A short distance away from the Red Eye’s army camp where Gearing has been masquerading as Stubs the guardspony, a group of eight real Red Eye soldiers hides among the elevated broken rocky terrain and vegetation. A couple of them look at the camp through the scopes of their rifles; though a unicorn mare looks at it through a pair of binoculars hanging from her neck.

A dark gray mare in a set of heavy armor, with Red Eye emblems predominately displayed on it, stands behind a boulder next to the mare with the binoculars and asks, “Well, Cupola?”

“I don’t like this, Wild Strikes… I’ve only seen the one pony this whole time guarding the place; no one else,” the mare with the binoculars replies as she keeps her eyes on the encampment.

“You sure it’s the same one? Can’t see a hide color from here with that armor they’re wearing,” the heavily armored dark gray mare asks as she keeps her eyes on the encampment as a whole.

“No, I’m not, but considering they’re the only one that dealt with the scorpions… Then no one else came when that roving herd of ghouls stopped by, regardless of all the ammo they used, I doubt anyone else is there. Should have been more weapons fire if that were the case,” the mare with the binoculars replies flatly.

“Yeah, but they also took a swan dive off that machine, with two ghouls on them, and walked away from it. So they aren’t just your typical grunt,” a buck lying out off to the side says with a smile. “I bet that guy’s a real flank kicker, that’s why he’s on guard duty.”

The mare with the binoculars looks over at him and arcs an eyebrow as she asks, “What makes you think they’re a buck?”

He looks over at her and grins as he asks, “What makes you think they aren’t?”

“Bet you my last sparkle cola that it’s a she, and she’s probably second in command.”

“I’ll take that bet, but I don’t think they’re second in command. Probably just got the short straw… He did, I mean,” the buck says with a grin.

“Knock it off you two,” Wild Strikes says as she scowls. “I don’t like this either… Where are they now?”

‘Stubs’ stands up a bit behind them and to the side, still in the same bulky Red Eye armor, as he calls out to them from not far away, “Is there a reason you all have been out here for hours staring at my camp?”

The entire group of Red Eye soldiers whips around and points their weapons at him, but Gearing doesn’t even flinch as eight weapons are directed right at him.

Gearing turns his head slowly, intentionally letting them all know that he can see them just fine, including the buck that had been crouched in a bush behind all of the others but somehow still didn’t see Gearing’s approach. “Well? State your business, or move along.”

Cupola, the mare with the binoculars, looks at him and scowls as she asks, “What the hell are you doing out here?”

“I asked you first,” Gearing says as he stares at her.

The buck sitting next to Cupola grins as he asks, “Hey, buddy, what’s your name, bro?” and then glances over at Cupola with a smug grin of victory across his muzzle.

Gearing looks at him and replies flatly, “Stubs.”

The buck waves over towards ‘Stubs’ and gets a massive grin on his face as he starts bouncing his eyebrows at her. “Told ya… That cola’s MINE!”

Wild Strikes steps towards Gearing as she demands, “Where’s your commanding officer? Why are you out here all by yourself?”

Gearing looks at her and says flatly, “I’m doing my job of protecting the camp. And I’m not answering another question until you tell me exactly what you are doing out here and why you’ve been watching me for the last few hours.”

Cupola’s eyes go wide as she asks, “You noticed us?!”

Gearing stares at her, for a few moments, in complete silence, before pointedly turning his muzzle towards the dark gray mare in the heavy armor and asking, “Well?”

Wild Strikes marches up towards him, heavily stomping the ground the whole way, as she snarls, “Don’t take that tone with me! Do you have any idea who I am!?”

The buck off to the side, who is currently cracking open a Sparkle cola under the scowling gaze of Cupola, comments, “Considering he’s already asked twice, I’d say the answer to that is ‘no’…”

Wild Strikes looks back at him and narrows her eyes as she gives him a disapproving snort. Even more so as he simply waves it off with a hoof and smirks at her, as the common sense of it is so painfully obvious that she can’t actually disagree with him. She turns back to look at Gearing as she says, “We’re here for the volunteer transfer. If you noticed us you should have went and told somepony.” She waves a hoof at him and snarls as she says, “Why have you kept us out here waiting all this time?!”

Gearing looks her in the face as he lets out an exaggeratedly annoyed sigh.

The little blue pegasus rattles his bag of dice as he asks, ‘Wanna roll for bullshit?’

Gearing replies evenly, “My orders were to safeguard the camp until either Flapjacks returns or the team arrives for transfer… And since I’m the only one here I couldn’t just come out the first moment I saw you to check on you…” He looks around at all of them before he lets out another annoyed snort. “As you’ve seen… I’ve already had a very busy day and it’s not even noon yet…” He waves a hoof around nonchalantly, “Thanks for the help by the way…”

Wild Strikes stomps in front of him and looms over him as she growls, “It is not our place to do your job.”

Gearing looks her in the face and replies matter-of-factly, “Well if you are who you say you are, your job is supposed to be to take possession of the new assets and escort them back to Fillydephila. A job that you have, up until this point, failed to accomplish… You’ve unnecessarily wasted hours of travel time. Intentionally.” He tilts his head as he stares at her. “I’ve done my job, which is keep the camp secure and the assets safe, and I’m just one buck… What’s your excuse?”

“Excuse me?!” Wild Strikes asks as she scoffs at Gearings audacious attitude.

“Do your job and I’ll think about it. We’re already tight on resources around here, and dead weight will just drag us down,” Gearing quips.

“Who the fuck do you think you are?!” the dark gray mare asks as she leans in and gets in his face.

“Stubs. And I not only think, but I know that I’m currently the highest ranked individual at this camp until Flapjacks gets back. And my standing orders are to keep the camp secure, and assets safe, using any means necessary… And you’re all rather suspect right now…” Gearing says with a matter-of-fact tone that slowly turns grumbly and menacing at the end.

Wild Strikes raises an eyebrow as she asks, “Who the hell is this Flapjacks?”

The buck with the half drank sparkle cola waves a hoof at Gearing and chuckles as he says, “That’s the nickname they gave Commander Pancake… So either this guy’s a good friend of his to get away with that, or is so far gone he doesn’t even care anymore.”

‘I’d been wondering about that,’ the little blue pegasus says as he scratches his chin. ‘Welp, learn something new every day!’

