//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Endgame Gambit // by NopeNopeNope //------------------------------// My squad and I were the ones chosen to drop the package. We were the best, they were right to choose us, but sometimes I stare up at the stars and wish that they had chosen Zeta squad, even Bravo. However, there’s no use in wishing for such things. o0o On July 13th 1377, Epsilon squad, consisting of me, Maelstrom, Stonewall, and Archer, lifted off in a stealth plated Pegasus gunboat. We flew for several hundred miles before we entered a deep grey fog, floating over what was once Stalliongrad. Now it was the center of command for the strange invaders. Our gunboat flitted in the mist, the pilots relying on their sensors to find their way out. Fortunately, the mist protected us from being spotted, saving us from receiving an anti-air up our flanks. It also gave us a critical element of surprise. One of the pilots quipped, “Better fasten your foal harnesses, our ride might be getting a bit bumpy once we leave this mist.” We all strapped ourselves in without a word. Our copter burst out of the mist, flying like an eagle. Almost immediately we were spotted, and the enemy batteries began sending explosive shells in our direction. The pilots expertly guided the attack copter. They spun and dropped. They took flight into an art form. I decided then and there to never look down at our buddies in the EAF. Maelstrom motioned us to get into our drop harnesses and begin preparing for our insertion. As soon as he finished speaking, the gunboat dropped like a rock, I began praying to Celestia to forgive me, we dropped 10 feet, then 20, then 30! We were gliding 10 feet above the ground before we finally leveled out and stopped dropping. Maelstrom slid open the side doors with a mighty surge of magic, and we jumped. Pegasi were not allowed to use their wings due to several accidents involving bodies and turbines. As we jumped, I thought to myself, How the hell did I get caught up in this idiocy, we have no chance of getting out alive!, but I said nothing. A second before my hooves hit the ground, I unhitched my harness, and dropped, rolling, to the hard earth. I stood up quickly and swung my gun around, checking for hostiles. Then, I set my signal to green on my HUD. To my left and right, two pegasi, wearing black jumpsuits, grey body armor, black goggles, and a hoof-pistol, stood up, each wearing unique emblems on their uniforms. I looked behind me, another pony stood up, an alicorn. The whole squad had made survived. Maelstrom, the alicorn dashed ahead of me and motioned for his squad to make a break for our entrance, a sewage vent, large enough for one pony walking on their knees. Maelstrom entered first, then came me, followed by angel and stonewall respectively. The muck in the pipe made it impossible to smell anything, let alone anything good. We slogged on forward. About ten minutes passed before Maelstrom, stopped suddenly. I bumped into him, but we made no sound. He switched his pistol to cut, and a small blue magical blade slid out. He made a circular cut in the grate and used his magic to catch it before it fell. We slipped out of the pipe, grateful to be away from the sewage. Stonewall made a gasp of relief, immediately regretting it as sewer water dripped into his mouth. He gagged, and angel snickered at his misfortune. Maelstrom hushed them both, and we stealthily trotted down a small maintenance hallway with light grey, concrete walls. By Angel’s calculations, we were in the labyrinth, the nickname granted to the maze of maintenance hallways and tunnels beneath Stalliongrad Air Base. Fortunately for us, nopony was in the tunnels at that time, and we exited into a large hangar bay unchallenged. Maelstrom checked our HUD map, before setting off down one of the six hallways leading off of the hangar. We followed him. We were much more vigilant there than we were in the labyrinth, due to the fact that several motion sensor blips popped up on our radar. We stopped, around the corner was one of these blips. Stonewall peeked around the corner. He slowly raised his hoof, pistol with it, and took aim. A slight cough sounded, and the creature around the corner grunted and crumpled to the ground with a bloody hole in his skull. We crept forward and stepped warily around the corpse. We continued this action several more times before a siren started and shouting was heard. They’d found the bodies. We abandoned all stealth and began sprinted down hallways to our destination, gunning down hostiles as we went. We spun around a corner, and bumped into an outstretched gun. The creature had remained stock-still, fooling our detectors. He fired three times, and Stonewall’s head exploded in a cloud of red mist and gore. Angel screamed and tackled the savage, driving her blade into his temples again and again. Maelstrom put his hoof on her shoulder, and she stopped. Angel looked up, tears streaming down her face, into Maelstrom’s kind eyes. We moved on. Finally, we reached our destination, a high-roofed, dark grey