//------------------------------// // Desert Storm // Story: Wings // by Silent Bob //------------------------------// Months Later The Breaking of the German Siege of Tobruk, North Africa "Oooh bloody-" BAM!.!.! An artillery shell was thrown across a trench, morphing into a titanic explosion a brief second later. Ten soldiers winced inside of it, ducking their heads to the ground as a rain of dirt fell down upon them. "Looks like you were right, Niles!" one of them cried. "I told you they had a fix!" he yelled, as another artillery shell made a crater behind them. "And they expect us to make a charge? Fuck that! I'm not making myself target practice!" another soldier growled. Another soldier narrowed his eyes, him with the distinct feature of wearing a helmet with a sergeant's insignia. "We have our orders. If we stay here we'll be hit eventually." "We're not going to make it to those artillery positions! They're practically in Tobruk!" the third soldier growled. "What about air support? Where's the god damned air support?!" Niles shouted, as the ear-piercing whistle of another round of artillery dropped from above. "Waxed, I bet. The Jerries have fighters everywhere." "Then we should just retreat! Command needs to get their heads out of their asses," Niles cried. "They won't try to hit us if we retreat, right?" "You're bloody right they will," the sergeant retorted. "Which is why we're moving-" Suddenly, the sound no soldier wished to hear silenced him. The cranking of wheels... the growl of a massive engine. The group of soldier's eyes widened as they peered above the trench. A Panzer tank was fast approaching them. "I knew this would be a turkey shoot! I bloody knew it!" the first soldier cried. The sergeant snapped towards him. "For the love of god, pull yourself together Andrew and get your grenades ou-" RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!.!.! "SHIT!" "DOWN!" Behind the soldiers, dirt was kicked into the air as the muzzles of the Panzer's machine guns blared for nearly ten seconds. When they finished, even the high edge of the wooden trench's wall behind them was chipped to pieces. Niles couldn't hold it in any longer. "GOD DAMN YOU, MONTY! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU-" VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!.!.! Suddenly, the soldier's snapped their heads behind them. Out of nowhere came a desert camouflaged Spitfire, streaking down from the skies like a hawk after prey. The familiar sound of artillery shells could be heard, but this time, they were falling ahead of the soldiers. "Fuck yeah! Finally!" Niles cheered. An explosion, though one eerily quieter than most others rocked the trench, followed by a feint sound of an electrical charge. The machine guns of the tanks went silent, as did its engines and treads. The only left to be heard was the thunder of the distant artillery. "Weird, where's the shrapnel?" the sergeant said, lifting an eyebrow as he peered ahead of the trench. The Panzer sat in the desert sands, completely immobile, but completely intact. The shattered remains of a bomb were nearby, but curiously, there seemed to be no crater. The sergeant lifted an eyebrow. "Odd..." Suddenly, the hatch of the Panzer lifted up, and the crew of the tank began to scramble out, all looking like they were ready to punch out every Allied soldier. "Well, don'ts matter hows that tank is not movin'..." a cockey accent proclaimed. "Right," the sergeant nodded. "Take aim and fire when I do." The group of ten soldiers nodded, and each lifted their rifles above the trench, aiming towards the five-German crew. "[German] Surrender!" the sergeant called. Immediately upon hearing this, the crew shouted to each other before turning about and dashing towards the German lines. "Alright then..." the sergeant groaned, his finger beginning to curl around a familiar trigger. However, the sudden sound of a new, and strangely female, voice interrupted him. "Uh - I know you humans love your guns and all, but how about I handle this?" "Who the bloody hell is that-" Suddenly, Rainbow Dash landed in front of the soldiers, her eyes narrowed. However, her mane no longer matched her name. It, along with her fur, were the colors of the desert. "Holy shit!" Niles cried. "Is that-" "Yes, it's the talking pony," the sergeant said, as non-chalant as if he were reporting on the weather. "Ugh, you know how much I hate when people say that? Hello! I'm one of many!" Rainbow Dash said, twirling towards them and rolling her eyes. "Whatever though, you guys stay put, it's time to stretch my wings!" Before the soldiers could react, Rainbow had already turned about and was barreling towards the tank crew. Her flight was silent due to the many cracks of rifles and noise of battle, but naturally, she wasn't one to being sneaky... "Yo, you guys ever see a pegasus before?!" The crew turned their heads at that, and their eyes immediately widened. They shouted to each other a moment in German, before twirling about to face their new adversary as if she were just another Allied soldier. An Allied soldier soaring to them at the speed of a HE-109, kicking up desert dust as she flapped her wings. "Hah, guess not! Shouldn't have listened to that Hitler guy! And you don't even have the defense that he's a good liar!" In response, the crew quickly drew Lugers and brought them to bare. Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Yeah, like that's going to work." With a quick thrust of her body downward, and then a mighty flap of wings, a magnificent cloud of dust was sent careening up all around her nearly twelve feet wide. Three German soldiers took a shot right as it formed, though the other two held steady. Three bullets whizzed even faster than Rainbow before soaring through the cloud. Though no expected scream was heard... at least, not the one they were after. "RAUUUUUGHHH!" Rainbow suddenly twirled out of the top of the cloud, releasing a battle cry as she twisted and twirled in the wind. She glanced at the German's Lugers as she did so, her keen reflexes allowing her to anticipate the firing solution of the two who had not fired shots. BAM!.!.! She twirled to the right, two bullets whizzing by her. The other Germans began to re-aim, but by the time they could bring her to bare- "Think fast!" Rainbow grinned, before sending a hoof into a German's stomach with enough force to send him, snarling, into the desert's sand. Rainbow was upon him like lightning, smacking the pistol out of his hands before slamming his head into the sand. He quickly went limp, though he seemed to still be breathing. The other Germans, in the meantime, pivoted to face her, the barrels of their pistols trained upon her. Rainbow grunted, before flapping her wings forward and kicking up a multitude of dust at them. The soldiers howled in rage at this, clearly blinded, as Rainbow roared forward. "One..." Rainbow kicked out a German's legs from under him before slapping away his pistol. "Two..." She then darted to the right, punching a recovering soldier in the groin before pushing him to the ground. "AAAAGHHH!" His cry seemed to alert the other two Germans, and though their eyes were shut and dripping with tears, they quickly turned towards her. Rainbow's eyes widened, and thinking quickly, she immediately jetted to the ground, lying on the desert soil as the Germans sent two rounds above her. At that, she got to her hooves, and using her wings and hooves combined ripped towards the remaining duo, snatching their pistols away from them before sending them into the dirt. Rainbow took a deep breath at this, glancing about her to make sure no other threats were available, before turning back towards the trench. All ten of the the soldiers were watching her with stunned expressions. "Yes, I know, five German soldiers with pistols versus one little ole' talking pony. Didn't stand a chance. Not bad, huh?" she said, grinning. "But don't you guys have some prisoners to be taking?" "Uh... right!" the sergeant called, before signalling his men to move forward. They quickly surrounded the quintet of Jerries, their rifles trained on them. Most were barely recovering, and the ones who had gotten to their feet were now closing their eyes in shame. "Man, these are some weird looking guns they have. Really boxy and stuff," Rainbow mused, curiously examining the Luger. "They're called pistols, right?" "That's right, but those in particular are called Lugers," Niles smiled towards her. "Oh, duh!" Rainbow chuckled. "Sorry, I'm still in Weapon Terms 101." "Is nobody going to address that a mythological creature just captured us five prisoners?" Andrew said, lifting an eyebrow. "We'll talk about it later," the sergeant sighed, before narrowing his eyes at the prisoners. [Germans] "You five, follow them." He pointed towards two of his soldiers, who nodded before directing the Germans back towards their trench line. Suddenly, a high-pitch whistle cried from the heavens again, causing even an ear-plug sporting Rainbow to flinch. "Oh crap, everyone down, NOW!" the sergeant shouted, the entire party, even the Germans, complying. He then turned his head towards Rainbow, who had also dived into the sand. "Those batteries have been hounding us all fucking day. Killed two of my men." "Sorry to hear that," Rainbow sighed, before smirking slightly. "But their deaths won't be in vain." Before the sergeant could even respond, she was gone: a tan dot sailing upwards. The Spitfire from earlier, which had been circling the area, quickly moved towards her. "Alright Tom, follow the painted pony!" Rainbow called, wincing in annoyance, before glancing at her tan coated self. "And I swear to god, if you lied to me about this stuff being permanent..." Halting, and putting aside her disgruntlement and the annoying feel of the paint on her coat, she signaled for Tom to follow her before twirling about and careening towards the German lines. There were multitudes of trenches, some near the town of Tobruk, where Rainbow was aware a batallion of British soldiers were making due against a tremendous siege, and some closer to the British lines. Tanks and tiny dots that were soldiers were moving about them, and muzzle flashes