Atlas Corporation Residence Camp

Four Years Since Seattle Attack

As the Atlas Warbird decloaked and landed on the camp's helipad, three Atlas Soldiers disembarked and began heading into the camp.

"Welcome to Detroit!" Joker called out to Twilight, Mitchell, and Gideon, fresh from an operation in Rio de Janeiro. "How've you been holding up?"

"Decent enough, Joker." Twilight smiled. "If the KVA's still out there, we're still at work."

"Amen to that." Gideon said. As the four of them regrouped and headed into the Barracks Area, Twilight let herself relax as she took in the sights of the now recovering city of Detroit. Ever since the operation in Seattle, Twilight had changed significantly. She had cut her mane back to about shoulder-length, and gotten a tattoo on her right shoulder of the Greek Caduceus. She had been promoted to an Atlas Lieutenant, and Irons considered her one of his best. She had even made plans for introducing the Corporation to Equestria once the KVA was defeated.

Now, she stood with her old friends once again as they walked through the main path through the camp. Despite their living conditions, the citizens there were pretty jovial, playing baseball or doing other forms of recreation.

Then, they approached the Hazard-Scan Checkpoint, and stood still alongside her friends. Green LEDs scanned her for radiation, and they passed through the gate.

"So, we still on the clock?" she asked.

"Yeah. Our target is Dr. Pierre Danois." Mitchell said. "Hades's right hand man and a wanted criminal. He's holed up in the Midtown area hospital. Torrez should have our bikes ready."

As they approached the garage and vehicle bay, Torrez tossed them their keys and the five of them mounted up. As they proceeded to the checkpoint, three Atlas AST units stopped them.

"Name and order number." one bellowed.

"Gideon, order 5527." Gideon replied as his tac-pad was scanned. The AST Unit motioned them forward as the gate opened, revealing the desolation outside the camp. As they drove off into the city, they didn't notice three soldiers wearing black and yellow instead of the Atlas-standard red watching them through a MORS Sniper Rifle.

"We moving in?" one asked.

"Negative." the leader replied. "Kingpin's orders were to keep an eye on them, not to interfere with their mission. If they need support at any moment, we engage and then make ourselves scarce. We get questions from them, you know how to respond."

"Yes, sir."

As the three soldiers began to follow the Atlas units on their own bikes, which were lighter and less bulky, they cloaked and disappeared into the night.

====

"Huh." Twilight said, looking at her bike's holomap. It had displayed three brief signals registered as unknown contacts for a second, then they had vanished.

"What's wrong?" Mitchell asked.

"Apart from the feeling that we're being watched, I got three unknown contacts on my scanner for a moment, then they were gone." she replied. "KVA?"

"Shouldn't be." Gideon said. "No one's clear to be in this sector apart from us and a few Hazmat crews."

"Maybe it's one of those crews." Torrez suggested.

"Probably." Joker said. "Keep an eye on it, Twi."

"You got it."

As the Bikes came to a stop, Joker took Torrez and Mitchell to do recon on the hospital, while Twilight and Gideon flanked left through a desolated elementary school.

"Hazmat truck, up ahead." Twilight said, scanning the license plate. Strangely, it wasn't linked to any clean-up crews monitored by Atlas, and they were the only ones allowed in this area.

"Their suits are gone, too." Gideon noted. "Joker, we've got an abandoned clean-up van, suits missing. Treat hazmats as hostile unless confirmed friendly."

"Roger that." Joker replied. As Twilight and Gideon entered the school, they passed through the lobby and into a hallway...only to be greeted by several dead civilians, and judging by the smell and their condition, they had been there a while.

"Yeah, that's not right." Twilight grimaced. "KVA, there's no doubt."

"They were fucking executed." Gideon sighed. "One bullet each, back of the chest or head."

"Let's move." Twilight said. As they proceeded to a burnt-out and destroyed balcony through a stairwell, they saw the only way across to the rendezvous was over several pieces of rebar and construction material.

