Applejack
“How long has she been doing this?” Shan’Ta asked as he approached the back of the base, a small stretch of scrub land separating the buildings from the perimeter wall.
This part of the forge world had been fully secured, the humans finding themselves unable to penetrate this far into Tau held territory, although not for lack of trying. That made it ideal for the main medical complex the Tau had set up on the planet, large prefab buildings being lowered down from orbit. It also doubled as an impromptu training area, and although it had never been designed for it, Applejack was not going to let that stop her.
Large rocks were strewn across the ground, while bales of hay usually used to feed the Tau livestock on a subjugated planet, were now being used for weight training. Applejack let out a pained grunt as she took yet another step forward, the large bale of hay weighing her back.
“Seven hours, Shas’O,” the attending medic shook his head. “I tried to convince her that bed rest would be more constructive to the healing process, but I did not manage to sway her, I am ashamed to say. The Ethereal was not around this time to dissuade her either.”
“It is not your fault, talk of her stubbornness is abound within the Sept,” Shan’Ta chuckled softly. “You are dismissed, I will keep an eye on the Shas’La.”
“If that was a joke about her disfigurement, sir, it was in poor taste,” the medic muttered, before turning and heading back into the main section of the complex.
Shan’Ta shook his head, before walking forward, the front of his Crisis suit opening to allow him to talk to Applejack face to face.
“The doctors prescribed you bed rest, Shas’La.”
“Don’t need it, Shas’O,” Applejack grunted, panting hard as she screwed up her face in concentration. “Been off mah hooves too long, got to build mah strength again, there’s still war’s against the Greater Good going on.”
“And you will have your part to play in them,” Shan’Ta assured her. “But you are of no use to me if you exacerbate your injuries by working yourself ragged.”
“Exacerbate mah injuries?” Applejack asked, turning to fully face Shan’Ta. “What am ah going to do, Shas’O? Lose another eye perhaps? Get mah hooves cut apart again in the name of science? Hey, maybe ah can kill someone who ah thought of as a friend again.”
“Do not raise that tone with me, Shas’La,” Shan’Ta’s voice was not angry, but there was an air of danger about it that could only come from experiencing decades of warfare and violence. “I understand that you are hurting…”
“Puttin’ it bluntly there,” Applejack snorted.
“I understand that you are hurting,” Shan’Ta repeated, “but putting yourself into a coma isn’t going to help.”
“Are ya’ll prescribing me forced bed-rest?” Applejack asked, raising an eyebrow.
“No, but…” Shan’Ta started.
“Then with every due ounce of respect, ah want to be here,” Applejack cut in. “If ah stay in that bed for much longer ah’m gonna go crazy. Now, if ya’ll will excuse me…”
With that, Applejack turned back around, shrugging the ropes attached to the hay off her back and hobbling over to one of the large rocks. The cuts on her hooves has scabbed over by now, but Shan’Ta could tell they were still painful. He very nearly went to talk to her again, to insist that she returned to her bed, but thought better of it. He’d seen other soldiers react to injury by throwing themselves into all sorts of activities, from woodwork to knitting and everything in between. In the scheme of things, intense workouts were in the same line of thinking, albeit one with more potential for self-harm.
“Watch over her,” Shan’Ta looked at the medic as he walked past, his crisis suit resealing again. “I will contact the Ethereal and let him know what’s going on here. If she is not in harm of directly injuring herself, you do not have to interfere. I believe it will do more harm than good.”
***
“You want to do what?” Shan’Ta asked incredulously. “I must have misheard you there, Ethereal, can you repeat that.”
“I want to put Shas’La Applejack in some sort of command position,” Aun’Vesa repeated. “She has a determination and resilience that I have rarely seen, and I know that you feel the same in many ways.”
“She is also stubborn,” Shan’Ta pointed out. “And young, and inexperienced. All of those can be desirable traits in a leader, but they can also cause more deaths than are needed. There is a reason why Fire Warriors do not take the Trial of Fire before their fourth year of service is up.”
