chau Sara Sweetheart."

"Chief," said the Major. "What exactly am I looking at?"

The Chief Warrant Officer in charge of retrofitting the ancient machine was grinning like a kid on Christmas morning.

"This, sir, is a Mark IV star Modular Expeditionary Vehicle, the most widely produced model of its class. She's got coordinated steering, full NBC protection, all wheel drive, and once we finish the retrofits, a one hundred megawatt cold-fusion power plant..."

"Chief,

"It's a train.

"A giant train with monster truck wheels."

"It's not just a train!" the chief cried, indignant. "It's an MXV! The colonial pioneers used to ride these babies for miles, and it's in great shape!"

"I ask for something that can carry my marines over any terrain for extended periods without support, and they send me something built in the same century as the Long Sleep!"

"Don't you worry none, sir. Once the demo teams finish up cuttin' through the ice sheet and get us in that warp gate, we'll have the ol' girl goin' over mountains, desert, and hell, even rivers. And you better believe we'll be riding in style!"

Author's Note

The MXV is basically an "idbecoolif" of mine after learning about the LeTourneau Overland Train a while back as something the Terrans would use as a sort of mobile base. I don't know why, but the idea of a "giant train with monster truck wheels" sounds so in line with the Terrans' style I can't believe something like it doesn't already exist.

IX - Allies and Enemies

The friend in my adversity I shall always cherish most. I can better trust those who helped to relieve the gloom of my dark hours than those who are so ready to enjoy with me the sunshine of my prosperity.
Ulysses S Grant

Celestia awoke before dawn, as per usual, and made her way to the palace dining room for breakfast. Already she was considering what to say to her subjects about allying with the Terrans against the Zerg invaders. Luna was evidently already on board, so perhaps she would let her do most of the talking. Even so, Equestria had looked up to Celestia as their sole leader and guardian for a thousand years. Whether or not she wanted to admit it, her words still carried that weight.

She almost failed to notice the lanky form of Sergeant Hobbes waiting patiently outside the door. He had forgone his armor, thankfully, and instead wore a peculiar skintight black jumpsuit made of a thick material, unzipped partially at the collar. Judging by the dark circles under his eyes, he hadn't seemed to have slept well.

"Good morning, Sergeant. You're up early."

When he looked at her bemused, she mentally slapped herself. Of course, he needs Queen Dorylus to help translate. Having been the ruler of Equestria for so long, Celestia was fluent in all languages spoken by the other world leaders, as well as in Equestria itself. The only inhabitants of Equis that actively practiced the use of translation spells regularly were changelings, and while she knew the spell, casting it on anypony other than herself was a different matter. Still, it would allow her to speak to the Sergeant, at least.

She cast the spell and repeated herself, begrudgingly accepting that the changelings would have a larger role to play than she was comfortable with.

"'Morning your highness," the Sergeant said. "We're usually up early, but I figured I'd let my guys sleep in for a bit."

"I warrant a 'your highness' from you now?" she teased. "Yesterday you were a hair's breadth from calling my mother a whorse."

The corner of his mouth lifted in a weak smile. "I'm sure she was a saint, ma'am."

"Let's not make assumptions now, Sergeant," she said with a chuckle as she opened the door to the dining room. "Have you not eaten yet?"

He shook his head. "Gotta wait for my Joes to eat first. NCOs always eat last."

"Ah. Is that typical for your military?"

"It is now. One of the changes since we switched to an all volunteer force."

Celestia entered the door, motioning for Sergeant Hobbes to follow. Despite their rather contentious first meeting, she wanted the chance to speak with him one on one.

When he hesitated to accompany her, she said, "You don't need to eat right now, but at least this way you don't have to stand there looking lost."

"Come on, now, I'm not a butter bar. I land-navved my way through the desert just fine." He followed her in anyway and sat down, not motioning for any kind of food or drink.

"'Butter bar'?" Celestia echoed.

"Second Lieutenant. Can't spell lost without LT."

She chuckled despite herself as she sat down across from him. "You speak as though you haven't been a volunteer military for long," Celeatia observed. "I take it you used to have mandatory service? I recall the griffins have a similar law."

Though he looked intrigued by the mention of griffins, Sergeant Hobbes shook his head. "We used to conscript convicts. In the Marines, anyway."

"Convicts? You use prisoners?" The Terran Dominion sounded less and less appealing the more she learned.

"I said we used to. Doing away with that was one of Emperor Valerian's reforms after he took the throne."

"I see," Celestia said, breathing a sigh of relief. She wondered what other reforms this new Emperor had enacted. "So I take it then that you volunteered?"

"Mm hm. Shipped off to boot camp right out of high school. I'd originally wanted to go navy, but the Marines offered a quick ship bonus." Then he laughed at himself. "If I knew then what I know now..."

"How long have you served?" she asked as she poured herself a mug of coffee, suppressing a laugh as the Sergeant eyed it longingly.

"Little over four years. I actually re-upped my contract last year."

"So then, that makes you how old?"

"Twenty three."

That young... To think that those we entrust with protecting us are barely even adults.

"And why did you join? It sounds like the need for warriors is at a low in the Dominion."

He smirked at her. "Why the curiosity? Yesterday you wanted nothing to do with me."

I suppose now is as good a time as any. "Because," Celestia began, finding herself hesitating. "I would like to accept your offer of alliance. And, if we're going to be friends, I'd like to know who I'm working with."

"Uh huh," the Sergeant muttered with a skeptical raised eyebrow.

"And... I'd also like to apologize for my behavior yesterday. You've been through too much lately for me to have treated you like that."

For a brief moment, she saw a pained look on Sergeant Hobbes' face. "It's fine," he said. "Really. I made an ass out of myself too. Said some things I shouldn't have."

Somehow, Celestia thought, I don't think he's talking about me. "Well, I'm glad we're on the level then."

"Yeah..." he trailed off, his mind elsewhere. "I joined because of my Dad," he suddenly said.

"Oh?" Celestia sipped her coffee, interested.

"The man served in the Mar Sara colonial militia from day one under Magistrate Doe, back in the First Great War. Later on with Raynor's Raiders in the second. He saw it all, and... I don't know. I liked the idea of following in his shoes, that maybe one day I'd be a part of history like he was." He made a sardonic laugh. "Guess I got what I asked for, huh?"

"Be careful what you wish for," Celestia mused.

"Because you might just get it," he finished. "How does the old curse go? 'May you live in interesting times'?"

"And times are very interesting indeed. I take it your Emperor's predecessor was not as popular as Valerian."

Sergeant Hobbes' face contorted in disgust. "Emperor Arcturus Mengsk," he spat. "A tyrant that crowned himself emperor after overthrowing the Terran Confederacy in the First Great War. Sergei could tell you more, but be prepared to learn a lot of Russian profanity."

"Confederacy?"

"Riiight... I think I forgot to mention that. The Dominion is only thirty years old. Well, it will be in a few months on Dominion Day, anyway. The Terran Confederacy was the former dominant power in the Koprulu sector, but after the Zerg invasion and the revolution from Korhal, it collapsed. Most of the Dominion now is composed of former Confederate worlds, plus a few others that fought against it."

"What made the Confederacy so bad?" Celestia asked.

"Mmm... Mostly it's unwillingness to protect the outer colonies when the Zerg attacked the fringe worlds. My Dad said there were also rumors that they'd been breeding the Zerg as a sort of bioweapon to keep colonies from rebelling. Something about plausible deniability when they went in to 'save' them."

Celestia winced. "I can see how that would warrant a revolution, then. But I take it Arcturus wasn't much of an improvement?"

"Nope. If anything it was worse. Forced labor camps, imprisoning political dissidents, state-controlled media... You get the picture."

"... Quite."

"So would you believe that the Second Great War had a revolution against the Dominion when the Zerg invaded again?"

"I'm starting to think you Terrans just like war," Celestia said sourly.

That got a laugh out of the Sergeant. "You're not wrong. Might as well be the one thing we are good at. To be fair though, the galaxy's a dangerous place."

"As I am quickly learning. No offense intended, Sergeant, but I'm starting to have second thoughts on this alliance."

He sighed. "None taken. I doubt you could find a people with a more checkered past than us. I will say this though: the Dominion of today is a far different animal than twenty five years ago. We don't use convicts for soldiers, we endorse individual liberties, and we don't have labor camps or political prisons. For that matter, even the Protoss and Zerg have changed a lot since the Great Wars. There's still rogue factions, sure, but on the whole we get along."

"The Protoss? When I was just a filly they posed as gods and manipulated the early peoples of Equis into servitude. Ponies used to dream of going through the gate to Khyrador, thinking it was a paradise, but in reality they became slaves. Toys, even."

Sergeant Hobbes flinched at her description. "We found old ruins that showed something like that when we first got here... Were you really there?"

"Yes," Celestia sighed, regretting bringing up the discussion topic, and the painful memories that followed. "I never had the misfortune of going to Khyrador, but... we heard rumors."

"I'm... sorry to hear that. Admittedly I don't know much about Protoss history, but my Dad said he was with Raynor's Raiders when they helped them escape Aiur - that's uh, their homeworld, by the way - when the Zerg invaded. I remember he said something about how they had a civil war themselves and overthrew the 'Conclave,' which I'd bet were the same people that conquered Equis. Probably. I dont know, 'Protoss history' wasn't an elective in high school. Then again, my graduating class was about fifty so... not like I had many to choose from."

Celestia would have liked to continue the discussion, but the dining room door swung open to reveal the four remaining troopers dressed much the same as their Sergeant, as well as Queen Dorylus. The other Terrans greeted her politely as they sat down and served themselves breakfast. For some reason, Sergeant Hobbes and Dorylus barely spoke. Odd, considering how familiar they'd acted the other day.

Perhaps he was referring to her earlier, she thought, remembering how caught off guard she was when Sergeant Hobbes had mentioned the infested changeling. The thought of such an abhorrence sent shivers down her spine.

She made small talk with the other Terrans, who were more interested in their food than conversation. Understandable, considering their recent ordeal.

Dorylus on the other hoof, was much more pleasant to speak to than she anticipated. Celestia had apologized profusely about her treatment of her mother following the attempted coup. Luckily, the newly crowned queen was forgiving of her, saying that there was no room for past grudges in the present.

When it was time, Celestia excused herself to go raise the sun. She was met with looks of intrigue by the Terrans as she stated it, but the blonde haired youth among them was especially interested. Private Connelly, she remembered his name was. He'd given a pleading look to his Sergeant, unable to find the words to speak, but luckily Hobbes put two and two together as he looked between Celestia and the Private.

He sighed and laughed at his trooper's antics. "Princess, is it alright if Mike watches? He's been wanting to know about that since we heard about it."

Celestia chuckled, thinking how silly it was that despite having the ability to travel between the stars themselves, this was what captivated them. In a way she found it endearing. At the same time, the gesture did more to improve her image of them than the Sergeant's words could; they still maintained a sense of curiosity and wonder even with all their advancements.

"Of course, Sergeant," she said as she rose to leave. Seeing the looks on the other troopers' faces, she rolled her eyes. "The rest of you can come as well, if you like."

She very nearly burst out laughing as the Terrans fell over themselves standing up and eagerly followed her, Sergeant Hobbes included. Leading them to the balcony where she performed her daily ritual, Celestia approached the railing, the troopers - and Queen Dorylus, interestingly - watched in rapt fascination. She spread her wings and reached for the sun, feeling its familiar warmth as she coaxed it over the horizon, making sure to put on a bit of a show for the bewildered Terrans.

"Now then," she said, turning back to the Terrans. "I must go and relieve my sister. We will be announcing the declaration of our alliance at noon today, and I would like you, Sergeant, Queen Dorylus, to be present. My little ponies will be worried and afraid, but I fear they must know the truth, sooner rather than later. For that, we will need your testimonies."

"I'll be there, your highness," Sergeant Hobbes said resolutely. "... Dory?"

