To my dismay, the effects of the Med-X didn't go away by the next day. When the pain returned, I administered a little more of the drug to dull it, and with it went the nausea and grogginess. That was exactly what I feared. For this entire assignment, I was going to have to choose between dulled senses or pain and an infuriating combination of nausea and sleepiness. Normally that wouldn't be much of a choice, but I could already imagine the punishment for screwing up in the field while suffering withdrawal effects from painkillers. Having a legitimate reason for using the medication was probably not an excuse.

In any case, I sucked it up the best I could and readied myself to deploy after lunch like Serge said. I didn't feel much like eating, freshly baked biscuits or not, so I was also looking forward to a day of flying in crappy weather on a light meal. Not a good combination, but I'd literally survived much worse.

We lined up on the landing pad just as the sun was trying to break through the ever persistent cloud cover overhead. Sure enough, as Serge told us the day before, a nasty looking thunderstorm was building in the distance to the north. We didn't have to fly in it, thankfully, but even flying near or behind a thunderstorm was unpleasant. The air was uncomfortably humid and heavy, usually cold, there were usually nasty crosswinds and of course, there was the risk of lightning strikes. Someone who's lived their entire life on the ground could be forgiven for not realizing it, but there was always a lot of electrical activity up in the clouds too. I trusted that Serge had done this enough times before to know what distance was safe, but wasn't really looking forward to this either way. Last estimate I heard was that it was a seven hour flight at the pace we'd be going.

Good thing I saved a biscuit from lunch. Maybe by the time we got out and moving I'd feel a little better.

Carmelita hefted her weapon up and groaned as she watched the clouds roiling in the distance. “Guess we won't need to shower when we get back at least.”

Nobody laughed, and Serge raised his wings. “Come on. Let's get going. The sooner we do, the sooner we can get back.”

I lifted off after him and flapped hard to get into formation. As we went, I checked over the rifle I'd been issued and patted my hip to confirm that the spare pouch of tranquilizer darts was where I thought I'd put it. It would be worse than embarrassing if I forgot my ammo, but thankfully even in my addled stupor I hadn't been that brain dead.

I'd never used a rifle like this before, but I was pretty sure this was the kind of thing intended to be used by zoo keepers and game wardens before the war to subdue large animals. They absolutely weren't intended for this kind of thing, and I hoped that command realized that it usually took quite a while for the drugs to knock someone out. They weren't like carefully administered anesthetics. For that matter, I hoped they were prepared for some of these raiders to not survive. Even if they got one of the doctors to measure the dosage, and they didn't ask me, it was pretty likely that anyone we shot was either not going to pass out, or they were going to die from cardiac arrest.

Well, if it happened, it wasn't our faults, and I knew I wouldn't be the only one saying so. And I guess if you had to go, it wouldn't be the worst way to go. Still a far cry from pleasant, but I'd take it over burning to death or something.

A crackle of thunder snapped me back to the real world. Right. Need to focus and not start thinking about things like that.

The flight went without any hiccups for the first few hours, after which Serge directed us over to a relatively calm cloud bank to touch down on for a rest. The bulk of the storm was still a few kilometers ahead and right here at least there weren't any updrafts bringing cold rain or hail stones up to pelt us.

“We've got about four more hours or so to go, but we're taking a ten minute break now. No more breaks before we get there, so if you've got something take care of, do it,” Serge said as the last of us touched down on the cloud. “We're also going to have to pick up the pace a little and catch up to the storm. It's not going to do us any good if it passes before we get to the raider encampment.”

Wait, so we were going to have to fly through the rain clouds? Ugh, was that even safe? I guess he had a point about using it as cover for the attack, but that was going to suck. As if I didn't have a big enough headache as it was.

As Serge and Leigh went off to take a leak or whatever it was they were doing, I fished the biscuit out of my pack and gave it a sniff. It wasn't warm anymore and didn't have that heavenly aroma, but was still perfectly edible. On the other hand, my stomach was still giving me trouble and I was not about to inject some Med-X right now. Way too many questions would come from that.

