//------------------------------// // Disarmament // Story: Straight up, HE-spewing, Dee-vine Intervention // by Obvious German //------------------------------// In the pristine gardens of the Canterlot Palace, one could find inner peace with the webs of exotic species of plants from all around the world. It was the pride of Celestia really, having been worked on it more than three hundred years and going through more than a thousand gardeners to keep the garden live and teeming. If one wasn’t satisfied with the greenery, they could also enjoy the colorful display of plumage from residing species of birds, from tiny and verdant hummingbirds and towering flamingoes. It was nice, really. But that changed after something huge zapped into one section of the garden, followed by many others cloaked in strange black armor. It had been less than a hour and already one of them was stirring, a green suited behemoth among those who had arrived. :// REBOOTING CRITICAL MJOLNIR SYSTEMS> ://VOICE-LOCKED: PASSCODE: _____ Snowdrop flickered amongst the reeds of her snow colored hair and groaned as all she felt was coldness flowing through her blood. She might’ve been a Spartan, but she doubted that even Spartans could survive a point-blank supernova. But she just did, miraculously and wherever she was, it looked bright as hell. It reminded her of Reach, how she was one of the many hand-picked subjects for the SPARTAN II project under the care of Doctor Catherine Halsey, who she admired. During the forest drills, she took some time off to lay down to see the azure tinted skies through the foliage before her team, Tempest, found her and asked her to hurry up with their task before Menendez got pissed and sent an ODST squad after them. It was all fun and games to her, but when she reached the frontline she immediately changed. Training didn’t help her overcome her fear of death, as she saw the cold bodies of both Marines and civilians. Now it was different, as she slowly voiced out the passcode for the suit’s reactivation. “…Tempest.” The suit processed the word and her acknowledgement light blinked green. ://PASSCODE ACCEPTED, SPARTAN S-082> ://PLEASE MOVE YOUR LEGS TO ALLOW GRAVITATIONAL ADJUSTMENTS> She groaned and moved her aching legs, tensed by her almost-unbearable suit that she had to wear due to regulations. It was fairly shitty, and so was the rest of the trip from Harvest to Arcadia and finally, the mysterious planet that turned out to be artificially made and containing dozens of ancient, dormant warships that the Covenant wanted so badly. ://ADJUSTING TORQUE JOINTS> ://ADJUSTMENTS COMPLETE: YOU ARE NOW FREE TO MOVE> She raised up her hand and waved it at the sky before she pushed herself up. After getting a good position, she took both of her hands and twisted the helmet to ease her neck pain. ://HEADS-UP DISPLAY ONLINE> In an instant, her view was filled with information surging in from her pre-installed programs. It made her dizzy, but finally the HUD settled down and on her screen was just a circular echolocation radar and her shield levels on top, which were empty. She simply sat on the grass and waited for the suit to recharge its shields. ://REACTIVATING ENERGY SHIELDS, STANDBY> She felt a tingling sensation that made her grunt before her meter filled up, signifying that it was fully recharged. As she swerved her helmets sideways to look out for her fellow UNSC personnel, she was initially surprised when she saw a brownish pony with a straw hat, a white beard and a shovel looking at her. “Whoa!” She grunted and stood up, causing it to back away while dropping its shovel. “What in the hell…?” The pony didn’t react, as if she was not even unusual in wherever she was and proceeded to speak in an unknown dialect. Snowdrop realized that it didn’t talk English, and quickly activated her translation program. “Activate language translator.” ://ACTIVATING TRANSLATOR VERSION 4.132> ://TRANSLATOR ONLINE> Now the pony started to make sense, which greatly confused her and caused a little bit of shock for the Spartan. It took ages to translate even a single word of alien, and all it took was a second to translate whatever the hell this pony was saying? “Whoa there, critter. I ain’t gonna hurt you or anythin’.” It sounded like an old quack, and she took it as she thought of it. Not wanting to be rude, she tried to communicate with this pony. “I didn’t expect you anyway,” she calmly replied and now it was his turn to step back in shock. “You can speak Equestrian? Mighty odd…” Equestrian? What the hell was that? It made her brain melt slowly, as she tried to process what happened. “Anyway, welcome to Canterlot. Saw you make a great mess out in this here gardens.” Garden? She looked around and found an exotic array of flora that blossomed here. With the equally strange stone arches and the statue of…something eternally stuck in the pose of surprise, it made her reconsider the whole meaning of ‘strange’. “Okay…” Then she went straight ahead for the first rule of war; get a weapon. She turned to look for her M6 Grindell Nonlinear rifle, only to find it missing. Where did it go? It must’ve came with her if she was here, so where was it? Then she decided to ask the pony where it was, not expecting a viable answer. “Oh, you mean that funny block that came flying out with ya?” It replied, its straw making the Spartan a little irritated before turning around and pointing out to a recently disturbed bush nearby with something familiar sticking out of it. “It’s over there. And if you need anythin’ else, there’s a big thingy that also came with ya, but the guards already blocked it off for investigatin’.” Wait a minute, big thingy? Oh shit, she hoped that it wasn’t the AV-22 VTOL that was present during the battle, along with Colby and her co-pilot. If it was, then she was going to have to find them. Thanking the pony, she walked over to the bush and stuck her hand inside it, pulling out the Spartan Laser with ease. After remembering she had something else along with her, she reached for her back with her free hand and found her customized Covenant carbine intact. She sighed and pulled it out to check it more closely, the custom grey skin over it made her smile a little. She had got it off a Elite that nearly killed her, promptly gutting it with its own Energy sword that she kept the holder, strapped on to her left shoulder armor as a warning to any Covenant scum who dared faced her. Checking her belt for her depleted uranium rods, she found that she still possessed an adequate amount of them and nodded in satisfaction before wondering where they were. For some odd reason, their IFF tags weren’t on her radar, but a dozen red dots were. Remembering the brown pony, she thought that it would be best to ask him where the thing was now. Walking back, the pony raised his head and saw her again. “Well, what do ya need now?” “Um...” Snowdrop hummed. “Where’s the thingy?” “Oh yeah, just go straight and turn right, you’ll find it there,” the pony said slowly and Snowdrop nodded. Just as she was about to go, the pony asked her something. “Excuse me if I’m a little too curious, but what are you?” “I'm someone, and that’s all you need to know,” Snowdrop replied as she took off on the paved path to where the pony had pointed out the location of the object. Then her eyes darted around and scanned the environment as part of the second rule of engagement; check your surroundings for possible ambushes or traps. It wasn’t the nooks or crannies that she was scanning, but rather the masonry of this odd place and how beautifully done they were. Were these alien constructs, or the middle ages? She presumed it was the middle ages and promptly established the fact that these…ponies didn’t possessed anything more dangerous than a lance or crossbow. They did her no harm even, but she kept her guard. After striding down to her left, she heard two voices talking out through her helmet and quickly looked around for a place to hide. Spotting a maintenance closet next to her, she quickly opened it and slunk inside, shutting the door. After locking herself in, she immediately halted her movements and waited for the voices to pass. Then her radar blinked, two yellow dots coming in from behind the dots. She wondered who these dots were, until she heard radio chatter coming in from her helmet. As she tuned in to this new event, she heard the quick cries of pain before two audible thumps. She hoped they weren’t dead and promptly found the frequency. “Hello? This is 082, is there anyone on this comm?” The response was just as surprising. “082? Snowdrop? Where the hell are you?” “Inside a closet, had to jump in to get out of view,” she replied. “What did you guys nail?” “Not entirely nailed, just knocked them out for safety,” the voice assured as her helmet’s light blinked green and signaled that it was clear to move out. Reaching out for the knob, she turned it and came out with her Carbine ready, only to meet four familiar black armored troopers advancing down the hallway. ODSTs, the very ones who fought next to her against the Covenant strike force on the alien planet. They had been dragged along with her, what else? Raising her hand up, the lead ODST nodded and called for his men to calm down. As she watched two of them drag the unconscious bodies of another two ponies, now white and clad in golden armor, the leader came up to her and took off his helmet, revealing black hair and two sets of yellow irises. “Well shit, Snowy. Didn’t expect you to be out here,” the ODST joked and the Spartan gave him a nudge with her hand, sending him stumbling back a bit. “Didn’t expect you guys too,” the Spartan responded and looked to her right, as the two ODSTs ungraciously dumped the two ponies into the same closet she hid in. “Where were you?” “Landed in a garden,” he responded and looked to his right as the ODSTs shut the door. “Then the