//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Battlefield: Causatum // by Obvious German //------------------------------// March 20th, 2014/ Tehran, Iran 2245 Hours, The city lay quiet; one would’ve said it was a peaceful city that everyone would’ve gone to. But the actual reason why it was quiet was far out from the very definition of ‘peace’. No, very far out. The voices of men speaking Arabic reverberated throughout the ghost city as they inspected each and every corner for their enemy. “Have you found them?” “No, they seem to hide like the treacherous dogs they are.” “Keep looking, anyone who tries to hide is to be shot on sight, orders from the boss.” Unknown to these well armed men, three dark and crouched figures slunk through the darkness. The flickering lights of dying street posts shone on them momentarily before they disappeared into the shadows. Elsewhere, someone had their sights dead on the Iranians. “Golf Three here, clear for fire?” “Negative Three, stay low until we’re clear for sync shot,” responded a shadowy man as the trio approached the surveying Iranians. “We’re close enough boss, I think we should fire.” “Good call. Get ready your weapons for contact and make sure they counts.” Their weapons slowly clicked and were slowly raised up to bear at the unaware Iranians. “…Dead marine here! Too bad we cannot rescue this pitiful soul, but at least he isn't hiding!” “Be silent! If they can hear us they will run from where they are!” Two of them started chuckling at the joke before being shushed by the leader as he bent down to scavenge ammo from the dead soldier. Picking up a picture of this man with his wife, he dropped in on the ground and stomped hard on it in a show of disrespect, earning a loud cheer of one of his comrade. They've been oppressed by the United States on grounds of their 'assistance', so this was their little payback. Close by, the figures had their suppressed weapons aimed for the soldiers’ heads. “Fucker, that is pure fuckin’ disrespect right there for our boys.” “That’s why we’re doing this,” The leader looked up into the sky, spotting the glare of a laser on the rooftop of a collapsed building not too far away, “Take the one on the left, we’ll cover the others.” “Got it,” The sniper’s weapon focused on one particular Iranian who was equipped to the max with an unloaded RPG and an imported carbine. “Ready?” He held out his fingers in the air, the others hesitated for the shot. “Ready when you are, sir.” It was three seconds before he waved down his hand. “Fire.” The muffled popping of bullets slammed into three unlucky soldiers who fell down silent and cold. The RPG Iranian looked at his dead comrades in fear before he raised his weapon up and cursed into the sky. In a split second, his skull was caved out by a speeding bullet from the sniper above. All of them lay dead on the cracked tarmac, part of the graveyard of marines and wrecked vehicles. The city was still again, only populated by flickering lampposts that stood bent on the streets of this city. “Good job boys. Scott, go check the bodies and get some ammo, it’s going to be a while before we can set up camp.” “On it,” A uniformed marine with a rocket launcher of his on his back nodded in response and got up. He sprinted over to the corpses of the Iranians and scoured their bodies for ammunition, procuring at least three compatible magazines and two grenades. “Here’s some mags for ya’, boss.” He threw a magazine into the air, which the leader caught with considerable ease. Fitting it onto a free pouch in his ammunition strap, he tapped into the sniper’s communication. “We’ve cleared out all hostiles in the vicinity, get your ass down here ASAP.” “Got it, Hershowitz,” The sniper packed up his deadly M82 Barrett and quickly scuttled down from a ruined stairwell while the three soldiers stood over the dead soldiers. “Fuckin’ bastards I tell ya that,” the marine gruffly commented as he crouched down to pick up the picture of the dead marine, his eyes still open. “Never deserved this shit,” He continued as he looked at his face and swept a hand over them, closing his eyes. “Nobody did, Scott. The ‘quake was the last thing we expected from a routine scanning for these bastards.” “I can tell ya that over and over again, Hershowitz. And nobody will fuckin’ care.” “Scott, Delta wasn’t your fault. Just because we’re all that’s left of it doesn’t mean we’re dead,” Hershowitz responded as he checked his gun's, a SCAR-L, remaining rounds. “Anyway, my ammo’s normal. How ‘bout the rest of you?” “My MG’s only missing one shot, sir.” “Same