That Others May Live

by CptBrony


Tactical Assessment

Tactical Assessment

“Hotel, in position.” Hamid whispered into his mic.

The speaker in his ear crackled and clicked. “Mike, ready to go.” Malik responded.

Hamid nodded to himself. “Romeo, Alpha, are you ready to go?”

“We’re good.” Rashid, Romeo, replied. “Ready to commence operation.”

Duke had spent the better half of the previous day preparing this whole scenario. As last time, Amel was playing the part of the prisoner, being held by two very experienced operatives of an opposing force, the OpFor. OpFor had issued its demands at the start of the day by leaving a note on Rashid’s bedside table, detailing the requirements for passing the test. The team was to attempt a rescue of the prisoner, but due to civilian presence, they had to be completely under the radar and avoid any detection by the civilian presence in order to avoid causing a panic. And civilian casualties were considered unacceptable.

The rest of it was the basic demands; money, power, movement of troops out of an area, etc. They were put into the letter to add a bit of authenticity to it. But that wasn’t important; what was important was that the stallions get in, grab the prisoner, and get out quickly, quietly, and cleanly. This was the first and potentially only installment of any training they might have in Urban Combat.

Duke and Frost were hidden somewhere in the city, but at the same time, they were walking about, trying to find the stallions. If they managed to find the stallions, they were going to start a fight, trying to force them to retreat. The tough part was that they were liable to grab nearby civilians and use them, and those civilians were completely unaware of what was going on. And the stallions would be forced to address the immediate problem before advancing.

They could also run back to the location of the prisoner, if they deemed it easier, and move her somewhere else. That was the hardest part by far, not having the knowledge of where Amel was. On top of that, they had only a day to locate her. The stallions had to find out where she was by going around the city and looking for clues, asking questions, and seeing if they could follow one of the humans if they found one. Since they were in disguise, they wouldn’t necessarily be seen right off. That was a huge part of the test.

Right now, it was right after midday. They had been walking around for hours that morning, taking in any possible clues that the humans were nearby. Malik and Aziz had been asking around about any sightings of the humans, but to no avail. None of what they learned was actually usable, just about how the humans might have walked by and no one cared enough to see where they went.

They had no idea what the humans were doing, whether or not one was remaining with Amel or both were patrolling the area around her location. They had to consider all possibilities, though. The only way they would find the mare in time was if they followed every lead they got as fast as they could.

Now, they regrouped in a little bazaar, sitting in several vantage points throughout the area. Hamid was sitting at a table eating a dish of Ful Medames and drinking gahwa. Malik was within his line of sight, meandering through the stalls, looking at items that might interest him in other scenarios. Rashid and Aziz were out of sight, on the other end of the bazaar, being inconspicuous in their own ways, keeping their eyes peeled for a human.

They had seen two pairs of deep footprints of the human’s boots, going straight through the bazaar. When Hamid asked a nearby merchant about it, he ended up having to haggle for the information and spending eight bits. It was worth it, though, since the merchant told him about how the humans came by earlier and now one of them would periodically come back around.

Hamid took a sip of his gahwa and scanned the area; nothing. “Alpha, Romeo, Mike, anything at all?” he asked over the magic comms. He had to use the “NATO Phonetic Alphabet”, as Duke called it, because it hid their names in case anyone overheard.

“Nothing yet.”

“I don't see him.”

“No one walked by me.”

It was frustrating, truthfully. The stallions just wanted to find out where Amel was, break down the door, and grab her and leave. Problem was, this kind of thing might become a regular occurrence, so they had to gain some “Intel Gathering Skills” if they were going to be effective at defeating the Gryphon menace. Gathering information is a boring endeavor; but it always pays off incredibly well in the end.

Hamid took a few more bites of his food and looked back up. Malik had moved himself out of view, possibly going to look at more stalls or something. He couldn’t meander about the same ones the whole time, that would look too conspicuous. Still, Hamid couldn’t help but be a little nervous. He liked having at least one teammate in his sight in case things went sideways.

“Mike, I lost visual.” Hamid said, trying to talk like the humans. “Where are you?”

There was a moment of silence over the radio.

“I see him.” Malik conveyed hurriedly. “Frost is entering the bazaar, hands in his pockets.”

