To Tame a Feral (CLOSED)

[lunatemp]

THE BRIEFING ROOM:

"Group! Atten-HUT!"

The four ponies in the room snapped to a rigid posture as the clopping of Luna's general's hooves was heard preceding his curt tone.

"Carry on," he ordered as he walked, allowing the four to relax while in front of him he assumed a position. He didn't say anything for a moment, simply studied the four silent combatants from behind his mirrored aviators, the pointed end of a toothpick sticking out from between his lips. Finally he lowered his head and pulled the sunglasses off with a forehoof.

"I realize that you've got questions, soldiers," he started off, his aged voice sounding morose, "and I ain't gonna keep you wonderin' long." He raised his bared eyes to look at them again; eyes that were solid with more battlefield experience than any one of the gathered ponies could hope to match. "After clear and concise board reviews, and judgment by Princess Luna herself, you four have been hoof-picked to spearhead this operation." Without taking his attention off of them, he began to pace slowly.

"Now I'm not gonna lie, what you're up against is probably the most dangerous mission you've ever faced. Our enemies are big, they're quick, and they're strong. You four have shown excellence in cunning," he looked at Ranger, "strong-willed," his eyes shifted to Corsair, "and precise," he looked, then, at Eagle Eyes. "You're the top of the haystack, soldiers. The pinnacle of everything the princess has come to expect from years of training, duty, and loyalty. As of today your units have been reassigned, and you now fall under a highly specialized and top secret unit; the combat operative and logistics team, or C.O.L.T." He walked back to his spot. "We know you'll do us, the Princess, Canterlot... heck, you'll do Equestria proud. Now.. X.O. Spyglass will brief you on the intel."

A uniformed unicorn stepped up to the general and rendered a salute. The general saluted him back and Spyglass turned to face the team. Behind him a projected view of Everfree Forest was displayed.

"Good morning, soldiers. I'll make this quick," he said, turning to the image. The tip of his horn lit up a bright red and began drawing lines and circles on the image. "The target is here, in the northwestern sector of the forest. Credit where it's due, Captain Ranger has discovered the location of the denmother's cavern here. We've been so far unable to obtain any layout of the inside of the cavern. You'll be going in blind, so expect it to be a target-rich environment in there. We've mapped out the safest route to the caverns." The line shifted to circle an area just southeast of the cave. "You'll insert here, proceed to the cave, clear it out, and signal for extraction." As he turned to face the team, the projected image faded. "It's a bug hunt, ponies. Get in, get the denmother, and get out. There is no secondary objective."

"I know this sounds like a suicide mission," came the sudden sound of a female's softer voice, causing the general to suddenly go rigid and command, "Atten-HUT!" All the soldiers in the room stood at attention as Princess Luna approached. "The general has assured me that you four have the knowledge, the expertise, and the teamwork to succeed. One more attack from the ferals.. one more pony lost to them.. one more bodyless funeral is not something I am prepared to tolerate this day forward. Equestria is counting on you. I'm counting on you." She lowered her brow into a harder, almost angrilly determined expression. "It ends today." Almost as though consciously catching herself, she forced her demeanor to soften again. "I beg of you... please don't let us down, and beyond else, please be careful. Nopony gets left behind."


((The mission has begun. C.O.L.T. has inserted successfully and stands at the front of the feral cavern, preparing for infiltration.))

[eagleeyes]

"Three soldiers versus an entire den of winter ferals," Eagle muttered under her breath while she stowed her gear after securing the insertion site, scowling at her saddlebags while tugging on the ties with her teeth. "Suicide mission was putting it mildly. Why don't we just go in with bacon strapped to our flanks? Not only that, I get to be the only NCO in the entire squad. Oh, yeah, this is going to go wonderfully."

Eagle Eyes collapsed her crossbow and slung it up to the joint of her shoulder and crest, the bolt still loaded and the bow cocked. Scanning the perimeter one final time to ensure their position's security, she turned about to approach the captain and lieutenant. Not the type of team she would have assembled, she thought to herself, but obviously there was a reason they were all here together. That the three of them were the beginning of what was evidently the top secret unit of elites, these ponies must certainly be worth their salt. At least she hoped.

"Captain," she said as she approached the officers, specifically Ranger who was obviously the team's leader by rank if not experience. Her eyes turned upon the gaping opening of the cavern. "What's the plan, sir?"

