CH 27: Mission In The Dark
=== BABW: A New Conflict ===
=== Chapter 27: Mission In The Dark ===
[ September 13, 2081 – Safe Haven ]
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“So I wonder why Richie wanted us all to meet in this particular meeting room?” Pinkie Pie said, as she twirled herself around on the swiveling chair.
“According to him, he had something important to relay, but it wasn’t important enough for a formal get together in the main auditorium, like the Princesses and everyone else’s announcement a couple of weeks ago,” Rarity replied, wondering herself where all of this was going.
Their question was soon to be answered, as a man in a grey suit walked into the room, a bright smile on his near fifty-year-old face.
“Good afternoon, everyone, I see we’re all gathered so there is no real reason for me to delay,” Richard said, as he looked around at the ten Ponies that made a spectrum around the table.
“So what’s the occasion, Mr. Edwards?” Red Blaze asked, sitting on the far right being the most red of the ten gathered.
“Glad you asked, Miss Blaze. And to answer that, I will introduce you to my four new partners in this endeavor at the Human-Equus Alliance. Would you all be so kind as to enter,” Richard called toward the still open door. The call was answered by a small procession of a lone representative of each of the four major powers of Equus.
“I think I have an idea of what you’re doing Mr. Edwards, but I’m not going to presume anything though,” Blue Vague mentioned before any of the five on the other side of the table from the ten could speak.
“I see, Blue,” Richard started, as he acknowledged the lone Unicorn stallion in the room. “In any case, you all probably figured this out, but I’ll state it aloud anyway: the four figures you see here are my new partners in this endeavor in managing the day-to-day operations both here in Safe Haven, and for the HEA in general, once we formulate a plan to restore the elected governments of the major Earth powers.”
The ten younger figures on the other side of the stable from the five older ones nodded in agreement, especially at the last statement.
“So I will allow the four of them to introduce themselves, if they may,” Richard concluded for the time being, as the tawny-brown-coated and black-maned Earth Pony stallion called attention to himself.
“My name is Judge Stern Balance. My most recent appointment was associate justice in Her Royal District Court based in Manehatten. I served in that position for 10 years, and I hope that experience will allow me to help smooth out any disputes that may arise from a conflict in cultures or ideologies we have here,” the tawny-brown stallion said with a stern but fair tone, much like his name implied.
A snow-leopard bodied and northern-hawk-owl headed Gryphon rose up to speak next. “I am Sven Ugglasson, 7th in line to the House of the Snow Leopards. I certainly hope what I would bring from my Clan will be of use to you all, and if I may, I hope to learn as much so that I may go back and improve my Clan in any way that I can.”
Rainbow Dash raised a hoof to ask a question of the snow-leopard Gryphon while he had the floor. “Say, why is it you all almost never give your last names when you introduce yourselves. It took me weeks to figure out what Gilda’s last name was.”
“We typically don’t use our last name except in a very formal fashion. Though this is not the most formal of occasions, I felt it necessary to give my full name either way,” Sven responded, to the nonchalant approval of the cyan mare.
A white and charcoal-gray-striped Zebra stallion rose up to speak next. “My name is Wal’byo, representative-in-absentia[1] of the 3rd district of the Meyk territory. I pray this endeavor that we are all to embark on will be successful for not only the Earth, but all of the nations of Equus in due time.”
The last to speak was a faint-blue dragoness with pearl-white spines and wings. “Hello, my name is Adamantia. I was formerly the head of the History department at the University of Bul-ja-Ulz, and have studied for twenty years under the direct tutelage of the first seat of the Sub-Council for History and Internal Affairs, Rosethorn. I hope the knowledge I can bring forth will assist you all, and I too hope to learn things to the betterment of my University back home, and Dragonkind overall.”
After a short while of small talk, Golden Storm thought of a rather pertinent question given the rearranged nature of to the day-to-day business of Safe Haven. “Wait, so if we have to go out to do anything, who exactly are we answering to?”
Richard was the first to answer, as he had anticipated this question in some respects. “The ten of you still report directly to Princess Celestia and Luna respectively, since you are all are civilian extra-military forces directly governed by the Crown of Equestria. So basically it will be same as it was before, except Luna and Celestia don’t have to be physically here as much.”
“However, we are commissioning a formal militia, in so many words, to be under our direct auspices, so we do not have to step on each other’s government’s toes and hooves trying to respond with force if it was so necessary. We should hope the Equestrian Crown will allow us access to you all if we should need it; I would hate to have such powerful entities like the Elements of Harmony and Terra kept away from us for anything but a very good reason,” Adamantia mused aloud.
“I wouldn’t think that Celestia and Luna would hold us back, unless there was something popped up that was out of the hooves of the Royal Guard or anyone else. Then again, that seems to happen with unnerving frequency with us…” Twilight thought aloud, before her face went a little pale at the thought.
“Given some of the projects that are going on between the HEAs human liaisons and our military officers, we might be able to take of the burden of dealing with some of the craziness of our world off your shoulders,” Sven responded.
“I think I speak of all ten of us when I say ‘We certainly hope so’,” Vague concluded, as the other Elements nodded vigorously.
=[ Meanwhile, in one of the testing rooms ]=
“Clear!” a Dragon shouted, as he stopped breathing his natural ruby-colored flames at a mannequin that was set up in front of a heat shield, with Pony and Human observers on the other end.
“Alright, let’s take a look at it,” one of the Human observers started, as the mannequin cooled to a safe temperature. “Ok, there seems to be minimal fraying, the structural integrity appears to have been maintained. I think we have something we can move to the next phase of production, barring anything showing up on a deep analysis later.”
The techs took the leotard-like cloth off the mannequin, placing it in a container to be analyzed under microscopes later that night.
“No wonder why you had some of us with your doctors earlier, I bet you were trying to figure out the secret to why dragonscale is so fire-and-heat resistant, huh?” the Dragon asked of one of the Pony techs that lingered around the blast area.
“Well, the humans had part of it figured out already without having talked to anything other than other humans. But having live dragons trying to understand your magic and your biology certainly has helped them a whole lot,” the Pony responded.
“It frightens me a little bit just how fast they can reverse engineer something. We’ve only been around for a couple of months and they’ve already come up with a decent pseudo-skin without having to have us design it for them,” the Dragon said as they exited the test room.
One of the human techs overheard the conversation, and decided to drop in. “We’ve had a lot of practice reverse engineering each other’s tech. I’m sure if you had shown up here say seventy years ago, it’d take us a few years, at least, just to get to this point. We lucked out that you came when we had the machinery to accurately mimic the cell structure of your scales. And I still don’t know how you all integrate crystalline structures into them.”
“We’ve been around them since the beginning and we still can’t accurately figure it out. As far as we can tell, their scales are, at least in part, living crystal,” the Pony responded as the three of them sat on one of the lounging benches in the hallways near the live testing halls.
“I’ve heard those terms used before about our dragonscale. Effectively, the crystal grows with our skin, much like calcium and other minerals build up a vertebrate’s skeleton. Now how precisely that happens, I doubt anyone knows,” the Dragon responded as the three of them sat on the bench.
“Life wouldn’t be interesting if we knew everything from the start, I guess,” the Human said as the three of them continued to talk about random events going on both worlds.
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“I am honestly stunned how fast everything is progressing. I mean, I knew you all were ahead of us in terms of just the devices you all use. But the sheer speed of analysis and manufacture is just… mind bending honestly,” Shining Armor said as he continued to read over the Equestrian-translated documentation from the Pony engineers.
“Years of practice, Mr. Armor. Years upon years of best practices. The good thing is that your magic is the same way, so I think you all should be able to adapt - so long as we translate the technology to account for said skillset,” Capt. Rodriguez replied, as they looked at the animations of the computer models and the various predictions being made about the trauma plate testing due to begin in a couple of hours.
