Fallout Equestria: Longtalons

Chapter 27

The Battle of Fillydelphia

As it turned out, the shooting started in Fillydelphia about thirty hours later.

The news started out good about six hours after Heidi's briefing when we heard that something had destroyed a fleet of Enclave ships. A massive explosion with no evident source, that everyone speculated was caused by one of the ship's ancient generators losing containment after being taxed so much after being left so long to rust and rot without proper maintenance. Other rumors circulated that the Enclave had balefire bombs aboard the ships and one detonated prematurely. Nobody knew for sure, but we were taking it as a boon to have less ships to deal with.

The news only got worse from there. An hour after that, we learned that one of the supercarriers and its escort were absolutely headed for the Everfree forest and the Cathedral within, while another was on a course for us. And two hours after that, news started to trickle in as the engagement began in the Everfree.

We were all manning our defensive position near the wall, sitting atop a flat roof and huddled around Leigh and her radio while trying to glean what we could from the radio chatter. It sounded like the Enclave were taking a slow approach, but even so the attack was brutal and relentless once it began. We didn't gather much detail, since we were only overhearing whatever second hand info was relayed on Talon Company frequencies, but it sounded grim. The army were trying to hold their defensive positions, but the magical energy weapons on the Enclave ships were punching through the bunkers with little difficulty. We caught some excited chatter about hellhounds not long after that, and then the five words that still ring in the back of my mind to this very day came across the radio.

“Master Red Eye is dead!” All of us took collected gasps and exchanged shocked looks. Nobody had any chance to question whoever was on the other end of the radio before he continued, “This is First Sergeant Whitebeak, acting command of second platoon. I repeat, Master Red Eye is dead! Lieutenant Strongclaws is incapacitated and the Cathedral is being overrun! I'm ordering all Talon Company elements to break off and return to Fillydelphia immediately to regroup!”

Captain Stern cut in over the radio, demanding an explanation and tactical update, since she hadn't authorized the retreat, but there was no acknowledgment. Sergeant Whitebeak was probably nowhere near the radio anymore.

Carmelita's beak hung open for a moment before she muttered, “Pluck me bald...”

Amy wrung the barrel of her rifle and stared silently at the radio. All of her nightmares must have been coming true. If the Cathedral hadn't even slowed the Enclave down, what was going to happen when they came here? We had more people here but I wasn't remotely convinced that we were better fortified. The Everfree forest provided a lot of natural cover and protection from aerial attacks, and the Enclave walked right over them. They even killed Red Eye and probably Lieutenant Strongclaws just like that.

Over half a decade of nightmares under Red Eye was starting to crumble. I'd dreamed of leaving this wretched place and his orders for six years, but I didn't expect it to end like this.

The radio went dead not long after, with all of the communications now on our side and reaching nobody at the Cathedral. It had been abandoned or completely destroyed in a matter of hours.

We all exchanged nervous looks once more, but nobody found anything else to say. Not even Serge or Lita had anything left.

All we had left to do was sit and wait for the end to come while the dark clouds above swirled.

The next six hours felt like a year. Exhaustion was creeping up on all of us, but even if Captain Stern allowed us to stand down it would be just like when Heidi offered it. None of us were going to get any sleep. None of us were hungry. It was just an unending purgatory of watching for the impending attack while waiting for any update from the captain or lieutenants.

An update finally came when we spotted a group of something flying our way from up north, ahead of something massive. By the time Leigh radioed it in to Heidi, it was already apparent that we weren't looking at Enclave pegasi and ships though. Massive leathery wings beat to keep the large shape aloft, and the other figures were too lithe to be power armored pegasi. Leigh was the first to say it had to be a dragon, but none of us believed her until it got closer.

I'd never seen a living dragon before, but it was soon clear that she was right. From somewhere, somehow, a full grown dragon was flying ahead of the decimated remains of second platoon on their urgent retreat back to Fillydelphia.

Captain Stern and Heidi both showed up to meet the group as they arrived, which was still past the walls and just close enough for my tastes. The dragon swept high into the air and flew over us, ignoring the puny griffonesses that tried to stall and question the group, before it began a lazy circle near the city perimeter. I didn't get a good look from our position, but I could have sworn that some of its limbs had been replaced by cybernetic prostheses, and a baleful red glow shone from both eyes that reminded me all too much of the wicked stallion that died at the Cathedral.

The rumors of Red Eye's super weapon were true. It wasn't a giant zebra combat robot dredged up from pony-goddesses-knew-where, but it was probably the second best thing we could hope for.

But… the feeling of hope didn't last long, as Carmelita put all of our thoughts to words. “Red Eye's corpse on a bike, if the Enclave scared a dragon away from the Cathedral then we really are fucked eleven ways aren't we?”

Amy nodded silently and twisted her claws around the barrel of her gun again as she watched the colossal dragon circle overhead. Evident laser and plasma burns scarred its side and peppered holes in its wings. An ancient cyber-dragon got in a fight with the Enclave and lost. We were going to get brushed aside like gnats.

Stern and Heidi talked with the second platoon remnants for what could have only been minutes, but again time dragged on like dripping tar. Eventually, the beleaguered platoon resumed their flight into the city to destinations unknown, while Stern cut in over the radio.

“Lieutenant Strongclaws is dead and First Lieutenant Ironclaw is MIA. Second and third platoons now report to Sergeant Whitebeak and Sergeant Tornfeathers until I say otherwise.

“The Enclave are battered from the fight in the Everfree and their fleet was crippled and broke off their attack, but the other fleet is still on its way here. We're expecting twelve hours before they arrive in force but scouts could arrive at any moment. Everyone is ordered to remain dispersed at emergency positions until I order otherwise, but once the Enclave arrive we're going to engage them outside of the city. The army will be backing us up from the ground. Fortifications are ineffective and we can't afford to lose the industrial base here.”

Her voice took on a hissing overtone. “And Freija… you have ten minutes to find me and explain yourself before I declare that you've deserted...”

The pony guards manning the weapon emplacements along the wall were all murmuring among themselves now. They must have heard Stern and the “good news” that they were going to be on the back of the defensive lines now. At least for as long as such a notion as a line of engagement existed. The moment the Enclave pushed past us, and they would, the gunnery crews were going to be sitting ducks. As much as I was terrified at the thought of taking to the air to engage the pegasi, I didn't envy anyone stuck manning a flak cannon or machine gun that was anchored in place.

“She's nuts,” Lita quipped. “If we go toe-to-toe with the Enclave we're going to get fried. There's nowhere to hide in the air, and this armor isn't going to do jack shit against a plasma gun.”

Serge looked skyward at the steadily darkening clouds to the north. “No plan survives contact with the enemy, but orders are orders. We have to trust that she's right. If we stay in the air we can at least avoid the artillery mounted on any of their ships. Anything on the ground is going to get hammered.”

Leigh sighed and nodded. “And if we try to hide inside of a building they'll just level it. Our best bet is to stay on the move.”

Isaac grunted something that sounded like an affirmation.

Lita snorted instead. “If this gets me killed, I'm going to be really pissed at you guys. Just… just keep that in mind.”

Great. Flying after being awake for almost two days straight and with having barely eaten anything? We were thoroughly exhausted. The Enclave were going to be tired too, but they had enough troops to rotate to fresher soldiers. They'd fly circles around us, and it was literally impossible to dodge a laser.

I'd heard that some Talon elements had been pulled away to help staff the old hospital. I didn't doubt Leigh's observation that the Enclave wouldn't hesitate to bomb it, but I still wished Heidi had assigned us there. I was a medic, for fuck's sakes! That's where I should have been! And the others could be stationed with me, where we'd at least be further away from the first shots.

At least the mortal dread would give us enough adrenaline that I wouldn't have to worry about being sleepy while they shot at us.

I was exhausted. But I wasn't sleepy.

It took the Enclave a little longer to arrive than Captain Stern estimated, but they arrived all the same.

