Ranger
Chapter 16: Connections
By Wanderer D
"Permission to speak freely, sir!"
Bradford looked at Jane with an almost perfectly straight face that belied his actual bafflement. "In the middle of the bridge, out of nowhere?"
Jane gave him a steady look.
Bradford massaged his forehead. "Fine. Come with me to my office." He turned to face the staff. "Make sure you keep track of those signals, we're expecting our infiltration team's communication soon!"
"Yes, sir!"
Bradford motioned for Jane to follow him into his office, a room full of memorabilia from the previous war, including a wall with over 50 dog tags hanging on it, an original, dismantled, Sectoid gun and even a faded blueprint of the old base.
Bradford motioned for her to sit down, then walked over to take his own seat. "What can I do for you, Kelly?"
"You can tell me what the hell the Commander said to Sunset," Jane replied, narrowing her eyes. "She's been out of it since she was released from the infirmary."
Bradford frowned and crossed his arms. "Classified."
"Come on, Bradford, don't give me that," Jane said. "I can respect the chain of command, I will follow your orders to hell and back and to hell again. I will lay down my life for the cause… but so will Sunset, and she deserves support."
That seemed to hit Bradford a little. "I'm sorry Corporal, but the Commander has the last say in that." He took a deep breath. "Sunset can also disclose some of the information if she wants to, but it's not my place to do it."
Jane sighed, leaning back on the chair. "All of this," she waved a hand around the room. "...has taught you a lot about leadership and sacrifice, Bradford. In that light, can you really tell me that it's okay for a soldier to be in such a mental state? We could be called to action anytime soon."
Bradford took a deep breath. "No. And yet, Sunset is the one that has to deal with this, given her role in the Commander's… life."
Jane leaned forward. "What does that mean?"
Bradford shook his head. "Classified. For now."
"For now?"
Bradford nodded. "It all depends on Sunset."
The Shard Gun was a lot lighter than she had anticipated. The sleek design, low weight and kick-less shot were taking some getting used to, as she was more used to the bulkier shotguns, and her instinct was to brace herself for the weapon to kick back with every shot, something that was giving her some trouble… but maybe it was just that she had too much in her mind.
She took cover behind one of the Training Ground's barriers and took a shot at a nearby dummy, blasting the chest and head off in a second.
"Where do you come from, really?"
BAM! The legs of a fake muton were torn into fragments.
"You look exactly like someone who I watched die."
She ran and rolled, doing an about turn that put her face-first against three ballistic-gel dummies that looked like Sectoids. Her shot blew a hole clear through the first, tore through the second and managed to practically serrate the third's head with the angle.
"I don't know how you're possible. You're her, but not. The DNA matches, the voice, the attitude, but you'd be a lot older by now, if you were my Sunset."
"Gah!" Sunset shouted, slicing down with her brand new Arc Blade. The last enemy—a facsimile of another unit she hadn't encountered personally, the Berserker—flowered outwards as the even-sharper sword cut through it, sending electric bursts at the same time that made the gel vibrate.
Sunset glanced around at the carnage her training session had done, breathing heavily. No matter how many dummies she cut down, she couldn't take her mind off of the conversation she'd had with the Commander.
"If you had been discovered just now… if Bradford hadn't vouched for you—you made an impression on him, you know, those three years you travelled together—if it were not for that… I would have had you shot on sight."
She had been dismissed from the infirmary two days ago. Barely a few hours after her talk with the Commander and Bradford.
"At first I thought you were… a clone or something made by the Aliens to get to me. Then I thought, Vahlen. She, Bradford and Shen were the only ones that would recognize you. And if she's crazy enough to do what she did to Vipers, Archons and Berserkers, she's definitely lost it enough to try something stupid like that."
Sunset closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. She was sweating. Her muscles ached, her hair was sticking to her face and forehead and her heart was racing. "I need a shower," she muttered, heading over to the barracks.
"I-I'm sorry… I don't-I don't get it. Who am I—who is Sunset Shimmer to you?"
Sunset walked to her locker, placing her weapons inside, and fishing out her towel and toiletries. She glanced up at the diary, closed and innocent-looking on the top shelf, under her spellbook.
"You really don't know, do you?" The Commander's voice lowered. "Sunset Shimmer… she was..."
