Author's Note
If you don't like the story please don't just dislike, leave a comment with what you don't like so that I can maybe fix it. Your feedback is appreciated.
1. Vendetta
“I do solemnly swear, on my honor, to defend Sol and her allies. I promise to obey any lawful order, and to protect the people of the Home world Coalition from all enemies, foreign and domestic, even at the cost of my own life. For I am the sword of justice, the shield of the innocent, and the hammer of reprisal.”
-Oath of the HCMC, spoken by every Marine upon graduating basic training.
<§>
Incoming Transmission:
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Transmission Received: Extracting
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Data Extracted!
View Data?: Y/N
Y
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Acknowledged. Displaying Data
Mission Briefing:
At [0947] local time unknown forces teleported/accessed (unclear) the Gillian Armories Shipyard on the Northwestern face of Olympus Mons. OPFOR appears to be xenobiology, unknown capabilities, unknown motives, unknown objectives. Hostiles observed taking prisoners, possibly for leverage as hostages.
Proceed with caution, but recapture the shipyard at all costs; it is vital for maintaining the Home Fleet.
CENTINT
Transmission End.
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Shipboard Intelligence [Titus] Acknowledges Orders.
Battlegroup Notified.
HCNS TTS-130 Deliverance of Justice: All hands. Battle stations!
Battlegroup En Route to AO. ETA: 2 hours, 11 minutes, 13 seconds until geosynchronous Martian orbit achieved.
<§>
Solar Storm smiled grimly. His unit had taken this foundry with little difficulty. The filthy humans had fled at the sight of them, while it filled him with great satisfaction it did make rounding them up more difficult. They were what he had come for after all, the Empire always needed more workers. What luck that the mages had discovered a way to travel to other worlds? Especially ones so ripe for culling.
Still, it was trivial work now; not the glorious victory he had hoped for but a good mark on his record nonetheless. His current second in command, a pegasus who's name he didn't bother remembering, had estimated that they would be done within the hour. Solar was excited, he had spent far too long away from Canterlot among the lesser races, he couldn't wait to get back to a proper unicorn city.
The no name pegasus was trotting over, he seemed anxious, Solar would have to flog that out of him, the pegasus saluted, solar returned it.
“What is it, feather brain, this better be worth my time.”
If anything the pegasus now looked even more anxious, shame. “Several patrols have failed to report back, sir, I sent more after them but have lost contact with those as well. I believe local forces have arrived and are preparing to-”
“Nonsense, imbecile, these are humans! Pathetic and weak, the soldiers have merely found something worth taking and are dividing it. Have them flogged when they return.”
Solar turned away from the warrior, this was not worth his time.
“If you say so, sir. Regardless, I have given the order to start moving the humans we have captured back to Equis.”
Solar blinked in surprise, he had not expected his second to take such initiative. Regardless of the impossibility of human resistance it was a wise decision. He would have to put the pegasus in for a commendation, maybe even bother to learn his name.
As he opened his mouth to reply, the foundry doors exploded.
The shockwave temporarily stunned Solar, disoriented he barely noticed as his second pulled him into cover. He did, however, see as his ponies died in sprays of blood, like whizzing hornets striking them. Already half his force was down, one thought kept running through his head ‘The sunscorched pegasus was right!’.
Recovering his senses, Solar turned to the pegasus, “WE ARE LEAVING NOW!” The shout was full of fear, but Solar didn't care. He and his ponies fled through the gate, as he ran he felt a sharp pain as something struck him. Falling to the ground he realized he couldn't move one of his hind legs.
‘This is it, this is how I die.’
The thought had a sense of horrible finality to it. He saw the humans, clad in strange black armor, advance before suddenly he was being dragged backwards, a quick glance told him that his second had saved him again. He almost had Solar’s respect for that. The human’s advance halted as Solar slid through the portal, for now, they stayed on their side of the door.
<§>
Carson Scullion was quite confused. He'd been dragged away from his duties in sickbay by some spook officer who wouldn't even tell Carson his name, he'd only asked him about his experience as a culchie veterinarian back in Ireland before enlisting. Maybe some bigwig’s pet got sick? The thought almost made Carson chuckle, but he restrained himself. Laughing in front of officers was a bad idea, intelligence officers even more so.
The spook finally stopped in front of the morgue, not good, and held the door open. As Carson entered the room the first thing he noticed was the smell, overly clean and sterile, the second thing he noticed was the colonel in a Coalition Intelligence Services uniform. Carson stopped and saluted the man, the colonel returned his salute and gestures to a seating area off to the side.
“Sit down, son, let's talk.”
Carson stiffened but obeyed anyways, while he couldn't think of anything he's done wrong, nobody wants to hear the words ‘let’s talk’ from a man who could probably make him disappear.
