"Right, second wave incoming," Leon murmured. "Okay, anyone have plans to use an airplane that does not involve crashing into the airship?"
"Har har," Rainbow deadpanned. "We'll wing it."
Leon switched to an attack plane. "We'll see how this goes, I guess," he said.
"I've got one of the other planes," Rainbow stated.
"Hey, where does that leave me?" Blazing Star asked. "Someone else took the last plane."
"I suppose you'll have to go on hoof - er, I mean foot," Luna answered. "I don't think there are any tanks... no, there aren't."
Blaze sighed. "I'll go out there as an Assault class, then. It would somewhat fit with the Lunar Guard's style, though I'd prefer a rogue class better."
"Well, there isn't," Leon told him. "This is a war game, and stealth isn't really available, at least not in the kind you're talking about. No knives or shinobi here."
"Drat." There was a stomp on the other end.
"Whoa, calm down, buddy. It's not that big a deal," Eddy reasoned.
"No, it wasn't that. One of the nails in the horseshoes I was wearing was coming out, so I stomped on it to get it back in there. I'm going to have a word with my farrier; her shoes seem to come with loose nails for some reason."
"I'm betting one of ours could do better," Leon joked. "I think they'd like dealing with customers who know how to say more words than "neigh" or "whinny."
"Actually, there are a number of human farriers in Equestria," Luna put in. "And most of them do seem to do well at fixing and nailing on horseshoes, along with fulfilling other duties that a blacksmith would otherwise provide. As for the quality of conversation, I cannot say, but if you're thinking of switching, Blaze, I could recommend you to one or two good ones."
"Thanks, Prin- uh, Luna."
"Anytime," she responded.
The timer for the beginning of the new round ran out, and the game began. Leon took control of the plane he was using and began looking for areas of the airship to target. "Might want to bomb the machine guns on the roof," he suggested.
"Yeah, but don't forget the guns underneath," Rainbow returned. "Those are the ones hurting our guys on the ground, and giving their own team time to capture a sector or two. Let's try to make sure that doesn't happen."
"Copy, Red Leader," Leon answered, trying to pronounce the words as they were in the Battle of Yavin in Star Wars 4.
Rainbow laughed. "Not much of a leader, with just one plane taking my orders. I'll see what I can do with you, though. Aim for the control room."
"Understood." Leon did so. The gunners in the airship were firing at the flag near the fortress gun he'd been using the previous round and weren't paying attention to the sky, which was a mistake; his cannons tore the control room to shreds. One of the gun positions was destroyed, along with the gunner who had been manning it.
"One gun down."
"Got one on top," the blue pegasus said. "I think we might be in trouble, if those enemy planes I see are coming after us."
"Yeah, that might not be pleasant." Leon flew under the airship's tail and out into the open air. Without warning, and enemy fighter came down from above and strafed him, passing by just underneath him.
"Ugh!" The enemy pilot had succeeded in disabling the attack plane. Although Leon was still flying, it was not without trouble. "Got disabled."
"Roger. I'll try to keep you covered while you repair."
"Thanks."
It was a difficult task; the controls for steering the plane didn't work while the vehicle was repairing, and that meant that the plane was a sitting duck during the repair period. On the other hand, if he didn't repair, the plane would remain as hard to steer as it was now, not to mention it would still be easy for any enemy pilot or AA gunner to KO.
"One down," Rainbow said. "Might have been the one to shoot ya, but I'm not sure."
"As long as he's not still shooting at me," Leon replied, still trying to fix the attack plane and hoping the enemy would be too distracted by Rainbow to do anything about it.
-------------------------------------------------
Luna aimed carefully at the enemy soldier in the green uniform of La Regno d'Italia and used her magic to pull the trigger button. The soldier fell down.
"One down," she murmured.
"Watch out for the medic-" Rarity burst out.
BAM! "Got him," the princess said. "Make that two."
"Bother, I was about to get him," Rarity pouted.
"You'll get your chance soon enough, I dare say," Luna replied. "and besides, he would have revived the first casualty if I hadn't shot him right then."
"I suppose." Rarity's rifle also cracked. "Another one suddenly taking a nap," she observed.
"Indeed. Incoming aircraft."
"Oh, for the love of... better move."
