Fallout Equestria: Shaping Shadow - Book 5

General Gunmetal had a small force directly under her command. Slice had been placed as her battle buddie, a fancy way to say guard, and she had five regular ACUs with a Shock Trooper ACU in power armor. Just thirty one highly trained soldiers, plus Gunmetal. Her goal was simple: get to and secure the main ammunition depot. They had the unfortunate task of charging ahead of their allies, deep into enemy territory, and then fortifying the depot while the Enclave inevitably cut them off from any support. But they had to stop the Enclave from blowing the main ammo stockpile out of spite. Without the ammo, the Equestrian Pegasus Military would not be able to take Nellie.

They were barely in the air after launching from the corvettes when the explosions started. Somepony was making trouble for the Enclave. That was good. The ACUs were vulnerable as they tried to land, so splitting the Enclave troop's attention would increase their chances at surviving the landing.

Despite being hard pressed to get to the ammo depot, Gunmetal was not going straight there. She was leading her soldiers up; to an altitude that would make them impossible to spot before they rolled over and dove straight down onto the depot. It was the only way to bypass the enemy units in between the front and their goal.

Gunmetal knew exactly where she was heading. All of her years in supply meant that she knew that part of the base like the back of her hoof. It also meant that she knew how limited their defensive capabilities would be when it came to fortifying the depot.

The air was cold as they reached their cruising altitude. They only had to survive for a few minutes before Gunmetal turned over and dove headfirst towards the clouds. The Enclave would never see them coming, but that also meant they would not know the situation at the depot until the last second. There could be a full platoon defending it or a whole battalion.

The depot officially consisted of a main building, the armory that held the quartermaster office, and two warehouses. Due to the explosive nature of the ordinance, the buildings had ample space in between them and a wide area was marked off as the blast radius for safe operation. The depot would be busy with the assault happening.

Gunmetal ordered one of her ACU’s to play overwatch as the depot became clear. They broke off to begin a turn that would allow them to provide close air support. Pegasi were running around between the buildings. There was no time to tell how organized they were as Gunmetal opened her wings, breaking as she continued to fall. Her power armor saved her wings. She had one ACU who were shock troopers, armed with power armor, and they were dropping in hot like she was. Slice was right on her tail as she impacted on the clouds. Her novasurge rifle opened up, gunning down anypony in an Enclave uniform. Slice fired rockets from his power armor at soldiers behind Gunmetal. She was focused on the door to the main depot.

The others landed a few seconds later and began to move to cover while the shock trooper unit had the Enclave’s focus. They unleashed lead as they fought to take the positions they wanted. The fifth team on overwatch screamed by, unleashing their own weapons as they strafed any entrenched enemy soldiers.

Gunmetal ordered a unit to circle around to the back and sent the shock troopers to get into fortified positions on the roofs. Their heavier machine guns would be useful if they were attacked. Gunmetal got to the front door of the main building as gunshots rang out from the other side. The ACU’s captain gave the “all clear”.

Gunmetal nodded to the ACU on the other side of the door and they breached the depot. Gunfire from a dozen sources opened up as they went in. The crack of the ACU’s lead spitting battlesaddles won out as a few explosions went off.

“Depot entry secured,” an ACU soldier reported over the coms. “Two of ours are down, including the Lieutenant.”

Gunmetal entered with Slice at her six. She left Slice to watch the entrance as she led two of the ACU members into the back to sweep for any holdouts and automatic turrets. It has been the automatic turrets that had cut her soldiers down. They were not even halfway through securing the back when they reported to Gunmetal that their comrades had bled out.

Gunmetal withheld a stream of curses. She needed every pegasus she had. This mission was shorthoofed as it was. Losing even one pegasus could spell disaster and she had lost two.

The other two ACUs reported that they had secured the second building. That just left the third building to clear. Gunmetal was forced to send Slice and two shock troopers to make entry and sweep it. Even as she finished securing the main building, she could hear their not so subtle entrance. It wasn’t just their guns. They were facing off against well armed enemies.

“Enemy units down,” Slice reported. “No friendlies down, but we're a bit banged up. Checking the rest of the building now.”

Gunmetal secured the main building and met her officers in front of the quartermaster cage.

“Unit 78 will fall under my command since their officer is down,” Gunmetal immediately stated. “All of the automatic turrets have been checked out, which means they are going to be deployed against our main force. Command has been notified. I’ll hold depot one, two units can take depot two and the other two can take depot three with the shock units fortified on the roofs. Move out portable defenses and set up a perimeter. We are to hold until relieved. I know it’s a small force for three buildings and that reinforcements may be hours away. Or never if they fail.

“I have confidence in everypegasus. You were trained to be the best. You are the best. You were given to me for a reason, the other generals think that out of everypony else, your units have the best chance at pulling off this job under me. I know the focus has always been on the assault for the ACUs, but I also know your defensive skills are top notch. Don’t waste ammo, but don’t let them get close. We have the ammo stores directly with us and will make use of it to defend this place. Any questions?”

A few small details were worked out and then everypegasus split to their assigned buildings. The enemy would launch a counterattack shortly. Their coms, taken from the dead, indicated that they were dealing with insurrectionists holed up in a southern building and deploying against the attacking force from the north. The coms to the lost units were cut before details about the counterattack to retake the depot were spilled. It was a solid enough heads up despite not knowing exactly what was being thrown at them. They at least had a rough idea of when the attack would come.