“That is true, we both have something to put forward in this project. Or should I say, we all do,” Shining Armor self-corrected, as he saw one of his contemporaries in the Gryphon military pass by.
“It has been some time Shining Armor, how is the wife-Princess?” Klaudia said, as she straightened the feather-band keeping her head-crest in line. She was a Gryphoness in her late thirties: her head was like that of an golden eagle, though her feathers along the top were intentionally overgrown and dyed a brighter yellow-gold, creating a crest that ran down along her neck and blending in with the tawny brownish gold of her lioness body - marking her as being member to one the many branches of King Guile’s own clan.
“She is doing quite well - we’ve officially rechristened the capital of the Crystal Empire as ‘Crystalia’, so she’s still emotionally high off that,” Shining answered, as he continued to look through the documents.
“I’m sure the jokes about confusing it for Canus Crystalis will continue for a while, but you all should be fine,” Klaudia responded in kind, as she walked over to some of the prototype armors that had been fabricated in previous days. “In any case, I have to concur with the white Unicorn. I am greatly surprised how quickly your technology has been able to adapt to our forms. Thought I fear that some of the more, aggressive in our forces may believe themselves invincible with this armor.”
“And that is a death-wish. Just as there is no such thing as the perfect spear, there is no such thing as the perfect shield. But so long as they keep that in mind, though, I don’t think we have to worry about too many of them thinking themselves to be war machines made flesh,” Julio said, as he walked over to the same display the Gryphoness was examining.
“Hopefully being around yet another species that’s more than capable of waging equal war with them will shrink some of the swollen heads in our Clan hierarchies,” Klaudia mused, with an audible groan of frustration punctuating the sentiment.
“I’ve heard the expansionist wing of the House of Tiger has started attempting to assert itself again. That would certainly complicate things for all of us if they did swing Tiberius to their side,” Shining wondered aloud.
“It certainly would. I am assuming Guile wants Earth to be a safety valve for the cooped-up birdbrains who think another round of territorial takeovers is what the doctor ordered. Then again, a lot of Earth just doesn’t seem to be hospitable terrain for hunters and fisher-gryphs, like a lot of our general population are…” Klaudia wondered right along with Shining Armor.
“True. Though I think we can find a way to rebuild the wilds just we could the cities with this magic that is still flowing out into the environment. Perhaps that is another angle Guile is taking with all of this,” Julio continued as the three of them seemed joined in their thinking.
“As much as we manage the flora and the general environment, Gryphons are as knowledgeable to managing fauna. If anyone could help restore the balance of animals, it’d be them,” Shining concluded.
“And that in the end could be where King Guile is aiming. If they can exhaust their energy doing something constructive here on Earth, perhaps they will lose the desire for resuming the hostilities we thought quelled centuries ago on Equus,” Klaudia figured.
“It sounds reasonable to me, but I am not principle to this issue,” Julio thought.
“It’s all going to depend on who has more of Tiberius’s ear, the ‘traditionalists’ in the Tigris House, or those of us who want to see the Federation become a true Nation progressing into a stable future,” Klaudia concluded, as the pair of males could see a definite fire in her eyes.
If she finds the right fuel for that fire, she’ll catapult up the ranks in the Gryphon Federal Forces… Shining Armor thought as she left the analysis room for her private quarters.
“You know Shining. I used to think that anyone who was looking to move up the ranks were just in it for themselves,” Julio started, as the two of them were clearly left in the room alone.
“Really? To be honest, a lot of why I’m training the Crystal Guard so hard in terms of their re-integration is so that I don’t have to be in charge of them in the future. I’m still trying to make my way up the ladder of the Unicorn Corps of the Royal Guard proper,” Shining Armor admitted, after hearing Julio’s own concerns.
“And that’s part of what I mean. I get the feeling that if you were a General, I wouldn’t have anything to worry about being in your corps. With some of the people running the Army and the private contractors on this end, I seriously worry that the lot of them are just out for vainglory, and don’t give a damn about either the other officers or the enlisted under them,” Julio continued.
“We have some of that in our military as well. Anything with a promotion system is gonna attract glory-hounds, especially if the highest positions are ostentatious like starred generals,” Shining Armor figured.
“True enough, I just wonder where some of my old running mates and superior officers are right now. Did they throw in with the SPH? Are they in hiding? Are they leading some of the Outsider resistance forces? Too many things unknown for my taste outside these walls,” Julio thought as slapped one of the table edges in frustration.
“Before long, we’ll be out there again trying to match answers to those questions. I just hope they’re answers that we can cope with,” Shining replied, as he made to leave the room for the time being as well.
“I hope so, Capt. Armor, I really do,” Julio replied, leaving with the white stallion.
===[ Meanwhile, in Manhattan around the same time ]===
The recipient you are attempting to contact is currently unable to respond. Please wait ten minutes before attempting to message that address again. Thank you for using AT&T NeuralNet Messaging Service… A calm sounding A.I. spoke to the lone female leader of the Society of the Preservation of Humanity.
A message one Claire Terrance had just about enough of hearing these last three months.
“I have half a mind to march into AT&T headquarters and throw someone out of a fabriglass window,” Claire said aloud, as she lounged in a chair in the living area of her penthouse, a half-empty bottle of premium gin sitting next to a designer end table.
“I haven’t drunk like this since I was a twenty-year old…” Claire said aloud, swirling the half a shot of gin in her monogrammed shot glass, staring at the transparent liquid mingling with the smooth cold-rocks[2].
“Yep, since I was a twenty year old, that’s when I met Rich at one of those damn social get-togethers dad would always organize. Always wheeling and dealing,” Claire continued to think aloud, as she sat alone in her apartment; a robe on but casual clothes underneath in case her partners-in-crime called.
“Where in the hell did everything go wrong between us? Did your dad tell you my dad was trying to buy him out? Maybe you got too enamored with some rag-girl outside the Domes and were just using me to put up a front? I just don’t know Richie… where did our love go? Was it even there to begin with?” Claire continued to muse aloud, as she drunk the shot.
“Maybe you were waiting for me to show that I was not just some vapid heiress. I’ve done more than maintain this hotel chain, I’ve built it even higher than my father did. Just like you built your nano-facture company into one of the world’s biggest outright? Isn’t that good enough, isn’t that proving that I’m a worthy partner for you, in every respect?” Claire asked of a picture of Richard she kept in a gold-fringed frame, one of the few chemical photographs that she kept that wasn’t of family.
“What more do I have to do, Richard. What do I have to do to have your heart like you have mine? I could never forget you… the way you treated me… the first man who treated me like woman instead of a little girl. Not even my father saw me as my own woman, just his little princess that he could baby every day that he lived. Then the heart attack took him before he even reached 65. And they said the little princess couldn’t run the Full-Sail Resort and Hotel Chain. They knew NOTHING! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! Not like you did Richie… you knew me…” Claire said, as a few tears began to escape her eyes, causing her makeup to run by tiny fractions of inches.
A sharp tone chimed on the videophone, as the familiar black shield emblem appeared on the main monitor of the communications device.
“Looks like Peter and Nathan have something else they need to discuss. If the whole world isn’t enough, Richard, then what will be enough?” Claire continued to wonder aloud, as she pulled out a mirror to ensure that neither man would be able to notice her crying in the recent few minutes. Once she was sure that her face was sufficiently masking her emotions, she took off her robe and sat to the old-style console that held her video-phone.
“Usually you are a little more prompt answering the vidphone, Miss Terrance,” Nathan Egret chided slightly, as the screen was split between his penthouse across Manhattan, and the SPH ‘headquarters’ where Peter practically lived the last 3 months plus.
“My stress levels are maxed out right now. I’ve gone through at least two bottles of black hair dye in the last couple of months,” Peter said with some sense of exasperation.
