Contact Harvest

by CommanderApplejack

Chapter 2

Spacetravel is boring.

In my comics, the ponies traveling from star to star would always blink there in an instant and do all kind of awesome stuff before leaving again. Reality though was much less exciting than fiction, after being shot into space away from Harvest by some sort of elevator we had been traveling through what Sweetie had figured out to be something called 'Slipspace' for almost four months now. The former unicorn had also managed to figure out many more things about the creatures. Sweetie with her seemingly unnatural ability to blend into a crowd and talk to people, something she must have picked up from Rarity, had figured out that they called themselves ‘Humans’. I believe that I heard Lyra rant about a creature like that once. Something about hands, which is funny because that’s what our claws are really called.

Anyway, life in these big metal ‘grease buckets’ was rather bland and unexciting. Food was rationed and there was little to do with all the spare time we had, Apple Bloom and I mostly spent time in the makeshift gym the other humans had set up to make life more bearable in our lifeboat.

Sweetie on the other hoof… hand… whatever, had mainly focussed on lame stuff like learning as much about our new world as possible. But despite that, she had still come over to the makeshift gym to work out with us as even she got bored of constantly reading books since she wasn’t called Twilight Sparkle.

But all that was soon coming to an end, a voice over the speakers had announced that we finally had arrived at our destination and other spaceships were on route to pick us up. Gathering up what little possessions we had the three of us were standing in line waiting to be picked up and brought to the surface of the world the humans called Jericho VII.

Scratching my back in an attempt to get rid of the itch that my wings were causing, we had already used long sheets of fabric to wrap around my torso and hide the wings even further, that didn’t change the fact that the feathery limbs on my back that almost touched my flanks were an almost constant source of itchiness. “Scootaloo to Sweetie, we’re about to get out of this stupid box and you’re still stuck to that tablet.”

My friend looked up from the object that the humans used as books, a flat device that could store an incredible amount of information. “Sorry, some of these subjects are just so exciting!” She squealed, I just rolled my eyes at the behavior. It wasn’t that I hadn’t also read up on some subjects, enough free time will drive you to do anything, I had read up on our new biology as I had always enjoyed Cheerilee’s anatomy and biology lessons but that’s something I’d never admit to anyone as it’s so not cool.

A metallic clang rang throughout the vessel as the airlock opened up to reveal more humans standing on the other side of the door, "Everyone, stay in line! we have space for about two thousand of you!" One of the newcomers called out as the crowd slowly moved into the new ship, as we moved through the airlock we were approached by a woman in a work outfit, a logo of a stylised Eagle that was sitting on a planet with the letters UNSC on a scroll below that signified her as a crew member of the ship.

"Hello there, would you three be so kind as to follow me? We have a fresh set of clothes and some food ready further up." She told us, we silently followed her to a small room which contained four beds which had a set of clothes put on top of all of them. "Please stay here until we reach the planet, the authorities downstairs are working to get emergency housing set up." She told us, waiting for us to agree to her before leaving for the airlock once again.

The room looked almost as bland as the one we had used on the grease bucket except that on the far wall opposing the door was a poster of a soldier, the words 'Stand, Fight, Serve' in bold below the human. "So, what are we going to do now?" It was a question we hadn't really thought about yet as there was little we could do about our situation while we were stuck in slipspace.

"Ah'm not sure" Apple Bloom admitted as she started switching out her clothes for the one on the bed, "But Ah reckon we ain't gonna get back to Harvest any time soon"

Although I knew that Apple Bloom was right the fact that getting back to Equestria was going to be a monstrous task but I wasn't going to sit idle like the last four months, "Then we'll just have to think up a solution to that problem, won't we? The first problem would be to get back to Harvest, I know of only one group of Humans that are going to go back there for sure."

"You mean the army?! Scootaloo, that's insane! We could get hurt, even killed if we went back there!" Sweetie looked aghast as I proposed my plan, of course it was dangerous but that wasn't going to stop me.

"I'm not going to wait until someone else is going to get the planet back! If to get back home I have to put myself out there I will do it!" The two of my friends remained quiet as I stared them down for a moment longer, turning around to put on the new clothes as mine were starting to wear out due to constant use.

