Salvation Through Destruction
Based on concepts from: The Conversion Bureau by: Blaze
Chapter 7
“What exactly happened?” I asked with a disturbed tone, Twilight walked around nervously. She dragged me all the way from the marketplace to the library in such hurry, I wasn’t able to say goodbye to Rarity or Applejack.
“Celestia just told me the communications with the Russian just went down. There is no response from them,” she grabbed a few books from a shelf next to her.
“So what? A blackout, they are very common on earth.”
“No, Leighton. Someone tried to enter Equestria a few hours ago; it wasn’t anyone the Russian sent,”
“That’s weird. How long have the comms been down?”
“Ten hours. Leighton. Someone is trying to enter Equestria without our permission,” she stopped flipping the pages of her brown book.
“So what’s Celestia’s advice?”
“She’s sending a strike team to the Russian base to figure out what’s going on,” she tossed her book and grabbed another one from the same shelf.
“Don’t send a strike team. It will only cause more tension between ponies and humans, send me in,” I stared at Twilight with determined eyes.
“Celestia said that you are in charge of the strike team. You’ll be meeting them on the outsides of the base once I send you back to earth,”
“No, you don’t understand. The whole raid on the Russian facility must be a trap. They want you to send a strike team to dismantle their operations, and once the word spreads out that ponies killed a bunch of humans and Russian scientists, our credibility goes down the toilet. Send me in, I can take them down,” I yelled straight at her face, hoping she would understand.
“No” she sighed, “you are just one pony, I mean, man. Who knows how many people are in there, if the facility actually went down.”
“Then if there was only a blackout, one man asking what the problem is would look a lot better than a platoon of heavily armed ponies. Besides, if the facility was captured, then they probably won’t open fire on a human. Send me in; just make sure Celestia is aware of this. You know I can get the job done” I winked my eye at her once again; she dropped her book and let out a very disgruntled sigh.
“Alright… Alright. But if Celestia throws crap at me it’s on you, I don’t usually disobey her orders,” Twilight’s horn began glowing in a more intense lavender color than before.
“Hey, don’t tell me I’m going to appear naked somewhere in cold Russia,” I added sarcastically.
“No, the books I’ve been reading are about how to make clothes appear upon teleportation,” an intense wind flooded the library, making lots of book fly around us. Slowly, Twilight’s horn filled the room with a crimson aura that had its own lightning. Just like before, black hole appeared right in front of us.
“Now that I think of it, how is it that you can travel between the two worlds and nopony else can?” nervousness filled my body, the black hole roared in front of us.
“It’s a signature spell Celestia taught me, just jump in for the love of Celestia, this is a lot harder than it actually looks,” Twilight bent with the tremendous effort she was doing, and without hesitation, I jumped into the hole once again. The experience was just as painful as the last time, except that this time I was able to see my body morphing back. And just like last time, I fainted in the middle of the travel.
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I woke up as I felt a chilling cold in my face; I appeared right under a pine tree somewhere in Russia. It was a sunny day, but in places like this the sun is only for illumination.
“I’m sure I don’t get frequent traveler miles from this,” I wiped any snow off my black leather jacket and looked around me. A Street covered mostly by snow, showing pavement only in the wheel marks from the cars that had passed through appeared in front of me. Across the street, a few abandoned buildings barely stood, they had no windows and scorch marks all around them. Next to me, my briefcase was covered mostly by snow, showing only a small part of its black cover laid; I took it in my hands and wiped any snow from it.
“Let’s see what she sends…” I opened the briefcase and took the sheet of paper on it.
“Dear Leighton McRae.
Twilight has already told me the risk you are taking and why you are taking it. Even though I do not entirely approve it, I will allow it because it seems the best course of action at the moment. My student also bows for your expertise in the handling of firearms and high danger situations, so, even though you are not a mercenary, an agent or any form of law enforcement, I will allow you to speak and take actions in the name of Equestria as you see fit. As for this assignment and further references, you will be now referred as LH7, an autonomous and undercover agent under my direct command.
Now that I have clarified that, your orders are to find out what is the source of the communication breakdown in the Russian station and put an end to it. As a mission parameter, try to keep the casualties as close to zero as possible.
Queen Celestia.”
“LH7? I should have asked for 007,” I tossed the letter back at the briefcase and pulled out the same P229 from before and hid it under my jacket inside my black jeans. As for the briefcase, I disposed of it under a thick layer of snow. At the end of the street, a huge fenced facility’s entrance was guarded by a couple of men dressed in military clothes stood without any signs of being harmed by the war.
“I don’t think I can sneak in through the main entrance. Getting in there, guns blazing sounds like a death wish,” I scanned the surroundings, looking for a possible route inside the facility.
“LH7, come in,” a voice inside my head said with a feminine voice. I could tell it was Twilight’s after a few seconds of processing the information.
“LH7 here, so now you have decided to repay the favor by being the voice inside my head?”
