MORAL LEVEL: 38%

PERKS GAINED.

Between a Rock and a Unpleasant Mess: The pony saying of "The enemy of my enemy is my friend". Is total crap. Especially when your enemies are Feral Ghouls, Super stallions, and Pony Raiders. They don't like ANY CREATURE. But there animosity can be a good thing. Feral Ghouls, Super stallions, and Pony Raiders are more likely to attack each other then the team if another target from the other groups is present.

Remnants of the Old War: Its official. The Enclave Remnants have a hoof in whatever is going on in new Detrot. More impossible they are working WITH the Super stallions. Additionally the remnants NEVER go anywhere without the presence and express permission of the "Air Marshal". Enemies using magical energy weapons increased.

******

It had stopped finally raining, but more prudent issues took my mind rather then the odd weather.

"well.. shit" I muttered into the coms. Ghouls to the back of us, raiders to the right. I wasn't too sure if the plan in Boonakers' devious head would work but I felt it was the best shot we had. "Okay Juniper when I give the signal you back-kick your Grenade into the first ghoul up the stairs as it leaps for us, it will think its food and jump to bite down on it and fly into the raiders, then you dive right and run behind the entry way, Strip, Sonic, and me will be right behind you. District, Foxhole you two are the biggest targets so you use your magic to grab the metal door and use it as a cover shield. Keep the Ghouls from flanking left around the entrance. We will provide cover fire to keep the raiders suppressed and off your backs, Strip and sonic will take the top of the entry and provide overwatch. Sound like a plan?" We all let out mumbles of half heartfelt agreement. It was not even half ass of a plan. More like quarter of an ass plan.

As I triggered the camera in the back of my helmet I saw the glowing eyes of the head ghoul. I shook my back leg freeing the grenade. The ghoul seemed to be waiting. Like it was questioning the risks of going to the open roof and into raider fire. It let out a roar and started charging up for the doorway. I guess hunger won out over what little logic it had left.

"NOW!" Was all Boonaker shouted as it all, literally kicked off. Like all military conflicts it didn't take long for it to totally fuck up beyond all repair.

******
The ghoul did take the grenade and flew right into the raiders who where already scrambling behind a barricade. Then it exploded and we all heard foxhole yell out. As I was yanked behind the entry way to safety by boonaker, I heard Foxhole on the coms "Shit I'm hit I'm hit!! Queen fuck me!" "How is your barding?" Boonaker snapped. "It's held sir!. Ow by the hive. I'm fine, just my flank was bruised bad Possible dislocation, setting it- AW FUCKING SHIT!" Boonaker spoke with equal panic. "FOXHOLE!?" A small snicker crossed the coms. "I'm good sir. Oh and Districts pride was hurt" "Sorry I was too slow on the door sir!" District sounded more then a slight bit panicked. "Get back in the fight you two!" I barked out as I flung my self to the ground and Levitated my Rifle taking aim down the sights. One of the raiders was along a walkway above the "entrance" to the camp we had blown in, was trying to take aim at sonic and strip and keep them from baring down. "Eat This!" I yelled as couple shots from my rifle dropped him. His left unarmored front hoof was literally blown clean off. Bastard screamed as he tumbled over the railings into the jagged remains of a burning highway cart. If he survived it would not be for long if my infection rounds had any say.

As soon as he did sonic and strip started to unload with burst fire and pepperings of SMG rounds from there weapons having finally been given the chance to get ontop the entrance way. I starting firing pretty much blindly into the opening caused by the grenade my self, the shock of my heavy automatic rifle against my magical levitation field a comfort. A few feet away I could hear the report of the heavy recon machine gun and the occasion sound of the auto shotgun District carried as well as the near bomb like roar of Foxhole's bolt action. No doubt tearing right through the barricades of the raiders and a raider behind it if the scream was any hint. Boonaker's "Betsy" had emptied the drum and he was already loading in a new one. There was so little to see in the smoke of the burning highway carts we where literally all firing blind.

"RELOAD & HOLD FIRE!" We all obeyed the order and waited for Boonakers next command.

The ghouls for the most part had focused on getting at the easier meal once the front of rusted carts was blown up by the unwitting "suicide ghoul" and none so far had bothered to wheel around to try for us. This did not however stop us from dropping as many as we could see streaming onto the apartment roof, there was a lot more then then we thought but we "thinned the herd" quite a bit. We didn't get many confirmed kills on the raiders though as they seemed content to fight from inside the encampment they had made on the roof. A losing fight if from inside what we could hear was any indication screams and a more reports of gunfire as the remaining ghouls and raiders fought.

