Operation Harvest

MINES

(Part 1)

This wasn’t possible, was it?  Maybe the scans had gotten it wrong.  The ship captain stared at the screen, not quite sure what to make of the readings.

‘This is... quite a groundbreaking discovery.’  The analyst who normally sat at the console was waiting for the captain to leave.  The captain turned to him.  ‘Do you know what this means?’  He shook his head.  This particular analyst, as luck would have it, had a poor imagination and a very blunt mind.  ‘It means that something down there possesses a very, very powerful gravitational device.  We must tell the major!’  He turned round abruptly and left the bridge through a set of blast doors.  The hall was packed with soldiers and crew members going about their tasks, some getting ready for planetfall, others just going to do simple system checks.  As he made his way through the crowd, he wondered how the major would take the news.

Banna stood on the balcony of the great hall with Amax next to him.  The moon was lowering itself in the sky in a very... artificial way if it could be described as such.  It seemed to speed up as it went which confused the two of them greatly.  The six ponies whom they had met earlier, Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were present and gazing at the moon.  Then Celestia came.  She walked right past them towards the edge of the balcony and stopped.  She lingered there, eyes closed, causing Banna to conceive the idea of her calling them to the balcony to watch her jump.  At this thought Celestia smiled briefly.  Bugger, she can’t still read my mind can she?

‘Only what you allow others to hear’  Yeah, she’s in my mind.  They waited a bit more and just as he started losing his attention, it happened.  Celestia slowly started to rise, her wings carrying her upwards for a few metres, then by herself with no apparent explanation.  She became encased in a white glow and within a few seconds there was a burst of energy causing his digital watch and his tablet to go haywire.  He looked about and saw that the ponies weren’t at all shocked, but seemed happy.  The sun started rising, blinding anyone unfortunate enough to have been staring at it such as Banna.  He wiped his eyes and continued watching albeit with fairly blotchy vision.  It came over the horizon, garnering cheers from the crowd, noticeably quicker than normal and Banna realised exactly what was going on.

‘No.  Nope, I don’t believe it.’  He said out loud to no one in particular, but no one could hear him.  Amax was fairly thrilled by what was going on and was cheering with the crowd.  ‘Why’re you cheering?’ He called.

‘She just raised the sun!’  He called back.

‘First of all we it could be a trick, and second of all that’s not what I asked.’  Amax glanced at him.

‘Come on sir it’s only a but of fun, besides, how can you prove that she didn’t raise the sun?’  Was he serious?  Did any of the things they taught him in school actually stay there?

‘You’re kidding me right?  If you really need proof, then let me just ask the captain how exactly today’s orbit went.’  His tablet started to beep again and he pulled it out, the option to accept a video call present.  ‘And there you go.’  He answered it.  There was a corporal sitting at a console.  His large form blocked out a view of everything behind him save for the edges.

‘khk- Second-Lieutenant Banna-’

‘That’s Ambassador Second Lieutenant Banna to you...’

‘Roger that sir, but we-’

‘Can I ask you a question corporal?’There was a look of annoyance on his face.

‘Sorry sir I don’t think yo-’

‘How was today’s orbit?  Anything unusual?’

‘Actually that’s what I was calling to talk to you about sir.  Somehow the planet accelerated in its rotation.’  Banna’s smug face soon turned to disbelief and partial embarrassment as he realised that everyone, or rather everypony was watching.  ‘The major would like you to find out what piece of technology it is that they used to do it.’  The corporal stopped and leaned over to someone out of sight before coming back on screen with what seemed to be a fax.  ‘He also says he will give them anything for it.’  Banna was silent, looking down at the floor.

‘Yes corporal, I will do that.’

‘Right, over and out.’  The screen went back to the menu and Banna switched it off then put it back in his satchel.  Banna looked around at the assembled crowd who were more amazed with the other human on the flat glass than with him, though some of the more venerable unicorns didn’t seem to find it that awe inspiring.  Banna clapped his hands together.

‘So, uh, anyone know where I could find a gravity well or...’  The crowd didn’t seem to respond.

‘No?’  At that moment a dropship emerged from the edge of the balcony with the side door open and Jimothy standing there, using the side gun as a rest.  The noise was almost deafening and the sudden force from the propulsion systems toppled a few of the ponies.  The crowd moved behind Banna, unsure of whether it was a dragon or some other mythical creature.  Celestia stood her ground, and looked at it in interest; she wasn’t about to show herself as a leader who was easily impresses.  Banna smiled, they were just in time.  He and Banna walked to the dropship, putting their helmets on and turned to face the crowd.  ‘Maybe another time then!’  He got in and strapped himself to one of the sides.  Just as Jimothy and Amax were about to wrench the door shut, a blur of blue swooped in and hit the to his right.  Rainbow Dash lat sprawled on the floor, groaning.