Wild Strikes takes in a deep breath as she tries to compose herself. “I understand.” She waves her booted forehoof around as she straightens up and keeps her eyes closed. “You’ve had a tough duty assignment given to you, and were in rough position. After careful thought, I can see the need for your suspicions. It’s actually… commendable, soldier.”

Gearing looks at her and says with a sigh, “Ma’am… I haven’t slept in nearly two days… Before I got stuck with this, and left here alone, I’d already worked a double. So would you please help me complete this transfer so I can go crash somewhere?”

The dark mare nods as she pulls out a sealed rolled up piece of paper from her bag and offers it to Gearing. “Here are the transfer orders. That should be sufficient for you to prove who we are. Yes?”

Gearing eases over, grabs the paper, breaks the wax seal, and starts reading it quickly.

The dark mare’s eyes go wide as she snaps, “That wasn’t for your eyes, that’s for your commander!”

Gearing looks up at her and replies evenly, “Until Flapjacks gets back, er… Commander Pancake… I’m in charge…” He rattles the scroll as he says, “Which means it’s my job to make sure everything gets done… including this…” And then he goes right back to reading the paper right in front of her.

“That’s… reasonable…” Wild Strikes says as she narrows her eyes at him but obviously doesn’t like it.

This is ridiculous… It figures these bastards would keep contracts and paperwork. This is really detailed, Gearing mentally grumbles as he reads over the slaver transfer scroll that authorizes the bearers to take the slaves from his location to Fillydelphia.

‘Is it a whole organization of lawyer worshipers?! Like how Freight Cars are obsessed with trains and Burner Boys are obsessed with flamers? No wonder they’re evil!’ the little blue pegasus in his head chimes in.

“Satisfied?” Wild Strikes asks as she narrows her eyes more by the moment.

Gearing rolls the scroll back up and nods as he says, “This seems to be in order, yes.” He motions towards the camp with the scroll as he says, “Right this way.” He abruptly turns and starts trotting off back towards the camp as the others just stare at him flabbergasted. As they are walking along, Gearing adds, “We’ve got a lot of problems here, and I’m sure you’re not going to like what you find.”

The little blue pegasus in his head grins devilishly as he comments, ‘That’s the plan anyway…’

The dark gray mare trots up next to Gearing quickly before she asks, “What do you mean? Are you saying you’ve lost assets? And where is your commander? Where is everyone else? Why are you here all by yourself?”

Gearing pointedly turns his head to look at her and comments with a grumble, “I haven’t lost anything that’s been put in my care. I’ve actually done my job despite what we are dealing with.” He looks back towards the camp and grumbles a bit before he swears just a hair above ‘under his breath’, “That fucking Usury…” the comment causes more than a few ears to jump in his direction as the snarl he’d unleashed with the name oozed with genuine hate and disgust.

Gearing slows his pace as he looks at the dark gray mare besides him and says, “It’s a good luck cluster fuck out here. There aren’t many of us to begin with. And then that slimy ass Usury keeps screwing us over on deliveries. Making up tons of excuses for why she can’t or won’t deliver.”

Wild Strikes glares at him as she replies, “You better not be telling me we came all the way out here and you don’t have anyone to transfer. This trip better not have been a complete waste of time.”

Gearing spins and sits down as he looks at her and sighs. “It almost is, yes. She’s stiffed us yet again and shorted us what she said she’d deliver.” He shakes his head then vaguely waves off to the north as he says, “That’s why I’m here by myself. Flapjacks ordered me to watch the ones Usury did cough up, while he took everyone else to try and scrounge up some volunteers himself. He was hoping to get back in time to be able to supplement the numbers by making up for Usury’s fuck up and actually make it worth your time. But they haven’t gotten back yet.” He looks off to the side and grumbles, “I just hope he didn’t run into any of those Paradise assholes and had any problems.”

The buck with the sparkle cola bottle taps the last few drops into his mouth before summarily throwing it off to the side and breaking it against a rock as he looks at Gearing, “Hey, Stubs, why would Paradise slavers be causing you problems?” Wild Strikes shoots him a dirty look and he shrugs as he says, “They’re supposed to be on our side, aren’t they? They provide the bodies, we pay them.”

Wild Strikes looks over at Gearing and raises an eyebrow as she seems to agree it’s a valid point.

Gearing looks around and then says quieter, “Okay, look. I can’t prove anything. But we’ve had problems with them before. One of the times I was escorting the new arrivals from there to here, we got attacked on the way back. At first I thought it was some so called hero trying to rescue them.” He shrugs and waves a forehoof as he leans towards her. “But the problem is, after we fought them off, I checked the body of the one we’d managed to kill… And I know for a fact I saw him in Paradise that same day. And he wasn’t wearing any bomb collar, or in a cage. I mean he was one of Usury’s bucks!”

“Why would he do that?” the buck off to the side asks as he looks at ‘Stubs’.

Gearing looks over at him and grumbles as he says, “I have my own theories, but I can’t prove anything.”

“And?” Wild Strikes asks as her interest seems to be piqued.

Gearing lets out a sigh before he says, “My honest thoughts on the whole thing?” The dark mare nods, so Gearing continues, “Well, first, I gotta say, I’m not the only one here that’s thinking it. I know it’s been pissing off Flapjacks. It’s bad enough that we’re out here understaffed and short on supplies for what we need. But Usury is making us all look bad.” He looks around at the group of eight ponies and then asks as he tilts his head. “You guys show up with lower then expected numbers, who catches an ear full? You, right? Just like Flapjacks is getting concerned about getting it from you or someone higher up. And just like I know I’ve been hearing it from Flapjacks. We’re not the ones causing the fuck up, but we haven’t been able to fix it, and that gets laid on us.”

Wild Strikes holds up a hoof to stop him as she rolls her eyes and says, “Enough trying to cover your own flank. I get it… But what’s going on.”

Gearing looks at her and says, “Usury’s on a power trip. Completely out of control and full of herself. Somepony’s got her tail in a twist and instead of honoring her obligations to us, and more importantly Red Eye, she’s using her resources to try to get even with some bimbo for no other reason than just because.” Gearing shakes his head. “I don’t even think she actually knows the bitch, just feels personally snubbed so she’s using everything she can to get back at her just to stroke her own ego.”

The mare with the binoculars around her neck asks, “You mean Security?”

Gearing nods and points a hoof at her as he says, “Yeah, her. Like there’s no reason for that!”

