//------------------------------// // Chapter 15 // Story: Contact Harvest // by CommanderApplejack //------------------------------// Aut viam inveniam aut faciam I shall either find a way or make one. I rolled my eyes as I read over the report on my tablet as I walked over the base. Scootaloo was sitting somewhere in the brig for getting into a fight with some civilians, I could’ve stuck my neck out for her but, to be honest, I didn’t really feel like it. She probably wasn’t even that concerned with her situation anyway. Plus I had other concerns at the moment. Doctor Halsey had sent an encrypted message to me with instructions to return to castle base. Not much on why exactly but considering what I’d worked on before it was most likely classified into high hell. Pelicans were being loaded all around as I got to the landing areas, all except one belonging to the marine corps but one was a dark grey one without markings. “Doctor Shimmer?” “Around here it’s sergeant, not am I a doctor in the first place,” Sunset replied as she approached a man waiting outside of the pelican. “Of course. Please take a seat, we’ll be going soon.” I strapped myself into one of the seats and waited, three others joining me in the transport before we took off. I’d have made small talk with the others if they weren’t most likely ONI spooks, she didn’t particularly want to rub any one of them in the wrong way. I wonder what Halsey has me coming in for... Might it have something to do with that horrid experiment she made me work out? I shivered at the thought and banished it to the back of my mind as the pelican soared towards the underground base. The pelican eventually set back down inside the facility, the door opening up and letting us go out own ways. A man in a lab coat was waiting for me at the bottom of the ramp. “Miss Shimmer, please follow me,” he said, leading me past various checkpoints to get deeper into the base. “Sooo, we haven’t met. What’s your name?” “We’ll be at Doctor Halsey soon,” the guy answered, shooting down any form of conversation we could have had right then and there. “Riighhht, ok...” I sighed, going along with him down an elevator to one of the lower levels. A couple of the guards in the hallways reminded us not the be too curious about some of the things we’d pass in there. Not that it stopped me from glancing in on some rooms and spotting things like disassembled Covenant weapons. Somewhere near the end we entered a medical laboratory where Halsey was waiting in front of a holoscreen with a large privacy screen behind it. “Your ‘trainee’, Doctor.” Halsey turned to glance at me before refocussing on her work. “Thank you. You can go.” The man moved off, closing the door to the room behind him. “What’s going on Doctor? I am in the middle of my project, which I’m sure you are keeping a close eye on as well,” I asked stepping up to look over the hologram with information, frowning as I recognised the data on there. That’s my work... is she working on that child from the data she gave me? “I am quite aware Shimmer. I just thought you’d be interested in what we found here,” Halsey answered, turning the privacy screen in front of us transparant and revealing an operating table with a cry-pod that was de-thawing. My eyes widened at the large female that lay inside of the pod, surgical scars clearly visible all over her body. “Your thaumic detector was giving off readings when we pointed it at her.” I shook my head to stop myself from staring at the female. “Pardon me?” “My subject has your ‘magic’” Halsey re-itterated again, the pod opened up as the surgical machines kicking to life and starting to operate to my discomfort. “It also changes the scope of your little project, I’ve arranged for proper housing on another base where you can focus more on your particular training.” “Wait, what? Miska’s training isn’t done yet and I can’t take that over?!” I exclaimed. “That will be taken care of. Your job will be purely training and research from this point on,” Halsey said as she sent instructions to the surgical machines, liquids flowing through tubes into the girl on the table. I wanted to protest against Halsey’s interference with my work but thinking about it for two more seconds was all I needed to relize it wouldn’t matter anyway, the doctor had way more clout than I could ever muster within ONI. The girl on the table then suddenly shot up from the table and jumped off of it. She gasped for air as she looked around, her movements seemed erradic as if she had never learned how to use her body. I guess that might well be right... “Maria, you need to calm down,” Halsey spoke, the girl snapping towards where the sound came from. “You’ve been under for a while, please get back on the table.” “Yes, ma’am,” Maria answered, calming down immediately and laying back down on the table obediently while the machines continued their work. I observed the little interaction in awe, the girl hadn’t even questioned Halsey’s order for the fraction of a second. “Doctor Halsey, where am I? Where are the others?” “You’re inside Castle Base, your body did not take the initial augmentation well so you’ve been in ice while we searched for a way to resussitate you... an