Chapters Date : 2030, 23rd of August
Location : Nevada, United States of America
Time : 1800 hours
Mission : Recon the outskirts of the desert, and report the designated LZ to the Headquarters for future operations
"I still wonder what the hell we're doing here..." A tired voice said from the back of the Russian made Sprut-SD, whose tracks were rolling tirelessly through parts of the Nevada desert, raising sand and dirt behind it.
"Hey, cut some slack to the commanders will 'ya? They said this was just a simple reconnaissance mission, no shooting , no engaging , no detection ." A confident, irritated man responded, who began sounding a little grumpier than he usually was.
"But I still don't get it. They sent us in the middle of The United States! It's a death sentence! If Americans find us sneaking inside their territory, we are dead men!" This time, the voice became somewhat concerned, even scared. Not to mention a little bit shaky.
"Both of you, shut up! Robin, keep driving this thing and stop fucking bumping into every fucking rock you see, okay?" An angry tone hissed and soon continued, "And you, Vedran, switch spots with me and get on the CITV station, I'll take your place, so I can concentrate on getting our asses out of here."
Jesse, our tank commander, wasn't usually this serious, probably the thing that they are totally exposed to American attacks was getting to his head. Not even he could get so claustrophobic. He had his head buried into the map whole day. Probably trying to figure out in which part of the desert we actually were. Sure, there were more dangerous situations than this, but seeing him upset would add a whole new atmosphere in the vehicle.
This time it wasn't tension, or the feeling of being blow to bits by rocket launchers... It was fear .
The silence continued, as all three crew members did their job accordingly, without any questions asked. Sound of the roaring tank echoed through empty sandy dunes of Nevada. Nothing but sheer dryness and heat that was exhausting now already tired tankees. It was more than 50 celsius outside, not mentioning that the steel armor platings on outside of the tank were so hot you could fry an egg within minutes. Both Jesse and Vedran can thank Robin for installing an air conditioner before the mission. If it wasn't for him they would be boiled alive inside the armored beast.
As for the occupants inside the vehicle, none of them let out a single sound. Vedran, the Sprut-SD gunner and a reconnaissance observer, was sitting back looking through the monitor of the CITV station, completing a fifth scan of the horizon. He was selected as the gunner because of his sharp eye and skill to lay pin-point shots on the target. Before he got transferred to the tank battalion, he was a engineer, a marksman and an anti-tank specialist. He gained those skills while dealing with insurgents in the Middle East. He was often called a "cold handed killer". He had a kind of a habit to... Stab everyone he could. His squad members were freaked out about that.
Robin was a whole different story. Had a record of a combat medic, anoninomusly working with Vedran's anti-tank squad who got pinned down in an ambush. Vedran owes him alot for pulling that bullet out of his leg. But, right now, Robin was driving the tank through the harsch terrain that was in front of them, going at a steady speed.
Jesse served as a sniper team leader back in the days, but kept his mouth shut about the missions, even though they weren't as quite as important as this one. He was awfully quiet at times. Nobody knew why. Jesse was a born leader, but adrenaline and pressure of some situations would negate that.
Fortunately every single one of them knew each other before they even met in real life. They were professional gaming buddies when they were 18, with an exeption that Robin was 2 years younger than both of them, that being that Vedran was oldest and Robin being the youngest.
Their gaming consisted about strategy games and first person shooters, but this time it all changed. This was no longer made up, this war was real .
Well, that was 15 years ago . The present is now , trying to get out of this mess.
Vedran was about to turn the monitor off, expecting nothing, but a light silhouette cought his eye in the bottom left corner of the screen. His eyes widened in disbelieve, and started breathing heavily.
"Guys, I found something !" He yelled and jumped in surprise as he turned the CITV station towards now clearly visible silhouettes. They weren't as big, but there were many of them.
Commander and the driver were dumbfound. 'Why would anything be in a middle of a desert ?' they thought.
"What is it?" Jesse asked eagerly, trying to get as much information out of him as possible.
"I can't tell, but it seems like a infrastructure of a base..." Vedran paused, when an idea struck him, "Should we go and check it out?" He told them, still surprised by his discovery.
"What do you say Robin, you up for it?" Jesse asked the driver who was still looking through view port.
"Yeah, sure, as long as we get to stop a bit. My ass hurts from this cloth chair." He grunted in pain as he shifted his position. He was sitting still whole time, which made the pain even more intense.
"Perfect. Vedran, tell Robin where to go while I contact the headquarters." Commander said in a rush. He pulled out a radio from the inventory box, and was now configuring and changing channels.
"Alright..." Vedran sighed while looking at the digital compass "Take a 100 degree turn towards South-East, then keep going forward." He said while his head was still buried in the monitor screen "You should be on the right track."
"Roger!" Robin awnsered with a playful voice, while the tank made a hard left turn, drifting in the process and throwing all three crew members aside.
