Prologue: A Day of Chaos
Name: Fuse
Rank: Sergeant First Class
Date: 7-2-2001
Time: 1200 Hours (12:00 pm)
Location: Appaloosa Red Zone, Appalossa
*Transcript #451*
*Radio Transmissions Sent/Received*
[“Operation Guardian Angel”]
[October 14th – 11:08:14]
[Appaloosa Police Department/ Appaloosa Bomb Squad]
[Appaloosa, Equestria]
*Signal Located: HUD-01* (Unit ID: Fuse)
/\
Begin Transmission
"Hey guys, coming up on the target. Three hundred meters and closing," reported Rift.
"I see it," said Fuse as he trotted ever so carefully to the IED in his armor.
The Improvised Explosive Devices have been popping up all over the town. Nopony knows who's doing it; but so far, about 40 ponies have been killed. Ten of them were foals.
The local police along with a PMC known as Rainbow 6 were shooing civilians away from the site as Rift and Sand Storm pulled security and feed Fuse information outside of the EOD Rapid Response Carriage.
"Approaching. It's under the pile of boxed at my 1 o'clock right?."
"Roger, that's it. Can you see it?", responded Sand Storm.
"Copy, I have eyes on."
"Be careful sir. We don't know what kind of trigger mechanism it uses."
*Transmission Interference*
/\
Resuming Transmission
"Rift, it's Fuse, It's not just one bomb. Repeat, it's NOT just one bomb. I got like seven of 'em daisy chained."
"Shit. Sir, do you want some back up? I can get Sand Storm suited up to he-"
"Negative. I'll handle it."
"S-Sir?"
"If this thing goes off, it'll only be me in the blast zone. I can handle it."
"Roger sir. I'll radio the Rainbow 6 operators to give them a heads up."
"Good. Fuse out."
End Transmission
/\
*Resuming Transmission*
"Fuse, the bomb is gonna detonate any minute. You NEED to come to us!"
"Negative! I'm so close! I can do this!"
"No sir! We don't know if it's timed or not!"
"Belay that! I can do this!"
"Fuck! Sand, get him out of there. I'll hold the turret and provide security!"
*Transmission Interference*
*Signal Lost: Searching for new signal*
*Signal Located: HUD-3 (Unit ID: Sand Storm)*
*Switching Channels*
/\
Resuming Transmission
"Fuse, you gonna bail out or what?!"
"Almost there. Just hold on.[/i]"
*Switching Signal*
*Signal Located: HUD-2 (Unit ID: Rift)*
"Fuck! Guys, it's Rift. Hurry up. I got eyes on some dude with a 9V battery!"
"Damn it Fuse, let's get the hell out of here!"
"Shit! GET CLEAR GET CLEAR! RUN! GO GO GO!"
*Transmission Interference*
*Signal Lost: Searching for new signal*
*Signal Located: HUD-03 (Unit ID: Sand Storm)*
*Switching Channels*
*/*
*Resuming Transmission*
"Shit! GET CLEAR GET CLEAR! RUN! GO GO GO!"
"Drop the battery! Put it down! Sand! Fuse! RUN!"
**Signal Lost**
Date: 7-2-2001
Time: 1250 Hours (12:50 pm)
Location: Canterlot Square, Canterlot
A speeding crossbow bolt flew across the town square, striking the Saddle Arabian President's convoy's lead driver, who slumped over the steering wheel as the vehicle accelerated and ran into a building.
The trap had been sprung.
The terrorist group, Martyrs Brigade International, revealed their true form in a precision timed explosions from IEDs hidden in the crowd. Citizens, who were not vaporized in the blast, saw this and began to panic, fleeing from the shooters and suicide bombers who were cutting them down. As the crowd stampeded to safety, like a herd of buffalo, they knocked down any Royal Guard or Arabian Secret Service who tried to calm them. The bolt of magic flew towards Celestia and she knew she had no time to protect herself.
This is going to hurt.
Pa-ting!
The bolt bounced of a shield that was now surrounding her. Another three bolts, flew in, however it was also easily deflected. Then she saw Shining Armor standing beside her grinning.
"Getting slow in your old age I see."
The other guards regrouped themselves and began to fight back. Armor heard some of the guards shouting the word "terrorists".
A cold shiver ran down his spine.