They were able to evacuate their comfortable sniping spot just as an enemy plane dropped it's bombs. Luna was reduced to 65% health, but the bombs had failed to kill her character, nor had they done in Rarity.
"Hopefully Rainbow and the others can cover us," the white unicorn hoped.
"Repaired, no longer disabled, 81% health," Leon stated. "Back in the fight."
The battle continued to swirl around them. Italy continued it's forward momentum, and Luna knew that the current positions weren't going to hold. "Edward, you might want to pull out of that bunker."
"Hey, getting quite few kills as morons keep running down here."
"You'll end up dying if you remain there after they capture both flags, as they are about to do."
"Oh, fine. But it'll be hard- DIE! One of the buggers out of the way at least."
"Get out of there!" Leon said. "Big scary balloon with a ton of firepower overhead, in case you've forgotten!"
"So what? They'll blast me if I leave either way. Better to die fighting and then respawn."
"Whatever. Fine. Don't blame us when the map kills you because the area got taken."
"Worry about the stuff in the air, flyboy."
"If you rage after this, don't say I didn't warn you."
Luna chuckled under her breath, before sighting another target and firing at them. She missed, and reloaded her rifle.
"About our schedule this coming week," Leon began, "I noticed that you're going to be missing for about five days, Luna. What's going on, if I might ask?"
"Oh, I'm sorry for not having cleared that up," Luna said, remembering. "I'm going on a diplomatic visit to Israel."
"That's going to hot news," Leon noted. "Sparks are going to fly."
"Yes, but in any case, I've decided to go myself and see what is going on with my own eyes. I'd had enough of the political wrangling and various biases in the media. We'll see how it goes."
Leon grunted in a very contented way. Not a big surprise, given that he's a staunch conservative, Luna thought. He'd be pro-Israel. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I do worry that he can get too political, though. Politics can be... rather polarizing. I should know, having centuries of experience on the subject.
"Artillery truck!" Rarity said urgently.
"Where?" Leon inquired.
"Right between... ugh, never mind, I'll just use a little magic of my own to knock that thing out."
"What kind of magic?" Luna asked.
"It's called K-bullets."
The white pony proceeded to repeatedly shoot the AT. "Finally," she said, chambering another round. "Got one of the crew."
Just then, Leon flew over the truck, bombing it out of existence.
"Hey!" Rarity shouted. "I was about to finish him off! And where were you when we needed you a minute ago?"
"Trying to not die. A couple of these guys in the giant flying potato have it in for me."
"Given the strafing you gave them initially, I'm not that surprised," Rainbow cut in. "But that thing needs to go. We're getting creamed on the ground."
That was true. The enemy had captured both flags and most of the Austro-Hungarian players who hadn't been killed outright were retreating to the next zone.
"Hmm, that brings them closer to us," Luna noted. "We might want to shift our positions, seeing as they can actually enter our current zone now."
"I suppose," Rarity said reluctantly. "I-"
She was a little too late to move. An Italian sniper had spotted her and gotten a headshot. Luna noticed the position of the enemy sniper and returned the favor, but this was a little late on the draw.
"Ugh," Rarity said, the sound of a hoof striking her head coming through the mic. "I'm going to spawn on your location."
"I'd advise against it, I'm moving and in the open," Luna said. "It might be a good idea to remain split up for a few minutes."
"Well, alright..."
"That's right, keep coming down the stairs, morons," Eddy said, still in the bunker. "I'll kill you all and- Uh oh, out of ammo."
The result was all too predictable.
------------------------------------------------------
"Well..."
"Don't. Please, just don't."
Leon watched as a bomber passed by above him. He turned the attack plane upward and began shooting it with the main gun of the aircraft. The heavy shells struck the bomber, which tried to turn so that Leon would miss. The second player in the bomber, who had been manning the forward gun, switched to the back and shot at Leon with the rear machine gun.
The attempts failed. Leon got the kill after some effort, though he was aided by an allied AA gun on the ground, which inflicted some measure of damage on the bomber before it went down.
"Sayonara, buddy," Leon murmured as the bomber fell out of the sky, burning all the way.
"The blimp is down!" Rainbow yelled. "I repeat, the blimp is down!"
