Author's Notes:

I said I would do it, and I did it! Three updates in two weeks. Hope you guys enjoy the chapter, because I certainly did.

“Five minutes from the drop zone,” the pilot stated calmly as the desert below them blitzed passed at high speed. The sun was reaching up toward its highest point in the sky, baking everything below it with intense summer heat. Jack had remained out the door with a single leg that rested on the skid while he checked over his gear and ran diagnostics for the fifth time during the flight.

“Affirmative pilot, bring us in low and fast, then pull back to your safe zone. Prepare for fast extraction, possibly hot.”

The pilot turned his head to nod toward the armoured human; the word Snake was stenciled across his flight helmet. “Copy that, what's your callsign today sir?”

“Operation callsign is Spectre One Actual. Keep comms to a minimum, I doubt you'll have me for long when I'm underground. All callsigns copy?” After a short pause, three additional voices sounded affirmatives in his helmet feed. “Good, Snake and the transports will drop us off a full klick from the entrance and with our backs to the sun. We'll walk the rest of the way. Orion squad, I want you guys up on the south ridge for overwatch and comms coverage. Hound and Gestalt, hold at two hundred meters and do not engage any targets if you can help it. Spectre One will likely stir up a hornet's nest when we blow the caches, so in case shit hits the fan, pull back to Orion squad's position and hold until unable. All copy?”

Another flurry of copies sounded in his helmet as Baron looked over from her seat. “Staff Sergeant?”

Muting his comms bar by nipping his helmet's control bit with his teeth, Jack turned his armoured head toward the changeling. “Yeah Baron?”

“Does… Mythic talk about me at all?”

Jack turned his head away to look back out toward the desert plateaus in the distance. “Keep your mind on mission Baron.” The mare nodded her understanding and returned her attention to the opposite door. After a moment Jack spoke again. “He's still hurt pretty bad over it. I suggest taking care of it when we're back, as soon as you can.”

“Yes sir… thank you.”

“Any time Baron.” He shifted as the vehicle dove suddenly toward the ground, it's twin rotors swiveling to compensate for the rapid deceleration.

“Skids aren't hitting dirt, de-ass the bird!” Snake called out over comms just as Jack jumped from the helicopter thirty feet up as it compensated for its dive and came to an early hover. Baron slipped out after him, her wings only snapping open at the last moment to avoid being buffeted by rotor wash.

“Snake, you are clear! I say again, you're clear!” Jack waved off the bird, which twisted on its axis and shot off toward one of the plateaus in the distance. The carriages landed silently behind him, disgorging their cargo before slipping off the ground after Snake. Turning toward the thirty ponies as they approached, Jack nodded to them. “Alright, combat spread of one hundred meters between squad, twenty per man, diamond formation. Let's move people!” He turned on his toes and set off at a brisk walk with his weapon at the ready. The equestrian desert really was just as unpleasant as the desert back home. Jack grimaced at the memories before shaking them off and focusing his attentions directly to the task at hand. Hitting the break-off point for his back-up, Jack slowed considerably and unfurled the optical camouflage tarp. “Camo up, get under here Baron.”

The mare slipped underneath the tarp and waited patiently as the squad's all went their separate ways. “I know where the entrance is from here. I can direct you.”

“Do it.”

With Baron quietly directing him toward the entrance, finding the large hole in the ground was a trivial issue at the most. It was quite large, looking more like a heavily sloped sinkhole than a dug out position. No guards were visible outside in the sun. Jack waited for Baron's word to move, and when it came he began to carefully stalk toward the entrance to the hive. “All call signs, Spectre One is entering the hive. Keep your eyes on.” Jack slowed his pace even further as they entered the shade of the tunnel, and he became acutely aware that the tunnel wasn't empty. Flicking through his vision modes, Jack paused on magnetics as the chitin of the changeling's present outlined them readily against the hard packed clay and rock. Without a word he began creeping forward as to keep the sounds of his boot heels silent. The hidden sentries didn't budge an inch as he slowly passed by them, and entered the hive proper. Deeper down through the tunnels, he could just barely pick up the crinkle of chitin and the sound of buzzing wings.

Taking a quiet breath, Jack moved forward until they hit an empty crossroad. Crouching down, he got as close to Baron as possible before speaking. “Any idea where a crazy queen would keep chemical weapons?” Without speaking, Baron shrugged before nodding slightly. She pointed forward into the dark tunnels, far beyond where the last of the scorching daylight could reach. Jack paused and activated his helmet's night vision before beginning the slow pace deeper into the hive.

The further down they went, the more Jack felt completely lost. It was like he was wandering aimlessly in the world's largest, most convoluted anthill, and everything in it wanted to kill him and lay eggs in his eye sockets. The darkness was so absolute that his NV mode struggled to compensate, resulting in everything coming out as a grainy dark green. A chittering screech sounded out, and he immediately dropped to a knee and scanned for the culprit. Baron drew closer and whispered so quietly his audio pickups struggled to refine the words for him.

