This notebook shall be used for writing down notes and reports of your recent events. The army cares about its recruits. Do not lose your notebook at any cost.
- General Disciplinary Action
XXXX, Mar 19 – “It was a day like any other. A bit stormy today. General once again has sent us to deploy some troops to Ponyvilles’ Royal Aerodrome (two pegasi and one zebra). Good thing they issued Her Royal Princess’ Hawk bombarders (glad to have rear gunner seat). We would have been in more of a bigger trouble with the previous marks, we have only one gunner on our way back~”.
That was the log from a navigation pony from the bomber crew, who was interrupted by sudden gunshots from pegasis battle-saddles.
“Get into position! We’ve been attacked!” I nervously said, as I tried to maneuver through the stormy clouds. We saw a group of enemy pegasi formations flying over and under the plane. Once the pegasi were turning back, they started to assign formation to strike us as hard as they could. Enemies had most of the basics their aerodrome could have provided them, quite behind the technology development. But even with that, they were strong enough to damage at least the planes’ wings, fuel tanks and in rare instances, set a whole engine on fire. The gunner galloped to mount the mid-upper turret to have a good view on every enemy. He looked around but he had a hard time spotting them. When he saw the air-group, it was a bit too late. He shot one down, but the Pegasus damaged the plane a bit. When the bomber crew thought they would be goner, they spotted several pegasi flying towards them. It was their ‘Speed-Freaks’ squadron flying towards them for an assist.
“Do not fret, my fellow bomber crew. We’ll get those bastards down soon!”, said the group leader and commenced the counterattack.
The bomber plane radio communicator appreciated that help from all of us and we flew away, with gunner watching our squadron fighting and falling. We made it back, with 3 engines still running and fuel remaining for about 5 minutes. What a relief. Back on R.S. Royal Aerodrome, we decided to head back to the barracks, but as I was about to lay for a while, the General had to call the whole crew, who all just got out of the plane.
“TEN-HUT!”
Every crewmember, including the staff, heard the General's voice, dropped everything they were doing and met up at the briefing room.
"Alright, everypony… “ he started before he noticed the staff - janitor, repair pony etc. - accidentally walking in.
“I wanted only our aerial crew. You can go onto your business, staff” said the General, he then looked at us as the aerodrome staff went out of the briefing room.
“Eehm… Alright everypony. I have been told that we are lacking some soldiers over here, so it was time for us to recruit new crew members, some of which might be useful to you four” said the general with a serious voice.
“Meet your new crewmates. Come over here rookies!” All three new rookies then trotted out from barracks to the plane. They consisted of one earth pony and two unicorns - one amber with broken horn and one pink. All of them were excited to introduce themselves to their new crew. For a moment, the navigator noticed that there weren’t any zebras who decided to volunteer and join the crew.
“No zebras this time, general?” he asked as the general was walking towards his office. He looked at the co-ordinator,
“Several were participating,” said the General
“None of them were qualified enough for our aerodrome. Heck, not even from the aerodromes of our allies!” The General was furious. Zebras were, for him, quite useful mechanics and medics.
I, as a pro-pilot, took a step a bit and hid my wings. I knew that the general would snap at any second. He’s sometimes unpredictable. Luckily, he did not, and marched on, I let out a sigh of relief and went back to the barracks to take a break.
There I met the rest of the crew, including the newbies who looked like they were excited to be hit in their balls and posteriors. Pegasus pilot, argh, I mean, I... recognized those faces, he had the same when he was a fresh recruit. Unlike the other fresh recruits, a unicorn with a broken horn had a face that screams of ‘I’ve experienced something happy, and I’m prepared to become a medic’. Quite a weird expression for such a pony, but what gives. I might just ask him why he came here.
"Hey, short horn, what’s your story? Why did you join?” I, the pilot asked.
Unicorn looked at me, with diamond-looking joyful pink eyes and said with a cheerful voice
“I came to just gather some guts and make some warm meaty-looking scarf for 'experiments'! Flying with the bomber crew would make me happy seeing those magnifique explosions” said the unicorn with cheerful voice and movements.
Me, my professional team and the other recruits were quite stunned by what the newbie unicorn just said, though everypony had their reasons to join. This one was weird, but reasonable as well. Anything to stop the war and find the princesses.
XXXX, Mar 19 – “Meeting those new crewmates was quite pleasing, aside from that weird unicorn. He... had a feeling like he was released from somewhere. Well, everypony happens start being recruited for the war nowadays. And, well… we’ll get publicly mocked if we don’t join. We can do it, if everypony comes together to help each other’s hooves and we can restore Equestria back to its glory. Good grief, I want to take a peaceful sleep. This war makes me want to die. “ – T.Bee
Took a slight break and from what we heard, there will be a storm in several upcoming days. Radio-com will be almost unrecognisable for us and to the aerodrome. Well, since we have those three new rookies, I suppose the general will give us, once again, some easy missions which will happen off-coast. After about… 16~ minutes, the general wanted us in the meeting room. Quite small, building from metal sheets with slight supports. Millimeter was looking quite afraid, sitting right next to that medic. Usually gunners are tough in our bomber crew or squadrons, but that unicorn made her face turn in disgust. His dark-red scarf was too smelly for every crewmember, that they started to vomit. What a smell, it was like dirty insides with a touch of fizzy-drink and strawberries, this has to be reported.
