“Is this more along the lines of what you expected, Commander Casemate?” Ping’s voice came through with a bit of static as I glanced across the tank to her. She peered through her own optics with wide eyes and a slack jaw. What, the Pentex main settlement couldn’t be all that impressive, could it? Leaning forward against the optics, I worked the controls to spin the scope forward again.

In front of us lay a clearing a half a kilometer long that was flanked by the two joining edges of the deep valley we’d driven into. What forest and vegetation had originally been here had been clear cut, and from the charred, blackened ground, obviously burned away. The crude gravel road we traveled across lay dead in the center, pushing uphill towards an onyx colored wall.

The wall protecting the bunker looked exactly the same design as the Factory, albeit, only ten meters tall or so. Inset into the base of each segment of the wall were squat and square concrete pillboxes. The bunkers mostly had small arms sticking through their gun slits, but the two flanking the massive centralized metal doorway had large cannon barrels protruding out. The wall was intimidating, sure, but it was what it protected that probably had Commander Casemate so worried.

Beyond the wall, what I originally thought was a stone cliff protruded out from where the two valley walls joined. But as we approached, I could see that it was actually the massive concrete face of a bunker built into the valley walls itself. Various ventilation slats and heavily reinforced piping protruded from various points along the remarkably well kept concrete facade. Written across the top of the structure, in words almost too faded to read without concentrating on them, was PENTEX.

“Well, no points for subtlety from me.” Hispano’s cool and calm voice came over my headset. “But ten out of fucking ten on the presentation.”

“Why does this place look like the factory?” The words slipped out of my muzzle as always. I cringed as I found Casemate throw me an awkward and confused sideways glance.

“Well, Burro Industries was a contract constructor for government subsidiaries and various corporate outreach programs that supported the war effort.” Happy snorted through his radio. “So yeah, we probably built this place too, but who can say?”

“Burro Industries was contracted three years before the end of the war to build this location.” Ping stated rather matter-o-factly. “Seventy five percent of the construction equipment used to construct the Factory was also used to build this specific Pentex facility. In fact, we copied their wall for ours due to the efficient and effective design.” Yeah, but at least the Factory had omitted the various machine guns and cannons now pointed at us...

“Oh, so it was us.” Happy gave a slight chuckle before dropping his tone to a more serious one. “Then it’s only fitting that I get ta help blow it up!”

“Yeah, you can say that again.” Buck’s voice came across with a burst of static and a light chuckle. “Both that it is indeed impressive, and that It’s a shame we’ll have to tear it all down.”

“We can get the walls down, no problem. But how in tartarus are we supposed to get through a bunker like that?” Casemate grumbled as we trundled up the gravel road.

“Tankers of Cordite.” The radio transmission came through with the same voice of the stallion we’d heard before. “Surrender yourselves now, and we will consider letting you keep your lives. Should you open fire however, you forfeit all of Cordite’s holdings to the Pentex Corporation.”

“Do these fuckers even know who we are?” The filly’s voice came over the radio again before there was an audible squelch that ripped through the hull of our tank. “Hello? Pentex assholes?” Her voice came through from both the tank’s radio and from the megaphones that she apparently had mounted on her tank. “You better give back what you stole, or we’re going to kick your asses.”

“Legion, stand down.” Casemate grumbled through her helmet’s radio. “You’re not helping things, Squeezebore.”

“Apple don’t fall far from tha tree, ain’t that right, Dash?” Huck chuckled as he hoofed at his own headset.

“You have sixty seconds to vacate your positions and run along home.” The Pentex stallion snorted sharply. “No more warnings will be given.”

“What are your orders, Commander?” Zibar’s voice came over the radio.

“I think these chaps are in need of a good lesson in old world discipline!” Poppy’s cheerful and polite voice came in next.

“Ya, und ve think das Boom Bear’s Raketen vill make short vork of das ‘picket fence’ zey call a vall.” The ghoulish voice I assume belonging to the Boom Bear’s commander chimed in as well.

“Alright alright, but we wait for my order to fire.” Casemate sighed. “BT-42 and El Alemane, focus on those pillboxes next to the main gate. Julia and Legion, focus your one-o-fives on the other boxes.” We all got an earful of noise as four tanks worth of ponies cheered over the radio. “All other thanks?” She paused as a full bodied smile spread her muzzle from ear to ear. “Tear down that wall.”

“Your time is up.” The Pentex stallion snorted sharply before the machine gun pillboxes and one of the cannons next to the gate opened up on us.

The whistling cannon round came in hard at us. I didn’t even have time to react before it slammed into my side of the turret. My ears were ringing as the whole hull of the tank felt like it was vibrating. Even so, it didn’t feel like it was humming nearly as fast as my heart got going at that hit.

“Gunner, load H.E.!” Casemate’s voice was a whisper amongst the ringing noise.

“Gun ready!” Huck called out as he slammed the breach shut under me.

I leaned forward, pressing my eye up to the optics. A glint caught my eye on the turret of our tank where the metal had been gouged away from the ricocheting round, and some metal box along the turret looked like it had been torn straight off it’s mountings.

“All tanks, open fire!” Casemate shouted into her headset.

As Casemate hoofed her turret controls, both Huck and I paused and listened for the other tanks. But… nothing met our ears. I hoofed at the controls for my optics, spinning them to look at the other tanks. They were all just sitting there, at the ready…

Another shot came in from the other cannon by the gate, this one struck the Boom Bear right on it’s sloped front. The round gave a whistling sound as it bounced off into the air at almost a right angle. The ricochet shot off into the sky without doing really any damage to the wedge-like tank, and yet, the massive stubby cannon on it didn’t return fire.

“All tanks, this is the Commander.” Casemate growled and hoofed at her helmet harder. “You may fire at will.” She paused and looked over to me. “Night, what’s the status of our radio?”

“I don’t know where that is...” I offered as I peered through the optics again.

“It’s mounted in a box on your side of the turret, you should easily be able to see it.” She grunted and went back to working her own controls as I cringed.