‘Couldn’t you make this outta softer stuff?’  She mumbled as she got up.  The rest of the Mane six clambered in and looked about the hold in awe.

‘Well I think this place needs a little sprucing up.’

‘Would you mind if I took a look at this... flying contraption?’

‘I hope he doesn’t mind us riding him, uh, if it is a him...’  Banna’s brain went into overload at having had to work harder than it usually did.  His instinct once again kicked in and told him to kill the intruders, but his gut said to order them off while the very last vestige of sanity that hadn’t drained away in him said simply, ‘Chocolate waffles,’ which made him doubt whether he actually had any sanity left.  The fact that he had to fight the desire to grab a plate of waffles and the desire to kill and/or kick the ponies off the ship meant he was no longer concentrating on any of the current events, and when he came back to his senses all six ponies were seated rather awkwardly on the side chairs, and they were all staring at him.

‘Um, Mr.Banna, are you okay?’ Asked Fluttershy who was in the seat directly in front of him.

‘Yeah, you seemed spaced out just there!’ Stated Rainbow Dash very loudly to the right of him.

‘Maybe you’re sick?’ Asked Twilight to his left.  He took a deep breath.

‘No, no I’m not sick thank you.  Hey, where’s Rarity?’  It was at that moment he noticed just how much frillier everything had become.  Shades of (light) green and (light) brown coated the walls.  ‘What did you do...’  Rarity looked up from her fashion magazine.

‘Hm?  Oh well the place looked awfully dreary with all that grey and black, so I decided to give it a “lighter” tone.  A natural feel looks good, don’t you think?’  Despite Banna not liking it at all, he had to admit, it looked much livelier than before, though that had been for a reason.

‘Hey Amax,’ He called.  Amax and Pinkie Pie stuck their heads round the entrance to the cockpit.  ‘Where are we going?’

‘The Captain called, said he wants us to go to the mines and check them out.  Mark a few positions for the drills and so on.’  Well, some work will put his mind at rest.  He stared idly out the window while the girls all chatted about how cool it was to be flying, though Rainbow Dash didn’t seem at all impressed and boasted that if this was the best they had then she could fly much, much fast than everything they had.  If only she knew, he thought.  He watched the rolling plains and streams go by, and eventually the mountain range, a dry, desert like expanse of land.  They got bigger and bigger until the ship could no longer go above them and had to go round them.  It was, after all, built for low atmospheric travel.  He sat back into his seat and listened to the girls idle talk.

‘This reminds me of that time in Appleloosa.’ Said Twilight reminiscently.

‘Yeah,’ responded Rainbow Dash.  ‘Hey Applejack, how is that cousin of yours anyway?’  Applejack looked up from the sick bag she had her muzzle stuck in.

‘Oh he’s... fine if ah remember correctly...’  She hurled into the bag, everyone on the ship screwing their face up in disgust.  Flying obviously wasn’t for her.  He resumed looking out the window, and when he was it, his jaw dropped.  There were huge open carberrium fields stretching out across the mountains, some of them in their natural state, and others in ore form.

‘I’ve only ever read about it in books, but now that I see it...’  Said Twilight.  Rainbow Dash seemed to be unpleasable.

‘Pshaw, big deal, I see that all the time.’  They all turned to her.

‘You do?’  Asked Rarity.

‘Well, uh, yeah when I go to stretch my wings.’ She sounded more nervous this time because of the sudden attention.

‘But, it’s so far away...’ Commented Fluttershy.

‘Hey, when you have these babies,’ she motioned to her wings, ‘Nothings far away.’  Banna couldn’t see it, but Amax motioned to the pilot, who just so happened to be Thate, that there was a good spot to land to their right; on the edge of a valley where the Carberrium jutted out of the sides in massive columns, dwarfing the dropship.  They set down a little away from it to avoid an accidental crash.  The propulsion systems kicked up dust as they came closer to the ground until finally the engines were disengaged.  Rainbow Dash had wanted to get out long before that but Banna had stopped her for ‘safety reasons’.  Banna pulled the sliding doors open and stepped out onto the black, soily earth.  He kneeled and scooped up some then realised it was soot.

‘What the hell?’  Twilight walked up to him.

