Chicacolt Outskirts, aboard E-201
Five Hours Later…

The sun was already setting below the horizon by the time we could see the monolithic ruins of Chicacolt once more. In the orange glow of the evening sun I couldn’t help but think for a moment that the city was burning…

“Sir, we’ve got contacts due northwest.” The helm officer called out. “One large cloudship and six escorts.”

“That would be our battlegroup.” Comet replied as he flicked the comms switch on the arm of his chair. “Rune, we’re coming up on those Enclave ships. Is your crew ready?”

“Ready as we’ll ever be.” Rune’s voice crackled out over the radio.

“At least we’re on the same page…” I heard Porter mutter from the weapons control station.

Comet pressed a few buttons on his armrest and sat back. “Second Division, this is E-201. We’re coming back on station, what’s your status?” We didn’t get a response, not even static over the radio. “Second Division, please respond.”

zzztttt… “E-201, this is Radiant Star. No one has been able to raise the Second Division or the Marines for the better part of the last hour and there’s Enclave soldiers advancing on Theater, and I'm cut off in the north end of the city.”

“Shit…” I heard Comet groan. “Rune, change of plans for now. We’re diverting to the settlement of Theater to assist the locals.”

“But what about that Thunderhead?” Rune asked.

“It can wait until we get the situation at Theater under control.” Comet replied. “Now follow us in and keep us covered!” I saw Comet get out of the chair and wave to both Strike and myself.

As we walked back to the cargo bay I could tell that Comet seemed frustrated. “You’re doing the right thing.” I said, trying to reassure my friend.

“I know we are Dusk.” Comet replied. “But this is a diversion. The longer we spend at Theater the more time the Enclave has to deploy their resources. All this does is make it exponentially harder to get the Enclave out of Chicacolt.”

As we stepped onto the ‘elevator’ a thought crossed my mind. “What if it was exponentially harder for the Enclave to take Theater?”

The platform shuddered and slowly began to descend out of the belly of the picket. “And just how do you propose we do that? Find a friendly drag-” Comet stopped once he said those fateful words and saw the smile on my face. “We can call Spike.”

“Great minds must think alike, eh?” I said, nudging my companion’s arm.

Comet nodded. “It could work… What do we need to do?”

“When we met I did give him one of our radios.” I admitted. “If we can send him a message on our frequency, he might hear it.”

“That’s assuming we can send a signal far enough for him to pick it up.” Strike added. “We’re almost a hundred miles from his cave, and I seriously doubt that your Pipbuck has the needed broadcast range.”

The elevator shuddered to stop as the platform touched down in the street outside of Theater. “Lucky for us our friends do.” I retorted.

Comet tapped Strike’s shoulder and pointed at the front door. “Go see what you can do.”

Strike nodded and marched off, while Comet and I turned and started walking down the street. “What can you tell me about these Pathfinders?” I asked.

“They’re a type of commando unit” Comet replied. “They’re trained to be self-sufficient while in the field. They mainly act as scouts for Enclave assault groups, identifying strategic targets and eliminating individuals who may prove to be a threat.”

“So they’re hit squads by another name.” I muttered in response.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Comet nod curtly. “If they’re in Chicacolt I can safely argue that the Enclave is playing for keeps. At bare minimum they’re aiming to eliminate the threat that we pose to their operations just by being here.”

“Bare minimum?” I asked, sticking the content of Comet’s statement. “Do you think they’re here to do something else?”

“Honestly? Probably kill as many locals as possible.” Comet said with a shrug. “This is essentially a power move… The best way to scare others from messing with you is by leaving a massive body count behind.”

I grabbed Comet’s shoulder and forced him to stop. “Do you honestly believe that?”

Comet shrugged in response. “Dusk, we’re talking about a militaristic power in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The only thing here that ponies respond to is strength. You and I may not agree with it, but hundreds of dead bodies sends a message to anyone who understands the concept of strength.”

