Author's Note

Here’s CHAPTER THREE! Hope you guys enjoy! FYI I’ll be doing two more chapters of this story before taking a break.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Rescue Op

Staff Sergeant Ben Grayson: Nova Tanis: June 24th 2188: Seven days later

I push the cloth door of my tent open with the morning sleep still in my system and Battle-Rattle on my person, the sun peeking through the holes of the large cave.

“Time to make the rounds” I thought as I began my trek through the Rebel Camp.

When Private Maxson brought us here we were all stunned at how this place was hidden for so long until Maxson explained that this place was in the works long before the Imperials came.

The Camp itself is in a large came that was hollowed out by the crash of a NAC cargo ship back when the Lankies came knocking, the Equestrians came only a few months later but they were so busy with establishing themselves that they couldn’t find the ship before the locals covered her up with mud, wood and whatever else they could find and only improved that camouflage as the years went on.

As for how there were more humans here then what was here 80 years ago, the Elder explained that the Equestrians used genetic engineering to vat grow new humans and clone the existing population which until they’ve done a certain term of service are treated like objects and slaves rather than people and even then those not of a certain sub-race of Equestains are treated as second class citizens which-

“Mister Grayson!” A collection of little voices brought my attention out of my mind with a smile on my face.

“Hey you three!” I say to the three little kids that came to a stop in front of me as I kneeled down to their level.

They were all nine or so years old, with one girl and two boys. The one girl whose name was Evie was the tallest of them by a head and had pale skin with blonde hair tied into a ponytail and crystal blue eyes, like the rest of the people here she wears two leather pieces of clothing with colourful knitting woven into the cloths to set her apart.

The shortest of the boys is called Blake and he has jet black raven hair, Grey eyes and slightly tanned skin whilst wearing a different styled leather outfit dyed black.

The last of the two boys was named Sam and what separated him from the other two completely is his blue skin colour, red hair and yellow eyes.

Sam was a hybrid you see, a kid born out of a relationship between a human and an Equestrian. His kind ever since humans came under the reign of the Imperium had a bad relationship with those Equestrians that were stanched loyalists to their empire, the only Equestrians that didn’t view the hybrids with disgust were the ones that were either in low standing in the Imperium or are outright traitors.

“Miss Evergreen wanted your help in the med-tent, some of the hunters got into a fight with the prey and came back with some nasty pains!” Evie said her voice was a bit high for her age but I’ve learned to pay it no mind.

Chuckling I said “Alright I was just about to head there anyways but thanks for the urgency”

I then got up and walked towards the tent whilst the three little ones ran off somewhere else to play.

As I walked through the camp to the medical tent I noticed the residents giving me a glance, not a suspicious glance but a curious glance. Which I can understand up to a week ago things like Earth, Sol, the NAC and our technology were just kid stories and legends to them, so having a person wearing Armour unlike anything they’ve seen just casually walking through their camp is bound to raise some eyebrows.

The rapid FLAK FLAK FLAK FLAK of weapons fire draw’d my attention to the camp’s firing range where members of our STT are training on “new” weaponry.

The M66 Flechette rifle was phased out of use by the time the Pacific Alliance was formed due in most part to the fact that the Lanky’s skin was very thick and required a lot of kinetic force and explosives to even wound one hence the JUMBO but given the possibility of hostilities between us and the Imperials thanks to the information we gathered over the past week, many of us thought it necessary to have a weapon designed to hit small and fast targets.

Luckily for us Elder Maxson along with the rest of the Elders have stored and maintained a small amount of M66s along with their ammo and spare parts, the range was nothing more than a few sandbags and tables on one end of the narrow stretch of land in this corner of the cave and a couple of cardboard painted targets on the other end.

At the range were three of the SI Force Recon guys and Avery.

My Bootcamp buddy fires his M66 in rapid but single shot bursts since ammunition is in short supply and we need to get used to the weapon as fast as possible.

The rifle itself is a bullpup design with the rear of the weapon being the most angular then the front which is more curved which gives it a mean looking appearance, after he pops the magazine and places both it and the weapon on the table in front of him he turns to me.

“Hey Grayson doing the rounds again?” Avery asks

“Actually Evergreen wanted my help at the medical tent so I’ll probably spend the day there” I replied.