The first signs were dark shapes casting shadows above the cloud layer in the distance. A single massive blot flanked by a dozen smaller shapes that flowed and merged into an uncertain number of assaulting Enclave craft. From this distance it was hard to get a fix on how far out they were or when they'd reach us, but the scouts on the radio helpfully called out estimates. Thirty minutes. Twenty. Ten.

Right on schedule, the supercarrier broke through the clouds. A swirling torrent of black thunderclouds descended first, crackling with lightning and sending a deep rumbling hum rolling past us, before the black ship riding them appeared.

It was colossal. Larger than the dragon by an order of magnitude, and defied belief. Only incredibly powerful and sophisticated prewar enchantments could have held something so large aloft on clouds like that.

Amy swore. So did Lita. I think I did too.

The first shots came from us. The flak cannons opened up a moment later with thunderous booms, with an agonizing delay of more than ten seconds before the airbursting shells detonated. The flashes were smaller than I expected, with small but vibrant poofs that didn't even light up the dark hull of the oncoming carrier. Nothing seemed to happen next. Maybe the shells were duds? Or maybe they just had no effect?

Another salvo opened up, with a dozen cannons discharging almost in unison. Another wave of booms sounded ten seconds later, this time a little closer to the Enclave ship. It still seemed unperturbed by the assault.

“Flak isn't going to do anything to that,” Lita muttered. “They're going to have to get direct hits if they want to get anywhere.” She squinted. “Why aren't they shooting back?”

“Magical plasma is short ranged,” Leigh pointed out. “Probably too much atmospheric attenuation at this range. We'll outrange them for a while at this rate.”

That was weird. I watched another salvo of shells detonate to little or no effect in the air. “So… why didn't they descend when they were in range?”

“It's a diversion,” Serge said simply as he scanned around us. “They're trying to draw our attention toward it. Keep your eyes open because there's probably going to be a second assault front coming soon.”

“Should we inform the captain?” I asked with a bit more urgency than I intended.

He continued to watch the clouds to our side. “She's aware of everything we are and more. No point in wasting her time pointing it out, if we could even reach her now.”

I turned my attention back to the Enclave ship. A shell finally landed directly against the hull, lighting it up briefly and sending a small shower of debris raining down. Part of me didn't trust Stern's tactical sense after some of our recent setbacks, but I trusted Serge's enough to not question him. At least I had a little confirmation that the artillery could damage the ship, even if it looked like it would take more ammo than we had to destroy something so massive.

Minutes ticked by and dozens more flak shells rained down on the ship, which continued to close the distance.

I began to wonder if maybe the crew just made a mistake and dropped below the cloud deck too soon, but that idea vanished the moment a series of sharp cracks sounded around us. I snapped my head to the right just as a dozen beams of green incandescent plasma speared through the clouds and smashed into the city. A section of wall larger than me vanished in a cloud of boiling plasma and evaporating concrete and steel. An already collapsing building shuddered, twisted and fell in on itself as a wall was obliterated by the assault. A flak cannon erupted in a plume of green flame, washing my vision out. Through the glowing haze, I barely made out a smaller black shape diving through the clouds, riding on what appeared to be another miniature thunderstorm. It opened fire again, raking the interior of the city with more impacts of magical plasma beams that tossed clouds of dirt and debris high into the air. To our left, more deep cracks and blasts of disintegrating buildings sounded as another ship descended.

Serge was right! Two, four… I didn't know how many of the ships were diving to attack the city all around us!

“Sergeant?” Leigh asked, looking to him expectantly.

“No word from the captain yet,” he responded. Which wasn't how she worded the order, but I sure as hell wasn't going to encourage him to send us flying up to meet the Enclave! He instead gestured to Carmelita and Isaac. “Fire. Conserve your ammo, but try one shot each. Let's see if their hull can stop that.”

Both raised their rifles and drew aim at the nearest ship. I covered my ears just in time for the still deafening bangs, and both griffons shuddered visibly under the recoil.

We weren't close enough to really get a good look, but all the same the impacts on the Enclave ship were evident. Armored plates on the side imploded and fell away. It took a few seconds for the ship to react, but it broke off its attack and began to ascend again.

“At least we know they're not indestructible,” Lita said. “We should probably move.”

“Yeah, they may return fire. Everyone up.”

We lifted off and started to rise away from the building we'd perched on. I had to hope the ship's weapons were more suited for targeting stationary emplacements instead of small aerial targets like us, but we never got to find out.

Before it could do so much as rotate to face us, it was hammered by a dozen more shots of anti-materiel rifles, either from other squads scattered through the city or by the guards in Pinkie balloons floating above. Chunks of debris rained down as sections of armor were blasted off, and even one of its plasma cannons was disabled by the impacts as flames rose from rents in its barrel and the linkages to its hull. The damaged ship began a ponderous retreat, but again was cut off as a massive shadow passed over us.

The cyber-dragon had spotted its prey, and the damaged ship never stood a chance. We all watched in mortified shock as the dragon latched onto it and literally ripped sections of the ship away while it spluttered helplessly in the air.

Another Enclave ship erupted in flame from a flak cannon scoring a direct hit, and both destroyed ships plummeted to the ground in flaming pieces.

I dared to think for a moment that we might actually be winning the battle with the Enclave already losing two of their assaulting ships, but the thought vanished just as fast when three of the Pinkie balloons burst into flame from plasma beams slicing through them like paper. I watched the baskets drop ten stories and land with imagined crunches. The odds of the guards surviving such a fall were vanishingly small, but if we rushed that way maybe I could save one-

A repeating crack sounded above, so rapid it almost sounded like paper tearing. Red energy beams rained down in all directions, vaporizing fragments of stone, asphalt, concrete and anything else unlucky enough to be in the way. At least two ponies on the wall spasmed and pitched backward as the laser bolts stabbed through their bodies. A searing burn ran up my tail where a beam fried the fur and left what felt like a nasty blister

Above us, a dark swarm swirled and broke through the clouds. Dozens, hundreds of black powered armored pegasi dove down at us. More bursts of laser fire crashed down and slew another group of ponies manning a machine gun that was turned outside and useless against the flying attackers.

Serge thrust a talon upward. “In the air now! Try to get above them!”

Over Leigh's radio, Captain stern shouted something similar. A swarm of griffons leaped into the air across the city, and the battle was truly joined.

So much for engaging them outside of the city!

The aerial clash that followed was short, but brutal. Most of the details passed in a blur so fast it barely registered in my mind. I don't think I fired more than one or two shots with the rifle Lita loaned me for the battle. There was no lack of targets, but with the incessant crisscross of lasers tearing through the skies around me, I dared not stop long enough to actually aim at anyone.

We didn't stay airborne for very long. A couple of minutes at most. Sixty to a hundred and twenty full seconds of magical lasers crackling and sizzling past us the entire time with nowhere to hide.

There was no time to pay attention to the shrieks and yelps piercing the blasts and crackles. If I stopped moving, I'd die.

There was a special place in Hell for Stern and her orders to send us up into this carnage, and deep down, I hoped she was sent there.

A laser stabbed through a yellow griffon as he flew past me. He gasped and plummeted a couple of stories before recovering. For a moment, my vision was locked on him as he banked and dropped toward the balcony of a nearby apartment building. If I could get to him, there was someone I could actually help. But he was two blocks awa-

Scattered laser fire rained down around him. He lurched once, and in an intense flash of pink, his body disintegrated into glowing ash that was carried along the swirling winds.

Shit...

By that point it was abundantly clear that we had lost the skies. Other squads were already beginning a fighting retreat to the ground amidst the arrival of supporting fire from the city garrison, and we joined them. A pegasus jerked to the side as light machine gun fire spattered off his black armor, and started an uncontrolled rolling dive when the bullets ripped through his wing. Two more followed a similar fate and slammed into the ground with heavy, cracking thuds that split the pavement. The arrival of the new fire support gave all of us the desperate break we needed to disengage and reevaluate our tactics.

I hoped Stern was dead, and I hoped it hurt. I trusted a hellhound to come up with a better battle plan than just charge a technologically superior foe that outnumbered you!