Technically speaking, a dirigible was not a blimp; the first had a structure underneath, while the other had only a giant balloon on top of a control cab and engines. Nonetheless, Leon turned. "Oh, it's going to come down right on top of 'em," he said in juicy anticipation.
He felt amused. Several enemy players were too caught up in the combat to look up and were simply crushed from out of nowhere by the falling, burning zeppelin.
Eddy laughed. "Probably the best thing I've seen all day."
Luna laughed too. "I'll admit, it's funny when that happens... to the enemy, anyway."
"And those guns are gone too," Leon went on. "Now we can move a bit more freely, at least on the ground. I'll continue to provide support up here."
"Please do," Luna said. "We'll need it. They got through our first flags and they've taken two of the three flags here already."
"The bunker should hold; it's underground part is close enough to the flag that the guys hiding there can control the flag, and it's not easy at all to dig them out of there," Leon noted. "Of course, it's no picnic in the bunker, either, considering the constant barrage of gas and incendiary grenades they get."
"Believe me, I've experienced it," Rarity noted, sounding distasteful. "I have no idea how the real soldiers in the actual war dealt with it."
"Well, take away 95% of the hand-held automatic weapons, replace them with regular, unmodified bolt action rifles, add more artillery, especially big guns, and more dogfighting and less ground support among the aircraft - oh, and lots and lots of mud and craters - and you've got something not far from the real thing," Leon replied.
"And a ton of dirt everywhere, not to mention barbed wire and nutjob officers telling ya to go over the the top all the time," Eddy added.
"And, from what I hear, constant life in a dirt and mud-filled trench," Luna put in. "Extending from horizon to horizon, with any buildings and trees long since reduced to rubble and ruin."
"Okay, okay, I get the point," Rarity muttered. "What I asked is how they dealt with it."
"You might want to go back in time and ask them," Leon suggested, "because I think only they could tell you." A he said this, he aimed for the flag on top of the hilltop bunker that both sides were struggling for, then thought better of it and turned toward the door that the Italians were pouring grenades into. A number of them were bunched up and apparently had forgotten that they could be bombed from the air. Five of them paid for that mistake, with more points coming in for Leon due to damage inflicted.
"Nice bombing run," Eddy noted.
"Thanks. This bunker, man... It's a chokepoint, just because the guys underground can hold the flag, and even if the flag is temporarily taken, they basically take it right back when the attackers leave. We need to hold it, no matter what."
"No arguments here," Luna agreed. "It might be overpowered, but you're right."
"I'll go," Blaze said. "I'm fine with the conditions in that bunker, and we need to keep it as long as possible."
"Alright then," Luna answered. "Keep it under our control."
"I will."
--------------------------------------------------------------
Blaze shot down two Italians who were trying to enter the bunker via the lower, southern entrance and went in himself. A friendly player fired a couple of shots into him before realizing that he was on their side. These bullets did no damage, but even so, it was irritating. "Fool. I'm on your side. I thought that would be obvious."
"He can't hear you," Luna said. "And what did you expect? It gets crazy in the fortress defenses on Iron Walls, along with the bunkers. People are inclined to shoot first and ask questions, if they have any, later. Besides, friendly fire is off."
"I know, but this is really unprofessional."
"It's a video game. Many of those playing aren't trying to be professional. Most people aren't Lunar Guards, whatever your standards - and, as your Princess, I know them very well - might be. If you're going in the bunker, just defend it as well as you can."
"I will do so to the utmost of my abilities." Blaze ran up the stairs and, once at the top, turned around, made his character lie down and pulled out the AT Rocket Gun. The first Italian through the door he'd just come in through would get a very nasty surprise.
It wasn't long in coming. Someone threw a gas grenade in, but Blaze already had his gas mask on, so it had zero effect. It was followed by an overeager enemy soldier running in, and immediately receiving a rocket to the face, which naturally resulted in an instant kill. In addition, another player who had been coming in behind the first has suffered some damage. Blaze switched from the rocket gun to the MP18 and mowed him down before he could do much.
After that, the enemy wasn't so courageous. Instead of rushing in, they began throwing in grenades, or else using crossbow to try and bounce various grenades up the stairs. The gas grenades basically did nothing, but there were a number of incendiary and impact grenades, and Blaze decided, after suffering 11% damage, to pull back a bit until the barrage stopped.
