Fallout Equestria: just Arma things

We drove down whatever road that I had went down with Anomaly. As is tradition for when the author doesn't know what he's doing, it rain picked back up again. It stayed at a light pitter pater instead of being pouring rain like it was for some days. Part way down the road, the radio went all staticky for a few seconds before coming back. This time it was playing a different song. It sounded really familiar, I just couldn't place it.

Candy spoke up. "Isn't this Swan Lake? Doesn't the Ministry of Information play this on all civilian channels when some big shit goes down?"

Swan Lake. I knew it sounded familiar.

"Yeah. Russia does it as well. Maybe whatever caused the radio to go all staticky for a sec made this... what was the name, Homage? What ever is going on, maybe this Homage put it on to signal an emergency?" Ackerman put his two cents in.

"Why can't things just go according to plan for five damn minutes. Hell... Get ready guys, we're seeing action again. Candy, give Blue my Tar-21. Blue, open up that box you found back there." I called out with a slight sign.

Blue had opened it earlier, but we just left the contents in the box. Now, we’ll more than likely need it. All of us except Scarlet and Candy attached a flashlight to the side of our guns. The former lacked a gun, with the latter lacking attachment rails. It was more of a just incase thing then a necessity, but it'd be better to arrive overprepared then underprepared. Soon I found a way onto the Celestia line with the Humvee. I floored it through the tunnel before coming to a halt outside the entrance. The two guards that should be standing outside were dead. Switching the vehicle off and hoping out, I went over to inspect the two bodies. Both had singe marks similar to those left by that of the energy weapons used against us. Maybe more of those mercs from the other day? But why attack Tenpony? Back to some good 'ol CQC. My absolute favorite. "Alright ladies and gents, we're here to do some investigating, but there are hostiles in our AO. Normal ROE, shoot bad guys, not civvies. We'll be splitting up into two, three man fireteams to maximize coverage. Spirit, Scarlet, you're with me. Candy, Ackerman, Blue, you're your own team. Blue, keep me updated on hostiles with your telepathy. Any questions? No? Let's move out then."

The power to the lights had been cut, so the group probably has NVG's of some kind. This is going to go poorly. Safety off, a round in the chamber, flashlight on, it was time to clear this level. This area contained some of the shops. All of them were open and abandoned in a hurry. A few security ponies lay dead in the hall. Again, all of them are singed. We had to clear each shop one by one. In each one the place looked ransacked. The lack of the invader bodies worried me at what I was getting my troops into. They enemy must have some decent armor to be able to take this place with zero casualties. In the final shop in this hallway, there was a two bodies in here. One of a security pony, and another of a little grey unicorn with a Pip-Boy for a cutie mark. Some gut feeling told me that, with this pony's death, the thread of fate has been severed. No time to dwell on the dead. We have to clear this place.

"Oh no. Oh no no no. T-this can't have happened." Scarlet whimpered under her breath, though it was barley audible.

"What was that, Scarlet?"

"N-nothing. We have to make those bastards pay."

Blackjack, our side is clear. We're waiting by an intersection near some stairs. You better hurry, we can hear a commotion on the next floor.

Check it out, quickly! We'll catch up!

"We gotta move. Team two hears contact!" We double timed it to the end of the hall. Ackerman’s BAR opened up on something on the floor above. Just around the corner was the intersection Candy’s team was just at; SMG and rifle fire joined along with the sound of energy rifles. "RDF coming up!"

We used the lip of the stairs as cover. Candy’s team was in cover in two side rooms, and the bodies of two pegasi in a dark grey flak armor laid on the center of the hallway. At the far end of the hall were the hostiles; more pegasi in the same dark grey armor, only being illuminated by the muzzle flash of their weapons. Spirit opened fire with his rifle in semi-auto, keeping up a steady fire rate for suppression. I mimicked the fire rate. A start bullet caught one of the hostiles in the throat, leaving only two in this engagement.

I ducked down to reload as my radio received a transmission. "To any friendly forces on this net, this is the commander of the Second Platoon of the Third Company from the Fifty-Second Infantry Division, callsign Hammer, we need orders."

I grabbed the radio from my rig, "Callsign Hammer, this is the Commander. I’m requesting reinforcements with in the Tenpony Tower. Do you know that location? If not, find the Celestia line and follow it East."

"Copy that, Commander. We’ll double time it to you." Hammer Platoon responded.

The last two hostiles had been eliminated by a frag grenade. Scarlet bolted forward to the bodies the moment the shooting stopped. She quickly ripped the dog tags from around its neck. She practically growled. "They’re Enclave. Fucking, cock sucking sons of fucking bitches."

Damn. Just... damn. Right out of left field with that one. "Ease it off there Scarlet, save that anger for the next engagement."

Much the same occurred as we cleared the rest of this level, with more smaller engagements popping up. This time they actually retreated before they got overwhelmed. At the next set of stairs, a squad from Hammer Platoon joined us. This squad was entirely made up of ponies. They must’ve been the same district force as Spirit, as they were armed with MP44s with rail systems. They all wore the same Tigerstripe uniforms with M1 helmets, with only the two support gunners having regular backpacks, and the squad leader having on old Second World War era radio backpack. The squads load out consisted of six MP44s, one M79 grenade launcher, with two M1919s for the support gunners.

"Welcome gentlemen, to Tenpony."

"It’s nice to see you, Commander. The rest of the platoon is catching up. We volunteered to run ahead to rally with you." The squad leader reported as he caught his breath. "Oh, and, Sergeant Snow, reporting sir."

"Nice to have you. Now, we’re fighting a faction called The Enclave, and they appear to have occupied the tower. We’re here to clear it out. Any questions? Then lets get going."

With the additional reinforcements, I pulled my second fire team back into my squad, and let Sgt. Snow clear opposite side. We kept clearing with little resistance until the fifth level, where a lot of the Tenpony residents were being held captive. The lights were on on this level, so no chance of sneaking up on them.

"There’s Homage, in the far back of the group." Scarlet pointed out.

I grabbed the grenadier from Snow’s squad. "Hey, you got flash grenades for the forty mike-mike?"

She nodded.

"Great, I want you to lob a flash round in the center of them."

The mare changed rounds in the M79, before taking aim and launching it. The round detonated, blinding and deafening both the residents and Enclave troops temporarily.

"Alright, engage now!" I ordered. We started to move out of the kill zone, rushing for cover on the sides of the hallway. A few were outside flash range and opened fire on us. A beam hit me in the leg. I fell over into cover.

"Damn. I got hit. Doesn’t look to bad thou..."

Error: Specimen Sgt. Blackjack’s monitoring equipment has gone offline.
Attempting reboot...

Error: Specimen KIA.

Commencing body retrieval for revival.