Federal Press
September 6, 2037
DISASTER AT FORT VELTIN
By Mark Erikson

Last night at approximately 2:07 AM a train carrying munitions and other supplies bound for Fort Veltin breaks failed causing the train to jump the tracks upon reaching the end of the line. Unfortunately Federal Army forces on board were killed as were over four dozen Federal Army forces when several of the train cars carrying ammo detonated and caused severe damage to Fort Veltin.

Still no word on what caused the break failure but Federal Army spokesmen have assured this reporter they are doing everything to discover the cause and that the Federal Army sends its condolences to the families of the men who lost their lives in this horrible accident…

Twilight gasped for air as her broke the surface of the water, her hooves flailing a bit as she gasped for air. This was the third time she had gotten a chance to get air into her starving lungs. The truck had floated for a few seconds so it had been carried down river before it fully sank but the force of the current was still pushing the truck down river.

Her and the General had waited in the cab till there was just a small picket of air then Twilight had smashed out the weakened windshield and they climbed out. That was when Twilight had learned something she hadn’t expected, her cybernetics made her too heavy to swim. She hadn’t planned for that as she was a good swimmer, or had been back in Equestria.

But she just sank to the bottom of the river and was dragged along it by the river with no idea where she was in relation to anything so she couldn’t teleport. She had had started to panic when she felt an arm wrap around her and start to move her. Shortly after that her head broke the surface for the first time and she had been able to take a single breath.

After that she was able to get another breath and now she was on her third and as she moved her hooves trying to stay above the water she felt them land on the bank of the river. After that she was being pulled onto the shore.

She coughed as she gasped for air, greedily taking in lung full of air and she saw the General doing the same beside. “That was the most hair brained plan I had ever seen.” He said between coughs.

“Well…I didn’t know I couldn’t swim anymore, and it got us away from the Feds in any case.” Twilight said as she slowly got to her hooves. She shook off as much water as she could and helped the General to his feet. “Anyways we need to return to base before things get worse.” The general nodded to her and together they made their way into the woods.

Twilight and the General made their way down the tunnels heading for the main room of what used to be the rebel base. She hoped the Rebels hadn’t moved on to where every they had chosen as their new base, if they had then the two Rebels were screwed unless they left a trail which would be unlikely.

As they reached the entrance to the base Twilight was relieved to see that the bodies had been cut down so her fellow soldiers were no longer hung up like trophies one in some game. She also didn’t want the general to see what had happened to his men.

They entered the main room and Twilight saw the room was full of activity as soldier came and went from other parts of the base brining supplies and piling them in the main room. It was a sorry sight as most of their supplies had been stolen by the Mercs.

“Officer on deck!” Twilight heard one of the soldiers yell when he saw the General and all at once everyone in the room snapped into a salute as did Twilight out of reflex.

“At ease.” The general said and moved over and sat on some crates. Twilight moved over and sat down besides the crates.

“You ok sir?” She asked him looking at him with concern as the room’s activity resumed.

“Just…” The general sighed. “We lost a lot of people in just few hours.”

Twilight nodded.” It could have been worse sir.” Twilight told him. “We still have soldiers and some gear. This is just a setback is all. We can recover from this.”

“I don’t know, we’ve lost nearly everything, all our progress, our people our supplies. All because my own second in command was a traitor.” Clancy said and rubbed his eyes. HE looked more tired than Twilight had ever seen him in all the time she had known hm. When she had told him that Major Briggs was the spy the General had taken it rather hard as they had been friends and had started the entire rebellion together.

“I know sir but Major Briggs has been dealt with, we have a few supplies, and once we can regroup with our surviving forces and get set up in a new base we can begin the next step sir.” Twilight told him.

“What next step? It’s going to take us a long time to recover from this and without Liston brining in supplies I doubt we will ever get back to the strength we had. So tell me Sergeant what could our next step be?” Clancy asked looking at her.

“Simple sir, we go to war.” She said and he stared at her. “The Feds think we are broken, they think they will just need to mop us up and be done with it. So I suggest we show them we may be down but we are far from out.”

“And how do you suggest we do that Sergeant?” He asked looking at her.

“Well firs thing is we get some more supplies to replace what we lost, I’m sure that base outside of town has more than enough to get us back up to strength. “She said with a smile.” And there is no way in hell they would expect us to attack one of their bases so soon after losing our own but the way I see it this entire situation as a sign it’s time to take this fight to the next level.”

“So you are suggesting and eye for an eye?” Clancy said and Twilight nodded. Clancy sat back on the crates and rubbed his chin in thought. After a few minutes a smile slowly crossed his lips and new life seemed to be breathed into him. “I think you that idea of yours will work Sergeant. They wouldn’t expect us to attack so soon after losing our base. They’d expect us to retreat and lick our wounds. But I think we will do as you suggest sergeant.” He said and smiled at her, Twilight couldn’t help smiling back at him.

