//------------------------------// // Into the Storm // Story: That Others May Live // by CptBrony //------------------------------// Into the Storm The men and Amel had had a good time that day and ended up hitting the hay early. Having fun or doing intensive research can be exhausting, even for the toughest of men. Amel protested, as she wanted to spend more time with Frost, but you can’t win every battle. The next morning, the men were eating breakfast and drinking coffee when the front door made a series of loud knocking noises. Duke got up and answered the door to find the NIghthawks standing in a group. “Morning, gents,” Duke said, stepping back to let the stallions in. “Morning,” Aprotelese greeted. The others gave their salutations as well, though none sounded particularly happy. “How was your day yesterday?” Duke asked. “Good enough,” Aprotelese replied. “Though we come back bearing bad news.” The group entered the kitchen, prompting Frost to look up. “What kind of bad news?” Frost asked with a full mouth. “The kind that means we’ll be heading out today,” Aprotelese said. Frost swallowed. “That does sound bad.” “What’re the details?” Duke asked. Aprotelese took a seat and sighed. “Some stallions from the Earth Ponies’ Echo Brigade are trapped in the Wetlands, of all places,” he said. He grabbed Duke’s coffee and took a swig but Duke was less concerned about that right now. “We’re getting called on to do a rescue.” “When did this come out?” Duke asked. “Just as we were leaving this morning,” Aprotelese said. “So about half an hour ago. They were in a bad shape from what the intel told us.” “How bad?” Frost asked. “They called in for help because they couldn’t go out the way they came in due to a landslide,” Aprotelese explained. “They had no choice but to go forward an extra four kilometers to find the only other path nearby that would get them above the cloudline. On the way there, they were ambushed.” “Sounds like something that was planned,” Duke said. “Exactly,” Aprotelese agreed. “We think the gryphons took out the path in order to force the Echo stallions further into the Wetlands. They were waiting for them... it was an excellent ambush.” “How bad are the stallions right now? Injuries, casualties?” Frost asked. “We know at least four of the six are wounded,” Aprotelese said. “The remaining two did a good job fighting off the gryphon attackers, but they need help to get away from the AO. That’s why we’re going in.” “You described this region as the ‘Wetlands’,” Frost said. “What does that mean, exactly?” “The Wetlands are a region where it is constantly raining,” Aprotelese explained. “From the dawn of Equestria, likely to the end of Equestria, the rains never stopped once and they will never stop. The bottom of the valleys are flooded and allegedly filled with whirlpools that suck you up and beat you against the rock face before drowning you.” “Yikes,” Duke said. “Yeah,” Aprotelese affirmed. “There are supposed cave systems that are close enough to see it, but not to be hit by it, but nopony has ever gone down that far. Too many enemy combatants to try it and not enough reward for it.” “So basically, avoid falling at all costs,” Duke simplified. “Yes,” Aprotelese said. “Lovely,” Duke replied. Frost stood from the table. “Well, I ate, so I’m gonna get myself ready,” he said. “You guys feel free to the fridge, I guess.” The Nighthawks and Duke went back to eating and drinking coffee while Frost went upstairs to retrieve his gear. Frost walked into his room and started putting his things together. He checked the components of his rifle to make sure it was good to go, did the same with his pistol, and strapped his FE9 to his side. Once that was done, he determined what medical supplies he would need. If it was an ambush on a mountainside, there would likely be cuts, bruises, broken bones, and concussions. If that Mustard Gas was there, though... Frost’s ears perked up and he stood straight. “You can come in,” he said. He turned around to see Amel walking in. She looked around the room for a moment before talking, as if she was expecting to see some crazy posters or wall hangings around the room. She seemed just as surprised, though, that the walls were bare, and the only decoration was a pile of gear. “I see you are getting ready to go,” Amel stated. Frost nodded. “Yeah. Some dudes need our help out there.” “How badly?” Amel asked. “Bad,” Frost replied. Amel looked down for a moment before nodding. “I see.” Frost walked over to her and stroked her mane. “Come on, you know I’ll be back. I always am.” “I know,” Amel said. “I just had so much fun yesterday. I was hoping we could do it again...” “We will,” Frost assured the young mare. “When I’m around, we can always do stuff. I just have to do this.” Amel nodded. “I know. Just promise me that you will be alright?” Frost smiled and scratched Amel’s ear. “I promise.” He patted her on the head and went back to setting up what he would need to take with him, and