I got to my hooves as Boonaker gave the commands.
"Strip, Sonic get skyward! District, Foxhole, On the flanks make sure none are enjoying a "nosh" Juniper, with me on the ground first sweep. Lets move up and finish em off!" Boonaker yelled as as he started to slowly trot out crouched, taking head shots on any thing that crossed his sights First a raider then two ghouls who decided to nom the corps. I crept along as well doing the same Taking out two raiders with chest shots as they charged into view through the smoke. As I fired another raider on the walkway appeared and before Strip or Sonic could take a shot, three loud shotgun blasts and a shower of sparks and flame engulfed her causing her to scream like tartarus was crawling out her cunt and stumbled till she fell backward off the ramp and into the same flaming jaggad wreck of a cart the one I had blasted earlier fell into. Her screams going silent when she landed. I did not remember District getting a fire shell modifications for his shotgun mag. But I was glad to know it was there. With both forces occupied it was meant to be an easy matter to sweep the area and mop up. Of course it is never that easy.

"POWER ARMOR! GET TO COVER!" Sonic yelled as he and strip dive bombed behind some wrecks. I barely had time to shove Boonaker aside as the sound of a minigun rotating to life and spitting hot lead death filled the air. "The fuck did they get a power armor suit?" District snarled as he fired off some blind shots behind the cover of the carriage him and foxhole had taken position behind. "Maybe the Enclave!? Or they scav-" A round of laser rifles fired off towards the overturned wreck Sonic and Strip had used for cover cut Sonic off. Strip gave a dry wit response "Well that answers that question. Laser weapons typical Enclave fair." More bullets and laser beams wizzed overhead and slammed into the carts and carriages and the few remaining ghouls that where wandering looking for a dead raider to nibble on.

"We arn't kitted for a full on engagement sir! We'd need a hard-suit! This is a job for the Army Ants! Or the Wasps!" Sonic's voice was breaking. "We make do maggot! Strip your side arm is breech bore right?" Boonaker was having none of this. His mind was on the battle. "Yes sir. But-" Strip was cut off sharply "No Buts. Give it to Juniper. And your incendiary shells. NOW!" Strip complied and slid the gun and levitated the shells towards me. I loaded in the shell and tossed a glance at Boonaker He was using his robotic hoof as a camera to get a view on the armored raider. "Its an old style of Steel legion armor. Looks in bad condition. No other raiders in sight but confirmed laser fire from that two level shack about a hundred meters back from the raider. Foxhole & District pour it on that raider! Strip and Sonic, suppression on the shack. Juniper when I give the signal take the shot well I fire at the helmet and try to blind him. Remember. Aim for the head. "

Strip and sonic started rattling off shots towards the windows of the shack as district and foxhole started to unload every round they had into the side of the raider in armor causing him to turn his attention from randomly spraying bullets and laughing at the power fantasy to genuinely focus fire on the position of the two bugs.

"NOW!" As one we rose. I took aim with with the breach pistol. Boonaker had his heavy revolver out and was emptying the cylinder. Extending my hoof claw attachments onto the pistol with magic helping to steady them for a more exact aim, I fired. Two loud metallic pops resounded and a glowing orb of light sailed out from the gun. One hit on the mark. It took a moment for the hit to register on the raider. But then the screaming started. As the round bored a literal white hot hole into the armor and caused the helmet to be heated to red hot color as the raider inside was boiled alive in bodily fluids. The armor fell to its side as the raider inside in shock and panic from the heat forgot how to disembark merely rolling about screaming and flailing at the helmet with its armored hooves trying in vain to remove the flare that was literally cooking the son of a bitch. Breech bore guns where just flair guns fitted to fire giant shotgun shells and grenades But the old civilian flare still had its uses in battle as an incendiary round.

Soon the screaming had stopped and the armor had stopped moving. No shots where coming from the shack anymore undoubtedly horrified by seeing there best fighter in power armor no less be taken out by a tiny little glowing ball. The skirmish was over. But the enemy was still in residence.
******

Boonaker again gave the orders. "Okay bugs. Stick to cover. Protective sweep. We move up to the shack. Prep for CMS combat". "Uh sir." District spoke up. "Why don't we use gas grenades?"

