PonySide

by Puzzle Piece

Chapter Eight: Fragmentation

Anthony and Major Gadrik didn’t stop running until they were in sight of Fluttershy’s cottage. Despite the Major’s suspicions, they had been totally surprised by the appearance of the two NC soldiers. They’d opened fire without any sort of plan. The moment Anthony had hit the Light Assault, he’d remembered that he had no shields or armor and had hidden immediately. Gadrik had moved to flank them with his turret. But once they lost sight of them, Gadrik had realized that they weren’t in a position to engage in a firefight.

Thus, he’d gathered Anthony and turned them back to the only place they could call a base of operations. As they came into the yard, Fluttershy noticed them and met them at the door.

“What’s going on? Is something wrong?” she asked, trying to calm the critters as they scattered before the humans.

“Hostiles in town. Two NC for sure,” The Major said, hardly looking at her.

Fluttershy processed that information for a few seconds before clapping her hooves over her mouth.

“They’re here?” she squeaked.

“Not for long. Not if I have anything to say about it.” He gestured to Anthony. “Suit up.”

Anthony handed the Commissioner back to the Major and went inside. After a minute, he’d managed to get the MAX suit back outside. He towered over Fluttershy and she visibly recoiled from him.

“Is there going to be fighting?” she asked.

“Yes,” Gadrik said, wiping dirt off of his MANA turret module. “There will be fighting. But we’ll do what we can to prevent collateral damages.”

“Be careful,” she said, looking mostly at Anthony.

“Don’t worry about us,” the synthetic voice droned confidently. “It’s not like we haven’t died before. Right sir?”

The Major didn’t look up from cleaning the rest of his equipment as he responded.

“Actually Corporal, we’re almost certainly outside the Links.” He flipped his carbine over to check the magazine. “That means we don’t have a spawn tube to deploy back to. You remember that Hossin incident right?”

The MAX fell instantly into subdued silence.

“Exactly,” Gadrik said. “So let’s fight smart out there.”

Fluttershy looked between them in worried confusion. Gadrik caught the look and elaborated.

“Where we come from, there is a certain technology that allows soldiers to be killed, respawned and killed again in an endless cycle. To be honest, it’s why this war has lasted so long. It requires very specific and complex equipment and facilities, none of which are here. Therefore, we will be fighting without the security of the second chance we’ve come to rely on.”

“I hadn’t even thought of that,” Anthony admitted.

“Do you really have to go out there and fight?” Fluttershy asked meekly.

“We do,” the Major said. “These NC will be nothing but trouble if we let them roam around unchecked.”

“If they’re already in town…” Fluttershy said, considering something suddenly. “Is anypony hurt? Did they attack Ponyville?”

“No, I suppose they didn’t,” the Major said, stopping what he was doing to look at her.

“But if they haven’t done anything, why would you need to attack them? Couldn’t you at least give them a chance?”

“All it would take is that one chance for them to end lives. I’m not going to give them that chance.”

“But you can’t just kill them because they might do something,” she complained. “That wouldn’t be right!”

“Listen closely because I don’t have time to say this again,” the Major said sharply. “I’m not willing to risk lives on the off chance that these known terrorists don’t decide to light this place up. Are you willing to risk the lives of your fellow townsfolk on that gamble?”

Fluttershy clamped her mouth shut and shook her head.

“Then you see that we don’t have a choice here. It’s not a matter of if we fight, it’s when.”

Gadrik clipped the last of his equipment into place on his belt and Anthony locked his M2s into readiness. As they reached the gate to her yard, they heard Fluttershy speak again.

“You might think it’s the only choice. It might be the safest decision. But it will still be you that starts the fighting.”

The Major grunted and marched off. Anthony lingered for a while, watching Fluttershy walk slowly back into her cottage. When the door closed behind her, he turned and ran to catch up with Gadrik.

~*~*~

“Look alive!” Trevor whispered harshly in Mathew’s ear.

Mathew swung his Mercenary toward where Trevor indicated. He caught a glimpse of red plates between two buildings. He tracked them to the next gap and inhaled sharply.

“They pulled a MAX.”

“Shit, what?” Trevor exclaimed, trying to see for himself. “Where the hell did they pull a MAX from?”

