//------------------------------//
// Diplomacy 
// Story: Do you believe in Ghosts? 
// by Material Defender 
//------------------------------//

	There was an air about this strange castle that just made a person just stop and admire it. Talbot definitely did a lot of it on the way to wherever he was being led to. The pegasus guard occasionally shot him a look, examining the exoskeleton-wearing human with its strange contraptions, but mostly kept to himself. Conversation was ignored, for the most part.

Talbot, despite his patience, began to get annoyed as it seemed that the guard was leading him down an endless series of hallways, with a few stairs interspersed in between. The stained glass windows and the red carpet were pretty to look at, but eventually got really old if they were the only things to look at. It certainly didn't seem to help that all the guards looked alike, but then again, all the Ghosts probably looked alike to them, too. There was also the odd maid running around, although the idea of a staff tasked to deal with the maintenance of such large grounds appeared grueling to Talbot.

They walked down what appeared to be another nondescript hallway before turning left towards a heavily-decorated pair of double doors.

"The Princess awaits you inside," the guard gruffly said.

"Many thanks," Talbot responded. As much as he didn't like the guards, he at least appreciated that they could adhere to their standards when performing their duty.

He entered what seemed to be a very well-stocked study. There were tables everywhere, covered with various texts and papers, although written in a language that Talbot didn't understand. Shelves lined the walls, dusty and aged, and stocked with even more books of all kind. It was a large open room with a single open balcony door at the end. Before it sat the Princess on a number of large cushions, reading off of a scroll with a red seal attached to it.

Talbot cleared his throat to get her attention. "Your Majesty, I believe you wanted to speak with me..."

"I do. Please, sit." Talbot obliged, but found his gear making it slightly awkward for him to sit. He eventually found a comfortable position in which he could recline himself without looking like a fool. He wondered why the Princess even allowed the Ghosts to retain their weaponry. "Before we begin, I would like to re-introduce myself. I am Princess Celestia, Royal Princess of the kingdom of Equestria."

Equestria. Quite the fitting name. "I am Captain James Talbot, of the United States Army." He blinked a few times, barely noticeable to Celestia behind the HUD on his tactical visor.

"United States?" she inquired.

"Indeed, Your Majesty. It's fifty smaller states that answer to a higher government authority that represents our sovereignty. In the global arena, we are recognized as the United States of America, America being the name we derived after one of the cartographers who had initially founded the landmass that is now my home nation. I'm afraid I'm not well-versed in history, so that's all I have to go on."

"I see. And what business brings you here, Captain?"

"I apologize about the incident earlier today, it was something that happened on rather short notice..." he began, pausing for a moment to see if the Princess had any questions. She had none. "...there's been a rather... concerning series of events that happened in our world that led to the kidnapping of several of our top scientists over the course of a decade. When we received word about the culprit's location, it was imperative that our soldiers deployed immediately to stop him, as you can obviously guess that having a number of brilliant minds at your command can only lead to bad things."

"And I assume that is how both he and your group appeared before us?"

"Essentially, yes. We don't know how he did it, but the insane bastard managed to build a portal. When we appeared to apprehend him, he escaped through it. We had standing orders to bring him back, dead or alive, to answer for his crimes against the state, namely levying an army against his home country, and attempted assassination of several important figures."

"And so in accordance to your duty, you could not simply leave him be."

"Exactly, Your Majesty. So with those orders, it was either go in after him, or go back outside and face the small army that he had defending his small compound, which we had infiltrated into. The choice was obvious. We had assurance from others on the research team that it was an all-or-nothing decision as the portal was only open for a short time, and we couldn't risk having him run loose in some other place or location. I made the call as team leader and decided to go after him."

"And that led to the events that occurred in the throne room..."

"Indeed. Then the events unfolded as you saw them and we were unfortunately required to... kill him."

Celestia blinked for a moment, contemplating the story. "I see. We have already disposed of his body. He wore only clothing, and did not have anything of merit on him. I hope you understand. And what news do you have of returning home?"

