The Dream World

The Army can prepare you for anything. Well, almost anything. One of those things that they can’t prepare you for is the heart wrenching feeling you get when you board a plane and leave your family, at seventeen, to go fight on the front lines in, what was said to be another World War. The government had signed a bill stating that they could pull seventeen year olds from school and send them anywhere needed. While it seemed unfair and received much protest, they still went along with it and started pulling kids out. Sure, I was excited to finally go shoot some bad guys, but leaving your family is hard, even if you don’t like them. But yes, the Army was now sending seventeen year olds into the war. And yes, the Army lies to you. Get over it now or you will never learn.

Well, I better start explain myself. My name is Aaron Green, and I was the kid who decided to join the Army at 17. It was a smart idea at the time, wasn’t really expecting a full out war to break out and devastate us to the point of using kids in war. But now, it’s too late to turn back, so I just have to listen to whoever has the highest rank. I wasn’t even allowed to choose the type of training I go too, the commander of my unit told me where I was going. So I was sent to a 4 week training program on how to survive in Russia. Then, another 2 weeks of a specialized sniper school. I’m guessing you are thinking “How in the world were they able to be battle ready so quick?” Well, the Army loves to hide its butt and do illegal things, like give its solders steroids to be battle ready in no time. They got me battle ready fast and told me where I was going and what I was doing.  From what I was told, war with the Russians in what could turn into a nuclear holocaust of mankind. Sure, in the year of 2019, we have weapons to combat these bombs and missiles, but we don’t need to have an accident or one get through and destroy a city or a major airbase. I was to be with a small squad with 3 others, and yes, that is a very small force. I left immediately after my training, and only got to spend an hour with my family before I left. Yes, we were not at the best terms with each other, but they were still my family and I loved them.

Now I stand on the frozen wasteland that is the Russian Tundra. I have been sitting in this little fox hole all day now, waiting for the others to return from a scouting mission. Now, if you know anything about military safety, you are probably questioning why I’m alone. Well I should have a “battle buddy” with me, but that’s not how this squad rolls. We trust that we can defend our own asses by ourselves, though we still watch out for each other. Being the new guy, I didn't really know what my position with my squad mates, but they seem cool. I had my M21A7 in hand, scanning the horizon for any movement. I loved the upper hand the modern-day sniper has. His ability to hide in the open, his ability to end a target from anywhere, and even the access to the new technology that has come over the past few years, like auto ranging and zeroing, scopes with wind indicators and the ability to use different calibers of rounds. Though limited, the M21A7 is a prototype that allows the user to shoot bullets from 5.56 to 7.62 and even modified explosive rounds. Now that was the rifle I held in my hand. I almost always was using 7.62 rounds in, perfect for the Russians light armor. The Russians preferred to wear coats to stay warm and stayed with a lighter armor. Now I just sit and wait for my squad mates to return, it could be hours or minutes.........

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Celestia wondered her castle, thinking of the up-and-coming event. She knew that he would be here soon, but she didn't know what he would bring with him. Maybe chaos, maybe disorder, maybe even death and destruction. Him being a human is what worried her, humans are hard to trust with what she had seen in their history. First they would be allies, then they would end up killing each other till one gave up. He was one of those "solders", trained to kill anything that it was told. While she tried to compare him to a royal guard, he was way more lethal and dangerous. Her most trusted and powerful guard wouldn't even stand a chance against him. She might even have troubles against him and his power and weaponry. However, the Elements of Harmony could stop him if necessary.

"Sister?" Luna came up behind Celestia to see what was wrong. "What is wrong with thou?"

"Just thinking about our guest coming from Earth. He will be getting here soon." Celestia exclaimed.

"Well, can we not just send him back to Ear-th?" Luna asked, having trouble with the worlds name.

"It's not that easy Luna, I would like to but he will be one of our saving graces against Them." Celestia said, turning to Luna as they walked.

"I thought thy sent them running away." Luna said worryingly.

"I thought so too, but they are going to be coming back, stronger then ever. Even I won't be able to stop them, nor will love. He is our only chance, even if he is full of chaotic magic." Celestia said, looking down at her hooves.

"What about Discord, wouldn't thy feed off it?" Luna asked.

"I honestly don't know, but we will have to be ready for anything." Celestia answered back. If Discord got a hold of him and his body, it would be the end of Equestia and both their lives. This human hold so much power, and he is so young.

"What do we know about this Hu-man?" Luna then asked another question.

"Well, he seems to be fairly young. We are just a head heights taller then him. Obviously, he is a male. I believe his name is A-aron, and he is a solder trained to kill whatever gets told to. He even listens to others if they tell him to sit in a hole in the ground for a whole day. He is very loyal to his friends it seems, and willing to do anything for them." Celestia explained.

"Ummm, and we are trusting that he will be on our side?" Luna asked.

"I can only hope so" Celestia said as they both continued to walk down the long corridor to their rooms.

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The squad had returned by 1900 hours, so I had spent about 15 hours in that hole. Thankfully though, all 3 of them returned safe and sound. We all met up to discuss the plan of action. I sat there and studied them all. First, we have Sgt. Hernandez. He is a big guy, 6’ 6”, 250 pounds of packed muscle, and only 28 years old. He rolls with his M4A1 with a winter camo and RCO scope. Next is corporal Hienz, he is about 5’11”, 210 pounds. He was 21, and the next highest rank to Hernandez. He rolls with another M4A1 with a grenade launcher and ACOG scope. Next comes Specialist Moore. He is 6’2”, 190 pound lanky guy. He is the closest to my age, 19. He was the sorry guy who had to lug around the M249 SAW and ammo for it. And then there is me, Private Aaron Green, Being 6’2”, 225 pounds, I was one of the bigger guys. But, I’m usually the bitch of the crew, being the newbie. But, that’s how seniority works. I’ve only been with these guys for about a week now, so I can’t really say much about team chemistry. Though I’m optimistic about it and they seem to like me so far. As I continued to think, Hernandez came up to me and started to talk.