On the other side of the bunker, it was the same deal; gas and fire were coming in. here and there, an impatient enemy soldier would come running in, only to be gunned down. Occasionally, a defender would be killed, but considering that squadmates kept spawning in, that wasn't too much of a problem yet.
Blaze threw a grenade of his own down the stairs. It caught someone outside and did some damage, though it failed to kill anyone. Another player tried to get in, but was hosed down pretty quickly, though not before hitting Blaze a couple of times.
In spite of the failure of the enemy to get in and stay in, they were keeping the bunker under siege. While the players in the bunker were holding the flag, they weren't able to do much else. The enemy were, however, losing lives in the process. their second battalion was down to 125 lives, and every one they threw away against this bunker was one they wouldn't have further down the line. During the fighting, Blaze moved back and forth between covering each entrance, trying to avoid damage while keeping the enemy out.
Eventually, an enemy player got his hands on a sentry kit, and a massive, heavily armed Arditi came in, clutching a big machine gun. While definitely not invincible, he shot two of the defenders down quickly and wound up shooting a third before switching to his submachine gun, which could be said to be even more powerful, as the same guy sliced down two more defending players. Blaze finally got in a headshot, and brought him down, but now the enemy were swarming the flag from above as other continued to besiege the defenders.
"Leon, we'll need more bombing runs here."
"I've been trying. They're getting creative."
"What do you mean, 'creative'?"
"As in, they brought in a couple AA artillery trucks."
"Oh. That might explain it."
"Yeah, it's a problem."
"Can anyone or any pony else blow them up?"
"Sorry, darling," Rarity answered. "We're also in a spot of bother. They're closing in on us, and it's all I and Luna can do to keep them from doing us in."
"Do you think you can still hold the bunker?" Luna asked.
"I'll try, but they just got a sentry in here killed something like five guys. There might be problems, there's me and maybe four, correction, five, other people still here. If they really rush us, they could take us out and capture the flag for good."
"Hmm. Edward, can you-"
"I'M IN A TANK!"
"All I was going to say was-"
"IN A TANK! Not doing it."
"You're not even the driver," Leon complained. "Basically you're just sitting in a gun position hoping people will obligingly come and get shot down."
"In. A. Tank. Shut up."
"...You really need to learn how to take advice."
"Muted."
"Ugh."
"Just leave him," Luna said, sighing furiously. "Blaze, hold your ground and keep the bunker under our control for as long as possible. Should you die, we'll discuss what to do next."
"Understood. I'll hold the bunker until the end."
"Be sure you do. We need to keep it. Very badly."
Blaze shot down another enemy trooper, but he was starting to run low on ammunition. Looking around, he saw a shotgun lying around. While picking up someone else's kit would likely leave him with some less familiar equipment, it was this or inevitably die. He picked up the other person's kit, which gave him a Model 10 shotgun with a medium supply of ammunition for it. Blaze grunted. It would have to do. besides, there were other dead players to pick guns off of.
Another three Italians came through the door. Blaze shot one of them and wounded the other so that someone else picked them off, but the third killed another defender before tossing an incendiary grenade at Blaze. the grenade was right on target, and the flames enveloped him. He ran immediately out of his cover, throwing a grenade of his own. The enemy soldier went down, but Blaze was down to 20% of his health. Another Austrian soldier shot the third attacker dead, but there were more coming. The enemy could sense that the defense was weakening.
Another barrage of grenades came in, followed by five more trying to breach the doorway. Blaze shot two of them, but was finally killed by the third, who did not live long enough to enjoy his victory, as he himself was gunned down. Even on the death screen, though, Blaze knew it wasn't anywhere near enough. The Austrians had lost the bunker.
"We lost it, Princess, I'm sorry."
"It's alright. I know you did what you could. I suppose it was too much to hope for..."
"They're down to 75 lives," Leon commented. "I think we can halt them in the next sector."
"Perhaps, but then again, they might push us back to the fortress itself. I'd prefer to try to end this here, if at all possible."
"And the enemy want to push us into the second map," Leon countered. "They'll have a chance of winning there."
"So they will. If they get there. And we'll be doing out best to not let that happen."
"Uh oh, we've been pushed back again."
