The blades of the helicopter sliced through the air, ripping the dust and sand into the air in a brilliant whirlwind of a blind man’s bane. The vehicle tilts blindly, out of control, flames layered the cockpit, Snakeskin clings to the seat desperately – her strong grip conflicted with the leather. The ground dangerously close to Snakeskin’s padded and covered hooves, the rocky surface of the mountain barely skids on the side of helicopter.
The sound of a gushing waterfall collides with the sounds of rockets and mortars crashing into the mountain in an attempt to obliterate the unknown helicopter, this would be Snakeskin’s only chance at reaching the ground safely.
Snakeskin took a moment to look back at her checklist to make sure everything was going according to plan, accordingly meaning that it was going completely wrong from the plan she originally made; being shot out of the sky was not part of her original plan. At least she would make it to the forest and escape any scouts to check out the crashed vehicle.
One..
Two…
THREE!!!
Snakeskin counts to three before letting go of the seat, she falls horizontally—the speed of the helicopter was incredibly fast from the jet engines combining with the blades lifting the vehicle to the air. Snakeskin flattens out to avoid air drag, the pilot suit she wore had a wingsuit connecting to a parachute that would automatically degenerate into smoke by lighting itself on fire.
Snakeskin shot out her arms and hind legs to deploy the SQUIRRIEL SUIT, a bushy tail poofs out of her backside to catch the wind and slow her decent – the enemy’s radar used speed and height to detect a flying object.
“They didn’t even give us a warning…” Snakeskin muses, tilting her body to dodge a mountain. She dips into a valley, eager to dodge the volleys of mortars and other helicopters with enough firepower to turn Snakeskin into a nice bowl of red snake soup. Her left ear tingles with the sound of the codec, HARMONY better have a good reason to not anticipate the enemy force being that heavily armed.
“Snakeskin, do you read me?” The voice of someone very familiar to her calls out, Snakeskin even recognizes the frequency of the caller. Snakeskin glides along the river of the rocky valley as she clears her throat. The stallions voice gets louder with urgency. “Snakeskin, come in!”
“This is Snakeskin,” says Snakeskin, she lifts herself out of the valley using the momentum she gathered from the winds. She does an aerial roll to squeeze herself through a narrow gap in the mountains before going back straight. “I didn’t expect a call from you, then again, I didn’t expect a mortar taking out my pilots and almost killing me either.”
“Yeah,” Shining Armor growls, “You know that I would have told you beforehand – you’d think that the amount of double agents going on would provide some more information in the base, but as it turns out; our Equestrian CIA agents were captured.”
“Double agents, when did the war turn cold?” asks Snakeskin, the sounds of the waterfall comes nearer and nearer with every gust of wind that Snakeskin rides on. Shining Armor hesitates before answering the question.
“They didn’t tell you what your objective was, did they?” says Shining Armor anxiously, Snakeskin grunts at this idiotic response. “Or did they tell you who you were extracting?”
“When did the war turn cold?” Snakeskin presses again, annoyed with the hesitation of the person on the other side of the codec. Snakeskin’s almost ready to deploy her parachute, once she does – step two of her plan could begin with HARMONY waiting for her by the King’s Gulf. “It’s not like Ponyville gets reception for communication, just answer me dammit!”
“Just now,” answers Shining Armor, Snakeskin stiffens up.
“That means…”
“Yes,” Shining Armor’s voice is as heavy as stones as he answers Snakeskin’s statement. “The world is under a nuclear threat again, but this time it’s with a terrorist organization that’s supposedly funded by the Council of International Affairs.”
“The Council of International Affairs, that’s where world leaders go to discuss politics and diplomacy?” Snakeskin finds the harsh flowing river, she’ll be at the waterfall shortly. “Why would the ECIA give money to develop nuclear weapons, when there’s this whole debate about disarming nuclear programs like Metal Gear?”
“There’s theory going in HARMONY, that there’s talks about a weapon to SURPASS Metal Gear… but that’s just rumors that’s being looked into,” replies Shining Armor with grunt, Snakeskin pulls the cord on her parachute and is caught in the air – she flies upwards into the clouds with the drag catching up with her and slowing her decent from maximum velocity. “Remember, your mission is to extract the weapons scientist named ‘Eight Zero Eight-Dot-Eight Zero Eight’ and confirm the existence of the nuclear weapon.”
“What about the weapon to surpass Metal Gear?” asks Snakeskin, she holds onto her handles of the parachute. The idea of a weapon to surpass the greatest weapon of all time, but which variation of the Metal Gear—REX or RAY?
Snakeskin has defeated both Metal Gears, but they are being produced in large quantities and shipped to storages all over the globe. Metal Gears to replace soldiers, but it would take only one nation to launch a nuke from a Metal Gear to start Nuclear Warfare. A weapon greater than Metal Gear?! That’s just… a weapon from the Devil himself!
“That would not be your concern, Sparkle,”
“…!!” Snakeskin almost fumbled the handles of the parachute, the sound of her mentor flooding her ears with her gracious and royal voice. Her heart skipped a beat as she comes to terms with the thought: She’s not dead.