We all but fell into the street behind the ruins of a convenience store and leaped through the nearest window to get inside. The cracks, sizzles and blasts continued above us, now muffled by the collapsing ceiling that rattled and shook dust free every time something flew past. I threw myself into a corner and watched the nearby window while I held an open claw to my chest and tried to calm myself enough to think about what was happening.

“What now, sarge?” Carmelita asked. She ejected the magazine on her massive rifle and loaded a new one.

Leigh frowned a little and shook her head. “No updates from command. I haven't heard anything from the lieutenant or captain.”

Serge waved a claw for us to get down. “Hold this position for the moment. Engage targets of opportunity but keep a low profile.”

Amy backed away from her window and rotated around to use the nearby wall to conceal her completely. Unless someone got lucky, only the anti-materiel rifles were really powerful enough to punch through the Enclave's armor. No point shooting at someone just to alert them of our position.

Isaac sidled up to another window and raised his rifle while being careful to keep it inside of the building. Carmelita finished reloading and checking her rifle, then joined him.

We sat there for another minute or two while the war raged on outside. The building shook twice more from explosions, and the wall I was nestled up against groaned ominously. I flinched and almost dropped my rifle when Isaac or Carmelita fired at something out of sight, and my hearing was filled with ringing that mercifully drowned out the carnage for a minute more.

That almost got me killed.

I didn't hear her shouts, and only by blind luck did I look up in time to see both her and Isaac retreating from the window and yelling something. Nobody asked questions and we charged toward the exit after her.

Half of the building disappeared in a cataclysmic eruption of dust, splintering wood and shearing rusted steel beams as something titanic landed on it. Despite all senses telling me to run to get out of the open, as soon as I made it to the empty street I spun around to get a better look. I expected to see an Enclave ship that had been shot down, but instead, adrenaline surged through me all over again when the dust settled and I recognized what I beheld.

The cyber-dragon rested in a twisted heap, wings still limply fluttering in the wind. The front right quarter of its body was gone, with the gaping wound ringed with incandescent green from the magical plasma still boiling away. Fountains of blood rained down from open arteries that even such intense heat could never have cauterized. Exposed electronics crackled and arced. Flames flickered and dripped alongside the blood.

There was no time to gawk, and shadows raced overhead. I tore my eyes off of the dying dragon to see a black armored pegasus pull into a hover overhead. She lowered the long barreled lasers toward us.

I was dimly aware of two long barreled rifles rising up beside me. I lunged to the side, but my feet were like lead.

Blinding red beams cut down. Fragments and dust pelted me from disintegrating asphalt. Concussive blasts of air rocketed past me. An intense flash of pink behind me followed. The pegasus jerked visibly and started losing altitude.

“Isaaaaac!”

It was the first thing I heard distinctly since the shots in the store. Leigh's scream. Orange feathers and pink dust wafted past me as I hit the ground from my clumsy attempt to dodge the lasers.

The pegasus's head snapped to the side and part of her helmet flew off, followed by another audible boom and blast of air. The dead pony tumbled out of the air and landed with a muffled crunch.

Carmelita stood at the ready, rifle extended upward and eyes wide.

Serge and Amy stood two steps back, also staring in disbelief.

Leigh was pawing at the blackened scorches on the pavement next to Lita. Half of an anti-materiel rifle rested a step away, but it was all of the evidence that remained that Isaac had ever been there.

He was dead.

Gone.

Leigh screamed something again, but I don't remember what. Her talons scratched at the pavement more in disbelief. She sat back and held her claw up to look at the black cinders now caked on them.

A hot wind rushed past, and the burning remains of a gutted Enclave ship drifted closer. More flitting shadows zigzagged around as dark shapes flew overhead.

Serge grabbed Leigh by the foreleg. “We've got to go. Got to go now!”

The brown griffoness looked up at the soldiers above and clambered back to her feet. She pulled her rifle up and aimed at the dead pegasus in the street, but after another forceful tug from the sergeant she relented. All of us that were left forced past the shock and ran for the nearest alley.

I was dimly aware of something deeper in the city exploding in a fireball that eclipsed the energy beams sizzling through the air, but it didn't matter. Reaching the warehouse at the end of the street was all that mattered. We had to get back in cover.

Carmelita threw herself into the side door, and we all flew through the opening after her.

It was dark inside. Dark, and again, relatively quiet. Maybe now we could regroup and think.

Bloodfeathers. Isaac was dead. I didn't dare make eye contact with Leigh, who I barely registered had retreated up against an empty crate.

I needed something to occupy my mind. Someone else might have been hurt. I didn't see anyone else get hurt, but maybe debris or something. Yeah, I should probably check everyone for-

Static cut through Leigh's radio. I heard her flip a switch and change it to a speaker we could all hear.

“This is Lieutenant Heidi Blackfeathers, to all of Talon Company. Captain Stern is KIA and I'm taking command. Stand by for updates and new orders.”

Everyone exchanged frightened looks all over again, save Leigh who was still staring into the concrete floor.

Shit. I wasn't sad to hear Stern was gone, but it came with the understanding that everything truly was falling apart.

We were all going to die.

We lingered in the warehouse for some time, huddled up against empty wooden crates covered in tarps and dust with labels too faded to read. Fifteen or twenty minutes maybe. We kept hoping to hear an update from Heidi on our new orders, but until then none of us were in a hurry to go back outside and rejoin the battle that we'd clearly lost already.

Leigh was still sitting away from the rest of us, face in her claws and making the odd choking noise. Well, she was trying to sit off on her own, but Serge had taken up a spot next to her. I don't think he'd said anything to her, or her to him, but it was better than any of the rest had managed to do for her. I had no idea what to say. Words weren't going to really help after she'd just seen her best friend vaporized by a laser bolt.

A deep hollow feeling welled up within me as I realized that the only sensation I'd even felt was shock. Isaac and I hadn't really gotten along, but I didn't dislike him. Even after he hit me that time in the stable. If I hadn't fucked up and gotten Leigh shot, he wouldn't have done that then. It was my fault.

He didn't deserve what happened. At least it had been as fast a death as anyone could have hoped for.

I blew out a sigh. That was not helping me feel better.

And worse, there was nothing else to occupy my mind. Nobody else was hurt, so I couldn't even waste a few minutes applying potion or bandages to scrapes or cuts. It was just us all waiting around for something to happen other than for something to explode in the distance or for the odd laser bolt to vaporize a tiny hole in the ceiling to let yet another shaft of light drift in.

Carmelita was positioned near the side entrance we'd come through, pressed up against the wall and watching the street outside through the cracked door. She wasn't bothering with her EFS tracker. I was sure it was nothing but painted red from the hostile contacts outside.

Amy, meanwhile, was pacing along the empty space between rows of crates. Every time something roared overhead and shook the rafters above, she ducked and almost fell into a sprinting stance. But every time, it passed us by.

It was just a matter of time before something did land on the warehouse, whether a crashing Enclave ship or a missile, so we couldn't stay here forever. Or even much longer, but I had to trust that even if Heidi didn't give us orders soon, Serge would know what to do.

Anyone else in this squad would have to know what to do next. They had to...

A few minutes more passed before the reprieve finally came, when Heidi's voice cut in over Leigh's radio. “This is Lieutenant Blackfeathers, to all squads in third platoon. The army garrison has the Enclave disorganized and we're capitalizing on it now. Third platoon, first through third squads are ordered to push past the cloud layer and draw off what infantry elements you can, while fourth through sixth are ordered to take up defensive positions at the Fun Barn.

“First platoon is ordered to pull back to the barracks immediately. I'll send more instructions en route. Squad leaders should take alternate routes back, on the ground."

As she signed off, everyone had already begun to assemble back at the radio. Even Leigh got up without prompt and grabbed the heavy piece of electronics.

Serge trotted for the door and waved for us to follow. “Come on, there's a metro entrance nearby. That will take us most of the way where we won't be exposed to aerial attacks.”