next thing we knew, three of these same buggers found us and kind of…interrogated us.” “Too bad for you,” Snowdrop replied. “Brown one found me, pretty nice pony too.” “God damn it,” the ODST groaned. “Why’d the Spartans get the good shit?” “Well, Ethan,” the Spartan said to the leading ODST. “It's just luck.” “Right,” he replied as he signaled for his fellow ODSTs to get into combat mode. “Anyway, we were thinking of getting outta here with a bunch of explosives until you came along.” “Bad idea,” the Spartan disagreed, knowing that such a reckless course of action will lead to a whole lot of trouble. “And that pony told me he saw our VTOL too.” “Holy shit,” Ethan exclaimed as he gripped his SR99SC sniper, looking around for any more guard ponies as Snowdrop was presuming. “Colby’s here too?” “Hot damn she is,” the Spartan replied as she pulled out her Carbine and walked forwards to the intersection, looking at the entrance far ahead. “And we’re going to look for her.” “Sounds like a good idea,” Ethan said as he followed Snowdrop, putting back his helmet. “Might be out ticket out of here, if they don’t find us.” The Spartan nodded and looked around, spotting the shadows of more ponies. Quickly directing her hand to the entrance straight ahead, the ODSTs hurried and so did she while keeping an eye out on her radar. Spotting additional red dots, she broke into the sprint and finally reached the next section where on the top leftmost corner was at least six dots. Quickly hugging the walls, she signaled for the ODSTs to lay low as she processed a plan in her head. Taking a small peek outside, she saw a flight of steps nearby that oversaw the garden in which the ponies were gathered around the now visible Sparrowhawk. Turning her head, she called for Ethan. “Yeah, boss?” “Okay, I need you to get up this stairs and provide over watch,” she ordered as the ODST stepped out of line, pulling back the bolt of his lethal anti-armor sniper rifle. “If they start getting unfriendly, then you’ll do the same.” “Got it, and one thing,” Ethan said as he stopped before the staircase. “These guys are trained for close combat, so just watch out. Okay?” “Got it,” Snowdrop replied as Ethan disappeared upstairs. She looked behind to the waiting ODSTs and began her next step. “Alright, as for you all.” She stuck out two fingers, pointing to two ODSTs who nodded. “You two go left, the other two take right.” They all nodded and started to shuffle out with their weaponry at the ready. Snowdrop huffed in approval and went on to her next plan, which was to figure out whether Atkins and her co-pilot survived or not. Looking out from her cover as the ODSTs moved, she scanned the VTOL and only found minor damage to its top and the same cauterized metal as when it was struck by a fuel rod. She then contacted Atkins and received nothing, making her worry a little bit. Then she called up a small panel that monitored her squad mates’ vital and checked up on Colby’s vitals, finding that she was just knocked out along with her co-pilot. As she picked up chatter from the ponies ahead, she spotted one blue-maned one, which wore a bright red uniform of such, making her think that he was the leader of the other ponies. Now that she established the current facts about the situation, it was time to make her public. Stepping out into the open, she watched as the previously ordered ODSTs take up positions and with Roger’s IFF tag on top, ready to blow off anyone of their heads off. As she walked up to them, they turned around with their weapons pointed at her in response. The red coated one called out to her and asked her to stop dead in her tracks. “Halt! What are you, creature?” “Just someone who wants their stuff back,” Snowdrop coolly replied to the shock of the ponies that were surprised that she could speak Equestrian. Raising her Carbine up, she moved to the left and made a signal for them to move away from the downed VTOL. “Now step away from the vehicle and nobody gets hurt.” “How dare you? Having the audacity to threaten Captain Shining?” The white one on the right barked back and stepped forward, his lance at the ready. Snowdrop responded by moving a step forward in defiance. “Try me,” she dared the pony as he growled. She huffed and got ready for any advances that the pony tried. He looked pretty pissed off with the fact that she threatened his captain, and judging from his stance, he was going to attack anytime soon. As he took a step forward, Shining blocked his way and cleared his throat, not wanting any more trouble inside the palace grounds and that picking a brawl with strange, heavily armored creatures would be anything more than wise. “Please, let us not start a fight,” he said as Snowdrop grunted and re-calibrated her aim. “I’m terribly sorry for that, the recruits are a little too…feisty.” “Seems pretty damn obvious,” Snowdrop replied as he stepped forward, the shadowed ODSTs having their guns trained on him