USS Babylonby garrettjacobsenChaptersTragedyWar on the horizonSolutionsChaosTragedyLieutenant Kevin Hughes laughed at his men's absurdity. Private Thalmer had a banana peel hanging on each ear and kept saying he was an elephant. Kevin had thought only children played with their food. He stood up and left the mess hall. A troop slid a latch and opened a door for him. He felt the sea air on his face and heard the clank of his boots on metal. He started to make his way up a side staircase when the ship rocked. He fell sideways and braced himself against the metal wall. "Jesus Wernstrom, what the fuck are you doing up there?" He whispered to himself. He continued up the stairs. He made it to the pilot's deck. Opening the latch, he saw Wernstrom, the ship's pilot, hitting switches and turning the wheel. "Wernstrom, do you even fucking know where we are?" Kevin asked him. "No. The GPS is down. Not receiving a thing from the satellites." He said. "I think we're somewhere near the Bermuda Triangle, but I'm not entirely sure." "Don't drive into it." Kevin joked. "Wait, what the hell is that?" Wernstrom pointed to a spot on the waves. It was glowing light blue. "I have no idea. Maybe a rising sub?" Kevin said. "Full stop, I want to see what it is." "I'm not stopping." Wernstrom replied. "I am your superior, and you will stop." Kevin said, slightly angry. "I can't anyway." Wernstrom told him. "The ship won't stop in time." Kevin grabbed for the controls. For all he knew, this thing could be a rising submarine, and in that case, it could pierce the hull. Wernstrom lifted his hands in defense, thinking Kevin was attacking him for control of the ship, and accidentally spun the steering wheel. The ship rocked and Kevin heard screams and loud splashes as men and unsecured jets fell into the water and were consumed by the waves. The ship suddenly flooded with water, and Kevin was slammed into the wall. Before falling into unconsciousness, he heard explosions. * * * Rainbow Dash led the evening cloud patrol through the quickly darkening skies. She went full speed towards a white cloud and sent her rear hooves out in front of her. She kicked the cloud into nothingness and did a backflip - like motion back into flying position. That's when she saw it. It was a big rectangular metallic object deep into the woods. It was dragging through the woods, burning and taking out everything it came across. The other pegasi saw it too. "Alright everyone, you know what to do. We need to tell Celestia." The squad of pegasi flew off in the direction of Canterlot. * * * Kevin rose up from the dirt. He was still inside the ship's piloting room, but it had detached from the ship itself. He immediately searched for a point of exit. The bottom was free, but covered in wires. The chance of electrocution was too great. Kevin looked to the windows. They were filled with jagged glass, and Wernstrom's body was tangled in the frame. Looking up, Kevin saw the door. The whole detached room was lopsided. He jumped up and grabbed the latch, and heard the groan of weak metal, and the door snapped from its hinges. Again, he found himself slammed into the ground. He pushed the door off him and exited the room. Standing on the metal box, he could see the surviving members of the crew - mostly the marines that were on board - dragging and placing the retrievable dead in a neat line. Kevin jumped down and headed towards the crew. He heard a marine say: "I wish we could bury them." and the groans of wounded soldiers. He found his second in command, Seargent Mayer, looking at the weapons and food they had retrieved from the ship. "Where is the captain?" Kevin asked him. "No one knows." Mayer said. "He's MIA... but I think he's dead." "These men need a leader. Who takes over after his death?" Kevin asked. "You're the only living high - ranking officer. You're in charge, Hughes." * * * Princess Celestia stood. A pegasus from Ponyville had delivered unnerving news. New creatures with new machines. In the woods. She had to act, and so she would send a scout. He would be quiet. He would find out what they were and why they wanted to destroy her woodlands. "Guards!" She called. Two brown unicorns in guard armor stepped through the door. "Fetch Camofur." The guards came back with a forest green Earth Pony. "Camofur, there are creatures in the woods not native to Equestria. They aren't ponies, but they are intelligent enough to build machines. I have no idea as to whether or not they are a threat, and I do not want a war between creatures who may have technology we can reverse engineer." She told him. "What would you have me do, my Princess?" He asked. "You are perhaps the sneakiest pony in all of Canterlot. You were pardoned from prison for your theivery, and owe me a service in return. You will use your skills and your fur color to hide in the trees and find out anything you can about these... things. You must report back in two days or less, or you will be declared dead." "Yes Princess Celestia. I will do your bidding for your past kindness." He said. He left the royal palace and set off for the woods. "I hope we don't have another war after so many centuries of peace." She said to herself. * * * Kevin and Mayer sat around a fire with about twenty - five other men. They were all tired, hungry, and hurt. They needed to relax, and Kevin decided that he would give them some time to relax so he could think about what to do next. He heard a twig snap behind him. Mayer sensed it too. They both grasped their sidearms and took aim. Another snap from behind a bush. They fired once, twice, thrice, and then lost count. They stopped firing and stepped up to the bush. It was a