Fire Base Zebra

It has been two weeks after princess Twilight Sparkle's visit to fire base Zebra. War front has been surprisingly quiet, only couple of minor fights had occurred between Equestria troops and the changelings.

It was a early morning, and soon everypony would be getting up and starting their daily chores. Soldiers of the 2nd platoon were already starting to wake up, before the bell even rang. It had become a habit for them.

Crack Shot slowly lifted his head from his pillow. He smacked his mouth lazily and looked around himself. He saw couple of ponies making their beds, and Healing Horn was playing cards with a black pony on his bed.

He turned his head and saw Riff waking up too.

Riff yawed heartily and at the same time he took a pack of cigarettes from his night table.  Riff placed a cigarette into his mouth and light it. He then looked at Crack.

They stared at each other for second, and then Crack said: "I think today is going to happen something."

Riff chuckled. That sentence had became their own joke during the last week. Crack said that to Riff every morning, even they knew nothing was really going to happen.

"Hah!" they heard somepony shouting. They turned their heads towards the sound, and saw Healing frowning at the black pony who he was playing cards with. The pony jumped up and down a little, pointing at Healing Horn.

"You lost! Hand them over!" he said and extended his hoof towards Healing Horn, who grunted something inaudible and dug a full pack of cigarettes from his pocket.

"Too bad those were your last ones," the black pony said, grinning teasingly as Healing gave the pack to him.

"Buck off," Healing said angrily.

"You can't always win you know," the black pony said, and jumped down from Healing's bed. He walked to his own bed and sat on it.

Just then the bell rang, and the last ponies sleeping soon woke up. They made their beds and then left for their jobs.

                                                                   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Crack Shot was standing at the main gates. With another pony. It was their turn to be at the guard. Crack though that it was even more boring than sitting in the watchtower all the time. Crack had been in the guards duty far more than he used to be. He was sure that Rough was still punishing him from the incident with the princess.

Crack sighed, and turned to the pony next to him. He was a pale yellow pony. Crack saw that he was a corporal too.

"Hey," he said to get the pony's attention. The yellow pony turned his head to Crack.

"Why did you get promoted?" Crack asked.

"I don't know actually," the pony answered. Crack looked at him confusedly.

"How can't you know?" Crack asked. The pony shrugged, and then said: "One day captain just came to me and said that I was promoted. Didn't really tell me why."

The conversation died as quickly as it started, and Crack was bored again. He was now sure that he would die of boredom.

They stood in silence for next ten minutes, holding their rifles by their sides. Crack was starting to get sleepy, and he had problems holding his eyes open. His head started to droop a little, but then he heard somepony coming towards them.

Crack opened his eyes and lifted his head. He saw that there was a pony walking towards them with his rifle on his back.

'

"Changing shifts," the pony said when he reached Crack.

"What? I've been here for less than two hours." confused Crack said.

"I know, but captain want's to see you," the pony said, and took his rifle into his hoof. Crack still looked confused. The pony started to stand with his rifle by his side.

"It sounded pretty important," he added.

Crack realized that what ever it would be, it wouldn't be as boring as the guard duty. He strapped his rifle onto his back and started trotting towards Rough's tent.

Healing Horn packed was packing a shipment of medical supplies, that was going to be shipped to some other base near the border. He closed the boxes, and held them, while some white pony sealed them shut with tape.

Unlike many others, Healing was happy that nothing had happened. He wasn't much for the action and killing, it made him sick.

He couldn't understand how others could kill a changeling, without feeling bad about it. Healing usually threw up after the battle, because he felt so bad about killing.

"Why do you care about them? They aren't like us!" Healing remembered somepony saying to him.

He frowned to that memory. Healing knew that they were wrong. He remembered how the changeling begged for help, when they were in the ursa valley.

"Hey!" somepony shouted to Healing, making him wake up from his thoughts. He shook his head and looked at the white pony who was standing with the tape roll in his hoof.

"You gonna help or what?" the white pony asked, and Healing noticed that he was waiting for him to give a new box to him.

"Yeah. Sure," Healing said and took new packet, closed and then held it while the white pony sealed it. Then they repeated that for couple of more times, until there were no more boxes left.

They lifted the packets to a pallet. The white pony looked at the pallet for a second, and then asked: "You wanna take this?"

"I'll take it," Healing said and lifted the heavy boxes and pallet into air with his magic. He then trotted outside the tent, and made his way towards the landing pads.

Healing Horn looked at the ponies around the base while he was carrying the boxes. They didn't seem to be in any kind of rush. The sun was shining and there were couple of white clouds on the sky. Everything was great.

He reached the landing pads, and placed the pallet on the ground next to him. Now all he had to do was to wait for the carriage from the other base to come and pick up the shipment.