"Oh, it's no problem, Princess. On the second point, I..." Talbot stopped. There really was no way back. Even with Harvey's mind at his disposal, the materials needed to create such a cumbersome experimental device were simply unable to produced or even found. "We can't go home, Your Majesty... it was a one-way trip, after all, and your people don't have technological level required to produce the materials we need, and under my decision, I choose not to introduce those technologies in fear of upsetting the balance you have here. In all due honesty, even if we could build another portal, there's no guarantee that it'll even send us back to the right place."

"I understand. Then I shall grant you a temporary license to stay and give you quarters within the castle. You will, however, be under supervision." Her flowing multi-colored mane was a mystifying anomaly to Talbot, who quickly looked away from it as Celestia's statement ended.

"Thank you, Princess," he said. "On behalf of my squad and the good doctor, we appreciate it."

"It is of the Equestrian way to be kind and tolerant, Captain. Please see to it that you do not act unfavorably here."

"You have my word, Princess."

"Then that will be all. Though I do believe I am interested in learning more of your kind and your culture, so I may call on you later," she said, before returning to reading scrolls again.

Talbot simply nodded before proceeding out of the room. Another guard stood waiting for him as he knew he was going to be redirected back to the jail cells to pick up his squad.




The cell block door opened again with a heavy clank. Talbot quickly walked through, accompanied by another guard.

"Boss!" Mendoza said, jumping to his feet. "Please tell me we're not on the chopping block! I'm too young to die like this! I don't want to have to use my guns, either, but, man... please just tell me that we're not going to die."

"Shut your whining, Fuse," Raymond said. "We all know the boss. Short of running in the room guns blazing, he'll totally have our asses covered. Right, boss?"

"Keep running those mouths and I'll have you both wiping latrines with your tongues," Talbot said. "Yes. By a stroke of luck, we have been granted the right to stay within Equestrian borders and are being given quarters to reside in. We are, however, under surveillance, which is understandable. If aliens show up in the President's oval office shooting each other, we'd probably mow them down without a second thought. We're just lucky that we're being given this chance."

"Would you be so kind as to help this old man up?" Harvey asked. The guard quickly unlocked their cells, and Talbot aided the aged man to his feet. "Thank you. I have a favor to ask of you, Captain."

"Yes, Doctor? Your safety is our number one priority right now."

"I must ask that you please do not discharge your weapons here. This land, new and mysterious it may be, does not need to witness the horrors that our weapons are capable of inducing. And believe me when I say that I've been around long enough to see what they can do," Harvey nodded, laughing bitterly.

Talbot looked to the rest of his squad questioningly, but couldn't gauge their reactions with their balaclavas and tactical visors over their faces. "I guess I'll have to oblige that request, Doctor Harvey. But only under one condition: if any one of us comes under direct harm, we will be given full freedom to use our weapons in self-defense. Are those acceptable terms?"

"I cannot argue with those terms, Captain. But you do realize that we are in a position where we cannot resupply your weapons."

Talbot hadn't realized that until Harvey pointed it out. "...I understand, sir. We'll use them only in emergencies." He looked to his squad. "Any objections?" The rest of Anvil Squad shook their heads. "Good."

"Ready?" said the pegasus guard. "I have orders to escort you all directly to your chambers."

"We're ready," Talbot said, having Harvey lean on him. "Lead the way."




The group of humans followed the guard, walking through the castle's maze of hallways and stairs. Occasionally, they saw yet another maid pony running around, tending to groundskeeping duties, but for the most part, it was always guards. They weren't even sure what other ponies had looked like beyond the castle grounds, despite the buildings in the city proper that they'd seen earlier.

"You know, sir, this place looks really nice. It's all fancy and posh and all that stuff," Mendoza said. "It'd be really nice as a vacation spot, you know? And with that totally killer view just outside that balcony, man, what a looker."

"Sure beats the hell out of Fortaleza..." Raymond muttered, his sniper rifle still sitting on his back unused.

