There were many troopers inside of the ship, some half out of armor due to the heat, a few had even gone outside to enjoy some true fresh air. Some of my own boys had come inside to check on the newly discovered troopers while others stayed outside to form a perimeter.

Others of the stranded troopers were cleaning their gear or talking about something or other, but despite whatever they were doing they all turned to face us as we boarded the ship. I could see a large hole in the floor as I walked through the ship with Celestia, to which I guessed was Honeydews doing.

Rule No.1 of Zebra Squad: Never trust the dwarf of a man with explosives of any kind. He had found a love of explosions at a young age and that had only increased as he joined the Mobile Infantry and got to blow up bugs on a daily basis. Although his love of explosives could be sometimes worrying, his little digging song was nice though. ‘I am a Dwarf and I'm digging a hole, Diggy Diggy hole I'm diggin a hole!’

Ahem....Sorry, where was I? Then out of the cockpit of the ship we were approached by three men, by their markings I could tell that all of them were Lieutenants but none of them were Cadmus. However there was someone among them who I recognized instantly, he was a Zebra Squad legend.

Lieutenant Bernstein, the man was Zebra Squad's Lieutenant before getting re-assigned during the Homefront Campaign to Kilo Squad. During the Hydora Campaign he had lost most of his squad during a heavy assault by Ripplers, and yet he managed to save almost all of them and round up many other survivors to keep holding out until they were rescued by ‘Razak's Roughnecks’. I had only met Bernstein a few times but I had to admit there was a rugged charm to him, but he wasn’t someone I’d bring home to mom…if I had a mom that is. I quickly straightened my shoulders and saluted the three men as they approached and stood at attention.

"Lieutenants, I'm Sargent Shimmer, Zebra Squad." I said and watched the three return the salute.

"Good to see you again Shimmer, Cadmus told me he had promoted you" Bernstein said, allowing me to stand at ease, but the way he mentions Cadmus's name made me feel that something was up. Where is he?

"These are Lieutenants Norris and Ross" He looked at my Equine Companion and raised an eyebrow.

"Sargent, why do you have a... Ah... Winged unicorn with you? Has General Custer brought his cavalry to help us fight the bugs?”

‘This is going to be a running thing isn't it?’ I thought and cleared my throat.

"Sirs, allow me to introduce ‘Princess’ Celestia, one of the leaders of a dominant species on this world." I gestured to the Celestia who nodded respectively to each Lieutenant as was customary.

"It is my pleasure to meet you all." Celestia said, though in an annoyed tone of having not been given the proper courtesy that should be shown to another sentient being.

All three Lieutenants looked from Celestia to me and then back again, they were obviously just going to keep doing that with their mouths open for flies to set up shop with in so I decided to take the initiative.

"Celestia, may I introduce Lieutenant Bernstein of Kilo Squad, Lieutenant Ross of Delta Squad and Lieutenant Norris of Echo." All of which were veteran Squad's that had survived all the way through the war.

"If I may speak freely Sirs but... Why were you stuck in here? It's been a Month and a half since we arrived, why are you only calling for help now?"

"As ‘Ahem!'” Ross took a moment to clear his and gather his throughts.

“As soon as we arrived, we were all captured." Ross said, recovering quicker than his fellow squad leaders to the revelation of talking horses.

"Correct me if I am wrong but Bugs don't take prisoners" Nice point Celestia.

"And even when they do the P.O.Ws are always interrogated and killed by a Brain Bug." and even more disturbing but equally relevant point, why was everyone here not only alive but fully geared up?

"That's the thing...We weren't captured by bugs... Or at least, not just bugs." I already don't like where this is going and my palms were getting sweaty from my mind already forming theories. None of them good.

"We we're captured by Humans with M.I equipment and being supported by bug forces." What? Humans and bugs working together! That's not possible (Snowflake doesn't count, she's only part bug and is really nice).

"They rounded us up and took us to a base of some kind." he continued and shook his head.

"We don't know where but they kept us there for a month, then three days ago we staged an escape using improvised weapons, we lost three men in the escape..." Three men? Please don't tell me.