And so it was. The sector had been lost, and now the Austro-Hungarians were scrambling to retreat to the next one. In the process of the retreat, the tank Eddy was in was first disabled, then blown up. The rage of the Englishman led to each of them temporarily muting him.
----------------
Leon realized that the fun he'd had in the attack plane had been too good to last. He'd finally been shot down by an enemy pilot who was good at his job. He wasn't the best dogfighter himself; aside from picking away at the dirigible and blowing up bombers, he preferred to bomb enemy ground positions. That lead to a lot of points and kills, but less of a chance to defend himself while in the air.
"Drat," he muttered as the plane fell from the sky. "Oh well. Got some work done in that thing. More than I expected."
"You down?" Rainbow asked.
"I'm down," he confirmed. "Somebody got behind me and shot me all to pieces."
"Well, ya get used to it. On the other hoof, it gives Blaze a chance to get a plane."
Leon grunted. He wasn't too thrilled about being knocked out of the sky, but he selected the assault class he'd used previously and deployed to one of the new flags. He ran to one of the cannons sitting nearby. It was nothing compared to the fortress gun he'd been using earlier, but it could still hurt tanks and definitely kill any players unfortunate enough to be in the blast radius of its shell.
He loaded the gun and aimed at an incoming artillery truck that had gotten careless and was focusing on an anti-aircraft gun. The truck was badly armored to begin with; a few AT rockets could bring it down. The stationary artillery was even more powerful; the truck just exploded. It might have been damaged already, for all Leon knew, but it still brought exhilaration.
Unfortunately, the stationary gun was, well, stationary. It couldn't move, unless one counted turning the thing while aiming it as moving. An AT rocket streaked just over the gun as Leon reloaded, and a stream of machine gun bullets battered the bullet shield as he raised the barrel.
Despite the gunfire, Leon found another target; an A7V was chugging along, flames bursting from its side as the gunners inside used their flamethrowers. This second shot also hit, a solid strike that disabled the vehicle and destroyed one of the weapons that had been spewing fire at his side.
"Giving you covering fire, Leon," Rarity announced. "As much as I can, at any rate."
"As am I," Luna added. "Please note, though, they are coming in numbers- Hold on." After a moment of silence, in which Leon supposed she had shot an exposed Italian, Luna went on, "They're coming. A lot of them. Two snipers aren't going to be enough."
"We have the rest of the team," Blaze said.
"We do, but we don't have direct communications with them, so we can't coordinate as well as we ought to. Maybe it's for the best, at least for this game; thirty or so players shouting through their headsets is probably not the healthiest thing for our ears."
"We're on our own, then," Leon stated flatly.
"We all technically are," Luna replied. "This isn't real soldiering, any more than the rest of you are royalty outside of Crusader Kings II. Many people in this game, if not most, choose to go their own way, and simply fight as one amidst others who are also fighting their own battles. They might not be 'alone' alone, but they aren't squadmates or friends or comrades. We're just a group that decided to try fighting together instead of apart. If World Of Tanks didn't teach you that lesson, I'm not sure what will."
"Perhaps." Leon fired again; flames burst from seams in the metal as the travelling fortress exploded, earning Leon two kills. Most of the crew had managed to get out, but at least that tank wouldn't be bothering anyone anymore. He allowed himself a small smile.
A whistling from the air announced - too late - that a bomber had taken aim at his position. The corpse of Leon's avatar flew as the gun he had been manning blew up under the barrage of bombs.
"Aaaaaaaaaghhhhhhhhh......"
"At least you knocked out a few of them and gave us time to fight," Luna said, trying to soothe his anger. "In the meantime, cheer up. There will be more vehicles and emplacements to use."
"Going in as an assault again. I'm going to try to hold that bunker at the top of the field."
"The one shaped like a weird T, the one with an opening toward the flag? You realize that the Italians can just run in from there and outflank the locked steel doors, right?"
"Yeah. Still, they have to worry about snipers if the try going at it entirely above ground, and my Automatico has its best chance in enclosed spaces like that."
"True. Still, it might be more prudent to choose another class and adapt to the battlefield."
"I could say that about you guys too. The other side has snipers as well, and some of them will be looking for enemy snipers."
