> To Dust
>  by Boborokin
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1: Reconnaissance, Ambush, Retreat 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scarlet Dust opened his weary eyes, the sound of gunfire, explosions and shouts still echoing in the dark recesses of his mind. The stallion did not awaken with a horrified gasp or in a cold sweat from his chaotic dreams. 

No, he was long past that stage.

There was only the usual soul-sucking weariness, and the fatalistic acceptance of what he had seen. He blinked a couple of times as his eyes adjusted to the low light inside his room and let out a sigh. As usual, sleep had not come easily and when it did, it was not what most would call pleasant. 

Dust and peered over at the dull red glare of his alarm, the time 04:55 staring back at him with mild malevolence. It was still another five minutes before his alarm was due to go off, but he slammed a hoof down on the electronic clock to prevent its screeching tune from going off. 

He'd spent so many years getting up at this hour, that it had become ingrained into his mind, an ingrained  mental reflex which seemed to ignore the lack of sleep and mental fatigue which had plagued him since...well, since he could remember.

The stallion rolled himself off of his cot and onto his hooves, grunting when he put his full weight onto his left fore-leg. He cursed, took a deep breath and waited for the sharp pain to subside to a dull throb, chastising himself  for having forgotten the medic's advice. The painkillers had finally worn off, and now the merciless tearing sensation in his shoulder was back with a vengeance.

Putting too much strain on his leg again could possibly lead to a sprain or even a torn muscle the medic had told him, which  did not seem too appealing. He'd ask Triage for something that would take the edge off but not make him too drowsy like the drugs from yesterday did. 
He walked over to his desk with a slight limp and turned on the desk-lamp, revealing the miniature mountain of reports and other paperwork which seemed to be aggressively competing for space, as well as a single picture in a neat frame which sat apart from the mess.

The photo showed a raspberry coated unicorn mare with a dark red mane that was cut quite short. Her bright ochre-brown eyes  radiated  a keen intelligence and the faint smile that she wore had a hint of mischief. 

Scarlet looked at the picture for a while and felt his heart fill with a pleasant warmth which almost seemed like an alien sensation to him. He hadn't spoken to her in ages. Longing quickly wound its way into every fibre of his being in a way that was almost similar to the ache in his shoulder, except if felt even closer to him than his own flesh.

In an instant Scarlet's tired frown returned and he started to prepare for another long, unpleasant day that lay ahead. He knew it would be unpleasant. Every day in this place was unpleasant.

How could a warzone ever be pleasant in the slightest?

Apart from the desk and the bed, the light also revealed the rest of Scarlet's room, which could at best be described as bare, with a few personal possessions scattered here and there and his uniform and other clothes packed into a dull wooden cupboard. A small trunk sat forlornly in the corner of the room, filled with a few other keepsakes and a bottle containing a certain golden liquid which he was saving for a special occasion.

He walked past a mirror and paused, looking at the tired pony staring back at him. 

A statuesque face with finely cut features was what he saw, with a long scar that ran over the left side of his face, like someone had taken a blade to a fine portrait. His mane was a dark brown, or would have been, but it was cut so short that he was almost bald.

In the reflective surface, a pair of icy blue eyes judged him, the dark lines under them making him look hostile and older than he really was.
"Holy tartatrus, Dust. You really need to get some more sleep in," he said to himself in a raspy voice. 

In the other side of the room, a strange frame was nestled into the, holding aloft a suit of battered equine body armour that was covered in gashes, scorch marks and dents. The beige earth pony walked over to the piece of kit which had saved his life on countless occasions, and put an affectionate hoof on it, inspecting the damage.

A faint odour caught his nose and when he leaned in closer he realised that it was the armour itself. He grimaced when the full force of how badly it reeked hit him. 

Blinking, he got a curious look in his eye and sniffed under one of his own pits. The stallion gagged, wondering how tired he must have been to not even notice the stench that clung to his own body when he turned in for bed. The drugs must have been stronger than he thought.
Scarlet stepped into the small shower in the adjacent room and turned on the tap, letting the icy water shatter the final remnants of sleep and tiredness from his mind. The pre-fabricated building he was housed in had running water, but unfortunately the boilers were out of order, destroyed a few weeks prior.

A hot shower was a luxury that he and many under others in this place sorely longed for, but at least the cold was helping to numb the pain in his leg.

The pain itself suddenly brought an unexpected and bizarre mixture of pride and regret to him. 

He and his company had mounted an assault on an abandoned factory a few kilometres from their headquarters, which had been confirmed to be an enemy outpost by his scouts. 

Things had been going reasonably well until a detachment of Imperial Combat Striders showed up. They had been woefully unprepared for the towering war machines, and the assault quickly turned into a retreat in the face of the onslaught. 

The Striders had then hounded them for several blocks until they were lured into a destroyed unloading area in the city's industrial zone, where there was much more cover and the walking engines of death no longer had such a huge advantage.
Amidst the dense rubble the mechanized walkers were forced to tread carefully, whilst Scarlet's forces dodged from cover to cover and used their speed and manoeuvrability to get the upper hoof in the urban environment. 

It had been hellish, but eventually they had managed to destroy all the Striders that had pursued them, their mistake being that they did not have any infantry to support them. They had been too eager to kill, too thirsty for glory. It had been their undoing.

Using their swift armoured buggies to harass and distract the Striders, Dust and his troops struck at the Striders with the few anti-tank missiles and satchel charges they had at their disposal. He himself had destroyed one of them by waiting for it to pass by the second floor of the building he had been fighting from, and then made the insane decision to jump onto the thing's chassis. 

How he managed to hold onto the Stider's cupola was beyond him, but somehow his hooves had managed to find a grip, clinging to the railing for dear life.

He wanted to throw a grenade down through the hatch of the Strider to blow it to hell from the inside, but first he had to engage in a brutal hoof-to-hoof fight with the Strider's pilot, who had probably heard him latch onto the vehicle's hull.
I
t was one of the most difficult and dangerous things Scarlet had done in his entire life, having to had to hold onto the Strider's side as it swayed about while it walked, fight off an extremely belligerent pilot, and somehow pop a grenade down the hatch and get away without dying horribly in the process. 

Though he had taken a couple of painful hits to the face, Scarlet managed to force the Strider pilot to retreat back down his hatch, but before he had managed to close it, the earth pony had narrowly managed to arm and throw the grenade down after the pilot.

Scarlet had then leapt from the cupola right before it was shredded from the inside in a spectacular blue fireball, and fell a good twenty feet before hitting the ground painfully and stumbling away from the wreck. Were it not for his body armour, the damage would probably have been much worse.

There hadn't been an inch of him which wasn't sore from that little stunt, but it was the best solution he could think of at that moment.
In the end, they had managed to destroy the Imperial outpost, which had been the intended target, as well as most of a Combat Strider detachment. But they hadn't been without their own losses. 
He had originally assaulted the outpost with about twenty ponies and three armoured cars, but by the time they limped back to base, there were only eleven soldiers and two badly damaged vehicles left. Letting out a frustrated growl, Scarlet clenched his teeth and pressed his forehead against the shower's wall, trying to focus solely on the sensation of cold water flowing across his coat but to no avail. 

If only they had had more intelligence, had known of the Striders, they would have been better prepared, they would have called in additional support, they would have...they would have...

"It doesn't matter now," Scarlet mumbled to himself, letting out a weary sigh, "regret won't bring them back. Better just to learn from this and just keep moving forward. It's all you can do at this stage."

After drying off and slipping into his combat armour, which he vowed he would either burn or scrub for an entire week when he removed it again, Dust gave one final look in the mirror and put on his red beret, mixed feelings of pride and nervousness coming over him.

Was he really ready for this? 

It was a big step from lieutenant up to captain. Instead of just commanding a few battered squads, he now had to manage an entire company, albeit an under-strength one. 

Could he really pull this off? Will they push the Equestrians out of the city? Are reinforcements coming? Should...

"STOP" Dust said to himself aloud, taking a very deep breath and exhaling slowly.

He knew he had to stop worrying so much. So many doubts could lead to despair and defeat. Such a mindset will only help the enemy in the long run. He wouldn't have been given this promotion if he wasn't deemed competent or worthy of it.

"You can do this Dust. Just stay calm and remember to think without feeling. It's helped you so far."

Dust's face became like a stony mask, his eyes cool and focused. Having assured himself, he then walked out of his room to lead the 4th Company through another day in the war-torn hellhole that was the city of Aurelia.

A short while later he arrived in the command centre, which already had a couple of other ponies mulling about inside. They snapped off crisp salutes when he entered and went back to their duties, going over reports and tactical data screens. 
One of the ponies, a short unicorn mare with a telescope cutie mark approached him with a faint smile and said, "Good morning Captain. How's the leg feeling this morning?"

"Like somepony stuck it into a blender and flipped the switch, Corporal Starburst. Now then, I take it you have a tactical report for me? Have the Equestrians done anything rowdy since our little soiree last night?"