Healing sat down and enjoyed the warmth of the sun.

After a while Healing heard somepony behind him saying: "Hey, you corporal Healing Horn?"

Healing turned his head to the pony behind him. He was a white unicorn.

"That's me," he confirmed.

"Captain want's to see you," the white unicorn said. Healing looked at the boxes, and then back at the unicorn.

"I really need to ship these boxes," he said. The white unicorn came closer and whispered into Healing's ear: "It's important."

Healing frowned. What was going on?

"Can you see that this pallet goes to the right wagon? Address is written on the boxes," Healing asked from the unicorn. "Sure," he answered.

Healing nodded. He then stood up and left the unicorn with the boxes.

Riff was in the armory, just about to light his cigarette.

"Corporal Riff! Take these to the watch tower!" some orange coated sergeant shouted to Riff and pointed at a full crate of 5.56 mm in front of him.

"Yes sir," Riff said and put the cigarette into his pocket. He quickly trotted to the ammo box. The sergeant looked at Riff, who huffed while lifting the heavy box onto his back.

"And be quick! You still have a lot to do!" the orange sergeant rushed Riff angrily.

"Yes sir," Riff said again, sounding a bit more pissed than last time. The sergeant let out a small 'hmph', and turned to somepony else.

Riff didn't like this new sergeant, nor did anypony else. He was too cocky, unlike Payload was.

Riff cursed in his mind, and started to slowly walk to the front door of the armory. Just when Riff reached the door, somepony opened it from the outside. He saw a blue unicorn in the doorway.

"Thanks," Riff said and was about to leave the building, but the unicorn stopped him with his hoof.

"Are you corporal Riff?" he asked. Riff looked at him and answered: "Yep."

"Captain want's to see you at his tent," the blue unicorn said.

"Corporal! Are you stupid or what? Get moving!" the sergeant in the armory shouted to Riff, who looked back at him. Riff turned his head to the blue unicorn.

"Captain has ordered corporal Riff to meet him at once!" the blue unicorn said firmly to the orange sergeant.

"He can go after he drops that crate at the watch tower," sergeant said to the unicorn, looking at him threateningly.

"It's important," blue unicorn said calmly. Riff looked at him, and then at the sergeant behind him.

A small grin appeared on Riff's lips when he said: "Can't disobey captains orders."

Riff dropped the crate on the floor and trotted outside with the blue unicorn, leaving the sergeant grinning his teeth in anger.

"Thanks," Riff said to the blue unicorn, who chuckle and said: "No problem."

They laughed and started to walk towards Rough's tent.

Rough Gunner was standing outside his tent. There were seven ponies standing in front of him, and more were coming. He saw that Crack Shot and Healing were already there, and that Riff was walking towards them with the blue unicorn that Rough had sent to round up the ponies.

They were all handpicked by Rough himself. He knew them all by the name, and he trusted everyone of them from the bottom of his heart.

He did a quick count and noticed that everypony was there.

There were two machine gunners, two medics, a combat engineer, a sniper, two grenadiers, AT soldier and Rough himself. Ten soldiers in total. They all looked at Rough, waiting for a explanation.

Rough cleared his throat and started: "You're here because I chose you personally."

Ponies looked at each other with a confused looks.

"I can trust you, and I know every one of you. That is really important in our mission," Rough continued, but then a black earth pony lifted his hoof and asked: "What mission sir?"

Rough realized that he hadn't briefed them.

"The camp we capture, has been under precise artillery fire. So precise that there must be a changeling spotters in the area," Rough told his soldiers, who listened silently.

"So we're going to search for them?" somepony asked. Rough looked at him and said: "No need for that Ace, we already know where they are hiding."

"Then why are we going there? Can't we just blow them away with artillery?" Crack Shot asked.

"No, we can't. The changelings are in a abandoned factory, that was build when the area was still inhabited by ponies," Rough said. Crack Shot looked at him confusedly and asked: "So?"

Rough lifted his aviator glasses to his forehead and rubbed his eyes. He then put the glasses back to his eyes and said: "The high command want's us to take command of the facility."

Everypony was silent, but then the black pony lifted his hoof again, and asked: "Why the hell?"

Rough chuckled, and then said: "I don't know, but we have to go by the rules."

"Why can't they send the guys from the camp? It's their problem after all!" The blue unicorn asked angrily.

"They can't leave the camp. They're short on soldiers already, and what would happen if the changelings decided to attack there?"

Everypony realized that Rough was right.

"Besides, the spotters would see them leaving the base, while we have a element of surprise on our side," Rough continued.

Some of the ponies nodded in agreement, while others were more skeptical about the whole thing.

"Why there's so few of us? I mean I counted ten," some light yellow pony asked.

