Ten more operators had arrived outside the facility that housed the gateway to Equestria, bringing the Rainbow Team’s presence to a very considerable number. Among these that had been called in were four operators designated to assist Thatcher. They were to soon go in and plan for the upcoming assault.
In this group, Thermite, Montagne, Blitz, Fuze, and Thatcher who were already at the facility were checking their weapons while the other five, Tachanka, Jäger, Castle, Smoke, and Rook, as well as Twitch were busy carrying the much heavier equipment from the provided trucks that Popov had commissioned for.
The costs were adding up to him. The Rainbow Team might as well have gotten revenge against his deeds in the past by forcing him to become broke, though he was still far away from it. The Russian ex-KGB watched the entire scene of all sorts of people of different nationalities gearing up, conversing with each other, and cooperating on one objective: the protection of innocent lives.
Clark was still communicating with Celestia, discussing to her what his intentions of attack are.
“Clark, are you really sure about this? What if when you breach that room, the stallions will just kill the hostages?” she spoke her concerns.
“Then we’ll hit them so hard and so fast, they won’t even know what just happened. Funny thing is, you ponies kind of act like humans in the way you think and how you react to something you’ve never experienced before. You’re drawn to it, like a train wreckage before recognising the danger that it beholds.” Clark spoke back.
Then, Thatcher came over to Clark, “We have a problem.”
“What’s that?” Rainbow Six responded.
“There’s only two windows and two doorways to the hostage room. That’s too few lines of sight for a five-man team, as well as the doors being able to carry sound down the hallway too easily and within line of sight for crossfire. Those walls are solid crystal, so I have no idea what can blow them up and what can’t.” Thatcher pointed out.
“I’ve been thinking of that, if we use too much explosives, we could risk killing the hostages from the force or the shards that will be thrown all over the place.” Clark nodded back.
Thermite walked over to them, the American overhearing the conversation on the radio communications, “If I may, Princess Celestia, I need to know about the melting point of that crystal the castle is made of. You see, I have this invention of mine called the exothermic breaching charge. Utilising controlled and fast-acting thermite paste, I can melt through reinforced materials and blow a chunk out of the wall, making a new opening.”
“I… don’t know too much about things like the melting point of crystals…” Celestia put a hoof to her chin. Then, Dragonlord Ember had also overheard the conversation and notioned for Celestia to give her the earpiece for a minute. Knowing that she was a dragon, Celestia complied.
“Hello, this is Dragonlord Ember, and I know practically everything about minerals and gemstones. It’s literally a dragon’s diet.” she spoke into the tiny microphone.
“Alright Ember, what can you tell us?” Thermite asked as he got down by a table and began to tweak his exothermic breaching charge.
“You see, the kind of material that Twilight’s castle is made of is a kind of gemstone known as ‘Royalty Gem’. It tastes awful, but it was made at one point to create elegant castles. It tastes bad to us, partially because it’s hard to digest. Us dragons have a natural fire that burns within us at about over a thousand degrees celsius that we use for digestion and the extraction of minerals from the stones we eat. Royal Gem has a melting point of over 1800 celsius, so it takes a long time to digest and takes a lot more effort.” Ember explained.
Thermite smiled, “No problem. My thermite paste burns at over 2000 celsius, and it’s fast acting. Give me a few seconds, and I’ll have cut a hole in that wall. Thanks for everything, ‘Dragonlord’.” Thermite had to chuckle at that name.
“Wow… 2000 celsius from a paste? Unbelievable…” Ember said to herself as she handed the earpiece back to Celestia.
“Alright, that’s the wall taken care of. Now we got to worry about the hostiles above and below.” Clark though a bit, then walked towards Twitch. However, he turned off his earpiece for a second as he walked over to her.
“Twitch, turn your earpiece off.”
The French operator did as she was told to, and looked up at Clark.
“Yes sir?”
Clark then explained the situation, “We have one hostile that’s hiding in the basement. I need you to take your Shock Drone before the assault takes place, and neutralise him with a taser so we can get him out of the way. The portal will allow drone control signals to pass through, so it shouldn't be a problem.”
Twitch nodded, “What will we do with the pony that’s going to be knocked out?”
