"You're mad at me, aren't you?"

"Mad? Darling I am absolutely furious with you! What in fuck's name were you thinking saying yes to this absolute gobshite plan and dragging me into it?? You think this shit is funny?!"

"I never fuckin' said that hun, and I don't plan on saying it anytime soon. Buck just keeps digging himself deeper and someone's gotta be there to keep his head on his shoulders."

"Oh don't even get me started on him. That sack of shit can kiss my salty ass for all the fucks I have to give about his fucking ego. He's going to get his ass killed and drag yours down with it!"

"Not if I can help it..."

"And what if you can't?! Huh?! What if you die down there and I can't even be there to try and help?!"

It was times like these that I was eternally grateful for our helmets' ability to shut off its external speaker so as to allow private conversations like this to happen at full volume while no one else could hear. We had made our excuses to retreat back to the empty cargo/deployment bay at the back of the vehicle in order to have a 'private team discussion', Hucks giving the added point of 'needing to go over [my] supply of first aid gear'. Instead, our conversation turned immediately into a heated argument over shit we had already argued about once or twice before now. Like our irritated, whispered conversation back on the Mauler, we were yet again pulling tail hairs over the technicalities of past actions and fears over future ones. I knew and understood why she was so upset, and I even empathized with her plight as a lover; my lover. And yet...I was finding myself a bit annoyed with her insistence on sticking with the topic long after I had come to terms with it. I was terrified. Of fucking course I was freaked out of my mind about going underground with Buck Beak into an area Commander Typhoon herself said she wouldn't go herself unless ordered to. I wasn't that stupid. Well...to her benefit, I was absolutely out of my mind for just...going along with his bullshit rather than overriding him as his commanding officer. But...at the same time, Buck had heard about a harder path to glory and now that the idea had been planted in his mind, there was not a goddamn thing short of death or crippling injury that would keep him from wanting to give it a go. As I had told her during the briefing, I wasn't going to let him get his own ass killed down there by himself and it was better to stick to our plan for two teams of two.

"I don't fucking know hun, I really don't." I finally replied through clenched teeth as I stared back at the dark maroon lenses of her helmet and mask. "But...do any of us really know a goddamn thing anytime we step out there to do our job?"

"No, but don't try to muddy the waters missy." She growled back warningly, poking an armored hoof into my armored chest. "This is about you and that motherfucking asswipe of a Griffin!"

"I know babe...just...leave it alone, would ya? We hit the point of no return like two hours ago on all this shit anyway...and for this specifically, like twenty minutes ago. This is happening regardless of what either of us want or enjoy, so let's make the most of a shitty situation and try to make this work out somehow."

"Look, I get that...but...ugh! Goddamnit, Athena...why?"

"I've said why...I'm an idiot, but Buck is an even bigger one. And I'm just not up to letting him go gallivanting around in a maze of pipes and tunnels by himself. Someone has to keep his impulses in check, else he might collapse like half the city in a massive sinkhole or some shit because he decided to line several city blocks with demolition charges."

"If those Zeebs don't end up killing him first...I will. I swear on everything living and worthwhile that I will end that goddamned dumbass of a Griff-"

"Let's get this shit ready to rumble, ladies! Athena! We'll be taking off after we drop these two off so we've got a little bit of extra time till that door drops for us. How about we huddle up and give Hucks and Nimbus time to do so too?"

As unceremoniously as ever, Buck was butting his way back into our lives and I could only guess at the number of fuses popping underneath Huck's helmet as he walked in. I gave her a shrug and a sigh before willing the external speaker to engage so I could address him directly.

"You're lucky you posed that as a question rather than as a command, Buck..." I sighed with a hint of venom once I bothered to look over at him in the doorway leading further inside.

"Am I?" He huffed proudly with a smug smirk. "Well I'll take that into consideration. You're talkin' to the guy who had a golden nugget of an idea after all! Show some respect to the big brain over here!"

Before I could even register what was happening there was a hearty thwack of metal-on-beak followed by a pained grunt from Buck as Hucks let out all her pent up rage in one colossal punch square to his jaw. The blow sent his ass spiraling wildly into the wall before ricocheting off and onto the floor in a twisted heap of armor and dazed brown feathers. Meanwhile, Huckleberry stood there firmly in a fighting stance, her hoof still outstretched from where it had impacted with the side of his face and a look of primal satisfaction bordering on an orgasm chiseled like stone into her expression as she glared down on her victim. Were the situation not what it was...I would have swooned where I stood at such a sexy display of ferocity out of my girl. Buck, on the other hoof, was undoubtedly seeing whole constellations with how fucking hard she had decked him to the ground. Even though this was technically assault...as Typhoon herself had said, this was Z-country. Far as I was concerned as their C.O, not a goddamn thing had happened just now and no official report was going to be filed. Buck was an egotistical, self-serving jackoff, but he wasn't a complete and total idiot. Even as he cupped his swelling jaw and got back to his paws, I could tell he knew he fucking earned that one and then some.

"A-alright then!" He chuckled back painfully, blinking tears out of his eyes while continuing to cup the side of his face. "Looks like she's ready! How about you Athena?"

"Go fuck an un-lubed cactus and spin like a top in a dust devil, Buck."

"Alrighty! Good shit! Lemme go find something for my fuckin' face and I'll be right back with ya!"

And so he limped off back inside the Black Swan in search of first aid, the swelling likely bad enough to interfere with getting his helmet all the way on, or somehow impeding the hermetic seal. Hucks eventually returned to all fours, though it still didn't happen until long after Buck had left the cargo bay. When she finally did, another angry, hissing sigh of exasperated annoyance hissed out of her mask's microphone.

"Don't even ask me to apologize for that one. He fuckin'-"

"Deserved it? Abso-fucking-lutely he did, and I'm not gonna rob that one from you. Let me handle him for the rest of today, just focus on yourself and keeping your cool. Don't want Nimbus and the rest of Team Crash thinking we're a bunch of ignorant, infighting savages like the Tin Heads like saying."

"Oh please don't bring them into this, Athena... I already have enough of a headache thinking about Private Snafu yanking on the leash to get himself killed down there..."

"Alright, fine I won't heh. But still, just find a moment to get some inner peace going just long enough to get this ball rolling. Once the momentum is there, we just gotta lose ourselves in the moment and follow along with the current as it goes. Wherever it goes..."

"Spare me the half-assed metaphors hun...I know what I gotta do and so do you..."

"I know...I'm not trying to sound pedantic... Look...my gut is screaming at me that we're walking on some pretty thin ice with the Shadowbolts thanks to Mr. Asshole and his big brained schemes. I don't want to fuck something up so badly they lose any respect they might have had for us before now. We're all going a bit insane from the stress...we need to calm the fuck down and get our shit together already before we hit a worse point of no return."

"You're right..." She sighed bitterly, nodding her head and looking away. "For fuck's sake, there better be someone or something to fucking kill down there or I'm gonna fuckin' snap..."

