//------------------------------// // Love and Hatred: Small world // Story: Imbalanced: New Age // by Nameless Narrator //------------------------------// [Blazing's Entry] I'm not a fan of Cassius' plan, but I must do all I can to at least give Cromach one last shot. Now, Cassius showed us what little visual information has been retrieved about Legius' supersoldiers until now. It was pretty hard to believe that griffons in such shape were able to think, much less obey orders, but both royal brothers were adamant that was the case. The soldiers themselves looked mostly normal, but the videos showed them able to transform their limbs into tentacles or stretch them. That, in itself, wouldn't be so bad, rather just surprising, but they were wearing some kind of Corrupted breastplates which seemed to easily absorb bullet impacts, grenade fragments, and shockwaves from explosions. The worst part was that they were strong, almost Corrupted-grade strong. They showed us a griffon without power armor carrying a minigun in each twisted arm and aiming them as if he was carrying just pistols. The only good point was that supposedly there aren't too many of those hybrids, but their numbers are growing. And this is where Heavy and I should come in. After spending vast amount of time and money, Nicolai's agents were able to locate the facility where the research is being conducted. Nicolai was suspicious that even Legius doesn't have enough information on what he's doing, so the enhancement of his soldiers is slow and extremely secret. I wonder if most of his soldiers don't know about the infusion project and how they would react to eventually being forced to undergo it, which is something I am sure will happen if Legius is pushed into a corner. Now, the research complex is situated in an old Griffon Legion fortress renovated to suit modern warfare but still generally true to old building plans. I mean, if you do something really well at some point, you shouldn't try to reinvent the wheel, but improve on the design. So, the fortress sits atop a solitary mountain in the northeast of the Empire, few days away from civilization. Supposedly, new soldiers and resources are moved back and forth via transport airships, because ground travel would be too easy to spot due to the mountain sitting in the middle of an old, shallow crater remaining from tactical magical strikes from the times of Pony-Griffon wars. The old floor plan even I remember means that there is a square of high walls with turrets in each corner, a big gate leading to a path winding down the mountain, a courtyard behind with some small utility buildings, and the main square structure where the labs, barracks, and generally everything important is. I was actually shocked that Cassius didn't want me and Heavy to go in alone, destroy all resistance including the research, set the mountain on fire, and afterwards surf away on the river of supersoldier blood and tears. Like seriously, I'm not used to ponies or griffons having sensible plans. No, Nicolai's agents were able get into the vicinity of the mountain, locate an ancient secret entrance, and prepare a path for us. Through the tunnel? Of course not. The agents were able to graft a pattern of grooves and scars into the mountainside and one fortress wall which we will use to climb up. The secret entrance is too likely to be known to Legius and well guarded. My and Heavy's job is to get onto the walls, proceed inside each corner turret hosting a set of anti-air cannons, plant a device able to disable those, and when we're done we signal the Grand Cross and Blackbird to secure the landing zone by obliterating any resistance from the air. However, there is one small issue which is why Nicolai's agents were unable to do such thing themselves - there is supposed to be magical interference. Aside from the supersoldiers, there should be a small group of unnatural magic users around who were seen testing the supersoldiers' capabilities. That means they are even more powerful than Legius' hybrids. Whether due to magic or something else is unknown, but it is the main reason why the brothers decided to ask me for help and in case of my success risk an expedition to Drachenberg. Or they'll just use me like everyone else and then throw me away. [End Entry] We took Nicolai's airship to the fortress. No matter the strange biological research of Legius, Black Ops still has some secret spy tech unknown to anyone else, it seems. Cassius, several elite squads of soldiers, and the Grand Cross stayed hovering near the edge of the ancient crater while the Blackbird flew us at low height straight to the fortress and about halfway up the mountain under the cover of night. Its cloaking device was completely sufficient to avoid any observers, but getting to the level of the fortress would mean us getting caught by the detectors. Anyway, back to here and now. Wait, no, I still want to be anywhere else. Crap, now that I lost focus, I can't go back