“oh, forgot to mention, The Boss is here,” awkwardly says Shining Armor, he sounds like he’s rubbing his neck. “Turns out, she’s not dead like we thought. She’s back in charge of HARMONY, so there’s that situation taken care of.”
“That’s right, Naked Sparkle,”
“…Naked?”
“You girls can gossip later, we got something important to do,” Shining Armor buts in, timely and rude when he’s pressured. “Twilight, remember that we’re sending you into one of EIA’s outposts practically under prepared – you’re tactically naked, all of your equipment has to be onsite.”
“That’s where the Naked Sparkle bit derived from...” realizes Twilight Sparkle, she nears the trees of the jungle –completely off course. Twilight Sparkle looks at the air gushing from the remote controlled thruster pack on the parachute. “You better have a reason for throwing me off course…”
“You’re a soldier deep in the Griffin soil, which is already a breach in our treaty with the Griffin Government. I’m remotely moving you to the jungle to avoid detection so you can wait out the alert mode,” answers Celestia, or The Boss. Twilight, again, stiffens up with the idea of being venomous with her mentor. “That means your reliance on HARMONY and the ECIA are essentially cut, which is why you’re only armed with knuckle dusters.”
“Knuckle dusters?” asks Twilight Sparkle, unfamiliar with the equipment placement. “Why not my knife, or a tranquilizer?”
“Your weapons are on site, remember that Naked Sparkle,” Shining Armor answers, the codec switching to his frequency. Twilight Sparkle looks back down to find the tree and branches entangling her with it’s vines, a Sarpy Tree – trapping animals with it’s vines and pulling it into quicksand to absorb it’s nutrients.
Twilight Sparkle shot up her horn and obliterated the parasitic vines on the poor oak tree, however, the oak tree was dependent on the parasite for survival and it crumbles into a gray falling mess of timber and decomposing leaves.
“With the onsite equipment, this is a sneaking mission – if you get caught, that’s considered to be an attack on the Griffin government, contact with the enemy is strictly prohibited!” Twilight Sparkle lands, with a roll to flatten the drop completely. Twilight Sparkle took the oxygen mask off of her face and watched it go up in smoke, along with her SQUIRREL SUIT to be replaced by a olive drape uniform with empty holsters for a primary and secondary rifle.
“You should have a cyanide pill, should you be caught – you should have some revival pills that’s disguised as teeth, don’t worry, it’ll grow back with magic. Don’t wait too long on the cyanide pill, because you could pass the brink of death and not even a skilled necromancer could bring you back to life…” Celestia says cautiously.
“So… kitty has to put away her claws then,” Twilight Sparkle ducks behind a tree, checking her surroundings before placing a hoof to her inner ear to listen closer to the codec. “If I’m caught, I’m not being rescued am I—thus the fake death pill.”
“Twilight, this is serious,” Celestia switches the codec to her frequency, which is blocked. Twilight Sparkle remands quiet as The Boss speaks. “The Griffins and The Equestrians have been on rocky terms, conditions will only be worse of they suspect you’re working for us – that’s why we have to deny any involvement with this mission.”
“If you have to, knock out your enemy with your special fighting thing…” orders Shining Armor, which enrages Twilight Sparkle.
“CQC,” Interrupted Celestia.
“Use the right bumper button to send strikes to the enemy, five consecutive strikes without the knuckle dusters should knock them out longer than a tranquilizer dart,” Shining Armor instructs, using terms that Twilight Sparkle aren’t aware of such as Right Bumper – is this bumper cars? “If you tilt the analog stick in any direction, you can do a judo throw to stun them for a quick get away or to knock out a suspecting guard.”
“What should I do if I want to find out where the facility is?” asks Twilight Sparkle.
“Silently approach the guard by tilting the analog stick, then hold the right bumper to disarm him and hold him, now you have the option to interrogate, to knock him out with a choke hold, or if you had a knife, to silently kill them…” Twilight Sparkle groans, Shining Armor quickly recovers. “I know how you feel about killing other ponies, but simply knocking them out with a judo throw will cause others to hear their skulls bouncing off of the ground. If that guard wakes up, he’ll call the alarm. For this reason, we are allowing you weapons freedom—but only at your discretion.”
“You are a agent of HARMONY, you should be able to sneak past them without any trouble,” Celestia instructs, “However, should a guard becomes suspicious and comes to your location – it’s better to try and blend in with the environment by going prone instead of running around like an idiot with a bomb strapped to your chest.
Your current uniform should work in all terrains except for infiltration of the facility, your face paint will also aid you in blending in to your environment.” Celestia continues, making Twilight feel dizzy with information she already knows. “That number in the top left of the screen is your tactical advantage, it shows how invisible you are to the enemy, press the select button to view your survival guide. Go to uniform, and select the…
“Sparkle, try to remember the basics of CQC…”
Twilight Sparkle slips on the knuckle dusters, swishing her tongue over her teeth, eyes focusing on the environment in front of her. The gulf is only a couple of mils’ –miles northwest, and possible scattered with scouts investigating the location of the helicopter. The plan: reach the King’s Gulf and camp out for a couple of hours. Then make her way to the facility.
“Commencing virtuous mission, now.” Twilight says as she moves forwards towards her objective.