Green Sun: Anthology

Breach

“Check the street again, don’t want any surprises this time around.” Sergeant Gallant ordered tiredly. This was their fifth patrol through Canterlot in as many days and while they hadn’t had any contact yet, their sister platoon had been ambushed by those little flying daggers when moving through an intersection.

“Copy.” PFC Truffle grumbled before she felt the hoof of her sergeant on her flank.

“Not you.” Gallant told her, “You’ve checked the last three, I want fresh eyes this time. Forest, you’re up.”

“Got it.” the other PFC stated, her voice crackling through her helmet speakers as she trotted forward.

“Too green…” Gallant thought as the platoon spaced out again, “And not just on the ground.”

“Clear!” Forest announced, getting a nod from all present as they continued forward, a Predator bringing up their rear. It had been a few months since the Truce had been called, and a few weeks since the Scrin had landed a tib rock in the middle of Equestria’s capital city, and now Gallant was having to patrol what was essentially enemy territory with Celestia-damned aliens on the planet.

With a nod and a double check of his helmet’s filters, he continued on at a leisurely pace. Signs of aliens were usually more pronounced and even if Charlie had been caught off-guard, they already had a reputation for being the the most lax platoon when it came to patrol security and that lack of discipline had cost GDI two Timberwolves and a Predator.

“Contact front!” somepony shouted and Gallant was knocked back to reality. Unicorns in his platoon had already put up shields and the Predator had its turret aimed down the road, but there wasn’t any incoming fire.

“We should be dodging plasma by now.” the sergeant mused to himself as he galloped to the front of the formation, “Alright somepony tell me what the tartarus is going on.”

“Movement ahead.” Truffle told him, gesturing to a storefront a full block down the road, “Confirmed Scrin presence inside but they ducked inside as soon as Hardboil said something.”

“Anti-tank units from the looks of them, sergeant.” Hardboil told them, “The weird walking guns, but I only saw two of them.”

“So we have at least two of the walkers hiding in a…. Ah… shit.”

“Sarge?”

“That’s Donut Joe’s.” Gallant muttered. Once he had, every other pony that hadn’t already looked down the road did so, if only to confirm for themselves, and a nearly synchronized sigh rang out from them all. Even the tankers sitting safely in their Predator let their frustration be known and Gallant heard one of them punch the inside of the turret, a dull quick ‘thump’ breaking the silence that had overtaken the patrol.

“Breach and clear?” Truffle asked.

“We have to.” Gallant replied, “Street’s too narrow for Witch’s Brew to blow it out and if she gets too close the bugs might slag her hull.”

“Guess we’re doing this the hard way.” Forest deadpanned, getting an unseen glare from Truffle as she looked over at her fellow PFC, only to get a mirrored visor looking right back at her.

“Unfortunately.” Gallant added in a similarly blunt fashion, “Corporal Divine, grab your team and get ready to breach, I’ll bring my team up behind you.”

Divine simply pulsed her status light and got to work gathering her fireteam as the rest of the platoon inched their way down the road. When it was finally deemed unsafe for their armor support to move forward, Gallant and Divine brought their teams to the edge of Donut Joe’s Famous Shop. Nine ponies in all stacked up on the bay windows of the adjacent store that had been boarded up well before the Battle of Canterlot with Divine second in line, preferring to use her magic to hold her weapon rather than her armor.

“Delta ready.” she whispered into the comm while bringing her combat shotgun to bear.

“Alpha ready.” Gallant stated.

Tension held for what felt like several lifetimes before Gallant realized he was holding his breath again, and it was only when he exhaled that he seemed to come back to reality.

“Buck it.”

Three shotgun blasts rang out in the abandoned city as Divine got to work. Once she had made short work of the hinges, the pony in front of her reared back and bucked the door open. The glass and wood gave way with little protest and before the remains of the door had even hit the ground, a trio of grenades were thrown magically through. Two of them were meant to disorient anything inside, the standard issue flashbang that GDI had put to good use in the Saddle Arabian campaigns, but the third was a new toy courtesy of ZOCOM.

Sonic waves that were merely uncomfortable for ponies and griffons were lethal to the aliens, and despite their limited range, were put to great use in corralling alien units where both GDI and Nod units needed them.

With the sonic waves still emitting, Delta all moved in to find a trio of bipedal aliens writhing on the ground and put them out of their misery, Divine taking pride in completely bisecting one with a well-aimed shotgun blast. After a chorus of “First floor clear!” rang out, Alpha moved in with them while one of the privates from Delta kept his weapons trained on the stairwell leading to the second floor.

“Copy tha-shit.” Gallant blurted out as he found himself face-to-face with a blossoming tiberium formation where the donut displays used to be.

“Call for a cleanup crew?” Divine asked.

“Mark it for later, ZOCOM has their hooves full right now.”

“Understood. Harrier, Jukebox, secure outside just in case the bugs decide to jump rather than fight.”

“Alpha, we’re hitting the second floor.” the sergeant said rather casually. Aliens aside this was just another day at the office, mostly.

Gallant and his fireteam stacked up against the stairwell, preparing to head up while the private from Delta kept vigil. Once ready, he stole one last glance at Divine who simply nodded at him and pinged her status light again. Gallant let out another breath and gave the order.

The tiberium growth exploded right after he told them to breach.

Pain tore through his flank and his ears were ringing.

“Not ringing…. Buzzing.”

To his horror, the entire shop was absolutely peppered with tiberium. The ceiling had been blown out and above him were several hives of buzzers. Instinct took over and he grabbed every sonic grenade he had and popped their pins, not even bothering to throw them up into what remained of the second floor. Before he could get his bearing he was already hearing Corporal Divine scream for them all to evacuate. To her credit, even with her front left hoof missing she was still getting the dazed soldiers moving, only pausing when Gallant forced her onto his back and started galloping out of the shop.

“Actual! Barricade 2-2 has confirmed hive presence!” he barked into his helmet radio, “Corner of Hoofington Drive and Sunset Boulevard, be aware of tib growth inside, wipe it out!”

“Location confirmed 2-2, Orcas are en route, ETA 90 seconds.” a calm stallion replied, though as soon as the confirmation was given, his attention turned to what was left of Bravo Platoon.

“Suppress that building, damnit!” he ordered, and his ponies obeyed. Witch’s Brew’s coaxial machine gun began peppering the building’s second floor while the ponies who weren’t wounded went about laying down fire or tending to the wounded.

It was only after he had set Divine down next to one of their escort Timberwolves that he finally started to feel his own pain again. She was lucky, the blast had taken her leg off clean and her suit wasn’t punctured; in fact, he noticed that every member of his team had shrapnel wounds, but no tiberium infection.

“Guess we should consider ourselves lucky… guess the displays got the worst of it…” Gallant murmured as he slumped down next to Divine, only for the NCO to scoot away from him quickly.

“Sarge…” she whispered.

“Wha…” he started before looking down at his flank, his suit was ruptured and the tell-tale sign of crystal growth had already begun. The adrenaline was already wearing off and he could only get a single, panicked, devastating word out before the shakes and infection started to take their toll, a word that was drowned out by the storefront up the road exploding.

“BREACH!”