"You and me both sister..." I groaned back in kind, the weight of the moment dangling like a sword on twine over my head. Long as all my thoughts and emotions stayed cohesive, the sword would continue to dangle endlessly, but if anything frayed them too much...I hated to think on what that would look like.

There was so much more that could've been said between us about the whole situation and how unfair shit had become for everyone but Buck. In the end though, we had said what needed to be said; at least as far as the limited timeframe we had allowed for. We exchanged a tight, tense and lengthy hug before leaving the hangar bay together and returning back into the belly of the Black Swan in silence. The other Shadowbolts stood all about the large interior cabin, peering over the shoulders of those seated at their complex computer stations, consulting the fancy ops table 'hologram' or otherwise chatting quietly to each other in the corner. A few eyes glanced our way as we entered, including the fiery orange eyes of Commander Typhoon herself who looked up from the opposite side of the ops table and motioned with her head at me. Although my initial reaction was to hesitate and check if she was motioning for Hucks instead, we had locked eyes and her gaze never deviated away from mine. Instead...I did my best to slink my way in her direction without drawing attention to the fact my gut was twisting in knots and flipping cartwheels in an ever growing anxiety. As I approached, she began walking back behind the bar counter and through a small hatch at the far side of the kitchen which led into a small compartment between the cockpit and main cabin. Separated by thick bulkheads on either side, once the hatch hissed shut, Typhoon pulled a chair recessed against the wall down and motioned for me to do the same. I took a moment, perhaps too long of one for her comfort, to remove my helmet so we could speak civilly.

"Alright...I'm just gonna come out and say it." She said after I had sat down, set my helmet under my seat and looked back up at her. "Your subordinate is getting on my nerves in a bad way, Colonel. I understand you cannot always control those appointed to your Squad, but you can at least exert some level of control over him."

"Yeah...he...has that affect on most people." I mumbled back sheepishly, picturing for a moment venting all my anger out on his sorry hide. "I know exactly why he's rubbing you and probably everyone else the wrong way after some time spent up close with him. And I truly do apologize for it, Commander..."

"I appreciate the sentiment, but his level of ego is dangerous. He's one tough sonovabitch and a terrific flier, I'll give him that...but he's extremely reckless. I've not even fought alongside him and I can already see the same punkish, flyboy megalomania that got a lot of my people killed in the early days. I ain't gonna try and bullshit you that we Pegusi have no problems with ego and pride, but I'm not gonna coddle you with pleasantries either. The fact he's lived this long is a goddamn miracle I think, more than likely attributed to you and the rest of your team."

"Yeahhh...I know, and I honestly feel much the same most days. Believe me, I am well aware that Buck has a death wish with how gung-ho he is for taking the hardest path towards victory purely for the bragging rights. He's been that way since we were all paired together after getting recruited to the Desert Corps, he was that way in the GA before that, and I wouldn't doubt he was that way while growing up at home way before all of that. Griffins are just that way; always have been, even before all this bullshit started."

"True..." She sighed with a heavy groan tugging at the back of her voice. "That's one of the greatest reasons no Griffins have been asked to join the Shadowbolts before, if I'm to be perfectly frank. But, just because he's another gung-ho featherhead outta Griffinstone doesn't excuse his behavior. He's...shall we say, too comfortable around us. I don't mind a little indulgence for those who've earned it, but..."

"But he takes it a bit too far for a veritable stranger to this group." I finished for her as I knew the gist of what she was going for. "It's irked me too, believe me. Oh...and he's from Cloudsdale actually, not Griffinstone. And yes, he took it way too far. He isn't hiding the fact he envies what you guys have, the prestige and privileges a team like yours has in the EAF. I know I was uncomfortable with how casual he was acting around you guys...and I again apologize for his behavior. I...honestly am pretty sure there's some deep-seated insecurity issues going on with him that he needs some serious help for. Unfortunately, we're almost always on duty and he's most effective when he's got a challenge he feels is worth his time to gnaw on if you will. He's always looking to outshine himself at any opportunity... It's lead him to great heights, but...some of his darkest hours as well."

"Ambition like that is a potent fuel and tool...volatile and unstable if left alone and even under close supervision...I guess I should thank you for saving me the hassle of trying to put him together with Nimbus..."

"I wouldn't dare! Buck is my dumbass to corral and keep on the leash. The only people I'd ever feel comfortable pairing him up with without me or one of Alpha Squad would be one of those Gryphons from the Plague Birds were they ever open to doing some foalsitting work for me."

"Oh? I've...had little contact with that particular group of birds. Why them in particular? Not for nothing but...I don't personally trust those tall-ass Greifenländers. They're not exactly ironclad allies with us like the rest of NEATO is."

"Well yeah, they remained independent and weren't annexed like most NEATO member nations were, so of course they're gonna wanna keep that sweet, sweet independence. Regardless, I'd put him with the Plague Birds because they'd set him right better than anyone else I could think of. And best of all, he'd more than likely actually shut up, listen, and actually genuinely improve because of it. If they didn't rip him a new one or two before he managed to hit that point that is..."

"Does he...have some kind of fascination or... something with them?"

"Who, the Plague Birds or Gryphons at large? Either way, the answer would be yes to both. And for the record, 'fascination' is a bit of a light word to use for it, but it's close enough to work with if at least in spirit."

"...Things just got a whole lot clearer then." She said solemnly after a moment of silence to digest my response. "A Griffin out of Equestria with aspirations towards becoming like a colossal, badass Gryphon... We Pegusi have a term for people like him. 'Miswings', we like to call them. Those who spend their whole lives feeling like they should have been born as another winged species that they look up to for one reason or another; be it strength, looks, charisma, agility or what have you. It takes a lot of forms and can vary in intensity like multiple other conditions."

"Oh...? Is that...a common problem with you guys?"

"Eh, I couldn't give you a hard statistic or whatever on the exact number, but it's common enough to have its own dedicated diagnosis and therapy treatments; at least amongst us Pegusi, I can't speak for Griffinstone or anywhere else. My...own dad suffered from it for a long time actually. Always looked up to Dragons and admired their scales, their natural strength and ability to breathe fire as well as fly. Meanwhile...all he had were boring feather wings and boring old puny pony strength. He was in a terrible depression for most of his adult life because of it...the longing for what he wanted got so bad it severely impacted all of us, mom especially. Eventually though, he got some help finally once he joined the Airborne Corps and it changed his life around for the better since they were able to properly diagnose and offer a treatment plan. He worked out till he got strong enough to nearly keep pace physically with a Dragon that was in his unit and pushed himself till one day he finally beat that guy's best time on the Sunrise Flight. As for the lack of fire breathing, he opted instead for a Heavy Incinerator and dropping incendiary munitions on Equestria's enemies which was close enough for his sake. When he realized he could be just as badass as they were with what he saw as limitations...there was not a goddamn thing out there that could stop him from living the rest of his days as a fighter."