Carmelita worked her way out of her LMG's sling and lowered it down to the cloud. A second later she snatched it back up. “Ugh, forgot everything but us sinks. Hey! Ike! Big guy, carry this for a while, would you? I'm going to throw my back out at this rate.” She handed it over and added, “Thanks. Hey, don't give me that look. You'll be thanking me when these tranqs don't do shit and we have to shoot the raiders the old fashioned way.”

Meanwhile, Amy had taken notice of the lump of bread in my claws and the fact that I wasn't stuffing it in my beak. “Where'd you get that?”

“I didn't eat much of my lunch. Brought it with me in case I got hungry on the way.” Even if I knew that bread was one of the better things you could eat if you felt nauseated, it just wasn't going to happen. I held it her way. “Still not feeling it. You want it? It probably won't be fit to eat after we fly through the storm.”

She considered the offer for a second and reached out with a gauntlet-covered claw to take it. “Thanks. What's the matter? I'm not going to get sick if I eat this am I?”

I laid out on the cloud and rolled onto my side to take the pressure off of my belly. “No. Just residual effects from being injured,” I lied. “It'll probably take a while to entirely get back to myself.”

“I guess it would,” she said before taking a probing bite. “So, you're the doctor here. How effective do you think these tranquilizers are going to be? Is one shot going to be enough to take our targets down?”

Time to give the bad news. I shrugged. “I wish I knew. They weren't intended to be used this way, I can tell you that much. Don't think this is going to be like a game or book where they just fall down a couple of seconds after you shoot them. It might take several minutes for them to go down, and that's if they're not hyped up on Dash.”

She frowned and downed the rest of her unexpected snack. “Good to know. What if we shoot them a few times?”

“It'll work faster but will probably also kill them.” And that would be against orders.

“Good thing we're using the storm as cover then,” she grumbled. “If their encampment is open then this should still be easy enough. We can take shots from up in the clouds and they won't be able to shoot back.”

That left the obvious question. “And if it's not?”

“Then we have to do it the hard way,” she answered. She glanced over to Lita. “Carmelita, were you issued any stun grenades for this?”

“Huh? Oh, no. I've still got two frags but those are way too lethal for live captures. I'm pretty sure Serge got a few though. I'm sure that'll tickle them enough for us to swoop in and shoot them.”

Amy polished off her snack. “Then we can use those. Standard breaching tactics. There were fewer than ten raiders, so we should be able to take them easily enough, regardless of how their camp is laid out.”

That was easy enough for you, miss-I-got-real-training, but not so much for me. Ah well, I was pretty confident that the storm really would give us the drop on them and let us tag most of them without even facing retaliation. We could save any stragglers for the professionals with the grenades.

There wasn't much else to talk about while we waited for Serge and Leigh to return, and after everyone had a chance to catch their breath and relieve themselves, we set off again.

The second part of the flight was much longer than the first and much less pleasant. It almost stretched believability that they would dispatch griffons from the AFB this far out in the field, but I guess there just wasn't anywhere else to set up forward bases that would be worth maintaining. For that matter, there wouldn't be much point. If I hadn't been told that there was a raider camp out here, I'd have just assumed it was yet more blasted and dead badlands with nothing but hellhounds underground to call it home.

It kind of made me wonder how anyone even got intel that there were raiders out here, but it sounded like the kind of thing you got assigned to do as penal duty, so I wasn't too keen to find out.

In any event, four hours of flying through strong wind gusts, cold updrafts and the occasional patch of hailstones while looking down at the turbulent and angry clouds beneath us was enough to leave me physically and mentally exhausted. If I saw another lightning bolt leap between clouds near me, I was going to lose it.

All the better to use it as concealment, I guess. Nobody would expect attackers to be flying in it because they would have to be crazy.

Thus, I was immensely and indescribably thankful when Serge pulled us aside to one of the cloud banks that looked merely miffed instead of enraged, and set down. “We should be getting close!” he shouted over the wind. “We'll keep setting down every few minutes to check if we're at the target!”

Okay, so, how were we supposed to know if we were there? There were clouds in the way, and it didn't sound like anyone even knew what we were looking for exactly. This was insane!

