//------------------------------// // Chapter 56: Winning...? // Story: Bounty Hunters 3: Genesis // by Jasper77W //------------------------------// "...Magic faction forces are overwhelming outpost 17!! Calling for all available reinforcements- WE'RE GETTING BUCKING SMOTHERED OUT HERE!!!" The screams of a commander of a Fillydelphian outpost. "THE GRIFFONS TOOK OUT OUR ANTI-AIR DEFENSES! WE'VE GOT NEXT TO NOTHING AGAINST THE BUCKERS!!" Val watched and listened calmly to all the distress calls. Too bad all the reinforcements were locked up in space, barricaded out by Spitfire and her comparably puny fleet. They wouldn't hold for long, but neither would the science faction ground troops. They certainly had not expected to see all of Equestria wandering onto the battlefield and attacking everything they see. She wasn't too concerned with this. Twirling the Ace key in a hand, she smirked as the commander's head got blown off by some sort of magic energy weapon, reducing him to shreds of pulverized flesh and bone with a bright green flash. "This is Valkyrie." She said, resting her head on the back of her hand. "All forces retreat to Valhalla." "Copy Empress!" The various surviving outposts reported in simultaneously, not bothering to hide the relief in their voices. "HEX." Val said, waving a hand in the air and summoning the AI. "Commence stage one of the Ascension project. Is Starshine in position?" "He's in the vicinity. Infiltration has not yet been staged." HEX said. "With good reason. That sniper Magnum has taken up a location on the Wall, and Haven's president Applebloom and the rest of her group the 'CMC' are at the front lines. Eclipse is engaging the cyborg Sweetie Belle and the Warden of Water right now as we speak." "Let's see if she'll hold then." Val grinned. "See how well one of our best cyborgs fares against one of the universe's chosen defenders-" she voiced the last few words full with mockery and general dislike. "-and a magic-based cyborg." "Calculated chance of a lost battle: fifty percent." HEX said. "Oh well. She makes it, cool; she doesn't, she wasn't good enough." Val yawned. "Although based on her former identity, she should be able to win with relative ease." "Ah, poor Eclipse. Reduced to a pitiful little earth pony." Val said, then noticed her own reflection on the shiny floors of her throne room. "Oh wait..." "I do however see your point." HEX said. "Anyhow. Ready the bomber. Tell Starshine to refrain from revealing his position as of yet. I want dear Spitfire to make the move she hasn't made yet." She said. She had noticed the slipping away of a certain heavy attack cruiser, which disappeared both from sight and radar. Must be the ILLUSION again, slipping ships past her forces. This was quickly becoming an interesting fight- both factions knew each other's cards all too well. Heh. Except they DON'T know all my cards. Val chuckled, looking down at the Ace activation card. "Allow the enemy to make the first vital move? How unlike the Valkyrie I know." HEX said. "I just want them to think they're winning, for however brief a moment." Val laughed, oh the vileness that seeped from that. "Or I could attack first. Make them desperate. Yep, that could work." "Once again, tactically retarded." HEX commented. "We shall see. Unfortunately, despite your complex and advanced programming, you are still unable to see the importance of mental warfare." Val sighed. "Do explain, your majesty." HEX said, and for some reason Val felt that the last two words were some-what sarcastic- but she ignored them. "Loyalty, hope- the two foundations that bound their futile resistance together. And without the foundations, they'd fall apart and crumble at our hooves. As individuals they're nothing, but as a whole- well, you've seen the damage they've managed to do. But even the strongest hope and truest loyalty has its breaking point, however long it may take. I'm just slowly wearing away at it. Even tiny droplets of water, over a period of time; can punch a nice little hole or dig a trench through the toughest of rocks. Wearing it away bit by bit, drop by drop. Eventually their hopes will fade to despair, and loyalty will turn to betrayal." Val said matter-of-factly. "As demonstrated by dear little Silver Dash, as they call her." "And I suppose you're going to use your former self as an example of hope turning to despair?" HEX asked. "Yup." Val said, Blithy still asleep next to her on the floor. She had drugged her, so she would be effectively out of the way when she needs her to be. Which was right now. * Rainbow watched as a mare was torn to shreds by a mini gun turret the science faction had set up nearby. She fell down, her body completely torn apart by the streams of bullets. "Son of a mule." Rainbow cursed. She had been so occupied with engaging the enemy forces and keeping herself alive that she didn't even notice all the friendly casualties around her. "The bastards dug trenches into the bloody ice! We're gonna be in a stand off for