Hamid felt a surge of excitement and panic rush through him. “Whatever you do, don’t get too close.” he warned, trying to keep his movements calm and not give away his nervousness. “He might recognize you through your disguise.”

“I’ll keep my distance.” Malik replied. “He’s coming in by the street on the south end of the bazaar.”

Hamid nodded to himself mostly as he thought about what to do next. “Romeo, Alpha, start moving around like normal citizens.” he ordered. “But don’t get too close to Frost.”

“We are moving now.”

“Yes, Hotel.”

Hamid had effectively taken leadership of the operation, seeing as he already had intimate knowledge of the streets and its inhabitants. He had grown up in a town like this, exploring the markets, talking to the horses, eating the food. He knew exactly how to blend in here, making him the perfect guy to lead this particular mission. But he wouldn’t always lead the missions; team versatility is vital, after all.

Hamid got up and sauntered off to the south end to see if he could get a visual on Frost, see where he would be going. As he maneuvered through the crowds, avoiding bumping into anyone and making a scene, his eyes flashed left and right trying to find the human. It was risky, having all four of them observing Frost at once, but he didn’t want to risk losing him. If they did, it could easily end in a failure.

There you are.” Hamid’s eyes landed on Frost as he walked through the bazaar, looking innocently around like a child in an antique store. he didn’t understand any of what was going on, but he didn’t say anything that might convey that.

“I’m moving.” Malik said over the radio. Hamid spotted him walking past Frost in the opposite direction, getting within two meters of the man. It was enough to make him hold his breath. “I’ll turn around and follow him once I’m sure he isn’t looking.”

“Good.” Hamid replied. He keyed his mic. “Romeo, Alpha, where are you?”

“We are moving together. Tell us where he is heading, and we will go there now.”

Hamid nodded and went back to watching Frost. The human was glancing at the stalls as he passed by, not stopping by any of them to see what was there. With no translator, he was hopelessly lost when it came to buying anything anyway. Thinking about it, if he couldn’t understand them, and he wasn’t wearing his mic, they could speak their own language around him and he would be none the wiser.

The language barrier was actually proving to be useful now. “Stallions, he doesn’t have his mic.” Hamid broadcasted. “You can speak around him and he won’t understand.”

“Excellent.” Rashid replied.

Hamid moved to a position about six meters to Frost’s right and started walking in the same direction, occasionally looking back in his direction to see where he was going. Malik was about ten meters behind Frost now, doing a poor job of looking inconspicuous. Hamid warned Malik to back up further to avoid being seen or he would blow the whole operation. Frost might not be as physically fast as them, but with those hands and feet, if he started to run, he could easily find a creative way to escape.

With Malik further back, barely within sight, Hamid started looking around for Rashid and Aziz. He quickly spotted them, wearing two very well-made peasant outfits, totally covering their bodies, walking and laughing about five meters ahead of Frost. The only thing that told Hamid that it was them was a single uniform mark on all their clothes, a scimitar with wings where a cutie mark would be.

Frost was moving at a steady but fast pace, almost losing Malik. This was why Hamid wanted to have more stallions on the human. If one failed, there were others to take his place.

“Romeo, Alpha, Frost, coming up on you from behind.”

Rashid nodded in response to Hamid’s warning. “Got it.” he replied. He wanted to know how close the human was, though. And while he knew that Frost wouldn’t understand if he said anything, he didn’t want to say it with Frost so closeby, for it might alert him in some way.

Aziz could sense that Rashid wanted to know, and he knew just how to get that knowledge. “حتى ذلك الحين قلت، هذا ليس القمر، وهذا هو محطة الفضاء!” he shouted, laughing loudly and slapping Rashid on the side. His hoof, however, didn’t touch Rashid. Rather, it hit his bag, spilling out most of its contents around them. “آسف، واسمحوا لي أن الحصول على ذلك.” he said.

Aziz bent over to start picking up the items off the ground, turning around and keeping his face toward the ground as he looked directly at Frost. The human was right there, right behind them, standing there while he went to pick up the items.

He said something to them, which was barely picked up in one of their mics. “Let me help you with that.” it sounded like. Frost bent over and started picking up the items with Aziz, returning each one to Rashid.