On cue, Serge held up a claw for us to stay put, then dug his way down through the clouds. A minute or two passed before he resurfaced, only for him to lead us back into the air without a word. Guess we weren't there yet.

We had to repeat that process six more times, setting down after a few minutes of flying for Serge to head below the cloud cover to check for our targets. Finally, on that sixth time, he told us, “Spotted them. It's hard to tell but looks like a scrap built fort in a clearing just off of the road. They've got camo nets set up facing the road so that travelers won't see them.”

Oh boy, go time. I rubbed my aching temple and made sure I was dead last to claw my way down through the clouds far enough that I could poke my head out and see what we were up against.

If I didn't know better I'd have thought Serge had cybernetic eyes or something. The fort was just visible down the road, and then only because of the tiny pricks of light peeking out through the cracks in its makeshift construction. I could see some kind of canvas material attached to trees and flapping in the wind, but even if it wasn't raining I'm not sure I could have discerned that it was camo netting. Maybe he got more briefing than the rest of us and intel figured it out or something.

In any case, we all huddled up in the bottom of the cloud, and with a few dozen kicks and flaps of our wings we cleared out enough to give us a small “beach head” with which we could spy on the raiders below and plan. The storm was still rolling through, so the fort slowly but inexorably approached beneath. We wouldn't pass right over it, but it was going to be very close.

“So, what's the plan, sarge?” Lita asked first.

“We'll know better once we get closer. I'm thinking we'll split up into two fireteams and hit them from opposite sides at the same time. Everybody picks a target and takes a shot. We won't get many before they catch on to what's happening.”

Leigh squinted as she studied the oncoming fort. “It looks like they've got a covered guard tower. We might be able to get one or two there but the rest are probably in shelter right now.”

I knew I would be, given the rain. It wasn't pouring down so much as to be unbearable for anyone on the ground, but it would really suck to stand out in it. “So, what, stun grenades then?” I asked.

“Maybe. Wait for it.”

Wait for what? Were we about to attack now? I gripped my rifle tightly and tried to calm the tremors in my arms. At this point I didn't even think it was the Med-X so much as low blood sugar. Dammit, I really should have eaten that biscuit. I wouldn't be able to draw aim on an Ursa Major in this state!

A minute passed. Then another. Finally, the fort was close enough that I could resolve a fair bit of detail even through the rain, and it looked like Leigh was right. A single guard tower protruded from a crude wall on the side of the fort nearest the road. I couldn't see any ponies moving around from here, but it stood to reason that there wouldn't be but a couple in it. Great. So much for Serge's plan.

Said griffon snorted and waved Lita up. “Keep watch. If this goes bad, you're pulling us out.”

“Like I told you back at base...” she quipped as she leveled her LMG over her arm to support it on the cloud.

He waved for Amy and me to form up beside her. “You two pick targets in the guard tower. The rest of us are heading down. I'll signal for you to take a shot.”

Uh, sarge, my aim is super shitty right now. Can someone else do this? My palms started getting clammy and sweaty. Shit. I really, really should say something about this before I got someone killed. Shiiit. If I waited it would-

“Leigh and Isaac, with me.”

Fuck. Shit. Dammit. Crap. I took a few really deep breaths and blinked repeatedly to clear my head. The adrenaline rush was helping a little to keep me awake at least, but it wasn't doing anything for the tremors. Whatever. Too late to back out now.

I followed Amy's example and stretched out prone on the cloud. It helped a little, but the cloud was infuriatingly insubstantial to the gun, so it still shook slightly as I tried to zero in on the guard tower with its iron sights. What I'd give for a scope right now…

Now that we were getting closer, I could make out three ponies in the tower. Two lanky unicorn stallions of some muddy gray shade sat at opposite corners facing the road, both backed away from the edge far enough that the roof protected them from the falling rain. In the center of the tower was an earth pony mare with a long, heavy rifle that I guessed was too much for the unicorns the control with their magic. Great.

“I got the one on the right,” Amy told me.

“I got 'em all in my sights,” Lita added.

