Chapters Don't crash Lightnings...
I picked off another idiot Vanu medic with my MC12. The green glow their healing gave off just pointed them out to me in the darkness of the night. I was squatting on a cliff on the eastern edge of the plateau the Crown was sat on, shooting any infantry who tried to come up the path below.
The Crown had been taken by the NC yesterday, shortly after I arrived on the front lines of the three-way war on Auraxis. Several kills, mostly headshots, to my name and a decent stint as a Heavy Assault earlier in the day had bagged me tow Sunderer and several Magrider kills. I was proud to be part of the NC.
We were now cut off from our warpgate, but we refused to give in to despair. We were well supplied, and Nanite Systems was supplying us with all the Lightning tanks we needed for our counter-attack.
Soon enough, after another of several airstrikes on the plateau by a pair of Scythes who had been attacking us all day and night wiped the vast majority of the mix of Heavyies, Infiltrators, Engineers and Medics who had been manning the plateau beside me out, I decided to pick up a Lightning.
(A/N- All the following events actually happened to me while driving my Lightning around, but not on the same run like here.)
First, I crashed it into the back of a Sunderer (or Bus, as we called them.) Then after I'd driven the tank out of the garage and down the path to the bottom of the Crown, I sighted a Magrider coming up the road that intersected with the one I was driving on. I turned to engage and drove down a small but steep hill but I failed to notice the small cluster of supplies at the bottom.
My Lightning drove it's front end into the middle of the cluster, leaving me stuck while the Magrider could destroy me in its own time. I tried aiming the Lightning's gun ant the Magrider, but the barrel wouldn't depress low enough. I bailed out of the Lightning and went back to the spawn point to pick up another tank.
I was soon back out with another Lightning and driving down into the canyon in which either TI Alloys or the Hydrophonics plant lay, I could never remember and I didn't particularly give a damn. It was just another objective to me. A Terran Infiltraitor was climbing the canyon so I ended up crushing him under my Lightning's mighty and fast treads.
I narrowly evaded a dumb rocket fired by a Heavy on the bridge before one of our own Heavys gunned him down. I drove the tank up another canyon on the other side, the same one I had been hunkered down in as a green recruit only a day earlier. I got my first kill there. It was a headshot as well. I was dead proud.
After I drove up the other side of the canyon, I ran over a few Vanu soldiers, accidently drove the Lightning off a rather large cliff which it miraculously survived before destroying a Vanu Sunderer. After driving at top speed out of the canyon I had landed in, I began to charge towards the gates of Zurwich Amp Station.
I noticed a lone Sunderer set up just up the road towards the Crown, so I gunned the engine and charged the tank at the Sunderer. I didn't notice the vengeful-looking Magrider coming up behind me as I crashed towards the Sunderer, guns blazing all the way. Or until I had to reload.
Just as I was about to smash into the, Sunderer, the Magrider fired. I smashed my Lightning into the Sunderer, which just so happened to be full of Vanu weaponry as the Magrider's shot impacted on my Lightning's rear armour.
Needless to say, the results were not pretty. The Sunderer and all of it's weapons and ammo had been vaporised, and my Lightning was nowhere to be seen. Because I was rather busy being dead at that time.
I woke to find myself, still in my Lightning. That was surprising. Normally I would have respawned by now. I heard the calling of a unknown animal from outside my tank. That was really strange. All non-human life on Auraxis had been killed off during the war. One of the continents the war hadn't reached yet? There was only one way to find out.
I heaved open the Lightning's hatch, revealing a forest not unlike Amerish. That ment I definitely wasn't on another continent as they were all vastly different according to orbital surveys of the planet.
I stared at the trees, the grass, the life. The peace. And the green sludgy blob of vapourised Vanu technology in front of my tank.
"Where in the name of freedom am I?" I asked myself, deafingly loud in the otherwise quiet forest.
Looking around, I spotted a large, pink dome encircling a strange base.
The energy field may have been different, but it could only mean one thing- A warp gate.
And where there was a warp gate, there was a way back to Indar. Sure, the whole place was a barren desert punctured by the occasional base or piece of tank or plane wreckage, but it was home.
A second thought crossed my mind. What if the warp gate was Terran or Vanu? My map hadn't had the continent added yet, so that would be useless. Reaching back inside the tank for my trusty sniper, I hoped it's 10x scope could act as some improvised binoculars.
