Western Front/ Champagne/ Changeling General Headquarters/ Near Somme Py/ January 11th/ 1916
General Drax. The Changeling in charge of the invasion of this new land, the man who had led the successfully retreat from canterlot ensuring the survival of the Queen and thousands of soldiers, favorite of the Queen as both a General and consort was whimpering away and crying in his quarters. The Bipedals had been on the run for a week they were bruised and never supposed to recover. No pony could recover from such losses. Such military defeats in Equestria would warrant a response by the elements. Yet these Bipeds had no magic god or heroes on their side. They simply turned around and plowed through his men in a counterattack. His army was faced with a massive push by the Bipeds in gray and a slowly forming pincer by the Bipeds in blue.
General Drax had gambled in this invasion and had lost. He was a dead man. If the Rapidly advancing Bipeds didn't kill him the queen would for sure. It took his forces 8 days to gain all the territory they had and the lives of thousands of drones, honor guards, and soldiers. However, such losses were at the time as disturbing as they were seen as acceptable due to the number of losses they inflicted on the Bipeds which always up to this point 2x that of what his forces suffered with some exceptions. Now suddenly and without warning the tables had turned.
5 days ago, the Bipeds began their counter attacks. First it was the Bipeds in blue regaining 2 towns on his left flank as well as a strategic hill in a matter of 17 hours. Then the Bipeds in Grey launched an all-out attack across their front and utterly shattered any and all resistance his forces could have put up. First came that weird yellow mist they unleashed which killed nearly 4,000 drones and honor guards. Then they unleashed if reports were true around 12,000 of those Bipeds in masks. Their elite soldiers. Only 8,000 of his soldiers were semi ready to counter this push yet they melted away as the Bipeds surprised him once again. He didn't believe the reports until he saw the carnage himself.
They unleashed a wrath greater than that of Cesteslia. The enter northern front went up in a series of explosions that wiped out hundreds of his drones. No place was safe. The already scared land they were fighting for was churned up. The Bipeds in masks then charged out from their ditches and within minutes the entire front collapsed. By the end of that day half of their gains had been reversed.
In the south the Bipeds in blue choose to go for a different approach. They advanced slowly and methodically. They made small leaps to take land. They advanced at a slower pace than the Bipeds in gray but inflicted just as much devastation. He had also gotten disturbing reports of giant war machines of pure metal that rolled forward and crushed any in its path. Normal Changeling magic blasts only left small burn marks on the war machines. Most of the Honor guards and their more destructive magic he'd withdrawn them from the southern front to try to stem the tide against the Bipeds in gray.
Like the Bipeds in gray the ones in blue also deployed what was now being nicknamed the wrath of Celestia. 4 days had gone by since the disasters. The Bipeds in blue were gaining the courage to make larger leaps in their unstoppable pincer movement. After destructive fighting the Bipeds in gray were closing in on his Headquarters'.
They made sure to ensure no one escaped the ruined town they were helmed in at by deploying the wrath of Celestia around the town to prevent anyone from getting out. Running or flying out of the town was a death trap as you would simply be their one moment and be turned in green mist the next moment.
Drax could hear the chaotic fighting taking place within the town itself as he whimpered away and lamented in the basement of a house that had now turned pile of rubble.
His last orders for the day were for his staff to join in the defense of the town as the walls closed in around them.
He heard the loud banging and popping sounds of the weapons the Bipeds used getting closer and closer. He could now clearly make out the screams of the dead and dying. Most on his drone's side.
The once dark basement was illuminated when sunlight entered through the entrance. He heard foreign voices speaking as the sunlight got brighter
"Sieht aus, als hätten wir eine kleine Ratte gefunden"
(Looks like we found a little rat)
Drax saw the formed of 3 Bipeds entering the basement where their projectile weapons trained on him. 2 of the 3 were wearing spooky masks. They were definitely part of the elite core of the Bipedals in grey. He got the first-hand experience in seeing these spooky Bipedals in grey up close.
