//------------------------------// // Operation: Prowling Lion Pt. 2 // Story: That Others May Live // by CptBrony //------------------------------// Operation: Prowling Lion Frost led his team up the stairs and to the second floor, sticking to the sides of each step to avoid putting his weight on the middle and cause any to creak or moan. The stallions tried to do the same, but with their anatomy, they had to spread their legs wide and step on both edges of each step. It took little time for them to reach the door to the second floor. At the top of the stairs, Frost could hear Duke open the door down below and take his team into the lion’s den. Duke had the luxury of space down there; at the top of the stairs, there was just a door, no balcony or anything. Setting his hand on the knob, Frost jiggled it around, testing it. When he found that it would open, he had Malik and Rashid to fall in behind him. “Stack up.” he ordered in a whisper. “Breach in three... two... one...” Frost pushed the door open quickly but quietly, minimizing the noise made and time it was present. Rifle up and taking a crouch position, Frost scanned the hall for hostiles as his teammates entered the building. Once they were inside, Frost stepped back, eyes forward, and shut the door to prevent any light from getting in there. No reason to announce that someone came inside, invite the residents to walk around looking for their comrades. It was safe to assume that they would think that it was time to switch shifts, so they had to minimize their signature in whatever ways they could. Rashid took point as they went through, just like Duke and Frost discussed, with Frost in the middle and Malik in the back. Duke kept his rifle up, ready to fire if absolutely necessary, but kept his knife at the ready at his side. He would be able to easily rip it out for a quiet takedown if the occasion arose. They immediately went about checking rooms, searching for hostages and intel. Unfortunately, this floor must have been mostly residential; they only found enemies in the first few rooms. They all had some gear with them, but most of it must have been stored elsewhere. Frost didn’t want to see the rest of it anyhow. They continued to search rooms, mostly by just peeking inside, each time finding more enemies, making it very clear that being made would get them all killed. As they continued, their steps became more conscientious, keeping as light and nimble as they could. The trio kept their eyes constantly scanning the area, ears perked up to listen for movement. Luckily, none came from the second floor, only the sounds of peaceful breathing from the rooms to any side of them. There was a center room to the floor, but when they looked inside, all they saw was something they wished they hadn’t; it was the group leader’s quarters. There was almost definitely valuable intel in there, but the leader was enormous, lying in bed with what looked like two female gryphons, one on either side. The smell from the room was enough to make them all silently gag, and shut the door quietly to keep the smell inside. If they entered that room, silence would be hard, and if they were made, as concluded before, they would all be killed. After concluding that there was nothing for them to take from this floor, Frost went about looking for the entrance to the top floor, right below the roof patrol. Up there, they would have to be extra careful to avoid making too much noise. There was no way of knowing how thick the roof was. Rashid led the team through the third floor quickly, the image of dozens of enemy fighters still fresh in his mind. On the third floor, there were fewer rooms, but still more gryphons than the team felt comfortable with. They pressed on, though, hunting for anything that might tell them where the hostages were. None of them signed up to be comfortable. Rashid led them through the halls, trying to make his way to the center room of this floor. All the other rooms probably just had more enemies in them, and the center rooms would be the easiest to defend, so that would be the ideal place to keep prisoners. He walked on through the hallways, this floor almost like a maze, trying to find the center room. He passed several rooms multiple times, growing more and more frustrated at his inability to locate the center room. He hadn’t even looked into the other rooms that they didn’t search while they went. Frost was growing confused. The previous floor had a center room. The first floor probably had one. Why would the top floor not have a center room? He supposed that the leader did sleep on the second floor, so there wasn’t as much of a need for one up here. But did that mean that they built this compound themselves? If so, how many more like it were there? He tapped Rashid on his back to stop. “Hold.” he ordered. Rashid stopped, Malik turning around to keep his eyes directly on their rear while they waited. Frost looked around, trying to figure out the top floor. It was clear that there was no center room; where they stood was where the center room would be. They were in the very middle of the floor. Before he could continue thinking, his mic went off. “Frost.” Duke’s voice came clearly. “Yeah?” Frost replied in a whisper. “We found two HVI’s.” Duke replied, the sound of a cage being smashed in the background. “Neither is injured, just shaken and tired. There might be another one, but not in either of our