"Alright, darnit Ah'm goin' as well, you two are the closest thing to family Ah have right now and Ah don't want to split up." A wave of relief came over me as at least one of my friends would be joining me, looking over at Sweetie she could be seen shuffling nervously but eventually, she sighed and gave in.

"Fine, but for the record; this is a terrible idea." She stated as she lay down on her bunk.

A large grin was plastered on my face as I followed suit, "Cutie Mark Crusader Marines?"

Both Sweetie and AB rolled their eyes, "Yeah, Ah guess so." Bloom finally said with a deep sigh. The next few hours we waited for the ship to go down planetside and when we eventually did the first thing we did was walk up to one of the soldiers that was overseeing the moving of the refugees.

"Hello, sir. Could you point us to the nearest recruitment office?" Sweetie's voice had shifted to a tone that made it seem as if what she asked had no significance at all. The soldier looked at the three of us curiously for a moment before he pointed at the other side of the spaceport.

"At the end of the dock take a right, should be able to find it easily with the posters they have there." He instructed, we thanked him and made our way to the building. None of us really spoke along the way, for me that was due to adrenaline but I'm sure Sweetie was just trying to hide her nerves while Apple Bloom probably just didn't feel like talking. A couple of minutes later we found the building, posters of soldiers hanging behind the windows of the office building. Inside there was a woman sitting behind the main desk, she immediately sat straighter as she noticed the three of us enter.

"Hello there, could I help you ladies?" She asked seemingly just as curious as the soldier on the dock had been. Sweetie once again stepped forward to talk to the lady.

"We want to sign up for the marines," Sweetie informed her which made the woman raise an eyebrow as she typed a few commands into her console.

"Of course! do you have a way to Identify yourself?" She asked as her fingers were rapidly tapping more buttons.

Ah crap we don't have those.

I grimaced but Sweetie continued as if it wasn't a problem, "I'm afraid we don't have those ma'am, we lost everything on Harvest."

The lady looked at us and then got out a device, "Please stand in front of the camera." She instructed, the three of us standing in front of the device one by one while the lady was intently watching her screen. "None of you are a match with any known insurrectionists and without Harvest's population register I wouldn't be surprised if there will be more requests for new Identification papers soon." She passed us a set of tablets, "If you put in your personal information here I might be able to get the application going at the same time as a request for new ID's."

We diligently filled in the information, skewing the age by a bit as these humans didn't really have to know that we weren't old enough to join the marines. The lady took the tablets back an motioned for us to sit down on a couch, "Wait there while I put these through the system, if it goes smoothly I might even be able to get you on the next boat to Reach for basic."

"When is that one going?" I asked in interest as we sat down, the sooner we got going the better as we had no bits so we would have to find a shelter to sleep tonight.

"The barge was scheduled for departure tomorrow so with some luck I might be able to add you three to the roster," she replied as she continued working for a while longer before she spoke up once again. "Bureaucracy seems to be working in your favor today, both requests are through. Do any of you have a tablet?" Sweetie nodded and gave the one she had gotten in the grease bucket to the lady who transferred a couple of files to it. "You can report to the Revenant, she's docked in sector 9A. I put in your admission files on the tablet and sent the update to the transport vessel."

We thanked the lady and headed out towards the ship, sleeping in there instead of a shelter was kind of appealing. That lady was way too helpful... or did we just get really lucky? Eh, as long as we get to go back to Harvest it probably won't matter. What could possibly go wrong anyway?

The itch, it was terrible! After boarding the transport ship we had been put into cryo-chambers, it spared us the boring trip but at the cost of having incredibly itchy skin. Making the situation even worse was that right after we had gotten out of cryo at a planet called Reach we were put through an initial fitness test to gauge how well the trainees were prepared for boot camp. Me and Bloom had passed with flying colors, the two of us somehow amazed the instructors with how strong Bloom was and how far I could run. Sweetie, on the other hand, was only managing to reach the bare minimums in the physical tests but would probably be able to get by much better once we would have to actually learn things.

The following thing we went to do was get all our clothes and equipment before being given a few basic instructions on how to behave and brought to a barrack to get some sleep. That was yesterday, now I was lying in bed trying to get some sleep before the real training would start which would probably be soon as the first rays of light were already coming through the window.