“I can see that much on the feed. In any case, at what point are we going to do something with the Outsiders that won’t shut up?” Claire asked.
“At this point, we will probably have to start bringing out heavy artillery and have some ‘accidents’ with infrastructure. Once they realize that their entire existence is owed to us, these gnats should reduce to a manageable number,” Peter replied.
“At the same point, we’re getting reports from the Northwest of sightings of Equestrians in the remaining forested areas. Thought sweeps with thamanitc sensing drones have revealed pretty much nothing,” Nathan reported, as he sent the specific reports to the other two through the neural link.
“At least we’ve managed to install our chosen into Congress, the EU Parliament, and the Diet. We should be able to… wash our hands… of Aguillar and her cohorts in a few weeks’ time,” Claire reported as well.
“Politically, we will own the world lock-stock-and-barrel, even beyond what we did a few years ago. So then the question will be crushing these resistance movements worldwide before the gain enough momentum to challenge the Domes proper,” Nathan figured as Peter thought some more on the situation.
“I was thinking about what Claire said a week or so ago. She’s right in that we just do not have enough manpower or machines to quell a full blown uprising by all of the Outsider metro areas. Even if we limited it to industrialized nations and city-states, it’s still too many. That’s why I’ve commissioned work on some… new toys for us to play with, if you get my drift,” Peter said, as the devious smirk he was known for returned to his face.
“Oh I think you do, Mr. Vaughn. Let me guess, Spence has been cooking something in his kitchen?” Nathan asked with the eagerness of a twelve year old at Christmas.
“Yes, he’s working on something that should help greatly with our… personnel shortage,” Peter replied, chuckling as he replayed the footage from the initial tests in his head.
“Whatever it might be, I should hope it will stop this madness on the Outsider’s part. Who knows, if they start behaving like good little boys and girls again, we might even do something to… help the poor dears, right?” Claire said; her nerve for the project re-steeled.
“True, we are the shepherds of the new Humanity, and what is a shepherd with no flock?” Peter concluded, as the call proceeded on into some more detailed planning of future ventures.
[ September 20, 2081 – Safe Haven ]
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“It pains me so to see people suffer for no fault of their own. We should all endeavor to keep the Sudanese people in our thoughts and prayers as we attempt to coordinate proper aid to the city of Kassala. God bless America, and God bless all of Humanity,” President Aguillar concluded as she finished the official public response by the American government regarding a situation that had cropped up in the last few days.
“It took her five days to issue a statement. That’s nothing like mom. If it weren’t for the SPH, there would already be UN Peacekeepers investigating where those hijackers took the convoy,” Reggie said, as he chafed under the idea of his mother being used as a marionette by the Black Shield.
“I know I can’t know exactly how you feel, but I do sympathize as much as I’m able. No one deserves what your mother is going through, and yet she is shouldering this burden as best I can imagine. At least that is how it looks from the outside,” Midori Hana said, as she sighed in exasperation.
“Momma’s a strong woman. And we’ll get her out. And then we’re gonna fix all of this, right?” Rosa asked, as she fidgeted nervously on the carpeted floor.
“Yeah, we’re gonna figure something out, one way or another… that I have to believe,” Hana replied, as she leaned on the young girl.
“I wish I could make them feel how it feels to have all your agency taken away. Everything you do being dictated or controlled by someone or something else. I hate watching my mother like this… I just feel so angry knowing mom has to sit there and placate those masked men or they’ll do who knows what to her, or the country!” Reggie shouted, as he slammed his hands on the edge of the computer-console-table he was sitting at.
“Screaming isn’t gonna do us any good, no matter how much we wanna do it,” Blue Vague said as he walked into the room where the First Children and Hana were watching the newsfeeds.
“I know… I know in my head that screaming here isn’t gonna get mom out of their hands. I just don’t know how else to get rid of this anxiety,” Reggie wondered as he sat back down, the anger shifting into depression.
“Wanna know what I do sometimes. I find one of the Subspace Practice Rooms, and just… go to town on some training dummies. They always say that exercise is a great way to get rid of nervous energy,” Vague suggested to the almost seventeen year old young man.
“Not much of a mage, but I guess I could find something to do either way,” Reggie thought aloud.
“If you like baseball, there is always the batting cage simulation. Don’t have to worry about any militaristic overtones either. Just straight competition against, well whatever really…” Vague figured some more, as he magicked a program card in the hands of the young man ten or so years his junior.
“You know I’ve only seen that Twilight Sparkle and the Dragons be able to do something like that, you must have been practicing too,” Reggie chuckled as he looked at the card and how it reminded him of an old-style credit card from earlier in the century.
“You’re not the only one who's been feeling high level of frustration. I think all of us that’ve been here for any length of time are starting to have some cabin fever, on top of a strong want to start punching some of the Black Shield square in their faces,” Vague responded, as he looked at the President’s eldest child and lone son walk down the hallway.
“I think he needs to find an outlet anyway, I mean Rosa, you have your Archery, and he might be confused as to what he might want to do with himself, on top of worrying himself sick about President Aguillar,” Vague figured once he was sure that the young man was out of earshot.
“I guess so, I just hate it when he’s like that. He’s always felt like he didn’t know what to do with himself…” Rosa wondered aloud.
=[ Over in the HEA Council Chambers… ]=
“Our hand is going to be forced at this rate. The SPH is going to let the unindustrialized world fall into utter chaos, and harden the defense of Domed Communities there,” Richard argued as he looked at the other four Council members arranged around the table.
“While that is true, we’ve only begun the re-armament project. If were to act now, the best we could do is jury-rig old human equipment and slap together equivalents for anyone else that joins in a mission,” Sven argued, as he was reticent to commit any resources this early in his tenure.
“At the same time, the SPH, as Councilman Edwards has stated, refuse to render aid to this human city of Kassala, which is now in the 5th day of a crisis with little potable water and food. For a city of 700 thousand, this can easily descend into utter barbarism,” Wal’byo argued in counter.
“I only wish I had more time to assess the prior history of the Kassala leadership. I would not feel comfortable rendering aid if the mayor or whoever claimed control of that settlement were abusing their power,” Adamantia offered, knowing that time was of the essence.
Stern Balance considered all the viewpoints offered, before he spoke of his own accord. “While I am loathe to commit out militia in this early hour of the reformation of the HEA, I do not believe we have any other recourse if we wish to have maximum confidence in solving this burgeoning crisis.”
“A fair point, as little as we know of the leadership with the city, arming an existing militia in the region could easily backfire,” Adamantia admitted, as she continued to mull.
“And who is to say this isn’t some kind of elaborate bait on the part of the SPH to lure out resistors. We may be the only entity capable of directly disarming any trap set to get rid of dissidents,” Sven figured, as he knew there were no options given the timeframe they were looking at.
“So I reiterate the current proposal: we send a pair of scouts to the surrounding area to ascertain the condition of the convoy, and to decipher what the demands of the hijackers may be. We then arrange for a strike team to neutralize the hijackers and continue delivery of the convoy, contingent upon the exact intel we get from the scouts. Do we have any more objections?” Richard Edwards asked of his fellow councilmembers.
“No, I am comfortable with this plan of action,” Stern Balance replied.
“I do have reservations, but not severe enough to register overall disapproval,” Sven replied.
“The faster we can start, the faster we can resolve this situation without too much loss,” Wal’byo replied.
“I hope that even this little bit of time we are taking isn’t too much, so I agree we should go ahead and start,” Adamantia replied.
“So with all in agreement, we need to start talking to Captain Rodriguez about who to send out as our scout team so we can ascertain what exactly we need to do to get this convoy to where it needs to be,” Richard concluded, as it was clear that all five members were in agreement.