"I'm sorry Sargent. But Lieutenant Cadmus died holding back the enemy while the rest of us escaped, he took out a portion of the base before he died." Lt. Bernstein said to try and cheer me up but I was still in a sort of shock.

‘Cadmus... Dead? No that can't be, he couldn't die it was not something that happened to him... Everytime we think he's dead he just comes back stronger, he just cou-‘

"Your lieutenant did give me something for you just in case he didn’t make it." Bernstein said reaching into his pouch and taking out a letter. I waited for him to hand it to me and took it with as calm a look as I could manage.

I took it and turned it over to see my name and rank on written in pen, I had a feeling what the letter contained so I asked if I could read the letter in the cockpit in private. The three lieutenants agreed as they wanted to talk to Celestia alone anyway so I left the Monarch in their capable hands.

Once I was safely inside the cockpit I sat down in a seat and ripped the envelope open, pulling out the letter.

Shimmer, if you are reading this then I’m likely dead. But Lieutenant Bernstein has found you. You were right about the power suits in the jungle, there is a connection to the incident on Pluto but there’s little time to write all this down. General Patricks is alive and he is in with the bugs.

The General came to me several times, asking questions about you. Like what was my opinion on you and if I had noticed anything different about you. I only responded with my name, rank and serial number. Sunset, I don't know why but he's gunning for you and you need to be careful. There’s just something not right about him, no human would willingly turn traitor to the bugs, so maybe it’s not even the general. I don’t know.

But I do know that I might not be getting out of here and someone needs to keep the squad in line.... And I'm so sorry to force this upon you but this letter is a now official documentation of your promotion to Lieutenant effective as soon as this reaches you, I hope you can figure all this out and I pray that you survive this.

~Lieutenant Cadmus

P.S your bars are in the envelope, sorry if they look old.

I read and re-read the letter to see if I wasn't just hallucinating the words in it. Once I was convinced of the validity of it I shook the envelope and a set of command bars dropped into my cupped hand, they shined in the sun light despite their age and being scratched up. I knew that these were Cadmus’s bars.

‘Why did he have to do this....I don't deserve command, I can't afford to have that responsibility... Not after....’ My heart started to shudder as I felt my eyes start to sting with tears. This was all too much for me. The stress, the pressure, the responsibility I felt like I was going to barf.

"Are you ok?" I nearly jumped out of my power suit as Celestia entered the cockpit, her big warm eyes showing concern…for me?

I sat up and folded up the letter and put it away before wiping my eyes with my gloved hand.

"Ahem...Yes Princess, it's Nothing." I said with a smile until I saw Celestia’s face.

‘Damn, now I know where Twilight learned that look from, she was giving me a look as if she was saying she knows I'm lying. Eventually I relented, that stare was too powerful..or maybe…I just needed to get some weight off of my shoulders.

"Just learned that my C.O oldest living friend is dead, for some reason General Patricks is alive and after me. Oh and I've just learned that I'm now a lieutenant and in charge of my own squad!" So in essence, no I was not alright.

"I understand about your friend and even about Patricks...but why are you upset about your promotion?" she asked, genuinely confused. I just couldn’t control what came next.

"It's because I'm a fucking jinx!" I said springing out if my seat and startling Celestia.

"Call it jinxed! Call it cursed! Call it whatever you fucking want but bad things always happen to everyone I'm responsible for! It happened to the troopers under my command last night, it happened to Pvt. Kyrus, to Pvt. Clark, to Corporal Raimi, and it happened my last squad. They would all still be alive if I-" It was only then that I realized what I had just said and shut up, but by then it felt like trying to shove a newspaper into a fire-hose while it was turned on. I just wanted to let the flood of emotions keep rolling.

Celestia looked at me as if she had just realized something and her expression turned from surprise to that of a mother comforting her child after they fell off of their bicycle.

"That nightmare you have most nights...It's more than just a stress related nightmare, isn't it?" Wha- How does she know about my nightmares?

"How do you know?”Celesita just smiled softly.