The door suddenly slammed open waking a couple of the others who were still asleep, "WAKE UP!" someone shouted as the lights momentarily blinded me. All other trainees were simultaneously jumping out of bed and trying to find clothes to put on before standing at attention as they had been instructed the day prior. "THREE MINUTES, YOU SLOWPOKES THINK THAT'S GOING TO BE QUICK ENOUGH WHEN YOU'RE OUT IN THE FIELD?!"

Everyone stayed silent as none of the thirty recruits had any idea how to react to the soldier. "WHEN I ASK A QUESTION I WANT AN ANSWER!"

"Sir, Yes Sir!" A couple of my our fellow recruits shouted in an attempt to please the soldier.

"I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" He shouted back as he looked at every single one of us.

"SIR, YES SIR!" We all shouted in a single voice, hoping he would accept it.

"GOOD! NOW IF I HEAR ANY SINGLE ONE OF YOU SHITS EVER CALL ME SIR AGAIN I'LL PT YOU ALL UNTIL YOU FUCKING DIE! I'M NO SIR, MY NAME IS GUNNERY SERGEANT RICHARDS, YOUR SENIOR DRILL INSTRUCTOR OVER THE NEXT FEW MONTHS. AM I CLEAR?!"

"Yes, Sergeant!" We shouted back, I'm pretty sure I could see a wet puddle forming below the feet of one recruits standing on the other side of the room.

"I CAN'T HEAR YOU! SOUND OFF LIKE YOU HAVE A PAIR!"

"YES, SERGEANT!" Richards looked around the room, his eyes stopping at the recruit who had pissed himself.

"RECRUIT DID YOU JUST PISS ALL OVER MY STAINLESS FLOOR?!" The sergeant shouted as he stormed up to the recruit, the puddle growing slightly.

"Yes, sergeant," He replied immediately, looking horrified afterward as he realized what he had just admitted to.

"HONESTY? THAT'S SOMETHING I CAN APPRECIATE, YOU HAVE EXACTLY FIVE SECONDS TO CLEAN THIS SHIT UP!" the recruit dove down, using the sleeve of his sleeping shirt to wipe away the piss.

"I JUST WANT TO INFORM YOU THAT WE ONLY WASH OUR CLOTHES ONCE A WEEK." The sergeant shouted as the recruit stood back at attention before he moved on, "NONE OF YOU ARE GOING TO LIKE ME BECAUSE I'M HARD. BUT I'M ALSO FAIR, I DON'T CARE WHAT COLONY YOU ARE FROM NOR IF YOU'RE A NIGGER, FAGGOT OR A DYKE, UNTIL YOU HAVE COMPLETED BASIC TRAINING YOU'RE ALL EQUALLY WORTHLESS IN MY EYES! DO YOU MAGGOTS UNDERSTAND THAT?!"

"YES, SERGEANT!" We all shouted in chorus, Sergeant Richards turned around and walked back to the exit.

"BREAKFAST IS AT O'SIX-THIRTY, IF YOU'RE NOT DRESSED BY THAT POINT YOU'LL GO THE DAY WITHOUT!" He thundered just before he slammed the door closed behind him

For a couple of seconds after the sergeant had left as everyone was too stunned to react or do anything, I was the first of the group to finally make a move as I rushed to my locker and started quickly dressing in the green fatigues we had gotten the day before. Next to me, I could see Sweetie and Apple Bloom similarly putting in the effort to get on their clothes. Rushing outside the group formed up and stood at attention, "PLATOON, ATTEN-TION!" Everyone changed their stance to a rigid one waiting for a new order,

What the hell did I get us in to? I asked myself as we started marching towards the mess hall.

After two weeks of being dragged through the dirt by the sergeant, it was strange to be sitting in a classroom once again, the group of thirty had shrunk to twenty as a third of the recruits had quit over the two weeks. Bloom and Sweetie were sitting next to me in class just as the only other girl in our unit, Ana Edwards, the other girls having quit before the first week had ended. When training had started the unit had initially singled us out to pick on due to our hair and names but that got quickly beaten out of them by the drill sergeant making the group tighter in the end.

