Chapters Adrian got up next to the wrecked chopper. His PCV, or Personal Combat Vestment, had saved him.
"Power: zero percent, seek charging station." The vest's integrated voice system said.
He looked at the wreckage. The whole team was dead, except Tower was missing. He seemed to be in a forest of some sort. He trotted forward. An extremely deep ravine was in front of him. A steel bridge was a ways away. He trotted to it and put one hoof on the structure. The metal screeched and fell into the ravine. A series of buildings was on the other side. A tree was suddenly felled. It landed over the ravine. Adrian cantered over it. It started to creak. However, it was sturdy enough to hold him.
Now on the other side, he could see there was a fence with barbed wire on it. He was trained to avoid these, but seeing the circumstances, he'd rather take his chances with the wire.
He put his front hooves on the fence, only to be electrocuted by it. His armor was a great conductor for the electricity. He fell on the ground.
Adrian woke up with a scientist peering over him. He looked excited.
"Hey, this one is alive!" He called out.
A few more galloped to him. They helped him back on his hooves.
"We saw you get shocked by that fence." One of the scientists explained.
Adrian looked over to the right. A scientist was attempting to revive another soldier. The soldier had something pulsating on his head. It got up and swung at the stallion.
Adrian galloped to the scientist. He punched the crab off it's head. The body fell.
He crushed the creature under his hoof.
"Thank you, You've saved me. That crustacean-like creature's capabilities seem strange. I must explore this further." The science team member said as he pulled a scalpel and cut the alien's body.
"Help! Somepony please!" A voice rang from down the hall.
Adrian dashed down the hall.
A zombie had been slashing at this scientist's body. He was still alive, barely.
A dead security guard had a gun in his holster. The guard's right hoof seemed to have been reaching it. Adrian levitated the gun from his holster. He fired at the zombie's head. It shook and fell after a few shots.
"Thank you..." He managed to get out.
Another scientist trotted their way.
"What happened here? We heard gunshots." He asked just before seeing the dying science team member.
"Walter! This stallion needs medical attention!" The scientist shouted back the other way.
What Adrian assumed to be Walter galloped into the room.
"Yes, Dr. Hauer?"
Dr. Hauer indicated his hoof to the dying scientist.
"O-oh my word." He gasped as he trotted to him.
After attempting to perform CPR, he placed a hoof over his throat latch.
"He died, probably from his wounds. I didn't get here in time." He stated.
"I told Dr. Hunt not to go out there, but he just wouldn't listen." Dr. Hauer lamented.
"You should go elsewhere, Mr. Sheepherd, you've helped all you can. " He said as he looked at his dogtag which showed his last name.
Adrian trotted through the door, the scientists watched him go out with their eyes full of hope.
The room was decimated, walls had been broken, there were corpses strewn about.
Adrian cantered to a reception desk behind a shattered window. A security guard lay on the ground. Shards of glass, stuck in his body, legs splayed out from him. Blood dripped from the wall behind him. A burst of some kind of energy must have hit the area. Maybe it was the same thing that destroyed Goose 7.
He opened a door to a lab. A gun was pointed at him.
"Freeze!"
Adrian threw his hooves in the air.
"Aw, hay. Sorry about that, friendo." The overweight security guard said, lowering his firearm.
"Name's Otis. Yours?" He waited for an introduction.
"Not much of a talker I see."
A zombie slammed it's hooves through the door behind Otis, It seized his throat latch. This took him by surprise, causing him to drop his pistol. The zombie lifted Otis into the air by his neck.
"Quick... Do something!" Otis gasped.
Adrian quickly took the gun and shot the parasite on the zombie's head.
It tightened it's grip, and suddenly fell.
Otis started to breathe heavily.
"Thank you, Mr... Sheepherd." He said, looking at Adrian's dogtag.
Otis unlocked the broken door and opened it.
On the other side was a large hallway with a high ceiling.
A scientist galloped across the dark corridor Adrian just entered. He started to slam his hooves on a steel door.
"For Celestia's sake, open the door!!" He shouted.
A colossal, bipedal alien with glowing red eyes ran toward him.
"Oh Celestia, we're doomed!"
It stomped it's foot onto him. Parts of the scientist flew onto the walls.
Adrian galloped past the monster and crawled into a vent. The monster ran in his direction, crouching at the vent. It reached a clawed hand in, trying to retrieve the tiny soldier. It snarled and shot fire through the vent. It singed Adrian's tail.
He continued through the vent, eventually getting to the other side of the wall. He trotted a few steps when he heard a loud crash behind him. Drywall fell from the ceiling. The whole wall behind him buckled before the monster he tried to get away from.
A dead soldier was near Adrian with a knife on his belt. He levitated the knife off the marine as the gigantic alien picked him up. He jammed the knife into the monster's glowing, red eye.