weeks if this is how they're gonna do this." Octavia muttered. They were ducked down behind the walls of one of their own trenches, and currently they were just exchanging fire with the other side over No Mare's Land. Anyone that gets up there now gets bucked. "Tavi- you have a gun I can use?" Rainbow asked. Her cleaver wasn't exactly the best option for this kind of situation, even if it did integrate a firearm. Octavia yelled over to a mare nearby, and she tossed her one of her side arms. "Catch!" She yelled, and threw it over to Rainbow. It landed in Rainbow's hooves, looking just like any other pistol. Then the barrel split in two, the split glowing a soft blue as an electric whine rose into the air. "The heck is this?" She raised an eyebrow. No clip, nothing. She pointed it at the sky and fired, still nothing but a small flash from the lights. "Scrap Gun." The pony that had it as a side arm yelled over the gunfire, cringing as an explosive detonated nearby and showered her with bits of ice. "Put a piece of metal in there and it'll fling the damn thing at super sonic speed." Rainbow nodded, still not quite getting it. "Here, try this!" Octavia threw her a bullet which she caught with the Scrap Gun. The bullet hovered in between the two split barrels, streams of electricity zapping it from the blue glow on the sides. It slowly turned, some sort of current keeping it there. "See how this goes." Rainbow muttered, taking aim at a machine gun turret. She quickly ducked back down again as a beam of energy shot past her head. She got up and took aim once again, keeping low to her cover. There was a blue flash as she pressed the trigger, the bullet being flung towards the turret and tearing right through the assault unit standing next to it with a loud zap. Since the bullet was spinning sideways through the air, it was awfully off center and tore a hole in an unintended target about a meter left of where Rainbow had aimed it. Rainbow ducked down, frowning at the little thing. "It's powerful and useful alright, but could do with an accuracy perk or something along those lines." She complained. Really, her cleaver probably couldn't done better- but she mounted it to her grapple anyway. The grapple really served more like a small inventory than anything else- now she had a grapple, double blades and a random firearm all mounted to her right arm. Then something occurred to her. She turned back to the mare who had the gun. "Is there a size limit on this thing?" She called out. "Anything that fits. No recoil, and it'll fling anything at the same force. Just a matter of air friction and gravity, really." Came the reply, which Rainbow grinned at. "Back to finding unusual uses for new toys?" Octavia caught her grin and cast a worried glance her way. "Yup." Rainbow said, pulling out the cleaver capsule. "But first we need to break up their defenses. We're at a constant stand off here, we'll need to overwhelm them with something." "Something, like, say; reinforcements?" Applebloom asked, her Exo suit crashing down behind cover as she commanded it to do so. Rainbow felt the ground tremble. "If we have any." Rainbow said. "Which we do." Applebloom replied. "But you sure you have a plan?" "Lead a charge when they're distracted. Turn their own manual turrets against them." "Tricky." Applebloom muttered. "We can sandwich them with our reinforcements, but they'll probably chose to retreat THIS way." "Then make sure they can't get anywhere near here." Rainbow said. "Has Halcyon recovered yet?" "Still unconscious." Applebloom sighed, ducking down and covering both of them with a robotic forearm as a rocket struck nearby. "Fighting Eclipse drained her. She almost died trying to get Sweetie Belle back here, hell. That bloody second in command." "Shuck." Rainbow cursed. "Are the both of them okay?" "They'll be fine, but in no condition to fight at the moment." Applebloom sighed, then stood up and fired a few shots at the enemies. "And won't be for another few hours, at the very least." "Damnit." Rainbow muttered. "Could really do with some help right now." * "Starshine is in position and has Applebloom in his crosshairs." HEX reported. Val considered that for a moment. "Cancel." She said suddenly. "Can't wait for a single second longer now can we..." HEX seemed to chuckle, sounding smug. "I just need him to make it into the city. If he doesn't it could be a problem, then I'll have to send in somepony else, which is pretty hard all things considered. Especially when he'll have to sneak past everyone." Val sighed, resting her head on a hand. "Tell him to abandon the shot and head straight into Haven." "Copy. He will not be happy about this." "But does he dare disobey me?" "No." "Exactly." Val said, yawning with apparent boredom. "But he will anyway." "That I know too." Val growled. "Let's just see how far he gets." "Update- it would seem the Haven troops are retreating to the walls as part of some sort of new tactic. I believe they intend to wear us out." HEX