"Of course I'll be there. No guarantees they won't panic, though, once I tell my story."

Hobbes turned to Celestia, concern etched on his face. "They, uh, they aren't going to start a riot are they?"

"Honestly, Sergeant? They've done so over less."

"Greeeat... alright boys, go take it easy. Monitor your radios, if shit goes sideways, be ready to beat feet."

"Roger, sar'nt, standby to standby," quipped Private Clay.

As they left to return to their rooms to wait, Matt walked beside Dory behind the troopers. Neither of them said a word, but Matt could feel that she was still angry at him from yesterday. He waited until the troopers disappeared inside their rooms before saying anything.

"Dory, can we talk about yesterday?" Matt asked as he pulled her aside. "Please?"

She narrowed her eyes as she snapped. "Going to give me a 'poor me' speech? How it's not your fault or something?"

He flinched. That stung. And the worst part was that Matt knew that she knew how much it hurt. "I just... feel like I owe you something more than an apology."

"Oh good. It only took you all night to realize that?"

"No... It's just... Fuck, I dont know. Thinking of the right thing to say sometimes, it's not something I'm good at."

"You managed talking to Celestia pretty well. Can't do more than one a day, huh?"

Matt felt a surge of anger well up. Dory raised an eyebrow, as if challenging him to have another outburst. She knew she was getting under his skin with her comments.

Don't give in, Matt, he thought as he fought to calm himself down. Breathing exercises. That's what the counselor had suggested way back when. Come on, you grew up with three older sisters. This ain't any different, right?

With the red in his vision subsiding as he took several slow breaths, he said hesitantly, "Please, Dory, just hear me out. I know you know this isn't easy for me."

She locked her eyes on his. Even though Matt towered over the changeling, he felt small under the piercing gaze of Dory's feline eyes. It was then Matt understood the amount of power and strength a changeling queen could wield, and his assumption of her not being able to handle the realities of war against the Zerg were dashed.

Finally she relented. "Fine."

Matt had thought long and hard about what he wanted to say. Now that he had the opportunity, he doubted she'd accept his words.

"I... I had assumed you wouldn't be able to handle the knowledge of what the Zerg would do, what they could do."

"You said that already," Dorylus countered.

"There's more to it.. It's because I thought the people here were stupidly naive when it came to things like this. And... I hate to say it, but I extended that to you too."

Dory's eyes tightened. Matt couldn't tell if she was insulted or intrigued by where he was going... But probably both, all things considered.

"Remember when we first met? Who am I kidding, it was like three days ago... When I'd asked if you'd ever been in a fight, you looked like you were going to have a panic attack. I mean hell, you said people here fought actual battles with pies as weapons. But then when we got to Appleloosa and you killed that roach you fucking laughed. And then yesterday you probably saved all of us, and not just me and the guys, probably the town too."

As Dory's gaze softened, he knew he was making some headway. "And that's what I'm sorry about. I was wrong about you. Even if everything I assumed about the rest of the people here is true, it wasn't for you and I made an ass out of myself. For what it's worth, I'm glad I'm wrong."

Matt was, admittedly, disappointed when Dorylus didn't seem to accept it right away. Then again, he probably shouldn't have been surprised. He had essentially admitted to thinking she was a naive idiot.

"And when you dropped that piece of information in front of Celestia anyway?"

Oh, shit, that. Fuck, I didn't think this far ahead... In his panic, Matt failed to see her amused smirk at his reaction.

"Uh... Well... That's on me just being a fucking dumbass."

He had Dory smiling now, at least. "Go on... ?"

He deadpanned at her. Okay, you're enjoying this. "I don't know... You've heard how I talk. Sometimes I get on a roll."

"That's it? 'You were on a roll'?"

"... Celestia was also kinda pissing me off. Brain go no worky a bit when that happens. I mean, yeah, that's no excuse, but... Yeah. I got mad and mentally regressed about a hundred thousand years."

Finally, Matt got a laugh out of the changeling, and felt a weight come off his chest. She does have a cute laugh, actually... Nope! No! Bad, Matt! You're talking to Angie, not the girl at the bar. Right? ... Fuck. Ah, well, this is going about as well as every other time I try talking to girls... Except Dory could rip me in half if she wanted. Then again I've never seen a girl on Mar Sara with anything less than a 10mm on her hip, and she's got a pair of blenders on hers... Why am I looking at her hips? She's not even close to human! FUCK HOW MUCH OF THIS CAN SHE HEAR!?

"Alright," Dory said with a sly smirk, pulling Matt out of his increasingly panicked thoughts. "I'll take it."

"'Take it'?" Take what?

"You were wrong," she said, still smiling devilishly. "And you're an idiot."

Yep. Just like every date I've ever been on.

"And you're still in the doghouse."

Dammit.

... Why am I disappointed?

"For now," she said as she turned and walked away, gently swatting his thigh with her tail.

Yes!

WHY AM I HAPPY!?

As her door closed behind her, Matt glanced around the hallway. The other troopers' doors were cracked open and a single eye was visible in each. When they noticed him looking they slammed shut.

With the exception of Stuart, who swung his wide open yelling, "That's my boy!"

"God dammit, Stu!"

Matt and Dory stood off to the side of the pedestal the Princess' throne sat on. Though not the focus, the eyes of at least a hundred ponies packed into the throne room were on them, most of them journalists and photographers. Matt wondered how much they knew about what was to be addressed in the coming speech, but judging by their apprehensive looks, they probably knew it was nothing good.

And so Matt was grateful Dory was at his side, and that he'd at least done his best to make amends with her. For some reason, he felt at ease with her nearby, though every time he thought about it he felt the same rush of conflicting emotions. It didn't help that she would occasionally lean against him whenever those thoughts came into play.

Celestia and Luna stood side by side atop the platform as they addressed the crowd.

"My little ponies," said Celestia with a somber tone. "No doubt you have all been made aware of the events of the past few days, in particular those regarding Appleloosa. It is with great trepidation that we must inform you of what we have recently learned about the creatures that have invaded our lands, for an invasion it is.

"We have learned the nature of these creatures, courtesy of the Terran arrivals whom you have likely already heard of. They are called the Zerg, and they belong to a vast entity that seeks to consume and devour entire worlds for their own gain. Regretfully, they have made Equestria, nay, all of Equis the target of their next conquest. It is with great sadness that we must admit there will be no peaceful solution, for their rampage will not end until either they or us are extinguished.

"You may have heard mention of a small changeling hive helping defend Appleloosa. This, is Queen Dorylus, the leader of said changelings. As you will hear, the threat posed by the Zerg is not to be taken lightly or ignored, as her hive was the first victim of these vile creatures."

At her cue, Dory stepped forward, standing on the steps in front of the Princesses. Though Matt knew she was tougher than she looked, he knew public speaking was rough on anyone.

"Ponies of Equestria," she began. "I am Dorylus, Queen of the High Desert Changelings. As Princess Celestia stated, our hive was the first to be struck by the Zerg. They were first seen about five days ago, when they killed a patrol in gruesome manner. While we were concerned, we had no way of anticipating what would happen next." Matt saw her gulp as she recalled the memory.

"The following day a swarm of them burst through the walls of our canyon. In a matter of minutes, they tore apart most of the changelings in the hive, and we only succeeded in killing a few of them before they retreated. My... Mother, Queen Formicidae ordered me to travel to Appleloosa, to ensure that the changelings from the hive hiding there were safe. Instead, I turned back, and found the entire hive massacred just a few days later. The Zerg left behind no bodies, changeling or their own, including my mother's." She was trembling as she spoke.

"The Zerg are the greatest threat Equis has ever faced, in this I am certain. There can be no room for us to let petty grudges keep us apart at a time like this. I know that the changelings, especially those of us who didn't follow King Thorax, have not gotten along with the other peoples of Equis, but let me be the first to say here that we must all stand together. Thank you."

The crowd listened, frozen in shock by what they were hearing. Even the sounds of pencil scratches had ceased.

Luna spoke up next, with a bit more levity than the previous two.

"Take heart, ponies of Equestria, for such a fate is not a forgone conclusion. While we face an unprecedented foe, there is still hope on the horizon. You will recall what you have heard of the Terrans, how they bravely and expertly defended the town of Appleloosa at outrageously staggered odds. They have experience fighting these Zerg, and have been sent here to defeat them here. While they are few in number now, what follows them is a nation that spans across tbe stars themselves, ready and willing to fight back the Zerg menace. Here with us is Sergeant Matthew Hobbes, a trooper of the Terran Dominion and appointed by their Emperor to speak on their behalf."

Dory nudged him with her shoulder. She'd returned to his side after she finished, sniffling from her speech. Pulling herself together enough to speak, she simply said, "Good luck."

Matt took a deep breath. Talking in front of crowds was practically his worst nightmare.

Here goes nothing... "Ahem. Hello... everypony. As Princess Luna said, I'm Sergeant Matthew Hobbes. I am a reconnaisance scout trooper of the Terran Dominion. My fellow troopers and I have been tasked with hunting down and destroying the Zerg on this world, and to clear the way for reinforcements to arrive. Right now, there aren't many of us, its just me and my four subordinates, but in three weeks the Dominion will be sending as many of our forces here as possible to purge the Zerg.

He started pacing back and forth in front of the throne. "But I'm going to be honest with you. We can't save everyone. What happened to Queen Dorylus' hive and Appleloosa will be repeated a hundred times over before we arrive in force. Many lives will be lost, and many sacrifices will have to be made. We lost entire worlds and billions of lives to the Zerg before we defeated them, so don't expect it to be any easier here.

"But I'll say this: We, the Terran Dominion will not allow this infestation to persist. My men and I will do everything in our power to stop the Zerg and save as many lives as we can, you have that as my solemn promise. We will use every resource at our disposal, and do whatever we can to ensure that you have the best chance possible at surviving. And when our fleets arrive, we'll send the Zerg running for their lives, and we won't stop chasing them until every last one of them is burning in a mass grave.

"We've been waiting a long time to kill these bastards, and you best believe the wrath of God won't compare to what we'll throw at them."

Then, stupidly, something compelled Matt to say the words:

"Any questions?"

A hundred hooves shot into the air.

Author's Note

Fun fact: most of this story has so far been written whilst in the driver's seat of a Stryker.

X - Joint Operations

There is only one thing worse than fighting with allies, and that is fighting without them.
Winston Churchill

What the fuck was I thinking? Matt thought as he grit his teeth through a pounding headache brought on by the ponies' questions.

Matt slumped in the dining room seat, feeling drained from the hours long interview by dozens of ponies. It had lasted so long, Dory had needed to refresh his translation spell three times. Idiot that he was, he'd decided against his better judgement to open the floor up to questions following what was likely the greatest revelation Equis had ever gotten: that aliens were real, and that the world was to become the newest battleground in the vast conflicts of the Koprulu Sector. And he had chosen to answer all the questions fielded that he could.

What were the Zerg, Terrans and Protoss? How big was the Dominion? How many soldiers did they have? What were their chances? Would they really come to help? What did the troopers have at their disposal? When would they get here? Where would they go? How would they get here?

A slew of many, many others, but the one that lingered the longest:

Why?

They hadn't liked the answer. For that matter they didn't like many of his other answers, and there were more than a few skeptics that refused to accept that the Zerg would pose a real threat when faced with the Princesses and the "Elements of Harmony," whatever those were. Some even accused the Terrans of bringing them here deliberately to pose as saviors, a claim that Matt vehemently denied. It didn't help that too many of the questions posed Matt had to answer with a drawn out way of saying "I don't know."

There were some details he had kept to himself, though. In particular his theories of who the "Last Son" was and the Dominion's last encounter with it. If the ponies knew that it had defeated the entire quasi-united galaxy once before, Matt thoroughly expected they would riot.

