After fifteen minutes of having his arm sewn back on, receiving a blood transfusion, and a stern lecture from Redheart, Gear made his way, carefully, over to the makeshift command center. "Is there anything I can do to help?" He asked the pony who appeared to be in charge. He was a stern looking colt with a large scar running down his nose and, ironically, an FNH SCAR on his back. He was tan in color with green eyes.
"You're the civilian that told us to go here, correct? Thanks, we just about fell apart at the hospital. If you want to help, use the radio to bring in the rest of the squads. A couple are crossed off though, meaning HQ lost contact with them before they were over run, try calling them anyway. If you can, get squad 1 up here. One MG team is good, but two is great." The pony said. Gear nodded and made his way over to the radio. "Also, you're no longer a civilian, you're a private now. Hop to it."
Gear switched the radio frequency to squad 1's. "Break break, this is private Axis with squad 7, come in squad 1." He waited for a response for half a minute then spoke again. "Squad 1, this is squad 7, please respond." He waited and a moment later there was a quiet, whispered response. "Private Axis, this is Staff Seargent Crowbar, what do you want?" Gear nodded in satisfaction. "We're gathering squads at the docks, you need to get over here." A civilian placed a bottle of water next to him and walked away. Gear thanked him and took a sip. "No can do, we're trapped in the east police station, there're too many infected outside and we have civilians here." Gear frowned. "How many of you are there?" He asked, eyeing the eight members of squad 3. "Four civilians, Two officers, me, and specialist Recoil." He said. Gear frowned. "Are you telling me only two of squad 1 are still alive?" He asked. He motioned for the pony in charge to come over and listen.
"That is affirmative, there are only two of us left. We did manage to grab most of the ammunition and two of the saw guns though." The pony in charge seized the radio. "Crowbar, this is Sabre, we have squad 3 here with us, if you need extraction, we can come get you. Are there any Pegasus with you?" "That is affirmative Sabre, one of the officers and a civilian are pegasi, please send squad 3." Sabre tossed the radio back to Gear and went back to bark orders at Squad 3.
Squads 2, 4, 5, and 6 were unresponsive so he moved on to 8. "Break break, this is squad 7, come in squad 8." Almost instantaneously there was a response. "Oh Celestia it's good to hear a voice! We need fire support at the north end of the docks! We're almost out of ammo! Seargent Bayonnet is down and we got separated from half of our squad!" Gear looked north but the docks were long and buildings blocked his view. "We're at the docks as well, fall back south until you see us, we'll clear a path." There was a burst of gunfire over the radio. "Roger that! On our way!" Sabre, who had been listening, dispatched two gunners to clear a path. They opened fire on the the mob of infected below until it was safe enough to get down. Two other gunners provided support, shooting the infected that tried to go after them.
Squad 9 and 10, as it turned out, were transporting squads 20-25 in the convoy Gear and Dew had passed earlier. Contacting squad 10 had yielded the information along with the knowledge that only five of the total 64 soldiers were alive. Squad 11 didn't respond and squad 12 was too busy setting up explosives in the sewers under the east section of the city. They hoped to collapse it in order to stop infected movements. Squads 13, 14, and 15 didn't respond. Squad 16 was at the very south end of the docks, had all of their ponies, and had managed to rescue 47 civilians somehow. Part of squad 7 and the three ponies in squad 8 were dispatched to assist them. Gear radioed squad 17.
A familiar voice came over the radio. "Hello? Who may I ask is speaking?" Gear said nothing in surprise. It was the sniper who had saved Him and Dew at the restaurant. "Hello? Is any pony there? Hellooooo?" Gear shook his head and responded. "How did you get your radio?" There was a pause then the pony spoke. "Is this the pony I saved at the restaurant?" She asked. "That is affirmative, where did you get the radio." He demanded again.
"I found it." She said simply. "Also, I'm heading your direction. There's a huge mob of infected moving toward the city. I figured you ponies would feel safer with me there seeing as I'm the best sniper in Equestria!" Gear shook his head in frustration. "Where did you find the radio?" There was a sigh of exasperation on the other end. "I found it on the corpse of a soldier. There were eight corpses, that's also where I found my gun. I didn't kill any of them if that's what you're worried about. Well, while they were uninfected that is." Gear thanked her and informed Sabre.
"Dead huh? I'm not surprised, they were horrible snipers." He dismissed Gear before he could tell him about the mysterious mare that was on her way there. Squad 18 didn't respond and squad 19 was already on their way. Gear sighed and set the radio down on the table. He hadn't noticed but a large tent had somehow formed around him, the map and list of squads along with several desks and computers were all crammed into the tent making it somewhat cramped. He took another sip of water, attempting to ration it, and carefully made his way outside. The sun was setting now and the west end of the city was indeed on fire. Smoke rose up, blocking the sun almost entirely making it seem darker than it actually was. He could see several squads had arrived and, because of the room issues of the roof they were on, had spread to the roofs of two other buildings. He also saw a sniper nest on a nearby water tower. The roofs and water tower were connected with wooden boards, scraps of metal, and ropes. The materials were likely pilfered from the nearby half sunk ships. He looked around for Dew and saw her getting flight lessons from one of the soldiers. He recognized her as the pegasus that had carried Dew here. He left them alone and instead went to talk to Sabre. "Sir, where should I sleep?" He asked. Sabre gestured to a nearby tent and went back to talking to the other squad leaders. Gear entered the tent and collapsed on the sleeping bag. He fell asleep instantly.