Fallout Equestria: Shaping Shadow - Book 5

Shadow stood on the roof of the tallest building on the edge of New Cloudsdale and the base. Mareland was easily visible, but it didn't have a lot of detail from the distance. Shadow didn't know the layout well, but he knew he was at the south of the base. He was in his recon armor, ready to fight, but he needed somewhere solid to go first.

Before he had arrived at his perch, he had gone as Black Widow to the Council Chambers. The arrogant new Council were still there, trying to maintain command of the pegasus race. General Fighting Spirit, Admiral Tungsten, and General Hayworth were sentenced and killed. It was easy and a lackluster sentence to give out.

The assault on Mareland had started with an explosion in the base and gunfire had been heard in various areas. Shadow held his position. As a single pony, he had his uses, but he couldn't charge into it just anywhere and expect to live. His power armor made him an invaluable asset, if applied correctly, but he was still vulnerable.

There was smoke on the horizon. The black clouds continued to go higher in the atmosphere as the cloudships producing them went down in flames. With the Victorious out of commission, thanks to Black Widow, Little was making quick work of what was left of the fleet at Mareland.

Because Shadow was a member of reconnaissance, his power armor had great range when it came to communication. He also could easily pick out the channels. He listened in on Gunmetal and Misty Thunder and knew his mission.

Shadow took off, deciding on a course of action, and headed for the front line. He was going to provide air support for Misty Thunder. They needed to be able to freely move into the base.

Shadow quickly got to a high altitude where he could safely glide. He kept his eyes peeled for flying units, both friendly and enemy, but also watched below. He was reminded of the bombing run they did on Fillydelphia and wished he had bombs he could drop on the heads of the enemy soldiers.

He spotted a large mass of black armed soldiers and then gunfire erupted below him. He saw the magic blasts from heavy guns coming from a trio of buildings and realized it was the supply depot. Shadow instinctively rolled into a descending turn as he set up for a strafing run. He started high but the path would leave him only a few yards above the clouds. He needed the angle for the strafing to be successful. He certainly could make good use of bombs, but his Gatling gun would have to do.

He locked his wings as he set his approach angle. The Gatling gun spun up and he unleashed it's fury on the unsuspecting troops. It was difficult to tell how successful it was because Gunmetal's team had already cut down a lot of Pegasi.

Shadow banked up, coming back around for another pass. This time he was further back and knew he scored more hits on live targets. He repeated the strafing two more times and then circled around the depot, looking for any signals. He saw Slice, but other than relieved looks on some of the EPM soldier's faces, he didn't get any sign that he was needed further.

He put himself back into a high altitude and continued towards the front. He kept a vigil for any enemy units in the sky as he spotted the front. The EPM was unloading a torrent of lead and receiving a heavy barge of magic fire back, but they were stalled. The Enclave was physically dug in. They hadn't moved bulwarks or any defensive structures. They had cut trenches in the cloud base. It gave them an exceptional defensive position that they could hold while the EPM ran out of ammunition, but it also made them sitting ducks. Shadow lined up with the forwardmost trench and unleashed his Gatling gun, pounding magic round after magic round blasting into the packed trenches. He took fire from other trenches, but nothing that his armor couldn't easily shrug off.

Shadow made sure he got far enough away as he pulled back around so that they couldn't see him coming. He lined up for the rearmost trench, hoping to catch them by surprise, and opened up on them as the EPM began a charge to get to the trenches. Shadow's attack blasted apart their line, cutting a lot of pegasi down while also distracting others. They were not sure who to shoot.

Shadow cut back and hit the middle trench. They were focused on shooting the EPM soldiers who were in hoof to hoof combat in the first trench. Shadow blasted them apart and spun around to the first trench.

He landed beside General Misty Thunder as they solidified their hold on the first trench and the Enclave soldiers broke from their defenses and ran.

"Nice save," Misty Thunder said. "Thanks. I didn't know you were in the area."

"I've been all over," Shadow replied. "I'm glad I could be of assistance. I don't know this base, but I know that a lone pony strafing their lines and losing the first trench isn't enough to cause soldiers to break and run. Even most raiders wouldn't be dumb enough to leave the safety of their defenses. They would invite the attack so they could assault the troublesome attacker."

"They must have stronger defenses set up in the center of the base," Misty Thunder replied. "We know they have automatic turrets somewhere. If they were not in the trenches, then I am concerned about how they fortified the center of the base. We are going to have to hit it, the question will be how to minimize our losses. We took too many already. We can't keep this up if we are to win the assault on Nellie."

"Has Simi moved on?" Shadow asked.

"Yes," Simi said over their coms. "We are on our way to Bukhali who is fortified in the south. Hopefully we are not too late. Anything we can scope out, we will."