Off in the distance I could hear the pops of rifle fire echo off the ruins. While I tried to focus on the noise and started walking again, my mind kept drifting back to strength. Strength can be interpreted in many different ways, and it's definitely clear to me that leaving a massive number of casualties in your wake can be interpreted as a show of that same strength. But what’s the point to it? Killing innocent ponies isn’t going to scare the lot of us off. If anything we’re sick of the Enclave making victims of innocents, which I’d argue is why we’re here. If anything an attempt at some form of genocide is going to piss off at least me, and likely the rest of my team. If the apparent Enclave plan is to remove us from the field, then why give us another reason to go after them?

I felt Comet grab and yank on my collar, pulling me behind a pile of crumbled brickwork and glass. “What was that for?” I snapped as I swatted Comet’s hand away.

He pointed around the pile of rubble. “Oh, don’t mind me. I’m sure that the ponies in power armor would just love to meet you.”

A quick glance out from behind cover proved Comet right. “Shit, what do we do?” I asked as I ducked back behind the pile.

“There’s six of them and two of us.” Comet replied. “We need to sit tight and see what they’re doing. Once we have an idea we can go from there.”

“Alright, move it!” One of the soldiers yelled.

“He’s not talking to us, is he?” I asked Comet.

He shook his head. “No. I think they’ve got prisoners.”

The two of us peered around the rubble just in time to watch two familiar faces get forced down onto their knees. “What, no dinner and a movie?” Gramps joked. “What about Steeljack? Are you finding this just as annoying as I do?”

“Shut up!” The soldier yelled as he smacked Gramps across the face. “Now where’s the rest of your squad?”

Gramps shrugged. “Dead, hospitalized, disinterested… Honestly I’ve got no clue where everyone else is.”

I grabbed Comet and pulled him back behind the rubble. “We need a plan.”

Comet pulled out his radio and depressed a red button on the top of it. “Distress beacon is running. If we’re lucky Porter will pick it up and come with help.”

“So we’re supposed to wait?” I asked.

“Need I remind you that we’re outnumbered?” Comet retorted.

I rolled my eyes and switched the safety off on my shotgun. “Just stay here. I’ll take care of these bozos.”

As I stepped out from behind the rubble and shouldered my shotgun, two of the other soldiers saw me and pointed their weapons at me. “Drop your weapon!”

I shrugged and turned my attention to the armored soldier standing over Gramps and Steeljack. “Are you the one in charge here?” I asked.

The soldier nodded. “You must be Commander Dusk Light… I’ve got to admit, your file made you out to be shorter.”

“You and I should know that you can’t always trust intel when it comes to small details.” I chided. “Now how about you let my friends here go. I’ve got a lot to do tonight and I do need their help.”

The soldier shook his helmeted head. “I’m sorry Commander, but I have my orders.”

I nodded. “And what would those be?”

“To eliminate the leadership of the alliance that’s forming against our interests.” The soldier replied, pointing his pistol at me. “I’m sorry sir, but I have orders to remove you from the equation.”

“You just said that you needed to eliminate the leadership of this ‘alliance’.” I replied with a wry smirk. “Hate to break it to ya, but I’m not the brains of this operation.” I saw the barrel on the soldier’s gun droop down slightly. While I couldn’t see his face, it's obvious that my words might have distracted him for a moment. At least to the point that he isn’t fully focused on his firearm. But judging by the stance of the other five of his compatriots, only the leader seems to have stopped to think.

But as soon as it came the soldier tightened his grip on his pistol and I saw the barrel float back upwards to its level position with the ground. “And why should I believe that? You’ve already made direct threats against the General in that radio message last week, so you must be up to something.” The leader asked.

“You said you’ve read my file.” I replied. “So you should know I’ve been back in the field for what, a bit over a week? That isn’t enough time to put together an army.”

“You’re also known to be a charismatic individual. What’s to say that you didn’t turn the charm on with those Division punks?” The leader asked in return.

Off somewhere behind me I could hear a hum, just barely becoming louder and louder. “You’re forgetting something there my good stallion.”