“Soldiers.”

A company of heavily armed and armoured changelings stomped passed, hissing and chittering at each other. Switching on magnetics again, Jack smothered a vehement curse as his his helmet traced the outlines of heavy armour and stolen Terran weaponry. It was a motley assortment of surplus firearms that couldn't threaten him in the slightest, but would shred any Equestrian caught in its path. While he doubted they could hit much, their sheer numbers alone would be enough to be dangerous. Once the company passed by, Jack spoke quietly. “This complicated things. I need to think. Take lead, I'll follow.”

Nodding, Baron took a cautious lead that saw them going even deeper underground. After what felt like hours spent in the pitch black, Jack finally saw light. The light was a pale, sickly blue that ebbed and rose naturally from a small patch of strange lichen. Drawing closer, Jack cocked his head in curiosity as he looked at the light producing fungus. In the center of the growth was a small cluster of naturally forming crystals, which seemed to glow just slightly brighter when he reached out to touch them. He stopped himself before touching the crystal, and looked to Baron. “These dangerous?”

She looked up at him from under the tarp, then looked up at the crystals. “No, but they are valuable to the hive-” She stopped as Jack plucked the whole cluster off the wall and stuck the glowing crystals in one of his pouch pockets. Sighing softly, Baron shook her head and motioned. “Nearly to the breeding dens. The store rooms will likely be close. A hives most valuable possessions are always close to the young.”

“Makes my life easier. Any idea where the queen would be?”

“Once you destroy those weapons, she’ll find you.” Baron spoke softly as a drone buzzed passed, several small eggs in its clutches.

Jack smiled grimly under his helmet as he watched the drone disappear into the dark. “Even better.” He stood and began stalking forward again. Every human instinct in his bones was screaming for him to turn around and get back to the surface. His instincts keened and cried, begging him to get out of this place that he had no business in. Jack tightened his hold on the machine gun's grip; using it as a means to try and sooth his rampaging instincts. As he and Baron drew closer to the heart of the hive, the amount of changelings that they passed began to escalate dramatically in number, to the point where Jack would often have to hug the side of the cave and program the tarp to appear as an outcropping of rock to avoid being run into.

A number of close calls saw his alertness running deep into the red and every fiber of his body tensed for the moment everything went pear shaped. He no longer had any remote clue of how deep they were underground, and the only sense of time he had was the small chronometer tucked away in the corner of his HUD ticking away. They'd been underground, moving slowly for nearly three hours now without any contact with the surface, and he doubted that their signals could possible weave out of the anthill of tunnels.

“Jack.” Baron's concerned voice caused his pace to halt as he crouched again and cocked his head toward her. She pointed a hoof off to a small offshoot tunnel. “Prisoners.”

“How can you tell?” He peered at the tunnel, but in the green hue cast by his goggles it looked like every other tunnel.

“There's so much fear I can't help but taste it…” Baron shifted uncomfortably, and Jack was beginning to forge a picture of why she would leave the hive behind.

Fighting back the urge to shake his head, Jack rested on his haunches. “The weapons are priority one. Make a mental note and we’ll circle back around.” He didn't need to wait for more than a second before she was ready to leave again. As they passed by, his audio pickups caught just the faintest of sobs coming from the dark tunnel. Weapons first, then prisoners. Focus, old man.

Further down the tunnels, a sharp, keening howl that ended with a chirrup sounded and echoed toward Jack and Baron. The traitorous changeling tensed and translated quietly. “Hurry, more soldiers for the cause.”

Before Jack could question it, a scream of terror sounded out from behind them, back by the prisoners tunnel. A pair of changelings appeared dragging a pony who was heavily bound in the strange green goop. Jack paused and watched as they dragged the thrashing stallion toward them, before trotting passed without issue. Jack motioned toward the pair and their prisoner, and began to follow behind them closely.

The stallion begged and pleaded frantically for his life, promising life and gold to whatever cause they wanted, just so long as they let him live. His captors said nothing, and continued to drag him into the breeding chambers. Jack and Baron followed closely behind, using the trio before them as a ram to get through the throngs of changelings that scuttled and trotted to and fro.

Entering the breeding chamber, Jack's boot heels dug into the dirt hard to bring himself to a sudden halt as his every primal instinct began screaming for him to bolt. The circular room held a large number of ponies and what appeared to be a single buffalo, each stuck to the walls with the green goop. Each and every single one of them was bloated beyond reprieve, and most seemed dead. The few that were conscious seemed to be in horrible agony. Jack soon found out why when the changelings set the struggling stallion down on a large, flat stone with his belly open to the air. The stallion began to sob and plead as a changeling that Jack had never seen prior slunk out from the shadows. The frills across its head marked it as openly different, if the colourfully pulsating stomach hadn't already. Jack watched in curiosity, and then horror, as the breeder mounted the stallion and unfurled its ovipositor. As it stabbed into the stallion's stomach and began to pump him full of eggs, Jack fought back a gag of horror as the stallion thrashed and moaned, before foam filled his mouth as his stomach and chest were swelled to bursting with eggs. The two changelings dragged the gagging stallion toward the wall, and planted him against it, using the green goop to secure him as the life drained from his eyes.

