Our Town

Eastern Mountains, Equestria

It was nighttime, and everypony in Our Town was asleep. That is, except for one. Blizzard Ski, the Watchpony. His task was to make sure no beast made it into the town during the night.

Ski was your typical earth pony, with a pale blue coat and white mane. His flashlight jumped from shadow to shadow, until he looked up at the sky.

"What in Celestia's name…" he murmured. A bright yellow light was cutting through the air, towards the upper part of the mountain near the town. Ski realized it was a meteorite, or some sort of stellar debris. Deciding the town would watch itself, Ski set out for the impact site.

====

It took a few minutes of rough hiking, but Ski reached the small plain where the light had settled. He looked around, then he noticed something odd.

A piece of glass, cracked and shattered. Ski's flashlight illuminated a second, much larger piece, then a large white orb. It was scorched from the impact with the ground, and it was covered in strange markings, including a red flag marked with a hammer and sickle. Ski approached the object, ready to run if possible.

Then, noticed a broken porthole, the source of the glass fragments. He shone his flashlight inside, and to his surprise, the inside was covered in black and red crystal or chitin. He attempted to break a piece off to show the other residents, pulling on a small spire with all his strength.

The only thing he got as a reward was a gash in his hoof.

"Ow!" he yelped. He brought his flashlight over to see how bad his injury was. To his relief, it was small, with only a small sliver of the material inside. Deciding he needed to return to the town, he took a step away.

Only to then start feeling rather warm. He looked at his hoof, and then, he gasped. Some kind of scab had formed over the cut, black and red, and web-like. He attempted to pull it off, only for the web to spread along his hoof and towards his chest. His screams went unheard as his eyes turned from blue to a deep red. Chitinous spikes lanced out of his back, and his last sentient thought was one of fear and horror. The newly infected Blizzard Ski, now an Apex Grunt, looked towards the town below him, his mouth dripping with black saliva. With an animalistic grunt, he set off down the mountain, towards Our Town.

====
Truth or Consequences
New Mexico
Quarantine Lab

Ash walked through the sealed Lab tent with a sigh. Five days ago, a handpicked team of Rainbow Six operators had infiltrated the Apex-infested town and not only retrieved Dr. McIntosh, but destroyed the source and extracted Jaeger from a downed helicopter. The infection was dying, albeit slowly and doggedly. Now, Ash was heading to see if Operator Doc had anything new.

"Ah, madame Ash!" Doc said. "I have made some progress!"

"Some is better than none." Ash replied. "What's new?"

"I managed to isolate the genetic makeup of the original parasite recovered from the capsule." Doc said. "It's similar to cancer, only instead of replicating cells, it transforms their protein construction in seconds. Simply put, it can infect and transform any bodily system into more Apex in a very short time."

"Can we cure or repel it?" Ash asked.

"Not yet." Doc replied. "The parasite has a very fine sense of danger, and it forms new cells rapidly whenever an anomaly is detected. It's almost like each cell has its own immune system. Many of my experiments have yet to work towards disabling it.'

"Keep at it, Doc." Ash said. Doc nodded and returned to his work as Ash exited. Soon, she was joined by Thermite, who did not look very happy.

"Penny for your thoughts." She asked.

"I'm feeling like this isn't over." Thermite said. "Something tells me that we'll all have to deal with this again sometime soon."

"Be careful what you wish for." Ash replied. "By the way, Delta Force sent us backup."

"Newbie?" Thermite asked.

"If you could call him that." Ash said. "His call-sign is Gaunt. Several black-op missions under his belt, exceptional record in service. He's all yours when he arrives."

"Alright then." Thermite said. "Where's he landing at?"

"Helipad, as always." Ash said. "See ya."

Ash was walking away when her cell phone rang.

"Ash here." she said.

"This is Six." said a distorted voice. "I need a team of operators for a ultra high-risk mission."

"Done." she said. "Briefing?"

"Available on channel 9852, frequency 11." Six replied. "Time is of utmost importance."

Before Ash could reply, the line was silent. As she notified Thermite, Smoke, Ying, Buck, Kapkan, Tachanka, Glaz, Recruit, and Gaunt to meet her in the briefing room, she could only wonder what Six would need from the Operators.

====

As the called Operators settled in, Glaz noticed a new figure. He was wearing black and auscam colored fatigues, a combat helmet, coupled with a scarf. The US Delta Force logo was printed on his ballistic vest.

"Who's the new one?" Recruit asked.

"Name's Gaunt." the man said. "Your newest member. Thermite briefed me before I came here."

"Nice to meet ya." Glaz said.

"Alright, settle down." Thermite said, as he and Ash came in. "We tuned in?"

"As of now, yes." Ash said. "Be briefed or be sorry."

On three plasma screen televisions, Six's briefing appeared.

"Operators, I have a special mission for you, one of utmost importance."

The screens showed a world map, that zoomed in on the state of Massachusetts, on a city east of Boston.

"This is Canter City." Six said. "A small city of around three thousand inhabitants. And also home to a cross dimensional portal to a world that we believe is the subject of another Apex parasite outbreak. Your mission is to investigate on the other side of the portal. Under cover of US military war games to occur nearby, you are to retrieve this woman, alias Sunset Shimmer."

The girl's image appeared on the screen, along with related info such as physique and appearance.

"She is believed to be an inhabitant of the other world, and you are to extract her, and find out what she knows of this other world. Once you have gathered enough intel, you are to head through the portal and establish First Contact. Depart at 1300 AM, Local time. Leave as soon as you all are ready. Six out."

The feed ended, and Gaunt crossed his arms.

"Sounds like bullshit." he said simply. "Too good to be true. I thought that parasite was from the former Soviet Union."

"Gaunt, that capsule was Russian, not the Parasite." Ash said. "All of you are to head out once prepped. A chinook will retrieve you from the helipad. Get moving."

The various operators shrugged, nodded and gathered their equipment and kits as they headed outside. Ash turned to Thermite, who shrugged.

"Why would there be a portal to another world in that city?" he murmured.

"No clue." Ash said flatly. "Let's get back to business here."

"By all means." Thermite said as they headed to Doc's lab.

Author's Note

Yep, new story.

I also need a cowriter, one that is familiar with the operators and the story of R6-Siege. Please comment or PM me if you can help!

Do you like it?