Y'know, my life seems at least 20% better now that I've joined the IMC.
Killing hostile ponies in an endless fight for victory is actually a bit addicting. I think I might be going insane.
There's one way I know that can cure insanity: Genning.
The IMC scientists say that when you Gen, you keep all your memories, but traits are wiped, and you become a completely new person. I think they'd let me Gen, but it's kinda scary, even for a battle-hardened psychopath. That's me.
"All Gen 1 pilots report to the main hangar in 5 minutes. All Gen 1 pilots to the hangar in 5 minutes."
Finally. They call upon me for a mission. I think they depend too much on those insanely cool and skilled people that have Genned a bunch. The hangar is pretty far away. I need to leave soon. First, I equip myself.
Today's loadout:
Primary: Longbow-DMR sniper rifle.
Secondary: B3 Wingpony.
Anti-Mech-pony: Charge beam.
Bombs: Frag grenades.
Ability: Cloak
Today, I'm going stealth.
I run out of my room, and dash for the hangar. "Pilots, today's mission will be difficult. The militia have put in Gen 3 pilots. Beware, as they are more skilled than you in almost every way." The officer glances at me, then my sniper. "So stay on guard, and, if anything, try and take them by surprise. Good luck out there." He nods towards the ship, and we all jump in. I raise my sniper rifle, testing out the scope. Seems a bit distorted, but I can make do.
"Go go go!" The person piloting the ship orders us to drop into the battlefield. My hooves have touched the ground by the time he finishes his order. The first shot rings across the field. A body drops on to me, and I fall from the impact. I shove the corpse away, and take a good look at it. Shot down before he even touched the ground. That's sad. He was close to being able to Gen. I don't have any more time, so I cloak, and jump to a sniping point, as marked by something I bought in the IMC upgrade store.
I see a militia below me. I aim, and the red dot practically sticks to the pilot. Two shots, and he's de-my scope was off, blame my scope, peace out.
I duck down, and I watch the trails of several bullets as they shoot past where I was only moments ago. So much for stealth. I forgot the silencer in my room.
I jump back up, popping the scope off my gun. It has iron sights that aren't very good, but I make do. I watch the militia as they drop dead on the rooftops. Four shots, two kills.
Footsteps. I hear footsteps. My minimap doesn't show an IMC pilot, so...
I jump up into the air, but not in time to dodge the knife thrown at my side. I pull out a frag, and throw it at my attacker. I know I got a kill, but only time will tell if I'm going to live. I fall for a while, but my jump kit stops any damage from falling. I pull the knife, now bloody, out of my side. It's a hunting knife, you know, with the jagged edges? One of those. Man, does it ever hurt. "FL is hurt! Get him an evacuation ship!"
That's Questr, he's super paranoid about everything except his life.
"Stop being paranoid, QR. I just need a bit."
I inch into a building, where nobody seems to go, and wait for my side to stop hurting like hell.
Not like anyone threw an arc mine at the entrances.
I officially can't see, hurt like hell, and just want to go die. But no. I refuse to die. The arc mine wears off, and eventually, so does the pain. I'm up and running at near full efficiency in about twenty minutes after when I got hit with the knife. Battle hardened psychopath, right?
"I can't believe you're already back up, FL."
"I can't believe you're paranoid about if an enemy pilot is dead or not. Just shoot them!"
"Can you guys stop? You're messing up my concentration!" Another pilot joins the chat.
"You know what?" I say. "I'm gonna turn off my radio."
I switch it off, and I just barely get a chance to hear QR saying, "But protocol..."
Screw protocol.
I decide to go close-range, after my knife incident, I decide to give them some of their own medicine.
In about ten minutes, I tracked down 7 militia pilots, and they all died. I'm about to ambush the eighth. I drop down behind him, about to snap his neck, but he turns around and shoves me down.
"You may be a good fighter, but your life ends now!" He pins me into a corner.
"That's what they all say, sucker." I do a technique I learnt from a guy back a few years ago that can get you out of being pinned down, but it doesn't work.
"I've been aware of your skills. I know counters. It's great that I can finally stop trying to kill you, and just do it." He raises a knife high above his head, and starts to swing it down towards my front left leg.
"Not today." A feminine voice speaks from behind me, and as the knive wierdo's corpse falls on me, I see the face of the unicorn I met on my first day.
"Aren't you gen 4? This is supposed to be a Gen 1 mission!"
She pulls me up onto my hooves. " I figured I'd sneak in. I can't resist a good easy kill in the morning."
"Your Pony-Mech is ready. Drop it down when you'd like."
Right away, I send a signal for the Mech.
I throw the knife-guy's body off me, and jump in my mech. "Welcome back, pilot."
You were just made, mech. How can you welcome me back? Whatever.
As run around the area for a bit and I look at the corpses of dead militia around me, a militia Titan attacks me.
I dash to the side, and fire a missile barrage at him. He uses his vortex shield, and they blast back at me. They hit, dealing damage, but not before I fire off a few 40mm cannon shots. Suddenly, my OS detects an enemy pilot trying to shoot the main section. A bit of electric smoke and time finishes it off, and I'm guessing that that mech was his, because it collapsed and exploded.
"All pilots, the militia have suffered major casualties, and they are trying to escape by dropship. I've marked their evacuation point on your map."
Sounds like we won. I get out of my mech, and run to a vantage point above their evacuation point.
Not like a militia pilot is already there. I get shoved down, but she doesn't kill me. "Listen, you. I've heard of you. I respect you. You are the one I look up to." She compares our loadouts, and they're the exact same. "Now just keep up with this war, and next time we meet, I won't be so friendly."
I lay there, stunned, and watch as their dropship takes off. That pilot waves to me on their warp out, and in a few minutes, a dropship is here to pick us up too.