Starbound Ascension: The Next Generation

Chapter Fifteen B: A Far Cry For Freedom

“Jet, just so you know the EUF are going to lend a hand in this operation. We've got support from the local guerrilla fighters as well: the Golden Path. King Min denies all connections with the Pulsar Militia but it seems that they might be using Kyrat as a staging are for something big. I need your team to check it out and see what you can find. Ship out,” Ship radioed over to Jet as their own dropship entered the atmosphere near the Himarelayas. The snow rushed past the windows as Red October flew them in.

“Solid copy Ship. Yo Red! You okay flying in this weather?”

“Da! Da my friend. The fierce blizzards of Stalliongrad were my training grounds for flying in this enironment. I also served a tour in Yakyakistan before I joined the NGJSF. Rough work, lots of mountains, and it was very messy!” Red yelled to Jet over the noise of the engines, “That and this terrain following radar helps a lot as well! I would have liked this in my Hind.”

The team was all bundled up for the cold weather of Kyrat. With the whole country a few kilometers high above sea level in the mountains they were all well prepared with snow infantry gear to couple their usual spec ops equipment.

“Okay! We've breached the mountain pass and are flying in from the south. We should be landing near Banaphur now!” Red looked out the cockpit and saw the snow disappear as the ship approached the southern valleys of Kyrat. The town he landed in was barely that. It was all decrepit and had that feeling of third world isolation. It was a shady town but was home to the leaders of the Golden Path rebels fighting for their country's freedom. They were mostly shaggy yaks, sambars, goats, and long furred ponies. A few half-pony half-yak children played in the streets of the dirty town as the squad of Jet, Avia, Tough Heart, Passion, Scratch, Hornet, Simon, and Red all walked on to the rebel HQ. They all caught the eyes of the natives, most of whom never seen such advanced equipment carried into battle by foreign ponies. If there was any backwater location on Equus worthy of note it was definitely Kyrat.

“Wow, a lot of these natives look like they've never seen power armor before,” Avia looked about.

Jet looked to Avia, “That's because they haven't. My father was here once. Fought alongside Mohan Ghale, founder of the Golden Path against Pagan Min. When my dad saw that the war wasn't going anywhere for him or this country he set off back to escorting Daring Do and her likes across the Fillypines and the Rook Islands. We'll have to meet up with the Golden Path leaders first.”

As the team entered one of their communal safe houses they were met with an empty room. They looked around for a minute before another pony came into the room with blood on his hooves and a curved machete that dripped blood from its sheath. An old M1911 was holstered on his side with a suppressed AK-47 on his back coupled with an automatic crossbow and a sawed off 1887 shotgun. The veteran looking stallion looked to Jump Jet.

“Major Jump Jet I presume?” he asked as he wiped the blood off his machete.

“Ajay Ghale,” Jump Jet replied the pony's name, “It seems that destiny brought us here.”

“Hmph,” Ajay smirked, “I've heard stories about you. It's amusing to think that both our fathers fought for this very land. I've been fighting this war for months now. People here believe I am destined to be their savior, how I am my father's son. Now it looks like history repeats itself.”

“Just so we're clear: I'm here to locate some interstellar terrorists affiliated with the Royal Army. Pagan Min denies all connections but we aren't convinced. Do you have any intel regarding this?”

“Straight to the point huh?” Ajay smiled, “You really are your father's son.”

“Seeing how you've just killed a man with no remorse I'd say you are too,” Jet smirked as well, “A real go-getter.”

“So, like what someone said to me a long time ago. You wanna tear shit up?”

“Now that sounds like a plan. What's the scoop?”

“An EUF/Equestrian agent is set to touch down at the nearest airport. He's called us for some assistance in reassuring that a deal goes through with the Royal Army.”

“Hold on, I'm pulling up intel on the airport now,” Jet touched a hoof to his eyepiece and a flood of useful data filled his visor, “Got it. Satellite scans show a few sniper nests and a couple dozen soldiers patrolling the airfield. Looks like they got SAM sights too.”

“Damn, Willis didn't tell me about those missiles.”

“That's where we come in. We got some flyboys patrolling the borders of this country, nothing comes in or out of this airspace unless we in the NGJTF say so. But, these look suspiciously like UPF Electro-Optical guided missiles, which means we can't risk flying near said airport. Squad listen up, we got two objectives: take out the snipers and destroy those SAMs,” Jet laid it out plain and simple.

“I'll deal with the snipers. Willis also instructed me to do this discretely.”

