Federal Press
August 29th, 2037
BREAK IN AT GRENTEN CORPORATION
By Mark Erikson

Late last night the security at the Grenten Corporation were alerted to a possible break in when a minor alarm was trigger. The security control room then sent a single sentry bot to investigate and when it was destroyed security triggered the onsite alarm and mobilized to contain the intruders.

Details are incomplete on what exactly happened but what is known is that several security staff were injured as well as multiple sentry bots being destroyed. Federal Army forces were alerted of the break-in, no details yet on who sent the alert as none of the security staff has come forward.

Federal Army forces are investigating the crime but have not released any details concerning suspects or what the perpetrators were after…

Twilight groaned as she sat at the table with the rest of Nightmare. Her horn was still scorched from her burn out and as such she was forced to carry her tray in her mouth which was annoying to say the least. “Headache still bothering you Sarge?” Hudson asked and Twilight nodded before she started eating. “Didn’t Doc give you something for it?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes she did and it has lessened but either my body is partly immune to human drugs or this headache is just a real bitch because it only lessoned it slightly.” She said around her food. “Though it’s probably do to the fact the headache is from a magical burn out.”

“So you really can’t use your magic right now?” Rook 2 asked.

“Not till I recover and I have no idea when that will be and since I can’t use my guns the Doc has put me on medical leave so we have some time off.” Twilight told her squad.

“Well some time off never hurt though it sucks that it’s cause you are on medical leave Sarge.” Rook 2 said as they ate.

“Yeah, though I’m not looking forward to trying to get around the base when I can’t pick up anything.” Twilight said with annoyance.

“Hey Sarge, didn’t you say that there were two other races where you love that don’t use magic like yours?” Hudson asked and twilight nodded. “Well how do they pick up things, I mean larger things I can see using your mouth but what about things like paper?”

“Oh they just use their hooves.” Twilight said and every just stared at her.

“Um…how can you pick things up with hooves?” Desmond asked.

“Um….you just do, it’s an innate magic all ponies have that they can pick up things with their hooves but it seemed it didn’t carry over to my cybernetics so I’m stuck using my mouth.” The group stared at her again. “What?”

“That just sounded very wrong.” Hudson said.

Twilight stared at them and ran over what she said. A large blushed covered her face as she realized how one could take that. “Oh for fuck sakes you know exactly what I meant!” She said and the Nightmares either laughed or smiled at her reaction.

Twilight made her way into the training area and saw Mendez was putting some new recruits through their paces and she sat beside the door to watch. She had come by figuring that she couldn’t pick up things but the training Mendez did was all physical so at least it would give her something to do.

“Move your asses you waste of air!” Mendes was yelling as the recruits ran around the room before she shot them with that dreaded paint gun of his. Twilight couldn’t help smiling at the fact she wasn’t the only one who had to deal with it.

She watched for a while before Mendez noticed her. “Well, well if it isn’t Sergeant Big Eye Horse.” He said and Twilight rolled her eyes, she knew that the Chief Petty Officer would treat her and anyone he had trained like that no matter what rank they were. “Come by to show these sorry excuses for soldiers how even a purple horse is better than them?” He asked loudly so the recruits could hear.

Twilight shrugged ignoring in insult mixed with the compliment.” Sure why not, I came her for some training so might as well join them.” She said and the recruits were staring at her wide eyes, they probably hadn’t seen here around the base yet and that was the standard reaction to her.

She moved over and stood beside them and saluted. “Now then since the good sergeant is here I think we can do another 30 laps.” The recruits groaned. “MOVE IT!” They all started running and Twilight easily outpaced the recruits.

The training went in the order it always did and Twilight actually was able to see how much she had improved as she beat the recruits in lap time, the obstacle course, exercises, and hand to hand training. Though she still lost to Mendez but she managed to avoid any serious injury but it did get her mind off her headache and passed the day away.

Once training was done for the day Twilight made her way to the mess hall to grab some dinner, happy that her head ache was gone though it came back a little when she tried to use her magic.

The next few days mostly consisted of training with Mendez and spending time with her squad. She didn’t see Delco around but he was most likely working with the files they had recovered so that was to be expected.

In that time the Rebels had hit another convoy of food and Twilight discovered a type of meet called bacon, something she would need to see if Equestia had, or one of the other counties on Epuus as it was too good to go without.

