(Are Over)
She kept advancing cautiously, ears raised and body poised. Her eyes were of comparatively little use thanks to the thick, acrid smoke surrounding her. The only thing that made the slight burn in her nostrils bearable was thinking about how the ones she hunted would be having it tenfold worse once they deigned to emerge. The mare stopped as she felt the ground below her hooves gently rumble, then slowly lowered her ear to the ground. They were getting closer. She felt a surge of confidence and kept moving, a smirk spreading across her face at the prospect of seeing their big dumb faces when they realized their attempt at surprise had been-
Something punched her entire side and her hooves lost track of where the ground was. She slammed into something solid and then felt her gut lurch briefly as she fell to the ground. Her ears were buzzing and she was simultaneously hit with a wave of panic and the complete inability to make herself do anything about it.
Something grabbed her leg. She kicked reflexively to get it away before it grabbed her again with a tighter grip and started dragging her. Her limbs flailed weakly as the ringing in her ears slowly began to form into muted bursts of sound all around her as she continued failing to stop her captor. As her senses gradually returned, she aimed a more accurate kick with her back leg that actually connected. Something climbed on top of her and struck the side of her helm, sending a clanging shock wave of noise through her skull before it pulled her head upward.
Someone...no, somepony was yelling at her. When she proved unresponsive another inquisitive tap rattled through her head to pull her closer to reality.
“You still with us guardian?!”
“W-what?” she muttered while still in a daze.
The daze wore off rather quickly, replaced with anger when a third tap rattled her helmet.
“I said-”
“I'm here I'm here!” she yelled back to get her support unicorn to knock it off. “What the buck just happened?!” she asked, shouting over the gunfire.
“Breach charge went off right next to you and threw you into the wall of the trench! Dusty opened up on them and I dragged you back before they could rip your throat out!” the unicorn answered whilst magically reforming the dents in her armor and making sure the Trencher and sword attached to the mare's sides were in working order after having weathered that blast. “Hold still a second!”
She did as she was told, looking over at the other two ponies in her squad now using their Sunglaive assault rifles to return fire on the armored bipedal figures emerging into the trench and retreating back around a corner for cover. One of them caught a bullet in their arm, yelping as the limb went limp then letting out an enraged growl as they handed their weapon off to one of their pack-mates and used their newly freed arm to resume firing with a sidearm.
“You okay Crash?!” Sergeant Dusty called back whilst the ever busy support unicorn started levitating a new strip of bullets into her rifle.
“Yeah!”
“Good, as soon as Blue has you patched up get that Trencher over the top and blindside 'em! The listening post was right, they're trying to dig around and flank our line!” she exclaimed before resuming covering fire once the strip of bullets had been magically fed into the magazine. It did not come a moment too soon either as their fourth squad mate let fly an obscenity, buckling beneath his own weight as a well aimed round tore through his leg with an explosion of gore. Blue grimaced and bounded back into action, leaving Crash to get back to her hooves and scramble up and over the trench wall into the blinding smoke screen above.
There was no need to be slow and quiet. Despite the enemy's extraordinary hearing, the sound of her armor shifting and her hooves hitting the grass would not be heard over all the gunfire. She kept her head low and quickly galloped in the general direction of the enemy shots until she was able to hear them shouting to one another over the ballistic cacophony.
“But you're bleeding!”
“Sear it shut and get back to shooting! They'll send that Trench-gunner to drop in on us if we let them!”
If they were expecting visitors she would be best served by hitting them hard and fast before they could react. There was no time to try another angle anyway. It sounded like they were still trying to keep her three other squad mates good and pinned to their spot. This pack had them outgunned three to one and her squad could not survive a lengthy gunfight. She made sure the trigger bit was secure in her teeth before leaping back into the trench.
The commanding dog that they had managed to hit in the arm was in the middle of shoving their medic away and turned just in time for the first shot of Crash's trench gun to take off the side of his face. She lost no momentum, hearing the clock work of her armor rack in the next round as she took another couple quick strides before the medic caught the next shot in the torso while trying to draw a bead on her. The scatter shot punched a massive blood drenched hole through her armor, making her double over and hit the dirt. By that point the two rifle wielding dogs in front had turned on her, which was a good thing as far as Crash was concerned since they were no longer shooting at the rest of her squad.
