Equestria: Across the Multiverse - Jaunt 65

Jaunt 65.0 - BrutalityInc A Winter Wedding Pt 16

“You are a mighty foe, that I recognize.” Captain Cerberus said, parrying another flurry of blows from Hercules Beetle’s war club. They had stalemated each other in their duel, and he was doing this even while fending off her battle-sister’s attacks through constant tactical manuvours and clever use of his arsenal of weapons, all a testament to this soldier’s stupendous skills. “Rarely had we fought someone as good as you, in spite of being unenhanced and only wearing a powerful weaponized armour.”

“Thank you, I am considered the deadliest soldier alive in our current forces, if not the Hooviet Union itself, not counting Gospodin Chrysalis herself.” Hercules Beetle said cordially, even as he skillfully deflected an attempt by Cerberus to nail him with a Krak Grenade by turning on the energy shield on the spot at moment of contact, preventing it from attaching and arming, “Of course, I am never one to flaunt my reputation, unlike my brother Goliath Beetle. I was merely doing my duty for the motherland and my commander.”

“Your motherland…” Cerberus said, jumping back from a swinging blow and planning her next avenue of attack, “You would had been a credit to your realm as it is now, had you remained in their forces. So why did you decide to serve her?”

“I had sworn oaths to serve my country, the Hooviet Union, not the present Federation.” He explained, “And with its fall, I had only my oath to my commander, and that oath remains.”

“Your oath is to a mass-murdering mad-mare who seeks to dominate this world!” One of her battle-sisters yelled, growing frustrated, “What honour is there in being loyal to one such as - !”

She was interrupted by a barrage of micro-rockets that struck her in the center, damaging her armour and forcing her back.

“I would advise you not to speak ill of my commander.” He replied, his right-hoof’s launcher retracting. For the first time, there was a warning tone in his still polite voice, “How would you feel if some-pony were to insult your Primare?”

“Not well, I admit.” Cerberus replied. Captain Apollyon of the First Company had once torn the limbs off the warlord who dared insult Warmistress Ivory Fire when negotiations broke down back in their galaxy. Even Cerberus would had gotten angry, for all her cool-headed reason, “But what makes you respect her so?”

“It is just common courtesy…” He said, more cordially even as he ducked under Cerberus’ overhead swing and bucked one of her battle-sisters straight through a statue. “And also because I owe her that much. I am aware she is no saint, but she had led us through many missions over the decades, and many of us owe their lives and victories to her, myself included. It is the least we could do to repay her by helping her with this.”

“Your commander’s scheme had already claimed the lives of many and jeopardize the safety of this world! Have you at least tried to steer her away from her present course?” Cerberus demanded.

“I did! The first plan to marry Sincere Heart in disguise and then claim the throne covertly was conceived at my suggestion. The current, second plan was her original one…” He said with a sigh, “But try as I did, I couldn’t convince her to let go of her obsession with power and revenge. I do not begrudge the young heroines of this world for seeing the first plan through and foiling it - it’s what any of us should do. But now all I can do is fulfill my part for her second scheme.”

“Your honour and loyalty does you credit, but this is madness!” Cerberus declared, although a part of her began to understand why her foe would act as such. “Surely you can see where this would lead!”

“I do… and that is what made this so hard.” He said, blocking her bolter shots and that from her battle-sisters with instant plating and shielding “I was raised by my parents to value loyalty and honour above all else, and to stay true to my code of principles, no matter what. Perhaps that really is a flaw in my character, as some had told me, but they gave me strength to see through all difficulties of my life and my duties. I will stay true and live with valour - I must, to the very end.”

“All the valour in the world can’t help you see this through.” Cerberus said, trying to get her foe to see reason, “Your weapons and abilities are impressive, but we have fought worse before. We outnumber you, and each of us is a veteran of hundreds of wars across countless worlds. The odds are still in our favour.”

“That may be so…” He admit, even as he and Cerberus locked weapons once more, “But I believe I can still teach you a few tricks!”

Cerberus, with a skillful motion, knocked away her foe’s Kanabō club, which was knocked away further by one of her battle-sisters. However, she did not succeed unscathed; a plasma torch extended from his left armour-gauntlet, and in one swift blow, he cut through her chainsword, her bolter, and part of her power armour’s chest where the glowing gem which generated the artificial telekinesis needed to hold her weapons was installed.

“Sem' raz otmer' - odin otrezh*” He said with a flourish, “See how I have disabled both your weapons and your ability to wield them, all in a single, precise cut. This ought to make this battle more interesting...”

Just then, his armour’s auxiliary capacitors finished charging, and he activated another new weapon installed in his armour. An energy cannon extended from his armoured chest, like the one Kabuto has but less grotesque, and disgorged a hail of plasma spheres which Cerberus and her battle-sisters were forced to evade. Panels on his armour’s side opened, exhausting steam as it radiated excess heat generated by the weapon.

“Looks like I must make things interesting myself…” Cerberus remarked, putting on her helmet and linking up with her armour’s sensors, before withdrawing the weapon Captain Onyx gave her to use, attaching to her armour’s poundron weapons manipulator. It was time to see what this could do to give them an advantage…

*(“Measure seven times, cut once.”)