She was happy to find that her magic was slowly starting to come back and that she didn’t get headaches anymore when she tried to use it. She was still too weak for the field but she could pick up small things so she could join in on the card games with her squad again.

Over all the week she spent recovering wasn’t so bad but she was looking forward to getting back out in the field and doing damage to the Feds. While the week hadn’t been so bad for Twilight the rest of the base couldn’t say the same, they had lost another five squads and three more were out of action till they recovered. Twilight kept a tally of everyone they lost so she could make sure the Feds payed ten times that amount in their own soldiers.

The Nightmares filed into the staging area. It had been over a week since the heist and she had fully recovered her magic and was looking forward to reentering the field. One they were seated Major Briggs began the briefing by putting up a picture of a large train. Twilight had to marvel at the train as it defiantly didn’t look anything like the trains back in Equestria.

“We have received intel that the Feds are bringing in a large shipment of weapons and other materials via an armored train from Frankfurt 100 miles west of here. We think this is an excellent opportunity to cause some serious damage to the feds if this train were to have an unfortunate accident.” He said as he turned and looked at Nightmare. “And by that I mean the train going full speed when it reaches the end of the line with no one at the controls.”

Twilight couldn’t stop a small smile from appearing on her face. “We know what track the train is going to be on and at the end of it, is a Fed base.” Major Briggs put up another picture of a rail line ending at a heavily guarded Fed base and the smile on Twilight face grew wider as she could see the speeding train crashing through the gate then flying off the rails and sliding into building shortly before all the ammo on boards exploded and she watched in her mind eye as a huge wave of fire consumed the base and the Feds stationed there, the imagined screams were music to her ears.

“In order for the train to have enough time to reach full speed you will be boarding it well outside of the city, another squad has already secured transport.” He put up a picture of an RV. “You will use it to leave the city and reach a tunnel the train will be passing through about 45 miles outside of the city. You can board the train as it leave the tunnel, I’m sure that won’t be a problem for Nightmare.” Major Briggs said as he turned from putting up a map of the area surrounding the tunnel and a picture of the tunnel itself.

“Expect a small security detail on board the train you will have to neutralize in order for this plan to work, you will need to make sure none of them escape.” He said and Twilight nodded. “If there are no questions I suggest you gear up and move out as you have a train to catch.”

After Major Briggs left Nightmare started grabbing weapons and ammo, the entire time Twilight had a large smile plaster on her face at how this mission will end for the Feds, it was the perfect body count to make up for what the rebels had lost.

Nightmare stood above the tunnels exit waiting for the train. It had been a long trip in the RV and all of them were glad to be out of the vehicle and able to stretch. Even with the uncomfortable conditions Twilight had had a large smile on her face the entire trip and when her squad had questioned it she just told them it felt good to be back in the field again which was partly true so not technically a lie.

Twilight stood down beside the tracks looking down the tunnel so she’d know when the train was coming. By her estimate it should have been here by… there it is. Twilight moved out of view of the tunnel and teleported up to her squad. “Ready up, our ride is about to pass by.” She told them.

They all nodded and made sure their guns had rounds in the chambers as did Twilight. Soon the dark grey train sped out of the tunnel under them. Twilight had decided they would start from the rear of the train and made their way through each car in order to make sure they took out all the Feds on board. As the last of the cars passed under them Twilight lit her horned and in a flash Nightmare was sitting on the roof of the rear car. Twilight have read over the Intel on her Datepad and according to it there were three cars that would house the security detail, on near the rear, another in the middle and another right behind the engine plus possibly a few Feds moving through cars themselves on patrol.

She nodded to the read of the car and slowly the Rebels crawled towards it, staying as low as they could so as not to risk being blown off by the wind. Once they reached it the 5 humans swung down onto the platform and entered the car. Once the platform was clear Twilight teleported herself onto it and walked into the door to find a Fed lying on the floor with a broken neck. “Good work.” She said with a nod before stepping over the body. Nightmare had to move in single fire do to the creates stacked up in the car but they met no other guards in the next three cars.

When Twilight opened the door to make her way to the next car she saw the next car wasn’t a cargo container. “Looks like we found the first of the military cars.” She whispered at the other Nightmares.

