Welcome to the Frontierby Sleep SonataChaptersThe CrewNumber OneLive FireCrucibleTerroristsThe CrewIt was serene. There wasn't another soul for what must've been miles, just grass and hills as far as the eye could see. Tall blades rose out of the ground. After spending my whole life in cities, it was strange to actually be able to see dirt. There we no buildings, no walls, and no ponies. Why couldn't every place be like this? Everypony would be so happy, and we wouldn't have to worry about having enough of anything. It would be paradise. Around that thought was when the shutters lifted, and the Commandant came over the intercom. "Pilots, grab your sea bags and prepare for departure. The shuttle to Angel City is leaving in 10 minutes." Now all I could see was the rest of the IMC fleet orbiting over the planet below. Angel City was down there, where my new life as a pilot would begin. This was the frontier. The Shuttle Bay was alive with military grunts and sailors, preparing the dropships for missions and travel. They weren’t nothing special. It was actually kind of funny to see them marching around in columns, drilling with their rifles as the sergeants called out orders. I chuckled every time I saw them. The worked so hard to appear strong, and yet pilots were they ones people feared. My destination was the shuttle at the end of the hangar. It was tiny compared to the rest of the dropships, barely big enough for 6 ponies and a coxswain. Around it sat the four other pilots, waiting for me to show up I’d assumed. “There she is. Get hypnotized by the shutters again?” Of course I had, but I wasn’t about to let eery pony else no that. It may have been the worst kept secret on the ship, but it was still my secret. “The Constellation is a big ship. Just took me a while to get down here is all.” It was my worst attempt at a lie and they all knew it. Whatever. I did like the scenery, even if it probably didn’t exist. “Where’s the Commandant?” With my perfectly timed remark, I heard the distinct rhythm of 3 hooves and a prosthetic approach me from behind. I turned to see the gruff leader of our squad, face scarred and battered from experience. We never could get the old crone to tell us what exactly happened to put him in such a state. That was the best kept secret on the ship. “Seems like you’re all here,” His voice was as rough as his face, which was comforting in a strange sort of way. “but just to keep the adjutant happy, I’ll be taking roll. Meteor Shower,” The pony who greeted me called out in response. He didn’t seem to care that we were being delayed by roll call, but then again, he never seemed to care much about anything. “Snow Drift,” A pure white mare raised a hoof into the air. She was a mute, which might have disqualified her as a pilot were she not so skilled in a simulator. Our interfaces had FaceCom, so it wasn’t a huge detriment. In all honesty, she was probably the most skilled runner out of the six of us. “Jump Jet,” A very young stallion called out so that everyone in the hangar heard. He was very young for a pilot, some 3 years my junior, but he was unbelievable with a rifle. I’d actually been somewhat worried about him. Being so young, I was afraid he wouldn’t be able to fight how he would need to. There was only one way to test that theory, though. “Angel Dust” A blue eyed, blue coated mare sounded off. Of the five of us, she seemed least likely to actually be a pilot. She was more worried about the polish on her visor than actually working the thing. Not that it would mean that much in combat. She was nice and comfy inside her Ogre. “Summer Solstice.” That was me. I sounded off as the Commandant filled out the last of the paperwork, promptly shoving the finished stack at his aid. “Good. You all will be leaving soon, so I will only tell you the one thing you need to know about the frontier.” We all turned to face the Commandant. Jump Jet even leaned in. he could be any more boyish if he tried. “Everyone down there is out to get you. The Militia have a lot of loyalty among the populace, so don’t trust anyone. If your left behind by an evac, you might as well be dead. Clear?” We all nodded in sync. With that, he left us to load up the shuttle and prepare to depart. “I don’t see why the ponies down there don’t like us. Those militia are such brutes from what I’ve heard.” Angel Dust was always very vocal about her thoughts. When we first met back on earth, the first thing she’d ever said to me was that I needed a new jumpsuit, since mine had a drop of lubricant on it. Just because Angel was being herself, Meteor wanted to disagree with her. “What could they possibly do to us? All of their equipment is antique. None of their titans are from this decade. They might as well be throwing rocks.” For someone so laid back, he was awful full of himself. Meteor was dependable enough to work with, but every other time he was just a lazy pain in the flank. “They won’t even see us comin’!” Jump Jet expressed his usual youthful exuberance. “They’ll be sorry they ever badmouthed the IMC!” I’d heard a lot about the militia, we all had. Stories would make their way back to earth about cities being cut off from the rest of civilization, effectively blacked out. If you were caught in their advance, that was game over. Some ponies would say that they would make outposts disappear completely, like they’d never existed at all. I never believed any of it. They were ponies just like us. And while they may not be as wealthy as those living under the IMC, their pilots were no less capable. If what the Commandant had said was true, then come hell or high water I would always be the first on that dropship. Number OneFrom space, the planet below looked ideal for a civilization. Large swaths of ocean covered the surface, as well as the occasional inland dot, indicating a lake. The land mass appeared to be covered in lush flora, stretching until they met with the vast oceans. There were lights from the cities below, but not so many that it would be impossible to find nature on hoof. From orbit, the frontier seemed rather serene. But we weren’t headed for any of that. Our destination was dead in the middle of Angel City, where the IMC had its primary manufacturing and training facilities. It seemed to stand in spite of the rest of the planet, it’s grey, steel mass rising directly out of the ground, far above the rest of the city’s skyline. When landed on the helodeck on top of the structure, we were greeted by the sight of a mare in a blue IMC uniform, standing stone faced as the downdraft thrashed her mane. I wanted to enjoy the vista from the top of the facility, but the cubic skyline was something I wasn’t very excited to see again. I made my way straight to our host. Turns out she was a commissars, and they would be supervising our training planet side. I decided to greet her, try to see if her steely facade was just that. “You must be the commissar.” “Correct. I am here to escort you to your quarters, and then brief you on your training schedule.” Her voice was very monotonous, almost mechanical. If not for the feminine pitch, I would have mistaken her for some sort of android. Commissars were known for being dullards, but now that I actually face to face with one, that seemed to be an understatement. As we were lead towards the elevator, I took one last look up to the sky, which was now aglow with an orange sunset. With a heavy sigh, I looked straight up. Away from the commissar, away from the cityscape, away from the life I’d been readied for. Looking at soft colors of low sun, I forgot about my responsibilities to the IMC, and focused instead on just how pretty the view was. It was a fleeting feeling, and I knew it. I just want to see the sun with my eyes before I head into the sims for what I assumed would be weeks. The barracks weren’t luxurious by any means, but the were a far cry from the spartan amenities we’d had while under way. They were segregated, so Angel, Snow Drift, and myself all shared one room. The space was enough for the three of us to be comfortable. In a situation where I was living a normal life, I probably would’ve felt comfortable. “Come girls. This is our new home, so we might as well make it our own.” Angel immediately set about putting her personal artifacts absolutely everywhere. Photos and trinkets occupied a little over half of the shelf space. She wasn’t kidding when she said she was making it her own. “Leave some space for the rest of us, Angel. We’ll be living here too.” I tried to sound just a tad frustrated, but sarcastic. Snowdrift gave her a similar commander via a roll of the eyes. “I do apologize dear, but I’m just so excited to get back into the swing of things. It’s been too long since I’ve had some good quality time with my titan. I can only imagine how itchy Jump Jet’s trigger hoof must be.” “I’m gonna try to both of those guys as much as possible. I wouldn’t trust them to hand me a knife.” “Oh you don’t need to be so hard on Jet.” She talked of him as if he were some sort of ill behaved school colt. “I can understand your misgivings about Meteor. He doesn’t seem like the kind of pony who would help his own mother.” I chuckled. Meteor was extremely lazy. The only reason he was even selected to be a pilot was because his father was admiral of the fleet. His performance in a sim was lackluster at best. “But Jet only wants to do good. Sure he might be a bit overenthusiastic, but it’s for all the right reasons.” “Yeah, I’ll remember that as I’m ejecting.” “Really Summer! You shouldn’t be so contemptuous. We’re all here to fight together.” Angel was starting to get on my nerves. Ever since we first met, she’d been trying to get me out of my comfort zone, when I’d rather focus on being a pilot. She made have the gift for it, but the rest of us have to work to be able to use our jump kits and titans. I was the one looking down my nose at ponies? “I don’t want to die to some antique because that kid doesn’t know how to control himself!” My outburst obviously had Angel taken aback. Good. I wanted her to understand that I was willing to fight for the IMC, but I was not about to die for those authoritative bastards. And I certainly wasn’t going to die for any of these jokers. “Pilots, report to the briefing room in five.” The intercom snapped me out of my rage. I had a chance to think about what I said, and what I’d thought, and it had me taken aback. I wanted to apologize, but my pride got the better of me. Even though knew what I said was wrong, I couldn’t bring myself to admit it. I turned towards the door to leave, and only then did I remember that Snow Drift was in the room with us, and I noticed a tear rolling down her cheek. Once outside, I could feel one rolling down mine. I was the first one to arrive in the briefing room. The commissar stood at the central table, which had a model of the city projected above. "You know you're early? We don't start the briefing until the top of the hour." In my furious state, I had lost track of the time. Top of the hour was one minute away. I guess technically I was early. "Oh, yeah. I just wanted to get a head start is all." As I said that, the rest of the pilots entered the room. Meteor and Jet stood at the table opposite the commissar. I could tell jet was trying his hardest not to jump through the ceiling with excitement. Meteor was just trying to stay awake. Snow drift and Angel stood on the other side of the