Chapter 39

Brave the night

One hour later after their talk with (former) Vice Principal Luna, the girls were in the armoury, doing weapon maintenance on their weapons along with Kurt Marshall, Trenderhoof, Neon Lights, Crimson Napalm and Trixie. Cleaning kits, weapon oil and spare parts were strewn around the table, sometimes in an orderly fashion, sometimes haphazardly.

"Drat," Twilight spoke after studying one of the focus lenses of her laser rifle, "this lens is gonna kick the bucket soon. At this rate I may have to replace the whole focus lens array."

Throwing the spoilt lens away, she picked the new one and put it into its intended place.

"Twilight, I think that you need to replace the third lens as well," Sunset said.

"Let me check," came the reply, followed by an Equestrian curse word and a clatter as another lens was thrown away, "Ponyfeathers!"

"Language, young lady," Kurt Marshall replied automatically.

"Sorry. What about your rifle, Sunset?"

"It looks like the wave/particle diverter is on the verge of failure," Sunset frowned, looking at the detail in question with a frown. "Good thing I found out now instead on when the rifle would fail me in the worst possible moment."

"Ah guess that these fancy hi-tech rifles need some good ol' TLC after all?" Applejack said, studying her minigun. "Hey, does anyone have a multimeter?"

"Here," Trenderhoof passed the requested object.

"Much obliged."

"Every weapon needs TLC," Kurt interjected, "but yes, energy weapons have their own hijinks. The AER9 models of Twilight's and Sunset's are actually the most reliable, if not the most damaging, that's why it's easier to find them."

"What other models existed?" Twilight asked.

"There was the AER12 for some select special forces units, and a predecessor to AER9, called Wyrmson 1000, but the latter was designed as more of a sniper weapon. Did not gain much favour because its beam instantly demasked the sniper, but turned out to be decent in urban battles. There are also AERT18 tri-beam laser rifles, but I never saw one."

"Tri-beam? As if they fire three beams at once?"

"Yes, and the focus lens array is different there, making the beam split wider but lowering the distance. A laser shotgun, if you will, although that term would be technically wrong. Then again, "laser rifle" isn't that correct either, because the weapon does not have rifled parts, strictly speaking."

"I see, thanks. Applejack, how is your minigun?"

"The electric motor is nice an' well an' I recharged it, an' the gun's cleaned," the farm girl replied, her accent more pronounced as she concentrated on reassembling her minigun.

"Rarity?"

"Almost done, darling, I need to put some oil on some parts. Speaking of which, Kurt, may I ask something?" the ex-fashionista turned to Kurt.

"Ask away."

"If I am not mistaken, the Interdiction sniper rifle is a weapon used by TODC forces, correct?"

"Indeed. I took it as a trophy when we took a village in Centaurica and I killed an enemy there in a sniper duel."

"Is it a good rifle?" Sunset asked.

"Quite good. Accurate, powerful, reliable and easily modifiable; the only problem is ammunition, since it uses some proprietary .408 TODC ammo and you can't just stick other .408 bullets into it. Not that .408 is easy to find in first place. Luckily for me, TODC agents managed to smuggle and stash their Inderdiction rifles and .408 into quite a number of places, so I can maintain the weapon easily and not worry about the ammo for a long time, provided I am careful."

"Nice. Trenderhoof, what is the weapon you carry? I don't recognize it," the girl pointed to the assault rifle that Trenderhoof just reassembled.

"It's Special Operations Assault Rifle, or SOAR for short. Uses the same caliber as the R91, but has an interchangeable barrel which lets me switch from 5.56 to 7.62, should the need arise, or vice versa. Also has a telescopic stock and integrated Pontrottini rails, which helps in repurposing the rifle as necessary, and it has a variety of gadgets for it - collimator, holographic and ACOG sights, a flashlight and a laser sight, and several underbarrel weapons, like a grenade launcher, a shotgun or even a flamethrower."

"A flamethrower?" Rarity asked. "Isn't that a little overkill?"

"There's no kill like overkill, Rarity," Applejack said, chuckling.

"Maybe for you, Applejack, but I still fail to see the point of using of a flamethrower as an underbarrel weapon."

"Actually, a flamethrower was a popular choice for soldiers fighting on Bovinian front," Trenderhoof interjected. "I learnt that while doing interviews with soldiers there. Bovinians had a tendency to store inflammable materials somewhat... improperly, and UFE army exploited this to the full extent. That, and flamethrowers were quite useful in Bovinian jungles to clear out village houses in close quarters."

"Isn't that somewhat excessively cruel?" Rarity frowned. "I am more than certain I have heard of our forces committing several war crimes there, including burning down a village filled with civilians."

"I actually wrote a report on that, but it got censored out by the Commissariat," Trenderhoof scowled. "And when I leaked it to the military police, I actually had a visit from their stormtroopers. Not pleasant memories. The Commissar who monitored our armed forces in Bovinia actually wanted me brought up on sedition charges, but his superiors gave him a stern talking-to for that, given that he failed to reign in the troops and TODC got the perfect propaganda material to paint UFE soldiers as merciless butchers, and then replaced him. The new guy made a better job, but I did not work with him long - I was reassigned to the other front shortly afterwards."

"I see," Rarity replied, frowning, and starting to reassemble her sniper rifle. Crimson Napalm, who did not take part in the conversation, reassembled his HR191 squad automatic weapon and made a satisfied grunt once he moved the bolt, apparently finding the movement good enough.

"Are all of you finally ready? The Great and Powerful Trixie hates waiting!" the ex-rookie-magician-turned-rocketeer grumbled, leaning against the wall. Her Panzerwraith rocket launcher along with spare rockets was slung behind her back, and the 10mm SMG was secured in her hip holster.

"Zip it, Trixie," Applejack adviced her, feeding the belt into her minigun.

"Almost," Twilight replied absent-mindedly, reassembling her laser rifle. The others ignored Trixie's question and in Sunset's case, rolled their eyes.

Then, Luna entered the room, still in her exoskeleton armour and the anti-materiel rifle they had already seen in her hands.

"Good, all of you are here. I wanted to discuss the plan."

"We are listening," Kurt replied.

"First and foremost, Kurt, do you mind if the girls join your own team?" Luna motioned at Twilight, Sunset, Applejack and Rarity.

"I don't, but I'd like to clear something first. As far as I understood, Applejack is basically the heavy weapons specialist, Rarity is the scout-sniper, while Twilight and Sunset provide marksman fire?"

"Sort of," Sunset explains. "Rarity and Applejack do have the roles you mentioned, but me and Twilight are not that set - it may be marksman fire or suppressive fire. Mostly we just try and pick out the opponents."

"Then if you join us on this job, I would like it to work the following way. Rarity, I'd like you to help me with sniping and spotting. Applejack, stick with Crimson and Trixie, since you are our heavy weapons specialists. Twilight and Sunset, you go with Trenderhoof and Neon. Any objections?"

"I have a question," Twilight asked. "What about Vice Principal Luna?"

"I am sniping from afar with anti-materiel rifle as usual," Luna replied.

