Chapter 1
Operation: Burning sky
Dereggnash, terran zone: 6:00 12/06/135….
Armour: online
Weapon systems: fully functional
Shield: fully charged
Awaiting command…
Command accepted…
Ready to deploy…
Good luck miss twilight…
Twilight sparkle fell out of TH-X1 airborne deployment craft, Toppling for a few moments before her retroship exhausts pushed her into a straighter decent. The air howled past her, reminding her of an old friend that used to like flying. Forgetting the fall she turned her gaze to the blue sky around her, she had forgotten how beautiful it looked. A few more seconds and she breached the ash layer.
"Squad…I've entered the ash layer…sound off and get ready for combat"
The squad sounded off one by one as twilight readied her combat blade and a few force spells, even though they would still have about five minutes drop before they came into range of any terran guns, There had been reports of WMD squads picking off airborne unicorns. Twilight thought of rainbow dash again, wondering how she was. She dismissed the thought trail as she spotted an opening in the ash.
"Clearing the ash layer now…push it hard and fast, none of you want to find out what griffins do with prisoners they don't need"
Twilight folded her legs back and rocketed towards the blazing inferno before her. The terran zone of the city had once contained the structural marvels only earth ponies could build but now, after countless bombing runs and street fights, the whole place had turned into mass of rubble, glass and death. Fires ravaged the skeletons of once great buildings, causing the iron supports to buckle and turn. Twilight raised her hoof and studied the screen in front of her, they we're on target and in few minutes they would be trough the terran guns field of view, from then on it should be clear sailing to the objective. They were lucky they hadn't run into WM-
A high pitched scream resonates from twilight's comm system
She flips on her back to find the largest griffin she seen bearing down on her. He is gaining but still too far for a spell. Twilight raised her right hoof towards the threat, the small shield that incased her foreleg flowed with purple energy and with a satisfying crack the main weapon system unloaded its deadly payload. A single projectile screamed through the space between them leaving a purple trail in its wake. The solid magninite round punched through the rib cage of the griffin giving him a split second of shock before it exploded deep inside his chest and spraying the air around him in a fine red mist. His body tumbled past twilight but she hardly even noticed, she gazed in horror at what was befalling her squad. Griffins swarmed them, tearing ponies apart, this wasn't a battle I was a meat grinder. As she watched a white mare a few meters above her was beset by two griffins, before she even had a chance to react, they ripped the mare's head away leaving her decapitated body flailing in the high speed winds. Twilight cursed herself, she couldn't remember the name of the new recruit that join her squad only a few days ago…this would have been her first jump.
"CAPTAIN!...we're getting slaughtered out here"
Twilight focused on her second in command, blaze. He was faring a little better than the others on account of the HV-113 heavy repeater strapped to his arm instead of her standard issue semi-automatic TF-2 assault carbine. He criss-crossed the ash clouds with a hail of tracer rounds. Griffins plummeted around him, either too injured to fly or lacking vital parts of their bodies.
"Squad…fall pattern delta…engage thrusters at two hundred meters…we're gonna cut it close"
Her remaining squad shot through the griffin formation, making a b-line straight for the landing point. Six hundred meters the terran guns opened up. Twilight was not sure if they had been spotted but the large griffin hoard swarming behind her squad had surly gained their attention. Long range flak shells whined through the air before bursting behind her, showering the griffin's unprotected wings causing massive damage. The griffins finally got the idea in their skulls that a small unicorn drop unit was not worth losing you wings and pulled off as one. Two hundred meters.
"Engage thrusters…get ready for close combat"
Two thrusters on twilights back flared, the superheated air had a slight violet ting to them marking the use of her magic like the rest of her armour systems. She hover briefly above the ground before switching her thrusters off completely and landed on the cement street with a dull thud. This part of the city had not been hit so badly but evidence of fighting could be seen all around. Twilight immediately ran for cover, hiding behind a large stone block that used to be the base of a statue, scanning the ruins for any potential threat
"Captain…awaiting your orders"
Twilight turned and sighed. She had been afraid of this. Out of the twelve ponies that jumped only three remained. Blitz, the other survivor, was the brother of blaze but you would have never guessed. Where blaze was large and muscular, blitz was skinny and lean. Like his brother, blitz did not carry the standard issue. Instead he had a L0-N9 sniper rifle or 'longbow as fellow marksmen called it, which was linked to his helmet giving him extreme accuracy.
