//------------------------------// // Chapter 72: Valhalla- Part 2 // Story: Bounty Hunters 3: Genesis // by Jasper77W //------------------------------// Somewhere in the dark, a figure stirred. "Sisters, children. Our time is coming." A voice announced. "And what time, may that be?" Another questioned. "To strike, of course. To return to our home." "But is THIS no longer our home?" "Tis but a large rock!" The voice rose with dismay. Another joined into the discussion. "The character identified as 'Valkyrie' has grown far too dangerous. She possesses the amulet..." "Yes..." Agreed a few others, a series of displeased mutters spreading through the gathered. "Sisters, brothers..." The hopeful one ordered silence. "The magic she possesses cannot be countered, even by YOUR power." A voice said accusingly. "We cannot possibly defeat her." "But I know of the one who can." The hopeful one spoke. "And you suggest we assist her in her... Efforts? Instead of staying here, safe, and protected?" "Safe, protected, and trapped like animals." A new voice rose, the others faltering. "Sisters, brothers. This is our chance to be FREE." The hopeful one agreed. "Or perhaps a chance for extinction." Mumbling once again spread through the crowd. "I have a new proposal." The hopeful one spoke, silencing the rest. "Those that are willing to fight, follow me. Those who wish to stay, do as you please. Should we lose, we will be remembered as the ponies who failed to grasp the one chance they had at freedom. But should we win, you who stay... Will go down in history as the ignorant fools who chose to withhold the nothing that they had instead of taking the chance to take it all back." There was no muttering. No chatter between the sisters and brothers. The ponies within made their choices, and waited. "We leave at dawn." The hopeful one made one last statement, before she turned and disappeared in a brilliant flash. * Valhalla's various towers flashed by, accompanied by an occasional bloom of green as trees on the sidewalks passed. A rainbow colored beam of light struck the asphalt, lifting that section of the road. EDI passed with such speed that it was barely just a bump under her tires. "How much ammo does it TAKE-" Rainbow moaned, operating the turret on the roof. There was a hovercraft chasing after them like a leopard locked onto its target. It weaved between the snaking bridges and highways of Valhalla, avoiding Rainbow's bullet stream with disturbing ease. Its prism cannon cooled, and started firing again. The sidewalks exploded with rainbow colored fumes, bits of metal and concrete erupting across the road. Suddenly a perfectly straight purple beam came from the sky, slicing through the hovercraft's hull and killing the pilot inside. It spiraled out of control, slamming into a bridge. The bridge fell apart, debris from both structure and vehicle rupturing across the sky. * "One." Magnum replied, slamming a new cartridge into the oversized beam weapon she cradled in her hooves. Earth looked so peaceful from up here... "Magnum! We're pinned down at the power plant- they've got a buckload of assault units in the area! There's a tank there- can you see it?" Blaze yelled through the comms. "Hold up..." Magnum muttered, looking around. The suit she wore made a few robotic groans as she moved about. She was floating in space, drifting a few meters away from the NEMESIS. "Yup, I see it." She said, boosters on her back flaring up briefly to adjust her aim. She brought the orbital sniper up to her eyes, feeling the scope press against the visor of her helmet. There was a soft beep as the scope synced with her HUD, zooming in on the surface. "There you are..." She whispered. She could see a top down view of a science faction tank, its cannon firing every two seconds or so- probably suppressing Blaze's strike team. She lined up the shot and pulled the trigger. * "Tank is non-functional!" Blaze screamed. "AL, flush them out!" A trio of driverless sports cars drove into sight. They were just outside the power plant, a giant facility consisting of four large cylindrical structures. They were surrounded by a tall concrete wall, but that was almost useless now as the firefight between the strike team and the assault units inside had all but torn them down. One of the vehicles fired an automatic shotgun at the front gates- and the already battle worn metal bars almost instantly shattered. The locks failed, and they swung open. The trio immediately drove in and started shooting up everything within the walls. "Push them back AL!" Blaze yelled, grappling his way up to one of the walls. Using his magic to grab onto a spark, he immediately expanded it into a full-on fire and set it down over all the major exits points of