Chapter 6
As they drove, they decided to recon the ski place and see what they were up against first. It should be fairly easy to pick out anyone on guard outside. However, the bad guys probably had warning that someone was gunning for them. Going into the building could blow their cover. It remained to be seen whether Spike could hack the commercial grade security system.
Rainbow turned into the parking lot at the indoor ski resort. They made a circuit of the building, which took a longer amount of time than any of them had predicted.
“How big is this place?” wondered Applejack.
“Their website says the slope is about a quarter of a mile long and nearly three hundred feet high,” replied Spike. “To house a ski park that big plus all the equipment makes it a pretty large building. It’s going to be a pain to locate the bad guys. Especially if we have to pick them out of all the skiers.”
“We may try waiting for when they close, then,” said Rarity.
That was a couple of hours away. “I think at least one of us should get eyes on the place,” said Twilight. “The whole group would look suspicious.”
“A woman going skiing by herself would look strange anywhere, much less in Dubai,” Rarity noted.
“Spike? Can you intercept cell phone signals while skiing?” Twilight asked.
“Um, maybe I could keep the equipment in a backpack and set it to collect anything it detects,” said Spike. “Except I can’t ski.”
“Oh, now you’re just being difficult,” Twilight grumped.
Spike chuckled. “It’s not on my character sheet.”
“Well, maybe my Sneaky Spook perk can cover us both.”
Spike rolled. “Eighteen.”
“So just pretend you’re James Bond and you’ve got a pretty girl on a date in an exotic city,” Twilight coached Spike as the two of them walked into the resort.
“So...we’ll have a shootout eventually and then sex?”
“WHAT!?”
“It’s roleplaying, Twilight! It’s what my character would say! Besides, you totally left yourself open for that!”
“I don’t think the Agency health insurance covers anything that might result,” said Twilight. “From either. Probably also not the skiing. So don’t break a leg. From any of the the three.”
“How would I break a leg from-”
“Hate to cut y’all short, but Fluttershy’s about to blush herself to death here,” Applejack’s voice broke in through their earpieces. “If you could get back to the mission.”
Twilight and Spike went on their way. The others sat in the Suburban. The engine was running to power the air conditioner. While the mission expense report had gotten them precious little in the way of gear, they could probably justify the expense for gasoline. It was cheaper in an oil country like Dubai.
“Tea?” offered Rarity.
There was little else to do, so they all sat around sipping tea and waiting for something to happen.
“I think we should have looted the bodies,” said Rainbow.
“I mean, it’s standard RPG play. And could use the money and whatever else we could get.”
“None of us would ever do that in real life, whether we killed a bad guy or not,” Rarity pointed out.
“Sure enough,” said Applejack. “But you have to admit, it makes sense from a purely practical standpoint.”
Pinkie said, “I think the only reason we didn’t was-”
“-we didn’t have time at the time.”
Rainbow shrugged. “Yeah, probably.”
They waited a while longer until Twilight and Spike returned. They had made a rough sketch of the places that the public was allowed to go. Spike started to analyze the signals his gear had picked up.
“We couldn’t go into some of the back rooms and the offices,” said Twilight, showing the rest the map she’d drawn. “Maybe if I had been alone. But we did get a general idea of where everything was.”
“And I got what I think is Sombrero’s phone signal,” said Spike. “We should be able to locate him now.”
“I noticed some definite security around,” said Twilight, circling the locations with armed guards. “If we wait a little while, the ski resort will close for the day. Let’s hope Sombrero stays put. Maybe the guards will even draw down a little if there’s nobody around.”
“Then again, if they didn’t know about our earlier raid before, they certainly know now,” Rarity pointed out.
“So what can we do to give ourselves an edge?” Applejack said.
Rarity toasted with her cup. “Finish your tea.”
“Anything else?” Rainbow asked.
“Hit them as hard and fast as we can,” Pinkie suggested.
“We’ll have to get closer,” said Twilight. “We’ll get a fix on Sombrero inside the building, and then we’ll drive up to the nearest door. From there, no turning back.”
“We could just RPG the wall,” Pinkie pointed out.
“Good idea.”
However, fate conspired against them and Sombrero seemed to be in a small office at the top of the ski slope by the time they felt ready. It would be an uphill battle the whole way.
“Shooting gallery,” Applejack muttered. “I’d rather come in from the top.”
