(Typo. Whoops ) Crimson pulled out a holomap that contained the entire area of Equestria, detailing cities and towns since it's last update roughly an hour before the Glorians arrived. The blue territory being listed under Federation territory while the Red was occupied under Red Eye, and Red Eye had more then half of Equestria already under his belt. He pointed at one settlement which was labeled with a blue fleur-de-lis symbol, the symbol of Project Eternal. That settlement was Ponyville. The rest of the settlements had no symbol other then Red Eye's. Crimson then pointed at Fillydelphia. "Red Eye's base of operations is located in Fillydephia. It was the manufacturing hub of Equestria during the war, a large number of the weapons and machines of wartime Equestria were produced here. Fillydelphia also housed hubs for the ministries, similar to other major cities like Canterlot and Manehattan. A large portion of the city was destroyed during the bombardment. When Red Eye came to power, he restored factories to serve his purpose and uses slave labor, in which the slaves were sold or captured. That's where you want to go. Other settlements under his control are several towns and a rare amount of cities. Ponyville, according to resources, has been transformed into a fortress close to the front lines. Crimson pointed at Ponyville and smiled. "Me and the Eternals have been planning this assault as a reunion party. There's no need to attack there. Besides, we have not seen each-other fact to face for almost 200 years, so this will a reunion to remember." "Seeing how you're the top dogs around the galaxy, i believe that you don't need any assistance in terms of troopers. However, everypony likes help sometimes. So why don't we combine our forces to assault Red Eye, with the Glorians looking after Glorians and my Federation looking after Federation and so forth. Shall we accept those terms? (I had a 'what if' scenario. What if Equestria won at Cillioni? It never would have happened anyway, seeing how Glory would have then came and retake the planet, but it's an interesting thought nonetheless.)
(Hm, well if Ciilonii was originally lost, then Glory would have stepped up into total war and sent its whole fleet over into Ciilonii. One of the main reason Glory won was because its vastly superior space fleet. Either way, Glory would have won eventually, and it has the population to expend in such things) Tibar nodded, "My forces will attack this "Fillydelphia" from the north where this Red-Eye would least expect it considering the lack of settlements to his north, while you and your forces can close in from the south, an anvil to hammer. In the meantime, I'll get my soldiers ready for an offensive to clear a path for your forces all the way to Manehatten, then Friendship City, then finally Fillydelphia. Does that sound good to you?"
"Sounds like a good idea. While the Federation attacks from the south via the command of it's generals, me and the Brotherhood will cut directly through the middle and you'll be coming from the north. Red Eye is in for a big surprise." Crimson stood up and gave a hoofshake to Tibar. "We'll discuss more about our future partnership after the war. For now, let's get to work."
Crimson wasted little time preparing the Federation and the Brotherhood for both of their assault's. His plan was made up from a simple yet effective strategy. History has proven that a power cannot fight on another front effectively when already facing against another enemy, and Crimson's and Tibar's assault was going to prove exactly that to Red Eye. The Federation, under Crimson's generals and under the command of his daughter were going to attack from the south with Guardians and the regular forces. While the Glorians were attacking from the north due to the lack of settlements, meaning that they could cover ground faster, the Brotherhood of Life under the direct leadership of the Eternals were cutting a line straight through. The Eternals, dressed in their signature black Elite Riot Gear gathered together to share weaponry before heading out towards Ponyville almost two hundred miles away where the Eternals 'reunion' would take place. Crimson changed his very attire for the occasion, where he swapped his current riot gear and duster for his original armor. They decided not to take transportation with the dust from the vehicles on the dirt road giving their position away, so they were ready to walk the entire way. This did not bother them, they once had to walk hundreds of miles through the Everfree carrying their weight on backpacks. Once they came up with their 'plan', they set of towards Ponyville. Once Ponyville was taken, it would serve as the Brotherhoods foward base, where they could easily finish their campaign in roughly the same time Glory would finish theirs. Every single Brotherhood solider, in some form, was augmented from getting his/her parents abilities passed down. However, none of them came close to the Eternals in terms of skill with the exception of the Brotherhoods elite squad, Elysium. Within an hour after Tibar's meeting, the soldiers on all sides were informed about the plan and the Eternal's were already long gone. Once Ponyville had fallen, it was already the beginning of the end for Red Eye.