for my gun, Hershowitz.” The sniper had just gotten down with the soldiers and was pulling out a scavenged MP443 Grach he had retrieved from a slain Iranian soldier. “M40's is on its last few magazines. I guess that what happens if you hold stay long enough in a hell where only the poorest of soldiers are.” “Don’t get your hopes down, Scott, the last I heard from my buddy Blackburn was that he was pinned down by a PLR 50. Cal due north and blew that fucker up sky high, but that place’s a goddamned rat’s nest.” The sniper holstered his pistol and pulled out a canteen half full with water, drinking it thirstily. “I’ll say, being in the SAS as a designated marksman has it’s advantages.” Scott waved for the sniper to hand him his canteen. “Pass me that water, will ya?” “Sure thing, bud.” He handed over the canteen as Scott reached out for it. While feeling the warm tingle of water trickling down his parched throat, he took this time to ask something. “How long has it been since the ‘quake? My watch is broken.” “Three days, get that fact in your skull, Texas.” “Well, capitally fuck you too,” he said as he let out a refreshing breath and handed the water canteen back to the awaiting sniper. “Now that’s over, where we gonna camp for the night?” Hershowitz scanned the environment and saw a burnt out mart labeled with ruined Iranian letters. “There,” he pointed to the store, the others turned their eyes at where he was talking. “Looks like a good place for the night, agreed gentlemen?” “Good idea, sir.” “Sounds a-fuckin’ perfect, Hershes.” “Anything will do, until the fuckery of high command sends either a Huey or a Blackhawk over to pick our sorry asses out of this place,” the sniper responded as he was the first of the group to move. “Good to hear everybody agrees, now let’s hurry our asses there before another PLR patrol finds us,” Hershowitz ordered as they moved out as fast as they could, sticking to the shadows of the ruined city. The beauty of it, if it were not for the PLR and the scampering Marines waiting for a crossfire to light it up like the 4th of July. The night slowly set in as the remaining lights powered off, the only thing crackling were loose wires and the constant blaring of static from the radios left on the ground, repeating the same message over and over again. “All units this net. Be advised a catastrophic earthquake event in Iran is affecting all operational capability in the Iran-Iraq region. This net will be delivering updates as they become available.” --- It was nightfall in Equestria, all was serene in the town of Ponyville. Even the noisiest were all but what they were, sleeping peacefully. But up above in a city literally made out of clouds, a certain rainbow haired pegasus sulked and paced around furiously trying to think on what other feats she can do. “Argh! How hard can it be to think of something 20% cooler than what I usually do?!” She said, frustrated. “Let’s see, Rainbooms? Check. Orbital Rainbooms? Check again…” she mused to herself before she walked out to a window in her house. “Darn it! Why is it so hard to think of an idea?!” She said, slamming her hoof on the window. It was then she took notice of the moon, shining brilliantly on her and everywhere else on the cloud city. “Oh Luna, at least try to help me!” She grunted in frustration again before going back to where she was and sat down on her bed. “Hmm… What can I do next…?” She scanned through the possible things she could do for the next day, she was simply too tired to think of anything else for the night. Well, for starters. She could possibly try and learn something from the Wonderbolts or maybe… “Nope! Not going back to that egghead’s books!” She said as she laid down on her bed, grabbing a pillow. She hated books, except for Daring Doo books. They were awesome to read in her terms. But then again, where on Equestria will she find another way to impress her friends? A one way trip around the whole of the planet? Tempting, but a pass. A triple Rainboom? An idea, but it was what she usually did times three. Something out of an old, fancy book? No, no and no- “Darn it! Fine! I’ll read a book but only ‘cause I’m out of awesome tricks in my head!” She said as she rolled in her bed in frustration. She closed her eyes, hoping that tomorrow will be good, seeing that she had to read some old boring book that some random wise wizard wrote instead of a good old Daring Doo book. She eventually fell asleep, and soon began dreaming adventures with Daring Doo herself. She smiled in her sleep, not knowing that she should've wished better.