"There can't be many of them in the factory, so we won't be needing many soldiers. Plus we can move to the factory unnoticed easier, when there's not too many of us." Rough explained.

"Will we walk there again?" the yellow pony continued asking. Rough had waited that phrase to come.

"No, we will have a carriage to transport us five klicks close to the factory. That same wagon will be our extraction, if the things go south," Rough said and looked at the yellow pony, who nodded.

"Any more questions?" Rough asked from his soldier, while looking at them. Nopony said anything.

"If not, go get your things together," Rough said.

"Hooah," ponies replied.

                                                                  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Everypony watched the ground underneath them, as they flew trough the sky in a big wagon that was pulled by four pegasies. They were flying low, really low. Rough said that it was because they couldn't let the changelings see them approaching, or they would lose their advantage of surprise attack.

Rough gunner looked around his squad. Everypony was wearing their green battle uniform, and their combat vests. Some of them had helmets, but most of them didn't have any headgear. Everypony had their weapons ready. Rough saw Thrill, their anti tank soldier packing his 66mm one shot rocket launches into his bag.

"Hey, Thrill!" Rough shouted over the sound of wind howling in their ears. Thrill stopped his packing and looked at Rough.

"Yes sir?" he asked.

"What are you doing?" Rough asked and watched at the three rocket launchers on the floor.

"I'm arranging these better! They press against my back annoyingly!" Thrill answered. Rough nodded and shouted: "Carry on!"

Thrill continued, and Rough turned to look at the direction they were headed. He could already see the mountains where the actual camp was. It wouldn't take long for them to reach the drop-off point.

Rough turned around, back to his soldiers. Now would be a good time for some last second advice.

"Okay, Listen up!" Rough started, and everypony turned to him.

"Even this should be a easy job, you need to keep your hooves on the ground," he started.

"Don't go acting like a hero, it will only get you shot!" Rough said sternly. He lifted his aviator glasses with his hoof, and looked at his squad.

"Understood?" he asked, and the ponies answered: "Yes sir!"

"Good. -" Rough put his glasses back to his eyes "- Now were getting close to the LZ. After we disembark, rally on me," he explained. He paused for a second, and then continued: "Intel told us that there's pretty much canopy near the facility, so we wouldn't have any problems sneaking up to them,"

"The facility is surrounded by some other buildings, so we need to proceed trough them to the factory," Rough started to explain about the battle plan.

"After we're at the factory, we need to clear it from the enemies." Rough continued, and everypony was listening carefully.

"After that, we start clearing the buildings surrounding it. You Crack Shot -" Rough pointed at Crack "- will stay up at the top of the factory. You will cover us from there," Rough explained.

"Yes sir," Crack said. Rough nodded, and then said: "When the area is cleaned, we will rendezvous at the factory."

Everypony were silent, but then Healing Horn asked: "What if something goes wrong, and we need to get out of there?"

"These fine gentlecolts here will come and pick us up," Rough said and pointed at the pegasies.

"Al right sir!" Healing answered.

After about ten minutes later, they reached the landing zone. The pegasies deceased their speed, and started to fly closer to the ground. When they found a good open spot, they pulled the wagon slightly upwards, making it hover over the open area. They then landed smoothly to the ground.

Rough jumped out from the carriage. The other ponies followed his lead, and soon they were all standing on the ground.

"We will be waiting here for your signal," the leader of the pegasies said to Rough, who just nodded.

Rough looked at his watch. It has a compas in it too.

"Rally on me!" Rough shouted and started to lightly trot towards north, where the factory was located. The others followed him and soon they started to notice small plant's growing up around the.

After about half an hour of walking, they were wading in a dense canopy. There were also small trees and bushes here and there. Making the terrain ideal for moving unnoticed towards the factory, which they already saw.

They reached the border of the old factory area. There was a old rusty mesh fence. It was about two and a half meters tall, so none of them could climb over it. Rough looked at the fence and thought.

"Riff, you got the cutting tools don't you?" Rough asked.

"Yep," Riff said and trotted to the fence. He examined it for a second.

"Hmm," he said. Then he gave a small push to the fence, and it collapsed onto the ground. Riff turned to Rough Gunner and grinned. He said: "Mission accomplished!"

Others laughed at Riff's joke, but Rough was serious.

"Celestia damn it! This is not a good time for joking around! What if there's enemies nearby?" Rough whispered to them angrily. The ponies looked at the ground, and said in unison: "Sorry captain."

Rough didn't say anything. He just started to walk inside the factory area.

"Eyes peeled," he said when they started to see the first buildings around the factory.

The factory itself was and old multi-storey building, that was build in simple style. The walls were grey concrete, and it had big windows with rusty metal grids on them in every floor. It looked just like an abandoned factory should look like. Creepy.

