Jason sat on his bunk with his elbows resting on his knees as he stared out his window into the void of space. Twinkling stars and distant nebulae flashed by before his eyes, but he merely sighed as he watched them for what could have been the hundredth time. He slowly turned his head around until he saw his equipment resting in the corner of the room. Dressed in his jet black undersuit, he pushed off of the bed and moved to adorn his gear.

He grabbed the woodland camouflaged vest and strapped it onto his torso. Next, he grabbed both pieces of thigh armor and clipped them into place on his legs. He fumbled with the buckle on the left thigh piece for a moment before it finally complied, and he was able to move on to the calve armor and boots. Once they were all fastened, he placed the shoulder guards and forearm armor in their respective locations on his body. He grabbed his gloves and slipped them on one by one before looking over to his rifle leaning against the wall.

With another melancholy sigh, he grabbed the rifle and slung it over his shoulder. He grabbed his helmet and checked the interior as he pressed the 'on' button and watched the series of flashing lights while the helmet booted up. Once he was satisfied that everything was in working order, he turned the helmet back off and turned to leave. Before he even took a step forward, there was a knock at the door, and Jason already knew who it was. He opened the door to reveal Eddie and Mike, both kitted out in similar gear to his own, only Eddie's gear was set up for explosives while Mike's gear was designed around his role as the SAW gunner.

"We're about five minutes out. You want to meet with the rest of the squad, Sarge?" Eddie asked.

"Yeah, let's get to the ship." Jason replied.

With that, the trio headed out and through the hallways of the crew quarters towards the flight deck. After a few minutes of walking in complete silence, Mike turned towards Jason and gave him a lopsided look.

"Hey, Sarge? You alright? You seem kinda quiet lately." He asked.

"I'm fine. Just a little tired is all." Jason replied.

Mike nodded, apparently satisfied with the answer.

"SERGEANT MCKNIGHT, PLEASE REPORT TO THE BRIDGE. SERGEANT MCKNIGHT, PLEASE REPORT TO THE BRIDGE." A static voice rang out over the intercom, directing the trio's attention to the speakers.

Jason sighed, "Guess we're gonna have to go see what that's about." He said.

"Want us to meet you at the landing bay, Sarge?" Eddie asked.

"No, it's fine. Come along with. Whatever he wants me for, it probably involves you guys too." Jason replied.

With that, they headed off in the direction of the bridge. After a few minutes of wandering around the large ship's corridors, the group arrived at the flight deck. Jason punched a series of numbers into the keypad, and after some metallic whirring, the doors opened. The three Marines stepped inside, finding dozens of personnel dealing with their normal taskings.

"Sergeant." A voice called out, directing Jason's attention to the bridge.

Jason turned to his right to find Chief Warrant Officer Smith sitting at his pilot's seat. As the trio approached, Smith tapped at his screen and entered a series of coordinates before turning to address them properly.

"Sir?" Jason asked.

"Just wanted to give you a quick peek at where we're going." Smith replied, nodding towards the cockpit window.

Jason, Mike, and Eddie all turned to look out the window. The planet that greeted them, shocked all three of them. With blue oceans and massive amounts of greenery on all land masses, it took their breaths away.

"Wow... It looks just like-" Eddie began.

"Earth..." Jason finished.

"Well, maybe before twenty-sixty five." Mike offhandedly commented.

"She's beautiful..." Jason whispered under his breath.

"I figured you boys would like that," Smith commented, "We'll be there in a little bit, so get ready for planetary entry."

"Roger that." Jason replied, before turning away and heading back out towards the doorway.

Mike and Eddie quickly fell in line behind him, and the trio was soon well on their way to the landing bay. Mike nonchalantly looked back and forth before quietly nudging Eddie with his elbow and slowing down slightly so that he fell further behind Jason. Eddie quizzically looked at him for a moment before slowing down to walk beside him.

"Hey." Mike whispered.

"What?" Eddie replied.

"Are you sure the Sarge is alright? He's been pretty quiet lately." He asked.

Eddie looked back up to Jason to ensure he wasn't hearing their conversation. When it was apparent that he was paying them no mind, he turned back to Mike and answered.

"Nothing's been the same since Bellruse. He, uh... He doesn't like to talk about it very much. Can't blame him. I barely made it out of there alive, and he was twenty clicks further in than me." Eddie explained.

"But that shit was over a year ago. I know we got put in separate units for a while there, but I got here a month ago, and it just feels like the last few days, he's been really quiet." Mike asserted.