He'd also kept the two nuclear shells for the RecR under wraps. Matt wasn't sure what the implications of such devastating weaponry would have on the naturally peaceful ponies.

Dory hadn't fared much better. The ponies were still hesitant about hearing the words of an "unreformed changeling," and had grilled her relentlessly. They'd demanded to know why they never sent a warning, or if she was manipulating the troopers somehow for her own gain. They compared her to "Queen Chrysalis," the would-have-been tyrant that attempted a coup of Equestria some years prior. Matt had recalled mention of it in Appleloosa, but written it off for the time as neither here nor there. He was sure they'd said more to that nature, but the conference ended long after his translation had worn off, leaving him standing there feeling sorry for the increasingly distressed changeling.

Despite being raised as an heir to the throne, Matt could see that Dory had not taken the accusations well. Even now in the dining room, hours after Luna had apparently raised the moon the same way Celestia did the sun, she looked absolutely crushed by what the ponies had said to her, about her. At least Matt had decided to ride the lightning and brush off the verbal assaults, but that was apparently a trait Dory lacked.

Given that it was now late at night the dining room was empty aside from the two of them, and a pair of stewardesses that gave the brooding duo worried looks from afar. Eventually Matt's splitting headache subsided enough that he could at least function. He began to pick at the food laid in front of him, silently begrudging the vegetarian dish. Still, it was better than eating another MRE.

"How you holding up, Dory?" he asked, noticing the her simply staring downcast at her own plate. Do changelings even need to eat real food? "They threw a lot of fire at you back there."

She drew herself out of her stupor long enough to rest her chin on the table, eyes still on the plate. "I don't know... Like, I expected them to be... unwelcoming, but... not like that."

"Yeah... I guess reality hasn't really sunk in yet for these ponies. At least in Appleloosa they saw what was going on."

"How do you do it?"

Matt paused mid-chew. "Do what?"

She turned her head slightly to eye him. "Hold yourself together like that. After everything you've been through, you're still able to function normally."

"'Normally'."

"You know what I mean."

"Not a damn clue."

Dory blinked. "What."

"Dory, I've been a Sergeant for less than three months. The biggest thing on my mind is making sure we all go home in one piece, and so far I've just been playing it by ear. One of the things they taught us in boot camp was to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, so... I guess I've just kinda reverted back to that way of thinking."

"That's it?" despite her obvious depression, Dory still managed to sound incredulous. "You just deal with it?"

Matt laughed as he remembered his days in Marine Corps boot camp back on Korhal. "Listen, when you go six months without proper sleep, being given impossible tasks, having to live with people you hate, training exercises where you have to sit in a cold-ass mud pit for hours on watch, and having drill sergeants that come up with the most creative ways to make you feel like a worthless piece of shit, all while not being able to say 'no,' you develop a weird mentality."

"That sounds awful. Why would anyone want to stay?"

"Everyone's got their own little tricks to stay motivated. Some guys find God, some are just too stubborn or prideful to quit, some pick up on what the drills are trying to teach and just accept it. I always thought of it like, millions of people have done this before me, and millions will do it after. If they can do it, so can I."

"And how many have been in your position now?"

"Well... five that I know of," he said, forcing a laugh. "But yeah, I see what you mean. I don't know, like I said I'm just kinda making this up as I go. Helps at least having the guys, though."

"Misery loves company, huh?"

Matt chuckled. "Something like that. We might be in the suck, but at least we're in it together."

Dory's eyes returned to her plate. While she wasn't as obviously upset as earlier, Matt was sure it wasn't what she wanted to hear.

"He's not wrong, you know."

Matt and Dory both jumped at the new voice, deep and gravelly. They turned around and saw a royal guard unicorn, built like a brick shit-house and wearing a red plume on his golden helmet.

"Commander Iron Aegis. Sorry for eavesdropping, but I didn't want to interrupt."

"Not a problem, sir," Matt said. Though not part of his chain of command - or military, for that matter - he showed respect for the rank.

"I take it you're Sergeant Hobbes? I've been asked to work with you in regards to helping defend Equestria from these... 'Zerg'."

"That's me, sir. Wasn't expecting a coalition to get started so quickly, but, desperate times I guess."

"Indeed. Normally I'd have expected it to be hemmed up in negotiations and politics, but these Zerg don't seem like they're going to wait. I'll let you get to sleep, but come find me in the morning. Nine o'clock. We've got a lot to go over."

"Got it, sir. Zero nine tomorrow."

Matt and Dory stood in front of a secretary's desk after being led to Commander Iron Aegis' command suite by a palace steward. The dusty brown female pony - Mare, right? Man, that feels weird to say... - with stereotypical librarian glasses looked panicked by the appearance of the changeling and alien soldier in her midst. After a brief bout of hyperventilating, she bolted into a nearby door, followed by hushed but frantic words.

After a brief moment, she popped back out and returned to her desk. Stuttering, she squeaked, "C-Commander Aegis w-w-will see you now..."

"Thank you, ma'am," Matt said with a polite nod as they walked and trotted past her desk.

After knocking at the door and hearing the Commander say, "Come in," in his distinct voice, they opened and entered the surprisingly spartan office. A wide desk piled high with papers and a typewriter somehow designed for hooves filled most of the room. Bookshelves jam-packed with what Matt assumed were doctrine and manuals lined the walls, and a mannequin - ponyquin? Whatever... - sat in the corner wearing the golden, red-plumed armor.

The pony - stallion? God dammit, I hate using these horse words. - surprisingly looked almost nothing like Commander Aegis, aside from his horn and sheer size. Where before he'd been a dark gray, now he was... green. Green with a blonde mane and tail, both of which were ridiculously curly, surprisingly. The fuck? Do they have to dye their fur every time they're in uniform? The emblem on his flanks was that of a medieval-looking shield.

Okay, seriously, the fuck is with those marks? Does it have something to do with their names?

"Good morning, Sergeant. I trust you slept well?" Commander Aegis motioned to a pair of chairs in front of his desk.

"Well enough, sir," Matt said as he and Dory both took a seat. "Woke up with a headache though, same as the rest of my guys."

"Odd," the Commander mused. "If I were to guess, it might have something to do with your friend here."

Seeing Dory shrink in on herself, Matt glowered at the implication now that he had proper context of the coup attempt. "I am not under Queen Dorylus' manipulation. The only thing she's done to me is the translation spell."

"Apologies. I didn't mean to suggest that, but you did inadvertently address my concern. I'm worried the consistent use of that spell may have... let's say a detrimental effect on you and your fellow Terrans. To the best of my knowledge, nopony's had such a spell applied to them for so long."

That did admittedly worry Matt. If Dory's translation magic was enough to start causing headaches after less than a week, who knew what shape they would be in after almost a month? The only logical solution then would be to start learning the local language, but becoming serviceably fluent in three weeks seemed like an impossible task, not to mention the other languages on Equis.

Then again, Matt thought, What's one more?

Seeing the concern etched on his face, the Commander attempted to allay his fears. "But, I could be talking entirely out of my flank. For all I know, it's the stress of what you and your colts have been through. Like I said, nothing like this has ever been documented before, but we do know the detrimental effects of the more... invasive spells changelings have been known to use. Again, I trust that you're not the victim of such magics; given what you've said about your Dominion's goals here, I don't think they would even be necessary.

"Even so, I would still recommend closely monitoring these headaches of yours. Best case scenario, they go away and we can safely forget they ever happened. Worst case... best hope this war gets resolved quickly, for your own sake."

"'Then the last remedy of all is war, which provideth for every man, by victory or death...'" Matt muttered, remembering the words of one of his long dead ancestors. Commander Aegis and Dory looked at him with raised eyebrows. He shook his head. "It's nothing, don't worry about it. Let's just focus on winning this damn war."

"If you say so..." Commander Aegis trailed off as he pulled a short stack of papers out of his desk. "So this is a report of everything we know of the Zerg, based on what admittedly little we've seen ourselves, and what you've said yourself. I hope you don't mind that a lot of this was relayed by Princess Celestia."

Matt eyed the paltry list. "Don't suppose she also gave you intel on the Dominion?"

"A little bit. Don't worry, I haven't recorded any of your... personal details."

An annoyed groan escaped Matt as he facepalmed. God dammit, Celestia... "Fucking hell... Good to know at least someone here gives a shit about stuff said in confidence..."

Commander Aegis gave a light smirk and said, "I think you will be pleasantly surprised to learn that we in the Royal Guard are professionals, Sergeant. Unless it interferes with your duties, your personal affairs are your own."

"Good to hear. I swear, civilian gossip is worse than the PNN sometimes." After seeing the Commander's bemused expression Matt clarified, "Private News Network."

That drew a hearty laugh from the stone-faced pony. "Ah, yes, the wondrously outlandish rumor mill of the lower enlisted. You wouldn't believe the nonsense I've been hearing them say about you lot."

Oh, good Lord. "I hesitate to ask, but what do they think?"

"After that speech you gave yesterday, they're under the impression that you've all got some kind of Zerg-killing superweapon and that as soon as your fleets get here this'll all be over. But, I think you and I know better than that."

"Yeah... Don't get me wrong, we've got some powerful shit, but short of ripping a page from the Protoss and glassing the planet, no. At least, nothing practical."

"That's about what I figured." Then, with an almost imperceptible glance towards Dory, he coughed and said, "I think I also heard the word 'chussy' when they were talking about you."

Matt's eyes shot wide and he felt his face burn up. Dory, sensing both of their reactions, raised an eyebrow and asked, "What?"

Oh, don't act like you don't know. Ignoring the changeling, Matt stammered out, "Uh, no. That's... Yeah, no. Just no. CanwegetbacktotheZerg?"

The Commander chuckled at Matt's antics but obliged him unperturbed. "Of course. Now, you handled yourself pretty well in front of the press, but I know when somepony's trying to play something close to the chest."

"Uh, right. Sorry about that, I wasn't sure how much was a good idea to say to the public. Not trying to hide things, just... more worried about their reaction to it, I guess."

"Given that you weren't gentle with what you said, I'd say what you do know is nothing pleasant."

"'Fraid not, sir."

He sighed and pulled his hooves down his face. "I had a feeling. Might as well hit on that, then. I need to know as much about the Zerg as you can tell me." With an even more stern look than he normally wore, the Commander growled, "Don't hold anything back."

"'Kay... Man, where do I start? You should already know about the hivemind structure, genetic assimilation... Did Ce- Princess Celestia mention anything about the 'Last Son'?"

"She said you lost to it," he grumbled.

"... Yeah... Maybe I'll hit on the whole assimilation thing a bit better. Basically, the Zerg tend to have two or three methods of it. Four, if you count infestation, but that's a different thing. The more common mode you'll see is them basically seeing a trait in the local wildlife that they think would basically be a good upgrade to a combat strain they already have. So, for example, finding something especially adapted to hot or cold would have whatever mechanism they use applied to them. Sort of like... lateral gene transfer, I guess would be the more scientific way to describe it."

"Combat strains? I think I have that mentioned in my report, but I'm not sure I follow."

"Okay, so Appleloosa got attacked by zerglings and roaches. The zerglings are the little ones with all the claws, and the roaches were the ones that spit acid. Those are combat strains, and the Zerg have a big variety of them."

"How big?"

"Damn near one for any situation. You've got ones for the main ground forces, air defense, aerial superiority, ground attack, support... The list goes on. The one saving grace we've got there is that each one of those requires its own infrastructure to be able to use. The zerglings are the simplest, so you'll see those in almost any hive, but as they get larger and more complex you'll start seeing shit like hydralisks, mutalisks, and ultralisks."

"'Ultralisk' doesn't sound pleasant. Dare I ask what exactly that is?"

"Imagine a zergling the size of a warehouse with enough armor to shrug off artillery shells."

The Commander's eyes widened. "Here's hoping we've got time until we start seeing those."

