//------------------------------// // Where was I, again...? // Story: Haylo: Crimson // by Zarius9998 //------------------------------// As far as that whole "battle" is concerned, Ma'm, I believe Artemis won...yes, she nearly died, and yes, Washington escaped, but to be fair, Artemis had not had the same amount of field experience as him. If the playing field was equal...she could have easily beaten him. Y...I...yes!...Sorry, I know, I know my opinion doesn't really count here...how about Luna's? I know she agrees with me. ------------- ...I agree with Pip, Miss Halsey. ------------- Told you. Now this whole transition in and out if the room was a big waste of time...right, right, whatever. I'll continue with the debrief. Guess I can go back to Equestria now...are you sure you don't want to hear about her recovery from the fight with Washi-o-okay! Sorry!...so back at Equestria... ------------- Only about a mile outside of Ponyville, two agile combatants were fighting it out for the sake of life...or death. One was a battle hardened, quick-footed soldier, who had defeated and out maneuvered many an enemy...and the other was a young filly. Contrary to what you may think, this filly was actually holding her own in the fight...actually, she was doing more than that, she was winning!...and having fun in the process! "Hehe...heh...hahahaaah!" The Skirmisher scrambled back to it's feet after being slammed across the face by a black hoof yet again. This was insanity! How could this mare know so much about combat? Nopony obviously taught her, she was still in school at the time! This Skirmisher was way in over his head...there was no way he would ever end-up defeating this sadistic mare. With every blow he took, this thought was even more drilled into his mind. "This is SO MUCH FUN!" the mare screamed in joy, taking a moment to clap her hooves with delight. The Skirmisher was dumbstruck by this...she was just PLAYING!? "C'mon! You're not playing enough!"  She stepped up and head butt the Skirmisher, knocking him backwards off his balance. Before he was able to recover, she chomped down onto his right leg and flicked her upper body away and back, flinging the dazed and confused creature through the air until he disappeared behind the foliage. "He-hah! That was so cool! Let's do it again!" the mare charged through the brush to come face-to-face with the rest of the Skirmisher's squad...apparently, they went looking for him a while ago. She slowly looked to each and every member of this squad, noting the cool looking hammer one if them hefted. Two Brute minors, four grunts, and a hammer-wielding Brute Chieftain...plus the injured Skirmisher she was "playing" with a few moments ago, "Oooohhh...new playmates..." the mare grinned happily, almost looking cute in her delighted state...as cute as you can get caked in blood, dirt, and ash, anyway. "Crush her!" the Chieftain ordered, pointing to the small mare. The two Brute minors roared and opened fire upon her, though she dodged the barrage of yellow spikes deftly, humming while she moved. Meanwhile, the Skirmisher started to crawl away, whimpering in fear as he knew she would destroy them all. He suddenly snapped his head around at the sound of a Brute's painful scream to see that she had managed to latch onto it's neck with her teeth. The poor Brute desperately tried to yank her off, but all he succeeded in doing was forcing her teeth deeper into his neck. "Raaareglfgl..." the young mare suddenly and roughly tore off of the Brute, kicking away upon realizing that the other Brute was about to open fire on her since his comrade was doomed anyway. She evaded the spikes again, laughing as they reduced any chance the Brute she had attacked had of living to zero. "You'll pay for that, fool!" the second minor shouted, hilting his Spiker and roaring in anger at the death if his partner. The mare merely turned to him and shrugged, only enraging him further, "Die!" The Brute charged at her and jumped, preparing to smash her into the ground. Instead, though, just as he started to bring his fists down, she dashed out of the way, rolling to her feet and turning to him with a devilish grin, "Graaah!" the Brute reached for his Spiker again only to find it gone, "What what!?" Artemis held up his Spiker, which she had swiped as she dodged his attack, "My toy now." The Brute, even more enraged than before, charged at her with a yell of pure fury. She shook her head, tossing the stolen Spiker behind her before jumping back to avoid his fists again. She backflipped, caught the Spiker in her mouth, and pulled the other two Spikers she had lifted off of the first two brutes off her side so that, when  she landed, there were three Spikers pointed at the minor. "Wh-what is this!?" he shouted