chapter 1- Where the hell are we?
I had just got finished with the briefing and I was walking over to where my crew was, it was a beautiful morning and the sun was just peeking over the horizon. My crew was getting our tank, the "iron titan" ready for the next mission. My crew consisted of seth, mike, Louis, and me.
"Form up!"
Seth and mike jumped up and stood in front of the tank, but Louis was missing.
I looked over to seth.
"Where is Louis?"
Seth pointed to a lawn chair a few feet away, Louis was sleeping in the chair, mouth open and a faint soring could be heard. A sudden funny idea popped into my head. I looked back to seth with a smile.
"Hey seth."
He looked over with the same evil smile.
"I already know what you're gonna say."
He jumped on the tank and climbed inside. Some shuffling and a few moments later seth popped out of the cupola and tossed me the airhorn I found in an abandoned store a few missions ago. I walked over to Louis and raised the airhorn to his ear. I told the others to cover their ears. They put their hands to their ears and gave a thumbs up. I squeezed the top. The loud noise blasted into his ears. Louis jumped up and started swinging wildly. We started laughing uncontrollably. He heard us laughing and immediately opened his eyes.
"FUCKING HELL GUYS YOU SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF ME!"
He was red in the face and I shit you not I saw steam coming out of his ears. We finally stopped laughing and I walked up to him.
"Don't fall asleep during briefing." I said with a grin.
He said something under his breath and got in line.
"Now, we have been briefed with going on a search and rescue mission." I said.
"We are looking for team beta, our sister squadron."
"sir, beta has been MIA for two months now, why are they just now sending a search party out?" Mike asked with confusion.
"They say they couldn't because the enemy is getting more violent, so free tanks are rare at this time, but the enemy has backed off, giving us a break in time for us to search for them."
They seemed to believe it.
"Now, we are told to leave immediately, Seth, is she ready to go?"
"Yes sir." He said. I smiled.
"Alright, lets get to work."
Everyone rushed into the tank, getting in their proper places. I climbed on top and took one look around before climbing inside and shutting the cupola. I put on my headset and turned on the radio.
"This is alpha 1 to alpha 2, are all other units ready?" Their was a moment of silence and then I heard the familiar click of another radio.
"Alpha 2 to alpha 1, all units ready to move out."
"Okay. get into line behind me and well roll out." I switched to crew frequency.
"Alright, mike, pull her forward and get in to leading position."
"Roger." I heard from the other end. I felt the tank jerk and move forward. I felt it turn and stop. I opened the hatch and pulled my upper half out. I looked behind and saw that all tanks were in place. I switched frequencies.
"Alright, all crews ready?" There again was a silence and then clicking.
"Alpha 2 ready."
"alpha 3 ready."
"Alpha 4 ready."
"Alright, all crews move forward, slow speed." I told my crew and the tank once again lurched forward at a slow pace. We neared the gate and I lowered my upper half back into the cupola and closed the hatch.
~Ten minutes later~
By now we were at full speed going over tiny dunes, the sand kicked up as we drove. I was thinking about new pranks when I heard the radio crack.
"sir, we are arriving at team beta's last location." I opened the hatch and poked my head out. I saw a small town. The buildings were close together and some were falling apart. As we neared the town I switched to where everyone could hear.
"Alright, all crews, slow down and keep your eyes peeled. load HEAT and be ready." I clicked off. I could hear the familiar clank of a round being loaded. We finally moved into the town. There were few people and it looked abandoned. A few minutes passed and nothing happened. We finally stopped on a main street when Louis said this was the last known location. I pulled myself out of the hatch and looked around. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It was too quiet. My thoughts were cut short as a big explosion threw me back into my seat. I closed the hatch and turned on the radio.
"ALPHA 2 TO APHA 1, ALPHA 3 WAS DESTROYED! TWO CONTACTS! ONE TO YOUR RIGHT AND LEFT!" I didn't hesitate to reply as another explosion directly behind me, I already knew alpha 2 was gone.
"ALPHA 4 TAKE RIGHT ILL TAKE LEFT!" There wasn't hesitation as the radio immediately cracked to life.
"ALPHA 1 I READ, TAKING RIGHT!" I quickly told seth to turn the turret 30 degrees left.
"HOSTILE IS IN MY RETICLE SIR!" Seth Shouted. I didn't think twice as I shouted a reply.
"FIRE!" I heard two bangs and felt my tank rock back. I held my breath for a few seconds.
"Both targets destroyed sir." I breathed a sigh of relief, we sat there for a few minutes until I saw a purple aura around me and I saw everyone else did, even my tank did. I turned on the radio.
"Alpha 1 to alpha 4, you seeing this?" There was a pause and then a crack.
