Pony Tankers: Snow and Steel

"Ma'am, with all due respect... are you sure about this?"

Flax groaned and rolled her eyes. She'd been giving out orders all morning, and so far the feelings from her new subordinates were more or less the same. The plan was to have the entire unit pull back and use the edge of Riverpool as a buffer zone, taking defensive positions closer to the town hall at the center. While they kept an eye out for any curious Crystal troops, the remaining trucks would carry all of yesterday's wounded back to headquarters a couple of hours away. Then, they'd turn right back around and come back to pick up everypony else and leave with the protection of the tanks. Simple enough, Flax thought, but it was proving to be a hard sell.

"Yes, sergeant, I'm sure. You and the rest of your squad are to make use of the stone houses to the east of this building - the harder materials will give you better cover when the Shinies start shootin'. Y'all have to make sure you don't give them an inch, because that row of houses is all that's protectin' our current stagin' area from bein' in the line of fire. You'll have a tank or two to help, so don't fret too much," Flax explained, nodding her head toward the wall of her borrowed office in the indicated cardinal direction. "Set up as much of a Killzone as ya can - the layout of the buildings ain't great for it there, but I'm also lettin' y'all have one of our remainin' machine gun crews. I hope I'm makin' it clear how important this little slice of town is gonna be."

The sergeant, a mare named Coconut Twist, stood across the room from Flax and nodded, a look of grim determination on her face. She raised a forehoof for a salute that bumped her dented and scratched helmet. "Understood, ma'am. We won't let 'em through."

"Damn right you won't. Dismissed," Flax said, unable to resist the tiniest upward curl of her lips or the pride creeping into her voice. It never failed to make her happy seeing that fire in another pony's eyes. She could count on a pony like that. "And send in my next guest on the way out, would ya?"

Twist nodded once more, giving the office door an extra bump on her way back outside. It was open long enough for Flax's last visitor for the morning to get his hoof in, and he stepped fully into view a moment later. Flax didn't recognize his face, but the name printed on his uniform was vaguely familiar. Sergeant Brook, a friend that Sage had mentioned once or twice but never had the opportunity to introduce Flax to. Seeing him now, Flax could immediately spot the similarities. Brook was a tall, grizzled-looking pony. His stubbly face had a couple of small scars, and he looked just as stone-faced as Sage always did.

Flax smiled and nodded, beckoning the stallion forward with one hoof. "Good mornin' to ya," she said, resetting her tone from the last meeting back to casual conversation.

"Aye, swell morn' so far. Word's gotten around that you're handing out death sentences for the rest of our unit," he answered, unable to suppress the warm chuckle that followed.

"That bad, huh? Ain't a lick of sense around here... makes me wonder how the hay Apple Blossom kept y'all operatin' so smooth."

"Perhaps she had an easier go of it because she weren't facing odds like yours, ma'am?" Brook retorted, trying his best to sound encouraging. Even more like Sage than he seemed, Flax noted. "Ye've been dealt a bad hand, no sugar-coating that. I'm just glad somepony's got a plan put together to begin with, aye?"

"An okay plan is better than no plan, right?" Flax offered, shrugging her shoulders. "Anyway... I was savin' you for last 'cause I know you ain't gonna like what I got in mind for you and your squad. The rest of my orders were non-negotiable, but... yours, I wouldn't blame ya for backin' out."

"Fah, don't feed me that load of crap, Leftenant," Brook groused, taking Flax by surprise. She couldn't muster a response before he continued. "You need the job done, we'll bloody well do it. What're the orders?"

Flax sat up a little straighter, spotting that same fire in Brook's eyes as she'd seen in Coconut's. Maybe it was ponies like the two of them that kept Blossom sane...

"You 'n' yours are gonna be our forward guard, usin' the old defensive line at the edge of town. You'll get dug in there and wait for any sign of the Shinies advancin' and cry wolf as soon as you see 'em. I know your unit's a little smaller, so I don't expect y'all to be able to delay 'em much, but do what ya can. Use them flare guns to let us know the fight's on, if ya still got 'em."

Brook allowed himself a little smile, turning to the side and gesturing to his gear with one hoof. Flax looked, and she was pleased to see that he was still carrying the standard issue flare pistol given to most scouting units. "We'll slow them down, ma'am. You can count on us, but try not to leave us hanging in the wind too long, aye? We won't have any of the fancy machine guns on hoof like the main line."

"I know it, but we only had so many of 'em to go around. We'll keep a corridor open for y'all to retreat through if we can, and I'll make sure we got at least one tank around to give y'all some fire support. Other than that... that's all I got for ya, sergeant. Best go and start gettin' your troops dug in.