‘What’s wrong?’  He let it slide off his hand.

‘Why is there soot here?  Is there a volcano near here?’  He looked at the group questioningly.  Applejack shook her head.

‘Ain’t no volcano near here, but there is a mighty fierce dragon up there.’  She pointed a hoove at one of the parrallel mountains.  It was huge, bigger than the one they were next to and right at the top he could see irregular puffs of smoke rising.

‘Dragon eh?’  Well this day kept getting weirder and weirder.  ‘Amax radio the Major, tell him that we’re going to need the air forces help with a local beast.’  The soldier nodded and went back into the ship.

‘This is Ambassador escort, over...’ His voice droned on as he tried using first the short range, then the long range radio.  Banna walked towards the mountain side and noticed something; a large cave.  It was pitch black inside, though he got the feeling it went on for a long time.

‘Hello!?’ he shouted out, an echo responding.

‘What are you doing!’ Said Twilight quickly, ‘There could be a monster in there!’  Banna chuckled.

‘Nothing we can’t handle I’m sure.’  Twilight frowned.

‘Some of them are pretty big, I don’t think you’d be able to do much.’  Rainbow Dash chimed in.

‘I’m pretty sure they could take ‘em, after all, Thate took down a manticore!’  The girls looked rather surprised and maybe a little concerned, except Pinkie who was still in the cockpit trying to figure out how to make the thing fly, a problem which Thate was only just solving: He came round the side of the ship holding Pinkie Pie the wrong way up.  As always, she was smiling even if she was being held upside down.  Thate set her down on all fours then saluted Banna.

‘Here he is,’ Rainbow Dash rushed off to him.  ‘Tell ‘em how you stopped that manticore Thate!’  He looked at the girls with some intrigue as they clustered round him, but said nothing.

‘Well aren’t you going to speak darling?’ Asked Rarity.  Thate looked directly at Rarity then froze.  He didn’t move a muscle, just staring into her eyes causing her to feel a little uneasy.  ‘Is something wrong dear?’  He didn’t react in any way.  She reached out a hoof and touched him.  With a dull thud he fell to the floor, his eyes now closed.  Banna and Amax who was now watching the spectacle ran up to him, while Fluttershy’s kind instinct kicked in.

‘Holy shit, Thate, wake up.’  Amax started slapping his cheeks.  ‘Come on man, this no time to play dead.’

Finally got that pink one out of there.  I should probably put her with the others.

‘Hey, do you have balloons where you come from?  What’s your favourite colour?  What’s your favourite food...’  Thate enjoyed it just as much as he hated it.  It reminded him of his daughter, always asking questions.  He set her down, taking care not to hurt her.  Rainbow Dash rushed up to him.

‘Here he is.  Tell ‘em how you stopped that manticore Thate!’  That probably wasn’t such a good idea.  They were like children, so innocent in their ways, and this might just corrupt their minds.  After a few seconds silence the purple maned one, Rarity spoke.

‘Well aren’t you going to speak darling?’ He turned to inspect her, staring straight into her ey-

‘Lavenia?  Lavenia is that you?  W- why can’t I see you?’

‘You know why Thate.’

‘Please, come back to me, I can’t do this alone.’

‘I’m sorry Thate, but I can’t, not now, not ever.  You didn’t save me.’

‘I was too late, I-I-I didn’t know what to do, I couldn’t-’

‘I know Thate, I know, but you have to accept it.  I’m not coming back, ever.’

‘Well, are the children there?  Could I speak to them?’

‘No, darling, they aren’t, but I have a feeling you’ll be hearing from them soon enough...’

‘Are you there?’  No reply.  Then Thate felt something warm against his arm, the heat rushing up to all parts of his body then everything went black.  He briefly heard the sounds of a scuffle.

‘Wake up Thate,  wake up!’   He resisted it, but then he heard a piercing scream, one that sounded eerily familiar.

Rarity’s high pitched scream threw some of the diamond dogs off long enough for Banna to draw his sword and Amax, his bayonet, but the biggest one seemed only annoyed by her. It charged straight at her on two feet, ready to silence the source of the sound.

‘Oh no you don’t!’ Shouted Rainbow Dash.  She careened into the side of the diamond dog, throwing him off balance then started hitting him with her hooves.  He was, however, larger than Banna, so if it was hurting the diamond dog, they couldn’t tell.  He maintained his look of anger and simply brushed Rainbow Dash off of him like a breadcrumb.