The sounds of battle could be heard both in the north and the south. The fact that the insurrectionists had not been routed out yet was good. General Misty Thunder and General Striker were in for a tough battle. It would be worse if the turrets made it to the front.

Pallets of ammunition had been moved to block the rear entrances to the buildings so the defenders could focus on as few directions as possible. Portable bulwarks were moved out front and seven heavy machine guns were taken out of storage. Gunmetal signed them out on paper to keep track of them. She hated using the supplies, but if they failed they would be worse off.

“Enemy sighted,” Slice reported over the coms. “Heavily armored to the point that they are on hoof. One power armor unit is leading the charge.”

Gunmetal looked out the front window of the depot at the approaching troops. It was a wave of black Enclave uniforms surging toward them. “All units, hold fire until my command,” Gunmetal ordered. She watched the wave come as the soldiers double checked that the machine guns were ready to fire or that their personal weapons were loaded with fresh magazines. With the size of the counter attack, she couldn’t let them get too close or they would run out of time to cut them all down. She also couldn’t afford to waste ammo with wild shots that would go over the heads of the enemy soldiers. Gunmetal chose her invisible line for them to cross and waited. “Slice, can you take out the power armored units?”

“My rockets should be able to tear them up, but I have a limited number,” Slice replied.

“We can worry about future waves after we get past this one,” Gunmetal replied. Gunmetal took a deep breath in preparation. “All units, fire at will!”

The sounds of all of their guns firing was deafening. Slice let his rockets loose in the opening salvo before he switched to his gatling laser. The heavy machine guns sent chunks of lead and bolts of magic at the black wave in an unrelenting torrent.

As the first soldiers fell, the Enclave opened up. Their shots as they continued their charge were wild, but it only took a lucky shot to knock out one of her soldiers. Gunmetal dove out of the building as it was hit and crawled to the safety of a bulwark.

The machine gun at building two froze and was abandoned for now. The enemy kept coming and shooting, but they were crawling after losing the front of their assault. Slice had knocked out the unit of power armor. The bodies provided the enemy good cover as they cemented their hold on the surrounding area. It also gave them steadier shooting platforms as they went prone. Picking out the living from the dead was impossible and Gunmetal bit her tongue as she watched her soldiers burn through their limited ammo supplies. They slowed down, trying to make their shots count, because they were professionals, but there was no way they were hitting anything alive most of the time. Their smaller caliber bullets had trouble penetrating the heavy armor and certainly couldn't go through an armored body and then into another one.

Gunmetal ordered a full stop and then ordered them all to hunker down. They had to make the enemy expose themselves. Even if they were in a perpetual standoff, any soldiers focused on assaulting the depot were ones not focused on the main assault force, which gave the assault force the distraction and relief it needed to succeed and then support them at the depot.

After a few minutes of silence at the depot, an over eager young officer rose up and loudly ordered his soldiers forward. Gunmetal held her forces on her signal. She let them come before she stood up and opened fire. Her soldiers followed her lead and they cut the platoon down with ease. In the torrent of return fire from the charging pegasi, they had scored two lucky hits. One was a kill, the bullet hitting the pegasus in the head, and the other was down, receiving emergency aid, but they would probably live and hopefully be able to continue to fight once they were stabilized.

“Misty Thunder to Gunmetal, report please,” the general privately asked over their coms.

“Depot secured and we have three dead and one injured. A large number of soldiers are attacking, but now they have the cover of the dead. All of them are in heavy armor, making killing at this point almost impossible. But we are holding and any we have focused on us are not focused on you. How are you?”

“We have established a hoofhold, but that has slowed to a crawl as we face the same problem, they have cover and heavy armor, we do not. Our casualties are heavier than hoped but not nearly as bad as feared. The medics are working hard to get soldiers back on their hooves. We are determined and have high morale.

“Admiral Little is currently battling their cloudships and crushing them. The power of the monitors is impressive. It isn’t as strong as a Raptor, but the monitor class is designed for a defensive role and the guns are built to take out cloudships and enemies at a range. She is pounding their forces before they can get anywhere close to the range they need to shoot back. I only hope Commodore Deke has similar success.”

“Oh, he will,” Gunmetal said with a chuckle. “He has an ace up his sleeve that I can't speak about. Unfortunately, it won’t work here because NC is too close to the base and his strategy is erratic.”

“Damn! The Zebras are back,” Misty Thunder swore. “They were supposed to regroup with their members already here from the heist, who I assume is the one causing the noise in the south.”

“Their coms, before they cut the lost units out, mentioned insurrectionists in the south,” Gunmetal commented. “I hope they survive the pounding they are receiving.”

Simi joined their private conversation. “They can hold for a while longer. They are pinned and will try to keep them occupied, but we have to push our main assault before they realize both locations have only a hoofful of soldiers at the locations and resort to a small pinning force while they retreat the rest of the units to face this force. The hoofhold we have isn't enough.”

“Looks like I know what I need to do,” Misty Thunder said. “Good luck, General.”

“The same to you, General,” Gunmetal replied before the coms were disconnected. It was odd for Gunmetal to be in command of a combat group and even odder to be called general. She had been a Colonel before the rise of the EPM, but the the rank wasn't undeserved since she ran the entire EPM supply chain.

Gunmetal stood up and unleashed a full magazine at the pressing soldiers. They were still trying to crawl forward, with the ACUs taking shots when they could. They had to keep them engaged and pinned. If that meant burning through ammo and running the risk of emptying their supply, so be it. Gunmetal was not going to lose the depot or let any of the attacking forces back out.