Author's Notes:

I'm not the Killer Man, I'm the Killer Man's Son, but I'll do the killing 'till the Killer Man comes.

Vic’s intel checked out. Oxide had been tasked. And now we're sitting on the flight line at FOB Davidson, formerly Camp Everfree, renamed for a Marine Corporal who they said was getting the MOH for covering the evacuation of two hundred civilians from Hollow Shades before he was killed by a sniper. One more hero to put on the wall when all this was over.

I leaned against my luggage, dressed in civilian clothes, the plan was to jump into the Isles and insinuate ourselves with the Red Cross outfit on the ground. They’d applied for and been given permission to assist with food distribution and medical care for the Griff civvies, refugees were becoming a problem as we bombed the shit out of industrial centers, trying to bring the Griffon war-machine to a halt. There were rules against masquerading as aid workers, but everything we do is illegal, what was one more broken law? Our credentials were in order, and we were ready.

The hurry up and wait game was too strong, we’d been sitting here for about nine hours so far, waiting for clearance, and then waiting for nightfall. Rob broke the silence.

“Hey, Tuck?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m gonna run to the DFAC, grab some lunch, you want anything?”

“Sure, whatever looks good.”

“Zack?”

I could eat, “Sounds good, man, thanks.”

Rob hustled off, time was money, and we could get spun up any second now. I leaned back and closed my eyes for the fifth time today. I barely drifted off when a voice brought me back.

“You OGA?”

I cracked one eye open to see a Marine Lieutenant standing over me, I stood up, brushing the dirt off my jeans, “What’s the word?”

His eyes narrowed, I could tell he wasn’t used to being spoken to so informally, but I’d been sitting here for too long to give a shit. “They need you in the TOC. Something’s come up.”

Now he had my attention, “On the way, gotta go collect one of my guys from your DFAC. We’ll head for the TOC, shouldn’t take more than ten. Thanks, LT.”

He huffed a little but nodded and strolled off.

Asshole.

We rounded up Rob, poor guy looked at his Salisbury steak with a forlorn expression on his face, but we headed out all the same. The TOC was buzzing with activity, enlisted guys running around as Officers barked orders. A full bird Colonel was waiting for us outside. “Our resident spooks have arrived, huh?”

“Colonel, what can we do for you?”

He shook his head, “Not me, him.”

He nodded over my shoulder. I turned, following his eye, “Rut?”

Charlie smiled thinly, “Hello, boys.”

Now my bells were ringing, there was a certain level one got to where they didn’t get their hands dirty anymore, Rut had surpassed that by several orders of magnitude. “Well, well, looks like management decided to join the party.”

Rut shook our hands in turn, “Not a social call I’m afraid, not out here. Colonel? I need your SCIF.”

“Right this way.” We weaved through the controlled chaos, arriving at a heavy steel door, the Colonel punched in a code, and the door popped. “Take all the time you need.”

“Thanks, Colonel.”

We filed in and sat down around the table, Charlie stayed standing, almost pacing, and doing absolutely nothing to quiet those bells.

“What I’m about to tell you is beyond classified.” He looked each of us in the eye, driving the point home before continuing, “We are going to lose this war.”

Nobody breathed for a second. Tuck broke the silence, “What the fuck are you talking about Charlie?”

Rut closed his eyes, sighing, “Intel came down, we didn’t believe it at first, didn’t want to believe it. Have you wondered why the Chinese aren’t more involved here? They were trying to keep the scrutiny away. They’ve found a way, with the help of Griffon scientists and Unicorn defectors from Equestria, to create more portals all over this planet, linked to a central hub in Beijing. The operation has already begun, inside of the next twenty-four hours portals are going to open in every major city in Equestria, the country is going to be overrun.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing,” So that’s it? After everything we’ve been through, after all, we’ve sacrificed, we’re just going to run?”

“Not run, reposition, The entire Chinese military is going to come through those portals, what units we have out there will be overrun, We’re going to try and hold, but we don’t have the manpower.

“And how many EQ’s are going to die to avoid the real fight? Rut, this isn’t right, and you know it.”

“Goddamnit, don't you think I know that Zack? There’s nothing we can do, I brought up the idea of sending a team in, and they shot it down outright, it’s a miracle that this war hasn’t spilled over to Earth, and D.C doesn’t want to do anything to make it worse.”

Rob was shaking in his chair, “So Scotty died for nothing? We’re just going to hand them the country on a silver platter?” Fuck the Reds, we need to shut it down.”

Charlie looked like he’d aged ten years, that thousand-yard stare on his face. “Starting time now, Oxide is on stand down, there’s a helo heading back to our portal in Canterlot, leaving in an hour, I suggest you’re all on it.”

I got up, my heart pounding in my ears, we were abandoning them, all of our friends and allies were going to die as the Chinese swept across Equestria. The weight of it almost brought me to my knees as I walked across the TOC and out into the brisk night air. I lit a cigarette with shaking hands as Rob and Tucker walked up behind me. “What the fuck just happened?”