‘Stupid ponies don’t know how to fight!’ He shouted dumbly.  He continued on towards Rarity, who was frozen in place by fear.  Just because she managed to defeat a whole pack of diamond dogs through voice alone, it didn’t mean she wasn’t traumatised at least a little.  She shut her eyes.

Well this is the end.  I only wish I had time to say goodbye to the girls She waited for the beast to strike, but the blow never came.  Opening one eye, then the second, she saw Thate standing in front of her.  It seemed he had punched the beast with an uppercut and left his fist there.  Then blood started dripping down its neck, and when Thate pulled his arm back she could in fact see he had stabbed him with a wrist blade. Wiping it on a patch of the diamond dogs fur, he walked back to the ship and pulled a rifle out of it.  Banna and Amax were doing fairly well, but there were twenty or so diamond dogs, a lot of them bigger than them.  They weren’t going to last much longer without intervention.  Aiming in, Thate fired a few short controlled burst into the horde.  Almost instantly, half of them dropped, blood spraying onto their comrades causing them to go into a frenzy.  Thate pulled his pistol out and threw it to Banna who immediately started popping heads.  Amax was left with his bayonet, and was content with whacking one of them over the head repeatedly.  The remaining dogs decided it wasn’t worth it and started legging it.  Thate finished them off with master precision, using only one bullet for each diamond dog.  As soon as they were sure no one was coming, Banna sat down, panting.

‘Well that was *pant unexpected.’  He looked around for the girls, and apart from Rarity and Rainbow Dash, there was no one there.  He stood up immediately. ‘Shit!  Amax, grab a weapon, I think they took the-’

‘Woah, hold yer horses officer, we’re alright,’ Applejack said, as they emerged from behind  the ship.  When they saw the bodies, they all turned pale, excluding Rarity who already was.

‘You killed them...’ Said Fluttershy who sounded like she was on the verge of crying and Pinkie Pie’s hair had deflated and become straight.  The rest of them covered their eyes with their hooves or looked away.  Banna pulled out an old brown cloth of his and wiped his blade clean then stuffed it back in the ammo pouch.

‘Well we had to.  It was them or us, and I’d prefer if it wasn’t us,’ He responded while sheathing his blade.  There was no answer from any of them.

‘Hey sir, we’ve got a live one!’  Amax called.  He smacked the diamond dog over the head.  ‘Don’t run or you’ll be killed like the rest of them.’  It couldn’t have run if it wanted to.  Its leg was wounded, a bullet hole clearly visible in its foreleg.

‘Holed him for me,’ said Banna, ‘Let’s see what information we can get out of him.’  Amax complied and hoisted the diamond dog up, however its weight meant that he only succeeded in getting him to sit straight.  Banna sat directly opposite him, using one of the diamond dogs flat headed helmets as a seat.  ‘So, why did you and your friends attack us?’  It sniffed at the air then growled at him.

‘You are on our sacred lands!’ It snarled, staring him right in the eyes.  Banna looked around at the scenery.  It was pretty bleak, aside from the carberrium which temporarily blinded him every time he looked at it.

‘What, this?  What’s so special about this place?’

‘This is Yerlaf-det Hetzem, and no outsiders are allowed to set foot here.’

‘Ye- what now?’  He turned to the ponies.  ‘Anyone know what that means?’  They all turned to Twilight who was looking quite sheepish.

‘Well, I studied a bit of the language of the diamond dogs.’  Banna gestured to the diamond dog.

‘In that case, do you know what that means?’

‘Um, well it quite literally means “Valley-the Shiny”.  They love everything that’s shiny which explains why this is sacred ground, after all, it’s very shiny.’  Banna nodded then returned his attention to the dog.

‘How many are there of you?’

‘More than enough to kill you,’ he spat at him.  Banna rolled his eyes then, in an unexpected change of approach, he punched the diamond dog square in the face.

‘Look dick-‘ead, I’m not going to ask you again so tell me or you won’t be seeing anything shiny anytime soon.’  The ponies all gaped in horror at his actions; torturing a defenceless being.  The diamond dog looked scared and was about to give in when Fluttershy interrupted.

‘What do you think you’re doing to that poor creature?’  Banna glanced at her nonchalantly.

‘I’m working.  Well dog?  Has your mind been suitably refreshed?’  It nodded quickly.

‘There are maybe 3000 of us in the caves, but more will come if they need help.  Please, don’t hurt my eyes!’  Banna nodded and patted him on the head.