It let out a bellowing roar and threw him against the wall. Adrian got back up almost instantly and galloped away.
It started running after him.
A squad of marines trotted by.
"What the hay is that thing!" One shouted.
They fired at it with their assault rifles, but it was no use, it was beyond bullets, not even a missile could be nearly enough power. It stomped on one, grabbed the commander, and bit his head off, cigarette and all. Blood, like a fountain spurted out. The last five galloped for their lives, One was crushed underfoot, the other tripped, turning to face the monstrosity.
"No! Stay away from me, you beast!" The marine shouted, backing away with his back hooves.
The titanic alien seized the bite-sized soldier and crushed him, blood dripping from it's giant talons. The last three galloped past Adrian. it sprinted toward Adrian, A booming growl in it's throat. Adrian ducked between its feet, the monster turned back to face him. One eye still shut with a gaping wound. Sickly yellow blood oozed from the opening.
Adrian skidded on his hooves for the assault rifle the marine dropped, picking it up with his magic.
He aimed the automatic rifle at it's face, firing into it's other of three eyes, ten bullets hit their mark, five in each eye.
The beast howled, the noise reverberating off the cold steel walls and ceiling. It strode about, disoriented from blindness.
Adrian galloped past it again, bursting through a door. The three marines were missing, twelve hooves and legs were strewn about the floor, blood still gushing.
Multiple blue beams illuminated the otherwise pitch-black corridor. Adrian lowered his night-vision visor over his gas mask.
His vision turned bright green as he turned them on.
Three silhouettes flipped over the lasers, not one touched them.
His improved vision revealed that the room was an open space before the corridor, a large hole in the floor was in the corner.
His weapon was ripped from his grasp, the shadow then proceeded to kick his snout with it's back hoof, in a three-hundred sixty degree turn, cracking the lens on his gas mask.
Adrian punched the shadow, it recoiled with the hit, clutching at it's snout.
It lifted a pistol and fired at Adrian's head, the helmet protected him.
He punched it again. It backed into a laser, an explosion lit up the room. It sent both Adrian and the silhouette flying at the wall, except the shadow was in pieces.
Another shot at his vest, the bullets were caught in the protective combat vest.
Adrian bucked the shadow back into the large abyss in the ground.
A shotgun lay in the other corner, probably from a dead marine.
He levitated the firearm and shot both barrels into the last shadow. They were all dead, he only needed to get past the tripmines.
He trotted carefully, minding each step.
When he came to the mines, he ducked low.
Once past, he trotted out the door.
As soon as the door shut, Adrian heard the mines detonate, followed by blood spilling.
He was outside in the Everfree at night, a group of seven fellow soldiers stood outside. A 50 caliber bullet wedged itself in the head of one.
"Squad, we've got hostiles!" One with a red beret shouted.
There was a silhouette with a sniper rifle on top of a tree.
Adrian fired his assault rifle with the team of six, the figure eventually fell.
"Sheepherd, you're a sight for sore eyes." the red beret said, "We thought everypony died in Goose 7."
The team trotted uneasily in the woods. A screeching noise echoed out in the distance. Crows squawked in the night.
A scientist galloped towards them.
"The military's arrived to our calls! quick, Dr. Manefried! we can-" He was forced to the floor by a marine.
"What are you doing!? I thought you were supposed to save us!"
"Listen here Egghead, we're here to cover up you and your team's mistake." He said with a knife to the scientist's throat.
"If you don't tell us where this Dr. Manefried is, I'm going to kill you. If you rat out your friend, I might let you live."
"Dr. Manefried! It's safe out here!"
Another stallion in a labcoat galloped towards them.
"Are you sure? I heard some struggling..." He asked.
A marine shot Manefried in the head.
"No!" The scientist shouted.
"Squad, we've got a prisoner." The red beret said.
They strung him up to two trees.
"Sheepherd, you make sure he doesn't get away, the rest of us will scout ahead." The commander said as they trotted off.
"Surely you're not like them..." He said quietly.
Adrian shook his head.
"My name is Dr. Adam Hayshire. I worked in sector B Coolant Reserve. Dr. Manefried, and I along with Officer Rayfeld, attempted to escape the facility, Rayfeld, I'm afraid, crawled into a vent and never came back. Manefried, well, you know how he died." He explained.
Adrian took out his knife.
The scientist's eyes widened.
"What are you going to do with that?"
Adrian cut the ropes off his hooves.
"Oh, you're letting me free?"
Adrian pointed the opposite way his chopper arrived.
"Thank you, Sheepherd! I won't forget you!" Adam called back, disappearing into the mist.
The soldiers arrived almost as soon as he left.
"Sheepherd, did you let him go!?" Red Beret shouted.
Adrian acted panicked, pointing the opposite way from the scientist, as if something horrible had taken him.
"Oh, I guess ya couldn't fight that... thing, I saw it too, with the red eyes." The stallion he now recognized as Tower said.
