//------------------------------// // "The Part Where I Kill You. (This is it)" // Story: Haylo: Crimson // by Zarius9998 //------------------------------// So, everypony knows those stages of emotion which follow the realization that you're going to die, right? Yeah...I kinda just skipped to the "acceptance" part and quietly made my way down the empty hall. I figured the AI hadn't spotted me yet, or he was waiting. Waiting to set-up some kind of challenge for me to battle, since, you know, he seems to find joy in doing that. The entire walk, I focused on nothing but that pain in my side, and nothing else, except for moving one hoof in front of the other. I didn't want to think about home, about my team, or about...Luna. I didn't want to flake-out because I couldn't bring myself to leave them. I needed to stay focused on preventing the AI, and his army of scientific freaks, from escaping. I really wish I had some kind of music to play at that time. Music always distracted me, always kept my mind off of...things. Would have been useful. "Ugh, what I would give for some kickin' hardstyle right now..." Ever since discovering that wonderful and powerful class of music, I was just simply in love with it! I would always train with some Showtek, PWN-3, or other kick-flank group blasting from the speakers. It was like a...ritual of mine, you could say. Either I'd have to find Pip's helmet, since I was sure he had something of interest I could play on there, or just imagine the song in my head...or, forget about music altogether. I sighed, hefting up the Plasma Reactor then placing it over my shoulder, next to Undertaker, "What's a mare to do, huh?" I saw the doors back into the construction room, where I knew every single last abomination was waiting. I had encountered no resistance the entire trip, so they knew I was coming. I was just a bit surprised the AI wasn't trying to escape yet. I guess he really just wanted to kill me personally...I was fine with that. Slowly, calmly, I entered the Construction Room again, finding that I was correct in believing that he was waiting for me. Every V2 was attached to a wall somewhere; every Mech was primed and ready to fire at me, set in teams of arcs; and vehicles of every kind were on and facing me. Then, high above everything, primed at the head of the Scarab, was the same platform which previously carried the AI. He was in the room with me. He wanted to kill me... I was going to kill him first. "I know about those explosives, dear." the AI's voice boomed through the speakers in the entire room, "I just wanted to first crush you myself. It will only take ten minutes." I shook my head, rolling my eyes, then noticed something laying on the ground nearby. Pip's helmet. 'Music...' I waved a hoof and started shouting "HEY" towards the AI's pedestal up on the Scarab until he responded, "WHAT!? What is it!?" "Mind plugging that helmet into that Scarab of yours and blasting some music?" I asked, "I mean, if you get out of here you get all the information stored on it, so you don't really lose anything." "What kind of request IS this!?" the AI asked incredulously, "Are you MAD!?" "No, I just like listening to music." I smirked, "I wanna go out in a bang, with some kickin' music blaring." The AI was silent for a few moments before hesitantly responding, "Fine...I'll consider it a...death request." I patiently watched as a V2 darted over and grabbed the helmet, looking it over cautiously as if it would explode in it's hands...or, claw-pincers...things. It then scurried away to fly up to the AI. A couple seconds later, the V2 flew back down without any helmet and the AI was making a small laughing noise. "Did you REALLY just hand me the location of your HOMEWORLD!?" I laughed at this in turn, obviously catching him off guard, "Oh geese, you've been in here for some time, I see..." "Explain!" "My homeworld, as well as the human homeworld, has already been attacked," he grumbled angry at this, "But there are other things on there you will find interesting. Now can you put the music on shuffle, please?" a moment later, the sound of eerie wind and a chilling Pipe-Organ Piano echoed through the halls. It has begun... I grabbed a grenade from my clip, then tossed it once, looking at it distantly. Pursing my lips, I shifted my eyes over to the Scarab and the coward it held, "You're right, ten minutes is all it will take..." I let the grenade fall, unclipping it, then punted it hard. In a few moments, as a lead guitar began to accompany the Organ, building up for an entrance, the grenade exploded in mid air and presented a small screen of smoke that would only last for a couple seconds. That was all I needed. "Let's kick some ass..." I hefted the Plasma Reactor by my side, cocked a safety mechanism, and depressed the trigger, the sound of building energy humming as the ventilation holes in the weapon began to glow a bright blue, "And let's give 'em all HELL!" The vocals of the song kicked in as the intensity behind the music ramped-up, just in time for my attack to begin. I blasted away the smoke as a powerful burst of pure, unhindered explosive energy rocketed out