The ride to the AO felt long and uncomfortable. Nedal was constantly trying to come up with plans where the SAR Team wouldn’t have any real role at all, and would just sit off on the side. Naturally, the men didn’t trust Nedal to get the mission done right, so they trashed every one of those plans outright.

Ultimately, they agreed on the same idea from earlier; the SAR Team would go in silently from the flatter, more stable ground across from the compound, while Nedal and his twenty-five stallion force would assault from a cliffside to provide the SAR Team with an opening to get inside. Nedal was none too happy about it, but the men didn’t care. They were here for a reason; find this character, Blueblood, and, more importantly, find OGA.

After they agreed on that, the men took aside the rest of the SAR Team and discussed how things were going to go. Malik and Hamid were with Frost, while Aziz and Rashid were with Duke. Those were the fireteams, but the group was going to try its best to stick together once inside the compound. They would need to have a good amount of force ready if they found themselves in a fight.

The men had grabbed several items for this mission, which they had almost forgotten they had packed for the rescue operation of OGA back in Afghanistan. Duke and Frost both brought their flare guns and night vision, and each man had one flash grenade, leaving one left in their quarters. They had intended to bring their frag grenades, but when they went to the front gate, they were given some confiscated explosives from the river compound from when Nedal took it over.

But now, they were here, and they all knew their jobs. Nedal moved up to a position on a tall mountainside next to the compound, while the SAR Team moved into a position on the opposite side of the compound, roughly five hundred yards away from the edge of it. From where they were, they could just barely make out the patrols walking around the perimeter of the base by the small lights they had in their claws.

“I have eyes on enemy patrols,” Frost said, the only one peeking over a large rock providing them with cover. “Looks like a lot of bad guys.”

“Any idea how many?” Duke asked.

Frost slid off the rock, landing softly next to Hamid. “All I can say is that there are a LOT of them. We can’t possibly fight our way inside.” He pulled up up his rifle and looked down at it. “Even with these, we couldn’t get inside. We’ll have to wait.”

“Alright,” Duke replied. “We wait for Nedal to begin his assault, then we go for it.” He leaned backwards and looked out from behind the rock. “But we’ll need to be a little closer when the action starts.”

“Roger that,” Frost replied.

The team checked all their gear for functionality, flipping switches, checking buckles and straps, and they began to make their way forward to the compound. Right now, it was up to Nedal for this mission to go right.

************************************************************************

Nedal observed the compound through the incredibly powerful looking-glasses the men had given him to use earlier. He was amazed at how much they magnified; he had to set them on a rock to get a stable image.

He was checking everything before he began his assault, allowing his soldiers to prepare themselves for the battle ahead. Behind him, he could hear the clunking of plate armor as it was donned and swords sliding through their sheaths. The sounds were like music to his ears.

Slowly, Nedal moved the binoculars around to get a better view of what initial resistance he and his soldiers would be facing. There were almost a dozen patrols, most of which were at least three gryphons strong. They all looked exceptionally fearsome for the pigeons he knew they really were. No matter, though; they would be slain soon enough.

Nedal turned to his stallions and looked them over. They all looked about prepared. They were all wearing their armor, wore their blades at their sides, and had their crossbows slung over their backs. These were true warriors, not like that SAR team that the humans had created.

“Honor lies with those who fight without using the shadows, those who do not hide during the battle. The greater amount of power and strength will always prevail.” Nedal believed it to the core of his being.

They were situated on an admittedly too-small cliffside, but they could manage. Nedal went about walking around to check on the individual stallions, to make sure that there would be no dead weight when the fighting began. As he walked around, he liked what he saw. Everyone was prepared, armored up and weapons ready.

“Sir!”

Nedal turned and saw the large form of his lieutenant, running over to him with a serious look on his face. Nedal always did think he had serious potential, but he was occasionally in contradiction to Nedal, making him difficult to work with. Still, if he could just figure out the proper way to fight a battle, he could be one of the greatest leaders Saddle Arabia had ever seen.

“Lieutenant, I am glad to see you. Are you prepared?” Nedal began to walk back to his spot where he left the high-zoom optics.

The lieutenant followed by his side. “Yes sir. But I must ask you something.”

Nedal sighed; he knew where this was going. “Yes, what is it?”

“Why are we wearing this heavy armor? It will only encumber and slow us down on our descent. It could result in a serious loss in our numbers if we aren’t moving as fast as possible.”