“Yeah… it’s umm… it’s been destroyed.” I glanced over at her in time to watch her deadpan right into her gunners sights.

“Fine, then I guess we do this the old fashioned way.” She flicked up a switch on her controls.

A light flash met my eyes on my sight as I watched a beam of light flicker on the end of our gun barrel. A small mirror became illuminated just above the muzzle of the tank, and the hydraulics grew quieter as Casemate made ultra fine adjustments to the turret. Once set, she tensed up, gripping her hooves tighter around her controls.

“On the way!” She called out, depressing the small trigger under her fetlock.

Again, only silence.

“Misfire!” She nearly screamed in anger. Quickly, she shifted her forehoof over to a T shaped handle that stuck out of the hull next to her main controls. “On the way!” She gave the handle a pair of sharp twists that gave out a crisp mechanical clicking. “Master blaster misfire!”

Huck shifted himself quickly around the gun breach, tugging on a few bits of it before shifting his attention further back. With a ping, he pulled out what looks like a small arms magazine, and flicked out a cartridge from the side of the gun itself. He turned the magazine over, looking at the cartridges in it curiously before inserting it back into the breach. He sat back and flicked what sounded like a toggle switch on the bottom of the gun before leaning away from the breach again.

“Loaded!” He shouted out. “Gun ready!”

“Firing now!” Casemate screamed as she pressed the trigger again. Again, nothing. “Misfire!” She wrapped her hoof around the T shaped handle and twisted it a few times. “Master blaster misfire!” She roared out before shoving herself back in her seat. Angrily, she flicked a switch next to her that brought up a small red light on her controls. “Emergency on. You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me!”

“What’s wrong?” The words tumbled from my muzzle like normal, focusing Casemate’s laser like burning glare right on me. While I hadn’t done anything at all, some part of me knew that this was my fault...

“A major misfire like that means we ain’t able ta open tha breach fer fifteen minutes.” Huck let out a groan as well as he hoofed at the controls of the boiling vessel at his hooves. “Good news is that tha tea’s almost done.”

“Fifteen minutes!?” I spat out and nearly kicked at the deer’s horns with a sharp flail of my legs. “We can’t just sit here!”

“Tain’t safe, there could be a hangfire any minute now.” He shot a sideways look to me as he popped open the lid on a metal thermos and brought it down to the spigot on the vessel. “I ain’t lookin’ ta explode today, so sorry, we gots ta wait.”

“Best we could do is shave a few minutes of waiting, but… it’s risky.” Casemate hung her head forward, softly hitting it against her gun controls. “Why. Why today of all days?”

“Night?” Ping’s voice came through my headset, startling me. Oh right, our headsets were still linked to each other! “Is there a reason Miss Casemate has not given the order to fire yet?”

“Yeah, our radio’s down and we had a misfire.” I spat out, looking over at Casemate. She shared at least a hopeful look as she realized I could still communicate with other tanks. “I need you to tell all the other tanks to fire at will.”

“Affirmative.” He spoke, clearing out his voice with a bit of static. “This is the commander.” The voice I heard now was not Pings, but instead, it was Casemate’s. “All Cordite tanks, fire at will!” I… just… what!? He never said he could imitate any voice!

The sweet look of relief on Casemate’s face sank in as the basey rumbles of a dozen big guns going off resonated through our tank. That look lasted all of another second before the rapid pings of machine gun fire resonated across the hull. I nearly jumped right out of my seat as the wave of rounds rang right off the turret’s hull next to my head.

As the ringing died down, the silence that fell through the tank wore on me. The interior wasn’t completely silent, as the muffled sound of cannons still came through the hull, but the quietness of Casemate and Huck were unnerving. I wanted to ask how they could remain so calm when they were trapped in here unable to fight. But I was the stranger here, and I had to trust that if they weren’t panicking, than at least things were going to be okay for the moment.

“Hey, Dash.” Casemate hoofed at her helmet as she adjusted herself in her seat. “I want you to move us forward.”

“Uh, did I hear that right, Commander?” His hesitant voice filtered through the coms system as the Chieftain gave a jolt and started to move forward.

“If we can’t help, then the least we can do is draw some fire for the others.” Casemate grumbled and put her head up against the gun sights for a moment before hoofing at a toggle switch next to her controls. There was a pair of thumps from the side of the turret, and Casemate sat back again while shooting me a sideways glance. “Plus… I have an idea.” I cringed as the spray of machine gun fire washed over us again, dreading just what I knew was coming. “Miss Night, I know it’s going to sound crazy, but I need you to get into the air.”

“Have yah lost yer damn mind, Case!?” Huck snorted as he set down the boiling vessel between his legs. “She can’t go outside!”

“I just popped smoke, and in a minute, it’ll have deployed enough to give her some cover.” While she was talking to Huck, she didn’t once take her judgmental eyes off of me. “Look, I know it’s a lot to ask, but we have no idea what we’re dealing with here. As is pretty evident, this is Cordite’s first look at Pentex’s headquarters, and the last Cordite member to fly from their tank ended up without wings or a head at the end of the day. I can’t ask any Cordite member for this, but…”

“I’ll go.” I cut her off as the words wormed their way out of my muzzle. She hesitated, glancing over me like I was crazy for simply saying yes. It wasn’t something I wanted to do, but if she needed a flier to go out, then I’d rather it be me than Hispano. “What do you need me to do?”

“We need to know what’s beyond that wall.” She spoke as she adjusted herself in her seat. “What buildings or supplies are there inside, are there obstacles we’ll have to bring down as we move up, do they have prepared fallback positions and the like. All we need is a look to know if we’d be better off focusing our fire to break through a single point.”

“Alright.” I nodded to her and twisted in my seat. Reaching up, I wrapped my fetlock around the mechanical locking mechanism to the hatch above my head, and sharply pulled it to the unlocked position. Before I pushed up however, Casemate’s hoof reached over and stopped me.