The class we were attending was about military first aid, a topic that for some reason really interested me. My cool reputation be damned if it meant I could patch up my friends when they got hurt. We also already knew that later today we would be learning about ammunition and explosives, something Bloom had become excited about for some reason. But the most surprising was Sweetie as she couldn't wait to fire a rifle for the first time, even though the former unicorn was still deterred by the possibility of violence with the tools she still had developed the interest of firing the things.

Another thing that was still going relatively well was hiding our special abilities due to our... unique heritage. The female showers, unlike the male ones, had walls between them allowing for privacy. Only once was I almost caught as I was quickly preening my wings a large primary slipped out of my fingers and had dropped underneath the shower door where Ana had found it, we eventually managed to convince our roommate that I had found it in the field.

She's still holding onto that primary like it's a damn trophy.

I sighed as I took a couple of notes, Sweetie unlike me had been having a much easier time hiding her magic as it wasn't literally stuck to her back. Her practice had been paying off as well as every time the three of us were alone she was trying to levitate items, by this point she was already able to levitate all of her field equipment which is about twenty kilograms give or take.

The only thing that she hadn't made any progress on was portal magic, Twilight had taught her the basics of teleportation but even back in Equestria, she had proven useless in attempting the spell. Creating a spell from scratch that would have to rip a hole in dimensions was going to be a slight problem.

I felt a nudge in my side as Ana was leaning in, "Don't look now but I think there's a woman outside watching you." She whispered into my ear, resisting the urge to take a look out of the window I whispered back.

"What does she look like?"

Ana relaxed back in her chair but I could see her glancing out the window before she whispered once again, "Black suit, no patches or name. She just stood up and left, might just have been an officer taking a break."

I nodded, Still strange but it's probably nothing though.

Forgetting about the strange woman my attention returned to class as the corporal started explaining how to patch up bullet wounds.

"MOVE YOUR LAZY ARSE FASTER!" Gunfire came overhead as I crawled through the cold mud, my entire body was screaming at me to stop and take a rest but the little voice in the back of my mind was warning me of what the gunnery sergeant would do if I slowed down. It had been light when we had started with the obstacle course but by this point the lanterns beside the obstacle course were the only source of light beside the muzzle flashes. The moment I left the muddy pool I made a sprint towards a tall wall and jumped up against it, dragging myself on top of it. Next to me Ana also jumped up against the wall but failed to get a good grip and fell back down.

"Ana! Grab a hold!" I shouted down over the relentless firing of blanks in the background, the brown-haired trainee immediately jumping up and grabbing my hand. A short struggle later the two of us were on the other side of the wall and running towards the next obstacle. Ana wasn't the fastest runner of the group, that was me by a long shot, but somehow whenever we were running obstacle courses she always managed to be tied with me in first place.

"DUCK!" A corporal shouted, Ana immediately pulled me down onto the ground with herself. Blank rounds from the corporal's rifle went off over top of us as he held down the trigger, the instructors would do this ever so often and if you didn't respond quick enough you'd be considered 'dead' and have to redo the course.

"Thanks for that." I gasped as we continued running forwards, my lungs were burning from exertion as we reached the final obstacle, a bunch of ropes hanging over a pool. The two of us both picked one of the ropes and started crossing the gap to the other side, it wasn't long until I felt someone else grab onto the same rope I was hanging of off indicating that the rest of the group were catching up to us.

Dry ground appeared below me as I was nearly at the end of the rope, a couple of moments later I hit the ground with a dull thud and looked back at the ropes, Ana was also almost on my side of the rope while I could faintly see AB and Sweetie getting on the other end. Turning around I made the last Dash as fast as my body would allow and flopped down in the grass after I crossed the finish line of the course, not even the instructors were so cruel to stop any of us from taking a breather after they dragged us through an obstacle course.

Ana flopped down beside me as she too made it to the end, "Not bad, Firewing." I cringed slightly as she used my made up last name, it would have been a good cover name among pegasi but with humans, it stuck out like a sore thumb.

"Hey you kept up with me almost all the way, that's pretty awesome as well," I said as the rest of my fellow trainees started finishing, within two minutes everyone was in the grass breathing heavily.