the facility. These assault units seem to be able to just come in endless waves from inside- so there must be something beneath the plant. He scooped up an anti-matter rifle from a downed robot, and began helping EDI and his team- letting out a streak of wildfire whenever anyone got too close. One of the assault units managed to charge through his wall of flames, its armor molten in places and its head disfigured- but it was still working. He didn't have the time to point his anti-matter rifle that way- at least not before he gets to be exploded by the unit. There was a loud buzz that distinctly sounded like a 'wub', and then the robot was sliced diagonally in half. Its peices fell apart and crumbled to the floor, an orange disc flying over his head and returning to its owner. "There's only three of us here, you'll need to watch your own back next time!" Vinyl warned, catching the glowing energy disc. "Charges are planted! CHARGES ARE PLANTED!!" Noteworthy came sprinting out of the chaos, firing the bass rifle into the smoke behind him. "LET'S GO!" "AL!" Blaze yelled. The three cars returned immediately, however still keeping the enemy at bay with their weapons. "Everypony get in! Quick!" "Detonating charges on the Southern power plant..." Terra's voice came through the comms. Vinyl briefly caught sight of a large plume of smoke to her left as she jumped into a sports car- just visible above Valhalla's skyline. * "Southern power plant is down. Sectors one through five have been shut off." Halcyon reported. "Copy that! Rendezvous at the tower!" Rainbow whooped. "Ground forces are clear to breach the southern wall once they get confirmation- over!" "Power appears to be down in sectors one to five, resistance is low. Proceed." Shining Armor's voice came through. "Uh-oh. Strikers!" Rainbow screamed, hearing the distinctive reverberating noise that Striker and Apollo engines make. And sure enough, a team of four came swooping around the corner. "Make a turn!" She cried out while holding down the trigger of the car's mini gun. The bullet stream glanced off the aircrafts' armored hulls. They did nothing more than scratch the paint, but that wasn't surprising considering only aircraft prism cannons could take these bastards down. "AL, we need heavier weapons!" Octavia screamed as the sports car careered around a crossing, making a left. "Magnum? Can we have some cover please?" Rainbow ducked down, a prism beam searing between her mane and aloft hat. "Eh... Seems to me AL's got it covered on your side. I'll help out the others." "Magnum!" She yelled, wrenching her hat out of the air and planting it back on her head as she hid inside the car, a few bullets glancing off the rim of the opening. Suddenly a rocket flew out from high above at the top of one of Valhalla's skyscrapers, blowing a Striker out of the air. The flaming carcass tumbled across the street and slammed into a small convenience store at the foot of a tower. Rainbow peered up, spotting a few tiny dots moving above. AL had a few cars either side of them jumping across the skyscrapers, their matter manipulators creating bridges and ramps for them to travel across as they kept close to EDI. "One down! Three to go!" Octavia whooped. "Heads up RD, gunship in your area." Magnum's voice came through. "Copy that." Rainbow peeped out of the opening once more, peering around her. A stream of purple anti-matter rounds exploding around them caught her attention. She quickly got up and spun the mini gun around, locking it into place with a satisfying click. Once again, the fire she unleashed with it was only enough to force the gunship to move. It swiveled to the side, anti-matter bolts landing all around the two as Octavia swerved to dodge them. The gunship appeared again behind them, gliding out from between two buildings. Rainbow quickly turned her weapon back around, holding down the trigger. The bullets cut a line through the pavement nearby. The gunship turned on its side, the gates on its side opening up and revealing an entire squad of assault units. One of them was loading up a mounted anti-matter mini gun. Fire from their rifles erupted all around the duo, some managing to hit the sports car and take out bits of its armored exterior. Rainbow fired back, but only managed to hit them a few times- and those few times often simply glanced off their robotic armor. The roads behind them were being obliterated as they weaved their way through the streets, anti-matter bolts raining down behind them. "Striker! Striker!" Octavia screamed, and Rainbow looked to her right. The quad engined aircraft came hurtling towards them, dropping a few missiles in its dive. They missed, but Rainbow had to duck down again as shrapnel exploded across the