Chapter 13 Cold Truths
Oh my lord 141 likes. O-oh my... 
I'm honored so many of you liked my story and I hope this chapter isn't too much for you all to take in.
Warning, this chapter contains gore- not excessively, however, it's heavy combat oriented on Austin's past. I Hope you all enjoy it regardless, and I hope it will answer some of the various questions you may have about the story and why he is the way he is.
Chapter 13: Cold Truths.
<><><><><>Interlude Princess Luna<><><><><>
A gust of breeze blows through my mane as I look off the balcony of the tallest spires of Canterlot Castle, the view and the stars being in perfect alignment- just as I had hoped made this night more perfect than ever for a walk. That is until I a knock at the door disturbed my moment of peace; walking to the door, I look in the mirror making sure my crown, and regalia is in proper order I grip the handle and pull it open to see a maid bat pony looking back at me. Quickly she bows.
“Rise, my young pony.” I smile at her as she lifts herself and looks me straight in the eye I recognize her as Blossom Honeycomb.
“Y-your highness,” She bows again and raising promptly. “Your sister requests your presence in her room.”
“Very well, Please inform her I shall arrive shortly.” I smile slightly.
“Yes, your highness.” She bows low again before galloping off down the hallway, gently I shut the door and remove my regalia; I’m slightly surprised she didn’t notice I wasn’t wearing my shoes. Heh- well… off to Tia then... I open the door again and step out quietly making my way down the corridor, at this rate, nopony should be up to see me beside the few night staff.
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Finally arriving at my sister’s room after taking a slight detour I raise my hoof and knock gently.
“Sister! Thou summoned us hither?” I turn my head slightly pressing my ear against the door only to hear the slight shuffling of hooves on marble and carpet followed shortly by a very enervated Tia opening the door. Her eyes droopy, her mane flat and not moving and to top the look off her ears are folded to her head.
“Ah- evening, Lulu.” She yawns and stumbles slightly. “Yes , please come in sister.” I walk by her and sit by her fireplace void of its usual flame.
“Shouldst thou be asleep, the night is at its peak.”
“I’m afraid that even after a long day with the noble’s, they left me with a bunch of documents that requires my signature.” She gives a slightly bemused smile.
“We see… Then what hast thou summoned us for?”
“I’m glad you asked,” She levitates a rolled up, scroll to me, taking into the grip of my magic I unroll it skimming over the letter.
“Sister, We doth not understand, this is a letter from Twilight Sparkle; what dost this hast to with us?"
“Twilight has requested your help with our old worldly friend, she want’s you to talk to him; from what I can gather he’s not a very social person on a scale that rivals Griffins- minus the greed.” She says with a flat brow as she levitates a nearby teacup to her mouth and sips some.
“Thou wish us to violate his boundaries of privacy just to try and help him... That sound's like 'tis defeating the purpose dost it not.”
“No; we want you to simply find out what is bugging him...” I heave a sigh, closing my eyes and thinking about the task at hoof.
“Very well Tia; I shall merely peek.”
“Thank you, Lulu.” I return to all hooves and walk out of Tia’s room back to mine and once more attempt to enter the human’s dream. It was difficult the first time; there’s truly no telling the outcome this time. Just hope I may be able to help him after suffering so long…
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Upon returning to my chambers, I sit on the balcony overlooking Canterlot to the dim light of Ponyville in the distance. Getting comfortable I think about the human before breathing lightly and focusing on him.
I cannot help but wonder what could be keeping from caring so adamantly about not letting ponies help him. I exhale before looking around.
“Hither goes nothing. . .” I feel the surge of energy before hovering in the middle of the room as a single white tendril majestically floats around the room before exiting towards Ponyville, eventually turning invisible as not to startle ponies taking a midnight stroll around Canterlot.
“Let us see thy turmoils…”
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Feburary 14th, 2047 : 15:00 HRS
Location: Iraq- Fort Isladula.
1ST Lieutenant Lancaster.
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“Sir?” I hear a gruff voice followed by a rough pat on my shoulder.
“Hhhggg.” Is all I can say as I groan as I rub my eyes, sunlight shines in my face making me squint and look away to see Maverick.
“You ok man?” He leans on the bunk bed.
“Yea. I think so…”
“You sure?,” He crosses his arms before sitting in the bottom bunk of the bed opposite me.
“I-I think it was just a dream is all- nothing big.”
“Alright then. Everyone else is out getting cleaned up. Command has some orders for you-“ I sigh aloud.
“Great… Just what I wanted to hear... Another damn briefing.” I hop down and grab my shirt at the end of the bed, promptly I put it on and begin making my bed, as I do so I hear the tent flap open as Stavo enters the room.
“Ayyeeee, good mornin princess.” He smirked before grabbing a towel from the end of the room.
“Ah fuck you...” I yawn promptly and shake my head.
“Good to see you too sunshine.” I flip him the bird, he chuckles he continues his routine; Meanwhile, I continue to tuck the comforter and smooth it out. Finishing that task I grab my boots from the floor, sit down, and put them on, making sure the laces are tight.
“Alright, catch you two later.” I open the flap of the tent and walk out.
“See ya later honey, have fun at work!” Stavo blows a kiss I raise my hand and flip him the bird all the way out of the tent, as I exit the tent, I can hear Maverick die of laughter followed by Stavo.
