Vasilyev awoke to an alarm blaring through his headset. He quickly turned it off with a quiet voice command, and checked the time. It was currently 0024 hours. Apparently, that had been the headset waking him up. For the first time since the crash, he wondered where the rest of his team was. Specifically, the eight others assigned to his operation. He had to assume that they were alive, and hopefully not stuck on this world. He had enough problems as it was without having to deal with more.

Rising to his feet, he quickly woke the rest of the team. They silently gathered up their rifles and ate a quick meal with some cold MREs, waiting for the go-ahead. At 0042 hours, Vasilyev gave the order to move out.

All of the ‘Net’ devices had basic thermal imaging that could be overlaid on the glasses. Within moments, Vasilyev had activated his. Instead of the red-purple-blue types that he could remember from the early sets, these ones had the white imaging type, where targets identified as significant heat signatures, like humans, animals, and vehicles, would show up a stark white, while everything else was a dark grey. Satisfied, he turned it off. At least it was ready to use if he needed it.

The team quickly reached the edge of the woods, where Vasilyev gave out the orders. Petrov, Sokolov, and Kozlov would enter the area, while the rest of them stayed back and watched via a video stream.

The three assigned quickly split off of the group, walking towards the field. It was nearly pitch black outside, and only the vision enhancement from the ‘Net’ sets enabled them to see clearly. The town had a few faint sources of light inside it, but was otherwise unlit. The team quickly sprinted across the field, slowing when they came within two hundred meters of the town. The grass soften their footsteps, allowing them to approach nearly silently. The town was quiet, the only sounds being muffed noises from a few, scattered houses.

Sokolov quickly took out the objective of the mission, a small radio that would transmit one-way continuously. They needed to find out everything they could about the language, which was why they chose a spot that could be clearly seen from the woods. They could compare what they heard with what they saw, giving them a good basis when they finally made contact.

Sokolov planted the radio on a wall, the light tan surface of the one-inch-square tab blending perfectly with the wall. Small spikes on the bottom attached to the wall. Sokolov pushed it in, the surface only being slightly smoother than the wall surrounding it. It was originally intended for observing remote spots without being there, but Novikov had brought it with him, along with several other random pieces of equipment, as a 'just in case' measure.

With their work done, the team quickly jogged back out of the town, making their way across the field and reaching the group within four minutes.

“Nice job, everyone.” Vasilyev said. “We are currently receiving audio feed, and we should be able to put it together with imaging from Sergeant Petrov’s sniper scope.”

“Good.” Kozlov simply said.

The group made their way back to the camp, quietly settling down once they reached it. Sokolov made sure his rifle was safe, and then laid his head back on his pack. He drifted off, quickly falling asleep once more.

At 0822 in the morning, Vasilyev woke them all. They quickly ate their meal, and turned on their ‘Net’ systems.

“Petrov,” Vasilyev asked. “Are you ready for this?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be. Just be sure to catch my video feed.” The sergeant said.

The sergeant quickly walked down to the edge of the forest as the rest of the group watched via their ‘Net’ systems. Vasilyev dialed his radio to catch the channel that the microphone would be operating on right as Petrov looked through his PSO-1 scope at the town. The scene showed several ponies walked around, probably beginning their day.

Vasilyev, however, along with most of the group, stiffened when he heard the voices.

A purple unicorn was talking to an orange pony on their screens. What caught their attention was the language the voices were in.

It was English, pure and simple.

“-lejack, I don’t think that will work.” The purple one way saying.

“Are you all hearing that weird language?” Novikov said, one of the few in the group who didn’t know English. “It almost sounds like what the Americans speak like.”

“That’s because it is.” Kozlov said. “It’s English.”

“Ah am sure it will, Twi!” The orange one was saying.

“That sounds like one of those American accents.” Sokolov said.

“It is! Now shut up and listen.” Petrov responded.

The purple one shook its head, apparently a common gesture. “It’s too dangerous, AJ. I need to find this alone.”

“What are ya’ll looking for, anyway?” The orange one asked.

“Jesus, it’s like a bad comedy movie. Someone wake me up.” Sokolov said, causing a small round of laughs to go around the group.

“Some creature or something in the forest.” The purple one replied. “Yesterday, I senses a massive magical outburst near-” And with that, the ponies went out of range.

“Magical outburst? What the hell is that?” Petrov asked himself.

Vasilyev shrugged. “Who knows. By the way, you’re transmitting over the radio.”

Petrov checked the ‘Net’ to find that he was, indeed, transmitting. “Shit. Well, now that I have your attention, I will give two hundred rubles to the man who can tell me what I just saw there.”