“Well I’ll be in the command tent if you need me brother” Avery said before walking off into the camp.

I look back to the Force Recon troopers for a moment before continuing my trek towards the Medical tent.

“Ah Sergeant Grayson thank goodness” The old woman with bright green eyes and greyish hair says as I enter the Medical tent.

“What’s the problem Madam?” I asked, taking note of the three men on their separate beds, the beds themselves were quite thin with many small holes in them and they lacked blankets.

Kneeling over the oldest of the three Elder Evergreen explained “Mason and his group were out hunting for extra food for you and the other soldiers when they were ambushed by a ragsor”

I took note of the boy’s condition before turning my gaze beyond him and Evergreen to the two younger boys behind them.

“That’s the Tigerish animal right?” I ask as I get my medical gear unclipped from my webbing on my Battle Armour.

The Ragsor was an alien animal from some other planet within the Equestrian Imperium, it looked like a Tiger but with thick skin like a Rhino instead of fur and was able to….not so much breath fire but able to let out a breath so hot it was able to wear down its prey to the point of almost being immobilised.

From the looks of it all three of them were caught in the Ragsor’s heat breath but only Mason the eldest of the three had any scratch marks or wounds.

“Yes that's right, I did my best for Robbin and Max but I ran out of my usual medicine before I could tend to Mason” Evergreen says as she places a wet towel on the young boy's forehead whilst giving him plenty of water.

“And the only remaining medication you do have is what we brought” I said not as a question but as a matter of fact, whilst there were many of the original colony that survived to this day they either almost completely forgotten how to use modern medical equipment relying on more basic methods or are unfamiliar with the current medication we brought.

Soon enough I found what I was looking for in my medical kit, a tube of cooling gel that is used when somebody has touched a really hot surface and needs something other than water to cool down.

Before I applied the gel however I first worked on Mason’s wounds, disinfecting them first then applying skin-plasters which are like regular plasters but contain the same liquid that the human body deploys to repair damaged skin, this helps the body heal a bit quicker.

After a few moments I was able to bandage Mason up with the help of Miss Evergreen before finally applying the cooling gel being careful of his bandages.

After a few moments I was done before moving on to the other two boys, applying the gel a bit quicker this time and making sure the two each got enough water to help cool them down.

It was during this time that I began to feel at ease, not just in the fact that I saved lives today but also in the fact that I’m doing what I’ve always wanted to do. Despite my current occupation I never wanted to be a soldier, I dreamed of becoming like my mother Fibe Grayson who is a nurse in my home town’s clinic.

It’s only through a case of high school bullying and self-doubt that I chose to join the corps and even then I made sure to ace my medical exams and by the end of boot I joined the fleet as a medical officer before two years later becoming a Pararescueman.

My mother was supportive of my choice though I know for a fact she didn’t like it. It was actually my Grandfather who was the most vocal against my enlisting but he soon adopted the same stance as my mother.

“Right that should about do it” I say as I finish tending to the wounded hunters.

“I’ll be sure to keep an eye on them and let you or the other PJs know if they need more help, and thank you Sergeant” Evergreen replies as I pack my medical gear back into my webbing

“No Prob-” I was about to say before a familiar face came barging in.

“GRAYSON!” Avery shouted at the top of his lungs startling me and Evergreen

“A-Jesus Avery what the fu-!”

“NO TIME ASSHOLE! MAJOR WANTS THE STT IN THE COMMAND TENT LAST WEEK! CODE-346A!” Avery said before I could complain and I froze when he mentioned that specific code.

A Code-346A is only issued when a high mission critical objective has been identified, usually on short notice and has a LWO or Limited Window of Opportunity for short.

“Gotta go” I simply say to Evergreen before sprinting out the medical tent with Avery Fallon towards the Command tent.

When the news of there being humans on the planet reached the rest of the STT Major Graves decided to have our HQ in the natives camp which they call Heaven, reason being that whilst a mobile HQ is hard to find it needs fuel to keep moving and having a place to rest not inside a dropship wouldn’t hurt anybody.

So with the help of the locals we turned one of their bigger tents into our command post, with small portable computers on tables lining the outer side of the tent’s interior and a big table with a Holomap able to display information in 3D in real time.

When me and Fallon arrived it was packed with not just our STT but also many of the Elders and rebel leaders of the various resistance cells on this planet.

