//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 
// Story: The Dog Days Are Over 
// by The Prez 
//------------------------------//

The city guard were being slaughtered... that much was obvious. Going toe to toe with a Steel Dog always proved suicidal, even under the best of circumstances. Their armor was nigh impenetrable too, which didn't exactly help anypony fighting them. Huski knew this long before his forces were turned against him but it still appalled him to see it happen.
'If I make it to the Hammer Of Dawn, then even the gods won't be able to save Spark Lens from me...' he growled to himself as Brickfist surveyed the carnage of the station. Steel Dogs were pulling apart an engine in one of the terminals and grinding ponies to pulp.

One of the Steel Dogs turned to see the group and suddenly all of them were closing in, ignoring the ponies they were previously beating on. Brickfist roared at them and charged into them, taking one in a headlock. They started pounding against his armor and jabbing him with massive combat knives but it held long enough for him to launch a roll. Wrecking servos and crushing joints, he rather quickly reduced everything around him to mangled piles of metal. He looked around at the faceless mooks he had dispatched and spat.
'Weak like pups.' Huski moved over to him as the ponies they had saved gathered nearby to regroup and tend to any surviving wounded.
'Nice job, big boy.'
'That's a bloody understatement, that is! You buckin' wrecked 'em!' Featherburn exclaimed.
'More.' Brickfist stated.
'Yeah, come on you lot. We gotta get underneath the Hammer while it's occupied!' Huski told them, running on all fours to the outside. They followed, the Skydogs taking flight. 'Stingbeat, you brought the tools, right?'
'Yeah, boss!' Stingbeat replied over the sounds of battle in the streets, shaking a bag he was carrying.
'Good! Drop it off when we get up there!'
'You got it!'

Encounters with Steel Dog forces were short and brutal, usually with Brickfist coming out on top without breaking a sweat. Occasionally one would get the better of him after he had blazed through its comrades and the Skydogs tore its exposed rear apart. All in all they traveled fairly quickly through the city. They had almost reached the heavily shadowed area underneath the Hammer Of Dawn when a very loud explosion shook the city and its skies. Huski looked up to see a massive ship bearing down on them.
'INCOMING!!!'
Everypony and dog in the area dove for the ground as the ship hit the mountainside, crushing buildings and soldiers mercilessly. The Steel Dogs were largely unperturbed and took ready advantage of the prone soldiers, throwing them about and pulling them apart. One such group of golems bore down on Huski and his boys.
'Toss me the supersaw!' he shouted, and a small chainsaw landed in his waiting paws. He mounted it on his paw and revved it up, ducking under a swing from a Steel Dog. He shoved it up under its chin in an exposed zone, taking the head off in seconds. He laughed triumphantly. Then another one smacked him across the street.

Brickfist had met a match with one of the Steel Dogs, who had him pinned against a wall. Both were trying to strangle the other. Brickfist was having much less success. So instead he applied pressure to the underside of his opponent's helmet until it cracked at the neck and came right off, taking most of the Steel Dog's face with it and allowing Brickfist to breathe again. He did so with gusto and regained his bearing in time to have one of his teeth knocked out by a large metal pipe to the face. It swung again and he caught it, pulling his new foe towards him and wrapping his paws around its head, squeezing it like a lemon. It caved with a satisfying if loud crunch. Picking up the pipe, he tossed it at an approaching Steel Dog, whom it barreled right through, but barely slowed down.

The Skydogs were busy assisting ponies on the ground and helping crewponies out of the crashed ship. The captain of the ship was fending off several Steel Dogs at once. He was almost grappled by one but some of his crew came to his aid. They were eventually pushed off the side of the platform by some powerful magic from his First Mate. They survived the fall, but couldn't escape the pit they were in, having lost the common sense to start digging thanks to their programming.

Huski pushed over another headless (And armless.) Steel Dog, panting from all the action and bludgeoning he had taken.
'They just don't let up...' he mumbled. He whistled over to Brickfist and Stingbeat, who closed in to him. 'Alright look, these bastards will keep swarming this position until the cows come home. If we don't get to Spark Lens soon he'll turn his attention to us. And then we all die. So we're blowing this joint! Stingbeat, lift me! Brickfist, I'll see you on the flip side!' Stingbeat grabbed him by the shoulders and flapped his artificial wings, launching them both into the sky. Brickfist looked for the tallest building and started climbing the rubble to reach it, occasionally reaching out to slap a Steel Dog that followed him.

After several minutes of climbing, he stood at the top, a few hundred meters from the hull of the Hammer Of Dawn. He stood rigid and two jet engines unfolded from his back armor. After a second of charging they activated. He flew up faster than any living creature should be able to endure and smashed right through the bottom of the Hammer, going up through several floors before coming out of the main platforms. The engines sputtered and died from the damage they took on the way through and he tore them off, tossing one of them at an approaching Steel Dog squad, blowing them apart. The other he heaved at a small tower situated at the base of the antenna spire in the center. Most of the guns on the station suddenly shut down as the tower broke apart and collapsed to the deck.


'What the-!' Spark Lens sat upright and started clicking away with his mouse until two screens came up. One showed his control tower collapsing to rubble and the other showed a helmetless Steel Dog that he recognized as Brickfist. He growled a pathetic little growl at this troublesome brute and began assigning everything on the Hammer to his position, oblivious to the Skydog and diamond dog that entered the Hammer through Brickfist's entrance hole.