horse, except, it wasn't normal. Besides twenty plus bullet holes in its side, it was dyed green, and had some kind of tribal war paint on its rear. "This is a horse. That means people. People with medicine. Help for our men." Mayer said with a hopeful look in his eyes. "We just killed their horse." Kevin told him. "They aren't going to be happy with us. We should stay here, at least for tonight." Kevin sat by the fire that night, thinking about the horse. Something wasn't right about this island they were marooned on. It had pine trees, no sight of water, and that horse... it was green. The fur wasn't dyed, that was natural. He could tell. And the marking... it was part of the creature's skin. He began to wonder: what if the Bermuda Triangle... is a teleporter to another world? War on the horizonKevin Hughes dreamt of his family. His wife, Stacy. His son, Philip. He dreamt of the day at the beach that they had shared before he shipped out to be on the Babylon. It felt real. Like he was there again. The sun shone on his face and reflected off of his wet hair. The sand beneath the waves he swam in felt soft beneath him, like he could fall through at any minute and go somewhere better. He saw his hand extend, waving for Philip to come to him. And as his son came toward him, it was as if he was getting shorter. He slipped under the waves and through the sand, and woke up in the strange land he was trapped in. It was just a dream- no, a nightmare. One that emphasized the fact that he might never see his family again. He wanted to punch something. To cry. But he needed to stay strong. For his men. For himself. For his dreams of going home and hugging his wife and child again. He rose from the dirt and looked at his makeshift camp. Seventy or so men all slept around ten different fires. The trees that were destroyed by flying pieces of debris were dragged over to a spot near the edge of the woods. Besides providing firewood, those trees would make good cover if they were fired upon. Behind him was a large pile of scrap metal. He might be able to use it to build some walls around the camp. And of course, the row of bodies was nearby. About twenty - five men lay in a straight line. Each one had a makeshift cross driven into the ground behind their heads. Mayer had fallen asleep against a tree holding a sniper rifle. He must have taken watch. Mayer always thinks of the things that need to be done and gets them done. That was always a part of his personality. Kevin let the men sleep. When they awoke, he would set them to work on what he knew could be done. ***************** Princess Celestia could no longer wait. There was no way that a single pony would spend an entire day spying on dangerous creatures. Her mind was set on the verge of war. If he did not return by midnight she would send an attack party. Perhaps they would intimidate the creatures into running far away from her jurisdiction. The hour changed. Noon would be here soon. Celestia activated her horn, and magic coursed through her body, she willed the sun into moving, and it did. The day became brighter and brighter as the sun moved to its noon position. One more day. She thought. ********************* Kevin stood on the metal room he had escaped yesterday. The men looked to him in anticipation of what he had to say. "You all need to know what has happened." He said. "Our ship passed through the Bermuda Triangle yesterday. The water was glowing with... energy. I tried to stop the ship but the controls went out of wack and the ship... moved here." "So where are we?" A voice called out of the crowd. "I don't know." Kevin admitted. "All I know is that the animals here are weird, but the same we have on Earth." Kevin paused for questions. There were none. "I need three teams. One team uses the scrap metal and the tools we salvaged to nail the metal to the trees and make a wall around us. Team Two makes sure the weapons are clean and working, and provide easy access to them. Team Three will take some of the metal and make posts in trees and monitor all directions while we sleep. Team Three will rotate with Team Two daily. Any questions?" Again, there were none. The men split into three large groups and got to work. Mayer supervised, and Kevin walked towards the ship. He needed something. He told Mayer he was leaving and not to worry, and left him in command. Kevin began his trudge. He looked at the horizon. By now the sun was setting. The ship provided all the light he needed, however, because it was still on fire. He turned his walk into a jog to save time. ***************************** Celestia was on the point of near insanity. She had to set the sun soon, and Camofur was not back was from his spying mission. If he was dead, the creatures signed their own kill order. Celestia stood. She had to lower the sun. But once it went down, she would a send a squad to hit the creatures hard. ***************************** Kevin made his way to the ship. After scaling a large mound of dirt kicked up by the ship crash, he made it to the ship. It was on its side, with the top facing him. Kevin grasped a jet being crushed by the ship. He heard the oh - so familiar groan of breaking metal and pushed himself up. The jet snapped and slid down the dirt mound. He wasn't going back out that way. He grasped one of the cables used to launch the planes. He swung a foot up and pushed up. He grabbed the second cable. It was then that Kevin realized that he couldn't climb any further with the cable. He looked to the right and saw a downwards - facing staircase. If he cut the wire he could swing to it. There was a jagged piece of metal sticking out of the ship's deck a few feet away. He