“Deployment successful, Commander. Standing by for your next order,” EVA said.
“Objectives stand: they need to reinforce Camp Greenwood. ETA on Redding’s reinforcements?” Alexandra asked. His command console blinked with a number of notifications as the ongoing satellite feed from planetside showed a battle raging on with a number of Tiberium lifeforms that he didn’t think the ISDI had ever encountered before. One of them even looked like a huge translucent bear.
“Commander Redding is expected to arrive within the next week with the optimal route at best taking at least three more days.”
“Great. Ah, damn, I knew I should have sent in more people. These storms just aren’t letting up. How is G-Tech doing on that weather control technology?” More contacts on the base periphery rushed into the fray, turning his low-visibility feed into a green-fogged screen of gunfire and madness. “Hampton and Michelin really need to hurry up, or else there isn’t going to be a base to save,” he muttered.
“G-Tech has reported no significant advancements in weather control. Original research conducted before the First Tiberium War has proven to have limited effects. In addition, control effects produce a complete battlefield overview failure on par with an ion storm, limiting its usefulness.”
“Ah, damn. Looks like we’ll have to stick with the old-fashioned option: wait it out. Check long-range status of the ITC Hammerfest. I might need to call them back into action soon enough.” The Hammerfest was his primary command ship, normally used on the frontlines as the premiere Steel Talons troop carrier until he had requested the Methuselah, transferring the Hammerfest to another temporary commander. It was staffed entirely by veteran Steel Talons soldiers much like himself, as well as all their iconic vehicles.
“Hey, commander, where’s the backup?” Viers called to him.
“Hang in there, Dagger, help is on the way.” Checking the regional overview, Michelin’s crawler was moving at a steady pace towards the base. “A defense crawler is bearing down on your position, keep an eye out for the shields.”
“Roger, sir, will do!” Viers’ indicated position at the southern walls flashed red for a moment as his suit signatures indicated he was under attack. A Wolverine Mk.3 walker branched off of his battle for a moment and hosed down a trio of fiends darting for the commando.
“Aegis, this is Alexandra, what’s your ETA?”
“Aegis here, sir, making good time to Camp Greenwood. No offense, sir, but I’m really starting to wish that we had the Hammerfest here instead.”
“You and me both,” Alexandra responded. “That may change in due time, and be careful with what you wish for... the Hammerfest only gets called in when shit hits the fan. It’s currently in temp-command under Commander Bartley and is currently on shore leave at Osiris Naval Base. Pray it doesn’t get deployed here.”
“I get you, sir. Just wishing we had some bigger guns to deal with this stuff. No better kill than overkill, right?”
“Overkill’s not what we need right now. Make do with what you have. And make sure Hampton doesn’t overextend herself this time.”
Michelin chuckled, his laugh laced with an undertone of amusement, as if he’d been anticipating the order. “Don’t worry, sir, I’ll make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid. Especially considering that this time, she doesn’t have her precious Mammoths to back her up.”
“Good. Hurry up, I don’t know how much longer the base can hold up.”
“Nano-production modules have been up and running since the moment I hit the ground, sir. Let’s see how well these lifeforms can hold up against a focus beam or three.”
“Look out! Tower falling!” shouted a zone trooper. The sound of compromised metal groaning resounded over the battle as the last of the southern watchtowers fell to Tiberium explosions.
“Fall back to the gates! Tighten up those formations!” Viers shouted, waving towards the soldiers in front of him as they raced past him. Unleashing another hail of lead as they leapfrogged backwards, the commando dropped several C4 packs in a half-circle in front of him, set on a five-second fuse. “Move it! Go, go, go!”
“Do we have anyone inside the base?!” shouted another trooper.
“I think Echo’s inside!”
“Yeah, Echo pulled back inside! They saw a whole bunch of those dog-things get in!”
“Engineers are putting up defenses by the con-yard!”
Explosions rocked his vision as he turned around, turning a giant bear-like creature’s two front legs into fine chunks as the line of C4s made short work of anything unfortunate to be standing near them when they went off.
“Where the hell are those reinforcements?!” shouted another soldier, his armored left arm dotted with several shards embedded in the plating.
