POV: Jackie, 1st Person

While Allen and Firestar were spearheading their op, and I was unneeded, I was sorting through some of the documents assigned to me to figure out and catalog. I'd found a few that were interesting, but the vast majority of them were correspondences for things that had already happened. Some of them were even about us. It's slightly alarming, but also amusing, in a way. They know where we are, but they also know that, if they attack us, and defeat us, we'd still have some people that would make it out, and reconstruct Wolfhound, somewhere else. So they leave us alone. Well, mostly. I recalled some of the incidents we'd had.

Although the first one was a major attack, in a way, it hadn't been the only time Wolfhound had been defending its own turf. Both HQ and Beta Base had been attacked numerous times, over the years. I blinked. Has it really been that long? Feels like only a few months ago we were forming Wolfhound from scratch, with only half a dozen people. I sighed. When will this stupid, half-clandestine war end?

Sitting next to both me, and conversely the War Room Ops table, the War Room Radio station, or WRR, blazed on. An inbound radio transmission. And not one from Allen, either. "Wolfhound, are you there?" A soft but authoritative female voice came out.

I scrambled for the reply button. "Princess Celestia!" I exclaimed. "This is Wolfhound Command Operative Three. Jackie."

"Jackie," Celestia said, "I need a small favor from Wolfhound. I doubt it's anything too serious, as they're stations need to be replaced, but a certain... special military base has gone dark. It's only been a few hours, so it might just be equipment failure, but I'd like Wolfhound to investigate. I've heard you have a couple teams in a nearby area. I was wondering if one of them could be diverted to the facility."

"Of course, ma'am." I replied. "We'll get right on it.... May I ask, how is the base special?"

An embarrassed reply. "I may have ignored some - admittedly, rather strong - advice from a couple of my generals, and built only one missile silo facility. And stored all of Equestria's missiles, inside it. Another one is currently under construction, but, as of right now, all of Equestria's missiles and missile capabilities are located in a single facility. Which hasn't responded to check-in requests for a few hours. In fact, they're scheduled check-in was eight hours ago."

I gulped. That can't be good. "I'll get a team there right away, Princess."

"Thank you. I, myself, find it more likely to be equipment failure. Their youngest radio set is more than a decade old."

I blinked. Okay... that's not weird, at all.... "Um... okay. Let me contact Allen. He's leading the op that's near the facility. Wolfhound out." I flicked the off switch.

Technically, because of magic things that I can't understand for the life of me, modern radios rarely malfunction, as they're mostly based on magic. They're pretty much a box of plastic with a few wires that somehow enable the buttons on it to use magic. You're literally talking into a magical void. At least, that's what I gathered from a scientific speech that I barely understood a quarter of. Anyways, because of all that, saying things like "over" and "out" aren't necessary, anymore. You just talk into it, like a normal conversation, and that's that.

I just figured that, what with the other end being the Princess, I should be a little more formal. I hit a couple more buttons. "Allen?" I spoke. "It's Jackie. Celestia wants a couple guys to check out a nearby facility. It hasn't checked in, and it's a few hours past it's time." I explained the situation. Glancing at a map, I continued. "Looks like it's about eight miles east of your AO."

"Got it." Allen's voice replied. "I'll send Firestar and Jackson. Recommend you send in Wolfpack Seven, to assist. Just in case."

"Sounds good. They'll arive late, but they'll get there. That's it."

"Roger. This op's almost wrapped up. Should be outbound back to base in an hour, or so. Wolf One-One out."

Allen was the only one there who's earpiece was connected to the radio station, here. It was a higher-quality, much-more-expensive model that we just didn't have a lot of. The last time I'd checked storage, I'd counted only five of them.

I intercommed the barracks. "Wolfpack Seven to the Armory. Repeat, Wolfpack Seven to the Armory. You're to assist Wolves Two-One and Two-Two in investigating a missile facility that's gone dark. Additional intel will be provided by Wolf One-One."

Having nothing more to do, I went back to sifting through documents. I started mumbling to myself. "That one's about their assault on Canterlot... This is a roster of their assault teams that participated in their first assault on Wolfhound..." Two documents took me a whole hour to read, summarize, and catalog in our now-extensive supply of Crimson Justice documents and paperwork.

