Fallout Equestria: Shaping Shadow - Book 5

Gunmetal bolted out of her cot in the quartermaster cage. She spent too many nights in the cage, but right now, she was there to monitor security. And the alarm was going off. The clock said 0223.

She scrambled to the other side of the room to the security terminal. At least 90 pegasi were on the move. Most of the ACUs were packed up and on their way to Mareland under General Striker. If they were coming back, her alarm wouldn’t be going off. And as soon as Deke got back, Gunmetal was going to oversee the transfer of ammunition and take the Buttercup out to catch up. Admiral Little was leading from another cloudship at the moment. They were moving slowly, so she would catch up with ease.

The few ACUs still around were mostly packed up on their ships. Deke was taking only 10 units with him. 90 unidentified pegasi on the move meant only one thing: Danger.

Gunmetal put her headset on. It was going to be a call over their coms, not broadcasted to the entire Squad Barracks. They were going to jump their attackers.

“All units at the Squad Barracks! This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill. We have incoming unknown targets. Flying in from the south. All units alert! Ten minutes until they reach us.”

“What is going on?” Firestorm asked a minute later.

“Prepare to mobilize all units,” Gunmetal coldly said. “I think the enemy has sent those black ops units to us.”

“Damn!” Firestorm cursed. “We just sent out most of our soldiers.”

“We can’t put up an initial fight,” Gunmetal said. “We need to take five minutes to organize a counter attack.”

“Let them come!” General Misty Thunder replied. “I’ll have the units on the cloudships ready to deploy. Thankfully we are north of the fort.”

“The Wonderbolts will begin setting up kill zones,” Firestorm added. “We are going to draw their attention away from our barracks.”

“And if they get in?” Gunmetal asked. “Because we don’t know what they are capable of.”

Simi chimed in. “Chiha and Koto will rip them to shreds.”

“Alright,” Firestorm agreed. “Between them and the one guard in the barracks, they will be able to hold it.”

“I will be taking Kogara, Kachi, and Sensha with me,” Simi added. “We will be a moving target. We have power armor and an LMG.”

“Fine,” Firestorm said.

“Dear, don’t worry about us,” Nova said. “Soarin, Shield, and I will be fine.”

“Good,” Firestorm shot back. “Because I don’t have any way to run a screen for you.”

“Are we certain they are enemies?” Misty Thunder asked. “Just checking.”

“We will determine that,” Simi said. “Stay low and quiet. We are already in position with our cloaks engaged.”

“Command Sergeant Major Wind Whisper reporting in. Thank goodness my staff already had weapons drawn from the insurrection.”

“So far, they are targeting us,” Gunmetal replied. “By their flight trajectories.

“Thank goodness,” Wind Whisper said with an audible exhale. “We are up and moving. But I am concerned about our ability to fight.”

“Just hold positions,” Gunmetal said. “Take defensive ones, but we have a plan.

Gunmetal played with her terminal to make sure things were locked up tight. She saw another wave coming in.

“Bridge officers, how confident are you at blowing pegasi out of the sky?”

“Lone pegasi are difficult,” The Firecracker bridge crew responded. “We do not advise our involvement.”

“We have another wave about ten minutes behind them,” Gunmetal explained.

“How tight are they?” the Firecracker bridge crew asked.

“Units are holding in groups of 20. Pretty tight.”

“We can knock them around a bit. We will time it around the ACU counter attack.”

“Good,” Firestorm said. “Gunmetal, are you ready?”

“I am getting my armor on now,” Gunmetal said.

Gunmetal put on her custom power armor. It was an old Mark 2 unit she had worked to restore over the past few years. The previous owner was a Wonderbolt. It had been stripped of parts for servicing other units. Gunmetal had hoof manufactured the parts she needed. She had loaded an old 7.62 medium machine gun on it with a 1,500 round linked belt. And it had a backup 5.56 rifle. Both weapons had also undergone heavy restorations.

“Have you seen what I am packing?” Gunmetal asked over the coms.

Firestorm wasn’t the only one who chuckled. But she was the one who answered. “I assume by that question it is not the ACU standard combat armor.”

“I restored stripped down, old Wonderbolt armor, a medium machine gun that I brought with me from my post before the ACUs, and a bit more.”

“Of course you did,” Misty Thunder said, the sarcasm obvious.

“I will hold this cage,” Gunmetal declared.

“Target’s spotted,” Simi replied. “Two minutes out. I can only identify their heat signatures.”

