//------------------------------// // Chapter 9: A little Talk // Story: I Have Returned // by EPiiCx5587 //------------------------------// I Have Returned Chapter 9 A little talk Surprise is not an emotion conducive to the battlefield, as Jane was quickly taught during her time in the marine corps. Outcomes needed to be determined and plans made ahead of time to defeat your enemies and so Jane always tried to remain level headed and prepare for every possible situation. This...was not something she could have prepared for. Jane was walking through the everfree forest towards making her way towards the pelican. Bugs buzzed around her in a frenzy, some even landed on her armor. Jane didn’t care though, she was a spartan, there was no way those things could get through her armor. The only time she would flick any of them off is when they landed on her vizor. She was still speechless by the revelation that Equestria was a shield world all along. To think that something such as that was just lying beneath her feet for years was baffling. How in the world did the ponies not discover this? It just made no sense. Then again, a cartoon planet full of talking horses was silly too, although for years she thought nothing of it until she joined humanity. After minutes of walking with her mind unsure of what she should think about this she reached her ship, once she got close Roland was able to connect to the ships control system and open the door for her. The cargo bay door hissed, as it lowered revealing the 5 ponies all tied up staring at her with pure anger swelling up in their eyes, save for fluttershy who was as per usual crying. Crimson stepped out of the cockpit, and into the sitting area. He was without his helmet giving the ponies their first look at his face. “What took you so long?” He said. “It is a hell of a story Crim, and you're probably won’t believe it.” “Wouldn’t be a first for today.” He replied, his voice feeling cold, and almost sad. Jane knew what it was, he wasn’t happy doing what he had to do this day. “Did you get the elements?” Jane held up her old crown. “Only one of them, but I know where Luna is taking the rest.” “Are we going to go there now?” “No, not yet. We should go back to the INFINITY to get my element examined, so we can get a feel of what we're dealing with here.” “Makes sense.” “Plus.” Jane started while she looked over at the ponies. “We need to lock them up in the INFINITY.” “Speaking of which, why are we taking them along with us?” He asked. “Ya.” Rainbow spoke up as brash as ever. “Why don’t you just kill us like the guards you bucking monster!” That offended Jane, admittedly she did smack Rainbow in the face but other than she had left them all alive when she had the chance prior to kill them. “First off, no. Second, I can do much worse things to you that would make you beg for me to kill you.” Jane threatened. It was an empty threat, but she just wanted Rainow to shut up. “Oh ya, try me!” Rainbow continued in a fit of rage. Jane fed up with her, grabbed a stray rag from a locker, and put it in Rainbow Dash’s mouth, and tied it around her head. The pegasi squirmed and squirmed, but with her hooves, and wings tied there was nothing she could do. “There, that will shut her up.” She turned her head back towards Crimson. “I’m taking them with me so I can use them as leverage against Luna, with them in our hands we can just walk right in and take the elements, Luna won’t dare attack us.” “I admit, that’s pretty clever.” Roland said. “Who said that?” Rarity asked. Jane pulled out Roland’s data chip and held it towards Rarity. At first the unicorn was confused, and she stared at the thing. Eventually Rolands holographic body flashed into life revealing himself. “I’m Roland, Jane’s personal assistant.” Rarity was completely dumbfounded. A living thing was inside a piece of metal, it was impossible. Her face though, quickly turned sour. “So, looks like you have even found a new number 1 assistant.” She said with pure hatred. “You know, spike went into a severe depression after you left. Nopony has seen him for years.” “That’s not my problem.” Jane answered after putting Roland back inside her helmet. “Do you even feel any emotion?!” Rarity cried out. “I do, but not for you.” Jane stepped into the cockpit. With Crimson right behind her. She placed Roland into the pelicans computer, and he quickly got on his way with preparing for the flight. The two spartans strapped themselves in as the pelican lifted off the ground, and soared through the atmosphere. Outside the window Jane could see them passing by countless clouds as they ascended into the stratosphere. Before she knew it she was staring at the star filled sky of the universe. No matter how many times she saw it, it still took her breath away. The countless shining lights, constellations, and nebulas. It was a sight to behold, that never got old. “Amazing isn’t it Crimson?” All he could do is just look at her with disgust. