Steve blinked, his eyes burning as the sun slowly rose, the Russians had withdrawn after the tank platoon’s demise, but they’d be back, and soon. Helos thumped by overhead, landing in the town square and beginning the evacuation. An hour prior, something big had gone up in a ball of fire to the South, ISR had confirmed that the Anti-Air was down hard. Captain Knight’s boys and girls had made good on their word.

A mass of Batponies congregated barely sixty meters behind Steve’s position, waiting their turn to board. It made him nervous as all hell; if the Reds attacked again, those civvies would be right in the line of fire. A couple of Humvees had wheeled in to provide a barrier, but they wouldn’t be able to do jack shit if the Red’s rolled some armor up here.

He kept nervously glancing over his shoulder. Ruiz seemed to notice. Turning to Steve with a smile on his face, “Hey Steve, it’ll be alright; we’ll get ‘em ou-“

With a sickening crack, Ruiz’s head exploded.

“SNIPER!” Someone screamed a thousand miles away; Steve could barely hear them over the sound of his own screaming, a wordless animalistic cry of pure loss and rage. Seconds later, the entire tree line opened up, ISR had been caught napping. Steve screamed again before firing his ‘320 into the fray.

The second wave had arrived.

At that moment, Violet was guiding the civvies up the ramp of a massive CH-53. A bat pony mare smiled as she walked up the ramp, carrying her little filly, opening her mouth to say something to Vi’ before dropping straight to the deck without a sound. A gout of blood washing over the corrugated metal was the only indication anything was wrong before an absolutely massive firefight broke out behind them, then the screaming started.

The little filly, awash in her mother’s blood, shrieked as she was scooped up by the evac bird’s crew chief, who handed her roughly to Violet, before a ricochet caught him in the helmet, dropping him without a sound. The crowd surged forward, running for their lives into the bay.

Violet shoved her way towards the cockpit, still holding the bloodied screaming filly, and grabbed the pilot by the shoulder, “YOU HAVE TO GO NOW, THEY’RE TARGETING THE CIVILIANS!”

The pilot nodded,” TELL THEM TO STRAP IN!”

Violet ran back into the bay as the ramp slowly closed, rounds pinging off the metal, “STRAP IN EVERYONE!” She passed the crying filly to a family and charged off the ramp, back into the fight as the massive bird peeled away into the sky, RPG’s chasing after it. But the pilot was good and lucky. Violet ran for her life, weaving through the incoming RPGs and small-arms fire, heading for the East perimeter.

Ruiz was gone, Steve knew it, but he could barely wrap his mind around it. They’d been friends since the Island, all through the Fleet, and now here in another world.

Somebody was going to fucking pay.

And pay they did as Steve’s squad laid down the hate, unloading every round they had into the charging Russian soldiers. In that fighting hole, Steve’s whole world was loading, and reloading, tossing frags with clinical precision. A body rolled into the hole, and he spun, pulling his rifle back to compression, ready to end the scumbag motherfu- “VI’?!”

Violet didn’t say a word; with a sad look down at Ruiz, she gently picked up his rifle and added her own voice to the fight, dropping targets left and right. Steve overcame his shock and kept firing when his radio crackled to life.

“Hitman Six to all Hitman Elements, fall back to the rally point and consolidate, evac birds are rolling in now.”

Steve glanced over at his boys, shouting over the noise, “THIRD SQUAD WITHDRAW BY FIRE!”

He barely heard the confirmations, but his guys moved, Roberts, laying down a base of fire while Hayes and Martin threw smoke, when it began to billow the entire squad bailed out of their holes, firing and running for their lives towards the center of town.

Steve hauled himself up, grabbing Violet’s hand and pulling her up before dumping his entire mag on full-auto into the cloud of smoke, “Covering!”

“Moving!” Came Violet’s reply as she hauled ass.

Steve turned and was greeted by the last of the Evac birds flaring for landing, and the massive crowd of civvies waiting to board. He glanced behind him as he ran when a cold realization hit him like a freight train.

“They’re gonna overrun us.”

