The war is on. This admittedly is short and not the best I could've done, but I needed a filler chappter.
I hope you guys enjoy!
A Clone trooper knelt behind a stone on Equis, breathing quietly as an enemy squad passed him by. Beside him, also trying to stay out of sight, was an Equestrian pegasus, a Mobain cat, a Skylander by the name of Gill Grunt, a UNSC Marine, an Earthbender soldier, and a Huntress from Remnant who was let in on the secret war. The Clone looked over the stone at the army, then dropped down and spoke in a low tone.
"Flood and Droid soldiers. No more than a hundred each," he said.
"Flack. I wouldn't expect hell to break loose, but it certainly ain't no cake walk," The Pegasus snarled lowly.
"They must be scouts," the Marine suggested. "The Flood especially usually come in groups ten or twenty times that size."
"Pfft! I've handled far more Grimm than that back in Remnant," the Huntress scoffed. She was a mongoose Faunus with a set of rope darts and a sword that doubled as a shotgun.
"Now's not the time for a pissing contest," the Clone Trooper stated. "Scouts travel in groups when reporting back to a superior officer generally. We'd best follow them."
"Agreed, but let's call it in first," the Earthbender, a man by the name of Wong, suggested.
"That sounds good to me," the Mobain cat, a female that went by Frisky (no joke!) added. Having reached an agreement, they activated their coms and called it in.
"Blue team stalking scout group," the pegasus spoke into his com.
"Copy that, Blue Team," the voice of Red came over the coms. "Stay out of sight if you can and report to us whenever you find anything we may need to know about."
"Will do," the Pegasus, Gunnery noted.
"They're on the move, sir," the Marine, McGuffey, whispered. The droids and Flood combat forms had started moving off in the opposite direction of where Blue Team's allies were located.
"This ought to be fun," Wong said as loudly as he dared.
"Keep it down Wang," Gunnery snarled impatiently.
"It's Wong," the Earthbender snapped back, thankfully much softer than last time. They then followed the enemy scouting party at a distance, keeping within cover as they shadowed their enemy. Eventually, the scouting party came within sight of an enemy base hidden among the thick foliage that covered the landscape. Everywhere they looked, enemies could be seen. Droids getting armed or repaired, Flood infesting dead carcasses to gain a new combat form, trolls from Skylands building machinery, and even Eggman's Badniks scurrying about with some task in mind.
"By the gods..." Autumn gasped.
"It's a whole army right under our noses," McGuffey whispered.
"Flack," The Clone muttered. "This is bigger than we thought."
"Looks like we'd best get ready for one hell of a fight," Gunnery remarked.
"Wait a minute... Who's that?" Frisky pointed to two figures side by side, walking through the middle of the camp. One seemed to be an aged man, his head covered by a hood to hide his face. The other was an eighteen-year-old male youth with brown hair, blue eyes, and an evil grin. Whenever they passed someone, the enemy soldier either saluted or bowed in fear.
"That man in the hood... I don't know him. But the youth..." Frisky gasped. "If the descriptions Princess Twilight provided are accurate, that's TD himself!"
"Bad. Bad bad bad bad bad bad," Gunnery grumbled. "This is the attack on Saddle Arabia all over again."
"What happened there?" the Clone asked.
"I was the only one who made it out alive," the Pegasus answered. Autumn cursed under her breath, while Frisky and Wong looked scared. Gill Grunt kept silent, but he was eyeing the area warily in case one of them spotted them.
"This is Blue Team. We've discovered an enemy base just about a click to your southeast. Over?" McGuffey whispered into his coms. "TD is with them."
"Shoot! This is gonna be tough..." Red's voice came over the coms.
"Not to worry," the Doctor's voice added, coming in on their conversation. "I've got something nasty for him if it comes to that."
"Stay put. We'll come to you," Red ordered. "He'll sense you more easily if you're moving about too much. It's best you stay where you are for the time being."
"Well I'll be ground up and grilled," Gunnery grumbled. "We've no sweet fragging idea how long he'll be here, we could be stuck here for days."
"We'll just have to wait it out," Autumn admitted. "Taking him on is suicide."
"Quiet! They're saying something..." Wong motioned. They all listened as the two figures came into listening distance.
"...are going according to plan," the elder figure said to TD. "We should be ready within the next hour to proceed to Phase Two."
"Excellent work, Lord Sidious," TD replied. "I knew I could count on you. But don't throw away Order 66 just yet; there is still plenty of time for our work to go south, and it's best not to put all your eggs in one basket."
"Plenty of time indeed, you sick son of a glitch in the incubating system." The clone snarled.
"That was almost good, almost," Gunnery rolled his eyes.
"Isn't Sidious that guy whom your Jedi friends claim is the Sith Lord you've been looking for?" Autumn asked.
"Yeah," The clone nodded.
"Well, that's just swell," the Faunus grumbled. Just then, TD looked upwards and seemed to get a guarded expression.
"Sound the alarm! We're under attack!" he shouted. No sooner had he spoke than a large missile barrage landed on his position and destroyed scores of the enemy in the area. Soon after, Republican, Equestrian, Mobian, UNSC and Elite soldiers started rushing in upon the camp. The enemy may have been caught off guard for a moment, but they recovered fast enough to retaliate with a counterattack. As fire was exchanged between sides, Red the Hedgehog was seen in the chaos approaching Blue Team. He skidded to a stop in front of them and flashed a mischievous smile.
