His prime hadn’t left him yet, that said gray had already consumed most of his dark brown mane. If it were possible he’d claim it was a product of ‘stress’, or at the very least premature graying having long decided to settle in. As it stood though, he wasn’t remotely sure what had caused the gray to take over, and at the same time he cared very little about the matter. Regardless of the gray having consumed most of his mane, the stallion in question kept a frown on his face as his pale blue eyes darkened due to the thoughts that plagued him at the moment. He kept his fingers interlocked as he kept his gaze turned downward, his focus turned away from the box-like chamber that made up his personal office buried here in the Hannibal-class land battleship known as the Vulcan’s Tribulation. As he seemed to drown out the world, he instead focused on the holographic map that was presenting itself on his desk.
On it, he saw his entire company, not its soldiers or officers, but the various complexes being built up around the Command Center from a birds eye view.
He saw the Radar Tower.
He saw the Research Center.
He saw the Barracks.
He saw the Mess Hall.
He saw the Warehouse.
He saw the Oil Refineries.
He saw the Titanium Mines.
He saw the Munitions Factory.
He saw the Vault.
There was more that his eyes rested on, but these seemed to be the main thing that kept his interest at the moment.
They were, after all, most responsible for producing what he needed.
The strangest thing however, was that each of them seemed to have a sort of timer set up, each one ‘winding down the clock’ as some might say.
Regardless, the Commander of this force found himself sighing in annoyance as he ran a hand through his graying mane. “I swear…” He muttered to himself. “Was all this really necessary?” He asked as he made a face. “We don’t need all this extra stuff to do what we want to do.” He grumbled. “Why did they add so many extra steps?
He knew why.
He just didn’t want to think about it too much, after all, it brought back more bad memories than he’d like to admit.
“Commander Viper.”
Pulled from his thoughts, the stallion in question tapped the air as a screen of hard light appeared beside him. “Officer Bells.” He greeted as he kept most of his attention focused on the screens before him before messenger with some things on the holomap. “What is it?”
"EL-Trooper Fireteam #99 has just finished being produced.”
“Very good.” He wanted to smile, but he couldn’t bring himself to. “Send them my way, I will take it from here.”
“Yes sir.”
Officer Braska stated over the lines before seeming to think.
“Shall I begin creating the next Fireteam?”
“No.” He muttered checking something on screen. “We’re short on resources at the moment, we’ll have to wait for a while until we resupply.”
“Yes sir.” The line went dead a moment later and the Commander was met with silence as his thoughts went elsewhere.
In all honesty, it was kind of strange; waking up that is. He didn't wake up from a dream or a nightmare or anything in-between. He just… woke up. His eyes snapped open and he found himself sitting up in a ‘tube’ he didn't remember climbing into, let alone falling asleep in.
Regardless the figure, a youth, found himself rubbing his eyes more on reflex than anything as he stepped out his casing and touched the white stainless floor beneath him. He wasn't the only one though, Glancing from left to right, he found himself with four others. Two girls - to mares and two more boys - two stallions like him.
All of them seemed as confused as him at the moment, but at the same time there was an odd sense of familiarity about them.
"I know you…" One of the mares muttered. "I don't know why, but I know you." The red head stated before falling silent. "But… who are you?" One of them made to respond before stopping, and seemed to think.
"I don't know…" A blue haired stallion admitted after a while. "I don't… remember anything."
No that was a lie. They all realized that. They all knew WHAT they were, but who was a different question. They were EL-Troopers. They were artificial lifeforms - Smart NPC’s based on data produced by the GBN Committee. They were mobile suit pilots and… they were a Force, or rather they were a fireteam created to serve a Force.
"Hello Fireteam #99." A tall lithe but beautiful stated as she entered the chamber the five were in. "It's a pleasure to meet you. I am Officer Braska of Force Normandy." She introduced herself. “Allow me to be the first to welcome you to our Force.” She stated as she looked at the five. Like her they were in uniform already, a set of simple combat fatigues that appeared on every newborn EL. "Now, I'm certain that you have questions, but I'm afraid that they will have to wait. The Commander would like to see you.” She told them as she made a gesture. “If you would, please follow me.” They did as requested, following behind her as she led them from the Trooper Creation bay and into their company grounds.
