7th day of the siege of Chicoltgo

Standing in the commander seat of a STUG assault gun, Oberst Radowitz watched the streets ahead. The sun shone brightly above them, but the concrete jungle of Chicoltgo remained silent. The past few days of the siege had blended together, the days of constant fighting all merging into one collective blur of grey.

The fighting had also become significantly more violent, the Equestrian and Crystal forces finally forgoing infiltration and night attacks for more traditional attacks. The constant artillery attacks and infantry attacks storming the growing pile of rubble the city was turning into. Casualties had mounted rapidly, and the changelings had started to give ground.

Most recently, the Equestrians had begun adopting a deadly effective strategy; Thunder Runs. It was a relatively novel strategy, and one Gerhardus himself had taught them. Columns of Cromwell tanks striking deep into the city and ravaging their backlines and reserves and withdrawing. Their operations were quickly draining the defenders resources.

Their infantry attacks had made considerable ground as well, the ponies calling artillery and airstrikes on anything that moved. If it wasn’t for the exceptional abilities of their local griffon mercenary, then Joseph had no doubt their artillery would be gone already. But thanks to his superb counter-battery fire, the lines were still relatively stable; and the Heer’s managed retreat was going well.

At this particular moment, Radowitz was covering some nameless road as the units somewhere further-back in the city reorganised themselves. After withdrawing from several outlying positions earlier in the day, Radowitz had finally committed his armoured units to battle; the panzers were now fully engaged.

Watching from his periscope, Joseph continued to stare at the burning Cromwell tank down the road. The vehicle had been leading an infantry attack against a presumed weak position, the last thing they’d expected was an AP shell from a STUG IV.

Tearing his eyes away from the periscope, Radowitz brought himself out of the turret hatch and into the fresh air. Taking a breath, Radowitz surveyed the area. While this particular section of the battlefield was silent, distant crashes and the drone of bullets tearing concrete told him that the battle was raging elsewhere.

“Sir” a quiet voice said. It was at normal speaking volume, anything else would have been inappropriate in the din of battle.

Looking down, Radowitz saw a PanzerGrenadier officer standing besides the tracks of his tank. The 4/19 patch on their uniform told the panzer leader that this was probably the head of their relief force. “About time you got here.” Joseph sighed “Pack up riflemen, we’re off duty.”

Slowly the PanzerGrenadiers filtered into the position as the riflemen filtered out. Positions were taken up in well positioned piles of rubble, comfortable craters were made temporary homes and ruined buildings saw new residents take up station by windows and holes in walls. “What happened there?” the officer asked Radowitz, pointing at the burned-out Equestrian tank.

“Oh that, they tried to get through.” He lazily replied “Driver, start to back us up.”

The engine rumbled to life as the steel elephant started to back up. Flecks of concrete on the ground around it shook, while the road cracked under the wight of the machine. When the vehicle was free of the traffic of moving changelings, it turned on the spot and proceeded down the road.

Alongside it, the exhausted riflemen trotted in a silence. Bags under their eyes and dirty uniforms told the story of continuous combat. With attrition wearing down on the defenders, rotating units in and out of battle had become more difficult. Countless hours of combat had worn these Changelings down into exhausted husks mindlessly performing their duty.

Finally they’d get some sleep and not have to worry about a possibly imminent death for a few hours. One of the few safe places the Heer had in the city was Time park, the place they could rest for a few hours. It was a good mustering point, one of the few safe spaces which could be found for the changelings. The civilian presence in the area meant the Equestrians wouldn’t dare attack it.

It was a similar situation with the Night Park elsewhere in the city, 2 square miles of nature contained within the city. It was an overall peaceful place, ponds and grassy hills made it a lovely place for the Changeling’s to rest. That was until it had turned into a warzone.

The ponies had broken into the park the previous night, and it had since turned into a hellscape. Currently it was the site of the heaviest fighting in the city, with an entire panzer brigade being committed to the area. Gerhardus was somewhere over these, the Joseph and the Griffon having lost contact in the past couple of days.

Another sight of hard fighting was the Chicoltgo steel foundry. An enormous complex of interweaving: pipes, storage containers, countless buildings and an underground labyrinth of tunnels. It was the impassible anchor which had held up the Crystal advance from the north for days now, the defenders throwing back every attack.

