Chapter 1: To Unknown Lands
The EFS and HUD on my power armor booted up after a new spark battery was inserted into the spell matrix core. I had replaced the lenses from the generic orange ones to a more cool blue color. Not only did it stand out less, but it also changed the EFS color to blue as well. Once that was all booted up, I got the typical greeting from the onboard computer.
"Welcome to the APA Mark Four, For Use In Hazardous Combat Conditions. Defensive Weapon Selection. Online. Armor Condition Monitoring, Online. Munitions Charge Monitoring System, Online. Eyes Forward Sparkle Detection System, Online. Communications Interface, Online. Automatic Medical Systems, Online. Environmental Hazard Detection Systems, Online. Suit Running at One Hundred Percent Efficiency. Have A Very Safe Day." The feminine sounding computer voice read off before going silent. Sweet Celestia, this computer is annoying. Apparently it’s hard coded into the armor’s spell matrix, so it can’t me removed at all. Whoever thought this was a good idea, I’d like to introduce them to a very personal date with a concrete slab to the face. With a sigh, I head out of the power armor bay, and back into the rest of the barracks. As I exited, I spotted my battle buddy and close friend, Anomaly. They’re a unicorn mare, grey coat and mane, but with pink eyes. They’re a strange pony to say the least, but she’s really friendly and kinda sweet at times as well. Sorta makes you wonder what drove a pony like her to join the army.
"Oh, Hey Cherry. I see you modified your armor more?" Anomaly asked as she stood up after finishing getting her gear sorted.
"Hey, Anomaly. Yeah, I changed out the lenses so my eyes aren’t hurting after thee mission is done. I never liked the orange or amber HUDs that much. The blue one is much better." I respond as we head out of the barracks to meet up with the rest of Able Platoon. Apparently the egg heads had made some portal to allows us to counterattack the Rohadinian Army who attacked us, and Able Platoon is going to be the first into the portal. They say they’ve tested it, but I’ll keep my cards close to my chest.
Approaching closer to the room with the portal gate, I met up with the other members of my squad, and from there we formed up to move out once we got the word. Everypony here was tense, but knowing what to expect. Where would we end up? In the middle of a city? In the middle of an ocean? Nobody really knew, and the fact the scientists wouldn’t tell us more than that made it all the worst.
With a word from the platoon leader, we all went silent as the blast doors opened. I led my squad forward as trotting pace, right before stopping at the portal gate. I looked back at my squad, who were all just as nervous as I. With a deep breath and a sigh, I led us through the portal.
The sun of this world beat down on us as we came through the portal. I felt sand underneath my hooves, so we must be in a desert of some kind. We established a perimeter around the portal as we waited in silence. The rest of our platoon came through the portal, then Beta and Charlie Platoons came through as well. We helped them dig in and make a defensive position here. We were in a small dip between two larger hills, so we had some protection from being attacked for the moment. It didn’t take us too long to get things set up, so the leader had sent for base supplies. While that was happening, he had sent my squad out to scout. After quickly reforming, we made our way straight out form the front of the portal. We went at a walking pace, being careful not to walk into an ambush or trap. Strangely enough, all we heard was just some local fauna and insects. Did we really get sent into an uninhabited desert? Is my luck really that bad?
Just as I think that, we crest a hill, where I spot an intact asphalt road traveling to East and West. I switch to my long range radio to call up to command. "Cirrus, this is Able 1-2. We’ve found signs of inhabitation. Requesting orders on what to do?"
"Able 1-2, Cirrus. Continue with recon mission. Follow signs until you reach a settlement. Over." Command said back.
With a sigh, I switched back to my squad radio and called out that we were to follow the road West. This doesn’t seem like a very tactically sound idea, to just take a stroll till we start getting shot at, but orders are orders. Taking a staggered column formation, where we split into two offset columns on either side of the road, hence the name staggered column.