commissar from myself. They looked my way, and I tried to avoid eye contact. I could bring myself to look at them after what I'd said. Out of the corner of my eye, I was able to see their expressions, which surprised me. There was no malice or anger, but sadness in their eyes. They actually looked concerned for me. "OK pilots, this will be your first training session planetside. Your task is going to be forward capture and defense.” With a few button presses on the control panel, the projection focused on a two story building in the southwest section of the city. “This is the building you will be tasked with holding. You will be dropped in and given 5 minutes to secure the perimeter, and another 5 minutes to hold the building. Titans will be available with a two minute window of deployment. Aside from these rules, you will have free reign to accomplish the objective as you see fit. Any questions?” Jump Jet immediately spoke up. “If this is just training, why do we need all of our equipment?” The commissar looked puzzled by Jet’s question. I don’t know why she would be. I was wondering the exact same thing. These were just sims. Everything was virtual. We wouldn’t be needing out weapons or jump kits.”What are you talking about?” “Well, if we’re just training in sims, we just need to jump in and do it, right?” I never would have expected a commissar to laugh, but it happened right in front of my face. She actually let out an audible guffaw at Jet’s statement. Now we were all confused. What could this stone faced mare possibly be laughing at? “What made you think we’d be putting you back in sims? You kids are in the real world now. This will be a live fire exercise.” Live fire. Depending on your mental state, those words can inspire two feelings. If you are a sensible pony with a strong will to live, you will be shaking in your boots. It looked like Meteor fell squarely into that category. If you are not sensible, you will be jumping for joy. Jump Jet looked like he was about to hit the ceiling when he heard the words, without a jump kit. I wasn’t too sure about the rest of us. Snow Drift, I could never be sure about, and Angel stood as steady as the commissar. I would just have to wait and see how they stood up. I wasn’t too sure about myself either. I didn’t want to get hurt, of course, but I did want to show up the rest of the squad. There could be only one squad lead, and I want to maximize my chances of survival, I had to make sure it was me. That was my goal, my top priority. As we were dismissed to suit up, I felt determination and focus like I had never felt before. My heart was pounding, every breath sent a jolt of energy throughout my body. I felt like I would be running on full forever. To be honest, I could see why Jet was so excited. This feeling was exhilarating. But then I felt twinge of guilt, hesitation. Not about the mission, but my goal. If I was to ensure my own survival, I would need to risk other ponies’ lives. Was I willing to do that? Live FireWe were all used to bumpy shuttle rides, but this one seemed to rattle us more than most. I knew exactly why. The words of the commissar from the briefing were still buzzing around in my head. “‘Live rounds will be used, although you will only be training against spectres. My advice to you is try not to die. You guys are expensive.’” Around me I could see the rest of the squad was completely silent. Even Jet was standing perfectly still. I guess the commissar had gotten to him too. We may have been valuable to the IMC, but there is no reason for them not to see us as expendable. Thousands of ponies applied every week to be pilots. It’s not like there was no one else to take our place were there an ‘accident’. Being hit by a bullet would hurt, but nowhere near as much as knowing I died in a training exercise. I would never be able to live it down. I had to snap out of my pessimism. I kept telling myself that I was a supermare. I’m bulletproof, invincible. A bunch of AI are no match for you. You’ve had months more of training and simulations leading up to this. What did spectres have? A couple of programs to shoot a gun. Plus, I had a Titan. spectres can’t pilot Titans. But they do have Rockets. With that final thought to send me off, the back hatch of the shuttle lowered, revealing the sector of Angel City we would be training in. At first, I couldn’t see anything. The sun was low, shining directly into the small craft. It took my visor a second to adjust to the light. Once it did, I was able to analyze my surroundings. Then I remembered that’s now how this works. Pilots don’t analyze, we react. Being the most rearward pony, I ran forward out of a perfectly functioning shuttle and into a battlefield. I hit the ground with a soft thud, my fall softened at the last second by a blast from my jump kit. Only then was I able to take in the environment. We were in the slums of Angel City. None of the buildings could have been taller than three stories, or had fewer than five million pests. To think ponies actually live here. After a brief delay, Our objective were projected onto my visor, and the commissar appeared on Vidcom. “OK pilots, you have 5 minutes to dislodge the defenders and secure the area, and another 5 to defend it yourself. Your titans will be available in 2 minutes.” The range was designated as one hundred meters north of us, through several buildings and across at least half a dozen streets. If we were ordinary grunts, we would have had to clear out each building and street to make sure we could advance safely. Five minutes with those kinds of obstacles would have been impossible. Obstacle wasn’t even in our vocabulary. “Alright, guys, let’s do it!” Jet was just as gung ho as he was in a simulator. It didn’t quite register to him yet that he could die, and I hoped it didn’t. He would fight better that way. With a bound, he had launched himself onto the nearest building, and already mantled up two stories, making a bee line for the highest building. He was a marksman, so he was doing what he needed. Unless he got really excited, he wouldn’t be a detriment. Meteor went along the same path as Jump Jet, though with a bit more difficulty. He was nowhere near as agile as his younger counterpart, so it took him several more jumps to get to the same place. Every Marksman needs a spotter, although I had a feeling he was just trying to avoid being in the hot fighting. Snow Drift, Angel, and myself began heading straight for the objective. None of us had used real jump kits since basic training, but it felt just as natural as walking. I’d forgotten how much I loved it. With in seconds, we had a line of sight on our destination. It was a two story building, just as shanty as the surrounding structures, with a neon sign on the front, flickering as it attempted to stay lit. No time for details, though. We needed to get inside. All three of us bounced our way on top of the building. From the smells that came from below, I could tell it was a bar, or was at some point. The smells vented out from two large skylights on the roof. Perfect entry points for us. Without speaking a word, I levitated a grenade off of my belt, and help it over one of the skylights. Following my lead, Angel and Snow did the same. We didn’t know for sure if there was anything directly below us, but you always prepare for the worst. With a nod, I dropped by now live grenade down the hole, followed soon by the other two. Three bounces, and then silence. BANG! The miniature bombs exploded all in unison. If there was anything below, it wasn’t there anymore. I heard Jet come in over the Vidcom. “You guys got em all! Get inside. I don’t see anything else coming.” I really didn’t want to take directives from the kid, even if he was right. But I had to set that aside, just this once, and complete the task at hand. I could consider it intel, not orders. That made me feel a bit more comfortable as I threw myself into the bar. Once inside, my helmet was filled with the scent of burnt composites and electrical smoke. All of the spectres lay in motions heaps. But there was one more floor to clear, and we didn’t know how many more spectres there were. Luckily, Angel had her echo vision active, and declared that the ground floor was empty. I That was it for the capture, now we had to set up for defense. “OK, Meteor, Jet, you two stay put and cover the street from up there. Angel, call in your titan as soon as you can. Snow Drift will stay inside while I cover from the roof.” “Roger. I got your back.” Jet replied over the com. Angel was silent. I could only assume she’d heard my directions, and hope she’d listened. I didn’t have time to worry about that. I vaulted onto the roof and prepared for the attack wave. “Yes, I’m sure, just get it down here!” I could here Angel Dust shouting at what I could only assume was the vidcom. I could’ve only guessed what it was about, until I saw the titan fall. It landed with a ground rattling crash. I was afraid that the building we were suppose to defend would collapse under me, and we be left defending a pile of concrete. Angel wasted no time embarking inside the steel golem. Angel was a good enough pilot, but she was unstoppable inside her ogre. A stout bipedal figure, more similar to a gorilla than a pony, it would take an army of grunts to take one down. “I’d advise you to wait to call your titans in together.” The commissar appeared in my helmet. “It’s a much more effective tactic.” “We know what we’re doing.” I was a little insulted at being told how to do my job. “Just be ready when we are.” We had a plan. Angel was the only one who needed a titan. It was eerily silent as we waited for the attack to commence. I wanted to relax, maybe have a smoke. The stillness was getting to me, but I knew couldn’t let my guard down. So I stood on the roof, twitching my rifle from alley way to empty alleyway. This was supposed to be a mission of minutes, but the suspense dragged them into hours. I wanted something, anything, to shatter the silence, and make top thinking, and start doing. Suddenly, my head was jerked harshly to the left, and my helmet was torn clean off of my head. I didn’t know how to react, so I simply fell to the ground. The already painfully slow pace of time stopped entirely, as I wondered what exactly had happened. I didn’t feel anything wet, so I wasn’t bleeding. That was really all my body needed to know. I jumped back up to my hooves, and dove back into the bar. I knew what had happened; I’d been sniped. I couldn’t communicate with any pony. My helmet was in pieces, and on top of that my ears were still ringing from the impact of the bullet. All I could think about was staying alive. The mission at hand just happened to overlap with my goal. When I got my hearing back, I could hear gunshots coming from below. Dashed down the stairs, and I saw Snow Drift running furiously around a squad of specters, cutting them down with one kick after another. Seeing as she had this under control, I headed out to the street. As soon as I swung the door to the bar open, I was faced by around 5 spectres about to knock it down. Don’t think, just do. Without a second though, I put several bullets into one of them, before continuing into the two on either side of it. The other two were lucky enough to get swift bucks upside the head. All within a matter of seconds. They never even fired a shot. I wasn’t done. There was another squad of five