before his entire front side gained a similar look to a certain Super Hedgehog... The Skirmisher was completely mortified...she used her TONGUE to fire a third weapon! He was done with this. He immediately got up and sprinted as far away from there as he could, hoping to whatever deity he followed that he would NEVER cross paths with that mare again...he tripped multiple times on his way to wherever...that bite mark on his leg would be there forever. At the sound of terrified chatter, the mare turned her head to the four grunts who shook in their gas masks, wondering what fate was about to befall them. Two immediately turned and ran, only to be crushed by the Chieftain's gravity hammer with a disapproving roar. He did NOT tolerate retreat...lucky for the Skirmisher, he didn't see his retreat. The remaining two grunts figured they had nothing else to do beside whip out their stickies, ignite them, and scream wildly while they charged at that insane mare. At the sight if the fiery blue orbs, Artemis glared, her bubbly mood switching to hatred. Those same spheres had killed her mother...and no matter what kind if trauma she would ever go through in the future, no matter what kind of pain and horror-induced amnesia she would later receive...she would never forget how much she hated the sticky grenades. She spat out the Spiker in her mouth before angrily pitching her right-hand Spiker at the closest grunt. It hit it square in the face, crushing it's skull and causing it to drop the stickies it was holding. In it's blind terror, the second grunt just ran right into the stickies the first had dropped and it exploded in a destructively beautiful blue plasma-electro-flame. Artemis instantly got over her sour mood and smiled happily at the sight... The Chieftain, on the other hand, could not TOLERATE being humiliated by this puny pony any longer, so he raised his hammer above his head, roaring a battle cry of fury, then charged at the slightly dazed and awestruck mare. He would crush her if it was the last thing he did! The mare, though, noticed he was coming, and turned to face her adversary. Before he reached her she threw her last Spiker away, as it was out of ammo, and lifted a scalped UNSC soldier of his pistol and ammo. Taking a quick moment to look it over in her hoof before dodging to the side to avoid the hammer, she noted that something was scrawled on it's side with a knife crudely before the soldier's death. She'd have to examen it later, though, for this hammer wielding ape was pretty fast and was already upon her again. "Die!" it shouted, swinging it's hammer down again. The mare scowled before diving backwards then rolling to her hooves again, taking aim and firing at the brute. He took a few shots, but ignored them and charged again. This surprised the mare...he was tough, that's for sure. Quickly reloading first, she jumped as the hammer was brought down again, the gravity explosion causing her to float a little higher, then came back down and landed on the hammer itself with a smirk. "You're fun!" she laughed at the confused Brute before running up the hammer's handle and delivering a face-full of pistol. The brute stumbled slightly, but kept a grip on his hammer, trying to swing her off. She jumped again, though, flipping over him and latching onto his back, where she proceeded to fire round after round of bullets into the back of his skull. With every shot at point blank, the Chieftain had no time to activate his power armor to protect himself and was dead by the end of the clip. He fell forwards, landing on his face and dropping the hammer while Artemis laughed in joy, her face covered in fresh blood while she sat on his back. "SO MUCH FUUN!" she sang, giggling in fits. Truly, this was one crazy mare...she was later found trying to pick-up and swing the Gravity hammer, without success, by UNSC soldiers while looking for survivors. She had a pistol with the word "Crimson" scrawled into it's side. Apparently, the person she had lifted the pistol off of was the leader of the previous Crimson Team...who all died on Equis.  ------------- I wish I could do more research on that Team, Ma'm, but they are blacklisted and blocked-out at every turn...I'm just going to guess that they were just like us. The Clean-up Crew and Bad Company, correct...? Thought so...I promise I won't pry any more than that. So now that you've got all this backstory stuff...you need to hear what happened during our recovery of Operation /3R_0R/, correct? Alright...it started-out normal...just a recon for anything or anypony salvageable after the battle...turned out that there was more to that Facility which the Covenant REALLY wanted no one to see...and live. ------------- "Alright! Simple and usual procedure here, ya freaks! Drop in, recover anything and anyone useful, pick-off some leftover enemies, and get the hell back home!" Commander Smith shouted at us, her voice barely audible past the rushing wind and jets. We were scheduled to drop from near-orbital altitude in a few more minutes, and she was repeating our mission to us while the drop doors opened. "This Facility was shut down by an army of ours a while ago! The Covey fought tooth and nail to defend it's contents! But eventually lost as their forces barricaded themselves inside and we starved them out!" she continued, "As no soldier has entered yet, no one is entirely sure what exactly the conditions inside are like at this time! They don't even know if every bastard is dead in there! Seeing as it's been about five years since they barricaded themselves in, it's safe to assume they are! Still...!" Reyna fitted her Recon helmet on, motioning for us to do the same. Quickly, Artemis, Ryan, and I snapped our helmets on and activated our comms, "We're going in blind, so tread lightly." Each of us nodded before turning to our drop spots and awaiting the green light. Artemis and I would be dropping in free fall, using an enhanced armor ability which utilizes the defensive power of the armor lock and bubble shield and applies it to our shields to defend us from the searing heat of friction in the way down, and finally overcharges itself to the max to protect us from the impact. Our two ODST human partners obviously dropped via ODST drop pods. I looked over to Ryan, or Ghost, to see him messing with his ODST scout helmet and some of his equipment. Probably configuring them to work together properly. Next I looked to our leader, Reyna, or Widow, to see her checking her shotgun and SMG for any flaws or malfunctions. Lastly, I drifted my eyes to Artemis, our Wolfie, and her self-painted, out of regulation, dark red and black armor which matched the color scheme of her own coat, mane, and tail. She was checking-over that custom Sniper of hers, which she nicknamed "Undertaker," to make sure everything was working fine with it. I, on the other hand, already checked my equipment and made sure it was in it's drop-pod.  Soon enough, an alarm went off, alerting us that we would be dropping in a few moments, so my entire squad packed all their gear into their respective pods. The ODSTs kept their equipment in their own personal pods, while Artemis and I had to use separate ammo pods which we'd have to find once we touched down. It was somewhat annoying doing so, but it couldn't be helped. An image of Reyna, via her internal helmet cam, popped-up on the top right hoof corner of our visors, her voice buzzing in the earpiece. "Alright, on my mark, jump. Three..." I tensed-up...this was my first near-orbital jump... "...two..." It was going to be one hell of a fall, I knew that much. "...one..." "Buckin' OOHRAH, BITCHES!" Artemis shouted, right before the command was given. "Go! Jump jump jump!" Artemis moved a moment before me, doing a backflip out of the back while I trailed behind her and our two ODST companions slid out, falling behind us in their pods, "See you on the ground." Reyna's image was replaced by an elevation timer, which was dropping QUICKLY. I shifted my gaze below me to find Artemis spread eagle like I was...except facing upwards towards me...I swear I could still FEEL her creepy gaze aimed right into my soul...she suddenly flipped around and went streamline, speeding up and getting further and further away from me. I decided to do the same, coming to the rational that reaching ground faster was better. Activating my friction resisters, I shifted my limbs tight against my body, tilting down so as to cut through the air more smoothly. Checking my elevation counter, I saw it CLEARLY increase in the rate at which it dropped...though I still had a ways to go. Below me, I could see the layer of clouds racing up to meet me like a wall of pure white. At first, my instinct told me to fear hitting it...then I remembered it was just TINY bits of water which would evaporate the moment it touched me due to the intense heat the outside of my armor probably felt like...I thought I saw some flames lick by once or twice, too...I broke the clouds and entered a MASSIVE storm. It was dark, rainy and windy. Lightning struck everywhere and visibility was somewhat low. Luckily, my elevation meter was still up and I knew just when to overcharge the shield to brace for impact. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something heavy and fast burst through a small forest, shaking them wildly, then I quickly activated my shield and gritted my teeth, closing my eyes and hoping for the best... Next thing I knew...I woke up with Artemis standing over me and it was the middle of the night.