Prologue: Mission Status: Yellow
Prologue: Mission Status: Yellow
At the piercing alarm, Dash jumped out of her cot, and breaking away from the sleep that dominated her consciousness, she pulled on her fatigues. The scratchy grey material chafed her ankles, and she grimaced as she cinched her belt with a tug. Last to go where her heavy steel-toed boots. Lacing them up tightly, she cantered out the door to the barracks and flinched as the brilliant sunlight burned white in her sleepy vision.
“Oy, mate!” came a call from across the yard. Dash turned to see X-Ray gesturing to her. Heeding his call, she trotted briskly up beside him and joined him mid-stride as the pair walked towards the large blue hangar that stood in the distance.
“What’s the word, X?” Dash asked as they marched in step. She shot a sidelong glance to her squad mate: his brilliant, short red mane stood unchecked and wild, as it always did. Murky freckles dominated his light complexion, and his wings stood straight out in agitation. She noticed with a smirk that he looked as though he hadn’t shaved in what looked like two days. Romeo’s gonna be on his flanks for that she thought smugly.
“Seems the boss-man got pinged by a ghost,” he said mysteriously. “Looks like we’ve got a high-risk mission on our hooves. Again.” He laughed as he saw Dash’s defiant look. “Not that we don’t put our arse out there every day, anyhow, eh?”
“Just another day in the SAS, X-Ray,” Dash agreed emphatically.
. . . .
It had all been like a dream to her; after retiring from the Wonderbolts after five years of proficient flying, rainbow Dash had felt empty, as though she were missing some kind of purpose in her life.
Until one day, when Fate itself seemed to knock on her door- literally so, in fact. She had opened the door to find two darkly dressed pegasi in shades who had an awful lot of questions for the startled rainbow mare.
Before she knew it, she had landed in boot camp for the Special Air Service. A low-profile air wing that served under the Sun Princesses herself, Dash found the SAS to be exceptionally exciting: kicking butt, running high-risk missions, and saving Equestria from crazy New Lunar Republic baddies on a weekly basis was her grand forte.
Not to mention, the food she got wasn’t too bad, either.
. . . .
As the pair approached the large hangar, Dash heard a click and a grinding squeal as the heavy door was pulled away to reveal the Killing House obstacle course, as well as Romeo and Charlie standing near a battery of monitors. Romeo turned to the two pegasi, smiling through his thick mutton chops. His smile dropped as he saw X-Ray, however.
“What’s that on your face, eh? What kind of moppet are you, not even shaving, eh? We’ve got a mission coming up!” The grey pegasus let out a slight tch and rolled his eyes. “Who am I kiddin', you’ll never get it right, ya daft colt.” He laughed heartily as he smacked a bright red X-ray hard on the back. The latter returned the embrace with a sheepish smile.
“Now,” Romeo said, voice hardening as he turned around to head towards the meeting room, “meet me inside, gents and ladyfoals. We’ve got a mission to take care of.”
Dash trotted down the hall behind Charlie and X-Ray, mind reeling in brilliant expectation.
. . . .
As Rainbow dash sat down, the lights clicked off and the rest of the ponies took their seats, save for Charlie. A projector screen extended, and with a sharp click, the projector displayed a dazzling blue rectangle on the screen, which fought a losing battle against Charlie’s bright yellow fur and white mane as he stood in its light. His wings hung stiffly at his sides.
His determined smirk was lit up grandly by the projector’s lights. Clicking a remote, the blue screen was replaced with the picture of a coffee colored earth pony, who was dressed sharply in a pinstripe suit. A cropped mane and tail portrayed a business-like persona.
“At 0300 hours east Equestrian time, we received a ping from an unidentifiable source stating that this pony here (he indicated with a hoof on the screen), Maximilian Fregata, was boarding a flight from Celestia International Airport today, at 0950. The source also claims that—” his voice paused as he flicked the screen to reveal a very tired-looking unicorn, who sat smugly with a black eye.