“Then I'll take the one on the left.” I tried to zero him in on the sights, but this was a joke. In all of this wind and rain even a supersonic bullet would be off target. These slow darts were going to be blown wildly off course. Even Amy, with all of her training, couldn't possibly hit anything reliably under these conditions. It didn't even matter if we had gravity and high ground on our side…

There wasn't much time to stew on it and curse my lot in life yet again, as Serge, Leigh and Isaac flew down to start their approach. They all stayed high enough so that the roof of the tower would obscure their descent until they were well behind the tower. The guards must not have expected trouble from inside the fort's perimeter, since none were watching that way.

This really wasn't shaping up like the plan I heard earlier about splitting up into teams, but it wasn't my job to think about tactics. My trigger finger felt like it was going to cramp and my guts tightened into knots as Serge landed ever so gently atop the roof of the guard tower. I had to consciously unclench my jaw as he drew a grenade and held up a claw toward us.

Was that the signal? He never-

A deafening blast of thunder roared and every muscle in my body tensed. Including my trigger finger.

I realized an instant later that Serge was counting down by folding his talons in sequence. Shit, he hadn't given the signal yet! I'd blown our cover! The ponies were going to hear the impact and spot Leigh and Isaac!

The dart plunked off the side of a wooden wall. Nobody flinched. Even Lita and Amy didn't seem to take notice that I had a premature triggering. Thank the gods for small miracles. Still, I had less than an instant to break my gun down and load another shot into it, which I started…

...just in time for Serge to signal for us to fire. Amy's shot went wide, like any sane person would have expected it to, except hers slapped into the wall in the center of the guard tower just above scary mare's head. Naturally, she took an interest in the thumping sound above her, and all three ponies jumped with a start to examine the thing that just tumbled to the floor.

Just in time for me to get my gun back together and line up a hasty shot. I didn't really even aim since I was supposed to fire two seconds ago, but aiming couldn't have helped anyway. By pure luck my dart struck true.

A little too true. I was thankful that I was far enough away that I couldn't hear the stallion screaming as he thrashed around and tried to pull the dart from his ear canal. My toes balled up as I thought about it. I wasn't sure if these darts could penetrate skulls, but either way, he was probably going to go down quickly…

“Damn Kaz,” Lita muttered under her breath.

Shut up…

There really wasn't time to think about it, and I broke my gun down again to reload it. Amy beat me to it and took another shot. This time, her dart struck the other stallion in the neck. He jumped and swatted at the stinging impact and ran around the center of the guard tower to block our shots.

By this point, the mare had completely abandoned any attempts to help her still squealing comrade and was rapidly and awkwardly trying to descend a set of ramshackle stairs circling the tower. I couldn't get a good shot at her, but it didn't end up mattering. The wet and slick steps were more than a match for her, and she slipped at one of the corners, sending her into a tumbling fall toward the ground below. Before she could pick herself up, Leigh peeked over the wall and tagged her in the rump with a single precisely aimed shot. She jerked up onto her hooves and started limping toward a separate shack off to the side of the encampment. I couldn't hear it, but she was clearly shouting something as she went.

Serge raised a palm up toward us. I guess that meant to stay put? This was actually going reasonably well for the moment.

Tense seconds ticked by as Serge let the mare go. The stallion I shot atop the guard tower finally picked himself up and scrabbled around the center of the tower to join his friend. More seconds dragged on. Maybe a minute more passed before some activity finally surfaced. From the shack emerged two surprises.

First came a pony in a crude approximation of a Steel Ranger's power armor. It was clearly cobbled together from scrap, but all the same if the darts couldn't penetrate wood I knew they weren't going to penetrate even aluminum siding, and the rifles in the armor's battle saddles might not be the massive cannons the Steel Rangers employed, but would be deadly all the same. The second surprise was a thin, gray griffoness that reminded me a lot of Liese. She scanned the skies with a rifle large enough that it almost defied belief.

This just got a lot more complicated.