= = =

Bastion Bridge was not falling down - not yet, anyway. Not if the Isle’s military or the recently arrived Captain Talon-Rip and her squad could help it. The carnage on the Bridge is total as the firefight between the allied forces and the Neo-Hooviets reduced the bridge area between them to little more than scrapped cars and dead bodies - too many of the latter civilians who couldn’t get out of the way in time.

King Skyline was making a speech through the bunker radio, now that the palace communication center had been recaptured and the mountaintop jammer had been disabled. He was rallying his subjects and his soldiers to protect their country and resist with everything they have. Despite not possessing a record for charisma, Talon-Rip thought that he was actually doing a pretty good job.

“... help is coming, so do not despair! Today, whether we are from this Isle, from this world, and from the worlds hidden or beyond, we will stand united as one against our common foe! Keep fighting, brave sons and daughters of the Isle! Fight like you’ve never fought before...!”

“For Queen and Country!” One of the Isle soldiers shouted, laying down automatic fire… only to be shot and wounded a few moments later.

“Easier said than done.” His commander, Sergeant Stiff-Upper-Lip muttered, dragging his stallion back into cover before looking across the bridge. Much as he want to get at those renegade bastards, neither he nor his troops and allies could do so with all the heavy fire they’re throwing their way.

“Look on the bright side, officer, we’ve got them pinned down as much as they have us pinned down.” Talon-Rip quipped, she and battle-sisters returning fire alongside the sergeant’s soldiers, “They’re not demolishing this bridge any time soon.”

“Maybe - but if they bring more of those things that kept even you ladies down, we’re going to have to fall back, like it or not.”

Those things, of course, involved the many new weapons and vehicles they’re now throwing into the fray as soon as it becomes apparent that the King had re-established contact with the military and organizing the counterattack, as well as allied reinforcements coming in unexpectedly, soon and in greater numbers than they like.

Talon-Rip and company found themselves bogged down fighting against a platoon of heavily-armoured troopers wielding lightning guns - heavier and refined versions of the ones the Mainline Storm King had used against their forces - as well as tank-mounted versions of the things which hit hard enough to even give them trouble. Other Space Legionnaire forces, their new hidden-world allies and present Royal military and paramilitary forces found themselves encountering and bogged down by enemies with strange arsenals ranging from spider-robots that could crawl in and sabotage vehicles, militarized tractors spraying toxic chemicals, to squads armed with pony-portable flak cannons of all things.

“I still wouldn’t worry that much,” Captain Talon-Rip commented optimistically, “If our foes are suddenly bringing in so many of these ‘wonder-weapons’ into the fray, it usually mean two things: One, they’re stepping up the game, and two, they’re getting desperate. History usually points to both being the case.”

“Maybe so, captain, but we’re still not making progress…” Sergeant Stiff-Upper-Lip said. Then something on the binoculars caught his attention, and he groaned mildly, “Great, there they are: their back-up. They’re making a push this way…”

“Not for long, they won’t.” Captain Talon-Rip remarked. She took out the crystal ball she picked up earlier, and spoke into the glowing sphere, patching to the  “General Puck, are you there?”

“We’re here. How may we help?” Puck’s voice and face could be heard and seen, both of them friendly and welcoming. While both she and General Firefly of the Pegasus Kingdom had quickly come to respect each other as capable war leaders, it was with General Puck of the Flutterponies that she had struck up a friendly bond. It seems their personalities matches each other all too well.

“It seems our enemies had brought strange, new friends with them at Bastion Bridge...” Talon-Rip reported, “Perhaps you could obliged them with a warm welcome to this fine city?”

”That, my new friend, is something we’re more than happy to oblige! Flutterpony-style!”

With a snap, the image and voice vanished from the crystal ball. Just then, in the distance, a small swarm of Flutterponies gathered and ready a salvo of arrows.

“... Danger close, captain?” Sergeant Stiff-Upper-Lip inquired. He knew from the reports that they were no ordinary arrows, but that is something he had to see to believe himself.

“Danger close, sergeant.” Talon-Rip said, smirking behind her helmet. She then commanded, “Take cover!”

All present at the barricades did. The neo-Hooviets knew something was wrong as they approached, but by then it was too late to react; a hail of arrows streaked across the smoke-choked skies, landing in their midst. Empowered with the Flutterponies’ magic, what was meant to be a useless attack that would bounce off their armour became akin to an artillery barrage in strength and power, decimating the platoon and supporting vehicles.

“FORWARD! For the Empress!” Talon-Rip called out, she and her squad charging out even before the barrage ended, with Sergeant Stiff-Upper-Lip’s platoon following. Much of the platoon laid dead or crippled on the ground, and those who weren’t were finished off. Talon-Rip’s power-spear ripped through the sole remaining tesla-trooper’s armour before he had a chance to recover, pinning his dead body against the scrapped tesla-tank’s shattered hull.

“I’ve got to learn how these Flutterponies enchant their arrows like this!” Talon-Rip said jovially as she recovered her power-spear,  “A smaller, diluted version of this with darts, and I have the perfect prank to play with new members among our ranks. They’ll never see it coming!”