“Staff Sergeants Ben Grayson and Avery Fallon Reporting sir!” I say as me and Fallon enter the tent.

“Gather around men and let's get started” Major Graves says and thus starts the briefing.

“At 2300 hours yesterday a rebel contact within the colony capital infomed Elder Maxson that a VIP who was captured in a past operation will be executed in the next 5 hours” Graves started before tapping a few buttons on the holomap’s projector.

The holomap then changes its current projection to that of the main imperial settlement on Nova Tanis.

“This is the Capital city known as City-348C” The Major explained.

The City itself was situated between a group of hills to the north and northeast whilst our own very large forest sits to the west of the settlement, the city is pretty large with a size of 26 square kilometres from the farthest building to the city centre though its actual shape is kinda like a boomerang with the western side curving up to the north along the forest and the east curving down the south.

“This is the only settlement with commercial, industrial or governmental abilities and is the largest on Nova Tanis” The major continued.

“And this is who we are extracting” The holomap then changes to show a full body picture of who we are rescuing.

SHE looks about twenty or so and her face has a soft look to it, her hair is purple with a pink strip and her eyes are sapphire coloured.

“Her name is Twilight Sparkle and she’s sort of a legend amongst the resistance both here and in the wider imperial territories” I raise an eyebrow at that as she looks pretty young.

“Why’s that Major?” One of the members of the SCAR teams asked.

“I’ll answer that” Elder Maxson intervened.

The elder private then moved to the centre of the tent opposite the major on the table holding the holomap.

“As I’m sure most or some of you are aware, the Imperium has the ability to transform humans or any other compatible species into Ponies. This procedure is called “Conversion”, however this procedure can also do the reverse and turn a pony into a human or any other compatible species.” Maxson explained first.

“How does that tie into her being a legend despite her age? Is it because of her strategy and tactics?” Another member of the STT asks.

“Yes but that’s not the most important part,” Maxson said. “Not only was she once a pony but she was also a member of a rare sub-race called Alicorns which had the traits of all the three other common sub-races and have superb regenerative abilities”

“Which in other words, makes them immortal” The Major was the one who dropped that bombshell on us.

For a moment we were all silent well expert the rebels, looking at them I could tell they at least heard of what the Alicorns are capable of but still…

“Sir are you fucking with us?” Avery asked this time.

“No Staff Sergeant I am not though to clear they can still die from things like gunshots or organ failure just not of old age and they can still take a beating, which still makes them as close to a demi-god as they can be” The Major replied.

“If they’re like demi-gods or something then that must make them pretty important right?” I ask to which Maxson nodded

“So why’s she with you then?” I continued.

The Elder hesitated for a moment before saying “It's personal for her so I won’t answer but I will say that “history is written by the victors” and that she has more than enough reason to be the enemy of the Imperium, as well as being friends of us”

“If there are no more questions about our VIP here’s the plan” Major Graves took the lead again.

“The SEALs will go in and perform the extraction whilst SCAR team 6 will will use their “LONGBOs” to swat any enemy close air out of the sky should things go loud whilst the rest of us prepare for a retaliation because make no mistake people once we extract this VIP they’ll be on us like hornets understood!?”

“YES SIR!” We all replied.

“Sir! What’s the top brass’s word on this?” someone else asks.

The Major was quite for a bit before saying “Due to the fact we had to use laser coms to transmit our findings to the task force we currently don’t have a up-to-date situation of what's happening over on their end and thus after this mission we indeed may end up making things worse but I’ll be damned if we let an opportunity like this slip by”

We spend the next hour drawing up a battleplan, discussing various points of entry, ROE and exit plan.

What we came up with was for Shadow Two to make a nuke run on the defence base north of the city as a distraction once we’ve located the VIP, then after we’ve secured her we board Shadow Two and proceed back to the camp and prepare for a retaliation strike.

Not the most detailed plan sure but it was something and that’s better than nothing.

With time against us as soon as we got the plan finalised the SEAL team plus me and Avery went towards the city whilst SCAR team 6 headed to a hill to the south that overlooks the city to provide overwatch.

“Never a dull moment in the corps aye Grayson?!” Avery says as we sprint through the thick woods in our servo-assisted Battle Armour.

“You say that as if that’s a good thing!” I reply as we continue our stride.