These two positions were vital to the defence, and the two commanders had divided the defence responsibilities between them. Gerhardus was responsible for the defence of Night Park, and Joseph Radowitz for the Steel foundry. Various other officers and subordinates were tasked with different sectors as well; dispersing the chain of command to prevent it from being wiped out.

The screeching of an aircraft engine brought Joseph back to reality. The prop-engine roared in the sky, and was quickly getting louder. All around them, the riflemen had already galloped to cover, hiding in buildings or behind piled of rubble. A few threw up bubble shields as they hid, increasing their chances of survival.

That distinct whirling was the dread of the Heer and the bane of the Panzer Korps, it was the dreaded Yabos. The Equestrian Hawker Typhoon was a plane noling expected to be a problem at the war’s outset. It’s development was plagued with problems, and funding issues almost saw it scrapped.

But a series of staggering upgrades and radical changes to its mission capabilities turned it from an unremarkable fighter to a brilliant: night-fighter, intruder and ground attack aircraft. With its pilots specialising in low level attacks, they were a threat even when the Luftwaffe could field fighters to cover the Heer.

They were a truly omnipresent threat to everything on the ground. Loadouts of rockets and bombs would tear through infantry and fortifications like they were paper, and the loadouts with an AT gun would punch holes clean through a tank. Even worse were the Hawker Tempests, but those were a rare sight.

Joseph himself had been a victim of their attacks before, having had his vehicle knocked out twice by rockets. While unharmed and otherwise alright, the shockwaves had a nasty habit of knocking the treads off vehicles. He got lucky twice now, having dodged the AT variants, it wasn’t a chance that the Changeling wanted to take again.

Joseph had to make a split-second decision, to abandon his STUG, or try to save it. “Driver, ram that building and turn off the engine!” he shouted into the intercom.

It was a vain hope that an unmoving tank lodged in a building might be seen as an already destroyed target. Unfortunately, there were no other options when caught out in the open, not unless you started praying. Just play dead and hope that the pilots don’t come by for another pass.

The lumbering STUG heaved itself over with sudden urgency and rammed straight into the building next to it. The barrel punched straight through the crumbled brick wall as the entire structure shook. For a few horrible seconds, Radowitz through it might collapse down on the vehicle.

As the wall rumbled, Radowitz curled himself up in the turret. He’d entirely retreated out from the open but left the hatch open. Burned out and abandoned tanks rarely had closed hatches, crewlings would always try to escape, or the exit points be blown open by interior explosions. While it would spell his certain death in the event of an attack, it would hopefully sell the dead vehicle look.

With the STUG now as hidden as it could possibly be, and as camouflaged as a vehicle in snow camouflage could be in the city. Any moment he expected to see bombs falling down on them, but no such packaged came. Instead the Typhoons passed over one at a time, dozens of them flying low and between the buildings. Just as quickly as they’d come, the planes were gone.

Heaving a sigh of relief, the Changeling was relieved that the raid wasn’t meant for him. That was the good news anyway. The bad news was that they were flying a route to Night Park, Gerhardus was about to get some unwanted company. Unfortunately, there was nothing that he could do but hope his Griffon friend was able to survive it.

Night Park

Pressing himself against the metal machine, Gerhardus made himself as flush with the object as possible. Meanwhile his eyes were glued on the prey he’d sighted just down the park. Said machine was an 8.8cm Pak 43 Anti-tank gun, and said prey was a tank. Tanks were advancing on their position, at least 13 vehicles moving in 3 parallel lines.

This was the speciality of the griffon, he may be good with a rifle, but artillery is what he lived and breathed. Sighting powerful guns, waiting for the perfect shot and knocking out a behemoth. Raining death from above with precise shells and counting down on a range table. Finally putting those accounting lessons to good use, who’d have thought they’d work on range tables.

The griffon nodded as he licked the outside of his beak again, watching as the tank creeped closer and closer. The muddy quagmire that Night Park had turned into was filled with hills and small buildings, treelines and walls; hell to fight in. Not that it was a problem for him, he could have taken the tank out several minutes ago, it was the infantry he needed to worry about.

All around him, Changelings quietly got into positions; pressing themselves against the rubble, sighting guns and acting dead. The Equestrians had shelled the VolksGrenadiers for an hour before now, they assumed it was dead ground. The experienced grenadiers were about to show them that this ground was very much alive.

Right now, the advancing Equestrians were moving into a kill box, the tanks right in the sights of 6 AT guns. The infantry was the real danger, there was no contingency from them. Mortars were set up and the grenadiers were ready, but there was no elaborate plan or tactic to take them out.

