//------------------------------// // "The Moment of Truth..." // Story: The Winds of Change: Fog of War // by AgentSnail //------------------------------// "The Moment of Truth..." "Fuck..." There was another bout of banging on the door. Jason looked around quickly, trying to come up with some sort of plan. "Okay, get those hostages free, quickly!" He knelt down and cut a hostage free in front of himself, tossing the ropes away as he moved onto the next one. It didn't take them long to get the rest of the ponies free, the banging on the door only intensifying in the meantime. Dash and tank shoved a couple of the pews against the doors in an effort to help keep them in place. There was a brief silence, followed by a louder bang as the doors budged slightly inward. "See if any of these ponies are able to fight! Get them weapons!" Jason yelled over the banging. Archer shoved a few pews together a ways back from the door as a makeshift barricade. "Eravel, get behind here with me, we need to be in a position to take them out when they get in. Eravel tossed a spear over to one of the ponies, who admired it briefly before pulling it into a ready position. Jason pulled the AUG off his back, resting it on the barricade. Dash joined him behind the barricade, replaced at the door by Hunter. "New ponies, get onto the sides of the door, wait until they get inside!" She yelled, directing them around with a hoof. There weren't really that many able bodied ponies with fighting experience from Canterlot, maybe ten or so. But it was better than nothing. "Dash, send word for the other team to start making their way over." She pulled the pad from where it was tied onto his back, scribbling a few words onto it. "Here's the plan, you guys. Make sure all the ponies that can't fight are in one of the back rooms. They're going to get in, and I'm going to fire this out there. As soon as I run out of ammo, You'll throw a flash-bang, Dash, and the rest of you'll wait until that goes off outside before creating a semicircle of spears. Hold the line, and keep fighting if one of you falls. If we break through the lines, make sure the other ponies are ready to go. That a plan?" "SIR YES SIR!" He smiled, switching off the safety and pulling the charging handle. This wouldn't be the worst way to go out. Good thing he had no plans of dying. There was a rather long moment of silence, which seemed to draw on forever. Then there was the noise of talons and paws pounding on the ground from outside as griffins ran at the door, continuing their effort to break it down. There was a crack as the door flew open, sending the pews sliding across the floor. "Take a look at this, mother fuckers!" Jason yelled. He depressed the trigger of the AUG with his magic, feeling the recoil into his shoulder before his brain registered the sound. BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG Tink tink tink tink tink The front griffins fell, and Jason waited to see if any more were going to follow them through. There seemed to be a moment of confusion as they regrouped, trying to figure out what kind of strange weapon had mowed down their comrades. They seemed to think it was some sort of fluke, and another wave came through the door in short order. BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG The tinkling of the shells was obscured as he continued to fire, no longer worrying about missing. He cut down most of the wave, firing in bursts to keep the recoil of the weapon down. Another few griffins rushed in as he head a 'chink' sound come from the gun. He cursed, it had jammed. Just his luck. "Now!" He yelled. BANG!!!! Dash's flash-bang went off, luckily, blinding a few of the griffins as they stumbled the rest of the way inside. The ponies rushed in from the sides, stemming the flow of the griffins from the door. He cursed again, pulling the charging handle back in an attempt to get the jammed shell out of the chamber. He shook the gun and the cartridge popped out, clinking on the ground. "Why didn't they retreat, I thought that would've scared them off!" Jason yelled to Eravel. "We had a quote that was thrown around in the military, 'In the griffin army, it takes more courage to retreat than advance.' It's not far from the truth!" He yelled back. Jason shook his gun once more to make sure that nothing else was inside before he looked back up and decided that continued use of the gun would be impossible. He threw the gun over his back, running over to the lines. A pony fell in front of him, and he dragged the stallion over to the back of the room, preforming some quick healing magic to the spear wound in his fore leg. After he had stemmed the blood he turned back to the lines, ducking under the spear of a griffin as he lunged, before Jason plunged his knife into the griffin's chest. He kicked the griffin back, and the griffin stumbled backwards for a moment before getting hit in the neck with an arrow. Jason moved forward to stab a griffin that was in the process of thrusting his spear at one of the ponies before ducking under the spear of another griffin. They had to be running out of troops on hand by now, this was just ridiculous. Especially if the piled up bodies just inside the door had anything to say about it. Tank shouldered a griffin, sending him flying into a few other griffins and knocking them all down. Archer took care of