What it revealed was slightly unusual. There were none of the usual pre-fabricated metal walls or screens displaying the symbol of the controlling faction, there were strange buildings that looked like they had been made of white rock. There were no screens, but vertically hung flags with a symbol I didn't recognise emblazoned on it, two wierd creatures orbiting a half-star, half-moon.
A unknown continent, with a unknown fourth faction. And I had nothing but me, my wits, a sniper rifle, a sidearm, a Lightning and limited ammo vs a whole new faction. It was Tuesday though- this was to be expected.
I now had a simple choice- go straight for the possible warp gate, force my way through and back to Indar, or I could recon the area. Having no idea about whether there were any MBT's or tankbusting aircraft flying around, I decided the best option would be sheer brute force, smashing through whatever got in my way to the Warp Gate, hostile or not.
However, after several hours of driving through forest that pushed my driving skills right to their limits, something I should have expected stood in the way of my progress towards the Warp Gate- a outpost. A very strange, but heavily garrisoned outpost.
Needless to say, I clambered out onto the Lightning's roof to take a look at the town through my scope.
It was very heavily garrisoned. But not by humans. I had no idea what the hell these things were and they obviously had no concept of camo, as they were as easy to see as a medic at night. I saw no tanks, but there were some of the wierd four legged things with wings. One seemed to be slightly faster than the others. I dubbed it Mosquito. The flying ones I decided were their equivalent to Light Assaults. Some had horns. I named them their medics/engineers. The others were bigger, but had no wings or horn. They were obviously the Heavies.
They were all just milling about like they were on R&R, none on guard. Obviously they didn't expect action in this sector. I would teach them the error of their ways as I aimed my MC12 at Mosquito's wing.
This would have to be a one in a million shot. I'd hit Scythes before which were going much faster than this, but never at a range this long.
I layed down in the prone position on the tank turret and pressed my eye up to the scope. I aimed at one of Mosquito's wings- I could now see Mosquito was a light blue, with a patch of multi-coloured hair. Just a easier target then.
I pulled the trigger, and let the bullet fly. It tore right through the wing, and sent Mosquito spiralling towards the ground. That was unusal. Normally it took a couple of shots to down any enemies back on Indar.
29 shots left.
I placed my rifle back into the Lightning before I got in afterwards and pressed the accelerate pedal to the floor, hoping to catch the outpost by suprise.
I could have just shelled the outpost into submission and continued onwards to the Warp Gate, and if I had foresight, I would have. But instead, I drove my Lightning, at top speed, towards the town, hoping to create a hostage situation if possible.
As I began to get closer to the outpost, I realised that none of the creatures were at the edge of town, like any sensible soldier would have done after a sniper kill.
I noticed that the buildings looked undamaged, unlike the other outposts on Auraxis. I had a revelation- these weren't soldiers, these were faction civilians. That ment I was far, far, behind the front lines.
And that I could definitely cause a hostage crisis. I drove straight to the centre of town where the mass of civvies was crowding around Mosquito, who was unconscious on the floor in a small crater.
The mass of civvies turned towards my Lightning and began talking to each other in a series of noises I couldn't understand. They obviously hadn't learned English or any of the other languages spoken on Auraxis. I'd already checked VerbalCom and TextCom but both were empty of all chat whatsoever.
I opened the hatch and fired my pistol into the air.
49 shots left for that.
I guessed one of two things would happen at this point- either the civvies panic and run and I get to mow em down under the Lightning, or they are sensible and do as I tell them. What happened next was neither of these.
This creature had to be one of the top five on Twilight's list of unusal things. First, it somehow knocked Rainbow Dash clean out of the sky... Or it could just be coincidence? A gaping hole in Rainbow's wing said otherwise.
Now it was brandishing some strange metal object around from the top of a metal... Thing. And it appeared to be made from metal, as well.
There was a simple solution to this problem- Levitate the thing away. A purple glow formed around her horn and the strange metal object as she began to pull the object towards her.
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A strange purple glow formed around the head of one of the horned ones and a similar one formed around my pistol as I felt it being pulled from my grasp.