Boonaker responded with a tone of indignity at first, likely because he was annoyed he did not think of it himself "Good idea. You and Juniper get ready to smoke em as the rest of us take up position. Remember these are raiders, so they wont give up so easily even if they are primitives, they are hopped up on chems with nothing to lose after all. Melee weapons at the ready bugs. Time to earn our pay." "Uh sir. We don't get payed by mission we get payed for time served in active duty." I couldn't help but smile when I heard the sigh before his reply. "Just get on your spot Juniper. Don't forget your combat drugs. This is gonna be messy."

Boonaker levitated a small vial full of a crystalline powder. The combat drug known as "Terror dust". It instilled a level of furor and savagery that a changeling would normally only feel if they where fighting and on the brink of death. Hyping up our nanites speeding them and by proxy our senses to impossible levels. I took out my own vial and popped the top. The rest did the same. At once we slotted back the mouthpieces of our helmets and downed the vials content. As soon as it hit my tongue I could feel it working, the sour taste burning my taste buds. I felt my eyes water and my breathing increased. I could feel fire in my muscles and I could hear my own voice in my head repeating "KILL" as the emotion laced dust filled my mind with thoughts of terror fear sadness and anguish.

In an instant we moved as one, Strip and Sonic dashed to the door of the shack as Boonaker and foxhole stealthily went around to the back. District waited in charge position shuddering with a desire to stomp the shack into dust as I took wing with a toxic gas grenade. I pushed the triggering pin and dropped it right down the chimney . A second later there was a loud blast as green smoke filled the shack.
******

"It wasn't supposed to go down like this! The Triad was supposed to be paying us off for scouting for them!" A pink haired blue furred raider was in full on panic mode. A green stallion with an eye patch slapped him "Get a hold of your se-" He stopped as a small ball plunked out into the old stove and began to beep twice before exploding.

All the raiders could see was green through watery eyes as there world came smashing in. A giant literal wall of black muscle came charging in the door turning it into a shower of splinters and shivers, not stopping till it slammed into the green stallion and began to stomp it and anyone near by into paste as it let out a blood curdling roar. Right behind it two smaller black little monsters hissing with hate started hopping from raider to raider slashing throats and smashing in skulls. From the back door another loud roar and a crashing sound as two raiders fell backward. One with a slashed neck the other with a caved in skull. A clicking shriek sounded from upstairs as a body stumbled down and tried to hold its own entrails inside its slashed belly and a second body tumbled over the railing, head split wide open. The last sights the lucky raiders who got to die, saw and heard though choked breath and watery eyes where the glowing eyes of the demons of tartarus, red with hate and hungry for the souls of the wicked and the flashing of blades and hammers. Along with an insect like roaring hissing shriek. The ones who survived to escape the shack soon collapsed out cold by the toxic gas, and would come to envy the dead very soon.

******

It took less then 5 min to slaughter the raiders in the two level shack. As I pulled my machete out of the head of a purple pelted raider I could feel the comedown of the "Terror dust" I started to shudder as my nanites worked to dissipate the after effects.

Boonaker wasn't effected at all. He went right to the point.
"We have confirmed control of the area, so lets get to work! Strip I want you asset stripping that old terminal and that funky radio we saw. Foxhole see what we can salvage off that power armor. Sonic you are on consumables. District you are on asset stripping for any non mechanized equipment. Remember bugs! Want tech, spare parts, chems, water, food, ammo, explosives, any leftover guns, armor and gear on any raider we can find. We are taking everything. It looks like we are gonna be mainland for a while so we better stock up."

"Uh Sir. What about the prisoners?" I motioned to the 7 raiders bound to the side of a highway cart with changeling goo, two males the rest females, most looked barely old enough to have cutie marks. Boonaker turned slowly towards me. "We don't take prisoners. Interrogate them and then Execute them. " I smiled at that and saluted "Absolutely sir!"

"Oh and Strip. Hit the music. It will make the work go faster." "Any requests sir?" Boonaker pondered for a second before replying. "I am in the mood for some Kricket Loggins."

I strode over to the raider survivors. They where just starting to come around. I slotted back my helmet and smiled wide at them.
Then the music started "Kricket Loggins "Danger zone" Then the screaming began again.

******

The first raider I started with was a mangy looking yellow pelted, blue with pink streaks maned filly. I injected her with a paralytic solution from my tactical pack, and took her off the car and goo sealed all four of her limbs back to the ground on her back spread wide. The solution wouldn't let her move but she would still feel everything. Then I pulled out my tools from the tactical pack. In any other sense they would have been considered standard surgical operation tools, but the same tools used to save lives. Can be used to end them just as easily.