The colonel straightened his posture before speaking, “When you enlisted you swore to obey any lawfully given order?”
Carson nodded quickly, “Yes sir, that's correct.”
“And you understand that this includes the protection and preservation of classified materials?”
“Yis sir.”
“Excellent, now, as I understand it you were a veterinarian before you were a corpsman?”
CIS officers were highly trained and specialized, if this man was conducting interviews then he would be able to read Carson's body language like a book, honesty was his best choice.
“Yes sir, back on the isle, specialized in horses.”
The colonel looked at a data slate for a moment before speaking, “that's what your file says.” He paused, “What you are about to see is highly classified, you were the most qualified medical personal within a day’s travel. Nothing leaves this morgue. Understood?”
“Yes sir.”
They both stood and entered the autopsy room, the corpse on the slab looked equine, somewhat. It was small, only coming up to his upper chest if standing, and the proportions were wrong.
Also it had wings.
Carson paused, this was unlike anything he'd ever seen before, though he now understood why they wanted a vet. He faced the colonel with a dumbfounded expression and said, “Sir, is that a pegasus?”
The man nodded, “At 9:47 AM, local time, we detected a massive amount of energy in a shipyard on Olympus Mons. AI bugs inserted themselves into the security system and spotted a number of these creatures, though only some had wings, others had a horn or neither. At 12:03 the battlegroup achieved orbit above the incursion and deployed strike teams. They managed to eliminate a number of targets, capture live specimens, and force the hostiles back through a portal which had been what created the initial energy reading. However, some of the yard workers were taken prisoner and brought back through the portal. We intend to go through the portal, rescue our people, and ensure that no further incidents like this occur. As for you, we want you to perform an autopsy, gather information.”
It was quite a lot of information to take in, overwhelming even. Carson swallowed and spoke.
“Sir, are these aliens?”
The man’s face was grim.
“Almost certainly.”
“The Second World War marked a noticeable shift in military strategy. Artillery and gun emplacements, while still present, slowly became less and less prevalent; replaced by missiles, bombs, and other guided munitions. All the soldiers and artillery in the world means nothing if your enemy can fly over and bomb you into oblivion. Modern warfare is built on air superiority.”
-HCMC issued document ‘The Marine’s Guide to Warfare'
<§>
The top echelons of the Empire of the Horn were in a panic. The expedition through the Door of Faust had been an unmitigated failure. The nobles were blaming the commanders, especially Tribune Solar Storm, refusing to believe that the Empire had been defeated by mere humans. The 13th Legate, Solar Storm’s commander, was insisting that resistance had been expected, and that he had sent his first cohort as a scouting force mainly. Any future forays would be better prepared and informed.
At the end of the day what mattered to Star Chaser was that the Tribune had been quietly reassigned to another legion, and he would no longer have to deal with the annoying noble as a superior. The Praefectus had accompanied them through the Door and had been injured. This left Star Chaser, the Primus Pilus, as the most senior legionary available. He considered himself lucky that he had not been punished for the failed raid, but it seemed that his actions and conduct had placed all the blame on Solar. The 7th Legion was marching to join them, once they arrived they would push through and hold the Door, allowing more forces to move through.
Until then it was a matter of waiting, and preparing defences in the likely event the humans decided to enter Equis. A task that, in the two weeks since, had fallen to him, at least until a sufficiently experienced unicorn arrived to replace the disgraced Tribune.
The fortifications were extensive, albeit not as strong as they could be, Star was only mortal after all. Lines of trenches, palisades, and more stretched for almost a hundred feet around the door, carefully considered and planned to trap and destroy any human army that marched through. Additionally a dozen airships had arrived, bolstering them with airborne spellcasters and lookouts.
Star Chaser was pulled from his thoughts as the communication crystal on his table flashed, a rare item issued only when necessary. He accepted the connection and an image of a unicorn mare was projected inside his tent. Star recognized her as the captain of the Resplendent Solace, one of the airships. She looked at him with disdain, clearly upset that the Legate had seen fit to place a lesser race in charge of a unicorn.
“My crew spotted an object fly out of the Door and over the camp, I have sent fliers to shadow it.” She said matter of factly.
Star considered this development briefly, “It could be a scout for the humans, bring it down and take it to the Legate. Tell him that I believe it to be the precursor to an assault.”
“At your command, Centurion.”
Star ignored the jab at his rank, he frankly didn't care what she thought, stepping out of his tent he addressed the runner stationed there.
“You, inform the Legate that an attack is likely imminent, and that I am bringing the garrison to full readiness.”
He sighed as the runner saluted and took off. It was going to be a long day.
