Expect the Unexpected
Duke and Frost took their new suppressors out into the forest the next morning for a little test run. To see how well they worked, they looked for a large animal, like a bear, that they could be not far from when the weapons discharged. A bear, if what they knew of this world was accurate by now, would not freak out at the sound. Even if a weapon was suppressed, after all, it still sounded pretty loud.
The suppressors they tested were all very good, with the two best making not only a not-as-loud sound, but making it sound different than a gunshot. The men were very satisfied with what they received, and opted not to tell anyone unless asked due to the nature of what they were using.
When they got back to the house, they found the Nighthawks moving things around, really setting up their personal quarters, and casually hanging out in various places. A couple of them were sitting next to a radio with excellent sound quality, one was ransacking the fridge, and the others either sat around or were exercising.
They had all gotten up a little bit early to set up their gear in case they were called to action. They didn’t go to wait at any runways, which the Nighthawks would bring them to, because the flight to whatever place they might be called would be long. Mostly, they would go there to check for injuries and casualties, because a QRF would already have arrived to provide support and the Nighthawks would act as security.
When Duke and Frost took a seat in the living room, Duke glanced at his watch. It was about half past eight, half an hour before the Nighthawks informed the men the patrols would go out today. They had stayed up for a while after the Nighthawks arrived and Amel went to sleep to talk about anything that could come up in missions.
The main thing they talked about was the nature of their missions. In the future, they would almost exclusively be going behind enemy lines to rescue ponies and allies, and not operating within Equestrian borders. It was also possible that the men would be pulled away for missions where the Nighthawks would not assist them, like in cases where a pair of fighters would have an easier time than a group.
Everyone, including Amel, was sitting in the living room now, chatting about anything that came to mind. The soldiers and airmen weren’t leaving yet, and it was good to stay relaxed until it counted.
“So how did you come to hang around these guys?” Moon Moon asked of Amel. “I don’t think I need to say why I never expected this.”
“Well,” Amel started. “They saved me from a very bad horse in Saddle Arabia. I didn’t know what to do after that, so I followed them, and they were nice and let me go with them. All I had ever done for a long time was serve, so I thought would do that with them. They didn’t treat me the way I used to be treated, though, and now I am much happier.”
“That has to be the short version,” Moon Moon said.
Amel smiled sheepishly. “Yes, it is.”
“The long version goes on for days after we first found her,” Frost said. “After we let her follow us into the palace, we-”
Something in the room started making an unholy noise, like a classic digital alarm clock blaring in the morning. Everyone was startled by the sudden noise intrusion and started looking around. Aprotelese, though, looked down at his hip, toward the source of the noise. It was a small pager with a blinking red light, blaring its noise at steady intervals.
“Story time’s over guys,” he said. “That’s our cue.”
Everyone but Amel stood up. “Grab your gear and meet outside in two minutes max,” Duke ordered. He and the stallions ran off throughout the house to find their gear.
Amel looked up at Frost. “Be careful,” she said.
“I’ll be fine,” Frost reassured her. “Hopefully I’ll be back by tonight.” Frost ran off to get his stuff. “And do something during the day! Don’t just sit here worrying!”
The stallions and men met outside, geared up and ready to go. To get to the airstrip, two of the stallions would carry the men with all their gear. The other stallions took the lead in the flight formation to ease up the burden of flying against the wind on the others.
Getting to the secret runway was easy and relatively quick, just a ten minute flight out of Ponyville. For a normal pegasus, it would be more like twenty to twenty-five minutes, and for any normal pony, a forty-five minute walk at a brisk pace. When they arrived, the base was quiet and manned by a small number of pegasus ponies. Around the perimeter was a tall fence to keep civilians out and away from the runway.
There was a carriage waiting for them on the runway when they arrived. The ponies manning the runway directed them onboard without speaking so much as a word, except to Aprotelese, giving him the mission detail, and in a matter of minutes, the team was strapped in and taking off. Once they were airborne, the team got to discussing the mission.