Clark looked around, made sure his earpiece was turned off before talking to Twitch again.
“We’ll be detaining him and bringing him back to earth. So much intelligence can be sitting in one of those pony’s heads. Think about it. Other ponies involved, where those portals are…” Clark ran through the possibilities.
Twitch checked the Shock Drone and fired a taser at the wall to test it using a pair of metal prongs to activate the launcher.
“I understand, and I’ll get it done.” she replied.
“Excellent.” Clark nodded and turned the earpiece back on. He would have to explain this to Celestia, but not yet.
“Alright, we also need to kill the lights in the castle, but leave that anti-magic machine still on to keep those ponies from flying or levitating guns down the hallway.” Ding spoke through the microphone.
“My EMP grenades can be set to a certain parameter to short out smaller electronics like a room’s lighting system while keeping something as massive as that machine up and running.” Thatcher talked to Clark, “That’s plenty of time. We’ll clear the hostiles out in less than three seconds in the darkness.”
“Everything is looking pretty good now.” Clark spoke, “We’ll be making final preparations for the attack. Celestia, we’ll need you to drop night again for the attack. No exceptions.” Clark radioed to her, “And team, Mute had left a jammer behind the house under the east side of the castle. We activate that, and we’ll cut off their radio feed.”
Ding smiled at Clark, “So the team’s gonna do it like old times? Breach, flashbangs, and hit them like a hurricane?”
Rainbow Six nodded back, “Something like that, but even more flashy.”
Celestia was still behind the hill, amazed at what all of this sounded like. These humans seemed to know everything to do, everything what to do, and every variable that stood in their way.
“Alright team, prepare up. Thermite, you’ll be coming with your exothermic charges to open up a new hole in the wall.” Thatcher pointed to Thermite, who was locked and loaded.
“Fuze, you’ll be using your Cluster Charge to clear the third floor of all hostiles so we don’t get collapsed on.” Fuze nodded after Thatcher pointed to him, the final preparations to his sub-munition insertion device were in place.
“Blitz and Montagne, you’ll be up front in the hole Thermite makes with your respective shields. Blitz, your flashbang charges attached to the shield will aide in the other flashbangs that will be thrown in. I’ll be rappelling on the eastern exterior wall and blowing open the windows after I have used my EMP grenade to take the lights out on the second floor.” Thatcher explained.
“Twitch, you’ll be disabling the assailant in the basement with your Shock Drone.” Thatcher ordered. Twitch had already placed her drone on the floor of the facility, and drove it back and forth, signalling that she was ready.
Celestia could hear the voices on the other end of the Rainbow Team’s radio. They were actually going to do it. They were going to rescue Twilight and her friends.
“Alright, team sound off!” Thatcher called.
“Ready!” Thermite’s SG-556 was ready to go, as well as his exothermic breaching charge.
“Good to go!”, Fuze’s AK-12 was loaded as the Spetsnaz sounded off, his Cluster Charges hanging off his back.
“Roger that!” Blitz checked the three rows of eight flashbang charges on his G-52 Tactical Light Shield and nodded.
“Yes, sir!” Montagne’s extendable ballistic shield, infamously and simply named “Le Roc” was ready to extend and protect his, and whoever was behind his shield’s entire figure from incoming bullets.
“Drone’s ready and spun up!” Twitch sounded off, giving her drone a scoot forward from her touch screen controller.
Thatcher prepared his own AR-33 and his EMP grenades and looked over the team.
“Alright, let’s go save those hostages. While we head out, I’ll go over the plan one more time...”
Clark knew he had to tell her at this time. It would be too late for Celestia to object at this point in the operation knowing that Clark and his team were her only hope in getting Twilight Sparkle, Starlight Glimmer, and Spike back.
He didn’t have a pain in his gut knowing what might happen to that pony. They needed that intelligence, and Equestria would probably benefit just as much as humanity from it, knowing that the White Masks could no longer come into their world.
Clark took a breath, and stepped through the portal back to the other world after telling Thatcher that he needed to make one more thing fall into place.
Walking a bit, Clark came up to Celestia behind the hill, and nodded to her.
“Clark? What are you doing here? Isn’t your team going to be attacking soon?”
