Road Gangs: Ray Part II

"First off," Ray started, holding a glass of water up to his face as he sat hunched over the large table situated in the Celestial War Room, "I want my own people on this. Individuals I know I can trust, and have proven their skill in modern warfare in the past. Second, we're going to do this mission my way. No strolling up to Thorne Sectors' front doors like last time, expecting a conventional fight."

He took a drink and gave the other officials a moment to respond. There were four high-ranking military officials in the room, including Shining Armor, representing the various branches of Equestrian armed service: Canterlot Royal Guard, the subdivisions Celestial and Lunar Guard, and the newly-formed Royal Equestrian Defence Force. Additionally there were two field advisors and one intelligence officer. But, of course, Ray knew this last human man as Dee Agusta.

Next to Ray was Junkers, arms crossed and reclined in his chair. Finishing this circle of officials were Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. The circle was not truly complete, however, due to the four extra seats reserved for foreign officials that remained empty in this meeting.

Shining was first to respond to Ray's demand. "And how do you suggest we do this?"

"We're 'going' to have Changeling assistance in supplement to REDF assault groups."

The room came alive with snorts and chuckles, followed by amused mumbles among the individuals. Ray's heart tightened with anxiety at the display as he took another drink, discreetly taking a glance at the unamused Junkers still reclined in his seat.

Agusta raised his hand out to get their attention. "Um, I actually concur. Having fought alongside them during the second invasion, I can guarantee an effective allied assault force. You see-..."

"The problem with that," Shining Armor interrupted, "is that the circumstances have changed since then. We're no longer in a defense crisis. That was an emergency situation where we suffered obsolete firepower against an advanced opponent, in which we welcomed foreign influence to strengthen our efforts."

"You're saying this isn't an 'emergency situation'? Is that what you're getting at?"

He ignored Agusta and continued. "We are now modernized and combat-ready for the modern threat. Influence by Changelings or otherwise are now redundant and a breech of conduct for collaborative efforts in warfare due to no, I repeat, no political connections with their government." He glanced to the Princess. "Despite the fact that we've allowed them to rebuild within our borders because of a small peace agreement that could potentially dissolve at any given moment."

Ray's blood boiled as his fury grew. "What am I, a doorstop? I'm the closest political tie between them and us. All three of us humans in this room, as a matter of fact. Frankly I don't understand this paranoia you have with them, after all they've done to help you in the past. And furthermore, I wish to remind you of the upcoming negotiations that I can guarantee will aid in favorable relations."

"That is in the future. This is right now, Ray. I repeat, no official political relations! Besides, you weren't here during the first invasion. You know nothing about our history with them." He turned to one of the recently-promoted Lunar Guard officials at his side. "Now, how many men does your armored interceptor division have at the current situation?"

Junkers finally sat up. "Whoa, whoa, wait a minute. You already sent an armored column out there and Agusta's intel division reported it got flattened in a matter of minutes. You're just going to send anoth-..."

"It was a recon search-and-destroy group specially sent to secure the wells, not a-..."

"You can call it a parade of butterfly hippies for all I care, it doesn't change the fact that it was an armored unit that got intercepted due to its proximity with enemy-occupied territory, resulting in the capture of good soldiers. And the death of a high-ranking officer."

"Regardless, we must form a specialized armored assault group if we are to successfully secure the wells."

"And rescue Faust and other survivors." Added Agusta.

"If possible, of course."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Junkers asked in alarm. "I thought this was primarily a rescue miss-..."

"We must ensure the security of the wells, or we would see a drastic decrease in fuel production. This means an inflation, which means the economy of the automobile sector would collapse, which means-..."

"So no matter what, Faust and whoever's left is on the back-burner until you secure your petroleum?"

Ray took a deep breath to contain himself. "We're getting beside the point."

Shining payed no attention to him and continued his argument with Junkers. "If you were in my or another Equestrian official's position, you'd have a better understanding and appreciation of the situation, above all why our wells are so important to-..."

Ray finally lost it and slammed his glass on the table, splashing water on him as he rose from his seat. All eyes bolted towards him in utter surprise at his outburst, reverting the room to dead silence again. The two Princesses were especially appalled by the display.

