PonyZ Radio Zed
Chapter 4: Secrets
“Hey, you ever get the feeling that there’s something Richtofen ain’t telling us?” –Tank Dempsey
Stary Military base, DayZ+3
The base was practically overrun with rotting, undead ponies and griffons; there were hundreds of them. The survivors and the Red Devils watched them mill about from the wall surrounding the base. One bullet and they’d all go into a frenzy, running around and trying to reach the survivors. To remedy this, each pony on the wall primed a fragmentation grenade. Within six seconds, nearly forty fragmentation grenades exploded inside the perimeter of the base, sending deadly shrapnel into the undead ponies. While a good chunk of the undead were killed, there was still over eighty of the undead still alive. The earth ponies and unicorns tried to jump up the side of the fourteen foot wall, to no avail. What scared the survivors was that griffons and pegasi zombies retained flight capabilities, though their feathers were rotting or were rotted away. The Red Devils seemed to already know this, having probably dealt with them during their stay in the church. The living ponies frantically shot down the zombies, but they got to one unlucky Red Devil, and started to rip him apart. His friends quickly shot the zombies off of him, then shot him as a mercy killing, as it would only be a matter of time before he turned into one of the undead.
With the dead soldier came the stark reminder of how dangerous the undead really were. Now, the ponies fought even harder, wiping out the massive horde of undead within the base after an hour or so of burning through stores of ammunition. Then, the ponies lowered a ladder over the wall, slowly sliding down it into the base. “After the marines were infected, we snuck in and set off some explosives to draw them into the base. Then we sealed the entryway off with whatever we could grab.” Lightning explained, her M14 AIM warily watching the open barracks building.
“Ooooooh! What’d you use? AT-4s, C4, Semtex?” Bubble practically hopped around everywhere, trying to find the armory, which undoubtedly held explosivey goodness inside. He stopped mid-bounce as his and pinkie’s tails began to twitch. “Quick, hide everypony!” The ponies took cover, and slowly from the barracks came a very large zombie. There was something…off…about it. Dusk and Twilight observed it stumble and plod around the courtyard. From the armory building, Elusive ran out screaming as he blasted the strange zombie with an AT-4 rocket. The rocket detonated across the zombie’s face, but the massive earth pony, now a pale, rotting yellow, paid no attention and simply kept plodding around, passing by Elusive as the poor pony’s mouth gaped open. The soldiers slowly stood up from their positions, staring at the strange zombie in amazement.
Then, the most curious thing happened. The chunk of flesh that Elusive had torn out of the large zombie’s face with the AT-4 began to regenerate itself. “…What the buck?” Gen. Light Speed said, scratching his head in wonder. “What sick colt of a mare come up with that…thing?” Dusk shrugged, keeping his rifle pointed at the humongous pony. Blitz gulped audibly, and slowly snuck up to the zombie’s left side.
“Hey, there’s something tattooed here, over where his cutie mark should be. Says… THETA-0011; Project StormFront. What’s that?” General Light Speed’s jaw went tight, his body rigid.
“Did you say…StormFront?” Blitz nodded, and Speed’s head fell visibly. “Those sick bastards…” He whispered to himself, Blitz and Rainbow just barely making it out. “StormFront was a super soldier program, designed after an old Germane gruppe 473 project that was found in one of the V1 facilities we discovered. They were trying to make a soldier that was strong, never surrendered, and never got emotional from battle; the soldier that looked at death in the eye and treated him as an equal. It was scrapped due to lack of funding. When we got a hold of it, Celestia ordered it to be locked away in the Vaults, and when we went to war with the Griffs again here in Chenarus, She had it re-opened, and the army scientists were made to work on it, at a place over in Taviana, which was friendly territory. I think it was called…object all?” He pondered.
“Hey, isn’t that where the Gauss rifles were being developed?” Dusk asked the General, who nodded in confirmation.
“What the hay was going on during this war? There’s so many secrets going around.” Hawk gulped beneath his ghillie suit, but nopony noticed him. Well, almost nopony. Applejack saw him shuffle slightly, and put that into the back of his head, mentally reminding himself to ask the sniper what was wrong, among other things, like what species he was. “Secret weapons, secret projects, secret…” Dusk stopped midsentence and caught Hawk’s eye as he scratched his head. Hawk bit his lip. ‘He knows...Ponyfeathers, he knows. But what does he know?’ The Red Devils slowly and cautiously pushed the large zombie back into the first barracks building, blocking the entrance with the party bus. They then entered the armory, except Dusk, Hawk, and Applejack, who gathered in the second barracks building.