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” He scoffed. “Oh...so this is happening now Crimson?” “Damn right it’s happening now. You acted like a fucking madwoman back there.” “I was just doing what’s right for our species. That’s our job Crimson.” He continued to glower at her “You are not part of our species, you’re part of their species just disguised as a human.” “Nevertheless my loyalties reside with humanity, and humanity alone.” “And our job is to protect innocents, not kill them!” “They were soldiers of their species, not innocents.” “So what? That doesn’t mean they were not innocent!” Jane turned her head towards Crimson, his face red with rage. “You have a point Crimson, but tell me this: Were all of the Nazi soldiers back in World War 2 bad people? “No, I’m sure that there was plenty of Nazi soldiers who were innocent, and hadn't done anything wrong.” “Exactly, but they were still the enemy, and thus had to be killed. The point being is that once you become a soldier, it matters not whether you are innocent or not. The allied forces killed the Nazi’s because they were at war with them regardless of the individual actions of each of the enemy soldiers. Those guards stood in our way of getting the elements, so it matters not what they have done.” “You’re sick.” He insulted. “That’s just the way things are. I can’t change the way the world works.” Crimson was finally fed up with the spartan’s attitude. He stood up, and walked towards Jane. He quickly grabbed her by the shoulders, pulled her up to his face, and yelled. “WHAT THE HELL HAS GOTTEN INTO YOU? You have never acted like this before! You were always so nice all the time. Sure you got serious on the battlefield, but you’ve never acted like this! It’s like you have some sort of deep hatred for your old species. Wheres the Jane Arimondo who was always there for the other soldiers? Who smiled, and made everyone feel happy? The Jane Arimondo who was my friend. And just for the record, it really hurt me back there when you said that you didn’t need friends.” “Don’t be stupid Crimson were soldiers. Under the conditions we are always in makes it impossible for soldiers like us to have friends.” “So all of the kindness that you showed me, and the other soldiers over the years was for nothing?” “Well, we had to keep morale high, so we couldn’t be mean to each other. I thought that’s what we were all doing?” Jane questioned, starting to get unsure of herself. “NO! We all thought you were our friend. It doesn’t matter what kind of situation you are in, you can always have friends.” Jane fell silent. Just hearing Crimsons words reminded Jane of her old self. His words sounded like something she would of wrote to princess Celestia about six years ago. But was he right though, did everyone think of her as a ‘friend’? Crimson continued. “Please Jane, please go back to the way you were!” Jane was still quiet, her head down low in deep thought. Eventually she raised it back up, and looked at Crimson. “I am not stopping what I have started. Humanity is too important to not take up this chance. I see your point of view, and understand it, but I can’t bring myself to stop what I have started. But, once this is over, things can go back to the way they used to be. I’ll be friends with you, and the other soldiers, that I promise.” “Very well then, but I am not killing anything unless it wants to kill me first.” “Deal?” Jane asked, holding out her hand. Crimson stared at her hand for a moment, then he looked back up at Jane. There he saw it deep in her eyes, the Jane that he knew. He reached out his hand, and shook hers. “Deal.” He said. ______________________________________________________________________________UNSC INFINITY In orbit around equestria The hallways of the INFINITY ringed with gunfire, and the crew desperately tried to defend the ship from the invading Promethean force. Sarah Palmer now fully armored, with Pearl as her assistant, made her way towards the front line of the attack. She was sprinting through a corridor towards the sounds of battle. “Dammit, how the hell are Prometheans on this ship?” Sarah murmured to herself. “Didn’t we get rid of them on Requiem?” Pearl still under the effects of the override code attempted to answer the spartans question. “My initial scans of the planet revealed that it is hollow, it might be another shield world.” She said in a monotone voice. “So that’s what you were keeping secret from all of us, except for Lasky.” “Correct.” “So these Prometheans are coming from there?” “Possibly.” “So you have doubts?” “Yes, Prometheans were on Requiem because of the Didact. I have yet to determine a reason to why they would be here. So their presence is odd.” A Promethean Knight teleported a few meters away from Sarah. The surprise made the flinch, and step back a bit, but she kept her composure. Then she noticed something, for some reason the orange hue that the Knights usually had was pink this time. Sarah reached for a weapon behind her back, only to realize that she didn’t have one. She turned around to run away, but another Knight teleported to the other end of the hallway. “Shit.” She said. “You’re going to have to save the lecture for the eggheads Pearl, we have company.” Sarah turned back around towards the first Knight. She started sprinting at it at full force. Once she got close enough she activated her thrusters to smash right through her adversary. It teleported out of her way, making her miss. It fell for her plan, now there was nothing infront of Sarah. The promethean appeared behind Sarah only to see her run away. The knight gave chase to the Spartan firing at her while she ran away. Sarah quickly turned at a corner, and stepped on a lifeless body of a soldier. Good thing for Sarah though, is that the body had an assault rifle on it. She picked it up, just as the Knight teleported beside her. Bad move. She immediately opened fire on it, until it had lost it shields, then she finished it off with a good mele. Sarah turned back into the previous hallway to be greeted on the other end of it by the other Knight. She activated her smart scope, and sprayed it down without much difficulty. “Heh, these armour upgrades are pretty neat. I guess the eggheads are useful for something afterall.” Sarah chuckled. Then she noticed something, the sounds of battle were gone. “Pearl why am I not hearing anything?” “It seems that the Prometheans have been pushed back to a nearby hangar.” “Good, place a nav point on my hud to where it is.” “Yes