Blazing Muzzles

Chapter Five: Test Mission

By Blaze Spectrum

Annoyed, I grabbed my weapons from the desk next to me. There was an LRR2 as my primary, the RFK3 as my secondary. Grabbing my final weapon, my sidearm, I loaded a clip into it. I already had my ammo on the belt. I only one hour of sleep in the past twenty four hours. It was only two in the morning. I had to do a rather simple mission, to give Twilight and her friends an idea of the nature of the battlefield.

I bet they must have been pretty ticked off at the early call. By the time we had gone together in the hanger, I could see the look on their faces. Twilight's mane was slightly messier than usual, she probably had a few seconds to comb it but that wasn't enough. Fluttershy's mane was perfect, and she was shivering. I had to put on her space marine helmet myself. Applejack, for some reason still wore her stetson over her helmet. Rainbow Dash's face had aggravation written all over it. She probably liked her sleep. Her mane seemed more or less normal, probably because it was usually messy. I had to help her get her helmet on despite her protests. She must have a pretty large ego. Pinkie had pulled her helmet out of nowhere and put it on. Rarity was the last to arrive, probably due to the fact she found it hard to put her armour on and was whining about it being a crime to fashion. She had no time to comb her mane, and I was sure she would like it less once she took her helmet off.

I glared at them."Stop bickering and get on the damn dropship!"

I had put so much force into the last word that even Rainbow obeyed.

Once we were inside, we had plenty of room. It was designed to be able to carry twenty, but we were seven. I knew what was going to happen but they didn't. And I bet it took them by surprise.

The vertical thrust activated. We went upwards quickly. Even under armour it was quite a jolt to the six mares. We only went up a metre though. And that's when the pilot went for full thrust. We shot forward, like an arrow from a crossbow. I actually had my seat belt on, so I didn't get pulled back. But the six mares nearly fell off their seats. But it wasn't long for them to get organised. I had to tell them how to get the seat belt on though.

We basically shot across the sky at 2000 kilometres per hour for half an hour. Then, after an uneventful trip, we had arrived.

It was Ponyville. While from the outside, it hasn't seemed to change at all from the past multiple centuries. But the inside was  equipped with the luxuries of today. We had been informed that the AR would be headed for Ponyville. I don't know why, but probably because it was the closest town to Canterlot.

First, I needed to get them ready. Applejack had a gatling gun along with her primary and secondary. She wouldn't be able to carry a spare drum, however, I had personally modified it to have five hundred custom cartilage 30 mm bullets opposed to the usual two hundred. The custom cartilages were modified for insanely increased accuracy and range. She should be intelligent enough to use the reticle to aim.

Pinkie had a rocket launcher that could unleash twice as big as a explosion as before. Rainbow Dash was equipped with a grenade launcher that would second Pinkie's anti vehicle capability. Rarity, had a normal load out and she seemed to prefer levitating her combat knife. Twilight had her sniper, and Fluttershy, had dual SMGs.

First off, we had to dig a trench. It was old but we had no sandbags. And we couldn't just be out in the open.

Twilight, who didn't put on her helmet yet, said,"Um... I'm not so sure I want to do this..."

At the same time, her horn seemed to be gathering up energy, which I twanged to stop.

"You're staying her whether you like it or not."

First, there was a helicopter coming in. Pinkie shot a rocket at it. She didn't even wait for it to lock on so it missed. Frustrated she pulled her helmet off, grabbed her combat knife and charged. Her mane was completely deflated, and she was quite the opposite of what she was.

She grabbed on to the handle of the troop bay door, sliding it open. She forced the blade through the first pony to react's throat. Priming a grenade, she rolled it in and jumped off, putting her helmet back on and sheathing her knife.

The whole thing went boom.

But then, a few squads began rolling over the horizon, which was easily mowed down with Applejack's gatling gun. But more came, until I realised it wasn't a few squads.

A whole army was headed our way.

And Applejack didn't seem to be able to stand the sight of bodies being torn apart by a ultra lethal killing machine. Twilight winced every time she blew a head off. Rainbow Dash didn't flinch as much but it was the recoil that shocked her.

I had a feeling that we weren't going to hold off a horde with amateurs.

I told Twilight to only target the space marines, Rarity to sneak up to higher ranking ponies and assassinate them. And Applejack to destroy everything that wasn't us. But despite all of it, the army was still gaining ground.

I was killing plenty with my DMR. Almost every shot I took was a headshot. And so, why I love the LRR2. But we were running out of ammunition was well. Apple jack just dropped her ailing gun due to no more ammo, and I only had two spare clips. We may have to turn this into war in the town.

Well, they were only rapidly gaining ground. It wasn't long before they had forced us all the way back to Ponyville, where some civilians were panicking, some were waiting with ammo belts, armour vests and AK47s. They were open to civilians but AK47s are awfully outdated. They take ten shots to kill a marine, and 14 to kill a space marine. But it was too expensive to supply them with state of art weaponry. So they started making their own. Crossbow sniper rifles, are an example. But the crossbows were awfully effective. Even if they hit you in the body when you're a space marine, it goes right through you.

"At least we have some back up," I thought.

As son as the first squad came in, they found an arrow piercing right through the leader, going through the one behind him and mortally wounding one more.

"Seems like the civilians aren't gonna let up their home turf anytime soon," I muttered under my breath.

Applejack began to man one of the examples of civilian creativity, a machine gun turret with two rotating barrels on the side and a grenade launcher in between them. The grenade launcher took out the remains of the first squad.  She began mercilessly mowing down the rest with a flurry of rapid fire and artillery. That alone wasn't enough to hold them off. But with the combined help, we were capable of keeping them away. But of course we ran out of ammunition. So while the civilians were holing them off we made a run for ammo. I grabbed an RPG-7 which I used to obliterate a dropship haphazardly attempting to drop off troops in a area too hot.

