Nigel laughed joyfully as he cut down the group of griffons he had surprised, the twelve creatures too occupied with investigating the two bodies Nigel had removed from the house to notice the arrival of the human before it was too late. Four had died as projectiles entered them before detonating, tearing off limbs and rending chunks out of their bodies. Of the other eight two charged Nigel with swords at the ready while the rest turned and fled into the air.

The first charging griffon, clothed in metal chainmail learnt the lesson of wearing a helmet when a bullet from Nigel’s pistol entered his skull and blew the back of his head out. His comrade faltered at the sight and Chalmers capitalised on this, his un-occupied hand formed into a claw as the armoured limb punched through light leather armour halting the shocked griffon in his tracks. Not missing a beat the Commander turned his pistol on the fleeing group off griffons, cutting down all but one as he shot them in the back with no mercy. As the bodies fell out of the air Chalmers re-focused on the griffon whose chest was currently serving as a hand-warmer.

“Sorry bud,” Chalmers quipped with absolutely no remorse as the griffon’s mouth opened and closed in shock as he stared at the hand, “but I’m completely heartless towards slavers.”

Nigel clenched his fist, crushing flesh and the hybrid’s heart with the strength of his armour. A torrent of blood erupted from the creature’s beak as his eyes widened and his mouth opened in a silent scream before falling limb. The Commander shook his hand and discarded the corpse upon the ground, pausing to crouch next to the boy as he wiped and cleaned his hand on the griffon’s leather vest. Standing back up he continued down the street filled with houses leaving a pile of bodies behind him. Popping out his sidearm’s energy clip he placed it into a slot on his waist for recharging as he slammed in a fresh magazine.

“Working nine to five, what a way to make a living,” Nigel sang to himself as he strolled down the middle of the street doing a little three-sixty spin, “killing all of these fools, really keeps me grinning.” Most of the houses on this street seemed untouched, multiple eyes staring out at the dancing biped with terror. A griffon at the far end of the street was trying to force his way into a small house, the frantic movement behind the windows evidence that it was already occupied. The griffon panicked as Chalmers drew closer, the hybrid desperately increasing his assault on the sturdy wooden door of the white house.

Nigel waited until the griffon turned around to attempt to observe how much closer he had gotten, already having raised his handgun towards the creature. He smirked as the creature’s eyes widened before the human’s gun roared and the door was given a new paint job, cranial-style. Loud booms in the sky drew his attention, three pods much larger than any already on the ground screaming down towards the ground.

The ground rumbled a little as the metal boxes impacted outside the city walls throwing up a cloud of dust and debris. Nigel stood in the middle of the street staring at the direction of the impacts, his killing spree forgotten as he mulled over which tools of destruction could have joined the fun. The answer came as a long, wailing siren that sounded like the air-raid warnings from the old terra wars rang out, the first soon joined by two more in a chorus of woe and despair. Chalmers grinned under his helmet, recognising the siren and the machine that produced it.

‘Well, lots of people are about to have their day become much, much worse.’

Stevens rose up from behind the battlements on the wall, the massive upturning of dust and dirt dying down as the tremors subsided. Out in the fields three new objects had appeared, tall oblong pods with a tapered tip at the top having slammed down from the skies. Each pod was about four times as large as the ones that had delivered the Foxhounds, the massive drop containers groaning as their front walls lowered to the ground as steam bellowed out concealing what lay within.

If the arrival of the Foxhounds and Stevens’s flamethrower had surprised the numerous combatants then it was nothing compared to the sheer awe that the impressive structures invoked. Ponies, griffons and minotaurs alike ceased fighting as the front ramps crashed down the ground with booms. Stevens was standing with a group of fifteen battered pony guards that he had organised into a roving kill-team, before the new arrivals they had been swiftly defeating all opposing forces by a combination of overwhelming numbers and co-ordination as provided by Stevens.

“What… what are they?” a young unicorn guardmare with a bleeding gash above her right eye questioned Stevens. The wraith didn’t answer at first, three towering forms emerging from the steam covering the pods. The ground shook slightly as a large five-toed claw dug into the earth in front of the lead pod, the foot itself the size of a small house.

This was followed by a second as a large tan walker made its presence known, the machine six times the height of the Foxhounds that were roving ahead around the wall. It was far bulkier than the scout mechs, a large armoured torso mounted on two heavily-armoured bipedal legs that were themselves twice tall as a Foxhound. The legs were jointed the same as the knees of a human, a ‘head’ stylised in the shape of a leering skull with its mouth open in a scream with two eyes that shone with baleful light.

The walkers’ torsos looked far more human-like than their smaller counterparts, multiple weapons ports and arrays squeezed in amongst armour plates covered with white writing and scenes of war. Each machine had two bulky arms laden with weapons attached to armoured shoulders with golden plating covering the armour. Camouflage was not really a concern to the designers of the battle machines; intimidation factor was considered much more of a boon. The three advanced out of their pods and stood still for a second before the lower jaws of their skull heads lowered even further.

All across the city and surrounding area thousands shuddered in terror as three mournful wails originated from the skulls, an aural omen promising misery and torment as the mechs sang their song while raising their weapons towards any enemies still moving in the fields.

“Those there are Fellreavers, pony,” Stevens stated as his unit of guards broke their gazes to look at the human. “Evidently some general up with the fleet decided that this battle was taking too long.”

“What do you mean?” an Earth pony stallion questioned as he shifted his armoured helmet. The mechs answered this question for Stevens, large cannons mounted in the right arms glowing an eerie blue before discharging at multiple groups of enemy soldiers.
Thunderous blasts echoed out as superheated plasma vaporised entire platoons along with large chunks of land, the heat of the weapons able to be felt from the walls. The initial glows of the impacts were too bright to look at without eye protection, blinding some of the griffons and minotaurs that were close to the impacts. The fighters atop the walls took a few moments for their vision to clear and when it did everyone was horrified at what remained in place of the targeted warriors.

Nothing.

Great craters of what seemed to be glass were all that was left, the heat of the plasma scorching all traces of the enemy soldiers away into nothingness. The wails still emitting from the skulls stopped, replaced by electronic soulless laughter that chilled the souls of all that heard it as the metal beasts started to unleash their smaller weapons upon isolated enemy forces, rockets launched from racks mounted in chests exploding amidst troops while rapid-fire laser turrets unleashed a storm of energy bolts upon lone soldiers.

This show of force had the intended effect, with cries of despair the griffons and minotaurs still left alive on the walls tried to flee. The griffons shed armour and weapons to take to the skies, some being brought down by pulse-laser weapon fire from within the city while the majority of the flyers escaped into the horizon with their lives. The minotaurs were not so lucky, their only options being a wall of pony weapons or murderous metal giants. As such they died in droves, a few surrendering while some chose to attempt to flee past the mechs. The defenders upon the walls let them go, detaining the ones that has given up while moving to attend to the many dead and wounded.

Stevens and his team, the guards’ hatred of him forgotten during the battle watched as the Foxhounds, moving extremely fast for something that large intercepted the minotaurs that had fled across the field. A few accurate bursts of laser weaponry from the scouts wiped out the majority and convinced the remaining survivors to surrender immediately, the minotaurs throwing down their weapons as the Foxhounds watched them with barrels spinning.

“Kneel on the ground and place your hands upon your heads!” a voice boomed from a speaker attached to one of the ‘hounds, “any attempts to move or escape will result in execution!” The hybrids complied with haste, roughly forty following the commands of the Foxhound squad leader. Seeing that the situation was under control the group of guards dispersed as the sounds of battle faded away leaving the melancholy atmosphere of the after-battle cries of the wounded.