headed my way from further up the street. I didn’t know how much ammunition I’d expended on the first group, so I switched over to my secondary revolver. Before I could even get a shot off, they all fell in quick succession from headshots. Jump Jet was actually helpful. I just hoped he could keep that up. After the initial encounter, Angel took care of anything else that came throughout the streets, Jet and I cleared the rooftops, and Snow Drift kept the bar clear on the inside. With each successive encounter, I felt more and more relaxed. I knew what to do, how to do, and with what to execute every engagement. I didn’t even think about what I was doing anymore. I would’ve kept going forever, but just as I was about to execute a surreptitiously still spectre, and hoof grabbed mine, and I saw the commissar standing behind me, with a dropship behind her. I don’t know how I’d missed all of that, but she told me the exercise was complete, we were successful. Nothing to do now but head back to base for debrief. I don’t remember much about the ride back to the barracks. I fell asleep as soon as I strapped in. The mess hall was completely empty. I’d slept on the dropship, most of the way through debrief, and as it turns out, through dinner. I had worked up an appetite, but after getting shot in the head, rest was more important. The service was gone, but the vending machines were still on. I figured some food was better than no food. Besides, I hadn’t had anything sweet in months. I deserved something nice. I sat down at one of tables, and began digging into the coconut snowball I’d gotten. I’d never really liked coconut, but it was a snowball, which reminded me of my fillyhood. That helped me over come the taste on my tongue. “A balanced diet, I see?” I was surprised to see Angel Dust sitting across from me. I’d assumed she’d eaten already. “Why are you here? Chow time was 3 hours ago.” “I’d ask you the same, but we all know that taking a bullet to the head requires a bit of recovery time.” She tried to inject some humor into the situation, but over the course of the day, I’d never found the event funny. “still, you should eat something a bit healthier that that. Here.” She tossed over a honey oat bar, which I thought actually tasted better than the coconut. “Why are you here?” I was starting to sound like a broken record. I guess I hadn’t recovered entirely yet. “I was worried. You seemed awfully shoo ken up after today. I wanted to make sure you were alright.” “Why?” I was honestly puzzled. “I thought you didn’t care about me.” “Why would you think that?” “After the way I treated you and Drift, I’m surprised you didn’t shoot me.” “She chuckled a bit at my comment, but I didn’t know what was so funny. “Darling what are you fighting for?” “I’m fighting for the IMC.” “No, no no. You just wear their uniform. What are you fighting for?” I wanted to give some smart answer to end this conversation and go back to bed, but I could answer her question. What was I fighting for. Money, ideals, fun? They all could be it as far as I knew. “Well, I’m only out there risking my life because I know everyone else is too. If they all risk their lives to keep me alive, I feel I should do the same, don’t you?” It sounded nice, “But what if everyone dies. That kind of defeats the purpose, doesn’t it.” “Well, if one of my comrades want to sacrifice themselves for me, they’ll have to do it over my dead body!” That actually made me chuckle. “Glad you’re still with us, Summer. I’ll see you in the morning. The door shut behind her with an echoey clang, leaving me to think on our talk. What am I fighting for? CrucibleAfter a brief look at our training schedule, and my experiences from the previous day, I got a feel for what life would be like. Missions would be followed by a day of rest and preparation for the next day’s exercise. The missions would rotate between capture and defend, intel retrieval, and attrition, each randomly chosen. This would goon for 6 weeks, at which point we would be commissioned as regular pilots. The day of rest had started,and we were on our own schedules that day. After taking a bullet to the head, I decided I deserved a little extra time in bed. Angel certainly didn’t argue with me. When she asked me if I wanted to get breakfast with her and Snow Drift, the clearest answer I could give was a shake of the head. I wasn’t planning on going anywhere that day. Unfortunately for my pounding head, the commissar had other plans. “Pilots, report to the briefing room immediately.” That was all that came over the loudspeakers, much to my confusion. This was supposed to be our day off. What the hell was this all about? I debated whether I should blow her off and stay in bed, but I didn’t feel like dealing with that headache on top of the one I already had. I forced myself out of bed, and stumbled down to the briefing room. When I got there, it was just the commissar, Snow, Angel, and myself. Meteor and Jet were conspicuously absent. “Where is the other two?” The commissar shot me a look of half scorn, half confusion. “Are you hungover, Miss Solstice?” Correcting my posture and speech, I collected myself enough to appear somewhat professional. “No ma’am, I just got shot.” Rolling her eyes, the commissar turned her attention to the table. “They’re on their way to the mission area. They’ll be briefed on the way. I’m going to do your briefing before your departure.” “Hold on, I thought there was no mission today. What gives?” I was confused and understandably upset. I had seen what our day was supposed to be like. Splitting up the team and having a mission on the off day was not on the schedule. “Consider this preparing to be unprepared.In the real world, the militia won’t wait for you to roll out of bed before attacking.” I wanted to shoot back some smart-ass remark, but nothing came to mind, and I wouldn’t have said it even if I had thought of something. I wouldn’t admit it out loud, but that made sense. It still sucked. “You’ll be on a intel retrieval mission. You’ll be sent out to Outpost 615, and be tasked with finding a Multi Layer Light drive containing the intel. When you have it, hurry to the evac point and get out. Grab your gear and meet at the dropship. You are dismissed.” I wanted to know what exactly was on that drive, anymore importantly, why we were being sent outside the city. The schedule said that training would be conducted in different sections of the city. Whatever. Different locale, same job. I wasn’t too worried about accomplishing the mission. As long as I kept moving this time, we would all breeze through this. Before I could get out the door, Angel Dust pulled me aside. She was fidgeting constantly, and kept glancing around. “I do not think this is a normal. Did you get the inkling that the commissar was withholding something?” I did, but with a poker face like that, I wasn’t entirely sure what it could be. “Yeah, but there’s nothing we can really do about it. Whatever it is she’s not telling us, we can avoid it. All we have to do is get the drive as fast as possible, and get out. The less time we’re in the field today, the better.” “Okay. I’ll tell the others when we get there.” “No!” I grabbed her, only afterwards realizing how loud I had just been. “No. If we tell Drift or Jet, they’ll just get anxious and not do well. We need to keep this from worrying them too much, or they’ll just be a detriment.” “We were always taught that if we thought something was amiss to speak up. I feel like this secrecy will be a detriment.” “Look, we’ll get there, and see if this is actually out of the ordinary. For now though, we ned to treat this at face value. Think, this is exactly what the commissar said; it’s part of the training.” She looked away, thinking on what to do. When she looked back at me, she gave me a nod, and we both left to retrieve our gear. Looking back, I think I actually believed what I had told Angel. The ride to the outpost was a different experience from our first drop the day before. Instead of flying over the grey cityscape of Angel City, we could look outside and see the native flora and fauna below. For a while, it was like being back in my bunkroom, looking at the projections on the window. This was better though. The grass below my was real. The enjoyment was fleeting. As soon as we arrived at the outpost, we were ushered out the back of the dropship, and rushed up to the structures immediately in front of us. As we mantled up onto the first roof, we found Meteor and Jump Jet sitting down, waiting for us. “About time you showed up. Let’s get this over with.” Meteor seemed indignant at our later arrival. I was in no mood to put up with him. I wanted to finish this mission more than he could imagine. I needed to nurse this headache. “Hold it. We need to coordinate first. Do either of you have any idea where the intel actually is?” The two stallions looked at each other, then back to me. “Thought so. We’ll split into here groups to find it, Meteor and Jet, you two head over to the apartments to my right. Snow and Angel…” “Hold on, who put you in charge?” I was tempted to shoot Meteor right there. Only my common sense held me back. “I put me in charge! Now shut the hell up and listen!” “I don’t think we can have a hot head like you leading this. I’m pretty sure the drive is the main offices. We only need to look there.” This time I actually raised my weapon. “Cut me off one more time! I dare you!” “Summer, calm down!” Angel had come next to me. She hadn’t raised her weapon. Instead, she genuinely looked worried. I looked to her, then to Meteor. I didn’t think to let him out of my sight for a second, but the longer I stood aiming, the less I thought I would actually shoot him. I needed a better way to convince him to follow me. Just as I began to lower my weapon, I noticed a strange shimmer around Meteor. It looked like heat, but the atmosphere wasn’t hot. I stared at the apparition for a few seconds, until I noticed it slither around his neck. It wasn’t heat. I raised my weapon, and aimed just a few inches right of his head. “Meteor!” Before I could shoot, Angel swatted my weapon away. “Summer, this is not how you handle this!” I tried to shove her out of the way, but I wasn’t fast enough. Meteor’s hear spun around, facing directly backward, and he fell over dead. Only then was I able to aim again and fire. My bullets, seemed to stop mid air, before the shimmer in front of me solidified into a pony, who also fell over a corpse. The others simply stood aghast, none of them seemed to know how to take in what had just happened. To be honest, neither did I. Why would the IMC pit us against other pilots in training? That seemed idiotic. On closer inspection of the dead pilot, I realized the IMC wasn’t using pilots to train pilots. In fact, they weren’t training us at all. The green camo, rusty ballistic armor. This was a Militia pilot. “Everyone get back to the…” Before I could finish my sentence, I felt my right rear leg give out from under me. I didn’t feel anything, but I couldn’t move it either. I didn’t know what had happened, until I looked back and saw the blood. I’d been shot again. Only then did I feel the pain. If I tried to move myself at all, I felt lightning bolts of pain radiate up my leg and throughout the rest of my body. I wasn’t thinking about Meteor anymore. I was focused on getting back to the dropship in the distance. With my two front hooves, I