//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 // Story: Homefront // by Pyramusandthisbe117 //------------------------------// “Hammer Two One, you there?” the faint and panicked voice of Chaser came through the comms as the firefight continually grew around us. A few rounds snapped over me and Deacon’s cover, “Fuck!” she shouted, “This was supposed to be a clean snatch and grab!” “Roger, One One! We copy. Pinned down, but we’re green, over” I popped my head up quickly only to be met with steady incoming. I dropped down in a hurry, no way in hell was I going to die here. Deacon blindly fired her rifle over her cover and was visibly shaking now. “Deacon!” I shouted at the mare, “Save your ammo! We’re going to need it at this rate!” I flipped my rifle to the side, making sure there was no malfunction. Celestia, this went to hell quickly. “We need to push up and fight our way out!” I screamed at her. “Are you nuts?!” she shouted back. “We can’t even fucking move without getting shot at!” Damn spooks. “On three, I’ll start firing and you pop smoke! Ready?” Holy shit, I really hope this works. “What?!” “One!” “Doc! This is nuts!” “Two!” “Son of a bitch!” “Three!” I popped out of cover and began firing at targets. The incoming was go fierce I could barely even keep my eyes open. Really hope Deacon was throwing the smoke. In my peripheral, a small cylindrical canister flew toward the NLR troopers and popped as it spat out a grey haze across our immediate front. Thank Celestia. “Moving!” shouted Deacon as she sprinted past, sliding into cover inside the billow of smoke. Fuck! She just had to run past my field of vision. My internal train of thought was broken by the sound of Deacon’s voice as she swore incomprehensively. Shit. As I pushed up through the smoke, I broke through and nearly ran headfirst into Deacon who was struggling with an NLR trooper in hoof to hoof combat. Barreling into the trooper, I knocked both him and Deacon to the ground. The trooper coughed from the impact and his eyes widened in terror as I brought my rifle barrel to his head. With eight pounds of trigger pressure, I ended his life. Brain matter exploded from the back of his head as Deacon hurriedly scrambled back up and looked upon at the now deceased stallion. “That’s two cans you owe me now” I spat at her. The NLR troopers began falling back after seeing their friend get executed. Firing a few rounds in their direction, I turned back to Deacon, “Try and keep up.” Shakily, Deacon nodded her head. A few rounds zipped over our heads, “Now what, Doc?” she asked. Looking around I saw an old dilapidated building with a rusted over door, maybe. “Think you can rip that door from the frame and throw it their way?” Without a second thought, Deacon closed her eyes and began to focus her magic at the door. C’mon. Do your stuff! I could see the door frame begin to buckle under the stress. Yes! Almost there! “You got it, Deacon!” With one final effort, Deacon flung the door into the NLR troopers who scattered quickly. “Hah!” I cheered, thank Celestia Deacon had some control of her magic abilities. Deacon wheezed and brought her hoof to her nose, pulling it away in slight shock. “Fuck me,” she muttered as blood began running down her face. “Let’s go!” I shouted at her, trying to get Deacon to focus on the situation at hoof. Grabbing her roughly, I dragged her over to the doorway and tumbled inside as rounds slammed into the wall. Sitting her in a corner, I conducted a cursory exam over her. No rounds hit her, good on that, one eye dilated with the other adjusting normally to the light conditions, bloody nose. “You’re good. Just a mental strain from taking that door out. You need to avoid using magic for a bit.” “They went in here!” came a voice from the alleyway. Fuck. Grasping a frag grenade, I flipped the paddle and rolled it down and out the door we had just come from. “Grenade!” An explosion rocked the earth around us as I shielded Deacon with my body. As the dust settled, I listened intently trying to hear if anypony was still alive out there. Silence, “Watch my six,” I said to Deacon as I edged closer to the doorway. The sound of Deacon’s rifle being racked gave me the answer I needed. Poking my head around the doorway, I scanned the area. Two, four, no five KIA. I breathed a sigh of relief. I turned around “We’re clear out here.” Deacon nodded slowly, visibly relaxing and setting her rifle on the ground to wipe her muzzle. “Thought they had us there for a bit” she said flatly. I shrugged, “We’re still ain’t we?” I asked. “Besides, we still got a mission to carry out.” Deacon chuckled. “I’ll try to regain comms with One-One,” she offered. I nodded, “Good