Wherever We Are
“I hope you’ve got a reason for callin’ us here, Twi,” Applejack complained. “You know it ain’t safe to go outside no more.”
“I already told you Applejack; we’re trying to think of ways of stopping those aliens!” Twilight replied in an irritated tone, pacing back and forth in the library. “Weren’t you listening on the way here?”
“Uh…no; I was keepin’ an eye out for anything…funny,” she replied honestly, though it was just a run-around way of saying ‘I was too scared’.
“Wait, so that’s what we’re here for!?” Rainbow exclaimed.
“Why else why I bring you all here?”
“I dunno, not this.”
“Well, now you do know; I brought you here to try and find an answer to these aliens,” Twilight explained. “So, any ideas?”
No answers came; not one word. Fluttershy just looked at the ground and shuffled a hoof around on the wooden floor, keeping to herself. The others just stared at their friend with a concerned look.
“Nothing!? We’re the Elements of Harmony; there’s got to be something! Pinkie, have you thought of anything?”
“Uuuummmmm…don’t taze aliens that fall out of the sky?”
Twilight’s jaw dropped.
“Really? That’s it?” she said. “Ok ok, maybe we should…go after them and catch them.”
“Go after those things that are hiding in the Everfree?” Rainbow asked rhetorically. “Twilight, I don’t think that’s the best idea.”
“Rainbow, you went after a dragon with no problem; you don’t think we can deal with these things?”
“Those ‘things’ killed over fifty guards,” Rainbow shot back. “Even I know it’s stupid to go after them.”
“Well we’ve got to do something; we can’t just let them run rampant!”
“Twi, the Guards said they’d handle it,” Applejack said. “Are you doin’ this just to try and fix your mess?”
“What-No! I-ugh! Does it matter? Some-”
There was a loud crack of lightning from outside, effectively throwing the room into a deep silence once again. It was followed by the sound of a pouring, pounding rain. Dark clouds blocked the sun and the world outside darkened akin to late-afternoon or night.
“Uh Rainbow, was there a storm scheduled for today?”
“Not that I knew about.”
There was a loud knock at the door, adding to the confusion.
“Who in Equestria-hang on, coming!” Twilight said, opening the door. “Hello-”
She only got a glimpse of the figure at the door, one that was hooded with a black mask and dark green. The next thing was something coming fast right at her face. There was a hard pain that threw her back onto the floor, blurring her vision. She was conscious long enough to hear a couple of screams before the world went jet black.
“You think we’ll get home, John?” Domingo asked, informally calling his boss/father-in-law by his first name. “Honestly, I am not going to get the chance to even meet my kid?”
Clark sighed deeply, and stared down at the ground.
“I don’t know; I hope so, but I just don’t know. I wish I could tell you something better, Ding.”
“It’s…cool; civvies get bad news and fret over it, soldiers get the bad news and have to fix it themselves, right?”
Clark smiled a bit; his friend’s defiant attitude still standing strong. Indeed, all the men were like that; keeping hope in a hopeless situation. If there was no hope left, they would just have to make some. He just wished they could make more essentials themselves, like clothes; the one suit he had worn the past few days was thoroughly ruined, not that he minded much.
“So what now; storm the place with whatever we got left?”
“No, there’s always a smarter way.”
The two men re-focused on the ground, thinking of options.
“Sneak into the town and take it with everything we’ve got left?”
“C’mon Ding, be serious.”
“I am.”
“I’ve been thinking; maybe there’s some other sentient being here who would be willing to help-”
The conversation was interrupted by the radio crackling to life, surprising them both. Tomlinson and Patterson, both from Team 1, were up at the tree line keeping watch. The frantic call meant something serious was going down.
“Tomlinson?”
“Ding, something big is happening! Get Six and the others, you’ll all want to see this.”
“So, Clark, you told yourself that you’d figure something out next time this happened,” John Clark thought. “Wish granted; now, what are you figuring?”
“There are no guards in the area,” Weber reported.
“Hard to tell how many are inside, but I counted at least three; plus two more on the balcony,” Ding added, looking through his binoculars. “I can also make out hostages, six of them, maybe seven, all tied up on the ground floor. Looks like they’re being prepped for movement this is a kidnapping. I’ll be damned, they’re the same ones that kidnapped you, Six.”
“Let me see.”