“Jack, we need to go…”

As Baron spoke, the breeder perked and turned it's head toward the tunnel where they were standing and let out a chirrup of confusion. Jack's hand went back, and carefully began to coax Baron backwards as he backtracked. Once back out in the tunnel, Jack and Baron picked up the pace as Jack eagerly put distance between them and the breeding grounds. He made a note to stop by there on the way out and vaporize everything that moved.

Shaking her head, Baron lead him further and further down, until the tunnel sloped no more and the ground leveled out. Even in his armoured suit the place felt unnervingly chilly. Baron seemed to pause, growing heavily uncomfortable before pointing to an off shooting tunnel that was considerably larger than most others. They began stalking down it under the cover of the tarps, and soon reached its end. The room before Jack and Baron was full to the brim with barrels and crates that were marked with the biohazard warning symbol. Some had been opened, and several changelings buzzed about. Jack slowly approached one of the barrels, and had felt his heart drop like a stone when he read the warning label.

Corvellan Tox Darts; handle with care.

“Fuck.”

Jack backed up as his eyes fell on the open barrel and the slender crystalline darts that were utterly deadly to human physiology. Looking about, he realized that the darts weren't the only weapons the queen had available. In specialized, marked cases sat a large number of VX nerve agent artillery shells, waiting to be used. Moving through the room and eyeing every label for his on-board cameras, Jack began planting the high explosive incendiary charges wherever he could hide them. His mind began to race with worry.

Mustard Gas, VX, Tox Darts… If I blow all this, we might not get out of here… He set his jaw and continued to place the charges, until he only had two more left. Crouching down next to Baron, Jack kept his eyes warily on the roving changelings. “Charges set, think this is the only spot?”

Nodding, Baron whispered to him. “For these, yes. Chrysalis is utterly obsessed with order and compartmentalization. I think if we go further we’ll find a weapons stockpile.”

Sucking air quietly through his teeth, Jack regarded his final two charges. Not enough to ensure complete destruction of anything he found to be sure, and with all the rock in the way there was no guarantee that his detonator could penetrate far enough if they had to stray far. “I'll have to use detcord… maybe we'll get lucky and hit a munitions stockpile… “ He began unreeling a small length of det cord and wiring it to the first C4 block’s detonator. After a moment he pulled away, and began silently stringing cord out behind them. “Alright, let's go.”

Nodding as she turned under the tarp, Baron began to slowly creep through the chemical storeroom and onto the next. The tunnel between the two contained another small batch of crystals, which Jack was forced to ignore on account of there being far too many changelings for him to safely snag it. As he unreeled the detcord, Jack carefully brushed it to the side of the cave with his boot, and occasionally scuffed small clumps of dirt over the wire to conceal it. The tunnel went longer than they'd expected, and by the time they entered the next store room Jack had nearly run out of detcord on the small reel had had brought. Carefully checking the closest crate, Jack sneered hotly as Baron approached and spoke. “What are those?”

Looking over the disposable tube launchers, Jack felt furious with himself for not bringing far more explosive charges and wiring. “AT4’s… bad news for me. I'll-” he cut himself off quickly as a squad of soldiers entered the store room and began snapping and snarling at each other in the changeling native language. Jack got as close to Baron as he could and asked. “What are they saying?”

“They've spotted ponies outside, soldiers. They're going to attack them.”

“Shit. god dammit... New plan.” Jack set the charge over the anti-tank launchers and strung the next one as far as he could in hopes of detonating unseen ordnance. “Tss- go.” He hissed and shooed Baron back they way they came, back through the chemical room and toward the prisoners. Moving with new-found urgency, Jack nearly moved too fast for Baron to keep up under the tarp. The tunnel was considerably smaller than the storeroom tunnels, and it was covered in slimy green goop. Jack's boots began sinking in, leaving deep tread-marks in the gunk as he walked.

Entering the room, the pair stopped to gauge the situation, and Jack came to a very disturbing revelation.

There were far too many ponies to sneak out.

Nearly twenty ponies were corralled near the back end of the room and trapped in near full body cocoons of hardened changeling gunk. There were eight changeling soldiers in the room, and four drones from what they could see. Regret further entrenched itself in Jack's mind as he realized that Baron was the only one with a suppressed weapon. Doing this quietly would be incredibly difficult. With his mind churning fast for viable solutions, the call for another breeder went out, and the soldiers grabbed a mare from one of the cocoons. Kicking and fighting, the mare called out to one of the other ponies, a small colt.

