//------------------------------// // Enclave: Neighvarro in Sight By Trooper // Story: Fallout Equestria: Alphabet soup // by Doomande //------------------------------// I sit inside my power armor with my eyes closed. My stomach churns as it always does before a combat jump.  I feel the movement of craft around me. Inside my mind every time the Vertibuck jumps I play the mental game of turbulence or concussion. The noise from the rotors being so loud that it is hard to hear explosions outside the aircraft. We know we are heading into a hot landing zone and have been told to be ready. But this time is different from all of the other times I have had to make a jump. Even during Operation Cauterize something like this was not imagined.  This time it is a counterstrike and our target is the cloud city of Neighverro, particularly the military leadership there. They still claim to be the Grand Pegasus Enclave, but the Enclave was to protect the Pegasi, not attack them like they have Thunderhead. My goddesses, what they did there. I will never forget watching old stallions, mares and foals having to run for their lives as they evacuated the cloud city as it was attacked by the Neighverro cloud ship squadron. Inside my blood still boils at the horror of it all. I don't even know if any of my family has survived the attack and only pray my husband and foals are alive. Suddenly I hear over my suit radio the jumpmaster call out, “Two minutes out, everypony on your hooves and get ready to move to the door. I fully power up my powerarmor’s spell matrix and watch as my heads-up display comes fully online. Off to the left I see the jump indicator light still reading red. I watch as we get closer to the jump point and the side doors of the Vertibuck slide open and the indicator turns yellow. I watch as suddenly one of the vertibucks in our assault wing takes a direct hit and explodes, I looks like maybe two troopers made it out, mostly I see its wreckage and debris as well as a few lifeless bodies falling to Equus below us. Over my headset I hear, “This is Yellow Taffy one, keep your eyes on the targets bucks and mares. When we jump, form up on me on the move. The vertibucks will be continuing to provide fire support.” I feel the aircraft slow and I know it is almost time. Before I can say anything, I hear the aircraft jumpmaster call out, “Three, Two, One, Jump, Jump, Jump!” I see the jump light flash to green and I advance to the door as those in front of me jump out into the air, they dive down about one hundred feet to clear the aircraft's wake and then they deploy their wings fully. As I leap from the Vertibuck I hear its miniguns open fire and I turn to look, I see a flight of hostile pegasi coming at us. Using my suits EFS I spot where my flight leader is and I begin to glide that way, but I also bring up my Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting system and begin to target the incoming enemy with my dual magical energy weapons. SATS is another holdover from the war that was incorporated into the pegasi power armor. The SATS allows me to target each one and I fire for center mass targets mainly. If I cannot puncture through their armor, perhaps I will be lucky enough to disrupt their suit's spell matrix and knock them out of the sky too. “All Yellow Taffy units, form up asap, engage on the move. We need to blow through them. Do not, I repeat do not get involved in a static engagement.” I hear the others call out their understanding as do I, “Taffy Seven, roger.” As we approach the landing zone, I see several pegasi go down from both sides.  I see Yellow Taffy one land and he starts to direct the others into position as they land behind him. Of the ten on our vertibuck we have lost two already. As I land, I take concealment behind a minor cloud rise and begin to crawl on my belly towards the corner of a building. I look up and I realize we have dropped in the wrong area. Damn it we are in a residential area. We are way short of the military facilities, much less their headquarters. I call out, “Yellow Taffy one, this is Yellow Taffy Seven we are short, I repeat we are short and have landed in a residential area.” In reply I hear, “NO kidding, now keep the airwaves clear except for necessary chatter. Yellow Taffy Three and Yellow Taffy Five, this is Yellow Taffy one, lay down covering fire for me while Yellow Taffy seven, six and myself advance.” I hear their MEW’s rapid firing as I jump up and begin to run forward. I notice that the return fire is not accurate or nearly as heavy here. Then I see that the reason is we are currently engaging members of the Neighvarro police force and some civilians, most likely retired Enclave Military members. That does not mean they are not dangerous though. I then see down an alleyway to the side one of Blue Taffy’s troopers get taken down by a group of them. Sure, a couple of the civilians go down too, but there are way more of them, than us. However, as I run by the alleyway, I still fire a few shots down it to try and help the blues out. I come up to the stairway of a building at the corner of an intersection. As I get ready to take cover the door opens and Taffy One tells me to get inside. I run up the steps and take a position just next to a window so I can cover those behind us. Just after the rest of the team gets inside, I see a vertibuck take a hit from a missile launcher and watch as it crashes through the clouds of the street in flames on its way to the Wastelands below. The spot where it passed through the clouds remaining open so we can see through the cloud deck. I am still staring out the window at the hole in the clouds when I hear movement behind me. I spin around and almost fire by instinct but stop myself in the last second. I am stunned to see a mare with her two young foals crying in a corner behind us. How did they get there? I ask myself. I put a hoof to my muzzle and tell them “Shhh” This gets the Sergeants attention. He turns around, sees the civilians and opens fire on them killing them. I am stunned and horrified. I yell out, “What did you do that for?” I see the smug look on his muzzle as he snidely tells me, “They are Neighvarrioans. After what they did to Thunderhead, they deserve no better. Besides, don’t