No time for that though, one of the assassins was coming straight for him, flying at him, detonator in hoof. It struck him on the side, knocking him over onto his back. They struggled for a bit, the stallion attempted to blow his vest, however it didn't detonate thanks to a tri-set of red claws that tore a hole in his chest before moving straight up. Peeling him open like a banana.
Shinning Armor watched in awe as the corpse spewed blood before he used his hoof to pushed the body off of himself. Another bolt flew across the square, flying towards Celestia, there were no other guards around and Shinning had no time to bring back his shield.
Before the arrow hit home, a orange figure wearing golden armor threw itself in front the princess. Flash Sentry just sacrificed himself.
Members of the Royal Guard in tandem with 33rd Squad were cutting down the hostiles.
Combust decapitated three terrorists before his claws shut itself down to cool off. Panting, he rises to his hooves and rallies his men forward.
"Come on! We need to keep going!" He shouts.
He bucks a gunman into a nearby wall. Shattering his spine. Another suicide bomber leaps out at Skyline, but Pyro stabs it with his High Frequency Claws.
Combust and Sparky rushes the survivors out to a nearby building, not wanting to risk them dying.
Combust then orders Skyline and Sparky to lead the civvies while he and Pyro keep them covered.
"Hostiles incoming!" Pyro shouts as he uses his flamethrower spell on a small group. Combust self-ignites and charges into another group.
The wails of the burning ring in his ears.
A hiss sounds. Looking back, he sees Pyro engaging two hostiles while Skyline was desperately trying to pull a civvie through the doorway.
"Get the fuck off of me!" Pyro shouts as he throttles a bomber before picking him up and breaking the stallion in half over his knee.
"Damn son!" Combust shouts as he charges into another horde with Pyro covering him.
"Get out the door! We can't stay here!" Combust yells as he turns and runs.
Pyro nods and launches a incendiary grenade, afterwards rushing out the door. Combust turns and slams the door behind him, and shoves his body against it. An explosion sounds, and several screams. Both Combust and Pyro still holds the door for a moment, trying to be sure nothing else was coming.
They sigh and walk away.
Chapter 1: Prelude
Name: Carbon
Rank: Captain
Date: 7-4-2001
Time: 0000 Hours (12:00 am)
Location: Hill 3434A Tora Bora, Afghaneighstan
Three small flags flew above Guardian Team's base camp.
One bore the insignia of Appaloosa Bomb Squad; another, the Appaloosa Police Department. The third was the Equestria flag. They fluttered in the stiff breeze blowing down the nearby mountains.
Huddled inside a nearby tent was Nightstalker Unit's Guardian Team, callsign Vampire Four. They wore oxygen masks and struggled to keep warm.
Their tiny camp was situated about 500 feet up Hill 3434A. In the valley below, the Afghan Intervention Force lay in wait for the team.
Guardian Team, the most experienced Nightstalker team in the Afghaneighstan Theater, was part of a joint stallionhunt between themselves and a team of AIF to locate the Martyrs Brigade International and kill/capture their leader, Majid Harata Sadiq, the mastermind behind the Appaloosan Bombings and the assassination attempt on Celestia and the Saddle Arabia President.
Yet they remained in place, crowded together in their tent, sucking oxygen and waiting.
-<>-
They were typical Nighstalkers- highly intelligent, battle hardened warriors.
Master Sergeant Jalatē Sitārā (Burning Star in Hindi) is a dark brown earth pony with brown eyes and a long black mane and a Chakra Wheel cutie mark. He's the team combat engineer from Indineigh and a soldier on borrow from his nation's most feared special forces/counter-terrorist team: Ghatak Platoon. He was armed with four Chakram throwing disks.
Sergeant 1st Class Mlazni Potok (Jet Stream in Serbian) is a grey pegasus with light blue eyes, a black mane with white tips and matching goatee and a crosshair cutie mark. He's the team sniper. A veteran of the Serbineigh War, Jet Stream was a member of the Scorpions before he went AWOL when they started to massacre the innocent. He was armed with a high-powered crossbow with a variable zoom scope.
Staff Sergeant Bạch Ngọc (Onyx in Vietnamese) is a grey unicorn with deep brown eyes, spiky black mane, and a medic cross as a cutie mark. He's the team combat medic.Originally from Vietmane, Onyx is a refugee after the Vietmane war and the only surviving member of his family after an encounter with pirates. He was armed with six shurikens.