"Command Sergeant Major, get us intel on their movements," Misty Thunder ordered. "I am concerned about the depot team. The soldiers didn't seem to be retreating towards there, but the Depot is closer to the center. It will make for an easy counterattack and eliminate the need to split their forces."

"On it," Shadow said with a nod. He launched vertically before he opened his wings and swopped off after the fleeing soldiers.

He gained altitude to avoid getting shot while investigating their plans. When he reached the center of the base, he found a heavily fortified center. In between the buildings were bulwarks and fortifications. Every roof had a mix of entrenched soldiers with heavy guns and automatic turrets. There was only one entrance on the southwest side. The fleeing soldiers were being let in through the gate. Nopony was moving off towards the depot at the moment.

Shadow reported his findings as he circled high above the fortress. Gunmetal and Misty Thunder began to discuss strategy. Shadow listened in while he turned to the depot and joined them. They were still outgunned and pinned in the depot.

Gunmetal paused the strategy session. "Yes, Shadow?"

"Do you have C4 in the buildings?" Shadow asked.

"Yeah, we do, but not much," Gunmetal replied. "What are you thinking?"

"Once before, we dropped bombs on our enemy from on high," Shadow replied. "I could drop explosives onto their heaviest defenses and even make a hole to enter through."

"I helped make those bombs," Slice said. "I can whip something up again pretty quick."

"Do it and make us a hole in the northeastern fortifications," Gunmetal said. "I want them thinking that we will be going for that area as our entrance."

Shadow and Slice scrambled into the depot. They kept their heads low, a good choice since they had several Enclave soldiers shoot at them. At the distance, they missed and exposed their location. They were blasted from multiple angles by the heavy machine guns.

With the standoff outside holding steady, Slice quickly got to work. He started piling things on a work table.

"What are these?" Shadow asked, picking up a disk with a glass top and some wires sticking out of them.

"Pulse mines," Slice explained. "They set off an EMP blast to disable electronics. I'm going to rewire them so that you will arm the mine and drop it. It will be the bomb head and set for pressure detonation. Instead of setting off an EMP blast, the electricity will be rerouted to the detonator for the explosives I'm going to stick onto the base of the mine. It will be crude, but should do the job. Even if it just scares them, then that is fine. We need to keep them second guessing their options."

"Build me a test one and I'll drop it on the party outside," Shadow said.

Slice had a bomb put together in five minutes and passed it to Shadow. He taught Shadow how to arm it and then Shadow left. He got out of sight to take off and made sure he got up high that it would be hard to spot him. When he was above the pinned Enclave soldiers he dove while arming the bomb. He let go and pulled up.

He banked into a turn that would allow him to watch it. The mine stayed facing down and when it smacked into the ground it exploded in a blast unique to C4. Shadow pulled back around, getting out of sight before he came in low and landed. He got back into the depot under a hail of bullets.

Gunmetal was inside with Slice. "That worked well," she immediately said. "How many can you carry?"

"I'm light in my saddle bags and low on space, reserving it for spare ammo," Shadow replied.

"I found other saddlebags," Slice said. "You should be able to carry six total in the saddle bags if we keep them the same size as what you just dropped."

"I'm not sure if it will be enough to make a hole," Shadow advised him.

"So you will carry a bigger one," Slice said.

"Okay," Shadow said. "I'll manually carry one and drop it first."

Gunmetal began to make bombs. "While you drop the first seven, we will make more."

"Okay," Shadow said with a nod.

Gunfire outside was exchanged. Shadow checked on it. Squads were starting to leapfrog from cover towards the depot.

Slice and Gunmetal didn't take long. They helped him add the extra saddle bag and Shadow took the very big bomb. It was shaped like an aerial bomb and even had four fins to help ensure the mine would stay facing down as it fell. Gunmetal even added weights to the mine to help facilitate the fall angle. They needed it to land with the mine facing down, or else it would not go off.

Shadow exited and started to fly, once again covering his ascent. When he was halfway to his destination, he saw a large group moving towards the depot. It included multiple power armored units. Shadow informed Gunmetal and pressed on as quickly as he could. He needed to get back to Gunmetal and Slice.

Shadow got to the fort undetected. He dove to a lower location and pulled into a hover as he armed the mine. He let it go and watched it fall. It ripped open a giant hole in the corner of a building and splintered the hastily constructed wall between buildings.

Shadow knew he was spotted as they started to fire at him. Hitting him at his height was nearly impossible, but easier since he was stationary. He began to move and pulled out another bomb. He armed it and dropped it on a fortified position. He was aiming for the turrets and machine gun nests.