“Understood,” Firestorm replied.

“Ready to deploy,” Misty Thunder chimed in.

“Prepared,” Nova added.

“In position,” Koto said. “Ensign Agis Blade is with us.”

Simi watched the first group land. They fanned out from their original flight of 20 into groups of 4. They were fully clothed in black. That included wings and head, with combat goggles over their eyes. Their armor was light plates and their guns were lasers. Nopony had been issued black light combat equipment in decades. They had to have dug them out of an old storage depot.

They were definitely not members of the Aerial Combat Battalion. And not just looks, but they walked wrong too. It was too much swagger, not enough confidence. Even the cockiest ACU member didn’t have that much swagger.

Simi reported in. “We have no patches, full black out. No identifiers. And this is old armor. You haven’t used light plates in a long time.”

“Did you say light plates?” Gunmetal asked.

“Do you know where they came from?” Firestorm immediately asked.

“No,” Gunmetal said chuckling darkly. “But we have the advantage when it comes to that. If it is old light armor, we can make them bleed and bruise easily.”

“Good point,” Firestorm said. “The Wonderbolts will make easy work of that.”

“They only have laser rifles,” Simi added. “Standard weapons.”

“Good,” Nova said. “Simi, as you ready to start this?”

Simi’s response was only a dark laugh over the coms. He whipped his cloak’s hood back and Simi leaped forward, ramming his sword into the first Pegasus. It wasn’t Kifo Herixleta, but it was a solid Zebra sword and Shadow had trained him to use it. Even better, Ukuzwa had manufactured a band for him. He was no leaper like Shadow Flare, but he could move. All four in the fireteam were dead in four clean attacks. They never saw it coming.

Most of the first teams had begun to deploy into the sea of buildings. They didn’t know the layout, giving the advantage to the defenders. A team tried to move to where Simi had started the fight, but Kogata uncloaked and fired the first shots. He broke the silence with his twin Applejack Rifles unloading.

Sensha was further away from them and opened up on another team, easily gunning them down in their light armor. Kachi fired from deeper in the sea of buildings. It wasn’t at anypony, but it did work to draw in more teams. It was going to be a hellish firefight in a compact urban environment. But the power armor of the Zebras would shield them well. And when the ACUs came in from above it would be an easy time picking apart the teams.

Simi uncloaked behind another team. They were stacked along a wall, with the pegasus on point poking his head around the corner. He was trying to see where the firefight was happening. Their heads rolled easily. Simi pulled the cloak over his head and disappeared. He had learned from the best.

Firestorm hadn’t been a solo mission in forever. She had maneuvered to Jade Spring Hall before they arrived. She was going to unleash a hurt only Wonderbolts could unleash. The rest of the Wonderbolts had set up a kill zone in the Squad Barracks. Firestorm was going to be drawing them into the Squad Barracks by looking like she was alone and afraid. And that it was where everypegasus was falling back to.

Firestorm grinned under her helmet and busted out of the main doors. She ran a good 50 yards across open ground and then slid to a stop. Several shots were taken at her and she wasn’t going to let them go unanswered.

Four quick shots later the fireteam was dead. They couldn’t block the power of a Wonderbolt’s weapons. Unfortunately, there were not many of them. They were focusing on the urban fighting in the Units.

“FALL BACK!” Firestorm yelled. “FALL BACK TO SECONDARY POSITIONS!”

Firestorm knocked down two enemies as they tried to slip out enough to nail her. It was perfect headshots.

“Ha!” Firestorm laughed to herself. “I still got it! Nopony can say otherwise! Shit! Pegasus! No, Pony!”

Firestorm yelled as loud as she could. “COME AND GET ME YOU FUCKING PONIES!”

Firestorm took a few hits from behind. They were crawling over more of the Squad Barracks than she had realized. She bolted to the rear doors to get inside. She knew this, she was being followed.

The Fourth Councilor opened his door. “What the fuck is going on!”

“Yeah,” The Second Councilor asked as he exited. “What is going on.”

Ensign Aegis Blade was the only one they could see. “It’s okay. We have it under control. The black ops team that attacked Fort Griffins Gate and tried to eliminate General Shielded Vengeance is assaulting the Squad Barracks.

“We just sent out most of our troops!” The Chief Councilor exclaimed.

“We know,” Aegis Blade said.

"And why weren't we notified!" The Fifth Councilor shot. "We have to hear of it through gunfire!"