"Heh...did the Airborne medical board get you to do a sponsorship reading for their therapy division?" I asked with a soft laugh, hoping I wasn't coming off as a jackass despite my genuine interest.

"No...but now that you mention it, it probably would be good for them to hear of their success as well. Goddesses know how many Miswings are actually out there suffering in silence... Regardless, the point I was trying to make there...he thinks he should've been born a Gryphon and not a Griffin?"

"Yep. There's definitely an inferiority-complex of some sort going on with him in that department for sure. He overcompensates by going for every hard road to glory, probably hoping he'll somehow become their equal or be invited along to an exclusive mission or something that'll let him prove his worth."

"Which...I inadvertently gave him in a way by hearing out his idea and giving it approval. I guess I should say that I'm grateful I took a second to talk about this with you and didn't harbor my preconceived notions from earlier. I've met plenty of annoying, boastful Griffins during my time fucking around with the art of war, but I doubt any of them had the same deep-seated insecurity issues people like him or my father go through. It was his personal transformation that inspired me to join the Airborne like he did as well after all."

"Well...that seems to have been a good decision for you then. You seem to be in your element doing this kind of work, at least...from the short time we've spent together if I'm allowed to say."

"Heh, I could say the same for you, Colonel. Very well...this mission will proceed as planned then. I wanted a second, more personal interaction with you regarding the Griffin and his state of being and I got what I asked for; with some interesting revelations to boot as well. Keep a tight halter on him down there...make it through all this shit and manage your objective, and I double down right now on my promise to get some more favorable eyes you guy's way. Even...Buck Beak, yes? Yes, even he can get something out of it if he can function well enough through his condition to achieve our combined goals today.

"I'll do what I can, Commander..." I nodded back with a bit of trepidation. "It's part of the reason I'm going with him and no one else. With my ass on the line as well, there's all the more reason for him to be zeroed-in and focused since I don't wanna fuckin' die thanks to something stupid on his end."

"Mm...you're not filling me with the greatest of confidence, Colonel... But, I suppose it'll have to do given the circumstances. I know I wouldn't wanna be in your horseshoes for this...ahem, alternative plan you're going along with."

"Heh, and you say I'm the one not filling others with confidence. We'll do our best to make this shit work somehow to the best of our ability, that's my promise back to you. Buck's a good guy at the end of the day...I just hope we can save some face before the day is out. Or at least pull this off and not end up painfully dying while drowning in shit..."

"I suppose we'll have to wait and see then. I also do hope your team medic is as level-headed and collected as she seems. Nimbus is one of my best and...one might say, my protégé. I've sunk hundreds of hours of my life into that mare so I'd cause some real hell if she wound up KIA pursuing this objective and your Griffin would be my first destination for vengeance."

"Believe me..." I sighed despondently while glancing back at the hatch leading towards the main cabin. "Like I told Nimbus, more or less. If I lose my medic, his sorry ass is gonna be my first and only target as well."

"Then I guess it's good that they've ended up paired together already then. They'll watch each other's backs and you can keep your problem child on a short lead. This all goes well and we'll all be looking forward to some better funding for every single one of us. More guns, more soldiers, more bullets, better accommodations and amenities, more positive standing with an ever restless civilian population...there's so much more than supplies on the line with this siege. Like I told everyone out there, this operation is almost paramount to our current standard of living out here. The Southern Front has been a stalemate for fucking years now, slowly draining resources with little to show for it until less than a month ago when we started the push. Heh...I'm sure you've wondered why the Bünkerwagens were just...sprung on y'all by Command with little warning, let alone proper training, yes?"

"I mean...yeah...? It was a welcome fuckin' surprise for everyone, but right outta left field."

"That's just the thing, you guys seem to have been the last to know. The Engineers selected to be involved were told first, probably like a year ago now, and those selected for the broad trials were well educated beforehoof about the finer workings of these things. Around six months ago, Team Crash and I finally got our official heads-up about them as well, and two months after that, we were already working with the Black Swan here and getting used to how she operates in the field. Each active-duty Shadowbolt Team was issued one of these and they were specially designed for Airborne work, as I'm sure you've already seen for yourself by now. As to why you guys were shafted so hard by comparison...? My best guess is that Olive himself is the one that pushed the timetable by a few months because I swear y'all were supposed to get more than a couple weeks of training in friendly territory. Had things gone the way we were expecting with the timetable Command gave us, we wouldn't have been making this sort of push on Anakha for another few months at least. Sometime towards late Autumn, like November or even December if things dragged on awhile like they always do."

"That they do..." I agreed with an annoyed sigh at Command's expense. "So those two-weeks of training we got could've been four-to-six months or more...why am I not surprised? At this point I'm convinced they just want the Southern Front to suffer a long, slow demise and my Corps gets to be the tip of their worn-out spear..."

"Hey, in all fairness to the powers that be, these Bünkerwagens are some hella sharp and shiny new spears for us to play with. That, and they at least went well outta their way to make these things relatively simple to operate for any basic users like you and me. Outside of learning how to work the computer systems and all the other shit we use on a regular basis of course. Buttons, levers and screens are all pretty straightforward to learn and understand so long as all the fancy stuff under the hood runs smoothly. Comparatively, the Engineers thankfully shoulder the bulk of the more technologically challenging bullshit found under all these access panels and bolted plates. I've not seen the ground variants you guys were sent, but I doubt they're that much different from the Black Swan here. For the most part."

"Well...yes, and no. Ours don't exactly fly around or turn invisible compared to yours for starters, so I'd say that's leaning towards the ridiculously complex side in my opinion. And...how exactly does this one do that by the way?"

She turned slightly and pressed a hoof against the sealed hatch leading to the cockpit before replying, "Our resident, comatose Archmage, Arcane Octave. They set the chassis for this craft down on an enhanced Cloud Seed and made the front area a sort of...meditation chamber lined with Wind Crystals and some other fancy electronics. Instead of your normal pilots seat, it's got some sort of biomechanical interface system set into some freaky chair thing that connects directly with his brain and spinal cord to control the air currents around the Cloud Seed using magic. Far as I know he's hooked right into the CFCs powering this thing so he's got more than enough energy to sustain the spell. At...the cost of being put in some kind of magically-induced coma to limit the amount of physical distractions he'd otherwise experience while fully conscious, or...something like that. I'm not sure, the Healer explained all of it to me, but I only got the basic gist of how the machine works; the most I understood in plain terms was the fact they've hooked him up to a drip-feed of nutrients and Nexus-infused saline. Ain't gonna even try and explain the magic side of how it all works in there, I'll probably just come off sounding like an idiot to an actual Unicorn when it comes to the arcane..."