shimmied over to it, and began to rub the wire on the sharp edge. ******************************** Celestia grabbed hold of a drinking glass with the magic of her horn and sent it into a wall. Camofur was dead. She knew it. "Guards!" She called out. "Yes, Princess Celestia?" The two guards asked. "Organize a small attack party. Six elite pony guards. Send them to the same site as Camofur." The guards left the royal throne room to follow her orders. Soon, they would bring news of the slaying of a small group of savage creatures. ******************************* Snap! The wire seperated and Kevin grabbed hold of the end of it. He swung into the staircase and the wind was knocked out of him. He gripped the wire for his safety as it swung back a second time. Gathering his courage, he released the wire and caught the rail of the stairs. Slipping his feet into the holes between every stair, he ascended. He pulled on a latch and a door swung open. It dented the wall, and Kevin used it to climb into the hallway system. He walked on the wall and found a sideways sign. He ripped it out of the wall and read it. He was near his quarters. He walked down the hall until he reached his door. Pulling open the latch, the door swung downward. The angle of the ship caused his possessions to all gather on the wall. He jumped through the hole, and landed safely on the wall. He began to tear through his things. Meanwhile, Mayer stood in one of the newly completed rat's nests in the trees. He looked through his rifle's scope, and saw another weird horse. This time it was brown, and it had a horn attached to it's head. It had a saddlebag full of spears. Perhaps the natives were sending help? One of the marines stepped towards the horse cautiously, rifle pointed at it. Suddenly the horse's horn glowed yellow, and a spear surrounded with the same yellow energy flew out its saddlebag and into the marine's chest. "WE'VE GOT HOSTILES TO THE WEST!" Mayer screamed. He fired the rifle and removed the horse's head. Kevin heard a shot. It was loud. Very loud. He dug through his things faster and found his rifle, and what he came for, the photo of his wife and son. He retraced his steps across the ship until he reached the ground. Sprinting across the field, he prayed Mayer was alive. He burst through a bush to see a marine dragging a corpse away from a battle. Five unicorns stood, using what he assumed was telekinesis to throw spears. Another marine went down, and Kevin took the left flank. Spraying his rifle, he brought down two of the horses. A sniper in one of the trees took down a third, and one horse ran. The final horse suffered the wrath of four angry and desperate marines with firearms. Kevin knew now that these horses were definitely not normal. They threw spears without touching them. They wore bronze armour. They were magic. Kevin dropped to the ground and closed his eyes. This was all too much. SolutionsThe night of the attack, Kevin's dream was a continuation of his last. He was younger in this one, only sixteen. He was sitting in a sedan, with a pizza box in the seat next to him. He turned on to a dead end street, and took the pizza in his hands. He stepped out of the car. It was evening. The sun had just set, and this was his last run of the night. He approached the house that the pizza was going to, and knocked on the door. The door opened to reveal nothing. Just an empty hallway. Kevin didn't remember this ever happening. Taking full control of the dream, he stepped into the house. The pizza box in his hands glowed a light blue, and he was sucked headfirst into it. He woke up yet again next to the fire. The men were still asleep. Only sixty - eight of them now. The two he lost last night joined the line. He hoped it stopped growing. If these unicorns and horses were able to coordinate an attack, they had to be sentient. Kevin knew that if horses were sentient creatures then he was not on Earth. This meant they couldn't just wait for help, they needed to find their own way back. Kevin assessed the supply situation. They had bottled water, and K - rations. They also had matches and guns. Ammo was plentiful. Kevin started to think, if they came here by water, couldn't they leave the same way? He would need the exact coordinates of the Bermuda Triangle, and a map of this place. That meant going to one of the horse cities. If they could put up a good fight against seventy men and kill two of them, what could an army of them do? ********************** Princess Celestia awoke, filled with thoughts. As her royal servants gave her tea and eggs she thought of the news that had driven her to killing a servant. She remembered the feeling as the power of the sun simply took life away from the pony. The sight of his body burning. The ashes that floated up and into the sky. That was what showed her she was out of control, and devoid of thought. Sending a criminal to handle the most important investigation she had ever authorized? Attacking without knowledge? Thoughtless. She thought of every way to resume diplomacy. Even with the news that her elite squad was dead, she thought, maybe there is a way to convince them we aren't bad. *********************** Kevin looked at his men. He knew exactly what he was going to do. They would make their way to 25.0000° North, 71.0000° West, known by humans as the Bermuda Triangle. There was only one thing he needed. A map. He would compare their map to the human map and find out where the portal to Earth is. His snipers had seen a large city with a castle in it. His scouts had confirmed by tracking hoofprints that the castle city was nearby. They would slip in, and steal a map before they caused any