The General told us that we’re going to drop some helping aid to some pegasus who had his wing shot down by the enemy. The Coastal Pegasus Patrol reported that he fell down in the channel around 10:16PM. These are quite easy flyover assists, for those newbies it felt like an important mission to save one one of our pilots (It felt for them like losing one precious life of their family member - 'a harsh defeat in life'). We waited several minutes before taking off. One of the ground pony mechanics talked to the pilot.
“Everything is packed up and stored in the dropping compartment, ready for deployment.” At around 1:10AM the next day, we took off.
XXXX, Mar 20 – “Oh boy, first true mission flight just to drop some helping aid for a pegasus. Sounds easy, yet so stressful. We will be flying near enemy lines, so I hope we won’t be spotted by their radars.” – Dee Crockett
The flight was mostly quiet. Well… “quiet”, only the engines doing their jobs to keep us afloat. I wanted to start a conversation with at least one of them to get along with all of us, though winning the war is more important.
“So… do you think-”
“Shut up, Crockett.” Yelled that short-horn unicorn.
As we flew over the plains, Mad Cat and I saw Ruby Shores in the distance on the left. Good sign that we’re nearing the channel. Time to prepare those supplies for drop.
“We are approaching Maneworks Bay and the channel. Be prepared to find that pegasus.” yelled Mad Cat.
“And that means we’re on our own to take care of finding him?” I asked like a university student in arms.
“Don’t be a fool. We will have a backup pegasi in case we’ll have enemies out of nowhere” Mad Cat responded with a serious tone.
I sighed and then went to the searching telescope. Transmission Bee began sending signals to the fallen pegasus in case he still had some functional electronic device. We’ve been searching for him, for about 30 minutes from this moment now, he should be somewhere around here. I suddenly spotted some drowning pony.
“That must be him!” I yelled. The bomber dropping doors were opening pretty slowly and were creaking painfully. The hydraulics should have been upgraded before the flight to be faster. But on the other hand, these doors are at least not like with the previous model - just an unnecessary loose lid. When we were about to drop that aid for that wounded troop, the navigator happened to spot 3 dots on the radar, moving closer and closer to us.
“We have enemies on our 4 and the possibility of attacking our troop is high!” Mad Cat warned us. Sentry Nest, in the middle-top gun turret, swiftly focused his aim at the incoming pegasi before being quickly pulled out by Millimeter.
“HAHAHAAA~ Come to papa!~” yelled Millimetre as he was firing. At that moment, from my point of view, he was really proven to be bloodthirsty.
XXXX, Mar 20 – “Why did the general have to put this psycho into the position of one of the gunners?! Did they secretly snatched him from a mental asylum?! This pony definitely needs to be put down and his ‘scarf’ and other ‘clothes’ needs to be confiscated.” – Ar Cee
We dropped the aid, shot down those gosh-darn furious pegasi and were prepared to turn this baby back to the aerodrome. The general then suddenly interrupted our flight back.
“Everypony, we require some aerial recon photos of the enemy's structures. The scroll from ‘Marathon Coast Group’ has informed us about some strange constructions and plans.” his words have spoken from wonky radio noise.
“Any additional information about those buildings, General?” T.Bee asked.
“From the group, there is a ‘dome’ being constructed and a line of pillars, which might be used as a foundation for a wall to keep our earth pony troops from any attack.” answered the general.
“Understood. We’re heading towards those buildings.” said T.Bee and signaled Aero Lane to turn it back towards the enemy lines.
Oh dear, taking aerial photos?! Am I suppose to take the photos straight from the dropping doors or from the cockpit I’m in?… I’m taking the risk. I flicked the switch for dropping doors, firmly grabbed the camera and with a caution, leaned down to take those photos. That wind speed… What a pressure… no wonder pilots are mostly pegasi, they’re masters in handling those bombers.
Our flight back was interrupted by more gunshots and I was stunned by them. Though, they weren’t regular standart like those pegasi pilots. Those bullets had much bigger penetration power and speed. I leaned back and took a peek through the cockpit to see who’s attacking. To our surprise, it was none other than the ‘Freeze Freaks’ from Sire’s Hollow. The radio then received a signal from the enemy pegasus.
“This is ‘Vee-Zee 1’ speaking. I’m giving you only one warning: turn your garbage back or you’ll suffer the consequences!” I heard pegasus speaking. We’d rather compromise, because there was a slight leaking of fuel from our right engine. Though we were close to the buildings, the plane started to slightly shake and the navigator informed us that we’re going through the hazard zone and that it might be only going downhill from here. But going with risk is profit, so it will be worth it. I snapped several photos before being pulled back by the mechanic, for I had not noticed the wind speed had almost dragged me away. “Close the dropping doors fool. We’re heading back, everypony! We got the photos!” yelled the mechanic and pilot turned it around, straight to the aerodrome.
“Don’t come back.” spoke the suspicious pegasus and turned around. That was his final radio communication with the bomber crew.
The landing back on the aerodrome was quite harsh. They somehow managed to pop two of our retracted landing tires. The bomber plane got new tires, ammunition and a livery for such a life-saving ‘mission’. My head is feeling quite floaty, so whoever is gonna write down the next segment, don’t be a ‘Goody-two-shoes’ and tell the General anything about my boxes. I need to sell something here near the aerodrome to keep myself and my house afloat. Privacy at its best.
XXXX, Mar 21 – “I had quite a fun taking down those pegasi yesterday. There are certain parts that are missing in my collection. Can’t stun my crewmates, that would get me kicked out or even send to the prison. Let’s play it clean and ask the troops out there for a cadaver to dissect. I could practice the surgery on- Oh nevermind - there’s that pegasus we saved yesterday. Fufufu~” – Millimeter