Cupola narrows her eyes as she says, “Well she did declare war on anyone in the trade, so it does kind of make sense on why Usury would want to have her taken out.” She waves her hoof as she says, “It’s all over the radio.”

Gearing slams a hoof down as he says, “One! It was one incident with a dumb ass alcoholic.” He looks back at the dark gray mare leader as he asks, “Do you have any idea how many other morons say shit like that? They might even hit a group in transit,” he looks over at Cupola as he adds, “Just like Security did,” then he looks back at the dark gray mare before he asks, “Yet Usury hasn’t put a bounty on them? Hell, we haven’t put a bounty on them. Let alone making the largest bounty in Hoofington history.” He waves his forelegs around as he says, “There’s no way that makes sense. It’s disproportionate to the problem.”

The mare with the binoculars says quietly, as she’s thinking it through, “But, she didn’t put the initial bounty out, she just doubled it…”

Gearing points at her and nods before shaking his hoof at her and looking at the rest of the group. “Yeah! Exactly! See?! There was no reason for it. She’s going to get got eventually, and Usury just decides to jump in on the bandwagon too? By doubling what was already the highest bounty ever? Just because?” He tilts his head as he says quieter, “Like the money didn’t matter at all?”

Wild Strikes asks as she looks straight at Gearing, “Your point?”

Gearing shrugs as he sits back up. “Oh, nothing. Just that it seems awful fucking funny that she can do something like that, but then she gives us bullshit excuses about not having the resources to meet her obligations to Red Eye.” He slowly shakes his head as he looks at the dark gray mare. “You can be too broke to meet your obligations, or rolling in so much dough that you can throw it around without a care… You quite literally can’t be both.”

Wild Strikes purses her lips to the side for a moment before she asks, “I can see where you’re going with this… But what else haven’t you told me?”

Gearing points off to the camp as he says, “Well, Flapjacks asked me to have whoever comes in to pick up the volunteers to send off some mail for him when then get back. He wants everyone else to know what’s going on and that something needs to be done. And he seems to be just as suspicious of her as I am.”

“Meaning?” Wild Strikes asks with a snort of annoyance as he seems to be dragging this conversation out unnecessarily.

“Meaning, I think Usury has other plans… Ones that don’t include Red Eye. And, considering how she’s been getting more brazen about her bullshit I think she’s getting close to pulling whatever it is off. I don’t know if she’s planning on becoming some kind of direct competition for Red Eye. Or if she’s found someone else that’s paying her more money for our property. Or what. I don’t know. All I know is she’s not quite ready yet because she’s still in the ‘giving excuses mode’ instead of outright telling us to piss off.”

Wild Strikes’ eyes go wide as she snorts, “She wouldn’t dare! She should know the consequences of crossing Red Eye!’

“Yeah, well, honestly, I don’t think she gives a flying fuck about that. Or she’s absolutely convinced she can challenge Red Eye directly, and get away with it,” Gearing says evenly.

“I don’t believe this,” the dark gray mare says as she looks over at the others. “Have you ever heard of such impertinence?!”

Gearing turns and starts walking away as he says, “It’s just my theory on matters. Take it as you will. But I’m sure it’ll make sense if you think about it and see what we’re dealing with.” He motions them to follow with a hoof as he says, “Come on, I’ll show you to the transfers.”

As they are walking along the tracks through the front entrance, and start turning to the side, the group looks around warily as they start seeing the ghoul corpses. As the leader is stepping around a small cluster of dead ghouls she asks, “Why is it that you were left alone if you had these sorts of dangers around here?”

Gearing turns to look at her, then tilts his had as he chuckles. “We don’t quite get this much excitement normally. So don’t think we’re constantly under siege, even if it feels like it at times. But, even so, I’m here because I handle business!” He kicks backwards with a hindleg and smacks a ghoul in the head hard enough to cause it to flop and roll over. “And between a choice of me, or two others for guarding the camp, you see what he chose.” He shrugs. “I don’t blame him there, an extra pony helps make cornering easier. So leaving me and taking them makes perfect sense.”

Cupola asks, “You trying to say you’re worth two of any of the others combined? Are you really that narcissistic?”

Gearing looks back at her as he blindly walks through the corpses, without getting tripped up, as he’s making it around the over turned mining cart and heading towards the cages with the unicorns in them. “Flapjacks apparently thinks so. But all I can say for sure is if you put any of the other two here, trying to do the same that I did today, you’d likely come back to find at least one of them dead after all of this.”

“Why’s that?” the mare with the binoculars asks with a smirk.

Gearing shrugs as he says, “Need to think quick on their hooves. They probably would have tried to keep the line, or keep them out, and got overrun.” He points at himself as he says, “I kept giving ground as I thinned their numbers meaning by time they got to me there wasn’t nearly as many to deal with.” He resumes walking forward as he says, “Dying gloriously in service, isn’t so glorious if in doing so you fail your assigned duty.” As he’s walking up to the cage he turns and points at it as he says, “And, as you can see, my charges are perfectly fine.”

They look around at the various ghoul corpses around the cage, including the one that seems plastered to the top of the metal bar roof, and take in the gory scene. And it takes them a few moments before they look beyond the ghouls, and actually see the occupants inside the cage. The dark gray mare walks up, looks in, then continuously goes back and forth as she seem to have a hard time counting. She pulls back after a few seemingly endless cycles, before looking over at the other two cages within sight. The entire time, the confusion she’s feeling continues to grow on her face.

She leans back and points at the two inside as she asks, “This can not be the only two you have?! Where are the others? This is it?! This isn’t worth the trip!” She kicks the cage and causes the two inside to huddle together closer as they look at her with wide-eyed fright.

Gearing shrugs as he says, “I can show you the other cages if you want-”

“You better do that,” Wild Strikes snaps with a snarl before motioning him on.

Gearing dutifully turns and starts walking away as he says, “Here’s the next two, and as you can see they’re empty…” Then he leads them around to the side of the main building opposite of the tracks and walks through the center area where the three cages are and comments, “Aaaand here’s the next three… all empty…” Then he trots over to the far side, where he’d rescued the ten the night before and spins around in an exaggerated circle with his forehooves out far as he says, “And here’s the last three cages… also empty.”

The dark gray mare walks around in a pacing action back and forth in front of him as her nostrils flare and her face darkens from the building rage. To say that she finds this unacceptable would be a suicidally ridiculous understatement.

