New Frontiers

"Solid copy, I'll send it up the chain." I closed the channel and continued north. Suffice to say, I didn't know where the fuck I was going. I changed the channel and contacted the Crystal Empire.

"Crystal Empire, come in. I need info about the direction the Caribou came from." I listened to the radio come on and off... I don't think I taught them how to use a radio. "Button on the side. Press and hold until you're finished talking."

A few seconds later, more like a few minutes, the radio came to life as Sam's voice came through. "Thanks Sargent. The Caribou came from the north and hit us with some insane magic before using that stone to control us. Be careful and don't get careless." Keep your distance, use the storm to your advantage, and take out any mage first; got it.

"Any idea what their mages look like?" I stopped and pulled out a pocket notebook from my rucksack. I was going to write notes in here for my reports, but this is far more important.

"No difference other than the staves they have. That's the best I can offer Sargent." I wrote down what she said and made an extra note to look into their magic. It could be useful if I do.

"Solid copy and that's more than enough. Contact me if there are any further developments." I changed the channels back to command. "Command this is Sargent Herrero, I was wondering if there's anyway for me to get any kind of direction."

"Command responding; hard negative. We only have communication at the moment. We advise using the thermal mode on your NVGs. You're on your own from here." I wondered weather or not to inform him about the hornless mages, but that's still something I have yet to see for myself. "We already have a team on standby for insertion after Heat."

"Affirm, thanks for letting me know... Do you mind updating me on the situation regarding the Gerald R. Ford?" The radio was silent for a minute or two before coming back. Between that interval, I was already on the move.

"You'll be getting a full overhaul of your equipment. These Equestrians have seriously advanced our tech by leaps and bounds. I guarantee that you'll love every second of it, so come back alive. I shouldn't have to tell a military buff how odd it is for a single soldier to go in. Plus, I don't want Meier to bury a kid." With that, the radio became quiet once more. I believed that I'd be closer to a town by now and stopped. If there was another civilization here, then it would also work like the Crystal Empire, a pocket of calm in a raging storm.

I took the soldier's advise and pulled my NVGs out of my bag and over my eyes. I had to ignore the tip of my snout that was poking out from the bottom of my sight. Luckily, the storm made it dark enough to not blind myself after turning them on. With a quick thanks to Luna, best princess, I figured out how to turn on the thermal vision mode. Lo and behold, there was a town about fifty meters to my left. I hid my transport and made a snowman to make sure I'd find it again... I also wanted to make my second ever snowman... It was fun.

With the threat of magic, I decided to sneak into the town and it was even more feudal than Equestria. It worked out even better since there was more snow than in the empire. I still hid in darker areas since my winter camo wasn't perfect. Didn't want to get overconfident and end up dead. Better to not test my luck.

I checked out my surroundings and waited until no one was paying attention. It took me a second to realize that I was that a majority of the population were arctic foxes with a few caribou scattered around here and there. Either way, I noticed that there were a lot of them heading to the same area. I waited until very few were around before taking off my helmet and stuff like that before following them to an execution ground.

Yeah, this wasn't looking good.

Three foxes were in nooses with their hands bound behind their backs. Two of them were as calm as could be as the third was screaming her head off about being framed. An old style execution was definitely going down. That was before a caribou walked on to the platform and unfurled a scroll.

"Two impure vixens have been found guilty for using sterilization spells and the third has been believed to be the witch that cast them! Should anyone else offer themselves as the witch, then her life may be spared. If not she will parish with the impure vixens." The only ones that cried for joy were either rich foxes or caribou, but as for the true witch... She may be long gone by now. Not to mention, no one seems overly guilty about this execution, but this felt off. I needed answers.

I tapped the shoulder of the fox in front of me, but she didn't turn around. I tried again, a little more forcefully this time just in case it was too light the first time. Her head moved to the side a little, the little I could see wasn't too happy, and she gripped the hems of her dress.

"What is it, kit?" She said with distain. She really did not care for me, did she?

"I've been living isolated most of the time so I'm a little unsure what an impure vixen is. Do you mind explaining?" I asked, better be extra nice so she doesn't snap. I know it would have been a bad idea to remain headstrong, but I didn't think that far ahead.

"Impure refers to foxes that prefer the same gender." With that, she turned back to the execution.

"Can't have that, can we." Might as well make a spectacular entrance.