‘Couple of knuckleheads…’
I continue walking down the worn dirt path passing a few fellow Marines, some in better condition than others relaxing, some working on vehicles, and others sunbathing on a nearby Mrap. Making a left at a junction two mechanics salute me, with a blank expression I shallowly return it. Ahead is a green tent, inhaling I enter it to see Major Young sorting a stack of papers on the desk in front of him.
“You wanted to brief me, sir?” I stand at attention, he glances at me before chuckling.
“At ease Lancaster,” He returns his gaze to the papers. “Take a seat.” I nod and sit opposite him and look him in the eyes. He clears his throat before pulling a folder out and sliding it across.
“These come straight from the top.” I open the document to see a map of a location we all know as the city of Nema.
“Nema…? Why this city?” I set the satellite image on the desk.
“Command feels it would cripple these rebels and slow their Western expansion off.”
“Yea, I know the benefits; but we don’t nearly have enough manpower to even come close to breaking their defensive lines… We’d be dead in an hour.” He pushes a Styrofoam cup towards me full of water, I gladly slowly sip it while reading the vast pages of the documents.
“Apparently, they sent us four main line tanks, and access to air support at whim.” I stare at him baffled for a moment.
“Looks like command just went all in, Jesus… When are they wanting this whole thing to kick off?”
“Tonight.” I choke and spit water the opposite direction and cough profusely.
“Y-You can’t be serious.” I sputter.
“Afraid so, command also got aerial reconnaissance photos, Satellite images, and even went as far to obtain building plans of high value targets for parts of different ground teams…”
“Holy shit how much did they invest in this?!”
“Well, let’s see... maybe five mil in vehicles alone. It really isn’t our job to try and figure those kind of sums out. Anyways, these are for you and your team.” He passes a particularly thick folder labeled Scalpel team.
“I’ll let my guys know.”
“Good luck out there.”
“Yea, you too...We’re gonna need it,” I exit the tent and shout back to him. “IF WE MAKE IT!”
“You’ll all be fine!” He shouts from within the tent, I chuckle and begin skimming through the documents.
‘This is insanity…’
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“Alright guys settle and take a seat.” All eight of my men in my platoon take a seat in front of me.
“Alrighty boys, our target today is the bridge outside the capital city of Nema. Command has instructed us to move on this bridge as it is one of three that crosses a water drainage trench. These bridges can support the weight of our tank brigades to move effectively with two lanes versus the other bridges which are single lanes.” I open the folder and pull out an aerial shot of the bridge and our entry point and tack it on the board behind me.
“According to Intel our entry should be virtually unhindered, theoretically. If worse comes to worse, we got two hunters, tank support, and possible C.A.S on standby to the Northeast. At roughly 17:54 we will be crossing this bridge and from there we hit a major point.
“Remember, prepare and expect the worst, victory in this city means that the rebels will be slowed down and we come one step closer to ending this desert conflict; any questions? We’re short on time so I can only answer a few.”
Stavo raises his hand and leans back in his chair.
“Any possible extraction points or exfil locations in case things do go down and we have to pull back our line.”
“CAS will be within two miles of our location ready to move at a moments notice, including the combat medic wing.” Stavo nods and our medic, Gabe raises his hand hesitantly.
“When do we deploy?”
“Within the next half hour.” He turns slightly pale.
“Anyone else?,” No one raises their hand. “Alright briefing concluded we all know what we're here for.”
“OORAH!” We all shout in unison before getting up and exiting the tent.
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An ominous alarm rings out around the base as men scramble from tents and various locations across the base, some putting their pants on, others rushing to the armory. With the whole base on scramble alert I quickly put my helmet on and latch it, adjusting the goggles on my head. A private dispensing weapons tosses a rifle from the armory to me, quickly I sling it over my back and run towards the lead hunter. Pulling the latch I swing the door open, hop in and slam it shut; like a well-oiled machine I begin checking my gear.
Behind me, Gabe and Maverick hop in and follow the same process. Finishing my inspection I pull a velcro strap and pull out a radio, twisting the top knob I change the channel and put it to my lips.
“Overlord, this is scalpel we're rolling out on Nema now. How copy?”
“Overlord copies all, proceed to destination with caution. Over.”
“Copy that. Scalpel rolling out.”
“You heard the man Stavo let's get a move on.” He complies and we start rolling out the gates of fort Isladula.
“Hey, Maverick?”
“Yo?”
“Your folks send ya’ your Walkman back yet?”
“Actually, yeah, they did.” I look behind my seat to see him pull out a small device and a charge cable.
“They said they updated the library.” He plugs it in the center console, swapping the reader to his device. After a minute a song begins playing. A smooth beat starts playing as Gabe pulls his helmet over his eyes and shifts to get comfortable, we make a left turn on the rough road as the main character begins singing.
‘I would leave, I would leave
If I could I would. ‘
I look out as the dirt trail bounces up and down as we enter the nearby town of Verimy. We pass several civilians going about their daily lives, a few stopping to stare at the oncoming convoy of heavy vehicles roaring through their tiny village.
The song continues as we make another turn onto a main road. A truck pulls out of our way and waves to us, and I return the gesture, the sun blinding me slightly so I lower the sun visor.
‘I’m grinding my teeth, through my face, it’s a hell hole.’
‘Stumble through the streets
In my head it's a hell hole’
“Hell of a fitting song.” I break the silence and look back at Maverick, he’s chuckling as he looks out the window, looking to the opposite Gabe is turning slightly pale.