"Not as far we can tell sir. But intelligence did intercept a transmission from their Centurion about a supply convoy that will be moving through the Octavia District sometime within the next two days. It appears that the Equestrian garrison is getting a bit low on food and spare parts at the moment."

As she delivered her report, they walked over to the tactical display map which was sitting in the middle of the room.
Everything on the map was a faint, transparent blue, as if the entire city had been scaled down and turned into a ghost.

Dust snorted and smiled mirthlessly.

The entire damned city might as well have been a ghost, he thought to himself. Aurelia was dead, the civilian population either killed or evacuated. It was only them and the Imperials now, fighting over the decaying carcass of the once beautiful city, like maggots gnawing through a corpse to see who could outdo the other.

"Sir, all you alright?"

"Hm? Oh nothing Corporal. Just thinking about maggots."

Starburst gave her superior officer a worried look but then continued working on the data tablet which was being held aloft by her magic, deciding it was better not to know. 

The map showed a three dimensional holographic display of the whole city, all of it sitting atop a an intersecting grid of white lines. Corporal Starburst tapped something on her tablet and the display changed, its sectors divided into red, white and blue, with small markers blinking at specific locations, marking areas which were either in friendly or enemy control, or the locations of enemy bases or troop concentrations.
Scarlet touched one of the blocks on the grid and the whole hologram reconfigured itself and zoomed in to show the selected city district, marking roads, buildings and geographical assets. 

"Hmm...if they're going through Octavia then they will have to use Tersius Street. It's the shortest route that will take them back to their base in the western part of the city. Plenty of possible ambush points so it will probably be more heavily guarded than usual. And the fact that transporting food makes it all the more valuable."

"An army marches on its stomach?" the Corporal ventured.

"Don't we all?" Scarlet responded, his stomach letting out a very loud and unexpected growl a moment later.

Absolute silence descended upon the room as everypony wondered whether or not it would be a good idea to laugh at their commanding officer, whose cheeks had gained a rosy hue.

The Captain finally decided to break the silence by clearing his throat, "Ahem, right. Do we have any forces in that area which can strike at the convoy within the time it will be moving through there, Corporal?"

"Hm? Oh, um, one moment sir," Starburst said, levitating the tablet in front of her and then tapping several buttons. An orange triangle appeared on one of the skyscrapers near the route which the convoy would be using.

"It says here that a Sergeant Haze and a small squad of troops are currently in patrol in that area. They have a temporary outpost on in the building marked on the TacMap sir."

"Haze? Well, if anypony can demolish that supply convoy, it's her. That is, if she's not off on another bloody souvenir hunt and outside communication range. Can you get me a secure link to her, Starburst?"

A short while later Scarlet was holding a radio communicator, pressing the receiver with his fetlock. "Come in Sergeant Haze, do you read me, over?"

There was a burst of static and then a sleepy-sounding mare responded, "Hm? Um, yeah Boss, I'm here. What do you need?"

Scarlet let a small grin tug at the corners of his mouth, "What I need is for you to get out of your pajamas and get ready for a fight. The Equestrians have a supply convoy moving through your area and I want you to take them out."

The mare's second response now sounded much more awake, her voice carrying an edge of excitement, "A convoy? Sweet! How large can we expect it to be, over?"

Captain Scarlet glanced at  Corporal Starlight, who typed a few buttons on her pad and gave him the figures.

"We estimate a minimum of two to three hoverdynes and at least a dozen extra Legionnaires as heavy support. Intelligence indicates there shouldn't be any heavy vehicles with the convoy. The Equestrians want to keep their supplies safe but I suspect that they don't know we have forces in the sector they're moving through. Can you take out the convoy with your current strength, over?"

There was  a brief silence before the sergeant answered, "Just did a quick recap of our inventory and toys here Boss. I recon we can sent the Imps packing with what we've got here."

"Roger that . Do you need extra reinforcements or are you ready to lay out the welcome mat for the Equestrians? Over."
"We can manage Boss. We've got a couple of anti-armour rockets and I've still got some cobalt charges left over from my last op. If the Imps don't know we're there, we can blast em' to hell before they know what hit em'. Over."

"Good to hear Sergeant. Now get moving. The Equestrians are bound to have some forces in the area, so be on the lookout. We don't want them to know you're waiting for them or else they might change their route or send heavy  armour support along. I've also gotten reports that Centurion Andraste has requested a group of Destroyers to be transferred to her command from the neighbouring sector, but we don't know if Equestrian high command has said yes yet."

"Destroyers? Shit, if we get caught in the open by one of those we're done for."

"Indeed. So get the job done, but don't get spotted or take any unnecessary risks, understood?"

"Copy that. Um, hey Boss?"

Scarlet sighed, "Yes, sergeant?"

"How did the attack on the Imps' command post go in the San-Senzea District? I heard you got in there and got jumped by an Strider Group. You okay at least? We saw and heard the fight all the way from up here in the hotel we're at. Looked serious."

"I'm fine Haze. I just wish I could say the same for the ponies I lost last night. They...they were good soldiers."

The sergeant was silent for a couple of moment before answering, "I'm sorry Boss, but you know you couldn't have counted on Imperial mechs showing up."

Scarlet sounded very tired when he answered, "Thanks Haze, but sorry doesn't bring back the dead. Now go blow up that convoy. Scarlet out."
Without another word Captain Scarlet Dust then went to the mess hall, returned to his command centre and started managing the day's operations in his sector of the city, trying to hold off their vicious enemy for another day.

Meanwhile, on the other side Aurelia, a small squad of battered and dirty ponies were on the move, all armed to the teeth and on the lookout for any potential threats. 

At the head of their squad was a light grey unicorn mare with a ochre coloured mane and a triple clef for a cutie mark. A pair of orange night-vision goggles which were perched on her forehead. She had a blue bandana which kept her messy mane in check and a scoped rifle slung across her back.

Though she was the leader of the squad, Sergeant Haze did not look as if she belonged with this group, her armour, weapons and other equipment seeming out of place among the gear the rest of the soldiers had.

One of the ponies under her command broke their silent trek through the blasted ruins of the city, 

"Hey, sarge, is the Cap'n okay? What did he say about the assault last night? Did they get that fucking OP that's been bothering us for so long?"

"The raid was going fine until an Imp strider group decided to crash the party. The Boss said that they managed to destroy it but suffered heavy casualties in the process."

"Oh. Well, shit. How many did we lose?"

"I don't know private. Too many. In the Boss's mind it's always too many. He always takes the losses as a personal defeat. I think I'll talk to him after we fuck-up the Equestrian's hayburger train. He usually feels a bit better after we've had a heart to heart talk."

Some of the ponies cast glances at one another, until one of them nervously decided to ask, "Ahem. So uh, Sarge...are you and the captain dating or what? You sound real close."

She stared back at the stallion with a look of bewilderment and then let out a raucous bout of laughter, "What? Me and the Boss? Hell no! We're just good friends. We've pulled each other out of the crapper more than I can count. And besides, I don't swing that way. He's also got somepony waiting for him back at Morningstar Prime."

"All the way out in Morningstar? Damn. That's on the other side of the quadrant!"

"Yup. But they've known each other since, like, forever. I met her at a big conference a couple of years ago when me and the Boss went there during a bit of R&R."

"She pretty?"

"Yeah, but cute would be a better description. When she and the Captain were together it was the first time I saw him happy. I mean really happy. Not the fake kind happy where you just pretend you're happy for the sake of others."

"Damn. Who is she?"

"What does she do?"

"Where is she from?"

Shaking her head at the barrage of questions, Haze snorted, "Settle down children. We can talk more about the Boss' squeeze when we're done with the op. Let's just finish this Op first."

The rest of their trip was marked by an oppressive and tense silence as they neared the ambush point. As they passed what used to be a restaurant, almost half of it nothing more than burnt rubble, they stopped in front by its entrance.

Above the broken glass doors there hung a sign that read: Pepper Dew's Pizzaria, The Best Pizza's in the Quadrant.

"Oh my Celestia....I can't remember the last time I had pizza..." one of the soldiers said with a moan.

"Heh, tell me about it. The last piece of pizza I ate had extra radishes, olives and cheese on it...and that was almost three years ago on Antigo 4."

"Antigo? Shit girl, that's almost a hundred light years from here! Have the Imps invaded it too already?"

"Not yet. The fleet's managed to delay their passage for a long time now. My cousin's a unicorn on one of our frigates, and he says that the Imps haven't handled their new hit-and-run strategies very well in the Shadowtail nebula, and that..."

All conversation was ceased the moment Haze raised a hoof, the universal sign for stand-still-and-shut-the-fuck-up. Her ears angled back and she peered intently ahead of her. 