the group in short order, and there was a brief break in the action as the griffins either waited for more troops or regrouped with the ones they still had. He heard what might have been some clanging outside, the other team must've responded. "We need to get out of here now, before they come back! Get the hostages into a group, we're going to keep them inside a protective circle." Dash nodded and ran into the back room, returning a few moments later with the group of ponies, many of them limping. Tank pulled Morning Rain onto his back, making his way to the door. Dash joined him, along with the rest of Team Green Bean, forming a line across the door. As Jason looked over the square, his jaw dropped slightly at the sheer number of griffins lined up against them. They were in a huge semicircle around the church, the clanging of weapons apparently emanating from a location further off. Jason pulled the gun off his back, taking a step forward. "I guess this is the moment of truth..." He said, still looking over the line of griffins, at least fifty to seventy five strong. He ejected the magazine from the AUG, grabbing one from the explosives belt and replacing it with a solid thunk as it slid into position. Tank pushed a pew out from inside setting it up at the top of the stairs before joining the line a couple more stairs down. "Stay close together," Dash started, "We aren't going to win if we're spread out." She looked about as nervous as the other ponies, but there was no way they could take out all these griffins from their position inside; there was nowhere to retreat if they were overrun. The awkward staring match continued for a few more moments before the griffins made the first move. "CHARGE!!" One of them bellowed, and they took off towards city hall. Jason propped his gun on the barricade, firing a mag into the crowd at top speed. By the time he had gone dry, the griffins were too close to give him a chance to re-load and fire further ammunition. Jason pulled out the mag, shoving it into an explosives belt loop as he shoved a new mag in, simultaneously throwing the weapon onto his back. The ponies had formed a protective half circle a little below the top of the stairs, like the pocket around a quarterback. Jason galloped up to the line, replacing a pony that was killed just as he arrived. Jason pushed the corpse backwards with his magic, knocking a thrust spear out of the way as he dodged. Dash, who had apparently ended up next to him on the line, lunged over to the griffin, slitting his throat. Jason shoved the griffin, pushing him backwards into one of his allies. The pair rolled down the stairs, accumulating several more griffins as they reached the bottom. Jason picked up the discarded spear, rearing up to throw it into the crowd. As he was pulling his hoof back to throw, a spear glanced off his side, leaving a rather deep gash in his chitin. Jason winced and threw the spear, sinking it into the leg of one of the griffins further down the stairs. The line took a few steps back, backtracking up a few of the steps towards the town hall. Dash tripped over the crest of one of the stairs as she backed up, falling flat on her back. Jason's eyes went wide as a griffin reared up before her, pulling his arm back to plunge in the spear. In a split second, partially retarded decision, he dove forward, knocking the spear out of the way as it came down towards Dash. He rolled down a couple of steps after hitting the ground, looking back briefly to see that Dash had gotten up, unharmed. A griffin blocked his view, then two, then three. So now he was stuck in the middle of the group of griffins. Great. He stabbed one in the leg that got close, swiveling his head rapidly to try to keep an eye on all of his threats. One lunged, and Jason ducked under the griffin, vaulting him off his back. He jumped up into the air, trying to return to the line before a spear hit him in the side, sending him flying out of control through the air. He hit the street, at the bottom of the steps, painfully bending a wing before he grabbed the spear and yanking it out. It hadn't gone deep at all, thankfully, only about half of the tip had ended up stabbing inside him. He got up, hearing his name yelled, presumably by Dash. He didn't have enough time to respond as several griffins advanced on him, more than he was comfortable fighting alone. As he was still trying to figure out a plan, a fisted talon hit him in the same side as the spear had, the characteristic crack sound letting him know that his armor'd been broken, again. God dammit. He jumped up from the ground, putting a hoof to his back to pull down the gun. All he felt was the familiar, smooth chitin, and he froze for a moment, until he noticed that it lay discarded on the ground a ways away. It must've fallen off in the middle of the fighting, or when he'd try to fly back to the rest of the ponies. He sighed, squaring up his fighting stance as the griffins from before re-surrounded him. Before any of them could prepare he took off towards one of the griffins, buzzing his wings for extra speed, and smashed into the griffin's chest with his fore hooves. He heard a couple small cracks from the hooves, probably just bending slightly under the pressure rather than cracking outright. The griffin hit the ground, sliding along on his back. Jason drew the blade across his