more trouble on this planet. Kevin decided to slip in under the cover of night. There was time to fill while waiting, so he worked on a plan of transport. If he was going to move to the Bermuda Triangle, he needed aquatic or aerial transport. He worked for most of the day, carving designs into scrap metal. Then it hit him. The jets were trashed, with no possibility of flight, but they had a smooth shape and with modifications he bet they could become buoyant. He set to work, and soon enough he had a crude but doable design. He gave it to Mayer and told him to get the men to work. Abandoning their posts to help, the men got about twelve makeshift boats operational. Just as Mayer told him this, the sun set. It was time to go. Kevin and Mayer rallied the troops. They followed the tracks to the city with the castle. Soon they would have their map. ********************************* Celestia stood on her balcony and looked to the woods. The creatures thought they had stealth, but they were as easy to see as stars under a clear night. She wanted to try diplomacy, but this was blatantly an attack. Nevertheless, she would give them a choice. But to the invaders, it might not be preferable. ******************************** Kevin sprinted ahead of his troops. The sound of sixty - plus boots hitting dirt drove him forward. The entire platoon including Kevin burst through the treeline and promptly stopped themselves. Hundreds of the horses: normal, unicorns, and pegasi, stood before them. Above them, and a massive white horse with both wings and a horn floated above them. Next to her floated a slightly smaller purple horse with the same creatures. The white horse spoke: "I am Celestia, the ruler of this land. You are under the night of my sister's moon, about to attack. I am much more powerful than any of you, and I will give you a chance to live." Kevin flashed a look of disbelief on his face. Power? What kind of power? Celestia sensed his disbelief, and flexed her muscles. The sun rose behind her, and the moon moved next to it. She changed the time of day. "What do you want from my people?" She asked. "We want a map." Kevin spoke. Someone had to say something. "So you can raid the rest of my country, and then the rest of my world, doing what you did to my guards to all of my people? No." She said. Kevin's men raised their weapons, anticipating an attack. "YOU DARE THREATEN ME TO MY FACE!?" Celestia boomed across everything. Kevin tried to stop his men, but before he got a chance, a yellow laser scorched the ground and blasted his men into nonexistence. He jumped to the side to watch a building collapse over him. Chaos**AUTHOR'S NOTE** I fucked up so much shit in this story. It's like I was high or something. But I looked at the harshly worded constructive criticism and realized, with the help of extreme reader anger, that I could redo the entire chapter. So if you don't like the second wind, then fuck you! :D *************************************** Kevin lay in dust and bits of wood. The horse leader, Celestia, fired on them. He looked around in his prone position. Mayer was alive and sitting behind a fallen pillar. The entirety of team one was dead. He couldn't see the other stealth teams. Kevin saw a rifle ahead of him and grabbed it. Pushing himself to his feet, he sprinted to Mayer's position. "Situation!?" He screamed, firing on Celestia's guards. The princess herself was sitting on an overlook in the castle, poised for another shot. "Everyone is dead!" Mayer yelled. "I'm waiting on the other teams to hear the fucking rifle fire!" Kevin dodged a spear and put down two horses. "Cover me!" He said. "What are you doing!?" Mayer yelled. Kevin sprinted towards a shop missing most of the roof. "Getting a map!" Kevin barreled into the door and knocked it down. He jumped back up, rifle aimed, and searched the building. There were dressers lining the walls, and Kevin started to tear through the drawers. Mayer jumped over the pillar and advanced. A horse sprinted toward him with a sword in its mouth, ready to stab him. Mayer hit it in the face with the rifle and shot three more. He slid into a wall and took cover from the primitive spears. Kevin finished tearing through the first dresser and pulled out a drawer. Several maps were inside. He pulled them out one by one and observed them. "No, no, NO! NO!" He said, discarding maps that weren't of the ocean. Suddenly, a yellow laser cut through the house, narrowly missing Kevin. "FUCK!" He shouted. Then he pulled it out. A map of the ocean. He crumpled it up and jammed it into his pocket, then threw the drawer on the floor. Sprinting outside, he saw team two fighting alongside Mayer. "Where's team three!?" He asked the team leader. "All dead sir." He said. "It's just us." Kevin fired into a crowd of horses. "What about the camp?" "The fuckers burned it." He told him. "We dragged the rafts to the shore, but the whole camp was burnt. Everyone there is dead." "Fuck..." Kevin said. "Okay!" He screamed. "Retreat! Head for the shore!" Kevin ran and led the group away. He sprinted for the tree line. "Finish them!" Celestia screamed "Strike them down! Punish them for their insolence!" Princess Luna swooped down onto Celestia's balcony. "This ends now." She said. "Under whose authority?" Celestia laughed. "Yours?" "While my moon glows, I control Equestria." Luna said. "Your tyrannical raid on both species' is over." Celestia swung her hoof at Luna, but she caught it with her foreleg. Glaring into Celestia's eyes, she said: "I'm not the little filly you used to push around anymore." Luna pushed Celestia onto the ground and struck her in the face. Watching the humans retreat, she said: "Run. My moon won't be lit forever."
