Chapter 2: New Mission, New Threat, New Concept, New Parameters, New Contingency

Chapter 2: New Mission, New Threat, New Concept, New Parameters, New Contingency

The Salvation slowly crossed the sea and for the first time in my life I was going to leave my home segment. However instead of enjoying the 25 Knots we were travelling at up on deck, myself and the rest of fire team Sea Lion found ourselves bellow deck staring at the large plastic crate before us baring the Thermodon Crest.

“So since ya are kinda like a task force now the spooks over at Thermodon sent yah a goody bag. Since Brawny was alive when this was standard issue I’ll leave explaining it to him. Now I need to make sure Mooncalf doesn’t sink the ship.” Shanty said and promptly trotted out of the room. I from the corner of my eye I noticed Swordfish watching our new captain’s rear end go out the door, and I barely suppressed a facehoof at the sight.

“Ok, let’s see what fleet command sent us.” Brawny said as he opened the crate and began rummaging through it. “Ok, these are night vision goggles.” He said holding out what looked like four telescopes that could be strapped to one’s head. “This is a HAZMAT suit… not sure why they sent us that…” He said pulling out a yellow rubber full body… bubble? “And this is… wait I remember when these where in service, why in Luna’s name would they give us these things?” Brawny wondered as he pulled out what looked to be blades that could be strapped to one’s wrist, and I instantly saw the flaw. “You can’t even use them with trigger hooks!” A trigger hook is as the name would suggest a hook strapped to your wrist to allow you to pull a gun’s trigger from a reared up or prone position, they where standard for marines, and the way we were trained.  According to Brawny the army got “battle saddles” and “power armour”, marines (needing a bit more maneuverability) were trained in the zebra style of pulling the trigger with your hoof, or rather in our case hook. “Wait these night vision goggles are an older model, and this HAZMAT suit has a hole in it… They gave us their garbage!” Brawny exploded, and to be honest I couldn’t blame him…

Meanwhile in Thermodon:

Two ponies carried a container to the incinerator. “Why do you think command wants to get rid of all this stuff, it’s practically new!” The first asked.

“Kid I’ve learned things, and chief of them is don’t question command.” The second said and bucked the supply crate into the incinerator.

Back in the perspective of Rip Tide:

“Fucking horse shit!” Signal Fire remarked as he helped me toss the useless crate over the side of the ship.

“I can’t believe that! I was looking forward to getting proper combat armour too!” I complained.

“Yeah now we’re poorly prepared and supposed to do spec ops shit…” Signal Fire replied.

Then the thought struck me, I still didn’t know who else had lost someone. “Hey Signal? I don’t remember if I asked but, did you lose anyone?”

He slowly began backing away, and his voice because the kind of squeaky awkward one that implies an awkward situation. “Well… I might as well tell you… You see I was uh… kinda… dating your sister.” He blurted out then put on the most forced smile I had ever seen. I’ll kill him.

“What?! Dude What The Fuck?! I’ll Kill You!” I yelled as I lunged after him. Our hooves crashed on the metal deck as I chased him around the Salvation for about two minutes.

Then Shanty decided enough was enough and stuck her head out of one of the bridge’s windows. “Stop crashing around and shut up!” She yelled, then calmed down. “If I find one dent in mah ship I’ll have ya both shot for sabotage.” She joked. She must have thought it was funny, but as captain she actually could do that, which made it much less funny for us. “Besides Brawny has ‘n idea for how to burn some time until we reach Centralumberland.” She elaborated and led us to the bridge, and then into the backroom that was apparently her private quarters. The room was cluttered, her officer sword hung in it’s sheath off of a coat hook, there was a mattress in the corner, and a blue and grey flag hung on the back wall. Something about the flag held my attention, we had learned a bit about other Command Segments back on the Patriotic Fire, but the flag wasn’t a standard flag, blue with a segment colored cross dividing the flag into four parts, on this flag the cross was off set so it extended from the corners instead of the centers of the sides.

“Ok what’s up?” I asked trying to take my mind off the mystery flag.

“Well, although we are still fire team Seal Lion, and the ship is still the Salvation, we are now a task force, and thus we should have a task force name.” He explained.

We sat around trying to think for a bit. “Yeah I got nothing.” Swordfish stated and that summed up everyone’s thought process. We sat in that room for what seemed like an eternity. I was so bored that I was convinced that I had become convinced that while we sat in that room there ceased to be anything of any remote interest in the universe.

Meanwhile on Earth:

(music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZcPN6UGUw8 )

There was a great rumbling from above, and a bright light greeted those who looked up to see what was making it. From that light emerged another Earth. With in an instant both planets mobilized their air forces and deployed them against each other. The two forces of equal strength and number fought it out to the bitter end to see which earth was true!

Meanwhile back in the perspective of Rip Tide:

“I know! We’ll be the Maredowells!” Swordfish exclaimed.

I started to explain why that wouldn’t work. “Sword, we’ve been over this before, more than half of us are stallions so that name simply won’t-”

“Contact off the port bow!” The senior security officer of the ship hollered through the open door way.

“Oh! They’re Pirates! Ask them if they have a parrot!” Mooncalf suggested from the bridge.