“So what’s the situation?” Duke asked at an almost normal volume. Without engines, the carriage was much quieter than a plane.
“We aren’t sure,” Aprotelese replied with a frown. “This isn’t what we were expecting. We thought they would call us to ask for help in retrieving injured ponies from the site of an ambush, but there hasn’t been a distress call.”
“No distress call?” Frost repeated.
“Yeah. A patrol of Earth Guards was out in the mountains, just keeping a track on the border, and they didn’t call in when they were scheduled to,” Aprotelese explained. “Given the time they didn’t call in, they were at least close to a hot zone. It’s possible that they were ambushed.”
“Wouldn’t they send out a search party?” Duke asked.
“They did,” Aprotelese said. “Patrols are all over the place now, searching for any killed or captured troops. They want us down there to help, and evac anyone injured in the search.”
“They’re sure it isn’t malfunctioning comms?” Duke asked.
“Our comms are magic-based. If something went wrong, that would mean the pony carrying the power source was killed and they would have shot up flares. Which they didn’t.” Aprotelese said the statement with a bit of clear displeasement about their comms systems.
“Where are we going?” Frost asked.
“We’ll land briefly at San Palomino Air Base, then get a smaller carriage to take us out to the believed location where the earth ponies went missing,” Aprotelese said. “We’ll search for a while unless we’re called away to save other search parties.”
“Rescue the rescuers,” Frost said. “Nightmare scenario.”
The remainder of the flight was spent sharing experiences fighting the gryphons. The Nighthawks had been at it for some time, five years, and they were all fighting before that in other units as well. From what the men understood, the Nighthawks had been a long-running unit, until a little over fifteen years ago when most of them were killed in a massive battle against the gryphons. The remaining Nighthawks were either too injured to keep fighting or left the service because the trauma of the battle was too much. Duke couldn’t imagine what it was like to have your entire elite military unit snuffed out so quickly.
Now, two individuals referred to as Mustang and Blazer ran the unit from Canterlot. They started it back up after Blazer was mysteriously brought home and the pair felt inspired to recreate their unit. No one knew how Blazer came home, but no one questioned it.
When they landed, the team was ushered out of the carriage and walked over to a supply tent, where they were given water and food for their search and in case the potential survivors needed any. Once they were all loaded up, they were quickly moved to a new carriage, this one carried by four pegasi, one on each corner of a square platform with short walls.
It would serve as a helicopter type of platform to launch from, good for what they were doing. They all had to board in specific seats according to their individual weights in order to keep the platform balanced, lest it dump them from a thousand feet up onto a slippery, steep mountainside.
The pegasi pushed off with their incredibly powerful wings and got airborne, carrying the team away from the base. On the flight, everyone was strapped in, but they could still reach most of their equipment. The Nighthawks loaded up their crossbows, their only ranged weapons, and the men loaded magazines into their weapons. Everyone double-checked their straps and clips, making sure everything was secured, and put on their goggles and visors.
The men looked out over the landscape while they flew, as they hadn’t had the opportunity last time. It was really beautiful; trees dotted the landscape up until the altitude didn’t permit for them to be present. It looked so long and quiet, with valleys visible on the other side of the mountains that served as the border between Equestria and the Southern Colonies.
It masked a long and bloody conflict between the gryphons and ponies. The men still weren’t sure why the whole war started, but that wasn’t their concern. They were only here to find OGA, the reason they were going to war against the gryphons. Once they had him, their concerns would end and their involvement with them.
The flight was about half an hour, and when they landed, the carriage crew was quick to bug out of the area. They weren’t intent on staying around for this. It was understandable, though, since they weren’t combat troops.
Once the carriage crew had flown out of the area, the team met and discussed a plan of action.
“So how do we advance here?” Frost asked. “I’ve never done a straight up search and rescue where we have no idea where the guys might actually be.”
“What direction were the stallions patrolling?” Duke asked. Aprotelese pointed east. “Then that’s the direction we go.”
