“Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”
― Winston Churchill

Chapter 6: Friends and Foes

I blearily blinked my eyes as I was awakened by the buzzing of mosquitoes. Taking my floppy hat off my face, I saw the sun making an exquisite impression of a slit throat as it crested the horizon. Still angry that some flies had awoken me, I grabbed my two litre pillow and took a hearty swig from it.

The buzzing had stopped, but I couldn’t get back to bed. My bladder had finally decided it wanted to empty itself after two days of not having anything reach it. I grabbed my rifle, crawled over the sleeping form beside me, put my clothes on, and reveled in the still rapidly cooling desert.

Kania had obviously moved in her sleep, but the fact that I didn’t wake up when she disentangled herself from me was worrisome. Usually even the lightest of vibrations would rouse me from my slumber which meant that something was very wrong with my body and mind.

Slinging my rifle around my back, I unzipped my pants and glanced around the never ending desert. “Coulda swore there were some trees there somewhere…” I mumbled drearily. When I finished, I zipped up my pants, turned around, and promptly tripped over the crouching form of a horned pony.

“Jesus fuck, Kania, be careful!” I said, finding myself even more disoriented as my view of the world suddenly shifted to that of a six year old. A low grunting and the dull sensation of heat in my lower ribs was my answer. I gasped as I felt cold metal meeting the warmth of my body.

Glancing to my not-so camouflaged body, I saw that my abdomen had been pierced by a sword which was hanging in a luminous aura. I looked up, and there, beyond the sword, was a very pissed looking guard pony. It had stabbed me. I’ve never been stabbed before. This was not the greatest time to find out how odd it felt.

More ponies were approaching from the mountain to reinforce their comrades. Between the distance and the fogging of my vision, I could barely make out their forms as they flew in. My eyes were heavy, and I wanted so badly to sleep. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes.

I looked down to my stomach. Blood was spurting freely from the bullet wound I had suffered. The area was going numb while two of my comrades were performing combat first aid. The sniper was probably aiming to incapacitate me. He succeeded.

The pain should have been unbearable, but the combination of morphine and endorphins just made me feel numb. It was truly an odd sensation.

The sound of rifle fire caught my attention. My section was returning fire on the sniper position. I always found it curious how much the sounds of automatic fire and popping bubble wrap were so similar. I also realised that my ramblings meant I was slipping from the world. Fuck…

I awoke to a squelching sound and the fierce burning sensation of metal being torn from my side. My eyes shot open from the pain, and I instinctively looked for what was causing it. A barbed sword had just been ripped from my abdomen. I glanced around quickly to find the perpetrator and found myself in a very peculiar position.

I was surrounded by five ponies, some had wings and held spears slung under them, while others had horns and held swords in their magical grasp. A short ways off, there were ten ranks of guards in files of five, making fifty guards. I was massively outnumbered, and these creatures had already stabbed me. I was going to die.

Before panic could fully take root in my heart, one of the unicorns who I presumed was their leader spoke up. “Your knife has been removed.” he said. “You are unarmed.”

The world stopped. I felt the reassuring weight of my loaded rifle pressing against my prone form. I felt blood seeping freely from what had to be dozens of internal wounds. I was going to die, but I wouldn’t make it easy on them.

“Assisting a changeling is a capital offence,” he continued to drone on. “Surrender, and your death shall be painless.”

I forced my breathing to slow down. Panic would not serve me here. I slowly stood and reached for my rifle, grimacing in pain and fumbling for footing. I was going to die, but I would take a hell of lot of them with me.

“A soldier… is never… unarmed.” I mumbled, ignoring the profuse bleeding from my abdomen. I raised my rifle at the guard who had stabbed me and fired three rounds into his cranium.

Startled by the noise, every guard in attendance took a step back in fear. Utilising this advantage, I took a step towards my tent which just so happened to have all of my reserve ammo in it and fired another burst into a nearby pegasus. As he collapsed, his comrades seemed to regain their senses and began to close the gap between us while the remaining fifty stood in reserve.

The pegasus to my left had taken flight and was charging straight for me. I pointed my rifle at him and fired three rounds into his torso, letting his own momentum and gravity do the rest of my work for me. To my right, a unicorn was charging me with his head lowered. I gunned him down with lethal precision as well. I turned around and continued backwards towards the tent while sending three rounds into the last guard.

The reserve ranks still had not moved, probably waiting to see what my next move would be. Never taking my eyes off of them, I moved to the tent and grabbed my tacvest. My rifle never pointed away from the potential hostiles as I donned my load bearing equipment. Once my tac and flak was slung over my shoulders, I saw why they weren’t moving. A single member of their ranks was marching towards the front, where he assumed a command position. This is my chance.