Stevens didn’t stop to help the Equestrians attend to their own; the battle for the city still wasn’t over as proved by the sounds of energy rifle discharges in the distance. The corporal checked his weapons, having found his rifle just before the Fellreavers had landed. That the rifle was still in working condition despite the hit it had received was testament to the quality of the weapon. He had three energy magazines fully charged and his sidearms were all in working order. His arm-blade was bloody but still in working order and ready for more use.

Satisfied that none of the tools were going to blow up mid-operation the wraith moved off by himself towards the closest sounds of fighting, ready to add more notches to his kill-count.

Lucky Sweep huddled with his wife Cinnamon and their daughter Pepper behind an overturned market cart as the human soldiers fought against griffons barely three metres in front of them, the bipeds firing their deadly weapons whenever the large group of griffons attempted to charge them.

The soldier guarding them, ‘Rosenster’ as the human had been addressed by her sergeant would duck up from her position beside the three ponies and fire off bursts of blue energy occasionally. Three times the soldier had removed a rectangular part of her weapon that was near the grip and place it onto a free slot on her armour before grabbing an identical box and inserting it back into the weapon. Lucky Sweep assumed that the boxes, coloured the same tan as the weapon, served as a some source of power.

After leaving their original hiding place the group of three had followed the human troops as the bipeds cleared street after street, brutally and swiftly putting down any griffons that had the misfortune to be found. At one point the group had happened across a second ten-human squad, all of the soldiers garbled in the exact same armour and sporting the same weapons. The two squads had paused at a crossroads for a few moments, nodded at each other and then went their separate ways. Lucky Sweep had lost sight of the second squad as they had rounded a corner, the female soldier escorting them rushing the ponies along when they had lagged behind.

The humans had entered many houses; Lucky noticing that many of the dwellings had been occupied with nervous ponies glancing out of windows after the troops had left. When questioned, Rosenster had told him that ‘our orders are to eliminate all griffons, not stay in houses and guard ponies.’

Sweep had decided that reminding the soldier about the fact that she was currently guarding them was not a good idea; Rosenster didn’t appear to like them much already.

Lucky peeked through a small gap in the cart, his view of the street obscured partially by one of the soldiers firing their weapon from behind some debris. What he could see however was chilling, a few dead griffons lying on the cobbled road after they had been caught out in the open after a horrifying sound had filled the air a few minutes earlier. Sweep and his family had also frozen at the wail before the griffons had been spotted and the three had been pulled behind the cart by a few soldiers.

The humans hadn’t reacted at all to the demoralising dirge, seizing the opportunity to kill a fair amount of griffons before the remainder had sheltered behind walls and rubble. These griffons had crossbows and had been trading shots with the humans ever since, the humans not moving up as multiple alleyways dotted the street that held the threat of ambushes.

Sweep jerked back from his peephole as a crossbow bolt impacted a bare inch from his head, Rosenster noticing before aiming her weapon at something behind Lucky. He turned and saw that some griffons had appeared in the windows of a double-story house, possibly the creatures had been hiding until the right time to ambush. Why they had tried to shoot him over the humans he couldn’t work out.

The three ponies crouched down even lower as the human moved in front of them and crouched down on one knee, shielding them with her own body. The three Equestrians watched as the solder calmly took three crossbow bolts to the chest, each projectile ricocheting off as they impacted against her evidently strong armour. Rosenster aimed at the window where the bolts had come from, the griffons ducking out of sight to presumably reload their weapons.

The Equestrians watched as one of the soldier’s fingers moved to a second trigger further towards the barrel of her weapon, the trigger attached to a grey rectangular object under the weapon’s main barrel.

Rosenster depressed the trigger and a loud thump sounded from another barrel sticking out from the object. The faint sound of whistling could be heard before the window sheltering the griffons was blown out with a burst of flame and noise, taking most of the upper-wall with it. Sweep’s ears flattened at the noise as white stone and bits of griffon fell down to the street, Cinnamon and Pepper hiding their eyes behind hooves as they covered their heads and lay on the ground.

Sweep found himself unable to look away as four of the humans broke their cover to race over to the house with crossbow bolts harrowing them. The front soldiers raised their weapons and also activated the underslung attachments as what Sweep assumed to be some form of projectiles crashed through the bottom windows before detonating with a loud bang and a bright white flash. These ones seemed to not be explosive in nature, the four humans rushing into the house. A short staccato of human weaponry firing sounded before Sweep saw the four soldiers take positions behind what was left of the upper floor, the humans using the secured elevated position to further harass the griffon troops.

It looked as if the battle was at a stalemate; while the humans possessed superior equipment the griffons had the advantage of numbers as well as numerous ambush positions. This changed however when a great gout of flame originating from an alleyway consumed a three-griffon fire-team that where hiding behind a house corner. As they shrieked and burnt another griffon violently flew screeching through the air from an alleyway on the right side, opposite to the origin of the flames.

Sweep winced as the flailing griffon impacted against a house with a crunch, evidently whatever had attacked him had surprised him enough that the creature was unable to halt his fall. The griffon lines were thrown into disarray as a large black-armoured human advanced from the alley firing away with a one-handed weapon that tore great rents in every griffon it hit. The most disturbing thing was the singing audible the din of battle and the crack of the new human’s weapon.

“Dun Dun Dun, another one bites the dust! Dun Dun Dun, another one bites the dust! And another one gone and another one gone, another one bites the dust!”

The first voiced was joined by a second as another black human, this one a smaller than the first. It walked out of the alley from which the flame had come from as it fired away with a weapon that was like the ones carried by the tan soldiers, except it caused similar wounds as the first humans one handed weapon.

“Hey, gonna get you too! Another one bites the dust!” the second black human sang with the first, both of them swiftly annihilating any griffons they could see.

With a wave of his hand the human sergeant moved out of cover and advanced down the street accompanied with the remaining four tan soldiers, Rosenster remaining behind the cart with the Equestrians.

All of the griffons were quickly killed, caught in both flanks with a tide of firepower from the front hammering into them as they tried to run. The few that made it into the air were shot down soon after, bangs ringing out as human troops entered houses and cleared them of any hostiles. The sounds of violence soon died down, the four troops that had been firing from the house passing by the cart as one gestured towards Rosenster.

“Let’s go, move it,” she barked at the Equestrians, Lucky pulling Cinnamon and Pepper up as the five troops waited. The ponies were then herded through the street covered with blood and corpses towards the rest of the human troops as well as the two black humans. As they closed in Sweep could make out what the two new humans were saying, the smaller one currently talking to the larger one who was a full head and shoulders taller than the rest.

“… so I said to the bull, ‘well done,’ then burnt that Fucker to a crisp.”

“Well, I knew as soon as I saw the flames that once again you’d gone and done something. How’d the Golden Cans hold up on the walls?” the three ponies stopped and sat down behind a wall of tan troops, noticing that their escorts had halted. The smaller biped shrugged at his counterpart’s question.

“Okay I guess, to be honest most of them just seem really green. Well, that and the fact that their spears do jack shit. Give them some experience and some better weapons and they could perform fairly well. How about you, anything interesting happen?” Sweep wondered why these two were speaking aloud; the other humans seemed to be able to talk between each other silently.

“Well, I killed some guys, a Griffon scratched my armour,” Sweep was able to see a large gash across a glowing red eye that was part of the human’s helmet as the soldier showed it off to his conversation buddy as well as the other humans. “So I gutted him, I jumped off a building, saved one of those bat-ponies from a griffon, landed in a house with said griffon and crushed another griffon just before it was going to kill a mare. Then I proposed a coffee meeting, received an affirmative, walked outside and then killed more griffons. All-in-all a very productive working day in the fine service of the UIP.” The human finished his explanation, the other black biped giving a little clap while the tan troops lined up and saluted when the taller human turned his attention to them.

