//------------------------------// // Ch. 7 - Inventory // Story: Halo: ODSP // by GySgt Buck //------------------------------// "WHERE THE HELL DID THEY COME FROM?!" Dutch yelled at the Rookie as if he knew the answer. He didn't. The Covenant had ambushed them shortly after he, Dutch, and the three ponies took an inventory of their weapons, ammo, and supplies. The bad news was they were outnumbered about ten to one, not that the Rookie considered the ponies combat ready. There were a pair of Ghosts, as well, but the grunts piloting them were horrible shots. The good news was the number of goodies that Captain Dare had dropped them enough firepower to level an office building. Aside from thousands of small arms and anti materiel ammunition in the drop, the best prize was the four Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifles, affectionately known as the Spartan Laser. A perfectly placed shot could cripple a Phantom dropship, and a barrage of them could blow one out of the sky...in theory. Dutch had told the Rookie about the awesome power of this weapon; during the Battle of New Mombasa, Dutch had destroyed several enemy Wraiths, many with one shot. It was truly an awesome weapon. The downside was you only got about four or five shots from it before the battery was completely drained. The upside was that Captain Dare had been kind enough to send a generator for the laser's battery, which effectively doubled the amount of firepower the ODSTs could dish out with them. The ODSTs and their pony companions had taken cover behind a huge crate. They hadn't had time to pry it open, but it was big enough to provide ample cover in the mean time. "What are we gonna do? There's a hundred of them!" The Rookie knew Rainbow Dash was exaggerating, but still, fifty or a hundred, it was all the same. They were hopelessly outgunned. They weren't surrounded but their cover wouldn't last long, and they were too close to use some of the rockets they had gotten in the drop and the Spartan Lasers were long range weapons, and the enemies were no more than twenty yards away. The Rookie and Dutch had dropped about five covies, four grunts and a jackal, in a few seconds, but the jackals had set up a line of defense that they couldn't hope to penetrate without some heavy firepower. An ever familiar hum and blue glow suddenly appeared next to the group. "GRENADE!" Dutch grabbed Rarity and Fluttershy, slinging them over his shoulder as if they were a sack of potatoes. Fluttershy was crying and whimpering and Rarity was wide eyed. The Rookie started to run but slid in the desert's loose soil. Before he could curse himself, a cyan hoof reached out. He took it without hesitation. Rainbow Dash flapped her wings with all her might, and she and the Rookie sped away as the plasma grenade exploded, knocking a wall off the crate. The Rookie nodded at Rainbow Dash before grabbing her and throwing them both behind a rock, narrowly dodging plasma fire. "Well, Rookie, wouldja look at that!" The Rookie looked towards the crate and let a rare smile cross his lips. Within the crate was an M12 Force Application Vehicle, better known as the Warthog. And not just any warthog...in place of the usual mounted light anti-aircraft gun, was a Gauss Cannon. Firing at near forty times the speed of sound, the 25x130 millimeter slug could punch through almost anything and keep going for hundreds of meters. Now if they could only get to it... Several glowing orbs appeared behind the jackals. The grunts were preparing to lob several plasma grenades their way. The Rookie got Rarity's attention. He pointed at her horn, then at the grunts, and made an arcing motion with his hand, going from the grunts to their location, then stopped, and arced his hand back towards the grunts and jackals. Fortunately, Rarity was still level headed enough to understand. "I'll see what I can do..." The grunts lobbed a half dozen or so plasma grenades their way. Rarity's horn glowed a brilliant neon blue and the grenades stopped mid flight. Using her magic, Rarity whipped them around and threw them back towards the Covenant forces. Her aim was perfect. The plasma grenades landed behind the jackals. She had managed to stick two of the grunts with the plasma grenades. The other grunts broke rank as well, and the jackals jumped forward, trying to avoid the blast. Chaos ensued. The grenades went off within a second of each other. At least a dozen grunts were immediately killed. The two grunts who were stuck ran back and took one down one brute a piece. Several jackals' energy shields went out; whether from the blasts or their deaths was anyone's guess. "Rookie, with me!" Dutch and the Rookie ran towards the Gauss Hog, shooting stragglers with their silenced SMGs. An enraged brute shoved a grunt out of his way only to be sprayed by four dozen rounds courtesy of the ODSTs went down in a heap, panicking the remaining grunts further. The ODSTs were at the Gauss Hog in three seconds. The Rookie hopped in the driver's seat and powered the hog up while Dutch mounted up in the gunner position. The Rookie drove out of the crate only