Nod’s spearhead force had come out of nowhere, rapidly succeeding in pushing GDI’s forces right off the railroad tracks that connected Dodge City with Ponyville, forcing them back into the southern end of the Everfree Forest.

Truly, this was in and of itself a great achievement for the Brotherhood and its troops. However, for Corporal Thorax there was only one thing that could make this day better. If General Rolling Thunder, with his booming battlefield-encompassing voice, stopped fucking yelling. While he still had his new ‘loving’ form that he had received during that fateful battle with Chrysalis all those years ago, it was now slightly corrupted by tiberium. He, along with his hive, while no longer the majority of their species, still kept their new forms while still enjoying the effects of tiberium. The only difference between his dwindling faction and Chrysalis’ masses was that his loyal few still relied on camaraderie for their strength, and thus had to stay as a unit that cared for each other beyond that required of your typical infantry group.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGE!!!” Rolling Thunder finally finished yelling, successfully delivering his first order of the day. “EVA!” he then said, “HAS MY ORDER BEEN CARRIED OUT? HAS OUR PATHETIC FOE BEEN ROUTED?!”

“GDI forces have retreated two phase lines into their defensive perimeter. Our forces are currently engaged outside the Everfree Forest.” replied the AI.

“GOOD! WE WILL THEN PROCEED WITH THE NEXT PHASE OF MY MASTER PLAN! ALL UNITS, CHAAAAA-” started yelling the buffalo before being rudely interrupted.

“Incoming transmission from Brother-Brigadier Hyperion” stated EVA.

“THAT SNIVELING COWARD?! WHAT IN BLAZES DOES HE WANT? HOW DARE HE INTERRUPT OUR GLORIOUS STAMPEDE! ON SCREEN!”

“Finally! Rolling Thunder, pull your forces back now!” said Hyperion as soon as the connection had been established.

“HA! SO THE COWARD SHOWS HIS TRUE COLORS!” replied the buffalo, letting off a hearty laugh. “COME NOW! I WILL GRANT YOU THE OPPORTUNITY TO REDEEM YOURSELF BY JOINING MY STAMPEDE! OTHERWISE, YOU CAN DIE A COWARD’S DEATH ONCE I MAKE MY GRAND RETURN!”

“For the love of… this is a trap you overgrown visceroid! GDI forces just dropped on your rear and you got armor on your flanks! The biggest concentration of Zone Troopers since Baltimare is hitting your tail as we speak!”
____________

“Zone Troopers are on the field, Dead Six is already heading towards their insertion point, and armor support is less than 10 minutes away, Colonel.” stated Hook, still rather uncomfortable at playing second-in-command to a catapulted hotshot.

Rose Shard watched the tactical map with great interest, focusing mainly on troops movements both friendly and not. “Your tanks are running late, LC. Their commander will have realized what is happening by now and will retreat accordingly. We need to begin our push now before our Zone Troopers lose the element of surprise.”

“With all due respect colonel, patience. General Stampede and I formulated a plan before your arrival which, if Nod’s timing is any indication, we finished implementing just in time. Take a look at the railroad.” said Hook, a slight shit-eating grin forming on his face.

“EVA, zoom.” ordered Rose Shard, her magical assistant magnifying the battlefield until a lone convoy was focused on. “... LC, what in Celestia’s name are those trains doing heading straight to…. Nod’s…. Oh. EVA, report on unit composition onboard.”

“Alpha Train transporting Company C, 67th Armored Battalion. Beta Train transporting Company D, 67th Armored Battalion. Charlie train transporting Company A, 67th Armored Battalion. Tertiary Detachment from the Corps of Mages is providing magical protection for all trains at this time. ETA to deployment zone: 2 minutes.”
____________

When he was merely a colt, one of Lieutenant Sandhorn’s favorite activities was riding a train. It wasn’t just due to the convenience they brought forth in terms of moving him somewhere else quicker, or the sites he would see on his journeys. No, it was all about the speed and the feeling of riding something far more powerful than himself. It was nothing short of exciting.

This particular train ride however was nothing short of terrifying.