The smaller buildings around the factory were also very ramshackle. They were like big boxes with windows. It looked like some of the buildings had still been under construction, when the factory got abandoned.

"Why was this place abandoned?" Healing Horn asked and gulped.

"I don't know" Crack Shot answered, looking around himself nervously. They were getting closer to the nearest concrete building.

Crack Shot noticed that Rough had planned this attack very well. They were approaching the factory from behind it. There were much more less windows than on any other sides, raising their odds to reach the factory unnoticed.

Rough Gunner was on the lead with Blade, a black coated earth pony. He was the other machine gunner.

Suddenly Blade ducked and whispered: "Down!"

Everypony did just that, ducking into a tall grass. Rough leaned closer to Blade and asked: "What's wrong?"

"Movement," Blade said, and pointed his hoof at the corner of the building. Rough narrowed his eyes, and indeed saw something moving behind the corner. Soon after that two changelings emerged from behind the corner. Rough could hear the two changelings speaking, but didn't hear what they were speaking.

Rough gestured the ponies behind them about the enemy contact. Everypony pulled their guns from their backs, but Rough lifted his hoof to his mouth. They had to do this silently.

The changelings stopped at the door of the building. They had assault rifles on their backs. Rough heard them still talking about something with their insect like voice.

He looked at Blade, who looked back at Rough.

"We must take them out silently," Rough said, and Blade nodded. Rough pulled out his knife, and placed it to his teeth. Blade followed his example. Rough gestured other ponies to wait there.

They started to crawl closer to the changelings in the tall grass, but soon Rough stopped blade by touching him on the shoulder.

"It must be quick and silent, aim for the throat," he said with the knife still in his teeth. Blade nodded, and they again started to crawl closer.

This wasn't anything new to Rough. He had been on similar mission many times during the war with the griffons. The changelings were going to be easy. They weren't big like griffons, nor did they have hawk eyes like them. He had learned that with a precise strike to the throat, you could kill the enemy completely silent. Foe can't even scream, because he drowns in his own blood.

They could now hear what the changelings were speaking about.

"You know drone 18368, I'm sick of this," the other said.

"What do you mean?" other one asked confusedly. The first one then said: "You know, this war. It's completely useless!"

"I don't know what you mean, we need to conquer Equestria" the other said. They looked at each other, then he continued: "Think how long the love in there will last? We can live hundreds of years with it!"

The other one gave him a skeptical look.

"Maybe. But I sometimes feel like we wouldn't even need to feed on love to survive!" he said.

"That's blasphemy!" the other one said shocked.

"Nonono! Think about it! I'm completely in love with drone 18736, and I have never felt hungry!" the skeptical one said, trying to calm down the another changeling. The other one actually calmed down, and seemed to ponder about something.

"Hey, maybe you're right. I mean when I dated that cute drone from the west hive, I never felt hungry either," he said.

The other one seemed to smile exited.

"Do you get it? I bet that we could live just by loving some..."

The changeling got interrupted by Rough Gunner and Blade jumping from the grass. The two changelings didn't even have time to react, until it was already too late.

Rough tackled other against the wall, pushing his knife deep into changelings throat. The changeling tried to scream, but Rough pulled the knife to left, ripping the poor changeling's throat completely open. blood flew from the wound, and Rough let him fall to the ground. The changeling was holding his throat in panic, and all the sound he could make was silent growling.

Rough looked at the dying creature, and for a second it looked back with his eyes that were full of confusion and panic. Then the changeling died.

Rough turned to Blade, who had tackled his changeling inside the doorway. He hadn't been as accurate as Rough, and the knife had hit the changeling a bit too low, under the throat.  Blade had then hit the changeling three times more, and this time the knife had hit where it should have been.

The dead changeling laid under the pale faced Blade, in a big pool of blood. Blade clumsily rose up, and started to shake. Rough walked to him and asked: "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm alr..." Blade started, but suddenly turned around and puked.

Rough knew that feel. He had also done the same thing after his first kill with a knife. It was some kind of reflex, and after that you act like nothing happened, without feeling anything at all. It takes a while to learn how to control it.

"You all right?" Rough asked again. Blade turned around and wiped his mouth.

"Yeah, let's move these bodies inside," Blade said calmly. Just like Rough had thought, Blade was now back to normal now.

After Rough and Blade had dragged the bodies inside the small building, Rough waved at the rest of his soldiers, who stood up from the grass and gathered around him.

"We don't have much time, before they start looking for those two," Rough said and pointed at the dead changelings.

"There's more buildings on the way, so we can use them as cover," Rough continued and looked at the factory. Without without further ado they started to advance towards the factory.