"Probably. Another method they use is basically the 'throw shit at a wall and see what sticks' where they'll just induce random mutations into a group of one type of combat strain, stick them in a hostile environment, and see which ones survive."

"And the last one?"

Matt took a deep breath. This was the one he was really worried about here. "The last one... is where they see something they like so much they just incorporate it directly into the Swarm, with some modifications to make them more suited to a specific role. That's the biggest concern I've got. I've already seen what the changelings can do with their disguises and magic, so we should expect to start seeing Zerg capable of infiltration and sabotage soon."

"That's... definitely concerning."

Apprehensively, Matt added, "Also... this is kind of an intrusive thought, but if they were ever able to get their claws on the Princesses or Discord..."

A dark silence fell on the Commander's office as the implications of such an abomination settled in.

"... Then Equis might as well belong to them already..." the Commander muttered with a shudder. "And I get the feeling the Dominion wouldn't fare much better."

"They turned a psionic Terran into one of the deadliest creatures in existence. I can't even imagine what they'd be able to create with something that can move celestial bodies."

"Surely they must have weaknesses? You mentioned they turn feral if they lose this... 'psionic link' with their hivemind. Is there any way to exploit that?"

"There is, actually, but unfortunately I couldn't even begin to tell you how. During the Great Wars we developed things called psi emitters and disruptors that could actually control the Zerg to a degree..." Matt trailed off, debating on whether or not he should mention the one superweapon they did make. "We... also made the psi destroyer, that can tear the Zerg apart on a cellular level."

That got the Commander's attention. "Now that sounds like something we could use. But I'm guessing that bringing one here is a bit more complicated than it sounds."

"We only ever made one. It was the size of a small town and required an entire city's worth of power to run."

"Figures... Anything else?"

"Nukes," Matt said with a sigh. Though he didn't want to admit it, they were going to have to use them eventually. The ones for the RecR were relatively small, but that didn't mean they wouldn't have a devastating impact wherever they decided to deploy them.

"Beg your pardon?"

"Nuclear weapons. It's what you get when you release the power of a small star on a planet's surface. If we wanted we could obliterate the entire surface of the planet."

Dory and Commander Aegis stared at him agape. "You... don't have anything like that, do you Matt?" Dory asked hesitantly.

Matt looked at her nervously, not sure how she would take it. "... Yeah. We do. Two micro-fusion shells for the wrecker with a TNT equivalent of a hundred tons. For reference, the first nuke ever used had fifteen thousand and it was enough to level an entire city, and even that's considered small by our standards."

The Equestrians looked horrified. "And... the Dominion just gave those to you?" the Commander asked.

"Commander," Matt said, looking him dead in the eyes. "When it comes to fighting the Zerg you do not take half-measures. You'll do what's necessary, or you'll die. There is no middle ground."

Dory was still reeling over what Matt had told them. She was already upset about him not telling her about the Zerg infesting her changelings. The fact that he hadn't told her about what they were capable of with their weaponry didn't help. The fact that he had mentioned they were capable of destroying a city implied that the Terrans had used the 'nukes' on each other in the past.

Before, she was angry at Matt.

Now she was afraid of him.

She remembered the sadistic glee he had when they first fought the Zerg together at Appleloosa. Later, he'd nearly abandoned any semblance of a sapient being, operating almost purely on instinct with mechanical focus. All the troopers had. Now she'd been told that they deliberately developed weapons capable of destroying entire civilizations.

"Be meaner than the Zerg," Matt had said. It only now settled in what that truly entailed. She'd initially wondered if the Terrans' violent tendencies were the product of their conflicts with the Zerg, but now started to think they'd always been like this.

Are these the kind of people we want to be friends with? she wondered. But if we don't work with them... what chance do we have? Maybe Matt was right. Maybe we are too naive for our own good. What good is friendship and harmony when you're faced with something that has no concept of it? As violent as the Terrans can be, they still understand and value those things.

They'd since left Commander Aegis' office after several hours of talking strategy and defense, most of which had gone over her head, and were walking back to their rooms. Lost in her thoughts, Dory unconsciously fell behind the Terran's long strides. Noticing her starting to trail him, Matt turned and paused for her to catch up.

"What's up?"

"N-Nothing, just thinking."

Matt looked at her with a pained expression. Reading his emotions, Dory felt... regret?

With a heavy sigh he continued walking once she'd caught up with him, taking smaller strides now to keep pace with her. They continued on in silence for a minute, tension heavy in the air between them.

"You're mad at me again," Matt finally said, still looking straight ahead. "Is it 'cause I didn't tell you about the nukes we had?"

"It's not that," she defended. How do I say this? Should I say this? How do I tell him I'm scared of what he is? He's tried to keep things from me, but at least he thinks he's doing it for my sake, but... "Why aren't you telling me these things?"

He turned his head to face her, confusion radiating from him. "What, about the nukes?"

"No, why aren't you telling me? Every time you've said something big like that, it's always to someone else and I just happen to be in the same room. Is there anything important you actually do plan on telling me, or am I going to have to wait until we go talk to the griffins or something before you drop the next revelation?"

Matt stopped in his tracks, looking up at the ceiling. Dory felt a confusing mix of emotions coming from him. Frustration, anger, fear... all directed at himself. Does he always beat himself up like this? she thought.

"I'm... trying to think of how to say this without it sounding like an excuse."

Dory snorted. "Well we've already established you're an idiot, so let's start from there."

Immediately she regretted those words. As soon as she said them, a deep spike of pain shot through Matt. Does... my opinion of him really mean that much?

"Because you never asked about the nukes," he blurted with frustration. "We always have a couple of those things on us when we go on missions, and we treat them like any other piece of ammo. Do I really need to tell you about every last bit of equipment I carry? I told the Commander because it was relevant. No offense, Dory, but you're not exactly in any position to stage a defense, he is. Look, I'm sorry if you're upset I'm not telling you everything upfront. The infested changeling... was a lapse in judgment on my part. I get that. But the nuke thing isn't something I want to go spreading around. When we first developed those things, we were at risk of wiping out all of Terran civilization back when we were still stuck on Earth. I don't think we have to be worried about mutually assured destruction here, but I don't want to risk it. By the time you'd figure out how to build them yourselves, the Zerg will have already won, and I can already tell that just the knowledge they even exist is freaking you out. I've already accepted that you can handle that stuff for the most part, and I think the Commander can too, which is why I told you then, when it was relevant. I chose not to tell the press about them because I don't think they can, and I don't know if I trust Celestia with that information just yet. I'm not doing this to hurt you, I just..."

Matt paused his rant for a moment to look at the floor, his constant inner turmoil showing on his face.

"I don't know what to do..." he finally muttered, and Dory felt all the shame, fear, and sadness that came with it. "I've got three weeks to make sure you all survive long enough that there's anything left to save, and I don't know how." He slumped against the hallway wall and slid down until he sat on the floor, legs slightly tucked in towards his chest as he stared at the far wall, forearms resting on his knees. It was only now that Dory realized how small the Terran really was, having to actually look down to see his face. "And if the Commander's right, then trying is just going to make my brain explode anyway."

Dory had no idea what to say to the rapidly breaking down Terran. She slapped herself mentally. He'd made the mistake of assuming she was weaker than she was, but now she realized she'd assumed the opposite for him. She'd felt like Matt had all the answers, that somehow he had some arcane knowledge that would win the day. But as it turned out, the Terrans could be no less fallible or irrational than anyone on Equis.

"I don't suppose being 'comfortable with the uncomfortable' is an option?"

"I'm trying, Dory. I'm really, really trying. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I've got the guys with me, but... I don't know. I'm their leader. I can't just tell them this shit. Not even Stu."

Now a new feeling came from him, eclipsing all the others.

Loneliness.

She sidled up alongside him and nuzzled the side of his head, not getting a reaction.

"But you can tell me."

Matt turned his head and met her gaze, but only for a brief moment. He stayed sitting there for several minutes in silence.

"... You've got a cute butt," he finally said.

Dory blinked in surprise. Then she smiled and kissed him on the cheek.

"Not quite what I meant," she said. "But... you're out of the doghouse now."

Author's Note

Man, I really apologize for the massive lore dumps these past few chapters. I'm trying to blend them in to the story in such a way that it at least makes sense why they're there, but it still feels like it's too much. This should be the last of it, though. Back to the action in the next.

Edit 1 Dec 2024: Changed the strength of the nuke shell. Seemed a bit world breaking at their original yield.

XI - Welcome to the Jungle

They say we're leavin' home. We're goin' to what home was always supposed to be. So let us understand the situation. We are goin' into battle against a tough and determined enemy. I can't promise you that I will bring you all home alive. But this I swear before you and before Almighty God: That when we go into battle, I will be the first to set foot on the field, and I will be the last to stop off. And I will leave no one behind. Dead or alive, we will all come home together. So help me God.

Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore, "We Were Soldiers"

"So here's where we're at," Matt said to the assembled troopers in a spare palace meeting room. The table they gathered around had a large map of Equis laying on it. "For the time being we'll be helping the Equestrian Royal Guard when it comes to tracking down Zerg movements. Basically we're doing the same scout shit we normally do, but we're focused more on preventing civilian casualties than eliminating hostiles, at least until reinforcements arrive. I think it's safe to say by now that the Equestrians aren't nearly as advanced as us, so direct support from them is probably going to be pretty minimal. That said, we'll still try to wipe the Zerg out on a case-by-case basis, but disengagement criteria is going to be pretty strict here."

"What kind of support can we expect then?" Sergei asked.

"Mostly logistics, but don't expect it to be anywhere near as quick or reliable as what we're used to. Weapons and ammo are still mostly limited to what we brought with us, so try not to go overboard. We've gotta make sure what we have lasts at least the next three weeks."

"Hold on," Stuart interjected. "They had dynamite in Appleloosa, but so far I've only seen them use iron age weapons, maybe early medieval if I'm being generous. What gives?"

"I'm guessing it's because these people are way too peaceful to pursue developing weapons technology to that degree. You heard what Dory said, they don't wage wars nearly as much as we do. That would mean that all of what they have is the result of peacetime development."

"They've got steam engines, telegraph lines, and dynamite," Mike said. "If you ask me I'd say their actual technological level is probably pretty similar to the late nineteenth century."

"Don't forget magic," John pointed out. "That shit's a real game changer. I mean, we've already seen what Discord and Celestia are capable of."

Stuart, ever the skeptic, objected, "Yeah, but as far as we know there's only a few individuals like that on Equis. And if the Zerg ever get to them that'll be a massive liability. I say, why take the risk with them? We should try to keep them as far from the front lines as possible."

"Doesn't mean the rest of the ponies won't be useful," was John's counterpoint. "The unicorns still seem pretty powerful on their own."

"This might sound crazy," Sergei mused. "But I think there might be more to the others than meets the eye. You saw how quick the 'normal' ones in Appleloosa were able to set up that wall and minefield. There might be something to that."

Matt jotted that down on his notepad. That was definitely something worth investigating. "Might also be the same for the pegasi then too. Commander Aegis seemed to imply that they have a degree of weather control."

Stuart remained unconvinced. "We already established that the ponies were too peaceful to develop substantial weapons technology. So far it looks like the Royal Guard is the extent of their military strength, and it looks fucking tiny. Even if they were to go full war-time recruitment, we couldn't train them in time to make a difference."

"Sergeant said they'd be doing logistics," Mike reminded him. "We don't necessarily need soldiers for that, but they are going to need to convert to a total war economy."

"You think they're willing or capable of that?"

"The folks in Appleloosa were," Sergei pointed out. "Granted they probably wouldn't have lasted with support being so far away, but people have a way of surprising you when faced with certain death."

"That still leaves us pretty lacking in firepower."

"Yeah... I get the feeling the Equestrians aren't gonna be much help there," John lamented. "Any other ideas?"

They were briefly interrupted by the sound of shod hooves running on the other side of the door.

