Mocha's Story

by Mocha Star

Chapter 3

Standing in formation was never a problem for me. To my left was ‘Techie’ Reece , that cheeky jerk that always beats me, to my right was Janice. Reece was a fighter and technician. His ability to repair our equipment efficiently and methodically was awesome, but not always so fast. He could fix a remote control easy enough, but he had to write the whole schematics of the thing.

He always called it reverse engineering, like it mattered. I have to say, looking back, that it was invaluable. Plenty of times we were in battle against orcs, minotaurs, or even ponies only to be saved by one of his thingies at the last second. Yeah, the history of this world is rocky and full of strife. Once Reece learns how to fix it he just reads those scribbles on his papers and boom, done.

‘’Minnie’ Janice. Heh, that name will forever be in my heart. She always had a crush on me and, while she was cute, I didn’t want cute at the time. She was a short skinny woman with tan skin from a land we called India and she was the nerd to my geek. The Beta to my Alpha, the Romulan to my Klingon. Yeah, I know that look; I’ll get back to the story.

Well, ahem, she was pretty cool. I spent a whole lot of my free time watching, reading, playing, and doing things like writing fanfiction to expand the depth of meaningless knowledge and facts about things that didn’t exist just to have fun and expand my imagination.

She, on the other hand, learned the math, facts, science, and that specific stuff to prove her point when needed. She was the engineer of our squad, she and Reece were not only invaluable to the team with how they could build, repair, and fix anything we needed, but their pranks were hilarious.

Also in our squad was ‘Skippy’ Markus; He was the beater, a guy so large and muscular that no one except other beaters would chance to look him in the eye for more than a second. He exuded power and intimidation, but he was totally into art and music. He could name almost any popular song from the last hundred years, and sing it!

Next was ‘Obvious’, George. He was the comms guy; he could turn any tech into a way to communicate. From cans with strings to taking an old radio and making a walkie-talkie. Not only that but he had upgrades; things implanted in his body, that helped him learn and translate languages. He also stated the obvious a lot. Hence the name.

Yeah, we all had some type of upgrade. Mine was a database of weapons and tech, since I was the weapons and armor guy. I also had years of training in weapons usage so I could use almost any modern, at the time, or traditional weapon. I actually got Janice to hack the software in my head so I could upload a terabyte of old TV shows. If it got boring, I could pull up a show and act like I was asleep or something while waiting.

I could build, fix, clean, repair, and design weapons from rope snares to spears to semi-automatic machine guns and pistols, with the right equipment, that is.

Lastly, but not leastly.

Our Squad leader, who was none other than my lover, Cadence. When she wasn’t running the platoon for her exceptionally lazy bosses, on occasion, she was leading our small squad of expert slackers. She was a sergeant and great person that loved everyone through hard work.

Everypony knew her as a hardass, a woman who would just as soon make you run a mile as she would chase you shouting motivational insults at you the whole way. But that’s where people messed up her image. She was part of the punishments, a way of saying she’s above you but, equal. You ran, she ran. You jumped, she jumped.

I got smoked by her a few times and it was hard not to smile as I watched her doing pushups with me or having her lead me in a marathon jumping jack competition. She knew I loved her boobs so she’d tease me when she could. Erhm… Sorry, back to the story.

---

So, there we were; standing at attention for at least, I exaggerate not, three hours. I had watched enough of my shows and was buckling in the knees like several dozen others. No soldier of any rank should stand that long looking in one direction and everypo-body was becoming restless until somepony, erhm, someone got fed up.

“Dammit, why are we here?” she shouted from my right somewhere. Uncomfortable rustling noises came from across the whole platoon. A voice shouted ‘attention’ and we all gathered our wits. A set of stomping boots was heard to the left and an officer, in full dress uniform, stomped to the front.

He stood and held out a remote control as the lights dimmed and a screen descended while he began to speak loudly. A natural booming voice, I felt sorry for those in the front because his voice was loud to us near the back.

As a map appeared behind him on the canvas screen he called out ‘at east’, much to the pleasure of our aching muscles.