Ensign Aegis Blade stalled out. "Look. I'm sorry. Yes, you should have...but...we had like 10 minutes warning. The last thing I thought to do was verbally warn each of you. I was wrong. I made a mistake. We are, I am, doing the best I can."

"And what is that best?" The Fourth Councilor asked.

“We are drawing them into several kill zones and we are about to counter attack. Now please, go back inside your rooms for security reasons. The three of us have this.”

“Three?” The Fourth Councilor asked, raising an eyebrow at the complete lack of two more individuals.

“Us,” Koto said uncloaking with Chiha beside him. “We have this. These Type 100 submachine guns will take care of anything that breaches those doors.”

“If not,” Chiha smirked. She fixed a bayonet onto the barrel. “These will. They will grind them worse than a mill. We were assigned here for a reason. Nopony will commit treason.”

“Nopony!” Koto asserted.

Chiha and Koto heard the thud and leaped towards the stairs. Koto slid down the railing. The breaching charge went off right as they got to the bottom. Chinha tossed a grenade as Koto went prone.

The black ops soldiers poured in. Koto opened up, cutting them down from his position on the floor. The grenade went off behind the troops, where it had passed by them coming in. It was perfect to take out several of them who were preparing to come in. Chiha used the smoke and confusion to pop a smoke grenade and flip her cloak on.

Koto used it to run up the stairs. Two grenades went off outside of the room as he got to the top. Chiha was clearing the outside well.

“Ensign,” Koto growled. “You better be ready to prove you deserve those lightning bolts!”

“This is insane!” The Fourth Councilor yelled. “Is there any way for me to have a gun?”

Koto pushed Ensign Aegis Blade to the stairs as he moved towards the Fourth Councilor. Off his belt came a throw over pistol holster and several ammo pouches. “It’s all I got. A Type 14 pistol. I can’t give you all the magazines on me or I would give you my submachine gun!”

Koto jumped over to the stairs again. He stopped Aegis Blade from shooting. “Chiha is right there! Go by the Councilor. I am sure you are going to be needed in like 10 minutes. Round two is about start!”

Koto unleashed a strong burst down the stairs, putting down another black enemy.

Chiha uncloaked. “This is fucking worse than killing Nanrika!”

“LET EM COME!” Koto yelled down the stairs. He wasn’t rhyming because they had learned to speak plainly in combat, but his accent was obvious. “SEE IF THEY ACTUALLY KNOW HOW TO KILL A ZEBRA! OR IF THE POWER OF THE STRIPES ARE TOO MUCH FOR THESE PANSIES!”

“Zebras! Let’s fucking kill them!”

“We are not here for them!”

Chiha slipped the Fourth Councilor her pistol magazines and winked at him. It was supposed to help ease his concern, but it backfired.

“Chiha!” Koto whispered when it was apparent they were not coming up.

As soon as Chiha looked, Koto flipped his cloak on. He moved down the stairs. He got to the bottom and slid along the wall. It was all torn up from the grenades and some wild shots. The bodies littered around along with the fragments from the door told the tale he needed to tell. The two still there had not treaded carefully.

Koto made his careful steps, even with his cloak. He moved around to the next doorway. He fixed his bayonet and burst through the door.

Neither of them were trouble. He kicked the first in the muzzle. The buttstock of the submachine gun was swung hard, right into the goggles of the second. It cracked, but didn’t shatter. He pounded down the buttstock onto the second’s head two more times, buckling her.

The first moved to try and kill Koto, but it failed as Koto snapped his back right leg into his muzzle again. Koto ran the bayonet straight into his chest. He pulled out the bayonet and then ran the second through. A perfect neck stab.

Koto moved back to the stairs. He pulled out a can of spray paint. He quickly wrote a glyph on one side of the wall and then the same one on the other side. He moved up a few steps and did it again, but a different glyph. The third was on one of the last steps. He painted four glyphs.

“That hallway!” Koto ordered. “The second room. It’s time for secondary positions. They knew we were here. Right here. That has at least two walls before the outside. The second wave is about a minute out, and you know for sure they are coming here immediately!

“I put wards on the stairs. They will kill anyone coming up the stairs. Yes, even our allies. But they are one shot wards. One and done.”

“You have magic?” The Chief Councilor asked.

“I have a bit,” Koto said, shooing them into the security room. “I just did everything I can do. Okay, the last trick I know won’t work here.”

