Western Front/ Champagne/ German Sector/ January 3rd/ 1917

"Ugly, incoming!" Yelled a storm trooper as he dashed out of the barracks of his trench.

"Watch out!" Yelled a Bavarian before he opened fired on several of the creatures trying to flank the man with his Mauser Bolt action rifle.

The bullets carved through the heads of two of the creatures causing their green blood to spill inside the barracks as the stormtrooper ran out. However just as he made it to the exit of the barracks where the Bavarian was covering him, he got an acid beam straight to his leg causing him to scream in pain before getting dragged back in by 3 of the creatures.

"Get them off me! Get them off me!" He screeched as he was dragged away.

The Bavarian quickly dashed through the trenches leaving the man to his fate.

"Somebody Help me! Is there anyone there!" He yelled as he dashed across the muddy trenches.

He heard a familiar buzzing sound as several of the creatures landed in front and behind him.

"No! NO! NO!" He yelled in terror as he fired at them with his rifle killing another 2 before he was jumped on by multiple of them and cocooned.

Hidden from view, and in one of the latrines private Klaus watched this all happen. He clutched his Lunger pistol which he'd stolen off the body of an officer. "Shit." he internally thought.

He peeked back out watching as the creatures finished cocooning the Bavarian. He felt another sharp pain run up his leg as he looked down at his bleeding and broken knee.

He was physically trembling. The forward trench had been one of the first to get overrun though the creatures seemed to have not killed all of his comrades. They seemed to want to leave some alive to hunt and kill off. Also to cocoon some it seemed. He didn't want to know what the cocoons were for. He would make a dash to no man's land if he could but with many of the creatures still flying about, he wouldn't make it far at all.

He coughed out some blood. He tried to bandage his wound a bit more with parts of his uniform he'd ripped off, but it didn't seem to do much.

The wound was getting worse and worse.

He took another peek and saw that the creatures were gone. He'd need to go out to get bandages if he didn't want to die in this tight and awful smelling room.

He silently took a step out of latrine and began to limp his way deeper into the trench system.

[b]Western Front/ Champagne/ French sector/ St Hilaire Le Grande/ January 3rd/ 1917/b]

Miles coughed as he rode on the transport truck along with his French comrades and those in the foreign legion. He'd joined the foreign legion to serve France, kill some Germans, and make American proud. The Germans had been going about slaughtering civilians in Belgium.

(The rape of Belgium saw German soldiers commit mass executions on Belgium civilians and burn down multiple towns).

What he didn't expect was to end up fighting some Insect Pony looking Hell spawn. He'd been one of the few to escape the chaos at the Frontal Trenches unscathed. He then had to fall back again as the secondary line collapsed several hours after the frontal lines. Now they were in full retreat.

They had been lucky to be just ahead of the advancing creatures. Or maybe the creatures had slowed down their pace to mop up any stragglers still in the 2nd and 1st line. Either way, as long as those creatures didn't get to them Miles was fine. His company and the French battalion with them had been ordered to link up with several other units at the town of Jonchery to assist in playing a part in the formation a 3rd line of defense to halt the creatures. This new line was supposed to run throughout the entire region he'd heard though he doubted they would have had even time to form this line had not those creatures slowed down for whatever reason.

He'd heard rumors that those creatures had been cocooning men they forcefully captured. For what evil purpose he didn't know but he could only let his imagination run with what was happening to those men in these supposed Cocoons.

He looked at the men around him. All his comrades were exhausted from days of fighting and retreating. The trucks continued to move forward and began to enter the abandoned town of St Helaire De Grande. The town had amazingly been spared of the fighting that had occurred in the region before and after these unknown hell spawn invaded. He laid his head back to enjoy another small nap before they made it to the 3rd line of defense.

As he began to close his eyes, he heard a loud boom and then a "Holy shit! One of the trucks is down!" from the driver before the driver screamed. "Wait! No! No! No! shit!"

A beam ripped through the truck killing the driver and 3 of the men inside as the truck the crashed into something.

Miles vision then went black.

He then regained eyesight as he saw several bodies of his comrades in the truck. He coughed out blood and tried to crawl out of the truck which was tilted to its side. He felt himself be picked up and carried by one of the French soldiers who was alongside his company.

His vision went black and then back to normal for a bit as he was carried out of the truck. he could hear chaotic shooting and screams of "Medic!". He also heard the sound of the acid beams.

They were ambushed. The creatures had already gotten to the town.

He internally cursed his luck before feeling himself be set down by the French man. He weakly pulled himself up.

"You are ok Lt." The medic of his company asked as he wrapped a bandage across his bleeding head.

"Y-yes..." Miles said weakly as the medic assisted him in fully pulling himself up.

"Quickly take this rifle and move!" One of the French soldiers shouted in broken English before dashing to cover as he was bleeding from the legs. Miles caught the bolt action rifle before looking over and seeing the creatures shooting down with their beams at the remains of the convoy and melting men alive.

