Ghost Recon: Phantom Hunt

by TJAW

Under Cover of Darkness

Agon Province
1840 hours
October 18, 1196 CE
Day 7
Operation Invisible Hand

Reeves and his team laid prone on a hill overlooking their target. They’d switched their Crosscoms over to their FLIR setting and observed the area. The hill had enough rocks and plants on it that they’d needed a few minutes to find a nice spot they could adjust to suit their needs without moving anything large. They needed a good view, but laying down on rocks was uncomfortable and if they could minimize that discomfort they would.

They’d been waiting for almost an hour and the sun was going down. They had dinner: a couple protein bars apiece. Montes dug a small hole and they buried the wrappers in it. They didn’t want them to blow around and give away their position.

“I could go for some barbecue about now,” Raynor whispered.

“I’ve got a recipe for the best pulled pork you’ll ever eat. It’s even better when I have Dillo Dust on hand,” Reeves replied.

“You never struck me as the cooking type,” Brooks noted.

“Not sure I’d call it a hobby, but I enjoy it. The pork’s my family’s recipe, it’s not that hard to make and the leftovers are almost as good as when it’s fresh. When we get back home, you’re all invited to my place. Not paying for air fare though.”

“If we get home,” Caputo muttered grimly.

“We are going home.” He sounded resolute, but he wasn’t sure either. The only option they had was playing an offensive defense so that the ponies trying to find them a way back to Earth could keep working. It was really their only choice if they ever wanted to go home, but that was only rationalizing the absurdity of the situation.

What a goddamn mess.

The sound of rotors was in the distance, mingled with the sound of gunfire further to the west.

“Looks like showtime soon.”

The inhabitants of the old mining camp numbered about two dozen. There might have been more, though he doubted they were going to come from the collapsed mineshaft. Then again, they were dealing with magic here. There was a single two-story building that was probably an office for the mining camp and several tents, which might have been inhabited, or might not. The RQ-11 last scanned this area thirty minutes ago, and there were a few targets in them then, but they might’ve moved.

“Artemis. The ley lines go through that office?”

“Yeah.”

“I’d bet our target’s in there. When we get that Osprey, we’ll designate targets with the Crosscom. The minigun’ll do the rest.”

***

Mitchell and his team got ready as Warhound took positions on the opposite side of the grounds.

There were supposed to be fourteen or so targets inside, plus six more patrolling the perimeter. Three of those were in view of the Ghosts.

“Warhound in position. We’ve got two tangos outside.”

“Everyone take one on my mark. Three, two, one, go.”

Multiple suppressed gunshots dropped the five ponies. The cracks blended in with the distant gunfire and explosions to the west.

“Move in. Albatross, move to provide cover fire for Viper.”

The Ghosts moved up to the front door of the manor. The blinds were down, so there wasn’t a problem of concealment.

“Warhound in position,” Serrano reported.

“Ghosts in position. Place breaching charges.”

Jenkins placed a breaching charge on the door.

“Charge set.”

“Charge set.”

“Viper, Warhound, get ready to go loud. Three, two, one, go!”

The charge blew the door inward and sent wood fragments flying inward in a deadly shower. One target was on the ground when the team stormed in and two more were responding to the blast. Mitchell took one, Beasley took another and Diaz put a round in the one on the ground to make sure he wouldn’t get up.

The Ghosts engaged the forward-looking infrared function on their Crosscom monocles. Mitchell, Diaz and Nolan spotted targets on the other side of wooden walls and fired at them. Three targets dropped. Beasley dropped one that was upstairs and heading to the cascading stairs.

“Warhound neutralized four.”

“Ghosts took six, more resistance here. Continue clearing the ground floor, keep that FLIR on. Beasley, Smith, on point. We’re moving upstairs.”

The Ghosts advanced up the stairs, keeping all angles covered. The cracks of suppressed gunfire and the bangs of unsuppressed weapons could be heard downstairs. When they reached the top they looked for any sign of activity. There seemed to be a faint heat signature in the east wing, possibly more targets. Mitchell motioned for them to move that way.

“Warhound here, about a third clear on the ground floor. Tagged a few more,” Serrano reported.

The Ghosts moved down the hallway, keeping all angles covered. There was a heat signature to the right, strong but amorphous-looking. It could well have been a cluster of hostiles, or something else. Smith and Beasley took up positions at the end of the hall where it cut to another hall perpendicular to the one they were in. Their backs were against the walls on their respective sides of the first hall and they got a good view of the second hall without having to lean and expose themselves. It was an instinctual process drilled into them and they’d keep doing it, whether or not they had wall-penetrating thermal imaging or not. It didn’t hurt that they were dealing with literal magic that might fool their technology at some point.