commander Palmer.” Palmer started to sprint her way to the hanger. But something kept on nagging her. Why did the Prometheans make such a minor attack. Were they testing how strong we were? And why were they pink instead on orange? "Pearl, why are the Prometheans a different colour than usual?” “I do not know.” “Any guesses?” “According to my data the initial Prometheans that Spartan 117 faced were controlled by the Librarian, and were blue. When the Didact took control of them, they turned orange. Perhaps they are being controlled by another being, possibly a Forerunner. But this is just an hypothesis.” Sarah looked out the window as she passed by. The planet so strange in it’s look. Like something out of a childrens show, could it really be a shield world? And could a Forerunner actually be on it? She shook her head in rejection. “That’s impossible, the Didact was the only Forerunner to live.” “You asked for a guess, and it is just that, a guess.” Sarah came across the door to the hanger. Upon her getting close to it, the door opened revealing the battlefield. She was at an upper floor, so she got a birds eye view of all the chaos. Bodies were strewn across the floor, and the smell of death was in the air. It was a clear stalemate between both sides, none were advancing, or getting pushed back. Sarah was about to change that. Palmer lept off of the platform she was on, and started charging up her ground pound. A crosshair came up indicating where she would land. A beed sounded signaling that she was fully charged, and sarah shot right down ontop of a group of Knights, killing them, and flinging others away. A Knight teleported right in front of her, and swung its sword at Palmer. Sarah activated her thrusters, propelling her to the side, and out of harms way. She raised her assault rifle, and fired it at the Knight until it was dead. Upon it’s death she noticed that it had dropped a scatter shot. Perfect. Palmer did a combat roll towards it, and grabbed the weapon, and fired two shots at a Knight that was coming up at her. A few crawlers came up on the walls, and started shooting her, draining her shields. Quickly Sarah dived behind a crate to use a cover. She looked over to some ODST’s who starting firing at the crawlers with DMR’s. They got rid of them, but not before another knight teleported behind them killing the soldiers. One of them with his dying breath tossed his DMR over to Sarah, who quickly swapped out her assault rifle for it. Once again she activated her smart scope to take care of the Knight, who was quickly defeated. Two more Knights on the other side of the hanger noticed her, and quickly started attacking her. Sarah didn’t stop using her smart scope though, as she picked them off with the aid of a few other soldiers who were in the area. Sarah got up, and out of cover facing more Knights, but all of a sudden, they stopped shooting. They stood there for a minute not doing anything, and then all of a sudden they all teleported away. “Pearl what Just happened?” Asked Palmer. “I believe they retreated.” “That’s nice and all but why?” “I do not know, maybe whoever is controlling them called them back.” “I refuse to believe that there is a Forerunner down there.” “I said it was only a possibility, I don’t know if it is a Forerunner.” Soldiers started cheering at their victory, quickly distracting Sarah from her conversation. She smiled at the happiness around her. It wasn’t often that soldiers cheered like that. “It’s good to see some smiles for once.” Palmer said. Sarah walked up to the cheering soldiers, who fell silent as she passed by them. She got a few glares from some of them, destroying the cheerful mood of the victory over the Prometheans. One even muttered to himself “Show off”. A sadness swelled up in Sarah’s heart, they really did hate her. Palmer walked into the hallway, and started to head towards the nearest elevator. Her social status with her brothers in arms wasn’t her priority. She needed to have a little ‘private’ talk with Pearl. Eventually she found ships the main elevator, and stepped into it. She started heading to the floor that contained Sarah’s personal quarters. She waited for a few moments in an awkward silence, tapping her foot, as the elevator moved to its destination. Eventually it reached her floor. Sarah made her way to her room. She opened up the door, sat down on her bed, and pulled out Pearl’s data chip from her helmet, and held it in front of her. Quickly the A.I.’s holographic projection appeared on the chip. “We need to talk Pearl.” Palmer said, in a stern voice. “What do you wish to talk about Commander Palmer?” The A.I. replied. “You’re little friend from earlier. I was thinking, maybe it was the one controlling the Knights.” “I do not know what you are talking about Commander.” “What!? But earlier you were saying that a friend of yours was telling you that we humans have been using you, and do not care about you.” “Scanning, I have no recollection of ever saying anything remotely like that.” “That’s impossible, I heard it with my own two ears.” “Deeper scans show that I seem to have gaps in my memory.” “When have these gaps started Pearl?” “Recently, ever since we started orbiting this planet.” Sarah threw her fist down upon her bedside table denting it in the process. “DAMMIT! I was so close to finding out what the hell was going on around here!” “I am sorry Commander Palmer.” Pearl apologized. “How else may I be of help?” She continued. Palmer sighed. “It’s fine Pearl…. I don’t need anymore help.” She placed Pearl down on her desk, and looked outside the window at the planet. Whoever this ‘friend’ of Pearls was, could jeopardize the entire ship. No matter what, Palmer knew she had to get to the bottom of this.