"Oh, I'm sure it'll be a wonderful time here," Harvey said, looking over his shoulder as Talbot continued to help him along. "So bright and colorful, and a new world! This will be amazing. Of course, I don't think I'd want to let anyone know about this, God knows we humans are already capable of ruining everything we touch."

Talbot was taken aback by that statement. "Regrets, Doctor?"

Harvey laughed a bitter laugh. "So many like you wouldn't believe."

"We should talk about that later then," Pastor said, looking up and around the tall arches of the hallway as they continued along. "I'm no shrink, but it aways does good for the system to talk about it, Doc."

Another laugh from Harvey. "I will take you up on that offer later, Lieutenant. Preferably with a glass of something strong."

"Count on it."

"We're here," the guard flatly said. They stood before another set of double doors, this one less furnished than the one that Talbot had seen before he met with Celestia. "You don't seem to have any belongings, so with that, I shall see you off. Good day." The guard saluted curtly and then walked past them, returning to whatever his duties had been.

"Tired, Doctor?" Talbot asked.

"A long sleep would do me well right now," Harvey said.




The rooms had been built for guests, obviously. The size of the beds had been baffling at first, being able to fit a human, until they'd asked a passing guard about the size. Turns out that they were a posh luxury for the richer ponies who stayed in this city, which they called Canterlot. Regardless, Mendoza was the one who gave the loudest thanks as he sat on his bed and quickly dropped on the soft cushiony goodness.

The room, however, was smaller than most. There were five beds, all within the same room, and a single balcony door revealing a breathtaking view over the valley they'd seen earlier, but in a different direction. A number of paintings and tapestries hung on the walls, detailing events of some kind in days long past. Various shelves and dressers dotted the walls with luxurious taste and well-made craftsmanship.

Talbot slowly helped Harvey on to his bed, before gradually reclining him and letting him lay on the pillows.

"I'm not usually this weak," Harvey said. "But you know, ten years of that sort of thing really does a number on your body."

"Sleep well, Doc. I guess they'll come alert us later today or tonight when they have something for us to eat, I assume," Talbot said.

"Mmm... hmm..." Harvey quickly fell into a deep snore as he let fatigue take over his body. Talbot stood up and walked over to the remaining untaken bed, pulling off his tactical helmet and balaclava before setting them on the nightstand next to his bed. His Ghost armor was, for the most part, unscathed. He hoped to keep it that way.

The rest of the Ghosts began to disarm themselves. Raymond gently left his sniper rifle sitting up against the wall in the corner of the room closest to his bed. Mendoza was busy trying to fumble around with the safety locks on his shoulder-mounted rocket pods, cursing in Spanish as he did so. Pastor was already taking off his armor, revealing his one-tone tan undershirt, devoid of markings, as was protocol for the Ghosts to avoid identification.

Talbot stripped off his armor, leaving only his pistol holster on him, carefully assembling the armor and exoskeleton parts into an orderly fashion in the dresser opposite the side of the nightstand, and put his MR8 on safety before sliding the drawers closed. As far as things went now, they were now guests of the Equestrian court under their graces, and they needed to be as diplomatic as possible. Walking around while armed certainly wouldn't win any favors.

As expected, as the four soldiers began to get used to the rather posh and comfy beds, there was a knock on the door.

"Dinner has arrived," said a voice on the other side.

"Oh, I wonder what they have for us to. I mean, they breathe the same air, speak the same words, what's next? We eat the same food? Well, I guess if they're horses--" Mendoza began.

"--ponies--" Pastor corrected.

"--right, ponies, they'll probably have vegetarian fare. Unless this is all some sort of trap, you know? I mean, what if this is all some really elaborate plan to fatten us up so they can have some sort of crazy feast later! With us! As the main course!  You've seen the movies, man! Oh, Jesus, that is so not cool, I'm too handsome to be eaten! I can't believe they'd--"

"As far as things go, Fuse, the only crazy thing about this world is you," Raymond said.

"Pipe down, ladies," Talbot said as he opened the door. Before him stood a finely dressed chef pony with a poofy white hat, with a large cart behind him. "Please, come in."