I took a deep breath and fell in with everyone. I knew whatever was coming wasn't going to be good, but I didn't envy third platoon. Even I could see that she was ordering a diversion, but being above the clouds was going to expose them to everything the Enclave had at their disposal...

Serge's decision to head underground kept us safe from the strafing lasers above, but it probably slowed us down a lot.

The metro tunnels had been poorly repaired over the years to only give the most basic ability to transfer materials across the city, leading to dozens of tunnels that were half as narrow as they should have been from all of the bracing that had been erected to keep the crumbling walls in one piece. Each rumble and blast above caused my eyes to dart to the nearest support, before I tore my eyes away instead of watching it shudder and risk collapsing entirely.

Trying to navigate the tunnels was also a chore. Dozens and dozens of armed and armored ponies kept trying to push past us on the way to destinations unknown, barking about reinforcing the wall or getting more fire support to the north side where the big Enclave ship was. The passages were narrow enough in places we had to move in single file, so when we bumped into another squad of ponies it threw everything into chaos. Agitated as they were, they didn't give us the wide berth that slavers and soldiers from the city normally did, and there wasn't room to fly over them. We just wasted a lot of time arguing and back tracking to get out of each others' way.

By the time we reemerged into the overcast day, another fifteen minutes must have passed. We were alive, but probably very late for whatever the Lieutenant wanted us for, so Serge urged us to pick up the pace as we made our final staggered dash from building to building toward the open field separating us from the earthen fortifications surrounding the stacked train cars that made up the barracks.

Nothing to do but run for it. Or fly, as it were, given the minefield.

The trip couldn't have taken more than twenty seconds, but every sizzle that met my ears and flash that caught the corner of my eyes felt like it was dialing in on us. The incessant heavy caliber machine gun fire in the distance kept reminding me that they probably had a lot more on their minds than shooting a bunch of griffons running away from the fight, but rationality was long gone.

I crashed into the dirt embankment and slid down the back side the instant we reached it, as if the two meters of soil was going to obscure me from flying adversaries, but the thought that I had concealment at all was what I craved.

There was no time to sit and catch my breath, and I had to scramble back to my feet to chase after the rest of the squad as they made a break for an open train car ahead. A purple feathered griffon, holding a distinctively large rifle no less, peered around the opening, waving us on. Where Egon was, Heidi would be.

And she wasn't happy when we got there.

“The others have already left,” she spat at us, as if we had context for what she was talking about. “Fourth squad is waiting for you at the armory now.”

Serge stepped further inside to look at some of the maps and papers that Heidi had strewn about two tables that had been hastily shoved together. “What are our orders?”

“You're flying escort for a bombing run,” she said without referencing the maps at all. “Fourth squad will be taking spark bombs and rockets to attack the Enclave thunderhead. Third platoon is flying diversions, but your squad will have to ensure that they make it to the ship to deliver their payloads. The rest of the platoon is already paired up and en route.”

Lita gawked. “We'll never make it! We're already down one and there are still hundreds of-”

“There is no time to argue,” Heidi snapped. “This is our last chance to force the Enclave to retreat. Only a coordinated attack inflicting heavy damage on their flagship has any chance to scare them into pulling back.” She thrust a black claw at the door. “Now, get moving!”

So we got moving...

The flight to the armory was short, but my anxiety was through the roof the entire way since there was no option but to stay out in the open. I expected a torrent of lasers or plasma bolts to crash down around us at any moment, but by this point it seemed that the army defenses had blunted the Enclave's attack just as thoroughly as they had blunted our counter offense. Every which way I looked, there were only scattered formations of dark shapes flitting through the skies, dodging streams of tracer rounds and the odd laser beam. Maybe with the chaos and disarray that the assault had fallen into, we'd actually have a clear shot at their carrier ship.

Or maybe all of the Enclave soldiers had taken the bait from Heidi's diversion earlier and were above the clouds.

Or they'd caught on to what was happening and had started engaging the bombers trying to attack their carrier…

No point thinking about it. We'd been given our orders and I knew I was going to fulfill them or die trying at this point. I just had to not think too hard about the dying part…

In better news, by some small miracle the armory had failed to attract undue attention from the Enclave, and was still right where we expected it to be. The building did look fairly unassuming on its own, but I would have guessed the firing ranges around it would have tipped the attackers off to its purpose. Maybe they just hadn't had time to dedicate any resources to leveling it yet. Either way, we dropped do the ground just inside the fence and made a mad dash for the entrance.

Fourth squad was waiting on us, and judging by the harsh looks they all flashed us, they hadn't been happy about being cooped up in a high value target like this while waiting for us to get there. Two big griffons with black and blue feathers hefted their missile launchers, while the three red, yellow and green girls grabbed the packs of explosives issued to them. The mazes of wires sticking out confirmed what Heidi told us: spark bombs. I'd never seen one bigger than a spark grenade, but the electromagical storm one of those had to give off would cause massive damage to any spell matrices in the Enclave ship if they could get close enough.

Big if. Especially if they were relying on us to get them close enough.

Their sergeant, and comparatively small and wiry griffoness with pale pink feathers, trotted our way. “About time you got here. Sam and Otto have already started moving the supplies underground so we're beating this dump and not coming back. Next round will mean resupplying at the metro station on Twin Saddle Avenue, assuming the Enclave haven't bombed it in return by the time we finish our run.”

“Any word on how the other teams have done?” Serge asked, spinning around to lead us back outside.

“Not much yet. It sounded like they were meeting minimal resistance but you can bet your ass the Enclave know what's up now and we're going to see a lot more heat.”

Leigh fiddled with the dial on her radio and muttered, “Haven't heard anything… but I'm listening...”

Amy and Lita checked their weapons, but both were silent and wore grim expressions. I knew my own had to be little better.

Without further discussion or debate, we all launched into the air, with our squad leading the way.

Only once before then had I ever felt the sense of mortal dread that washed over me at the sight of the Enclave supercarrier and the realization that we were deliberately getting closer to it. That was the time I had been dragged into the courtroom for my court martial over Ida. Facing the Pit and its deadly radiation hadn't frightened me so much. The hellhounds that gutted me and all but killed me hadn't given me a chance to be so afraid. Delving through the stable filled with ghouls hadn't either, nor had facing the Steel Rangers. In all of those cases, it had either been such a distant worry or happened too quickly to let the anxiety build. But now… it was going to take minutes to fly up to the massive battleship. Minutes to think and stew on what we were doing. In the distance, red lasers crisscrossed the skies as they stabbed at targets unseen. Tenuous dark shapes drifted above and below the clouds. Thunderous bangs of anti-material rifles sounded repeatedly above the clouds as the diversion continued.

And closer we drew. And closer. And closer.

We were close enough now that the individual plates of the ship's hull were visible. Massive closed hangar doors lined the ship's sides, clearly large enough to contain the smaller ships that served as the vanguard attacking force. Monstrous cannons rested just above the miniature thunderstorm holding the ship aloft, with barrels gently glowing with incandescent heat. We had little to fear from such ponderous weapons, and surprisingly, I didn't spot any point defense guns mounted on the hull. They must have assumed that the infantry supporting the ship would serve that purpose, but that begged the question of why said infantry would abandon closely defending it…

Two squads of Talons were in the middle of diving back toward the city, trailed by a group of Enclave pegasi. Lita leveled her rifle and took a shot, but none of the ponies reacted so the shot must have gone wide. One of the retreating squads broke off and began to circle around to engage them, which rapidly descended into a chaotic mass of griffons and ponies trying to line up shots without standing still and making themselves obvious targets. I had no doubt that very sequence had played out several times in the preceding minutes, and we were about to be the lucky ones brawling with pegasi while the bombers retreated to rearm...

Fourth squad's sergeant gestured, and I tore my eyes away to see the bigger griffons with rocket launchers bracing in the air and taking aim at the massive carrier ship. There was a lot less flash than I expected, and the rockets themselves were a lot faster than I expected. Despite the distance, it only took seconds for-

Intense cracks and flashes followed, and the rockets vanished in blasts of lightning leaping from the thunderclouds beneath the ship.