Sunset dragged the diary out, throwing her stuff on the bed and taking a seat at the small personal desk next to it. She took a long, calming breath before grabbing a pen and opening her diary, the words of her letter to the princess already forming in her mind.
She passed the pages until she saw her last entry into the diary.
I hate you.
She hadn't noticed then, and she hadn't opened her diary since she wrote that message three years ago… but there was something else written there now.
I miss you.
I'm sorry.
Jane walked down the hall towards the barracks, slowing down when she saw the Templar, Laetitia, leaning against the side of the entrance as if she was guarding it. The hall was mostly empty, except for the random engineer running down to do whatever it was they did, so most likely she wouldn't have had to dissuade anyone yet.
Jane hadn't really known how to feel about their new allies. Sure, anything and anyone against the aliens, of course, but it took some getting used to someone that could rip you apart with her mind; someone that would hunt, kill and eat aliens and would disappear from sight if you just looked away for a second, and—last, but not least—an ex-ADVENT officer who looked decidedly inhuman under his helmet.
Sure, Sunset seemed to know them all, but still.
"What's going on?" she asked, trying not to sound curt. In the field it was easier, somehow, to get along, but inside the Avenger? It felt almost as if the other faction soldiers were invaders themselves.
Jane gave herself a mental shake. They were allies, they all had worked together efficiently in the field—they might have not been on the ship for years, but they were still part of her team.
"Just… keeping people from snooping around." Laetitia tilted her head in the direction of the barracks door. Jane frowned and glanced inside.
Her eyes roamed the room, trying to figure out what the issue was. It took her a moment to process.
After all, no one in the ship had ever seen Sunset Shimmer cry.
o.0.o End Chapter 16 o.0.o
Shh, don’t cry, sunset, we all are here for you.
TACTICAL HUG INCOMING
Oh... Commander Celestia.
8750301
You absolute monster!
You’re giving us literally the same exact cliffhanger twice! Not cool!
Well done, you actually manage to not show who the Commander is. You really gonna keep it a mystery till the very end, do you?
Poor Sunset, although it might be time to write back.
8750309
Well, it was worth a guess even if I'm wrong!
Typo on his name.
Also if Bradford recognizes human Sunset then is that why he's taken a soft spot for pony Sunset?
So Bradford has known something was up, from the beginning.
So what was human Sunset to the Great Commandy One? Daughter? Lover? Best friend? Student? I have so many questions!
Yep. It’s Celestia isn’t it? You damn tease. Honestly wasn’t expecting a chapter today but happy nonetheless. Maybe Sunset will contact the princess again? Will Twilight answer her instead? Can’t wait to see it!
I'm betting the Commander is Luna
Oh god.
I'm not sure if 'poor Sunset' is the right response but there's a lot of emotion attached to those words... and I can't even easily say which ones.
You colossal tease. Sure, the candidates have been narrowed down somewhat, but the ambiguity is still there. I'm not sure how long you're going to draw this out, but I have to admit that it's not critical to the story or anything. Looking forward to more.
8750510
Ah, but Luna is basically the one person the commander couldn't be; Sunset found her voice familiar, but Luna hadn't returned before Sunset left.
8750353 Celestia does seem like a plausible choice but is it really her?
8750449
If I had to venture a guess, possibly lover or a friend due to her saying that her Sunset would've been much older than our Sunset is right now so I would assume maybe around the age of Rainbow.
Daughter feels... A little less likely to me if only because it was stated earlier that Rainbow was around forty years so if the commander was Sunset's parent, they'd have to be about twenty years older which would make them around sixty of not close to seventy and not accounting the fact that earlier they said the commander was still very healthy and recovered quickly.
Then again, not sure of the Commander was experimented on or what but hey, fun theory guessing.
Wild guess time, it's human Sunset's mother.
8750745
Who knows, it could be anyone!
I repeat last statement.
8750755
In the intro for the game it says the commander looks unchanged, its likely the pod halts aging.
Ive got a theory about the secret operative, the one you get your orders from in the game, I think its luna... just a hunch.
For clarification, im not talking about the commander. (Also my head canon for the actual game is that the informant is an AGI)
Chapter 13:
Nice call back.
Yeah, the general way that things have been described so far leads me to take the long odds here. I am going to guess that the commander is both Celestia, and human Sunset's mother... giving us the double whammy that both explains why this is hitting Sunset so hard, and why she went to the book that connects to Celestia from her world for comfort.