--- == ---
“I figure it would have come to this,” Captain Julio thought aloud as he looked at the roster of the volunteers of various species and what positions they had declared themselves open to filling.
“So this first part is pure recon, right?” Julio asked of Richard, as the two of them sat in a small room that had a monitor trained only to feeds regarding the situation near Kassala.
“Yeah, I’m not sending in five if I need fifty, or just two. We don’t have a lot of reserves so we have to make these early counter-attacks count,” Richard mused as he stood and watched the mayor make impassioned pleas for aid, only to fall on deaf ears to the only others that could act.
“This is why we find ourselves in the situation we do, Rich. The SPH could actually be doing some good in this interim, but they are too damn myopic to care. I guess they want the world to catch fire, then they can hide in their shelter and rebuild once everything was burnt to ashes,” Julio thought, as the continued inaction that was either forced upon the major world leaders, or just came naturally to them, grated on his nerves.
“The whole world catching on fire would be a good way to put it. We’ve been dodging bullet after bullet when it came to a total global class war. I can only hope we can dodge a few more while we try and fix things…” Richard added, as he exited to go get something to eat.
Julio thought for a few moments, considering those words deeply. “That means I need all the info I can get and quick, so we can put a stop to this. No telling what is gonna ignite the firestorm, and I damn sure don’t want it to be this if we can do something to stop it.”
--- == ---
“Nero, Slysza[1], we’re about to send you out!” Captain Julio called over the intercom to two in question.
After a couple of beats, he heard back from one of the two in question, the bat-pony mare named Wyraznie Slysza. “You’re sending us out, really? I thought we weren’t supposed to head out!”
“Just get in here and I’ll explain the whole deal,” Julio replied with some mild level of frustration.
A few moments went by, and a Human man named Nero and the aforementioned bat-pony named Slysza walked into the command room of the H.E.A. militia wing.
“I didn’t want to discuss the nature of this mission over the intercom for reasons you will hear in a moment. I am sending the two of you out to scout around this area I’m loading onto his map,” Julio started, as Slysza hovered up to see the pad that Nero was holding.
“I should have figured, Captain. This is not but a couple of kilometers from Kassala. I’m guessing you want some intel on what those hijackers are trying to do,” Nero commented, as he looked at some of the photographs a few civilian drones managed to snap.
“I’m still nervous about this. As far as the world knows all of us Ponies high-tailed it back to Equestria. Wouldn’t it cause all kinds of undue chaos if we show ourselves like this?” Slysza asked, still nervous about the commission.
“Probably. But right now it’s unavoidable. We’re the only organization with both the resources and the will to do anything about the Black Shield and other stuff like this until the world governments are stood back up proper,” Julio responded, trying to assuage the fear of the young-looking Bat-pony.
“I guess… I’m still anxious though. But I volunteered for this post so I will do the best I can,” Slysza replied, as she tried her best to calm herself.
“Don’t worry, miss. You’ll be in good hands with me out there. You just get me visual and audio so we can figure out if those ‘jackers are independents or working with the SPH somehow,” Nero replied, as the two of them began to head down to the Militia Equipment hall to get outfitted.
“I need you two ready in the next twenty-four hours, so get in any tutorials with your new gear that you can in the meantime,” Julio said as he continued to monitor the situation as best he could.
[ September 21, 2081 – Near Kassala, Sudanese Administrative Zone ]
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“So how much further do we have to trudge through this savannah?” Slysza complained, as she chafed a bit under the active-camouflage cloak that she and her partner were wearing as the came to a ridge. The moon was high in the air as it was nearly midnight Sudan time, prime-time for the bat-pony in question.
“Not really a trudge unless the ground was wet or otherwise hard to walk over… we should be so glad the Sahara hasn’t stretched this far south, yet,” Nero replied, as the two figures got low to the ground and peered at the tanker and freight trucks that were parked on side of the half-paved road.
“Ok, so how are we gonna do this? I could fly down and start listening in…” Slysza asked as she looked on at the fire flickering next to an encampment.
“As much as I hate throwing your near the fire, that is probably our best bet. I doubt they’ll be talking loud enough for us to pick anything up here,” Nero replied, as he took out a long-barreled rifle.
“And I guess that’s the insurance policy in case someone comes in on my listening position?” Slysza asked, as she recognized the firearm as a high-caliber sniper rifle from her brief study of the HEAs equipment.
“You know it. I meant what I said when I told you ‘You were in good hands,’” Nero replied, as he adjusted the zooming camera for the moonlight.
“Alright, I can do this then, I can do this,” the bat-pony mare said, as she took off the back part of the cloak to allow her wings to fully extend, as she took off in a glide down the impromptu encampment.
-----
“What is it that you plan to do?” the caravan conductor asked of the hijackers, as the injured and dead bodies of his fellow drivers and maintenance men occupied a corner of the encampment the hijackers had made in the last few days.
“What we usually do. Despite all of the drones roaming around the Domes, some clients ask for a more… human touch… when it comes to tasks that need to be accomplished,” the lead hijacker responded, as he was sick and tired of being up to this ungodly hour dealing with the captives, but found it was best to keep a personal eye on them all.
“You would repeat the same mistakes that our ancestors made hundreds of years ago with those Anglo slavers?” the tied up conductor snarled in his accented English, being a native of Sudan himself.
“You can call it a mistake if you will, but I am ensuring that I have a future. And these men around me see this as a way out. Once we build up enough funds, we’ll buy a nice private residence in… I think Berlin. Berlin is a nice city to retire in, don’t you all think?” the lead asked of his subordinate hijackers.
His question was met with replies of approval in both English and Sudanese Arabic.
“Damned monsters, all of you!” the conductor shouted, before he was kicked in the ribs as if his abdomen were a football set up for opening kickoff.
“Shut up! We’re doing what we need to do in order to survive. We don’t have any more time for morals in this!” one of the subordinates shouted in more heavily accented English.
“Save your complaints for the mayor of Kassala when ‘payment’ arrives in a couple of days. I also mentioned to take special care in selecting the females. The right merchandise will let me retire immediately,” the lead hijacker concluded, as he was suddenly distracted by a faint thumping sound.
“<Sir, what’s the problem?”>” one of his subordinates asked as the others started looking around.
“<Possibly a wild animal has found this camp looking for some scraps. Though we cannot rule out a surveillance drone having found us… Perform a sweep to make sure that nothing is looking in on us aside from whatever the hell is still living out here,>” the leader responded, as he put his rifle back on his shoulder, to join his subordinates In the search.
-----
“We got a problem, Slysza…” Nero told the bat-pony over their com-link, as the bat-pony sat on one of the food trucks frozen.
“What kind of problem…” the bat-pony responded, not noticing her left-front-hoof had started twitching in anxiety, causing a faint but noticeable rhythmic thump to resound through part of the camp in the dead of night.
“They’re doing a sweep of the camp, I need you to stay as still as you can manage. The camo-cloak will make you look invisible, but only if you don’t make any sudden or otherwise quick motions,” Nero replied.
As the link went silent, Nero could hear a faint thumping coming in over Slysza’s microphone.
“Slysza, are you keeping still like I asked?” Nero asked, as he watched one of the hijackers looking around the truck that the bat-pony was perched on top of.
“I’m just really nervous. The dead bodies… their talk of using their fellow humans as slaves openly… it’s making me really anxious…” Slysza said, as she strained to keep her voice down enough for the closed helmet to muffle her words.
“I can understand, but I need you to quell that fear long enough for me to make sure that the recording you streamed me is actually listenable,” Nero replied, as he played back the recording in one side of his helmet, and kept the com-line open to Slysza on the other side.
I hate slavers… if I had it my way I’d just snipe them all right here and now… but we’re gonna need a strike team if we want this convoy back in one piece, Nero thought as he continued to focus on the lone hijacker that was near Slysza’s position.