[fethur]

Corsair extended his wings, folded them, then extended them again. His armor had been repaired since his last encounter with a feral. It felt good to be geared again, and it felt even better to be extracting swift vengeance against the creatures for what one had done to Ruby Nights. Doctor Ailfend had patched them both up well, but the point had gotten across anyway: the ferals needed to be stopped.

He had taken his admission into C.O.L.T. with a grain of salt. His original goal of becoming a Star seemed an impossibility now, but his new position had potential. Corsair had also accepted this mission with tangible concern. One feral beast had almost killed a pony, two ponies. They were after the den mother. But if Princess Luna wanted this done, far be it for Corsair to object. Better that he get hurt again than Ponyville be under attack.

He knew next to nothing about Chivalry but that would change in the near future. Ranger, he was the most familiar with due to their respective positions. Corsair watched Eagle Eyes as she approached. He knew very little about her, only that she was an advanced ranged expert.

"We can't stay in one place too long unless we want to be found," Corsair folded his wings but continued looking around the group, into the forested areas. These things didn't make a lot of noise until they were attacking. "You found this place, right? Anything you can tell us that we need to know, Captain?"

[Ranger]

Ranger scratched his chin under his wooden mask, there they were, the Winter Feral caverns. He finally found this place not long ago. He'd been meaning to report it, but he was distracted. When he heard of the attack however, he realized something had to be done. And there he was with a small squad of military specialists.

He prepped an entirely different set of gear for this one, a grey-whitish cloak with a Whitewood Mask, this one open at the bottom so his mouth could be seen and used. It was his stealth gear for the winter. He always kept it handy. He had prepared all of his munitions with him. Including a healthy batch of potions, remedies and bandages. It was time to take care of these creatures once and for all.

"I can tell that I've seen other kinds of Winter Ferals than the one you described, bigger, tougher ones. So be careful. These things like to pounce their victims rather than swipe, and they can be very vicious so always have your guard up. Sadly I have no map of the caverns, and we're going in blind. But I'm confident that between the three of us we can handle it. "

"My suggested formation would be Corsair at the lead, myself and Eagle eyes in a wedge behind him. We don't know when the hunters would be coming back. In case of an attack, ranged cover will be very important against these things, so make sure you keep them off of Eagle Eyes. Any alterations?"

Ranger asked, looking back at his group. He has never been on such a serious mission before, and he hoped it didn't show. Yes, he was terrified of what might happen, but he had to stand strong, ponies were in danger, and he had to keep them safe. What kind of wood guardian would he be otherwise?

[eagleeyes]

While both the lieutenant and the captain spoke, Eagle Eyes was fixing her camouflage cloak around herself. It was white with mottled grays which concealed her green color and aided her blend in with the snowy, icy rocks of the environment. Though she lacked a mask like Ranger, the hood of the cloak served to cast enough shadow over her visage that only her nose peeked through. With a bit of adjustment of her weapon, she was ready.

"Ready to rock, sir," she said with motivational sternness to her tone, signifying that she was ready.

[fethur]

Corsair was fairly sure that no amount of cloth would camoflauge him properly. His armor clanked and shuffled with each step no matter how silent he tried to be. Still, he felt he may as well take the extra precaution to be less visible by sight; his light coat and shiny equipment were a dead giveaway. A dark grey cloak had hung lazily across his back but he now took it and locked its collar to the rim of his armor. It had a hood, but he didn't bother pulling it up just yet.

"Sounds good," Corsair said with optimism. If this wasn't such a serious conversation, the pegasus would have winked at the filly and made a joke about protecting her to his last breath. The gravity of the occassion, however, called for a little more tact. "We'll stick to our respective fields then. I'm the most likely to be able to take a full-body blow so my taking point is a good choice," he walked forward and his armor clinked as if in confirmation of his logic. The longer they waited here, the less time they had before they might be ambushed from behind. This fact made Corsair hurry.

Corsair moved to the entrance of the caverns. A stagnant air wafted from within, moist and warm. The whole cave system felt alive, and Corsair shuddered and backed away from the putrid smell. "There's no mistaking wild beasts living in the area..." he said, resisting the urge to dry heave. He let the other ponies fall in before he began walking into the cave. The first passage was wide and tall enough to support a single feral, but the ceiling hung incredibly low. The enclosed space made the pegasus huddle his wings in and instinctively lower his head. He didn't like the thought of how difficult flying would be if needed.

"Right," he whispered. "Keep low; guard up." Externally, he looked the picture of a calm and prepared veteran. Inside, his muscles tensed and he mind examined every small noise with careful attention. He didn't like where they were, why they were there, or what was awaiting them. The lattermost was unprecedented cause for concern.