The little blue pegasus in Gearing’s head giggles as he holds up a giant fan and starts waving it at Wild Strikes, ‘Ooouuu look at that smoke coming out of her ears! She’s piiiiised! Fan the flames, fan the flames, fan the flames! Get tilted, bitch!’

Gearing, not wanting to tilt her too much, says quietly, “Now you know why Flapjacks was so desperate to try and get his hooves on some more…” He looks over his shoulder at the cage and groans as he says, “We have the capacity, but Usury’s really screwed us good.”

“This is all? You’re not trying to pull some kind of moronic prank, are you?”

Gearing groans before he limply waves a hoof around. “You have no idea how much I wish I were…”

“This is entirely unacceptable!” the dark mare screams as she rears up and slams her forehoves down onto the ground repeatedly. Her metallic boots bite into the ground repeatedly and betray that they aren’t really normal boots but more like low tech power hooves as she practically screeches. “Unacceptable!”

Gearing nods hard as he says, “I entirely agree with you.”

Her muzzle zips over to look at him and she snorts a few times before she says, “You said your commander had some letters to send in? Get them!”

Gearing hops up and quickly runs off towards Commander Pancakes’ private quarters. The others give chase and as he gets closer he looks over his shoulder and yells back, “Mind the alarm trip wires!” before he simply jumps over the entire series of them and disappears inside.

The others stop and stare at the lines of tin cans and metal bits on strings as they hear ‘Stubs’ inside muttering to himself, “He said it was on his desk… These? Ah hah!” Then Gearing comes trotting out with a set of letters in his mouth. He carefully steps over the various alarm lines before hoping over the last couple and turning to present the letters to the Wild Strikes. After she takes them Gearing says, “That should be all of them.”

She looks them over and sorts through them quickly with her hooves before her eyes jump wide open as she reads the intended recipient of one of them. “Vermillion?!” She quickly breaks the seal and pops it open as she starts reading it.

Gearing narrows stomps his foot a couple times as he says, “Whoa! Hey! That wasn’t for you, he was very adamant on that!”

She looks over at him and gives him a self satisfied smile as she says, “Just as you were told to take care of matters and opened a letter not intended for you. Vermillion is a very busy person and only the most important of matters should be brought to his attention. The rest of it gets delegated to others so he’s not bothered. I’ll be the judge of it!”

Gearing waves a hoof at her and sits down as he says, “Fine. No hair off my tail. I was told to give it to you, you breaking the seal afterwards is on you.”

She scowls at Gearing again, and then stares at the letter as she reads it again. Her nostrils flaring with each breath before she starts reading it aloud through gritted teeth.

“To my esteemed General Vermillion

It is my unfortunate duty to inform you that I believe we have been lead astray. I have reason to believe that our so called allies in Paradise seek to disrupt the great vision of Red Eye. Though I do not know their true aims, I have seen and experienced their treachery with my own eyes. We, my subordinates and I, have done all that we can with the resources at our disposal to make up for Usury’s failure to meet her obligations. But as distressing as that is, it’s not as worrisome as her active attempts to undermine us. Half of my subordinates have been injured in service to the great Red Eye Army, by agents of Usury. There have been multiple incidents of her subordinates ambushing our patrols in attempts to steal what rightfully belongs to Red Eye.

Stubs in particular had warned me of it after a particularly fierce battle where he’d saved the lives of his other two comrades. Though injured himself, he managed to kill one of them, and showed me the body. He swore, upon all that he holds dear, and his vow to Red Eye himself, that the buck in question was working for Usury. That he’d seen them working as a collector for Usury. I thanked him for the information, and told him that I would look into it further. However, even though I did not tell him at the time, I confess to you now that I do not need to look into the matter any more. For I had seen that very buck in Paradise myself, a few times, and on more than one occasion talking with Usury in her office. There is no doubt in my mind that she had sent them.

General Vermillion, we have been betrayed. I humbly request more resources be allocated into getting to the bottom of this. And it is of my opinion that the agreement with Paradise be amended. For their treachery. For their inability to meet our needs. We should take action and at the bare minimum sever ties and look elsewhere. With a small investment of additional forces, I can dedicate a team to collecting more volunteers from the local population. And while that may help increase the flow of volunteers, I fear Paradise itself might still be a threat to our plans as long as Usury is in power.

Personally I would very much like to turn my forces loose on them, and teach them the error of their ways for betraying Red Eye’s trust. And I must admit that a smile crosses my face when I imagine telling Stubs that he’s free to have his revenge on them for the bullet put in his back, and the kind of carnage that would bring upon them. But, it is not my call. I am loyal soldier of Red Eye’s Army and will follow whatever orders I am given. But please know that, should that be the case, I would be willing to take on the additional duties to see it done. For the future glory of Equestria. For Red Eye!

Never the less, it is with the greatest of frustrations that I must now attempt to make up for Paradise’s ‘blunders’. Paradise has failed to meet expectations. Once again! There is a team coming to collect the volunteers here, but all Usury had given us was an old couple! Despite the previous agreement. The only salvageable aspect of it is that they are a pair of unicorns, and given Red Eye’s mandate on the importance of unicorn volunteers I felt it important enough to give them a personal guard. To make sure nothing happens to them before the transfer team can claim them. So I will be leaving shortly, and taking every pony under my command with me, save for Stubs who will remain behind, alone, and keep watch of our new volunteers. I hope to capture a few more volunteers myself, and get them back in time to be sent along with the unicorn couple. But given the short time frame before the transfer team’s arrival I do not think we will have much chance of success in returning in time for this shipment. So we will simply keep whoever we find until the next scheduled transfer.

Faithfully your humble servant,

In service to Red Eye

Commander Pancake.”

The other Red Eye soldiers around stand with their mouth agape, but silent otherwise, as Wild Strikes finishes reading the letter with the letter shaking along with the forehoof she has holding it.

Gearing breaks the silence as he says with a scoff, “That asshole… He played it off like it was no big deal or I was mistaken.” He sits down and folds his forelegs in front of his chest. “I thought it was fishy how nonchalant he was about the whole thing, he knew I was right!”

The mare with the binoculars looks over at Wild Strikes and asks, “What are we going to do, ma’am?”

“We have a duty to attend to,” Wild Strikes says as she carefully folds the letter back up, and then stows the entire stack in her saddlebag.