to the pleasant memories of ten minutes ago no matter how hard I try. So, I am currently hanging by my fetlocks on the side of the mountain, calm wind around still feels like a tornado this high up, and I'm doing all I can to only look upwards. The soft spotlight fastened to my forehead via a thin but strong band is faintly lighting the way, and Nicolai assured us that we wouldn't be seen due to it even if someone looked straight down until almost at the top. Now, the looking upwards part is definitely made easier by Heavy going first with a rope around his barrel tied to him. That way, if I slip and fall, he'll be able to stick to the wall until I get my grip again. Sadly, that also means that if he happens to screw up, no matter how significantly less likely that is, I have literally no chance of survival unless I quickly detach the rope. Well, no reason to dwell on that. Let's keep shining my forehead lamp straight at Heavy's ass. Heh, it glistens like a shiny black moon. Moons. "You're surprisingly good at climbing, Blazing," he says. It sounds loud in the nighttime silence, but I know that's only an illusion and the wind further up deafens pretty much any noise we can make unless we straight up scream, and even that's a fifty-fifty, "given your fear of heights. Even I'm getting shaky here from time to time, and I used to fly on a dragon's back whenever Tio decided to stretch his shapeshifting capabilities." "That," I huff, "that's probably the corruption. Harmony based parts of the 'contagion' on the pony who defeated it - me. They gained minor magic resistance, some straight up devastating anti-magic potential which prevented alicorns from effectively defending Equestria from them, and on top of all that crippling... it's not even a fear of heights at this point. Corruptors straight up explode when higher up, and wild Corrupted get completely disoriented and lose some of their protective skin. Only intelligent Corrupted, and preferably ex-ponies who kept their mind like you, Mana Burn, or Nightshade can overcome it, but even then it's far more uncomfortable than it would for a normal pony." I push myself upward along a tilted groove to my left. The long climb is getting insanely taxing, at least for me. If this keeps up, all I'll do on the fortress walls is fall unconscious anyway. "Still, climbing isn't as bad as being high up. I can only look upwards like this," I add, "You've got far better eyes than I do. How long till we're there?" Heavy pauses for a moment, likely thinking about my limits. "Long," he answers simply. Oh well, it's not like we can abort mission and go back. I mean, if we radio'd the invisible Blackbird hovering in the darkness and then climbed back down, they would pick us up and leave, but then Cromach would be even further out of my reach. This is about far more than Crom's assets. The longer I'm... alone, the longer I feel desire for something else. Heavy's ass is hanging above me and by sheer measurements and aesthetics it is something to worship, but I miss far more. I miss his embrace, I miss his hot breath, I miss his playful laugh. Heck, I even miss his crazy meat cooking. I guess that for a pony in my position, love is a terrible, painful thing. Even worse is that I know nothing else will fill the gaping hole in my heart. I said HEART, pervs. Cool, dwelling on my own misery makes time just fly by, and the internal agony drowns out my muscles screaming for help. Just as I'm about to drag myself over the crenellations, Heavy's grey tentacle tail gently wraps around my barrel and helps. "I could have done that myself," I whisper indignantly. "I am completely able to grab you again and shove you back," he answers quietly. "Retracted. Thanks, Heavy." "No problem, Blazing." "Sorry to be cranky. I'm... I guess I'm just trying to prove to myself I'm worth something. You have no idea how strong the little voice in the back of my head telling me that nothing I do will ever be good enough for the ones I love is. Saying that if I can't even climb a mountain, how the hay can I get to Crom, much less save him, and even worse - rebuild our relationship. Especially with how things ended with Chok- Joy. It just gnaws at me every second." "I know you enough to believe in you. That's all I'm going to say. Now just have a short break and-" He is interrupted by a growl. "I knew I heard something..." It's dark here in the middle of the wall, likely because overload of light would make this place into a massive lighthouse at night. Spotlights are illuminating the turrets some distance away, but there is no lamp or anything around. Closing my eyes, I focus on my horn and let my otherwise unusable magic out. The white echoes in the completely dark world reveal a griffon made of bright outlines coming from the left, growling like a predator. "There, Heavy," I hiss and point towards the enemy, "Get him before he calls for help!" "Help?" the griffon apparently heard me, "Help against a wild beast and a