What is it that makes you exist?
Your individual consciousness is you.
Consciousness is larger than you.
The individual is connected to the latter.
But each can have their own effect on the whole.

We don’t pick our battles based on our odds, sometimes the battles pick you. We certainly won’t run from the battle, but based on being outnumbered, you adapt your tactics to the scenario at hand…but we don’t run from the fight, we didn’t then, and we won’t now.

Ghost

Stationing ourselves between the Renton van camp and the small village was an idiotic idea at first; we were an hour away from the camp and ten minutes away from the town at a light jog. If the locals had decided to stage a counter attack to rescue the hostages, then we would have been right in their way. If the ‘Van had decided to attack the town once more, then they would have had to get through us first. The woody area and thick brush made the perfect camouflage for an ambush…if there were no non-combatants within the group being ambushed. The large trees and dense foliage would have provided excellent for us, but would have made it next to impossible to keep track of the hostages once the shooting started.

We couldn’t stop the ‘Van from making it to the hostage exchange, provided that the locals actually agreed to it, the open fields between the town and the edge of the forest provided clear lines of fire…but I know the ‘Van, their tactics, their instincts. The scraps of clothing we found in the parted thorn bush only served to prove the points that raced across my mind. They would not put the hostages at the center of their group, they had no reason to place their safety above their own, they would put them in front of their unit. To show off, to use as meat shields, to keep a clear line of sight in case they tried to run…all valid answers and possibilities, but they all led to one outcome…a hostage was bound to die.

Not because of the ‘Van actively torturing and killing them for fun, but because we had too few guns. Dan’s UAV had picked up eight ‘Van infantry and one Commander to six hostages. Our squad only carried two long rifles, which were left to Charise and Dan.

Now, they weren’t the best shots in our squad, but I had to direct them from the field, and Alex carried the heaviest close-ranged weaponry, and while Char’ was my equal if not better in hand-to-hand combat, she lacked the brute strength needed to topple a ‘Van Major, let alone a Commander, all fancy take-down moves aside, if you can’t pull a ‘Van’s leg out from under it, then you can’t match it. Besides that, I had the most advanced suit when it came to close combat actions.

{--------------------}

Solid/plasma laced blades that come out of compartments on my gauntlets, which can be detached and thrown as well; a HAZOP mod which doubles as deployable armor around my neck and lower face, plus, the brim on my helmet is separated into two fins that can fold down to act as a secondary HUD should my visor break or an extra layer between my enemies and my visor. Some have told me that when my armor is fully deployed and in its standard color of black, all I would have to do to make myself look like a demon from hell itself, is tint my visor a deep red and modify the plasma-blades to be red instead of blue-white.

{---------------------}

“So…wha’s the plan Ghost?”

I heard Alex’s voice crackle over the radio, jerking me from the slight daze that I had drawn myself into. Turning away from the already frosted over town in the distance, I took a moment to carefully twist my body around to peer down at him, while not falling out of my precarious position in a “tree”. We hadn’t been able to identify it so far as the leaves matched nothing that we knew of. Oddly enough, it seemed as if the trees were not going to lose many leaves during this snowfall, most hadn’t even changed into autumn coloring yet; whether that was normal or not in this dimension I wouldn’t even hazard a guess.

“As of right now there isn’t one, except wait for Dan at the rendezvous and Wilkenson to report in.”

Wilkenson…hadn’t called her that since the first time she showed up for briefing…well, a couple slips here an’ there when I needed to get in her face, but it’s always been either Char’ or Charise.

Turning around completely, I slowly shimmied my way along the branch that I had been perched on and slid down the trunk, making a few smaller branches shake on the way, their leaves laden with snow.

“Come to think of it, wasn’t she supposed to report in by now?”

I had sent her off to see if she couldn’t get back to the clearing where they had found themselves in when we were dropped off, and attempt to make contact with Rex and the other members of X-Ray Bravo squad. I had been surprised that we had been here for three days now and they hadn’t contacted us once since I had initially told him to hold off and defend the outpost.

Alex shuffled along through the underbrush, being careful to leave as little of a physical footprint as he could, but thanks to the cover of the canopy, there was little snow to be disturbed as we traveled.

“She contacted me as she neared the area and when she had set up Dan’s jury-rigged comms unit to boost her signal and…according to my mission clock the window you set up for communications between our teams came and went about ten minutes ago. Good idea by the way, having Rex open up the portal every twelve hours in case we needed to contact them.”

