September 26th, 1986 2312 Zulu
NATO Forward Position "Mr. Ed",
Thirteen Miles From Baltimare,
Equestrian Territory
John Richardson, who had been reassigned to the Equestrian campaign after the loss of the majority his squad to pro-pony terrorists in Berlin not even a week before, flipped the page of his Tom Clancy novel. The specialist wished that he could simply stay in Berlin, where very little action was currently happening. The irony of the novel he was reading and his present situation was lost on him, as he continued to read.
The solider wished that he didn't have to explain to his wife what he was doing here. It wasn't that the war made no sense to him- he actually understood all of the reasons behind the war. It wasn't very convoluted, on the contrary the reasons seemed almost too good to be true.
The solider was taken from his reading by his friend, Corporal Jacob Robinson, who was not with his fire team on that night, "The Major's saying we need to talk to him. Rest of the guys aren't moving up though. Maybe we're going to turn the tide?" The corporal playfully shoved his friend.
After the initial landing, the ponies guessed ways that they could stop the humans. One of these ideas was that human aircraft and troops could be adversely effected by bad weather. While it didn't inhibit troop movements, it did inhibit the operations of aircraft. Hypothetically, the Americans could advance, but NATO command was reluctant to move up without air superiority.
However, after speaking to their new gryphon allies earlier in the day they learned that the gryphons could also change the weather to suit their own needs. Some of the now allied resistance unicorns were willing to provide magical support and intelligence to get the humans to the facility in which the weather originates and how to stop it. Unfortunately for Richardson, this was going to be his job.
As the specialist followed Robinson to the line, he gulped. He had barely seen combat before, and that could barely be considered such; just a moron with a water pistol.
After they walked in , the squad about-faced and saluted the Major who saluted back before speaking; "At ease, men," he said in a calm tone. "I assume you know we're currently in a bit of a pickle with air support," the major quickly summarized their predicament before moving on,"The ponies have a facility that creates weather here," he pointed to a red 'X' that was marked on the middle of a satellite photo of Equestria, "I assure you, as absurd as it sounds, I am serious. I am telling you this because you will be inserted, past the thunderstorm, and into their facility. It's quite risky to fly into a thunderstorm, as you might guess, so we're going to send you in via ground convoy.
"The facility is in a cloud, so a team of gryphons will assist you in this mission. Some pony resistance members are also going to give you guys a charm that gives you the ability to walk on clouds or something along those lines. Any questions?"
No one raised their hand, "Good."
As the specialist joined his squad behind a Bradley and two Humvees, he wondered how it would go. Would he be able to kill all of the bastards? Or would it go down like that night in Berlin? Only time would tell for the twenty year old US Army member.
September 27th, 1986 0423 Zulu
Operation Weathercaster,
Recon Assignment Bravo,
Two Miles From Cloudsdale,
During the five-hour trip, the specialist had gotten to know a gryphon by the name of Reforger, whom he had learned had a family in the Gryphon Kingdoms, which was now in another dimension. For the specialist who had been feeling homesick earlier, it didn't seem possible to bear such a distance. But, as Reforger had told him, this was the only way he ever had a chance of seeing his family again.
When they exited the vehicles, one painstakingly obvious question had to be asked; how exactly did they intend to reach the top of these clouds?
Fortunately, after Robinson asked, the gryphons answered by flying up to the city, and each one of the four brought down a cloud; each one about the size of a Humvee. The humans were told by the gryphons to step on to the clouds. Richardson, who was willing to trust his new friend, was the first to step onto the cloud.
To his, and his comrades', surprise, he didn't fall through. Instead, he was floating a couple feet above the ground. It wasn't much- but it showed what they could do. The other soldiers got on the clouds, and the gryphons brought them up to the city of Cloudsdale. As the soldiers prepared to step off, each checked his parachute, just in case things didn't go as planned.
The men ran through the city quickly, clearing buildings, and destroying the weather producing equipment used by the ponies. The Royal Guards in the town didn't put up a fight, and were taken prisoner without a shot being fired. After the report was given to high command back at FOB Mr. Ed, they got word back that a pair British Lynx helicopters were on the way to drop off SAS personnel to hold the compound and ferry the Americans back to base.
To John, it didn't seem logical to use Special Forces for the holding of objectives- especially after reading about their portrayals in his novels- but that wasn't his concern. His concern was to accomplish the objective that was given to him by command. And, for him, it was all staying quite simple. Looking at his watch, he sighed. This was going to be a long night.
27th September, 1986 0942 Zulu,
Outside Trottingham,
Soviet FOB,
Lieutenant Ivan Averin, Platoon Leader, VDV
The helicopters that had been parked at the base for the last two days with no sign of movement started taking off, regardless of the fact that it was now late into the night. With the storm patterns that had inhibited their aircraft movement in the few days since gone, they were presented with an opportunity to move quickly, as their initial push was two days before.