Koto tapped a magazine to seat the bullets and changed out to a fresh one. It was going to be a fun time to hold round two.

Misty Thunder was flying solo as they got over the Squad Barracks. She was at the head of the ACUs. The ten units under her had broken into a set of seven and three. Three were going to back up the Wonderbolts. The seven, led by Misty Thunder, were going to rip the enemy that had gotten sucked into the hellhole the zebras were making the Units.

The Firecracker raced ahead of them and began to open fire from their 25mm guns. It was a pitifully short time.

"Report from the Firecracker. We knocked out a good platoon worth, but they got wise and split apart. We see wave three coming too. We will scout for more waves."

"Understood," Firestorm grunted over the coms.

"Ma'am! Unit 77 and 94, we are going to go for the second and third waves in their. Show em what Silver Wings actually means!"

"I'm coming too!" Misty Thunder said. "And I'm pulling 51 from backing up the Wonderbolts. They can hold out. We have those units in the air right where we want them."

"Not entirely, Dear," Nova said. "Solid plan. They did hit the Wonderbolt Barracks, but they got shut down, hard. They are fine. The Ensign is about to learn how to really fight from those two Zebras."

"I don't like the sound of that!" Firestorm shot back over the coms.

"The three strategists say to keep going where you are going. This is the best plan."

Misty Thunder formed up briefly with the Units 77, 94, and 51. After a hot minute and a quick final strategy meeting, they broke apart and banked into their intercept courses.

Misty Thunder's heart stopped as she lined up her flight path. It was going to slide right past one target and give herself two more in quick succession. She had her silver wings. They trained aerial combat a lot. But the focus had always been more towards maneuvers with the ground. The last time she had been in mock combat had been years. She was always evaluating and leading, not participating.

It felt so good to be in the field. It felt right. Even though she was about to open up on her fellow pegasi, who had until recently been friends, it felt right to be engaging in full aerial combat.

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-TING!

The first Pegasus fell as Misty Thunder ripped past him. The next one was a pain and they were still unaware that they were being engaged in the sky.

T-T-T-TING! T-T-T-TING!

Two more easily down. The exhilaration of finally being weapons free, with the speed high she was getting, and a dash of blood lust, was unleashing more chemicals into Misty Thunder's head than she had ever experienced. A clarity with a flair of a sweet dessert.

The third enemy went down without a problem. Misty Thunder saw a pair of ACU members cross paths in front of her as she pulled around to get another round in. She saw the fruits of their labor as she caught the sight of multiple bodies falling in the semilit night sky.

Another pass netted Misty Thunder three more kills. One was killed by a faster team. Misty Thunder wasn't trying to keep score, but her mental awareness automatically tallied each kill up. Just like it kept track of her available ammunition. She was almost out.

Misty Thunder pulled up and stopped. It was dangerous to outright stop, but she was well above the battle. The third wave was definitely on their way. Half of the second wave had survived and landed at the Squad Barracks.

The three Units pulled up next to her and they began to plan how to best destroy the third wave. Their speed and agility had saved them from any injuries. And an order might have gone out to avoid the aerial targets. Some of the platoons seemed too focused on getting onto the Squad Barracks.

Simi danced in between another fireteam. They dropped easily. Four quick strikes had become natural to him over his rigorous training. He wasn’t getting a lot in because he had been baiting them deeper into the urban environment.

Misty Thunder had just passed off command to him. He was ready to command their small group, and he had led large groups of Zebras, but he didn’t feel ready to do this. 30 ACU soldiers under him was a new stress he had never felt. Mtoaji had covered the ACU tactics and strategies over the years, and particularly as they had come to Equestria, but he had never had time to see or do before he was now leading. Thankfully, they were mostly self-sufficient.

They had broken down into teams of two and half of them strafed the enemy soldiers from the sky while the other half moved to the ground. Fierce battles were happening. But the majority of the noise was the ACU live ammo guns as they cut down the enemy from multiple directions.

“All cleared, Seamy,” an ACU officer reported.

“Everypony under me, regroup at Unit 41,” Simi said as he checked where he was. “We will split and move out once we regroup.”

The last to arrive where the Zebras. Simi kept the two units who had been in the air, in the air. He solidified the Zebras to be their unyielding right flank, in between the Units and the Squad Barracks. Two units went on the left flank, and he was with the most inexperienced unit in the center.

“Second wave arriving in 24 seconds!” Simi said. “Move! Draw them in whenever possible.”