“Deployment Zone arrival in 30 seco-”

“Shut up EVA.” he blurted out, shaking himself into the right mindset for being thrown into what would most certainly be a meatgrinder. Whether the ground meat would be Nod or GDI was his main concern.

The sounds of exploding artillery and non-stop gunfire all around didn’t help.

Blinking rapidly to finish psyching himself up, Sandhorn got on the radio.

“Alright Platoon, ten seconds! As soon as the train stops, move out, pick targets, and may Celestia be with you!”

Almost on queue, the doors on the train’s cars all unlocked simultaneously. For once, the Captain had actually briefed them on what their mission would be before EVA did. For whatever reason, the brass had seen it fit to do so when they were already on the train and not earlier.

Apparently a large Noddie force had been encircled in the middle of their assault on Everfree HQ. Companies C and D were being thrown right into the action, their transport trains ramming straight into the enemy lines and bisecting the enemy’s force in two. Company D would push north towards Everfree HQ while Company C, Sandhorn’s own platoon included, would push south and grind their way towards recently-deployed Zone Troopers.

“Hope them pilots ain’t too busy to help us poor tankers, eh LT?” said sergeant Woodtooth, hooves already on the main cannon’s autoloader controls.

“Aye.” Sandhorn answered, suddenly finding himself taking a very deep breath as he felt the trains stop.

As the gear stopped and the rails screeched as the trains came to a quickening halt, the doors on the cars, through sheer inertia, slammed themselves open and and exposed their cargo to the enemy.

“Company, FORWARD!” came Captain Sunset’s order. As one, all sixteen tanks, four whole platoons, rolled out.

Sandhorn could complain for hours about how much he hated having EVA talk into his ear without warning or how utterly braindead the magical construct could appear to be sometimes, but it was during time like this, time where EVA catalogued and fed him as much tactical information as possible all at once, that he really appreciated it.

“Driver, move up! Seek hull down!” he ordered, immediately setting a waypoint to a small incline near their deployment zone. “Platoon follow in Wedge!”

The 2nd Platoon soon formed up, the remaining three tanks joining Sandhorn’s Predator in formation and finding cover.

“Gunner load Beehive! Massed troops, five hundred meters, ten o’clock!” he yelled into his microphone, battlefield conditions and the tank itself making any non-radio communication Inaudible.

“Identified!” replied Woodtooth.

“FIRE!”

In response to Nod’s brutal yet frighteningly effective tactic of sending as many bodies as possible at the enemy until the enemy was no more, GDI requested an anti-infantry solution more effective than high-explosive ammunition. After a close contest, the winning result was the Manehattan Hunting Goods Co. SRS-05 “Beehive” tank and artillery shell. Unlike a traditional tank shell, this particular rounds wasn’t made to reach its target destination but rather to break up mid-air to deliver a separate payload to the target. In a way it shared a great many similarities to the SABOT round used on most non-railgun Predators. However, while the SABOT would release a single tungsten arrow unto an enemy tank to pierce its armor and neutralize the crew inside, the Beehive was loaded with over 120 small steel arrows which, upon being fired, would almost immediately spread in a cone ahead of the tank’s cannon and shred apart any troops unfortunate enough to be in the tank’s way.

It was little surprise for most in the defense industry that the biggest suppliers of pump-action shotguns in Equestria were able to turn 120mm tank cannons into 120mm shotguns.

“Targets down!” reported Woodtooth, an entire tank company’s worth of firepower almost drowning him out on the radio.

“Roger that! Platoon, new orders! We’re on overwatch duty! Let's give 3rd and 1st Platoons some cover fire!”
____________

Things were oddly quiet for Havoc and his team. The six commandos had managed to break from the front line, move through the chaos under cover of “ZONE Troopers bucking everything up” as Blunderbuss had put it, and surprised the hell out of a Nod sentry as they entered his guardhouse. Once he and his partner were splattered all over the far wall, Dead Six worked their way into the refinery.

The mission was as simple as ops went, data retrieval, hidden by a demolitions job and the death of any Nod bastard unlucky enough to get in their way; classic smash and grab. If everything went as planned, the entire operation, Rose Shard’s offensive thrust into Nod territory included, would look like nothing more than an attempt to hit Nod’s logistical capabilities and not the most important intelligence retrieval of the war.