He and the 4 remaining men alive in the truck he was in dashed towards a house as acid beams fell upon them. He manages to take a shot at one of the creatures on a roof as the rest advanced towards them, also getting shot by some of his comrades. Their green blood tainting the roads, and buildings of the town as well as the blood of his comrades.

They took cover inside a small house. 2 of the men with him quickly broke the glass windows and began to shoot out of them at the creatures while the Medic checked him up. He peeked out one of the windows as saw a French soldier be impaled by the horns of one of the Hell spawn insect pony creatures. Specifically, the ones with that blue armor. The French soldier was tossed aside like dirt by the creature and onto the floor. The French soldier reached out with his hand towards one of the buildings before his body went limp.

"We need to make it towards the other side of town." Miles said weakly as he pointed at the buildings near where the road led out of town.

"You suggesting we make a run for it, sir?" One of the men shooting out of the windows said.

Miles nodded before coughing out more blood.

"Ok let's go. Medic, cover the Lt he seems to have been injured more than us from the crash." The Corporal with him said.

One of the men on the windows opened the door slightly and looked out. The rest of them waited for the signal.

"Ok let's go!" The man in front of the door said as he full opened it and dashed out followed by Miles and the rest of the men.

The dashed across the warzone the town had become jumping over the bodies of his comrades and the creatures alive. The creature's bodies either had just 1 or 2 clean bullet wounds or had been mutilated by hundreds of bullets ridding their faces and bodies in some twisted macabre painting. The bodies of his comrades and the French were worst. They had several bots of their helmets melted into their heads by the acid or had entire sections of their faces, chests, or legs melted off revealing bone.

The smell was also awful.

He heard a scream as one of the guys behind him had been hit square in the chest by an acid beam. He screeched in agony as it melted through his uniform and into his skin. Miles was forced to duck and roll as an acid beam barely missed his head followed by one of the larger beams that had destroyed his and the other trucks up ahead.

He then looked up and saw something unbelievable.

Several Bi planes from the French Air force had arrived and began to lay absolute waste onto the creatures. There machine guns sounds deafen any noise around them as they tore several of the creatures to shreds. The creatures caught off guard flew in every direction panicking as they were slaughtered. They were peppered with bullets until they became mush.

He then saw some of the planes begin to swoop more downwards as their pilots chucked small bombs and fillets.

(Small arrows that were thrown out of planes by their pilots in First world war to maim any soldier down below.)

The bombs went off and Miles's way thrown back by the explosions only to be lifted up by the medic and carried to another house. All he could hear was ringing in his ears. His vision once again alternated from regular to black as he watched the chaos unfold as he was carried away.

He opened his eyes once more and saw himself be laid down on the wooden floor of one of the houses. The only person inside with him was the medic. He hoped the others had found cover or had escaped somehow. The medic looked back at him before heading out of the house to either escape or rescue more people. Miles couldn't care less at this moment. He closed his eyes enjoying the feeling of getting a good long-awaited rest.

Even if it was in the middle of a warzone.

Western Front/ Champagne/ Boucanville/ 1 day earlier/ 1917

Thorax relaxed on the side of one of the walls inside the house he and some 90 Bipedals had taken shelter in. He had tried to change back into his changeling form when they were asleep to see if maybe he could turn back but it didn't work again. He did not know why he was still holding out for hope. He was stuck like this.

But...It was not that bad actually. Having these strange claws allowed him to hold some kind of weapon given to him by the Bipedal with the golden patch of hair on his face and eyepatch. The Bipedal's were awfully kind and had shared with him some water in those canteens of theirs as well as their rations.

He was nervous about one thing though. He would now have to kill his brothers and sisters. He was a soldier now in the Bipedals armies even if he could not understand their language and even if they could speak very little Equish. They found a common way of communication through hand gestures though and these things were awfully smart. Smarter than even his brothers and sisters and probably the Queen herself in that regard.

One thing he had to give to them once again is how suborn this species was. They were tough. He'd seen it firsthand, and He still awoke with nightmares from hell he'd experienced in those first days of the invasion before he ran into his circumstances.

They fought like beasts. Using whatever they had to beat, shoot, or slash at his brothers and sisters. He still struggled to stomach the brutality this species brought to the table. He could easily see how one of these rugged soldiers could easily overpower a royal guard in one and one combat. The Royal guard Thorax had taken into account when he played his part in the invasion of Canterlot acted more as prison wardens. They most of the time seemed to attempt to capture their enemies rather than kill them. Maybe it was because of the Pony's belief in friendship or some line of code in their training that held them back from being lethal. But in the end what made these Bipedal soldiers so much more deadly than the guard was their willingness to kill. To kill without any hesitation. Maybe it was because they had faced more hardships or maybe it was because they were a predator species.

This species' main drawback however was that they were extremely weak to magic. Changeling magic on Pony's only injured or knocked them out yet it had an awful and horrific acidic property on these no magical beings. It was saddening to say the least. At least their weapons most of the time guaranteed his siblings a painless death. On the other hand, his siblings magic led to these bipedal's suffering a horrific and sad death.