“Let’s do this.” Hudson said lifting his rifle.

“Hold on I got an idea. “Twilight said lifting her hoof to stop the human who looked down at her. He horn glowed as she cast a spell and for a moment the military car glowed with a purple light.

“What did you just do?” Rook 2 asked.

Twilight smiled. “Just enchanted the car with a silence spell so only our voices will be heard but no other sounds will be heard not even the Feds voices.” She looked back at her squad. “Don’t want them alerting the other military cars now do we?” They all nodded.

“Now we can do this. “She said as she opened the door and sure enough the door made no noise. Inside were about 10 confused looking Feds, some looking like they were yelling at each other to try and be heard. One looked over at the open door and tried to shout an alarm but no sound escaped his lips. The rebels raised their rifles and in seconds they were the only ones living in the car.

“No going to lie, that was a bit unnerving.” Desmond said giving himself a slight shake, the others besides Chekov and Twilight had to agree, Chekov do to his indifference to everything and Twilight had just been trying not to laugh at the confused Feds.

“Hey we are the Nightmare Squad so it stands we should be unnerving right?” She said with a chuckle before she canceled the spell and they could hear the train moving again. “Let’s move on.”

They moved through the cars again eliminating any feds they came across and had done the same thing to the second military car when they found it as they had the first. Twilight was very pleased at how fast they were moving through the train and soon they reached the last Military car.

After enchanting it like the first Twilight opened the door and yelped as a bullet tore through the armor of her chest and she fell back.
Night mare dove to the side with McKay dragging Twilight into cover as bullet silently flew through the open door. Twilight gasped for air as she lite her horn and quickly, and painfully pulled the bullet out, based on the pain it had just missed her heart. A quick healing spell stopped the bleeding and closed the wound for the most part but she didn’t have time for a full heal as she got back to her hooves.

“What the hell happened?” She demanded as she saw Chekov firing his LMG around the doorway without looking.

“They were ready for us, from what I saw they set up cover on the far side of the car and are using hand signal to communicate.” Desmond told her.

Twilight growled. “Should have known this was going to well.”

“Murphy’s Law.” Desmond said and Twilight looked at him. “Murphy’s Law states that anything that can go wrong, will.” He explained and Twilight wanted to buck whoever this Murphy was to the moon.

She readied her rifle. “Well they can’t radio for help so let’s just take them out and with them having to actually look at each other it puts them at a disadvantage.” She said as she moved her Rifle around the door frame and started firing. Much to her annoyance ensuing fire fight lasted for 30 minutes before it was over and more than once Twilight had to extract a bullet and heal a member of Nightmare, including herself when the Feds inside had slowed their firing and stopped, after waiting a few minutes Twilight had stepped around to see if they were head and taken another bullet to the chest and one to the leg, though her legs being steel the round had ricocheted and hit Hudson in the leg so she had to fix both of them.

The Feds had pulled the same tactic a couple more time so when the fire stopped again Nightmare hosed the entire room with a mag each before they rushed it. “Fucking finally!” Twilight explained as she canceled the silence enchantment. The feds were all dead behind their barricade.

Twilight used her magic to move the barricade and blinked, these Feds wore slightly different armor then the standard soldier, for one their helmets completely encased their heads and only had two small slights where the eyes would be, their entire face and head were completely covered and the rest of the armor was sleeker and looked almost like a seamless sui.

“What the hell are Special Forces doing guarding a train?” Desmond said looking over the bodies.

“Special Forces?” Twilight asked looking at him.

“Very skilled and tough soldiers, they are used for dangerous missions, it explained why they weren’t confused like the rest of the Feds when they suddenly couldn’t hear but that doesn’t explain why they are here at all.” Desmond said as he kicked one of the dead soldiers.

“They are guarding something of value on this train.” Twilight said after she thought about it. The others looked at her. “Think about it, if you had something of high value that needed guarding you’d want the best guarding it.” She explained the after a moment the Rebels nodded. “I want to know what’s so important.” Twilight said as she made her way to the computer housed in the car.

“Rook 2 think you can get in here?” She asked tapping the computer.

“I don’t know I can try.” The small women said making her way over to the computer and taking a seat. When Twilight didn’t have her magic she spent her time getting to know her squad better and learned that before she joined up Rook 2 was in college for computer programing so knew her way around a computer somewhat.