you realize that those foals would have grown up some day and we would have had to fight them then.” I cannot believe this; I cannot believe what I am seeing or hearing. “But they are pegasi, we swore to protect them.” From my other side I hear my old friend Skyfall tell me, “Buttercup you better listen up and learn quickly, in a civil war they are all targets. Same goes for us. They started it, now they get to reap the rewards.” “But Skyfall, they were only foals!” I try to tell him. He shakes his head at me and says, “No they were enemy offspring that is all. Do you think her husband or her for that matter would have worried about killing your husband or foals? Do you? Do you even know if they are alive, because I am not sure if my wife and my foal are or not? I know my parents aren’t.” We are interrupted when I hear over my suit’s radio, “All Taffy Elements, this is Taffy One. Prepare to advance.” We all move to the door to get ready to move. I turn my head and look at the three lifeless bodies. I feel a tear in my eye and I quietly mouth to them, “I am so sorry.” Then I hear my sergeant yelling, “Move, move, move,” and we are all running out the doors. The remaining Vertibucks are circling above us and laying down covering fire. I see another one get hit, and I watch as it begins to have troubles staying aloft. I see a cloud of smoke begin to come out of one engine and then I see the motor explode. I watch as the pilot leads it on the street and the crew bail out of it, two of them being cut down by enemy fire. We are two blocks further along when we meet the next band of resistance. It is a storefront that has been blown out. Inside I can see vague motions. So, I turn on my EFS and I see four red tags. I am just about to open fire using my SATS when I hear quietly over my radio. “Yellow Taffy Seven form on me, we are going to try and flush them out. Just as I begin to get up, I see several beams from a MEW minigun barely miss me and hit the spot I had been in mere seconds before. I dive forward and am running as fast as I can, zig zagging as I go. I see bolts of fire coming from both in front and behind us. I get to the store front and am laying on my belly below the window frame. I watch as my sergeant takes out a metal apple, pulls the pin and tosses it inside the shop. I hear the sound of it landing on a countertop and the screams of those inside when they see it. However, the screams are cut short by the blast. Be both jump up, run inside and fire at anything that moves. We continue like this for the next hour. We have moved out of the residential section of the town and are at the edge of the military base. I can see several raptor class cloud ships at their docks in the distance. Closer I see Neighvarroian troops deployed to defend the base. There are several smaller clouds scattered around the main entrance that are built up and ponied. Everyone of them showing up as an EFS as a red tic mark. This is so not good. I don’t think there is any way we can win, but we still have to try. I listen to the comments coming over my radio from the other members of my wing that are still alive. The captain of our wing comes over the comms channel and I hear him say, “All Taffy units prepare to advance. Make it a quick strike. Cause as much damage as you can, we will reform below the cloud layer, Good luck and may Celestia bless and Luna defend.” I realize when he says this that he too does not think we can make the mission objective. Our raid has changed from trying to capture or kill the leaders of Neighvarro to simply hoping we can hurt them as much as possible. Then I hear, “Taffy Units forward!” and we all move as quickly as we can forward in a charge. It is then that I notice that the weapons on the Raptors are now hot and we begin to take fire from them as well as the pegasi in power armor. Then I realize that the Vertibucks above us are no longer ours, but they are the Neighvarroian instead, as they too begin to fire at us. I am still running at full speed and leap into the air to clear a defensive cloud outpost when I feel a burning sensation on my right side, and I am knocked out of the air. I call out over the radio, “Yellow Taffy Seven, I am hit bad. I need a medic.” “Roger that Yellow Taffy Seven. We will pick you up as soon as we can.” I hear back. As I look up, I realize they not only knew we were coming, they let us. Before I can say anything, over my radio I hear, “All Taffy Units, this is Taffy One, it’s a trap. Fly for your lives.” I call over my radio, “This is Yellow Taffy Seven, for the Goddesses sake don’t leave me. Please don’t leave me!” I then hear, “Sorry Yellow Taffy Seven, you’re on your own.” I swear it is my sergeant's voice. That bastard. All I can do is watch as my squad and wing mates try to make good their escape, some make it. Most don’t. As I lay there, I feel myself becoming slowly weaker from loss of blood and internal injuries. I am laying on the cloud looking up at the sky when I see four power suits land nearby. I hear one of them say, “Hey sarge look, a prisoner.” I hear another answer back, “You heard what these filthy bastards did. They were killing civilians. The elderly, mares and foals. The captain says no prisoners.” “But Sarge that just don’t seem right.” “Don’t but Sarge me.  Do your duty, Soldier, or do you intend to become a Dashite?” “No Sarge, not me. It’s just…” “It’s just what colt?  It’s war. I don’t care if she was your sister, she is the enemy. You know what we do to the enemy right?” I look up and the sergeant is next to me and he has his MEW pointed at my head. Then he says, “Looks like we got us a civil war now between us and Thunderhead, so that makes them the enemy.” I feel a tear fall from my eye and I think of my husband and foals. I want to say something but I am too weak. I notice that my vision is starting to dim and I hear the one say, “Sarge, she ain’t got too much longer anyways, let’s go.” “Yeah, your right, why waste an energy cell.” As they begin to fly away, I hear one of them say, “May the Goddesses forgive us.” I try to see them, but all I see is a bright light surrounded by darkness which grows as does the coldness in my body. I take a few gasping breaths and finally, I see no more.