Clark nodded, and motioned for Celestia to head off with him in private.
“Oh, okay.”
Clark leaned against a tree as Celestia asked, “Is something on your mind?”
Clark nodded, “We’ll be detaining one of the ponies alive. The rest are going to perish in the attack we’ll be performing.”
“Well… I understand. You have your ways of dealing with these situations while we have none in the first place.” Celestia nodded, “For all that it’s worth, I thank you so much for everything that you’re doing.”
“Well, you’re welcome. It’s what we’ve trained exactly to do. However, there is one more matter I need to discuss with you. It’s about the stallion that will be detained.” Clark looked back at her.
“Oh, well, we’ll be able to process him in due time, but for the crimes that he’s committed…”
“You won’t be getting that pony back. We’ll be taking him back to Earth to interrogate him.”
Celestia looked back to Clark, unsure if what she heard was correct.
“Come again?”
Clark replied, “We need the intelligence that’s inside that pony. Our world and your world are in mortal danger if we don’t stop the White Mask’s plans, and that’s why we need that information from any means possible. Back at the HQ, we have a lot of means.”
Celestia shook her head, “You’re going to torture that stallion?”
“Most likely not. Torture is unreliable. We’ll sedate him with drugs and we’ll get it out of him that way. If not, we’ll have to escalate our methods.” Clark spoke to Celestia.
“He’s a citizen of my country, Clark. What are you even going to do with that pony when you’re finished, or even if he doesn’t talk at all?” Celestia was getting more and more aggressive with her words.
“If we can, we’ll find a way to ship him back to you. If he gives us the location of more portals, we can arrange a deposit. If not… well… we will think of something else.” Clark explained.
At this point, Celestia couldn’t believe her ears. These humans were literally abducting a pony, criminal or not from their world. On one hoof, the crimes that these ponies were committing were unforgivable. On the other hoof, he’s a pony, and he should be processed through Celestia’s own law.
However, Clark mentioned that both of their worlds were in mortal danger, as he explained the White Masks’ intentions of using this world as a staging base, gathering an army through firepower, and going back to Earth and to other places around Equestria to cause chaos when they felt like it with no retaliation.
The Princess sighed, and looked back up.
“I’m expecting that you’ll return him to us.”
Clark nodded back, “We’ll do everything in our power. Now, we’re moving to rescue Twilight and her friends.”
Clark turned to head back to the portal.
This time, Celestia didn’t stop him to say “thank you”.
Night had fallen earlier than usual. Under the shroud of darkness, the five team members slowly approached the castle, hiding behind building every chance they got to obstruct their line of sight. Finding Mute’s jammer behind the building that was marked, Montagne pulled the handles apart, activating the machine. The frequency of jamming was set to that of the ponies’, so their own communications remained unobstructed.
Back in the facility, Twitch drove the Shock Drone through the portal and steered it towards the castle in the town after coming into its borders.
“Drone’s coming through.” Twitch radioed to the team.
“That fucking bitch. I told her to keep the sun up.” Rocky spat his words, growing more and more frustrated.
“You, send a letter to Celestia saying that when that sun comes up, or in two hours, we’re going to slaughter these pigs. You, get another draft up. I want those reinforcements now. Those White Masks have about twenty five other ponies that I want here now. I know Celestia. She’s planning something. When she fails, I want as much firepower to slaughter every mare and guard that I see.” Rocky began to pace back and forth, infuriated.
Twilight and Starlight now looked back at Rocky, growing the most frightened they had ever been in their entire lives. Twenty five more ponies could be coming on the side of these hostage takers. Spike now feared that this set of letters will be his last to ever send. A puff of fire, and the two letters were gone. One towards Celestia, one to a very different location. Rocky knew that the traveling ashes of the letter would go through into one of the portals, since he specifically told Spike to send the letter to coordinates that were not found on Equestria, but to an abandoned luxury yacht in Canada, a human country.
“Third floor, come in.” Rocky spoke through the radio.
“This is the third floor. Hear you loud and clear.” the ponies above responded.
Rocky nodded to himself. Third floor was checking in. Then, he activated his radio again, but there was a lot more static than usual at this time.