“You ok?”
“I-I’m fine sir.”
“Drop the formalities for now Gabe.”
“I’m Positive.”
“Alright, just breath.” He nods.
“This your first time in combat isn’t it?” He nods again.
“Gaberiel Uniaze, 22nd Medical reserves.”
“Fitting that you are apart of Scalpel, huh?”
“I suppose so.” He gives us a weak smile.
“We will keep ya safe. Trust me- us.” Stavo looks In the rear view mirror.
“Don’t worry kid, ya got nothing to worry about.” I reassure him at that moment I feel a sudden pain in my head.
“Uhg. What the hell…” I put my hand to my head I look around to briefly see a slight flash of light.
“You good man?” Stavo looks at me with a raised eyebrow.
“Yea… Just a headache… ugh, that’s bizarre.” I continue staring out the window as the song continues playing.
“Alright game faces people, we got about ten minutes before we arrive at our entry point.” I look over at the GPS to confirm I pick my rifle up, gently pulling the slide back to determine if there's anything that's going to jam it. That done, I pull another velcro strap on my chest and retrieve a 5.56 mag, push it in, and press the mag lock button on the side I hear the others do the same. We come to another intersection I look in the mirror to see the second hunter, not too far behind are the two tanks following behind them.
“There it is, Ready up!” We all brace for combat tightening our helmets, we approach the bridge I hear Johnny come over the radio from the second Hunter.
“Looks like they barricaded the bridge; Not sure we can make it through that.” I grab the radio out of my vest pouch while looking in the mirror to see he’s staggered out of the formation to look ahead of us.
“Of course not. It’s never that easy.” I smile slightly.
“With all due respect, sir, but Damn straight!” He replies I chuckle a bit.
“Alright, get your plugs in.” I reach into my pouch and pull out two earplugs, one dark black, the second is yellow, which allows us to still hear while sacrificing some protection. I stuff them in, Stavo driving the hunter with his legs does the same. It was at that moment I look out the front windscreen to see a man standing, his weapon raised at our vehicle. My blood runs cold as a muzzle flash followed by a swift Impact on the bulletproof glass followed by a low thud of the sound catching up a second later, we all duck instinctively but keep driving forward.
“Taking fire, evasive manoeuvres!” At least a dozen more men start standing up behind him and open fire on our lead hunter. Stavo makes a hard left and stops at the edge of the bridge, almost driving into the trench. He flips the latch and kick opens his door and hops out and gets behind the wheel of the hunter, I crawl over to his side using the overhead grab bars, pulling myself and my equipment out with me as Gabe and Maverick deploy and take cover.
The second hunter crew of my Platoon dismount and take cover as the rounds continue whizzing by, the metallic clanging noise as rounds impact the right side doors followed by multiple loud cracking noises.
“Orders, sir?” Stavo shouts in my ear and looks at me shakily as another barrage of rounds impacts.
“These fuckers aren’t letting us get an advantage.” I reach into my upper chest pouch and retrieve my radio.
“Tankers do you copy?” Static.
“This is Pigpen, over.”
“Move up, drive over their barricade, weapons free; engage at will, I say again Engage at will.” Their response is their tank rolling up and around our hunter perimeter. The engine roaring as it tears down their barricade menacingly. My men stack up on me as the second tank pulls behind Pigpen as they cover our advance with their 50.cal MG’s mounted on top of the turrets. Moving quickly behind it watching every possible angle, when someone hits me on the back, I see Johnny’s lips moving like he’s shouting and he points, I follow his gaze, everything seemed to slow down as what he was saying hit home.
“INCOMING RPG!!!” Followed by a loud explosion as pieces of armor hit the ground near us, I peek around the corner of the second tank, dubbed “Thunder-Hammer”, to see that Pigpen has stopped dead in its tracks. Reaching for my Radio once more.
“Pigpen. What’s your status! Come in Pigpen!” The dust subsides slightly, smoke rolling off the lead tank.
“Scalpel, This is Pigpen,” A groggy voice comes over the radio.
“What’s your status?”
“I think our driver is dead, that RPG might’ve gotten lucky, sliced clean through the view port, our command gunner is also injured.”
“A.T.A.P?”
“Possibly, sir..”
“Sit tight, we’ll have you out shortly, Thunder-Hammer did you catch that.”
“We copy all, moving to engage.” My men and myself move behind Pigpen’s ceased tank as Thunder-Hammer turns its main gun towards the enemy.I gesture for my men to cover their earplugs at that moment the 120mm cannon fires a burst shell above the Rebels devastating a few of them, but forcing them to retreat further back from the bridge. I run around to the front of Pigpen as Thunder-Hammer moves in front of pigpen to provide cover. Close inspection I see a perfect hole in it’s armor right where the reactive plating wasn’t covering the hatch. I climb on top of the turret and knock on the hatch, it raises and flips open, I look down and offer my hand to the main gunner and pull him out, he hops down into the arms of Maverick and is dragged back to the Hunters. I reach in again to help the command gunner, I see light spots on his chest, I lean my head in to see holes where the turret swivels, gently I move him over and have him out; this time Johnny takes him back, Gabe closely follows them.
“Thunder-Hammer, surviving tank crewmen have been recovered, cleared to fall back into cover.”