started to drag myself to the edge of the roof, hoping the fall to the ground wouldn’t kill me. It was only a few feet to the edge, but in my condition it felt like a mile. Every crevice and crack I dragged my wounded leg over felt like a knife stabbing me in my gunshot wound. But I was going to make it out. I was the leader. I needed to survive. Just as I made it to the edge, about to hurl myself over, I was suddenly dragged backwards and rolled onto my back. The last thing I remember, is seeing an orange visor, and a hoof flying towards my face. After that, black. TerroristsMy head felt like it was about to explode. I tried to open my eyes, but that just made the pain unbearable. When I finally forced myself to look around, my vision was still to blurry to make out anything but outlines of objects, and even then I couldn’t tell what was what. I tried to move my hooves to rub my head, but I couldn’t get them to budge more than an inch. It was then I felt the ropes, and realized I was bound. The shock of my situation jolted awake. I was captured by the Militia! This was bad. They knew I was a pilot, the jump kit was a dead give away. They weren’t going to be nice when it came to interrogating me. But I was just a trainee, I didn’t know anything that they didn’t. Maybe they wouldn’t even bother interrogating me. I panicked. I had to escape, get out of these restraints. I tried to wiggle my body to loosen the knots, but then a horrendous pain erupted from my leg. I’d forgotten in my distress that I had been shot. Even if I was somehow able to break free, I wouldn’t get very far. As I struggled in vain, I heard the high pitched creak of a steel door opening, and a light came in through the doorway. When the lights came on, I was able to get a better look at the room I was in. Its was a filthy sty of a room. There was a single incandescent bulb hanging over a metal table, which sat directly in front of me. There was another chair opposite me, supposedly for whoever had just stepped in. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something else against the wall; a tub. Before I could examine my surroundings anymore, a mare in a Militia ‘uniform’ sat down in front of me. She was of a gruff, but slender build, no taller than myself. Her coat was beige, contrasting the jet black mane which hung to her left. “Hurts, doesn’t it?” I could only let out a grunt as I struggled to make myself comfortable in by restraints. I wasn’t going anywhere, so I might as well settle down. “The IMC launched an assault on an independent village yesterday. Why?” “Assault?” “Hm. Well you can’t exactly deny being there. There was an entire division sent into that village, along with your squad of pilots. The inhabitants would’ve all been wiped out had we not intervened. What I want know, and what would be in your best interest to tell me, is why the IMC attacked to begin with.” At this point, I was actually confused. We were just doing a training mission at an outpost, plain and simple. We weren’t attacking anyone, certainly not civilians. “What the hell are you talking about? That wasn’t a village.” Without warning, the mare lifted the table up, and threw it to my right, slamming it against the wall. She grabbed by wounded leg, and began to squeeze until it bled through the bandages. I cried out, but her expression did not change. “I don’t think you understood me. Why did the IMC attack that village. What interests did they have there?” I kept screaming until I felt her grip loosen enough for me to be coherent, but I still wouldn’t change my answer. “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about! That was a training outpost!” Obviously that was the wrong answer. She grabbed me by the mane, and hauled me over to the tub I’d noticed before. She forced my head down into the tub, which I’d only just realized was full of water. In my panic, I tried to breath in, only to get a lung full of fluid. After a few seconds, she hoisted me out of the tub, as I gasped for air. “Why did you attack the village!” I didn’t even get to respond before she shoved me back into the tub. She held me under for a lot long, to the point where I began to run out of breath. “Quit lying! That village had no military significance. Why did you bastards attack it!” “That’s enough Amber!” I turned to the door, and saw another mare in uniform. “You are dismissed.” The pony that had been drowning me threw my head down towards the tub, and walked swiftly out of the room, saluting this new pony as she left. “Please forgive Lieutenant Streak. She has somewhat of a bias towards the IMC.” I didn’t know how to react to her. Her tone seemed…friendly. I wasn’t going to fall for this good cop, bad cop crap. I was still not going to say a word. She put me back in my chair, repositioned the table, and sat down across from me. Her blue coat and blonde mane matched her more calm demeanor. “You said that that wasn’t a village, but a training outpost. Is that what you were told?” This shocked me even more that the water boarding did. Did she believe me? “That village was an independent settlement. The inhabitants didn’t even want us hanging around there. I guess that changed after yesterday. Tell me though, why did you go to that village, or outpost?” I answered. What did I have to lose? “It was a training mission. We thought it was a training outpost. We were supposed to get some hard drive and get out. But it was supposed to be simulated with spectres.” This revelation seemed to surprise my interrogator. “Training mission? You haven’t been commissioned as pilots?” “No. My squad just got here from the core. This was our second mission.” She simply stared aghast at me. I stared back at her. I finally started to wonder, “You said this place was attacked?” “By a spectre division, yes, along with your squad. We got there in time to evacuate the village.” “I think our commanders would’ve told us if we were actually going into combat.” “Well obviously they didn’t.” Her tone came across as rather condescending. “I guess we’re done with our interrogation for today. You’ll be kept here until we can transfer you somewhere from our front lines.” “Why are you telling me this?” I was a little weirded out as to why I was being treated so fairly. I’d always heard that the militia would extract any info they could from pilots, then execute them. “I don’t have anything else to give you.” “We’re not the savages your employer would have you believe.” She replied with a chuckle. “What reason would have to kill you?” “So that I don’t kill you?” It seemed like the obvious answer. “Share with me exactly how you plan to do that in your present condition.” With a bullet wound to one of my legs, she had a point. I was pretty useless as a soldier. “Uh huh. You see, the militia exists because the IMC doesn’t value individual life. Why would we exist if we were exactly like them?” “Well, I’m not going to argue with being alive.” Now I was beginning to sound more jovial, until I winced in pain once more. She seemed to notice this. “Actually, you should be sent to the infirmary. They’ll get you new bandages. Gangrene is the last thing we need around here.” As she stood up to leave, I finally noticed the dog tags hanging from her neck. The Militia couldn’t possible have the resources to issue those to everyone. I thought about calling out to ask about them, but she had departed, and two more ponies came into the room with a gurney. After strapping me in, I was carried out of the room. Apparently they didn’t trust me as much as that other mare did. Then it hit me, I never found out who she was. For a field hospital, the militia made it seem especially permanent. The beds were actual beds, not cots, and the curtains were actually made into the ceiling. Not only were the amenities above par, but I could tell they had a substantial blood bank near there, and any drugs they’d need for emergency operations. With facilities like this, it was no wonder we never seemed to be able to kill them. I was the only one in the ward that I could tell. I didn’t hear any pony else talking or moving around except for the nurses. Listening was all I could do at that point; they’d strapped me down to the bed and drew the curtains around me. There wasn’t really much to look at other than the ceiling. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the curtains being drawn open. I lifted my head to see who it was, and it was the pony who was initially interrogating me. “Come back to finish your water boarding?” “I wish. But Corona said you have nothing left to tell us. Not quite sure if I believe that, but I’ll go among with her.” That must’ve been the other pony who interrogated me. “Names Amber Streak. I didn’t stick around to listen, so I want to hear from you exactly why you did attack that village.” She wasn’t as aggressive this time. I thought it would be worth repeating my story to her. “It was just a training mission for us.” “Is it standard IMC training to kill civilians?” “No! We were told it was a deserted outpost. We were only supposed to fight Spectres.” Rather than bash my head against the wall, Amber just looked away, trying to piece together our stories. “Huh. So you’re not even a commissioned pilot yet?” “No.” “I just don’t get it. There were civilians there. We evacuated all of them. I knew the IMC were aggressive, but that’s a new low.” That comment kind of hit me a little personally. “Hey! I would never kill any pony who didn’t deserve it. I don’t want to see the frontier plague by vigilantism and terrorists.” Apparently I’d returned the feeling in kind. “I’d rather be die free than live a slave to some corporate boss from the core. How can you live that way?” It seemed rather strange to ask me that. Life in the core was nice. Sure we had limits to what we could do, but it was so everyone could be safe. “I’d rather not die to some random raid than live in squalor. How can you live this way, waging war all the time?” “You think we enjoy fighting you? I’d rather be at home with my brothers, just making a living on a farm.” It seemed an easy enough choice. “So go do it.” “My brothers are dead. They were killed by the IMC for not selling our crop.” I’d never heard of anything like that happening. I couldn’t think of anything to say to her. “That’s why I can’t.” “I’d never heard of anything like that happening. I can’t think of anyone I know actually killing for food.” “Well, what do you think they send you out here for? All the IMC wants is whatever’s in the ground.” Where was she getting her ideas? I had to defend myself. “We’re here to protect the frontier and keep the peace. I can’t believe you’d think so little of us, after all we’ve done to keep this place safe.” I expected her to snap back with some angry retort, but she look back at me quizzically. “Really? Is that what you think?” Well, yes. It is, and I nodded to confirm it. Amber didn’t say anything after that. She simply walked out of the infirmary, leaving me alone to think on the conversation I’d just had. I couldn’t believe she had such a low opinion of the entity that gave this place any semblance of order. Then again, she’d lost her family to the IMC, but I still had a hard time believing that. I couldn’t imagine a situation when any respectable soldier would do something so cruel. That’s not what we were out here for. I decided to take a nap and think on it later. I still wasn’t sure if they’d execute me or not, so a little rest couldn’t possible hurt.