“Sounds good to me,” Aprotelese said. “Group up, guys.”
Duke and Frost took the front positions in the group, weapons up and eyes constantly scanning the area around them. Behind them, the Nighthawks took a formation of two columns of three, allowing them to split their sectors of watch into six zones.
They trekked through the mountains slowly, watching for movement of either enemies or friendlies. Everything was creepily still, and it felt like they were being watched by some sort of horror movie monster. The hills around them had eyes and ears, and could quickly convey to other hills what was happening amongst them.
The men were primarily looking for bodies or booby traps. Or both. Insurgents in Iraq had been known for taking the bodies of US soldiers, putting them somewhere, and booby-trapping the spot. They knew that someone would come for the bodies, so they did what they could to make more bodies with American bait. It was a dirty tactic, but no one ever gave terrorists credit for fighting with any level of what most of the world knew as honor.
Duke and Frost mentally prepared themselves for the worst. They had seen some nasty stuff in search and rescue, not all of it in combat situations. The worst was typically combat related injuries, but other stuff was really bad. One of the stories they often got in training was a rescue in Iceland where a PJ had to treat a man who accidentally cut off his arm with farming equipment. He survived, and the arm was reattached, but it was a rough scene.
The men did not know what the gryphons might be willing to do to the ponies to make a point, so they carried their full medical gear with them. It weighed a ton, but that was the price of saving lives. The had the ability to treat burns, cuts and scrapes, broken bones, severed limbs, even if survival was still unlikely, head trauma, blood loss, and more.
“So how are relations between ponies and gryphons these days?” Frost asked of anyone who would listen.
“Horrible,” Fog said. “What else would they be?”
“I mean, like, how bad in regards to how much they dislike ponies?” Frost explained. “What kinds of things would they do to ponies they get their... talons? On.”
“Dude, why he would even ask that...” Moon Moon complained.
“It would help to know what we might expect,” Duke said. “Serious injuries, critical injuries, broken bones? These things affect the patient’s mobility, how safe it is to transport him at all, how long we have once we find him, etcetera.”
“Oh. I see your point there,” Moon Moon said.
“The gryphons are really pissed off at us,” Wolf said. “One of their big things is honesty, so if they think you’re telling the truth, they won’t hurt you. If you lie, though... it can get real ugly.”
“Like how?” Duke asked, stepping over some rocks.
“Like, hoof grating, mane burning, tail chopping, chemical ugly,” Wolf said.
“That sounds pretty ugly,” Frost said.
“Yeah. It is.” Wolf sounded like he knew a little more about that than he would have liked.
The group continued walking, though they were getting off the path and had to do some serious mountaineering. They were climbing up onto tall boulders and outcroppings to see distance, tiptoeing across narrow ledges to cross canyons, and slowly sliding down the sides of the mountain. The men were, at least. the Nighthawks could fly, and they didn’t need to do any of that.
The winds were a little bit unpredictable today, so the Nighthawks had trouble getting to altitude above the mountains. Especially as they approached the valleys the winds would alter unexpectedly and the Nighthawks would be forced to keep their wings closed tight. Over the mountains, in the distance, dark clouds were visible within the valleys, no doubt causing some of the winds flying through. Understanding how storm clouds were there was a bit out of the men’s training, so they just went with it.
They kept on going until they found a particularly steep climb, around sixty degrees, and there was no other way to go. To the left was a vertical drop and the right was a wall, so they had to go up. The men took the lead, taking careful steps on sketchy rocks to go up the near-wall. The ground under them was unstable, requiring a lot of re-steps and slow, precise placement of feet.
When they reached the top, the men looked out over a ledge at the top and over a massive area. There weren’t many spots ahead of them higher than where they were, so they could see a long way and spot any flat areas ahead of them. It was hard to see over such a great distance. But the men were more interested in what was not so far away down below.
“Boss, do you see that?” Frost asked, pointing out and down at a spot forty meters down below and maybe a hundred meters out.