“Basement, come in.”
No response. Only static.
“Basement, check in now.”
The same result, static filled the radio.
“My radio’s not getting a response either.” another stallion listened to his own radio. Rocky snarled and stormed out the door from the living room, rifle in hoof. Approaching down the stairs and walking into the basement, he peered in to find the stallion that was supposed to be hidden down below to look up at him, as if nothing was wrong.
“Something up, Rocky?” the stallion asked.
Rocky marched over and took the stallion by his neck, “Why the fuck aren’t you checking in?! I’ve called twice!”
The pony, suddenly shaken by the grip on his neck dared not to fight back, “Y-You were? I never heard anything on my radio! I swear, it’s always next to me! Maybe it’s out of power or something.”
“Bullshit. All of ours are working fine.” Rocky took the other pony’s radio and clicked the receiver button on it, blaring a ton of static.
“What the fuck… what the hell is going on?” Rocky tried a few more times.
“So… what now?” the stallion asked, but quickly bit his lip when Rocky turned his head around and glared back at him.
“Alright, you know why you’re in the basement while we’re all upstairs?” Rocky asked.
“Y-Yeah. If those guards come through the doorway and up the stairs, then I flank and shoot them in the back.” the stallion responded.
“Exactly. Radio’s aren’t working now, so just go up to the second floor. I’ll cover for you down here.” Rocky patted his shoulder.
“Oh, uh… thanks.” the stallion turned to head back upstairs.
Rocky swore to himself as he believed the stallion was incapable of the important task he had, “Fucking idiot… you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. Something down here is probably causing the interference.”
At this point, Rocky had began to wander around the Cutie Map room, looking for possible sources of magical interference. It was a bit odd, though. Considering that they had the anti-magic machine up and running, nothing that was made by ponies could be stopping their radios from working.
A few minutes had passed, and Rocky couldn’t find anything. He sat down in one of the throne chairs at the table, as if he was the rightful subject to lounge in it.
He decided to get back up. Taking his rifle off the table, he started another sweep of the basement, until he heard something enter the room. It sounded… tiny. The noise had a bit of a metallic whine to it, and a small shadow moved across the edges of the room.
Picking his gun up, he headed over towards the noise.
Behind a box, emerged a tiny little black device with two wheels on it, and a faint red light glowing off of it.
“What the hell is-”
Rocky couldn’t finish his sentence as the machine fired out a pronged cable, depositing a continuous stream of 50,000 volts through his body, dropping him to the ground in an instant. He convulsed in short and small spasms, hardly making a sound as his entire body felt like it had pins and needles dancing around inside of it, him unable to control which way his arms and legs went.
“Shock delivered. Still have four more loads with thirty seconds each.” Twitch notified as she watched the Shock Drone’s camera feed.
“Copy that, scaling now.” Thatcher spoke as he threw the lightweight titanium hook up onto the castle’s roof, catching onto a jutting crystal perfectly, cleanly, and silently.
Fuze had landed his hook as well, and together, they both began to climb up the castle wall. They took it easy, slowly getting up the walls to not disturb whoever was listening inside. One step at a time to get up the castle.
"Wish we had some of that active camouflage. Those Ghost Recons are lucky bastards." Fuze muttered as he made his way up the castle's walls.
On the other side, Thermite, Blitz, and Montagne were already scaling, finding that from the rooms described by Celestia and Twilight’s friends, there was a dining room with a large window to overlook the west side of Ponyville. Montagne got to work with a glass cutter, drawing a square on the window. An adhesive glove was worn by Thermite to take the chunk out and lightly push it in front of him, setting it on the floor in front.
Their night vision goggles gave a clear picture of their progress in the forced night as Montagne drew another square to fully fit the shape and tallness of a human. Another gentle grasp with the sticky glove, and it was on the floor.
“This is wall-breach team. We are entering the structure.” Blitz got his feet inside and took out his shield, the three operators moving slowly into the building.
“Copy, we’re getting the Cluster Charge now. Proceed with exothermic breech. Check drones for safe location.” Thatcher ordered as he and Fuze made their way to the third floor.