The CrewIt was serene. There wasn't another soul for what must've been miles, just grass and hills as far as the eye could see. Tall blades rose out of the ground. After spending my whole life in cities, it was strange to actually be able to see dirt. There we no buildings, no walls, and no ponies. Why couldn't every place be like this? Everypony would be so happy, and we wouldn't have to worry about having enough of anything. It would be paradise. Around that thought was when the shutters lifted, and the Commandant came over the intercom. "Pilots, grab your sea bags and prepare for departure. The shuttle to Angel City is leaving in 10 minutes." Now all I could see was the rest of the IMC fleet orbiting over the planet below. Angel City was down there, where my new life as a pilot would begin. This was the frontier. The Shuttle Bay was alive with military grunts and sailors, preparing the dropships for missions and travel. They weren’t nothing special. It was actually kind of funny to see them marching around in columns, drilling with their rifles as the sergeants called out orders. I chuckled every time I saw them. The worked so hard to appear strong, and yet pilots were they ones people feared. My destination was the shuttle at the end of the hangar. It was tiny compared to the rest of the dropships, barely big enough for 6 ponies and a coxswain. Around it sat the four other pilots, waiting for me to show up I’d assumed. “There she is. Get hypnotized by the shutters again?” Of course I had, but I wasn’t about to let eery pony else no that. It may have been the worst kept secret on the ship, but it was still my secret. “The Constellation is a big ship. Just took me a while to get down here is all.” It was my worst attempt at a lie and they all knew it. Whatever. I did like the scenery, even if it probably didn’t exist. “Where’s the Commandant?” With my perfectly timed remark, I heard the distinct rhythm of 3 hooves and a prosthetic approach me from behind. I turned to see the gruff leader of our squad, face scarred and battered from experience. We never could get the old crone to tell us what exactly happened to put him in such a state. That was the best kept secret on the ship. “Seems like you’re all here,” His voice was as rough as his face, which was comforting in a strange sort of way. “but just to keep the adjutant happy, I’ll be taking roll. Meteor Shower,” The pony who greeted me called out in response. He didn’t seem to care that we were being delayed by roll call, but then again, he never seemed to care much about anything. “Snow Drift,” A pure white mare raised a hoof into the air. She was a mute, which might have disqualified her as a pilot were she not so skilled in a simulator. Our interfaces had FaceCom, so it wasn’t a huge detriment. In all honesty, she was probably the most skilled runner out of the six of us. “Jump Jet,” A very young stallion called out so that everyone in the hangar heard. He was very young for a pilot, some 3 years my junior, but he was unbelievable with a rifle. I’d actually been somewhat worried about him. Being so young, I was afraid he wouldn’t be able to fight how he would need to. There was only one way to test that theory, though. “Angel Dust” A blue eyed, blue coated mare sounded off. Of the five of us, she seemed least likely to actually be a pilot. She was more worried about the polish on her visor than actually working the thing. Not that it would mean that much in combat. She was nice and comfy inside her Ogre. “Summer Solstice.” That was me. I sounded off as the Commandant filled out the last of the paperwork, promptly shoving the finished stack at his aid. “Good. You all will be leaving soon, so I will only tell you the one thing you need to know about the frontier.” We all turned to face the Commandant. Jump Jet even leaned in. he could be any more boyish if he tried. “Everyone down there is out to get you. The Militia have a lot of loyalty among the populace, so don’t trust anyone. If your left behind by an evac, you might as well be dead. Clear?” We all nodded in sync. With that, he left us to load up the shuttle and prepare to depart. “I don’t see why the ponies down there don’t like us. Those militia are such brutes from what I’ve heard.” Angel Dust was always very vocal about her thoughts. When we first met back on earth, the first thing she’d ever said to me was that I needed a new jumpsuit, since mine had a drop of lubricant on it. Just because Angel was being herself, Meteor wanted to disagree with her. “What could they possibly do to us? All of their equipment is antique. None of their titans are from this decade. They might as well be throwing rocks.” For someone so laid back, he was awful full of himself. Meteor was dependable enough to work with, but every other time he was just a lazy pain in the flank. “They won’t even see us comin’!” Jump Jet expressed his usual youthful exuberance. “They’ll be sorry they ever badmouthed the IMC!” I’d heard a lot about the militia, we all had. Stories would make their way back to earth about cities being cut off from the rest of civilization, effectively blacked out. If you were caught in their advance, that was game over. Some ponies would say that they would make outposts disappear completely, like they’d never existed at all. I never believed any of it. They were ponies just like us. And while they may not be as wealthy as those living under the IMC, their pilots were no less capable. If what the Commandant had said was true, then come hell or high water I would always be the first on that dropship.
Number OneFrom space, the planet below looked ideal for a civilization. Large swaths of ocean covered the surface, as well as the occasional inland dot, indicating a lake. The land mass appeared to be covered in lush flora, stretching until they met with the vast oceans. There were lights from the cities below, but not so many that it would be impossible to find nature on hoof. From orbit, the frontier seemed rather serene. But we weren’t headed for any of that. Our destination was dead in the middle of Angel City, where the IMC had its primary manufacturing and training facilities. It seemed to stand in spite of the rest of the planet, it’s grey, steel mass rising directly out of the ground, far above the rest of the city’s skyline. When landed on the helodeck on top of the structure, we were greeted by the sight of a mare in a blue IMC uniform, standing stone faced as the downdraft thrashed her mane. I wanted to enjoy the vista from the top of the facility, but the cubic skyline was something I wasn’t very excited to see again. I made my way straight to our host. Turns out she was a commissars, and they would be supervising our training planet side. I decided to greet her, try to see if her steely facade was just that. “You must be the commissar.” “Correct. I am here to escort you to your quarters, and then brief you on your training schedule.” Her voice was very monotonous, almost mechanical. If not for the feminine pitch, I would have mistaken her for some sort of android. Commissars were known for being dullards, but now that I actually face to face with one, that seemed to be an understatement. As we were lead towards the elevator, I took one last look up to the sky, which was now aglow with an orange sunset. With a heavy sigh, I looked straight up. Away from the commissar, away from the cityscape, away from the life I’d been readied for. Looking at soft colors of low sun, I forgot about my responsibilities to the IMC, and focused instead on just how pretty the view was. It was a fleeting feeling, and I knew it. I just want to see the sun with my eyes before I head into the sims for what I assumed would be weeks. The barracks weren’t luxurious by any means, but the were a far cry from the spartan amenities we’d had while under way. They were segregated, so Angel, Snow Drift, and myself all shared one room. The space was enough for the three of us to be comfortable. In a situation where I was living a normal life, I probably would’ve felt comfortable. “Come girls. This is our new home, so we might as well make it our own.” Angel immediately set about putting her personal artifacts absolutely everywhere. Photos and trinkets occupied a little over half of the shelf space. She wasn’t kidding when she said she was making it her own. “Leave some space for the rest of us, Angel. We’ll be living here too.” I tried to sound just a tad frustrated, but sarcastic. Snowdrift gave her a similar commander via a roll of the eyes. “I do apologize dear, but I’m just so excited to get back into the swing of things. It’s been too long since I’ve had some good quality time with my titan. I can only imagine how itchy Jump Jet’s trigger hoof must be.” “I’m gonna try to both of those guys as much as possible. I wouldn’t trust them to hand me a knife.” “Oh you don’t need to be so hard on Jet.” She talked of him as if he were some sort of ill behaved school colt. “I can understand your misgivings about Meteor. He doesn’t seem like the kind of pony who would help his own mother.” I chuckled. Meteor was extremely lazy. The only reason he was even selected to be a pilot was because his father was admiral of the fleet. His performance in a sim was lackluster at best. “But Jet only wants to do good. Sure he might be a bit overenthusiastic, but it’s for all the right reasons.” “Yeah, I’ll remember that as I’m ejecting.” “Really Summer! You shouldn’t be so contemptuous. We’re all here to fight together.” Angel was starting to get on my nerves. Ever since we first met, she’d been trying to get me out of my comfort zone, when I’d rather focus on being a pilot. She made have the gift for it, but the rest of us have to work to be able to use our jump kits and titans. I was the one looking down my nose at ponies? “I don’t want to die to some antique because that kid doesn’t know how to control himself!” My outburst obviously had Angel taken aback. Good. I wanted her to understand that I was willing to fight for the IMC, but I was not about to die for those authoritative bastards. And I certainly wasn’t going to die for any of these jokers. “Pilots, report to the briefing room in five.” The intercom snapped me out of my rage. I had a chance to think about what I said, and what I’d thought, and it had me taken aback. I wanted to apologize, but my pride got the better of me. Even though knew what I said was wrong, I couldn’t bring myself to admit it. I turned towards the door to leave, and only then did I remember that Snow Drift was in the room with us, and I noticed a tear rolling down her cheek. Once outside, I could feel one rolling down mine. I was the first one to arrive in the briefing room. The commissar stood at the central table, which had a model of the city projected above. "You know you're early? We don't start the briefing until the top of the hour." In my furious state, I had lost track of the time. Top of the hour was one minute away. I guess technically I was early. "Oh, yeah. I just wanted to get a head start is all." As I said that, the rest of the pilots entered the room. Meteor and Jet stood at the table opposite the commissar. I could tell jet was trying his hardest not to jump through the ceiling with excitement. Meteor was just trying to stay awake. Snow drift and Angel stood on the other side of the commissar from myself. They looked my way, and I