X-COM Ponies

by Sneaky Breeze

The second wave.

Chapter 14: The second wave.

-N.O.R.A.D. missile command.

The facility was abuzz with activity. The X-com and regular U.S. staff were running from room to room to keep up to date on the situation as General Franklin was in the situation room farther underneath the base, in the portion allocated to X-com.

The African American in his early forties stood tall and unafraid as the members of the council looked down upon him on various screens. Their silhouettes no more frightening than someone making shadow puppets to the veteran who had seen things that would make most men cry. To his sides where the holograms of various other X-com generals, or more accurately the ones that could be communicated with.

“Gentlemen, we regret to inform you that as of now, the alien threat can no longer be contained. The public knows that not only are we still at war, but that we are vulnerable in the face of their technology. As such, we are at risk of mass panic, riots, religious suicides, a mass exodus of people running for safety, and anti government attacks. As such we will be cutting X-com funding again, by half worldwide in order to consolidate resources to deal with the coming fear.” The generals began to shout until the council silenced them.

“We have no choice. If we are going to maintain control we must instigate martial law and manage our resources for as long as we can,” the council speaker said.

“You men hide like cowards in a bunker,” Franklin said only to receive some angry looks from the council.

“If I may be allowed to speak?” said a general from Russia, making sure he was heard.

“You may speak, General Dmitry,” said the speaker as he nodded his head towards the hologram.

“Perhaps we must fight the panic by giving the people some hope,” he said and his hologram took a step forward.

“Make X-com public. Let the people know that something is being done to battle the aliens and that we are the best there is,” he said and the council seemed to pause and think for a moment.

“Yes, let them know of our victories. Let the people know how we have been defeating the aliens for some time. And if not then let this attack be our rallying cry, as much a surprise for the aliens as for the civilians,” said Franklin.

The council remained silent as they muted their communications, but their body language revealed that they were speaking to one another. Tense minutes passed as the council deliberated with one another, the X-com generals sweating the entire time until the Council speaker finally addressed X-com.

“It is decided. X-com will go public its funding will not be reduced. But you will no longer gain combat members from special forces units, just regular army or transfers from other X-com teams. Combat soldiers will only receive half pay, and that pay will go to families as the bases already provide all necessities to them and anything else they need can be special ordered at the cost of the base credits,” the council said, covering their own pockets first and saving money for the individual nations. The base credits were the amount of money allowed to each X-com base should they need to acquire resources not already available to them.

‘Why don’t you just ask for our balls too? Maybe you want me to fetch your paper like a good dog?’ Franklin thought as he felt his teeth grinding in his mouth but did his best to maintain a straight face.

“Civilian personnel will also have their pay cut by a third. Finally X-com will go public but we need heroes, gentlemen. Do not fail us, hit the aliens hard now and give us something to show the people,” The council said and cut off communications. The holograms shut off as none of the generals wanted to let their anger be seen.

“Fuckers want heroes, then I will give them some goddamn heroes,” Franklin said and stomped out of the room to prepare his second and third teams to head to Las Vegas and to order the west coast branch to send a team as well.

-Las Vegas Evacuation Camp.

“Prepare for landing, we have arrived at the combat zone,” said the Skyranger pilot as the bulky ship landed in one of the military evac zones, in full view of the other soldiers and of the civilians. Cotton did not care if the press caught them on camera, they were paid not to, but also he didn’t have time for stealth. All around them where soldiers , equipment and vehicles. Anti aircraft vehicles moved their turrets around, constantly scanning for more UFOs, or Floaters who felt ballsy, making the X-com team feel oddly at home.

“Move it, troopers. You want to live forever?” Cotton said and charged out of the Skyranger as many looked in awe at them. The Laser Squad moved with their safeties on past the scurrying civilians, all showing up as green on their HUDs. Up above them their two interceptors joined formation with several fighter jets to chase off a large UFO and several smaller ones.

“Central, I need info,” Cotton said as he moved with his squad moving along, no soldier or officer even considering trying to ask them what their business was.

Central tore himself away from the situation room and looked at a live satellite feed in the Command room of the squad moving along. Several personnel working their consoles to provide up to date info rather than scanning for more UFOs.

“Commander, the reports talk so far of three spots where civilians have gathered, they are surrounded by the enemy and the military is having trouble getting to them. I also have reports of what looks like two new alien types but the details are sketchy and questionable.”

Central brought up an aerial map of Las Vegas and had the one evacuation area was highlighted.

“Only one?” Cotton said as he ordered the team to stop, the map showing up on all their HUDs.

“That is the only one that has been allocated to us, the rest are being handled by regular army and the other X-com teams.”

“Understood, we could use a vehicle. Team, stay here,” Cotton said and began moving to a few soldiers before he stopped to answer a ping from Central.

