Road Gangs: Ray Part II

The sun shone brightly over the rich and beautiful orchards of Sweet Apple Acres, peeking behind the occasional fluffy white clouds. The apples in the trees were already growing into plump and delicious fruits ready for harvest.

A truck slowly traveled over the sloped terrain and stopped under a specific area of trees where the apples grew more abundant. It was a customized EMDETech-13 utility vehicle decorated with a bright pink coat of paint over specially designed carriage features and an apple-shaped cab.

Applejack personally hated the design, but she kept her feelings to herself since it was Rarity who had bought the vehicle for her as a gift, and even designed the customized shell herself. Applejack knew how difficult and expensive it was for her to go out of her way to do this, even stepping out of her element in the process, and therefore gave her a certain appreciation of the gift when she used it.

Applejack leaped out of the driver's seat, followed by Faust from the passenger side, and they both met behind the vehicle to unload barrel halves they have been using to load apples with.

With permission from Applejack and her family, Faust had been living with them and helping out with their business until he could find a place of his own. He grew weary with his age and old bullet wounds to his legs, but his history with the Phantom Raiders kept him strong and able to perform the tasks laid out before him. The Apple family appreciated his help and greatly enjoyed his company.

Applejack leaped into the truck bed and tossed the barrel halves on the ground, with Faust picking them up and rolling them to specific trees that surrounded the vehicle.

"So anyway," she said, continuing a conversation they had been having on the way there, "she takes a bite, then spits it out and screams like she'd tasted the apocalypse and runs to the sink to rinse her mouth out a million times."

"Oh!" Faust shouted with amused repulsion.

"Well now she checks em' like a quality inspector on an assembly line before they even reach her plate, just in case someone pulls a prank like that again."

Faust shook his head. "That Rainbow Dash. Always the creative prankster."

"You betcha. But just between you and me, she kind of had help." She winked at him.

"Well. In that case I better start checking on my own apples."

Applejack jumped from the truck bed and began bucking one of the trees, causing apples to gradually fall into the barrel halves on the ground below. "Heh! What makes you think I might use apples a second time?"

Faust sighed with mildly serious apprehension. "Shit."

They both had a good laugh as they continued with their activity.

Just as Faust had began loading the full barrel halves into the truck, another vehicle pulled up next to them. It appeared to be an Otokar Akrep, similar in design to one that Faust had once owned during the second Canterlot invasion, except this one had been a VIP-specific transport model without armament or sensory equipment mounts.

A familiar human man wearing a suit and aviator sunglasses exited from the driver's side and approached Faust near the apple truck.

"Agusta?" Faust asked with a smile forming on his face.

"Long time no see, Panzerfaust!"

Both opened their arms and gave in to a big hug, then finally let go.

"Man, look at you all sharp. Come back from a funeral?"

Agusta chuckled as he quickly reviewed his own apparel before returning back to Faust's gaze. "REDF's got me riding a desk in intelligence, hence lack of service uniform. I got an office right next to Shining Armor's back at the castle."

"Well good for you. Glad to hear they're treating you well in the military dominion."

Agusta's smile faded. "Look, the reason I came here is, well..." He paused for a moment then finally let it out with a regretful sigh. "Something's happened back in the desert. Remember those oil wells that were set up a few years ago?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, the security forces stationed at two of them have gone offline earlier this evening. Thorne Three is still active and has reported some kind of gang activity going on not too far from them, and they suspect there's a connection with that and the mysterious happenings at Thornes One and Two."

Faust nodded, puzzled at the relevance it had with him. "Well, that's terrible news. Have you gone and checked them out yet since it happened?"

"Nope. Thus the reason I'm here. The Princess has ordered you and a special military unit to go in and investigate the wells."

Faust backed away and continued with his task. "No way. I quit armed service a long time ago."

Agusta pulled out a letter from his jacket. "She gave very specific orders, and wishes you to lead the unit personally. I've got the letter right here, if you want me to read it."

"I'm getting too old for this shit, Agusta. Why can't she just get Ray or Junkers to go? And why does it have to be one of us instead of one of her own guard officials?"

"A human presence is needed for advisement on this particular situation. Ray was actually her first choice." Agusta licked his lips, holding something back.

"Yeah, so?" Faust pried.

"We can't find him. We can't find Junkers either."

Faust dropped what he was doing. "What?"

