//------------------------------// // Chapter 54: Bring It On! // Story: Bounty Hunters 3: Genesis // by Jasper77W //------------------------------// "Good work buddy!" Octavia grinned as Rainbow came back from the presentation, Applebloom stepping back out onto the balcony. "I need to sit down. My legs are shaking like jelly." Rainbow said, slumping down in one of Scootaloo's sofas. Then they noticed how silent everyone outside was. No one was talking, not even Applebloom. Not even the crowd. "The hell?" Rainbow got up, peering out the window. Then she heard the siren, AL alerting the city as she detected enemy forces in the local vicinity. "Alert. Mass amounts of Science Faction forces detected to the west of the city. All personnel report to your battle stations, shift available resources to reinforce the west side of the city immediately. We are under attack." AL's voice boomed across Haven. "Crap." Applebloom muttered under her breath, but then brought the microphone up to her mouth. "This is it everypony! THE WAR IS UPON US!! LET'S GO!!!" She yelled. "What now?" Rainbow raised and eyebrow as the city's occupants rushed to their battle stations. "Giddy up ponies, time to fight." Applebloom said, barging past the group. "Been waiting for that for a while." Magnum grinned, cracking her hooves. The Energy Grapple on her wrist turned on and buzzed, glowing a light green. Something issued to all of them in their equipment kits- just a standard grapple hook, except made of green non-lethal energy. The only lethal part is the retractable blade attached to the device itself. This one was built into her implanted robotic arm, which was gleaming under the bright morning sunlight. The eye patch that was strung across her face didn't have any strings like the ones pirates wear, instead it had a reasonably wide piece of fabric for comfort and ease in combat. "Meet you guys on the west wall I guess." Zealo shrugged, Magnum nudging him and gesturing to the left side. "Alright. We'll be on the ground- no use for us being on the wall." Rainbow said. "Time to head out." Octavia said, rolling up her right sleeve as to make way for the grapple. She shot the grapple down at a building below them, and leapt over the rails. Rainbow followed, gliding down as Octavia swung from the tower. Momentum carried her down, then tugged her up as the plasma cable reached its target length and swung her back up again. She disengaged the grapple, aimed forward and shot one into the front wall. A quick tug activated the fast travel system in the grapple, the energy cable retracting at sixty miles an hour and pulling her towards the west gate. She then broke the cable and turned behind her, shooting another grapple to slow her down. She stopped in the air in front of the gate, then made a short fall of about two meters onto the ground. She landed lightly in the middle of the road, Rainbow coming down next to her with a light flutter of the wings. "This thing is sick." Octavia grinned, looking down at the grapple mounted to her wrist. "No better than wings." Rainbow said, flicking her cleaver online. It unfolded into its full size next to her. "All Haven troops are at their battle stations." AL reported. "Turning off mirage field and teleportation spell. Prepare to open the gates." The mirage field had to be turned off since it would be useless anyway, because anything that passes through the field while it is online would temporarily disable it- and with all these troops moving in and out of the city, it might as well be offline to conserve energy. As for the teleportation spell, it was the same thing- while it would protect Haven, it would also prevent its troops from going outside without the use of the portals or firing from inside the city. That spell was only meant for defensive properties, as it pretty much disables every single offensive advantage there is for Haven. "Opening gates." AL said, the atmosphere above them clearly becoming brighter and bluer as the shields were turned off. * Eclipse tilted her head to one side, her arms folded. Suddenly something in the air disappeared, and slowly a visible sphere started appearing in the distance. Then it shattered, the mirage field of Haven blowing itself apart and the city itself fading into visual existence. "Commence the attacks." She ordered through her mic, and the army of robots, cyborgs and just normal ponies started stepping forward with a terrifying march, their weapons raised and their owners trigger happy. * The magic faction troops weren't any less trigger happy than they were- the Archers have already made their move and fired. Huge balls of burning blue energy flew up high into the air, burning through the skies and slowly arcing towards the Science Faction's front line. "Get the Exo-suits out there!" An officer yelled, waving from up on the wall as the huge fifty-meter high gates opened. A squad of ponies in those light mechs that Rainbow saw walking around the city earlier burst out the gates, all guns blazing at the science faction forces. "Show em what we've got boys!" One of them yelled, leading the charge of about a hundred others; their heavy metal hoofsteps shattering the floor they stomped on and clunking off into battle. "Infantry troops are ready!" An officer yelled. "Rainbow