Captain Elias Walker
Task Force: STALKER
En route to LUNA Array
October 13th, 007 SLR
Elias sighed as he looked over the terrain from his Black Hawk. It was a fine mess that he and his men found themselves in. First fighting against the Federation in the ruins of the world he once called home, now here they were, another world away, liberating an ally from the Federation’s onslaught. Nobody had come to America’s aid after ODIN devastated the country. Equestria now faced a similar threat in the form of LUNA.
He wasn’t going to let it happen again.
Elias looked back at his men. Some of the finest soldiers that the Army had ever turned out. Two of them were his sons, David, or ‘Hesh’, as he was nicknamed, and Logan. The other two were Merrick, a veteran sniper, and Keegan, who was hard to pin down. An excellent soldier, yes, but not much for interaction.
The radio interrupted his thoughts.
“Come in Scarecrow, over,” said the voice.
“What ya got, Overlord?”
“We can confirm that the array is lightly guarded. We are inserting you at an access tunnel below the site. Move through the tunnels, and take control of the facility.”
“Thank you, sir, we’ll prosecute the target.”
“Excellent, Overlord out.”
Elias turned to the others. “Alright boys,” he began. “We need to do this quick. Intel states that the satellites are charging up to fire. We have only 15 minutes to prosecute the target and retake control.”
The display shifted to display an image. “We also have a kill order on Tempest Shadow. She is third in the enemy’s chain of command, below Rorke and the Storm King.”
“Rorke?” asked Logan. “Didn’t he fall off a plane or something?”
“That bastard never seems to die,” Hesh added.
“We kill him as many times as we need to,” Merrick finished. “Now let the Commander finish speaking!”
“Thank you, Merrick. Taking Tempest down will cripple the enemy war effort in this sector. We need a victory, given the recent loss of Princess Luna.”
“20 seconds!” the pilot shouted.
Keegan looked around. “Load up,” he said. “We ain’t got time to stand around.”
The Black Hawk put down, and the squad unloaded. They headed for the access tunnel, and soon found themselves under the facility.
Soldiers ran around the corridors above them, apparently oblivious to the fact that they were there. Hesh looked back.
“Intel was off,” he whispered. “There’s way too much activity here.”
Elias considered his options. They could go all out and launch a full-scale assault on the control room, or they could sit quiet and wait for a perfect opportunity to strike.
Eventually he made up his mind. “We split up,” he said quietly. “Logan, Hesh, go to the east of the control room. Merrick, Keegan, you’re with me. We wait, and breach together.”
“Yes sir,” they all replied.
As they turned to go, Logan spoke up. “Dad?” he asked.
Elias turned his head. “Yes, son?”
“See you on the other side.”
Elias nodded. Sometimes, actions spoke louder than words.
Logan Walker
Logan and his brother emerged from the tunnel in a server room. It had a number of screens with the names of cities on them.
Hesh activated his helmet camera. “Dad, you getting this?” he asked.
“Those are the largest cities in Equestria and beyond.”
“It looks like a list of targets for the LUNA satellite.” Hesh paused, then continued speaking. “Appaloosa, Las Pegasus, Fillydelphia, Trottingham, Manehattan, Rockville, Dodge Junction, Baltimare, Griffonstone, Hippogriffia...the projected casualties exceed 5 million!”
“This is why Tempest must be stopped.”
“Roger that.”
Hesh looked over. “C’mon, Logan!” he said. “Let’s go.”
The two brothers moved along a corridor and hid behind a crate. Soldiers passed by them as they waited for them to clear. The way cleared and the two continued down the corridor.
They then reached a junction, full of soldiers.
“We’re not sneaking past that lot,” Logan remarked. “Keegan, crash the lighting.”
“Understood.”
Suddenly, the lights went out. The enemy stumbled about in confusion.