"alpha 4 to alpha 1, yeah, I see it." I felt myself getting tired and my eyes began to forcefully close. I looked around and saw my crew was already passed out. That was all I saw before I passed out.
~1 hour later~
I woke up with a sharp pain in my head. I looked around and saw that my crew was in the same shape I was. another wave of pain jolted through my skull.
"Fuck." I said quietly.
"seth, are we okay?" Seth slowly turned around and was wincing.
"E-everything looks good sir." He said slowly. I opened the cupola and light flowed outward. The light made my headache worse, but I ignored it as best as I could. As I pushed myself out I was blinded for a few seconds, a slight ringing in my ears. My eyes adjusted to the light I finally got to take a look at my surroundings. I couldn't believe what I saw. I turned around and saw alpha 4's hatch was still closed. I ducked back in and told seth to make sure the boys stay put. He nodded slightly. I pulled myself out of the cupola and jumped off the tank. hit the ground hard. Again, a wave of pain rolled through my head, making me wince. I ran over to alpha 4, which was a few yards away. I finally jumped onto the tank and flipped open the hatch. I saw ace, alpha 4's commander sitting in his seat, obviously dazed. There was a large gash on his forehead and blood oozed out. I grabbed him and pulled him out of the tank. laying him down I jumped into his tank. after fumbling for a few minutes I found bandages. I jumped back out of the tank and picked up his head. I wrapped the bandage around his head. He began to stir after a few minutes, his eyes opened and he looked at me.
"What happened?" He said.
"You hit your head hard, and you have a big gash on your head, I bandaged it as best I could." I said, I don't tell this much, but I think of ace as a brother, we were friends all through school. So I was worried for him.
"Umm, I need you to sit up and see this." He looked at me with an eyebrow raised.
"I'm fine." He sat up, wincing little as he did. His eyes immediately went wide.
"What the fuck?" He said.
What once was a desert was now a meadow. with trees loosely spread about, we were beside a dirt rod that looked like it had only been walked on. It was peaceful.
"Where the hell are we?"
I answered his question a few minutes later.
"I don't know, but wherever we are, we sure aren't in Kansas anymore."
Ace and I were sitting there, taking in our surroundings. I then got up, the pain was mostly gone. I looked back at Ace.
"Need help up?" He looked up at me.
"Yeah." I grabbed his hand, pulling him up.
"What do we do now?" He said as he was still looking around.
"We need to rouse our crew's, then well decide what happens from there." He nodded and we walked over to our tanks. I noticed that our tank was not damaged. Not even a scratch. I ignored that thought as I opened the hatch and lowered myself inside. I saw that most of my crew was awake but they were kept in place by Seth. When mike saw me he took no time in questioning me.
"sir, wh-."
"Stop calling me sir, call me by my nickname. I don't think we are anywhere near our base anyways." Louis spoke up this time.
"Fury, what do you mean by we aren't anywhere near our base?" I looked at all of them.
" Get the tank started and man your stations." a few seconds later I heard the tank roar to life, everyone put on their headphones.
"LOADER, READY!"
"GUNNER, READY!"
"DRIVER, READY!"
I then switched on the radio and switched to where all people could hear.
"Alpha 1 to alpha 4, get your tank started and follow me." There was a short pause, then the radio cracked to life.
"Alpha 4 to alpha 1, hear you loud and clear, its already done, ready when you are." I pulled my upper half out of the cupola and saw ace giving a thumbs up.
"Alright, full speed." I heard our tank once again jerk forward, then rocketing off at 60 miles an hour. I pulled myself out of the cupola. We were kicking up so much dirt that I couldn't see anything beside me. I then gave the order for ace to pull up beside me so he could see. A few seconds later his tank was beside me. I looked at ace and gave him the lenny face. I couldn't hear him. But I knew he was laughing from his face.
~30 minutes later~
"Alright ace, slow her down." We both slowed down as we were nearing a sign. We stopped in front of it. I got out and looked at the sign. It said, "canterlot: 2 miles."
"ace, it says town is 2 miles straight ahead." He gave a thumbs up and I got back into the tank. Wanting to get to civilization as fast as possible, we rocketed off at full speed again.
~10 minutes later~
We came to a clearing. what we saw stunned us. there was a mountain with a castle on the side... wait what?
"Ace, you seeing this?"
"Yeah, and you might wanna look closer." I pulled out my binoculars and saw that black specks were all over the city, they surrounded it and were swooping in. Explosions could be heard and smoke billowing up. I immediately knew that these black specs were now my enemy. I raised my mic to my mouth.
"Ace, weapons hot. we're going in." I loaded the ma deuce 50. caliber on top.
"Advance at full speed." Our tanks jerked forward and sped down the road. we were going to get to that city, and stop these creatures. About halfway to the base of the mountain my radio popped.
