“Shit, shit, shit! I’m late!” I quietly said to myself. I was late to join my armor column yet again, most of the Indar NC WarpGate was deserted, aside from a few stragglers equipping themselves with weapons. I hurriedly jogged over to a Nanite vehicle constructor and spawned myself a Vanguard.
“The Sergeant is gonna’ be so fucking pissed.” I said to myself while gritting my teeth.
“Last time this happened I almost got stripped of my rank.”
Driving over to the column I noticed that a few tank commanders were outside of their tanks, talking to other commanders while looking at maps. Gunners were still loading into the turrets on top of the Vanguards.
Oh that’s right, daylight savings was yesterday. I still need to change my suits clock. I thought to myself.
“Hey wait up buddy!” A voice called from outside. I stopped the Vanguard and let the soldier load into the turret. “Thanks man.” I heard him call from above.
“Any Idea when the Sergeant gives us the order to roll out?” I said through the tank’s intercom.
“In a few minutes I think.” I heard him call back.
“Any idea where our platoon is headed?”
“Into Equestria.”
“I know that, where specifically?”
“Some place called the Everfree Forest.”
“Damn, we’re deploying that far from the Capital?”
“Closest we can get without using a Galaxy or sending a Sunderer in.”
“I bet as soon as we get out of that forest, TR and VS are gonna’ be all over our sorry asses.”
“Don’t jinx it.”
“Shut up. Besides, the Sergeant is coming onto the platoon radio.”
“Alright men, we’re going to deploy into Equestria’s Everfree Forest, I want wolf packs of at least two, but no more than four. Pack leaders are the following: Packer, Orion, Yuri, Westinghouse, and Gilbert. Before we warp, turn off your headlights, I don’t want Terran striking us with artillery like last time. Okay, with that all covered, roll out!” Said the Sergeant over the radio.
“Sweet, we lead.” I said to the gunner.
“Don’t fuck this up. Alright?” He said back.
I drove up to the gate slowly, before stopping in front of a commander. He waited a few seconds before giving me the signal to drive in. Moments passed in silence while I waited to be reconstructed on in the forest. Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, I got a view through the sights and drove onwards; all was silent, the only noise being our engines.
“Okay” I whispered to my pack, “We’ll take the left flank and circle around them, with any luck we can sneak up on their tanks and take them out.”
“Copy that” Responded the three other tanks in my pack.
After rolling about and trying to see anything in the dark, we finally noticed a few Prowlers on top of a hill looking down towards the forest and firing on our main assault group.
"Enemy Prowlers spotted, engaging." I said through the network.
"Affirmative, attacking." Responded a tank in my wolf pack.
With all four tanks firing HEAT shells, it was a wonder the Prowlers weren't already scrap metal. Then I saw it, Vanu engineers were casting shields over the Prowlers. Then something else caught my eye, three Magriders were counter-flanking us to our left side.
"Fuck! VS and TR are working together! They've got engineers shielding the Prowlers while Magriders are flanking us to the left!" I yelled through the network, broadcasting my message to all of the nearby friendly soldiers.
"Get the fuck outa' there! The main assault is also pulling back, they have us surrounded from all sides! Reavers are coming in to support us, but they won't get here until three minutes from now!" The Sergeant screamed over the radio.
"What if they've got SkyGuards?" I asked frantically. If any of the enemy had at least one SkyGuard, the Reavers would be down within seconds of being spotted.
"We'll just have to hope they don't." The Sergeant responded.
"Okay, we need to retreat and pull back to the deploy point, turret gunners keep firing at the Magriders, don't let them get a shot on us!" I told my pack.
"Ten-four." One tank responded.
I began to slowly back my tank away from the Magriders while the Basilisk turrets fired away at them. Then one Magrider shot at the pack, hitting my turret, I then decided that there would be no better time to turn the tank around and drive away.
"What the fuck are you doing man!?" Yelled my turret gunner to me.
"We have to get out of here!" I yelled back, " I don't care if that means exposing the shitty rear armor!"
Just then the Prowlers seemed to lose interest in the main attack and began focusing fire on my pack. Then all three Magriders fired at once, destroying two of the three allied tanks.
"I'm bailing out! You are fucking crazy!" My gunner yelled to me. As soon as he got out, a Basilisk turret on one of the Magriders shot him dead. That idiot! I thought to myself. After this, there is no way I'm not going to get demoted
I fired my HEAT cannon at one Magrider, the shell hit and penetrated the enemy's cannon, setting it on fire.
"I'm out of here!" Said the last remaining allied tank in my pack, he then sped off into the forest.
Shit, I'm all alone, what a way to go. I then saw one Magrider charging up its cannon.
"Not like this..." Seconds later the Magrider's cannon fired, hitting my Vanguard in the between the turret and the chassis, where the armor was weakest. The Vanguard erupted in a mass of burning steel, exploding shells, and fire.
"Not, like, this......" I yelled before shrapnel penetrated both of my legs, and I passed out from pain.