said, observing through a camera mounted on the COLOSSUS. "Ha!" Val couldn't help but laugh at the timing of the retreat. "Well then, tell him to take the shot once he gets close to the primary objective. Actually, once he's inside." She contemplated making Starshine take the shot right next to the secondary objective, but there was more at stake here than a simple bit of fun. "No more delays." * "Our reinforcements are on their way. Now we wait for them to come out..." Applebloom grinned. The retreat hadn't been without losses, but the science faction seemed to suspect something was off and didn't chase them. "I don't like this." Magnum said suddenly, leaning against one of the pillars holding up a roof over the towers. She was still in one of the towers, overlooking the battlefield and taking shots at anyone careless enough to poke their head out from behind cover. Rainbow and pretty much everyone else was below on the Wall, taking a defensive position behind its cover. "Don't like what?" Rainbow looked up from her spot on the wall. "Doesn't make sense that they're not taking the bait." Magnum muttered, a concerned frown on her face as she fired off another shot. Still that stirred no reaction but a dead assault unit. They were returning fire, but only enough to keep the battle going. It would seem none had actual intended targets. Then her ear all of a sudden flicked back at an abnormal sound behind her. Was that... Some sort of whistling? She yanked at the rifle, intending to aim it behind her- but for a horrifying second realized it was mounted to her cover and could not be removed instantly. Her eyes darted up to where the minuscule noise was coming from, and almost instantly spotted the High Explosive Anti-Tank Rocket zipping through the air towards the wall from one of Haven's sky scrapers. She quickly looked down to where the HEATR was going to hit, her eyes widening in horror. She didn't have her sidearm with her. Of course, she didn't even need one anymore. The ACPW mounted to her cover was her sidearm. "APPLEBLOOM! EVERYPONY GET DOW-" but she didn't get to finish her sentence. Rainbow was the first to react, turning in the direction of the rocket in alarm- but not yet fully realizing what was happening. The long thin rocket struck dead center and lodged itself into Applebloom's chest as she turned around at its whooshing noise, penetrating layers of armor and impaling her to her suit. She gaped, the central operations matrix of the suit going offline and her mechanical arms suddenly failing and falling to her sides. Blood trickled down the corners of her mouth as she stared down wide-eyed at the rocket in her body. There was nothing but surprise in those eyes. Rainbow seemed to have been frozen on the spot by what had just happened. She was too shocked to acknowledge the high pitched whine of motors as the rocket released its vial of anti-matter into the material world around it, and barely registered the explosion that tore through the Wall half a second later. She flew back, the high concentration vial of anti-matter blasting outwards and attaching itself to the normal matter around it. The world around it acted as the chemical compound for the explosive- which was what made anti-matter all the more dangerous. Rainbow thought she felt an unusual amount of heat radiating from the right side of her face and her right arm. The searing pain that followed was indescribable. She couldn't even hear herself screaming over the ringing in her ears as she was thrown back by the explosion, her right eye and right arm having completely been blown apart due to direct exposure to anti-matter. She felt her back hit the ground, darkness creeping from the edges of her only functioning eye. She could feel bits of shrapnel embedded in her body, shreds of debris raining down all around her that were no bigger than a few centimeters in length. As she collapsed, her head turning to one side; she thought she caught sight of a large piece of armor clunk down flaming on the ground next to her, the bright red paint scorched and the shoulder plate bent horrifically out of shape. She didn't even get to register what that had come off of when darkness consumed her, and she fell into the void. * Magnum could only stand hopelessly out of reach as the missile lodged into Applebloom's chest exploded. She quickly ducked behind what little cover the tower provided, dragging Zealo to the ground with her as she felt the shockwave sweep across them. Cracks exploded from corners of the roof, and it looked like it was going to collapse. A loud siren rang out across the city, signaling damage to the Wall. Ponies were screaming, running to see if their leader made it or not- but from what Magnum saw before she ducked down, it was a big no. Just to be sure though- this can't possibly have happened... She thought, standing up and peering over her cover. What she saw didn't at all make her feel any better. Rainbow was probably dead already, half her face bleeding and her