"Since this morning we've been out of contact with them, and no one seems to know of their whereabouts as of late."

"Have you tried the Changeling Empire?"

"As a matter of fact we have, but with no results. We also checked the Crystal Empire, REDF, his office at EMDETech-..."

"Emm-Dee-Tech?" Faust interrupted, hoping for clarification of the acronym.

"The Equestrian Mechanical Design & Engineering Technical Institute over in Caterlot. The same people responsible for that poor pink bastard." He nodded towards Applejack's truck. "So anyway, given the urgency of the situation, their lack of availability has prompted Celestia to give the burden to you. You are to report to Canterlot within two hours and-..."

"Forget it." Faust interrupted again, picking up another barrel of apples, preparing to throw it into the back of the truck.

Agusta stepped in front of him to block his access. "Look, you've been drafted. These orders are specific from the Princess herself. Now, I'm not familiar with the penalty of disobeying a direct order from royalty, but if I were you I wouldn't want to find out. Please, come with me."

Faust dropped the barrel and turned around with a growl, taking a moment to gather his thoughts.

"These new guardsmen you'll be working with are much better trained than the ones back in the day, armed with state of the art firepower. Basically the same stuff we had in the Raider division, all developed right here in Equestria. Industrial-strength tools for industrial-strength stallions, man. You'll be in good hands. Or hooves, actually."

Faust turned back around to face his old friend. "Alright, but I have just one condition."

"I'm not sure you're in any position, but go ahead and state it."

He stepped closer him, holding his right palm out. "I'm driving."

The old hive in the Amber Forest looked the same as Tempest had left it upon being imprisoned, with its main entrance peaking through shrubs and gnarled roots from oak trees.

He was free of his old restraints and carried a large black bag over his back, humming a happy tune as he trotted over to his old home, disappearing into the shadows.

The green and blue light orbs on the walls automatically came to life as it detected his presence, as did various biomechanical structuring on the wall itself. The light helped him navigate through the vast maze with ease, eventually helping him make his way to the Queen's throne room, then to her office to the left of the cavernous area.

There he dumped the contents of his bag onto the desk, then threw it in the corner. He sat down and reviewed the items presented before him - various books and instruction manuals on military tactics, armament-improvisation, and explosive-making; canned food; bottles of water; forks and spoons; various hygiene products; towels; a knife; the Lunar Guardsman's 9mm firing device; finally a daisy sandwich wrapped in foil.

Tempest collapsed into the comfy chair after swiftly grabbing the sandwich out of the mess of items, ripping the foil open in haste to get to the delicious food. He dove in and groaned with ecstasy. Oh, I haven't had this kind of food in years! With no love to go around, I'll settle for this stuff any day.

After completely devouring it, he crumbled the foil and threw it across the room, remaining in his relaxed state to take in his newfound freedom. He began rocking in the chair, humming his happy tune again.

About three minutes had passed and he sat back up in his seat to face the items scattered about the desk. A particular book and army field manual both caught his eye, "Vietcong Traps" and "Improvised Munitions Handbook, 1969". He grabbed both of them and set them in his lap, opening up the IED handbook first.

"Time to make a shopping list." He muttered to himself as he casually flipped through the pages.

The sun was setting, giving the sky a beautiful red and orange glow over the wastelands. The air was still uncomfortably warm, but cooled as the night gradually came to be.

Engines rumbled and echoed from the dunes and rock, growing louder and heavier as the sounds traveled down a nearby road. A column of military scout vehicles emerged from a slope, ripping around the curves of the road at high speed.

Most of them were Jeeps and HMMWVs, but others included a couple of sandrail FAVs, three M35 "deuce and a half" trucks with equipment, and a 6x6 MOWAG Piranha APC armed with an M51 Quad-50 anti-aircraft gun. All bore the Equestrian coat of arms on their sides, followed by stenciled serials.

Faust drove the lead HMMWV with Lunar Guard Commander Sterling in the passenger seat. In the back were two of Sterling's men armed with AKMs and equipped with upgraded body armor camouflaged with desert patterns. They held on to the handles of their doors as Faust flew over rocky and sloped obstructions in the road without hesitation.

He had the stereo on, with a Doug & The Slugs cassette playing. Currently it was a song called "Tomcat Prowl", which he treated as his theme music as he sped down the rough terrain.

"Must you hit every single protrusion and depression?" Sterling spoke up, his voice trembling as the rest of the vehicle shook.