This is so much to handle all at once… but I have to do my job, so I have to stay strong… I can’t blow my cover… Slysza said, as she turned while making as little noise as she could in order to see if any of hijackers had found her.
This continued for a few more moments, until the hijacker began to climb up the side of the truck.
Damnit, he’s climbing up the side of the food truck that Slysza is perched on… I can take him out right here and now but that could blow this entire operation… But if he actually walks along the top of that truck, there is no way he won’t notice her up there… Nero thought, as he kept his scope trained on the back of the head of the hijacker that was about halfway up the truck now.
If I take off right now, there is no way I could do it completely silent and invisible. And they might put two and two together and realize someone has their position. But if I don’t take off… they might just physically trip over me, which blows my position anyway… Slysza thought as she remained on the truck, trying her best to be completely still and silent.
The hijacker was almost to the top of the truck, while almost a mile away Nero had only to pull to trigger to end him. It was at that point, the hijacker did something that surprised Nero and relieved Slysza… he stopped while he was nearly at the top of the truck.
“Whatever I heard up here stopped anyway, probably just some bird or bat falling out of the sky then taking off again…” the hijacker muttered, as he climbed back down, wondering why he just didn’t stop a few moments ago before he was almost fifteen feet in the air.
“Slysza, the hijacker near you is leaving, give it a few more minutes so I can confirm no one else is doing a sweep before you come back to my position,” Nero reported and requested, as he continued the observe the camp.
“Okay,” the bat-pony replied nervously, but most importantly, quietly.
A couple more minutes passed, before all of the hijackers came back to the middle of the encampment where the captives were bound and being held.
“<Nothing of note sir, not even a wild animal,>” one of the subordinates reported.
“I know I heard something, but since we can’t find anything, we’ll just proceed on schedule. You had best hope the mayor of Kassala delivers on his payment, on time and in full, or I can’t guarantee your continued health or your lives,” the lead hijacker said, as he looked down at the re-gagged conductor.
While that was going on, Slysza finally ‘unclenched’, bat-ponies being no better than their standard Pegasus brethren at remaining still on command without being trained for it.
“Is this the part where I leave that, micro-drone thing, so we can keep up with these people once we leave?” the bat-pony asked, mentally exhausted from everything he had experienced in the short time on top of that truck already.
“Yeah, drop the bug and let’s get the hell back to base,” Nero replied, as he kept his gun trained, but didn’t see any motion of the hijackers toward Slysza’s position.
The bat-pony took a small, credit-card-sized panel from a side pouch on her abdominal armor, and laid it on the side of the truck that was facing in toward the hijackers, with a more or less clear shot at the captives and dead, and prayed silently they could resolve this situation before the exchange was made in two days’ time.
[ September 22, 2081 – Safe Haven ]
===================================
“I’m still not used to seeing all of this for one person,” Captain Julio said as he sat in a chair next to the now-christened Battlestation Mk III; its owner Pamela tapping away at an ancient (by computer standards) mechanical keyboard as one of the many input devices hooked into the nearly completely circular ‘input zone’ of the personal super-computer.
“Well the trends in computing have been cloud-computing for the last 55 years or so. Why go through all the expense of trying to design and mass produce high-end devices when you can create high-quality terminals, improve telecommunications, and then just build massive server farms. Of course being the nerd-queen I am, I just had to build my own when I got hired for the C.I.A.,” Pamela explained as she swirled around in her chair to meet the militia captain face to face, much like a certain Element of Harmony that walked the halls quite often.
“I’m pretty sure if we put you and Twilight Sparkle in a room for a couple of days you could jump even this in tech by at least 20 years,” Julio half-joked, as he walked around the relatively massive ‘terminal’.
“Once we get her up to speed on computer science and engineering, pretty sure we could do some major leaps forward. Though that Night Princess of hers is in a league of her own – might take both of us just to get to where she is now…” Pamela admitted, knowing full well that said Princess of the Moon was only limited by her ability to put what she read into practice.
“And Princess Luna shows no signs of slowing down, let alone stopping. If Twilight Sparkle’s intelligence is scary, Luna’s is downright mortifying,” Julio said, as he shuddered thinking about the depths of the Indigo Alicorn’s knowledge.
“I don’t even want to think about it – I’ll just induce an inferiority complex,” Pamela said as she narrowed her eyes at a certain monitor.
“What’s that?” Julio asked, as he traced Pamela’s apparent line of sight to the particular spot of screen she was focused on.
“I think my partner in crime, if you will, has something for us,” Pamela said as she slid over a couple of inches to tap that section of the screen to bring up the video-feed window. “Talk to me, Jack.”
“Pam, Capt. Rodriguez, Shift helped me tap into some of the muni-surv[4] cameras in Kassala. I think the mayor is about to render payment for those hijacker’s extortion plans,” Jacques replied, as he split the screen, showing a large all-terrain van and a few dozen dark skinned people, and only a few of those people in any apparent uniform of police or military.
“Damn, I was hoping he’d hold out to the edge of the time limit those bastards put on him, but at this rate they’re gonna lose at least a dozen to those slavers,” Capt. Julio cursed, as he stood up to help himself think.
“So what are we gonna do, Julio?” Pamela asked of the young Hispanic military captain.
“I’m calling the council to an emergency session, we’ve got to get in there and get that convoy back before those people get anywhere close to it,” Julio said tapped on his wrist-bound mini-terminal.
-----
“So Jacques is more or less sure that the mayor of Kassala is preparing to render payment to the convoy hijackers?” Stern Balance asked, as the council had gathered in a closed meeting room after about fifteen minutes of scrambling.
“Yes, according to the preliminary report and our continued observation of activities in Kassala, we can be reasonably sure that the Kassala mayor is going to hand over a significant number of his citizens in exchange for the food and water convoy to be delivered in full,” Captain Julio replied.
“I was hoping that we could have avoided acting overtly longer, but I think our collective hands have been forced. We have no evidence of any other force other than the overtaxed Kassala municipal police being able to respond,” Richard groused, as he looked at the strained faces on his fellow council-members.
“Honestly, despite my people’s nature, I was looking to avoid this fight as well. Our rearmament plans have barely gotten off the ground,” Sven added, talon along his forehead trying to think through the issue.
“The best we could do is rigged-up prototypes. I’m sure we have the supplies for it, but we’d basically be working off pure theory and prayer if we did,” Wal’byo thought as he looked through some of the information the Zebra armorers had reported to him.
“At least according to this intel, they have no thaumatic arms, and their firearms are basically semi-automatic rifles and handguns. Enough to take on lightly armed civilian aid convoys, but not enough for a decently equipped anything else,” Adamantia concluded.
“Then I propose we approve of a small strike team to neutralize the hijackers, and retake the convoy before the mayor can complete the transaction. Any objections?” Stern Balance asked of the other council members.
None were opposed, though concern was clearly evident on everyone’s face.
“Alright, you have the approval of the council, Captain Julio Rodriguez. Outfit a small group as much as you deem necessary to complete this mission and get them back safe,” Richard Edwards added.
“Yes sir!” Julio replied with full throat and salute, as he quickly exited the meeting room.
“I guess some habits die hard - he does know we aren’t his military commanders so he doesn’t have to salute us, right?” Adamantia asked of Richard.
“I’m sure he does, but like you said, old habits die hard,” Richard replied, as he silently prayed for success.
=-----=
“That was the most nerve-wracking thing I’ve had to do since… ever. I didn’t think they would be that devoid of compassion,” Slysza complained, as she was finally decompressing from the short scouting mission.
