Knowledge is a treasure, but practice is the key to it.
-Lao Tzu
I Grinned savagely as I dried off my soaked hair and got the water out of my wings, glad to be rid of the sweat that had built up from the PT session.
That’s one they’re never going to forget ever again. I grinned as I remembered the trainees’ faces as I just kept going and going while they were nearly dropping from exhaustion. No-one beats me on the obstacle course!
Shimmer had also been participating in the exercises and, to be honest, she didn’t do half bad herself. I’d expected her to fall behind with her just being an undercover spook but she surprised me when she managed to keep up for a good bit. Not for the entirety of the time of course, not everyone can be as awesome as the ODST’s after all.
Wrapping up my wings again, after I’d gotten out all of the moisture, I got re-dressed in some fatigues before stepping back out into the hall to get back to the bunkroom. There were some other trainees walking through the hall but they all got out of my way as I passed, they’d learned to respect me over the last couple days.
Moving back into the girl’s room where they were already studying up on one thing or the other. Not that I was interested in it for the moment as I got some loose clothes from my locker and a tablet to work on the presentation I was due to give to the trainees in the evening.
Compiling pictures from my helmet’s camera feed from missions on Harvest I had made a compilation of the various Covenant species they would face, their behavior and ranks along with personal tactics on how to deal with every one of them. Sunset would pick Miska and me up for the trainee’s first magic lesson with me present in an hour so I decided to use that time to clean up the rough edges off my work.
“Hey Corporal, ever get scared out there?” one of the trainees asked, breaking the silence of the room. I looked up at her from my work as I was nearly done anyhow.
“Plenty of times,” I answered without question, the trainee looking surprised at the answer. “Fear is just another tool your body has to keep you on edge. Let it guide you to stay sharp but never let it take over and control your actions.”
“Oh... ok,” the trainee said slightly surprised by the answer.
“You’ll understand why one would be scared after the presentation tonight. They’re beatable but don’t expect an easy fight.”
The door of the room opened and revealed Sunset in casual dress standing in its frame. “Trainee Natália, Corporal, you two ready?”
“As always, Sarge!” Miska immediately replied, grabbing a little bag and walking to the door. I quickly closed and saved everything I was working on and threw the tablet into the locker and closed it up.
“Am ready too, anything I should take?”
“You not really, we have everything split between us two,” Sunset answered as she lead them to one of the larger rooms inside of the barrack building, setting down her bag on the floor as she and Miska sat down across to each other on the floor.
“So what do you two do out here?” I asked as I leaned against the wall, my wings twitching under the wrappings.
“Meditation among other things, though we’ll do some more practical work not to bore you too much,” Sunset smirked at me before turning back to Miska. “You go meditate for a bit, we’ll work on your shield spell after that.”
Miska closed her eyes and sat completely still while Sunset observed her…
Ughh, I’m getting rid of these wraps, not like these two care.
Pulling off my clothes, leaving only my sports bra in place, I spread my wings and allowed their joints to pop as I spread them fully.
“Scoots, really?” I turned to see both Miska and Sunset staring at me, the trainee with a slightly red face.
“What? Just want them to get some air,” I said casually before smirking wildly and taking on a suggestive pose. “Unless you want to admire my perfectly trained body that is. Not an ounce of fat present here.”
“Corporal, shut up,” Sunset said blankly, shaking her head.
“Aye aye, Sarge,” I laughed, getting a chair that was stacked up to the side and taking a seat to work on some wing maintenance and not disturb the others too much until they got to the interesting stuff.
What I did not expect though that suddenly both Shimmer’s and Miska’s body started glowing, the equestrian in red and the human a light green. Miska’s light though soon started to flicker until it blinked out completely.
“Ugh, I still don’t have it,” she grumbled as Sunset too cut off her magic.
“You’ll get it. Your wellspring is already much larger than when we started,” Sunset smiled as she got off the floor and brought up her hand. “Ready?”
Half a bubble of magic shielding appeared around Miska as she grinned confidently. I for one was sitting at the edge of my chair to observe the action in front of me. “Bring it on!”