A purple shimmer in the distance caught Viers’ vision. Suddenly, the treeline exploded as a defense crawler appeared, the large artillery guns mounted on top of the machine firing away at the fleeing creatures, now unable to turn back as the crawler deployed at their primary routes of escape.
“Defense crawler Aegis, at your service, Camp Greenwood!” the forward battle commander cheerily replied. “Sorry that we arrived late to the party, but now that we’re here, let’s liven things up, shall we?”
Several emplacements went up, their blockish forms obscuring the distant treeline as they deployed underneath the crawler’s shields. Their high-powered lasers and automated tracking systems began honing in on the larger signatures outside of Camp Greenwood, firing a sustained and powerful beam that easily cut into the tougher of the lifeforms.
“Take ‘em apart, boys!” A flood of infantry appeared from behind the crawler and advanced forward through the field of green, mowing down the creatures as the south side was finally reclaimed from lifeform incursion. “Linking to con-yard control network... and done! Emplacements are going up all around Greenwood! Now for the real party...”
Yankee Lead wiped grimy liquid off his faceplate, kicking away the fiend’s corpse to clean himself. He took a quick break to notice that the creature’s hide was made out of... bark? A wolf made of wood, and covered with Tiberium? The scientists are just going to love this one, he thought. That, however, didn’t do much to explain their numbers.
“Uh, Hampton, do you see this? Is that bear the size of my defense crawler?” a voice asked on the open channel.
“Why, I do believe it is, Michelin! Oh, look, it’s running straight for me! I wonder what I’m going to do about that?” another voice responded humorously. “Two can play at that game! Full speed ahead!”
A roar came from Lead’s left as he turned to see one of the giant bears being plowed aside from the northwestern corner, only to see that an offense crawler had charged at it, knocking the bear away. The crawler unleashed its cannons after regaining its footing, pelting the beast with explosive rounds.
“Crawlers! Nice!” shouted Yankee Two. He opened fire with his cannon, standing next to a focus beam turret as it locked on to their new giant target, blowing away its rather exposed and non-guarded skin and dealing immediate damage.
“Focus fire! Drive that thing back!” Lead shouted.
“Whoa, hey, hold on, boss! We got trouble inside the base!” Yankee Four shouted. “Some of those things got in!”
“Fine, let the Titans deal with that thing! Yankee, back inside! We’ve got some hunting to do!” Yankee lowered his gun and followed Four to the gates, waiting for the heavy slab to lower so they could enter. Just as they did, however, they saw several of the fiends run down the main street of the base being shot at by turrets... and being chased by a harvester.
“Come back here, you stinkin’ dogs!” the driver shouted. “I’ll turn you all into fucking pancakes! Now stand still so I can squish you!”
“Fire!” Lead shouted, as all of Yankee squad lined up and finished off the fiends, forcing the harvester to come to a screeching halt.
“Thanks for showing up, but I could have handled that,” the driver said. “Damn things aren’t scared of troopers, watchtowers, or Titans, but the moment I roll out the old rapscallion and put the pedal to the metal, they start running for the hills. Figures. They were just lucky that my gun hardpoint is in need of repairs.” He wheeled the vehicle around them and returned to his harvesting duties in the nearby field, now strewn with corpses.
“Looks like that’s under control,” Three said. They turned around to see the bear-thing being run down by a squad of Titans, who spared no expense in repeatedly trying to make sure it was dead. The offense crawler stomped by the front gate, heading to the east side to clean up the remainder of the creatures as they scurried back to their forest.
“Commander, this is Mobius. The base is secure,” Hampton responded on the comms.
Wesley breathed a sigh of relief as the alarm went off and the lockdown was released. “Well, that could have gone... not well,” he said, giving a nervous laugh as he turned to Applejack. “So, I think your checkup has finished. As usual, just press the button if you need anything, okay?” He waited until he received a confirming nod from Applejack before leaving the room.
Walking back out into the hall and past the guards now back at their post, he looked out the window. Camp Greenwood was a complete mess. Smoke billowed from the distance, corpses and pockmarks lined the street outside, and he definitely could see the top of the crawlers trudging about outside the half-destroyed walls, especially the defense crawler’s shields.
“That went... better than expected,” he said out loud.