“MOMMA!” The colt screamed in terror as strained against his bonds as the changelings began to drag the mare away.

The mare struggled heavily, and managed to buck one of her assailants as they dragged her. Breaking free temporarily, she galloped to her child's side and began trying to pull the goop off. “Sandy! Mommy's going to be okay! Everything is going to be okay!” There were tears streaming down her cheeks as the changelings jumped on her and pulled her away.

Shifting under the tarp, Jack jutted his hand toward Baron. “Gun.” Not asking any questions, Baron stuck the butt of the pistol into his outstretched hand and took a small step back.

As the changeling drones struggled with the the thrashing mother, the soldiers began to approach with blunt weapons in their magical grips. The mare kicked again, striking one of the drones across the jaw. “NO! Leave me ALONE!” She flinched as one of the soldiers lifted his weapon to strike her, but the expected sound of metal meeting soft flesh was interrupted by the suppressed whip-crack of the .40 cal slug leaving the pistol's barrel, and the resulting sound of clattering armour as the soldier fell forward with a neat hole above his left eye.

Tossing the tarp back to reveal himself fully and keep Baron hidden, Jack surged forward and jammed his service knife into a drones throat. The pistol clicked and popped and the slugs found easy targets in the surprised changelings who scrambled to action. The soldiers were the first to fall as they were the far more dangerous of the two types, and the drones didn't last much longer as they tried to attack him from the sides or flee. Jamming his service knife through the skull chitin of the second last drone, Jack twirled on the tips of his toes to draw a bead on the fleeing drone. Without warning the drone fell flat on its face, and Baron’s magic wrapped around its head.

Jack straightened and ignored the crunch of vertebrae as Baron snapped the drone’s neck. He looked toward the mare who had been about to be dragged off. She was on the ground, curled up and protecting her face from the flurry of violence. He reached down and gently picked her up, placing her on her hooves as he tilted his helmet toward the shocked ponies still stuck to the walls. “All of you stay quiet, we're getting you all out of here.”

The mare nodded as she looked up at the massive figure that had simply popped into existence to solely save her life. “T-thank you… who are you?”

Jerking a thumb over his shoulder at Baron as she appeared from under the tarp, causing some of the ponies to gasp in surprise. “We're JSOG, and we're here to save you.”

The process of cutting the ponies down and freeing them of the goop took far too long for Jack's liking, but he thanked his luck over and over as they all just managed to fit under both optical tarps in a tightly packed group that sniffles and fought back scared sobs. With strict orders to stay absolutely silent under them, Jack hoped to hell that he could get all of the exhausted and terrified ponies to the surface.

The mare who had been the catalyst for the snap decision broke ranks under the tarp so she could approach him. “S-sir? My… my husband, they took him hours ago… could you please look for him? They took so many of us, please, you have to save my husband!” She begged as quietly as she could, but panic saw her voice rising fast.

Already knowing the truth behind her husband's fate, Jack simply nodded. “If I get the chance, but we need to leave, now.” His ears pricked at the chittering call for another breeder. He could just barely pick up the sound of numerous hooves approaching. Grinding his teeth in annoyance, Jack shook his head and took several quick strides to where he thought Baron might be. “Baron, we gotta go. I'll never fit under the tarps with you guys.” He looked over as the tawny mare slipped back under the tarp and huddled with the others.

Baron stuck her head out from under the tarp several feet ahead. “Staff Sergeant, we need to go.”

Grunting in annoyance, he moved to her side and repeated himself. “I'll act as a diversion. They’ll be so focused on me they'll never find you.”

With an apprehensive look, Baron glanced back to the tunnel where the call went once again unheeded. “Won't you get lost?”

“You'll be right just in front of me, just yell directions if you have or have someone show their tail whenever we hit an intersection. Sound good?” When Baron nodded and slipped back under the tarp, he looked over to where he knew the ponies were all huddled together in fear. “All of you, you'll be doing this nice and slow. I know you all want out of here, but stick together and follow the Corporal’s lead no matter what.” He turned toward the tunnel and cursed as a loud keen of alarm was sounded.

Lifting his machinegun, Jack let out a short choppy burst that sent the crier spinning. “Fuck it, I'm going loud, Baron, go!” He moved forward the moment he saw the tawny mare's tail poking out from under the tarp. His foot falls felt infinitely quieter now that he was stalking with his m240g at the ready, but in reality his boots made more noise than the entire group combined as he carelessly crushed a corpse under foot and allowed his weight to enter each stride. The cry of alarm had stirred the hornet's nest, and the moment he exited the prison tunnel he came under attack. The drones all but threw themselves at him, trying to pin him down with magic or stick him in place with their goop. He swatted them down, crushing skulls and firing point blank into their crunchy bodies, before focusing on the armed soldiers as they took up firing positions and began to open fire. The inaccurate fire was supplemented by its volume, and soon the small rounds were dancing off his chest, creating sparks and cutting into his chest rig webbing.