Three Hours later

“Hold up” Captain Oscar says as we neared a small stream.

To the right of our team is the stream going deeper into the forest whilst to our left the stream transforms into a small lake, beyond that are the small buildings of city-348C.

The Captain does a sweep with his borrowed M66 over the other side of the stream before turning his gaze to the city.

“Move” he said over the squad channel.

We moved along the bank of the stream for a minute before coming upon a swage exit pipe, our point of entry.

“Obama, Mike take point” The Captain says keeping his flechette rifle trained on the entry point.

The two SEALs then climbed into the pipe followed by the rest of us.

The pipe was only large enough for a two man abreast to move forward so we moved forward in a two man column formation with the Captain in the centre of our formation.

“Sarah and her team should be further in,” Captain Oscar said as we proceeded deeper into City-348C’s sewer system.

Earlier in the day Sarah and her crew went ahead into the city to try and rescue their VIP by themselves, fortunately Elder Maxson got in touch with her and the rebel cell in the city and told them we’d be on our way.

“Hold up” Mike said after we spent a few minutes travelling in the city sewers.

We came to a stop by a corner of an area the pipe runs by, in that area were a few guards and a ladder that leads to the surface. My guess would be that these guys were acting as security since from what we know from the rebels they make use of the sewers to both hide and attack important targets, as to why the imperials haven’t yet cleared this place out yet well it probably be too much of a headache to handle with collateral damage.

“No way we are sneaking by these guys Captain” Mike says as he sends his helmet cam footage to our TAC-LINKs.

The area where our sewage tunnel and the guard area connects is completely open and the light by the ladder is able to shine into our tunnel, meaning unless we want to get spotted we can’t move forward in the tunnel.

“Got eyes on five hostiles, a full fireteam. Two by the ladder, one by the hallway in the right corner, one in the centre of the room and one right next to us” Obama chimed in marking all the hostiles in the room as he calls them.

The hostiles in particular have hands and feet much like humans but they have fur in addition to skin and have heads that share a resemblance to ponies, the armour they wear reminds me of the romans a fair bit mostly in the helmets but they do have a few modern features that I could recognise such as military webbing, a visor covering the face and a couple of pouches on the chestplate.

“Don’t suppose these things have a “Keep the fuck quiet” setting?” Robert says as he inspects his M66.

“Afraid not-” I say before I’m interrupted by Mike.

“Contact right corner”

Eyeing Mike’s helmet cam again I could see that the hostile that was guarding the hallway was gone and in his place out of the light of the room and in the darkness of the hallway was a familiar face.

“She’s good” I hear Avery say as Sarah makes a couple of hand signals towards us.

“What’s she saying?” Robert asks.

“I think she wants Mike to take out that guard in front of us quietly” The Captain concludes.

“How?” Mike asks both over the squad channel and through the use of signing.

Through the feed of Mike’s helmet I could see Sarah pulling a knife from her thigh and showing it to us across the room.

“Anybody got a knife?” Mike asks over the squad channel

“Do you SEE us using a knife on Lankies!?” Obama said back.

“So how the fuck-” Mike asks before Captain Oscar interjects.

“We waste them hard” He says, pulling the action on his M66 back to slide in fresh rounds.

“You sure Captain?” I ask.

“There’s four of them and five of us, I’d say we have a good chance and let's face it Sergeant we’re bound to get into a fight sooner or later so best get a few shots in to get used to it.” Oscar says before moving up to Obama and Mike’s position.

“Obama Mike, take the two by the ladder and I’ll take the last two. Rest of you follow behind us and keep your heads on a swivel” He said, raising his rifle.

“Ready?” The two SEALs nod in return.

“Three. Two. One. GOGOGO!”

Immediately we charged out of our cover and began to move to different ones whilst spraying our M66s.

The one closest to us and the one in the centre of the room were the first to fall, peppered with flechettes from Captain Oscar but the two guards by the ladder were quick and took cover by some railed walls on their elevated position across from us.

Then one of them began blind fire his weapon from his hidey hole.

“Ahgh! Ahhh!” The Laser was quick and hitted Robert square in the head, on instinct his limp body fired its M66 on full auto.

“Shit!/Robert!” Jonathan and I say as I moved to Robert's body as it falled to the ground with a clang, even though I knew he was gone.