deal. And make it quick, those NLR bastards aren’t done with us yet.” ●●● Damnit Doc, why’d you have to go ahead and shoot that fuckin’ NLR trooper, wondered Autumn to herself. This whole thing was gone to hell. “Contact right!” she shouted at Chaser. “Peel left!” came the response. Autumn put down covering fire as Chaser ran behind her. The truck was knocked out of action, there were NLR troopers everywhere, and they had successfully lost communications with Two-One. What else could go wrong? A rocket screeched overhead. Nevermind. As Autumn ducked, the rocket plowed into the building behind them, throwing brick, mortar and shrapnel everywhere. “Popping smoke,” Autumn shouted as she hurled a smoke grenade toward the NLR troopers. “One-One, you there?” came a faint radio call. Holy shit, Two-One was still up? Chaser began shouting at his comms, “Two-One? That you? What’s your damn status, over?!” “We read, One-One. Five enemy KIA, all’s quiet for now, but not for long. Doc grabbed one of their radios and it sounds like we stirred up the hornet’s nest. We’re going to have reinforcements on top of us in a little bit!” “Copy, Two-One. We’ll meet you at RP Dragon and fight our way over to the target” shouted Chaser. “Roger, One-One. Stay safe.” “We’re moving!” roared Chaser to Autumn. “RP Dragon! Let’s go!” ●●● “One-One is up,” said Deacon. “We need to get to RP Dragon and make the push into Ember’s compound.” I sighed, this night was just getting better and better. “Need ammo?” I asked. Deacon checked her kit. “Negative, still got about 150 rounds left.” “Roger” I said as I press checked my rifle. “This Ember mare better be worth all this.” “Deacon hefted her rifle, “I hope so…still got the map?” “Yeah,” I pulled it out of my pocket handing it to her. Deacon studied the map closely while I kept watch on the doorway. She prodded the map with her hoof, “Alright. The NLR as far as we know maintain control of Route Blue along with our sector, here. From what I could hear, it sounded like One-One’s location is under NLR control as well. Our best bet is to take the alleyways and cut west toward the RP.” I nodded in agreement, “Roger. How soon we move?” Deacon shot me a deadpan look. Guess right now. “Cool, let’s get what we came for.” Cautiously I approached the door once again scanning my left and right. No movement, so far so good. “All clear,” I whispered. Deacon pushed past out the door. How’d that saying go? Out of the pan, into the fire? Eh, something like that. “Go!” hissed Deacon. Checking my corners, I rounded into the alley. No contacts still. This was always the worst. At least being shot at, I knew what was going on, but the anticipation? Always had a way of messing with my head; I motioned to Deacon with my hoof to move up. As she trotted past, I couldn’t help but notice how fucking quiet she could be. The sound of a distant gun battle broke the nighttime silence. “Guess One –One is on the move,” I said to Deacon as we continued our hesitant progression through the village’s alleyways. She nodded, watching the windows as we passed. After an agonizing 20 minutes, we made it to the RP, but with no sign of One-One. The shoot –out that had been trailing us had grown eerily silent. “Where are they?” asked Deacon with some bizarre hope that I might miraculously hold the answer. I shrugged, “We wait.” ●●● As Chaser and Autumn retreated from the fight, one thought raced through Autumn’s mind. This mare better be worth it. Chaser desperately threw a grenade toward their pursuers who scattered. The heavy thump of the blast rocked both of their heads. “Into the alleyway!” cried Chaser. Autumn complied without a second thought. These bastards had the main road locked down and any second spent questioning orders meant possibly catching a round. As they ran, Autumn looked at Chaser, no emotion in his face, he was running like no other. Autumn soon realized she was struggling to keep up. A few stray rounds zipped past. “There!” said Chaser, motioning with his head toward a fork in the alley. “We pop smoke and lose ‘em. I’m not dying out here in the middle of bum-fuck nowhere, not today.” Autumn fumbled with a smoke grenade as she pulled the pin and dropped it behind them as they ran toward their savior. The cloud grew behind them as the confused shouts of the NLR troopers began to grow dim. Chaser went left with Autumn close behind. Damn, this stallion could run, she thought bitterly as her muscles began to ache. Pushing past her physical pain, Autumn kept running for her life. Abruptly, Chaser stopped and frantically began pulling out his map. Autumn nearly slammed into him as he spoke, “Looks like we’re less than a klick away