"Oh don't worry about that nonsense with me, I'm a pretty useless Unicorn as far as my spellcraft is concerned. If it isn't lifting up weapons and swinging them around, or relatively small-ish shit like that, I'm pretty useless with my horn."

"Well...I guess you chose the right profession then. From what Octave's said about the Academy...it's as cutthroat as the upper-management sector of the corporate world up North; pressure coming down on ya from all sides at all times to wash out the 'weak-horned'. They'd eat someone like you alive, no offense."

"Oh, no offense taken Commander. I seriously doubt they'd even let someone like me anywhere near one of their application packets to begin with. Anywho, yeah I don't doubt the Academy is as bad as everyone says in that regard. Our own Combat Mage mentioned much the same about his time spent in the Academy and others I've met have some venom dripping off the word when they say it out loud." I replied with a dry laugh and drifting into an awkward silence before my eyes were drawn back to the hatch to the cockpit and my curiosity broke the surface.

"So...your Mage, he's just...strapped to a chair thing in there tapped directly into the spell-matrix, entirely dead to the world and hooked up to some sort of I.V system in there?"

"Yeah, pretty much. Think he's probably glad he's mostly unconscious to his surroundings in there...it's a very hostile and uncomfortable looking little room, and the device he's hooked into is equally freaky to look at. Even one look in there is more than enough for me. But, he's been doing his job phenomenally so far since plugging in around a hundred and ninety-two hours ago, so any complaints about the flight going forward...cut the guy some slack. He's had a bit of a long shift."

"He's been hooked up to that thing for eight fucking days now??"

"Oh that's nothing, his longest stint was four weeks this one time while working deep in Z-country. Of course...he was also pumped full of inhibitors to the point he was on medical leave for almost another four weeks after that with severe aftereffects, but...that's beside the point. Anyway...I want to thank you Colonel, for your candidness during this little heart-to-heart. Keep a grip on Buck Beak's halter, see him through this to a successful end and I'll see about getting somepony qualified to work with Griffins and Miswing therapy. Could do him a lot of good, but he's gotta be willing and prove he's willing to work with the specialist. There's raw potential out the ass with that guy...be a shame for it to get squandered on petty hubris, or a mistrust of trained psychology."

"I agree...it would be a total waste of talent. I just hope being on the job focuses him in again..."

"It'd better...for everypony's sake." She replied with a grim frown, rising from her seat and allowing it to spring back up against the wall before pulling the door release lever. "Alright, thank you again. Let's get back to it, go-time is right around the corner!"

"Looking all good down here, Commander! Ground forces have cleared and secured both LZs, though we're still waiting on confirmation of the updated seismic scans of the initial insertion point on Beta, over."

"Copy that, Wind Strider. Have them keep the immediate sites clear for the next ten minutes so we can offload, then roll in all the ground cover ASAP. We've got trained eyes watching everywhere we can, but Crimson Dragons can wriggle their way through anything like the fucking rats they are."

"Amen, Commander. Can only hope none of em found their way into the shitzone before we do, but where's there's shit, rats are sure to follow."

"Let's not kid ourselves here...they're down there and probably have been keeping tabs on it for years now with the amount of time they've had to dig into this region. I hate going in blind..."

"True...it's really a gamble if any of this is gonna work at all. If we had more time to plan, this probably would feel less apprehensive."

"Is there anything positive to say about this shit sandwich Buck tossed on our plate, or am I gonna have to go in without a single ounce of moral support on this one?"

Hucks was still on the path of vengeance for our horrid fate, even if her efforts had to be reduced to mere grumbling and interjecting the occasional renewed protest against the entire goddamn operation. It wasn't that I was getting tired of hearing it, as her concerns were all the more valid for the unknown dangers we faced...however, I couldn't deny she was bit of a broken record that even I was getting a tad tired of hearing.

"Well...we've secured the insertion point, so that's something positive...right?" I replied tentatively with an unconvincing smile of reassurance that she couldn't see under the helmet.

"I was looking for something a bit more comforting than that..." She huffed irritably from her side of the ops table. "Whoopie, we snagged two scraps of land off the overland map. Easy part's fuckin' over... Now we gotta literally poke around the bowels of one of the oldest cities on the Continent."

"Relax lil' lady, there's probably a decently accurate map of these tunnels somewhere we can find and work with. They built 'em after all so they'd know best!"

"What, in some fucking ancient sandy tomb carved into sandstone? Fuck off, Buck..."

"Quiet! Both of you!" I huffed abrasively before pointing towards the hangar bay to the rear. "Buck, get in position now and keep your beak shut for a bit."

The glare I shot at him could be felt through our visors and he wisely slinked away with his head still held pretty damn high for the damned fool that he was. Typhoon frowned a bit but thankfully said nothing more on the matter before pulling up the latest update to the tactical map on the ops table; the city springing up to life once more in a haze of colored sand suspended mid-air. The two chosen landing zones from earlier were now ringed with a hazy wall of orange while a dusting of pale green hovered amidst the parts of the city we'd firmly secured; this accounted for essentially everything but the Old City itself minus a buffer zone between us and the city walls. Orbs of pale magenta encapsulated the outer rim of our surrounding forces representing the numerous portable shield emitters Beta Company had rolled in with which provided adequate protection from immediate attack from the wall's defenders. Several dozen more were set up independently across the city at centers of major ground activity such as FOBs, ammo dumps, ad-hoc vehicle repair stations and, most importantly, our two chosen LZs.

"Alright, only have enough time to go over this once since Command is breathing down our necks to get this insane scheme pulled of or they'll just brute force the problem. In the interest of saving some lives getting literally thrown against a wall down there, let's try to do this right, alright?"

When no one responded, she nodded and made some inputs into the control station causing the city sprawl to rise higher while a new dusting of sand rose up underneath it forming a horrid tangle of pipes of all shapes and sizes. The details became progressively harder to make out the deeper down and farther away objects were from the site of the probing spell, leaving us with massive gaps in our map of the underground. Trying to trace some of the piping visually with my eyes from start to finish left me with a minor headache as they would often take sharp, unexpected turns in a wild direction while other similarly convoluted paths weaved in and out of each other around it. As to be expected of a city so ancient as theirs, the newer sections of the city (particularly their slums) lacked a cohesive vision and while most of the pipework seemed stable enough, they seemed to have been installed by different people with different ideas and different end goals. Haphazard didn't even begin to describe the layout I was spotting across the map in what isolated bubbles the individual probes where able to scan. With another input, the two selected insertion points were highlighted in a bright orange and expanded in size while the other glimpses below the street fell away back to the trough below.

