Genevieve Aristide sat in her obscenely expensive Italian leather office swivel chair in her new office, holding in her hand a half-drunken martini in the manner of a truly pretentious corporate executive. Upon her polished mahogany desk was a high-value order forwarded to her by Dis and Qordial Limited, one of Armacham Technology Corporation’s many business partners, the salacious corporate whore that it was.
The order called for an entire six expeditionary Replica battalions outfitted with air,land and sea assets,also paying extra for the acquisition of multiple abandoned US military bases in europe, Dis and Qordial acting as the middleman, the buyer was one “Berry Punch,” a reclusive multi-quadrillionaire hold up somewhere in Italy.
Genevieve quirked a bemused eyebrow at the provided name of the buyer. ‘sounds like a hippies name...but judging by what shes ordered she’d have to be a very VERY PISSED OFF hippy’
Shrugging, she continued flipping through the document, finding shockingly little in the way of specific details about the buyer. Aside from a name and a rather vague location, there was nothing else stated about Berry Punch. She shrugged once more, not particularly caring that she knew next to nothing about a potential buyer for their own private army.
Now while another more responsible and globally conscious executive might wonder for more than a fleeting moment who exactly this buyer was and what they could possibly want with over nine thousand mindless clone supersoldiers, Genevieve just couldn’t bring herself to care. They had already paid in full through Dis and Qordial and even purchased indefinite servicing and warranty for their battalion, and that’s all that mattered to her. The bony-faced and morally bankrupt Aristide was never one to turn away a paying customer, after all…
She leaned back in her chair, taking a moment to reflect on the enormous amount of trouble she and the company went through to contain the fallout of the Origin and Perseus projects. While she didn’t know the precise details of how both incidents were ultimately resolved, the reports on them made mention of ice cream cones, potato crisps, Paxton Fettel’s apparent Oedipus complex, and the employment of a freelance sex worker to alleviate it. It was around there that she stopped reading, finding the suggested implications both unfortunate and repulsive.
Shaking her head clear of the disturbing thoughts, Genevieve leaned forward and grabbed the phone on her desk before dialing the sales department, eager to get things started.
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On the outskirts of the massive smoldering blast mark that was the city of Fairport, a rundown airfield was bustling with activity, none of which was particularly legal. A fleet of transport planes were parked on the many taxiways of the airfield, their cargo bays being loaded with a multitude of militarized civilian vehicles and an immense volume of equipment, ordnance, and other materials. Myriads of genetically identical Replica soldiers were also boarding the planes, packing themselves tightly into their assigned seats.
Collectively designated the 4th and 18th Replica Regiments; the clone supersoldiers that comprised this unit were preparing to set out to rendezvous with their new pony commander. The details about their equine master had been disseminated to them in the final stages of their psychological conditioning. While in a hypnotic trance, anonymous voices whispered into their ears their life’s purpose, to obey all that their commander orders… and that their commander was a Purple talking pony named Berry Punch. Images of Berry’s Violet visage were subliminally broadcasted to their then highly suggestible minds. Her fuchsia coat and purple mane, huge violet eyes and an amazingly human-like smile, and most curiously a picture of a bundle of grapes and a strawberry printed onto her flank. Her cartoonish appearance was permanently burned into their memories along with the utterly ridiculous notion that they were to be unswervingly loyal and completely obedient to her.
While normal human soldiers might be a little skeptical about taking orders from an oversized and incredibly adorable and huggable sapient plush toy, the Replicas bore no such complaints, accepting completely the equine nature of their soon-to-be pony overlord. Armacham Technology’s Replica line of genetically engineered psychic supersoldiers weren’t the type to question their commander or the orders they issued even in the slightest. Be they psychotic, cannibalistic madmen, ghosts of emotionally dead little girls doing a poor impression of Japanese onryos, or indeed purple cartoon ponies from another universe entirely, the Replicas would follow them to hell and back and perform Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” while there if so ordered.
The end result of such an ethically obscene process was an entire army of mindless drones, ready to take or rescue hostages, massacre entire villages or deliver aid and protection to them, to be the most monstrous of killers or the most saintly of saviors, all on their commander’s say-so.
A short distance away from the rest of the battalion, a unique group of Replicas were boarding eighteen C-17 Globemaster cargo planes with their own specialized vehicles and hardware. Simply designated as “Replica Command,” the Replicas that made up this internal unit were the dedicated command teams of the 4th and 18th Replica Regiment’s six battalions, specially trained in all manner of strategies and tactics and tasked with assisting their commander in matters of command and troop coordination and ensure a smooth operation.
Inside a communications center in one of the planes was each regiment’s assembled battalion commanders, currently coordinating the loading of the battalions and its hardware onto the planes, primarily by shouting at them over the radio to hurry up.
At long last, it seemed they all were finally ready to go. The battalion commanders began radioing the individual sections they were each responsible for, ensuring all was set and accounted for before setting themselves and the rest of each regiment off on their journey.
All Forty-Two companies from 21st 32nd 40th 43rd 26th 38th battalions all checked in
Satisfied, the battalion commanders issued the order for all planes to take off. The 4th and 18th Replica Regiments were en route.