Omega-7
Chapter 1
All of these accounts were taken from helmets and interviews.
Darkness, I lift my rifle. My suit’s floodlights failing to light up the area I was in. A void, a complete void, darkness, nothingness. Things were moving in my peripheral, I don’t know how I could see them, considering the darker than dark surrounding area. But I could, and despite not seeing them clearly, they still disturbed my greatly. This is why I never stopped running, my boots hitting the ground but not making a sound.
An explosion, an explosion greater than anything you have ever felt. It ripped through the surround air a knocked me back.
My suit’s systems going crazy, failing to report any life and my visuals blacking out due to the light of the explosion, lighting the void up. In my fleeting glimpse before my visuals blacked themselves out, I swear I saw the most disturbing thing. Thousands of… Eldritch horrors surrounding me in a circle. I was grateful as my visor completely blacked itself out.
However, this would not last forever, as my visor allowed light back in. Something was staring at me. My mind froze and my body locked up. This unholy abomination had no right to live. So disgusting I couldn’t describe it. It picked me up with… something. Claws, tendrils, hands, I don’t know. It lifted me up to the only describable thing on its body. Its mouth and jaws.
As I was brought closer, it’s disgusting breath somehow making its way through my helmet’s filter, yelling began coming from its mouth.
I couldn’t hear it at first, the voice extremely muffled, but soon it got clearer.
Right as the abomination was about to bite down, the voice cut through clearly.
“Dante!”
I shot up in bed, feeling the coldness as the sweat was absorbed into my t-shirt, the Olive Drab becoming darker.
“Man, are you ok? You started freaking out in your sleep.” My bunk-mate, Michael, asked me. I looked over to him, sitting at the only desk in the room.
‘uh, yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Thanks.” I respond, in all honesty I was still a little freaked out by that dream. But there wasn’t a lot I could do about it.
He seemed to scrutinize me for a few seconds before giving up.
“Well, alright, whatever. Better get up, though. Shift rotation’s in an hour.”
I pull myself out of bed, pulling on the pants laying on the floor.
“Yeah, thanks.”
“Captain!” The bridge’s radio operator yelled. “We’re picking up an unknown signal, it’s coming through as snorts and grunts.” The captain, who had been conversing with a mid-shipman stopped the conversation and quickly walked over the comms station.
“You don’t know the origins?” He asked.
“No sir. I can give you a rough estimate of lights, but beyond that, I’m blind.”
“Can you get a translator on it?”
“Already on it, we’ll have a rough translation in about an hour to two. But, unless this civilization has reached space travel, the transmission’s going to be so screwed up we won’t be able to translate it properly.”
“Alright, how far are we from it?” The captain asked.
“A rough estimate puts it at about… ninety million lights, and looking at this again, the frequency looks familiar.” The radio operator added, while squinting at the screen.
“What do you think it is?” The captain questioned.
“Well, unless they’re language is naturally fast and seemingly panicky, a distress signal.”
“Get that signal translated.” The captain turned to face a broadcast operator at a terminal in the middle of the bridge.
“Get the broadcast engines up and running! I want to make the jump as soon as we get this message translated.”
The captain turned to face the radio operator again.
“Get a hold of the shifting Recon Squad. Tell them to be ready to make an emergency planet-fall if needed.”
“Got it, sir. Looks like the shifting Recon is Earth Squad. I’ll let ‘em know.”
The captain looked around the utilitarian bridge, as everyone was scrambling to complete the proper procedures. As the vast void of space loomed in the background.
“So no other planet suffers like Mother Terra.” The captain spoke to no one.
“So no other planet suffers like Mother Terra.” The radio operator confirmed.
I slowly slid back into the waiting armor, as the neural connectors tapping into my spine came into contact with the connection rods; I felt a slight pinch and shock as they formed a connection with my central nervous system. The suit’s split design at the chest closing. Fitting like a glove, my head still exposed. I pulled my helmet down onto my head as it sealed, completely covering my body
“Suit, power.” I spoke.