AO’s. Search whatever areas you haven’t, then regroup outside by the brush. But be quick.” “Roger.” Frost tapped Rashid on the back again. “Time to search the other rooms; lead away.” “Yes sir.” Rashid replied. They got back to moving, heading in the direction of the rooms that they hadn’t looked in while searching for a center room. Rashid hadn’t kept track of the way while they were moving before, so they had to walk around the floor blindly until they found their way. They crept through the hall, alert like a gazelle grazing in a plain, watching for enemies. A door shot open in front of them, lighting up the hallway with the blue hue of bright moonlight, temporarily blinding the team. Instantly, Frost got up against the wall, dragging Rashid with him and reaching back to grab Malik when he was safe. They pressed themselves against the wall, eyes forward during their recovery, ready to strike. A gryphon came out of the doorway and moved to the right, getting on the other side of the light coming through the door. “Peregrine? You there?” she said in English, clearly female. Foreign fighters. When she got no response, she shrugged, turned around, and walked back towards the door. She rubbed her eyes and shifted her gaze forward, right in the direction of the team, then went back inside, grumbling to herself sleepily. Frost released a pent up breath he didn’t know he had, relief flooding through his body. “Alright.” he said. “We search the rooms, then bug the hell out of here. Let’s move.” They moved at a quickened pace, eager to find their rooms and get out of what could easily become a killzone. It didn’t take long to find the rooms this time, Frost mostly just glancing inside and seeing more gryphons in each room. Up here, though, there seemed to be more females sleeping on nicer beds. They must have separated the floors by gender. Made sense; too much noise can take away others’ sleep. The contents of last room, though, gave the team pause. When they cracked the door open, inside, Frost saw a gryphon with a massive blade, drawing a sharpening stone across it like a he was caressing his lover. He even had a creepy face to go with the action, like he was married to his blade. He was facing the door for a minute, but he must have finished with his sword, as he turned around and set it on a table, grabbing a cloth and polishing it. Frost took the opportunity to open the door further and get a better look into the room. He found what they were looking for; in the middle of the room, there was a horse, or a pony, considering its size. It had a yellow coat and a long red mane, kept together by a big red bow on top of her head. Its eyes were covered by a nasty looking rag, like it came off the streets. At the base of its neck, it wore a neckerchief, green with red spots. But it took Frost only a moment to determine that the red spots weren’t meant to be there. The gryphon started to turn around, and Frost hurriedly shut the door. Inside, he could hear it talking. “You think that you can just infiltrate our organization, steal our secrets?” a male voice asked commandingly. “We know that you are with the CIA.” Frost had to shake his head, knowing that his CIA wasn’t going to be here. “Please, mister... I don’t know what y’all are talkin’ about.” The hostage replied. It was obviously female, but had an inexplicable southern US accent, like she was from Alabama or something. “Please, just let us go.” The sound of metal scraping on the floor eerily made its way across the inside of the room. “Now now. We don’t want you to get hurt again.” Anger and alarm filled Frost from top to bottom. “We know what happens when you lie.” The sound of a small scuffle came from the other side of the door. “Please, don’t... please!” The gryphon began to laugh inside, grunting as he lifted something heavy off the ground. “Shit, stack up!” It only took a second. “Please don’t!” “GO!” Rashid kicked the door in and Frost and Malik stormed into the room, weapons at the ready. The gryphon spun around, taken by surprise, a snarl appearing on his face. His sword was already high in the air, and he brought it down with the force of a freight truck on Malik. Malik narrowly dodged, the blade shaving off a patch of hair before slamming into the ground with a loud clang. As he rolled, up, Malik shot his legs out in a buck, knocking the gryphon back. Rashid moved into position behind the gryphon and managed to put the gryphon into a full nelson, causing him to drop the sword and flail about, shouting, trying to get out. As he held him there, Frost came up with his knife and stabbed it into the gryphon’s chest, then moved aside, leaving it there. Malik came up and bucked the knife in further, knocking the wind out of the gryphon as the knife went in deep enough that only the end of the handle was visible. Frost returned and yanked the knife out, generating a loud schluck noise as it was released.The gryphon fell, the sucking chest wound filling his lung with blood, trying to gasp for air, but only spurting out blood. As he writhed on the ground, Frost could hear noises come from the halls. Their little battle had made quite a bit of noise. “Malik, shut the door and keep it closed!” Frost ordered, going over to the mare in the middle of the room. Malik ran over and bucked the door shut, then went about moving some furniture from the area against it, Rashid jumping in to help. Malik and Rashid pressed