Blacklight; Mantis Chronicles.

MORAL LEVEL! 66%

New perks:
BOAT MAGGOTS! Some Anus-hat back on the boat has totally screwed up. Because mantis teams. DO NOT! Minus 34% to squad moral. All Off shore support attempts are reduced to a success rate of 1%

INCOMING, HOLD FAST! Getting the shit nearly blasted out of you tends to steel for anything that might try and blow you up. Plus 50% chance to resist any damage from wounds caused by explosive weapons!
******
I stared at the statue of what ancient pre-war Equestria declared to be TRUE heroic souls. Stunned by the sight. These where creatures the world had idolized in a way that had survived the war. To ensure that the memory of what they represented would never be forgotten. I slipped my faceplate and visor open and idly slipped an S-ration into my maw and chewed it well still in amazement. The sight of the "Heros" was perfectly highlighted by the rising sun, that coupled with the Love energy enriched chocolate wafer ration helped restore my stamina and energy after the flight from the cluster bomb. My awe was broken by the shouts of sonic. I turned to my team and saw the scuffle.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT SHIT ABOUT STRIP!? HUH TELL ME!?" Sonic was on his hind legs, Tail dragging in the mud for balance, helmet already off, pushing up into strips' chest forcing him upright onto back hooves, with sheer rage and aggression. His stubby muzzle and Jagged fangs and seemingly compound eyes of a Solenopsis, made him seem more sinister without the helmet we all wore, which where designed to instill fear in ponies and other creatures.

I made a move for Strip and District went for sonic. But Boonaker and Foxhole respectively held us back. "This has to be settled like bugs." Was all Boonaker whispered. I settled, but district kept fighting off foxhole.

Strip tossed off his helmet with magic, revealing the longer snout, more curved fangs, and narrow flat solid eyes of a Clavata Strip brought both front hooves up in a devastating skyward hammer strike under the mandibles that sent sonic flying back into the ground. "You got a problem with me asshole!?"

"I got a fucking problem with you nearly KILLING US!"
Sonic yanked his breach hammer from its holster into his maw and rolling to his hooves, gave out a snort and in the early morning rain of red. Then dashed with all might he had left in him at a charge. Head long.

It had to stop. Or some bug was gonna die.

Before I knew it Boonaker was at Sonics' side. With a front hoofed pivot to a back leg buck, Boonaker slammed into sonics' side sending him flying into a burnt tree. It cracked with the impact. The mud under Boonakers front legs gave way the next instant however sending him helmet first into the mud. Strip had already yanked his knife and tossed it into the air, holding it in a magical field. He dashed towards the now dazed sonic intent on a kill strike to the youngest of our unit.

I focused all my magic and teleported instantly between him and sonic. I gave a small gasp as the carbon fiber knife slipped and cut past the fibers of my sneak suit, broke through my exoskeleton shell, cutting the carapace skin underneath, and slid deep into my flesh to the hilt. Strips' face lost all color. Looking almost grey in shock eyes wide and watery with tears and the red rain. I looked down at the knife in my shoulder. I sat in bright green nearly glowing plasma, sparkling with nanomachines. A mild state of shock over too me for a second as I saw it was slowly dribbling out across the handle and dripping into the reddish mud.

My shock was broken by the stutters of Strip Wire.

"By the queen. J-Juniper I... I didn't."I kept my magical force strong holding the knife into my shoulder as strip tried to use his to pull out the blade. It was no contest. Adrenalin does wonders for a body also the S-ration probably helped. I sighed in the cold red rain and locked eyes with strip. Burning into his soul with my own eyes channeling my own magic into my ocular cavities to illuminate them and to enhance my voice with echoing effects, to seem even more imposing. "We don't draw weapons, on our comrades, Strip Wire! Look around you. We are your family! Is this anyway to act? Get a hold of yourself, and get back on mission!"

To my side Boonaker was helping Sonic to his hooves. After handing sonic his hammer and ensuring it was secure in its holster, Boonaker gave him a swift uppercut into the gut, winding sonic and dropping him into the mud making him gasp for air.

"OK SHOWS OVER! Strip Sonic, when we get back to the regal claw its the brig for both of you. Deck Cleaning duty for a month! Further more-" "Wait!"I stood and strode over to Boonaker limping slightly. "They still owe me some plasma. That CMS was the sloppiest I have ever seen. Come see me after a week in the brig when we get back. I will give you a lesson you both wont soon forget. Now, Boonaker? Can you get this outta me?". Boonaker wrapped his magic field around the knife. I put my hoof on his chest "Easy now, careful." Boonaker let out a chuckle "Always" and without any pain slid the blade out, holding it in his magic field "Ya know Juniper, these things will kill ya. " Then tossed it to the ground in front of strip who quickly wiped off the plasma and put it away. "We have a moral issue it seems" Boonaker muttered to on a private coms channel.