“Just a quick peek, in and out, okay?” She offered to me with just a hint of a hopeful look across her muzzle. “Come back alive, that’s an order.”

“Yes, ma’am.” I nodded to her again as I pushed my hooves upward and threw the hatch open. The near freezing rain that came down from the darkened skies drizzled over me and down into the turret. The stiff breeze outside the tank gave me an idea of just how warm it had grown inside the metal vehicle compared to out here, and as I pushed myself to climb up through the hole, I couldn’t help but give a light shiver.

I flinched as the resounding blast of two tank cannons beside us sent a battering wave of air across the Chieftain. The shockwave forced my wings to open, and I was pressed against the side of the hatch. Collecting myself, I shifted my attention to the wall of smoke that we were slowly creeping toward. Right, I need to get up and in the air while I still had the smoke to cover me at all.

Scrambling the rest of the way out of the turret, I pulled myself over toward the rear of the tank. The rumbling and warmth of the arcane reactor under my hooves made me uneasy, but it was better than being out in the open for the moment. As if to punctuate that, the chattering burst of fire from the Pentex machine guns washed across the turret. I huddled myself down behind the turret’s bulk. The squeals and sparks that the shots sent up were short lived, but had forced my wings to shut tightly on their own.

“Pathetic as always, Night.” Solomon’s voice came from above me. I looked up to find the smugly smirking Saddle Arabian glaring down at me. “Nothing more than a scared little colt too afraid to do what needs to be done. You’re going to get yourself killed at this rate, far before you’ll ever have the chance to die begging and pleading at my hooves.”

“Then I’ll see you in Tartarus!” I snapped at him as I flared my wings hard. Seriously, at the very least, Solomon couldn’t annoy me while I was flying, right?

I kicked off and beat my wings through the rain. The cold wind pushed down, fighting every beat while sapping what little heat my body put out. But the sound of cannon fire and machine guns was a powerful motivator, and while the chill that was biting at my skin sucked, it was less uncomfortable than any bullet wound would ever be.

The air under me shook as the cannon to the Chieftain recoiled and sent it’s dormant round downrange. The bright blast that erupted from the wall next to the metal door sent out a shower of concrete and debris. Huh, I guess it really wasn’t safe to have removed the misfire!

Hammering my wings against the air, I carried myself up above the rising cloud of obscuring smoke below. I’d risen far enough up that I could finally get a peak over the heavily fortified wall. Dozens of armed ponies rushed about the gap between the wall and the bunker. Teams of ponies were busy setting up what looked like mortars, while pairs of ponies quickly brought boxes of ammo and supplies down the ramp from the open bunker.

Speaking of, towed neatly onto the entrance ramp of the bunker, were the stolen Cordite trailers. Only three were visible, and one of them looked like it had been maneuvered to be brought inside, but then abandoned. We must have caught them off guard just in time then.

I continued to lift myself up higher into the air. A burst of thunder on the horizon however, reminded me that maybe it would be best to not get too high up if I didn’t want to get cooked mid air. Leveling out, I stiffened my wings and held my legs out as I slipped into a shallow dive toward the bunker.

My eye scanned across the personnel down there again. I know I didn’t need to join in the attack, but I had a unique opportunity here to add a bit of chaos to their rear lines. However, with my speed building up quite nicely, I needed to choose a target. But what? With limited grenades, I needed to make each one count…

BoomBear rocked on it’s suspension as heavy jets of exhaust flashed out the end of it’s barrel, before what looked like a massive rocket streaked from the heavy tank. A scream ripped up through the air as the particularly odd rocket’s heavy blast punched a hole straight through an entire section of the thick concrete wall before exploding. Personnel close to it disappeared in a cloud of debris, and the section of wall around the impact point completely collapsed. Most ponies inside the walls were blasted off of their hooves by the force of the explosion alone, and even from up here the force of it hit me with a strength I hadn’t expected.

I watched as two of the ponies in the wall who’d been dragging a box down the ramp were knocked away from it. The box itself split as it hit the ground, spilling out it’s contents along the ramp. Before my eyes, I watched as a dozen artillery shells rolled every which way.

That was my target.

Torquing my wings as I sailed above the compound, I rolled myself over. With a flick of my tail and a lift of my head, I pitched myself straight down. It almost didn’t seem fair without the whining of my jump pack to warn them. Biting down on my firing bit, I felt the crisp click of a grenade release from my harness. With my payload sailing free, I started to pitch myself back up, and aimed myself back up over the wall.

I did my best to shift my head just enough to get a look back. The pair of ponies who had been carrying the box were scrambling to collect up the scattered shells. I doubt they even knew what happened as the grenade struck the ground in between them.

My hearing rang as the pop from my grenade set off the various shells around it. The sky flashed like lightning as a massive fireball engulfed most of the ponies on the ground. A bright smile worked its way across my muzzle as amid the fireball of the blast, another set of blasts went off closer to the bunker. I watched in giddy amusement as one of the stolen trailers was blasted higher into the air than I was as it’s payload detonated.

And just as fast, my smile changed to a look of horror as I realized that the flying trailer was arching back down… right toward me.

I beat my wings and torqued myself into a sharp banking turn. With the speed I’d kept from the dive, it wasn’t hard to maneuver out of the way of the falling cart. However, the turn put me on a low horizontal flight path that stuck me right between half the Cordite tanks and the pillboxes on the wall.

With a non armored target available, most of the guns abandoned their attempts to ricochet their shots off the tanks in favor of trying to shoot me down.

I won’t lie, I started to panic. The air around me became a sea of buzzing and whistling angry shooting. Instantly, I was bobbing, weaving, and all over throwing myself into every evasive motion that my brain could think to use. While I may have been a soft target, that didn’t mean I couldn’t make it hard for them to hit me!

The Cordite tanks did their best to support me, blasting out chunks of the pillboxes while they were distracted. However, my erratic maneuvers had drained all the speed I’d gained in my dive, and I was running out of time.