"Alone?"

"Yes."

"I'm sorry, but this doesn't sound like a good idea to me. What if someone gets a drop on her? That said, what opposition are we expecting?"

"Security robots like Protectrons, Robobrains and sentry bots and maybe a warbot, but only a few turrets," Luna replied. "I have picked five squads and all of them have rocketeers and a supply of AP and HEI/AP ammo. We should have enough to deal with the turrets and the robots."

"Alright, that makes sense, but what worries me is that with the Hooffields getting very active, we may face unexpected opposition. Given that we are going to get Grasshopper vehicles, which are a lucrative prize, I am a little surprised that no one had tried to capture these vehicles before."

"Because not many would want to risk looting a military base," Kurt explained. "Independent warbands do not typically have the heavy equipment needed for a prolonged fight against warbots, or already have their own vehicle and see no need for another one. Gangs like Cleaners, Hooffields and McColts, not to mention Trade Sixty-Six, already have their reserve of vehicles and do not raid bases unless necessity strikes. Still, Twilight raises a valid point. Boss, maybe you should take Twilight or Sunset as a spotter, while another one goes with the boys?"

"Not my preferred modus operandi, but given my latest run-in with the enemies, might be worth it," Luna replied. "Twilight, do you mind going with me?"

"I don't. Sunset?"

"No problem," the fiery-haired girl replied, "I will go with Neon and Trenderhoof then."

"OK then. Restock your ammunition, if you need, and Twilight, you'll need binoculars, take a pair from over there."

Nobody raised any objections, and soon everyone had their magazines full of ammo.

"OK then," Luna said once everyone was ready, "now go to sleep for a while, because we will be going at midnight sharp. A Flamesword scout near the place is feeding us intel and he says it would be better to go when it's dark; Hooffields and McColts keep messing around here and Cleaners were seen en route to Marehoof in full force, so I'd rather avoid wasting ammo and strength on them if there's a chance they will stop their gang fights at night. Meet us near the entrance at 11:45 and don't be late."

A chorus of answers like "OK", "Yes, boss", "You got it", "Will do" and similar followed, and everyone left the room after collecting their stuff.

Nightmare Vindicators were more numerous and better armed than Twilight expected. Five squads were present in front of the entrance to the comm bunker, clad in various armour types from scout-sniper infiltrator armour to urban assault armour. Several people were armed with laser pistols and rifles, and Sunset spotted a presence of a couple of plasma pistols too with jealousy.

Flameswords are not stingy with supplying their allies with energy weapons, if what Luna said about Vindicators' alliance with them is true, Twilight thought.

"Alright, everyone," Luna addressed others, her face obscured (and voice muffled a little) by a ski mask which only left her eyes open, "this is so far our most ambitious resource raid. We all know how hard the defenses are, so your primary task, above everything else, is to remain alive. No stupid heroics. Understood?"

"Yes, boss," an unsteady chorus of voices answered.

"Nice. You might have noticed that we have an independent warband among us," Luna motioned to Twilight and the rest of the girls. The other students of CHS and CPA who knew them erupted in a wave of greetings.

"They have agreed to help us in exchange for one "Grasshopper" vehicle. I intend to keep my word, so watch your fire. If you turn all cars to scrap, you will be stuck on latrine duty for half a year."

"Yes, boss!" another chorus.

"Then let us move out. Security team, seal the bunker after us!"

"Acknowledged," one man whom the girls did not know from CHS or CPA gruffed, and went inside along with others. The heavy door closed and sealed itself shut, as Nightmare Vindicators left.

The base was located rather far away from the Vindicators' comm bunker. As they left, Luna ordered to split into predesignated groups, which meant that the girls joined Kurt Marshall's team as intended to. This resulted in Twilight being separated from the girls as Luna traveled apart from the rest, taking care to spot any potential ambush.

This also gave the former Vice Principal an opportunity to talk to the Equestrian Princess with relative privacy.

"Twilight," she said, "we need to talk about how we can maintain the appearance of your loyalty to the Brotherhood of Steel and avoid harm to my Vindicators and Flameswords at the same time."

"I am listening," Twilight replied. "Although I am not sure what to do in case I get roped into attacking them or you. I may try to avoid getting on such missions, but even that may become suspicious."

"Since we have established ourselves in a comm bunker, we have access to certain things that will make this thing simpler," Luna took out a magneto-optic data disk. "This disk has the encryption software and a set of codes that allow you to contact our bunker via your Pip-Boy - and yes, I know that you have a radio transmission modification for it, it is obvious if you know the signs - and allows you to send a message as long as you can connect to any radio tower from it."

"So I can contact you from anywhere?"

"Not quite. While there are many radio towers scattered throughout the Wastelands, a good number of them are either destroyed or do not have sufficient energy to work. To contact us, you have to be within the range of a working tower, and send the message - via either voice or binary dot-dash code - and the towers will bounce the message back to us."

"Binary dot-dash code?"

"Basically, the transmitter you have can bounce an audio signal that is either a short beep - dot - or a longer one - dash - and that is the binary dot-dash code. Each symbol has a sequence of dots and dashes associated with it and you can pass it over the radio."

"So like texting?"

"Yes, sort of. Your Pip-Boy allows you to simply type symbols and the program on the disk I gave you will convert them by itself, but it is still useful to learn the code by heart, just in case."

"OK, thanks."

"Since the message will be encrypted, you may not worry that someone will read it even if they intercept it somehow - and this is possible if someone can tap into radio towers."

"What if someone forces me to send a misinforming message, to lure you into a trap?"

"There is a way around that too. The program will ask you for a four-digit password. The trick is that there are several passwords, but only one of them is fully correct - the others hide an alert signal in the message's header, which we can receive and understand you have been compromised, and act accordingly. Here," Luna gave Twilight a small sheet of paper, "read and remember them all."

Twilight spent a minute reading the paper, then returned it to Luna, who, in turn, burned the paper with a lighter. As the remains fell on the ground, she stomped on them thoroughly.

"So there won't be a fire," she explained. "There was one time when the weather was especially arid in the Western Wastelands and some idiot managed to cause a fire that burned a lot of grass to the west of Ponyville. Now that place is known as the Burnt Field."

"Yikes. So if there is a possible attack against you or Flameswords, I must warn you?"

"If possible, and tell us whether you and your friends will participate. I know that if we suddenly start avoiding all confrontations, the Brotherhood will suspect there is a spy."

"OK then. Do you have a set of code messages I could use?"

"Yes. But wait until we find ourselves - and yourselves - a Grasshopper. And put your mask on; it may be night, but it's full moon tonight and I'd rather not have you recognized," Luna replied. Twilight followed her advice, noting with displeasure that the mask was somewhat itchy and made it slightly more difficult to breathe.

Shaking the distracting thoughts from her head, she fell into the usual routine of travelling through the Wastelands, searching for threats.

It took the whole group a couple of hours to get to the military base. Once they got close enough to it, Luna ordered everyone to wait until she took out the closest sensor arrays. As she took off in a direction away from the main force, Twilight followed her. Kurt Marshall ordered Trixie to prepare her Panzerwraith rocket launcher.