"Show off." Gunner chuckled, while the driver only responded with a slight smirk.
"Can it." Commander ordered.
"Yes sir..." Vedran shutted up.
It would be a long ride, and neither one of them couldn't stand being bored to submission again. All of them made an agreement to listen to some music.
Vedran reached for his iPod, he didn't choose a specific song, so he hit shuffle .
The tone was pretty familiar from all three sides, it didn't take long to process which song it was. It was the good old Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival , something to boost their spirits.
The commander radioed the Headquarters and in the process telling Vedran to turn the music down. After the music volume was lowered to a minimum, he continued with his real intentions.
"This is Zulu Lightning calling Bulldog, over." Jesse said into the radio. Hoping that they will awnser back.
They didn't contact the main base for quite a while now. It wasn't certain if they cancelled out the radio network, because of a risk that the Americans would break their codes and spy on the conversation. So they waited a little bit.
"This is Bulldog. We hear you loud and clear Zulu Lightning. Proceed, over." A static now turned into a clear, memorable voice of their superiors.
"We picked up a slight contact South-East of our current position. Permission to go and investigate, over." Tank commander said in a requestive tone.
The expectations were rising as the silence continued. They didn't find anything since they got paradropped out of a C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft, and were pretty confident that the Headquarters needed to agree on checking out the base. NNA had hackers of their own, and hacked the planes ID so they could easily get across the US border.
A extremely slight static appeared, continuing to go louder until a voice was heard
"Permission granted, take care, over and out." After the voice faded out and Jesse said back
"Roger, over and out." After the conversation tank commander took a deep breath and let out a long, worrying sigh.
"We're on our own... For now ."
Time : 0100 hours
"Vedran, can you give me ETA to the location?"
"Around 30 minutes, we're not far."
It was night, and the commander didn't allow any headlights to be turned on. Robin was driving blindly, with the help of Vedran's CITV thermal imaging. They didn't take any risks that would ruin the operation.
Crew didn't know what lies up ahead, they were completely out of info. After a minute, the gunner saw something at the edge of the road and decided to check it out.
"Hold up, hold up!" Vedran ordered with determination, but unfortunately the driver had a headset on. Probably listening to music on long trips, without permission, like usual. "Stop this tank !" The gunner hit Robin in the back of the head, causing his headset to drop, "You moron ! Are you deaf? Stop
"Fine, fine... You could've just tapped me on the shoulder, you know." Vedran just rolled his eyes.
Robin hit the brakes, and the tank freezed dead in its tracks. Hatch on the top opened, where Vedran exited the vehicle. He jumped down, and started walking towrads an object that looked like a sign. He turned on his flashlight, only to read something that will strike terror in his whole crew. He didn't believe it.
"What is it? Does it say anythi-" Jesse's vocal cords and sanity made a malfunction and stopped, he looked around, only to spot Vedran motionless, in shock. He carefully read the sign, twice. Commander knew that they all made an error coming here, and that it was too late to change directions.
"Area 51?!" Vedran shouted and started shaking violently "We shouldn't be here! Oh man, we're so fucked !"
'Oh shit.' Jesse thought. He took out a GPS and zoomed out too see a bigger proportion of the area. There was no mistake, he could clearly see the whole base on the screen.
Driver was silent, scary silent. Robin had his eyes widened in surprise, and was unable to speak. His sweat dripping on the sides of his face, falling on cold metal inside the tank.
The moment lasted forever. All of them stayed in their spots, dull, silent. Only the howling, night breeze made a slight sound. Crew was scared out of their minds, knowing that they should get a move on and get out of there. They couldn't afford to stay here for long.
"We need to get out of here, now." Robin started the engine, with his feet placed on the pedals, ready to rocket out of the area.
"It's too late, we need to continue."Jesse said calmly, breathing heavily, his eyes switching view from Vedran to Robin every second.
"Are you nuts?" Driver said, panicking. His adrenaline level was extremely high, which didn't allow him to think straight.
"I think Jesse has a point." Vedran though out loud.
"Huh? You can't be serious , I am no- "
"This place is under lockdown, and they track every movement in the proximity, they should have already send a reaction force to take care of us." Robin looked in curiosity "Little strange, isn't it?" Vedran cut him off, with Robin looking at him with a confused look.
"I know what you mean. If they were monitoring us, and we are a pretty big target, we couldn't even get this far without getting engaged." Jesse awnsered, "I think we should scout the base for any activity." Commander looked towrads the driver, who only nodded slightly in agreement.
Vedan truned off the flashlight and got back inside the tank, closed the hatch and sat on his designated gunner position.
Jesse was cheking out shell ammo that was in the stock. All was in place and ready to be used. He quickly thinked through the concepts and situations they could be in.
"Load High Explosive shells!"
"Roger that, loading HE shells!" Gunner exclaimed, pushing a button on the side of his monitor, that said - Load High Explosive Munition . Automatic loading system took over, and guided the shell in the 125mm smoothbore gun.