“Speaking of which,” Gearing chimes in before he jumps over the trip lines again and comes back out of Pancake’s room with a folder of paper. He offers it to her with a pen sticking out of the top as he says, “I need you to sign that you’ve taken possession of the two. Forms already filled out, and I’ve already signed them, but I need you to sign both copies too.”

“Yes, yes, I know how requisitions work,” Wild Strikes says with a snort as she snatches the folder, opens it, quickly signs, closes it back up, and then practically throws it back at Gearing.

Cupola asks, “Ma’am, weren’t we supposed to go to Paradise before heading back? With the new requisition contract to give to them?”

Gearing says with a menacing chuckle, “Oh, I wouldn’t mind heading to Paradise for you and giving it to them…”

Wild Strikes whips her head over to look at Gearing as she purses her lips to the side. After a few moments consideration she asks flatly, “Commander Pancake knew you well enough that had he told you the truth, you’d likely start popping Usury’s associates like you did those ghouls, right?”

Gearing looks at her and shrugs as he says, “I never got the bastard that shot me and almost killed my friends…” He stares at her for a moment before he says, “Whoa! I don’t mean I’d go rogue.” He stands up strait and puts a hoof to his chest, “I’m a loyal soldier and I follow orders. I don’t have to like them, but I’ll follow them.”

Wild Strikes looks back at her saddlebag as she snorts, “This needs looking into, but I need to get that contract to them, and get these volunteers back to Fillydelphia.” She looks at Gearing for a moment before she stomps towards him and puts a hoof to his muzzle. “I can’t risk loosing the few we do have, so I want you to take this contract to them while we hurry up and head back to Fillydelphia. But you are not allowed to start a fight and do not let on that we’re suspicious of them at all. Keep your anger in check, you understand me?”

Cupola asks as she frowns, “You sure that’s such a good idea, ma’am? All by himself?”

Gearing stares at Wild Strikes as he grumbles for a few moments before asking, “What if they shoot at me first? You ordering me to just stand there and die?”

A malicious smile crosses Wild Strikes’ muzzle before she says, “Oh no… I want you to take down as many of those traitors as you can, but on the way out!” She taps him on his chest armor a few times, causing him to rock back from the clanking impacts as she says, “You’re priority is to survive. I’m ordering you to get the hell out of there, and get to safety. If they try that shit, report back. Go all the way to Fillydelphia if you have to. But make sure word gets back about what happened. You’re not just a fighter, you’re a survivor. So survive!”

Gearing groans as he hangs his head and replies miserably, “Yes, ma’am.”

She pulls out a scroll from her bag and a carved wooden red and black badge, with the eponymous Red Eye in the very center of it, and passes them both over to Gearing as she says, “Here’s the contract. And this badge will let the ones at the gate know you’re there on official business from Red Eye.”

Gearing straightens up and nods as he takes it. “Understood.”

Wild Strikes leans in and stares at the goggles blocking Gearing’s eyes as she asks, “Now… repeat the orders I just gave you… as you understand them… just so we’re on the same page.”

Gearing takes in a deep breath and then replies with a monotone voice, “After you leave, I’m to go to Paradise to deliver the new contract to Usury. Show them the badge so they know who I am. Do not let any of them know that we’re onto them and the epic flank kicking that’s coming. But if any of them attack me, I’m free to rip their ass to pieces as long as I can get away and report on the ambush. My survival and confirmed report is more important than body count. So don’t take any risks and run to Fillydelphia if I have to.”

Wild Strikes smirks as she says, “Close enough.” She turns and heads towards the slave cages as she says, “Alright let’s get out of here.”

Gearing hops into the private quarters of Commander Pancake before coming out and following the group. He runs around the others and up to the cage as he looks in at the pair of unicorns inside. “Your escort is here.” He partially lifts one of the dead ghouls, then kicks it off to the side before he unlocks the gate and pulls it open. He motions them out, and they slowly obey with their heads hanging low. As they are walking past, Gearing adds, “They’ll keep you safe.” He slowly closes the gate behind them then passes a control box to Wild Strikes. “Here you go. They’re your responsibility now.”

The dark mare takes the remote and puts it into a pouch on her foreleg before she nods and whistles. She motions with her head and they all start walking towards the front of the complex. She looks at the two elderly unicorns and frowns as she says, “Come along you two, we’ve got a long way to go.”

Gearing escorts them to the front fence, and, as they are walking out, he says loudly, “Good luck and please be safe.”

The Red Eye soldiers wave it off nonchalantly, but the elderly unicorn mare dares a glance back and sees that though he’s looking the area over, the moment he noticed her look at him, he locked eyes with her. And the smallest smile crosses her mouth before she nods and mouths, “Thank you. You’re still a good buck,” as she doesn’t break stride.

‘We forgot to tell them that those control boxes are faulty… oh well,’ the little blue pegasus in his head comments as he looks on with a blank stare.

Was I supposed to tell them that I ripped out the transmitter in it? Oops… Gearing mentally replies back as he watches them continue to walk away and jumps up on top of a tipped over mining cart and rests his forehoofs on top of a taller piece of rusted out machinery. Should I tell them?

Both him and his mental companion say, in unison, ‘‘Naaaahhh.’’

It’s the best I can do for them, Gearing groans as he slowly lowers his head and intentionally clanks it against the rusted metal of the machine.

‘This…. This is the part I hated of the plan…’ the little blue pegasus says with a sigh as he looks at the ground and tries desperately not to notice the pair of elderly unicorns getting marched off to their doom.

At least it was only two… If they’d had them spread out more I wouldn’t have been able to get away with rescuing as many as I did… Too many witnesses that might sell the information for their own benefit… like… life… and … freedom… Gearing groans as he bangs his head on the machine a few more times, creating a soft clank as his helmet gets scuffed up on the edge.

As the group is walking through the area up the nearby hill where they’d been watching the camp for hours not long ago, the mare with the binoculars asks, “Is that really such a great idea to leave him back there by himself? You really think he’s going to listen?”

Wild Strikes looks over at her and gives her a smirk as she says, “I don’t know what’s going on with that dynamic. But apparently his commander trusts him enough to watch the base all by himself… And, with good reason. We just need to focus on getting back to Fillydelphia and reporting about all of this.” She shakes her head and snarls as she says, “If Pancake and Stubs are right, something has to be done, and sooner than later.”