Nero just sighed as he too was still unnerved by it, even though he had confronted slave traders before in his many travels as a mercenary before joining the H.E.A. “I won’t say you get used to it, I’m not used to it. But at some point you can’t let it completely unnerve you. Sometimes they will say something like that just to rile you up so you can’t think straight. And then there are the ones who completely buy into some line, like they are just choosing people for some kind of performing team to live inside the domes, like they won some kind of housing lottery.”
“I can see, but still…” Slysza griped, as she sipped another sip of her tea. Neither she nor the other militia volunteers noticed Captain Rodriguez walking into the commissary designed just for them.
“I dunno what I’d do if I were in that situation. Dead bodies still… make me queasy… even though I’m a triage medic by trade,” an aquamarine Unicorn stallion said, his faded green mane allowed to grow freely and fall wherever it may.
“Are we talking queasy on the battlefield, or queasy when you have time to yourself after having to act?” a Gryphoness asked, her falcon’s face showing a bit of surprise at the admission.
“Mostly after, though I’ve had to tend to villages that were stricken by a rogue band of Gryphons or a rampaging Dragon once or twice. Those are images you don’t forget…” the stallion replied, the Gryphoness nodding all the while.
“From what I’ve heard, there were four driving the convoy, the two main trucks had two each, and the rest of the trail vehicles, six smaller trucks, were all unmanned. One of the drivers were shot dead in the initial takeover, the other three taken prisoner in order to ensure the cooperation, ostensibly, of the mayor of the city,” one of the other humans mentioned, as they went over the public information.
“Correct, Rachel,” Captain Rodriguez announced, as everyone in the room came to attention. “I just got word from the Council: they want us to neutralize the hijackers and reclaim the convoy ASAP. There are only five of them, so I figure if we bring in five with superior equipment, we’ll be able to get this job done with minimal incident.”
“And I’d assume you’d want a couple of the aliens to come with, just to prove a point?” the Gryphoness in the dining area asked, as she looked over at the human she called, at least for the time being, Captain.
“Seeing as we would have to re-announce ourselves to the world at some point, and the council gave me free reign to choose who to send and with what equipment, I think we could use this to score some public relation points as well,” Julio replied.
“I have no quarrel. It gets a bit boring cooped up in this base-come-half-hotel anyway,” the Gryphoness replied, stretching her wings and legs as she did.
“I can imagine,” Julio started, as he took out a notepad where he had scribbled some final notes as he thought about a team on his way to the militia’s area of the base. “I’m going to need you, Frederika, and Rachel, Aqua Mender… let’s see who else I wrote here. Ah yeah, Clyde and Raji. Where are Clyde and Raji, anyway?”
“There guesses,” Rachel replied, as she threw away a bit of leftover food to get ready to move out.
---
“And that makes eight to five, Clyde,” the young man of Hindu descent crowed, the red streaks in his jet-black hair distinguishing him for the other dozen or so inhabitants of Safe Haven that at least mostly shared his heritage.
“Damn, and you won four in a row on top of that,” Clyde groaned, wondering where his five-to-four match lead disappeared to.
“Figures I’d find the two of you over this way…” Julio said over the loud-speaker to the racquetball room, the non-plussed nature of his tone evident to all that heard him.
“Hey look, we both thought we’d get some racquetball in before someone had to move out, figured that with the intel coming that someone was gonna be sent to get that supply convoy back,” Clyde replied, his light bronze skin marking his mixed heritage, so mixed it was hard to actually determine what it was accurately, unless you found his family history.
“Yeah, gonna need both of you for this. You’re also working with Frederika, Rachel, and Aqua Mender,” Julio replied, as he was trying to impart some seriousness into the situation.
Eventually Clyde and Raji got their heads around to the same line of thinking as their captain, as they all walked toward the Militia Outfitting halls.
“So why exactly do you want five of us? I’d think with our tech advantage three would be enough, maybe even two…” Clyde asked.
“This is our first public operation and I want it to be quick and clean; the quicker and cleaner, the better we can spin it PR wise,” Julio replied.
“Didn’t think a straight-up military guy like you would be this interested in the knock-on effects of an operation,” Raji mentioned, as he was in officer school for the Indian Army before he bailed out when they surrendered to the SPH without a shot fired.
“Because this goes beyond a military operation; beyond the ins-and-outs of what is and isn’t an effective action. We have to consider the impact on the general population in everything we do,” Julio said, as they were entering the Outfitter section proper.
“Doesn’t seem like the Black Shield care beyond just stomping over anyone that gets in their way. Thought it makes me wonder why they aren’t rolling tanks or war-drones on all these resistance organizations,” Raji thought aloud, as the rest of his team joined the three of them.
“Could be like any playground bully. Puff yourself up and walk with immense swagger, but the second they take a blow, it turns into stagger,” one of the Zebra outfitters mused, as he looked at the five member team and Captain Julio.
“That would not surprise me in the least. The fact that their forces largely retreat in the face of any sustained opposition, with the except for a few areas, tells me they either have a lot of weak-willed fighters, or they have a very hollow command structure,” Frederika figured aloud.
“While that is true, it’s not something we can take a chance with. And to further answer your question from earlier, Raji – I’m calling for five of you to go because I cannot be absolutely sure that these hijackers are completely independent of the SPH,” Julio replied.
“True enough. The faster we can get this cleaned up the faster we can get back,” Clyde noted, as he put on the prototype bodysuit made of the dragonskin nanoweave that was still being refined.
“Say, you have anything for my wings? I know you all have machines that can repair a lot of body parts, but I don’t want to go out there and have all my feathers shot off or something if I can help it,” Frederika asked as she looked on at Mender struggling a bit with his version of the nanoskin armor base.
“We do have an experimental lacquer we’ve designed in the last couple of weeks. It should protect against most semi-auto fire and low-level magic. The problem is we’re still trying to figure a proper formulation and spell-weave for it so we can better reduce, or hopefully eliminate the drag and weight increase on the wings,” said Zebra outfitter replied, as he helped Mender a bit with his dragonskin.
“If they’re just a bunch of thugs with rapid fire and handguns, I don’t think I will need to take to the air that much. Just so long as I make sure they’re in one-piece when we’re done,” Frederika replied, as she looked over her wings on her back, the golden brown of her lion body’s fur flowing her wings’ feathers.
“I will have those wings of your taken care of in just a moment, Miss Frederika,” the outfitter said, as he took out a large paintbrush and what looked like charcoal gray paint in a large bucket.
“While he’s doing that, let me go over the plan of action…” Captain Julio called out, as everyone turned around to look at the tablet that Julio was carrying, displaying the general plan of action.
=-- Near sunrise the next day, Sudanese time --=
“Only been a few weeks and we already have APC[5]s rigged for teleportation. Certainly makes it easier to get to a certain point for a quick strike action,” Raji mused, as he tugged on his armor a bit.
The team drove up to the indicated point, a monitor in the vehicle showing that nothing in the camp had changed significantly. And most importantly, none of the vehicles had been started up, so they were more or less in the clear to approach and maintain the surprise.
Though, it wasn’t the entire team that was approaching, as Rachel looked at another monitor showing where a motorbike was rolling across the savannah, hitting the outskirts of Kassala right as the APC itself was parked on a ridge far enough away to be out of visual range of the hijackers. “I hope Clyde can get there in time. It’s gonna make it hard for us to take back that convoy if the human payment is sent out at gets anywhere close to the hijacker’s camp.
“Guess we’re gonna have to have some faith in him then,” Aqua Mender replied, as he steeled himself for whatever might happen
---
Before a lightly armored van stood the mayor of Kassala, and roughly a dozen people and a driver.
“Is this what it has come down to? Having to literally trade the lives of a few for the lives of thousands?” the mayor said, his half grayed hair seemingly growing grayer by the second.
As he was about to motion for everyone to board the van, he heard a major commotion from the other side of the door to the garage near the edge of the city proper.
“Let me in, I need to see the mayor!” everyone could hear from the other side of the garage door.
