Chapters Federal Archives, Rijekograd, 22.07.1107 ALB
The sounds of storm were still hearable even through strong concrete walls that were protecting main part of Federal Department of Education building, or at least it remnants, blind rage of Nature destroyed large part of the Federation's capital not showing mercy for any single construction, from high, new skyscrapers to old, historical sites like Rijekan Parliament. It was the middle of the day, but it was dark here, really dark, thick, leaden clouds were covering the sun completely and all lights went out during the Blackout. Fortunately for seven creatures delving through corridors covered in darkness it wasn’t a problem, nightvision sets were a huge advantage in such situations.
"We are approaching the atrium, I don’t think that the elevators are working though. Contact Lieutenant Fire?" Sergeant Evening Star heard Radio Silence’s voice in his headset.
"No, not yet, let’s check if the staircase is still intact and if we can access it. We have means to get there in a polite and non-polite way." Thestral responded and checked his weapon one more time, everything was fine, they weren’t expecting anyone to be here, not in the middle of Class 3 hurricane… and if somepony was, well, Light Machine Gun should make them rethink their choices.
As they moved closer to the entrance everypony was getting more and more stressed, Evening was seeing them piercing every single shadow with their eyes as if some monster was supposed to jump on them. Finally they reached double doors that blocked their way. One pony tried to open them but he didn’t succeed.
"Magnetic locks are still working… Silence, can you solve this or should I use some explosives?" Evening asked looking at their radio operator, despite her eyes being covered by nightvision set he saw that eye roll.
"I can pick you up with ease and use your empty head as a battering ram, you know, right?" Silence approached Evening and looked at him, she was at least a head taller than sergeant. She lightly hit Evening on the back of his helmet and then moved closer to the doors opening her tools satchel. "I can try, if electronics didn’t fry completely I probably can make this thing work, give me a few minutes."
"Okay, okay, C4 will have to wait for better times and better subordinates."
"Yeah, your head would make a perfect battering ram, Evening." He heard Morning Star looking at this whole situation with a slight smile. "But I don’t want to waste bandages on it."
"Very funny, maybe Silence has that Earth Pony strength, but I doubt tha-... eh, nevermind, do your thing, Silence. The rest - watch our backs."
When soldiers dispersed Evening approached one wall where someone poorly wrote “Down with the Federation”. He felt something under his hoof and looked down only to find a damaged portrait. After picking it up Thestral started examining it, the painting was depicting a very well known Unicorn. Evening was looking at Chancellor River Swirl’s portrait, the person who united Riverlands and led River Federation as Last Bastion of Harmony, the person who liberated Equestria from Changeling oppression, the person who liberated North Zebrica and Kiria.
"What do you have there?" asked his sister looking above his shoulder.
"Old days hero, I wish she was there now." he sighed handing her portrait "She would know how to deal with that mess. But we are here, in the middle of this fucking chaos, trying to get as many old knowledge as we can. I hope that at least General Wing knows what to do."
"I doubt even Equestrian Princesses could do more against this catastrophe…" said Morning Star hanging the painting on the wall again. "And we must have hope, without it all we fight for will collapse. We can save the Federation."
"Yes, I know, just… I fear what will happen if we fail, now chaos is consuming almost all parts of our continent, Southern Firestorm, anarchy in Herzland, Federation collapse, natural disasters, warlords, bandits… and even if we manage to overcome all of this we have no guarantee that things will be as they was. After the magical gun almost killed me I have to rely on cybernetics till the end of my life, you don’t know if your magic will ever work properly again, I just want you to be safe, you are…"
"Hey, Evening, look at me. Look at me." Morning interrupted her brother’s monologue "Don’t overthink too much, focus on the present, maybe the world we knew shattered but we can’t do anything about that fact, let’s try to make it less… chaotic. Also, Silence finished opening the doors, come on, we have some data to collect."
"Yeah, I think you are right… thanks, sister. Just give me a second."
Few moments later Federal soldiers walked into the archives atrium, pretty well preserved after it was put under lockdown, they were probably the first creatures entering this section of Archives after the Blackout. They headed directly towards the emergency staircase that should lead them directly to the heart of the Archives, the amount of failsafes and other security measures should make destroying data drives almost impossible. Many stairs later their little group finally reached the deepest level and at this point even Evening had to put on his nightvision set, there was no light source, every lamp or light source went dark. It took a while to find a proper place to start their work, they saw some plans of Archives server rooms, but looking at plans and trying to find a way in darkness were two completely different things.
"Oooookay, we can get to work, Morning, try to contact the Lieutenant, let them know that we are still alive, Silence, you know what to do?"
"It seems I am the only tech specialist there so yes, I know what to do. Pray to gods that servers are still working. Give me some light, I prefer not to work in darkness."
