Welcome to the Frontier

by Sleep Sonata

Live Fire

We were all used to bumpy shuttle rides, but this one seemed to rattle us more than most. I knew exactly why. The words of the commissar from the briefing were still buzzing around in my head. “‘Live rounds will be used, although you will only be training against spectres. My advice to you is try not to die. You guys are expensive.’”

Around me I could see the rest of the squad was completely silent. Even Jet was standing perfectly still. I guess the commissar had gotten to him too.

We may have been valuable to the IMC, but there is no reason for them not to see us as expendable. Thousands of ponies applied every week to be pilots. It’s not like there was no one else to take our place were there an ‘accident’. Being hit by a bullet would hurt, but nowhere near as much as knowing I died in a training exercise. I would never be able to live it down.

I had to snap out of my pessimism. I kept telling myself that I was a supermare. I’m bulletproof, invincible. A bunch of AI are no match for you. You’ve had months more of training and simulations leading up to this. What did spectres have? A couple of programs to shoot a gun. Plus, I had a Titan. spectres can’t pilot Titans.

But they do have Rockets.

With that final thought to send me off, the back hatch of the shuttle lowered, revealing the sector of Angel City we would be training in. At first, I couldn’t see anything. The sun was low, shining directly into the small craft. It took my visor a second to adjust to the light. Once it did, I was able to analyze my surroundings. Then I remembered that’s now how this works. Pilots don’t analyze, we react. Being the most rearward pony, I ran forward out of a perfectly functioning shuttle and into a battlefield.

I hit the ground with a soft thud, my fall softened at the last second by a blast from my jump kit. Only then was I able to take in the environment. We were in the slums of Angel City. None of the buildings could have been taller than three stories, or had fewer than five million pests. To think ponies actually live here.

After a brief delay, Our objective were projected onto my visor, and the commissar appeared on Vidcom. “OK pilots, you have 5 minutes to dislodge the defenders and secure the area, and another 5 to defend it yourself. Your titans will be available in 2 minutes.”

The range was designated as one hundred meters north of us, through several buildings and across at least half a dozen streets. If we were ordinary grunts, we would have had to clear out each building and street to make sure we could advance safely. Five minutes with those kinds of obstacles would have been impossible. Obstacle wasn’t even in our vocabulary.

“Alright, guys, let’s do it!” Jet was just as gung ho as he was in a simulator. It didn’t quite register to him yet that he could die, and I hoped it didn’t. He would fight better that way. With a bound, he had launched himself onto the nearest building, and already mantled up two stories, making a bee line for the highest building. He was a marksman, so he was doing what he needed. Unless he got really excited, he wouldn’t be a detriment.

Meteor went along the same path as Jump Jet, though with a bit more difficulty. He was nowhere near as agile as his younger counterpart, so it took him several more jumps to get to the same place. Every Marksman needs a spotter, although I had a feeling he was just trying to avoid being in the hot fighting.

Snow Drift, Angel, and myself began heading straight for the objective. None of us had used real jump kits since basic training, but it felt just as natural as walking. I’d forgotten how much I loved it.

With in seconds, we had a line of sight on our destination. It was a two story building, just as shanty as the surrounding structures, with a neon sign on the front, flickering as it attempted to stay lit. No time for details, though. We needed to get inside.

All three of us bounced our way on top of the building. From the smells that came from below, I could tell it was a bar, or was at some point. The smells vented out from two large skylights on the roof. Perfect entry points for us.

Without speaking a word, I levitated a grenade off of my belt, and help it over one of the skylights. Following my lead, Angel and Snow did the same. We didn’t know for sure if there was anything directly below us, but you always prepare for the worst. With a nod, I dropped by now live grenade down the hole, followed soon by the other two. Three bounces, and then silence.

BANG! The miniature bombs exploded all in unison. If there was anything below, it wasn’t there anymore. I heard Jet come in over the Vidcom. “You guys got em all! Get inside. I don’t see anything else coming.”

I really didn’t want to take directives from the kid, even if he was right. But I had to set that aside, just this once, and complete the task at hand. I could consider it intel, not orders. That made me feel a bit more comfortable as I threw myself into the bar. Once inside, my helmet was filled with the scent of burnt composites and electrical smoke. All of the spectres lay in motions heaps. But there was one more floor to clear, and we didn’t know how many more spectres there were.

Luckily, Angel had her echo vision active, and declared that the ground floor was empty. I That was it for the capture, now we had to set up for defense. “OK, Meteor, Jet, you two stay put and cover the street from up there. Angel, call in your titan as soon as you can. Snow Drift will stay inside while I cover from the roof.”

“Roger. I got your back.” Jet replied over the com. Angel was silent. I could only assume she’d heard my directions, and hope she’d listened.

I didn’t have time to worry about that. I vaulted onto the roof and prepared for the attack wave. “Yes, I’m sure, just get it down here!” I could here Angel Dust shouting at what I could only assume was the vidcom. I could’ve only guessed what it was about, until I saw the titan fall.