Amel went downstairs to go get something to eat. Once Frost had all his things prepared, he brought what he planned to carry downstairs and set it to the side. Not long after, the rest of the team had their own things ready and everyone was prepared to head out. Once everyone was prepared, they walked out the front door and started walking. Before they got far, though, Amel popped out the front door and waved to them. “Good luck, Frost, and Duke, and... uhhh...” She forgot the name of the Equestrian Special Mission unit. “Stallions!” “Thank you, milady!” Aprotelese replied. “We’ll be back!” Frost shouted. “I’ll bring something home for you!” Amel gave her human a big, toothy smile and waved one last time before heading inside. Aprotelese put his head down as his teammates laughed at him, and Frost just chuckled along. They all knew that Amel wasn’t interested in Aprotelese, but only one didn’t know that she had taken a liking to Frost. He was destined to figure it out eventually. And what a day that was destined to be. Flying out to San Palomino Air Base wasn’t too much of a journey. The stallions who pulled the flying carriage were strong and fast, unbothered by the cold of the altitude of their flight. At the front of the open cabin sat a mare, watching the ground for trouble and their landing zone. During the flight, the men and Nighthawks discussed any potential problems or protocols they wanted to follow and remember. The general rules they decided on, besides the standard rules of engagement, involved their formation. Because they would be in the dark and in the rain for a lot of the operation, the men would take the center of the formation. They were the only two who were pretty much screwed if they fell down the ravine since they couldn’t fly, so they took the center. The stallions would stay low during the mission to let them fire over their heads of it was necessary. While the men had been trained not to do that particular sort of thing, they recognized that sometimes, it was all that could be done. When they reached the Air Base, they got a connecting carriage that would take them to the Southern Gryphon Colonies. The new one wasn’t built for speed and distance like the first one. It was more resembling of a helicopter. It used four stallions, one on each corner, so that it could take off and land vertically, and, if need be, they could go more forward to increase speed. That function was limited by the shape of the carriage, though, so it wasn’t quite like an Osprey. While they sat strapped into the exposed cabin of the heli-carriage, as the men referred to it, everyone checked their weapons, plates, and gear one last time. The men chambered rounds to test the mechanism, then removed the magazines, unchambered the round, put it back in the magazine, and reinserted the magazine into their guns. The stallions watched this with intrigue, silently wishing they had such weapons at their disposal. The mare at the front turned to the team. “One minute!” she shouted. With showtime coming on them rapidly, everyone secured everything one last time and sat patiently while the mare at the front counted down. “Thirty seconds!” “Twenty second!” “Ten seconds!” The team could feel the carriage coming down and getting ready to drop them off, so they unstrapped themselves from their seats. Each of the stallions moved off of the seat and lay low on the floor as if they were ready to pounce. It made sense to Duke and Frost; that was the fastest way they could get out. They responded by getting off of their own seats and kneeling before the exit door. The carriage hit the ground. “Go! Go! Go!” the mare shouted. The team flew and ran out of the carriage, and as soon as they were clear, the carriage hopped back off the ground and took off. The Nighthawks made hoof signals to tell them everything was good, and once the carriage was gone, only the sound of the storms in the valley could be heard. The team got into formation, with Aprotelese in front and the men in the middle, Frost behind Duke. “Ready?” the stallion asked. Everyone affirmed. “Let’s go.” The team advanced on the valley, and Duke and Frost got their first good look at what lay ahead. Before them, the valley was filled completely with storm clouds. One couldn’t see past them they were so thick. It was an eerily smooth cloudline, too, like a calm lake of dark gray. The men knew that underneath it was chaos and rain and a land that would try to kill them as much as the inhabitants they were fighting. The team slowly made their way into into the valley, taking minutes to reach the cloudline. They were already able to hear the pouring rain, and as they came closer, it only became louder and louder until it was nearly deafening. They wouldn’t be able to hear any hostiles gryphons around them as they walked, so it was going to be all on their eyes to get through. When they got below the cloudline. they were soaked by the cloud itself, and then started to feel the rain hitting