“Sergeant Hostenburg reporting sir,” the leader of the ten human squad greeted, “Our mission objectives have been completed with the neutralization of the treat in this street. Thank you for the assist.”

“Not a problem Sergeant, I had some free time on my hands and the Corporal here obviously did as well.” The corporal nodded in confirmation, the sergeant gestured back towards the ponies all sitting down in the street.

“We also picked up some stragglers, I thought about just leaving them in the first house we cleared but with their wounds I thought it would be best if they were accompanied by medical personnel at all times.” The tall human looked at the Sergeant for a moment without replying, Sweep wondering if the Sergeant had done something wrong by protecting them.

“Sergeant Hostenburg,” the black human began evenly after his pause, “to my understanding your orders were to secure the city and drive out any enemy forces. Did your orders include dragging along three natives through a combat zone potentially risking the lives of your soldiers merely because you didn’t wish to leave them behind without medical attention?”

“Yes Commander,” the Sergeant replied without hesitation as he stood ramrod straight under the barrage of questions. The Commander once again let silence hang in the air, Sweep wondering just how badly the Sergeant had messed up in the eyes of his superior officer.

“Very good judgement Trooper,” the Commander finally responded, “expect a commendation for going above the call of duty. I assume that you are now heading back to the castle?”

“That is the muster point sir,” the prideful sergeant answered with a nod, “are you heading the same way?”

“I am, mind if Stevens and I here tag along with your colourful group?”

“Of course not,” the Sergeant replied as he turned and started to move towards the castle in the distance, the two black humans joining him at the front of the column of troops as the humans moved with their leaders. The three ponies got up and followed, Lucky Sweep, Cinnamon and Pepper at the back accompanied by two humans. One of them was the female who had been with them the entire time, Rosenster, while the other was not known. Sweep tried to keep his mind off the fact that he was walking along a street soaked in death, the stallion looking up at the unknown human as he walked along.

“So,” he started, Lucky being rewarded with a nod of acknowledgement from the human soldier. “Are those two black humans your leaders?” The second soldier seemed to pause at this, appearing as to judge whether he could be overheard by the group in front of them.

“No they’re not,” the trooper, a male, answered, “They’re ISA.” This was not very helpful to Sweep although the name did sound menacing.

“Spooks,” Rosenster quietly explained, “spies and black ops. The guys who do all of the really nasty stuff.” This confused the ponies who were all listening. The fact that Rosenster had spoken something besides short, forceful orders was one thing; the reasoning that the ‘ISA’ humans were worse was another.

“Isn’t all killing bad?” Pepper softly asked much to the surprise of the two adult Equestrians. Rosenster let out a small, humourless chuckle at the child’s question as her comrade turned his head towards her.

“Yes, yes it is kid. Those spooks are complete psychopaths with no morals though.”

“Alex…” the male soldier warned quietly, “watch what you say.”

“Come on Mohammad, you know they probably wouldn’t mind being known as that. They sang a song as they killed for Emperor’s sake, that isn’t normal.”

“That still doesn’t mean that you have free reign to insult them,” the soldier named ‘Mohammad’ scolded before looking at the Equestrians, “Alex does have a point thought despite her words, whatever you do, do not piss an ISA agent off. I’ve shared a few battlefields with them and that display back there was tame to what they usually do.” The trooper looked forwards as they continued to walk along. “At least these ones don’t seem to be psionics.” Like that the issue was dropped. The humans didn’t elaborate and the ponies did not push for any more information.

Sweep shut up and focused on keeping his hooves out of any blood spatters as he absorbed what he had just learnt.

If these human troops that he had seen efficiently kill at least three times their number in griffons were nervous around the ‘ISA’ humans then just how bad where the black-armoured bipeds?

“Stay inside until the guards tell you otherwise.”

Celestia received grateful nods from the throng of ponies, the hundreds crammed into the castle courtyards as they awaited the news telling them that it was okay to leave. At first the majority of the ponies, the nobility, had been complaining about the changelings and humans sheltering with them. Three of the shape shifters were at the far end of the court yard guarded by a very intimidating biped armoured in black.

Celestia herself had immediately taken control of the situation, working with her guard commanders to move all of the civilians into the safety of the castle walls. The selflessness of the nobles had come to light, the upper class whining about having to stay and sit on grass like commoners. A few nobles, either extremely brave or extremely stupid had even sought to confront the tan-coloured humans that had arrived in their falling metal boxes outside of the walls, the forty soldiers all reacted with restraint as the nobles threw various insults at them. Celestia had become worried when she had spotted a few humans tightening their grips on their weapons, the Princess herself barraged with countless questions from worried ponies.

All of the nobility had ceased harassing the humans however when tremors had been felt, three gigantic sky-boxes landing outside the city. The mournful wails that followed had thrown the courtyard into complete silence, massive giants able to be seen moving outside the city as bright flashes and booms accompanied them. Celestia was incredibly glad that she had made peace with the humans. The thing that worried her however was the absence of her sister, where was Luna during this attack?

Luna walked down the street clad in her old silver armour, eleven of her faithful night guard by her side as they flew and trotted from house to house. Luna’s armoured hooves were coated in a thin layer of gore, the night princess having slain two invading griffons while her guard had claimed eight more.

Something had already gotten to most of the griffons first however, the twelve Equestrians having come across piles of bodies all with holes blasted in them. Some of the holes appeared to have been caused by great heat while others were so large and ragged that it was impossible to tell what manner of weapon could have caused them. The second type of wound did remind Luna of the Diamond dog massacre at Appleoosa, the Princess still able to recall the moment when twenty dogs were cut down in a second.

Her night guard had all performed well, every one of the nocturnes working together to overcome their foes. The few civilians that the group had come across had whispered hurried thanks and bows before scurrying back into houses to hide. The gore that she sported probably wasn’t helping Luna’s image in the eyes of her subjects.

A chorus of griffon shrieks pierced the air as a group of the invaders rushed out of a side alley into the side of the surprised night guards. Luna whirled to her left to face the oncoming foes, rearing up and bringing her hooves down upon the head of an on-coming griffon with a crunch. The warrior went down and her tally rose by one, her guards also meeting the foe with the clash of hoof blade on griffon sword. As Luna moved to assist her soldiers she noticed the desperate ferocity that the griffons launched themselves with. What were they running from?

Luna was answered as a bunch of humans surged out of the alley that the griffons had ambushed from, the tan bipeds led by of the black humans encountered previously. Luna recognized the larger one as Commander Chalmers, the Commander raising a hand as the tan troops behind him raised their weapons at the melee in progress.

“They’re too close,” the human shouted as the griffons that were un-engaged turned towards him in fear. “Fix bayonets and stab the shit out of them!” The tan soldiers’ weapons all glowed blue as long blades of energy extended from below the weapons, transforming the projectile weapons into spears. “Pip Pip Tally Ho!”

With the strange cry from Chalmers the humans surged forward into the melee with their weapons extended. Griffons were caught between Nocturne and human, either dying when stabbed by the night guards or when sizzling blue incorporeal blades cut through even plate armour to cut and burn vital areas within. The Commander was just near Luna, the biped crushing a griffon’s skull against the cobbled ground with an armoured hand.

“So Princess,” he began as he stood up from the corpse, “how’s your day been so far?” He upholstered his sidearm and with two shots blasted a griffon off a downed night guard just as the hybrid was about to finish off the wounded pony. To say Luna was pressed for an answer was an understatement.

“My city is under attack! How do you think it’s been!?” She yelled back with clarity, dodging a griffon sword thrust before Chalmers blew the griffon’s head clean off.