“We’re here to stay, it seems. Who here does not speak English?” Vasilyev asked.

Bogdanov and Novikov raised their hands.

Vasilyev sighed. “At least all the important people can speak it, to some degree.”

Meanwhile, Petrov has walked back over to the group. He had an amused grin on his face for everyone to see.

“Were any of you on the channel for the bug twenty seconds ago?” He said with a grin.

The entire group stared at him.

“I’m assuming that’s a no.”

A few nods went around.

“In that case, I have important news: I heard some of the creatures discuss a guard patrol, and saw a couple fucking pegasi in golden armor walking in the streets! With spears, for Christ’s sake! They’re going to go into the woods to find the oh so mysterious ‘magical anomaly’.”

“What’s our plan of action going to be?” Vasilyev said, turning serious for a brief second.

Petrov spoke up next. “What the fuck do you think? Either avoid them, or fuck with them.”

“I vote for fucking around with their patrol.” Sokolov said. “If they try to attack, all we have to do is get a fucking carrot or shoot them.” With that, the entire group erupted into laughter at the absurdity of their situation.

After the group quieted down, they started to plan. Their eventual agreement was to give the patrol a scare as they came down a road that was a full kilometer to the east. It provided the practical purpose of buying them time to deal with their situation. Yet again, Vasilyev was thankful he had taken another radar scan with his mobile unit. It had provided him detailed maps of an area almost two and a half kilometers around their small camp.

Shortly thereafter, the group reached the road and began to set up on both sides of it. Vasilyev, Sokolov, and Kozlov were on the west side, with Petrov, Bogdanov, and Novikov on the opposite side. With luck, this would dissuade the group of guards from walking around in this part of the woods. That, and the fact that even MVD Spetsnaz needed something to do when they were bored.

Five minutes passed before the guards came into view, golden armor gleaming in the midafternoon sun. There were two of them, each one a pegasus, with white coats. Both of them had a spear tucked under their wing, in a position raised into the air, obviously ready to use.

“I have them in sight. Transferring locations to the ‘Net’.” Novikov whispered.

Immediately, red boxes highlighted them for a split second, before changing to a hazy red-orange dot identifying each. They were twenty feet away from the ambush point, and the men were almost giggling with glee. To them, this was finally a chance to make sure they weren’t bothered, and also to have a little fun.

When they were ten feet away, Vasilyev moved into a pose that would allow him to easily walk forward. Suddenly, a call came over his radio.

“Permission to flashbang, sir.” Kozlov asked.

Vasilyev mentally facepalmed. He had completely forgotten about that. He quickly nodded to Kozlov, and he and the others quickly turned their heads away, the helmets able to automatically muffle loud sounds, but not the flash.

Three feet away.

Clink

Thud

BANG

The sound was loud, even muffled. Immediately, Vasilyev moved out of the bushes, followed closely to his left and right by Sokolov and Kozlov. On the other side of the road, the others emerged from the bush. Now was the time to act.

“Get down on the ground!” He yelled in his accented English.

-=-=-

Bright Shield and Swift Passage were both doing a patrol down the road. With the recent magical surge yesterday, ten guards had arrived in the area, and they had been the two unlucky enough to be sent on a patrol first. Swift Passage grumbled to himself as he walked along. Why did the Sergeant always pick him when it came to patrols? It’s like he had a thing for annoying him.

A small click was heard off to the right. Both of the guards turned their heads just as a metal cylinder landed in from of them with a dull thump. They stared at it, unsure of what it was, before suddenly a massive light erupted, like the sun was right in front of their eyes. Their ears were suddenly ringing as he blinked his eyes to get his vision back.

Surprisingly, both he and his fellow guard had dropped the spears after it went off. It took enough concentration to hold one in your feathers, and if that broke, it simply fell down.

“-down on the ground!” He heard faintly from his left, he turned, vision still slightly off, to see a massive creature standing to his right, along with two others. Turning his head the other way, he spotted three more. They were outnumbered three to one.

-=-=-

All six men moved forward, rifles aimed but on safe, looking very intimidating. The two pegasi were obviously both confused and probably frightened at their sudden appearance, so Vasilyev decided to take charge.

“Tell me, why are you out here.” He said in English.

“T- To investigate the forest.” The nervous pegasus responded.

“Tell me,” Vasilyev said. “Do you know what happens to people that wander the forest alone?”

“N- No.” It responded.

“Good, you won’t find out.” He replied, switching to the radio and speaking in Russian. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

With that, the six men melted into the forest, leaving a very frightened and confused pegasus behind them.

Author's Note

Originally finished on 6/22/2013, at 12:44 PM.