Secret Guardian

The sun had just begun to rise as Pinpoint and Striker made their way to the outer road way leading to the castles train station. The rest of the team had already made their way out and were awaiting the arrival of their superiors. Each member was more then prepared for the battle that they were headed into, all being strapped up with close quarters weaponry. Pinpoint had already taken note of the ever growing crowd around them, his only thought was that in the hectic mess of the night before, neither of the Princess's had ordered any sort of quarantine on the castle. It was something that they had dealt with very few times before but the procedure was simple enough, speak to no one and move along with what you were doing. It was easier to just let the general public speculate on what exactly they were doing or even who they were. The train itself was already prepped for their departure, so Striker wasted no time in moving the team onto it in order to clear them away from the civilian populous. Before loading on himself, Pinpoint glanced up towards the balcony of the castle. Celestia and Luna both watched as they made their ways onto the train, but the part that bothered him about it all was their expressions. They looked concerned, sure it might have been just the stress of everything but it definitely seemed like something more. Luna began saying something to her sister just as Striker poked his head back out of the train.

“Pinpoint, are you going to stare at the Princess's all day or are we going to get going?” he shouted.

Pinpoint shook his head then turned to his commanding officer, “Yes sir, my apologies.”. After making his way onto the train he took his place next to Striker and began to brief their team. “Alright team, we have yet another extraction mission ahead of us. Our target is the brother of the rebel commander that we caught the other day.” His horn lit up and he removed a photograph of the stallion from his rifle bag and passed it to them. “The directive is the same as before, you are to pull out the target without harming him. The information he has could possibly shift the tides of this rebellion.” Pinpoint didn't like that he couldn't tell his men the real reason for pulling him, however if him and Striker were hesitant about what it was for and to cause any doubt in the team could cost them everything.

One of the stallions spoke up suddenly after looking over the picture. “Sir, what is our rules of engagement for this mission?”

Pinpoints face twisted, he was not used to missing any information, and he was certainly not fond on being called out on it. “Thank you for asking, all personal on the target location are considered hostile however same as last time avoid any unnecessary engagement.” The picture had made itself around by this time so he retrieved it and returned it to his bag. “Very well then team, that will be all, 4 hours until we arrive at final drop off then we hoof it from there.” He watched as the rest of them settled into seats and sat down before turned and nodded to Striker before sitting down himself. Pinpoint glanced up to see that Striker was still standing there looking at the team. His face looked more bothered then was usual before they went out, the worry in the old stallions eyes made his stomach turn over. “Sir please sit down, your starting to creep me the fuck out.”

Strikers eyes quickly whipped over towards Pinpoint, “Right... my bad,” he sighed as he walked over and sat down in front of Pinpoint. “I guess I just have a bad feeling about this Pin, almost as if we should have told the Princess to shove this this one up her ass.”

Pinpoint smiled at the thought, he couldn't see Striker being insubordinate for even a fraction of a second. The stallion always had his bearings about him, but the image of his officer giving the Princess a piece of his mind brought about a certain flavor of humor. “ I feel like that wouldn't go well for you sir, I mean hell that crazy bitch almost bit my head off for one drunken smart ass comment.”

Striker grinned as he turned his gaze to the passing landscape outside the window. “Tell me about it, I thought I was about to loose a lieutenant to thousand year banishment to the moon.” Apparently the rest of the team heard that bit and busted out laughing. Something about the tone of their officers must have set them off. Well at least the motivation was up, Striker thought.

The journey after the train ride took a couple of hours, but spirits remain moderately high despite the exhausting walk. Their first stopping point came up as most did, a cliff side location, so that Pinpoint could get his post set up. His bag and rifle glowing as he carefully pulled out the weapon and walked both over to cliffside. Looking down he noticed the first problem, the whole cliff side was completely covered in sharp loose rocks, which was going to make it a treacherous climb down for the team. He motioned for Striker to join him, “You sure this is where you want to set up sir? Might prove to be difficult for you guys.”

Striker approached and looked down at the cliff side then glanced around him. “Well yea this is going to be a pain in the ass, but from the looks of things this will be the best over watch point with the best position for our push in.”

Pinpoint nodded and laid himself out onto the ground, “Well then lets get this show on the road, we have less then an hour till mission start is expected.”

His commander nodded and set hoof onto the cliff side, “Alright lets get going team, strike time in thirty minutes.” He called back, and started down.

Pinpoint began he normal set up procedures, laying down the bi pod and making sure the scope was set. Looking over the encampment he started planning, everything seemed so similar to the last one. He could only imagine that the rebel forces as followed one major procedure plan as far as security was concerned. Four sets of roaming guards were all in place, however the most noticeable variant was that the landscape alterations seemed much more elaborate. It cut him off from a lot of the major firing points such as the main tent, which is where they were told the brother was set up. No problem, he could see enough of the roof of the tent to punch through the camouflage they had set up, this was a part of the reason he carried such a monstrous rifle. Pinpoint suddenly froze up as his eyes got wide, a worrisome thought pushing itself into his mind. The rebel commanders brother was no one special, a mere ground troop at most, why the hell was he in the main command then. Something was not right, and he couldn't figure it out. It was something he had to just think about and try and prep for anything, it was to late to pull out of this one, not that they had that option in the first place.