Shit. That explained the lack of point defense guns. The clouds were the point defense! They'd be better off shooting the spark rockets at the infantry and hoping their armor malfunctioned than wasting them on the carrier.

Leigh raised her claw to her headset. “They're going to try to drop the spark bombs from above!” she shouted to us over the distance we'd all drifted.

“Move forward and keep watch!” Serge ordered. The marauding squad of Enclave soldiers were still locked in the dogfight with the other squad of Talons, and to my disbelief, the Talons seemed to be winning. One of the black armored pegasi lurched and began a drunken dive into the streets below, while dozens of red beams tore through the skies and failed to find their targets. For now.

We made it about halfway there before Leigh threw on the brakes and held her claw up to flag Serge down again. “Sergeant, the Lieutenant is- Yes, yes ma'am, I- we're currently escorting-but what about-”

We all circled back around and rushed back to rejoin her and get an explanation. She switched something on her radio pack and shook her head. “Lieutenant Blackfeathers is urgently requesting that we meet her back at the train station.” She flashed a worried look to me. “It's a medical emergency.”

“What about fourth squad?” Serge questioned.

“I'll radio them on the way. She said this took priority.”

Yet another rock began to form in my stomach. All eyes were on me now, and we had to make another mad dash across open skies to reach her…

But the train station beat attacking the Enclave's ship up close!

Aside from the odd, random laser beam cutting across the sky to our side, much to my relief it seemed like the Enclave truly were too busy dealing with everything to pay us much attention.

An intense explosion caught my eyes ahead, just as another of the smaller Enclave ships began to pitch downward into a spiral. A flock of black specks scattered from the doomed ship and took to the air, just before another flash and plume of green flames erupted from its hull upon impact. Serge directed us to drop altitude, probably hoping the escaping crew wouldn't spot us, but we stayed airborne in our attempt to reach Heidi as fast as possible.

It was only then that it really began to sink in to me that the Enclave weren't walking over the city quite as easily as they'd hoped. The carrier hadn't been left undefended for no reason – no doubt the attacking forces had been spread to the limit trying to break the defenses of Fillydelphia, and they'd been unable or unwilling to regroup. I didn't see many more of the smaller ships left in the skies, so the Enclave must have taken a bad beating just like us.

But speaking of beatings, the barracks had been… obliterated.

It was impossible to tell if crashing ship had been responsible, but half of the train cars were now in hundreds of pieces, still glowing gently from the plasma blasts that had torn them apart. Flecks of ash and smoldering papers fluttered in the wind, rising on currents of hot air, and untold chunks of burnt and unidentifiable debris were strewn around the blackened splotches of ground.

My limbs felt heavy. Was Heidi dead too now? Had the Enclave decapitated Talon Company completely?

“Down there, at the train station!” Amy shouted, pointing at two black armored heaps lying in the mud. Enclave soldiers.

Oh, wait. She said the train station. The wooden building wasn't in any better shape than it had been since the first time I saw it, but it had been spared the fury of the ship's plasma cannons and still stood largely in one piece.

We dropped to the ground just past the dead soldiers and started up the steps to the station's platform. An alarming amount of blood coated the splintering wooden plans, leaving a visible trail of red spots and splotches leading inside.

Amy stopped to check the nearby window before giving us the all clear sign. Serge was the first inside, shouldering his way past the door and barreling in just ahead of me. He sprinted for three steps before skidding and catching himself against the receptionist desk in the center of the room.

“Lieutenant?”

Heidi was sitting in a hunched position by herself in a corner, with her face in her claws. She blew out a shuddering breath and shook her head as she clenched her claws hard enough to part the feathers on her head.

For a moment I assumed she must have been shot and was in severe pain, but I spotted the shape beneath a Talon Company flag on the other side of the receptionist desk an instant later. Something rigid propped the flag up in ways a body wouldn't…

“You're too late,” she said coldly as I scurried over to get a closer look.

I ignored her and proceeded to pull the flag up…

And we were too late.

A cold, nauseating sensation rolled through my body as the familiarity of the situation sank in. I had never been very close to Liese, and certainly not Egon… but the distant, pained look frozen on his face was just like hers, and is something I will never forget so long as I live. A piece of jagged sheet metal protruded from his side, debris from one of the barracks' box cars, where it had probably cut through his aorta or one of a dozen other major arteries. My claw brushed past two empty potion vials next to him, which had done little to arrest the fatal bleeding.

We were too late to save Egon.

I laid the flag back over his remains and stood with a weary groan. “I'm sorry, Lieu-”

She raised a claw to silence me, uncovering her face enough for me to see shrapnel woods oozing thin streams of blood.

Nobody knew what to say or do. Everyone else who dared peek inside had retreated back outside, leaving just me and Serge in the room with her. I wanted to offer to treat the injuries, but I knew better than to offer. It was all superficial from what I could see anyway.

What were we supposed to do? Go back to escorting fourth squad? I really didn't-

“Lieutenant, the Enclave are pulling back to the thunderhead,” a feminine voice cut in from beneath the flag, stilted and modulated. Egon's radio. “We're only going to get one more pass at this at best, and we haven't made much headway.”

Heidi looked up and blew out another shuddering sigh. She didn't make a move to respond.

“Lieutenant?” A pause. “We'll make one more bombing run but we're breaking off unless I hear otherwise from you. We'll regroup at the school.”

Heidi didn't look any of us in the eye, but finally spoke up. “You have your orders. Go assist fourth squad and follow Sergeant Tornfeathers' lead.” She stared at Egon's remains. “I... shouldn't have wasted your time. Go. It may be too late already.”

Serge bumped me in the shoulder toward the exit. “You heard her.”

I did. I just wish I didn't.

And I wish we'd been a few minutes faster. Egon hadn't ever hurt anyone to my knowledge. Born into Talon Company, and died in its service. He wasn't even a real soldier. It was like if Zella had been killed.

I put the thought to pasture as fast as I could. It wasn't beyond belief that she had been.

If this weren't the third or fourth time we were making this same desperate flight, I'd have been a lot more anxious. As it was, I'd started to grow slightly used to the terror of flying unprotected away from our platoon's former compound while the Enclave swarmed around, especially since last I saw the Enclave were still dispersed and fighting on three dozen fronts against ground forces.

But, as the griffoness on the radio warned, that had started to change.

The massive carrier ship ahead was now all but blanketed by a swarm of darting dark shapes, both Enclave pegasi and Talon griffons locked in a deadly dance of vying for position to aim at their targets while not sitting still. The difficulty of that was plainly visible now, given the incessant array of lasers spearing the sky as dozens or hundreds of pegasi fired at griffons and missed. Only one or two flying combatants tumbled from the sky over the course of the minutes we spent on our approach.

My palms began sweating and I fought to level my breathing. We were heading to join that fight, and there was no way we were going to make the difference. Even if we killed every pegasus we couldn't down the ship! And with those massive cannons it would-

Intense beams of red light tore down past me, coating my vision in glowing afterimages as they impacted the pavement and sent clouds of vaporized asphalt flying up toward us. More and more rained down, one singing the feathers on my wing.

In a panic, I rolled over to face upward, and every joint in my body locked up. Three dark shapes above the clouds plowed through to reveal black armored pegasi diving at us.

The leading stallion grinned.

I raised my rifle and squeezed the trigger.

The bullet impacted his breastplate and exploded uselessly against the advanced war era materials.

Searing pain erupted from my wings and glowing pink dust from incinerated feathers floated above me. My claws spasmed and the rifle fell out of my grip as my back arched involuntarily.

Wind caught my feathers and carried more dust and the scent of burnt flesh up past me as the sensation of free fall set in. The pegasi receded into the distance… and so did Serge, Lita and Leigh. More flashes of lasers filled my vision and several voices yelled and screamed.