The suit began its fast boot-up process. As it confirmed the neural connection between the suit and me, I started a command connection between the squad and me.
“Alright, guys. You know the drill. Basic stuff. Check the hull for stuff that isn’t supposed to be there, stow-aways, clingers, and especially Coms. If you come across any Coms, make sure you inform everyone else and don’t try to be a hero.”
The men gave small confirming grunt, but Michael had to be Michael.
“Copy that Sarge, basics.” Michael confirmed.
“Yep, now get ready, the inner airlock opens in,” I check my mission clock. “One minute and thirty seconds.”
A small chorus of oorahs confirms that they understand, even though this happens every day.
I rack the slide on my Gauss rifle as we walk the thirty meters to the airlock bay. Getting into a formation with four men in front and four men in back.
After thirty seconds elapse, with forty-five seconds left on the clock, we get a call from bridge.
“This is bridge radio operator Peterson, confirm I am speaking to Gunnery Sergeant McClure, squad leader of Earth Squad, USMC, Force Recon. How copy?”
“Copy, this Gunny McClure. Over.”
“Gunny, we had an incoming transmission from an unknown source. The captain has ordered you to move your squad and be prepared for a possible emergency planet-fall.”
“Unknown transmission? Is it Com?” I asked.
“That is unknown at the time, we’re translating, but it’s going to take a little while.”
“Copy that we’re moving to pod-bay.”
“Alright, will advise once we have more info on the situation. Out.”
I looked to my squad, just standing there.
“Well… you heard the man! Let’s get moving!” I barked.
They moved like their asses were on fire.
“Captain!” The radio operator called the captain back, who had been informing High Command on the developing situation.
The captain quickly hurried over the operator’s terminal.
“Sir, I figured it out.”
“What?”
“These signals?”
“Yes, spit it out!”
“They’re getting passed through Com relays. We’re not dealing with a space-faring race.”
A beep sounded, as the RO looked over a screen of translation results on his screen. His eyes widened in realization.
“Oh, no.” He said.
“What’s wrong?” The captain asked, worriedly.
“Just listen for yourself.”
The RO pressed a few buttons as broken English filled the room.
“Help! Monsters come from gem empire. They take hair city! Come from sky!”
A second voice sounded in the background as the bridge stood stock still; afraid moving would cause them to miss something.
“Protect Run-citadel! Princesses still there!”
“Do not pass line!”
“Help! It kil-“
The transmission cut there. The captain clenched his fist, teeth gritted in anger.
“Peterson! Get the coordinates! Get them over to broadcast!” The captain barked.
“Broadcast! Get us there! Now!”
As they scrambled to move, attempting to begin the operation as quickly as possible, but as smoothly as possible.
The captain looked out the massive window, giving him a view into space.
He muttered one phrase.
“Let’s go kill some Syf bastards.”
Waiting in a pod-bay was never fun, being cramped. I silently thanked the designers of the armor for having the forethought to put climate-control in these suits. I closed the document that was on helmet screen with a visual command, saving it to the desktop that was back in my room.
Really, though, the only thing that made this wait tolerable was the possibility of killing Com.
Although, no matter how many we killed, we would never truly take revenge.
I was snapped out of my thoughts by someone calling for me.
“Hey, Gunny? The commlink identified it as Freeman, a kid from Liberty-Kri. A terra-formed world.
“Yea?”
“We killing Coms, or is this just a false alarm?’
“Wish I could tell you kid, but I know about as much as you do at this point.”
Another five minutes pass.
A call comes in from command.
“Earth Squad, Earth Squad. We’re jumping into territory with a high chance of Com presence. As far as we can tell, there is already Coms on the planet. How copy?”
“Good copy command, we hear you loud and clear. Continue.”
“You’re making an emergency planet-fall to secure the local government, secondary objective is to lead any possible refugees to safety. Following standard Com containment procedures. Furthermore, a cargo officer is delivering Plan B and will arrive in less than two minutes. Out.”