“Troops. We have just found out that talks with the eastern continent have been sabotaged. Terrorists from their side, against the wishes of their leaders, have killed all our ambassadors and envoys over the last two days.

“We have been ordered to ship there and, if need be, show them what we think of those that kill ours!” We erupted into a cheer even though I don’t know why. I never bought into that propaganda BS. Not even when I was a foa-child. My mother just made bad choices that got her poisoned with radiation while traveling with a group of traders. I had to join, listening to that stuff for years.

Anyway, we were cut loose with full access to all our credits, our squad grouped up and we did a football - hoofball huddle and made a meetup place to start blowing our creds. We decide to pool it so we could hang out and do everything together. Usually when they ‘declare war’ it’s just a skirmish but those that are sent away have to stay there permanently to help set up a new base of operations.

Sure, just like the royal guard we got free food, armor, a place to sleep, warm showers, and the best basic amenities they could offer, but they only pay you enough to have fun through the month plus some to save, if you were smart, not including our bonuses. Pooling our bonus money gave us an advantage few others did. We could party and draw from the same pool of money. Together.

We met outside the armory as soon as we could; it was time to armor up. One good armor would be enough to keep us safe in battle for the next couple decades, what with discounted repairs and free updates to the software; I’d be set for what could have really been my military career.

Like I said, I got the best armor I could. If I ever get the chance I’ll publish a book call ‘Iron Pony’, but it’s like a heavy metal suit of full body armor that’s full of the best tech and resistant to a lot of things. It was also a fully environmental, so I could walk thirty feet underwater, through poison gas, or even hover in space until my backup air ran out. It was small caliper bullet proof, and even a .50 cal round would deflect off it.

Laser weaponry would do about half damage as long as the battery would last to charge the dispersion field, a few shots always means the difference between life and death. Plus a set of compressed air boosters on the back so when I fall, it's a guarantee to happen, I can get up.

Anyway, we all buy some good environmental armor, since one of us was holding out, but wouldn’t say who, we had almost thirty thousand creds and my buy cost 2,900. In total we armored up and it came to about 9,500 creds.

We had them shipped to our stalls and went to eat at the officers club. Anyone could get in, it was just damned expensive if you weren’t an officer. Yeah, it was packed. We had to wait, they hadn’t been that busy in years and they were going crazy. A hundred soldiers all rushing for their last fancy meal from a world long lost.

Well, after the best meal we had, maybe, ever eaten; we got matching tattoos, spent the afternoon fighting off fears and aggression, then night came and we went camping. Well, we did what most others did; we went outside and laid under the stars on blankets and counted the stars, tried to name the satellites that passed by, made jokes, and enjoyed each other’s company.

Turned out Cadence shared a secret with us all. She grew up with a real family! Most kids joined to stay safe, she did it out of duty to her parents who were in service. She told us her father was a scientist and was working on secret stuff all the time and her mother was an astronomer. That’s a kind of star science.

She spent a long time, drunk off her ass, telling us constellations, nebulas, galaxies, and other stuff. I was listening in with rapt attention while the others zoned out on their drugs and alcohol. Well, anyway...

The next day we woke up and the day started like any other, with an extra two hours to collect ourselves and clean up. We handled ourselves really well, considering the night we had, while other squads were absolute wrecks. Drunk, drugged, some in small piles from passed out sex in the late night through early morning.

The look of shame in their eyes will never be forgotten.

We gathered up an hour later, cleaned, fresh, and I couldn’t help but pinch Cadence’s ass when we arrived. It was worth the elbow to my gut. The laughing fit hurt, but it felt good.

Well, the day was full of stuff that’s kinda repetitive so I’ll skip to that night. Cadence and me were in her quarters. An actual room, with windows and wood furnishings. The difference between levels of authority were obvious.

---

“Honey?”

“Yeah, Mocha?”

“I love you.”

She giggled softly and touched my cheek with her soft left hand; her fingers were perfect too, just like the rest of her. She smelled like flowers but damned if I know what kind they were. We were naked and in bed facing each other, just having a bonding moment since Aunt Flo had to show up and ruin our last nights of relative freedom and routine.