“Clear,” the pointmen said one after another.

The heat signature wasn’t adjacent to any door. In fact, the only doors in this new hall were at the far ends, and it wasn’t clear which one was going to lead to this heat signature.

Clear one, maybe both paths to the target, or make a door.

“Breaching charge on that wall,” Mitchell whispered.

Jenkins began setting detcord on the wall. The others watched and waited for something to happen. They listened to the sound of gunfire downstairs. From where they were, it sounded like doors being slammed. It was more sporadic now. The green diamonds of the other team were right beneath them.

“Charge ready.” Jenkins backed up, and the rest of the Ghosts did too.

“Warhound, be advised, we’re about to breach a wall. You might get some dust knocked onto you.”

“Acknowledged, Ghost lead. We’re moving out of this room, found a few docs and got pictures of them. Grabbed some letters too. Might be useful, might be trash, who knows.”

“Keep bagging ‘em, Warhound.”

Mitchell counted down and detonated the charge. A two meter high, one meter wide hole was blasted into the wall. The team rushed in.
Not a single hostile in sight. But a sapphire the size of a coconut was hovering above a podium at chest-level. It wasn’t scorching hot, but it must’ve been around 130 degrees. There were engravings on it, but the significance of them, if there were any and it wasn’t just symmetrical wear, escaped the Ghosts.

“Boss.” Nolan held up an embroidered bag sized just right to hold the artifact. Mitchell nodded and motioned to his backpack. Nolan bagged it, tied the bag shut and put it in Mitchell’s backpack. It was heavier than it looked.

“Think that’s what we’re here for?”

“Could be. Let’s keep looking.”

“Ghost lead, this is Warhound. Found something.”

“What is it?”

“Looks like a cellar.”

“We’ll be right down.”

***

“Viper, Warhound, get ready to go loud. Three, two, one, go!”

Viper team opened fire on the targets below. The cracks of suppressed rifle and machinegun fire alerted the Aegis who weren’t killed in the opening salvo, but they couldn’t figure out where exactly they were coming from. The gunfire kept coming and the ponies scrambled for cover, only sure about the vaguely southern direction the gunfire was coming from.

With nine of them eliminated in the opening salvo, a push for the office would be a lot easier than fighting through a couple dozen armed hostiles. The survivors were hiding behind wooden carts, boxes, nothing particularly solid. They peeked out occasionally to fire in a general southerly direction. Between their disorganization and disorientation from the ambush, the cover of night, and the resulting poor tactics from fighting an unseen enemy, they weren’t much of a threat. The Mk 318 Mod 1 ammunition the team used tore through the Aegis forces’ poor excuse for cover like it was tissue paper.

The Osprey arrived and began hosing the area with fire from its GAU-17. The surviving Aegis were in a rout now, attempting to flee to the office building. Of the twenty-four who’d been there a minute ago, not a single one made it to safety. It had been an ideal ambush, but the last thing the victors wanted to assume was that the rest would be this easy.

Viper team moved down the hillside and advanced towards the office. There was a glow coming from inside the building now, gradually oscillating between colors across the visible spectrum, growing to a near-white color while still transitioning through the rainbow. They didn’t have enough ammunition and presumably not enough time before reinforcements arrived to Swiss cheese the building before entering, though that would’ve been less than optimal in any case. Explosives would likely destroy whatever artifact they might be looking for.

Their thermals showed no ponies inside, but there was clearly something in there that was causing the peculiar light emissions.
Reeves motioned for the team to stack up by the front door. Brooks placed a shaped breaching charge and it was shortly detonated, showering the interior with shards of wood riding a blast wave. The team rushed in and was met with nothing. Not even a trace the mysterious light they’d seen from outside was in there.

The team kept their guard up and looked around. The room looked like it would’ve been expected to: wood, furniture, damage from the breaching charge. It all seemed amount right except for the lack of any Aegis, and the blast seemed to have been more powerful than it should’ve been, but only somewhat. There wasn’t a hoofprint or a half-empty bottle or glass of whatever drink the previous resident was partial to. It was roomier than it looked from the outside.

“It feels weird in here,” Artemis said uncomfortably.

“It feels like we got bad intel and were suckered into attacking a decoy. The Ghosts and Warhound must be in a real hot zone while we’re here.” Reeves cursed under his breath.

“Dead Aegis is a good thing, though,” Montes added. He began looking around for anything that would justify their attack, as did the others.