Letting my rifle hang by its sling, I removed one of my fragmentation grenades from its pouch, careful not to let the poorly thought out design of the vest remove the safety mechanisms. Steeling my nerves, I assumed the standing-ready position. I stood with my left shoulder facing the formation, one hand on the grenade, the other on the safety clip.

“Ready,” I whispered to myself, occupying my attention with proper grenade procedures to distract myself from my imminent demise. I removed the safety clip and moved my hand to the safety pin. “Throw.” Quickly pulling the grenade from the pin, I checked to ensure everything was still as it should be. Raising my left hand to the heavens, I shouted “Frag out!” before using my raised arm for leverage to hurl the grenade at the cluster of armored ponies.

One of the guards stared like a deer caught in headlights as the slow moving projectile went straight for his face. Luckily for him, it was ensnared by a glowing green aura summoned by a bewildered looking unicorn guard. There was a standstill while they all looked at me in triumph. They had successfully stopped my attack.

Then the fuse ran out.

The concussion of the explosive rippled through their ranks, crushing bones and pulverising organs before the shrapnel hit them. In the split second of observation I had, I realised that I never ate the dirt. Then I was hit by the wave of shrapnel, and felt the burning ceramics digging long trenches across my exposed skin. The blast threw me to the ground, smacking the back of my head against an ill placed rock.

I couldn’t feel the pain I knew I should be experiencing. My ears were ringing, and my eyes were having trouble focusing. I could almost feel the neurons in my brain trying to make sense of the situation. I struggled to my feet again, feeling nauseous and dizzy.

Unslinging my rifle, I put the scope to my eye and pulled the trigger, fully intending to end as many of the survivors as possible. The light impact of recoil hit my shoulder several times in succession, yet the familiar sound of gunfire was not there. Neither was the smell of freshly detonated gunpowder. In their place was a horrible draining feeling as if the world around me was slowly being pulled apart bit by bit, like a rug unraveling. Out of curiosity I lifted a hand to my nose, then looked at the now red glove, realising that something inside my head was seriously fucked up. Only one thing left to do, Soldier. I brought the rifle to my shoulder again.

Round after round ripped into the dazed ponies. I felt my rifle click empty, but left the empty magazine in the housing. My vision was fading yet again. The world rotated sideways and I felt my head hit the sand again. There was still no pain. Just nothingness and a lime green light at the end of a very long and dark tunnel. Then out of the silence, I heard a horrible, yet soothing sound. The cackling of a goddess.

When next I awoke, my mind was hazy and my eyes were blurry. The only thing I could really make out was the movement of black shapes above me, silhouetted by an ominous green glow. I also couldn’t feel my toes when I moved them.

Concern quickly grew to fear, and my eyes did their best to focus on the objects in front of me with the assistance of the sudden surge of adrenaline.

“He’s waking up!” one of the voices said.

“It’s a miracle!” cried another.

Changelings. I had been surrounded by changelings.

I tried to sit up, but was stopped by a soothing voice and a pressure on my chest. “Don’t move,” it said. “You’ve been severely injured.” The voice had become distinctly male.

“Mr. Heen, I’m afraid that you were ambushed by ponies last night. The report from Operative Kania says that they had followed you with the intent of killing the both of you. If we didn’t have soldiers drawn to the area by your weapons, you would have died.”

The voice belonged to a changeling wearing a white labcoat. I tried to speak, but all that escaped my mouth was a dull groan.

“Hush now, rest. The ponies were slain by a combination of changeling might, and your… weapons. You had taken quite the blow to the head, however, so I understand if you might feel like some facts have been mixed up.”

“We’ve done what we could to heal you, but the wounds you sustained were great. You truly fought mightily, taking a sword to the abdomen and still going on. It will take several days of magical healing for you to be back to full combat effectiveness.”

It felt like he was feeding me a line. The more he spoke, the more suspicious I became. The changelings would have to have been right there beside me if they indeed arrived in time to save me.

“You actually seriously wounded several of our soldiers who were coming to help you due to the darkness of the night. You called them out as pegasus ponies and engaged them at a great range before Kania stopped you.”

“We teleported you to the central hive chamber, which you took badly, and used more of your weapons projectiles to shoot at our Queen, who had luckily erected a shield the moment we entered the chamber.”

I didn’t remember doing any of that. Was I truly that far in the black that I wouldn’t remember being teleported? Did I really shoot at their monarch? What have I done?

“Teleportation is tricky business. That was your first time teleporting, correct?” I nodded my head to confirm his theory, still trying to comprehend the information. “Teleportation can be very distorting the first time. If you don’t remember too much after that, then it could be because your body is still adjusting to the rapid relocation. As for the matter of you intending to harm our Queen…”

“You are a new species, and as such we are forgiving your transgressions. You are also a formidable foe, and our Queen would like to make you an offer. After you have recovered of course. Please view this as a kindness not just from our state, but from all changelings. We so love meeting new people.”