The enthusiastic bunch were at the front of the crowd so I didn't have to worry about them unless a supporter was hanging back. Those on the platform were an issue. Two guards on each staircase, a mage, and a man holding the lever to the trap door. That's not counting the soldiers lining the outside of the... square? I'm going to call it a square. More of an oval, but anyways; lever guy dies first for obvious reasons. Then the mage before threatening the guards to release the three. Then demand surrender for trial for the crime of rape. I can't believe command strong armed me to say it at least once.

I needed to be loud. That means I can't use my suppressor since the bang won't be as prominent. If all things go according to plan, the mage will be disoriented enough for me to kill him next. The problem was the resulting chaos of the crowd. Then again, they're here for an execution or something so does it really matter if they panic? No, that would be bad since I could lose the advantage and they get killed. Not to mention that I'm still left wide open to the outer guards which is a problem of it's own. I have one option, but I'm not sure it's a good one.

I began to push my way forward while unscrewing my suppressor. There was no stopping it now. Things can be settled in a few bullets. No need for a big battle if you can't hold out. I slipped my suppressor into a spare ammo pouch on my rig. I was close to where I needed to be, but what was distracting was that a majority of the foxes don't wear clothes. How long have they been under this rule where they're not embarrassing by public nudity. I was so close,so it's now or never.

(Third Person)

Charlette stood within the crowd of foxes and caribou. Once more was a impure couple being executed for not securing successors for their species. The impure couple weren't even that interested in the same gender and had a preference for both, but it was all the same to the Caribou.

With the rebellion in the Arctic Fox Capital, the caribou have been desperately trying to find ways to maintain dominance. The caribou who were already in the town were already highly respected, but Officers from outside always did something like this and use their rank to prevent a soldier to stop it. Charlette knew that she wasn't as brave as the impure who at least tried to be happy despite the laws against same sex relationships.

Still, that law wasn't unforced most of the time so there were more couples like them. They just made the mistake of forgetting the schedule. She sighed, knowing the day would end in tragedy.

"It's now or never... I guess." She heard before a loud bang tore through the air from beside her, a high pitched ringing was all that remained afterwards.

Her hands immediately covered her ears after that along with a barely audible yelp. Her eyes instinctively shut soon after the bang went off. Then something hot hit her, but only for a moment. It made contact with Charlette once more as it fell between her breasts and remained there since her elbows pressed them together. The hot object was much more noticeable due to the less thick fur on her chest and she immediately moved her elbows, letting the object fall between her breasts.

Not too long after that, another bang went off and another hot object hit her. This one hit her cheek and landed on her shoulder. It was get hotter a lot quicker than she thought, causing her to yelp in pain and role her shoulder to get it off. This time it fell between her and into the snow.

Charlette opened her eyes as the ringing died down. Much to her shock, the mage and officer were lying on the podium that was slowly being painted with blood. The guards were about to raise their spears before the fox next to her yelled.

"Don't try! Surrender now and you'll live!" The obvious male yelled at the caribou froze after hearing that. They just had to look at the new corpses to see what he could do.

Charlette looked at the fox who just took out two powerful caribou in less than a few seconds. Much to her shock, he was a kit and a tall one at that. He wore a large coat with a strange white vest over it. In his hands was a strange looking crossbow that had never been seen before to Charlette's recollection.

The caribou drop their spears while Charlette looked at the rest to see what the rest were doing. Their spears were raised, but the kit made no effort to address them before pushing forward towards the execution podium.

"Release those three and any hostile action directed towards them or me will be met with an immediate death! Just don't be stupid." The kit was talking like he had just won, but he technically did. The highest ranking officer was dead along with their deviating mage. Suffice to say, the prisoners were released.

"A kit has no business in this!" One of the devout caribou supporters yelled. He raised his strange crossbow into the air and pulled the trigger.

Charlette already covered her ears before three bangs came from the strange contraption. It did what it was intended to do, which was shut them up.

"I was ordered by my superiors to apprehend or kill the leader of the caribou after their invasion of the Crystal Empire. He must atone for his crimes against the occupants of the country and the brutal treatment of prisoners of war. This is stated in article 27, second paragraph, of the 1949 Geneva Convention, "Women shall be especially protected against any attack on their honour, in particular against rape, enforced prostitution, or any form of indecent assault"." Despite how confidently he said it, he did look to happy to announce it like he did. That didn't stop how impossible it sounded for a kit to achieve such a task.