"Sorry we're late chaps!" he quipped. "Traffic was murder."
"Excuses excuses," The clone sighed.
"Nevertheless, it's smashing time!" Red grinned. "We have reason to suspect that TD has some hostages here. While he keep them occupied, you guys see if you can find some prisoners here."
"How about in that hatch?" Wong pointed over to... what appeared to be normal ground. That is, until he used his Earth Bending to reveal a hidden staircase.
"Nice going," Red complimented. "Alright, you know your job, troops. Godspeed!"
They nodded and headed for the hatch.
"Ladies first," McGuffey said to Autumn with a playful bow.
"Lady?" she smirked as she walked by. "You must be thinking of someone else."
"Just go. It doesn't matter who goes first, grow up," Gunnery muttered. Down under the fighting, a tunnel was seen that descended into the depths of the earth until it stopped at a large room. Inside were several civilians from many of their universes, all bound and gagged. Tears were in the eyes of many, and when they saw Blue Team enter, they looked so relieved.
"My goodness! Why on earth would he want so many?" Autumn asked no one in particular as she freed some of the captives.
"He- he's going to do some kind of ritual on us to steal our life essence!" one of the captives, a unicorn mare gasped.
"I think I'm going to be sick," Gunnery remarked. "C'mon, we've got to help these civilians."
"Let's move! Evac should be outside!" McGuffey shouted. "Let's move, people!"
The civilians all nodded and rushed to the exit, Blue Team making sure to keep an eye out for stragglers. Outside, the battle had not decreased in intensity, but there wasn't as much activity in their general area. A squad of UNSC transports landed near the hatch to pick up the civilians. On one of them was the Master Chief.
"Is that all of them?" he asked Blue Team.
"Appears to be," Gunnery nodded.
"Good. The convoys can take it from here," the Chief replied as the last of the civilians had been placed on the transports. He stayed behind with them.
"Permission to join your squad, sir?" he asked Gunnery.
"We need all the help we can get." Gunnery muttered. The Chief nodded, then readied his weapon, a UNSC Battle Rifle.
"It's game time, fellas!" Autumn shouted gleefully as she charged into the fray with the others.
The battle was a victory for the heroes, and the price they had paid was minor for the time being. However, during the confusion and heat of the battle, TD and Sidious both had managed to slip away unnoticed. The checkpoint had been a vital defensive position some twenty miles away from Canterlot. Had the enemy been allowed to keep that area, they could've launched an assault on the city unopposed. Thankfully, the combined forces of the heroes' armies managed to repel the enemy forces and claim the outpost for themselves. Once they had managed to secure the area, the leaders discussed their next plan of action. Since only the Chief, Red, and The Doctor were present at the outpost, the rest of the leaders communicated through holograms.
"This is disturbing news," Celestia noted over her hologram when she heard the news of the base so close to her palace.
"If they can set up a base that close to us without our knowledge, what's to say that they won't be able to hide elsewhere?" Jay demanded.
"We'll need some way to keep an eye on each world so we won't be caught off guard like this again," Ozpin suggested. Being relatively new to the plight the others, Remnant had only recently gotten in on the councils.
"We've got the mixed teams we've been recruiting," Red pointed out, "I've also got Phantom Squad to help out as well."
"But that'll only help us for so long," Ford pointed out.
"And who's to say they'll be able to respond in time?" Stan added. "We can't rely on them alone; as much as I hate to admit it, they can only do so much."
"Hmm... Cautious, we must be," Yoda stated. "Vital, our decision will be."
"I agree," Windu nodded. "Our fates all hang by the decisions we make."
"Satellites," Sokka suddenly piped up, then looked to Admiral Hood. "You say that they can send pictures from space down to the planet below?"
"Say, that could work!" Jasmine agreed. "Then we could use these... communicator things to alert our troops!"
"But we'll need teams to be monitoring the satellites at all times," another Jedi pointed out.
"The Candy Kingdom has plenty of able-bodied... men that are up to the task," Princess Bubblegum remarked. "We can assemble the crews in just 15 minutes!"
"Nia and I can help out there too!" Tails suggested.
"Okay, we've got a system running. Now we need to put it in action!" the Doctor remarked.
"Affirmative. We'll stay down here for the time being to mop up what hostiles may remain in Equis," Red stated. "The rest of us will keep an eye out for trouble. If they so much a sneeze, we'll hit them fast and hard."
"It seems we're all agreed," Celestia noted. "Then I officially declare this meeting to be adjourned."
"May the Force be with us all, always," Mace added quickly before communications were cut off. Red sighed.
We'll need more than the Force at this rate, he thought to himself. They've been popping up too frequently over the past few months. At this rate, we'll need a miracle...
The Blue Team thing was an idea I'm intending to do on occasion during this volume. It's supposed to give a sense of the unity they're trying to go for in this alliance. Also, because I'm cheeky that way, I may have a few pairings involved in that area. No promises, though.
The next chapter should be focused more on the plot, so until then cya next time!