"Up and ready to fire!"
"Good. Robin, switch to flank speed and get around the base!" Commander gave out the last order before heading into the the last place anyone wanted to be.
Robin slowly brought the tank up a little hill, still unsure of presence of the American soldiers in the base. It took them a while to get around the base, and it was morning.
Once the vehicle fully stopped, Vedran and Jesse scanned the base with thermal imaging.
"I don't like this a bit. This place looks like a ghost town. Not a living soul anywhere." Vedran stated, hoping that he was right.
"Odd..." Jesse said confused, "There is an undergroud entrance, its opened, but blocked by concrete debris. There is no one guarding it, as you said there is nothing living here. No soldiers, tanks, jets..." Commander sighed.
"Hey, can you get me to the bunker entrance? We may want to check it out."
"What makes you say "We may want to check it out?" I never wante-"
"You have a better idea?" Vedran cut him off and said.
"Robin get us to the bunker entrace. Can you see it from here?" Driver nodded, "Good, now go."
Engine started and the tank rolled down the hill, constantly speeding up. Once they got to the bunker entrance, Vedran hopped out of the tank, going behind it and opening a small compartment.
"Dude, what the hell..." Jesse frowned.
"Since this is a hull of a BMD-3, which was an IFV, there still is a compartment that I can store gear in. Right now, I just picked up a block of C4."
"I don't want to know what other kind of crap you have in there..." Vedran put up the creepiest smirk ever.
He ran around the tank and got near the blocked entrance. Vedran started to place C4 around and on the debre caused by an unknown explosion. Once it was all done,he gestured to others to back away, same as he did with himself.
*Click*
*BOOM*
The explosion was deafening . Their ears were ringing and they were shell shocked. After all the sand and dirt were setteled down, the entrance to the underground bunker was right open.
As they drived deeper into the underground complex, they have seens things no ordinary man would ever see. All of those roumors about this place were true.
UFO's, unused lasers, robots... And something that surprised them, a machine that looked like some sort of a teleporter. It had a massive path leading into a large metal ring.
But Vedran found something that was completely mind blowing. In one of the areas, he found a small compartment which said "Put your weapon here". The gunner stopped for a moment, but decided to go ahead and put his Desert Eagle in. Once the hatch was closed, a strange sound was heard, like that of a drill. Several minutes later the digital display said; "Nanonite transfer complete".
He checked out his pistol, immidiately noticed it was significally lighter, and that his magazine used...Liquid metal for bullets?
He warned his mates and fired a couple of shots. There was less recoil, the barrel was coller and inside the magazine the liquid metal truned into bullets.
Near him was a diamond cutter, which he used to peel off a small metal piece of the gun, only to see it grow back.
"What the fuck?" He was stunned and wide eyed.
He couldn't believe it.
Vedran took advantage of that, and upgraded all of the weapons he stored in the tank. He had a Rheinmetall MG,a Dillon M134, an AS50 anti-materiel sniper rifle and a pair assault rifles(Magpul ACR, SCAR). With a permission, he also upgraded his friends guns.
He never knew why he brought so much firepower into this mission.
The last thing he saw before he got to the tank was a small clearing on the right side of the massive room, which held the teleporter.
Sign said "The Creator Cube".
He walked up to it, and picked up the small cube, which was little bigger than his fist. While rolling it around in his hands, a small button popped up.
He clicked it.
The cube suddenly started shaking, eventually transforming and getting bigger, until it reached its full size around 4x4 meters.
While observing it, the cube was glowing in blue-ish tone, and let out a slight beep , before a digital sign appeared on the side.
"Choose an option for : Vehicles, Soldiers or Weapons"
He decided to click "Vehicles" option. The first upgrade that cought his eye was: "Generate a Nano Composite Cloak".
Lucky for him, the Sprut was 2 meters away from the strange machine. Almost instantly, the tank was scanned by some sort of a holographic "Wall". After that, the cube engulfed the vehicle and after 10 seconds returned to the smallest possible volume after completing its task.
The tank didn't look any different. He climbed up on the tank and went down the hatch. After checking Robin's and Jesse's position, he saw a new button near his cannon aim. After pressing it, on the right bottom of the screen appeared a small quote "CLOAK ACTIVATED".
Vedran was confused, and got on top of the tank. Only thing he could see is down the hatch and insides of the tank. Everything else was invisible.
He disengaged the cloak and called his friends back. He told them everything about his discoveries. They were in quite a shock, but still amazed.
All of them kept chatting about the place for a little longer, and soon Robin asked a question;
"Hey, you guys want to go check out the teleporter thingy?"
Both of them nodded and continued to walk until they stopped near the teleporter.
"What do you think it was used for?" Vedran asked.
"It was probably a side project, they couldn't use it in a war, it would be too risky." Jesse stated.
