It was meant to be a simple recon op. Just a follow up op since Intel had already swept the area and found no bugs or any subterranean tunnels what so ever in the region. Guess we should have known that the Intel was bogus from the get go, considering that snobs back at Intel couldn't find their own backsides with a mirror and a map. But I guess with the war moving off of Pluto and over to the latest bug infestation on Hydora we all thought the bugs would have left the frozen lump of rock all at once.

I was piloting Lima squads M8 'Ape' Marauder at the time. The large ‘mech-suit’, as many civilians incorrectly called it, always felt good on me, like a second set of skin. Lima and several other Mobile Infantry squads were tasked with mop up duty, clearing out any pockets of bug resistance left planet side. Patrols like that were very long and it was inevitable for talking to start so I was chatting it up with my Squad mate Murphy at the time.

"I'm telling you Shimmer I got a bad feeling about this one." Murphy was saying into his helmet radio.

"Murphy when don’t you have a bad feeling about something?" I reminded him while rolling my eyes. Seriously, half way through our recon and he had not shut up! Every single time we went out it was always the same lines again and again. I had seriously considered turning off my coms to him like the L.T. had suggested but I knew he would somehow defy logic and get me to listen despite the lack of air.

"Look” I finally said with a hardly concealed sigh.

“If you’re so worried then keep an eye out, instead of distracting me." I looked down at my Xenograph with my eyes for a moment, no enemy contacts.

After ten more minutes we finally reached the top of the hill we had been climbing and the L.T suddenly crouched down onto one knee and raised a fist to stop the squad, we all saw what made him stop and I instinctively readied my Marauder's weapons. Beyond the hill was what looked like an M.I supply-convoy. Well what’s so bad about that you ask? Well I don't know what counts as normal for you but convoys usually have troopers to man them and don't look like somebody detonated a nuke at the center of it.

Troop transports were either flipped over on their sides or were so damaged they couldn’t be salvaged. From my spot on the hill I could see three flatbed trucks in between the ruined troop transports with, what I guessed, were bug cages but whatever had been inside them seemed to have escaped.

The L.T cupped the side of his helmet and activated his long range radio "Lima Squad to Blue leader.” He said in a serious tone.

There was a long pause before someone answered "Blue Leader here, go ahead Lima Squad. Over."

"We've just found an abandoned M.I convoy, six Troop transports, three flatbeds with bug cages. Over." the L.T reported "Blue Leader, I was unaware that we had any convoys running in the area. Over." L.T. said with a tone that meant the question was really ‘what isn’t command telling us?’

"We have no record of any convoys passing through that area, investigate and report back. Blue Leader out" The L.T cut the channel and got up "Alright fan out and look for clues" he turned to me.

"Shimmer watch our six."

"Yes sir.” I replied, my marauder’s weapons at the ready for any tricks.

The rest of the squad fanned out among the trucks of the convoy and searched the inside of each for survivors or for clues. I didn’t like this one bit, my stomach felt like a coil as I could practically feel the tension in the air.

I made sure to keep constantly checking on my Xenograph while I kept a lookout for my squad-mates, I could hear their voices over the radio as they reported what they found.

"I got some pulse rifles here, they look used and some of them are still warm."

"There's a bug hole here but it's been sealed, can't tell whether it was the bugs or the troopers."

"I don't like this sir, there was obviously a fight here but there's not a single bug or human body. There’s not even any blood." I knew that voice belonged to Murphy "And I can't see any markings on these trucks. Do you think it was a black op gone bad, Lieutenant?"

The L.T. was quiet for a second before he replied, "I think we had better keep looking Private." The L.T growled in annoyance. L.T. was always easy to get angry whenever there was intel being kept from troopers.

"Hey! I think I found a manifest, but I can't reach it." I heard the voice of Private Lenex say in between groans as he tried to reach an arm through a damaged door on a transport.

"Shimmer, could you help me with this door?" I looked on my map to see where he was. After switching places with one of the other troopers, I found Lenex standing at the back door of one of the over turned transports. I made my way over to him while glancing at both the xeno and seismographs, as well as my motion tracker... still clear so far.

“Stand aside and let a master show you how it’s done.” I said, sounding like my old bratty self from boot camp.

I gestured for the guy to move aside which he did allowing me room to move the Marauder's massive arms and by extension, the powerful three claws on the end of both arms. Striking hard on the door I dug the claws into the metal and got a good grip before using the marauder’s strength to command the doo to open.