With consoles set up and electronics having power source the place began awakening once more, the quiet buzzing of the electricity was calming, one of few moments of normalcy. Evening just sat down on one of the chairs and started flipping through papers just to give his mind some task, he wasn’t a technician and other soldiers knew their orders so he could just relax for a moment. Get the data, close Archives again and get out of that ruins of once great city. He reached for the thermos to drink some, unfortunately now cold, coffee when Silence started cursing at the monitor.
"The drives have magic locks, I can’t access the data without using magic."
Evening spit his drink and started coughing heavily when coffee got where it shouldn’t. It took him a while to stop.
"I am not joking, Evening. Look." she responded pointing her hoof at the screen. Evening froze for a moment reading “Magic lock status: active.” description over and over. "We need a magic user or we are not getting the data."
"But… fuck." another sigh, this time very loud. "Is it safe?"
"As safe as any spell now, we can get what we want or tear down the ceiling, 50/50."
"Of course they used fucking magic locks… Morning, come here, we need you." Thestral spoke to the microphone and heard short “On my way.” reply. "She will be there soon."
Silence only nodded and started preparing for their attempt to disengage the lock. Once it would be an easy procedure for technicians or even any Unicorn with an instruction, now using any spell was very dangerous for magic users and creatures around them. Want to lift something with telekinesis? Prepare for the possibility of blowing a hole in a wall. After the Blackout magic became an unpredictable, chaotic force, everything magical was involved - from spellcasters to magic devices and even weapons, that’s how Evening lost his front legs - a faulty magical LMG exploded almost killing him, he was saved by the fact that he tossed it away at the last second. And now he had to rely on cybernetics, which weren’t the best ones available, because the best ones were using magic. Magic weaponry becoming unpredictable was also a reason why Griffonia fell into chaos - by 1107 ALB most armies were using magical rifles, even tanks had magical cannons. Magical-electric devices, magical rifles, magical cannons, magical engines… they were great as long as they were working. But suddenly they stopped and Griffonia, which had its own problems, had fallen into chaos.
Morning got to them soon, she didn’t yet know what was going to happen…
"Soo… what’s going on." she asked with confusion painted on her face. "We are close to finding some useful books and blueprints in physical format."
"We need your magic to disengage the lock." Evening said that straight up, refusing to look directly in his sister's eyes.
"Okay, let’s do i…" she started before realizing the meaning of Evening’s words "Wait, you need WHAT?!"
"I’m sorry, Morning, it’s the only option we have."
Morning looked at her brother and Silence, not fully believing them yet. It had to be some sort of unfunny joke, right? But unfortunately it wasn’t and she realized that soon. When it happened she just looked at the floor and sighed, in these times no magic user wanted to use any sort of spells.
"Prepare necessary equipment, let’s do it…"
And then the three friends spent next half of an hour preparing for the procedure, from getting instructions about the spell and entire process of disengaging lock to making some sort of protection so they won’t be killed or injured if casting the spell would result in an unpredicted result, and despite all these preparations they still weren’t sure if they (Morning in particular) will leave these archives alive.
"Are you ready?" asked Evening looking at Radio Silence and his sister.
"Well, we can’t be more prepared." responded the radio operator pointing her hooves on all gathered electronics "I mean, if I had more professional equipment and a squad of specialists then yes, but in these conditions… well, you see."
"Yes, I am ready. Scared as Tartarus but ready." Morning Star was getting more and more nervous with each minute passing.
"Okay, calm down, breathe slowly. We are in this together… I am starting the procedure, I will tell you when you must start the casting."
With every command that Silence typed the general tension was increasing, Morning starting casting the spell didn’t improve the situation, soon some soldiers gathered in safe distance and were watching the procedure. When they were in half of the whole procedure Morning’s horn started sparkling but it didn’t stop them, interrupting the process would lock them out for a few good hours and it was unacceptable so they continued. Step by step magic lock on Federal data was disengaging but with each passing second spell was getting more unstable, all observers either returned to their tasks or took a few steps away. Even Silence was getting worried as she was desperately trying to finish the process before something bad will happen, her hooves were typing commands with incredible speed, same with eyes following lines of code and at last everyone in the room heard loud and happy “Done!”. Almost everyone sighed with relief, except Evening that yelled “ON THE GROUND!” and jumped on Radio Silence pinning her to the ground. Immediately after this loud explosion erupted in the room and they saw one silhouette being tossed across the room alongside a few bolts of energy shooting in random directions. Then everything returned to normalcy, except an even bigger mess in the room as sheets of paper started flying everywhere.
"Everyone is okay…?" Asked Evening getting on his hooves.
"I am fine, thanks." Said Silence that stood up with her friend’s help. "Better check our little wizard, I will check what we got…"
"We have one wounded, taking care of it." added one of the soldiers helping their wounded comrade.