“We found it.” He said. “It’s about a klick away from point zulu. Our sources info was fairly solid on this one; don’t get used to it though.” He said to me, and chuckled afterwards.

“When will we be leaving for the objective then?” I asked him after a moment of silence.

“At 0230 tonight, so get some sleep, you are going to need it.” He said. I was about to regect it, only he beat me to it. “That’s an order.” So I sighed and went to me sleeping bag. These bags where lined with thermal heaters that would activate when a source of a different heat come across it; i.e. the human body. As sleep started to drift upon me, all I thought about was my mission, my squad’s safety, and my family back at home.

It was 0215 when I was awoken. The air had its usual cold bite, but there was nothing you can do about it. We started to get our gear together and talk about the plan. I never did explain why we are here, did I? Well, our main objective is to infiltrate a Russian Nuclear Production facility and neutralize the enemy scientists and equipment. That includes any nuclear warheads or anything along those lines. My personal task was to recon and eliminate enemy guards, counter snipers, snipers, or any surveillance cameras. Our plans was basically sneak in and complete the objective, I would be alone in the woods line eliminating tagged targets. I of course, was equipped with my M21A7 with attachments of a silencer and a NV scope. The NV scope was the key to tagging targets. The ground squad would point infill-red lasers at the enemy they needed dispatched, and those lasers were only seen with NVG’s, like my scope.

I was positioned in the wood line, about 300 meters away from the Russian Nuclear facility. The base was made out of steel with a camo snow pattern. Enemy snipers were all over the roof, maybe 10 or so of them. “Easy pickings.” I said to myself. “They are just like the targets at the range.” I picked out the farthest target and put a bullet in the back of his head. So, that’s what went on for the other 9 targets, each one felt more comfortable then the last. “All clear.” I said into my head-set.

“Roger. Move up to the air duct and infiltrate. Over and out.” Sgt. instructed me. I made my way over to the west side of the building. About half way down the side of the building is where I saw its location. I quickly made my way over to it and pulled the frame out.

“Infiltrating now.” I voiced into my head-set.

“Be advised, we have Intel stating that the vent you are preceding though is used to dump radioactive gasses out. Make sure you keep your ears open and be careful, see you in 10 mikes, over and out.” Sgt. cut out. The other 3 were taking another vent though and it would put them in the middle of the facility room we were going into. I sat there, wondering if the went was a good idea. The vent was fairly large and didn’t seem to be radiated. So I continued on further into the vent to find others branching off into different directions. Looking at the blueprints I stored on my mobile GPS, I had to stick with the main vent. I kept my noise down and kept moving slowly but smoothly. I soon arrived at the only to find that another vent was located at the bottom of the floor. I saw my squad mates in positions so I gave the starting punch. I slowly pushed up the vent and threw out a flash bang. As soon as it detonated, the rest of my squad started to throw bullets into everything. At this point, our cover was blown. Doors where closed and alarms were going off. Then, a fan started to go off and a almost green haze started to come in.  I instantly realized what it was.

“Gas, gas, gas!!” I yelled and we quickly bolted for the vest.

“Fucking move!” Sgt. yelled. This vest is where the gas escapes, so by now we were sprint crawling out of the vest. I was the very last and started to get hit by the gas.

“Almost there!” He yelled again. I could feel the cold grasp of the frozen tundra as we neared the exit. I, however, could also feel a weird sensation though my body. It didn’t hurt; it was just an uncomfortable feeling. We hit the exit and made a mad dash for the wood line. By now, helicopters were buzzing all over the sky. We managed to make it out undetected and without casualty.

“Everybody good?” Hienz asked.

“I’m good.” Sgt. said. Followed by Moore with the same response.

“Green?” Sgt. questioned, looking for me. I felt like I could talk. But then breathing started to get hard, and my hands started to shake.

“I’m……I’m…” Was all I could get out before passing out.

All I felt was darkness. Slowly, my senses started to return, first feeling, then hearing. I could feel grass and a warm breeze and even heard birds chirping.

“Hold on, this isn’t adding up.” I thought. I was just in frozen tundra and now I felt warm and nice. Suddenly, voices started to occur.

“Here it is!” Exclaimed a raspy voice.

“What is it?” asked a up tone, almost hyper like voice.

“I don’t know, but Celestia might want to see this.” Answered an elegant, smarty like voice. I suddenly felt a weird aura surround me, and everything went black again.

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"What is this thing?" Rainbow Dash asked as Twilight levitated it up.

"Not sure, but what ever it is, Celestia will need to see it." She answered Dash.

"Is it hurt?" Fluttershy asked, with a slight worry to her voice.

"It seems to be stable. But, I have no idea what or who this thing is so lets just get it to the library and get a hold of Celestia." Twilight informed that as she picked up the pace to her library. The sun was just setting so soon Celestia would be asleep, so Twilight knew they needed to make haste in their return to the library. Then, she noticed the creature stur around in her magic aura before going back into its unconsciousness. What ever it was, Twilight knew it needed help and fast.