7. Everfree
'Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.'
- George Washington
The gentle hum of the Remara-Class train speeding through the long and narrow tunnel was soothing to Felix as he slowly took a sip from his coffee cup, lounging in the comfortable seat cushion while he flipped through the many news channels discussing the recent awakening of Humanity and it's nuances. Currently, the train was moving through a direct access tunnel connecting the preservation facilities for Washington and Ottawa, capitals of the United States of America and Canada respectively. Turns out Canada's Prime Minister, Maxwell Mino, wanted to discuss possible changes to the second North-American Free Trade Agreement, seeing as the whole global reshaping may affect the geo-political aspect of the agreement, especially taking into account how The Great Disaster had caused the entirety of North and Central America's economy to be up-ended and ruin the first agreement.
Felix wondered why Maxwell couldn't wait until they simply got the all clear to return to the surface, but trade is an important thing to discuss when your entire species just woke up from a long power nap, so he couldn't really blame him. Plus, nations still traded via the inter-connecting tunnels between the city preservation bunkers, even if it was just a bunch of products from China and pizzas from Italy. Taking another sip from his coffee mug, he gripped the TV remote and switched the channel again to see a live interview, listening to it while checking his smart watch and looking at his messages.
"So everyone, today I have here the ever infamous and enigmatic, Philip Graves. Turns out the Commander of the well known PMC Shadow Company is just as shadowy as his own company. Anyways, our friend is here to discuss the rumors flying around about one of his own men being part of the new team we just sent up to the surface. Phil, what do you think, these rumors true?" A british voice spoke before turning to Graves who spoke in a southern American accent.
"Well, mister Oliver, I can't tell you if those rumors are true or false, seeing as it's classified and all that. What I can tell you, is that the team walkin' up on the surface right now are some of the best boys we humans have to offer. Whether or not one of my own boys is up there doesn't matter, though it would do me a world of good to know they're up there doing me proud."
President Felix silently listened to the news report before the distinct american accent of the AI Christopher spoke over the train intercom.
"Mr. President, you have an incoming call from Chief Commander of United Special Operations Command, Wallace F. Matthew."
"Patch it through, Christopher. Oh, and just in case, make sure nobody gets too nosy and easedrops."
The windows of the train cabin were sealed over while the doors locked shut, as a beeping was heard before the lights in the room dimmed significantly. "MUTE Privacy protocol engaged, connecting to Commander Wallace now."
The television screen in front of Felix flashed from the news channel to display a video call, displaying the face of Commander Wallace present as he saluted. "Good evening, Mister President."
"At ease, Commander. Now let me go out on a whim and guess for a moment, did you manage to finally set up a team for Operation Reclamation, or is it still 'assembling' as we speak?"
"Actually mister President, we have already deployed the newly formed Blackout Squadron, and they have confirmed touch down on the surface. All vitals are green and we are currently getting in a solid stream of data now from their rig sensors, so smooth sailing so far. Figured you should be the first to know seeing as most of the squad comes from the USA, and I thought you would be proud to know that."
"Well, you would be right about that. Thank you for the status update, Commander. Just gotta make sure shit doesn't hit the fan and we can consider this going down in the history books. We'd get to have bonuses all around."
"Roger that, sir." Wallace said as he saluted, before the call ended and the room lit up again.
"Christopher, is Comedy Central back up on the network yet?"
"Yes sir."
"Change the channel there, I gotta see the new South Park episode."
The light whistling of the wind blowing through the trees was a familiar sound, and one they had not heard in a long time. What was definitely new and totally unfamiliar to them was how bright the sun seemed, their helmet visors taking up an extra bit of power to further dim the light and allow them to see properly until their eyes adapted and their visor brighteness levels reset.
"Jesus... Damn sun's brighter than I remember." Dunn said, still shielding his eyes before blinking rapidly and shaking his head.
"It also appears to be rising from... the North? At least that's what I can tell from using my limited knowledge about the sun, then again the magnetic poles could have been buggered while we were asleep. Hard to tell considering my compass is fucked and going crazy, so that's even more credit to the fact the polarity may be inversed." Nigel said as he looked to the digital compass on his visor display to see it rapidly spinning and pointing in multiple different directions.
"I must say, is nice forest. Wonder what kind of trees this forest has, not like any I have seen. Looks too... Cartoony and simple. But that may just be me." Tachanka commented, knocking on the wooden bark of a tree, causing it to lightly shake as a few acorns and pinecones dropped from it, landing and bouncing off of Tachanka's helmet. "Quite sturdy too."
"Enough dilly dallying boys, let's get to work. Rover, lead the way." Foley said as he looked down to Rover as the small robot nodded before quickly turning and rolling ahead, stopping as it extended it's robotic arm out to pick up a rock, scanning it before placing it in his sample container, before seeing another rock and repeating the process.