opportunity granted to me by miss Shimmer here.” Halsey dropped the privacy screen completely, allowing Maria to see them as well. The girl shot me a genuine and warm smile but for some reason it still sent a shiver up my spine. “Thank you,” she simply said before looking back over to Halsey. “How long?” “A little over two years,” Halsey answered. “The procedure is done, but there’s another additional piece of information miss Shimmer here will inform you of. I need to turn my attention to other projects for a moment, I will send some people in half an hour and visit later.” Maria sat up right on the operating table as Halsey left us alone, letting the privacy screen open up as she left. I awkwardly just stood there as Maria looked at me expectedly. “You had something to brief me on, sergeant?” Maria asked, taking the initiative as I didn’t. “Oh, right, uhm... There’s something I need to do check Doctor Halsey’s readings. May I?” Maria nodded, allowing me to get close and try to get a reading. Pushing magic into my hands a faint glow started to light up around them just as my eyes started to glow as well... I was face down on the floor with an arm twisted behind my back before I realized what happened. “What was that?” Maria had a knee planted firmly on my upper back to pin me onto the floor, her tone of voice was completely neutral without any trace of emotion. “Thaumic scanning field,” I choked out, air pressed from my lungs. “There’s something real special about you, something I’ve only found in one other human.” “One other human?” “Yes, she-” “You don’t count yourself as human?” Maria cut me off, now there was a hint of confusion in her voice. I knew I was supposed to keep my origin a secret but that wasn’t really my first priority at that moment. “No, I’m not.” Maria remained on my back incomplete silence but I could feel her eyes piercing the back of my head. Slowly but surely the pressure on me released, allowing me to get a good breath of air. “Explain.” “I’m an interdimentional traveler, I’m here by accident and am helping out with the war effort until I find a way back,” I told her, Maria only gave me a sceptical look. “Let’s just say I believe you, what was that glow from your hands and eyes?” “Magic.” “Bullshit.” “You can do it too.” Maria wanted to say something else but paused, a slight glimmer in her eyes. “Prove it.” I carefully raised my hands again, pushing in my magic to get a feel for Maria’s magic. The tall woman didn’t floor me this time and allow me to thoroughly scan her for a wellspring. Wow... I can even feel the heat from her affinity... “Maria, hold out your arms and don’t panic.” Pulling on Maria’s magic I routed it to her hands, flames coming to life between her fingers. It spoke volumes of the disipline the girl had that she didn’t recoil at the sight of the flames as I let go of her magic to do its own thing. The fire lasted for a bit longer before dying down without any magic actively feeding it due to Maria not being able to control her own magic. “My job is to teach you how to do that and much more.” “Alright, just one more thing... What war effort?” Snow crunched below my boots as I carried along my duffle bag filled with my gear over the base we’d arrived at. Other than the urgent orders to report to New Alexandria’s spaceport for transport we’d heard virtually nothing. Bloom was further up ahead and talking to a superior, Scootaloo lugging around her duffle bag as extra baggage. “Think I pissed them off a bit too much this time?” Scootaloo asked as we waited for Apple Bloom to come tell us what was going on. “Nah, you did way worse on Harvest,” I shrugged, shivering slightly as the cold was seeping through my clothes. “This is Reach though, they care a heck of a lot more about security here,” Ana countered. “This would be the perfect place to ditch disobedient soldiers until they can be shipped off planet.” “Or it’s the perfect place to hide a classified program.” We turned to see Sunset approach us with winter clothes on. Apple Bloom joined as well as she got done getting the information she needed. “I’ll tell you more when you get settled in, follow me.” “So ya still struttin’ around as a sarge, Shimmer?” Apple bloom asked as we entered one of the compounds, hot air washing over us as we entered. “They were all the clothes I had on short notice, I’ll get new stuff soon and you’ll have to call me agent Shimmer from then on,” she smirked, showing us a bunk room with six beds, one noticably larger than the other five. “So what is the deal with pulling us off leave?” I asked, picking one of the beds and tossing my stuff onto it. “Well, to start this off, anything discussed and experienced on this base are highly classified. Talk of anything you saw here and you’ll be tried under treason, looking at you specifically Scootaloo.” Scootaloo backed off a bit, holding up her hands defensively "Whoa there, I'm not that stupid. Won't hear anything of me." "Good, now to what you're doing here. As you know, I've been working with a human who's been magically sensitive for a while now. Recently we found another one who was as well and... let's just say it's a, uhm, sensitive matter. Higher ups decided to move anyone