She had time to get another shot off but it hit the front-most dog off center, causing a bit of damage but not putting him down. Knowing there would not be time enough to get off the next shot before they opened fire, she dove forward and rolled, feeling a couple bullets put worryingly large dents in her armor as the rest whizzed overhead. When her hooves were back on the ground she was close enough to make missing quite nearly impossible. Her trench gun's muzzle deflected a jab from the dog's bayonet before another thunderous point blank blast nearly cut him in half and covered the two remaining combatants with his blood. She then threw herself against the opposite wall out of the path of the last dog's fire and aimed her second to last trencher round a bit higher. The snout of his helmet caved inward, suddenly perforated with a plethora of small holes as the skull inside was pulverized. He crumpled to the dirt, limbs twitching erratically. The ground beneath her then quaked with the detonation of a burrow buster charge, no doubt tossed into the pack's entry breach by Dusty.
The wind started to kick up, and she looked upward, quietly lamenting their lack of ability to safely get a weather crew up in the air to keep the smoke screen from dissipating. It was the only thing forcing the dogs to come to them.
And then a dog came to her.
The Trencher at her side was suddenly wrenched out of position with a metallic snap, damaged to the point where the trigger bit in her mouth could no longer fire it. She reflexively whirled around to slash with her sword only to have an enraged paw grab hold of the blade, completely apathetic to the grievous wound in caused.
It was their commanding dog, looking intent on snuffing her despite having only one arm and apparently just enough of his face to keep going. Before she could pull the blade away he ducked low and slammed into her with his damaged shoulder, carrying her up off the ground and pushing her into the trench wall to knock the wind out of her. He then grabbed her leg and heaved her up and over his head, slamming her back into the dirt. Before she could recover he planted his two metal clad paws on her weapons, pinning her down and making sure she couldn't use either gun or blade to defend herself, leaving him free to wrap his clawed hand around the mail armored neck and squeeze with all his might.
She struggled as best she could, but the dogs had always been better up close and personal. The image of his half mutilated face, his empty eye socket, his half blasted off jaw, his exposed teeth, and his hanging buckshot ravaged tongue was starting to fade as she went longer and longer without dearly needed air. The dog choking the life out of her was interrupted by gunshots from behind, jerking forward as the first two damaged his armor and then arching his back in agony as the next three punched through his rib cage and dented the front of his chest plate outward.
“Get off her, fleabag!” Dusty bellowed as she drove her sword through his neck and then wrenched the hilt forward, snapping his spine as though the bullets in his chest and and blade through his throat had not gotten the point across sufficiently. She pulled her weapon free and kicked his motionless corpse off of her squad mate who was gasping and coughing to catch her breath. “For buck's sake that one just would not die!” she observed as she helped Crash back to her hooves.
“Is Kicker alright?” she asked while still panting for air.
“Blue Mercy says he'll live, and we stopped the flanking maneuver so I'd say we pretty much won this one!” Dusty proclaimed triumphantly.
“But why would they just send one pack to outflank all of us?!”
Seven additional breach charges then went off along the trench ahead of them, leaving enormous holes out of which poured way too many dogs for a single squad with only one working rifle to possibly repel.
“Damn it Crash!” Dusty swore as she and her squad mate both pulled burrow buster charges off the straps on their side, armed, and tossed them in the general direction of two of the holes. If they did not seal them up they would at least keep the dogs from charging right at them for a few precious seconds.
“What's wrong?!” the support unicorn asked as they both rounded the corner at a dead gallop. She had Kicker on her back, the wounded stallion unable to walk on his own with his shot up leg.
“You hear seven breach charges go off and ask what's wrong?!” Dusty snarled as she galloped past. The order to follow her in retreat did not really have to be said aloud.
“Tell me you at least called for backup!” Crash asked Dusty with some concern.
“I thought we had it handled!” their sergeant replied defensively.
“You are so lucky I had Kicker call it in while I was fixing his leg up!” Blue scolded shortly before several more squads of guardians emerged from the steadily dwindling smoke ahead.
