“Damn, you see the size of that explosion? It blew up the whole damn farm!” Tank asked Axle as he fingered the hole in his Afro.

Axle, who was sitting on the opposite end of the chopper, was having a hard time not laughing his ass off at Tank’s hair. “Leave it alone man, you’re just gonna make it worse.”

Jackknife was still in the back on a stretcher next to the injured pilot. “Phoenix, nice work out there today. If it weren’t for you, some grub would be picking Carbine out of his teeth right now. I’m putting you up for a promotion.”

He didn’t care about the idea of a promotion, but appreciated the fact that Jackknife took notice. “Thank you sir, I’m just glad we got out of there without a hitch.”

“I hear tha....” Carbine’s sentence was cut off by the pilot.

“Echo, we got three Bogeys inbound. Taking evasive action.” The pilot banked left and went off course.

“The hell’s going on up there?!” Jackknife struggled to get up from the stretcher, but was kept down by the restraints.

“Don’t worry sir, you just sit tight. I’ll handle this.” Phoenix, got up from his seat and went up to the pilot.

“Do I have a choice?” asked jack.

Phoenix stuck his head between the two pilot seats. “Give me a sit rep.”

The pilot turned his head to glance at Phoenix then forward again. “We got what looks like... three Reavers gaining on us.”

“Take us to Tyrus, it’s not that far, and has plenty of cover.” Phoenix had a plan, but he was going to need everypony’s help. He pulled his head out from the cockpit and turned to face the team. “Alright listen up, I have an idea, but it’s going to take all of us to pull it off. Now, Tank you get on the guns and piss em’ off.”

Tank nodded his head in excitement. “Aw yeah, my fro’s bout to get some payback.”

Phoenix continued, “Axle, I need you to rig up an explosive. Look around I’m sure there’s something you can use.”

Axle was already searching his bag. “Oh yeah, I can do that. No problem.”

Finally He turned to Pot, “Mac, how good are you with that rifle.”

Pot smiled then stuck his riffle out of the chopper and shot one of the guards right in the head. It fell off and the Reaver, without a rider, flew off in another direction. “That good.”

Phoenix was impressed. “Not bad, but it won’t work again. They know now to keep their heads down. Just see if you can shoot off their rockets before they blow us to hell.”

“Carbine you still got the Hammer?” He asked.

“Sure do, it’s right here.” Carbine pulled it from behind his back and presented it to him.

Phoenix held up his hoof. “No, I need you to hold on to it for now.”

Carbine nodded then replaced it on his back.

The chase led to Tyrus City, the once proud home of the Wonder bolts. The discovered it to now be in shambles. The City was designed for Pegasai that wanted to live on the ground instead of in the clouds. It’s tall, wide buildings and intricate obstacle courses were perfect cover for the Crow. Tyrus was recently cleared of Locust forces, and now some stranded ponies made it their home.

“Alright, we gotta time this just right.” Phoenix put his hoof on the pilot’s shoulder. “You see that building there, the one with statue. He pointed to a lower building with a flat rooftop and a statue of Princess Celestia with her wings unfurled that formed a circle. “When I give the signal, you fly right over her.”

The pilot constantly kept glancing back to check on the position of his pursuers. “Sure, got it.”

“Axle, how’s that I.E.D. coming.” He asked.

He tossed him a basket ball sized metal sphere. “Ready, just push the red button when your ready. Then you’ve got about two minuets to get rid of the damn thing.”

“Good.” Phoenix was having a difficult time trying to hold on with the chopper weaving and dodging around the tall buildings. At that moment the other guard flew his Reaver up next to the chopper.

Tank spun up the Crow’s mini-gun. “Surprise motha’ fucka’!” The rounds forced the Reaver into an oncoming building, squashing it instantly. “Ha Ha, one more baby!”

The lead Locust, now infuriated, flew up behind the chopper and was about to fire his rockets. “Now.” The pilot flew over the statue, and Phoenix pushed the red button on the bomb then jumped out the side of the chopper.

“NO!” Carbine jumped after him.

“Shit!” Pot grabbed a parachute and followed Carbine.

Phoenix stuck the bomb right in between the tips of the almost connecting wings, snatched the Locust right off his Reaver that ran right into statue, but didn’t explode. Phoenix and the Locust were locked together and were each taking turns punching the other. “This is for Romeo squad you son of a bitch.” He turned over the Locust to where he was on the bottom and slammed him through a gargoyle statue sticking out the side of a building. It didn’t seem to faze him much and then he started to laugh. “What’s so funny ugly?”