Something hit my prosthetic leg hard enough that it tore it right off of me. The sudden change of weight, on top of my slow speed, sent me tumbling through the air. Knowing what was to come, I pulled myself into a tight ball. Celestia, this was going to hurt!

I crashed down onto the muddy ashen dirt. My body bounced a few times, and I felt myself get spun as I knocked into the remains of a fallen tree. Finally I rolled to a stop in a small divot that had partially collected a fetlock deep puddle of freezing cold rainwater. While the instant feeling of freezing grasped my body, again, I at least knew it was better than being shot…

“Night!” Buck’s fuzzly voice pushed through the dizziness and stars that filled my head. “Are you alright!?”

Before I could answer, the air around me was shattered by a burst from one of the wall machine guns. A shower of ashen mud rained down on me as a line of fire tore up the top of the small divot that sheltered me. I all but forced myself to go muzzle down in the muck, and I forced my wings as tightly as I could to myself. I held my breath as I pressed down further, feeling each and every gunshot impact into the ashen soil around me.

The chattering guns were brought to an abrupt halt as one of the nearby tanks fired. The stout blast was drowned out by the layer of muck around my head, but I knew it had to be close because I could feel the warm air that came from the cannonblast itself. Lifting my head, I glanced over to see which tank had been my savior, surprised to see a tan medium tank with the words Remember El Alemane! glistening in the coat of rainwater and mud the tank wore.

“Night, please, answer me!” Buck’s voice strained, sending a burst of thick static through my headset.

“I’m a-alright… just c-cold.” I mumbled through my chattering teeth as I forced myself to sit up a bit. The cold mud that caked onto me forced me to constantly shiver as my skin started to hurt more than ever. Okay, maybe now getting shot would be less uncomfortable.

“It is advisable that you return to the commander’s tank, Night.” Ping’s voice was filled with the same uncanny jubilance as Doc Groovy’s had been when he’d talked about my condition. “We will continue to cover you as you make your retreat.” While it was just as odd to hear the joy in his voice, at least right now it wasn’t all that unwelcoming. “Cannon Loaded. Night, please wait to move until after the shot.”

Boom!

The stubby cannon on the front of the El Alimane recoiled, rocking the tank on it’s suspension slightly. I pushed myself up, flaring my wings again. They felt heavier than normal, and with a glance, I found that their edges, along with the wings of the flight suit, had been completely coated in the thick, wet muck.

Still, I flapped them hard, trying to shake off as much of the gunk as I could as I kicked myself off the ground. The first jump only got me a few seconds of airtime. Growling, I doubled my efforts and craned my neck upward as I pushed myself to jump again. This time I got further, sailing up towards one of the smaller, Cordite manufactured tanks.

My hooves came down hard on the cold metal, but it was a stable enough platform for me to push off once again. With a bit of height and speed built up, and the drumming rain washing over me, I felt my wings shake off the last of the heavy muck. The few machine guns that were left shooting from the pillbox walls were firing in sporadic, short bursts before they were completely silenced by another few well placed shots from the Cordite line.

The air grew still as one by one, the tanks stopped firing. Rising and trailing plumes of fire and smoke rose from beyond the sections of wall that were still standing. And let me say, as impressive as it had looked, only two of the wall sections were still up at all, as well as the gate itself. The rest had been beaten and blown into fragmented slabs and twisted rebar. Looking back over to the line of tanks, we’d fared better, but the two smoking wrecks behind the main line meant we hadn’t been untouched.

“Alright, is this thing working?” Casemate’s fuzzy, but audible voice crackled over my headset. “I swear to Celestia, Huck, I don’t care if you think it wasn’t the problem. If that boiling vessel causes another malfunction...”

“Yes Commander, we’re reading you.” Poppy’s exuberant by still professional voice came through. “Broke out the old emergency radio I see! And here I’d thought the Chief said it didn’t work anymore.”

“Yeah, well it apparently works when the boiling vessel isn’t drawing all the spare power from things like the firing circuit system.” Casemate grumbled. “All tanks, check in and give me a status report.”

I flared my wings and guided myself down onto the rear of the Chieftain. I nearly tripped right off as I tried to catch myself with all four of my legs, but forgot that I’d lost the prosthetic somewhere out in the muck. Still, I managed to land, and steadied myself as I climbed back up onto the top of the turret. Peeking down through the open hatch, I found an embarrassed looking Huck being glared further into the floor by Casemate.

“We lost two, Ma’am. Feller took a nasty pen during the advance, Commander Spite was recovered by us and is hanging in their despite the worst spalling injuries I’ve ever seen. But… unfortunately the rest of her crew are a total write off.” A remorseful sounding ghoul mare chimed up over the radio. I hadn’t heard her speak up before, so I couldn’t say which of the tanks she was in. “And the other loss was T-8 number One oh four. It took a Pentex eighty-eight round through the hull. Commander Fuze and his crew didn’t survive.”

“Copy that, Sobek. Keep me informed on Spite’s condition.” Casemate sighed and slumped back in her seat. “Two fucking crews, under my command...” Her eyes sank to her own hooves as she pulled them off the controls. They shivered lightly as she stared at them, and I knew that however cold I felt out here, her shivers weren’t at all caused by the temperature.

I can’t really believe I was thinking it, but a loss of two tanks for all the damage we’d just done sounded like a good trade off to me. If we got out of here with just those losses, then I’d call it a good day. I know it was a horrible thing to say, but… I understood sacrifices needed to be made. Because...

“It’s just business? Right, Night?” Solomon’s voice cropped up in my head. I looked around, blinking a few times to find him, but this time he didn’t show.

“That aside, Chief, it looks like they’ve given up!” Squeezebore’s squeaky voice once again came over the headset. “Which means we did it! We beat Pentex!”

“Not so fast, Legion.” Casemate growled before turning her distant gaze up to me. Instantly, it focused and softened as she glanced over my mud caked face. “Night, what did you see when you flew? What caused that explosion?”