Logan and Hesh activated their strobe lights and opened fire. Caught in the crossfire, most of the enemy were felled by the bullets, but a few got their weapons and returned fire. But due to the lack of light and disorientation of the strobe lights, they couldn’t see what they were shooting at and as a result missed badly.
Logan and Hesh were not so inaccurate. Every round rang true, the report of weapon fire returning a dropped foe. When the lights came back on, the carnage before them was awful. Everywhere on the ground were bodies in various positions, some with their eyes open, others closed, some missing limbs and a few without heads. Blood was covering the floor and dripping through the tiles into the drainage ducts below.
“Targets down,” Hesh calmly reported.
“Roger that.”
Presently, they reached the control room. “We’re in position,” Logan radioed.
“Roger that, place breaching charge.”
Hesh pulled a breaching charge out of his backpack, and placed it on the wall. He removed the handle and moved his index finger over the button. “Ready”.
“3, 2, 1...go!”
Hesh pushed the button down.
Elias
In that moment, everything seemed to happen in slow motion.
The door burst inward as he, Merrick and Keegan charged through. Logan and Hesh entered from the other side.
He drew his revolver, and fired into the first enemy he saw, sending him flying back. He aimed at another, and fired to similar effect, sending him flying down the corridor in a deadly game of tenpin bowling.
Keegan knifed another, and then sprayed into a crowd of foes, knocking them down in a hail of metal and blood.
Merrick took out another with his pistol, and was about to fire again when...
...Tempest jumped out of the shadows and landed on Elias.
“You picked the wrong day to fight me, My Little Human,” she growled. “Now you will die.”
Elias shoved her back, but it was no use. She was too strong, and her weight made him unable to move.
Her horn charged, about to end Elias’ life...
...when a sniper bullet smashed into the side of Tempest’s skull, shattering it and covering the floor in brains and gore.
Her lifeless body fell to one side, her fate a consequence of her hubris.
Keegan and Merrick lifted the corpse off of Elias, and he got up, snapping a photograph of the body.
“Command,” he said, “I can confirm Tempest Shadow is down, I repeat, Tempest is KIA.”
“Thank God,” the voice replied. "She’s killed enough of our men as it is.”
“We have control of LUNA.”
“Excellent. I have received a report of heavy AA fire from La Pointe. You may have targets.”
“Understood sir.” Elias switched chanels and spoke again. "Princess Twilight, do you read, over?”
“Who is this?” came the reply.
“This is Captain Elias Walker, Task Force: STALKER. We have control of the LUNA array. Do you have any targets for us?”
“Captain, I have quite a few for you.”
Elias motioned to his men. “Get on the consoles!” he called.
The co-ordinates trickled in. Each satellite was manually locked onto a different target.
“Charging sequence initiated, 15 seconds.”
Elias had never known 15 seconds feel like such a long period of time. The timer ground slowly onwards, as if reality itself had designs against that of humanity and ponykind.
At long last, the clock reached zero. “FIRE!” he ordered.
Twilight Sparkle
Twilight shuddered as another missile shrieked past her. A loud explosion echoed below the airship, a fireball erupting below.
“Another hit like that and we’re done for!” Calaeno called.
Twilight closed her eyes, fearing the worst.
Then, suddenly, a stream of pure, blue beams thundered down from the heavens. The bolts streaked downward and impacted with the seas.
Explosions echoed below and metal was hurled into the skies, the tearing metal and ionised air adding up into a glorious symphony of destruction.
Below them lay the twisted ruins of the Federation fleet, positioned to threaten them and ensure they never reached the aid they needed. But the dreams of an entire nation were shattered that day. Its fleet was vanquished, lying below the seas and swimming with the fish. And Rorke was nowhere to be found, blasted off the deck of the airship.
Now nothing would prevent them from reaching Mount Aris.
“Elias, the targets are down. Thanks for the help.”
“No problem, Your Royal Highness.” The radio shut off.
Twilight turned around. “Set us down on Mount Aris!”