The chef pony, who wore what seemed to be a really fancy mustache, wheeled in the cart. "I apologize, my good sir, but would one of you here happen to be the Captain?"

"That would be I," Talbot said.

"Excellent. The Princess wishes a personal audience with you for dinner," the pony said in a fancy voice. "The rest of you, however, must remain. She says you would understand."

"I do." Pastor raised an eyebrow at Talbot. "It's nothing big, just for security reasons. No need to have four soldiers running around when all you need is one."

"Alrighty then, sir," Mendoza said. "Just don't go and get yourself killed, okay?"

Talbot gave a dry smile. "Fuse, you know I'm not that stupid."

"I know, I know," Mendoza said, raising his hands. "Just might wanna be careful in case things get dicey, y'know?"

Raymond walked over and lifted the cover of the silver platters on the cart. Underneath lay a number of vegetarian fare like Mendoza had expected, including some eggs and potatoes in addition to the regular leafy greens.

"Well, can't say it's that bad..." he said. "At least it's something we can eat." He looked to the chef pony. "Thank you." The pony beamed in pride, before bowing and leaving the room. Harvey was still snoring on his bed.

Talbot gave a few more hushed words of thanks to the pony before exiting along with him. With any luck, he would be dining personally with the Princess. He, like many other soldiers, hated doing the song and dance required when they were required to show up at formal events, especially with officers present. As usual, there was a guard outside waiting to take him to whichever room in the castle he needed to be.




And it so turned out that he was lucky. The Princess had arranged for a less formal dinner. There was a number of plates already waiting for him when he was escorted into the room by the waiting guard. It was in a very large banquet hall, with the large table seemingly barren save for the end where he was dining with the Princess.

"Greetings, Captain Talbot," Celestia greeted. "Thank you for joining me tonight. However, you do certainly look different."

Talbot walked up and took his place in a chair. Slightly smaller than he was accustomed to, but nothing too distracting. Like elsewhere in the castle, large stained glass windows and chandeliers decorated the banquet hall. The windows in particular here dealt with the events of the sun and moon of some kind. He wondered if it had something to do with the marking that Celestia had on her... thigh? He figured it best to not ask.

"Well, Princess, I don't see any reason we need our weapons around here..." he said. "My team and I are soldiers, here to keep the peace and protect our own, which, at the current point in time, only applies to the doctor and ourselves. For the most part, it seems that we don't have anything to fight against, so I saw fit that our armaments weren't needed. I hope our relations can remain amiable during our stay."

"As do we." She began poking into her food with a floating... fork. Talbot's eyes widened as he noticed her pick up a fork using her magic and begin eating. "Oh. I believe you must not be familiar with the ways of our world, Captain. As you may have already expected, unicorns are capable of using magic."

He opened his mouth to say something, but found no words. Magic. What was that quote again? 'Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic'? Yeah, that was certainly it. He'd seen 'sufficiently advanced technology' before, and that came nothing close to what he was seeing before his eyes. "W-well, that's certainly news to me..." he managed.

"Did you just think that these horns were here for show?" she laughed. Talbot again tried to respond but found himself lacking in words. This would be an interesting dinner conversation indeed.




"Aw, man. This sucks on ice. Nothing but greens. I would just kill for some enchiladas right now," Mendoza groaned. He kept poking his fork at the plain leafy greens. It was surprising to the Ghosts that they even had forks. How did they even use them?

"It isn't that bad, Fuse," Pastor said. "Think about it like this. As crazy as it is to be under the graces of talking colorful ponies, at least we didn't end up on a world where there are hulking monsters four stories tall and can eat us all in one bite."

"Yeah, yeah, don't take what you have for granted and all that. Geez, this stuff can use some dressing." Raymond wordlessly handed Mendoza a wood flask. The whining demolitions expert took it, opening the topper before giving it a whiff. "Huh. Italian. Would you look at that?" He poured a copious amount of the dressing on top of his salad. "Yeah, now that's much better."