them when they were below. It was incredibly dark; with the rain on top of that, they could hardly see. Thankfully, Aprotelese had brought a small light with him to make sure they kept to the path. Frost tapped Duke on the shoulder to get his attention. “Boss, I don’t think this was the best idea!” he shouted. “Since when is it ever a good idea to enter a combat are?” Duke shouted back. Frost chuckled, though it was drowned out by the rain. “Good point,” Frost said. Duke looked forward, an ominous feeling snaking its way through his mind. This was easily the most hazardous place he had ever gone to do a rescue. Afghanistan made this look easy; as least the primary concern was the enemy fighters. Here, they were a very dangerous secondary. But it was more than just the dangers here that made him feel odd. “I haven’t seen rain like this before!” Frost shouted. “I did, long time ago,” Duke said. “I was in Vietnam, helping a friend.” Duke would never forget that kind of rainfall. The team continued forward, careful of where everyone stepped and watching for any movement in the distance. Every now and again, a lightning bolt would flash somewhere, revealing the entire landscape. It was terrifying, yet beautiful. When the lightning flashed, you could see everything, even through the rain. The mountains in the distance towered over the valleys, and the sky was invisible on the other side of the clouds. Everything here was smooth as a well-polished granite countertop, and only varied in shades from dark gray to black. The team walked along precarious ledges and ridges, sometimes just barely big enough to accommodate the stallions. The men rarely had trouble, being thinner than the stallions when shimmying sideways, but when a ledge was also angled, they had to move slowly and keep their hands on the wall. The wall was smooth, though, so they couldn’t push on it, or they would fall. After crossing a ledge, they found themselves on a relatively straight path next to a straight drop to the valley floor. Curious, Frost looked down, but nothing was visible. He kept looking, though, as they walked, hoping that a flash of lightning would illuminate it. Eventually, Frost got his wish; a flash of lightning streaked across the sky in the distance, and the resulting flash allowed him to see all the way to the valley floor. What he saw was not what he was hoping to see; down below, there was a huge river, but it didn’t fit in with the smooth landscape. Rocks jutted out of the water all over, creating white water rapids, and in a few spots, he could see whirlpools that took up half of the space in the river. “Holy shit,” Frost said. Behind him, Fog looked down at what was now extremely dark and unseeable. “Yeah, the whirlpools down there are no joke,” he said. “We don’t know exactly how many stallions fell down there and were lost during the first war here. We never recovered any of them.” “Duly noted,” Frost said. The team kept on going, crossing more ledges and ridges, but trying their best to stick to paths or relatively flat areas. The stallions couldn’t fly in this weather, at least not safely, and unlike the men’s rubber-soled boots, the stallions’ hooves were not good for keeping traction with the smooth rock face. If the men were leading the way, they could have accidentally left the stallions behind because of that. Up front, Aprotelese stopped. “What’s going on?!” Duke asked. Aprotelese turned around. “We’ve got a bit of a tight situation!” he shouted back. “The rock face here is smooth, but the angle is pretty steep! I’m not sure we’ll be able to cross it!” Duke looked ahead, but he was in the blind. Aprotelese’s slight was helpful, and Duke could see the steepening incline. But they had to get moving. “I got an idea!” Duke shouted. He leaned forward a bit, and Aprotelese did the same. “I’ll take you guys over one at a time, Frost will stay here to provide cover! If you slip, I’ll be able to catch you!” Aprotelese looked back at the incline, then back to Duke and nodded. “Sounds good!” Duke told Frost the plan, then tapped the each of the backs of the Nighthawks before him to get them to lower themselves so he could step over them. When he reached Aprotelese, he stepped out onto the incline first to check his ability to stand. He had little trouble, thanks to his boots, and offered his hand to Aprotelese. “Come on!” he shouted. Aprotelese put his hoof in Duke’s hand and started moving. Once the pair was on the incline, Aprotelese switched to gripping Duke’s gear with his teeth, and Duke kept one hand on Aprotelese’s mane. As they made their way across, Duke scanned the area with his weapon in case someone decided to attack. It was a prime time for it. Duke reached the other end after a short time and released Aprotelese, who in turn released Duke and stood on the new, flat ground. Aprotelese looked relieved, like he had been waiting for something bad to happen. Truth be told, Duke was in the same boat. Duke keyed his