The desert around New Liberty was vast and empty, but that didn’t take away the fact that it was owned by the New United States. Since the end of the changeling war that vast emptiness had expanded much further, and with that expansion came a need to mark out the new territory. Enter the post planters, ponies, changelings, human refugees and other races that had been hired to do nothing but plant wooden posts in the desert along the border. Their task wasn’t gruelling, but it certainly was intense, but it was made easier with rather new technology.

A crew of planters, consisting of two men and a changeling, were currently cruising through the desert at about forty miles an hour in what had been designated the Mark Two Gun Carriage. Essentially one of the United State’s tanks that had been stripped of its turret and armor and modified for speed rather than combat. It was lovingly referred to as ‘The Desert Rabbit’ The crew was currently sitting in silence as they bounced along, passing by dozens of posts that had been placed in the past. A carriage being towed behind them was bouncing along as well, it was loaded down with thirty or forty posts that had been painted blue.

The crew had been riding along for nearly three hours, occasionally stopping to adjust a crooked post or perform other maintenance. However as they continued on through the desert it was clear they were getting closer to their destination. This was made apparent by the numerous buildings and apple trees that could be seen off in the distance.

The engine rumbled and grumbled as they left a cloud of dust in their wake, making their location known for miles in every direction. The changeling in the driver’s seat began slowing down as the end of the posts came into view. Of course, there were eight or nine posts that had been pulled out of their holes and thrown aside by the locals in the town ahead, but that was the norm. The planters did not care for the inhabitants of Appleloosa in the slightest, as the ponies had a habit of making their job exceedingly difficult. It wasn’t the planter’s fault that the ponies had expanded into land that didn’t belong to them, yet they insisted on messing with their posts.

“God damn it…” Muttered one of the men, a rather tall muscular fellow with tanned skin, long brown hair and a scruffy beard. He adjusted his green short sleeve workshirt as the vehicle came to a stop, the cloud of dust behind them floating past and dissipating in the wind. The man looked at his comrade, another tan fellow with auburn hair and wearing a similar work shirt.

“I’ll help ya set it up, mate.” The second man, someone of australian descent, said as he hopped out of the speedy Desert Rabbit. As the first man hopped out with him the second man looked to the changeling driver. “Go on ahead, we’ll catch up.”

“You got it, chief.” The changeling replied before beginning to roll further along to the end of the post holes, it took the two men an hour or so to repair the posts that had been uprooted, until eventually they had made their way over to their vehicle. The three of them grabbed a couple tools from the Rabbit, including a portable auger and some shovels. They had had a lot of practice with the shovels over the past couple days and gotten the act down pretty well. They were just about to start digging their first hole for the day when they heard a familiar noise off in the distance.

The three of them looked up to see the source, which happened to be a crowd of ponies from the town thundering across the land with the usual assortment of improvised weapons. The first man sighed quietly and wordlessly climbed up into the rabbit as his two comrades continued digging the hole, the man picked up the radio and cleared his throat.

“Liberty Control, Rabbit Two-Actual.” He said, there was a brief moment of silence before a static laced voice replied.

“Go ahead Rabbit Two-Actual.” The radio crackled.

“Locals are out in force again, advise on strategy.” The man said tiredly as he looked out over the landscape at the approaching cloud of dust. His name was Danny, his human comrade’s name was Winston, and their changeling compadre was fittingly nicknamed Shifty. Danny leaned back in the radio operator seat as he waited for a response, his hand coming to rest on a gun rack that had been installed on the starboard side of the Rabbit.

”We have two assets on station about twenty miles south of your position, we can have them make a pass over.” The radio crackled once again as the crowd got closer, Danny sighed and shook his head.

“Roger, Liberty Control, send them over. Advise for immediate action?” The man asked, pausing for a moment as he heard Winston grunting with the auger beside the Rabbit.

”They’re civilians first and foremost, however, if they take action against you use of non-lethal force is authorized. Use your best judgement Rabbit Two-Actual, copy?” The radio crackled once again, Danny was a tad surprised at the authorization, but he supposed that the United States had to take a hardline to border security now more than ever.