"Imps!" the sergeant hissed, quickly moving to the opposite side of the street and hugging the wall, which her whole squad mimicked.
"We've got two Legionnaires about three hundred meters ahead of us. There might be more around, so keep your eyes peeled as we advance. We don't want them sending a distress call and fucking up our ambush before it can even begin."
And so the squad quietly made its way forward, flanking the two enemy troops via the alleyways and rubble blasted streets until they were barely fifty meters from their quarry. The two soldiers were just around the corner from Haze, so she risked a quick peek and saw that they were still there. Neither she nor anypony else in her squad had spotted other Imperials in the vicinity, so that meant the Legionnaires were probably sent on a random patrol.
Haze levitated a small mirror attached to the end of a stick and held it so that she could see her enemy clearly without risking exposure. Both of them were garbed in the standard Imperial body armour, which was an angry red suit with sections of ballistic plates. They both had helmets which obscured their faces and were armed with magical pulse rifles attached to their sides via combat rigs. 

The Legionnaires were arguing to one another, clearly oblivious to the danger around them and probably used to patrolling in an area with very little action. 

Boredom could lead to laxity and a dangerous easiness, which these two were obviously prone to.

Though she could very easily kill the them, Haze knew that a if they received a radio-hail from their base and didn't answer, it would immediately arouse suspicion, and make her job a whole lot harder.

And Haze hated working hard, especially if that hard work could get her and those under her command killed. But not killing these two could also lead to the same thing, so she took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a second.

When she opened them again moments later, she had made her choice.

In one quick, smooth motion, she slung her suppressed sniper rifle into her hooves, peeked around the corner, and shot both, killing them both before they hit the ground. They then quickly disposed of the bodies and then moved on towards their objective as fast as their need for stealth would allow.

Barely two kilometres from their objective, they ran into their first serious encounter. Haze's squad halted again after their heard the unmistakable popping whine of pulse-rifle fire and the angry barking of Alliance assault rifles.

A fire-fight was going on about three hundred meters to the south of their position.

Haze frowned, "Are there supposed to be other units in the area?"

"Um, I don't think so, Sarge. Should we check it out?"

"We might miss the convoy if we do, but I hate leaving our ponies stranded out here. From the sound of it, it seems as if the Imps have them outnumbered and outgunned."

From where she was standing, the sergeant could see the tall building which stood next to the street where the target was supposed to move through.

The sergeant blew one of her bangs from out of her face and sighed, "Fuck it. If we go in hard and fast I'm sure we can get whoever's fighting out of trouble and still be in time to throw the Imps a welcoming party. Let's go guys."

When they were close to where the fight was going on, Haze could see what was transpiring.

A squad of about seven Imperials were firing at a dilapidated shop with blown-out windows and countless bullet holes pockmarked the rest of the building.

The Imperials were completely unaware of Haze's arrival, solely focused on pouring fire on the shop. Two or three muzzle flashes could be seen firing sporadically from the blasted windows, their return fire seeming almost insignificant in the face of the pulse-rifle deluge. Haze motioned for her squad to take up positions in the buildings to the rear of the Imperials, who were using rubble and car husks for cover as they continued firing on the shop, but had little to no protection from the rear.

From the building across the one she was positioned in, Haze got sent out a message to her squad via their radio-headsets.

"Alright ponies, pick your targets and wait for my command to fire."

Haze lined up her shot from the window she was in, brought her scope's sight over the head of an enemy unicorn mare with purple stripes on her armour, which marked her out as their leader. 

"Give em' hell!", she said as she pulled the trigger with her hoof, a bright spray of crimson erupting from the side of her target's helmet.

The rest of the squad had ideal firing positions and excellent cover, and when they opened up, three more of the Imperials were dead almost instantly, torn to shreds by concentrated fire. Bewildered, the remaining Imperials returned fire, but were quickly picked off by the sniper and the hailstorm of lead that they were pouring into them. 

Those who tried to flee were gunned down, caught between the new arrivals and the NSA soldiers who had been firing from the building at the end of the street.

When the last of the Imperials had been killed, the small group of beleaguered troops emerged from the building, all of them bleeding and dirty. There were four, one being carried by the other two, his left foreleg wrapped in bandages.

One of them, a mare with what looked like a lily for a cutie mark, saluted and spoke, "Corporal First Class Lily Petal. Thank you sergeant! We would've been done for if you hadn't shown up."

"No problem corp'. What happened here? Where's the rest of your squad?"

The corporal looked down, her face pained and pale, "All dead, Sergeant. We were  sent on a long range patrol about three days ago by Major Hayseed. We managed to beat the Imperials a couple of times, but then we got lured into a trap near the Canterian Habitation blocks. Fell straight into the jaws  of  a heavy armour group and got ripped to shreds. We lost our radio to HQ, so we couldn't call for help or radio our status. We tried to make it back to base the long way around so as to avoid the armour and almost got away, but then we ran into this squad you just killed."

"Shit, talk about bad luck. Out of the pan and into the fuckin' fire. How many ponies did you lose?"

"Eight, Sergeant Haze. We four are all that remained. Do you perhaps have a medic with you? Corporal Chick Pea got hit in the leg when we were attacked and now it got infected. We lost most of our medical supplies when were ambushed."

"I'm a medic," an orange unicorn stallion said, raising a hoof, "Listen, I'd love to help you all, but aren't we on a bit of a tight schedule sergeant?" he said, looking questioningly towards her.

Haze pulled a hoof through her hair, "Patch them up as good as you can Band Aid, but do it quickly. I'd like to ask you lot to come and help us with a little welcoming party we're planning for the Equestrians, but given your current condition, I'd suggest you get back to HQ and tell them what happened. And I'm not gonna leave your wounded guy behind or take him with us."

When Band Aid was done tending to their wounds, the four quickly talked among one another. Eventually, Lily Petal turned to Haze again and said, "It's true that we need to get back to base, but I can still fight sergeant. These two can carry Hard Hat back to the field hospital."

"Thank you corporal, we can always use an extra hoof to fuck up the Imperials' day," Haze said with  a thin smile.

"Pleasure to be of service mam'," Lily said, saluting.

Several of the other soldiers had to suppress guffaws and snorts.

Haze gave the corporal a psychotic grin, and when she spoke her voice was had a dangerously sweet tone to it, "Corporal, nopony, and I mean nopony calls me 'mam', got it? You can call me Sarge, or Haze, or Sergeant Haze, or even Sergeant Fuckberry Shitcake, but you will not call me 'mam'. Is this understood?"

Lily blanched and nodded furiously, "Yes ma...uh, I mean, yes Sarge!"

"Fan-fucking-tastic corporal! We'll get along just fine, me and you. You three! Return to base and get yourselves properly patched up, we didn't save your sorry asses for nothing. Get back on your hooves and kill Imperials, got it?"

"Yes sergeant!" they chorused before moving out, their crippled friend supported between them as they made their way through the ruined city.

Once the squad got back on their way to the ambush point, Corporal Petal was quickly informed of the details of the mission. Her face became very grim after hearing of the supply convoy.

"For all our sakes, I hope the Imperials don't pair the convoy with the hoverdynes that took out my squad. We sure as hell didn't have nearly enough AT weapons with us, and I don't think you do either. Not unless you're all packing a tone of cobalt charges to blow out their undersides."

"Oh, we've got plenty of that, I assure you. By the way, how many Hoverdynes attacked you? And what types? This might be intell that the Boss or the higher-ups don't know about yet."

"The Boss?"

A huge stallion with a missile launcher on his back named Coal Train replied this time, his voice a deep rumble, "That's the Sarge's name for good ol' Cap'n Scarlet Dust. And she's the only one who's allowed to call him that."

"Oh, right. Um...oh yeah, the armour. We got hit by two or three heavy Destroyer-class vehicles. There were a couple of other lighter tanks and APC's as well, but the heavies were the ones that killed most of the group."

Haze spat on the ground and rubbed her nose. "Great. Looks like the Imps gave the Centurion the armour support she wanted. The Boss will want to hear this, but he said to maintain radio silence until the op is finished."

The other ponies looked at one another, the prospect of facing the backbone of the Empire's armour groups not being something that they looked forward to.

"Well, we've come too far now to turn back, and taking out those supplies is another step closer to tossing these assholes out of the city, which would go a lot faster if high command actually sends us fucking reinforcements for once!" the sergeant growled, angrily kicking a piece of concrete that lay in the road. 

"Now then Sarge, you know what kind o' trouble the fleet's been havin' breakin' through the Imperial blockade of this world. But don't worry, help will come, and then we'll flatten these suckers!" Coal rumbled.

This light hearted banter continued for a while among the squad, but eventually, they became silent as they approached the ambush point. There were a couple of patrolling Imperials, but a few silent well placed shots from Haze made quick work of them.

But disaster almost struck when they walked past the corpses of the Equestrians who had been guarding the ambush point, and heard an angry sounding radio call from what was in all likelihood  an Imperial officer who wanted to know their status and if the area was safe.

"Cohort 23, report! This is Centurion Andraste. We need to know if the area is safe. Over."

Sergeant Haze picked up the radio mouth piece with her magic and cleared her throat, trying her best Imperial accent, "Sorry about that command, my radio was acting up. I could hear you but couldn't report back."