to have a brute jump on the hood of his hog. The Brute had a plasma grenade in its hand, and it was glowing. This time the Rookie did curse. The brute snarled and chuckled. It raised its hand to throw the grenade in the Gauss Hog but a rainbow flashed in across the Rookie's line of site. The brute was gone but not the grenade. A blue explosion flashed on the Rookie's right, about six meter's away. Rainbow Dash plopped down in the driver's seat with a smirk on her face. "That's two you owe me, Rook." A seemingly white beam of light erupted from the barrel of the Gauss cannon, punching a hole in a brute and making a small crater behind it. Rainbow Dash gasped and looked over her shoulder. "Keep your head down, RD! We're not out of this yet!" Dutch kept on firing the Gauss cannon, and Covenant kept dying. After the Rarity assisted grenade barrage, the remaining Covenant had scattered. The few brutes had tried to rally some grunts and jackals to mount some kind of offense but it was too late. The Rookie plowed the warthog into the side of one of the ghosts, spraying the grunt driver with his SMG. Dutch shot the other ghost simultaneously; it exploded into a purple fireball. The Rookie's heart sank when the Phantom showed up. A Gauss Hog was a formidable weapon with all intents and purposed had a mini MAC cannon attached to it, but the best it could do against a Phantom was take out its weaponry. He didn't care how handy Dutch was with heavy weapons...it'd take a miracle to knock a Phantom out of the sky with a mere Gauss cannon... The Phantom opened fire at the ODSTs. Its heavy plasma autocannon peppered the ground behind the warthog, never getting a bead on the Rookie's expert driving. Dutch pecked away at the Phantom's heavy armor, trying to hit the plasma autocannon but to no avail. The side mounted autocannons were having better luck. The grunt gunners had smaller turrets and more manual control over them, and they were a hell of a shot. Rainbow Dash flew out of the passenger seat just before superheated plasma cooked the seat she was sitting in. "WHOA! I'll show him...a Sonic Rainboom outta do it..." Rainbow Dash kept pace with the warthog, dodging incoming plasma fire. "RAINBOW! Don't do anything stupid! Go back to the other ponies! Head back to town. We'll draw their fire!" "Like hay I'm going to leave you two here! I've gotta help..." Rainbow Dash's wing was singed by plasma fire. Dutch reached out to grab the falling pegasus but fell off of his mount. Rainbow Dash fell to the ground beside him, clutching her burnt wing. "I messed up...sorry..." Rainbow Dash was fighting back tears. Dutch simply picked her up and started to run. The Phantom was more interested in the Rookie and his hog. As he cradled her in his arms, Dutch noticed that Rainbow Dash was, to borrow a phrase, light as a feather. Despite being almost four feet tall, she weighed far less that Rarity had felt earlier. Fluttershy was a lightweight herself, but he hadn't noticed it earlier, what with the impending plasma grenade explosion, and all. He reached Fluttershy and Rarity a few seconds later, the Rookie still taking fire from the Phantom. It had lowered its altitude and was getting awfully close to turning the warthog into bacon. Dutch fiddled with one of the drop pods, grabbing a Spartan Laser and leveling it the Phantom. It was about two hundred meters off, but the 3x zoom made the shot somewhat easier. "Rarity, can you use your magic to fire one of these?" The white unicorn stammered. "M-me? Use that thing? I am a lady, not some ruffian." "Please! I could really use your help. That Phantom will turn the Rookie into Swiss cheese if we don't help him, and I can only fire one of these things at once!" Dutch tapped the side of his helmet, opening a channel to the Rookie. "Rookie! Swing back to my position. I'll light it up!" The warthog spun around and made a b-line towards Dutch and the three ponies. Fluttershy yelped and hid her face behind her wing. Rainbow Dash comforted her, still favoring her singed wing. The Phantom was closer now. 160 meters. The side mounted plasma cannons let loose on the warthog. A few shots strayed and impacted near where Dutch made his stand. "Rarity, please! You just have to push this button and level it at the Phantom! Easy!" 120 meters. "I'm telling you! I will not be involved in such barbarous behavior..." It was Rarity who was singed this time, but only she didn't gasp in pain, she gasped in horror. A stray plasma bolt had singed a good portion of her mane. Now instead of flowing well past her shoulder her mane now only fell halfway down her neck. She had lost a good eight inches of hair. "My hair...they shot my hair..." Her lip quivered but soon turned up into a snarl. "Son of a..." Her magic engulfed the other drop pods that were scattered about. She raised the remaining Spartan Lasers as well as two rocket launchers. The business ends of the Spartan Lasers began to glow a menacing red, mimicking the hatred in Rarity's eyes. The Phantom was upon them. The Rookie's hog roared past them. The Phantom was only twenty feet off of the ground and