Operation Harvest

Discovery

Rainbow Dash yawned and stretched her legs.  The sun had finally come up and it was time for a morning flight.  She stood up on the cloud which she had been resting on for the night and stretched her wings.  After making sure they were suitably ready, she dived off the cloud and careened head first towards the ground before lurching right and coming back up into the clouds.  As she practiced a few moves in the air she became aware of a presence in the distance.  It was just hovering in the air, albeit a considerable height above her.  She wasn’t sure whether it was close by and small, or really far away and really big.  Suddenly, something dropped off of the object and fell directly towards the ground with no sign of slowing down.  Eventually as all falling objects have to, it fell into the forest, although she wasn’t too sure of where exactly since the forest looked pretty much the same from any direction you looked at it.  When she looked back up for what she assumed was a Pegasus, it was gone.  I wonder what it dropped, she thought, maybe something valuable, no, why would someone drop something valuable on purpose?  Maybe it was dangerous, in which case she should probably tell someone where she was going.  Ah, she could handle herself fine.  She flew over the forest, surveying for any out of place objects and disturbed brush, but for some reason it was no longer there!  The forest looked the same as it always did, green and leafy. After circling about for a few minutes she was just about ready to give up when a glint caught her eye.  As she neared the origin of the glint, something started to dawn on her.  The leaves in that particular spot, they weren’t real!  As she got even closer, she could see it was a thick, fabricy mesh painted so that it looked like the roof of the forest.  Why would somepony, let alone anypony have something like this?  And more importantly, what was that glint?  She set down a little way away from the fake leaves and went for a stealthy approach.  She snuck through the undergrowth towards her target, but bumped her head on something.  Looking up, she saw a wire fence with vines and other vegetation growing on it.  Wait, no they weren’t real vines, they were just made to look like real vines.  She couldn’t see very well through the vegetation, so she simply flew above it.  When she got to the other side she was surprised to see 4 structures; 2 were what looked like simple rectangular houses made from some type of concrete or something while the the other two were bigger, one with large doors at what seemed to be its front, and one which looked more like a tower, the top of it going above the treeline.  The camo mesh was higher here to allow space for somepony to walk on the balcony at its top.  At least, she thought somepony.  Suddenly she heard voices.  Diving for cover behind a couple of barrels to the side of one of the buildings, she waited to see who or what had made all this.

‘You see Amax, this particular attachment here,’ he pointed to the taped magazines on his gun, ‘Means i can reload much faster than your average soldier.’  Amax stared at the other guard in disbelief, the gun’s newly polished skin shining sunlight in his eyes.

‘Dude its only tape.  Like that’s going to help’,’ he said resignedly.

‘Have you ever actually fought in combat?  Do you have any experience with this attachment?’ rebuked the guard.

‘No, but neither have you.’

‘Oh right.’

‘And stop calling it an attachment.  I doubt that taping two magazines together counts as ‘an attachment’ in the wider scheme of things Jimothy.’  They stopped abruptly.

‘What were we here for again?’  Amax tried thinking back to what the lieutenant had said.

‘Uh, think we have to move those barrels over there to the garage.  The tanks are currently running on fumes.’

‘We haven’t used the tanks since we’ve got here.’

‘You know what I mean!  Just help me with this!’  Amax got to the barrel first, and jumped back at what he saw.  ‘SHIT!’ he shouted in shock.

‘There’s no reason to get worked up over a couple heavy barrels...’

‘No, look!  What the hell is that?’ he said pointing to something behind the barrels.  Jimothy looked over, and was met with two pink eyes staring him directly in the face.

‘Looks like a horse.’

‘A what?’

‘A horse, you know, they had them on Chastm.’

‘Oh yeah,’ he resumed his casual care-free attitude.

‘I don’t remember them being blue.’

‘Or having wings.’

‘Or having pink eyes the size of my fist.’

‘Or being able to laugh...’

