I woke up and felt something on my body; I looked down to see Rainbow Dash happily sleeping on my lap. She must have dozed off after the conversation last night, so she camped on me to feel comfortable. I looked up to the room and saw the rest of my squad still sleeping. I carefully picked up Rainbow Dash and placed her on the rug, trying not to disturb her sleep, and walking out the door. I heard her yawn and she stretched her legs, looking up to see me walking out the door.
“Hey, Storm. Where you going so early?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“For my regular morning walk, you gonna come?” I asked.
“Sure, I’m up for a bit of exercise.” She said, finally waking up.
We walked out the door and walked along the east path of Ponyville, finally stopping at Sweet Apple Acres.
“So can you fly?” She asked.
“Do you see wings?” I asked sarcastically, turning around to show her that I didn’t have wings.
“Doesn’t the UNSC have things to do that though?” She asked.
“Wings, no. Jetpacks are more our thing.” I said.
“Jetpacks?” She wondered.
I activated the jetpack positioned on my back and twin thrusters emerged from the pack and shot me up into the air, then hovering above the ground by a couple metres. The new jetpacks were much more efficient to non-Spartan troops because marines or ODST didn’t wear suits weighing 1000 kilos, so they lifted us easier and were more fuelled because of the advance from the prototype, letting us stay up in the air for prolonged times.
“That’s so awesome!” She nearly squeed, shooting up into the air with her own wings and hovering in front of me.
“The rest of your team told us lots of what we asked, even what you guys have been through. You’ve been in a lot of wars, right?” She asked.
“Insurrection, the Covenant, the Flood, you name it. As long as we have hope, we fight for our planet.” I said, remembering all the moments when humanity was at war, seeing fellow soldiers being cut down in my memories.
“Dare, as she calls herself said you guys were on a mission to New Mombasa, then didn’t continue after that, said it was classified.” She said, laying on a cloud near me.
“Yeah, ONI likes to keep things classified most of the time. Dare seems to know what she’s doing.” I said, snorting at the fact that ONI is so classified.
“So how did you get here?” She asked.
“Mission was to destroy the Covenant carrier from the inside, we intended to do just that, then the carrier decides to jump into slipspace and the explosion must have knocked our pod power offline and we end up here.” I explained the situation.
“Rainbow, what’re you doing up there?” Came a southern sounding voice.
“Talking to my ODST friend, why?” She said, pointing at the figure across from her.
I shut off my jetpack and fell to the ground, landing on my feet and turning to the orange pony sporting a fedora (I don’t know what the actual hat was called, okay?).
“Be careful there, don’t want you to break your legs, Storm.” Rainbow Dash commented on my sudden jump.
“I’ve been shot from a cruiser into the earth at top speed in a pod about 50 times, so I think I can handle a few metres on my legs, Dash.” I said, looking at the cyan pegasus descending from the air.
“Whoa, where’s y’er face at?” The orange pony said, tapping on my visor where my face should be.
“It got abducted… by aliens,” I dramatically said, then bursting into laughter. “Nah, my face is behind this visor on my helmet.” I added.
“Ah remember you, you were with that other guy that looked exactly like you. Are you all clones or something?” She asked.
“No, we simply wear the same (badass) armour, with a few distinctions on our modules.” I said.
“Wanna race?” Rainbow Dash asked out of nowhere.
“Where to?” I replied.
“To the Everfree forest and Twilight’s house.”
“Okay, where’s the Everfree?”
She pointed in the direction of the Everfree forest, getting ready for the race. I steeled myself, I knew Rainbow could probably be quicker than me in air and the ground. But I had acceleration modules for enhanced movement speed should I need it.
“Go!” Rainbow Dash said, taking off to the sky in the direction of the Everfree.
I ran and broke into a sprint, keeping up pace. I activated my movement module and ran at extreme speed, passing Rainbow Dash while I reached the Everfree forest and spinning around, breaking a tree root and sprinting back towards the town, Rainbow Dash still equal speeds with me. Sooner or later, the module would overheat and I’d lose the race. The module coolers kicked in and cooled down my sweating body.
We both were performing at maximum efficiency and reached Twilight’s house, then diving for the wall of it at the same time. Dust was kicked up and blinded us both, her eyes and my visor. She opened her eyes and looked up, noticing she had me pinned against the wall with her hooves, a strange thought creeping through her head.
“I think I won that, Helljumper.” She said with a devious grin, still pinning me against the wall.
“Bullshit, I made it here first.” I said, the dust clearing from my visor. I noticed the compromising position she had me in.
“No way, I know where this is going.” I said, pushing her hooves off me and getting back up, dusting off my armour.