“Sort of. I’ll be leading your intelligence in the meantime, tell me what you see at the entrance?” I glanced at the military guards up ahead; they were equipped with HK416, a standard assault rifle with winter camo.
“Two guards, both male. Military outfits… they seem like MCCUU. They are equipped with HK416, I could tell one of those weapons with my left eye covered and the other on a stick,”
“What’s MCCUU?” she asked with a confused tone.
“Marine Corps Combat Utility Uniform, an American war outfit.”
“American? What are they doing here?” she sounded astonished and scared at the same time, I decided to walk towards the entrance with a confident walk.
“Mind if I ask?” the guards stared at me and readied their weapons.
“Excuse me sir, you are approaching a restricted area,” one of them walked towards me pointing his gun.
“I’m sorry, but I was hoping to be ponyfied. I have level four clearance from your Colonel,” I glanced at the other guard; he went inside the tollbooth next to him.
“My partner is going to verify you clearance,” he spun his head to look at his comrade. In that same instant, I took his head and broke his neck with the classic spinning action. The body fell to the ground and the noise of his equipment hitting the ground alarmed the other guard.
“Richards?” his head popped up from a window with a phone in hand. I pulled out my pistol and connected a headshot on his forehead; blood spilled the walls behind him.
“LH7? Sit rep.”
“I just shot two hostiles. I’ll proceed into the facility in a minute,” I dragged the bodies into the snow across the street, and carefully, buried them inside a layer of snow. The streets were empty, not a soul seemed to ever walk around here at all.
“Celestia said zero casualties,” she scolded.
“I read in the file: ‘Keep the casualties as close to zero as possible,’ I’ll try not to kill more, alright?”
I returned to the bloodstained tollbooth and opened the green metallic fence with a button. With a screeching sound, the fence slowly slid open. Fortunately, there was no one around to notice me breaking in.
Before I entered, I took the radio and rifle from one of the dead guards.
“Ok. You need to sneak inside the facility, find out what’s going on and reactivate the ponification system. I need to prepare some things, so I have to get off the chat with you. Please, don’t do anything stupid.”
“Leaving me so soon?” I asked with a smirk on my face, in front of me there was a massive concrete field with a few jeeps parked around the gray two story building with various communication antennae and a huge satellite dish next to them.
“I’m really sorry Leighton, but I have to. Take care.”
“At least tell me what you’re doing, don’t leave me here talking to myself looking like a complete idiot!” I shouted, but there was no response. Wherever she had gone she was gone for good.
“At least now I only have to listen to me!” I sarcastically thought with a slightly devilish grin.
The building in front of me showed no signs of any life form other than me, but that sole thought was not enough me to get me inside through the main door. Searching for an alternate route, I walked around the building. On the east side, a reinforced door with a yellow warning inscription seemed like the better option.
“Richards, come in, over” was heard on the radio inside my jacket.
“This is Richards, send your traffic, over” I replied, trying to hide my accent. I had always practiced a regular American accent to blend in during my travels.
“What happened to your voice? Over.”
“This fucking cold is tearing us apart, what did you expected? Over.”
“Yeah, yeah. So, Lieutenant Bradley needs you in here for debriefing, over.”
“Roger, where was it? This place is a fucking maze, over.”
“You always have to be such an idiot…” the man in the radio let out a very, very disgruntled sigh, “Enter the building through the main doors, take the elevator all the way down and it’s the first door to your right. Over.”
“Thanks, I won’t get lost this time, out,” I turned off the radio and tossed it under a jeep. The surroundings of the building were dead silent; I could clearly hear my footsteps against the pavement and my breathing, but not any other sound.
“I guess I’ll have to do this the old fashioned shootout style…” I walked back to the main entrance; adrenaline filled my veins with every steep I took. Walking through the main door of a military facility is almost begging to get shot to dead, but there was no other option. I leaned against the wall next to the matte gray double doors; I checked my weapon’s ammo, closing my eyes shut with a firm grip on the rifle.
“On the count of three, you enter the building, run for cover and improvise… One… Two… Three!” I slammed the doors open and saw an empty two story hall for a few instants before I dashed to a concrete pillar for cover. The sound of the doors being open echoed all around. I cautiously peeped and didn’t saw any signs of life anywhere; the spacious shadowed hall was empty.
“Must be my lucky day,” I placed the rifle on my back and took a better look at my surroundings. Several cables ran through the floor and walls, all leading into a hole on the ground in the center of the hall.
“Maybe I can sneak in through these pipes…” I looked down into the dark void with caution. I spun my head wryly suddenly when I heard a moving sound in the distance; I dashed for cover behind a steel duct next to the hole. From the distance, I saw two men walk out an old rusty maintenance elevator, dressed exactly the same as the guards outside. I took my rifle and scoped them with the telescopic sight, the eagle; globe and anchor were visible on their vest. The USMC was here.