“She survived a run in with the Mechanicus, how many amongst out number can say that? She has shown extreme fortitude and will to go on, and now you say she is up and about and training once more?” Aun’Vesa asked. “To me that smacks of a drive that could benefit by having some authority.”
“Over other Tau though,” Shan’Ta shook his head. “You have already commanded us to do the unthinkable and have a member of the auxillary in our normal rank and file, which I do now stand behind, but the idea of having her command Fire Warriors…such a thing has never before been done, Ethereal.”
“Neither had space flight, but that did not stop our ancestors from reaching for the stars. No Sept had been formed on Pa’Laa, but that did not stop you from colonising that storm-ridden world. Just because something is, does not mean it always has to be. That is what separates us from the humans.”
“Among other things,” Shan’Ta grumbled.
“Shas’O, I value your insight,” Aun’Vesa changed tact’s slightly. “The conversation we had has stuck with me, and I admire the knowledge you have built up in your years. I am willing to compromise on parts of my idea if you honestly believe that it is folly, but I would like to see you meet me half-way.”
“Fine, I will meet you on this, Ethereal,” Shan’Ta sounded reluctant as he spoke. “The Shas’La is not yet old enough nor experienced enough to be put forward for the Trials of Fire, even if she has proven herself capable. However, as she has proven herself, and as she is due to be placed back in a squad when she is able, I will allow her to be placed under the tutelage of the Shas’Ui as his second. She will gain some experience in smaller matters, but the larger picture for the squad will still be dictated by an experienced warrior. Is this acceptable, Ethereal?”
“It is, Shas’O,” Aun’Vesa nodded. “I thank you for your consideration towards my proposal. Do I have it that you will not stand in her way if she achieves the needed skills to advance further in the cadre?”
“As you decree, Ethereal, it shall be done,” Shan’Ta bowed. “If Applejack learns what she must and survives the needed years, she shall be allowed to take up the Trials of Fire. You yourself saw to it that she was classified as Tau, so I have no recourse even if I did pose objection.”
“I do not want you to feel like you are being corralled into this,” Aun’Vesa pointed out. “But that is good. Come four years, and she will be ready for the trials. I know she will.”
***
Applejack glared at the Tau medic before her, her mood somewhere between anger and disgust.
“Ah told ya already, ah don’t want no replacement,” she snapped. “Rainbow got bionics in her wing and leg, and she never liked ‘em. Ah sure as sugar don’t want one in mah eye.”
“Applejack, please, think about this logically,” the medic pleaded. “At least let me go over the options you have before you. Please?”
“Alright, fine,” Applejack huffed. “Don’t see what difference it makes, a no is a no.”
“Thank you,” the medic sighed. “In your current state you have no depth perception, it is why we have two eyes in the first place. If you were being discharged from the Fire Caste then maybe that would be of little problem, but as you are staying, hitting targets will be far far harder, impossible even.”
“Ah said ah was fine with y’all givin’ me mah choices, not just tellin’ me what’s wrong,” Applejack snapped.
“There are three options. Remain as you are, in itself not a desirable decision as it will put both you and other members of the Fire Caste at risk,” the medic began again, Applejack grumbling but staying quiet, realising she hadn’t actually thought that one through. “Two, we take a skin sample and use it to grow an eye for you, with zero percent chance of rejection. Even you wouldn’t know the difference. Three, we give you a cybernetic implant. The eye will perform as well, if not better than your old one. Growing a new eye will take some time, but putting a cybernetic one in would only take a fraction of the time, most of that being done in a lab making sure it fitted your physiology.”
“Ah don’t want a clone thing in mah eye,” Applejack shook her head, pointing to her empty socket, her eyepatch having been removed before the session. “It’s a reminder, the scars and all. Ah don’t like it, but ah ain’t forgetting this.”
“I don’t think having a cloned replacement would make you forget the original, but I digress,” the medic muttered. “That leaves us with one option. Cybernetic augmentation.”