“No doubt about that, sir,” one of the riflemen responded. “Would have been nasty if they got inside. I don’t know how well those bulkheads hold up, but I’m in no rush to see them stress-tested.”
“I understand that. There doesn’t seem to be any cries for medics, so I think we’re all fine.” He grimaced as he saw a squad of zone troopers walking outside, with some Tiberium shards jammed into their armor. “At least, I think we’re all fine...”
He walked back to his office and sat down at his messy desk, strewn with medical texts and old articles on the anatomy of equine species. It occurred to him that, like many of those not born on Earth like himself, hearing of many things from the origin world wasn’t uncommon, but he’d never actually seen a horse himself. How quaint.
Activating his study computer, the hologram flickered to life as his unfinished notes appeared before him. It would have been a nightmare if his notes were done on paper since books practically lined the desk and the area around it, much like his university days. In any case, the most important thing he was looking for was the recovery rate.
Tiberium exposure, even on the smallest scale, was extremely fatal. Complete unprotected exposure meant that the subject would die within several minutes, yet when they had found Applejack with her compromised suit, she’d been exposed for what was assumed to be much longer than that, and she only had to deal with loss of a moderate amount of muscle tissue on the latter parts of her body. How did pony bodies fight back against Tiberium?
Coupled with that, of course, was a more surprising revelation, one that Wesley didn’t care to reveal to Applejack: her body was healing at an abnormally fast rate. A human in a similar position as her—legs contaminated, loss of tissue, followed by regenerative therapy and medication—would have taken months to achieve full cognition again. Yet judging from the state of her injuries, she had quickly regained what she’d lost in the span of several days.
“Amazing...” he said to himself. Either their new batch of medication was absurdly effective, or perhaps the pony species has an incredible way to recover from injuries. If he could unlock that potential, it could be used to aid patients all across ISDI space... assuming that it wasn’t locked biologically, that is. It could very well just be a feature of their species, and if it was, then they’d be out of luck.
“Doctor Wesley,” came the response from his computer. Alexandra had opened up a line without even notifying him, causing him to nearly jump back in surprise as the commander’s face appeared before him.
“Sweet goodness...! Oh, it’s just you. What can I do for you, commander?” he asked.
“Our friend in the medical wing. What else have you learned about her?”
“Well, our new friends seem to have a capital city, if my most recent conversation is anything to go by. Applejack says that this city is where the rest of her kind relocated to, after the Tiberium appeared. Judging from the implications, it seems that they probably had a lot more settlements than the one we found when we landed.”
“I see. Did she tell you where it was?”
“I’m afraid not. I’ll have to ask her about that. In any case, she’s healing up rather well.”
“She’ll be up within the week?”
Wesley shrugged. “Sir, at her rate, she’ll be walking around by tomorrow. Her rate of recovery is absolutely astounding. Pardon the joke, but it’s almost as if it were magic; such speedy recoveries are unheard of in our world.”
“I see. How’s the language barrier?”
“It’s worked out, for the most part. I can understand her, and I’m sure she can understand me, at least. The translation program is... rough, at best, but it works. You seem to have a vested interest in our friend, don’t you, sir?”
“Just trying to avoid civilian fallout, doctor, especially if she’s the last one left. Civilians are always priority in the ISDI, whether it be in the standard corps all the way up to ZOCOM.”
“Well, I’m quite sure there are others still alive. They do have hazmat suits, you know.”
“I’m aware of that. There’s a lot of trust being placed on you with this, doctor, but I’d like to make one thing clear: if they turn out to be hostile, then drastic measures will be taken. I’d like you to make sure that she knows that.”
“Of course, commander. But in all due honesty, I doubt that it will come to that. Even with contact with alien species like the bug-like ecredians or the jellyfish-esque reteronds, none have ever come as close to exhibiting signs of an actual human-like culture before. The coincidence here is impressive.”
“Not to mention that their population numbers don’t seem to have been pushed down to dangerous near-extinction levels. I’d like to make this mission a success for everyone, so do try to be tactful.”
“I’ll try, commander. Just curious, though: aren’t you the one that’s supposed to be the acting diplomat in cases of extra-terrestrial contact? The commander is a legal representative of the ISDI, after all.”