“Ugh ok.” Shanty said as she put on her captain hat, strode on to the bridge and grabbed the PA system. “All crew to battle stations, the opposition appears to be a single Xoo class Attack Boat, prepare for external and internal contacts!”

We strode on out of that room, we had gone over our roles, we would be on deck with a few of the vessel guards to over see the first contact, then we would be protecting the bridge in the event of a boarding. We rushed on to the bridge and saw the most peculiar thing, the pirates, identified by their mane style were slowing down, waving a white flag and tossing their weapons over the side. “Wha…?” I murmured in confusion. I had seen a canoe of pirates try to board the Patriotic Fire once, so an Attack Boat surrendering to a corvette seemed considerably out of character to say the least. The Salvation’s 4-inch main gun, and a few TOW missiles that had been set up on deck to bolster firepower were trained on the craft.

Shanties voice blared out of the large forward speakers. “Pirate Assault Boat! You will stand down immediately an’ prepare to be boarded an’ searched-” There was the screeching sound of a microphone being grabbed that made me cringe.

“Pirates! Do you have a parrot?!” Mooncalf’s voice came out of the microphone. There was then the sound of a struggle and a few cusses.

“Pirates? Yall still there? Yeah, prepare to be boarded by our best!” Shanty proclaimed.

“Best? That must mean us…” Brawny grumbled and made his way over to the RHIB.

We made our way to the RHIB, which was quickly dropped into the water, and Signal Fire piloted the RHIB to intercept the attack boat. “We surrender!” One of the Zebras called out.

“Please don’t kill us!” Another Zebra Pirate pleaded. Odd, they sounded scared…

Brawny motioned for Signal Fire to stop the boat. “Rip Tide, scan them.”

I nodded and reached out with my emotion sensing spell, they were scared, of what I had no clue. “They’re legitimately scared.”

“I’d be scared too if I was sent on a suicide bombing mission.” Brawny said distastefully. “Hey! I want every single one of you up on deck, and the keys out of the ignition now!” Brawny yelled at the pirates, who quickly rushed to comply. Once the engine stopped and the keys were dropped on the deck we boarded, and at gunpoint put them into the RHIB.

I was about to assume that the pirates were just cowards, when a zebra mare said something that honestly shocked me. “Thank you.” I would have jumped overboard if it wasn’t for the fact that the ocean was irradiated. Something was up, and I wanted off this attack boat.

“Imperial Navy Viking.” Swordfish read off the bow of the boat.

“Viking? Odd. That was the name of a pre-Celestia Tribe.” Brawny said in confusion.

“It was a name instilled fear in you Equines all the same.” A zebra, who to my amazement was in fact a ghoul, commented. Wait a second, to veterans from opposing sides of the war having to share a RHIB? That doesn’t sound like a good idea.

“Shut it.” Brawny growled as we climbed into the RHIB and patted the pirates down to make sure they didn’t have anything that could pose a threat to us.

“Hey respect your elders!” The ghoul snapped back.

“Oh I think we’re about the same age.” Brawny replied, and gave the all clear signal to Signal Fire who began piloting us back to shore.

“Oh I know, you’re that punk who blew the reactor on my ship.” Wait my ship?

“Admiral Xattax?” Brawny questioned.

“The one and only.” Xattax replied.

“You’re responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of ponies. Good ponies.” Brawny seethed menacingly.

“And? It’s war. When you caused that reactor leak on the Invictus you killed the majority of its crew of six thousand. If you did that in a day I’d hate to think of what you did throughout the majority of the war. Yet I don’t hold a grudge, because it’s war.” Xattax’s replied calmly.  The boat ride back to the Salvation was unusually quiet. I decided that once I get back I should take some rad away before the ocean spray makes me a ghoul like those two old enemies.

Once back aboard the Salvation the group of prisoners were sent to the brig, probably so they could be used for a prisoner exchange later, and Shanty sent the ship’s E.O.D. team to check the attack boat, because if it could be used, it would be useful. Then after a swig of Rad Away it was back to the room of perpetual boredom. “Hey Brawny, did the Vikings track?” Swordfish asked once we got back to Shanty’s office.

“Hmm…” Brawny was the only one amongst us who had any real knowledge o Equestrian history, since it was apparently mandatory ‘schooling” which sounds like a less useful version of basic training, yet even then it had been about 200 years since he had brushed up on his knowledge of history. “Well, they certainly raided and sailed boats with only the sun to guide them, so they probably tracked.” Brawny answered after a moment’s thought.

“Okay then all in favor of calling ourselves ‘Task Force Viking’ and moving on with our lives raise a hoof and say ‘I’!” Swordfish said, and the vote was unanimous, probably just so we wouldn’t spend another hour on just picking a name.

“Okay next order of business, Civilian Cuts?” Shanty asked, and all of us except Brawny raised their hoof. “Ok next, what should our motto be?” In the Compact Agreement there was a motto for everything. The Agreement as a whole had ‘Unity Above All’. Each segment had it’s own, Xooland’s was ‘Bravery is Power’. Each island had it’s own, each ship had it’s own, and even each family.

“Um… How about ‘Right is Might’ because they attacked us, and thus we’re in the right.” Signal Fire suggested.