It landed with a ground rattling crash. I was afraid that the building we were suppose to defend would collapse under me, and we be left defending a pile of concrete. Angel wasted no time embarking inside the steel golem. Angel was a good enough pilot, but she was unstoppable inside her ogre. A stout bipedal figure, more similar to a gorilla than a pony, it would take an army of grunts to take one down.

“I’d advise you to wait to call your titans in together.” The commissar appeared in my helmet. “It’s a much more effective tactic.”

“We know what we’re doing.” I was a little insulted at being told how to do my job. “Just be ready when we are.” We had a plan. Angel was the only one who needed a titan.

It was eerily silent as we waited for the attack to commence. I wanted to relax, maybe have a smoke. The stillness was getting to me, but I knew couldn’t let my guard down. So I stood on the roof, twitching my rifle from alley way to empty alleyway. This was supposed to be a mission of minutes, but the suspense dragged them into hours. I wanted something, anything, to shatter the silence, and make top thinking, and start doing.

Suddenly, my head was jerked harshly to the left, and my helmet was torn clean off of my head. I didn’t know how to react, so I simply fell to the ground. The already painfully slow pace of time stopped entirely, as I wondered what exactly had happened. I didn’t feel anything wet, so I wasn’t bleeding. That was really all my body needed to know. I jumped back up to my hooves, and dove back into the bar. I knew what had happened; I’d been sniped.

I couldn’t communicate with any pony. My helmet was in pieces, and on top of that my ears were still ringing from the impact of the bullet. All I could think about was staying alive. The mission at hand just happened to overlap with my goal. When I got my hearing back, I could hear gunshots coming from below. Dashed down the stairs, and I saw Snow Drift running furiously around a squad of specters, cutting them down with one kick after another. Seeing as she had this under control, I headed out to the street.

As soon as I swung the door to the bar open, I was faced by around 5 spectres about to knock it down. Don’t think, just do. Without a second though, I put several bullets into one of them, before continuing into the two on either side of it. The other two were lucky enough to get swift bucks upside the head. All within a matter of seconds. They never even fired a shot.

I wasn’t done. There was another squad of five headed my way from further up the street. I didn’t know how much ammunition I’d expended on the first group, so I switched over to my secondary revolver. Before I could even get a shot off, they all fell in quick succession from headshots. Jump Jet was actually helpful. I just hoped he could keep that up.

After the initial encounter, Angel took care of anything else that came throughout the streets, Jet and I cleared the rooftops, and Snow Drift kept the bar clear on the inside. With each successive encounter, I felt more and more relaxed. I knew what to do, how to do, and with what to execute every engagement. I didn’t even think about what I was doing anymore. I would’ve kept going forever, but just as I was about to execute a surreptitiously still spectre, and hoof grabbed mine, and I saw the commissar standing behind me, with a dropship behind her. I don’t know how I’d missed all of that, but she told me the exercise was complete, we were successful. Nothing to do now but head back to base for debrief. I don’t remember much about the ride back to the barracks. I fell asleep as soon as I strapped in.

---

The mess hall was completely empty. I’d slept on the dropship, most of the way through debrief, and as it turns out, through dinner. I had worked up an appetite, but after getting shot in the head, rest was more important. The service was gone, but the vending machines were still on. I figured some food was better than no food. Besides, I hadn’t had anything sweet in months. I deserved something nice.

I sat down at one of tables, and began digging into the coconut snowball I’d gotten. I’d never really liked coconut, but it was a snowball, which reminded me of my fillyhood. That helped me over come the taste on my tongue.

“A balanced diet, I see?” I was surprised to see Angel Dust sitting across from me. I’d assumed she’d eaten already. “Why are you here? Chow time was 3 hours ago.”

“I’d ask you the same, but we all know that taking a bullet to the head requires a bit of recovery time.” She tried to inject some humor into the situation, but over the course of the day, I’d never found the event funny. “still, you should eat something a bit healthier that that. Here.” She tossed over a honey oat bar, which I thought actually tasted better than the coconut.

“Why are you here?” I was starting to sound like a broken record. I guess I hadn’t recovered entirely yet.

“I was worried. You seemed awfully shoo ken up after today. I wanted to make sure you were alright.”

“Why?” I was honestly puzzled. “I thought you didn’t care about me.”

“Why would you think that?”

“After the way I treated you and Drift, I’m surprised you didn’t shoot me.”

“She chuckled a bit at my comment, but I didn’t know what was so funny. “Darling what are you fighting for?”

“I’m fighting for the IMC.”

“No, no no. You just wear their uniform. What are you fighting for?”

I wanted to give some smart answer to end this conversation and go back to bed, but I could answer her question. What was I fighting for. Money, ideals, fun? They all could be it as far as I knew.

“Well, I’m only out there risking my life because I know everyone else is too. If they all risk their lives to keep me alive, I feel I should do the same, don’t you?”

It sounded nice, “But what if everyone dies. That kind of defeats the purpose, doesn’t it.”

“Well, if one of my comrades want to sacrifice themselves for me, they’ll have to do it over my dead body!” That actually made me chuckle. “Glad you’re still with us, Summer. I’ll see you in the morning.

The door shut behind her with an echoey clang, leaving me to think on our talk.

What am I fighting for?