car's left side. The reinforced windows on the left shattered, sprinkling glass into the interior. "Buck!" Rainbow cursed, looking up. One of AL's remotely controlled cars came hurtling off a tower, leaping onto a short segment of ramp before flat-spinning straight towards the gunship. Another track formed and it landed wheels down, the orange track curving up again towards the center of the gunship. Rainbow thought AL was simply going to use it to blow the ship up, but clearly AL cared for her resources a bit more than she did. The track curved and made a few last second adjustments before forming a ramp and sending the sports car careening towards the gunship's open gate. It spun, meeting the gunship with its side as it landed flawlessly inside. But of course, it didn't end there. It kept going, skidding sideways on all four wheels and knocking the squad of assault units out the other end shortly before following. It turned around in mid-air, punched a rocket or two into the gunship then landed onto another ramp. "Good work AL!" Rainbow grinned as she got up again to deal with the three remaining Strikers, spinning the turret around. The gunship slammed into a building some few hundred meters away, creating a gaping hole in its side. "Cops." Magnum said simply, and Rainbow spotted the flashing red and blue lights up ahead. This was one long street with no sides to turn to- oh, this was going to be great. A trio of armored Valhalla law enforcement vehicles charged at them, forming a solid barrier. The three Strikers flew overhead, turning around over their grounded fellows. "It's too risky to use a ramp!" Octavia warned, but AL and EDI charged full speed ahead anyway. Suddenly two of AL's cars dropped down either side, speeding ahead towards the armored police trucks. The purr of their engines rang through the streets, loud as a dragon's roar. Rainbow and Octavia watched the duo charge up ahead some fifty meters, ready to slam head-on into the trucks. They moved a little closer together, aiming for the non-existent gaps between the three trucks. Two orange ramps formed over their slim profiles as they hit all three trucks on the full. The police vehicles gave a heavy crunch and lurched off the ramps, all three thrown into the air. One of the Strikers tried firing at EDI, but hit a flying truck and embedded it into the ground. A screen of smoke and fire formed from the explosion, and time seemed to pause for Rainbow and Octavia as they sped into the cloud. Off the corner of her eye, Octavia saw one of the trucks roll past on the right while Rainbow spotted one tumbling overhead. The moment past, and Rainbow gave the rear a quick glance- watching the vehicles slowly pitch to a stop, broken and defeated. The two AL vehicles braked and zoomed off somewhere else, presumably to flank the Strikers still hot on their tail. "Heads up. Enemy concentration around the tower is still high- Val knows you're coming." Magnum reported. "Halcyon and her team are headed to the southern face and Blaze and his team are headed for the north. You're coming in through the east, so watch out- that's the front gate." "Is anypony taking the west?" Octavia enquired, drifting around a corner and dodging an array of prism beams. "Nope." Was the answer. "Alright. We'll ditch the cars somewhere near the tower and try sneaking in. Have the cars ready to back us if we screw up. In the meantime, find somepony to cast a distraction on the west!" Rainbow commanded. If Val thinks she's attacking from behind, then that should ease up resistance at the front gate. A little. "Dispatching units to the west." AL narrated. "Uh... Guys? Large number of mechs headed your way." Magnum jutted in. "Oh for god's sake..." Rainbow muttered. "Striker! Striker!" Octavia warned, and Rainbow turned her attention back to their flying enemies. One of the three remaining enemy aircraft came swooping down overhead, hovering ahead of them and shooting back. A beam hit the car, slicing through the roof and burning into the left rear passenger seat. Thank goodness it missed vital mechanics. Rainbow saw the Striker load a missile as she fired at it. One of AL's racers leapt off a building overhead, falling towards the aircraft. It came within range of its matter manipulators, and just as the missile fired AL conjured up a wall before the Striker. A second later the cockpit-less fighter fell from the sky, the racer landing on a lower roof and speeding off. "AL's taking pretty good care of things." Octavia noted, looking in the rear view mirror. "Not disagreeing." Rainbow muttered, giving the mini gun a hateful look. Useless prick, she thought. "Aaaand there are the mechs Maggie was talking about!" Octavia feigned enthusiasm. A trio of hulking forms