Simi made sure he had magazines ready to go. He was going to have to use the battle saddle Shadow had given him. He was carrying all armor piercing rounds or magnum loads. Their light armor would not stop anything he was outfitted with. It just wasn’t as fun as cloaking and uncloaking with a sword. That was how the Zebras warlords preferred to fight. There was an honor to fighting in hoof to hoof or close combat and with a blade. But now wasn’t the time for honor. Now was the time for precise action.

Simi moved to the front of the Unit housing to bait them. As he got there, he saw the larger numbers moving to land. He heard an explosion from the quartermaster shop and then the rapid thud and chinks of a linked ammo machine gun unloading its rounds and spitting out unlinked casings and links.

“YO! FUCKERS!” Simi yelled. Most of the masked attackers looked at him. His accent wasn’t as thick as the others, but it was still obvious he wasn’t from anywhere they knew. “THINK YOUR TINY WINGS CAN TELL ME IF I AM BLACK WITH WHITE STRIPES OR WHITE WITH BLACK STRIPES!”

As Simi turned to run he unleashed three shotgun rounds to carpet the area. The magnum rounds’ claws found the coat of one pegasus. The single 00 buck ball viciously tore open her neck.

A large group moved after Simi. They had clearly identified four targets they wanted. The ACUs who Simi was now leading, whatever the Wonderbolts were shielding, the quartermaster cage, and they knew where the Council was after. In order to hit the Council, they had to keep the others from moving.

Simi darted between a few buildings and then slid to a stop around the corner. Their attempts to flank him failed as both of his flanks blindsided theirs and ripped them to shreds. They were right behind him and Simi unleashed a torrent of bullets into his killzone.

The ACUs in the sky finally had something to strike and moved in. Things were going as well as possible for being out numbers at least 3 to one in each engagement.

Firestorm rolled out of the broom closet and stopped in a prone shooting position. With support from behind, they cut down every soldier trying to enter the Squad Barracks. Another stepped out and they easily put the lone attacker down. He didn’t die without purpose. He had lobbed a grenade.

Firestorm saw it bounce off the floor and skip up. She was in Wonderbolt power armor, Mark 2, and she was far enough back that it wouldn’t get her into its kill radius. But the blast radius was wide. The others behind her were able to duck back into cover, but she just had to put her head down and hope for the best.

Firestorm dropped her head and then she felt pain as fragments cut through her armor. At least two made it past her helmet and another into her lower neck or shoulder. It hurt and that was all she could identify.

Firestorm had been a wonderbolt for well over two decades and a soldier over three decades. Over all that time, she had never been shot. She had never even been in combat. And the searing pain made her freeze. She had no idea what to do.

More shots were fired and she felt herself being dragged across the floor. They pulled her into the clinic. She heard more shots being fired as she was rolled over as somepegasus began to inspect her.

Her helmet was pulled off and she saw a familiar face.

“How many wing feathers am I holding up?” Chief Warrant Officer Sunset Fury asked.

"Three?" Firestorm groaned.

"Good," Sunset Fury smiled.

"Am I a whimp?" Firestorm asked. "This hurts. A lot. I have never felt this much pain. I don't feel like I can move."

"Common reaction," Sunset Fury replied. "It's not fun getting shot or blown up. And being a Wonderbolt doesn't prepare you for that type of pain. But, you are a Wonderbolt. If anypegasus can pull through, it's you guys."

Without even a typical anesthetic, Sunset Fury pulled out the grenade fragments on her head and stitched the two spots up. They had to get her out of her armor and then her patched her shoulder up.

"You are lucky you got hit where you did. An inch to the. Left and it would have hit an artery."

Patched up, Sunset Fury pulled her to her feet. "Now is the time to distinguish between a Wonderbolt and a soldier. A Wonderbolt-"

"Fights through it all and wins," Firestorm finished. "We don't have the option to quit!"

"There we go!" Sunset Fury praise.

"I am so glad you were deployed with the ACUs," Firestorm said.

"Deployed?" Sunset Fury laughed. "No. I was ordered to stay here as medical support. You guys left us out of everything. We woke up to gunfire. I had to make it from Unit 0 all the way to here. My Corporal is stuck in the Units. I hope he got to Simi safely. I also hope he is following orders to not patch anypegasus up except our guys. And the Zebras.

"But where is the Council? I was trying to get in position to be there medically for them."

