The Equestria Offensive

Caelian Prison Camp, Time and date unknown

The cells were dark, they could tell by the smell had never been cleaned. Even though Alpha and 63 were captured in a prison, they weren’t kept there. Caeli didn’t want the enemy to be held in the home of their military leader. Each member of Alpha was kept in their own cell. Star was the only one left of her team still in the cells. And even though none of them knew exactly what happened to Star’s soldiers, they were all pretty sure they knew.

“They’re dead. They’re dead. They’re all dead.” Star muttered in the corner of her cell. “They’re all dead, and it’s all my fault.”

“Pull yourself together.” Mahoff said from his cell. “One of my best is dead, but I can’t sit here and take blame. It’s all of our fault for being here, but we can’t get out of this by mourning.”

“Hey! Shut up, prisoners! I know what you’re saying! O lboss riit pu zymg auy, bura kohs.”

“Oz auy kurre di bhuzeri, lea op pu lucidupa jnu yrtihlpert auy.” Midnight sat in the corner of his cell, blank and bloody face. “O joss zymg auyh lolpih ert cupnih.”

“I wouldn’t smart off if I were you. One more remark and we’ll be taking you out first tomorrow.” The guard scowled at Midnight then walked out of the room.

“*sigh* what a - mess this is?” Mahoff sat up in his cell. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t plan on staying here.”

“Right.” Midnight responded, “We can’t die in prison. Storm wouldn’t want that. And I know I’m not the only one here who has somepony to go home to. I think I’ve got an idea. When I make a move, follow my lead.”

“Are you sure we should make a move?” Thunder asked, “What if a rescue team is sent? We’ll have a better chance of making it out. We are Equestria’s lead military squad. They probably have somepony out looking for us.”

“There’s no time. They probably don’t know where we are anyway.”

“Right...understood.”

“We’ll sneak out when they sleep, and sail off in the night. Sounds simple enough. It’s always darkest just before the dawn. I know we’ll make it out.”

“Hey, Ace. You all right?” Ace was sitting in the back of his cell, balled up, shaking and muttering to himself. None of them could make out his words, but they could make out a disturbing laugh in his words. “Ace! Snap out of it!” Mahoff shouted.

“What do you want from me?! I’m fine! Stop bugging me!”

“You’re obviously not fine. Do you understand our operation?”

“The what?”

“That’s what I thought. Just follow Midnight’s lead when he makes a move.”

“Hey! Jnep pni zymg tot O lea?” The guard stepped back in, “What did I say about talking?!”

“Hey!” Midnight stepped right up to the bars of his cell, “Lnyp yb. Jnir ji kip uyp us nihi, O’ss goss auyh zecosa ert zymg auyh jozi.”

“Ess hoknp, kip auyh ell uyp nihi!” The guard unlocked Midnight’s cell. As he stepped in, Midnight slipped behind him, grabbed his knife, kicked the guard to the ground and stabbed him in the neck. After he knew the guard was dead, he grabbed the guard’s keys and handgun and let everypony else out.

Midnight went over to the dead guard and hid the body in the shadows where he couldn’t be easily seen. He then locked cell doors to make their detection and escape less known. Midnight did one more check before deciding it was convincing enough that no one had been in or out.

“So much for slipping out in the middle of the night. Oh well. Let’s stick together and stay to the shadows. Kill only when absolutely necessary. We don't need to attract attention to ourselves or make our presence known. Now, let’s move out.”

Midnight looked down the halls confused and lost. He tried to remember the way but since he had been blindfolded that was a lost cause. So he tried the next best thing. He tried remembering smell. Though the whole prison smelled like mold, mildew, and griffin stench. But still, that did...nothing... The only thing they could do now is wing it.

“Right. Does anypony know the way out?” Midnight asked. No one gave a reassuring answer. “That’s what I thought. Then I guess we’re winging it.”