“So will we,” Avia phased out of Ajay's sight with her optical cloaking before shortly reappearing again.

“Well, let's get started then. Here, we'll take one of the trucks I just brought in. They should have unloaded the supplies already,” Ajay stepped outside of the safe house and trotted to the old Ural truck with the logo of Royal Army, “Hang on, what's this?”

As the Golden Path rebels unloaded the truck Ajay noticed a few crates with some unknown symbols to him. The rest of the NGJTF instantly recognized the tilted star and red ring.

“Energy weapons?” Ajay took one of the weapons from the crates, “This doesn't look like what the Royal Army uses.”

“That is some evidence we need. Ship you getting this?” Avia took a picture of the boxes.

“Solid copy Avia. It's confirmed the Pulsar are dealing with the Kyrati leaders but we still need to secure that airport.”

“Alright Ship. Everypony pile in! Next stop is the airport,” Jet and the others got into the back of the truck.

“When I wasn't flying my Hind in Yakistan I was transferred to the airborne during my last days. I used to sleep in a Ural like this one as we went to and from base,” Red started to fondly remember his time in the Stalliongrad military.

“Head's up! Enemy convoy up ahead!” Ajay alerted them to the heavily armed convoy of three trucks spewing out propaganda. Ajay bashed the front window and launched a grenade from his M79. The enemy technical jumped into the air and landed on its side, “Get out now!”

All of the NGJTF dismounted and started to fire upon the surprise enemy convoy. They took cover behind the trees as the machine guns opened up.

“CHERT VOZ'MI! DshkMs!” Red was pinned by the suppressing fire of the two .50 cals.

“I got you covered amigo!” Hornet phased out of his cloak and took aim with his M320 LRR. The shot from his sniper rifle took off the helmet of one of the gunners with a well placed .408 round.

“Great shot Hornet! Someone get in there and-” Jet stopped as he saw Ajay sneak up on the remaining soldiers. Ajay stabbed a heavily armored machine gunner in the back and pulled the pin on his enemy's grenade before kicking him forward and detonating the remaining trucks and the other Royal Army ponies. Those that did survive got a few bolts from his automatic crossbow right in the dome.

“Are we done yet?” Ajay smirked and twirled his Kukri covered in blood. He shook it off and got back in the truck.

“Whoa, you took out all those guys by yourself?” Scratch asked Ajay as she poked her head in from the back.

“Yeah. Don't think too much on it. Just keep an eye out for anything behind us okay?”

“Copy that,” Scratch sat back down next to Hornet and started to pur as she put her head on her lovers shoulder. Ajay flipped on the radio to the voice of Rabi Ray Rana and Radio Free Kyrat.

“Radio Free Kyrat! Rabi Ray Rana here. Now I hate flying but I don't need to worry about that now because Pagan's got the only airport in the country on lockdown. Hey, Rabi! I've seen planes flying in and out of the airport. Yes, we all have. But, those planes aren't filled with people! They're filled with heroin. I'll say that one more time: and ENTIRE plane filled with heroin. Now I'm not a street guy but a single gram of heroin costs somewhere between a hundred Equestrian bits to three hundred Equestrian bits. That's one gram Chotu! I'm not a math guy but a plane full of heroin is some serious, serious mula! Say what you want about Pagan Min but this guy has got to have some Tony Montana level cash coming in and out. I mean, this guy has some Walter White business sense. I wonder if dictators have that whole one up thing that neighbors have with each other. Like, do they have
this 'Keeping up with the Jones' for the one percent of sociopaths? Like does Pagan see that gigantic statue of himself? Did he buy that just because Starlight Glimmer has a statue of herself like that? Maybe he says something like: 'Oh man! Starlight Glimmer's got a golden toilet. I need a golden toilet. I mean: I have to shit in a golden bowl... I have to! I mean, look at what Starlight Glimmer has.' Life must be so different for the evil subset of the one percent.”

The radio continued on with the native music. Jet poked his head in from the back, “You got any dubstep in this country?”

“No,” Ajay concentrated on his driving up the mountain roads.

Jet looked at the dashboard and didn't even see a USB jack for his device, “Dammit! Man this really is a backwater country. And I thought the Fillypines was third world. What truck has no USB jack for music?”

“It's not modern comrade! It's an old Ural, what do you expect. And by looks of things the Kyratis probably bought this thing from Yakistan,” Red commented as the radio switched to the propaganda broadcasts of Pagan Min's Regime.