throat before the griffin could react, turning back just in time to fade away from a thrown spear. It glanced off the inside of one of his legs, leaving another gash. Jason grabbed the spear and threw it towards the griffins, hitting one in the back foot. He sucked at throwing these things. The three remaining uninjured griffins advanced on him simultaneously, not looking unlike a cat in their stalking movements. One dove for Jason, and he jumped to the side, too slowly as it turned out. The griffin managed to get a talon around Jason's back leg, pulling it out from underneath him and causing him to fall over. He pulled his hoof free in enough time to see another griffin dive at him, talons bared menacingly. He put his hooves out in front of his chest and turned his head away as the griffin landed on top of him heavily. He heard a roar of anger, followed by several scratches to his body and head before the griffin passed out from its wounds, caused by landing on Jason's outward pointing knives. He pushed the rather heavy body to the side, trying to catch his breath after it had been knocked from his chest. He pulled one of the knives out of his hoof and threw it at the final griffin, sticking it in his chest. The griffin lumbered a few more steps, taking a weak swing at him with the spear before falling over in a bout of ragged breaths. Jason got up and retrieved his knife, no longer its usual black. But then again, he wasn't his usual black, with all this blood around. He turned around to receive a heavy blow to the face. He skidded backwards, putting a hoof to his muzzle to find that it was already bleeding. The griffin that had issued the blow was a rather burly griffin, muscular but still only a little above average in size. Judging by the vest, he was an officer. The griffin trotted over before Jason could get to his feet and shouldered him over, rearing up to bring the stick back down. Jason rolled out of the way, getting up to find out that it was, indeed, just a stick. "Ooh, you're a slippery one. No matter." He trotted over, flinging the stick at Jason from all angles. Jason tried to block it with his fore hooves, but the combination of tricky balance and the lack of elbows that bent the same way as in the fighting he actually knew led to more than a few blows to the face and chest. Jason jumped back as the griffin thrust the stick towards him, buzzing his wings to get further away. He couldn't fight this guy, not alone. The gun. He looked around, seeing it in it's same position, and took off for it. The griffin took a few steps to intercept Jason before pouncing, putting up his stick to block Jason's counter-strikes. The griffin pinned him, pressing down on the stick as it lay across Jason's hooves, just above his throat. Jason strained back against the griffin's weight, trying to push the griffin and his weapon away. The griffin only chuckled, starting to push down in addition to the pressure from his weight. The stick started to move downward, depressing into Jason's throat with more and more pressure. The armor cracked, and he started to find it hard to breathe. He took a deep breath before his wind pipe was completely constricted, and he strained harder against the pole, managing to push it back an inch or so and take another breath. His arms were beginning to weaken, he couldn't do this forever. The griffin seemed to pick up on his dilemma, and pushed the rod down harder, completely cutting off Jason's air supply. Jason turned his head, finding the gun only a few feet away. He stuck out his foreleg weakly, wiggling it around to grasp the gun. He remembered too late that he had magic, and started to inch the gun over, trying not to notify the griffin. Jason heard another chuckle as the gun slid away, disappearing into one of the dark spots that had appeared in his vision. He looked back up at the griffin, who was smiling downward at Jason as he leaned on the rod. Then the griffin looked up and cursed, jumping backwards as a blade attached to a blue and black hoof slid over Jason's body. Jason took in a deep breath as the stick left his neck, huffing and puffing as he rolled over to get to his feet. He heard a soft clang as Dash hit the side of her knife against the griffin's stick. Jason chanced a look over towards the town hall, finding that the stairs were still in the middle of a battle. Jason trotted over to his gun as fast as his oxygen-deprived body could move him, and he picked it up, pointing it towards the griffin. "Hey! Don't move or I'll blow your fucking head off." Jason yelled over, still pointing the gun. The griffin turned and chuckled. "That's the thing that killed some of my soldiers, huh?" He asked. "Yeah, and it'll do the same to you." "Like that thing could actually hurt a fly. All that was just smoke and mirrors." He said. Jason smiled, aiming the gun at the griffin's rear leg. BANG The griffin let out a yelp, falling backwards as he held onto his leg. "That's not possible, how could you just cause pain like that?" "It's funny how little you know." He turned to Dash. "So, should we take a prisoner or is he not worth it?" Dash shrugged, kicking the griffin over when he tried to get up. "Your call, but there are probably going to be more griffins here pretty soon, so make it fast." Jason nodded and leveled the gun to the griffin's head, watching him struggle as he