Matt flipped through his notes. "Dory said the other heavy hitters on Equis were the griffins and minotaurs. From what I've been able to piece together, it sounds like the griffins are the most militarized, but I've no idea what their actual technology looks like. I'd expect it to be comparable to the ponies, but that's just a guess."

"I actually asked around a little bit when you were talking to the Commander," Stuart confessed. "Not much, since my translator wore off, but I was able to pick up a few things. The minotaurs are apparently pretty hush-hush when it comes to their technology, but I heard that they're pretty advanced by pony standards. They say they use crossbows, but there's rumors of those having been replaced by what I'm assuming are firearms. At least, that's my guess. Kinda hard to figure out what exactly they mean based on just descriptions."

"That sounds more like it," John said excitedly.

"So the griffins and minotaurs are the ones we need to get on board next?" Mike asked. "That's logistics, troops and weaponry covered right there."

"That's what it's sounding like to me," Matt said with a nod. "We should probably keep looking into what else there is though. The more we can get on board, the better."

"Didn't the tsarina mention something about dragons? If they're anything like the myths they'd be tough to bargain with, but it sounds worth the effort."

Ooooh... Now that's an idea, Matt thought giddily as he imagined a flock of fire-breathing dragons incinerating swarms of Zerg from above. "Good thinking, Sergei. I'll run it by the Princesses when we get the chance."

"What about that 'Canida' place Dory said?" Stuart asked. "All the others I can guess what lives there, but that one's got me stumped."

Matt flipped through his notes from the discussion with the Commander. "Commander Aegis said that's where most of the..." He squinted at his notes."... 'Diamond Dogs' live."

"The what?" the troopers all asked in unison. They'd gotten used to everything on Equis being at least some kind of mythical creature from Old Earth, so this was a new one.

"Uh... yeah. 'Diamond Dogs'," Matt repeated. "Apparently Canida's less of a nation and more of a region that a bunch of tribes of these guys are local to."

"Okay, but what exactly is a Diamond Dog?" Mike wondered.

"Eh... The Commander was pretty light on details. Apparently they tend to be a bit less smart than the other species, but they still have a decent sized civilization. Pretty decentralized, though. He said they're also the most aggressive intelligent species on the planet." Matt flipped a page on his notes, trying to find what else he'd written down. "They're also extremely good tunnelers and eat gemstones the same way dragons do..." Wait, dragons eat gems? Like... rubies and sapphires? How'd I miss that?

Stuart said with a raised eyebrow, "Either they're really dumb or precious minerals grew like plants here."

"Not to mention they eat rocks," Mike remarked, actually getting a laugh from Stuart. "But hey, why not, right? Changelings eat love, Celestia moves the sun, why wouldn't it make sense here?"

"Yeah, I'm starting to notice a trend here. Could be useful having someone good at digging on our side though," Stuart said, then slowly adopted his trademark grin. Matt saw the wheels turning in Stuart's head before he even opened his mouth. "Speaking of changelings, that reminds me: have we gotten any 'confirmation' on that yet?"

"That's none of your business."

"That's not a no~"

Matt groaned. "It's not a yes, either."

"Just sayin', if it makes her stronger, we could always use another heavy hitter."

"Yeah, she's not a fuckin' succubus, my guy."

"Hey, I'm just pitchin' ideas."

"Uh huh."

Thankfully, a distraction came in the form of another pony runner in the hallway.

What the fuck is going on out there? Matt wondered, growing a bit concerned. The palace might as well have been a strict 'no running' zone the way the ponies walked about normally.

He opened the door and stuck his head into the hallway, only to immediately duck back in as a Royal Guard went bolting past, holding a square of yellow paper in his teeth. Matt suddenly got a very bad feeling about what was going on.

"Guys, grab your shit and be ready to roll. I'm gonna go grab Dory and find the Commander. Something's up."

"What's going on?" Dory asked as she trotted next to Matt, who'd donned his armor, weapons and pack. Thankfully he'd evidently had the foresight to remove a lot to reduce its weight and size. "I've been hearing guards running around all morning."

"That's what I want to know. We were just hashing stuff out and I nearly got ran over when I went to see what was going on."

"Think it's another Zerg attack?"

"What else could it be?"

"You clearly don't know how weird the past few years have been here," Dory laughed. "Trust me, it could be a lot of things."

"'Weird'?"

"Should've seen what happened when Discord broke free from prison. Back then, he wasn't as, uh... 'friendly' as he is now."

"... Yikes. Think I'd rather deal with the Zerg."

"Well, I don't know if I'd go that far..."

"At least I can kinda predict what the Zerg might do. Discord, not so much."

"Fair. But let's see what the Commander has to say."

They'd stopped by Commander Aegis' office first, only to find him not present. Regrettably, his secretary wasn't much help either, just saying a runner had delivered a telegram and he'd headed straight for the operations center. Finding it wasn't easy, and if the Royal Guard hadn't already known who they were, getting in at all would have been a pain. As they entered, they heard the Commander's booming voice barking orders to his staff.

"... And I want somepony over there monitoring the telegraph lines at all times. Hourly updates, minimum." The moment he saw Matt and Dory, she felt a small amount of relief from him. "Oh, good, you're here. I was just about to send a runner to grab you."

"Sir, what the hell is going on here?" Matt asked. "Did the Zerg attack somewhere?"

The Commander groaned and said, "Possibly. Ever heard of a town called Ponyville? Little rural hamlet not too far away. Princess Twilight Sparkle and the Elements of Harmony live there, so for us it's kind of a big deal."

He doesn't sound nearly as professional as the last time we spoke, Dory observed. "'Course I have. They tried to attack there?" She'd heard stories of Princess Twilight fighting off Lord Tirek herself. Ponyville couldn't have been a safer place with somepony like that to protect it, but the Zerg seemed to have a nasty habit of breaking any preconceived notions of "safety."

"No. Well, not yet, at least. They sent a report about sightings of mutated timberwolves in the Everfree Forest." He turned to face Matt. "Based on what you said about the Zerg adapting lifeforms for their own use, I'm concerned this might be the first example we've seen of that." Then with a sigh, he said, "And given how deep into Equestria this is... the implications are unsettling."

"What's a timberwolf?" Matt asked.

"Pack predators native to the Everfree. They're actually colonies of carnivorous plants held together by wild magic, and take the shape of, well, wolves."

This seemed almost too much for Matt to comprehend. "W- How does something like that even exist?"

"Really, Matt?" Dory teased. "You're from a space faring civilization and this is the thing that blows you away?"

"Plants. Don't. Walk," he insisted.

"Normally you'd actually be right," Commander Aegis admitted, "But timberwolves are inherently magical creatures. That's what holds them together in such a way they can move like animals. If they were just plants, they wouldn't be able to generate enough energy to move."

Matt pinched the bridge of his nose. "So, wait, you're telling me that magic is so widespread on Equis that entire lifeforms exist because of it?"

"More or less, yes."

"... And you think the Zerg modified them?" Dory asked.

"The descriptions I got weren't very detailed, but from what I do have, it doesn't sound like something naturally occurring, even in the Everfree which is known for being chock full of chaos magic."

"How do we know it's not just a previously undiscovered species, then?" Matt asked, his tone thick with skepticism.

"Because magical creatures have a tendency to be unique. It's extremely rare to find two that operate in a similar matter, since you would need both physical and magical traits to see convergence."

"Okay, but how do we know they're Zerg then? They do tend to have at least a few common traits across combat strains. Mostly looks, but still."

"Mm... They were only seen from a distance, but the report said they had pincers as long as their bodies where the jaws should have been. But, I digress. You said you'd help us with the Zerg. I'm sending some guards out to scout the area, see where these things are coming from. Can you join them? I don't like sending ponies into harm's way without good intel, and your expertise is the best we've got."

"We're geared up and ready to go, sir. Just say the word and we'll go where you need us." After a moment's thought, Matt added, "For the time being, it's probably a good idea if we just assume you're our commanding officer, sir. That way we don't need to worry about chain of command issues. At least, not until Dominion forces arrive."

"Good," Commander Aegis said with a nod. "What about you, Queen Dorylus? I understand you're technically a civilian, and I don't have any say on what you do, but aside from the Terrans you've got the most experience here."

Dory found it odd how much more accepting of her the Commander was. It reminded her of how the Terran troopers regarded her after they were able to communicate. She wondered if there was something to the military mindset that they shared in common; as even the Princesses still seemed hesitant around her.

"Of course. You'll need me to help coordinate with the Terrans anyway."

"Outstanding. Go to the chariot pad and talk to Lieutenant Slipstream. You'll be inserting directly into the Everfree with her."

Dory raised an eyebrow. "We're not going to Ponyville?"

With a shake of his head, the Commander said, "The less we can expose civilians to this the better. I don't want to run the risk of whatever these things are tracking you back to any populated areas, so you're going straight to where they were last seen. Dismissed."

"Aye aye, sir," Matt said, clicking his heels together and bringing his right hand up to the rim of his helmet. It took Dory - and the Commander - a moment to recognize it as a salute, which the Commander promptly returned.

The turned and left the operations center, with Matt relaying the instructions to the troopers over the radio. Finding their way to the chariot pad, the rest of the Terrans were already present and waiting, fully equipped in much the same way Matt was.

As Dory prepared to cast the translation spell on them, the memory of their discussion with Commander Aegis struck her like a train and she hesitated.

"Dory?" Matt asked as they approached the troopers. "What's up?"

"I... Are you sure it's a good idea for me to keep giving all of you the spell?" she asked, trying to keep her voice low so as not to be overheard by the other troopers. "You heard what the Commander said yesterday..." She felt Matt's nervousness as he heard her words. Dory almost expected him to disregard the warning, but she was relieved when he agreed with her.

"Probably for the best if we keep it to a minimum, then," he said reluctantly. "But, we'll need it when we start patrolling."

"I know, I know. Just... tell me if you start feeling any headaches again, alright?"

He laughed and said, "Sure thing, Angie."

Who's Angie?

As they regrouped with the troopers, Stuart asked, "So what's the op, Matt?"

"The ponies think they've spotted a new combat strain made from the local wildlife. Not confirmed, but they're sending out a recon mission to investigate. We're going with."

Mike nervously asked, "Uh, what kind of wildlife, Sergeant?"

Matt looked down at Dory. It took her a second to realize he wanted her to explain it.

"Uh... timberwolves. They're a species of predatory plants that're unique to the Everfree Forest."

"'Predatory plants'? That doesn't sound too bad..."

"By 'predatory,' I mean like... well, wolves, not flytraps," Dory explained. "Technically they're a bunch of individual plants held together by magic and can move around like animals."

To her surprise, Mike was actually excited by the idea. When we first met, the whole concept of magic seemed almost offensive to him. Sounds like he's come to terms with it. Though, I guess they did just watch Celestia raise the sun...

"Woah, really? I wonder if they're like siphonophores then... They're kinda like colonial animals like coral, but each one has a specific role like digestion, locomotion, or-"

He was interrupted by John elbowing him gently in the ribs. "Not really important right now, Mike."

"Uh... right," Mike said, deflating.

Matt shook his head and led them to a formation of nearly a dozen chariots, each with their own pair of pegasi already harnessed in and about five or six other guards around each one. They each had an array of weapons strapped to their armor. Interestingly, the unicorns had two large quivers holding a bundle of narrow javelins on their sides in addition to their glaives.

A pegasus mare with a white plume on her helmet saw them coming and waved them over. As they approached, her and Matt shared a salute, and the mare glanced at Dory with slightly narrowed eyes. She could sense a burning suspicion coming from the guard.

"Great, as if the mutant timberwolves weren't enough," she grumbled.

Dory could almost hear Matt's eye twitch behind his visor as he said, "Lieutenant Slipstream, I presume? I'm Sergeant Hobbes, we're-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know who you are, Sergeant. And unless you're here to bring me my morning coffee which I still haven't gotten, I know why you're here. While I would very much have liked to been told ahead of time we were taking six more personnel, I'm not about to go complaining about having a buffer between my guards and... whatever the hay those things are."

