//------------------------------// // Operation: Prowling Lion // Story: That Others May Live // by CptBrony //------------------------------// Operation: Prowling Lion The stallions met up with the men at the gate, all their gear ready to go and feeling eager to prove themselves. After doing all their pre-op checks, and securing the gear to a pair of carriages they would be riding for at least part of the journey, they set out. The journey had only taken the day; roughly eight hours of riding under a canopy, hiding from the brutal sun. The pullers of the carriages didn’t seem bothered, though. While they rode, the men went over plans on the map they brought with the stallions. They had managed to stuff almost all the gear in one carriage, while the team rode in the other. The only gear that wasn’t stuffed away were what the men carried in case of an attack. The map indicated that the river was rather large, but not impassable by swimming. The stallions wouldn’t be able to do that, though; their bodies weren’t exactly designed to swim. They could approach directly from any side, except the river side, but that would be suicide, as there was no cover within eighteen meters of the house on land. From the sketch of the building they had said, it looked like there was a set of balconies that would serve perfectly as lookouts for the temporary occupants. Ultimately, they came up with a joint plan; the men would approach through the river, while the stallions would go by land. Once Duke and Frost were across and physically at the compound, they would go about silencing any watchdogs there so that the stallions could approach quietly. If things went loud, they would have to bug out. There were an estimated two dozen hostiles; there could easily be a lot more. Lastly, and most importantly, this exact carriage would go on another, easier route to meet them at an extraction point to pick up at least the rescued prisoners, somewhere on a road to the north of the compound. They went over multiple plans of attack on their wheeled journey and planned for a wide array of potential layouts of the inside of the compound. They had no idea where the hostages would be located, so it was decided that, once inside, Frost would take Rashid and Malik and go up, while Duke took Hamid and Aziz and check around for a basement. If there was no basement, they would join up with Frost’s team heading up and search the floors together. Now, they were slowly making their way across the many hills and small mountains that made up the hostile landscape. Everyone on the team kept their eyes to the sky, watching for any Gryphon patrols that might fly by. More than once, they all dropped and hugged the dirt because of some suspicious clouds. They were only about five klicks away from the target, a perfect place to be made; they could see part of the river from where they were. The team of six slowed their pace and traveled low to the ground as they closed in on the target. As they reached the crest of a hill, Frost pulled his optics out of his webbing and took a look, reducing the zoom for steadier viewing. “Boss, I got eyes on the target building.” “What’s it look like?” Duke replied as he and the stallions closed in on a single spot right behind Frost. Frost took a moment to respond. “We got patrols, two Golfs per. One on the ground, one walking around on the roof. Armed with scimitars and crossbows, plus some lightly glowing orbs.” “Must be those explosives we heard about.” Duke figured. That made things more complicated. But not by too much. “Alright. Everyone, on me.” Duke waved his hand towards himself to get the team close. Frost put away his optics and crawled back, keeping his eyes in the direction of the compound in case anyone came out to say hello. As he slowly crawled back, Duke prepared his weapons, chambering a round in his MP7 and pistol and checking to make sure his knife would come right out if he pulled on it. Once Frost was back, he did the same with his 416 and P226. The stallions watched with wonder as the humans prepped their weapons for combat. “Alright, we got the compound up ahead of us. Everyone remember the plan?” Stoic nods came in reply. “Good. And hand signals, and our friendly designation?” If someone said “Sky”, the reply was “Fall”. Duke nodded, then turned to Frost, asking silently what they would do to get the stallions across. “It looks pretty shallow off in that area, boss.” Frost said, pointing in a direction to an area of the river that he sawe had lots of rocks in it. “They could hop across and wait for us in the brush; they won’t be seen unless they have an air patrol.” Duke nodded again. “Good. You guys catch that?” They all nodded. “Good. Head out to the rocky area, we’ll cross by swimming. We’ll take care of the ground patrol, then you meet us at the end of the brush. DO NOT be seen; remember, use common sense.” Nothing like real world experience to train someone to do something right. The stallions got up and slowly began to make their way to the crossing point in the river. Duke and Frost could tell that they would take a while doing it, so they slowly made their own way down the hill and simply covered the skies and brushline when they got there. They would wait until the stallions were across the river to actually head out. Duke caught something in the corner of his eye. “Shit.” he thought. He keyed his magic mic. “Boys, you need to get low and as invisible as possible; you got a patrol heading your way.” “Yes sir.” came two replies. Duke and Frost hurried over to a large bush and got under and behind it, eyes still on the gryphon who was flying about fifty meters above them. The gryphon stopped for a moment, seemingly looking around, then flew back to the compound, thankfully not in a rush. “Phew.” Frost commented as he climbed out from under the bush. “I’ll say.” Duke replied. He contacted the stallions, and asked, “You guys good?” “We had to drop most of our bodies into the water, but we’re back above and moving to the brush. We shall see you at the rally point.” “Good.” Duke began to move toward the water. “Time to get our feet wet, Frost.” “Hooah.” The men waded into the water and quickly found themselves swimming where their feet couldn’t touch the ground. The water wasn’t frigid, but it must have come from a mountain