A rifle report greets them, and they all glance back towards the camp quickly and dart their ears around as they focus on the sound.

“What’s he shooting now?” Wild Strikes asks as she looks over her shoulder at the camp that’s still waving the Red Eye’s Army banner.

One of the bucks asks with a sigh, “Does that buck ever get a break?”

Cupola looks through her binoculars then her ears jump up in alarm as she says, “He’s pointing his rifle at us!”

They all look around at each other to see where the bullet was meant for, including the two unicorn prisoners who have a slight tinge of hope that maybe he’s changed his mind on rescuing them.

Budda budda thump thumpa budda.

A meaty thumping sound grows in their ears and they all turn to look up the hill in time to see a ghoul cartwheeling down the hill. They quickly part like water around it to avoid its attack, yet it simply passes right through their little herd. And, given the way its limbs flail about in a rag doll fashion, they’re pretty sure it isn’t simply having some wonky ghouly fun. It crashes into one of the larger rocks jutting out of the ground and warps around it as it comes to a rest with a sickening splat.

Cupola hops over and pulls out a knife as she jumps on the ghoul, but then simply pushes its head to the side. She stows the knife and looks back at Wild Strikes as she points at the bullet exit wound on the side of the ghoul’s head. “I found who he was shooting…”

A buck that’d jumped out of the way of the falling ghoul whistles lightly before he says, “That was a hell of a shot… and with a carbine?”

Wild Strikes looks over at the camp and a smile crosses her muzzle as she says quietly, “Stubs, huh? ... I’ll remember the name.”

The mare with the binoculars around her neck asks with a sheepish grin, “And uh… just why aren’t we taking him with us? We could totally use the extra support.”

Wild Strikes turns and motions for everyone to continue along with her as she says, “We all have our orders. That’s why… And from what I’ve seen, that camp needs somepony like him there or the whole thing will crumble.”

Cupola grins as she trots up next to their leader and asks, “So, how about a request for transfer then? Swap him out for another group; that should even it up. Then we get Commander Pancake to add him to our unit.”

Wild Strikes rolls her eyes and smirks before she says, “I’ll think about it.”

Cupola starts practically bouncing as she squeals with glee.

The buck that’d won a sparkle cola from her on a bet looks over at her and asks with a grin, “If you’re that hard up looking to shack up with him, why don’t you run back and have some fun in the hay? He’s home all alone and, after falling off that conveyor belt, I’m sure he’s got all kinds of ouches you could make feel better for him.”

Another buck shakes his head as he asks, “What the hell’s got you so hot and bothered by him anyway? You never even seen his face, he could look like a ghoul’s testicle under that helmet.”

She points back towards the dead ghoul as she asks, “Did you see that shot?! One round! I’d love for him to teach me how to do something like that.”

The buck that’d made the bet with her grins as he shakes his head and grins, “Yeah, right… I know that squeal… and the tone says you’re interested in his gun, but it ain’t the carbine you wanna get your hooves on.”

“I mean, I wouldn’t say no,” Cupola says as she looks off to the side. “And I don’t care what he looks like…”

There are a couple minutes of silence before she looks up and notices Wild Strikes looking at her with a smirk. They exchange eye contact for a while before the dark gray mare raises an eyebrow and asks, “Well? Are you gonna tell us you’ll catch up later or what?”

The rest of the group starts roaring with laughter as the Cupola starts stammering and stuttering as a flush starts in her cheeks and slowly grows out until it covers her entire face.

After not hearing anything either way, Wild Strikes says with a laugh, “Alright, you lot, that’s enough joking around. We got a long way to go. So keep an eye out.” She looks over at the Cupola and snickers before she says, “And, you, I don’t want to hear you bitching about it and whining about missing the chance later on. You hear me?”

Back at the camp Gearing stays at his position standing on top of the rusting shipping container as he watches the procession walk off. The entire time, he struggles with himself. He knows this really is his last chance to change his mind on rescuing the unicorn couple. And that the further away they get, the less his chance of success with it would be. But, eventually, they disappear within the rocky landscape of the hill a distance away, and Gearing loses sight of them finally. Which simultaneously makes him feel better, yet worse.

He hops down off of the shipping container and starts patrolling around the encampment again. There are a lot of things he could be doing now. There’s no one left to watch. But, he needs to make sure to give the transfer team plenty of time to get away before he heads off to Paradise. Because it would be a shame to have things fall apart at this stage when he’s managed to sew some very productive seeds. After a couple of laps, and a considerable amount of time passes, he heads over to the commander’s private quarters. After making sure no one’s following him, he hops over to the mirror, and detaches the back part of it as carefully as he can. In between the mirrored glass, and the wooden backing, are a considerable portion of letters and correspondence. He takes all of them, and stuffs them into his saddle bag as he slowly looks around. He lifts up one of the letters, and can’t help but smiling as he admires it.

The little pegasus in his head smokes on an over sized elaborate pipe before he says, ‘Mmm yes… another masterpiece… although… I messed up on that one ‘g’ right there… I accidentally copied it from a letter Stubs wrote, instead of Pancake… but other than that I think it’s more than passing.’ He starts giggling as he says, ‘The art skills required to copy diagrams has all sorts of uses, doesn’t it?’

And it makes it so much easier when you actually have the supplies they normally use… especially their wax seal… Gearing adds gleefully before putting the last couple pieces of reference material and forgeries into his bag and closing the mirror back up the way it was before.

‘Time to go to Paradise?’ the little blue pegasus asks with a grin.

Gearing’s grin turns malicious as he says, “Actually… I’m going to take out the trash first…”

Gearing leaves the commander’s quarters then does a circuit around the compound again as he looks around and does a great show of keeping an eye on the place. But, in truth, he wants to make sure that no one will be close by to see what he’s going to do. He walks by the central building, and opens up the side door before walking off to a different section of the camp. It’s still well within the walls, but out of sight of the front area and the cages where the two unicorns had been kept. The one thing it does have a lot more of is loose dried soil scattered about. Gearing heads over to a shipping container that’s partially sitting on concrete, hops onto the ancient broken concrete, crouches down, grabs the end of the shipping container, and lifts. The container strains and gives protest with a faint metallic popping noise as Gearing uses the lip of it to hoist it. But he doesn’t lift it too far, and he quickly shifts to the side to rotate it ever so much.