The one without the mask seemed to be a regular soldier in the Bipeds in grey army. The Bipeds with the mask carried shorter projectile weapons while the regular soldier carried a longer variant. The regular soldier was grinning sadistically at Drax's plight.
"Nicht so großer und furchteinflößender neuer Dämon" it said grinning. Its language sounded rough and loud.
Drax doubted he could win in this fight. Even if he had armor, they would simply open up on him and he'd be littered with whatever those weapons shot. He had also heard of the fighting prowess of the Bipeds in melee and close quarters. He didn't want to risk it. He went for one final gamble to save him from certain death.
"I surrender" he said in flawless Equish. Hopefully they understood Equish.
The grin on the regular soldier's face was gone and the masked man tensed up.
"Es spricht Englisch." One of the masked men said speaking up. It was unnerving to see the masked elite soldier speak so calmly and also so much like a regular pony or changeling even if Drax had no idea what it was saying.
The regular soldier then barked. "Hol dir einen verdammten Übersetzer, der übersetzt, was dieses Ding sagt" (Get a fucking translator to translate what this [i]thing/i] is saying.)
The regular soldier looked back at Drax in a condescending manner. It looked at the once proud General of the Changeling army as if he was nothing more than dirt.
One of the masked Bipeds dashed out of the basement and returned some minutes later with another Biped. The Biped was another one of the masked Biped elite soldiers. This biped carried with it a bloodied crud mace. The mace was made up a fat piece of wood shaped into a club shape. The wood had nails and spikes jammed into it. The mace was also stained in the blood of his siblings. Drax shivered at the thought of what that mace was used for.
"Ist das der Wichser?" The masked Biped asked his comrade to which his comrade respond with a clear hint of sarcasm.
"Was denken Sie?"
The Biped in the mask then raised his hands in mock surrender as he muttered something before walking over to Drax.
"English?" the Biped in the mask asked as it got close to Draxs face. The lens on its mask looking into Draxs fearful eyes in a haunting and soulless manner. So that's what they called Equish. English.
"Y-yes" Drax said fearfully as the Biped with the mask looked back at his other masked comrades and the one regular soldier.
"So, repeat what you told my comrades here." The Biped said in a rough accented Equish.
"I-I s-surrender that's what I said." Drax said
"Rank and name?" The masked Biped asked sharply as it dropped the mace and pulled out a sharp and large knife.
"D-Drax I'm a general in the Changeling army." Drax said nervously. He swore he could see the Bipeds eyes flash from under the mask.
"You led invasion?" The Masked Biped asked as he placed the knife tip at the edge of Drax's throat.
"Y-yes." Drax said. He was close to pissing himself.
"You are lucky your value as an intelligence source is so great considering your rank. That is the only thing that keeps me from gutting you do you understand." The Masked Biped said coldly and harshly.
"Y-yes..." Drax said scared for his life.
"Bring mich weg von diesem erbärmlichen Stück Scheiße" The masked man said to his comrades as he got up. The others nodded and pointed him off.
Then the regular soldier walked up to Drax and slammed the butt of his weapon into Drax's face knocking him out cold.
Western Front/ Champagne/ French sector/ Near hill 185/ January 12th/ 1917
Captain Jocke Pier and the battalion under his command advanced north along the Sedan Road. Their boots created a crunching sound as they walked over the snow that littered the land as well as the bodies. He straightened out his moustache and removed the blood that was on it from his Battalions last engagement on hill 164. To their side lay the impressive hill 185. Alongside the roads and the hills there lay the few remaining greenery of the region. Several pine bushes lined up alongside the road.
A cold breeze whipped around causing him to let out a small shiver as he walked. Alongside their battalion a journalist followed. The man had been following his battalion since the initial invasion by the hell spawn and has snapped a photo of Jocke and his men processing the hell insect spawn thing prisoners they had taken on hill 164.
Jocke then stopped and gestured for his battalion to do so as well. On the edge of what he believed was hill 171 which was a couple hundred yards ahead and down their lay a white roman temple/ gateway.