“Well then all we need to do is gather what supplies we do have, choose a new base and send our injured there while we send a few squads to get our supplies the Feds are holding for us.” Twilight said with a smirk.

“And I know at least one squad that is going on that mission.” The General said as he stood up. “I’m going to go see which squads are available; I’m thinking 5 squads should do it though they will have to go in with little Equipment as most will need to be used to set up our new base.”

Twilight nodded. “True but once this mission is a success we will have more supplies then we will ever need.” She said with a wide smile, she had no doubt they would succeed in the raid on the base. The Feds thought they were beaten down, they thought they were on the run, But they were going to learn how dangerous an injured animal could be.

Corporal Sam Jenkins slowly bade his way from the barracks of Camp Pentcol, the base he was stationed at. His black and white tactical gear was pristine in case of a surprise inspection from the base commander.

He didn’t think he had to worry about an inspection as from what he heard the Rebels had gotten their asses kicked hard and if any of them were left they were too weak to actually do anything. So he was looking forward to a relaxing time in the guard tower.

It didn’t take him long to reach the guard tower he was assigned to man tonight and he slowly climbed the ladder. “Hey Smith, anything interesting this evening?” He asked the man were sat behind the large .50 cal turret that rested on the open wall of the tower facing outwards from the base.

“Naw was a quiet evening.” Smith said as he stood and stretched. “You have no idea how happy I am to be off duty, I’m starving and staring out at nothing all day isn’t exactly the most entertaining thing on the planet.”

“Ha, I hear that, at least you can see more than a few dozen yards out.” Jenkins said as Smith walked past him and started to head down the ladder.

“Hey still boring. Anyways catch you later man.” Smith said before disappearing down the ladder.

Jenkins took up position behind the turret and checked it over to make sure it was in working order even though he knew it was. It was just something to pass the time rather than just staring out at the darkness.

Sighing he started to let his mind wander. He had some leave coming up and he was looking forward to spending time with his girlfriend, come to think of it was almost their one year anniversary, he should pick something up for her.

His eye caught site of a light in the trees and he swiveled the gun to face it. As he looked he thought he saw a faint purplish light deep in the trees but after a bit it seemed to fade. Shrugging he repositioned the turret back to face out of the base and let his mind wonder again.

He was thinking what he should get his girlfriend when the purple light returned. He looked out at it. It wasn’t a flashlight or anything, it was just a faint purple go and as he looked he saw close to the first one there was a much smaller one, almost a dot compared to the other glow.

His girlfriend’s favorite color was purple, maybe he could get her a—

Twilight watched the Fed who had been manning the turret drop to the floor of the tower. She had to release her grip on the sniper rifle when the Fed had swiveled the turret to face her position. But he had soon returned it back to facing straight out so she could line up her shot again.

She had been concerned when the Fed looked right at her but he made no move to either take aim with the turret or use his radio and just stared at her possession. He most likely saw the glow of her horn and the aura around the sniper as she lined up the shot. She’d needed to be careful using her magic on stealth missions or at least the parts of the mission that required stealth.

“Ok towers are down, Hell Raisers how are we looking on patrols?” Twilight asked over the radio.

After a few moments the voice of Sergeant Freeman came over the radio. “Patrols have been dealt with ready to proceed with next phase.”

“Confirmed, moving to next phase.” Twilight said over the radio to all squads. Besides Nightmare there was Hell Raisers, Chargers, Deadmen and Silence. They had all been squads that had either been out of the base during the attack or had been able to avoid losing any of their people.

“Silence in positions to provide Overwatch.” Came the voice of Sergeant Berm. Silence was one of the few squads that worked almost exclusively as snipers so they were spread out to provide cover to the squads that were going into the base. The only reason Twilight was the one to take out the guard towers was so Silence could get into position and conserve what little ammo they have.

This mission was going to be very risky as all five squads had very limited ammo so they’d all have to make sure their shots counted. Twilight slowly pushed herself away from the edge of the forest and made her way back to where Nightmare, Charger and Deadmen were waiting. After a few moments Hell Raisers joined them. “Ok weapons check.” Twilight said as she unslung her rifle and checked the mag as did everyone else. “Hell Raisers how are our explosives?” She asked looking at them.

Sergeant Freemen smiled and all of Hell Raiser shifted the packs on their backs. “Ready to go the moment we need them.” Hell Raiser was made up of former demolition workers who all had experience with explosives so were mainly used when the Rebels needed a hole somewhere, which would defiantly be needed on this mission.

A sound of drew Twilight’s attention to Charger under the commander of Sergeant Holmen and she saw they had just finished checking the three shotgun and two SMGs the squad used. They always preferred fighting up close and personal on mission and when inside of buildings would be useful.