Hamid watched with pent up breath, ready to burst from anxiety. Frost was looking directly at his stallions, not one meter in front of him, picking up their things. Aziz was working hard not to let his headcover move out of the way to let Frost see. Rashid kept his head low, averting his gaze away from the human. Once Frost was done handing the items back to Rashid and Aziz, he gave them a little wave and said goodbye.

The relief washed over Hamid like a wave over sand. “Romeo, Alpha, move away and do not approach Frost again. If he recognizes you, it’s over.”

The stallions confirmed and moved in the opposite direction of Frost, doing their best not to look back that way. While they were getting away from the human, Malik was still following, keeping his safe distance of about ten meters. Hamid was still off to the side, watching Frost making his way across the bazaar. He wore an oblivious smile on his face, like nothing was wrong. Maybe nothing was.

He exited the bazaar and went down a narrow street, forcing Hamid to wait for him to pass by and then let Malik go past.

“If he takes any turns, you keep going forward and tell me which way. I’ll go that way, then you turn around and follow once I’ve left your sight.”

“And the same for when he turns on you?” Malik asked. Hamid nodded, and the stallions continued with their mission.

Malik had to get a little bit closer to Frost, who was looking about the street, scanning everything in sight. To avoid suspicion, Malik started observing his surroundings as well, mostly just looking at whatever seemed to catch Frost’s interest. There were all sorts of pieces of art hanging in windows, or off walls. Some of the merchants who couldn’t afford to live in the bazaar had to live in the streets just off. It was mostly artisans, none of them too aggressive. That was probably why they couldn’t sell enough to live in the bazaar.

Frost kept on walking, but at the first intersection, he took a right turn into an even narrower street.

“Hotel, Frost just went right at the next street.” Malik said quietly, hurrying past the narrow street where Frost turned.

“I see it.” Hamid replied.

Hamid sped up a little to reach the street before Frost potentially left through a building or took another path to wherever he was going. Lightly pushing other horses out of his way, Hamid pressed himself against the wall to his right as he approached the new street, hoping that he could look around the corner without being seen. As he arrived at the corner, he slowly peeked around it, searching for Frost. He saw the man standing in the middle of the street, scratching his head, like he was confused. Then, the human shrugged nonchalantly, and went into a building on his left.

Hamid ran up and tried to get to the building as quickly as possible, hoping that the human would still be inside. If he wasn’t, he could easily have escaped and gotten himself to just about any place where he would never be seen.

When Hamid reached the door, he ran right on through and rapidly rotated his head from side to side, looking for the man. Nothing. He must have gotten away from him, taken a back exit. Hamid spun around to run out of the store and contact Malik.

And he froze in place. Next to the door, sitting on a chair, was Frost, scratching at his growing beard, making a scrutinizing look at Hamid. The stallion swallowed hard, trying to think of a way out, but nothing came to mind. He turned around slowly, seeing what might be behind him. There were several pieces of art behind him on the wall, each one depicting a different scene of recent events involving gryphon attacks. Frost must have been looking at that.

Then, the man said something, but he said it loud enough to be picked up by Hamid’s headset.

“I like the disguise. But you might want to try to avoid running so much.”

Hamid went into full panic and bolted back out the door right past the sitting human. Outside, he flung his head back and forth, looking for his teammates. When he saw none, he turned back to the building he had just ran out of and stared at the entrance, ignoring the onlookers around him.

“Stallions, we’ve been found out. Spread out and prepare for anything.”

At first, Hamid received no reply, only static from the line. Sensing that something was happening, he prepared for a potential battle in front of the store by crouching low and preparing to tackle the human should he exit the building.

The reply to his warning came unexpectedly.

“Hotel, Mike. I saw Frost exit through a back door, he’s running. I’m in pursuit.”

“What direction?” Hamid asked.

“West, heading toward the residential area.”

Hamid took the information and started sprinting in that direction. “Got it.” he replied as he snaked through the crowd. “Romeo, Alpha, make your way there as soon as possible. We don’t want to lose Frost.”

“Yes sir.” Aziz replied.

Hamid kept on running, hooves crushing the dirt beneath them in a flurry of movement. As he ran, he tried to think of anything that might give him an edge over Frost in the area. He knew the area already, if only slightly more than Frost. He knew how the streets were situated, unlike Frost, who probably thought it to be a grid-system. There were all sorts of little ways to get around as well, outside the normal streets. He would have to use this to catch up.