"We complete the mission…blitz I want you in those buildings…shoot only on my order…we don't want to attract any unwanted attention"
Blitz nodded and began sprinting towards the nearest doorway.
"Blaze…left side…I'll take point…watch the subways…I heard diamond dogs operate out of them"
Even though diamond dogs aren't allied with any ponies, they still joined the fight. Fighting for fighting's sake. Twilight jogged down the foot path, watching for any signs of an ambush. It was to quiet…there should be fighting close to here. Twilight was in her own thoughts when she rounded the corner then her mind went blank when she saw what lay before her. The street she came to chilled her to the core.
"Captain? What is-"
Both ponies gazed in horror at what they saw. Ponies…ponies of all shapes and sizes, military and civilians were everywhere, mutilated beyond all recognition, some had clearly died very painfully while others had been…eaten alive. Blood formed crimson pools and rivers, collecting in the gutters. Heads of ponies lined the street on long wooden stakes, silently screaming in their death. Parts of ponies not lucky enough to have the rest of their bodies were thrown into a pile in the center of the killing ground. The sound of blitz being sick was clearly audible in twilight's helmet.
"Alright…captain let's just back out of here…slowly…whatever did this couldn't be too far away and might come back"
Both ponies started backing out of the street, never taking their eyes off the surrounding buildings. Blitz could still be heard being sick somewhere, twilight felt the same way with only her extreme focus keeping her food where it was supposed to be. She gave blaze a side long look, his stony expression gave twilight no indication of how he felt. Blazed suddenly tensed up and redirected his aim at something. Twilight followed his gaze to a small mound of ponies. She stared for a long moment before noticing what caught blazes attention…something was moving.
"P-please…h-help m-me"
Twilight found the source to the noise. A small green unicorn lay propped up against a wall. Her left leg was missing and her cutie mark was cut away. Her body was covered in cuts and bruises. She lifted her hoof, begging the two soldiers to come to her aid, before losing strength and letting it fall again. Twilight rushed towards her.
"Captain we can't help her…she lost too much blood and we're hours away from any friendly medic corps"
Twilight spun around and gave blaze a stare which would have done fluttershy proud. Again she got lost in her thoughts for a brief second before returning to the coming argument.
"AND YOU WOULD HAVE US DO NOTHING?...this unicorn needs our help…what we have seen here today will stick with us for the rest of our days and I personally would like to walk away from it feeling like I at least saved one of these victims"
Twilight turn and kept walking, complete dismissing any retort blaze might have had. She looked over the fallen pony. Blaze was right she had lost a lot of blood but twilight still felt like she should try and save this pony's life. She began bandaging the pony's wounds and using her healing magic to seal some of the major wounds. Blaze joined her, silently healing the internal bleeding. Twilight hated having to pull rank on him, he was her friend and didn't like forcing him to do things. They had nearly finished bandaging the mares leg when-
"I've got movement…north side, big red building…I can't make out what it is wait one…more than one target…defiantly not one of ours"
Blaze immediately took up a firing position covering twilight, switch to burst rounds as he did. The wounded mare shifted and tried to move but twilight held her down and shook her head. The mare grabbed twilight and pulled her close
"G-go…y-you still have t-time to get a-away-AGGHH…b-before…before they c-come back"
Twilight turned back to the street. She could see the movement now, large hulking figures stalked the shadows of the building. She turned back to the mare
"Who did this…whose coming back"
More shadowy figures appeared in other buildings. Gleaming eyes tracked the ponies.
"Captain…I think we should to get out of here"
"Who?...who did this?"