Sergeant Stiff-Upper-Lip saw the devastated enemy company around him, and simply sighed, “This is going to take a whole week just to clean up…”

“I must say, Sergeant, you seem astoundingly calm and collected through this whole ordeal.” Talon-Rip observed. Cerberus would approve - she idly wondered how she’s handling this crisis. Probably very well. “Cynicism aside, you would do well to receive a promotion after this is done, I would imagine.”

“Well, not quite just me - calm resolve in the face of adversity is something of a national trait of ours…” He commented, drinking some some tea from a thermos as he reviewed the devastation that had been wrought across the capital, even as his troops secured Bastion Bridge, “Though I’m a rare example. I may be relatively young, but my mother raised me to be a quintessential Isle gentlecolt, and Megan help it I shall!”

“She sound like a remarkable mare…” Talon-Rip complimented.

“‘Remarkable mare’?” Stiff-Upper-Lip repeated snidely, now smirking along with Talon-Rip, “Why, she’s the Prime Minister!”

= = =

Turning around the corner, they at last found what they were looking for; a second entrance, to an alternative passageway leading to the vaults below the palace. Around it, dead neo-Hooviet troopers who were guarding it lay spread across the floor, along with a few of Midnight’s Bodyguards either fallen over them or standing over them.

“You have found and secured it as I instructed.” Midnight said, nodding approvingly, “Well done, my troops.”

“Thank you, Regent. But the honour is not ours alone…” One of the Midnight’s Chosens said, pointing behind him, “We couldn’t had done it without them.”

Three eastern unicorns in ninja attire approached, red, blue and green, bowing respectfully. “Konichiwa. I am called Red Sun. With me is Blue Waves and Green Shades. We arrived not too long ago as part of the Unicorn Yamahans’ forces, ready to assist in anyway we can against the invaders assailing this realm.”

“Ah, you’re from the forces of the hidden realms that we’ve heard about…” The Sigillite replied. She gave a small bow in return, “I am Midnight, Regent of Equus, Sigillite of the Empress of Ponykind. It is a pleasure to meet you, and thank you for your help. But I’m afraid further introductions would have to wait until we resolve this crisis.”

“We understand.” Red Sun said on behalf of her group, all three of them an identical triplet of siblings. She pointed to the entrance, “We sensed powerful magic, emerating from there, and came to investigate. We helped your soldiers defeat those invaders guarding it, but something tells me there will be more down there, trying to reach whatever secrets lay beneath, I presume.”

“That they are.” Midnight replied. Her eyes glowed slightly as she scanned ahead through the Aether, before proceeding down the passage-way’s steps, her bodyguards and their new allies following, “We must hurry and be the ones to reach and activate the secrets, first. The chosen one of the Isle’s Royals would soon be along to join us, and together we can prevail over those invaders who sought them.”

“Your own magic…” Blue Waves whispered, all their eyes wide in bewilderment, “It is potent… I thought only we of the Hidden Ones knew it so well until the Alliance came...”

Midnight smiled, “As are yours; you have much potential within you for ones so young. I can see that your people and ours of the Alliance will learn much from each other…”

Jaunt 65.1 - Kendell2 A Winter Wedding Pt 17

The Tales Seven decided to move forwards after a brief rest and letting Sweetheart and Kimono heal them up, and the self repair systems of their armor repair some of the damage.

As was the agreement, Onyx was guarding the King and the other civilians with several of her battle-sisters, but several of them were still going with them to open the Chamber of the Seven Sleeping Armies. Bright Glow had also come with them, as in the dark her blinding light attacks where even more useful, as enemy eyes would be adjusted to the dark or wearing night vision goggles.

"So... you’re a half alien Princess?" asked Patch.

Bright Glow nodded. "My father, Star Skipper, crashed in our capital and was nursed back to health by my mother. They fell in love and...well, here I am...but he eventually had to return home, since the Celestials hadn't decided to contact us yet...Mom was hoping since the Alliance knows the Celestials, maybe we can contact them now...and I can meet my father..."

Patch nodded. "That's awesome...well, only kinda...being half alien and all that, not know your dad kinda stinks..."

"Yes...It was..." Bright Glow admitted. "Mother thinks you'd like my father. He is apparently quite similar to you..."

"Really? Cool!"

Kimono kept her eyes out for enemies, as she and Starlight had the most durability out of everyone. Queen Starburst and Princess Rosie stood in the center of the group. Rosie refused to stay behind with her father. Patch was her childhood friend, she wasn't about to abandon them.

The group had also debated whether or not to try and contact their parents now that communications were back up...but they all decided their parents knowing they were still in the middle of combat and trying to save everyone. At least until this was over.

Patch blinked, thinking she saw something moving in the dark, something familiar, but whenever she looked close it vanished. What was it?

Finally, the group arrived and peaked around a corner, seeing a group of Hooviets trying to breech the chamber, one being fairly large and wearing a clearly more advanced suit than his minions.

"...Looks like we've got company..." whispered Bright Eyes.

________________________________________

The sun was close to setting, but the battle still raged on. Pegasi air support definitely was helping by dealing with the helicopters, enabling the Werebeast Six to focus on the ground fighting on the ground...and preparing something else they'd put a great deal of consideration into...