-

The cyan pegasus was rolling on the floor, laughing her flank off.  She had been scared of them at first, but when she saw their expressions at seeing her: priceless.  They didn’t seem to look to happy at being laughed at, which surprised her.  Not that they were unhappy, but that she could glean their expression from their faces.  They were very different but also similar to ponies in their behaviour, well some ponies she knew anyway, and their faces weren’t to different expression wise.  Kind of like a flat pony face.  They seemed to be wearing completely black clothing, with some, was it armour?  They had swords (and what looked like helmets) at their belts, and one of them was holding a thick long stick or something, so maybe they were like, royal guard or something.

‘You guys aren’t so bad after all.’

‘What did she say?’

Amax looked at him.

‘How the hell should I know?  Besides, what makes you think it’s a she?’

‘Well, uh, her frame...’ he started, slowly blushing.

‘What are you blushing about?’

‘My mama always said it was improper to talk about ladies in that wa-’

‘Well it’s not a lady it’s a horse!’  Amax looked back at it.  ‘Do you think we should bring it in?’

‘Dunno.  What’s the protocol for this kind of thing?’  Amax had to think hard about that one.

‘I remember that they usually kill the trespassers in the films, as for protocols, I have no clue.  Let’s just tell her to go away.’  The two of them turned to the pony with serious expressions on their faces, which made it laugh even more.  Amax tried first.  ‘Please could you just, go away, I don’t know what the officers will say.’  It just looked at him, obviously not understanding him then said something back.

‘You know I have no idea what your saying,’ she said.  The tall one just looked at her, obviously not understanding her.  Then the other one came over.  He pointed at her, then pointed at the gate, looking at her with a sort of respectful gaze.  So they wanted her to leave?  But she still wanted to know more!  She decided to indulge them and flew over the fence, again causing the tall one to jump backwards but instead of flying off, she resolved to stick around a bit more to see what would happen.  Perching herself on one of the trees, she looked over the fence and into the courtyard.  The tall one was trying to move the barrel, while the other one just stood there with a smug grin on his face.  Eventually he came over and the two of them moved it to the big doors.  One of them opened a door that was part of the larger door.  That was odd.  A door in a door?  Where was the sense in that?  They disappeared into the building, and after waiting for a few minutes, a different creature came out holding something in its hand.  It was a picture.

He stared at the picture, a nostalgic smile on his face.  It was of a small boy and his father playing in a room.  It was obvious it was the child’s room; toys everywhere, a small bed in the corner, food stains on the carpet, all the signs were there.  He heard a door open and quickly stashed the photo in one of his pouches, looking up to see who it was.

Banna pushed the door open and was surprised to see Thate standing to attention.  He looked around to see if anyone else was there.

‘Hey Thate, what are you doing out here?’  The soldier stared at him blankly before giving a smile.  Banna stared back.  ‘Uh, you enjoying the weather Thate?’  Again the soldier just gave him a blank look followed by a smile.  Banna stood looking at him nervously.  Being around Thate made everyone he knew nervous, although no one was really sure why.  He had been a soldier longer than him, yet he was still only a Lance-Corporal.  Most people assumed it was because of his reluctance to speak.  Ever.  In combat the only way you knew he was there was by seeing him because he would never sound off, but even then, he had this way of blending in with his surroundings wherever he went (although he never seemed to be able to blend into a crowd...).  Although this proved a small problem, this also meant that he had no trouble sneaking up on unsuspecting Anteeists, and he often acted as point man.  He also had this uncanny ability to appear in the most random places, seemingly for no reason.  ‘Well, it was nice speaking to you Thate.  See you around.’  Banna continued to the tower, worried about Thate.  He was the least known soldier in his platoon.  Only he actually acknowledged his existence, well him and that sniper.  But back to the task at hand.  He pushed the door open and entered into the room.  The ground floor of the tower was a mess hall, something which the other ‘camps’ hadn’t copied.  Then again, the other camps had actually gotten a mess hall dropped into their zones.  The 50 or so soldiers in his platoon were all there, and as a result, it was tighter than a misers’ pocket.  He had to wade through the mass of men to get to the stairs which were so conveniently located on the other side of the room, coming out covered in food and spittle.  Well that was fun.  Ascending the stairs, he climbed up two floors before reaching the ‘command centre’, if you could call it that.  It was more of a glorified version of the towers in airports, but with guns involved.  It was your stereotypical control tower, windows lining all the walls so as to grant the inhabitants a clear view.  There was also a door to allow anyone who wanted to to go out onto the balcony of the top floor.  One person was in the room, the sniper.  He was on his back adjusting some electronics under the panel of the main screen, and at first he thought he was too engrossed in his work to notice him but just as Banna was about to speak, the sniper stuck his hand out, gesturing to him to keep quiet.  After what seemed like forever (20 seconds) he stopped and turned his head to greet the officer.

