Call of Duty - Equestrian Warfare

by ChromeRegios

Extra 3 - A Hole in the Enemy Lines

After multiple tours of Iraq and Afghanistan, Staff Sergeant Jason Williams thinks he’s seen it all.

The last several days have proven him wrong. From the detonation of a rebel nuke to savage fighting against fanatical and well-equipped rebel forces, the acting head of 3rd platoon, 1st Marine Division Force Reconnaissance Company decides he prefers facing the Taliban and Al Qaeda to Russian ultranationalists on the shores of the Caspian Sea.

Not helping matters are a series of increasingly bizarre reports involving disappearing men and equipment, soldiers and vehicles, and sometimes even entire squads disappearing without a trace.

He can’t do anything about that, but he can do something about a group of Russian Rebels holding out at an abandoned tank factory, where intelligence reports them to be operating an armory and vehicle repair bay. Operating deep inside Iran out of easy support range, his unit has been ordered to link up with a British SAS team to eliminate the opposition and capture at least one of their leaders for interrogation—no small request, he knows, given the rebels typically fight to the last man. But orders are orders, and after a three-hour march, Williams’ platoon arrives at the site just as the sun is coming up, and after an exchange of recognition codes links up with the S.A.S, who have been there for the past day.

“About time you bloody Yanks got here,” says Lieutenant Adams, the ranking SAS officer as his American counterpart enters his makeshift headquarters, though a smile touches his lips as he speaks. “Late to the war, as always.”

“Happy to be of service to you Limeys, Lieutenant,” Williams replies, offering up a quick salute to the British officer before shaking his hand. “What’s the situation?”

In response, the Marine Staff Sergeant is motioned to a building blueprint with friendly and enemy positions marked. “We have them surrounded, but they’ve barricaded themselves inside quite snugly and my unit is too few to storm the building. They’ve booby-trapped the approaches and we think they have a few active BMPs in the garages as well…” Lieutenant Adams briefly explains the situation.

“Enemy strength?” Williams prompts.

“Estimate one platoon,” is the reply. “The remnants of a company we ambushed two days ago. Judging from what a couple captured rebels have told us, we think they have at least two high-value targets, including a bombmaker and district commander.”

“Right…” Williams nods slowly, finding the presence of the bombmaker worrisome—knowing rebel fanaticism, the entire building might be wired to blow in an attempt to take their enemy with them. “Well, if they’ve covered all existing entrances, we’ll just have to make our own.”

“Our thoughts exactly,” Adams confirms. “We’ve identified two possible breach points here... and here,” he points to different places on the building blueprints, one a wall and another on the roof, both well-away from existing windows, skylights and doorways. “But we’ll have to move bloody quick to identify anyone important and keep them from bringing down the building on our heads.”

“And the longer we wait, the more time they have to fortify and booby-trap, so we can’t waste time rehearsing this.” Williams rubs his eyes, wondering again why nothing is ever easy. “We’ve been attached to your unit for the duration of this operation, so… your orders, sir?” he asks his temporary L-T, though the British don’t really use that term.

Adams nods. “Alright, here's the plan. My team will breach the roof, and one of your squads, the wall. The remainder of your platoon will man the perimeter to prevent any escapes and close in if needed,” the SAS officers gives his instructions. “We move in one hour. And if you have any electronic countermeasures you could deploy to prevent remote bomb detonations, we’d appreciate it.”

“Done,” Williams replies, thinking that the hard-won American experience dealing with IEDs in Iraq and Afghanistan has become quite useful in the current conflict.

An hour later, all teams are in position, C-4 charges placed. “Oorah?” Williams says the U.S. Marine battle cry quietly over the radio, asking his marines if they are ready to go.

“Oorah...” comes the series of replies as they grip their weapons tightly, preparing to breach.

The tension rises as a dozen British commandos and an equal number of elite American Recon Marines stand by outside, nervously awaiting the action to come. At the designated time, Adams gives the signal and the charges explode, the marines surging into a back hallway while the British troops rappel down on robes into a large vehicle bay, finding several BMPs and BTRs under repair there—engines off and unmanned. All of them, marine and SAS soldier alike come into the building rifles leveled and ready to gun down anything that moved, expecting startled Russian shouts, the distinctive noise of AK fire, or even worse, triggered explosives or the sharp crack of BMP main guns firing.

But no one is there and no fire comes. After several minutes of searching and finding nothing, they realize the impossible truth—the factory is completely deserted!

“What the hell, Lieutenant? I thought you said you had them cornered?” Williams asks Adams in frustration over the radio, not dropping his guard just yet. They did find a couple hastily placed tripwires over existing entrances, but it is increasingly clear the rebels have not stayed long.

“I… I don’t understand…” Adam’s voice is uncharacteristically bewildered. “We chased them here and exchanged fire with them yesterday! They couldn’t have gotten out without us seeing!” the SAS officer insists, finding offices and armories stripped of anything valuable, papers burned and weapons racks empty.