themselves against their barricade to add more defense, making sure that the other residents couldn’t push the door open. Outside, they could hear several of them trying to talk to the dead gryphon inside. “Is everything alright?” “Are you good, need help?” “Just come to bed already!” They started to bang on the door, demanding that it open up. Malik and Rashid looked at each other, cynical looks on their faces. When they turned around to see Frost, they saw him untying the mare and looking her over for injuries. Frost didn’t like what he was seeing; she was cut up on her back and belly, she had bruises and possibly damaged bones all over, and she might have had a head injury. There could be severe psychological trauma from torture, if that gryphon had been doing that to her before. Her condition wasn’t terribly permitting of easy travel, so he would likely have to carry her out of the building. But now, that wasn’t much of an option. He removed the cloth around her eyes, causing her to blink and look around frantically before she finally looked at him. “Wha..?” she said, shock evident in her eyes. That could be very bad. “We’re here to bring you home.” Frost said. Instantly, her eyes started to tear up and she leapt forward and wrapped her forelegs around Frost. He always loved saying that to people. The banging on the door was getting worse. “Boss, we gotta go!” Rashid yelled. After his shout, the gryphons outside must have figured out what was happening, and they started all out attacking the door. It opened just a little, letting everyone see each other. “Now!” Frost nodded, looked around for an exit, and concluded that the only way out was a window off to the side. When he ran over and opened it, he was thankful to see that there was a balcony outside. “This way!” he shouted, climbing out the window. The gryphons on the other side of the door were fully aware of the situation now, and frantically assaulted the door to get inside. Once out, he turned back to it. “Come on, mare, I’ll get you.” The mare looked around, then left through the window, eager to escape her captors. Malik and Rashid followed soon after, abandoning their barricade for the safety of exposure outside. Once everyone was out, Frost took a look around the ground, looking for the brush. Evidently, it was the wrong side, so they had to move in order to find it. When they did, they stopped and looked for Duke and his fireteam. Duke stepped out of the brush and looked up. “What are you doing up there? We gotta go!” Frost scanned the area, looking for that roof patrol. They were nowhere to be seen. “We got held up; we’re gonna have to jump down.” Duke sighed and turned around, calling to Hamid and Aziz. When they were out, he looked back up. “Alright, we’ll try to catch you. But don’t expect any miracles.” Frost nodded, a cynical smile on his face, and turned to his charge. “Alright, mare. You jump off here, they’ll catch you. We’ll be right behind you.” She swallowed hard. “Sure thing.” She was looking at him funny, which Frost would have to figure out later, then jumped off the balcony. Duke managed to catch her with some effort, then sent her into the brush. Frost and his team all jumped off on their own, rolling as they hit the ground to varying degrees of success. Overall, none of them enjoyed the experience. They recovered quickly, then moved behind the brushline and out of sight. Duke led them through dense foliage, far away from the compound, eventually coming on the three rescued hostages; two ponies, one horse. The other pony was a white unicorn with a blue mane, and he looked like one of the tougher ones you might encounter here and there. Once they had regrouped, they sat in a close circle, trying to figure out what to do. “Alright.” Duke started. “We’ve been made, but we should be safe for now. If we keep moving up the treeline, we can make it to the exfil point and get out of here without incident. Questions?” That was directed more towards the hostages, none of whom spoke. “Good. Let’s move.” Duke took the lead, and Frost took the back, with their stallions scattered around a bit and the rescued prisoners in the middle. There was little actual worry about being seen and attacked while in the brush, but one can never be too careful when in enemy territory. All eyes were constantly scanning the area for enemies entering the brush, either from the sides or from above. The only audible noise from anyone was from the hostages. They continued through the brush for almost an hour, never stopping once for anything. If anyone had to use the bathroom, they did so while moving, much to the chagrin of anyone behind. If the ground became unstable and muddy, they walked on roots, however uncomfortable. No one slowed down, and no one wanted to. Frost was watching the mare he had rescued like a hawk, noting any changes in her walking pattern. She stumbled here and there, drawing Frost a little closer to her, but she stayed on her feet well enough. They had been traveling at a pace that forced her to make an effort to keep up, but she did just fine. Until she just couldn’t stand any more. Without any advance warning, she listed off to her left and began to fall to the marshy ground. “Catch her!” Frost shouted to Hamid, who was the only one close enough. The stallion dove under her to catch her, just making it underneath her and keeping her open wounds out of the marsh. Ahead of them, Duke