I looked over at Tucker, my voice hollow when I spoke, “We just lost Equestria.”

He ran his hand through his hair, sighing explosively, “Holy fuck.”

A thought welled up in the back of my mind, it was crazy, it was stupid…and it was precisely the right move. “Rob, you still have friends on the Chinese mainland?”

“Yeah? Why? Oh, holy shit…Let’s do it.”

Tuck smiled an evil smile, “I’m in.”

“Then let’s go to work.”

The flight back to Canterlot didn’t take long, We flew right past the castle and weaved through the portal, touching down at Jackson. Frank was waiting for us.

“I take it, Rutledge, found you guys.”

“Yeah, Frank, he did.”

“He told me to tell you that whatever you came up with, he doesn’t wasn’t to hear it, but you’ll have help. Butcher is swinging through.”

“Thank you, Frank.”

“Hey I didn’t do anything, I just made sure you guys were all on leave at the same time, where you go on vacation is none of my business.”

“Loud and clear brother.”

Frank leaned in so the others couldn’t hear, “Anything you want me to pass on to the Princess?” I must’ve looked shocked because he laughed, “You can’t hide shit from me, kid, never could. I’m glad you took my advice.”

I smiled. He’d known all this time, and he hadn’t said anything, “Tell her I love her, and that our time together meant everything to me.”

“Will do kid,” He pulled me into a hug, “I love you like my own kid, you know that, right?”

“You too old man, you too. I’ll see you on the other side, Frank.”

“Yeah, you fucking better,” He broke the hug, “Time to get moving, Air Branch guys are gonna get you as far as Seoul, Butcher will be waiting, from there it's all you.”

“One more for the books?”

He shook my hand, “Damn straight, son.”

One of the Air Branch boys came walking up, “If we’re going guys, we’ve gotta go now.”

Frank nodded, “They’re playing your song, kid, go.”

I nodded, gave Frank one last smile, and followed the pilot to the flight line, Rob and Tucker shook Frank’s hand and fell in behind us. We hustled through the crowd of Marines, Navy, NATO guys and civvies, and boarding the nondescript prop plane that would ferry us to South Korea. This fight wasn’t over, not by a fucking long shot.

The flight took eleven hours, plenty of time for us to go over the intel Frank had left on board, the portal research facility was on the outskirts of Beijing, and probably the most heavily-guarded building on the planet. But the more I looked at it, the more I saw one glaring weakness, they weren’t expecting anything from the air, overconfidence in the air defense grid, we’d have to jump, and from pretty fucking high up, but it could be done, would be done. When we finally landed in Seoul, I shook out my sore muscles and grabbed the go-bag Frank had supplied. Fake passports and a hundred grand in walking around money. Tuck and Rob were similarly heeled, all told, we were looking good.

I pulled up my collar against the cold as we walked across the tarmac, the sun was rising over the city, and the hustle was beginning. The warmth of the terminal was a welcome relief from the bitter winds, the second we were inside we split up, one guy alone was less likely to attract the attention we could ill afford. I walked through the crowds of people on business and on vacation, I spotted a few ponies here and there as well. I wandered out the main entrance, settling on the sidewalk, waiting.

I didn’t have to wait long.

“Enjoying the sights?”

“Hey, Connor.”

The tall ex track star turned SEAL smiled, his green eyes crinkling, still had the same goofy look about him. “Hey, bro, have a good flight?”

“Fuck no, “ I chuckled, “Good to see you, man.”

He threw an arm around my shoulders, “You too, man. I heard about Scott, fucking terrible.”

“Yeah, it is, time to make it count.”

“Fuck yeah, Ray already picked up your boys, Dave has a safe house all ready for us. Let’s get on it, my car’s this way.”

Connor and I talked about nothing on the way to the hide, just swapping stories about the Farm, and what we’d been up to. Incheon was a beautiful port-city, and it had been too long since I’d been, but all I could think about was the clock we were racing against. The safe house was a rat-hole apartment in Yonghyeon-dong, right on the coast. We parked three blocks away and walked along the docks.

“So, is it as bad as it sounds?”

“Worse. They’re gonna roll right over us if we can’t pull this off.”

“Well, we better not fuck it up then.”

We were at the door inside of five minutes, Connor knocked in a sequence, gets a single knock back before the door swung open, revealing a shorter blonde dude, Ray smiled broadly. “Boys.”

I knocked my fist into his, “Hey Ray, how's the family?”

“Good man, thanks, Angie was asking about you the other day.”

“Yeah? Well, when this is all over, I’ll have to come visit, still haven’t seen the new house."

“Hey, mi casa es su casa brother. C’mon, Dave’s waiting.”

We walked through the apartment into a back room where Rob, Tucker, and Dave were standing around a whiteboard, going over the info. Dave looked up when we came in, “ Howdy Zack.”

“Hey Dave, long time man,” I shook his hand, “Thanks for backing us up.”