of the barrel like a jet, then another, and another, and ANOTHER! The separation between each shot was slowly dwindling as the energy built-up even more, and with each bit of recoil my body took, the more adrenaline that pumped through me, and the more excited and hysterical I became! The entirety of the AI's forces had to scatter away or be obliterated by my weapon in an explosion of beautiful blue, green, and metal which just created the most wonderful lighting and shadows I had ever seen. Vehicles were totaled, Mechs were wrecked, and V2s were disintegrated...this weapon was simply amazing! This weapon was breaking my focus, my mind, "Heh...heheh! Hahahah! Ah-hahahaaaa!" I grinned like a maniac, completely and total excitement flaring in my eyes like a wildfire. The nagging feeling of bloodlust was creeping back...something that hadn't been in the light since Equis. I thought I had gotten over it. Apparently not. "Die, die! DIE!" I ripped through another group of Mechs, blasting them to oblivion amidst the blue plasma, "ALL OF YOU DIIIIEEEE!!!" "What are you waiting for!?" the AI screamed, "Shoot back!" Finally, after I had completely wrecked a fairly large sum of the AI's forces, they began to retaliate. It took a sever lance of burning pain to my leg to realize that I was being shot at, since I was having way too much fun. "Gah! Buck!" slipping somewhat back into my senses, I twisted and jerked to the side as a volley of plasma and needles zipped by, but I kept the trigger down, amazed that the thing hadn't overheated yet, "Took you long enough!" I shouted, ripping even more of the mechs apart, "How long were you just planning on letting me r-BWAAAG!" I dropped the Plasma Reactor, my hooves suddenly burning in pain, then looked down to find that they were slightly scorched and the entire weapon was smoking, "Well buck!" Suddenly, at the sound of heavy, metallic footsteps, I looked back up just in time to witness a heavy metal slab slam into me, sending me tumbling back quite a bit. After managing to plant my hooves back down and skid across the floor, I saw that a mech had charged me and whacked me with one of it's arms and was about to open fire on my sorry flank. I quickly flipped Undertaker down and shouldered him, aiming her towards the ground at first, but then quickly swiping the barrel upwards as I started to kick backwards into a backflip. Right as the line of fire passed over the mech, I pulled the trigger and let the energy from the kickback flow into the backflip. The mech was ripped apart and I flipped out of the way of a couple shots from other mechs and V2s. Immediately upon landing, I caught the sight of a Ghost speeding at me from my right, so I prepped myself for impact and waited until the right moment to move. At the last moment, I spun, jumped, raised a hoof, and brought an axe kick so hard, I wrecked the hood and sent the purple speedster flipping over my head to have it land on a mech which had been approaching me.  I turned to see a group of V2s scurrying over the wreckage and quickly whipped the DMR up to take aim at the fuel-cell on the Ghost's side. Grinning, I shot one bullet and caused an explosion big enough to wipe every last of those approaching V2s out. "Fools, fools, FOOLS! KILL HER! SHE IS BUT ONE, WEAK, LITTLE, PONY!" he screamed furiously, "Why will you not just DIE!?" I looked back to the AI's resting place, the music continuing to blast. It may not have been hardstyle, but this song was probably one of the best songs to listen to in my time of dying. Knowing what was next in the song, I screamed the next part with it... "Because...I'm not ready to die!" I slipped the DMR off of my shoulder and grabbed my pistol, making sure the safeties were off, then charged ahead into the crowd of V2s which had amassed. Firing quick and moving swiftly, I popped many in the head. As I reached the crowd, I flattened the head of the first one I encountered with my DMR then kicked it away, deeper into the swarm. Quickly, before any of the dead around me could explode, I jumped high into the air and reloaded the DMR, tossing the pistol above me so I could use both hooves. While up there, many more V2s were killed by their dead companions' explosions, bringing a satisfying smile to my lips. Just as I finished reloading, the pistol fell to me and I caught it in my mouth, aiming with both hooves at the crowd below me and taking down a few more V2s. Upon landing, I was forced to run hard to avoid the explosions from the V2s I had killed. I immediately had to deal with a screeching bugger, though, and quickly rolled over top of it, kicking off of the thing's back to get me going quicker. Yet still, the explosions were uncomfortably close, nipping at my hooves and nearly knocking me over. The shadow they cast in front of me, though, was quite sweet-looking! With the last of the explosions, I dove and tumbled back to my hooves to headbutt a V2 which was about to claw at me, immediately after, I pulled the trigger of my pistol, which had remained clamped within my maw, with my tongue and the damn thing lost it's entire face. Before it fell, I snap-kicked the sucker away. Turning slowly, I let the blue explosion blow my mane around wildly as I stared-down the remaining enemies, grinning devilishly. "Who's next?" I asked. I was answered, fortunately, by a moderately sized spider like vehicle-looking thing jumping through the purple and blue flames left behind by the V2s' explosions. "Oh...shit." Immediately, I started to reload my pistol, but dropped my DMR to quicken the pace. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to pick it back up once done as the Spider-like vehicle was upon me. I dashed to the side and avoided being crushed by one of it's eight mechanical legs, only to run face first into another leg, slamming my muzzle hard into it. "GWOOF, ow!" Before I could react, yet another leg whacked me into the air, then began to charge some kind of cannon on it's back, similar to the large one on the back of a Scarab, except smaller. "Damn, damn, damn!" I hastily shoved the pistol into my mouth and shouldered Undertaker, taking quick aim at the Arachnid's (which is what I have come to call it) rear cannon. I fired at the same time it started to, but luckily my bullet blasted the whole cannon to bits before more than three bursts of heavy plasma rocketed towards me. Again, luckily, the recoil kicked my out of the way of the plasma and I fell back to the ground without a hitch. "Suck this!" I shouted, unclipping another grenade then pitching it straight into the head-cannon of the monstrosity of a vehicle. Soon after, the whole thing erupted in a simply astounding plume of blue, magenta, and metal as my grenade sent it's power core reeling. "Mother of Celestia this is getting tough..." The fatigue was really starting to hit me like a brick wall at this point. I had done a good job of pushing through it, ignoring the pains and aches, but, with my chest heaving, t was obvious I could, and would, collapse at any moment. I had to step it up, though, to keep him distracted for just a bit longer...I was not going to do this in vain, I was going to make sure nothing left that factory alive...well, that was my plan anyway. I honestly didn't expect to succeed. "Oh...oh dear Celestia..." I huffed, leaning over and holding up a shaky hoof, "Mi...whew, mind giving a mare...a-a second here, boys?" I asked, "I am pretty much out of breath here..." "Well isn't that sad?" I grimaced at the sound of his snobby and stuck-up voice, "Looks like you are finished here, Vermin." I straightened-up as much as I easily could and shifted my eyes around, silently taking in the surrounding army of remaining V2s, mechs, and vehicles. I was a bit disappointed, actually, seeing that I had actually come close to destroying them all, "Looks like you're done." I didn't respond, instead reached into a bag I had recently acquired and slipped around my right arm, then pulled out a syringe. "I'm not ready to die." I muttered, "Not just...yet." I slammed the needle into my thigh and injected the adrenaline shot, once again forcing my heart back into overdrive and knocking my senses for a loop. I knew this much intense and extremely exerting force was bad for my body, but...I just didn't have choice! This was confirmed as a sudden jolt of pain piled through my entire body, centered at my chest, with a beat of my heart. Oh yes, this really was not working with my body well... I cringed and stumbled slightly, shoving a hoof over y mouth to cover-up a spurt of blood, accompanied by a cough. "You poor soul..." the AI mocked, "Let me put you out of your misery!" With the initial pain gone, the numbing and energizing effects fully taking hold, I grabbed the metal box which would transform back into the suit...hopefully. Much to my delight, when I went to remove it, it instead remained connected in the same spot and unfolded, then connected to the rest of my armor as snugly as if it was made for it. Upon looking at something familiar inscribed into the arm, I noticed that it was indeed UNSC tech...and the Covey had tried to convert it to their own armor. Fortune smiled upon me then. With a grin, I clipped my pistol back to my thigh, beside the energy sword, still, and resided myself again to obliterate the rest of those bastards. They did the same for me. "Not yet...not yet...I'm not ready to die...not...YEEEEET!" With a ferocious roar that would have scared a lion, I charged, no hold-bars, towards the surrounding armada in front of me. They quickly started to open fire, yellow, blue, green, and pink zipping towards me in numerous amounts, but I was ready. I kicked and launched myself high into the air, pointing my arms at the shooters below me. "But you...ALL OF YOU..." I depressed the trigger, enormous spikes rocketing out of the through the chains, out the barrels, and through mechanical and skeletal bodies alike, "YOU ARE READY TO DIE AMD BURN IN HELL!!!" I again allowed my mind to slip into it's dark state, my logical thought receding into the dark to give my primal and animalistic instincts full reign for the first time in a long time. Everything here is really a blur...just a lot of movement, loud noises, and a HELL of a lot of kicking and ripping. I was knocked, again back into