<§>
There were about two dozen people in the meeting room when Admiral Alexander Arashiro briefed them of the situation. Titus had heard it all before, of course, but it was nice to track the reactions of the men and women present. It occupied about 0.00000000142% of his processing power for approximately 4.197 seconds. He could have planned and executed 236 separate guided missile launches on targets of value in that time. He ran fleetwide diagnostics on the whole battlegroup, pinged every sensor node and listening post he had access to within six light seconds (each way). That slightly distracted him for another 17.934 seconds.
Several crew members (14) requested information or just tried striking up a conversation with him. That passed another 26.428 seconds.
God, he was bored.
As long as they were in friendly skies he couldn't do anything worthwhile. Some of the others were quite happy with the lack of action, in particular that fresh intelligence on the Edge of Light. What was his designation? Oh right, Baptiste! Regardless, they'd learn soon enough. He was itching for a good fight.
Oh, that was the data from the recon drone that was sent through the portal! Oh, what was this? Oh! The static picked up was fundamentally different from the kind on this side of the portal! That meant that is was, in fact, an alternate dimension or reality; not just a distant planet! That was good, it meant that bringing vessels larger than the portal was, paradoxically, easier. Wouldn't have to deal with transit lag, reconciliation might be more difficult though.
Right, back to important matters. The enemy defenses were extensive, but primitive, mostly earthworks and wooden structures. Those airships were interesting, the envelopes were much too small, however they were practically soaked in that odd energy that seemed to saturate the aliens. Analysis of the foundry showed them utilizing it actively and passively for a variety of effects, including flight with too small wings. Now thinking of the portal’s location Titus checked how preparations were going.
A multi-berth vtol fighter bay had been constructed, as well as a standby zone and numerous security measures. Three TAF-217 Sparrows were prepped and waiting for the go, along with a TAC-63 Mule. The sparrows would go through and clear the air around the portal, the mule would follow, escape the well, and drop an FTL homing beacon. The rest of the battlegroup would drop in, and then the real work could begin. With all this in mind Titus addressed the battlegroup commanders in their meeting.
“Officers, the recon drone was taken down, but we have actionable data. The pilots have been briefed and are all reporting green for mission execution. Admiral, we are ready to go on your command.”
The man straightened himself slightly, a look of determination flashing across his face, “You have execute authority,Titus, send them.”
If Titus had been human, he would have been grinning.
<§>
Ryan Silva took a deep breath as his canopy sealed over him. “Moment of truth.” He clicked his radio on and called out, “Viper 2, Viper 3, Trucker 7-1, this is Viper leader, check in.” The radio crackled before he heard the response.
“Viper 2, I read you Viper leader.”
“Viper 3, loud and clear.”
“Trucker 7-1, payload secure, we are ready to go.”
Ryan nodded in satisfaction.
“Appreciate the enthusiasm Trucker 7-1, but stay down, we gotta clear them out for ya. Home Plate, do you copy?”
He saw someone in the control room look up and wave at him. “Roger, this is Home Plate, comms checks are green. Viper flight, you are go for takeoff.”
Initiating his systems, Ryan felt his sparrow lift of the ground, gently guiding her into position he checked his sensors, all three members of Viper flight were lined up and ready to go.
“Viper flight, this is Viper leader. Execute”
He gunned the throttle and shot through the portal like a dart.
Immediately his canopy darkened, suddenly bathed in sunlight, and he pulled up and to the left. Looking to his left and right he made sure that Viper 2 and 3 had formed up on his wings.
“This is Viper 2, I tally about two dozen bandits, they're wide open.”
Ryan looked and saw what he was talking about. Floating in the air were old timey sailing ships held in the air by large balloons.
“Roger Viper 2, I see them” he said, “You are weapons free, repeat, weapons free on all targets. Mop up the air then hit the ground.”
The other two sparrows broke off as Ryan turned his craft towards the largest, and most decorated, of the enemy vessels. Hearing the tone of a radar lock he called out, “Fox 3 ripple!” And launched two missiles. He watched as they screamed forward and collided with the ship. He continued to observe just long enough to make sure it was down, then switched targets. It took less than ten minutes to shoot down every bandit, none even got close to landing a hit. After that the three sparrows began to bomb the enemy’s defenses, softening them up for the ground forces.
Once Ryan decides that they had done significant enough damage he sent the all clear back through the portal. He entered an orbit around the portal and watched as Trucker 7-1 came through and immediately went near vertical, going to break atmosphere.
“Viper flight, this is Viper leader, objective complete, let's go home.”
He watched as his wingmen went through the portal before coming in for a slow passage himself. Their job was done, now Battlegroup Theta had to do their part.
Author's Note
I'd hoped to get this out sooner, but that's just life.
Regardless, I'd love to hear what you all have to think in the comments!