Shanty shook her head at this. “Sounds too close t Thermodon’s.” Oh yeah that’s right ‘Might Makes Right’.

“Oh don’t tell me that Galvin Hoof still holds a grudge.” Brawny joked.

“Oh we do, cause we woulda won if more segments had joined us.” Shanty’s reply was one of pent up anger.

“I’m sorry, am I missing something here?” I asked.

“Well the rest of you wouldn’t know it, because the higher ups at Thermodon don’t want anypony to get any ideas, but around forty years ago Galvin Hoof declared independence from the Compact Agreement.” Brawny began.

“But” Shanty jumped in. “Thermodon didn’t like that their only source of new equipment was going to be able to put a price on it’s products, and sent a ‘liberation fleet’ to Galvin hoof and destroyed our building docks, then claimed to the other segments that we were holding back supplies they needed, and thus they alienated us and were able to return to finish us off with the largest fleet since the bombs fell.” I noticed that as she went on the usually calm Shanty became increasingly more irate.

“And thus the mighty Galvin Hoof Confederation was forced to bend the knee, disband, agree to produce new equipment for the rest of the Compact Agreement, and as a result live in poverty stricken bombed out ghettos.” Brawny summed up.

“ Y’all get the fuck out of my office!” Shanty ordered, tears of anger running down her face now. The rest of us quickly scrambled to get out of the young captain’s office.

“Brawny, you’re a dick.” Swordfish said once we were off the bridge.

“The statement you have made is out of line. Speaking of which, so is your eyeing of the captain.” Brawny replied.

“So what? I like sleeping with officers, I slept with Monsoon back on the Patriotic Fire.” Swordfish stated, then noticed our expressions and elaborated. “What? Did you really think I overheard all that stuff from a 35-foot tall crows nest? Also, what made you think a pony that can fly would stay in a crows nest?” We all face hoofed at this revelation. Of course Swordfish wouldn’t stay in the crows nest, and of course she’d complain about it so that Brawny would believe that it worked. She is an evil genius.

“So for the better part of the past 6 years, the crows nest has been empty?” Brawny asked.

“Yeah, really shows how radar has made the position obsolete.” She replied smugly.

“Better question, the R.A. is like 60, you’re 21, don’t you see some sort of problem with that?” Signal asked. I would have thought it was creepy, but I was internally kicking myself for forgetting that Swordfish was 21 and not 20 (which is especially bad since we’re the same age).

“I don’t get pony logic, why would you put a bird in a nest as punishment?” Xager’s statement crystalized the stupidity of the situation.

“Fuck it, I’m done! Reconvene in a hour when Shanty has had time to cool down.” Brawny said as he threw up his forehooves and trotted off.

“Swordfish one, Brawny zero! Damn I’m loving this new mission already!” Swordfish laughed and flew a lap around the Salvation in celebration.

“Hey Rip Tide, I heard that a few of the vessel guards are holding a game of pick up Hoofball. It could be cool.” Signal said.

“Yeah, I’m in, but don’t think this gets you off the hook for dating my sister and not even telling me.” I just want to show some Galvin Hoofers how we do it back in Xooland.

--

Swordfish truly was a bird of a different feather, aside from her drinking, unwholesome amounts of sleeping around, and her feud with Brawny, she was, like me, an orphan. Well not precisely like me, because she never had a dad, the deadbeat dropped her mother when he got news of her being pregnant, and her mom died when she was four, she was orphaned for longer than I was and she had no other family (except a dad that no one knows the identity of). Most in similar circumstances would kill themselves or become prostitutes in some sketchy port village, but not her. She however clung to the Patriotic Fire like an infestation. Being the same age as her I knew her growing up, and I know what she did, stealing, then selling the stuff she stole, apparently she discovered alcohol when she decided to sample some merchandise she snagged from the ship’s pantry. Considering this it isn’t hard to see how somepony could end up being like Swordfish.

--

The game ended up being called short when Signal Fire and a vessel guard named Ironclad got in a hoof fight over what Signal insists was a bad call by the referee (given that Mooncalf was the ref that constituted pretty much every call). Fortunately however when Shanty came out to ‘scold’ us she seemed to have calmed down. “You know, Ah don’t even care. Ah had to leave my office to get more .476 rounds anyway, so Ah seriously don’t care too much about this.” Shanty said and gave a bit of a shrug. The .476 round was the ammunition for the special magnum that functioned as a captain’s side arm, she must have been stalking up on rounds because the entire ship would have heard her taking a practice shot. “Also we’re going to dock at Southumbria and refuel before continuing on to Centrailumbria, so inform Brawny that we’ll be stopping in 15 minutes or so.”

Signal and I saluted and ran to the area we both knew Brawny would most likely be, the brig, and where Brawny is, when there’s no alcohol around, Swordfish is eavesdropping or mocking him. After a short jaunt through the metal corridors of the ship, we arrived at the brig, and sure enough at the metal interrogation table Brawny sat across from his mortal enemy, Ex-Admiral Xattax. “For the last time, I’m not planning anything!” Xattax responded to a question we had not heard.

Brawny shifted around to look at us, “What? I said an hour, it’s barely been 45 minutes.”

