Soldiering on

Chapter 2

“What” Alloy asked, reeling from the news he had been given.

Rainbow Dash ran her hooves through her mane. “Why do I have to tell him this,” she thought, racking her memory for the action that brought this level of bad karma down on her.“I tried to tell them that, but, frankly, you’re the only pony qualified for the job. This has to be covert, and I don’t trust blitzkrieg. He’s too impulsive and too gung-ho. We need the most seasoned hoof we can find. And, unfortunately, it happens to be you.” Alloy was dumbfounded. ON one hoof, he should be glad to get to get his payback on Sunbolt and Starburst, but on the other, he just wanted to leave it alone.

“Rainbow, you know I can’t do this, I told them I wouldn’t take this job, and I won’t. ”

“To be blunt Alloy, Luna doesn’t care about who you lost. What she cares about is that those two are put into the ground. And she’s gonna pay you very well for it.” Rainbow shot, beginning to lose her patience.

Alloy was many things, however, rich was not one of them, and Luna knew this well as he did. “Rainbow, find me another hit. I don’t care who, but not them, Hitpony work is one thing, but not this. Those two took everything from me, Snapdragon was my life, and I won’t go back there, ITS TOO DAMN SOON!” he said, the last few words breaking into a yell.

Rainbow ground her teeth, why does he have to have a conscience now. Alloy go kill a dignitary, Ok.  Alloy, go kill a noble, Ok. Alloy; go kill the two ponies you actually have a reason to kill. NOOOOO! She couldn’t do this anymore, couldn’t take his shit. “FUCK YOUR PAST. HOW MANY PONIES HAVE YOU KILLED FOR BITS, BUT YOU WONT KILL THE TWO YOU HAVE A REASON TO KILL. FUCK YOUR  SHIT!” she screamed, so forcefully that she shook dust from the ceiling of the command tent

“HAVE YOR EVER HAD SOMEONE SO CLOSE TO YOU DIE, THAT YOU ALMOST FUCKING KILLED YOURSELF?”, he half yelled-half screamed .

“ALLOY, THAT’S NOT THE FUCKING…”Rainbow didn’t have time to finish the response.

“THAT’S WHAT I FUCKING THOUGHT “ he yelled.

Fuck me, what did I do to deserve this? Rainbow rubbed her temples, alloy was difficult at the best of times, but this was fucking pushing it.

“350,000. That’s how much they’ll give, thirty five hundred thousand bits. Alloy, that and the 100,000 you’ve put away from your hitpony shit, you’ll never have work for us again. Do you get that? This is what you’ve always wanted, right, a chance to get out. Alloy, if you can’t do it for hate, do it for greed,” she said, her tone dripping with venom and heavy with agitation. They sat their staring at eachother, the silence hatefull and deadly.  Fifteen minutes passed before alloy broke it.

“Why kill them now, hell, its been 3 years. Or did Command not consider treason and murder --grounds for assassination?“ He asked.

Rainbow sighed. On the one hoof, she had been told not to tell him, but on the other, it made her job a whole hell of a lot easier. Of course, duty caved to sloth, and she pulled a file from amidst the stack of maps and papers that cluttered the rest of the table.

“The Cerberus Project” she said, sliding alloy the file. “I’ll let you fill yourself in.”

Alloy opened the file, leafing through its contents. He saw formulas, chemical balance charts, pictures, and a fair bit of writing. One of the pages read as followed

Project Cerberus

Subject no. 042

Test number 5

Dna sequence Timber-Theta

Subject was taken from stasis chamber. Dna sequences beginning to take hold. Height increased 4.67 ft., shoulder span increased by 3.5ft Bicep muscle group growth astronomical. Subject stands 10.5ft tall, 6.5 ft. from paw to paw, 4ft from chest to spine. DGH compound and Gama-creatine produced quickest growth seen yet. Recommend use of this compound for all subjects.

Subject fitted with armor components Tortuga 1-5. Subject somewhat on edge. Subject attempted to remove armor. Subject offered extra rations. Subject ceased attempts to remove armor.