mic. “Frost, you read?” “I read, boss,” Frost replied. “You saw how I brought Aprotelese over?” Duke asked. “Affirmative,” Frost replied. “Do that with one of the stallions over there. I don’t want to leave Aprotelese alone here.” Duke knew that a lone stallion here would be practically sentenced to death. “Roger, I’ll be over real quick.” A minute after Frost finished, Duke could see him when Aprotelese shined his light on the incline. Frost had brought over Moon Moon, who was really having a hard time getting his footing on the ledge. Frost mostly dragged him over, fighting the forces of gravity and rain trying to knock him down. When he got over to the flat area, he dropped Moon Moon and addressed Duke. “You want me to get the others?” he asked. “No, you stay here; I’ll get them!” Duke shouted. “You sure?” Frost asked. “Aiming my MP7 is a little bit easier here than aiming your rifle,” Duke reasoned. Frost could accept that, and Duke went about retrieving the rest of the team. The rest of the team wasn’t too hard; Mosquito was an easy grab, and Wolf handled himself pretty well. Once they were over, Duke realized that there were only two left. If he went back alone, that would leave one of them on his own on the other side. “Frost, come with me; we’re gonna get the last two,” Duke ordered. “Got it,” Frost replied. The two men made their way back to the other side and met up with Fog and Comet. The two stallions were tense, watching for enemy movement in the rain and lightning, hoping they weren’t in view of any gryphons. When the men returned, they were more than happy to hop up and start making their way across. Duke took Fog in front, and Frost took Comet in the back. Slowly, they started making their way across the rock face to the other side. Fog gripped Duke with his teeth, Frost held Fog’s tail, and Comet held onto Frost’s gear with his teeth. It almost seemed like the rain was getting worse as they walked, but they all knew better. It wasn’t going to get better or worse, because this area was consistently like this. About halfway across, on the steepest part of the incline, the worst happened. Fog lost his footing on the rock face and slipped, slamming into his side on the ground and started to slide down. Duke spun around when his contact was severed and saw the stallion sliding down. Frost was still with Comet and was only able to watch as Fog slid closer to death every second, trying to fight it but incapable of stopping. “Hang on!” Duke shouted. He launched himself forward off the incline toward Fog and landed on his back, feet going first. With the extra speed and acceleration, he was able to catch up with Fog quickly and get a hand on his mane. He couldn’t see where the edge of the incline was, but he knew they would probably be close to it by the time they stopped, if they didn’t just fall right off. If that happened, Duke was seriously hoping that there was something under the ledge. When Duke had his hand on Fog’s mane, he shoved his rubber-soled boots into the rock to generate enough friction to stop. He could feel the water underneath trying to keep his boots off, but he pressed hard, and he could feel himself skidding. He placed his other hand on the rock to try to further slow his fall. Then, at one point, he felt his feet hit something jutting up, and he came to a jolting halt on the rock. He felt Fog continue for a moment before starting to drop vertically. Acting fast, Duke took his other hand off the rock and shot forward to grab the stallion’s wing at the base. He just made it, and now, Fog hung over an unknown depth, suspended only by the strength of Duke’s grip. “Help me out here!” Duke shouted to the stallion. As Duke pulled up, Fog got his hooves on the rock again and started pulling himself up. Once he was back up, Duke grabbed him by the torso and led him back up the slope, one small step at a time. As he climbed, Duke heard his mic key. “Duke, you alright!?” Frost called. “We’re fine,” Duke replied. “Just a bit of a scare. We’re coming up.” “More than a bit if you ask me,” Frost replied. “We’ll be waiting.” Duke and Fog carefully made their way back up the slope, making sure they had their footing every step of the way. The rain continued to try to get underneath them and pull their feet and hooves out from under them, and massive gusts of wind threatened to knock them off balance. When they eventually reached a high enough point, Duke could see Aprotelese’s slight in the distance, and started making a heading in that direction. When the pair approached the group, Frost spotted them and helped them onto the flatter area of the new path. “You guys good to go?” Frost asked. “We’re good,” Duke replied. “Too bad we couldn’t have brought gear for this situation, eh?” “I don’t think there is gear for this kind of AO,” Frost replied, looking around as lightning illuminated the valley. Aprotelese cut in. “Let’s go. We’re behind schedule,” he said. “Lead the way,” Duke said. Aprotelese took the lead