Sunset’s hand lit up brightly as she shot a lance of sorts at the shielding, making the trainee grunt but hold up her effort.
Wow, what if Sweetie could have done that… We’d have had a massive advantage in some situations...
Miska’s shield was glowing red hot, strain clearly visible on her face as she tried holding against Sunset’s assault. She managed to hold for a good twenty seconds before Sunset cut off her barrage, the shield having cracks all over it.
“What’s the equivalent energy that was just dispersed on that shield? I mean, looks impressive but can it stop plasma or needles?” I asked, now very interested in the workings of this.
“Well, localizing the shield to the front has strengthened it significantly and with the data I could scrape from ONI I estimate Miska here can take a single wraith blast and a heck of a lot of fire from any other source,” Shimmer said, making me giddy. Miska would definitely be of use on the field by being a mobile shield to allies.
“That’s awesome. We could definitely use more like you in the field,” I smiled, giving the panting human a slap on the back with a wing. Miska let out a loud ‘oof’ and stumbled forward a bit from the force.
“Thanks… Say, corporal, can you fly with those?” Miska asked, pointing at my wings. A grin formed on my face as I crossed my arms and flapped my two appendages to get myself into a low hover to Miska’s awe. “That’s awesome,”
“Sadly not too useful in most situations, flying high just makes you target practice for the covies. It does help in night operations though,” I admitted, landing again since there wasn’t too much space. “Anyway, you two got more tricks up your sleeves?”
“Not really, just wanted to check up on her level of progress. I usually plan the more extensive exercises on free weekends. Just wanted to show you some of the things I might be able to teach Sweetie as well.”
I nodded. “Looks good. Let’s hope she wakes soon so she can learn this stuff.”
“Yeah, I would like to see those two running around again as soon as possible,” Sunset told me with a gentle smile. “Those two will bounce right back, Scoots. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about your mirrors in my world it’s that you three can get back up from anything.”
“Thanks,” I replied, “I should get ready for my presentation tonight. See you two there.”
Checking if my armor was well in place for a last time, I put down my tablet with notes on the little desk I had appropriated for myself. I’d decided to put on the armor as the bulky nature of it hid my wings better, even though I really didn’t care much, ONI had made it clear that they did via a very clearly laid out message.
I guess wearing the armor isn’t too bad anyway.
That thought was by no means an understatement, parts of the paint had been burned off and the armor had plenty of places with dents and gouges. The only place that really had remained immaculate was the ONI logo gleaming at the center of the chestplate.
Of course, that thing would survive it’s time on Harvest.
The doors at the back of the room opened as the first staff came in to check if I was ready, the trainees coming in as they saw that was the case. There was some murmuring in the room as everyone took their seats, the staff taking positions around the group and at the back, Sunset being among them. After sighing I cleared my throat which immediately silenced everyone in the room to my pleasant surprise.
“Good evening everyone, did you all have good day today?” I opened getting a couple of affirmations from the crowd. “Good, good, now I’m here tonight to give you all some insight on the enemies you will face out there to hopefully prepare you the best I can. If you have questions about something I said feel free to raise your arm.”
The projection behind me changed to show a summary list of the presentation.
“I’ll start off by showing you the general infantry the Covenant uses and move up to the specialized roles and finish up with some Covenant vehicles,” I explained opening up the next projection of a grunt, the picture having come from a recon we’d performed. Some of the trainees spoke to each other in muffled voices as they looked on with wide eyes. “This is what we call Grunts in the field, they are the most numerous of the enemies you will face. They operate in large squads with an attached leader, this is also their weakness as the moment you take those leaders out they’ll lose cohesion and panic. Easy pickings.”
I continued to explain the weaknesses of the grunts, jackals, and drones before moving on to the bigger targets like elites. Informing them about the energy shielding, stealth, and energy swords before showing a video of one of our engagements with them. “Just so you know, this wasn’t our cleanest engagement we had with one of them.”
