A New Brand of Freedom

by Spettro138

War Horse (part 1)

The week that followed was long and arduous. Two days evolved into seven full days and each and every one of them seemed to take forever. Briefing every detail of their mission in Bavaria was the only thing to break up the monotony. Falsworth and Dugan were put under rigorous mental stability tests to determine whether or not they were under any subconscious suggestion induced by Madame Hydra. Firebrand was monitored every hour for three days for any sign of whatever had taken control of his body. They had suffered just as much as he, some more than others. During all of this, he was left to train and heal up alone. His grandiose plans for the war would have to be held off.

In the meantime, he would take the time to study up on the various European countries, their terrain, and the Hydra intel that coincided with each of them. In the next couple of weeks, he was determined to wipe out Hydra as fast as possible

Steve and the rest of his team would just as quickly leave London once again and be on their way towards Basque Country in Southern France. Their campaign against Hydra had begun as the world war raged on. Firebrand stuck closely to Steve, hoping to continue proving his worth to their efforts. The flight took little more than a few hours to reach a remote hidden forward operating base in southwestern France. From there, the team pinpointed the location of the next Hydra base in the area. Just over the border and into Spain, it was only a half mile away from the Bay of Biscay. Local intelligence had suggested that it was acting as a impromptu blockade against Allied and Axis advance in the area.

Everyone had already started getting ready as they unbelted from their plane seats and hoisted themselves into their parachutes. Firebrand's harness was moved around to Steve's chest to make room for his own. Firebrand grunted as the straps were tightened, digging uncomfortably into his fur.

"Sorry little buddy, I'd rather you didn't fall out while we go for a dive." Steve apologized.

"Are we landing?" Firebrand asked. "I want to see Spain! Uncle Dummy said there's pretty dancer ladies here!"

The other SSR members nearly fell out of their seats from laughter.

"Not today squirt! We're taking the deep dive here." Dugan cackled.

Firebrand's giant golden irises shrunk to the size of pinpricks.

"Dive?" he asked fearfully. "How...high are we?"

"30,000 feet I believe my dear lad," Falsworth replied sheepishly.

Firebrand looked down like he was looking through the floor and his limbs snapped back and curled around Steve's torso for dear life.

Jacques stood out of his seat and patted Firebrand comfortingly on the head.

"Ne t'inquiète pas, mon petit ami poney. Oncle Jacques te surveillera comme un faucon" Jacques said cheerfully.

"Uncle Colonel Philly's orders little buddy, sorry. This plane can't be seen in neutral territory. We still don't know how buddy buddy Francesco Franco is with ol Adolf." Bucky consoled.

Steve checked his Beretta one more time, looking up and down to make sure it was combat ready before holstering and buttoning it to his hip.

"What we are about to do is the first of its kind from what I understand. The Colonel calls it a HALO jump." Steve announced. "Stark gave us some masks to help us with...discomfort. The air is going to be really thin up here, so we'd better strap them on right away."

He pulled out a crate from a storage compartment and cracked it open, revealing what looked like modified gas masks stacked up on top of each other. The first one looked like it was made specifically for Firebrand and it had a small note taped to the forehead.

Try not to suffocate

Howard

"I'm not so sure about this daddy," Firebrand mewed as Steve grabbed the mask and put it over the colt's face.

His breathing sounded ragged and slightly panicked through the filter but Steve knew he could handle it.

"It smelly funny in here!"

"Its gonna smell even funnier in mine by the time we get down there," Gabe burped as his face paled.

"You'll be fine." Bucky said.

Everyone took a mask for themselves and tightly fastened it to their heads. Dugan forced the strap to go over his bowler hat so he could wear it through the mission. Steve couldn't help but laugh at the idea.

As the doors opened with a screech, the group was greeted to a wall of thick smoky grey storm clouds, and whipping wind shrieking through the air. Droplets of water splashed into the plane as the others approached the opening.

"Come on ladies! Let's move out!" Dugan barked.

Steve ran and leaped out into the gale of wind and rain as Firebrand shrieked. The others fell in behind and began the dive, staying close to Steve as much as possible.

Firebrand did his best to keep his eyes open to stay brave for Steve. Admittedly, he found the wispy clouds and rain flying by rather beautiful. The rain soaked into his fur and mane, flattening them down and matting it. His golden mane whipped and blew around as they dropped like a rock hundreds of feet a second. Firebrand struggled and panicked for a little bit trying to breathe normally through the mask. The strong smell of fresh rubber along with the goggles fogging up with every breath was rather mesmerizing but a little overwhelming for the colt.

"My tummy is going into my legs!" Firebrand whined.

"That's all part of the experience."

Steve saw Firebrand try to ignite his horn and blast at the clouds. He pinched the tip of his horn, causing the foal to yelp under his mask.