“Uhh… this is supposed to be some what confidential so we should go out in the hall so there’s no chance of a prisoner overhearing.” I said.

“Fine, but this had better be-” Brawny hadn’t even taken a full step when the fell to the floor with a crash. From under the table came a chorus of laughter. One glance under the table revealed Xager and Swordfish rolling around in utter glee.

“I told you that it would be funny.” Xager managed to croak out between laughs. It took me a moment to realize what had happened, the two of them had tied the laces of Brawny’s combat boots together causing him to trip. I found a smile creeping up on my face, not really because the prank was top tier, but more so because it was nice to see Swordfish getting entertainment from something that as a result of her childhood (or lack there of) she hadn’t done much of.

“Yeah that was pretty great!” Swordfish replied and pulled herself to her hooves. “okay, before we go to the hall way to discus whatever, there’s something that’s been bothering me.” She said as she rounded on Xattax. “Pirates don’t give up, what gives?”

“Well after what we saw pass over Southumbria we figured we were better off as prisoners on a big ship that free zebras on a little one.” Wait, did the Ex-Admiral just say Southumbria?

“Uh what did you see?” Signal asked as he slowly approached the zebra ghoul.

“A Raptor Class cloud ship.” Was his reply.

Signal rushed forward and shoved Xattax into a cell. “We got to tell Shanty before she refuels us at some Enclave death trap!” signal said with urgency flooding out with every word.

We returned to the bridge as fast as our hooves, or in Swordfish’s case her wings, could carry us. The sun had set, and I could see harbor lights as we went on deck to get to the bridge. On the bridge things were already going wrong. “Damn it! Still no signal!” A unicorn mare operating the radio cussed as we barged in.

“Hey, we seem to have some technical difficulties with our radio, either that or someone’s jamming our signal.” Shanty said. From her tone the second part was a joke, but at the moment is seemed very possible.

Xager was the first to speak. “Star demon bird ponies and a sky ship are here!” Wow Xager way to get the point across.

Brawny was the next to pipe up. “What he meant to say is that the Enclave is here, and you need to bring this ship to arms now!”

“Meh sure.” Shanty said and trotted over to the PA system. “Attention this is Captain Sea Shanty, we have a potential priority one threat, Ah want all non essential personal sealed in the safe rooms, all Vessel Guards to go to their squad leaders and prepare for assignment. If this turns out to be fake, then this will serve as this weeks call to arms drill.” After turning of the PA she turned to us. “Seriously, the place seems fine.” She said and gestured to the port. Then the lights went out, then the chilling sound of an air raid siren filled the night air. “Oh fiddlesticks…”

After making our way down to the armoury then making our way on to the deck, we received our assignment, land via RHIB and take out the jammer so reinforcements could be called in. a second fire team lead by Ironclad was going to secure the port’s fuel dump. I myself now carried a satchel of C4 explosives to destroy the jammer with.

The ship’s main gun, SAM site, flack cannon, deck mounted HMGs and even the anti-submarine mortar system were being operated, as well as the TOW missiles from earlier today and a couple portable mortar systems were set up to bolster fire power. Brawny, who was now carrying a large radio set to notify Shanty when we destroyed the jammer climbed down the ladder to the RHIB, then Swordfish. I heard the ‘thoomp’ of a mortar; the white phosphorous round was slowed by a parachute, and then ignited finally clearing away the inky darkness that drowned the port. “Hey Signal!” Ironclad called over as he descended down his RHIB’s ladder, Xager was currently climbing down to our RHIB. “Good luck!”

“Pfft, what do I need luck for?” Signal said as he descended down the ladder. As I began to maneuver myself over the deck rail and onto the rope ladder multiple blinding lights lit up, all focused on the Salvation. I had a vague idea of what would follow and climbed down the ladder as fast as possible. I heard a bang and let go of the ladder and painfully feel into the RHIB.

“GO! GO! GO!” Brawny yelled as fire from the harbor guns straddled the Salvation. The RHIBs engine roared to life, and I quickly sat up and readied my LMG, which in preparation I had loaded with a pan mag. Across the harbor there were many guns firing, but a realization hit me like a rock, none of them fire the Enclave’s signature energy rounds, and thus we were fighting our kin.

I deployed my bi-pod on the prow of the RHIB and fired a quick burst at a guard tower over looking the harbor. Our RHIB continued on it’s rush across the bay and into the harbor that was now a blasting zone for any improperly aimed shells, now a steady stream of tracer rounds targeted at us whizzed around like fire flies. Tracer rounds from my own LMG followed the enemy tracers paths towards the many MG nests around the harbor. I noticed something, their aim was not as good as I would have predicted. I heard a ‘fwoosh’ from nearby and a massive explosion formed in the corner of my vision, and half of a patrol boat flew out in front of us and fortunately went mostly under when we passed over it.