“Baby, you got game, but I ain’t saying that to ya, not yet.”

“C’mon, we’ve been together for almost a year. Why can’t you?”

She sighed and lowered her hand to her other between our faces. “After this. After we go through this I will. I promise.”

“Really? You promise?” I deadpanned to her smile.

“Cross my heart, hope to die. Stick a rusty nail in my eye,” she said softly making motions.

“Yeah, we got enough of those,” I remarked sarcastically. Then she gasped and pulled her arm back and I didn’t even flinch when she punched my bicep.

“You jerk. You’re not supposed to agree to that,” she scowled, but her voice was full of that school girl giggle that no pony ever heard about and, as I had planned, no one would. Heheh, funny how plans change when you don’t expect them too.

Yeah, I’ll get to that soon. Keep writing, I’ve only been talking for half an hour and you’re slowing down. Need a break?

D-Day. Deployment day. We packed our gear into our trunks, our weapons and armor were readied for us, and we formed up one last time at the only place most of us knew as home. A short propaganda speech later and we were hooting and hollering blindly at some idiot in a pre-recorded movie from who knows how long ago, then we were told where to go; the launch bays.

Those were easy times; do as you’re told. Hurry and wait. Eat and exercise it off. War, isn’t that easy.

---

Our squad got in the air ship along with a few others and our respective equipment and personal items then, in a heavy force of gravity we were shaken until we almost threw up. Raised, dropped, rolled, and even spun while traveling.

Cadence and all of us were in full armor, since flying into a war zone with nothing was like begging for death from a new mother Ursa Major, so that meant we could all talk clearly and had open comms. Also, vomit tubs were standard attachments for air-travel; thank the goddesses.

We were all talking, trying to stay distracted; Reece was even watching an old documentary on repairing boats, or something. How many terabytes of space did we waste? Filling our favorite shows, songs, books, movies, porn, and other stuff we each loved.

I had entire series’ worth of geeking out time in that thing. If I had time, and about eighty years, I could spend ten hours a day watching, reading, writing, and enjoying fiction for every day of those years. I mean, you never know when something like ‘who’s better…’ will come up and you have to prove to them Picard was the best.

Yeah, anyway, right. Cadence switches her comms open to talk to the team.

“Fuckin’ fly-boys’r messin’ with -urp- us, L.T., can’t ya do somethin’ to stop ‘em; ‘fore I shoot ‘em soonaz we land?” A few laughs and a lot of dry heaving. Tough crowd.

God I loved her slightly southern American accent. The stronger it got the madder she was. And she was plenty mad, and like most of us, getting sick. Our team leader was some new butter bar, that means new officer, didn’t say much. He didn’t look too keen on dealing with us earlier that day.

He worked, put himself through school, and got into the officer school a year before he was assigned his first mission real. This one.

Shoulda been nicer to him, but what the hay, we were still so young.

---

Landing was soft compared to the first half of our ride.

So, we disembark and look around. This is not the base we were supposed to be at. This was a ruined city. Not a huge metropolis, but a small city. I guess you could compare it to Canterlot in size.

Yeah, that was a small city in our time and world. Hard to imagine how much we had done to ruin it, right? Two teams, six in each so twelve of us were dropped in the middle of nowhere and with no orders.

Once the ship was thirty feet from the ground a message was broadcast to us.

Soldiers, your mission is simple. This is a training exercise and you have done well so far, however if you want to get to the new land you have to find the flag in the center of the city. Good luck and godspeed.

With a sonic boom the plane was gone, a shrinking spec in the distance.

We looked to each other and then to Butter Bar.

“What the fuck?!” Cadence shouted at Butters.

With a single motion was almost at the stunned officer, shoulder checking him, and knocked him to his ass. She stumbled past him and landed expertly sexy with a roll, pulling her gun on him.

We all stood back and watched as he scampered back, holding his hands out.

He started to blubber about not knowing anything about this, please spare him, he has so many ambitions, he’ll be forever grateful, ya know, pleading for mercy.