glacier at some point, because it was far from being warm. As the men swam through, they watched the skies and the brushline for any signs of either their enemies or their friends. An enemy flew into the air, possibly the same as before. “Under!” Duke whispered loudly. The men took in deep breaths and shoved their head under the cold water, which threatened to take said breath away. Keeping with the discipline the received during water training, they swam onward under the surface unable to see if the gryphon above them was floating and looking around. He might have been regularly going out to check the landscape, but Duke wasn’t willing to let that thought cross his mind. He always had to assume that they had been made, and be ready to face a worst case scenario. If he was wrong, then that was good. As they swam forward, pushed sideways to the left by the fairly strong current, their lungs began to grow anxious for some more air. The men fought their instincts and kept on swimming, starting to slowly let out bubbles to ease the pain in their lungs. It was risky, but it could easily be passed off as a fish under the water. Though, seeing as these gryphons probably ate fish, it might have been a poorly thought out idea. Soon enough, their lungs couldn’t handle much more, and they resurfaced. In order to remain quiet, they had to resurface earlier than they could have and make sure that rather than suck in breath and gasp for air, they could breath in slowly and avoid any unnecessary noise. As soon as their heads were out, their eyes scanned the sky for any signs of the gryphon. When they saw nothing, they continued forward. Right as they started to move, though, they saw the hawkish being sitting on the edge of the water. Luckily, he was facing the compound, leaving Duke and Frost safe to continue moving forward. As they moved, they noticed a low orange glow emitting from something that the gryphon was holding, and it was shaped like a small orb. He was holding a magical grenade; stealth was critical. They reached the river bank without making any noise and moved out of the water, weapons at the ready. Duke looked to Frost, who nodded back, putting his weapon back and slowly pulling the FE9 out of its holster. Once he was ready, the men went through with their takedown. Duke ran up and closed his hand around the gryphon’s beak and covering its throat with his other hand, keeping any noise from escaping its maw. Almost simultaneously, Frost ran up behind it and, using the knife’s First Grip, shoved it up into the back of the gryphon’s neck, severing its brain stem swiftly and silently. The beast stopped moving instantly. Frost pulled the knife out and cleaned the blade on the feathers of his fallen foe, then helped Duke to carry the body away to the river, along with the explosive, where they dumped it unceremoniously into the strong current to be carried away. Once done, and sure that the grenade wouldn't detonate, they turned back around and approached the wall of the compound, where they waited and listened for enemy combatants around the corner. They stopped right at the corner, facing the brush, and remained completely still. “Erh- ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah!” Duke and Frost let their attention move to the brush as what sounded like a high-pitched bird call rang out from inside. When they looked over, they saw their stallions, waiting, well-hidden within the brush. “What is it?” Duke asked with a shrug and tilt of his head. The stallion, Rashid, made a circle motion with his forehoof and then put his forelegs out as if they were like wings, making an angry face as he did so. Gryphons were around the corner. “Alright then.” Duke thought, thankful that his new teammates were already proving useful. He signed back, affirming his understanding, and Rashid made his bird call again, looking over at the gryphons around the corner. The two gryphons started to walk toward the brush to investigate the noise. As they moved forward, Duke and Frost came out from the corner and ran up behind them, both with their knives in hand. Frost grabbed the one on the left, closing the beak with his left hand and slitting the throat with the knife in his right. Duke leapt at his from behind and plunged his knife into the neck of his target, bringing him to the ground and keeping the face down. Both men then removed their knives, wiping them on the bodies, and went about moving the bodies. The stallions rushed out to aid the men, and they all brought the bodies to the brush, where they would likely never be found. Once it was taken care of, they all moved over to the wall and regrouped. Duke checked the numbers to make sure everyone was there, and once he was good to go, he gave them a sitrep. “Alright. We took down three Golfs, but there could be more inside. A lot more. Right now, we need to find a way inside. Hamid, Aziz, you two are with me when we head inside.” “Yes sir.” they both replied. “Rashid, Malik, you go with Frost. Frost, your fireteam will head upstairs as soon as possible to start getting a good look around, see if you can find the HVI’s. Do not engage any hostiles unless necessary; this is a rescue, not a raid. I don’t want a bloodbath.” “Rog’.” Frost replied. “My team will check the first floor and see if there’s a basement. If anyone finds the HVI’s, key in and tell the rest of us. We can release’em, bag’em, and get the Hell out of here. Any questions?” No one spoke. “Good. Let’s find a way inside.” Duke took the front of the line as they moved, hugging the wall to avoid being potentially seen by the gryphons up top. They moved slowly at first, but as they rounded the first corner and found themselves exposed to the road, they upped their pace and quickly got away from the open area. As they moved, Duke noticed several windows into the first floor, looking into each one. Inside, he could see gryphons sleeping and doing various simple tasks, but no signs of the prisoners. It made sense; what smart bad guy keeps his prisoners in a room with windows? As they rounded the corner to the last wall, Duke nearly banged his head on an unexpected staircase, narrowly avoiding it. He took one look at it, and smiled to himself, glad that his plan was going to go better than expected. He waited for everyone to group up on the other