tried to avoid eye contact. I could bring myself to look at them after what I'd said. Out of the corner of my eye, I was able to see their expressions, which surprised me. There was no malice or anger, but sadness in their eyes. They actually looked concerned for me. "OK pilots, this will be your first training session planetside. Your task is going to be forward capture and defense.” With a few button presses on the control panel, the projection focused on a two story building in the southwest section of the city. “This is the building you will be tasked with holding. You will be dropped in and given 5 minutes to secure the perimeter, and another 5 minutes to hold the building. Titans will be available with a two minute window of deployment. Aside from these rules, you will have free reign to accomplish the objective as you see fit. Any questions?” Jump Jet immediately spoke up. “If this is just training, why do we need all of our equipment?” The commissar looked puzzled by Jet’s question. I don’t know why she would be. I was wondering the exact same thing. These were just sims. Everything was virtual. We wouldn’t be needing out weapons or jump kits.”What are you talking about?” “Well, if we’re just training in sims, we just need to jump in and do it, right?” I never would have expected a commissar to laugh, but it happened right in front of my face. She actually let out an audible guffaw at Jet’s statement. Now we were all confused. What could this stone faced mare possibly be laughing at? “What made you think we’d be putting you back in sims? You kids are in the real world now. This will be a live fire exercise.” Live fire. Depending on your mental state, those words can inspire two feelings. If you are a sensible pony with a strong will to live, you will be shaking in your boots. It looked like Meteor fell squarely into that category. If you are not sensible, you will be jumping for joy. Jump Jet looked like he was about to hit the ceiling when he heard the words, without a jump kit. I wasn’t too sure about the rest of us. Snow Drift, I could never be sure about, and Angel stood as steady as the commissar. I would just have to wait and see how they stood up. I wasn’t too sure about myself either. I didn’t want to get hurt, of course, but I did want to show up the rest of the squad. There could be only one squad lead, and I want to maximize my chances of survival, I had to make sure it was me. That was my goal, my top priority. As we were dismissed to suit up, I felt determination and focus like I had never felt before. My heart was pounding, every breath sent a jolt of energy throughout my body. I felt like I would be running on full forever. To be honest, I could see why Jet was so excited. This feeling was exhilarating. But then I felt twinge of guilt, hesitation. Not about the mission, but my goal. If I was to ensure my own survival, I would need to risk other ponies’ lives. Was I willing to do that?
Live FireWe were all used to bumpy shuttle rides, but this one seemed to rattle us more than most. I knew exactly why. The words of the commissar from the briefing were still buzzing around in my head. “‘Live rounds will be used, although you will only be training against spectres. My advice to you is try not to die. You guys are expensive.’” Around me I could see the rest of the squad was completely silent. Even Jet was standing perfectly still. I guess the commissar had gotten to him too. We may have been valuable to the IMC, but there is no reason for them not to see us as expendable. Thousands of ponies applied every week to be pilots. It’s not like there was no one else to take our place were there an ‘accident’. Being hit by a bullet would hurt, but nowhere near as much as knowing I died in a training exercise. I would never be able to live it down. I had to snap out of my pessimism. I kept telling myself that I was a supermare. I’m bulletproof, invincible. A bunch of AI are no match for you. You’ve had months more of training and simulations leading up to this. What did spectres have? A couple of programs to shoot a gun. Plus, I had a Titan. spectres can’t pilot Titans. But they do have Rockets. With that final thought to send me off, the back hatch of the shuttle lowered, revealing the sector of Angel City we would be training in. At first, I couldn’t see anything. The sun was low, shining directly into the small craft. It took my visor a second to adjust to the light. Once it did, I was able to analyze my surroundings. Then I remembered that’s now how this works. Pilots don’t analyze, we react. Being the most rearward pony, I ran forward out of a perfectly functioning shuttle and into a battlefield. I hit the ground with a soft thud, my fall softened at the last second by a blast from my jump kit. Only then was I able to take in the environment. We were in the slums of Angel City. None of the buildings could have been taller than three stories, or had fewer than five million pests. To think ponies actually live here. After a brief delay, Our objective were projected onto my visor, and the commissar appeared on Vidcom. “OK pilots, you have 5 minutes to dislodge the defenders and secure the area, and another 5 to defend it yourself. Your titans will be available in 2 minutes.” The range was designated as one hundred meters north of us, through several buildings and across at least half a dozen streets. If we were ordinary grunts, we would have had to clear out each building and street to make sure we could advance safely. Five minutes with those kinds of obstacles would have been impossible. Obstacle wasn’t even in our vocabulary. “Alright, guys, let’s do it!” Jet was just as gung ho as he was in a simulator. It didn’t quite register to him yet that he could die, and I hoped it didn’t. He would fight better that way. With a bound, he had launched himself onto the nearest building, and already mantled up two stories, making a bee line for the highest building. He was a marksman, so he was doing what he needed. Unless he got really excited, he wouldn’t be a detriment. Meteor went along the same path as Jump Jet, though with a bit more difficulty. He was nowhere near as agile as his younger counterpart, so it took him several more jumps to get to the same place. Every Marksman needs a spotter, although I had a feeling he was just trying to avoid being in the hot fighting. Snow Drift, Angel, and myself began heading straight for the objective. None of us had used real jump kits since basic training, but it felt just as natural as walking. I’d forgotten how much I loved it. With in seconds, we had a line of sight on our destination. It was a two story building, just as shanty as the surrounding structures, with a neon sign on the front, flickering as it attempted to stay lit. No time for details, though. We needed to get inside. All three of us bounced our way on top of the building. From the smells that came from below, I could tell it was a bar, or was at some point. The smells vented out from two large skylights on the roof. Perfect entry points for us. Without speaking a word, I levitated a grenade off of my belt, and help it over one of the skylights. Following my lead, Angel and Snow did the same. We didn’t know for sure if there was anything directly below us, but you always prepare for the worst. With a nod, I dropped by now live grenade down the hole, followed soon by the other two. Three bounces, and then silence. BANG! The miniature bombs exploded all in unison. If there was anything below, it wasn’t there anymore. I heard Jet come in over the Vidcom. “You guys got em all! Get inside. I don’t see anything else coming.” I really didn’t want to take directives from the kid, even if he was right. But I had to set that aside, just this once, and complete the task at hand. I could consider it intel, not orders. That made me feel a bit more comfortable as I threw myself into the bar. Once inside, my helmet was filled with the scent of burnt composites and electrical smoke. All of the spectres lay in motions heaps. But there was one more floor to clear, and we didn’t know how many more spectres there were. Luckily, Angel had her echo vision active, and declared that the ground floor was empty. I That was it for the capture, now we had to set up for defense. “OK, Meteor, Jet, you two stay put and cover the street from up there. Angel, call in your titan as soon as you can. Snow Drift will stay inside while I cover from the roof.” “Roger. I got your back.” Jet replied over the com. Angel was silent. I could only assume she’d heard my directions, and hope she’d listened. I didn’t have time to worry about that. I vaulted onto the roof and prepared for the attack wave. “Yes, I’m sure, just get it down here!” I could here Angel Dust shouting at what I could only assume was the vidcom. I could’ve only guessed what it was about, until I saw the titan fall. It landed with a ground rattling crash. I was afraid that the building we were suppose to defend would collapse under me, and we be left defending a pile of concrete. Angel wasted no time embarking inside the steel golem. Angel was a good enough pilot, but she was unstoppable inside her ogre. A stout bipedal figure, more similar to a gorilla than a pony, it would take an army of grunts to take one down. “I’d advise you to wait to call your titans in together.” The commissar appeared in my helmet. “It’s a much more effective tactic.” “We know what we’re doing.” I was a little insulted at being told how to do my job. “Just be ready when we are.” We had a plan. Angel was the only one who needed a titan. It was eerily silent as we waited for the attack to commence. I wanted to relax, maybe have a smoke. The stillness was getting to me, but I knew couldn’t let my guard down. So I stood on the roof, twitching my rifle from alley way to empty alleyway. This was supposed to be a mission of minutes, but the suspense dragged them into hours. I wanted something, anything, to shatter the silence, and make top thinking, and start doing. Suddenly, my head was jerked harshly to the left, and my helmet was torn clean off of my head. I didn’t know how to react, so I simply fell to the ground. The already painfully slow pace of time stopped entirely, as I wondered what exactly had happened. I didn’t feel anything wet, so I wasn’t bleeding. That was really all my body needed to know. I jumped back up to my hooves, and dove back into the bar. I knew what had happened; I’d been sniped. I couldn’t communicate with any pony. My helmet was in pieces, and on top of that my ears were still ringing from the impact of the bullet. All I could think about was staying alive. The mission at hand just happened to overlap with my goal. When I got my hearing back, I could hear gunshots coming from below. Dashed down the stairs, and I saw Snow Drift running furiously around a squad of specters, cutting them down with one kick after another. Seeing as she had this under control, I headed out to the street. As soon as I swung the door to the bar open, I was faced by around 5 spectres about to knock it down. Don’t think, just do. Without a second though, I put several bullets into one of them, before continuing into the two on either side of it. The other two were lucky enough to get swift bucks upside the head. All within a matter of seconds. They never even fired a shot. I wasn’t done. There was another squad of five headed my way from further up the street. I