I felt the door giving a little resistance while I fought to open it and If Pluto had an Earth like atmosphere I would have probably heard the tortured scream of tearing metal. When the door finally gave way the force that I had used nearly toppled the Marauder over and I suddenly felt myself stumble back. Luckily I was able to regain my footing quickly, no way was I going to end up on my back while in a Marauder, I would never live that embarrassment down.

Lenex climbed in after I dropped the door into the dust nearby and re-emerged moments later holding a data pad "Looks like the convoy was carrying some bug specimens somewhere, but it doesn't say where." Lenex said as he read through the data "in fact... It doesn't even say where they came from."

“Usual ‘need to know basis’ bullshit I bet.” Another trooper said but I wasn’t really paying attention.

"What bugs were they transporting?" the L.T asked.

"Says here they were carrying some type of bug called Royal Guards, ever heard of those?"

"No, never heard of them." the L.T said thoughtfully mirroring what I was doing and checking his weapon to make sure it was ready. "Transfer the data to Shimmer's Marauder and keep looking."

Lenex pulled a wire out of the tablet and plunged it into one of my access ports and uploaded the data right into my mainframe. Later on we would be able to share the info back at the base.

"I'll keep looking here, you probably should go help Tirg." Lenex said with a grin as he motioned behind me "Sounds Like he's having a little trouble over there.”

I turned to where he was pointing and barley suppressed a laugh, Tirg, or Tirger as was his full name, was having trouble with opening the back door a transport, it was funny because the rookie somehow seemed to have had no idea that there was a rock stopping it from opening. But then again what else were new guys for? It was his first week and I had been so sure he was going to bring me endless laughs with his antics.

I started to make my way over to him when my motion tracker spiked as well as my Xenograph, but instead of the Red that marked Bugs or the Blue of SICON troops the blip was just plain white and it was coming from one of the bug cages, I was curious to say the least and walked over to the suspect cage while turning off my headlights so I didn't tip off whatever was hiding that I was on to it.

“Hey Tirg, go see if the others need help, I can handle this.” I remembered saying, I didn’t want the new guy in any danger.

As I drew closer I reached out and moved the rock that the rookie hadn’t noticed before I grabbed ahold of the bared door of the cage and noted that the Door was dented from the outside. Which meant that something was trying to get in, not out.

Slowly I tilted to the side an-

RHHAARRGGGE!

I woke in a cold sweat and bolted up nearly bashing my head on the bunk above me.

“....That dream again...” I said in as low a whisper as possible, just because I had a problem didn’t mean I was anyone else’s business. My heart was beating so fast I was worried it sounded like a drum.

Even after three years, that day still haunts me... Survivor’s guilt I had been told it was called. Not that I cared, to me it was just punishment for my mistake and I was getting what I deserved.

I sighed and ran my tanned hand through my crimson and yellow striped hair and looked around the barracks, everyone was asleep and a quick glance at my wrist watch showed it was only 500 hours.

Convinced that I would get no more sleep I swung my feet off the bunk and slipped them into my boots and quietly got up, making sure not to wake anyone, thank god I called the bottom bunk right next to the door on the first day. I gently stepped past many sleeping troopers and pressed a button on the door to open it, which it did with a soft hiss that made me cringe and look back to make sure no one was woken by the noise.

A few stirred but didn’t do much else and I slipped out, letting the door close automatically behind me, I doubted that anyone would wake considering we had been on patrol through the jungle for most of the night and everyone was bone tired but better safe than sorry.

I walked into the locker room and was still feeling groggy, so I decided that the best way to wake myself up was a nice warm shower. I stayed in the shower for close to fifteen minutes, making sure to clean my hair, before drying off and walking over to my locker and pulling out my power suit. Being on a planet that had breathable air we were issued non-pressurized versions of the normal M.I power suit which with was much less bulky then the other one, I quickly suited up saving the helmet as last before pulling my standard issue Morita Smart Rifle from the rack in my locker and moving to close the locker door.

I caught my reflection in the mirror in my locker as I did, my hair had once been long before I joined the mobile infantry but I had cut it shorter, not as short to give me a tom-boy look but just short enough to fit comfortably under my helmet, the side of my helmet had my last name ‘Shimmer’ printed in bold white letters.

As I looked into the mirror and stared into those cyan eyes of mine I didn't see Sunset Shimmer but instead Corporal ‘Hothead’ Shimmer, Mobile Infantry Trooper and Marauder pilot for Zebra Squad, a woman who had failed her last squad.

