How many Americans have you killed today, Walker?

Do you feel like a hero yet?

Can you even remember why you came here?

This is all your fault, Walker.

It's time for you to wake up.

With a gasp Walker awakens, quickly standing up and by instinct reaching for his rifle. To his surprise he actually grabs one, looking down at the M4 carbine in his hands with shock. He had ditched his primary after Falcon-1 and even then it wasn't an M4.

He around and sees nothing but empty desert for miles on end. He's perplexed by the lack of the City, but perhaps he had simply just wandered out and forgotten about it? In fact there wasn't much he could remember past the...he falls to his knees as he remembers the Gate, how could he have left himself do it? He growls and shakes his head, standing once more. They had brought it on themselves, it wasn't his fault that the cowards of the 33rd had been hiding among civilians!

He shakes his head once more to clear his thoughts, glancing once more across the empty desert. Walker quickly takes stock of the supplies he had on him, finding two full canteens that he wasn't aware he even had on him and seven MRES. While being mildly surprised at the refilling of food and drink, Walker certainly wasn't complaining and after a few more moments the last surviving member of Delta turns and starts walking north.

Lieutenant Starshield had been flying over the Badlands with his squad for several hours on their weekly patrol and was starting to get rather bored. He didn't expect to find anything out in this wasteland and he didn't think command expected him to either. They prattled on about the 'changeling' threat when everyone knew that the bugs had run off and probably wouldn't be back any time soon. Yet he did reluctantly agree that it WAS smart to keep an eye on this, the disgruntled guard just wished it wasn't him and his squad that had to do it every single time.

Starshield glances around and notices that the other Pegasi in his squad of six seemed to share his general sentiment, if the expression on their faces was anything to go by. Deciding it would be good for morale and that it wouldn't hurt anything he comes to a stop.

"Alright everypony, we've been flying for quite a few hours now so I think it's time to take a quick rest stop by these clouds. All of you feel free to take five minutes to catch a breather, but after that we're back in the air."

His ears flick and he grins slightly as he hears the sighs of relief coming from the ponies under his command as they too come to a halt and land on the nearby clouds. The youngest member of them, a private named Dead-eye lets out a groan of contentment and flops down onto the cloud he had chosen. Starshield chuckles softly, Dead-eye had only been in the guard for a few months when he had gotten transferred to this post, but he was a good pony if a little snobbish at times.

Soon small conversations started up among the guards ponies and in the break seemed to almost fly by as five minutes quickly came, then went. As Starshield rises from his spot and takes flight once more, noting that his squad had done the same a small amount of movement in the distance catches his eye.

"Hold up a second, everypony quiet.", he says squinting slightly to get a better look. After a few seconds the shape comes into better view, revealing what seems to be a Bi-Pedal creature walking in their general direction, though even being this far away he could tell something was up with it, just by the way it carried itself; like a viper, coiled up and ready to strike at any given moment.

After a few moments of thought he decides to confront it, after all there was nothing better to do in this accursed desert and if it tried to fight them it would be a good to get some entertainment and practice in for his squad. Though he doubted it would try anything, after all they were the Princess's Royal Guard, nothing would dare try to take them on. With that thought in mind he gestures for his squad to follow him and takes flight, heading towards the creature.

Walker had been walking for hours now in the beating heat of the sun, it seemed no matter where he goes there was no way for him to escape from it's unending wrath. Coming to a stop he takes out of canteen screwing off the cap and taking a quick gulp of precious water. This was only Walker's second time drinking from it, after all conserving water can save lives. For a split second his mind takes him back to Dubai, remember as the water trucks exploded and with them, any remaining hope for the people still living in the damned city.

The sound of beating wings and a loud cry of "Hold creature! Stay where you are and do not take another step forwards.", echos out across the empty desert as several small... horses? - land around him. His jaw drops as he realizes there's no way anything else could have spoken to him aside from them. They were evening wearing armor and wielding spears with their wings! Walker chuckles to himself and smiles to himself before he starts walking forwards again, of all the things for his mind to come up with for a mirage talking pegasi was the best it could think up? It was almost believable to.

He stops smiling when the creature directly in front of him thrusts its spear at him, not intending to kill but to push him back. Though the tip of the weapon collides with the armor Walker had salvaged from the Zulu squad members of the 33rd back in Dubai.

"Are you for real right now? Of all the shit in the world that I could have thought up of that would end up being real you assholes are what I get?", Walker growls out.

"Hold your tongue creature! We are her majesties Royal Guard and will NOT tolerate being spoken to in such a disrespectful tone. In fact, since you seem to be in the mood for resistance why don't you just come with us and spend a nice night or two in the Dungeon to reflect on your attitude?", the lead 'Guard' says, a smirk plastered on his muzzle.

"You jokin' shithead? Because I'm not in the mood to deal with this right now.", Walker says growing more annoyed by the minute.

"Listen creature, we tried doing this the easy way but since you seem to have no intent to submit... well I guess we'll just have to take you in by force.", Starshield says, angry at the creatures stubborn refusal to submit to it's clear betters.

As the talking equine with wings to his left starts to advance on him, Walkers hair trigger goes off and he lunges forwards grabbing the thing by it's muzzle and drawing his M9, stuffing it in it's mouth and pulling the trigger one, two, three times nearly decimating the upper half of it's head and spraying blood in all directions.

The other guards ponies stand for a few moments, stunned by the blatant and brutal execution of their squad mate before they rush forwards, intent on taking this murdering creature down. Walker rolls to the side, narrowly evading a thrust from a spear and quick rises to his feet once more aiming his M9 firing off several shots into the group of guards ponies, wounding two of them and flat out killing one.

In response the two remaining rush forwards letting out cries of rage and thrust their spears in sequence, one of which Walker fails to evade and gets stuck into the meat of his left thigh.

The Delta member grimaces, and in response fires off two shots that kill one of the guards and grabs the one that had gotten the hit on him. It was coincidentally the one that had ordered the attack in the first place.

"Let it be known that you brought this on yourselves. Just like the 33rd in Dubai and just like them I'll kill you to.", Walker spits out, grunting lightly in pain from the spear head in his leg. He knew he'd live, after all he's faced far, far worse than a few horses in fancy getup with glorified pointy sticks. Walker starts to slam the things head into the ground over and over and over again until it's well beyond dead and even afterwords he stands and slams his boot onto it's head. The other two injured guards ponies he simply dispatches with a shot to the head each from his M9.

The only thought that crosses his mind as he leaves the corpses for the scavengers and continues on his path is 'There's no escape, is there?'

Author's Note

I didn't really like how this one turned out, especially with the combat sequence, but I'll probably go over it some other time and revamp it. I'm too tired to do it right now.

And I'll give a quick little mini spoiler here for those interested Walker's past with eventually catch up with him, no matter how hard he tries to run from it. And he isn't the only one to have been freed from Dubai.