“Yeah, but is a couple dozen of them a serious setback or are we barely making a dent?” Raynor wondered. “They got blown away like a gator that ate a homemade firecracker, they can’t be that elite.”

“Jesus, that’s the most Floridian thing I’ve heard you say in a while. The hell is in the water there?” Matsuo chuckled while he watched the door with his machinegun at the ready.

“Gator shit, septic runoff from Disneyworld, probably some drugs flushed down the toilet to keep DEA and the local narcs off the back of whatever inbred swamp person thought cooking a little meth on the side would pay for his airboat repairs,” Reeves opined as he looked around for anything useful.

“Yeah, you forgot to throw in some references to Miami Vice and Cubans to finish your Florida stereotype bingo card, Captain” Raynor said, checking what might’ve been a liquor cabinet at one point, but was now empty.

“Why would I have any problems with Cubans? My best friend’s half-Cuban.” Reeves shrugged as he put down an old mining manifest he’d just flicked through.

“I thought Miami Vice would be the free space in the middle,” Brooks added. “I mean, that Athena mare was using a Bren Ten anyway.”

“It might’ve just been a CZ-75 with magic bullets, not 10mm.” Reeves sighed. “These guys panicked and were caught with their pants down occupying a position with no meaningful defensive infrastructure. They didn’t even load up the carts with rocks in case they needed cover. They couldn’t have been here long. Maybe we got here before any HVT could.”

“I’m not so sure,” Artemis said. “Matsuo, could you move away from the door?” He obliged. She picked up a chunk of wood about the size of a baseball with her magic and threw it out the door, past Matsuo, at a very high speed. As soon as it exited, it lost velocity abruptly.

“When I tried to pick something up with my magic earlier, it felt off, like it was closer than it should’ve been. I ended up grabbing dirt by accident. Now I know why. There’s some high-level magic at play here. It’s literally bigger inside than it should be given the size of the building.”

“Hold up, are we talking about some space-time distortion Star Trek-type stuff?” Reeves asked.

“Space, yes. Time, no. No idea what that third thing is. If something is moving, say, ten miles per hour in here, it’s moving at that rate relative to what a mile means in this compressed space. So when I threw that chunk of wood through the door and it was moving – let’s make up a number and say 100 miles per hour in here – it adjusted to the normal rate of travel it would be going relative to the outside world. So judging by how much the chunk slowed it has to be at least five times as big inside this compressed space as it should be.”

“Assuming this all scales at a linear rate,” Montes added. “I don’t think it does, or else the breaching charge would’ve done a lot more damage to the inside. It already did do a number.”

“Assuming,” Artemis admitted.

“I thought maybe the explosive content of the detcord might’ve been a little higher than it was specified to be, but that still seemed odd,” Brooks said.

“I can see altered space messing with the wavelengths of light, and that might be why we got that light show,” Caputo said. “That’d mess up the frequencies on our radios if we tried to talk to anybody outside the house.”

“It’s not that big on this floor, but upstairs is probably where things get weird,” Artemis said. “We go up there, things get big.”

“And our Aegis heavy is probably waiting for us up there. Alright, let’s pop outside, give a SITREP and come back to stack up on those stairs.”

***

The Ghosts stacked up outside a cellar door Warhound had found and prepared to breach it.

“Ghost lead, Viper lead.”

“Go ahead, Viper.”

“We’ve found some odd magic field – some compressed space sci-fi type stuff – going on in the main building of the mining camp. We’ll be out of contact for a while. We have reason to believe there’s an Aegis heavy inside that field and we’re planning to take them, grab anything useful and bug out.”

“Acknowledged, Viper. Hit ‘em hard. Ghost lead out. Serrano, you see anything else that might be useful when you were clearing?”

“Nada,” Warhound’s leader said.

“Not so much as a coffee table book?”

“Not even a napkin someone tested their pen on.”

“Check upstairs, we didn’t search every room.”

“You got it.” Serrano took his team and moved out.

Mitchell took a closer look at the cellar door. It was made of what looked like oak and secured by iron hinges and an unlocked latch. He grabbed one of the doors and cracked it open, poking his rifle in. Smith did the same with the other door. It was extremely dark downstairs.

The Ghosts proceeded down two at a time, their weapon lights off, using night vision instead. At the bottom of the stairs things opened up some. There was a large room filled with racks that probably held barrels of wine once but now sat empty, save for the cobweb. The spiders must’ve moved in fast, because the rest of the manor was in decent shape. The sole source of light was a faint glow coming from the center of the room. The Ghosts all kept an eye on it, some training their weapons on it as well, but most continuing to sweep the room.