That left Deadman, under commander of Sergeant Zander as support as they were using mostly LMGs so they could cover other squads as they worked. Twilight looked at her own squad; they all carried their own weapons and looked ready. Nightmare had been put in charge of this entire mission for some reason. “Ok, everyone ready for teleport?” She asked as she slung her rifle. She either got a nod or a thumbs up from the other squads. “Alright everyone get as close as you can, I’ve never teleported this many people before.” She said and the squads squeezed together as tightly as they could around Twilight and she lite her horn as she went through the spell.

She executed the spell and in a flash of light they went from the small clearing to just inside of the fence of the Fed Base. Twilight swayed a bit on her hooves as the world spun while the Squads moved to cover their surroundings in case a Fed were to walk by at the wrong time. Twilight shook her head to get the world to stop moving and took a deep breath. “Ok, let’s get moving.” She said and the Rebels started to move for their first destination, the Ammo Dump. They didn’t have long before someone noticed the patrols failure to report in and with luck it won’t matter by then.

They had a good idea where they were going but without a map they were guessing for the most part. It was slow going as they were trying to avoid detection for as long as possible and with so many people trying to move it defiantly was a minor miracle they hadn’t been spotted yet.

And Twilight really needed to stop thinking that and really focus on finding Murphy because in the moment as she neared the corner of a building a Fed walked around it. Twilight skidded to a halt and the Fed stopped mid-step for a second before he went for he tried to raise his rile, only to be sent flying back and Twilight’s augmented earing to dampen the boom that happened just above her head. Looking up she saw one of the Charger pump his shotgun. “Thanks.”

“Welcome ma’am, now I think it’s time to run.” The man said and Twilight had to agree as she heard shouts coming from around the base followed by an alarm starting to blare, stealth time over.

“Moving firefight!” She order and the rebel started to sprint for the ammo dump. It didn’t take long for the Feds to notice the group of dark green wearing soldier running through their base shooting anyone they came across like a bunch of lunatics and soon the raiding party was under fire but they didn’t stop moving, only pausing to let Twilight heal one of them when they didn’t take out a Fed in time.

Even despite Twilights best efforts, they were facing an entire base of Feds and before they reached the ammo dump one of the Chargers took a round to the head and was dead before he hit the ground. When they were almost to the ammo dump one of the turret mounted jeeps came skidding around a building and stopped in their bath as the soldier on the turret swung the gun in their direction. Twilight was sure they were all dead when she heard a high pitched whine and the Fed on the direct head snapped back and he collapsed as one of Silence took out the gunner.

The Fed behind the wheel pushed the door open and started to climb out with his rifle when the member of Charger beside Twilight sprinted for and kicked the door shut hard. The soldier was mostly out except for his right arm which was slammed in the door causing the soldier scream in pain as he fell to the ground. A shotgun blast ended the man’s screaming.

After that the rebels reached the ammo dump and while Deadmen covered them Twilight used her magic to tear the door off the first bunker. That had been harder then she thought it would be and it left her with a small head ache afterwards but it was the fasted way they had of getting in.

IT didn’t help it made where her right eye used to be throb. She couldn’t wait till they found Dr. Anderson so she could get it replaced as at this point there was no saving it as she had gone to long without it being dealt with and the river water, being in a sewer and the strain of her magic was doing who know what to what had been left of the eye. Best to just replace it like the other one thought Dr. Anderson had mentioned to her it would require more implants in her brain if she was to end up needing more cybernetics as she only had some basic ones meant to just run her one eye and the one leg. He had managed to jerry rig it to work the second leg as well but no way would it be able to run two eyes and two legs.

As the raiding party moved into ammo dump Charger took down the few Feds inside of it and from there Twilight ripped the steel doors off their hinges of the room and walked into the small rooms filled with ammo. A minute later she walked out of the completely empty room. Word had gotten around the base about her ‘infinite storage locker’ and it was why Nightmare was sent on this mission.

After emptying the rest of other nine rooms the raiding party walked out of the bunker and into a fire fight between Deadman and a large group of Feds. “Can you hold them for a few more minutes?” Twilight asked sergeant Zander.

“We got the ammo and I guarantee none of them will get past us as long as we still draw breath.” Zander replied and Twilight nodded. She had noticed Zander had a very odd way of speaking that she had never really encountered before. He sounded almost like a noblemen in voice but his choice of phasing was odd.

“Ok good, we will empty another two bunker then head for the mess hall.’ She told the Deadman leader who nodded.

Hell Raisers elected to stay with Deadman and provide support to their efforts to hold back the Feds while Charger and Nightmare went to the next bunker and Twilight torn the door off again, causing her head ache to grow worse. There was no time to stop though as they were on a tight schedule in that it was only a matter of time before they were overrun.