"So what do you reckon'll happen next?" Pastor said. "I know rank's never been an issue in the Ghosts unless we have to pull the old command hierarchy, but with everything that's happened, we might be stuck here for the rest of our lives, so I want your honest opinions."

"That's easy," Mendoza mumbled, the leaves of his salad sticking out of his mouth. He quickly vacuumed them into his mouth, holding up a finger to indicate waiting before swallowing. "I can make a living out of selling honest-to-God enchiladas! Then I'll make millions of... uh, whatever they use for money around here, retire like a king, and then live the rest of my life out in style."

"I wonder if they allow hunting here," Raymond said.

"I don't think they do, Scope..." Pastor said. "I mean, it's only vegetarian fare that they eat around here. Don't think they'd ever need a reason for meat."

"Hmm. That's a bit troubling..." The sniper continued eating his meal in silence, aside from the snoring coming from Harvey's bed. The old man could sleep through a storm at this rate.

"It ain't that bad, Scope," Mendoza said, trying to cheer him up. "I mean, you can make some pretty damn good stuff with stuff that isn't meat, too! Really awesome and delicious stuff. Like, uh... quiche?"

There was an awkward silence for a moment. "I can make do with quiche," Raymond said. Mendoza smiled and then let out a held sigh.

"Yeah, we can make do. Just have to--" There was a beeping noise as they noticed their crosscom systems pinging. "Oh, shit!" They immediately bolted for their helmets, pulling on the tactical visor and frantically scrolling over authentication checks and connection errors on their HUDs.

"We're in! We're in the global net crosscom! How the hell?" Pastor said.

"It's probably some crazy-ass time or spatial distortion or some shit, maybe we still have a connection to the satellites!" Mendoza said. "Just--just rip everything you can on weapon designs or stuff that can help us--bows, guns, traps, catapults, anything. God knows we're going to need them. How about we just rip every single non-meat related recipe for food from back home?"

"Wh-how the hell are we going to do that?" Raymond shouted. "We need access to the crosscom network for that, and only the boss has the codes!"

"Then there's no time! Keep scanning! Fuse, get the boss, now! This might be our only chance at getting back. I'm trying to contact SOCOM to let them know our operation was a success, but we're--gah, damnit! I keep getting timed out of the servers, the connection's too spotty."

Mendoza gave a quick nod before making a run for Talbot's helmet, and then slamming the doors open. The two guards waiting outside jumped in shock. "Where the hell is my Captain? I need you to take me to him, now! It's urgent!"

"I'll take you. This way!" The guard began to gallop down the halls, Mendoza sprinting behind him.




"...and that is how the war began in your world," Celestia stated. They had long finished their meals, but the conversation had continued, levitating towards the state of the world that Talbot had come from. For her sanity, he'd omitted the more gruesome details. And there were a lot of gruesome details he'd seen, read, and heard about.

"I can't really say much for it... it's always something or another with our people. I won't try to argue from a pedestal or try to claim the high ground. It's a very down and dirty war, instigated over an unstoppable cycle of death, fighting over control of the world's steadily disappearing resources. I guess all us soldiers had a hand to play in it, for better or worse," Talbot said.

"It sounds like a terrible place to live in," Celestia sadly said.

"Well, that's one thing that humans are known for, Princess. We're all stubborn, straight to the very end." He began to understand the sort of regrets that Harvey had, taking a sip from his cup, filled with a wine of some sort. The alcohol did wonders in deadening his emotions towards the issue.

"Do you think the war will ever be able to stop?" she asked. To Talbot, she might as well have been asking if the earth would ever stop rotating.

"At the current rate? No. Not until one side manages to beat all the other. But we're all so evenly matched, it'll be an utter nightmare. Thousands or possibly millions more deaths on all sides, ironically because we've all become so technologically advanced that only recourse is to meet on the field of battle and do things the hard way. Originally we had weapons that could end wars in the span of seconds, but then we built defenses that could stop those weapons, essentially putting us all back at square one..." He scoffed. "...for what good that did all of us in the end."

