> Special Delivery
>  by Willow Arqueiro
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Born to Fly
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

         "Captain Dash! I specifically requested you keep your boots off the desks!" shouted the briefer.
Dash, who had been leaning back in her chair dozing off, snapped to sitting attention. Shaking dreams of little pastel Pony's out of head. Her Rainbow bangs fell in front of her eyes and she brushed them aside.
"Our Marine boys on the ground are requesting heavy air-support. We have a Specter Gunship inbound but it will not get there fast enough."
"Damn slow, those C-130's," Lieutenant Lane muttered from the back of the class.
"You will be scrambling immediately," went on the briefer as though no one had said anything. That was the best part about being in Wonder Bolt squadron, we flew how we wanted in what we wanted. No one cared as long as no one got hurt and the job got done quickly.
"You will be flying A-10's loaded for close support action." No surprises there, the F-35's they usually fly were still having system updates. Plus, no other plane could do this job as effectively and efficiently as the A-10.
"The Marines you are supporting are elite Marine Recon units that were on an intel recovery mission, needless to say, they been exposed." The mission briefer pointed to a red circle on a map of South America. "They are here and have already been engaged," he pointed a little north if the circle, "These are heavy vehicles moving to there position." Dash nodded happily with a grin on her  face, heavy vehicles usually involved easy potshots.
"You will have two F-22 Raptors as an escort for any airborne threats," he said.
"So the Chairforce wants a little glory in this mission?" pipped up Captain Fire behind her. The entire room was filled with sighs and mutters about how useless the Airforce was.
The Briefer ignored them and circled three spots positioned around the Marines, "These are confirmed SAM sites, you will have to stay below 250 feet to avoid being engaged." A lot of "Yes!"'s sounded around the room. High speed low altitude barely brushing treetops, great fun.
"Dismissed," the Briefer said.
"Let's go get 'em!" said Captain Dash to the rest of her squad of six top flyers.
She walked out the door onto the tarmac while putting her aviator shades on, heading for her customized A-10. Lieutenat Lane ran up next to her and said, "Man, you look good in that flight suit,"
She look over at him, "You should know by now that petty comments about my bode' won't even get you a second look," she said smiling.
"Hey, never hurts to try," he responded with.
"With other women it doesn't," she said, not so lightly punching his shoulder.
"Ow! I need that!" he exclaimed rubbing his shoulder while she laughed. They were getting close to her bird which was parked at the end of the line, closest to the runway.
"God she's beautiful," said Lane. She looked at the decals on her bird and nodded. It had the traditional shark mouth on the nose, but at the cockpit was a long piece of rainbow lightning. The base started at both the front and back of the cockpit and stretched down and back at 45 degrees, tapering down a little. Before it reached the bottom of the plane it jagged back up before tapering to a narrow point at the base of her wing. Dash knew from being with it that the same was repeated on the other side, both being colored in strips going down the length of it. On the right wing, there was a 4 foot wide stretch of rainbow colors starting at the tip and coming towards the cockpit. The colors were in rows in when looked at from the cockpit.
"See, that's how you get my attention. You compliment my bird." she said.
"I'll remember that next time," he said.
"Next time? Good luck with that," she taunted.
He stopped and held his arms out, pretending to be hurt. "This cold hearted mistress will not return my feelings! Why!" he shouted at the sky.
She turned around and started walking backwards. "Want me to make you jealous?" she called. He looked at her confused, "My heart belongs to the plane behind me!" She ran over to her plane and pretended to make out with the shark face decal  He held a hand over his heart as if he'd been shot. She turned and ran to the other side of her plane, and vaulted herself into the cockpit. Completely ignoring the service ladder set aside for her use. She stood in the cockpit hunched and picked up her helmet out of the seat and sat down. She gazed at the helmet. It was cyan with a rainbow thunderbolt greatly similar to the one on her plane. She slid it on and checked the mic.