tried to get up. Jason struggled for a moment before shifting the gun and hitting the griffin with the but instead, knocking him unconscious. "We're taking him back. If that proves useless we can kill him there." He turned in time to see a couple of griffins come running out of a nearby alley, slight expressions of surprise coming over their faces. There were only two, he figured that at this point it was a waste of bullets. He slung the gun over his shoulder, making sure it was secure before he threw himself at one of the griffins while Dash took out the other. Jason turned back to the crowd of griffins on the stairs, noticing immediately that their numbers were much smaller then they had been. He trotted over, still trying to fully regain his breath. A griffin turned and stabbed at him, only to get cut down by Tank's machete as the lines started to crumble. Over the span of only a couple seconds, the rest of the griffins were either killed or injured as the team finally finished off the last of the attack force. Jason pulled his knife out of a griffin, quickly trotting around the bodies and up the stairs, getting to the ponies that had managed to hold the line together. At least five or six were dead or had lost too much blood to be healed; he could heal the injuries, but as far as he knew he couldn't replace blood. He walked over to Tank, who had collapsed on the ground, holding his leg. Jason quickly healed up the wound, not deep, but threateningly close to his knee. There were a few more clangs before the night went silent, and the other team showed up in the square. Only two ponies came in at first, the two officers. Jason smiled to himself, apparently Shining was right about those two. A few more came onto the square within a minute, making the numbers up to seven. The officers made their way over, their jaws more than slightly agape at the sheer number of corpses lying around. Archer was in the middle of tying up the griffin, and Tank had just returned with Morning Rain on his back, most of the hostages behind him. "Grab one of the dead ponies, we might as well bring them back for burial. I don't want to take the chance that they get stuck here." He walked over and scooped up one of the hostages that had been killed in the fray, shifting his gun on his back to put less pressure on top of it. Dash pulled another corpse onto her back. "Anyone injured, to the extent that they can't walk?" Eravel raised his talon, signaling Jason over towards another pony, who he recognized to be Steve. The pony was holding his fore hoof gingerly, trying not to irritate the deep gash on the front side. Jason sighed and ran some magic through his horn, finally feeling the fatigue as the battle seemed to end. Apparently he'd been running on sheer adrenaline. Steve's wound healed in front of him, turning into a wide scar. One of the other things Jason'd learned about healing was to leave scars alone; they were a lot of work for very little gain. "First time neither of us have been hurt in a conflict, eh Jason?" Dash asked before yawning. "Yeah, I guess. There was that first day in Canterlot, but that was pretty light." He turned to address the rest of the remaining ponies, the other team included. Ten killed so far, four of them ponies that had volunteered to fight. Eleven if that pony on the other Team Green Bean was actually dead. "As far as I'm concerned, this is still a hostile city. There're probably at least a fair number of griffins around here that weren't involved in this. But our mission is still the same, we've got to get these ponies out of here. We can send in the army afterwards. Now let's get going." There was the shuffling of hooves as the soldiers chose to salute instead of yelling 'sir yes sir' like they usually did. Jason let out a slight sigh of relief, looking slightly miffed as one of the officers sprinted inside yelling some pony's name. "Any other able bodied ponies, go inside and grab a fallen pony, we're getting their bodies out of here." Dash said, turning to one of the officers, the mare. "What's the situation with casualties on your team?" "We lost one, and Dull Shine kinda seemed to lose it." She pointed down the stairs at a pony, who was huddled on the ground, muttering to himself. "Couldn't handle it, I guess." "Looks like we're going to be using those two alternates after all." Jason said. He waved the officer through the door, and she gave a solute before walking past. He turned to Dash. "Remind me to get Celestia to start making dog tags." "What?" "Oh, they're like forms of identification, you wear them around your neck, and I think they have your name and unit, possibly more." Dash looked around at a couple of the ponies slung over the backs of Team Green Bean. "That's probably a good call. I really don't want to have an unmarked grave." "Yeah, me neither." The last couple of ponies filtered out the door, and Jason turned to address them. "We're going to leave, so I want a protective circle around these ponies at all times as we leave. Eravel, what's the fastest way out?" "Down that street over there, it leads straight back towards camp." He pointed a talon. "Okay, anyone with a free back grab Dusk? Dull? I think it was Dull." Jason asked. A couple of ponies nodded in conformation, before leading the hostages outside. Jason couldn't help but notice in what good shape the ponies