As I knelt by the Fallen SEAL I could see that the Laser blast melted through the Polymer-ceramic shell of the helmet, setting the wiring a light and completely frying his head. Through his T-shape visor I could see the aftermath and…well I never want to see that sight again if I could help it but-

“ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY!!” Sarah shouted as she and a couple other Rebels came out of their spot in the hallway.

The firefight lasted only five seconds but given our location I could understand why she’d be mad, for all we know we just lost the element of surprise.

“Ma’am I know this is-” Oscar tried to explain but-

“I’LL TELL YOU WHAT THIS IS! THIS IS THE MOST DUMBEST THING YOU “Spec-Ops” NUTJOBS COULD’VE DONE! IF THE IMPERIALS HAVEN’T BEEN FOCUSING ON THE EASTERN SIDE OF THE CITY WE WOULD HAVE BEEN DEAD IN A FEW MINUTES FROM NOW! WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINK-” Sarah’s loud but justified rant was interrupted by one of the other Rebels cloging her mouth with a “Handed” gesture.

“Whilst I do agree with Sarah that your actions could have endangered our mission, might I suggest we move on before we run out of time?” He said to which our Captain just nodded and gestured us to follow the rebels.

“Fallon, stay here and keep our exit route open as planned. And make sure our fallen doesn’t get into the wrong hands” Oscar said just as I got up to follow.

Before I could raise my opinion Oscar raised his unused hand and said “We’ll need you Grayson in case our VIP needs medical assistance, besides there’s no special training needed to bring our dead home”

I nod in understanding even if I don’t like it and soon we are on our way.

“Up here” Sarah says as she climbs up the ladder.

We were deeper in the city now, about a few hundred metres away from the execution area.

We passed by many more humans on our way here, a few other rebels ready in case things go south but most were just people surprisingly. Sarah says that those who don’t want to live under the imperials but can’t go to Heaven hunker down here away from the patrols.

Oscar and the rest of the SEALs took turns in climbing the ladder until I was the last one left.

By the time I was up topside I could see that it was a bit past midday on Nova Tanis.

We were in an alleyway between two of the larger buildings in the city, meaning we are somewhere deeper in the city near the plaza.

“It’s gonna be close” Oscar says, noticing the crowds on the street in front of our ally.

“Keep low, to the shadows and follow us” Sarah said as we moved through the city via the alleyways whilst avoiding any alley patrols if possible.

It took only a few minutes before we came upon an alley that sits right outside the plaza where the execution is supposed to happen.

“Thief to BoomDog, store in sight awaiting confirmation on the cash. Are the fireworks ready over?” Captain Oscar says using the code words for our operation.

“Thief this is BoomDog, fireworks are ready and Hunter confirms that they are at their nest over” BoomDog AKA Shadow Two with two members of SCAR team 6 replied before “Hunter” which is the codename for the last three members of SCAR 6 chimed in.

“Roger Boom-” Oscar began to reply before Obama got his attention.

“Visual on the Cash” He said referring to the VIP Twilight Sparkle.

Through Oscar’s feed I could see our target as she led up the stairs towards a pole in the centre of the platform.

“BoomDog gets ready to light the fireworks, visual on the Cash over” Oscar said.

“Match ready” Came the reply.

As the VIP was tied up and blind folded I could see a team of five Imperial Soldiers match up upon the platform.

“Light!” Oscar ordered.

“Roger firing” Was the response

“Grayson, as soon as that fireball goes up you smack that group of assholes with your JUMBO and secure the VIP understood?” Oscar ordered even though I already knew that I was the one to go first.

“-READY!?” The voice of what Sarah calls the “Lord governor” calls out and the five ponies stand at attention.

“BoomDog!?” Oscar said fearing the worst.

“AIM!”
“Impact..”

Time seems to slow to a crawl for me as the stress of the whole situation tries to get to me and I look at Twilight’s face, eyes closed with a face that has no regrets.

“FIRE!
“NOW!”

To the north over yonder a brief flash followed by a massive mushroom cloud appeared as the pure fusion warhead detonated over at the main imperial defence base.

“GO!GO!GO! COVERING FIRE!” Oscar shouted over the squad channel just one second later and immediately we rushed out of our alley but not before I put a JUMBO round into the execution squad, whilst the SEAL team moved to cover me and kill anyone that had a firearm I sprinted up to the platform.