Sergeant Comet lay on the ground, a bullet in his chest and bleeding out. He knew medics were around, but busy dealing with others. He growled, trying to crawl to his discarded pistol when a Neo-Hooviet soldier stood over him, pistol pointed at his face. The Sergeant reached for the self-destruct of his suit...

When a bone chilling roar ripped through the air and a rainbow colored blur pounced from the twilight and slammed into his attacker. The form dashed around the enemy soldier like lightning. Claws rended metal and teeth tore chunks of armor (though consciously avoided flesh), before the soldier was hurled away with great strength.

Comet looked up as the hulking form of a Werecheetah
loomed over him...and gave a smirk.

"...Don't feel like giving up, huh?" asked Were-Rainbow Dash.

"I'm...loyal to my country...I will fight until my final breath..." said Comet, cringing. "Which may be coming soon."

"...I can help with that...but it comes with a few big issues..." the Werebeast explained. "...As in 'turn into a giant cheetah monster every night' issues and not being able to ever get rid of it..."

"...Would I hurt anyone?"

"Dude, you'd get MY morality when you transform...and you're pretty close anyway...but if I do, you will never be 'normal' again. You won't be able to die, at least to anything normal...and oh yeah, the transformation hurts like Tartarus, but you get used to it...I'm not ABLE to save you any other way, if I could I WOULD...so your choice. Do you want to go to Elysium and rest or stand and fight forever?"

Comet looked seriously. "For Queen and Country."

"Alright...welcome to the pride, pal...warning ahead of time, this is gonna hurt," said Were-Rainbow Dash said, opening her mouth full of razor sharp teeth.

Comet didn't close his eyes or cringe, merely offered his leg.

________________________________________

"Captain Talon-Rip!" said Puck. "Is there a forest around here?"

Captain Talon-Rup looked to Stiff-Upper-Lip, who nodded. "Yes, indeed. Why?"

"Drive them into it and we Flutterponies will have the homefield advantage," replied the General. "And I'd love to teach them to what happens to the wicked who meet a Flutterpony in the forest."

Pleasantly intrigued, Captain Talon-Rip agreed. She and her forces as well as the natives worked on trying to lure (In Stiff-Upper-Lip’s case, with cool effiency) or drive (In Talon-Rip’s case, with considerable enthusiasm) the Neo-Hooviets into nearby woods, and managed to achieve that goal.

General Puck's soldiers flanked them ahead of time and took up position in the woods, setting things up before they ever arrived.

As they finally got deep enough in, Puck gave a bird call...

At which point enchanted arrows rained down from the trees from all angles, creating a kill box with the Tesla Soldiers in the middle. Several tried to run, only to break through a trip wire, prompting a large log to swing down and slam into their numbers, sending them flying back at the joint-Hegemony and Isle Military forces’ hooves.

Captain Talon-Rip gave a smirk, holding out her power spear at the incoming flying Hooviet, while her battle-sisters and Stiff-Upper-Lip’s soldiers raised their guns and began what would go down in Alliance history of this Incident be nicknamed as the ‘Great Woodland Fowlhunt.

________________________________________

It soon became apparent that the 'Hidden Ones' each had a preferred battlefield they knew far better than the Hooviets, natives, or present Alliance members did. For the Flutterponies it was forests, which they could move through silently knew how to exploit for traps and ambushes. For the unicorns, it was the dark and mountainous environments. Not only were they ninja in their combat style, but their lungs let them breath more easily in higher areas and their hooves found hoofholds far easier. The Pegasi's preferred battlefield was the higher altitude or foggy environments. And of course, the sea ponies were adapted for aquatic combat. And naturally if they could take advantage of that fact, they would. They needed it, as even with their blindsiding the Hooviets, they were still only pushing them back.

The visiting Pegasi, being better versed in weather manipulation than their native counterparts, quickly put it to good use creating a sudden fog, covering a mainstreet battlefield in it.

The Hooviets slowly approached through the fog, keeping their eyes on the surroundings. "Keep your eyes open men..." said the commander.

Training their weapons around them, they kept their eyes out for anything unusual. They spun around at the sound of wings in the fog...At which point a Pegasi warrior flew from the fog, holding a 'Cloud Shark Tooth Sword' (which to the horror of some of the Ponylanders revealed Cloud Sharks to be a thing that exists). While they'd stopped using actual teeth long ago, they'd kept the styling and idea. The end result was a 'modernized' version of the weapon, using magical materials and 'hard clouds' to form a sword with a brutal looking weapon. In practice, it was a sword that focused all the weapon's force into the bladed, tooth-like points. But ironically enough, when you took the idea of a 'sword with lots of little teeth on the blade' to it's logical concept combined with modern ideas, you got something the Hegemony instantly appreciated.

And the Pegasus warrior swung the sword with practiced skill into the side of the furthest back Hooviet, the blades spinning around the molded solidified cloud blade like a chainsaw, resembling a Hegemony chain sword in function. Unfortunately for the soldier, he was one of the ones that hadn't been wearing the RANGER knockoff armor and the wound was certainly fatal.

The rest of the Hooviets turned to fire, only for the Pegasi to retreat back into the fog.

