//------------------------------// // Chapter 19: Voi // Story: Helljumpers // by CommanderApplejack //------------------------------// "We just lost the Perimeter Cameras." A technician reported, "Motion sensors are down as well or we're not receiving. Can't tell." Keyes meanwhile had come back down to the monitoring station, "Any of our birds squawking?" She asked as she wanted to know the status of the pelicans. "No, ma'am. Wait, Overwatch has contacts. Phantoms, closing in on our position." Another technician replied as he scanned incoming reports. "Any birds less than five minutes out, bring them in. Tell everything else to scatter." The captain ordered, the staff in the Ops Center immediately got to work relaying the order to any pelican outside of the base. "We knew they'd find us eventually. But we have a plan, let's make it happen." She told the staff in the room who all answered in the affirmative. Johnson turned to the Chief and Arbiter, "Chief, move out. You too, Arbiter. The Commander will brief you as you go." The two nodded and moved down a set of stairs further into the base, Scootaloo and Twilight started to follow but were stopped by Captain Keyes. "Not this time, You two. I need you two to cover an engineering crew as they bring up a bomb from downstairs." She explained as she typed something on her notepad, "Sergeant Sparkle, corporal Hurricane's you two have to pick up a package down in storage." Twilight was astounded, "Y-Yes Ma'am!" she said and ran out of the Ops center to a freight elevator, her mind was in turmoil as she went over what had just happened. She just promoted me to sergeant?! Twilight thought as she glanced at Scootaloo, cursing the visors as she couldn't gauge her reaction to the sudden promotion. "So sergeant, what's the plan?" Scootaloo asked, Twilight could practically hear the grin from under the pegasus's helmet making her scratch her last thought, the pegasus seemed quite happy with the promotion. "get the bomb upstairs and help with the evac before getting our tails out of this deathtrap." "Well look who's there! Didn't think I'd run into you down here, lassy." A marine called out as Scootaloo stepped from the freight elevator, Twilight couldn't help but smile as she recognized the squad. "MacGregor, Hopper, Zuyev." She said, Acknowledging the marines. "Good to see you guys but we're on a clock, where is the bomb?" "Over there, Sarge." MacGregor pointed out a large contraption, that was being tended to by a group of engineers. "That right there is over forty tons of glorious explosive power." He said with a grin as Scootaloo let out a laugh, "You want to see this thing blow up don't you." She asked the Scottish marine, "Just a wee bit." He answered as they reached the explosive. "Status," Twilight asked one of the engineers who had just attached an explosive to the external of the bomb. "The detonator is fried but we fixed that by attaching external detonation charges. Only need to start the timer and wait for the fireworks." He told her as he turned around, his eyes going wide. "Holy shit, you're real." "Told you we weren't talking out of our asses!" Hopper said, the marine fist-bumping Zuyev, his Russian comrade. "I-I... What?!" The engineer stuttered before he shook his head, "Fine. Fuck it. I'm taking orders from a pony, Jason get that forklift and move this thing onto the cargo elevator!" He shouted at one of his fellow engineers, who within a couple of minutes had placed the bomb on the elevator. "She's all yours, ma'am. Me and my boys are going to head to evac, you do NOT want to be here when this thing goes off" "That goes for us too, Sparkle. Good luck with that thing." MacGregor said as he and the other marines were ready to move out themselves. "Do you have any word on how the Stalward Dawn is doing, MacGregor?" Twilight asked the marine before he could leave. "Screwed probably." He answered, both the ponies winced at the assessment. "The captain kicked off everyone who wasn't necessary and then went back up to rejoin the defense fleet in orbit, I know the doc made it off the ship but as for its status, I don't know shit." "Thanks, I've been too busy to check myself." Twilight thanked him and hit the elevators ascend button with her magic, "Godspeed, Sparkle. Give 'em hell!" He shouted after them as they went back up to the Ops Center where a marine moved the bomb in the middle of the room and started setting a timer. "Chief should be back in just a bit." Johnson said as Twilight walked up to him, the base started shaking slightly as explosives were being set off somewhere in the base. The captain appeared on the video screen as she had already left, "Johnson, you might wanna put that out." she said as she saw the sergeant major smoking. He quickly dropped his cigar and stamped it out as Keyes had a good point, at the same time the Chief and Arbiter came running back into the Ops center. "Chief, have a look. A little going-away gift