By the time I got up on the platform I could see the Lord Governor struggling to maintain his balance after the nuke went off.

Without breaking my sprint I pulled my right arm back and as I was just inches away from him I thrusted by servo-assisted arm right into his face.

The force of my punch, combined with the sprint and my Hard Shelled arm send the guy flying off the platform across the plaza and into one of the buildings, if the impact of my punch didn’t kill him then the impact of him crashing into a building most definitely would.

“Nice one Grayson! Now quickly get the VIP and let's book it! We won’t have much time!” Oscar’s voice called over my helmet and I turned back to the VIP and her would-be exactionors.

The projectile I fired that was designed to pierce the tough hide of Lankies was able to tore straight through the first three soldiers before detonating in the fourth soldier killing both him and the fifth soldier, leaving quite the mess.

“Hunter to Thief you got a flight of routers incoming from the city’s perimeter-” Said one of the SCARs as I approached the VIP before hearing the sound of helicopters coming from all directions.

Then I hear a loud explosion before I hear the sounds of an aircraft losing control before hearing a loud CRASH followed by another explosion.

“Make that three” The same SCAR says as I concluded that they just shot one of those choppers down.

I then forced my attention on the VIP I.E my patient.

She was knocked out by the force of the JUMBO round but other than that she seemed fine, which given the circumstances was good enough for me.

“Incoming!” I hear over the Squad channel and look to where the threat was indicated on my TAC-LINK, down the boulevard away from the plaza were at least an over strengthened company of Imperial troops with a tank in support.

I quickly grabbed the VIP bridal style and jumped off the platform back towards the alley right as several beams sprayed the platform.

“COVERING FIRE! GRAYSON GET TO THE LZ!” Oscar shouted through the TAC-LINK as the roar of M66s added to the symphony of battle taking place.

I did as ordered and ran like hell back towards the man-hole we came out of earlier, though not literally as I have to make sure the rebels were with me as I obviously can’t fight back with my precious cargo in hands and arms.

Soon enough I got back to the man-hole with the rebels right behind me.

“Captain!?” I shout back over the comms as I hand the VIP to one of Sarah’s men whilst they head down and I act as a rear guard.

There was nothing but static, gunfire and sounds of agony and death. My suit can tell me how the others are doing but because of the damage to their suits (possibly from the enemy’s lasers) mine can’t link to theirs and display their information on my TAC-LINK, all I do know for sure is that they haven’t left the plaza yet.

“Grayson!” Sarah shouted from inside the sewers.

I took one last look at the direction of the SEALs before jumping into the man-hole.

“Where’s your buddies?” Sarah asked as I took our VIP from her man and let him take rear guard duties.

“Don’t know but we can’t wait for them, not if we want to face the whole of the garrison’s remnants” I said regrettably.

“G-Gr-Grayson” I suddenly hear Oscar’s voice over the comms.

“Captain!?” I shouted in surprise as I scanned my HUD for Oscar’s vitals, unfortunately his BA must be in bad shape as my suit can’t connect to his but judging from the warning sounds and other noises I could hear from Oscar’s side he must be in bad shape.

“F-Fh-Finish the m-m-mu-miss-” Then the comms cut suddenly.

For a moment I just stood there with our VIP in my arms.

“Was that-?” Sarah began to ask before I cut her off.

“They're dead. We need to move, NOW” With that we made our way back to Avery’s position.

Arriving back at Avery’s position sometime later I noticed a couple of SCARs carrying the body of Robert out back through the pipe with Avery watching them before turning towards us.

“Hey Gray!” I nod to him as he greets us.

“Shadow Two got SCAR 6 after they took down that flight of helicopters and are waiting outside the sewer entrance” He explained before looking over at me and the Rebels as they made their way towards the Akumu.

“Where’s the other SEALs?” He asked before I shook my head and moved past him into the pipe.

“..Goddammit” Was all he said as he stood in the room where we lost Robert, his M66 in Avery’s hands whilst his own JUMBO was slung over his back.

“Come on Ave” I say to my best friend before he nods and we both made our way out of the sewer before boarding the Dropship.

The pilot then made best speed back to Haven, leaving four brave SEALs behind.