Luna picked out a position on the hill located one kilometer away from the entrance to the base, far enough that she would be able to snipe more or less effectively, yet not close enough for automated turrets to fire at her. As she explained to Twilight, the sensor arrays linked to towers were designed to target enemies at assault rifles' effective distance of fire.

"What about mines? When we attacked the base of the 9th Mechanized Infantry Battalion, there was a minefield," Twilight asked.

"Most likely you approached the base from the other direction than that of its main entrance, then, because usually they were not trapped," Luna answered, while exchanging the magazine of her anti-materiel rifle for armour-piercing sniper ammo. "This base should not have its main entrance covered in mines too."

"If you say so," Twilight replied, unsure, looking through the binoculars.

"Any human or robotic targets?" Luna asked, looking through the optical sight of her anti-materiel rifle.

"Currently, none are visible."

"Sensors or turrets?"

"Closest to us, are one sensor array and two anti-infantry turrets."

"Understood."

Luna switched something on her radio and then spoke into a microphone that was set close to her mouth:

"Vindicators, this is Nightmare Actual. Commence the assault. Demo One, you are up!"

"Acknowledged," Trixie responded, and prepared her Panzerwraith rocket launcher. Looking through the optical sight mounted on it, she aligned the crosshairs with the sensor array she was supposed to hit.

As she pulled the trigger, the rocket flew out of the tube and its engine flared, accelerating it. When it hit the target and exploded, the sensor array exploded into smithereens. Red lights turned on immediately, and a siren began blaring in the distance.

Trixie loaded another rocket, and spoke into her radio:

"Demo One reporting, target destroyed."

A shot sounded from afar, then another one, and another one after that. With each shot, one of the sensors on another array broke apart, emitting electric arcs across the surface.

"Incoming robots!" Kurt Marshall, who looked through binoculars, exclaimed. "Machine gunners and snipers, prepare to engage!"

Applejack and Crimson Napalm readied their weapons, while Rarity loaded an armour-piercing bullet into the chamber and activated her Stealth-Boy. Another loud shot rang out as the .50 bullet raced towards the closest Protectron and shredded its circuits.

"Owwww," Twilight moaned as she rubbed her ear. "Are anti-materiel rifles always this loud?!" she shouted.

"Yes! Don't get distracted! Any new enemies?"

"Robobrain coming out of the base's entrance... another robobrain... and a sentry bot!"

"Thanks," Luna turned her rifle slightly on a bipod, and fired again.

BA-DBLAMMM!

"Owwww," Twilight moaned again as the deafening sound almost ripped her eardrum in two.

What wouldn't I give for a pair of earmuffs right now. How on Earth does Luna take it? she wondered.

"Incoming sentry bot!" Kurt shouted. "Disperse and take cover! Heavies and snipers with AP, take it down! Applejack, take care of the other bots!"

Vindicators followed the order immediately, hiding behind various stones or the hills. Applejack hid herself behind a tree (as best as she could), and aimed her minigun at the other robots, releasing short bursts at them.

A cacophony of gun fire erupted as the Vindicators peppered the sentry bot with bullets of various calibers and laser beams. The sentry bot fired back as well, but was destroyed by a well-placed .50 AP bullet from Luna before it dealt any actual damage.

More robots came out of the entrance to the base, including Protectrons, robobrains, Securitrons Mk. I and a type of bipedal robots Applejack had not seen before. The robots looked a lot like human and were armed, and they began rapidly advancing on the Vindicators, firing as they ran.

"Assaultrons!" Kurt Marshall bellowed. "Take them out, fast!"

Applejack did not think twice and unleashed a torrent of bullets onto advancing robots. In return, several took shots at her with their AR-22 assault rifles and laser weapons, prompting her to try and hide her bulk behind a tree.

Majority of the bipedal attack robots that Kurt called "Assaultrons" fell before they reached the Vindicators (although Applejack noticed with displeasure that they were tougher than expected, and extremely fast), but one of them managed to deliver no less than six point-blank shots to the chest of one Vindicator before Crimson Napalm gunned him down, and the other Assaultron grabbed another person, and the red "eye" it had glowed for a moment before emitting a blinding red laser beam that charred the Vindicator's head, leaving horrific fourth-degree burns. The unfortunate man screamed and died as the beam scorched and burned his eyes and brain matter that got hit by the beam. Applejack kept the finger on the trigger until the Assaultron fell, and shortly after that, the barrels of her minigun stopped rotating. The blonde girl released the magazine immediately and went for a new one.

Several laser beams landed on her, prompting several cuss words. Despite her best attempts to hide, the tree was hardly big enough to help her with that, and the surviving robots did not miss the chance to pepper her. Some of the beams hit her shoulder pauldrons, and one of the robots scored a glancing hit on her helmet - not enough to hit, but enough to irritate.

Darn, good thing I got myself a helmet or my face would have been fried bacon, Applejack thought.

"Assautrons down, keep firing, destroy the rest!" Kurt shouted. The Vindicators kept firing, until the last robot was rendered inoperable.

Silence reigned.

"Did not expect to see Assaultrons here," Trenderhoof spoke up as he came up to Applejack. "This is not good, if we see more of them at the base."

"What sort of robots are these Assaultrons?"

"Frontline support units. The first models only had lasers in their heads, but the newer ones could also use human weapons. These are designed to suppress hostiles, attack enemy lines while surviving enemy fire and sow chaos in close quarters. You just saw what happens if you let one get too close to you," the former Crystal Prepper waved in the direction of a man who was killed by a point-blank laser shot.

"Yeeesh," Rarity said, decloaking. "Ugly."

"You said it," Applejack agreed.

"You guys OK?" Sunset asked as she came up to them, relaoding her laser rifle. "An Assaultron almost did a number of me, I barely evaded his electroshock attack."

"I'm fine," Rarity replied.

"Same here," Applejack said.

Suddenly, Kurt's face changed, as he listened to something on his radio. Several seconds later, he spat out a curse and said:

"Boss Lady's in trouble! My squad, after me!"

As everyone followed him, Sunset, Applejack and Rarity looked at each other with expressions of horror etched on their faces. Everyone had one and the same thought:

Twilight!

Twilight tensed as she heard an explosion, followed by a scream of pain and strings of foul curses. Prior to taking the position with Luna, she had scattered several land mines to ensure that no one would be able to sneak up on them, and now it appeared someone tried to - but failed.

"Luna!" she whispered hurriedly and rolled onto her back. "Someone tripped my land mines and is behind us!"

"Damn!" Luna cursed, and spoke into the radio, "Vindicator-three, Nightmare Actual here, someone's up behind me..."

And then, four humans appeared from behind the hill they were on, guns pointed menacingly at them. Twilight did not even think before pulling the trigger. Red beams sliced the air, making their attackers duck and retreat behind the hill again.

"Scratch that last, we are under attack!" Luna shouted, and grabbed her anti-materiel rifle in her left hand. The exoskeleton whined slightly under its weight, while Luna rolled onto her back, taking out a weapon that looked like an elongated pistol with a cylinder-like object placed on top of it. Twilight noticed a laser sight mounted under its barrel.