Adrian nodded.
"We found out who was attacking us earlier." Red Beret continued, "It seems those black-ops agents that were sent with the choppers are out to get us."
Adrian saw something move behind a bush. His eyes darted to a tree, which the leaves started to rustle.
He looked at Red Beret urgently.
"Ay, what's the matta with you, Sheepherd?" Tower asked.
He pointed his hoof to the bush.
"Aw, roadapples! It's an ambush!" Red Beret shouted.
The squad was rained upon by ammunition. Adrian fired a grenade from the assault rifle's second barrel. It exploded between four black-ops agents. By the end of it, only Red Beret, Tower, and another soldier were left alive.
"Alright... Let's get the tags off these men, Sheepherd. Private Cooper, let's get these agents an honorable grave. Tower, guard the area." Red Beret said reluctantly.
It seemed like hours getting all the dogtags. He handed them over to Red.
"Let's see," He said as he turned on his radio.
"Report: Sigma team to Santego, A platoon of Black-ops agents engaged us in the Black Forest Woods, casualty report: DaReign, Halhoof, Withers, and Green Beret, all down. Request backup."
"Red, who's left with you?" The operator replied.
He looked at the remnant of his squad.
"Uh, Cooper, Sheepherd, Tower and I." He reported.
"Stay where you are, sending a squad in your co-ordinates." The operator replied.
They heard guns firing in the distance.
After an hour, the squad arrived.
"Lieutenant Fray, Private Schmidt, Hoofini, Mann, and Lang, reporting for duty, sir." Fray said, a hoof to his head.
"At ease. Let's get a move on." Red Beret urged.
A tree falling creaked in the distance.
"Aw hay, it's that thing that took our chopper down!" Tower shouted.
"Squad! Fall back!" Red commanded.
A giant manta ray floated behind them.
It shot a beam at a tree, it exploded into splinters behind them.
"Run! Keep up Hoofini!" He shouted.
They galloped faster.
Hoofini stopped, throwing his sniper rifle in front of Adrian.
'Hoofini! What the hay are you doing!?"
The ray hovered over Hoofini, he pointed a hoof at a large, slit-pupil eye on it's underside.
"Shoot it!" He shouted just before the ray shot a beam at him, disintegrating the stallion completely.
Adrian levitated the rifle, aimed, and fired directly into the pupil.
It shrieked, a rip in space appeared, the ray flew into it.
"Adrian! You killed it! You're going to get a medal, if we do make it out alive." Red Beret congratulated.
A security guard galloped toward them. Red Beret pointed his gun at him.
"Don't shoot! Aim at that beast!" He panicked.
A colossal worm sprung from under the dirt and towered over them.
The facility nearby had red lights pulsating from the walls.
An explosion flared out in the distance.
The shockwave approached, flinging trees up from their roots.
"O-oh Celestia..." Tower gasped.
Adrian sat in the helicopter, a soldier next to him, and two in front. He was wearing a helmet, on it were a night-vision visor, a gas mask was strapped onto his face. He wasn't quite sure where they were going.
"Anypony know where we're going?" His friend Tower asked.
"Could be your mother's house, it seems pretty familiar so far." The soldier next to Sheepherd said.
Two soldiers in the back started laughing.
"But seriously, nopony knows where we're going." The same one answered.
A strange creature flew over the chopper next to theirs. The alien shot a yellow beam below itself, it arced to the chopper and it disappeared completely.
"Goose 5, come in, do you read?" The radio repeated.
"Delta team? Are you there?" The operator asked more urgently.
"Goose 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12. this is control, Goose 5, 4, 3, and 9 are down, do you copy?"
"This is Goose 6. 5, 3, 4, and 9 are down. They're off radar."
A screeching noise rang above them. A beam hit their engines.
"This is Goose 6, we're going down! We've been hit by an unidentified craft!"
The helicopter hit the ground.
The squad found themselves in the same spot they had been, except only the forest floor was there, the rest seemed to be nonexistent.
A portal opened and a pony in a suit strolled out.
"The... Government.... Has sent me to congratulate the lot of you... For an... Outstanding cover-up... That is, only Tower, Red Beret, Cooper, and... Adrian Sheepherd..."
The others in the squad shattered almost as if they were glass panes, rather than ponies.
The shards flew toward The suited pony.
The suited stallion reached out a hoof and caught the shards.
"I... took the liberty of stripping you of your weapons, they were.... All government property after all...
"Adrian, I appreciate your work... Especially since you... Got rid of a few of our... Pests." He said, while crushing a shard on the ground.
"However... You never killed a scientist... Why's that?"
"Oh... What's wrong... Speechless? You always seemed to be quite the talker... Before your... Mission."
"Until next time... When our... Hour of need comes... Again."
A flash of green filled the room and they were suddenly drifting in emptiness.