Admiral Tibar rounded up all his landed soldiers and Jarii and his squad and took them aboard the light frigates. Then the two ships instantly set off to begin the path clearing offensive, loading up 200 squads of Magniitums and Elatians into the Striituses for being deployed in the path zone to loosen up targets, then...they began the bombardments...
The Federation swept across the southern sector of Red Eye’s empire and liberated dozens of settlements, wiping any sort of resistance that Red Eye gave the Federation. They learnt to fear the Federation’s Guardians who proved the most troublesome to their operations. While Federation casualties were supremely low with only the loss of three troopers, Red Eye’s casualties were very high that numbered in the tens of thousands and had to practically abandon or surrender some of their forts and huge amounts of land. The Glorians, beginning their bombardments, reminded Equestrian’s why they were so feared all those years ago. The uneducated thought of the enormous ships as judgement from the royal sisters themselves, all attacks on them were useless as entire areas were wiped out, and had no choice to retreat or be annihilated. The Eternals, after walking for almost a week, found themselves a mile from Ponyville. They expected that the town would have been a hornet’s nest of activity; they did not expect exactly how large the encampment itself was. Lace easily guessed that Ponyville numbered with the force of just over 50,000 slavers against 6 legendary super-soldiers that were a major war asset during the war on Cillioni. The Eternals switched to their weapons, mostly starting off with their rifles before needing the necessity of having to switch to their sidearm’s until they swapped to their melee, and if necessary, unarmed combat. All six of them nodded in agreement as they drew out their weapons and started to walk towards the large walls of Ponyville, smiling as an alarm went off across the entire town.
Jarii and the squad he had grown quite attached to landed their Striitu on the outskirts of Fillydelphia, the flashes of light from the Glorian bombardment of key infrastructure and Red-Eye positions in Friendship City visible just around the horizon. Jarii looked to his pilot and gave a small salute in thanks before hopping off the cruiser and crouching down with the rest of his squad as the ship cloaked and zoomed off. The sky was black from the week of bombings from Sabrii bombings in the city, fires still casting an orange glow on the area and the clouds above, of course it helped this operation was happening under the dead of night. "Alright, after all we've been through, this mission should be a piece of cake. Our objective is simple; find the Stable in the area that was once or still is a Steel Rangers headquarters. If we find Steel Rangers, our job is to convince them to help make controlling the area outside the Wall here very difficult and dangerous, arming hiding slaves, planting mines everywhere, that kind of thing. If we don't find the Steel Rangers, it is our duty to clear it out and form a forward operating base in which troops can be garrisoned in quantity that can flood out in the first phase of the attack. Understood?" he whispered to them. then they all nodded before taking RadX and putting on their rebreathers to help guard against the smokey, poisonous air, completely concealing their faces when combined with their helmet visor. Following suit, he nodded to them and motioned to follow him and they crept through the streets of Fillydelphia, the first Coalition force to do so in this war...
The Eternals walked towards Ponyville as the beginning of thousands of rounds of ammunition coming from mounted machine guns on the town's wall began to spray the dirt around them, obstructing Red Eye's troopers from the view of their enemies as a cloud of dust soon came up to their level. The battlefield soon fell silent as the dust began to dissipate. Two guards peered over the wall to see if the Eternals had made it to the wall. Unfortunately, they would never over the wall as Dust jumped into the air holding two small proton axes and decapitated both of the guards in a single blow, followed by the remainder of the Eternal's as they lept onto the wall and began their assault, almost instantly bombarding Red Eye's forces as they took the nearest available cover. 50,000 Red Eye soldier's fought hopelessly against the Eternal's as they foolishly attacked wave after wave. After a while, the Eternal's soon ran out of ammo as they swapped towards their melee weapons. Sandstorm and most of the Eternals used their own proton swords. Since the Brotherhood had technological advances since the war that was considered centuries ahead of it's time, they had mastered proton weaponry and used swords and axes. Crimson was the only Eternal to not use a proton weapon, placing his faith in his trusty Katana, Blackstar. Within hours and some Red Eye forces retreating, the Eternals painted Ponyville red with a combined body count of over 45,000 with the remaining 5,000 retreating. Once the Brotherhood arrived at Ponyville, they could not help but look in awe and disgust at the slaughter. The Eternals, now heading directly towards their next objective, retaking Manehatten. Obviously much larger then Ponyville, the Eternals and the Brotherhood would need to be more through when taking back the city from Red Eye's forces. The reunion went better then expected....