After a few minutes Rook let out an exclamation. “Are you in?” Twilight asked stepping up beside the young women.

“Sorta, I was able to bypass some of the security but most of the files are encrypted way above my skill level, all I got is a basic manifest. All it says is that there is a high priority piece of equipment onboard that is in route to someone named Doctor Adam Frisk.” The women said.

The color drained from Twilight face and she could feel her breathing pick up speed as she started to shake. She hadn’t thought about that place in months but hearing his name drug up every single memory Twilight wanted to forget.

“Hey Sarge you ok?” Hudson asked stepping up beside her. Twilight snapped out of her spiral into the dark memories and blinked a few time to find all of Nightmare staring at her.

“Huh? What?” She asked looking around.

“I asked if you were ok Sarge, you were shaking and kept saying ‘no no no no’ under your breath over and over again.” The PFC told her.

“Yeah…just….unpleasant history with Dr. Frisk, no I don’t want to talk about it.” She said and gave herself a shake. "What I do want is that manifest and anything that has his name on it, I don’t care if it’s encrypted. “She said taking out her Datapad. “Transfer it all onto my Datapad and we can turn it over to Delco to work on when we get back.”

“You think he’d do it with how busy he is with the heist files?” Rook 2 asked.

“He wants to kill Dr. Frisk for what he did. “Twilight said very darkly, her eyes shrinking as small as they could as she looked at her squad. Rook 2 didn’t need to hear anymore, none of Nightmare did if it could produce that sort of reaction from their sergeant.

Rook 2 hooked up the Datapad to the computer and transferred the files before handing it back toe twilight. “Thank you Private Rain.” Twilight said in the same dark tone as she mechanically put the Datapad back into her pack then unslung her rifle. “Now I believe we have a mission to complete.” She said and walked to the door the lead to the engine.

Nightmare looked at each other and followed their sergeant arriving in time to see her empty her entire magazine from both her rifle and sidearm into the engineer. “Now then, Corporal Desmond would you please set the train to maximums speed?” She said turning to look at her second. Even though she was looking right at him the corporal had the distinct feeling she didn’t see him.

“Right away ma’am.” He said carefully as he moved to the controls and started to work. While he worked Twilight calmly reloaded her guns and stood completely still not looking at anything. “Ok that should do it ma’am.” Desmond said as he turned back and without warning Twilight horn glowed and they all vanished in a flash of light and reappeared standing beside the tracks as the train sped past.

“Mission accomplished, now we are to report back to base.” She said and started walking back towards the city. Without a word Nightmare followed her, all of them eyeing her with concern. They didn’t know what had happened to her but whatever it was if it caused the normally cheerful pony to become…this, they really didn’t want to know.

It had been a long hick back to base as they didn’t have any vehicle back but the squad didn’t mind as none of them wanted to be in a vehicle with the young sergeant while she was like this. They were all relieved about half way through the hick and whatever mood had taken her started to lift and after an hour she was back to normal. She apologized for how she acted and they accepted without question.

After that the hick passed much faster as they talked and joked with each other but still they were all looking forward to getting back to base as this entire mission had last about 14 hours though most of it was sitting in an RV and then waiting for a train.

Soon they reached a sewer access and started to make their way through the maze of tunnels.

As they walked Twilight started looking around, she was behind her squad and had a distinct feeling something was wrong. As she walked it hit her. She hadn’t seen any sign of their patrols. She was about to mention this to her squad when Hudson and Rook, who were leading stopped dead in their tracks. They were at the entrance to the main room standing beside the door to the staging area.

“What is it?” Twilight asked as she walked around the taller humans and froze at what she saw.

Suspended from the entrance to the tunnel arms spread by the ropes was a rebel soldier, his body riddled with bullets as if it had been used as target practice, beyond that the main room was a disaster, the tents that had been set up were knocked over and most rebel soldiers were hung in the other entrances and in the middle of the room lay a dozen bodies in a row with their hands tied behind their backs.

As nightmare looked over the carnage that as their base Hudson summed upped what they were all thinking. “What the fuck…”

Author's Notes:

I tried to make a chapter that was just her recovering from the burn out but frankly could think of anything over 1000 words so just moved on into this chapter.

enjoy.