Subject ordered to destroy an equestrian heavy tank in 15 seconds. Subject growled, indicating rudimentary understanding of the difficulty of the task. Subject unable to do lasting damage to tank. Results deemed unacceptable. Subject given 50cc of Amphetoadrenalie-15 (henceforth referred to as amp-15). Subject exhibited dilated pupils and extreme restlessness. Subject given same directive. Subject attempted to pry turret off of tank. Turret section was dislodged after 14 seconds. Results unacceptable. Subject was given 100cc of amp-15. Subject was able to cripple turret section and tread components. Results approaching desired outcome. Subject given 150cc of amp-15. Subject was able flip tank upside down, and dent hull in. Results almost at desired outcome. Subject given 200cc of amp-15. Same results as previous test, with 2 exceptions. Subject rear paw pierced hull of tank. Results satisfactory. Subject was unable to remove foot from tank. Subject went bezerk, killing 2/3 of observational staff. Subject went into cardiac arrest. Medical staff unable to revive. Subject dna harvested for future use. Recommend 150cc as maximum safe dose.

-Diamond Southpaw, Chief research technician for Subject 5

Really Southpaw, did none of the graduate chemists I hoof picked took the time to calculate overdose point?  We don’t keep you dumbasses around for your good looks. Obviously, this is a major setback. On the bright side, we now have a known overdose point, as well as two working compounds and one well running dna sequence. I will implement these compounds in all future subjects, barring any new developments. Will have at least 10 combat ready prototypes for Leonberg, the research in high strength armor has been completed. Faust, they don’t pay me enough for this

-Starburst, head of research Project Cerberus.

“Is this what I think it is?” he asked, his expression somewhere between horror and admiration.

Rainbow shrugged, “If this is to be believed, we have the first recorded super soldier. The idea, in essence, is to take an already massive Diamond Dog, pump him full of steroids, wolf DNA, and amphetamines, and send him charging at the front lines. Of course the science behind all that is much more complex, but you get the idea.”

“And, doubtless, the marked couple are behind this?” he rhetorically asked.

“Which is why they defected in the first place. The diamond dogs are the only military crazy enough to try this.”

“And Leonberg is totally unrelated, right?”

“He, sure. We  believe  that not only are the diamond dogs going to deploy the prototype at Leonberg, but that Sunbolt and Starburst will be there to oversee the first test run.” She said, pointing to another set of dispatches.

“So, you people once again expect me to slip in to an active war zone, behind enemy lines, waltz into the camp, and kill the two most valuable civilian assets they have? Fuck, this isn’t a mission, this is a death sentence.”He said, his tone returning to normal

“It’s not as bad as it sounds. They are holed up in a lab here” she said, pulling out a map of the city. The building in question sat four or five blocks south from the fighting. “Anyway, we expect marginal resistance. The most recent intercepted orders call for all essential combat personnel to be moved forward. This is what has

command worried. We anticipate that within the next 4 days, the diamond dogs can mount a full push, and attempt to drive us from Leonberg.

“So I go in and behead the snake? And what about the mighty mutts, are they on the hit list?” he asked.

Rainbow Dash shrugged “Take the file, I want you to see if you think of anything, but if not, we’ll let the celestials get some action.”

“Will do, Ma’am. I would also like to apologize for my outburst, it was unprofessional improper.” He said, standing up and saluting.

Rainbow waved a hoof for him to stand relived. “Hell, Alloy this has been a long fight and you’ve gotten the plot end of it all. I’d be more worried if you hadn’t snapped. But I do accept your apology, and wish you good luck. Now if you’ll excuse me...” She concluded, motioning for him to leave

“Ma’am, one more thing, go easy on the coffee…” he said, a sly smirk bedecking his face as Rainbow tried to process what had just happened. Her irate stammering quickly faded as he exited the command tent. He smiled in spite of what had happened. She was good , even if she had to be the bad guy for so many ponies.