"By god." He muttered.
He spotted thousands of insect creatures battered and retreating across it to whatever hell they came from. He quickly wrote this down and the exact location of the gate way before handing the note to a runner and ordering him to run back to inform high command. This was a major discovery.
"Alright, we need to secure ourselves on the hill and entrench before those retreating creatures spot u-" His orders were cut off by a loud boom as the back column of his soldiers exploded as several gigantic green beams flew through the air and landed. Men were torn apart. He saw a man cut in half by one of those beams as his two halves flew and splattered guts and blood all over several of the soldiers.
"We get to cover now!" Jocke barked as his soldiers ran into ditches, behind the pine bushes, and some destroyed stone walls near the hill. The beams continued to fall ripping the men who hadn't gotten in cover in time to pieces. The once peaceful road was turned into a paste of mud, burning pine, dead bodies, and churned up earth. Then from behind the hill Jocke saw their attackers hundreds of the creature's elite soldier wearing their distinctive dark blue armor yelled a battle cry in their own language before galloping down the hill.
Jocke, who was in a ditche with some of his let out a curse before raising his sword and blowing his whistle.
"Give them hell! Ils Ne passeront pas!" He yelled.
"Ils Ne passeront pas!" They echoed back before opening fire from behind their crud cover taking down several of the creatures down before they were upon them. The ditch on the side of the road facing the hill was almost immediately overrun as the creatures charged in and clashed with the small squad of soldiers defending it.
The creatures were soon upon his position, as well as that of the soldiers behind what remained of the stone wall.
One of the creatures jumped in headfirst tackling a man before biting into his neck. One of the creatures tried to tackle Jocke but he hit its nose with the butt of his sword disorienting it before he shot it at point blank with his revolver. All around him cause unfolded. One of the men was giving a creature a good Wack with his rifle butt. Another bayoneted a creature in midair as it dove down to kill him. The creatures' guts spill over the man's face.
A man got impaled through the chest by a creature's horn, another was blasted by acid and went down in agony, another man used his brass knuckles fitted with spikes to slash open a creature's neck.
Jocke Slashed ones face open with his saber while shooting another with his revolver. One almost got the jump on him from behind but one of the soldiers fighting beside him hit it across the face with his shovel breaking the creature horn. That man who saved him soon went down as he was hit in the chest by acid. Another man was impaled through the head by a creatures horn as it cut the man's head in half.
One of the creatures lunged at Jocke but he shot it with his revolver before stabbing it through the chest killing it. As he pulled his sword out the creature's chest another kicked him with its hooves causing Jocke to fall down face first into the mud.
As he tried to get up the creature brought its hooves down on his head and slowly began to crush it against the floor. No! No! He wasn't dying like this, not now. He thought as he squirmed around panicking then a shot rang out. The creature who was crushing his head was shot clean through the head. Its body slumping down.
"Il's Ne Passeront Pas!" several voices cried out as the men who had been battling the creatures from behind the stone wall charged out and slammed into the ones grappling for control of the ditch he was in. They leaped into the ditch carrying rifles, hatchets, bayonets, and combat knives.
Jocke got up dazed as he watched the men sweep through the creatures in the ditch. One brought a large combat knife down on a wounded creature trying to escape. Another rifle butted a creature in the face breaking its nose. The creatures in the ditch began to panic under the counterattack and Jocke joined in.
He decapitated a creature trying to flee before going to grab a rifle with a grenade attached to it. As he fixed the grenade to ensure it was steady for when he fired it into the mass of retreating creatures, he saw a shadow loom over him. He swiftly turned around to see a creature about to blast him from the top of the ditch with its acid beam horn thing at point blank. Jocke, however, was faster and fired the grenade from the rifle directly into the creature's chest. The creature's eyes widened as Jocke used his right arm to cover himself as the grenade went off. The creature exploded into two pieces of its skeleton slamming into jockes arm as he hissed in pain. Its guts and blood also splashed him.