“Or leave it how it is,” Applejack added. “Ah really don’t like the way ya keep missin’ out that option.”
“From a logical point of view it makes no sense,” the medic insisted.
“Ah know that!” Applejack roared. “Havin’ no eye ain’t good, but ah ain’t one for relyin’ on machines ta do half the work for me. Ah like to do thinks mahself.”
“Some things we can’t do ourselves, Applejack,” the medic said softly. “Please, let me help you.”
“Grrr…fine,” Applejack muttered. “But don’t think ah’m gonna like it. How easy are these things to remove?”
“Why?” the medic asked, before shaking his head. “Well usually we don’t make them to come in and out easily, it makes them slightly more vulnerable to malfunction and damage, but I suppose…”
“Do it,” Applejack cut him off. “Y’all can put whatever fancy ports and tech ya want in there, and ah promise that when ah fight, I’ll put the blasted thing in. But otherwise ah ain’t wearing it.”
“Well I guess it is better than giving you nothing,” the medic sighed. “We can prep you for cybernetic implants now if you’d like, if you’ll follow me.”
Applejack followed after the doctor as he left the room, walking down the corridor short way before entering a room with a soft gurney in it, motioning for Applejack to get on and lie down, which she begrudgingly did. As she did so, two medical drones detached themselves from the wall, floating over to the medic as he began to prepare for the surgery ahead.
“Luckily this is not a difficult procedure to implant the socket. The eye itself will take a few days to manufacture, but then it should simply be a case of fitting it in, kind of like a contact lens that some of the humans use I suppose,” the medic rambled, before turning back towards Applejack, a needle in his hands. “Now, this will just send you to sleep. You’ll feel a slight pinch and then…”
He didn’t get any further as Applejack flew at him, knocking the needle from his hands and forcing him against the wall. Fire burned in her eye as she snorted, before stamping down on the needle, shattering the tube and wincing slightly as glass cut her scabbed over hooves.
“No, needles,” she growled, releasing the medic and allowing him to collapse to the floor in a spluttering heap. “Not now, not ever. Yer not gonna put me to sleep with fancy drugs, ah’ve been there already.”
“The procedure is going to hurt a lot,” the medic coughed, staggering to his feet, looking at the panic button behind him and momentarily debating pressing it and calling in guards to help him sedate Applejack, before thinking better of using force. “I just want to make this as comfortable for you as possible. I know that losing a limb or body part can be difficult.”
“Yeah, cause ah can tell you’ve lost so many,” Applejack snorted, looking at the medic derisively. “‘sides, do ah look like a mare that can’t take a bit of pain? Ah felt the eye comin’ out, and far more besides. Ah can take it goin’ back in.”
Applejack paused for a moment as she grabbed hold of a leather strap that she remembered could be used for making a tourniquet, before hopping onto the gurney again, glaring at the doctor.
“And no straps, ah’ll lie still. Y’all can numb the area if ya have to.”
With that she placed the strap between her teeth, biting down hard as she lay still.
“Oh, well thank you,” the medic deadpanned in a whisper, picking up a numbing spray and sighing. “How the hell did I get roped into this?”
***
Applejack shifted uncomfortably as the new squad she was being assigned to was mustered before her and the Ethereal. They were all staring at her, and Applejack began fiddling nervously with her hat, adjusting it slightly so that it tugged less on her eyepatch, the still raw skin behind irritating her slightly as it pulled against the cold metal socket.
The squad was far smaller than the last squad Applejack had been in, numbering just four warriors before her, all of whom were wearing their helmets and standing to attention, looking between Applejack and the Ethereal intently. All of them showed signs of having seen combat, their armour pitted and dented, and while their armour still bore the customary blue of the Pa’Laa sept, each of them wore a pitch black shoulder pad on their right side, the larger one bearing the marking of the Sept remaining blue.
“This squad is one of mourning,” Aun’Vesa began. “I understand that each of you has been assigned here after your parent unit was destroyed. Shas’La Applejack is no different, and I would like you to make her feel welcome. I would also like the Shas’Ui to step forward.”