They took a good look around, it took them good 10 minutes to find the control panel. It was pretty big, with alot of buttons all over it.
Both of them were looking at the command panel, trying to figure out how it works. Only word that cought their attention was "POWER". It couldn't mean anything else than truning it on. Robin hesitated a little and aftef a while pressed it.
Whole complex suddenly burst into light, along with the control panel.
"Nice work guys!" The gunner shouted back from the Sprut he was working on.
Not even a minute later, an alarm sounded through the speakers with a voice following it : "Warning! Malfunction on teleporter 22-B!"
All of them took a careful look at the massive ring with a display on top of it, which clearly said "22-B" in red colours.
'Holy shit...' Robin though before a vortex developed out of the teleporter, sucking the crew members and the tank with them. As they touched the time and dimension wormhole, everything went black.
"Oh m-my... W-What was t-that?"
Date : 2030, 24th of August
Location : ???
Time : 1300 hours
"And that's how you measure the distance between you and the object on the map!" Twilight said.
Earlier today, Twilight called her friends to help her with a project. Unfortunately, they had to learn some methods in order to complete their tasks. It was too much for anypony, but Twilight took it pretty well, since she wanted to learn something new.
"Boooooooring... I'm going out. See you guys later." Rainbow Dash answered and right when she was at the doorstep, something strange occured.
*BOOM*
Main 6 jumped. That was the loudest explosion they've ever heard. It came from none other direction than the Everfree forest. There were anomalies and phenomena like that, but this one felt too real. The ground shook violently, causing things to drop around them.
"Oh m-my... W-What was t-that?" Fluttershy whispered.
"It was an explosion! It came from the forest!" Twilight exclaimed.
"Maybe somepony shot a very big party cannon! Oh, oops, I'm the only one who owns a party cannon!" Pinkie Pie laughed.
"Enough dilly dally, this is serious. We gotta find out what caused the explosion." Applejack commanded.
Chapter 1 : Just a Bad Start
Time : 1315 hours
Vedran heard birds singing and whistling of the wind around him. He slowly started to open his eyes. Everything was blurred out and felt like he was crushed by a wall of bricks. Last thing he remembers is that he got sucked in by a portal. He felt tired, but powerful enough to get back up on his legs.
The gunner looked around. It was a forest, no different from those back on Earth. Nothing out of the ordinary. His team was forced more than a single time to spend several weeks in a forest. He found out that he was standing in a minor crater, where his knocked out friends were, laying next to the tank.
Both them slowly started to wake up. He ran next to them and helped them up.
"Uuugh... What happened?"Jesse asked.
"Oh, I totally don't know." After he ended the sentence, he shot a icy look towrads Robin.
No one actually knew what happened, they though the teleporter was a HOAX, a scam from the American military. It turns out it was working fine, but maybe it was the reason the base was abandoned?
"What? We couldn't do nothing! Besides, we all knew what was going to happen." The driver explained.
"Yeah, yeah... Whatever. Where are we"? Jesse wondered.
"I don't know, this place is unlike I have ever seen. It just feels... Weird. "
"I know what you mean, but we have to prepare oursleves. Robin, find us a place to settle in, also find any tools we can build a camp with."
It was getting very dark, every minute seemed like an hour, though, they have been through so much since the start of the mission. They needed a rest, but to do that, they needed to push themselves to the limit.
"I have a toolbox and a big military tent in the tank. Don't ask why. I always come prepared." Vedran said seriously.
"You're creeping me out... But okay, that's good. Vedran, you try to figure out if the tank is in a good condition. I'm going away to scout the area." Jesse said while picking up his M1911 and M14 DMR. They felt lighter since the last time he carried them. The upgrades Vedran mentioned are still operational.
"Meet you here in 30 minutes."
"Oh, by the way, take this with you." Vedran handed him his headset and radio.
All of their radios were making static when they tried to turn them on. But Vedran figured out it wasn't a problem about hardware, more likely the software.
"What for? It's not working."
"It is, only that we don't have a com-channel set up. I'l try to contact you if I'm able to fix it." Vedran explained.
"Thanks."
Time : 1325
Twilight was doing the usual after the explosion, thinking it was nothing. She was basically reading the whole day... And organising her bookshelves, again . She was interrupted by Spike burping. He was in the kitchen.
Spike stopped his work and walked upstairs. It was more than a horrifying sight to see Twilight concerned.
"What does it say?"
"Ahem,
My most faithful student,
It has come to my attention that a strange anomaly came from the Everfree forest. It was disturbing and I felt a great amout of energy and magic near it. I have to ask you and the rest of of Main 6 to find out what's behid of all this.
I hope you reply soon,
Princess Celestia
"It's time to get going then!"
Both of them packed their things and went outside to find the remaining carriers of Elements of Harmony. They didn't know what awaited them, but it was their duty to find out. Something was happening and they didn't know what or why.