“We will move fast. The armor will change nothing,” Nedal replied, letting his annoyance show.

“What if our stallions fall, or trip? It could be catastrophic.”

What, did he think that Nedal’s soldiers were weak? “No one will fall. I trained them better than that. We are the strongest unit in the world; none shall defeat us.”

They arrived back at Nedal’s spot, and the commander took up the binoculars again. Looking back down at the compound, he could clearly see that the compound was not just a surface compound; the way the ground bulged going toward the mountainside, it clearly went into the mountain. There could be a number of entrances into the compound throughout the area. That wouldn’t be so bad, though. The crossbows would be able to take care of any flying enemies.

“Sir, I do not believe that this is wise. If we don’t wear the armor, we will be less likely to be hit or fall, and we will make it down the hill faster. We can take the compound more easily and the humans will be able to get their job done-”

“The humans are not our concern!” Nedal shouted, losing control of his optics. Cursing, he reacquired his view. “They will do whatever they do, and we will do our job. Their job’s success or failure is not our concern.”

“But sir-”

“End of discussion.” It was amazing that Nedal let the discussion go on that long in the first place. The lieutenant shrugged and walked away, knowing that it was a good time to give up, and went to his stallions to discuss how to deal with any troublesome circumstances.

Nedal moved his view around, satisfied with what he had of the compound, and shifted his gaze to the far end of the compound and looked out in that direction. Beyond, in the vast, rocky landscape, he searched for the SAR team. Soon enough, he spotted them, two bipeds leading four quadrupeds up to a safe location near the compound, where they would wait for Nedal to begin the assault. Nedal liked that; it was up to him to begin their mission.

He went through everything he needed to know. When he began the assault, once the majority of the forces were on his group, the SAR team would go in and search the compound. If they came out, they would fire up a flare to signify that they were gone, and they would move away from the compound to get the “HVI” or whatever out of danger. From there, Nedal and his group would have free reign over what happened.

The SAR team moved into a good hiding spot about fifty yards out from the edge of the compound and stopped, waiting for Nedal to begin his assault. Confidently, the stallion turned around and looked out at his assault group.

“Group up!” he shouted, causing all the soldiers to frantically prepare for battle, doing some final checks on their gear and lining up in front of their leader.

“It is time for battle,” he said, confidence soaring from his lungs. “We are here to crush the enemy, to make sure they can never fight again. We will destroy all that they have down there, and when we are done, there will be nothing but smoldering ruins left!” He received several cheers. “It is up to us to defend our land, and we will do it tonight!”

Most of the stallions in the assault group began to cheer loudly, loosing their battle cries into the night sky. Nedal grinned maliciously, thinking about how he would slay every gryphon down there, how they would attempt to flee with their claws tucked and ripped feathers. Then, with a massive burst of energy, he leapt out toward the ridgeline and pointed at the compound.

“Attack!”

***************************************************************************

The men and stallions of the SAR team watched the mountainside for their cue, eager to get inside and grab their charges to get this whole thing done and over with. With a bit of focus, Frost was able to squint and see a small mass of bodies come over the edge of the cliff and start to move down. After a few seconds, they would hear the faint war cries of the soldiers as they came down.

“Here they come,” Frost said.

“Wait for the battle to start. Then we go.”

Now that they all knew that they were going to be good to go, they all stood in positions to sprint to the edge of the compound and make their way inside with as little incident as possible. The group watched for any enemies that would come out of the compound, just as prepared to flee as to run in.

And soon enough, the enemies began to pour out of the compound as well as come in from around the perimeter. Their numbers were unbelievable; much more than the last compound. At least forty-five were coming out to go deal with the enemy on the side of the mountain, and there could easily be more inside. Nedal was going to have a tough time up there. It was a good idea to get the altitude advantage.

Duke stuck his hand out to keep everyone back while they waited for the enemy’s numbers to dwindle a bit before heading in. Intently, he watched as they all came out and turned in the other direction, heading over to a fight that was nothing more than a distraction. Then, when they were mostly in that direction, Duke shot his hand forward.

“Go, go!” he said in a loud whisper.

The SAR team burst from cover and made a beeline for the perimeter of the compound, hooves and feet thudding against the dirt beneath them as they ran. They could hear the gryphons shouting in the area that made up the complex, but no one could make out what was being said. The team kept all eyes on the sky, watching for any potential enemies who may swoop down and blow the operation before they even got inside. If it was going to happen at all, now would be the time.