from the RP,” he said. “Eyes and ears open, those bastards won’t be far behind.” Autumn nodded and looked back anxiously toward their six as Chaser stuffed the map back into his pack. ●●● Whump! Rainbow slammed into yet another small cloud, in a relatively successful attempt at avoiding her friends for most of the day. “Hey Rainbow!” came the all too familiar high pitch voice of Pinkie. Well, mostly successful. “Dangit,” groaned Rainbow. “What, Pinkie?” she nearly spat out in annoyance. “I’m really busy right now.” “You don’t look busy. You look like you’ve been trying to avoid us” her normally poofy mane began to slowly deflate as she spoke. “No, I’m not. I’m just…I mean…UUUGH!” protested Rainbow. “I don’t wanna talk, okay?” Almost immediately Rainbow regretted that statement, but her friends went a little far the with their teasing. Was it THAT shocking she was interested in a stallion? Goddess. Pinkie took a step back, a bit surprised from Rainbow’s outburst. If only for a second, a frown crept across her face before she resumed her normally bubbly self. “We’re sorry Rainbow, we were just teasing you. We might have gotten carried away though…” her voice trailed off. “Ya think?” snipped Rainbow. “So why exactly are you here?” “Well silly, Twilight told me to come get you. She said something about there being some important news from Canterlot arriving within the hour and that all of us need to be at her place when it arrives!” “You go ahead. I’ll head on over in a bit,” Rainbow said with a dismissive wave of her hoof. “I have a couple errands to do anyway.” “But…” “I’ll be there soon enough Pinkie” said Rainbow this time with a slight hint of anger in her voice. Pinkie raised an eyebrow and began sproinging away. She may be overbearing but at least she could take a hint every now and again thought Rainbow. Finally, some peace and quiet as she laid in the comfort of the cloud letting it envelop her. As she lay there, Rainbow’s thoughts drifted to Coban. He said he was going to work; “Where at, though?” she wondered aloud. ●●● “We’ve been waiting close to half an hour for them!” hissed Deacon. “We’re going to miss the damn window!” I rolled my eyes and muttered “Fuckin’ spooks.” Rather quickly, a hoof knocked the back of my head in reply to the smart ass remark. “Try to make radio contact with ‘em, genius.” Deacon scoffed as she fiddled with her communications unit trying to get signal. Any time you needed it to work, I chuckled quietly to myself. A slight rustling came from down one of the alleyways and caught both of our attention. Motioning to Deacon I pointed out where the noise had come from. “Think it’s them?” I shrugged in response. For somepony who was really quiet on her hooves, Deacon was awful when it came to noise discipline in regards to shutting the hell up. Slowly I brought my rifle up, “C’mon you pieces of shit, let’s see what you got” I said through clenched teeth. After what felt like an eternity, a rat scurried out from the alleyway and through my rifle sights. I breathed a sigh of relief and watched from the shadows as the rodent scurried away with a squeak. The damn anticipation was making me jumpy again. I shook my head, stay in the game. Stay in the game. “Doc!” Deacon whispered urgently, “Look!” Two dark figures moved down the same alleyway, and seemed to be totally oblivious to our presence. “Can you tell who these knuckleheads are?” I asked Deacon. She shook her head to my dismay. Fuck I knew where this was going already. “We need to use the challenge” she stated flatly. “Fuck,” this was about to get hairy. “What’s the plan, spook?” I asked Deacon. She pondered for a few seconds, “Okay, I’ll light up a flare and throw it their way and hopefully it disorients them for a bit. At that point you shout the challenge to ‘em and if we take fire we’ll make it work from there.” I nodded, was about the only thing left we could do at this point. “Alright, let’s do it.” ●●● As Chaser and Autumn sprinted down the alleyway, Autumn couldn’t help but believe their luck. They had defied the odds and somehow taken on a force that had outnumbered them at least five to one and had somehow escaped with their lives. Now if they could only find... Her train of thought was interrupted by a sudden blinding red light that seemingly came out of nowhere. Both her and Chaser froze and raised their rifles in apprehension when they heard a voice call out to them. “Honesty!” Autumn arched her eyebrow at the word. What? Honesty? Her mind began racing. She looked to Chaser who had a smile creeping on his face. “Loyalty!” Chaser said back to the voice. It all came together for Autumn. She had almost completely forgotten about the