I eyed the two as they went way from each other. "There is no moral issue. We have just been off mission for too long. In a situation without the same support information backup we had gotten so comfortable with. It's clearly wearing on all of us."

Boonaker nodded and put his front hooves on my shoulder wound Pulling the barding apart to take a better look at the wound with his robotic eye "Gonna need to give you a medical injector for that. It's a pretty deep wound, but you should be fine in a bit." and proceeded to check all his bardings magic pockets for where he put the Injection Syringes. Like all changelings boonaker had a "certaint tick" when stressed. His was forgetting where he put things in his pockets.
******
My sneak suit barding still gave out a few tiny sparks from the point of damage. The active camo system clearly damaged. I would be forced to use only mantis camo till I could get it repaired- Unlikely. Or replaced. Equally unlikely. The barding was build to resist bullets and magical energy. The idea was a mantis would be the one doing the stabbing if they got that close, not the enemy.

Oddly my wound didn't hurt at all. Well only A SLIGHT tiny twinge of pain. What with the Adrenalin wearing off, and the entire scene winding down, my body was only now reacting to the effects it had been experiencing in a slow ebb.
******
District was off lecturing Sonic in the shade of the statue in the center of the park. Foxhole just sat in the mud by a burnt tree and kept watch on Strip. Who was sitting against the tree. Staring at his own hooves in shock. Clearly feeling some CSFD from his act. I dont think Strip ever had to hurt another changeling before. Fox kept trying to offer Strip some of his S rations. But Strip was still too deep in the "shit" his mind had made from what he did to notice anything other then his focus on magically dismantling and reassembling his primary weapon.

Sonic was letting the whole courtyard of the park know our position from his argument with District, which ended with him bopping Sonic one square on the back of the head with a sharp hoof cuff.

As I thought of it Strip and Sonic never served with us during the last inter-hive civil war. A minor boarder dispute between the Clavata and Solenopsis hives that turned violent. Strip was in hospital at the time from a chest infection, and Sonic had yet to sign up. So the hostility between them would not be unlikely if Sonic had fought as a hive militia for his respective colony.

But they are both mantis now. That petty racism and individualistic attitude had to stop.

My thought was broken by Boonaker slamming the medical injector into the knife wound.
******

Sliding it right past the cut barding with ease. It stung like an absolute diamond dog BITCH bite, and I had to grind my fangs to keep from screaming in distress as the Sharp needle like protrusion slid into my flesh. Nano machine and painkiller laced plasma began to burn my insides at the wound as it started to knit and kneed and reseal up my flesh my skin carapace, and exoskeleton back to battle ready levels. Painkillers just starting to wash out any feeling distress. Changeling medicine was hooves and heads above any "magic potion" of equestrian make, given the years we focused studying physical body and its interaction with chemical compounds and emotional magical energy, in comparison to the pure magical ephemeral, that ponies had focused on.

I'd go so far as to suggest it was a more scientific form of alchemy Zebra practiced, with a far more precise aspect, of mechanical microscopic engineering about it. A price we gladly pay for the better level of medical technology that works on a physical real level, then some pointless magic ponies buy into. Those healing potions cant reset bones or joins. Ponies use a toxic substance named hydra for that, named for the multi-headed beast they harvest the chemicals needed to make it from. It also takes a lot of doses of healing potions, just to heal flesh, let alone internal organs.

Changelings have A blood-like plasma that keeps our flesh, muscles and internal organs working. Hard, insect like, carapace skin, to hold our selves together. Exoskeleton like shells to ensure we don't just explode into a green paste, by sheer weight of gravity on our bodies.

But I must digress. I'd trust nano machine plasma over any healing potion- "GHAAAA!" The pushdown on the syringe sent my pain threshold to the max. Like a literal anti machine rifle round had grazed me. My mind started to go fuzzy from the dose of painkillers kicking in full. "DEAL WITH IT POSTAL!" Boonaker growled as he forced the syringe in deeper. Best to be safe then sorry when it comes to medical treatment I could not deny that. I tried to stay focused and think of something else.

******

Often when a mantis took a critical life threatening hit in the field the entire squad would go into what is called officially "offensive watch combat" and proceed to utterly gut and quarter anything that gets in the way of the team and a med-evac chopper. But with communication with the boat down that would be impossible, however my wound wasn't anything an injector could not fix with its single shot. My mind drifted thanks to the pain killers I thought about the concept of "Offensive watch" and of Sgt. "Klendathu". I as well as many mantis members all had training from him in the form of "emergency battlefield triage and combat medicine" He was often called "Doctor 'Dathu" by new recruits in training.

