EGZ

by Dustchu

Spitfire I: Channel Five

Becoming a pilot had been Spitfire's dream since she was a kid, learning to fly those big fancy jets her dad always told her about, the big freight planes in the military, the AC-130 Spooky, or the swift fighter jets he flew during the war, like the F-14's or F-15's. Didn't matter much to her, she just wanted to be a damn good pilot, and she spent most of her life training and studying to achieve that goal.

And by god, she fucking did it.

Now in her late twenties, she was in the Equestrian Military's Navy Air Wing, flying a little bit of every aircraft and learning how they worked. She was stationed in Manehattan for a while, before switching over to a specialty unit known as the Wonderbolts at an early age after impressing one of her superiors, and it wasn't long before she found herself in one of the most well-known and most decorated squads in the whole military.

The Wonderbolts.

Nowadays, she spent most of her time flying 'recon missions' over some countries to the far east, when in reality she was keeping terrorism at bay by dropping discreet packages on top of terrorist cell cave systems and small villages. With the new stealth aircraft they had, it wasn't too difficult, especially with how advanced technology had become over the past twenty years, what with drones becoming commonplace and weaponry getting more precise, especially bombs.

Being a pilot, especially one as recognized as she was, had given her a sense of purpose in life. She was protecting her country, her friends, and her family from enemies off their shores. And she couldn't be happier... while she knew she was far from a hero, she knew what she was doing was for the betterment of mankind.

Sadly that didn't translate into her current situation.

A week had passed since the order was given to move out, and she had no idea what was going on. At first, she and her squad had figured it was a drill, but when she left and saw most of Marefolk's navy packing up and every single ship stationed there sailing out to the open sea, she began to wonder what could possibly cause such a massive deployment. Every solder was moving, aircraft was taking off, and the gates to the base had been sealed completely.

She ended up being briefed alongside the others, and what she heard on day zero of the chaos shocked her to her core.

Spitfire could barely comprehend what it was she was hearing, she so badly wanted to ask if this was some kind of joke, but from the images shown on screen, and the look on her commander's face, it told her otherwise.

Spitfire had moved around and Instead of joining her comrades in the air — her jet had been left in the hanger, having been damaged during a routine exercise, she instead was told to fly one of the UH-60s. It was a fine aircraft, with two chainguns on the doors and plenty of room for a fireteam to sit inside, as well as supplies to carry into the battle.

So she took to the air after being loaded up with a fireteam, who were absolutely strapped.

It had been a week since then, and she had watched her home city fall apart around her, watched as buildings burned and her fellow soldiers were being brought down by tidal waves of monsters.

The monsters were infected monsters, former humans acting like feral animals on a bloodthirsty rampage across one of the most densely populated cities in the country. She couldn't believe it at first, but after having flown down low in the city, dropping soldiers and supplies off at various areas, and doing low attack runs and passes by entire hordes had told her all she needed to know.

Manehattan was under siege by a nearly unstoppable horde of monsters.

Manehattan had already fallen in the south, any holdouts or survivors were already devoured or added to the horde itself, which was slowly encroaching north, and were passing block by block in scattered groups around the city. The bridges, during the fourth day, had been completely blocked off with giant walls and gates, and any evacuations through that route had been cut off, and the trains as well had been stopped. The military was doing everything they could to contain the infection.

It didn't seem like enough, and Spitfire could only wonder what in the fresh hell was going to happen next.

It was the seventh day, and military operations had already gone out the window. There was a full retreat being ordered for all forces, and she had seen the ships off the coast forming into a massive fleet, carrying what survivors they had away. But she also saw a couple of cruise ships being utilized to carry survivors, what few that didn't get overrun that was. She saw one get completely swarmed before it could leave port, windows smashed, deck overflowing with monsters, and everyone board...

The ship couldn't handle the weight and soon went down under the water.

Eventually, she had gotten the order to evacuate a squad from a hospital that was being overrun. Unfortunately for her, things didn't exactly work out for her. One of the squad was injured and during the flight towards safety, the soldier...

He turned and bit one of her comrades, and he turned so fast she barely had time to react.

Spitfire was a lucky woman, and she had fired her pistol, killing one and wounding the other as the only surviving member fell out during the chaos.

Sadly for her, she wasn't paying attention.

The helicopter immediately went down over a news station, crashing on the rooftop and damaging her aircraft beyond repair.

Somehow, she survived.

Luckily for her, the area was abandoned for the time being, and she was able to catch her breath.

