Enlisted

It's just another routine patrol around the city, you take time to admire the inhabitants as they live in their adobe brick houses and do whatever they can to survive in this terrorist run shit-hole.

"How much longer are we staying in town with the dune-coons?" your rainbow-mained friend says a little irritantly.
"Cuz I miss what little trigger-time I'm allowed."

"Well, what did you expect after last week's incident?" you say jokingly.

"Hey, those old ladies had bomb vests on before I shot them and you know it!"

"Yep, they sure did, and they were also sneeky enough to get rid of them before they hit the ground after taking your hoof to their faces." you say with a dark chuckle.

As you two go about your banter the pony on the M2 mounted to the roof of your Hummer scans the roof tops and tries to see whats causing the rolling dust clouds in the close hillside just on the outskirts of the city. You've always called him "Skin", probably because 90% of his left foreleg has 3rd degree burns up it. The two boys (barely out of highschool) in the back were joking back and forth about banging eachother's sisters. Meanwhile, in the hillside Skin was scanning, a man wrapped in his towels and rags was sliding the bolt on his .50cal sniper rifle into place and is now calculating his shot aimed at your vehicle.

Whatever conversations were going on were immediately cut off by the *KER-CHUNK* of metal being punched through and your vehicle sputtering and dieing whilst coming to a complete stop. Skin, peering over his belt-fed, notices a hole the size of a baseball in the center of the hood.

"Ahhh crap...." he says with a grimace. "Guys, this ain't lookin' too good. Load up your....."

Before he can finish his sentence the back of his head explodes into a slurry of brain and skull fragments, spraying his machine gun and the top of the hummer. His body falls through the hatch, he was standing in when he was on his gun, and he lies on the floor in the cab exposing the gaping hole in his head where his right eye used to be.

In an instant men were pouring out of the houses lining the street, like ants with assault rifles. Rainbow Dash and you grab your M4's and take cover behind some concrete road barriers while one of the kids in the Hummer takes mount on the M2, and starts tearing up the street's inhabitants with it, while the other tries to radio for reinforcements. Gunfire quickly becomes the new ambient noise as you are forced to shout back and forth just so you can make out what is being said.

"LOOKS LIKE YOU GOT WHAT YOU WISHED FOR DASH!" you say in an 'I told you so' voice.

"YEA, WELL AT LEAST IT'S NOT DUSTY OLD TERRORIST WOMEN THIS TIME!" she says with a smile that shows she's trying to enjoy this mayhem.

"HA HAAA, THEY'RE ALL DUSTY DAMN IT!" you shout, showing your dark sense of humor.

Just as you finish that sentence a man armed with an RPG took aim and sent his rocket towards your Hummer and filled most of the cab with propellant fueled fire. The blast disintegrated the radio kid inside and sent the one, operating the belt-fed, flying 20ft. down the street. You hear his cries of terror as you notice two bloody stumps where his knees used to be. Making a quick decision you sprint towards the, now crippled and going into shock, kid and shout.

"COVER ME WHILE I GET THE BLEEDER!"

"WHAT?!" Rainbow Dash shouts while blind-firing her M4 over the barrier.

As you grab the kid by the collar on his body armor, which didn't help at all in the explosion, and drag him into the nearest alley you signal for Dash to follow you. She grabs the ammo bag, which can last about 2 days, and comes galloping towards you. Noticing the man with the RPG who blew up the Hummer aiming in her general dircetion, not even letting her slow down to turn into the alley, you immediately yank her by her shirt into the alley. She lands on top of you, burying her face into your chest, just as the rocket explodes into the ground and causes your ears to ring so horribly it drowns out all other sound, including the death cries coming from the legless teen who is now spasming like an iguana's tail after it had been severed.

Drawing the Beretta from your side holster, you aim it at the opening in the alley you came through because you can hear the shouts coming from the towel-heads growing louder and nearer. Rainbow Dash, hearing this as well, rolls off of you and draws her M4 and says.

"Grab the kid if you think he'll make it. Otherwise we're leaving him."

Now sitting up, you look over your shoulder at the lifeless corpse right behind you with foam dripping from it's mouth. The shouts and ramblings are getting closer, as you slowly stand up a grenade rolls into the alley with it's pin pulled. Without hesitating, in one single motion, you toss the corpse on top of the grenade and run with Rainbow Dash into the winding maze of back alleys of the city. As you sprint through the narrow corridors, dodging gun and mortar fire, you knock men and children back into their houses with sharp elbows and gun stocks.

You aimlessly choose your path hoping to lose the crowd of men firing at you. You constantly have to dart left and right as the tops of houses are bombed out and bullets whiz by your head and embed themselves into your body armor. The mortar blasts are getting more accurate as they start blowing out roof tops of houses right next to you. The horrible crash of the explosions deafens you and the pressure waves constantly try to knock you off balance while you keep one eye on your friend and the other on the the path you're taking.

You've been running for what feels like hours and the pounding sensation in your chest isn't helping. Coming to an opening that leads to a town center, you slow down to catch your breath and realize that the mortars and gunfire have stopped. Everything is eerily quiet and every single door and window is shut, completely cutting off the inhabitants from the havoc that is about to ensue. The children that are usually out playing games or staring at you because of your hardware and your "Fuck off." attitude are nowhere to be seen. Dirt clouds around your ankles roll through the street as you look for any signs of life. Just at that moment, while she was scanning, Dash sees something and shouts at you while rolling for cover into a partially blown up house.

Before you actually realize whats happening a rocket explodes into the wall of a house you were standing next to. The blast was severe enough to send you flying to the left and against the wall. You feel yourself in a drunken daze, and completely winded, as you stare at your bloody palms and jacket as the sound of gunfire fades away. You watch bullet holes appear in the walls and street while everything grows quiet. Your eyes grow heavy, and so does your head as it slouches onto your shoulder, and everything slips into darkness.