TragedyLieutenant Kevin Hughes laughed at his men's absurdity. Private Thalmer had a banana peel hanging on each ear and kept saying he was an elephant. Kevin had thought only children played with their food. He stood up and left the mess hall. A troop slid a latch and opened a door for him. He felt the sea air on his face and heard the clank of his boots on metal. He started to make his way up a side staircase when the ship rocked. He fell sideways and braced himself against the metal wall. "Jesus Wernstrom, what the fuck are you doing up there?" He whispered to himself. He continued up the stairs. He made it to the pilot's deck. Opening the latch, he saw Wernstrom, the ship's pilot, hitting switches and turning the wheel. "Wernstrom, do you even fucking know where we are?" Kevin asked him. "No. The GPS is down. Not receiving a thing from the satellites." He said. "I think we're somewhere near the Bermuda Triangle, but I'm not entirely sure." "Don't drive into it." Kevin joked. "Wait, what the hell is that?" Wernstrom pointed to a spot on the waves. It was glowing light blue. "I have no idea. Maybe a rising sub?" Kevin said. "Full stop, I want to see what it is." "I'm not stopping." Wernstrom replied. "I am your superior, and you will stop." Kevin said, slightly angry. "I can't anyway." Wernstrom told him. "The ship won't stop in time." Kevin grabbed for the controls. For all he knew, this thing could be a rising submarine, and in that case, it could pierce the hull. Wernstrom lifted his hands in defense, thinking Kevin was attacking him for control of the ship, and accidentally spun the steering wheel. The ship rocked and Kevin heard screams and loud splashes as men and unsecured jets fell into the water and were consumed by the waves. The ship suddenly flooded with water, and Kevin was slammed into the wall. Before falling into unconsciousness, he heard explosions. * * * Rainbow Dash led the evening cloud patrol through the quickly darkening skies. She went full speed towards a white cloud and sent her rear hooves out in front of her. She kicked the cloud into nothingness and did a backflip - like motion back into flying position. That's when she saw it. It was a big rectangular metallic object deep into the woods. It was dragging through the woods, burning and taking out everything it came across. The other pegasi saw it too. "Alright everyone, you know what to do. We need to tell Celestia." The squad of pegasi flew off in the direction of Canterlot. * * * Kevin rose up from the dirt. He was still inside the ship's piloting room, but it had detached from the ship itself. He immediately searched for a point of exit. The bottom was free, but covered in wires. The chance of electrocution was too great. Kevin looked to the windows. They were filled with jagged glass, and Wernstrom's body was tangled in the frame. Looking up, Kevin saw the door. The whole detached room was lopsided. He jumped up and grabbed the latch, and heard the groan of weak metal, and the door snapped from its hinges. Again, he found himself slammed into the ground. He pushed the door off him and exited the room. Standing on the metal box, he could see the surviving members of the crew - mostly the marines that were on board - dragging and placing the retrievable dead in a neat line. Kevin jumped down and headed towards the crew. He heard a marine say: "I wish we could bury them." and the groans of wounded soldiers. He found his second in command, Seargent Mayer, looking at the weapons and food they had retrieved from the ship. "Where is the captain?" Kevin asked him. "No one knows." Mayer said. "He's MIA... but I think he's dead." "These men need a leader. Who takes over after his death?" Kevin asked. "You're the only living high - ranking officer. You're in charge, Hughes." * * * Princess Celestia stood. A pegasus from Ponyville had delivered unnerving news. New creatures with new machines. In the woods. She had to act, and so she would send a scout. He would be quiet. He would find out what they were and why they wanted to destroy her woodlands. "Guards!" She called. Two brown unicorns in guard armor stepped through the door. "Fetch Camofur." The guards came back with a forest green Earth Pony. "Camofur, there are creatures in the woods not native to Equestria. They aren't ponies, but they are intelligent enough to build machines. I have no idea as to whether or not they are a threat, and I do not want a war between creatures who may have technology we can reverse engineer." She told him. "What would you have me do, my Princess?" He asked. "You are perhaps the sneakiest pony in all of Canterlot. You were pardoned from prison for your theivery, and owe me a service in return. You will use your skills and your fur color to hide in the trees and find out anything you can about these... things. You must report back in two days or less, or you will be declared dead." "Yes Princess Celestia. I will do your bidding for your past kindness." He said. He left the royal palace and set off for the woods. "I hope we don't have another war after so many centuries of peace." She said to herself. * * * Kevin and Mayer sat around a fire with about twenty - five other men. They were all tired, hungry, and hurt. They needed to relax, and Kevin decided that he would give them some time to relax so he could think about what to do next. He heard a twig snap behind him. Mayer sensed it too. They both grasped their sidearms and took aim. Another snap from behind a bush. They fired once, twice, thrice, and then lost count. They stopped firing and stepped up to the bush. It was a horse, except, it wasn't normal. Besides twenty plus bullet holes in its side, it was dyed green, and had some kind of tribal war paint on its rear. "This is a horse. That means people. People with medicine. Help for our men." Mayer said with a hopeful look in his eyes. "We just killed their horse." Kevin told him. "They aren't going to be happy with us. We should stay here, at least for tonight." Kevin sat by the fire that night, thinking about the horse. Something wasn't right about this island they were marooned on. It had pine trees, no sight of water, and that horse... it was green. The fur wasn't dyed, that was natural. He could tell. And the marking... it was part of the creature's skin. He began to wonder: what if the Bermuda Triangle... is a teleporter to another world?