halted the group and spun around to see Frost rushing forward to see the mare on Hamid’s back. Cursing to himself, he moved back as well to check on her. “What happened?” he asked as he ran back. Frost picked up the mare off Hamid’s back and set her against a tree, examining her. “She had been tortured by a gryphon in the compound. Her injuries didn’t look terrible, but they must have been old and never allowed to close; she’s low on blood.” Snarling, Duke took a look at her. She definitely had been tortured, and her complexion was getting bad. Her face was paler than normal, her eyes were dilated, and her legs shook. She was obviously extremely fatigued by her experiences. If they didn’t get her out soon and treat her in a cleaner environment, she could easily die. “Get her on your back, Frost, and get in the middle.” Frost nodded and set to work, Duke turning his attention to everyone else. “Alright guys, time to haul ass outta here, double time!” He ran back to the front, evading trees and plants, and started to immediately make his way forward. They got to moving again, faster and with greater purpose, while at the same time trying to keep the mare alive. Hamid had had taken a cloth from inside the building, and was wrapping it around the mare’s back while they moved. He had to reduce the bleeding, or she could bleed out on Frost’s back. As Duke had taught them, non-combatant casualties are unacceptable. It did not take too long for them to get to the end of the brush and find themselves not too far from a road. Checking his map, Duke made sure that this was the road where they would meet the carriage for extraction. When he confirm it, he gave the order to get to the road and wait for their only hope to save the mare. They reached the road, panting by the time they got there, running at top speed, and stopped to check everyone. As soon as Duke determined that they were all present, he turned to Frost. “Set her down.” he ordered. Frost got as low as he could and set the mare down gently, keeping her more wounded back facing up for the aid of gravity. Once she was lying on the ground, Duke ran over, pulling out his blowout kit, and set to work treating the mare’s wounds. Frost pulled up his rifle and scanned the skies while Duke did his work, crouched low and steady. He listened as he tore the tape and pulled out the gauze pads, setting them in place on the mare and wrapping her up like a mummy on halloween. She made little noises of protest to Duke’s invasive procedures, but her protests went unheeded as Duke saved her life. Using a small flashlight, Duke then proceeded to perform a neurological exam to check for a head injury. It was pointless, really; she couldn’t focus anyhow. As Duke finished up, Frost looked around, looking for the carriage. “Where the hell is our extraction?” he wondered aloud and angrily. Rashid stepped forward. “It will be here. Do not worry.” Duke glanced at him, unsure of whether or not to feel relieved, and opted to instead just keep his eyes open. And his open eyes spotted something that pissed him off more than anything else. “Contact!” he shouted, pointing his rifle at the sky. Everyone turned and looked in the same direction, seeing two gryphons flying in their direction. They must not have been sure about what they saw; they flew well within Frost’s range before screeching as loudly as possible and going for a dive. The stallions reacted by surrounding the HVI’s, forming a defensive circle around them and facing outwards. Duke and Frost stood between the mare and the gryphons and opened automatic fire on the birds, spraying a wall of bullets at their oncoming attackers. The gryphons weren’t able to get out of the way of the supersonic bits of lead flying their way and dropped to the ground like sacks of grain, bloody and riddled with holes. Off in the distance, the sound of more screeches could be heard resonating through the valley. “Boss,” Frost said trepidatiously. “I think we might have company soon.” Duke growled. “I know.” He thought about what to do. There was no way they could outrun the enemy; they could fly. Without a good set of wheels and fast runners, it was a hopeless endeavor. They would be forced to stand and fight if it came to that, and with the sheer numbers that they saw before, that didn’t seem like a very fun prospect. Duke and Frost kept their eyes on the horizon, waiting for the enemy to show up. Sure enough, a few minutes later, they could see dozens of little dots appearing in the sky, rapidly approaching their position. The men got into steady firing positions, reloading and readying their weapons for round two, prepared to fight to the death. “Boss!” Aziz yelled suddenly from behind. Duke didn’t turn around. “Friendlies coming down the road!” That drew the attention of the men, tearing their gazes from the sky to the road. Frost let out a little cheer and Duke’s heart skipped a beat; the carriage was right there, speeding toward them. The men got up and ran over to the group, jumping and waving at the coming ride out. The carriage double-timed it and reached the team in a haste. “قفز على!” one of the four stallions yelled. “لم يكن لديك ليقول لنا مرتين!” Rashid shouted excitedly as they all jumped in, dragging their charges in with them. As soon as everyone was in, the carriage sped off back in the direction it came from, carrying with it the most elated group of beings in the country that night.