Revealing a dark freshly dug hole underneath the shipping container.

Gearing pulls up the abundance of cloth on his left foreleg and activates the light function on his PipBuck before he lowers his front half into the hole and looks around. Considering the inside is so dark, because it’s little more than a hole in the ground covered with a shipping container, the dim light from the PipBuck seems especially bright.

Especially as it illuminates the five tied up ponies that are, for all intents and purposes, entirely immobile. Except where a couple of them twitch here and there, especially the grayish green portly stallion that jerks suddenly when the light hits him and he struggles to get his muscles and body to do what he wants as Gearing returns to his sight.

Gearing looks at him as he sporadically twitches, and says happily, “You’ll be happy to know that your transfer team just stopped by… and they’re gone… like… long gone.” He hops down into the hole with them and grins in Pancake’s face as he says, “And you’ll be happy to know that they took alllll of those lovely letters you wrote for you.” He puts a hoof to his chest as he grins. “I mean, I had to make a few slight modifications… Added a bit here and there… Okay, I mean, I entirely rewrote the letters for you… but… they look great… So you look great.” He stands at attention and gives an official EDF salute as he says, “An extra loyal soldier doing his duty for the future of Equestria!” He chuckles a bit as he looks down at them. “My, my, my… it’s already wearing off again? I guess it’s all that fat on you…” Gearing pulls the ammo belt from under the Red Eye armor, around his neck, and quickly starts nipping one out at a time and stabbing them in the rump of the various ponies lying under him. Except Pancakes, he gets his in the neck again. “Don’t worry; this is the last time I’ll have to do this… I promise.”

Gearing quickly resecures the ratty blindfolds he’d put on them, then hoists them out of the hole, one bound and paralyzed pony at a time. Afterwards, he quickly carries them on his back, two at a time, towards the central building. Except Pancake; he gets carried on his own mainly because of his rotund girth making it hard for him to stay on Gearing’s back instead of rolling off. But with Pancake, Gearing pulls out a large duffle bag that was down there with them and carries that in his teeth. Once he has all five of them laid out on the poured concrete inside of the mine access building, he closes the door, tosses the bag onto the ground, and he starts strategically placing all of them. He goes from pony to pony with the over stuffed duffle bag, and performs quick costume changes on them. And in the process getting them quickly dressed for the part they will soon be playing.

He removes all of their bindings, except the blindfold, removes the darts sticking out of them, and dresses them back up in their normal suits of armor. Completely. As if they were about to go out on patrol. Except for the small pieces he’s commandeered for himself where applicable. And the entire time he is dressing them he openly talks. “Now, you’re probably wondering where Stubs is… Considering he wasn’t in the hole with you and all. Well, I have other plans for him. Me and him have a loooot to talk about. And since I just got some new orders from the transfer ponies, I need to get on that. I’m going to Paradise, in case you were wondering. And, yes, I’m going to be gone for quite a while. Quite a while indeed…”

Once he finishes with the last pony, Pancake, which he actually manages to get entirely into his suit of ridiculously elaborate armor from the armor stand, he walks to the front of them all and announces loudly, “Now, you’re probably wondering why I’ve gathered you all here today.” He gives a short snicker before he simply walks away from them. He leaves and comes back with another duffle bag. He trots towards them as he’s pulling out a variety of weapons, and slinging them over his shoulders and neck. And after getting a collection of firearms on his back, and looking like a walking arsenal, he starts pulling out a variety of melee weapons and starts dropping them around on the floor around the paralyzed ponies.

Gearing looks around at how he’d laid things out, and then turns and throws a knife and a cleaver towards the one wall, causing both of them to get imbedded in wood and the sheet metal of the building respectively.

“That answer is very simple, actually,” Gearing says flatly as he starts walking around and pulling the blindfolds off of the Red Eye’s Army soldiers. And as he pulls the blindfold off of Pancake, he says right to his face, “Because there’s a special place in Tartarus for bastards like you all… and it’s about time someone arranged your travel plans.” He walks back and forth and can see the fear welling up in their eyes, even despite their body not responding to their wishes. As each and every one of them clearly knows exactly where they are right now.

And, worst of all, they can already imagine what is coming. As the noise that Gearing had made had already started attracting the attention of a few ghouls that were closer to the door and they’d started hissing and growling in their native cannibalistic ghoulish tongue.

Gearing walks over to the sealed door and says as he doesn’t even look at his captives, “You’ve all been doing despicable things. Forced labor to the point of death is bad enough. But I know of more than a few of your own personal atrocities.” He turns his head back towards them and smiles as he says, “I like to read, so I read pretty much everything.” Gearing starts working and taking all of the barricades off as he says, “Reports. Letters. Correspondence. Diaries. The works. Every little bit was helpful in figuring out where and how to place the chisel to crack this nut wide open.” He looks back at the mare with the braided and bound tail as he says, “And you, you disgusting bitch. I know all about your little colt fetish. Doing what you were doing, promising them freedom if they cooperated, threatening parents when you were able if that didn’t work, then sent them on to Fillydelphia anyways? And then clopped to the thought of it afterwards? Yeah… Consider this a tiny slice of justice for each and every one you tortured… Because I’m sure they’d love to have a piece of you if they could… but they can’t.” Gearing removes the last bar as he pulls out a key from around his neck and holds it up with a forehoof. “But I know a few others that not only can, but would happily get a piece for themselves as well…” He quickly starts undoing the locks with Pancake’s key as he snarls. “You ponies are the worst kinds of creatures. Corrupt to the core. Irredeemable. And the world will be, un-qustionably, better off with-out you!” Gearing gently pulls on the gate as he makes sure he’s removed the last barrier to do so. And, from not too far down inside the mine entrance, Gearing can hear hissing gurgling breathing from ghouls less than a hundred feet away.

Gearing slowly turns to look at the Red Eye soldiers. He’d made sure they were all facing this way when he carefully laid them out in a semi wedge formation. “But, even so… I wish I could just put a bullet in your head. I would if I could. But, given I just had to let two innocent ponies march off to their death, I’m not going to spare you from this and risk ruining everything, and waste their sacrifice. Because, I need you to die from something else. And I need to be somewhere else when it happens.” He waves a hoof around as he says, “I mean, ‘Stubs’ needs to be somewhere else. Seen somewhere else.”