Anger blazed within Matt as he folded his arms across his chest and his back stiffened. "We're not here to be your meat shields, Lieutenant."

As the two glared daggers into each other, Dory groaned and face-hoofed. "Look, we're here to help with finding out whether or not these mutant timberwolves are related to the Zerg. Unless you think you can do that better than the Terrans, you're stuck with us."

Lieutenant Slipstream switched her glare to Dory. "Don't even get me started on you, 'your highness.' I don't know what kind of sick joke this is, but if you think I'm working with a changeling-"

Matt snapped. "You can insult me and my men all you want, Lieutenant, but I'm not going to sit here and listen to the same abuse thrown at someone who's saved my fucking life."

"You talk to all your superior officers like that, Sergeant?"

"You know what 'fragging' is, LT?"

She raised an eyebrow. Still irritated, but Dory could sense a slight curiosity.

"It's what happens when an officer treats their men like shit and sending them to die pointlessly for long enough." Matt pulled a small round device with a metal lever and ring from a pouch on his armor. Dory recognized it as one of their "grenades," and worried about where this conversation was going. "One of their troops gets fed up with their bullshit and waits until they go to bed. Then they go up to their tent while they're sleeping, toss one of these in, aaand boom.

"No more shitty officer."

"Is that a threat, Sergeant?"

"No, ma'am, I'm just telling you why we NCOs tell our officers to unfuck themselves in the way we do." He tucked the grenade back into its pouch as he leaned forward, looming over the mare. "Because if you don't, one of your Joes will do it for you."

The Lieutenant stared up at the imposing Terran with narrow, twitching eyes. Finally, she managed to spit out through clenched teeth, "Fine. Get in the chariots. The sooner we're done with this, the sooner I can get you out of my mane."

"Aye aye, ma'am."

Matt heaved over the side of the six-seat chariot, feeling sorry for any poor soul that happened to be beneath them. This. This was why he hated air assault. At least with Discord, he'd been so quick that he could just clamp his eyes shut and focus on his breathing. Hell, even the old APOD-33 dropships they used in training had inertial dampers. The flying chariot on the other hand...

He felt his gorge rise again as they hit more turbulence, but by now Matt had thoroughly emptied his stomach onto the ground far below. He dry-heaved in a cold sweat as the chariot shuddered beneath him. Dory pat him on the back in sympathy, while the four royal guards sharing the chariot laughed at his discomfort.

"Mares and gentlecolts, behold: the air-sick alien," jabbed Sergeant Long Shot, a unicorn stallion and one of the Equestrian squad leaders, or whatever their equivalent was. "You're telling me that you can fly between stars and you still get motion sickness?"

"Gofuggyerself..." Matt managed to mutter out, wiping off the thick drool dangling from his lips. "How much further we gotta go?"

"Landing in twenty minutes. Think you can hold on until then?"

"Ain't got nothing left to hold on to..."

Long Shot laughed again. "That's the spirit!"

Off in the distance, Matt could see a small rural village on the edge of the "Everfree Forest." Ponyville, he assumed. True to Commander Aegis' word, they were avoiding it entirely, instead flying over a dense temperate rainforest. Where they were supposed to land in all the foliage was a mystery to him.

Stupid ponies... Stupid chariot... Stupid city names... Can't believe I'd rather be on Braxis right now...

As they descended to just above treetop level, Matt spied a small clearing they were heading towards. He gripped the railing of the chariot as the wheels hit the ground, clenching his teeth as it came shaking to a stop. Pulling his helmet back on, Matt and the rest of the passengers leapt off. Thankfully, the guards followed a similar doctrine as the troopers when it came to disembarking a landed ship and formed a circle to establish security, scanning the surrounding area.

The two pegasi pulling the chariot spun it around and took off in the direction they came. Looking back, Matt could see the rest of the chariots coming in for a similar landing. The six stood up and ran into the dense foliage ahead of them, setting up in a security position away from the landing zone. One by one, the chariots deposited their passengers who each added to the circle.

The troopers had split themselves up among three chariots. Matt and Dory were in the first, Stuart and Mike were in the fifth, and Sergei and John were in the twelfth and last... along with Lieutenant Slipstream.

Matt curled his lip in disgust. Whatever happened to "first one in, last one out?"

"All patrol leaders, on me," she barked from the center of the circle.

Keep your fucking voice down, you idiot! Matt screamed internally. This bitch is gonna get us all killed...

Matt and the other guard sergeants stood up and clustered around Lieutenant Slipstream. As Matt approached, she glared at him, but held her tongue.

"Good, we're all here," she said after surveying the gathered NCOs. "We're currently three miles south of where the mutated timberwolves were last seen. We're to advance north, following any tracks or traces of them we can find, and see if we can locate where they're coming from. Sergeant Long Shot is our tracking expert, so he'll be taking the lead." She flicked her eyes to Matt and said begrudgingly, "Sergeant Hobbes will be assisting in identifying any evidence of... 'Zerg' presence. Now, what exactly are we going to be looking for?"

"First and foremost are any other combat strains that might be accompanying them. You've already seen pictures of the zerglings and roaches, but keep an eye out for hydralisks. Big snake tail, two arms with scythes on the ends, and a big crest sticking out of their heads. If you do see them, stick to cover. They're the Zerg's primary infantry and can shoot down air targets as well as ground. Best way to kill them is to aim for the chest. If you get hit with a spine, throw a tourniquet on whatever got hit as fast as possible so the venom doesn't spread.

"Beyond that are any signs of a Zerg base. First thing you'll see is creep, which basically looks like purple goop that'll cover the ground and trees. If you see it, don't step on it. It'll send a signal to them that someone's near their hive cluster."

"Anything else?"

Matt thought. They hadn't seen any overlords yet, but that didn't mean they wouldn't still be used. "Look for big floating things in the air. Those are either overlords or overseers and they control any Zerg in a local area. If you do see one, we'll have to focus fire on it. Once it's dead the rest will turn feral. They'll still be dangerous, but they'll start fighting each other as much as us."

"If that's all, remember we're still dealing with timberwolves, however mutated they might be. Unicorns use fire spells wherever you can, but try not to set the forest on fire."

They broke the huddle and returned to their respective squads - "patrols," as the ponies apparently called them. Matt called Dory and the troopers over to him.

"Alright boys, we're gonna be doing at least a five click movement to the north. The ponies have six squads in total, so we're gonna spread out between the leading four. That way we can help maintain comms between us. I'll go with the first squad. Sergei, go with second, if we run into trouble I need you to get on line with us as quick as you can. Stu, you go with the third, Mike and John, you're with the fourth."

"Roger, sar'nt."

As the troopers left to meet up with their respective patrols of guards, Dory made sure to cast the translation spell on them. Then, turning to Matt she asked, "Where should I go?"

"Go with Stu. That way if we're separated for too long it won't be too hard to get our translators refreshed." Hesitantly, he added, "And... hopefully you'll be far enough from any immediate danger."

She smirked at him. "And here I was, worried all you cared about was my abilities."

"Hey, it's not like that at all," Matt stammered out.

"Oh, I know," Dory said with a wry grin, hip-checking him as she turned to leave. She didn't make it more than a few steps before turning around and asking in a worried tone. "Are you sure you'll be alright up front?"

Matt gave her a thumbs-up. "I'll be fine. God, you sound like my mom sometimes..." Matt had to fight the instinct to clamp his hand over his mouth when he realized what he'd just said.

Thankfully, Dory took it in stride with a roll of her eyes. Then with a smirk said, "Just remember to brush your teeth, Mattie," before continuing on. Matt simply facepalmed in response.

Sergeant Long Shot, who was evidently the first patrol leader, heard the whole exchange. "You're bucking with me right? You and... her?"

"Motherfucker, I've been on rotation for six months."

"You're that down bad, huh?"

"Swear to God, I've already got Stu on my case about her. I don't need any more input."

"Hey, I can't say I blame ya. Them hips lookin' like the real Element of Honesty." Long Shot's grin stretched ear to ear.

"... What?"

"'Cause they don't lie!"

Matt groaned. "C'mon, let's go..."

Author's Note

Matt really doesn't like the ponies, does he?

Also, figured it was for the best to go ahead and upgrade the story to "mature." Probably should've done that from the get-go, but hey, the mods didn't seem to mind at the time. On the other hand...

MY SHACKLES HAVE BEEN RELEASED.

XII - Timberlings

You can kill ten of my men for every one I kill of yours. But even at those odds, you will lose and I will win.

Ho Chi Minh

The joint force of ponies and Terrans trudged through the worst terrain Matt had ever seen. A random assortment of all different kinds of flora surrounded them, and the thick canopy made it feel like perpetual night. The foliage regularly reached waist height, making the experience even more miserable for the land-locked unicorns. They stepped as lightly as they could to ensure noise discipline, but more so that they wouldn't accidentally find a patch of uneven ground and break a leg. Despite their best efforts they managed to accumulate numerous scrapes and bruises, making every meter hard fought for. Not even the jungle training center on Tyrador had been this bad.

It was such slow going that Dory had to refresh the troopers' translation spells three times. Every time Matt saw her she looked a little more disheveled and worn down, twigs and mud lodged in the holes in her legs. Even the green membrane that made up her mane and tail somehow looked out of place. If the Terrans and Royal Guards were tired, he could only imagine she was exhausted. While he'd learned not to underestimate her, Matt worried how many more kilometers the unconditioned changeling had left in her.

Not to mention, each time she did Matt's headache came back stronger than the last, thus laying to rest any hopeful optimism that it was all a fluke. The revelation put him in a deeper funk than the misery of trudging through the thick forest.

Matt fought back a groan as he pulled himself over a fallen tree. His foot caught on a broken branch and he tumbled over the side, landing hard on his shoulder with a loud rustle of brush.

How the hell are we supposed to find anything in this mess, let alone track it? he wondered as he pulled himself to his feet and continued onward, rolling his now aching shoulder. Long Shot had reported hours ago that he'd spotted tracks. How he could find and follow them was a mystery.

To be fair, Matt was no stranger to tracking Zerg. Even though decades had passed since the Swarm had been expelled from Dominion space, there were still feral hives deep in the barren wastelands of Mar Sara. Zerg hunts were a popular sport among the arid world's few inhabitants. He'd been fourteen when he bagged his first zergling. A runt, if ever there was one, but Matt never forgot the prideful grin on his father's face as he posed for a photo with his catch.

But this... this was something else. Most of the time he could scarcely see the ground he walked on with all the underbrush. It's gotta be magic, Matt mused. Can't explain it any other way. Never thought I'd actually accept that as a valid reason for anything.

Even so, Matt was amazed when he finally saw a single print in the mud. It wasn't any larger than that of the dog-sized zerglings, but true to the namesake of whatever these creatures had been mutated into it resembled the pawprint of a large wolf, or maybe the lyotes of Mar Sara. Unfortunately it was just the one. He had no idea how large the force they were trailing was.

What I wouldn't give for Bo right about now... Matt thought wistfully as he thought about one of the domesticated lyotes they kept on the farm. Out of all his littermates, Bo had the best nose. Matt smiled to himself as he remembered the alien canine once sniffing around the cactus fields all day, only to come back carrying a pair of shears Matt had dropped with his scaly tail high in the air as if he'd found the Holy Grail.

He switched his visor to thermals and scanned the area momentarily; the only notable heat signatures he could see were those of the guards ahead of him. As Matt looked around the forest through the grayscale image, he shuddered at how foreboding it all looked. The Commander had mentioned it was abnormally high in chaos magic - a fact that was painfully confirmed by the unpredictable foliage - but to him it looked downright evil.