When the Imperial commander, who was a mare,  spoke again her voice was slightly less harsh, "Understood Legionnaire. Is there any trouble over at your end?"

"None. It's as quiet as a graveyard here. You can bring the convoy through. Over."

"Copy that. By the way, how did you repair your radio?"

"I...um...bashed it with a rock?" Haze said, cringing at the idiocy of her answer.

There was an extremely tense silence for a while, but then the commander answered again. "Ha. That's usually the best course of action. Damned rubbish. If the NSA's equipment broke down or malfunctioned half as much as ours we would have won this war years ago."

Haze was surprised by how talkative the enemy officer was being, and decided to push her luck.

"Too right. Say, is the convoy also going to have some heavy armour support?"

Another silence. A silence which almost made Haze wet herself.

"And why do you want to know that legionnaire? Over a channel which might be monitored by the enemy no less?" the commander countered, her voice very neutral and very suspicious.

Haze might have wet herself just then, but she was too panicked to notice or even care if she did, "Oh, damn, um...my apologies command. I wasn't using my head. There's no real reason. It's just that we all feel safer if we have some Destroyers around, that's all. Sorry if I sound stupid, but I think it's good for morale to see some heavy hoverdynes patrolling an area. Makes the NSA think twice about havin' a go at us."

The Sergeant closed her eyes and prayed that she hadn't sounded too desperate, otherwise the entire mission might be a bust and the Imperials would send in a ton of troops to investigate and blow them all to Tartarus. 

Finally, mercifully, the officer answered. "Don't worry trooper. Just ensure that you don't make the same mistake twice. Incompetence and carelessness go hoof-in-hoof, and excellent ways to find yourself demoted, or in front of a firing squad. Is this understood?"

Not believing her luck, Haze blurted out her answer, "Y-YES!"

"Yes, centurion" the officer intoned, her voice low and dangerous.

"Yes centurion! My apologies!" Haze said, her voice filled with genuine terror. She was dead sure that there was a puddle underneath her, and not all of it was sweat.

"Excellent. Now stand by and await further instructions. Ave Imperator."

"A-Ave Imperator!" she repeated.

Then the radio finally cut out. The Sergeant released the breath she had been holding the whole time and felt an indescribable sense of relief. Her combat armour was soaked with perspiration, and she knew that huge beads of sweat had been rolling down her face. 

"Phew! Shit, Sarge, that was a close one!" a red earth pony mare named Petrichor said, the others sighing with relief almost as much as their Sergeant.

"Shut up private. Damn, look at me! I look like a took a fuckin' shower."

After taking a very deep breath and exhaling, Haze ordered the bodies to be cleared away and searched for anything useful. She made sure to keep the radio with her at all times if a call came through again. They couldn't afford to botch the operation, not now when the target was so tantalizingly close.

"Ok guys, I want the big guns set up in the second floor of that building over here and the ground and the roof of...what's that? Looks like a restaurant? Whatever, just get your asses up there. The rest of you get into the buildings and get comfy. Make sure you have adequate cover and that you have good firing positions. The Imps 'll be coming down the this road from the north. Heavies, you know the standard procedure: take out the hoverdynes and the front and the back to box the rest of the convoy to box it in. Me, Lilac and Toast will work on the explosives. Got it?"

"Yes, Sergeant!" they said.

Corporal Petal, Private Petrichor and Coal Train were set up  in the second floor of a boutique, which still had clothes in it, though they were all either torn, burnt or simply ruined in one way or another. An explosion had torn more than half the roof off and shattered all the windows, leaving the interior exposed to the elements.

Lily looked around sadly. "My cousin used to own a boutique like this one on Damos 2 in the Kariba System. She would have cried if she saw this place."

"Kariba?" Coal rumbled, looking up from his position, "Wasn't it destroyed by the Imperials two years ago?"

"Yes," Lily answered, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Damn. I'm so sorry Lily. Did your cousin at least make it out?"

The mare just shook her head, and wiped away a tear that was threatening to roll down her cheek. "The Imperials just did what they usually do and bombed it to dust and sent in an invasion force. By the time the NSA arrived it was too late. Damos was nothing more than a world of ruined cities and corpses. It didn't even have any strategic importance, the Imps just burned it to draw our forces away from more important targets."
S
he felt a comforting hoof on her shoulder. It was Petrichor. Neither she nor Coal said anything, but their eyes were filled with understanding and sympathy. 

Nopony was left unscathed by this war with the Equestrian Imperials, and it was becoming exceedingly rare to meet anyone who had not lost a friend of family member.

Almost twenty tense minutes passed before the Imperial convoy showed up. It was a strange humming and pinging noise that signalled its arrival, the telltale sound of hover vehicles approaching.

In the building at the end of the street, Haze was sighting down her rifle, bringing the convoy into view. She smiled. No heavy amour. Just light support vehicles and the APC's which were carrying the cargo, kicking up a veritable dust storm as they advanced along the road.

All the vehicles were painted the standard red and grey of the Empire, and hovered about a metre above the ground, kept aloft by complex anti-gravitic engines. It provided superior speed and manoeuvrability in comparison with NSA vehicles, which were all wheeled or tracked, but they were much harder to repair and made a lot of noise.

Haze tapped her radio earpiece to talk to the rest of her squad. "Alright everpony, keep it steady. Wait for my command."

The first vehicle passed the boutique, which was the first of the heavy weapon locations.

" Just a little longer."

There were six hoverdynes in total, a command vehicle in the front, followed by three bulky APCs, two light assault vehicles and another support tank like the lead vehicle, their turrets swivelling from side to side as if suspicious of the surrounding buildings. 

Apparently the lack of a patrol to greet them was quite disconcerting, and understandably so.The supplies they were carrying were vital for continued operations in this area.

When the lead vehicle passed the last heavy weapon emplacement, Haze finally gave the order. "Open fire! Blast these bastards!"

Moments later, two missiles whooshed from the gutted boutique and the restaurant.

The command vehicle caught fire and exploded in plume of blue fire. It's engines gave out and it crashed to the ground, digging a trench in the cracked and battered road as it skidded  to a halt. The same happened at the rear of the convoy, effectively boxing the Imperials into the narrow street.

Then the explosives which were buried in the street were detonated. One APC was downright destroyed, sending shrapnel everywhere, whilst the other two were thrown up and to the side, trailing smoke and sparks from their gutted underbellies as the damaged grav-engines struggled to keep their heavy frames in the air.

Somehow, the unfortunate commander of the lead vehicle was still alive and on fire, screaming as he tried to clamber out of his gutted tank, but a single round from Haze put him out of his misery.

Gunfire erupted from all of the buildings, peppering the remaining vehicles with lead. The Imperials desperately tried to return fire, blue plasma beams screaming from their turrets, but in the chaos of the ambush, they were inaccurate and only served to damage the buildings around them even further.

Two of the APCs  managed to open a hatch, and several Equestrian legionnaires poured out, some of whom were instantly cut down.
But then another soldier clambered from the floundering APC, a big one clad in heavy combat armour that shrugged off most of the attackers' rifle fire. The soldier was armed with a flamethrower on one side and what appeared to be a bulky shotgun on the other.

The flame-trooper then charged closer to the nearest building as fast as the heavy gear allowed it to, and opened up with the flamer, instantly immolating two soldiers, their dying screams echoing on the radio. Then the shotgun started firing at another building, wounding another NSA soldier but failing to kill her.

All the smoke, dust and fire made it difficult for Haze to draw a bead on the dangerous legionnaire. She knew a single well-placed shot could take the heavy trooper down, but the smoking carcass of one of the APC's was blocking her view of the vulnerable fuel-tanks on the back of the soldier.
"Everypony, focus fire on the Dragon-legionnaire, I repeat, focus fire on the flame trooper!" she screamed into her headset, desperate to force the enemy out of cover and end its life before anymore of her ponies got roasted alive.

Immediately, the heavy was pelted with a surge of lead from all sides, with even the missile launchers trying to take a shot but proving too accurate to gain a direct hit, instead just throwing up fountains of dirt and blowing apart the less-armoured enemies.

Finally, the flame-pony was forced to one side of the street where there were less bullets flying at it, exposing the vulnerable fuel-tanks on its back. The Sergeant held her breath and for a brief moment before she pulled the trigger with her hoof, time slowed for her, the chaos of the street battle disappeared, and the only thing she could hear was her own thundering heartbeat.

When she fired, a sprout of flame jetted out from the tank, which distracted the flame trooper, who desperately tried to reach onto its back to detach the burning tanks, but the bulky body armour made this impossible

After a few more seconds of desperate flailing, the tank exploded, blowing the soldier apart into smoking bloody chunks and incinerating the legionnaires around it, the only sign that it even existed being a smoking crater in the middle of the road.

Minutes later, the last of the Imperials were wiped out, and any wounded and wailing survivors were given merciful bullets to the head. The squad was in no position to take any prisoners, and it's not like they were often given the same courtesy by the enemy.