"You're just gonna have to deal with the lack of visibility same as me pal. You're gonna have to learn that in war, remaining hidden at all costs is very much a good thing."

"How am I gonna be able to see around me then?" the colt inquired.

"Use your other senses when one goes out. Sound, Smell, Touch. Even instincts can be a sense. Just know when to use them at the right time. However, I think we'll be fine for now."

At that, the cloud coverage gave way to open sky with the Northern Spanish coast down below. It was definitely a lot more lush and green than Steve had envisioned. At least what he could see was. Very few patches of lights dotted the surrounding landscapes, presumably the various small villages in the area. The Bay of Biscay was relatively easy to spot even without the moonlight illuminating the water. Thirty miles off to the Northwest was nothing but flatness after an arc of cliffs suddenly dropped off. That could have only been open water.

The moment Firebrand opened his eyes, he almost screamed but shook his head and slapped himself before he gave away their position. Not realizing how hard the impact would be, his hoof felt more like a steel pipe with his horse shoes still on.

"You okay?" Steve asked/

"Owww..."

Firebrand rubbed his face from the impact. He had seen Dugan do the same thing after a drunken night, but underestimated the hardness of his own hooves.

"Use one of my gloves next time," Steve quipped.

When Firebrand was able to focus, he looked out down towards where they were going. It was quite dark in many places so he wasn't entirely sure what he was always looking at.

The rendezvous point was not far off, but quite hard to spot at night. Aerial surveillance photos detailed a small clearing only a mile from the Hydra factory. Firebrand guided Steve to it, having the better eyesight of the two.

After reaching the thousand foot level, they all parachuted in the rest of the way, silently floating down to the small grassy clearing surrounded by small patches of trees. Steve silently dropped to the ground with a roll, letting his parachute drag behind before unclipping it. Dugan and the others weren't far behind as it only took another minute for all of them to drop in. When everyone was present and accounted for, Steve went over the plan one last time.

"This factory is a lot smaller but its also close to a populated town, which means we need to get in and get out before the Spanish government catches wind of us." Steve urged. "Dugan, you and Jacques plow through the front gate and draw their attention."

Dugan pulled out a Stevens Model 520 shotgun from behind his back and pumped it menacingly.

"Oh you just spoke my language Cap," Dugan replied.

Jacques pulled out a duffel bag of glass bottles with red caps that made made Steve instantly nervous.

"Est-ce que cela fonctionnera?" the frenchman asked.

"Only a few my friend, we don't want to burn down the countryside." Steve said sheepishly.

"Oooh! What are those?" Firebrand asked curiously.

"White phosphorus grenades with black powder and latex." Bucky laughed. "Great smokescreen and incendiary grenade. Used one myself on a Panzer that got too close to our FOB in Austria, but it burned down three acres of forest too."

"That just means it worked!" Gabe quipped.

Firebrand had a devilish thought come to his head as Jacques zipped up his bag and slung it over his shoulder.

They took off like a flash through the forest, pulling out their weapons and keeping their heads on a swivel. Firebrand's glowing horn made an excellent flashlight for Steve moving through the brush. Just bright enough for him to see but not bright enough for any enemy to see from the outside.

Hydra's local base was just outside the edge of the forest, a wide dirt road separating them from the main gate. Two grunts were patrolling the fencing up and down, stiffly marching in the same long line. Steve signaled Dugan and Jacques to remain while himself and the others circled around to the other side.

On the south side, Steve and Firebrand waited for five excruciating minutes for the perfect moment. Hidden in the bushes, they kept their muscles tense, hearing every cricket and slight rustle of every leaf.

Suddenly, a loud bang ringed across the open lot with smoke billowing with black clouds into the night sky. The sound That was the signal they needed as Steve took off like a shot with Gabe, Morita, and Bucky following close behind. Bucky sniped two watchtower guards who fell to the ground screaming. Gabe and Morita took care of the four guards patrolling the south wall as Steve kept going.

Steve heard a shout as tanks approached them from the main warehouse. Two of them started firing on the group, sending blue energy blasts their way that boomed from the end of the tank barrels with each shot.

"Firebrand! Flame Grenade!" Steve barked.

The colt grinned and cackled evilly as he charged up his horn, launching three volatile balls of glowing magic over the fence and into the path of the tanks. Hydra's tanks continued towards them as Steve leaped into the air and over the barbed wire fence with his shield held out in front of his face. Firebrand's magic grenades detonated and sent the tanks three feet into the air. Their power banks ruptured and exploded, blowing blue light across the yard. Steve's shield deflected most of it heading their way and anything else flowed off of Firebrand's flame retardant fur.