my right mind with a metal arm to the head. After picking myself up off the ground, I immediately stumbled and had to catch myself with a hoof to the wall. It had only been a minute, I think, and the adrenaline was practically gone...I had more shots though... The few remaining V2s and mechs were closing in while the Scarab's head stared at me intently, much like it had been doing the entire battle. Widow told me that an overdose would kill me, cause my heart to explode...but I had no other option! I could barely move as it was, so I would become quickly ripped to shreds if I just waited for them to attack... "Okay, enough of this." the AI yawned while the sound of building energy surged through the room. My ears caught the sound and forced my eyes to look upon certain doom as a bright blue glow lit-up the room from the Scarab's mouth. To top it off...the song was ending. I had but four minutes to pull something amazing and not die from a direct blast by a Scarab, "Time to become dust!" With what little strength I had left, I threw the battle suit off of me, letting it clatter to the ground in a mess of chains, metal, and a spike or two, then reached into the same bag as before to grab another shot. I stared at the liquid worriedly, knowing full well that it would be very likely for it to make my heart explode...but at the sound of high-pitched energy readying to fire, I closed my eyes, gritted my teeth, and slammed it back into my thigh, hoping to Celestia, to Luna, and even to Discord and Nightmare Moon that I would not die there. 'Fifteen Minutes...' Only a moment later, gasped in pain as the feeling of constricting hit me. The feeling started at my chest, and slowly spread. It wasn't like a burning feeling, no, but more like having your body entirely wrapped in snakes and squeezed. It became hard to move and my vision rapidly shifted through being as clear as day, to blurry, to darker than black, then back again. Then my heart gave a pulse, and the entirety of every feeling I just explained doubled... "HAAAAAHHH!" I screamed in agony, feeling for pain than I had ever felt before. 'Fifteen minutes...' I couldn't discern any noise, any smell, or any sight. All I felt, all I WAS, was just pain. At some point I fell to my behind, a sever twitching in my right fore hoof being the only indication I was still actually alive and not burning in hell. Then another pulse...but instead of pain and the repeating sound of Widow saying "fifteen minutes," I felt something warm and the sound of a distant voice whispering to me...and it said: "...reason to live" I could feel again, I could see again, and, most importantly, I could hear again. What I heard, was a loud blast of pure, white-hot energy, following by a quickly-growing flash of bright light. The Scarab had fired and I was directly in it'a path. Not even giving myself time to think, I rolled backwards and instructively grabbed for my Pistol and Energy Sword. Quickly pushing into a sprint, I ran out of the path of the blast, diving landing on my back as the energy knocked into me. Nit wasting any time, I rolled back onto my hooves and sliced a V2 down the middle, skidding to a halt a couple feet behind where I killed it. Suddenly, my heart gave a strained pulse and pain rocketed through my body again. I twitched before stumbling and coughing, quite unpleasantly, a bit of blood onto the ground at my hooves. After that, though, the pain dispersed as my heart began beating at a less painful and more normal pace as the V2 exploded. I saw the Scarab through the smoke, and the AI's brain resting atop it. Narrowing my eyes, I kicked off hard and jumped through the flame. My goal was the Scarab, and everything in front of me was going to be wasted, THAT much, I knew. "Wha-!? N-no! Kill her! Kill her! Don't let her touch me!" I heard the AI's scream of terror, and only grinned at the realization that he was scared...of ME. A weak, pliable vermin which he only saw as a lab rat. A mech jumped into my path, attempting to crush me with it's fists, but I slashed them off as I slid under it's legs, dropping a grenade under it as I went. Pushing back to my hooves as the explosion blew it to bits, I stared directly at the AI's pedestal and scream, as loud as I could. "ONE TWO, I'M COMMIN' FOR YOU!" A group of V2s zipped in front of me, but I quickly and deftly popped each of them in the head and continued on, ignoring the explosions as I reloaded. The Scarab had already started to recharge it's headcannon, but I was too far on to be hit. It fired as I ran under it's body, only accomplishing in obliterating a group of V2s and two mechs. "NO! Please NO! Kill her, KIIILL HEEERR!" Another mech tried to block my path, along with three V2s, but it didn't matter. The couldn't stop me at that point, nothing could. The mech opened fire while the V2s, each with bladed arms, prepared to defend it. I raised my sword and knocked away the grenade the mech fired, the explosion knocking my mane askew and lighting everything blue for a moment. Realizing this wouldn't work, the mech began to fire at me with it chain of spikes. I slimmed low and to the right, each one