“Hawk, what the hay man, do you not trust us or something?” Dusk chastised the gunnery sergeant. “How long did you think it would take us to find out?” Hawk sweated beneath his ghillie.
“Find out what?” He gulped. Dusk shoved the empty vial of Schizophrenia medicine into Hawk’s face.
“How about that you have medicine for being a Schitzo? Come on man. How long until you go crazy? Huh? Dusk grilled him for answers.
Hawk merely sighed, whether in resignation or relief, Applejack and Dusk couldn’t tell. ‘Great, there may something more.’ Dusk concluded. “I ran out of pills back while you were hunting down that Karde character. I have some more on site here, hidden under my bunk. I have to take them daily. First day without, I hear voices. Next day, I get split personalities, or so I’ve been told; Cloudy knew; Day three…Day three I start to see things. It’s been a day so far.” He trotted over to a bunk that read PFC Skies/ GySgt Archer on the end, reached beneath the bunk, and opened a loose piece of wood. Underneath was several months’ worth of Schizophrenia medication. Hawk grabbed enough medicine for three and a half months, sticking them in his backpack.
Applejack, satisfied, left the barracks to go grab a decent weapon from the armory, but Dusk stayed, trying to grill Hawk for more answers. “Hawk…There’s something else, isn’t there.” Hawk remained silent. “Hawk. As a commanding officer, please, don’t force me to make you tell me.” Dusk didn’t like to pull rank like that, but he needed to know.
“…Ok. But what I tell you, cannot, under any circumstances, leave this room.” Dusk nodded in agreement. Hawk trotted over to the bunk-bed he shared with PFC skies, clambered onto the top bunk, and removed the covers, grabbing a shiny set of silver dog-tags. Then, he handed them to Dusk.
Private First Class Cloudy Skies-Archer
1st Equestrian Marine Corps
B-Company
Scout-Sniper
Dusk stared at the dogtags in shock. “She…She…”
Hawk nodded, removing his ghillie suit once again, this time completely. Underneath the suit, he was a pegasus, his mane and body the same gray it had been. His wings, however, were mangled and decayed, missing most of the feathers. “She was…My wife… She…She never made it away from the base. She wanted the marines to leave with the commandos, but Bucking Colonel Razor refused. We tried to escape, but we got… attacked by those things outside the base. Some marine thought it would be a good idea to throw a grenade at us, and it mangled my wings. She got bitten, and…Faust, she made me shoot her…she…she…she…” He broke down into tears on the floor of the barracks in a ball. “she’s…buried out back, behind the barracks buildings…” He then refused to talk anymore. Dusk locked the door and closed it behind him, leaving the key with Hawk. Behind the barracks was a small wooden cross, with the words “Requesiat et Peace” carved into the wood, and the tattered remains of a ghillie suit in a neat, folded bundle beneath the cross. Dusk removed his helmet and saluted the grave, paying his respects to Hawk’s dead Wife and close friend. He then walked over to the armory, seeing the barracks door open again. Inside, Hawk leaned quietly against a wall, as the other ponies grabbed weaponry.
Dusk nodded respectively to the ghillied up sniper, and grabbed some military grade STANAG ammunition for his Car-15, which he attached a holographic aiming reticule to. Hawk then decided to move from his spot and started grabbing rifle ammunition for his Lapua magnum, grabbing .338 Magnums and .300 magnums. Blitz had found himself a new shotgun, in the form of a M1014 semi-automatic shotgun. Applejack had traded his Car-15 in for an M240 Bravo, and Elusive had traded in his for an M16A3 rifle, with an under-barrel grenade launcher and an ACOG sight. Bubble was stuffing his backpack with all manners of explosives, including Semtexs, Composition B, Satchel Charges, C-4, Claymores, and etcetera. His feminine counterpart had found herself a couple AT-4 rocket launchers, and an M32 semi-automatic Grenade launcher, which she put on her back, along with the AT-4s. Her Car-15 now sported an M203 grenade launcher, as well as a pop-up sight so that she could aim the grenades effectively.