"Alright, these are the latest scans. Don't look all that different from the first time around so the fact still stands that our second LZ is facing a rough uphill battle. Think it goes without saying from looking at all those damned pipes, but this part of town wasn't planned by one of the Old Dynasties and so everything tacked onto the original sewer network was done in spurts whenever the New Kingdom could afford it. That being said, that only applies to those affluent quarters of the city where those fancy mansion homes are. Shantytowns spring up in their own chaotic way, often using illegal or just plain dangerous ways of tapping into available public services. Thankfully though, there's a caveat to all that. The only pipes big enough to fit the lot of you are the main passages which narrows down the noise a lot in terms of what paths you can ignore entirely but, at the same time, limits the points of entry available to us. That means their eyes and defenses only have to focus down a few select areas for maximum coverage."

"Now, onto two bits of good news just to sweeten y'all's tea. One is that the main service lines and even some of the secondaries seem to have some more modern infrastructure installed for ease of traversing the tunnels so you can keep your boots dry for those sections at least. And two, you will all be issued dozen StealthBucks each for this mission to use at your discretion. For anypony who hasn't had a chance to use one of these things, you just slot it into any available access port on your PipBuck, lock it in place so it doesn't get knocked loose accidentally, activate the spell as you would any other command, and boom. You're fuckin' invisible to the naked eye. For five-ish minutes that is, they're still fucking with reverse-engineering their perfect invisibility spells, so don't expect to be as stealthy as a Crimson Dragon down there except for maybe Nimbus thanks to the Lunar Steel. These'll block you from sight both visually and mostly on the Arcane Spectrum, but anyone or anything really attuned to it will pick up on something odd being there. But, y'all have at least some experience in stealth tactics so use your best instincts anywhere you can and save your charges for emergencies. Now...for the worst news. The seismic scans..."

Another input and the ops table panned over to Buck's absurd insertion point, the sand representing the piping changing from orange to a pale green riddled with a spiderweb of light black lines along most sections. It didn't take a genius to understand what information was being implied here...

"Yep. Still just as fucked as the first time we checked." Typhoon sighed with resignation while glancing at Buck and I. "I'd ask if you're still up for doing this, but at this point to pull out wouldn't even remotely be an option for anypony. As you can probably tell from all those black lines, that area is riddled with cracks and structural faults; seems to be the result of a minor earthquake this part of the city experienced within the last decade or maybe two according to our analysts on board. Some pipes have even fuckin' collapsed and block their own passages, so Goddesses know just how backed up some of the city's sewage flow is. Judging from the fact that there's no visible overflow anywhere that we know of, I think we can assume that enough of the system is intact to keep doing its intended job, but I also know that's not exactly saying a whole lot. At this point...best you poor saps can do is try not to do a damned thing to disturb those walls and do your best to keep your hooves dry."

"How about ours...?" Hucks asked with visible apprehension as her tail twitched anxiously between the tails of her duster. "I'm not liking what I'm hearing so far, no offense."

"Agreed..." Nimbus concurred with a similar level of tension in her tone. "Not exactly filling us with hope here, Ty. We'd like something more comforting to work with, please. Or is that just not even an option for this op?"

In response, Typhoon scrolled the map display over to their insertion point over a half-mile away from ours, comparatively displaying far fewer cracks in the infrastructure as the lovely (literal) shithole Buck had chosen for us closer to the city wall. While the twisting mass of pipes was just as convoluted as anywhere else the probes had exposed, the lack of those spiderwebbing lines was more than a little noticeable. Buck wasn't going to hear the end of this...but at least Hucks had the better half of our insane plan, I could at least die knowing that much if it all went to hell.

"Dunno if you were looking for anything super specific but I hope the visual difference between those two LZs is enough to work with." Typhoon replied with a frown and a sigh. "Not a lot of good to tell you guys, this isn't a typical op and we've got far less time to prepare than we should be allowed. Command wants results and you gotta dig through the shit to find some it seems. Anything else...? No? Good, get to the bay and prepare to disembark. We've got a busy day ahead of us."

With apprehension beginning to claw its way up my throat, I joined the group in turning away from the table and making a path towards the back of the Black Swan. Accompanying us were a couple of members of Typhoon's support team dressed in their matching royal plum jumpsuits struck at the neck and fetlocks by bright yellow bolts of embroidered lightning; quietly and professionally plugging themselves into two of the small workstations located in the hanger. Though I spared a glance in Huck's direction, my eyes could not help but be drawn to the sleek purplish-black combat armor worn by Nimbus. Even under the direct white light of the hangars' recessed lighting, her armor seemed to exude its own shadow which clung thickly to it like a wispy veil of black mist. Details as to what other equipment was strapped to her person or even what each individual plate of her armor exactly looked like were frustratingly difficult to make out, even standing within a few feet of her. It was debatable if anything but expert spellcraft or highly specialized sensors would even be able to detect her in a dark room...or a dark sewer pipe.

"T-minus thirty-seconds to bay opening!" One of the technicians called out to my right while a red light sprung to life near the corners of the bay door. "Alpha team, stand-by for departure!"

Her tail now frantically dancing beneath her, Hucks approached the foot of the door alongside her new partner Nimbus, both clad head-to-hoof in the finest equipment our respective Corps could offer. With a soft jolt beneath our hooves, the sensation of descent rippled through the room and Hucks and I both made to grab onto the cargo netting lining the walls in order to steady ourselves. Buck and Nimbus were naturally unaffected by the feeling and remained standing upright like nothing happened, while the two technicians on duty were both belted down to their chairs focused on their jobs and likely didn't notice at all. And then, after what felt like only five seconds passed by, the lights in the corner turned green and the ramp door began to rapidly descend on our first destination. The brief view I caught of the outside world as the two of them rushed out helped confirm what little extra info I had gleaned regarding their insertion point, namely that we had landed in the central courtyard of a fine restaurant of sorts. Fine wooden tables and chairs were visibly moved up against the wall alongside potted plants, carts of unused dishes and a row of odd, large smoking devices with connected tubes I'd yet to learn the name of. Their task was to dive into the city's bowels via a major contributing pipe in the system which connected shortly to the main sewer network, an entrance that even sported viable ladder access if the seismic scans were to be believed. Far from the lap of luxury but again, she wasn't in as immediate danger of cave-in as Buck and I were about to be. We had spared one last hurried hug before things became too serious, and so we would have to suffice ourselves with a hurried glance through visors at one another before the bay door raised shut once again. It hurt more than I wanted to admit to anyone seeing her go off into the unknown without me and in the company of a relative stranger...but what was I to do at that point? I had rather unwisely allowed Buck's stupid ideas to all go forward rather than face a shouting match in front of a Shadowbolt Commander. And, as she herself had reminded us all, this had been approved all the way at the top. This was moving forward with me or with my ass court-marshaled for insubordination, and with how General Olive was likely all but waiting for me to slip up it seemed...