“Great!” Chalmers answered as the allied forces pressed forward, the majority of the griffons dead. “Although I must say I myself am looking forward to the end of this little war you’ve got going on, when it’s too easy all the fun gets sucked out of it.” The human then turned his weapon on a griffon soldier attempting to fly above the fight, four shots ringing out as the griffon’s wings were shredded, the hybrid screeching as it plummeted like a stone and crashed into a large display window of a fabric store. “Okay,” Chalmers conceded as the last griffon soldier was killed by a bayonet trust to its throat, “there’s still some fun to be had.”

Luna didn’t grace the mad soldier with a reply, the princess instead surveying the recent battle zone. Thankfully none of her guards were dead; many were wounded however with a few lying on the ground. Their comrades attended to them alongside a few of the humans, the biped who had killed the last griffon heading towards the most critical injured while opening a case that sported the same red cross symbol as the human’s shoulder pads.

From the alleyway emerged three ponies accompanied by another of the human soldiers, the stallion, mare and foal all trying to avoid looking at the griffon corpses they passed. As they approached they looked up at Luna with awe, the three bowing awkwardly before her.

“Rise, this is not the time for such formality,” Luna commanded, the three returning upright before the soldier escorting them ushered them out of the street and under a nearby café sun-shade. Commander Chalmers walked up beside her as the two watched their respective troops pick up or assist the guards too wounded to move under their own power.

“Well, that’s dealt with,” the Commander commented cheerily. Luna was surprised that the biped was able to remain so chipper in the midst of combat.

“It was, thank you for… assisting us against the invaders,” Luna hated thanking the creature for his help, the Commander must have not noticed the hesitant words as he waved a hand in dismissal.

“No problem, gave the troops something to do after all,” he gestured to the castle behind them, the top of the outer wall just visible from their position. “You heading back to the palace now? From what I’m hearing that group was one of the last griffons in the city.” Luna was a little confused at first but then recalled that the humans had some form of internal communication.

“If there is no more left to fight then yes, that shall be our destination.” Luna glanced at the three equestrians sitting down at the café watching as the night guards and humans worked on preparing to move the injured, all hostility that may have existed between the guards and bipeds evaporating during the combat. “Those three civilians are…?”

“Not mine,” Chalmers answered as he too looked at the three, “they were with the Sergeant before I arrived. I think they got caught out during the attack and were unable to take proper shelter. Two of them got burnt so the sergeant decided to keep them within the vicinity of a trained medical professional."

As if cued the human medic, finished with providing aid to the injured guards and ensuring that they weren’t going to bled out approached the three ponies and appeared to converse with them. Evidently everything was satisfactory as he gave a nod to the watching leaders as two more humans joined Luna and Chalmers. One of them was the second black-armoured soldier with his glowing arm blade still extended while the third possessed tan armour, blood covering his slightly larger two-handed weapon as the human re-sheathed a vicious looking combat knife into a slot on his armour.

“Commander,” the normal human soldier addressed, “everything is ready to go, we can depart for the muster point as soon as you command.” Chalmers turned towards Luna, the other black clad soldier moving to his Commander’s side.

“Ready to leave Princess?” Chalmers inquired. Luna faced the human soldier who had given the news, the biped strangely saluting her and his commander.

“Yes, let us leave this place and return to the castle so we may plan our next actions.” Luna noticed that some of the human soldiers had dragged the griffon bodies off of the street into the alley, pilling the corpses up in the darkness. While it may have been seen as disrespectful Luna guessed that they were only clearing the streets in order to make the post battle clean-up easier, Luna receiving a nod of affirmation from the tan human.

“Very well ma’am, Commander,” the soldier stated to both respectfully as he walked into the midst of his soldiers and the night guards. Chalmers held a hand out towards Luna as he turned towards the castle.

“Shall we depart, my lady? Surely you are looking forward to the end of this war as much as I am, no?” Luna snorted with half-annoyance half-amusement at the Commander’s words; while the end of the war would be welcome she was certain that the human was looking forward to it for reasons different to hers.

Celestia trotted over towards her sister as Luna and a group of humans including the Commander entered through the castle gates. Celestia was shocked at the amount of blood on Luna, however thankfully it didn’t appear to be the alicorn’s. Three ponies with the humans stopped and spoke to one of the tan bipeds, Celestia noticing the soldier give a very hesitant hoof/hand shake with the grey stallion before the three moved off to find a space in the grounds. Celestia waited until she was out of sight of her subjects before rushing forwards and embracing her sister with her wings.

“Luna, I was so worried about you,” Celestia said as the smaller alicorn looked towards the human troops watching them.

“I went forth to protect our subjects, I am quite capable by myself Sister,” Luna felt the need to appear to be strong and protective in front of the humans, it seemed that they respected strength and strength alone. Celestia however didn’t pick up on her sister’s attempt to remain stoic.

“I know, but you will always be my little sister and I should be the one protecting you,” Luna blushed as Celestia said this, a badly stifled snigger followed by a thump sounding from the humans’ direction. The two alicorns broke the embrace and looked towards the sound, the smaller black human picking himself of the ground as he rubbed the back of his helmet. Chalmers was standing with his hand raised in the air, evidently having smacked his subordinate with the back of his hand.

“The Hell was that for?” the stuck soldier complained as the tan troops stood at attention with their weapons pointed at the ground. Celestia noted that all of the humans were covered in large quantities of blood; their assault must have been very successful.

“For acting like a child, let them have their moment.” Commander Chalmers moved past the alicorns heading towards the group of changelings and another of the black soldiers. As soon as he left Celestia swore that the soldier the commander had hit muttered ‘Like you can criticise’ before storming off in the opposite direction. The tan soldiers appeared to silently converse with each other if the head movements were anything to go by before they too departed, heading towards the castle walls as a group.

As soon as all the humans had left Celestia looked at her sister curiously, “What were they like?” Luna frowned as she recalled her brief experience with the humans.

“The yellow armoured ones seem to be their standard military, from what I observed they are highly trained and efficient, they kill with purpose and do not seem to have strong emotional attachment to the act.” Luna shuddered a little, “Commander Chalmers and his soldiers however are a different matter.” Celestia also furrowed her brows.

“They were that bad? I know that they seem to enjoy their jobs a little too much-“

“It was more than that,” Luna interrupted, “The Commander and the soldier with him fought with the ease of drawing breath, I swear that Commander Chalmers was attempting to woo me while he was in the middle of killing a griffon. It’s as if he has no compassion at all.”
The night princess’s frown lessened, her look becoming one of confusion rather than distaste.

“They did stop to help my injured guards however,” Luna continued as Celestia raised a questioning eyebrow, “and they did bring back three of our citizens. How can such callous creatures also almost appear to be as good as our subjects at the same time?”

Both Alicorns looked back into the main courtyard, more human soldiers filing through the gate escorting more Equestrians in various states of wear. Medics adorned with red cross symbols moved throughout the population administrating aid to wounded while normal troopers appeared to converse with groups of Solar guards that entered the castle with them.

Lastly the sisters looked towards the direction that the Commander had departed in, just in time to see a grey unicorn foal rush towards the human commander, Chalmers crouching down and giving the young unicorn a hug. The three changelings also crowded around the returned commander, two seemingly pleased that the human as alive while the third appeared to be worried about something.

“I don’t know how Luna,” Celestia answered as the two began to walk towards the centre of the city in preparation to address their subjects. “I just don’t know.”