One member of the squad took a step forward before Aun’Vesa continued.
“Applejack is being placed under your tutelage. Show her the ways of command. That will be all, you may return to your quarters, your mission documentation shall be passed along to you forthwith.”
“Thank you, Ethereal,” the Shas’Ui nodded, watching as Aun’Vesa walked away, his bodyguard sticking beside him, before turning back to Applejack. “So, you’re the pony Valnoth was tell me about? She said you were dead.”
“Valnoth’s here?” Applejack asked him in surprise, looking at the Fire Warriors as they took their helmets off.
“It is good to see you yet amongst the living, Applejack,” Valnoth nodded, smiling happily. “I had feared that when…”
“Please stop,” Applejack muttered. “Ah don’t want to talk about that. Ever.”
“Of course,” Valnoth nodded. “Well then, introductions I believe. “This is Shas’La Diaoh, he was a survivor from the space port like us. Shas’La Gra’us, she doesn’t talk much, but she was helping to defend Factorum Secondus from the Imperial counter attack, and of course our own fearless leader, Shas’Ui Ko’Min, he was also part of the Factorum Secondus defence, helped pull Gra’us out of there and all.”
“Ko’roc,” Applejack whispered, the others not hearing as she turned her head away.
“It was more that we just got relieved at the same time,” Ko’Min shrugged. “But enough about that, Applejack is now part of the squad, she should know the few customs we have to date. We’ve all lost people, and in remembrance of those who went to grass, we paint the right shoulder plate of our armour black.”
He tapped the shoulder piece in question on his own shoulder before continuing.
“Stow your gear in the barracks, I’ll be with you presently.”
Applejack nodded, walking past the rest of the squad with what little had been salvaged of her personal belongings, mostly what had been left aboard the spaceship before she came down to the planet. When she was out of sight, the rest of the squad began to talk, keeping their tones hushed just in case she was still listening.
“What did you say she went through again, Valnoth?” Ko’Min asked, looking after Applejack.
“I don’t know,” Valnoth admitted. “We lost contact with her shortly after the Imperial titans and Skitarii appeared. The last I heard, she has been captured by mechanicus forces.”
“To cause that many scars, and to lose an eye?” Diaoh shook her head. “And now the Ethereal wants her to be your second, Ko’Min?”
“And we will do as commanded,” Ko’Min nodded. “If the Ethereal believes that she is to take that position within the squad, then who are we to argue? We will treat her as we have been told, and we will look to her as if she were Tau.”
“According to guidelines she is Tau,” Valnoth pointed out. “Again, Ethereal orders.”
“But she’s clearly not Tau,” Diaoh countered. “Unless I’m mistaken and we’re all quadrupeds as well. Or is she secretly bipedal?”
“If the Ethereal says she is Tau, then she is Tau. End of story,” Ko’Min looked between the members of the squad. “Valnoth, you know her the best, I want you to keep an eye on her from a psychological point of view. If she’s got half as many scars on the inside as she does on the outside, we could have a breakdown on our hands, and I do not want that to happen in the middle of combat. You can all fall out for now though, I expect you at the mess for evening meal.”
Valnoth, Diaoh and Gra’us turned around at Ko’Min’s words, leaving Ko’Min alone. He took a moment to rub his eyes, thinking of exactly what he was going to say, before turning and walking into the barracks.
Calling it a barracks was being very liberal with the term, the building being little more than a bombed out ruin with some new metal placed over the worst of the damage by the Tau. It kept out the worst of the chill, and protected them from the elements from inside, but it would be worthless in a firefight. Even though the front line was miles away, Ko’Min was still nervous about a human attack, and he knew the others were too. The Tau may have been winning the fight for the planet, but it was far from over, and the humans were not going to make it easy for the Tau to finally finish them off.
“Valnoth?” Applejack asked, not looking round as she pulled a Stetson from her bag, brushing down the worn fabric before placing it on her head, pulling the brim down low to best cover her eye. Only then did she turn around to see Ko’Min. “Oh, Shas’Ui, mah apologies.”