“This is an official statement from the Ministry of Public Affairs and Social Harmony! To all loyal Kyrati citizens! Equestria has sent in foreign agents to wrongfully charge Pagan Min of crimes against Equinity. Do not approach or believe the lies of these heavily armed individuals and contact your local Royal Army officer at once to report their whereabouts. Equestria is now an enemy of Pagan Min and any Equestrian soldiers found in the country should be directed to any Royal Army representative at once. As such any Equestrian citizens are to be imprisoned as well to deter the spread of Western lies! May Pagan's light shine above you all!”

“Wow, that's a lot like Starlight Glimmer's propaganda broadcasts back in North Equestria,” Jet jerked forward as Ajay stopped the truck, “What was that for? I didn't see an enemy.”

“That,” Ajay looked up at one of the bell towers where a radio transmitter was erected, “That's what's spitting out that bullshit.”

As they neared the base of the tower they could see two guards watching the area carefully.

“You guys stay put. I'm going in,” Ajay drew his blade but Avia was already on the case. Rainbow's daughter shot up her grappling hook up to the top of the bell tower and locked on to the two guards with her smartpistol, downing them with one trigger pull as she was reeled upward.

“Hey!” she yelled, “What do I gotta do up here?”

“Just smash the box on the right and flip the switch on the left! You can't miss it!”

“Kay!” Avia shot the propaganda console and hijacked the signal. She jumped off the top of the tower.

“HOLY SHIT!” Ajay panicked before Avia hit the ground, only to be slowed in her descend by her parkour kit jets, “Oh, thank Celestia. You had be worried. That's some fancy grappling hook and gear you got. Sure beats mine.”

Ajay showed her the three pronged manual grappling hook. It was a primitive device compared to the high tech armor and equipment the NGJTF all wore.

“It's not just a grappling hook,” Avia explained, “It's called a 3D Maneuver Gear. It's a set of thrusters and mini jet nozzles that allow us to perform augmented feats of parkour. It's a lot quicker than galloping and serves to fowl the aim of our enemies. Not only that but we got exo-suits underneath all this armor given to us by our UPF allies. All you got are some animal skin pouches and... all this I guess?”

“Hey, you work with what you got. I don't have the backing of an entire planet on my side. I've only got this country and it's people.”

Ajay stared into the mountains.

“By now you've probably noticed my Equestrian accent. I've only got a few seconds to tell you about this place called Kyrat. But I only need one... Because here it only takes one second to face death, tempt fate, survive the unexpected, hunt, or be hunted, or start a revolution. I only need one second, because in Kyrat every second is a story. Do you understand that?”

“Yes, I too have a love for my native nation Ajay,” Jet came forward, “I was born in space yet I immersed myself in the land of my father's birth. I now see that yours is hurt. I can promise you now, by the time this is all over Kyrat will have all the support it can get. So, let's hunt!”

“Let's,” Ajay agreed as they returned to the truck. Several minutes passed before Ajay stopped at a cliffside underneath the airport, “Well, up we go.”

They all tossed their grappling hooks up to the ledge. The NGJTF soldiers all cloaked and hid in the bushes before Ajay reached the top with his slow, manual grappling hook. He huffed.

“Man, I should get myself one of those. Willis I'm at the airport.”

Their radios crackled to life with the sound of an American accent, “Good. I did a flyby earlier and spotted some snipers. Clear them out. And remember, we have a common enemy. Taking out Pagan's men will make it easier to secure the airport for your Golden Path comrades.”

“Right,” Ajay replied back to the person behind the radio.

“One more thing: you'll need to keep a low profile. No alarms. Don't get spotted, period. I've got a meeting with the commander stationed at the airfield and I don't want him to know that I have an ace up my sleeve. Once you're done call me.”

They scattered all around the airport taking up positions on the highest vantage points. Ajay took the control tower and stabbed a sniper in the back there. Jet cleared out the east sniper tower, Avia took to the top of the hangars, Passion took out the sniper on the south sniper tower along with Red who took out the adjacent guard post. Simon, Tough, Scratch, and Hornet lined the hills with their long range rifles and LMGs.

“SVD. Been long time since I used good old Stalliongradi sniper rifle,” Red October smirked at the weapon, “Red to Jet. In position!”

“Copy that, plane's coming in!”

“Willis I'm in position,” Ajay radioed back to Willis.

“Stay there and watch my back. I've got a quick little sit down to deal with before we can chat. If this meeting goes south I'll give you a signal.”

