The Equestria Offensive

Ebria, 6:43 P.M., June 8th, 2013

In the time that Alpha was in Siluam, Equestrian forces had pushed Caeli farther back in. In their first month of training, Equestria didn’t have much of a game plan, just to hold forces back. The plan had only been slightly more refined. If they could take over Castrum and hope for surrender.

Alpha had been escorted to the city of Ebria on a mission to take a hostage. One griffin, a right hand man to Fortis, is who they planned to use to get inside of Castrum. Equestria had been planning on Caeli not knowing they were coming, and they had been right. The city was calm, but  they wanted to keep the operation secure so the squad was given a set of OH-58A escort helicopters: Rosea, Pomum, Iris, Volitant, Rarus, and Scintillae. The helicopters circled above securing the area.

Alpha moved carefully through the streets below. The city was desolate while Alpha walked the streets. It was usually known the be the center of festivities and tradition in Caeli. The citizens had seemed to be hiding from all of the Equestrian soldiers outside. It couldn’t have been their concern at the time though. They had a man to find.

“Alpha 1 here, checking in. Alpha squad is set. Escort unit report.”

“Echo 1, Pomum here. Ready to go.”

“Echo 2, Volitant. Ready.”

“Echo 3! Rosea here! Ready to rock!”

“Echo 4, Iris. We’re good here.”

“Echo 5, Rarus. Everything looks good.”

“Echo 6, Scintillae. Everything is in order.”

“Roger. Overlord, this is Alpha 1. Echo and Alpha ready to begin search.”

“Alpha 1 roger. We don’t know if our target knows why we’re here but assume that they do. We’ll track the target’s location and have it on Rosea’s radar and have them be your guide. Follow Rosea through the streets.”

“Roger that.” One of the helicopters stopped overhead above Alpha. “Yeah, I got visual contact on you, Rosea. Ready when you are.”

“Understood, Alpha! Ready to go! Tracking now!” Rosea began flying into the city as Alpha followed close behind.

“How far in is he hiding?”

“He’s about 400 meters south, sir! We’ll be there as soon as possible!”

“Understood.”

“Don’t you think this city is a little too quiet?” Midnight asked.

“Well, the citizens are hiding from us and the Caeli military didn’t know we were gonna be here.”

“So if the Caelians didn’t know we were here, don’t you think the helicopters would make us noticeable?”

“They do, but we have the Kiowas just incase we are attacked. If we are attacked, we have no idea how large the attack would be, and we want to make sure this operation goes right this time.”

“Right. Whatever you say.”

Alpha trotted  through the city streets. At about 200 meters, they followed Rosea down a narrow street. The city stayed as quiet as it had. Then, before anyone could react, two rockets soared and hit Rosea in the tail. The tail tore off and both tail and body crashed into the building walls both sides of the street and crashed down just in front of Alpha squad.

The squad darted down the road down where they had hoped had been the right way. “Rosea’s down! I repeat, Rosea is down! Requesting a new transport!”

“Request denied, sir.” Iris said. “It’s too hot up here. We could use a little help.”

“Right! Midnight, get on Iris’ minigun! The rest of us will hoof it farther into Ebria!”

The squad made it into an open town square. Iris lowered down just by them and Midnight took the side gunner seat. Midnight was hoisted above the city to see a fleet of Mi-24 Hinds. Midnight could waste no time. He began open fire on the distant attack helicopters.

“I’d hold on tight to that minigun!” Iris said. “This is gonna be a bumpy ride!” Iris was a very agile pilot, successfully dodging bullet after rocket while still allowing Midnight to get his shots off. The skies stayed hot for a while with bullets and rockets flying from each side of the battle. It wasn’t too long until Iris became arrogant. A missile hit Iris on the side just above Midnight and taking out one of the blades “Hold on! I’m trying to hold it!” The helicopter had lost control. Midnight knew they would hit something. He didn’t wait to grab the earth pony, Iris, sitting in the pilot seat and fly them both out of the helicopter. They landed together on top of a nearby building as the helicopter spun out, hitting a building next to them. The helicopter that shot them down soared over them shooting down. The two ducked out of the way and they were only hit by a little bit of shrapnel. Midnight pulled out his rifle. As the helicopter turned back around, Midnight took a shot and hit the pilot.

“Are you all right?” Midnight asked

“Yeah. I’ll be fine. Find the target.”

Overlord came on over headset. “Alpha, we have a back up F-15 team heading to your AO.”

Within a few seconds, a single F-15 bolted over Ebria taking a Hind E out. Just after, a set of seven other jets soared by with it. The Caelian squad was quickly picked off. “Alpha, this is Foxtrot 1. We’ll scout the area for you.” The team soared off and spread out across the forests around the city.

Pomum flew over the city, over Midnight and the rest of Alpha. “There’s no time to waste. I’ll be your new guide.” Midnight flew over the city and caught up to the rest of the squad on the ground. “He’s over here!” Pomum hovered over a building that was down a narrow road.

They gathered on the only door. Mahoff kicked in the door. “Go! Go! Go! Find him and take him to Volitant!” Mahoff yelled out his commands. Malum wasn’t the only griffin in the house. In a corner of the kitchen was a mother holding two of her kids in her arms. The kids cried as they held tightly onto their mother. Midnight was the one to find Malum in a corner upstairs. He was armed with a single handgun. Right when Midnight came around the corner, Malum’s gun went off. Midnight pulled his M1911 from his side, rolled around the corner, shooting Malum in the leg. Malum fell down from the pain as he dropped his gun.