“None are needed, Applejack, and please, call me Ko’Min. I prefer a more informal…” Ko’Min began.
“Ah’d like to stick with Shas’Ui, if it’s all the same to you,” Applejack cut in.
“Is there any reason for your reluctance to use my name?” Ko’Min asked, sitting down on his own bed and looking across at Applejack.
“Yes,” Applejack nodded.
“Would you like to…tell me what those reasons are?” Ko’Min asked after waiting for a reply that never came.
“No,” Applejack shook her head, the one word slipping out like a confession, rather than a denial.
“You’re not going to talk to me much, are you?”
“If ah can refrain from hearing your name, I will,” Applejack assured him, looking up at him and sighing. “Ah’m sorry, it’s not ya’ll, it’s…something that happened.”
“Talking can help,” Ko’Min pointed out.
“Could do, probably will do, but not today,” Applejack shook her head, standing up. “Ah don’t have any armour, nor do ah have mah weapon. Don’t suppose ya know when ah may be getting’ some more?”
“I only heard about your arrival to my squad a few hours before you arrived,” Ko’Min shook his head. “So no, I do not. But if the Ethereal placed you here, then I’m sure he has also arranged for you to be reequipped. Now, I was told you are to be under my direct supervision to learn the ways of command, I would like to know what, if any, experience you may have.”
“Ah helped organise Winter Wrap Up back home for a long while before Twilight showed up and did it better,” Applejack shrugged. “Plus ah helped Big Mac run Sweet Apple Acres for a long time after ma and Pa passed on.”
“So some organisational skills from the sound of it?” Ko’Min summarised. “Well it is better than nothing. Let’s…”
“Where is she?!” a voice boomed from outside, before the door opened, Koghad stomping into the building, followed by Aun’Vesa. His eyes instantly fell on Applejack and his face fell. “Oh lass, what have they done to you?”
“Koghad,” Applejack gasped, leaping towards him and pulling him into a hug, holding him close as she fought back the urge to cry. “Koghad it’s…it’s so good to see you.”
“And you too, lass,” Koghad nodded. “The Ethereal brought me here, said ya’d been in an accident and that you needed rearming. This isn’t just an accident though, Ethereal.”
“No, it was not, it was by someone’s design,” Aun’Vesa agreed. “But it is not my place to tell another’s story for them, that is for Applejack and Applejack alone to decide who she tells and when. If she wishes to keep it to herself then I would be obliged if you listened, although she does know my personal opinion, do you not, Applejack?”
“Ah do, Ethereal,” Applejack nodded, finally letting go of Koghad.
“Shas’Ui, I believe we should give the pair some time alone. Koghad will need to take measurements for Applejack’s new armour, and we have much to discuss, I have your new mission, and I would relay the details to you.”
“At once, mighty Ethereal,” Ko’Min bowed, following Aun’Vesa out of the room.
“Tell me everything, lass,” Koghad sat beside Applejack, slowly taking her hat off to get a better view of her face. “By the ancestors…”
“I know, it’s not a pretty sight,” Applejack shook her head, a few strands of her mane falling down across her face.
“Talkin’…” Koghad began.
“Helps, ah know,” Applejack nodded, before sighing. “Just to you, ya understand. This stays between us. Ah haven’t even told the Ethereal all of this…ah couldn’t find the words to describe it to him. Ah think ah might be able to find them for you though.”
“Go ahead then, lass, I’ll listen to what ya have ta say.”
Applejack took a deep breath before beginning. She poured her heart out to Koghad, recounting every detail of her experience, from her capture by the Skitarii to her torture and interrogation at the hands of Fonteyn, finishing with her escape from the facility, and her killing of Ko’roc. By this point she was in tears, Koghad pulling her into a comforting hug as she did her best to keep going, before finally she finished, shivering in Koghad’s embrace.
“It’s alright, Applejack, let it out,” Koghad cooed softly.
