"Alright Airborne, listen up!" I sat up in my chair. We were inside a command tent in our base, preparing for the details of our first mission. We had finished our training a couple weeks ago, I was confident we would pass our first real test with flying colors.

I focused my attention on Railspike who was standing in front of us, next to a projected image of a town in the Zebra lands. "Attention Airborne! This is our first mission, to capture and hold the town of Mesa until we are relieved by the 5th Armored. Mesa is a strategic target due to it's high rise elevation and the fact it's the center of Zebra command on this front." The slide changed, it showed the surrounding terrain and had three zones outside the town itself highlighted in green. "These are the drop zones, Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie." The first green zone was close to the town itself, the second was farther to the left, and the last one was closer to a crossroad than the town itself. "We, Alpha company, will land closer to the town, our objective is to capture the town along with as many prisoners as possible and to capture Zebra munitions to aid in holding the town from enemy counterattacks. 1st Platoon will take the Zebra munitions dump to the north, 2nd Platoon will take the barracks to the south, while 3rd Platoon will take the Command post set up in Town hall. 2nd and 3rd Platoons are likely to meet the most resistance. Bravo is to hold the outside of the town and aid us in defending the town proper. Charlie will be holding a crossroads to stop enemy reinforcements from reaching Mesa. If they think that they'll be overrun, they are to retreat to Mesa, where we'll funnel the enemy and beat them with superior numbers. Any questions?" Nopony responded. "Good, suit up, we leave in 15 minutes."

I stood up and started towards the Armory with the rest of the Platoon. When we got there, everypony started to grab their kit. Me? I only had the standard issue equipment, I was just a riflepony, not a gunner, engineer, sniper or any other specialty like that. I had a M1 Carbine and a M1911 Pistol, or Colt, as the others were fond on calling it. I also grabbed a pair of grenades and clipped them to a harness on the front of my uniform.

As I walked out of the Armory I was pulled aside by Amber. Scotch, with the same equipment as me, was standing of to the side as well, Amber stood there and grabbed Hazel, with her BAR and bags of ammo, Sparky, with a Grease gun and a bazooka hanging from his back, and lastly Grapevine, decked out similarly to me and Scotch with a red cross drawn on her helmet and a bag with a similar cross on the side. Amber turned towards us, her Thompson dangling from a strap. "From now on, we're a squad, we find each other after each drop and we stick together throughout the operation. I am taking you under my wing, and I will make sure as many of us get out of this as we can." We all nodded, personally I felt better knowing a veteran Sergeant would be taking care of us especially.

We quickly ran to the airfield on the base and piled into the plane that held the rest of the platoon. As we sat nearby to each other, Railspike sat next to the door as the plane lifted into the sky towards our destination. As we settled in the pilot's voice came on over a radio situated in the main cabin we were in. "Fillies and Gentlecolts, thank you for flying Air Equestria, in bound for the surroundings of Mesa, we are looking at a three hour flight and having you be on the ground at around 2:00 AM local. Try and get some sleep before we hit, it'll give you an advantage when we get there." Taking the pilot's recommendation, I found myself slowly drifting off to the drone of the engines outside.

I was shaken awake by Scotch. "Pilot just finished saying we're getting close, wake up and double check your gear." I nodded, pulling the strap of my Carbine, and tugging on my grenades, pistol holster and my small pack that held some MREs and other personal effects. Everything was good as I glanced over to the rest of the platoon doing the same.

Suddenly the cabin was filled with a red light, someone called out around the same time it turned on. We all stood up and the unicorn and earth pony troopers clasped hooks attached to their parachutes to a rail in the ceiling, we were all preparing to leap out into the cold night and help aid Equestria in the only way we knew how, by causing havoc in areas the enemy controlled.