The AT guns were close enough for radio coordination, the grenadiers meanwhile were completely dispersed around the area. It borderline impossible to coordinate all the scattered pockets of changelings, just about the only thing set in stone was that they’d wait for the heavy guns to fire before engaging.

Taking on the infantry wasn’t going to be easy; the ponies out there were a veteran Earth pony unit. The VolksGrenadiers and riflemen scattered around the area were good and had the advantage of being on the defence, but the ponies down there actually outnumbered Gerhardus forces by a not so insignificant amount.

Earth ponies, specifically a regiment of Chicoltgo Sappers. They’d been attacking all day and had made good ground throughout the city. These specific ponies were a real danger, fighting for their home city, in an environment they knew like the back of their hooves. Fighting for their homes, some for their families trapped inside the city.

This was going to be one hell of a fight. A fully equipped and fresh regiment of Earth pony Sappers supported by at least a platoon of tanks. The attached armour was significant and could quite easily overrun them, that was unless his AT guns knocked them out. When fighting tanks, Gerhardus always wanted at least twice their number in AT, not less than half it.

Calling in his armoured support would be good, but they’d been detached a couple of hours ago for rearmament and refuelling. The Griffon couldn’t count on friendly tank support, only what little remained on the frontline after days of combat. They were being worn down, if the troops already here weren’t reinforced tomorrow, they’d have to retreat.

Casting that out of his mind, Gerhardus glanced behind himself at the gun crew. They waited anxiously, shells at the ready and equipment primed and loaded for battle. Sliding off the gun, Gerhardus positioned himself behind the weapon and glanced down the sights one more time. Then he gave the order.

The first shot From Gerhardus own gun found its mark. The leading tank, a Crusader, was struck in the side by an anti-tank shell. Exploding on contact with the vehicle, the shell failed to penetrate the armour; luckily that wasn’t a problem. The 6 guns were coordinating to stagger their fire, so a shell was going out every 5 seconds. Seconds after his gun failed to penetrate, the second AT gun succeeded in penetrating its armour.

The guns were also coordinating on knocking out the vehicles, following the fire of the gun before them to maximise damage. Following doctrine and standard practices, the next gun captain targeted the leading vehicle in the next line.

It was a simple idea really, take out the first and last tanks in line, and the rest are stuck. One distinct problem for this battle, was that the last tanks in the parallel lines weren’t visible from their position on the ground. All they could do was wait for the Equestrian tanks to put themselves in the firing line.

The VolksGrenadiers meanwhile opened the battle enthusiastically. Mortars soared and bullets roared. In return, the blue and pink lances of fire from magical rifles burned through the air straight back at them. Snipers situated high above the battlefield let their bolt actions crack, targeting tank commanders and anypony they could identify as an officer.

The Equestrian tanks meanwhile weren’t just sitting there and getting shot at, they circumvented the burning wrecks and continued to advance. Meanwhile the turrets rotated to find the concealed anti-tank turrets as their secondary machineguns supported the infantry attacks.

At a range New Marelanders called ‘insult range’, the two sides traded fire. The ponies were taking heavier losses, knocking out an AT gun as 2 tanks were reduced to hulks; their loses were unfortunately sustainable. Yes they were trading at a 2-1 ratio, but they could take it.

Just as another shell was let loose, the sound of prop-engines reached Gerhardus ears. Coming in hard and fast, he didn’t need to see them to know what they were and why they were here. Something in his bones also screamed, that these ones were going to hit him. “Get clear!” he shouted.

The Changelings of the gun crew practically stumbled over as they tried to get away. Buzzing wings and clopping hooves filled the air as they scrambled away and to safety. Joining them in scrambling away, Gerhardus found himself tripping over the stands anchoring the turret on the ground.

Collapsing on the ground, he glanced back. Through an opening in the wall, he spotted a single rocket heading straight towards him. Having no time to react or make any attempts at escape, Gerhardus offered a silent prayer to Boreas before unfurling both wings and shielding his face with them.

Inside and outside, the battlefield turned to chaos. Rockets and cannon fire from the Typhoons thundered into the ground on the changeling positions. Smoke and fire filled the air, choking the combatants. Those who survived the initial attack found themselves fighting blind in the choking smoke.