Thestral only nodded and then started moving through flipped desks to reach his sister who was lying motionless on the ground. He quickly checked if she was okay, fortunately it seemed that she was only unconscious. Evening moved his sister to a bit better place than literal floor and then helped Silence with finishing her task. It didn’t take long for data to be downloaded on drives, gods bless Federal IT infrastructure, and then they reengaged the locks so random stranger won’t be able to access it. After archives were sealed once more they just returned to the rest of their squad waiting for them outside. Mission was so far doing good, now they needed to “just” return to Federal-controlled territory, that was the harder part…
Ceann-Torr, Ponaidhean-Eibhinn, former territory of River Federation, 23.07.1107 ALB
It was getting a bit darker, the only indicator that the night was coming, when their little column reached the ruins of Ceann-Torr, old Ponaidhean city. They didn’t enter the town itself of course, risk of riding straight into raiders group or somepony else was higher in the urban area than in the wildlands. Evening was looking at abandoned buildings that not so long ago were full of life, he even visited this town with his sister a few years ago, monks of Ponaidhean and their culture always fascinated her so he decided to bring her there. Now they only looked in silence at ruins of one of the once majestic temples that was devastated by hurricanes and earthquakes. With heavy rain and dark clouds above it all looked like some old movie and they wished it was one. Finally Marines left the old city behind them and welcomed the look of the Wittenburgh on the other side of the river, another one destroyed by worldwide cataclysm. New town and its fallen skyscrapers looking like stumps with old town castle which walls somehow endured the apocalypse.
"Sooo…" the silence was cut by, ironically, Radio Silence. "Do you think everywhere world became like this?"
"Like in some post-apocalyptic book that we read when we were younger? I never thought such a scenario would ever happen and well, here we are…" said Evening pointing at barely visible Wittenburgh.
"I heard that Herzland is one huge mess, one refugee in Hornavik told me that it's a literal bloodbath with a lot of factions fighting against each other. Bundeswehr and remnants of the Herzland Republic government, Empire restorationists, communists, other monarchists…" added Morning and shrugged "Looking at this our region didn’t suffer that much even with all these warlords, bandits and others."
"I still don’t want to run into Ironhoof Raiders or The Butchers, Fire even mentioned some kind of cult near Barrad." Thestral took a sip from his thermos. "Fortunately we are riding away from them."
"Equestria is mostly fine, at least that gossips tell. I would give much for having an Alicorn Princess watching over our nation…" Silence stopped for a second, grabbing a screwdriver in one hoof and her radio in another one. "But from what I remember, the entire Southeast burned and the Southwest army refused to listen to Canterlot… But I don’t know any details, it’s hard to find out what is true and what not, like I saw someone trying to tell that King Sombra is back."
"So Equus is still fucked but not as much as our continent, heh…" Evening passed thermos to Morning and Silence "When we contacted our mom before we went on this mission she told us that at least in Zebrica it’s okay, North Zebrican Federation is still holding together, mostly thanks to the Queen and current President… I hope they will help us when they manage to sort out the mess that Blackout created."
"And for now she is sailing here with her task force from Winggarden, we were expecting her arrival soon." added Morning with a huge smile on her face. "I can’t wait to finally meet her again!"
"Admiral Aurora is sailing to Hornavik? Her forces will help us a lot, maybe the General Wing is a good leader but we are lacking soldiers and equipment." Silence tilted her head and then returned to tinkering. "Also, how did you two end up in the Marines? If I remember in your family at least one always ended up in nav…"
Discussion was cut when everycreature sitting in the back of the truck was tossed in the air and then squished when the vehicle suddenly stopped with the driver very loudly complaining about this incident. After a while with mutual help and good motivation (commander yelling to get out of the vehicles) still woozy and pained trio started slowly getting up and left the truck. Evening Star groaned slightly when he once more stepped into the heavy rain that almost immediately made him wet. He looked around and saw what their truck drove into, the hole was pretty big and they were lucky that it didn’t end in some serious damage, losing vehicle there was unacceptable. Thestral passed by cursing driver that was checking if everything was ok and walked up to Direct Fire and Wilhelm Schwarz trying to check the map next to their Light Utility Vehicle. He also saw that their little group got to the bridge and it was still there. That was a good thing, the bad thing was that it was filled with abandoned cars and other obstacles.
"Damned bridges, like why always everyone must leave their cars in the middle of the fucking road?" Evening heard griffon complaining when he moved closer to them. "Gods know if there isn't a hidden IED or something."
"I know, Wilhelm, but it’s our only way if we don’t want to drive an extra day." Lieutenant Fire pointed his hoof on the map, drawing an alternative way which was much longer. "The next bridge we know that still stands is too far away…"
"I know, I know, it is not making this any better… oh, Evening, you are here, good."
"So what’s the plan?"
"We will cross that bridge, that’s obvious." said Direct Fire folding and hiding the map in the case. "Eygsic first, we need something armoured on the front, then truck and then our light vehicle, infantry covers them… Corporal Silence still has these drives, right?"