“Copy. Rabbit Two-Actual out.” Danny mumbled before standing up and adjusting his blue jeans and then reaching to the gun rack and picking up a scoped remington rifle. “Keep at it, guys. I’ll keep an eye on the riff raff.”

“Right.” Winston said as he grunted and pulled the auger from the hole in the ground. “Let’s get the bloomin pole in the hole, eh?” Shifty nodded and the two started walking towards the trailer that hauled the posts. Danny watched the crowd getting closer and closer and reached under his seat to withdraw a green baseball cap with a patch sewn to the front. The patch depicted an eagle holding a sniper rifle in one claw and a sword in the other, the words ‘United States Border Control’ were stitched in bold letters around the patch. Danny pulled on the hat and slung his rifle over his shoulder, by now the crowd was slowing down and their yells could be heard.

At least a quarter of the town was there to jeer and taunt them, but so far that was all they had been doing, and so Danny relaxed and sat down in his seat to keep an eye on them. For an hour and a half the same routine played out, the ponies were yelling and telling them to get off their land, and the planters gleefully ignored them. Fifteen posts later the Rabbit had been moved forwards and was now on the very edge of a rather large orchard, it looked like they were going to cut the massive ocean of trees in half. This was something not lost on the the ponies, who were now stepping up their efforts to stop the planters. Danny was tense as he heard several apples splat against the outside of the rabbit.

“Fuckin’ jerks.” He muttered as he looked out at the ponies, some of whom were now holding pitchforks and scythes. His grip on his rifle shifted and he found himself standing more than sitting, as a veteran of the Empire War he was no stranger to mounting tension. Danny picked up the radio microphone and switched it over to the PA system mounted to the front of the Rabbit, then he cleared his throat. “You! With the pitchforks! Back away and lower your weapons!” An apple soared past his head in response, Danny switched back to the radio. “Liberty Control.”

“Go ahead.”

“It’s getting hairy down here, we need- Fuck!” Danny began, only for a rock to sail inches from his face. “We need some fucking back up!” The man walked to the edge of the Rabbit and looked at Winston and Shifty, the two of them were being pelted with random objects. “Where’s our fucking air support!?”

”Two minutes out, switch to channel five for them.” Liberty control replied, Danny quickly changed channels and cleared his throat.

“Rabbit Two-Actual.” He said nervously as he gripped his rifle.

”Reaper One-One and One-Two on station Rabbit Two-Actual. Establishing orbit overhead.” The radio crackled in response, Danny looked over head and quickly spotted the two thestrals against the blue sky, each seemed armed and each seemed ready. More rocks began to bounce off the Rabbit, and it was at that time that Winston and Shifty had enough and got back in.

“Reaper flight, we’re sustaining heavy ground resistance from civilians. Backing out. Cover our move.” Danny said as Shifty got in the driver’s seat and started the engine. There was a whining noise as the trailer behind them fishtailed and stopped their movement.

“Fuck! The trailer!” Winston shouted, Danny looked around for a moment then handed his australian comrade the microphone. Without a word the man hopped out of the back and unlatched the trailer, then he grunted and began to lift the hitch. The ponies were closing in, emboldened by the seeming retreat, even more rocks bounced around the area as Danny finally got the trailer undone. He began to climb back into the Rabbit when a particularly heavy rock smashed into the back of his head and everything went black.

“Fuck!” Winston yelled as he watched his friend fall face first into the vehicle. “Go go go!” Shifty complied and punched the gas, tearing off and turning around to drive back to New Liberty. The ponies were in hot pursuit. “Reaper flight! Man down! I say again! Man down! Keep those bastards off of us!”

”Roger that.” The radio replied briskly, overhead Winston could see the two thestrals dropping low and readying their weapons. They screamed overhead, the man could’ve reached up and touched them if he wanted to. ”Guns. Guns. Guns.” Several bolts of blue energy erupted from the spellbows that each thestral carried, they kicked up dust in front of the charging group of ponies that quickly turned tail and ran. ”We’ve got them on the-” The radio suddenly cut out and Winston looked into the sky in shock. ”These fuckers wanna dogfight! Rabbit Two-Actual, you’re on your own for now, we’ll catch up. We’re calling in medicals for your man down.”