“I could kiss you!” Dusty said overjoyed as she turned to join them.
“Don't do me any favors!” the unicorn shot back with a sour look on her face, apparently not finding the idea very appealing.
“I wasn't talking to you!”
Blue blinked, and then looked up to the injured stallion on her back who gave a pained chuckle and shrugged his shoulders.
“Hey! My gun's broken!” Crash said as she stopped one of the other support unicorns from another squad. Blue was probably busy enough carrying Kicker to safety.
“Give me five seconds!” He motioned to his passing squad mates who acknowledged his brief absence before he set to work disengaging the Trencher module on the mare's side. “I don't have any Trenchers to replace this one so you'll have to settle for a Sunglaive!”
“Good enough!” she assured him as he levitated a rifle module into position and locked it into place then loaded her up with ammo and gave her flank a tap to signal she was good to go before galloping off to join his squad.
Crash followed suit, galloping back toward the danger before she heard the dogs start firing in their direction with a bullet whizzing by dangerously close to her ear. She lowered her stance immediately.
“Get down!” she heard Dusty yell ahead. Once she caught up she saw her fellow guardian ponies set up in firing positions behind portable metal barriers that some of the support unicorns had been carrying. They were layered two ranks deep, shooting at the shape of anything that stood on two legs in the smoke. When one rank needed to reload the next rank would stand up and take over, resulting in a continuous stream of gunfire to answer the bullets being lobbed at them. Crash jumped up and joined the edge of the formation that was at the top of the trench where they would have superior line of sight and be in a better position to pick off any dogs that tried flanking from no mare's land. Sergeant Dusty was next to her in the line, below her against the wall of the trench.
They held steady, tensions rising as enemy bullets inevitably connected with them, several of their own lifelessly hitting the dirt in deathly silence with dogs managing to get closer and closer whilst ammunition steadily dwindled. But as Crash was somewhat shakily exhausting the last half of her final strip of bullets, a distant howl signaled the canine retreat and left their section of the battlefield suddenly unnervingly quiet. After a couple tense minutes spent expecting the worst with the wind blowing overhead, audible sighs started sounding among the ranks. Finally, Dusty brought a hoof up to the side of her helm, activating the internal messenger shard near her ear.
“The southrn flank is secure, repeat, southern flank is secure. Standing by for possible counter attack.”
She listened to the reply, brow furrowing briefly with displeasure. “Acknowledged, returning guardians to front.” She lowered her hoof and turned to relay orders to the rest of the assembled ponies. “Squads Gamma, Hotel, Juliet, and Tango are to resupply and head back to the front on the double. Everypony else is to stay here until the listening post can confirm they aren't making another stab at this!”
There were scattered acknowledgments before the requested squads departed for the forward staging area for more ammunition.
“Delta squad wins another one huh?” Crash commented smugly from atop the side of the trench, looking upward at the newly visible patches of sky.
“Looks like it. They tried this from the north too. If we hadn't held them back here they would've encircled the main force,” Dusty replied as Crash offered a helping hoof up. She accepted and the lower ranked mare helped her commanding guardian up to stand with her. “So then, hoof bump?”
“Well I didn't help you up here for a hug,” she chuckled in reply as she offered up her metal clad hoof, a gesture which was promptly accepted by her sister in arms.
There was a single whizzing noise followed immediately by a metallic ping as the side of Dusty's helmet exploded. She collapsed on the spot leaving Crash standing there in shock with her friend's blood covering her armor. It was a few more seconds before the sound of a distant shot that had finally reached her broke her out of it. She turned to see a distant ridge line from which the smoke was no longer concealing them. A slim figure in red armor was already leaping away at the end of a dissipating vapor trail. Her eyes then fell to her friend lying there motionless in the grass, blood rapidly pooling beneath her head. The mare's legs quivered and she fell to a sitting position, her sight growing blurred.
“H...hey...Dusty...” Her hoof reached out and shook her shoulder. “Come on...Lightning Dust come on...” she begged as her voice cracked.
She was tackled to the ground by another stallion who hastily dragged her back into the trench as Blue used her levitation to do the same with Dusty.