Clark took the binoculars and peered through them, looking through a window into the strange, hollow tree. They were indeed the six horses he saw when he first arrived. All of them were tied up in a big circle, tape over their mouths and cloth covering their eyes.
“Guess the shoe’s, more-or-less, on the other foot.”
“What do you think, sir?”
“I think they’re terrorists, same group from earlier by the looks of it.”
The definition of ‘terrorist’ was simple to the men; bad guys that killed the wrong targets, who were in turn killed by them. This presented the problem of what to do, as they were attacking what they considered enemies. Still, they were attacking the civilians.
What should they do now? They could leave them be, and take attention away from their efforts to get home. They could intervene and save them, sealing their fate either with death or deliverance. The option of actually helping them wasn’t appealing to anyone.
“Six?”
“Rainbow’s policy is the defense of all people from terrorist actions; regardless of who or where they are.”
Ding nodded understandingly.
“To the rescue it is,” Covington said. “Six, how about you let my team take this one; you guys can follow up.”
“Alright, go ahead; Team Two and myself will come up when the area’s secured,” Clark ordered. “I want to have a word with these things.”
Twilight woke with a sharp pain in her head, but the moan was muffled by something keeping her mouth shut. She tried to move her hooves, but found that they were bound. Whatever was happening, it wasn’t good. Some unknown voices quickly gave her answers; scary answers.
“Any sign of the guards?”
“Nothing yet; that storm was a good idea. The town’s all staying inside.”
“Good, we might just get away with this one without loss.”
“I’ll believe that when I see it.”
“You will, don’t worry; we’ll be long gone before the guards know we’re here. Get the hostages ready to move, this’ll be a great bargaining chip.”
A kidnapping? That wasn’t good, not at all. She wanted to try magic, but figured that any attempt at resistance or escape would only lead to death. But who would want to do this? What did they have against her and her friends? Where would they be taken to? All of these questions ran through her head as she tried to think of a solution, and came up with nothing.
“We’re nearly there; guess the storm’s working our favor,” Covington reported. “Lads, you all know the drill.”
“On target,” Franklin reported.
“Same here,” Houston added.
“Ok, three…two…one…go!”
The two snipers took shots at the same time, offing the guards on the balcony. The door was wooden, and surprisingly thin, so kicking it through wasn’t too difficult. The usual flashbangs followed, with the troops moving in after the devices went off.
Covington went in and shot down the one closest to the door; this was followed immediately by a burst into the chest of one a few feet behind him, stumbling about on his hind legs. Sergeant Bates put a shot into the head of the one guarding the group, exploding the head and spraying blood. The ex-Delta man Fisher got the one farthest right, earning another headshot for the team. The final hostile came from upstairs, relatively unaffected; McGarret spotted him and put him down before he could do anything, the corpse tumbling down the stairs.
“Clear!” Covington called. “Rifles, bring it in and inform Ding and Six. Chin, Traven, secure upstairs! Bates, help me get these blindfolds off; everyone else on watch!”
Covington moved and removed the blindfold from the purple one. She shook her head a bit and blinked a few times. When she saw the human, her eyes widened. Covington decided it was best to leave the tape on and the group bound up; at least until Six got there.
“Don’t worry,” he assured them. “I wasn’t aiming for you this time.”
He gestured to the corpse of one of his victims, and the hostages looked at it for a minute before looking back at him.
“Not too bad compared to the ones we usually have to deal with.”
“Nice work,” Clark said upon entering.
“Bah, it was no trouble at all,” Covington assured him.
“Let’s see what they have to say, shall we?” Clark said, kneeling down over Twilight. “This might hurt a bit.”
He ripped the tape off of her mouth, taking a good deal of hair with it.
“Ow!”
“Told you it would hurt.”
“W-what are you doing?”
“What does it look like?”
“A…rescue?”
“Right.”
“Six, we got company!” Ding shouted. “Same military guard force from before; they’re surrounding the building.”
“You see any way out?”
“Nothing, we’re stuck this time; too thick to go through without some casualties.”
“Damn,” Clark swore. “Let them know we’ve got the hostages with us, keep them away as long as you can!”
What now? You made a choice, and now you’ve got to live with it. Some of your men, maybe all of them, are going to die because you wanted to help your enemy. This is what you get; have fun.
“Um, sir,” Clark turned back to the purple one.
“Hm?”
“I think I can fix this; or rather, call someone who can.”
“Who? How?”
“Princesses Celestia, my teacher and our ruler,” she explained. “If you can just untie us, we can call her and she’ll make the guards stop.”
