The mission was supposed to be simple enough, nothing more than an insertion and extraction. They were there to gather intel on whoever had been responsible for terrorist attacks on Equestria. So where did it go wrong? The mission had suddenly turned into an eradication, costing the lives of the majority of his small unit. New orders were patched in over the shaky com link: "Kill all of them."
Jax reloaded his rifle, sliding the half-empty magazine into it's place on his belt. He looked back at his remaining squad mates, giving them a small nod as he met their gaze. Somehow, an unseen enemy had turned his squad of ten, into a squad of three. Most often, they'd vanish, only to be found later on, their bodies torn limb-from-limb in an incredibly gruesome manner. Such discoveries had quickly lowered his soldier's morale, leaving them even easier targets for this silent menace.
The only soldiers under the Chief petty officer's command that remained were hardened soldiers, each of them sitting only a rank or two below their squad leader. The four of them were the only remaining members of the first wave of the 221, the others moving onto "bigger and better things". War ran in their blood, and each of them had spent a lifetime honing their bodies into lethal weapons, capable of taking on any enemy in combat. That was, at least, until they had entered this slice of hell. Jax knew as soon as he stepped foot in this place, that something was wrong, but he couldn't determine what it was.
And then the killings started.
It started with a pair of 2nd class petty officers coming up missing, only to be found almost an hour later, their body torn to ribbons, and their equipment broken and unusable. While this put the remaining squad members on alert, it didn't stop other soldiers from disappearing, normally in small groups of two. It was pretty evident that the buddy system didn't work here, but by the time they had gotten to a room and baracaded themselves inside, there was only the four of them.
Metallic clicks and snaps were heard behind him, the familiar sounds of firearms reloading bringing him a slight comfort. He still had a four-man squad, each one of them hand picked by Celestia for this operation. Jax braced himself, throwing his weight forward as he busted down the locked door before them. The soldiers moved inside, sticking to their tight formation, all sides covered, not taking any chances in this unfamiliar territory.
Six large glass tubes sat in he middle of the room, a bubbling green liquid frothing around something inside the glass walls. One of the tubes, however, had been broken, leaking the green fluid across the floor. It wasn't long before one of Jax's soldiers spoke up, a woman named Spitfire, who was tasked as the medical officer for this mission. "What do you suppose happened here?", the fiery-haired petty officer asked to no one in particular. She bent down, sticking her exposed middle finger into the green liquid. She examined it for a while, before eventually deciding that it was of little importance. Wiping her hand on her BDU, she stood back up, making her way to one of the computers along the side of the wall.
Along with an extensive history in the Equestrian Air Force, Spitfire also had backgrounds in chemistry and technology, easily making her one of the more specialized of the remaining four. She sighed slightly, typing furiously in attempts to gain access to the secrets held inside the small metal box. She quickly pulled out a small CD-like device, inserting it into the disc drive. She typed in a dew command prompts into the computer, before grinning wildly. "I think I got it", she said, obviously happy with her work.
"Look for something that'll tell us what's inside these capsules, eh?" his petty officer (first class) said in his think manehatten accent. Soarin was part of spitfire's regiment in the Equestrian Air Force, devoting most of his time to his marksmanship and hand-to-hand combat skills. The two of them had joined 221 together, each of them with a letter of recommendation from the princess of the night herself.
It didn't take Spitfire long to reply with a short "Alright, I think I got it". Spitfire had pulled up a video, a somewhat short presentation titled "For those left". What was on the video however, stunned the hardened veterans.
_ _ _
The camera was grainy, paired together with somewhat shaky audio. It opened with a smaller man, his grey hair slicked back against his scalp. There was blood on his white lab coat, and he was shaking horribly as he began to talk. "C-can you see me? Oh, I guess it doesn't matter, just as long as you can hear me. I've decided to document our work here. Something that would be deemed as a success, if the outcome hadn't been so... desirable." The man cleared his throat, glancing behind him at the door in the background. "We were... Tasked by Luna to make a new kind of weapon. One that could overcome any soldier, no matter how skilled or trained. Biology has always been... something we've been good at here, but... I think we were a little to good at this. Because Luna wanted a weapon; And we made a monster.
"It stands at the same height as the average human male, maybe a little bit taller. It's leathery grey skin is near-bulletproof, and we've found that to actually harm it, one must use a blade. There is no other way to harm it." The man chuckles, a sad look gleaming in his eyes. "Even if you manage to harm it, though... It's been designed to regenerate at an unbelievably fast rate. It requires blood to do so, however, so if one can avoid being cut by the creature, one would have some hope of killing the creature." He glances behind him again, obviously checking the door again. "The only real way to kill the creature though, is to sever it's spinal column, which stops the brain from being able to tell the body to regenerate. If the spinal column is not completely severed, the creature will simply go into a form of stasis, allowing it's body to heal at a much slower rate, until it is finally in operational order." He runs his finger through his hair, smearing a bit of blood through it.
"This isn't the worst thing we could've done, though... We gave it a form of active camouflage. It's not invisible, exactly, but coupling this with it's incredible speed and it's brutal strength, it is far harder to kill than any normal soldier or biological weapon. It feeds off of your fear... It's as if it can smell it in the air!" The man jumps as a loud bang is heard in the background, distorted slightly by the horrible audio. A large dent can be seen in the thick metal door, leaving the door looking a little worse for wear. The man turns back to the camera, nearly crying. A gun can now be seen in his hand, and it's not long before he loads a few rounds into the chambers of the revolver. He grins slightly, a single tear rolling down his cheek. His last words are "If you find this, you need to get out of here. NOW.", before he puts the gun to his head, sending the camera black as his body slumped.