“Then they must have gotten out by tunnel…” Williams says in disgust, ordering his troops to search the factory for dugouts and hidden bunkers that might mark their possible escape route.

An effort that came to no avail. “Sir, we’ve found nothing… there’s no way out of here aside from the visible exits, not even a fucking mousehole,” his squad leader reports an hour later, his marines having literally ransacked every room. Disbelieving, Williams is about to order them to search again when a marine shouts to get their attention.

“Staff Sergeant! I think I found something! And I promise you won’t believe it!!”

“You ‘promise’, huh?” Williams repeats irritably, but goes to the PFC’s location anyway. “Okay, so what won’t I believe…?” he trails off and his jaw drops open and he and the other marines look on.

What they behold is something Williams can only describe as straight out out of a science fiction movie; a large circular white transparent window-like thing against a cinder-block wall behind except it… except it definitely isn’t a window.

“Sergeant? What’s going on?” Adams breaks in, noting the marines have suddenly fallen silent. “Have you found something?”

“You could say that, sir…” he says wanly, inviting the SAS officer to come see for himself. Despite the solid wall behind—a fact verified by marines who go outside to check—the hole is totally open and they can see clouds and a surprisingly idyllic landscape scene on the other side of it; impossibly, they can even feel a cool breeze coming through it!

“How is this even…?” Williams can’t finish, experimentally poking his rifle barrel through the… portal is the only term that comes to his mind. It passes through without incident, leaving him wondering if a human can pass through… Wait! Was THIS how the rebels escaped...?

He abruptly hears heavy boots coming up behind him as Adams and several of his SAS team join the squad of marines, which parts to let them through. “Sergeant? We’re here, so what couldn’t you just tell us…?” he trails off himself as he beholds a transparent portal as big as a man, with shimmering, iridescent edges leaving him gaping along the rest.

“I think we’ve found their exit, sir,” Williams says in classic understatement.

---

They initially discuss sending a volunteer through, but with no idea of what awaits them on the other side and no guarantee that anyone who goes through can return, they elect to first send through a camera-equipped Raptor recon drone the SAS team can pilot remotely.

On Adams’ order, the drone is thrown through the portal and immediately takes flight, hovering on the other side. After some quick experimental maneuvers to confirm the remote can still control it and it can pass back through the portal without difficulty, they send it a short distance away from the portal to get a better lay of the land, having it hover a hundred feet up and turn in a slow arc.

What they see is all but beyond belief—it’s like a whole new WORLD! comes Williams’ awestruck thought. The crystal-blue sky is vast and the land beneath is fertile consisting of grassy fields and low, rolling hills dotted with trees. The Raptor scouts the entire area until it spots what appears to be several dwellings or other structures below. Moving in for a closer look, ground movement becomes apparent but they can’t identify the source. The drone takes pictures from several hundred feet up that get recorded on the S.A.S database, but the images are blurry and they can’t make out of the moving figures on the ground.

“Are those the Russians?” Adams asks as he looks closely at the camera feed, the marines and SAS men gather close around the small screen, craning their necks for a look.

“Can’t say for sure without getting closer, sir, ” the drone operator replies, immediately obeying Adams’ instruction to circle away and then come back in lower.

The Raptor returns to its previous position a minute later and sees the figures again; this time the video feed is clear.

“Those are just horses!” Williams gets a bit pissed, though he notes that some of them appear to spot the camera, one even pointing up at it with a hoof. And kind of funny-looking horses at that… wait… did that one have a hat on? he thinks he sees a stetson cowboy hat on one for an instant, but he can’t confirm it as the raptor quickly moves on.

They’re flying the remote UAV back towards the portal to see if they can recover it when a colorful streak suddenly appears, passing close by the camera lens and jostling the drone with its passing, causing everyone watching to instinctively flinch back.

“What the hell was that?!” Adams shouts, and nobody has an immediate answer, all witnessing the same thing. Before any suggestions can be voiced, the streak returns and a new figure suddenly appears directly in front of the camera…

A blue winged horse with a rainbow mane!

“Wh-what?” Williams voices the only words that anyone there can think as the hovering equine figure inspects the drone closely, then somehow grabs hold of it and begins shaking and speaking to it, though they can’t hear what she’s saying. Seemingly annoyed, the strange pony-like creature shakes the raptor once more, hard, and this time succeeds in knocking something loose as the video feed is cut and the operator reports the Raptor is offline.

The silence in the now-abandoned factory is initially total, but is soon broken by the sound of Williams’ fist hitting the desk.

“WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?!” the veteran marine shouts as his voice echoes all around the cavernous vehicle bay.

“And more to the point, what do we do about it?” a somewhat more restrained Adams wonders aloud, the Marines and SAS men looking to their leaders somewhat nervously. “We’re out of contact with command right now. So if the Russians went through, do we follow?”

There is no immediate answer, but one thing is certain to all present—even if the rebels aren’t there, something else surely is.

Comments

[Rainbow87dash]

Awwwww Rainbow Dash you broke their toy