“W-well.” I chattered as the wind and sheets of rain momentarily blew harder across the top of the tank. “They w-were setting up m-m-mortars and bringing up supp-p-plies, and they had a f-few of the trailers next to the b-bunker entrance. Which, exp-p-ploded when my grenade caught t-the ammo they were b-bringing up.”

“So that was... you?” She blinked a few times as my actions sunk in. “The stories we heard said you were good, but I didn’t want to believe them…” Slowly, she brought a shaking hoof up to her muzzle in thought. “Did you see all of the trailers? Did they all go up?” I did my best to shake my head as I started to really shiver. Goddesses, so much for pegasus insulation! “I hate to ask this, but could you get back up there and check?”

I wanted to outright tell her that first I needed to warm up. I wanted to say that I’d done enough already and that one of the tanks could move up and check. But I knew I could move faster than any tank. As much as I wanted to stay and get warm, that wasn’t how things worked. It took me a moment, but I gave her a shaky nod.

“I c-can f-fly over a-again.” I tried my best to speak through a clamped jaw to keep my teeth from chattering more. A burst of thunder made me jump and my mud caked hooves almost slipped right off the rain coated turret of the Chieftain.

“I’ll do it.” Hispano’s voice came over my headset. The squeal of a metal hatch to my left pulled my attention over as the top of the BT-42 opened up. Quickly, Hispano’s flight cap popped up through the hatch, and she offered a warm smile to me as the rain pelted her. “You get inside and warm up a bit, Dum Dum.” She reached up and pulled her flight goggles down over her eyes. “I’ve got this.”

“T-thank y-you, Hisp-p-pano.” I offered to her as she dragged her sister up and out of the BT-42’s boxy turret.

Not hesitating for another moment, I maneuvered myself back down through the cupola into the warm interior of the Chieftain. My seat was soaked, and had a small puddle of freezing cold water on it that stung at my flank as I sat down on it. But as I pulled the hatch closed behind me, the warmth of the air in the tank surrounded my numb body and at the very least helped me relax slightly.

“Tea?” Huck raised his hoof up to me, and offered a steaming ceramic mug filled with a greenish yellow liquid.

The pungent smell it gave off made my muzzle salivate, and I fought against my shivers to take it from him. I could feel the heat radiating into me through my numb fetlock, and I did my best to offer a thankful smile to him. Pulling the steaming drink to my lips, I didn’t even care that it burned at my throat, I still took a large sip all the same. The sharp minty aftertaste however sent a different kind of shiver up my spine.

Hey, this tea was pretty good!

“Again, it feels too easy.” Casemate offered as she stared distantly at her gunner controls. Turning to me, she cocked an eyebrow. “For decades, Pentex has been a thorn in our side because they’ve been well supplied and coordinated. So why would they go down this easy? What are we missing here?”

“Y’all say it as if it ain’t a formation a Cordite takin’ ‘em out, Commander.” Huck chuckled before taking a small sip from his own steaming cup of tea.

“No, she’s r-right.” I stuttered out as I pulled the deliciously warm drink away from my muzzle for a moment. I could feel my gut protest as I did, but it was the other odd feeling that had built up in it that spoke to me louder. “T-too easy. They’re p-p-planning something.”

“Maybe they have simply decided to wait us out.” Buck offered with a short burst of static. “So many losses so quickly could mean that their commander might have decided to just seal the bunker and wait.”

“T-true…” I nodded to myself before taking another long gulp of the tea. I’d gone through half the cup, and already I was feeling the warmth it gave spreading through me.

“Looks like Buck is right.” Hispano cooed softly. “They’ve shut their blast door on us. Not even a megaspell could get through that thing.” Even through her radio, I could hear the whistling wind and patter of raindrops against her. “You know, for all the gusto they talked, they sure cut their losses quick. It’s really a buzzkill, cause fighting Mr. Wizard was a letdown, and this was supposed to be my vindication!”

“We j-just have t-to think. How do we f-flush them o-out then?” I asked.

For once, there was nothing I could really think of. While I’d cracked plenty of hardened targets so far, dropping anything on them from the air just wasn’t going to cut it this time. And I doubted that even with the combined efforts of all the tanks here, we weren’t getting through that door.

“I may have an idea, Night.” Ping offered with what I could almost hear was his trademark beaming smile. “Night, please ask your loader how many High velocity penetrator rounds you are carrying.”

“What? Why?” I didn’t see what having those rounds had to do with getting through a bunker. Taking a large gulp, I downed the rest of my tea and smiled as I finally felt like my shivering had quit.

“No other tank seems to be loaded with them, so I am assuming that the command vehicle is currently the only one loaded with them.” Ping came across with his request sounding just as genuine as before. “Please, if you would kindly ask for me.” Okay, if he thought we needed them…

“Hey, Huck?” I pulled the attention of the deer just as he was busy dipping one of the teabags hanging from his rack into a fresh cup of still boiling water. “How many penetrator rounds do you have?” Goddesses, I hope the fact that I practically snatched up all of the rounds from them didn’t come back to bite me in the flank…

“We’ve got six.” Almost reflexively, he sat at attention. He nearly tossed his fresh tea out as he reached out and grabbed one of the dart like shells from one of the storage boxes next to him. “Why, does someone see an armored target coming?”

“No, it’s fine, my friend has an idea.” I flashed up a nervous smile. “Alright, Ping, we’ve got six. What’s on your mind?”

“Excellent, that will be more than enough.” Ping replied promptly as a short burst of static came over the headset. “Please instruct your loader to prepare four shots, then repeat my exact instructions to Commander Casemate.”

“What…” I began to say, but paused as Ping cleared out his throat.

“Again, Night, I will ask that you trust me.” He let out a light laugh that came across as way more confident than I expected from him. “I believe that, being what I am, only I can offer a solution for our predicament. Now, please relay the instructions to your crew.”