A flash of blue light knocked me to my senses, looking up at the source. It was a Type-52 Troop Carrier or a Phantom, hovering high above the atmosphere.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6-EP_OdtzQ&feature=channel&list=UL) < Listen to this for full effect
“What is that thing?” Rainbow Dash asked.
I didn’t answer and turned on my helmet com, hoping the rest of my team had them on too.
“I’ve spotted a Type-52 Troop Carrier high above the atmosphere, I think it’s going to land and drop it’s troops on us.” I said into the com.
“Covenant here? Did they follow us?” Mickey responded.
“I don’t think so, but we better not find out what they want.” Dutch said.
The Phantom was slowly lowering itself into the atmosphere, preparing to invade this place I think.
“Everyone regroup on Lucas’ location, we need to take this thing down before it does any structural or physical damage to the natives.” Buck said.
I looked down at Rainbow Dash, who was curious about the Phantom floating in the sky.
“I need you to go Celestia and get her to round up all the civilians in town before that thing lands.” I said.
“What for?” She asked, tilting her head to the side.
“Just trust me, if you do this, you or anybody in this town won’t be hurt. Just go.” I said seriously.
She shot off quicker than the speed of light, heading towards the palace to warn Celestia of the danger that was approaching fat. Several minutes passed and the rest of my squad cam to my position. They found me looking up at the Phantom, then realised that it wasn’t here yet. Celestia had everyone inside the palace, except herself and her sister plus a battalion of guards.
“What is this about?” Celestia asked as the Phantom lower even more, closing the distance.
“Covenant.” Dare said plainly, drawing her MA5C Assault Rifle.
Everyone drew their weapons and readied themselves for a fight, Dutch pulled out a large weapon that rested on his shoulder, the Spartan Laser.
“Is everyone safe?” I asked, glancing at Celestia and Luna.
“They are safe from harm inside of the palace, but I do not see why the ‘Covenant’ pose a threat, maybe they are friendly.” Luna said.
“They aren’t friendly.” Mickey said.
The Covenant carrier hovered above the ground, its bay doors opening to drop troops off. Several Covenant jumped off the carrier, being peppered with gunfire as they did. Several Elite Ultras returned fire, spraying plasma bolts in our direction. Our ODST squad rolled to evade the plasma fire, taking Celestia and Luna into cover with us.
I replaced my M7S SMG and drew my M45 Tactical Shotgun, then sprinting into the battle, shooting an Elite on the chest, dropping his shields instantly and killing him. The Phantom shot plasma bolts at the tightly packed ODST squad, making them disperse and return fire at the vehicle, but to no avail, the armour on it was resistant to small arms fire.
“Dutch, use the Laser!” I shouted before killing a Grunt.
Dutch aimed his oversized weapon at the vehicle and charged it, the red light flickering and designating the target. After a good three seconds, the weapon shot an elegant blood red beam at the Phantom, making it spark and shoot plasma splatters. The Phantom glowed and exploded, killing the unlucky Covenant that stood under it with debris. An Elite with an energy sword charged at me, swinging the blade and slicing my armour, singing it and blood spilling from the wound. I retaliated by shooting a shotgun shell at the Elite and dropped its shields, in the rage of being killed it tackled me into the dirt. I punched the thing right in the face, making it roar at me with its mandibles and preparing to stab me with its Energy Sword again, but it was stopped by Dare shooting it with her automag and kicking it off me. It scooted across the ground, trying to retreat from the attack. I picked up my fallen shotgun and approached the Elite slowly, aiming at its head pulling the trigger, the result having the Elite’s head exploded and replaced by indigo blood and me being coated in the indigo blood as well.
“All hostiles eliminated, you can come out now, Princesses.” I said, loading shells into the chamber of my shotgun.
Celestia and Luna heard this, coming out from their hiding place and seeing that seven ODST stand in the midst of a battalion of dead Covenant, the ground painted in indigo blood. I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder and remembered being slashed by that Elite. I grasped the wound, covering it from blood loss.
“I’ve been hit, biofoam might be of need.” I said, still covering the wound. The laceration from that sword pained me badly.
Rookie pulled out a canister that contained biofoam from his rucksack and headed toward me. I uncovered the wound and he moved the spout over the cut on my shoulder, spraying a white foam into the wound that pained me at first, it felt like thousands of tiny knives stabbing me at once. The pain from the foam then numbed as the intended process kicked in, disinfecting my skin, bone and muscle from the plasma burn. The wound sealed but is left with a red mark on my unarmoured shoulder.
I ran my hand over my breastplate, my fingers collecting indigo blood in the process, I wiped my hands on my breastplate, wiping off the blood that had spilled on me when I exploded that Elite’s head.
“Great, I’m covered in blood that isn’t mine.” I commented.
“Buck, this Elite had something on it.” Dutch said, crouching over the dead Elite and holding a datapad.
End of Part 3