once more and walked along the path toward the area they believed the Echo stallions to be located in. There weren’t any more extreme ledges like the previous one, but the downpour was still a major problem. The fact that enemies lurked in the darkness around them didn’t help either. After some time, they reached the area they had been trying to get to. The Echo stallions were supposed to have a small light, but that could have run out of whatever power source it had by now. Or they could have turned it off because they had to keep hidden in the darkness. A light would give them away in a heartbeat. “ECHO!!!” Aprotelese shouted, startling the men and alarming them enough to make them bring their weapons to bear. In the distance, a light flashed on, just a small ways up and forward on the rock face. Without warning, Aprotelese started speed walking over to the light, forcing the team to scramble to keep up with him. As they approached the light, they could start to make out shapes around it. Four were lying down, held in place by the two stallions standing in the group as the rain tried to drag them away. “Echo!” Aprotelese said as he ran up to the group. The standing stallions and one of the stallions lying down looked at Aprotelese and their faces brightened as if they were being given millions of bits. Duke and Frost could hear their sighs of relief over the pouring rain. “Damn, are we glad to see you!” one of the stallions said. “Boulder, 10th Mountain Battalion, Echo Brigade.” “Aprotelese, Nighthawks,” Aprotelese responded. “We’re here to get you out of here.” “I’m glad to hear that,” Boulder replied. “But that may be easier said than done. Four of us aren’t able to walk.” “How bad is it?” Aprotelese asked. “Three severely wounded, one KIA,” Boulder replied. Aprotelese grinded his teeth at the news. “Damn,” he said. “Yo, Duke, Frost!” The men made their way forward. “You rang?” Frost asked. Boulder looked at the men with a surprised expression. He appeared to have heard of them, but never expected to see them. “Can you treat these guys and make it safe to get them out of here?” Aprotelese asked. “We can,” Duke replied. Duke and Frost immediately set to work, sterilizing and bandaging up any open wounds they saw and splinting broken bones. The squad had taken a serious beating from whatever group had assaulted them. Hopefully, the stallions were able to take down all of the enemy fighters, but that chance was slim, so they had to move fast. When the men finished treating the stallions, they pulled up the Nighthawks and assigned them to carry the immobilized stallions so the group could move to the extraction point. It was further ahead, since there was never a guarantee that they could follow the path they came in on, so they didn’t know what was in store. Even that, though, was better than what they knew was now behind them. Fog, Moon Moon, Mosquito, and Wolf carried the wounded and dead, while Boulder, his remaining fighter, Aprotelese, the men, and Comet took up security and stayed around the casualty group as much as possible. Duke took a front position and Frost took a rear position, giving them the fullest possible range to fire in. The path forward wasn’t so severe. It was mostly flat, and the few areas that weren’t were easy to navigate on account of the Echo stallions knowing how to walk the area and giving help to the Nighthawks. Duke and Frost kept their eyes open the whole way, watching through the storm and flashes of light for any gryphons who might attack. After a time, they reached the path that would take them up and out of the valley and back into the light of day. It was a welcome prospect to the entire group, none of whom were keen on being put in a position this treacherous again any time soon. But they weren’t out yet. Duke, in the front, had his eyes up when he spotted movement in a flash of lightning. “Hold!” he shouted, putting his fist up to stop everyone. Behind him, Boulder looked forward, but only saw dark. “What?” he asked, the tension in his voice so visible one could practically see it parting the rain. Duke got down to one knee and looked forward. Then, suddenly, something clanked its way down the side of the mountain and landed against his knee. Duke looked down at it and just was able to see it in Boulder’s light; a small, metal canister with a tapered tip on top. It was releasing a yellowish brown smoke. Duke stood up immediately and kicked it to the side. “CONTACT!!” In a blinding explosion of action, lights all around the area turned on, focusing directly on the group of stallions and men. Gryphons stood behind the lights and were rushing in past them to engage the team with swords and knives. The stallions drew if they could or hunkered down if they were carrying bodies. The men immediately started laying down fire on the assaulting gryphons, cutting down a number of them with controlled bursts of hot lead in the freezing rain, sending them tumbling down the rock face and