It had been a spur of the moment type of thing when Rex had contacted me out of the blue on that that day right after Alex and I had gone bat shit crazy. Beyond letting Rex know that we were still okay and tracking the subject, it gave us some room for reinforcements if needed, which wasn’t a bad thing now that we knew what we were up against.

With the hostage situation going on, I had told Char’ to request at least two more shooters, but only have one of the shooters be from Bravo so we didn’t drain Rex of a good portion of his squad.

(--------------------)

Easing myself out of the tree line and into the small clearing that we had set as the rendezvous, I could just make out the slight distortion in the middle of the clearing that hinted at a snow covered boulder that was not there before. So, beyond all reason, I called out the challenge that Dan had suggested before he had left.

“Flash…”

The mound of snow moved, if but slightly, and caused a small avalanche of snow that revealed a silver visor.

“Thunder…”

Even though Dan had switched off his mic to cover his chuckles, I could still tell by watching the snow shake off of his shoulders by the jerking movement. I was about to call him out for the ridiculous idea, but my attention was diverted by the amount of snow that had run off from his suit…there was no way that he had been sitting in one position for so long that he was able to mimic a boulder. Though before I could question him, he got to his feet and shook the rest of the snow off of his suit and revealed that he had been using his duffel as a seat.

“Glad you two could finally make it, and before you say anything, I’ve got to let you in on a few things.”

Raising my eyebrow and cocking my head slightly to one side, I couldn’t help but wonder after my squad’s apparent disregard for our communication’s system. If Dan wanted to tell me anything then he should have contacted me long ago, if it was mission critical then he should have let me know immediately, not any of this ‘wait ‘till we’re face to face’ crap, that ended hundreds of years ago.

“Spit it out Dan,” I started with as much annoyance as I could muster, “I’m getting tired of all these surprises that we’ve been getting since we got here.”

He raised a hand as he began to ruffle through his duffel bag and pulled out a small wrapped parcel. My first thought was to berate him for deciding to read in the middle of a sensitive situation no matter the contents of the book. The second, was why he had decided to wrap the book within one of the few thermal blankets that we had. However, I didn’t get a chance to voice any of my concerns before he had pushed a paper into my hands and began to run his mouth about what he had discovered within the book.

“Look mate, you can yell at me later or sign me up to clean the latrines of the ship when we get back, but I’m asking you to listen to for once, as this book presented me with pertinent information that I felt had to be explored, verified, and then…”

I stopped paying attention to his ramblings as soon as I had opened the folded paper, the contents of which stopped me cold. I would have thought it was a map, or an ancient record, or something along those lines, but definitely not a hand stenciled portrait, especially not of…her.

How is this even possible? She’s just a figment of my imagination, or a random face from a buried memory of combat. She couldn’t have been…so why….how…there’s definitely something wrong with my head…

“Oh Ghosty…anyone home?”

My eyes darted away from the paper to stare at the hand that was lightly holding onto the edge of it. I followed the hand to the arm, and up the arm to the now clear visor of Alex’s helmet.

“You al’ight mate? I know that Dan’s speeches can make ya’ll zone out, but not like that, so…wha’s wrong?”

By the temporary recession into his country drawl, I could tell that Alex was worried, and he had a right to be worried. These past couple of weeks with those damn dreams coming to me every night, I couldn’t help but wonder if I was going insane. There was no possible way that the young woman that I saw within my dream was here in this dimension, on this planet, as well as being a monarch…but even as I tried to reassure myself and find a way out of my possible madness, the proof was still there between my hands, written beneath a very well drawn portrait. Looking back to the paper, I said the only thing that could explain my situation…

“I know her…”

I released the paper from my grip and allowed Alex to get a good look at it. Turning to Dan I watched as he reached out and took the paper back from Alex, before hanging it in front of me and pointing to her face.

“You sure about that?”

I could only nod, still trying to get my head around the concept that yet another one of my dreams was somehow linked to my life.

Other-dimensional counterpart perhaps? But as far as I know, she wasn’t even on the planet that is this one’s counterpart…so how?”

“I’ve seen her too.”

This put me on edge as I reacted to Dan’s statement, because either that dream was a real one and he was with me on that mission, or he had…

“She’s in that town that I visited not too long ago, and I think that she’s the one that the ‘Van are after.”

“Explain.”

Dan took a breath before explaining his story in detail and sending a few segments of his drone’s footage to my helmet. His detailed description of the town and the inhabitant of the tree/library along with the information provided by the book, compounded with the information that Samuel Burke had provided me with shook me.

