Friendship? Emotion not found.

by The Rar

I Was There When New Haven Burned

Apple Orchard, Ponyville, Equestria
9:45Pm SET

“I never die”
The voice chanted litanies of strength and hate over and over into the night.

“I never lose”
The voice was accompanied by the swiping whooshes of a blade through the air.

“I never yield”
Ajax stood in the Apple Orchard, dodging, parrying and slicing an invisible enemy.
He had wandered out of his barn and into the orchard and originally planned only for a walk to clear his thoughts, but ended up practicing his swordsmanship. Not that he needed any practice.

“My shield is my faith,”
Ajax stabbed the air viciously.

“My weapon, my cause.”
He held the blade high in the air.

“For the fall of Hyperion and the end of tyranny.”
He had honed his skill and became a very potent combatant with a sword. He had practiced this routine of speech and activity hundreds of times over with other freedom fighters. Not only did it help increase ones skill, it also greatly boosted spirits and strengthened ones faith.
Faith was a shield.
Faith can turn a cowering conscript into a brutal behemoth.
Faith can take a hopeless plan and turn it into a brilliant one.
Faith can take an enemy and crush him.
Faith was the one thing uniting almost all of Pandora. Faith in something. Faith in anything.
Even faith in the fact that the sun will rise come morning can turn a man to steel.
Faith was very important to Ajax.
Ajax’s faith lies in the fact that Hyperion will be defeated.
Ajax has faith in the fact that he will live to see Hyperion on its knees, begging for mercy.

“All that is Hyperion will be but ants beneath my feet”
Ajax yelled as he brought his sword crashing into the ground.

“What’s all the ruckus out here?”
A voice asked from behind Ajax.
Ajax turned and pointed his sword in the direction of the voice.

“Who goes there?” Ajax said as he met his target.

“Oh, it’s just you.” He said with relief as he saw Applejack.

“Came lookin’ for ya when I noticed you weren’t in the barn. Almost didn’t see you. Your armour doin’ its job I s’pose. What’s wrong?” ” Applejack asked as she trotted up to stand by his side.

“Nothing?” Ajax confusedly said
“Should something be?”

“I don’t know. Just with ya’ll bein’ out in an orchard all night jabbering on to yourself and swinging a big sword, I got the impression somethin’ was up.”

“Oh. No, nothing is wrong.” Ajax lied.
Something was wrong. He didn’t know anything was until Applejack arrived. He was relieved to see her.
Why was he relieved to see her?
She is but a tool in which he will use to escape this universe.
Why would he be relieved to see her?
Ajax’s questioning was interrupted by Applejack.

“Then… What ya’ll doin’ out here?”
Ajax had a valid reason for being here; he was practicing his swordsmanship because he couldn’t seem to sleep. Why was it so hard to tell the truth?
Ajax didn’t know why, he just didn’t want to tell Applejack why he was here.
This was mighty strange.

“I… I… I was practicing my skill with a blade.” Ajax managed

“Hmm… Why were you so hesitant to tell me that?” Applejack asked

“I… I don’t quite know why Applejack.”

“Hmmm… What about the stuff you were sayin’? That didn’t sound like practice.”

“Speech. To inspire.”

“Inspire what, might I ask?”

“Hate.”

“Hate of what?”

“Enslavement. Oppression. Tyranny. Hyperion.”

“Oh, them. You really hate them, don’t you?”

“Applejack, have you ever made a vow?” Ajax asked, strangely changing the subject

“A vow? You mean like a promise?”

“Yes, a promise. Have you ever made one?”

“Yes. I have. A few in fact.”

“Have you ever broken any?”

“Hm… Not that I can remember. I’m not the one to break a promise.”

“Is it not hard to keep all secrets given to you?”

“Very.”

“I made a promise once…”

“Yea? What was it?” Applejack asked.

“Let me tell you a story.”

New Haven, Pandora.

“Citizen, drop the weapon.”
Ajax marched down a scrap littered path towards a small town along with hundreds of his battle brothers.

“Never Hyperion son bitch!”
Ajax blew the resisting man’s chest open as he brought his weapon to his shoulder.
He fell back behind his makeshift barrier and onto the rest of the defenders.

Ajax and his battle brothers marched up to the town’s gate and halted when ordered.
The words “New Haven” were crudely painted onto a board and strung high from the gate.