War on the horizonKevin Hughes dreamt of his family. His wife, Stacy. His son, Philip. He dreamt of the day at the beach that they had shared before he shipped out to be on the Babylon. It felt real. Like he was there again. The sun shone on his face and reflected off of his wet hair. The sand beneath the waves he swam in felt soft beneath him, like he could fall through at any minute and go somewhere better. He saw his hand extend, waving for Philip to come to him. And as his son came toward him, it was as if he was getting shorter. He slipped under the waves and through the sand, and woke up in the strange land he was trapped in. It was just a dream- no, a nightmare. One that emphasized the fact that he might never see his family again. He wanted to punch something. To cry. But he needed to stay strong. For his men. For himself. For his dreams of going home and hugging his wife and child again. He rose from the dirt and looked at his makeshift camp. Seventy or so men all slept around ten different fires. The trees that were destroyed by flying pieces of debris were dragged over to a spot near the edge of the woods. Besides providing firewood, those trees would make good cover if they were fired upon. Behind him was a large pile of scrap metal. He might be able to use it to build some walls around the camp. And of course, the row of bodies was nearby. About twenty - five men lay in a straight line. Each one had a makeshift cross driven into the ground behind their heads. Mayer had fallen asleep against a tree holding a sniper rifle. He must have taken watch. Mayer always thinks of the things that need to be done and gets them done. That was always a part of his personality. Kevin let the men sleep. When they awoke, he would set them to work on what he knew could be done. ***************** Princess Celestia could no longer wait. There was no way that a single pony would spend an entire day spying on dangerous creatures. Her mind was set on the verge of war. If he did not return by midnight she would send an attack party. Perhaps they would intimidate the creatures into running far away from her jurisdiction. The hour changed. Noon would be here soon. Celestia activated her horn, and magic coursed through her body, she willed the sun into moving, and it did. The day became brighter and brighter as the sun moved to its noon position. One more day. She thought. ********************* Kevin stood on the metal room he had escaped yesterday. The men looked to him in anticipation of what he had to say. "You all need to know what has happened." He said. "Our ship passed through the Bermuda Triangle yesterday. The water was glowing with... energy. I tried to stop the ship but the controls went out of wack and the ship... moved here." "So where are we?" A voice called out of the crowd. "I don't know." Kevin admitted. "All I know is that the animals here are weird, but the same we have on Earth." Kevin paused for questions. There were none. "I need three teams. One team uses the scrap metal and the tools we salvaged to nail the metal to the trees and make a wall around us. Team Two makes sure the weapons are clean and working, and provide easy access to them. Team Three will take some of the metal and make posts in trees and monitor all directions while we sleep. Team Three will rotate with Team Two daily. Any questions?" Again, there were none. The men split into three large groups and got to work. Mayer supervised, and Kevin walked towards the ship. He needed something. He told Mayer he was leaving and not to worry, and left him in command. Kevin began his trudge. He looked at the horizon. By now the sun was setting. The ship provided all the light he needed, however, because it was still on fire. He turned his walk into a jog to save time. ***************************** Celestia was on the point of near insanity. She had to set the sun soon, and Camofur was not back was from his spying mission. If he was dead, the creatures signed their own kill order. Celestia stood. She had to lower the sun. But once it went down, she would a send a squad to hit the creatures hard. ***************************** Kevin made his way to the ship. After scaling a large mound of dirt kicked up by the ship crash, he made it to the ship. It was on its side, with the top facing him. Kevin grasped a jet being crushed by the ship. He heard the oh - so familiar groan of breaking metal and pushed himself up. The jet snapped and slid down the dirt mound. He wasn't going back out that way. He grasped one of the cables used to launch the planes. He swung a foot up and pushed up. He grabbed the second cable. It was then that Kevin realized that he couldn't climb any further with the cable. He looked to the right and saw a downwards - facing staircase. If he cut the wire he could swing to it. There was a jagged piece of metal sticking out of the ship's deck a few feet away. He shimmied over to it, and began to