"Wonderbolt squadron, this is your Captain speaking," some predictable snickers sounded in her helmet."We will be proceeding to runway soon, I assume you all know the basic operating procedure for clean take offs. Once airborne head to primary objective immediately." she signed off. She buckled herself in and started up her engines. She then checked her flaps to make sure they all moved properly and closed the hatch. The giant twin turbines behind her growled and roared. "Oh, listen to the big baby purr!" she said to herself. She throttled her engines slightly edging forward. With a deft hand, she centered the plane along the taxing lane eerily dead center. Dash checked behind her and saw Lieutenant Lane behind her in his dark grey A-10. Behind him, 2nd Lieutenant Forth was in her bird with vine decals along the fuselage. Second flight, led by Captain Fire and consisting of the remaining three pilots, would wait until First flight was airborne before beginning their taxi to take off.
Captain Dash completed her last turn and then stopped a little way away from the last turn. Lieutenant Lane Call-sign; ThunderLane, formed behind her and to her right. 2nd Lieutenant Forth Call-sign; BlossomForth formed up behind ThunderLane and waved her flaps to signal she was ready. "Tower, this is RainbowDash, requesting permission for take off for me and the rest of flight one."
"RainbowDash, this is tower, permission granted. Take off immediately." Dash had been waiting for those last three words. She slammed the throttle forward and accelerated quickly past 160 knots. The plane started jerking and slightly bucking from the non-perfect tarmac.
She reached 200 knots and pulled the yoke slightly towards her and felt the nose of the plane barely lean upwards. She pushed the throttle down harder, rocketing toward the end of the runway. She glance at her speedometer which read at 250 knots. She whipped her eyes back to the runway, getting as close to the end as possible. The planes jerking and bucking became more pronounced. The end was racing towards her, she forced herself to calm down and concentrate. Ten feet from the end she jerked the yoke into her stomach and felt the G-Forces from the sudden pull up, push her down into her seat. She strained to keep her head up and forward. She pulled her head over to her altimeter that read 250 feet. She pulled the throttle back to keep from accelerating.  She leveled off and thirty feet behind her and ten feet to her right, ThunderLane formed up behind her and behind him, BlossomForth.
"Adjust heading towards point 163 degrees South. We will be arriving on site in less then 15 minutes, I say let's make it 8. This is only a bunny hop flight guys and gals, push your birdie past 350 will ya?" without waiting for an answer Dash pushed the throttle back down and blasted off.
> Special Delivery
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

        "This is the Marine Recon force, where the hell's our air support?" shouted a voice over the radio.
RainbowDash grimaced and turned down the volume, "This is the Captain of the air support flight, identify yourself."
"I am 1st Lieutenant Armor, United States Marine Corps. Requesting the air suppot flight to help immediately upon arrival." RainbowDash froze and stared ahead at the name.
"Hey, RD. Wasn't there a Sergeant Armor that you got involved with back in Afghan?" asked ThunderLane over the private link for their flight.
"Stuff it ThunderLane, we got a job to," she switched back to the command circuit, "Lieutenant, I am coming low over the trees for a low altitude gun run. Mark where you need it." She switched to her flight circuit, "ThunderLane, BlossomForth; hold back a little and I'll give you targets after I blaze through. Escorts, stay with them."
"Rog'", said Lane
"True dat," was all Forth said.
"Captain, targets are here. Warning this is danger close." RainbowDash looked at her HUD which now displayed two points connected by a line marked in red. She couldn't actually see the target due to the low altitude and slightly hilly terrain. She buckled on her oxygen mask just in time to hear, "I repeat, Danger Close, don't miss!"
"1st Lieutenant Armor, I believe you know me better than that to know Danger Close does not faze me." she said exasperated.
"I don't believe I've ever met someone as arrogant as you, all I know is I need that air support now or my position will be overrun!" he yelled.
"Good thing for you I have a special delivery for you," she said almost on scene, barely brushing the treetops.
"What fucking special delivery!" shouted Armor, the staccato sound of rounds being fired sounded through the radio.