It had taken no less than five minutes to reduce the entire armoured convoy to scrap. A head count revealed that their casualties consisted of the two poor souls who had been burned alive and four more who were wounded in one way or another, but were still able to fight and move.
The bodies of their dead were stripped of any valuable weapons and equipment and given a quick burial in a ruined park that was close by.

A quick search of the gutted APC's confirmed their intell, and showed that the Imperials were mainly transporting a lot of food, some important-looking machine parts, and medical supplies, most of which were burned or destroyed beyond use, but anything else was taken. Haze liked to think that she had gotten used to the smell of burned flesh, but she had to put a hoof over her nose when she looked inside the personnel carriers, most of which were filled with the charred corpses Imperials who had been roasted alive.

A shudder passed through her at the thought of screaming in agony while flames melted the flesh from her bones, trapped in a steel coffin that was meant to protect you. Guilt started to raise its head, but she quickly shoved the feeling aside and replaced it with cold pragmatism, like the Boss had taught her to.

The Empire gutted entire planets like this, burning them and then stomping out any survivors if they resisted.

In the smoking carcass of one of the transports, there was also a strange box which appeared to be of some importance. 

Upon opening it, a collective gasp ushered from the assembled squad. Two bottles of high-quality Imperial whisky sat snugly between layers of heavy protective padding and insulation to keep it at perfect room temperature.

It was only then that Haze noticed the sound of static and a muffled voice coming from somewhere. Then it clicked. She was still carrying the looted radio from earlier, but had put it underneath her armour to keep it close in the event that the enemy commander called again. Like now.

"Patrol 23! Come in damn you! What the hell is going on over there?! I lost contact with the convoy headed for your location. I just heard explosions and something about an ambush! Report, over!"

Haze looked at the radio for a while, and then floated over one of the whisky bottles with her magic, unscrewed the lid and started pouring the divine golden liquid down her throat, guzzling it noisily.

"23? What the hell is that sound? Are you...drinking something?!"

The Sergeant belched loudly into the radio before answering, her voice no longer marked with her Imperial accent. 

"Yup. And I gotta say, Imp, this is some mighty fine whisky you got here! This alone almost makes it worth the shit we had to go through to blow up your convoy. Emergency supplies indeed. You have my thanks!"

She took another noisy swig from the bottle, coughing several times as the alcoholic nectar burned her throat.

"WHAT?! What the fuck!? First you blow up my convoy and now you're drinking my fucking whisky over the radio?! You disgusting bitch! You...You fuck-faced whore! I'll fucking kill you!"

"Good luck with that, Imp," the sergeant said as she hoofed over bottle to another trooper, who took a big swig an passed it along.

"Who is this?! Tell me your name you NSA slut! Tell me so I can find you and hurt you!" the Imperial officer hissed, her voice overflowing with savage rage at the Sergeant's audacity.

"You can call me Supreme Commander Whisky-Chugger of the Fuck You Brigade, Imp. Now go choke on a dick and kill yourself," Haze said as she dropped radio to the ground and crushed it with her hoof.

A few seconds of silence reigned before the group broke into cheering and uncontrollable laughter at the whole situation and the utter insanity of their sergeant.

They then made a speedy retreat from the convoy, knowing full well that the Equestrians would send a large force to investigate the attacked convoy and to hunt down the perpetrators. And after the Sergeant's antics, none of them could expect mercy if they were to be caught, so it became a mad and careful dash back to base, but not before Haze finally broke radio silence and called Captain Dust.

"Haze to Captain Dust. Over."

"I read you sergeant. Over."

"The supply convoy's been destroyed and the Imperial's jimmies have been thoroughly rustled Boss."

"Ha! Good work Haze! The Imperials will be living on emergency rations from now on, and theirs taste even worse than ours!"

"Yeah! No more hayburgers for the Equestrians! By the way Boss, I'm also bringing back a little gift the Imperials left us in one of their transports. Over."

"Haze, what the hell have I told you about souvenir hunting?!" he asked, his voice low and dangerous.

"No wait Boss! I can explain! It's actually something you'll like as well! I just need to get back to base first, um that is, if we can get back to base..."

"I take it the Imps didn't take to kindly to their supplies being blown up?"

"Nope. That and the fact that I may have personally pissed of the Imperial centurion of this sector by telling her to choke on a dick..."

"YOU WHAT?! You actually spoke to the enemy commander?! How?! Why?!" the Captain screamed.

"I'll tell you all about it at base Boss, but right now we're just a little busy staying ahead of the Imperials!" Haze said, looking over her shoulder and seeing movement about three kilometres behind them. Lots of movement. She hadn't expected the Imperials to respond so quickly.

"Ugh. Fine, but don't come back straight to base, head to Outpost 45, I'll send a transport to go and pick you up there. Over."

"Copy that Boss, Haze out."

Outpost 45 was located in one of the abandoned metro stations that dotted the dilapidated city. So far it seemed as if the Imperials were completely unaware of it, but if they were, it was not seen as worth taking from the NSA.

The old tunnels were in dire need of repair, and were collapsed in many sections, but Dust had ordered them to be scouted for any routes that could help them move undetected right underneath the Imperials noses, and by sheer force of luck, such a route was discovered, and often allowed NSA forces to  go behind enemy lines.

Haze and her squad darted from building to building, desperately trying to stay ahead of the enemy and stay unseen. They only stopped occasionally for a brief rest. By now they could all hear the rhythmic thump and incessant hum of Imperial hoverdynes. The noise was getting louder.

She knew her ponies were at the end of their rope, but if they could just reach the Outpost, then they could recuperate  and just wait for the Captain's transports to arrive. 

If worst came to worst, they would have to hold out against the Imperials until the APCs arrived, which wouldn't be too much of a problem underground, not unless the Equestrians sent in Dragon legionnaires and a ton of grenades. 

During one of their brief breaks, they hid inside an old apartment block and tried to get their bearings. Haze deployed a small metal triangle on the floor, which started glowing and soon they had a holographic map of the city before them. Now they could plan their route properly and minimize travel time. 

For a while they discussed the best possible route, and eventually they decided on the shortest one, which was also the most dangerous.

"Sarge, you know that area is crawling with hostiles right? We could get caught between the assholes that are chasing us and whatever Imps are occupying that sector," Private Petrichor said.

Haze twisted her head to the side, her vertebrae popping loudly. It was a bad habit she had picked up from the Captain, whose own neck sounded like gunshots were going off whenever he did it as well.

"I know that very well Petrichor, but if we take any of the longer routes then we're in equally deep shit as well. But if this ends up bad, we'll then at least you'll know who to blame."

So they headed out again, going as fast as they could with their wounded, who were making surprising speed for ponies who suffered from bullet and shrapnel wounds. Band Aid had given them a cocktail of drugs to keep them going: morphine shots to dull the pain, coagulants to seal wounds and adrenaline boosters to help counteract the drowsiness. 

When they reached the area close to Outpost 45, they repeated the tactic of running from building to building, occasionally checking the map to see if they were still heading in the right direction. Haze and two others in the squad had been there before, but that had been more than a year ago. 

They couldn't afford to get killed because of somepony's shoddy memory.

Every time they wanted to change position, Haze would scan the immediate area with her sniper rifle, taking out lone Imperial sentries who might raise the alarm. But when they were barely half a kilometre from their objective, an Equestrian patrol of more than a dozen ponies spotted them purely by chance, and soon they were exchanging fire, the air filled with the staccato barking of the NSA's assault rifles and the high-pitched chatter of Imperial pulse weaponry.

"Shit Sarge, we can't get bogged down like this!" Coal Train shouted over the shooting, firing a missile that streaked by just over the Imperials' heads and blew up a car nearly a block behind them.

"Don't you think I realize that Coal? If only we cou..." 

Haze never finished her sentence. Private Petrichor was shredded by a sudden surge of enemy fire, dozens of pulse rounds tearing through her composite armour and blasting her skull open.

The Sergeant cursed loudly, but put a round through an enemy's helmet. At least they had not been without kills of their own, and more than half of the enemy patrol was dead, thanks to Haze's sniping and focused fire from the rest of her squad.
It was then that the pinned squad realized a rhythmic whine and thump that was shaking the ground. They all knew that dreadful sound and what it portended. 

Imperial Combat Striders.

"Fuck it!" Haze shouted, "We can't stay here, follow me!"

They charged over the pile of rubble and crashed cars that they had been using for cover, screaming and firing wildly as they charged the enemy position. The move caught the Imperials completely by surprise, and had them running in the opposite direction after losing another one of their troops. But the move had not been without a price.

A private by the name of Tall Tale stumbled and fell, killed by a lucky shot through the throat. Band Aid paused a moment to look at him, but the blood was spurting out of the poor pony's neck like a fountain.

The medic could see the look of horror and desperation in the young stallion's eyes as he bled out, and felt an indescribable hollowness as he turned away, knowing full well that he could do nothing.