Clearing the bunker Twilight did the same thing she had done to the first and moved all the ammo into her storage locker before doing the same to the third. The fourth bunker they gained entry to Twilight had come up with a special idea for and it was when she called Hell Raiser in. After a short time Hell Raisers packs were half filled now as they had set charges throughout the ammo dump set to a remote detonator.

“Ok onto the mess all.” She said over the radio and it was another running fire fight to the large square building near the barracks. Thankfully the building was empty when they arrived so it was easy to put every scrap of food into her storage locker.

After that it was onto the base’s infirmary. That was being defended by a few guards and medics. And with more and more of the base coming down on them they lost two members of Deadmen and Sergeant Freeman in the process of clearing the infirmary but Twilight was able to empty it of all of the medical supplies and had the Hell Raiser plant some more charges in the building.

After that it was the final objective, the bases Armory. Which if it was anything like the Rebel’s armory would be defended and have other security measures in place. A mad dash to the armory confirmed twilight’s theory as it was a fire fight just getting through the building that cost them two more Chargers but after tearing the doors off of the weapons cage twilight moved every sing thing she found into her storage locker.

“Ok we are clear, let’s get the hell out of here!” Twilight yelled feeling woozy.

The raiding party ran outside to find Sergeant Zander the only Deadmen still standing as he held off the Feds. “Zander we are leaving come on.” She said as the rest of the raiding party headed for the fence.

“I do not think I can join you little creature.” Zander said as he fired his LMG at the advancing Feds.

“What?” Twilight said. “I am ordering you to retreat.” She said with some anger.

“I am afraid that is an order I cannot follow small one for if I leave this spot then we shall all perish. I shall remain here and hold back our enemy till I draw my last breath.” Zander said and smiled at her. Twilight couldn’t help blinking. The man just volunteered for a suicide mission with no chance of surviving and he was smiling and actually looked happy.

“What the fuck are you smiling about?”” Twilight asked.

The man just laughed as he continued to fire his gun. “Because small one it is my time and I know I have lived a good life with no regrets so why should I not smile at the end when I know my life is being exchanged so that others may live?” He asked. He looked at her with an amused smile on his face. “We are all dead men walking small one and it is a great honor to give one’s life so that others may live.” He said and ducked as a bullet shot past his head and he returned fire. “You should go now small one, I feel there are great things planned for you in the future and if you were to fall here then you shall not accomplish them.”

Twilight stared at the strange human before she turned and galloped away from the battle. She was going to recommend the sergeant for a commendation because any man who could face down an army so calmly knowing how it would end was some she would make sure would not be forgotten.

As Twilight galloped after the raiding party she heard a very loud rumbling noise and noticed the ground was shaking slightly as she ran. As she ran between two buildings she heard a loud boom and reflexively put her shield up a moment before something exploded against it shattering it and sending her tumbling across the ground.

She slowly got to her hooved and looked back between the buildings to see a massive vehicle rolling between them. The vehicle reminded her of the truck she and the general had used to escape the Fed Compound hours ago only instead of wheels this one had treads. There were no windows anywhere only massive turret sitting onto of the base and on top of the large turret was the same type of turret that was in the base’s guard towers. Though she had never seen one of these massive vehicles of destruction first hand she knew what it was.

“TANK!” She yelled over her radio as she turned and galloped from the armored death machine. None of the raiding party had anything anti-armor and the tank would wipe them out with easy. There was only one course of action, run. As she ran she heard the loud boom again and put her shield up just in time to stop the shell from hitting her. It still shattered her shield and sent her stumbling but she kept on her hooves, adrenalin fueling her mad dash for the rest of the raiding party as the tank followed her.

As she neared the raiding party she saw them start to fire on the tank and could hear the round bouncing harmlessly off the tanks thick armor. “Get together!” She yelled and the rebels grouped together as Twilight dove into the group her horn. She was having trouble getting the spell to work do to a massive headache that was making it hard to focus but she forced the spell to execute. The last thing she saw before the flash was the tank aiming straight at them and fire.

The rebels reappeared back in the small clearing and Twilight doubled over and vomited up what remained of her last meal which wasn’t much. A moment later she fell over and darkness claimed her.

Author's Notes:

well things are kicking off in a big way this chapter.

twilight learned something she hadn't known about her cybernetics. The rebels have a plan because of her and she managed to stop General Clancy from losing hope.

She lead a successful mission against the feds with multiple squads.

and now the Rebels have more supplies then thy could ever hope for.

Twilight also met a strange human that even though she knew him briefly had an effect on her.

all an all this conflict has escalated and who knows what's in store for Sergeant Sparkle as The Field has been changed.

You'll just have to the next chapter and find out.