Chapter 91: The Solstice Mission

Loiza's POV

The Winter Solstice celebrations last two whole weeks in Karaya right until Yule. There were beach festivals with live music from all over The Caribbean all day and more modern music of rock bands, pop singers, hip hop, reggae and reggaeton at night. There were games and young wolves were having sparing matches showing off their prowess and strength and there were really nice prizes for the winners. The shops were full for those buying presents to hand out at Yule and so were the Temples and Shrines, where worshipers were giving offerings of fruits, flowers and gold coins giving thanks to the Goddesses for either returning home and the lives for family and friends both alive and dead. Master Gadiel and the other tech engineers had figured out a way to have soundless fireworks, don't even ask me how they pulled that off, it's been going on since I was little and never cared to ask Maco about it. The colorful displays would usually start after sunset and this year the celebrations were held at both Itiba City and Atabex City.

For us this is standard, for the new members this was something that they had never lived. Yet the original Osupa were invested in bringing them out of their shells so that they learned to enjoy the Blessings bestowed upon our people by the Goddesses and slowly between neighbors they were achieving it. It didn't take long for the French and Sardinians to join in and Nía took Nasser and he got his own friends to have fun. Samira and Louis welcomed their son whom they decided to give him the Taíno name of Yuquibo as to not put either of their cultures above the other's and in honor of finding each other and happiness here, their restaurant was a huge hit! Samira had every one of their Kappas cooking non stop for the high demand and was focused on cooking food they typically have for the season.

Isla had become quite close to Alpha Dawda's two Lunas and after taking them to Cresta's Temple, she took them shopping downtown and to taste delicacies typical to the Solstice. They enjoyed themselves so much that they insisted to Modou and Yengiga to guide their people to give it a try... By day three Modou and his sister were on stage with the Bomba drum players going at it and Yengiga and some of his siblings were trying out the steel pans. The children were jumping in the water trying to race with the mermaids, who themselves were a little afraid of so many people in the beaches yet got exited themselves after they saw no threat. The older vampires didn't really care much for it, but their children did and they were enjoying themselves! Which in turn made the older vampires quite happy, that was good enough for me.

I've always loved this time of year, everyone was on holiday, but we couldn't catch a break... At least not this year.

We finally we got word from Víctor... Oh Víctor.. pendejo. He was still in Uruguay, apparently the pack there wanted to change some terms and surprisingly he was being VERY patient with them. Luna Llena de la Sombra had around 3,000 members and Alpha Diego was unsure about leaving his territory. I don't get it! They beg to come and then keep changing their minds. 110 kilometers South of Brasilia, Única Lua do Céu pack had another 4,600 waiting and Alpha Federico had already accepted every term. They were desperate and from what Víctor reports had almost daily attacks which numbers increased every time. I ordered Gloria to send a team trough a portal to Única Lua. They were to hijack three helicopters and take closer video evidence of the attacks, I had no intention of showing satellite images as evidence to add to our declaration of war, I am not about to show everyone we indeed have one! They were armed with scope sniper rifles and auto cannons with silver bullets, we didn't have the time to arm them with wolfsbane missiles but those could still be used as heavy distractions and could cause a lot of damage. But at least Única Lua had air cover to escort them through The Amazon river and head to the ocean where Casimar would be waiting with the fastest ships that could accommodate those numbers and bring them home.

When Ayana was able to portal again, we sent another team to Víctor with the same instructions. This video evidence would be a nice add on to exposing The Council, especially with confessions I wanted from the prisoners of the mission from The Gambia. Both teams were instructed to capture prisoners as well if they could. The good thing was that the pack in Uruguay were closer to the Atlantic and if everything worked out, Casimar would be standing by to pick them up as well.

The pieces where set in place and the game was on!

The team in Brazil who were lead by Mabey, arrived with the highjacked helicopters. They received a warm welcome; they were informed that the attacks come at any moment, so they told everyone to pack everything they wanted to bring. Mabey explained his orders to Alpha Federico and he agreed, he did ask if we could send more Warriors and he brought their High Priestess, The Lady Conceição, who does have the ability to open portals. She had the same limitations as Ayana of only being able to transport 10 at the time... We NEED to get her, Ayana and Yaya to get their Prime Priestess title, with it they could have the power to portal up to 200 in some cases!

I allowed this request and informed Braka to choose who he thought were best for the mission. The Warriors joined the team and helped round up the people and have them at the pack house in the middle of their territory while the Warriors waited at the borders. Two days went by until the attack came from all sides and Mabey was airborne. We were watching the feed live and recording on our end just in case anything happened to their equipment. We also had satellite feed to have a wider angle and be able to direct them to were fire power was most needed. Lady Conceição was with them adding some extra power from the sky.

As we had hoped this change of tactics would take the rogues by surprise since it was not like what we did in The Gambia. The sniper of the team, Tínima wounded three and Conceição opened a crater making a perimeter to land and capture them to take as prisoners and take off back to the air. Tínima now was focused on shoot to kill, she was as accurate as Víctor himself who in turn had reported that Alpha Diego had made up his mind about leaving after another attack before our team arrived. And were being attacked simultaneously with the pack in Brazil. The same tactics were being used shell shocking the attackers, since they did not expect that strategy, as if the attackers in Brazil had not informed their superiors about it. They didn't seem to count with any particular strategy other than just attack, and they apparently had no form of communication with the other attackers, we were not able to read any transmissions coming out from any of them. It was just a brainless basic attack just like the ones usual rogues do.

Luna Llena had their own Priestess, The Lady Magdalena, who was explained what Conceição did and asked if she could repeat the same act to create the same perimeter. She said she could, only that the crater would not be as deep so she was taken into the helicopter Víctor would be in, as he was also take a couple of prisoners. And it worked like a charm.

Gloria was directing BOTH teams simultaneously like the BOSS she is while we watched and waited.

Both Priestesses rained fire on the attackers and all helicopters launched the missiles simultaneously in different borders of both packs. The Warriors were making sure that no rogues were able to get close to the center of the territory where the people were waiting with their pups and elders and those who could not fight. Almost 2 hours of this the attackers retreated from all borders. Mabey's team went directly to the riverbed to hijack boats to transport the pack in Brazil downriver to the ocean where Casimar was standing by at the delta of The Amazon for pick up.

Víctor was given a secure route for him and his team to trek north to the ocean, just at the border between Uruguay and Brazil were by our estimates Casimar would have already picked up Única Lua and the team and would be waiting for them. Now we waited again with the satellite feed to ensure that they would not be followed and the helicopters stayed with both groups as cover for each respective trek.

The pickup at the Amazon went smoothly, yet we were able to see that a large group of rogues were headed Víctor's way. So the helicopters in Brazil were ordered to rendezvous with the other team to serve as cover so they could reach the shore until Casimar's arrival.

As planned, Mabey's team arrived to give the backup that Víctor's team needed and held back the second wave of attacks buying time for Luna Llena to arrive at their own rendezvous with Casimar, who thankfully was already standing by.

The boats at the shore were already taking those rescued to the ship and when the last of Luna Llena were on board the helicopters retreated to the two ships that had gone. Each stern could carry up to five helicopters so bringing them home to be repaired and refitted to our needs was not a problem.

We had both packs safely on board with minor casualties, six extra helicopters to add to our collection, five prisoners and different angles of recorded video evidence of the attacks that were going on, and both ships were heading home! Best Solstice present EVER!