I was slightly suprised by this, but not much. I ducked back inside the Lightning, and brought out my MC12, pointed it at the horned thing and motioned for it to give my pistol back.
I smiled behind my mask. Always have a bigger gun.
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The creature had reached down into the big metal thing, which was rumbling away happily, it seemed.
And pulled out a bigger object.
It pointed to Twilight, then to the object Twilight was levitating away, and finally to itself. It then pointed to the bigger object and finally to the unconscious Rainbow Dash, who was being carried away on a stretcher.
It took a few seconds for Twilight to understand the signals. The creature was threatening her with the bigger object if she didn't give the smaller object back.
She sighed, and dropped the small object on the metal thing. Everything seemed to be going fine. That's when Lyra and Pinkie showed up.
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I saw a bright pink thing begin running through the crowd towards me when the purple one who had tried to nick my pistol earlier stopped her progress and from doing anything stupid.
None of the wierd things stopped the green one though, and as it began to approach my Lighting at a charge, I acted how anone from Auraxis would have done, no matter the faction.
I grabbed my Mag-Shot, levelled it at the approaching thing's face, and pulled the trigger hard.
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A loud bang echoed throughout the square as Lyra suddenly screamed out in pain. The creature pointed its gun upwards and almost casually blew the smoke that was rising from the object away like what it had just done was a everyday thing (On Auraxis, it was.)
Bon Bon ran out from the crowd towards Lyra and cradled her limp form in her hooves as the whole town watched Lyra's life slip away. As the pulse finally left Lyra's body, Bon Bon let out a cry of despair and hopelessness that tore at the heart of everypony present. The creature simply levelled the object at Bon Bon and pulled the trigger, causing Bon Bon to fall to the floor, dead.
Everypony could only stare in shock at the events which had just happened and would scar those who had witnessed them for life.
Rarity began the rant. "How... How could you? You are nothing but a ignorant, worthless, brute. You hear me? You do that once more and I'll..."
"Leave this T' me, Sugarcube." Applejack interrupted Rarity's whining, it was, after all, quite possibily the most annoying thing since Error G99. "You think your so 'igh and mighty up there, in yer metal bawx, do ya? Why don't ya 'ave a fight fair and square without any of ya fancy weapons? Face me on ma own turf? 'Fraid of ma, are ya?"
I couldn't understand what the orange one was ranting at me about, but I guessed it was taunting of some sort. However, there was always the greatest come-back in the known universe which applied no matter what race you were up against or where you were- the middle finger.
So I flipped the orange one the finger.
I noticed a rather large swarm of black (or were they white? I couldn't tell and I didn't really care) specks on the horizon. Raising my sniper up to my eye, I peered down the scope to reveal a rather large mass of incoming flying things, some of which were pulling trailers with the horned ones riding in them. They were led by two things that had both wings and a horn and also appeared to be larger than the others. Great, flying MAX units and gunships sent after one measly little infiltrator.
After all, there is no kill like overkill.
Whatever this incoming army was, the gunship-trailer things were obviously the biggest threats, so I aimed my sniper and set to work.
One mag's worth later of shots later and a gunship crashed into the earth. The swarm kept closing, however so I settled on eliminating the gunners instead.
I slammed a fresh mag in and yanked the bolt back, chambering a round. I aimed for the horned gunner on the leading gunship and nailed him between the eyes. A small red banner appeared at the top of my helmets HUD, saying "headshot."
I smiled before I read my ammo levels- one mag left. Did I really use that much ammo before I got here? Well, I'm probabaly not going to make it back to Indar if I was on five rounds.
I pushed my last mag into the gun rammed the bolt back in and pulled the trigger, sending another one of the flyers crashing to the ground with a satisfying splat.
Four rounds.
I shoved my sniper back inside my Lightning, ducked in after it, and reloaded the main gun. 90 shots left in the ammo storage after I was respawned here. I must have used a helluva lot back on Indar but since I wasn't going to make it out alive, I decided I might as well take as many of the enemy down with me. Here goes nothing.
I opened up into the sky, not even bothering to aim due to the fact that aiming with a Lightning was rather pointless. Especially when you were shooting into the sky so I settled on spraying and praying.
I saw several gunships get blown to pieces yet the swarm was going to arrive shortly if the radar on my HUD was any indication.