"He seems to like rocks a lot."
"You know what they say, rocks can tell a lot of stories." Nigel said as he picked up a small pebble and examined through his visor, before holdig it in front of the drone hovering beside him as it scanned the rock.
"Scan's show this rock consists primarily of limestone, dating back approximately 50 years. According to it's markings, it was chipped off of a nearby mountain and brought here through rain water runoff." SAM chimed in, as Nigel whistled.
"See? Rocks got history, especially this one. Came a long way from that big rock over there." He says gesturing to the large mountain in the distance.
"Huh, you study Rockology or something?"
"If you mean Geology, then yes, it was one of my majors during University. Hell, I would've probably become a full-fledged Geologist if I didn't get caught up in the draft halfway through the Martian war."
"Well, if we encounter any stone golems or rock monsters, we'll know who to call." Dunn let out a light chuckle as the squad continued walking forward, while Rover soon came upon a stick and picked it up, before trying to shove into his sample hole only for it to be too big, as he snapped it in half and shoved both ends inside. A light rustling was heard in the bushes on the side of the path, as Rover turned and narrowed his optic, before shrugging his wheels and moving to keep up with the squad.
Suddenly, a light chirping was heard as Foley looked up to see a pair of bluejays sitting in a tree, nuzzling together. "Well boys, we got positive signs of life."
"Bluejays eh? Hell, ain't surprised, those birds can survive any apocalypse." Blackburn said, as he looked down on the ground to see distinct paw prints, forming tracks along the path. "Hmmm, looks like we may got some wolves too going by these tracks. Stay sharp boys, if my days of hunting taught me anything, a wolf always try to get the jump on ya"
"So what, it's just a wolve, they can't penetrate body armor." Dunn said boastfully as he pounded his chest tauntingly.
"And that kind of belief is why almost half of hunters die to wolves. Don't underestimate a wolf and it's pack, or it'll pack your grave. Now then, back to it, we were losing daylight."
"Honestly sounds like a good thing, damn sun could use a bit of dimming. Still can't get fucking used to it, like it just doesn't seem natural. Hell, maybe the comet fucked with the sun somehow."
"Well, considering how the sun hasn't exploded and evaporated our entire solar system with it, I'd say that stars are immune to the effects of mage energy. Well, mostly, brightness is probably due to the mage energy acting as a subsidiary for hydrogen to fuel the sun. Probably gonna burn a few thousand years more, so we should be thankful." Nigel commented while SAM chimed in right after.
"According to my database, Doctor Keifer did state that the stars the mage comet passed by were not noticeably affected because increasing in brightness, so it is no surprise ours is the same. However, it is notable that the sensors we installed upon the surface to monitor mage energy levels detected seemingly higher traces from the sun than normal. The intensity of the energy is not dangerous, but it was still able to be detected by the sensors even though they were focused only on scanning earth's mage energy levels for when it was safe to emerge."
"Oh boy, so you tellin' me the sun may be a big ball of mage energy now?"
"Possibly, we would require the launch of orbital observation and sensor satellites to find out for sure, which will be difficult while we are stuck underground. Now then, I believe Rover has found something of interest." SAM said as Nigel and the rest of the team looked ahead to see Rover holding a small triangle shaped piece of wood in his hand as he scanned it, with Dunn walking up and knelling beside, examining it as he lightly tapped it with his finger, only to hiss as he stood up and his hand recoiled, the sharp edge managing to somehow pierce his suit and stab his skin.
"Ow, fuck, that's sharp. Some sort of wood chip."
"No, it seems too sharp to be a simple chip... Seems more like a tooth. But what kind of creature would have wooden teeth?" Tachanka said while examining the tooth as well, before a low growling was heard from a bush next to Tachanka, as he slowly turned to see a pair of green eyes staring at him, before a large wooden beast leaped from it's leafy hiding spot, pouncing on Tachanka as it clawed at his armored vest and bit at the visor on his suit, before a loud bang was heard as the beast was blown off of Tachanka, as he quickly stood up and looked to see Blackburn holding his sniper rifle high, smoke coming from the barrle while he aimed down the scope, motioning for Tachanka to move aside as he trained the rifle on the creature while it laid on the ground, a large hole in the side of it going right through it's entire body, before suddenly the entire beast broke apart into tiny wooden sticks.
"What in god's name was that thing? Some kind of wooden wolf?"
"If so, then there is probably another thing I should tell you about Wolves boys..." More growling was heard, as more green eyes were visible in the bushes around them. "They always travel in packs."
