Fallout Equestria: Duty

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 24

Dreams of the past Part 5

“I'm so sorry....”

~O~Frostmane~O~

Our first assignment as a Unit... My legs felt like melting butter as I stood at the head of the circular table in the Luna Dreams conference room. The Commanders of each race were there as well, Firestorm standing at my right. Princess Luna had visited my dreams the night before, informing me of our first objective. The Caesar was amassing a great number of soldiers and equipment near our border. Our intelligence service suggested, that the Zebras were preparing for a massive invasion of the Badlands south of Appleloosa, and it was our task to prevent that at all costs.

The Moon Skulls were certainly ready for action. These past five months had prepared them nicely, and I was confident that they could handle this situation. There were, however, a lot of variables. We didn't know how many soldiers the Zebras had pulled together, for example, and they were camping around a civilian village. Casualties among the townszebras were inevitable, and it was something I didn't like in the least.

“So what you're saying, Vice-General, is that there is a high possibility that some of the Zebras in this town will fall victim to our fire?”, Herak, the commanding officer of our Zebras and Zonies asked grimly. I nodded solemnly at this.

“Yes Commander Herak. I don't like it any more than you do, but it look like the Caesars forces depend on us not firing upon a civilian settlement, even if it would be in self defense... That's why I would like to have this settled by ground forces only. It will minimize civilian casualties. Once the LD has to start firing, there won't be much left of that village, other than a big hole in the ground... If possible, I want to prevent that.”, I said, trying to sound more confident than I actually felt.

“But what if it isn't possible? Will we just pull out again, and let them cross our border? It will be pretty hard to keep the settlements on our side safe once they do.”, Gingerbread argued, throwing an apologetic look at Herak.

“We could always wait until they make their move if it comes to that, and bomb them when they try to cross.”, Firestorm piped up, looking at me. I shook my head sadly.

“Sadly, that's no option Storm. Once they start crossing our border, it will be hard to locate them, due to the many forests and ravines there. We'd have to comb every one of those locations, to find all of them, and in the meantime they could slip past us.”

“So you're just gonna sacrifice about a thousand civilians if you have to?”, Herak spat at me in disbelief. I nodded sadly again.

“Herak... I will do what I can so it doesn't have to come to this, but please understand that we don't have many options here... If we had a greater number of Pegasi at hoof for this operation, we could simply position them on clouds above their camps, and snipe all of the soldiers down. As it is however, we have only 200 Pegasi, and we would have to take about 50 away from that number to resupply the sharpshooters with enough bullets. Not to mention that they would be a constant target while flying back and forth between the firing positions, and the Luna Dream. Then there's the time factor. If we give them too much time, then they could ask for reinforcements from Rock Hoof fort. You know that they have a group of Talisman users there, right? Our Pegasi would be forced into an aerial battle with them, while being under fire from below. No Herak. I understand that I'm asking a lot of you, but you knew what you signed up for when you accepted my terms.” I explained in a shaky voice, locking my blue eyes on Heraks gray ones.

Finally, he snorted, and looked away. The only one who had stayed strangely quiet, was Cherry Cream. The leader of the Earthponies aboard the Luna dream hadn't uttered a word since the beginning of the meeting.

“What's your opinion on all this, Cherry? Your Ponies would be part of the first wave, if we decide on a frontal assault after all.”, I added, turning my head to look at the mare. She had formerly been a Steel Ranger, and held the values of their ministry mares very dear. It took a moment, but finally she returned my gaze.

“I'm not willing to lead my Ponies to their deaths. If we have the opportunity to end this operation, without a single soldier having to touch down, then I'm all for it.”, she stated firmly.

“Cherry! I can't believe you just said that! We have to minimize civilian casualties, or we are nothing more than murderers!”, Herak shouted at the Earthpony mare, going so far as grabbing her by the collar of her Uniform and shaking her. It was over in just a second, without me having the chance to interfere. Cherry Creams face had darkened as she batted the hoof holding her away, following it up with a headbutt that broke the stallions nose. She then turned around and bucked him across the room. The two of them had been at odds with each other ever since they had taken the time to have their first, and last, civilized conversation.

“Hoofington, Princess Lunas school for young Unicorns and the border town of Snouzten make your argument invalid Herak! Your kind didn't bother to CHECK if somepony was holding a weapon or not! They gunned everyone down, or killed them with that damn poison gas Talisman we now know as the “little horn agent”, so don't give me that shit about civilian casualties! I for one would fire my grenade machine gun even at you, if you ever spout shit like that again!”, she shouted with a mad gleam in her eyes.

“Stop! Both of you!”, I intervened, as Herak wanted to launch himself at the mare. Gingerbread held him back, while Firestorm helped me to restrain Cherry. I could understand the mare. Her daughter had attended Princess Lunas school for young Unicorns, and she had lost her husband in the slaughter of Snouzten. The mare was struggling under me, and Herak was doing a very good job in trying to get away from the bigger red Unicorn stallion. In the end, I had to call security to have both of them escorted to their respective quarters.