"HOLY SHIT! ALPHA 4 TO ALPHA 1, LOOK AT THE CREATURES THROUGH YOUR BINOCS AGAIN!" I put my binocs up to my face and saw the creatures were equines with sharp teeth and blue eyes, and they were heading directly towards us.
"OH SHIT! ALPHA 4 WEAPONS FREE! ENGAGE THESE FUCKERS AND BLOW EM DOWN!!" I pressed the trigger and we both unloaded 50. caliber justice into the approaching storm. Most of them exploded into a green mist, but some got hit and the wings and fell to their deaths. Even if they saw their comrades explode and fall, they kept coming. We kept firing until I heard the familiar "CHK CHK CHK."
"SHIT, ALPHA 1 IM OUT!"
"IM OUT TOO. GET BACK I-." My sentence was cut short as something knocked into me. I hit my side hard on the edge of the cupola and pain shot through my body. I screamed in agony and came face to face with one of those things. It lunged forward, sinking its teeth in my shoulder. I screamed again and punched it off my shoulder. It got back up and lunged again, but I was ready. I grabbed its throat but it kept swinging at me. I pulled out my knife from my leg, I looked at it one more time. This thing was not alive. It wouldn't stop until I was dead.
"I. WONT. BE KILLED. BY A BUG!" I plunged my knife into its neck. It writhed and it tried to scream, but it could only gurgle its own blood. I pulled my knife out, blood splattered everywhere. It went limp. I threw the dead creature aside and dropped down in the cupola and closed the hatch. I felt tired and weak, I peeled off my uniform and I saw that my veins and skin was turning black from where the creature bit me.
"Hey seth, pass me the first aid kit." He nodded and a few seconds later he tossed me the first aid kit. I caught it with my good arm and opened it up. I pulled out the roll of gauze and wrapped my shoulder up as best I could. It would have to do. I put the rest back in and threw the first aid back at seth, which he caught. The pain in my side wasn't getting better. I tried to ignore the pain as the pounding of creatures against the tanks armor became faster. I had to think of something quick. I put on my headset.
"A-Alpha 1 to Alpha 4, do you read?" There was a moment of silence, then I heard ace on the other end.
"Alpha 4 to alpha 1, readin you loud and clear." I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.
"Alright, Ace, we gotta get these things off of us, any ideas?" There was a long pause. Then he replied.
"We could throw our grenades on the tanks, the explosion would kill a lot of them, and would scare the rest off." I thought about that for a moment. I finally replied.
"Okay, get your grenades ready, on my mark, we open the hatch and toss em, then close the hatch as fast as you can." There wasnt a pause.
"Grenades are already out fury, waiting for you." I felt nervous, but I pushed that aside as I began to count down.
"three... two... one... now!!" I opened my hatch and tossed all of my grenades out the hatch and closed it as faster than when I threw them. There was a short pause. Then, multiple explosions outside rocked the tank. I opened the hatch and looked out. I didnt see any of those things. The only thing I could see was the green blood of those things splattered on my tank. It worked. I sat back down in turned on my headset.
"Ace, you ok, are they gone?" The reply came almost immediately.
"Yeah i'm fine, lets just get up this hill." I looked outside again and saw that we were nearing that base of the mountain. At the base was a road that led straight up into the city.
"Alright, this road is thin, so we'll have to go single file, decrease speed to 20 miles an hour." We slowed down so fast I had to grip something with my bad arm, but it didn't hurt anymore. I knew something was wrong. I ripped off the gauze and saw that my wound had healed, and my skin around the wound was now a solid shiny black. I touched it and it felt a little harder than human skin. And the skin around that was turning black. This was bad, but I needed to do my job, so I put my shirt back on and waited in silence.
~10 minutes later~
I put my headset back on. Immediately Ace's voice filled my ears.
"Fury, we are at the drawbridge, what do we do?" I immediately replied.
"Move in, weapons free, waste any group of these things and don't shoot civilians."
"Confirmed, following you" I went inside. There were thousands of them. And they were preying on colorful versions of these things. Wait.
"COLORFUL PONIES!? ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS!?" I got a tap on my shoulder. I turned to face Louis, he had a worried expression. He pointed at my shoulder.
"Fury, what's that?"
"Its nothing." I jerked my shoulder away. I was suddenly rock by the first shots of our tank. Explosions could be heard. The shots continued for about 30 minutes as we advanced through the city. Until I heard seth.
"sir, we're out of ammo. What now?" I knew there was only one option. I grabbed our guns we had in the back and gave them to each of them.
"We go down swinging." I said. Everybody smiled.
"Its been an honor fury." Louis said. and everyone grunted in agreement.
"No, the honor was mine." I said.
"Well, here we go." I said no more as I opened the hatch and jumped out.