Dash raced over the treetops and arrived on scene, 40mm Gatling gun tearing through the thirty or so men rushing the Marine position. "Your special delivery of saving your sorry ass," she threw at the Lieutenant meaningly and zoomed past banking hard. Over the radio she heard really loud swears from Armor and his men as the A-10's bullets hit less than ten feet away.
"Fuck!" she heard one yell, "Sir! Look at the decals on that bird!"
"Fuck me," he said. "It's motherfucking RainbowDash," and swore again.
"Sir, didn't you two..." the other man began.
"Yes, drop it now," he ordered.
"Ya know I can hear all of that," she said, sideways   banking hard. Armor swore again. Dash found the heavy vehicle convoy and launched AGM's destroying a large portion of the convoy.
"ThunderLane and BlossomForth finish off the convoy and drop napalm bombs on selected enemy strongpoints in the surrounding woodland. Stay below 200 feet."
"Will do," they both chorused.
She circle around and coasted barely fifty feet off the ground, heading for one of the woodland strongpoints. She armed a napalm bomb and dropped it perfectly on target. The area she had targeted was now a burning ball of sticky fire. As she flew over she banked hard to the right, viewing her handiwork. She gazed at the burning woodland showing no emotion. Near the fire, she saw a few flashes of light in a small clearing. A split-second later her plane bucked and rattled as Ack-Ack fire tore into her.
"Shit!" she cut the engines and banked harder, heading for the AA emplacement. She switched to AGM's and fired one off. "This is RainbowDash, I have taken damage but am still combat operational." she called to the AWACS that was out of the combat zone but could monitor everything and was the voice of HQ.
"RainbowDash, this is the AWACS Celestia, report damage."
"I've lost power in right engine and there is hull damage but I don't know to what extent."
"Roger, RainbowDash, keep flying."
Captain Dash gritted her teeth when her A-10 started rattling again as she banked around for another firing run.
She lined up on another group in the woods with her bombing reticule. She angled down from 200 feet and dropped it perfectly at only thirty feet above the ground.
"RainbowDash, this is Lieutenant Armor, requesting fire mission on approaching tanks," came through the radio. The voice sounded tense but it didn't sound like the tenseness was because of the combat, more like because of her.
"What fucking tanks?" she replied curtly. "Just laze the targets and I'll deal with them. "
She looked at the little digital map which now showed six little dots where the Marines were lazing targets behind her. "ThunderLane, BlossomForth. How's that convoy coming along?"
"What convoy?" asked Lane innocently.
"I need you two to come over her and help with these tanks, by the way. What are those ChairForce escorts up too?" Dash asked.
"Ok, I got good read on lazed targets, as for the escorts. They just flew in big banking circles watching the pros." said BlossomForth.
Dash chuckled, loving how they were doing 5+  g-force maneuvers and talking normally.
She wheeled around and fired her last remaining AGM missile, only having six to begin with. She flew in below, zooming above the ground and gunned another tank. Before climbing back to 200 feet. Her A-10 screamed and shook in protest as she climbed the short distance with only one engine.
"RainbowDash, is that smoke coming from your number two engine?" came Armor over the radio with something like concern in his voice.
"Yes, what's it to you?" she shot back.
"Am I not allowed to be a little concerned what happens to the planes flying over me?" he fired back.
"You lost that right to be concerned for my wellbeing years ago. As it is, I flown worse in my sle.." she was cut off by an emergency transmission from the AWACS.
"RainbowDash, we have confirmed reports that there are fast movers approaching your position, your 1 o'clock. Hostile."
"Uh, Celestia, please run that by me again. There is nothing on radar except for the ground targets and friendly aircraft." she responded confused.
"RainbowDash and Escort one evasive maneuvers you are being fired upon from 2,000 feet!" shouted Celestia.