Winston watched as the two thestrals began circling around towards two pegasi that were armed with improvised weapons, the man shook his head and ran towards his downed comrade who was laying face down in a pool of blood. The australian rolled his friend onto his back and checked his pulse, finding that the source of the blood was from a broken nose. To the australian's horror he didn’t feel a pulse, it looked like the blow to the head had been strong enough to end his friend’s life. Winston silently reached up and closed his friends eyes, silently looking up towards the dogfight in the sky and picking up the radio.

“He’s dead. Call off the medicals.” The silence that followed was heavy, overhead the fight ended quickly and the two ponies limped off nursing stun wounds across their bodies until finally the flight of Thestrals flew overhead. The drive continued on in silence, leaving Winston with nothing to do but look down upon his fallen comrade.

In New Liberty the news was just being placed on Sonar’s desk, but it was quickly making the rounds through the entire city. Princess Luna was just as shocked to see the report, and she could feel a bit of a lump forming in her throat. Celestia had said she would handle the ponies of Appleloosa, obviously she hadn’t, and a man was now dead because of it. Both Sonar and the Princess knew there would be a crowd of angry citizens on their doorstep soon, many of them would be demanding blood. The news was just as soon relayed to Princess Celestia in Canterlot.

Celestia gulped as she shakily set down the report, her tea shaking in her magical grasp as several guards stood in front of her. She had never thought her ponies would be capable of such an act, she’d honestly hoped that her subjects had left behind their violent reactionism after the Canterlot riots. It was obvious that hope was misplaced. It was very obvious that the ponies of Appleloosa were in the wrong, but Celestia faced another grim reality, a great deal of Equestria’s apple exports came from Appleloosa. If America took control of half of the apple orchard it would be comparable dropping a bomb on the country's economy.

Once again, Celestia and Luna were at odds with each other, and this time Celestia couldn’t just make the problem go away. The solar diarch closed her eyes and set her tea down, looking to the guards in front of her.

“Prepare to send troops to Appleloosa.” Celestia said in an even voice, she cleared her throat as she did her best to sure up her resolve. “Protect the orchard at all costs.”

[♠]

Dominic quietly paced back and forth in his shack as he looked over the report that had just been delivered to him by Discord, the chaos god hadn’t made any jokes or costume changes, he barely even spoke. Maria had never seen Dominic so upset in her life. He hadn’t uttered a word, he just continued looking over the paper until finally setting it on the table.

“Those bastards…” Dominic finally said with venom. “Fucking goddamn xenophobic sons of bitches.” Maria stood up and quietly walked to the table, then looked at the paper, of course it was in Equestrian so she couldn’t read it. “A bunch of rednecks in Appleloosa attacked a border control team, killed one of the guys on the crew with a rock…” Maria looked back at the paper, then at Dominic as he took a deep breath and shook his head. “I can’t do a damn thing, I have to trust Luna and Sonar to figure this one out…”

“You said Luna’s pretty smart, right?” Maria asked as she put her hands on Dominic’s shoulders and started to squeeze, it was an impromptu massage, but it was all she could think to do for her stressed boyfriend. The man didn’t reject the act, he let out a sigh and nodded to Maria’s question.

“Yeah, but her sister’s a dolt.” Dominic said grimly. “Sooner or later someone somewhere is going to something stupid.” He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, running a hand over his head before leaning on his elbows. “It can never be easy, everything has to have some shit tossed in.” Maria gave a few more squeezes before taking a seat beside Dominic and resting her hand on his shoulder. “Your friend died, people are dying at home, we’re days away from a full on war. It’s all going to hell in a handbasket and it’s all my fault.”

“How do you figure that?” Maria asked with honest curiosity, she could see the stress was weighing Dominic’s shoulders down even further.

“Because I’m the man at the wheel, Maria.” Dominic said simply as he shook his head tiredly. “It’s all my responsibility, the buck stops with me.” Maria sighed quietly and stood up, she couldn’t stand seeing the defeated look in Dominic’s eyes anymore. The woman grabbed his cheeks and turned him to face her, Dominic looked into her eyes for several seconds.