Fuze climbed up to the third floor turret and pulled up his touch screen controller. Cycling through the drones already in the building, including the one was that currently tasing that pony in the basement, he found the three stallions in the same turret he was outside of.
Getting under a window, he took his Cluster Launcher from his pack, and placed the adhesive end on the surface of crystalline glass. Pulling the pin from the device, arming it, Fuze lowered himself away. The ponies inside the turret had no clue what had been placed just at the border of one of their windows.
“Cluster Charge in position.” Fuze radioed off.
Thermite had checked the hostage room from one of the drones secretly parked inside. Left-most breach will do it, as the hostages were located on his right side.
“Marking hostiles.” Thermite said as he painted tabs on each of the ponies’ hooves, “Red is hostile, yellow are hostages.”
“Roger that.” Thermite and the other two operators that flanked him slowly moved through the dining room and into the kitchen, where a wall separated them from the living room. The sound that they made by heading down couldn’t be carried all the way down the hall, and around to the doors in the living room, so they were in the clear.
Thatcher had worked his way down along with Fuze, both taking out their breaching charges. Unfolding them and placing them on the window, the lack of light pollution that Ponyville had gave the darkness of night a true pitch-black dark. The lights that were on inside also gave the ponies no night-vision from light adaptation, so the breaching charges were well hidden from a glance at the window.
Rolling up the exothermic breaching charge like a mat on the wall, Thermite pulled the pin out, arming the two-stage detonation. He watched the little blips on his night vision goggles, knowing exactly where to place the charge.
Blitz readied the flashbang charges on his shield, and Montagne was ready to fully extend the full protection on his shield.
Fuze had the detonator of the Cluster Charge in one hand, while the other held his AK-12 by the grip. He and Thatcher were facing towards the ground, their feet on the walls of the castle. They were suspended by the solid titanium hook that was lodged on the roof, ready to act.
Clark and Celestia were watching everything from their respective tablets, one being given to the Princess. She was biting her lip almost hard enough to draw blood. She was sweating in the coolness of night. Her heart raced like never before as she had cast a rather simple nightvision spell, her being able to see the faint outline of Thatcher and Fuze hanging from the eastern wall of the castle.
Clark and Ding were on their tablet, and the entire of the rest of the operators back in the Russian compound were silent as they watched on their own tablets.
Popov was listening in to everything. This was the moment where the fate of humanity and the fate of another world were decided by the Rainbow Team’s actions.
Then, Clark spoke.
“Breach.”
“Lights out.” Thatcher’s EMP grenade went off, shorting out the lights in the living room. The anti-magic machine was still running, and their breaching charges were hard-wired to withstand Thatcher’s gadget. He could hear voices inside, wondering why the lights went out, and some shuffling around. The drone feed inside showed one of the ponies moving to a corner, wondering what was going on, the red blip following him and marking his every movement.
“Cluster Charge detonated!” Fuze spoke through the communications.
RRRRRRRR- Thump-Thump-Thump-Thump-Thump!
The drill on the Cluster Charge went to work, slicing through the window and allowing the device to pump in five miniature grenades, each packing enough explosive power to rival a full-sized M67 frag grenade into the turret where the three stallions above were lurking.
“A real big fucking hole coming right up!” Right as the Cluster Charge went off, Thermite activated the first stage to his exothermic breaching charge. He and the other two operators looked away from the incredibly bright thermite paste as it ignited and began to crawl its fire into a square shape on the wall. On the other side, the stallions looked towards the new source of light, only to be blinded by what looked like to be an entire new sun growing out of the wall, splitting into two and snaking down and back around.
They were too dazed and disoriented, focusing more on rubbing their eyes to get rid of the square-shaped light burned into their eyes like an old arcade machine that had the top score burned into its screen.
“Breach and clear!”
The order was given by Thatcher. Montagne’s shield extended out, covering his entire body and legs as Thermite hit the second trigger on his detonator, blasting out the chunk of crystal wall. The wall fell down just as the windows exploded, sending little shards of crystal onto the floor and further disorienting the hostage takers, who had no clue what the hell was happening around them. At this point, they forgot about the hostages and wondered what the hell was going on and some tried to frantically fire at the wall where the new hole from the kitchen was made.