Pulling a white phosphorus grenade free from his webbing, Jack hurled it down the hall and brought his detonator up as the canister exploded and peppered the soldiers with burning fragments that perforated their chitin and set the soft flesh underneath ablaze. Flicking open the safety catch, Jack squeezed the detonator and breathed a sigh of relief as the immediate cacophonous rumble of chain detonating C4 reached him in the tunnels. The hive shuddered from the blast, and dirt rained down from the ceiling. Grinning viciously as he let out another short burst of fire to keep the changelings down, Jack focused on following the tawny mare's tail through the pitch black tunnels.

Just for once, everything is going alr- Jack looked up as the ground rumbled again, and large clumps of dirt rained down on the group. His eyes widened and he called out in alarm. “Roof’s coming down, look out!” He gave the tawny mare's hind quarters a swift kick and quickly jumped back just before the tunnel collapsed before him. “Shit! Is everyone okay!?” He called out, hoping his voice could penetrate the dirt. To his relief, Baron called out.

“Jack! We're okay, but you're cut off! We'll start digging toward you!”

“No!” He called out before casting a worried look over his shoulder. “Just get those civvies out of here! I'll find another way out!”

Baron answered nearly immediately. “I'm not leaving you behind sir!”

“That's an order corporal! I'll be fine, just get those civs to safety!” He turned on his heels and let loose another burst to drive back the changelings that were creeping up on him. “Fuck it… I guess I'll burn the breeding grounds. “ He stalked forward, the muzzle of his 240g tracking back and forth like a bloodhound as he flicked back and forth through night vision and magnetic vision modes. The tunnels were lousy with changelings, and he couldn't go more than five steps without fending off some kind of attack.

It seemed as though the main artery tunnel was filling to the brim with changelings in an effort to contain him, but thankfully, the side tunnel heading toward the breeding chamber was nearly empty. The changeling soldier standing guard didn't stand a chance as his weapon left minuscule pockmarks across Jack's chest plate; his life ended at Jack's knuckles. Striding into the breeding chamber, Jack slung his 240g across his chest and unlimbered two grenades. Pulling the pins and letting the handles spiral off, he hurled them toward the thickest concentrations of bloated creatures. To his horror, the seemingly dead ponies began to gurgle screams as the WP shrapnel dug deep and split them open, spilling their unholy spawn like cut marble sacks. Lifting his weapon again, Jack began firing single shots; blasting holes in the suffering ponies he couldn't save. The flames were beginning to spread, apparently whatever greasy oil the eggs were covered in was flammable. Thick black smoke billowed up in his night vision mode as he ensured that each pony was put down, and that their eggs were burning. As he neared finishing his work, the first of the eggs began to pop loudly from the heat.

Just as he was turning to leave, Jack paused as his eyes fell on another tunnel that almost seemed tucked off to the side of the breeding grounds. Hefting his weapon, he treaded forward and pushed through the oily smoke. Warning symbols for toxic elements popped up on his HUD, but we quickly disregarded it as he entered the small sloped tunnel and began going down. “Just wish I had my drone…” Jack lamented as he slowed and peeked around the corner. He slowly stepped out from the corner, and entered the next room in a state of shock.

The room was nearly covered in the light creating crystals and fungus, which cast an eerie blue haze across the horrors inside the room. Three massively bloated creatures lay on beds of light fungus and changeling goop as they quivered and warbled; the oily black smoke from the next room over was beginning to leak into their's, and they could smell it. Smaller changelings that Jack didn't recognize buzzed about, tending eagerly to the creatures needs. As he slowly stepped further into the room, Jack almost felt as if he couldn't lift his weapon.

“Hey!”

Jack was jerked out of his horror by the guttural unknown voice, and as his mind cleared his weapon lifted. As he squeezed the trigger, it dawned on him that the bloated monsters had human features. Arcing his fire across the room and gunning down everything before him indiscriminately, Jack barely missed a lanky man who dove to the ground and snarled in fury.

“BASTARD!” The unknown man popped out from behind a broodmother and fired on Jack with a pistol whose small caliber rounds sparked and ricocheted off his thick armour. Jack pivoted to bring his weapon to bear on the unknown man, and found that he wasn't entirely a man. The man's skin was an inky jet black, even in the pale blue light, and his forehead ridged upwards to form a chitin plated horn. The man snarled in hatred and bared his steak-knife teeth at Jack, before deftly ducking under the incoming rounds. “You're gonna pay for this you sonuva bitch!”