She flips the switch on her gun and pulls the trigger and we all freeze. Not funny anymore.

With a crack the gun pops and recoils her arm slightly and I stared wide eyed at her. Did she really just shoot to kill a superior officer?

He falls back and screams, flailing his arms and legs before she holsters the gun and turns to us, then shrugs.

He gasps then goes silent.

“You bitch! That was a blank?!”

Yeah, we erupted with laughter. I couldn’t stand, I fell to my hands and knees.

“Great going, Butters. Ya really earned our respect now,” Reece quipped between guffaws.

Even Cadence fell on that one. Butters got up and, even through his armor, you could tell he was pissed. Cadence pointed to his crotch, there was a scuff there.

"Don't call me 'Butters'," he said sternly, he turned to Cadence. "you're gonna get it for this,"

It wasn’t a blank, it was low caliber. So low it wouldn’t punch our armor, but it marked where his manhood was. We had to take his man card for a while after that, but that made him part of our squad. We collected ourselves and looked around, scanning the area for life, weapons, usable tech, and any place that had twinkies.

Never had ‘em, but I heard they last forever and would outlive us all. Maybe they did, maybe not. Some mysteries are never meant to be found out, I guess.

Well, anyway, our squad was Bravo. The other squad was Alpha, and together we made a team. Two sides. One leader. Well, this was weird because Alpha was on the other side of the city.

They got the same message. Took about half an hour for us to figure out they were on the same mission as us. A capture the flag game, and we just wasted time shooting our leader in the balls.

We gathered our stuff cuz there was no way I’m leaving my clothes to be picked over by some scavengers if I don’t come back to get them. Same for everyone else. We trudged through the ruined streets of this once bustling burg and took in the sights of a world lost to us, but maybe to be reclaimed by our grand children.

“What’s a 'B-ger' Kng?”

“I dunno," Butters started, "looks like some kind of shop. Maybe they sold toys or something and they were the kings of it. Who cares, Mocha, take third and scan your sector. Markus, guard the rear. Everyone stay frosty and comms open. They changed frequencies so we will too. Stay calm and we can win this, get home, and get paid plus bonuses. Easy peasy."

“Sir, yes, sir,” we said softly in unison. Butters took the center of our squad line-formation and we trotted… walked quickly, to a shopping center. Curiosity got the better of us and we chose to go through, instead of around. We spent a good half an hour just looking at what once was.

Menaquinones with old style degrading clothing still on them, photos of things leaning against walls, stairs going between floors, and all of it crumbling without mankind to maintain it.

“What a craphole,” Janice said lowering her rifle and standing tall, looking around.

“Well,” Obvious interjected, “when it was at its peak this was home to about 18,000 people.”

“Ese, how did that many people live in this building?” Reese asked incredulously.

I looked to Reece in dumbstruck awe at his question. He filled our comms with laughter.

“You thought I was serious? Damn, you’re too easy to prank, man.”

A few minutes of laughter and we looked around and I actually felt myself blush. There were a few animals around looking at us. It took a second to dawn on me that they watched some weird creatures walk into their domain, then start spasming silently. Internal comms only work inside the suits, that’s why it was so awkward.

We got back into formation and began walking out of the mall. Overall, for a structure almost two hundred years old, it held up pretty well.

Looking around it was almost nice to see nature had retaken the land. Trees were growing, vines were here and there, and small plants and weeds were abundant between the grass that had cracked through the stone and cement. Husks of cars were littered everywhere, abandoned when the gas ran out.

I looked around in a haze, taking in the beauty that was supposed to be lost before I got shoved in the back by Marku. I got moving and started playing some relaxing music to take our minds off the long march to the center of the city. Only a few miles away, we didn’t want to run or overexert ourselves so a slow march it was.

We walked through the ruined city taking pictures and videos of the sights as we went. We were just like tourists, dancing in our armor and making goofy poses in front of whatever we thought was an interesting relic. Before we knew it we could see the center of the city and it was so unimpressive; just a few blocks of crumbling buildings in every direction.