tiny, fragile unicorn? I will rip you to pieces on my own!" With an another growl, he rushes towards us, and meets Heavy halfway. I need rest, now that I'm up here and the adrenaline from climbing is gone, I can't stand back up. My legs are trembling, and whenever I push myself upwards I fall back down on my butt. Alright, how can I contribute? Gather information. My tactical vision lights up with white outlines again. The griffon is wearing some sort of a thin backpack, thick gauntlets on his forelegs, and a helmet I think is responsible for his night vision. No, there's more, but what am I seeing? It looks as if his barrel was... shimmering? But when I open my eyes, there is no glow or anything, only the grunts and stomping of the ongoing duel. The griffon's gauntlets swish mid-swing, three long blades sliding out and catching rearing Heavy off guard. He just hisses as steel rends his barrel and manages punch away the griffon's other hidden weapon. A normal pony would back off to regain his bearings, but Heavy presses onward with a stab of his lengthening tail to surprise the griffon. It doesn't work. The enemy reacts like a machine, sidesteps the tail which hits the floor, sending sparks everywhere, and lunges at Heavy, gauntlet blades stretched forward. What he clearly doesn't expect is Heavy to open his maw, grab the griffon's neck with his tongue tentacles, and swing him in an arc ending in what has to be at least a heavy concussion. Or not. The griffon is already getting back up. That helmet must be pretty amazing. However, he is shaking his head, and stumbling. Heavy must see that as well, because he quickly closes the distance and rears on his hind legs to punch the griffon's head off. The soldier crosses his forelegs in front of his face. It does... nothing. I hear the snap and the following crunch loud enough not to need to actually see the details. I have never seen somepony punch a trained and supposedly enhanced soldier so hard his both forelegs broke and his skull inside a freaking military helmet cracked along with it. "Uhh, Heavy?" I mumble. He looks at his hoof, then at the definitely dead griffon. Back and forth, back and forth. "I didn't mean to..." "Heavy?" "Hmm?" he looks at me, dumbfounded, "I just wanted to knock him out..." He's a fighter, but not a killer. I'm so used to fighting for my life, or running for it mostly, that I couldn't even imagine somepony around me wouldn't be. Heavy has fought by my side many times, but... ...but where all of us grew cold and numb, he didn't. That's the best thing about him. I hope he never does. "Heavy? Let's search him. There's something weird about his body." "Right... right right right," he finally snaps out of it, "Sorry, I... it's been a long time since I had to kill a... sentient being, somepony- someone with a life, relationships, hopes." I open my mouth to say something doubtlessly trite, but he raises his hoof and shakes his head. "I am fine, Blazing. All this power... I need to learn to control it, and the better I can do it, the easier I can protect those around me. I am by far not a pacifist, you know that." He leans down to the corpse, takes the helmet off, looks at it, and tosses it down the mountain. "Some high-tech equipment similar to what Nicolai showed us, nothing special. Can we turn the lights on?" he whispers. I scan the area with my now significantly stronger tactical vision. I can see down to the main building and the entire courtyard. There are six griffons standing around or patrolling, thankfully none on their way to us. I can't see all the way to the opposite wall, but I don't think we should risk anything. "My vision magic will have to do. Keep going, I'm curious about his backpack." Heavy rolls the dead griffon on his belly and examines the rectangle on his back. He notices a small even bulge in the pants of the griffon's uniform and pulls out a small rectangular item, likely a keycard. Too bad I can only make out shapes with my emergency sight. "It's not a backpack, it's something electronic," he sniffs the air, "smells acrid and buzzes very quietly... maybe a battery. Perhaps for the night vision helmet?" While I agree, my sight spell still shows the soft shimmer around the griffon's barrel. It's something different. "Is he wearing something on his chest?" "No, it feels just like my coat. Weird, it's still warm despite the body cooling down quic-" he stops, "I see, this must be how they manage to keep Corrupted hide from liquifying. The battery must be sending electric pulses through the armor... possibly a metal mesh inside the leather to imitate some kind of life." "Didn't help him," I mutter. "No, it didn't. Especially when he could just call for help and we'd be pretty much done..." "You look as if you've just realized something important." "I think Cassius and Nicolai misjudged these supersoldiers." "How come?" "They are scary, and they must be a terrifying sight when charging at you in the middle of the battlefield while