Just like the radio operator said, a minutes and thirty seconds later, the room’s foor alarm buzzes to life. Being the closest to the door, I open it. A cargo officer dressed in blues is standing outside, he hands me a small satchel charge. I know what it is. And it’s for desperate times only.
I close the door, everything being bathed, once again, in that dim red glow of the lights.
The ship’s intercom comes on, with the captain making an announcement.
“All hands, all hands, this is Captain Woock, and we are broadcasting into what will most likely be a battle.”
“As the captain began his explanation, I began to get the men into their pods, one getting into each squad, six were filled as I stopped Michael, grabbing him by the shoulder, and handed him the satchel.
“You know what to do with it, if it comes to that.”
Michael gave me short nod, and I patted him on the shoulder, letting him go, we headed to our pods.
The captain finished his announcement.
“Any hands, who have not evacuated to a safe area for the broadcast, do so now. The countdown to broadcast begins now.”
They had all evacuated to a safe area when the captain began his announcement for the broadcast. It was common procedure. A voice on the intercom began to count down from thirty.
30
“I fucking hate broadcasting.” The interlink identified this voice as McKay, an FNG fresh out of Recon training.
25
“Think positive thoughts, kid. Broadcasting isn’t that bad.” I said. It really wasn’t that bad. Just a little weird.
20
“’Sides, look at the bright side, you get to slaughter Coms.” Michael added.
15
“It’s not that I have a problem with those bastards, just casting is weird.” McKay clarified.
10
“We’re not those far, guys! Soon we’ll be killing in memory of Mother Terra!” A chorus of Oorahs followed Michael’s declaration. Good for morale, I couldn’t help but smile.
5
Some of the men began saying short prayers while others just laid their heads back.
1
‘And we are ago’
“Broadcasting, broadcasting.” The intercom spoke.
Let me tell you something, getting your matter rearranged is a very odd feeling. But this was the fastest way to travel, even though it felt weird as hell.
Ten minutes pass after initial broadcast
“Earth, Earth, planet fall begins now.” Command spoke.
I could feel my pod ejecting, its auxiliary engines pushing away from the ship.
“ETA to Planet-fall, T-minus twenty-five minutes.” I called out, after checking the mission clock
I closed my eyes to rest, twenty minutes until we reached the planet, five minutes ‘til we were boots on the ground.
“Should we have risked it, sir?” The RO asked the captain looked into the black space in front of him.
‘We drew any attention off the recon team, they’re safe, for now. How long did you say until that Russian ship gets here?” The captain asked.
“Uh,” The RO looked to his communications screen. “T-minus two hours. They have to get clearance from the President.” The captain silently continued to stare out the bridge’s viewport, offering no response.
“Nearing ionosphere!” Michael called out, as I woke from my small nap.
“Command, our target?” I asked.
“Gunny, your target is programmed into the pod, looks like a castle built into a mountain.” The RO spoke.
“Copy that, we’re entering ionosphere.” I spoke.
About thirty seconds pass.
“Clearing ionosphere, entering exosphere.”
A minute passes.
“Clearing exo, entering thermo.”
I hated the thermosphere, the first twenty seconds are uneventful, but men begin calling out.
“Venting heat!” McKay called.
Men began responding
“Venting heat!” I called.
Thirty seconds pass.
“Clearing thermo, entering meso!” I called.
A minute passes. The excess heat from the thermosphere clearing us through that bit of atmosphere.
“Entering final stages of descent! Strato!” I called.
Another minutes passes. The ride becoming even more rocky.
“We have cleared the stratosphere and are now in the troposphere, we made it command.”
Some held breath passed through the commlink.
“Gunny, I think you may want to see this.” Michael said.
A video feed opened up, giving me and the squad a view of what Michael was seeing.
“Holy shit.” McKay gasped.
