The Northern Guard

Trottingham Harbor
Cosmo

You know how much I hate bullets? Well it depends… If I’m shooting them I have absolutely no problem. It’s when I’ve got a wall of lead smacking up against the shield in front of me that I have a problem with them. “How you holdin’ up Trix?”

“How do you think?” She snipped.

“I’ll take that as fine.” I mumbled. Slowly we moved forward until we were about a foot from one of the Gryphon mercenaries shooting at us. I teleported behind him in a flash before I wrapped my right arm around his neck and wrenching him off the ground before tossing him into a pile of boxes. His friend didn’t get much farther as I kicked him in the side of the knee before backhanding him with the butt of my pistol. Suffice to say he didn’t prove much trouble after that.

It was the third one of the group that I didn’t expect to run into. As his fists smacked into the back of my head and sent me to my knees, a blue bolt of magic hit him square in the chest and sent him to join his first partner in the pile of boxes. “Is now a bad time to ask you something?”

Trixie helped me get to my feet while hurling off another bolt of magic; this one smacking a stallion yard hand square in the face. “You’ll probably ask me anyway, so go ahead.”

“Is this going to be our version of normal?”

I dragged her behind a steel container as I heard the click of a receiver sliding into position. “And this being…” I motioned towards the puffs of stone being kicked up by rounds smacking into the ground. “Do I really need to simplify it?” Trixie shook her head. “Do you think it’ll be a problem?”

“Maybe-” Trixie stopped when she felt a hand grab her shoulder and kicked backwards in time to catch another yardhand square in the crotch. “-I do.”

“You could always just stay at the loft.” I suggested.

“No, not that!” Trixie yelled. I motioned for her to duck as I reached over and bashed a not-so-sneaky gryphon right on the beak. “This… Bantering. Damnit Cosmo we’re in the middle of a war zone!”

“Oh…” I threw up a shield bubble as two more henchmen tried to charge the two of us. “Well usually I don’t have a partner to work with…”

“Really?” Trixie asked. By this point there was a small mob surrounding the edge of my shield bubble. “So do you usually keep on talking while you’re in the middle of a brawl?”

“As a matter of fact, I do. It tends to keep bastards like those distracted while I come up with a genius solution.” That solution came in the form of two Spartans dropping down from the rafters and knocking the henchmen to the floor in what looked like one fluid motion. “Like that!”

“I would’ve done it anyway.” Called the female of the Spartan pair.

“But my point stands.” I insisted. I waved for Trixie to follow as we walked across the warehouse to the office. That flimsy old door didn’t stand a chance once I bucked it off its hinges. “Knock knock! Anyone home?”

The office, of course, was empty. Bar the documents strewn on the table in the middle of the room. I looked over a few of them, realizing they were some sort of shipping manifests. But they had delivery schedules down to the minute. What shipping company has a schedule this tight? “Anyone recognize these hull numbers?” One of the Spartans asked. That’s when it hit me, one of those ships was still docked outside.

Not that we were able to do anything about it once Phalanx came crashing through the wall in a beat-up looking heap. “Fuck!” He yelled as he scrambled to his feet.

Collin was close behind, tossing Felix into the wall next to the broken window. “Terribly sorry about the scene Sir. I’ll just take my associate and get out of your hair.”

I looked over at Phalanx and studied him. He had a few gashes across his face along with dents on the shoulder plate on his side facing me. You know what? Fuck it. I stepped between the two and pulled my revolver out. “Ya…” click “Not happening.”

“And who are you to say so?”

I felt that cocky grin creep across my face and just let it grow. “I’m the Ranger, and you’re under arrest.”

“Ha!” Collin obviously wasn’t too amused as he pulled out a long knife from a sheath on the back of his belt. “I’d like to see you try.”

“I’ll do more than that.”

______________________________________________________________________________

Unidentified Cargo Ship, Trottingham Harbor
Cloud

Since I had dropped onto the freighter with Sky, we hadn’t seen a thing. From the looks of it, there wasn’t a soul aboard. “Wanna place bets on where everyone is?” I asked.

“Not feelin’ it.” Sky waved me to follow her into the crew area as she crept forward. “Any reason you ditched the armor?”

“Bit too bulky for sneaking around a ship.” I retorted. As we moved deeper into the crew quarters, I started hearing some dull violin music from one of the side room. “You hear that?”