“You are literally a universe away from them, Dominic. Focus on the problems here.” Maria said softly, she ran a hand over Dominic’s hair. “I don’t blame you for Jose, there was literally nothing you could’ve done.” The man stared into Maria’s eyes for a few more seconds before quietly nodding. “Now, is there anything I can do to help you relax a bit?” A blush spread across Dominic’s face and he quickly looked aside. “Okay, that came out wrong…”

“I’m alright, Maria, but thanks…” Dominic replied as he leaned up and gave her a kiss, Maria blushed herself as she held his head in place for a few moments until their lips finally parted. “That helped, actually. Can I have another?” Maria smirked and gave a slight shrug, then pulled him closer again. Before their lips could meet the door opened quickly and Melissa waltzed in, both Dominic and Maria froze in place.

“Whoa…” Melissa mumbled as she caught sight of her two roommates inches away from what surely would’ve been a passionate kiss. “Get a room, you two!”

“We did! This is our room!” Maria said as she turned to look at the newcomer, Dominic just sighed and shook his head as he leaned back in his seat. Melissa was dressed differently than normal, her feet were now adorned in boots taken from the dead EOL elite troopers and a red military beret was perched atop her head. Her flowing hair had been tied up into a bun and an AK-47 was slung over her shoulder. “I see you helped yourself to some of the spoils.”

“Well I have to have a way to defend myself.” Melissa replied simply as she walked into the shack and closed the door behind her, her eyes fell on the piece of paper on the table and the odd lettering on it. Momentarily she picked it up but Dominic grabbed it and folded it into a square before putting it into his pocket. “Something top secret I assume?”

“You could say that.” Dominic replied as he finished tucking the paper away, he took a deep breath and compartmentalized the worries for later reflection. Melissa stared at the pocket he’d stuffed it in discreetly, her spy instincts telling her to obtain the document. She mentally shook her head, she wasn’t going to be a bad guy anymore. The woman adjusted her beret as she walked to the table and started to take a seat.

“Oh, hey, Melissa could you help me with dinner before you sit down?” Maria asked as she patted Dominic on the shoulder and started walking towards the back door, Melissa looked a little surprised but shrugged and stopped herself. Dominic watched the two with a bit of curiosity as they both stepped outside, the man shrugged and picked up his AK, then began to field strip it to try and clear his head.

Maria adjusted her fatigues in the chilly mountain cold, it was very odd not having her cloak over her to keep her warm, but it had been used as a shroud for her friend. She was very quick to start up the rocket stove outside with some kindling and biomass briquettes. The woman opened a small crate beside the stove and dug around for some rations while Melissa looked at her with uncertainty.

“What can I do to help?” She asked, Maria shrugged as she stood up and set a frying pan on the chimney of the stove. “Then why did you call me out here?”

“Dominic has enough to worry about without me talking about this in front of him.” Maria said in a serious tone as she sliced some spam and set it in the pan to fry, Melissa gulped as the sniper turned to look at her with a rather cold expression. “I know there’s something you aren’t telling us, which is fine if it’s nothing, but I can’t help but think it’s something that could put him in danger.”

“I…” Melissa blinked quietly, looking Maria in the eyes, the same eyes that had laid crosshairs on more than a hundred EOL soldiers and taken their lives. The woman shuddered nervously in the sniper’s gaze, then took a breath and sighed. She had worried something would happen, she just wished it hadn’t happened so soon. “You have to promise not to get upset.”

“You know I can’t do that…” Maria said sternly, Melissa gulped faintly and rubbed the back of her neck.

“Before I came here I was part of the EOL…” The woman finally admitted, she looked at the ground as Maria continued to stare at her. “They wanted me to spy on Dominic and his forces-”

“You bitch!” Maria hissed angrily, she growled and before Melissa could say anything else she felt the sniper’s hands around her throat. “How much do they know?! What did you tell them!?”