“...Averine Tulles, a certified New Lunar Republic ultra-nationalist, was to be hi-jacking the plane en-route to Fillydelphia Air Hub. Now, we can’t let that happen, folks. Fregata is far too important to fall into ultra-nationalist hooves. He holds too much sway in the royal council, and would disrupt the proceedings if he were to fall…absent.” Charlie added the last part of his speech solemnly.
Dash remarked silently that Charlie’s analytical mind seemed appropriate for the data mining and retrieval that was necessary in a job like this, but his execution of the plan to the squad needed some work.
Romeo seemed to think in a similar manner.
“Get on with it, Charlie, we haven’t got all day, eh?” he shouted in the dark to Dash’s left.
“Ah, yes. Well, since it was an untraceable source, but still a legitimate reason to worry, the higher-ups decided to send a squad to make sure there aren’t any problems while the plane’s up in the air.”
“And that mystery squad would be…us?” called X-Ray off in the dark.
“Correct. So, we need to be mission-ready in less than thirty minutes so we can get to Celestia International in time to set up.” He clicked his remote, and the projector shut off. The screen rolled up as the fluorescent lights flicked on with a blinding flash.
Romeo stood up, addressing his squad mates.
“We’re going to be inserted in the crew section during the flight to ensure we stay out of sight. If everything goes wrong, then we’ll be getting one hell of a fight to fix it. If it all goes right, well, we’ll get a free flight to Fillydelphia. Courtesy of Special Forces.” He smiled behind his thick beard.
“And what exactly would ‘everything going wrong’ entail, sir?” X-Ray piped up from the other end of the room.
Romeo’s smile dropped.
“Well, X, I’d imagine it goes something like this: shooting our way through up to probably thirty-something crazed Luna-loving stallions as we try to get to Fregata, and hoping he's still alive to even justify the amount of lead we'll probably be sucking up on our way to him. Then, depending on if the crew is still breathing and coherent or not, we get to have a little free-flight dive.” His grin returned, enigmatic, and a fire burned in his pale blue eyes. “Understood, sergeant?”
“Yessir.”
“Alright then, get loaded up! I want mission standard gear Omega-Foxtrot-Seven for this round! Get to it, mates! And don’t forget,” he added, his gaze hardening on his squad mates.
“Who dares wins.”
Mission Status: Green
The plan had gone to hay. As per usual.
Pitch black dominated everypony’s vision, and the heat was stifling in this gas mask. Breathing deeply, Rainbow Dash felt the natural respirators kick in as the bugs-eye lenses cleared up.
This was it.
She heard a voice click on over her headset.
“We’re goin’ in deep, and we’re goin’ in hard,” Romeo said, voice thick with his cockney accent.
“Surely you can’t be serious?” came Charlie’s reply.
Dash could hear the smirk in Romeo’s voice:
“Of course I’m serious. And don’t call me Shirley.”
Dash’s eyes teared up as the bright light of the arc torch scorched her vision with ghostly trails of light, though it mostly came from the mad attempts she was making to stifle her giggling.
After what seemed like hours, the panel was pushed off and landed with a soft thud on the carpeted walkway. Each pegasus climbed silently from out of the venting grate and assembled at various points in the hallway, their wings fidgeting in anxious expectance.
Dash gripped her MP5 tightly, and checked the bolt to make sure it was loaded: a brilliant gleam of brass sat snugly inside the chamber. She smiled slightly. It was go time.
Romeo indicated with a black-gloved hoof down the hallway, and the sound of a toilet flushing could be heard as a Tango stepped out of the bathroom, adjusting his bulky AK-47 as he exited the small room.
A breath buzzed around in her ear: “Weapons free.”
She shouldered her SMG, lining up the sights with a trained precision. A single muffled shot resounded, and the pony’s head exploded in a dazzling display of blood. He promptly dropped to the ground in a lifeless heap as his rifle fired off in his dead pull of the trigger. Shouts could be heard down the hallway.
“Tango down in section One-Alpha,” Romeo announced into his mic. Dash promptly started with a sprint down the long, decorative corridor, firing another burst of shots as a Tango jumped across cover, and his body crumpled to the floor in a similar fashion as his recently-deceased friend. She spotted a group of three coming into the section of the cabin, and ran hard into the backs of a row of seats; pulling the pin on a flash bang, she dropped it out to resounding screams and shouts.
