The sounds of a distant battle were sounds that Six knew all to well from her time on Reach. Only instead of gunfire and plasma its swords and magic. And walking through the seemingly abandoned library, those muffled sounds of warfare were all too audible to the Spartan. They were in a warzone now, and that’s just where Six was at her best. Right now the first thing on the agenda is making sure this building is secure by finding and barricading all other entrances and exits. Once that was done Six could search the building for any stray hostiles and or Civilians.
Once that basis was covered, they could begin to plan a way to Evac the Civilians out of the city before going on the offensive. Walking through the maze of bookshelves the silence of the library became obviously clear. Her motion tracker wasn’t picking anything up, it was totally empty and Six didn’t like that one bit. Soon, however, after walking through the maze for several minutes Six had reached the other side of the library. The green exit sign and door visible on the far wall.
Walking up towards it, Six grabbed as much nearby furniture as possible and used it to barricade the door. Once she was satisfied that it was secure, Six went to clear the rest of the building. Since this building wasn’t very large it didn’t take long for Six to check every room. The building was clear, it’s only habitats now confirmed to be Six, Lily, and the three guards, two of which were injured. It wasn’t the best situation to be in but it had to do for now.
Walking back to the entrance to the lobby she knocked on it six hopefully signaling to the rest of her group that it was her and not an enemy soldier. The door soon unlocked with a terrified looking Lily on the other side. She let out a sigh of relief when her eyes identified the figure in front of her as Six. “A-are we the only ones in the building,” Asked Lily. Six inturn gave a nod as another sigh of relief exited Lily’s mouth before moving to the side allowing Six to enter.
The guards had been moved onto the couches adjacent to the wall, the uninjured one having done his first aid. The guard now taking stock of their current situation from what Six could tell as he looked over the map Six had left behind. Walking up to the guard Six could see he was marking it with different information.
“What’s the Situation?” Asked Six as she walked up behind the guard. His horn stopped glowing as he looked back towards Six, seemingly wary of her presence.
“Well… from what I’m getting over the communication spells is that currently, we are here.” He gestured towards a black X on the map.” And by what command is saying this” he pointed towards a black line going through several city blocks all the way from one side of the map to the other.” Is what the current frontlines look like.”
The line he had drawn was on the other side of town meaning they were deep in enemy-occupied territory. They needed to get the Civilians and the injured back to friendly territory, and that wasn’t going to be easy. The hostile had the element of surprise and speed on their side by the looks of it.
“Just who are you?” Came the question from the guard bringing Six out of her thoughts.” You come out of nowhere, order my guards to move aside when I was out on patrol. You are as tall as Princess Luna, wear armor I have never seen before, and take out two soldiers in less than 20 seconds. You say you are a lieutenant ‘Sierra-B312’ but what does that even mean?! Just who and what are you?!”
Six just stared at the guard after he had finished his rant, panting slightly. Seconds pass as Six just looks at the soldier, weighing her options. Now, however, was not the time to disclose classified information.
“The Soldier that’s going to get you all out of this war zone” Replied Six before looking back at the map. “Now does this city have any evacuation routes?”
“Fine don’t tell me but if we get back into friendly Territory, we are going to have a nice long discussion.” Said the guard before looking back at the map. “This city as well as every other has an underground evacuation tunnel network leading out of the city limits. The closest entrance to the tunnels is here, roughly two hundred meters north. Unfortunately, that is also the same way as the front line and the city hall. This area is probably heavily defended, there's no way for us to get there unseen. And that’s not even counting the injured who will undoubtedly make us easier to spot.” The guard finished with a sigh.
The Situation seems hopeless for the guards, but for Six this was just another day in the office. All they needed was a distraction to draw the hostiles away from the tunnel entrance.” Alright here’s the plan.” Began Six grabbing everypony’s attention.
“We are going to make our way to this building here” Six gestured towards a building on the opposite side of the tunnel entrance. “Once we are there I will go out and create as much noise as possible, drawing the guards away. You will then use this opportunity to get into the tunnels and back to friendly territory.”
“B-but that s-suicide!” interjected Lily from across the room. Six couldn’t help but let a small smile creep onto her face underneath her helmet. She looked towards the guard.
“What’s your name and rank soldier?”
“Staff Sergeant Spear. Our Pegasus over there is Private Pixy.”
“At your service.” Came a weak feminine reply from the other guard Lily wasn’t currently looking over.
“And finally that’s Private Sparrow.”
“What Pixy said.” Cane the strained reply from the other guard.
“Good, call me Six, now Spear, grab that sword” He looked a bit confused at her request before grabbing the dead combatants sword with his telekinesis. “And hit me with it, as hard as possible”
“What!?” Came a chorus of shouts from the three of them.
“Just do it Staff Sergeant, and that’s an order!” Said Six her tone one of finality.
And do it he did as the sword swung through the air it’s arc putting its target as Six’s shoulder, much to the protest of the others.
A sound unfamiliar to the ponies was soon heard as a golden shield enveloped Six, stopping the sword in its tracks. Then suddenly the sword was pushed away, out of the soldier’s magical grasp before falling to the floor, it’s blade looking slightly singed.
They all stared slack-jawed at the display before they were knocked out of their stupor by a low humming sound and the golden shield shortly reappearing over Six’s armor.
“H-how did you do that? You're not a Unicorn! A-and it takes a unicorn of incredible power to keep a passive shield up. Such armor development is still only theoretically possible!”
The hiss of Six taking her helmet off interrupted the Sergeants rant, revealing her smirking face. “Do it again, same target.” Said the Spartan, too much more protest. Spear hesitantly grabbed the sword once again before swinging it at Six’s shoulder once again.
The clang of metal scraping against metal soon filled the room when the sword made contact before harmlessly sliding off of Six’s armor. The Spartan unmoving under the assault. Not a single dent was visible where Spear struck, once again sending their jaws to the floor as Six’s smirk grew slightly. “Still seem like suicide now?” Said Six with a small laugh as she reequipped her helmet.
Walking past the stunned Sergeant, Six moved to the injured guards.
“Can you two walk?” Asked the Spartan. Pixy responded by rolling off the couch and onto her hooves, cringing slightly before looking up and giving a determined nod. Sparrow, however, wasn’t so lucky as when he rolled off he let out a yell of pain before falling to the ground holding his foreleg tightly against his chest. ‘Broken...Not good’ Thought Six.
“Okay...Lily, think you can support him?” Question the Spartan, looking towards the worried librarian.
“I-I think…” She took a deep breath “Yes I believe I can” Stated Lily in a determined voice.
“Good. Now we don’t have much time. Right now the hostiles have spread themselves thin, with the speed they have moved through this city. If we wait any longer they will cement their hold on the city and make our escape even harder. We need to make our way towards the evac tunnel as soon as possible.” Six finished walking towards the door.
“Pack everything you think you’ll need, we move out in Twenty”