Nightmare Team: New Blade

by Ser_Galahad

Chapter X: Ride of the Wælcyrge

All three ponies in the training area froze in place and turned to face the PA horn that was connected near the ceiling above the main entrance door. Because she was still fairly new, Twilight only had mild understanding of the alarm system and what each call meant, but she could tell by the lack of action from the two veteran Nightmares that this probably didn’t mean they were under attack. The alarm wailed twice before it stopped and the voice of Princess Luna took over.

“Now here this: All Nightmares, you have ten minutes to gear up and report to the staging area.”

Captain Hunter and Sunset both looked at each other before they took off at a quick jog that prompted Twilight to follow. Sunset looked back over her shoulder at Twilight.

“Hope we’ve put you through enough training, because you’re about to get a dose of combat.”

I hope so too

Twilight gulped a little as she continued to follow the two others to the armory. She felt that she had been trained enough, but that did not stop her from feeling nervous about going into combat.

“I sure hope you’re right. I don’t much fancy the idea that my first op will be my last,” Twilight replied. “That would also make it hard for me to help bring down that team that attacked Canterlot.”

The group made it into the armory to find that Rainbow Dash had beaten them to the armory and was already gearing up. Dash was in the process of changing out her normal flight suit for a similar looking one that came with some additional armor around the chest and back. The armor appeared to be fairly light as to no effect Dash’s flying. Sitting next to dash was a flight helmet painted light blue with a pair of rainbow lightning bolts streaking from front to back on either side. Across the front of the helmet, it had Dash’s call sign “Rainboom” painted on it. A P-90 rested next to Rainbow’s locker. She had stuffed a few extra 50 round magazines in the leg pouches of her flight suit. A bag of impact grenades were also near at hand.

“Always trying to be first aren’t ya Rainboom,” Sunset teased as she opened her own locker and gave Dash a light punch in the arm.

Sunset stripped off her Duster and gun belt and put on a fresh set of LDUs. She exchanged her usual gun belt for one that held bullet loops for her revolver and an ammo pouch that held a slot for magazines for her 1911. Sunset then loaded out her ammo as well as clipping a pair of grenades to her belt. She add on her ballistic armor before donning her duster again. It was the same advanced armor that Twilight had seen the captain wear during the attack.

Aegis Combat Armor as Twilight had been told it was called. It was a creation that Apple Jack had developed in her engineering workshop. While it was much harder to create, it was also lighter are more durable than most guard armor. It also had the added benefit of not being loud and cumbersome. This made it ideal for a small special operations unit like the Nightmares.

Dash laughed and replied, “I know you’re just jealous that you can’t match my speed.”

Dash gave Sunset her own light punch in the arm and turned to face the captain. “You know what’s going on Orion?”

Captain Hunter shook his head in reply as he started to pull out his own gear. “Not a clue. I’m sure either Nightmare-Actual or Foresight will fill us in after we get geared up.”

The captain simply slipped on his Aegis armor and grabbed his scoped rifle from the weapons rack. He pulled a worn looking 9mm handgun from his locker and looked it over as if considering taking it. Ultimately, he decided to replace it back in his locker. He added a few additional magazines to an ammo pouch but didn’t bring any other gear.

Twilight looked around at the others as both Apple Jack and Bulwark made their way into the armory as well. Once inside they also moved to their respective lockers.

Bulwark, similar to the captain, only took minimal gear. He wore his Aegis armor, though his had a red cross painted on both shoulders. He then shouldered his backpack size medical kit. This was probably the same kit that Twilight had been told was enchanted to never run out of the essentials. Finally, he selected a rather standard M4 riffle and took two spare mags.

Apple Jack took the polar opposite approach. She squeezed into a much bulkier, more explosive resistant version of the Aegis armor called the Aegis Mk II. It also came with an attached back pack much more cargo space to bring equipment in. Twilight watched the engineer add 3 packages of C4 plastic explosive, 2 thermite charges, a claymore anti personal device, and two fragmentation grenades. AJ also selected an M249 SAW from the rack with an attachable 200-count disintegrable belt feed ammo box

Twilight couldn’t believe the amount of gear that the mare was packing. Not only that, but AJ only seemed slightly encumbered by her burden.