The locust turned his head to look at the incoming ground then back at Phoenix with a smile and growled, “You die too!”

“Actually no, just you.” Phoenix kicked him down lower, then took off his chest torso armor. Wings opened up and he started to slow down. “Wings Bitch!”

The Locust roared in anger then pulled out a boltock pistol and fired it at Phoenix.
At that exact moment Carbine swooped in and took the shot for Phoenix. “Carbine!” He grabbed him and flew to the nearest roof. The Locust fell through the roof of a two story building and it collapsed on form the impact, a cloud of dust shot up as it did.

Phoenix softly put Carbine down against the wall on the edge of the roof. “What’s the matter with you? You got a death wish?!”

Carbine was bleeding profusely and didn’t have much time. “You saved my life. That’s the second time you kept a Carbine from being eaten by those damn grubs.” He pulled off his C.O.G. tags and put them in Phoenix’s hooves. “Tell my brother and sister....I love em’ and.....and tell em’ I died a hero’s death.....tell em’.....tell em’.....tell them...”

“Tell them what Carbine, what?” He whispered.

“Tell them......I said.....don’t...........get...............eaten. I’m comin’ bro.......ughhh.” He died in Phoenix’s arms.

Pot landed on the roof top and rushed over to them. “Phoenix, what happened? Carbine jumped out so I followed em’ catch em’ and....” He stopped as soon as he saw Carbine. He took off his hat and placed it over his chest, and with his other hoof made the sign of the cross. “Damn shame.”

“Echo-2, this is K.C. 2-3, what is your status, over?

“2-3, this is Pot McShot, Phoenix and I are alright, but...” He paused for a moment. “....but we lost Carbine.”

“Can you repeat that Echo-2? It sounded like you said....” Phoenix cut off the pilot.

“He’s dead 2-3, Carbine is dead.” He sounded infuriated, but his face didn’t show it. “Requesting a pick up, we’re on what looks like the roof of a department store, over.”

The pilot responded to the request with,“That’s a negative Echo-2, we are low on fuel and are returning to base. We will be back to pick you up once we’ve refueled and are given the order. E.T.A. 3200 hours.”

Pot was displeased. “Bollocks! That’s almost two days.”

“Sorry Echo-2 those are our orders, strait from the chairman.” Replied the pilot. He didn’t sound any happier about it then Pot did.

“Prescolt.” Phoenix muttered angrily to himself. “Alright, do what you have to, just hurry.”

“We’ll radio you when we’re on our way. Good luck. 2-3 out.” The tac-com switched off.

Suddenly it came back on, Rarity was on the other end. “Echo-2, this is control. You have moment all around you.”

“Hostile?” Pot asked.

“I’m not --ure, but --- ar-- lot of --em.” Rarity said with a worried tone.

“Rarity say again, your breaking up. Rarity! Aw shit, we lost her.” Phoenix tried adjusting the radio, then gave up to focus on the issue at hand.

“You think it’s grubs?” Pot’s eyes scanned the surrounding windows for any sign of movement.

Phoenix had his gaze fixed on the door to the roof, “We’re about to find out.”

The door was kicked open by an orange pony wearing leather armor and a hood that concealed her face. She then aimed an older version of the Lancer at them. “Drop em’!” She said in a country accent.

“Your out numbered.” Pot said in denial.

“Oh really?” She raised her hoof and rifles poked out from every window and balcony surrounding them.

Pot was still aiming at the unknown pony when Phoenix unattached his Lancer, causing it to drop on the ground. Pot followed his actions and dropped his weapon as well. “Well...shit lassy, looks like you’ve got us. Question is, what are you going to do with us?”

Their captor made her way over to them with a swagger in her step. “Well....” She circled Pot and bushed his chin with her tail. “.....Fer you hansom, hows about I make you take me on a date.” She was behind at this point, then she bucked the back of his knees and he fell to the ground hard. “A date in yer prison cell. Take these two to the holdin’ cells.”

“Oki doki loki!” Shouted a happy pink pony who hopped her way up the stairs and onto the roof with along with a leather armored colt. As the two of them bound Echo-2’s hooves together, the high spirited pink pony was making conversation with them. “Hi there, I’m Pinkie Pie, what’s your name? Oh! wait let me guess! Ummm.....Steve, no wait Carl, no...I know, it’s Marcus right.”