Sky nodded and went for the door. Pulling it open let us hear the music better and revealed the dim candlelight that illuminated the room. In the middle of the candles was a black crystal. “Looks like someone was worshipping a gem.”

I brushed past Sky and picked up the gem. “More like a horn.” I tossed it to her and let her examine it. “Who would make a unicorn’s horn out of crystal like that?”

“No clue.” She tossed the horn back to me. “Might be off a statue, who knows?” She started going through some of the lockers. I slid the crystal into one of my vest pockets and started pulling books off the shelves lining the room. “Uh… We might want to leave.”

“Why?” I turned around and finally realized the shit we were in; the lockers were filled with explosives. “Huh… That explains why we didn’t find anyone.”

“And we’ve got a minute to get out of this coffin.”

“Then it’s time to run!” We didn’t waste much time as we tore back out through the crew quarters and out into the hold full of stacked crates. The first explosion echoed through the hull as we rushed up the stairs to the top deck, lighting up the cargo hold in a brief orange flash of fire before it was obscured by black smoke.

“Shit, keep moving!” I heard Sky cough out as we burst onto the top deck. She didn’t waste any time before she grabbed the collar of my shirt and dragged me to the side of the ship and hauled me over the side with her.

But instead of hitting the dock, we landed in the water. I couldn’t see for shit, but I felt the shockwave from the final explosion in the cargo ship’s hold as Sky used her wings to propel us away from the slowly sinking hulk. We surfaced on a small beach a few hundred feet away from the dock, both of us coughing up the salty tasting water as we crawled up the shingle terrain. “That was fun.” I groaned.

“Enough to do a repeat?” Sky joked as she rolled over onto her back.

I couldn’t help but laugh as I rolled myself over, feeling my elbow hit the side of her chest. “Oh, sure” I groaned sarcastically. “Let’s just try to get ourselves killed again.”

“Ha!” I felt Sky pat my shoulder as she hauled the two of us into a sitting position. The two of us just stared at the cargo ship as it continued to burn and settle on the bottom of the harbor. “Hey, do you still have that horn?” I patted the pocket on my vest, confirming that it was still there. “So… Did you ever think you’d end up in this line of work?”

“You mean getting into gun fights, running from death-inducing explosions and taking down crime lords?” Sky nodded. “Nope. In all honesty, I was going to school to be a history teacher.”

“A teacher? Really?” Sky chuckled. “This is one hell of a career change, isn’t it?”

“Surviving a fall off the side of a mountain does lead to temporary changes in perspective.” I sighed, leaning up against Sky’s shoulder. “I do plan on going back to finish.”

“At least you have a choice.” She said. “So how do you do it?”

“Stay sane after going from student to soldier inside of a month?”

“…Sure, let’s go with that.”

“Not a damn clue…” I grabbed her shoulder and hauled the two of us to our feet. “Cosmo still probably needs our help.”

“Probably.” I saw Sky fidget a bit before she gave me a quick peck on the cheek. “How about you and I get some drinks after we’re done here?”

“I’d like that.”

______________________________________________________________________________

Trottingham Harbor
Cosmo

“Ooof!” I grunted as I smacked against the cinderblock wall of the warehouse, by breath rushing out of my lungs from the impact. I opened my eyes just in time to realize it would be a good time to hit the deck, dropping to my knees as Collin took a chunk of the wall out with his fist. Damn, how the hell hasn’t he split a knuckle yet?

“Will you just stay still?” Collin groaned as he reared his boot back.

I caught the boot mid-swing, rolling forward with it still in my grasp and sending the gryphon sprawling out on the ground. “But where’s the fun in that?” I looked around the warehouse floor to try and find my revolver but didn’t see it before Collin had scrambled back to his feet. I rocketed forward and smashed into the gryphon’s midsection and kept charging forward until we came to an abrupt stop against the side of a small shipping container with a loud clang.

“Get the fuck off me!” Collin yelled as he reared back and planted his boot on my thigh, sending me stumbling back to give him room to maneuver. “Alright, time to die.” I watched him pull a familiar revolver out from his belt. Huh, so that’s where it went.

But the only sound the pistol made was the quiet click of the trigger before a bolt of red magic flew past the side of my head and hit Collin square in the throat. “Miss me?” Phalanx yelled as he marched ahead, ducking under a wide swing from the dazed gryphon. “Come on Collin, you can do better than that!”