[Ranger]

Ranger stepped slowly towards the opening of the cavern, beginning to set up a trap, fortunately, his winter mask seemed intact, but as it was, it meshed well with his fur, so it actually had no bottom, allowing the ranger pony to easily use his mouth to work, as opposed to complicated hoof-work he would typically use when wearing his other outfit.

"The most important thing to realize." He iterated slowly, pulling a nearly imperceptible tension cord from one edge of the cave to the other, "Is that these aren't your run of the mill Ferals. They're vicious and unthinking. You leave yourself open and they will strike. Our best bet," He supposed, climbing up the side of the cavern and attaching some sort of construct to it; a sort of small device bearing much resemblance to a confetti cannon. "Is to get them at a distance, and if not, we have to close the distance soon. Their strength lies in their pounce."

The stealth stallion hopped down to land softly on the ground and proceeded to pull vial after vial from his pack, throwing one to Eagle Eyes and one to Corsair, "Mask your scents, hard to sneak on something that can smell you a mile away." He explained as a matter of fact, and he would know, he has been doing so for most of his life. He moved to tie the tension cord hanging from the side of the cave to one of the poles holding the cord stretched across the entrance. Once that one was pulled on, the other would activate the cannon, unleashing whatever was inside upon whatever hunters might return to the den.

Looking at his trap, Ranger frowned, "We should find a bottleneck, or a large spacial part in the cavern, a bottleneck would allow us to snipe them as they come, an open area can turn into a mine-field, and Corsair can fly." He skipped over the trap, hanging at waist length and completely invisible now; placing a hoof on it to mark where it was to his compatriots, so that they might cross and join him at the entrance to the grotto.

[eagleeyes]

Eagle Eyes listened to the short briefing while she emptied the contents of the vial on her cloak without question or hesitating to inspect its contents. Instead of depositing the empty container where it could be found and tracked, she stuffed it into her saddlebag concealed underneath the drape covering her.

"Shoot for the legs, got it," she said in response to the tactics foretold that the enemy might utilize. The plan conceived sounded as best as any in her mind. Suicide funnels were well enough. "What about a contingency?" She asked. "If these things are half as smart as they sound, they'll only lose a couple in a funnel before they think of a different tactic and, let's face it," she carefully stepped over the location of the trap, one high-stepped hoof in front of the next, "they've got terrain advantage. We don't know the layout."

[fethur]

Corsair glided carefully over the trap and touched back down. The narrow passage still made him nervous about full flight. Plus, unless they found a large room like Ranger described, Corsair would feel the height advantage weighing in against him. He managed to open the vial and pour the contents down his back, over his cloak. He couldn't inspect it easily, for he could only hold the container in his teeth. Feeling a small amount of liquid still in his vial, he tucked it away into one of his boots, wondering to himself if it would have any use later.

"We'll be lucky if we find anything with how dark it's about to become," Corsair said. The light from the cavern entrance could only spread so far within. He was glad at the extra precautions to conceal their presence, but wasn't sure how they'd find a feral before it found them either way. Ponies weren't attuned to night vision.

"Aside from hoping the bodies we amass in the tunnel block the others from getting to us?" He knew the moment he said it that this wasn't the time or place for sarcasm. "We could make sure we have an escape route behind our bottleneck, but if we don't know where that tunnel leads, we're setting ourselves up for a pincer." Corsair sighed. He hated how little they knew about this area. Were they really that intelligent? Corsair had only faced one before. He had no idea how well ferals worked in a group.

[Ranger]

Ranger raised a hoof to indicate silence, and let Corsair take the lead, he was ready for anything that might come up, throwing knife in mouth, hooves at the ready.

He led them as quietly as possible through a series of small tunnels, not small enough for a bottleneck, when the disgusting smell of mold and decomposition wafted into their noses, the light in the cave was strangely not dimming, and they could only wonder as for the reason.

It wasn't long before they reached a junction, one path heading left and the other right. Ranger quickly carved an arrow towards the exit on the wall, before they made any decision.

He pointed questioningly left, where there seemed to be an open hall up in the distance, or right, where the smell of decomposition and mold was getting stronger, and waited for the others to reply.

[eagleeyes]

Eagle regarded the choices carefully, scrutinizing the pair of paths closely while she slowly, quietly stepped toward Ranger without impairing the distance between herself and the other two. If there was going to be an ambush, she considered, her distance would be the advantage to start getting shots off while the other two were holding the ferals' attention. If she were the one ambushed, well... that's why she kept the path already traveled at her back.