“N-Nothing! I swear! P-Please, let me finish!” Melissa pleaded as she felt Maria’s hands tightening around her throat, the former spy knew very well she wouldn’t be able to win against Maria’s strength, even still she instinctively tried to pull Maria’s hands from her throat. Maria stared at her for several seconds before her face shifted and her grip relaxed, Melissa gasped for breath as Maria took a step away, her eyes still wide and angry. “I-I-I thought the CNG were the bad guys, until I actually met you! Until I realized the empress had been lying to me!” Melissa collapsed to her knees, her eyes welling up with tears as she looked at Maria. “Until I realized I wasn’t special…”

Maria felt her heart pounding her chest as she watched Melissa sobbing on the ground, the young woman was curling up in a ball as if she was some sort of beaten child. Maria was a sniper, she was used to taking lives from a distance, all the fear and remorse in Melissa’s eyes was something she never saw on the battlefield. Anger gave way to confusion, as Maria had always believed in the good of humanity, that people could change. That belief was overshadowed by fear of what Melissa could do, the damage she could inflict on everything and everyone Maria loved.

“I’m sorry, I’m so so sorry…” Melissa continued to mumble as Maria looked down at her quietly, every part of Maria told her to turn her in then and there, to tell everyone that there was a spy in their midst. The crying look on Melissa’s face is what stopped her, that look of fear and uncertainty haunted her, she’d seen it many times on the faces of the people rescued from the clutches of the EOL. She supposed not all of the EOL was evil, and naive as she was, she believed Melissa could be a part of that small minority. Maria crouched down, her breath shaky and uncertain, and held out her hand to the trembling young woman.

“C-Calm down...” She said, patting Melissa on the shoulder. The former spy looked at her with a bit of surprise. “I… I won’t tell anyone… But, don’t expect me to trust you outright… I’ve got my eye on you.” Melissa took Maria’s hand nervously and the sniper pulled her to her feet, then brushed off the snow on her coat.

“I won’t let you down…” Melissa said as she looked off to the side, Maria took a deep breath and rubbed the bridge of her nose as she went back to the stove. A silence settled over the pair, it seemed both of them were processing just how quickly the situation had been resolved. Maria wasn’t one to dwell on emotions, as they made her aim poor in the field. As such, she was able to get herself looking just as normal as before. Melissa wasn’t as skilled, and a frown was present on her face as she wiped her eyes and looked around.

“What made you decide we’re the good guys?” Maria asked as she flipped the frying piece of spam, part of it had been burned, but it was still edible. Melissa was a bit taken aback by the question, she took a moment to think before clearing her throat.

“You and Dominic, I think… I’ve never seen such genuine happiness in the EOL.” She admitted quietly, Maria paused for a few seconds before shrugging and going back to the cooking meat.

“Head inside, we’ll talk about this more later…” The woman commanded, Melissa nodded and walked to the door, leaving Maria to her own thoughts.

[♠]

Eugene had never seen the Empress so angry before, an entire unit of her Elite assault troops had been utterly wiped out by the mysterious Night Eagle and Mosin Maiden. The fight had lasted less than an hour and ended with a tank in enemy hands, this had left the Empress pacing back and forth her office with an absolutely furious expression. She adjusted her sailor outfit to better fit her gut while she fumed, meanwhile the chief general of the army was standing there silently. Eugene could tell from the sweat on the man’s forehead that he was absolutely terrified, men had been sent to the Western Front for far less.

“An entire unit has been absolutely destroyed! Near the end they attempted to flee!?” The Empress asked angrilly, prompting the general to nod. “Cowards! The lot of them!”

“They would have been killed either way, your-” The General began.

“Silence!” The Empress demanded, the General quieted down and the Empress approached Eugene. “Look at Eugene here. A model soldier, loyal and willing to fight for the Empire! Your soldiers should aspire to be like him!”

“Thank you, Empress!” Eugene shouted as he stood at attention, mentally groaning at the praise from the psychotic woman. The Empress nodded and walked back to her desk.

“You will find a way to eliminate the CNG once and for all, General. I will not tolerate failure!” The Empress pounded on her desk, sending a thud through the room. “With those filthy mundanes working in our factories and relaxation houses we will be able to set our sights on our true goal.” The Empress walked towards the window and looked to the east, she clasped her hands behind her and grunted. “We stand on the precipice, gentlemen. Glory awaits our great equal and tolerant nation! A kingdom to last a thousand years!” The Empress turned on her hail and placed a clenched fist over her heart. “You are dismissed, General. Hail Raven.”