"Commanders report!" Sergeant Richards shouted, Bloom and a couple of the guys swiftly got up from their resting place and made their way over to him. Every few weeks a couple of commanders would be chosen and placed at the head of a squad, I absolutely hated that job but Bloom had taken a liking to it and had volunteered for it multiple times making her our unofficial leader.

After the five commanders finished getting their orders from the sergeant AB came over to us to relay the information. "Gather 'round girls." She ordered as Sweetie, me, and Ana got up and stood in front of us, "After we reach the base we'll have 'bout forty minutes to get washed, our stuff stashed away, and into bed"

The three of us tiredly nodded as we got into formation with the other trainees for the movement back to base. A small smile creeping onto my face as I thought back on the day,
Still the most awesome thing I've ever done.

"five tango's in a three-sixty at the objective." Sweeties voice alerted us via radio as we snuck forward, a burst of static came over the radio as Bloom pressed the button on her radio in confirmation as we kept low to the ground within the high grass. Our objective, the flag that was planted in the middle of the field, barely visible as the only light we could rely on was coming from Reach's two moons. Over the last one and a half hour we had very slowly crawled up towards where our opponent had dug themselves in, Ana, Bloom and a male member of our platoon named Andrews were somewhere to my right.

Two more bursts of static came over the radio, the signal Apple Bloom had assigned as attack. Two three shot bursts came from the treeline taking out one of the defending forces, having been thoroughly informed by Sweetie who had the group's night vision equipment as to where our opponents were located. The four of us jumped up and opened fire on the four remaining defenders, Apple Bloom hitting another one of the defending forces with an m45 shotgun. meanwhile, more burst shots from Sweetie's rifle rained down on the three defenders who got out of their shock and started firing back at us only to be cut down by automatic fire from me, Ana, and Andrews.

"All tango's eliminated, retrieving objective for extraction." Andrews reported into his mic as he took down the flag, "Guess it's one - zero for the gir-" The trainee didn't get to finish his sentence as a large red spot of paint splattered over his helmet, the anesthetic that it contained immediately knocking him out.

"SNIPER! GET DOWN!" Not fancying to get shot I immediately followed Bloom's order dropped down on my stomach into one of the foxholes the defenders of Bravo team had dug to defend their flag.

"What the fuck! there were only supposed to be five of them!" Ana cursed as another shot impacted near to the hole she had jumped into.

"Unimportant, it's probably the staff trying to screw with us," Apple Bloom growled as she picked up an MA5 assault rifle of one of the defenders. "Sweetie do you have a visual on that sniper?"

"Negative! Get him to shoot again so I can see his muzzle flash!" I could hear Bloom silently cursing somewhere next to me. A plan formed in my mind as I pulled off my helmet and slowly raised it higher out of the Fox hole, a red paint splatter appearing on if almost immediately followed by the gun report of the sniper. "Spotted him! He's in one of the buildings at the side of the field!"

"Take him out," Bloom ordered, pulling a pin from one of the smoke grenades she carried. Burst fire from Sweetie's battle rifle flew over our heads towards the building while simultaneously two canisters dropped on the ground in front of us, spewing white smoke to obscure vision of our location just in case the sniper was still up. "Scoots, get the flag. Edwards, find Bravo's BR-55 and help Sweetie with suppression fire!"

We jumped from our cover immediately after Bloom finished giving her orders, I grabbed the flag and Ana quickly found the battle rifle to start firing on where the sniper might still be sitting. Bloom picked up the unconscious form of Andrews and started sprinting back over the open ground followed by me and Ana. The following sprint towards the treeline almost a hundred meters away from our location were probably the most nerve-racking seconds of the entire operation. To say this was the type of awesome stuff I had signed up for was an understatement, the adrenaline surge alone was epic.

The moment we reached the treeline we jumped into a ditch to take cover, Sweetie's rifle silencing moments after as she too retreated. "Everyone good?" Apple Bloom asked as sweetie slid into the ditch we were using as cover and took a defensive position just in case more surprises lurked in the forest, the three of us giving her a thumbs up. "Good, keep your guard up gals we don't know if there gonna be more surprises in store for us."