The bullets impacted harmlessly against Montagne’s shield as Thermite, Thatcher, and Fuze threw in three flashbang grenades, one per each. Blitz took point and flashed the entire room with the flashbang charges built into the front of his shield. He could see the stallions and the hostages each recoil from the flashbangs, screaming and firing at the shield-wielding operators, each having no effect to them whatsoever.
What Celestia saw outside the castle amazed her. A thousand years of ruling, and she had never seen anything like this. Fuze and Thatcher hung upside down from their grappling cables, and began to fire into the room of the hostages. Suppressed gunshots now mixed in with the rifles of the enemies. The window breachers instantly dropped two hostiles against the walls that separated the kitchen from the living room, and Thermite had shot down the stallion to the right of the room, while Blitz gunned down the stallion in the left corner, lining up the laser with his body and blasting 9mm ammunition directly into his figure.
Up above in the third floor turret, the grenades launched from the Cluster Charges began to detonante, throwing bits and pieces of metal around the room, slicing apart the bodies of the terrorists up above. The explosive force from some sent a leg flying off two of the stallions, while one had detonated right under the hooves of another, blasting shrapnel up into his stomach, giving him a very messy and gruesome death.
Spike was screaming as he laid down on the ground, unable to cover his ears from his arms being cable tied. Twilight and Starlight Glimmer were on the ground, screaming through the tape that was on their mouths as their vision suddenly began a painful white from the flashbangs.
Everything happened so fast. The lights went out, then everything went white. Twilight heard all sorts of gunshots afterwards. Was she dead now? She saw only white in her eyes. She felt her chest rising up and down, despite all of this. She couldn’t hear anything but the incessant ringing that crawled into her ears.
Then, her vision slowly began to restore. The whiteness gave way to five taller and bulky figures, two of them swinging into the window.
“Clear?!” Blitz looked around for any other possibility of hostiles.
“Clear!” Thatcher confirmed. At this point, they didn’t waste time.
Thatcher and Thermite stayed with the hostages as Fuze went up above to check on the turret room that he had blown to smithereens with his sub-munitions. It was a grisly sight up there. Blood was sprayed all over the room, with a leg lying across a table that had been blown off one of the deceased stallions. Another was laying on the ground, a massive pool of blood spreading out from beneath him.
One of the stallions had his leg blasted off. As Fuze approached him, he miraculously was still alive as his chest was still rising up and down. His rifle was all the way across the room, dropped when the grenades began to blast everything in the room. Blood leaked from the stump that his leg had been reduced to now.
He wasn’t going to live anyways, so Fuze put a bullet from his AK-12 into his head, ending the stallion’s fleeting life. The last thing the stallion saw was a tall bipedal figure covered in green camouflage, and the green helmet with the black visor that stared down at him.
Heading downstairs, Montagne and Blitz got into the Cutie Map room in the basement. It didn’t take too long to find the stallion that was still being tased by Twitch’s Shock Drone for a solid minute and a half. It was a light amperage that was being delivered, so it couldn’t stop the well-fit stallion’s heart.
Pulling the taser from the stallion’s chest and kicking his rifle away, Blitz got to work. Doc had prepared a special cocktail in a syringe that knocked the stallion clean out as he forced in the liquid inside.
“This is Blitz, hostile asset is secured.”
Clark breathed a heavy sigh of relief when the next phrase was radioed in.
“This is Thatcher. Hostages are secure and are unharmed. Team, we did it.”
Celestia immediately broke down into tears and smiled as she gasped at the news. Twilight’s friend looked over.
“Is Twilight and…”
Pinkie was cut off by Celestia turning towards them, tears in their eyes and sniffling, “Yes, they’re okay!”
At once, the five other mares broke down into tears, embracing Celestia. Finally, all of the hardship and pain they had experienced these past few days were finally over.
Up above on the second floor, Twilight, Starlight Glimmer, and Spike began to have their senses return to them from the violence that had ensued before. The whiteness in their eyes and the ringing in their ears slowly subsided to reveal the entire living room in a mess with shards of glass everywhere. Scorch marks were on the massive hole that was made in the wall separating the living room from the kitchen, as well as blackened burns were around the windows.