The video played as a minor elite charged forward, rounds pinging off its energy shielding. It got into mele range within seconds, swatting Anna aside with a backhand before taking a face full of buckshot from Apple Bloom who had to dive out of the way of an energy sword immediately after. Before the elite could press though an ear-deafening boom from Sweetie’s sniper blew a fist-sized hole into the alien. The video cutting off after that, and a hand was raised in the crowd.
“Yes, what’s your question?”
“Well, for one, that ODST was he fine? And how often do you encounter those?” the man asked.
“Yeah, Anna had a couple bruises but she got off pretty well there and you’ll see those pretty often. The advantage you has is that you’ll mostly operate in larger numbers, taking down shields is much easier if you have overwhelming firepower on your side,” I told him, returning to my presentation to explain further, covering everything else from the brutes to the scarabs before ending it. The trainees having watched with immense interest throughout it all asked a couple more questions before slowly leaving for their bunks for the night.
“Man, you went through some shit out there. You definitely got my respect,” A corporal said as he passed.
“Yeah, not done yet though. The moment my friends are back up I want to get back out there. No offense but I like to make myself useful out there,” I told him, closing down the projector and presentation with my tablet. He chuckled in response as Sunset joined him.
“You’ve got interesting friends, Shimmer.” He chuckled, giving a pat on the sarge’s back before walking off. A faint blush visible on Shimmer’s face betrayed her feelings to me though I decided to leave it for later.
“So, think I did well?” I asked her stashing the tablet away.
“Oh, you did just fine. I’m glad for it too because we can show them pictures but no-one here has first-hand experience with them. At most they’ll have fought insurrectionists.”
“Yeah, gonna be a whole different training circumstances when some of the wounded that can’t fight anymore start training around here.”
“Definitely,” Sunset agreed as my tablet buzzed from an incoming call. Looking at the screen I found it to be Anna who was calling.
“Hey there, everything cool over at the hospital?” I asked as I picked up the call, Anna’s face appearing on the screen.
“Definitely Scoots, I got a surprise for you,” Anna replied, changing the angle of the camera to show Sweetie awake and well laying in a hospital bed.
“Sweetie!” I shouted with a smile at seeing my friend in a decent state. Sunset slid up next to me to look at the screen as well.
“Hi Scoots, glad to see you’re in good shape. Anna filled me in on what happened back on Harvest,” Sweetie said with a slightly hoarse throat but a smile on her face.
“It was a mess,” I grumbled, remembering the absolute state Bloom and Sweetie had been in.
“The two of you got us out of there and I hear we have you to thank to keep us stable Scoots. We knew the risk and we were among the lucky, we’re still alive.”
“Thanks Sweetie.” I looked to the side at Sunset. “Think you can get me a ride back to the hospital any time soon?”
“There’s reduced traffic at night but I’ll see what I can do,” Sunset nodded, getting her own tablet and looking up a couple of things. Turning back to the video feed showed that Anna had given the tablet over to Sweetie.
“How is Apple Bloom doing by the way?” I asked, wanting to hear if she might be up as well though not expecting anything.
“She’s getting better, Anna got word from the doctors they might try to wake her if she remains stable over the next few days,” Sweetie replied, relieving me greatly. “I saw what happened to her Scoots, they think it would very well be possible that she might be able to get a mechanical arm though.” A smirk found itself onto Sweetie’s face. “AJ’s reaction is going to be legendary when we get back.”
I chuckled at the mental image of Applejack seeing AB like that for the first time, a certain white unicorn coming to mind as well. “Only Applejack? What about your sister? She’s already had a dramatic streak to her.”
“Oh, she’ll definitely faint seeing me half scarred. Rainbow will probably be hanging off of you for your ‘awesome’ stories though,” Sweetie laughed as Sunset tapped on my shoulder.
“I found a cargo flight heading in the right direction, You hitch a ride with them and get some civilian transport to the hospital itself,” Sunset said, sending over the info to my tablet. “I’ll inform the Lt you’re at the hospital.”
“Thanks Shimmer,” I told her before turning to Sweetie again. “See you at the hospital soon.”
“You too Scoots, hope to see you soon.”