"You're late." Talon said, his words laced with ice.
"By, like, a minute." I defended. "I'm here now, aren't I?"
Taking my seat at the long table, I found myself flanked by Stonewall and Firecracker. A quick look around confirmed everyone was at attendance. Still feeling a little uneasy, however, I stole a glance at the dark griffon at the head of the table. He was still staring.
"What?" I asked, but was met with only silence. And not just from him, but from all others present. Yeah, that wasn't creepy at all.
The War Room suddenly felt as though it had dropped in temperature; I could feel the fur at the nape of my neck stand on edge. The blinking lights and charts produced by the mechanical console somehow seemed to actually help towards his stifling ambiance. In my life, I can only recall four times when I actually found myself to be, truly, unsettled, this was number four.
After an eternity, Talon finally let me go and continued whatever it was he was saying before.
"Now that we finally have the last of our operatives here, however late he may be, I can continue."
Hardass.
"As you all must know by now, we shall not be returning to Equestria by Hearth's Warming. Do not worry, there is nothing wrong. In fact, by the end of the week, you will all be returning home, along with a fairly sizeable fortune for your extra dedication!
"Before we begin, please allow me to tell you all how much I truly apprec—" And that’s when I decided to stop listening, at least for now.
I already know the drill, he's done it before. He's gonna go on about how we're "indispensable" and "unique." How we should be proud for helping move nations, turn tides, and indeed "change the very flow of history itself." It’s his way of covering up the fact that we got screwed over in the end. Whatever.
"—nd truly, each one of you is indispen—"
Nope, still not done. If there are three things I've learned from Talon, it's that: one, he always finds a way to get what he wants. Two, he hates it when things deviate from a set plan. And three, he really, really, likes to hear himself talk. That's fine. For instances like these, I've found a way to entertain myself.
Everyone here is given an order that has to be followed for multiple reasons: never disclose your real name or past. Simple enough. But all that secrecy can leave even the most dedicated soldier a little… curious. So, I've taken it upon myself to try to see beyond as many veils as possible, and uncover all of the history everyone's tried to keep hidden.
First up was Stonewall.
As a minotaur, Stonewall was already a big guy, but I don’t think that was enough for him. From what I gather, he used to really be into the whole bodybuilding thing. He always liked to push himself that little extra bit, he actually enjoyed beefing up. Like any other muscle bound guy, he also liked to show off his hard work. Entering competitions of strength and physique, he always managed to get into the top three. Many actually took him for the old "meat-head" type. Heck, I'll even admit to still doing it too every now and then. But it wasn’t because he wasn't smart. He was, really smart in fact! But in his favorite hobby, he never got to really exercise his brain and show them all that he wasn’t all brawn, and I think that started to get to him.
When the idea of flexing on a beach no longer held any excitement, Stonewall chose to look for something new to do, and what better position for a muscled titan to occupy than a club bouncer? This allowed him to tap into his brain a little better. He was really good at what he did. He was able to intimidate would be aggressors and avoid fights by using his wits, this, plus the few scraps he did get in, let him build a rep for himself and gain notoriety. Eventually, this led to him being contacted by some wealthy type that was really interested in what Stonewall could do. A few word exchanges and, BOOM, Stonewall was now a bodyguard. This gig actually worked out pretty well, letting Stonewall travel with his boss practically all around the world!
Too bad all good thing must end.
The way I understand it, Stonewall and his boss were overseas, visiting some important business type, and were returning to their hotel after a night out. Being a slow night, the other guards had retired earlier that day, too bad, since a couple of muggers had chosen that night to try to assault the boss. This wasn't the first time crap like this happened, and Stonewall was familiar with what to do. At first, he tried reasoning and even offering money. When that failed, he switched gears and used intimidation. That plan backfired when the goons chose to pull out knives. This left him with really only one option, conflict. Still, this is Stonewall we're talking about, so the fight was nothing spectacular. It was still pretty one sided, knives or no knives. Then one of the thugs tries a different tactic: he goes for the rich boss. Stonewall rushes in to intervene, earning him a knife in the leg. Blood now spilling, he picks up the attacker and throws him into the dark while the second tries to get into Stonewall's blind spot. He sees the assailant, and goes for a knock out punch. It connects, and everything goes somewhat smoothly. Until the mugger falls on his blade. The boss screams, but not because of that. The other guy that went flying had ended up colliding with the corner of a nearby building, splitting his skull wide open in the process. The pink matter oozing onto the stone floor confirmed that death had already taken this one. Horrified at what happened, Stonewall gets disowned, fired and then arrested!