Fluttershy and Butterscotch were taking medical supplies out of the field hospital and placing them in their respective medical satchels, as Rarity trotted out of the command center. “Twilight, Dusk, there’s an operational computer inside the CC.” The two looked at each other, and ran inside the Command Center. Sure enough, one computer was powered up, and requiring a password. Then, Blitz, Lightning, and AJ trotted in, with AJ sporting a M60 machine gun. Lighting trotted over, and because she had been on the base, picked the lock on the desk they were sitting at, opening it and retrieving the password and entering it into the computer.
PASS: BLITZSCHLAG
ACHTUNG. This computer belongs to the project StormFront, and is to be restricted to only high-ranking StormFront members.
Please insert SF PASS:
Dusk and Twilight looked at Lightning, who shrugged. “Sorry, I just know that’s where Doc. Weimar left his computer password. I used to hack his computer to stalk his Email, and download viruses to piss him off. Then he got transferred up to Taviana, and the computer got locked with an SF Password. Maybe Gen. Speedy knows, but good luck getting him to tell you. Very touchy subject.”
“How touchy?” Blitz asked Dust.
“It’d be faster to go up to Object All and get the pass off Weimar, or his corpse; whatever’s left of the doctor.” She stated, dead serious.
Dusk sighed, and he, Twilight, and AJ left the room. Blitz and Lightning stayed behind, Lightning bent over the desk trying to find a password. Blitz bit his lip, and tried to think of a way to talk to her. He never was good with mares. Hay, last time he talked to Spitfire, she slapped him with a flight glove. He sighed. They could have been together, but then…well…Stuff happened, between the two. Well…stuff called he pinched her butt. Never knew she’d be so pissy about it though…They had good times together, then he was a friggin dumb flank and screwed it up. “So, uh…what are you gonna do now?” He asked, after a while of going through the good memories he’d had with his old flame.
“Who knows. Honestly, I’m getting sick of sitting around. Think I could come with you?” He pondered it, then shrugged.
“Not my call, that’s Twilight’s, her being the Captain and all. I’ll ask if you wanna tag along though.”
“Sure, thanks Blitz.”
---
Two hours later, Chenarus foothills, en route to Taviana.
Twilight, much to Rainbow’s chagrin, allowed Dust to stay with the survivors, bumping their group up to fifteen. Safety in numbers, after all. Blitz and Lightning trotted along out front, Blitz with his M1014, Dust with her M14 AIM. Hawk and Stormy brought up the rear, and AJ and Applejack covered the left and right with their heavy machine guns. After an hour of walking, night fell, and the ponies stopped to set up camp. Blitz was first watch as usual, and Dust said she’d accompany him. The two sat, still on edge, but sharing stories. The time Dust won in the marksmareship competition between the Devils and the Marines, the time Blitz tried to find a pet from Butterscotch, things like that. From a few kilometers away, Karde watched them through the sight of his Gauss rifle, watching their progress. There was a low groan, and he turned around, only to come face to face with a StormFront THETA zombie. Karde fired the Gauss Rifle point blank into his face, causing the survivors a few kilometers away to wake up from their restless slumber. The spent magic round encased in a crystal ejected out of the side of the gun, and Karde replaced it with a fresh crystal. The THETA’s head didn’t regenerate.
---
After a fitful night, the survivors reached the town of Vyshnoye, and entered the large apartment building inside. There was an abundance of STANAG rounds, but not much else, except a colt brothers .38 special revolver, which was pretty much useless compared to the weapons they already had. However, there was another bus in the town, and Karde’s words to Dusk and Twilight came to mind.
“This gun will take out all kinds of cars and planes. There’s only three vehicles ah haven’t destroyed in a single shot. A Tank, a bus, and a cargo plane. Never have found out why those damned buses won’t blow up…”
The bus was missing several wheels, and it was out of gas. Blitz, Das, Lightning and Applejack trotted back a few kilometers with jerry cans to get some gas for the bus from a gas station they passed on the way to town, and the others began scavenging around town for some wheels. Rainbow still didn’t trust Lightning that much, but they were at least on civil terms now. They watched the gas station, making sure there were no undead ponies shambling around before they went to fill their cans with fuel. Seeing the way clear, they started to fill up the cans with fuel, after a quick trot down to the pumps. There was a slow, steady rumble, and Blitz motioned for them to hide in the station. They dropped the cans and headed inside, watching a griffon driven Ural truck drive up to the station. They looked more like civilians than soldiers, and the Ural was a blue civilian model. There were two lee-Manefield rifles inside the truck, which they grabbed as they got out, as they began speaking in native Griffa.