"In the Wonderbolt Unit," Firestorm said as she put her helmet on. "Our diversion did not help. They are fine though. And at least we are drawing troops to keep us pinned or eliminated. They are afraid of us and that means putting more troops on us."

"We need to make a push," Sunset Fury said.

"Our strategists are saying not to," Firestorm replied. "They Council is being protected."

Koto was laying prone, cloaked. He had a perfect view of the stairs. Nopony could come up without being seen. And therefore, shot.

Below, wave two was actively clearing the lower floor. Every time they breached a door, it required explosives to bypass the keycard system. Thankfully, the private rooms were on the second floor. It was mostly meeting rooms on the first floor. Blasting down those doors was of little consequence.

Chiha was with the Council and Ensign Aegis Blade was posted up in a position similar to Koto. He wasn't prone, allowing him to move faster.

It was a blood chilling scream as the first ward trapped its first victim in a bar of electricity that shot back and forth, cooking him where he stood.

It certainly made the others second guess the rest of the stairs. But they came up anyway. The second was an explosive glyph. The one on the step was a gravity ward.

As the two pegasi on point got up onto it, side by side, it entrapped their bodies, pulling them down and crushing them. Their bones audibly snapped as the pressure was put on them. It wasn't just their forelegs. After that it was their chest and then spinal cords. The breaking bones shredded flesh from the inside out as they popped like little grenades inside their limbs.

They made a nice barrier for the next Pegasus behind them. Ensign Aegis Blade put a shot right into the head of the Pegasus as he tried to fly over the bodies and completely exposed himself. That body became a tripping hazard to the others on the stairs.

They surged up and were struck in the crossfire of the killzone between Aegis Blade and Koto. They piled up quickly and then they began to try and come up with a new plan. Chiha scrambled to drag the bodies on the top free so they didn't block their view and give their enemies an extra moment to see over the barrier.

As the last one moved the attackers realized what was happening and they surged up to catch them off guard. Chiha was out of Ensign Aegis Blade's way. He jumped forward and unleashed his weapons down the group stacked on the stairs. It was like shooting fish in a barrel because they had put too many on the stairs.

The ones further down opened fire and multiple rounds found Aegis Blade's chest as they traded fire. Aegis Blade stumbled back.

"I'm okay," He nodded to where he thought Koto was. He was close. "I will fight and hold my ground until my last breath."

"And so will I," Koto replied from under his cloak.

A smoke grenade was tossed up and Koto uncloaked. Chiha moved forward and the next wave was stabbed and sliced to shreds by the Zebras. Their long hours training in hoof to hoof combat made it an easy fight.

"That was easy!" Koto taunted. "The Warlords we have fought were worse than those fools! What useless tools. No order but to throw their lives away. And against a toll they can not pay!"

"Are they really that stupid?" the Fourth Councilor whispered to Koto as he retook his position.

"Apparently," Koto shrugged quietly. "Here they come!"

Six came up at once. Two low, right over the stairs. Two right above them in a big leap. And two high on their wings.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Koto looked over his shoulder at the Fourth Councilor. He had just pegged each in the head faster than Koto or Aegis Blade could respond.

The Fourth Councilor snorted. "I wasn't an ACU or a markspegasus. But I also didn't get to my position without knowing how to fight. I at least kept up with a pistol."

"Very impressive," Koto nodded. "We can do this."

"Fuck yeah we can," The Fourth Councilor agreed.

"You can have all the fun you want. But you have to live. It's on my head. We die before you do. We need you all alive, no matter how you vote. Understand?"

"Understood," The Fourth Councilor said.

The Fourth Councilor slid back to the room with the others. The Chief Councilor and Fifth Councilor were stripping battle saddles from the dead to be the final resistance. It had been decades since they had worn one. The last time they remembered using one was in Basic Training. But they knew the basics and that was what mattered.

"I officially change my vote," The Fourth Councilor declared. "I vote for peace. Getting shot at by the Renegades who claim to want what I want, well I see too much zealotry. This isn't a world for that anymore. Fuck, Zebras are saving my hide. We killed each other over the color of our coats.. I still vote for upholding our independence, but we have to work with below as peacefully as possible."

"Thank you," The Chief Councilor said. "Now go blast them to pieces."

A torrent of live ammunition and magic lasers, along with the heavy hitting Wonderbolt novasurge rifles, washed over the second floor. Another tough push had been stopped. Koto was halfway through his ammunition. It was going to become a very nasty battle, especially if he ran out..