“Fan out, teams of two. Blunderbuss, you’re with me.” Havoc ordered, “Gunner, take Deadeye with you and start planting along any electrical conduits and breaker boxes you can find. Hotwire, Patch, get the intel and leave the command center in flames. Blunderbuss, we’re hitting tib vats with sonic resonance charges. Any questions?”

“None, sir.” Ruby Robe replied, her magical aura cocking the shotguns on her harness.

“Good. Alright Dead Six, masks on.”
_______________

“TANKS! THEY GOT BLOODY TA-” yelled someone, although whom it was would probably never be known as he and seemingly his whole unit were silenced by the deafening roar of a cannon and torn apart by whatever that damn armor was shooting at them.

“Backblast clear!” yelled an earth pony, firing an unguided AT rocket at the approaching tanks. He was mowed down by their turret-mounted coax a second later.

“Sir, what do we do?!” said a wounded pegasus from behind a rock.

Taking cover and assessing the situation, former-King Thorax knew there was only one option they could take.

“We need to pull back to a more defensible position! Begin retreat to-”

“UNACCEPTABLE!” yelled out a dark, looming figure in the garb of the Black Hand’s Confessors. “RETREAT IS FOR COWARDS ONLY! IN THE NAME OF KANE, YOU WILL MARCH FORTH OR YOU SHALL REST HERE FOREVER!”

Confessor Carap; it was bad enough that she was a Confessor, but the fact that she was one of Chrysalis’ own minor queens made having her as Thorax’s platoon commander almost unbearable.

“Confessor, if we stay here we will all DIE!” Thorax said, keeping his head down.

“THEN DIE WE WILL! FOR BROTHERHOOD AND FOR KANE!”

Thorax took a deep, profuse sigh. “Ok, fuck this.” he said, pulling out his sidearm and shooting the Confessor in her front left leg.

“TR-TRAITOR! YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS HERETIC!”

“Yes, yes. Let’s go fellas! Begin retreat to phase-line delta!”
_______________

Thorax’s choice to pull back was well-founded and most of the Nod force would have been wise to follow suit. The recently-arrived armor had bisected the Nod formation, creating two separate pockets into which GDI was pouring as much firepower as earthly possible. Further north, GDI infantry held the line against Nod’s now-disarrayed assault, holding out as armor and mechanized troops moved into the enemy’s flanks from Dodge City and Ghastly Gorge. Combined with one of the Predator companies that had just arrived by train further south, the northern pocket had no chance to escape. The southern pocket was a bit more fortunate, if only because the troops there were able to more easily move around the Zone Troopers while the armored infantry pushed north to meet up with the Predator company pushing south. Once the Zone Troopers and tanks met up however, things went from bad to worse for Nod.

Armor and armored infantry kept moving up and pushing the Nod positions back. Zone Troopers walked alongside Mammoths and Predators as they rolled slowly into position, with regular infantry coming up behind them and laying down cover fire. Those dumb enough to pop their heads up longer than a few seconds ended up with a stump where their heads had been and anyone who ran without covering fire ended up with a few dozen new holes in their back.

Jet Deck and Apple Bloom were having almost too much of a good time as their fellow Zone Troopers gunned down everything in their path wearing a scorpion tail.

Usually when a Zone Trooper walked the battlefield, they were a prime target for the big guns that could actually take them out. Small arms were shrugged off and anyone dumb enough to get within melee range that weren’t juvenile dragons were horribly outclassed by these modern-day knights in powered armor. The current situation on the other hand was a return to a tactic that had proven quite effective in Baltimare and a few other engagements along the unofficial border between Nod and GDI, one that became known simply as “steamrolling”.

GDI would take a Nod attack right on the nose, absorbing casualties and fire with superior armor, magical shields, and prepared positions, weather the storm, and then march as one mass of metal and magic until Nod either disengaged or lay dead and flattened by the rolling tide. No longer did GDI rush like ancient berserkers of the pre-Discordian Age into the fray, instead, they resurrected an antiquated Romane art that lead to Colonel Shard’s nickname.