"Yessir." Thestral nodded.
"Great, so you three have a task to protect them. If something goes wrong you must deliver them to our closest base, you understand?"
"We will take care of them, don’t worry. "
"Perfect… okay, let’s go. We can’t stay there forever. Move, move!"
With their commander yelling orders via radio everyone started rushing to their position and making way for the vehicles. It didn’t take long for trained Federal Marines to take their positions and after the leading soldier’s signal the entire squad started moving through a jungle of abandoned cars. Evening, Morning and Silence were in the middle, slowly moving next to the truck, now only with the driver inside. Evening saw his sister looking nervously at abandoned vehicles as if some terrifying monster was supposed to jump out of it. But fortunately there were no monsters, the leading squad didn’t find any IEDs or traps too so that was a good sign, soon they will reach half of the way through this bridge and then the road should become far better. Suddenly lightning appeared in the sky illuminating their surroundings a bit and Evening saw something next to the trash pile lying on the ground. He stopped Morning and Silence with a gesture.
"Hold on. Charlie 1-1 to Alpha 1-..." he tried to communicate with their commander but in the same moments a lot of things happened. First, a flash of light appeared out of nowhere and something blew the car next to their IFV. Then he noticed out of the corner of his eye that Silence was jumping on him and Morning and then pinning them to the ground, just in time to dodge a bullets that flew over them and hit the truck with the driver having far less luck. And then everyone started shooting in every single direction.
"IT’S AN AMBUSH! THEY ARE EVERY…" yelled someone through the radio but didn’t have a chance to finish it.
"CONTACT! 6 O’CLOCK!"
"WE ARE SURROUNDED!"
"SHUT UP! ONWARD! WE CAN’T STAY HERE! HAMMER 1-1, LIGHT EM’ UP!"
With Lieutenant Fire giving new orders initial surprise that their enemy started fading away as Marines were able to organize themselves. Their LUV passed the truck and gunner started giving them suppressive fire with mounted heavy machine gun, in the same time their armoured vehicle responded with fire blowing a few holes in cars that their opponents were using as cover with its autocannon. Evening aimed in a place where he saw a silhouette and fired a burst into that position, a loud curse confirming that he hit someone. Then another enemy jumped out of cover with a flaming bottle in a hand but was quickly taken down by Morning and Silence that turned him into a strainer with bullets, bottle fallen on the ground immolating the area and few other creatures that were hiding there, their screams being silenced by gunfire. They finally fought their way to two-thirds of the bridge’s length, exit from this hell was very close...
"Hammer 1-1 to all, I have a clear road! Get in and we will just ride out of there!"
IFV plopped out some smoke grenades to cover their movement and soldiers started running to armoured vehicle… and it suddenly exploded with shrapnels flying in every direction.
"Fuck! FUCK! Hammer 1-1, do you copy? We lost IFV! Regroup in m… "
"Scheisse! Lieutenant Fire wounded! Fall back! Verdammt!..." Yelled Wilhelm and then started cursing in his native language. "…Evening, help me! Fast!"
Thestral looked at the direction from where Wilhelm was coming and then immediately rushed to help his friend that was dragging wounded Direct Fire to them. With both of them doing this they managed to quickly move their commander to a more safe position where Morning started taking care of his wounds.
"We are screwed. They surrounded us, it’s only a matter of time when we will be killed…" Griffon threw a grenade in the enemy direction. "How is Fire?"
"He is dead, without specialized medical equipment I can’t do anything, his wounds are too extensive." responded Morning trying to use bandages but they were immediately turning red. "You are wounded too."
"Great. Just g r e a t…" sighed Wilhelm "And don’t worry about it, it’s only a wing… eh, I have a plan but you won’t like it."
"Then tell us." said Silence without turning her eyes away from the current frontline.
"The drives are most important, we can’t escape this in a normal way, but your three can get out of there." To Evening’s, Morning’s and Silence’s horror Griffon pointed at the river. "That’s the only way out. Silence, you still have some empty drives?"
"Yes…? What do you want to do with them?" asked Silence after a brief moment of hesitation.
"I can’t go with you, I will simply drow thanks to my injuries… but I can make them waste their time for at least a few hours, that’s more time for you. Give me these drives."
"Here, empty ones…"
"Wait! Wait! We can’t just leave you there!" interrupted Morning looking at them as if they were some mad creatures. "Are you crazy?!"
"Listen, you are either going with this plan or we are going straight to our gods, there is no third way. And after Lieutenant’s Fire I am second in command so that’s an ORDER, soldier."
"He is right, Morning. We can’t stay there. Come on."
With still hesitating Morning they quickly prepared themselves for this crazy plan. They got rid of unnecessary equipment to make it easier to swim in the raging river. With each second passing the perimeter securing them from still pushing opponents were growing smaller and smaller, there were just too many of them, for every killed enemy two others were popping up. Soon only a few Federal soldiers remained on the battlefield and Wilhelm threw two last smoke grenades.