Serge held up a claw again and started counting down again. He primed the grenade, held it for two seconds, and hurled it down into the midst of the two new combatants. Both jumped and tried to scatter, but the grenade went off almost as soon as it hit the ground. A flashbang was less effective outdoors, but given how dark it was the flash had to dazzle both of them. It dazzled me enough, even at this range!

The zip of Amy's dart rifle firing followed soon after, and I tried to blink the glare from my vision. I aimed at the griffoness and adjusted a little for height and drift before pulling the trigger. Amy's shot landed first, and judging by the griffoness's jerk and jump the dart must have hit something. It was hard to make it out, but I was pretty sure my shot landed somewhere in Zebrica.

She wasted no time in retaliating. I felt the cloud ripple first, then heard the boom. The supersonic projectile missed by what I guessed was a wide margin, but I was in no hurry to see how much more accurate she might get with repeated attempts.

Clearly Lita wasn't either. “Okay, fuck this.” The LMG roared to life and puffs of dirt kicked up in the middle of the raider compound below. The griffoness leaped into the air and started a drunken attempt at dodging incoming fire while making a break for the guard tower's rear. I wasn't sure at all what to do next. I doubted I could hit her even if I wanted to, but if I did, she'd probably overdose on the tranquilizers. And if that was the next logical step, Lita might as well just shoot her.

Of course, that was discounting the other target down below, which was the pony in pseudo power armor. He or she angled their weapons up toward the sky and opened fire. At least this time I was quite confident we weren't in much danger. The rifles were assault rifles of some kind, and while the bullets absolutely could reach this high, the rate of fire was fairly low. More importantly, the pony was shooting in the completely wrong direction. Worked for me.

Lita had stopped firing now that her victim wasn't visible anymore, but to my surprise, Serge was next. A searing, blinding bolt of laser light stabbed from his pistol toward the hulking pony. Again, it was so hard to make out what was happening, even without the laser searing my retinas, but it was pretty clear that he hit. Sprays of glowing red dust floated through the air from vaporized armor, and he fired again and again, each time adding a new line in the spiderweb of afterglow clouding my vision.

“He's gonna give away his position,” Lita said.

“The griffon's coming up the side stairs,” Amy added.

Glad she could tell! I pointed my rifle in the direction I expected the stairs to be in and pulled the trigger. I saw a shape shudder and tumble downward. Did I actually hit her?

“Nice shot, Kaz,” Lita added. Huh, guess so. “Now I got her.” Wait, what?

The LMG opened up again, and I saw the shape shudder and convulse under the hail of fire. A knot formed in my stomach at the thought, but she was a raider and almost certainly deserved it. I couldn't help but think that the power armored pony might have been a better target though!

Serge hammered the pony again and again with his laser pistol, but now the pony had figured out where he was and was returning fire. Mists of rainwater spluttered and sprayed from the roof as the bullets impacted the building, and I was pretty sure I saw Serge scramble back around to our side of the tower's roof to get out of the open.

“Hold on, I got 'em,” Lita quipped as she adjusted her aim. Another thunderous roar filled my ears as the high caliber bullets chewed up the ground below. The pony fell backward, but staggered back to his or her hooves. So, Lita opened with another volley. This time the pony immediately collapsed into a heap in the mud.

For a moment, everything grew quiet.

“Sarge is waving us down,” Lita muttered.

I was glad she could tell. Between the laser bolts seared into my vision and the rain, I wasn't sure what I was looking at anymore. Either way, I was glad to put the gun away for the moment, and followed Amy and Lita down toward the fort. As I got closer I could see Isaac perched on the wall, watching the courtyard with his rifle ready.

Serge met us partway and pulled me aside in the air. “Kaz, check the casualties. If they can be stabilized, do what you can, but don't waste much on them. And make it quick, we've got to round up the survivors.”

“Right.” The nearest victim was the griffon that Lita hosed down. I found her right where she fell, sprawled out in the mud on her side. Even with the glowing noise in my eyes and the darkness clouding everything, it was clear from a glance that she wasn't going to survive. Dark blood soaked her coat and the mud beneath her, leaking from at least three profusely bleeding holes punched through her chest. Her beak glistened from yet more of it, and her eyes were fixed ahead and wide as she took shallow gasps.