Colonel Rose “Phalanx” Shard.
_______________

Hotwire cursed as another explosion rocked the facility. From the size of the detonation, she could tell it wasn’t an internal blast courtesy of her teammates, but from artillery outside. GDI’s line had pushed Nod back far enough that the big guns could hit the mountain directly. That meant they had a maximum of 10 minutes to get the data, get to the extraction point, and meet up with one of R&D’s new toys for pickup.

Luckily for the team, she had just finished cracking the server and had a plenty of unsecured data to slip into her personal data crystal and its backup. In a matter of moments, every ounce of tiberium harvesting research would be in GDI’s hooves.

“Here’s hoping Director Enigma can make good use of this crap.” she murmured under her breath, swearing again as yet another explosion nearly sent her to the ground. That one wasn’t muffled, and came from inside the refinery.

“Things are getting crowded up here!” Patch barked over the comm, shielding his face from the grenade that had bounced off the wall near him.

“Same here! Moving to extraction point!” Gunner barked back into his own mouthpiece, his voice filtering in over the sound of laser fire into the ear of every Dead Six member. Hotwire winced when she heard yet another explosion over the comm, this one on Havoc’s frequency.

“Having fun there, sir?” she asked as she sifted through the data on the terminal.
__________

“You know it, Hotwire! Blundy and I made some friends, but they took exception to us messing with the tib vats.” the pegasi laughed, “So we shot them and made some more.”

“They didn’t like us any more than the last ones!” Blunderbuss added, getting an unseen, feral grin from her team leader.

“How’s the tap going, Hotwire?” Havoc asked, his tone getting a slight edge to it as he sidestepped another laser burst and gunned down the changeling who shot at him.

“Wiping their drives now, all data is safe on my onboard EVA, even got some low-level troop movement updates from the system. Patch and I will meet you at the extraction point in 5.” the mare replied matter-of-factly, her voice only wavering when another shell from outside made the whole mountain tremble.

“Pip?”

“Charges placed, we’re already en route to the pickup, meet you there, sir!” the young sniper answered, getting another grin from Havoc. Compared to their last big op, this one was going almost perfectly. With any luck, they’d be out of here with time to spare.

“We’re moving to meet the both of you, hit the EZ and hold it, barricade if possible. We are not having another Canterlot.”

The comm was silent for that one.
____________

From the moment Thorax had shot the confessor to now, his unit had retreated a few kilometers from where they’d originally encountered the enemy armor. On their way they had picked up survivors from other units who had either been bombed or ground down to size by GDI’s unrelenting assault.

The former King had much to be proud of in this very moment. However, from his position within a hastily-dug fox hole, he feared it would all be for naught. Two Predators had found them and his recon units had detected at least five APCs loaded with GDI troops moving to his position. His troops numbered around 200, almost twice what GDI would throw at them now without leaving a vulnerability in their line. However, they had no anti-armor anymore, meaning their numbers would be useless against the Predators.

“BREVET-CAPTAIN THORAX, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR YOU MISERABLE INSECT?!”

There was also that problem.

“FORM BESIDE ME AND JOIN THE MIGHTY STAMPEDE SO WE MAY SMASH THE ENEMY UNDER OUR HOOVES!” yelled commander Thunder.

”Maybe that’s why GDI hasn’t attacked.” Thought Thorax. ”They’re waiting for this imbecile to throw us into their guns.”

“Commander, please keep your head down. Do you have some white fiber on you? We might be able to surrender to them.” said Thorax.

“SU-SU-SURRENDER?!”

“Oh boy, here we go again.”

“THE BUFFALO TRIBE NEVER SURRENDERS! OUR MARTIAL TRADITIONS HAVE BEEN PASSED DOWN FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION VIA THE THUNDER FAMILY! VERY WELL THEN COWARD, STAND ASIDE! I SHALL CRUSH THEM MYSELF!”

In one quick leap, Rolling Thunder jumped out of the trench he had forced some poor bastards dig, then began charging GDI’s line. It was at that moment that the battlefield around Thorax’s position became covered in white, glittering smoke. This was followed by a carryall seemingly decloaking over a clearing next to the line of dug-out trenches and foxholes.

