Fallout Equestria: War, war, war...

We flew out of the squad bay with speed and accuracy that would make Rainbow Dash proud. Not that I could say so outside of my head. We flew under the Victorious, as the squad bay was located under her. On her flanks were the Pyrocumulious and the Twister. The Raptors were big and packed a lot of firepower, but nothing compared to a Thunderhead class ship. Thunderheads are mobile siege platforms. Like a whole base but mobile.

We flew out from under the ship and got a good look at the sky. Patchy. The cloud cover was scarce and patchy. Once you pass the S.P.P.s range the cloud cover gives way to the natural pattern. It was a sight I had only heard of. The land was blasted and lifeless, just like Equestria. The only difference being was the land had more color to it. It got sunlight due to the lack of a forced cloud cover. You could even see some small patches of green up in the mountains. I wondered if Equestria would look like this in a few decades if we removed the clouds we so anxiously sealed up the sky with. We began flying away from the Victorious to secure a location marked on our E.F.S.

It was a very short flight. two minutes at the most. We scouted a 5000 meter perimeter around the dead woods surrounding the open field the logistic nerds had picked out. It was all clear with no signs of life to the naked eye or one E.F.S.

“Rod, radio the victorious and give her the green light.” in a few hours this open field would be filled with bustle of an F.O.B. (Forward Operating Base). From it we would send multiple different kinds of teams and equipment to start harvesting resources.

“Yes sir.” He said as he pressed a button on the radio set and then put a hoof to his helmet, pressing the button on the side. “Foxtrot to Victorious, do you copy? over.” a moment of his silence then he gave the green. “LZ is clear, you are a go.” He withdrew his hoof and gave me a nod.

I placed my hoof on the side of my head piece now, broadcasting to all the squads here. “Okay lets head back. Stay in formation.”

We began our flight back. Gaining altitude to get level with the Victorious. The Twister was already pulling towards the landing zone. It was a pretty awesome sight, all that firepower in one spot.

There was a flash from the ground, towards the mountains, followed by a boom that murdered the silence. The boom was followed by a mixed sound of screeching metal and a massive explosion. I chose the wrong moment to blink.

When my eyes opened a split second later the Twister had a gaping hole, clean and straight through her. Flames billowed out of the great wound as her nose dropped, her thrusters visibly losing power. The whole formation hovered in place, awestruck at the sight of a mighty war machine turned into a flaming hunk of metal, by what seemed to be only a single blow.

Do something! Assault the position of the attacker! My years of military training kicked in. I brought my hoof up and pressed the call button on the headset. “Stay in formation and move with me! Were attacking that position!” I called over it and began towards it.
“Fuck you Thunder! If any of you want to live, retreat!” Blue called over an open channel.

I looked over my shoulder and saw him and his squad heading for the Victorious. Cowards.

Then something below caught my eye. I watched as five winged silhouettes flew up from the woods directly beneath Blue and his squadron. They had talons outstretched and flew up, in between, and past them. I watched in horror as their heads seemed to roll off their bodies with ease.

“Contact below!” I heard someone call over the comm channel, snapping me out of my trance. I looked down just in time to see a griffin flying at me with speed and murder in his eyes. I flapped hard and back flipped just enough to allow him to soar past me. I gave a hard flap and fell in behind him, this fucker wasn't getting away! I tightened my jaw around the mouthpiece, just waiting for him and my crosshairs to match up. He started to bank left for a turn, right into my sights. I bit down, sending two orange beams at him. He flew right into them, resulting in him becoming outlined in a orange hue and, in the blink of an eye, turned to ash. I smiled triumphantly.

I had a lot of adrenalin pumping through my veins, I think that's why I hadn't notice the new sound in the air. Gunfire. I turned and gazed at the scene in front of me. More attackers had shown up, from below I presumed. The scene before me portrait ponies and griffins flying through the air, choreographing the deadliest dance to be done, war.

I turned to look at the area where I thought to have seen the flash come from. I thought I saw some piece of large machinery, but it only lasted for a second, as the Victorious opened fire with her energy cannons. They weren't very loud, especially compared to what ever took out the Twister, but they still made a more than audible discharge. They continued the bombardment for a few seconds, taking precautions to prevent the loss of another, irreplaceable ship. The main guns turned the area I was looking at into a singed , barren, rock face. It was an awesome display of firepower.

I snapped back to reality and turned back to face the battle. I saw one soldier being chased by two griffins and knew he wouldn't last much longer without any help. I sped after them.