rub the wire on the sharp edge. ******************************** Celestia grabbed hold of a drinking glass with the magic of her horn and sent it into a wall. Camofur was dead. She knew it. "Guards!" She called out. "Yes, Princess Celestia?" The two guards asked. "Organize a small attack party. Six elite pony guards. Send them to the same site as Camofur." The guards left the royal throne room to follow her orders. Soon, they would bring news of the slaying of a small group of savage creatures. ******************************* Snap! The wire seperated and Kevin grabbed hold of the end of it. He swung into the staircase and the wind was knocked out of him. He gripped the wire for his safety as it swung back a second time. Gathering his courage, he released the wire and caught the rail of the stairs. Slipping his feet into the holes between every stair, he ascended. He pulled on a latch and a door swung open. It dented the wall, and Kevin used it to climb into the hallway system. He walked on the wall and found a sideways sign. He ripped it out of the wall and read it. He was near his quarters. He walked down the hall until he reached his door. Pulling open the latch, the door swung downward. The angle of the ship caused his possessions to all gather on the wall. He jumped through the hole, and landed safely on the wall. He began to tear through his things. Meanwhile, Mayer stood in one of the newly completed rat's nests in the trees. He looked through his rifle's scope, and saw another weird horse. This time it was brown, and it had a horn attached to it's head. It had a saddlebag full of spears. Perhaps the natives were sending help? One of the marines stepped towards the horse cautiously, rifle pointed at it. Suddenly the horse's horn glowed yellow, and a spear surrounded with the same yellow energy flew out its saddlebag and into the marine's chest. "WE'VE GOT HOSTILES TO THE WEST!" Mayer screamed. He fired the rifle and removed the horse's head. Kevin heard a shot. It was loud. Very loud. He dug through his things faster and found his rifle, and what he came for, the photo of his wife and son. He retraced his steps across the ship until he reached the ground. Sprinting across the field, he prayed Mayer was alive. He burst through a bush to see a marine dragging a corpse away from a battle. Five unicorns stood, using what he assumed was telekinesis to throw spears. Another marine went down, and Kevin took the left flank. Spraying his rifle, he brought down two of the horses. A sniper in one of the trees took down a third, and one horse ran. The final horse suffered the wrath of four angry and desperate marines with firearms. Kevin knew now that these horses were definitely not normal. They threw spears without touching them. They wore bronze armour. They were magic. Kevin dropped to the ground and closed his eyes. This was all too much.
SolutionsThe night of the attack, Kevin's dream was a continuation of his last. He was younger in this one, only sixteen. He was sitting in a sedan, with a pizza box in the seat next to him. He turned on to a dead end street, and took the pizza in his hands. He stepped out of the car. It was evening. The sun had just set, and this was his last run of the night. He approached the house that the pizza was going to, and knocked on the door. The door opened to reveal nothing. Just an empty hallway. Kevin didn't remember this ever happening. Taking full control of the dream, he stepped into the house. The pizza box in his hands glowed a light blue, and he was sucked headfirst into it. He woke up yet again next to the fire. The men were still asleep. Only sixty - eight of them now. The two he lost last night joined the line. He hoped it stopped growing. If these unicorns and horses were able to coordinate an attack, they had to be sentient. Kevin knew that if horses were sentient creatures then he was not on Earth. This meant they couldn't just wait for help, they needed to find their own way back. Kevin assessed the supply situation. They had bottled water, and K - rations. They also had matches and guns. Ammo was plentiful. Kevin started to think, if they came here by water, couldn't they leave the same way? He would need the exact coordinates of the Bermuda Triangle, and a map of this place. That meant going to one of the horse cities. If they could put up a good fight against seventy men and kill two of them, what could an army of them do? ********************** Princess Celestia awoke, filled with thoughts. As her royal servants gave her tea and eggs she thought of the news that had driven her to killing a servant. She remembered the feeling as the power of the sun simply took life away from the pony. The sight of his body burning. The ashes that floated up and into the sky. That was what showed her she was out of control, and devoid of thought. Sending a criminal to handle the most important investigation she had ever authorized? Attacking without knowledge? Thoughtless. She thought of every way to resume diplomacy. Even with the news that her elite squad was dead, she thought, maybe there is a way to convince them we aren't bad. *********************** Kevin looked at his men. He knew exactly what he was going to do. They would make their way to 25.0000° North, 71.0000° West, known by humans as the Bermuda Triangle. There was only one thing he needed. A map. He would compare their map to the human map and find out where the portal to Earth is. His snipers had seen a large city with a castle in it. His scouts had confirmed by tracking hoofprints that the castle city was nearby. They would slip in, and steal a map before they caused any more trouble on this planet. Kevin