//------------------------------// // War Is Fear Cloaked in Courage // Story: If You Want Peace, Prepare For War // by tranhdxrbntd //------------------------------// Most of the crewmembers of the Dauntless were not frontline soldiers or had done ground operations on foot before. Most of the concepts and squad tactics that they would be using would be a little alien for them. Wilson, the combat engineer, the chief engineer, Blueblood, the sapper, and nine others loaded themselves up with as many grenades as they could fit on their body. Everyone else set themselves up in a position that provided them with a lot of cover and concealment from either brush, trees, or the uneven landscape that they found themselves at. Machine guns and their tripods were setup, soldiers built up a good shooting position, and Rarity found a site where she could overlook the area with a pair of binoculars. Surrounding the Dauntless, centered around the front of the train, flying in the air, were maybe a dozen or so griffons. They were probably in the air to act as scouts. On the ground, maybe another half dozen griffons were walking about. Inside the train, Rarity could see many, many griffons going about. Wilson and the assault team got as close to their target, the front of the train, as they safely could before bunking themselves down. Wilson looked back towards their other half, the "bait" element, and waved. Rarity saw Wilson's wave and waved at Applejack, who was with the machine guns. Applejack saw the wave and tapped a machine gunner on the head. All of the machine guns lit up, spraying the Dauntless and the griffons on foot (paws?). All of the ones on the ground dropped, whether they were hit by gunfire or taking cover. All of the griffons that were airborne immediately disappeared behind the train for cover. Wilson and crew waited as the gunfire intensified. The griffons were starting to return fire. Wilson gripped his KRISS tighter. Everyone in the assault crew were getting antsy or nervous. Applejack and her machine gunners were giving the griffons absolute hell. Wilson got out from where he was hiding. "Let's go!" he screamed as he charged towards the train's engine. Everypony else got out from their hiding spot and followed him. No one from the assault team had fired a shot yet, they didn't want to give away their position. The railroad tracks that the Dauntless sat on created a natural berm area that provided excellent cover and concealment for the griffons. Wilson was at the very front of the assault and as such, he was the first to make it over the railroad tracks and onto the same side that all of the griffons were hiding behind. The instant he made it over, Wilson locked eyes with a griffon and the two of them froze. Then, more griffons noticed Wilson. Wilson then realized what he just did just as some of the griffons quickly tried to get their weapons to bear on him. "Fuck!" he yelled while diving back behind the other side of the railroad tracks. Gunfire went over Wilson's head as he slammed into the earth beneath him. He had been a split second from eating a bullet. Wilson brought up his KRISS and immediately started blindly spraying over the berm, giving them a reason to stay away from him. Even over the gunfire, he could hear the griffons yelling and rushing to form a plan. Beside him, the other members of his assault team started gathering, joining in on exchange of gunfire. Blueblood, one of the first members of the assault team to make it to the rally point, had his carbine out and was watching out for targets of opportunity when Wilson ran up to him and smacked him over the head. "Why aren't you fucking firing?!" Wilson demanded. Blueblood looked around and wasn't able to see anything to shoot at. "I don't see anypony to shoot at!" Wilson, stuck his KRISS up to be able to shoot over the railroad track berm. He sprayed wildly while sweeping his gun left and right. "Doesn't fucking matter. Give em a reason to stay down!" Blueblood blinked a few times, letting that statement stew in his mind for a short moment. He then brought his carbine up to bear and cocked the bolt on it. Blueblood mirrored Wilson's actions and pointed his carbine over the top of the railroad track berm and sprayed it while sweeping it left and right. With someone else providing covering fire, Wilson slung his KRISS and pull out three grenades. He pulled the pin to one of them, waited three seconds before tossing it over the berm. It exploded two seconds later and screams of pain came from the griffons. "Grenade out!" Wilson yelled as loudly as he could. He pulled the pin to the second and third grenades and tossed them over the berm. Blueblood and Wilson watched as four griffons shot up into the air trying to get as much altitude as possible, but it was fruitless as Blueblood quickly had them in his sights and shot em down, one by one. Blueblood froze, staring at the birds falling out of the air. Wings clipped, unable to fly, they impacted the ground hard. Some screamed from the drop, others didn't make any noise other than the obvious sound of smack of meat hitting the dirt. Instead of trying to fly away, a few griffons, in an attempt to get to safety, tried running up over the berm. It was also a fruitless effort as Wilson was waiting for exactly that. After having downed the two griffons, he stood up where he was and exposed himself. No one shot at Wilson as the only ones that remained that were able to shoot back had tried running away from the grenade, successfully doing so but had doomed themselves as they had shifted their focus from shooting at the assault team over to running away from the grenade. They tried to run to new cover, a tree line off in the distance, but were very easy targets for Wilson, being completely out in the open. Wilson downed two of the fleeing griffons before some gunfire erupted from the tree line that the griffons were running towards. Wilson dropped back down behind the berm as bullets whizzed above him. "Fuck!" he yelled out when he hit the hard berm. From there, he could see the frozen form of a still alive FNG Blueblood as well as the other members of the assault team starting to gather around him. Wilson locked eyes with the sapper. "Get to work! We don't have long!" he yelled out. The TNT that they had were split up into three demolition charges and only one had to be set. The