RainbowDash looked straight up and saw the tell-tale missile exhaust trails coming down. Her missile alert alarms screamed in her ears. "Shit!" she yelled, throwing the stick sideways and dropping flares behind her, the single engine screaming. She pulled the maneuver hard and dropped flares until the alarm stopped, signaling she was safe, for now. Escort one was not so lucky. In his perfectly good F-22 his inexperience cost him his life. He froze up at the alarm and started evading too late, the missile slammed into the plane blowing it into a floating ball of fire and falling debris.
"Fuck me! Celestia, Escort 1 is down. I repeat, Escort 1 is down!" she shouted into her mask. The second F-22 went tearing off after the two bogeys, climbing fast.
She watched him until she realized that both escorts have no idea what they were doing, "Escort 2! Break off now! You are about to be engaged by enemy SAM sites!"
The Air Force plane kept climbing up while the enemy planes dived down. Escort 2 fired two missiles, each heading for a different planes, he would have been fine... Except he climbed too high. From each of the three enemy SAM sites, a missile the size of a telephone pole launched up at him. Dash saw the pilot drop flares and chaffs while desperately rolling sideways to no avail. Two of the three missiles connect with him almost together. The first one hit his engines, blowing them out. While the second one connected right below the cockpit, instantly vaporizing the pilot. The third missile had nothing to connect with and just kept going.
"Sunuvabitch!" she swung past accelerating as hard as possible. The two enemy fast-movers came in lower and the AWACS tagged them as Mig-28's."ThunderLane! BlossomForth, get out of here now!"
"Not till those birds are down!" came back ThunderLane.
"I ditto with Thunder," said Forth
"That's an order! I'll do what I can to draw their fire." she said softly, knowing an A-10 was no match for two Migs.
"Yes ma’am," they said. "Give them hell boss," added ThunderLane.
They broke off and hightailed it to back to friendly controlled airspace. She angled her A-10 towards the incoming Migs and locked on with her close range missiles. After a second she got tone, and fired of two of her four missiles. Dash watched in disgust as the two Migs effortlessly evaded the inadequate air-to-air missiles. "Fuck, what to do, what to do..." she asked herself as the Migs peeled off of each other and began to circle back to catch her from two sides.
"What's my advantage?" she said to herself. "I'm damaged with lousy missiles and I've been shot up to hell."
Thinking hard as the two Migs finished there circles and came from the left and right. "I'm slower then them and can turn harder but how does that help me? How do I kill them? Oh wait, I'm sitting on it," she tried to slap her forehead but hit the visor.
"Ok, ok, ok, here they come," the two Migs got closer and were going to toy with her by downing her with cannons.
Blood rushed through her ears as her heart started working triple overtime and she acted. She slammed the throttle down to low and yanked open the flaps throwing her forward against the seat harness. The two Migs flashed past each other in front of her and banked around behind her. She dropped the flaps and slammed the stick to the left, chasing that Mig. She got a bead on it and switched her aiming reticule to a bouncing circle. She was pulling the trigger when the Migs crossed past again and the Mig she wasn't tailing raced past her, no less then twenty feet away. She pushed the other Mig out of her mind a focused on the one in front of which was still trying to outturn her. She was having trouble trying not to turn so hard to expose herself to it.
She got nice and closed and steadied the bouncy circle squarely on it's ass.
"Sleep well in hell you bastard." she muttered and pulled her trigger.
The massive seven barreled 40mm Gatling gun below her roared and spat out a line of tracer fire nailing the Mig and shaking the entire airframe of the A-10.
The Mig blew in half, both parts spiraling down towards the not so distant ground with the cockpit on fire.
"Whew, one down and one to, wait, what happened to the other Bogey!?" she yelled, fearing the worst.
And the worst was right to be feared.
While she had taken out his partner she had gone tunnel vision and forgotten about the other Mig. Said Mig had closed on her and gotten a nice missile lock on her ass. Only a 100 feet behind her.
She closed her eyes, knowing what came next and sure enough the missile alert sounded and she snapped open her eyes and through the plane barrel rolling to the left while dropping flares. She looked behind her and saw the missile get right behind her and she just leveled out and looked ahead steadily, knowing that she was in no position to evade it.