didn’t know how much ammunition I’d expended on the first group, so I switched over to my secondary revolver. Before I could even get a shot off, they all fell in quick succession from headshots. Jump Jet was actually helpful. I just hoped he could keep that up. After the initial encounter, Angel took care of anything else that came throughout the streets, Jet and I cleared the rooftops, and Snow Drift kept the bar clear on the inside. With each successive encounter, I felt more and more relaxed. I knew what to do, how to do, and with what to execute every engagement. I didn’t even think about what I was doing anymore. I would’ve kept going forever, but just as I was about to execute a surreptitiously still spectre, and hoof grabbed mine, and I saw the commissar standing behind me, with a dropship behind her. I don’t know how I’d missed all of that, but she told me the exercise was complete, we were successful. Nothing to do now but head back to base for debrief. I don’t remember much about the ride back to the barracks. I fell asleep as soon as I strapped in. The mess hall was completely empty. I’d slept on the dropship, most of the way through debrief, and as it turns out, through dinner. I had worked up an appetite, but after getting shot in the head, rest was more important. The service was gone, but the vending machines were still on. I figured some food was better than no food. Besides, I hadn’t had anything sweet in months. I deserved something nice. I sat down at one of tables, and began digging into the coconut snowball I’d gotten. I’d never really liked coconut, but it was a snowball, which reminded me of my fillyhood. That helped me over come the taste on my tongue. “A balanced diet, I see?” I was surprised to see Angel Dust sitting across from me. I’d assumed she’d eaten already. “Why are you here? Chow time was 3 hours ago.” “I’d ask you the same, but we all know that taking a bullet to the head requires a bit of recovery time.” She tried to inject some humor into the situation, but over the course of the day, I’d never found the event funny. “still, you should eat something a bit healthier that that. Here.” She tossed over a honey oat bar, which I thought actually tasted better than the coconut. “Why are you here?” I was starting to sound like a broken record. I guess I hadn’t recovered entirely yet. “I was worried. You seemed awfully shoo ken up after today. I wanted to make sure you were alright.” “Why?” I was honestly puzzled. “I thought you didn’t care about me.” “Why would you think that?” “After the way I treated you and Drift, I’m surprised you didn’t shoot me.” “She chuckled a bit at my comment, but I didn’t know what was so funny. “Darling what are you fighting for?” “I’m fighting for the IMC.” “No, no no. You just wear their uniform. What are you fighting for?” I wanted to give some smart answer to end this conversation and go back to bed, but I could answer her question. What was I fighting for. Money, ideals, fun? They all could be it as far as I knew. “Well, I’m only out there risking my life because I know everyone else is too. If they all risk their lives to keep me alive, I feel I should do the same, don’t you?” It sounded nice, “But what if everyone dies. That kind of defeats the purpose, doesn’t it.” “Well, if one of my comrades want to sacrifice themselves for me, they’ll have to do it over my dead body!” That actually made me chuckle. “Glad you’re still with us, Summer. I’ll see you in the morning. The door shut behind her with an echoey clang, leaving me to think on our talk. What am I fighting for?
CrucibleAfter a brief look at our training schedule, and my experiences from the previous day, I got a feel for what life would be like. Missions would be followed by a day of rest and preparation for the next day’s exercise. The missions would rotate between capture and defend, intel retrieval, and attrition, each randomly chosen. This would goon for 6 weeks, at which point we would be commissioned as regular pilots. The day of rest had started,and we were on our own schedules that day. After taking a bullet to the head, I decided I deserved a little extra time in bed. Angel certainly didn’t argue with me. When she asked me if I wanted to get breakfast with her and Snow Drift, the clearest answer I could give was a shake of the head. I wasn’t planning on going anywhere that day. Unfortunately for my pounding head, the commissar had other plans. “Pilots, report to the briefing room immediately.” That was all that came over the loudspeakers, much to my confusion. This was supposed to be our day off. What the hell was this all about? I debated whether I should blow her off and stay in bed, but I didn’t feel like dealing with that headache on top of the one I already had. I forced myself out of bed, and stumbled down to the briefing room. When I got there, it was just the commissar, Snow, Angel, and myself. Meteor and Jet were conspicuously absent. “Where is the other two?” The commissar shot me a look of half scorn, half confusion. “Are you hungover, Miss Solstice?” Correcting my posture and speech, I collected myself enough to appear somewhat professional. “No ma’am, I just got shot.” Rolling her eyes, the commissar turned her attention to the table. “They’re on their way to the mission area. They’ll be briefed on the way. I’m going to do your briefing before your departure.” “Hold on, I thought there was no mission today. What gives?” I was confused and understandably upset. I had seen what our day was supposed to be like. Splitting up the team and having a mission on the off day was not on the schedule. “Consider this preparing to be unprepared.In the real world, the militia won’t wait for you to roll out of bed before attacking.” I wanted to shoot back some smart-ass remark, but nothing came to mind, and I wouldn’t have said it even if I had thought of something. I wouldn’t admit it out loud, but that made sense. It still sucked. “You’ll be on a intel retrieval mission. You’ll be sent out to Outpost 615, and be tasked with finding a Multi Layer Light drive containing the intel. When you have it, hurry to the evac point and get out. Grab your gear and meet at the dropship. You are dismissed.” I wanted to know what exactly was on that drive, anymore importantly, why we were being sent outside the city. The schedule said that training would be conducted in different sections of the city. Whatever. Different locale, same job. I wasn’t too worried about accomplishing the mission. As long as I kept moving this time, we would all breeze through this. Before I could get out the door, Angel Dust pulled me aside. She was fidgeting constantly, and kept glancing around. “I do not think this is a normal. Did you get the inkling that the commissar was withholding something?” I did, but with a poker face like that, I wasn’t entirely sure what it could be. “Yeah, but there’s nothing we can really do about it. Whatever it is she’s not telling us, we can avoid it. All we have to do is get the drive as fast as possible, and get out. The less time we’re in the field today, the better.” “Okay. I’ll tell the others when we get there.” “No!” I grabbed her, only afterwards realizing how loud I had just been. “No. If we tell Drift or Jet, they’ll just get anxious and not do well. We need to keep this from worrying them too much, or they’ll just be a detriment.” “We were always taught that if we thought something was amiss to speak up. I feel like this secrecy will be a detriment.” “Look, we’ll get there, and see if this is actually out of the ordinary. For now though, we ned to treat this at face value. Think, this is exactly what the commissar said; it’s part of the training.” She looked away, thinking on what to do. When she looked back at me, she gave me a nod, and we both left to retrieve our gear. Looking back, I think I actually believed what I had told Angel. The ride to the outpost was a different experience from our first drop the day before. Instead of flying over the grey cityscape of Angel City, we could look outside and see the native flora and fauna below. For a while, it was like being back in my bunkroom, looking at the projections on the window. This was better though. The grass below my was real. The enjoyment was fleeting. As soon as we arrived at the outpost, we were ushered out the back of the dropship, and rushed up to the structures immediately in front of us. As we mantled up onto the first roof, we found Meteor and Jump Jet sitting down, waiting for us. “About time you showed up. Let’s get this over with.” Meteor seemed indignant at our later arrival. I was in no mood to put up with him. I wanted to finish this mission more than he could imagine. I needed to nurse this headache. “Hold it. We need to coordinate first. Do either of you have any idea where the intel actually is?” The two stallions looked at each other, then back to me. “Thought so. We’ll split into here groups to find it, Meteor and Jet, you two head over to the apartments to my right. Snow and Angel…” “Hold on, who put you in charge?” I was tempted to shoot Meteor right there. Only my common sense held me back. “I put me in charge! Now shut the hell up and listen!” “I don’t think we can have a hot head like you leading this. I’m pretty sure the drive is the main offices. We only need to look there.” This time I actually raised my weapon. “Cut me off one more time! I dare you!” “Summer, calm down!” Angel had come next to me. She hadn’t raised her weapon. Instead, she genuinely looked worried. I looked to her, then to Meteor. I didn’t think to let him out of my sight for a second, but the longer I stood aiming, the less I thought I would actually shoot him. I needed a better way to convince him to follow me. Just as I began to lower my weapon, I noticed a strange shimmer around Meteor. It looked like heat, but the atmosphere wasn’t hot. I stared at the apparition for a few seconds, until I noticed it slither around his neck. It wasn’t heat. I raised my weapon, and aimed just a few inches right of his head. “Meteor!” Before I could shoot, Angel swatted my weapon away. “Summer, this is not how you handle this!” I tried to shove her out of the way, but I wasn’t fast enough. Meteor’s hear spun around, facing directly backward, and he fell over dead. Only then was I able to aim again and fire. My bullets, seemed to stop mid air, before the shimmer in front of me solidified into a pony, who also fell over a corpse. The others simply stood aghast, none of them seemed to know how to take in what had just happened. To be honest, neither did I. Why would the IMC pit us against other pilots in training? That seemed idiotic. On closer inspection of the dead pilot, I realized the IMC wasn’t using pilots to train pilots. In fact, they weren’t training us at all. The green camo, rusty ballistic armor. This was a Militia pilot. “Everyone get back to the…” Before I could finish my sentence, I felt my right rear leg give out from under me. I didn’t feel anything, but I couldn’t move it either. I didn’t know what had happened, until I looked back and saw the blood. I’d been shot again. Only then did I feel the pain. If I tried to move myself at all, I felt lightning bolts of pain radiate up my leg and throughout the rest of my body. I wasn’t thinking about Meteor anymore. I was focused on getting back to the dropship in the distance. With my two front hooves, I started to drag myself to the edge of the roof, hoping the fall to the ground wouldn’t kill me. It was only a few feet to the edge, but in my condition it felt like a mile. Every crevice and crack I dragged my wounded leg over felt like a knife stabbing me in my gunshot wound. But I was going to make it out. I was the leader. I needed to survive. Just as I made it to the edge, about to hurl myself over, I was suddenly dragged backwards and rolled onto my back. The last thing I remember, is seeing an orange visor, and a hoof flying towards my face. After that, black.