Of course, given their ancestral weapon's similarities, it was little surprise the Pegasi of this world had been naturals with a certain Hegemony weapon with a similar design.

One of the Hooviets found that out the hard way when a Pegasus flew up behind him and gave him a similar strike with a borrowed chainsword before flying back into the fog.

"Come out and face us like stallions!" the commander of the squad replied, the group clearly getting paranoid. They turned and fired on a shadow in the fog...at which point a flock of pegasi dove at them from behind, flying at high velocity with spears made of blue ice (the hardest known form of ice), spears aimed directly into the gaps in the back of their armor.

________________________________________

A group of Neo Hooviets rushed into a military base, hunting down native soldiers...when suddenly the lights suddenly vibrated as if an invisible force was being applied with until the lights shattered.

The soldiers turned and looked around, trying to find anything from the dark. They saw something move fast in the dark then vanish in a small flash, briefly lighting up a dark shape before it disappeared.

This continued for several moments until they turned and found a black suited unicorn with a frightening white skull mask on right in front of them. They opened fire, only for the unicorn to vanish in a small flash of light before they pulled the trigger.

"That wasn't like the normal unicorn teleportation..." said one of the soldiers, noticing something strange about it.

"Keep your eyes out, soldiers!" the commander announced.

"They're over there!" said one of them, seeing the figure move.

"No! There!" another one said, seeing it in the opposite direction.

The mind games were clearly getting in their head, the soldiers frantically looking around for any sign of their attacker. Suddenly, the figure appeared behind one of them and wrapped the chain of a kusarigama around their neck and vanished again, reappearing just inside a nearby window, the chain seeming to have extended through some other realm with them to lengthen long enough to accommodate the distance. The ninja leaping out the window, the soldier screamed as they were dragged through the window and vanished.

As they turned and fired on the window in a panic, air vent above one of them fell open and their attacker leapt repelled down on a grappling hook before dragging them back up. The rest of the squad turned and fired into the ceiling, no sign of anything being hit showing.

"How can one bucking unicorn be doing this?!" asked one of the Hooviets, the group clearly panicking now.

"And did you see what they did with that chain?!" asked another. "Unicorns CAN'T do that!"

Suddenly, without warning, their opponent appeared above them, using what seemed to be build up momentum from a fall to bring a kanabō club down on one of their heads hard enough to shatter the visor and drive them face first into the floor, knocking them out before grabbing their victim and vanishing again before they could be shot.

"G-GET OUT HERE!" shouted the commander, the two remaining ones standing back to back to avoid being snuck up on...

When suddenly a grappling hook came from one side and chain from the other, wrapping around their weapons and pulling them from their grasp, staggering them forwards and leaving them open when a second later the ninja appeared between them, spinning around and slamming their kanabō into both of their heads with built up momentum and shattering their visors, knocking them out cold.

Three warriors dressed identically, wearing black outfits and white skull masks walked up, piling the Hooviets together and tying them up.

One of them pulled her mask off to reveal what looked like an Eastern Unicorn version of Rainbow Dash. "See? I told we could take them alive."

"You were right, Prism Rush..." replied another one, removing her mask to reveal an Easter Unicorn version of Spitfire. While trained and capable of killing, they didn't see any point in doing so if they could help it.

The third removed his mask to reveal Soarin's counterpart. "Let's take these to the local ponies and see if we can get some information out of them..."

________________________________________

The Neo Hooviet fleet waited for the order to fire the missile if ordered to do so, or defend their sub if attacked...what they didn't expect was for a lasso to shoot out of the water and wrap around some of their crew, dragging them into the depths.

"What the..." said one of them, before they met the same fate. This naturally threw things into a bit of chaos.

Especially when one of the Sea Pony ships revealed one of its weapons: the 'Mantis Torpedo'. This consisted of using compressed bubbles and other magics to turn a simple launched bubble into a devastating impact via emulating the Mantis Shrimp's devastating punch (known to having the force of a .22 caliber bullet) scaled up to a massive scale. The end result was a gigantic impact followed a few seconds later a cavitation generated imploding bubble that not only generated its own massive impact but briefly superheated the water within it hot enough to damage the haul. The ship hit reacted as if it'd been struck by a powerful, invisible torpedo.

The survivors of the sinking ship were quickly snatched up by the sea ponies in the water, giving the illusion, it'd been destroyed by nothing their sonar was programmed to detect and its crew vanished.

The captured Hooviets were dropped gasping onto the deck of Alliance ships, quickly taken captive.

________________________________________

"We've sowed chaos in the enemy fleet," said one of the sea dwelling ponies, speaking on the bridge of one of the allied fleet’s aircraft carriers, "They're in disorder and ready for attack."

“Excellent…” General Ironsight noted. Just then, the Thunderbird reached its designated position, and it was finally time to execute the attack. “To all admirals on all ships, ready all weapons to fire or launch. At my command…”

OOC: The Werebeast Six are basically offering mortally wounded soldiers that couldn't be saved any other way to become Werebeasts. The ones they do it too will transform at when nigh falls. They do NOT take this lightly and will only change people who agree and would die if they didn't. Tried to show how the 'hidden tribes' fight in their home turf and how terrifying that can be. Speaking of which, look up a mantis shrimp and see how devesating that sea pony weapon could be.