“Commander, is it alright if I re-task the Skyranger to evacuate wounded military and civilians to a safer distance from the combat zone?” Cotton ran the thought over in his mind several times and decided that since the Skyranger was fast enough to take them around the world if need be then it could do the task easily.

“Make it so, Central. The civilians and wounded have the priority for this mission,” Cotton finished and continued on to find the CO of this evac zone, but with a feeling of having already done good so far.

“Where is your commanding officer?” he said and the nervous soldiers pointed to a tent.

“Thank you,” he replied and made sure to keep his rifle on safety while he removed his helmet to be less intimidating. The command tent was built with a metal floor and generators in and around it to keep the flow of intel and personnel steady, in the center of the tent was a blond haired general with a beard that looked like he had been called to duty with only half his face shaved.

“Sir!” Cotton said and stood at attention, saluting the general who turned to him with disbelief and anger.

“Who the fuck are you supposed to be? Buzz fucking Lightyear?” The general said and looked to the symbols on him.

“What unit are you with?” he demanded.

“Sir, that’s classified information. But I request a vehicle for me and my men to use to aid in the evacuation of civilians.”

The general took three steps closer to Cotton and kept examining him.

“Sir, with all respect, time is of essence,” Cotton said, growing impatient and wishing he could pull rank but X-com was supposed to be classified.

“Well look here, space cadet. I have orders and I don’t have time for the usual bullshit about jurisid-“ the general was interrupted when someone came up to him and began whispering in his ear. The older man’s face turned as white as if he had seen a ghost and he saluted Cotton.

“Sir, I apologize. I had no idea who you were. Your request will be granted but resources are thin and I am unsure of what you can fit in with that armor, sir.” The general said, wanting to not screw up before someone who could order him to tap dance if he wished it.

Discord then turned away from the two humans and walked back to his post near one of the communication consoles, winking to you as he put on the headset.

“Yes, this is Q-sector. What is your location Delta team?” he said, as he returned control of the human’s body he was possessing and no one was the wiser.

The general allowed Cotton to leave with a military transport that was rolled out of the motor pool and to the landing zone before the X-com team. Its loud roar causing many civilians to cover their ears and the ground to shake underneath it.

“I call driver!” yelled Ramos when he heard the mighty engine of the M35 Deuce as it came towards them. The smell of its carbon emissions leaking through his mask and into his nose.

“Now that is a man’s truck,” Ramos said, almost soiling his armor from excitement.

“No time for chitchat, troopers. Pile up!” Cotton ordered and took a seat at the front to the side of the driver’s side. With a smile he silently whispered, “ I got shotgun,” as the rest of the team climbed aboard the tan colored vehicle and lay against the railings to the sides of it.

The truck rolled out with a roar as Chavivi sat with his laser pistol out since he wouldn’t get a good shot off with his rifle. Cotton sat with his back Ramos, sticking his laser rifle out the window. In the back of the bed was Boris wielding his repeating laser as he placed it on the roof of the truck to give cover to Ramos and Cotton at the front. Sato lay prone in the very back with his laser rifle, his eye peering down the iron sights of the energy weapon Sato prefered the metallic sights on his rifle since he knew computers were prone to glitches and trusted his eyes more. The truck rolled past the opening cleared out for them by the general to be able to move into the area around Las Vegas where they were moving to find civilian holdouts, the truck was going to be used to carry any civilians they found along the way to the survivor shelters, as well as to get them there quickly.

“This reminds me of time in war zone when my squad had to use local man’s pickup truck to get to safety. I did the same trick then,” Boris said with a smile as he moved his weapon around, his armor and general height helping him aim it as he tried not to let the heavy laser scrape the roof too much since he hated the sound of metal scraping on metal.

“What war are you talking about?” asked Sato as he spoke to Boris over the general band of their radios.

“Secret war,” Boris said, ending the matter there and realizing he had said too much to his new friends.

Cotton did not mind the chatter since it helped relieve tension, which was making him feel like he had gone to school while forgetting his backpack.

“So Ramos, did you ever think you would come to Vegas?” Cotton asked.

“Already been here, it was one week before I shipped out with the marines,” he said, smiling fondly as he maneuvered the truck around a burnt out car and past the charred skeletons of civilians who could not escape the initial attack.

“How did that go?” Chavivi asked.

“I caught something that hurt and I had to take medicine to get rid of it,” Ramos said, thanking the reflective visor for hiding his big lying grin. Cotton then shuffled away from Ramos.

“Uh. Yeah. Good to kno-“ A plasma blast suddenly struck the front windshield, melting it while the kinetic energy from it shattered the glass in front of Cotton.

“To arms! Its coward killing time!” Boris shouted out on both the radio and through his helmet’s speakers as he held down the trigger to his weapon and watched the barrel spin like a minigun as laser fire flashed from it.

“Where?” Shouted cotton as Ramos turned a corner and slowed the vehicle down.

“Floater! I lost sight of it!” Boris shouted while turning his head around to see where I went.