Alexandra waved the notion off. “That’s just some pretty talk because Secretary General Antonidas can’t be everywhere at once. But, yes, I suppose I am. When we have things set up according to protocol, then I’ll most likely pay them a visit. And then I get the privilege of filing a report for CENTCOM and then get mysteriously accosted by paparazzi on ISDI long-distance channels,” he ended sarcastically.
“You speak as if you’ve done this before.”
“I have. Just not with extra-terrestrials. Mostly with frontline work. Well, I guess in this case, we’re the extra-terrestrials, aren’t we?”
Wesley took a sip of his stale coffee; at the least, it was still lukewarm. “Indeed we are. I have no doubt we’ll run into more of them as our operations expand. I guess I’ll have to keep Applejack away from the mess hall. I haven’t told her that we’re omnivores yet.”
“But you know she’s a vegetarian?”
“There’s not a lot of room for speculation on this, so I’d say yes. She’s been receptive to having greens, and her dental structure shows no evidence of a carnivorous diet. Considering that she’s about half my size, I shudder to think what would happen if she did eat meat.”
“In any case, you look like a mess. Don’t overlook your own well-being just to tend to our guest... and make sure you eat properly.”
Wesley smiled humorously. “I’m a field doctor, commander. My diet is comprised mostly of coffee and cigarettes, and sometimes intelligence reports when I’m working with InOps. But don’t worry, I can keep track on my own health, thank you. I am a doctor, after all.”
“I’ll hold you to that, then.” Alexandra sighed. “Silos and dropzones are going up, but the ion storms are still on the loose. I might have to send in reinforcements via drop pods, but that’s risky... We really need those MARVs. Anyway, doctor, just find out where the rest of... Applejack’s... kind is, and we’ll work on trying to get to them. Goddamn, it feels like I’m talking about a cereal or something.”
The doctor laughed. “Yes, you do get used to it eventually. In any case, I still have more notes to shuffle through, so until later, commander.” Giving a parting nod, he closed off the transmission and turned back to his notes. “I should really organize these things sometime... and where the hell is that attendant?”
Hampton watched on her monitors as the two-strong unit of Talons exited her crawler’s production facilities. Despite all the advancements in technologies, the light scout craft were probably still the same since their creation in the Ascension Conflict years ago. The most the hovercraft received were armament and engine upgrades, along with some minor armor plate additions, but were otherwise mostly intact. Don’t fix what ain’t broke, as the saying went.
“Tiger One to Mobius, systems online,” the leader responded. “Where to?”
“I’m going to need a scout of the initial area around Camp Greenwood, Tiger. The commander also wants a good look around that town just over the hills to the north. Report if you find anything suspicious.”
“Right on, Mobius. Tiger is moving now.”
“If you see any lifeforms, just shout and Aegis will send a volley of artillery fire your way,” Hampton said. Her mouth twisted in thought: the commander wasn’t really expecting to find anything on this place, did he? It was all Tiberium, even worse than a good majority of the operations she’d been on. That, coupled with its volatility... this place was quite literally a bomb waiting to go off.
“Now why’d you go ahead and say that I’d send a volley of artillery fire their way if they run into trouble?” Michelin asked. “I don’t even have those guns up yet.”
“But you were going to build them, right?”
“Well, yeah.”
“So why not?”
“Obviously, if they run into some serious shit out there, and I don’t have it up, then they’re fucked, and then I—no, wait, you told them. You get slammed with charges of questionable integrity in command, and then a couple of families get that knock on the door, because—”
“Alright, alright, I get it. Sheesh, totally blowing this whole thing out of proportion, Michelin. Besides, they’re my boys! They can handle themselves, and if they can’t, that’s why Talons totally rock at escaping!”
Michelin was about to voice his complaints when he was cut off. “Tiger One here, Mobius, we’re entering the village now. This place is totally whack, I’m telling you.”
Hampton was intrigued. “Oh, really? What’s the matter, did you find a polar bear on a unicycle juggling bowling pins in the center of town?”