Books where time slows to a standstill or your life flashes before your eyes as you fall to your death are horseshit. Complete and utter horseshit. The plummet to the ground went by in the blink of an eye, almost before I knew what was-

“Kaz! Kaz, get up!” Amy's voice…

She shook me and the double vision plaguing my sight began to resolve. I rolled over to get off of her claw and groaned. My back, neck and wings really hurt. I gave up trying to fold the injured extremities and tried to push up to my feet.

I was alive…?

“We're still under fire!” she continued as she helped me up by the armpit.

The daze began to fade and I snapped my attention upward. I didn't see any more of the Enclave soldiers, but I wasn't about to question her. “Where is-”

She grabbed me by the leg and dragged me into an alley. Winged shapes soared overhead and we both ducked as if it would make any difference. I peered out into the skies above the street for any sign of the others, but I didn't-

Serge was sprawled out on his belly on the pavement. He groaned and rolled over, but didn't seem to have the strength to get to his feet. Deafening booms echoed above, but I didn't notice if any of the ponies were hit. I kept scanning to check if my path to reach Serge was clear, but from the alley I couldn't get a good look at the sky! Wherever Leigh, Lita and the Enclave soldiers were, they must have been-

Leigh dropped into the street next to him. She hurled her rifle over her back by its strap and latched onto him. “Come on!” she shrieked as she hefted him toward the alley with us.

Now was my chance. I flinched at another boom above, now attenuated by the ringing in my ears, and launched out to grab his other foreleg. Together, we dragged the wounded griffon into the alley and into a makeshift, grungy shack some slave had erected out of scraps of sheet metal and brittle old wood.

There was barely any space for me and Serge inside, much less Leigh and Amy, but we all squeezed in to get out of the open. I didn't know where Carmelita was, but another blast of her anti-materiel rifle told me she was still alive. It would have to do for now.

Serge squirmed on the grimy towel laid out on the ground, clutching at his side. Blackened fur and feathers from laser burns spread out beneath his claws, but no blood flowed beneath him. Unlike the dead dragon, the burns must have been small enough that the heat cauterized the wounds…

I snatched my medical kit off and started digging out the restoration potion. He'd probably survive for a while even without it, or just a regular healing potion, but this was no time to be stingy. Egon's dead gaze flashed back into my mind. I wasn't about to let that repeat here because I was worried I'd need the potion later.

A heavy thump sounded from the alley. “Guys! We can't stay here, the whole damn block is crawling with pegasi!”

Noted and ignored, Lita! Give me a minute!

Dripping the glowing violet liquid into the wound immediately began to close it. Wisps of purple magic boiled away as the flesh reknit, and flakes of ash were caught up in the growing wind. The purple began to transition to a pale green… then brighter green…

“What… the hell… is...” Carmelita trailed off.

All of us, Serge excluded, eased back into the alley, then the street to look skyward. A sickly, green glow suffused the clouds above, growing in intensity and forming spikes and flashes of green lightning. A point of intense green, like a miniature star, formed in the clouds above the Enclave carrier. It descended closer, and closer, forming a shock wave of swirling green clouds on its way down.

“Everyone get down!” Amy shouted as she retreated to the alley. “It's a balefire bomb!”

We all scrabbled back to the relative safety of the alley and waited agonizing seconds for the boom to follow. Finally, a deep, echoing crack sounded above, followed by a blinding flash of green light that left me dazzled even with my head down. Hurricane force winds blew past the alley on each side and blew chunks of stone and debris from the roof of the adjacent buildings down around us. Deep, worrying groans issued from the foundations… but as fast as the blast came, it was gone. A heavy, but distant rush of wind followed as the air pressure tried to equalize.

I'd never seen a balefire explosion nor even heard accounts of one, but that detonation was far greater than any bomb or missile that I'd ever seen. A hollow feeling settled in my stomach as I realized that all that intensity and fury came from it detonating outside of the city. It was little wonder Equestria had been annihilated if those were dropped by the dozens on every major city during the war!

When I finally pulled myself back to my feet, I had to blink repeatedly to adjust my eyes to the light. Everything was so bright and intense… was it some aftereffect from the bomb? Were we all blanketed in clouds of glowing, necromantic radiation now? Were we doomed even after surviving the explosion?

“The-the sky...” Lita stammered, pointing upward.

The skies were clear. Crystal clear. The inconceivable power of the bomb's detonation had blown the cloud cover away, letting pure, unfiltered sunlight reach down to us.

“What about the ship?” Amy asked. She flared her wings and lifted up enough to get a clear view above the skyline. Her beak hung open.

Carmelita craned her neck. “What?”

“It crashed,” Amy answered. She dove back into the alley and pressed up against the far building. “The Enclave ship was destroyed. There were-I saw a few pegasi flying that way, but the ship's been destroyed.”

“What about the other ships? Weren't there a few of them left?”

She shook her head. “I don't know. Didn't see any of them.”

From next to Serge, Leigh rubbed her head and said, “That doesn't mean the battle's over. We should try to get to the school to reunite with the rest of Talon Company. I'll try to get the Lieutenant on the radio in the meantime.” She rested a hand on Serge's shoulder. “Can we carry him? With-without Ike, I don't… I don't know...”

Lita pushed past me and turned to present her side. “Load him up and let's get going. Kaz is grounded anyway so we'll have to stick to the streets. If we're lucky, the Enclave will be too busy figuring out what the fuck just happened to shoot at us.”

Serge groaned and rolled over. “Save it, I can walk.” With Amy's help, he eased up and checked his side. “Thanks Kaz.”

“Don't mention it,” I muttered quickly while repacking my kit. I contemplated downing the rest of the potion to heal my aching and burning wings, but stowed it away anyway. We might be safer on the ground anyway right now, and I wanted to have it if someone else was mortally wounded.

We had more pressing worries than that, like whether more balefire bombs were coming, or if we could remember the way to the school grounds on foot...

Our luck seemed to be holding out.

First of all, Leigh had taken the lead, and I trusted her judgment on which way to go. She assured us that we could be at the school grounds within twenty minutes, even given the sluggish pace we were managing, but that she also had not yet had any luck reaching the Lieutenant on the radio.

Instead, she said that there was some chatter from another group of mercenaries led by someone named Gawdyna Grimfeathers. They'd evidently joined the battle for some reason and were currently engaging the Enclave, but it took several full minutes before we spotted the first flight of griffons in unusual armor soaring above and taking potshots at the scattered Enclave squads still plying the skies.

A bunch of suicidal gloryhounds, Lita claimed.

I didn't care. If they were taking the heat off of us, that was all that mattered. Dozens of questions continued to swirl in my head, but I knew answers weren't going to come any time soon. Who were Gawd's Talons, and why were they here now? Had Heidi contacted them and paid them to bail us out at the last minute? Where had the balefire bomb come from? Did they bring it with them? How in the hell did they get one anyway? Were the Enclave going to retreat now? Without their carrier they'd have to fly home the hard way, but I'd probably beat it if I knew I'd lost all of my support.

Well, almost. There were still two more of the smaller ships left that I'd seen, but they'd retreated well outside of the range of the remaining AAA weapons and were now circling the city at a healthy distance. That was probably the best sign I'd seen all day – clearly, the Enclave were reevaluating their situation and were no longer blindly committed to razing the city. Maybe all hope wasn't lost.

The reprieve from constant burning death raining down on us also meant a resurgence in foot traffic on the streets. The remains of Red Eye's troops were now operating in the open again, using the moment to move more freely and redeploy what weapons and supplies they had left.

Some slaves had come out of hiding too. We were cut off by a gaggle of dirty ponies covered in torn rags that were stampeding through an intersection, shouting something about the blast knocking a section of the wall out and that they'd heard they could get out that way. How they planned to get past the moat was beyond me, but I really didn't care.

While we waited for our chance to pass, Leigh muttered, “You know, we were supposed to shoot any ponies trying to escape.”

Lita clicked her beak incredulously. “Do you give two shits about that right now?”

She shook her head weakly. “No.”