room with metal walls. This was where we were to place the package. Maelstrom lowered the long cylindrical capsule to the ground with his magic. Once it was secured, Maelstrom contacted our pilots. They answered, whirring and explosions in the background. They would be here in six minutes, give or take. Maelstrom commanded us to take positions around the device, nopony was to get to it. The three of us made a perimeter around the device, listening to the running hoofsteps growing ever closer. Three of the creatures burst into the room, waving their claw-like appendages at us. The began firing shots at us, but they missed, due to our trained agility. We began firing, picking them off one by one, mindful of our ever-dwindling supply of ammunition. My pistol clicked empty first, and angel tossed me an extra clip off ammo. As she did so, a creature dashed forward and drove a sharp claw through the back of her skull. She gasped, and her eyes, once so full of life, glazed over. I sent a barrage of bullets ripping through the creature. Its body ripped in half by the force of the pistol. Shortly after, I heard a whirring sound, and half of the roof exploded inwards, revealing our gunboat. It lowered to the ground, and the pilot motioned for us to get in. I sprinted for the doors. I turned as I realized that Maelstrom hadn’t followed. I shouted at him to hurry up, but he shook his head. I asked him why he won’t come, and he told me that the device could only be activated automatically. I told him that I would stay and activate him, but he said that he had been alive for hundreds of years, he had no need to live any longer, whereas I had a long life ahead of me. I told him that I was staying, and he looked down. When he looked up, he asked, “How much ammo do you have?” I looked down to check my clip,and he swung around and slammed his back hooves into me, catapulting me into the gunship. He slammed the cargo doors and ordered the pilot to take off. As I flew away from my friend and mentor, he waved sadly as he stepped back to the device. We zoomed forward, and a bright fireball burst out, chasing our copter and just barely missing us. I looked back, and nothing was there, the explosion had completely destroyed the city and the area, for many miles, around it. o0o I stepped out of the copter, a crowd of hopeful ponies stared at me. I stepped morosely out of the troop bay and trotted, my head down, past several lines of ponies. I felt a powerful presence sweep over me, and a hoof landed on my shoulder. I looked up, Princess Nebula stood there, smiling sorrowfully at me. She whispered in my ear, “I’m sorry, there was no other way. Maelstrom knew the price of victory.” I smiled slightly, and continued on. o0o An hour later, I trotted through the streets of Canterlot, dreading the following conversation. I had told Nebula that I was the one who needed to do this. I stood at the door of a rather large, ornate house, built in a Greek style. Whatever that was. I stood there for a minute, bracing myself for what was to come. I knocked on the door three times. A little filly, a dark purple color, with a blue mane, opened the door and looked out. “Oh, hi Mr. Quills, are you here to see mommy?” I nodded silently, and she trotted into a large living room, as she stepped in, she looked at me and asked, “Do you know when daddy is coming home?” I burst out crying and slumped to the floor, sobs leaving my mouth and tears streaming down my face. How could I tell this little filly that her daddy was never coming home again? o0o Twilight closed the book, shock written on her face. How could Celestia condone such methods? Even if it crippled the enemy, it still had killed many off the ponies living in that area. That was impossible, the book had to be untrue, but deep inside her, she knew it was telling the truth. She read the last few paragraphs. o0o Several weeks after the end of the war, Celestia locked herself in her rooms, nopony knew what she was doing...but me. I had found out that she planned to wipe the memories of this time from the minds of all ponies. She didn’t want us to remember the horrors of these times. Instead, she replaced our memories with other things, explaining all that had happened. I can understand her reasoning, but I don’t think that anything like this should be forgotten. Instead, it should be remembered, so nothing like that ever happens again. To do this, I am writing this book, and I will hide it where Celestia will never look. Hopefully it will be found by someone who will spread it on, to make sure that what occurred here will never be attempted again. So this falls to you, if you are reading this, make sure that nopony makes the same mistake that the princesses made. Nothing is worth the deaths of millions of innocents, nothing. o0o Twilight stood up, she would make sure of that. She would make sure that the story of all who died to end the war would never be forgotten. She hid the book, and she trotted outside, ready to make the long journey towards Canterlot. Celestia and Luna had a lot of explaining to do.