“Come on ladies! Hop in before they get a bead on us!” yelled a well-uniformed, well-armed trooper onboard the carryall after its doors opened. Thorax barely managed to get a half-muttered bit of worry for Rolling Thunder before another round zipped past and grazed his helmet, making the decision he had to make very clear.

“Everyone on board! We’re leaving!”
____________

Rolling Thunder continued to charge, his armor shrugging off most of the damage that he was taking from incoming fire. Much to his surprise, the GDI infidels were not cowed at all by his glorious stampede, they simply renewed their efforts in firing at him, with most of them choosing him as his target. If he had any extra time to think about the issue, he would have wondered why it seemed like he was the only one on the field of battle charging, and why it seemed like half of these puny ponies were aiming at something in the air.

His thoughts were cut short rather abruptly as the armor on his foreleg buckled and a trio of round shredded his knee, sending him careening face-first into the dirt. He slid for a few feet before his head impacted something metal that he couldn’t see. Moments later, a door opened up and a carryall deactivated its cloaking shield.

“Well well well, it would appear the ‘great’ Rolling Thunder, commander of the 6th Army, nice of you to drop by.”

“WHAT DO YOU WANT, INSOLENT PONY!?”

“I’m here to retrieve you, you idiot. GDI overran all of your positions and most of your survivors are already aboard my birds, time for you to join them.”

“A BUFFALO NEVER RETREATS! WE-”

“Go down fighting, with honor, facing our enemies, like idiots. Yes, I know the mantra, horns-for-brains, and I’m here to tell you to stuff it. Your leg is shattered and there’s no possible way you could get your glory without a kneecap.”

“FOOL!” the buffalo bellowed, standing slowly and glaring at his peer, “I WILL TAKE THE LINE BY MYSELF! HONOR SHALL BE BROUGHT BY MY SACRIFICE TO THE BUFFALO TRIBES!”

Hyperion didn’t dignify him with a reply, merely scowling at the brash commander before giving a slight flick of his head in the direction of the carryalls crew chief. The transport lifted into the air out of Rolling Thunder’s way, its cloak reactivating as it lifted off. Thunder spat in reply.

“WATCH, HYPERION! WATCH YOU COWARD! I SHALL BREAK THE GDI LINE! FOR GLORY!”
____________

“He’s charging again, sir.”

“I can see that, chief.” the Black Hand officer replied, a smile lighting up his features for a moment before he hit the release on the hatch facing the GDI line. With practiced grace he sat at the lip of the troop bay and brought up the specialized rifle that his harness had been outfitted with specifically for this mission.

The rifle was a GDI model, a GD-AMSR Mk. III sniper rifle captured during a skirmish near Las Pegasus, that fired ballistic rounds instead of relying on laser projection like the more sophisticated Brotherhood snipers. The weapon was brought up to his eye, the eye cup of the scope fitting surprisingly well against Hyperion’s helmet as he sighted in on the lone charging figure left on the battlefield.

“Keep us steady.” Hyperion ordered quietly over the carryalls team frequency as he kept tracking the lumbering oaf.

When he saw Thunder take more rounds and stumble, he took a deep breath in, sighting in on the slowed figure. When that mass of fur, horns, and misplaced pride came to a halt, he started breathing out. And when he saw a GDI soldier, a smug unicorn with green eyes, pull out binders with her magic, he felt his exhalation end, his body completely empty of air, and he finally tapped the icon to fire on his HUD.

Major General Rolling Thunder died with a body littered with bullets, and an executioner’s round taking his head off, but surprisingly, with his pride still intact.
____________

Three Nod soldiers clustered behind a barricade meant to keep enemies out if they ever landed on the refinery’s helipad, only instead of protecting themselves from a strike team forcing the door and breaching, they were going to be keeping something from getting out. GDI commandos had infiltrated the facility, killed most of the staff and security, and now all sources from those still breathing put them heading towards the only viable egress in the refinery. That left three stallions outnumbered and outgunned. One commando was bad enough, but six? GDI must have really wanted this facility knocked out.

