//------------------------------// // Chapter 13 - Battlefield 4: Siege of Shanghai [Sandcroft] // Story: Luna Plays... // by Chaotic Note //------------------------------// Written by Sandcroft BOOM! The sound of the shot echoed and rebounded across the buildings that stretched up into the sky. Still staring down her scope, Luna watched as the small dot that was her bullet fly straight across the small sliver of ocean that divided the map into two parts. It flew true, and drove itself through the head of an opposing sniper laying down on the building far across from her. Luna grinned as she pulled back the bolt and allowed another bullet to load into the chamber, ready to take out another enemy. The two snipers had been exchanged shots for a few minutes, neither getting the bullet drop degree quite right, as the distance was well over 500 meters. She lifted a hoof up to adjust her scope to zoom to 40x magnification, looking at Flag D, which was under control of the enemy team. She spotted a few enemy support soldiers setting up light machine guns across the roof of the building, preparing to mow down anyone that got near. "Luna! Do you see us?" crackled a voice through her radio. She jumped, forgetting that she had squadmates at all. Reaching a hoof back, she clicked a small button on the radio and checked her minimap. "I see you, Twilight." She shifted her sniper to the left and looked down at a bridge spanning the gap to the center of the map. Looking back in the scope, she saw four familiar ponies, one purple one with a designated marksman rifle waving up at her. "Can we just get a move on? We're about to start losing!" came a more brash voice from the radio. Through the scope, Luna could see a rainbow-maned pegasus with a submachine gun trotting in place impatiently. "Ah don't want to go running in there with no plan, Rainbow. That's just asking to be killed," retorted Applejack, who was laying on the ground, aiming down the sight of a light machine gun. "Well what are we waiting for? Let's just go bring the party to them!" shouted Pinkie Pie through the radio. Luna could see the pink mare load a rocket into an RPG and take aim at the building housing Flag D. "Pinkie, wait!" Twilight began to shout, but Pinkie had already pulled the trigger, sending the rocket flying. The group held still and watched the explosive blaze a path through the sky. It wobbled around in its course, being the hardest weapon to aim in the game, but somehow managed to still impact the building. Five ponies watched in stunned silence as part of a billboard on the building collapsed and formed a makeshift ramp to get up to a ladder to the roof. "Come on! They might not have noticed!" With the words, Rainbow dashed off in a flurry of feathers, heading straight for the building. "How could they not notice!? It was a RPG!" Twilight screamed in frustration to her overconfident friend. Then, in a normal voice, "Luna? Could you make sure she doesn't get blown up?" "Sure thing, Twilight." Luna stood up and folded in the bipod on her sniper. She took a moment to look over it. A SRR-61, with bipod, muzzle brake, ballistic scope (40x), variable zoom (14x), a range finder, and a cool hexagon adaptive camo that changed colors with different maps. It was practically the only gun she ever used, not counting her trusty M1911 classic pistol. She moved down the corner of the building she was on and laid down again, setting up camp a second time. She shot a quick glance to the elevator to make sure her claymore was still there, which it was, then began to readjust her sniper. Aiming through the smoke of the fallen building at the center of the map, the range finder telling her it was 454 meters away from her position. Frowning, she clicked the bullet drop zeroing distance up to 500 meters, making the decision to aim a bit lower than usual to compensate. She zoomed in on the first pony on the rooftop, a large, heavy trooper that had set up his gun on the raised edge of the building to aim down the street. "Alright, squad leader, sniper support is online." Luna grinned into the gun as her crosshairs lined up with the pony in sight. "Thanks Luna. Rainbow Dash! What did I tell you—" the radio cut out as Twilight took her hoof off the button. Looking through the sights, she noticed the stallion suddenly snap his eyes down onto the street approaching the building. Just before he had a chance to tell his teammates that there was a squad launching an attack on their Flag, a bullet whizzed through his head, leaving him slumped over his gun. Not pulling the bolt back on her gun yet, Luna watched as the three or four other ponies on the rooftop suddenly hit the deck in an attempt to make sure they weren't the sniper's next victim. "Alright, girls, I've got their attention. You're good to go for now, but I'll keep an eye out." "You're the best Luna! Keep it up!" shouted Applejack through the radio. Luna risked a moment to see what her squadmates were doing down on the ground. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were rushing towards the building still, running for the large entrance on the side to get up on the second story. In the meantime, Applejack had set up a mortar station while Twilight kept watch with her DMR for anypony that would try to interrupt AJ's bombardment of the building. Luna zoomed out and then back in on the roof. The enemy soldiers had poked their heads up again and were ready to start taking pot-shots at Twilight and Applejack. BANG! Another soldier collapsed with a new hole in his head, courtesy of Luna's rifle. She chuckled as she tugged out the magazine of the gun and loaded in a fresh one. As soon as she looked back down the scope, she noticed that one of the soldiers had turned tail and was trying to make a jump down through the glass panels in the ceiling they were on. "Going so soon?" Luna taunted as she shot him through the barrel, causing his body to fall down and shatter the glass. "Whoa! Luna! Was that you? It almost hit me!" shouted an astonished Rainbow Dash through the radio. "All in a day's work, comrade," Luna said in her best accent, prompting a few giggles to crackle through the radio. She looked back up in her scope to see mortars flying down through the glass panels, courtesy of Applejack's launcher. Luna pulled her head back from the gun and watched as the flag turned neutral, then began to build to blue, signifying Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash's capture. "This is going remarkably smoothly," Luna said as she looked down the gun again, zooming out to the 14x magnification. "If we could keep this up for the rest of the flags, I bet we could—" The words died out in her throat as something large and metal reared