As they landed on the other side of the fence, a tank turret blown skyward was falling at them. Steve ducked out of the way, letting the turret smash the fencing into pieces, giving Bucky and the others a way in.

More soldiers poured out, trying to halt their advance, but Steve and Firebrand plowed through every soldier and cyborg while Bucky and the others cleaned up the rest. The side buildings were quickly cleaned out as the group met back up by the doors of the main warehouse. Dugan and Jacques were comedically covered head to toe in black soot coughing up a storm.

"Great guys, I'm pretty sure the whole area saw that." Bucky said unimpressed.

"Now we should really get out of here before Franco's goons catch on to us" Morita replied.

"Aw shut up, Barnes. I got it handled didn't I?" Dugan snapped.

"Well, that just means we'll get this done faster," Steve replied confidently.

Steve kicked open the warehouse, and everyone pulled out their guns firing away at anything in sight. Firebrand shot weak magic blasts at grunts trying to charge them from behind. It did the job as they were knocked off of their feet, giving Dugan a chance to finish them off.

A platoon came right at them, desperately trying to protect their munitions. The warehouse was filled with ballistic missiles and Hydra ammunition that could vaporize the entire countryside if they were allowed to use it. A small platoon coming out into the warehouse from the backside brought out what looked like a modified mounted machine gun. One of them clicked a button and the mount automatically launched out the bottom and clamped to the ground. Steve noticed that this particular energy weapon's normal blue energy had acquired a violet shade as it began to charge up.

"HIT THE DECK!"

They jumped behind cover as the gun began firing. As soon as it did, the other grunts that had not been taken down by their onslaught had tried to rally and fire upon them.

The violet energy had a familiar signature to the colt that he definitely didn't like.

"Looks like Zola got more out of you than we thought pal," Steve grimaced.

Dugan and Bucky sniped the remaining grunts up on the catwalks and scaffolding from behind a concrete divider. The divider was being demolished quickly by the machine gun and Cap knew they didn't have long.

Firebrand spotted Jacques and his open bag of phosphorus grenades left and acted on his scheme. He pulled one out with his magic and placed it in front of his horn. Touching the glass to the tip, he ignited and the entire bottle filled with viscous red light.

"Papa! I made a Boom Boom Bottle!" Firebrand chattered excitedly over the gunfire

Steve looked over his shoulder and saw something floating inches from his face. He grabbed at it and saw it was one of Jacques phosphorus grenades.

"A Boom Boom Bottle huh? I gotta remember that one," Steve chuckled dangerously as he realized what Firebrand had in mind.

"Quel?" Jacques responded when he looked over. "Un moment!"

Steve held out his shield at a perpendicular angle and rolled out into the path of the machine gun, being protected from fire but giving him just enough room to toss Firebrand's little creation. He had no idea what kind of effect his magic would have but he knew it was going to be bad.

"HEADS DOWN!" Steve yelled.

Everyone obeyed as they all hid back behind cover as the glowing grenade flew through the air and smashed against a grunt.

The last thing Steve and Firebrand felt before all visibility went to zero was a flash and a blast of scorching hot air before the entire building was blown completely to smithereens. The grenade set off a simultaneous reaction with the energy munitions and sent a flash of blinding light all across the Northern Spanish countryside.

When the light had died down, Steve and the others tried to stand up to see what was the result of their work. Smoke covered the whole field like a thick blanket of fog. Half of them went into coughing fits and tried to keep their eyes closed for a few seconds.

"It seems that your grenades might have been a bit too powerful Jacques," Dugan coughed out.

"Ce n'était pas le mien" the Frenchman insisted.

When the smoke cleared, they found the entire complex leveled to the ground.

"Holy crap!" Dugan squeaked.

"Damn" Bucky agreed.

"That was great!" Firebrand shrieked. "I think this calls for another one."

The colt gave Jacques' bag a hungry look as he hopped out and started chasing the cursing Frenchman around the demolished field. Everyone started to crack up until their stomachs hurt. It was a good feeling amongst all the chaos and destruction the war was bringing.

Steve gave Firebrand a look but just smiled and laughed under his breath.

Next Time: War Horse (part 2)

Author's Note:

Sorry for the lateness on this folks. Tax season and urgent family business kinda ruined my mojo. I was recently hospitalized for a bad infection. But I'm getting back into the action. Firebrand and Cap's adventures are continuing accordingly and soon here, we'll be reaching the climax of the movie in only a few chapters.

These two chapters are a little bit of creative liberty on my part. It is the 2 minute war montage meant to show us what appears to be months of fighting across the whole of Europe and beyond.

I hope you are still enjoying it Josh! I will certainly keep giving this story my all.

Comments

[Movingtarget Productions]

Yay new chapter!

[Starcat5]

White phosphorus... Holy mother of War Crimes...