The first thing they had planned to do was to find their weapons. And seeing as how they had no idea where they were looking, the task was not going to be easy. Moving through the prison wasn’t easy, especially since they knew it was only a matter of time before the guards realized they were gone.

The group all scurried from hall to hall all together with Midnight taking lead. At times, it seemed that they had come back to places they had already been. There had been many times where they had just barely made it past the guard’s sight. After about a half an hour, they came past a door they had been past a time or another. Something caught Thunder’s eye. It lead to an armory. “Hey wait. I think I found something.” Thunder whispered. The group turned to him, “I think this an armory. Maybe our things are here.”

“Awesome, Thunder.” Midnight whispered back, “Let’s have a look.” As they checked their surroundings for guards, they had only spotted two down the hall standing in front of what looked like a safe. “That’s probably it.”

“Give me a minute. I’ve got this.” Thunder grabbed the pistol and knife from Midnight and crept up to the guards. As he got behind one, he plunged the knife into the guard’s neck, put the gun to the other guards head, pulled the trigger, and moved his hoof to cover the first guard’s beak. The two guards dropped to the ground and Thunder took the keys from one. Midnight and the rest of the group came down the hall. As Thunder went to unlock the door, he realized it was a combination. “Great. This might take a bit. Watch my back.” He put his ear to the safe and pushed the knob on the door back and forth listening to the gears turn. After about a minute or two, he heard a *click* and the door was unlocked.

When they opened the door, they saw not only their gear, but plenty of other Caelian weapons. “Last one in, lock the door behind us, “Mahoff said, “We have a bit of stocking up to do. But nopony take their time.” Each of them first put on their uniform that had been taken from them. In an effort to waste no time, as Midnight tied his boots on, he pulled on his bootstraps so hard that they broke.

After that, they each grabbed each of their own weapons and equipment. As Midnight grabbed his rifle, he took a moment to stroke the initials he carved into the rifle and carried on. Each of them also grabbed an extra AK-74 and Tokarev pistol. Everypony took extra ammunition. They all knew they were gonna have a wall of hell to get through to get out. Mahoff opened the doors in the back of the armory.

“Sweet Celestia.” Behind the door was a set of four riot shields and a full juggernaut armor set. From outside the reinforced safe, they could hear the sirens outside beginning to ring. “It’s a good thing we found these. All of you, take these. The suit is mine, baby.”

Someone was banging on the safe door, “Nia! Ji gruj auy’hi or pnihi! Ubir pni tuuh!”

“We’ve got some guests.” Star said

“They probably found the bodies we left outside the door.” Midnight replied.

“No time to worry about that.” Mahoff was completely standing up and suited in the armor. “Get some charges on that door. We might be able to take a few guards out that way.”

“Got it!” Thunder and Ace found a set of charges on a shelf, ran up, and planted them on the door. “Shields up!” Everyone hid behind their riot shields as Ace pulled the switch. The door flew off knocking about five guards to the ground and crushing them. Out of the smoke of the charges, came Mahoff fully suited with the rest in a riot shield row behind him with Midnight and Star to his left and Thunder and Ace to his right.

The five moved down the halls staying in formation. Mahoff carried his M16 in one hoof and his extra AK-74 in the other. “Don’t break positions!” Mahoff shouted, “Hook a left up here, Ace and Thunder, watch our six when we turn!”

“Roger!” They both shouted. As the five pushed to the end of the hall, Ace and Thunder moved behind Mahoff as Midnight and Star moved in front. The group moved steadily towards a door at the end of the hall that they believed lead to the front courtyard. Guard after guard stormed down the hall at their moving fort, all being blown down and riddled with bullets. Eventually, the five finally made it to the door. As they crept up on the door, they could hear a beeping sound coming from the other side

“Move back, move back, move back!” Mahoff shouted. The group stayed in formation as they stepped away, but not soon after, the charges on the other side set off sending the steel doors flying at Midnight and Star. The doors both slammed into their shields, almost taking them to the ground. But they didn’t have time to waste. They kept pushing on through the fire storm from all around. Out the doors, as they had hoped, was the courtyard out front. The outside was wrapped up by high stone walls, towers, and two massive steel doors raised up to the same height of the walls around, all lined with guards. “Squad! Form a circle of your shields!” Mahoff stepped out of the cover and the four surrounded themselves in their makeshift barrier.