Dash! Would you like to lead the charge?" "Be a pleasure to officer!" Rainbow grinned and made a quick informal salute, then raised her cleaver high above her head. "Infantry! Let's GO!" She yelled, bringing the cleaver back down and running out the gates with a full battalion of about a thousand infantry troops consisting of various specialities- but mostly frontline and frontline support. "Hehe, look at em go." Magnum chuckled, watching from one of the towers which guarded the walls. "Like a bunch of maniacs, ha!" "Like you can say much." Zealo said, peering through a scope. "Sniper at two o'clock-" "I know, I can see his bloody scope reflection." Magnum said, firing a bullet without even aiming. The little bright spot of reflected sunlight suddenly disappeared, the sniper's scope shattered and the bullet lodged firmly in his brain. "Have you even tried this strawberry sherbet? I know it's in lollipop form, but this stuff is awesome." She commented, sucking on a lollipop. "Hopefully that confectionary store reopens after this crap is over and done with. But I think I bought enough for the time being. Want one?" She handed Zealo a pink packet. "Thank you." Zealo said, digging up a piece of candy from the bag and throwing it into his mouth, still peering through the scope. "Heavy, ten o'clock." "Mmm-hmm." Magnum said, yawning and pulling the trigger. The bullet punched through a weak spot in the heavy unit's armor, tearing through its spine and stopping the electrical signals from going from the central processor to the lower half of its body. Unable to move, it simply fell forward into the dirt, effectively rendered useless. Then havoc really started to show when the Archer cannons hit, hundreds of fireballs raining from the sky and hammering the science faction forces. "Holy crap-" Rainbow ducked down as one of the energy spheres hit somewhere in front of her, liquidizing a tank that was there a second ago; sending burning blue bits of it flying in all directions. "-These things are NOT playing!" "Ya think?" Octavia slid down behind cover next to her, a few anti-matter beams whizzing past overhead. She held up an odd looking weapon- some sort of hybrid between a tommy gun and an energy weapon. "Hey- mind giving me a lift?" Rainbow asked, her cleaver in a hoof. "Where to?" Octavia asked, an explosive going off nearby and sending shreds of ice their way. "There's a small group of assault units in front of us. Figure we take them out and bust a clear path through to their support units, might help us divide their forces." Rainbow said, pointing at the area behind their cover. "How many units we talking about again?" Octavia frowned. "Don't know. Nothing we can't handle." Rainbow said. "On three?" "One." Octavia started, crossing her hooves as Rainbow placed her back hoof on them. "Two." Rainbow said, stretching her wings out. "Three." Octavia said, pushing her upwards and over the lines of fire. Rainbow turned around and arched back towards the assault units, swinging her cleaver in a wide arc. She threw it into the ground at one's hooves, sending it stumbling back. She flew down somewhere away from the cleaver, knocking a unit to the ground as she landed into its head. Its neck snapped from the odd angle and it fell to the floor, the others only just realizing what had happened and turning. Rainbow reached out and fired the grapple on her wrist, the claws hitting the cleaver handle and closing around it- also pulling the trigger. The cleaver came bouncing out of the earth, flying straight towards the sky and shattering the ice underneath it. Rainbow ran forward and towards her flying cleaver. Being much heavier than she was, the cleaver acted as a swing and swung her forwards and upwards while it came down into the ground behind her, flinging her towards an assault unit. She launched both back hooves into its chest, knocking it back and behind Octavia's cover. "Not my type." Octavia said, putting a burst of energy through its head with her augmented tommy gun. Rainbow landed on the ground, turned and yanked at her cleaver. Instead of the cleaver coming towards her however, the grapple system yanked her towards the cleaver. She grabbed the handle as she passed, twisting it from the ice it was embedded in and flinging it through a nearby science faction officer's chest. Rainbow tore it back out, turning and deflecting a bolt of energy shot her way. "TAVI! GIMME A HOOF DAMNIT!!" Rainbow yelled, slowly getting overwhelmed by the amount of troops the science faction was pouring into the local area. Suddenly a group of robots to one side simply blew apart after a booming shotgun blast, huge ping-pong ball sized pellets tearing through their comparably light armor and embedding themselves in the ice. "Us Apples always loved the shotguns." Applebloom said, a shell the size of a small coffee table thunking onto the ground as the exo-skeleton mech she was in reloaded the mammoth of all shotguns with a crunchy click. "That was something." Rainbow said, Babs Seed leaping down from the top of the wall in a similar mech behind her. She landed with a dull thunk, cracking the ice; but stood up again as if it were nothing and shrugged it off. "Careful. Those shells might crush someone." Octavia noted, ducking behind cover as several green