The group moved quickly between the empty buildings. Somepony always stayed in the previous building, and kept watch wile others moved. After the group had moved into the next building, they covered the last pony, while he moved to the next building. It was slow, but they didn't wan't to risk anything.

It was Crack Shots turn to stay behind. He positioned himself behind one of the windows in the unfinished building they were in. Crack took his rifle from it's holster, and pulled the charging handle and clicked the safety off. He quickly scanned that the area between two buildings was clean.

There were stacks of concrete barriers in the middle of the area. It looked like the barriers were stacked there to be moved somewhere else, which never happened. On the right side there was a old road, that had been overran by small plants, making it hardly visible. on the left there was a old wreck of chariot, that had been rusting there for who knew how long. Crack examined the area for a second, and then nodded to Rough Gunner.

"Let's go," he said to the rest of the ponies. They then trotted trough the door.

Crack looked around the open area, keeping his rifle pointed at the way he looked.

Suddenly Crack Shot noticed that the ponies had stopped behind one of the stacks. He turned his rifle towards them, and looked trough his magnifying aimpoint scope.

He saw that they were all pulling their weapons out, and looking at a old road on their right side. Crack turned his rifle towards it, and saw five changelings walking there. How could he have not seen them?

Crack pressed himself closer to the wall, and watched the changelings walking there slowly. At least they hadn't noticed the ponies hiding near them.

Crack saw that one of the changelings had a light machine gun on his back, it could mean real trouble for the ponies if the changelings noticed them. Crack turned his rifle back to hiding ponies, who were pressed against the concrete barriers. Rough looked at Crack Shot, and made a gesture that said 'let them pass'. Crack knew that it would be the best choice, but he still kept his eyes on the walking changelings.

Everything seemed to go fine. The changelings were almost at a safe distance away from the hiding ponies, and they could soon continue approaching the factory.

Crack suddenly heard a loud thud from the direction where the ponies were. He looked there and saw that one of them had dropped his helmet, and it was rolling to the open, making a plonking sound. They all looked at the helmet, wide eyed.

Crack turned to see the changelings. They were too staring at the helmet confusedly.

It seemed like everything froze for a second, but then the changelings started to shout and pulling their weapons from their holsters.

Crack didn't think long, he shot couple of quick shots at the light machine gunner, killing him.

Other ponies too opened fire, killing one more, before the three last changelings managed to even open fire.

Ponies had do duck for cover, when bullets from three changeling assault rifles ripped their cover. Luckily the changelings hadn't noticed Crack Shot, they were too busy trying to engage the group of ponies behind the cover. They had ducked behind the road.They had good protection from ponies behind the barriers, but their sides were completely exposed for Crack.

He aimed at the closest of the three changelings, and fired. The round hit the changeling, but he didn't fall down. He held his side, and looked at the bleeding wound in confusion. Another round to head made him fall down.

Now the two other changelings noticed Crack Shot, and opened fire towards him.

Crack managed to fall flat to his stomach just before bullets hit the window frame, taking big bits with them.

He quickly crawled to the doorway, where he could see that other soldiers from his squad started firing at the changelings, while they were shooting at Crack Shot.

Blade fired a long burst with his machine gun, sawing down the other one. Last changeling looked at his fallen comrade. He seemed to understand that he didn't have any changes, he threw his weapon to the ground and started to run.

Crack rose to his rear legs, leaning against the door frame. He held his gun in his front hooves and aimed at the running changeling. He shot once, and saw how the bullet went trough the changelings neck, piercing the spine. The last changeling fell to the ground like a rag doll.

Without waiting any longer, Crack strapped his weapon back to his back. He exited the building and ran after the rest of the ponies, who were already in the next building. When Crack got inside, Rough Gunner shouted: "Weapons free! Move in cover and fire anything that's not a pony!"

Crack trotted to Riff, who looked at the light green pony in front of him.

"Nice shooting there," he said to Crack Shot, who panted and just nodded.

"Move up!" Rough shouted, and everypony started to ran towards the factory. They ran about half way there, when the firing began. Several muzzle flashes began flashing from the factory and it's windows, and running ponies dashed for cover.

Riff dived behind a big metal pipe, that was lying on the ground. Soon a cyan earth pony dived next to him. It was Charge, one of their grenadiers. He had a similar rifle as Riff, but it had a 40mm grenade launcher attached to it's attachment rail, under the barrel. The two ponies looked at each other

.

"What a fucking mess," Charge said and reloaded his rifle. Riff peeked around the pipe, and saw that the changelings and ponies were engaging in a intense gunfight with each other. Riff saw that there was a small ditch on their left, that leaded right next to changelings.