Jaunt 65.2 - BrutalityInc A Winter Wedding Pt 18

The young colt work up screaming, drenched in cold sweat.

He had seen it. He had seen it again: visions of the future.  He knew they were; not just because of how real they were, or because they always will happen if nothing is done. He just KNEW, deep within his bones, that they were.

They were often fragmentary, incomplete; but it is almost always true, and each were as horrible as they came. They were scenes of death, images of destruction and canvas of disaster. Each time he saw them, he felt only terror; not just because of the suffering and loss within them, things that he was meant to be too young to learn about, but also because of his helplessness as an observer, his powerlessness in preventing what happens in them from coming to pass.

But none of it had compared to the sheer horror that was tonight’s vision; never had they been so mercilessly personal.

There was no detachment of the outside this vision that could be found in the explosion of a rocket on a launch platform, leading to the fiery, horrific deaths of the astronauts and the ground crew, as he had saw once: In this vision, he saw his parents, dragging him to their family car, wishing to take him to see somepony, and his little sister coming along in the back seat.

He saw as they travelled through the Prussian roads in winter, the metal creaking as their shoddily-made, aging car went across the icy roads; he saw his father’s focused eyes widening in shock, his mother’s reassuring face, twisting into horror. The brakes had failed, the tires are slipping, and as the car drove off road into an icy river, the last thing he saw was…

He looked into the face of his younger sister, who had quickly rushed to his side.

“Are you alright, brother?” She asked, her blue, beautiful eyes filled with worry.

Trembling with fear, he hugged his little sister.

“I saw one of those horrid dreams again…” He told her. “I saw us die, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it!”

His sister’s face, shocked at first, soon turned defiant, “Don’t say that! We can always do something! Maybe we can prevent it!”

“It’s… it’s not like the others...”

When he finished telling her so, her sister looked alarmed, “Mother and father said that they’re going to take you to see the doctors today. Not the normal state doctor; they’re going to drive us to some far-away ward where the spe-cial-ists are! Do you think that dream is about that?”

“No! We can’t go! We have to…” He sighed. “But they’ll never believe me…” He knows mother and father are worried about his condition, but he knew they never really believed what he said about his dreams; only his sister believed he saw the future. His sister alone, whom he loved the most...

“We don’t have to…” She said, getting one of her bright ideas. Quickly, she grabbed extra-blankets and a hot-bag, “We’ll just pretend to be sick! They’ll never drive away on their own to see them without us, right?”



The section of the King’s Royal Guards moved through the corridors of the palace carefully. While they had retaken large sections of the palace, many parts of it remained in neo-Hooviets’ hooves, and it’ll take the pending reinforcements - still ways off - to drive them out. Now, it was up to them and the heroes they have at the moment to hold the line, at any costs.

One of the soldiers looked at the devastation around them, and sighed mournfully, “So much destruction, so many lives lost… Will anything ever be the same again?”

“Not by a long shot. We should had been partying at the after-Wedding party right now, not fighting for our survival!” One of the soldier growled in anger, “We’re going to make them pay for all this, mark my words! Make that fake princess leading them pay!”

“What is she doing now?” A third one among them wondered. Looking out through the shattered windows, he could see the gigantic forms of both Yonggary and Chrysalis’ Mechagodzilla. Having whaled on each other for so long, both have disengaged and taken to glaring at each other while they heal/auto-repair the wounds and damages they have taken. It was a race to see who could recover more and faster than the opponent before they went off another round, and a race to see who could wear down the other greater than they could recover. “Megan have mercy, how much can this maniac take and throw at us?”

“More questions for the ages…” their commander muttered. “Wouldn’t be surprised if she had to bolster her ranks and armaments with recruited troops and acquired weapons from other worlds just to maintain and sustain such a massive attack, beyond just stealing from the Alliance. But they’re just a global terrorist network, not a country; there’s got to be a limit to how much they can get or develop by themselves. Maybe she’s still got plenty in reserve; maybe she’s already thrown everything she had at us. If she fails, in the latter case, then we’ll had cost her so much in expenses and manepower that she and her network would be bled to the very marrow. All we had to do is hold on long enough to win this.”

“Classic victory by attrition…” The third soldier muttered. Just then, more explosions and gunfire erupted from the courtyard, the conflict bleeding into the streets near the palace. Must had been those Space Legionnaires and that big neo-Hooviet super-soldier they had been fighting. “Good thing, I suppose, because otherwise they might drown us through sheer weight of numbers, even without the super-tech…”

“That’s what her Equestrian bug-queen counterpart nearly did, right?” The first soldier recalled. Anypony with half a brain made the connection between Spring Heart and ex-Queen Chrysalis the moment they heard her codename, “Before King Thorax, that is. Then again, with people like her and her mooks, it could only take one…”

Suddenly, a sniper round scythed through the air, decapitating the soldier in spite of his RANGER armour.

“Cover! Sniper in the - !” The commander’s next words died in his throat as his cranium was perforated with another sniper round.

The King’s Guards took cover, and opened fire in the general direction of the shots, hoping to suppress the sniper. It was in vain; they couldn’t see where he was down the corridor, while somehow he could see them perfectly, despite the distance.