He painfully removed the bone pieces embedded into his right arm when he could before fully get up and stumbling to join his men. He picked up his saber with his left. At that moment he whispered a prayer thanking God for making his left his dominant arm.
As he climbed out of the ditch, he saw the roadside littered with the bodies of his men and the enemy. One of the remaining creatures tried to get the jump on him as he climbed out, but he slashed open its neck causing it to fall back.
"Get the Hockiss machine gun set up!" He barked weakly as what was left of his men nodded and got to work setting up the Hockiss machine gun they carried with him. Several more creatures had diverted from retreating across the gate to assist their comrades in their failed ambush.
"The guns set up!" One of his men yelled as it was set up on the road.
"Good. Blast away at those Hell spawn." He said coughing
The man manning the machine gun nodded and began to fire away. The advancing creatures were cut down in droves. In the background several of his men still fought to clear out the ditches along the road that still had 1 or 2 creatures.
The creatures who had been running and flying to aid their comrades soon broke and ran under the machine gun fire. Several of those running up hill 185 met a sad and surprising doom as a large flame engulfed the hill. Tens of them burned while the rest watched in abject horror. From the top of the hill emerged the Germans armed with flamethrowers and smirking at the terrified creatures.
The creatures began to run in the opposite direction as they were shot at by his men and the Germans.
One of the Germans soon yelled down at Jocke and his men in broken French "My French brothers what took you so long!"
Jocke let out a laugh before yelling back "Friends then!?"
The German nodded.
"Watch the music play out!" He yelled back as hill 171 and the areas around the gate were engulfed in explosions as the German artillery came into play. Jocke watched as the panicked and disorganized creatures panicked and ran in all directions. Some entered the gate while others scattered in other directions as they were gutted by artillery shells.
Jocke, his men, and the Germans walked up to each other. For 1, tense minute the soldiers on both sides stared at each other before breaking out into tears, and hugging each other. Unknown to Jocke, the Journalist with his battalion would snap a picture of the moment. This picture became one of the most famous of the great war as well as the most famous of the Champagne incident as it would later be called.
It showed French and German soldiers hugging, posing, and chatting about as at their feet lay the bodies of hundreds of dead creatures.
The photo was titled as "Le vainqueur" which translates to "The victorious"
Thorax:
The Bipeds called it the war to end all wars.
But all it did was mark the beginning of the end of Equestria's golden age.
A new species was on the rise.
A scrappy and suborn young species still trying to figure their place in the world as well as now Equestria.
Following the beliefs of Nationalism, Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, and Militarism. Ideals that had once been foreign to Equestria.
The first species in the history of Equestria and the world to be brave enough to build entire nations on nothing but ideals.
Even if half the time they weren't ready to exactly live up to such ideals.
In 1917, as the Bipeds call it Thorax and his siblings marched across a gateway created by their queen to fight in a foreign land. To find a new species to gain love from to finally defeat the Pony's.
However, all they did was ensure the end of Equestria's and their own golden age.
They went by many names.
The Bipeds in Blue, The Bipeds in Gray, the Bipeds in Brown.
The Griffons would later call them the men of Iron.
His species, however, called them The Hellfighters
They spent the next 3 years in constant combat in Equestria. Longer than any army in Equestria Pony's or Changeling.
In that time, they never once surrendered to the enemies or gave up ground without a fight.
They became one of the most decorated militaries in Equestria.
Despite being seen as contradictions to the will of Friendship by the Pony's. As lowly apes by the Griffons. As barbarians by his own species. Despite everything The Pony's, his own kind, and every other species threw their way to wipe them off the face of Equestria. Despite being set up to fail.
They not only stopped Tirek but also drove back the invasion his species launched on their kind all the way back to the main hive. And when all that fighting against whatever Equestria threw at them came to an end. They were the first of any species, of any army, to force Princess Celestia to concede the field.
End of Arc 1. Arc 2 will cover the international reaction to the invasion, the journalist that took place, what happened to Thorax and the other characters after the blood bath at Champagne. The Arc after arc 2 will cover the counter invasion.