With another lurch in my knees and gut, I felt the Black Swan take flight once more this time bound for Buck's idea of a good time. Indeed, the pit in my stomach from the ship taking flight only deepened to mild nausea as the apprehension of the upcoming moments filled me with dread. There were simply too many factors that would be at play down there to even begin thinking about. The tight, winding system of pipes and passageways, the unknown number of defenses and defenders we were to encounter, our unknown path under the wall and into the Old City, finding and then eliminating enough spell generators to drop the shield...all of this without mentioning the literal rivers of raw sewage we were to wade through to get there, trying to stay alive the entire time despite it all. Needless to say...Buck had earned himself every ounce of vitriol I was gonna hurl his way for every second of my life he squandered on this insanity. Again, before I knew it, the red light in the corner flashed green and the door dropped once more, this time on a much less pleasant view than the last. What might have once been a stately residence was now home to squalor as I glanced around the central courtyard of a smaller villa home. Rough mats of grimy woven straw marked with piles of equally dirtied blankets occupied multiple spaces, assorted trash and second-hoof possessions scattered about the space with little organization. Those with seemingly more means than their fellows had gone to the effort of erecting lines of frayed rope draped with tattered cloth around whatever area they had designated as theirs. All these however were devoid of occupants and the courtyard itself quiet as the grave with only preliminary signs of the military presence that would soon rush in to fill the space present in the corners. Once my hooves and his paws took the final step from off the ramp, it already began to raise shut and with a final salute for good luck from Typhoon standing inside, the Black Swan vanished fully from sight and quietly took off into the sky. And like clockwork, it was barely a minute before the rank-and-file of the General Army rushed back in to fill the space with noise and commotion. Supplies were brought in, a rudimentary comms station set up and a reserve force took up a perimeter while the main force assembled for the assault on the West Gate nearby.

"Alright, let's quit gawking and get moving already." Buck said finally after we had both been caught up in the movement of the moment. "Clock's ticking fast on this one."

"Believe me, I fuckin' know..." I groaned back in reply as we moved some curious Privates aside who were gawking at our armor. "The sooner this shit is over, the better..."

"That's the spirit! Oi! You two! Eyes to your fucking selves!" He responded boisterously before snapping at the Privates as we brushed past. "We've got more important places to be than you do."

I muttered a muted apology to them on his behalf as I went past them myself and followed behind as he made a bee-line straight through a wide doorway devoid of any doors leading inside the villa proper. The marker on our maps indicated a place located in the rear of the building, and lead us through one trashed room after another until we happened upon a sewer access hatch built into the floor. Though the room had likely once been only used for storage given the sewer hatch, it now seemed to serve as an unofficial restroom for the squatters living on site. While the Southern Front was no stranger to open-pit latrines with lye and burn barrels for waste, we were comparatively high-class compared to the unholy sight we were subjected to as Buck and I witnessed smearing the walls and piling in the corners. This of course didn't even include the absurdly dangerous contraption by which occupants popped a squat over the wide hole leading downwards and answered the call of nature. Held together by layers of tape, steel wire and an eternal hope in blind luck, the rudimentary handlebars were built out of assorted scrap and attached to a stake which had been driven into the concrete floor. The rusted remnants of what had once been a service ladder were visible through the filth, though the path to safely get down to the equally rusted remains of the walkway below had vanished sometime since they were first constructed. Instead, all there was that remained was a twenty-thirty foot drop from here to where we needed to be, the walls on every side growing ever more disgusting the farther down it went. For the love of all things that were sacred and holy, I was truly blessed to be wearing an advanced respirator and air filtration system to spare my poor nose from an otherwise unbearable assault.

"What is that shit people say? 'Ladies first'?" He asked sarcastically with a hearty chuckle as he glanced between me and the shitpit below.

"They do say that, but usually it's outta fuckin' respect and doesn't involve a goddamn invitation to be the one to jump first into a fucking sewer. Just so ya fuckin' know, you absolutely stupid fuck..."

"Yeesh, language much? I'll fuckin' go first then if it's so far up your own ass to do so. Bitch..."

With what was likely a glare in my direction, he looked at me for a moment before hopping down into the pipe, jamming his talons and the claws of his armored paws into the sides to slow and control his decent. Lacking such useful appendages myself, I was forced to try and replicate his maneuver with just my hooves and brute, angry strength. I will admit that I closed my eyes on the way down the moment I felt the metal rim of my combat boots and their rubber soles struggle against the slimy, crusty metal wall. Like a giant razor (or maybe a squeegee) my rough descent scraped off Goddesses knew how many years worth of semi-dried piss and shit in my wake and I was beginning our journey into hell with a generous dusting of the city's finest on my upper body. Graciously, Buck Beak found it in his heart to stand in wait to catch me once the pipe gave way to the somewhat vaulted ceiling of the secondary tunnel access, setting me daintily on my hooves with what could have been called a suave move, had I not been so pissed at him. How the metal grating of the service infrastructure survived enough of the abuse from above to hold our weight was a miracle by all accounts, and Buck wisely tried to keep some distance between us so as to more evenly distribute our combined weight. We found ourselves in a modern-looking concrete pipe lightly decorated in the Baladi aesthetic along the crown molding though the concrete was visibly cracked and missing portions of its otherwise smooth surface. The space also surprisingly retained some basic lighting infrastructure embedded in a steel protective box on the opposite wall; its only safety from scrappers being the river of sewage below and its height on the wall. The tunnel continued in a roughly East-West direction before us, the path leading West shortly cut off by a gap in the flooring where decay had claimed its victim. Pulling up the map function on my HUD, I took a moment to assess just where exactly we had come in at and what lay immediately ahead from the data we already had. It didn't help however that the graphical fidelity of enclosed space maps was rather poor on the 2500 model and parsing details, even inches from my eyes, was a true struggle. Now that we were underground and out of friendly territory, all external communications were shut off and an encrypted channel opened between our radios.

"If I'm reading this correctly...we should be located roughly...gods this display is so jumbled..." I muttered almost to myself as we each stood still atop a support strut holding up the walkway. "I can barely make heads-or-tails outta this shit..."

"I see it..." He grumbled in response before glancing to his right down the passage which bent away towards the right and out of sight. "I think there's some other smaller pipes somewhere in the ceiling above us that's fucking with the readout. We knew we were going in blind as is, so let's follow this pipe towards the Old City. Keep following any viable paths that seem to go Eastwards under the wall until we hit the old tunnel network."

"Seems like that's our best bet..." I grumbled back, following carefully along as we stalked our way further into the bowels of the city.