challenge and password, “Two One, that you?” ●●● Rainbow casually sauntered into the library in a fashionably late manner, Rarity would be proud she giggled to herself. Immediately, Rainbow felt a strange vibe in the room and saw the other girls standing with solemn looks on their faces. She scoffed, “Ok, so I’m a little bit late. But I’m here now!” Twilight shook her head, “Rainbow, you need to read this.” Rainbow cocked an eyebrow at Twilight’s briskness. What was going on she wondered as Twilight raised a scroll in front of her to read. As she read, Rainbow lightly mumbled the contents on the scroll page. MEMORANDUM FOR: Princess Twilight Sparkle Co-ruler of Equestria SUBJECT: After Action Report – Princess Celestia; Implementation of New Dawn Protocol Visit to Canterlot – Of the New Year 1. PURPOSE: This memo provides a strategic and operational assessment of security operations in and around the Capitol of Canterlot and the surrounding country-side. 2. SOURCES: A. SENIOR MILITARY OFFICIAL(S) REFERENCED: 1. Capt. Armor, S., Commander, Royal Guard 3. APPROVED EYES A. Princess(es) Celestia, Twilight, and Cadance B. Elements of Harmony 4. DISCUSSION OF NEW DAWN PROTOCOL: As we already know, the NLR threat in Canterlot and in the surrounding territories has been temporarily eliminated thanks to the valiant efforts of the Royal Guard along with local law enforcement. However, such a victory is a small one that has come at a high cost. The realization that the enemy infiltrated that deep into Canterlot despite such high security measures is not a pleasant one. A stallion by the name of Strong (the owner and proprietor of the Trifecta Contracting Group LLC) has already been engaged in counter intelligence operations against these forces and certainly has vital information the Solar Empireneeds. While his warning did arrive after the incident in question, I believe that it is time we allow him and forces to assist us in this fight under the SoE banner. Our current military capacity simply does not have the capabilities and know-how to counter this threat. In the light of recent events and speculation, the Canterlot Royal Guard cannot be trusted to protect Equestria in its entirety. Such tasks will now be delegated by the soon to be Cmdr. Strong to respective branches and units upon his arrival in Canterlot. Healthy stallions and mares of fighting age will be required within thirty days of the announcement of New Dawn Protocol to register with the selective service system and will be chosen for military service based on a lottery drawing. Any attempt of ‘dodging’ will be punishable up to a ten year prison sentence. All reserve units will be mobilized in preparation for a declaration of war with the New Lunar Republic; current reservists and retired Guards (within two years) must report to Fort Levenhoof within the next two weeks for additional training and information in regards to the shift in the structure. This includes members from but is not limited to: 103rd Guard Division 82nd Canterlot Royal Guard 3rd Guard Division 160th SPFR Wonderbolt Flight Demonstration Team (all stages of training) 75th Manticore Ranger Bn. 1st Marines 1st Bn., 2nd Marines With the authorization of New Dawn Protocol, Equestria will be restoring its standing military along with full time defense industry capabilities. Additionally, the creation of Tier-One level special purpose forces will be established under the name of Task Force Black, attached to Operational Detachment 19. Information regarding this unit is strictly on a need to know basis. Any dissemination of material regarding either the Detachment or Task Force Black will result in immediate ‘silencing’ of loose ends. Trifecta Contracting Group LLC will additionally be tasked with intelligence operations along with mission planning/OPORD’s for the new SoE armed forces due to the recent suspected intelligence leaks from insider sources within the Royal Guard and those in court loyal to the former Princess, Luna. This information will be publicly released within the next twenty four hours across the Empire and will be considered ‘Tier One Classified’ until its release. Any release by unauthorized personnel before the scheduled public statement by Princess Celestia will be considered an act of treason. Any and all questions in regards to military service may be directed to the Defense Ministry. -Memo from the Defense Ministry to Princess Celestia et. al CC: Princess Celestia Rainbow blinked, took a step back and looked around at the others. A silence like she had never known hung over the room. “Holy shit,” said Rainbow absolutely stunned at what she had just read. “This is really happening...”