As we rode along an old ruined road a gleam caught my eye. I told Wellington to pull off the road so we could check it out. What we found was amazing to say the least. Me and my squad were staring down the barrel of a surprisingly intact fifth equestrian armored division M1A2 MBT. The only thing that seemed to be wrong with the tank was the severely damaged left tread carrier rendering it inoperable. For now at least… I plan on returning and fixing it with the firepower that this thing possesses we’ll be able to take what ever Spector throws at us short of a megaspell. I climbed to the top of the old war machine to see if the hatch would open. To my surprise it was locked and looked to have rusted shut.

“Well that isn’t going to happen anytime soon.” I said jumping down from the turret of the tank. Out of curiosity I wiped some dirt and grime off the side of the tank so see the name still painted on the side it read “Apple Bucker “. As we were walking back to the LAV a gunshot rang out kicking up dust at my hooves.

“Hit the dirt guys.” I shouted while diving behind some rocks and ending up at the bottom of an old trench. Did I forget to mention that the Tronto hub was the site of a massive battle at the end of the war? Said battle was the one where my squad and I were in before we were frozen but back to reality. I stuck my head over the side of the trench and saw that a group of raiders had Ghost and Longeye with heavy fire. I looked for Backblast but my helmet caught a round from a raider shooting at the big lump diagonally from me that lump was Backblast. The initial strike had shut his suit down and left him exposed. Now with my bell thoroughly rung I returned fire with Punishment, and tagged a dark brown mare in the side and she burst into flames. Naturally this got the attention of the other Raiders who turned their fire and curses toward my position. I immediately ducked and looked around the trench spying a bunker with a familiar logo on it. Two snakes wrapped around a sword, the insignia of my squad it all came back to me. This is the place where Spector had shot me in the back all those years ago .

Damn… why does the universe hate me so much that it constantly tortures me like this.
“The universe does not hate thou Gunner twas merely fate that has brought thou here.” Again with the voices in my head I got up and ran toward the bunker and slid my keycard. The door refused to open at first but with a little help from a panicked buck it lifted painfully slow. I threw up a nav point for my squad to regroup here. Looking around I noticed no one had been here since the day we had been frozen. Our cots and personal items were still were we had left them. The heavy machine gun at the firing slit was in decent condition.

Maybe the universe doesn’t hate me so much. I cambered a fresh .50 cal shell and unleashed hell on the raiders. The more I think about it the raiders looked a lot like zebras for a brief second. Damn can’t start breaking down now my team needs me. Soon the old battlefield was quiet once as the last of the raiders had died . I sat inside the bunker with the empty HMG still clacking in my hooves.
===============================Elsewhere=============================

Two black stallions are sitting in an old office when one of them finally speaks“

"Darkwing “the black stallion with a maroon mane said

“Yes Spector “. The other black stallion a pegasus with a silver mane replied

“What is the status of the red legion?”

“They are awaiting your command to mobilize.”Darkwing intoned brushing his mane out of his eyes.

“Good, good and Juliet squad what is their status.”

“Geared and moving on hoofington as we speak master.”
Spector smiled and said “Soon the wasteland will be remade into our own image.”
===============================Serpent bunker=============================

I finally came to my senses when Backblast tapped on my shoulder. The rest were looking around at what was left of our old lives.

“What I’m busy being depressed.” I grunted which earned me a slap on the back of the head.

“Come on man you fought a zebra elite trooper with a knife and won.” He said then Longeye said from across the bunker. “What about the time you rushed that zebra tank with a satchel charge. I mean come one that was on of your best moments stop moping and cheer up.”
Ghost came over and hugged me a whispered in my ear. “Gunner you can talk to me if you need any help I’m here for you.”

“I’ll have to take you up on that sometime.” I told her smiling.

“Is this all that’s left of our old lives.” Longeye said from the inside of her footlocker.

“I guess so, well I hope wild pegasus tastes better aged for 200 years heh heh.” Blast chuckled holding a bottle of whiskey.

“Let’s see if my sketchbook is still here.” After fifteen minutes of digging through my footlocker I found it.

“What’s in it Gunner.” Ghost asked over my shoulder .

“ Just things I drew to keep my self sane over the years” I told her while staring at the old book thinking about the day the bombs fell.

“Well we all have ways to cope with stress and emotions mines whiskey.” Blast grinned

“Just try to keep the drinking to a minimum blast we don’t need another ever free incident.

=============================Three years before the bombs fell===========================

“there has to be at least two platoons of zebra spec ops down there”I said quietly as I lowered my binoculars.

“Who knew they were so close to ponyville. Its scary to even think about it.” Ghost whispered next to me.

“welp lets get this over with already.”Blast said while kicking the handle on his saddle and taking a draw from his flask.