"I think it's just the timing. People deal with that shit at different paces, you know?" Eddie replied.

"Alright... I guess I'll just take your word for it." Mike whispered.

A moment later, they both moved back up to where they were just walking behind Jason again as he reached the landing bay doors. He tapped on the touchpad against the door for a few seconds before the sound of metal grating on metal raked at their ears.

"Damn... They really need to get that fuckin' door fixed." Mike complained as they all walked inside.

The landing bay greeted their eyes in all its open, metallic glory. There were four separate sections in total, each currently occupied by twin-rotor, fixed wing V-45 Phoenix aircraft. Each one had their rotor blades angled back and the engines tilted backwards. Several straps connected the structural segments of each wingtip to each painted off segment of the landing bay that each aircraft filled. Dozens of maintenance crew members littered the floor in every direction, with at least four to five working on each individual V-45.

Jason, Mike, and Eddie all watched the busy commotion of the mechanics and maintenance workers while they made any last minute checks. Eventually, they came up to the aircraft at the far right side of the bay and paused.

"Fuck!" A muffled voice shouted.

All three of the Marines looked around in confusion for a moment. They could all hear the sound of someone torquing a wrench, but none of them could see the person causing it. After looking around for any other mechanics to speak to, and finding none, Jason cleared his throat loud enough for the person in the Phoenix to hear them.

After a pregnant moment of silence, a pair of legs plopped out from inside the front wheel housing unit, quickly followed by the rest of a particularly dirty looking pilot.

"Oh, hey. Sorry about that. What's up?" She asked, giving a winning smile to the trio.

"Um... Are you our pilot?" Jason hesitantly asked, noticing the warrant officer rank on her collar.

"Depends. Are you guys from Team Two?" She asked.

"Yes ma'am." Jason replied.

"Oh, drop the ma'am shit, Sergeant. I just fly the bird. You guys do all the hard work." She dismissively replied.

"Right... Anyways, I can't exactly read your name-tape. It's, uh... It's covered in all that grease and muck." Jason explained.

"Oh!, Right, sorry. The name's Williams. Rebecca Williams." Rebecca explained.

"Right, well, if you don't want us to call you ma'am, then what do you want us to call you?" He asked.

"Oh, just Chief is fine. But if you get on my good side, you can call me Becca." She teased, giving him a playful wink.

Jason uncomfortably looked back and forth to Eddie and Mike before slowly nodding.

"Right then, Chief. Maybe once the mission is over, then we can get more personable with each other. A-anyways, have you seen the rest of the squad yet? They were supposed to meet us here around this time." Jason replied, quickly shifting back to his more professional attitude.

"You're no fun... As for the rest of the squad, I haven't seen them yet." Rebecca said, pouting slightly.

"Hey Chief, where are the rest of the mechanics anyways? Why're you the only one working on this bird?" Mike asked, waving to the V-45 for emphasis.

"Ah, those dipshits. You know they put like, seven mechanics on each bird and not a single one of them could even tell me where the crank shaft on the rotors draws power from." Rebecca exclaimed.

"From the fuel drive, right?" Eddie inquired.

"Yes! Holy shit! You're not even a fucking mechanic and you knew that!" She shouted, comically sticking both arms in the air before settling back down, "But yeah. Bunch of new dicks had no idea what the hell they were doing so I told Smith that I'd work on her myself. I didn't fly eighty six combat missions during the war to die because one idiot couldn't do proper maintenance on my aircraft." She explained.

"Well, I guess that's fair..." Mike replied, before noticing Jason, "Hey, what'cha looking at, Sarge?" He asked.

"I think I just found the rest of the Squad." Jason replied, turning and heading over to the other side of the bay.

"Right... We'll catch you later, Chief." Mike said, waving to Rebecca.

"Alright. Just swing by whenever. I'll be here." She shrugged and went back to work.

Mike and Eddie hurried to catch up to Jason just as he reached his destination. What greeted their eyes, was a group of five other Marines, four of which, were in the midst of cleaning their rifles and staging their gear in a box shape. As they approached, one marine turned around to see them. Jason suppressed a groan as he read the nametape that read "Frost".

"Gunny." Jason acknowledged him as cordially as he could.

"Sergeant McKnight, Corporal Icon, and Lance Corporal Jones... It's about time you three got here." Frost replied.

"Sorry about that, gunny. We were just meeting our... pilot." Jason replied, glancing back at the V-45.