"Are you even listening to yourself? Say you send another unit out there, bigger and badder than the last. That unit gets intercepted and taken out because of your underestimation of the enemy's capability. Then what? Send an even bigger one. It gets taken out. Then what? Exhaust your defenses, but by then the third and final well would be captured and then you'll have no more oil. No oil and no defense forces. Then what?"

"We would change our tactics, of course, before that even happens."

"But under who's advisement? You need me on this, and you know it."

"Ray, you are becoming quite difficult."

"Shining Armor," Princess Celestia interrupted, "lest we forget that it was I who requested his presence on this matter for his experience and expertise? Please, let him speak his mind."

"Y-yes, your majesty."

All eyes were on Ray again as he was given the floor. He walked to the rear of his chair and leaned on the back rest as he faced his audience, taking another deep breath in preparation to speak in a more appropriate tone. "If you have the slightest understanding of the situation, you'd know that Princess Celestia's original plan of having me as primary advisor and Second-In-Command on the mission still stands, recent events irrelevant to that fact. I know what we're up against out there, you don't."

Shining Armor sat back in his chair. "So what is your plan of action then?"

Ray prepared his answer indirectly. "I and Captain Armor will lead a small covert recovery team through Thorne Sector. Thorne Three will be our checkpoint, where we will rendezvous with a small armored interceptor squad. Our recovery team will then proceed into hostile territory under the cover of nightfall. We will conduct a careful reconnaissance of Thorne Sector to determine the exact location of gang's hideout."

"And what about the wells?"

Ray lifted his finger at Shining to silence him, then continued. "Once we've located it, we'll proceed to infiltrate it as quiet as possible. And once the infiltration and recovery of the prisoners are a success, we'll alert the armored unit that we're on the way back. However, in an emergency situation, they must meet us as close to the area as possible. We'll have a limited window to get back to the borders as quick as possible.

On the matter of the wells, the same armored unit will move back behind enemy lines after our men are dropped off to safety. Perhaps some additional support can be arranged to accompany them if needed. They will take back the wells one at a time and set up a defense perimeter should any more hostiles attempt to counter our efforts. Sound like reasonable plan?"

Shining cleared his throat. "Well, um..."

The Lunar Guard official raised his hoof. "Mister Ray, there's another matter that might severely affect this plan of yours. I was going to bring it up in response Captain Armor's question as well, before I was interrupted by Mister Junkers. You see, we don't have enough armored vehicles to complete the required unit size you have in mind."

Ray sat back in his seat. "Well, what do you have?"

"We have an M1A2, a T-90, and a 2S25 'Sprut' tank-destroyer in our main armory, plus a mix of other softskin fighting vehicles, all left over from the second invasion and other small encounters since then. EMDETech and Lunar Defence Products are still developing our domestic line of IFVs, and so far it looks like they won't be ready for production until next year."

"Roll the stock out anyway. Anything combat-ready, because you're in luck." Ray nodded to a Celestial Guardsman guarding the door. He nodded back and unlocked the main entrance with his unicorn magic.

The grand double-door opened to reveal Queen Chrysalis accompanied by two of her "Royal Guardlings". Their entrance into the room was met with very uneasy stares from the group, mainly from the two Princesses and Shining Armor. He was especially discomposed as he hid his bewilderment under his old hatred that he had for the Queen since the first invasion of Canterlot.

Chrysalis took her seat at one of the foreign official chairs while the two Guardlings stood behind her. "It has been such a long time since I've been within the regal Equestrian walls. I'm pleased to have been invited back into them under more beneficial circumstances. Many of my sincerest thanks to you all."

Ray smiled at her and cleared his throat. "So, my queen, we were just touching on the subject of a certain difficulty we have with meeting the required number of IFVs for the armored unit discussed in the plan. It seems we have a slight 'shortage' until next year. Can you please enlighten us as to how your government has provided a solution to this problem?"

"Ah, yes. The Elytron Corporation under our jurisdiction has already developed a line of IFVs with complete armament and equipment packages. They have fifty production vehicles ready as we speak. However, there is only one major problem: we have a severe lack of fuel and ammunition at our disposal.