It wasn’t… big. Well, it wasn’t overly big when compared to others out there, but it was big. They’d parked their transport, an Archangel-class Battleship in the badlands, and the fireteam could see it resting on what had once been an improvised landing zone. The rest of the grounds consisted of everything ranging from simple housing to a hospital to a logistics center to storage depots and whatever else a military base might have.
Fireteam #99 seemed lost as they watched the others, noticing that they were all busy at the moment doing… something.
“Commander Viper.” Officer Braska called out in a way that made the fireteam snap at attention, and they looked ahead to see that an older stallion was taking a minute to turn away from the map he was focused on and looked at them. “Fireteam #99, as requested.” Braska stated the Commander gave her this sliver of a smile before nodding.
“Thank you Braska.” He told her before his attention turned to the five before him. Almost immediately - almost instinctively the five stood at attention, backs going completely straight as they spoke in unison.
“EL-Trooper Fireteam # 99 reporting for active duty.”
“At ease.” The Commander told them as he did this sort of wave before taking a few steps forward. “I am Commander Noblesses Ryder, allow me to properly welcome you to properly welcome you to Force Normandy, and your new home.” He told them.
“It’s nice to meet you, Commander.” They all said together.
“Now, I know you were just 'born', but we have work to do, and before that, I need to at least brief you on what has been going on. Commander Ryder began. “To put things in simple terms, the GBN Network - the Nexus is at war. “ He admitted. “The Coalition of Volunteers, a faction dedicated to protecting the GBN Network - has made contact with Mass-Divers, another faction dedicated to the destruction of the Nexus. Unfortunately their battles have left the Nexus severely scarred, and it is growing unstable.” He told them as he leaned against the table he was next to. “We EL - a species created by the Nexus - have opted to leave the battlefield ourr world has become, to do we’ve you’ve used the Gates and scattered ourselves across the dataverse, or as the Divers might call it, the Internet.” He grabbed one of his ears and made a show of messing with it. “Our Force has reached a server based on the… MLP universe.”The fireteam looked at him in confusion as he stopped messing with his ear. Meekly one of the five a mare with a red mane raised her hand. “Yes.”
“Commander, forgive me but… what is… MLP?”
“From what I understand from my recent studies… MLP stands for the My Little Pony franchise. It is a series centered around… for lack of a better term… talking magic ponies.” He almost sounded tired saying that. “The particular serve we have arrived in, is based on anthropomorphic take on their universe and our physical appearance has altered itself to better… blend in with the locals.” He told them as his attention turned to his Archangel-class ship. “Normally we could simply use a Gate to search for another Server to occupy, but as far as I’m aware this was a one way trip. So we’ll have to adjust to whatever this Server brings us.” He muttered as he stared at his new troops. “Any questions?”
The troops didn’t say anything at first, though one did raise their hand slowly.
“Commander, what is our long term objective?”
“Survive.” Was all he told them after a moment. “We can’t go back to the GBN servers, the Mass Diver’s weapon, something called Break Decal is causing immense stress on the servers and will most likely result in them either being shut down or crashing. That’s why our Force and others broke away from the Nexus. Our objective is to simply… survive.” He told them before rubbing his temples. “Do you understand. We have no…grand objective to complete, we have no goal to accomplish. We are simply trying to survive with the cards we’ve been dealt.” He told them. “To do that… we will try reaching out to the locals for assistance, maybe even for an alliance, but that’s for a later date. Right now we have to get ourselves together, if the worst case comes to pass…” He didn’t finish that sentence, simply shaking his head. “We will need to defend ourselves, that’s all…” He muttered before coughing into his fist. “Either way, that’s something we can worry about later, for now let's get you something to do.” He paused as he looked at the group. “But before that.” He tapped something on his table and the five EL-Troopers found floating consoles appearing before them. “You’ll need names, what shall we call you?”