“Calm down Horizon,” Nigel chuckled as the unicorn attempted to wrap his forelegs around Nigel’s chest, not even making it half-way due to the human’s armoured bulk. The foal let go and noticed that some blood smears had gotten on his grey coat, his smile fading a little. Nigel acted quickly and withdrew a white cloth from his armour, cleaning the colt off as the three changelings sat down and watched. Boland stood by impassive, his rifle held across his chest as he stared out at the Equestrians watching the reunion. Chalmers noticed this as continued to clean the unicorn.

“You had some trouble from the Equestrians?” Nigel inquired, Nestor clearing his throat as the changeling prepared to speak.

“From what I gathered the nobility took offense to sharing their space with us and a human,” the changeling responded with a trace of hurt in his voice, “a few of them even informed us and Sergeant Boland as the why we are apparently ‘not even fit to walk upon the ground that they do’ and how we are nothing but ‘cockroaches’ while Sergeant Boland was labelled a ‘repulsive monster that belongs in foals’ nightmares’.”

“To be fair,” Boland spoke up as he glared down a noble, the unicorn stallion breaking his gaze and vacating the area, “it appears as if the nobles have been treating even their fellow equines the same. One even ordered a mother and her child off a bench so he could set down upon it.” Chalmers scoffed at this information as he shoved the now-bloody cloth inside his armour, Horizon now free of blood.

“And to think that they call us monsters!” this earned a look from Boland, Nigel missing it as he instead focused scratching Horizon behind the ears.

“Indeed, sir.” Boland replied with his voice as neutral as always. Horizon’s dark blue tail swished as the scratching continued, Reflection alternating her attention from the Commander to the castle gates. Chalmers noticed her apprehension and took a guess as to what was concerning the changeling.

“Relax, Jacobs is fine. In fact his signal shows that he’s just about to turn up… now.” As Nigel said this a battered group of guards, around fifty of the equines, entered the palace alongside the mentioned corporal. The group must have seen heavy fighting, a large amount of the ponies limping or carried in on stretchers. There were even eight stretchers covered with white sheets, even the nobility ceasing their complaints as the procession passed. The guards all headed towards an area of the courtyard that served as the barracks, many waving or offering thanks to Jacobs as he split from them and headed towards his Commander and comrades. A black blur shot out as Reflection made a bee-line for the corporal, the changeling throwing herself into the soldier’s arms as Equestrians watched on in confusion.

“You’re alright!” the changeling gushed as she clung to Jacobs, the young soldier chuckling as he lifted her up into his arms in a reverse piggy back. A noble unicorn mare scrunched her nose up in disgust at the sight, scoffing at the two’s display of affection. Jacobs raised his middle finger at the lady, the unicorn not getting the gesture.

“It means ‘Fuck You’, you bigoted inbred,” the normally civil soldier explained with not a trace of malice in his voice much to the shock of the targeted noble and the amusement of multiple pony guards and humans in earshot. As he walked away Reflection stuck her tongue out at the speechless pony from her spot looking back over the human’s shoulder. Chalmers chuckled at the exchange, feeling no need to discipline his subordinate as the uppity noble got what was coming to her. He stopped his laughter and whistled as he saw the state of Jacob’s armour however, the tough metal bent and dented in multiple places. The soldier’s helm was untouched; his chest however had a large crater in the middle where the protection had buckled inward.

“Yeah,” Jacobs spoke as he rubbed Reflection’s head, “those minotaurs can hit pretty hard. It’s a good thing that their weapons don’t have power-fields otherwise it wouldn’t just be my armour messed up.”

“Much fighting in your area?” the Commander inquired as Jacobs leaned back against the stone wall with Reflection still out in front of him.

“A far amount, unluckily the guards assigned to my wall seemed to be the newest recruits. I assume that whatever clowns are leading this nation’s military thought that keeping all the veterans in the thick of the fighting while leaving teenagers to watch everything else was a good idea.”

“You call the ones I got stuck with veterans?” heads turned to the voice as Stevens ambled over to the group, “I saw one go into shock after she finished one of those rejects off, not even going to start about how their crap spears did jack shit. If those were the vets then the rookies must have been terrible.”

“They weren’t too bad once they started listening to me and doing what I told them too,” Jacobs defended, “They may have been young but at least they could recognise just who had the most experience. I didn’t see a single officer out on the walls at all.” Chalmers smiled under his helmet as Jacobs explained what happened. In his early twenties the soldier was the youngest member of the wraiths on this mission, Nigel having heard that he had been fast-tracked up to the ISA squad due to his intelligence and promising future in command. The fact that he had managed to hold a defensive position aided only by a frankly poorly experienced local force that used to be enemies was testament to his ability.

Chalmers gestured to the mass of nobles strutting around the courtyard with their noses in the air as they passed human trooper or Equestrian ‘commoner’ alike. “All the officers are probably hiding in here or defending their own mansions while their city burns,” one noble in particular drew attention, the unicorn beginning to berate a family of four that had appeared to block his path. “The funny thing is,” Nigel continued, “they seem to be the only ones who seem to think we deserve equality with their working class.”

Everyone except Horizon chuckled, the foal not quite following what exactly was so funny. The laughter doubled when Nigel picked up a small stone and nailed the Unicorn in the flank with the thrown projectile, the stallion crying out in surprise before he and the lectured family looked in the group of changelings and humans direction. Nigel waved politely at the noble, only infuriating the upper-class snob further as the stallion stormed over leaving the equine family behind, all of them, a stallion, mare and two foals of indeterminate gender flashing looks of thanks towards the Commander.

“This should be golden,” Nigel murmured to his companions as the fuming noble fixed him with an irate glare.

“You there, monster!” the unicorn spat drawing the attention of many onlookers, “Is it not enough that you and your kind stink up this city with your noxious presence!? You also have the nerve to bring those parasites,” the noble pointed a hoof at the two changelings sitting next to the commander, “into our midst with nary a care! No, you then also attack me, Lord Gilded Thimble, most influential tailor in Equestria with a dirty rock! What do you have to say for yourself foul beast!?”

Nigel remained still for a second, the noble awaiting a reply. The human turned his head and noticed the dejected looks that Mirror and Nestor had, obviously the unicorn’s remarks had hit them hard. Horizon moved over to the two and attempted to comfort them before Chalmers stood up, the Commander could handle insult directed at him but if the unicorn wanted to go too far then two can play at that game. The noble lost his confidence the second Nigel stood up, the human’s already impressive height made even more intimidating by the patches of blood covering his black armour.

“What do I have to say for myself?” Chalmers began in a neutral voice, “Well, for starters I’ve spent the last twelve hours or so killing a lot of things so I’ll make my rebuttal short, precise and easy for an imbecile such as yourself to understand. I’ll start with some basics,” Nigel pointed down at a bloodstain coating his right fist, the armoured digits clenching as the noble’s eyes widened.

“This is the hand which I used to crush a Griffon soldier’s heart while it was still inside his chest, I could still feel it beat until it finally popped.” Chalmers continued, gesturing to a stain on his armoured boot. “This here is a stain from when a crushed the skull of another soldier underfoot, he was still breathing after I shot him in the back and I didn’t want to waste anymore ammo.” A final gesture was towards the gash on his helmet, the red eye emitting some sparks where the sword thrust had done some damage. “This is the scar I got from when a griffon stabbed me in the eye, needless to say I lived, he didn’t.”

By now the noble was trembling on the spot, the claims even more horrific with the biped’s flat, expressionless delivery. The Commander leaned down until his skull helm was right before the unicorn’s face, the stallion trying to take a step back only to find that his body refused to move out of pure terror.