Barely ten seconds later, two towering Striders came around the corner of the street that had been behind the mound of rubble they had used for cover. If they had stayed there, the war machines would have gunned them down from behind.

The Striders stomped along on two legs, a rather unusual design considering that ponies were quadripedal most of the time, and each had a massive multi-barrelled pulse cannon bolted to their left side.
The gattling guns on the sides of the Striders opened up almost simultaneously, vomiting a hailstorm of pulse beams right over the heads of Haze's squad, but luckily they managed to round the corner of the street in front of them, desperate to put as much distance between them and the hulking war machines as possible.

Stopping to return fire would now be foolish, and everypony in the squad knew this. They were out of explosives and anti-armour weapons. A careful and organized advance had turned into a mad dash for the finish line, and finally, after dodging enemy fire for the umpteenth time, they managed to reach the entrance to the Outpost.

Pulse fire thudded into the concrete beside them as they entered the metro, pushing past carefully placed rubble that was meant to make the entrance look utterly abandoned and unusable.

The station was empty, with no friendly APCs or other NSA troops to help them.

"So much for the Captain's transport!" one of the soldiers sneered.

Coal glared at his fellow soldier. "There ain't no need for that attitude! If the Captain said he'd send transport, then we're gonna get transport. Have a little faith Table Top!"

"Faith isn't going to do us much good if we're all dead by the time the Rhinos get here, Coal," the Unicorn said, spitting on the floor.

"They'll be here in time," Haze said sternly, "The Captain's never left me hanging before. Now  set up defensive positions. I want concentrated fire on whatever is stupid enough to follow us down here. Give me a quick ammo count."

All of them were sitting at 30% and lower with their ammunition reserves. Not good, especially if this was going to develop into a protracted fire-fight.

And Haze knew that none of them would have the same level of accuracy as she had, not only because she had a precise sniper rifle, but also because most of the soldiers under her command were earth ponies who mounted their guns on their sides, and had to move their whole body to aim their weapons.

It wasn't the most efficient or accurate system, but it was the best they could do to arm ponies without magic. As they settled in behind cracked columns and dusty benches for cover, awaiting the inevitable attack that was coming, Haze wondered if they would have been pursued with the same ferocity if she hadn't provoked the Equestrian commander with her insults.

No doubt the Centurion had threatened to execute some of her own troops for failing to apprehend the brazen little NSA trooper who had blown up their convoy and even had the audacity to drink her booze.

Oh well, the Boss always said that an angry enemy was a foolish enemy, Haze thought as a burst of pulse rounds struck the column she was hiding behind

Finally, the Imperials came, and as expected, they announced their arrival with a bunch of grenades that ticked and pinged as they bounced down the stairs. The resulting explosions were absolutely deafening in the confined space of the station, blowing up a hurricane of dust, but luckily they were far enough away to avoid being shredded by shrapnel. 

Then came what could only be described as a flood of Legionnaires, screaming and firing wildly into the semi-dark of the metro. 
Muzzle flashes from both sides lit up the shadows, and battle cries echoed down the tunnels.

Haze gave the order for her squad to start pelting the enemy with their own grenades, to devastating effect. More than fifteen Imperials lay dead or dying on or near the stairs in less than twenty seconds, but more kept coming, scrambling over the corpses of their comrades to get to cover and fire back at their enemy.

From the corner of her eye, the Sergeant saw another one of her troops go down, but luckily she wasn't dead. Yet.

She yelped and cursed like a drunken sailor after a stray pulse round tore almost half of her left ear off. It stung like hell, but she still kept firing, the armour-piercing rounds of her rifle dropping whatever Imperial that got in her scope.

The air was quickly becoming difficult to breathe, the fighting and explosions filling the space with dust, smoke, and the stench of blood.
Through the din of combat, another sound filtered through, one that every soldier dreads. The hopeless click-click-click of an empty gun during the heat of battle.

"I'm out!" Corporal Lily shouted. Barely ten seconds later, another shout echoed hers, and then another. Only four of the seven surviving squad members could return fire at their enemy. The others could only hide in cover or call out important targets for their teammates.

But then another sound made its way through, a faint hum that was gradually growing louder. The hum soon became a recognisable growl of a powerful  engine, and when Haze risked a glance back down the tunnel, she saw headlights poking through the darkness.

Haze's radio buzzed in her ear, and when she touched the receiver, a loud, confident voice came through, the sound of a mare's, "Hold on my babies! Big Momma's coming for ya, just hold on a little longer!"

"Peach Trees? Is that you??!" Haze cried, half-way between crying and screaming out of joy.

"Who else, honey? Now get your butts off a that platform, and let us take care of those nasty Imperials for you!"

Soon the others saw the lights as well, and cries of joy leapt from their throats.

"The cavalry's here! Fall back! I repeat, fall back!" Haze shouted, leaping down the platform.

The Imperials tried to take the initiative and charge the beleaguered squad, but too late did they see the two heavily modified APCs come rolling up to the platform, providing covering fire with the heavy chain guns mounted in their turrets. The huge explosive-tipped rounds simply blew the Imperials apart, forcing them to retreat and even a Dragon-legionnaire who had lumbered down the stairs was cut down to size.
O
ne APC had the words "BIG MOMMA" painted garishly on its side.

It had clearly seen a lot of action, evident by innumerable scratches, bullet dents and welding marks in the armour plating. It also looked as if several parts on the outside had been salvaged from various vehicles, creating a sort of patchwork personnel carrier.

But for all of its external ugliness, it was the most beautiful thing the squad had ever seen.

The rear hatches opened, and a small contingent of fresh troops poured out, adding their own guns to the fight and helping the wounded among Haze's squad into the protective belly of the vehicles. The inside was lit by red-emergency lighting, making the world seem drenched in blood. 

The second APC's infantry hastily unloaded a big, heavy container from the inside, opened it, and started placing more than a large number of explosive charges on the walls of the tunnel they had come through and on some of the support beams.

They were going to make sure that the Equestrians couldn't use the tunnel to follow them back or use it against them. The Captain had been both true to his word and thorough.

I wouldn't expect any less from the Boss, Haze thought as she strapped herself into the surprisingly comfortable seating of BIG MOMMA.

Once the engineers were finished placing the explosives, they took their places among the battered and wounded members of Haze's squad, sending the all clear signal to Peach Trees.

A pudgy brown mare with an afro pocked her head into the infantry compartment, a look of concern in her eyes. "You and your squad all on board Sergeant Haze? Good! Big Momma's gonna take y'all outa this here shitstorm, so hold onto something, it's a wild ride from here back to base!"

"I never thought I'd be happy to see the cramped interior of a Rhino APC," Haze said to herself more than anypony. It was difficult, but the two bulky vehicles managed to turn around in the limited space of the train tracks, all the while shooting at the Imperials.

"Hold on honeys! HERE! WE! GO!" Peach tries hollered over the radio, gunning the engine.

Wheels spinning, Big Momma and its less-flamboyant twin shot down the tunnel they had come from, pulse rounds pinging from their armour plating but not even scratching the paint. A stray missile also screamed after them, the Imperials finally managing to bring some heavier ordnance down into the metro, but it was too late. 

The two Rhino APCs swerved between abandoned railcars and piles of rubble, moving more like agile race cars than heavy transports, which was mostly due to the skill of the maverick drivers at the wheel. Peach Trees floored the accelerator with her hoof, and when they were about three hundred metres from the station, she used Big Momma's radio to call the rear APC.

"Spark Plug! I think we're far enough from the station! Blow those damn charges!"

"You got it Peach!" a grizzled voice responded.

Barely two seconds later, Peach Trees felt the explosion through the frame of her vehicle, which vibrated and shook despite the distance between them and the charges. She whistled.

As usual, the demolition experts had used way more explosives than was necessary, but they had to make sure the tunnel and most of the station was out for the count. The potent charges blew apart the support columns and the walls where they had been placed, causing the intended collapse.

A powerful pressure wave was racing down the tunnel, focused and amplified by the narrow confines. The wall of flame, smoke and dust roared along like a hellish tidal wave and when it reached the APCs, it buffeted them, causing the transports to sway and skid over the tracks. The two personnel carriers reappeared from out of the rolling wave of smoke and fire, which had finally lost most of its momentum, their armour blackened and scorched, but otherwise no worse for wear.

"Woooo!" Peach screamed, "We made it my babies! Now sit back, relax, and let Sergeant Peach take ya'll back home!"

Haze and the other battle-weary troops gave one another tired grins. They were out of the worst of their troubles. If Peach Trees couldn't get them to safety, then nopony could.

She had carried countless of her 'babies' in and out of combat zones. There wasn't a single soldier in Captain Dust's company who didn't like or at least respect the eccentric APC commander, who could always be found tinkering on Big Momma or any of the other battered vehicles they still had left at their disposal.

