Chapter One
"This is Alpha-Charlie Prime, you're go for hot, over!" Was heard over the radio in the cockpit of the Helliocarnasus Mk II Heavy Attack Bomber.
"Roger that command, Engaging now." The pilot notified, launching a stream of 100mm high explosive depleted uranium rounds at the Daemon swarm on the ground below. The massive caliber rounds impacted the earth with enough force to bust a bunker, eviscerating the majority of the group he was targeting.
"Returning to base." The pilot told the ops center.
"Roger that, we'll have fresh ammo and fuel awaiting you upon your return, Alpha-Charlie Prime out." The ops center informed him.Down below a squad of Retro Troopers was engaging the remnants of the Daemons.
"This is the life, ain't it?" One trooper asked another.
"I'd prefer to be living it up on Mars, but to each their own, I suppose." The other trooper, known amongst his peers as Dominic, responded whilst gunning down a pack of Gibbering Hounds.
"Oh, you're just pissed coz your girlfriend dumped ya last week!" The first trooper, known as Pierceton, chuckled firing a round from his 50mm rifle at a charging Lesser Daemon.
"Well that's partially the reason, the actual one's that I'm months overdue for a field promotion." Dominic called back
"Be glad! At least they pay us by how many of these fuckers we kill, and we escaped getting picked for Operation: Reverse Incursion." Pierceton said, ducking under a slash from the Lesser Daemon, which he countered with a kick to the chest from his Exosuit.
"Need any help there?" Dominic asked, strangling an Infernal Imp in one hand and punching another in the jaw with his other.
"I got this, not everyone can survive a one-on-one with a Lesser, I want to be one of them." Pierceton called back, Cheering as he ripped a hole in the Lesser Daemons chest.
"Oh you're just trying to beat my record!" Dominic retorted,sitting on a pile of deceased Daemons.
"Be that as it may, I -Urgff- can handle this." Pierceton grunted back, twisting the Lesser's arm behind its back before firing two rounds into it's skull, killing it instantly.
"HAHA! I knew you could do it!" Dominic cheered, seemingly unaware that another Lesser Daemon was sneaking up on him. Just as it was about to strike, Dominic spun around with a smirk on his face. "Surprise, mothafucka." He onelined, shooting it in the face ten times with his firearm, which was outlawed to be used against humans in the Geneva Convention.
"Showoff!" Pierceton shouted at Dominic.
"Hey! I can't help it my name's Dominic, gotta live up to the badassery of the name, least people think I'm not worthy." Dominic replied with a smile.
"Like anyone would mess with you, you're a fucking giant that has a kill streak a hundred miles long."
"Oh stop it you." Dominic playfully mocked.
"Bahahahaha!" The duo laughed, forgetting completely about the Daemonic onslaught the two singlehandedly took down, excluding the initial bombing run of course.
"Ah, let's get back to Bastion. I'm thirsty." Pierceton told Dominic, who merely slapped his Exosuit on the back and began walking towards their APC, which was labeled a light mobile command center by the other soldiers in the platoon.
"It's a three hour drive, you got the tunes?" Dominic asked, crushing the skull of a twitching Daemon under his boot.
"Your offend me!" Pierceton faked being hurt. "Of course I have the tunes." He said, holding up a small rectangular device.
"Nice, can't wait til we get the Omninet antenna repaired." Dominic fist pumped.
"Yeah, shame about that. Brofist?" Pierceton asked, holding up his fist.
"Brofist." Dominic replied, punching Piercetons fist which caused some strange music to play for a few seconds and a small fireworks display to go off overhead.
"I'll never understand why us brofisting does those things." Pierceton told Dominic.
"Me neither, I think I can afford a new gun." Dominic said, striking up some small talk as the pair entered the APC.
"Which one you looking at getting?"
"The T-17 Automatic Hand cannon. Complete with laser guided micro-missiles, recoil stabilization tech, and an alternate firing mode that allows the user to charge up a maximum of twenty shots to unleash a salvo of 80mm rounds on the the target." Dominic gun nutted.
"I'd have personally gone for the RX-23 Shoulder Mounted Ballistics Laser."
"Whilst it might be perfect for an Exosuit, the RX-23 is impractable for a close quarters firefight situation."
"Ah, but what if you also got the added auto shotgun attachment?"
"You know I hate shotguns."
"One of these days Dominic, you'll see the true worth of a shotgun, one of these days." Pierceton sagely said.
"Sure, the day you ditch that 50mm rifle."