“Forget all of that however,” the human stated as he pointed towards the city limits, the unicorn able to see the upper bodies of the metal gants which still unleased the occasional rocket barrage or flash of plasma energy. “What makes me really, really dangerous to piss off is the fact that as the current highest ranking officer of the UIP I have overall command of every, single, asset. Be it the troops on the ground,” Nigel gestured towards a squad of UIP infantry watching the confrontation, the unicorn gulping as he noticed the soldiers were also covered in gore, “the machines capable of destroying entire armies outside the city to the starships hanging above your planet in the sky above.”

Chalmers leaned in closer still, his helmet almost touching the unicorn’s face as he whispered to the paralysed stallion. “I could order the complete destruction of your entire planet and every living thing on it, go ahead, insult my comrades and friends, test my sanity if you dare.” Nigel stood back up right as the noble’s mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. The pony remained like this for a while, the noble trembling before Chalmers suddenly stomped his foot on the ground with a loud thump.

The noble, startled back into reality at the sound bolted, galloping away from the humans and towards the gate. The Commander turned back and faced the group as the guards at the gate tackled the unicorn to prevent him from leaving the city as he screamed like a frightened school child. Everyone who had witnessed the tirade, wraiths, UIP infantry, changelings and equestrians stared at Chalmers in shock and silence. The quiet was broken by solitary clapping, Stevens leaning against the wall as the soldier applauded his commander.

“I can see why they took you off diplomatic missions,” Stevens stated before the Princesses approached the group, a black figure almost as tall as Chalmers accompanying them. The human’s armour was far from the plain protection that the wraiths and Chalmers wore, his armour adorned with alcoves containing numerous crafted relics and trinkets much like one would expect to find in a church. Lines of script covered the black plates, the ink a blood red that flowed like red fluid. The figures helmet was elongated vertically, a cylinder atop a blocky helm possessing a grey metal voice grill and two optical sensors, the colour matching the crimson script covering the figure’s armour.

The human held a large open book in his left hand, the ornate leather-bound tome attached to his armour with silver chains. In his right he clutched a large mace shaped like a fist crackling with sickly green energy, looking at the weapon for more than an instant caused searing pain to shoot into the heads of the viewers. Attached to the human’s back was a large ebony tube, the barrel stylised like a leering skull opening its jaw with a trigger shaped like a skeletal hand in the middle. A hose connected this device to a backpack the figure sported, the pack looking like a small chapel decorated with angelic figures giving supplication to the sky.

All in all it was a very intimidating image that inspired awe and dread in equal amounts. Celestia paused as the three reached the Commander, Luna staying the furthest away from the new biped.

“Commander Chalmers,” Celestia hesitantly started, “we found Mister-“

“That’s High-Confessor Dietrich Von Schreiber to you, Unenlightened,” the male figure interrupted with a growl. Chalmers shook his head as Stevens and Boland stepped beside their commander as they faced down the newcomer.

“Great, if this wasn’t confusing enough then let’s just through religion into the mix,” Chalmers muttered loudly before looking at the High-Confessor, “so Dietrich, what exactly is a Mortisum priest doing down planeside? Shouldn’t you be worshiping a grave or something?” The Priest ignored the Commander’s failure to use his title and the disrespect, the Confessor waving his book at the Equestrians that were all gazing at him in fear.

“Why, bringing enlightenment to these poor people of course! They have yet to hear the word of the Lord and it is my duty to ensure that their souls are guided to the afterlife safely and un-molested!” The priest raised his book and arms to the sky as he through his head back. “And the Lord did say that his servants should work to spread his guidance throughout existence!” Dietrich shouted with a powerful voice, “Thus it is with every breath that I share his teachings with all to better their lives and eternal souls!” Chalmers rubbed his helmeted face with a hand as the enthusiastic priest spouted his rhetoric, Celestia and Luna staring at the preaching human in befuddlement.

“Okay Confessor, that’s enough,” Chalmers ordered after taking a calming breath, the priest fixing his red optics on Nigel.

“High-Confessor! I didn’t spend four years on the battlefield issuing last rites to be addressed as a lowly Confessor!” the priest scoffed after he said this. “Trust an ISA agent to not be able to tell the difference between members of the clergy.” Nigel looked like he was about to retort, however Celestia saw her chance to intervene.

“Aren’t you both humans in the same empire?” the sun princess inquired, Detric snorting at her question.

“We are, however it doesn’t change the fact that the majority of the military, the ISA in particular, don’t properly adhere to the battlefield guidelines outlined in the Holy Book!” The High-Confessor explained as he waved the thick tome under Celestia’s nose, the Princess catching glimpses of incredibly detailed scenes of death and battle accompanied by flowing text in shimmering silver ink.

“He means we don’t try to force enemies to repent their sins against the empire before we kill them,” Chalmers clarified for the two confused alicorns, “the Ministry of Enlightenment also don’t like the fact that we use projectile weapons to kill on the battlefield.” The priest de-activated his mace and attached it to his waist as he pointed an armoured finger at Chalmers.

“Everyone, even our enemies deserve the chance at redemption! To deny them that is the height of cruelty and you should be ashamed! As for your use of projectiles to kill that is also wrong! The Lord’s teachings state that only through close-combat or cleansing flame can the vilest Heretics be saved from eternal torment!”

“Look, a prepubescent boy all by himself!” Stevens yelled out suddenly as he pointed behind the priest, the High-Confessor glaring at the wraith unaffected by the attempted distraction.

“That is the wrong priesthood stereotype and merely by associating me with that foul action you have committed a sin. Besides, our members are not required to take a vow of celibacy so such debatched methods are not needed.” Nestor scrunched his face up at the word, the changeling incredible interested in meeting one of these ‘Mortisum’ priests that Nigel had told him about.

“Celibacy?” the changeling asked, Chalmers cutting off the priest before Dietrich could answer.

“The Emperor must have decided that they were insane enough so he gave them that one reprieve,” Chalmers and the priest locked gazes, “I doubt the Lord Himself could stomach what would happen if the only things they could play with were flamethrowers and thems-“

“Commander,” Boland stepped in, gesturing down to Horizon watching the argument with wide eyes. Nigel stopped and bent down, picking the colt up in his arms as the priest hummed with interest.

“Now this is interesting,” Dietrich commented as Horizon stared at him, the colt’s time spent with humans lessening his fear of the Confessor. “Why does this equine treat you like a patriarch Spector?” Horizon gulped at the imposing human’s question, the colt while not knowing the strange word ‘patriarch’ guessed the meaning of the inquiry.

“Nigel’s been looking after me,” the unicorn answered hesitantly. Dietrich’s posture softened as he considered the implications of the young being’s statement. Celestia, Luna and the changelings appeared sorrowful at the reminder of why the foal was in Chalmers’s care.

“What happened to your original guardians?” the priest inquired without the fire that had been prevalent in his previous speeches. Horizon trembled a little before Nigel hugged him a little tighter, giving the colt the courage to explain the circumstances.

“They died,” the unicorn stated softly and simply, the priest pausing as the colt lowered his head. A metal hand reached out and rubbed Horizon’s head, the unicorn lifting his head to see the helmet of the priest staring at him. With a hiss the front face plate lowered, revealing Dietrich’s face. A surprisingly young-looking brown face with dark-brown eyes gazed sympathetically at the young pony.

“I’m sorry to hear that, young one,” the priest responded before his helmet re-sealed and obscured his face once more. The High-Confessor turned and headed back from where the princesses and he had come from. “I must leave you I’m afraid, I have some praying to do,” Dietrich farewelled, Luna staring at the retreating human with worry.

“Is it okay to just let such a… unique individual wander around unattended?” Chalmers waved a dismissive hand as he replied.

“It’s fine, he actually seems to be one of the less fanatical members of the church so it should be fine.” Nigel moved towards the castle with Horizon in his arms, aiming to head towards the Equestrian war room, Celestia, Luna, the three wraiths and the changelings following him.