"My sister is the ruler of the night and by extension, dreams, one of her duties is to help all within our lands with their nightmares. The last month and a half she has sensed the same re-accruing nightmare, she said she was unable to see all of it or even help. But there is always one image that stands out. Dead troopers...and another trapped within an ice encased machine and shouting."

I sighed... She wasn't going to let me leave until I tell her... I guess I have no choice and I have been holding it in for too long anyway.

"Yes, it was a memory...of the day I lost my first squad." Celestia looked at me with an un-judging look and waited for me to continue so I retold the story I had lived in my dreams over and over again.

"It was meant to be a simple recon op, my squad had been Lima Squad at the time and I was one of their Marauder pilots. During our recon we discovered a convoy of unmarked military vehicles and transports, it looked like a battle had gone on there, which was odd since the fighting had long moved to Hydora. That’s a whole different planet. So we investigated the convoy, while I was there I was distracted by a white blip on my motion tracker. I was investigating when it happened..."

“RHHAARRGGGE!” The roar was so loud it felt like it was coming from everywhere at once.

"BUGS!" Murphy shouted as a swarm of warriors came charging from the hill we had just come from, where the hell had they all come from? The area had been clear of bug holes just a few minutes ago.

"Troopers! Defensive positions!" the L.T screamed as we all took whatever cover was available.

"Grex, call for extraction!"

"I can't, something's messing with the coms!"

"Keep trying!" The L.T shouted back "Ok you apes...steady…FIRE!" in that moment the whole hillside was a site of light and fire as bullets and explosives flew at the incoming swarm, a few bugs were blown to pieces while others went soaring through the air from explosions.

I let off a few grenades from my launcher while multi-tracking with everything in my arsenal. I burned through my Marauder’s ammo supply like a chain smoker in a cigarette factory. But for every 3 we took down 10 more would just take their place, it wasn't long until they were right among us.

"Tirg, watch your left!"

"I'm running low on ammo!"

“Rifle’s out, switching to ma pistol!!”

“I’m out of grenades!”

"They’re everywhere…they’re everywhere."

"Move it!"

I shot and smashed and ripped apart everything that came at me, everyone was scattered around the wreckage of the convoy fighting their own battles, cut off from each other. I should have known it was only a matter of time before the inevitable happened.

“Oh god, I don’t want to die!” Was the last thing I heard from the rookie before a warrior bug sliced through his throat with one of its claws.

"Tirg’s down! Trooper down!" Murphy shouted as he climbed up onto one of the wrecks holding up two Moritas and firing into the swarm of Arachnids underneath him.

"Die you filthy sons of bi-" he never got to finish. He didn't even get a chance to scream as a Hopper swooped down and knocked him into the sea of bugs, he was minced meat in seconds. I can still remember his torso being tossed up in the air, followed soon after by one of his legs as the bugs fought over the pieces of his body.

At this point I could hear Grex calling into his com frantically "This is Lima team requesting immediate re-enforcement or retrieval! Please can anyone read me this is Lima- Ghagh!" I don’t exactly know what happened but the man’s dismembered head suddenly hit my canopy, his face frozen in terror and shock as his blood smeared the glass. God the guy didn't deserve to die like that. He used to donate blood all the time to his local red cross and didn’t even ask for a donught afterwards.

All around me my fellow squad members were dying horribly, the L.T, three troopers and our second Marauder were together, back to back while firing madly into the swarm. As I looked at them I spotted something in the distance, I zoomed in and spotted our last hope. A narrow pass, it was too small and narrow for the Warriors to get through, if we could get there then we might have a chance at getting out of this alive. I relayed my idea to the L.T. while I slowly made my way to him, blasting the bugs with my arm cannons along the way.

"Good Idea Pvt, but we need something to keep the Bugs off us just long enough for us to get away." the line went silent as the man thought.

"Alright I want you to rig that Marauder to blow and make get out of there fast, set it for remote detonation!" It was a crazy idea and any other day I would reject it out right since once I was out of this tin can I would be Bug bait. But then again I had just lost five troopers that I had been through thick and thin with and I wasn't entirely in a good state of mind at the moment. So I made my way to the center of the convoy, most of the swarm was focused on my fellow troopers so I only had a few to deal with. That was about to change as I fired my launchers into the mass of Warriors and Hoppers, trying to draw them in by making myself look like the biggest danger to their assault.

