The PMC's had breached both the north and the south gates, causing all of Night Shade's troops to fall back towards the center of the now deserted town. Andrew, Night Shade, and his team met in the underground bunker, an emergency meeting was called to order. So far, Andrew was on the losing end of the argument.

"General Night Shade, I do advise that we keep fighting! If we lose this town to the slavers, then how are we going to keep Appleloosa from suffering the same fate?" Andrew banged his clenched fist on the table, causing the glasses of water on the table to shake and clink.

"Andrew, Appleloosa is a whole different matter, we are out of time, and we are out of options. We have no troops left but four squads, and we are not getting any reinforcements anytime soon!" He scolded back at him, but Andrew wouldn't give up.

"We have to keep this town General, if we don't, who knows where they could strike next! Yes it may just be some simple backwater town, but we have to let Equestria know that it's safe! I advise that we use Prototype IV, it may not be field tested, but it's all we've got." He said defiantly, seeming to know what he's getting himself into.

Night Shade sighed, "very well then. Any volunteers as a test subject?" Night Shade asked, no one raised their hands, or hooves for that matter.

"I'll do it." Andrew stood up, looking around the room.

What he saw were faces of concern, fear, and respect. He mostly saw the concern out of all the faces, and some of them even came from his team. Helena looked at him, almost with a devastated face. Nick looked at him and smirked, leaned back and crossed his arms. Jhon just didn't really care, all he did was stare like everyone else in the room.

"Prototype No. IV is a modified Advanced Suit for those who don't know, and an Advanced Suit is a suit that I wear sometimes when I go out, I have it on file right here." Andrew laid out a file on the table, containing classified images and schematics to the prototype.

The prototype itself had armor plating the color of white with the texture of carbon fiber, as well as a undersuit that was a jet black color. Other than that, nothing changed, all except for the new armor system, which Andrew and other engineers managed to put a shielding system into it. But that was the catch, the shielding system was made out of magic, and was unstable. Which could lead to the host's death, or permanent side effect depending on the severity of the wound inflicted.

"I'm the only one outfitted with a RIG anyways, so I guess it's necessary to do so." Andrew said, making his way to the nearest Suit Kiosk.

"Andrew wait!" Helena called out, Andrew immediately turned around to face her.

"At least send a message to Rainbow, it's the least you can do." She held up a video log recording device to him. He took it up and out of her hands and turned it on. Once the projector showed up, he saw that it was his 42nd log.

"Hey Rainbow, I'm recording this now so I don't have to say it later, or really, if I can say it later. Right now I'm in Dodge City, fighting off some private military. We're losing, but I hope I can make the best of our situation. I just called to say, that I love you, and that you were the best thing that ever happened to me. I know I promised you guys a while back that I'll make it through all of this..." He took a brief moment to take a deep long breath.

"I don't know if I can keep that promise, I never knew and I never will know what could happen, and the thing is... If I don't make this, Helena and the rest of the gang will keep you safe. I can promise you that much, and Twilight, please look after everyone I know and love. Goodbye to you all for now, Andrew signing off." He signed off the video log, tossing it back to Helena.

He quickly climbed into the dark machine once more, and multiple machine parts could be heard moving and cranking inside of the cockpit. A yellow light could be seem emanating from the seam of the two doors, going in a downwards movement.

Andrew came out stretching out his own arms in front of him. The then averted his gaze upwards, and then downwards again to look at his legs. The suit was a snug fit, almost skin-tight because of the Advanced Suit design. He then grabbed an assault rifle that was hung up against the wall and headed towards the surface. He turned on his communicator and the second he switched it on he received a call.

"Andrew, we need about ten minutes to load up everypony into the carriages, ad then we come for you. Can you manage to hold them for ten minutes?" Night Shade asked, Andrew nodded to himself.

"Yes sir indeed I can. I'll meet you topside, over and out."

Arrow bolts bounced off the surface of his armor, and Andrew shook off explosions as if they were nothing at all. The shield held up rather well considering that this was the fourth prototype they went through to get right. The blue tinted visor highlighted Andrew's enemies in red, and friendlies in green.

"Major Andrew, sir!" One of Night Shade's ponies saluted to Andrew, who towered a good four feet above him.

"Sergeant, order your men to fall back to the carriages. I'll hold them off, just give me a sitrep."

"Well, Alpha Squad is still holding out near the north gate, the PMC's have artillery and high explosive bolted crossbows. We've lost good stallions to those." He grunted.

"Okay, well get back to the bunker and hold out until evac arrives," Andrew pulled out his ACR, and took it off of safety.

Andrew then proceeded to mow down infantry as if he was a chainsaw. Andrew pumped bullets into the horde, every burst they would get closer to him. Every reload they would get even closer, to the point where it was uncomfortably close to his proximity.