Then two metallic objects flew out at them.

"Shit!" Luna cursed. In an impressive feat of athletics, she managed to do a backwards flip and stand on her legs, then do another one and find herself at the bottom of the hill. Meanwhile Twilight twisted her body and began rolling down the hill before landing in an unceremonious heap. Two explosion sounds resonated through the air as the grenades exploded on the top of the hill.

"We're quite lucky," Luna commented, "a little more and we'd have been toast."

"Agreed," Twilight said, standing up on one knee and sparing a glance at her IFF system on the Pip-Boy, noticing the presence of five red marks on it with displeasure.

Suddenly, two enemies appeared at the top of the hill. Before either of them managed to get a shot, both Luna and Twilight opened fire; the laser beams fried the torso of one of the asasilants, with the last one hitting the head and causing the body to ignite, while Luna's SMG spat out bullets with an impressive rate of fire that eviscerated the chest of the other enemy.

"Luna, I think they're trying to flank us from both sides!" Twilight said, looking at the movement of red marks on the screen.

"Damn it, there is no close enough cover in sight," the former Vice Principal cursed. "They will cut us down halfway there!"

"How long until the others get to us?"

"Five minutes or less, I think, but it is more than enough for them to toast us!"

Meanwhile, Twilight noticed with fear that the enemy was not in a hurry to attack, instead amassing their numbers. She could already count ten hostiles on her IFF.

Blast.

"Luna, do you have grenades?" she asked.

"A couple of frags and several hi-ex."

"I think it's frag time."

"Then reset your timer so that they won't throw it back."

"Good idea," Twilight did as told to. "Together?"

"Yes. On my mark..."

The equine-turned-human prepared a grenade, while the former vice principal did the same.

"...mark!"

Two grenades flew in opposite directions around the hill. The blasts were followed by more screams of pain and cursing, and Twilight noted with some sort of relief that the number of red marks dropped.

Unfortunately, some people survived, and it appeared that they had had enough. Three men ran out from the direction Twilight threw her grenade at, from the left side of the hill, firing rapidly. Twilight desperately threw herself on the ground, but was not quick enough to avoid getting shot - several bullets were stopped by her chest piece but still inflicted some pain, and two pierced her right upper arm.

Luna snarled and shot back with her rapid-firing SMG again. The man closest to her fell as the stream of bullets pushed through his shaggy leather armour and pierced his aorta and lungs, gushing blood. His remaining comrades fired at Luna, but her exo-armour, being thicker than any armour model a person could use without a power exoskeleton frame, reduced the effect to uncomfortable bruising. Twilight stabbed herself with a RegenStim and used the moment of distraction to fire at the enemies again, but missed. Hissing in pain, she aimed with the aid of iron sights and fired again, this time managing to hit one of the enemies in the leg, focring him to fall. The other one expended all his ammo, and Luna seized her chance - in an impressive jump, she kicked him hard into the chest and pinned him beneath her foot. Before he managed to recover, a short burst into the head silenced him forever. The remaining enemy tried to stand up, but Twilight would have none of it - a BZ-DAT later, half of his head was gone, burnt away by a laser beam.

"Urgh," the Equestrian groaned, clutching her upper arm. "Luna, seeing any enemies?"

"IFF shows four more. Wait... three now, what the..?"

Her face scrunched in confusion, Luna suddenly tapped her right ear, as if trying to hear something. Twilight heard gunfire in the distance. Suddenly, the former Vice Pricncipal smiled.

"Kurt is coming, they are striking the enemy in the back," she explained.

Indeed, soon Twilight could not see red marks any longer. Luna sat down next to her and took off the damaged armour plate, using a flashlight to look carefully at the wounds.

"Hmmm, looks like you have bullets stuck inside the arm. Hold on," Luna took out a pair of medicinal pliers, a flask of alcohol and a small stick. "Bite on the stick, this may hurt."

Twilight did as ordered, while the blue-skinned woman disinfected her hands and the pliers, fixed the flashlight between her teeth, and set to work. Twilight moaned in pain as the pliers dug inside her flesh while Luna worked.

This sucks, should have asked for Med-X, she thought, but before the thought went any further, Luna took the bullet out, causing her to groan loudly as the pain increased. Luna held her firmly in placed and went to work again. This time, she was able to dig out the bullet faster, and after that, she immedately reached for the first aid kit again.

"The blood does not come out in pulses and is not bright red, as I see, so it's not arterial, but there is still more than I'd be fine with, relatively speaking," Luna said before fixing the flashlight between her teeth again, took out a small pneumosyringe and gave Twilight an injection.

"Oof!" Twilight gasped. "Oh, this one feels like it's burning me! What is it?"

"It's a blood coagulation accelerator," came the answer as Luna took out the sterilized medpack and bandages and wrapping them around Twilight's arm.

"Hey, boss! Boss Lady? You OK there?" Kurt's voice sounded.

"We are both here!" Twilight shouted back. Shortly after that, Kurt's squad and Twilight's friends appeared on the top of the hill.

"Oh my stars, darling!" Rarity gasped as she looked at Twilight's damaged limb. "What happened?"

"A stroke of bad luck," came the gruff answer from the Princess of Friendship. "And two bullets. Any idea who these guys are?"

"McColts," Trixie spat as she looked at the gang's symbol on the corpses' armour. "Apparently, they thought it would be smart to try and find some cars to counter CRAGADILE warbots with."

"Would that even be a good idea?" Applejack asked. "Th' warbots have fifty-cal, no?"

"If the base has something heavier than Grasshoppers, maybe not as stupid," Kurt replied. "Except it isn't likely to have such things. Then again, maybe they don't know this, or maybe they are just after the same thing as we are."

"This complicates matters. Communicate to others that McColts are present here and additional actors might be on the scene too, Kurt."

"Yes, ma'am," Kurt stepped to the side and began speaking into his radio, "Dagger Three-One to all Vindicators, be advised, McColts have been noticed in the area, possible presence of other actors on the scene. Maintain caution."

"Well, that complicates matters," Luna commented. "I guess it was a stroke of luck that Twilight offered to act as a spotter, or I could have died out here. I wonder if they were hunting me specifically, or just came across the area and wanted to off me and loot my corpse. The anti-materiel rifle, my exo-armour and the Flamespray SMG would make good loot."

"Flamespray SMG?" Sunset asked.

"Yes," Luna showed the weapon she had used not long ago, "this is a weapon smuggled in by TODC intelligence agencies. Uses a helical-feed magazine, holds one hundred bullets and has an integrated laser sight - which helps since the iron sights are terrible and have to be reset every time you change the magazine."

"Is this a good weapon?"

"Not as a primary one. It eats bullets very fast thanks to its obscene rate of fire, the helical-feed magazine is a finicky thing so you can't handle the gun roughly, and as I said, iron sights are useless since you have to fix them every time you change a magazine. Plus, it's a sub-machine gun, so don't expect it to work miracles. But when in close quarters or in narrow corridors, it's a very good weapon to pump foes full of lead. Especially if you load armour-piercing 10mm ammo."