The branches of the trees hung low and wide, blotting out the sun almost completely and producing an almost claustrophobic atmosphere. Even the shape of the plants themselves held a certain malice, having all jagged lines and where they didn't, thorns.

As he looked up at the branches above him Matt swore he could even... see...

... Claws...

He struggled to comprehend what he was looking at, as whatever it was was the same temperature as the trees. Matt switched off the thermal visor and stopped in his tracks as he gawked.

Perched in the tree was an odd, canine-esque creature about the size of a pony, but that was where the similarities ended. Each of it's four paws had four wicked claws digging into the bark it stood on, and a long prehensile tail wrapped around the branch like a monkey's. The snout of it's wolfish face had extended into a pair of narrow, vertically aligned pincer-like mandibles as long as its body, the tips of which hooked inwards. With some imagination, Matt could make out jagged ridges along the inner edge where the teeth came to shallow points. Even the hooks at the end appeared to have once been canine fangs fused together.

The entire creature appeared to have been made of sticks, logs, and other assorted chunks of wood. Dusty brown bark covered each piece, giving it the same color and texture of its perch. A pair of pupilless, sickly green eyes stared down at him as they regarded each other. Neither Terran nor creature moved or made a sound.

A jolt of panic rushed through Matt. That's definitely what we're looking for, he thought. But I honestly can't tell if it's Zerg or not. For all I know the damn thing could be sapient!

His eyes flicked away from the wooden beast as movement in his peripheral sight caught his attention. Two others Matt hadn't noticed before slowly turned their menacing maws in his direction, fixing him with the same cold gaze from separate branches. The soft creak of shifting wood, an eerie sound they'd been hearing all day came from the creatures as they moved their massive heads.

"Hobbes!" came the hushed voice of Long Shot up ahead. "What is it?"

Matt's gaze flicked down the patrol of guards ahead and briefly saw their golden helms sticking above the brush, their concerned faces looking back at him.

Before Matt could respond to the guard sergeant, a deep, mournful note like from some kind of woodwind instrument sounded above him. He returned his gaze to the creature in its arboreal perch and saw its long head raised to the sky, its jaws revealing themselves as the source of the haunting howl. Its two companions quickly joined in, adding their own sorrowful tone. Suddenly the entire forest echoed with the sounds of dozens of the creatures.

"They're in the trees," Matt muttered as a chill crept up his spine. "Eyes up! THEY'RE IN THE TREES!"

No sooner had Matt shouted his warning did the nearest mutated timberwolf leap down at him, jaws nearly as wide as he was tall. He cursed himself for not having his rifle at high ready as he dove to the side, narrowly avoiding its wooden maw as it snapped shut where his head had been just a moment before. The sound was like the crack of a whip as they closed faster than the eye could see.

Something about the sound sent a spike of pain through Matt's skull, exacerbating his already pounding headache. The edges of his vision went red as he fired a burst of laserfire into the timberwolf the moment it touched the ground. The searing rays scorched holes clean through the monster, blasting chunks of charred bark and wood pulp in all directions. To his satisfaction it dropped to the ground, its cold eyes now lifeless and dark.

His reprieve was short lived as Matt saw the other two pouncing down on him through his peripheral sight. He fired another burst at the nearest one even as it was still in the air, killing it instantly with the same effect as the first. Unfortunately, Matt was painfully reminded of Newton's first law of motion as he failed to not be the outside force.

The timberwolf's husk crashed into him like a truck, sending both Matt and the corpse sprawling across the forest floor in a tangle of limbs. It was all Matt could do to keep hold of his rifle. He practically threw the timberwolf off of him as he scrambled to his feet, wiping off sticky, greenish plant guts from his visor. The moment his vision was clear his eyes were met with the third pouncing mid-leap. Still struggling to get a proper grip on the rifle, he reflexively held it out in front of him like a shield.

The timberwolf barreled into him, snapping its jaws on the rifle with a crunch and knocking Matt flat on his back. With all his might, he forced the now-ruined rifle further into its maw even as it stood over him, pinning him in place. His mind raced, vision red as he fought to keep the deadly mandibles open. Needing both hands to keep the rifle in place, he found himself locked in stalemate, neither man nor beast willing to give ground.

With his rage growing in him every passing moment he growled, "Get... The fuck... OFF OF ME!"

With a shout, Matt dropped his arms slightly and pushed as hard as he could. While no slouch in PT, he wasn't anticipating the timberwolf to go launching as it did. It practically flew nearly ten meters where it slammed into a tree trunk with a loud crunch, rifle still clutched in its mouth as it slid to the ground where it lay still.

Did... Did I do that? he wondered as he drew his pistol and sprang to his feet, keeping the sights trained on the timberwolf.

He looked left and right, but could only see the commotion of the guard patrol fighting off mutant timberwolves of their own. Balls of fire and javelins flew in every direction as they held their ground. Matt swore as he dashed to pry his rifle from the timberwolf's death grip. Had he not been rushing to help the pony guards, he would have been dismayed at the loss. He sprinted, not even feeling his feet hit the ground through the adrenaline, and fired at the few of the remaining assailants.

As a javelin buried itself deep in the chest of the last mutant, the forest fell silent once more. Matt's gorge rose as the scene conjured images of Braxis. The forest floor was littered with the timberwolves, blasted to pieces by fireballs, or stuck through with javelins like pin cushions. Amidst it all where the bloody, shredded remains of ponies, torn to pieces so small Matt couldn't tell how many were dead. A quick head count told him they'd lost two.

Matt's eyes shot wide as he saw Long Shot. Two of the guards were cranking tight a brown tourniquet on his right foreleg, just below his shoulder. It was missing halfway down, and judging by the tattered bits of loose flesh and skin, had been forcefully ripped off.

Good, they've actually got some CLS training, Matt thought with a bit of relief,

"Hey, Hobbes," he said, forcing a smile. "Thanks for the heads-up. They were on top of us in a second." Turning to one of the guards not administering to him, he barked, "Set up a perimeter! You want the buckers sneaking up on us again?"

With a strained laugh, Matt said, "Gotta admit, you guys are tougher than you look." He dropped to a knee and helped pull security around the fallen sergeant. Checking his HUD, the rest of his squad was still alive and well.

Long Shot groaned and laughed, "Hey now, give us a little credit. This might be the first time we've seen any real action but we're professionals here."

"Fair enough." Turning away to allow the guards to finish treating his injury, Matt keyed the radio. "Squad, SITREP. We just took contact in the lead element by the timberwolves. Took two fatalities and the patrol leader is wounded."

"Sergeant, this is Ivanov: took contact as well from a squad sized unit of the same. One fatality, no other wounded. Over"

Matt nodded, wincing slightly at the news of one other casualty but otherwise they were doing more damage than they received. Still, something wasn't adding up in his mind. The tactics aren't too far off from small zergling groups... Lie in wait, then ambush and catch them by surprise. But these things are even squishier than zerglings so why even bother? Is this just a field trial? he remembered hearing of unconfirmed reports from the Second Great War about multiple variations of combat strains briefly appearing, only for one to remain in use for the duration.

"Roger. Archer, Clay?"

"This is Archer: we co-located with Sergei when they took contact, same report as his. Over."

"This is Clay: No TIC, but Mike thinks he saw some red air."

Red air? Shit, that's not good. "Roger. Keep an eye on it. Let us know if you can get a PID. If you think you've got a clear shot, go ahead and take it."

"Roger all, over."

"Stu, is Dory with you?"

"Got 'er right here."

"Have her go check on the rear patrols and report everything to the LT. Oh, also have her mention to maintain tight formations in the patrols. You guys pass that on to your own, too. Over."

"Rog'."

"Also..." Matt sighed. "Sergei, pin the location of your casualty. We'll... collect them on the way back," he said as he did the same for the two fallen guards.

"... Roger, Sergeant," was the grim acknowledgment.

Matt turned back to his own patrol as he finished, watching as the guard sergeant staggered to his hooves on three legs. A bandage of white gauze was wrapped around the stump like a mummy. "Oh, hell no, you can't move like that."

"Why not? We've trained to move and fight with disabled legs."

"Not in this terrain you haven't. I'm not doubting your training, but this shit is rough enough even at a hundred percent."

"Not that I disagree, but unless you know any tracking spells I need to stay in front."

Dammit, he's got a point. I knew it had to be something like that. "Fine. But we're keeping a tight formation on you, even more than we normally would with zerglings."

"That's a typical maneuver?"

"Only for zerglings. That way only the outer troops are in direct contact. Probably why we got fucked so bad on Braxis: too spread out."

"Guess you need to make some sacrifices against these things..." Long Shot nodded in grim agreement.

"Ideally we'd have heavy armor units like firebats that can take the punishment," Matt admitted, "But that's not a luxury we have right now."

"Then we'll have to make do." He pointed his chin at Matt's broken laser rifle. "What happened to that thing?"

Matt unslung it from his back and inspected the damage for the first time. The receiver looked like it had been caught between jaws of life. The polymer shell was shattered, revealing the irreparably warped aluminum frame and crumbling circuitry. The only thing salvageable was the grenade launcher and loaded power cell. He pocketed the cell to use in his pistol and pre-loaded an HE shell in the launcher.

"Got pinned by one of them," Matt explained. "This was the only thing between me and a French Revolution reenactment."

"Well, better that than your head," Long Shot said, cluing in on the meaning. "Any word on casualty extraction?"

"We can recover them on the way back, unless-"

"Sar'nt, Sergei, this is Clay: got a relay from the LT, over."

"Speak of the devil... Send it."

"Rearmost patrol is being split to bring the casualties to the CCP at the exfil site and reinforce the front two patrols. Over."

Good, she's not completely useless. "And LT?"

"Staying with fifth patrol, over."

... Just mostly useless. "Roger all, we'll hold position until they get here. Over." Matt turned to Long Shot and relayed the news.

"Horseapples... More dead than wounded? Is that typical?"

"When fighting Zerg? Yeah. But trust me, they can do far worse than that... Or that," Matt said, gesturing at the remains of his leg.

"Yeah... I got the brief on Appleloosa. 'Don't get captured'."

"That about sums it up."

The reinforcements eventually arrived, along with a pair of unicorns acting as CASEVAC. They looked green around the gills as they collected what body parts they could and carried them off to the landing zone, levitating them with their horns.

Rough introduction to real warfare, Matt mused with a pang of sympathy. Still, they're handling themselves pretty well.

They pressed on, the once spread out formation now clustered in a tight ball centered around Long Shot. To Matt's surprise, he was actually able to see how his tracking spell worked. Innumerable wolf-like paw prints seemed to shine through the underbrush like the overlays on his HUD, showing the previous movement of a sizeable force larger than what they'd already faced.

That's amazing! Matt thought. If only we could do something like that... Shame Long Shot's the only one who knows how to do it though.

To his even greater surprise, Long Shot's mobility was hardly hampered, even with his new hobble. Granted their progress was slowed somewhat, on account of his needing help climbing over some of the obstacles, but they were still making decent progress. Though the pony remained as light-hearted as ever, Matt could see the tension in his jaw as he fought back the discomfort.

Dory renewed the translation spell once more, driving his headache even worse. It felt like his skull was going to explode from the pressure. Fighting through the pain as best he could, he kept a close eye on the path ahead. Before long he spied a purple hue through the undergrowth.

"Halt," he said, throwing up a fist and dropping to one knee so only his head and shoulders were above the brush. The ponies ducked their heads down, showing only their eyes.

"What do you see?" Long Shot asked through gritted teeth.

"I think I see creep up ahead. Hold here, I'm gonna go check it out." On his radio, he keyed, "Squad, this is Hobbes: possible creep ahead, hold position while I go do leader's recon." A chorus of strained "roger"s came through, likely from the shared migraines they were all dealing with.

Going low and slow, Matt crept through the brush towards the purple. As he drew near, he started to see... sunlight through the trees on the other side.