"Come on, you you, you don't have to do thi-" A pleading raider bound to the carts' words where cut short by a large caliber bullet between its eyes. A second one started to actually cry for her mother. "Could you PLEASE be silent well I work? You will get your turns soon enough. Well except for him, cause he's dead. If you behave really well I might give you a "lollipop" " I motioned to my crotch with a hoof and snickered before turning around to my "patient".

The mare on the ground stuttered out as I loomed over her, scalpel levitating beside me. "wha- what the hell are you?!" I couldn't help but smile "Why I am the postal bug. I'm here to deliver a message, and that message is, 'you done fucked up' ". Then I proceeded to slowly draw the surgical cutting tool in small circles around the base of her left front hoof. Looking for the point between the flesh and the hard hoof its self. A light shriek told me I hit the sweet spot. Well that and the fact she urinated with fear when I did. "Oh my my? Didn't like that did we?"

Her reply was terse and rude. "What the FUCK do you want from us !?" I shoved the scalpel in further eliciting another shriek of pain. "Information my dear filly. INFORMATION! What is the nature of your force? Why do you have enclave weapons. What is the enclave up to? Why the city is abandoned aside from you fucking useless wastes of life!? you know, the usual interrogation stuff." I then began to drag the medical blade across the circumference of the hoof as red droplets began to form, getting a pained cry of anguish with every millimeter of movement. "if your cooperative I might actually let you die peacefully with a small lethal injection, just one poke and no more pain suffering or fear. Or if you chose to be uncooperative I can instead rape you to death through your damn eye socket, you fucking worthless piece of useless pony shit!" My tone started off calm tender and kind but soon escalated into a shrieking hiss. It tended to put my "patients" at uneasy being so calm and almost friendly one second then a hissing hateful monster the second. Torture was equal parts physical, social and mental and I loved it. The fear energy radiating off the raiders was like a delectable 5 course meal.

From the comments over my coms I could tell the team enjoyed the food too. If not the method I acquired it.
"Sweet queen above, Did you hear that mare shriek? Postal really likes his job huh?" Strip said. Followed by a quip from Foxhole "I don't really like the emotion of fear, too bitter. But I wont pass up a free meal." Sonic commented next "But did you guys hear what he said?! He is gonna fuck that mare right in her eye socket and scramble her brains with his cock. That seems too extreme even for Juniper!" District decided to chime in "They are raiders! Any death is too good for them. They should be sent to suffer ALIVE for eternity in Tartarus!" Finally Boonaker spoke on the subject. "Sonic you've only been with us for about 10months. Trust me, this is Juniper 'going easy on it'. When he goes full "postal" even I don't wanna be in the same room as that horror show and I have seen a lot of horrible shit. There is a reason Juniper is the team insurgent."

Finally I spoke up "You assholes know I can hear everything you are saying right?" Dead silence for a good few seconds. Save the shrieking pained screams of the mare I was "administering" to. Finally Boonaker spoke. "Sorry Juniper. Continue your work"

******

It was almost nightfall.

Out of the 7 the yellow filly gave it up first, Well she resisted the hoof "massage" She broke after I yanked out a front tooth and then slammed a steel rod through her ear lobe. By then she was begging me not to kill her and spilling some poor sob story about her oh so "terrible" life. I didn't care. I did find it amusing she couldn't cope with even a fraction of the pain she had no doubt inflicted on countless other innocent creatures. She sold out her comrades and told me everything. I decided to not kill her I had a better plan in mind. But I did still torture her fellows right in front of her eyes. Making sure she knew that nothing she could do or say would save her from my terrible rancor should I chose to end her. If you are wondering if I did not skull fuck anyone. No. Why waste a good source of food. I did however bring each raider to understand the pain the made others feel before giving them a lethal injection and ending the pain.

I left her bound to the concrete and moved back to my squad. They where all sitting by a pile of loaded saddlebags. Covered in scavenged armor and strapped with more weapons then seemed physically possible. "You guys have clearly been busy" I said with delight.

Foxholes nose was buried inside of a saddle bag and muffled. "We could say the same about you. As bitter as fear emotions are I don't think anyone of us has fed that well since our last R&R back at the hive."

"So Juniper. What have you gotten outta them?"

I looked to Boonaker bleakly. "You are not gonna like it."

******

ACCESSING RECORDS. Diary entry saved.

Author's Note

The sounds the changelings are making as they tear the raiders apart is the same sound made by the Bugs in the starship troopers movies.