(Bit early to be heading straight for Red-Eye, don't you think? Oh, and just curious, is it even possible to kill an Eternal? And also; I recently realized there are a lot of parallels between Red-Eye and Caesar from FNV...)
(I'll change the whole Eternals going to Fillydephia scene. And Eternals can be killed, since Crimson killed Vulcan by piercing his heart with his sword. However, doing so requires the meta human skill, peak physical conditions and so forth. Not to mention the Eternals can regenerate to a certain degree, like Wolverine's healing factor in X-Men. While extremely powerful, they are mortal. And this mortality they have is the only reason the Eternals are not basically demi-god's. Also, Red Eye is based on Asher from the FO:3 DLC, The Pitt. He is basically in the simplest terms, another Caesar or the eastern coast version of the tyrant we love to hate.)
(Alllrighty. And oh right, I forgot about Asher, been far too long since I've played F3...I just dont like how weak all the weapons are, takes so long to kill even a raider...And I can't download a mod to fix it because of my damned computer restrictions my parents put in place.) Jarii lowered the binoculars that he was looking at the Stable's entrance through, his squad pausing in a building with a good line of sight on the entrance so they weren't going in blind, "Well...There's nobody or pony outside, and I don't see any automated defenses...that doesn't mean there aren't any..." he muttered before turning around, "Sunrise, you got a scan on the area yet?" he asked. "Yes sir!" She replied quickly and quietly, "There is little to no electrical activity in a 400 meter radius, no foreign heat signatures for a kilometer, and overall looks like this part of town is completely abandoned. If I was to guess, Red Eye withdrew his forces to within the Wall and the stronger buildings inside for better protection against bombardment and to concentrate his forces in case of attack." Jarii nodded again, "Makes sense. Alright, everypony, on me, same drill as before, keep low, no talking, keep to the shadows, and only move when I give the signal." The 7 heads nodded and Jarii looked up to the sky to see one of the occasional lazy arcing energy shots from the light frigates dozens of miles away disappear and hit somewhere, but where didn't matter, all that matter is that it plunged the area into enough darkness that they could safely pass. Quickly hopping through the windows and falling a story, they quietly moved across the last street before the Stable, evidence of the Rangers present in the built up walls and the bullet dents in the walls from fighting. Using a grappling hook, the squad quickly scaled the wall and moved into a small building as another lazy energy shot arced into the city. After the light died down, they moved to the Stable's entrance quickly and set up positions around it, "Alright Cracker, see if you can crack the password to the Stable." Cracker nodded and walked to the external control panel, then placed his special hacking machine on it to try every possible combination without a lockout...
The Eternals and the Brotherhood wiped out almost all opposition that Red Eye threw at them without even losing a single solider. While getting some close calls, such as one soldiers leg having to be amputated after a IED blew it off, the remainder were almost unharmed. Red Eye had to abandon almost entire cities and settlements to bind him time to help focus his defence against the Glorians and the Federation. With so, Manehattan was almost abandoned with the exception of those living under occupied Friendship City and Tenpony tower. With the Brotherhood eradicating all other resistance that Red Eye had left, Manehattan was liberated and were starting to get very close to Fillydelphia. For the remainder of the week, the Eternals spent their rest period inside Tenpony Tower. They were treated like celebrities, but some did not like having them there as a poorly executed assassination attempt played out against Jackpot and Dust and going on a rampage across the tower which was quickly stopped without loss of life. Because of this, the criminal was sentenced to death via the Eternals throwing the assassin from the top roof as he fell onto the streets below. Meanwhile, with the Brotherhood removing almost all traces of radiation from the destroyed side of the city using a pheora of devices, they declared the side of the city to be habitable once again which pleased the residents greatly. Once the rest period was over, they had to pass another smaller settlement before they will wipe out Red Eye on his own territory. Meanwhile, Crimson decided to send Red Eye a message....