Blitz slowly emerged from the station, shotgun stowed on his back. He kept his hands raised up high, and the two lowered the Manefield rifles they had pointed at him. He then began to speak in Griffa to them, as special forces often learned the native languages of the area they were operating in. [Do you speak Equi?] He asked in the low, throaty tone Griffa employed.
[Only a little. I see you speak Griffon though. Are you a soldier?] One asked, holstering the Manefield on his back. Blitz nodded, and the other three ponies came out, after Blitz gave them the go-ahead to keep pumping fuel into the canisters.
[Da, we’re trying to reach our research base in Taviana. We were getting fuel for the bus in town.] He replied calmly, as they continued to fill the gas cans, rifles on safety. The griffons nodded, returning to their truck. They took two jerry cans out of it, and began to fill their own canisters with gasoline from a nearby pump. The ponies finished pumping their gas, and headed back towards town. The griffons must have gone back another way, because the ponies didn’t see them pass by with their truck. Griffon civilians aside, they began to pour the fuel into the bus, and got the tank up to three-quarters full. Then, Twilight and Dusk trotted up, levitating two tires apiece. The bus only needed three tires, so Dusk stuck his extra tire inside the bus. AJ, who was dozing off in the bus, was then woken up and began to work on the bus, with Applejack helping her. The bus was ready within the hour, and the ponies loaded up into the bus.
As they drove along the road, passing shambling zombies and zombies running almost at a full speed trot, Elusive and Rarity tried to tune the old radio built into the bus. Eventually, they found a station that had little static. It was a military frequency.
Any and all ponies of the Royal Equestrian Marines,
The Princesses have abandoned us. The ESS Khe Sahn is being returned to Bucking Utes, and we’re getting left here. I don’t know about the rest of you, but if you want to live, I’d head to Utes as soon as possible. Who knows, maybe they’ll let us on board. Here’s to” There was a buzz, and the radio went silent. No static, no voices, nothing, just pure silence; as if the lines had been cut.
“Ugh, probably another soldier sending out crank radio messages. Bloody marine ponies are always messing around; no offense you two.” Elusive stamped a hoof on the ground.
“None taken.” Stormy answered, and Hawk nodded in agreement.
The bus continued up the road, until it reached a Griffonian checkpoint, leading to a very long bridge that connected Chenarus to Namalsk region. The ponies readied their weapons and took up positions covering every angle. Dusk levitated his Car-15 as he gripped the wheel with one hand, the stick shift with his other. “Here we go everypony!” He yelled out, as the ponies readied their weapons. He pushed the bus as fast as it could go- 70km/h – and the bus blew right through the barricade, as the ponies whooped and fired at the Griffons defending the checkpoint. One griffon got lucky. A bullet from his AKS assault rifle blew the hinge off of the rear left emergency exit, and Lightning Dust, who had been using it as her firing position, toppled head over heels out of the bus, skidding for a few feet onto the bridge.
“Stop the bus!” Dash shook her head and yelled for Dusk to keep going. “STOP THE BUS!” Dusk shook his head at Blitz and mouthed, ‘Not worth it!’ Blitz just growled. “Well she is to me! No pony left behind, remember?” He roared over the gunfire, before he somersaulted out of the bus, ignoring the scrapes and bruises he gained from leaping out of a bus as he hit the pavement. Groaning, he staggered to his feet, pulling a USP. 45 SOCOM pistol from his hip, as he had left his M1014 on the bus. He half limped half crawled over to where Lightning lay, turning her onto her back. Under fire from the Griffons, he checked her pulse. She had a steady heart rate, and was unconscious, so he dragged her behind an over-turned civilian vehicle and popped his head and hands out of cover, firing at the gryphons with his pistol.
The outnumbered but not yet outfought Pegasus jumped to action, quick as a flash. He pulled a fragmentation grenade from his belt, chucking it over the car towards the griffons. The grenade claimed two featherheads and maimed another.