about 50 meters away. Rarity unleashed the power of three Spartan Lasers all at once. She fired a pair of rockets only moments later. It couldn't have been any more lucky. The three lasers hit the Phantom's left engine, killing it almost instantly. A second later, the rockets made their way into the cavity the lasers had left. What followed was an immense explosion that knocked Rarity out of her rage induced mania. Dutch dropped his weapon and dove on Rarity, shielding her from the blast. The Phantom landed with a loud crash, spewing up sand as it went. The burning hulk cut a path in the desert landscape before coming to a halt a few meters in front of them. Dutch ran around to look for survivors to turn in to casualties but found no Covenant had made it. The Rookie drove up a short time later. He hopped out of the driver's seat, examining the purple debris and his fellow ODST. He let out an enthusiastic whistle. Rarity, momentarily forgetting her mane problem, perked up. "So, how was that?" Rainbow chimed in. "Not bad..." "Not bad...for a girl." Dutch choked out. "Hmph...let's get out of here." Dutch just looked at the Rookie in amazement. Did they have a story to tell Gunny and the others when they got back... ~ ~ ~ Another scouting party hadn't returned. No matter. He could forgive their not checking in. Tiberium had his hands full at the moment. Full of three humans for him to interrogate. Three humans to torture. Three humans to eat. Yes, he would enjoy that part. Tiberium had followed the rail system to a small town in the middle of a desert. On the way they had found large horned and hoofed animals with thick brown fur. He and his brutes had made a meal out of some. That wasn't to say they hadn't fought back, oh no. They put up quite a fight. They had encountered about a dozen of these large animals, more native inhabitants of this planet, Tiberium had no doubt. They spoke and even had a fierce fighting spirit. It took several shots from a spiker to drop one of the beasts, and even more from a plasma weapon. He had smashed one's hip with his gravity hammer only to have if land on a group of grunts and start thrashing. It killed three of them before blacking out. Three less mouths to feed. Buffaloes, as one of them described themselves, were absolutely delicious. In comparison to humans, these buffalo were a delicacy. It was a shame there had been so few. He'd like to hunt some after this mission was over, with his Prophet's blessing, of course. "You goddam monkey. Kill us and get it over with. We got nothing to say to you." Tiberium looked down at the dark skinned human with amusement. These humans were so defiant. Of course they had slain many of his kind over the years but he and his Jiralhanae had killed millions, if not billions of humans. They were not a cowardly race, by any means, but they were arrogant and sickeningly brave, and that was their greatest strength and weakness. If a human thought that all but one of them would die if it meant victory, they would always fight to the last. It was a somewhat admirable quality, albeit a foolish one. In a sense they were like those accursed elites. Those damned Sangheili...they would all burn for their part in the Great Schism. "Yeah, you damned dirty ape. Eat me! RAAAARGH!!!" This time it was one of the light skinned one, the older of the two. The leader. Yes, he looked familiar. The brutes had amassed a record of humans who they had dubbed "stains" on their warrior race, that is to say, humans who had killed prominent Jiralhanae. This one in particular had killed a chieftain during the Battle of Earth. He wasn't the Demon, but Tiberium would kill this human with pride, knowing that one of his fallen brethren would be avenged. The youngest human hadn't said a word during the beatings. He had grunted in pain just like the other humans, but hadn't taken a verbal jab at him or his brutes. Tiberium was curious. Surely this human had something to say. He stepped on this quiet human's foot, not putting his full weight on it. That might break it. He had had plenty of practice over the years with the anatomy and frailty of the human body. "Well, human? Nothing to say?" Tiberium increased the pressure. The human winced but didn't avert his gaze. His eyes were burning. Tiberium was genuinely enjoying himself. He squatted in front of the human, even now towering over its sitting form. "Actually..." The human leaned back and put all his weight into a headbutt. He wasn't aimed at Tiberium's head, however. Tiberium let loose a wild howl, leaping up and holding his groin. The humans guffawed loudly. Tiberium hunched over, still clutching his groin, glared at the human. Blood was streaming down his forehead. He must have cut himself on Tiberium's codpiece. It was one similarity that Tiberium cursed about brute and human anatomy. "I was wondering if you had any working genitalia. You obviously do. Maybe not NOW..." The other humans had slid down to the ground, they were laughing so hard. Most of his brutes were snarling and telling him to kill the humans, but he did here some muffled snickers. There would