There were three blasts from Chavivi’s laser pistol, followed by the sight of the floater spinning around wildly as he could no longer control one of his damaged jets on its back when Chavivi’s fourth and fifth laser blasts finally hit his target.

“Got him,” Chavivi said and followed the trail of smoke the floater left as he flew through a nearby McDonalds arch and slammed down violently into the ashphalt, practically burrying its dead body into the ground.

“Good job,” Cotton said.

“Commander!” Central broke in from the comms.

“We are alright Central don’t worry.”

“Not that. Area 51 is under attack.”

“Fuck, when?” Cotton said, looking around anxiously.

“Just now, but I’ve got our ponies along with Jack, Lewis and a security officer heading out to deal with it.”

“Can they handle it?” Cotton began seriously contemplating whether they should go back.

“Sir, you have civilians to rescue. We can handle this, Area 51 is on alert and they are scrambling their own defenses, we just may not be able to provide you with support for a while. I sent Talon squad out, so things should be covered. To be on the safe side I ordered all our security personnel to wear the spare Hercules armor you guys left when you upgraded.”

“Understood, good luck,” Cotton said.

-Area 51 road.

Jack and Lewis piled into a black combat van as Trixie and Derpy got into the back seat.

“Are you sure its okay those people saw us?” Derpy asked, referring to the Base personnel at Area 51.

“Yeah, they all took oaths of secrecy to keep their mouths shut about what they see here,” Jack said and started the van, the front gate opened for them as explosions erupted around them. A set of four Surface to Air Missile launchers began firing from hidden positions in and around the base. The missiles detonated and a medium size UFO tumbled slowly from the sky.

“That’s our cue,” Jack said and held down the gas pedal. Their truck raced out down the road to the base and headed towards the UFO.

Trixie smiled as she rubbed her back against the soft leather seats of the van.

“This alien material is very nice,” she said, the ponies had been given Nano-fiber vests since their carapace armor was being serviced and they needed speed more than protection this time.

“Those boys have no idea what they are missing, being picked to go up against... What was it called?” she asked the two humans in front.

Lewis turned his head back to look at the ponies, seeing Derpy with her face pressed against her window as she had her first car ride.

“ Cyberdiscs, they are very dangerous,” Lewis said and looked away, shaking his head as he remembered the reports they had gotten from a satellite that had noticed the attack forces sneaking through the perimeter.

“They are guards ponies. They can handle it.” Trixie said while striking a pose as she felt like a fancy rich pony in the vehicle.

-Sneaky and Rock.

Sneaky was having the time of his life in the Bell UH-1Y Venom, commonly known as the Super Huey, as he looked around at the fine machinery that allowed humans to fly. Rock Fist was meanwhile staring furiously at a human magazine that seemed to have something to do with cooking as it had a human on the front in a chef’s hat. Sneaky could barely read human letter but recognized the chef as one who always said ‘Bam’.

“Uh. Ssarge, are you thinking of starting a kitchen here?” Sneaky asked, their translation earpieces communicating their words over the loud sound of the helicopter blades.

“No, can’t look down. Don’t like heights,” the Earth pony said as he wished he was on a skyranger since that one did not have big open doors that allowed one to see how high up they were.

“Don’t worry, these humans are professionals!” Sneaky said with the same trust as a foal saying he believed in Santa Hooves. He then looked to the three humans aiding the ponies. In the rush to respond to the attack Central had ordered the ponies to go out through the nearby base of Area 51 rather than through the Crow’s nest since it might reveal their location. While at the base Central pulled some strings to get the second X-com team some equipment, opting to send Rock, Sneaky and one human soldier named Jaever to deal with the cyberdisks .

Inside the base though, Rock Fist had felt uneasy but not let it be revealed to the human who had been watching them. Since they had arrived at the base Rock continuously noticed out of the corner of his eye, while sneaky and Jaever mounted the helicopter, a very old human in a black suit watching the ponies. He held a cane in his old crow like hands, simply standing and watching the ponies, unmoving and with the posture of an old soldier.

‘Who was he?’ Rock thought when suddenly the Huey picked up speed.

“Closing in on targets, preparing weapons,” said one of the human pilots as the Huey approached a pair of cyberdisks and some Sectoids that oddly seemed to be patrolling at random.

“Get ready!” said Jaever as he looped his arm through the strap for an AT4-law anti tank launcher. He then grabbed his XM9.

The Huey seemed to have the jump on the aliens as it strafed towards them, rockets ready.

“Lock, firing!” the pilots said and two loud shrieks pierced the air, heading straight for one of the floating discs. They impacted and obliterated the mini UFO. The explosion knocked back several Sectoids but did not bother the other cyberdisk, which unfolded and turned its weapons skywards.

“Evasive!” shouted the pilot to his co-pilot. The chopper began to move at random to avoid the incoming fire.

