Beyond the Call of Duty

Crystal leaned her head against the cold glass as she stared blankly out of the humvees windows. Besides the sound of snow and ice crunching under the humvees wheels, and the sound of their humvees engine, it was deathly silent, to the point where could hear your own heartbeat. The convoy rolled forward slowly, steadily getting closer to the battle. The closer they got, though, the more destruction they saw. They passed city hall, which was nothing but flattened rubble covered in a mix of snow, ice, and ash. They passed by the police station, which was literally an inferno. Nearby was a long line of blindfolded police officers, military personnel, and civilians, all executed by diamond dog kill squads.

"Dear Celestia..." Spice muttered silently, before closing his eyes and looking away.

"Crystal, do you read me?" Colonel Nightwing's voice inquired, his face popping up on the upper right corner of Crystals HUD. He honestly looked like he went to hell and back.

"I read you, Colonel." Crystal replied.

"We need you to get here ASAP. We are getting slaughtered over here." Nightwing stated, barely maintaining his cool.

"We're going as fast as we can, Colonel. We linked up with the remnants of Fourth Squad and are en route via Fourth Squads humvees."

"Copy that. We still haven't gotten the reinforcements or air support we were promised, but we have several members of the Navy SEAL's en route. Hope they have something here to support by the time they get here."

Present Day

"When we got there, there wasn't much of us left. Our entire unit was reduced to just barely a platoon. We were low on ammo and supplies, but the dogs just kept coming. Every time we fought off their forces, they would send in another huge waves. We knew that without air support or reinforcements, it would be a useless fight... sort of like the... what was it called, the Battle of the Ranch? You know what I'm talking about, right?" Crystal inquired.

"Of course. You're talking about the Pony-Mule War of 1812, right?"

"Yeah. During that battle, roughly 200 ponies defended the Alamo Ranch from a Mule siege. The mules forces numbered in the thousands. Our forces knew they were outnumbered, but they knew that they had to protect the civilians that were held up in the ranch. After four days, our forces were wiped out, but for every pony that was shot down, we took out two of theirs in turn. Just like me and my troops during the Battle of Stalliongrad. We fought not for the city or for the country, but for the lives of those who lived there, who were depending on us to keep those brutish savages away from them."

Crystals humvee screeched around the corner, narrowly missing a burnt out car. It was quickly followed by the rest of the convoy, their engines roar breaking the silence of the night.

"Contacts!" Snails shouted from the front of the humvee. Crystal looked forward to see a large group of diamond dogs charging out in the open.

"Engaging!" Their gunner shouted, sliding the M2's bolt forward and opening fire. The Dogs turned towards the incoming convoy and returned fire. The driver of Crystals humvees swerved to avoid incoming fire and stopped.

"Out! Out! Out!" Crystal shouted over the burping of the M2. A round passed through the humvees window and hit the driver in the side of the head.

"Pony down! Pony down!" Snails shouted, pushing the drivers side door open and pushing his body out, before rolling out of the humvee. Spice climbed out as well, narrowly escaping death as a round wizzed past his head, missing him by less than an inch. Crystal ducked down and grabbed her SCAR, doing her best to ignore the bullets passing overhead and pinging against the humvees armor. She crawled out of the transport and chambered a round into her SCAR, before turning to check on her troops. Snails was in shock, his chest rising and falling at a sufficient speed to cause Crystal to worry. Beside him was Spice, who was firing his M4 from behind his cover.

"Fifty's jammed!" The gunner shouted over the gunfire, before a round passed right through his forehead, his blood and brains spilling out onto the humvee and ground.

"Fuck!" Crystal shouted out in shock.

"Crystal! Come in!" Nightwings voice shouted over her COM system.

"I'm heavily engaged at the moment, Colonel! We must have ran into the next wave before they reached you!" Crystal responded.

"Copy! Listen Crystal, we have allied air support inbound! Mark your targets!"

"Say again!" Crystal requested, unable to hear him over the gunfire.

"MARK YOUR TARGETS!" Nightwing's voice shouted.

"Copy that!" Crystal responded, before turning to Snails. "Snails! Air support in bound! We need to you to mark the targets."

"He's not in the condition to do that, Sarge. Look at him!" Spice pointed out, motioning towards Snails, who was sitting down in the snow, rocking back and forth in a fetal position and mumbling to himself. Crystal groaned and crawled over to him, reaching one of the pouches attached to Snails ballistics vest and pulling out a small laser pointer. She then crawled under the humvee and activated it, focusing the green beam on the first line of dogs.

"Target marked!" Crystal shouted over the COM.

"Confirmed, target marked. Napalm strike is one minute out." An anonymous pilots voice replied.

"Oh shit..." Crystal muttered to herself, before switching to her platoon main COM channel. "Napalm strike inbound! Move! Move!"

"Fuck!" Spice shouted. Crystal rolled out from under the humvee and lifted up Snails, who was still in shock.

"Covering fire!" Crystal shouted at Spice. Spice nodded, raising his M4 and firing a steady stream of lead into the dogs.

"Come on! Come on!" Sergeant Sprinkles shouted at the trio, urging them to move faster. Crystal and Spice started galloping as fast as possible towards the second line of humvees. A couple of stallions ran up to them and took Snails from Crystal.

"Incoming!" Somepony shouted. Crystal and her followers jumped behind one of the humvees, just as a F-15 screeched overhead, a stream of napalm trailing behind it. The covered the dogs and quickly spread throughout their ranks, the sound of gunfire being replaced by their screams and howls of agony.

"No time to celebrate! Head to the rally point! Double time it!" Crystal shouted to the ponies surrounding her.

"Did you think those dogs deserved that death? To literally be roasted alive?" Inkwell inquired.

A small chuckle escaped Crystals cracked lips, before she looked up from her hooves and stared straight into Inkwells eyes. "No. I don't think they deserved that. I believe those brutes deserved more than that. They should have been torn apart alive, then fed to their fellow dogs, then those dogs would be killed in a similar fashion. The things those dogs did... they that much and much more."

Crystal slowly trotted through the street, wading deep snow covered in blood, corpses, and debris. A squadron of F-15's screeched overhead, all of them painted in Royal Equestrian Air Force livery. They were soon followed by several MiG's, likely MiG-29's, who were firing both their gun pods and missiles.

"Bandits on our tail!" One of the pilots shouted over the COM.

"I'm hit! Mayday! Mayday!" Another pilot shouted desperately. Crystal looked up to see a smoking F-15 pass over, pull a 180, and crash somewhere in the distance. Crystal started galloping down the street, disregarding all caution. The sound of the icey snow crunching underneath her boots was soon drowned out by the roar of MiG as it passed overhead, which was being chased down by a F-15.

"Griffin One to units on ground, I have eyes on enemy armor heading towards where Griffin Four crash landed." Griffin One advised.

"Copy that Griffin One, we are a bit short on horsepower at the moment. Is there anypony in that area?" Colonel Nightwing inquired.

"We're just down the street, Colonel." Crystal stated, as she rounded the corner of the last building lining the street.

"I need you to evac the downed pilot before the enemy gets to him. Are you carrying any anti-armor ordnance?"

"My squad has a few AT4's, don't know what Fourth Squad is packing, however."

"We've got two AT4's and a Javelin." Sergeant Sprinkles voice stated.

"Copy that. That might just be enough to hold off the enemy armor. Get that pilot out of there, Crystal. I don't want anypony left behind."

"Understood. Crystal out."

"You know... it's funny... up until right then, I thought the Canine Arabian Air Forces would be no match for our pilots. To see the complete opposite, and to see our fighters get shot down by those mongrels... it was rather demoralizing." Crystal muttered.