The ponies meanwhile found something easier to shoot at. As a lot of the Changelings put up bubble-shields to protect themselves, the shimmering green orbs of light attracted fire from the ponies like flies to a flame. The Typhoons came about again, unloading their guns into the smoke while those with AT guns knocked out the last changeling AT position.

Fighting in the smoky battlefield became chaotic and terrifying, VolksGrenadiers found themselves locked in hoof-to-hoof combat with a numerically and physically stronger enemy. The exhausted changelings were cut down as any semblance of order in the ranks broke down. Survivors fought as individual fireteams, fighting only to get out of the killing-ground.

The remaining Equestrian tanks tore through the smoke, firing at everything which moved in front of them. The VolksGrenadiers fought back heroically, disabling several more tanks with their Panzerfaust’s. Teams still in the buildings around the park sprayed into the smoke, covering the VolksGrenadiers getting pounded in the park. Despite everything, they were completely overwhelmed and on breaking point.

Mortar teams beyond the Heer’s crumbling line poured every shell they had into the battleground. Forward artillery spotters called in danger close artillery as shells crashed into the Equestrians spilling into the park; everything moving was shelled in a vain attempt to stem the advancing Equestrian tide.

Those unlucky enough to be caught by the advancing sappers had to fight their way out, hoof-to-hoof. Knives and bayonets clashed, shovels were used as bludgeoning tools while some Changelings resorted to skewering ponies with their spellcasting horns.

Opening his eagle eyes, Gerhardus was absolutely shocked to find himself very much alive. Surviving the blast without a scratch could likely be attributed to the Changeling standing besides him. The artillery loader’s horn was lit up, a bubble shield covering the ground around them. The bug had come back for him.

Shaking off his stupor, Hardus heaved himself onto all fours. As the Changeling lowered the shield, he patted the Changeling on the shoulder “Thanks” the building shook and voices shouted in Equish from somewhere nearby.

“We should get out of here.” Gerhardus began as he clicked a flare-gun off his belt “Head to the fallback line.”

Following the Changeling as she scurried away, the building he’d once occupied suddenly stopped. This entire section had been blown off in some previous battle, the former lounge now part of the park. Ducking to avoid the torrent of bullets which filled the air both ways, Gerhardus raised the paw which held his flare-gun. Firing it straight up through the smoke, the signal was visible to everybeing on both sides.

For the shattered VolksGrenadiers, this was the signal to retreat. Most immediately scatted to the fallback line, seeking safety there. Other local officers managed to maintain order and withdraw their few troops without chaos. A brave few stayed to fight a rearguard action, attempting to stagger their retreat.

Practically manhandling a Changeling with a radio to a halt, the Griffon pulled them into cover and tuned its frequencies as quickly as possible. Grabbing the receiver off their back, Gerhardus clicked it on and barked order at the artillery crews he prayed to Boreas were listening “All gun crews, commence immediate saturation barrage west of position 12. Turn that park to ash!”

Without bothering to wait for a response, Gerhardus pushed the Changeling away as he joined the rearguard. If that artillery came, it might stem the tide long enough for the fallback line to be reinforced, if it didn’t…

Author's Note

Just a short one this time around. Theres going to be one more chapter in Chicoltgo before moving away to the Crystal empire and the fall of the city. Next chapter is also going to feature the continuing antics of Trimmel and Chrysalis, my two favourite characters to write.

I've decided to cut operation Alicorn Sunset a bit short, so they'll only be a few more chapters before I move onto the next story arc.

ALSO new DLC dropped and I'm very happy with the DLC and its upgrades. However I'm slightly miffed that is added a load of not well known technologies I was going to deploy later in the story (sometime after the griffonia arc). I was delving DEEP into historical documents to get the specs of them right and Paradox was like 'lol we'll just add them to the game'. Sure I love that its there now, but that doesn't stop me from being miffed about wasting a few hours.

If anyones got any suggestions, complaints or questions feel free to comment them and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. I've also been beta reading for

TAnd so I left

• MLP: FiM
• Dark
• Adventure
• Drama

After decades of silent suffering, an unexpected event causes Luna to reach her breaking point much sooner. Instead of embracing her inner darkness, she makes a very different decision that will change her life in unimaginable ways.

• Violence
• Death
• Alt. Universe
• Celestia
• Luna
• OC

CrimsonS4ge · 106k words  ·  1,435  25 · 13k views

, this story is way better than any of my stuff, so go and check it out if you haven't already.