Several more shots rang out, taking out several more soldiers in the group; some through their cover using high-powered anti-material rounds, many of them reflexive snapshots taken the moment they peaked even the slightest parts of themselves out of cover. Such kills would had been impossible for any normal ponies to achieve, barring the most legendary snipers and marksmares. Even a flurry of grenades and smoke rounds thrown by the section failed to drive him out or even affect his aim; it was almost as if he knew when and where they are coming and had sequestered himself in a secured position.

At last, the section had been reduced to three members, cowering behind thick solid pillars and not daring to even peak out.

“How in Megan is he doing this?” One of the surviving soldiers hissed urgently, reloading his rifle, “Don’t know where the bloody bastard is…”

“It’s like that guy’s cloaked or something…” His comrade at the pillar behind him muttered. “Can’t shoot what we can’t see! He’s gotten us where he wants us!”

“He’s got us pinned down, but he haven’t nailed us yet!” The third survivor commented optimistically, in spite of circumstances. Looking around, he cooked up a desperate plan, “There’s a room behind me; I’ll duck in there and hunker down. You two, go through the windows. See if you can get help or get behind the bastard from the outside…”

They never got a chance to enact it.

“D’ye hear something?” The third soldier suddenly asked, hearing some strange tapping sound. Suddenly, he saw a shimmering hoof, grabbing the underside of his rifle; just in time to experience getting rammed in the face by it.

The first soldier saw this, and opened fire; the invisible killer merely grabbed the stunned and bloody-nosed third soldier by the throat and swirled him around, using him as a pony-shield. The second soldier was horrified as the third soldier died under his hail of bullets - though his horror ended two seconds later as the invisible killer double-tapped him with a high-powered pistol.

The last remaining King’s Guard saw the simmering outline of the invisible assassin, and took aim, “Got you now, ye wanker!”

But the invisible assassin’s reflexes were insane. In the second it took to cross the distance, he dodged almost every bursts worth of bullets fired his way, the closest ones barely even scratching the advanced knockoff armour he wore.

The soldier sought to rifle-butt him, but he beat him to the punch; he twisted around him, and in one swift motion, drove a knife through a gap in his RANGER armour, made by a glancing shot earlier. He groaned in pain, sinking to the ground - and the invisible killer executed him with his pistol a moment later.

Digger Wasp uncloaked, panting slightly from exertion and allowing his armour to recharge its capacitors for his cloaking device and vent the heat-sink that enable him to hide from even infrared sensors in RANGER armour. He was tearing through these squads like tissue paper, sometimes without them even noticing he was there.

But he knew he must conserve his strength; he was getting close to where the Royals are hiding, that he knew. Though the jammer’s fall had caused them problems, it had allowed him to trace the transmissions exchanged; and through the King’s speech to the nation, he now knew where he and the royal bunker is.

He knew with all the defenders that would be in the way, taking them out would be difficult - but it was not impossible. If nothing else, his always had the gift to see how death and destruction would play out, whether to him or others; he would find a way to complete his primary mission.

Just as he would find a way to complete his OTHER mission. The words of the Regent echoed in his mind, and he knew it to be true; he will meet the figure of fate today. And he will face this fate head on.

And he swore, as he re-cloaked and continued on, he will change their destiny.

= = =

They are called Volkite weapons.

Back at the dawn of the Grand Crusade, when the Empress had only recently reunited Equus, allied with the Mechanicum of Mares and began the Primare project, these were the standard-issue weapons of the few thousands of Space Legionnaires who would then take to the stars and spearhead the reclamation of the galaxy. Volkite weapons are direct energy weapons, heat rays that destroys targets by deflagrating them on a subatomic level. The thermal energy can propagate through a material through thermodynamic heat transfer, causing hot burning material on the outside heat up the material layers on the inside, resulting in a chain of ignitions would ultimately burn through almost any form of protection.

In many ways, Volkite weapons were superior to the bolters that replaced them; they could penetrate even thick ceramite-based Legionnaire power armour with a concentrated shot, incinerating the target from the inside, and is equally devastating against unprotected organic matter through explosively burning flesh to ashes and jetting flames. They have a longer range than the more common Melta Weapons, and unlike bolter weapons, could weaken armour for an easier next shot instead of requiring repeated shots to penetrate. Volkite weapons were an effective, all-purpose anti-infantry, anti-vehicle, anti-cover and even anti-powered armour infantry weapons.

Thus, many considered it a pity that their only serious drawbacks - sheer expenses and difficulty to manufacture even with the forges of Mechanicum - ultimately made it untenable for them to remain staple weapons for the Space Legionnaires, especially once the Primares began to take command of the Legions, leading to the rapid expansion of their numbers to hundreds of thousands per Legion on average and with it a massive increase in scale of the Grand Crusades, making logistics a nightmare and forcing a switch to cheaper and less expensive bolters.

Here, Cerberus had been given a Volkite relic-weapon courtesy of Captain Onyx; not surprising, given how much respect and effort the Ebon Drakes give to master-craft their own wargear, each of them being as much a smith and craftmare as each are a one-mare army in their own right. It was a pistol variant; a Volkite Serpenta that took Captain Onyx a few months to make, but over decades to perfect to her satisfaction. To have her part and entrust Cerberus with this was an immense sign of the trust between them that had built over the time they spent together in the Jaunts on behalf of the Hegemony. As it is, it would be more powerful than normal Volkite weapons - and perfect for Cerberus’ purposes.