“That was a mess...”, Gingerbread said, rubbing a bruise on his chin with a hoof as he sat down at the table again.

“I should have known better than to put the both of them into the same room...”, I sighed, looked at my two remaining Commanders, adding, “So... what do you guys think? Bombardment, or frontal assault?”

“I seriously don't know, Vice-General. If they outnumber us too greatly, a bombardment might be our only option...”, Firestorm replied, shaking her head in disgust. I could see that she hated the idea of bombarding civilians, especially due to her mother who died in Pega-Ville...

“I'm for an assault. They may be Zebras, but that doesn't change the fact that they're civilians, Vice-General. What Cherry said is true, but we if we do this, then we wouldn't be any better.”, Gingerbread offered, letting his head hang. He didn't like this either, and he didn't make any effort to hide his disgust either. That left me with the choice.

“Alright... We'll make an aerial sweep of the area to get an approximate headcount on the enemy, and then we'll decide. Unless they outnumber us five to one, I won't bombard them. If they do however...”, I said, not completing my sentence. The two of them soon realized that the meeting was over, when I turned to the window of the conference room. Ponyville lay beneath us, and I could see many Ponies milling about. It was as if the war wasn't even real. There was even a market going on. Oh how I wished I could just jump into one of the Skytanks and have one of the Pegasi drop me off down there, even if it was only for a little while. Sadly, that was impossible. The Luna Dreams engines were already preparing for intercept speed, and we would soon be on our way towards Zebrica...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

We arrived at the small village about an hour after the sun had begun it's journey through the sky. Several of our Pegasi had scouted out the enemy camp with Stealthbucks, and what their helmet cameras had transmitted to the bridge wasn't good. This wasn't simply a new invasion force. There were about twenty thousand Zebras, and they were equipped with everything the Zebrican military had to offer. I could make out crates upon crates of balefire eggs, four legged sentinel tanks and a whole tent full of Stealth-Cloaks... If this force started crossing our borders, they would push through Appleloosa, stomp down the Everfree forest and advance towards Canterlot. Our defense forces were scattered between Hoofington in the north and Trottingham in the south, so there would be no way we could stop the advance of this force once it got moving.

Suddenly I realized that all the attacks had led up to this moment. There had been well manned defense forts at our border before, but the Zebras had started to attack so erratically over the last few years, that high command had scattered our forces, to defend the widest possible area... This was our Achilles heel, and the Zebras knew it!

“Everypony, get off the bridge... I need to think...”, I ordered, much to the surprise of every Pony in attendance. They obeyed my order, but many of them looked at me funny as they went out of the door. I could understand them. Me ordering them to leave their posts, especially while we were this close to the enemy, was a dangerous thing to do.

I sat down in one of the chairs in front of the main canon console, typing in the villages coordinates. Soon a screen above the console lit up and showed it to me. If one ignored the soldiers patrolling the perimeter, it almost looked like any other settlement. There were houses that were build into living trees, with small herbal gardens around them. Zooming in, I could even see a pair of adolescent Zebras, making out in the back yard of one of the houses...

The camera swung to the right as I moved the joystick with my magic, and I let the camera record everything it saw. Young colts and fillies, playing in the streets, a Zebra stallion with a rifle on a harness who bought something from a street vendor... I let the Luna Dream record everything as my hoof hovered over the button that would order the mainframe to start the bombardment of the selected area...

“Dream 17 ready to drop at your command, Vice-General.”, Cherrys voice came from one of the speakers on the bridge. I ignored her. My eyes were glued to the screen. I just couldn't look away from the foals playing in the streets, not knowing that a ship was hovering over them that was concealed from view by a whole array of Stealthbucks... Nor did they know that one twitch of my hoof would end their young lives before they could really begin. A tear rolled down my face, as I realized, for the first time, what kind of monster I had become.

“Engineering, assistant engineer Jerakal here. Vice-General? What's going on up there? I have a whole group of Eathponies manning the deployment shells down here. Has that been authorized? At our current position they'll drop right into the center of that village below us, and that would be their certain death.”, the voice of the engineer said worriedly. This one, I did answer.

“I... I don't know.... I just don't know...”, I said, failing at keeping the tears out of my voice as I slumped back in the chair. If I fired the canons, everyone below us would die in a rain of magical fire, but my Platoon would be saved. If I ordered them to drop, then there was a good chance that I lost all of them. With a heavy heart, and something in me being lost forever, I pressed the button.

The cannons began to roar immediately, sending their deadly payload towards the village below. On the screen, I could see the foals frightened faces, just before the shells impacted and exploded. It broke my heart to see that. I slumped onto the console.

“I'm sorry! I'm sorry!”, I repeated over and over again, while my ship fired shell after shell of high explosive magical material at the Zebras below us....