Four stallions lay on the floor, and on closer look, they were bleeding from the head and the chest, one circular wound in each with a bloody mess behind.
Then, the two figures in black gear were above them, and one took the tape off of Twilight’s mouth. She was still shaking from the initial explosions.
“Hey… hey… everything’s okay now.” the one wearing goggles over its eyes spoke to her, “We were sent by Celestia to rescue you.”
Thermite used Celestia’s name in hopes that it would calm down the hostages.
“Y-You’re humans…?” Twilight shakily pointed a hoof at him. When she did so, she felt a bit… faint. Her backside had this dull pain in her that was being forced out due to the adrenaline that was coursing through her now.
“Yeah, but probably not ones that you’re familiar with. Are any of you hurt? Did they do anything to you?” Thatcher asked Twilight, Starlight, and Spike, “How many fingers am I holding up?”
He held up three, to which each responded with the correct number.
“Celestia sent you…?” Starlight asked as she had her cable ties cut from her.
“That’s right. Everything’s okay now. Your friends are waiting for you all.” Thermite nodded.
“M-My friends?! Are they okay?!” Twilight got up, but was forced back down by Thatcher pushing her lightly with his hand. She felt another sense of dizziness come over her.
“Take it easy. They’re fine, but you’re still in a shake from what happened before. Sorry about the loud noises, that’s how we do things.” Thatcher spoke, his accented voice breaking through his gas mask.
The lights had already come back on, and the operators took their nightvision off.
“Clark, the hostages are unharmed.” Thatcher radioed in.
“Damn good job. Couldn’t say it any better than myself.” Clark leaned back on the crate he was on in relief.
Then, Spike tugged at Thermite’s sleeve.
“What is it? Are you hurt?” Thermite asked the little dragon.
Then, Twilight remembered, and so did Starlight Glimmer. One of the two letters Spike had sent had detailed a reinforcement of more armed stallions that would arrive in an hour and a half. Remembering a quick glance Spike got at the letter, he remembered the phrase “25 combat-ready” on the letter.
Immediately, Spike spoke up, “More of them are coming!”
Thatcher stopped what he was doing and looked back at the tiny dragon, “Come again? What did you say?”
“I… I think more stallions are coming! Twenty five of them!” he began to panic again.
“Twenty five? Are you sure?” Thermite asked one more time, to which Starlight responded.
“Yes, their leader wanted reinforcements in an hour and a half. I remember looking at the clock at that point, and it’s at an hour past now.” Starlight explained.
The other Rainbow Team members heard the news on the radio.
“What?! We’re not equipped to fend off a damn platoon!” Fuze radioed in.
Clark had overheard, “Fuck me… more are coming…”
Rainbow Six gritted his teeth. This new invading force could jeopardise the entire operation. The portal could only sustain five individuals that weren’t supposed to be in the worlds they traveled to, so he couldn’t just send in more operators.
Celestia heard about this too, but kept herself quiet, waiting for Clark’s response.
Suddenly, another voice came on the radio com.
“This is Thatcher! One of the hostages has been hit!”
“What?!” Clark nearly jumped up in surprise.
“Twilight had been hit in the side! The hostile in the corner must have gotten a blind shot off on her!” Thatcher was now covering the wound that Twilight, through her shock hadn’t even noticed before. The wound had been placed at her hip, thankfully away from vital organs, but a rifle bullet had exited out the other side, thankfully cleanly with an exit wound to boot.
“Fuck! We have no medical gear here!” Thermite spoke as he cut off his own sleeve with his knife, making a makeshift gauze to apply over Twilight. The pool of blood had leaked more behind Twilight, and the smoke that was beginning to clear from the room hid the blood that was trailing on her leg.
“We still have twenty five more hostiles, and an unconscious hostile down below.” Montagne spoke up.
At this point, Clark was thinking as hard as he could, and Celestia grew pale in the face, hearing that Twilight had been hurt. She was thankful that it wasn’t worse, but the way that the Rainbow Team described it, it was a serious injury, and the anti-magic machine was still in effect to not allow magical assistance.
Then, five operators came up to Clark.
They were Castle, Smoke, Tachanka, Doc, and Jäger. Operators that were adept in defensive combat and securing areas.