As they moved forward, the front doors rolled open slowly. A large barrel peaked out of the opening doors first, and soon, they could see the rest of it. “Tank!” Mahoff cried, “Cover yourselves!” As fast as his armored body could run, he moved towards the beast guarding the gates. A gunner sat on the turret on the top. Mahoff took him out first. In all of his ability, Mahoff swerved through the cannon fire and bullets, used all of his strength to climb on top, and emptied any Caelian from the tank.

A few seconds after the last griffin was thrown out of the tank, shots flew from the barrel hitting the tops of the walls, taking griffin after griffin out. As Mahoff removed the wall guards, Alpha and Star moved to the tank and each stepped in, one by one.

“All right, Mahoff!” Midnight cheered, “We’ve made it out. You think it’s safe to breath?”

“It doesn’t look that way to me, Midnight. Get out there and get on that gun. Star, steer us out of her. I’ll stay on the cannon.” And like that, they were out of the prison. It wasn’t long until they realized they were only out of the frying pan and into the fire. Another fleet of Caelian military came from the woods as the tank rolled on the dirt forest path. Midnight climbed up on the gun and set his targets on the birds in the sky. A set of three helicopters came from over the prison along with a fighter jet team. Bullets rained back and forth from sky to tank, and they managed to take out some of the air vehicles. Firing from the cannon took out many of the ground troops, but it still wasn’t enough. Missiles from above took a toll on them. Their robbed tank caught fire and the tracks gave out. Alpha was given no choice. They had to abandon their transport.

“There’s no way we’ll make it out!” Thunder cried, “There’s too many to fight off!”

“I’m not gonna give up like that, boy!” Mahoff replied, “We’ve made it this far out of the prison, we’re not going back.” Mahoff stopped in his tracks. “If I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die fighting for a cause. All of you, get out now. I can hold them.”

“Mahoff, you can’t do tha-”

“I said go! Now!” Off of his back he pulled off a weapon none of them had noticed. It was an lmg, and not just any. It was Storm’s.

“R-right.” The four left Mahoff behind just as he requested.

“Bring it on, you maggot sacks!” They heard Mahoff cry in the distance, “Give me everything you’ve got!”

The four ran for their lives down the dirt road until there was no longer road to follow. When the roads disappeared, they followed the river down until they found themselves in a swamp. They all knew what was the best plan of action as they quickly submerged into the dark, gloomy, muddy water, went all the way under so they would have mud on their heads to help blend in when they came back up.

Only the two helicopters left and a few fighter jets showed. Mahoff was doing a decent job of holding the soldiers back, as far as they could tell. The helicopters searched the woods around them; slowly until they passed just over the swamp they were in. For a second, it seemed that one helicopter stopped just above them, but a second later, it flew off and kept on its way.

The minute of silence the group felt seemed like a sigh of relief, and at the same time, a mourning remembrance. They all looked at each other, worryingly. “You think he’s dead?” Star asked.

“I don’t know,” Midnight responded, “We can’t place any bets on whether or not he’s alive. We just need to realize he left himself behind so we can fulfill our duty. I think it’s time to raise the stakes on the bet we made. Fortis is now our target more than ever. Does anypony have a plan?”

“I think I do,” Star said, “Their back up showed up really quickly. There has to be some sort of base camp nearby. If we can get our hooves on a helicopter of our own, I can get us close to Castrum. I’ve got a feeling Fortis made his way there.”

“Sounds like the best plan we’ve got at the moment. Which way do you think we should be heading?”

“If my calculations are correct, we should be heading north-west about 2-4 kilometers.”

“Right. No good sitting in this swamp any longer. Let’s get moving.”