were. He had to give the griffins some respect, they had at least seemed to be serious about the deal. They grouped up in the middle of the square, starting to move down the street. Jason couldn't help but notice the calm that had washed over the area as soon as they had taken out the last of that group of griffins. They continued to inch down the roadway, forced to keep the pace of the slowest pony. Tank had distributed a fair number of spears to the hostages, as a sort of fail-safe. Jason looked around the roofs of the surrounding buildings, checking for activity. He jumped as he caught sight of a griffin wingtip, but as soon as he blinked it was gone. He could've sworn... Going back to his scanning, he didn't notice anything else of interest. Then he noticed a griffin on the roof, and another, and another. "AMBUSH!!!" They started to pick up the pace, moving down the street slightly quickly as the ponies inside the protective circle sped up, fighting through any injuries. More than a few griffins flew off the roofs surrounding the rather large group, floating over. Jason gestured for one of the uninjured ponies to come over, before carefully transferring the pony he'd been carrying to the stallion. He grabbed the gun off his back, aiming it upwards at the griffins. BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG Several griffins fell out of the sky, contacting the pavement just behind the group with heavy thumps. The other griffins seemed to get the idea, quickly landing and surrounding the group. There weren't that many, although Jason couldn't be too sure. BANG BANG BANG He shot at two of the griffins in front of him before the got too close before throwing the gun back over his back, spreading out his hooves in a fighting stance. He charged a griffin, who put up his spear to protect himself. Jason swung a knife into the stick, sinking it in before he made contact and split the spear in half. He landed on the griffin, pinning him and slitting his throat before flipping back around to block another spear. Steve shouldered the offending griffin, sending him past Jason as he flew through the air. The griffin hit his head on a loose cobblestone and went limp as another griffin dove in, swinging his spear more like a club. Jason put his hoof up, blocking the spear at the expense of another crack. He pushed back against the spear briefly before an arrow flew right over Jason's shoulder and hit the griffin's neck. He ran a hoof from his shoulder to his ear, trying to find any hint of injury. God damn that arrow had been close. Steve tapped his side, jumping backwards from a spear thrust immediately afterwards. He pointed back to the group, which had moved a ways away. Steve blocked another spear thrust at him before he gored a griffin, and turned to regroup. Jason followed him back, finding that most of the griffins had been dealt with. Archer was limping along with a deep cut on his hind leg, still holding his position next to Hunter, who had two cut up fore legs. Jason couldn't heal them right now, at least not with these griffins all over the place like this. He felt grass under his hooves as they exited the street onto a meadow. As soon as they got to the nearby tree line they wouldn't be pursued, he hoped. He slashed at another griffin, cutting off a talon. He continued to back up, no longer trying to kill, just buy time. A spear throw stuck in the dirt next to his hooves, and he chanced a look backwards towards the forest. They were close. He jumped backwards, bumping into a pony. He turned to see who it was, finding that Dash had ended up at his side. They made a good team, he thought as he slashed at another griffin. The moonlight was suddenly blocked as the foliage of the forest got in the way, sending the battle into an eerie darkness. There was a brief interlude in the fighting as the ponies' and griffins' eyes adjusted to the new darkness before the battle continued to rage. Jason jumped as he heard a battle cry, and sighed. More griffins. But much to his surprise, and to Dash's judging by her gasp, a hundred or so ponies raced out of the woods from behind their little group, surrounding and decimating the griffins in mere moments. Jason's jaw dropped. "What the fuck..." He said, and from Dash's expression, he could tell she felt the same. A pony walked up, sliding his helmet off. Shining Armor smiled. "You think I'd let you attempt another hair brained scheme without some sort of backup plan?" He chuckled. "Plus, taking the town's a lot easier without civilians all over the place, like they are in the daytime." "So are you coming back to camp with us?" "Yeah." He gestured a for a couple of guards to come over. "With a few extra escorts." "So could you see all of that from camp?" Jason gestured back towards the town. "Most of it," Dash walked up and Shining smiled. "From what I can see here there weren't too many losses." "Yeah, one from the other team and several hostages." "I guess you have to break a couple eggs to make an omelet. Judging by these numbers though, I'd say you succeeded." Shining turned to the small army, who was in a semi circle around the pair. He stomped a hoof onto the ground. "Somepony mark today's date, because this is the day we take this city down!!!!" There was a huge cheer as the ponies turned and charged away, disappearing into the gloom of the forest.