I pulled out my medical kit and found one of the Med-X injectors. She wasn't going to survive, but that didn't mean there was nothing I could do. She flinched and spluttered more blood as I reached down to find a vein, but she was too weak to resist. Probably already in shock and not even aware what was happening. “...but you still need this more than I do,” I muttered as I injected all of the vial into her. It would take a minute, but her passing would go easier.

At least the haste of the situation didn't leave me much time to reflect on how much she looked like Liese as I packed everything away and hurried around the guard tower toward our other victim.

Just like the griffon, I didn't need to really check him over to know he was dead already. One of Carmelita's bullets struck him in the face, and since this was a literal pile of junk welded together over what I guessed as an authentic power armor frame, the bullet punched right through. There was enough blood leaking out that I didn't have to remove the helmet. After I did remove it, I wished I hadn't. The bullet entered through the stallion's right eye, deflected off the interior of the helmet at least once, and generally left an unholy mess.

“They're both dead,” I announced. A tiny chill rolled through me. So much for not having to kill anyone. I technically even helped with that griffoness.

“Red Eye might want the armor at least,” Leigh said.

Serge sighed just audibly. “Right. Amalia, go with Kaz and check on the two still in the tower. Lita, take up position on the wall and watch for anyone coming up from outside. Leigh and Isaac, with me. We need to round up the mare that ran inside.”

Nobody said anything and instead just went off to do what he ordered. Amy waited, hovering just off of the ground, before joining me in a quick ascent up to the tower.

One pony was laying on his side and facing away from us. The dart was sticking out of his ear and facing up. I swallowed hard as we eased his way. Had the dart actually penetrated his skull? I tried to figure if it could have caused fatal brain damage from that angle. It seemed unlikely. Maybe it was just the trauma and speed of the drug delivery that knocked him out.

I'd just reached him and started marveling at the amount of blood oozing from his wound when creaking floor boards to our side met my ear. The other unicorn whipped around the corner and leveled a rifle at my face. My whole body froze.

A bang rang out. The pony squealed. Another, much louder bang rang out. I squealed.

Both of us jumped up and backward at the same time. I cradled my claw and scrabbled back around the center wall of the tower to obscure his aim, but lost my footing and landed with an unceremonious belly flop on the floor instead. The pony's gun hit the floor at the same time, but he didn't. Instead, the hapless stallion stumbled sideways, stepped off of the edge and fell with a scream that ended abruptly with a thud.

Amy tore around the corner and crouched next to me. “Are you hit?” She glanced at my claw, which had a serious friction burn on one talon, but no other obvious injuries. “Damn are you lucky. You shouldn't have moved up like that! He could have-” She shook her head and lowered her pistol. “Never mind. Never mind! Not going to say it again.”

“Thanks,” I grumbled as I got back up and went to finish checking on the pony I'd shot in the ear, eyeing the hole in the floor where the other stallion took a pot shot at me. This pony was alive and breathing, but might have been in a coma. Ugh. Something to deal with later when someone could give him a better examination under much less stressful situations.

We hurried to check on the pony on the ground below. He was unarmed now and laying on his back screaming bloody murder and writhing around. Judging by the way his right leg was laying, he'd broken his hip, which could be fatal without proper treatment if an artery was severed. Proper treatment was very unlikely to happen, but, again, I did at least have an excess of something I could donate to help. On the upside, it looked like Amy had missed when she shot at him just now, so he wasn't visibly bleeding.

“Wh-what the fuck is that?” the pony blurted out as we landed next to him and I produced another Med-X injector. “What are you psycho chickens doing!?”

“It's something for the pain. Relax,” I said, knowing full well he wouldn't.

He tried to wrench out of my grip, but flexing was guaranteed to twist his hip. He shrieked like a filly again and caught halfway, which gave me just enough time to grab him by the foreleg and inject the drugs. He twisted away again and snapped part of the needle off in his leg, which was really going to suck to retrieve, but maybe he'd calm down some once the pain started to subside. Normally he'd probably need more than that much, but it would probably be enough to at least let the tranquilizer start to take over.