“Do you think Richards got lost again?” one of them asked the other one with a particular afro-American accent.
“No, something must have happened, his radio’s dead.”
I waited for the precise moment to open fire; my hands almost trembled with anxiety. They stopped to check the doors, it was the moment. I shot five 5.56x45 mm rounds into one of them killing it instantly, and two rounds to the other one’s legs. It moaned in pain and reached for its handgun.
“Who the fuck goes there?” he shouted with a hint of horror in his voice, pointing everywhere in paranoia. I sneaked around the pipes and delivered a clean shot on his handgun. The firearm flew across the room as I pointed my rifle straight on his head.
“Don’t move,” I calmly said as I sunk the barrel on his forehead.
“Don’t shoot bro, it’s cool. You got me, just let me go,” he closed his eyes in terror, shuddering in fear. I pulled my rifle back from his head slowly.
“Listen up mate, you’ll have to answer some questions if you want to crawl your arse out of here. What is the USMC doing here?”
“We were sent here to secure the ponification facility, that’s all I know.”
“Where are the Russians?”
“Lieutenant Cavanaugh sent them to the basement; we’re keeping them as hostages.”
“Hostages? What the hell is going on here, what’s the goal of securing the facility?!”
“I told you, we were just sent here to secure the facility, Lt. Cavanaugh should know more about this, I told you everything I knew, just let me go now…” he closed his eyes again, containing a few tears inside.
“One last thing. How many of you are down there? Do I need anything to use the elevator?” I sunk the barrel in his head again; making this guy squeal like a little girl was amusing for me.
“No, but you’ll need a key card to access the debriefing room, here take mine,” he pulled out a yellow card labeled with Russian writing, “and there should be other eight people in there, you should find them all inside the debriefing room. Now please, for the love of god, let me go…”
“Give me your radio and I’ll let you crawl away,” he tossed his radio to the floor and tried to stand using his injured legs, his efforts were futile until he approached the wall and leaned against it. He stepped outside and tried to walk his way to a jeep.
“And I thought marines were tough…” I sighed, glancing at the elevator across the room. I inspected the other marine’s body and took his ammo, storing it inside one of my pockets; the magazines were small enough to fit a couple inside.
I pushed a green button labeled with a down arrow; a screeching sound came from the mechanism and slowly began descended. A small lamplight next to the up and down buttons was the only light source once darkness overtook my surroundings. Brute gray rocks were barely visible all around me; their origin was likely volcanic.
After a few minutes, the elevator stopped at a shiny metallic hallway. I descended cautiously and equipped my rifle; I could see my reflection on the walls around me.
I reached an intersection and swiftly checked both sides, pointing at each in quick succession. Still, there was no one around. A few meters away right, I saw a glass sliding door with a keycard lock.
“Looks like that marine wasn’t lying. I have a couple of minutes before they notice I already killed three of their marines, I should probably use them in releasing the Russians before killing all the marines,” I thought to myself, it was that thought what made me turn around and search the opposite hallway for stairs. The place was a maze if you didn’t know Russian, so I got lost after a few turns. Eventually, I ran into a door with a paper that read:
“Crazy Russian scientists”
“Now that’s interesting,” I gazed at the sign queerly, noticing this door also had a keycard lock. I slid the keycard in and the console emitted a beeping sound, releasing the lock afterwards. I entered and saw a huge staircase that led to a storage room. In the middle of the room, surrounded by lots of carton boxes and metal shelves, at least ten men in white lab coats were tied up all together and laid in the floor.
“Are you OK?” I asked from a distance, expecting an unintelligible response.
“You’re not American, are you?” One of them asked with a classic Russian accent, he seemed the oldest one of the group because of his dominantly gray hair and abundant beard.
“No, I’m not. Celestia sent me in to check out the situation, what happened?” I fastened my pace to release them; I pushed a few boxes aside to reach them.
“The Americans stormed in last night and killed a few of us. They claimed that this facility was now under the United States jurisdiction, a bunch of crap,” the knot around their ties was no match for my rifle’s bayonet, one by one, they all stood up and began talking between themselves in Russian.
“Do you know why would they want this facility?”
“They wanted me to help them build a bigger gate to Equestria; I think they are planning an invasion to the pony world.”
“Did you help them?”
“Of course not! I would not betray the treaty I made with Celestia for anything. I told them to shove it; they moved us here and tied us like animals.”
“Alright. I’m going to need you to stay here for another while; I’m going to clear the building from those marines,” I handed my rifle over to this old doctor.
“I can’t fire this thing, young man,” he stared at the weapon astonished.
“You just pull the trigger if they come in to check. Hopefully, you won’t have to use it.” I walked toward the staircase with a sense of hurry.
“Very well, young man. What is your name?”
“Leighton McRae, now if you’ll excuse me, I must clean this building,” I ran up the staircase and pulled out my P229.