He made famous the line. "WE ALL GO HOME OR NO BUG GOES HOME!"
No surprise he was once part of 'The Bug's' mantis squad along side Boonaker. Only changelings 'The Bug' taught could make such acts seem easy as breathing.

Every mantis knew "DR. Dathu's Book of internal battlefield medicine. " front to back in at least Equestrian, Changeling and Zebrican languages. A finishing test for medical skill approval was to be able to sew up a shoulder wound. Underwater with both front hooves chained behind the back underwater and blindfolded. Using only your teeth a Sensory vein quill and your own natural silk.

Before you question it. Yes they do actually have you SHOT as part of the requirement to be a mantis. The reason being he said was "You never know when you will be taken prisoner tied up, blindfolded, shot and tossed into a river I should know. It happened to me 3 times"
******

"Juniper? Juniper?! Snap out of it!" I was being shaken by Boonaker. Apparently I had been dragged into some bushes by him.

"Huh wha- what time is it?" My head was still fuzzy from the painkillers wearing off. My visor and faceplate had been slotted back to ready positions. The smell of stale recycled air calming my confusion.

He held a hoof to my helmet ventilator and spoke "Back in the world of the living huh? Foxhole spotted some Super stallions heading this way well scouting. You've been out for an hour" His voice was hushed.

"Super stallions? Here? How?"

"Drawn in by Sonic and Strips fight. As well as the argument he had with district, your little pain scream and my yelling at them didn't help." Made sense, even with the helmets on a loud yell stills ends up being heard. When the coms hit a certain decibel they shut off and the actual outside speaker on the helmet activates.

"No sir. I mean the NEC drove all the hostile ones into the midland wastes didn't they?"

"Not all of them it looks like. Seems as if they missed a few." he pointed towards the park center "I also repaired your barding but your active camo is shot. Not that it'd be all that effective in the light with this rain."

I slowly made my way to turn around and crouched to my belly in the mud Slowly dragging my self from my front hoof tips till my helmet just barely had visibility of the park through the leaves.

******

Three big ugly, scarred furless sneering giant stallions where standing in the shade by the statue. If rumors ponies spouted of Celestia being "big" where true, then these three where literal fucking mountains of muscle and hate. They all sported nasty looking weapons, one had a metal pipe and the other a cart bumper, both pounded into sword like shapes slung into leather straps within mouth reach. Save one, who had on an old pair of "wonderbolts" googles and carried a missile launcher battle saddle, he was also a touch more "fat" so I assumed he was the "leader". They looked pretty confused, Super stallions are not too smart, they just follow the biggest meanest one of the herd. Most they can understand is "might makes right"

The biggest one spoke in that usual gruff slurred tone. "Dag. Where ponies at? I no smell em. But we heard em!"
One spoke up. Dag Id assume. "I dunna boss. Dey was screaming round heres before. Maybe dey was running from what made em scream, Right Scrag?" "Boss we gotta go! we late for meeting . Plus we got no ponies for flying ponies!" the third one said. I stopped bothering to listen to the rest of the conversation.

My mind was locked on that phrase "Flying ponies" The enclave? The remnants? Here? If the 'Air Marshal' was really here, that was bad VERY bad.

I slowly pushed my self back into the bushes, stopping and freezing when they started to move out the park, and then proceeding to move
back in the bush when they where out of eyesight

I quickly and quietly moved to Boonaker. "Did you hear that? They said "flying ponies" that can only mean-"
"The Enclave" Boonaker cut me off. "Ok regoup on me."

It was as if the park came alive. Sonic and District appeared out a wall shaking off the mantis camo back to the normal sneaky dark blue-black. Strip literally rose out of a mud puddle and shook the mud and the camo color off. Foxhole popped out of a dumpster shaking the green from his camo.

They all walked over to the bushes entering as one and standing still long enough till there camo matched that of Boonaker and myself, before moving towards us.

"Well sir. Should we follow them?" Strip asked, already checking his SMG with his magic to make sure mud had fouled anything. Not that it would. It was just his habit when stressed before combat. Mine was taking any old prewar comics and magazines I came across that where undamaged. Loads of prewar history in those. The stress of seeing super stallions even got to Foxhole, who was already ratcheting back the Kinetic weight on the back of his breech hammer and flicking it forward with his magic.

"Nope. Not our mission. We continue onto the facility as planned. According to the holomap-" Boonaker brought up his robotic hoof and Checked "Its 15 blocks up. and 15 blocks over. But we can cut through the buildings starting with that apartment. " As the map shutdown Boonaker pointed at a Large apartment tenement, built with redbrick and in the usual Horse shoe shape, only with the left half clearly having crumbled away.

