That Others May Live

by CptBrony

Goodwill

Goodwill

The men were brought to a special war room within Princess Celestia’s quarters. They wondered at first why the room was in such a personal space, and concluded that it was probably one of the most secure rooms in the entire castle. There were probably secrets of every shape and size in there, so security would be tight.

At least they thought it would be. When they arrived at the doors, there was one guard outside the door and when the door opened, there were no guards inside. The men were allowed to waltz right in, and took in the décor diligently. A person’s room could reveal a lot about them, and this one was no exception.

There were books in various places; by a plain fireplace in the corner, next to the window, on the nightstand next to the bed. Some lay wide open, and others were closed, but all were just average, everyday books. Fiction, science, history, every literary genre was there. But they were organized according to area, like how the history books were by the window. And each of the areas was somehow related to each genre.

The men continued on through blindly, as they were never told which way to go. After only a few steps, though, they could hear two voices, conversing in the next room. Duke and Frost opted to wait and hear what was being talked about.

“Are you certain this is acceptable?” a young female voice asked.

“I do hope so,” another replied, this one sounding like a somewhat older mare. This one one seemed to have more experience in dealing with people and/or ponies if the uncertain tone was anything to go by. Judging from the motherly tone, it was probably Celestia, and the other, younger one was probably Luna. “I value this unicorn very much. He has skills that are of extremely high priority to be passed on to the next generation of unicorn soldiers.”

Duke and Frost took this as their cue to go in. They had a general idea of what they would be asked to do; rescue somepony. And judging from how they hoped that they would do it, it may or may not involve OGA. Duke kept that in mind as he thought about how valuable it would be to take the mission.

“Hello?” Duke said as he and Frost walked in. The princesses turned to see the men. “You rang?”

“Yes, we did ring,” Celestia replied. “Please, come.”

Celestia and Luna were sitting together at a small table with only a couple of little figurines on it. As the men got closer, they could see that the table was actually a map, and one of the figurines was of a pony. The pony, upon inspection, was clearly a unicorn, probably the one they were talking about.

Duke and Frost stood next to the table. “What is it you need of us, Ma’am?” Duke asked.

“We need to discuss a mission,” Celestia replied. “Please, sit.” She levitated over two cushions from somewhere else in the room, and the men sat.

“What does this mission entail, exactly?” Frost asked as he plopped down. “We overheard something about a unicorn.”

“Yes, I know,” Celestia said, throwing them a little grin. It faded quickly. “The unicorn is very highly skilled, and we would hate to lose him.”

“Before we go further,” Duke cut in. “Where does our man stand in this?”

Celestia breathed out slowly, then looked to her sister. Luna only shrugged, then motioned for Celestia to tell the men.

“We do not believe that mister OGA has any direct implications in this matter,” Celestia said. “We were hoping-”

“I apologize, princess, but we cannot undertake this mission. We already bent the rules once with the Saddle Arabians by taking on special operations with them, even if under our own command, but taking orders and missions from a foreign power with no direct gain to the United States without authorization is a violation of military law. Sorry to have wasted your time.” Duke and Frost moved to stand.

“Please, wait!” Celestia said. The men stopped. “This is a highly important mission. And we only said that your friend isn’t directly involved.”

“What does that mean, princess?” Duke asked “What are we supposed to do with that?”

Celestia clearly wanted to say something, but at the same time, was doing everything she could to avoid it. She paused for a moment, then opened her mouth to speak. But then she closed it again, and put her hoof to her chin to think. It was an odd gesture, seeing a royal pony do that, but the men were more distracted by the growing frustration of not being given the information they needed.

“There may be information about OGA that you can get,” she said.

Duke exchanged a glance with Frost and then leaned on the table. “Ma’am, if you have pertinent information on OGA, we would very much like to get it now,” he said. “Intel in these wars is incredibly time sensitive, and if you have it, we need it. We’ll work something out later.”

“No, we have nothing now,” Celestia said.

Duke stood straight again. “Then there isn’t much to talk about.”

Celestia sighed. “Please, we need you to-”

“Sister, I believe that we can trust them with our operational details,” Luna said. “They have had strong operational security training and conditioning; they won’t talk. And if they are to trust us with their lives, directly or otherwise, we would do well to trust them back.”

Celestia looked to her sister uncertainly, but sighed in personal defeat. “Very well,” she said. The men stood, waiting. “The unicorn in question is Master Sergeant Star Streak. He is with the Unicorn Reconnaissance unit. He and his team were doing recon in the Southern Gryphon Colonies just south of the San Palomino desert, south of Las Pegasus.”

“What were they doing there?” Frost asked.