(---------------------------)

Burke had told me that he had heard some hearsay on his trips around the ‘Van’s camp about a VIP that was a princess. I was suspicious of the information at first, but after he explained that he had had his PDA with him when he was taken, and that it had ‘Van-English translation software of on it, I believed him. I told him of my plan and he immediately tore it shreds.

After explaining to me that we would need a functional TSTMD to travel back to the outpost, and how much time he needed to complete it, he suggested that I try and build some sort of relations with the local population and foil the plans of the ‘Van as it provide him with a distraction. If we prevailed, it would offset the plan of whatever was leading the Van and give us an opening to extract him while they were confused, as well as providing us with some allies should we not be able to escape right away. As long as we could spirit away some of the equipment that he had built for the TSTMD then we would have a working option to call in reinforcements to handle the threat of the ‘Van in this dimension.

I didn’t like the idea, but agreed in the end. I didn’t like the idea of leaving some poor saps with a good company of ‘Van on their doorstep. If there was a way to help them while completing our mission, then I would try my best to do it that way, so as Burke laid out the time-frame that I needed to operate by, I gave him a tick-sized transmitter and a radio disguised as a watch that we had taken from his desk. Before I left the camp, I attached several of the transmitters to the outside of the tents in which his equipment was being held.

(---------------------------)

Alex took a step forward to once again take the sheet of paper, but stopped as he felt something give slightly under hit boot…and that something felt like the trigger of a stun mine that his instructors had used during training.

“Ghost…” he hissed, before pointing down at his boot, “mine!”

Dan and Ghost both froze for a split second before reacting, Ghost dropping to a crouch while drawing his rifle and Dan spinning to face the forest as he drew his own sidearm. As Dan moved to check the surrounding area he attached a silencer to his weapon, even if they had been discovered it was not any reason to reveal themselves to the still distant hostage escort party.

Ghost slowly moved until he was prone on the ground and rested his elbow on the ground. Slowly, using his knife as a makeshift shovel, he began to scrape away at the snow around and under Alex’s half-raised boot, he stopped when he hit something that protruded from the ground.

Crack!

Dan whipped his sidearm around to face the source of the noise before slowly moving in the direction that it came from.

“See anything?”

“Nothing on my motion sensor, but then again this thing’s been going haywire ever since we left the ‘Van camp.”

Snap!

Ghost continued to move the snow away from Alex’s boot and began to uncover what seemed to be a trigger place on top of a pressure plate.

“Ghost…there’s something out here, and it’s not Char’, orders?”

“Find it, and if it’s hostile then shoot it! But watch my back…this is like nothing I’ve ever seen before…”

Alex gave a small chuckle before easing his head around, his whole body stiff by fear of moving the trigger enough to activate it.

“That don’t make me feel any better…heh…”

“Actually,” Ghost reached to his waist to pull a pair of pliers out of his utility pouch when he felt something shift under his knee.
“Shit! There’s one under me too,” he hissed before removing the pliers and leaning to grab onto the trigger below Alex’s boot.

“Pick you’re clear, now disarm the thing so I can check on my new gadget.”

Alex took a step back and began to turn when he felt something tug on his ankle. Looking down, he caught sight of the edge of a snow covered rope before it came loose.

“Oh shit!”

A moment later Alex’s helmet slammed into the frozen ground as he was yanked off his feet by a noose-like rope, his cry cut short by being rammed into the trunk of a tree, and pulled into the thickly-leaved branches.

Dan spun around and felt the ground give way under him. Lunging for the edge of the pitfall that he had stepped into, he rolled onto solid ground and came up weapon drawn, before firing two silenced shots into a bush that jerked with movement. He waited and scanned the surrounding area, as he tuned his suit’s audio sensors to scan for the slightest noise.

Clack!

Whipping around instinctively, Dan registered his mistake as soon as he recognized the sound of a rock hitting solid wood. Catching movement at the edge of his vision, Dan jumped sideways to dodge an incoming spear, letting him know not only where his attacker was, but that they had been found not by the ‘Van, but by a local. He was about to call out when he landed on the ground, but felt his rear foot slip and something go taught around his ankle. A slight yelp escaped his helmet before he too was whisked away into the trees.

Ghost laid there for a second and listened as Alex was yanked away by an unknown force. Acting quickly, he let go of the pliers and released his wrist blade, the laser sharpened, titanium composite blade slicing easily through the rope that attempted to ensnare his hand. At the same time he grabbed onto the newly split rope to be yanked away from the trap that had occupied the spot under his knee, never letting go of his rifle.