I know this is extremely unlikely, but hey, it would be cool.
I did not expect these feels! Take them back!
Yeah... The feels lose some impact for me in light of staring at the same cliffhanger two chapters in a row. You know in an fps when you're sniping (or maybe you actual snipers/hunters out there) waiting for the absolute perfect shot? And you wait too long, and missed your window? This feels a bit like that, for me. I actually care less about her identity now. The timing felt right there... now it feels a little dragged out. Not a real detriment to the story overall, but yeah. Ah well.
Despite authors ribbing that it may be otherwise, my current opinion is that it’s Celestia. Commander is a she, knows Sunset from before the war, cares for her emotionally, the text in the journal in reference to Celestia, it all lines up. Unless this becomes another Twilight Shimmer ship I suppose...
8751082
I have to agree. This chapter should have been the climax of the commander reveal. We should have learned her identity at the same time sunny did. Instead we get a plain to see effort by the author to milk that mystery a bit longer. And mystery means more comments, and comments are author food. So I say this to you, author. You might want to give us a face next chapter or you’re going to lose too much impact from the readers.
8751302 I disagree, the chapter is short because this is something Sunset needed to deal with in a way, but it didn't fit with the next chapter without losing additional impact. There's a reason the chapter is named what it's named too. The story will continue and the identity of the Commander will be revealed in time, although there won't be much more teasing about her identity going on for a while. In other words... please bear with me, I'm not doing it just to milk comments. Although they are nice to read!
I'll take odds on Dean Cadance. Her pony counterpart was always a bit quicker on the draw than the sisters when it came to throwing down. If only one of the three survived, my money's on the one who was Crystal Disaster-Prepped.
(Yeah, if only. It's totally Celestia.)
8751318
Eh... I figured it was either something like that (cause yes, shorter than average chapter), or a sort of cooldown period for everyone to contemplate the possibilities in perspective with the effect of the reality of the truth, as Sunset has discovered it.
To clarify... after last chapter I was in full speculation mode, even considering some really left field choices. A few hundred words into this one, reading the tempo, I realized 'we're not going to find out yet'. And just like that, it didn't really matter. I thought 'ugh... well okay, even if it's [ridiculously unlikely choice redacted], it'll be fine. I'm not gonna be strung along by the half finished sentence cliches. This ain't even a romance fic'.
And then on the way to work I thought 'maybe that was by design. Maybe there's too much speculation, and this is a way to redirect focus so the people guessing wrong aren't too disappointed and the ones guessing right aren't too smug about it.'
Either way... for me, it did what it did. See ya next time!
I'm both infuriated with the continued tease and finding it awesome you're hiding her identity from us. Kudos for that.
As much as I want to feel sorry for Sunset - and I do to some extent - I can't feel it as much as you want me to and that's because of the way you've hedged around the meat of what actually passed between Sunset and the Commander. And so I'm having a hard time empathising because I don't know what I should be empathising with.
You want to keep the reveal a secret for a while yet, but this is the first time that it has felt disingenuously obfuscated.
I started watching an xcom 2 playthrough to help tide my urge to read this......... It just made it worse.
This story needs more Pony-on-Viper romance. Because kinky snek babes.
8754056
In before there is a bar with smooth jazz playing and a bunch of vipers try to seduce sunset
8754313
Smooth jazz?
Nah.
El Bimbo.
I just got a scary thought, what if ADVENT finds the portal to Equestria? They already have portal technology, they could get coordinates and super soldiers.
8754313 And it works perfectly on Sunset Sluttier.
Then weird pony-human-snek children happen...
8755211
And everyone freaks out because they look somewhat like ponies instead of a human
8755224 But then the furries arrive as they sense bizarre interspecies pairings! And things just keep getting weirder from there.
8755240
And then the ambient magic from the babies makes it so that portals start opening up and dragons and gryphons start raining down, mass histaria
ha! We knew it was Twilight!
8757968
... uh, what?
8817999
We're misdirecting!
Just What is happening in the comments lol
Suspensuu
I do not understand the comments right now...
Discord did you do this?
Ahhh... character development, you sir have given me the excitable shakes
Sunset Shimmer was... The girl who sold her coffee in the morning!
Sooo dissapointed we don't get cute snek babys...
Sooo dissapointed we don't get the other Sunny story.
Totaly hyped for the coming chapters