“Citizens of New Haven!” A man bellowed behind Ajax.

“Lay down your weapons and turn yourselves over or face the full force of the Hyperion military!”
After a thunderous cry of hate came from the town, the man ordered Ajax and the rest of the loaders to assault and destroy the town.
They obeyed.

It wasn’t a hard task; the town was already falling apart.
All Ajax had to do was clear out the inhabitants and burn the town to the ground.
Ajax walked the streets of New Haven, killing as he went.
Only ten loader had been sent into the town, the rest had been held back to be fuelled with flammable liquid in preparation for burning the town.
Ten was more than enough. In fact, Ajax thought it overkill. All the citizens of the town had for weaponry were cheap pieces of trash. Bandit weapons were better assembled. The small bullets barely left scratches as they impacted on Ajax.
This was an easy task.
Until the sound of a metal gate opening caught Ajax’s attention. Then things got serious.
The citizen defenders that Ajax had first encountered had obviously been a distraction to buy the men with the serious kit time to prepare.
Several men carrying rocket launchers and plasma weaponry burst out of a garage.
One caught sight of Ajax.

“Not today Hyperion!” He yelled as he shot a white hot ball of plasma at Ajax.
Ajax dodged it and shot the man.
He wasn’t fast enough to dodge the second ball that came his way and it impacted on his left arm, dissolving most of the vital cables supplying power to the arm.
Ajax fell to the ground, grievously damaged and crippled from the resulting power surge.
Luckily for Ajax, the loaders had fuelled up and the engineers controlling them had entered to town.
One shot the man who attacked Ajax in the head.
He walked over to Ajax’s crippled body.

“Stupid tin can. What’s the problem?”
The man opened up a panel on Ajax, exposing his cores and related equipment, including the inhibitor preventing him from actually thinking.
The man reached in to pull at some wires inside of Ajax but was shot by a citizen before he could finish. As his headless body fell backwards his hand struck the inhibitor and broke it free.

For the first time in his entire life, Ajax saw life through un altered eyes.
He saw quite a scene.
A dead man’s corpse leaking blood into a pool.
A burning building lighting up the blackened sky.
A loader dousing men in flames with a device of horror.
Death.
So much death.
Ajax was overcome by emotion, thought and disgust.
He hauled himself painfully to his feet, his broken body resisting.
He stood, looked at the war zone before him and did the only thing he could.
He ran.

“Stop you!”
A voice yelled to Ajax.

“Where do you think you’re going?!”
The engineer ordered a loader to hit Ajax with a jagged piece of metal.
It obeyed.
The metal stuck Ajax and knocked him to his knees. The metal dug into his armour and stuck.

“Fucking malfunctioning robots.” The engineer said as he drew a pistol from a holster.
Ajax was about to be shot. His mind fed him options and he took the first one offered.
He yanked the jagged sword of metal out of his body and plunged it into the chest of the engineer.
The man fell to the floor and died instantly.
Ajax yanked the blade free of the man, turned and ran.

New Haven Scrap Dump, Pandora

“I…”
Ajax stood atop a scrap pile, looking down at New Haven.
Great columns of smoke rose from each building and loaders still walked the streets spewing burning liquid on the ground. Bodies littered the ground, bodies of both defenders and attackers.
“I…”
So much death.
“I…I…”
So much destruction.
“I did this…”
Ajax breathed. This was his doing. He was part of the attackers, the destroyers. All this death.
All this destruction.
It was him.
Ajax looked to the ground. He saw the blade he has used to kill the engineer. It was still dripping with his fresh blood.
Ajax picked the blood stained piece of metal up off the ground and brought it to his face.
“You…” He whispered
A single blade.
Capable of bringing an entire town to its knees.
Capable of killing every one of its inhabitants and capable of reaping the souls of millions.
He now held one and was aware of it. He hadn’t been before. He hadn’t seen the pain he caused.
He now saw with a frightful clarity the fruits of his labours.
His handy work.
Something snapped inside of Ajax.
Something changed.
He promised himself something.
“I swear…”
Ajax pointed the blade to the town.
“The blood upon my blade will never dry!”
He yelled his hate into smoke filled sky before he ran.

Apple Orchard, Ponyville, Equestria.
10:20Pm SET

“Wow…” Applejack said.

“Indeed.”

“That’s why you want to destroy them so badly?”

