Force of Shadows
[STRIKER 0-3:] “Copy. Out here.”
The radio call promptly ended.
A stationer looked back at General Ecirep —who, if wasn’t a quadrupedal animal, would probably be crossing his arms at the moment in anticipation— and nodded.
“They’re coming, sir.”
“Good.”
General Kimon proceeded to dash into the Changeling broadcast station through a door around a meter behind Ecirep. Once he entered the room, he slowed down as Ecirep turned around.
“Ecirep.”
“Kimon.”
They acknowledged each other.
“I’m still not completely confident of your Task Force’s success, Ecirep.”
“Like I said, you don’t have to be. Just take my word for it.”
Silence filled the room excluding the keyboard typing of the stationers until Kimon spoke.
“Alright..”
Kimon then left the room through the second door nearer to the stationer which had addressed Striker 0-3.
Princess Celestia sat on her throne in the Canterlot Castle. A Unicorn runner donning brown-colored and somewhat dirty footsoldier clothes ran towards her but stopped once he was arms-length of her location, appearing mostly exhausted from what was presumed to be a long run from his trenches to the castle itself.
“Y-your High-highness.”
“At ease, soldier. Report please.”
“The cargo y-you requested containing th-the..”
He took in a oxygen-rich breath before continuing.
“..containing the blueprint of The Dragoon is currently in the Everfree Forest, Your Highness.”
“Continue.”
“But there are rumors that our defenses have been weakened by elite, high-trained operatives of the Changeling Army. And this is highly likely to not be the end of these attacks.”
“I see.” Princess Celestia nodded before continuing.
“Strengthen our defenses around the perimeter. Deploy excess Royal Marine troops if deemed necessary or if a sudden attack forces our hoof.”
“Alright.” The runner bowed respectfully to Celestia before leaving.
After the runner left the throne room, Celestia proceeded to slowly turn left in thought with a troubled face. It wouldn’t take Starswirl The Bearded to deduce that she was nervous of the outcome.
General Ecirep stood by the end of a table, where audible hoofsteps were promptly followed by a door opening as a female Changeling in a camouflage suit and a sniper rifle strapped to her back walked towards the other end of the table. Boomer. She was followed by a male Changeling wearing a forest-styled uniform with a steel, Stanhelm-like helmet which took a second to observe his surroundings before he followed the previous sniper. Pomez.
He was then tailed by a 6-foot tall, somewhat muscular male Changeling with a black, skulled mask concealing all but his eyes alongside a mostly black-colored suit that closed the door and walked towards the end of the table. Reaper.
There was only silence after the last Changeling stood by the opposite end of the table for a solid 5 seconds before Ecirep spoke.
“Welcome, Task Force Pharynx. I’ll be your field captain for the observable future, and today will be the day that Pharynx reveals itself as an equal to both the Changeling and the Equestrian Army.”
“Just get on with it already chief.” Reaper interjected before Ecirep could continue any further.
“Right.” Ecirep stated as he placed a detailed map onto the table. He proceeded to point at the Everfree Forest.
“A important piece of cargo is moving through the Everfree bound for Canterlot. We don’t have any idea what it may carry but we know that is high-value, essential intel to the Equestrian war effort.”
“So how do we get it?” Boomer asked.
“We‘ll stop it midway through the Forest under the cover of the natural scenery, ambush and kill the survivors and retrieve that intel for future use.” Ecirep responded.
“Sounds rather easy. Is there a catch to it?” Pomez asked.
“What do you mean by that?”
“I mean, is there anything we have to look out for?”
“Well, for starters, avoid any other Equestrian forces. Only focus on the cargo and it’s protectors, take it and then get out. Simple.”
“Alright then.”
He responded with a slight nod.
“And when do we move out?” Boomer inquired.
“What time is it now?” Ecirep responded with a question of his own.
The sniper exhaled.
“I like this guy.” Boomer looked to the other two operatives.
Three Equestrian soldiers sat inside a car, two in front and the other one in the back. The driver and the soldier in the backseat were Earth Ponies while the other was a Pegasus.
They were a part of the group delivering the high-value cargo to Canterlot, with all participants in vehicles, mostly cars.
On the radio, their commander spoke.
[ACTUAL:] “Lance Actual to Lance 0-4, how’s it goin?”
Slightly surprised by the commander’s informer introduction, but aware he was not the type to keep a consistent verbal personality, the driver spoke.
[0-4:] “All clear, sir. What exactly are we transporting, may I ask?”
[ACTUAL:] “Some project files or something, all I positively know is that it’s important. Y’all stallions stay safe out there, really hoping that you make it home after this.”
The Earth Pony in the back spoke.
[0-4:] “C’mon, Actual, our mission record’s clear. Nothing’s gonna go wrong.”
The Pegasus replied, “Everything’s gonna go wrong after that.”
The four shared a laugh.
[ACTUAL:] “Alright, you guys take care. Don’t mess with anything, and there’ll be bonuses all around. Actual out.”
Only a second after Actual’s departure, a second transmission was heard.
[0-7:] “Lance 0-7 to All Lance, bit of a roadblock at the tunnel. Give us a minute, over.”
The car in front of 0-4 proceeded to halt followed quickly by 0-4 themselves, as a Unicorn soldier from the car in front exited the vehicle and began to be conversing with somepony after trotting a few steps forward.