sapper obviously carried one of the charges while the other two went to the engineer and Wilson. Wilson took off the demolition charge he was carrying and tossed it to the sapper who moved towards the train's engine, who was being followed by the engineer. The engineer dropped his rifle and the demolition charge he was carrying before lying down on the ground. He looked to the sapper and said, "I'll put a charge underneath the engine, stick one inside the engine compartment." The sapper nodded and set her rifle down before moving up to the side of the engine compartment but then realized something, she was too short to be able to climb up into the train. "..." her face said. She looked at Wilson who was busy shooting over the railroad track berm and at the tree line. She tapped him a few times on the back to get his attention. Wilson stopped firing and looked at the diminutive mare. She pointed at the train's engine. "I can't reach up to the engine, can you help me? You're tall enough!" Wilson, the miniature medic, stopped firing and slung his KRISS. Having been called tall for possibly the first time in his life, he picked up the sapper and held her up to a large open porthole on the train engine's car. The engineer, who was lying on the ground, tossed the demolition charge he was carrying in between the wheels of the train and underneath the engine. When the charge landed with a thud, he crawled in between two of the train's wheels, getting underneath the train. By now, the assault team was taking heat from many different sources. Griffons that were dug-in in the tree line off in the distance were gladly returning fire. Another unfortunate source, griffons that had been inside the train when everything started, had, by now, figured out how to open some firing portholes on the train and were shooting out of them. Fortunately and unfortunately for both the griffons inside the train and the assault team on the ground, the angle of fire, due to the high positioning of the portholes on the already tall train, were so extreme that no one could get an easy shot on each other. "Fuse is lit!" yelled the sapper from inside the train's engine car. Way off in the distance, a pair of griffons flew up into the air carrying red flags and not long afterwards, the griffons that were firing out of the portholes stopped and their weapons disappeared from them. "The fuck?" Wilson yelled out. That was when everyone heard it, a sound that nobody wanted to hear. It was a long drawn out whistle coming from up above. "Incoming! Get the fuck out of here!" Wilson announced. The sapper practically exploded out of the same porthole that she had climbed into, joining the rest of the assault team who had started running back towards the defensive position where Applejack and the machine guns were. Shells rained down from the sky and impacted around the train, doing no damage to it and no members of the assault team, who had evacuated in time. The artillery barrage continued on for five more seconds before it died off, leaving only the sound of machine guns filling the air. Wilson, leading the charge as usual, was the first one to make it to Applejack, Rarity, and the machine guns. Once there, Wilson immediately turned around and found a position to fire from, laying down suppressive fire. He watched as the remaining members of the assault team joined him, one by one. Once he could see that there was no one else left running back, he found where Rarity was and waved at her. Rarity saw the gesture and pulled out a whistle, blowing into it. Hearing the signal, Applejack and the machine gunners started packing up their equipment. The griffons probably thought that they had been trying to retake the train and failed. If so, the griffons would soon be launching a counter attack. It would take them time before they would have a new firing solution to whatever artillery they had so they had to leave quickly. The machine guns would be first, they would take the longest to pack up and leave. With the suppressive fire of the machine guns gone, the griffons, off in the distance, could be seen charging towards where the Equestrian's main defensive position was. By the time the Equestrians had their machine guns packed up and going, the griffons had closed most of the distance and getting a lot of infantry to bear on that defensive position. Wilson, looking at the some of the other members of the assault team, made a throwing motion with his hands. The members of the assault team threw as many grenades as they wanted, having a huge surplus of them. Getting up, Wilson went over to Blueblood. "Is everyone ready to leave?!" Blueblood, looking around at the other members of the assault team, surveying who was there, shook his head. "We're missing the engineer!" Wilson balked before moving over to the sapper. "Where's that coal covered piece of shit?!" he demanded. The sapper looked around and found out that what Wilson had asked was true. The sapper gulped, remember where he was last. She and Wilson looked out from their cover and at the front of the train where the train engine was. By now, that area was teeming with griffons again but they could make out the form of the engineer still lying under the train. The chief engineer, despite being a considerable distance away, waved at the sapper. The sapper, realizing the situation, grabbed Wilson. "We have to go back!" she demanded. Wilson rubbed the back of his neck. "Fuck." There was a whole bunch of griffons in between the assault team and that engineer. They no longer had the support of the machine gun and were probably running low on grenades. "How long was that fuze supposed to last, on the charge you threw in the engine car?" The sapper's eyes went wide and she checked a watch on her forehoof before looking back at the chief engineer in the distance. The sapper recognized the chief engineer shaking his head. The sapper saluted and the chief engineer saluted back. Seconds later, the train exploded. Hot water and steam went in every direction as everyone was unable to hear. Half of the engine's car went airborne while the other cars were destroyed or derailed. Whatever griffons had been trying to advance on them were now dead, wounded, or knocked out. The battlefield was quiet and the assault team stood up looking at the carnage. They walked away, in the direction of the others.