We set off at a decent pace down the road, watching around so that hopefully we didn’t get ambushed. Even with the cooling systems my armor had, the heat was still awful. I could only imagine how it was for the rest of the squad. Luckily enough for us though, we came along a road sign. The main language was some kind of scribbles it looked like, and didn’t make any sense whatsoever. Beneath it was an Equish translation, which told us that seven hundred meters to the next town. I smiled a bit inside, but I was now worried more. What kind of defenses would the Rohadinians have? We’ve seen how tough they are when cut off from all supply and are alone, so how dangerous would they be on their home turf?
I turned to look back at the squad, looking them over. "We should be almost to the first settlement, the sign says seven hundred meters. Once we’re there, we’ll take a quick rest after make a small dugout ditch to wait for the rest of the platoon to come up so we can take the town."
They seemed to be okay with the news, many were happy that we weren’t going to be lost in this desert. We continued on after that, and it actually started to get greener as we got closer to the town. A River had cut along beside the road, leading to shrubs and some grasses to grow along the side of the road. Palm trees lined both sides, probably planted in an organized way to cast shade on the road. And just around the bend of a hill, was the entrance to the town. The homes looked to have been made out of a mud looking substance, with the occasional concrete building. That didn’t seem quite right. A civilization capable of mass production of automatic infantry rifles shouldn’t have its people still living in mud huts. It just didn’t add up.
"I want Team One with me on this side of the street. Team two, take the other side. We'll move in slowly." I called out as we split to take both sides of the street. Advancing slowly with weapons raised, we quickly noticed that the city was empty. No vehicles, no sounds of people. No nothing. I really don't like this.
We came to an intersection, and that's when we found actually defenses set up, but they look to have been over ran already. Sandbags were in the buildings, and several bodies were found in the first floors, as well as the upper floors. All of the bodies were humans, but they had different gear entirely. They just had head wraps, clothes, and a very different type of rifle than what the Rohadinian forces used. What the hell happened here? Are these rebels?
I didn't get much time to wonder what had happened, as weapons fire quickly broke out. Rushing to the window, I see that two of my soldiers are dead in the street already, blood baking under the hot sun. I checked my EFS, but all I saw were my friendly markers... and another marker disappeared. Fuck, fuck, fuck! Looking around down the street, I spot a helmet of a human solider, and then I turn my battle saddle to return fire. Several red beams of energy shot down towards the target, hitting around the target. The incoming fire on his position, causing him to duck down behind the short wall he was hiding behind. I keep up the fire while I switch to the command channel. "Cirrus, this is Able 1-2. Taking heavy fire in found settlement. We are unable to maneuver out of this position. Requesting immediate reinforcements, how copy?!"
I kept firing down, till the sounds of a machine gun opening up, and the rifle rounds peppering my window where I was at. I ducked back down into the structure, and shout out to any of my troops that are still alive.
"Able 1-2, Cirrus copy your last. Reinforcements on route. Hold till they arrive, over."
"Copy that, Cirrus, out."
I then pull back, trying to found any of my squad members who were still alive. I turn the corner to the stairs, and as I'm rushing down, I see a human solider at the bottom, and they were definitely better armed than expected. "Oh fu-..."
...
...
The pain from having lead pumped into my chest was less than I expected it to be. Fuck... I doubt I was rescued.... so probably I've been captured. The sound of a truck engine reached my ears, as it seems they were the first part my body had decided to register information from. Slowly my vision returned to me, sitting across from was one of the humans. He's probably from the group that ambushed us. I blinked a couple times to clear my vision... and my HUD is gone. Fuck, they took my armor. How'd they get it off me? Did they have the armor tools?
"Hey, look who's awake. It's that bird from that portal in the desert." The human across from me said as he smirked a bit, his eyes hidden by a set of heavily tinted glasses. "Well you definitely took a beating, but you ain't as tough as I remember you being. They make you worse armor?" He chuckled.