"GUNS UP EVERYONE!" Foley shouted as the team all raised their weapons with Nigel's drone having two gun barrels poke out of it's sides, the tension in the air being thick enough to cut with a knife. Rover, shaking and quaking, decided to not participate in this fight as he drove into a nearby bush to hide before a wolf lunged towards Ramirez, as he quickly sidestepped the wolf and fired several rounds from his ARX-160 assault rifle into the beast's back as it dropped to the ground, before breaking apart into more tiny wooden sticks. "Seems like a few clean shots will take em out, keep steady aim!" Foley shouted as he turned and completely blasted a wolf to pieces as it was mid-leap with his RAK-9 shotgun, with some of the shotgun's spread hitting and disorienting two other wolves, allowing for Dunn to aim his KAR-45 sub-machine gun and fire a couple shots into both of their heads, causing them to break apart and leaving only two wolves.
One of the wolves charged forward rather than leap, leaving Nigel unprepared as quickly slashed at his left leg with it's paw, it's sharp claws managing to cut through his suit and into his skin, leaving a large scratch mark before the Wolf bit into the lower part of his right as Nigel winced at the pain. "Fuck that bloody smarts!" Tachanka quickly came to Nigel's aid as he kicked the wolf away before helping ease Nigel to sit on the ground.
At the same time, Foley drew his pistol and fired a shot square into one of the wolves head's while Blackburn took aim and shot clean through the wolf's chest, creating to the other end as the both of them fell to wooden peices. With the threat dealt with, and Rover emerging from his hiding place in the bush.
"Ugh, I'll probably be fine, just a flesh wound."
"Negatory, you are losing alarming amounts of blood and plasma, the wound must be sealed." SAM said as Nigel's drone descended and a small mechanical tendril extended out of the bottom, a small nozzle opening as it sprayed onto the wounds as Nigel winced. "Medical nanites deployed, they will seal the wound and prevent any further blood loss."
"Dang, sounds like this drone just made Dunn kinda... Re-Dunn-dant." Nigel snarkily commented with a chuckle before Dunn smacked him upside the head.
"Dude, you could've died if that thing hit something important, how can you make jokes?"
"My dad taught me if you are more positive when you have a possible near-death scenario, it doesn't affect you as much."
"The nanites are commencing the sealing process, but as for replacing Corporal Dunn, this drone is only capable of treating minor injuries, Dunn's speciality is with more lethal injuries, such as amputations." Sam said while the drone sprayed dis-infectant on the wound before Dunn wrapped a bandage around it.
"Alright, let's get back to it. Surely a few wooden wolves won't stop us."
"Your damn right it won't, let's move out people. Command said we had to return in five hours, and so far we have only spent thirty minutes out here. And honestly, I don't wanna spend another damn minute out here if we don't have to." Foley said as Dunn and Tachanka helped stand Nigel up and the group went back on their walk, albeit much more on high alert than before.
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will there be any potential romance in this story if not that's ok 2
me, god's strongest warrior(maniac with a gun) when I come across a sinner(pack of over glorified plants Larping as wolves)
Guns Guns Guns!
But Timber beats Armor apparently...
Now we have a new question!:
Does Armor beat Gun, or Gun is 'too OP, pls for the love of what is holy, nerf it down pls pls pls pls!!'
Now i would like to find out if gun beats magic
America, yeah U.S.A, the world above better get ready because freedom is coming to town
11515003
Well there a answer to that and that is yes.
Gun beats everything except tank, well if it not armor piercing.
It’s wood anything can beat it. But the armor they chew threw, yeah doubt it.
So are we going to see the human go into the school of friendship and see how everyone actually treats him?
And where the next chapter I need more
11515014
Nuke
They might need to equip bigger guns because there are bigger things than wolves in the everfree. Plenty of animals can kill armed hunters . There is a reason the elephant guns and tranquilizers exist .
Bullets wont put down a charging angry hippo immediately.And some creatures can straight up not get hit . Example The Australia vs Emu War
Emus won
Manticores are loins on steroids with venom and wings
Ursas are giant magical bears and we know how terrifying regular bears are.
Plus tons of unidentified plants and diseases can be deadly .
I mean we have plants that literally secret acid, and other toxins.
Insects with extremely painful stings and bites. And murderous beasts like moose, hippos and chimpanzees
So what do you think equestria has?
After millions of years the creatures have evolved to hunt ,fight and kill tougher bigger and magical life so at one point plain old guns aren't going to cut it
Is this a story where humanity and Equestria are not enemies but at same time not friendly like humanity is not enslave and where believe to be a myth and now that there popping up again Equestria and her allies are wary where there cautious but not outright antagonistic
11515017
Well, first off Imma do that in a later chapter after the Squad gets back from the surface.
And secondly, Soon + 2 Weeks.
11523149
Hey no problem and it’s from call of duty black ops
It’s from this mission
https://m.