They made it to the wall without issue, and stopped to take a few seconds to get over. The stallions stood at the base of the wall, in pairs, and the humans jumped up and stood on their backs, weapons forward. When they peeked over the walls, they scanned the area, finding no gryphons looking in their directions. They could see a few in the distance, preparing something, but they were too preoccupied to look away from the mountainside.

“Clear,” Frost said quietly.

The men hopped up and sat on the wall, then went prone, chests flat against it, and dropped their arms down. Aziz and Rashid were the first ones to extend their hooves out to get up, with the men yanking at their forelegs to pull them up and drop them on the other side. All the while, there were at least two pairs of eyes trained on the environment, watching for enemy activity. When Rashid and Aziz were over, Malik and Hamid came over next.

Once the stallions were over, Duke and Frost slid off the top and into the compound, rolling as they hit the ground to minimize noise and jarring of their legs. Once they were up, the men took a quick look around, searching for anything that might provide cover or an entrance to where they needed to be. Frost spotted a door on the large building in the center of the area down on the first floor.

“There,” he said. “Entrance, twenty meters up.”

“Roger,” Duke replied.

The men took point as the team moved forward toward the door, eyes going in all directions, weapons at the ready. Their hearts raced as they moved. They all knew that they wouldn’t stand a chance if they were discovered in here and the attention shifted to them, so speed and stealth were critical. If anyone screwed up, they would all be captured; much worse than being killed.

They were able to make it to the door without any problems, but when they arrived, several gryphons shot out of the upper floors just above them and circled. The stallions pressed themselves against the wall with their swords out and the men raised their weapons at the birds.

“Do you think they saw us?” Frost asked.

Duke waited to respond. Before he did, the gryphons all turned around and went to the other side of the building, in the direction of the mountain.

“No,” he replied, feeling the stress reduce ever so slightly. “We’re good. Let’s get inside and get what we came for.”

“Roger that,” Frost replied. He turned to the stallions. “Two of you, get up front to bust the door open if necessary, two of you get behind.”

Malik and Hamid nodded and moved up to the door while Rashid and Aziz took the rear to provide cover. In the middle stood Frost, then Duke, ready for the assault.

Malik went to push the door open; it was unlocked.

“I guess they weren’t expecting visitors,” the stallion said with a nervous laugh.

“Guess not,” Duke said. “Let’s go.”

The team filed in through the door and into the unknown abyss, wondering what awaited them in the hostile environment ahead.

***************************************************************************

Nedal could see the gryphons coming up at his assault team from the base of the mountain.

“Ready yourselves, stallions!” he shouted. “The birds are nearly upon us!”

They had barely gotten twenty meters down the mountain before they were spotted, their strong, durable armor glowing bright in the moonlight. As they moved, Nedal could hear the clinking and clunking of the armor they wore easily, as the sound of metal on metal blasted through the air. Hooves thundered down the mountainside, weapons shined and begged for battle, and the smell of adrenaline and sweat permeated the air. Nedal would never ask to be anywhere else.

The stallions at the front of the group, in a powerful, wall-like line, slowed themselves down and drew their crossbows, already loaded and ready to fire. Then, one by one,they took aim at the birds coming at them from below and fired, striking down a gryphon with every shot. Any time that one stallion had to reload, another would be ready to fire, providing cover and safety to his fellow soldiers.

Nedal pulled his own crossbow off his back, a special, high-powered variant of the one his soldiers were using, and made his way to the front. As the leader, it was his job to do everything that his soldiers did, and then do more. When he slid down to the line, his stallions moved aside to let him in.

Nedal took aim at the screeching birds, trying to decide which one he wanted to take out of the sky this night and for all nights in the future. When he found his mark, a young-looking gryphon who had fresh warpaint on his face, he took aim quickly and loosed his bolt into the air. Faster than even Nedal’s eyes could track, it struck home, and knocked the young gryphon to the ground. He then rolled down the mountainside, leaving behind a barely visible trail of blood.

“Onward!” Nedal shouted, bursting forward down the slowly steepening side of the mountain.

His stallions loosed loud war cries as they followed suit, thrusting themselves down the mountain and closing in on the compound, roughly three hundred meters down. As they moved, more gryphons began to arrive, forcing them to stop more frequently and send more stallions up to open fire with their crossbows to keep the enemy suppressed.

On the way down, though, one stallion did not make it to the front line; he tripped, moving at top speed, and went sliding down the mountain.