‘Good boy, now get out of here.’  Amax released him and the dog limped as fast as it could into the darkness.  ‘I’m glad I didn’t have to be more persuasive with him.  He doesn’t seem too ba-’  Fluttershy’s eyes burned with a fiery rage as she faced him, her dilated pupils stretching to their limit.  She was staring at him, and he didn’t like it one bit.  For some reason he found himself unable to turn his gaze, as though his mind had become fixated on her eyes.

‘How could you do something like that, beating an innocent animal, you should be ashamed of yourself!  You’re like a little colt, don’t know right from wrong, apologise for your behaviour!’  Banna felt a strange inclination to agree, to just surrender and say sorry for everything, but he fought it.  When a soldier goes out to fight, he leaves his morals at the door, and Banna threw his away a long time ago.  Still, he decided it was probably better just to say sorry, if only for diplomatic relations.

‘I suppose you’re right.  I’m sorry for interrogating that diamond dog so violently and it won’t happen again...’  She nodded, satisfied and turned around.  ‘...while you’re around,’ he mumbled, too quiet for her to hear.

Oh great, Meyr again.  Roger tried to cross the landing pad using as much cover as he could to hide behind -jets, dropships, people- but he could not escape the watchful eye of Lieutenant Meyr.  The officer walked briskly towards him, and Roger increased his pace to a light jog.  Unfortunately Meyr caught up with him forcing Roger to put on a smile.

‘Major Vox,’ Meyr said.  Roger nodded.

‘Meyr, always a... pleasure speaking with you.’

‘That’s good, because we have a lot to talk about sir.’  Roger groaned and kept walking.

‘I don’t think we do soldier.’  Meyr caught up with him.

‘Oh but indeed we do sir, namely why you went on a scouting mission?’

‘What, an officer can’t go out onto the field from time to time?’

‘Not when he’s the highest officer present he doesn’t.’

‘Come on man, don’t you ever get bored sitting behind a desk?  Don’t you ever have the urge to go out and see what the world is like?’  Meyr was quite indifferent.

‘No sir quite the contrary, in fact exciting things happen here all the time!’

‘Hm, I’m sure the world of logistics is riveting,’ He said especially flatly.  ‘Now is there a point to this conversation?’

‘Yes, sir it’s that if you keep going out on these ‘expeditions’ as you called them you’re going to be... how should I put this, your service will no longer be required.’  Roger stopped dead in his tracks, Meyr bumping into him.

‘What was that officer?’

‘Well sir, if an officer makes a complaint you will be forced to renounce your position, and a more suitable individual will be chosen to take your place.’  He looked rather pleased with himself.  Roger turned round very slowly.

‘Is that a threat lieutenant?’ The Major asked, his voice so sharp it could cut a man’s throat, though the junior officer didn’t seem to notice this.

‘No sir, of course not, I am merely reminding you that incompetence is-’  He was cut off as he found a tightly clenched fist around his throat and then was lifted above the ground, the good major’s adrenaline packs kicking into gear.  Everyone stopped what they were doing and watched the scene.

‘Let me make something clear lieutenant, if you so much as look at my chevrons with any kind of lust or longing, the next time you go to sleep it might just be for good.  Do you understand me?’  The officer clawed at his neck, and nodded.  Roger released him and continued walking.  Time for some exciting drills...

‘Sir!’  He stopped again.  That was the voice of Thryin and, being the oldest soldier there after him, probably the only person who would disturb him in a bad mood.  Thryin ran up to him holding a clipboard in his hand.  ‘Sorry to disturb you sir, but we’ve got a new set of orders.’  He handed it to him and bowed slightly.  ‘They want us to go to those carberrium fields we found and start drilling.’

‘Thank god, I thought I was going to be stuck at base doing push ups with the recruits all day.’  He looked at the requisition sheet:  “30 men with appropriate gear, two heat-drills, fusion cores, fission cores and one APC, transport to be provided by the fleet.”  ‘An APC?  What, are we expecting some trouble?’  Thyrin shrugged.

‘I don’t know sir, but you know how the Gleyans are.  Crafty buggers.’  He gave it back to him, and walked back to the dropship, approaching the pilot who was sitting on a box using a multi-media device he didn’t recognise.

‘Pilot!’  He called, the pilot standing at attention.  ‘We’re going on another run.  I suggest you refill the ship, and fit it with some clamps, we’ve got an APC to carry,’ and with that, he left for the barracks to pick 30 grunts whose deaths would make no difference to the overall operation.

(Author's note: Please comment, your criticism [and your satisfaction] is the bread and butter of a fic, it lets me know if I'm doing anything wrong.  Finally, Happy Hearth's warming)