"Perhaps your kind had... already set in motions the events which would bring about your demise." It was more of a fact than a statement. A fact that rang all to true to Talbot's ears.

"I wouldn't put that out of our reach, Your Majesty. We've perfected the art of war as it is. We practically built up our superpowers to the point where we couldn't even look at each other without thinking that someone else is up to something. Lots of lies, backstabbing, and deceit, coupled with tentative peace, and a fatal accident, and then it all culminated into one huge war. You run out of enemies, and eventually you start making your own, provided you had enough guns." He poured himself another cup and took a long drink from it.

Talbot found it strange that he found it now of all times, talking to what seemed to be the most regal looking unicorn/pegasus he'd ever seen, to begin thinking about the consequences of the war. Thinking, however, meant nothing but an exercise in futility. Ever since Scott Mitchell was promoted to General and the Future Combat Systems program completed, the Ghosts had been assimilated into a unit of the most toughest and well-equipped soldiers the Army had to offer. But the real Ghosts, the ones needed to do the dirty things that the "other" Ghosts couldn't, were still there, and still every bit as fearsome as they had been in battles past. And then they were put into this war fighting against men much like themselves, willing soldiers of the state sent to kill each other in the name of their country and resources.

"Perhaps could you now understand why the man you were sent to capture had so desperately wanted to get away?" Maynard... that crazed madman. His reasoning, however convoluted his methods may have been, did make a degree of sense to Talbot.

"Yes. War is hell, and it's understandable that everyone just wants it to stop. But I remember the other half of that quote, that the only way out of hell, is through it. Perhaps at the end of the whole damn thing, when whichever nation is sitting on top of the damn pile of rubble that they call our world, we'll have some sort of peace... but only for a time. Human history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes. A lot."

"Then perhaps you--" Celestia began slowly, but was interrupted as the door to the banquet hall slammed open. At the space where the door had once been, stood a heaving Mendoza, armor void on his body, but helmet strapped to his head.

"Sir! I need your global crosscom codes! We still have a connection!" he shouted.

"What? Bring it here!" Mendoza quickly pulled off his helmet and tossed it to Talbot, who put it on himself. Quickly entering the passcode and necessary authentication, he found himself staring at the main database network for the United States Joint Strike Force. "What do you need?" he asked Mendoza, as Celestia simply witnessed the events unfolding in silence.

"Shell needs authorization! We're trying to pull as much data off the systems as we can, anything we can use to help us get back or survive here!" Mendoza shouted.

"And... done." He keyed the local crosscom for Pastor's helmet. "Whatever the hell you need to do, get it done fast! I'm dropping full authorization to all your crosscoms now, so get to it!" He pulled the helmet off and handed it to Mendoza, who gave him his own.

"I almost got it, sir, SOCOM's just going to need mission confirmation. I got good signal, but I can't get into contact. The whole network's being overloaded, and--holy shit, it just went dark! Boss, the whole damn network just went dark! What the fuck?!" Pastor said. Several frantic minutes passed as the four Ghosts continually tried to reconnect to the satellites. "Fuck! Trying to re-establish link... and there! We're still in! I have no idea what the hell just happened, but I'm relaying our mission success and our current status to SOCOM. We're MIA at the moment, sir, that's all I can tell."

"I'm trying to download as many weapon schematics as possible, sir," Raymond said. "I'm also downloading as many basic schematics for medieval weapons, as well. God knows we're going to need them if we can't have bullets. I'd try to see if I can grab any files related to the portal project, but that's classified NSA information, and we don't have clearance to that. And I doubt that Harvey would still have access to DARPA's network after he was kidnapped."

"I'm, uh, downloading recipes, sir," Mendoza said sheepishly. "Vegetarian recipes. And every single episode of Whose Line Is It, Anyway? because we're going to be pretty damn bored here. I'm surprised we even have an uplink to those flying dishes."