“Stop that man, he cannot interrupt this!” the mayor could clearly hear of the guards, before hearing some punches thrown and a couple of grunts of obvious pain and a body banging against the door of the garage.
“What is going on, who is out there?” the mayor shouted as he walked up to the door. The door split open and slid open horizontally, and revealed a pair of hurt guards and a man in white and medium-gray armor.
“Sir, you cannot let that van leave the city limits, please!” Clyde said, as he took off his helmet to argue face to face with the mayor that was twice his apparent age.
“And damn my people to starvation and thirst? Surely you must be mad!” the mayor responded to the slightly bronze, curly haired man.
“Look, I know what this sounds like, but you just have to believe me and what I’m about to show you,” Clyde said as he went back toward the street, and wheeled his motorcycle into the garage.
After a few moments of murmuring and accusations being thrown about, all of those, except for Clyde, were stunned by what they saw from the monitor built into the back of the battery-driven cycle.
“A… a bird-lion… why is there a Gryphon there? And a Unicorn too? I thought all of those aliens left months ago?!” one of the to-be ‘exchangee’s wondered aloud with great surprise.
“The H.E.A. is back, and in a big way, aren’t we Rach?” Clyde asked of his team-mate that was a couple of miles out from the outskirts of town.
----
“Damn straight we’re back in business, Clyde,” Rachel answered, as she pointed a camera down from a ridge, at the encampment. “To the mayor of Kassala, Sudan; we of the Human-Equus Alliance pledge not only to resolve this issue with this aid shipment, but to make it so that no one, regardless where they live, have to suffer from lack of resources of mismanagement by their government.”
Raji came into view of the camera as he opened the visor on his helmet. “Mister, in a few moments we’re about rescue the survivors of those originally conducting the convoy, and take out the hijackers who wish to sell other living, breathing humans into bondage for their own profit.”
“Anything you can do to deliver the aid our city so desperately needs, sir,” the mayor responded through the microphone on the monitor built into Clyde’s bike.
“Frederika, we’re about to move out. Mender, get ready to evac the wounded and tend to them!” Raji shouted as the Gryphoness unfurled her temporarily dark-gray wings, and the Unicorn began casting a spell around the APC. “And Rachel, when I give the signal, get ready to launch the shell that Zebra designed for us. We’re about to take it right to these rat bastards.”
Rachel gave the thumbs up as she readied a canister into a miniature launcher.
----
“Where is that transport, I told them at dawn’s light. I have half a mind to just leave these prisoners here to rot with the rest of that city,” the lead hijacker shouted, as the Sun was now climbing into the sky in earnest.
What none of the hijackers noticed was a man that had snuck into their encampment wearing a camo-cloak, holding four small jewels as he looked around to make sure that no one was looking or even keyed into that part of the camp.
“Sir, sir are you awake,” he called in a slightly muffled voice, as he kept the volume down on the speakers of his helmet that allowed him to communicate out without opening it.
“Who is there? Show yourself…” the lead conductor grumbled, not quite awake in the early morning light.
“The man that’s gonna get you out of here and bring some justice to these ‘jackers,” Raji replied, as he adhered the jewel to the clothes of the three bound men first. “I just need you to hold as still as you can, so we can evac you.”
“Evacuate? But how, you are but one man and they number a half dozen,” the conductor asked, as the other two living captive were starting to rouse.
“Just give me a couple of seconds,” the man replied aloud, but still in hush tone.
“Alright, Mender, cast the Evac and start taking care of whatever injuries you can!” Raji ordered through the now private channel.
“Roger!” Mender responded; Raji confirming as he watched the amethyst colored jewels start to glow violet.
“Wait, what is going on? How will this get us out?” the conductor asked, before a violet colored bubble rapidly inflated, and then deflated, carrying away the three men wearing, in one way or another, the jewels.
“That’s how, good sir,” Raji said as he quickly scurried back behind one of the trucks until the teleport was confirmed.
A few moments later, he got the good news. “Alright, me and Rachel have the three living survivors; give me a moment to prepare some space and the body bag for the fourth. I just hope that not too much rot has taken place to where we can’t genetically identify him later.”
“I hope so too Mender, though I think it will be easy enough to ID him when we get the travel logs out of the trucks anyway,” Raji replied, as he was surprised the hijackers were too busy looking down the road to have taken notice of there being no more prisoners for them to exchange.
“Man, talk about your tunnel vision, anyway… are you ready for the body of the fourth?”
“Yeah, I wish I could do this with the bag closed, but I’m not going to chance damaging the body any further. His family at least deserves everything in-tact for them to properly bury… or cremate, whatever might happen I guess,” Mender replied.
“Alright, the charm is on the body, clear for sending,” Raji called back, as he kept a close eye on the targets down the way a few dozen yards.
A few moments later, the last bubble engulfed the body of the fourth man, and Aqua Mender sent his confirmation. “Alright, the body of the fourth has been recovered and sealed. Doesn’t look like he is so far gone his body can’t be repaired for a burial, but we’ll have to do a deeper scan somewhere else to be sure.”
“Good. Alright Rachel, is the scramble shell prepared to launch?” Raji asked of the communication specialist for the mission.
“Yeah, if they won’t surrender quietly, we’ll make ‘em do it confused and noisily,” Rachel replied.
“And you ready to help me make ‘em, ‘Rika?” Raji asked of his Gryphoness partner.
“Just give the signal, squad leader,” Frederika replied.
----
“They’ve recovered the drivers and the conductor of the convoy, including the one that was killed in the initial attack. But we still need those trucks here,” the mayor said, as some of the guards looked in at the footage being fed back from the battlefield not three miles away from where they all stood.
“Hopefully those hijackers surrender quietly, then,” Clyde replied, as he watched along with them.
----
“I grow impatient... bring the camera, I will have to make those idiots move faster with their delivery,” the leader said as he turned around. Only to be shocked by what he saw, or rather what he didn’t see.
“Where in the Hell are those captives? Don’t tell me they have escaped. And with the body of the one we already killed?” the lead hijacker shouted, as the other five hijackers looked around confused.
“I am only going to ask you all once, hand over control of this convoy to us and surrender yourselves to the proper authorities!” the hijackers all heard a voice shout, but they could not place a body to the voice.
“Reveal yourself coward! You shout threats but do not face us?” a hijacker shouted back at nothing in particular, confused by the voice with no source.
“I stand before you already,” Raji responded, as he removed the hood of his camo-cloak, to reveal his mostly polished white helmet and dark blue visor. A moment later, his entire white and gray armored body was revealed to the hijackers.
“You?! You freed our bargaining chips! You have cost us millions of credits with this!” the lead hijacker shouted in fury.
“Even if they live mired in poverty, they still at least have their own lives. And you were going to sell them to Domers or whomever else without even a second thought. I thought we as a species could not sink so low as to repeat the mistakes our ancestors did,” Raji replied, as he stood with his rifle armed and ready to fire on an instant’s notice.
“I do not care for your morals. When one is faced with the proposition of never having to starve or want again, they will sell their own mothers down the river,” the lead hijacker replied, assured in his own particular set of beliefs.
“Then I have my answer apparently. Let’s go!” Raji shouted for all to hear.
The hijackers immediately opened fire, only to curse as they saw the armor was only being minorly dented by their fire.
“<What is he wearing, how would he have military grade body armor?>” one of the hijackers shouted, as they began to run out of ammo already – they were not equipped to completely repel resistance.
None of them saw the shell fly in, as a faint green smoke began to waft from the canister.
“My body, my body will not move!” three of the hijackers shouted, as a couple of other put on gas masks they had on their persons just in case of tear gas being fired upon them.
The next thing to fly in though, frightened all of them down to their core, as they heard a combination of shriek and a roar.