“Damn, Honesty!” Twilight exclaimed, “How can you possibly carry all of that? Your call sign should have been ‘Machine’ not ‘Honesty’”

Apple Jack let out a small laugh in reply.

“Ah’ve had ‘Machine’ suggested to me before, but I had a bad run in with some sleazy snek’ oil peddlers an’ their apple machine that turned me off from wanting to be a ‘Machine’. To answer the second question, lots an’ lots o’ hard work down on tha family farm.”

Growing up in Canterlot, Twilight had no frame of reference for what farm work could be like so she too Apple Jack’s word for it.

Twilight herself had started to don her gear, but because of the training and her method of fighting, there wasn’t much gear to gather. She changed from her current sweaty LDU’s to a fresh pair. She also slipped into her Aegis armor, followed by reattaching her shadow cloak. The only additional gear that Twilight decided to add to her kit was a pair of smoke grenades.

The whole team got dressed pretty quickly with a few jovial remarks made between team members. Most of the jokes seemed to show the camaraderie that the team had from working together. The only one that seemed in poor taste was when Bulwark tried a lighthearted catcalling whistle as Sunset and Twilight swapped LDU’s. This only drew a roll of the eyes from Sunset and a firm cuffing to the back of the head from Apple Jack. Bulwark at least had the decency to look a tad sheepish afterwards.

Once all the members of the team were fully kitted out they made their way to the staging area across the hall from the armory. The solid clack of combat boots echoed off the tiled floors and the walls around them.

This was the first time that Twilight had a reason to go to the staging area. It was only used for assembling the team prior to boarding the transport that would drop the team of at the mission location. The staging area was little more than an a concrete hanger bay with a ramp that lead upwards to a large blast door that Twilight assumed opened to the outside above the headquarters. It also struck Twilight that this must have been what Sunset had meant when she had talked about using the back entrance the first time they had meet.

Sitting in the middle of the hanger bay was what looked like a metal tube with two tick pillars, one on the front, and one at the back. It, in some ways, resembled a large closed off version of a flying chariots that the princesses used. There were small windows along the side and larger ones up front. In the back was a drop-ramp for loading and unloading. The tube was painted a dark matte black. The name of the transport, “Strongheart” was painted in gray lettering along the front right quarter. On each tower was also a name in the same gray lettering, Lt. ‘Viper’ Metcaif on the front one and Sgt. ‘Charlie’ Blackwood on the rear.

Standing next to the transport where four ponies standing together and talking. The first and most recognizable was Princess Luna. She was holding a file that she seemed to be poring over. The expression on her face was stiff and betrayed some concern.

Next to her was Foresight, the head of the Intel team. He was looking at his own file and conversing with the final two ponies of the group.

The pair consisted of one bat pony male and one pegasus mare. They both wore flight suits similar to the ones that Rainbow Dash typically wore. In addition to the suits, they also carried flight helmets under their arm. As Twilight drew closer she was able to catch the last part of the conversation.

“So because of that, we need you to get skids up as soon as they get off.” Foresight was telling them, looking at his file.

“So we’re doing a quick drop then?” The pegasus of the pair asked.

“Looks like it.” The stallion next to her said.

Twilight continued to follow the rest of Nightmare team as the approached the group. As they drew closer, the princess looked up from her file.

“Good, you’re all ready. This mission is very time sensitive so we need to forgo the typical mission briefing in the Situation room.”Luna explained. She looked over at the captain. “Orion, I need you to get your team loaded. You will get a briefing once Strongheart is in the air. Is that understood?”

The captain snapped a quick salute, “Yes ma’am.”

Turning to the rest of the team he made a gesture of raising one hand above his head with his pointer finger extended and circled it around his head. “You heard her folks sit down and strap in.”

Twilight watched as the two pilots that had been talking to Foresight flew up to the top of the transport. The bat pony went to the front pillar of the transport and started to strap himself into a harness that was connected to the craft. The pegasus did the same thing at the back.