‘Hey boss man!  Yeah, I was just getting this console working.’  He stood up and and sat on a nearby chair.  ‘Oh yes, and the Major wanted to speak with you.’

‘Yes I know, that’s why I’m here.’  Banna replied briskly.  The sniper flicked one of the switches, but when the computer failed to come on, he kicked it.  The screen flickered to life.

‘Sorry, you know, new circuitry and all.’ Banna walked up to the screen and moved the mouse to, clicking on the log-in picture.  He typed his details in, including his password which brought him to the loading page.  He pulled up a chair and sat down, keeping his eyes on the screen.  The sniper just sat there staring out the window.  Finally, the desktop started up with the Gleyan flag as the background; Three black pillars standing side by side on a velvety red background.  After a few more minutes of typing stuff in he finally managed to establish a video call with the Major.

‘Ah, Lieutenant Banna, I see you’ve finally managed to join us.’  Said the major.  Four more screens popped up, showing the other four lieutenants on the planet.  The major was sitting in the bridge of the ship currently orbiting the planet with the ship captain standing in the background looking quite impatient.

‘Uh... sorry sir, its just that what with the new circuitry and all...’

‘It’s okay Banna, better late than never, right?’  He said, his face looking indifferent to the situation.  The sniper stared on, an amused look on his face.  ‘Now, where was I, ah yes, your respective jobs.  I’ve already talked the others through their roles, so you are the only one left.  Seeing as your platoon is the lightest, you are to round up some men and scout the town on the edge of the forest.  I don’t suggest making contact, but if you do, the extra bag that was put in your pod should contain some things to use as bargaining tools.  Banna nodded, remembering the bag of gems and assorted goods from the night before.  That made him think of the zebra he had seen.

‘Sir, do we have any information on the dominant species of the planet?’  The major turned to the captain, who mumbled something.

‘No, Banna not yet.  The good captain,’ he said looking slightly annoyed, ‘has deemed it an unnecessary waste of rocket fuel, which is why it’s your job to go find out.  I think that’s all.  Oh yes, and look for any sources of uranium and other similar ‘heavy’ and radioactive substances if possible.  Any extra fuel for the reactors would be very handy.  Over and out.’ The Major’s window switched off, followed by the other lieutenants.

Rainbow Dash was bored. Apart from those two things, nothing had happened.  The quiet one just stood there, looking at the picture.  She got up and turned, readying herself for flight then took one last look back to see if anything had happened.  He wasn’t there anymore.  Where did he go?  She surveyed the entire premises, but she saw nothing.  Probably went inside, now come on Dash you’ve got to-

*cough*

‘WOAH!’ she fell out of the tree, straight into the arms of the quiet one who had a smile on his face, although this one was of genuine amusement.  Rainbow Dash didn’t react at first, too shocked to do anything but she soon realised what had happened and jumped out of his arms.

‘That was not cool man!’ she glared at him, but his smile didn’t falter.  In fact he started laughing.

She went red.  ‘What are you laughing at?’

He hadn’t laughed for some time.  The pony, it was a very curious thing, thinking it could watch the camp without anyone seeing her was kind of, for lack of a better word, naive.  She stood there, obviously angry at him for laughing.  He tried to adopt a neutral demeanour, but the whole incident had been sort of... odd.  In a funny way.  He finally stopped and fixed his gaze on her, which seemed to calm her down.  Now, she couldn’t stay here, it was against regulations, and he doubted he could trust her to leave herself.  He’d just have to accompany her to the edge of the forest.