“Alright.” I nodded and glanced over to both Huck and Casemate’s confused looks. “Huck, I need you to get ready to load four shots, one after another, all penetrators.”

“What!?” Casemate snapped at me and shot her hoof up in a sharp, jabbing point. “Ignore that order, Huckleberry.” She narrowed her eyes at me as Huck simply froze up on the spot. “Those are Cordite assets, and some of the only ones we have left thanks to you! I don’t care if you’re the ‘survivor’ or not, you can’t just order us to use what little stock we have!”

“Wait, she’s the survivor!?” Squeezebore’s voice pierced my ears as she came over the speakers.

“I thought that was just a rumor, or a bad joke that she was with us.” One of the other ghoul commander's responded.

“Yeah, it’s no wonder that she blew up half their outfit with one grenade. Only the survivor could do something like that…” An elderly stallion came over next.

“She’s not some legend.” Casemate snapped as she practically pressed her hoof against her coms button hard enough to break it. “And even so, she’s not commanding this battle! She has zero say in what any of you do, does everypony understand me!?”

“Look, if Ping’s idea can get us into that bunker, which is exactly what is going to happen, then it doesn’t matter if it’s you or I who gave the order.” I fired back a glare at her before pointing my hoof down to Huck. “So either he can listen to me say it, or you, but Ping needs four penetrators loaded up, and for you to listen to exactly where I tell you to aim your gun.”

You know, with how I tended to piss off every pony I met, you’d think I’d get used to feeling the burning anger radiate off of them. Maybe it was just temperature shock from having recently been near frozen, but with how much heat Casemate’s anger was radiating, I was starting to want to go back outside for a bit. Good news though, Huck may have found a suitable replacement for the Boiling Vessel!

“Fine.” She spoke with a wheezing sigh that sounded and felt like she vented all of her anger out in one go. “Huck, load it.” Again, she shot me a sideways glare as she sat at attention and put her hooves back on her gun controls. “But if this doesn’t fucking work…

“Loading A.P.!” Huck called out as he shoved the silver dart into the barrel, and followed it with one of the bagged charges. With a slam, the breach of the gun shut tight. “Gun ready!”

“It’ll work, we just have to trust him.” I nodded to her, but saying it more so I’d believe it would. “Alright, Ping, we’re ready here.”

“Set target, bearing one six five. Adjust elevation by six point two degrees north, then rotation by three point eight degrees west.” Ping’s stark promptness nearly threw me off, but I did my best to simply repeat what he was saying.

“Bring the gun to bearing one six five. Then adjust six point two degrees up, and three point eight degrees left.” I spoke up as I pulled myself up to the commander’s scope. Alright, might as well find out just what Ping was planning.

“Aye. One six five, mark.” Casemate sighed as she carefully made the adjustments to the gun. “Alright, corrections made. And... the targeting laser says the shot will strike a point above the reinforced concrete ventilation slats in the bunker wall.”

“Miss Casemate may fire when ready.” Ping stated flatly.

“He says you can fire when ready.” I repeated with my own sideways glance to a very frustrated looking Casemate.

“Alright…” Again she sighed as she tightened her hoof around her controls. “On the way.”

Boom!

The whole tank rocked back as the gun recoiled. A burst of concrete and dust sprayed up from the impact point above and to the left of the concrete vents. Spidering cracks spread just around the impact point, and as the dust cleared, I could see that the silver rod hadn’t punched all the way into the concrete. It stuck out, like a wall nail you’d hang an old photo on.

“Loading A.P.!” Huck shifted about below us, quickly shoving in another dart and bagged charge before slamming the breach shut again. “Gun ready!”

“Next shot, two point six degrees south by eight degrees west. Fire when ready.” Again, Ping’s voice was calm and prompt. While I could never understand how it would be to be a machine, I did admire him for being able to be so collected through all of this.

“Two point six down, and eight left. Fire when ready.” I spat out to Casemate, keeping my eye on the concrete.

“Adjusting.” She again sighed as she carefully shifted the gun only a few degrees at a time. “On the way!”

Boom!

Again, the gun and tank recoiled, this shot sending a heavy ringing into my ears. I watched through the scope as the second shot struck below the first. Again, a burst of concrete and dust drifted off as spidering cracks stretched away from the impaled rod in the wall. However, as I looked, I noticed that the first shot’s cracks had grown longer and deeper.

“Next shot, five degrees east. Fire when ready.” Ping spoke sharply.

“Five degrees right, fire when ready.” I repeated to Casemate.

“Adjusting.” Casemate replied again, but this time without a sigh. Glancing away from the spotting scope, her expression had shifted to a more determined one. She leaned forward into her controls, pausing only for a moment once she’d moved the gun. “On the way!”

Boom!

The shot arched right of the last one, blasting out larger chunks of concrete between where it struck and both the previous two. The lengthening cracks had pushed out far around the slatted concrete vents while leaving the vent itself mostly intact. Again though, the round stuck stubbornly out of the concrete like the others, and I had a good idea where the last shot was going to end up.

“Final shot, two point four degrees east by seven north. Fire when ready.” Unlike the other shots, this time Ping’s voice came across with a hint of unabashed pride to it. And seeing as how against all expectations, we were actually doing some damage, I’d say he’d earned that pride.

“Two point four right by seven up. Fire when ready!” I called out, not able to fight the pride creeping in through my own voice.

“Adjusting!” Casemate’s muzzle split into a smile as she effortlessly made the last adjustment. “On the way!”

Boom!

The final shot was paired with a burst of thunder from the dark clouds above us. I watched in anticipation as the final round struck home, and each of the rods disappeared in a growing cloud of concrete and dust that was greater than each individual shot. It was hazy, but it looked like part of the bunker’s thick wall even collapsed, and as the dust started to clear, I could see that there was now a gaping, pony sized hole in the structure. What stuck out were dust caked metal filters that capped the end of a line of ductwork. The rusty ducts themselves ran along what looked like a maintenance tunnel that stretched off further into the bunker.