“And just what would that be?”

The roar of turbines went from a dull barely-audible hum to a low roar as the old picket passed over the ruins and came to a stop directly above the group of ponies. “You forgot the Marines.”

While the Enclave soldiers were distracted Gramps seized on the opportunity. He sprung up from his kneeling position and knocked the leader in the center of his chest, knocking the distracted pegasus to the ground. By the time the other soldiers realized what was happening he was already in the middle of disarming his second opponent. As the soldier’s partner tried to sight his rifle on Gramps, Steeljack rushed forward and checked the armored stallion. Without the direct threat of an armed soldier ready to shoot, Gramps managed to use the opportunity to wrench the plasma rifle out of his opponents hands and wheeled around to face the stunned pegasus that Steeljack had knocked back.

But in the grand scheme of things it looks like these soldiers aren’t going to be bothering us for a while. The leader was already back on his feet and was already airborne, heading away from us and the supporting airship hovering above the street. As the last of the Enclave soldiers took off after their leader, Gramps started waving his captured weapon at them. “Thats right, you better run!” He yelled.

Comet finally took the opportunity to come out from behind the pile of rubble that he was using as cover. “Well that’s not something I’d expect…” He said, sounding slightly concerned.

“What’s the problem?” I asked. “We just ran off a squad of soldiers that were far better armed than we were.”

“The problem here is that Pathfinder teams don’t turn tail and run.” Comet replied. “Something’s up, that much I can guarantee you.”

“Comet is definitely onto something.” Porter’s voice chimed over our radios. “We’re picking up radio chatter from across the city. It sounds like the Enclave’s ground troops are pulling back.”

“That can’t be good.” Steeljack observed.

“You’re right Steeljack.” Porter replied. “We just confirmed it with Rune… Our radar has just picked up a second Thunderhead moving on the city.”

“Then they don’t need ground troops.” Gramps observed. “They’ve got enough firepower where they can level what's left of Chicacolt.”

“Then we need a plan, and we need one badly.” Steeljack added. “Anyone with an idea, feel free to speak up.”

“We were going to board the Victorious…” I said. “But I get the feeling that we won’t be able to get close enough with the picket so we can get on, at least not now that there’s another Thunderhead to worry about.”

Through the brief conversation Comet remained silent. “Porter, where is that second Thunderhead?”

“It’s coming in from the south. From what we can tell it looks like the thing is all on it’s own.”

Comet seemed to stop and think. “Comet, do you want to share with the rest of the class?”

He finally nodded. “Porter, patch me through to Rune.” His radio flashed a green light and his expression seemed to smooth back to it’s neutral standard. “Rune, head to the south side of the city and try to jam the Enclave communications.”

“Copy that.” Rune said. “We’re diverting now.”

“Good…” Comet muttered. “Dusk, you and Strike are going to be our boarding party. While we turn everything we can towards keeping the Enclave ships divided you two will storm the bridge and take control of the helm. Then you’re going to stuff that one right down the Victorious’ throat.”

I couldn’t help but be taken aback at Comet’s sheer brazenness. While I remember moments of both bold idealism and brilliance when we were younger, what he just suggested is borderline suicidal. “Comet, are you all there?” I asked.

To my own internal horror Comet nodded. “Earlier I told you that ponies around here respond to strength. Believe me, the Enclave isn’t any different.” At that point Comet started looking… Well, darker, as his neutral expression turned to a scowl. “So when they see those two Thunderheads dying in a fireball over the ruins, they’ll learn very quickly that we aren’t to be messed with.”

Author's Note

Another shorter chapter, but the next one will be far longer. We'll learn why the Pathfinders were established, and the first Wasteland encounter of Blaze Squad and the Enclave will come to a fiery conclusion.

In the meantime, anyone got questions? Like what you're seeing so far? Hell, maybe have some gripes? There's a comment section and the Mirrorverse Codex. Read and comment away, because I want to hear from you fellow denizens of this corner of the internet. Until next time gang!
-Striker