We hit the harbor and immediately rushed into the town where we would be able to at least force the hostiles to engage us in lower numbers. A second fire team of marines rushed down the dock to engage us. A round from one of their assault rifles winded me on impact, but fortunately the bulletproof vest used by all marines was impervious to small rounds, a fact that these marines must have forgot. Brawny and Signal Fire however didn’t and the majority of their rounds were headshots pretty much executing the opposing fire team. “You are a disgrace to the marine core!” Brawny yelled into the night, and despite this somewhat insane action, I had to agree. “You betray the Agreement! You put up a miserable fight! You aren’t worthy to the uniform you wear!” Brawny screamed, if it weren’t for the continued fire of the harbor guns I would have worried about somepony hearing us.

“Hey Brawny, this seems like a reverse of our normal roles, but we have a job to do!” Swordfish interjected before this act of insanity could continue. I quickly collected the dog tags of the fallen soldiers.

“Fine, tight formation. Xager you know what that means?” Brawny said and the zebra nodded in reply. We made our way from the harbor and into the town in our tight formation we checked each possible angle of attack as we rushed through the main road of the town. However once we had made it a few buildings into the town, a distinct rumble roared from behind us. Not knowing what was to come Brawny motioned for us to break formation, however before we managed to get to the relative cover of an alleyway a massive metal… thing with treads and what appeared to be a 150mm gun smashed through a building in the direction we had come from. At the same time, the large building at the end of the road lit up with muzzle flashes.

I opened fire to provide cover for my teammates. However Brawny simply motioned for me to get to cover. I didn’t head his warning on time, and a massive ‘BOOM’ followed by my finding myself thrown into the alley, and a burning pain in my hind legs. When I tried to get up I felt a horrible pain as something further dug into my flesh, shrapnel. “Hey Signal, toss me a healing potion I said as I dug out my tweezers and dropped to the ground. I inserted the tweezers into one of the wounds, and immediately the wound flared up with pain, I closed the tweezers on the shard of metal and with near unbearable pain pulled the metal sliver out. I repeated the process 4 more times, and then took the pink potion Signal Fire had passed me.

“Okay, on three, one, two, three!” Brawny counted down, and he and Swordfish made their move, he fired a grenade at the gunners in the building, and Swordfish fired her anti-armour rocket launcher at the tank. Two explosions rocked the street, and parts of the metal thing went flying everywhere, while the fire from the building quieted down. “Rip Tide you lucky son of a mule! You just survived a run in with a IF-46 Main Battle Tank!” I assumed that the metal thing was the ‘tank’ Brawny spoke of.

I got to my hooves, and we reassumed formation, now able to use wreckage of the tank as cover as we pushed to the house. Once we reached the house it was Xager’s turn to collect dog tags, as the town’s local militia had fortified the building. Once inside it became crystal clear that things weren’t even close to being all right, as a female zebra rushed us with only a knife as a weapon. Swordfish dropped her with a single round of her shotgun, and being indoors I was glad that our standards helmets had been enchanted to make gunfire and explosions more bearable while not muffling voices. “This is wrong. Star demon wrong.” Xager commented. Xager fixed his bayonet as we proceeded further through the building. A Zebra holding a live grenade, and hollering something I couldn’t make out, jumped out of a room to our left, I whipped out my side arm quickly enough to fill him with flechettes and telekinetically shoved him back into the room before his grenade went off in his mouth.

“Any one catch what he said?” I asked, typically those trying to martyr themselves yell out their cause before they go, and I wanted to know what these ponies and zebras were fighting for.

“For the Over-Realm.” Xager replied. “I have no idea what that is…” He added. The next door on right held two zebra militia members armed with Zebra rifles that would probably fall apart with a hard enough look.

To not have to fight every dam room here I simply sprayed the entire hallway with my LMG. While clearing each room I found that there had been someone waiting in ambush behind each door. “Hey Brawny do you think we’re near the jammer?” Signal Fire asked.

“Well this is the most heavily defended building in the town, so the jammer should be here.” He replied.

I opened the next door, and saw a nursery with a pile of dead zebra foals that had been cowered in the corner. My .308 rounds killed them… I had killed 6 foals… I felt like if I didn’t stop staring at that moment I never would stop, so I shut the door. “Clear.” With that I began the downwards spiral.

We stacked up at a door at the end of thee hallway and kicked down the door. Inside we found another fire team of marines and some sort of machine. Brawny was the first to fire, downing one, I ran to attach a C4 charge to the machine. Singal Fire and Xager teamed up on the other team’s flamethrower trooper, who was fanatic enough to use such a weapon at close quarters. A spray of tracer rounds kept me pinned behind the machine. I chanced a glace at the opposition, the squad support gunner. My opposite number was armed with a belt fed LMG, so I could just wait till they ran out and had to reload. There was a sudden pause in the fire, and I smiled to my self, belt fed LMGs jam more than magazine fed ones like mine. I dove out of cover and dropped a round right between the fucker’s eyes. All that was left was Swordfish who, up against her counterpart, was in cover behind one side of the crate, her opponent on the other side. Finally Swordfish made her move, she pushed the box into a wall to stun the pony, then dove over the box to finish her off. All said and done, with a nod from Brawny we exited the room and detonated the charge.

Brawny immediately got on the radio. “Shanty! This is Brawny, the jammer I down!” he said.

“Well duh, we’re talking.” A voice on the other end crackled. “Hey, some sort’a sky tank that doesn’t show up on radar just came out of the forest and has been harassing us, can yall send Swordfish over to deal with it, as we just lost our only other peagasus?” Shanty asked while I collected the fallen fire team’s tags.