Starting to feel a little nervous, Twilight just followed Sunset onto the transport where she took a seat in one of the jump seats that lined the sides. The rest of the team followed behind her and took their own seats. The last onboard was Capt. Hunter. Once he had walked up the ramp he slammed his hand on the metal side of the transport.

First the ramp rose up from the ground and closed behind the captain. Then Twilight heard the sound of wings beating from outside. Moments later the entire craft lifted from the ground with a lurch. Through the forward looking windshield Twilight could see that the blast doors had opened and that they were now flying through them out into the night sky. They hovered above the trees for a second as the pilots orientated the craft and then they were off.

Twilight looked around the craft and out the windows at the quickly passing landscape with amazement. She had flown before but that had just been in a slow moving balloon, nothing like this. Twilight had heard rumors that something like this was in development but had never gotten any real information.

Because she was sitting next to Twilight, Sunset noticed this amazed look. She shot a bemused look at the excited Shadow-walker.

“Is this one of the new helicopters that they’ve been trying to develop?” Twilight asked. “I thought they were only in the prototype phase.”

“Technically they still are,” Sunset replied. “You would need to talk to Honesty about them. This is a Buffalo class transport, and we’ve had them for years.”

Apple Jack picked up on the conversation and chimed in

“The R&D team for tha Day Guard have been usin’ the Buffalo as a model for what they want ta develop. Where we have them pegasi pilots flyin’ us, they wan’ the propulsion ta be magic o’ mechanical based. Ya know so you don’ got live bodies on the outside to get shot at.”

“The raw power they would need to get that kind of lift would be enormous. And without something like your engine, I don’t know how they would be able to do it mechanically.” Twilight commented trying to picture how to convert the Buffalo into a non-pegasi variant.

“That’s why they are still in just a prototype phase still,” Sunset said.

“Alright cut the chatter we need to get our mission brief going. Lazarus, can you get the lights?”Capt. Hunter said as he walked down the center aisle between the jump seats. He made his way to the front and pulled a retractable canvas screen down from where it was stored in the ceiling.

The team stopped talking and turned to face the captain and this new screen. Bulwark, who was sitting across the aisle from Twilight, leaned over and flipped a switch that was along the wall of the transport. The normal lights of the cabin went dark and they were replaced by the glow of a crystal. The crystal projected the face of Princess Luna onto the screen.

“I have you Orion. Are you receiving me?” Luna’s voice seemed to come though a set of speakers in the transport.

The captain looked at the screen and nodded. “We have you five by five, Nightmare-Actual.”

“OK good. Standby for Intel briefing from Foresight.” With that the Princess’s face disappeared from the screen to be replaced by the Bat pony Intel officer who cleared his throat before starting his briefing.

“So I assume that you all would like to know where it is exactly that you are going.”

There were some murmurs of agreement from the team as he continued.

“You may remember from the initial break down of the attack on Canterlot that one of the potential spots was Stalliongrad. Well as it turns out we got hard connections to it now.”

Well that’s unfortunate, I hate going to northern Equestria. It’s always so cold and covered in snow.

“How did you get the info?” Sunset leaned forward to ask.

“I have a contact inside of the Stalliongrad Mafia.” Foresight said. “He fed me some info that clearly links the griffon Carrion to being in Stalliongrad right now. We don’t know how long that info will be good so that is why we had to launch you so fast.”

“So what’s our game plan?” the Capt. Hunter asked. He was still standing at the front of the transport. He was clearly used to the turbulence that came with the flight. He didn’t seem to ever lose his balance even on jostles that would have tossed Twilight from her seat if it wasn’t for the straps of the jump seat.

“You’re going to meet up with my contact, his name is Borscht. Once you have contact with him, he will take you to their current Pakhan. His name is Trotsky, and hopefully you can work with him to find out what Carrion is doing. Because of the population in the city we don’t want to leave Strongheart just sitting around any longer then we need to minimize risk of getting spotted. That means this is going to be a hot drop.” Foresight explained.

“Wait we work with the Mafia? Aren’t they criminals?” Twilight asked looking around with wide eyes.

It was the captain that answered her question. “In any other city in the kingdom we don’t, but Stalliongrad plays by different rules. After the Griffon War, it was the mafia that rebuilt the city and now they run the town. If we want to operate there we have to use them.”

