I dropped the corpse off my back, its blood staining my ‘sunrise’ suit of armor, standard protection for a loner such as me. I couldn’t bear to look at my commander in the face. I didn’t really need to either… I knew what her reaction would be, the same reaction everyone had the second I returned to my base: Shock.
Only one, monotone word managed to slip out of her mouth: “Report”.
I nodded.
We were a group of 5 ponies, all riflemen, proudly having our rifles strapped to our backs. Two of us had a civilian version of an M4A4, accurate, but reliability wasn’t its strong suit. The rest of us were watching over the rookies, the familiar feel of the strap dragging along my sensitive wing becoming a tad more… annoying than I remembered it. Hopefully I can deal with the eerie sensation of my feathers being ruffled…
While trying to find what was, quite possibly, the tiniest fucking artifact in the zone, no larger than a marble. At least it was shiny though.
I took a glance behind me, we all had the same weapon, ‘ol’ reliable’ we’d always call it, and… well, gryphon weapons were famous all around the planet for a reason, being so simple, easy to clean, accurate, and a perfect mold for installing modifications (whether internally or externally). Our particular model, the AN-94 (or Azkaban, if you’re particularly fancy) was nothing short of amazing, far better than most of Equestria’s gear.
Well, scratch that, Azkabans weren’t particularly modifiable, but they had a serious reputation to maintain against their Kalashnikov cousins, especially in the accuracy department.
We kept moving, one of my older comrades nudging me. I turned my head, staring at him with an eyebrow raised. I just couldn’t help being a dick at this point, I could be at the base, hanging out with other ponies, watching Evhe play the guitar, just chilling and having a good time. But no, we had to go look for the world’s most useful, tiny little shiny marble instead. “What?” I said, sounding as disinterested as I could only portray.
Losta, a green-coated and blue-maned unicorn snickered, and my eyebrow lowered. I couldn’t stop that wince.
“Remember when you first saw a dead pon-“
“Oh piss off!” I retaliated, shaking my head at him. He could always find that worst moment to rub it in, I swear. He was roughly the same age as me, and we’d been hunting artifacts since we were old enough to leave the base unchecked. Needless to say, it usually ended with us running away. When we did find an artifact, there always happened to be a group of stalkers, and they were more than willing to pull their guns away from our face for a price…
Until we decided to shoot back, that is.
“I was going to ask…” He caught my disinterested expression again “-what do you think the rookies up ahead are going to do once they find one?” He asked with a cocky grin plastered on his face. I can only pity the poor teenagers, who’re never going to live this down. Lord knows I can’t.
“Look at it in shock and, if we’re lucky, barf” I replied with a small smirk of my own coming into view. Yeah, for once, I could see the fun side of somepony getting a life-changing trauma.
The rookies didn’t seem to hear, or care, it seemed.
It wasn’t until ten minutes later that I saw one of them come to a total halt, and we all followed shortly after. Yep, I knew we’d find a corpse, now it’s going to be our fault, despite the fact that the everfree was riddled with these things. I walked around them for a second, giving a loud sigh. What I saw left me paralyzed as well… “It… can’t be…” I stammered, looking to everyone in the squad. Even Losta was staring at the corpse.
We recognized him, everyone did. Anyone and everyone who lived in the everfree and considered themselves a stalker knew who this was, the pony lying down, peacefully, in a pool of his own blood. The body seemed covered in his own ‘sunrise’ suit of light armor, a radioactive symbol on the side of his hood to indicate that he was a loner. When we turned the body around, we saw a gaping hole on the side of its head, no larger than a pistol round.
We all looked to each other quizzically… none of us could piece in our head how a stalker like this could ever be sneak-attacked. It simply made no sense. Rumor had it this was a stalker that could slip out of any mess, any trouble, even anomaly fields. He was so damn good at his job that ponies would pay thousands of bottle caps just to have him as an escort. He worked alone however, always spoke about how working as a team slowed him down dramatically.
And it wasn’t him being cocky, that’s for damn sure.
He’d always return to the base, telling the young foals about his adventures to the center of the everfree. Some called him a prodigy, others a legend. Some just called him a liar. What wasn’t a lie though, were the artifacts he brought, even going so far for our local trader to warn him about running out of cash if he kept up the finds.
And now he was dead, after a long, and eventful life the old man was dead, lying aside, finally resting in peace. None of us could believe it. Right beside him was his famous “Champion” rifle, an AK-47 Type I that had been modified to support 7.62x54mm ammo, designed for sniper rifles.
After some searching, we found the artifact we were looking for in his front pocket, but we knew we couldn’t just leave him there. We all decided to take him back to the base, and I was the one in charge of carrying him. We didn’t even speak on the way back.
I looked at the commander’s purple eyes, her white mane obstructing the view from one of her irises. I couldn’t bear looking at her for long, looking away at the floor.
Suddenly, I saw her taking the rifle the legendary stalker once wielded, placing it on her desk, and sitting on her chair, staring at it in thought.
I picked up the hint, and turned to leave, only stopping when I heard her words.
“The Everfree needs a hero…”
Author's Note
This is my first time writing anything, ever.
Let me know what you think ^^;
