“EVERYONE GET DOWN!” My ears were ringing, dirt covered my goggles, and the smell of blood filled the air. Knowing that we're losing, I feel unfortunate that I only have but one life to give for the fight.

Everyone I knew dropped to the ground around me into cover, and then a hailstorm of bullets and arrow bolts came our way. They must've acquired some of our weapons from our last fight, which isn't good for us. How do they even know how to use a gun? If anything, they should've committed accidental slaughter by looking down the barrel and pulling the trigger, or friendly fire. All I know is that we're screwed now, unless we can get those IFV's operational again.

“Is everybody all right?” I asked, I heard multiple groans of yes and no, some weren't responding to their communicators. I looked around to see that most of our unit has been spread thin, trying to replace each fallen soldier.

“Night Shade, requesting IFV assistance, ASAP!” I raised my wrist to my mouth, I heard heavy static, and scattered words come from his end of the communicator.

“Request denied...IFV unit...down...need...you...IFV!” Was all I heard as his response, before the static came back on.

The IFV was all the way in the back of the town, and I had to haul ass if I want to make it back in time. I don't know how long we're gonna last this time, all I know is that we're getting overrun.

While I was back in Canterlot, Applejack told me that her cousin once lived here. I don't personally know him, but knowing Applejack makes me wonder if he's a lot like her. When this war is over I may visit him some time down here, but that's if we win.

I climbed into the IFV and saw that the whole operating crew were either dead or wounded.

I brought my wrist up to my mouth to speak, “this is Echo 0-1, requesting immediate medevac for the IFV unit.”

Once that was done I climbed into the M2 Bradley, the engine came to life as I turned the keys. I then stomped on the gas pedal, turning the IFV 180 degrees around. Looking through the camera, I saw that in front of me that there was a breach through the front line, and our troops were falling back.

I was all alone in the IFV, so I had to give up the driver’s seat and man the cannon. I jumped into the back and started to load canisters into the main gun. Making sure they were the high explosive rounds, I brought my wrist up to my mouth.

“Alright, I’m comin’ in with the IFV, you’d better watch out.”

“Hurry the fuck up then! We can’t hold them forever!” Helena yelled, causing my ears to ring a little bit.

We were in for a world of hurt if I didn’t do something fast. I quickly aimed the cannon at the breached area, and just started to unload until I heard that click. Luckily for me the auto-reload was fully functional, because it’s been years since I’ve operated an IFV. Hopefully, if I’m lucky, the training will kick in eventually.

Chunks of dirt went into the air, and I could even see parts of concrete be shattered to pieces, filling the air like confetti. I also thought I saw a few disembodied limbs fly around somewhere, which was pretty gross, but cool in a way.

“Helena, what’s it like up there?” I asked, “they’re not coming through anymore.”

“They’re falling back! Wait, wait, no they’re not,” she stopped talking for a moment, “they’re regrouping.”

“Okay, I want you, Nick, and Jhon to get into the IFV, we’re gonna go cause some mayhem.” Man, I always get pumped for these sorts of things.

I opened the back of the IFV, waiting for the rest of my squad to jump in. As they did so the IFV started to rock back and forth, causing me to jump. I looked over yonder to see that they brought out the artillery, which wasn’t good for our sake.

“Alright guys, we gotta move!” I ordered. The good thing is that it quickened their movements in an instant, “we either stay here and get shredded by that artillery, or we go out and kick some ass!”

Hopefully it wasn’t too late to push them back instead of us, because our numbers were dwindling under the 1000 mark, and they were well over a couple thousand. I pushed on the gas pedal out into the crossfire zone, where I parked it parallel to both sides of the fight. Our guys moved up behind the IFV and used it as cover, while Nick aimed the cannon fire at the PMC’s.

“Nick, how we doin’ on ammo?” I asked, because this thing wasn’t in the best shape when I found it. Hopefully we had enough...

“We got about five crates of high explosive, and three crates of anti-personnel!” He yelled back at me, luckily the communicators picked it up, by now I was half deaf due to the heavy 25mm cannon fire.

“Okay, focus fire at the cannon and mortar crews, don’t let them get past this IFV!” I ordered, and he gave me a small salute before his eyes diverted to the camera.

I took my helmet off of the wall and went outside with my M4, replacing it with a fresh magazine. Bullets flew past me, and I could hear them ricochet off of the side of the IFV. I saw the leader of Alpha team leaning against the side of the IFV, holding his side.

“Lieutenant, can you give me a sitrep?!” I said over the loud sounds of bullets and explosions in the background.

“It looks like we’ve turned *cough* the tides, sir! I’ve been hit pretty badly, I don’t know if I’m *cough* gonna make it...” I looked down and uncovered his wound, I let out a sigh of relief, because it did not hit any vital points in his body.

“You’re gonna be okay Lieutenant, it didn’t hit any important body parts, you’re gonna live.” I tore off a piece of my shirt, and pressed it against the bloody bullet wound.

“Stay here, and don’t do anything stupid,” I looked around for a helmet with a red cross, “medic! I need a medic!”

“Sir...” I covered his mouth to prevent him from talking, my eyes constantly wandering to look for a medic.

“Not now, save your energy.” I warned, all he did was stare at me. His eyes never left mine, and he looked like he was about to cry.

My communicator went on, and Helena’s voice filled my ears, “Andrew! Look out! Enemy fast movers!”

I looked to the sky and saw Griffins in the air, carrying bombs. I quickly picked up the Lieutenant and shoved him inside the IFV, closing the hatch behind him. I looked into the sky again and saw the bombs falling, the explosions getting closer and closer to me.

I pressed the flak protection button on my tacpad, and a layered vest started to form over my body. I didn’t know if this would work in time, because it was experimental, but hopefully I was fully covered in time the bombs fell over me. I wasn’t.

A bomb landed about a yard to the side of me. Once I caught sight I dove out of the way, and the bomb detonated seconds later. The blast sent me flying into a nearby building, causing me to grunt in pain. I made a pretty big hole in the wall on impact, it was either because of my flak jacket, or that I was gaining weight. I really hope it was the flak jacket, but that wasn’t important right now.

“Andrew come in! Andrew, do you read me? Respond!” By now I was barely conscious, and I couldn’t move.

Luckily most of the shock was absorbed by the armor, but I was still hurting pretty badly. My own blood pooled on the ground, and it drooled out of my mouth as well. I looked around from my stationary position, and saw nothing but rubble and debris. I tried getting up, and managed to flop myself belly side up before I gave up on that.

"Well, this is it, huh?" I croaked, coughing up more blood. Closing my eyes, I started to breathe slower. My body then went limp, and I was out like a light.