“Y-you're crazy, man. What are you doing? Why?”

I shrugged. “I don't even know.”

That didn't do a lot to calm him down, but he was harmless now. I'd sell my beak and right wing before I'd bet he could climb back up the tower to get his rifle now, and the griffoness's huge gun was on the other side of the tower. Fat chance of getting there either. Actually…

“Amalia, go grab the griffon's rifle. Don't want him getting any ideas.” She nodded and vanished to do just that. I cast the pony a final glance and said, “Try to calm down. It'll kick in faster if you do.”

“Calm down? Calm down? How can-”

I had neither the time nor the inclination to listen to more, and joined Amy in heading back to the center of the courtyard. It at least looked like Serge's team hadn't had any trouble subduing their quarry. The mare was lying naked in the mud, hooves behind her head as Isaac set to tying her up.

Lita shouted down from the wall, “Okay, sarge, want to tell us what the hell the point of all of this was now? We ended up with three prisoners and two dead. If we were going to kill half of them we might as well have just shot them with real guns!”

I pointed a thumb back toward the guard tower. “Might be two prisoners soon. I'm not sure the one I shot will survive the trip back.”

“Can the commentary! I already told you everything I know back at base.” Serge jabbed a talon at the shed. “Someone go check the place out. Leigh, get someone on the radio and inform the lieutenant how the raid went. Kaz, go do whatever you can for the wounded.” He pointed at Isaac. “You and Lita keep a watch on the walls.”

Well, okay. Already told me to do that once, but it was all I knew to do anyway. While everyone broke off to do what the sergeant ordered, I made one more round. The griffoness was one more knock on death's door away from him opening it and letting her through, and was barely even gasping for breath now. The stallion with a broken hip was still very much in pain and still very much filled with profanity.

I left both of them and flew back up to the guard tower to stay with the comatose stallion. He still had a pulse and was still breathing, but just to be safe I found a vial of adrenaline in my medical kit. If he started to crash, that might help.

Meanwhile, I leaned back against the wall and stared out over the barren fields ahead as the last of the rain pattered on the roof. I found that I'd drawn another vial of Med-X from my medical kit too, and turned it over in my claws. I was feeling nauseated again and now that I'd had a chance to sit down, I had a chance to notice the gnawing headache again. The label on the vial shook too much for me to read it. All classic signs of withdrawal symptoms.

I stared at the vial for quite some time. Or, at least its blurry silhouette as my claws refused to cooperate. Funny. I'd always taken myself as the kind who was resistant to addictions of any kind. I couldn't remember the last time I'd had a smoke, and that didn't bother me. I never got caffeine headaches when I couldn't get coffee. Nothing seemed to bother me.

But one extra dose of Med-X and this was the result?

“Fuck you,” I murmured to the little vial as I shoved it back into my medical kit.

Not today.

Not ever.

Life was going to suck for a while until that passed, but it would be fine. I'd suffer in pain, nausea and whatever else came before I'd become one of the junkies I'd seen over the years. I just needed to focus on the here and now. It wasn't like I didn't have enough to wonder about, like what was going to happen to the survivors here. Would they end up in the Pit like that pony from the Grim Scythes?

Wait. That was it, wasn't it? Didn't Ida say that they'd captured the Grim Scythes like this to put them to work as slaves in Fillydelphia?

For a brief moment, I considered giving the stallion next to me a lethal injection of Med-X to spare him the misery. But… no. Just no.

I was a doctor first and foremost.

That's what I had to keep telling myself.

I crossed my claws to keep the shaking down to a minimum. I started to recite the pledge I took so many years ago, to an audience of nobody but me and the textbook I found it in.

"I solemnly pledge to dedicate my life to the service of..."

No. No, you know what? I didn't deserve to say that pledge right now. Instead, I just recited the tiny quote everyone thought the pledge started with. The one little bit that wasn't even part of it, and the only part anyone thought they knew.

"First, do no harm..."

And so the quote ended, and so I might as well. There was nothing more to be said anyway.

Gain Experience – You gain 5,000 experience points for crushing your enemies with barely a scratch.