just in case. “Ahem,” he coughed, now standing right in front of her and clearly shadowed by her massive stature. He gulped before proceeding to introduce himself. “I am Captain Shining Armor of the Royal Guard. What may your name be?” She didn’t reply, to his ire. “No need for names, just let us do our business and get out of here.” “Us?” Then Snowdrop raised her hand and circled it, summoning the ODSTs out of the shadows that promptly scared the guard ponies around the Hawk. “Sir! More of them!” One of the recruits shouted as he pointed his spear against one of the soldiers, prompting the pointing of his shotgun right in his face. “Orders?” “They won’t shoot, Captain, unless I say so,” the Spartan replied, waiting until they could get the opportunity to recover Atkins and her co-pilot. “And I presume your…men won’t attack us too?” “They won’t,” he chuckled, unaware that Ethan had him in his sights. “Anyway, please elaborate to me what in Faust’s name just landed there?” He asked, turning and pointing towards the Hawk. “It’s one of ours,” Snowdrop replied as she started moving towards it, the ODSTs having secured it and signaling for her to get over there. “It’s our priority now that we secure it, before anything else goes FUBAR.” “Okay…” Shining replied, still uneasy about these strange figures that reminded him of smaller Minotaurs but heavily armored and armed with unknown devices that outmatched their crossbows. He decided to comply with these creatures, for the fear that if one of them were suddenly attacked, the whole palace might burn down. “I’ll let you through now, but make it fast. It’s not very often we get strange green things just appearing out of nowhere.” As Snowdrop approached the fogged up Plexiglas of the Hawk, she heard the stampeding of hooves and turned to find three very ticked off and battered ponies looking around in anger. She signaled for the ODSTs to ready arms and went on to knock the cockpit to wake the unconscious Atkins up. The three guard ponies looked to their right and the lead pony raised his hoof at the ODSTs. “There they are! Get them!” They all rushed towards the ODSTs and Snowdrop to Ethan’s dismay and he quickly re-aimed for the would-be assailants. Shining was quick to react and stopped them dead in their tracks, wondering why his fellow guards were so ticked off. “Whoa there! Stop!” “Captain! These strange creatures knocked us out and left us for dead!” Oh boy, this was going to end up bad. The ODSTs grunted and hesitated to fire, knowing that they were the culprits. Ethan looked upon the ponies as catalysts for a fight that will hopefully not involve deaths. Although ready to fire, Ethan had his fair share of bad situations that was what was taking place now. “What?” Shining said and turned back to Snowdrop, who looked back with her sensors spiraling into the danger zone. “Is this true?” “I’m not so sure,” Snowdrop replied as she heard Atkins groan inside the cockpit, the blinking lights on the dashboard of the Hawk blinking yellow. “Wasn’t with them.” “Ma’am?” the ODST on Snowdrop’s right asked her. “Should we respond?” “That’s a negative, soldier,” Snowdrop replied as Atkins raised her hand to rub her skull and used her other hand to grab her flight helmet, cursing away under her breath. “No KIAs, they’re friendlies.” “But ma’am!” The ODST responded, still thinking away on whether to shoot the ones that they knocked out. “They’re riled up!” “Soldier,” Snowdrop replied, still trying to communicate with Atkins who was putting on her helmet and shaking her head in disorientation. “If they hit first, you hit back. Rules of engagement, remember that.” “Aye, aye!” He complied, still having his silenced M72 SMG ready and with plenty of ammunition. As Atkins’s eyes began to dart around, she gazed upon a blurry outline of a Spartan and the black shape of an ODST. Mumbling something intangible, she slowly spoke through her helmet’s microphone while sitting upwards and reaching out to reactivate the VTOL’s systems. “Bloody hell…what happened?” “Atkins?” Snowdrop responded as Shining tried to talk the ponies out of their revenge against the ODSTs. “You’re alright, it’s okay.” “No shit, Snowy,” She gruffly responded back, cracking her back and straightening up, the Hawk’s screens coming back to life and all its various switches and buttons flickering to life. “What the…where the fuck are we?” “In a garden, somewhere inside some kind of palace,” Snowdrop responded as she looked up into the sky, finding that the Hawk was able to fly itself out of here to her relief. It was as useless as a BB gun against Hunter armor if it weren’t able to get back to its regular combat elevation. “Get this bird up and running, we need to get out of here and regroup with anyone who happened to come here.” “How’d you know if anyone came here?” Atkins remarked and struggled to use her fingers to flick everything on and do pre-emptive flight checks before checking on her