The mare shuddered, reliving the horrors that befell her. She pointed her hoof at the buildings
"D…d…d…"
A figure slowly came into the light. Twilight instantly recognized the creature stalking slowly out of a ruined door way.
"Diamond dogs"
The dog stepped out fully into the light of day. He was clad in armour that looked to be made up of parts he just found lying around. Around his neck was emblems of the three nations, taken from their owners as they clearly no longer need them. In his hand was an elongated spear made from a steel pole and part of a sign that had been sharpened till the wind wined as it passed over the blade. Others, similarly dressed and armed, started coming out of their hiding places, growling and making cat calls as they came.
"R-run…PLEASE…I d-don't want you to d-die for m-me"
Twilight turned back to the injured mare.
"I will not leave you behind for…them"
"Aww to that's too bad pony"
Twilights head whipped around, coming face to face with the ugliest diamond dog shed seen. He exhaled right in her face, his breath smelt of death. Twilight quickly brought up her weapon but before she could use it, he back handed her, making her sail across the street and crash in to a wall of the adjacent building. Twilight's world blurred and went silent. She watched as the diamond dog smiled at her before bringing his foot down hard on the mares head, crushing her skull and causing a pavement to break apart. He had a few seconds to gloat a twilight before turning in to pile of red goo. Blaze was going full auto on the oncoming hoard. The sensors in his bullets triggering a few feet away from their targets and burst into a torrent of deadly shrapnel, slicing their way through the diamond dog ranks. A dog got behind blaze and charged him, ready to impale him with a long piece of sharpened wood, then his head evaporated and his body fell life less to the ground. Blitz came into twilights view, screaming something at her but all she heard was soft mumblings. The back of her head felt warm, she stared at a blitz trying to make sense of what he was saying.
"Captain?...captain can you hear me?...TWILIGHT! Are you all right?"
Twilight nodded and groggily tried to stand but failed and slumped back down, her body ached. Blaze was holding his own but was fighting a losing battle. Streams of diamond dogs poured out of their hiding places, boiling on to the street in a mass of fur and metal. Blitz ran back to help his brother, failing to notice the falling object screaming for his blood. The blade came crashing down, slicing blitz in two. The dog didn't even have a chance to claim victory before being cut down by a few ill aimed shots from twilight. Blaze stared at his fallen brother's body, ignoring the on rushing tide of diamond dogs. Tears welled up in his eyes before being replaced with utter hatred. He dropped his heavy weapon and un-sheathed both his short combat swords. He turned and changed the hoard, screaming his hatred at them. He disappeared into the mass of bodies, never to be seen again. The roar of an engine cut through the air. A single armoured car screech around the corners and opened up on the diamond dogs, pulping the ones that got to close. Twilight began to black out, she would surly die this day if not by diamond dog in their hunger then defiantly at the hoofs of the terran army. The sounds quieted, all twilight could her was the slamming of a door and the sound of hoof steps towards her. She slipped into unconsciousness waiting for her life to end.
"Well ah'll be an apple in a pear tree. Twi?…is that you under them armour plates"
A/N
AARGGH dialogue the bane of my life. Yes folks, apple jack has found twilight. I based all the unicorns tech off the space marines from the war hammer 40k universe(just the basic ideas not major ones like warp travel and what not) and the diamonds dogs off fallout raiders. The terran still need ideas for their tech but I should find be able to find something in my room but if you have ideas of you own please share. Planning next chapter about twilight and apple jack so any tips you can share would be appreciated. Also did anyone get the feeling that the action move to fast or wasn't as good as it could be? Maybe it just me but if not give me a shout and tell me if I'm doing something wrong. Still needing ponies for the Great War so feel free to give me yours(I'll ask you if how I put them in the story suits you before I publish anything). Unfortunately if any one got attached to blitz or blaze I am sorry but they will not be returning to us R.I.P. that is all from me please review and give me tips, I am still new to this so give me anything you got good or bad. That is all from me and grimlock see you next time
-vintage dragon