In what can be considered an emergency defense situation, I am proposing a deal regarding your reserves precedent to, yet unrelated to, the official negotiations. Specifically I'm requesting a portion of Equestrian petroleum and munitions for these IFVs, in exchange for their temporary inclusion in your inventory and our cooperation to fulfill the requirements of this mission."

"Queen Chrysalis," Princess Celestia called out, "you have a deal. You may have a portion of our fuel and munitions reserve, but under the boundaries of the amount needed for the number of vehicles chosen for the mission, not your overall stock. Is this understood?"

"Those are more than fair of terms, your majesty. Thank you."

Shining Armor glanced at her with irritation, then reverted his gaze to the middle of the table.

Ray put his hands together and rose from his seat. "Well, looks like all is in order. Can we now end this horribly time-consuming committee and get on with the mission?"

Celestia nodded. "Yes, you have my full approval. Please organize your men and ordnance as soon as possible."

"We'll be ready in an hour."

Tempest's newly-acquired stereo system blared throughout the hive as he rolled large metal drums into key locations of the old storage room below the throne room. He had obtained a small collection of human music from a Canterlot thrift shop and had grown a taste for classic rock, especially enjoying a certain Bon Jovi album. As of this moment in his chore, he danced awkwardly to "Raise Your Hands" and attempted to sing along with it.

He appreciated the solitude of his hideout. He could never get away with such a bizarre display around other Changelings, and certainly not around the Queen. Not to mention the secrecy of his latest activities. The freedom was truly bliss, and he relished every moment of it.

There were five drums in this particular room, all filled with turpentine. He was careful to place them upright and properly spaced from each other along the walls so that they formed a circle around the room.

Next he opened a wooden artillery munitions case in the center of the room and grabbed an armful of C4 blocks from inside. He placed an even distribution of the blocks on the sides of the drums, somewhat mashing them to properly adhere to the metal.

He then walked back to the box, now pulling out lengths of fuses ended with blasting caps. Each capped fuse was inserted to the respective blocks of C4, then linked together at the center of the room. There he connected the network to another larger fuse leading out the nearby door.

A distant beeping caught his ears, but it was so faint that he immediately shrugged it off as just part of his mind processing the loud music. After a few more beeps he realized what it was and trotted out of the room with an excited grin on his face.

Making his way through the throne room and towards the office, he was careful not to step over a small rug he laid under the doorway's arch and leaped over it. Once in the office, he made his way to a large microwave oven on his desk. He opened it up and pulled out a measuring glass full of some kind of clear, thick liquid.

The liquid flowed almost like syrup as he poured it into an all-purpose five-gallon utility bucket through the spout on its lid. After emptying the contents into the bucket, he sealed the spout and set the glass on the desk. Next he picked up a couple of C4 blocks from the desk and mashed them onto the top of the bucket's lid, flattening the mass of plastic explosive within the grooves like dough in a tin. He finished it off by sticking capped fuses into the explosive.

Finished with the device itself, though, he was not. He carefully tipped the sealed bucket over and laid it onto its side, rolling it against the desk for stability. He then grabbed another couple of C4 blocks with fuses and repeated the process on the bottom of the bucket.

He was interrupted by a loud "ding!" coming from the other side of the room. There he made his way to a toaster oven atop a utility table, opening the lid to pull out a tray of cookies. He lifted the tray close to his nose and took in their delightful smell, proceeding to place the tray on the table with pride, as these cookies were extra special. The recipe was an experiment of his that he had recently thought of when "shopping" for his supplies, and he was anxious to try it out.

"Now, where'd I put the milk?" He mumbled to himself, looking around the room.

Since Rockwell's daring but short-lived escape attempt resulting in the destruction of a Ravager vehicle and damage of their other property, the five surviving prisoners were transferred to deep pits dug separately around the hideout. There were three of them, two of which held two prisoners each, while the third held the fifth and final prisoner.

Mirage was the unfortunate survivor to be sentenced to this solitary confinement. His pit was located near the gateway of the hideout, just underneath a watchtower.

Borgward and Dassault were located near the factory building, with only two Ravagers guarding their pit. And not very closely at that, as they smoked and played some kind of game with rocks next to their motorcycle and side-car.

Faust and Silverspade were at the far end of the hideout where piles of vehicle scraps lay in waste. The guards of their pit, too, loosely watched over it as they cleaned their weapons in the shade of another watchtower.