“Yeah my launcher has a dumb fire mode so I can take it.” Swordfish replied.

“Okay sending her over.” Brawny replied. Swordfish saluted they few out a blown out window and off toward the continuing battle in the harbor.

“Ok, since that Sky Tank must have come from somewhere, I’m sending you to find where it came from and destroy whatever ya find.” Shanty ordered.

Sheesh she’s ordering us around like we’re robots of some kind. “Roger Roger.” Brawny replied.

We had been searching the forest for almost a half hour and the only hostiles we found in the dark depths were the bugs. Once again I found my tail whipping back and forth furiously to drive the bugs away. The problem with this was, that it made noise. I silently hoped the bugs would leave so that my tail would stop trying to give away our position. I took this time to reload my gun, off came the pan mag, it’s 100 hundred rounds had gotten us through the town but it was now almost depleted, and I pulled out one of the 30 round box mags. As I fit it into the magazine well it didn’t go in. I tried again; the magazine release was locked up. I had never had this problem before so I just tried to force it, and it didn’t work. Under closer inspection everything seemed good on the outside, as I set it down to do a field strip however I noticed a slight shimmer. “Wait, what the-”

Before the thought completely left my mouth there was a rustling from the underbrush and I found my legs swept out from under me, then bucked hard in the torso leaving me sputtering on the ground. From my position as I struggled back to my hooves I could see the attacker, dressed all black, engage Brawny in quick hoof to hoof combat, then toss some sort of blade at Xager which caught his uniform and pinned him to a near by tree. Brawny even with his two hundred years of combat experience was being beat by the figure; of course the first enemy on the island who showed any skill in battle would beat our asses. At this time Signal fire took a risk and fired a quick burst of flame from his flamethrower, and though the assailant avoided it, it had and affect, the attacker backed away, until their back was up against as tree. We surrounded the pony. With the light of the fire I could see that the pony was in fact wearing marine armour, with the armour and uniform dyed black, also the general stature of the pony lead me to believe the pony was a mare.

Although the mare was cornered she didn’t attack, instead simply looking at our collars the dropping to the dirt and putting her hooves over her head. “I think it’s surrendering.” Signal Fire stated, and I had to agree.

“Helmet off, answers now.” Brawny demanded and shoved the barrel of his gun in her face.

The pony did as told, removing her helmet and reveling her self. The mare was… unexpectedly cute.  Her coat was a very light blue, she seemed to be about twenty, and her mane was a silvery grey. “Um, my name is Contingency and I was just here on business when the locals attacked, so since you guys are out of segment, I’m guessing that you’re a recapturing force. So I can help you.” I looked at her collar, Centralumbria had yellow as it’s colour, her collar was red, Alpacadonia red.

“Your out of segment too, so what brings a soldier from Alpacadonia all the way down to Centralumbria?” I asked.

“Well, I’m not really a soldier-” she began.

“So give me one reason why I shouldn’t execute you for desertion.” Brawny cut her off.

The mare gulped. “I can lead you to the shack in the clearing that I assume you’re looking for.” That’s a pretty good reason.

“Okay, get leading.” Brawny ordered. “Rip Tide pick up your gun and stay on the six.” Brawny said glancing back at me. I quickly scooped up my LMG and inserted the magazine. The mare for her part freed Xager by removing the blade (which was some sort of machete), luckily the blade only caught a loose fold of his uniform.

I followed the mare through the woods, and decide that I wanted some more information on who I was tailing. “So what’s your name?”

“Contingency, yours?” She replied.

“Rip Tide. So are you a mercenary?” I asked. Most marines who deserted became mercenaries as they had guns, armour, and combat experience.

“Nah, I’m a hunter, and I’ve killed my fair share, but I’m actually a treasure hunter. A lot of Zebras are willing to pay good caps to recover the artifacts of their ancestors.” She answered. “While scoping out the island for a cave I found the shack in the clearing.”

Now I decided to try for a more friendly conversation. “So did you find the cave?” I asked.

“Yup. I was just sent to collect the dog tags of some relative who died during the war, no truly ancient temple or anything. But hey, I’ve never been here before so adventure.” The mare said.

“Wait ‘truly ancient’? And how did you get so good at CQC?” I asked.

“Well ‘truly ancient things were ancient before the bombs fell, and I was my team’s sniper, so if I didn’t work extra hard at my CQC I would have been next to useless in close quarters.” She answered. Before I could ask anymore she raised her hoof signaling for us to stop and get low. I did as signaled and looked passed her to see that we were at the edge of a clearing. Brawny edged up, and motioned each of us to a position. I moved into mine, a small rise that gave me a good view. Another fire team guarded the shack.