Time : 1340
Jesse was making his way through the dense parts of the Everfree. He has been walking and searching for any kind of civilisation for some time now. That left him with only one thing to think about : Why does this place feel so strange ?
'Vedran was right. This place is also creepy.' He looked around. There was nothing but trees and bushes. A little lake here and there... It seemed like a jungle. It was like a neverending maze of green. He began to think he was lost.
Very lost.
Thats when he heard some static coming from his headset connected to his radio.
"...llo? ....an...ou.. hea...me? Ove..." It was starting to get a little more clear.
"Hello? Vedran is that you?" Jesse replied.
".....eah! It's me! Is it better now?" Vedran said excited as static dissapeared.
"How on Earth did you manage to fix it?" The commander asked, confused.
"Well, since we didn't have a com-channel I needed to make one. I raised the tank's antenna and rewoked and altered the communication settings for the tanks radio. That was the easy part, but our radios needed a major overhaul in finding the right frequency and coding. With a little luck I found your frequency!"
"You're a magician! Great, I will report if I found anything along the way. Out."
"Copy that. Also, the tank only suffered turret drive and engine damage! As for the cloak, it's fully operational. Out."
"Rog'. Over."
'Okay, I should be going...' He continued his journey through the massive forest.
Time : 1510
"Girls, I don't think I can continue anymore... My hooves hurt!" Rarity whined. "And are dirty! Gah!"
"She's right Twi. We can't continue like this! We have been walkin' foh hours..." Applejack joined.
It's true that they have been walking for hours. There were no clues what so ever. The Main 6 continued a little bit more then stopped. After it seemed all hope is lost, they started heading home. They were exhausted, and out of supplies. They chit chatted along the way.
"Well this was dissapointing..." Rainbow Dash stated.
"Yes, a waste of time." Rarity exclaimed.
"To bad nothing showed up! I even brought cupcakes!" Pinkie Pie frowned.
*Crack*
"Did you hear that? It came somewhere from there!" Applejack pointed at a bush with her hoof.
"Yeah... It does feel funny. It's radiating magic and energy from there." Twilight said.
"I'm gonna check it out." Rainbow flew to the spot.
She expected nothing at first, but was soon surprised and confused. She never saw a creature like that.
Five minutes earlier
'Man, I'm getting sick of this place.' Jesse though as he was cutting his way through the harsh forest with his knife.
Nothing important happened along the way. Vedran sometimes called to check up on him. He was getting positive news all the time. Everything was going according to plan. Robin and Vedran found an abandoned, medium sized cave near their site. It was large enough to fit all three of them, including the tank.
But his trail of though was cut short.
"I couldn't believe we trind to find something out here ."
'What the hell? I swear I'm starting to hear things. Man if Vedran drugged me...' He was on high alert now, unsure of who was talking.
After a minute of following the voices, he came across of a group of colored ponies. He couldn't believe it. Jesse ran for cover behind a line of bushes, trying to figure out what just happened. They were speaking perfect English! How could a bunch of animals do that? Those ponies surely weren't ordinary. They even had some strange markings on their flanks.
'I am SO going to visit a doctor after this is all over.'
He continued observing them. They kept on talking about their failure to find something that caused the explosion.
'I think those ponies were looking for us...' Jesse though.
"Dude, how's it going there? Over." His radio shot a little bit of chatter. He soon lowered the volume and continued the coversation.
"Vedran, holy shit, you almost gave away my position!" Jesse hissed.
"From who?"
"I think I'm seeing things... I am currently watching a group of four... six ponies. Coloured ones too! They also have strange marks on their flanks." The commander tried not to make a sound, so he shifted himself in a more comfortable position.
"I don't have a reason not to believe you. There was some strange shit around here too. Anyways, good hunting. Over."
After five minutes he figured out their names by following their conversation. The purple one was Twilight, orange was Applejack, pink was...Pinkie, white was Rarity, and the cyan one was Rainbow. He couldn't figure out the yellow one's name though. Some of them had wings, some horns, which indicates the presence of pegasi and unicorns. Some had...nothing, they were regular ponies.
All of them were now facing the other direction and Jesse took his chance.
He slowly proceeded to move to the onother bush, to get a better look at the situation. It soon proved to be a fatal mistake.
*Crack*
He immediately crouched to get a lower profile.
'YOU HAVE GOT TO BE FUCKING KIDDING ME!' Jesse screamed in his head.
"I'm gonna check it out."
'Fuck.' He started to back away. As the cyan pegasus slowly approached he fastened his pace until he was completely visible.
Jesse started sprinting towards the way he came from. He could hear the voices behind him.
He looked behind and saw that the pegasus was gaining on him, fast . Jesse kept on running, dodging the obstacles in front of him.
"Come back here!" The cyan pegasus yelled.
'No way.' He fastened his pace. Jesse was getting more tired by the second. He needed a way to bail himself from this mess.