A PMC soldier tried to stab Andrew in the Jugular artery, but the undersuit was like dragon scales, close to indestructible. Andrew threw him off and caved in his face with a curb stomp. A crossbow bolt bounced off his shoulder that had a distinct look to it, it was an explosive bolt. Once it detonated Andrew was forced onto his knees, trying to recover from the explosion.

"Warning, shield depleting to 90%, please seek the nearest recharge station to restore energy." An AI came to life, though Andrew did not know the name to this AI.

"AI, I need you to redirect all energy to the repulsion shields."

"Master, my name's Stephen. My AI name's Stephen." Andrew chuckled, and threw a PMC to the ground and kicked him straight in the gut. He grabbed his weapon and shot it into another PMC who was about to shoot him in the back.

"Master, the energy in your suit is all at their max levels, I cannot redirect anything towards your repulsor shields." Andrew nodded.

"Stephen, connect me to General Night Shade."

"Yes sir, patching you through."

"Night Shade! How much longer?" Andrew held a PMC by the neck and slammed him against a nearby wall, causing him to knock out the PMC violently.

"We've almost wrapped up here! How's it going on your end?"

"I'm doing fine, shields are holding at-" Andrew was cut off, and was slung like a ragdoll into the saloon. He slowly got back onto his feet and moaned.

"Shield are holding at 70%" He looked over to see what hit him. What he saw surprised him, because he never thought he would ever get to see one in real life.

What he saw was a cannon, and the ball that hit him was about eighteen pounds, luckily it wasn't explosive at that. He rolled out of the way of another cannon ball hurdling towards him, barely missing him by an inch. He then fired a beam of stasis at the cannon itself, the splash managing to hit the crew too. He then chucked a grenade at their feet, causing them to skyrocket into the air, along with the cannon. They all fell down with a loud thud, dead.

"Andrew! Evac's here! We gotta move!" Helena called.

"I'll be right there!" He then made his way back towards the center of the town, and he heard cries come fron behind him. He looked over and saw a wounded pegasus on the ground, about to be killed by PMC's. He groamed as he made his way back over there, killing off the PMC's without a problem, picked up the pegasus, and made his way back to the carriage.

"Thank you, sir. Thank you so much." She cried into him.

"No problem, it's all in the day's work." He then threw the pegasus into the now airborne carriage, Helena caught her and helped her inside, she then gestured for Andrew to follow in behind her.

Andrew jumped thirty feet into the air, almost making it to the carriage. His hand was a foot away from grabbing onto the side ledge, only to be blasted away by another cannon shot. The cannon shot this time took a toll on Andrew, and hit him directly in the side of his rib cage. He then fell back to the ground with a large metal clank, and a small crater of broken rock and dirt formed around him.

"Warning, suit integrity dropping below 50%, shields failing, please find the nearest Suit Kiosk for repairs." Stephen warned.

Andrew coughed and wheezed as he got back up once more onto his feet. He looked up to see that the carriage was still in the airspace, and he knew it wasn't going to be there for much longer. He couldn't make that jump with all that artillery shooting at him, and the suit couldn't take a few more hits before he would become unstable.

"Nick, I need you to stick your machine gun out the window and provide suppressing fire on that artillery." Andrew ordered. Nick followed as if he was a robot, and a muzzle flash of his gun could be seen from the side of the transport carriage.

Andrew got jumped on by a heavily armored Griffin, who's armor clanked and clattered as the two fought, Andrew having the obvious advantage due to his suit capabilities. He grunted as he lifted the juggernaut-like being into the air, and threw him backwards into a building, slamming him against the wall.

Andrew's helmet retracted back into his RIG, which revealed a very depressed looking face, "motherfucker," he spat on the Griffin's armor and walked away.

"Night Shade, this is Echo 0-1, E.T.A. five minutes."

"Copy that, bird inbound." The carriage touched down on the ground, stirring up a small cloud of dust near it.

Andrew climbed into the side of the carriage, sitting on the stair step just outside of the actual hull. He then grabbed the handlebars of the mounted MG latched onto the side. It wouldn't do much anyways, because Dodge City was already a lost cause, but every little thing counted in war.

"Let's light those bitches up." Andrew revved the minigun up, and it started to shoot a bullet storm down into the crowd of PMC's. He could hear the blood curdling screams of them trying to escape the raining carriage of death, only to be silenced moments later.

As the carriage left the airspace, Andrew leaned back against the wall, the helmet retracted back into his suit. The RIG on his back glowed a dark urine colored yellow, and he ached. He looked around at his team mates, seeing their beaten and battered faces, and looks of defeat. The other transport carriages outside the window followed close behind, holding other survivors of the battle.

"Night Shade? Can I ask you something?"

"Yes? What is it?"

"Are we at war?"

"Yeah, we're at war now. We're on our way to Canterlot right now to get Tia's authorization."