Tiger One stifled a laugh. “No, ma’am, but this place is just really creepy. It’s like looking at pictures of Red Zones in the EVA database back during the Second Tiberium War. Tiger Two’s sweeping around the other side of town and—whoa, what the hell!” A small rumble shook the terrain. “Oh, shit! Two just went down! A fucking hole just opened up and he fell in! Come in, buddy, you alright?”
There was a moment of silence as they waited for Tiger Two to respond. “This is Tiger Two. I’m alive... I think. There’s a lot of smoke and dust down here, it’s hard to see, and... holy crap...”
“Tiger Two, this is Mobius. What’s going on down there?”
“With all due respect, ma’am, I think ZOCOM’s got their work cut out for them. I’m looking at... hold on, let me set up the feed...”
A small window popped on Hampton’s display; it was a direct camera feed labeled “Tiger Two”, showing what the Talon was looking at. “I... can’t tell, Tiger Two. What am I looking at?”
“Tiberium, ma’am. And tons of it. It’s a huge underground cave network, all full of Tiberium.” He zoomed the Talon forward, looking deeper into the network of tunnels. “Hoo-boy, that’s a lot of tunnels...”
“Can you find your way out?”
“Uh... I don’t know, ma’am. These tunnels go all over the place,” he said, driving through them and passing through vein after vein of Tiberium, “but I don’t see any of them that go up.”
“Ugh, great. Fine, I’m on my way.” Hampton checked the status on the load-bearing crane that was attached to the side of her crawler; normally, it was used for heavy-duty repairs, but it wouldn’t be a utility if it couldn’t be used for more than one thing. “Get back to where you fell in and I’ll pull you out.”
“Roger, ma’am. Moving now and—whoa, getting movement on my radar. There’s a lot of them. Oh, good lord, that’s a lot of them!” The sound of gunfire came in across the communications static. “Thank goodness they put guns on these things! Bugging out now!”
Hampton charged ahead full speed into the town. She gave a silly grin when she passed a building that looked like a gigantic gingerbread house; oh, if only it were real. Actually, that would have been gross, since Tiberium was all over it now, so she broke out of that train of thought and continued forward, finding Tiger One sitting next to the giant crack in the ground where Tiger Two fell in.
“I guess he’s down there?” she asked.
“Yes, ma’am. I can see his signature down there,” Tiger One said.
Hampton prepared the crane, turning her crawler sideways and allowing the miniature crane to unpack over the fault. “I don’t envy the ZOCOM boys who have to go down there to clean it all up. You ready, Tiger Two?”
“Ready as ever, ma’am! I can see more of those things headed straight for me!” Tiger Two said, firing his machinegun in several bursts. “Oh, I wish I could use my missiles! Should have sent the bulldogs on this one!”
“Bulldogs can’t get across this crazy terrain, Tiger Two,” Hampton said. “Hold on tight, I’m getting you out of there.”
Her crawler’s targeting systems locked in on Tiger Two’s signature, lowering the crane down and grasping the small hovercraft by its chassis. Pulling it up, Hampton could clearly see what had been chasing him: more of the dog-like creatures, their eyes glowing with green. They snarled at him as the Talon was pulled up to the surface.
“Whew, that was a close one! Thanks, ma’am.”
“No problem. Thank the Idris Corporation for wanting to put repair cranes on these crawlers,” she said, giving a short laugh. “The commander’s going to have a hoot when he hears about this.” Looking across the terrain beyond the town, she could see it marked with scars and various other signs of seismic damage. “Moving around here is going to be a pain in the ass.”
“Twilight! I think I found something!” Celestia quickly read through her passage, then closed her eyes and sighed. “Nevermind. I thought it was the right one... at least now I’m painfully aware of how many fields of study Star Swirl the Bearded managed to become involved in.”
“Can we at least somehow alter it to work with what we have?” Twilight asked.
Celestia shook her head. “I’m afraid not. It did seem to hold some semblance of promise... until I realized that the spell required direct magical handling of the object. And I’ve read the research reports... the results would be disastrous.”
“Oh...” Twilight looked glum. “Well, we’ll keep trying, okay?”
“I... listen, Twilight,” Celestia continued, using her wing to bring Twilight closer to her. “While... while the guards couldn’t find your friend’s body...” Her faithful student looked up to her with fearful eyes. “Rainbow Dash wishes to hold a candlelight vigil for her.”