I coughed and rotated my shoulder Double checking it. It felt fine "Foxhole. Find us a way in."
******
Ponies had a knack for making the worst use of the most amount of space. The horseshoe shape of the tenement was meant to leave a space open for a cart lot but the damned building was only 3 stories tall a total waste of air space. But well Pegasus are faster then us we beat them in maneuverability. That's why we built "choppers" for speed. I always figured that's why the Enclave used vertibucks, for maneuverability. It also was probably bad for the landlord to have tenants getting the face smashed in well trying to fly home through the window so a runway would be good.

The front entrance was covered in collapsed rubble. Rather then wasting time clearing it foxhole and district just smashed in a first floor window that was boarded up. It took way less time then bothering with the rubble. We filed into the apartment Boonaker on point me on the rear. As I was helped in up the ledge by District, a giant explosion like a mini balefire bomb or a cart reactor cooking off resounded far into the north distance, the cloud just starting to fade in the noon sky.

"What in the queens name was that?" District asked as he pulled me in. "I hope its the super stallions and the enclave having a 'disagreement'" I chuckled as I rolled to my feet.

As our unit left the room for the apartment hall I stopped short when I heard the crinkle of paper and looked down. "Hullo!" I said to my self in pleasant surprise as I noticed what my right font hoof was on. A copy of Robucko-fun monthly comics the "TROTANATOR" Issue "With free game to go with comic". Still with the original gametape "Blast the bots" attached in a plastic bag. The date was depressing. Printed the day the bombs fell.

I paused for a moment and looked around at the room. It was the room of a child. In the corner of the closet two skeletons one adult one a foal where huddled together. By the skeletal hoof of the adult was a rusted gun and two shells covered in dust that still glinted brass. The wall had two splatters of old faded blood.
******

I wished chrysalis had killed that bint Celestia first chance she got. All the pain and suffering of the last 300years all creatures had felt in this hell. It was all the fault of that damned whore of the sun. I wondered if in her last miserable moments she felt fear same as these poor creatures. I doubted it. Knowing the history of that arrogant troll, she probably escaped without any fear to some personal stable. Still down there, laughing at all of the ponies stuck up on the surface dealing with the suffering she caused.

My mind snapped back to reality when a hoof came to my shoulder. It was Boonaker. "For the dead , the wages of war never changes, Postal. Innocents will always pay the highest of prices. All we can do is keep going. Come on, we can't save them. But there ARE some bugs we CAN save."

"Sir, yes sir." I nodded and magically levitated a sheet over the two skeletons and gave a small prayer to the queen for the poor lost souls. Since I knew there own princesses had no love for them. Then quickly stuffed the comic and gametape into one of my magic pockets on my barding and swiftly trotted with Boonaker to the rest of the team.
******

As we got to the main stair well Boonaker turned sharply and made the hoof sign for "get down" I crouched and Signed "confusion/why" He pointed a head to where sonic was laying rifle in the ready position already taking aim straight down the stairwell. My coms crackled to life with Sonics voice. "Ghouls, 15 of them. Ferals. Looks like they are eating some poor scavenger. Orders sir?" Boonaker leaned Into the stairwell and looked up. Then back down to the lower subbasement level. "Bleh why did it have to be ferals. I don't feel like scrubbing radioactive blood off my barding today. Lets try for the roof. "

We all started to slowly crouch and crawl up the stairwell making no sound. Then I heard it. The sound of a bottle falling down the stairs. Districts fat hooves had knocked it over. We all froze dead and watched as it bounced down the stairs off a wall and under the stair railing and plummeted out of sight falling to the floor with a smash. Then we heard it. The howling roar of a whole pissed off pack of ghouls who had dinner interrupted.

"RUN FOR IT!" Boonaker shouted as he tossed a grenade over the edge to hold them off. As it detonated it was like a runners staring gun and we all took off like a shot up the stairs our stamped for the roof door making the stairs rumble. When we got to the roof door we all turned and aimed down the stairs as District threw himself and slammed through the roof door smashing the lock and hinges clean off with all his weight against it. We all filed out backwards swiftly I helped district to his hooves, all our guns trained on the door to making sure no ghouls where going to follow. Then I heard the sound of guns cocking and voices behind me that made my carapace skin crawl.
******

"Well well what do we have here?" The first voice male spoke. Youngish

"Looks like some NEC rangers who done got lost." Second voice Female. Youngish

"We should give em a warm welco- HOLY SHIT THEY BROKE OPEN THE DOOR!?" Third voice male. Mid to late 20s.

We all slowly turned around. All save Foxhole till Sonic tapped him on the shoulder. We had run from a ghoul den. Right into a raider encampment on the roof. The impaled bodies on pikes was a dead give away. Those psychopaths loved the "blood and guts look" as much as the super stallions. Moments later that tell tale roar of radioactive freaks sounded out from the building. The raiders faces went utterly white with terror. Things where about to get interesting
******
ACCESSING RECORDS. Diary entry saved.