My smile dimmed slightly, and I turned away from the scope to find that Casemate’s expression had dimmed as well.

“That… was a lot less impressive than I’d thought it would be.” With a sigh, she hung her head. “Do you have any idea how many H.E. rounds it’s going to take to widen that hole enough to make a real impact?”

“What do you mean ‘get inside a tank’!?” Hispano squawked through my headset. “That was awesome, I’m going to stay out here for whatever you’ve got planned next!”

“Night,” Ping’s voice struck up again with the same note of pride as before, “Please have Casemate inform all tanks to keep their personnel inside the vehicles, or if that is not possible, to have them proceed to minimum safe distance.” Wait, why would they have to stay inside?

“This is the Arcturus, fire support authorized, danger close has been approved.” Frescas’s voice came over both my headset and the tank’s radios.

“Okay nevermind, heading inside now!” Hispano called out nervously as Huck, Casemate and I all traded awkward glances. Okay, maybe it was just me with the awkwardness and them with confused looks, but come on! Even I didn’t expect that Ping would go that far!

“Reporting tubes one, three, and four have been expended. Arcane Cruise Missiles are reporting weapon launches successful, and on target with optimal flight status. Fifty seconds to impact!” Tofu’s excited voice came through the radio with a squelch. “Eeee! I can’t believe we launched! This is literally the best day ever!”

“Ladies and gentlecolts,” Double Delta’s voice came through with a note of playfulness to it. “Please keep your legs inside your vehicles at all times. Now sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.”

As the roaring missiles closed in, both Casemate and I scrambled to put our faces up to our various sighting scopes. The shrieking whine of their engines grew and grew as I pinned my eye open, staring at the rain soaked bunker. With a flash, the first missile streaked over us and instantly disappeared straight down the dark open ventshaft. Not a split second later did the other two missiles follow.

For a single moment, the patter of rain against the tank’s hull became the only sound we heard.

Another flash blinded both Casemate and I as the missiles detonated deep inside the bunker. The flare of fire that burst through the open vent shaft left a dazzling afterimage. A rending sound pierced the air, and the three of us in here were forced to cover our ears. The world shook as it felt like the tank was nearly tossed across the muddy ground, and the jarring sound of metal being twisted and torn became our whole world.

I gave out a loud shriek as I was all but thrown from my seat and jabbed in my stump by Huck’s rack. My shout was muffled as Casemate was thrown onto me, and nearly forced me to double over completely. With a low groan, the whole tank flopped back on the ground again, and the three of us were pushed away from one another. As we sat there, with our hearts racing and sharing boundless confusion, the only thing that made sense to ask, we all asked at the same time.

“What the fuck was that!?”

“Ugh, that hurt…” Dash’s voice crackled through the radio. “I think we took some debris, Commander.”

“Alright, let me check.” She offered back as she put her hoof up to her head, only to realize that her helmet had been tossed to the floor by the shaking. Reaching up, she left her her helmet there for now and reached up above her. Unsealing the hatch, she opened it and winced at the cold air and rain forced its way inside.

I did the same, figuring that I’d had just about enough of being trapped in a metal can for today regardless. Thrusting the hatch open, I let out an instinctive shiver as the rain washed over me again. Fighting back the urge to stay warm, I pushed myself up into the opening. I froze on the spot halfway out. Only inches from my muzzle, sat what must have been the top of the rusty pony-thick metal doors that had still been standing at the wall.

It had been blasted right off its hinges in the explosion, and from the crater between us and where it had been, I’m guessing it had bounced and come down on us with quite some force. Enough force in fact, to flatten the barrel down against the Chieftain’s hull. Looking past the now vacant concrete door frame to the bunker however, I couldn’t help but smile.

The main blast doors to the bunker had likewise been blasted off their hinges, but due to their size, hadn’t gone nearly as far. Thick black smoke billowed out of both the gaping entryway and what remained of the ventilation shaft. I’d never seen smoke so thick before, not even inside the thermal updraft tower in Cantercross. Whatever warheads those missiles were armed with, must have done one hell of a number on the inside of that base.

“Oh my...” Casemate gasped as she too let her eyes wander over the carnage the blast had caused. She paused for a moment when her eyes dropped to the door that had come down across half the tank. “...Celestia! No no no!” She let out a whine as she immediately looked almost sick to her stomach. “Goddesses forgive me, I… this can’t be happening!”

“Casemate, what’s…” I started to say before she looked like she lost all the blood in her face and gave me a sideways glance like she’d never been more scared in her life.

“She…” She gave a hollow laugh as she started to sink on her hoof. “She’s going to kill me. I broke the Chief’s tank… and she’s going to kill me…”

“Ah wouldn’t worry ‘bout it, Case.” Huck chuckled before giving a small gasp. “Wait, ah have an idea! Just suggest that she should melt down that ol’ Valiant ta cast new parts fer tha Chieftain! Ah reckon if she does, she’d have more than enough metal fer parts, an’ tha number of new recruits we’ll get’ll skyrocket!”

“You’re not helping, Huck.” She spoke with what was a mix of a grumble and whimper, as well as shot him a hollow glare. “Still… I’ll consider it.”

“Ah, you’ll be fine, Case.” One of the ghouls laughed over the radio as one of the large tanks off to our left gave a rev of their arcane engine. “I’m just going to take us a bit closer. Sobek here didn’t even get a chance to use his flamer in that whole fight! Can you believe that?” The squat and boxy heavy tank trundled forward out of the formation, pulling an armored trailer close behind it. “So I’m just going to give Sobek a chance for him to vent his pent up frustrations, and make sure these Pentex assholes are convinced it’s better for them to stay dead.”

“Uh… N-negative on that, Sobek.” Casemate muttered as she somewhat was kicked out of her daze. Again, she’d forgotten her helmet and gave out an annoyed whine. “Huck, can I have my helmet back, please?” She paused and let out another sigh as the large tank let out a roaring gout of flame. I watched as it trundled over the crumbling remains of the now ruined wall, painstakingly taking its time to roll up to the smoking front of the bunker. “No, I need it now, Huckleberry, not after you pour another cup of tea...”