The red light bathing the cabin switched to green, along with a shout of, "GREEN LIGHT! GO GO GO!" We charged out of the plane, leaping out into the night air. As I glided towards the ground, I could see members of the other two platoons landing in the same area we where, along with the members of Bravo and Charlie farther away. I hit the ground in a tiny flourish, whipping out my M1 carbine and scanning the trees around us. I kept scanning, even as other Airborne landed around me. I heard a low whistle and turned around, the 90 pony company was gathered into a large circle as Captain Spearhead checked who we had. The final tally was 92 Airborne, two ponies from Bravo were stuck with us, but the rest of the company had made it, not to shabby for our first jump, at night even!

"Ok Airborne, stay low and keep quiet till we get into the town of Mesa proper, than let hell loose." We followed the Captain as we moved through the trees. We were walking for around five minutes when we first saw the town. A makeshift tower stood over the town with a bridge over a small river directly in front of us. Looking farther in, I noticed makeshift walls made of sandbags and debris. The town was in ok shape, despite a few buildings laying in ruins.

The company sniper pushed past me and closer to the Captain, "The sentry in the tower is asleep, as long as we keep quiet, we can sneak into town and take the Zebras completely by surprise." The Captain nodded and made a few hand gestures, telling us to pick up and move. With a few whispered orders, we slowly made our way across the bridge. We made it about halfway when the yelling started. The voice was obviously an officer and might have spooked the sentry. I looked up, the sentry had just woken up and moved a searchlight onto the bridge.

Fuck.

He let out a yell of alarm but was silenced by a shot from one of ours. More yelling, that of orders and panic, wafted from the town. We started to move to the closest thing resembling cover when a Machine gun opened fire on the bridge. I watched as it tore into a few unlucky troopers before the rest either dropped to the floor, or were out of the kill-zone. "SOMEONE KILL THAT FUCKING MACHINE GUN!" One soldier yelled from the bridge. I let loose a few shots, as another soldier ran up and threw a grenade inside the building the MG was hiding in. A yell followed by a muffled explosion spelled the fate of the guns crew.

"Alpha Company! Move in on your objectives! 1st Platoon, take the barracks, 2nd the ammo dump, and 3rd take town hall! You two go with 1st platoon, they're down a few. MOVE OUT NOW!" The Captain yelled as he got 1st Platoon to follow him towards the barracks. We made our way to the town hall. In the chaos, I had lost Amber and the rest of my 'Squad', but I quickly found them, letting loose a sigh of relief that all of them were alright.

We quickly moved through the town, occasionally stopping to have a small firefight with Zebra troops. Most of the time the firefight started with a shot from a house, followed by a pair of troopers barging in and reporting a prisoner or clear after a few shots. I was sticking close to Amber and Hazel, with Scotch and Sparky behind me and Grapevine following up the rear. We eventually cleared into a courtyard in front of town hall and were immediately set upon by MG and rifle fire. Grapevine, Scotch and I, along with two other soldiers ducked into an alleyway, while the rest of the platoon jumped into craters, behind sandbag walls, and other assorted cover. It saddened me to see three members lying on the ground bleeding out. I looked back to the group around me, the two other troopers being privates, I decided to take control of the situation.

"Ok, we're going to flank the town hall, try to get inside and clear the MG nests so the rest of the platoon can advance. Scotch, you're with me." I checked the name patches on the other troopers. "Grapevine, you take Posthaste and Krieg and watch our flank. got it?" They nodded. "Good, let's go!"

We moved farther into the alleyway and got closer to the side of the Town hall. I turned the corner of the alleyway and discovered a side door into the Town hall, I opened it slowly and took a look around. I was in a side hall to the hall's atrium, a lounge on my right where i heard one of the machine guns letting loose hell. I glanced into the lounge and saw the crew loading another belt into their Maxim machine gun. I trained my gun on the loader, but I hesitated. These zebra probably had families, people to miss them when they passed. I shook that feeling, the three dead outside and the ones on the bridge had families too, and they were no different. My shot struck the loader in the upper back and made him drop to the floor. The gunner turned around and got a shot in the heart as a reward. I ducked into the room as I heard more yelling from throughout the hall. A zebra turned the corner, but luckily Scotch was watching my back the whole time and shot the zebra down as soon as he came into view. I watched as Grapevine and the others opened a stair way and moved to the upper levels. Me and Scotch took cover in the lounge and returned fire at zebras in the main atrium. It was two floored with a grand staircase to the second floor. A Maxim was watching the main door, so we would need to flank it. As the firefight dragged on, the zebra's numbers started to dwindle, until I watched a rocket soar through the front door and annihilate the Maxim position. I heard a voice outside yelling "DAMMIT SPARKY! WATCH WHERE YOUR FIRING THAT DAMNED BAZOOKA!" With that I watched Hazel and Amber charge into the atrium and spray the last few zebras with their BAR and Thompson respectively.