Now wait just a damn minute here, what did his boss expect to happen!? Was this really a surprise to him? Was the plan originally to try to guilt trip the degenerates, then invite them over for tea?
Whatever the case, Stonewall now found himself locked up abroad, with two counts of first degree murder, awaiting execution.
What a load of crap.
Lucky for him, though, a griffin strolled by that very prison three days later, looking for promising recruits. Why he chose to look for them on death's row, I'll never know. Regardless, the minotaur caught the griffin's attention. Seeing as how death was the only other alternative, when the griffin spoke, the minotaur listened. Soon after, a deal was made, a bribe exchanged, and Stonewall walked out that very day.
Alright, so maybe Stonewall kinda… broke the rules and decided to tell me his story, or a pretty good chunk of it. But hey, when Stonewall feels like sharing— I mean really sharing, he doesn’t hold anything back. And that’s a heck of a lot more than I can say for the others. That doesn’t mean I can’t find a way to get what I’m looking for, though.
Firecracker, the only other Pegasus left in the Alpha Company, along with Sunburst and Moon Runner, the only two Diamond Dogs, actually have a shared past. Firecracker started off living in Cloudsdale, a giant metropolis in the sky, with her parents and older brother. Her dad worked at the Weather Factory, her mother at the local Advanced Placement Flight School, and her brother was studying law at school. Firecracker, however, pretty much spent her days as a misfit. She would consistently get suspended from school, or detained by the Royal Guards, or find herself in regular fights with other ponies and griffins. She even tried flying away from home a few times, only to be escorted back by a couple of Guards. With her older brother soon going off to join Celestia’s Flight Squadron, her own future (and worth) was put under the microscope by the folks. They saw her as a delinquent going nowhere fast with little to no care about her own well being. Heck, she didn’t even have her cutie mark, the last among her peers, and she couldn’t care less. Her parents decided it was time to act, lest she become a miserable failure, so they shipped her off to the mountains.
What awaited Firecracker at her new home was hard labor and nothing else. The folks thought that through tough work, she would find a new purpose and gratitude towards life. She would build character and turn over a new leaf. To achieve this, she was to work for two years with a construction company that was trying to create a new train system that could transport cargo faster by cutting through the local mountain range.
Firecracker was soon surrounded by rising stone faces, heavy machinery, and blasting dynamite. There were also a variety of workers, from the local towns to the cities beyond, busy trying to get as much done as they could. Yet the one thing she failed to find among all this clutter was a friend. She had left them all behind and had to start from scratch. If she hated her parents before, this only fueled that fire.
For the first four weeks, she found herself without companionship and without rest as she strained herself to further carve into the mighty mountainside that stood between her and her freedom. Soon though, her misuse of dynamite caught the attention of a couple of nearby workers. While using dynamite, and failing to blast out a stubborn boulder, a silver canine with a white muzzle tip, approached Firecracker to show her an easier way to get through the pesky stone. By digging a few strategic holes, the duo made short work of the monolith, and Firecracker saw something in her aide’s golden eyes she had not seen in a long time, pride. A brief introduction revealed the new comrade to be Moon Runner, a Diamond Dog that had come here with another in the hopes of finding some precious stones on the job. A few minutes more and Firecracker encountered Moon Runner’s partner, a golden yellow Diamond Dog with a black tipped muzzle, Sunburst. Together, the two Dogs worked together to make excellent progress on the mountainside. Moon Runner would find flaws to exploit on the mountain and Sunburst would carefully work with dynamite to modify it per their needs. The two would dig, plant, and detonate to make it through the day.
Soon, those two were teaching Firecracker what they knew regarding perception and explosives. Not long after that, she finally earned her cutie mark, a lit dynamite of her own, to showcase not only the result of hard work, but her new joy and passion: blowing things straight up!
Afterwards, Firecracker learned more about the volatile sticks and was able to discover different creative ways to utilize explosives to serve her purpose. She was also regarded as the go-to gal when you needed something blown apart. Even Sunburst was impressed by her growth.
The Tremor Trio, as they were called since they always made the mountain shake, made incredible progress blasting and shaving away at the mountain until fourteen months later, they finally broke through the other side. Success! Their quest had finally come to an end and way ahead of schedule too. This did, however, bring its own problems: what now? Finally free of the mountain, what was the next step? Firecracker didn’t feel like going back to the ones who basically kicked her out; she wanted to stay with her new compatriots. So what was the next move? That question was soon answered when Sunburst returned to their cabin with excitement radiating from his lavender eyes. A griffin had just returned from serving a long tour overseas in exotic lands, and was looking for new recruits to take back with him…
Three birds, one stone, more or less. And all it took was a couple of months hanging out at bars with Firecracker and waiting till she becomes inebriated, or at least a little more than tipsy. Oh, and surviving the bar brawls she never has trouble starting. Good thing, even when she’s drunk, she can more than hold her own in a fight. I mean, I’m not bad myself, but four to one odds? Even I’m gonna have a bit of a hard time, especially when they tend to avoid Firecracker ‘cause she’s a mare… and drunk… and scrappy.