The C4 did its job as Shadow dropped another one. He had ample targets and focused his attack on the Northeast corner. Two missed, but they still did damage and the psychology of aerial bombs was a powerful weapon in their own right.

Shadow headed back to the depot, hoping he would arrive in time to be of good use. A massive battle erupted in the south and Shadow realized he probably should be looking out for his zebra team.m, going to their rescue first. He had no choice now though. He was committed to the depot. Simi would have said something to him if he needed his help.

Bukhali reloaded from cover as a grenade went off. The Enclave had lost a lot of soldiers coming in, however their sacrifice was not in vane. The dead made for good shields, which were only further bolstered by their heavy armor. Soldiers were crawling through the bodies, protected from the heavy guns and small arms fire. Whenever they popped up enough to try and shoot they had a bullet put in their head, but they could lob grenades from cover.

Another grenade went off, the explosion knocking Bukhali down as his cover was obliterated from the blast. It had survived longer than he had expected. Dazed, he knew it was over. Another grenade was going to be thrown before he could get up and that one had to have destroyed the heavy gun. That meant both were no longer operational. Izala had been hit with shrapnel and was patched up, but unable to get back to the exposed gun. Sumida was either dead or injured from the last explosion. Kami was injured as well.

They had held out as long as they could, but their sacrifice was not in vane. They had kept a significant force distracted and controlling the chaos was the way to win a battle. They had been the chaos. They would ultimately win, albeit a pyrrhic victory.

Bukhali heard more gunfire but couldn't get up. Despite his best efforts, he had taken shrapnel in the back. It didn't hurt, his adrenaline was blocking the pain, but he couldn't move as the gunfight became more violent.

Death didn't come. He was found by Nukia, who dragged him to new cover before working on his wounds.

"Anyone alive?" Someone yelled into the building. Bukhali could not place the voice.

"Alive but hurt," Kami yelled back.

That was when Bukhali recognized what his brain was slow to recognize. The familiar voice had called out in zebra. It was Simi. Bukhali tried to get up but Nukia prevented him from doing so.

Sensha joined them, beginning to cast basic healing spells. She was not as good as Ukuzwa, no one was close to her power, but for field medicine, she was more than competent.

"Well done, Bukhali" Simi said in zebra. "You chewed them up badly. They were so focused on you that our opening attack was more confusing than it should have been. We would have been here sooner, but a fort in the middle of the base forced us to go the long way around it. Plus we had to stay undetected."

Bukhali felt the magic give him strength. "That is not good," Bukhali replied in zebra. Speaking in the ancient language kept them from being eavesdropped on with any positive results for their enemy. "I wondered what they had been doing. If the defense goes poorly, they no doubt will make their last stand there."

"It's true, they will," Simi said. "We will need to get your team medically stable and move out."

"I estimate we all can move out in ten minutes," Sensha said.

"Not good enough," Simi said. "I guess we will be sitting it out, at least the opening attack on the fort. Still, you did good. You did wonderful even. You kept them distracted and the others pulled off their initial assaults. Good job."

"For Mtoaji!" Bukhali exclaimed.

Shadow worked to get back to the depot in time, but he was too late. The platoon of power armored soldiers had provided enough cover to pound Gunmetal's small force into a full retreat inside the buildings, abandoning the heavy guns. The enemy was on their doorstep, trying to enter without being killed. Shadow searched for a place to drop into that would be effective and safe. Getting killed would help no one.

Shadow scanned the skies on a routine check of his surroundings to ensure he wasn't caught off guard. He saw a force diving on the depot from a higher altitude. They hadn't spotted him. The reinforcements meant Shadow would never be enough to help them.

The flying units opened up. Their weapons were conventional lead guns, not novasurge rifles. They were ACUs and they began to tear up the unaware Enclave soldiers.

"This is Colonel Golden Dawn," she announced over their radios. "We are dropping in to support the depot."

"Watch out for Shadow," Gunmetal warned.

"I'm almost back," Shadow added. "That was a great attack, Colonel."

Half of the ACUs landed while the other half strafed the enemy. The landing units took up positions at the heavy weapons and defenses. Close up, the regular Enclave soldiers were outmatched. The ACUs had lighter armor, but were faster on the draw and aggressive enough to compensate for their exposure. The heavy shock troopers targeted the armored units in a pincer formation and the mounted machine guns also opened up on the Enclave power armored platoon. Their combined effort ripped the early model power armor to shreds.

Shadow was passed by units providing air support as he made his own strafing run. The enemy force began to retreat. Golden Dawn didn't let them. Her units cut them down as they tried to run back to the safety of the fort. They pursued any who got away from the initial battle, cutting them down in the open without mercy. No one in the Enclave would show the Equestrian Pegasus Military any mercy so they received none in return.