After the short firefight a majority of the platoon gathered in the atrium. Railspike looked us over. "Crescent, take Krieg and Scotch and clear out the rest of the building, we have reason to believe that their primary comm center is somewhere in here. Grapevine, see what you can do about our wounded, the rest of you, form a perimeter and secure all exits. Don't want any Zebras sneaking past us." We saluted and moved to complete our assignments.

Krieg, Scotch and I made our way throughout the building, calling clear to the rest of the platoon who moved in and secured the rooms. The lower floors didn't hold anything as we made our way through the upper floor where we found two small groups of zebras. Wounded and scared we told them to go to the atrium with their hands up and without their weapons. We made our way to the final room, apparently the mayor's office with the amount of decoration, that is to say, little. We formed up on the door. I looked to the two under my command and care. "Krieg, you and me will take either side of the door while Scotch," I motioned to him. "You bust down the door and we'll take whoever inside by surprise." They nodded as we got into position. Scotch reared up and busted the door down as a long burst of fire tore through the opening. I watched in horror as rounds struck Scotch in his chest, he jerked as the rounds hit him, finally falling over with the shots stopped.

"YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!" Was all I heard as Krieg and I moved in the room and gunned down the officer looking Zebra standing behind the mayor's desk. Just like Scotch, he jerked with each shot that struck him until we stopped firing. When everything stopped, I looked to Krieg and let loose a sigh. "Krieg, bring Scotch's body down to Grapevine, I'll stay here and see what I can scrounge up." He nodded, clearly unhappy about the deed one of us had to carry out. As Krieg carried Scotch's body back to the atrium I searched through the desk the Officer was behind. I mainly found documents about the town, and a single report with a stamp that I recognized as the symbol of the Zebra military. Grabbing that I looked at the radio sat behind the desk, noting it had a few holes from when me and Krieg gunned down the officer. I let loose another sigh, seeing as Scotch could have died for next to nothing, unless this paper flat out said the next 3 weeks of zebra attack plans.

I made my way back to the atrium to see Captain Spearhead talking to Railspike. "We lost Privates Muffin Top and Clear Skies on approach, and we lost Private Scotch when we secured the hall itself. Corporal Morning Fog is wounded, but our medics have him stabilized. They say he won't be in fighting shape until he's fully healed."

The Captain nodded at this news. "Good, we see you got some prisoners and your platoon secured some good equipment. Those Maxims will come in handy when we have to hold the town against a possible counter attack. Speaking of, 3rd platoon will watch the bridge approach we came through on. Engineers are already working on some trench systems and foxholes in crucial positions. You'll be given a Maxim and plenty of ammo for it. Make sure all your men get ammo or take a Zebra weapon if there isn't enough to go around. We have plenty of ammo for the Zebra's Nagants and PPSH's."

Railspike nodded as the Captain left. "Alright 3rd platoon, gather your equipment and let's MOVE OUT!" With that, we began to move to where we were ordered and where we would experience one of the most harrowing mornings we ever experienced.

Author's Note

I am so sorry it took so long to get this done, between school and games and shiny things and lack of creativity and shiny thin- OOH SHINY!

*ahem* Anyways, I'm sorry it took so long to make but, it's done. Hopefully I can get the next chapter done sooner.

Comment on what you liked and/or didn't like and until next time!

-CanadianPony OUT!