“I’m going out!” Sneaky yelled before flying out through the open portion of the helicopter, his hoof mounted laser pistol releasing a comforting high pitched whine as he primed it for firing by pulling back a “slide” on the top of the pistol with his free hoof. He did a barrel roll for a moment to avoid fire and then aimed his laser rifle at the cyberdisk, just as its plasma fire struck the Huey, not once but twice. Once in the cockpit and the other in the tail, blowing off its tail rudder.

“Mayday! Were going down!” shouted someone inside the chopper as it spun wildly, leaving a smoke trail before finally crashing to the ground.

“Sneaky! Get out of there its too dangerous on your own,” Central said through his comm.

“No!” Sneaky shouted, panic in his heart, before it was overridden by anger.

“I’m over here you mother buckers!” he yelled and dashed down to a Sectoid at high speed.

“Sneaky! No, do not engage! That’s an order!” Central shouted as he watched on his screen, Sneaky using himself as a living spear.

“Ramming speed!” The angry Pegasus yelled as loud as he could and slammed into a bewildered Sectoid so hard, its green blood splattered all around when it struck the dirt ground, its bulbous alien head bursting open from the force of the impact.

Quick to not waste an opening sneaky moved to one hoof kneeling position and held up his laser pistol, firing a quick burst of shots at the cyberdisk in its open form. Most of the shots ended up missing but three of them caused sparks to fly from the enemy as it took internal damage and quickly closed up. Sneaky unfurled his wings and was about to take to the sky when three sectoids suddenly rose up from behind him. They fired simultaneously, blasting him three times in his exposed back, forcing him to the ground.

With a cry of pain he fell to the ground and turned to see his lower back, near his tail had been hit, the rounds burning all the way through the armor on his back and leaving a blackened patch of fur on him.

Sneaky began gasping like a fish out of water as the pain washed over his body. The Sectoids and Cyberdisk were now aiming at him and slowly closing in.

From many miles away Sectoid 742 watched as his forces closed in on the strange equine. 742 could sense a faint trace of psionic power in it, 742 needed to know more. 742 needed to understand how the humans had bestowed such power to a local animal and given it knowledge.

As the aliens closed in on Sneaky he could sense that they wished to capture him since they could have killed him if they wanted to. As the Sectoids closed in on him the fear of capture by these monstrous beings gave the Pegasus another burst of energy. With great effort he pushed himself off of the ground, his wings carrying him up and to the crash site of the Huey at such speeds he looked like a blur to the aliens.

“Sne...Sneaky!” Rock Fist coughed as he pulled the humans from the crash, his fur blackened from its usual Gray tone by the smoke. His back ached something fierce as he pulled the last human from the crash. He laid them all together to make sure he had the full crew, the human pilot, was dead, the co pilot was alive but unresponsive. Jaever was bruised and felt pain in his lower back but otherwise alive.

“We need to get moving, call for backup,” Jaever wheezed and grabbed his LAW.

“No. We need to push the attack or else they will knock out more airships,” Rock replied and looked up as Sneaky landed next to them and visibly limped to him.

“Boy!” Rock yelled and ran to the pony, quickly picking him up and moving him to the rest of the group.

“Speak to me!” he shouted in his old training voice by accident.

“Ow! Don’t yell at me, I don’t feel good,” Sneaky said, holding his ears while the sensation of burnt skin made him want to vomit.

“Okay, your fine,” he said, almost stroking the younger pony.

“Sarge, stop fawning over me,” Sneaky said and with a pained hiss he pushed Rock Fist back.

“Sorry,” he said and turned to the human, noticing the launcher.

“What can that do?” he asked while Sneaky examined the Huey, praying to Celestia and Luna that it had a med-kit.

“It can blow up that flying hubcap but I don’t know if I can do it with those Sectoids shooting at me,” he said, the former base security member feeling nervous.

Rock fist paused for a moment to think, adrenaline was rushing through his body and making thoughts difficult but he was able to formulate a plan.

“Sneaky!” the officer pony said and Sneaky, despite the pain, stood at attention instinctively.

“You and me will provide cover while the human fires the mini cannon at the cyberdisk.”

“Understood,” Sneaky said and primed his laser at the same time that Rock Fist did, both ponies moving to some rocks to slow down the cyberdisk. Jaever moved with them, limping slightly as he rubbed his hair, feeling pebbles fall out of it when they spotted the cyberdisk floating towards them in its combat form.

“Now! Draw its fire!” Jaever yelled and took cover near Rock Fist.

Sneaky and Rock played a game of 'whack- a -pony' as they popped out of cover to take shots at the cyber disk and its Sectoid allies. The Sectoids, who were without cover, where soon taken down by the laser beams of the ponies, giving Jaever his opening.

“Now!” Rock said when he downed the last Sectoid. He watched as Jaever let out a battle cry and stood up holding his small shoulder cannon, when the cyberdisk struck him with its plasma cannons in a full automatic burst.