up in her vision, filling her sights completely. Luna gasped and stood up, taking in the fact that she was staring directly at a AH-6J Little Bird. And it was not friendly. Reacting quickly, she grabbed her gun and galloped as fast as she could towards the chimneys and AC units near the elevator of the building. She heard the helicopter's blades spin faster as it gained altitude. Then, the guns revved up. Machine gun fire ripped through the air next to her and perforated the roof of the building. She stumbled a bit as she ran, thankfully dodging all the bullets. "Luna! Where'd you go! We're taking fire from the roof again, and enemies are starting to parachute into the building! Pinkie and Dash won't be able to hold out for too long!" came Twilight's voice from the radio. She took cover behind the concrete chimneys, breathing hard. She threw the sniper rifle over her back and unstrapped her pistol, as if it would do any good. Her ears twitched as she heard the sounds of the helicopter fly to the side, then fade out. She let out a sigh, but didn't relax completely. "There's a helicopter on my tail, hold on." Just as the words left her mouth, the metal behemoth appeared again, popping up from below to her right. "Rrgh!" she grunted as she squeezed off a few useless shots at the heavily armored chopper. It's guns revved up again and fired at her, but she ducked behind cover before it had a chance to hit her. She could almost hear the pilot cursing as he flew away again, trying to get in a good position to fire at the elusive mare. Luna leaned her head around the corner and watched as it went below the roof again, disappearing from sight. She was ready to give up and retreat down the elevator, but, just then, an idea hit her. A crazy, stupid idea that she just might be able to pull off. Luna clicked the button on the radio. "Hold on, girls, I've got an idea." "Whatever it is, could you hurry it up! We're taking too much fire over here!" hollered Applejack through the device. Luna ran to the edge of the building, looking down and scanning the surroundings. "Come on, come on," she muttered under her breath as she withdrew her sniper rifle again. Her ears flicked to the side as they picked up the sounds of helicopter blades turning. She snapped her head to the right and watched the aircraft slowly round the corner of the building. Luna brought up her sniper rifle and took aim, quickly punching the zeroing distance back to zero. Her crosshairs lined up with the pony sitting confidently in the cockpit. Luna took a deep breath, and pulled the trigger. BOOM! The bullet shot straight through the supposed bullet-proof glass and tore through the chest of the pony flying the helicopter. Yes! Luna screamed internally as she thanked her good luck. But that was only half the plan. The helicopter slowly began to descend, its rotors coming to a stop quickly with no pilot to force their motion. Luna threw her sniper rifle over her back, took a breath, and leaped off the building. She shot down through the air, aiming directly for the falling aircraft. It tilted over on its side, giving her an open shot for a door. At the last second, she spread her wings open and drastically slowed her descent. Still, she was going fast, and as a result slammed into the cold metal. Shaking off the pain of the impact, she climbed inside the metal machine, threw out the dead pilot, whom she recognized as the sniper she was dueling with earlier, and began to take control of the weapon. She tugged up on the throttle, taking the aircraft out of a steep dive. The rotors kicked back into gear as she pulled out and took off into the sky, aiming directly for the building of Flag D. "Luna!" came a nervous voice from the radio, "Now would be a really good time to help!" Luna cleared the smoke in the center of the map and got a look at what was going on. Applejack and Twilight were holding down a small area partially hidden underneath the bridge, taking and returning fire from a good 5 enemy soldiers on the roof of Flag D. She couldn't see Rainbow and Pinkie, but their arrows on the minimap were hardly moving, besides going back and forth down a hallway in the building. "Need a hoof?" asked Luna, flying into the fray, directly over the heads of Twilight and Applejack. "Yee-haw! Go Luna!" whooped Applejack into the radio. "Luna, someday you will tell us how you managed to steal a helicopter from the enemy, while they were attacking you with it," said an impressed Twilight breathlessly. Luna pushed a few buttons on the console and the guns on the helicopter revved up. The enemies on the rooftop, realizing they were outmatched, scrambled to get off the roof or run back inside the building. But, they were too slow. Whatever ponies Luna didn't catch with the canons were caught in the bulletstorm from Applejack and Twilight's guns down below. When they were finished with the outside of the structure, Luna quickly descended and allowed Twilight and Applejack to climb on board. "Take us up, Luna, directly over the glass panels on the roof." Luna obliged and flew over the roof. "Are you ready AJ?" Twilight looked at the orange mare, who had strapped on a parachute upon entering the aircraft. She nodded her agreement. "Pinkie, Dash? Backup's coming in right now." She shot a nod to Luna, then jumped out the open door of the helicopter, Applejack immediately following suit. Luna watched as they flew down through the glass panels, narrowly missing the sides. Twilight extended her wings and glided to a quick stop, soaring into the destroyed remains of a clothing store. Applejack tugged on the parachute and followed Twilight in, where they met up with Pinkie and Dash. "Alright, girls, let's light 'em up," said Luna into the radio as she took the Little Bird down to look into the side of the building. She fired up the guns as her four squadmates ran out into the open, guns blazing. The few ponies that were left over in the capture area were quickly wiped out as the squadron took over. Luna put down the helicopter and climbed out, strapping C-4 to the underbelly of the weapon just in case anypony on the enemy team tried to reclaim it. She withdrew her pistol and galloped into the badly destroyed building, joining her squadmates in defensive positions around the flagpole. "That was some wicked flying, Luna," Rainbow Dash held out her hoof quickly for a bump from Luna. "Thanks, Rainbow. You did a good job in here with Pinkie." Luna pounded her hoof against Dash's with a smile. The Equestrian flag reached the top of the pole unhindered, as no opposition came to challenge the team of five as they captured the point. "Game," said Luna, looking down as the enemy's respawn ticket counter clicked down to zero. “Over.”