They eventually emerged from the tunnel into what used to be a busy train yard, which was now filled with the rusting hulks of locomotives and train cars. From there they cut through abandoned civilian districts until they reached an industrial sector near next to the city's harbour, where the NSA base in this sector of Aurelia was located.  

They drove past heavy machine-gun emplacements, sandbag bunkers, and a pair of large and menacing defensive turrets that swivelled from side to side, scanning for enemies. A heavy gate rolled open for them as they approached, not even stopping them to check for clearance.

You didn't stop Big Momma when it was rolling towards you, you just got out of the way and let it through, lest you face the wrath of Peach Trees.

The APCs stopped as close to the field hospital as they could, which was inside an old storage hangar. Several medics were already waiting for them, and when the rear doors opened, they quickly unloaded the badly wounded and carried them on stretchers to the operating theatre. 

The others were taken to another room where their wounds were treated and patched up, even Band Aid, who was busy flirting with one of the nurses who was disinfecting and patching a nasty flesh wound. She ended his advances when she started putting his stitches in, not being nearly as careful or gentle as a nurse should be.

Haze and the others snickered at their comrade's pain. 

Ten minutes later, Captain Dust came to see them personally. All of the soldiers present stood to attention, regardless of their wounds, but Scarlet waved a hoof and they all relaxed.

"Sergeant Haze, good to see you're still in one piece," he said, his rusty voice warm and friendly.

The light blue unicorn smirked. "Barely Boss, just barely. Thanks for sending Peach to come rescue us. We would've been dead without her."

"And I should thank you for taking out that convoy, Haze. The superior numbers of the Equestrians won't count for so much if they don't have the food or supplies to keep them going. You and this sorry lot put a real dent in their ability to wage war effectively."

"All in a day's work Boss," Haze said as she closed her eyes and leaned back with her hooves behind her head, looking very satisfied with herself.

"Quite right Sergeant, but now on to another matter. Tell me what you said to the Centurion over the radio Haze. Every word." The Captain's voice wasn't friendly any more, it was icy cold and serious. The faint smile was still there, but it was humourless and grim. 

The soldiers gave one another nervous looks.

Haze's eyes shot open, her irises the size of pinpricks. She gulped and proceeded to tell the exact details of what had happened between her and the Equestrian commander.

The Captain was not the most expressive of ponies, and many wondered whether he had any other expressions besides looking tired or angry. Or tired AND angry. That was the worst combination. But those who knew him well could see that Scarlet subtly shifted between incredulity, humour and boiling anger the more Haze told him.

By the end of her explanation, beads of sweat were running down the Sergeant's face, and she sometimes cast a desperate glance at her squad mates in some vain hope of getting help from them, but all of them had become supremely interested in everything in the room except her and the Captain.

When she was done explaining what she had said and what had happened during the mission, Scarlet closed his eyes, inhaled deeply and twisted his head from side to side. His neck cracked and popped, and Haze prepared herself for the verbal tirade that was sure to follow. 
Except it didn't.

When Scarlet opened his eyes again, he said, "Ok Sergeant. To be honest I don't know if I should kiss you, laugh my arse off, or have you peeling Djego roots for the next two months. Your squad should have destroyed the convoy and immediately ex-filtrated. Under the circumstances, looting the wrecks and then insulting their commander was very foolish. You wasted precious time, time that could have been spent putting distance between you and the Imperials. If you were the only one there then this would have been fine, but you seemed to ignore the fact that you had ponies under your command as well."

The Sergeant's tried to keep her face neutral, but cracks were forming in her visage.

He continued, "That was very irresponsible Haze. I thought the Spectre Corps trained you better than that."

Haze looked down in shame, knowing full well that he was right.

"But then again, it's stuff like this that got you transferred to my command, isn't it?"

The razor sharp edge of harshness had disappeared from the Captain's voice. He was by no means happy, just not furious any more. Haze dared to look up. There was no anger in his eyes, only sadness. Disappointment.

"Sergeant Haze, I'm just going to send you on a long solo-patrol. Don't worry, the engineers have fixed your cloaking generator, so you should be safe if you keep your distance from patrols or scanners."

Haze grimaced, unhappy that she would have to go out on such a long outing on hoof so soon after such a harrowing operation. 

But the Captain was also doing this for another reason. He probably suspected how she felt, and knew the patrol would give her time to think about what had happened and process the deaths of those in her squad. This was only the second time she had commanded such a large group of ponies.

"In three two hours. You'll patrol the same route you did last time when lieutenant Storm defended the bridge over in her sector. Understood?"

"Understood, Sir," she said soberly.

The other soldiers looked at one another. Haze only called Scarlet 'Sir' if she was feeling like shit, which was understandable given the circumstances.

"Sergeant."

"Yes Boss?"
"
What happened to the other bottle of whisky you mentioned?"

Using her magic, Haze opened  up one of the bags that had been dumped in the corner along with the rest of their kit. Said whisky bottle floated over to the, enveloped in the unicorn's butter-yellow magic. Scarlet took it in his fetlock and inspected the bottle for a couple of seconds.

"I understand why the Centurion was so damn furious. If some enemy soldier blew up an important convoy and also had the balls to make me listen they chugged a prime bottle of Maktaran whisky, I'd be bloody pissed off as well."

Captain Scarlet looked his subordinate straight in the eye. "Haze, I want you to hoof-deliver this bottle to Peach Trees and thank her for pulling your sorry arse out of the fire, understood?"

"You got it, Boss! But then again, isn't giving somepony driving a ten-ton APC a bottle of booze a bad idea?" she said, trying desperately to hide the reluctance in her voice of having to give up the golden nectar.

It wasn't that Haze felt ungrateful for the timely rescue, but finding a whole bottle of premium grade alcohol in the ruined city was next to impossible.

"It would, if it were anypony except Sergeant Peach. But you and I both know that she would never get behind the wheel of Big Momma if she was buggered out of her mind, unlike somepony I know who stole a Recon buggy and crashed it straight through the officers mess hall on Calixis 2."

Haze knew her face had gone a dark beetroot red. The Captain's lips had curled into the slightest hint of a smile, and the other soldiers were snickering or giving one another massive grins.

"I...uuuuh...." the thoroughly embarrassed Sergeant trailed off.

Scarlet snorted and turned around, "Just give her the damn whisky, Haze."

Captain Scarlet Dust left his battle-weary troopers behind and stalked back to his command centre to oversee the rest of the day's operations.
When he was standing in front of the strategic holographic map of Aurelia, his eyes darted between the various pulsing runes and tactical data that flashed across the virtual landscape. He knew that on the other side of the city, the Imperial Centurion probably doing the same, through she was assuredly far less happy.

Thought he was glad that Haze's mission had been a success, he knew what would probably come next.

The Imperials would be really desperate now. They had numerical superiority, but that counted for nothing if you didn't have the supplies to keep your troops moving. Either they would launch an offensive soon or sit back and lick their wounds and wait for the next convoy to arrive. The latter option did not suit  Imperial doctrine in the slightest, so he knew an attack would come, but the how and the when could only be raw speculation at this point.

But attack they would. 

Apart from Haze's operation, he had been orchestrating three others across his sector of Aurelia, all of them designed to weaken enemy positions or cost them dearly in resources and troops, and nudge the Centurion further into a confrontation. Dust smirked.

Haze's violation of the Centurion's whisky bottle was something that could push her over the edge. Over the course of their deadly dance, he'd noticed that the enemy officer, like many Imperials, was impatient and a bit impulsive. Not incompetent, no. Just prone to letting their emotions get the better of them.

And that was dangerous. You never thought clearly when you were hopping mad.

The Empire's officers weren't used to such long, drawn-out conflicts, favouring quick, overwhelming strikes to week- or month-long engagements. 
Fights like the one in Aurelia made them jumpy and rash, the fatigue something NSA troops had gotten used to.

So far they had been taking pot shots at one another, striking at patrols and outposts, but there had yet to commit to a serious engagement, a big punch-up. If he could force the Imperials into a protracted battle in the area around his base, then they could bleed their forces dry, and pull them into a scenario where they would have the home-field advantage.

He knew he was taking a risk into forcing the Imperials to commit all of their resources into a single big assault, but if they could break the Equestrians here, then they would be one step closer to throwing them out of the city, and, if their luck held, off the planet. 

All he had to do was wait for the Imperials to make their move.

Several long hours later, after concluding the other operations and giving his officers further orders, he returned to his quarters. Not even bothering to get a hot meal at the mess hall, he simply gulped down the contents of a ration pack and started to settle in for the night.
For some reason, the events of the past few days, no, the last few months all came flooding back to him.

Scarlet still remembered when they had first arrived in this wretched city almost three months ago. He was still a lieutenant back then, commanding a couple of squads which were filled with rookies and too few veterans to show them the ropes. The thought brought a ragged grin to his face.

It had been so strange to swap the blue beret for the red one.