Simi slid around a corner and ran into another enemy fireteam. He was faster on the draw and pumped three Shotgun rounds into his chest at point blank range. He used the body as a shield as he picked off the other three with the Shotgun.

He was running out of Shotgun rounds. He had about 32 rounds left. The Shotgun was extremely effective at the ranges most of the fighting was happening.

Simi almost got shot as he got back to the Unit. They recognized him just in time.

"Wait! We picked up one. There are 7 of you."

"I'm Corporal Skybridge. Unit 0. Deployed here at the Squad Barracks as one of the two medics on duty."

"You never chimed in," Simi said.

"We woke up to gunfire. You never notified us."

"Fair point," Simie said. "Can you fight?"

"I have my silver wings for a reason."

"Good, cause we-"

Corporal Skybridge spat out a short burst, killing one enemy soldier 75 yards down on their flank.

"Cool," Simi nodded.

Regrouped, they moved out and began to pick apart the enemy fireteam that were left in the sea of ACU buildings.

The Firecracker gave an update. "Two minutes till the third wave arrives. It appears to be the last wave."

Every team checked in with the Firecracker who was now their organizer. Gunmetal was furiously defending her cage. And with every trick in it. Claymores, proximity Mines, a few “spare” automated turrets, and her personal battle gear.

The enemy black ops soldiers were good, but they were not the ACUs. Tactically speaking, they had better movement, but target acquisition, mental acuity, and mental mapping gave the ACUs a significant advantage. Even when the enemy saw them first, the ACUs usually got the first shot. And they were significantly more accurate. However, they couldn't recharge their ammunition because the black ops soldiers were using the different guns.

Misty Thunder skimmed past multiple enemy soldiers as she darted in and around them. She only took a few shots. She was low on ammo. Each round counted. But their close movements were incredibly distracting to units that were not used to close air assaults.

She was exhausted from all the hard and sudden turns required to perform this type of disruption. As she cruised a bit to catch her breath she saw what she was looking for. In the sea of black she spotted the one that stood out. The officer. Probably a colonel by the number of soldiers deployed.

Misty Thunder rocked the sky with her namesake as she thundered across the sky, straight for him. He never saw it coming. Misty Thunder didn’t break even for a second. She had to show all of this wave what the real power of the silver wings were.

Her shoulder slammed into his as she grappled him. Her wings were in, his were not. She rammed her hoof into the inside joint of his wing for a painful hit. She hugged him tight as he tried to pull free. Together, they began to fall. Misty Thunder was confident she could get out of it, he began to freak out and thrash.

Misty Thunder bit down on his goggles and tore them off his face. For a greenhorn like him, the wind was blinding. Misty Thunder freed one hoof and smashed it into his eye. They had fallen a long way in the few seconds. The ground was fast approaching. Misty Thunder was not too afraid. She had one last plan.

She broke apart but gripped onto his back collar. He opened his wings, trying to catch himself. Misty Thunder drew her knife with her mouth and slashed open one of his wings. Straight to the bone, from the joint to halfway up the wing.

She let go of him and finally opened up her wings. They caught her and she glided free. A quick glance above proved she was not in danger and she turned her mind back to the falling officer. She watched him continue his fall, flailing and crying out in terror. There was no way for him to slow his fall even a bit.

Koto’s submachine gun clicked as it kicked out the last bullet in the magazine. Four bullets whizzed by his head. Each found the head of a storming enemy soldier.

“Koto!” Chiha yelled, whipping a magazine to him.

Koto caught it and jammed it into his gun, charging it and unleashing more fury with speed rarely seen on the battlefield. Koto took a second to jump up and once again be free to move. They were charging up the stairs, forcing them to run out of ammo. It was backfiring because they couldn’t get around the pile of bodies, making them easy targets to pick off while they stalled. That and Chiha was a master at cutting them down with a blade. She tossed Koto her last magazine and Koto loaded their last live rounds into their guns. The Fourth Council was a crack shot, but he too was down to the last magazine.

A grenade was lobbed up the stairs. It wasn’t hard to throw it to where the Fourth Councilor was. It rolled to a stop right in front of the Councilor. The Fourth Councilor was knocked into the wall by Ensign Aegis Blade as he jumped on the grenade.

A yell sounding the charge thundered from the stairs and Koto was forced to face the reality of the battle’s tide turning. Chiha locked eyes with him and they nodded.

“FOR MTOAJI!” They yelled, charging to the stairs with blades ready.