Amy stepped forward and lowered her rifle. “Let them go. None of this matters anymore.”

Serge had been quiet and unfocused during the entire trek and didn't bother to weigh in. All for the best. Finally, when it truly was plainly obvious that Fillydelphia and Red Eyes' regime had collapsed, they were all willing to let it go. I could only hope that the rest of Talon Company saw it too, or Red Eye's soldiers. The slavers probably wouldn't, but I'd take what I could get.

For what it was worth, the soldiers we saw on our way didn't seem in much of a hurry to wrangle up the slaves scattering in every direction either. Much bigger problems on everyone's minds.

Unfortunately, on top of all of the debris and churned up ground, the chaotic foot traffic did slow us down even further, and it was going to take longer than twenty minutes to run halfway across the city to second platoon's headquarters.

We made it maybe halfway there, crossing Stirrup Circle when another explosion in the distance caught our eyes. Another Enclave ship erupted in flames, speared by a beam of light half its breadth shining down from the skies that left an afterglow of atmospheric plasma that lasted for several full seconds while the ship began an uncontrolled dive to the ground.

“And what the fuck was that?” Carmelita demanded as she slowed to a stop to watch the crash.

“Nothing good,” I muttered in response. I didn't like this. These strange new mercs showed up, brought a balefire bomb and some kind of, what, orbital laser weaponry, and were helping us fight the Enclave? There was no way this could end well. The jury was still out on whether it would end better than the Enclave razing the city, but it wasn't going to end well.

I got my answer a few moments later when another massive laser beam lanced down through the clear skies and obliterated something deeper into the city. A plume of smoke illuminated by rising flames shot above the skyline, tossing sheets of plaster and sheet rock into the air to rain back down slowly amidst the heat induced updrafts.

That probably wasn't an accident. Was this from Gawd's Talons too? How? Why?

“We need to hurry,” Leigh urged.

As we picked up the pace at her insistence, Lita said, “We need to get out of the streets. Whatever that was, we're out in the open.”

“We'd be a bigger target inside of a building,” Amy said in response. “Whatever they're targeting, I don't think infantry are high on the list.”

Lita dropped back a pace to fall in beside Serge. “The chain of command is screwed so you're in charge here now.. Permission to fuck off out of this death trap?”

“Not… not yet,” he answered. “Let's regroup first and we can discuss our options then.”

I just hoped that blast didn't level the school yard. It was vaguely in the direction we were headed.

So many questions… so few answers...

The last of the Enclave ships went down in a spiraling ball of flames only a few minutes later, followed by what I could only guess were more lasers pummeling the remains of their carrier, and for reasons I couldn't even begin to guess at, fortifications and weapon emplacements that remained in the city.

What was the point? Whoever was responsible was trying to beat he Enclave back, but why were they also bombarding us? What did they have to gain by destroying the fighting ability of both sides?

Unless they planned to take the remains for themselves. I had no idea how large Gawdyna's force was, but I'd never even heard of them operating in the area before so they couldn't have compared to Fillydelphia's original garrison. How did they plan to retain control of the city? If Red Eye's remnants didn't play along, they were going to have another massive fight on their hands, and if they kept destroying everything there wasn't going to be anything left to take!

None of it made sense.

By this point, hours had passed since the first artillery shots were fired against the Enclave and I was weary in every sense of the word. That didn't help my understanding, but I somehow doubted I'd put the pieces together even if I were fresh and had a full night's sleep like from back when I was just a griffawn.

The only silver lining to the now cloudless sky was that the Enclave were absolutely too busy dealing with the new forces to bother shooting at us anymore, and so far none of the new griffons had fired at us. I caught sight of squad after squad of the pegasi retreating into the sky as the battle was clearly lost to them.

Our battle wasn't lost, but there was no way I'd call it won either.

Isaac was dead. I could only guess how many others perished with him, like Egon. And how many ponies? How many pegasi even? The dragon? Hundreds of people had to have been killed that day. Fillydelphia burned everywhere around us. Black clouds of soot rose into the sky, hardly replacing the former ever present cloud cover but doing a damn good job of reminding me how things looked just an hour ago. Someone desperate or determined enough might scrape something of value out of the shattered remains of the city, but it didn't seem remotely worth it to me. After all of this. After what, more than a decade of the evil stallion running this place trying to “rebuild equestria”, it was gone. Just like that. A couple of hours of MEWs raining down on the city would do that. All of the slaves that toiled here and died in its serviced had given their lives for nothing.

And what had I done?

Papa died years ago, and maybe the money I earned bought him a few months or a year, but in the end he was gone too. I'd saved a few lives, but how many more had suffered or died because of me? I'd killed slaves and more out of necessity, but even indirectly... the supplies given to Talon Company had to have come from slave labor too. It was entirely possible that I'd brought more suffering than good by my mere presence in this forsaken shit stain of a memory and place.

Somehow, at the time, I didn't even manage to notice that the lasers had stopped falling and that the odds of me dying suddenly had dropped sharply. I... just didn't care much.

Somehow, as much as I hated Red Eye and everything he stood for, I felt terrible at the failure we'd experienced there that day. With his death, the loss of Stern, the rest of Talon Company's leadership, and the ruin of Fillydelphia, it really had all meant nothing.

Somehow... despite looking up into the clear skies from the ground for the first time in my life, I never felt like the world had ever been so bleak.

Equestria would never be rebuilt. The old world was gone, and it would never return. Things had fundamentally changed in the years leading up to the Great War. The unmatched ability to destroy things had exceeded the capacity for kindness and compassion. Even the ponies had been lost to it.

What hope could there possibly be for anyone else? Like us, the warmongering griffons who shot at people who paid us less than their competitors?

Caught up in the misery as I was, it wasn't until we arrived at the blackened and twisted perimeter fence of the school yard that I realized how far we'd gone.

Or what a congregation we'd find when we got there.

All of the remnants of Talon Company must have been present. Dozens, maybe a hundred griffons that I vaguely recognized, were scattered around the rooftop or the cracked asphalt that once made up the parking lots and ball courts of the grounds. Many continued to watch the skies for trouble, but just as many watched the two griffons standing at the center of one of the largest courts.

Heidi. She was alive.

And... someone I didn't recognize. A larger, older griffoness with a nasty scar over her eye and a bit of a limp.

The two were speaking. Calmly, and without much animation. The griffoness I didn't recognize had to have been Gawdyna. Maybe she was discussing her terms of payment for rescuing the last scraps of Fillydelphia. Or maybe she was about to extort us for all we had left to keep the lasers from returning...

It pained me on some level, but we pushed past a row of wounded griffons stretched out on the pavement so we could get close enough to overhear. I'd be back for them in a minute. It looked like they'd been attended to already anyway...

“You want me to surrender all of Fillydelphia to you,” Heidi said plainly. Not a question.

Gawd smirked. “That's right.”

“I didn't agree to that.”

Gawd's smirk faded. “An' you need to understand this wasn't business until just now.” She raised a tan talon toward Heidi's slouching form. “So let's do business. We did you a service an' saved your sorry asses from getting' ground into the dust by the ponies, and you agreed to take our help. Now we want payment.”

Heidi blinked heavily. “It's not mine to give.”

“An' whose is it to give then?” Gawd swept her claw over the city. “I've heard from five ponies and a donkey that Red Eye's taking a dirt nap, an' your Captain Stern joined him not long after. If they're gone who is in charge?”

No response.

“That's what I thought. The only people who are in charge now are the ones who have the strength to be in charge. And you, lieutenant, are the ranking officer left. Now, are you going to make this easy, or hard?”

Heidi looked up. “What I say doesn't matter. You're going to take Fillydelphia regardless.”

Gawd seemed to take no offense to the accusation. “You know how it is. We can do business now. We can sign a contract an' this doesn't have to turn ugly. That's your call, lieutenant.”

Heidi raised a claw to her face. She said nothing for a long time.