for the Covenant. We've linked it to smaller charges throughout the base." The captain told him, "Johnson, soon as the evacuation is complete, start the timer." "Understood." The sergeant major replied curtly, "Good luck everyone. See you on the last Pelican out." She said as she disconnected her feed, "Chief, Arbiter, Helljumpers. Follow me. Brutes have taken the barracks. Marines are trapped inside. Those apes ain't much for mercy, Chief. We both know what they do to prisoners." The sergeant said as he pulled out an assault rifle from a weapons locker, "Get to the barracks, save those men. Then escort them to the Landing Pad for evac. I'll guard the bomb." The chief nodded and led the group to a door at the back of the room and went down the stairs, opening the blast door that led to the barracks. ''Knock, knock." Scootaloo started to which Lucy added, "Who's there?" BANG A shot rang out from Twilight's sniper rifle at the same time as a brute fell further into the barracks, "You two know that you're the worst, right?" "Yep!" Scootaloo replied as she shot forward alongside the chief and the arbiter. Twenty minutes later they had reached the opposite side of the barracks with all the survivors they found along the way. "Again, the Brutes show their weakness." The arbiter muttered as they reached a lift up to the hangar, where the radio crackled to life, "Commander, we lost the Ops Center. Brutes attacked in force. Couldn't hold them off. We're falling back to the hangar. But don't wait for us." Johnson reported but the captain stopped her pilot from leaving without him. The elevator reached the top level where a brute pack was shooting the captain's pelican which forced her to retreat, they cleared the hangar from brutes with the saved marines and Johnsons squad to allow a the pelican to land. "Brutes. In the Ops Center. They disarmed the bomb. Sorry Commander, there were too many. Even for me." Johnson told Keyes as he stepped up the ramp of the pelican. "Chief, Arbiter, get back to the Ops Center. Kill those Brutes. Rearm the bomb. I've gotta get these men outta here. But I'll radio with another exit. Good luck." Scootaloo quickly opened her own radio channel, "Commander, permission to join them." She asked her not too eager of having to leave. "Denied, Hurricane. This one's not for your squad." The pegasus grumbled for a bit but relented as she was ordered into the pelican which took off, a couple of minutes later they could see a large jet of flame shooting up into the sky where the base had been located previously. "Boom goes the firework." Mack commented as he looked at the base, "Nobody fucks with us on our home turf." "Chief, please respond. What's your status over? If you can hear me, find transport. Head for the town of Voi." She could hear the captain call out to the chief, Twilight looked at the disgruntled pegasus who walked forward to the cockpit. "Scootaloo, what are you doing?" She asked her as she opened the door to the cockpit. "Finding out where we're going. I want to know why we had to miss an awesome fight." She replied and stepped into the cockpit only to come out less than a minute later and sat back down in her chair. Twilight grinned, "And?" Scootaloo huffed, "Classified... we're flying for another forty-five before we get there." she grunted, "I'm going to try and nap if possible." She closed her eyes and tried to sleep, where others would have found the noise of the pelican's engines a hindrance to sleep for Scootaloo they were a sign everything was working properly. Her head fell on her chest as she managed to fall asleep in within minutes. Scootaloo opened her eyes, she was once again in the burning town of Ponyville. She looked around for the inevitable weapon that would appear every time she woke up in this place, she eventually found the SMG standing next to the bench that had the corpse of Lyra laying on it. The mare had long since stopped bleeding out in her dreams and every time Scootaloo found her she would be long dead, burned by plasma fire. After she checked the ammo she noticed that this one of the rare occasions where she was wearing her armor minus the helmet. She waited for the scream that would indicate the direction of the covenant soldiers that would inevitably show up. Hearing a scream coming from the center of town she spread her wings and took flight, readying her SMG she came into view of the town hall where a Brute was commanding a squad of grunts in an assault against the building. Kill the brute, scatter the grunts to pick them off individually. She quickly calculated in her mind as she dive-bombed the largest alien. Her energy blade effortlessly severing the spine of the large ape, switching to the SMG she effortlessly cut down the running grunts. "Scootaloo?" She heard someone ask from behind her. whirling around to face whoever spoke she almost came face to face with Rainbow. She lowered her SMG and sighed, "Go on, tell me what kind