Phoenix, desperately trying to get her to stop talking, finally shouted. “Phoenix, my name is Phoenix. Just....please stop talking.”

“Hi ya Mr. Phoenix, I’m Pinkie Pie!” she exclaimed.

“I know, you already said that.” He groaned.

“Woopsy daisy. I’m sorry, I forget sometimes what I just said. Isn’t that silly?!” She was riding his last nerve, but finally quieted down as she and the colt drug them down the stairs and into a makeshift prison cell.

The orange lead pony came down a few minuets after Pot and Phoenix were locked in. “Now you boys behave in there. We gotta go put out the fires from that little stunt y’all pulled. When I get back, we’ll have a nice long chat.” She slammed the peep hole latch closed and left them.

“I think she’s taken’ a fancy to me.” Pot grinned at his own joke, but then saw the look on Phoenix’s face. He looked up at the ceiling for a few seconds then pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his chest pocket. He lit one then offered one to Phoenix who declined it. Pot took a long drag from then exhaled and said. “Lad, I know you’re still upset about Carbine being dead and all, but he died a hero. He died protecting you. Son, you need to look at the bright side.”

Phoenix looked at him with his usual almost angry face. “What bright side?” He asked sarcastically.

Pot took another long drag of his smoke and said with a serious face. “We’re not him.” He didn’t mean it as a joke, and intended for Phoenix to understand how lucky there were to be alive. Not many other gears survive a Reaver attack, let alone three.

Phoenix understood this and nodded. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. It’s just that I feel like I failed him. His older brother was in my squad the day were got trapped on that roof.”

“Hm, I see. Well lad, I can understand that, but you didn’t fail him and you sure as hell didn’t fail the rest of your team or that pilot. What you did back there, jumping out like that, made bloody sure that they made it out of there safely. That was real ballzy, stupid but ballzy and I respect that. My point is lad, that you have a squad alive that needs you, and I’m sure that the C.O.G. is going to bump you up after they hear about this.”

He put out his cigarette on the wall. “Jack’s gonna be pissed once he figures out that they’re gonna keep him till he recovers, but he’s a fast healer so it ought not to be that long.”

Phoenix knew the regulations about wounded gears well. A soldier with an injury like Jackknife’s was guaranteed at least a week. “Yeah, I hope so.” He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. He was exhausted and needed his rest if he was going to have to deal with a bunch of pissed off stranded ponies.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mean while, back at base, K.C. 2-3 had just landed at C.O.G. Tower and was offloading it’s passengers. Four soldiers were waiting on the landing pad to help take the wounded to the Med-bay. Two of them took the pilot and the other two took Jackknife, the rest of Echo-1 went down to the barracks to get cleaned up. Once they had washed up and cleaned their gear, they went back up the Med-bay to check on Jackknife who was resting in a hospital bed.

“How you feelin’, baby?” Tank had gotten a new helmet from the armory and was holding it on his side.

Jackknife sat up in his bed and replied, “Ugh, like shit, but it’s not something I haven’t gotten used to. What’s the word on Mac and the rest of those crazy guys?” Jackknife asked with a joking grin. He still hadn’t heard what happened.

Tank and Axle both looked at the ground then back to Jackknife. Tank Tread finally spoke up. “She lost contact with them about and hour ago, but before they went dark, Rarity reported numerous unknowns surrounding their position....and, Jack. There’s something else. Before they cut out, she heard Phoenix report Carbine as K.I.A.”

Jackknife threw his head back on a pillow and sighed. “Damn it! I knew we should’ve gone back for them, but that fucking pilot wouldn’t listen.”

Tank came up to him to calm him down. “Hey, hey, baby, calm down, it’s not his fault. You know we was low on fuel, and we didn’t even know exactly where they were.”

At that moment, Twilight Sparkle walked in the room. “Jack, are you alright? I came as soon as heard you were back.”

“I’m fine Twi, but I can’t say the same for the guys out there.” He was happy to see her, but was still concerned for Pot and Phoenix.

“I heard about Carbine. I’m sorry.” She knew he was a new recruit, and it was always a shame when a nooby died. The family would have to be informed and that would be a hardship of it’s own.

Jackknife hated to see her sad. “Yeah, were all feelin down about him, but right now I’m more concerned about Mac, and Phoenix.”