“Hotel, this is Mike.” Malik sounded like he was growing exhausted. “Frost is still going, though a bit slower. I made my way to the roof to keep an eye on him.” Hamid felt a surge of excitement flow through him.

“Good work, keep on him! We’ll try to catch up, just keep us informed!”

Malik confirmed and kept running after the human, hoping that the human would stop soon and he would be able to scout while awaiting the arrival of his teammates.


********************************************************************


Malik managed to follow Frost for a long time, and eventually, he was able to follow Frost back to the “safehouse”.

Frost had been looking behind him constantly on the run, making sure no one was behind him, trying to attack him. Little did he know, there was a stallion up on the roofs following, watching, ready to leap down if necessary. He never noticed Malik up there, running, attracting little attention thanks to the running human taking said attention.

Malik remained up on his roof, intently watching the small building that he had seen Frost go into. To be safe, when Frost went inside, Malik, sticking to the roofs, walked around the area, checking to see if Frost had left through a back door. There was no back door, thankfully, only small windows. Even so, just to be safe, Malik had gone over and jumped onto the roof of Frost’s building as lightly as possible and listened.

He definitely heard voices, two males and a female. The males spoke a language he didn’t understand, Equish, if he guessed it right. That meant that only the two humans could be in there, and Amel was probably tied up inside, ready to be rescued. Malik was amazed that the mare was so willing to let the humans use her in these simulations.

Once he confirmed that the humans had her inside, Malik jumped away from that roof and made his way to one that was in a position to watch the entrance. There, he waited for his team to arrive and prepare to assault.

About thirteen minutes later, they showed up. Malik spotted them on the ground, looking around for him, and called to them.

“Up here!” he shouted. There was no way the humans could hear him from where they were. “Quickly!”

The rest of the team found their way up through stacking themselves and then pulling each other up, with Malik keeping his eyes on the building. Once everyone was up and ready, Hamid tapped on the roof and had them gather around. Malik positioned himself to keep watch on the building.

“What can you tell us, Mike?” Hamid asked, silently begrudging not being allowed to use their actual names.

“I made my way over there, and can confirm that Amel is inside.” The team waited. “That’s all.”

Hamid sighed. “Okay then, I suppose that we can work off of that.”

Rashid stood up and looked over at the building. “I think that we would have the best chance at getting Amel out if we were to have two of us breach the door and the other two jump in through windows.” he began. “Assuming Amel is in the center of the room, that gives us the room to run in, grab her, and go. If she’s against a wall, Duke and Frost will be forced to choose who they fight off, giving the others enough time to get Amel out.”

“I like it.” Hamid said, grinning widely. “So who’s going to-”

“Get down!” Malik whispered loudly, dropping to the ground and pulling Aziz, next to him, down with him.

Rashid and Hamid dropped like bricks to the roof and flattened themselves as much as possible. Hamid, being the leader, decided to take a risk and peek his head up just enough to see the entrance to the small building. From where he was, he could clearly see Duke and Frost talking to each other and pointing in several directions. Once they were done, they bumped their fists together and walked off in opposite directions. Hamid shoved his face against the roof where everyone else’s faces were.

“New plan!” he said in a rush. “Duke and Frost left, but without Amel. We go in now and grab her, then leave like nothing happened. Good?”

After a resounding set of grunts of approval, the team immediately went about work. They all leapt off the roof and onto the ground, attracting the attention of several passersby and nearly running over one. They ran up to the front door of the building and rushed straight in.

Inside, it was oddly empty. The home must have been for sale or something, because there was nothing but a couple of tables, some chairs, and a single rug. The walls were cracked all over, the furniture was clearly very old, and there was an eerie feeling that the small home might collapse at any time. It was enough to make the stallions dramatically increase their pace.

Amel was sitting, though not tied up, in the center of the room, looking bored and generally uninterested in the stallions. When they ran up to her, she said nothing, didn’t even look at them. She was clearly fine, so they had no understanding of why she wasn’t moving.

“Amel.” Hamid said. “We’re taking you out of here.”

She groaned at him in response, as if she was sick or injured. Hamid looked back at his stallions, confused, and then turned back to the mare. Before he spoke again, though, he spotted a small, folded piece of paper in her mane. Gingerly, he nudged it out with his hoof and opened it up. When he opened it, he saw that something was written down, probably something Duke had someone do the day before, and began to read aloud to his team.