The enemy missile slammed up the exhaust port on her remaining working engine but didn't explode, it was a one-in-a-million dud.
Unfortunately for her, it had slammed up into the engine lodging there and causing the engine to explode by jamming it.
She yanked her head back and saw that engine one was no longer there but had been replaced by nothing, only a blank spot remained and a gash in her number two engine.
"Fuck me, both engines dead, well one gone," amended. The Mig raced past, not even looking at her. She tore her eyes away from the rapidly retreating Mig.
She was only 180 feet above the ground and losing altitude slowly by gliding as best she could. "Sorry baby, but it's time for me to go," she said to the heavily damaged plane. She reached for the ejection lever between her legs and pulled expecting the cockpit to blow off and her to go rocketing up. Nothing happened. She tried all the other levers getting more and more desperate. She slumped in her seat after pulling the last one. "Well, I guess I'm riding you to hell," she muttered.
"AWACS Celestia and Marine Recon force, I have lost all power and am going down. Repeat mayday, I am going down." she said then turned off her mic, not really wanting to hear their suggestions.
She angled her nose to a flattish looking field of tall grass that was less than a mile away from the Marine position, and lowered her self-down above it, the altimeter read ten feet above ground. She lowered her landing gears, not really expecting them to help but tried any way. She was zooming along fast and was losing field space quickly. "Now or never," she said while raising the flaps and put her down.
The landing gears barely brushed the ground before being ripped of with a thunk. Dash rolled her eyes and lowered it down some more. The fuselage connected with the ground and started sliding, plowing a small furrow through the ground. Her eyes darted at the speedometer as the plane bucked and kicked, protesting this unfair treatment.
Little did she know that the field angled up a little, the uphill being to her left and had a tall rock outcropping too right in front of her left wing... Her wing hit the rocks and spun the plane violently. The heavy 40mm cannon lodged in the hillside and pole-vaulted the plane back up now, sending the plane cartwheeling, smashing the nose, wings, and tail.
RainbowDash let go of the stick and braced her arms on the sides while the plane continued to cartwheel. The out of control wreck approached the trees at the edge of the field and slammed particularly hard on it nose, shifting the restraining harness enough to where Dash slammed her head into the side of the cockpit. Knocking her out through her helmet. The wreck of a plane stopped on it’s nose, then spun a little and fell. It's tail lodging in a tree with the nose planted firmly in the ground. The plane was upside down, tail only ten feet up in a tree, with a knocked out Captain Dash still in it.

> A Few Years Back...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Afghan
Near to Military Base
2nd Lieutenant Dash strolled into the bar after her brief court-martial that had demoted her. She shook her head, remembering the stupidly awesome maneuver she had pulled with her wingman not two seconds behind her.
She savored the feeling of being in her jeans and a V-neck, much more comfortable then the flight suit.
She looked to the corner and saw a few Marines still in trousers with OD green shirts and dog-tags hanging around their necks, playing pool. She smiled, nothing there worth chasing she thought.
She sashayed over and sat down at the bar looking to see what kind of beer they served here.
A guy sat down next to her, he was wearing jeans with his combat boots and a plain gray shirt. "Any reason a guy like me could buy a girl like you a drink?" he asked.
"Depends, have I done you a favor recently?" she smiled coyly.
"Well I could use one; do you know an Aviator that risked his plane to save a small squad of Marines? I owe that man a beer, and I've been asking around trying to find him." when Marines said they owed you a beer, they hunted you down to give it to you.
He ordered two beers and Dash sipped on her's, she put it down and asked,"Did you catch the name of this guy?" then went back to her beer.
"Yeah, and his plane. He was flying a Harrier and I heard his Squadron leader yell his name over the radio. Somethin' like 1st Lieutenant Dash I think." Dash choked on her beer and sputtered out, "Well Damn," the memories from the night before flashed through her head.