As they trekked over their precarious obstacle, Twilight and Gideon froze at several humans in Hazmat suits below them, armed with KVA weaponry.

"Let 'em pass, Twi." Gideon whispered. Twilight stood deathly still as the KVA exited the building and went out of sight.

"What now?" she whispered.

"Let's find the rest of the team." Gideon said as he prepared to take a step, but Twilight pulled him back with her magic.

"What the hell, Twi?" he growled.

"I saw it buckling under your weight. You had two seconds before you would fall and alert every KVA within five or so meters that we were here." Twilight hissed. "Watch your step."

Gideon tested the platform, and saw she was right.

"Nice catch." he sighed as they boost jumped over to the other side before proceeding to the street. However, the three soldiers from before were watching them through binoculars built into their HUDs.

"Is she the one we're after?" one asked.

"Affirmative." the leader replied. "Isolate and deliver the package to her. Then we return to the mission."

"Yes, sir!"

====

As Twilight took point into the street, she saw a blinking blue light from the curbside in front of her. She turned around to see Gideon speaking over the radio with Prophet and Joker, thus she had time.

She picked up the object, only to realize it was a data drive with a strange logo on it. It was of a grecian or roman style helmet with wings, emblazoned with lightning bolts and three letters in yellow.

STF

Twilight raised her eyebrows. Someone cleared wanted her to find this, and by her guess, it was the three contacts from before. She pocketed the drive and motioned Gideon forward.

"Friendlies up ahead." Gideon said as Torrez, Mitchell, and Joker waved them into a sheltered ambulance.

"Clock's ticking, guys." Mitchell said. "Danois is still at the hospital, but that could change at any moment. We need to move fast and quiet, otherwise we'll be overrun."

"Plus, those KVA were in Hazmat suits." Twilight added. "If they're in disguise, there's bound to be a lot more of them then we thought."

"Agreed." Gideon said. "We need to finish the mission, now."

"Then let us give you cover as you advance to the hospital. We'll have reactionary forces inbound once your reach your target."

The five Atlas units spun around to see three human-like mirages outside the ambulance. They wore armor that was of a new design to Twilight, alongside Exo-Suits. The strange parts were the helmets they wore, which had multiple eye-slits and their leader had a yellow stripe on the forehead.

As they came forward, the helmet clicked and retracted its faceplate, revealing a man with tanned skin and brown eyes.

"Who are you?" Gideon asked.

"That's classified, sir, but we're on the same side." the man replied.

"How can we know?" Twilight retorted. The man looked at her and spoke again.

"I can tell you my name, but that's all you're getting." he said. "I'm Knox. That's Harper and Diaz. The KVA have a killzone built on the road that leads to the hospital, manned with RPGs and a machine gun. Take a look."

Knox projected a hologram of the area, and the Atlas units saw he was correct.

"We can take care of the heavy weaponry." Knox continued. "But the infantry is up to you. Once Danois is secure, we'll extract you back to the Atlas camp. However, let me caution you about one thing."

"What?" Mitchell asked.

"This operation and all subsequent interactions between us never happened." Knox said. "Let's move."

Gideon nodded and the once five, now eight soldiers proceeded to move to cover inside the street that led to the hospital. Several KVA units were mounted near the entrance, and two had RPGs.

"Engage on my mark." Gideon said as the soldiers lined up their sights on their chosen targets.

"....Mark!"

As the sounds of gunfire erupted, Twilight opened up with her Bal-27, though something suggested to her that Knox and his team were up to something that she couldn't quite piece together.

Until she could, she'd fight with them and go with the flow.

Author's Note

Update!

Next chapter - Danois's extraction and the Sentinels begin to monitor Twilight as Atlas preps for the operation in Santorini to eliminate Hades...

And in Equestria, the crew at the cabin wonders what could be happening to Twilight...