"It was an honour serving with you. I hope we will meet again one day." Said Griffon saluting his comrades.
"We will. If not, I will go through the entire Griffonia to kill you for not coming back." Evening just walked up to him and gave him a hug, being followed by Morning and Silence.
"Deliver the drives or you will be the one getting his ass kicked. Okay, go! Now!"
With one last look at Wilhelm preparing for his last stand they approached the edge of the bridge, looking down was giving only one thought: jumping there was the last thing anypony should ever do. Mutual nod, counting to three and when Evening said “three” they all jumped down into the river escaping the massacre on the bridge…
They didn’t know how much time they had spent in cold water holding on the random branch that was allowing them to stay afloat, it could be minutes or hours, the only indicator of passing time was surroundings becoming darker and darker as night was fully beginning. Now they were surrounded by silence and darkness, they left ruins of the city and that damned bridge far away from there. Evening decided to make a quick reconnaissance of their surroundings, as a Thestral he was the best candidate to do this, pluses of being a nocturnal. When he left Morning and Silence were waiting on the small beach observing the surroundings in case something or someone wanted to attack them, maybe these from the bridge lost their track but they were still on territory engulfed in total anarchy with bandits roaming freely through this land, not to mention that they got very close to borders of Barrad, about what not so distant magical storm was reminding them. Magical storms were new, dangerous things that started appearing after the Blackout, mainly on Barrad territory and, if rumors were true, in the Dread Peninsula. Little was known about them, the survivors were telling stories about various magical anomalies appearing in their radius or various monsters appearing inside those storms, someone even claimed that they saw a portal to other world, as if hurricanes and other natural disasters weren’t enough. While observing the storm Morning Star spotted something in the dark, a few flashes of the light, appearing in a well-known for her sequence. She picked her own flashlight and responded to it. Few seconds later Evening Star landed next to her and Silence.
"Looks clear, I spotted ruins of a school not so far from there, we can rest there."
"Are you sure it’s safe?" asked Silence, preparing her equipment.
"I didn’t see anyone, I even looked inside, looks abandoned enough for me."
"Okay, let’s go."
It took the three ponies a good hour to get to the place that Evening was talking about, mainly because they were limited to ground travel - only one of them had wings, also they didn’t want to cause much noise, it was better to stay hidden from anything that could be luring in the dark. Finally they saw the two-story brick building of the public school that somehow ended in pretty good condition, only one part of it was actually damaged to the point it collapsed. Evening entered the building first, followed by Morning and then Silence. Interior was in total chaos, papers, backpacks, books and other things lying on the floor, cork boards with tattered drawings and other papers, overturned garbage bins… the silent image of what was happening right after the Blackout, the panic of young students and teachers that tried to do anything to restore order when everything went down. They moved to the first floor and Evening led them to the office at the end of the corridor. Two rooms, sofas, armchairs, desk, broken computer, some bookshelves with documents and windows giving them a view of the school's surroundings, it was not bad.
"Well come in, make yourself a home or something, we will probably spend some time here after that swim in a river." said Evening cleaning the desk from unnecessary things to turn it into a table. "At least the food is still dry… How are the drives, Silence?"
"They are good, I have put them in waterproof containers." Earth Pony showed the most important thing in their equipment, then put it again in her backpack. "So, what are we eating tonight?"
"Some biscuits and sweets, I can make tea too."
"Sounds good for me" Morning immediately grabbed a pack of sweets and started eating them.
"Okay, you two can start preparing the meal and I will set up some security systems." Thestral picked some packages and left the office.
In the meantime Morning and Silence tried to make something edible from their rations without needing to set up an entire kitchen, results maybe weren’t the best but at least food looked a bit better. With Evening’s returning they started eating and preparing the office to make sleeping there more comfortable.
"By Luna, everything is wet…" complained Evening trying to dry his uniform and equipment after their little swim in a river "and they were saying it’s waterproof."
"Well it is, think what must regular units endure in their casual uniforms." said Morning doing similar thing, except her helmet that was still on her head and she didn’t bother to take it off.
"By Luna? Why are you still using that term after… you know. You never told me." asked Radio Silence with curiosity painted on her face. "Like you two are Riverlandians, same with your parents, right? Hey, your mother is even an Admiral in the Federal Navy."
"It’s time for family stories, eh? What to begin with… we are some sort of disappointment, like if you look at your lineage our ancestors were sailors in large part and we are here in the Marines."
"Not exactly disappointment I’d say but we certainly broke some sort of tradition." added Morning to her brother’s saying.
"And well yes, we are Riverlandians, same as our parents and one grandfather. But our grandma, Blue Moon, is a Chiropterran, not to mention our great-grandparents, Admiral Midnight Helm for example."