clunked into view up ahead, their metallic bodies slowly turning as they trained their weapons on the car. Rainbow peered at the one in the center. "Is that a tank turret...?" The deafening roar that came from the mech confirmed her suspicions. "Well this is unfortuna-" she started, whipping out her cleaver. She swung it over the front and stabbed it into the vehicle's windshield, right beside Octavia. "Whoa SHI-" The 250mm round slammed into the cleaver's refined edge head-on, splitting cleanly in two. If the cleaver hadn't been there, the round would've gone all the way through the car and probably blown it up. But the cleaver was in its path, splitting it in half. Both halves were diverted away from the center of the car, flying out the back side windows. "Oh my GAWD-" Octavia screamed, her ears still ringing from the small scale explosion that was set off right next to her head. One of the halves had taken a small piece of her chair with her, and luckily didn't explode. "Sounds like you guys need some help." Magnum muttered. "Who the buck mounted a TANK TURRET to LEGS!?" Rainbow yanked the cleaver out. A purple beam flew down from the sky, a weapons strike from the heavens. It pierced right through the tank/mech and drilled into the ground. In an instant, the mech's pilot was dead, its turret was disabled, and the computer that processes all its commands was destroyed. It fell over, the long turret falling to the side and making a loud clunk. "You should help us some more." Octavia said. "Nah you guys got it all handled." Magnum replied, moving her crosshairs over to the other strike teams. "The other teams don't have computer driven escort vehicles." "Fair enough." Octavia muttered. "Any ideas for the mechs?" Rainbow ducked down into the car. The mini gun wasn't about to be useful in this situation. "Hey arsehole, follow security protocols before you bucking stride into battle!" Vinyl yelled through the comms, and one of the mechs turned around and blasted a rocket into its partner. "Vinyl? Is that you in that mech!?" Rainbow exclaimed. "Hell yeah!" "Scratchy, mind telling us first next time? Could've shot you." Magnum noted. "That's BS, you got nothing on mah mech." The walker Vinyl was piloting gave its downed partner a firm kick. The leg bent inwards as it contacted the heavy metal, and the walker fell over. "Awww, damnit!" "Idiot." "Thanks for the help! I'll add it to your tip." Rainbow said, giving a quick wave as they passed. "I don't get a tip for taking out that tank mech?" "You already get paid enough." Rainbow replied. "Vinyl, how'd you even get that thing anyway?" "AL drove me around city. Found them on patrol and jacked one of them- was pretty easy, the pilots are all occupied with the battle and aren't concentrating well enough." "Where's the rest of your team?" Octavia enquired, turning a corner. There was a Striker greeting them. "Damnit!" "With AL and on their way to the tower. I just thought I'd lend a helping hoof." "Hey Dash, we're clearing Valhalla airspace. Just a heads up, keep out of the way of any enemy aircraft- might accidentally get ya." Lightning Dust joined in, and Rainbow spotted the Apollo soar ahead and drop a missile on the Striker. "Staying low though, so don't expect full coverage. Tower's defenses are keeping us down." "Roger that. Good to know somepony else has our backs." * "This is turning out... Most displeasing..." Val muttered, reading a report. There goes another Striker- a whole miniature army later and RD is still alive. "I mean seriously, what kind of stupid turd waffle'n bull crap is this?" "I have a similar question for you. How the hell is Eclipse still alive?" Blithy jabbed a finger at the dark grey mare standing sullenly to a corner, who merely glanced her way at the mention of her name. Val and Blithy stared at each other for a second, seemingly frozen in time. "What? Oh, I'm sorry- is this supposed to be the part where I begin my stupid evil monologue?" Val put a hand to her chest mockingly. "Sarcasm is overrated." Blithy muttered. "You're overrated." Val retorted. "Your face is... Overrated..." Blithy continued lamely. Val stood up, stretching. "Regardless..." She opened up a hidden panel in the back of her throne. "Rainbow must be stopped before she reaches the tower." She pressed a button beneath the panel. The throne split and rose into the air, a complicated looking mechanical contraption rising from the ground. It was in the general shape of a cylinder, although strictly speaking it had no shape. It was just a mess of cybernetic limbs, wires, cables, metal parts, and a bunch of other science crap. Val turned around, pressed a finger under Blithy's chin to lift her dropped jaw, and grinned. "Shall I begin my solo now?"