“Don’t know and don’t have time to ask. One step at a time, remember?”

Trevor shouldered his Phoenix and sighted the MAX as the two TR made their way cautiously up the main street. They were headed directly toward the town hall from the west now, though they kept to the side of the street instead of exposing themselves by walking down the middle. The NC soldiers had moved back into the shadow of the building for better cover. They lined up their shots carefully, taking their time since they were confident they wouldn’t be spotted until they fired.

“Don’t fire until my missile is about to hit,” Trevor said, barely above a whisper. “It’ll give me a better chance to hit if they don’t know I’m coming.”

“Roger that,” Mat acknowledged, slowing his breath to steady his aim.

Trevor pulled the trigger and the silent town erupted into chaos. His missile burst forth with a hiss and a whistle, trailing smoke and closing on the two TR soldiers menacingly. The MAX noticed the projectile almost instantly and pushed the Engineer behind cover of the nearest building. Mat fired in vain, trying to catch the Engineer before he could escape. His bullets hit shields but didn’t penetrate. The missile stayed on target and the MAX was too slow to escape.

The explosion could be heard clear across town and everypony stopped in their tracks to look around in shock and fear. The sound of continued gunfire sent them back to cover for the second time in the same day. The MAX staggered after the Engineer and both were lost from sight.

“Damnit!” Mat muttered. “They got away.”

“Naw, they just stuck themselves in a hole,” Trevor said as he loaded another missile. “Now we can make ‘em dance. I’ll keep them moving. You see if you can get them from the sides.”

“On it,” Mat said, slipping over the edge and jetting down to the ground.

He bounded across the plaza and up onto one of the houses north of the TR. He lay belly down and inched up to the crest, looking down toward the alley they’d hidden in. Another Phoenix missile left the top of the city hall. Mat tracked its arc as it soared into the alley. He raised his Mercenary. The blast enveloped the alley in smoke and shrapnel. No one emerged. Mat was beginning to wonder if they’d both been taken out when the city hall was riddled with bullets.

Mat saw Trevor ducking back inside as the MAX advanced from the other side of the alley. He swore under his breath as he slid off the roof and jumped up to the roof of the next house to get behind the MAX. He ran along the thatching, crouched low. When he was just above and behind the MAX, he took out his stick of C4 and started looking for the best way to drop it. As he scanned for escape routes, he saw the Engineer. The Engineer saw him at the same time. Mat scrambled to the other side of the roof, spraying bullets at the Engineer with the Mercenary in one hand throwing the C4 in the MAX’s direction blindly with the other.

The Engineer returned fire until Mat was out of sight, hitting him twice. The MAX had a better angle on him and continued firing even as Mat ran along the back side of the roof. Mat ran on, watching the power on his shields drop at an alarming rate. It sounded as if a cloud of hornets were flying with him as he jumped into the air again. Two bullets ripped through his failing shields. Pain lanced up his leg and through his side. He dropped below the rooftops and used his jets to land without hurting himself.

He mashed the trigger on his C4 while he was still in the air and the other side of the building exploded. Bits of the wall were thrown into the air and part of the roof collapsed. All sounds from the TR disappeared with the blast. Mat never saw where the C4 had landed but it was an encouraging sign.

Mat hit the ground and tried to run but he found that his leg would hardly support him. He resorted to short bursts with his jets as a sort of crutch for that leg, hopping away on the other leg. There was no sound of pursuit. He found an alcove in a back alley several streets away and fell back against the wall, gritting his teeth in pain. He was bleeding but the shields around his suit were slowing it to the point that it wouldn’t be life threatening. The sound of boots running alerted him to Trevor even before he heard his voice.

“Mat? Mat, where are you?”

“I’m here,” he called back.

Trevor came around the corner of the alley and jogged up to him. He looked unhurt but there were some bullet scars in his armor.

“That didn’t go as planned,” Trevor said breathlessly. “Didn’t see where they ended up or if you got them with that C4, but I didn’t have trouble getting out of there to find you.”

Then he noticed that Mat was hurt. He broke out the med kits and used one to get Mat fixed up. They sat back then to recover from the ordeal. When they felt they’d waited as long as they could, they put their heads together to make a new plan.