Stallions

You have located Amel. As of the moment you finish reading this letter, you will begin a field medical aid exercise. Amel, in this exercise, has suffered several injuries at the hands of her captors. Her left hind leg is broken, preventing walking. On her side, just behind her foreleg, she has a severe gash that is bleeding significantly. The victim has suffered a concussion and is unable to speak at this time, save for making loud groans. Her body is bruised, indicating torture.

You must provide emergency first-aid and evacuate the mare to safety, where you will take up a defensive position and await further orders. And if you do not continue to provide aid during the defense, you will lose her and fail the mission.

Good luck

Hamid looked nervously to his teammates, who looked back at him equally so, and dropped the note.

“Mal- Mike, Alpha, pick her up and carry her, we’re going now!”

Malik and Aziz grabbed the mare, who responded by groaning extremely loudly, and propped her up on their backs, getting as close together as possible to act like a stretcher. Once she was securely on their backs, the stallions nodded to their other teammates, who nodded back and took positions in front of and behind the stallions. In a solid formation and prepared for a fight, they set out.

The team burst out the door with haste and quickly began to run away from the area, eager to flee from the potential presence of the humans nearby. Hamid was in the front, his eyes forward and glancing to the sides to check for the humans as they ran. Rashid was in the back, watching the sides and prepared to take one for the team should they be attacked from behind.

Amel groaned loudly. “Romeo, get up here!” Aziz shouted. Rashid ran up to him and stood next to him. “The note said to provide emergency aid. We need to slow down so you can apply proper aid to the wounds.”

Rashid agreed and they conveyed their agreement to Hamid, who also agreed, albeit reluctantly. He didn’t like the idea of slowing down, but it was a necessary risk at the moment. They couldn’t risk failure.

Rashid began to apply the aid as they ran, tearing off some fabric from his outfit and stuffing it where the wound would be were it real. Then, he checked her head for any serious injuries, actually finding a paint indicator on the side of her head where the injury was to be. To avoid the risk of brain swelling, which Duke had explained very briefly in their first lecture on Combat Injuries, Rashid maneuvered Amel so that her head would be up higher. Given the location of the would-be gash, there was nothing to do about the bleeding but stunt it, so the raising of her head would do nothing to that.

Thinking fast, Rashid pulled out his small sword and wrapped it up in cloth, then set it against Amel’s injured leg. Then, he ripped some more cloth from his outfit and wrapped her leg up in that, making an effective temporary splint. Just at the cost of his main weapon.

“Team!” Hamid shouted suddenly, halting in the middle of the street. “Over there”

He pointed at a perfect space in between two small buildings with a staircase heading up. Instantly, he ran to it and went up the steps, checking for enemies. When he found none, he beckoned to his teammates, who eagerly followed him up.

Once up, Malik and Aziz moved Amel to a position where they could set her down gently and left Rashid to look after her.

“What is the plan?” Malik asked.

Hamid looked around; the rooftop they were on was perfect. There was only one easy, quick way up that wouldn’t cause a ruckus, and there were multiple ways down they could use to get Amel out if the humans showed up. It was a highly defensible position to be sure.

“We hold out here and wait for the next set of orders.” he said. “Then, we can-”

“Sir!” Rashid shouted suddenly, jumping up and running over. “I think you’ll want to look at this.”

Hamid looked over at Rashid and saw a little note in his grip. He took it hastily from the stallion.

“Where did you get this?” he asked worriedly as he opened the note.

“Amel gave it to me.” Rashid explained. “She said it would be important.”

Hamid swallowed hard and opened up the note to read;

Stallions,

Good work. If this is the note you are reading, then you successfully managed to rescue the hostage and provide proper medical aid. You also managed to avoid us and escape. While you did encounter us once, you were able to respond to the situation accordingly and complete your task with efficiency.

You have passed the test. Go back to the palace with Amel to meet with us at 1800 hours. We’ll want an AAR on the events of your day and we will discuss things that could be better for the future.

Good work,
Duke and Frost

When Hamid finished reading the note, the other stallions let out cheers of joy at the successful completion of their task. Even Amel, who was now getting up and walking over to them, wore a little smile on her face. It was a job well done.

And as the team left for the palace with their charge in tow, they knew that that was the only way they wanted to feel in the future.