"But I'd never get rid of Barry! My father game him to me when I joined the army." Pierceton gasped, cuddling his massive rifle like it was his lover.
"See? Better strap in, this is gonna get bumpy." Dominic advised Pierceton, starting up the APCs V22 twelve cylinder engine with an earsplitting roar.
"Sure thing." Pierceton said, securing his Exosuit to the wall before taking a seat next to Dominic.
Canterlot, Princess Celestia's Room
Celestia awoke with a cold sweat, she had felt that strange sensation again. It felt like friendship, but it was something more, not quite love, more like a mutual respect or some kind of romance. The feeling was indescribable to the Princess, but she'd been feeling it every now and again for the last twenty years, ever since the Daemons of Tartarus suddenly stared moving inwards. Dismissing the strange feeling, Celestia looked at her clock and saw she had to raise the sun in ten minutes. With a sigh she trotted over to her bathroom and had a quick shower, before drying off and stepping out onto her balcony.
Focusing her magic, Celestia began the draining task of raising the sun, only this time, instead of the calming rays her normally yellow sun gave off, she felt harsh beams of hatred emanating from her prized possession. Looking up Celestia gasped, in place of her normally yellow sun, there was instead a pulsing red ball of barely contained hellfire waiting to be released. Celestia sighed, knowing her sun was nearing it's end, and thusly the end of her ponies. Celestia began to mentally prepare the speech she was going to give to her ponies, when there was a knock on her door.
"Come in!" She called out.
"Princess, a professor from the Royal Canterlot University is here to see you, something about a plan to save us from whatever's happening to your sun." A guard told her.
"Very well, send him in." Celestia informed the guard, internally pondering how somepony could have formulated a plan in the mere minutes since her sun had risen, let alone how they were already waiting to explain it to her.
"It's a she, Princess." The guard corrected her, before stepping out and allowing a gray coated mare with a rainbow coloured mane to step in.
"Ah, princess. I'm Professor Artemis, and I believe I have a way to allow our civilization to survive the impending apocalypse."
"How did you formulate this plan so quickly?" Celestia asked, narrowing her eyes at the mare in front of her.
"I was passing through the castle when I saw the sun, I immediately knew what to do in order to allow us to survive and came racing to your rooms to inform you of the plan."
"I'm listening."
"We need to gather up the three thousand most capable ponies and send them through Tartarus to what appears to be a rift to another world."
"WHAT!?" Celestia shouted. "What could make you possibly think that going into Tartarus would be even a remotely good idea?" Celestia scolded Artemis.
"Well, you see, it's either possible death at the hooves of Daemons, or definite death at the hooves of a solar detonation." Celestia sighed, nodding in agreement at the mares logic.
"Very well, I believe we have three days before the sun detonates, I shall have my guards gather up the three thousand most able bodied mares and stallions and send them into Tartarus with enough supplies to last them several months."
"Thank you princess, I hope this plan works out."
"Me too professor, me too." Celestia agreed before trotting to the throne room to quell the public's suspicions.
Bastion, The Broken Cartridge Bar and Grill
"And then, I spun around and delivered a one liner right before shooting it." Dominic jovially explained, earning a round of applause from the group of people sitting around him.
"There's a reason your call-sign's Kronos." Atlas chuckled, both his actual name and call-sign.
"Yeah, totally didn't have anything to do with your mother being in the same position when she was stationed on Titan Squad at all!" Amelia, call-sign Gaia, poked at Dominic.
"Hey! His mother could still beat each of us in a wrestling match and still have enough energy left to fight off a Greater Daemon." Pierce-ton, call-sign Prometheus, retorted for Dominic, who was too busy demolishing the better part of a cow and a gallon of beer.
"Come now, just because she beat that one Greater Daemon to death with her curling iron doesn't make her that much of a badass." Sun-Tzu, named so because no one can actually say his real name and because he's a master tactician, jokingly replied.
"Oh, shut up. You think you're all high and mighty because you've got Osiris as your call-sign in Ra's hit squad." Amelia told him, poking her tongue out.
"Oh come off it, I'm sure that your balls are just as big as hers are." Jameson, the only person sitting at the table not in the army, told Amelia, slapping her on the back and causing her to spill her beer.
"Hey, you owe me a beer!" She yelled at him, too which he merely chuckled and ordered a new round of drinkd for everyone except Dominic, who had a bottomless stomach and the metabolism of some unknown species that exists somewhere on the fringes of deep space.
"Come now, stop showing off, you rich bastard." Sun-Tzu called out.