Tearing my gaze away from the mirror and stepping out of the locker room, I would go on a patrol of the wall of the base, the fresh air would clear my head of these daemons. The only thing that stopped me was how I took a moment to grab a breakfast bar from a vending machine. Rule 1: never waste a chance to eat.

As I exited the Barracks I was greeted by the early morning sun and accompanying breeze of Tesca Nemerosa, overhead I saw a small group of Raptorbirds fly by with loud squawks, despite being on the top of the avian food chain on Nemerosa the Raptorbirds had never bothered the Humans on the moon and always seemed to get caught in Jungle Spider's webs.

A few other troopers were on patrol around the base but it was early in the morning and they wouldn’t notice me. Most of the other staff were engineers and such making sure the equipment around the base worked.

I climbed the ladder leading up to the perimeter wall and started my patrol, there wasn't really any need since the advanced warning sensors would go off before any bugs got close. Even then the base’s automated defenses would be able to keep them at bay, so the only reason I went on these solo patrols was to think and today was no exception. I would be back before the others even noticed me so it wasn’t ever a big deal.

It had been almost a full year since the Bug Queen had been killed and the bug hordes defeated with only a few Brain Bugs keeping their meagre forces under control. The only reason Zebra squad along with Sierra and Vector Squads was even on Nemerosa was because the moon was one of the places that a brain still resided. It was just a matter of time until we found that brain and shoved a nuke down its throat. The thought always made me smile, the big bad brain bugs dying in nuclear fire.

I stopped day dreaming and took a moment to enjoy the Nemerosan air. It filled my lungs and helped to wake me up.

Tesca Nemerosa. A jungle moon orbiting the gas giant Tesca, during the bug war both SICON and the Arachnids fought over the lush green jungle moon and even after the end of the war there was still a relatively large bug presence on the moon, the research outposts on the moon are from time to time raided by large swarms of Warriors intent on killing all within. But they are constantly thwarted by the outpost's defenses and the three M.I squads tasked with eradicating the bugs from the jungles of Nemerosa.

While the bug presence is not enough to warrant a full M.I task force, The Mobile Infantry gives us the newest toys to get the job done and the researchers of the outposts tended to give us a few more experimental toys as thanks for our efforts. Of course since a lot of it is experimental we had to sign contracts so they wouldn’t be sued if one of the things went critical and blew us to pieces.

I looked up to the sky and saw the gas Giant of Tesca fill my vision, the view still took my breath away whenever I saw it, it was always a beautiful sight during the night or early morning and made me glad that we had been stationed here instead of a more inhospitable world, you could do a lot worse than Nemerosa.

"A bit early to be out on patrol isn't it Corporal?" I nearly jumped out of my power suit in surprise and spun around to see who was speaking before I immediately stood to attention and saluted.

"Lieutenant Cadmus sir!" I exclaimed quickly as my superior officer approached me "Sorry sir I couldn't sleep and thought I could do a patrol to-"

"At ease Corporal you don't need to explain" Cadmus told me with a wave of his hand, he was a tall man who's skin had been tanned by his time here on Nemerosa, he had a closely cut beard and mustache and short brown hair "You had that dream again didn't you?" he asked already knowing the answer.

Lieutenant Cadmus was the only person on the squad who knew about the event that lead to me having these nightmares that I have so often, I had been assigned to the same squad after I recovered during the Tesca Campaign and then both assigned to Zebra during the Klendathu Campaign and even the Home-front Campaign. Back when the Bug Queen landed on Earth and we had to fight the bugs city to city and street to street, it was never fun having to blow up some of my favorite clothing stores just to take out some bugs.

"Yes sir, it's nothing really..." I said before muttering "Just ghosts of the past." I couldn’t look him in the eyes, I was afraid he’d see how I was lying. But it wasn’t like I was the only trooper out there with problems, with the fighting on earth a lot of troopers who had gotten Section 8s were recalled to help with the war and cleanup. And I never had a section 8 so I was better than most.

The lieutenant looked unconvinced but didn't press the subject instead opting for a subject change "Your tour of duty is ending soon." he noted as he fell into step alongside me "What are you planning on doing after?"

"To be honest sir I was thinking about signing up for another tour of duty." I admitted to him.

