Nothing is True. Everything is Permitted. · 4:03pm Apr 1st, 2015
Funny just how appropriate the Assassin words are to April Fools Day. As some of you might know, today is the anniversary of Rooster Teeth as a company (and the premiere of season 13 of RvB for all of you non-sponsors. Believe me, it's awesome!). Thus, RT does not celebrate April Fools day. In the spirit of that, I've decided not to prank y'all today (My editor Brad suggested that I tell everyone that I Against I is cancelled, but really, who would actually believe that today?). Instead, I'm going to do something I don't usually do. I'm going to give you guys a little preview of the first chapter of Act 3, since I'm still a fair distance away from being ready to start uploading full chapters. So without further ado, a scene from the next chapter:
Twilight and Church entered the building carefully, wary of enemy patrols. The pair arrived at their destination without incident; Team 1 was waiting for them in a triangular room. The idle beeping and humming of computers filled the room, and terminals with blinking lights lined the walls. Tucker, Rarity and Pinkie Pie each took up vigil by one of the three doors, while Sunny stood in the center. She noticed Rarity was holding a familiar heart shaped gem closely.
“We should be able to access their main network from here,” Tex said, her magical avatar appearing next to Sunny when Twilight and Church entered. “We can use that to find out exactly where CT is keeping the artifact.”
Church looked around the room. “Uh, I’m no expert at hacking, but don’t you need - oh I don’t know - a screen of some kind to be able to use a computer?”
Seeing Church’s wide arm gesture around the room, Twilight noticed there was indeed a lack of any kind of monitor to use with the hard drives lining the walls.
Tex simply looked at Church. “Not unless we have an A.I.”
“Wait, where are we going to find a…?” Pinkie Pie asked before looking at Church. “Ooooooooooh…”
“You want me to enter the computer? Who do you think I am, Tron?” Church exclaimed.
“Not only is this the best way to find the info we’re looking for, but having an A.I. in their systems will give us a huge advantage,” Tex explained. “If this works, Church could be our eyes and ears throughout the entire facility. He could even turn their defenses against them!”
“Yeah, or I could be hopelessly lost in a virtual environment without the first clue of how to even navigate it!” Church argued.
“Church does have a point,” Twilight said. “He’s only now barely coming to terms with the fact that he’s the Alpha. What makes you think he’ll know how to enter a computer, let alone find the exact information we’re looking for?”
“Now that he has Epsilon’s memories, Church should be able to access all of his old functions again. It’s just a simple matter of remembering them,” Tex explained.
“With all due respect, Agent Texas, wouldn’t it be better for Church to relearn his abilities at a later point?” Rarity asked.
“Yeah! Y’know, some time when we’re not balls deep inside an enemy base?” Tucker added, adding a barely audible “bow chicka bow wow.”
“Meh. I always found the ‘sink or swim’ approach effective,” Tex stated.
“Yeah, you’re nuts. I’m not doing this,” Church said, turning away. “Hey, if you really wanna see me sink or swim, maybe I’ll just throw myself into the ocean. Save us the extra step interfacing with the computer would…”
Church was cut off when the armored pony promptly jumped on his back. Before Church could so much as utter an expletive, Sunny grabbed something in the back of his helmet with her mouth and pulled it out. Church’s body immediately went limp, and the guardsmare was now holding a computer chip with a glowing center in her mouth.
“Hey! Put me back in my body, you crazy bitch!” An image of Church suddenly appeared, projected by the chip. Unlike the other times Church entered “ghost mode,” the man wasn’t a transparent figure in white armor the same size as an ordinary human. Rather, Church was now a tiny cobalt blue hologram, looking up at everyone around him. “At least take me out of your mouth. This is fucking disgusting!”
Sunny ignored Church’s whining as she marched up to one of the hard drives and inserted his A.I. chip into a slot. The room suddenly went quiet.
“Thank you, Sunny,” Tex said. “Now we wait….”
Twilight looked at the quiet computer with no shortage of concern. “How will we know when he’s done?”
Her question was answered by a flashing red light and a blaring alarm filling the whole room.