“One of the major problems we have is with enemy fighters secretly crossing our border in the desert,” Celestia said. “They arrive in Las Pegasus, a city where nopony cares where you’re from, and then move out in our country. Then, they generate chaos the likes of which Discord frowns upon.”

Duke ignored this Discord character and pressed for more information. “So, what were your boys doing? Looking for enemy fighters, crossing over?”

“Sort of,” Celestia said. “The primary purpose of the Recon unit is not fighting. They scope out areas, find trails and intelligence, and get us the information we need to generate a full assault. That was Star Streak’s mission.”

“I’m going to go off on a limb and say it didn’t go well,” Frost said.

Celestia nodded. “Very correct,” she said grimly. “The unit was discovered by the Colonial Militia and attacked. Most were able to get out, but Star Streak stayed behind to hold them off.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Duke said with his hands up. “The Colonial Militia? If your guys started a war with another nation, then I’m sorry, but that is something we won’t be involved with. Terrorists are one thing, but bringing the United States into an armed conflict with an established nation and potential military power is beyond what we’ll do.”

Celestia shook her head. “No, the militia is just thugs who pretend that they work on behalf of the government,” she said. “Though the way they treat civilians, you might think they did.”

“Okay, so they’re a gang, is what you’re saying, like the West Side Boys from Sierra Leone.” Princess Celestia showed no recognition, so Duke went on. “It doesn’t sound like something your Nighthawks can’t handle.”

“They can’t,” Luna said. She was staring at the table. “The terrain isn’t the friendliest to ponykind; that’s why the gryphons got it. It’s very mountainous, not good for hooves, and has wind patterns that aren’t easy for anyone to navigate except those who have lived in them. And the Nighthawks aren’t medically trained like you.”

“So he’s injured,” Frost said. “How bad?”

“We don’t know,” Celestia said. “When his team returned, they said he was fighting off a dozen on his own. We know he is alive because he sends out a magical wave every half hour. But it is getting weaker; he needs help as soon as possible.”

Duke nodded slowly. “So, that’s the situation.” The princesses nodded. “Alright. But let’s get back to the main issue; how does this all come back to OGA?” The princesses frowned. They must have thought that they could avoid that.

“Star Streak’s team said that they saw a group of gryphons walking with something strange,” Celestia said. “Star Streak went on ahead, and while he was gone, the team was spotted. It was when he returned that they were ambushed. No one had the time to ask Star Streak what he saw.”

The men exchanged a glance, and Duke turned back to the princesses. “Give us a minute.” The men exited the room to get a bit of privacy for a discussion.

Frost sat on the bed. “Well, boss?” he asked in a hushed voice. “What’s your opinion?”

“I’m not sure,” he said. “I mean, on the one hand, these guys see a lot of weird stuff. If something is strange to them, it must not be very common. But then again, it could be anything in the damned world, too. Who knows what they DON’T know that they have here?”

“But if this does lead to OGA, boss, it wouldn’t be good to miss out,” Frost said. “So we don’t know if it was even our guy. Choosing to go on that would be a gamble.”

“Yeah,” Duke said. He rubbed his face. “Any ideas?”

“What other reasons might we have to go out there?” Frost asked rhetorically. “If we do this, it’ll establish us with the locals and the military. Get some connections, maybe share information a little easier.”

“But where does that put us with regard to autonomy?” Duke asked. “We would have to hold up our Rescue Ranger reputation to keep the good karma going, and if we don’t, we’ll be worse off than we would be without a reputation.”

“True, true,” Frost said. He tried to think.

“Maybe...” Duke started. “Yes, it will give us something to work with. We’ll know the landscape of the most likely place OGA will be; the Southern Gryphon Colonies. If that’s where these groups are based, that’s the likely HQ. We’ll want to know what it’s like there.”

“An excellent point,” Frost said. “It’ll show us how they fight there, too, and it could give us an idea of where they might be hiding.”

“We’ll need to develope a relationship with the transport pegasi, of course, but that shouldn’t be a problem,” Duke said. “But at the same time, how wise is a rescue mission down there?”

‘We might find out soon,” Frost said. “All we need is a good reason to go, after all.”

Duke nodded. “Well, I can think of at least one.” Frost crossed his arms and looked expectantly at Duke. Duke turned back toward the room and stuck his hands in his pockets. “They’ll owe us a favor.”

Frost smiled. “That they will, Duke, that they will. You game?”

“I’m game,” Duke said. “Let’s get back in there.” Frost hopped off the bed and they walked back into the room.

Celestia and Luna were staring at the table, but practically jumped up when the men entered. They looked worried, rightfully so, and stared hopefully at the men.