A deafening bang cried out, and she popped up from behind cover. One! Two! Three Tangos down in a row, neatly and precisely. She jumped from one row to the other onto the pile of bodies. With a grimace, she realized one had not been as precise as she would have liked. She slashed the gasping pony’s jugular vein and stood up to fire again.
They just keep on coming! she thought, as two more Tangos fell to the floor with a scream. A click told her that her mag sat empty. She promptly ripped it out, and replaced it with a fresh one. A resounding ka-chunk told her she was ready to go at them with another volley.
Dash ran up to the stewardess’s corner that divided the two main sections of the First Class seating. She glanced behind her as she saw Romeo, Charlie, and X-Ray follow up behind her. Taking position, they peered around the corner: almost twenty Tangos were running around, or sitting behind cover, popping their heads up impatiently.
Charlie popped off a silent shot at the nearest one. As the target let out a stifled scream, Dash could see in her mind’s eye as his body dropped to the ground. She pulled the pin off another flashbang, careful to ensure she was holding tightly to the spoon. Receiving the nod from X-Ray, she dropped it into the lobby and ran out of cover as the vestiges of a blinding flash filled her vision. Taking cover behind the crewman’s elevator, she bumped the emergency telephone that hung on the wall and stifled a laugh as it bopped her head with a ding.
Snapping back into reality, she glanced from cover, and heard the ding-dong of an on-coming announcement over the plane’s intercom.
“We’ve got a hull breach! Get down, get down!” she heard over her private headset. Dash felt a monstrous pull as a huge section of the left side of the room was ripped away in a deafening explosion. She dropped her gun and held tightly to the chair next to her, wings flapping in resistance to the sharp change in pressure. She heard X-Ray’s scream for help, and glanced over to see Romeo grab ahold of his hoof as he was nearly sucked straight out of the plane.
Seven other Tangos weren’t quite so lucky, though, especially in that six of them were not pegasi. Dash grimaced; that would be one hell of a fall.
Finally feeling as though she could stand well enough, Dash popped out from cover and picked off the few remaining Tangos that stood around. The rest ran up the steep stairs at the end of the room to escape the might of the hole's gaping maw. Confirming that she could move around comfortably, she indicated to the rest of her squad, who followed her closely further down the cabin.
Finally coming to the stairwell, she looked up to see what lie in store: not a single Tango was in sight. A smirk climbed its way on to her lips as she cocked an ear. The only thing that could be heard was the cavernous moan of the hull breach behind her.
It’s too quiet, she thought as her mouth fell to a worried frown.
. . . .
Tulles was furious, pacing about the VIP lounge in a furor. Things had been going perfectly since they had taken off from Celestia International Airport, and the VIP that Luna had asked for had been tucked right in his back pocket with a sure victory.
That is, until the sounds of screams and gunfire lit up on the floor below them. His anger had only risen as a limping pegasus stumbled inside his room to tell him that Special Air Service members had been stowed away onboard.
“What do we do, sir?” he asked dumbly.
“Get the SAS the buck off my plane!” he spat viciously, and bodily chucked the pegasus out of the room, throwing his rifle along with him. He regarded his coffee-colored captive that lay prostrate on the ground next to him with an enraged sneer. “I’ll have my reward soon enough. And even if I fail, well, Luna doesn't like loose ends.” He looked on at the suitcase that stood open, small lights blinking inside.
A bitter, choking laugh filled the room; Fregata flinched at the sound. He didn't have a clue what was going on, but he knew what was happening could either be his demise or saving grace.
. . . .
Rainbow dash held her sub-machine gun out in front of her carefully. A gloved hoof laid itself upon her shoulder, and she turned around to look sidelong at X-Ray. With a nod from him, she set forward slowly up the stairs.
“Stairway, clear,” Romeo’s voice crackled in her ear. She shot them a glance, and spotted he and Charlie across the bi-sectioned stairwell in the same position. Romeo poked his snout around the corner; bullets ripped past as he whipped back around at the last possible second.
“Multiple contacts!”