"I take it from your reaction that you know this person, I also need to find his wingman." said the man.
"Well first of all it's a her, and I believe you have already bought her a beer," was all she said. Now it was his turn to choke, and he just about sprayed beer everywhere.
"Well then, I guess I should thank you." He nodded at her with a deep and sincere, "Thank you."
"You still haven't told me your name," she said pointedly.
"Oh sorry, I am Sergeant Armor. Squad leader to the squad who's ass you saved." he nodded chivalrously.
"No prob, I just wished I hadn't had to get court martialed for it."
He choked on his beer again. "Wait, you got court martialed for saving my sorry ass squad, what exactly did you do? I only remember a Harrier hovering next to the building, spraying bullets inside."
"Well it kinda went something like this, she said thinking back.

"All right, Flight Delta two-four, head back to base. Heading 204, cruise at 2,000 feet." came the flight leader. 1st Lieutenant Dash responded with the standard. "Roger, flight leader. Adjusting heading to 204 and climbing to 2,000 feet. 1st Lieutenant Lane," her wingman even back then, “Follow me back to base."
She angled her nose up and pushed the throttle forward to accelerate. Lane followed behind, staying in proper wingman position.
She locked the controls in autopilot and started fiddling with the mic system to pass the time. She flipped through the channels available to her, mostly containing troop movements and orders. She flipped through bored, when she reached it.
"We need reinforcements! We are pinned down on the third floor of the *static* building, coordinates are *more static* at the central plaza!" came a garbled transmission. She cut the signal and switched to her flight com.
"Sir! Requesting permission to support friendly ground units below!" she looked down and saw the plaza approaching quickly.
"Negative, lieutenant Dash. Proceed as planned," came back the reply.
"But sir!" she said hotly.
"Another word and I will have you court martialed for insubordination!" came back curt reply.
Another voice came over the radio, this one her wingman. "Dash! Are we going to help them or not?!"
"I am, you stay here and don't get court martialed!"
With that she flared her flaps open and threw down the throttle, pointing the nose straight down. "1st Lieutenant Dash! Get back in formation now! That's an ord.." she cut the com link.
"So what's the plan as we dive down?" asked Lane.
"ThunderLane! I told you to stay!" she shouted. He sped up a little and flipped so they were back to back.
She looked at her "up" and saw him shrug, "Obviously I didn't," he said.
"Ok then, snap hover and rake the building," she said.
She pulled the nose up and flared the flaps harder, trying to stop before the building.
"RainbowDash! We're going to fast! We need to break off!!" came ThunderLane.
"Stay behind me, and do as I do!" she sent back.
Getting closer, she realized Thunder was correct, they were going to fast. She reached a hand for the throttle ready to slam full. Fifty feet from the building she switched it to hover and slammed the throttle up and pointed the nose straight up. She craned her neck and saw the building still rushing towards her. She threw the landing gears down and bumped into the side of the building, nose up vertical. She looked over and saw ThunderLane on the wall as well. The two planes seemed to hang there for a little while then drifted off and leveled out.
For the first time, RD say the flashes of lights that marked bullets being fired, the only problem being that shots were being fired from both sides at each other.
"Marine squad, which side of the building are you in?" she said after switching to the correct frequency.
"North! North Side!!" came back the desperate cry.
She looked at the south side and saw three or four men in bomb disposal suits engaged with the Marines. She and ThunderLane switched to guns callously. The pulled their triggers almost together, fuselage mounted cannons pumping out lead that tore through what the Marines had labeled as "Juggernauts".
"Well, our work here is done." She called to the Marines and her wingman. "See ya guys back at base, 1st Lieutenant Dash out!"
With that, Dash turned away and gunned the engines, moving forward and up until she could safely switch to cruise mode. ThunderLane was right behind her with, "How bad do you think the court martial is gonna be?" he asked, a little nervousness in his voice.
"Well, let's hope that they take into consideration that we just saved a sorry assed group of fellow Marines."