“Not if I hit you first, freak.” Jack snarled back and strode forward, his weapon hunting for a target as foul blood poured from the murdered broodmothers. Without warning, Jack lurched forward as something slammed into his back and forced his considerable bulk off balance. Twisting uncomfortably to confront the attacker, he had just enough time to see the man sprint from the to the tunnel and out into the hive at large. “Shit…” Jack took the momentary reprieve to swap out belts of ammunition, and made the mental note that he’d already burned through two hundred of his eight hundred round stockpile. He was down to three white phosphorus grenades, and still had a full complement of HE 40mm grenades and his armour's waning micro-rocket supply. He silently prayed that it would be enough for him to find another tunnel out of the twisting hive.

As Jack started back the way he came, he cast in last glance over his shoulder at the twisted creatures that may have once been human. They aren't so nasty when they're dead… He mused quietly to himself, before being interrupted by a howling screech of anger that came from the main breeding room. A rising shriek of anger from dozens of mouths rose to meet the initial cry, and Jack promptly decided to find a separate route.

Searching the twisted breeding from somewhat frantically, Jack grinned in relief as he found another, even smaller tunnel leading off into the dark. The tunnel was so small that he would have to pull off his pack and throw it before himself as he commando crawled through on his armoured stomach. As the tunnel grew tighter, Jack began to worry intently as his armoured shoulders scraped across dirt and rock. He felt the mental pressure, the fear of getting stuck where nobody could ever reach him. Nobody that would help him, at least. As he grunted in exertion, he all but ran head first into a viscous membrane of thin changeling goop.

“Shit is just all over the place…”

Struggling to reach his knife, Jack finally managed to snag the blade with his fingers before cutting through the membrane.

Hope flooded him as he looked through the end of the tunnel and into a massive antechamber that reach hundreds of meters up to a rocky ceiling. The antechamber was riddled with passages big and small, and held no small number of changelings. Lacking any other choice, Jack pulled himself halfway out of the passage, before allowing gravity to take over for him. Rolling as he slid free from the tight tunnel, Jack used his hands to push off from the wall and to give himself enough momentum to complete his flip. Landing heavily on top of a changeling soldier who popped like an armoured balloon, Jack straightened and slung his ammo bag back over his shoulder before opening fire without warning.

The changelings keened and squealed as they were cut down like chaff before the scythe, and Jack continued to fire until the last of his belt chattered through the receiver. Ripping the next belt from his bag, Jack spun on his toes and gauged his situation. Surrounded on all sides with more changelings pouring in by the second, Jack found himself smiling despite everything. “Great, they can't escape now.” He hefted his weapon and loosed a 40mm grenade into a cluster of targets, and was rewarded when dismembered hunks of meat and chitin was tossed about by the explosion. He let out a roar of defiance to match their keening chitters as they continued to press in around him.

Pinning down the trigger as he opened the M203 and ejected the large empty casing, Jack backpedaled and span, arcing his fire wildly and randomly in an attempt to keep the changelings off him. Suddenly, a warning icon blared in his eyes, and his trained instincts sent him down to the dirt. He grunted in exertion at the impact, but thanks to his reflexes, the inbound anti-tank rocket slammed into the antechamber wall instead of his chest, the resulting rocky shrapnel killing and wounding a score of inbound drones. Rolling and jumping to his feet, Jack slammed the M203 shut on the next round and pivoted on his heels, hunting the owner of the launcher. The hair on his neck rose as his eyes fell upon the company of soldiers taking defensive positions amongst the rocks. Another AT4 launcher was leveled at him, and he only just managed to fire his grenade in time. The HE grenade exploded just behind the rocks, tossing the rocket soldier out of cover. Whether out of reflexive trigger pull or happenstance, the launcher fired upwards as it was dropped, and it's rocket slammed into the roof far above the fight. Jack backed up and covered his head with a heavy gauntlet as chunks of rock rained down.

Seizing the initiative, Jack loaded another HE grenade and prepared to fire, before being struck in the chest by a massive iridescent ball of magic. The blast lifted him off his feet and sent him sprawling. He popped back to his feet and ripped his WP grenade bandolier free, before hurling the damaged, sputtering grenades into the oncoming horde. It wasn't long before they exploded, showering the area in burning shrapnel.

“YOU DARE ATTACK MY HIVE!?” Another blast ripped up the ground at his feet as he jumped back and hunted for his target. He found her within seconds. The tall changeling snarled at him as her horn charged again. “I WILL DELIVER YOUR HEAD TO MY LORD, AND BE REWARDED!” She fired another blast at him, and caught his shoulder pauldron, setting it ablaze. “NO CREATURE CROSSES QUEEN CHRYSALIS AND LIVES!”

Snarling in return, Jack leveled his M240g at the queen and pinned down the trigger. The rounds struck a near invisible shield, which sent them off in random directions as it pulsed with every hit. The queen laughed at him, and charged her horn for another attack. “SOLDIERS, KILL THE HUMAN AND BRING ME HIS HEAD!”

