Chapters Next
Close
Prologue1,524 words
Orientation Day3,138 words

Prologue

The wet grass squelched underhoof as Meadow carefully marched ahead. She hated hearing her own hoofsteps, but the constant rain left the ground muddy and made each step she took far too loud for her liking. Nothing could be done about it though, unless she wanted to make her pace even slower. The last thing she wanted was to be out here any longer than she needed. Even after all these years as a HUNTR, she still dreaded each expedition into the Wildlands. She’d never say it though, especially not to her team. She was the captain, so she needed to be tough for all their sake's. No matter how much she dreaded the mission, she had a duty; to her team and to Haven.

She held her DC-17 out in front of her, finger always ready on the trigger. Another thing she still couldn’t completely wrap her head around despite her years of service. Fingers, hands, walking upright, and a thousand other augmentations given to her and every other HUNTR through the miracle of cybernetics. All to make them the perfect soldiers. Perfect to take on this still-new world.

Raindrops dripped from her metals arms, and she could hear the droplets hitting the top of her helmet, a dull thud constantly ringing. It was almost pitch black, but the built-in night vision in her ocular enhancements kept her from stumbling in the darkness of the forest. Out of habit, she did a quick scan of her Heads Up Display. Vitals were good, clip was full, no movement on the scanners; everything seemed to be going well. Again, out of habit, she pulled up the mini map on her HUD and checked. Less than 100 meters before they reached the checkpoint. She breathed a silent sigh of relief at the thought. A second glance at the map showed five blips moving towards the objective, one being Meadow and the other four being her squad.

Meadow cracked a small smile. Her squad. Phantom Squad. Even among HUNTRS, Phantom Squad was considered a cut above the rest. It stood with Arrow Squad and Domino Squad as the best of the best, the Elite Three as it had come to be known. And she was Captain of one of those legendary teams. She still felt a rush of pride at that fact. She and her team had worked hard to get to where they were, and Meadow always looked out for them.

“Phantom Squad, this is Phantom 1,” she called through the communication network that linked the team. “Sound off and check in.”

“Mother Hen, this is Phantom 2 checking in for the third time in the past half hour. Yes, I made sure to pack a juice box.”

Meadow heard the rest of the squad laugh over the comm. Mother Hen had become their nickname for their captain. She may have babied them sometimes, being overprotective. Other times though…

“Right Dice, that’s a thirty mile lap for you when we get back to Haven,” Meadow responded coolly yet menacingly. “Any other moron that doesn’t give a proper check-in can join him.”

“Phantom 3, checking in.”

“Phantom 4, checking in.”

“Phantom 5, checking in.”

“That’s what I thought,” Meadow said with satisfaction. “We’re coming up on the outpost. We’ll resupply, get an hour’s rest, and get back home.”

“It’ll be good to be home again,” Phantom 3, a pegasus mare named Light Feather, said.

“Even though we didn't accomplish much. Bet the Council is gonna love our report.” Phantom 5, an earth pony stallion named Triceps.

“What’re you talking about? They’re gonna love hearing about the jungle we found filled to the brim with giant carnivorous plants, and swamps emitting gas so toxic it’ll melt your skin off.” Phantom 4, an earth pony stallion named Stitches. “I bet they may even plan to build a second city in one of those places.”

“Personally, I’d go with the toxic swamp,” Dice responded. “It stinks way less than when one of those plants gets shot and dies.” He shivered. “That stench’ll haunt me till the day I die.

Meadow raised an eyebrow. “Everything we’ve seen on Neo-Terra, and that’s what’ll haunt you?”

“An ugly beast with a thousand teeth and just as many claws is one thing Captain, but a stench like that does something to a pony.”

Another round of laughter filled the comm., and Meadow couldn’t help but join in. She quickly snapped back to reality when her mini-map flashed. It was static for just a second before it returned to normal. But one thing had changed. The blip representing Phantom 5 was gone.

“Phantom 5 check in,” Meadow called. Silence. “Phantom 5 check in and report.” More silence. “Triceps I’ve lost you on my map, report your location immediately.”

Meadow’s heart pounded as there was still no response. The other members of Phantom Squad each attempted to contact Triceps, but no one could reach him, and no one saw him on their maps.

Meadow took a deep breath. “Remain calm. You’ve trained for situations like this. He’s a HUNTR, they all are.” It only took a split second to gather her thoughts and plot the best course of action. “Phantom 4, Phantom 2, head to Phantom 5’s last known location. Keep in constant contact and let us know as soon as you find him.”

“Roger!”

Meadow saw two blips moving to where Triceps had been. This was all strange. If Triceps had been attacked, there would have been noise. It was almost impossible to sneak up on a HUNTR, and even if something did, they were too tough to take down without some kind of fight, and with Triceps, fights were always loud.

No sooner had that thought crossed her mind when she heard gunfire come from Phantom 4 and 2’s location. She could see the light of the muzzle flashes through the trees, and she swore she heard some kind of ungodly shriek echo loudly. Her mini-map was still open, and to her horror she saw Phantom 4’s blip disappear.

She frantically called out. “Phantom 2, Phantom 4, what’s your status?!”

Only Dice answered. “Stitches is gone! Some…things brought him down. Oh gods…what are these things?!”

Meadow heard more shots as she saw Dice’s blip move back toward her position. “Phantom Squad, fall back to my position! We’ll face whatever these things are in the clearing.”

“Roger!”

Meadow readied herself, found the best position for her team. Good cover facing an open area, easy escape route, no way for whatever it was attacking them to flank. What was attacking them? To take down two HUNTRS…and did Dice actually sound scared?

A cold shiver ran down Meadow’s spine when she heard a scream tear through the forest. It sounded like Feather, but it couldn’t…Meadow’s heart sank when she saw Feather’s blip was gone.

“Phantom 3 report! Feather are you there?!” She was answered with deafening silence. A rustling in the trees made her swing her gun around, ready to fire, before she saw Dice flying as fast as he could toward her, a look of sheer terror on his face.

“I’m sorry Captain, I couldn’t help him. They just…appeared out of nowhere. They didn’t show up on scanners or any of our ocular settings. By the time I saw them…they’d already…where’s Feather?”

Meadow couldn’t look at him. “We lost Phantom 3.” The words were like a punch in the gut. Feather, Stitches, Triceps; more than half her team, just gone.

Dice began to panic, breathing heavily. “Captain, we need to retreat, move as fast as we can to the outpost. If those things catch us, we’re dead!”

“Calm down soldier!” Meadow shouted. “We are HUNTRS, the greatest soldiers ever created. Even better, we are Phantom Squad, and we are going to survive this.”

“There is no more Phantom Squad! They’re gone! Taken by those…oh gods, here they come!”

Meadow could just barely make them out. Formless shapes and lidless eyes. They were…everywhere. They had been completely surrounded without even knowing it.

“No escape…we’re dead. We’re dead, this is it!” Dice felt a sharp punch to the head.

“I’m embarrassed to call you a Phantom right now! I told you, we’re HUNTRS. We survive or we take as many of these bastards with us as we can. So get in position and get ready to fight!” Meadow’s heart was pounding; she wanted nothing more than for her and her team to be behind Haven’s walls right now. But she wasn’t going to be like Dice. She would either survive or die a true HUNTRS death, striking against all threats to ponykind.

She got in as best a position as she could, readied every weapon in the arsenal that was her body, and waited; waited for one of these creatures to make a move. The sound of ungodly shrieks was deafening as the horde of creatures descended on her.

374 views

Chapters Next