That can't be right. Must be a clearing over there. Does creep absorb trees? Man I should've paid more attention in that class...

He pushed further, trying to get a better look. Sure enough, the purple revealed itself to be the glistening, fleshy goop that covered the ground like some kind of pulsating, living carpet. The slimy mass had replaced the dense undergrowth that made their journey so difficult, replacing it with a smooth surface. There were a few sickly looking trees just within the creep like the masts of a shipwreck sticking above the water. Beyond them, the creep was bare, and Matt could see scores of the mutant timberwolves patrolling the area, thus confirming the association.

Curiously, he also saw worker drones floating all about, carrying bits of material in their crablike claws he couldn't identify. Matt pulled out his binoculars and watched them for a moment, wondering just what it was they were harvesting.

They were carrying... wood. Wood? He followed a drone not carrying anything, and watched it approach one of the sickly trees and start cutting it down. Nearby, a trio of drones were busily removing timber from an already fallen tree.

Matt lowered the binoculars and considered what he'd seen. The puzzle pieces were starting to fall into place.

Zerg timberwolves made of actual wood, presence of a Zerg base, and drones collecting wood... They're making the timberwolves here! They've gotta be. If I could just find the main structure... Aha!

Raising his binoculars again, he looked past the swarm of timberwolves and saw a huge tree growing out of a pool of disgustingly green ooze at the clearing's center. Its trunk was a corpulent mass of pulsating black bark with exposed roots flared out wide at the base like a demented mangrove tree. Drones were busily dropping bits of harvested wood into the goop before returning to get more. A wide, flat canopy towered above the clearing with leaves made of flat plates of bone-white wood.

And hanging from the canopy were massive, oval green seed pods in varying stages of growth. Matt already knew what they contained, but the tree showed him anyway as one dropped to the ground. It split open on impact and not one, or two, or three, but four mutant timberwolves burst out making harsh barking sounds before joining their brothers.

Bingo, he thought with a grin, Now to burn this place down.

He waved over his shoulder to the hidden guards and heard the light rustling of movement from behind.

"Squad, this is Hobbes: PID on Zerg base, confirm mutant timberwolves as Zerg ground forces, defense consists of company sized element of-"

"Timberlings?" John interrupted.

Timberlings? Matt thought, rolling the word in his head. It sounded oddly fitting, considering their tactics and the way they hatched - sprouted? Yeah, that works.

"Chto? 'Timberlings'?" was Sergei's reply.

"Think about it! It works!"

Matt shook his head with a smile as Long Shot and his patrol joined up with him. "Roger, a company sized element of timberlings."

"Pravda, serzhant?"

"Ha! Go pout, I win."

"That's what you get for needing the support by fire instead of being it, Sergei," jabbed Stuart.

He could almost hear the roll of Sergei's eyes as he let out a sarcastic, "Da, kapral"

"Alright, that's enough," Hobbes admonished. "John, get that intel relayed to LT. We're still undetected but I don't know how long that'll last."

"Copy, Zerg base located, confirmation on timberlings, company sized element in defense."

"Good copy, over."

Matt broke comms and turned to Long Shot. "I think we've got 'em."

"Whoo... I've seen some crazy stuff in the Everfree, but I think that takes the cake. What exactly am I looking at?"

"Hmm. Don't know if you got the briefing about Zerg needing certain structures to be able to use different combat strains, but I'm guessing that's what we're looking at for timberlings."

"'Scuse me?"

"Clay came up with it."

"Buckin' privates, I swear," he grumbled with a shake of his head.

"At least Sergei's got someone in his corner," Matt chuckled.

"Well, any ideas on how we go about this? Surprisingly, assaulting alien facilities wasn't taught in basic."

"Did they ever teach about how to deal with timberwolves?"

"A little bit. Use fire and aim for the neck and chest."

"What about clearing out a population of them?"

Long Shot gave him an odd look. "We don't. We're not like you Terrans."

The sudden biting tone caught Matt off guard. "So I've gathered," he said, restraining himself from saying any more.

"In any case," Long Shot continued, "This isn't how timberwolves naturally reproduce. There is no one big central tree that they all sprout from."

"How do they reproduce, anyway? They're technically plants, right?"

"They plant seeds and nurture them while they grow. Takes about three months for a timberpup to pop out of it's pod."

"Sounds a lot like laying eggs."

"Not too far off from how Starswirl the Bearded first described them, really."

"... Who?"

"Never mind."

Right then... "How're you holding up, by the way?"

Long Shot looked down at his stump. "Lost all feeling below the tourniquet a while ago. Probably for the best."

"I am gonna put my foot down and say that you're not fighting here. At most, rear guard."

He let out a long sigh before agreeing. "Yeah. You're probably right. Gonna need you to take charge of the patrol then."

"Will they be okay with that?"

"I don't know," Long Shot said. Then with an edge of authority asked them, "Will they?"

The guards all turned and eagerly said, "Yes, Sergeant!"

Matt eyed each of their long faces. It didnt feel right, being in command of another's troops. "I'll try to keep them safe."

"Good luck." They heard the thud and following barks of another seed pod spawning more timberlings. "I think you'll need it."

As it turned out, Lieutenant Slipstream decided to have the guard platoon group up in a nicely hidden hollow not far from where Matt identified the Zerg base. As before, her and all the NCOs were gathered to discuss the coming assault.

"Alright, let's get down to brass tacks," Slipstream said. "We've identified that the Zerg base up there is the source of the mutant timberwolves, which we'll be referring to as 'timberlings' from here on. We're to find a way to take down that central tree and neutralize their combat power. As it stands, they've got us outnumbered nearly three to one and growing, but we've got the advantage of range and firepower. One thing I want to emphasize is that these buckers are fast. If we're not careful, they'll be on us like white on rice.

"Now, we need a game plan for how to tackle this. Suggestions?"

"Don't suppose burning it to the ground is out of the question?" One of the patrol leaders - a corporal from previously the rear patrol - brought up.

"In theory, no," Long Shot answered, still present despite his injury. "The problem is getting close enough to use any kind of fire spells."

"Right, that 'creep' will alert them the second we put a hoof on it," another sergeant mentioned.

"What about the pegasi?" Matt asked. "It looks like there's enough room in the clearing for them to fly, and we didn't see any anti-air units."

"We could harass them from above," said one of the pegasus sergeants - this one one of the few mares. "Though we don't have anything that could start fires, unless the unicorns put fire enchantment on our javelins."

"I think we can make that happen," Slipstream said. "Though it might be better for them to focus on the seed pods. For whatever reason those things are maturing in less than an hour, and we need to cut off their line of troops."

"Depends on how good those javelins are at piercing armor," Matt chimed. "If they're anything like Zerg eggs, they'll be stupid tough to break."

"Then we'll add that to their enchantments. Still need a way through the ground forces though."

"Don't suppose your colts have anything in your box of tricks?" Long Shot asked Matt.

He ran through the list of weaponry they'd brought with them. He'd opted to leave the nukes behind, rightly expecting a forest to be a bad place to launch such a high-yield weapon. "We've got the machine laser for crowd control, a couple frag and perdition hand grenades each, some grenade launchers, a few rounds for the wrecker, and four missiles in the hailstorm for air defense."

"Any ideas on how best to use those?" Slipstream asked.

"Much as I'd like to go all out, we've gotta make our ammunition last three weeks. So unfortunately we'll be forced to be selective with our targets." Matt saw the Lieutenant's jaw clench in irritation. "But what we do have available should be pretty effective at thinning their numbers, especially the machine laser and perdition grenades. If we use those where the swarm is thickest we can do some solid damage to their ranks."

"Don't suppose you have anything that can take out that tree?"

"Honestly, probably not anything better than what your unicorns can do with their fireballs." He shrugged. "I hate to admit it, but taking out the ground forces enough to put sustained fire on it is gonna be our best bet. That's usually how we would clear out a hive anyway."

"So we focus on eliminating the timberlings first." Slipstream picked up a stick with her wing feathers - Okay, THAT is the weirdest thing I've ever seen, Matt thought - and started drawing a rough sketch of the clearing on a patch of exposed dirt. "We'll establish three positions of unicorn patrols at the clearing's ten, twelve, and two o'clock positions. The pegasi will stage at the four, six, and eight.

"When I give the signal, the patrols at the four and eight will arc north and hit the pods from the four to twelve, and eight to twelve respectively while the six engages the four to eight, priority targets being the most developed ones. Hopefully, that'll draw attention away from the unicorn patrols. Once the timberlings get riled up, the unicorns will start raining fireballs on them from the twelve. Hobbes, I'll need one of your troopers there since they'll likely take the biggest push."

"Aye aye, ma'am. I'll put Ivanov and myself there with the machine laser, and I've still got grenades to shoot."

"Good. Once they start converging on the twelve, the ten and two will hit their flanks. Check your sectors of fire; the last thing we need out here is a fratricide. Once the timberlings are neutralized, we'll advance to the center and start laying into the tree. Anypony have any more to add?"

Dory was surprisingly the next to speak up. "What about the flying forces?"

"Good question. Have we gotten any confirmation on that?"

"Nothing solid," Matt groused. "But my guy that saw it is pretty confident it's an overlord."

"Then that'll be our secondary target. We take that out, it'll make our jobs that much easier. Once the pods nearest to dropping are taken care of, the pegasi patrols will split and go above the canopy to hunt whatever it is down.

"Any more questions, comments, concerns?" Slipstream was met with silence. "Then you have your orders. Brief your patrols and get ready to move into position: we start in fifteen minutes."

Well I'll be damned. She's still a bitch, but at least she's a smart bitch.

Author's Note

PT: Physical Training
CLS: Combat Life Saver
SITREP: Situation Report
TIC: Troops in Contact
"Red Air:" Hostile Air Forces
PID: Positive Identification
CCP: Casualty Collection Point

Retroactively changed Slipstream to a pegasus. No idea why I thought she would be a unicorn in the first place. Tiny brain move.

Prologue - Correspondence

Dear King Thorax,

I write to you in a moment of great peril.

My hive has recently come under attack by forces the likes of which we have never seen, and I fear for our continued existence. Just this morning a small group of vile creatures attacked one of our patrols. Ordinarily this would not be cause for alarm; you and I are both well aware many foul beasts stalk these lands. However, the mayhem these creatures displayed is indicative of a cruel nature no being of Equis can comprehend. The only survivor has been rendered nigh catatonic, and the bodies themselves were torn apart with such ferocity that we cannot tell what limb came from which body. What we did determine was the lack of any signs of predation. That is, they did not eat my changelings. Whatever manner of beast or demon these creatures are, they appear to have killed for sport, for want of a better term.

Earlier this evening, what I can only describe as a swarm of these creatures attacked our hive directly. Several dozen of these vile creatures burst from the stone walls of our canyon and poured into the hive, attacking indiscriminately and without a shred of mercy. They appeared so quickly I had no idea we were under attack until I heard the screaming of my changelings. We managed to drive the beasts back, but it came at a terrible cost. My hive has never been a large one. As such, almost half my changelings were slaughtered by these monsters, and we only managed to fell a hoofful of the attackers before they retreated.

Though you and I have never spoken, I feel it prudent to warn you of the coming danger. I am scared, Thorax. More scared than I have ever been. Not even when Princess Celestia herself stormed into my home to "set the record straight" with the changelings after that stunt my sister pulled did I feel as frightened as I do now. These beasts are utterly alien, devoid of even the smallest shred of Harmony, and ruthless beyond measure. I do not know what the coming days will bring, but I fear this may be the last you hear of me, for I would rather die fighting to protect my hive than ever capitulate to these monsters.

I pray that my daughter may find safety, as I have commanded her to leave the hive and not look back. Should she find her way to you, please take care of her.

Sincerely,
Queen Formicidae of the High Desert Changelings

Author's Note

This used to be addressed to Chrysalis, but I decided later on that it was probably best to just replace her with Thorax.