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.