be more cannibalism tonight. Apparently eating their former Elite captain hadn't taught them any respect. They would all feed on those who laughed at him, down to the marrow. He swore it. Tiberium quickly composed himself. He stepped on the human's foot with all of his weight, smashing it underfoot, and this time, it DID have something to say. The human wailed. He was screaming. Its armor was the only thing that kept its foot from being separated from its leg, but Tiberium had little doubt that every bone in the human's foot was broken, if not dust. He would surely lose it, not that it mattered. It was simply the first part to be tenderized. "YOU SONUVA!!!" The dark one was silenced by a quick jab to the back of its head by a forearm of one of Tiberium's brutes. He was stubborn. This human didn't lose consciousness but didn't cry out, either. It let out a loud MMMMMMM through a shut mouth. He would soon scream. They all screamed. ~ ~ ~ Buck cursed himself. He was responsible. For all of it. He had let the men get drunk. He had encouraged it. He had joined in. He and his ODSTs had gotten stone drunk and the Covies had just waltz into town and taken them prisoner, and they hadn't done a damned thing about it. Buck was the first one to wake up, noticing that his men and a number of ponies had been corralled in the town hall. The brutes had actually dragged them halfway across town before he had come out of his drunken stupor. He sprung up, unsheathing his combat knife, but quickly fell back to the ground before he could make a swipe. He got a stiff kick to the arm for his trouble. It was still throbbing. His pain had to be a point five on a pain scale in comparison to Mickey's situation. Mickey was probably going to lose his foot. A brute without armor weighed more than a fully armored Spartan. With full armor, like this Chieftain, a brute weighed close to a solid ton. After the kick to his arm, Romeo and Mickey woke up, and the beating began. The brutes really were pulling their punches. All of them were a full two feet taller than any of the ODSTs and their arms were the size of logs. A group of three of four would spin one of the ODSTs around in a circle, taking turns punching and kicking. When one of the ODSTs would fall, a brute simple picked them up, like a rag doll, and continue the beating. Mickey was still in agony, but he had contained most of his screaming. Buck truly admired Mickey for that. He was the youngest of the bunch and was definitely the most timid of the squad, but he had balls. Buck looked up at the chieftain, trying his damnedest to look intimidating, but knew his efforts all flat. "You know, I'm going to enjoy doing the same thing to you, only instead of just your foot, it'll be your whole body." The chieftain grunted. "Oh? And how will you accomplish this?" Buck hadn't thought that far ahead. "Well, when we break out of here, we're going to kill all of your grunts, all of your jackals, and all of your brutes. But you? Oh, we'll keep you alive." "And then?" "Well, I figure we'll take one of your spikers and crucify you somewhere...maybe just stake you to the ground. Then we'll take turns stomping on you. Either way, it'll be slow. Real slow. Hell, maybe we'll ask for the help of some of these ponies." "Don't get us involved!" One of the ponies shouted. "Yeah!" Another one added. They were quickly silenced by a group grumble. Tiberium chuckled. "These puny, creatures? They didn't attempt to stop us. They put up no resistance. They're cowards." "We're no cowards! We just weren't ready for ya!" Applejack's cousin, Braeburn, spoke up. "Cousin, I don't think ya'll oughtta rile em up. Didja see what he just did to that human? He could do that to us." "Indeed. Speak up again and I might eat you first." Applejack and Braeburn gulped simultaneously. Twilight and Pinkie hadn't said a word the whole time. They were terrified beyond words. Pinkie Pie had tears in her eyes. It was the first time Buck had seen the pink pony shaken. Buck then noticed something that made him smile. He couldn't hide it. He had never had a good poker face. Well, the cat would soon be out of the bag in about five seconds or so. He might as well let Romeo and Mickey know. "Hey, Mickey, Romeo. Check it out. Looks like we won't be able to dish out punishment to this guy slowly, after all. A real shame." Tiberium looked around at his brutes in confusion, smiling somewhat uneasily. "What are you blathering about human?" "Oh, you'll see." What the chieftain didn't see and what Buck, Mickey, and Romeo did see, was the targeting laser of a Spartan Laser, square in the center of the brute chieftain's chest. Complements of Captain Dare, no doubt. He'd have to kiss her later, even if it meant a punch to the face. Dutch and the Rookie must have gotten her care package. In two seconds this chieftain would be red mist, and all hell was going to break loose. Buck met the eyes of Twilight Sparkle, and mouthed the word "down" very slow and deliberate, and turn his head away from the chieftain. He wasn't wearing his helmet. He didn't wanted to get blood on his face, after all.