"Waaaaaaaait, THAT Admiral Midnight Helm?" Silence freezed for a second with a cup of tea in her hoof.
"Commander of Task Force 72 herself, yes. We heard some stories about Kirian Crisis, I wonder what would she and others thought about current situation." Evening smiled slightly and then took a sip from his cup. "Well we can ask General Wing when we get back home, if I remember he took part in that operation as a Marine, I once heard him telli…"
"Okay, but we got out of the tracks." Morning interrupted before Evening could finish "Soooo from history lessons you probably know how Chiropterra looked before Second North Zebrican War, yes? Not something we, current Republic and our ancestors are proud about, anyway, after Chiropterra lost Second North Zebrican War our great-great-grandpa, battleships enthusiast by the way, decided to stay in the army when a new government was formed. He didn’t want family traditions to fade completely, after all they were reaching ancient Equestria times, so he decided to still follow Princess Luna, even after War in the Heavens, our grandma was telling us that he wanted us to remember about her, her true, good side and to be ready for her return… and we are kinda preserving that tradition to this day."
"I see…"
"And all Chiropterran flags in NZF are lowered to half-mast, they will be raised only when Princess Luna returns." Added Evening to his sister's story. "And that will probably not happen till the 2000s so…"
"Yeah, I am sorry to hear that. But you are telling me that most of your family were sailors?"
"At least one side of it, yeah. Mom is a Federal Navy Admiral, grandma is an North Zebrican Navy Admiral, great-grandma was a North Zebrican Navy Admiral, great-great-grandpa was a Chiropterran Navy Admiral and his ancestors were Chiropterran Navy officers too."
"Huh, if we survive through it you must take me on a trip to NZF." Said Radio finishing her meal. "But for now we are forced to explore this post-apocalyptic land."
"Yea… okay, let’s go to sleep. I will be guarding us first, then you Radio and Morning in the end, tomorrow we are leaving this place. Goodnight."
"Goodnight."
"Night, brother."
Barrad, former territory of River Federation, 25.07.1107 ALB
They got up early in the morning and started preparing for the next part of their journey. It took them a bit longer than initially expected, mainly because Morning wasn’t able to find their position on the map. Finally Evening found some preserved documents with the school's address making the task far easier. But then finding a good way to safe land became another obstacle. Raiders, the one enemies that were probably now searching for them, other hostile factions on “normal” roads, the other option was Barrad…
"No. Just no! Are you stupid?!" Radio Silence was doing everything to not shout as loud as her lungs were allowing her.
"Going to Federal territory. Through fucking Barrad?! If you want to kill us we can just have a bullet in the head now, let me grab my pistol."
"Radio, calm down please. It’s not as bad as you think. If we will be cautious we should be able to avoid most creatures roaming this land and besides no one expects us to go through Barrad."
"Because it’s stupid idea. Going there is a death wish! Sorry but I don’t want some monster beyond comprehension to tear me apart. I said no!"
"We really don’t have better options." Morning Star was packing her things into a backpack and eating breakfast at the same time. "Trust me, if we had a better option my brother would suggest it."
"I guess I am outvoted then… and I won’t leave your two dumb asses alone, don’t count on it. If you are going to Tartarus I am going with you." Radio Silence sighed, giving up. "Well, let’s go then. Are you ready?"
"Yeah, let’s go. May Luna protect us…"
Three soldiers left the school building and left it behind them, now just another ruin in this devastated land. They could only hope that one day it will be rebuilded, alongside uncounted other buildings, roads, entire cities… But now, in the Land of Fallen Stars everyone was falling apart with very few creatures actually willing and being able to save it. And the Marines trio was entering an even worse place now, the cursed lands of Barrad. First hours or even the entire day weren’t that bad - the weather just suddenly became an absolute disaster as if it tried to flood them with the absurd amount of water that was falling from the sky. Not to mention that when they encountered a true magical storm they had to seek shelter immediately because magical rain was working like acid, maybe not exactly burning through flesh but its effects were still not very convincing to let it touch you. Weather wasn’t the only thing that was making traveling through Barrad difficult. Entire nature was twisted there, dead plants somehow still living with weird, glowing growths, mutated animals, anomalies… Just the entire land was hostile, and not to mention the worst enemy of any poor soul that ended up there - other sentient creatures.
"Are they still here?" whispered Morning Star looking at her brother who was holding his machine gun and looking through a small hole in the wall.
"Shhhh. Look." Evening silenced his sister and focused on the four creatures, three were probably ponies, but he couldn’t be sure because they all were wearing masks and capes. The fourth one was an Unicorn being too scared to even move. Thestral noticed that masked ones didn’t have any sort of modern weaponry, instead all of them were armed with makeshift spears and swords, two were holding crossbows. Finally one of them approached the unicorn and took off their mask. Evening was happy that the military prepared him to see many sorts of things so he didn’t make any noise, but he was sure that somepony else would have screamed seeing what he saw. Face of that Earth Pony was horribly deformed with magical crystals literally growing on him, his eyes were blind but Evening was sure that he is looking directly at the Unicorn.