“What kind of signal?” Ajay picked up a fifty caliber sniper sitting on the rooftop of the control tower.

“When I say 'Reaganomics,' open fire and don't stop till all the bad guys are gone,” Willis taxied his plane over to the enemy commander sitting at his table out on the open. The ponified human stepped out of his plane with a briefcase on hand as he trotted over to the commander of the small airfield, “I'm gonna keep this channel open, but stay quiet. I don't need any distractions. This guy can be a little jumpy. Got it?”

“Got it,”Ajay took aim and scouted the commander and his two guards by his side.

“Good, where we go,” Willis placed the briefcase on the table, “Got the good right here, just like you asked for.”

“Change of plans,” the Royal Army officer glared at the agent.

“What's that now?” Willis faked his disbelief.

“I said change of plans. Yuma wants me to bring you in.”

“You kidding me?” Willis threw his arms up, “You can't do that. We had a deal!”

“You and your plane aren't going anywhere. I'm taking you to Yuma.”

“Let's try to work something out okay?” Willis bargained.

The commander only shook his head, “There's nothing to work out here, buddy!”

Willis showed his frustation, “Where I come from, a deal's a deal. You can't just change things up, it's un-American!”

“I've had enough of this!” the two guards by the commander's side took aim with their AKs.

“Are you familiar with Reaganomi-” Willis was cut off by the sound of Ajay and the other snipers taking down all three of the Royal Army ponies holding him up. The EUF agent took one of their guns and dashed into cover, “I'm taking fire! Nice shots! You got friends up there?”

“Willis this is Major Jump Jet of the Equestrian NGJTF! We're providing you covering fire!”

“Good! I wasn't expecting Equus to lend a hoof here! Glad to know I don't have to question how you guys learned to take up overwatch! You're going great! Bad guys coming in from the north! Get on it!”

“Yesh'te der'mo!” Red took aim with his stolen SVD and ventilated the heads of the attacking Royal Army. One of them ziplined in above Avia, “Avia! You got one behind you!”

There was a crack from Hornet's rifle that downed the Royal Army pony from stabbing Avia in the back, “Tango down amigo! I see more enemies coming from the south!”

A truck busted down the front gate and dismounted troops. They started to fire upon Red and Passion in their towers.

“Crap!” Passion tucked her head down, “They got me pinned!”

Ajay took the initiative. He jumped down from the top of the control tower and landed right on a Royal Army soldier to which he impaled with his blade. He drew a pistol from the dead body and used it to deadly effect using the remaining bullets of his enemy's weapon to kill the four others that had Passion and Red pinned, “You're cleared!”

Red and Passion took back their sniper rifles, “Spasiba comrade!”

“More of them! It's too hot out here. I'm making a run for the warehouse, cover me!” Willis announced, “There's a bunch of goons coming down from the mountains!”

“Simon! Tough! Scratch! They're on your flanks!” Jet cried out.

“Shit!” Scratch got up from her prone position. She leveled her semi auto G2A4 battle rifle to her eyes and worked the trigger to unload as much accurate fire down as possible, “I got your back sweetheart!”

Hornet switched to his B23R and got behind his lover, “As do I mi amor! Simon! Tough! We could use some cover fire!”

“Roger!” Tough Heart and Simon turned their LMGs to support Scratch and Hornet's retreat, “Ha! We're they learn how to shoot? Stormtrooper Academy?”

“Oh great!” Willis looked up, “They got a dropship! Looks like one of those Federation two thousands or some shit!”

Ajay launched a grenade at it and it bounced off the plasma shielding, “Dammit! That thing's got a shield."

“I'll take care of this!” Jet jumped off his sniping post, “Jet to Sagittarius! I could use my Titan right about now!”

“Roger Jet!” Sagittarius finally pitched in on the operation, “Standby for Titanfall!”

The dropped down mech slammed into the ground behind one of the hangars. It rose up and gently grabbed Jet from the ground before placing him in the cockpit.

AI OFFLINE. PILOT MODE ENGAGED.

“This should do!” he uprooted a telephone pole and held it like a javelin, “Throwing for gold!”

Jet's Titan threw the giant pole with such velocity that it managed to punch right through the shield and got stuck right into the fuselage of the VTOL. It spiraled out of control and crashed into a nearby hill.

“Dropship is down!”