The Stable door eventually slid open in its loud, screeching way, something that worried Jarii, so he quickly got his squad inside and closed the door once more as they took up defensive positions around the abandoned entrance. Jarii kept an eye on his heat signature detector as the door shut once more and came up with nothing. "alright, squad, it's obvious the Steel Rangers are no longer here or else we would have seen them. So, split up into pairs and clear out anything that has occupied this place. Keep in contact so that way we know if something has happened. Got it? Alright, move out and keep an eye out for anything that moves." "Yes sir!" They all replied before falling into their usual pairs and they split off after entering the Stable for real, carefully making their way through the dim lighting.
Crimson walked inside of a dark and empty room where he placed a small device no bigger then a remote to a TV set. Taking a few steps back, the screen began to project a huge screen of Red Eye which interrupted his frequency. Red Eye, even through he looked surprisingly calm, was deeply stressed out about the three attackers coming from almost all sides. Crimson could tell that due to such stress, some parts of his mane have been receding and hair falling out in general. He looked at Crimson in disgust as he began to speak. "I thought this was going to be an easy war. And yet, here i'am, staring into oblivion against the Federation, the rabbit you've pulled out your hat that my officers have known as 'The Brotherhood of Life', and the Glorians. How the hell did you manage to turn the galaxy's most powerful empire against me?" Crimson had a smug smile across his face "Careful diplomacy...." "I see. Within this week alone, your alliance has almost utterly erased what i have spent my entire life working towards. I could have won this without this intervention from the Brotherhood and the Glorians.” “You never stood a chance. Admit that....” “I’m going to let you know that I’m going down fighting. I’m the savour of the wasteland. I’m Red Eye!” “You misunderstand everything about your obsession to kill me and your dreams of conquest. I’m known by many names across the globe, but some stick out that inspire ponies to fight against their enemies for what they believe in. I have thousands of years of combat experience that have inspired fear and nightmares into Raiders and Slavers for over 200 years. I have even survived against the Glorians during the war. I have seen events happen so fast that they could be said to have hardly occurred at all. You Red Eye, you are just a single pony. And a single pony against me and those who believed in your disgusting unsanitary lies are no more significant to me than a termite.” Red Eye stood several steps backwards from his monitor, utterly petrified. It seemed that Crimsons words had taken an effect on him as he looked at the monitor in shock. “You’re not a savour. Your won’t even be a martyr. I’ll see you soon.” The transmission then faded from the holographic screen as the later soon disappeared back into the remote. Crimson knew he not only lowered his morale, but quietly thought about that he was going to be the pony to kill him. With that, he walked out of the room while he and the Brotherhood would move out the next day towards Fillydelphia. But first, he had to liberate the settlements in his path. Not that there were many under Red Eye's current control since 'The Great Retreat' began.
(hm...What should Jarii and his squad find? Animals? Red-Eye soldiers? Hiding Steel Rangers, or the reactor set to blow up in a nuclear explosion to destroy Fillydelphia?)
(Could be anything really. Could you not use the reactor idea for Fillydelphia's destruction, because i had a really important plot twist for Crimson and the Eternals that's located underneath the city. Steel Rangers sounds the most realistic, considering their tech and combat experience that makes them powerful enemies that allowed them to survive in isolation for so long. Animals is another idea. However, i take it we're not thinking about cute little bunnies here...)
(Well, Jarii and his squad would have to disarm it anyways, less they be killed as well :I) Jarii and Rain Shine made their way down to a lower level, where they encountered signs of recent battle, and by recent, that meant corpses less than 48 hours old lined up along the stairway along with a fine coating of disintegration ash on everything. It was obvious that these were Red Eye soldiers, and the damage on their bodies was caused by advanced and heavy weaponry, a pretty good indicator of who occupied this Stable, "Jarii to squad, the Steel Rangers do occupy this Stable, I repeat the Steel Rangers occupy this Stable on at least the lower levels. Proceed with EXTREME caution and try not to be openly hostile." after a breath static, one by one the pairs acknowledged him. Then he and Rain walked down the stairway and activated the door to the second level, which slid away to reveal two paladins staring them down, weapons raised, "Come with us and you won't be harmed." One demanded simply, and Jarii and Rain put away their weapons and Jarii raised his hands, "Alright. Lead away sir."