Without an idea where this flag was we started debating the issue when it happened.

---

---

I looked at the unicorn in the chair opposite me, scratching with her pencil as quick as I could talk. She was so intent on my story she hadn’t blinked in the past couple minutes. Gods, I never get used to these ponies, I mean their eyelids are retractable! What the hell?

Holy crap; This is still my life now. Okay, calm down Mocha.

“So, what do you think of my story so far?”

“Oh, well, it’s interesting. I-I don’t see why you had to go through this whole mission thing and why would they drop you and your human friends outside a city like that? It just sounds kind of, I don’t know.”

“We were barbaric at times.”

“Oh,” she sat up and her magic wavered, “I didn’t mean it like that. It was your nature to fight, like Minotaurs or manticores.”

“Or ponies,” I said raising an eyebrow, waiting for her reaction. She let her face fall into a look of disbelief. A look that said ‘really?’.

“Ponies don’t have wars and aren’t barbaric.”

“Not now, but back then…” I looked to the ceiling and began to get lost in thought.

This is gonna be a story that she won’t be able to understand in some ways, and in other ways her beliefs will be changed forever. Can I do this to her?

To her future, her family? What if she publishes this and it ruins her; what if it’s accepted and challenges everything these creatures know? I lowered my head and softened my gaze as I looked at her.

“Um, what’re your plans with my story? I know I should have asked before but, I have to worry. This story could change you in ways you don’t know.”

She looked to me and lowered the pencil before falling back into her chair and crossing her forelegs with a heavy huff and a frown. “You sound like every other pony I know. Always worried about my future if I follow this,” she gestured to the table and papers piling up before crossing her forelegs again.

“I’ve already lost almost everything to this belief of mine. I believe humans exist. I believe you are one of them. I know that when we’re done here, that this story will change me,” she sighed softly and looked down and began dangling her legs, her forelegs loosened and I could tell she was a defeated pony.

“I-I have nothing to lose, Mocha. My roommate kicked me out, my parents cut me off financially, I lost my job. I,” she stopped to wipe her nose on her foreleg, “I hope I do change after this. Maybe, maybe I’ll be able to get over this and move on with a normal pony life. Maybe I’ll turn it into a book.

“Maybe I’ll take it and burn it. I have no idea, just-just that I have to have answers, before I go insane trying to-”

“It’s okay,” I said tapping the table with my hoof, “it’s okay. I understand and,” I had to put the next words together right so I took in a deep breath to draw the time out, “me too.”

“Huh?” She asked raising an eyebrow.

“I haven’t told anypony my story and only a couple creatures know some of it. This is my story, from my perspective. If you publish it then others involved will know I told you, and things may become difficult for you, but as you said; you have nothing left to lose. I am afraid for you, but this has to happen.

“It’s been a secret for too long and it’s time some things are brought to light. So, I suggest we take a bathroom break and maybe get a snack before we begin again. Okay?”

She smiled and nodded as I looked into her eyes. Hope. I miss seeing that in a pony’s eyes, and I miss it more in a human’s eyes.

Comments

[deltablaze22]

Hmm? I need to read more of this...

[Papa Oats]

When she wasn’t running the platoon for her exceptionally lazy bosses, on occasion, she was leading our small squad of expert slackers. She was a sergeant and great person that loved everyone, through hard work.

Remove , on occasion and keep one of the commas.
everyone, through hard work should change to everyone if they worked hard enough.

The few of us that got the joke laughed, then used words that would make Tirek shy away from us about them, to them.

remove about them, to them

Other than that, good job mate!

[Sun Struck]

Ok chapter 3.....

First where's chapter 2?

For some odd reason this chapter seems way more interesting than the first two, I think it's just me.
Other wise I can't wait to read more!

Romulan to my Klingon

Wow! You would say that.

Iron Pony’, but it’s like a heavy metal suit of full body armor that’s full of the best tech and resistant to a lot of things.

“Cross my heart, hope to die. Stick a rusty nail in my eye,” she said softly making motions.

[IMNOTHERE889]

Whooo! Reading again!