The feed showed a city on the side of a mountain burning. The feed zoomed in, showing large amounts of collapsed building and massive Com movements. Fires roared, and… ponies ran. Ponies must the dominant species of this planet. Honestly, the city looked like the pictures we were shown in history class of European cities after fighting in World War Two.
“We’re not landing there, right?” McKay asked worriedly.
“Only damn place we would land, it’s what Recon does. Don’t worry, our arrival will scare them into hiding for a little while.” I answered.
“Oh, fuck me, what did I sign up for? That’s gotta be Com central down there!” McKay called back.
“And we’re the exterminators.” Michael answered without missing a beat, and I could just hear the grin on his face.
“Come on! Keep ‘em back! Give the VIPs time to get out!” Shining Armor yelled, as the beasts advanced forwards. Nothing could kill them, in fact, none of his stallions had killed one. crossbow bolts only seemed to slow them and magic didn’t work on them.
The stallion to his left was tackled by one of the creature, Shining snapped to his right, only to see another stallion get tackled. He knew he couldn’t help them now.
Shining Armor pulled back to his left to retreat, only to see one of the creatures. It’s black exoskeleton and pony-like body structure reminding him of a changeling, but he knew that this… thing, was not a changeling. He felt sympathy for changelings, he felt nothing towards this. Well… nothing except fear.
He attempted to raise his crossbow, to try and ward it off. But he was too slow as the strange, vile creature slammed into him. Knocking him on his back, as something sounded like it cracked and he cried out in pain, he could only watch as a proboscis extended from the ponyoid monster’s mouth, aiming for his gut.
However, this process was interrupted as something slammed into the ground behind them, a pod shaped structure, sticking upright in some destroyed ground. The monster turned to look, Shining beginning to struggle. The creature paid him no mind, its hooves pushing deeper into Shining’s chest as a door flew from the pod.
A strange biped quickly stepped out, as the monster hissed at it, the monsterslammed off of Shining, possibly cracking some ribs, and charged it. The biped calmly responded by lifting its odd, and by pony standards, massive crossbow like thing, and shooting the monster in the head. But instead of the silent thwack like Shining expected, there was a bang and a crack and then silence.
Shining was in too much pain to move as the biped moved to where he was laying. The hiped kneeled down and examined what visible wounds Shining had.
After a quickly look, the biped effortlessly lifted the large stallion to his hooves.
As Shining winced from the sudden pain, the creature raised its strange paw. And much to Shining’s surprise spoke in Equish. Well, it was broken, mechnized Equish, but it was close enough.
“Am Bigboomexplosion Sergeant EnduringTwinSonServantPilgrim, USMC, Force Recon, Leader Dirt Squad. Here help with coms.”
The creature held out its paw. Shining lifted his hoof as the creature grabbed it and shook it.
Shining looked perplexed, amazed at the long name the creature had given him. It’s, what appeared to masked, betrayed no emotion.
“Uh… sorry?”
The creature quickly responded.
“Sergeant Enduring, am leader of Dirt Squad,” The creature motioned to seven other creatures, which Shining had somehow missed, who looked to be securing the area.
The creature continued.
“Here to deal with Com,” The creature pointed it’s paw at the monster it killed, which were apparently called Coms. “Problem. Take to leader so can help.”
The strange creature wanted him to take him to Celestia? Should he? Shining questioned, but quickly decided that these creatures couldn’t be as bad as the… Coms.
Shining moved forward, only to collapse as his right leg gave out. Apparently more injured then he originally thought.
“Sorry, I can’t walk.”
Enduring didn’t hesitate, as he easily picked Shining up and slung him around his shoulders. His back legs hanging Enduring’s left shoulder and his front legs from the creature’s right shoulder. Like the Minotaurs often did with their lambs.
Shining felt his face get a bit hot with the sudden realization, but it’s not like he had any choice. The creature waved some of his soldiers forward to point to clear the front area.
“Lead.” Enduring said to Shining.
“Forward, until you reach the end.” Pointing down the short road that ended at a building, the creature began walking.
