Harmony's Defeat: Restoration

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Target Host: Courage Tyler
Identification: Cobra Alpha Two Niner
Operation: Breakthrough
Location: Moscow Outskirts
Mission Time: 00:08:44
Transmission Begin...

“Why are we landing here again instead of landing with the Russian forces?!” asked Twilight, her voice trying to overcome the powerful noises of the mighty helicopter blades.
“It’s an offensive strategy! We flank the enemy forces from a different direction, forcing the enemy to focus on more than one front, spreading their forces thin! It also means we can cut off the enemy from behind and slowly fight our way towards the Russians, preventing enemy reinforcement while at the same time taking out the attack forces! It creates a little more work for us but it'll give the Russians some breathing space!”
The chopper soon hit the ground.
“Touch down! Hit it marines!” yelled the pilot as the chopper bobbed very faintly on the ground for a moment.
I jumped out the side of the Luna camo chopper and onto the road. Twilight, Applejack and Rainbow soon jumped out with me. A second infantry transport had landed right behind ours and Fluttershy and Russell were already dismounting it to join us. The choppers took off and two much larger chopper transports flew above the ground with huge tanks magnetically hooked to the bottom. These tanks were huge, a lot like those huge Russian tanks we attacked the Russian reactor with during the Human-Discord war. They were quad tread-ed like Halo scorpion tanks with a dual barreled slim turret and large caliber coaxial machine gun beside the right barrel. It had a pointed front on the main hull which was exactly level with similarly pointed fronts on the front two sets of treads. This was designed for plowing through all kinds of vegetation, barriers, weather and was also good for deflecting bullets and with a special shock absorbing structure for ramming into buildings or resisting RPG’s and other explosions. These were more powerful and better designed compared to ANY human tank. The tanks were dropped four feet from the ground and they landed on the road with force. Ponies soon dropped ropes out the side doors of the large choppers and soon the pony marines slid down them to join our strike force.

It had been a few days since Exodia contacted us. Luna was still injured in bed but I and the rest were in, acceptable condition to fight. Liam was off site with a team of old UN soldiers that we found in a small militia settlement, preparing to fly in with them to back us up if we needed it. It turns out, most of the non-American UN forces were not part of Jettison’s little plan for world domination, however so few remained and were so disbanded without the UN leadership, that they never managed to rally together in time to overrule Jettison’s actions.

We were now all walking down the streets, walking on the sides as the tanks slowly rolled down the middle as we made our way through the deserted streets. The main warzone was in the centre while the civilians were evacuated to the subway tunnels of the east side of Moscow. The Americans controlled most of the west which is why we landed in the south west area of the city. We were on our way to cut the west off from the warzone. Once we secured a closer landing zone, Luna would have more ships and choppers fly in reinforcements.