“What the buck were you doing just standing there?!” the stallion berated her.
“I don't...I don't know I...” She caught sight of Blue and pushed the stallion aside. “Blue she's...she's okay right? The bullet just grazed her skull and knocked her out...she's fine isn't she? I mean why levitate her back in here if she's dead?!” she asked with mounting desperation.
“Crash...we needed to get her emblem, weapons, and ammo. She's gone. We'll come back to get her after things calm-”
“How do you know?! You didn't even try yet! Do you care about her at all or am I the only one?!” she shouted, pinning Blue to the wall in a surge of anger that was only defused when the older, more weathered unicorn mare pushed her away with a strong magical pulse.
“Everything in that helmet from the jaw up is liquid, Crash. If she were still alive right now, anypony that cared even a little bit about her would be doing everything in their power to kill her. Do you understand?! I'm not going to sit here and play along with you when I can be helping ponies that still have a pulse. So go ahead and blame me all you bucking like for not saving her if it suits you, I can't afford to care!” Her horn lit up, unlatching Dusty's cuirass and retrieving the emblem from around her neck. It bore the symbol of a bolt of lightning and three stars. She then detached her rifle and extracted the ammunition, adding it all to her stock before pausing and looking at the other ponies killed in action while holding their position. She let out a single shuddering sob, and walked away muttering to herself about Celestia forsaken dogs.
The bereft mare stared after her, and then looked down at her close friend's remains. Her hoof reached out but could not seem to bridge the the last couple inches between itself and Dusty's shoulder. It remained there, trembling more and more with each passing moment until a choked sob gave way to a scream of anguish. The hoof planted itself in the ground before she bucked out with both rear legs and struck at the wall behind her. Then she did it again. After the second buck came a third, and a fourth. The lashing out did nothing to lessen the feeling of barbed wire clamping down upon her heart. The only feeling that changed was a fire that started smoldering inside of her that demanded she do something, anything, now!
It was not fair. If Dusty had to die it should have been in a worthy last stand. But she had instead been coldly flicked out of existence. But in spite of the way she burned inside there was that rational voice in her head telling her that she was not special for this. She was surrounded by ponies who had watched dear friends die in ways just as unfair and trivial. But the thought was doing nothing to calm her. No matter how hard she looked she could not find within herself the resigned numbness that was keeping everypony else composed. It only grew worse. She stood there trembling, teeth clenched, eyes burning. She had no idea what to do as the pressure built but it did not keep the dam from bursting.
“What do we do then, huh?!” she shouted as she turned and started for the nearest pony, who just so happened to be the stallion that had tackled her, a corporal judging from the symbol on his shoulder.
“We have orders to stay here and guard the east flank, and that's what we're going to do.” His voice was not lacking in sympathy for the obviously distraught mare in front of him, but neither was it lacking in conviction.
“While that sniper on the ridge keeps taking shots at our ponies?!”
“The captain already knows about the sniper, private. She'll make the call. You're not any use to us sitting here screaming instead of keeping an eye out, so save that anger for the next group of dogs we fight,” he answered before turning and putting a hoof to the side of his helmet, listening intently to a voice in his ear.
“Hey, you're right! I should save it for the next dog I see! But forget staying here and doing nothing!”
She sat and violently tore open the safety cover on the side of her cuirass.
“Forget waiting for the captain to figure it out!”
Her hoof twisted the handle hidden beneath, and well protected gears turned in her armor to unlatch two armor panels on her back.
“Forget letting that mongrel kill anypony else!”
A pair of cyan wings pushed them out of their setting, sending them falling to the ground at her sides. She stretched them out with an audible groan in obvious preparation to take off.
“And forget you!”
The stallion called after her, but she was not in the mood to listen. It took half a second for her to break through the top of the smoke screen cloud, and another half second for her now hyper aware eyes to spot the flashes of movement of a sniper relocating with uncommon speed along the ridge. But before she could make a beeline straight for her friend's killer, a bullet put a dent in her right front leg plate while several more whizzed past her.
As it turned out, silhouetting oneself against the clear blue sky whilst the enemy had a dearth of other clear targets was not the most tactically sound of actions.