“Movement!” one of the troopers screamed, unloading his rifle down the hallway. At first his comrades thought he was just being jumpy, but then a trio of grenades sailed through the sky straight at their barricade, denting it and disorienting the three of them. Before they could get back up and start firing again, a mare with two shotguns on her combat harness leaped the barricade and executed them. Within moments, the other five commandos were next to her and opening the cargo doors, letting in enough daylight so suddenly that had they not been masked, it would have blinded them after even the short time they’d been inside the darkened facility.

“Clear.” Ruby Robe announced once the doors were open enough for her to scan the helipad. No one was around, and Nod had relied on stealth to keep it safe. What few SAM sites had been stationed on the mountain had been destroyed by pinpoint artillery strikes courtesy of a sniper team Dead Six knew was somewhere in the area. They had hiked their way into the area from a drop zone nearly 10 kilometers south and Havoc made a mental note to thank them personally for leaving the window permanently open for “Mjolnir” to enter.

Havoc walked onto the helipad slowly, still scanning for anything out there that could compromise the mission. Canterlot had cost him Sakura, and had made him a bit overly cautious during extractions, even the small ones that had occupied their time until this mission had worked its way down the pipe. He insisted on sweeping the extraction zones personally just in case of an ambush, and was always the last one on the bird. He had told Dead Six that he would fly with his own wings if necessary, and no one doubted that he would.

“Helipad is clear, ride is inbound.” Havoc announced, looking up at the speck in the air that was getting bigger and louder by the second.

Coming in fast was a swoop-winged, dual-rotored helicopter bigger than an ORCA. Two gun pods were slung below the wings boasting dual .50 caliber machine guns loaded with an experimental type of AP ammunition that GDI R&D hadn’t finished testing; a fitting armament for the first Hammerhead Gunship to be field tested in combat.

“Dead Six, this is Mjolnir, coming in hot, prep to load as soon as the doors are open, we’ll stay facing forward just in case some Noddie stragglers try to bum a ride.” a deep yet distinctively feminine voice announced.

“Mjolnir, nice of you to join us!” Havoc quipped, “We’re a little exposed up here, so if you could hurry we’d appreciate it quite a bit.”

If the Stalliongrad native had replied with some snide remark, Havoc didn’t hear it, the laser fire that lit up the helipad nearly deafened him and sent everyone but Ruby Robe to the ground searching for cover.

“SHADOWS!” Blunderbuss shouted, turning to lay down cover fire before her chest was peppered with lasers. Her armor took the first few hits and she stayed standing, almost shrugging them off before she started to feel numb. She could barely see the shimmering in the air from their camouflage, and filled the doorway and the walls around it with as many pellets as she could until her shotguns ran empty. The mechanisms in her harness were already reloading them when she felt something warm and hard hit her face.

She never realized it was the helipads tarmac.

“NO!” Havoc belted out, opening up on the doorway as Ruby Robe hit the ground, her armor smoking and blood already pooling around her. His rounds didn’t hit anything, they didn’t have to, all he had to do was pin those stealthy bastards down long enough to get the team out.

Mjolnir had other plans.

Both gun pods opened up on the area in front of Havoc, walking their fire danger close from his position up to the wall. In seconds, the four Shadows that had ambushed Dead Six were convulsing as their stealth measures failed. Mjolnir kept firing until the systems started reloading, and Havoc emptied enough magazines into them to turn the four infiltrators into puddles of mush with tattered uniform shreddings tossed about. His breathing was ragged, he had a laser burn on his chest plate, and his wing feathers were singed by the heat of his own rifles, but he did his duty as he picked up Ruby’s body and carried her to the Hammerhead.

Nod’s greatest secret, the key that allowed them to use tiberium to fuel their war machine, was now in the hooves of GDI. Their glorious offensive into GDI territory had stalled, and the casualty count for the Brotherhood continued to climb even as Dead Six picked up Sniper Team Bravo, but to Havoc this was a loss.

Blunderbuss, the rookie they had snatched up from the jaws of Tartarus and put through half a dozen successful missions, was gone. Another team member that he could have saved, somehow, gone to join Sakura on the Special Forces Memorial.

“We’ll make sure she gets a proper burial in Canterlot, sir.” Hotwire murmured as she took her mask off.

“Make sure of it…” Havoc whispered back, keeping his on for the sake of hiding his face.

It was going to be a long flight home.