Chapter: 1
Two years before present events
"Daddy, please don't go!" Cried Eclipse as I began to leave on the train that was to take me to the military base. I looked at my daughter and gave a smile, "Don't worry pumpkin, daddy will be back before you know it!"
"But I don't want you to go,"
"I have to Eclipse, its so I can insure you and mom are safe all the time," the train whistled and the conductor called us to come aboard. "Daddy has to go now, i'llsee you soon." I turned away from Eclipse and my wife, not knowing that that would be the last time that I ever saw them. My name is Stryker Bolt and this, this is my story.
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I watched the trees go shoot by on the train, the steady beat of the trains wheels scraping against the tracks was the only thing I could listen to as to keep myself occupied. The silence was deafening, I could hear my own heart beat if i strained my ears enough. Nopony was talking, not a single murmur was heard but the soft breathing of those around me. Storm, my friend. Was to meet me at a military base, the name was classified. The war between the army and the Equestrian Rebels was going terribly bad. The generals had been forced to draft ponies into the war as nopony was volunteering any more. The army didn't want to admit it but we were losing. We were losing bad. The rebels had somehow stolen tech from our science facilities and was already greatly advancing above our own scientists.
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I was awoken by the sudden stop of the train. There were murmurs as the ponies began to stand up and file out. I fell in behind the group and was the last to exit off of the train. As soon as I stepped onto the cold concrete of the station I was pulled into a bear hug suddenly by a flurry of pale blue and blonde hair. "Long time no see big pony!" I laughed as I bro hugged him back. I came up with Storms nickname 'big pony' in high school. He stood at least a full head taller then anypony else, not counting his horn and was alot more muscular. I never saw him lose a hoof wrestle match. "Good to see ya too Stryker, oh and by the way. That's brigadier general Storm too you!" he laughed. Storm finally loosened his grip enough that I was able to escape his crushing hug. We bro hoofed and he motioned me to follow him.
Present Day
"Lieutenant.... Hello?"
"Let me rest"
"Hurry! Your going to be late for your meeting, your going home today!" I shot out of bed. How could I forget that I was going home to see my family again today? The private who woke me, I believe his name was Light just smiled. "I knew you would get up, now you had better hurry or the general would think I was the reason you were late, AGAIN." I thanked the light purple earth pony and proceeded to the bathroom. I looked into the mirror. my short-cut dark blue mane was presentable so I decided not to waste any time on fixing it. Turning to my pale green coat I began to flatten it down in any place it stood up. Pulling on my military coat I made sure that my medals were clear of any wear and shined up those that weren't, I turned a little in order to see the lieutenant insignia that presented itself. I smiled.
I walked into the conference room, inside were pegasi, unicorns, earth ponies and zebras. Some I recognized. Tonin, a zebra looked at me with an ice cold stare. We never got along. Storm was sitting on the right hand side of the general while Raven, a pegasi sat on the generals left hand side. An earth pony mare by the name of Winter was seated to my right, while a zebra who we nicknamed Mist sat on the far right of the table. "You may wonder why I called everypony here today." I saw Tonin lean over to the zebra beside him and whisper something, they both snickered. "It has come to our attention that the Rebels have a new weapon. It is a biochemical weapon that we believe they might use to put an end to life on Equestria. brigadier general Storm, I am entrusting you to lead a task force of these ponies into the Rebels base and stop them from using this weapon, any questions?" My heart stopped, I lifted my hoof to ask a question. "General, why am I here then, I am supposed to be catching the train home today."
"There has been a change of plans lieutenant, you will be going home after this mission, dismissed." Everypony stood up, as did I. I was fuming with anger. The general, deprived me of going home to my family for a mission. What if I died? They were expecting me to be home tomorrow. Tonin walked past, as he did he fixed me with an icy cold stare. I glared back at him with equal malice the entire time he walked away. Raven walked up beside me. "Don't bother yourself about Tonin." The dark coated stallion inquired. "He wont listen to nopony, he is just about as immature as one could get. "I know commander Raven , its just. The way he looks at me. It as if he wants to kill me in my sleep."
"He just has a stick up his ass Stryker, just ignore him, here comeiwth me Stryker i'll show you what they will be hooking us up with for the op."
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"Now, as you know us being pegasi it is rather hard and in some cases impossible to use a gun bigger than a pistol. This puts us at a severe disadvantage to unicorns as they have the bigger gun. So we have came up with," Raven pulled the canvas off of some sort of mechanism that looked like a saddle but had who rifles strapped to the sides. Each had a silencer. "The battle saddle Mk1!" I looked at the strange contraption. "How does it operate?"
"Easy! Just let me put it on..." Raven moved behind the battle saddle and shouldered it onto his back, after doing up a couple straps and securing the two weapons and ammo he clamped down on a bit that stretched out of the front of the battle saddle. The two barrels fired simultaneously creating almost a whisper of a sound. The bullets punched through the targets in the range and went through the metal wall. "Did it just go through that wall?"