Letting go of the rope, Ghost tumbled to a stop and raised his rifle staring into the dense underbrush as he heard Dan be yanked away into the shadows. It was upon hearing Dan’s yelp, that he realized an extremely important fact…they had been using both external and suit communications.

He did not have time to dwell on the fact before hearing a ‘Snap!’ echo through the forest behind him. Diving to the ground, Ghost sensed something fly over his head, and, rolling to his feet, heard yet another ‘Snap’ just to his right. Bringing his rifle to bear, he saw his motion sensor displaying a large red blip approaching him at extreme speeds. He only had time to register one thought before it made contact with him.

LOG!

As the large projectile slammed into him, Ghost felt the bones of his right arm give way as he was thrown back, his shields crackling as they disappeared, the rifle flying off into the bushes. Because the log had hit him off center, he rolled off of the rounded end that hit him and flew off to the side causing him to stop abruptly by colliding into a tree, while the log disappeared into the forest.

Dropping to the ground, Ghost lies prone, his suit releasing a bio-medical foam to make a cast for his arm, the nanomachines in his bloodstream forcibly contracting his muscles to set the bones.

Groaning in pain and groggy from the force of the blow and subsequent impact with the tree, he lifts his head to watch as a cloaked figure leaves the edge of the clearing walking towards him with soft steps. Straining to move, he watches as the figure freezes and takes a step back, the cloak separating to reveal moccasin-like shoes, and several golden rings around an ankle. Turning his head, he is able to see the figure throw something into the tree branches above him, and moments later a cascade of snow falls onto him, effectively pinning him to the ground, with only a portion of his helmet protruding from the mound.

With the new weight beginning to compress his chest, Ghost can feel lances of pain which he deduces to be several cracked ribs. Watching the figure continue its approach, Ghost runs through the different menus in his suit, getting a read on what sort of damage it took. Through the glaring red warnings of broken bones and a concussion he watches a small list appear in blue lettering.

Armor Plating: No Damage
Suit Sensors: Damage minimal…recalibrating…
Life Support: No Damage
Crystalline Layer: No Damage
WARNING!!!
User is suffering from multiple fractures, CAD “Whiplash”, and a Class: 3 Concussion. Transmitting transponder to nearest able squad member…administering appropriate chemicals to stabilize subject.
…

‘Damn,’ he thought, ‘Shouldn’t be much of a problem except for those concussion meds, those are gonna put me out for a while…’

“Since the appearance of that first blight, there has not been a calm night. The faux-bears and shadows were enough for this land, so what demon has played this new hand?”

Ghost watched carefully as the figure crouched down next to him, now registering that it was, in fact, a female. Staying still so as not to scare her, he listened as she began to tap his helmet and mutter under her breath, drowsiness spilling over him as the medication took hold.

Ha! An’ they say you should never fall asleep with a concuss….well…they don’t have my tech!

A maniacal, drugged, smile spreading across his face Ghost watched as the female stood up and began to walk away, still muttering to herself, but clearer this time.

“They spoke of the princess of the night, so that must be my friends’ new plight.”

She knows the VIP? Maybe I can get her to introduce me…she did seem kinda cute.

Ghost blinked slowly as his vision darkened, and his thoughts turned to the woman in his dream, her teal eyes and oddly colored hair and a…horn?

No!...…go home Ghosty, you are drunk…seeing things that don’t belong…heh, can’t feel my arm…

{----------------------------}

As the cloaked woman vacated the area, she hurried on her way to the nearest known settlement, where her friends currently resided. In fact, she had been on her way to the town to help with the recently wounded when she had spotted these four beings made of metal.

While spying on them, she watched them go off on their separate ways with one pointing at the ground at the center of the clearing with some finality. Assuming that they would return, Zecora decided to plant some traps of her own and then follow the pair that had left together. After following them carefully to the edge of the forest, she discovered that the target of their observation had been Ponyville.

Now, after listening to their, surprisingly understandable, conversation and watching as they fell to her traps, she moved as quickly as she could to the small town. First to warn her friends, and then do what she had set out to do in the first place.

“Warn the princesses I must, for this will cause quite a fuss.”

Author's Note

Sorry 'bout this bit of extra filler, but my comrade sent it back to me and said that it would do fine as a separate chapter.
And that he hadn't reviewed the other half yet either.
So while he's editing the "next" chapter, I decided to post this one, effectively making it two chapters at 4-5k aprox. words each instead of one chapter at nine thousand words.
I'll see about posting the next one as soon as he sends it to me.

NOTE: He's not a an editor, but not a critic either. plus he's my friend, so I know him and how "well" he likes to check things, so don't be surprised if you find errors anyway.