“Target has been disarmed. Ready for extraction.” Midnight and Ace drug Malum down the stairs and out the door. As they stepped past the kitchen, they could hear one of the kids screaming.

“Ru! Dhieg tetta demg!” They could hear the tears in the child’s voice. “Dhieg noc demg!” Midnight understood him. He was crying for them to not take their dad away.

But no matter what the child said, they had a job. They took him away, with a bag over his face, from his family and his friends. Volitant sat just outside on the main road of the city. Malum was thrown in the back where Ace, Thunder and Mahoff held him. Midnight got into the co pilot chair and Storm got on the minigun. Volitant flew away from the city as fast as she could. “The package is secure, Overlord. Heading out now.”

Location classified, time classified, 2013

The room was dark. The only area that could be seen was the area under the light that showed the chair Malum was tired to. Mahoff took the bag off of his head.

“Don’t worry. “Mahoff said. “We removed your tracker on the way, so no one’s gonna find you here.

Malum gave them all a dark and hateful glare. “Sip ci ku auy iwos mhyis buroil.”

“I know you speak English.” Storm said. “Make things easier for yourself and speak in a language everyone here understands.”

“Why should I cooperate with any of you?”

“Trust me.” Mahoff replied. “It’ll be easier for you in the end.”

“That’s a lie. I know you’re just going to kill me in the end.”

“I know. We will kill you. But cooperate and we won’t kill you slowly.”

“I don’t need to tell you anything.”

“Fine. If that’s how you wanna be. Storm. Would you mind?”

“With pleasure.” Storm faced away from Malum, lifted his hind legs, and bucked Malum in the beak.

“Gah! Auy cupnih zymgih!”

“Gonna cooperate?”

“Not on your life!” Storm kicked him again.

“Talk!”

“Never!” Storm repeated. A piece of Malum’s beak chipped off.

“Gyah! Ugea! Ugea! I’ll talk!”

“Good. That’s what we like to hear. Let’s start with a simple one. What purpose do you serve in the war?”

“You know that already.”

“ I know I do, but I wanna hear it from you.”

“I’m right hand to Fortis.”

“I’m guessing Fortis has some strong relation to Gryphem. Am I right?”

“He does.”

“Then does that give you a strong connection to Gryphem?” Malum hesitated to respond. Storm once again kicked him to keep him talking. “Does it?!”

“Yes! Yes! It does!”

“Then let me ask you this! Why did Gryphem start the war?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“From what I have learned, this war had started because Caeli needed land for the growing population, but from what I’ve seen, there’s been a lot of land for the country. Most towns and cities are spread far apart. So why did he really start the war?”

“Heh. You know so little, pony. Gryphem isn’t the one responsible for starting the war.”

“What do you mean? He had to be the one to authorize it. He’s the king.”

“It is true, he might have signed off on it, but Fortis convinced him Gryphem thinks he needs land because that’s what Fortis told him. Gryphem never leaves Castrum, so he doesn’t know.”

“Okay, then if not land then why? What issues does Fortis have with Equestria? It doesn’t make sense.”

“I’m not completely sure, but I know part of it has to do with Equestria freeing his slaves. I also think it has something to do with his daughter. She went to Equestria years ago to go to flight school and never came back. I think he blames Equestria for it.”

It took a moment for it to click, but Midnight knew who he was talking about. “Gilda.”

They all turned towards him. “What?” Mahoff asked.

“It’s a long story that we really don’t have time for, but I am very very certain that Fortis’ daughter is dead.”

“Heh. Figures. That’s probably why she never came back. Fortis probably guessed that. Probably why he’s so angry all of the time.”

“All right, Malum. I have one more question for you. Where is Fortis now?”

“Why would I tell you that?” Storm lifted his back hooves up. “You can kick me all you want. You won’t make me tell you where my leader is stationed.”

“All right. Have it that way. Alpha, masks on.” They all put on gas masks as Mahoff pulled a can off of his belt. “Know what this is?”

“I can guess that it’s some chemical weapon. You should know that’s illegal to use in warfare worldwide.”

“Oh, I know. I just brought it in case there was something I really needed to know. You know, if there was no other way to make you break.”

“I won’t talk. Pull the pin. Try me.” Mahoff certainly wasn’t bluffing. He pulled the pin and dropped the can as the toxins poured out the end.

“You’ll change your mind any minute. This won’t kill you, but you’ll wanna be dead when the effects take place.” And those effects didn’t take long to happen. Malum’s yellow eyes glazed red as he started kicking in his chair and screaming in pain. His chair fell to the ground as his head rang in agony and pain. “Tell us where he is and we’ll kill you now.”

“H-he’s in his m-mansion! It’s a h-high security location 50 miles south of Castrum!”

“Great. Much obliged. Storm, you can kill him now.” Storm pulled out his sidearm and popped the entire clip into Malum’s head. “Right. Let’s get going. If we kill Fortis, we can try and convince Gryphem to end the war. I think we’re bringing this war of ours to a nice and happy end.”