Chapter 2: Tunnel Rats

Colonel Stuart Frit was sighed at the base he had his men just finish building. Making a base was always difficult. Even more so when you learned that the base would almost certainly go up in flames. Not that he could do anything about it. This was war after all. So far things had been bad. It was only three weeks into the Equestrian War and things had already gone to hell.

Which was also why he and his men were stationed at this twisted parody of Manhattan. The natives, the Equestrian's, called it Manehatten, no doubt mocking his home. He hated it. Every day was a game of attrition for his men. It was something none of them were used to.

Base drops were becoming less and less common these days as the space navy in orbit had their hands full. At first it was only 1 ship a day fighting against the fleet. Now it was easily 22,000 on any given hour. The fight was getting brutal up in space and while our technology was easily aiding the AS and keeping the worst of everything at bay, sooner or later the forces would be too much and our fleet will be overwhelmed.

I would have gulped at the thought had I not been dealing with the husks that we were currently fighting at the moment. The Reapers had dropped a few hundred of them into the city before being shot down. Nowadays, anything, not part of the front, enters a killing field. Reapers weren't an exception. They were clear definition of the rule.

Taking out my sword I sliced the head off one of the husks that tried to slice me. While the husks were stronger than normal human a volume basis, they were very pathetic troops. No form of strategy. Just mindlessly charging at the enemy. Combined with their lack of support and ranged weaponry made them very easily to strip down. It was even easier considering the fact that we had numbers on our side at the moment.

Another husk charged at me moaningly loudly. Now normally I would kill it with my assault rifle and leave it at that. Or I would have left it the drones to do their jobs. However there were two reasons why I was doing it like this. I was fighting in melee combat because the Education department wanted to document a live hand to hand fight against such an opponent. They already had video logs from the helmet cameras of standard infantry, squad leaders and Captains. At the moment though, they needed video recording of a Colonel.

The reasoning was simple. Ever since the Covenent war all AS infantry armor had been given an major upgrade. However the Best technology usually went to the higher ups. In other words the higher your rank was, the better your armor. Of course the highest that could be sent into the field was Colonel, thus my Armor was top of the line after the ODSTs and Spartans. (1)

The armor made me a giant, standing over 255 cm.

Grabbing a husk by the throat I lifted it up from the ground watching it dangle feverously as it tried to destroy my shields. I would have chuckled if I wasn't being recorded. The shields in body armor were incredibly strong. Even if the husk could successfully deplete it, the armor itself would have made it nearly impossible for it to kill me.

I had wasted enough time. Quickly I grabbed my sword and dismembered the husk, limb by limb. Red Crown wanted a video of someone dismembering a husk. It was probably something they would show at high schools during Alien studies. Not that I cared. I was just following orders.

The sensors recognized pressure being applied to the hands and quickly followed suit. 50 milliseconds later the suit crushed the throat of the husk. I wasn't even applying 20% of my strength outside of the suit. This was pitiful. How the hell did Commander Shepard consider these things his enemy? The Reapers themselves were a massive joke.

Ripping the skull off the husk I inspected it making sure that the video was recording. It was. Tossing the skull over my shoulder I sheathed my blade before slicing the third and final husk my men had brought me.

I slashed the husk with my diamond sword cutting through the circuitry in its body quite easily.. Diamond was a common substance from 55 Cancri. (2)

For a minute I continued recording the three husks I had killed in melee combat. Even a person with a bow and arrow can kill these things. After noticing no movement from the husks I gave the signal to my men to destroy the bodies. Resheathing my sword I walked away.

After a society learns the value of a bladed weapon they never forget. Neither should they forget the value of video. I questioned Commander Shepard's actions. In fact most of my superiors considered him a joke. After all who doesn't record their engagements? It was standard procedure in the UNSC for the past 400 years. Video evidence was crucial as it typically demonstrated and showed details that the witness generally missed or hid.