“Hail Raven!” Eugene and the general shouted as they copied the gesture, the general nervously ran out of the room leaving the Empress to walk back to her desk while Eugene watched her and lowered his arm to his side. Night Raven pushed several papers aside and adjusted her clothes once again, she cast a look to Eugene and hummed to herself. The enigma of a man fascinated her, and she loved whiling away the hours attempting to learn about him. She’d had a couple of her agents following him in recent days, but they’d turned up nothing, he didn’t even visit relaxation houses.

Night Raven pushed a couple more papers around her desk before sighing and looking outside her window once again, her thoughts turned to the mysterious Night Eagle. He was more than just an imposing face now, he was a legitimate threat to the Empire. At least she could worry less about the Colorado Kids now, it seemed that her snipers had finally done their jobs and wiped them out from the area, as efforts to set up a base of operations in the burnt out town were going well. With that positive thought she began to look out the window once again, staring off towards Pikes Peak once again and narrowing her eyes.

“Has word come from Lady Moonbeam?” She asked, she didn’t look over her shoulder at Eugene.

“No, Empress.” Eugene replied, Night Raven hummed and turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow. “We’ve received reports from field agents that they keep their vehicles under heavy guard, it’s very likely she hasn’t had time to observe them properly.”

“I pray that she gets it done soon… We must know all we can before we destroy the CNG.” The Empress said sternly, Eugene nodded firmly. “Perhaps she requires help. Eugene, be a dear and summon Lady Nocturne. I have a feeling her services will prove useful.”

“An assassin, Empress?” Eugene questioned, the Empress nodded and turned back towards the window. “At once, Empress.” Eugene clicked his heels and stepped through the office door, once it was closed the man looked around, then reached into his coat and withdrew a folded piece of paper. It was a field report from one of the Empress’ agents, Eugene had already read it and it seemed that it portrayed Lady Moonbeam as some sort of traitor. The man pulled a lighter from his pocket and it the paper’s corners, he held it as it burned until he dropped it into an empty waste basket.

Eugene wordlessly picked up a cup of water on a table outside the doors and poured it into the waste basket before walking away with a strict measure to his steps. The man rubbed his neck as he walked through the capitol building, he passed by many other soldiers and various paintings on the walls until he reached a staircase that lead to the sub basement. Without pausing to reflect he started down the steps into the dim and dark underground, he knew very well who would be waiting for him at the bottom. Many times he’d needed to fetch the assassin for the Empress, the ‘Vampire Maiden’ insisted on claiming the sub basement for herself and her ‘children of the night’.

The soldier stopped on the last step and stared into the nearly pitch black abyss that was lit only by a few candles scattered about, with a sigh he took three steps forwards and waited patiently. Sure enough, as he had felt many times upon visiting this part of the capitol building, a pale pair of hands rested upon his shoulders.

“My my… What have I here? Has a fly gotten lost in the spider’s web?” A familiar voice asked, Eugene sighed as he recognized it as none other than Lady Nocturne. She had nothing better to do other than hide in the corner when she heard someone coming down the steps and approach behind to try and seem spooky.

“The Empress has requested your presence.” Eugene said with a sigh, the hands didn’t leave his shoulders.

“Oh, it’s you.” The voice said with a bit of a sigh, after a couple seconds the owner of the hands walked around in front of him. She was extremely pale with black hair and wore extremely gothic clothes, with a flat chest and a collar around her neck she looked more like some sort of hooker than a ‘Queen of the Vampires’. “Must you ruin the fun always?”

“It stopped being fun after the fifth time.” Eugene said flatly, Nocturne groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose. “As I was saying, the Empress has requested your presence regarding something to do with the CNG.”

“Those old fuddy duddies are still around?” Nocturne asked, Eugene nodded and watched as the vampire bit her lip. “What has the Empress so concerned then? Why send me? Or anyone at all?”

“We’ve lost contact with Lady Moonbeam.” Eugene said simply, Nocturne’s eyebrow rose for a moment before she chuckled and shook her head. “She was sent to obtain information about their new allies, allies with tanks and all manner of other weaponry.”

“New allies, hmm?” Nocturne asked, leaning a bit too close for Eugene’s comfort. “Who could they be? The Native Confederacy? The UN? The Cartels?”