Looking for an opportunity, he soon saw a tree with a hole in it. He knew exactly what to do. He ran to it full speed and climbed it using his momentum to do a back flip.
The pony shot right underneath him and got stuck.
She started to hopelessly struggle her way out, but the resistance was futile.
She was trapped .
But as soon she asked the question, he was gone. Nowhere to be found, or tracked.
'I can't wait to tell Vedran what happened! He is going to go nuts.' Jesse thought as he ran to their camp.
Last time on 15 Years of Change :
- "Rainbow, after it!"
**Crash*
- "Not cool."
- "Life never is, my little pony."
- "You can talk?!"
Chapter 2 : Taking Action
Time : 1555
Rainbow was stuck for more than half a hour. She began to think that her friends would never find her. But when you looked back... You think about what you did wrong. She clearly underestimated her opponent. That... Thing was very agile, even though it seemed that it was wearing tons of clothes. Rainbow could swear that he was talking to somepony in the distance when it left her. Judging by the fact, it's voice was masculine,so he was probably a male. She never saw anything like it. His hooves weren't even hooves. They were claws, but were not pointy and sharp. She couldn't see his face,because he had a mask.
"Rainbow! Are you here? Hello?" A familiar voice called, it was Twilight.
She looked behind, it were her friends.
"Guys, I'm over here!" Rainbow called back. Hopefully they will be able to bail her out of this mess.
"Rainbow, what happened?" Twilight asked while pulling her out of the hole in the tree.
"I... Don't know. He somehow ran up the tree and made a backflip. I couldn't change direction because it was alreay too late. So I got stuck, as you see. But I am perfectly fine!" Then she noticed that her wing is out of place. "Ouch!"
"Yeah, of course you are ."
Twilight fnished tacking care of what ever blocked Rainbow to slip out of the tree trunk. After that she became a couriosity monster.
"How do you know it was a male? How did it look like?" Twilight started with her usual barrage of questions.
Just as Rainbow predicted...
"I'l tell you along the way..." She slipped out of the tree, and made her way through the forest, with her friends following closely. She couldn't fly though, her left wing was kicked out of it's place, no bleeding though.
"So... This is how it all happened..."
Time : 1630
"So you got away, just like that?" Robin was still confused about everything. While Vedran and him ran into some strange wooden wolves, Jesse was running away from some ponies ? That's not what he expected though.
"Yes, I was pretty sure they were after us too." Jesse awnsered.
"Why would they be searching for us? We didn't do anything wrong." Vedran said. He knew himself that he heard of these coloured ponies long ago. But he couldn't remember how.
"Don't ask me. While I was spying on them, they were talking about a letter from... The princess I suppose? Not sure, but I think that's it." It was strange listening to the their conversation though. They made some modifications to some words such as somepony or anypony . He now knew that there are more of those ponies out there.
"How did they look?" Robin continued to seek awnsers.
"They were all coloured, and had strange marks on their flanks. Similar to tatooes, but it was a part of their fur."
"This shit get's more interesting by the minute." Vedran pointed out with a chuckle.
"I know, but I can't tell you anything else, I'm out of info." Jesse sighed.
"That's too bad."
"But we must be careful, we don't want any attetion or unwanted company." Jesse warned.
"Sure, we will." Vedran was about to leave when he remembered something. "Oh, I fixed the tank and our communication devices. I'm going to prepare and organise the base a bit, then I'm hitting my sleeping bag."
"Sleeping bags? You have that too? Man, you're suspicious." Robin raised his eyebrow.
"The tank can hold a lot stuff if you're careful."
"Right, have a good time cleaning everything here." Robin laughed.
"Screw you man."
Date : 2030, 25th of August
Location : ???
Time : 1024 hours
Rainbow had a really bad time yesterday. Well the only bad thing was that she got her wing pulled out of it's socket. Yesterday, as soon as she got to the hospital, they gave her a healing potion and Twilight used a healing spell. It hurt like hell, but she got over it. Rainbow broke her wing many times, and was use to it.
'Rainbow. Wake up.'
She began to open her eyes, but her weakness prevented her to do so.
'Wake up.'
She felt like her eardrums bursted. Probably because of that medicine... Darn those side effects.
"Huh, what? I'm awake!" Rainbow murmured.
"Come on, get up! We have to find those creatures!" Twilight was persisten to get her out of the bed.
"Oh, yeah."
"Princess Celestia wants us to find out who they are."
"Alright then."
"How is that wing doing?" Twilight asked.
Rainbow hopped of her hospital bed, and proceeded to examine her wing. It still hurt a bit, but it was back in it's place though. She flapped it a couple of times. It was alright, she could fly, but not for a long time.
"It's better, I can fly, but not long though."
"Okay, let's go get the girls."
