"What did you say to them?" Vinyl yelled as a bullets whipped past her.

"Look, obviously it didn't go so well!" Octavia screamed back, tumbling forward over the embankment her teammates had taken cover behind, dust spraying everywhere.

"I said as much, I may remind," Zercora muttered, her rifle kicking painfully into her shoulder as she fired a round at the approaching ponies. "These raiders would see through your disguise. They are not blind."

"Can we please just fall back to the beacon and get out of here?" Octavia implored, dropping the primitive submachine gun she had been carrying into the dirt.

"Remind me again why we couldn't have beacon bands on this mission?" Time Turner asked, running for a pile of stones not far from the embankment, bullets passing inches from his face. "We'd be gone by now with those!"

"Too much radiation interference, Doc," Vinyl explained, pulling an oversized Outsider Thaumic Rifle from her back and passing it to Octavia. "This environment makes the effects unpredictable."

Octavia grabbed the rifle, popping over the embankment and sweeping her aim across the line of approaching raiders, the weapon's fifteen-kilothaum continuous-wave beam kicking up a cloud of dirt and eliciting a collection of all-too-satisfying screams.

Zecora fired again, a wet thud and a moan signifying another hit on target. "Much as I enjoy this taking these scum apart, I feel it would be best for us to hastily depart."

"Agreed." Octavia jumped behind cover as a shotgun blast impacted the space her head had just occupied. "Doc! Time is of the essence!"

"Oh, I don't know..." Vinyl contemplated, pulling another, much larger weapon from the pack and priming it, a satisfyingly ominous hum emanating from its interior. "It's not that bad out here."

Octavia stared at the weapon, momentarily forgetting that she was in the middle of a firefight. "Vinyl, what is that?"

"Nothin' special." Vinyl smirked, hefting herself over the embankment and aiming the weapon at the approaching mob. "EAT BASS!"

Octavia felt her eardrums pop as the overpressure washed over her, a slight ringing in her ears warning of the fact that she had come very close to sustaining permanent hearing damage from Vinyl's 'weapon'. As her hearing returned, a chorus of screams became audible, the approaching raiders having been thrown through the air from the weapon's impact.

"You built a bass cannon," Octavia deadpanned, staring at the weapon in question as Vinyl ducked back behind cover, a manic grin on her face.

"Yes I did." Vinyl admitted, patting the cannon. "Mac helped a bit, but it was mostly my idea."

"This. This!" Octavia pointed at the cannon, emphatically. "Is why I have you on this team!"

Vinyl's smile only grew as she ejected the cannon's spent magic storage cell, inserting a replacement in its place. "I thought you'd like it."

"We've got a problem!" Time Turner yelled, hidden behind the rocks.

"Yes!" Octavia agreed. "Bad ponies are shooting at us! Can you hurry up and trigger the beacon and get us out of here?"

"I would if it was still here!"

"It's gone?"

"No. I'm just trying to ramp up the tension a little bit before saving the day." Time turner popped his head over the rocks, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Yes it's gone!"

"Somepony stole our beacon?"

"No." Vinyl interrupted. "It was held in place by fifty-foot cables anchored into bedrock, and covered with a perceptive filtering spell. We're the only ones who can even see it, let alone use it or move it!"

"Then where is it?" Octavia implored. "Did somepony already trigger it?"

"Ops would have sent a replacement and radioed us."

"Might I suggest we reposition? I am running short of ammunition."

"Noted. Vinyl! How long do you need to open a portal?"

"Twenty seconds, give or take."

“Get on it! Doc! Get up here and cover us!” Octavia turned, compulsively checking the weapon’s cell charge as she did so. “Stripes! How many of them are there?”

Zecora jerked back behind the embankment as a particularly vicious impact knocked more dirt from the lip. “Many.”

Octavia popped her head up for a moment, her eyes widening at the horde of raiders closing on their position, a small group of them at the rear towing what appeared to be a small artillery piece.

“Yea, that’s a few,” She remarked, leaning over to tap Vinyl on the shoulder. “Portal, now. Or we’re shellbait”

Vinyl nodded, a sphere of space distorting inwards above them as she ignited her horn. The portal rapidly took shape as Vinyl poured energy into the distortion, attempting to open a semi-traversable gateway. Patches of unlight flickered over the portal aperture as sections of spacetime intruded into the Void.

“Quickly, Vinyl,” Octavia implored, popping up to take a potshot at one of the artillery gunners. “Time is of the essence!”

“The more you talk,” Vinyl replied, voice strained. “The longer this will take.”

“How many are there?” Time Turner asked, scrambling over and flopping beside Octavia, popping the spent magazine from the rusty submachine gun he had stolen from the natives.

“About three dozen, I think,” Octavia answered, passing a replacement magazine. “Plus four at the back with a howitzer. It looked like a howitzer.”

“It is indeed a howitzer gun.” Zecora confirmed, firing another deafening shot with her rifle. “A sign, perhaps, that we should run?”

“Point bucking taken, alright?” Vinyl groaned. “Ten seconds!”

“We’ll be dead in ten seconds!” Time Turner yelled, firing the submachine gun blindly over the lip of the embankment. “We don’t have the bullets to hold them off any longer!”

“I get it!” Vinyl shot back, bolts of volatile energy arcing through the portal as her concentration wavered. “Now, shut up!”

“No time!” Octavia yelled, scooting even further into the dirt as bullet impacts tore away at their meagre cover. “Open it, or we’re all dead!”

“Got it!” Vinyl yelled in satisfaction as the portal stabilised, sweat dripping down her face. “Move! Go, go, g-”

A phenomenal crack cut her off in mid-word as the raiders’ howitzer fired, the shell missing her exposed head by mere inches before hitting the now-open portal square in the centre and vanishing.

“Did they-?”

“They did.”

“Fantastic”