I was moments away from setting my suit rigged to explode when a Warrior jumped me from behind and slammed me into the over turned truck in front of me. The force of the impact making me slam my head into the front of my canopy. My vision went blurry and I felt disorientated and weak, but I had enough sense left to shoot the Warrior before I fell backwards.

I tried to rise but found my strength weaning any my vision darkening, I could vaguely hear panicked screams of my fellow troopers but I just didn't have the strength to move and as I slipped into unconsciousness I heard them screaming in pain and one of them shouting my name.

Celestia looked at me in shock as I let tears flow freely down my face, I kept trying to rub them away but more seemed to come, my cheeks were burning hot at this point as I tried to regain control of myself but it felt like a damn had broken behind my eyes.

"I failed... All I had to do was blow my suit but I let a bug get the drop on me..."I said and coughed as I was at the point of breaking down into sobs.

"Shimmer... There was nothing you could have done." Celestia told me and placed a surprisingly soft hoof on my knee.

Like I need her to tell me that. "I know that there was nothing I could have done, but it still doesn't disprove that I'm a Jinx... Cursed, and what happened after I woke up proved it to me." I thought back to that day and forced myself to calm down so I could finally finish the tale.

"I remember the clock on my marauder’s telling me that it was half an hour later when I woke up. My Marauder had run out of juice to move and all the bugs were gone, I tried to get out but my Marauder was….was completely embedded within a shell of ice. An hour later I was rescued by another M.I squad that had been sent to find my squad after Blue Leader had lost contact with us. When they got there though only my Squad's bodies were found, or more accurately, what was left of their bodies. The convoy and all signs of battle were gone."

I let that hang there for some time as I thought it over myself, Celestia broke the silence "What happened after... When you were rescued I mean?"

"Psyche evaluation, seeing if I needed a section 8, which I didn't luckily, then a few months of Rehabilitation before being assigned to Zebra Squad during the Tesca Campaign"

"Personally, I think you’re not a jinx." I looked up in surprise to see Lieutenant Bernstein standing at the doorway, his helmet held in one hand. Jeeze he could really use a haircut. And how did he sneak up on us?

"Sorry for eavesdropping, I came to tell you Gauss called for evac. I overheard your story, you’re not a Jinx, and it sounds like what happened that day has more to it. Those bugs sounded more savage and coordinated that any bug force I've ever heard of, especially on a planet we have taken back." on that point we agreed on.

"And it happened not because you have some hocus pocus on you, it was just bad luck, pure and simple. It happens to the best of us. Even me. But from what I've heard from the troopers under your command you’re a great leader and they wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for your brilliant thinking."

"I got most of my troopers hospitalized." I reminded him.

“They’re still alive and breathing, it would have been a hell of allot worse had you not been there."

“What? No way.” I said, starting to get annoyed but Bernstein kept strong,

"You listened to that Bug, Snowflake, where as any other Lieutenant would have killed her on sight and thanks to this you were able to be warned about an impending surprise attack. Then you were able to rally your troopers and hold out until you had broken the back of the Arachnids."

The Lieutenant took the bars that I still held in my hand and pulled out a rag from a pouch to clean them as Celestia joined in.

"I have lived a long time, Shimmer, and I have made many mistakes, there have been times when I lost ponies in battle to unavoidable circumstances and felt entirely responsible. Despite knowing there was nothing I or anypony else could have done. Here is some advice, don't feel responsible for every death that happens around you, just be sure to honor their memory and keep them in your heart."

While Celestia said this, Bernstein attached the bars to my arm, each one shining in the bright li- hey wait! Bright light? I turned to see the light was so bright in my eyes and I realized it wasn’t the sunlight.

Ooohhhhh Shit.

“Take, cover!” Bernstein yelled as he grabbed both celestia and I. He threw us to the ground and then himself on top of us, trying to shield us with his body right before the cockpit shook with an explosion and I felt my eardrums cry out in pain from the blastwave.

Author's Note

As promised, a new chapter.
how you enjoy.