“Dash...? I... I didn’t know she wanted to...”
“She wanted to ask me first...” Celestia said, smiling sadly at Twilight. “She wanted to make sure it was safe to do so. Would you like to attend? It’ll only be the both of us... and your friends.”
“I... I’d like that, Princess. When is it?”
“It’ll be later tonight. To be honest, I’d hoped to ask you sooner, but it would appear that we were entirely caught up with researching that I completely forgot.” The vigil was to be held in the royal gardens later tonight... underneath the dead skies. It had already taken enough magic just trying to keep the crops in the gardens intact, due to the lack of sun.
“Oh, well, I guess until then, we should just conti—” They felt a rumble throughout the Canterlot mountain, this one much more powerful than previous ones. “The tremors are getting worse...”
Celestia’s expression hardened. “This is worrying. I must notify Captain Golden Crest of this as soon as possible... we may need to dispatch another guard patrol to investigate whether or not the tremors are affecting the foundation of the sanctum.” She stood up and walked to the door, cracking it open only just slightly and whispered something to the guard outside before closing it again.
“Is it... bad, Princess?”
“If it truly does come to it, Twiilght, then it is... very bad.” And even then, that was an understatement.
The construction of the sanctum was hasty and ill-planned, so while it seemed stable for the time being, the infrastructure could only sustain so many quakes before it all came tumbling down... and with it, Canterlot. It was something destined to come back and bite at them later, but at the time, Celestia had no choice. There was simply no other place to put her little ponies without forcing them to endure the conditions outside, and the city was already full of the refugees who had been contaminated.
“Can anything be done about it?”
“I’m afraid not, my faithful student. Only time will tell whether or not we can. Now, if I’m not mistaken, you should be taking your dinner right about now. Go ahead and join your friends; I’ll stay here and continue researching.”
“Thank you, Princess.” Twilight gave her beloved mentor a quick nuzzle, before trotting out the door, leaving Celestia alone in her study, surrounded by candles and books. It produced in her an empty feeling, one that she had not been given to experiencing very much... it felt like despair, and hope, and worry, and so many other things all rolled into one.
She stood and walked over to the window, hoping for at least a glimpse of the night sky... but found only black clouds waiting for her. That was among one of the strangest situations that she had to take time to cope with: she was so used to seeing the sky, both her own and her sister’s, throughout most of her lifetime. That she could not see that sky now... perhaps it was simply a sign of things to come.
“Oh, Luna...” she whispered. “If only you were here...”
“Tiger Two to Mobius, I think I’ve found something.”
“What is it?” Hampton’s crawler sat deployed in the middle of the destroyed town, surrounded by a number of Wolverines on watch after learning that the tunnels beneath had spawned more than a few curious parties; parties that quickly turned feral and attempted to tear them apart.
“Uh... I think it’s a road, ma’am. ‘Think’ being the operative word here. It’s kind of hard to see it under all this Tiberium and dead brush, but I think it’s there.”
“So what are you waiting for? Go skim that road and report back?”
“Uh, yeah, about that, ma’am... it’s like grass-level Tiberium here, but the whole way up that road is covered with tib-glaciers. Unless we’re going to ski across those things, we aren’t going anywhere. Think we can get a surgical ion strike in here?”
“No can do, Tiger Two,” Hampton said, watching as a pair of Wolverines circled around what seemed to be a gigantic dead treehouse on their patrol route. “We don’t have an uplink ready yet, and as far as this operation goes, we might as well be sitting on thin ice with all these tunnels underneath us. An ion strike might do more harm than good. The commander’s going to have to make the call on this one.”
“Roger, ma’am. Any further orders?”
“Nothing much else for today. It’s hellishly dark down here and I don’t trust walking around anywhere in bat country after the sun goes down. Get your asses back here.”
“Affirmative, ma’am. Tiger returning to base.”
Hampton checked the satellite feed bounced off of the Methuselah. It looked like that path definitely led somewhere... and if it led to other settlements, then it would definitely be looking into, if not to find some destroyed ruins that archivists and researchers can dig into. She opened up a transmission to Alexandra. “Hey, commander, I got a problem with a roadblock here...”