“Should you be drinking on an op. if captain found out he’ll have all of our asses.”Long intoned harshly. Blast just snorted and put the flask away.

“Check your gear we leave in twenty make sure your locked and loaded cause its just us out here for a good three miles.”I whispered .and my ears were greeted by a hushed chorus of “yes sirs”. the twenty minutes felt like three days when it passed night had befallen us . the plan was to sneak into the camp and cause massive casualties. That went out the window pretty quick when a sentry heard Blast hiccup. The sentry tapped his collar and the alarm sounded from across the camp. Two muffled shots from Longs DMR had silenced him but the damage was already done. shouts sounded from around the camp as they was made aware of our presence.

“Goddess damn it Blast I told you no more drinking.” I screamed at my inebriated support gunner while dodging a burst of gunfire form a zebra soldier. As I took in the defenders of the camp I was surprised that most of them had the small sword known as a gladius.

“Don’t worry sarge ill watch him. Come on jackass let’s set up the gun already.” Long commanded Blast with a slap to the back of the head.
We were near the middle of the camp when the alarm had been triggered so we had two options available to us. The way the camp was laid out was two paths leading to the command tent which we had our backs to. After a brief moment of thought I decided on consolidating our defenses and letting them come to us.

“long ,Blast take the left path and set the gun up there. Ghost and myself will watch the right side of anypony trying to flank us.” I instructed my squad. They did as they were told and soon we had a some what decently defendable position. Not long after we had set up the zebras resumed attacking. No longer armed with melee weapons they were armed to the teeth with carbines and rifles. As I had predicted the majority had came from the left side of the camp and straight into the sights of Blasts LMG and longs rifle. This was the moment Ghost looked at me and meekly stated while shaking

“Um…Gunner are you sure you want me helping you I…I’m no good with my gun.”

"Don’t worry you’ll do just fine remember what I told you just breathe and squeeze ill be right here next to you.” I reassured her. She just nodded and seemed to be comfortable being next to me. I clicked the mic on my shoulder and Spector responded with” you called sarge.”

“Spector you, Star and Wellington keep the armor off our asses last thing we need is zebra tanks joining the party.” I ordered the reply I got was

“Roger sarge we’ll keep them occupied. “ With that taken care of I turned my attention to the zebra soldier who thought he was being sneaky and put a slug in his striped head. This continued for a good hour before there were no more zebras left standing. During that hour I had managed to take a round to the shoulder Ghost had taken some fragmentation from a grenade that came a little too close for comfort. Blast being in his suit was unscathed but not for long. Longeye was hit in the hindleg with a small caliber round possibly from a carbine. After seeing to our wound we proceeded to the exfiltration point to meet up with Spector and Star.

After a few minutes of slugging our way through the forest we finally came to the clearing to find a smug looking Spector and a concerned Star. Both standing next to our trusty LAV. the ride back to base was a long one I spent the entire trip with Star fussing over my shoulder and my lack of competent medical work.

“Gunner this dressing is too loose.” She said tugging on the dressing causing me to wince.

“Star I assure you it I did it the way you showed me” I grunted in response.

“Still the bandage should have held better than that” was her reply with another tug on the bandage.
With a sigh I relented and let her redress the wound. When we finally arrived back at base. The door to the LAV opened to a pissed off unicorn with captain pins on his lapel.

“Gunner I need to have a word with you asap.” He spoke with a edge that meant you fucked up. With that said he turned and walked to his office. With a sigh I followed him with a slight limp. Once inside he rounded on me and gave me the worse ass chewing I have ever gotten. I never been called a moronic cockgurgling dildochicken before in my life to be honest that was the first time I have even heard that be said. Oh I was so going to get Backblast back for this. After he was finished ripping me a new one he sat down at his desk and looked at me and said

“Brother what am I going to do with you? You know father doesn’t want you to get hurt or worse killed. I don’t see why you always volunteer for these suicide missions. Is it to spite him or is it some sort of hero complex you have?”

I retorted with” for starters you can stop with the names and father always wanted you to be the one who took over his place as colonel not me. I just want to make a difference to stop all of this needless violence.” With that said he looked at me with a questioning look and said

“coming from the pony who is killing these zebras and volunteering to go in and destroy their equipment.” I stepped closer to him and looked him in the eyes and in a deadpan said

“You may bee a captain but that wont stop me from beating your ass.” With that said I turned and walk out of his office leaving him with a look of disbelief.

I limped back to my squads barracks and opened the door to a tied up Blast and a furious Longeye sitting in the corner glaring at him with my nerves finally being pushed to the limits I simply said “fuck it I’m going to sleep” then climbed onto my bunk. Sleep didn’t come easily spent the night thinking about what my brother had said. I am making a difference right… I’m trying to stop this stupid war to protect my family and friends.