"Is that right? Well maybe next time we go on vacation, we can talk to every single person on the ship so that you get acquainted with everyone," Frost sneered, "I gave you all a time hack last night. I know for a fact that the Chief up on the flight deck didn't take more than a couple minutes of your time, yet here you are, almost ten minutes late."

"We-" Jason began.

"I don't want to hear it. Stage your shit. We're getting on the birds in five minutes, so you'd better check your guys and make sure you all have everything." Frost dismissed, turning back to the other four Marines.

Jason barely held back a long, drawn out sigh, "Roger that, Gunny," He replied before turning to Mike and Eddie, "Alright guys, you heard the man. Stage your gear."

The trio quickly deposited their packs and helmets on the ground in a triangle pattern before setting their rifles down. Jason swiftly went over both Mike and Eddie's kit, examining them for missing equipment, damaged gear, as well as extra batteries. When he was satisfied that both of his men were adequately prepared, he sat down next to his pack and motioned for them both to do the same.

"Alright, you both square on the mission?" Jason asked.

"Roger," Eddie replied, pulling out his touchpad, "We're gonna land with the frigate, set up a temporary FOB at the LZ, then start conducting S and R missions via the V-45." He explained, pointing at the aircraft in question.

"Right, and you both remember how far we're expecting to travel each day?" Jason inquired.

"The V-45's have a range of... two thousand miles. So the plan is to clover leaf out two hundred and forty five miles at a time. If we find anything, then we just pick them up and fly back. Mission accomplished." Mike replied.

"Unless?" Jason hinted, tilting his head to the side.

"For some reason we can't safely extract our four VIP's without risking the bird. In that case, we'll set up a perimeter and mark our location on the V-45's GPS so that she can fly back and bring us extraction equipment suitable for whatever situation kept us from leaving in the first place." Eddie explained.

"Right, and lastly, why does our primary plan not involve just using comms?" Jason pressed.

"Because due to the planet's radiation and a number of environmental factors, we're pretty damn sure that two cups and a string would be more effective than our radios." Eddie finished.

"Damn straight. I'm still not sure what the hell is going on down there," Jason said, nodding towards the slowly enlarging planet through the Landing Bay doors, "But from the brief earlier, it looks like it's some kind radiation we've never seen before. Our long range scanners and radar can't seem to cut through that shit, and the entire northern hemisphere of the planet has been declared a no-go zone. If our lost crew is somewhere in there... chances are, they're long dead and we might as well pick up our bags and head home. Hell, even the 'green' side of the planet has some weird pockets of radiation that seem to randomly pop up all over the place." He explained.

"Got it, boss." Mike responded.

"Alright, as usual, you guys know your shit. I don't know why I even ask anymore." Jason said, shrugging slightly.

"Been asking myself the same thing for years." Eddie teased.

"Heh, alright. Looks like frosted flakes is coming back. Get ready to go." Jason replied, glancing over at Frost as he approached.

"Sergeant. Are you and your men ready?" He asked, upon arriving in front of the group.

"Roger. We're all squared away and everybody knows the plan." Jason responded.

"Alright. Get them on the bird. I'll get the rest of the squad together and meet you there." Frost ordered.

"Roger." Jason said, standing up and strapping on his pack while Eddie and Mike did the same.

The three Marines quickly grabbed their rifles, machine gun, and helmets, before heading back over to the V-45.

"So, uh... What's Gunny's problem?" Mike asked.

"Gunny thinks that because he's been in for fifteen years, that everyone else needs to kiss his ass." Jason muttered.

Eddie sighed, "Man, it's times like these I wish we still had Johnny. That kid would tell him to eat a dick and say 'fuck the consequences'." He said, sadly.

"I know, Eddie. We all wish he was still here." Jason said, his tone a shade darker.

Soon enough, the three Marines arrived at the V-45 to find Rebecca, wearing a clean uniform and leaning against the aircraft while giving them a smug smile.

"So, you three came crawling back. I knew it wouldn't take long." She joked.

"You got us, Chief. We just couldn't stand being away from you." Mike teased back.

"Hehe, glad to hear it. You three ready to go?" She asked.

"Just waiting on Gunny and the rest of the squad." Jason replied.

"Alright, well, hop in and find your chairs. We're gonna be breaking through the atmosphere any second now. It's gonna get bumpy." Rebecca said, hopping into the cockpit, herself.

Jason, Mike, and Eddie all climbed in through the open side door behind the cockpit to take their seats. Jason sat in the middle of his row while Mike and Eddie took their seats at either side of him. All three of them deposited their packs between their legs and stuck their weapons upright between each seat. Without another moment of delay, they donned their helmets, and powered them on.

