The M1 Abrams is equipped with a 105mm M68 main gun along with an M2 50. Caliber and two M240 machine guns. On an improved road surface, it can travel at up to 60 mph. Its Chobham armour protects it and the crew from most attacks. Knowing all this, it would make sense that the first move by the town’s inhabitants was to run for cover and hope they weren’t seen.
66 didn’t move in at top speed, rather it slowly cruised into the seemingly deserted village. Ortelli slowed it down to a crawl, with the crew keeping a heads up for anything. Bannon kept everyone inside; he wasn’t sure how these creatures would react, but he felt safer inside the tank.
“CREW REPORT, GOT ANYTHING?”
“NOT A THING, SIR. I DON’T THINK THEY’RE TOO KEEN ON MEETING US.”
“ALRIGHT, GUNNER. KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN, BUT DON’T JUMP THE GUN. NO NEED TO CAUSE AN INCEDENT BEFORE WE EVEN MEET THEM.”
Bannon was about to turn back to his visor when he felt the tank stop.
“DRIVER, WHY DID WE STOP?”
“WELL, A COUPLE OF THEM ARE IN THE WAY, SIR.”
Bannon took a look and saw that two had indeed been brave enough to come out and meet them. One was a light blue with rainbow hair. The second was orange with blonde hair and what looked like a cowboy hat.
“What do you suppose it is?” Rainbow asked.
“I’m not sure,” Applejack replied. “I suppose I should go get Twi.”
While Applejack was getting Twilight, Rainbow moved in a bit closer and looked over the tank. There were so many odd things connected to the main body. What caught her attention most was the purpose of the massive pipe that stuck out of its head.
“This is amazing!” Twilight said, bringing Rainbow back to reality. “Has it tried to communicate yet?”
“Nope, all it did was roll up into town from the road to the east and stopped when we came out,” Applejack explained. “You got any idea as to what it wants?”
“No, I’ve never read about anything like this,” Twilight said, inspecting the tank closer. “It’s made entirely of metal? This is incredible! A creature composed entirely of metal! Opening relations with a new species is perfect for proving myself to the Princess!”
“She thinks the tank is living?” Bannon chuckled. “Ok, enough waiting. Time to be known.”
Bannon opened his hatch on the turrets roof. He slowly rose up to the cupola while the girls watched in awe. He came up all the way and instinctively grabbed the M2 with one hand while he waved to them with the other.
“Hey!” he said with a smile.
Each of the three had a different reaction. Applejack seemed stunned with her mouth hanging open, Twilight stared in awe, and Rainbow took a rather aggressive stance. Bannon couldn’t help but chuckle again before he spoke.
“You wouldn’t happen to know-”
Before he could even finish, Rainbow shot up towards him with Twilight yelling at her.
“Rainbow no!”
She hit him with enough force to send him back into the turret, but not before Bannon grabbed one of her wings and dragged her down. The rest of the crew was stunned as their commander and the Pegasus wrestled in the confined space. It didn’t take long for Bannon to deliver a swift, powerful punch right to the face, knocking her out cold.
Bannon had to admit that the fight was actually easier than he thought, but he had other things to take care of; these things were now considered hostile. He reached up and shut the hatch while Applejack tried to buck the machine. Aside from a shudder and a loud, metallic clang, there was no damage, with Applejack being rewarded with a sharp pain that left her on the ground.
“ORTELLI, BACK HER UP! GET US OUT OF HERE!”
“ON IT CAP!”
66 immediately shot back and began to backtrack out of the village. Looking back at the purple one, Bannon noticed something lighting up on top of her head; was that a horn? He didn’t wait to find out.
“SMOKE OUT!”
Bannon fired off the tank’s smoke grenades, clouding the area in thick smoke. Switching over to thermal, he noticed the creature stumbling around now; obviously blinded by the smoke. Bannon felt the 66 turn around, and then head back east to the rest of the team at full speed. He also took this opportunity to tie up the still unconscious Pegasus in the tank.
“Wait, what did you say the machine looked like again?” Shining Armor asked his little sister.
“It was big and metal and had some kind of long stick coming out of it.” Twilight explained. “And they had this strange creature driving it.”
“Hm, do they have some new allies?” he asked himself.
“What?”
“Nothing, you said they went east into the Everfree, right?”
“Yea, and they took Rainbow. Do you know what’s going on, Shining?”
“I have a pretty good idea, but I’m not sure there’s much I can do. I’ll send out a patrol to search for them.”
“Who is it?”
“I can’t tell you that, Twi.”
Shining was gone before Twilight could ask why, leaving her frustrated and worried.
“ALL YANKEES-THIS IS YANKEE ACTUAL-WARNING YELLOW-ALL CALLSIGNS TAKE UP DEFENSIVE POSITIONS AND WAIT FOR FURTHER-HOW COPY-OVER?”
“THIS IS YANKEE 7-WHAT DID YOU DO, CAPTAIN-OVER?”
“DAMNIT, YANKEE 7-THIS IS NO TIME FOR SCREWING AROUND-TAKE UP POSITIONS-DO YOU COPY-OVER?”
“SOLID COPY-OUT.”
The 66 returned to the woods. In the tree line, the vehicles were already moving into defensive positions. Bannon’s tank soon joined them.
“YANKEE 6-THIS IS YANKEE 3-SITREP-OVER.”
“WE CAME UNDER ATTACK FROM ENEMY FORCES-NO LOSSES.”
“YANKEE ACTUAL-PERMISSION TO MOVE FORWARD AND ENGAGE ENEMY FORCE WITHIN VILLAGE-OVER.”
“NEGATIVE-HOLD POSITION GARGER-ALSO, ALL YANKEES BE ADVISED-WE HAVE A PAPA OSCAR WHISKEY-OVER.”
“HOW DID YOU GET A PRISONER-OVER?”
“I’LL EXPLAIN LATER-OUT.”
Bannon sat in the center of the line on the M2. Before long, he saw a group of figures moving their way. They looked like some kind of military formation, but there were only four of them. He decided to try and scare them off if he could.
“YANKEE ACTUAL TO ALL UNITS-WEAPONS SAFE-I’M GOING TO TRY AND SCARE THEM OFF-OUT.”
Bannon took aim over the heads of the advancing soldiers. He waited until they got a bit closed and fired a few bursts from the gun. The effect was immediate; most of the soldiers immediately turned around and rand back when they realized what they were up against.
Only one stood his ground; a unicorn, from the looks of it. He stood there and focused on Bannon’s tank. In turn, Bannon took aim.
“Just turn back,” Bannon said to himself. “Damn you, just turn around and go home!”
The unicorn fired a single laser at the tank. It missed and instead hit a tree behind them, setting it alight. Bannon reacted quickly fired a burst from his gun, cutting down the brave guard.
Bannon stopped and stared at the corpse for a minute, then at the gun, then again at his hands. These things weren’t human, but they were intelligent enough to be. Killing another sapient being felt…odd. Something in the back of his head told him he’d better get used to it.