The reason for such lazy security of the pits was due to the near impossibility of escaping from them, at least in the Ravagers' experience. Being dug as deep and wide as they were from such soft earth, a proper hold along the walls was impossible without slipping and dragging dirt along with whomever attempted to escape.

Faust understood the mindset of Overdog for transferring them to these new enclosures, and therefore made no immediate attempt to escape and instead laid on the ground, taking comfort in the cool and shady depth of the pit in contrast to the outside desert heat.

Silverspade, however, channeled Rockwell's state of mind, thinking of possible methods of escaping the seemingly easy confinement. She jumped and grasped at a rock protruding from the dirt, only to find herself falling back to the ground, taking the rock down with her.

"Don't bother." Faust sat up, waving the disturbed dust away from him. "If it were that easy, they'd have beefier security up there."

Silverspade stayed down and rolled onto her stomach to face him. "But why did they throw us in here? What kind of punishment is this where they throw us in open pits?"

"It's an old false-hope tactic. After a prolonged period of thinking and and attempting escape, only to fail, and thinking someone will happen to find them and rescue them, eventually starve and dehydrate after however long they're kept in the hole, either turning mad or finding themselves inches from death. It's a terrible and cruel punishment. Slow and agonizing. You'll find that out after about a week."

"But why do you just sit there like Dassault? So calm, not doing anything about it..."

He shrugged. "What can I do? There is no possible way out of here. Unless your unicorn magic includes advanced levitation of bio-entities. Or teleportation. Does it?"

She shut her eyes and looked away with shame.

"I didn't think so." He scooted closer to her. "Look, call it that false-hope, but there's only one thing that keeps me from succumbing to the insanity a place like this can educe."

She looked back into his eyes, tears now flowing down her face.

His heart sank from looking into the abyss of her breathtaking orange eyes, so big and bright, crying such lamented innocence. "Faith in a friendship."

"You mean Ray?"

He nodded. "He's no fool, and neither are his friends. Loyalty and trust, never broken. I know he's doing everything humanly possible in our favor. I promise our freedom, but it will only come with patience."

"And faith in friendship." She added, wiping away the tears.

He nodded again, taking her in his arms. "Don't loose it. Never loose it. Because only then will we be truly lost."

She nodded in understanding, pressing herself hard against his chest for comfort. Faust stroked her mane as he did before, closing his eyes and letting his mind wander to far pleasurable things to shut out their reality. Only five minutes had passed and they were sound asleep, undisturbed and peaceful, even if temporary.

Sunlight shimmered through the Great Hall as Princess Celestia and Luna made their way down it's grand pathway with Agusta at their side.

"So with the current absence of Ray's team," Agusta started, "I'm requesting Changeling cooperation on yet another matter I've been studying as of late."

"Oh?" Celestia asked in mild surprise. "What might that be?"

"Well, it seems a bomber is at large within Canterlot territory."

"Oh, this. Yes, I recall this matter. I was going to have the Canterlot police look into it instead of using Guard resources."

"Yes, but the thing is, upon review of Ray's and Shining Armor's reports, it seems the bomber is an expert of technical explosive devices, not just some random killer with a bad case of pyromania or something."

"Your point being?"

"Well, my division doesn't have a lot of activity as of the launch of Faust's rescue mission due to intelligence relying on the activities of Ray's team. Strictly beyond our borders. What I'm saying is that I'd like to run an investigation with the collaboration of Lieutenant-Colonel Cattani, temporary SIC of the Changeling Empire. For his experience with these kind of matters, of course."

"Hmm." She thought for a moment. "Mister Agusta, I will accept this proposal and grant you permission to run this joint investigation, but under one condition."

"Sure, what is it?"

They stopped in the middle of the hall and faced each other.

"That whatever resources you use are strictly of Changeling cooperation and courtesy. Under the current crisis we must conserve our own resources for this imperative matter. Understood?"

"Yes, your majesty. Thank you. I will keep you updated on any progress we make in the investigation."

They continued traveling down the hall.

"That would be greatly appreciated. The best of luck to you and your division."

"Thanks." Agusta broke away and headed down the hall in the opposite direction, leaving the two Princesses to their destination.