"Rarity and I do try to keep that in mind," Luna said. "After that happened a few times in previous engagements, I've tried to learn."
"By the way, that's one counter sniper out for the count," Rarity mentioned. "More will be coming, though."
As Leon respawned, Rainbow's plane flew by overhead and shot down the bomber that had killed him the last time. "Yaaaaaaahooooooo!" the blue pegasus shouted. "That's another one down!"
"That's all well and good," Luna said, "but both of our flags are falling."
"Me and Leon will take care of it," Blazing Star said. "I'll go to that bunker with ya."
"It's too late; the captures are happening too fast."
"I started near the bridge; I hit that one by mistake when I was choosing where to respawn," Leon said, heading for that particular flag. "I'll see what I can do."
The answer quickly became obvious; not much. There were too many green-coated soldiers by the flag to have any real hope of gunning them all down.
Instead of trying that, Leon pulled the pin on an anti-tank grenade and threw it, along with an incendiary grenade a moment later, into the capture area. A few seconds later, two kills popped up on his screen, along with a third who burned to death because of the incendiary grenade. A ton of points due to damage alone came up as well.
Unfortunately, a couple of the Italian players weren't happy about that; they surged up toward his position. He was able to shoot one of them down, but the second shot him dead before Leon could finish him.
"Aw rats. Sorry, guys."
"At least you tried," Luna reassured him. "We will all fall back to the fortress and make our stand there. We've managed to whittle them down fairly well."
"Even if we beat them here, we'll probably get pushed out by the Zeppelin," Eddy worried.
"We'll... we'll deal with that when that comes. In the meantime, retreat."
"I'll try and make sure all the doors down below are shut," Leon said. "The attackers win on this map if they aren't defended well enough."
"They'll be able to blow them up with grenades and anti-tank rockets. Still, you're right; that area needs defending."
"But Prin- Luna, what good will we snipers be in that situation?" Rarity asked anxiously.
"You can still snipe the attackers that try to enter from above ground; there should be a ledge leading of, just behind the fortress where you can- Oh, I am dead," Luna noted in a normal voice. "I was ironically killed by an enemy sniper."
"It's what happens to snipers. You snipe people, you get sniped," Leon said. "It's one of the reasons I have trouble with being one; I try sniping people, and half the time an enemy sniper puts a bullet through my head, or through my rifle scope and then into my head."
Luna whinnied. "It's the life of a sniper. Or scout, as they are called in this game."
Leon respawned in the fortress. He quickly jumped down into the basement and made his way toward the side entrance - the double set of steel doors that would be off to the left if one were an Italian player heading toward the fortress. No one had come through yet, but he did have to shoot down one enemy soldier who go there as he was shutting the outer door.
"If anyone has mines and wants to contribute, the door's locked now."
"I'm coming," Luna said. "I have incendiary mines. I'm honestly not sure just how good they will be, though, given that the other side usually just blows up these doors, and the mines blow up with them."
"Well, they are basically artillery shells that have been re-purposed. We'll need them-" Leon took a moment to stick his gun through the narrow window and shot down an enemy soldier. "-somewhere, and behind a door is about as good a place as any. Better than just leaving them out in the open."
"You won't get any argument from me there. And I suppose there has to be a counter to everything, otherwise everyone would do this all the time."
Leon continued to maintain his position; some of the enemies began throwing gas grenades, which wasn't the worst idea in the world as it forced him to don a gas mask, but some just threw incendiaries, which did not do enough damage to blow open the door.
"Just a couple guys left, we got this," Eddy said.
"Oh. I suppose my explosive knowledge won't be required then," Luna stated.
"Yeah, they haven't even breached the first-"
The door suddenly burst its hinges explosively, slamming into and killing Leon just as the round ended.
"-door," he finished, a few seconds late.
"What happened?" Eddy asked.
"Someone must have thrown a bunch of dynamite and set it off, because the door just blew open and killed me," Leon replied. "I don't know what else could have happened."
Rainbow laughed. The others either followed suit, Leon among them.
"Well, we won another round," Luna noted.
"We lost a lot of ground though," Rainbow observed. "We'll just have to give it our all."
"I think we might be able to hold this," Blazing Star commented.
"3, 2, 1..." Ed counted down.
"The enemy is being reinforced with an airship."