Blitz looked a couple feet behind him, seeing Lightning’s M14 AIM sitting, out in the open. It must have slid along the road when she fell out of the bus. Steeling himself, he ran for it, living up to his name of Blitz. He grabbed the rifle and turned to run back to the car, but a bullet thwacked into his leg, dropping him to the floor..
He struggled to get to the M14, but it was kicked away by a griffon, wearing an officer’s uniform. [Look, comrades! A Pony who thought he could beat the best army in the world!] the other five griffon soldiers started to laugh at the pegasus that the officer kicked with a boot.
[I don’t think I can beat you mudaks, I know I could. Give me a knife and I’ll gut each and every one of you.] Blitz spat in Griffa at the officer, rage filling his vision. The officer laughed and kicked the corporal again.
[Pah! You ponies are all weak fools!] The officer picked Blitz up by his throat.
Blitz proceeded to spit in his face. [Go ahead and torture me you Svolochs. You ain’t gonna break me.] At this, the officer raised an eyebrow.
[Oh?]
The lieutenant suddenly gaped, as Blitz’s Ka-Bar grew out of his midsection. The griffon dropped Blitz, who wasted no time slicing another griffon, this one a sergeant with an RPD machinegun, from his neck to his waist. The Ka-Bar flashed again, and a griffon fell to the ground clutching his throat and gurgling as blood spilled out and stained the black asphalt a darker shade of black. Blitz turned to the other three griffons, who were shakily pointing their Kalashnikov model assault rifles at him, wide-eyed from his show of violence. They started to pull the trigger, but one’s rifle was jammed, and the other had no ammunition. One of the three, a veteran of Takistan, back when the USSG and Equestria pulled off several joint ops, recognized the tactics. He gulped visibly. One thought on his mind. [‘Der’mo.’]
Within seconds of each other, the griffons were on the floor, dead or dying. Blitz picked up Dust’s unconscious body and started to walk across the bridge towards Namalsk, humming to himself a tune he had heard on the bus, which was now in a town in Namalsk. From the Griffonian checkpoint, a single griffon private, who had seen the massacre, curled into a ball, whimpering to himself, hoping the horrible murdering pony of grim reaping and death didn’t come back.
---
Two hours later; Namalsk-Chenarus bridge
Lightning Dust groaned and began to open her eyes, finding herself on a piece of destroyed car seat. Nearby, Blitz was stoking a fire made from a rubber car tire, Dust’s M14 AIM across his lap. A foot or so away from him, a Blood-stained Ka-Bar combat knife lay, stuck by its point into a crack in the asphalt. He heard her shift in the car seat and looked up at her, smiling faintly. “Oh good, you’re up. How was your nap?” He asked jokingly. His leg wound wasn’t as bothersome now, but it still stung.
She pulled herself off of the destroyed car seat and sat down on the ground next to Blitz. “I feel like I fell out of a bus.”
“Mhm, you did. I jumped out after you ‘cause they wouldn’t go back; weren’t important enough to them. We have one rifle with five clips between us, my Ka-Bar, and our sidearms.” He stated, factually.
“Well, that sucks. What’s our plan?” She asked, checking her S&W .500 for ammo; it had four shots in the chamber, and she had eleven extras. She slid one round into the empty space in the chamber, closing the cylinder.
“There’s supposed to be a radio tower in Namalsk, right?” Lightning nodded. “The way I see it, the others will head to Object All first, to try and get the pass for Weimar’s computer. After that, they’ll probably head towards the tower to try and radio mainland Equestria. Hopefully, we’ll be there by then, as they have to pass through the Tower to get back to the bridge.” Lightning shot an incredulous look at Blitz. “What?”
“You didn’t strike me as a strategist. You strike me more as a run in guns blazing kind of guy.” Blitz just shrugged, stoking the fire with a stick.
“Yeah well, you learn some things as you go along. Dusk might be the guy who comes up with most of the plans, but me and Applejack are the ones who make sure the plans are followed through correctly, so we have to pick up a few things. Get some rest, we’ll move in the morning; I’ll take first watch.”
“Alright; And Blitz?”
“Yeah lightning?”
“Thanks for coming back for me.”