The mix of modern infrastructure with a more archaic, vaulted ceiling of medieval design was a visually intriguing experience, if one majorly undercut by the disgusting nature of its contents. The walls and indeed the ceiling too continued to display spiderwebbed cracks and flaking bits of concrete, several sections missing entire chunks which exposed the rebar reinforcement underneath. It went without saying that my trepidation grew with every step we took deeper into the system, my eyes desperately attempting to not look directly at any of the smaller contributory pipes in the walls dumping their contents into the river below. Indeed...I admittedly lost myself in the moment of attempting to not incite my gag-reflex at the mere thought of what surrounded me. Buck dutifully lead the charge, actually taking care to watch his step as he worked to ensure we didn't collapse the otherwise dubious walkway we found ourselves on. I followed along behind him, admittedly much more distracted from the situation as I should have been. If anything, I should have brought up earlier the fact I had a weak stomach for this situation as even a clogged toilet tended to be too much for me. Guts and gore I could handle in droves as it was regularly a part of the job, but I could be called a bit more of a 'dainty' mare when nature called. I enjoyed the finer points of modern hygiene (dutifully reinforced by Huckleberry's medical training) and resented Buck more with every step we took into a personal hell. We continued on for what felt like hours but couldn't have been more than a few minutes before my worst fear already came true.

"Well...that's...unfortunate." Came his voice in my ears over the radio.

"Oh please don't tell me it's..."

"Fucked."

At last I gained the strength and the nerve to look up from the backs of his armored paws to see our great misfortune before us. As I expected of my rotten luck, the walkway a little ways ahead had rusted beyond recognition and fallen into the coursing river below. Large chunks of it still poked up from amongst the assorted sewage flowing around and getting caught on it; the culprit a wide crack in the ceiling above which thickly dripped some vile substance which had slowly eaten away at the steel construction. Prior to saying anything further, I quickly peeked at my map one more time in hopes of a better path ahead...only to find we had officially gone out of range of the original, highly detailed seismic scans. Left to the strength of its own automapping spell, the map produced by my PipBuck had been reduced from a wide, circular view of the tunnel and surrounding pipelines to a narrow window. If anything, it was blatantly obvious where the seismic scans ended and my comparatively diminutive circle of awareness began as all I could see in the immediate area was the walls tunnel we were already in and some bits of the secondaries feeding in. The way ahead only continued straight ahead before vanishing into the unknown that'd yet to be mapped out and visually the tunnel bent again some ways ahead and out of sight.

"Still got that harness on from last night?" He asked, breaking my silent map pondering with a tap from his armored tail. "It'll be a bit fucky, but I think I can get us across this gap here without having to jump in just yet."
Unconsciously I felt it on my back, despite being under layers of leather, Kevyarn and Celestium impact plates. The tunnel seemed a bit too narrow for any sort of flight to be attempted in my opinion, but then again I wasn't the one with wings. Not that I was about to volunteer to dive into the river below or anything. I just...simply hated the entire goddamn situation and everything that came up about it, whether it was old news, our present problem, or any future issues that would inevitably arise from it all. That being said...

"Yeah, I kinda forgot I still had it on and never took it off earlier. Fuckin' hate to say it...but your idea is better than anything I'm willing to come up with right now."

"Hot damn! I'm on a roll with agreeable ideas today!"

"Oh don't you even fucking start with that shit, Buck..."

With a colossal sigh and a quick hop, he balanced precariously between the railing to our left and jamming his claws and talons into the concrete wall to our right. As much as it likely turned his dumb ass on, I took the cue and slid under him, grabbing the hooks on my harness in my magic and holding them upright. With a bit of awkward grinding of backplate to chestplate, the magnetic catch system locked on and secured me in a loose dangle to his side of the harness. The next step was going to be... interesting and I wasn't entirely sure if I was willing to trust him with this kind of stunt. Given I'd already hooked myself into place rather willingly (all things considered), my gut instinct had made its choice and I was forced to ponder that decision as he spread his healed-up wings as wide as he could stretch them. Whatever he grunted to himself to hype himself up was immediately lost on me as he threw us headlong forward with a colossal flap of his wings turned into a wobbly glide. Dangling face-down as I was, I wished to save myself the hassle of seeing my own shitty demise and clenched my eyes shut the entire time we were airborne. In a move that surprised me, we came to a rather soft landing on the other side for the amount of weight he was wearing and carrying and I opened my eyes to see he had managed to jam himself between the railing and the wall again for us.

"Hoooo...fuck me, I wasn't too sure about that one..." He panted most uncharacteristically for the amount of air in his ego. "N-not...my best idea, that."

"Why?" I commented with an equally shaky voice as I started unclipping myself from his harness. "That...honestly went surprisingly well I think, all things considered."

"Hot damn, is that some actual praise I heaAAAAAAAAHHSSHITTTT!"

Without warning the railing he had been putting so much of our combined weight onto finally gave way in dramatic fashion. My gut sank to my ass and my heart felt like it seized up as I felt myself get tugged along by the back with him. In the split second before impact with the horrors below, I could see him frantically, if heroically, attempt to catch his talons on the rim of the catwalk in order to halt our fall. Sadly, our combined weight ensured we dropped like so much lead weight in equipment and sheer body mass into the river of sewage below. Our impact was...sickeningly blunted as we fell into the mire of shit, piss, and any other random trash and waste the citizens of Anakha saw fit to throw underground out of sight and out of mind; our helmets blessedly automatically sealing all external intake valves and engaging our built-in oxygen tanks. The HUD on my visor likewise said as much as a 90-minute timer started running down the clock in the corner of my view. Despite the constant stream of airflow running over my muzzle from the tanks in the armored turtle-shell on my back, I still found myself desperately holding my breath against the foul river we found ourselves now captive by. At least that was until Buck's iron-will (and steely gut) came to my rescue. Without warning the railing he had been putting so much of our combined weight onto finally gave way in dramatic fashion. My gut sank to my ass and my heart felt like it seized up as I felt myself get tugged along by the back with him. In the split second before impact with the horrors below, I could see him frantically, if heroically, attempt to catch his talons on the rim of the catwalk in order to halt our fall.

"Crete? You good? You're still balled-up like a bitch, heh, heh."

"Yeah! Fine! Just get us out of here, please!" I cried back, unable to open my eyes and face the current we were held captive by.

"Crete playing the damsel-in-distress?? Jeez, it's just a fuckin' sewer, princess."

With a rather hard clock to the underside of his beak born of my distress, I shrieked back, "BUCK, I SWEAR TO FUCK GET ME OUT OF THIS OR I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!!!"

I don't think there was ever a time in our tenure together as a team wherein I had ever screamed at him with every fiber of my being. Despite the constant torrent of bad decisions and cocky moves, I was usually able to keep my voice within a respectable degree when addressing his bullshit. Today however, the barrage of dumbassery I had been forced to endure thus far had brought me to my breaking point, at least in the moment. I absolutely lost it, crying and thrashing about wildly as I tried to extricate myself from the horrific slop that surrounded us. Even in the back of my mind I knew my sealed underbarding wouldn't let a single drop of anything touch my mind...yet it was still of little comfort in the moment. Despite the fact I was as insulated against it all as physically possible to the point I couldn't even smell my surroundings, I could still very well see it and imagine what it must smell like. Like mighty punches to the gut, my stomach churned and my throat gagged with the painful wretching of dry heaves. I couldn't risk puking in my fucking helmet! At that point it'd be between taking it off and drowning in sewage or leaving it on and drowning in my own vomit. Despite feeling a little sorry for how hard my hit on him had been, his ass deserved all that and more for my trauma.