“Roger that.” The tank reverses slowly, its turret looking right and left constantly, I run back to the hunters.
“How bad is he Gabe?”
“He’s got shrapnel in his chest, his body armor stopped most of it; However I don’t have the equipment to remove it.” He looks at me with a straight face.
“Any good news?”
“It avoided all vital organs as far as I can tell.” I place my arm on the wheel of the hunter as I think of what to do, the tank sits in part cover from RPG’s and continues to maintain suppressive fire to keep them from overrunning our position. Looking around at our surroundings, there aren’t many options.
“It looks like we have no other choice but to push through.”
“Sir?” He looks at me gravely.
“Call in support.” I simply state.
“Y-yes sir.” Stavo grabs his radio and changes channels, briefly we hear the other teams struggling in similar situations Stavo swaps the channel over to command. He pulls a map out as well as a GPS and compass he reads off like an automation.
"Overlord, We're pinned down; Mass resistance at mark 175405/134 N/W. Requesting immediate air support; Lima, Echo, Gulf, Uniform, Lima, ZuLu. Over" Another dozen rounds whizz by followed by ominous cracking as the sound catches up.
"Roger that Scalpel Squad, Confirm fire order at 175405/134 N/W- to Echo E2."
"Command this is Echo, we acknowledge all- Standby for Sitrep. Over"
“Copy that, Echo.”
“Thunder-Hammer, maintain suppressive fire.” The tank complies and Opens up with its 50, keeping the enemy at bay a little longer, a moment later a second RPG impacts the turret reactive armor with a heavy metallic clang. Moments after it retaliates by sending a shell into their defenses.
“Scalpel, this is Echo do you copy. Over?”
“We read you loud and clear.”
“FLIR is picking up multiple heat signatures, we have you in sight; roughly thirty bandits opposite your position, would recommend you maintain position for now.”
“Roger that, what’s the word on C.A.P?”
“They have been requested to Spike, ETA is roughly five minutes. Hang tight.”
I relay the message to my men via hand signals before taking my rifle in hand again and bursting a few rounds at the enemy positions.
“Take up LMG positions and lay down some cover, keep them at bay!” Maverick and Johnny open the backseat door on both hunters, and almost simultaneously crawl into the “trunk” retrieving two L-R-C-MG (Low Recoil Compactible MG), tossing one of them to me I set it down on the ground and catch some box magazines. Johnny hops out and deploys the quick Bipod system on the bottom of the MG and quickly loads a 200rnd 5.56 box mag with a satisfying clicking noise, he peeks out and begins laying down some long range fire from the hood of the lead hunter, Maverick quickly follows up beside him on the second hunter..
“Thunder-hammer, what’s your ammo status?”
“We currently have 25 rounds in our main gun, and 423 in the 50.”
“Keep me posted!”
“Yes, sir!” The tank fires another burst of hot 50. Caliber lead down range
‘I pray we hold out long enough...’
<><><><><>Princess Luna<><><><><>
My eyes snap open as the spell fails and fizzles out.
“What in the world.” I take my hoof and rub the base of my horn, heat radiating off it from the failed spell.
“What is this black magic…” I reignite the spell, the partially white tendril floats around in circles around the room as I pour more power into it; quietly it begins to snake out of the window once more attempting to make the connection. Expecting nothing but successes I am met with a horrible rebound surge of energy as the spell once again fails, this time with a deafening bang.
“I-impossible. No creature is able to resist our power; especially in the dream realm!” I proclaim as I think of possible solutions to this rather bizarre situation. Rising to my hooves I begin pacing in thought.
“What could possibly have failed…” Each possible explanation becoming even more absurd as the next. I stop in my tracks as a possible solution comes to mind… Direct link with the dreamer, but I would be risking his safety… but this is the only way to solve what is going on.
“Tis worth a try, we suppose…” Honing in on the human's location, I charge my horn and teleport directly next to his unmoving body. His face is stressed in fear, his brow is covered in sweat, his appendages are grasping the sheets as if clenching something. He rolls over and scowls.
“Poor human, what art thou scared of…” I hop on the bed beside him and charging the spell once more I set my horn against his forehead. He hisses as I force my way through, bypassing whatever was keeping me out. Passing through the clouds I fly above what appears to be a desert city, diving lower I begin hearing bizarre noises- loud explosions is how I would describe them.
Looking around I find Austin behind cover with whom I assume are comrades. Something whizzes by my ear as it impacts metal, leaving a shower of sparks. My eye’s widen as a loud cracking noise deafens me, I hide behind a nearby barrier
“What have we stumbled into…” I make sure I am invisible to him one more time. A voice calls out from nowhere.
“Scalpel this is Hyena, we're closing now, keep your heads low and enjoy the show, over.” Austin picks up a black device and holds it close to his mouth.
“Copy that.” A low whir becomes known, looking around I see a small spec in the distance get larger and larger and the noise getting louder.
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Looking to the far right, I see the helicopter move in, practically flying down the street rather than above it, an instant later the noise of the bird climaxes as it flies less than 12 ft above us, for a while the rebels stop firing for a moment to think about their situation, the pilot of the Hyena comes over the radio.