I was firing rapidly, but not widely, at the griffins. I hit one and was rewarded with him glowing for a split second, then turning to ash. I was closing in on the last one, he wasn't near fast enough to outrun me. I was a couple feet away now, I bit down on my mouthpiece. Nothing. “FUCK!” I forgot to reload. I collided with him and we began to spin around in the air. He had some sort of gauntlet on, with what seemed even sharper talons! He slashed across my face. I tried to duck but it only avoided getting my eyes slashed out, gifting me a deep cut above my right eye. I drove a hoof into the side of his beak, rewarding me with a loud crack and him screaming in pain. I gave a hard flap and spun around. I bucked him as hard as I could in his chest, reloading my rifles and feeling a deep crack where my hooves hit him. I propelled myself forward, wiping the flowing blood from my eyes and towards. the next group of these winged bastards.

I saw a group of six griffins chasing Quick, helmet off and thin streaks of blood along his cheek, signaling a close call with an enemy.

He went into a nose dive, the griffins following, speeding up without the drag of armor.

He then flipped around in mid air, still falling but now facing his assailants. He fired a rocket right at them. Before they could break away it collided with one of them, detonating upon impact. His buddies weren't lucky either, they were well within the blast radius. I watched as five limp, smoking bodies, and some chunks of another, fell to the earth.

I flew over to him, yelling so I could be heard, “Quick!”

He turned to face me. “Sarge! Wheres Misty? Rod?” He was scared. Not for himself, but for them. I admired that.

“I dont know! We gotta find them, follow me!” I wasn't used to giving too many orders, but at at a time like this I needed to.

He nodded and we took off towards the cluster fuck in the sky.

I saw one soldier being chased by four griffins and started for them. I motioned for Quick to engage and he nodded in compliance. I was a few feet behind him ready to follow his rockets up with rakes from my rifles.

That was until I was blind sided by a large, feathery object. He had his talons around my throat as we hovered there in place. He had a deep, bleeding crack in his beak and a fire burning in his eyes. Fuck, I should have made sure he was dead!

A darkness was creeping in around my eye sight. In an advanced hoof to hoof combat lesson I took they described what it was like to be suffocated. They described it spot on. The sounds around me were becoming muffled and the world was giving away to black. The only thing I could see now was his face. That too only lasted for a split second more as it jerked to the side and then disappeared, covering my face in a warm wetness. I began falling, I was too oxygen deprived to catch myself.

Something halted my decent and slowly I regained full consciousness. I looked up and saw Quick. “Sarge? You alright? Sarge?”

I flapped my wings and held myself up. “Yeah.” I gave a cough to clear my throat. “Thanks for the save Quick, I owe you.”

“Ah, it ain't nothin. You’d have done the same.” He said with a gracious smile.
I looked around and saw that our forces, though lost a few, had started evening the numbers. Where the fuck is the cavalry? They should have sent some sort of reinforcements!

I looked back to Quick. “What happened?” I wanted to know just what saved my tail.
He gave a snort and said, “She happened.” He gave a nod in a direction and I turned my head to look over at Misty, quickly flying up to us.

“S-sergeant, are you okay? I didn't nick you did I?” She seemed genuinely worried that she'd might have hit me. Part of me thanked her for her kindness, and a part of me worried that the trained sniper was worried she might have hit the wrong guy.

I gave a small chuckle and replied, “No im fine. Thanks. That bird brain would have finished me off if it wasn't for you..”

She nodded then looked around. “Wheres Rod?”

“Shit!” Quick exclaimed behind me. “I haven't seen him since the battle started!” His voice trembled slightly from panic and fear. .

“Calm down, we’ll find him.” I looked to Misty. “Use your scope to search for him, me and Quick will fly around and look.”

“Oh, okay I can do th-” She was cut short by something flying up and wrapping around her and dragging her down to the ground.

“MISTY!” Quick yelled as he took off after her, me not far behind.

Once we arrived in the small clearing in the woods Misty landed in we saw what caught her. It was a net with weights on it. Quick began trying to bite the net.

“Please get me out of here.” Misty pleaded. She didn't seem scared as much as she did annoyed.

“Shoot it off sarge!” Quick had terror painted all over his face.

“I can't shoot it, it would hit her!” I explained. “we need to cut it! Find som-” i was cut off as I heard a muffled ‘whump’ and a second later something throwing me into Quick, and throwing us both to the ground.
It was a net, just like Misty’s. “What the fuck!?” I yelled out. Now I was pissed.

From the woodline came three griffons. One carrying a launcher of some sort. The lead one spoke.

“You sky hoarders think you can come to our already ravaged land, and steal what little things we have?” He was an all gray griffin with a scar running down the length of his neck and he spoke with deep, but almost sinister voice. “You will suffer for yours and your leaders actions.”

“Fuck you bird brain!” I spat at him through clenched teeth.

“I’ll fucking geld you all! You mother fucking abominations!” Quick screamed, clearly pissed. He was thrashing about, trying to break the bindings of the rope.

A couple more griffins came out of the woods. The lead griffin nodded to them and two came over to us, rifles in their talons.
“Oh fucking Cele-” I was silenced with the butt of a rifle.