I had committed a crime that should be a death sentence, but they forgave me and healed me. Truly their kindness could know no bounds if this were truly the case. I just hoped I hadn’t hurt any more civilians. I would never, could never forgive myself for civilian casualties.

I could feel myself slipping from consciousness. I both loved and loathed the feeling as it meant I could finally rest, but I would be unable to defend myself. “Please, rest. We will talk more when you are better.”

Noise. The soft clopping of hooves striking tile. How I knew what the sound was, I will never know. That was the noise I awoke to. The green lights in the white room made for a very eerie contrast, however, the smell of antiseptic clearly marked this as a hospital.

Something important had happened in the transition from where I was to where I currently found myself. Memories. Memories that didn’t quite feel my own. Reminds me of every course I’ve ever done... A doctor spoke, changelings were killed, I was forgiven.

There was more, and I knew it. The doctor mentioned ponies, and the thought of their needless offence made me shudder. A sharp pain lanced across my abdomen, and I realised why I felt this way towards the ponies. They had stabbed me!

The clopping had stopped. “Oh, you’re awake!” came a female voice. “It is truly a pleasure to meet the person who brought my Kania home to me.”

By the looks of the changeling, she had been pacing for hours, worried about… me. “It was no problem… Miss?”

“Circe.” she replied, offering a holed hoof before quickly retracting it and blushing. “Sorry, I forgot… injuries.”

“S’okay” I replied, body still groggy from what I hoped were medications. “How is she?” I asked, before adding “And where are the doctors?”

“My daughter is well. She is somewhat troubled by the fact that you fired on our own, but she knows that it was the heat of the battle. As for the doctors, they should be back any moment.”

The changelings had come to help me. And I shot them. Nothing she said at that point could have made me feel worse than hearing I had committed blue on blue. Luckily, I couldn’t stew in those thoughts for long, as a male changeling in a labcoat entered with a fair amount of dramatic flair.

“Ahh, our vonderman has finally avoken.” he said with a broad smile. “And vith plenty of love to boot.”

I ignored the bizarre statement and the German accent and looked around the room again, trying to find my rifle. Upon seeing nothing other than surgical equipment, I felt my heart rate jump and heard the heart rate monitor I failed to notice before increase its tempo as well. “Where is my rifle?” I asked with as much urgency as I could muster.

“The strange fire spewing veapon you arrived with?” At my nod, he continued. “Ve have stored it in our research und development department for ze time being. Just how did you make it vork, by ze vay?”

Ignoring his question, I started to swing my legs off the bed, much to the dismay of all the ‘lings around me. “Take me to it,” I said with as commanding a voice as I could muster.

“You have to rest, please!” The doctor pleaded. “I shall bring it to you, ja?”

Thankful that I didn’t actually have to walk anywhere to get my weapon, I gave him the most annoyed face I could feign at the time. “Fine. But make it fast. It is a very dangerous piece of equipment if you aren’t trained to use it.”

When the doctor had left, I lay myself back down on the bed, and let out a sigh of relief. A deliberate cough brought my attention to the female changeling still in the room. “Why did you send the doctor away?” she asked, obviously having seen through my fractured mask.

“I wasn’t lying about my weapon.” I said simply, drawing as much air as I could into my lungs. “I can’t have it just sitting around.” Her only response was to shrug non-committally.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, two armoured changelings entered the hospital room with the doctor and another changeling carrying my C8 close behind. The guards were incredibly tense, most likely due to the fact that I had grievously injured or killed some of their friends.

I couldn’t stop myself from audibly sighing in relief, while mumbling, “Thank God, it isn’t damaged.”

“You’re lying in a hospital bed with grievous wounds, and you are worried about the state of your…” Circe started saying, almost as if talking to a child, then moving one of her fore legs around as if prompting me to finish her sentence.

“My rifle,” I said bluntly, leaning forward with a grunt to swipe my weapon from the green magic of one of the changeling guards. After falling into my bed with a pained grimace, I took a deep breath and mumbled the first few lines of the Rifleman’s Creed. Everyone looked on in concern as I grimaced and chuckled at the same time, before coughing. The doctor was instantly by my side.

“I understand.” The doctor admitted. “Everyone out, let him sleep.”

As everyone slowly removed themselves from the room, I gripped my C8 like a lost lover, and fell into a restless sleep.

Author's Notes:

Unfortunately, this will be the last chapter for the next 3-4 weeks, as I am being attach posted to a different unit for some non-specific army stuff that I can't talk about. This involve being in an area with no internet, so yah...
I should be back by September 26. Cheers all.