~*~*~

Twilight packed her saddlebag while she watched the two humans read various magical reference books in the main library room. They searched the pages diligently for any information that might help them understand the energies involved in sending them here. She had been impressed by their thoroughness and understanding even though they were dealing with concepts they had no experience with. She smiled at the thought of their eager but professional approach to the search. She remembered something else she would need while on her research trip to the Crystal Empire and trotted upstairs to grab it.

Katie put her book down and picked up another. She glossed over the title, seeing another whimsically horse-themed name attached to a very scientific looking sprawl of words that no doubt dealt with magic. She opened it up and started skimming for terms she could make sense of.

“Which one is that?” Nathan asked, glancing over.

“Pony’s Guide to Sparkly Lights? I don’t know.” She laughed at him and showed him the cover so he could read it himself.

“Meadowbrook’s Compendium of Arcane Artifacts,” he read. “Sounds like specific objects. It won’t be something we’ll need, I’d think.”

“How can we be sure of what we’ll need?” she asked.

“It says it’s a compendium of artifacts. What we need is information on anomalies.”

“What if one of these artifacts is able to help us though? How would we know if we don’t look?”

“You realize I should be using those arguments on you right?” Nathan said, giving her an amused look. “It is very tempting to look into everything I run across but I’m only resisting because you reminded me that we are on a tight schedule.”

She laughed. “Oh, fine then. We’ll follow my advice. But only if you insist.”

They both laughed. Their mirth was cut short though. A boom resounded from somewhere in town. They both fell silent and the faint popping sound of automatic weapons reached them briefly. Katie looked at Nathan in disbelief. Nathan just frowned in displeasure.

“Nathan? That can’t be what I think it is. Right?”

Nathan opened his mouth to respond but another blast sounded and more intense shooting could be heard. This time, they could tell that it was originating from the south.

“I had hoped I’d been mistaken earlier.”

“You heard fighting earlier and didn’t tell me?” Katie exclaimed.

“I didn’t want to worry you. You were in such a good mood at Rarity’s boutique. I didn’t want to upset you with that kind of thing.”

“Well this is kind of more important than my mood! Who is even here?”

“I don’t know. All I heard was gunfire.”

“We need to get out of here,” Katie said, beginning to bustle around collecting books. “We need to take what we need and get somewhere where we can finish our research.”

“Or,” Nathan said slowly. “We could eliminate the problem.”

Katie stopped, bent over a stake of books. She looked at him with wide eyes.

“What?”

“Why let them force us out of here when we can easily remove them?”

“Nathan, I don’t want to get in a fight just now. Besides, we don’t know who they are or even where.”

“You know we could find them quick enough. It wouldn’t even be hard.” He patted his motion spotter device.

“And if we find them in some pony’s home? What then, burst in and shoot the place up?”

“If need be. We will eliminate the threat, wherever it exists and finish our work in peace. Nothing else matters.”

Twilight came running down the stairs and was about to exclaim something but saw that she’d walked in on an argument and stayed anxiously silent.

“How can you say that?” Katie said, standing up and gesturing vaguely out towards town. “The lives and property of others matter.”

“Not in the face of the greater good,” Nathan replied, his face impassive. “And we need to return to our homes. Our mission is more important than petty possessions and the relative safety of bystanders. We are in danger and we must act accordingly.”

“Nathan, listen,” Katie said, folding her hands in front of her in emphasis. “We are not about to stalk through the streets and kick down doors in search of possible threats.”

“Are you suggesting we wait for them to find us?” Nathan countered.

“I’m suggesting we remove ourselves from the problem without getting involved! I’m a scientist, not an inquisitor!” Katie shouted.

The door burst open, framing a pair of red-garbed humans.

“Nobody will expect what we just ran into out there,” the leader announced.

Silence reigned for exactly three seconds while the Vanu and Terran troops each came to the realization of who they were seeing.

Comments

[Vuradux]

“I’m suggesting we remove ourselves from the problem without getting involved! I’m a scientist, not an inquisitor!” Katie shouted.
The door burst open, framing a pair of red-garbed humans.
“Nobody will expect what we just ran into out there,” the leader announced.
Silence reigned for exactly three seconds while the Vanu and Terran troops each came to the realization of who they were seeing.

Must...Resist...Urge...To...Make...Monty...Python...Joke.