I glared up at him, keeping my mouth shut. We weren't the only ones in the back of the truck, with two other humans sitting at the exit of it, both in different yet kind of similar gear to the one across from me.
"We were only a scout group. Once the rest of the force arrives, you'll be crushed into the sands. We beat your kind in Manehatten, we can do it again." I growled at the human across from me. It... it laughed back at me.
"Oh yeah? What, it took you like twelve attacks over the course of a year to actually get a breakthrough. And that wasn't even the actual army, those were reservists most of them."
Reservists!? Those were fucking conscripts that beat us so bad?!
It chuckled again. "Well, I see you're having a crisis of belief." He says as the truck lurches a bit as we stop. "Well, we're here. Up, let's go." He says as he pulls a nightstick from somewhere off of his armor vest, and prodded me with it. Not exactly being in a situation to do much resistance, I comply with the order. The sun was starting to set by now, the orange sky still beating down on me with the heat. With a hard smack to my neck, I stopped hating the sky and started moving again. We went off to a concrete building with thick bars over the windows. More of the humans stood guard, these ones wearing matching uniforms unlike my captors. The inside was thankfully air conditioned, the floors cool to the touch. He led me down a hall, and opened one of the cells, pushing me in before shutting it and locking it.
"Cherry? You're alive!?" A young mare's voice spoke from behind me. Looking at it's source, it was Anomaly. The young mare came up and hugged me tightly while I stood there stunned. "Thank God you're alive. I though you were dead when they mag dumped you."
"Yeah... yeah I'm alright... Just shocked is all. I... I expected to just be executed honestly." I respond, trying to get a grip on the situation.
"Well, even if these guys are mercenaries, they still have better morals than General Breeze." She responded as she moved away and sat down at a table as I joined her. "Well, it's been about a day since we were ambushed. The second team was entirely wiped out, and only us two, Golden, and Aurora survived. A few other ponies are here as well from another squad. Don't know from what unit, but we came in on the same truck."
So, we're not off to a good start. Fuck. I looked down at myself, looking at the bandages wrapped up around my chest, some of them stained a bit red. Sweet Luna... I feel like we've made a mistake with this war. "So, Anomaly... what do you know, if anything?"
She took a bit to respond, tapping her hoof on her chin. "Well, from what I've seen here, and my previous experience with a human before this war, we're at a disadvantage. We got a magic advantage, but they've got a magic of there own. Something they call ACE. Also that human that brought you in, that's Sergeant Blackjack. You may know him as the human commander who wiped out your Wonderbolts with a platoon of reservists."
My eyes widened at the news. He's who?!
"Wait, you're saying that that was the one who gave us so much trouble?"
Anomaly nodded. Oh, we've already lost. "Yeah, that's him. He saved me you know? And my mother as well, but she didn't make it sadly. Sometimes I wonder if she'd had survived if we took a different route, but that's in the past now. Nothing we can do now." She says with a shrug.
"I'm sorry Anomaly... I'm sorry you lost your mother. I know how that feels. What about..."
"My father? Killed by raiders. That's what led me to running off, and breaking my leg. Luckily Jack found me, and helped me get back home. Until you guys blew it up anyway." She glares a bit at me, before softening up. "I don't blame you in particular, though. The Enclave itself has my hate, but not you. You seem like a nice enough mare."
We get interrupted when the cell door opens, and a tray with some food is slid in on the floor. I go grab it, and place it on the table. It doesn't seem to bad, not gourmet quality obviously, but definitely better than eating slop. We ate in silence, not talking at all for the next thirty minutes. Anomaly was escorted out buy one of the guards for questioning. I finished the bowl I had, before just laying down in one of the beds. I wasn't exactly that tired, at least not feeling it. I stared at the ceiling for however long before eventually falling asleep. Tomorrow would be another day, and hopefully not the last day of my life.
Author's Note
Who knows why I came back.