"I didn't really have much going for me before joining SICON so I figured I might as well do my part." That was what I told myself alot nowadays, it was a half-truth to be sure, yes I didn't really have much to go back to after my term is over considering I have no family so to speak and I didn't really have many skills other than Piloting a Marauder and being a trooper so it made sense to stay in the Mobile Infantry.

"Well you know that Sergeant Jackson is planning on shipping back to earth to be with his wife and kid in a few days, right?" Cadmus told me "So I'm going to need a new Sergeant to take his place." Cadmus couldn’t hide the smile on his face.

I was seeing where he was going with this and decided to confirm my suspicions "I would suggest Dingo" I didn't really mean it, the guy had no leadership skills what so ever "Or Gauss" Him maybe, he was pretty competent.

The Lieutenant stopped and grinned, shaking his head. "I think you already know who I want to take his place." he told me

"Jackson already put you up for his replacement and you'll be receiving a notification in the mail later this week." he patted me on the shoulder pad "You've earn-" he was interrupted by someone contacting him by his radio “Cadmus here, go ahead.... Where is it?........ Xenograph picking anything up?........ I'll take someone out to check it out, Cadmus out" he turned to me, the smile on his face was gone and mine followed with it as I knew it was time for work.

"The boys up in HQ want us to check out some odd reading coming from in the Jungle" Cadmus said, and even then I knew he wasn’t telling me the whole truth, I could see it in his eyes but I trusted the L.T.

"You want me to wake the rest of the squad?" I asked.

"No, HQ wants this done quickly so we'll go alone, grab your Marauder out by the main gate" he told me, I Saluted and rushed to the nearest ladder and slid down it.

The vehicle bay was empty considering the time, being on a jungle moon the bay only contained a pair of Skimmers, a Submersible that the Retrieval ship in the courtyard could drop into one of Nemerosa's many large rivers, as well as three Marauders.

The first and tallest of the three was the standard fire support 'Duck' Marauder, the familiar gorilla like 'Ape' and my personal Marauder which stood taller than the 'Ape' but still shorter than the 'Duck' which I liked to call the 'Hellhound'.

The 'Hellhound' shared the same characteristics as the 'Ape', two powerful arms with three claws one each in a triangular shape attached to the main body and legs, but unlike the original 'Ape' I had managed to sweet talk some of the tech boys to attach a pop out chainsaw on each arm for close encounters, the 'Hellhound' also had a more powerful version of the Gatling on its left shoulder as well as a small napalm/Grenade cannon on the right, along with the flamethrowers in both arms, as well as the standard machine guns.

All of these gave the 'Hellhound' its name, the machine guns in the center of both claws, which resembled hands in a way, fired crystal version of smart rounds instead of the normal kind, the crystals were experimental as well as the 'Hellhound' itself because when not being fired the crystal core in both arms regenerated lost mass so the Marauder essentially had unlimited ammo for its ballistic weapon so long as the crystals were working properly. I had to sign three different contracts for that modification and was told that if I started showing signs of cancer to report to the med-bay immediately.

The crystal's chemical structure could also be modified by the pilot so they could be explosive, incendiary or standard rounds, I had even heard the researchers who made the stuff mention that the crystal cores themselves could be used as tranquilizers. But considering their warnings about cancer I don’t think I will be trying that, I might want kids someday and radiation poisoning is a bad way to go.

It had taken a bit of convincing but I had also gotten the techs to make the 'Hellhound' more maneuverable so that when I got knocked on my ass I didn't need my squad mates to push my back onto my feet during a firefight, the 'Hellhound' was now the most maneuverable Marauder in M.I service, sometimes I think of the 'Hellhound' as an extension of my body because of how fluid it moved, and thanks to all the improvements made over the 'Ape' and 'Duck' models the 'Hellhound' had a renewable power source that gave me a total running time of a week in between stopping to recharge which in itself only took an hour unless plugged into an external power source. Only problem was that if I used it continuously without a break it risked melting the power source and again making me glow in the dark. I did mention that I signed a bunch of contracts, right? Always gotta read the fine print ladies and gents.

The 'Hellhound' was painted in the same way anything that Zebra squad used was. Dull grey with dull black stripes, and I had also added a little symbol on it's arms to personalize it. A crimson and yellow sun, the same one that was tattooed both sides of my hips. It took a while to get it just right but I loved those two suns and they felt like good luck charms to me. Not that I believed in magic, it just felt right.

I climbed up onto its legs and pulled myself up and into the walking tank's cockpit and closed the canopy before I hit the ignition. I felt the comforting hum of energy rushing through my Marauder after bringing it to life and I quickly fell into my usual routine, instinctively going through a checklist out loud.