Talbot ignored him, trying to quickly dig through SOCOM and Ghost channels to find out what had happened since their disappearance. He downloaded as many debriefings and dossiers as he could, filling his crosscom databanks to near maximum, before the connection finally disappeared, this time for good.

"Shit, that was close. I got the message across, sir, but it looks like SOCOM's swamped with something else. I've never seen that much activity on the network before, even during wartime operations in Europe and everywhere else," Pastor said.

"I got the schematics, don't you worry," Raymond said. "With these, at least we'll still have some human ingenuity on our side."

"I, uh, got those recipes. And about half the episodes for WLIIA. Hey, can crosscoms do video playback?" Mendoza asked, before Talbot gave him a dry look. "What? I mean, this is going to be one hell of a ride, sir. Might as well enjoy it, right? And these crosscoms are built to last in the field, and can recharge on their own with some new crazy-ass DARPA energy generator or some shit like that." Mendoza just shrugged and gave a sigh before he left the banquet hall. "Don't stay out too long, boss, otherwise you'll miss your bedtime," he laughed, eyes obscured by the blue light from the crosscom.

Giving a grunt of disapproval, Celestia's presence was ignored entirely as Talbot began to cycle through the postbriefings and dossiers in the folder. On top, he noticed one specifically titled "OPERATION STORMHERALD", and opened it up. There were a number of battalion deployments, as a silent video of General Mitchell outlining an attack plan for retaliating against another attack against DC. This time, it involved a two-pronged attack from the US into European territory, relying on a blitzkrieg strategy to take and hold the missile shield uplink nodes in various cities like they'd done in Copenhagen.

The month and day dated showed that it had only occurred only mere days after they had disappeared. But that was impossible, they'd only been gone for a few hours! Unless the time distortion was greater than they had thought, then the change of events meant that the war would probably be over by the time they got back... a strange thought to entertain for Talbot. He shrugged it off and went back to his perusal.

The amount of battalions actually being devoted to this operation was staggering, even during the course of the EndWar. Easily at least six whole battalions were being sent to fight in Europe, while another four were to remain behind and guard the homeland. Another meat-grinder operation, Talbot thought. Within another week, the territory would be back in Federation hands, and then the US would be dealing with yet another west coast invasion from the Russians.

And speaking of Russians, the attack plan fully expected them to attack either the US or the Federation while the operation was commencing, though the initial analysis was that the Federation was far more likely to be attacked, being weakened if they caught themselves in a two-pincer attack. To alleviate that, Mitchell had set aside the remaining two battalions to deploy on the flanks of the invasion force to engage Russian forces in Switzerland. That battle would be more or less a standoff unless either side decided to flip the tables with extra support.

Why Mitchell even worked for this plan was beyond Talbot. He knew the General in person, as did many of the Ghosts, and that Mitchell adamantly preferred plans that resulted in absolute victory, but perhaps the lack of actual leeway in progress on the battlefield meant that it was essentially a game of "hit them harder than they hit us", and, boy, were there a lot of rematches for that. Not even neutral nations like the New Commonwealth could escape the influence of the war, and then there still remained the damn problem of the Forgotten Army from the third-world countries.

First, it was the attack in Croatia. Then, the attack on the Freedom-4 space shuttle and a propaganda-laden report from Russia that said that they'd "held off a surprise attack" at one of their new prototype nuclear reactors. And then the explosion of the Freedom-4 on its second launch day caused by what was "supposedly" a Federation missile shield strike. And then the Russians came into play on the US's side of the war, then wanted to claim territory in Europe... that sure sounded fishy for the Russians. Then again, everyone was pointing fingers at everybody else.

Yet another day in the EndWar. More deaths, more bullets, and more finger-pointing. Being in a place where none of that was happening, nor even considered, might as well be called a vacation.

"Well, Princess..." he said calmly, not even bothering to make eye contact with her. The silence that floated in the room hung for a few moments, capable of breaking even the most stoic guard. "It would appear that our world seems to be functioning completely normally on its own without us. And without a way back, it looks like we're here to stay."