The room turned out to be clear, with the faint glow that allowed them to use their night vision at all coming from a pedestal in the center of the room. There was an indentation in it big enough for a coconut.

“Diaz, take the gem out of my pack, hand it to me,” Mitchell whispered. She obeyed, pulling out the embroidered bag from his pack and handing it to him. Even through his gloves and the bag, he could feel the heat emanating from it.

He sighed and gently placed it in the groove. Nothing happened right away.

Why did I do that?

Suddenly, the pedestal moved up and the gem glowed brighter and brighter, lighting the room to daylight levels and prompting the Ghosts to turn off their night vision. The pedestal then lowered, while the gem remained suspended in its position, floating in place.

I’ve got a bad feeling about this.

Mitchell motioned for the Ghosts to move back upstairs. He and Smith brought up the rear. The gem grew and morphed into the shape of a unicorn mare.

“You are not Iris. Who are you, who would wake me and remind me of this curse?” She spoke in a distorted tone, like her voice echoed within her own throat.

“No one,” Mitchell replied.

“No one? Do you take me for a fool?”

“No. What not-fool am I speaking to?”

She didn’t answer and began to talk about esoteric curses and blessings laid upon her, with the Ghosts only half paying attention to magical terminology that flew miles over their heads. She was giving off a distinct vibe that they all felt meant she was going to try to kill them shortly. The Ghosts had neither the time nor inclination to indulge her playing with her prey.

Explosives are out of the question. Even if we don’t kill ourselves with them down here, we might cave in the cellar on her which would make it pretty difficult to dig up whatever artifact she has on her. Maybe she’s the artifact we’re looking for? She must be, she’s made of some magical gem, and that fits the bill as well as anything.

We’ll bring her back in pieces.

He flicked his rifle’s fire selector to full-auto and aimed at her. The other Ghosts did the same. They fired as one, before the self-absorbed mare could react. Chunks of quasi-sapphire flew everywhere as the team put as many rounds into her as possible. By the time they had to reload after a few bursts apiece, what was left standing barely resembled a pony, though if they were to put the pieces together it might look like a mare again.

“I feel like we missed something there,” Jenkins said.

“High-level magic mumbo-jumbo and a mare with an ego the size of Texas if she thought we’d wait politely for her to start trouble,” Diaz said.

“Well, I’ll take anticlimactic over getting into it with a magic user at knife fight range,” Beasley added.

There was a softly pulsating core in the not-quite-skeletal remains. Mitchell approached it cautiously and reached in to grab it. It wasn’t warm, not like the orb this thing that used to be a mare formed from. He reached into the remains and yanked the baseball-sized sphere out, wincing a little as he pulled out what must’ve been a heart. This orb was lighter than it looked. So was the crystal corpse.

Does magic follow the law of conservation of mass?

Mitchell put it in a side pouch of his backpack. After over a hundred fifty rounds discharged and without ventilation, the room smelled like gunpowder. The mustiness that had been there when they came in was still there, and the combination of smells was unpleasant.

“Let’s clear out. Anything, Warhound?”

“Still nothing.”

“Albatross?”

“Copy, Ghost lead.”

“Move to our position, Ghosts and Warhound ready to exfil.”

“Acknowledged. Moving to your position.”

***

Viper team prepared to move upstairs. The stairs were wide enough for them to move up two abreast.

“One, two, three.”

The group moved up the stairs and found themselves in what looked like an abandoned warehouse, but with nice wooden paneling. There were relics strewn about the place; brass gyroscopes, silver globes, statues and statuettes made of or gilded with gold and inlaid with precious gems. Ornate bookshelves and desks punctuated the room at regular intervals. There was no question that this place was rich with knowledge.

A cyan unicorn mare was on the far side of the room. This must’ve been her sanctuary. It was difficult to say how she kept such a thing mobile, but how magic worked in general wasn’t something the humans understood.

All the objects of any discernable value had the name Iris inlaid in gold. That must’ve been their target’s name.
Iris spotted them before they could get a bead on her. Her horn glowed and she was enveloped in an opaque whitish glow that modulated faintly across the visible spectrum of colors. The team opened fire. Their shots connected but had no effect.

“You amuse me, outlanders.” The voice came from all around the room. She fired a white beam from her horn, cutting through many of the desks. Reeves dove out of the way and scrambled to new cover.

No real cover here, only concealment. Not if she can keep slicing through this without a problem.