"Will! You! Just! Fucking! STOP!" He bellowed into my ears as he tried frantically to control my rather uncontrollable flailings.

"FUCK YOU!" I bellowed back at him over comms but letting him hold me still in the end as panic was not solving us anything.

"Fine! I deserve that!" He grunted before letting my legs go once I'd stopped thrashing around. "We gotta think, Crete. We're safe, for now, we gotta keep on track and find ourselves a way under that wall. Are you still with me?"

"Y-yeah..." I mumbled back in reply as I took several deep breaths and tried with all my might to imagine I were swimming in literally anything else. "I-ideas??"

Seeing as we were still clipped to one another in our horrible situation, I for once was more than willing to rely on whatever it was he suggested we try...outside of a few possibilities too stupid even for him. There was a grunt and the sound of crumbling concrete under steel claws as I felt a shudder pass through both of us as he tried halting our continual passage along with the rest of the flow. Eventually his efforts bore fruit as his talons finally found sure purchase in the wall and we were able to halt in place for a few moments. It was not much, but I was willing to take anything as a starting point.

"Nnng...g-got it!" He called to me after he seemingly dug his talons in even more. "Check where we are right now, we've gone a fair ways already so the map's bound to have something new for us."

"A-alright...I-I'll see what I can f-find, Buck." I squeaked back, willing my visor to darken to its welding lenses setting so as to block the view from sight before I opened my eyes again.

While it blocked the river of shit from sight, it also had the benefit of casting the orange color of my HUD into better view, something I only began to appreciate more as I pulled up the map function. The current had indeed sent us a lot farther downstream than even I had been expecting with all the time I wasted thrashing about like a floundering fish out of water. A long curving section of the secondary pipeline now lay clearly mapped out behind us with the various tertiary and other auxiliary pipes dumping their various 'contents' into the sludge which had swept us along. The wide circle of highly detailed information at the insertion point lay some five, six-hundred meters behind us and aways to our right. And yet, all I could see in the immediate area ahead of us was yet more of the same as we had already passed. Once my map faded away, my visor saw fit to automatically kick in my low-light filter to account for this section significantly lacking power in a fair few of the lofty covered lights above. The catwalk was similarly in a massive state of general disrepair with sections being still attached while others had rotted away sometime before; all thanks to the continued series of cracks in the ceiling and walls which seemed to leak from the pipework somewhere above. There was not much in the immediate area that we would be able to make use of leaving me with the only other assumption that we would have to let the current take us away further downstream. Another twenty meters, another hundred, a thousand...we had no fucking clue.

"Anything?" He asked after a generous amount of time for his impatient ass.

"Nadda..." I sighed back in defeat, glancing back up at him with a trepidation I was glad he couldn't see. "Best we can do is continue with the flow. I'll keep my map up and open and do my best to warn you if I see something that curves more towards the East than this one. Current trajectory has us curving away from the Old City and back towards the West before too long so something has to divert under the wall. There's no way they'd develop an entirely new independent system when they can just jack into the existing one."

"Welp, a plan's a plan to me at this point..." He grumbled, almost to himself even, before letting his clawed grip into the concrete loose and sending us away with the current once more.

True to my word, I pulled my map back up and relied on what bond we had to ensure neither of us would doubt the other if a sudden order to act was said on either side. I trusted him to use his best judgement if he saw an opportunity the clunky map view I appointed myself to monitor failed to alert me to it. Having something concrete to focus on did wonders for my ability to distract my queasy stomach away from the wretched knowledge of my immediate surroundings. With a solid task to work towards, as fleeting and frantic as it was, I was a right mess better than drowning in puke and clenching my gut in pain. The trough was surprisingly deep as there were moments the buoyancy of the contents around us thinned somewhat and we cleanly sank below the vile surface before flailing our way back up. Everything had been strapped down and secured as tightly as I could without constricting movement, so I had to hope beyond hope our shit stayed on us rather than getting lost in a place we'd never want to try and search. Eventually the view of the road ahead seemed to finally open up, although something about it filled me with great unease. Enough that I felt prompted to speak up lest my gut instinct be ignored and we went headlong into some unknown danger.

"Big space coming up, heads up!" I called out to him in warning, entirely unsure what the future held as the pipe swerved suddenly towards the east and out of immediate sight.

"Got it!" He responded dutifully, lashing out with his arms to dig his talons into the concrete wall again for us.

Having traveled several feet in between my callout and his response, the map had a bit more wiggle room to buffer the road ahead out for us and I felt immediate relief for trusting in my gut. While the 2500's graphical capability was grainy and frankly quite shit, the map did a fair job of trying to represent relative elevation by the color of the terrain it registered. Naturally, darker colors implied lower elevations and after a few more meters past the bend to the East, the pipe we were currently in abruptly stopped while the space beyond was filled with dark. Not the blackness associated with unmapped portions of the screen, but with just enough texture to it to indicate the spell sensed something was there, but its bottom was nowhere near the same elevation as us. With our luck, we had found where our secondary line fed its contents back to the main city system. Or...so I was hoping. All the same, I had seemingly saved our asses from yet a further tumble into the bowels of the city. Gods only knew what lay even further below in the truly ancient parts of the city's underbelly.

"Holy shit! Fucking hell, good call Crete!" He gasped loudly over comms as he seemingly pulled up his map as well to take a look for himself. "I mean, I might've definitely been able to catch us mid-fall and glide off somewhere more solid but...yeah. Good call. Shit..."

Had the situation been less awful, I might have taken a moment to playfully poke at his mild display of humility but as it was, I simply wished to find any fucking way out of the sewer and back onto more solid ground beneath my hooves. That...as well as some way of washing myself down horn-to-tail of every goddamned last molecule of waste that had found its way out of the sludge with me. There were a thousand things I wished to scream in response, even after having found some inner-peace despite it all. So much rage, irritation and disgust all tied into twisting, angry knots inside me as I held them all back in the search of something sensible I could say in reply. Instead...all I could muster up was a terse nod in immediate response to his compliment.

"What now?" I asked quietly as I stared at the black pit on the map somewhere ahead of us and the vague surroundings we had yet to map out.

"I...dunno." He admitted truthfully, even if it was an infuriating moment for him to choose to show some candor. "We could always tr- "

"Atina? Hello? This line is marked as being in active use..."

"Who the fuck...?"

"Wasn't me, I fuckin' swear Crete!"

"At last thy communications signal broadcasts clear and true my friend! It has been far too long since I have heard your voice, Atina Creto!"

"Of all the times to jack into my personal comms Zecuro..." I sighed with infinite relief as I recognized the melodic, Zebrican voice that had butted into our comms. "You chose probably the best possible time to come back into my fucked up life and hopefully offer us a helping hoof..."