Golden Dawn met with Shadow and Gunmetal in the main depot.

"You were assigned to Twin Clouds," Gunmetal said, asking the question without actually asking it.

"We wrapped it up early, the FDC is in law enforcement hoofs, and then booked it here for the battle," Golden Dawn explained. "We are tired but ready for a fight."

"They have a fortress in the central buildings, their last holdout," Gunmetal said. "Shadow just bombed them, but we don't have many more made. We could use your soldiers if they are not too tired."

"Hold the depot," Golden Dawn said. "Shadow and I will take in that fortress. Some Wonderbolt units are heading to join up with Misty Thunder. They will get some reinforcements. Our best strategy is to use the fact that we are unknown and hit them where they don't expect it."

"I need to contact my team," Shadow said. He switched channels. "Simi, do you copy?"

"Roger," Simi immediately replied. "All units accounted for. A little worse for wear, the team has six injuries, but they will live. Got a plan for the fort?"

"Yes, but stay put," Shadow decided. "We need you ready for Nellie."

"Roger," Simi replied.

Shadow turned back to Golden Dawn and Gunmetal. "Golden Dawn, let's hit them from the sky. We need to target their automatic turrets and anypony on heavy machine guns. There are ample targets and that will cripple their strategy."

"We can do that," Gunmetal replied with a nod. "Let's go so we can all rest. Something tells me you are in need of it as well, Shadow."

"I've been through worse," Shadow replied. "But yes, I could use a good rest. We already blew a hole in the northeastern corner, but that was designed as a distraction to get them to focus somewhere else."

"We strafe them and drop right on their heads," Gunmetal said. "While others breach through the hole, to keep their focus on that weakness. The shock troopers can handle the frontal assault and distract them while we pick out the targets we need to hit from the sky."

"The plan sounds solid enough," Shadow said.

"Well, there is one catch," Golden Dawn added. "I'm a shock trooper. I'll lead the ground units while you coordinate the aerial squads and save us."

"Alright," Shadow nodded.

They headed out, taking the bombs that had been made with them. Golden Dawn left an ACU that was now short three pegasi under Gunmetal's command. Their unit's casualties were too high to bring them to the next fight. She split her force and made sure the two sides knew their job and who was in charge of each force. Nopony had a problem falling under Shadow's command.

They were able to fly straight there as they gained altitude and the shock troopers ran to the target. Shadow let the shock troopers engage first. Then he rolled into a dive and the ACUs followed him. They called out the targets as they got closer. It was a downpour of lead as they opened up. Turret exploded and machine gun nests were left lifeless.

They pulled up, planning to make another run, but Golden Dawn had pushed her shock troopers into the fortress. Shadow pulled them around to assault the gate in the southwest. With the enemy split, they were able to break down the gate with a few grenades from Shadow's launcher and then enter relatively easily. They had two casualties as they pressed into the heart of the Enclave's last line of defense.

The close combat gave the ACUs the advantage. Their skill in combat was sharper and faster than the simple soldiers with little training. The heavy armor couldn't protect them against the faster, more agile, and more accurate EPM soldiers.

It was a bitter fight, not without its fair share of casualties to the EMP. Clearing the inside of the buildings was difficult, but they managed to systematically find and destroy all but twenty Enclave soldiers.

Those twenty surrender, rather than die. Without their officers driving them forward, they didn't find their personal deaths to be worthwhile. They decided their families were more important than dying for the Enclave.

Shadow reported their success to Misty Thunder. They had been engaging the enemy in a secondary position, but it was not a fortress like Shadow and Golden Dawn had just taken. Misty Thunder's troops were finishing up the security sweep and she decided to move her soldiers to secure another part of the fort that would have guards. Misty Thunder ordered Shadow and Golden Dawn to hold the fortress.

They fortified the torn up defenses as best as they could and Golden Dawn set up scouting patrols in the sky. The fortification orders allowed Golden Dawn's team to rotate in much needed breaks after their nonstop flight.

It was well into the night when Misty Thunder declared Mareland secured. They would not drop their guard as they rested up for a few days and resupplied their ammo stockpiles. The plan was acceptable to everyone and they hunkered down.

Wonderbolt units joined them about midnight. The units had been clearing out the satellite bases that made up Mareland Joint Operations Base. Cardinal Spitfire was not among them, meaning that she had been sent to Las Pegasus or Nellie. That normally wasn't a problem, but there were confirmed reports of at least one insurrectionist in Enclave custody and they had no contact with those units. Being in "custody" would not be a simple lockup. They would be tortured in an attempt to get the information they wanted about the EPM and the Council's secred location.