“What name?” The biped asked. Shining mulled over his options, and then answered.
“Shining Armor.”
The creature fell silent.
Shining, not worrying for his life as much, could now examine the damage. And it amazed him. Houses crumbled, buildings leveled. If he was walking, Shining would have frozen in shock.
But the strange bipeds acted as though this was normal.
What had Shining got into? He asked himself.
“Shit, man. Coms made a mess of this place.” Michael spoke.
“Yeah, and the sapients are horses. What’s with that?” No one answered the random question.
“No one? Fuck you all, then.” It was Keith, annoying asshole.
“No one answered you, Keith, because it was a stupid question.” That shut him up.
I turned the attention to our new unicorn friend, Radiate Protection.
“What’s your leader’s name?” I asked. He took a second but he responded.
“Heaven.” He said.
The ponies have weird names.
“Princess Celestia!”
Celestia pulled her head up, saddened by the destruction.
“Some strange creatures approach!” Guardstallion Stalwart informed her.
“Squad sized and… oh, gods! They’ve got the Captain!”
At this information, Cadence and Twilight perked.
“Shiny?” Twilight questioned. “They’re not hunters, are they?” She asked worriedly.
“No,” Stalwart replied. “Far from it.”
Nobody knew what would happen, they could tell Shining was alive, but no one expected the biped carrying him to calmly walk up to the barricaded door and knock civilly.
Celestia looked in shock, as Twilight raced for the door. Stalwart stopped her.
“No! Let me through! Shiny’s out there!” Twilight yelled, Stalwart remained un-phased at her cries.
“I’m sorry Madam Twilight, but your brother could be infected. And I’m not about to risk losing these survivors for your brother.”
A mechanized voice cut through the door.
“Shining not infected, checked before coming here.”
Celestia picked herself up and walked near the door.
“How can we trust you?” She asked.
There was silence, but then the mechanized voice cut through the door again.
“Am speak to Princess Celeste?” The biped asked.
“Yes, this is she.” Celestia responded.
The creature didn’t hesitate.
“You and I know that if wanted to I could kick down door easy. I don’t to show trust. Shining not infected. Let come in and we explain everything and get out of here.”
Celestia mulled over this for a second before motioning to Stalwart to open the door.
The stallion did so reluctantly, the first biped that was playing transport for Shining sucked in, as the seven others followed. Their large crossbow trailing the outside until the door was closed.
The creature carrying Shining walked over to a cot and gently moved Shining from his shoulders to the cot.
He then pulled a crumbling table over to the cot and kneeled down; he motioned for the ponies to come closer. As they converged on the table. The biped pulled the pack that was on his shoulders that looked like not even Celestia would be able to carry it. He set it down and pulled a flat rectangle from it.
He laid it on the table, a blue glow emanated from it a second later.
But first, the creature decided to introduce itself to the princess. It held out its paw, Celestia looked perplexed.
“Shake it.” Shining clarified.
“Oh.” Celestia quickly lifted her hoof up as the creature grabbed it and shook. Introducing itself at the same time.
“Am Meister Bigboomexplosion Seargent EnduringTwinSonServantPilgrim, USMC, Force Recon, Leader Dirt Squad.”
Shining quickly butt in.
“Just call him Enduring.”
Celestia looked at Shining, and then looked back at Enduring, then back to Shining. She barely held in a sigh, this day was getting much weirder.
“Okay, Enduring, what’s happening? Why aren’t the hunters attacking?” Celestia asked.
“We,” Enduring motioned towards the other bipeds. “Scared them in hiding. Not have long. Must hurry.”
The creature moved it paws towards the rectangle, as a glow and then something akin to a projector show a 3D image. An image of a grey ship, and from what the ponies could tell, it was supposed to be massive.
“This home ship. Not big enough to kill Coms,” Enduring brought up 3d image a much larger ship.
“This ship carry more us. This ship kill Coms.”
“What are these?” Celestia asked, looking up to meet the creature odd red glowing eyes.