Nedal turned and saw it, focusing his attention through all the loud voices and loud twangs of the crossbows, and sprang to action. Like a lion on prey, Nedal leapt toward where the stallion would be and braced himself, setting his center of gravity as low as possible, for impact. When the stallion collided with him, Nedal felt like a cart had just rammed him in the side.

His armor protected him from the impact, and he only moved slightly under the force of the stallion above him. When they stopped, Nedal immediately turned his attention back to the battle ahead.

“Thank you, sir-”

“Get up and get moving, soldier,” Nedal replied. They couldn’t just sit there, there was work to be done.

WIth the crossbows still effective, the assault group pressed forward, knocking numerous gryphons out of the air as they went. The gryphons’ numbers were not dwindling, though, but growing, and soon, the crossbows alone wouldn’t suffice. Nedal had the fullest confidence in his soldiers, though, and he knew that they could handle whatever came their way.

The team continued forward, shooting and running. So far, the assault was going perfectly; the gryphon numbers were not as bad as believed, and the only trouble was that sad stallion who tripped. The gryphons were clearly not tacticians, incapable of finding a way to fight back and unable to flee. At this rate, the humans would have no need to go in, because Nedal and his assault group could take care of everything.

But it didn’t last.

“Captain, gryphons on our flanks!”

Nedal spun around, alarmed by this sudden development, and saw his lieutenant standing ready for a close fight. Nedal followed where his officer was looking and, sure enough, spotted a large group of gryphons coming at them from the right. With a snap of his head in the other direction, he could see another group of birds from the left.

He had to act fast. He’d had a feeling that there would be cave systems here, and he had an idea of how to deal with the threat.

“Gryphons on our flanks, prepare for battle!” he shouted, taking the position to the left, opposite his lieutenant.

A few stallions remained on the front while a number of them moved to either side of the group and opened fire on the gryphons descending upon them from the flanks. Thankfully, the groups attacking the flanks were relatively small, and could be dealt with easily enough. With several volleys of bolts through the air, the groups were dealt with, and any survivors either laid still to avoid detection or rolled away.

Nedal took note of the potential for flank attacks and prepared to move again.

“Move back forward-”

Before he turned around, he heard a loud scream from behind him. It was no gryphon screech, though, but that of a horse, one of his stallions. When he turned around to find out what had happened, he saw a group of eleven gryphons between him and his lieutenant’s flank guards, battling with the few guards that remained in the center to continue pushing forward. Three of his soldiers lay on the ground, blood pooling underneath them, only one of them making any visible signs that he was alive. The other soldiers, a total of ten, were standing their ground and fighting back with their blades and hooves.

Nedal felt himself swell with anger, that these birds would dare to attack his group, to get in between all of them. If they wanted to play rough, Nedal could play rough.

Nedal sprinted forward, nearly losing his footing on the slanted mountainside, and closed the distance between himself and his targets in on time, slamming into one of the gryphon’s throats, crushing its larynx. The gryphon fell back, clutching at its throat, then fell to the ground, cold and unmoving.

Nedal snarled at the other gryphons as they fought his stallions, dropping his crossbow and pulling out his sword. With the handle in his mouth, he ran forward to ring the odds back in the favor of his stallions.

But the situation worsened before he even began, with more gryphons coming up and descending on the group before any could react. After just a few moments, the number of gryphons in the area outnumbered the assault group, and they were forced to drop their crossbows and fight closer than this part of the plan called for. Ranged weapons fell and rolled down the mountain as swords were brandished and blood began to fly.

The clangs of metal on metal were deafening to anyone not suited for combat, the ringing of which remaining in the ear like the scream a never-ending grindstone. Nedal swiftly moved through the group, positioning himself in front of his soldiers to face the gryphons directly and cut them down as any true stallion should.

Nedal moved away from one of his stallions and went to attack another when a gryphon landed in front of him before he made it over. The gryphon, brow furrowed and painted like a demon, hissed at Nedal, drawing a massive, curved sword from its hip and taking a combat stance.

“You think you can kill me?” Nedal asked. “You don’t have what it takes.”

“It’s not about killing you,” the gryphon replied, speaking Nedal’s tongue fairly well. “It’s about making sure you don’t succeed.”

Nedal crouched low, ready to pounce. “That means you’ll have to kill me.”