“Surrender… C'mon, that thing called a brain…” He pleads over the radio, I look over the hood of the hunter to see the twin m134 miniguns are spooled and ready to rip into them, instantly the rebels open up with everything they have at the bird. Unfazed it hovers patiently as the very last rebel runs out of ammo in their mags. For what seemed like an eternity, nothing happened; until the pilot let loose a millisecond, it’s already fired hundreds of rounds with a menacing zapping noise as hundreds of casings drop to the ground as their entire line is devastated, man after man gets cut down In the hailstorm of hot lead.
“Scalpel, cleared to move up, over.” The bird tilts to the left and moves off the bridge to avoid unnecessary rotor wash, Thunder-hammer moves up across the bridge, in a column formation we use it for cover once more, this time we manage to reach the other side of the bridge.
“Secure the area and set up defensive positions.” My platoon begins checking for possible survivors.
“Scalpel, Hyena requesting permission to scan nearby buildings.” I remove my earplugs.
“Permission granted, proceed with caution.” The bird moves down the trench scanning buildings within the vicinity of the bridge. Taking a few minutes, I sit down and unlatch my helmet drying my head of sweat and dirt that’s collected there.
“We’ve completed our sweep, all clear so far.” The little bird hovers over the bridge the pilot giving us a thumbs up.
“Copy that, good work.” Stavo walks over to me, his rifle slung over his shoulder.
“Well, as soon as the capital is captured and released to the proper government we can all go home…”
“Ha, no kidding. Won’t be for a while, though, but I agree I cannot wait to go home to my own bed and be away from this sandy hell hole.” Stavo raises his hand to say something but is cut off by the radio coming to life.
“Scalpel we’re we got clearance to land for a few minutes, over.” The pilot hovers perfectly in the same spot.
“Copy that.”
“You were saying?”
“Was going to say, you said it brotha.” He takes a seat nearby and removes his helmet, the bird hovers over the bridge and gently sets down and begins spooling down to an idle as the pilot hops out and runs over taking his helmet off.
“So why do you got clearance to land there?” He salutes before putting his helmet under his arm.
“Command gave us the clear to land, all lines broke through the last stop is the capital, sir.”
“When does command want us to press up?”
“They haven’t given us any info yet, was wondering if you guys got something or if we got left out or something.”
“Nah, we aren’t getting anything yet.”
“Guess we set up an outpost here, wait for further instructions; get Gabe up here Stavo.” He nods and jogs off.
“Alright, we’re heading back to base, need more ammo.”
“Something we all need. Good luck.” he nods before running and putting his helmet back on and climbing into the helicopter and gaining a few feet of altitude before heading in the direction of the airbase.
<><><><><>Princess Luna<><><><><>
Watching the humans talk, the one with the large helmet walks off to his loud machine before leaving in a cloud of dust, whatever that device was… Focussing my magic I attempt to determine the mental state of Austin’s mind; scanning him is giving me an uneasy reading, as if he knows something is going to happen...
“But why…and what?” halting my scan I transform into a mist and get a little closer to listen in on their conversation.
“- So basically all three lines have moved up and our cover just went back to rearm…”
“I don’t know man, if they assume it will be over that quickly.” Austin raises his hand.
“Believe me I think we’re all on edge, and I don't think any of us will be getting any sleep tonight.”
“Great.” The other human sighs aloud. “Alright, I’m gonna get to work on an ammo count and find out if we need a resupply as well.”
“Alright, good luck.”
“Yea, you too.” The second human walks off, leaving Austin shaking his head.
‘Perhaps we shouldst end this dream and wake hi-’
A large machine rolls by and halts and two more humans jump out and the machine pulls off to the side of the road, the other two walk over to Austin with a salute.
“Sir, we got a head count from all lines from command. Our line has one loss so far, the other lines… weren’t so lucky;” He pauses trying to think of the best way to put it. “Five Dead, 16 injured, two in critical, that’s line three over the civilian bridge roughly 300 Mikes from us.”
“What about line two?” Austin inquires.
“They suffered ten fatalities, they are still counting injured- the main force took it really hard; a remotely detonated I.E.D took those men out.”
“Jesus Christ… I seriously hope command thinks these losses are worth it…,” He runs his hands through his messy hair before sighing. “That makes my job harder, send word to command let them know we need a bomb squad to check this road before we can safely proceed.” The other human runs off to his machine and sits in it.
Looking back at Austin a slight twitch in my horn sends shivers down my spine, another scan show’s his heart rate has increased.
‘What is going on…’ A team of humans carrying black tarp with an arm hanging out, my eyes widen as they carry it to a nearby tent, a human with a red cross on his arm comes out and walks over to Austin..
“So?” Austin says, looking at the tent with a stoic expression.
“That missile cut through the armor like butter, by the time he knew what hit him, he was already dead- that’s if the impact detonation shock didn’t kill him first…”
“Was that one of those new anti-tank missiles these assholes been getting from the Russians?”
“That would be my best guess, the missile cut through the armor and then shotgun blasted the inside with molten copper followed by the blast of fire...It was a quick death at least...”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better, Gabe?”
“No...sir,” He stiffens slightly. “But what do we do now?”
“We wait till either they attack or till command gives us orders to go ahead.” Austin crosses his arms.
“Yea… and I hate every second of it...”
“You believe that command thinks as soon as this city is under our control that things will go back to normal?”
“Well, we would be out of a job, a part of me wishes it would happen, but I'm sure some bullshit will come up and we will be pulled back to service.”
“Really?”
“That’s always how it works.” Austin chuckles and looks at Gabe and they both laugh for a moment.