The bombardment lasted for about ten minutes, and the entire area had disappeared in a giant cloud of dust and smoke. When it settled, I could see that there wasn't much left of the town, or the Zebra encampment that had surrounded it. We hadn't left a single survivor behind.... In that moment, I swore to myself that I would have the engineers remove those canons from my ship. I never wanted to see something like that again...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I was drunk. Very drunk to be precise. The officers dining hall had a stash of liquor, and there were several empty bottles on the table in front of me. The place was a mess. Shortly after the bombardment, I had come here, only to find Cherry and her Ponies celebrating my decision to press that damn button... I had kicked their flanks out of here, destroying most of the furniture in the process.

Even the ceiling lighting had taken some damage, even though I had no idea how that had happened. I was just about to take another swig from a bottle of Carrot Whisky, when the door opened and Herak came storming in. He had murder in his eyes, and I couldn't even blame him for it.

“You are no better than Gear Turn, you know that? You just killed hundreds of my kind by pressing one simple button. Did it make your decision easier? Was it fun to see them torn apart?”, he shouted at me, while advancing through the rubble of the room.

“Leave me alone Herak. I'm really not in the mood right now... Let's.... Let's talk about this tomorrow...”, I drawled, barely able to get the words out. Then a hoof hit me straight in the face, knocking me out of my seat.

“I WON'T just leave you alone, you monster! Here, you want to drink? Then drink up! I hope you die from it!”, he said, shoving one of the still full bottles into my mouth, pouring it's contents down my burning throat. When I had downed about half of it, a white hoof with gray stripes wrapped itself around the stallions neck, pulling him off me. From my vantage point on the ground I could only vaguely make out the two shapes that were now shouting at each other. The white and gray one stood in front of me, preventing the angry stallion from getting close to me again.

He charged at her, but she reared up, redirecting his hoof-strike with one of her own, sending him tumbling to the ground. Herak stood up again, and again and again... But the gray and white shape in front of me didn't give an inch of ground, as she tried to explain something to him, in a language that I didn't understand. I soon realized, that it was Zebra, and that the shape in front of me must be a Zony... A mare by the sound of her voice.

Herak charged one last time, and this time the mare struck him, instead of just upsetting his balance. A sickening crunching sound could be heard as the stallion slumped to the ground, unmoving. The mare fell back down to her hooves, whispering something into his ears, before putting me on her back...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

My head was pounding as I woke up. Luckily, somepony had drawn the shades on my windows, so the room was dark. No light assaulted my eyes as I opened them. It took me a moment to realize where I was.

“So you've finally woke up.”, a mares voice said from my left, and I turned around. Two green eyes stared back at me. The mare these eyes belonged to, had a very grim look on her face.

“You... You here to beat me up too?”, I asked, remembering what had happened earlier. Who had that Zony been? Was it possible that the Zony standing next to my bed, was the same one who had fought Herak in my stead?

“If I had wanted you to get beaten up, I wouldn't have interfered with my uncles attempt to kill you, Frostmane. No. I'm here to make sure you can rest safely.”, she said, putting a hoof on my forehead.

“Who... Who are you?”

“Assistant engineer Jerakal. Well at least as long as we don't have any ground bound combat going on. If we deploy, I'm Sergeant Jerakal.”, she replied, smiling warmly at me.

“You... You're a Zony... Why...”

“Why am I helping you? Because I can see that what you did today, as horrible as it was, it was the only viable option. And I can see that you beat yourself up about pretty badly. Don't forget, I'm only half Zebra. My allegiance lies with Equestria, not Zebrica.”, she said, turning her back to me so she could face the door. Even in my state, I had to commend her watchfulness.

“He...Herak?”, I rasped, my throat feeling as if I hadn't drunken anything in a week.

“Dead. My official report will say that he attacked you, and that I had to protect your life. I tried to reason with him, but the place you blew to pieces today was the town he and my father grew up in.”

“So... I killed part... of your family today...?”, I asked, beginning to feel bad again. The mare just shook her head.

“My father always treated my mother and me like property, not like living beings. I don't have any love for that part of the family. As far as I am concerned, they were strangers. Strangers that were willingly supporting our enemy, even if that meant making their town a potential target. Believe me, Frostmane, these Zebras knew what they got themselves into, and they accepted the risk of it. Don't beat yourself up about something you can't change anymore. Hadn't you pressed that button, I would most likely not be here right now. I would be a bloody corpse somewhere below.”, Jerakal said in a comforting tone.

“Wait... you... you're not addressing me with...”

“With your title? Please. I've seen how uncomfortable that makes you. And now shush. Sleep some more. I'll keep a watch, and tomorrow you can address the crew. If you want, I'll even tell them that the bombardment was a malfunction in the firing array.”, the Zony mare cooed, not taking her eyes off the door for a second.

For some strange reason, I believed her....

Footnotes:

Frostmane:

Maximum Level

Firestorm:

Maximum Level

Golden Sunshine:

No Status Changes

Homage:

No Status Changes