1st Lieutenant Snow is a white earth pony with blue eyes and a short cut gray mane with a crescent moon as a cutie mark. He is the team's second in command and communications operator. He was born and raised in the Frozen North since the Crystal Empire disappeared and stranded the citizens who fled Sombra. He was armed with two ballistic knives.
Sergeant First Class Mobius (or Sky Viper by his Buffalo name) is a dark grey pegasus with light brown eyes and a spiky black mane with golden streaks with a winged dagger as a cutie mark. He was the team tracker. Mobius was left for dead at the age of 5 after his parents were murdered by a gang of thugs in Appaloosa. He was found by a tribe of buffalo and raised his as one of their own. At the age of 17, his adoptive father, the chief, told him what happened to his biological. Soon after, he left the tribe to enlist with the military. He as armed with duel tomahawks.
Captain Carbon is a black unicorn with with ice blue eyes and a black mane with gunmetal grey highlights. He is a strong, charismatic leader who can keep calm when engaging the enemy. He also has a great sense of honor and is a unconventional tactician. He was armed with a half dozen throwing knives.
-<>-
Date: 7-18-2001
Time: 0200 Hours (2:00 am)
Location: Unchanged
So far, it has been two weeks since their insertion into the mountain range. But today, the fifteenth day of the wait, they were waiting for a local contact known only as "Real Deal". His code name was a little dubious, because he often reeked of pot.
In working with Real Deal, the team was going against one of the most secretive and most dangerous terror cells known to Equestria and the rest of the world.
Both Celestia and Luna believed that Sadiq was going to stay and fight to cement himself as a martyr. The conventional plan was to draw them out using Guardian and the AIF team to draw them out before obliterating them with a loitering Growler Class Air-to-Surface Support Craft.
However, General Apex and Guardian thought otherwise. They believed that Sadiq would flee in order to lead his terror cell. Their plan was to wipe out everything hostile in the cave network while chasing down Sadiq to a narrow chokepoint near the Afghan/Pakhaystan boarder where a blocking force of Royal Marines would be laying in wait.
According to Real Deal, the signal of Sadiq's imminent escape would come in code during his daily video crystal broadcast to his fighters.
-<>-
At 1:05 am, the video crystal cackled to life. A masked figure wearing a green, three hole balaclava appeared. His voice was something that the team knew from all of the briefings they had to sit through. Strangely calm. Clear. Collected with a slight accent. It was the head honcho himself.
Sadiq.
Sadiq started his speech as Snow translated.
"Things are not going well, my friends... the voice started, "We would have succeeded in our righteous mission to slay the harlot Celestia. But our prayers were not answered."
"THAT'S IT!" cried Real Deal excitedly, "'But our prayers were not answered.' That's the code phase!"
Carbon eyed the other team members. They all questioned Real Deal's trustworthiness. His price went up twice, from five hundred bits to eight hundred and then to nine and the fact that he was pretty stoned most of the time made the team doubt him. But at this point, he was the only fair game in town.
Carbon called Apex by long range communications spell who was back at Canterlot.
He told Apex what they'd just heard. Apex already knew what Guardian was planning. All they needed was his clearance to move out.
"I don't know how you talked me into this Carbon, but you have two hours. What you and your boys are doing right now is so far against the grain, I've bypassed everypony right up to Celestia and Luna themselves- and if it it doesn't work out I'm disavowing any knowledge of it, which means you are on your own. Am I clear?" said Apex.
"Yes sir. What about air support?" responds Carbon.
"Just as long as they don't declare this party over today, there'll be a Growler in your general area at all times. Tell your comms operator his callsign is Tombstone. Your support is designated Nailer 1."
"Will the Marine blocking force be in place when we need them?"
This is the most important question.
"They are already loaded up on Jetsteam Class transports. They should be there in time."
"Will there be enough of them?"
"Look son, your said you needed 2 companies of Marines and that's what your getting," replied Apex tersely,"I don't know how big this pass is that you ant them to seal, but their on the way. Now get going while I still have my commission-and remember, for this one, your on your own. So don't let the other teams see you."
Click.
End of call.