The creature didn’t hesitate.
“Allies in killing Coms. Ships travel stars.”
Celestia was in awe.
“You have ships that can travel in space?”
Enduring was cut off as another mechanized voice sounded.
“Seargeant! Com force coming!”
Enduring walked over to the window. Peering out, he saw them. Atleast twenty pony Coms. All resting on rubble
“Scouts. Test strength.” Enduring growled.
“Do not shoot until charge. Save ammo!” Enduring barked, his soldiers follow his orders. Large crossbows still aimed.
“Need to finish this.” Enduring stated.
He went back to the table that still held the rectangle.
“Coms breed parasitically. They take over a host’s reproductive system and the Coms take over the attribute of the host, you’re fast, it’s fast. You’ve got wings, it’s got wings.” I stated.
Heaven looked shocked at this new information; the pure white winged unicorn looked as though she could not fathom this. Although, I couldn’t really blame her.
“Why you not worried?” She asked.
“A Human’s reproductive system is toxic to Coms. We can’t be properly infected. We fight on any planet that they’re on.”
“Fire, Fire, Fire!” Michael yelled, as the seven men opened up the rifles, the Mach 15 rounds ripping the Coms to shred. Heaven and the other ponies in the room recoiled as the first shot rang out.
I continued.
“Coms come from a Death-World, from what we can tell, we haven’t found it yet, but they’re only one of two races that has evolved to sapience on a Death-World.”
“What’s the other race?” Heaven asked.
“Humans.” I responded without hesitation.
This news worried Celestia. The name “Death-World” was self-explanatory. And these creatures could survive whatever the planet was. And those… Coms, whatever they were, they were also Death-Worlders.
“We need back-door.” Enduring said.
He tapped the projection a few times, bring up another, Celestia gasped in shock.
It was a 3D image of Canterlot. The image rotated slowly.
Enduring pointed at the image, as it zoomed in on itself. Showing the sewage system.
“Sewage system, we can use to get under city and drop down mountain.” Enduring stated.
Rarity, who had been listening in on the conversation added her thoughts.
“A sewage pipe? Why a sewage pipe?”
“Coms hunt sapient beings, only go to areas with sapient beings. Pipes should be clear unless you have sapient things living in sewers.” Enduring clarified.
“How many survivors?” Enduring asked.
“A little over two thousand, there’s an underground warehouse below us.” Celestia answered.
Enduring pondered over this for a second.
“Too many.” He stated, simply.
“You four,” Enduring pointed to four of his soldiers. “Split up, take sewers. The rest of us take streets, get to clear area, evacuate city. Get back to safe zone. Send in cavalry.” He slid the rectangle off the table and back into his bag.
“Princess, please gather and split remaining survivors into two groups.” Enduring requested.
“Let’s move out, now!” Lifting my Gauss rifle, I opened the door, leading the small group out. We would have to move around to get to the entrance of the warehouse. The small group comprised of three princesses and a prince. Princess Heaven had gone to separate the group and had left her sister, Princess Luna to come with me.
We went down some stairs two minutes after we left the building, the squad following me. We came to a rather large dock. A wall behind me, with two large doors forming a bay. A manhole in the middle of the dock.
I knocked on the large door. A few seconds later, the two doors opened and out came two-thousand equines. My men knew what to do, as the four I chose originally went to the manhole and removed it, the group moving from the right door immediately herded to the manhole. I began leading the group from the left door.
“Freeman.” I called for him over the commlink; he was leading the group going in the sewers.
“Yes, sarge?” He responded.
“You get them out of those sewers safe. There’s a drainage pipe two miles away outside of the city. We rendezvous there, and then get the hell off this planet while the Russians drop the cavalry.”
“Copy that, sarge. Oorah!”
“Oorah, now let’s go Marines!”
With that, we were off. Keeping a fast pace as we went through the streets and the thousand ponies following us. The European-esque architecture giving Com scouts oversight. I spotted a few as we continued down the street.