“We’ve agreed to accept this mission,” Duke said. Celestia let out a massive sigh of relief, and behind her, Luna fell onto her rump. “We just have a few more questions.”

Celestia nodded. “Go ahead.”

“I thought Luna commanded the special operations,” Frost said. “Why are you here, Celestia?”

Celestia looked confused. “My unicorn needs rescuing,” she said. “I needed to be here to make sure he gets the support he needs.”

“Very well,” Duke said. “Will you be sitting in on the rest of our mission plannings?”

“No, she will not, Luna said. She stood back up, albeit slowly. “I handle the special missions; only when she has a reason to come will she do so.”

“Fair enough,” Frost said with a shrug.

Duke went on. “Luna, how do you plan to get us out there?” he asked. “You said yourself, you can’t get pegasi in there very well.”

“I never said that,” Luna said.

“Yes you did,” Frost replied. Duke shook his head and Luna shot him a look. “Sorry.”

“Fine, I said it,” Luna admitted. “But what I didn’t say was that we have no one who can help. There are gryphons living in Equestria, and some in our guard. They will drop you into the valley, and they will pick you up. Unless you wish to drop in by parachute.”

“Sounds like a terrible idea, honestly,” Duke said. “Unpredictable winds and all. A drop-off pick-up plan works fine.” Duke approached the table. “Now where is this guy?”

Luna pointed at the only pony on the board. “This is him,” she said. “You can see here-” she pointed around the pony- “that he is in a crevasse, where he is not easy to get to. He won’t be found by the enemy, but if we are too slow, not by us either. The mountains have many of these.”

“It’s like being stationed in Iceland all over again,” Frost commented.

“There are steep slopes around the area, but the crevasse is close to a path that you can use.” Luna pointed at a path along the mountain side.

“If that’s a path, I imagine that the enemy uses it,” Duke said, trying to emphasize the obviousness of the problem.

“With your weapons, it shouldn’t be a problem, yes?” Luna asked.

“With the limited ammo we have, the, ideally, thirty-pound med kits we’ll carry, and our climbing gear on hand, plus our plates, night vision, and other important gear, that might not be such a small problem,” Duke said. “Any other ideas?”

“Well, if you intend to bring climbing gear, why not just go off the path?” Luna asked.

“Where do you plan to drop us?” Duke asked. Luna pointed to a spot about five hundred feet above the start of the crevasse and a mile to the north where the unicorn was sitting. “Yeah, that’ll take a long time, and we don't exactly have-” Duke checked the altitude markers- “mile long ropes and gear for climbing in a rescue situation. We have to take the path.”

“That’s gonna suck so much,” Frost said. “And shooting presents its own issues.”

“Yeah, the noise is gonna travel all through the mountain range, attracting every fighter within a mile.” Duke looked at Luna. “Your plan isn’t working out so well.”

Luna looked contemplative for a moment, then nodded. “Very well. While you are gone, I will talk to our magisters about creating items to keep the sound to a minimum on your weapons.”

“Won’t they need our weapons for that?” Duke asked. This was getting totally ridiculous.

“No,” Luna said. Duke blinked in disbelief. “Magic can be used to silence anything, I’ll have you know. They will make several, and we shall test them when you return.”

“Sounds good,” Frost said. “Haha, sounds. Silencer.” Duke shook his head with a groan.

“Is this adequate?” Luna asked.

Duke thought about what they had. They knew where he was, which was absolutely vital. They would be carrying a lot of stuff out there, and they would have to be stealthy. There would be quite a bit of travel, by foot, mostly, and hazards everywhere. It was a risky mission; but the PJs of the Twenty-Fourth live for risky business.

“We’ll need to work out a few more details,” Duke said. “But we feel satisfied with this at the moment. We’ll go and gather our gear.”

Luna smiled and nodded. “Excellent,” she said. “Meet me at the runway in the mountain. If you need to find it, ask the Nighthawks or other special operations units to bring you there. Tell them, ‘Et nox sicut plurimi’.”

“Got it,” Duke said. He and Frost turned and started walking out. “We’ll meet you at the runway.”

It was on now; The Pararescuemen could finally do what they do best.

Comments

[onlyanorthernsong]

always been fascinated with pararescue and their culture. placed on my "read later" list.

[Silentwoodfire]

My only thought now is 'Will they base-jump off of Canterlot?'

[Tokai]

It's not a silencer. It's called a suppressor. It SUPPRESSES noise, not silences it. :V

[Sleepysandman]

I like that joke "hey look, we finally get silencers! I've always wanted one!"

[Seawolf]

5813845
The term is used interchangeably