“Look alive! Sounds like our little shindig didn't go unnoticed!” Willis tuned into the enemy radio frequency. Reinforcements swarmed the airport and off in the distance a mortar could be heard with a loud discharge, “The rain's coming down a little too hard for my tastes. I'm heading to cover. Make yourselves useful! Take out those mortar teams and anyone else who shows up to avenge their fallen comrade. Got it? Good.”

A mortar shell managed a direct impact on Jet's titan. The mech staggered from the cluster bomb dropped on it.

CAUTION: SHIELDS OFFLINE. TAKE COVER.

“Damn! That's one heavy mortar! Take it out!” Jet got his mech back up and started to move to avoid the artillery.

“Hold on, I got an idea,” Ajay called in a mercenary for hire, “Tembo! I'm gonna need your badassery here!”

“I'm on my way!” a Golden Path member radioed back out. There was a tremble in the ground and the swath of falling trees as something approached.

“What was that?” Scratch and the three others on the hill finally got into some cover.

The loud trumpet of an elephant got their attention as it charged into the mortar teams on the far hill. Ajay flanked around and captured some of the artillery pieces with Tembo's help.

“I got the mortars! Tembo get me some shells!”

“On it Ajay!” Tembo used his muscular trunk to bash open crates of shells and hand them over to Ajay.

Ghale sighted his targets, “Fire one!”

The massive shell arced upwards and airburst a dozen smaller bombs which blanketed the remaining Royal Army. The action finally died down.

“Judging by the lack of gunshots and explosions I'm hearing I'd say you're in the clear. Come find me in the warehouse so we can finally get some face time,” Willis radioed back out again. All of the ponies gathered around the warehouse as they waited for Willis to walk out, “25 years and I still can't figure out if that smell is bad sanitation or just the abject loss of hope.”

“I don't smell anything,” Ajay shrugged, “Who are you anyway?”

“I work for Langley, USA, Earth. Agent Willis Huntley. By the way. Everything you need to know about who killed your father is in that file,” Willis motioned his head somewhere. Ajay's eyes perked.

“What file?”

“The one in the plane that's about to take off.”

“Shit!”

“Hey!” Willis handed the earth pony a parachute, “You're gonna need this!”

Ajay galloped as fast as he could to an ATV sitting by the runway. The NGJTF went to help by firing at the plane but it was too late as it took off. Ajay put his hoof on the accelerator and punched the ATV to max speed. He jumped off the elevated cliffside runway and bailed from his ATV to deploy a wingsuit to catch up to the plane. Jet rushed to the edge of the runway and saw Ajay rodeo onto the side of the plane to pull out a briefcase full of files. Ghale pulled the pin on one of his grenades and replaced the briefcase with it as he fell back letting the explosion do all the talking. He parachuted back to the ground.

“Hey!” Jet caught up after a few minutes of hoofing it, “What was that about?”

“Nothing dammit! These files don't tell me shit!” Ajay was disappointed to the crossed off files about his own dead father.

“That! Was fucking badass. You know Ajay, after all of this is said and done. When the EUF are contracted rebuild your country. Do you want to join our Special Forces group? You definitely have what it takes,” Jet gave a firm pat to Ajay's back, “Cheer up bud!”

Ajay sighed deeply and looked off into the distance, “Not right now. Kyrat is still hurt. I'll consider the offer. But I have to get back to saving my country.

“Take all the time to think about it then. Ship, we've taken control of the airport. Mission complete! The Pulsar aren't gonna have an easy time supplying this rogue nation ever again!”

“Solid copy Jet! Mission completed! All elements RTB for some R&R! You guys all earned it! Nelly is here too! She just got back from New Echo.”

“Yes!” Jet pumped his hoof in excitement before noticing an odd sound, “Wait, what's tha-AHHH! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!”

A honey badger managed to bite Jet right in the ankle. Lucky for him it couldn't dent his powered armor.

“GET IT OFF!” Jet flailed his back hoof before Ajay put down the rabid creature with a well placed arrow in its knee.

“Got it. Those things really don't give a shit. Lucky you have all that armor,” Ajay started to laugh.

“It's not funn-OH MY LUNA!” another odd creature came out of nowhere to attack Jet. This time it was an eagle trying to claw his head open with only a few dings and scratches to his helmet, “SWEET BABY LUNA! FUCKING KILL IT!”

Ajay shot one bolt from his crossbow again. It pinned the eagle and it dropped down dead.

“Does everything try to kill you in this country?!” Jet huffed.

“Um, don't panic but there's also a tiger right behind you Jet.”

“Fuck my life...”