"We'll be ready for a fight within the hour. See you on the other side, ma'am." Brook saluted, then took a moment to give Flax a meaningful look. Their eyes met for just a moment, and Flax could sense the second meaning. That was as much a question as it was a promise, and she raised her hoof to salute back.

"Eeyup; see ya on the other side, Brook. Good luck," she said, lowering her voice a little and offering the stallion one last nod before he turned tail and trotted out of the office. Flax waited until the door swung shut to slump back in her chair, heaving a sigh of relief.

A moment or two passed in silence, and Flax knew it was time for her to leave the headquarters behind for the last time. Her crew was waiting for her, just like the rest of the platoon, and the first phase of the evacuation was due to kick off in just a couple of hours. Still, she had time for one last thing. Reaching under the desk she'd been using, Flax found what was left of the Wild Pegasus whiskey that Apple Blossom had claimed for herself just a few days ago. A pair of shot glasses were hidden away in the drawers, and Flax fetched both of them to set out in front of her.

After struggling for a moment to uncork the bottle, Flax filled both glasses and shoved one aside. Then, she picked up her own and stared at the first. "Gonna need you watchin' over me too, Blossom," she whispered into her glass, "dunno if this whole thing's gonna work without ya."

Flax knocked back her shot and swallowed, grimacing at the burn in the back of her throat, and pushed herself out of her chair. It was time for the final blocks to fall into place.

)()()()()()()(

Sitting in the commander's seat inside Comet, Flax focused on herself for a moment. She centered her mind and paid close attention to her immediate surroundings. Blossom's dog tags were hanging off of the periscope handle directly in front of her, glinting in the light that poured in through the open hatch overhead. Comet herself was rumbling with anticipation, her engine firing on all cylinders again and running smoother than it had the last few days. Emerald was chattering back and forth via radio with the remaining tank crews that had yet to finish getting into position - the one tank that was knocked out last night, it turned out, was another from Blossom's unit. The ponies on board survived, but they were wounded badly enough that they were part of the first batch of ponies being trucked back to base today.

Sage was seated almost shoulder-to-shoulder with Flax in the turret, going over the ammo storage and preparing to give Flax the final count. Flax knew they still had most of their ammo, but she wanted to know how much of each shell type they had left. In the meantime, Cream was down in her position double-checking machine gun ammo. She didn't have much else to do once Comet was parked in her defensive position, so Flax assigned that task to her. Now it was just a waiting game, and Flax was calming her nerves with a cigarette - one of the good ones Sage had gifted her the other day.

"Fifty shells left, Flax," Sage suddenly said, having finished her ammo counting first. "Thirty high-explosive, twenty solid-shot. Should be plenty with aim like yours, aye?"

"Here's hopin'. With any luck, we won't need to use any of 'em to begin with - maybe the Shinies learned their lesson and won't come back before we're already cleared outta here."

Just then, Cream apparently finished her count too. Flax's ear twitched when she heard an ammo box slam closed, then the tell-tale rattling of ammo belts sliding around as they were repositioned. Then, Cream leaned back in her seat to look up and join the conversation. "We'll definitely need the luck - we've only got a few hundred rounds for the MGs. Gonna have to be careful with where we put them. Er... no offense, Sage," Cream said, wincing apologetically as her voice trailed off. Sage just snorted a laugh, shaking her head.

"None taken, lass. I've no delusions about my eyesight these days; that's why I'm the one doing the loading and not the shooting!" Sage's comment at least earned a little giggle out of Cream, but the sound died down just in time for Emerald to join the group at last. She pulled her headset off of her ears for a moment and twisted around in her seat, only halting for a second to nudge the handles of her machine gun out of the way.

"Just got word that everyone is in position, commander. Just waiting on your orders to send the first run of trucks back toward headquarters," she reported, her voice soft but level. Flax got the feeling that the mare was nervous, but she still didn't know her quite well enough to be sure. Fortunately for her, Sage seemed to get the same hint, and she was always better at picking that sort of thing out.

"Keep your wits, Emerald. Fun part hasn't even started," she encouraged, earning a quiet snort from Emerald.

"Go on and give 'em the word to roll out, and make sure everyone else has their eyes peeled and their guns loaded. Speakin' of... Sage, give us solid shot first. We'll probably be needin' it, if they try the same play they usually do and send the tanks ahead of the infantry." Flax glanced aside to see Sage already obliging her order, fetching a black-tipped cartridge from the ammo rack and slamming it into the breech. The block locked closed with a click, and Flax mentally marked one shell off the list. Nineteen more.