The Frenchman never had a chance to let out a pained cry as his back exploded from so many plasma shots striking him and burning all the way through his nano-fiber vest and spare Hercules armor. He fell back dead within seconds, his torso a steaming mess of charred organs. The LAW landed by Rock’s feet as Sneaky emptied the contents of his stomach in one long hurl before going back to firing his laser pistol at the Cyberdisc

“Sarge! Do something!” Sneaky shouted in fear while his mentor scrambled to grab the rocket launcher and contact Central, but he only received garbled static.

-On the highway.

Trixie lay on her back as she enjoyed the smooth ride in the self moving carriage.

‘Once this war is over I may decide to stay here,’ Trixie thought with her eyes closed, she barely considered returning to Equestria when there were so many wonders in this human world. Then at that moment a plasma blast struck one of the van’s front tires, sending the vehicle spinning.

The ponies screamed in fear as Jack tried to keep them from flipping over. They slammed the front side into a rock on the side of the road and their inertia turned them in a way that their van blocked the road.

“Out! Everyone out!” Lewis yelled, pulling his knife out to cut the airbags that had deployed on him and Jack.

Derpy was the first to get out and looked around the area, unable to see what attacked them, but then one of her eyes moved in a way that only she was capable of doing and she saw an Outsider robot slowly crawling toward them through some long dead bushes, its armor camouflaging it to the area. Its body similar to that of a cockroach in some ways and with a humanoid body. The large crystal in its stomach gave the soldiers a good target to hit.

When Trixie hopped out Derpy pointed to the outsider.

“There it is!” she yelled and Trixie used her magic to send a bolt of electricity at the outsider, shocking it but not killing it.

“Very well then!” she yelled and held up her laser, firing a blast at it that missed entirely and set a passing tumble weed on fire. Trixie yelped in surprise and fired more rounds, missing the outsider until Jack managed to pull his sidearm out. With a speedy trigger finger he fired the entire pistol clip at the outsider and caused it to fade into energy, defeated. Trixie had been lucky that her bolt of magic electricity had been enough to stun the enemy long enough to keep him disoriented and from firing back at them.

“Central. We’re going to need some backup!” Lewis said. Finally free, he could see more Outsiders coming for them.

Lewis stood near the side of the van and started putting some suppressing fire onto the attacking swarm while Trixie hid with Derpy behind the rock their van had struck, popping herself out of cover to blast both a burst of her magic and a round from her laser pistol. Jack lay prone to the side of the rock, taking his time with the shots to make sure his bullets hit the energy sources of the Outsiders and sent the enemy drones into non-existence.

-Las Vegas.

The truck continued to move through the area, shoving cars out of their way with the strength of its engine. Cotton kept an eye on their current distance from the first target, a local where civilians and police had taken refuge in the attack.

“About one hundred meters, prepare to take the next left,” Cotton said to Ramos while continuously rubbing at the base of his neck. He felt an odd sensation, a strange buzz as if electricity where running through him but he could not figure out why.

In the back of the truck the other three laser squad members were swinging their weapons around, searching for contacts when Sato caught a quick plasma flash.

“Commander, stop!” Sato yelled and Ramos slammed his foot on the breaks, jostling the group.

“What!?” yelled cotton, holding his rifle in expectance of an attack.

“I think I saw aliens shooting at civilians.” he said.

“Alright, lets pull back and go aid the civies,” Cotton said while Ramos put the truck in reverse. They backed up past several buildings and spotted three civilians trapped inside of a gas station.

“Dammit! Boris, Ramos, stay here and keep the transport safe,” Cotton said, rushing out of the truck and soon joined by the rest of his squad. The X-com agents moved forward in a loose V shape to the aliens, not wanting to blow their cover until they had clear shots.

“Chavivi, set up and take shots,” Cotton whispered and moved forward while Chavivi quickly lay prone on the ground, pulling the bipod for his sniper rifle out to set it up on the ground. He had a fairly clear view of the hostile aliens, three floaters firing down at the civilians trapped inside.

He held his breath as the S.C.O.P.E. activated, following his crosshair to the Floater who was up highest, a green diamond shape closed around the alien and its silhouette glowed for a moment as he heard a reassuring beep from the scope and saw a 76% chance of making a hit. He exhaled and squeezed the trigger.

The shot raced through the air and missed the Floaters body by two inches and instead blew the plasma rifle out of its hand. It turned and roared, causing the other two floaters to scatter.

“Damn, shot wide!” Chavivi said and watched the counter through his scope decrease to tell him when the cooldown for his weapon was done.

“Crap. Keep moving,” Cotton ordered and he and Sato ran faster to the gas station.

The civilians inside cried out.

“Help! Please, were trapped in here!”

“Sato, go get them,” Cotton ordered and knelt down in the open to make himself a target.
Cotton aimed his rifle skywards, scanning for the Floaters but they were moving too fast. Sato huffed as he ran to the gas station and past some cars, his boots splashing as he stepped in puddles of fuel. He slammed through the door of the station and rolled on the ground, aiming his rifle out the windows.