who is found with magical abilities to this place and train them up to become part of a specialized unit." "I take that I'm the exeption here then?" Ana asked. "You and Apple Bloom actually, they don't see super strength as a massive tactical advantage in comparison to being able to summon a flamethrower from your hands," Sunset pointed out. "Fair enough, though the fact we're here means we won't be sitting still I take?" Ana continued as she unpacked her stuff and started to store things away into the locker next to the bed. "Probably, I don't know what though. My focus will be on training Sweetie, Miska, and Maria." "Maria huh? We gonna meet her soon then?" Apple Bloom asked, someone cleared her throat in the door opening in response. A lady that stood at least a head above all of us stepped in, a patch I didn't recognize of an eagle clutching three arrows and a lightning bolt on her shoulders. The Chief petty officer stripes I did recognized though, every one of us except Sunset jumped to attention as the lady passed. "At ease," she told us as she claimed the large bed. "This is Maria, girls," Sunset said while we were just looking at the tall ball of muscles in awe. "Damn, you're tall," Scootaloo just blurted out, "What unit are you from?" "Classified." "They're authorized," Sunset informed Maria who gave her a nod in understanding. "Special Proficiency Assault Recon and Tactics Augmented Nonconventional force, SPARTAN force in short," she said, turning and starting to put her stuff into her locker like we'd been doing only way faster. "I've got things to do and prepare for later, I expect you and Maria to be ready in an hour for lessons though," Sunset said, looking at me. "Understood, agent Shimmer." Sunset left us alone to get settled in but every one of us couldn't help but be drawn to Maria as she finished storing her gear and took a seat at the table near the window at the back of the room to look outside. "So, did you get pulled away from a deployment, Maria?" I asked while changing up clothes that were more suitable to attend Sunset's lesson in. "No, we just finished training," she curtly answered, not even moving her sight from the window. "Never seen any real action then? They just picked rookies for some highly classified unit?" Scootaloo questioned, undoing the straps of her armor, presumably to get her wings out. "We were trained with live ammo," Maria answered with as few words possible again. "Ya ain't much of a talker, aren't ya?" Apple Bloom chuckled, Maria turned to respond but stopped at Scootaloo as she spread her wings to their full length. "What? Did you think you're the only special person here?" Scootaloo smirked, starting to preen out some of the broken feathers. "You come from the place agent Shimmer came from?" Maria asked, her interest piqued. "Ya know 'bout that? Or did she just give ya the short of it?" Apple Bloom asked as she took a seat across from Maria. "She informed me, though I wasn't briefed on the four of you," the Spartan admitted. "I take only the corporal over there is able to do 'magic' since she and I are the only ones going to see Shimmer?" "Only ones to use active magic. There's another person who can but she isn't here," I nodded. "That doesn't mean the rest of us ain't got somethin' special 'bout us," Bloom grinned, propping her remaining arm on the table as a challange to Maria. The Spartan looked but hesitated, "I don't think that's a good idea." "Come on! You're not a chicken, right?" Scootaloo cheekilly poked at Maria who took the challenge but still didn't look too sure. The two of them started applying strength to each others arm to try and push it towards the table, at first Bloom lost some ground but soon the earthpony strength in her started to show as she struggled back to a neutral position. "I'll be damned. Come on Maria, don't let Bloom win that easilly!" Scootaloo cheered as she relized this was a way more even contest than she'd thought it would be, Bloom had beaten her with ease on many occasions. "Good... ta hear... which side yer on..." Apple Bloom grunted as she pushed Maria's arm further towards the table. The Spartan though had yet to commit fully, bracing herself she faught herself to neutral and reversed the situation. Bloom's arm slowly got pushed down to the table, she did everything to delay the inevitable but eventually her arm hit the desk to Scootaloo's delight. "Darn, yer strong girl," Apple Bloom panted as she massaged her arm with her prostetic one. "Not bad yourself, sergeant," Maria said, slightly impressed that she didn't just crush Bloom immediately. "I was afraid I'd break the bones in your arm." Bloom laughed for a moment, "Ah've got strong bones, if Ah didn't this arm probably wouldn't have been the only thing blown off." "Glad that didn't happen, I can't fix bits and pieces," Scootaloo smirked, slapping Apple Bloom on the back with her wing. Maria actually had the glimmer of a smile on her lips, "Say, if we get the time, want me to show you four some shooting tips?" I lauged in response, "Pretty confident there, want to bet I out shoot you on the range with my long gun?" "I'll take that bet," Maria said, holding out her hand for me to shake. "Deal."