side of the staircase, where there was also a door to the first floor. “Alright, new idea.” he said. “Frost, take your team and head up these stairs to the second floor. Start your search there; we’ll start down here.” “Got it.” Frost pointed at Rashid and Malik. “You two, up the stairs, on me. Quick and quiet.” He looked back to Duke. “Meet up back out here?” Duke nodded, and Frost took his stallions and went up the stairs, knife out and weapon still behind his back, ready for anything. As he disappeared up the stairs, Duke turned to his own stallions. “Let’s go, those hostages aren’t going to rescue themselves.” He moved over to the door and set his hand on the doorknob. From the looks of it, the door wasn’t designed to have a lock, so Duke just pushed on it to open. It slowly began to move, but let out a little squeak with each inch it moved. Frustrated with the noise, Duke continued to open it very slowly, minimizing the noise and slipping inside, MP7 in hand and pointed forward. Once inside, he took a crouched position next to the door as Hamid and Aziz entered. Now, they were in the belly of the beast. Duke pointed his hand forward so signal Hamid to take point. Hamid nodded and began to move forward through a thin hallway, followed by Duke, weapon up, then Aziz. As they moved down the hallway, they listened for any sign of coming hostiles from the many doorways around them. Some doors were open, demanding a look in before being passed, while others were safe enough to simply walk past. Any closed room where there was no noise required that they open the door to check for the hostages. They had passed and checked eight rooms already, no good results. The first three rooms were empty, just food storage and random junk. Two of them had sleeping gryphons in them, totalling out to around twelve combatants, who had all their battle gear right under their bunks. The others all had explosives in them. Duke’s team stopped before a new door, one that looked very distinct compared to all the others. It was much bigger, made of metal, and looked extremely reinforced. Duke moved into a position to open the door, but upon trying to open it up, found that it did not move. “Something important is in there.” he concluded. From inside, he could hear two voices, speaking casually, like they were very familiar. When he looked around at the hall and the way he came and noticed that there would be no windows in this room. “Definitely worth a check later.” He moved away from the door, noting its location, and kept moving through the building, looking for a basement or a door to one. He and his stallions kept checking rooms, finding more and more enemies and enemy equipment, making him more and more uncomfortable. If anything at all went wrong, they might not get out. Everything had to go perfectly. After several more minutes of checking, Hamid came upon a door with a sign on it. “It reads ‘Basement’.” he explained. The stallion put his ear to the door. “I think I hear someone down there.” Duke nodded, then looked back to Aziz. “Aziz, get ready to come in behind me.” he ordered, getting a nod and moving to open the door. He checked for both stallions to be prepared, and once ready, he opened the door and quickly moved in. He found himself in a staircase. “Check corners.” he said as he made his way down. The stallions followed close behind, nearly stepping on the feet or hooves of whoever was in front as they moved. At the base of the stairs, there was another door. Without a word, they all stacked up on the door and prepared to go in. Duke switched from his MP7 to his knife. “Ready?” Duke asked. A second later, he ordered, “Go!” He threw the door open and ran inside, followed by his stallions, and checked the room. In front of them was a big room rather than a series of halls. Inside the room, there were three gryphon guards, all of them wearing shocked expressions on their beaks and carrying small swords. Before they had a chance to react, Duke, Hamid, and Aziz engaged each one up close. Duke brought his knife around and slashed the throat of his, severing arteries and taking away the gryphon’s ability to speak. Aziz and Hamid sprinted up to their targets and spun around, bucking the hostiles hard in their throats, collapsing their larynxes and breaking their necks. The gryphons fell in gasping messes to the floor to fall to asphyxiation. Duke put his knife away and pulled out his MP7, turning to face the door. “You guys, check for anything or anyone that we should get out of here. I’ll watch the door.” “Yes sir.” Hamid replied. Turning to Aziz, he ordered, “Check for intelligence or hostages.” Aziz nodded and went about the room, looking for anything useful. He walked over to a table and started sifting through piles of documents, checking them for information on the one called OGA, enemy movements, or overall enemy numbers. The papers were all in his own language, so he was easily able to understand. He went through three piles, finding details about enemy supply movements, but little else. They were mostly just manifests. While Aziz worked through more piles of paper, Hamid walked around the room, investigating anything that looked promising. He opened up lockers to reveal explosives and spears, plus armor plates. Their intel had been wrong; it may have been wrong about other things as well. Hamid kept removing cloths from various objects, finding little of genuine interest or use. There were barrels of alcoholic drinks, food, and other basic needs. He found a few personal items, like pictures of families and friends. He disregarded those, looking for something that would actually affect how he would fight them, whether it meant they had an advantage or he did. He kept going until he was in the middle of the wall, looking down at a cube covered with a cloth. He tried to remove it with a simple pull with his mouth, but found that the cloth was securely attached to whatever was under it. Bringing his hoof up, he tapped it twice, getting back a small rattling sound from underneath. Curious, he decided to pull out his secondary weapon, a small knife, and cut at the cloth. Under it, he found a cage. Inside, the cage, he found something of an entirely different nature. “Duke,” he began, taking in the sight before him. “I think you might want to see this.”