The shacks door opened up, and I moved a bit back to prevent me from being spotted. From the shack emerged four enclave soldiers in their black armour. They were looking at each of our position as if they knew where we were. I picked my target, the enclave pony looking right at me, and hoped that they had just came out for a smoke break. That couldn’t be farther from the truth as they opened fire into the woods. A glancing energy round grazed my helmet, despite being made of heat diffusing ceramics it became painfully hot and I removed it before returning fire. The Enclave ponies apparently didn’t grasp the idea of cover (presumably because above the clouds there’s nothing for them to use as cover), and thus out retaliatory fire cut them down where they stood. The hostile marines on the other hoof while still not as efficient as a well-trained fire team should be, at least took cover. “Fasten bayonets and clear ‘em out!” Brawny commanded and after quickly securing our ring bayonets we pushed through the tree line. The opposition opened fire as we did so, and I felt a round graze my left foreleg.  I reached my target and shoved the blade into the mare before she could bring her combat knife out to bare. My companions had similar success, with the exception of Contingency who had been hit in the leg. “Okay, Signal your with me in clearing the house. Xager go take a look to see if this is where the Sky Tank came from, if it is there should be depressions in the ground. Rip Tide go check to make sure our ‘guest’ is ok.” Brawny ordered.

I telekinetically retrieved the dog tags of the marines then made my way over to Contingency and noticed that she had a tool kit out. “Uh what you doing..?” I trailed off as I noticed her leg; she had pulled back the uniform’s leg so she could work on her own. Her leg looked bad to say the least. The leg itself looked considerably under developed as if it hadn’t been worked out in a year at least, and there were metal plates and pistons riveted on to it. “Uh what’s up with your leg?” I asked awkwardly.

“Well it’s a long story, but it’s not just my leg, my whole body is like this.” She said as she applied a metal plat over the wound and visually grimaced as she riveted it in place.

I cringed at the sight. “Doesn’t that hurt?” I asked.

“Well most of my nerves were burned out by the operation, so for shooting a burning hot nail into my leg it’s not that bad.” She answered and began rolling down her uniform leg.

“You were awake when it happened?! And did you…?” I trailed off not sure how to word the question.

“Yup, worst 16 hours of my life, and I’ll take a wild guess at what your second question would have been. I didn’t have any choice in this, and if I were to be given a choice I’m not sure if I would have taken it.” She answered.

“Um okay, so what does the stuff do?” I asked.

“Well, it replaced most of my organs with a Hydro Carbon Combustion Engine, and having pistons rather than muscles does make me stronger. It has it’s downfalls and it’s benefits.” She explained.

“Okay then…” I began to think of another question. “Do you have any questions about me?”

“No, you’re a marine, the marine life is boring. It’s why I left it.” She replied smugly and trotted about to test her leg.

“Really well I’m on an adventure.” I replied. Well this Enclave dog hunt was definably an adventure for me.

“Really? So you’re not just on a mission?” She asked.

“Well technically it’s a mission with very wide parameters.” I replied.

“Hmmm… sounds interesting.” She mused.

“Rip Tide! There are depressions behind the Shack!” Xager said as he ran over.

“Ok, so this is where the Sky Tank came from. We should go meet up with Brawny so he can radio Shanty about this.” I said as I got up and made my way to the shack.

Signal greeted me at the door. “Good to see you, because I have no idea what I’m looking at.” The inside of the shack had a few things of interest. There were two jars of water, an ash pile of what I guessed had been an enclave scientist who offed themself when we showed up, two dead ponies on tables with their throats slit, a strange machine, a terminal and two jars of blood. One jar of blood and one jar of water were labeled infected, while the other two were labeled ‘clean’. I also noticed that there was a lot of a gunky black stuff leading from a skeleton siting in a chair in the corner to a drain in the floor.

“Ew. I’d like to report that this is where the Sky Tank came from.” I said. Then made my way over to the terminal. There was a text document open, and it looked like a message to e sent to some sort of superior. Brawny got on the Radio with shanty, but I felt compelled to read the document.

Dear: Captain Double Helix,

Although I don’t like carving up civilians, I must admit that things couldn’t be going better. The virus has been successfully adapted and now we have complete control. While we did stay behind to look out for side effects and guard the transmitter, I’m writing this off as a success. Who would have guessed that the sample we got from 250, -115 could be adapted so easily!

-Doctor Sunshine

I looked at the strange device and emptied the rest of my mag into it, and regretted it as I didn’t have my sound dampening helmet on. Once my ears stopped ringing I looked over at the rest of the group. “Do the numbers 250, -115 mean anything to you?” I asked.

Contingency immediately sprung at the question. “Sounds like co-ordinates on a map! One of you should take note of that, because if I remember correctly those are just on the edge of the segment.”

Brawny however doesn’t trust easily. “Oh really, and what do you, a poor merc, know about maps?”

Contingency looked very undignified then replied. “A) I’m a treasure hunter not a mercenary, so I probably make more per job than any merc does in a year. B) I have a map for a cutimark so I think I know about maps.”

Signal Fire who had been digging through a drawer on the workbench came up with something in his teeth. “Hey, what’s this?” He asked as he showed us the little orb in his mouth.

“Hmm let me see…” I said reaching out with my magic.

“NO!” Both Contingency and Brawny shouted at me.