TerroristsMy head felt like it was about to explode. I tried to open my eyes, but that just made the pain unbearable. When I finally forced myself to look around, my vision was still to blurry to make out anything but outlines of objects, and even then I couldn’t tell what was what. I tried to move my hooves to rub my head, but I couldn’t get them to budge more than an inch. It was then I felt the ropes, and realized I was bound. The shock of my situation jolted awake. I was captured by the Militia! This was bad. They knew I was a pilot, the jump kit was a dead give away. They weren’t going to be nice when it came to interrogating me. But I was just a trainee, I didn’t know anything that they didn’t. Maybe they wouldn’t even bother interrogating me. I panicked. I had to escape, get out of these restraints. I tried to wiggle my body to loosen the knots, but then a horrendous pain erupted from my leg. I’d forgotten in my distress that I had been shot. Even if I was somehow able to break free, I wouldn’t get very far. As I struggled in vain, I heard the high pitched creak of a steel door opening, and a light came in through the doorway. When the lights came on, I was able to get a better look at the room I was in. Its was a filthy sty of a room. There was a single incandescent bulb hanging over a metal table, which sat directly in front of me. There was another chair opposite me, supposedly for whoever had just stepped in. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something else against the wall; a tub. Before I could examine my surroundings anymore, a mare in a Militia ‘uniform’ sat down in front of me. She was of a gruff, but slender build, no taller than myself. Her coat was beige, contrasting the jet black mane which hung to her left. “Hurts, doesn’t it?” I could only let out a grunt as I struggled to make myself comfortable in by restraints. I wasn’t going anywhere, so I might as well settle down. “The IMC launched an assault on an independent village yesterday. Why?” “Assault?” “Hm. Well you can’t exactly deny being there. There was an entire division sent into that village, along with your squad of pilots. The inhabitants would’ve all been wiped out had we not intervened. What I want know, and what would be in your best interest to tell me, is why the IMC attacked to begin with.” At this point, I was actually confused. We were just doing a training mission at an outpost, plain and simple. We weren’t attacking anyone, certainly not civilians. “What the hell are you talking about? That wasn’t a village.” Without warning, the mare lifted the table up, and threw it to my right, slamming it against the wall. She grabbed by wounded leg, and began to squeeze until it bled through the bandages. I cried out, but her expression did not change. “I don’t think you understood me. Why did the IMC attack that village. What interests did they have there?” I kept screaming until I felt her grip loosen enough for me to be coherent, but I still wouldn’t change my answer. “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about! That was a training outpost!” Obviously that was the wrong answer. She grabbed me by the mane, and hauled me over to the tub I’d noticed before. She forced my head down into the tub, which I’d only just realized was full of water. In my panic, I tried to breath in, only to get a lung full of fluid. After a few seconds, she hoisted me out of the tub, as I gasped for air. “Why did you attack the village!” I didn’t even get to respond before she shoved me back into the tub. She held me under for a lot long, to the point where I began to run out of breath. “Quit lying! That village had no military significance. Why did you bastards attack it!” “That’s enough Amber!” I turned to the door, and saw another mare in uniform. “You are dismissed.” The pony that had been drowning me threw my head down towards the tub, and walked swiftly out of the room, saluting this new pony as she left. “Please forgive Lieutenant Streak. She has somewhat of a bias towards the IMC.” I didn’t know how to react to her. Her tone seemed…friendly. I wasn’t going to fall for this good cop, bad cop crap. I was still not going to say a word. She put me back in my chair, repositioned the table, and sat down across from me. Her blue coat and blonde mane matched her more calm demeanor. “You said that that wasn’t a village, but a training outpost. Is that what you were told?” This shocked me even more that the water boarding did. Did she believe me? “That village was an independent settlement. The inhabitants didn’t even want us hanging around there. I guess that changed after yesterday. Tell me though, why did you go to that village, or outpost?” I answered. What did I have to lose? “It was a training mission. We thought it was a training outpost. We were supposed to get some hard drive and get out. But it was supposed to be simulated with spectres.” This revelation seemed to surprise my interrogator. “Training mission? You haven’t been commissioned as pilots?” “No. My squad just got here from the core. This was our second mission.” She simply stared aghast at me. I stared back at her. I finally started to wonder, “You said this place was attacked?” “By a spectre division, yes, along with your squad. We got there in time to evacuate the village.” “I think our commanders would’ve told us if we were actually going into combat.” “Well obviously they didn’t.” Her tone came across as rather condescending. “I guess we’re done with our interrogation for today. You’ll be kept here until we can transfer you somewhere from our front lines.” “Why are you telling me this?” I was a little weirded out as to why I was being treated so fairly. I’d always heard that the militia would extract any info they could from pilots, then execute them. “I don’t have anything else to give you.” “We’re not the savages your employer would have you believe.” She replied with a chuckle. “What reason would have to kill you?” “So that I don’t kill you?” It seemed like the obvious answer. “Share with me exactly how you plan to do that in your present condition.” With a bullet wound to one of my legs, she had a point. I was pretty useless as a soldier. “Uh huh. You see, the militia exists because the IMC doesn’t value individual life. Why would we exist if we were exactly like them?” “Well, I’m not going to argue with being alive.” Now I was beginning to sound more jovial, until I winced in pain once more. She seemed to notice this. “Actually, you should be sent to the infirmary. They’ll get you new bandages. Gangrene is the last thing we need around here.” As she stood up to leave, I finally noticed the dog tags hanging from her neck. The Militia couldn’t possible have the resources to issue those to everyone. I thought about calling out to ask about them, but she had departed, and two more ponies came into the room with a gurney. After strapping me in, I was carried out of the room. Apparently they didn’t trust me as much as that other mare did. Then it hit me, I never found out who she was. For a field hospital, the militia made it seem especially permanent. The beds were actual beds, not cots, and the curtains were actually made into the ceiling. Not only were the amenities above par, but I could tell they had a substantial blood bank near there, and any drugs they’d need for emergency operations. With facilities like this, it was no wonder we never seemed to be able to kill them. I was the only one in the ward that I could tell. I didn’t hear any pony else talking or moving around except for the nurses. Listening was all I could do at that point; they’d strapped me down to the bed and drew the curtains around me. There wasn’t really much to look at other than the ceiling. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the curtains being drawn open. I lifted my head to see who it was, and it was the pony who was initially interrogating me. “Come back to finish your water boarding?” “I wish. But Corona said you have nothing left to tell us. Not quite sure if I believe that, but I’ll go among with her.” That must’ve been the other pony who interrogated me. “Names Amber Streak. I didn’t stick around to listen, so I want to hear from you exactly why you did attack that village.” She wasn’t as aggressive this time. I thought it would be worth repeating my story to her. “It was just a training mission for us.” “Is it standard IMC training to kill civilians?” “No! We were told it was a deserted outpost. We were only supposed to fight Spectres.” Rather than bash my head against the wall, Amber just looked away, trying to piece together our stories. “Huh. So you’re not even a commissioned pilot yet?” “No.” “I just don’t get it. There were civilians there. We evacuated all of them. I knew the IMC were aggressive, but that’s a new low.” That comment kind of hit me a little personally. “Hey! I would never kill any pony who didn’t deserve it. I don’t want to see the frontier plague by vigilantism and terrorists.” Apparently I’d returned the feeling in kind. “I’d rather be die free than live a slave to some corporate boss from the core. How can you live that way?” It seemed rather strange to ask me that. Life in the core was nice. Sure we had limits to what we could do, but it was so everyone could be safe. “I’d rather not die to some random raid than live in squalor. How can you live this way, waging war all the time?” “You think we enjoy fighting you? I’d rather be at home with my brothers, just making a living on a farm.” It seemed an easy enough choice. “So go do it.” “My brothers are dead. They were killed by the IMC for not selling our crop.” I’d never heard of anything like that happening. I couldn’t think of anything to say to her. “That’s why I can’t.” “I’d never heard of anything like that happening. I can’t think of anyone I know actually killing for food.” “Well, what do you think they send you out here for? All the IMC wants is whatever’s in the ground.” Where was she getting her ideas? I had to defend myself. “We’re here to protect the frontier and keep the peace. I can’t believe you’d think so little of us, after all we’ve done to keep this place safe.” I expected her to snap back with some angry retort, but she look back at me quizzically. “Really? Is that what you think?” Well, yes. It is, and I nodded to confirm it. Amber didn’t say anything after that. She simply walked out of the infirmary, leaving me alone to think on the conversation I’d just had. I couldn’t believe she had such a low opinion of the entity that gave this place any semblance of order. Then again, she’d lost her family to the IMC, but I still had a hard time believing that. I couldn’t imagine a situation when any respectable soldier would do something so cruel. That’s not what we were out here for. I decided to take a nap and think on it later. I still wasn’t sure if they’d execute me or not, so a little rest couldn’t possible hurt.