“I see it,” Duke said. “But I’m not sure what it is.”
The Nighthawks were just coming up to either side of the men to see what they were referencing. Below, where Frost was pointing, was a dark, yellowish haze, sitting on the ground and slowly spreading out. It was fading very slowly, and inside, there were several shapes that were too familiar to everyone.
“Are those the patrol ponies?” Wolf asked.
Duke turned to the group. “Binoculars?” he asked. Fog reached into his gear, pulled out a pair, and handed them to Duke.
Duke pulled up the binoculars and looked out. Sure enough, there were several stallions, lying on the ground inside the yellowish haze. He couldn’t make out any details, but it was painfully clear that the stallions were not moving and probably not breathing.
“That’s them,” Duke muttered grimly.
Moon Moon shot up into the air. “Let’s go get them!” he said. He was about to shoot out.
Frost jumped up and grabbed his tail. “No!” he shouted. “Do NOT go down there!”
“Those are our guys!” Moon Moon shouted. “We can’t just leave them there!”
“They’re dead,” Duke said coldly. “Getting them now or later won’t matter.”
“They’ll decompose,” Moon Moon said. “I thought you guys did body retrieval.”
“We do,” Duke replied. “But we do it carefully to avoid getting killed.”
“They’re right,” Aprotelese said. “How do you propose we proceed?”
“Whatever we do, there’s not a chance I’m going into that haze,” Frost said.
“Ditto,” Duke said.
Aprotelese looked down at the area. “Well, there’s not much wind down there, evidently,” he said. “The air currents are going over the area, because of those-” Aprotelese pointed at some high rocks to the left and right. “And those. They block the wind.”
“So the haze is just gonna sit there?” Fog asked.
“It doesn’t have to,” Aprotelese said. “If we can create an air current to push it away, it should make the area safe.”
“There is no guarantee of that,” Duke said. “I’m no SOWT, but I don’t know that creating a new air current here is such a great idea. And if that haze came from a weapon, it might be an area denial weapon. Even if the haze goes, the ground may still be affected.”
“Well, you two wait here then,” Aprotelese said. “I’m making a current. Comet, Mosquito, on me. Fog, Wolf, and Moon Moon be ready to fly in and get us if you need to and are able to. Duke and Frost, if it comes to that, I hope you’re ready to fix us up.”
“If those are chemicals, I wish you luck,” Frost said under his breath. No one heard, and Aprotelese took his Nighthawks out to push the haze away.
Duke, Frost, and the remaining Nighthawks watched as Aprotelese and his stallions took a position above the haze and far to the right. With some very powerful flaps of their wings, which somehow didn’t move them, they sent a strong air current through the area. Slowly but surely, the yellowish haze started to move away. As it dispersed, it raised up into the air, prompting the Nighthawks to move away and take a higher position. Eventually, all of the haze was dispersed and went over the rocks to the men’s left.
The Nighthawks, once done, flew down to the location of the bodies and tentatively walked around the area, checking for any remaining hazards with their own lives. When nothing happened, they signaled for the rest of the team to come down. The Nighthawks on the ledge carried the men down carefully and quickly, eager to retrieve the bodies of their fallen comrades.
The Nighthawks dropped the men a ways away from the bodies and then flew in. The men waited for a moment to allow the stallions time alone with their fallen friends, but didn’t give them a lot of time. They were in a war zone, after all, and the less time they spent here, the better.
The Nighthawks were silent around the bodies, and when the end approached, they understood why. It was a horrific scene. The bodies had huge, open blisters all over their exposed skin, letting body fluids drain out onto the ground in a deathly smelling scene. No body part was spared; eyes, orifices, skin. Their mouths were mostly open, too, so it could be assumed that the damage was further reaching than they could see.
“Jesus,” Frost said.
“What the hell happened here?” Duke asked, kneeling next to a body without touching it.
“We don’t know,” Aprotelese said. “Never seen something like this before.” He was extremely disturbed by the unreal images hitting his eyes.