of a murderer I am." She bluntly stated, Rainbow looking genuinely confused. "What? Why would I do that!" She practically shouted startling Scootaloo, in every previous dream this would be the point where she would be shouted at by her friends. "Squirt, I've been looking for you and the egghead for months now!" "what?" Scootaloo just replied as gears started turning in her head, "Wait, you're... I mean... You're dreamwalking!" She concluded and shot forward, embracing the blue pegasus in a hug as she started crying. She didn't give a damn that Dash would see her in such a weak state, she just wanted to hold her 'sister' after not seeing her for months. "It's all right Squirt, let it all out. Everything will turn out well like it usually does." Rainbow ackwardly tried to comfort the filly who suddenly started laughing, "Easy for you to say, Dash. Unlike Equis, Earth has a slight invasion problem." Scootaloo snickered as she stopped embracing Dash, inspecting the outfit that the rainbow-maned pony was wearing. "Lunar guard? That's unexpected, I at least expected a Wonderbolt reserve uniform." "The Bolts are on hiatus until you and Twilight are back on this planet." Rainbow answered, "Twilight already told me you were caught up in the fight, only she didn't want to tell me what you did." Scootaloo sighed and sat down, "I'm a close quarter combat specialist and I know how to fly aircraft. You see these assholes?" She pointed at the fresh corpses that lay on the ground scattered through the courtyard, "They're the crap we have to deal with over here. I-" The dream began to ripple, "Celestia, DAMN IT!" Rainbow cursed, "Why do these conversations always get cut short!" Scootaloo had already picked up her SMG and was swirling it around, "Dash, Status. What's happening?" "You're waking, Squirt." She replied, Scootaloo nodded and reattached her weapon to her armor, "Well if that's the case, wish me luck. I Should be back tonight if I'm not getting shot into oblivion by the covies." Dash grimaced, "Stay safe out there, Squirt." Scootaloo made a quick salute with her wing as the dream disintegrated around her and dragged her back into the real world. "Hurricane, get up." She heard Mack said as she opened her eyes, "Nap time is over we're headed for Voi in just a bit." Scootaloo nodded and detached her safety harness, stepping out of the pelican into the hangar. Her eyes immediately drifted to an aircraft at the back of the hangar, "Please tell me that I'm not dreaming." She said as a smile crept onto her face. "I don't think so?" Mack replied unsure of what the pegasus was talking about, "AC-220" Scootaloo simply replied, her eyes glistening. "Where's the captain?" She asked Mack, looking very excited. "In the OPS Center." He replied. "Thanksbye!" Scootaloo said as she bolted away to where she believed the captain was, weaving past any soldier in her way she made it to the OPS Center. She landed and stood rigidly, "Corporal Hurricane, Captain Keyes." She announced herself. "At ease, Hurricane. What are you doing here I thought your squad was about to head for Voi to hook back up with the Chief and Arbiter." Keyes said as she looked up from the holotable in front of her. "Ma'am, there's a gunship in the hangar that's just sitting and doing nothing. Permission to take it out for a spin, the chief could use that kind of firepower for air-support." Scootaloo quickly explained, the captain looked confused and tapped in some commands into the holotable which brought up Scootaloo's record. "How did you get rated to fly one of these things?" She asked as she looked through Scootaloo's record, the pegasus snorted. "The UNSC kept us in orbit for two months, I spent most of that time in either flight simulators or on a firing range." The captain looked skeptically at Scootaloo but didn't question her further, "In that case, I'm assigning you to the gunship with private Duran. The craft will be prepped and ready in fifteen, Give them hell, Hurricane." Scootaloo saluted and rushed back to the hangar where she nearly crashed into Twilight, "Scootaloo, where were you! We're heading off in fifteen with gunship support, you need to make sure you've got all your gear!" She picked up the pegasus and tried to run off to an armory, Scootaloo just flapped her wings twice and started hovering. "Calm down Twilight, I just got assigned to fly that gunship." "Wait, what?!" Twilight said with a blank stare, "You're kidding me." "Nope, but I've got to go now since I need to prepare that bird." Scootaloo said as she shot off to the gunship. She quickly entered the large aircraft as engineers were filling her up with fuel, storing her ODST helmet out back she switched it out for a pilot one before heading for the cockpit. "She's ready to go, Corporal." Zoey called out to her as she entered the cockpit, "Really, 'Starfire', I might outrank you now but we're still friends. It's just Hurricane for you." Scootaloo told her as she