After what felt like 10 seconds, 0-4’s Earth Pony driver spoke.
“What’s taking so long?”
“Dunno. Probably a civilian.” The Pegasus beside him responded.
[0-4:] “Lance 0-4 to 0-7, y’all got a disruption?”
No response came even after a few seconds. 0-4’s occupants proceeded to exchange somewhat worried looks to each other.
However following 10 more seconds, the Unicorn in front became audible due to frustration.
“N-NO! I mean- ugh, sir, we’re transporting classified materials to Canterlot please step aside.. yes, I told you this at least 5 times now that’s because you’re not stepping aside! ..AY-“
His voice was interrupted by two gunshots and the Unicorn’s body promptly collapsed onto the floor. Realizing this was no ordinary roadblock, 0-4’s occupants instinctively grabbed their weapons to return fire. The situation became tense almost immediately.
“THE HELL?!” The Pegasus shouted. The Earth Pony driver proceeded to grab the car’s installed radio.
[0-4:] “Lance 0-4 to All Lance, 1 friendly KIA-“ The driver got no further as a LMG from what appeared to be the top of a truck opened fire on him. He exchanged fire quickly but no shots managed to hit whoever was using the Machine Gun.
“DRIVE!” The Earth Pony in the back shouted as he leaned out of the open window to act as a sentry.
The driver then leaned back into the car and reversed it, but as soon as he did that, multiple enemies revealed themselves and opened fire on the vehicle.
[ACTUAL:] “Lance Actual to 0-4, protect that convoy! Do not let it fall into the hooves of the enemy!”
0-4’s occupants continued to return fire against what appeared to be camouflaged hostiles but their efforts were in vain. Panicking, the driver reversed backwards at high speeds but the vehicles behind them which were presumed to be allies turned out to be Changeling forces in disguise, and they too opened fire on the car.
[0-4:] “Come in, Actual! We’re taking heavy fire right now, all friendlies are KIA! We need backup!” The Pegasus’s worried voice was enough to convince Actual that the situation was in fact, dire.
[ACTUAL:] “Lance Actual to Redwing, do you read me? We need air support, my troops are being attacked!”
No response was heard as large amounts of gunfire was concentrated onto 0-4, it was quite a surprise to see the vehicle hadn’t yet been destroyed.
[REDWING:] “Redwing to Lance Actual, we don’t have a clear picture of the area! We can’t risk friendly-firing! Over.”
[ACTUAL:] “Damn it! Just open fire at anything except the gunfire that is coming from a moving vehicle!”
0-4’s car was promptly halted by a large truck which blocked their rear.
“C-contact! Six o’clock! Lance Actual, please! We need reinforcements!”
[REDWING:] “Can’t do! We don’t have an clear view of the area! It’s too dark! We don’t have night-vision optics.”
[ACTUAL:] “Actual to 0-4, get out of there! We can’t risk the convoy getting destroyed or worse yet seized.”
[0-4:] “Our way’s blocked, Actual! We are taking incredible amounts of gunfire right now! We can’t keep up— SHIT, GET DOWN!”
A rocket explosion was heard after that. 0-4’s car was sent flying backwards.
A solid minute later, the Earth Pony in the back awoke.
“Victor?” He weakly called out to the Pegasus, no response came from the unmoving body. He slowly turned to the driver, who was also laying motionless.
Not bothering to waste more of his little energy, the Earth Pony limped towards the door and pushed it outwards. He proceeded to crawl out of the car and observed his surroundings, his attention was then drawn to commotion on his left.
“Got any survivors?” A Changeling soldier called out to the others. Not understanding what he said, the Earth Pony crawled slowly to a pistol he found laying on the road. Upon grabbing it, he immediately noticed the Changelings were in his vicinity as a more muscular Changeling tore into the driver seat and ripped out the radio.
“ACTUAL!” He yelled towards the radio. The Changelings immediately turned to him.
“THEY GOT THE RADIO-“ He got no further as what appeared to be the commander of the unit shot the Earth Pony with a assault rifle.
“Do we keep it?” The Changeling who tore out the radio, Reaper, asked.
“Sure. They probably didn’t hear it.” Pomez replied.
“Indeed. Boomer, how copy, over?” Ecirep grabbed his own radio.
[BOOMER:] “All clear, sir.”
Ecirep then nodded to Pomez, who hopped onto the back of the car and opened the compartment, revealing a large-sized tube. Pomez proceeded to grab it and threw it to Ecirep, who briefly opened it.
“A blueprint.”
“To what?” Reaper questioned.
“Some train.. ‘The Dragoon’?” Ecirep stated.
“Likely a codename.” Pomez replied before he looked back at Ecirep.
“Wait, you said it was heading to Canterlot? And you wanted to put that ‘intel to further use’?”
“Yes. Why?” Ecirep responded.
“We could probably make our own version of, what, ‘The Dragoon’?”
“Exactly what I was thinking, we make our own Dragoon and they don’t have an equal.” Reaper replied.
Ecirep nodded. “Alright, I’ll advise this to Queen Chrysalis. Good work, Her Majesty will be pleased.”
The two other Changelings simultaneously nodded in response.
[BOOMER:] “Okay, if you’re done there. We gotta move, there’s definitely reinforcements coming.”
“Right. Let’s get out of here.”
The three Changelings entered a empty truck and took off, with Boomer herself navigating back through where she came from.