“We gotta move them, guys,” Fog said, moving to a body. “We can’t stay here-”
“Don’t touch them!” Frost shouted, reaching out at Fog.
Fog looked at him confused and upset. “He’s my comrade,” he said.
Frost pointed at the body. “We have no idea what did this,” Frost explained. “If anything is left on him, any residue at all, it could kill you just as painfully. If we’re going to safely take these bodies home, we need hazmat suits until we at least discern what killed them.”
“It must have been that haze,” Aprotelese said.
“Yes, but we can’t identify that haze right now,” Frost said. “I don’t think anyone here is a chemical engineer, so we’ll have to leave it to experts.”
“So how do we do this?” Moon Moon asked.
Duke looked to Aprotelese. “You got a flare?” he asked. Aprotelese nodded. “Good. Fire it up, get reinforcements here. When they arrive, tell them what’s going on and make sure they don’t touch the bodies without protection. Send back the fastest guy in the group to get hazmat soldiers.”
“What’re you gonna do?” Aprotelese asked. “It sounds like you’re not going to tell them.”
“You guys maintain security around the bodies. Better to keep a large group,” Duke explained. “Frost and I will look around a bit, see what we can find. If we aren’t back in ten minutes, come looking.”
“Gotcha,” Aprotelese said. As the men turned to leave, Aprotelese shot up a flare high into the sky, attracting the attention of every pony and likely gryphon in and near the area.
The men found a small path away from where the haze was pushed and started their search for any evidence as to what happened. There were no prints on the ground, since the gryphons could fly in this environment. There wasn’t any indication of the size of whatever group may have ambushed them, if that was even the case. It was possible that it had been a trap, set off by someone high and far enough that they couldn’t be found. That happened a lot in Afghanistan.
They kept their search up, looking for any signs of a trap rather than of enemy combatants. It didn’t take long to find something; broken glass, all over the place. How it got this far from the detonation zone, the men weren’t sure, but the pieces had no labels or pieces of labels on them and they were shattered like they were thrown with force and over a long distance. Put together, though the men didn’t actually touch them, they resembled a bottle or case.
There was nothing else in the area, and they had to get back to the Nighthawks, so they made their way to the team. When they got back, the Nighthawks were standing silently in a circle around the bodies, seemingly saying something. Again, the men stayed back to give them a moment for their dead, and this time waited for them to be done.
When it looked like they were done, the men rejoined them and stood quietly around the bodies. No one wanted to talk; they still had to understand how anyone could use something so horrifying to kill another living thing. These stallions had suffered the worst kind of pain before they died, and they were left to rot in the middle of the mountains in the most dangerous place to ponies in the world.
“Did you find something?” Aprotelese asked.
“Yes,” Duke answered. “Broken glass. Some sort of container. These guys were attacked, and from somewhere around here.”
“Ambush,” Moon Moon concluded disdainfully.
“Yep,” Frost said. “We need to get this info back to the princesses. After that, I’m sure you can look for whoever did this.”
The reinforcements hadn’t arrived yet, so when they did, Duke and Frost took control of the situation. The soldiers were from the Thirty-Fifth Joint Strike Force, bringing in soldiers from units across the Air Guard. An older guy named Eagle took the message for hazmat units to come and shot back to base with incredible speed. Before long, he returned with two ponies in special suits and a specialized casualty-retrieval carriage, and the bodies were brought back to base for temporary storage.
The Nighthawks and the men soon made their own way out and back to the base. Everyone was completely silent along the way. When they got back, no one on base knew what was happening. It was for the better, really.
Whatever this weapon was that the gryphons had, it was a game changer. Without warning, an attack could kill dozens, or even hundreds, of ponies. Any special operations units the princesses had at their disposal would be constantly looking for the source of this weapon, possibly including Duke and Frost. The implications for their search for OGA had just changed dramatically.
One mission, one patrol, and everything had changed. But the men were prepared; adaptation was a part of what they did.