strapped into the front seat "Will do, Corporal!" She said with a teasing grin, Scootaloo rolled her eyes as she started the pre-flight checks. Ten minutes later they got the all clear and lifted off, the large gunship lifted off from the floor of the hangar and slowly moved forwards towards the exit. Scootaloo took the moment where they were hovering to check the calibration on the two twin thirty-millimeter cannons mounted on the bottom of the gunship while Zoey checked the missile launchers on the top of the craft. "Kilo zero-three-four, this is Starfire. Do you copy?" Zoey called out to the pelican behind her, "Loud and clear, Starfire. Over." The pilot replied. "Copy that, zero-three-four. Keep within the range of my guns, Starfire out." Zoey replied as she took control of the craft and punched the throttle, "I have more experience flying this thing, Hurricane. You take the guns." She told the pegasus. ''Gladly" Scootaloo replied, twenty minutes later they came within sight of the city where the Covenant was digging a large hole. Zoey opened a comms channel to the chief, "Sierra-one-one-seven this is Starfire. Be advised, Gunship on standby." She reported and waited for the reply. "Coordinates uploaded, Starfire." The Chief's voice came over the radio. Zoey typed in the coordinates into the flight computer and steered the craft to the chiefs location, "Get ready, Scoots. I've got two pings on ground radar." The pilot reported to the pegasus. "I see them. Engaging in, three, two, one..." Scootaloo counted down as the came into view of two Wraith tanks that were firing on the chief and a group of marines, both the twin thirty-millimeter cannons opened up on both the tanks obliterating them before they could respond to the gunship's presence. "Enemy armor destroyed." Scootaloo said as she checked the radar again. the pelican containing Mack, Twilight and Lucy came down to drop off its soldiers before heading off again. "Phantom and banshees inbound. Chief, continue through the building, we'll mop up the rest of them over here." Scootaloo told the Spartan who she could see run into the building after she closed her radio channel. Scootaloo took control of the two missile pods and locked one onto the phantom and split the other to hit the two banshees, "Let's see how you handle this." She said as she launched the missiles, the airship groaned as the automated systems reloaded the two pods. "Old bugger is just about falling apart around us." Zoey grunted while adjusting their altitude. the missiles hit their intended targets making the craft they hit burning balls of fire as they smashed into the ground below. "Get us to the other side of the factory." Scootaloo ordered Zoey who immediately pushed the throttle to lift the craft over the factory and brought it into a hover on the other side. Scootaloo once again locked the missiles onto any banshee that came near to the gunship while she used the thirty-millimeter cannons to destroy any ghosts that attacked the soldiers on the ground making their jobs laughably easy. "Uhm, Corporal... we've got a large contact inbound on the ground radar." Zoey nervously reported as the blip moved closer at incredible speed. A scarab suddenly climbed over the building and dropped down into the open space behind the factory where the chief and the other marines were located. "Oh FUCK. Initiating evasive maneuvers!" Zoey shouted as she steered the gunship out of the first barrage of plasma fire. Scootaloo redirected the thirty-millimeter cannons to fire on the scarab but where they had been effective previously they now just seemed to bounce off the thick armor of the walker. The scarab charged its secondary cannon that was mounted on top of the walker and fired at the gunship, Zoey tried to evade but the much faster stream of plasma managed to hit the starboard engine. "Lost engine number three! compensating with number one." she reported while Scootaloo checked her own systems, "Lost the second rock-" A loud explosion rocked the craft as ammunition from the destroyed pod detonated. "Damage to all engines, I'm losing altitude!" Zoey said as she struggled to keep the gunship floating, "Corporal I... Oh, shit." Zoey looked straight forward with an expression of absolute terror on her face, Scootaloo followed her gaze to where her friend was looking and went pale herself. She was looking straight into the main cannon of the scarab. "Scoots, you know how I said this thing was falling apart around us?" She asked as green plasma started forming on the main cannon, "My ejection seat has a malfunction." "Wait, what! Nononono I can get you out! unstrap yourself." Scootaloo panicked, Zoey shook her head. "No time. I'm sorry, Scootaloo, I'm not coming with you this time. Starfire out." She said as she activated the abort sequence, the canopy of the cockpit flew off and the seat the filly was strapped into launched itself into the air. She could see the gunship firing off