He looks them over and sighs as he says, “Yeah. Those other ten? They got away. I made sure of it. And no one but you and Usury’s degenerates will ever know they were even here…” He chuckles as he says, “But, you’re gonna be dead, and no one else in the Red Eye’s Army will believe them after the letter Pancake wrote… so… there’s that.”

He walks over by them and says softly, “Take heart though… Despite being miserable excuses for ponies… you’ll probably be celebrated among your comrades. As a group that went down fighting and exposed a ‘horrible’ conspiracy against Red Eye… You’ll be heroes!” Gearing throws his forelegs out wide as he rears up and twirls around. “Isn’t that something? Well… it’ll be a hero to a bunch of disgusting sacks of shit reprobates, but heroes nevertheless.”

He walks over to the side and turns on the radio that’s on the table. It clicks on and a gravely voice comes over the radio rambling on about something that Gearing can’t quite figure out about at the moment. It’s either about a card game that he feels he was cheated at, or some kind of STI that he thinks he caught. And as separate as those issues are, even after listening for a few more moments, Gearing still can’t figure out which one it is. Gearing looks at the others as he says, “Huh… Paradise Radio… I’m not sure if this is ironic or simply fitting…” He slowly turns the radio up, until it’s blaringly loud, before he starts walking through the group of downed ponies. “Either way, it’s getting the party started!”

‘Uhhgggg, I hate that asshole's voice… If we get a chance to shut him up forever, we’re taking it,’ the little blue pegasus groans as he hears Red Beard rambling on the radio again.

From deep within the mine screams echo up, and Gearing hurries over to the gate and throws it open. There’s a couple ghouls already coming up the carved stone incline at a slow trot, and the moment they see him they starts letting out their feral screeches, which gets passed on along and down into the mine by the rest of their unnatural herd, as they charge him. Gearing, using the glowing amber eyes quickly approaching him as a target, hurls a couple of the bladed weapons he still had with him, and starts falling back away from the entrance to the mine. But even though the blades mostly strike true, the ghouls don’t care about the protrusions as much as they care about who did it.

He quickly pulls out one of the automatic riffles, backs up near the mare with the braided tail, and starts shooting at the ghouls as they emerge. He empties the entire magazine quickly, replaces it with a new one, and empties it again. Not caring as the hot brass falls down around her. Then he drops the rifle next to her as he steps up closer to the door while he pulls out his next weapon.

The first two ghouls go down riddled with bullets, and collapse a few feet from Pancake, who’s’ in the lead of the wedge formation. But the next one manages to get through all the way up until it’s actually biting on Pancake’s outstretched armored forelegs. That ghoul’s head ends up exploding like a melon as the shotgun Gearing uses completely pulverizes it’s head. And, luckily for Pancake, the vast majority of the pellets that would have hit him simply bounce off of his armor. In the same fashion as before, Gearing quickly unloads the shotgun into the vanguards of the next wave before dropping it near the buck to Pancake’s right.

Then he hops over to the side on top of Pancake and pulls out an ornate revolver. It was a weapon that was in a wooden box in Pancake’s quarters and Gearing is quite certain it’s never even seen service. He’d thought about keeping it. But, given everything else he’s doing, he’s not going to let a little mechanical wonder ruin everything. So he stands there and fires round after round into the next few ghouls coming in. All well-placed precise shots. He even gets enough time to reload and fire another five shots before any of them get to him. And he saves the last shot for the ghoul that does. Because he stabs them with sword that Pancake had hanging from the hip of his armor, skewering it right through it’s chest and to the hilt, before he puts the last round in the revolver into the creature’s head.

He drops the revolver, bouncing it off of Pancake’s helmeted head, before he hops back and uses a mouth operated SMG on the approaching ghouls as he stands near the mare to Pancake’s left. But as the ghouls get filled with lead, and the mare gets covered and surrounded with brass, he starts casually chucking metal apples down the mine entrance.

The blasts from the fragmentation grenades come at semi regular intervals, and after each one the ghouls in the mine scream with rage and pain as the noise draws more and more up to the surface. After throwing four of the five he’d found in the supply container, he empties the last of the third SMG magazine he has, and drops it near its apparent owner as he spreads his sleeve-covered wings and takes flight. He hovers up above the door to the mine. Causing the ghouls to congregate for a moment and hiss up at him as he’s the only one moving. “And that’s all folks… Try not to fight the cold; it’ll just make your suffering last longer.” And he flicks the stem off the apple and drops it down on the crowd at the door before zipping over and going out one of the broken windows as quickly as he can. The resulting blast knocks the gate sideways and warps the metal as the ghouls that had gathered there are blown to pieces by the explosion. The fragments fly out in every direction, hitting Pancake and a couple others with the projectiles and the debris, but doing minimal damage to them thanks to the armor they are wearing and the fact that they are laid out on the ground.

But not all of the ghouls die, and the ones that haven’t shed their unnatural mortal coils scream out in rage for who had hurt them. But, they don’t see Gearing. And, in fact, the other ghouls that charge up the stone ramp and out of the door don’t see anything to attack either. Nothing’s really moving, except their own injured comrades. But they know something had been attacking their herd and they aren’t happy. The others start spreading out as they start sniffing and snuffing at the air, and hissing as they know someone is close. They can hear the radio, they see that, but that’s not really anything important to them. They don’t particularly like the voice, but it’s not something worth attacking. But if they could just find out who that voice belonged to, that would be a different story.

Briiiiiiing.

An egg timer starts sounding and Pancake’s eyes go a bit wider within his helmet as he can sort of feel the vibration through his armor and the noise is echoing out of his armor.

The ghouls all start turning their head towards the sound and stare right at Pancake. They start slowly moving in and the closer they get, the stronger the smell is that they are looking for. They slowly start bearing their teeth in animalistic snarls as they hiss and, just before they pounce in mass, they begin calling out for their brethren to join them with their eerie unequine screams.

And in a matter of seconds the duel blessing of his armor and the poison he’d been injected with becomes apparent. As Pancake can’t really feel himself being attacked. But he also knows his armor is protecting him. Except, in this case, all that means is it’s taking them longer to do sufficient enough damage to kill him. And he can’t help actually hoping, praying, and begging that the armor fails before the poison’s numbing effects on him does.

---

Footnote:

Please Stand By. . .

Please Stand By. . .

Please Stand By. . .

Please Stand By. . .

Attempting Synchronization… Please Stand By…

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