She upturned her chin toward the right, casting her vote for the next segment of cavern to be explored, then turned her attention to the lieutenant.

[fethur]

The left path offered exactly what Corsair had hoped for: a wider path where he might fly. Where the path opened up would also provide a useful bottleneck to begin an assault. Of course, the open hall also could prove to be dangerous if too many ferals were present. He couldn't abandon his fellow ponies on the floor and take to the ceiling. Additionally, Eagle Eyes had made a point about their intelligence levels.

To the right was the unfamiliar yet unforgettable smell of death. For Corsair, this meant an eating area or the remains of a failed expedition. He shuddered. The former suggested they would be getting closer to the den mother, who naturally should be near a food source... or so the books on animal behavior had read in the library. Then again, the books said very little about winter ferals.

He hesitated. Both paths had their own equal opportunities for demise or success. He looked toward his comrades to see Eagle Eyes motioning right. He weighed each decision again. Seeing no greater odds either way, and not particularly analyzing it further, he notched his head right, going with his gut feeling. It had gotten him through countless adventures before, and he hoped his intuition would lead him well again.

[Ranger]

Ranger nodded, and held up a hoof, reaching into his cloak and his pack he set up another trap on the other passageway, making sure nothing from there will come after them.

It took him several minutes, but when he was done they were that much more secure from attack. After he was finished the captain nodded again, pointing Corsair to take point and lead them through the other tunnel, dead silent as he did.

[eagleeyes]

Eagle didn't feel right. The fur along the back of her neck was bristled underneath her concealing cloak. Her ears were on a constant swivel, trying to capture any sound that would be considered abnormal to the situation, but the silence was abnormal in and of itself. Shouldn't there be something moving around? Sounds of growling between quarreling ferals? Her eyes narrowed. She knew what a trap felt like, and this was as close as it could get.

As the three moved past the left tunnel, she shuffled her crossbow over her shoulder, flexing her forelimb where the spring trigger was hooked to test its tightness, ensuring that she could pull-and-fire if she had to. Eyes were kept locked on the mouth of the other cavern, still leaving distance between herself and the other two, though this time to the left and against the wall instead of a quarter to the rear.

[fethur]

Tension hung thick in the moist air of the cavern system. The dead silence between the three ponies made every other sound appear to bounce and echo somewhere in the distance. Every heavy step of his encased hooves made Corsair prick his ears and listen to the reverberation, hoping silently that the clank of his boots wouldn't be followed up by a growl and pounding paw-steps coming to investigate.

He nodded to Ranger and Eagle Eyes in turn before guiding them down their chosen path. "(Stay close,)" he mouthed the words, turning his head back toward them as he led the way. He wasn't even sure if they could see that he had moved his lips. For Corsair, his eyes hadn't adjusted sufficiently to the darkness, and turning into the new tunnel had finally blocked whatever light there was from the cavern entrance. The pegasus blinked furiously, narrowed his eyes, and continued on.

The tunnel soon opened up into a small room at least one hundred meters deep. Stalagmites jutted out from the floor along the walls, and several thin columns of stone were scattered about. The ceiling was covered in a drapery of stalctites. Somewhere in the room, water could be heard dripping every few seconds. Near the back of room from their position were three exits:

1) A small hole low in the wall and tucked between stalagmites. It was wide enough that the ponies would have to go in single file and crawl along it until it, hopefully, would open bigger.

2) A tunnel similar to their current one. This continued in their current direction from the other side of the room.

3) A large maw in the ground, 5 meters in width. The bottom wasn't visible from peering over the edge due to the darkness of the room.

This was all that was made clear after a quick inspection of the room in the darkness of the cave. The three new paths were noticeable, even in the low light.

When he first stepped into the room, rubble had fallen from the ceiling. Other than that, the path appeared stable, so Corsair led the group to the center of the area, weaving around stone columns. The putrid smell was stronger here than in their previous location, and the pegasus fought the urge again to lose his breakfast. The room itself appeared empty, though large, with the exception of the rock structures and the three ponies.

Corsair looked at the others. The first thing to do was secure the room. He pointed to each of the three paths, then headed himself toward the large hole in the floor. Keeping up his appearance of bravery was easy. The darkness made his expressions more believable. Still, Corsair couldn't fight the feeling that something horrible was bound to happen, especially given the smell in the air.