“Great. Fucking great. Church is in there for not even five seconds, and he already trips an alarm!” Tucker moaned.
Sunny immediately reached for her headset, through which Tex shouted, “Team 2! You told me you disabled their security measures!”
“We did!” Sarge’s voice shouted back. “I mean, Lopez did! Whoops, forgot the codename. El Roboto did.”
“Sarge…”
“No es mi culpa. Culpar a la naranja, (Not my fault. Blame the orange one,)” Lopez stated over the radio.
“Maybe they have a separate layer of security that just detects A.I.s?” Twilight suggested.
Considering this group was at war with Project Freelancer, it would make sense. Twilight and the others didn’t have much time to think about it, though, as Insurrectionist soldiers started pouring into the room from all entrances. Through Sunny, Tex quickly tried to carve a path through the enemies toward the closest exit. She managed to knock out two men with swift punches, and soon found herself face to face with a soldier that looked different from the rest. He wore ODST armor of a steel color with red detail, and had an ammo belt strapped across his chest and another filled with grenades across his waist.
She moved to take him out just as she had with the other two, but the man caught her next punch with unnatural speed. It was only as he raised Sunny up and roughly threw her to the ground that Twilight heard mechanical whirs accompany his movements. She then saw that not one, but both of his arms were entirely cybernetic. Tex slowly climbed to Sunny’s hooves, and seemed ready to keep fighting until she noticed she and the others were completely surrounded by over two dozen soldiers, each with their weapon trained on the group.
“Alright assholes, we have you surrounded,” the apparent commander said, his mechanical arms whirring as he drew a shotgun. “Do you wanna stand down, or should we take this to its logical conclusion?”
Twilight looked around. The room was awfully crowded now, with Insurrection soldiers on all sides. If there was a way out, she didn’t see one.
“Okay. You got us,” Tex said, releasing her mental grip on Sunny, who in turn relaxed her posture.
“About fuckin’ time you Freelancers learn when you’re beat,” the cyborg addressed his men. “Take them to the boss, and keep all of them in your sights constantly. No one’s getting behind me this time!”
As they were escorted out of the room, Twilight couldn’t help but glance back at Church’s cobalt body lying lifeless in the corner.
Don't worry; I took care of the pranking department.
2931732 I. Regret. NOTHING.
2931762 Have Flynt tell you about 7DSJ and military-grade encryption. Yes, I'm serious about that.
A preview? Well, it's not a full chapter, but it'll do.
Church should take control of a defense turret, take careful aim... and completely miss every shot. Because he's Church. It would make for a helpful distraction, though.
Man, I'm so glad of learning that the next arc is so close. It made my somehow bleak year a lot better.
And I see you are still bouncing the conflict ball around between Ponies/Reds&Blues and Insurrectionists, isn't there a chance that somebody/somepony can just drop that ball by saying "We also want to bring down project freelancer". I agree, that conflict ball is an excellent trope, but the way you handled it with CT just bothers me up big time (What with him believing Rares was Twi because she's a unicorn; that's racist), and it seems that he won't drop that belief.
Also, what was that with the last line? Did Church killed himself? And how did he got Epsilon's Memories back?
PS: I'm also gonna try my hand on a Crossover with an RT produced content. Just not with MLP.
2937030 CT believing that Rarity is Celestia's student comes from the fact that he's never actually met the pony in question, and in his mind, she's the only unicorn who would have any reason to be on PF's planet.
Church getting Epsilon's memories happened in the final chapter of Act 2. And he didn't kill himself, but he has left his body behind for awhile...
2939438
Still, the only piece of intel they have about Celestia's student is that she's a unicorn mare? Nothing like coat or mane color? Not even a unique feature that is tatooed on their butt? I figured that the Insurrectionists would be more thorough with their intel.
This reminds me of the time the ponies confused Ms. Harshwhiny with that other mare because of her traveling bag.
Sorry, I'm just ranting. The conflict ball as a trope and I have a bitter-sweet relationship.
Somehow, my brain forgot that detail about Church