She had not risked its use early in the battle against Hercules Beetle, lest she accidentally hit her battle-sisters in the confusion of battle, harm innocents and risk damaging such a priceless relic. But with their standard tactics failing to do much against Hercules Beetle with his superior defense, strength and even tactics, little options remain.

Cerberus took aim, waiting for her battle-sisters to distract him and have him pinned down in one spot. As he blazed away with his plasma-caster against her battle-sisters in the empty, battle-wrecked streets of the royal capital, her targeting systems acquired a lock, and she opened fire.

A crimson, radiant beam of energy sizzled through the air, striking Hercules Beetle’s armour at the speed of light, right at where the plasma-caster is installed. Thermo/kinetic-activated auto-routines in his armour’s computer system activated chest-shielding and summoned instant-armour plating a split-second the beam struck - but it wasn’t enough. The shield faltered instantly, and the secondary plating and primary armour melted away. The plasma-caster was reduced to molten scrap in a moment, and Hercules Beetle was enveloped in a blinding backwash of light.

Cerberus and her battle-sisters watched as the glare faded, hoping to see a fallen foe...

“Thank goodness for tertiary armour!” Instead, they found Hercules Beetle still standing, who whistled as he noted the damage to his armour. A gaping hole was formed on his chest where the beam struck, leaving only a scorched, heat-insulated inner armour at the bottom, which together with an overclocked cooling system was the only reason why he was still alive, “I should had been dead… what sort of energy weapon was that?”

Cerberus snarled. At least they know what it takes to get through his thrice-cursed super-armour of his, “What would you like to know?”

“Well, assuming we both lived through this…” He said, jumping aside just as Cerberus pulled the trigger to fire a second beam, even as he summoned more instant-armour plating and shielding to patch over the hole, “I would be happy with just knowing what it was called!”

He charged forward, sensibly marking Cerberus once more as his greatest threat and making to take her and her new weapon out of the equation ASAP. Cerberus and her battle-sisters knew this, however, and made it as hard as they could to make sure he wouldn’t succeed, dodging and distracting him with everything they got, giving Cerberus the time to fire the weapon.

Far away, the young neo-Hooviet recruit whom Hercules Beetle had saved hours earlier saw this change of fortunes on his binoculars, and despite being frightened at the thought of fighting those alternate future space warriors, made a resolve to aid the one whom he owed his life.

But first, he’ll need to call for some back-ups…

= = =

On another ledge the underground chamber on the other side, Midnight’s group had finally arrived, hiding behind cover and observing

“There they are...” Midnight noted, looking over the operation. It seemed to revolve around a giant laser cannon that, even now, is drilling its way through the great locks that ensured the large chamber doors remained close. The magical spells ensures those not pure of heart would not be able to undo them - but it seems they couldn’t had accounted for a giant energy weapon. Those box-shaped devices sitting at a corner, she deduced, must have an important role to play in seizing control of the secrets here, given how heavily guarded they are by soldiers.

“There must be a whole company of renegades here… with a whole platoon of heavy troopers among their numbers, judging by their unusual weapons...” The captain of Midnight’s Chosens observed, he doesn’t like the look of the odds, “More, if there are troops in the caverns beyond those entrances over there. That large stallion down below is likely in command of the operation, given his more advanced armour design.”

“Not impossible odds - we can distract and divide their forces, spreading their numbers and fire across the chamber.” Green Shade of the three Unicorns with them suggested after a thought, “With our teleportation and stealth-attack techniques, we can attack from multiple directions at rapid speeds and make our numbers seem greater than it is.”

“We ought to prioritize on taking out the devices and the beam-casting contraption…” Blue Wave added. She was the more passionate and straightforward sibling among them, but even she can and will use measured approaches when needed. Red Sun is the moderating one between her and Green Shade, “If we take those out, they cannot succeed even if we fall afterwards.”

“Maybe, but even then, we’re still outnumbered ten to one…” He looked around the chamber, trying to find an advantage… and saw something, or rather somepony, “Correction, five to one. Now we have a slightly better chance...”

Looking near a back entrance, unnoticed by the neo-Hooviets, were Patch and company, with the chosen royals just behind them. One of the teenaged champions waved a hoof at them.

“That we do.” Focusing her powers, Midnight the Sigillite contacted them with telepathy, unwilling to risk alerting the neo-Hooviets to their presence by vox, “Can you hear me, young ones?”

“Regent! You’re alright! Thank goodness…” Patch replied mentally, slightly surprised but quickly getting used to it. The other Tales Seven could ‘hear’ her as well, “We just made it here. We have Queen Starbust and Rosie here with us, along with Kimono, Bright Glow, the King’s Guards, and even several of Captain Onyx’s Space Legionnaires. We’re going to try and fight through them; can you help us?”

“We shall, and together, we now have an even better chance to succeed.” Midnight replied, smiling softly, “We have a battle-plan in conception. Perhaps you could share your plans as well...?”