CTF Haymaker

by totallynotabrony

Chapter 12

Flash Sentry's mouth was dry. Staring down dragons wasn't what he'd thought he would be doing today.

There were a few boulders large enough to cover behind scattered around the valley floor between the landed Ospreys and the entrance to the mine. The CTF group walked in a loose line, advancing towards the eight dragons that by all appearances were forcing captured minotaurs to work.

He carried his spear under one wing, within easy reach. The tip was razor sharp and magically reinforced. It would probably penetrate dragon hide, though against some of the biggest dragons it might as well have been a paper cut. The Marines around him had expressed concern that their rifles might have a similar lack of effect.

They were backed up by machine guns and close air support, if it came to that, but none of it was enough to give Flash a warm and fuzzy feeling.

It was an American expression. In Equestria, everything was assumed to already be warm and fuzzy. But Flash couldn't let himself be distracted by semantics right now.

The Marine in charge, Major Havioner, stopped at fifty yards, raising his fist. He nodded to Flash.

"What's going on here?" Flash called, making himself heard. "Who are these minotaurs?"

"None of your business," replied the largest dragon, who was probably forty hooves tall. He snorted, a brief puff of flame coming out of his nostrils.

Flash repeated his words to the humans.

The minotaur language translator, Specialist Lee, the one in the different uniform, tried next. There was some muttered reaction from the crowd of minotaurs before one of them suddenly shouted a few sentences.

The dragons began to hurriedly crowd the minotaurs towards the entrance of the mine even as the translator called, "They say they're being held against their will!"

"Stop!" shouted Major Havioner. "Let them go!" Flash hastily translated it.

That earned a glance from the dragons to their apparent leader, but little other reaction.

The Havioner glanced at Flash. "Give them my exact words: 'This is your last chance. Stop and let your prisoners go, or we will attack.'"

Flash gulped, and translated it.

That finally got a reaction, though probably not the one for which any of them had hoped. The dragons paused, trading glances, and then the leader charged.

"Fix bayonets!" shouted Havioner. Flash raised his spear.

Most of the Marines hadn't quite gotten their bayonets on before the lead dragon crashed into the line. He came straight for Havioner, who screamed "Open fire!" as he threw himself out of the way.

Fifty rifles opened up. The .50 cals on the Ospreys held back for the moment, their targets too close to risk friendly fire.

That changed when one of the dragons spread their wings to get airborne. Ounce-and-a-half slugs at 3,000 feet per second didn't obliterate the dragon like they would have a human, but a couple dozen of them definitely put the target down.

Most of the fighting, however, was done at close range, especially the first dragon who had barreled straight for the center of the line. As Havioner ducked the charge, the dragon's head snapped to Flash.

All he could do was lunge with his spear. There was a human expression, "bringing a knife to a gun fight" and Flash had never more desperately wished to be somewhere else, preferably at range with a weapon that wasn't a thousand years old.

Even still, his spear found its mark in the dragon's side. Flash's opponent roared and drew back. Knowing what was coming next, Flash ducked and used his wings as thrust forward, dodging beneath a gout of fire. He stabbed again.

Havioner rolled to get up and came to his knee, firing at the dragon's face from only a few feet away. Flash couldn't see what the result was, but the dragon subsequently twisted and lashed with his tail, slamming the Marine to the ground.

Flash zipped under again and opened another wound with his spear. The dragon turned away from Havioner, which allowed the man to raise his rifle and thrust the bayonet into the dragon's belly. He still lay flat on the ground, apparently unable to move his legs.

With another roar, the dragon turned back to the attacker that couldn't get out of the way and incinerated the Marine from five feet away.

There was nothing Flash could have done, and he couldn't afford to think about it now. He lifted his spear again, but a dozen Marines suddenly pushed past him, screaming and charging with their bayoneted rifles raised. Many knives - and hundreds of bullets - did what a spear could not. The dragon tried to retreat, but was surrounded. He tried to fly, but his wings were shredded. He tried to defend himself, but arteries were opened. They were still stabbing him even as he fell onto his back and died.

Flash had the presence of mind to look around. Seven dragons lay dead or dying on the rocks of the valley. One had lifted off and was flying away into the distance.

A Harrier swooped by in pursuit. There was a faint brrrrrrt and a trail of smoke from the airplane, and the dragon convulsed in midair, crashing to the ground.

"Corpsman!" someone shouted.

Flash almost looked at what had become of Havioner, but forcibly turned the other direction. That only put his eyes on a Marine who had deep claw gouges on his upper leg and another who lay still with a crooked neck.

A Marine Lieutenant grabbed Flash's shoulder. "Sir, you're a Captain, right?"

"Y-yes."

"You're senior now. We're going to get the wounded loaded for transport and take one Osprey out of here. We're going to leave a force here to clean up and repatriate the minotaurs and hold ground for reinforcements."

Flash realized he was being told, not asked, but nodded. "I'll stay."

"Oorah," the man replied and hurried away.

Flash blinked and swallowed, surveying the suddenly quiet ground. He took a couple of deep breaths. Things had gone from peaceful to Tartarus and back to peaceful in under five minutes and he was still mentally catching up.

Something splashed on his nose. He looked up to see the blood dripping off his spear.

It was a good thing hay tasted the same coming up as it did going down.

Comments

[howard035]

Wow, this got really real.

[arcanelexicon]

<at the canteen>

humans prank all other races by claiming that their mystery meat tastes a little scaly today.

after ruckus has died down, reports of chinese making their way to dragon corpses. One asian trooper comments that they are after dragon testicles for their supposed libido effects. whole group looks at him. he shrugs and tells everybody that on earth, we will eat anything that has a ‘magical’ element to it, like minotuar horns giving them strength, pegasus wings as a cure for diarrhea, horsehooves as hair grower, and unicorn horns for eternal life. he then chomps on a unicorn’s horn and camp ends up FUBAR

[arcanelexicon]

casualty report: multiple bite marks on various races, 3 humans passed out from laughing so hard, 14 humans who won’t stop saying ‘worth it’, enough feathers to make 42 new pillows and 1 new relationship between human male and female minotaur, or as he calls her, ‘my wittle tauren’