That just leaves now Source Code, Talon, and Grace; Alpha’s only unicorn, griffon, and hippogriff. I guess I shou—
“—to further explain the mission.” Talon’s words brought me back to reality. Guess we’re finally moving on. So much for my fun, but at least now I’ll finally get some answers.
Leaning forward and resting my head on a hoof, I looked over as an emerald unicorn stood up, moving loose strands of yellow highlighted lime mane behind her ears. She briefly let her platinum eyes scan over the rest of us, to ensure she had our attention, before she used her magic to bring up a green tinged transparency of some sort of forest.
“Thank you. Now, like Talon just said, our new assignment takes us deep into the heart of the Camellia Jungle.”
What? He did? When?
“For those of you unfamiliar with the name, perhaps you will recognize it by its other moniker: ‘The Living Forest.’ I’m sure you’ve all heard the stories surrounding the jungle about how the trees seem to come alive, how the animals are unafraid, and how individuals seem to disappear. Well, for our sake, let’s hope they are only that, stories.”
The jungle layout before us began to quickly zoom in on a single point at the jungle’s border before slowly panning deeper into the main tree system.
“Our clients, an industrial company called Torchlight, are currently based at the edge of the jungle. They have operations going on within the trees that have to be put on hold due to a skirmish that has recently broken out. A group calling themselves ‘Guardians’—“
Torchlight? Guardians? This all sounds like a bad comic book plot.
“—has been harassing the company for about three months now.”
The forest was soon replaced by various images of what looked like jackals, ponies, antelope, and others wielding both makeshift and metal spears, shields, bows, and the occasional Crystal Optimized Laser Technology, or COLT (various semi hollowed devices, powered by enchanted crystals, capable of firing high density magic bolts at blistering speeds), seemingly running throughout the shadowed floor or jumping from tree to tree.
“At first they pretty much made nuisances of themselves, marking up tents and vehicles, deflating tires, that sort of thing. However, things became deadly when an unknown third party began supplying the Guardians with weapons and encouraging them to take back their jungle by force. Of course, Torchlight responded with firepower of their own, using both weapons and outside influence to try to settle the conflict. Naturally the fights escalated, turning the once peaceful ecosystem into a small warzone. And this is where we come in.”
The image quickly faded into that of a large crate marked with a bold “T.”
“Torchlight now imports almost as much weaponry as it does provisions, and these tend to be favored targets of their enemies. Recently, a shipment of Torchlight’s weapons has been intercepted and stolen by Guardian forces. It’s now our job to retrieve them and deal with any hostiles we encounter along the way. Now, we are being paid to bring in weapons, not scrap metal. Needless to say, all essential items are to be delivered in one piece.”
The green transparency shifted once more, this time to an emblem depicting a downward facing canine skull breaking two bones between its jaws.
“Intel has also been acquired regarding our same clients also hiring the Dogs of War mercenary group to help in handling the conflict that will arise upon recovering the weapons cache. This should make transport run a lot more smoothly.”
“When does anything ever go smoothly for us?” I whispered to Stonewall.
“Comet!” barked Talon. “Is there something you would like to share with the rest of the group?”
All eyes gravitated my way. Great. Gotta think fast…
“I was just wondering, what kind of resistance are we expected to meet upon landing?”
Talon didn’t buy it. He didn’t say anything, he didn’t have to. I could see it in his gaze.
“Resistance is expected to be minimal upon entry, but should quickly escalate as we reach the target area.” Source Code continued while the ghost image dissipated. “Also, be aware, Black Forest operatives have been spotted in the area, and I don’t think they’re with us.”
“Excellent work as always, Source Code.” Talon remarked as the unicorn gave a quick bow before reclaiming her seat. “That covers the majority of it and, if any new developments arise, Source Code will keep us informed via our earpieces, so don’t lose it.” Talon finished the statement by looking over at Firecracker, whom currently held the record for most pieces lost and/or broken at eight. She merely offered him a small smile before he continued. “Our starting point will be at the Torchlight base camp, where we’ll set up shop and I’ll iron out a few details with our clients personally. After that, we will gather our things and move in to the reported location of the cache. Now, if there are no further qualms, we should reach Torchlight in approximately five hours, so I suggest you use that time to prepare. Dismissed.”