Time : 1040
All of the three crew members woke up. They started to get their gear ready early, there was a long day ahead of them. Each one of them loaded thier respected weapons and explosives and proceeded to get the tank ready for action. It's new cloaking abillity was still operational, and it seems it will stay that way. Vedran explained Jesse and Robin how to reaload with magazines filled with liquid metal. All of them got ready.
"Alright, we're leaving this hell hole of a cave. If we don't find anything, we're coming back here." Jesse said determined.
"Guys, I don't know if you have seen this, but... Our tank's fuel stats just changed from 60% to 100%. Same with the ammo count, it says it's infinite."
"It's an alternative dimension, anything can happen here. But infinite fuel and ammo? Wow, God must really like us." Jesse awnsered.
"Vedran... What the hell is wrong with your left eye?" Robin wondered and glanced at him with a confused look.
The gunner jumped down in the tank and went to the turned off monitor display. All he saw that his whole left eye sclera was red. He didn't feel anything wrong though. It wasn't bugging him at all.
Time : 1305
The Main 6 was ready this time. Even though the weather was hotter than expected, they had thier saddlebags or anything else that would help them stay in the forest as long as possible. They needed to find whatever was roaming in that forest. They were wared by princess Celestia herself, but they wanted to know exactly what's going on.
As they expected themselves, they didn't in anything interesting last 2 hours. Twilight and Rainbow Dash decided that they would follow the path they took yesterday. Both of them, same as the rest of the group, were determined to find whatever hurt Rainbow Dash, or what she tried to hunt down.
Suddenly, a faint sound of metal screeching echoed through the Everfree. It was getting closer every minute. They were literally in the track of whatever was going to them. They decided to hide in the bushes, just to see the most unusual type of transport they have ever see.
"What do you think it is?" Twilight wispered.
"I don't know! I looks like a metal carriage with a big snout." Rainbow added.
"Maybe it uses it's snout to eat cupcakes!" Pinkie said loudly, but Applejack managed to silence her before that... Thing heard them.
The giant metal carriage suddenly stopped. It runed it's big snout away from them, but something on top of it opened. A Figure stepped out.
"That's the guy who got away!" Rainbow hissed.
He jumped down and puched the metal beast several times. Shortly after two of his friends also got out and took a look around. All of them looked different, but carried similar things like metal sticks and clothing.
The Elements were shocked. If there were more of them than just three, what would happen then? One of the creatures broke the silence.
'Wow! They speak perfect Equestrian!? This is so exciting!' Twilight though while taking down notes. An intirely new sentient species. This brings more questions than awnsers. While she looked away, one of them dissapeared. She asked Applejack and Rainbow, but they didn't know either.
After a short amount of time they heard rustling behind them followed by a voice.
"Hate to be a party pooper, but you're coming with us."
Main 6 froze.
Note : Sorry for the short chapter guys, they will be longer in the future!
Last time on 15 Years of Change :
'Wow! They speak perfect Equestrian!? This is so exciting!' Twilight thought while taking down notes. An entirely new sentient species. This brings more questions than answers. While she looked away, one of them dissapeared. She asked Applejack and Rainbow, but they didn't know either.
After a short amount of time they heard rustling behind them followed by a voice.
- "Hate to be a party pooper, but you're coming with us."
Chapter 3: Akward Meetup
Date : 2030, 25th of August
Location : ???
Time : 1310 hours
"Who are you?!" Lavander unicorn asked. She was never so offended and treated in her life. Well... maybe by Discord. But this event took it to the next level.
"I'l be the one asking the questions." Jesse shot back. "Who are you, why are you following us, and where are we?"
"Why should we tell you, anyways?" The cyan mare mocked. She was now face to face with her escaped target. Creatures shot looks between each other, before one of them said something.
"Robin, fesseln sie." Jesse said in German.
"Ja Kommandant."
Robin went to take the rope and returned quickly. He creeped up on her. Her eyes widened as she saw a long thick rope held by the creature. She was terrified.
As he approached her, she made a final attempt to change the direction of this outcome. Rainbow took off, and launched herself at him at a tremendous speed. Robin could only say one thing ;
She struck him with her hind legs, knocking him unconcius. Vedran and Jesse looked at each other. They were in a bad position.
Jesse quickly looked around himself, and remembered something about liquid metal in the magazines Vedran though him. Both of them could fire tranquilizer rounds, which were specially made bullets that inject anestesia.
But they needed to do it fast, because the orange pony was charging at them.
"Vedran! Tranquilizer rounds!"
Both of them loaded up their respective mags, naturally, Vedran was the first one to shoot.
He raised his chrome plated Desert Eagle .50AE, which could do more than a little thing to living tissue.
*Click*
He turned off the safety.
And fired.
*BOOM*
As the shot echoed through everyone's ears, they could see the effectivness of the round. The orange pony fell to the ground, and it seemed like it was sleeping. All of the other ponies looked at her in horror, as it gave Vedran and Jesse more time to take them all down.