"You said it's a TODC weapon?"

"Yes, and thus rare enough."

"Kurt," Luna addressed the former soldier who had finished informing the Vindicators about McColts, "what are the casualties?"

"Three dead, one critically wounded and stabilized with AMFAK-10, four lightly wounded."

"Not good, this might turn into a bloodbath if we get pinned by a warbot. Changing plans. Me and Twilight are coming with your squad. Trixie, stay safe but keep your Panzerwraith ready at a moment's notice, I don't want any heavily-armed hostiles alive longer than it takes for a rocket to hit them. Kurt, Rarity, we are counting on you to spot and neutralize threats from afar. Kurt, cover our backs, Rarity, look forward and to the right, I look forward and to the left. Twilight, you are my spotter, Trenderhoof, you are Rarity's spotter. Applejack, Crimson, you continue as before. Neon, Sunset, be ready to provide fire support or first aid. Everyone got it?"

A chorus of affirmative answers followed.

"Very well," Luna pushed the button on her radio. "Vindicators, this is NIghtmare Actual! Demos, ready your rockets, snipers, pick spotters and overwatch, three hundred and sixty degrees, heavies, up front, the rest provide fire support! Form the squads!"

A volley of responses followed in her earpiece. Meanwhile, Twilight stabbed herself with a Med-X syringe, as the pain from the gun shots flared to an untolerable extent every time she tried to use her left arm.

"Ya better be careful with that, Twi," Applejack said in a worried tone. "Ah know you're havin' trouble working with your arm, but that stuff's addictive, y'know?"

"Yes, I do," Twilight hissed in pain. "Don't worry, Applejack, I'll be fine."

"If you say so, sugarcube."

Assaulting the military base of the 9th Mechanized Infantry Battalion with the assistance from Brotherhood of Steel was definitely easier, Twililght mused.

Since Nightmare Vindicators did not have the advantage of having heavy power armour or consisting mainly of war veterans, their fight through the base had been going differently. The majority of the work was taken on by snipers assigned to taking out threats from the front (including Rarity) who dropped their targets from afar. However, they have encountered sentry bots and even a CRAGADILE warbot; in those cases, Vindicators were forced into combat the threats directly, with Trixie and other rocketeers being the most vital part as they were the only ones who had a chance to quickly destroy the heavily armoured machines, and those carrying machine guns or assault rifles doing their best to inflict additional damage.

While the robots were destroyed relatively quickly, they still managed to inflict more casualties - four Vindicators were lightly wounded and three more were gravely wounded and had to be stabilized, which effectively took them out of action. Luna was visibly displeased by this development.

"If that goes on, we may exhaust ourselves before we get the prize. And there may still be other enemies around," she explained.

Some time later, they encountered another pack of Assaultrons - and this time, unfortunately, they were rather close.

"Oh, fuck this shit!" Trixie exclaimed, and before anyone reacted, she sent a rocket in the direction of Assaultrons. The resulting explosion from a hi-ex rocket nearly deafened those who were nearby, but also took out several Assaultrons by blowing them into pieces, and some who survived also sustained heavy damage. The rest of the Vindicators let out several bursts of fire before they dashed back to the closest cover possible with Assaultrons close in pursuit and snipers trying to pick the robots off (not an easy task when trying not to hit one's allies). When they settled in passable cover, the Assaultrons that survived the fire already were close enough, and one of them stopped holing the weapon with its left hand - only to have blue electric bolts arcing around it, and it hit Trenderhoof in an unarmoured area.

The blonde man let out a strangled scream as electricity ran through its body, and fell down, twitching.

"Trenderhoof!" Trixie gasped, and opened fire with her 10mm SMG. "Die, you damn clanker!"

Unfortunately, her SMG was not loaded with armour-piercing armour, and Assaultrons were sturdy, so the resulting damage was negligent. The Assaultron that shocked Trenderhoof advance on Trixie, the electroshock weapon in its hand charging...

"Yyyyaaaaaaargh!"

Applejack's power-armoured form barreled into the robot. Its gyroscopes whined, trying to correct its position within three-dimensional space, but the force of impact was so strong that the robot tumbled down on the ground. The blonde girl jumped into the air and landed straight on the robot's head with both legs; her mass, augmented with armour's strength enhancement, managed to crack open the vulnerable "eye" that shot lasers. As she stepped from it, the Assaultron tried to fire, but the destroyed pulse lamps of its laser failed to produce a beam, and Applejack discharged her minigun at it at point-blank distance.

"AJ, look out!" Sunset shouted.

One of the other Assaultrons charged up its laser, and fired - exactly at the moment when Applejack saw the danger. The girl had no chance to evade the attack, and a beam of a truly large size - when compared with the one of infantry laser weapons - slammed into Applejack's armour. The girl screamed and doubled over as the beam burned through the plates, the exoskeleton frame and her flesh, and then dropped onto her knees, holding the left hand against the savage burn.

Then she whipped out the LMG she carried on her back but rarely used, and, raising her head, unleashed a bulletstorm on the Assaultron one-handed. The heavy weapon bucked heavily against her arm, and she was barely able to control the recoil with only one arm, even with power armour's assistance. Crimson Napalm joined her, and their combined fire downed the robot.

The battle against the pack of Assaultrons lasted for only three minutes, but this was enough for two more Vindicators to perish, four to be incapacitated by electric shock and three more to be wounded, albeit not so gravely so as to be out of action.

"Luna? Can Vindicators actually absorb such casualties?" Twilight asked quietly.

"What you see is not our main force, in fact, there are more people out there working in group like Kurt's, who are carrying out... other tasks. We have more people than we project. But you have a point, we should refrain from attacking hard targets like military bases without bigger numbers and better equipment."

Meanwhile, Trenderhoof tried to get up but tumbled and almost fell.

"Easy there, Trenderhoof!" Trixie supported his weight. "How bad is it?"

"Not pleasant, that's certain," the blond man replied. "Come on, Trixie, I can still fight."

"When you can't even stand up properly? Get lucid, pal."

Meanwhile a Vindicator who was a medic studied Applejack's wound, which did not look pleasant. The laser beam from the Assaultron burned Applejack's skin heavily, causing a third-degree burn, which was exacerbated by the drops of molten metal that also landed on her skin.

"Ah've been shot by lasers before, but never that badly," Applejack muttered while the medic worked on her with an AMFAK-10 bag open, applying the mil-spec anti-burn salve. "Ow, that hurts!"

"Deal with it," the medic advised her none too gently.

"Assaultrons have very powerful laser cannons built in," Crimson said, reloading his SAW. "Most probably, it overloaded its cannon for a more powerful shot since you were in power armour."

"Well that was powerful alright, Ah'm feeling the burn."

"How long till we get to those cars?" Sunset piped up.

"Not long, the vehicles' hangar is close," Neon Lights said, "but I have no idea what waits us in the hangar. Twilight, didn't you say you encountered a MANTICORE warbot when you got inside one?"