missing arm forming puddles of crimson on the ground beneath her. Octavia was knocked out, also bleeding from several wounds caused by large chunks of concrete that flew from the Wall. Many of the soldiers stationed around the wall in that area were wounded or dead. And Applebloom... Bits of her suit where scattered everywhere, but the mare herself must've been vaporized by the explosion. "Shuck-" Zealo cursed, getting up as a few pieces of concrete slid off his back, a light cut on his cheek and a bruise on his shoulder. "The hell happened?" "Starshine." Magnum growled, peering through the sunlight up at one of the Haven skyscrapers. Then her eyes widened as she watched him load another HEATR. She reached behind a still dazed Zealo, who looked up in surprise. She grabbed hold of the pistol strapped to his flank and yanked it out as Starshine fired the HEATR. Magnum quickly spun Zealo out of the way and pulled the trigger, the bullet hitting the HEATR's anti-matter capsule and blowing it apart in a brilliant shower of purple dust. She snapped back and aimed at the ACPW's mount, putting a bullet through it. With a loud snap, the heavy sniper rifle collapsed onto the ground. Magnum scooped it up, and darted to the edge of the tower. Starshine had already escaped from sight, but Magnum wasn't about to give up the chase. "Where are you going..?" Zealo barely opened his mouth as Magnum shot a grapple at the skyscraper, her hooves already leaving the floor. "AL! I need a plane in the area. Think you can spare me an Apollo?" Magnum yelled into the mic, landing on the roof and just in time to see Starshine's tail disappear behind a corner. She gave chase, sprinting after him. "We've got a science faction agent running loose in Haven!" "Acknowledged. Sending over an Apollo to intercept and assist." AL replied. "Pilot should be there in a few minutes. She's quite eager to fight." "She'd better be." Magnum growled. Starshine better not have a bunch of explosives or something- the CMC tower mustn't fall. Starshine leaped off the edge of the building, plowing right through the glass window in the next. He rolled onto the carpeted floor of an office, a few remaining ponies in it scrambling away from him as he shoved them out of the way. "Buck. He actually is heading for CMC control." Magnum cursed, tucking her legs under her as she too leapt. She landed slightly off target, and smashed ungracefully through a desk. Her light under armor protected her, but she still had an aching back when she got up. She recovered as Starshine turned a corner, once again out of the line of sight. She cursed again, leaping over the remains of the wooden table and running after him. Starshine kicked down a door and started running down a stairwell, Magnum following. Their hoofsteps echoed up and down the empty stairwell as they galloped down in a spiral. Magnum ducked down as Starshine fired a few shots up at her, one grazing the hoof rails and raining the stairs with sparks. Not for the first time, she wondered how convenient it would be in this situation to be a unicorn or pegasus. But earth ponies are more innovative in their approaches. She swung over the railing to her side, firing a grapple down just above where Starshine was. Momentum carried her as she swung down and slammed her back hooves into Starshine's side, knocking him through the door next to him. She came skidding to a halt next to his fallen form, ignoring the burning sensation in her hooves as she skid on the carpet. "Maybe you should've just stayed dead." She growled, not a single bit of amusement in her voice despite the joke. Oh, the one stallion she hated more than Deadeye. "Go clop to yourself." Starshine muttered, leaping off the ground with a knife clenched between his teeth. Magnum lifted up Zealo's pistol, aiming it for Starshine's face. Starshine stabbed the knife between the gun's hammer and the gun itself, rendering it temporarily useless. Already both his hooves where coming around, one slamming into the side of the gun while the other clipped the magazine release. The gun fell apart in Magnum's hooves, the clip falling towards the ground while the other pieces exploded away from Starshine's hoof. Too bad the gun expert was trained to deal with this. Magnum swiped a hoof through all the parts still in the air, reassembling the gun in a split second as all the pieces fell together. Then with a back hoof she flicked the magazine up into the pistol. She spun away as Starshine slashed with the knife, which he took out of his mouth and started using properly. Magnum quickly cocked the handle back, and aimed the gun right between Starshine's eyes. She was a split second late, his helmet springing out of his armor and blocking the bullet. "You certainly have gotten better." Magnum said, shooting Starshine's knife out of his hoof and disarming him. "Don't need your compliments." Starshine growled back, pulling out a pistol of his own and fired. Magnum fired too, her bullet grazing his at such an angle