Within twenty minutes they were back at base and hauled off for a court-martialing.

Dash finished up her story, loving the look on Armor's face.
"I still can't believe you would risk that to save me. What'd they do to you? They didn't give you a dishonorable discharge, did they?" he asked fearfully.
"Nope, me and ThunderLane were just knocked down to 2nd Lieutenant and jettisoned from that flight." she gazed at her beer thoughtfully, "What were you guys doing in there anyways?" she asked.
"Intel recovery op. Apparently there was supposed to be information on where Osama Bin Laden was hiding. As it turns out, it was a trap." He chuckled, "and boy am I glad I got got in it if it meant I got to meet you." he said, looking over at her.
"So I don't know if it's the beer or what but you've been able to make me open up like that of nobody but Lane could do." she smiled. "I don't know if that's a bad thing or a good thing or, worse,  a dangerous thing."
"Well then, how do you feel we take this further?" he asked, holding out his hand.
"I think that would be a great idea if I ever heard one." she said, taking his hand.


Two years later, they broke up badly and refused to even think about each other when they were transferred out of Afghan and to separate places and detachments...

> Well Shit
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

     Dash opened her eyes slowly, seeing  nothing but blur. Dash heard muted voices but could not hear them over the high ringing in her ears. She felt the restraining straps hold her down and groped with her hands blindly, having to fight to keep them down. Her hands connected with the flight stick and she grabbed it, desperate for anything to anchor herself too. 
       She worked her foggy brain, trying to recall what was going on. The Migs flashed in her brain and she jammed the stick sideways, trying to avoid the memory planes. 
       Her vision cleared a little farther and the console cleared up for her eyes. She jabbed at the console, trying to figure out why all the screens were cracked and ruined. 
       Her vision cleared some more and she saw the broken cockpit hatch and beyond that a green and brown blur. 
       Dash shook her head violently and recoiled in shock as she saw the ground above her. What the hell?! She tought to her self. Where am I? Is a better question. 
      The memory of her crash landing hit her like, well, like a crashing plane. She jerked in her chair and the ringing started to fade in her ears allowing her to hear the panicked voices over the radio. Two stood out the most. 
        "RainbowDash! Are you all right?! Please respond!!" yelled a ThunderLane. 
       "Evelyn! Where are you! Are you alright! Are you still with your crash site!! Don't worry, I'm coming that way!" came 1st Lieutenant Armor. 
       She groaned and looked up, seeing the cockpit hatch all but gone. Dash glance to each side, only one way out. 
She hit the restraint release and dropped the six feet to the ground face first. Dash tucked her head down and rolled slightly to land on her back where she laid, staring blankly up at the ruined cockpit. 
      She still had her helmet on and adjusted the badly bent mic over her lips. "This is Captain Dash, I've been downed. Repeat, I am on the ground in one piece, with most of my plane." she got out. 
       "Captain Dash, any psychical damage?" asked Celestia, the only one who was staying calm. 
       Dash grunted and stood up, only to have her left lower leg spike with enormous pain and she fell down again.
             "Celestia, this is Dash, I have a lower leg injury. Do not know the extent of it." She said through the pain. 
         "Roger Dash, can you move?" 
         "Is it necessary?" she asked, fearing bad news. 
        "Correct Dash. We are seeing twenty plus foot mobiles approaching your position."
      "Shit!" she muttered and stood again, keeping weight of her left leg. She reached into the cockpit and tried the ejector seat again, needing to get under the chair for her survival pack. With no roar or launch, the chair just fell out making Dash more frustrated. "That's why the fucking chair didn't work! The bastard shot up my ejector system, but how did they miss me?" she shrugged, not really wanting to know the answer. 
      Dash grabbed her survival pack and opened it, doing a quick check. She pulled out her Glock and set it down, reaching in again she grabbed the extra mags and put those in her pockets. 
      She picked up the Glock and looked around, wondering which direction the enemy was coming from. She plugged her helmet mic into the survival radio. 