Clark thought on this for a minute.
“Ok, but nothing funny or Covington is going to put you down.”
“I promise.”
“Alright.”
Clark slowly went about untying her as Covington kept aim on them with his weapon. Getting the last of the ropes off, he let her stand up and stretch a bit. Confident everything would be fine; he started untying the others while she went off to do whatever. The last one he released was a small dragon, which was surprising, but not as much now out of all he had seen.
“That’s the last-what are you doing?”
“Writing a letter,” Twilight explained, the quill scribbling furiously on the paper.
“Is that how you plan to call her, with a letter?” Clark asked, flabbergasted. “How do you expect us to even get it outside?”
“Just wait a minute. Spike, would you send this, please?”
The dragon, still sitting next to John, stood up shakily and walked over to her.
“Yea, I can.”
The dragon grabbed the paper and took a deep breath. Releasing it, the paper was incinerated in fire, further confusing Clark. The ashes of that paper then directed themselves upwards and flew out of the window.
“Um…alright; how long do we have to wait?”
“Since it’s an emergency, she should be able to be here in-”
There was a blinding light in the room that dazed some of the men. As it settled, a very royal looking unicorn-pegasus hybrid, who was about as tall as the men, stood in the center of the room and began looking over what had happened. It didn’t take a genius to realize who it was.
“-no time,” Twilight finished. “Princess, thank you so much for coming!”
“Twilight, are you and your friends alright?”
“Yes, we’re fine thanks to…I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name.”
“I’ll worry about intros later,” Clark said. “Can we just de-fuse this situation first?”
“Of course,” Celestia answered, stepping casually to the entrance.
“Something’s coming out!” one of the guards yelled. “Wait, Princess Celestia!?”
The guards immediately dropped into a bow.
“Yes, and there is no need to worry; everything is ok,” she assured them.
“B-but, those aliens-”
“Just rescued Twilight and her friends from a kidnapping,” she said. “But as I stated earlier, everything is just fine now. The Elements are safe and the aliens will be allowed to lay down their arms peacefully and receive a fair-”
“Whoa, hold up!” Clark yelled at the alicorn, still standing in the doorway. “Why
are we getting arrested?"
“You ruthlessly murdered several of my best guards,” Celestia explained. “They were good ponies, all of them. Surely, you do not expect to get off the hook so easily, do you?”
“Murder? Like hell!” Clark yelled. “Me and Stanley were kidnapped when we got here; not to mention how quick your guards are to jump the gun, from what I’ve seen. I’m surprised we weren’t murdered outright when we first got here! You want to talk ruthless and brute force? Just look outside.”
“How dare you accuse my guards of such cruelty,” she said angrily. “You will surrender or I will be forced to make you!”
“I seriously suggest you don’t try that, ma’am,” Stanley suggested.
Being closest to her, he aimed his weapon at the surprised ruler. Covington, as if to reinforce the point, re-targeted Twilight and turning the situation, once again, into a giant Mexican standoff. Clark felt a little sickened by this, as did all the men; now they looked like terrorists. All the same, they had defended themselves and each other, and would rather die than go to jail for doing the right thing.
“Perhaps we can still find a peaceful solution,” Celestia suggested. “Who is your leader?”
“That’s me,” Clark answered.
“Would you be willing to negotiate a bit at a more secluded location?”
“Why should I trust you?”
“Because I can see you are obviously not of this world, and I may have an answer to getting you home,” she said. “I will leave your men here, as well as my guards. It will be just the two of us.”
That caught Clark’s attention. Maybe this choice would pay off. If he could negotiate some kind of deal, he and his men might be able to get back home, hopefully without losing anyone. This was probably the only chance he would get at it.
“Bates, give me your radio,” he ordered, with the soldier handing it over to him. “Anything funny and my men will act.”
“I give you my word,” she assured.
With another flash, both of them had disappeared.
John stumbled a bit after the teleportation. Obviously, he wasn’t used to something like that. He rubbed his forehead a bit and regained his balance. He checked his jacket quickly; his weapon was still there, and the radio was still in his ear. That alone told him she probably was honest; but, he knew better than to let his guard down at any time.
The room he was in was rather small, but lavish. There was a table and chairs that looked rather regal. It looked like a place where diplomatic talks between higher ups were held, which would be appropriate.
“I’m sure you know that we cannot proceed without you telling me your name first,” she said, taking a seat.