“Civilians! X-..uh U.S. army, where are you!?” Sato yelled out, as he remembered X-com was supposed to be secret.

He turned his head around and saw the civilians moving out of cover. A family of three.

“Is there anyone else?” Sato asked and the father shook his head.

“No, it’s just us.”

Sato looked to where Cotton was.

“Sir, I have the civilians.”

“Bring them out to us, I don’t know if the floaters are gone but we can’t stay near this gas station,” Cotton said as he and Chavivi remained on over watch of the area. Sato turned to the civilians, making sure they were all okay enough to move before speaking.

“Okay, I need you to come with me.”

“Are you kidding? Those things are still out there!” said the mother as her scared child clung to her arms.

“I know, but if we stay in this place it could blow,” Sato said and that seemed enough to convince the family.

“Okay, now I'm going to be right next to you. But you have to run as fast as you can,” Sato said, sweat dripping down his brow as the mother grabbed her child in her arms and the father stepped closer to the door, looking outside for a second as it was eerily quiet.

“Ready?” Sato asked as he primed his laser rifle and held a thumbs up to Cotton.

The father looked to his wife who nodded and held her child closer to her chest.

“Alright, move!” he yelled and the three began moving at a speed that would make an Olympic sprinter smile. At that moment though the floaters chose to attack, like savage animals going after the defenseless members of a herd. But they had chosen the wrong herd, for this one had wolves in it.

“Contact!” yelled Chavivi and Cotton at the same time as they spotted one floater suddenly speeding to the civilians, its plasma rifle held high. They both moved their sights over it and fired, two beams of red energy hitting the floater. Cotton’s laser rifle was set to R mode, sending a shorter but faster beam out that struck the floater in his chest, slowing him down for a focused blast from Chavivi that made the floater explode in midair.

“Keep moving!” Sato yelled as he stood to the right of the family, just as they were about pass Cotton a plasma rifle fired and Sato instinctively shoved the mother and father down, taking three hits to himself. Two in his chest and one in his leg. He fell to the ground from the force of the impact as the child the mother was holding cried out in fear.

“Trooper down!” Cotton yelled and took three rapid fire shots at the floater, making it tumble to the ground with its engines on fire. The floater screamed in horrible agony as whatever fuel it used to stay in the air coated its body and burnt it alive.

“Medic! Medic!” Cotton yelled out by instinct, even though Sato was in fact their medic, as he moved to the fallen trooper while the family got up and continued runnning.

“Sato!” he yelled and grabbed the soldier by his armor, pulling him by the collar to where Chavivi was. At the same time his HUD was getting a reading on the trooper. He still had a pulse.

He lay Sato down by Chavivi who was covering the family and looked down to Sato who began to move, groaning.

“Sato, say something soldier, that’s an order!” Cotton shouted while grabbing Sato’s own med-kit.

“A…ouch ,” he said through a laugh, a crater had been burnt into his leg armor but he was not injured, his chest armor was scorched black where the plasma had hit him but he was otherwise intact.

“You lucky bastard,” Cotton said and returned the med-kit to Sato’s pack before helping the man up.

“The force from the impact will probably hurt for a while,” he grunted and took back his rifle, seeing the family looking at him with gratitude in their eyes.

“No time for chitchat. There is still one more and we need to move,” Chavivi said and the group was on the move again. The three X-com agents forming a triangle around the family as they ran back to the truck.

-At the truck.

Boris was aiming his heavy laser in the direction Cotton and the civilians were coming from to give them cover if they had pursuers. This caused him not to notice as the last remaining floater glided slowly towards him from behind, it had decided to go for a stealthier approach since it had no plasma weapons. The alien’s talons were at the ready to slit the human’s throat from behind. It floated over a car and was nearly to the truck when it heard human speech.

“Bang! You’re dead!” Ramos shouted after he jumped out of his hiding spot behind a bus stop before he pulled the trigger and a shotgun like laser blast obliterated the floater’s head, its body simply collapsed limp and its engines deactivated.

“Score!” Ramos said, doing a quick moonwalk before getting back into the driver’s seat of the truck.

“What was that shot!?” Chavivi yelled as they and the civilians arrived, Boris already opening the back of the truck to let them in and lending them a hand to climb on up.

“Oh just cleaning up the air,” Ramos replied as the civilians were accommodated into the truck, looking around in amazement at the X-com troopers, their shining silver and blue colors and weapons making them look like robots.

“Who are you?” one of them asked and Boris turned back.

“Your rescuers,” he said and returned to manning his MG while the truck started.

“Alright now, Ramos take us to the shelter so we can evacuate the civies,” Cotton said and with a roar the truck began moving again, heading to its intended destination.