“Don’t you worry about that Rarity and I are handling it. You just get some rest.” Twilight turned back towards Tank and Axle, “Oh and the Colonel wanted to see you two. He wanted to talk to Jack too but I insisted he leave you in peace.”

The two of them patted the foot of Jackknife’s bed and left for the Command Center, leaving Jackknife and Twilight to catch up on the day’s events.

Colonel Hoofman was waiting in his office when the two of them entered. “Good, you’re here. I have some Intel on a special operation for you.”

Tank and Axle looked at each other with a confused face. “What mission sir?” Axle asked

“If you would just pipe down and listen, I’ll tell you.” The Colonel was a very straight forward and ‘take charge’ kind of stallion. He was in his fifty's but was in good shape and could still whip the ass of any stallion twice his size and half his age. “Delta squad is on a mission to deploy a sonic mapping device to map the Locust tunnels. We have a plan to end this war once and for all. Hopefully the information that we’ll gain from the resonator will give us the exact location of the Locust strong hold, It’s heart. Once we have this information we can launch a counter measure on the Locust, using a Light-mass bomb. This weapon, given to us be Dr. Derpy, should take out all these bastards with one fell swoop.”

Tank and Axle had never even considered the C.O.G. to already be at the point to launch a counter strike, and to take out all the Locust at once, was even harder to believe. “So why tell us this sir?” Tank asked.

“Good question Private. We need you to assist Delta in their mission. Their current location is in Ephyra city. They are trying to commandeer a ride to an Emuslion mining facility in Lithia.”

A few years before the war against the Locust started, ponies began to invent machines to make their lives easier such as automobiles, planes, helicopters....etc. The main problem with this was they didn’t have a sufficient fuel source to power them. They began to build mining facilities to locate a source of fuel for their new inventions, when they found a shiny blue liquid substance called Emulsion. In it’s natural state it was useless until Dr. Derpy Hooves along with Adam Fenix, the father of delta squad’s leader Marcus Fenix, discovered a way to manipulate it to be used as fuel. Once the Locust started attacking the workers abandoned the mines and fled to safety. The Lithia mining facility was one of those mines.

“As I understand it, your squad leader is, at the moment, indisposed so I am promoting Private Phoenix to Sergeant.” He looked around with an agitated look. “Where is that no good, piece a shit?!”

Tank quickly answered him. “Sir, he and Private McShot are stranded in Tyrus City.”

“What the hell are they doin’ all the way out there.” The Colonel was growing impatient.

“Sir, we were being chased by three Reavers and it was Priv-...I mean Sergeant Phoenix’s idea to lead them there. He came up with a plan, and took them all out, but he and Private McShot were left behind due to the pilot needing fuel, Sir.” Tank caught his breath after his long and fast explanation.

Hoofman was getting angrier. “We’ll don’t just stand there, get on the horn and tell that pilot to prepare for take off in 0900 hours! I need you to regroup with Phoenix ASAP! Delta ain’t gonna wait forever. Move!”

“Yes sir!” They Saluted the Colonel and took off fast.

Hoofman sat at his desk quietly thinking, then said, “Huh, how many ex prisoners with the name Phoenix am I going to have to promote today?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back in Tyrus, Pot and Phoenix were still waiting for their captor to return. “So what happened to that big Locust chap that you took off that Reaver?”

Phoenix grit his teeth at the thought of him. “His name was RAAM, and the son of a bitch fell right through the roof a two story building that caved in on him. He’s done.”

Little did they know that as they spoke, he had crawled out of the destroyed building and his Reaver had landed to retrieve him. He got on and, humiliated by defeat, flew off towards the nearest Locust base. He was a few miles outside of the city when the sound of something beeping came from inside the Reaver. He twisted his face in confusion and listened closer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Shit!” Axle stopped in his tracks as he was running with Tank to give the pilot his orders.

“Come on Ax, what is? We have to go.” Tank said while trotting in place.

Axle put a hoof to his face. “I just realized I set the bomb to two hours, not two minuets.”

“Wow Ax, you suck. Common we gotta go!” Tank laughed as they galloped off to the pilot’s station.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the time the RAAM realized what the beeping was the Reaver exploded, causing him to fly forward and land face first on the hard ground. He slowly hobbled up and brushed off Reaver guts from his shoulder with his non broken arm. “Eeerrrugh.....ponies.” He groaned as he began the long limp back to base.