Finally, she uttered, “I won't sign your contracts, because I can't. I don't have the authority to-”

“Oh, come off it!” Gawd screamed. “How many times-”

“Because I am not in charge anymore!” Heidi screamed back, cutting her off. She tore off her now ragged uniform and tossed it to the ground. “Because as of right now, I am resigning my commission as lieutenant and commanding officer of the Fillydelphia Talons. I proved today that I am in no position to lead these soldiers anywhere, and I will not sign them or anything else over to you.” She raised a talon. “But first, Egon...”

The flash of anger on her face evaporated in an instant as she looked to her side and realized he wasn't there. She instead thrust that same talon out at some hapless griffon with a radio across from her. “You. Yes, Private Sleekfeathers, you. Come here.”

She took his radio and adjusted the dials on it. Leigh's radio crackled to life and played an amplified copy of her voice over her as she announced, “This is Lieutenant Heidi Blackfeathers, commanding officer of Talon Company. Let this be a formal declaration of the dissolution of Talon Company. We failed in our mission today, and I failed you all. I've never asked any of you to do anything I wasn't willing to do myself, and I stick by my word. With the total loss of Fillydelphia and the deaths of Master Red Eye and Captain Stern, your contracts are now null and void. You have no mission left. I will not ask any of you to do anything I would not, and as of today, I am resigning from Talon Company.

“You... you are all dismissed. Permanently.”

Heidi dropped the radio handset without ceremony and looked up at Gawd again. “Do what you want. You're going to anyway. If you need a permission slip from me, consider that my agreement.”

And with that, she turned away and started a plodding trudge toward the exit gate. Griffons made a wide berth for her, us included. No one dared speak up or question her.

The heavy silence that followed lingered. Even the distant crackle of burning debris and the rush of cross winds drowned out the murmurs of everyone present. That... was it? Heidi just quit? And fired us all?

What? Could she do that?

I drifted a few steps back and cut my eyes to the rows of wounded lying on the pavement. I needed something else to think about. Maybe I could... maybe I should...

Leigh's radio cut in one more time. “Well then, you heard the lady. You're all dismissed.” Gawd's voice. “You're free to go off into the wastes if you want, but I'm taking charge of this dump now, an' I'm makin' an offer. You all know the city. You've been here forever. This is your chance to join Gawd's Talons and keep your jobs.

“It's your choice, but understand that I'm a business lady an' I made the first offer. Join up now, because my offers only get worse from here.”

Fuck. That.

No. Absolutely not.

I kept on my path toward the injured, certain that if nothing else, I didn't want to even consider staying here longer than I had to. Except to do the last I could for those who were hurt.

And it quickly became apparent that I might not have as much to do as I expected. Many of the griffons stretched out on the ground were beyond help. Motionless, covered by Talon flags or whatever other tarps or material was at hand, the bodies of the recently deceased were almost as numerous.

I paused at the nearest. An old griffoness with graying pink feathers...

A gasp passed my beak and I lowered the flag. I shouldn't have looked. Pony-goddesses-dammit... I knew better...

“Dr. Longtalons?” Across the row, a younger, yellow griffoness covered in bloody bandages pushed herself up from her spot among the injured. Her eyes lit up. “It-it is you! I-I thought you... when-when the Enclave hit the hospital...”

Zella didn't need to say anything else. I dredged a potion out of my medical kit and offered it to her, which she refused. “No... no, please, there are so many hurt so much worse than me.” Her eyes drifted down to the motionless bodies beside me. “B-but Dr. Darkskies and Dr. Clawmarks didn't-didn't make... there wasn't... I did everything I... could...”

I took her good claw in mine and held it while the tears began. Hers, and mine.

There wasn't anything for me to say back. I don't know why Heidi didn't assign me to the field hospital that had been set up. Maybe it was a mistake. Instead of dying like the heroes they all were, I'd just been flapping around the city and being useless. Like always.

With a few awkward shrugs, I wiped my own tears and urged her to lie down again. “It's okay. I'm here now, and I'm not leaving until I've done all that I can.”

That was my duty. Nothing more, and nothing less.

At some point I'd lost track of my companions while I checked over everyone who was still alive. It was only after dusk fell, true, natural dusk that the wasteland hadn't seen in centuries, that exhaustion overcame me and I found a vacant spot against the brick facade of the school to collapse against.

A harsh, flickering gem light on a pole across from me cast long shadows from the odd griffon ambling around. They'd all faded into the background hours ago. Gawd was probably still around. Or one of her lieutenants. They were probably trying to pick out who was worth keeping around, and more than once I worried they'd latch onto the notion that a medic was too useful to let leave. They had no idea what they'd be getting their claws on with me, but it was moot. They'd have to shoot me before I joined up, and I meant that sincerely.

So many questions continued to plague my mind. Questions I couldn't have answered if I weren't tired beyond words, and questions I certainly couldn't answer now.

In my claw, I turned over a pair of ragged orange feathers and tried to find something more immediate to focus on. I'd found them trapped in the straps of my armor while changing a bandage on someone. I didn't have proof, but in the back of my mind, I had to accept that I knew whose they were. A weary sigh was all I could muster. Another trinket to add to the little collection I'd started forming, and it was all we had to remember Isaac by. But was it worse than the buckles from Ida's armor?

A question I didn't really want to answer.

I jumped with a start when one of the milling shadows turned my way. A familiar shape, and soon a familiar face. Amy held up a thermos and said, “You've got to be hungry.”

Starving, but too tired to eat. “Thanks, but give it to one of the wounded. They need it more than I do.”

She shoved it into my free claw. “What do you think we've been doing for the last two hours?”

Huh? I glanced over, and sure enough, saw dozens of weary griffons sipping at bowls, cups and thermoses of some kind of unidentifiable broth. Serge offered his last container to a green griffon with long, parallel burns on his side, and gave me a tiny nod of acknowledgment.

“Oh. Sorry. I didn't realize.”

She fell into a seated position next to me. “I noticed. It's fine. I guess even I feel like I'm doing some good today, finally.”

Serge hobbled over to join us, but stayed on his feet. “I think we all do.”

I scanned the area one more time, but didn't see any signs of the other two. “Where are Leigh and Lita?”

“We don't know,” he answered. “Leigh vanished not long after Heidi's announcement. I got worried about her, so I told Lita to try to track her down.”

“I didn't think we were under orders anymore?” I asked.

He studied me with a flat expression. “I asked her. It wasn't an order. And she agreed.” He wrung his bad claw, letting the cybernetics extend and flex fully. “I don't think she wanted to be here anymore. None of us do. But she probably wanted it less than any of us. I'm just hoping Carmelita finds her before...” He blew out a breath. “Never mind. I'm going to go look for her in a minute too. If she left the city it's a distant hope, but I want to see her at least one more time.”

“Me too,” I muttered, before remembering what was in my claws. “Hey, Serge? If you find her, give her this.”

He took the singed feathers with evident surprise. “You don't want to give it to her yourself?”

“You've got a much better chance of finding her than me in this shape.”

Serge studied the remains of his former comrade and closed his mechanical talons around them. “All right. If I catch up to her, I'll let her know where they came from.” He lingered for a moment more. “Hey... guys... in case I don't see you again... let me give you some advice: don't be here tomorrow morning.”

Amy glanced over to the unfamiliar griffons making rounds along the grounds. “I was having the same thoughts.”

“Me too,” I muttered.

Serge nodded once. “I'm sorry your chance didn't come sooner, Kaz, but this may be your only chance. Make the best of it.” With a final wave and nod, he bid us farewell and vanished into the darkness that was settling across the lot.

Amy and I sat together for a while. Long enough for me to suck down the mysterious broth she'd brought for me, anyway. Finally, she asked, “So, what now?”

“I did promise to show you Oatsfield.”

Her eyes widened a little. “Yeah... you did. Can you fly?”

No. Not like I was, but I'd find a way. Holes the size of my fists in each wing wouldn't be enough to keep me in this hell hole for another day.

I'd done all that I could, and now that my duty was finally up....

I was free.

Level 13 - Max level achieved.