“Less fanatical?” Celestia asked. The interesting priest certainly seemed very devoted and outspoken to her. Chalmers scoffed as the group entered through the main doors of the castle.

“He’s focused more on converting your subjects rather than burning them while shouting ‘Heresy!’ Trust me, that’s considered restrained for Mortisum priests.”

No more was said on the topic, all parties happy to drop the issue there as they were escorted by guards down towards the war room in the depths of the castle.

“So the counter-assault was a resounding success, the casualty rates on our side were extremely low and the enemy force has been scattered.”

The holographic form of UIP General Mahubi Prasad pointed towards the display shining down upon the large stone table, numerous human and Equestrian officers observing the large holographic map of the city as well as the two Princesses. Chalmers was at the back of the room in the shadows, Horizon still carried by the human under the agreement that the colt would remain absolutely quiet.

“Extremely low?” Celestia responded with disbelief. “Forty-three of my guards are dead and hundreds more are wounded, at least twenty-nine civilians have been found dead and many more are missing! How is that extremely low!?” Celestia was visibly upset with the General’s statement, the deaths of more of her subjects playing havoc with the normally stoic Princess’s emotion. The holo form of the General raised a brown eyebrow as he folded his green uniformed arms in front of him.

“How many do you think would have died if we hadn’t taken the actions we did?” General Prasad countered, “The main attack on the walls was halted and if it weren’t for your senior officers’ disobedience of the recommended defensive positions then the enemy would not have made it into the city at all. You should be glad that your troops proved to be slightly more adept then their commanders.”
Equestrian officers glanced at each other, the officers who had ordered the repositioning of the troops without the Princesses’ authorization had already received sever demotions and as such were no longer permitted in the war room. Celestia had denied the Human General’s offer to shoot them for her.

“I can understand that you are upset about the deaths of your subjects,” Prasad continued as Celestia and Luna looked up at the projection, “however your mourning must wait, while your soil is still occupied and your people enslaved are agreement still stands. The quicker we finish this the sooner I can go back to the Ishvalin front.” Celestia’s look hardened; while the humans were cold their reasoning was sound. These standard Military forces also appeared to be far more sane then Commander Chalmers and his men.

“You’re right,” she conceded as Luna splayed a wing over her back, “the safety of our citizens that are alive should be the highest priority. I dread to think of what they are suffering in enslavement-“

“Enslavement!? Heresy!” All turned to the voice that had yelled out the declaration, Dietrich Von Schreiber waving his book in the air as the alcoves on his armour lit up with baleful crimson light. General Prasad sighed as the priest stood in the room waving his arms about.

“Who let the priest inside?” he questioned, a nervous unicorn lieutenant raising a hoof in the air.

“He threatened to send my soul to a place called ‘Hell’ if I didn’t sir,” the guard confessed, the priest moving towards him and patting the startled guard on the back with a hand.

“Luckily for you your compliance with my holy mission has redeemed all sin you garnered from attempting to block my righteous path!” A second holographic projection appeared from a device on the table that was creating such images. A middle-aged human clad in a navy-blue dress uniform adorned with medals brushed back his short black hair as he shot an impatient look at the General.

“Admiral Biggles,” Prasad greeted, “to what do we owe the pleasure?”

“My bomber crews have been waiting to strike for hours now,” the Admiral complained, “What is taking you so long? The plan has already been mostly completed so why the delay?” The General gestured towards the priest who was currently petting the rather relaxed looking unicorn guard, the Stallion currently receiving a very soothing ear scratch. As he laid eyes on the High-Confessor the Admiral’s eyes widened in understanding, the human sighing as he along with the rest of the room observed the priest’s rather unusual actions.

“At least he’s down there and not up on my bridge shouting scripture constantly like he was for the past three weeks. Almost made me want to join the first drop troops on the ground when we got here,” Luna moved up to face the Admiral with a frown on her face.

“So it was you how unleashed this demon on us!” Luna accused, her opinion that the priest was a demon would have held more water if the human was currently not rubbing the unicorn lieutenant’s unarmoured belly as the guard groaned in contentment on the ground. Montgomery rolled his eyes at the claim, the corners of his mouth curling up into a grin as he plotted his next move.

“I assume that you would be the Princess who made a certain arrangement with Commander Chalmers then?” Luna quickly blushed and retreated to the back of the room, Chalmers coughing awkwardly as everyone looked at him. Fortunately for him Celestia pulled the attention off him and back to the task on hand.

“Yes, well the details of the deal are not important right now, what is important is how we are going to free the two cities captured as well as the towns in the path from there to here.” Prasad nodded in agreement.

“Good idea, our plan is quite simple really,” he began as more icons lit up on the holo map which zoomed out to show the area containing the two captured cities. The city of Manehattan was lit up in red, fighting still going on in the city as the garrison beat back the griffon and minotaur invaders.

“Your forces are holding your city of ‘Manehattan’ currently, however they will not be able to hold much longer with the constant flow of hostile re-enforcements coming in from the other cities. Firstly we need to re-establish supply and troop lines with them and cut off the enemy from their main supply lines. Orbital strikes and asset delivery are not advised due to the high risk of massive collateral damage, therefore an armoured spearhead is tasked with punching through the enemy lines.”

Icons of strange objects appeared on the map, looking to the Equestrians as some kind of sleek tortoises with long barrels emerging from their head. As they watched the objects approach a red circle surrounding Manehattan that represented the enemy ground and naval blockade. The objects crashed through the line and entered the city.

“Following this assault mechanized infantry supported by your guards and air support from the fleet,” the General nodded at Celestia as more symbols appeared on the map each in the shape of triangles, “break through the gap and set up a perimeter through which we can funnel more soldiers and supplies through. This will also consist of naval assets being dropped into the sea here,” Manehattan was a harbour city and the sea just outside it was highlighted. “The ships will provide naval fire support while also destroying enemy supply shipping and other hostile water targets.”

The map zoomed out once more, the cities of Fillydelphia and Baltimare glowing. “I will be leading the assault on the city of Fillydelphia on the ground, Commander Chalmers will be in charge of the liberation action against forces in Baltimare,” Chalmers once again found himself as the centre of attention, a cough from Prasad returning focus to himself. “Forces will consist of a standard mix accompanied by equestrian forces,” the General paused for a second, “the status of any local forces in the two cities are unknown but are resumed KIA, it is a known fact that civilians are being shipped back to one of the invading countries as slave labour and nutritional needs.”

Ponies shuddered at the reminder of some griffons desire to taste pony flesh, the predators used to routinely capture and farm ponies for meat in the early days of civilisation. That had stopped after the tribal unification that saw Equestrian created, however it appeared that some griffons had seized the opportunity to re-kindle old dining habits. The humans were also disgusted; the consumption of sapient creatures was a capital offence in the empire unless it was needed in extreme survival circumstances. The High Confessor jumped up from his position crouched on the floor petting the guard, the religious fanatic raising a hand.

“I insist that I be allowed to accompany one of the assaults, surely the occupants of these cities will need much comfort in the word of the Lord!” The General and Admiral seemed to mull this over, both about to decline. Prasad however grinned as he thought of an answer.

“What a great idea High-Confessor, I’m sure Commander Chalmers will be relieved to have the support of a favoured servant of the Lord in his force.” Chalmers was thankful that his helmet hid his scowl at the suggestion, the Admiral however picked up on the Commander’s displeasure.

“Now now Commander, the ISA and Church have to get over their differences some time so it might as well start with you two.” With that the General and Admiral signed off, officers from both races filing out of the room. The Princesses also disappeared, discussing the plans with their officers as they left the room. Eventually it was just Nigel and Horizon left, the colt true to his word not saying a thing during the meeting. Chalmers sighed as he ruffled the unicorn’s mane.