co-pilot who as still knocked out. “I have a feeling about it, since our Helljumpers are here,” Snowdrop replied as she turned her attention to the enraged ponies, with Shining failing to keep them in check. “Watch out!” The first pony tackled one of the ODSTs and attempting to beat the ever loving shit out of him, but instead being countered by a strong jab to the jaws by the pinned soldier. The second guardspony somehow managed to use some kind of power to surround his lance and swung it at one of the ODSTs who nimbly dodged it and hesitated to fire his MA5B. The third one went straight for her, even though she was not part of the ODSTs’ earlier conflict. It was ultimately a bad choice as she dodged it and even managed to grab his lance before she swung him into the air, slamming him onto the ground with a crunch. “Wrong choice.” Shining watched on with fear, knowing that he had ultimately screwed up in failing to keep his recruits in check. He would have to discharge them, if they managed to survive what the creatures dealt out. But now the rest of his recruits joined in with the fight, and he had totally no control over them as they ignored his pleas to cease hostilities. Fearing the worse, he backed away from the fight as two of his guards engaged two separate black armored figures while another pair was busy engaging the figure, which he had spoken to. She was no doubt a powerful fighter, seeing that she managed to lift a pony up with ease and slam him with such ferocity. It had been a long time since something this powerful came into Canterlot, much less almost five of them. Ethan however was screaming inside his mind to pull the trigger as he saw Snowdrop effortlessly counter one pony’s lunge and threw him before engaging with his comrade armed with a lance. As she and the ODSTs were fighting, Snowdrop decided to halt the conflict through the use of Ethan’s SRS99C and contacted him. “Ethan, end the show now!” “Got it,” he responded and pulled the trigger, sending an anti-armor 14.5 APFSDS cracking that left an impression on everybody who immediately stopped fighting, except the ODSTs who took them by surprise and pinned them down. Atkins, watching the carnage from inside the Hawk, decided to reboot her bird as ordered by Snowdrop and activated the propulsion system of the VTOL, only to find it malfunctioning. Meanwhile, Snowdrop took charge of the situation and attempted for one last time to negotiate before she was forced to use lethal force. “Captain, tell your ponies to stand down. Now!” “They won’t listen!” He complained, causing her to scowl and flinch. “You’re a fucking captain, tell them off or we’ll have to start shedding blood!” Shining was repulsed. Blood? They were really meaning it this time, especially by that cracking of something powerful in the floor above. Dang it! Shining, get a hoof on yourself! He shook his head and went on to thunder with all his might in order to avoid any more chaos. “STOP!” All fighting ceased, and the ODSTs stopped pummeling the ponies. “STAND DOWN!” “Boys, do it,” Snowdrop ordered as the ODSTs withdrew and went back to the Hawk, keeping an eye out for the battered ponies. She breathed a sigh of relief as the pony grappling her let go and backed away, snorting away with anger. Still alert, she didn’t hesitate to lift up her rifle and maintain it at eye level in case they made anymore moves. The ODSTs responded too and slowly withdrew back to Atkins and her awakening co-pilot. Colby wasn’t having much luck either, as she cursed away while analyzing what was wrong with the propulsion system of the Hawk. It must’ve been the fall or something, because it was blinking vibrant yellow and to her, it meant serious trouble. Pulling up Snowdrop’s line, she immediately contacted the Spartan to inform her of the bad news. “Hey, Snowy?” “What?” “I think the Hawk’s outta commission." The Spartan felt anger surging up her veins, they went for a small battle and now she decides to announce that their fucking way out was out of order? She lost her cool and decided to pull out a plasma grenade, startling the ODSTs and Ethan who looked on with disbelief that the Spartan could become this angry. “Snowy! Calm down!” “I’m not…going to!” She roared and flung the plasma grenade high into the air, Shining and his men moving away from it as they didn’t know what it could do. Shining acted out of instinct and he, being a unicorn, used his magic to stop the trajectory of the grenade before turning to the enraged Spartan who pulled out her Spartan Laser in anger. “You little-the Spartan was cut off by the sound of their weapons being lowered and pointed at her in response, the ODSTs responding with the same. Ethan was conflicted, what could he do now? They couldn’t understand any of them except for Snowdrop because of her in-built translator program, but he had to make it clear for the white unicorn captain that whatever he was hovering was extremely dangerous. He