Sunset also patted her on the shoulder. “It’s not as if we like having a major mafia presence there, but with the weak government that was left in the town after it got cut off in the war a criminal organization was going to grow. We guided this one in behind the scenes because they were the least violent, and they had the strength to generally shut down the more violent ones. We still keep an eye on them and work to remove the control that he crime lords have on the city, but until that day they fill the power gap for us.”

Twilight harrumphed but leaned back into her seat.

I don’t have to like it, just work with it.

“Did your contact give you any information about what the terrorist is up to?” Bulwark asked from his jump seat trying to get the briefing back on track.

Foresight looked down at the file in his hands. “Only that Carrion is supposedly using one of the Mafia’s smaller rivals, the Bratva, to smuggle and store some not so legal equipment. They said that they would fill you in better once they meet you face to face.”

“Alright, sounds good. Is there anything else you have for us?” Capt. Hunter asked.

Foresight shook his head and closed his file, “No that should be it for me. Stand by for the Princess.”

With that he stepped back and his face vanished from the screen to be replaced once again by Princess Luna.

“Ok Nightmares, I know this was short notice but I have faith in you. You know how we operate; I want this as clean as can be. I don’t want a firefight in a heavily populated city. Is that understood?”

The entire transport echoed with a cry of “Yes, Ma’am!”

“Good. Remember: We are the nightmare! Nightmare-Actual out.” And with that the screen went dark as the crystal faded.

Leaning over again Bulwark flipped the switch and the lights came back to life. Twilight had to squint for a bit to get her eyes adjusted after being in the dark but she recovered quickly.

A crackle came over the radio system. “Orion, this is Viper. Be prepped for wheels down in ten.”

“Copy that Viper. Wheels down in ten.” The captain responded on his own radio.

At this point Rainbow Dash stood up,”Alright! It’s time for some battle music! I say the Baby L.T. picks our song for us.”

Rainbow Dash tossed a small music player at Twilight who fumbled the catch a little out of surpise but still managed to hold on to it.

“There you go Spellblade. Just type in the name of a song and it will find it. Just make it some real battle music.” Rainbow Dash said from behind her blue tinted aviators.

“Umm ok. Let me see.” Twilight said as she wracked her mind for what to play but then she thought of the perfect song and punched in the name.

A few seconds later the classical music started to sound from the speakers. It started with the string section and then moved quickly into the main theme being played by the brass.

DaDaDadaaadaDaDaDadaaadaDaDaDadaaaaaaaaaaaa

Both Sunset and Bulwark looked at Twilight with knowing smiles clearly understanding the meaning of the piece. Their understanding of the piece however did not translate to everpony.

“I thought I said real battle music! Your tastes in music are even older then Orion’s. What is this?” Rainbow Dash said giving Twilight a sour look.

“It’s called Ride of the Wælcyrge.” Twilight answered. Dash’s lack of culture really did rub Twilight the wrong way at times.

“And just what are the Wælcyrge?”

Twilight sighed before explaining. “The Wælcyrge were a group of winged warriors from northern mythology that flew around a battle and chose who would die and who would live. The song describes their flight through a large ongoing battle.”

“Really?” Rainbow Dash asked looking between Twilight, Sunset, and Bulwark who were all nodding.

“She’s telling you right Rainboom.” Bulwark finally said.

“Damn, that’s kind of badass! You know what I’m kinda feeling it now.” Rainbow Dash admitted as she sat back down.

Everyone on the transport simply sat and listened to the music as the contemplated the mission before them, but Twilight had other things on her mind.

And it all revolved around a question that Sunset had asked her before the alarm had gone off.

Why am I here? What motivates me?

Author's Note:

Just to clarify Wælcyrge is the old English form of Valkyrie.
the song is Ride of the Valkyrie by Wagner: https://youtu.be/GGU1P6lBW6Q

I want to see if anyone understands why the helicopter transport model is called the Buffalo

There is also a semi-subtle Easter egg for one of my favorite movies in this chapter. Leave a comment if you think you know what it is.

Thank you for reading
Aim High All

Comments

[benjamin]

im getting a huge xcom vib fromthis chapter and i love it