"But where's the fun in it if I can't treat my girlfriend and her friends to free beer?" Jameson responded, receiving a playful slap from Amelia as a reply.
"Well at least you keep Dominic well fed." Pierceton agreed, slapping Dominic on the back as hard as he could, barely making the giant flinch at all and merely grunting in response before letting out a thunderous burp that echoed around every building in a two hundred meter radius.
"Nice one." Atlas clapped, causing the group to break out in laughter.
"Ah, I see you're enjoying yourselves." Came a familiar voice from behind the group.
"That we were general, that we were." Jameson responded, showing not a hint of formality.
"How a major executive like you ended up with this lot is a mystery not even the gods can solve." The general said, shaking his head. "But onto the business at hand, Dominic, Pierce-ton, and Atlas, you've been selected to reinforce the forward base in Tartarus." The general told the group, earning a collective groan from the individuals names he called out. "I know, it sucks. The first half of your pay will be deposited by tomorrow, you have a month to prepare for the mission, after which you will be taken aboard an orbital platform to await the command to drop."
"Wait, we're getting paid to do this?" Dominic asked.
"Yes, twenty million credits now, and twenty million credits once you return in two years." The general told the group.
"If you told people they were getting paid that much, you'd have volunteers following you around like a mariachi band and troop morale would be high enough to make a nerd into a fully fledged badass." Atlas explained, earning nods of approval from his friends.
"Well, command thought it would be better that the majority was focused on dealing with the planet side problems rather than the source."
"Why?"
"Because once we have regained full control of Earth again, we can unleash the titans."
"Shouldn't that be classified information?"
"Nonsense, it's common knowledge that the titans are imprisoned in Tartarus and the people expect us to release them in order to stop the Daemons."
"What if they get out?" Dominic asked.
"We've held off an endless horde of Daemons for sixty years, I'm sure a few titans won't stand a chance."
"Well, I guess we'd better pick out top of the line gear." Atlas told the group, grabbing Dominic and Pierce-ton by the arm and leading them away from the group.
"Well, I'd like to stay, but I have to get back to command and authorize those three to be able to purchase custom guns straight from the manufacturers." The general saluted before turning on his heel and leaving the remaining three people to ponder what to do next.
"... Anyone up for a gaming marathon?" Amelia asked, earning nods of approval from the others. "My place in three?"
Gates to Tartarus
"Are you all ready?" Celestia asked the assembled group of ponies in front of her, receiving a resounding stomp of approval, she turned towards the gates. Preparing herself, she unleashed a maelstrom of magical energies on the mammothian gates before her in an attempt to open them, but to no avail.
"Perhaps we can help?" A baritone voice called out. Turning around, Celestia saw several large groups of Minotaurs, Griffons, Changelings, Zebras and the reclusive Scorpion Gorillas.
"I don't see how, I doubt any of you can get these gates open." Celestia informed them.
"But, we have the keys." A minotaur told her as each group held up a key that was as long as one of her forelegs.
"I really should've learnt more about Tartarus." Celestia deadpanned, levitating the keys into their respective holes and turning them. With a loud creak, the gates to Tartarus opened, allowing the assembled groups to gaze upon the hellish landscape within' and the strange pulsating blue orb an incredibly far distance in, easily a months walk away. "This is it, everypony ready?" She asked, she herself taking a deep calming breath to steady her nerves.
"We're all ready, your highness." A guardspony called out.
"Then let us begin our trek to new beginnings."
Chapter Two
It had been a month since Dominic had been told of his reassignment, and he was absolutely pissed, armed too the teeth, and lodged quite firmly in an airlock hatch as engineers planned to dislodge him. All-in-all, he'd had worse days. He could distinctly remember having to take down a Lesser Daemon with a killer hangover. One of the engineers left and returned later with a stick of butter, Dominic merely gave them an 'are you fucking kidding?' look, causing the engineer to grin sheepishly and begin lathering the area around Dominic with butter and pulling on him. After a few minutes of intense struggling, Dominic was finally freed with an audible pop.
"Next time, make the damn airlocks bigger." Dominic growled.
"Next time, don't wear an entire armory." The engineer retorted walking away.
"Smartass." Dominic muttered before beginning his trek to the drop pod station to await further orders. Just as he was about to enter, a message came over the speakers.
"Attention! All personnel entering the incursion are to report to their assigned drop pods immediately!"
"What incredible timing." Dominic said aloud, sarcasm lacing his voice.
"Nah, he was literally waiting for you to get to the door before doing that." A passing engineer informed him.