into the dark, murky abyss. The bright muzzle flashes and deafening roar of the weapons threw off all of the other fighters, gryphons and stallions, letting the men engage for just a little longer until their magazines ran out of ammunition. More gryphons were attacking, though, and advanced too quickly to give the men time to reload, forcing them to pull their knives and leave the empty magazines in their weapons. One gryphon tried to jump up into the air and land on Duke, but Duke responded by side-stepping and leaving his knife in the air where he had been standing, letting the gryphon land on it and kill itself. It nearly took the knife out of Duke’s hand as it continued to follow gravity, but Duke held on, and the knife ripped its way out of the gryphon’s side. Boulder and Comet, behind Duke, had their weapons pulled and joined in the fight at the front of their group, cutting down every gryphon that came at them. In the back, Frost and Aprotelese were fending off a horde of gryphons trying to attack from below. One of them was foolish enough to throw another gas canister, which Frost just lightly kicked back down in their direction, turning their own weapon against them. He could hear the screams of panic as they tried to escape the gas, and heard some of their talons scrape against the rock as they lost their footing and slid down the mountain. Some of them were smarter, though, and decided to attack with their melee weapons. Most of them seemed to be interested in attacking Aprotelese, but one of them was intent on killing Frost and gunned for him. Frost pulled his FE9 and stood in a combat stance as the gryphon came up in front of him. The gryphon never stopped moving, and as it came upon the man, it brought its sword down on him with as much force as it could muster. Frost blocked it by placing the side of the knife blade in his other palm and holding it up. The gryphon’s sword struck the flat side of the steel knife and bounced away due to Frost’s blocking angle, giving Frost a chance to counter. He brought the knife around with a swift motion of his wrist and slashed across the gryphon’s shoulder, just missing the neck he was aiming for. The gryphon stepped back a bit, unphased, then continued the assault. When he tried to bring the sword down again, Frost stopped it by shoving his hand up and grabbing the gryphon’s talons, giving him as much control of the sword as the gryphon had. WIth an opportunity ripe for the taking, Frost swung his arm around and went for a stab in the gryphon’s side. The gryphon blocked the stab, though, using a basic mid-level block, and responded with its own counter toward Frost’s head. Its talons were spread out and, with a murderous look in its eyes, it went to rip Frost’s throat to shreds. Frost was having none of it. He ducked low to protect his neck, instead taking a set of talons to his face, earning a trio of gashes on his left cheek and one on his right. Now in a lower position and seeing an open opportunity again, Frost removed his left hand from the gryphon’s sword handle and got a firm grasp on the two flat sides of the blade of his knife. WIth some careful maneuvering, he put the knife on the other side of the gryphon’s arm relative to himself and yanked down. The force proved too much for the gryphon’s body to handle, and the blade went right through the thin arm, severing it. “AAAHHHHH!” the gryphon screamed in agony. Frost practically leapt up and thrust the knife through the bottom of the gryphon’s head up, silencing it forever. In the brief moment as the knife plowed through the gryphon’s head, the light seemed to drain from its eyes, and it quickly went limp. Frost let his arm fall and the knife slide out as the gryphon crumpled to the ground and slid away, following the trail of rain and blood to the abyss. He turned his attention to Aprotelese, who had apparently handled his own situation without too much issue. There were no more gryphons around him, and he was panting from the exertion and excitement of the battle. “Is everyone alright?!” Aprotelese asked. Everyone affirmed. “Then let’s get out of here!” Frost covered his face with his hands as the team made its way back up the mountain. When they reached the top, and they were out of the rain and out of danger, he pulled out some of his remaining bandages and started fixing himself up. Duke noticed it, but had to turn his attention to the injured stallions to make sure they were still alright and their conditions hadn’t declined. By the time all the stallions had been checked and Frost had bandaged himself up, the exfil carriage arrived and everyone hopped onboard, ecstatic to be out of the Southern Gryphon Colonies and all just waiting to get to go home to their loved ones. Almost all of them, at least. Frost chuckled as they took off. “Amel is gonna be soooo pissed at me,” he said. “Eeyup,” Duke said, leaning back in his seat and closing his eyes. “And I get to watch all of it unfold from a safe distance.”