"You brought to our holy land these unholy abominations!" Despite crystals growing on his throat, the voice of the Earth Pony was loud, clear… and scary.
"N-no…! Sir, this is a mistake…! It’s only radio… I didn’t mean to…"
"Silence! Not only you brought this but you also desecrated this holy place! You and others like you were always ignorant and look what happened to our world! But They will finally return and cleanse our land from all unholy things!"
"P-please… I was just escaping from the bandits!" Unicorn was trying to stand up but his legs were falling under him. "I didn’t want to desecrate your temple or anything! I have a family! Please!"
"I forgive you…." Said Earth Pony after a few seconds of silence. Then when Unicorn breathed a sigh of relief he was pierced by a spear. "But the world must be cleansed, no matter how many sacrifices we must make. And you are the perfect offering for Them."
Evening saw enough, he wanted to go as far away as he could from these weird, bloodthirsty cultists. But when he was taking a step back he hit one loose rock that fell onto the ground. The noise wasn’t huge, even he barely noticed it, but somehow the Earth Pony cultist instantly looked in his direction, Evening turned around to tell Morning and Silence to run away but instead of them he saw a cultist right in front of him. Not thinking much he lifted his light machine gun and opened fire, bullets quickly ripping through his opponent, their position was compromised anyway. He looked for Morning and Radio, immediately seeing them fighting two other cultists, how were they able to move so silently?! But there was no time for wondering why they were moving without any sound, they had to run away from this cursed place before cultists bring more reinforcements. Thestral quickly fired at the enemy trying to stab Morning with a spear, then he wanted to help Radio but suddenly one of the cultists just ran into him knocking both of them on the ground. Despite being trained in melee combat Evening found it quite difficult to defeat his opponent, mainly because the cultist seemed to be quite durable, Thestral managed to stab him several times with a knife but the Unicorn he was fighting wasn’t caring about it, he didn’t even lose any amount of strength. But finally Evening found a spot that caused the cultist to grunt in pain, followed by another few stabs finally killing him. Immediately after this Evening jumped to his machine gun and just started firing at a group of enemies that suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
"We must retreat!" he yelled through the sounds of gunfire to Morning and Radio. "Hurry up!"
"Right behind you!" Yelled Radio in response, turning one of the cultists into a sieve with her assault rifle.
"I’m goin-..." Morning was running to them but suddenly a quiet whizz echoed through the air and Evening’s sister suddenly fell on the ground, with a crossbow bolt sticking from her back.
"Cover me!" Evening rushed to wounded Morning, only by miracle evading another two bolts, and started dragging his sister to safety. Radio Silence was giving them covering fire successfully eliminating another enemy. "We will check her later, now we must go!"
"Understood." said Radio, grabbing a grenade and then throwing it at the enemy's position, then another one and then she joined Evening.
With large casualties among cultists, loud explosion caused by fragmentation grenade and thick smoke produced by smoke grenade they somehow managed to escape the ambush running into dark night with purple lightning being the only source of light. Groups of cultists were obviously searching for them, but fortunately a group of Marines was able to evade all of them and they finally gave up, at least for now. They needed that moment of rest, mostly because Morning still had a crossbow bolt sticking out of her back. After finding a well-covered, setting up a provisional camp and making a fireplace that won’t be seen from a distance they finally had a few seconds to rest.
"Okay… so what now?" asked Evening not sure what to do now. "I stopped bleeding but she still has that damned bolt in her body!"
"You are asking me? She was our medic…" Radio Silence looked very tired and resigned. She shrugged and pointed at the medic's bag that belonged to Morning. "We have some bandages, medicines and other stuff. It won’t be hospital level treatment but…"
"I know, I know, we must do something. These damned cultists! Bandits, warlords, weather disasters, monsters, acid magical rains, magical storms, cultists… What else? Maar descending to our world thanks to his cultists? Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon returning from their banishment?" He started complaining while searching the bag for useful stuff. Bandages, more bandages and other items that should help them. "Let’s hope that the first aid course will be enough."
"Yea… Well, there is only one way to check this. Let’s start…"
Trying to stabilise and take care of Morning took them some time, mostly because they didn’t want to cause more damage to wounded mare. Removing the bolt, taking care of the wound, finally bandaging it after applying antibiotics and other medicines, only gods knew what bacterias and other dirty things were on that crossbow bolt. When it was done Evening prepared meal for them and then extinguished the fireplace, it was better to have a cold than be spotted by random patrol. The next morning was… or wasn’t because there are is no day-night cycle in this land - day was little brighter and night was little darker thanks to thick layer of dark clouds covering the entire sky. Fortunately for them they had watches so they didn’t lose track of time. Another good news was that Morning woke up, she was still weakened but she was able to walk with a little help. They were still far away from River Federation territory, but they had little choice - either they will make it or die trying, there was no other option and Evening, Radio and Morning knew it. So the march through cursed land continued…
Twinkle twinkle little star…
Barrad, 29.07.1107 ALB
Four days of wandering through Barrad. Four days of compass going crazy and map not leading them where it should. Four days of exhausting march with little supply of food and water left. And four days of doubts and losing hope. But it was also the day when Evening spotted something in the distance and it aligned with a point on a map.