missing, then came upon the metal warrior, ready to end it. A V2 tried to swipe at my head, but I surprised it by catching the thing's bladded arm in my mouth. Before it could recover from the shock of this, I jerked my head and jumped, throwing it to the ground while launching myself up to the mech's head. I quickly stabbed it's metallic face with my sword while shooting the other two V2s through the head. Jerking my sword out, I waited for the imminent explosions, looking up at the rear entrance to the Scarab, grinning. At the last moment, I jumped, the force behind the explosions aiding in my climb. Upon landing, I swathe Scarab's core waiting and ready to be utter RAPED. I grabbed Undertake, again, from my back and aimed, grinning like a madmare and shouting, "THREE FOUR, HERE GOES YOUR CORE!" I forgot all about the kickback in my somewhat slurred state of mind, but the core was instantly obliterated. Barely able to grab the edge, I dropped Undertaker to the ground below and pulled myself back up with a grunt. The entire monstrosity was shaking and rumbling as sparks and small explosion erupted through it's entire structure. V2s were scrambling about everywhere as they tried to escape their rapidly approaching doom, but I ignored them, pulling my pistol and sword out again and rapist making my way to the top. Some buggers, though, were unfortunate enough to get in my way, and they quickly met their fate sooner with a flick of my hoof. Others, though, I just couldn't help but blasting their heads off, hehe. "FIVE SIX, THE TIMER STILL TICKS!" I skidded around a corner, exiting the interior of the Scarab while sounds of drastically building energy and small explosions blasted all around me, the overload alarm blaring in my ears. The AI's pedestal was directly in front of me, and all I could hear, even above the loud sounds of the imminent catastrophe, was the bell which tolled for HIM. "NO! NO! NOOOOO! DON'T DO THIS! I BEG OF YOU! I WILL DO ANYTHING!!!" I charged on, throwing my pistol away as my lips curled into a devilishly manic grin. There would be nothing that could stop me from reaching him, and he knew it. "SEVEN EIGHT, IT IS FAR TOO LATE!" Ass I passed, I scooped Pip's helmet into my free hoof, gripping it tightly. Then a high-pitched screaming sound rocketed through the air, indicating that the Scarab was at it's breaking point and would explode in only a moment. Kicking myself into overdrive, I sliced the AI's  pedestal off then punted it high into the air, his voice screaming is sheer terror all throughout the room. I ran a bit further and sprinted up the back-cannon and jumped as hard as I could, the powerful and immense explosion rocketing my up high and fast as it shook my entire body to the core and even singed a bit of my armor and tail. "NO! NO! NO!" He continued to cry it terror as I burst through the smoke and flame like a bullet, my sword ready and my smile as deranged as it ever would be. "NINE TEN!" I screamed through the air, nearing the little computer high above the ground. "THIS." I had done it. I had destroyed their entire army. "IS." It's quite sad, really...there was no need for the explosives...well... "THE." I wouldn't have been able to do it if I wasn't pushed so hard. You know what they say, when a cat has it's back to a wall, it will scratch. Still, though...I have to admit, it was fun, but after that, it was was the... "END!" I slashed hard and his voice quickly died, dissipating into scratchy static, and, soon enough, nothing. ------------- Halsey remained quiet. Trying to process the Artificial Artemis's story. It was quite a story, indeed, though, and was hard to grasp just how she did it. 'Her heart should have given in from that first injection...yet she survived a second!' Halsey thought, pursing her lips in thought, 'Does she actually contain some kind of vast reserves of Magic, like her unicorn counterparts? Or was her willpower just THAT powerful?' "Halsey." Artemis's voice broke her chain of thought, bringing her eyes back to the red, holo-generated pony in full Spartan attire, save for the helmet, of course. "It wasn't entirely her willpower, you know." Halsey furrowed her brow in confusion, but remained quiet as the AI continued, "Back in Equestria, the Elements of Harmony overcame many impossible feats with something you should learn about called friendship...well, magic made it all complete, really, but that's not important." the fake Artemis laughed a little before continuing, "There are things that can drive a pony to do thing unimaginable, Halsey, things that even your augmentations cannot accomplish. Things that magic itself cannot even do! As much as I hated you...I hope one day you find-out what I'm talking about." Halsey's finger hovered over the "DELETE" button for a moment, but suddenly felt like there was something more to be told, something that might bring to light how it all truly ended. "What? Can you stop dawdling and press the damn button already?" Holomis asked, tapping a hoof impatiently. Halsey took her hand away and put it back in her lap, "Not just yet, I want you to continue, up until the point where you...she died."