“But muh last one spilled!” Huck whined as he set down his half filled cup and hoofed her helmet up to her.

“Thank you.” She snorted as she sharply grabbed it from him. In one fluid motion, she pulled it up to her head and slid it on, latching the previously unused strap under her chin. Putting her hoof to her coms again, she let out a disappointed sigh. “Negative on that request, Sobek. You know the rules on wasting resources, and you’ve already been written up twice this month for it, Papyrus. Now, you know if I write you up a third time, you’ll be terminated from Cordite for insubordination.”

“Awww, come on, Commander.” Papyrus’s gravelly voice let out a groan that sounded like rocks in a blender, and paired terribly with the short gout of flame that roared again from the front of the tank. “Fine, we’ll pull…”

Pa-ting!

The noise that split the air was something between a gunshot and a bolt of lightning. However, it was quickly dwarfed by the nose of the Sobek disappearing behind a large fireball that sent flaming liquid raining down almost all the way out to us. As the smoke from the blast rose, both Casemate and I stared at the twisted flaming remains of the Sobek. It’s turret had been cleanly blasted off, and the tank itself had a hoof sized groove driven almost directly through the center line of its thick armor.

“What the fuck was that!” Casemate shouted, frantically hoofing at her helmet’s controls. “Sobek, do you copy!? Can anypony from Sobek hear me!?”

The top hatch to the El Alemane flopped open, and as I looked over, I found Ping stick his head up and out of the turret. He looked down into the dark, smokey hallway for a single moment before a look of fear fell across his face, and a pit opened in my stomach. Okay, now that couldn’t be good.

Something loud resonated through the air. It was an alien sound, unlike anything I’d ever heard. To be blunt, it sounded to me like it was an engine imitating the growl of some large creature. Whatever it was happened to be loud enough to filter through the sound of rain and distant thunder without a problem. It echoed through the smoke filled halls of the burned out Bunker, and even across the forested valley hills around us. Hell, the sound rattled the tanks themselves!

From inside the bunker, a pair of burning red eyes appeared, blazing through the thick smoke. They stepped closer as the thrumming of several arcane engines picked up in the air. Two other pairs of red eyes followed, and it felt like everypony here held their breath as the three intruders stepped out into the open.

They were big machines, but not like anything I’d ever seen at the Factory. They looked like the big wild cats I’d seen pictures of in the history books, albeit with some major differences, like the fact that they were nearly the size of tanks. These ‘cats’ had six evenly spaced legs, and blade-like fangs almost as big as a pony jutting horizontally from their muzzle. Simply looking at them, it was obvious with their design that they’d been built for speed. However, thick and rusty steel plates had been welded over their original constructions to add more armor to them.

The cat who’d made the appearance first stood apart from the two that flanked it. Along with the thicker armor surrounding almost every part of it, it sported a pair of hydraulically powered articulating arms that sprouted from it’s back. Attached to the ends of said arms, were a pair of long, rectangular guns. Copper coiling and vacuum tubes wrapped around the rear of them, while a thick black cable connected the core of the guns to what I could guess was the cat’s power source through ports on it’s back.

“Those Pentex assholes had Razor Cats!? This whole time!?” One of the ghoul tankers shouted over the radio. “I knew those traitors worked for the damned stripes!”

“Yes, a troubling development indeed.” Poppy’s oddly serious tone shook me out of my awe. He’d been so calm and collected every time I’d seen him, even right after we beat him on the road. If he was getting serious, then I could guess that we had a problem on our hooves. “I’d thought we’d seen enough of these back during the war that no one would stoop low enough to use these abominations again, not even the stripes.”

“Please, they were easy enough to deal with back in the war. Liberator, moving up into firing position!” Another ghoul chimed up as the rumble of their tank’s engine picked up. From the far end of the Cordite formation, a boxy looking heavy tank with an oscillating turret on it pulled forward. It had a golden bell painted next to the cordite logo on it’s odd looking turret, spinning it and bringing it’s long gun to bear on the group of mechanical cats. “Let’s see how they like it when I uncork one hundred and twenty millimeters of Prance’s finest, two century old high-explosive export.”

“Those guns on it’s back…” Casemate gasped out in horror. “Liberator, wait…!” She called out just before her voice was lost to the roar that the heavy tank’s cannon let out.

The cat flanking to the left of the one with the guns, disappeared in a bright fireball. The force of the blast even from where Casemate and I sat forced us to cover ourselves as we were shoved back against the hatches behind us. Blinking away the bright flash, I turned back to see the plume of smoke dissipate from around the lead cat and it’s other flanker. With a flicker, the third set of red eyes glowed back to life as the third cat’s engine gave a growl-like roar. Other than a large scorch mark on it’s side, there wasn’t any indication of damage from the shot.

“But… how could it survive that?” The commander of the Liberator gasped over the radio. “No, that’s impossible! No Razor Cat could ever stand up to something this caliber...”

The two articulating guns on the center cat spun, lining up with Liberator.

Pa-ting!

The two guns fired sharply. I watched in horror as two hoof sized holes opened up on the Liberator before she was torn in half by a sharp, internal explosion. In an instant, the tank and crew were just… gone.

“Are those fucking tank sized gauss rifles!?” Squeezebore shouted as I couldn’t rip my eyes from the flaming wreck that had once been the Liberator. “Oh fuck, we are so dead.”

Glancing back over to the trio of cats, they split their attention across the Cordite line. Crouching down like predators waiting to pounce on their prey. In an instant, Poppy’s serious tone had become justified to me. This was going to be more of a fight than any of us had expected…

Author's Notes:

Once again a HUGE thanks to TheFurryRailFan for his help in making sure this chapter is in tip-top shape to be put up!

And of course, many thanks to Kkat for allowing us all to run around and write in our own corners of this fantastic wasteland setting!