The gryphon growled, then shot forward at Nedal with incredible speed. When the distance was closed, he swung his sword ferociously, attempting to hack the stallion to pieces with his massive blade. Nedal dodged every strike, though, parrying the weapon sideways with every step. He never got a chance to counter; he was purely on the defensive.

Nedal tried to think of some way he could turn the tables. “His swings are constantly aimed at my neck, never the rest of my body. If I can move just my neck out of the way, I should be able to counter before he can put himself back into a position to strike me,” he thought.

With a new plan in mind, Nedal started to push back against the gryphon, doing everything he could to avoid being pushed backwards any further. The gryphon noticed the new strategy, though, and adjusted his swings to compensate for Nedal’s neck movement. But he couldn’t compensate enough, not with how much was going on around them and influencing their movements from outside their battle.

Nedal finally managed to stop moving back and started holding his ground against the gryphon, blocking the bird’s strikes and enacting a few of his own. The battle was even now, with both combatants taking every opportunity available. With how it was going, Nedal would have it in the bag.

The stallion blocked a side-slash upwards into the air and closed the last meter of distance between himself and his opponent, slamming his sword into the side of the gryphon’s torso, a non-lethal strike that would keep him in place.

“Go with the rest of your brethren in Hell, bird,” he said, declaring that he had won.

“I would rather be with my brethren than fighting you here,” the gryphon replied with a grunt, the pain of the sword in his side becoming too great.

Nedal ripped his blade out and watched the gryphon fall to the ground, clutching his side, trying to stem the bleeding out of instinct. Nedal was proud; this was clearly a leader among the gryphons, and he was here, at Nedal’s hooves, his mercy. He had defeated yet another powerful opponent without trouble, he was the greatest warrior.

He raised his sword and prepared to bring it down. “Goodbye, pathetic fowl.”

But the sword never came down.

Nedal felt himself being thrust to the side, slammed from the left by a large metal mass. The blow knocked the breath out of him, sending him sprawling to the ground, gasping for air as his diaphragm suffered intense spasms. In his distorted vision, depraved of oxygen as his lungs refused to function properly, he could just make out the still, bloody from of one of his soldiers on top of him.

Just as his breathing began to return to him, he felt a claw land on his side and grip at his armor.

“I guess that you have lost,” the gryphon he was fighting said, grinning maliciously at him. He raised his blade into the air the way an executioner raised his axe.“Goodbye, Equine.” Nedal’s eyes filled with rage at the thought that this bird was about to kill him.

Just before the blade came down, another, smaller blade shot through the gryphon’s neck, plunging in from the back and bursting out the other end, shocking the gryphon and stopping all his movement. From behind, Nedal’s lieutenant came around, tearing the blade out and bringing it around in an arc to finish the bird off.

The body of the gryphon, now missing its head, fell limp to the ground next to Nedal and lay still. The lieutenant moved up to Nedal and took up a defensive stance next to him, fighting off any other gryphons that came close.

“Captain, are you alright?!” he asked through his teeth as they clenched his blade. The lieutenant dodged and parried a multitude of attacks in his efforts to protect his leader.

Eventually, Nedal was able to stand back up and get back in the fight. “I am fine,” he said. “We need to move! Down the mountain, cut through them if you must!” Nedal bellowed out his order so that all his remaining stallions could hear.

There were still a few gryphons up on the mountain with them, but Nedal could see more of them waiting at the perimeter of the compound, carrying various long and close-range weapons. As he heard the last few cries of slain gryphons fade away behind him, he thought about how they should best approach the compound below to destroy the gryphons who had control of it.

Before he could complete his thoughts, his lieutenant came up next to him. “Captain, we must fall back,” he said, panting, his fur and armor severely discolored. “We cannot possibly hope to take the compound successfully. There are simply too many of them.”

Nedal briefly considered that, but scrapped it when he thought about the humans down there. If he left now, they would be left alone, and as unlikely as it seemed, if they succeeded, he would look like a coward. He couldn’t allow that; he was the captain of the best assault troops in Saddle Arabia! No one was better than him, no soldiers were stronger than his. And if there was a chance that the humans could succeed, than he would definitely win with a decisive victory.

“No,” he said with finality. “We must attack them now, or all will be lost. We move forward.” Nedal started to walk forward, ignoring the pain in his body.

“Onward! We will not stop until we destroy this gryphon menace!” he bellowed, his voice carrying through the valley so that all might hear and fear him.

Now was the time for the real battle to begin.