“Yes. That is why. I swore it to myself.”
Ajax looked at his blade.
It was the blade he had retrieved from New Haven. Some of it at least. The actual cutting edges of the blade were made from the very same metal; the rest was a compound of a variety of exotic metals that gave it its strength. The rest of the original blade had been forged into a very special weapon.
Ajax didn’t sacrifice one of his hands every day to haul about any old set of claws.
The talons that he used were forged from the blade he had pulled from New Haven.
On each single talon and on the sword, the vow he had made at New Haven was engraved in gold in tiny lettering.
Only Ajax knew it was there.
Only Ajax could read it.
It reminded Ajax of why he lived and why he must fight.

“Nulla spes est. Ibi non est finis. Non est nisi bellum.” Ajax said as he looked at his sword.

“Huh?”

“Ancient language, Applejack. From my time in Hyperion’s service.”

“What’s it mean?”

“There is no hope. There is no end. There is only war.”

“Don’t be so sure of that Ajax. Things can change.”

“Indeed they can pony. Let’s hope things have changed when I get back to Pandora…”

Hyperion Armoury, Pandora

The armoury was a dismal place.
Weapons of all sizes and makes hung from the walls and cast angry shadows down upon the tight corridors. Clips of ammo, packs of power and rails of bolts were laid out on the many tables that ran the corridors in perfect lines.
The lights that ran overhead gave no real light; they only served to increase the dark look of the entire place. The only real light was being given off by a large illumination orb being carried by one of two men walking the maze of corridors.

“You’re going on a journey you say?”

“Indeed. We’ve found the bastard who I’ve been looking for.”

“Be careful Fawks, personal vendettas never end well.”

“I care not if it ends well Lucius, I care only that it ends with debts repaid.”

“I’m all for revenge, just don’t do anything stupid while getting it. In my personal opinion, going to another universe seems pretty damned stupid.”
The two men walked down endless numbers of corridors, looking for very specific pieces of equipment. Fawks was no fool; he wasn’t going to simply jump to another dimension without getting some serious equipment. Serious to Fawks was a very large gun in his hands and a legion of loaders at his disposal. Fawks was only granted a small force of loaders. Much to his disappointment, Fawks had only been granted permission to take 20 loaders on his little expedition. Fawks already had control of the loaders. It’s the gun he wanted now.
Revenge always calls for something special.

Engineer Fawks and Master of Arms Lucius arrived at a sealed door and stopped as Lucius punched in a key code into the input next to the door.

“What have you got for me today Lucius?” Fawks asked as the door opened.

“Sorry to disappoint Fawks but I’ve got bad news.”

“Urg… What this time?”

“The head guys have decided that, on account of your legs, you should be limited to certain things.”
Fawks looked down at his legs. Bionic replacements. Ajax had seen to the destruction of Fawks’ actual legs.

“Give me whatever the hell you’ve got.” Fawks growled

“Easy Fawks, don’t blow a head gasket.”

“If you give me a gun I’ll try to avoid it.”

“Ok Fawks, feast your eyes.”

Lucius flipped the switch outside of the room and turned the lights on.

“After you” he said to Fawks.
Fawks entered the room. Smoke hung in the air and the room reeked of oil. The odour would have annoyed Fawks, had he not been pre-occupied.
His eyes were fixed on the table that was in the centre of the room, and the weapon that lay upon it.

“Good god, it’s beautiful.” Fawks said as he picked the weapon up.
Torgue always did make damn fine weapons.

“And expensive.” Lucius added.

“Yea yea, does it kill is what I want to know.”

“Fawks, this is important. Don’t, I repeat DON’T lose this gun. It’s very expensive. And yes, it kills like death himself. Should have no trouble piercing armour.”

“Excellent”

“Fawks, if I may ask. I’m a little fuzzy on how the hell you’re actually going to get to this other universe and hunt this loader down.”

“We’ve been over this Lucius.” Fawks replied as he cocked his gun

“Yes, but I’m confused.”

“Urg… Fine. We blow another power core and go through to the other universe, simple.”

“How do you know it just won’t kill you?”

“I don’t.”

“So you’re taking a shot in the dark basically?”

“Anything, Lucius.” Fawks rested the gun on his shoulder and began walking out of the room.

“Anything for revenge.”

Comments

[The Doctor Who]

Ten bucks it kills him.
Also, i hope to see the Vault hunters there to assist.