He still saw the half-melted face of that Bipedal he killed. Thorax wanted to cry.

He gently let loose a couple of tears as he tried to sleep beside his new and unlikely allies. Would he be able to stomach killing his own people.

Louis POV:

Louis awoke to the sound of muffled crying. The night watch Jaques and an African were looking at the window and shooting looks of pity at the American they had picked up. He was crying as he lay down on the wall of the house they were in.

The American in question was a young lad. The American was in his late teens, and he had dark hair and most strikingly his aqua colored eyes. The American was clearly unprepared for the realities of war or maybe he had seen some action but wasn't prepared for the horrors the creatures brought.

The Young man was an enigma. It was established by how clean his uniform was and by his looks he was a new recruit in the foreign legion. Louis had managed to get a name out of him after much struggling to try to show the English speaker what he was asking. He got Thorax as a response.

Odd name.

One could not think about such pleasantries, however.

He went over to the crying American and offered him some water from his canteen to which the young lad accepted.

They had all lost something in the war. However, they seemed to have now lost even more with the invasion from Hell spawn insect things.

Louis took out his lighter and ran it along his cloths to kill off any ticks he might have. He heard them popping and saw red dots appear all over his dirty and bloody uniform.

He then heard something that sent shivers down his spin. Buzzing.

"Wake up! Wake up!" He whispered as loudly as he could to the others. They were all on the second floor of a large mansion they had occupied in the town.

Jaques and the African had also clearly heard the buzzing as they were doing much the same. They then heard a crash and heard multiple footsteps on the first floor. He could only assume the few soldiers were keeping watch outside the house and on the 1st, floor was already dead.

How had the creatures gotten so close to them so silently?

Louis grabbed his Chauchat light machine gun and positioned it on the railings of the stair leading to the second floor and aimed it down wards. Several other soldiers also got into position. Louis signaled for the American to stay back with his hands before taking aim once more.

"Anyone, see anything." One of the soldiers whispered as he looked down below to the first floor. The man did not have time to react as he was nailed in the head by an acid beam causing him fall on the floor crying in agony.

"Get back!" Jaques yelled.

Louis and the other soldiers did not need to follow the corporals' orders to know what they had to do. Several more acid beams came flying upwards and hitting the roof before they stopped. They heard hissing as they heard footsteps coming up the stairs.

Thorax's POV:

Thorax heard his siblings yell "Push upwards and kill or cocoon the bipedal's" as they moved forward.

While the Bipedals couldn't understand his sibling's language Thorax very much could. He clutched the wooden/metal thing that shot out those projectiles in his hands.

He really would have to kill his siblings. He shivered at the thought and held back tears. He knew the basics of how to use it based on how he saw them used by the Bipedals in front of him. Just keep the trigger aim it at a target and fire he told himself.

He saw one of the Bipedals whose name he learn was Jaques based on what the other Bipedals called him in their strange language. The Bipedal named Jaques quickly took aim with his weapon and fired it at one of his siblings climbing the stairwell. He heard it all.

"This, hurts! Why does it have to hurt this much!" He heard the sibling who Jaques shot screech.

"Fucking assholes!" Another one of his siblings screeched.

"By the Queen not even the royal guard use such vile and brutal weapons!" Another one of his siblings yelled.

He then heard Jaques yelling what clearly were slurs down at his siblings as they tried to push upward but where shot by him or the other Bipedals.

He then saw the magic of his kind go once again into action as he beams went upwards and hit Jaques in the arm causing him to fall back in pain.

Jaques POV:

It burned. It burned a lot. Jaques could already feel the acid from those foul creatures burning though his skin as he tried to keep himself from crying due to the pain. It hurt like hell. He could hear the sizzling sounds of his skin being melted off as the medic with them tried everything he could to circumvent the acid.

Jaques felt his left arm go numb before he saw that the acid had burned through it completely cutting it off from his body entirely.

He felt himself go into shock before his vision went black.

Louis POV:

Louis saw his friend Jaques go down and then begin to cry in agony as he watches the acid tear through his friend's arm.

Louis quickly grabbed his light machine gun and dashed in front of the stairwell catching the 6 or so creatures going up it off guard. He presses the trigger and fires as a burst of bullets from his light machine gun tears through the creatures like butter slaughtering them.

There were even some among the creatures who had that blue armor. How while the blue armor protected them from the initial burst of machine gun fire it did not protect them from the second as their armor was finally ripped to pieces and their bodies went limb.

"Push downwards and kill the insects!" Louis barked as he got a cheer from the men and a nervous look from the American as they pushed down the stairs.

"Grenade!" he barked as one of the men behind him nodded and chucked a grenade down into the room by the bottom of the stairs. They heard screeches as the any creatures left in them were killed off.

They moved from room to room and cleared out the mansion.

Other than the battle at the stairs Louis and the men with him couldn't find any more of the creatures.

They won. They had just won their first battle against the creatures.

It felt good.

Louis felt deep in his heart that the tides would begin to turn very soon. Yes. Very soon.