knew of Spartan behavior, and knew if Halsey was here, she would’ve instantly reprimand Snowdrop for her immediate rage. There was little option left, and with only so much time. He switched his aim and pulled the cold trigger of the sniper rifle, sending another round cracking towards the floating and unstable plasma grenade, causing a tremendous shower of plasma to vaporize the air and causing the ponies to stumble back including Shining. “What in Tartarus…?” Shining mumbled, rapidly recovering from the explosion and quickly turned his attention to the Spartan, whose body language told him she immediately regretted in throwing that explosive. It was alien and it outmatched anything they could make, so he took it as a sign that maybe his recruits were right about them. The Spartan had her massive laser locked on to Shining, still venting anger while trying to cool down on the inside. With the Hawk out of commission for now, there was little they could do unless the ponies attacked and gave them the signal for shoot-to-kill. Calming down, she kept her aim and looked behind to signal for one of the ODSTs to help Colby with any repairs that were needed for the AV-22’s systems to work once more. “Snowy. That was a very bad, bad decision.” “I’m sorry, just a little angry and all.” “Little angry? Did you just know I had to put a fucking 14.5 bullet into that ‘nade so that no one could get hurt- Hold up, more red dots coming from the corridor that we took.” As Snowdrop looked to her right, she could see additional reinforcements coming in with more diverse weaponry and the same strange auras that surrounded their weapons. She readied herself for a fight, as the ponies formed up and turned their weapons against her. “Captain! We heard the blast and- “Save it, they mean no harm,” Shining replied and he silently hoped that it was just an act of careless anger, not just anything else. He knew that anger could lead to tragic incidents, and he had learnt to overcome that. The recruits were no different from the hulking green figure that stood there with her heavy device trained on him. “Just keep watch, they might do anything if anyone of you react.” “Aye, sir!” They barked back, still keeping their lances and spears in the direction of the Hawk, along with some of them who had crossbows to Snowdrop’s dismay. This was one hell of a way to start a string of badly timed events. See? Princess Luna shook her head in dizziness as Harbinger boomed in her mind, having kept her awake throughout the night with endless demands for his own objectives that she vehemently refused to listen. But now, it was showing her the live strings of events that had happened recently in the gardens, with Captain Shining Armor and his guards surrounding about six or more humans that fiercely guarded a downed vehicle of unknown workings. These are humans, but they are not the ones I’m familiar with. “Why should I care?” Luna groaned back, still trying to fend off Harbinger but was already low on power and sleep. “They might’ve tossed and tumbled, but at least nopony was injured or such.” Trust me, I’ve seen what these mortals can do even to the Reapers. These are no different, except they are little more…primitive. “So? They might’ve advanced weaponry that might be able to kill a dragon with ease, but they have showed great hesitation in trying to kill my ponies.” But alas, they are still human. Give the order, the order to kill. “No!” Luna cried out, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to even if she was forced as Shining only took orders from Celestia herself, not her. “They haven’t done anything wrong?” The green one might have not, but the black figures have. Hurting your little ponies, that is. She took a step back and sat on her bed, hovering the orb closer so that she could still keep an eye out for the humans. She hoped that no harm would befall them, and somehow felt like they were here as if they were passed on from a great leader to her as a gift of some sort. Unaware of what to do, she watched on with curiosity on what they would do, with Harbinger watching in her mind with disgust that Luna didn’t obey his whims. He needed more incentive, so that Luna could change her perspective of the situation and the entire view of humans. But he sensed another…potential target within the hallways of the castle and promptly thought of another emergency plan. One that involved many expendables, just like the Collectors. Luna herself was powerful indeed, but there wasn’t many of her, wasn’t there? Harbinger need something with a large army of minions under their control to build the nodes needed to bring his full form into this universe, if the Librarian didn’t interfere that is. Once his Reaper form was here, then only he could signal for the other Reapers to resume salvation through destruction, and spread that not only from their universe but to the other unclean ones. This was only the beginning of the end.