decided to slip in under the cover of night. There was time to fill while waiting, so he worked on a plan of transport. If he was going to move to the Bermuda Triangle, he needed aquatic or aerial transport. He worked for most of the day, carving designs into scrap metal. Then it hit him. The jets were trashed, with no possibility of flight, but they had a smooth shape and with modifications he bet they could become buoyant. He set to work, and soon enough he had a crude but doable design. He gave it to Mayer and told him to get the men to work. Abandoning their posts to help, the men got about twelve makeshift boats operational. Just as Mayer told him this, the sun set. It was time to go. Kevin and Mayer rallied the troops. They followed the tracks to the city with the castle. Soon they would have their map. ********************************* Celestia stood on her balcony and looked to the woods. The creatures thought they had stealth, but they were as easy to see as stars under a clear night. She wanted to try diplomacy, but this was blatantly an attack. Nevertheless, she would give them a choice. But to the invaders, it might not be preferable. ******************************** Kevin sprinted ahead of his troops. The sound of sixty - plus boots hitting dirt drove him forward. The entire platoon including Kevin burst through the treeline and promptly stopped themselves. Hundreds of the horses: normal, unicorns, and pegasi, stood before them. Above them, and a massive white horse with both wings and a horn floated above them. Next to her floated a slightly smaller purple horse with the same creatures. The white horse spoke: "I am Celestia, the ruler of this land. You are under the night of my sister's moon, about to attack. I am much more powerful than any of you, and I will give you a chance to live." Kevin flashed a look of disbelief on his face. Power? What kind of power? Celestia sensed his disbelief, and flexed her muscles. The sun rose behind her, and the moon moved next to it. She changed the time of day. "What do you want from my people?" She asked. "We want a map." Kevin spoke. Someone had to say something. "So you can raid the rest of my country, and then the rest of my world, doing what you did to my guards to all of my people? No." She said. Kevin's men raised their weapons, anticipating an attack. "YOU DARE THREATEN ME TO MY FACE!?" Celestia boomed across everything. Kevin tried to stop his men, but before he got a chance, a yellow laser scorched the ground and blasted his men into nonexistence. He jumped to the side to watch a building collapse over him.
Chaos**AUTHOR'S NOTE** I fucked up so much shit in this story. It's like I was high or something. But I looked at the harshly worded constructive criticism and realized, with the help of extreme reader anger, that I could redo the entire chapter. So if you don't like the second wind, then fuck you! :D *************************************** Kevin lay in dust and bits of wood. The horse leader, Celestia, fired on them. He looked around in his prone position. Mayer was alive and sitting behind a fallen pillar. The entirety of team one was dead. He couldn't see the other stealth teams. Kevin saw a rifle ahead of him and grabbed it. Pushing himself to his feet, he sprinted to Mayer's position. "Situation!?" He screamed, firing on Celestia's guards. The princess herself was sitting on an overlook in the castle, poised for another shot. "Everyone is dead!" Mayer yelled. "I'm waiting on the other teams to hear the fucking rifle fire!" Kevin dodged a spear and put down two horses. "Cover me!" He said. "What are you doing!?" Mayer yelled. Kevin sprinted towards a shop missing most of the roof. "Getting a map!" Kevin barreled into the door and knocked it down. He jumped back up, rifle aimed, and searched the building. There were dressers lining the walls, and Kevin started to tear through the drawers. Mayer jumped over the pillar and advanced. A horse sprinted toward him with a sword in its mouth, ready to stab him. Mayer hit it in the face with the rifle and shot three more. He slid into a wall and took cover from the primitive spears. Kevin finished tearing through the first dresser and pulled out a drawer. Several maps were inside. He pulled them out one by one and observed them. "No, no, NO! NO!" He said, discarding maps that weren't of the ocean. Suddenly, a yellow laser cut through the house, narrowly missing Kevin. "FUCK!" He shouted. Then he pulled it out. A map of the ocean. He crumpled it up and jammed it into his pocket, then threw the drawer on the floor. Sprinting outside, he saw team two fighting alongside Mayer. "Where's team three!?" He asked the team leader. "All dead sir." He said. "It's just us." Kevin fired into a crowd of horses. "What about the camp?" "The fuckers burned it." He told him. "We dragged the rafts to the shore, but the whole camp was burnt. Everyone there is dead." "Fuck..." Kevin said. "Okay!" He screamed. "Retreat! Head for the shore!" Kevin ran and led the group away. He sprinted for the tree line. "Finish them!" Celestia screamed "Strike them down! Punish them for their insolence!" Princess Luna swooped down onto Celestia's balcony. "This ends now." She said. "Under whose authority?" Celestia laughed. "Yours?" "While my moon glows, I control Equestria." Luna said. "Your tyrannical raid on both species' is over." Celestia swung her hoof at Luna, but she caught it with her foreleg. Glaring into Celestia's eyes, she said: "I'm not the little filly you used to push around anymore." Luna pushed Celestia onto the ground and struck her in the face. Watching the humans retreat, she said: "Run. My moon won't be lit forever."