“Sarge! They’re on top of the buildings.” Michael informed me.
“I know, keep moving.”
Turning back to the massive herd of ponies that was following my men, I yelled.
“Don’t stop moving! Keep moving no matter what happens!”
“Sarge, why aren’t they attacking?” Michael asked me, panic in his voice. Comms were by no means stupid. But they should have attacked by now.
“Oh, shit! Coms! Coms! Move your fucking asses you damn horses!” Shit! That was Freeman.
“Freeman, come in! Freeman, come in!” Nothing but static. The spilt squad’s vitals disappeared off of my visor.
“Shit! Move it! Move it! Move it!” I may have just lost that squad, but I wasn’t going to slow down and waste this macabre distraction. We soon cleared the gateway to the city. A mountain side to our left.
We had already covered nearly two miles. We were just minutes away from the original rendezvous with the sewer group.
We continued on, somehow with no Coms attacking us.
The drainage pipe was near. As someone came on over the commlink.
“Sarge, coming in from the left pipe. How copy?” Holy shit, Freeman? How the hell…
I held my hand balled up in a fist, signaling for the rest of my men and the equines to stop. It seems as though that my men stopping told them everything they needed to know. As they all somehow came to a stop synchronously.
True to his word, soon two Humans and came out of a pipe, along with another thousand ponies.
Freeman turned to look at me. “Sarge!”
“Damn, I thought you fucking died! Where the hell’s Troutman and Wiehlman?”
Freeman paused.
“I’m sorry sir. Coms ambushed us and tore them to shreds before we could do anything.”
Damnit! Fuck.
“Just get the recall back up. We need to get out of here before-“ I was cut off as Michael yelled.
“Coms! Mountain side!” Before I could react, something massive hit me in the head. Not even my protective helmet stopped what happened. My vision darkened, and all my senses died.
I regained my vision as Michael was shaking me, yelling at me.
"Get up, damnit! They're coming from all sides. Kaz is down!"
I shoot up, bringing my Gauss rifle to bear. Putting down a charging com that had just dropped off the side of the mountain.
"Freeman! Activate that goddamn recall! Now!"
"Buy me a minute, sarge. Command's having difficulty picking the signal up!
I fire at a charging com, the Gauss round slamming in the ex-ponies shoulder, causing it to fall from the sudden shock. I fire three more bursts at charging coms. Dropping the magazine and inserting a fresh one. I drew the slide back, slamming it shut. The Gauss round chambering.
"Michael, make sure those ponies don't fucking run!" I barked to Michael, as he dropped three more coms dropping from the mountain side.
"Command, command! This is Gunny Sarge! I need ETA on signal pick up!"
"We're going as fast as we can, but unless you want your molecules bounced off into space, you need to hold on."
"The coms are dropping from the damn mountainside! We can't hold on! What about the fucking ETA on Russian planet-fall?"
"Last we heard was fifteen minutes, that was about thirteen minutes ago."
Fuck me!
"Copy that. Out" I ended.
Dropping another group of charging coms, I went back onto the commlink.
"All surviving members of Earth squad! We have at least three minutes before Russian cavalry hits the ground! Hold out until then!"
Dropping another group of coms, thankful for their scouts inability to use ranged weapons.
"Sarge! The recaller's getting a Russian signal!" Freeman yelled.
Hopefully, this would be a capitol ship. There's be enough room for two thousand ponies in the recall bay.
"Fucking hit it!" I yelled.
Hit it he did.
Recalling is never fun. Your matter and everything that makes you gets turned into a signal and then transported through recall translators in the ship. Which in turns puts your back to your original form. But the feeling is just... extremely unnatural.
I open the door leading from the recall bay to the cargo area. And meet a friendly face.
"Damn, son. I never thought I would be so happy to Russians." I said to the old friend that graced this capitol ship.
Dimitri Avalov.
And then my mind went back to the ponies in the Recall bay.
"I may have brought a few friends along."