“Rainbow Six, I can get up there and give medical assistance to Twilight. Marks my words, she will not die.” Doc had already loaded up on his medical gear, “And Smoke came up with a plan.”
“Let’s hear it.” Clark and Celestia both spoke.
“Okay, we can only have five of our guys there. We have enemies we need to kill, and we have a pony that needs help. It will take us too long to get there and set up in time, as well as to wait for the others to come back to the portal to swap out, so here’s what I’m suggesting.”
Smoke began to go into detail about his plan, “Celestia, can you teleport others?”
“Yes, I can do so.”
“Alright, the five of our guys already in the castle head out and get out of the anti-magic zone. Celestia teleports them to the entrance of the portal, they come out, we go in with all the stuff we need, and we get teleported in front of the castle. Boom. Fast travel.”
Celestia thought about it for a few seconds, then nodded back.
“T-That could work. But why do you want to defend the castle? Why don't I just teleport Twilight to safety?” Celestia asked.
“We can’t risk moving Twilight right now, and those hostiles are going to be here soon. Either you let us go into the castle, which is the most defensible structure in that town and fend off the enemies, as well as give medical aid to Twilight, or we will let them occupy your town, and all of our efforts in stopping the White Masks in your world will go to waste. We need to get to the castle and defend.” Smoke pointed out.
“Then Thatcher, you’d better get your men out of the castle now.”
Thatcher had instructed that help would be arriving, and that Starlight and Spike needed to apply pressure to Twilight's wound. Whatever they did, they could not deactivate that anti-magic machine.
Celestia had informed them that doing so still left a residual anti-magic presence in a unicorn’s horn for a good amount of time, so the only good it would do to turn off the machine was to aid the other stallions coming in.
“We’re pulling out now!”
As the attacking team was beginning to leave the castle, the defending team was preparing up for the fight that was to ensue.
Together, Tachanka took a weapon that he always employed on his defensive operations. An RP-46 Soviet-era machine gun that stood on a tripod with an extension that allowed the machine gun to be fired from a standing position was disassembled and placed onto his back. Modified to hell and back, and loaded with armor-piercing 7.62 mm ammunition, no body armor used by his foes has stopped the might of his machine gun. In addition, he carried packs of barbed wire that had been rolled up at his sides.
Smoke’s Compound Z8 gas grenades were at his side, as well as Tachanka’s tripod was being carried on his back. The gas grenades dispersed a tear-gas like substance that stuck to the skin and eyes of an enemy, causing blindness, violent coughing, and burning on the skin. In addition, they could be attached to a wall, doorway, or a surface on the floor and detonated remotely as a trap, or to be used as a traditional smoke grenade to block a line of sight to an area with its thick yellow haze.
Castle’s UTP1 Universal Tactical Panels were rolled up like posters, the lightweight kevlar panels could stop a plethora of armor-piercing rounds from passing through it if it was covering a doorway or a window, and they rolled over them like a mat. Easy to deploy, and strong as hell. His door panels were also accompanied by a deployable ballistic shield that he was carrying in front of him.
Doc’s medical supplies were in a crate that the Rainbow Team had gotten from the structure they were based in, and loaded up their other supplies inside. To add to his medical supplies, Doc carried his MPD-0 Stim Pistol, a dart gun that fired a 1mg dose of epinephrine in a saline solution, capable of reviving a person who had passed out or had been knocked unconscious nearly immediately.
Last, but certainly not least, Jäger’s ADS MK-IV “Magpie” active protection system was ready to be used. The small turret that he could place on a wall or floor surface acted as a shield against incoming explosives, firing an interception projectile at the approaching threat. Grenades, thrown, launched, and even RPG rounds were a thing of the past with Jäger’s active protection system.
The defensive team had loaded their supplies into their crate, and on themselves.
“We’re ready to go!”
With a massive heave, Tachanka, Jäger, and Doc lifted up the crate and held it as the attacking operators had been teleported back to the entrance of the portal and came back in.
“Give them hell, comrades!” Fuze shouted as he came through.
Then, the defending team walked into the portal with their crate and other supplies, heaving the heavy load along.