However it was too late ass I felt the world fall away, and the last thing I heard was Brawny ask, “Why do Unicorns always do that?!”

oooOOOooo

I was on a field on some Island, it was day, and I was standing behind a row of infantry wearing funny white with gold trim uniform. “Captain Shining Armour!” A pegasus addressed me as when she rushed up beside me. The orb must have put me into some kind of dream. At least I could get a promotion in my dreams. The Pegasus had a cyan coat, and a rainbow mane. Wow there’s something I never expected to see. This orb must be some kind of crack dream.

“Yes scout?” My host body replied.

“The Japonies still aren’t here, and the Zebras have begun moving their skirmishers across to our western flank.” The mare replied.

“Blast those Zebras and their lack of honor! At least we can count on the Japonies, to be late.” My host body fumed. This was like watching a movie! “You and the other scouts will stall out the skirmishers while we deal with them.” My host said gesturing across the field at a line of Zebras in some sort of red uniform. The mare saluted and flew of to what I assumed was the west. “Cannons ready! Ponies take aim, fire by rank on my signal!” My host yelled. Oh my, I’m dreaming about the war! “Fire!” My host voice commanded. The 4 cannons thundered off, not as loud as any cannons I’d heard before, and the first line of infantry fired their weapons, then dropped to the ground to reload, then the next line did the same, then the third, and then dang I thought belt fed LMGs reloaded slowly, those one shot what ever they were, were terrible! A few Zebras on the opposing line fired, then a second cannon volley broke their line. I watched as the line of red coated Zebras turned tail and ran, then looked at the line, somepony had fallen. I trotted over to see. “Private Caramel, first Equestrian Casualty of the war. It’s a noble death at least.” I remarked then turned my attention to the sky. There was a steady stream of pegasus fleeing from the west. “Ok ponies! Form a Square!” My host yelled and the soldiers did as told forming a box around me 2 ranks deep. The Pegasus with the rainbow mane stumbled into the square from the square. From the looks of things she had been grazed a few times.

“I’m sorry sir, we had to pull out, couldn’t risk casualties.” The mare said.

“You all made the right decision, the sky guard is undersized as it is. Plus now I can put that technique that the Gryphons shared with us to use.” My host said and patted the mare on her shoulder.

“Contact left!” a stallion on the westward facing side of the square shouted.

“Remember your training! Wait till they’re about 20 yard off!” my host yelled.

I couldn’t see beyond the square of ponies, it was rather unnerving, but then the ponies fired, and soon the entire square was firing. A few dead zebras who still had momentum fell through the square, and the ponies who had miss timed their shots found themselves on the wrong end of a bayonet. However the skirmishers broke and fled. That one Equestrian casualty of the war had escalated to about fifteen. A series of shoots rang out from the other side of the field and the Square’s northern flank began to fall apart. The opposing infantry had reformed and was fire directly on us, and those loading and firing the cannons had joined my host in the center of the square leaving us with no cannon support. “Reform! Reform!” my host commanded, and as our infantry did so, the death toll heightened.

Just when it seemed like we had lost, cannon rounds decimated the opposing line. I looked over to see who our saviors where and my view was greeted by a line of ponies in khaki uniforms waving a flag with a red sun on it. My host released a sigh of relief I hadn’t noticed him holding. “As I said, we can count on the Japonies being late.”

oooOOOooo

I awoke on the metal floor of the Salvation’s mess hall. The orb sat by my side, and with shock I noticed that Contingency’s head rested on my chest. Startled I jumped to my hooves, dropping her head to the floor. “What the fuck! Contingency! What are you doing here?” I asked. And got a bunch of nasty looks from the other ponies sleeping in the mess hall. Also, why are we all in the mess hall?” I asked quieter.

Contingency shook her head then replied. “I must have forgotten how douchey Thermodon was, because in you’re mission peramitters you guys need to get the funds for repairs and fuel yourselves, and after my comment about how much money there is in the treasure hunting business they asked me to tag along.” Wow when we include Xager and Contingency, our fire team increases to a squad. “We’re using the mess hall because the actual crew rooms where damaged last night, and I was resting my head on you because well, I literally don’t have a heart, and I find the sound of one comforting, so yeah…”

“Ok, that’s ok.” I said as I began to relax. “Wait, what about the battle last night, are the others ok?” I asked.

“Oh yeah the battle ended when the ponies and zebras of Southumbria surrendered, an occupation force from Centralumbria is managing it now and the rest of your team is fine. Although the captain did make the pegasus mare stay behind after the meeting you missed do to being in the memory orb.” She replied. “Oh and we’re going to those coordinates now.” She added. Feeling tired I lay back down and nodded that it was okay for her to rest her head on me.

I don’t know what to say. That was our first battle during our mission, and it wasn’t easy. I no longer just want to avenge my sister; I want to avenge every pony and zebra that the Enclave had made my enemy. I clutched the small sack that I had put the dead marine’s dog tags in and swore that I would avenge them.

Author’s notes:

This chapter is more than twice as long as anything I’ve done before.

The next chapter will be noticeably shorter.

It will also be the Halloween special!

Musical theme(s):

Memories of Galvin Hoof:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpq7uqFca_8&list=PL9mCMKp0o7xsej2XNCvaNn3xQPVI5IWhn

battle:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBLQ8AOVlis

the memory orb:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JulCg6hXe0

questions:

One thing you like so far?

One thing you don’t like?

One thing you find interesting?