I slammed the reverse gear on, sending my tank speeding backwards, firing all the way. All of the shots missed.
54 shells left.
I took stock of the situation through the thermal optics as night began to fall. The gunships had landed, the horned gunners forming into a firing line in front of me. The two MAX units which had both horns and wings were handing out... Was that jewellery? Was this place mad? Handing out jewellery in the middle of a battle? To a group of five of the things that had gathered around them.
Hell, at this point, if it wasn't for running out of ammo, I'd have sworn I'd been stuck on a badly reprogrammed virtual combat simulator.
A mob of winged and normal things were beginning to advance towards me in a semi-circle formation around my Lightning. If they swarmed it, I would be dead for sure. If I moved, that horned gun line no doubt had orders to blow me back to wherever I came from.
The semicircle began to close in around my tank. I couldn't depress the barrel low enough to shoot them now, and there was a chance that I might accidently hit myself in the blast. The town was devastated though, and many of the things were dead or dying. I had done my work well.
They were too close for my sniper, too close for the Viper, the Lightning's main gun. Maybe if I'd brought a Skyguard, this wouldn't have happened. I drew my Mag-Shot in my left, knife in my right with the one grenade I carried everywhere's ring-pull on my right's pinkie finger so I could throw it at the MAX's.
That's what I settled on doing- killing those MAX's. They seemed important, leaders of this area? Hell, maybe even the faction leader?
I climbed out the Lightning's turret hatch and looked around. The large perimeter around me was still there, the MAX's had finished handing out jewellery and were beginning to approach the perimeter's edge.
Big mistake.
I ripped my dog tags off and flung them to the ground in front of the Lightning as a distraction while I leaped off the Lightning's chassis into the crowd of guards.
I dealt with the first one easily, slamming my knife into the area underneath its horn. I spun, cloaked, confusing them, un cloaked in the same spot, and blew a hole through a normal's eye. One of the winged ones dive bombed me but I slashed straight across its face before rolling out the way.
As I got to my feet, another charged me so I sidestepped and blew its kneecap out. Two of the horned ones tried to shoot their wierd lasers at me so I shot one in the eye and threw my now-useless gun at the other, catching it square in the face as I continued my progress towards the MAXs.
Switching my knife to my left hand, I cloaked and charged.
I vaulted the first guard who tried to impede my charge, rolled under the second before I noticed the nanites were no longer regenerating and neither was I cloaked. I had enough charge left to cloak if I disabled my rebreather and exposed myself to the no-doubt toxic atmosphere that this place had.
A small group had formed up around the MAXs to protect them, I would only get through that group by cloaking.
As I was going to die anyway, I diverted all the suits power to the cloaking systems.
I ran at the group, jumped with all the energy I had left over the circle of guards and landed on the white MAX's back. I noticed it had the mark of a sun on, while the dark blue one had that of the moon.
At least I could say I killed the Sun and Moon, Dusk and Dawn.
I uncloaked, grinned underneath my helmet, and pulled the pin on the grenade.
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My name is Klaw.
I am finally dead.
I no longer have to experience the horrors of Auraxis.
I took the Sun and Moon down with me, trapping a world in eternal Twilight.
What more can a common soldier ask for than to die with honour?
The vast crowd of things stared at me. It appeared the finger was universal, even if these things didn't have them. I began laughing and I continued laughing for a while before I eventually coughed myself out of the laughing fit. That's when I noticed the pink thing sitting on the barrel of the Lightning, staring at me.
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"What are you doing Pinkie? That thing is dangerous!" Twilight shouted from the crowd. She had sent Rarity away earlier to get Spike to send a letter to Princess Celestia, hopefully she could drum some sense into this creature's mind which was obviously addled by all the metal it was wearing.
"Just getting a closer look! It's funny up close! There's wierd symbols on the metal and there are wierd coloured bits of stuff at some points! I wonder if it would like a cake...."
Pinkie never got to finish the sentance because at that point, the thing which Pinkie was sitting on began to rotate.
Pinkie shouted out "This is fun!" as the things head began to turn faster and raise up and down, obviously trying to dislodge Pinkie.
Eventually Pinkie let go and went flying off straight into Twilight's library. Twilight winced as she heard the sound of books falling off shelves. "Another day of mess cleaning tomorrow then..." She muttered to herself.