“Ah can’t even say mah Shas’Ui’s name,” she sobbed. “Else ah’ll end up like this every time. Ah didn’t want ta kill him, Koghad. Ah didn’t mean it.”
“Ah know ya didn’t, lass,” Koghad assured her. “No one would know what to do in that situation, and if ya put me in it ah don’t know what ah would have done. There aren’t any right answers, but there are some that are less wrong than others, and ah think what ya did took stones. It’s not easy ta do the right thing, Applejack, but ya did it anyway. Ya ain’t bad fer doin’ that, if yer were then ya wouldn’t be here cryin’ over it.”
“Ah hate them,” Applejack sobbed quietly, looking up at Koghad with her one bloodshot eye. “Ah hate them all so much, the humans. Thinking about any of them…ah can’t. And ah knows it’s wrong….ah shouldn’t hate ‘em for what she did, but ah can’t help myself. If ah was on Styro now and found that Princeps guy, ah’m scared ah would have just walked straight past him. That ain’t me, Koghad, that ain’t who ah was raised as.”
“Ah’m not saying it’s right ta hate them,” Koghad started, choosing his words carefully. “But ah’ve seen first-hand what humans can do, and now so have you. There’s an old sayin’, comes in handy every now and again. An eye for an eye. You got that literally in your case.”
As soon as he said the words, Koghad regretted them, Applejack moaning and covering her eyepatch with her hoof.
“Ah…ah’m sorry, lass, ya know ah didn’t…” he began.
“You’re right,” Applejack cut him off.
“Just…don’t let the hate consume you, ok?” Koghad clenched her leg tightly, looking into her eyes. “Channel the anger, use it, but don’t let it use you. I saw many of my fellows do just that in our wars with the humans. I saw atrocities committed by both sides, I saw what humans could do when they set their minds to it, and what my own kind can do when we let our anger control us. I don’t want that for you.”
“Ah’ll be careful,” Applejack nodded, drying her eye of tears before standing up. “Now, what’s this about ya helping me with mah armour?”
***
It took Koghad over an hour to take the needed details for Applejack’s new armour, a mixture between her completely different physiology from the norm and the Ethereal's instructions, which was far longer than the original armour had taken. Koghad assured her that the basis of the suit was already built, but they had needed a few last minute details, and he had been called in because Aun’Vesa thought she needed a friendly face.
“Right then, lass, we best get you back to yer squad,” Koghad smiled as the pair left the room. “Ah’ll make sure yer suits ready for ya long before ya need it. Trust me, this thing has had some work put into it. Ah won’t tell ya what, but you’ll be mighty impressed.”
“Ah’ll take your word for it,” Applejack nodded, her eye slightly puffy from the crying she had been doing, but a smile now graced her face. Seeing Koghad had had the desired effect on her it seemed.
“Ah, Applejack, it is good that you are finished,” Ko’Min smiled as they approached. “Fio’La Koghad, you are done I take it?”
“I am, Shas’Ui,” Koghad nodded, pulling Applejack into a hug. “See ya soon, ok lass? Don’t be getting’ in any more trouble, ya hear?”
“Ah’ll do mah best,” Applejack snorted, watching as Koghad disappeared into the camp, before turning back to face the others.
“That one likes you,” Valnoth smirked, her helmet under her arm as she glanced at Applejack’s reaction.
“Koghad? Yeah, he’s a nice one alright,” Applejack nodded. “He’s a good friend.”
“I think he wants to be more than friends,” Diaoh muttered, before Ko’Min raised his voice.
“Quiet down. We have our orders, we’re being rotated back to the fleet, apparently they need some squads for a new mission on the planet and we were picked. We stow everything we have and meet back here in one hour. Applejack, new gear will be awaiting you when we reach the fleet, and any that has not been shipped in yet will be ready before the mission is a go. Any questions?”
No one spoke.
“Alright then, let’s move it out, daylights wasting and I want to be ready by the time the Orca comes to pick us up. I’ll not have it said that the Fire Caste keeps the Air Caste waiting.”