If you can’t beat em’, join em’. I ran forward as Collin took another swing and grabbed the outstretched arm and bashed his elbow inward with a resounding crack. I heard my revolver clatter on the ground at my feet, and with a quick sweep of the foot I sent it sliding across the warehouse. “Now what have we learned?”

“Fuck you!” Collin tried to take another swing at me, but Phalanx delivered the same result from when I grabbed him, leaving the gryphon effectively disarmed.

“Can we at least leave him intact?” Felix asked as he stepped between us and the gryphon. “OK? Great.” The two of us just watched as Felix grabbed Collin by the throat with his left hand and pushed him up the wall and off the ground. “The ships, where are they going?” Collin was silent at the line of questioning, so Felix struck the side of his beak. “How many bones you want to get broken before you start talking, huh?”

“Fuck off.” Collin grunted.

“Wrong answer you twat.” Collin sailed over our heads when Felix tossed him to the ground behind us. He walked forward and stuck his boot on the struggling hybrid’s throat, pushing down ever so slightly in an attempt to scare him. “It takes thirty pounds of pressure to collapse a trachea. Tell me, do you value breathing?”

Collin didn’t say a word as Felix put more pressure on his throat, instead tapping quickly against his leg. Felix relaxed a bit as the Gryphon slumped against the ground. “Weapons.”

“Not specific enough.” Felix insisted, returning the pressure to Collin’s throat. The back and forward of the pressure on Collin’s throat continued for another five minutes, the gryphon kept coughing as he tried to breath. Collin finally had enough and passed out from the lack of air. “Damn it…” Felix withdrew his boot and watched Collin’s chest rise and fall in a ragged manner. “Well, it’s a start.”

“What was your first clue?” I asked. “Alright, where the hell did our backup go?”

“Here sir.” One of the Spartans called out from the door on the loading dock. “You seemed to have everything all set, so we started looking for records.”

“Felix, stay with our friend.” I walked over to the Spartan, who was busy examining what looked like freight manifests. “What sort of records?”

“Inventory, correspondence, things of that nature.” He assured me. “According to this, about half a dozen containers of miscellaneous materials came through here from Carniola over the last few weeks.”

“Miscellaneous materials?” I asked.

“That’s what it says here.” He said as he strode over to the only remaining shipping container and pulled it open. “What the hell?” I peered around the edge of the container and realized what he meant. Some weird looking rifles, cases of ammo, vials of some sort of liquid, stimpacks, biofoam. The Spartan tapped the side of his helmet and was quiet for a moment. “Alright, we got Pelicans inbound with some heavy lift gear. We’ll take this stuff back to Canterlot and start going through it to determine where this stuff came from.”

“Take that sack of trash with you while you’re at it.” The Spartan nodded wordlessly and I walked into the container, pocketing one of the vials. The rifles all had leather straps arranged as slings, which made it easy to hang it on my shoulder. Finally, I grabbed one of the cases of ammo and walked out. “Take Collin with you while you’re at it.” I said. “Alright, let’s get the hell out of here!” I yelled.

Cloud and Sky were both waiting outside for us by the open ramp of the Sentinel. “Hope we didn’t miss the party.”

“Wasn’t much of a party anyway.” I retorted as I swing down into the rear jumpseat. “Enjoy your swim?” I asked.

“For the most part.” Sky assured me. “Cargo ship was a wash. If there’s anything on that thing, it’s ash by now.”

I nodded as I finally noticed the smell of burning oil on the breeze. “It’s no major loss. We got an idea on what’s on the other ships, and we bagged a lackey.”

“A lackey that’ll be hard-pressed to give you anything.” Phalanx added as he flopped down in the seat on my right.

“It’s a start.” I said as I pulled a full canteen out from under my seat and handed it to Phalanx. “Good job today.”

“You said it yourself, it’s a start.”

Felix and Trixie were the last two aboard before the deck shuddered as we took off. “I take it you’re still in?” I asked.

“Why bother asking?”

“The drug lab was a bust for one.” I said.

Felix just shrugged. “So? Turned out to be a bigger fish in that frying pan.”

“Good to hear.” I said. “Felix, welcome to the Northern Guard.”