"That was the main building, not the hangar, but I get your point. I really don't want to meet another one, it almost gave Brotherhood of Steel's Paladins a run for their money and it took no less than four rockets, if I recall correctly, and a Fat Man to destroy that one."

"Pity that the Great an Powerful Trixie does not have a Fat Man," Trixie spoke morosely.

"Alright people, we are close to our target, so pull yourselves together and push forward!" Luna shouted. "We are almost there!"

As the group proceeded, they remained more alert than previously. However, due to some strange circumstance, they did not encounter other robots for the remainder of the path.

"Should I be relieved or worried?" Trenderhoof wondered aloud.

"Ah dunno, it sure feels better not to have some goldurn clanker coming at you every ten seconds," Applejack muttered.

"Problem is that there might be a bigger fish around," Sunset muttered.

"Don't jinx it."

Finally, the Vindicators managed to reach the hangar. Unfortunately, its gate was closed, so Trixie was ordered to blow up the lock with a detpack.

"Will do," she said, and proceeded to work. "Make sure I don't get distracted, OK?"

"Hostiles!" Rarity shouted suddenly as snipers opened fire at something. "McColts, group of twenty... scratch that, thirty! Bringing heavy weapons!"

"Take cover, keep Trixie safe!" Luna ordered. "Applejack, Crimson, you are with me, we'll cover her with our armour!"

"You sure that's a good idea, boss?" Crimson shouted. "There is no cover to use!"

"Gee, you don't say?!" Trixie responded sarcastically. "The Great and Powerful Trixie is fully exposed to enemy fire here near the damn door, you know!"

"Enough chit-chat!" Applejack shouted, reloading her minigun and standing between Trixie and the direction from where McColts were coming. "Just hope they didn't bring snipers!"

"Maybe you should not give them tactical advice?!" Twilight shouted from her cover.

The first of the McColts that ran forward were mowed down by Vindicators' fire quickly, but the rest took cover and shot back. The battle quickly descended into a positional fight, where, unfortunately, McColts quickly assumed the advantage of having better cover from the direction of their approach.

One of the Vindicators took out a grenade launcher with a revolver-like magazine and fired at the advancing gangsters. An explosion of a frag grenade took out two McColts and wounded two more, but the others quickly rained fire on the grenadier's position, causing him to drop down behind cover. Some McColts began taking potshots at Applejack, Luna and Crimson, who were protecting Trixie. None of the three took this lightly and promptly returned fire, but their effect was limited; Luna was standing still and could not use the bipod, and even with exoskeleton's assistance, the HM-1000 anti-materiel rifle she carried was heavy enough that aiming became more difficult. But if the former Vice Principal still could take out her targets erliably enough thanks to AP ammunition, Applejack and Crimson Napalm basically were only able to make the enemy duck, since they could not fire precisely with their weapons.

Vindicators' snipers took positions and opened fire, but McColts, as Twilight feared, brought their own snipers as well, and both sides became embroiled in sniper duels while taking shots at other combatants if they could. McColts brought fewer snipers than Vindicators, as it turned out, and Vindicators used this to their advantage - half of them engaged in sniper duels, while the other half thinned out the enemy numbers; McColts that were armed with automatic and heavy weapons rained lead hell on any sniper they could detect, however, forcing Vindicators to hide.

Rarity tapped her Stealth-Boy and vanished out of sight. Marking a sniper position she could use, she carefully got there, taking care not to get shot (otherwise her cloak would fall) and once she did, she used her advantage to the max, doing her best not to leave McColts any chances to retaliate against her. However, she still had to be careful to avoid stray suppressive fire so as not to have her optical camouflage rendered inoperable.

One Vindicator rocketeer fired his single-use rocket launcher at a pile of metallic crates used by McColts as cover. The high-explosive rocket made mincemeat out of cover and inflicted casualties, but the rocketeer was left exposed for too long while he aimed and fired, and a sniper managed to kill him with a bullet to the head. The poor man's skull cracked, splattering around a nasty mess of bone splinters, blood and brains. Part of it landed on Sunset's face, who was unlucky enough to be the closest to the dead rocketeer, but before she managed to say "ugh", the half-headless body collapsed on top of her.

"Oh just fuck me!" she cursed, unceremoniously shoving the corpse off her.

Three minutes after the firefight had started, Trixie shouted:

"I'm done!"

"Excellent!" Luna shouted back. "Get back here and help us!"

"Acknowledged!" the former stage magician replied as she loaded an anti-infantry rocket. Applejack, Luna and Crimson Napalm maintained their formation, covering Trixie from the incoming fire, although it was getting dangerous for them. Applejack grunted as 7.62mm bullets splattered against her chest piece; while they failed to pierce the thickest armour plate of the T-72d power armour, the force of impact still made the farm girl jolt. Compared to 5.56mm bullets, those hurt worse and probably had a chance of piercing her armour and damaging the exoskeleton frame.

Yeah, no, Assaultron's laser was bad enough.

Once Trixie was ready, she aimed and fired her Panzerwraith rocket launcher. The McColts did not notice her in time and paid dearly for that, since the rocket sped fast and hit them where they were congregated the thickest. The cluster explosive within violently detonated in the midst of the gangsters, throwing shrapnel everywhere and making a truly gory mess of torn limbs and shredded bodies of those who did not have adequate cover between the explosion and themselves - and many did not, since Trixie aimed with the specific intent to cause detonation behind the gangsters.

Sensing the momentary weakness and the chaos among McColts' ranks, Luna ordered to advance and destroy the opposing force. Vindicators mercilessly assaulted the enemies' position, breaking the backbone of the hostile forces. Someone from the McColts shouted an order to retreat, and the gangsters fell back in disorder. The snipers took care to take out as many of them as they could, which led to no more than half a dozen being able to get around a corner and into a pickup truck that they cleverly hid out of sight and drive away.

"Damn!" Kurt cursed. "Do we pursue, boss?"

"No," Luna replied, "no way we can catch them. Let's finish our business quick and get out of here, they may bring reinforcements. Everyone assume positions, we don't know what may be inside."

The Vindicators repositioned themselves in front of the hangar where they wee supposed to find the vehicles. Once they were ready, Trixie blew up the detpack on Luna's order. The lock was blasted away along with a chunk of the doors, leaving a big hole in it...

...and laser beams, along with plasma bolts, flew through it, along with a gout of flame. Then something crashed against the hangar doors, and a robot appeared.

It had two weapons at its front, one resembling an oversized and overpowered laser rifle, and another one that looked like a big plasma rifle. It also had a flexible armoured tail, which, as Twilight noted with displeasure and fear, ended with a flamethrower.

She never saw a creature resembling something like this robot back in Equestria, but she remembered Applejack saying she ahd saved Apple Bloom in the Flame Geyser Swamp from a...

"CHIMERA!"

...and everything snapped into place.

They were facing a CHIMERA warbot. Twilight immediately tried to remember what she had learned from the Brotherhood of Steel about these machines.