"Hey, Charge! Look over there!" Riff shouted over the loud gunfire, and pointed his hoof at the ditch. Charge looked at the ditch, and seemed to have the same idea as Riff did. They looked at each other, and then they shouted in unison: "Covering fire!"

Other ponies heard that, and they all opened fire at the changelings in the factory. There were more lead in the air than in wild west. The tracers flew across the battlefield, ripping the concrete walls of the factory, and breaking the glass windows.

Now Riff and Charge had a opportunity to run to the ditch. They galloped towards it at full speed, and jumped into it. Then they started to crawl towards the fortified changelings.

They soon were only twenty meters from the factory,and they could see the changelings inside.

"Ready?" Riff asked from the Charge.Charge nodded and placed a grenade to his grenade launcher, while Riff took two grenades from his combat vest.

"Three," they counted.

"Two," Riff pulled pins from the grenades with his teeth.

"One!" they said, and rose up. Charge pointed his gun towards the firing changelings. They heard a small blob, when Charge fired the grenade towards the enemy. It exploded, taking a big part of the wall wit it. Now Riff could easily throw the grenades inside the building. He released the safety handles, and counted to two. He then threw them both in from the hole in the wall.

Seconds later, they heard two hollow explosions from inside the building, and flames burst from the hole and the nearby windows. Charge shot second time, but now he aimed at the second floor windows. Wall exploded, and one changeling flew down from there, into his death.

Riff took his rifle, and shot at the windows of the second floor. Charge too opened the fire, keeping the changelings low, while other ponies ran towards the factory. Riff saw them jumping inside from the hole in the wall, and then he heard gunfire from the inside.

"Let's go!" Charge shouted to Riff, who fired couple of more times at the windows, before they started running towards the wall.

Just a couple of meters before the hole in the wall, a single shot was heard, and Charge let out a yelp. He took couple of more steps, but he then stumbled and fell to the ground. Riff turned to Charge, who gritted his teeth in pain.

"Oh shit! How bad is it!?" Riff asked and grabbed Charge from his uniform with his teeth. He started to pull Charge inside the factory.

"Nothing bad! The bullet went trough!" Charge said and held his stomach, that was bleeding blood. Riff managed to drag Charge inside the factory. There he saw many dead changelings, and the floor was full of shells. The air smelled of gunpowder, smoke and death.

Riff placed Charge to lean at one of the support pillars inside the factory.

"Can you shoot?" he asked from Charge, who was still holding his stomach.

"Yeah, just give me my pistol," Charge said, and pointed at his bag. Riff opened the back, and pulled a 9mm sidearm from it. He gave it to Charge, and dug two full clips from the bag too.

"Keep an eye on that hole! I'll go get you a medic!" Riff explained to Charge, who nodded and said, grinning in pain: "Just go already!"

Riff stood up and started to run towards the stairs. He saw couple of more bodies, but all of them were changelings, so they were doing pretty well. Just couple of minutes more, and the factory would be theirs.

Riff heard more gunfire from the upper levels, and he started to run faster towards the stairs.

Healing Horn shot at a doorway in front of him. Right after he stopped firing, two muzzle flashes fluttered from the doorway, making Healing to duck behind some boxes with scrap metal in them.

He looked at a grey earth pony, who was behind a nearby corner. His name was Buzzcut, and he lived by his name. His mane was cut short with a electric cutter. He was the second machine gunner.

He was there with their another medic, Boxsee. He was the blue unicorn. They too couldn't move due the enemy fire.

They were in a  big room, with only one way forward. It was a small corridor, and two changelings were doing good job protecting it.

Healing Horn tried to stood up to shoot at the changelings in the doorway, but right after he lifted his head, bullets ricocheted from the wall behind him. They couldn't move anywhere. Healing tried to look around for help, but everypony else had ran off somewhere else.

"Healing!" they heard somepony shout.

Healing Horn turned around and saw Riff trotting towards them.

"Stay back! We can't move here!" Healing shouted and waved his hooves at Riff, who stopped behind one of the support pillars in the room.

"What's going on?" Riff shouted from behind the pillar.

"There's two of them, and we can't get past!" Healing said.

Riff peeked from behind the pillar, he was at safe position. Changelings didn't see him there.

Healing watched Riff waving at Buzzcut.

When he got Buzzcut's attention, Riff took a grenade from his combat vest, and showed it to Buzzcut, who nodded.

Then Riff ducked, and slid the grenade across the floor, right into Buzzcut's feet. He took the grenade, and looked at Boxsee, and then at Healing.

Healing nodded, and then Buzzcut pulled the pin. He quickly leaned over the corner, and tossed the grenade into the doorway. Before he managed to pull himself back behind the corner, one of the changelings shot a quick burst, and bullet hit him in the front leg, went trough and hit his lower body.