Okay, so either she’s projecting all this and that’s why she can afford to do this, or she’s using something as an anchor for this. That’s the point of these artifacts they were given, right?

Shit, I have no idea.

“She’s using space compression as armor,” Artemis said. “Everything we throw at her goes through that field too slow to hurt her, and whatever she throws comes out faster.”

Then she must be seeing light in red, ass end of the visible spectrum. Well, she still sees. And her perception of sound is probably screwed up. Let’s hope if we startle her it’ll at least weaken that spell.

Reeves threw a flashbang grenade at Iris. She attempted to blast it, but it went off near her, stunning her.

“Fire!”

The team opened fire at her, but their bullets still had no effect. Raynor threw a frag grenade. When it detonated, it had no direct effect on her, but a wooden statue nearby burst shortly after the initial detonation in a flash that did seem to hurt Iris.

Another beam flew at them, missing again, this time because of the lingering effects of the flashbang more than luck. The team moved from cover to cover, trying to avoid being seen.

“Reeves, these relics-”

“Yeah, I noticed. Are these holding this compressed space in place?”

“No, they’re fueling her, but they burst and splash raw magic nearby when they’re damaged.”

“She doesn’t lack for style in her batteries.”

A blast charged up and went wide by a foot and a half. Reeves peeked around the bookshelf he was hiding behind. It didn’t look like there was anything that might be a relic near her. Nothing except a gorgeous wooden statue of an owl with obsidian eyes and gold inlay on the feathers. Then again, anything could be a reservoir for her magic, she was definitely an odd one.

“I remember what you are now, humans. Consider this your first and last chance. Surrender to me, you may yet live.” The voice came from everywhere and nowhere. It was definitely not telepathy, they could feel it in their ears.

The team looked at Reeves. Their luck was going to run out soon unless they took care of this soon. Their sole route of retreat was pretty risky too.

“You obviously don’t know us if you think we’re going to quit because things get a little tough.”

Reeves leaned out and started shooting the owl statue next to Iris, which burst into blue light. The aura surrounding her became mostly translucent. Reeves began dumping rounds into her and the rest of the team followed suit.

At first it had no effect, but the sheer volume of fire overwhelmed the weakened barrier and it burst in a blinding flash. Every bullet it had stopped went through at once, having regained some of their momentum. The results were deadly and would’ve been far gorier had the bullets retained more than a quarter of their velocity.

The team moved up to the corpse of Iris. There was an amulet around her neck.

This must be it.

Reeves ripped the amulet off. He could feel something coming off it. Not heat, not vibrations, but something less easily described. He tucked it into an empty magazine pouch and sighed as the adrenaline high tapered off.

“The place isn’t collapsing, so our friend here wasn’t holding it together. Artemis, you’re the magic expert. You wanna explain why?”

“I’d guess the same relics Iris used to power that compressed space armor are what’s holding this place together. How she transports them is anypony’s guess.”

“Let’s blow on out. Aegis will find the bodies of their goons and Iris here. As far as I know, there haven’t been any Aegis that’ve seen us and lived. This’ll spook them good.”

The team left the compressed space via the staircase they’d gone in through and exited the building.

“Albatross, Viper. Ready for extraction.”

“Copy, Viper. ETA 2 minutes. Ghosts and Warhound are already onboard and we’re ready to RTB.”

“Good to hear. Viper out.”

Reeves breathed in the warm night air and listened to the sound of distant gunfire from the city. The cracks, bangs and booms were a ways away, a war that didn’t terribly concern them so long as it wasn’t affecting them.

How many times have I heard the sounds of an urban warzone in the last seven years? There was Iraq in 2007, Eastern Europe in 2008, Cuba in 2010, Korea in 2011, a bunch of others not exactly urban.

If I made it out of Tallinn and Kaliningrad alive, I can survive these Aegis .

As long as we get that ticket home, we’ll be alright.

The Osprey descended nearby, the rotor wash kicking up a cloud of dust. The ramp was lowered as it touched down and the team hopped onboard. After they strapped in, the ramp raised and closed shut.

A few of the operators sighed. The intelligence they’d gathered on this trip might let them be proactive going forward, instead of just reacting and searching for intel.

Soon we get to make the Aegis play on our terms, Mitchell thought with a smile. Once we’re on the offensive, we can start making the enemy play by our rules.

Comments

[totallynotabrony]

May want to check your editing about 2/3 of the way through.

Great to get some action, though.

[Scarheart]

nice update!

[FLUTTERGUY411]

Moar... glad its alive