Armed with a laser cannon similar to the one on an Assaultron, a plasma cannon and a flamethrower, CHIMERA warbot represents a danger to both infantry and lightly armoured vehicles. Laser cannon and flamethrower are its primary means of destroying infantry, while plasma cannon shots punch through the armour of scouting vehicles and can even threaten an APC. Each weapon has its own targeting system, which makes blinding the warbot impossible, and the warbot also utilizes a defensive "active protection" system that reduces the damage taken from rockets and missiles. The warbot also utilizes an anti-EMP insulation, making it less vulnerable against electromagnetic attacks.

The war machine began rapidly advancing towards the Vindicators, firing all of its three weapons. Luna's people stuck in cover, taking potshots at the warbot without effect...

CHIMERA's programming is designed to wait until the best moment to strike, and then begin a sudden attack, aiming to sow maximum confusion among the enemy ranks and rapidly advance before hostile anti-armour units are able to react and destroy it...

The warbot came closer, as if intending to charge straight into the Vindicators' midst...

Once CHIMERA manages to reach the enemy, it will utilize its forward-facing laser and plasma cannons to attack any heavily defended targets, while the flexible "tail" with a flamethrower, which can turn in all directions, will target infantry, starting from the anti-armour units...

...Oh Celestia, NO.

"WATCH OUT!!!"

Her warning came too late, however. The metal war machine alerady prowled into the ranks of Vindicators, and its tail swerved to the left side and spewed fire. The stream of sticky, burning magnesium sizzled and roared like a beast the robot was named after, and Vindicators desperately tried to get out of the way - but Twilight's warning came too late.

Neon Lights panicked when the machine went his way, and desperately ran to the side, but before he was clear, a stream of fire caught him and immediately set him ablaze. He dropped his weapon and screamed in pain as he burned, unable to do much, and froze in place with hands spread to the sides for several seconds. Twilight could only watch with wide eyes, transfixed, as his glasses cracked and eyeballs fried under the temperature, and the fire chewed through his skin, until he fell to his knees, and then fell to the ground, now silent forever, but still burning.

"Neon!" Trixie screamed, and then promptly loaded her Panzerwraith. "Eat this, you beast!"

She fired a rocket, which accelerated to its target... but before it hit CHIMERA, the warbot opened something on its side, and after a small boom, a stream of heavy shrapnel intercepted the rocket mid-flight and detonated it.

"What?!" Trixie stood, dumbfounded, and nearly paid for it as the warbot turned its flamethrower to her. Fortunately, Kurt pulled her away in time behind a building where the warbot could not hit her. As CHIMERA began wracking Vindicators' ranks, Twilight and her friends rejoined with Kurt's team, using a short break.

"Any plan to drop this big clanker dead?" Applejack shouted over the sounds of battle.

"I don't know, I am thinking now!" Twilight said. "This CHIMERA warbot has an active protection system, it can defeat rockets coming from front, back and the sides! Its flamethrower can turn in all directions and the cannons can take out both infantry and light vehicles!"

"Fan-fucking-tastic!" Trixie cursed. "Meaning that me and other rocketeers can only hope to deplete its active protection reserves before we can even hope to scratch that thing!"

"Maybe we should try and hack open the arsenal?" Sunset asked. "Last time we managed to finish a MANTICORE warbot off with a Fat Man!"

"That will take too long and I don't think CHIMERA would not pursue us!" Luna shouted.

"So what do we do?" Trenderhoof shouted as one Vindicator screamed horrifically in pain not far from them. "Small arms will not work against it, even energy weapons aren't likely to help, and it has heavy protection against rockets and EMP!"

"Maybe we could punch through the fuel line and ignite the fuel within?" Kurt asked.

"We can try, but the active protection system will react to such an attempt as well," Twilight replied.

"Wait a moment," Trixie piped up. "Twilight, do you know the angle at which CHIMERA can use its active protection system? What I mean is, does it protect its top?"

"If I recall correctly, up to sixty degrees upwards, depending on if we have a standard or an urban combat variant," Twilight responded. "Standard ones don't go higher than forty-five. Why?"

"I have an idea. Panzerwraith rockets can be homed by a laser designator, which in theory can let me fire from an angle which will lead the rocket at the warbot's top, bypassing the active protection system. The only problem is actually designating its top..."

"I can do it," Rarity volunteered. "I have a laser range finder that also doubles as a designator. There is one problem, however - its beam is highly visible and even if I cloak, it will demask me instantly and CHIMERA will immediately see me as a threat. Since I have no desire to become a human kebab, someone will have to distract it."

"Well, I suppose all of us can do it," Luna said. "Find the spot ASAP and light it up, and then Trixie will destroy it!"

"Then let's get on it," the aforementioned magician-turned-rocketeer said. "Mark it, and the Great and Powerful Trixie will blow it to high heaven!"

"You'd better prepare that rocket an' stop yapping, Trixie," Applejack grumbled.

The squad ran out to engage the CHIMERA warbot. The terrifying automaton had plowed through the defenders' line and scattered the survivors. The rocketeers tried to blast the robot with rockets, but the active protection system did not let them do so, and soon CHIMERA turned back and began running in the direction of another group of Vindicators.

"Oi, varmint!" Applejack shouted, opening fire with her minigun. Kurt positioned himself further away, aimed from his Interdiction sniper rifle and fired an HEI/AP round, trying (but failing) to hit the sensors. Luna took off the optical sight from her anti-materiel rifle, aiming with her iron sights (since the distance made the optics basically useless) and opened fire with HEI/AP ammo as well. The effect was barely negligible - except that the warbot turned its laser cannon in her direction.

"Oh shit!" Luna forgot her dignity of a Vice Principal and desperately dodged to the side. The exoskeleton strengthened her muscles, making the resulting dive and roll to the side very fast and impressive - and life-saving; a beam from the laser cannon sliced the air literally milliseconds after she moved away from the line of fire.

"Rarity!" Twilight shouted into her Pip-Boy. "How long until that target designation?"

"Huff..." Rarity could barely be heard breathing heavily, "I am... almost at the roof... Twilight! Lure the warbot closer to the building near you and... I'll mark it!"

"Trixie?" the lavender-skinned girl called out.

"I am still reprogramming the rocket to home onto a laser!" Trixie shouted back. "Give me a minute, this isn't as easy as flipping a switch!"

"Do it ASAP! We have to lure CHIMERA closer to us!"

"Are you crazy?!"

"Rarity says she needs it come closer to us to mark it properly!"

"You are batshit insane!"

Twilight ignored the remark and reloaded a microfusion cell, putting the rifle into overcharge mode. The resulting beam was larger and somewhat wider, and more effective at attracting the warbot's attention. The machine turned to her and spewed a large plasma bolt. She dodged, and the bolt hit a concrete block that stood behind her a few meters away, blowing a hole through it.

"Well, horseshit," the girl cussed, quite obscenely by Equestrian standards, "good thing that plasma is easier to dodge than lasers."

The horrendous war machine did manage to take the bait, though, and began moving menacingly in their direction.