After a while of moving through the ruins of Moscow, we moved out onto a large opening by a bridge that crossed over a river. We didn’t see anything hostile in the area so we started to move our little task force towards the bridge. We got close to crossing but soon from many of the streets on the opposite side came Abrams tanks. We all took cover behind cars and rubble as out tanks took position at the river left of the bridge, returning fire straight away as the Abrams tanks started to fire on our position. Twilight dived for cover next to me and held her head, looking to me after.
“I think they know we are here” she pointed out obviously.
“Noooo!! You don’t say!!” I replied sarcastically.
Our tanks came under heavy fire but soon the shells started to ease off as our tanks annihilated the enemy tanks one by one, taking minimal damage. The tanks were now taken out but we could only assume they had snipers or garrisoned troops ready to take out our infantry. I looked to Russell and waved my hand forward. Me and him stood up and started to walk towards the bridge. Some pony marines got up and aimed across the river to cover us if needed. We reached the bridge but to cross it would mean we would be crossing without any cover.
“We should send the tanks up” suggested Russell.
I shook my head then looked over the car we were now using for cover. “We can’t. We need to draw the enemy out of hiding. No doubt, they will have more defenses waiting for us. We need to make sure it is safe”
“This is going to go horribly wrong” he sighed.
“Why should today be any different?” I responded casually.
I looked around in thought, trying to come up with a cunning plan. I then smiled at the burnt out car door. I got up and grabbed the inside of the broken window from, before pressing a foot against the husk as I pulled on it. Eventually I pulled it off, falling onto my back with it. I then took my knife and stabbed a hole through the cup holder in the car and forced my arm through it. The broken plastic scratched my arm up a bit but the pointy bits held my arm in place tight. I now had a car door shield.
“Bullet shield!” I cheered happily.
Everyone looked over to me curiously, Russell looking a bit skeptical of my plan.
“What?... At least it’s some form of cover, right?” I said defensively.
I turned back to look over the car again, still seeing it was clear across the bridge.
“Alright Russell, lets move” I ordered quietly.
We moved around the car and towards the bridge. I crouched down and started to advance like a swat officer would with a riot shield, Russell staying right behind me to use me and the shield for cover, scanning the area across the bridge. The bridge wasn’t very long so we got across in about forty seconds at our slow speed. However just as we were about to set foot on the other side, I heard a loud rifle shot, followed by a nasty tear of flesh and a thud behind me. I looked back in shock as Russell laid on the ground behind me, gasping for air as half his neck was blown off. He was bleeding out fast and I couldn’t help him. I looked back forward to try and see the sniper. I already saw that the pony marines were doing the same. Suddenly we heard another rifle sound off and a bullet blasted through the door and barely missed my hip, taking a chunk out the bridge behind me. My eyes widened as I realized now that the door was nothing to the weapon firing at me. I dropped it and ran for the nearest dumpster. The sniper fired again as I slide across the ground and behind the green waste bin, the shot barely missing me. I looked back over to Russell who was no longer moving. I wanted to help him but the sniper was watching over him.
“Shit!! Where is he?!” I yelled.
I soon heard Twilight’s voice down the earpiece.
“Courage, we need to locate the sniper so the tanks can take him out”
“Great... So we need to draw him out by getting him to fire?” I sighed in despair.
“If you would, please” asked Twilight.
“You are crazy Twilight! I’m going to get killed!” I complained in return.
“Just do it. All the marines are watching separate sectors. We just need him to shoot another couple of rounds”
“What about Russell? He is bleeding out?!” I pointed out with concern.
“We will recover him as soon as we can but that sniper will shoot anyone who goes near him! So stop wasting time and jump around for the sniper!” Ordered Twilight in frustration. She was not quite the same mare anymore. It was stupid to get the ponies involved in this war. Now she prioritizes some lives over others instead of trying to save them all. I think the old Twilight would have done everything to get to that downed soldier or to find a safer way to get the sniper.
“Luna damn it!” I cursed as I moved out of cover and ran towards the next piece of cover. The sniper fired as I dived for the Abrams husk, the bullet bouncing off the tank armour only inches from hitting me. I quickly got up and slammed my back against the husk, panting softly, more with fear than exhaustion.
“Did ya see him?!” I asked quickly, feeling heavy suspense almost literally weighing on my shoulders..
“No! Try again!” she replied.
“I'm lucky he missed the first two times! What makes you think he will miss the third!”
“Just do it Courage! I promise to get you out of this alive!”
“Fuck!” I curse in pissed tone as I jumped out of cover again. I run across the open road another shot going off and hitting my shoulder. I yell out in pain as I spin from the force and fall down behind a taxi. Twilight then yells her commands and both the tanks fire at a large apartment building down the road. The shells rip two whole floors apart but it was impossible to confirm the kill. I crawled and lent against the car for cover and held my shoulder.
“Did ya get him?!” I yelled, wincing and grunting from the pain.
“We can’t tell” Twilight replied.
“Get to Russell now! Get marines over here now! Ah fuck!”
I put my free hand on the ground beside me and slowly go down, holding my shoulder tight as it bleeds out slowly. I lay on my side, still wincing hard from the stiffness and pain in my joint. I saw some marines quickly moving across the bridge, holding their weapons in their hooves. A couple approached Russell and started to pull his body behind the nearest car for cover. The few others keep moving towards me, aiming towards the building where the sniper was.
“Is he okay?!” was the first question to blurt out of my mouth.
I waited for a little while as the two marines worked on Russell, but soon one of them stood up and shook his head sadly. Wow. He was just dead. In one clean shot. It was only me and Liam left of the original team. Everyone else we had were militia or ponies.

The other three pony marines approached me to patch me up. As soon as one lent down to patch me up, the one furthest from was hit in the chest by a sniper shot. The son of a bitch was still alive. The angle of the blood splatter came from a different angle which meant he had moved. The ponies jumped down next to me, the wounded one getting dragged in too. Everypony else got down also and covered their heads.
“Tanks, move up!” ordered Twilight angrily. She was definitely not the same.
The tanks soon started to roll across the bridge and started to scan the area with their main guns, searching for the sniper.
“He’s trying to take us all out one by one! Tanks, start wiping out all the buildings at medium range!” I ordered quickly. The tanks do so and start to turn their guns around, firing at all the apartments and shops around us. The idea was to play extreme minesweeper with the sniper: Keep hitting random spots until we got him. We could have tried drawing him out again but I didn’t want him taking anyone else down. After a little while the tanks stopped and started to look around at the wreckage they had caused. We all got up and started to look around as well, hoping to see a dead sniper somewhere.

After a few seconds, we all started to move out to conduct a proper search of the area. I got up and walked towards the first tank. I sat down on one of the tread housings, holding my shoulder as Fluttershy ran over to tend to my wound.
“Oh dear! Are you okay?” she asked with caring concern, taking out a small shot of fluid.
“I’ll be fine...” I responded.
Before she could start tending my wound, I froze and looked to a laser which was aiming beside the tank at Fluttershy’s hooves. I looked to the source and it was being aimed from a pile of rubble. I saw an all so distinctive, unforgettable green visor behind a sniper scope, but why was he aiming for the ground I thought. It became clear when we all heard the whistling and whooshing of incoming artillery fire..
“Laser designator!!” I yelled before tackling Fluttershy away from the tank and staying on top of her as shells started to rain down around us, exploding all around us. I picked us up and started to run towards a half intact shop, trying to avoid getting blown up. Everyone else did the same, running for cover quickly. We were getting so close to the shop now but the artillery was not letting up. I kept running with Fluttershy for our lives an-
Boom!

Transmission Cut...
Mission Time: 00:32:19
Diagnosis: Host Stopped Transmitting
Reconnecting...
Attempt One...
Failed...
Attempt Two...
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Attempt Three...
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Three attempts Failed...
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