“Monster… they have called some sort of monster!” the still motile hijackers shouted, as they saw a four foot tall cat like beast land next to the just-over-six-foot tall man, clad in similar armor and even helmet, though the shape was much more oblate.
“Amusing. You would kill your own or sell them off into slavery, and call me a monster before I even had a chance to do something to deserve the moniker,” Frederika replied, as she leveled her wings and primed her body to pounce upon the first thing that threatened her specifically.
“Don’t you toy with us beast! Kill the both of them, we can just roll this convoy to somewhere else and get cash for it!” The lead hijacker said as he ran off toward the primary food truck.
“No wait, take us with you!” the other two of the hijackers not felled by the scrambler gas shouted at their leader, before they were both shot in the legs by Raji’s sidearm.
“I know it’s not to normal military standards to shoot a fleeing person in the back, but right now I cannot take chances, can you take care of the last one, ‘Rika?” Raji said as he made sure the two shot hijackers were completely disarmed.
“On it,” Frederika replied, as she took off toward where the lead hijacker was running.
In what seemed like a flash, the Gryphoness tackled the last hijacker, and wrapped her hind legs around his waist and talons across his windpipe, putting the last hijacker into a choke hold. Said hijacker struggled for what seemed like hours, but it was only a couple of minutes before he passed out from lack of oxygen.
---
“Raji, how are we doing?” Rachel asked of her squad leader.
“Some cleanup, all six hijackers are down, no deaths though some blood lost on the two that I shot. The leader got choked out and good by Frederika, remind me not to challenger her to any kind of wrestling match,”
“Good. Aside from the already confirmed fatality, the drivers and the conductor are of sound body, all things considered. I dunno how this might have affected them mentally, but hopefully we’ll be able to do some follow up at a later date with them,” Rachel replied.
“Great Rachel. Clyde, tell the mayor to get a police car out here and anyone that can operate these trucks so they can get on their way, we’ll hold down the fort just to make sure none of their friends, if they have any, try and retake the convoy.”
---
“I cannot thank you enough, Mr. Clyde. You have forestalled a further crisis in this city this day,” the mayor stated, as he wiped the sweat off his brow.
“Praise for later, let’s get those aid trucks here so we can officially call this mission complete. I’ll even escort you all over there,” Clyde said, as he put his helmet back on and readied his bike to head out.
“Well put. I need ten LEOs to come with me, we are going to make sure each of those hijackers face justice in full,” the mayor said, to the applause of the small audience gathered in the garage.
=- Later that evening, Pacific Standard Time -=
“Damn, a lot happened to say it only was an hour or so,” Vague stated with unbelief as he stared at the news report on CNN.
“I wish to thank our mysterious benefactors for this most providential of interventions. Due to the Black Shield’s stranglehold on the major powers, we believed to be at the total mercy of what aid could be scrounged up, and subsequently what aid wouldn’t be picked off by hijackings such as the one that occurred seven days previous. But thanks to the actions of those men and women in the white and gray armor, we now have a chance at holding on. Hopefully, they or some other force is able to remove the SPH from their effective control of the world governments, so we may resume the long work to repairing the damage our forefathers have caused, and making this world thrive for all who inhabit it. Thank you very much,” the mayor of Kassala stated before jubilant inhabitants of the city, as the feed cut back to the anchor in the studio.
“That’s only going to be half of it, Blue,” Pamela said, as she was entertaining the Unicorn and Element of Water in the main computer room of Safe Haven, as a blue-glowing and dressed, blonde-haired fairy figure appeared on the screen next to the red-haired and dressed Shift.
“So are you ready for your debut, Alternate?” Pamela asked of the second cyber-fairy.
“I dunno, I’m so nervous, I don’t want to mess up my lines or anything,” the blonde haired fairy replied in a meek voice, as she looked at her creator and her apparent friend through the several cameras mounted on the monitors and panels on the Battlestation mk. III.
“It’s just a brief statement announcing that we’re back in business; or at least that we still exist,” Shift responded, patting her sister on the back and trying to instill some confidence.
“Gonna have to be done one way or another if we’re gonna reach our goals,” Vague figured, as he shrugged.
“Ok, I can do this, I know I can do this,” Alternate said with increasing vigor, as she tried to psyche herself up.
“I know you can too, so let’s get this show on the road already!” Shift said as she shoved her sister into a box, that quickly revealed itself to be a virtual ‘studio’ for Alternate to broadcast from.
----
“I’m getting word from our cyber-trackers that apparently, the… Human-Equestrian Alliance is making a statement, which is currently being broadcasted on the ‘Net. I’m not sure if we can verify this message, but we’re going to broadcast it on delay just in case anything newsworthy happens,” the CNN anchor continued, as the controllers put the feed on.
What the world was greeted to was a simulated news desk, with a lone fair-skinned, blonde-haired figure in a blue dress, and fairy wings coming from her back, shimmering in white, blue, gold, red, and green - the main colors of the redone Human-Equus Alliance logo.
“I would like to start this brief statement by giving a heartfelt ‘you’re welcome’ to the mayor of Kassala, Sudan. I am sure you, mayor, already know by now, but I am here to tell the whole world now: the Human-Equus Alliance has returned. You may be asking yourself, ‘I thought you were the Human-Equestrian Alliance?’ In short, we were, but we have expanded in both personnel and scope. No longer are we a group whose focus is solely in facilitating the Conversion of those whom wish the leave the Earth for the Other World, whom the natives refer to as Equus. No, our scope has now broadened to this deceptively simple mandate – to build worlds where all of our inhabitants, no matter what form they are or may take in the future, can find a place to not merely survive, but thrive. You may interpret that to mean a lot of things, but there is only one thing definite in the near future, and that is we will work with all willing partners and volunteers to restore the duly elected governments of Earth to their offices, and to ensure the Society or any sympathizers can never take control again!”
Just as quickly as the figure in the white studio appeared, she and the studio disappeared, leaving only a soft tone and the HEA logo on the feed.
“I am not sure what exactly was meant by that message, other than the now rechristened Human-Equus Alliance in back in operation, apparently. We will work with all of our analysts to probe this issue and figure out if the HEA is truly back in operation,” the anchor said as everyone watching could hear yelling and scrambling behind the camera.
----
“I bet there are three masked people who are pitching a tantrum supreme right now,” Vague chuckled, as he looked back at the blue-dressed fairy, who had her head face-down on the virtual anchor’s desk.
“That was so exhausting… and I was only talking for maybe a couple of minutes…” Alternate complained, not thinking it would take that much out of her.
“We were being assaulted mightily - trying to shut off the feed on one hand, and people trying to watch on the other. We’re gonna need someone else to help us keep a buffer around Alternate if we’re gonna do that again, Ms. Pamela,” Shift said as she fanned her blonde-haired sister.
“I got something cooking for that, but it might be a week or two before I’m confident enough to let her out of her box like the two of you,” Pamela responded, as she had a separate Q-Machine swirling with a program, its glow very slowly changing from white to green as it did.
“Having another sister so soon, they’ll say such things about our mother, won’t they,” Shift teased; Alternate just groaned as she wanted to find a hammock or a cot to relax completely in.
“They can say what they want, but I’m a practical lady. If I need three cyber-fairies to make all of this work, then three is what we’re gonna have,” Pamela responded with confidence.
“Hrm, I wonder what I have to do to program something like Shift and Alternate on my own… I’m starting to get a few ideas myself,” Vague thought aloud.
“Well hey, if you’re willing to spend a couple of hours a day with me for a couple of weeks, I can show you the base code and some of the AI templates I’ve made,” Pamela said, as she was positively giddy with the prospect of talking shop with a fellow coder.
“Alright, let’s see what ya got tomorrow afternoon,” Vague responded with a knowing chuckle.
***** === *****
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