“We don’t know that, all we know is that their leader is a man known only as ‘Night Eagle.” Eugene said, Nocturne hummed again before she leaned forwards and gave Eugene a peck on the cheek, something that he rapidly pushed her away from. “Do not touch me.”

“I could have you shot for that!” Nocturne said loudly, Eugene ignored her. “Why is it I only see you when you’re in such a terrible mood? I could easily relax you, if you don’t wish to use one of those filthy common thralls.”

“You have your orders.” Eugene said sternly. “Do not dilly dally, Lady Nocturne. The Empress is not in a forgiving mood!”

“She never is.” Nocturne said bitterly as she picked up a black robe and pulled it on over herself. “You should stay here with us, Eugene. We could transform you into something greater, you are already an impressive specimen.”

“Go. Now.” Was all that Eugene said, Nocturne appeared annoyed that the man had once again ignored her advances. She hadn’t seen anyone like him before, and she supposed that was the case with the Empress as well. The Empress probably wanted Eugene all to herself, but Nocturne could tell Night Raven wasn’t right for him. “I have matters to attend to, if there’s nothing else you want to push on me.”

“Of course there’s nothing else I want to push on you. Baka.” Nocturne said, Eugene sighed at the butchered Japanese and shook his head before turning to walk away. Nocturne watched his slouching shoulders and bit her lip, once he had disappeared from sight she looked towards her hand. In it was a rank insignia she had taken from Eugene’s coat when she’d grabbed him, she stared for a few seconds before walking to a far off corner of the room. She opened a small cabinet and looked inside, there was a shrine within with a picture of Eugene and numerous other items scattered about. A spent shell casing, an empty ration packet, and a leather glove were set about in seemingly random order. Nocturne set the insignia down near the glove.

“One day…” She said as she looked at the picture of the man, still wearing his balaclava as usual. “One day he’ll be mine.”

[♠]

Agent Hinkman adjusted his suit as he sat in front of a computer screen, he was pouring over numerous pieces of government information and other items, all pertaining to one man. What he was seeing was painting a somewhat horrifying picture, if only because it seemed there was something sinister about how the man had been raised. Numerous gun purchases, numerous excursions to private military training facilities at such a young age. Hinkman felt a couple chills go down his spine, mysteriously it had all stopped when Dominic reached the age of four years old.

After that it was rather normal stuff that came up, but those first four years of life made Hinkman more than uncomfortable. Whatever Thomas Occisor had been doing to his son in that time, it was well within a window where Dominic would block it out later on in life. Hinkman sighed and leaned back in his office chair, it had been several years since he’d ever had to do such a rigorous background on anyone. The agent stood up and looked around his simply decorated office, the white walls were shrouded in darkness as he had yet to change the lightbulb for his desk lamp.

Hinkman turned to the door and walked outside, he needed to take a break from the mysterious background search. The fact that almost every server in the world had been functionally destroyed was no help, even the servers in what was left of NORAD were just about shot. Hinkman walked down the hallway towards a door that would take him outside of the dorm rooms that had been turned into offices, being set up on a college campus had more than a few perks.

The man passed numerous posters and signs on the wall that spoke of school events that had never happened, they remained as solemn reminders that the world had once been a much simpler place. In fact, that was somewhat why the UN was so interested in Boulder, the university had the largest library available in the state, only because all others had been bombed or burned by the EOL. It housed the closest thing to the sum of all human knowledge that the UN could get its hands on, and that made it far more important to defend than NORAD or any other facility.

Hinkman stepped outside and leaned against the side of the dorm, in the distance he could see the wind farm that provided the town’s electricity. With a sigh the man pulled a cigarette from his pocket and lit up, after a couple seconds he exhaled a cloud of smoke. He reflected on the man he was researching now, wondering if he truly was an ally or rather the beginning of a new and bloody chapter in human history. Hinkman knew very well the EOL was already bad news, but the UN was in no position to stand against them, many of the remaining generals wanted nothing to do with the outside world in general. Hinkman and Putin knew very well that would never happen.

Hinkman shivered for a moment in the cold air, the door beside him opened outwards and a woman stepped out with several coats on. She was one of the few Japanese Defense Force members to have escaped to the US before Tokyo and the rest of Japan had succumb to the infection. She didn’t speak much English, but she did her best, and Hinkman was glad to have someone to at least talk to. She quickly caught sight of him and waved before silently walking over and adjusting the glasses that were perched atop her nose.