Jack cursed vibrantly as the sudden incoming fire forced him to take cover behind a mound of bodies as the changeling fire deflected and spalled off his armour. His HUD began blaring warnings as his ceramic plating shattered and the titanium underlayer came under fire. He barely took notice as a stray round clipped his comms array, showering the area in sparks and electronics debris.

Definitely not good! God I hope Baron made it out of here, cause I don't know if I will!

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Up top, Baron felt her heart surge with joy, and her body fill with the relief of the ponies following her as they breached the entrance of the tunnel and exited out into the daylight. What had taken her and Jack three hours to creep through, Baron had basically jogged with the ponies following her in an hour. Whatever Jack had done had sent the entire hive into a frenzy, and they had all but abandoned the upper layers. Pulling off the optical tarping, Baron waved frantically toward the sand berm that Hound and Gestalt squad had been using for cover. Between them and safety was almost two dozen changeling corpses that were slowly cooling in the sand. Relief saturated her as eight firearm wielding ponies appeared over the berm and aimed at them. The civilians broke rank from behind Baron, and galloped pell-mell toward their saviours. For a moment Baron was struck with panic as the soldiers all tensed and their weapon barrels aimed.

“Hound, Gestalt, friendlies!” She yelled as loudly as she could manage, and breathed a shallow breath of thanks as the weapons lowered and the sword wielding guards emerged to secure the terrified civilians. She picked up the pace, galloping to the squads after retrieving Jack's tarps and folding them with her magic.

“Where's Spectre One Actual!?” The squad leader demanded as the first of the carriages landed and began loading civilians.

Baron shook her head as she stowed her weapon. “We got separated when one of the tunnels collapsed, He said he was going to find another way around.”

Without warning the squad leader grabbed her and slammed her hard against a large boulder before putting his hooves to her throat. “You changeling whore!” He hissed. “You left him behind, didn't you!?” The two squads were beginning to converge on her with confusion. “Traitorous bitch left him to die!” Baron gasped for breath as the soldiers confusion turned to red hot hate within seconds.

“Hey!” The tawny mare galloped over, trying to separate the soldiers from her. “Leave her alone! She helped save us!”

“She's a changeling!”

“I don't care! She saved us all!” The tawny mare yelled, drawing the attentions of the remaining civilians. The crowd began moving toward the soldiers, shouting their affirmations and condemning the attack.

Looking incredibly unhappy with the turn of events, the squad leader turned toward the tawny mare and dropped Baron to the sand. “Well then what happened to the Staff Sergeant?”

“The roof collapsed, and he got separated from us. He said he was going to find another way around, but I think he distracted the hive instead.” The tawny mare hugged her colt, who trembled between her legs like a leaf.

The squad leader cursed in anger as he ran a hoof through his short shock of mane. “Shit. Okay, civilians on the carriages, we’ll deal with this later.” He shot a baleful glare at Baron before turning back toward where the carriages had landed, and silently thanked his stars as the additional carriage that he'd requested arrived just in time. He could hear the sound of the strange prototype VTOL approaching in the distance, and soon his radio crackled.

“Snake to Spectre One Actual, come in Spectre One Actual.”

The squad leader shook his head as he answered his radio. “Spectre One Actual is MIA, we're extracting the civilians and pulling back to wait for further orders.”

“The hell you mean he's MIA? How do you lose a half tonne of ‘Pissed off and Armed’?”

Before the squad leader had a chance to answer, the ground shook, and nearly fell out from under his hooves. The soldiers and civilians all ran from the opening hole in the ground, until it had opened up into a massive sinkhole. The sounds of keening changelings, chattering gunfire, and occasional explosions echoed up through the hole as the squad's gathered around the edge and peered down into the darkness. Tracer fire arced back and forth, before being answered with magical blasts.

“It's Jack! He's down there!” Baron cried out ecstatically. “We've got to get him out!”

“And how in Tartarus do you suggest we do that, changeling?” The squad leader snarled at her. “He's not even answering his comms!”

Baron glared at him as the weapon on her hip became a prudent idea in her mind that refused to leave. She turned from him, and began galloping for the prototype VTOL as Snake brought it in for a soft landing. Bounding into the heli, Baron practically glomped the poor pilot. “What do you say we put the bird through her paces? The Staff Sergeant is a little stuck and he's gonna need a hot-shot pilot to pull him out.” She asked with a smile.

Looking toward the large hole in the ground, Snake grinned and sped up his rotors again. “Well, little lady, I'll do it for you, since you asked so nicely.”

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Jack roared in defiance as he popped out of cover and fired another HE grenade toward the company before him. The round exploded violently, cutting down the incoming fire by a small amount as he danced and dove, trying to avoid the heavy magical blasts. The changeling queen cackled as she struck his midriff with a smaller blast and sent him sprawling.