‘This might not be so bad. So far it seems we are kicking ass, but we should be more careful…and…..’ Cotton’s thoughts drifted as if he had just woken up. His mind felt hazy and his readout began to drop and then rise again.

“Commander? Hey Commander!” Ramos yelled, shaking cotton’s arm.

“Uh..yeah?” he said, shaking himself out of his trance but still feeling something, a sense of foreboding.

“You alright? Your vitals where wigging out.”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Cotton said but could not shake the fear he had now, if he had been a dog his tail and ears would have been tucked.

As the powerful truck roared past a deserted looking garage, the vibrations and sound disturbed a being that was in the midst of feeding. The sound of clicking arose from the garage after the X-com truck had passed by, angering the monster as it fed. The inside of the building was like something out of a nightmare. The bodies of the workers that had been there were not just sliced to pieces, but torn and ripped and devoured. A tall and skeletal form hunched over as it picked up the body of its latest victim, pulling at both its arms and legs until in a splash of gore and blood, it tore the corpse in half by its waist. The monster looked like a demented man’s image of what a crab human would look like, bipedal with arms that ended in terrifyingly sharp pincers. The Alpha Chryssalid scooped up the dead human’s intestines and began lifting it to its face, a face that bore a horrifying eternal grin. The alpha continued eating and using its claws to scoop up blood and drink its fill until it heard the high pitch squeal and resulting pop of three of its offspring being born.

The Alpha Chryssalid turned to the newborns of lower breeding. Its four legged children crawled out to it, of the same height but colored more brightly, pinkish, like the prey they were born from. The alpha maintained its large grin as it reached out its pincers and grabbed onto both arms of one of its own newborns, tearing off the thin arms of its own young as it sought to feed its endless hunger and pounced upon its child while the other two moved away to allow their alpha to feed, there would always be time to breed, but right now the alpha was hungry as it stuffed its face with more food, its small black beady black eyes never blinking, and never stopping.

-Meanwhile in Equestria, specifically Stalliongrad, at the home of Sneaky's parents.

Brick layer grumbled as he threw another bottle of cider into the trashcan inside of his shed before he grabbed a hammer in his hoof, never once wondering how it was possible for ponies to pick things up as he hammered a nail into the remains of his son's old crib, trying to fix the grave mistake he had made.

How could I do something so stupid? He wondered to himself as he got up from his project and walked outside, feeling like he needed a break. The red Earth pony looked like a mess, he had massive bags under his eyes from sleepless nights and arguments with his wife who claimed she could feel that Sneaky was alive somewhere, while Brick thought he knew better and that whatever vortex that had been opened up had devoured his son and sent him to the black abyss of death, which then led to an argument over Sneaky's soul which Light Feather said would be safe in the afterlife and cared for by celesita and luna while Brick said that was all a lie the monarchs said so the populace would not be angered by the princes's immortality while they were all destined to die.

Brick paced aorund the lawn of his empty home, Light Breeze had told him that she needed a break for a while and went to live with her parents for a few days.

"Im sorry baby." Brick said and denied himself tears or pain as he walked to the front of his home and to the memorial for his son that had been left by the concerned and grateful citizens of Stalliongrad. A photo of Sneaky lay against the front step of their home with countless flowers and candles around it, all the candles were long melted, the flowers were wilted and the photo showed signs of being left in the rain. Brick wanted to grab the photo now as the clouds hung overhead and it seemed to be ready to turn into a rainy afternoon.

Brick layer let out a sigh and walked over to the picture and was begining to clean things up when he blinked and noticed something terrible and frightening. The picture of sneaky had changed and the image of Brick's son was gone, instead the image was of the evil one, of Discord.

"w...w..what!?" Brick cried out and took several steps back as the image on the paper moved and his terrible laugh echoed all around Brick. Discord then climbed out of the photo and soon floated upright infront of Brick, towering over him.

"awww whats the matter? Miss your little boy?" DIscord said as he snapped his fingers and conjured up a photo of sneaky and holding it mockingly over Brick as he tried to jump up and take it from Discord in an act of defiance.

"Give that to me you manure eater!"

"Oh im so hurt!" Discord said mockingly and held an arm over his eyes as if he were hiding tears and then smiled as he held the photo up.

"But I bet this hurts more." Discord said as the picture burst into flames and Brick watched in horror as the image of his son was engulfed in flames. While he had other photos, that one picture was one of the few most recent ones of his son, before he dissapeared.

"No! Why are you doing this!?" Brick shouted, feeling a horrible pain in his heart.

Discord shrugged and dropped the flaming picture to the ground as if it were a used napkin.

"I just feel like being a bastard this morning." He said with a shrug and a smile then snapped his fingers and the world seemed to suddenly blow away from Discord and Brick as they were transported to another plane.

"Down to buisness." Discord rubbed his hands together and looked to Brick who was trying to find out where he was and looking around rapidly.

"Do you want to see your son again?" Discord simply said and Brick froze where he was.

"wh....what?"