“…Don’t mention it.”
---
Party bus, ten minutes earlier
“We have ta go back for ‘em!” AJ yelled towards Dusk, her path blocked by her male counterpart.
“AJ, let ‘em go; They’re either dead or Griffon POWs.” Applejack said, putting a hand on her shoulder. She knocked it away, glaring at him.
“What, so y’all can leave them again like you did with Mac? Huh Applejack? Huh? Turn this BUCKING bus around Dusk, or Ah will come up there and do it mahself!” She pushed the barrel of her M60E4 into Applejack’s chest, the stallion not budging in the slightest.
“AJ, they’re dead. Let it go.” he hissed into her face, as Elusive leveled his rifle at her head. Guns were drawn, and everypony pointed a weapon at another pony, until Dusk stopped the bus, toppling a couple ponies to the floor.
“EVERYPONY CALM THE TARTARUS DOWN.” He yelled, hair beginning to turn an orange color, but he stopped himself, blowing smoke out of his nostrils. No pony on the bus wanted to see THAT happen… They all wisely put away their weapons. “Now I hate to say it, because Blitz was like a brother to me, but He’s probably dead, and… he’s not gonna be coming back. OK?” The ponies nodded slowly and quietly. “Good. Now come on, let’s get up to Taviana before the griffons come running after my yelling.”
“Or something worse.” Elusive stated, clearly remembering the encounter with the project StormFront zombie. Dusk nodded in agreement, shifting the bus into gear. He then continued off towards Taviana, everypony on edge. They were driving for about ten minutes, when the bus shuddered, and stopped moving. Dusk looked at the fuel meter, which read empty.
“We’re out guys. We’ll have to walk from here. Grab your gear and let’s go.” The ponies started to grab their gear and headed off the bus, setting up a perimeter as the others finished packing their gear. Dusk went to grab his rifle, and then paused, seeing Blitz’s M1014. He paused for a minute, remembering all the good memories the two had made, before and during the war. He sighed, then grabbed his rifle and exited the bus, leaving the shotgun in its resting place, against the back wall. Hawk watched him pass by, then looked back, and grabbed the shotgun, removing the stock so it fit in his backpack. He then grabbed his Lapua Magnum and got off the bus.
On the side of the bus, Bubble was spray painting words. “…Bubble, what are you doing?” Bubble Berry paused, and then turned to Hawk.
“Well duuuuh, I’m leaving other ponies a message!” Hawk blinked, staring blankly at the very obvious message.
“…I see…” He turned and left, leaving Bubble to his message. Bubble’s message said, “Warning! Brain munchers nearby!” Truer words never spoken, as Elusive dispatched a zombie that shambled out of the woods nearby with his M16.
--
Namalsk-Chenarus Bridge, two hours earlier
Karde watched the griffons milling about the checkpoint, and saw the party bus go on its ill-fated bum-rush across the bridge from a half a kilometer away through the scope on his Gauss Rifle. Gazing at his now ungloved right hand, he read the words tattooed across the back. “Project StormFront S#: E-0007 Subject Epsilon” Karde grimaced, suppressing the bad memories of StormFront, Object All, and Doctor Weimar. Focusing on a small wooden shack to the far right of the checkpoint, he held out his gloved left hand, a Teal Glyph burning brightly from under the glove. Small technological lines formed along his hand, and he Disappeared, re-appearing outside the shack, on his feet. Opening the shack, he quietly killed the shambling zombie inside with a bowie knife, going over to the ladder inside and sliding down it.
Karde followed the tunnel at the bottom, emptying out to the cliff-face, just underneath the bridge. Stepping onto the walkway built underneath the bridge, he started to creep across, hearing gunfire from Kalashnikov style rifles, and the explosion of an Equestrian made Fragmentation Grenade. He paused for a moment, chuckled to himself, and carried on across the walkway, towards the other side of the bridge.
Reaching the other end, he opened a door built into the cliff face and entered another tunnel, heading down it and exiting via a ladder. This ladder was significantly taller, and when he exited out of it, he was at the base of the Namalsk radio tower, inside a hollow dumpster. He opened the lid and exited the dumpster, closing it back behind him. He then entered the radio tower and climbed to the top, beginning to wait for the ponies, whom would inevitably come to the radio tower.