    "Marine Recon force, I am on the move." she called. 
    "Negative Captain, stay put, we're coming to you." said Armor. 
      "Sorry, Lieutenant, I apparently have enemies closing in on my position." she said, then added to herself, "but where are they going to be comin from?"
       A sudden rustle came from the undergrowth in the trees. Dash saw a movement and raised the pistol, and fired. The shape jumped and fell, and with that, Dash took off as fast as her injured leg would carry her, heading for the other side of the field where the Marine position was supposed to be. 
      The ground jumped and danced in front of her as bullets narrowly missed her. She stole a glance over her shoulder and saw them, seeming to swarm over the crash site. She picked up the pace. 
      She hobbled faster, heading for the rock outcropping that had flipped her plane. She looked behind her and saw them start to shout and point at her, and a few raised rifles. They started firing and Dash dove behind a small ridge, holding her arms over her helmet. 
     The gun fire stopped briefly as they reloaded and Dash took of, spotting the outcrop. She sprinted for it, hearing crashing and swearing from the enemy. Dash dove dehing the rock as bullets started chipping away at it. 
      A brief pause that Dash took, jumping up and firing her Glock, hitting two of them. She ducked back down and put her back to the rock, thinking. She stole a glance over the rock and saw them moving towards her. She emptied the rest of the mag, making them hesitate. Despaired, Dash reloaded, knowing that the small pistol was next to useless. She leaned back and looked up hill smiling to herself. 
     "Here I am, hiding behind the same FUCKING ROCK that had trashed my plane." she said, chuckling. 
      She whipped her head up as she heard new gunfire, but not from behind her, but in front of her. She looked around, trying to place it and looked up the hill. 
     Two figures were charging towards her, assault rifles blazing at the enemy. She grinned as she recognized that the men coming towards her were Marines. 
        They tore towards her as bullets jumped around them, seeming to hit everything but them. 
         The men were wearing normal BDU's and had helmets on with face coverings. They practically ran into the rock Dash was at. 
     "Beat cha, sir." said one, a big burly man that was twice the size of Dash. 
      "Than you win a beer," said the other. 
       "Um, hello?" asked Dash, looking at the one who lost.
        He yanked down the face covering and smiled. "Got a little cocky there didn't you?" said Armor. He was in his element, recklessly charging in battle while effectively doing his job. 
      "Armor? What are you doing here?" asked Dash.  
      His smile faded, "I couldn't just stand by and let a fellow Marine die could I?" 
      Dash looked away, disappointed that he had come for a Marine, not her...
     "Anyway, we got to get back quickly or this places is toast," he looked at the other man. "Sergeant Spike, do you think you can carry her while we run?" 
      Spike sized her up, "She's but a featherweight, I could carry her all day,"
      "Alright than, let's roll," said Armor. He ran up the hill and went prone, attracting attention as he fired.  
     Spike gently scooped up Dash, careful to avoid jarring her injured leg, and started running uphill. Armor saw them run past and raised a thumbs up and fired some more to keep the enemy from doing anything. Spike ran to the top of the hill, not even winded after the sprint carrying her. He put her down and dropped down beside her and started firing. Armor looked up and saw them safe then started charging up the hill, darting from left to right occasionally. 
    He crested over the hill and dropped down, firing before he hit the ground. 
     "We need to get back to the strong point!" said Spike. 
      "Dash, go!" yelled Armor. 
       Dash ran as fast as she could in the direction Armor pointed in. The sounds of gunfire slowly fading. Stumbled to a stop, wondering where she needed to go. She reached the small clump of trees, seemingly the only logical place to hole up in, so Dash headed inside. She stumbled around, hoping someone would call out to her. 
     She walked forward and stumbled over a raised  tree root, falling down and rolling down the slight incline. She stopped suddenly and Dash wished she had slid her visor over her face which was now lying in the soft leaves. She groaned and raised her head, looking directly into the face of Armor's sister Twilight.