Then, she hoisted herself up and raised her head out of her cupola to get a better look at her surroundings. Comet was parked right on the main road in the shadow of the town hall, and Flax knew that Rivets and Midnight Rider were on the other side covering the blind spot. Riverpool had roughly been divided in half, with the northern side of town turned into a kill zone that would hopefully slow down the enemy enough while also soaking up any incoming fire that might otherwise hit the unarmored trucks fleeing to the south. The old defensive line, a haphazard string of fortifications along the very edge of Riverpool, was where Brook and his scouts were lying in ambush positions and awaiting the enemy advance.

Just one alleyway had been left unobstructed for them to retreat through, should the need arise, and on either side were the entire rest of the unit. Flax looked to her left and grinned as she spotted one of the three tank destroyers set up in an ambush position of its own, the long barrel partially concealed by camouflage netting. She briefly met the gaze of the commander of that vehicle, and she gave the stallion a nod. He returned it just as Flax heard the distant growl of engines picking up.

Turning around and leaning to the side, Flax caught a glimpse of the first trucks leaving town. They were traveling in a tight group, just as she'd instructed, but Flax frowned as she saw just how much of a snow cloud they were creating. That, combined with the noise, had to be quite the obvious sign. Still, several moments had passed and all seemed to be going according to plan...

"How will we know if the fight's started?" Cream suddenly asked, her slightly distorted voice streaming through Flax's headset. Flax leaned back in her position, propping herself up by planting her hooves on either side of her ring-shaped hatch.

"Brook's squad knows how to signal us when they've sprung their trap. They'll make a fightin' retreat back to the rest of our line and distract 'em as much as they can, then we'll do our best to keep the Shinies far enough back that the trucks can come back for the second run," Flax explained, running through the same plan for what felt like the hundredth time. Every time she laid it out, though, she felt just a little more uneasy about it. Had her officers been right to be hesitant? Maybe.

Then again, just trying to leave all at once wasn't an option. With a few trucks and several tanks out of commission, there was just no way to get all the infantry back without forcing some to march - a death sentence with the enemy so close at hoof. Still, now that she had time to sit and let her anxieties mount, Flax considered how she could have stacked the deck differently. They were outside radio range from HQ, so they couldn't simply ask for help and wait in Riverpool... but could she not have sent a courier on a solo mission?

Possibly, but a lone pony - or even a small squad of them - would be easy pickings for any Crystal troops that might've gone around the town. That was another troubling line of thought; what if Riverpool was encircled and they didn't even know it? What if she just sent truckloads of wounded ponies straight into the line of fire? Flax shifted uncomfortably in her seat, looking over her shoulder once again just in time to see the last truck peeling out of town and onto the main road. No shooting yet, so they'd probably be fine.

Several more minutes passed in relative silence, and Flax was beginning to relax. She let her shoulders droop, and she leaned back against the rim of her cupola. The wind quietly whistled through town, and it felt like everypony else was holding their breath just like she was. The sun shined down from a cloudless sky, illuminating the town and banishing nearly every shadow. Looking straight ahead, Flax could still see the aftermath of last night's skirmish. The Equestrian tank that had been disabled was scuttled, but the Crystal tanks were simply abandoned in No Pony's land. The charred, battered hulks stood motionless as if they were glaring at the town and its defenders, cut down mere meters away from the breakthrough they sought to achieve. The colorful lumps poking out of the snow marked where Crystal soldiers had fallen alongside their machines, and Flax noted with some grim fascination that they were still just as sparkly even after death.

So caught up in soaking in the scenery, Flax almost didn't notice when the red glare of a flare shell went up straight ahead of her. It soared into the air for what felt like an eternity, her eyes locking onto the bright center and the red smoke cascading down toward the ground. Then another shot up beside it, and another on the opposite side. Then, the air was torn apart by the sounds of gunfire. First only a couple of rifle shots, then the drumbeat rhythm of Equestrian submachine guns joined the cacophony. Seconds after that, Crystal troops began to fire back on Brook and his scouts. Then, the sound Flax was dreading most of all - cannon fire. The Empire had caught on to Flax's gambit after all, and they were coming to make her pay the price.

"Emerald, get back on the radio. Let everpony know the fight's on," Flax ordered evenly, her blood like ice in her veins as the adrenaline started to flow.

"Understood, ma'am," Emerald answered, her voice wavering slightly. "Any... any specific orders, or do we stick to the plan?"

"Fight like hell, and don't give 'em an inch. Ain't no other way."