The Rumble Crew Squad

What seemed like an eternity turned out to only be a few minutes before everyone was coming back into the alleyway from their assigned buildings.

The Staff Sgt. yelled out, “Alright! Let’s move back again! There’s better cover it seems a bit further down. You five who’re already covering us are going to keep at it while the rest of us move back. Try not to blow the fuck up this time.”

He was pointing a hoof at some of the other squad members who were already set up with their guns pointing down the alleyway. He didn’t mention anything about me but Tuuli was still next to me with her hoof on me.

I felt better and felt like I was able to move but Tuuli was helping me up herself before I could. She was doing it with pace but once I was up on my own hoofs, I gave a quick half smile and nod before moving with everyone else.

We galloped at a slow pace to the location the Staff Sgt. had mentioned, and we all took spots to cover the other ponies who were still at the last spot. I was setting up my MG behind some fallen bricks that had piled up in the road from the nearby house. It looked like it had been hit by either artillery or a bomb, but at least this one had already exploded if it was.

Right then I felt somepony nudge me with a hoof and looked to see who it was and it was Ilja. He said, “Hey, good to see you’re still alright. We still got ourselves Equestria’s 2nd best machine gunner to protect us.”

I broke a half smile at his joke, knowing to well he was trying to make me feel better from the whole incident.

“Yeah yeah, I’ll be sure to gun down every bug that I ever see for payback for what they did.” I responded while turning back to put my focus down the alleyway.

I then heard somepony yell out loudly, “WE GOT Y’ALL COVERED! HEAD OVER NOW!” and I took that as my que to be on high alert for anything that wasn’t pony.

But that couldn’t stop my mind from running a little. It felt surreal now that Mateo and those others were dead. Like, was this what all those other soldiers felt when their buddies died? I mean, I instinctively went out of my way to help drag that one--

Right then I saw a black figure further down the alleyway and felt the force of my gun firing away at it.

The ponies who were galloping towards us took cover on either side of the alleyway while I and a few others were putting down fire.

The whole moment lasted about four seconds before the black figure was laying on the ground and all the gunfire stopped.

“Here they come!” I heard a pony yell.

“Light their asses up if more appear!”

“Rostislav! Fire a grenade down there, where the body is!” I heard someone from my squad yell. “THE REST OF YOU KEEP COMING!” They yelled out to the ponies who were still further up.

“Rian! You do the same after the first one explodes!” Another unknown pony said.

I kept focus down the alleyway as the ponies ran up. I could hear the two ponies setting up their rifles with grenades and right as the other ponies got to us and into cover, we all heard a PING, immediately by a fast ZIING and immediately the sound of a gunshot that came from where we were looking.

“In the window!” Someone frantically yelled.

I saw the flash myself and started firing before I was aimed at it, doing a good 1 second burst before stopping. Hearing a few others shooting as well, before seeing an explosion happen at the location of the first bug.

I heard another gunshot right after the explosion, a second of silence before another explosion happened on the side of the building where the window was.

“Ilja’s hit!” I heard Tuuli’s voice yell.

I quickly looked to my side where he had been, before noticing he wasn’t moving and was slumped. Then I saw the hole in his helmet at his forehead and blood dripping down his face.

Tuuli was crawling over me while staying under cover while she got to Ilja.

I only stared for a second more before looking back down my gun and firing a half second burst from the window to the opposite side of where it was, which prompted a few others to fire their bolt actions as well.

Yet another explosion happened at the window.

Then ZIINGs followed by gunshots were happening and immediately everyone who was already aiming from cover was firing.

I was doing half second bursts every 1.5 seconds, everyone else was firing off as many rounds as they accurately could at every location that possibly had any Changelings. This lasted about 10 seconds before we had stopped as someone had thrown a smoke grenade.

I quickly looked back at Ilja only to see he had been moved so he was behind the brick pile I was on. Tuuli was removing some of his ammo and supplies from his body, his helmet had been removed and was moved over his face to cover it.

He was dead.

A few ponies were quickly coming over to nab the ammo and other gear that they were either lacking at the moment or thought as useful before I quickly looked back. It made me sick… My stomach churned.

Mateo and Ilja in under 10 minutes. That… Why. What’d we do to have two people die in such a short amount of time? One was from an indirect kill and the other… They both happened right next to me and I could have easily been one of them this time. It wasn’t like the other times. I actually knew them. Fuck…

A few ZIINGS and gunshots came our way, even with the smoke up, so I fired a good second long burst sporadically into the smoke, trying my best to suppress whatever bug thought it was a good idea to advance through the city.

Then my gun jammed… It should really be cleaned about now.

“Fuck, not again.” I moved myself into cover and cleared my jam and heard more ponies shooting.

I just cleared my jam and saw the impact of a bullet on the ground nearby before yelling, “SARG! They’re pushing hard on us! We can’t stay here if they do!”

I was getting back into position and fired a half-second burst at a few black spots I thought were Changelings. The smoke had let up by the time I was shooting and when I finished my burst, I heard the Staff Sgt. yell out.

“Alright! Pop another smoke and once it’s up, we’ll trot further back. When we do, Jurek, you’re going to put down the rest of your belt through the smoke before falling back as well.”

I ducked down so my head was behind the bricks, but my gun was still pointing down range and saw someone setting up another smoke.

“Lay down your entire belt before they toss the smoke Lucia!” I heard the deer with the Olenian accent yell.

Then I heard another pony letting loose a hail of bullets from their own MG before seeing the pony with the smoke tossing it. I kept my head down still while waiting for this Lucia person to finish their belt, which lasted only a few more seconds. Then I heard some more rifles go off before the Staff Sgt. yelled,

“Alright! Smokes up! Let’s go!”

And with that que I poked my head back up and started unleashing the remainder of my belt down the alley. A good five seconds before it finished then I found myself pushing myself off the brick pile and galloping the opposite direction, a few others had waited with me while everyone else had gone as far as they could in those five seconds.

I caught a glance at Ilja again as I stepped over him due to him being in the way and saw that all of the supplies Tuuli had stripped off him had been taken.

Another friend died and I was just leaving him behind like nothing. I wish we could’ve taken his body.