"Do...you...want....to...see.. your...son...again?" Discord said again, emphasizing every word.

"Y.....yes...more than anything...." Brick said and felt the tears roll down from his face as Discord conjured up a chair and the two were surrounded by darkness as the chair Discord sat upon became a throne.

"More than anything?" discord mumbled so low that Brick could not hear.

"I can give you your son back, he will be returned to you without problem or delay to boot. No strings, he will be returned." Discord said and crossed the part of his chest where his hear would have been and proceeded to conjure himself a champagne glass and a cuban cigar.

"P..please." Brick said as Discord licked his lips of the champagne and lit the cigar with a snap of his fingers before he chewed it like it was a candy bar.

"in exchange I want only three things. First no more worhsipping of Celesita or Luna." Discord said and held up one finger. Brick nodded since he did not pray to them anyway.

"Second, I need you to cause trouble from time to time, nothing special just some broken windows, a dumpster on fire or two." Brick gulped at that one but nodded, thinking he could handle that, he would just make sure to call the fire department after he did so.

"and third, your soul." Discord said and laughed with such glee as he flapped his wings in his throne and a contract appeared before Brick, with the last lines written. 'To be signed in blood.'.

"What?" brick gasped out as now he felt unsure about the deal.

Discord then leaned forward from his throne and pointed his index finger that was from a lion's paw and made a movement for him to come closer, but Brick had no choice as Discord's power pulled him closer.

"Your, soul." Discord said with a horrible smile as all Brick could see was fire around him and ashes raining from the sky, Discord's horrible red eyes glowing like lava as he leaned in closer and closer to the soldier pony who felt seconds away from soiling himself.

"I...I........I..." Brick Layer repeated as Discord hovered a knife and the contract before him.

"One brief moment of pain, and you can have your boy back." He said and the contract hung closer to him as Brick felt sweat run across his body as the fire's intensity increased and Discord suddenly lashed out and grabbed his right hoof, holding it over the contract which now floated under his extended arm while discord held the knife.

"One brief moment of pain, and you and your son can be together forever and ever." Discord repeated and let Brick go but continued to hold the contract and knife.

"Just reach out and give me your hoof, freely and of your own choice." The monarch of chaos and disorder said as he used a thumb to cover up very small, fine print on the contract.

"........Forever?...I'l have my boy back?" Brick asked.

"Im sure your wife will be so happy, she will probably move back in with you." Discord smiled impossibly wide as Brick slowly began to reach out his hoof.

"Give your soul to me, for eternity. Take your place inside the fires of Tartarus with me!" Discord said, almost singing the words as he winked an eye to you, his viewing audience.

"I........" Brick began and pulled back his hoof, changing his mind on the deal.

"Fine." Discord said with a displeased voice and expression as he held the knife in an upright position and with a sideways movement swung the blade at Brick Layers throat, his smile frighteningly happy.

Brick layer gagged and was thrown back by the force of Discord's swing as he held his throat, feeling the same sharp, fiery pain he did when his back hooves had been sliced when he was a soldier and the exact same fear.

Soon all he could see was discord standing over him with the contract.

"Sign it." Discord said in a booming demonic voice as he held the contract closer.

"Buck....you...you bastard......go...burn in tarta....rus..." Brick struggled to get the words out as he lost sensation in his body.

"Youre no fun." was all discord said before he twirled the knife in a downwards position to do a downwards stab.

"Ahhhhhh!!!!!" Brick layer woke up screaming at the top of his lungs inside of his shed, many bottles of 'Cider' around him and a Sneaky's crib completely fixed on a table, so well done in fact that it seemed to be as good as the first day Brick placed Sneaky into it, even some of the cracks that Brick was sure he would not be able to fix were nice and repaired.

Brick layer quickly picked himself off of the floor and rushed to find a nearby reflective piece of metal and looked to his throat, perfectly intact.

"it was just a nightmare...hahahaha just a dream." Brick said and looked to all the bottles around him, and felt utter shame.

He then growled and scooped the bottles up to throw them all in the trash, even the ones he had not finished or even opened yet.

"I'm cleaning my act up." he said and turned for a moment to look at the the completed crib and smiled.

"I love you son." he said and left to go dump the bottles then to shave his 5-o'clock shadow.

Discord sipped some tea with a monocle over one eye as he looked to you.

"What? I said I felt like being a bastard this morning, not that I wanted to hurt anyone. Besides, I did him a free favor by fixing that crib he broke. Anyway see you next time folks."

He laughed and all but his eyes faded into the darkness before they winked at you and faded as well with the end of this chapter.

Author's Note:

Usual message about checking my editor out, go to a previous chapter and click on the link in the author's notes.

Comments

[smoers06]

I think Sneaky is quickly becoming the cannon fodder for the aliens

[Sneaky Breeze]

2694621 perhaps. But as the proverb goes 'what does not kill you, makes you stronger.'