While shaking the soreness out of her foreleg she banked and started making sharp, quick maneuvers as bullets fired from the dog's entrenched rear ranks streamed up at her, seeking the suddenly available easy prey. It would be impossible to dodge individual shots so she had no choice but to keep moving as randomly and erratically as she could manage and hope for the best as she tried to get another bead on that sniper. What she noticed first though was dogs moving heavy ordnance down the hill, within range of their defensive line. She did not know how they had managed to sneak in such hardware right under their noses but if the ponies below could not push their position in the next few minutes they would be machine gunned and shelled into a complete rout.
The dogs were unfortunate in that the absolute worst pony for their situation was both aware and in the air.
“Okay, okay you bucking fleabags, I got something for ya!” she yelled as she pulled upward and disappeared into the cloud layer above.
Meanwhile the sniper cursed her company's lack of focus as they fired potshots at such a small, unthreatening target, but at least the distraction that idiot pony had caused had guaranteed nopony in the equine platoon below would have noticed her relocation. She was now prone at her new spot, gazing into the dissipating smoke below trying to pick out another target through her scope. The equines had apparently run out of smoke charges and now that the wind had picked up she was making use of such a prime opportunity to instill panic among their ranks. Her latest kill was the sixth pony to fall to her Farsight rifle in the last ten minutes, soon to be joined by a seventh as she spied more movement through the smoke.
But something altogether more interesting caught her attention. Without the deafening gunfire her ears twitched as she heard a curious sound from far above the cloud layer. It sounded like something cutting through the air at extreme speeds, but that alone failed to describe what she was hearing. There was something else to it, something unnatural, like a building force. Then that same unthreatening target pierced the clouds trailing a cone of distortion as she streaked through the air aiming right at the dogs under her command below.
The lithe gray coated hound rose to a knee and quickly tracked the rapidly moving target. She was not exactly wracked with worry, but concerned enough to nip whatever was about to happen in the bud. Performing a lightning quick subconscious calculation, she placed the cross-hairs at a very particular distance ahead of the target and fired.
Crash felt the barrier starting to push back and unleashed another surge of energy as she realized how close she was to piercing it. Bullets were whizzing past her by the dozens, the gunshots below sounding extremely distorted to her at such speeds. None of them were even close to hitting her though, save for one that managed pierce through her ear from a completely different angle. It did nothing to break her focus. Her one concern in all the world at that moment was breaking through at just the right altitude, letting out an enraged battle cry as she pushed herself just that little bit further.
Every other sound on the battle field was suddenly overwhelmed by a single cataclysmic boom accompanied by a bright multicolored explosion that sent out a shock wave large enough to kick up an ominous mushroom shaped cloud.
The sniper on the ridge had been blinded by the flash for a few seconds, her shot having just barely missed punching through the pegasus pony's skull. When she was able to see again she was briefly struck dumb by the sight before her as she tried to comprehend the sheer devastation that one pony had managed to inflict upon her pack. Had that pegasus been some kind of suicide bomber?
By the time she spotted the rainbow streak leading out of the base of the mushroom cloud an armor clad hoof traveling at near super sonic speed was already five feet from taking her head clean off. Without time to consider anything else she flung herself to the side as the pony sized speeding bullet missed her by near inches, and with her balance already compromised the following pressure wave of air was enough to knock her off the edge.
“I'LL KILL YOU!!!” came Crash's strained, distorted voice as the sound waves she was outpacing finally caught up with the dog she'd just knocked off the ridge.
A flick of the hound's arm sent her anchor hook firing from its place on her forearm with enough force to pierce into the rock and form a solid connection. Her fall was redirected into a swing back upward into the air, and at the apex of her arc she yanked the cable to dislodge the hook, taking a moment to look up and see Crash banking back for another pass before she landed. Once her paws were back on the ground she whirled around, fell to all fours, and took off like a shot back toward her platoon as she heard the Equestrian guns come back to life, punctuated by the yelps and cries of her remaining dogs being swiftly killed off as the enemy advanced on the hill.