He knew right then that the second the Marines boarded, the Russians would swarm the Landing Zone…It’s what he’d do. He took cover behind one of the Humvees, knowing what he had to do, but desperately not wanting to do it.

He wanted to live

Violet finally noticed he’d stopped, and she ran a few feet back, slamming in cover beside him, “Steve! We gotta go!” Steve stared off into space for a heartbeat, before whirling around and kissing her so hard it stole the breath from her lungs.

“Vi’. Go.”

She was still reeling from the kiss, but found her voice as rounds snapped overhead “I’m not leaving you.”

Steve smiled sadly, his dark eyes shimmering, “Yes, you are. Go Vi’…Please, I need you to live,” He leaned out and fired a burst at the attackers, keeping their heads down even as they advanced.

Violet had so much to say, so much she wanted to do, but as Steve fired into the fray, reaching behind him to pop the Humvee's rear door, she knew their time was up. So with one last look of utter longing and heartbreak, she squeezed his hand and ran for the birds, hot tears trailing down her face as she fired over her shoulder. Through the smoke that blanketed the town, she weaved over bodies before finally thundering up the ramp of a waiting CH-47. Only after she was safely inside did she collapse sobbing, all the words she wanted to say dying on her tongue as she cried. Seconds later, the helo was full, and the pilot banked up and away, the once-beautiful now burning town below holding a piece of Violet’s heart.

Steve spared her retreating form one last look before slipping into the Humvee, climbing up into the gunner’s hatch and traversing the turret to face the advancing Russians. With a strength that belied his fear, he racked the fifty twice, chambering a round.

Time to own that big-dick shit you were talking, Marine.

His thumb hit the butterfly trigger, and it was on. The entire front line of Russians was shredded in an instant by the heavy rounds; he chewed right through them as they screamed and died. An RPG streaked by to explode on his right. But he never wavered.

Time seemed to slow as the heavy weapon recoiled in Steve’s hands, rocking the Humvee back and forth like a ship on the ocean…

Firing

Unlocking

Extracting

Ejecting

Cocking

Firing

He counted the cycle off in his head as more and more bad guys exploded into mist, trees are shredded, and rocks turned to dust under the fusillade. Nothing matters now, nothing but what’s behind him. Over the heavy thumping report of the fifty, He can barely hear civilians' clamoring, but it’s there, spurring him on.

SNAP

A round catches his helmet, sending him reeling to the side. His thumb never leaves the butterfly trigger; though he’s off-balance, he keeps hammering away at the onrushing horde. The only way to survive this is to kill them all.

SNAP

Another round catches him high in the shoulder, a spray of blood, and a curse screamed through gritted teeth.

SNAP

He can feel his plates crack under the weight of the incoming fire; nothing is standing between him and the Almighty now, one more hit, and he’s done. He does the only thing he can do, conjuring up something from deep inside, a memory from long ago.

Davidson starts to sing, softly at first, until it becomes his battle cry.

The enemy is taking what cover they can find as the heavy SLAP rounds tear them apart.

Steve has gone to another place entirely, a mountain pass with a river below, the chatter of the two best friends a guy could have, somewhere there he finds peace.

SNAP

He barely feels the round that punches deep into his chest, but the cold after the burn lets him know that he’s in trouble. Seconds later, he hears it.

CLICK.

The belt is gone, the firing pin falls on nothing.

Fighting back the rushing dark, he snaps his rifle to his shoulder, gunning down two more.

SNAP

Blood sprays across his vision.

That’s all, folks.

He lets the too-heavy heavy rifle slide from his grasp to clatter down in the gunner's hatch, following it down, slamming into the hard metal. The bones that he knows are broken where he was hit shift sickeningly, but the explosion of pain never comes, only the deep cloying cold.

He watches his blood pool, forming rivulets and lines in the ridged steel.

A glance through fading vision sees the last of the civvies peel off, the evac chopper banking into the Equestrian sky.

Corporal Steve Davidson takes a final heaving breath and smiles.

His last thought was of pretty purple eyes, staring lovingly into his.

Author's Notes:

Steve's song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIh3nO6-V_A

Fast. Dirty. Violent. Let me know what you guys think!