Dash stuck her gun muzzle around the corner and fired blindly to soften up the resistance that sat holed up in the first section. Her eyes followed behind her gun, and she smiled with confirmation as she saw her bullets had hit home. Most of them, at least. She dove for cover behind a serving tray with a rolling dive as bullets ripped away the floor in the path she had taken.
With a deep breath, she stuck her barrel back around and fired again. A scream, a grunt, and three wet smacks called out as the bodies fell to the ground. A glance over the edge of the cart revealed the last of the Tangos retreating down the hall. Romeo appeared in her vision, and she followed directly behind him down the narrow choke point.
The room opened back up into a private bar. All four pegasi stopped and reloaded their weapons. With a nod of affirmative, they stacked up on either side of the entrance to another hallway, only to be met with a choking point of automatic fire. Bullets ripped and spit at the air around them, forcing them all to back away from the doorway. X-Ray called over the radio, and all eyes looked towards him as he stood, juggling a flash bang in one hoof. Romeo nodded an affirmative.
Pulling the pin, he tossed it around the corner over Dash’s shoulder. A resounding crack gave the order to go forward.
But, as soon as Dash rounded the corner, a unicorn in a balaclava turned, aiming his semi-automatic shotgun straight at her chest, forcing her to drop her MP5. With a sudden burst of adrenaline-induced panic, she slipped out her USP .45 and pulled the trigger. Just as three bullets ripped through the Tango’s flimsy body armor at point-blank range, the shotgun went off right next to her head. She cringed as she felt the molten blast scream past her face.
Rainbow Dash fell to the floor on top of the stallion’s dead body with an oof. She looked up as she felt a tap on her shoulder, and grabbed the hoof that was extended to her.
X-Ray glanced at her questioningly. Dash returned it with a single, precise nod in return, and took point.
The four members continued on down the hall, barrels raised and ready for any threat that would pop up.
“Watch your fire up here. We’re looking for a civilian,” Romeo said flatly. Just as he finished his sentence, though, the doors at the end of the hall were flung wide open. A professionally-dressed unicorn was holding a coffee-colored pony at gunpoint. The brown earth pony was struggling, and Dash could hear his strangled cries from underneath the burlap sack that covered his head.
“Back off! I’ll kill him!” the unicorn cried, enraged. He seemed to barely be able to hold his victim down as he thrashed around.
Dash dropped into action. With a dull click of her holster strap, she whipped out her USP and took aim at the hostage and kidnapper. Everything seemed to slow down as her body became drunk in adrenaline ecstasy. Words dragged out and time itself seemed to stop as her vision tunneled straight down her day-glow sights.
Aiming carefully, Rainbow Dash let off a single, precise shot. A crimson shower of blood resounded across the hall as the kidnapper fell dead to the ground with a dull thud.
Charlie, Romeo and X-Ray ran up to the hostage, who lay screaming on the ground, his mouth gagged. Dash followed closely behind.
“Shite, someone’s armed the bomb,” Charlie said. “We don’t have much time. We’ve got to go- now.”
“Roger that. Prepare to breach,” Romeo confirmed. He indicated to X-Ray, who ran over to the door on the left side of the VIP room, and prepared the C4 for immediate evac.
He nodded, and clicked the detonator. A resounding crash ripped away the door in a single motion and it was sucked straight out of the side of the plane.
“We’re goin’ for a little free fall, mate! On your feet!” Romeo shouted through his gas mask to the High Value Pony.
Grabbing him by his shoulder, he latched onto him tightly and spread his wings. The vacuum of pressure sucked the pair straight out the plane, as well as the HVP’s screams of protest. The rest followed suit.
Dash was the last out. Coming to the edge of the door, she spread her wings, and caught the wind.
The dazzling sensation of the clear blue sky mixed with her incredible sense of free-falling as she did an aerial somersault. Catching the wind on her wings, she looked up as the rapidly shrinking 747 streaked across the sky.
She laughed hysterically as she felt the surge of adrenaline and the wind all around her body as an explosion rocketed her around. A voice called in her earpiece:
“Mission accomplished. See ya next time, mate!”