and tracer fire flew sporadically about. However, Rainbow quickly put everything going on below out of her mind and fixed her glance upon the two pieces of artillery trained towards the ten British soldiers below. However, they were not alone... Two small flak guns quickly twirled about, aiming towards Tom's Spitfire. She glanced back at him with a worried look, knowing full well what they were capable of. Soon, streaks of light soared by her, exploding into brilliant balls of black all about, as if they planned to block out the blue sky above. Tom rolled to the side, and the guns began to turn, their crews frantically reloading as their commander, in a panicked tone, cried: [German] "Faster! Faster! Reload!" Suddenly, he felt a tap on his shoulder. "Uh... sorry to interrupt, but it's not the plane you should be worried about." CRACK!.!.! The commander flew backwards, blood dripping out of a broken nose. However, at the same time the flak crew finished loading, they turned towards Rainbow. They quickly let out gasps of horror and awe, and froze in place. Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I know, this paint job sucks!" Rainbow growled, before thinking a brief second, smiling, and calling: [German] "Surrender!" The gun crew, still stunned, blinked to themselves, before slowly drawing their weapons and placing them on the ground. Rainbow sighed in relief, though her eyes quickly widened. Two had refused to comply... those mounting the guns. They moved to fire at the approaching Spitfire... Needless to say, Rainbow was not happy. "You know, if there's one thing I've learned about you Nazis..." SNAP!.!.! The arm of one was twisted, broken, as the owner let out a tremendous shriek. "It's that you break easily." CRACK!.!.! Another's head was smashed into the structure of the flak cannon, before falling, a second later, to the ground. Rainbow took a deep breath, before glancing up at the Spitfire that was now free to barrel downward towards the artillery cannons. She quickly gave a sarcastic salute. "From Torchwood with love, baby." At that, two bombs sailed to the ground from the plane, though as Rainbow observed, they gave no explosion... no sign that they were even 'bombs' at all. All that could be heard was something that sounded like an electrical discharge. A second later, the guns went silent. Sergeant Timothy Blake nodded his head as his group began to rise to their feet. "I'm still not sure I want to believe what just happened..." Andrew said, shaking his head disbelief. "I thought the whole thing about the Pegasus was barmey..." "Well, you should start believing in the unbelievable then," Sergeant Blake said in a serious tone. "It's the one thing bring this whole thing to an end..." Two blue eyes watched in the distance under a black hood. Another figure stood by him. "It's been nearly a year... and as I predicted, this war will carry on and on... too much blood has been shed for any of them to, what's the term? 'Let it slide'? Neither side is heroic... both have done horrible deeds, yet both seem to think they're in the right." He turned towards the figure. "It's a flaw of human nature... they do not like to question themselves. They are chaotic... and you and I both know, with the rate technology is increasing, these wars will only become deadlier. It's time to bring order to the chaos." "They won't come with you peacefully, you know. I'll tell them what you have planned," Arty said. "Will you try to stop me if I decide to take them by force, brother?" "Unless you do a little 'questioning' of your own, it will come down to that." "After all I've done for you..." Arty gave a glare. "Oh, you mean this, huh? I never asked, you know." He tugged at a glowing blue crystal hanging around his neck. "You were dying... there was no other way." "And I wanted it! I wanted to talk with God..." "God," the blue-eyed figure chuckled. "After all these years..." Arty gave a grunt. "Seeing... is believing." "Of course. Though see what's before you... there is no God. And if there is, 'he' hates both worlds. Meeting him would have been worse than dying..." "We both know that immortality didn't come for my sake. It came for yours. 'Emotions always cloud judgement. Emotions are the root of chaos... of war.' Face it, you couldn't allow yourself to face my death, because it would make you face what you yourself have burried." The blue-eyed figure remained silent. "And I think you're wrong. Look at them... Tom, a being of vengeance, fighting with non-lethal weaponry..." "Hah. Torchwood didn't supply it out of the kindness of their hearts. Jack Harkness is more than he appears. Quite a few tanks lying around to be... 'borrowed'." "And Rainbow Dash doing the same, just for the sake of wanting to protect her friend." "Exceptions. Nothing more," the brother grunted. "Why is it that you think they're using that weaponry? To break the so-called 'cycle of hatred'. They hate war just as much as I do. As you do." He turned back towards the battlefield, relaxing his voice. "And if I were to explain my plan in detail, I bet they'd come peacefully."