Like the embarking vehicles, Averin was also part of the advance. His men were starting to line up after getting their NBC suits on, and soon they would get into their trucks and leave. The Lieutenant ensured that his squad leaders would check their own squads, and they would keep each other in order.
Averin briefed his men a final time, telling them their basic outline. Soon, he loaded them up into the three trucks and got into his seat, the closest to the exit of the vehicle in the lead truck, as he intended to be the first one out, to lead his men like a real Soviet Officer.
It was a long drive, but they were going to be in formation for the majority of it, so it didn't seem like they were likely to be ambushed. During the Lieutenant's deployment in Afghanistan in 1984, he learned what factors were present most common in an ambush. But for this mission, the Soviets would be taking the ponies by surprise.
27th September, 1986 1156 Zulu,
Forward Artillery Position,
46 Kilometers East of Soviet FOB Trottingham,
Captain Naumov,
As the men pulled the last D-30 gun from its position on a trailer towed behind the large Ural cargo truck, the Captain in charge stepped out of the passenger seat of his UAZ-469 with his left hand holding the wired in handset of long-range radio, which was mounted adjacent to the dashboard of the off-road. He called to his men.
"We're getting word from headquarters to standby, our guys will need us soon."
27th September, 1986 1213 Zulu,
LZ Yelena,
5 Kilometers from unidentified large Equestrian Base,
Lieutenant Ivan Averin, Platoon Leader, VDV
Averin's men all were ready in their columns. The squads individually were ready to move into the area as soon as they could. It was their job to scout the area, after they had arrived, they would have close air, armored and artillery support. To the men, this could be incredibly dangerous. They were going into an unknown area and dealing with forces that they had little to no intel on.
Averin knew that the men might be cocky after their first encounter two days before, when they defeated the ponies with very little resistance. The situation could be incredibly problematic, if the men believed they could just beat all of the ponies based on their experience with being able to take them when they were unprepared. Unfortunately, they might not have that luxury this time around.
The Lieutenant moved forward, his men moving in the columns that they had prepped into after unloading. Within minutes, the complex was surrounded and the men would begin to advance. Fortunately, this provided ample time for CAS to arrive on the scene.
The lieutenant moved his men forward, as he was covered by twin Mi-24 gunships, but now he too was starting to get cocky. He believed that with the aircraft covering him and the T-72 tanks holding the supply lines into the Equestrian base, he and his men were invincible.
Due to this error, the men advanced at a rate that exceeded what it should of, even neglecting to call in artillery. As the men began to fire at any of the ponies that exited the buildings that surrounded them, they didn't notice the ponies moving in from the south, where the armor had neglected to cover. This wasn't covered due to command not being aware of an adjacent underground fortification, which had been constructed just before the war began.
The vials flew at the Russians, few making their mark. Those that did were incapable of causing any damage to the soldiers that were wearing the armor. It was then unseen unicorn archers started firing at the VDV troops, tearing up the clothing and even injuring two soldiers. More vials flew. Unfortunately, the contents of some of the vials made contact with the skin of some of the troops.
The Red Army watched in horror as they saw their own men turning into the enemy before their eyes. One of the men turned, now a turquoise earth pony, attempted to pick up his bayonet with his mouth and rush his former comrades with it. All the while, the insidious creature was spouting propaganda about a perfect world in Russian.
One of the non-commissioned officers leveled his Makarov handgun with the pony's head and pulled the trigger. This took the men out of their daze. As they turned towards the other newfoal, he was also spouting the same lies in Russian, in a voice that many of the men recognized as the soldiers'. A private hit the pony over the head with the barrel of his AKS.
Ivan turned to his radio operator. "We need artillery. Something that will show them..." The lieutenant thought, "Give the bastards a taste of their own medicine! We need... Gas."
The soldier manning the radio's expression was not visible through his mask, but he was glad they would be getting back at them using their own tactics. The operator began giving the necessary coordinates to the men manning the artillery pieces miles away.
"Actual is requesting use of VR gas rounds..." The operator added.
"Uh, standby." Came the reply.
"Colonel gave us permission to do so, we are firing chemical rounds now."
27th September, 1986 1342 Zulu,
Sugarcube Corner,
Ponyville, Equestria
Unofficial Meeting of the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony
"I don't get it Twilight. How could Celestia ever do anything wrong?" Rainbow Dash asked her friend, her characteristics representing her element showing.
"Does it really seem like this is really in our best interests? Or the best interests of the humans who are the recipients of the plan? It doesn't make sense why she would do any of this."
Applejack spoke up next, "Twilight's right. Something seems awful fishy about all this."
As if on cue, a pair of flying black objects approached the town, a loud drum coming from them, catching the attention of the elements. Rarity spoke nervously. "Is that..?"
She was never answered, or needed to be as the six ran for cover in the storage center under the building.