"Shit!" Healing shouted, and dashed to help Buzzcut, while Boxsee shot towards the door with his assault rifle, covering Healing Horn.

Grenade inside the doorway exploded, making the other changeling fly trough the doorway, and landing in front of Boxsee.

He shot it once, and then he and Riff rushed inside the room with their pistols drawn.

Meanwhile Healing Horn was helping wounded Buzzcut. He heard couple of shots from the room, but didn't care about them.

Buzzcut's wounds were bleeding badly, but fortunately they hadn't hit any vital organs.

"Aah! Doc, Is it bad?" Buzzcut asked, while holding his arm. Healing placed a bandage over his side, where the bullet had hit him. Then he said: "You're going to live, but we need to get you a medevac!"

Boxsee and Riff came trough the door with smoking sidearms in their hooves.

"Is he alright?" Boxsee asked from Healing, who nodded and said: "Nothing too bad, but we need to move him."

Riff remembered something.

"Charge is down stairs, he got hit too," he said to the two medics.

"How badly?" Boxsee asked.

"I don't know, I had to drag him inside, but he could still shoot," Riff answered, and started to change a clip into his pistol.

Boxee looked at Healing Horn and wounded Buzzcut.

"Can you two move him? I could go see Charge," he asked.

Healing and Riff nodded.

"Okay, I'll see you upstairs," Boxee said, and started to gallop towards the stairs that led downstairs.

Healing Horn, Riff and Buzzcut looked at the running medic, until he disappeared down the stairs, and they could no longer see him.

Healing and Crack Shot then turned to Buzzcut, who was still sitting on the floor. Healing had done good job bandaging him up, but blood was still coming trough from the bandages.

"Okay, Up we go," Riff said when he and Healing lifted Buzzcut to his hooves. Healing lifted Buzzcut's wounded leg over his neck, suppoerting him while they started to move. Riff held his pistol, and was ready to shoot at anything. They were in the third floor, and they heard gunfire from above them.

Healing thought that Rough and rest of the soldiers were almost at the roof.

"We have three more floors to go, can you make it?" Healing asked from Buzzcut, who winced everytime he stepped with his right hind leg.

"Yeah.. just need to slow down a bit," Buzzcut panted, while they started to rise the first set of stairs.

"No need to hurry," Riff said, and helped Healing to keep Buzzcut in balance.

Suddenly they heard a new sound from above them. It was gunfire, but much louder, and it sounded different, like slower.

"What's that?" Healing asked and looked at RIff, who shrugged.

"It's fifty-cal," Buzzcut said.

Healing Horn and Riff looked at him. Then Riff looked up the stairs and said: "I wouldn't want to be up there right now."

Tracers from the roaring fifty-cal flew trough the big, hall like room they were in. Rough Gunner hiding with Crack Shot. They were behind pile of steel bars, that were piled in the corner of the room. He looked around, and saw rest of his soldiers hiding too. Nopony could fire back at the machine gun.

They had walked right into the trap. The fifty-cal was behind a crumpled brick wall, and when it started firing, at least two of them got hit, but Rough Gunner didn't know who.

"Sitrep!" Rough shouted, he needed to know who were still alive.

"SNAFU! (situation normal: all fucked up)" Thrill shouted from behind a support pillar.

"I'm hit, but it's just a flesh wound!" Blade shouted.

"Where are you? Can you move!?" Rough inquired further. He saw Blade rising his head from behind a pile of red bricks.

"I'm okay! It just went trough my hoof!" he shouted and waved his bloody left front hoof to Rough.

Fifty-cal opened fire at Blade, but he managed to get back behind cover before the rounds reached him. Red brick dust flow in the air, when the machine gun stopped firing at him.

"Sonawabitch! That was close one!" they heard Blade shouting.

Crack Shot chuckled at him, but Rough continued asking: "How about you Grunt!?"

Nopony answered, only the fifty-cal shot a short burst at them again.

"Grunt!?" Rough shouted, still no answer.

Grunt was their youngest, only eighteen years old, while most of them were twenty to twenty-five, and Rough was closer to thirty.

"Where is he!?" Rough asked from nopony in general. Machine gun in the other end of the hall answered to him with another short burst, that made hoof sized holes in the wall behind them.

"Oh buck! Hes dead!" They heard Thrill shouting.

"What? where!?" Crack shot asked. He saw Thrill pointing at a pile of wooden boxes near the door. The 50.cal bullets had ripped them apart.

Crack and Rough saw Grunt's hind legs from behind the boxes.

"Are you sure he's dead!?" Rough asked, he knew the answer, but didn't want to hear it.

"He's missing half of his fucking head!" Thrill shouted. He sounded like he was crying.