"And hit the tank behind it... Yea those may have been AP rounds..." Raven kicked a lever at the back of the contraption there was some clicks as new ammo loaded. The shot down the range again and they lit the targets on fire. "Whoops, incindiary, they really need to label these things..." Raven tried again only to get explosive rounds that seemed to want to make the entire building fall on top of us. On his last try he finally got normal ammo and when he aimed to shoot he had nothing to shoot at. All targets had either been turned to ash or was lying on the floor in the newly formed pile of debris. Two workers were looking wide eyed through the hole at the end of the range at us. "I aint fixing this" I heard one say, "Nope," said the other.
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After a couple hours of manual labour of fixing the metal wall that Raven had destroyed we agreed that for him we would label each ammo cartridge so Raven would not have to test fire each time and by doing that risk jeopardizing our mission. "So, since those battle saddles were fitted with silenced snipers, we will be the teams marksmen then?"
"Yup, the job is simple really, cover them as they approach and make sure nobody comes in behind us or escapes the facility." It was lunch time and me and Raven were talking as we moved down the row of ponies eagerly waiting to get our food. Storm was still in the conference room going over plans with the general and would most likely still be another hour yet. "Its not that simple Raven, they are going to have helicopters there and we need to be stealthy because if they know were there before we actually disable the bomb were done for." Raven seemed to consider this fact, we both got to the end of the food line and went to go sit with the other officers. I saw Light sitting with some of the privates and corporals so I decided to go and sit with them today. Some of them gawked at me when I went over to sit with them. "What? Never had a CO sit at your 'special' table before."
"No lieutenant, why aren't you with the other officers?"
"I felt like having a change of tune today, come and see what you guys talk about."
"Trust me lieutenant Bolt, all these guys talk about is how they are going to get into bed with officer Winter or how bitchy Tonin always is." Light said so nonchalantly that he didn't seem to care that he was talking to a pony that new both Tonin and Winter better then everypony combined at the table. "Stop lying Light, you know the lieutenant wouldn't listen to anything we say." A corporal beside Light whispered just loud enough for me to hear. "Actually I am quite interested on how you guys expect to get into bed with Winter in the first place."
"Shhh don't talk so loud, if she overhears us we will be running laps for a week straight."
"No like seriously, you all know that she is engaged, right?" Almost all of them looked surprised at the news, others seemed mad like I had ruined a prank they were trying to pull."I'll take that as a no. Raven actually just proposed to her a few days back. I am genuinely surprised actually, but it always seemed like they had a thing."
"Well, that sure ruins plans," Somepony muttered as they began to eat their meal once more. We ate in silence for the rest of the time, sometimes somepony would cough or try to make a remark but most seemed downtrodden. Strange how the news made everypony lose their voice.
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It was the day of the raid, it was still dark out and everypony was fitting up, Tonin and the other zebras as being part of a special ops team and were used to suiting up fast were already done while the other ponies fumbled with our gear. I strapped on the battle saddle and put two ammo boxes in the back of one of the humvees we were going to be driving up. Finally getting the battle saddle in order I jumped onto the roof of the humvee and clamped myself onto it so I wouldn't fly off, in a humvee behind me Raven was doing the same. Once we were all suited up we drove off, my humvee at the lead followed by Ravens and a lorry that carried the rest of the task force.
A days drive later and we were all unloading from the vehicles, Storm took the lead and we followed him through a vast expanse of rainforest, nopony dared to utter a peep. "There it is..." Storm broke the silence as a giant mountain loomed before us. Storm levitated a pair of binoculars up to his eyes and peered through them. "Frequent patrols of five, okay we will have Bravo move into from the ri-" He was cut off from the sound of multiple rockets as they flew up into the sky from the base. Each had a bio hazard symbol and were almost easily as big as the mountain they emerged from. "Shit! We were too late!" Tonin cursed as the rockets soared higher into the air. Behind me I could hear Winter telling the general that the mission was a fail and he should alert all of Equestria and activate any missile defence system we had. As rockets all began to separate and travel to their designated areas they began launching little pods of something, at first small specks in the sky turned into flaming balls of death as they began to rain down on us. "Everypony take cover!" Storm bellowed as the projectiles began to rain down, I leapt into a small crevice in the ground and others followed after me, i heard a vehicle blow up as one of the fire balls hit it. It seemed that wherever the fireballs hit that everything in the immediate vicinity instantly dies and the ones around that area died slower. "We need to get out of here!" Winter yelled as the now apparent white cloud of gas seeped up all around her. The white earth pony began to panic, i could see fear in her eyes and the gas crept up on her. Raven, who had now stripped of his battle saddle flew over the gas and dived down to try and save his bride to be. "I got you Winter!"
"No Raven go! Save yourself just make sure you live!"
"If you die I die!" Raven's wing was clipped by the white cloud and he screamed out in agony, this caused him to careen sideways and fly straight into the white cloud. There was screams for a few seconds before they quieted altogether. "No!" Winter screamed as she tried to blow on the gas as if to make it go away. "Raven no! don't be dead!" I couldn't do anything but watch as the gas enveloped Winter and she screamed out in pain and sorrow. I was shaken out of my trance by Storm who was shouting at me to get into the humvee. I obliged and soon me,Storm,Tonin and a couple other assorted ponies and zebras began to speed out of the forest. Nopony dared to look back, nopony dared to think of what became of their families if this was the fate they have endured or are still yet to.