The Federation seemingly obliterated all that stood in their path as many settlements to the far south were liberated while Red Eye had to retreat once more as they returned to Fillydelphia. The Brotherhood did exactly the same, except they cut a straight line directly through Red Eye's empire. And with the Glorians assisting both of them, they cut down the north like it was nothing. By now, 85% of Equestria was unified under the three forces against the remaining 15% of land that Red Eye held with Fillydelphia and under five settlements under his belt. Red Eye was losing territory very quickly, almost faster then he could retreat from with calculations of losing 4 settlements an hour and the land alongside it. The Brotherhood and the Eternals soon seen Fillydephia come into the horizon, with only a hop skip and a jump of settlements to liberate. The Federation and the Glorians were also coming dangerously close to Red Eye. Crimson only had one more settlement to retake, a small farming town just outside Fillydephia. If captured, the Brotherhood would easily kick the doors down for the Federation and the Glorians to enter.
"Speak fast, and speak true Glorian. What brings you here today?" A pony in long, grey robes sitting across the old Overmare's desk asked, "Why should I not kill you and your "squad?" Jarii cleared his throat, "My apologies ma'am, but my orders are both from the Federation of Las Pegasus and of the Glorian admiral Tibar. And those orders where to investigate this Stable to see if it was occupied or not. My orders where to either A): Clear it out if occupied by Red-Eye soldiers, B): Occupy it and call in reinforcements for the coming attack on Fillydelphia, or C): Find if you the Steel Rangers still occupied the Stable and potentially recruit your help." the Elder stared at Jarii before sighing, "You're telling the truth...Well, in the case of helping you in the coming battle, it would be difficult. We've already lost a quarter of our force to constant Red-Eye waves. As good as 48-1 enemy to friendly killed ratios sound, for us, losing just one paladin is painful. We've had to entirely abandon the first level of this Stable because of the loss in numbers." "But you wouldn't be attacking alone. The main army of the Federation will be attacking Fillydelphia from the south, right through here! And in the meantime, the Brotherhood of Life shall strike from the west while a Glorian light frigate attacks from the north and another the west! By helping, you would be, almost literally, the armor coating for an armor piercing bullet on its way to its target. Please, don't be remembered as the one faction that didnt help in the final take down of Red." The Elder was about the open her mouth when suddenly the Stable started shaking like in an earthquake, "The bombardment of Fillydelphia has begun..." Jarii said simply, knowing that above, the night sky would be lit up from explosions and energy cannon shots.
The Federation stormed into the city's southern side as they battled against the defense that they fought against, often coming with a victory with ease due to their technological and training advantage. However, only the main force fought Red Eye as Guardians took the underground tunnels underneath the city for a surprise attack from the rear. While the Glorians diverting attention from the rest of the main force, spreading confusion against Red Eye's ranks, the Brotherhood took the most heavily fortified section of the city, the eastern wall within minutes. The Eternals walked in a group almost casually as they watched Red Eye's soldiers get butchered. Unfortunately for Red Eye, a slave uprising several days before the battle began had already weakened Red Eye's control in the city considerably, with the battle now dealing a death blow to his empire. Red Eye was most likely in his tower awaiting his downfall with his generals screaming orders, but they knew there was nothing they could do. Jackpot, an Eternal and one of Crimson's close friends, shot down a slave leader with her revolver who appeared to be Red Eye's second in command after she charged towards the Eternals. With every dozen Federation and Brotherhood soldiers killed, they took a thousand of Red Eye's. All of the allied factions were backing Red Eye into a corner, and he will never recover from such an invasion. Crimson received a message describing a Pegasus mare placed in cryo at the bottom of the city due to a Guardian managing to breach the very bottom of the city's many tunnels. The Eternals, knowing exactly who that mare was, suddenly got angry as they took out their weapons, ran out to the frontlines and obliverate anything that stood in their way. None of these Eternals was angered about the news than Crimson. To see him upset, or even cry, is one thing. But seeing him absolutely furious...