“You can just call me Six,” Clark said, taking the seat opposite from her. “My real name is to be kept anonymous.”
“Is that really necessary?”
“In my line of work, yes; at least when talking to people who don’t know my line of work.”
“And what would that be?”
“Classified.”
“I see,” Celestia sighed. “Well beyond that, I would like to thank you for rescuing my student and her friends.”
“No problem. Who were those guys, anyways?”
“A strange new group of insurgent ponies who wage warfare against our civilians, mainly; not much is known about them right now.”
“Terrorists.”
“That would be an appropriate term for them.”
“So, why haven’t you done something about it?”
“My guards were never trained to deal with these types of tactics; we have never experienced them before.”
Clark thought on this; the situation seemed rather simple at first. Rainbow needed a way back home, and they needed a counter-terrorist force to protect them. The only obstacle was the little battle his team had with the guards.
“Yes I saw that when they tried to stop the hostage situation at the bank; didn’t go too well.”
“No, it didn’t,” Celestia said in a melancholy tone. “And yet your men seemed to have little difficulty dealing with these insurgents; how is that?”
Clark sighed and rubbed his head; he could get into real trouble for this.
“What I’m about to tell you is top secret,” he warned, “as in, tell-everyone-and-I-will-literally-have-to-hunt-you-down top secret.”
She nodded her head in understanding.
“Me, and my men, have been specifically selected, trained, and equipped to deal with terrorists. That rescue we did, that was our job; to kill those guys before they had a chance to do anything.”
“So it exists in your world, as well?” Celestia asked, intrigued.
“It’s rampant; that’s why my organization was formed.”
“And why does it have to be so secret.”
“The fewer people who know us, the fewer people can trace us. That means fewer terrorists can expect us or devise ways to stop us. That’s part of the reason.”
“And the other part?”
“The other reason is that we are made up of the best troops from around the world, from many different countries. We aren’t bound by politics or ideals; we can’t let anything get in the way of our mission. Our targets can be any terrorist group, regardless of whom, where, and why.”
“Very interesting; I can see how my guards were unable to stop you.”
“Yes, but getting back on track; I think I’ve got a fair deal for you,” Clark suggested. “You provide us with a way home, and we can help stop some of these attacks.”
“That does seem fair, but you still have to answer for the guards you killed.”
“Your student captured me; how was I supposed to react?”
“I will talk with Twilight to make sure there are no more misunderstandings,” she assured Clark. “I think we could add on to your proposal to make up for that. I do want you to help stop these attacks, but it must go farther than that. The entire organization must be brought down, and I would prefer that you still be here to keep watch in case anything else comes about. I don’t want you to be a temporary solution.”
That was actually, partly, what Clark meant to begin with; but, it worked in his favor all the same.
“Ok, but we will have to establish an actual link to my world; our supplies are low and I want to let my family know I’m safe.”
“I will look into a portal that can serve as a gateway, but it will take some time. Until then, you and your men can stay in Ponyville with my student, under the watch of the guards.”
Clark was not too keen about the last part, but it was better than sleeping in the woods.
“Rest assured that we will keep your secret safe outside of the town.”
“Ok, so in return for providing us a road home, we’ll be on alert to come help your um…ponies?”
God that felt weird to say.
“Yes, you have a deal.”
With a conclusion finally reached, there was another bright flash that returned the two to the library.
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3409505
They are however SF operators, who work in a CT setting, thus they are expected to have some idea of the niceties of law enforcement. Thus I found it rather strange to see how quickly the team was willing to move to "Kill all the things" as a default posture.
Jeez Eagle! How do you even have time to write with all the RPing? I barely have time to work on my story with homework, RPs and sports.
3542614
Because I've got a week off for Thanksgiving and I crave solitude (which means I've got no outside friends or activities I'm immediately or constantly obliged to) so I've got plenty of time.
3542628
Nice. I'm the same. Except for basketball and the fact that I don't get anytime off until winter break.
3542563
Yeah, the would know some law, but these guys aren't SWAT, they are trained to kill hostiles, not ask for surrender.
MORE! And when do Logan and Bishop/Knight come in?
3543833
About 2-3 chapters from now.
3543843 KOOL!
3543833
Bishop should be interesting, considering he/she is a blank slate that can be characterized however the author wants he/she to be. Plus I'm assuming this takes place way before RSV so this should indeed be fun.