shrugging off the bullets you don't have time to aim properly as you're under covering fire yourself. On top of that, if they get in melee range, you have to run which you can't because they are fast and fearless, completely fearless." "I'm not getting your point." "Nothing sane is completely fearless. This guy was feral and completely lost his brain when he could fight us, butcher us in his mind, instead of raising an alarm. The soldiers ARE mentally affected by corruption, it just wasn't possible to see on the battleground, and I am pretty sure the longer they stay in such state the more feral they will become. Corruption will find a way," he takes a short break and adds even quieter, "Will it take me too no matter what I do?" "Heavy, if there is a pony who can resist it longer than anyone else, then it's not me, but you. Anyway, there are the Separated and Twilight's sons. If you are that worried, we can visit them after this." Heavy chuckles to himself. "Eventually, but not yet. Fear is normal. That's how I know I'm not one of them. Let's go plant the bombs. Wait, one second," he grabs the dead soldier with his tail and tosses him over the crenellations, "Now we're ready." We use the cover of darkness as much as we can, but the near vicinity of the turret is well-lit so our best course of action is simply legging it towards the metal door. Heavy waves the griffon's card near a black protrusion next to the entrance which beeps as the door slides into the wall with a hiss. I kinda like these new doors, they don't take much space. If only they were quieter. It opens into a hallway leading left or right which is blindingly bright after the all the time out there. "Come on, Jeff, I'm not at the end of my shift yet and the last time we slipped out for a smoke I got chewed out by-" Heavy is already gone by the time half of the sentence is in the air, and I follow him left, but he disappears behind a corner in a second. In the next one, the speaker is silenced completely. "Ah dammit!" I hear Heavy's annoyed curse and raise my pace, not worrying about the noise I'm making compared to him. He's standing in a square room full of glowing panels, wires, and knobs with windows overlooking the fortress courtyard, holding in his forelegs a clearly very dead normal griffon soldier. I might not be the best at griffon anatomy, but necks shouldn't bend that way unless you're part snake. "Chokehold?" I just ask. He just nods and lets the body drop. "Glad you controlled yourself around Cassius. We would have been in some serious trouble otherwise." He snorts, and takes his bulging backpack off. "So, what now? What do you think is the weak spot of the cannons on the roof?" "I'm pretty sure the motors moving the huge-ass things are on the bottom of the turret, but Nicolai said we just needed to get to anything conductive leading up to them for the charges to work." He circles his hoof around the room with the bleepers, screens, and boopers. Neither of us has any clue what they are or do. "All... this?" "I think some these could be... manual controls, maybe? Can you check around for a way to the post running through the middle of the whole turret?" I point at the proper wall, "This place must have a hollow center with some anchoring holding the roof otherwise a cannon like that would fly off after first shot. Nicolai said they were projectile weapons, not beam ones without a recoil." "I'll be right back," Heavy rushes off through the door on the other side of the room, doubtlessly running through the hallway leading around the turret. In the meantime, I lie down on the floor not to be noticed by anyone accidentally looking up into the lit room from outside. This way it just looks that the griffon went on patrol or to the bathroom. Heavy returns quickly from the door he previously permanently opened along with its hinges when he crashed through them running at the guard. "There's a maintenance door leading to a hollow shaft with some massive steel pillar in the middle. When I put my ear to it I heard the buzzing of live wiring. There must be cables leading up inside it as well." "Alright, let's risk it. Our other option is to climb on the roof and mess with those things directly. From outside it looked pretty well-lit up there, so we could get noticed, especially from the other turrets." Heavy takes his backpack again, pulls out what looks like a huge rubber-coated brick with a button and four suction cups along with a metal square on its bottom. Yep, that's supposed to be some electromagnetic charge able to fry all electronics a bit like a lightning strike, but without the melting. Time to see how it fares in action. Inside the shaft, there's just enough place for a single griffon, which means I can comfortably walk inside, push the charge against the metal pillar. It sticks to it via the rubber suckers and the metal part of its bottom is pressed against the steel of the structure. Now to just push the button. An idea hits me. We do