"Twilight," Rarity's voice hissed from her Pip-Boy, barely hearable over the sounds of battle, "I am in position and ready to mark the target at your word."

"Thanks, Rarity!" Twilight shouted back, and turned to the former Vice-Principal - who just ducked into cover that saved her from a laser beam. "Luna, Trixie, Rarity is ready to mark the bot!"

"The rocket's ready!" Trixie loaded her Panzerwraith.

"Do it!" Luna replied, and shouted into the radio, "All Vindicators, fire at the bot!".

"Rarity, mark it!" the equine-turned-human shouted again.

A red laser beam, much weaker than the one from a rifle, raced from a roof and ended on the robot's back. Almost immediately, it turned its cannons to where Rarity was, but the mass fire of Vindicators forced it to switch to other targets again, and its programming made the bot to advance towards Twilight and others again.

Trixie aimed her rocket launcher upwards, and fired. The rocket flew upwards...

...and turned down, making a parabola that ended where Rarity's beam highlighted the robot's "back". The rocket approached from an angle where active protection system could not take it out, and the rocket impacted the armour.

The tandem-charge in the rocket cracked open the outer layer of the armour, and the second detonation damaged the warbot's inner mechanics. Normally it would not have been a problem, but Rarity, who remembered her Vault 94's military training, highlighted the part where the detonation would rupture the flamethrower's fuel tanks, and this was fatal for CHIMERA warbots, since the design flaws and limitations led to its CPU and controller block being located close to said tanks, and having no reserve.

As the fuel ignited, the CPU and the controller blocks were exposed to temperatures far above its highest limits, and the components burnt out or even melted. With other systems badly affected or failing thanks to the fire, the CHIMERA bot suffered and explosion that blew apart its flamethrower "tail" and insides, and underwent a shut down. The machine tumbled forward clumsily, falling on its "face".

"Ha ha!" Trixie whooped in victory. "This machine may have laser, plasma and anti-rocket defense, but it cannot withstand the amazing, explosive abilitis of the Great and Powerful TRIXIE!"

Suddenly, a laser beam flashed into her eyes, making her yelp and wince.

"Ouch! What in Tartarus?!"

"Did you forget that without Rarity beaming that bot and others you wouldn't have hit it, Trixie?" Sunset frowned at the blue-and-white-haired boaster.

"Trixie is sorry..."

The battered Vindicators paused to strip whatever could be salvaged from the bodies of their comrades, and regrouped near the hangar again. As it turned out, all in all the Vindicators had eighteen dead and nine wounded, five of them severely enough they had to be carried back into the comm bunker.

"Can Vindicators actually absorb that kind of losses?" Twilight asked Luna quietly, with Sunset standing nearby.

"This is indeed the most... harrowing mission we have undertaken," Luna admitted. "Thing is, there are other squads dispersed throughout the Western Wastelands, acting autonomously, and there are still people interested in joining us, so we can replenish the losses. But we certainly would not commence such operations again in the visible future. Now I understand why people don't want to mess with military bases, even abandoned ones."

"After that hustle with MANTICORE warbot where I had Brotherhood's Paladins by my side and still barely survived, I am amazed we didn't come off with worse casualties, frankly speaking," Sunset spoke up.

"No enemies or traps detected," one of squad commanders spoke up. "And we've got the vehicles here!"

Cheers rang out among the Vindicators.

"Let's see what we've got here," Luna ordered. "Secure the area, see that no one gets a jump on us and check for traps, I wouldn't put it past the military to booby-trap their own cars."

The place turned out to have six Grasshopper vehicles and two standard army trucks like the one Twilight saw Brotherhood of Steel use. There also was a pickup car with crudely-welded armour plates on it and a heavy double-barreled 12.7mm machine gun turret mounted in the back.

"A technical?" Kurt remarked. "Nice. Did not expect to see one on the military base, though."

"A technical?" Twilight repeated, dumbfounded. "Why is it called so? It's a pickup truck, no?"

"It is. The name has a curious origin. Some time prior to the Last War, a group of humanitarian workers worked in a war-torn area of Zebrica, and they had to pay off various warlords who had the same trucks like this one. But they could not say it in reports that they were paying bribes, so it was written off as "technical expenses". Eventually, someone connected the dots and started calling such trucks technicals. And the name stuck."

"Curious. You'll be taking it, too?"

"I believe so, yes. At least, if it's not booby-trapped."

Fortunately, the cars were OK and did not have any traps. Moreover, they were all based on nuclear fuel, and it only took a little time to load the fuel into the mini-reactors.

"Well, Twilight, Sunset, Applejack, Rarity," Luna approached them, "as I promised you, one of the Grasshoppers is yours. Fully armed, fuelled and ready to go. We will take the rest of the cars to another location that will remain a secret. Also, we have found an armoury and an infirmary, so if you want to replenish your ammunition and medical stocks, do so now. It's pretty standard, though, nothing fancier than laser rifles and RegenStims with an occasional AMFAK-10 bag."

"Thank you, Luna," Twilight replied wholeheartedly.

"And thank you as well, for the help. If trouble comes, you know what to do, Twilight. In the meantime, can I ask you a favour?"

"Yes."

"I understand that you are going to Freemare? There is something I need you to pass on," Luna gave Twilight a small tubular container.

"What is that?"

"A message. If the container is not opened properly, the message will be destroyed immediately, so don't tamper with it and don't let anyone else do it. Find the bar called "Fifty Degrees High" and ask its bartender to call for an assistant. The person you need to give the container to will come out."

"Will do," Twilight said, tucking the container into her rucksack.

"OK, now replenish your stocks, if needed, and then we will leave this base and go our separate ways."

Fortunately, the base had enough supplies that the girls were able to fully replenish their dwindling stock to the full capacity. They also found some spare single-use rocket launchers nobody wanted to take (since Vindicators already took everything necessary) and stacked them in the Grasshopper.

"OK then," Twilight prepared a map, "who will be driving? I call shotgun, since I have the map and I can't drive anyway."

"Ah'll drive," Applejack said. "Ah know how, and power armour gives me no problem doing so."

"So I get one of the machine guns? Yay!" Sunset beamed. "I call forward-facing one!"

"Fine, I'll take the other one, then," Rarity sighed.

Every girl took their position, and Applejack turned the ignition key. The car sputtered, and the engine roared, ready to work.

Everyone turned to look at Luna, Kurt, Trixie, Trenderhoof and Crimson Napalm for the last time.

"Take care!" Applejack shouted.

"You too!" Trenderhoof responded. "And thanks again!"

Applejack switched gears and pushed the gas pedal. As the car moved, she turned the steering wheel to the left, and the car left the hangar.

One thought was on the girls' and Spike's mind:

Next stop, Freemare!

Author's Note

I had thought of adding more things to the chapter, but then decided that it would not serve the purpose of the chapter any longer.

Pretty sure the wait was too long for this chapter to be enjoyable. I am terribly sorry. Real life is not simple.

I did not run this chapter by beta, so in case of problems, blame me

Thoughts, comments and criticisms are welcome Stay tuned!

Merry belated Christmas and Happy New Year!