Also, I think some of Clark's lines where he speaks out of line should have been given to Ding.
3543520
They would know more than 'Some Law'. CT teams are required to know law inside and out, because they may have to justify their actions in a court of law. That goes for both the military and civilian variants thereof. Also, CT is a matter of more than just kicking doors down and spraying rounds downrange, taking out 'hostiles' has a limited amount to do with it. The ideal resolution is to arrest the terrs or persuade them to surrender, failing that a ransom payment is preferable to use of violence. Op Nimrod was very much the exception rather than the norm, normally attempts to resolve the situation by force result in nothing more than casualties on both sides.
3315288
Tom Clancy was an enthusiast. A good enthusiast but an enthusiast nonetheless. His writing was very good and I won't take that away from him but his military knowledge left me scratching my head somewhat. For example in Rainbow he mentions GSG-9 being an army special unit, when they aren't. GSG-9 are part of the police, the analog he meant was the KSK.
That being said, I liked the story. Some parts of it left me a little confused, but it sounded pretty good
3545023
You're failing to take into account that they're on an alien world after supposedly dying and the first native they met, while being an unarmed civilian, kidnapped their two leaders. Now obviously that's never happened, so exactly how anyone would react is unknown, but you can't expect them to act the exact same as on earth. It'd be like being in Vietnam rather than say Berlin, you have no real clue as to who is on your side and who isn't; and even the U.S. Army had to resort to burning villages.
Also, it doesn't really matter whether or not it's a special forces unit (which it's not) as Rainbow also has members from non-spec op units (I think a couple from normal police units, and one from SWAT somewhere). There's no real requirement for it to get into Rainbow, you just have to prove you're good enough.
3544732
Well no, Bishop and Logan do have a few character traits, however little they may be, to give us a basic idea. Knight would be best for that, but i'm debating about bringing him in.
You actually gave me a pretty good idea about the timeline. I won't say, but i'll say this goes beyond just bringing those two here; it's much larger than that.
3545559
That's true, and I do like what you've done with the story, not to mention moving things to a 'kill all the things' posture does kick start the narrative and pacing in a way that slow and methodical recce, ascertaining the alien intent and so on would not have done.
3545577 I did? Well...that's wonderful news that I could aid you I suppose.
Also, does Knight even have a single line in the RSV2?
3546033
Not that I know of; he was only placed in the game for co-op purposes.
Hm, looks like things are about to get interesting, can't wait to see more.
Although I hope the Royal Guards don't trust Rainbow, at least for a while. Y'know, since they completely whooped them. 
And yes, I would like to see over-the-top spec-ops training. 
On a side note, I don't get how Celestia cooled off so quickly.
I would say how I feel about the ponies just up and forgiving the slaughter of around 50 soldiers, but you already know.
3542563 I argued that once as well. No one listens to the "ask questions first, shoot later" group.
I mean aside from legal training, they would also be thinking about things like food, resources, ammunition, and stuff along those lines. So far the only civilisation they've seen are the ponies. In their current situation they, indeed just about any military unit, would try to get on friendly terms with the locals if nothing more than to get supplies.
After this chapter I wouldn't be surprised if Rainbow herself doesn't want to join RAINBOW
Yeah, you do that Twilight. It's not like you attacking them before ended badly or anything. Oh, and I totally see the trail of corpses and burning towns in their wake, they're totally running rampant! The horror!
I liked that episode a lot. Especially their expressions when they realized just what they were dealing with once they got to the cave. Sure took the wind out of their sails!
You're really stupid, aren't you, Clark? There is no reason to not negotiate right then and there. Why would you leave with her? There is absolutely no reason to. If she claims that she won't tell you in front of your men, then it is an incredibly obvious trick and you should immediately blow her brains out followed by her student. After all, the student of some magical being is doubtless going to be powerful and therefore a serious threat.
3548292
Celestia probably let it go because she realized pretty quickly that it would only point out, ultimately, that all the lives lost is completely Twilight's fault. If she hadn't attacked the humans, the fifty guards would still be alive. If she hadn't attacked the humans, they would have saved the first group of hostages. It is all her fault and both she and Celestia know it. Celestia wouldn't want to drag that into the light. She also knows that she would have to acknowledge that her guards acted by out of turn and very un-ponylike (such as threatening torture), which she wouldn't want to do because she has this delusion of her guards being perfect.
It's 10 pm and I have school, but this is so good!