“Yea, but are you excited to go home?”
“I suppose so.”
“I honestly can’t wait to go home to visit my paren-” He gets cut off as he raises his hand to the side of his throat as another loud cracking noise passes, my ears slam to my head.
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Something warm splatters across the side of my cheek when the crack of a bullet catch up a second later, Gabe raises his hand to his throat and collapses to his knees, a look of horror on his face. A split second decision I take him by his left arm and pull him in front of the nearby hunter out of the line of sight of the sniper. I shout out loud to all my men in the surrounding area.
“TAKE COVER SNIPER!”
Reaching into his front pouch I pull out a thick cotton wad and tossing other crap out, I remove his hand and apply pressure on the wound. My radio crackles to life.
“Austin do you copy, what’s your status?” He sounds frantic, but I continue to focus on Gabe’s wound.
“Stay with me Gabe, C’mon man.” I keep my hand on the wound to maintain pressure, he looks at me a face of horror he puts his bloodied hand on my sleeve and looks me in the eye and begins choking on his own blood.
“No, no, no, no, no, NO!” I repeat over and over as I think of what I can do… My face turns cold as I realize that there’s nothing I can do. He coughs and splatters blood down his chin as he looks at me, his eyelids flutter followed with his eyes rolling into the back of his head as his whole body falls limp. A tear flows down my face, I grab my radio with my bloody hand and respond to Stavo’s hail.
“Solid copy, who was it?,” I press the button hesitantly.
“Gabe.”
“Oh shit, how bad is it?”
“KIA.” I let go of the talk button and begin crying before pressing it again, Stavo doesn’t reply, I press the talk button again.
“Follow R.O.E, stay in cover.”
“Copy that loud and clear.” I switch the channel on the radio.
“Overlord this is Scalpel-” I pause for a moment. “Enemy sniper East of our position, we need immediate eyes on, over!” I wait a moment and look at Gabe’s corpse and close his eyes with my hand. A trail of blood flows down his neck onto his shoulder patch on it it says.
Do No Harm, Do Know Harm.’
“I’m so sorry…”
“Scalpel this is Overlord, Echo is approaching your A.O now, stand by." My breathing hitches slightly I rummage through my front vest pocket and retrieve my compass and flip it open and pointing it in the possible direction of the sniper; there aren’t a lot of buildings in the area so that limits it down to a few, my best guess is the sniper is somewhere bearing roughly 128 E.
“Scalpel this is Echo, we are in your A.O we are doing F.L.I.R scan now of the area.”
“Lima Charlie, stand by.” I sit in quiet and look around, at my surroundings, my entire platoon has moved into hiding and because of my carelessness, and now our new guy just got shot in the neck.
“Scalpel, we got no thermal readings of the area, the sniper may have moved off to another location.” I stay quiet as the reality hits me like a freight train, he’s in another location; he could very well be looking at me and I wouldn’t know it.
“Increase the search radius, we need to find this guy before he causes any more casualties.” Another voice comes across the radio.
“Scalpel this is Hyena reporting back in ready to combat.”
“Good timing Hyena!” I feel slightly more hopeful as the bird flies low to the ground over the bridge.
“Glad to be here, sir!” They break off away from the bridge as the radio comes to life again.
“We got a single thermal contact roughly 500 mikes from your current position; he’s prone on a balcony he isn’t moving...”
“Hyena copies, moving to clear his possible exit point.” They break off towards his position I watch them turn sharply towards the building, I lose visual I look back to Gabe’s limp body to his shoulder pouch which is slightly bulging, I reach over and open it and pull out a partially blood covered letter, on the top it's addressed to Mississippi, I take it and put in my pocket my radio comes to life once more.
"Hyena belay that order! Break your attack immediately, we've got a visual of an individual aiming a shoulder projectile." Echo shouts over the radio.
"Copy!" I peek out slightly just in time to see a telltale white smoke trail from a nearby roof chase after Hyena, it arches sharply Into their turn; It smashes into their rear rotor but doesn't detonate.
"WE'RE HIT, MAYDAY I'VE LOST ALL HYDRAULIC CONTROL IN THE TAIL ROTOR!" At first the bird flies straight for a few seconds and begins spinning wildly out of control both pilots attempting to land it. It continues to spin and lose altitude into the trench, I lose visual all I hear is a loud splash followed by rotors smashing into the water and debris being sent into the air.
"Overlord, Hyena is down. Multiple hostile forces converging toward's line four, one confirmed KIA, two unconfirmed KIA requesting immediate C.A.S to lazed areas."
"Solid copy, Emergency teams are deploying to Scalpel’s location, Buzzard one and Buzzard two are wheels up and in route ETA 3 minutes." The radio goes dark I sit there in complete shock at the events that have just transpired. I look at the ground and collapse to my knees and continue crying as things go from bad to worse.
Mindlessly I sit in the open I stare towards the direction where Hyena went down.I begin walking towards the bridge despite the sniper, he takes a potshot at me and misses by a few feet in front of me, tears flow down my cheeks, another round whizzes by a little closer I keep walking aimlessly without a care.
"AUSTIN WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!" I hear Stavos voice vaguely yelling behind me, as if in slow motion I feel something tear into my side, I collapse to the ground wheezing as a horrible burning sensation fills my entire body. Rolling over, I look to the sky which is now a pinkish blue
'I lost three good men today- what’s the point now. I'm ready for it to end...'