“You wanna play it like that? Okay!” Jack’s HUD flooded with target markers as his targeting computers marked out every soldier that hid behind the rocks. His micro-rocket launcher extended from his shoulder and armed his remaining rockets “HIVE, THREE ROUNDS, AIRBURST AT HALF METER! FIRE!”

The rockets let out ear piercing shrieks as they leapt off his shoulder and flowered mid-air. The submunitions spiraled and danced around each other as they each independently tracked their targets, before detonating at less than a half meter’s distance away. Their unfortunate targets were reduced to a fine paste as the volatile mix of high explosive, concussive force, and shrapnel ripped them to shreds.

Slamming his last belt of ammunition home, Jack racked the weapons charging handle with a snarl and immediately began applying pressure again on the Queen, who was still reeling from the attack. Her shield shone like a beacon in the dark as it struggled to handle the weight of fire he was pouring down upon it. Cracks began appearing in the dome as her horn began charging again, and Jack continued to advance on the Queen who buzzed her wings and prepared to escape.

“THIS ISN’T THE LAST YOU’LL SEE OF ME, HUMAN, MARK MY-” The Queen's words were stolen away from her as a 40mm grenade impacted her shield, creating a small hole about the size of a dime and a massive spider web of tiny cracks.

“Arm Dum-Dum, fire on target!” Jack bellowed as his shoulder launcher swiveled and targeted the tiny hole. The anti-tank rocket whistled off his shoulder, hitting supersonic speeds within the split second it had left. The tungsten carbide coating peeled away as the rocket struck the hole, and the depleted uranium core shot through. The changeling Queen’s head simply vanished as the core struck her mid muzzle and vaporize everything above her neck. Her crown was sent twirling to the ground, where it sat spinning and smoking for a moment until Jack crushed it under foot.

A cry went up amongst the changelings that turned into a feral keening. The surviving soldiers seemed stunned, while the drones became aimless and lost. With the changelings in disarray, Jack began scanning for an exit. A body slammed into his side without warning, and more fire began pouring down upon him as frenzied soldiers began flooding into the antechamber. Cursing his luck, Jack fired his last 40mm grenade into the largest cluster and plucked a fallen soldier's weapon off the ground. As the frenzied horde began pushing in on him again, the sound of approaching helicopter blades filled his audio pickups, and drew his attention to the roof.

The roof had been blown away, leaving a massive, gaping wound in the earth. Jack gawked in shock and broke into an excited grin as the prototype helicopter hovered for a moment, before pivoting on its axis and shooting down nose first into the hole. Threading the needle that was a very right drop with his incredibly expensive prototype helicopter, Snake sent himself plummeting toward the ground, before pulling up at the last possible second. Swinging the tail end of the craft around, Baron stuck her head out of the troop bay.

“Jack, get in!”

Rounds began punching into and off the craft's fuselage, and off of Jack's damaged armour. He turned his back on the craft and began firing into the crowd of disorganised soldiers. As he fired, he quickly backed up until his armoured ass met the floor of the helo.

“I'm in, gogogogogogo!” He thumped the fuselage with a fist, before firing his stolen weapon until it's bolt locked back.

Snake swiveled the helicopter again, and sent it's nose pitching upwards, before pouring every last iota of power the engines could handle into the rotors. The craft whined and shook violently as it hurtled toward the hole in the ground. Hunks of rock were falling free from the edges of the hole, threatening to destroy the rotors as they fell past. Bracing for a possible impact, Jack grabbed hold of Baron and sucked in a breath as the craft approached the hole at high speed.

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The last of the civilians had finally been loaded onto the carriages, and the soldiers were swiftly piling in. Hound’s squad leader cast one last look toward the hole that the traitorous changeling and psychotic pilot had gone through. Shaking his head, the soldier turned his back on the hole and gave the order to take off. Then, just as the flight crew was getting ready to take off, the rhythmic clatter of the prototype’s blades caused everyone present to pause and look back toward the hole. Without warning, the craft shot out of the hole and arced high in the air, before levelling off and circling the carriages on the ground. In the troop bay, the ponies on the ground could see the armoured bulk of a man resting a foot on the helo’s landing skid. Collectively the saved civilians and the soldiers around them cheered and stomped their hooves as he saluted the crowd below

The tawny mare's colt hugged her leg as he stared on with open awe as the soldier's carriage lifted off to follow in the VTOL’s wake. Looking up at his mother, the colt smiled happily. “Mom? Was that a super hero?”

Hugging her son as tightly as she could bear, the mare nodded weakly and laughed as she looked over all of the relieved and exhausted faces. “I think so honey… I know he's certainly my hero.” The mare sighed heavily in relief and watched the ground below them zip by as she held her son.