He had secretly feared that he wouldn't survive long enough to make it to rank of captain, but here he was, leading a company that was barely at a third of its normal strength against a foe that outnumbered them three to one. Regardless, they had managed to slowly push the Empire back, street by street, block by block, district by bloody district.

His smile turned bitter. They had gotten scant few reinforcements since they got here, slowly losing ponies as they and the Imps grinded against one another, but at least they weren't lacking in ammunition and food.

After taking off his body armour, he tossed himself into his cot, not even bothering to take a shower. He pondered how strange it was that sometimes these times when he was miles from the front line made him more tired than when he was fighting right next to his troops, facing the same danger and shit that they had to deal with.

Whether it was the adrenaline, or the knowledge that your troops were constantly looking to you for orders and reassurance, he felt more alive and awake on the field than anywhere else.  Of course you slept like a rock when you got the chance to do so, but commanding a company from the confines of a stuffy room was far more draining in some ways.

It wasn't every day that he had to slog it out among the grunts like he used to when he was a lieutenant, but he somehow still found a deep satisfaction when he took personal command of a couple of squads.

But walking on the battlefield with his troops was still some time off. The camp's medical staff had told him it would take about a week for the leg to get better, despite the tons of healing stims that were being pumped into his veins.

He wondered where it would end.

Even if they could force the enemy out of the city and off world, they might not be able to hold it for long if reinforcements don't arrive soon. And they'd lost too many good soldiers to lose it to the Imperials again. This, and countless other worries whirled inside his head like a maelstrom, keeping him from sleep despite the tiredness that gnawed at his mind and body.

Finally, his brain shut down fitfully less than four hours before he had to get up again. He dreamed something about his distant foalhood, but when the awoke again at 4:55 without the aid of the alarm, it faded from his mind like mist before the sun.

What followed was the same usual routine that had marked his life as far back as he could remember: Shower, dress, eat, read reports, prepare battle plans, analyze strategic information, give orders, fight, kill, survive, repeat. Day in day out. 

It could drive you mad. Or it could give you a sense of order in the chaos of a war that had been dragging on for decades. It just depended on how you looked at it.

After sending in a report to Major Hayseed about the operations of the last few days, he settled in front of the tactical holo-map. The pulsing runes and numerous flashing dots either remained immobile or shifted around. 

A single small purple triangle caught his eye as it slowly made its way around what used to be a large shopping centre. Haze had at least left early on her patrol, which was surprising considering how difficult it was for her to get up in the mornings  He remembered how he used to dump a bucket of icy water on her if she had overslept, a tactic which had had a limited albeit hilarious amount of success.

"Are you alright, Captain?" asked Butter Scotch, a young stallion who was another one of his ubiquitous intelligence officers.

Scarlet blinked. "Hm? What do you mean?"

"Well, um, it's just that you were smiling sir. It was just unusual to see you grin, that's all."

The Captain felt his facial muscles resort back into their usual scowling expression, the smile killed once he had been made aware of it. There was an odd sense stiffness in his forehead and cheeks, like they weren't used to contorting into a grin . Was he really that unused to smiling?

"Oh, no, don't worry Scotch. It's nothing. Just an silly memory. Now tell me, have the Imperials done anything weird while I was sleeping? I'm expecting an attack anytime soon after the beating we've been giving them recently."

"Well sir, as you can see on the tac-map, the Imps have shifted a couple of their patrols around, but it doesn't look as if they're massing for an assault, or at least it seems that way. We're not all-seeing, unfortunately. What little radio-chatter we intercepted seems oddly quiet as well after yesterday's ambush."

"Quiet enemies are more dangerous than loud ones, Scotch. It means they're planning something. But if our scouts and drones report nothing big, then either we're missing vital intell, or the Imps are just licking their wounds and waiting for more reinforcements like us."

"Which scenario would be better in our situation sir?"

Scarlet sighed. "I honestly don't know corporal. Either way, we're in for a very rough fight. Just keep me posted for further updates on the enemy's movements or other developments. And have Staff Sergeant Pine take a couple of our troops and inspect the defences. If things get nasty then we can't afford to have any weak links in our chain."
"
Yes sir. I'll get on it right away," Butter Scotch said.

Corporal Starlight, his other intelligence attaché approached him with a report hovering in her magic. She had a sympathetic smile on her face.

"You look like you seriously need a few more days of shut-eye Captain. Another sleepless night I presume?"

"Don't you know it, Starlight? Who can sleep when you've got the Equestrians knocking on your front door and have a bunch of bloodied troops to worry about?" he said, giving her a rueful look.

"Good point sir. But seriously, you can't lead us properly if you're half dead on your hooves. I can always ask Triage to get you some sleeping chems or tranquilizers if you need any?"

"We've had this talk before. You know how I feel about stimulants and narcotics. No way in hell. I'd rather go for a century without sleep than end up addicted to Pronocol or some other relaxant. Is that understood?"

Starlight flinched. "Yes sir. Sorry. I won't bring it up again."

She got back to her other duties, leaving the scowling Captain in front of the desk.

The rebuke had hit hard, and Scarlet did not mean to raise his voice at one of his most trusted soldiers. But he had seen what such things could do to a pony

At first you just take them to take the edge off of combat fatigue and stress, to get a few added hours of sleep in despite the fact that the chemicals just made you feel worse than before you slept. Later things might get bad, and you'd end up breaking into a field hospital or making shady dealings with some of the more...capitalist elements among the armed forces.

And it was oh so easy to say that you wouldn't get hooked on something. No, that was something that happened to others. Dust shook his head. 

Stim and drug addiction was not a risk he had wanted to take. He'd seen and heard of too many fellow officers and enlisted troops taking that path, and it never ended well.

Four hours later, nothing much had happened. Several brief skirmishes were reported by his squads in the field, but nothing major had occurred, but one thing that bothered him was the fact that Haze was more than an hour late. Her purple rune had been transmitting constantly, and was gradually making its way along the assigned route she had to take.

Around the time she was supposed to return, her rune had deviated from the path, and was making its way deeper into a sector that was clear of hostiles

Or at least scans and recon drones showed that it was clear, but he much rather preferred getting his reports from living, breathing ponies than some inanimate tool. That's one of the reasons he had sent her along that way in the first place.

A new thought suddenly entered his mind, one that made his frown deepen and his heart hammer. If she had gone on another one of her damned souvenir hunts, she was going to be peeling Djego roots for two weeks at the very least. Without magic. And a blunt knife. He sent her on that route to get clear her head and scout for Imperials in a suspiciously quiet part of the city, not for her to indulge in her kleptomania.

But then the rune had begun a hasty retreat back along the route, which worried him. He tried calling her on the radio, but he had only gotten static. Eventually, he finally got a response from her, one he did not like.

"Boss, you there, over?" Her voice sounded tired and desperate.

"I'm here Sergeant. What's wrong? Why didn't you answer my hails?"

"Imps on the way Boss, heading for our landing zone! They took out my long-range transmitter, so I couldn't call earlier."
"
Sweet Celestia...how many are on the way Haze?"

"A fuck ton Boss! I'd guess they have a division of  heavy armour and at least two cohorts of infantry on the way to our base. I saw them come from the area around Karan Sol."

"Bastards. How'd they get past our sensors?"

"My guess is that they're using a high-frequency jammer of some sorts. I'm actually surprise they haven't used it yet. Probably too proud to use 'cowardly' tech to help mask their attacks. Anyways, I highly suggest you baton down the hatches Boss. Things are going to get very shit very soon."

"Damn it. Thanks Haze. You said they'd damaged your radio? How'd they spot you? Did your cloak fail again? Are you wounded?"

There was a brief silence as she processed the barrage of questions."Let's just say that my cloak got compromised just as a large patrol rolled past me. I barely managed to get away safely. Got hit by one or two plasma bolts but at least the armour took most of the damage, but the radio's long-range transmitter got fried. Any further orders?"

"No. No, just get yourself back to base as soon as possible without being spotted again. How long do we have before they get here?"

"About twenty minutes, tops. I'll get back as soon as I can. Haze out."

For a while Scarlet said nothing. It had finally happened, just a lot sooner than he had expected.

The Imperials must be desperate to launch an attack now, unless they'd known about the station for months and were just biding their time.
Maybe the last few successful operations had simply forced the enemy Centurion into action out of desperation and rage.

Regardless, the Equestrians were on their way and he knew the base was not fully prepared for what was coming.

Most of the other ponies in the command centre had heard Haze's report as well, and were staring anxiously at the Captain, waiting for orders.
Finally, Scarlet spoke, his voice cold and hard and his face a mask of stoicism.

"Sound the alarm, get our troops into defensive positions as soon as possible. Contact our nearest outposts and tell them to send as many ponies as they can spare. Even if they can't get here in time to bolster our defences, they can still help hit the enemy in the rear. Tell them to bring any anti-armour ordinance they can, on the double!"

The room exploded into action, with officers and aides scurrying into action, sending the Captain's orders and preparing their camp for what was sure to be a brutal and bloody engagement that might leave all of them dead.