Opening the door Six was met with an empty street. The ground looked scorched in several areas as a fire burned in one of the buildings across the street. This was a scene Six knew all too well from her time against the Covenant. Checking her angles for any more hostiles, she came up empty.
They had spent the last twenty minutes searching the building, gathering supplies, and making makeshift armor for Lily. They were going to move through hostile territory and being caught defenseless by a patrol is the definition of a bad idea. Six had taken different pieces of metal from the soldiers she had killed and used her enhanced strength to bend the surprisingly weak metal into usable armor for the smaller pony. Her actions only surprised them slightly as they slowly learned to just stop questioning everything Six did.
This was met with much protest from Lily about wearing armor that belonged to a dead soldier but after an ultimatum from the Spartan to either put on the armor herself or she would force her into it, Lily reluctantly complied. She was not going to let a civilian go out into an active war zone without protection if she could help it.
Now with Lily no longer naked, she went to support Sparrow onto his hooves whilst muttering about having an hour-long bath when they got out of this. Once he was up and on his hooves, his forelegs holding onto Lily for support, they were all set.
“Okay, let’s move”
They needed to cross through several streets if they wanted to make it to the evac tunnel before somebody came looking for the pair Six had eliminated. With the street clear, Six signaled back to the guards behind her as they moved out onto the street itself. The cover was sparse with the ponies having no type of automobile widely available and parked in the streets with only the occasional destroyed carriage in its place.
The group stuck to the sidewalk, making sure to run from building to building, alley to alley looking for any more supplies and or civilians. They found supplies but there weren’t any civilians. It was completely abandoned, unnerving the group. The Covenant left bodies these guys didn’t leave anything, only splatters of red and green blood.
The sounds of distant fighting were still audible although its intensity had begun to weaken. This could mean multiple things. The first one being that the front was now stable and the guard had put up a successful Defence. The other much worse option would be that the hostiles had won and were beginning to eliminate the last of the Equestrian resistance.
It went without saying that they hoped it was the former and not the latter.
Quickly moving through an alley a type of chittering could be heard from the street in front of them. Quickly signaling the group to take cover as Six listened for the patrol’s hoofsteps. Her motion sensor showed two hostiles stopped just at the entrance to the alley. Seemingly having some type of conversation in their chittering language.
Behind her, Six could see the rest of the group getting agitated as the seconds passed. But after a minute of listening to the conversation, none of them could understand, the two markers continued past the alley. With the obstruction out of the way, Six peeked out of cover confirming that they had in fact left.
Using her hoof she signaled the group to follow her in silence. She then moved up to where the patrol had just been seeing them further down the street to her left. Staying low the group sprinted as quickly as possible across the street and into another alley. Six’s eyes checking her tracker periodically for any more movement nearby.
After moving through several more buildings and streets dodging patrols and even quickly taking one out in less than the blink of an eye when Lily and Sparrow weren’t fast enough, they had reached the target building overlooking the City Hall. Patrols were beginning to increase, they needed to leave the city soon before stealth became impossible and the bodies they left were discovered. Now out of the street, Six could do some scouting of the city hall.
Needless to say, It was filled with combatants. The city hall looked like it had only taken minor damage from their takeover of the building as flags were already being hung from its windows. The white flags with a grey and blue symbol in the center of it waving slightly in the wind. The courtyard was filled with foot soldiers digging trenches, placing barricades, and putting up command tents. They were clearly making themselves at home with their construction of a FOB.
It even seemed as if someone important was going to arrive soon when Six spotted several soldiers with brooms sweeping around the entrance to the building.
And right in the middle of it was a small manhole cover that Spear said led to the evac tunnels. By the looks of it, they would have a straight shot at the entrance if it weren’t for all the guards blocking the way. Six had asked whether the tunnels could be occupied by the hostiles as well. Spear, however, told her that the tunnel’s actual entrance was located in the sewers, behind magically locked walls. So there wouldn’t be any danger of it also being occupied by the invading forces.
From her scouting, she could count a whole platoon’s worth of soldiers scattered about down there. Taking them all on at once would be hard but not impossible. Six did take on an entire Covenant army of thousands singlehanded in her last stand. But with this being an unknown enemy who, by the looks of it, could fly and use magic this wouldn’t be easy. But when is there ever something ‘easy’ for a Spartan.
Six didn’t want to risk getting swarmed. And without any ranged weapons, she was going to have to go toe to toe with the soldiers. That’s when it hit her. Her feathers were sharp, perhaps even sharper than her knife. If she concentrated and moved in a specific way.
She wouldn’t be surrounded… no, she’d be in a target-rich environment. Now taking on that many targets and getting swarmed didn’t seem so bad anymore. Sure magic would pose a problem but from Six’s time in the library, it became known that it takes a lot of concentration to use effectively. This meant that anyone that had glowing horns would be prioritized, and taken care of as soon as possible.
Fear was also going to be a great ally here. Unlike the covenant elites, if Six was seen taking them all on single-handedly and winning it would destroy their morale. That’s the beauty of fighting non-religious fanatics, their morals could be broken.
Now, however, it was time for Six to show them just how big of a mistake they made by invading Equestria.
“Okay get ready to move once I draw them away. When you reach the tunnels, do not wait for me. Just get back to your unit.” Said the Spartan as she made her way to the door.
“Wait.” Called Spear stopping the Spartan in her tracks.” Six… we may not have known each other for long. And, honestly, you’ve been a massive pain in my flank since you first arrived.” A snort was heard from the Spartan. “But if we make it out of this because of your distraction and you don’t.” he raised his foreleg in a salute. “It’s been an honor. Lieutenant.” Six nodded in response.
“P-please… d-don’t d-die” begged a shaking Lily, her form rattling under the improvised armor they had given her.
Six simply gave a small laugh in return as she made her back to the exit before calling over her shoulder.
“Spartans never die, we go missing in action”