I grabbed an AK47 from the ground. While I still had my empty weapons on my back the thing still helped me kill a marine stupid enough to try to kill everything with a knife. I grabbed a crossbow sniper from the ground. I only had one shot that I took from a public ammunition cache. An explosive arrow. I aimed it at a space marine's head. That particular one was on a roll. Killing all civilians who dared charge her. An entire squad was around her as well. It was perfect.

I pulled the trigger. I could feel the twang as the bow almost instantly found its target's head. It wasn't that sharp, so it merely stuck out of the head. But a second later, it went boom. Killing everything within ten metres of her.

But Twilight and her friends were in trouble too. They were being charged by a horde. And they apparently were to fazed to pull a few grenades into the obvious grenade bait. But then, a dropship began looming over head. I wasn't facing the troop bay but the main six were. And they must have gotten a signal because they retreated back. The AR, had their attention diverted to the dropship, which simply dropped a bomb on them. It took out a whole block.

I heard a voice over my COM,"Come on! This is Dropship-09673, come aboard!"

I shouted back,"But what about Ponyville?"

The answer was harsh,"STFU and come aboard! Screw them! Let them deal with it themselves!"

"Fine," I muttered.

But of course, this wasn't it. A rocket was headed towards one of the wings.

It hit it. The wing was blown of immediately from the blast and the small ship came crashing down into a random pony's house.

The poor guy would lose his house. But the ones on board the dropship were in bigger trouble. In fact, they were dead. Probably not much apart from a few burning corpses. Even I was disgusted by what they might look like.

"No," I thought,"Bad mind! Don't think like that!"

But at least I didn't have to worry about one of the hordes. I took a three minute walk to regroup with the main six. I walked up to the wreckage. While we may have not been extracted, there was still something good. A chest full of ammo.

I quickly opened the box. Jackpot. It had every single clip we needed. It even had a gatling gun, but unmodified. I guessed it would do. This time, I grabbed the killing machine. In fact, it wasn't until that moment I realised the potential of the thing I was holding. It was a murder machine, a delivery system for death. It was a weapon. Well, it felt good having ammo again and not  having to constantly salvage the remains of war.

The first place Twilight told us to go was inside her library, despite all my protests that it was basically a giant tree. It was an ancient structure alright. The windows haven't been cleaned in a century, the books were perfectly normal though.

Twilight opened up a random book. And said,"These books are exactly the same as before!" she said while dusting off a few centuries of dust.

But of course, we called for extraction. They would be her in half an hour if we headed for the Everfree Forest.

"T-The Everfree Forest?!" shouted the main six.

"Hey," I replied,"Don't lose it. We're space marines, remember?"

Once we were outside I punched the glass open of a car near the library. A SUV. should hold us all.

"Sorry anonymous owner," I thought as I found the keys right in the ignition.

Once I got the main six inside, the layout was pretty simple. Twilight in the shotgun seat, with the window opening for shooting outside. Fluttershy and Rarity were in the back seats. Basically additional gunners. In the back was Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Applejack. With the rear window broken from a few forceful kicks, they would get those on our tail.

I had my and on the handbrake. This was an automatic gear shift vehicle so holding the brake would reverse. I revved the engine up. I released the handbrake, launching us forward at high speed. Withing seven seconds, we were at a hundred kilometres per hour. I drove the vehicle to charge through the crowded streets. The civilians retreated, but the AR didn't react fast enough. A majority of them were killed or just spattered by the force. Half of them who survived the spatter were gunned down by the main six.

We were speeding down the dirt roads at an average of just over 120 kph. We had exited Ponyville in only a few minutes, and were running the AR over like nopony's business. Of course it was only twenty minutes once we arrived at a clearing in the Everfree Forest.

A HPM-3 Dropship was waiting for us. I was about to jam on the brakes when the vehicle suddenly spun out of control. I looked at the dashboard, which said that the traction control was off. It had been off just a few seconds ago, and Twilight probably was curious what it would do.

We flipped over to my right side, and the SUV, within seconds, was crushed to a fifth of its original size. It didn't blow up at least. So it was perfectly safe for us to get out.

I shot Twilight a dirty look but she probably never saw it because of my heavily tinted visor. At least we were unharmed though. I climbed onto the dropship and decided that they had enough.

So again, the flight was remarkably uneventful. Nothing tried to shoot us down, nothing bothered to hijack us. Just me sitting down with six other mares bored out of their minds. After a while I decided wearing my helmet was too stuffy and took it off. But that was when Rainbow Dash decided she wanted to fly all the way. At first I thought she was crazy but soon I saw what she meant. She could easily keep up with us. Despite the obvious fact that no pegasus in the last eight or ten centuries was able to break the sound barrier, much less pull off a Sonic Rainboom. Then, I remembered a long forgotten history class about the main six, which clearly stated Rainbow Dash was able to pull off a Sonic Rainboom, and had mastered it after a few years. While they also mentioned she was capable of turning it into a huge explosion if she hit the ground, that wasn't really necessary to keep up with us.

Once we were there, I eagerly jumped off when we were still a few metres from the hanger floor. I wanted to get out of that thing. It was quite the same for the others. I guessed it was safe to call it a day and go rest. After all, this wasn't much of a test mission for Twilight and her friends. It was more like defending from a full scale assault.

Now I guess the next challenge for them to deal with was rations. I bet the food back then was gourmet cuisine compared to the field rations. The food in the bases wasn't that bad but it wasn't really good either. But who knows? We might as well as get another mission. Next Chapter: Chapter Six: A Soldier Gets No Free Time Estimated time remaining: 28 Minutes