The Alliance itself was joke in my opinion. Over the course of the Equestrian War, the AS and the Imperium were the two fractions that were doing the heavy lifting. Reapers died in the hundreds to our weaponry. Sure many Officers of the Citadel council considered us primitive for using projective weaponry.

I ignored them for that. Why mess with what works? Superheated rounds did far more damage than Mass Effect rounds and they were not constricted by heat or maintenance. In fact it was joke to the AS. Firing 50 shots and then waiting for the weapon to cooldown? Give me a break. In that 6 seconds any 20th century assault rifle could have killed the Alliance Marine 10 times over.

The Covenent weapon heating problems were easily solved once the UNSC got their hands on it. In fact they increased in lethality. After 10 shots from sniper rifle the extra heat was transferred to the plasma, temporarily making it hotter before being shot out.

I walked into the tunnels. Several Guardsmen and troopers saluted me as I passed by. I nodded curtly at them before reaching the meeting room. The moment I walked in, I noticed two things. Two Star General Jackson was in full body armor and the Pyran Dragoon General was here. I felt my blood boil just from looking at him.

"Colonel," nodded my superior as I saluted him in full body armor.

"General Jackson," I saluted .

"At ease. I find that you have the footage for me?" he questioned.

Nodding simply I transferred the data to him through my neural link. The base had a secure lien that I was using at the moment. A flash of light covered my eyes before they subsided.

At the exact same moment, Jacksons eyes flashed showing that he had received the recording.

The Pyran Dragoon General looked at us for a minute before barking.

"If you low-born mongrels are done with your technology fueled fucking with each other ,"

"That's enough!" shouted Jackson silencing the man. It was obvious that he was forcing himself to not smash the General's skull against the table like they taught in boarding school.

"We are here to discuss joint operations, not to mock and belittle each other," growled Jackson, "If you can get over your "high born superiority" complex," air quoted Jackson.

"We can easily return to the subject at hand."

"Ah yes," snidely commented the General, "My apologies. Perhaps we can discuss how my infantry troops can aid you by … might I say… handing your ass on a silver platter."

I growled through my suit but refusing to let his comments rile me up. Hitting him would cause a major engagement in camp. That was something the Tunnel Rats couldn't afford at the moment. If I so much as slapped him across the face the entire Pryan Dragoon division would fight back to redeem their commander's honor. That would lead to outright war as the message would spread. The AS couldn't afford that.

Infighting would tear the entire planet apart as the fascist, overly zealous and fanatically religious Imperium fought the social liberal, negotiating and atheist AS. None of us could afford that. The AS was fighting a major war on one front. It didn't need another.

"So you're willing to put honor before reason," sarcastically replied Jackson.

"My soldiers can easily defend this xeno planet with or without the Emperor's aid," The general arrogantly continued, "In fact I don't see why you are even here. We all know how easily the Reapers can be defeated"

Well he did have a point. The Reapers were a joke. Still I preferred the Ork Hunters or the Cadians. They weren't openly xenophobic and were pretty competent. The Pyran dragoons … not so much.

"Ah yes … Reapers. The invincible, immortal sentient starships alledgedly attacking Equestria," I joked, "I have dismissed that claim. All I see is scrap metal."

Jackson smiled slightly before continuing his argument with the General.

Note: Force dispersal meant that there was 50 soldiers per kilometer square of Manehatten. In other words at the moment there was 6,000 soldiers fighting in the city.

I'm not making fun of Bioware but I've written is nothing but the truth. While they did make a Brilliant game the military aspect of it in general was a total failure from a tactical point of view. I'm just saying. Anyone who wishes to argue their point may got the

"Peace and Isolation Forum"

more information or a diagram of all four armor types go to: art/Some-Interesting-Battle-Suits-288541347

. There is a diamond planet. The AS don't have to worry about their materials anymore. By the way the only reason why the entire planet hasn't been mined is because of the sheer difficulty of taking the diamond from the planet in universe..