"What's the matter? Don't like roughing it?"

"These roads have yet to be paved. I would greatly prefer a decrease in speed, if you don't mind."

"We're behind schedule. At least according to 'our' orders. Don't want to upset Celestia now, do we? Or Luna, in your case."

Sterling shrugged. "Then crank it up."

Faust shot him a devious half-smile and turned the volume dial up on the stereo, then let out a howl that could be heard over the column's engines. For the first time in many long years, he felt young again.

After fifteen minutes of their journey down the desert road, the sun was finally down, leaving a blackened sky full of sparkling stars. The crescent moon began its ascent from behind the mountains ahead, providing slight illumination in compliment to the headlights of the vehicles.

They reached brief flatlands with fork in the road, with the left pathway becoming a perfectly paved road leading through elevations ahead of them. A sign accompanying the road off to the side read "Oil and Natural Gas Well - THORNE 1 - Royal Equestrian Property - No Trespassing!"

Faust slowed and stopped the vehicle, shutting off the stereo. The rest of the column spread out and halted behind, sitting idle and awaiting command. All Celestial and Lunar Guardsmen watched the hills and rocks alert with their weapons.

Faust shut off his engine and headlights, then grabbed the CB communicator on the dashboard. "Recon mode, everyone. Shut off your engines and all running lights. Stand by."

The unit did so respectively, darkening their surroundings with uncomfortable silence.

They strained to hear anything over the "ticks" and "taps" of the metal in the exhaust systems expanding and contracting. Fed up with it, Faust and Sterling exited and slowly edged to the front of the vehicle, weapons out and ready.

Something finally caught their ears. It was a low rumble of car engines coming from somewhere in the distance, but they could not determine which direction it came from. Another mechanical sound accompanied it, but grew even louder as it got closer. Like the whine of a turbine engine on a jet. Definitely an aircraft of some kind.

Faust turned around to face the APC, giving the "lookout" signal to the AA gunner. The gunner gave him a salute and cocked the guns on the mount.

It was in a low-level NOE approach, making its location harder for them to determine. They looked everywhere they could around the silhouetted mountains, just waiting to spot ascending anti-collision lights. The mechanical shriek grew even louder, making everyone twitch with apprehension.

A rocket streaked across the sky, impacting the AA gun and destroying it in a brilliant explosion that briefly illuminated the entire area as if it were a small sun.

"Everyone hit the deck!" Faust shouted, dragging Sterling down with him in the dirt.

A helicopter rose from the slopes leading to Thorne One, with a bright spotlight almost blinding everyone as it approached them. As it passed over, Faust could identify it as a French "Dauphin 2", its Aerospatiale manufacturer origin obvious enough with the loud shrieking sound due to its rotor layout - a four-blade main rotor and a "Fenestron" tail rotor, which was basically an enclosed rotor type that resembled a fan inside the fin.

It had stub wings carrying pylons for unguided rocket pods, TOW missile tubes, and wingtip GShG-7.62 miniguns, all of which were being used to destroy the many vehicles and mow down escaping guardsmen in the area.

Faust and Sterling fired back at the aircraft as it passed over, trying for a shot at the windows. They dove for cover behind a rock when a door gunner spotted them and began firing at them in response.

Approaching the column for another attack, the Dauphin fired more rockets and destroyed all of the lead vehicles, including Faust's transport. It eventually circled around and began to attack the rear of the column to prevent any retreat.

Sterling leaped from cover and fired at the helicopter, this time trying for the vital engine areas.

"Stay down!" Faust shouted. "Get behind something now!"

He was immediately blown apart from high-caliber machine gun fire, but oddly enough it did not come from the Dauphin.

A more lower-pitch and heavier-sounding helicopter could be heard somewhere behind Faust. He turned around and spotted a Russian Mi-24V "Hind-E" passing over the road towards them, making its way to a steady hover.

The Dauphin eventually ceased fire and drifted to the rear of the column, also slowing to a stationary hover.

"Everyone drop your weapons!" Came a voice on the Hind's loudspeaker. "Surrender yourselves or we will finish you off! Unarm yourselves and come forward!"

A swarm of other vehicles thundered down the road from behind the Hind, surrounding the survivors.

"I said drop your weapons! Now!"

Faust and the remaining guardsmen threw their weapons down in the dirt and slowly walked towards the massive gunship, indignantly ready to be taken prisoner.