"Goddamn it." She muttered and gazed out into the streets, this was the first time she had seen the city up close and out of her comfort zone. The buildings were in shambles, the streets were filled with abandoned vehicles, garbage, and bodies... so many bodies, so much blood. A lot of military remnants could be spotted, and not a single soul was left alive.

If they were, they were hidden pretty damn well.

"This is insane, where did they even come from?"

She knew the origin was from the slums, but... the virus itself was a mystery if that was even what it was. No one had any information about who, what, or why. As far as everyone knew, it was some kind of biological terrorist attack on the city, and a damn effective one at that if she had anything to say on the matter.

She shook her head and ran a hand through her fiery hair. "Gotta get airborne, get the fuck out of this city." She touched her radio's broadcast button and hoped someone was listening. "This is Captain Spitfire, my chopper went down in the city. I'm on top of a news station with no support and no safe way through the streets. Any chance of getting a pickup?"

Static filled her radio and her ear, and no one responded after several minutes.

A sigh and she pulled out her handgun again, making sure it was loaded before turning around. Seems she was on her own for the time being, which sucked, but what could she do? Whine and cry about it? She had a mission, and that was to get out of this damn city, whatever it takes.

She moved around the wreckage of the chopper and over to the other side of the building, and...

"Well fuck me running."

In front of her was a news chopper, a fuel line laying nearby, and a few bodies. From the looks of the aircraft, it was in decent enough shape and could probably fly if she was lucky!

She ran over to it and immediately hopped in, being mindful of the bodies lying around her and checking it. At a first glance, everything was in working order, so with a grin, she began flipping switches and buttons to see if it would start. After a few moments of tinkering with everything and she heard the engine rumbling before she strapped herself in and started her take-off procedures. The aircraft took off like a dream, it was a little different than her other one, but this one would serve her well.

As the helicopter took off into the air, she grabbed the headset and tuned into the radio, and tried to find someone to contact.

"This is Captain Spitfire of the Wonderbolts, I crashed my heli but acquired a new one. I am currently airborne at the channel five news station in southeast Manehattan. Is there anyone in this frequency?" She turned the radio's frequency dial carefully, trying to find someone amidst the static. As she hovered, she could hear the rumble of the horde even from above, and it caused her nerves to bundle up in her stomach like an iron weight. Goddamn it, those things are insane.

It didn't take long before she saw the horde, pouring down one of the main roads and crushing anything underneath piles of flailing bodies that were forced forward. It was a wave of just infected monsters, each one screaming and wailing in search of... something, survivors, flesh, anything and everything that moved and wasn't a part of them.

It was terrifying how many there were...

"Bzzzt-crackle-hell-bzzt."

She heard something on the radio and finely tuned it some more as some of the hordes broke off to try and climb up and get her. But she navigated away, climbing up higher and paying no heed to them, instead she focused on the radio. "Hello? Repeat last?"

"Bzzzt-H-hello? Is someone there?"

"I read you! I'm with the military, I'm Captain Spitfire of the Equestrian Naval Wonderbolts. Can I please ask that you state your name and where you are?" The voice sounded younger than she expected, it must have been a survivor who had a radio or something. Maybe holed up somewhere in the city nearby, she wasn't sure how long the range was on this radio.

After some more static and the wailing of the monsters down below, the voice replied.

"My name is Rainbow Dash, I'm near the Manehattan City Bank, a few blocks from the Black Persian Nightclub."

Spitfire knew where that was, and she wondered how difficult it would be to pick her up. If it worked out just right, she might save a few lives today. "Alright, Rainbow. If you can, try and get inside and up top somewhere, I can try and pick you up and we'll both get out of here, sound good?"

"Sounds good to me, I'm gonna try and ge-oh shit! Something's coming! I gotta bolt!" The radio cut out, drowned in static.

Spitfire frowned and looked down, and she saw the horde crowding around below, each one trying to scramble over one another to get up at her. But they couldn't climb up, it wasn't happening anytime soon and she almost laughed.

Regardless, she had a new mission now.

There was someone left in the south part of the city, and heaven be damned if she was going to leave them behind.

With the location of the bank in mind, she navigated her helicopter towards it. She had to do what she could to find them, and get them out... hopefully, she could manage it with no problem.

Author's Note:

It's been a while, but I'm feeling random bursts of inspiration for different stories of mine.

Let's see what else I update.

Comments

[Bronycommander]

very nice! i find the perspective of the military is always interesting for those scenarios, fighting something you never saw before, a seemingly hopeless battle