her last defiant shots just before she got hit by the large plasma turrent and its burning hulk smashed into the ground. "ZOEY!" Scootaloo managed to shout as the G-forces pressed down on her chest. She managed to bring her hoof up to her chest and detach herself from the chair. She immediately took flight down to the burning ship, completely ignoring the scarab that had turned its attention to the Spartan now the gunship was down. The pegasus landed as close as she could get to the heat of the burning craft and threw off her pilots' helmet. Tears forming in her eyes as she could see no-one could have survived a crash like that. She snarled as she heard the scarab walking around behind her and looked up at the walker. "YOU KILLED MY FRIEND!" She shouted as she flew up the upper deck, a surprised grunt threw up his arms and started running but didn't get far as an energy blade pierced his skull. The enraged pegasus rampaged to the back of the craft killing brutes and grunts alike until she reached the main core at the back. "This one's for Zoey! MOTHERFUCKER!" She thundered as she stabbed the energy dagger into the core making it spark and flicker out, explosions started going off throughout the craft as the pegasus jumped off. Twilight, Chief and the Arbiter came running towards her as she landed. "Scootaloo! Where's Z-" "She's gone. I need a weapon." Scootaloo cut her off, the Chief took a shotgun of his back and passed it to the filly. "Our objective is the AA gun on the hill north of here." He told Scootaloo as he moved back into the factory, everyone followed him as they quickly made their way through the factory, killing brutes with the help of marines but just before they could leave they ran into two hunters. "My energy dagger is out of juice. I can't take them out that way, Chief." She told the Spartan but seconds later the loud shot of a sniper rang out through the large hangar. "I've got them, make them face their backs to me." Twilight radioed as she had flown up to a vantage point. A couple more sniper shots from the alicorn later and the two hunters were down and the group could start moving up to the hill where the Large AA gun was located, after clearing the site with all the present soldiers they quickly put up a defensive perimeter while the Chief picked up a plasma cannon to fire at the energy core on the bottom of the turrent. Everyone bolted from the large gun as it vented its plasma and exploded in a purple fireball, immediately after the turrent was destroyed the remaining frigates of the home fleet alongside all sorts of smaller strike craft flew through the gap in the defence. Scootaloo's heart skipped a beat as she saw the battered Stalwart Dawn flyby alongside the other frigates, Captain Ross had managed to keep the ship in one piece even after everything it had gone through. Scootaloo's thoughts were interrupted as Admiral Hood called out over the comms, "All ships: fire at will!" All the Mac cannons on the frigates simultaneously started firing their rounds at the main covenant ship that had parked itself in the middle of a structure in the large crater that the aliens had dug. "What the hell is that thing?" Scootaloo asked Twilight as she pointed at the large structure. "We think it's the Ark." Twilight replied as the shockwaves from the blasts were reaching the two ponies. "Well, crap." Scootaloo cursed. The large structure suddenly came to life as it a circular portion of it sank into the earth while at the same time the large covenant capital ship at the center of the structure shot an energy beam straight up into the sky, Scootaloo and Twilight both dropped to the floor as the magic field suddenly exponentially strengthened. Scootaloo in a desperate attempt to rid her body of the excess magic summoned lighting and shot it into the air, Twilight was similarly bleeding magic from her horn into the earth. Just as Scootaloo thought she couldn't take any more she felt the magic field stabilizing to something that more ore less resembled how it would be in Equestria. The radio came alive again and the Admirals' coughing voice came out, "What did Truth just do? Did he activate the rings?" "No, sir. But he certainly did something..." Keyes answered, Twilight looked at the sight before her as she saw the covenant fleet disappear into a black bubble. "It's a slipspace portal." She simply stated. "Evacuated wounded and regroup. Wherever Truth went-" The Admiral was cut off by one of his officers, "Sir, new contact - slipping in!" A covenant cruiser exited slipspace close to the hill, fleshy bits seemingly hanging from the side of the hull, and flew over the group of UNSC soldiers and crashed further up into the city. "What is it? More brutes?" The Arbiter asked but Scootaloo had already recognised what had just left slipspace, just like the chief seemingly had as he answered. "Worse" The parasite from the Halo ring had captured a ship. The Flood had landed on Earth.