laser bolts whizzed past overhead. "Good idea." Rainbow said, firing a grapple at one of the shells and flinging it into the crowds ahead of them. It crushed an assault unit almost instantly, then kept rolling and rolled over some more. "Funny how you tend to interpret things differently." Octavia said, emerging from cover and firing a short spray of lasers. "Suppose." Rainbow replied, charging out of cover and deflecting several bolts of energy by spinning her cleaver around her. Then she reached forward, the grapple shooting out and clawing into an assault unit's chest. She tugged back, the energy cable retracting and hauling the unit through the air and directly into Rainbow's waiting cleaver. The two halves of the former robot tumbled across the ice behind her, coming to a rest by Octavia. Octavia picked up one half, shook it and emptied the contents so only the shell was left, and used it as a shield as she advanced forward. "Troops of Haven! Press on!" Applebloom yelled, her shotgun letting out a thundering pow. She quickly turned on her side as she saw a distant muzzle flash, the sniper bullet already on its way towards her head. She made the turn just in time, the bullet hitting her right shoulder plate and smudging itself across the shiny red paint. "A little battle scar always adds a bit of value, right?" She said, just joking around as she left Magnum to pick the sniper off. Rainbow ducked under an anti-matter beam and swiped her cleaver up, chopping off the assault unit's arm. She then stabbed the cleaver into its chest and shot her grapple into the cleaver handle. The assault unit was still standing, but won't be soon. Rainbow pulled the trigger on the cleaver, sending it blasting out of the unit's chest and hurtling towards Octavia who was several meters behind Rainbow- but before it could hit her, the grapple chain caught on it and its momentum was instantly diverted sideways, the lethal blade whistling through the air. Rainbow spun the grapple chain, with the cleaver still attached to one end; in one big devastating circle which cut all the assault units in her local area in half. The chain retracted, and the cleaver flew right into her waiting hooves. "New toys are always fun." She grinned. "Hey- what is that?" Octavia pointed at the sky. Some sort of figure... "Not ours. Shoot it down." Applebloom said, aiming towards the sky- but all of a sudden the figure had dashed right back down, hitting her full in the chest and sending her tumbling back several meters in the ice. "What the hell-?" Rainbow turned around, Eclipse getting up from the ground where she landed after hitting Applebloom; glowing orange wings folding behind her and dispersing into the air. She cast a sideways glance to Rainbow, sending shivers down her spine. Despite the blood red eyes... Rainbow could barely describe how cold they were. Although speaking of cold... "Get away from her! Sweetie Belle and I will take care of her!" Halcyon yelled, leaping off the top of the wall, a body of ice rising to catch her. She landed lightly on the ice, which formed a slide as she slid down towards Eclipse. Eclipse didn't move, only conjured up two giant cannons which rose above her shoulders and centered on Halcyon, who was charging at her. Then she seemed to see something out the corner of her eye, her head moving an undetectable bit to the side. Then the two cannons broke apart and formed a shield as two huge purple bolts of anti-matter were shot towards her from the top of the wall. They hit the shield, a huge explosion replacing where Eclipse was a second later. While her material shields could defend against explosives and physical attacks, it was a much different matter with anti-matter typed energy weapons. The shield, being normal matter; would become the explosive itself once it comes in contact with anti-matter and blow up. Eclipse had conjured up a second shield behind the first, but the poorly structured shield, due to time constraints; could only withstand so much of the blast and stay intact at the same time. As a result, while damage was prevented; Eclipse still went flying back into the science faction forces. "That's one way to do it." Halcyon said, hopping off the ice slide and landing next to Rainbow. "We'll take on Val's second in command." Sweetiebot said, anti-matter cannons folding back into her sides as she leapt down from the wall, boosters in her hooves slowing her descent. She still slammed right down and cracked into the ice though. "Keep their troops at bay." Eclipse got up from the crater she made in the ice, completely unharmed as she dusted a few specks of snow off her shoulder. "That's one hell of a second in command." Rainbow muttered, and nodded. "Alright. We'll take care of the tanks and stuff." Sweetiebot and Halcyon ran off, ready to attack Eclipse again. "There's one fight I'm not going near." Rainbow muttered, sliding behind cover. * For the first time in years, space was a much more tension filled place- and the OASIS's bridge was busier than ever as the live broadcast of the pre-war speeches were finished. "All fighters on standby! Our troops are ready." Soarin reported to Spitfire, who nodded. "Odd." She said. "Looks like the COLOSSUS is leading the charge instead of hiding behind cover of other vessels." She frowned. "Incoming enemy fire- first wave is about to hit!" An officer reported from below deck. "Tell our cruisers to fan out. Protect the surface at all costs!