I await the next round to hit, but it doesn't instead I hear the faint roar of jet engines getting closer I look right to see a solid line of tracers and rockets impact the apartment in the massive dust cloud as the building gets bombarded and promptly collapses into a massive dust storm. Seconds after two A164 wipeouts fly over quickly and breaking off the attack.
"Scalpel, sniper neutralized we got you covered from here." Another sound starts to approach I look right again to see two Blackhawks hover and land on the bridge and deploy fresh troops, I groan and look left to see Stavo running to my side things slow down as he waves a medic over.
"What the fu- yo- thi-k-ing." His voice slows down as I stare at the moon above his voice gets drowned out by white noise as events replay over and over in front of me. As if in slow motion a medic runs and skids to a stop, throwing his bag down, and begins inspecting me by shining a light in my eyes. I squint and he pulls a large canister out and opens the top with his teeth and begins slowly talking to me. Instantly I feel a surge of pain, followed by nothing I twitch slightly blackout.
<><><><><><><><><><>
"Pfft...and here I was thinking I'd never have THAT one again..' I mutter out loud to myself as I take a deep breath and lean forward. I manage to stop my heart from bursting out of my chest from the shock.
Unfortunately, that didn't last very long because it shot right back up when I heard breathing from the other side of the room.
"How art thou feeling?" Luna asked as she steps out of the shadows, her eyes and mane shimmering in the darkness.
“I-I’m fine, but why are you here?” I look at her carefully, she comes closer and hops on the opposite end of the bed and sits tall.
“We art hither to watch over thy dreams, however, we couldst not connect to thy dreams yet the aura thou wast giving off indicated thou wast experiencing a bad nightmare.” She pauses, her look becoming more serious.
“We teleported to thou and connected to thy subconscious and entered thy dreams directly, doing so we thought we would find out the source of thy problems... Wherefore thou wast in such teen; we discovered at first thou weren't in any danger; when thy friend perished we tried to change the dream but was not successful. For this, we apologize wholeheartedly.” Her ears droop and her mood changes to a really sad one, I sit completely baffled that she was able to see into my worst nightmare. I exhale slowly making her left ear twitch she looks at me.
“So you saw it all, huh?” I adjust the pillow behind me and sit up straight to face her, she nods slowly, slightly confused look on her muzzle.
“We… Did.”
“Do you blame me for anything I did in that dream?” I look for a genuine answer from her ears perk up and she looks at me shocked before leaning forward slightly.
“Nay! How couldst thou say that!” She exclaims before stomping her hoof into the bedding, I chuckle slightly and rub my eyes.
“I’m glad you don’t, this my pony friend, is partly the reason why I am the way I am. I haven't had that dream in year’s prior to my release from that capsule, before I arrived, I was being treated for Posttraumatic stress disorder, it’s the reason why I have this scar on my chest. In that dream I was completely aware of my actions, but no matter how hard I try I can’t change my actions.” I look down at my lap.
“But why did thou leave protection.”
“The moment that Hyena got shot down every little fiber of hope I had faded. I cracked under the stress and from what I remember I got up and walked out, I can’t describe it honestly.” I shake my head slightly.
“We understand.”
“And two more things Luna.”
“Yes?”
"Please tell me this whole...watch me while I'm sleeping thing... Isn't an everyday occurrence because..." I slowly imply what i’m saying with a slightly disturbed look on my face.
"Oh, we apologize. We only came hither to establish a better connection." she says, her cheeks glowing slightly in the moonlight, she looks away.
“Doth thou feel better now?”
“I feel fine, the second thing I request is to either wake me up forcefully or just let it run its course, I don’t want you to feel pity for me for something that happened so long ago.” I say guiltily as I look out the moonlit window, only to feel a hoof turn my attention to her.
“And that is whence ye are wrong, We will not sit idly by and let thou suffer, none of us will. That's what friends art for.”
“If only, I don’t want to burden the others with these problems.” Everything goes quiet.
“But they art already worried about thou. Surely thou wilt see it.” she exclaims with slight anger in her voice.
“Luna, I understand your concern and theirs as well, but please let me be; It’s hard, yes, but I don’t want others to get involved in it so I can’t lose more.” A tear begins rolling down the side of my face, instantly Luna snatches me in her wings and pulls me to her and hugs me tightly and refuses to let go; her warm embrace stirring more emotion I begin crying, she lays her head on my shoulder still holding me close.
“Ye are not alone.”
“T-Thank you.” I whisper as I continue to sob slightly.
“Thou're welcome.” She tightens her grip.
<><><><><>Last Thoughts...<><><><><>
“Dear Mom, Dad, and sister.”
“I know by the time this reaches you guys back in the states I will long be deployed and letters will become a lot more scarce as time progresses; But I bear good news in this letter and a few trinkets for you guys. Firstly, I would like to let you guys know that I got approved transfer today! Now I can finally fulfill my dream to not only serve my country but save lives just like I said I always would (All my hard work is paying off finally). I hope you are all proud of me.”