"Applejack!" Twilight yelled.
But it was already too late. Jesse and Vedran aimed their weapons and tranquilized all of the remaining ponies.
Time : 1355
Wake up...
Twilight was regaining her consciusness. Her slumber felt like an eternity. She remembers nothing else but being hit by something... And it really stung. Twilight started to open her eyes whatever so slightly.
She turned back on. Like a spring under pressure.
"Huh? What?" She spat out.
She looked around. She was in a cage! Her friends were still lying next to her. Twilight looked outside and saw all three creatures, with one of them wearing bandages across it's face. He looked angrier than a thousand suns.
"Are our guests awake yet?" A new voice came from inside the metal beast.
"They sure are." The bandaged creature spoke.
"Delightful. I'm gonna get my notebook."
The biped jumped out. He went for one of the tents they put up and quickly came back with some paper and a strange quill. He took a chair and sat down.
"Why, hello there. I'l have to get some awnsers out of you. If you do not co-operate we might aswell kill you, Twilight Sparkle ."
"How do you know my name?!"
"Ab, ab, ab! I ask the questions, and you awnser them!" He gestured with his... Appendages. "First of all, where are we? I know this is Equestria, but is it the Everfree forest?"
"I..uh...How do yo-"
"I'll take that as a yes. Why were you following us?"
"I..."
*Thump*
Twilight passed out. It was a overload she couldn't handle.
Vedran looked over the edge of the cage.
"Interesting reaction." He raised his eyebrow and wrote something down.
Time : 1445
Vedran explained everything. On how he became a brony and got involved with the community, but those days passed. He now knows almost every pony he will probably encounter.
"That sucks." Robin sighed.
"I also thought about releasing them. The weapons we use is kind of a overkill here."
"We will, in around five hours. When it gets darker." Jesse got on his feet and started walking towrads the cages. Robin and Vedran instinctively followed
As all three of them entered the cave, the poines stop talking to each other, and shifted their eyes towards the tankers. They were silent... Just looking at them. Following them with their eyes.
Robin though of a clever thing to say to them. He wasn't going to miss the chance to have a litttle fun.
"We know everything about your escape plan, and it's not going to work." Robin crossed his arms.
"You do?" Pinkie said, but Twilight quickly covered her mouth and smiled.
"We're going to release you...But you need to be patient. We don't know what to do with you, might aswell just let you go." Jesse replied with confidence. He quickly turned, and left with his fellow soldiers.
The Elements looked at each other, only Fluttershy seemed to be under pressure. Her mind couldn't handle the violence that she went through yesterday. All of them knew they couldn't do anything from this cage, which seemed unnatural , according to them. It blocked any interference with magic, or any element that currently exists in Equestria, it simply wouldn't budge. They had to trust them, whether they like it not.
Time : 2000
They've been waiting for quite a while now. It became boring. Twilight was still thinking about how that biped could know their names and such. Pinkie was chatting with Rainbow and doing some crazy tricks, trying to pass time. Applejack was lying in the corner and sleeping. Last and not least, Fluttershy was eyeballing everything. There was something suspicious going on.
"Guys, come check this out!" Jesse called out. He was working on some sort of suits for his team.
It's been five and a half hours now. It was almost time to let the Main Six go.
"What is it now? You already gave us night vision goggles, GPS's, throat microphones... And why the hell do we need GPS's for?! There are no satellites in this hell hole!" Robin screamed fouriously.
"Good point, but this is is gonna be the best." Jesse smiled.
"Let me guess, the NCSS?" Vedran stood up.
"The what?" Robin and Jesse said.
"The Nanonite Complex Stealth Suit. Capable of infinite cloaking at expense of your movement speed. It communicates with your weapon's nanoes, which makes weapons cloak too. It goes well with these Tactical Awareness Glasses. Or TAC, for short. Those are like normal shades, but also have nanoes in them."
"What a surprise. You sure do like nano tech." Robin scoffed.
"Yeah, but these are special . They have Friend or Foe identification system, weapon ammo count, full ammo count, which weapons you have equipped, and which cartrige they fire. The throat mic's can also be linked to them, so you can activate them on your own will. They are also equipped with a standard minimap, in which this case acts like a compass and a minor GPS, but it's useless without a satellite. Oh, and also shows who is speaking over the mic."
Vedran just smiled.
Jesse's eye twitched.
"Are you a spy? Or have been working for the CIA? How can you know all of this?!"
"I'm an engineer, it's my job to know."
"Right, gear up. Let's release them, so we can think about getting out of here."
Hello dear readers, Strikers here, time to make a important announcement.
As you already know, this story hasn't really been a big success over the past 3 months of it's release. I will still work on the story, but much less than usual. I can't guarantee I'll continue it, though. If you guys want me to, let me know in the comment section.
If any of you would like to be a co-writer of mine, feel free to PM me. I'm really running out of ideas.