As soon as the signal glint was sent up from the southern border of the camp Pinpoint pushed his eye to the scope of the rifle and left a round fly into the left guard, sending the guard into a rearward flip. His partner could only stare in absolute amazement as the body was separated from what remained of the skull, a sight that Pinpoint left very little time to continue as a second round shredded through the other guards throat. Striker and the team took off in a dead sprint into the camp, their weapons glowing and raised to destroy any incoming enemy.

Pinpoint watched as the rebels made their push inward, the time line that they were given caused for a daylight strike. Stealth was out of the options now, so he was more then sure this would get hectic. Ge used his free eye to get a good grasp of everything going on around him, the larger size of the camp made for the outer guards to be much less of an issue so he kept his focus on the closer hit points. A small enemy team emerged from one of the camouflaged points, in which he was able to take out 2 of them before the teams automatic fire shredded through the remaining 3. The whole time the rebels kept rushing in small teams, they did not seem even the slightest bit thrown off by the power of the weapons turning their fellow stallions into mere clouds of red mist. That's when it happened, a huge group of them pushed out from every side of the team. Pinpoints eyes widened as he came to the sudden realization that they had prepared for this very moment. He was able to count out at least 70 of them completely surrounding the team, he stood up and screamed as loud as he could “GET THE FUCK OUT OF THERE, YOU HAVE TO PULL OUT.”. Striker turned around to see their rear blocked off just as a spear flew through the air and hit the rear team member in the throat. Their weapons opened up as the rebel formation pushed its way ever closer, Pinpoint couldn't make out what Striker was screaming through the blast of the firing weapons.

Pinpoint dropped down and started firing off his rounds into the crowd of incoming troops but after 3 shots he had dried out his magazine. Terror was all he could feel as his team was pushed in on, his mind was unable to even begin to process what to do. Reloading the rifle each time would take far to long, he needed something faster then that, so without thinking he ran down the steep cliff side. A decision that he soon regretted as he lost his footing and was sent sliding down the cliff on his left side. Small bits of fur and flesh were torn from his side, sending him into a flurry of pain but he refused to let it be the reason that everything went wrong today. He recomposed himself upon reaching the bottom of the cliff, running as fast as he could toward the group of enemies while he unfastened his pistol. He couldn't seem to run fast enough for his own comfort as he heard less and less gunfire coming from in front of him. His pistol raised up and let loose, the first bullet smashing the back of a rebels skull. He immediately noticed that their number were thinned down to a mere twelve or fourteen stallions left standing, however the thing that haunted him the most was that they all turned their attention to him.

“No” was all he could mutter as they started rushing towards him, he already knew what had happened but he just couldn't bring himself to accept such a thought. He let the pistol fire away in a fury, the only sound in his head being that of the 9 millimeter rounds tearing through the flesh of the first ten. A couple of them had not been lucky enough to be hit in a immediately vital region as they dropped to the ground and screamed out in pain. Pinpoint immediately dropped his pistol and unsheathed his knife, there was no time to reload yet again as he barely had time to pull out the knife and drive it through the underside of the first attackers jaw. His bones audibly cracking and splintering as the knife drove into the underside of his skull. Pinpoint dropped his head just in time as the last enemy swung its sword. He managed to step forward and plant a kick with this hind legs directly into the attackers rib cage before he could turn around and come in for a second swing. That's when he saw his team, slashes covering their body along with a few completely decapitated. It was just enough to send Pinpoint over the edge, something in his head snapped as he walked over to the last two enemies and pulled the knife from the first's jaw and jammed it into the final ones neck. He then walked over to his fallen team, his hooves sinking into the shredded remains of the bodies that had made the push first. Tears ran down his face as he walked up to the fallen body of Striker and dropped to his knees. His gut twisting as he looked down, the body of the stallion that had been there through it all with him was sliced to the bone leaving little for Pinpoint to wrap his legs around and embrace. He couldn't bring himself to move for quite some time as it seemed that every memory of Striker rushed at him at once. “I'm so sorry sir, but thank you for everything.” he sobbed as he let the body come to a rest again on the dirt. He glanced down and undid the holster of Striker's .45 pistol pulling it up and and wrapping it around his own flank, then gave the body a salute before making his way to the tent. He drew the pistol before pushing his way through, his eyes now bloodshot with rage he let three rounds fly into the sites commander leaving him choking on his own blood as he pushed pistol to the targets head. “You are going to come with me, you sorry sack of shit and if you give me one fucking problem I will bring your brother your head.” The very words seemed to strike enough fear in the targets heart to drive him to tears. They made their way to the cliff side through the pile of gore and death resulting from the battle. The sight was enough to push Pinpoint even deeper into his own madness, he stopped the target by slamming the pistol across the side of his head. “Do you see this? Do you see what happened because of you? You will pay for their deaths, I promise you that.” he growled. “Now start fucking walking.”. They made their way up the cliff side and to the train which was waiting for them, the pistol never once untrained from his target. Oh he was going to pay for sure, Pinpoint thought, and his own brother would be there to watch.