“No!” she cried out as she poured every ounce of energy into her efforts to try to get there and save even just a single dog! But it was useless. She was the fastest creature she had ever known and the damn flying prey creature was still gaining on her handily. The best she could do for her fallen brethren was to bring a swift death to the pegasus that had ended them.
She made a small leap, turning to face her target and getting her back legs beneath her again. Her velocity carried her a fair distance further, her stance remaining steady as she skidded along the dirt locking eyes with the distant pegasus that would be upon her in a scant few seconds. Before her target disappeared behind the cloud of dust that her emergency stop had kicked up, she saw the glint of a sword being readied.
“You, kill me?! That's not how this works, equine filth!”
Crash shot out of the dust cloud, sword aimed and ready to impale the gray hound.
To her horror the dust had hidden the fact that said hound had already drawn her sidearm and stepped aside. She'd even made sure to pick the side without a blade to threaten her, and was aiming at the exact level that Crash's head would be when she zipped past.
That split fraction of a second's recognition was followed by a single gunshot. Crash veered off course spinning wildly out of control until a tree stopped her, the force of the impact partially uprooting it before it fell to the ground behind her. Having weathered many similar crashes with no armor to speak of, she was able to recover her wits quickly and rip off the helm that was crushing the side of her head, letting her ragged rainbow mane fall free. The bullet from the sniper's sidearm had not been able to pierce the helm with a single shot, unlike the Farsight rifle that Crash saw the hound pulling off her back through the blood streaming out of the gash on her head.
The sniper was caught off guard by how quickly the pegasus recovered and abandoned the attempt to put a Farsight round through her skull when bullets from the mare's own Sunglaive rifle started pinging off her armor. She emptied the rest of her pistol's magazine with one hand to throw off her quarry's aim whilst reaching for one of the hooked throwing axes on her belt and tossing it just slightly askew of the mare's chest. It spun through the air and lodged itself in the joint between weapon and armor, cutting off control and silencing the rifle.
“Are you serious?!” Crash swore, briefly glancing back at yet another broken weapon before the sound of the predator making a move for her while drawing a knife snapped her back to the present. She turned slightly, putting her guard up with sword front and center.
The slim armored hound stopped, knife in hand, eyes locked with her quarry. Regardless of their difference in strength, a blade was still a blade, and a moment's misstep would still let the equine plunge it through a gap in her armor and into her delicate flesh. Rushing in recklessly against her guarded stance was a poor idea.
“You killed the only friend I knew I still had!” Crash seethed tearfully at her while still holding her position, likewise hesitant to charge in.
“And you just killed every dog under my command,” the dog replied calmly while narrowing her eyes, “but what of it? We're soldiers. I don't blame you for doing it, but I will kill you for it.”
…
“Hold on, I killed your friend just now?” Her eyes widened briefly before she relaxed her stance and started to laugh.
“What is so bucking funny?!”
“You were that pony standing outside the trench weren't you?” she asked with a sharp toothed smirk.
“What about it?!”
“I had you in my crosshairs...but then you pulled a higher ranking target out of the trench for me!”
Crash's face went blank as an icy dagger punched through her heart.
“I should thank you for letting me spend that bullet more efficiently, seems trading her life for your own worked out for both of us,” the sniper said mockingly.
The mare completely lost control of herself and lunged at the dog with a flap of her powerful wings, screaming with fury, sword aimed for her neck!
It was then that she found out the hound's stance only appeared relaxed. Quick as a flash she plucked the other throwing axe off her belt and caught the encroaching sword beneath the hook shaped blade to draw it off course and pull the mare upward. Her other hand shot up and stabbed her knife into the pony's gut through the segmented plates around her waist, then took a step forward and and slammed her back into the ground before slicing along the armor seam and wrenching the knife free.
Crash cried out in agony, doubling over as best she was able with so many severed abdominal muscles, desperately clutching the wound blood flowed over her hooves. The dog gave the dull side of her bloodied knife a lick, descending on the wounded mare before her other hand clutched her victim's skull and pulled her head back to further expose her throat.
“That's right, SCREAM FOR ME HERD BEAST!” she snarled before baring her teeth and latching onto the pony's neck, holding her down while shaking her savagely in her jaws as she finally got to taste the wretch's blood.