“They’d probably detect you climbing the building,” said Twilight. “Although, perhaps if the rest of us caused a distraction at the bottom of the slope, you could slip in from the roof.”
“I’ll go with her,” said Rainbow.
Rainbow started the engine and they started rolling through the mostly empty parking lot.
“Hey guys,” said Spike. “Did I mention-”
“-that random encounters are part of the game?”
The girls groaned. Twilight gestured. “Get it over with.”
Spike rolled. “Four bad guys come out of the building and two more come at you on motorcycles.”
“How do we want to handle this?” Twilight consulted the others.
“Full auto!” Rainbow declared.
Spike rolled. “Ten. You meet the objective, but mildly injure yourself in the process.”
They opened up with as much firepower as they could muster. Their ears rang from the huge volume of full-auto firing. It worked, though.
“Oh God, oh God!” Rainbow slapped at the front of her tank top. “Hot brass went down the neck of my shirt!”
“You should have worn your hijab, darling,” Rarity remarked.
“‘Least there ain’t much there to burn,” added Applejack.
“Ooh, that’s a burn of a different kind!” giggled Pinkie.
“I think her pride’s injured more than anything else,” said Twilight. “Which for Rainbow hurts more than anything.”
“Yeah, well, at least they’re all dead!”
“Hey Rainbow, remember in the Cute Critters game last week Flutters ran when you nearly got mauled to death by that bear?” Pinkie giggled. “I’m noticing a trend.”
“How was I supposed to know you shouldn’t poke the bear!?” Rainbow demanded.
“You were playing as a bunny rabbit,” Rarity reminded her.
“I wanted to play as the bunny,” said Fluttershy quietly.
They made it to the door and got out of the truck. There were no more enemies in sight, but that surely wouldn’t last long. Twilight took a knee. “All right everyone, we need a plan.”
“Rainbow and I could still go up to the roof,” said Applejack.
“Encirclement could work, but you two would be out of the fight until you were in position,” Twilight noted.
“Um, guys?” said Spike. he pointed through the door. “Does that look like a bomb to you?”
It did.
“Somebody’s going to have to take a look at it,” said Twilight. “And defuse it if possible. Volunteers?”
“I like bombs,” said Pinkie.
“Remember, the objective is not to set it off.”
“I don’t like setting off bombs,” said Fluttershy. “That’s why I took those EOD courses.”
“And someone has to cover Spike,” Twilight said.
“He could stay with whoever is defusing the bomb,” Rarity suggested. “Perhaps he can help.”
“What?” yelped Spike. “Not cool!”
Voices came from inside the building, getting closer. Whatever they decided, it needed to be fast.
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RPG the bomb?
The biggest worry is that there might be more of them. But why would they be blowing up their own building?
Isn't like the number one thing that EOD does is blow up stuff? Like, disposing explosive ordinance?
6977384
The intent is to dispose of explosives without them actually exploding. That doesn't mean they're always successful, but it's what EOD attempts to achieve.
So, how much bomb are we talking about here? It might make a good distraction to rig it on a delay timer while they slip around the back or even blow up the whole building depending on its power and proximity to other buildings they don't want blown up.
Assuming they do actually have to diffuse it, I would leave most of the group there as in the original distraction plan (with diffusing the bomb added to their job) while AJ and Rainbow flank with Spike as their driver to get them in position faster. It won't be quite as subtle as having them move on foot, but it should be good enough with the distraction and will help keep Sombrero from bugging out when the shooting starts. Spike will then pull back behind a building or something to keep himself safe until they need him to sweep in for extraction because they cannot rely on one static extraction point with two teams maneuvering independently.
Also, I wanted to explicitly complement you on the humor in this chapter because there were a number of great gags in there.
6978109 No, most of their job is disposing of ordinance that failed to explode the first time and now has a risk of exploding in unexpected ways. The normal disposal method for that is to find somewhere safe to forcibly detonate it with another explosive to make sure it is no longer a threat. Even mines and IEDs are frequently detonated from range with high explosive incendiary .50 cal rounds because it is far safer to set them off from a hundred yards or more than try to actually diffuse them so long as there is nothing you don't want blown up near them.
Is this a Hollywood style bomb, with the great red digital timer and ominous beeping, or a more realistic bomb/ IED/VBIED?
If it's option one attempt to disarm it, if it's option two try a controlled det if possible, otherwise run very fast in the other direction.
Also, that tea scene was fantastic,I've always wondered what the B-team did while the lone insertion was going on. :)