"It’s Cygnus-4, I am sure. Part of RivCom relay." he pointed his hoof at the radio masts visible in the distance. "It is too specific to be mistaken for anything else. That’s Cygnus 4-2, a communication relay."
"If you say so… I am still not sure." Radio tried to align the compass with a map but the needle was just turning around. "But it looks promising, maybe some electronics survived the Blackout."
"Let’s just move there… I must rest…" Said Morning quietly, she was still weakened and the harsh environment of Barrad wasn’t helping.
As soon as they started their journey to part of the Cygnus-4 communication relay it was obvious that something was wrong, more than usual. Grass turned from its sick-green to complete grey, same with trees and other plants. There was no wind, it just suddenly stopped, the air became completely still, even the storm clouds went quiet, Not a single sound. But that communication relay was their best hope, what if someone survived here? What if they find working radios? What if they find so much needed supplies? So the journey continued but the problems and concerns were only growing. First Morning just lost all her remaining strength and was unable to move on her own, complaining on a headache and feeling very exhausted. Then when they reached a hill that was halfway to Cygnus-4 buildings Radio noticed something very strange.
"That’s their power plant, right? Didn’t it explode according to reports?"
"You know that readings weren’t perfect, especially right after the Blackout. I wouldn’t be surprised if that registered nuclear explosion was just some error." Responded Evening and sighed. He was feeling weaker and weaker too and he knew that this walk shouldn’t be that exhausting, he was a soldier after all, trained to endure more than a simple walk. "Let’s hurry, this whole place is making me uncomfortable."
They spent another hour walking towards buildings and with every minute passing it was getting worse. Morning just lost her consciousness, her brother tried to lift her and fly but he was too weak for this. Situation was getting worse with every passing second, they didn’t know how long they will be able to walk and how big was that strange area where was no single sign of life, as if this whole place was frozen in time. Evening realized that they didn’t see any animal or monster from the moment they entered the communication relay area, as if nature herself was avoiding this place at all cost, surrendering it to some other force that was there. It was over and he soon knew it, they were simply too far into this territory to escape its claws, they will lose strength before escaping this dead zone. Finally he accepted it and just laid down on the ground, Radio Silence following him.
"So that’s how it ends? We will just die here, close to home but still too far away? And not from bullets or monsters, just from… being here." Evening’s voice was quiet, calm, he was just looking at the clouds above. "I wish that I saw the stars and moon one, final time."
"You were a great friend, Evening. Thank you for everything. If we are going to die here, know that it was an honour serving with you." Radio Silence grabbed a bag with things that caused them to go through all of this. "It’s a pity that we won’t deliver them. You think I should destroy them?"
"It doesn’t matter now… plus no one will ever retrieve them from here, at least not now. Just leave them…" he put his hoof on the bag preventing Radio from getting to the drives. "I am sorry that we didn’t make it. We were really close…"
Then both of them become quiet, just laying on the ground waiting for the inevitable, for end of their suffering and the end of their task, which ultimately failed. Evening didn’t know how much time have passed, it could be minutes or hours, he was barely conscious at that point, he just started hearing something but was too weakened to even look at that direction, it was probably his brain playing with him.
"You see them too?" No, he really heard something. Someone was approaching.
"Yes! They are wearing our uniforms… get medics over there!"
"Sir, we must escape this place ASAP!"
"You were given an order so shut up, I am the one deciding here!"
Evening’s vision was blurred but he was a silhouette appearing right above him, then checking something on his uniform. Someone approached Radio and Morning too.
"They are alive! Sergeant Evening Star, Corporal Radio Silence and Corporal Evening Star! RFMC!"
"They were under Direct Fire, they shouldn’t even be here! They were sent to Rijekograd!"
"Stop making theories and get them on the truck now! Let’s go away from there."
Thestral felt someone lifting him and moving to some vehicle. There was still that one silhouette above him, he thought he saw a red cross on their helmet. They were talking something to him but he couldn’t understand it or even force his body to respond, he was just staring in the sky, images of clouds passing by as they started driving. Then after some time he suddenly realized that there were no more clouds, they were under a clear, night sky with stars above him. And the Moon was there too, shining brightly, filling Evening with so much needed hope. He smiled and closed his eyes that started filling with tears, they were saved… They were really saved.