After a few seconds, Jason's HUD flashed to life, and he gave a thumbs up to both Mike and Eddie. They both returned the gesture, indicating that their HUD's were up as well. Jason gave a confirmatory nod and turned his head to watch as Frost and the rest of the squad boarded the aircraft.

Once the entire crew was seated and had their equipment powered on, the side doors beeped three times, and slid shut, sealing the Marines inside. There was a moment of silence as the crew sat in wait for the next, inevitable step in their landing. Soon enough, a static voice spoke out in the cabin intercom.

"Alright gentlemen, this is your pilot speaking. Now I know we've all done this shebang a thousand times before, but doctrine dictates that I have to warn you to please keep all hand and feet inside the vehicle at all times... Not like you can really stick them out anyways with the doors closed, but whatever. Anyways, fire extinguishers are located in the front, back, and on either door of the V-45. If there should be an emergency landing, please exit my aircraft in an orderly fashion. Any questions?" Rebecca explained.

One Marine raised his hand.

"Good, because we're entering the planets atmosphere now." She continued.

Right on cue, red caution lights turned on, and the entire ship began to vibrate. It started out softly enough, but quickly began to grow more and more violent, and as Jason looked out the window to watch, the outside world turned blood orange as the frigate plunged into the unknown planet's atmosphere. Each Marine inside the V-45 felt the powerful vibrations through the floorboard of the aircraft and all the way up their spines.

Just as soon as it began, however, it was over, and the ship quickly stabilized to a more normal flight path. The red caution lights promptly turned off, and the mood throughout the entire landing bay relaxed.

"Man, that part always scares the shit out of me." One Marine from the back said.

"Yeah, you never really get used to it." Another replied.

"Alright, gentlemen. That was fun. Now for the really fun part. We're spinning up rotors. Touchdown at the designated LZ will be in about... three minutes." Rebecca's static voice spoke through the intercom as the engines on the V-45 spun to life. The rotors quickly accelerated to full power, and within thirty seconds, they were airborne and hovering in place.

Every V-45 in the landing bay slowly turned to face the massive ray shield doors, seeing only blue skies and clouds in their wake. Another moment of pause before a green light flashed throughout the bay, and every aircraft accelerated forwards and out of the landing bay. Immediately, they dove down toward the ground and fanned out, covering several thousand square feet of area before finding individual landing sights.

"Remember when we used to have to-" A Marine began to speak.

"Shut the fuck up, all of you-" Frost ordered.

"And there it is." Jason muttered under his breath.

"-We're boots on the ground in two minutes. Shut your mouths, and get ready to secure the LZ." Frost finished.

"Roger, Gunny." The Marines all replied in unison.

After a minute of forced silence, Rebecca's voice again came through the intercom.

"Alright gentlemen, we're touching down in thirty seconds. I'm opening the side doors." She said, before tapping the touch pad to her right in the cockpit.

Every Marine heard the mechanical whirring of the doors opening, before the rush of air hit them from the depressurization. However, they barely flinched as their helmets kept them from experiencing any painful side effects.

With the doors now open, Jason could fully appreciate the natural beauty of the world they were landing on. He glanced out to see rolling hills and beautiful pastures of green. He smiled to himself at the utter majesty of the world in front of him, before Rebecca's voice once more broke him from his thoughts.

"Touchdown in three... two... one... Touchdown, touchdown, touchdown." She said as the V-45 gently landed on the ground.

Every Marine inside immediately stepped out of their seats and jumped to the ground below. It was a short drop, and within a matter of seconds, they pushed out fifty feet in a circle around the stationary aircraft. Rebecca kept a keen eye on the troops around her, and once she was sure that they were all off loaded, she gave a thumbs up to Frost, which he promptly returned. With her current duties satisfied, she pushed forward on the throttle, and the V-45 quickly took to the air once more.

Meanwhile, on the ground, Jason quickly gathered his team up and formed them into a wedge formation while Frost did the same with his. Once they were formed into two wedges, Frost gave the signal to move ahead, and Jason promptly took point. They had a lot of ground to clear.

Author's Note

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU0rowyzjCY

Hello again my readers. So one thing that I really wanted to focus on for this story, at least for the beginning, was the interaction between the Marines and their crew. Now, I know there are at least a few fellow military bronies still on this site, so hopefully you guys can appreciate this part of the story. I know for a fact that I'm not going to get everything 100% right, but I hope that you can appreciate the story anyways. Now, as for the ponies, don't worry my friends. We will see them soon. Promise.