“In this envelope I leave a patch for you Dad apart of my line of work most medics wear these on their shoulders proudly;I hope you find time to sew it on your jacket sometime and I expect a picture of it later. For mom, I managed to get a few recipes from the local delicacies for you to make back home that I found were really delicious, I expect to see them during the holidays or whenever I come back. Lastly for my adorable sister, I encase to you a military red cross pin this is the international peace symbol of the battlefield and is among the most important things we possess and wear the commanding officer allowed me to send it back as a memento for you to add to your growing pin collection. Anyways, I hope this letter reaches you all in good faith, till the next time I get to sit down and write another letter,”
“Love you all.”
“Gaberiel.”
“P.S, Yea, my handwriting is horrible. I know you will complain about it when I get back mom…”
<><><><><>Second Author’s Note!<><><><><>
<><><><><>Please read<><><><><>
OH MY GOD 4+ weeks after my last chapter, this one was really hard for me to write, but I felt it needed to be written to sort’ve make it clear that he wasn’t a 2d character who has everything easy and coming straight to him. This will be the first and only gore chapter for a while, also some references are in the fight scenes and vehicles I listed that happened to be in the same time period. Kudos to those of you who can guess them first and accurately.
Have a good one guys, and I will see you in the next chapter!
Special Thanks~
Sean Perez
Solid Poison
Jacob (Revive Monkey)
Brooke Reed (My School's AP class teacher for heavy amounts of encouragement.)
Thank you all for your support!
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Yay!
ZOmg
6500803 Lol, enjoy.
6500936
. in stories never talk about hopes and dreams
I do like this story, as I've mentioned. However I don't know what went wrong with this chapter. It needs an editor badly... very badly.
I am not anywhere close to an editor, and I saw stuff everywhere. I let a lot of stuff slide in fanfics, but there were so many errors that I came to a screeching halt several times.
At first I started putting some of them down... but after a while I just stopped. There were way too many.
Not sure you meant to have that second I.
I flip him the bird, he chuckles and continues his routine, while I finish tucking in the comforter until it's smooth. I grab my boots from the floor, sit down, and put them on, making sure the laces are tight.
Delete the extra rifle.
Pulling the latch, I swing the door open, hop in, slam the door, and begin checking my gear.
Behind me, Gabe and Maverick hop in and begin checking their own gear, while I pull the radio out of my front pouch, change the channel, and put it to my lips.
The song continues as we make another turn onto a main road. A truck pulls out of our way and waves to us, and I return the gesture, the sun blinding me slightly so I lower the sun visor.
Sorry... I got to
and it were just too many large errors for me to keep pointing out like this.
Quite a few I's are not capitalized, too.
6506108 Didn't have time. Nuff said. I'll set to working on another revision.
Thanks for the comment.
EDIT: Most of the errors you caught are just simple typos, and misplaced words- You must realize that I write this story entirely on my phone: (LGG3) and has the tendency to double words at times as well as the hours I stay up late I do not have time to sit and read it a million times before I can post. That stated I would also like to point out that this chapter is the first I've ever written like this; er go, I've never written anything like it prior and as such I've done over 50 hours of research into some of the terminology and how I had written it was a lot different from what I was used to, this you will have to excuse for the time being.
Lastly I would like to point out in this bundle of text is that in my entire life I've gone through well over six editors; the last one I had was quite possibly the best I'd had and unfortunately had gotten too busy to help me. (I still talk to him though.) the rest were a bunch of deadbeats who left and I got held up or the edits were just plain and simply sloppy.
Thanks again for the comment!
6505891 Never. )_)
You did a great job on this. I like you gave us his back story to why the way he is now.
6508865 Thank you!
6643610 glad you liked it!
6688743 Even still I don't think that fully comprehends Pinkie... O.o
6707605 Thats the mystery. MWHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA. No... She's got intentions if you keep reading he just never inquired what.
So far great story.
6730649 Thank you! New chapter will be coming somewhat soon, a lot of work lately.
6834857 that was the intention!
6890997 He's a Second Lieutenant. Meaning he's a "ButterBar." He's not well experienced which is why he takes orders and advice from the higher ups (As seen and written in the 13th Chapter. I would also employ you to keep in mind that this story does take place of around 2050, so some of the rules of combat have also changed slightly (Just a fancy excuse to say that I'm not perfect at writing combat related fiction.) ). A second Lieutenant is also the 19th rank in the Marines which falls under the First Lieutenant. So I think I got it right the first time. Thank you for the comment.
This is army, not marines... marines use "OORAH".
I've noticed quite a few things throughout this fic where you keep confusing military cultures. For example, a marine will NEVER call himself a soldier. It's considered a downgrade actually. And without getting into debates on which branch is best, it's sufficient to say in itself, marines find it an insult to call them anything but a marine (which means that calling them a soldier is seen as an insult).
Little things like this really get to me, but otherwise this story is showing promise. It is fanfiction after all.
It's nice to see a story where tankers are involved, being one myself there was a few things that really didn't seem right, (no matter marines or army) the fact that there was only a section pushing forward. Normally we travel in two sections or a Platoon (4 tanks) and the main weapons we would use in a fight like that is the 2 M240 on the tanks, can and heat 120mm round, and the .50. Other than that keep it going.
8321032
Noted, still glad you enjoyed it. :)
You know what Gabriel is my name and I'm planing on becoming a combat medic
8565904
Oh sweet jesus... O_O
8565904
Good luck with that.
I don't know why you would have the marine transport vehicles being UAZ-469 *hunters* Russian made offroad/all-terrain vehicle in any case still a good read.
9940049
They aren't? They're M-ATV's made by Oshkosh.