"Ooh! What's this? Operation Hot Sphere? What the fu**'s that? Some kind of breast joke?" I chuckled to myself. Jackie, you've got a messed up mind, sometimes, you know that? I opened it up. The first page was a map. Stars for footnotes were everywhere. Ugh. Great. Guess I'll be flipping front-to-back a bunch. Then, I noticed something. What's that? I sat up, alarmed. My eyes rapidly scanned a portion of the map. I flipped through, finding the footnotes. I read them. Oh, sh*t.

I took one last glance, and another footnote caught my eye. I read it, and then flipped back to the map. "Oh no..." I scrambled for the radio. "Allen!" I practically yelled. "Get them back! Now!"

"Wait, what? Who?"

"Firestar and Jackson. They're heading to the base? Get them back, now! It's a missile base, and Crimson Justice has just taken it over! They know we're coming, and they're waiting for us. They were counting on us going there. But they're set up for whole squads of us. Star and Jackson will be killed! Allen, it's a trap!"

1 1/2 hours ago...

Pov: Firestar, 1st Person

"Get down!" I yelled. We scrambled for cover. Just in time, too.

Boom! An RPG rocket hit the wall of the building we'd just left, blowing it, and the doorway next to it, to smithereens.

"Return fire!" I yelled needlessly. We poked up from our various positions, and opened fire. A dozen automatic rifles spewing multiple, powerful rounds per second quickly reduced the enemy's cover to dust. Followed by their bodies.

More bad luck. four buildings' windows popped open, revealing almost a whole platoon's worth of RPG's and machine-gunners. Sh*t.

We ducked as even more bullets than we'd just fired whizzed over our heads. One thing you could say about Crimson Justice; their guns may fire faster than most, but their accuracy is usually pretty bad. They trade quality for quantity.

"Wolfpack Two!" Allen yelled, from somewhere nearby, "Flank them! Right side!"

I peeked, barely, but it was enough. If we used a few buildings, we'd have a pretty sheltered run towards a lot of the enemy gunners and rocket troopers.

If we survived the initial dash, that is. A good ten-or-so yards of completely open ground to run through.

Huh. Okay. Forty-plus rockets and machine-gunners, and a huge stretch of no cover. Sounds pretty deadly. Oh, what the he**? I'm game! "Wolves Two-Two, Two-Three, and Two-Four! On me!" I yelled.

Jackson, Crystal Ranger, and Amber, respectively, all got ready to follow me.

"Allen, we're going to need some cover fire! Think you can give us some? Or are you too busy with your thumbs up your a**es?" I asked cheekily.

"Wait five seconds." Came the reply.

After what seemed like an eternity, because of the adrenaline rush... "...Go! Now!"

We ran. Don't ask me how, but none of us were hit. I shoulder-bashed a door open, and we scrambled into the building.

We quickly worked our way through the building. We came out the opposite side from the battlefield. "Let's go." I said, needlessly. We scrambled past one structure, looked like some kind of office building, and into another. This one was linked with the series of balconies and windows that the RPGs were firing from. We climbed some stairs to the third floor, and opened fire on the first group of enemies we encountered.

It all took about three minutes, max. In the end, all the RPG and MG shooters lay dead on the floors, and my team and I stood standing, without so much as a scratch on us.

We casually walked back Allen and the rest of his team. He was on the radio. We can't hear him, so he must be talking to Jackie, back at base. "-oger. This op's almost wrapped up. Should be outbound back to base in an hour, or so. Wolf One-One out." He turned to us. "Firestar, Jackson." He addressed my second and I. "I'm diverting you, on request of Princess Celestia, herself. A facility nearby has gone dark. We're closer than any Guards. Wolfpack Seven's inbound, but you'll get there first."

I blinked. "Um, okay." I replied. "What kind of facility is it?"

"Missile." Jackson answered. "Only one in Equestria. I'd read about it a few times, back in the Royal Guard."

I blinked again. "Why would there be only one?"

Jackson shrugged. "He** if I know, but it is what it is. When are we going, Cap?"

Allen gave him unamused look. "Now." He stated.