have a way of 'seeing' if it works. "Heavy, let me back off a little, then set it off. If it releases as much energy as Nicolai said, I might be able to see it." He nods, I walk into the doorway, he walks in front of me, barely able to fit into the shaft, and uses his back tentacle to push the button. The instant it happens I realize there was never any need for me to use my tactical vision. My mane stands up, the scent of ozone fills the air, and I feel as if I blinked and lost a fraction of a second from my life. On the other hoof, the burst of blue instantly lighting the pillar and disappearing nearly instantly within my black and white world looks really pretty. Heavy pushes me backwards into the hall, blinking out of sync. "It worked," he says with complete certainty. "Yeah," I mutter, dumbfounded. We recover quickly. After all, we have no time to stay here, awestruck about this age's technology. "Three to go," Heavy puts the lighter backpack on again. The next two turrets are pretty much the same, although on the third attempt Heavy actually manages to knock out the guard instead of accidentally breaking something important for life. The final turret, however, is different. I wait inside by the door again for Heavy to rush silently in and take the guard out. I wait for five seconds, ten, thirty... ...then hear a screeching of metal being torn apart. I wait for nothing after that. Heavy is fighting a purple unicorn stallion levitating a wide greatsword with ease. A metal table along with one of the electornic boxes is cleaved in half and lying a little way off of the combatants. Heavy dodges a wide swing by bouncing backwards, but the unicorn is already in a position to attack with his bare hooves. That would normally be the dumbest idea a pony could do while fighting a Corrupted, but the timing is so perfect the punch hits Heavy's muzzle, surprising him slightly. Another swing, this time a vertical one, cleaves the floor while Heavy dodges to the left and jabs at the unicorn who just tilts his head to the side and avoids the blow. Then a second sword appears out of nowhere, aiming for Heavy's neck. I don't know how, but Heavy doesn't even look at it, just shoves the unicorn to the side with his hoof still by his neck and jumps forward. The unicorn gives Heavy an impressed look, but Heavy just stares at him. No, more like through him. Then Heavy raises his foreleg, and a long staff made of pure Corrupted biomass grows from it. As a finishing touch, a scythe blade forms on each end. Heavy always used a non-lethal blunt weapon, but when he needed to, this was his way to solve problems quickly. He rears on his hind legs, spins around to give the staff a wide swing. With his height, the attack would be easy to duck under by a normal pony, and the unicorn does so, but Heavy tilts the weapon down mid-turn to cut his head off. The unicorn blocks it as if he's faced this combat style hundreds of times before. His second sword swings vertically upwards, which Heavy once again sidesteps without even looking. The fight slows down into what looks like a choreographed dance. Heavy attacks, the unicorn dodges. The unicorn orchestrates some horribly complicated attack pattern of two blades and his hooves. Heavy seems to know exactly where each blow would go and dodges whenever he can or block when he can't. This repeats over and over until the two stop completely, staring at each other silently. Neither of them has given me a moment of attention since I arrived. The unicorn is definitely not a normal mercenary. Maybe he's using some magic? I can feel a strange aura I can't place, but no distinct power from him. Closing my eyes, I use my vision spell again. "The world's a small freaking place..." I whisper, grin growing on my muzzle. My 'true' sight shows not a unicorn, but a strange equine mostly resembling an alicorn but with changeling armor belly plate, dragonscales on one his foreleg while the other one is that of a normal pony. One of his hind legs ends in a paw, and so on. In short, he looks like a mix of a bunch of creatures put together - a hybrid, a chimera. What is even more impressive, is that both his weapons are practically burning with magic. I've seen those artefacts before, and I might even recall their ancient names if I thought hard enough. None of that is important, though, because Heavy seems to be coming to the same conclusion as I am, based on sheer muscle memory of thousands of hours of training and loving pain. "Heavy?" asks the hybrid. "Tio?!" I cough. Both of them finally realize there's somepony else there. "Long time no see, Cross," my grin infects the absolutely shocked 'unicorn', "and since you're obviously not working for the Silver Sun anymore, I'm docking your pay." Horatio Cross gives me a short laugh. "Blazing Light... if there ever comes an apocalypse you can't avert, I'm certain you will be the one left standing afterwards. And don't worry about the money, I'm on the Redtalons' payroll."