“Hello, Hinkam-sama.” She said, somewhat butchering his last name, not that he minded.

“Hey, Naomi.” Hinkman replied before raising his hand to wave. “You don’t need to use that ‘sama’ stuff with me, I understand it’s rude in your country, but here it’s kinda… Weird.” Naomi blinked for a moment, as if trying to process what he was saying before simply nodding. “What’s up? I thought you were busy handling that business in the west.”

“Many different sides, too many to handle at once.” Naomi replied with a groan, Hinkman offered her a cigarette which she graciously took. “What of you, Hinkam? Putin has you working on some new threat too?” Hinkman nodded and took a drag on his cigarette, then lit Naomi’s with his lighter.

“Some guy popped up with the CNG. He’s got tanks, real ones.” Hinkman said, Naomi looked at him with a bit of surprise. “Yeah, and what’s more, I’m not sure he’s really the kind of stable person that should be in charge of tanks. Putin says trust him for now, but the more I look up his history the more antsy I get.”

“Stability in our world is increasingly rare, Hinkam. Perhaps he is just the right type of, how do you say…” Naomi trailed off for a moment. “Oddball? The right type of oddball to match the Empire of Light.” Hinkman shrugged once again, not nearly as chilly as Naomi seemed. “If you need help, ask me, please? I am very interested.”

“I’ll be sure to let you know if…” Hinkman paused, then looked over at Naomi. “Can you hack a secure network for me?” The woman smiled and nodded, Hinkman hummed as he thought back to his research. A new server had popped up recently, off towards the mountains, it was simply named ‘ARK’ and had somehow been exceedingly hard to hack into. Mainly because most of the characters it used were Japanese, Hinkman thought there might have been a chance that some more information could be on it. More importantly, he wanted to know just who it was that had activated the odd new contact. “Meet me in my office after your shift is over, I’ll tell you what I know and how you can help.”

“Okay.” Naomi said with another nod, Hinkman took a finally puff on his cigarette before tossing it off into the snow and walking back inside. Part of the man knew that he’d need to get some boots on the ground in order to really learn about Dominic Occisor as he currently was. As Hinkman returned to his office he took a seat at his computer and opened the command window, like lightning his fingers flew over the keys and text appeared on the screen that read ‘Activate Phantoms? Y/N’. After a couple seconds Hinkman pressed the ‘Y’ key.

Meanwhile, far off in the distant reaches of the Colorado Wastes, Mark sat up straight as he heard a beep off to his left in the radio room, a beep he hadn’t been expecting. As quick as a flash the man stood from his chair and walked towards the computer terminal, he knelt down where he saw the familiar text belonging to his old handler and somewhat friend Agent Hinkman. He cautiously opened the message and read over the message inside, as he read over it he heard the door to the room open and looked over his shoulder. Sure enough it was Andie.

“Hey, come here.” He said, the woman raised an eyebrow and walked towards him. She knelt down and read over the message, the woman blinked a couple times before looking at Mark. “There’s a chance this could be it, we could help put an end to the EOL once and for all… Then it’d just be you and me.”

“What about your friend?” Andie asked in a hushed voice, Mark quieted down for a couple seconds.

“Mike’s a tough guy, and who knows, this could prove to help him too.” Mark finally said, Andie took a second to stare at him. “Come on, we can do this, one last mission.” The radio operator finally nodded with a sigh, she stood up and looked around.

“It would be nice to go back to Boulder…” She said quietly, with that she turned and started walking out of the room. Mark turned back to the message on the screen, staring at the picture of their intelligence target. He was a tank of a man that bore a striking resemblance to Rommel or some sort of Roman soldier. Mark took a couple more seconds before he hovered his hand over the ‘Y’ key and brought it down with a sense of finality.

Author's Notes:

Hello again, my dear readers. I'm sorry about the wait, but work has been a bit of a bear lately. That being said, I hope things turned out alright. As always here's your clip of the day, from a TV show that I grew up watching with my dad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPk5mCYKCtU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FltPocWvVs8