that his went flying off course while hers soared straight into a weak spot in his armor- the small visor over his left eye. The bullet punched through the thick armored glass, but didn't have enough power left to go all the way to his brain. Instead it shattered his left eye's cornea and settled just before his retina. He screamed and fell back, bits of shattered armored glass embedding themselves in his skin around his eye. He turned around and started running again. Magnum didn't bother shoot- the bullets would never make it through the armor, plus the ACPW(tucked away on her belt) would take too long to deploy. So she chased after him. Glass exploded as he once again leapt out into the open, his hooves cracking against the concrete roof of a lower building, his suit absorbing most of the impact as he quickly recovered and starting running for the CMC tower. "Lightning Dust and former Wonderbolt cadet at your service." A voice said through the comms, the loud blast of an Apollo's engines filling the air as the aircraft went flying by, scorching the sky. "How may I be of assistance?" "Just kill the target. The one I'm chasing." Magnum said, firing a grapple up at a building and swinging down onto the roof. "One un-recognizably sizzled armored stallion, coming right up." Lightning Dust smirked. "Avoid friendly casualties and damage." "Rephrase. Coming up in a few minutes." Lightning Dust muttered, the Apollo gliding down closer to get a better shot. Magnum could see it hovered over the still running Starshine. Now would be a good time to bring out that ACPW sniper. But by the time Magnum was able to fully deploy the sniper, Starshine had already turned another corner; hidden by the mass of water tanks on top of the roof. Magnum cursed, once again giving chase. But this time she was going on an interception course. "What was your name again? Lightning Dust? Gimme a ride!" She yelled, sprinting to the edge of the roof as Starshine once again leaped off and smashed right through the side of an office building. "Copy." Lightning Dust said, the Apollo swinging down and acting as a platform before Magnum. She stepped onto the hull, grabbing hold of a piece of armor before the plane took off again. "Intercept him!" Magnum yelled, Lightning Dust sending the Apollo boosting down the street and swiveling sharply around the corner to fly alongside the escaping stallion. They made the end of the building a split second late, Starshine having already leapt into a different building. "Fly me into that gap!" Magnum ordered, pointing to the street where Starshine had made the crossing. The Apollo flew into the narrow gap, Magnum already straightening up and raising the sniper as Lightning Dust lined her up with the broken window of the business block. "Those who try to run..." She started, lining up the shot even though Starshine was already out of sight. "...will only die tired." And with that, she pulled the trigger. The bullet soared through the open window, disrupted a pile of paperwork as it flew past a nearby desk, weaved through a gap in some sort of stone statue, hit a door knob at such an angle that the deformed bullet spun into the other room, tumbled across the hallway it had just entered, bounced off the worn carpet floor, barely cleared a male officer's mane and only disrupted a few strands of his hair, shattered the coffee cup in a mare officer's hoof behind him, made a small graze of no immediate health concern at all on the mare's arm as it passed, hit the far door which was half opened and flew straight down the next hallway, emerged from another door and embedded itself into Starshine's right back hoof as he ran past that door. "Hit." Magnum said to no one in particular as she heard Starshine yell in pain, and leaped into the building herself. The Apollo took off somewhere else, circling round to the other side. "What the buck..?" Starshine fell forwards, his body sliding with his momentum and thudding dully against the glass wall facing the CMC building. His injured right back hoof dragged a bloody trail of crimson behind him on the carpet, the bullet having slipped right into the joint of two armor plates. He clutched his leg, growling curses. The bullet was already a miraculously flying piece of scrap metal by the time it had made it to him, and possibly did even more damage than it normally would have. He quickly broke the glass wall with an elbow, and slid the HEATR launcher off his back. He searched his belt for the rocket marked by red paint- it didn't take long. Quickly loading it, he heard a soft click behind him as he took aim at the CMC tower. He chuckled, feeling the barrel of the high powered rifle press against the back of his head. "Put down the weapon Starshine." Magnum said coldly, her hoof resting lightly on the trigger and itching to pull it. "So it has to end like this again, huh? Me wounding you, and you killing me." Starshine laughed, but his aim didn't waver from the tower. "So what? Pull the trigger. I dare