"Why is he such an asshole?"
"Well if you spend six years on a space station, you either go insane or become an asshole. The latter occurring ninety nine point nine nine percent of the time.
"And why aren't you and asshole?" Dominic questioned.
"I've only been here a week. Now we'd better get you hooked into your pod." The engineer told him, guiding him to a drop pod designed for battle mechs.
"Why's my pod so big?" Dominic asked, stepping inside his spacious pod and depositing his weapons and ammo on all the racks, surprising holding it all.
"Because you're a walking tank?" The engineer guessed, typing away on a console with a speed that would shame a ninja, of which there was one in the pod across from his.
"Why's there a ninja?"
"Shadow Clan wanted in on taking out the Daemons at their source."
"I see, how many are really in that pod?"
"Thirteen."
"I sorta feel a little sorry for any Daemon that goes up against thirteen ninjas, it's just, not a fair fight." Dominic said.
"Yeah, worst part is, there's actually fifty ninjas going along." The engineer told him.
"Okay, even I think that's overkill."
"Well considering that Tartarus is an entire dimension of nothing but fiery plains and molten hills... it's only a little overkill." The engineer theorized, finishing up whatever he was doing and pressing a button to start up the automatic systems that took care of everything required for an orbital drop.
"Wait, if all you had to do was push a button, then why were you typing on that console?" Dominic asked the engineer.
"Checking my emails." The engineer shrugged, walking away and pulling a beer out of his pocket.
"I wonder if I can connect to the Omninet in Tartarus." Dominic mused.
"Drop in three minutes. I repeat, drop in three minutes."
Celestia was dreaming of a strange land, full of open plains and towering mountains. In the distance she could faintly make out a pulsing blue sphere, sort of like the one in Tartarus, only much bigger and much brighter. Turning around Celestia gasped, standing before her was a miles long line of strange elongated cannons, each one being crewed by strange bipedal creatures made of metal. In the distance she saw a massive black... thing surrounded by what looked like fragments of Tartarus and swarming with all sorts of Daemons. One of the metal creatures below caught her attention, it was making a strange gesture. After three seconds, Celestia was about to look away when all the cannons opened fire on the black thing. After several seconds the rounds detonated on the over shell of the thing, causing small cracks to form. Turning around, she saw the entire horizon taken up by countless drab gray flying machines, and behind those was a vast array of massive metal pillars gushing fire from their bottoms.
Turning back towards the cannons, she saw they had fired another salvo. After the rounds impacted the thing, the flying machines and metal pillars suddenly picked up speed. The flying machines started launching smaller metal pillars and started firing infinitely more advanced guns than Equestrias simple wheel lock muskets. Once the first of the flying machines was over the thing, they began dropping hundreds of small black objects that detonated even bigger then the cannon rounds or small metal pillars they launched. Several minutes later all the flying machines had passed, leaving a massive web of cracks spread across the thing. That was when the metal pillars broke open, to reveal even more smaller pillars, which themselves broke open to reveal even more. The sheer scope of the weaponry being used against this thing was boggling Celestia's mind, especially since the creatures had weapons inside weapons inside weapons, a feat not even Pinkie Pie could possibly achieve.
The first of the metal pillars began to impact the thing, creating explosion the same size as the black objects the flying machines dropped, then came the bigger ones. Their explosions were easily big enough to take out half of Canterlot. But when the original pillars began to strike the thing, Celestia had to shield her eyes from the sheer brightness their explosions gave off. Looking once all the explosions had stopped, Celestia gazed upon a severely cracked carapace that was slowly knitting itself together, looking between the cracks Celestia saw a Gate to Tartarus. Sighing in disappointment at the strange creatures inability to breach the gateway, Celestia was entirely unprepared for the pillar of magical energy that dwarfed even the powers of the Elements to come surging down from the sky, impacting the thing and creating an audible, even from where Celestia was standing, explosion that emanated outwards from the impact site. Completely obliterating almost all of the thing and revealing the opened gate to Tartarus.
Celestia found herself impressed, whatever these creatures were, they had managed to harness the raw magical energies given off by the sun to destroy their enemies. Sensing a disturbance in the air, Celestia looked up to see tens of thousands of meteors falling towards the open gate. she also noted dozens of massive flying machines were also approaching from the blue bubble in the distance. Celestia could only stare in awe as the meteors changed course in midair to aim directly into the gate. Just as the massive flying machines were about to enter, Celestia was jolted awake.
"Ah, sister. Thou art awake. We must make haste if we want to continue traveling unseen." Luna cautioned her sister.