The four of us carefully got up and out of our ditch. Moving through the forest in tight formation with Sweetie at the front due to her having the night vision equipment, both me and Ana taking the left and right flank while Bloom was walking the middle.

How the hell is Bloom still carrying Andrews?! That must be more than one and a half times her own weight she's carrying!

Eventually, we reached our designated extraction point where, surprisingly, three members of staff were waiting for us. Not knowing if they were part of the exercise we carefully approached, weapons raised while scanning the environment for any traps. "At ease trainees, the exercise is over." The three of us calming down a bit but were still slightly on edge due to the excess adrenaline that was still coursing through our bodies. "We've been evaluating your performances over the past twenty weeks and this was our final test as to how you would react to changing mission parameters, you three passed with flying colors."

"Evaluatin' us fer what, Lieutenant?" Apple Bloom asked as she carefully lay Andrews on the ground.

Wait, that's the Lieutenant?! How the hell did I miss that? In the corner of my eye I could see Sweetie and Ana changing their stance appropriately.

"Every rotation of training we pick a couple of candidates who have shown outstanding performance and give them the opportunity to join the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers" My jaw must have hit the floor as the lieutenant finished his sentence,

They're recommending us for special operations?! That's so awesome!

"I understand if you four will have to think about this, the sergeant has pulled you out of tomorrow's roster so you can have some time to yourselves." The lieutenant continued as a couple of Warthog all-terrain vehicles came driving into the clearing, "You're dismissed." The Warthog roared as it left with the lieutenant, a couple of corporals and gunnery sergeant Richards being left behind.

"I've got a pelican on standby that can take the four of you to New Alexandria, the LT will want to know if you want to join the ODST's by Monday so give it a thought," Richards said in a tone that we hadn't really heard from our drill-sergeant before.

"We will, sergeant." Apple Bloom said as she saluted our superior. A couple of minutes later we were sitting on the back of one of the warthogs that were driving back to base, Ana had been glancing at the three of us constantly for some reason. "You know ah ain't gonna bite you, right?" Applebloom asked as she also picked up on the behavior.

"Well... since you three are also headed to New Alexandria would it be possible that I stayed with you?" She asked nervously, "Ever since I joined boot camp I haven't exactly been welcome at home anymore."

I raised an eyebrow at that comment, I knew the war against the insurrectionists was unpopular but ever since the UNSC had announced that they were now in a state of war with the aliens that had attacked Harvest I would have guessed disdain for people joining the military would lower. I guess I was wrong.

"I don't think that's too much trouble, you girls have any problems with it?" I asked both Sweetie and Bloom shaking their heads.

"We'll just have to hire a larger suite for the weekend than we normally do," Sweetie commented, ever since we went into training we had been paid a full salary but without anything to spend it on we had quite a lot of savings built up, so renting a room for four wasn't that much of a big deal.

"Thank you girls, I wasn't sure what I was going to do if I couldn't stay with you," Ana admitted as the tension that had built up left her body.

After arriving at base we changed into civilian clothes before being shuttled off towards the city, a short taxi drive later we entered the hotel where we had stayed whenever we got leave. Greeting the regular clerk at the front desk we got a four-person room to stay for the weekend and store what little stuff we had. "So what do you three usually do on leave?" Ana asked as she stuffed her duffle bag into a closet.

Wing maintenance, but that's something you don't have to know about. I thought as I scratched the back of my head before answering, "Sit around for a bit, play card games, talk, that kind of stuff."

Ana looked at us with a bewildered expression on her face, "You three never go out or anything?!"

Me, AB, and Sweetie looked at each other unsure if it was a good idea to go out, none of us really had come up with the idea before, "I guess we could do that." Sweetie admitted, "Do you know a good place where we could go?"

Ana's smile reminded me of one Pinkie would give you when she heard you needed a party as she quickly led us out of the hotel once again into a cab, "I know this place that's not too crowded most of the times, we'll get a booth there and enjoy the music for a bit while we can discuss the LT's proposal."

"Sounds pretty good to me" Both Sweetie and Bloom nodded in agreement, the cab came to a stop fifteen minutes later in front of a very well lit up building, music booming from the entrance. After getting past the bouncer we headed for an empty table that wasn't too close to the stage so we could talk to each other a waitress immediately approaching us.