The path in the woods eventually led into a very huge clearing. I could see a main structure, and at least half a dozen silos. If Equestria ever used this facility, they could launch all those silos at once. I pity whoever would have these aimed at them.

I drove the truck into a conveniently-placed parking space, and we got out.

We opened the door into a room I didn't expect to find in a missile facility; a lobby/waiting room. Like what you'd find at your doctor's office, or something. I just mentally shrugged, and walked up to secretary's spot. Empty. I rang the bell. Nothing happened.

"Welp." I said, eventually. "There's no one here. Move deeper in?"

"Sounds as good as anything else." Jackson agreed. He walked past me, and opened a door marked 'Employees Only.' He glanced inside. "Looks like a control room."

"Oh yeah?" I asked, wandering over.

"Well, lots of computers, lots of buttons, a crap-ton of technical displays; if this ain't it, what is?"

"Touché. Is there a security room? Cameras?"

"Not here." Jackson glanced around the lobby, then pointed at another door. "Maybe that's it?"

It wasn't. I discovered the hard way that some janitor had decided to prank someone. I exited the closet sopping wet, water dripping down my body armor.

Jackson took one look at me and broke out laughing.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up." I tried to keep glaring, but I couldn't help letting a few chuckles escape, myself.

After we recovered from that fiasco, we went through another door. This one led to a different part of the facility. Still empty.

"I'm getting a real, bad feeling about this." I muttered.

"Yeah, me too." Jackson remarked.

As I glanced around one last time before moving on, something caught my eye. "Did someone spill some coffee, there?" I pointed at a darkened section of the wall. I hadn't noticed it before, as it was in the shadows, but a crate I'd nudged earlier had put some light closer to it, just enough to see that something was there.

We went over to it. Jackson kneeled down to check it, but quickly came back up, pulling out his pistol. "That's blood." He said.

I took out my own pistol. "That's... a lot of blood, for an accident. Looks more like someone died."

"It's a solid, five-inch stain of dried blood; I'd say that's more likely."

I turned on my radio. "Allen, we've got a problem." No response. "Allen? ...Wolf One-One, come in!"

"Not good." Jackson said.

"All of Wolfhound's radios are enchanted." I stated. "They don't just stop working; we're being jammed."

"Crimson Justice must've gotten here."

"Yeah, but this is a missile facility." I replied. "Not only that, it's Equestria's only missile base. They wouldn't just kill and get out. They'd take it over. So where are they?"

Jackson and I stared at each other, the same thought forming in both our heads.

"Ambush." He said softly.

"Let's get out of here, before they trigger it."

We high-tailed it for the truck.

We made it outside. Then...

BOOM! The truck we'd came with blew up in front of our eyes. The shockwave knocked us to the ground. My head hit the wall, and I blacked out.

When I came to, Jackson was tied up and being held down by a couple brutes wearing Crimson Justice combat armor. I tried to move, only to have something land on me, holding me down.

Tom's maliciously-grinning face appeared behind his boot. "Well, look who's awake." He said. He looked up, and gestured to someone I couldn't see. "Tie him up; load them both into the truck." He glanced back down at me, staring at me as if imagining how great my head would look on his wall. "I have plans for them."

Oh, to he** with that! I swiped his foot off of me, and he lost his balance. As he landed next to me, I got to my knees. As I brought my fist down, intending to do some serious rearrangement on his face, he punched me square in my own. As he got up, I returned the favor with my armored boot, causing him to go sprawling.

I scrambled to my feet, only to see that he'd recovered just as quickly, and had pulled a tranquilizer gun out his holster.

The dart hit me square in the arm. I pulled it out, but I could feel my arm already going numb.

Deciding to end this quickly, I rushed Tom. The tranq fluid in my system, though, slowed me down. Tom simply sidestepped and pushed me down, as I ran right past him.

I tried to get up, but I'd already pretty much lost the battle for consciousness. I stumbled heavily, and tried to steady myself on a nearby wall. I only succeeded in bashing my head against it, as I fell.

Everything went black.

Author's Note

I exited the closet

I'm wondering if I should change that to "I came out of the closet," just for the lol's.