"Ammo count 100%.... Power levels nominal.... Structural integrity green.... Sensors fully operational" I raised both of the Marauders arms and clenched both sets of claws to test if they worked alright before walking towards the door leading out into the morning sun, as he said he would Lieutenant Cadmus was waiting by the gates for me.

"Ready to go sir" I said but he said nothing as he pressed a key on his suit and opened the gates remotely, allowing both of us to pass. Two large Sniper Turrets lay on either side of the gates protecting them, beyond the gates was a few meters of barren land that had been cut to give the base's occupants a clear view of anything that came out of the jungle. Cadmus and I moved across no man's land quickly and into the Jungle proper where we were immediately focused on our surroundings, especially the treetops since a favored tactic of Jungle Spider bugs was to drop down and overwhelm unsuspecting troopers.

The whole time the lieutenant and I both maintained silence so I kept my focus on my sensors which were coming up with zero on any Bugs... Or any sentient life at all, no birds or any other critters that called Nemerosa home which I had to admit worried me to no end. It was rumored by the eggheads that Nemerosa might have more animal life than Earth, so if there was none showing up here that was an obvious sign of danger. I made sure the safety was off on both arms.

After a fifteen minutes of walking at a brisk pace we arrived at the location command had given Cadmus and what greeted us confused and scared the living hell out of me.

Impaled upon pike like spikes were dead M.I. troopers, the spikes driven right through their chests as they hung there like puppets, but there were also warrior bugs with them, impaled upon the spikes.

"What the hell is this?" Cadmus said as he stared up at one of the impaled power suits, no blood visible, just the suit and the visor seemed to be dimmed.

"Shimmer help me knock one of these down!" I complied by unsheathing one of my chainsaws and slicing the pike closest to me, that had a power suit, in half by the base. Without the support of the spike the power suit dropped to the ground with a semi metallic thud and splashed in the mud.

To our surprise, the power suits were empty as Cadmus showed me while he dragged it up into a sitting position, the armor was dull grey with no markings at all to distinguish who it belonged to or that it even belonged to SICON.... Just like...

"Sir.... this is a lot like back on Pluto." I said with dread as my heart started to beat so fast it felt like it was slamming into my ribcage.

"I know" was all he said as he got up.

"This doesn’t feel like a coincidence sir." I said as I glanced at the impaled power suits and warriors, i didn't need to say anything else since I was sure we were both thinking the same thing, command detecting the signal at a time that I usually got up a short distance away from the base I was stationed at with un-marked power suits.... Someone was trying to send me a message.... About those events three years ago....but what was the message? And why?

"Get HQ on the line and tell them what we found." Cadmus told me as he looked around with his rifle at the ready. I did what I was told and turned on my long range radio but before I could do anything a voice came over through the speakers

"Lieutenant, Shimmer do you read me!?" I recognized the voice as a squad mate, Gauss, and Judging by his tone there was trouble

"Shimmer here, what's going on?"

"We just got a call in from Vector squad, the lab they're guarding's under heavy bug attack!" I had already patched Lieutenant Cadmus in and his expression was stone cold.

"we're bringing the Ship over to pick you guys up" there was a high pitched screeching that made my teeth ache as the Retrieval Ship passed overhead. The VTOL craft slowing down for a second to make sure we could see where it was going.

"There is a clearing a couple hundred meters east of you, we'll meet you there for pick up."

"Roger that Gauss, see you in a few" I turned off the radio and looked to see Cadmus already running east and I quickly followed, glancing back at the scene behind me one more time before leaving. No way was I sticking around, I didn’t want the memories coming back.

Unbeknownst to Sunset, standing in the shadows of the trees was a power suited man, his face hidden by a darkened visor. Flanking him on each side were two monstrous creatures, their figures hidden by the trees above them blocking out the sunlight.

The man looked to the creature to his left as if he had just been asked something, his hands clasped behind his back as if he were a nobleman.

"No, but soon..." he watched the Marauder clad Sunset Shimmer stomp out of view "Soon my goals shall come to fruition and you my Dear Ms. Shimmer shall have a simple choice. Either become a great ally or my greatest enemy, either way it should be very entertaining."

Author's Note

Please tell me what you think of the story so far by ether likeing (Or disliking) and leaving a comment below.

UPDATE NOW SPELL CHECKED!!!

Special thanks to Sneaky Breeze for the new version!