you. The rocket is rigged to fire the moment I die anyway." "Put that down." Magnum commanded. "Why should I?" "I said put it down." Magnum repeated, this time a snarl in her voice. "How bout no." Starshine said, the barest hint of a grin in his voice as he pulled the trigger. The rocket left its launcher with a loud whoosh, heading straight for the center of the CMC tower. This was no conventional rocket- it had somehow already broken the sonic barrier, and had only been in the air for a second. Even a bullet from Magnum's high powered rifle wouldn't be able to catch up to it. "Son of a-" Magnum was just about to pull the trigger when she spotted something rolling out from Starshine's spare hoof. She quickly turned her head away as the flash bang went off, the blast knocking her off her hooves while Starshine's armor absorbed the small shockwave. She fell onto her back, the ACPW sliding somewhere else. Even with her head turned and her eyes squeezed shut, the flash bang still managed to blind her- however less severely. Starshine clearly had a filter run through his armor's helmet, shielding out the flash. She felt a solid crack across her jaw as she tried to get up, ears still ringing and eyes only seeing white and black after images. She stumbled and felt her back hit a wall, panic overtaking her as the similarities to her last encounter with Starshine dawned on her. But she had won that encounter, and killed him. Her ears picked up the light whining of motors of Starshine's suit as he swung another hoof towards her, and she diverted it under her arm and clamped his hoof there, rendering it useless for the time being. Her vision was recovering, and she saw a hoof heading straight for her face- and her quick instincts were enough to catch the punch with her own hoof to stop it inches away from her nose. The monochromatic after images faded, and she saw the surprise on Starshine's face as he tried to pull his hoof away, but couldn't. Magnum started pushing down on it, forcing him to his knees. Then she slammed a knee into his chest, spun and kicked him across the temple. He went sprawling against the far wall, his helmet broken and automatically retracting back into his armor. He tried to pull his knife out, but Magnum was faster. Her hoof reached it before his did, and she spun it and stabbed it right through his left hoof and into the wall. Starshine screamed in pain, his hoof now impaled to the wall. Magnum slammed a hoof across his face, a tooth clinking onto the ground followed by blood infused spittle. Starshine looked up, resentment in his eyes and blood dripping from the corner of his mouth as he snarled. Magnum pinned him firmly against the wall, although it wasn't very necessary considering his hoof was impaled anyway. She came nose to nose, then something caught her eye. The armor he was wearing looked vaguely familiar... Was it....? Anvil. Her eyes narrowed in disgust, a snarl creeping onto her face. Starshine only smirked in his battered form. Magnum backed away, then spun and launched a back hoof directly into his face- probably shattering a nice variety of bones as she did so. But he was still conscious. "Two lines you NEVER cross..." Magnum picked up the ACPW and leveled it against his chest, not wanting to kill him instantly. He didn't deserve it. "...horizontal..." She shoved the barrel of her gun in between the two chest plates of Anvil's armor. "...and vertical." She snarled, and pulled the trigger. The bullet tore through his rib cage, sending a large chunk of him splattering onto the wall behind him as the exit wound. He wasn't quite dead yet. "Just so you know... Bluefyre died a bitch." He said, dying but still weakly alive. Magnum's enraged expression was all he wanted to see. Magnum emptied the entire magazine into him, and by the time she was on the third shot he'd already been dead beyond dead. Guts spilt from his back, blood staining the floor. Magnum was exhausted by the end of it, physically and mentally. She had reserved one bullet, and used that to cave Starshine's face in. Just because she couldn't stand looking at it. She slumped down on the opposite wall, trying her best to ignore the stench coming off Starshine's mutilated body. Trying to cope with the death of her entire team, which only dawned on her just about now. Trying to ignore the loud explosion that came from the CMC tower, and the red smoke that was rising into the air from that gaping wound in the tower that signaled her failure. But now wasn't a time to feel sorry for herself, really. 'Fight today, cry tomorrow', or something along those lines. Something she read somewhere. Now really wasn't the time to be just sitting around. Failure only wins when the subject accepts it, she thought as she got to her hooves. The rocket didn't do much damage at all. But the red smoke... It was like someone had smudged a glow-in-the-dark highlighter across the sky and the tower. A marker. This could only mean bombers were on their way, or worse. "Oh no..."