- and send in the ILLUSION, I want that operation taking place as soon as possible." Spitfire said, watching as the first wave of enemy laser fire tore through space and hurtled towards them. Then they hit, the lasers dispersing before they could actually reach the cruisers as the shields kicked in, keeping the cruisers safe from fire- but it still made quite a bit of an impact. Spitfire almost fell over backwards and had to hold onto the hoof rails to stop herself from toppling over as the entire cruiser shook from the impacts, knocking over cups of coffee and sending paper documents sliding off desks. "HahaHA!!" She laughed. "Haven't felt the thrills of battle in a while now, eh?" "Personally I preferred it when we didn't." Soarin said. "All cruisers! Barricade them away from the surface!" Spitfire yelled. "Get all those damn ships in place- NOW!" "CYCLOPS is fully charged ma'am!" An officer yelled. "Iris, take the shot and remove the COLOSSUS's bloody shields!" Spitfire yelled into the open channel. "Copy commander, right away." Iris replied. "Taking aim... Prepping... FIRING!!" Suddenly there was a loud boom as a huge beam of rainbow colored light shot past the OASIS and towards the COLOSSUS on the far side of space. Nothing could compare to the roar that that one shot from the CYCLOPS made as an entire star's worth of energy was channeled through into the COLOSSUS's energy shields. The local area was instantly lit up by an overwhelming amount of white light as the colors of the rainbow mixed a bit, temporarily blinding the entire battlefield. A small shockwave from the firing process swept across the closer cruisers, making them shudder along with the rumbling of the prism cannon. The beam's energy completely drained the COLOSSUS's shields, and probably even fried their generators. No more protection for the Science Faction flag ship then. "Alright- first shot, hit! Recharging!" Iris reported. "First wave of enemy fighters incoming!" An officer yelled. "Should we spring the ambush?" "Not until they send us cruisers- in the meantime get our own fighters out there and counter the damn bastards!" Spitfire yelled, watching as hundreds of light spots in the darkness of space hurtled towards them. "And where the hell is the ILLUSION!?" "Commander Cloudchaser here, Captain." A voice came through the comms. "The ILLUSION is currently in orbit, there's too much fire and is too dangerous for it to get near the COLOSSUS! I'm leading a band of prototype stealth fighters in for the infiltration mission!" "Copy, commander." Spitfire growled. "I trust that you have a plan worked out?" "Relatively so, captain." Cloudchaser replied, her cloaked fighter craft charging from orbit and straight towards the COLOSSUS- following her a band of fighters made of former Wonderbolt trainees. "I'm sending a few squads to cover you- they'll make sure they get the science faction's attention!" Spitfire said, watching as the docks on the hull of the OASIS opened up, fighters flooding out in threes as the gates closed back together again behind them. "Iris! Status?" Shining Armor called. "Charging at three percent- ETA forty minutes!" "Damn." Shining Armor muttered. "Captain Armor, get aboard the NEMESIS and use it as a second in command!" Spitfire said suddenly. "Captain-" "Just in case OASIS goes down." Spitfire said, not turning away from the battle. "But-" "We need our leaders in different places! I understand you want revenge on what they did to you- to Cadence, to Twilight- but you have to understand the priorities right now! We need a second vessel in case the first- this one- goes down!" Spitfire yelled. Shining Armor stared into her eyes, his own unwavering. "Very well." He said, turning and leaving the bridge. Despite the battle raging on outside, the bridge seemed to quieten down as the captain left the room. "Bloody hell." Spitfire muttered. She could understand why he wanted to do everything he can- but precautions had to be put in place. "Cloudchaser here. We're heading straight for the COLOSSUS's bridge. ILLUSION is ready to leave to dock behind the COLOSSUS, but its cloak shield can hide one other vessel- any requests captain?" "Alright. Change of plans." Spitfire said, folding her arms. "Send in a heavy forward combat cruiser with the ILLUSION. ILLUSION, drop the combat cruiser off behind the science faction fleet. Screw them up their arses- then proceed with the rest of the mission." "Copy. Relaying the message!" Cloudchaser said. "The CALAMITY heavy combat cruiser is on its way!" An officer yelled. "A message from our ambush squad- their trigger hooves are getting a little itchy." A call from the opposite side of the bridge. "Shields are back to one hundred percent capacity!" Another yell. "We're in full business then." Spitfire grinned, leaning forward on the hoof rails that were lined up along the small area of the bridge which was elevated for the commanders, the rest of the bridge's crew below. "And officer Soarin, if you could at least act a bit more professional and stop staring at my flank." She added casually. "Sorry ma'am." Soarin said, blushing and looking away.