"Welcome to the prancing pony, what can I get you ladies?" The woman asked.

"Y'all have cider?" Applebloom asked, the waitress immediately checked her data-pad and nodded. "Ah'll have one of those then."

"Another one for me, please." Sweetie squeaked as the waiter looked at her.

"Me three," I said as I heard Ana snickering beside me.

"You three are adorable ordering the same drink." She laughed as she turned to the waitress, "I'll just have a beer."

The waitress nodded and moved off to get our order, "So, since we're still fresh we should probably discuss the LT's proposal."

"Ah guess we should," Applebloom asked as she comfortably sat back in her chair. "So, what do y'all think about it?"

"I'm up for it!" I immediately answered, "I mean, Helljumpers. That probably the most awesome job in the UNSC and we'll be an autonomous unit meaning we don't have a CO breathing down our necks constantly!"

“But it’s also the most dangerous job in the UNSC, the orbital insertion pods don’t always make it to the ground.” Sweetie countered, “But I guess the autonomy will be nice.” She added as she probably realized it would help with our secondary priority.

“Ah’m in. We’ll kick them varmin off that planet one way or another.” Bloom nodded as the waiter came back with our drinks, AB immediately took a large gulp only to recoil slightly and suddenly start laughing. “Darn that’s some hard cider if I ever had some, Ah remember mah sis’ givin’ me a flank tanning ‘cause I got into the cellar.”

The smile AB had on her face was infectious as the four of us shared a laugh, imagining how angry Applejack would have been at Bloom.

“You sound like you really care about your family,” Ana commented as she took a sip from her beer, I could see Apple Bloom frowning as our fourth friend hit an extremely touchy subject with a sledgehammer. Both me and Sweetie had avoided talking about the Apple family as much as possible as out of the three of us Bloom had taken the sudden loss of her entire family the hardest, this was something Ana didn’t know because we didn’t talk about it on base and we generally kept to ourselves when we were on leave.

“Yeah ah did,” Bloom said as a tear rolled over her cheek, Ana immediately looking guilty as she saw the change in AB’s mood.

“I-I’m sorry I didn’t know,-”

“Don’t worry about it, Ya couldn’t have known,” Bloom said, cutting our friend off. The insinuation wasn’t exactly the truth but without the ability to travel between dimensions it might as well have been.

“So, Ana, you haven’t told us yet if you’re going to join up,” Sweetie said, tactically steering the conversation away from the Apple family.

The human snorted, “I made my decision to join the moment they proposed. I just wanted to know if you were going too.” She told us as she gulped down more of her beer.

"To us then," I said as I raised my glass, "Helljumpers!"

I was rummaging through my medical bag and checking its contents while Sweetie had her M99 Stanchion sniper rifle disassembled in front of her and was diligently cleaning and reassembling every part. Behind me, Ana was sitting in the grass reading a book while Sergeant Applebloom was sharpening her titanium combat knife.

The last few days had been relatively peaceful compared to what we had endured in training, after finishing the regular marine basic we transferred to the ODST basic which in my opinion is properly described as eternity in Tartarus condensed into six weeks. Every single one of us reached a point where we just snapped and broke down crying but every time one of the other girls would pick the other up and help them continue on.
All that for the black beret that was now gracefully sitting on my head but looking back on all the crap we had done I can't deny that it has given us a whole bunch of awesome bragging rights for when we would get back home.

Luckily after basic ended and we were attached to a unit in Battlegroup X-Ray we got much more freedom to do and go as we wanted. Which meant we could now prepare for deployment as the battlegroup was assembling in orbit above us, in a couple of days it would leave for Harvest and go take the fight to the 'Covenant', the alien alliance that had attacked the UNSC.

I closed my medical kit as I finished checking my equipment: one canister of biofoam, a medical scanner to detect broken bones and internal trauma, an extra battery for the scanner, a whole lot of bandages, antibiotics, and a couple of other Items that might help save lives in critical situations.

Now it was just waiting for our ride with the space elevator to get up to the fleet and eventually our arrival at Harvest.

That Covenant was going to encounter a nasty surprise if they thought they could get between me and home.