"Oh that's it!" They heard Blade shouting. They turned towards him and saw him rising to a half sitting position. He held his light 7.62mm machine gun on the hip.

"What the fuck?" Crack asked.

They saw him adjusting his weapon in his lap, and the fifty-cal started to turn to his direction.

"Get down you stu..." Thrill started, but just then Blade opened fire. He fired nonstop at the enemy machine gun. Tracers flew around the changeling machine gun, and bronze shells flew from his weapon.

Blade managed to keep the gun steady, even the recoil tried to pull the weapons mouth upwards. The bullets flew in a straight line, but they didn't see if Blade hit the enemies or not.

Rough noticed their change, and shouted: "Open fire! Open fire!"

Everypony rose up, and started to empty their guns at the fifty-cal. Rough though he heard  screams from it, but wasn't sure. The sound of gunfire was ear shattering. They all fired nonstop, and the bullets rattled in the brick wall, behind which the machine gun was

Blade was still shooting his machine gun, and tracer flew trough the air, looking like some kind of pearl necklace of death.

Rough heard his gun click.

"Cease fire!" he shouted, and everypony stopped firing. Everypony except Blade, who shot for five seconds longer. The barrel of his machine gun was glowing red.

Rough dropped the empty clip on the floor, and quickly placed a new one into the magazine feed. He looked over the steel bars, and saw that it wasn't moving anymore.

"I think we got them!" Crack said.

"Oh really?" Thrill shouted, sounding sarcastic.

Rough Gunner stood up, and walked to the machine gun, or what was left of it. Rest of his soldiers soon followed.

The gun itself was full of scratches and bents from the bullets, and the firing mechanism was blown to bits by probably by bullets from Blade's machine gun.

The users of the gun were laying next to the machine gun. They too were in a pretty bad shape. Their bodies were full of bullet holes, and they were pretty much covered in blood. Nopony could have recognized them. Crack thought that it was hard to tell if they even were changelings, the bodies were that messed up.

They heard a long whistle from behind them. Rough and Crack turned around and saw Healing Horn and Riff holding Buzzcut.

"Did we miss something?" Riff asked with a grin.

"Nothing much," Crack said smiling tiredly. He then looked at Buzzcut, who was panting between Riff and Healing Horn.

Rough came to them and asked concerned: "Is he alright?"

"Nothing bad, just need to take things easily. Ain't that right Buzzcut?" Healing said and looked at Buzzcut, who panted and said: "Yeah.. totally."

Rough nodded, and looked at the two ponies. There seemed to be somepony missing.

"Where's Boxsee and Charge?" he asked.

Riff and Healing looked at each other, they didn't actually know where they were.

"We're here!" they suddenly heard Boxsee shout at the door.

He was helping wounded Charge, by letting him lean on himself while they walked.

"Are you alright Charge?" Riff shouted.

"Yeah! -" Charge lifts his head and looks at Riff "- I thought that you had left me there!" he shouted back, making Riff frown. He then said angrily: "I would never do that!"

Charge and Boxsee reached the rest of the ponies. Boxsee looked around himself for a moment. He had a worried look on his face.

"Where's Grunt?" he asked, looking at Rough. Now Healing, Riff and Buzzcut too noticed that he was missing.

"He's dead," Rough said, sounding as calm as he could.

Boxsee's eyes widened, so did Riff's and Healing Horn's. They looked at Rough, and then they asked: "How?"

Rough Gunner pointed his hoof at the destroyed fifty-cal.

"Oh.. Well.. are we gonna leave him here?" Healing asked slowly.

"No, we will take him to the roof with us," Rough said.

Healing nodded, and then looked at Buzzcut and Charge. He then turned to Rough and asked: "How about the wounded?"

"They stay on the roof too, and when we're done, the flyboys will pick them up." Rough explained, and he saw a relieved expression on Charge's and Buzzcut's face.

"Hey! I'm wounded too! Can I stay up here too?" they heard Blade say. They looked at him, he was waving his bloody hoof in front of him.

"You said yourself that it was just a minor flesh wound," Rough said to him, looking at him.

"Yeah.. but.." Blade tried, but stopped when Rough continued: "Healing Horn will patch you up. Then me, Thrill, Boxsee, Riff and you will start clearing the rest of the area."

"Will Healing Horn stay with us?" Buzzcut asked from Rough, who nodded and said: "Yes, and Crack Shot will stay here too. You will watch over our backs, right?"

Rough looked at Crack when he asked that. Crack saluted and said: "Yes sir,"

Rough turned to face his soldiers. He looked at them and said: "Now get the wounded and take them to the roof. -" He turned to Boxsee "- Boxsee, come help me carry private Grunt to the roof."

Boxsee gulped and said: "Y.. yes sir."