“Thanks for behaving Bleak; I’ve got to go back out okay so I’ll leave you with Nestor and Jacobs this time.” Jacobs had been ruled out as a soldier on the upcoming missions, his armour damaged and unable to be repaired in time so he had been swapped with Boland.
“That’s okay,” Horizon answered as shifted in the Commander’s grip and looked up at Chalmers. “Just come back okay?” Nigel scratched the unicorn behind the ears as he walked out of the war room.

“Of course I will,” he re-assured, “when I do I promise I’ll take you someplace fun to make up for having to leave again so soon okay?” He received a smile and nod from the ash foal, his helmet audio indicating an incoming signal.

“Chalmers, go ahead,” Nigel answered as the voice of General Prasad became audible over the communication system.

“Commander, my apologies for sticking you with Dietrich, you’re probably the only officer I can trust to not shoot him after an hour. Thank the Lord and Emperor that not all are as unusual as he is.”

“Yes to that,” Chalmers responded, “General, you must have another reason for calling.” A light chuckle was heard, the general replying back with joy in his voice.

“Come down to the main assembly zone outside the city, I have a gift for you…”

Nigel walked outside the city gates and was met with an impressive sight. Grey boxy transporters of all shapes and sizes moved from the heavens to the ground, depositing entire battalions of troops, supplies, eight-wheeled armoured personal carriers, main battle tanks of both the tracked and hover variety as well as numerous other support vehicles and mechs. Most of the machines were coloured the standard tan colouration of the UIP army, a few however sported custom squadron camouflage or the grey paintjob of UIP navy marines.

A thumping sound overhead heralded the fly-over of three Viper gunships, the large rotor and jet combination helicopters looking much like the old soviet Hinds used back in the early days of Terra. The appearance of design had been kept as everyone agreed that Hinds looked awesome even if they were obsolete machines, thusly the Mil Mi-24 had found new life as it was pretty much rebuilt with the latest technologies. The helicopter had served the UIP with the highest possible levels of success.

Crowds of ponies flocked to observe the massive landing, the equines astonished at the many different tools of war as well as the sheer number of human forces. The General had declined telling the Equestrian officers that this wasn’t even half the troop capacity of a Planetary Assault Cruiser. Royal guard, both Solar and Lunar were organized into ranks ready to follow the main human advance, the ponies feeling very small next to machines such as the one-hundred ton tracked Legionary MBT, the tank sporting a main railgun backed up by an un-manned gatling laser mounted on the top turret with missile pods on either side of the turret shaped much like the old Leopard tanks of old Terra.

Chalmers strolled past lines of troops who stopped and saluted the Intelligence Commander, Nigel making an effort to return everyone. He approached a large mobile command crawler, the massive machine as tall as a ten story building with a length that was ten battle tanks long. Considering that each tank possessed the length equal to the height of a Foxhound it was a large vehicle. As Chalmers moved to the rear of the machine he spotted a mass of soldiers and technicians, the mechanics identified by their bright yellow armoured suits. A medium sized mech, ten meters tall was supported by a frame with numerous weapons and devices attached to it, Nigel moving towards the machine.

“Ah, you’ve arrived Commander!” General Prasad approached Chalmers with his arms spread wide. The senior officer had shed his dress uniform and adopted slightly more ornate armour that matched his troops, his colour green and not tan however. A helmet with a standard grey optical visor strip was attached to his waist with the bottom of the helmet made to look like an old gas mask.

“Prasad,” Nigel started as he stared at the tan mech with longing, “please say what I think you’re going to say.” The General smirked as he handed Chalmers a set of oversized fluffy dice.

“You have the power to commandeer it anyway, take it with my blessing,” the General beamed. Chalmers looked at the white dice in his hands and then back to the mech, blue stripes painted across its shoulders while a single blue line was placed in the centre of the bulky chest. The mech looked sleek and humanoid, a head filled with sensors sitting atop a bulky T shaped torso that was wide at the top and bottom that was all supported on a set of legs joined with an extra set of knees, a four-toes pronged claw serving as each foot.

A ‘Rapier’ model, packed with all sorts of toys and gizmos,” Prasad stated as he swept an arm towards it, “What are you waiting for, hop in and give it a try.”

Chalmers sat within the cockpit of the Rapier, the control chair quite comfortable as he griped the mech’s controls with his hands. They were only for the unimportant secondary systems; everything else had been linked to the neural connection of his suit giving him unrivalled control. He checked his weapons, laser and plasma cannons located on his left arm, a massive energy-covered lance in his right while his shoulders sported missile pods and rocket tubes. Also located around the mech were numerous secondary weapon systems such as grenade racks and flamethrowers.

He went over his comms system, checked that the artificial windshield display in front of him was calibrated and lastly ensured that his fuzzy dice were tied in tight to the roof. Satisfied that he was ready to go he moved his walker forward out of its cradle, the mech gliding smoothly with grace that was unnatural its size. He was about to move to his allocated team when a two-hundred ton ‘Judicator’ Command tank rolled up. The turret hatch of the double-barrelled beast opened and the form of the General popped out, the officer tiny compared to his metal chariot.

“Good luck Commander,” he radioed over the comms system as he waved at Nigel, “don’t ding it or you won’t get the deposit back.” With those final words the General moved his hand forward, the tank moving off to join the armoured spearhead tasked to break the land blockade. Nigel shook his head and moved to join his team, a force of Vipers, Foxhounds, Legionary tanks, Armadillo APCs and some self-propelled artillery vehicles. A few hundred Royal guards of both types were loaded upon tracked transport vehicles along with UIP army troops, the equines visibly anxious around the alien machines. Nigel did notice that some of the army troops were conversing with the equines which appeared to calm the pony soldiers down, something that pleased Chalmers.

Fumbling around he found the button he was looking for, his audio linked to the comms of his team as well as the external speakers mounted on his mech.

“Good afternoon Ladies, Gentleman and Gentlecolts I believe, this is your Commander speaking,” he had gained the attention of every single soldier as well as anyone else in earshot. “Today we will be departing to good ol’ Baltimare town; ETA is two hours so I suggest you plump up your pillows.” This earned him some chuckles from both human and pony alike, the equine soldiers forgetting most of the anxiousness that they had.

“Weather is clear with some clouds and a high chance of death to invading slavers, most likely evolving into full blown hostile routs later on in the night. You’re in-transport entertainment will consist of the…” Nigel checked the mech’s media player, why a combat mech had a media player he did not know but it worked for him. “It will consist of much musical offerings of the great twenty and twenty-first century bands ‘Iron Maiden’ and a personal favourite ‘Sabaton’, may their music get your blood pumping and ready for war.”

A mighty metal guitar riff sounded out from the external speakers causing a cheer to rise from the human troops while the Royal guards listened in amazement to the alien but strangely invigorating music as the track ‘Back in Control’ blared out, Nigel moving his Rapier forward as the force followed him with Vipers zooming overhead to scout out the area. Chalmers relaxed in his seat as all three teams moved out to their respective cities.

‘I’ve got a mech, some tunes, an army and a pair of fuzzy dice,’ Nigel thought as he smiled happily.
‘Who needs an afterlife in paradise when you’ve got this?’

Author's Notes:

Well, a large chapter this one is. For those who wish for a better idea of the music that the Commander played refer to this:

Back in Control

Also a new character is introduced, how will the Priest handle the burden of combat? Or rather, how will the combat handle him?

Needless to say, lots of stuff will blow up in the next chapter, hope you enjoyed this one however.