"Of course, Luna. I had the strangest dream, there were these metal beings attacking a Daemonic Shield with weapons the likes of which we couldn't possibly hope to comprehend, and then, they launched meteors into the open gateway the shield was protecting."
"I had the same dream too, sister dearest. But a dream it was not, I fear it may have been a glimpse at the world on the other side of the rift." Luna told Celestia.
"Princesses! Strange objects have been seen falling near the rift." A guard called out, skidded to a stop in front of Luna and Celestia.
"What do you mean?" Celestia asked, looking over at the rift, only to gasp as the strange flying machines she saw in her dream flew out of the rift. "Luna..." Celestia began, only for Luna to finish for her.
"... We may have a problem." Luna concluded.
"Why?" The guard asked, looking in the direction before going so pale as to almost be see through. "Oh... Should I rally the guard?"
"That, won't be necessary." Celestia told the guard, if these were the same beings from her and Luna's dream. Then nothing they could throw at them would even slow them down, much less stop them entirely.
It had been two months since Dominic had had arrived in Tartarus, and he had so far racked up a kill streak so long that he has his own server dedicated to keeping track of it. At this moment he was chasing after a fleeing Greater Daemon, whose blade had was currently wielding. Jumping over a cliff that would have otherwise presented an impassable obstacle, Dominic readied the Greater Daemons blade to deliver the killing blow.
Rainbow Dash was out scouting ahead with the Wonderbolts, when she spotted a heavily wounded Greater Daemon charging towards her, flapping her wings quickly she managed to gain enough altitude to avoid the Daemons charge. Knowing she had to get to camp and warn the others, she almost missed the metallic biped chasing after it, leaping over impossible gaps and running up the sides of cliffs, all the while carrying a sword that looked like it belonged to the, she now realized, fleeing Greater Daemon. She watched as it leapt off a rock jutting up at a forty five degree angle, and angled the the blade so it would stab the Greater Daemon through its skull.
After an incredibly long falling period, the blade finally pierced the Daemons skull, burying it up to the hilt in the Daemons head and pinning it to the ground. All that was going through Rainbow Dash's head was that this thing had just killed something, even though that something was a Daemons, it had still killed it. With a look of disgust on her face, she charged the strange creature to make it tell her why it killed the Daemon, just as she was about to tackle it, it spun around and grabbed her. The creature held to her as far away as it's forelegs could, and it seemingly scrutinized her. Rainbow felt herself blush under the creatures gaze and from the position she was in. After a few more seconds Rainbow heard the creature say something she'd have never thought it would have.
"IT'S SO FUCKING CUTE!!!" Dominic exclaimed cuddling Rainbow Dash to his chest like a plushie, despite her furious thrashing as he did so. "I wonder if there's any more..." Dominic thought aloud, heading in the direction of the ponies camp.
"Lemme go!" Rainbow Dash thrashed.
"Holy shit, it talks!" Dominic shouted, holding rainbow at arms length again.
"Of course I talk! What do I look like to you, a dumb animal?" Rainbow asked.
"... Yes?" Dominic asked, continuing on towards the pony camp, blissfully unaware of what he was about to stumble upon.
After two hours of walking/leaping, Dominic came across a cliff. Seeing as it was a normal cliff he decided to free-run up the side of it, completely unaware of what it truly was. Jumping off the ground, Dominic placed his foot on the cliff in order to boost himself up, instead he passed straight through it and faceplanted in someones pudding.
"HEY... OH SHIT!!!" A person called out as Dominic was wiping chocolate pudding off his face.
"Who leaves pudding in the middle of Tartarus? It's just a hazard." Dominic muttered,unaware that Rainbow Dash had escaped his grasp. Continuing onwards he came to a low rising hill, sorta like the ones that are there for the opening of every movie ever made. Taking a moment to get over the cliche hill, Dominic slowly walked up to the top to gaze upon... what appeared to be a massive encampment of ponies, griffins, minotaurs, weird insect things, and zebras with the occasional dragon or two thrown in for diversity, and all of it was being brutally massacred by Daemons.
Knowing what he had to do, Dominic steeled himself before targeting the area for a strafing run and running away as fast as he could. Did you really think he was gong to tank all those Daemons? He's a mortal, not a god. Just as he reached the hill, the rainbow maned pegasus from earlier flew in front of him with tears in its eyes.
"Please, you have to help them!" Rainbow begged him, sighing he unholstered his Redundo Rifle and charged into the fray.