“After what those fuckers did to Scotty and his mare? You couldn’t keep me away. Listen, I’ve been going over the intel Frank sent, an air insert is our only chance, hit them from the high side, and work our way down. Timetable gives us sixteen hours before the first units go through, which means we have ten before they stage from Guangzhou.”

“My thoughts exactly. Can we do it?”

“Already on it, an old contact of mine is waiting at the airport with a Learjet, we’ll be jumping from max altitude, so fifty-thousand give or take, HAHO in to beat the grid, all the gear is aboard, we were just waiting on you.”

I looked at Tuck and Rob, who nodded back at me, we were ready. “Well then, let’s go before I change my fucking mind. Dave, do you have a burner I can use?”

“You have to ask?” He dug in his pocket before tossing me a shitty flip-phone.

I walked outside as they tore the place down, dialing Mom’s number.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Mama.”

“Hey, everything okay?”

“Yeah,” I lied, “Everything is perfect, I just wanted to call and tell you how much I love you, that's all.”

“I love you too honey, are you sure everything’s okay?”

“Absolutely, just had a moment ya know? With what happened to Scotty and Raven, I just don’t want to go too long without talking to you. I have to get back to work, but I love you so much, tell Dad and Jen the same okay?”

“I will, you know, I’m proud to be your mom, right?”

“I know Mama, means the world to me. Gotta go, okay? I, uh,” My voice cracked, and I cleared my throat to cover it, “I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay, baby, love you.”

“I love you too, Ma.”

I hung up and stared out across the ocean, one way or another, this was going to end. Ray walked out behind me, Connor and Dave trailing, followed by Rob and Tuck. Rob gave my shoulder a squeeze, “Time to go, brother.”

I nodded, “Let's get it.”

Four hours later, we were cruising at fifty thousand feet, already geared up and prepped. Dave’s contact turned out to be an ex-Russian mob guy by the name of Alexei, good dude, absolutely no sense of humor, then again, there was nothing funny about what we were heading into.

Dave keyed his mic. “Let’s go over it again, Butcher secures the top floors, Oxide takes care of the science staff, Butcher will then leapfrog and so on until we reach the portal device, where Oxide will rig it to blow while Butcher provides security, provided everything goes smoothly, we’re out through the parking garage in a van left by our contact. Our hard out is thirty minutes from touchdown, we split up and exfil north heading for Mongolia.”

We all nodded in turn, we’d had no time to rehearse and only token information about what awaited us inside. But we were ready. I lit a smoke, not really caring if Alexei minded, odds were good that we’d all be dead inside the next hour. I blew the smoke out, my mind wandering to Tia, as it had quite a bit in the last twenty-four hours. Did she know that the war was lost? Had they told her? I hoped she would forgive me for this.

“Five minutes till drop!” Alexei’s voice came over our comms.

“Get ready, boys,” Dave shouted.

We stood, clicking our oxygen masks into place, Dave popped the door once we were set and the thunderous decompression and rushing wind almost blew me off my feet.

“Two minutes!”

I flashed Rob and Tuck the thumbs -up, which they returned. For good or ill, we were right where we needed to be.”

“One minute!”

Connor squeezed my shoulder, smiling behind his mask.

“GO! GO! GO!”

I braced myself against the door frame and, after a beat, hurled myself out into the night sky. The wind rushed past, muffled by my helmet and goggles, but I could feel the cold worming it’s way into my bones, jumping this high always came with a risk of hypothermia, and boy was I fighting the good fight. I counted off one minute in my head, and the AAD popped my chute, the shock pulling my organs down to somewhere around my knees. Once I’d slowed down enough I dropped my NOD’s searching the sky for the rest of the guys, they were level with me but spread out, we’d drift like this before tightening up closer to the target building.

I checked my watch, just after two am local time, The units from Guangzhou would start arriving in three hours, or so we hoped. We fell for what seemed like hours, our target building getting closer and closer, I already had my spot picked out on the north side of the roof, the closer we got, the clear the layout became, right along with the sentries patrolling the roof.

Shit.

We knew they’d be there, but we hadn’t counted on so many, they’d upped their security. I thought quiet thoughts as the roof rushed up at me, I aimed for the least populated area, flared my chute.

Touchdown.

The second my feet hit the ground, I pulled my M-4, a patrol rounded the corner, and I was on target. The first guy took two rounds to the chest, knocking him off balance, the second took a round to the head before I swung back and T-boxed his staggering buddy. Muted pops from all over the roof told me the boys were doing the same.

“Clear up,” Dave whispered

“Clear down.” Came Tuck’s Reply

“All clear,” I whispered.

“Consolidate.”

I rounded the corner and ran into Rob, who was pulling a radio off of one of the dead guards before we jogged over to meet up with the rest of the guys, already stacked by the stairwell door. Rob and I took our positions. I laid my hand on Dave’s shoulder and squeezed, he moved up and swiped a card on the door, for a beat nothing happened, and then a green light flashed.

We were in.