I Have Returned Chapter 13:
A Warning
“It was them!” Jane shouted. “It could only have been them!” She was still in Doctor Glassmans lab with Crimson, Palmer, and Terresia.
Crimson walked over to Jane slowly, holding his hands up to show that me meant no harm. “Whoa Jane, calm down, calm down. We don’t know anything yet. Don’t jump to any conclusions yet.” He said in his most calm voice to prevent Jane from going on a rampage.
Jane automatically turned towards Crimson. “Well then who else could of done it?!!”
“I don’t know.” He said, calmly. “I can’t think of anyone else but-”
“Exactly! They are the only ones who could of done it.”
“How would they even get here?” He asked. “They don’t have any technology.”
“No.” Jane said. “I bet a powerful unicorn could have teleported up here.”
Palmer scoffed at this. “A unicorn? What the hell is going on here!” She demanded.
Jane had had it with Palmer. She snapped, and activated her magic holding the Spartan 4 mid air while squeezing on her making Palmer send out grunts of pain. “Shut...up.” Jane said darkly before releasing Palmer who immediately fell to the ground.
Palmer let out a few coughs as she tried to get up only to be met with the furious eyes of Jane. A million questions ran through Palmers mind, but all that she could focus on was that she was scared.
Terresia almost fainted seeing this, and looked even more confused than usual. Glassman on the other hand looked positively excited, grabbing multiple scanning equipment to monitor what he had just seen.
“What… What the hell was that?” Palmer blurted out, her voice shaky.
“None of your business, that’s what!” Jane retorted.
Crimson put a hand on Jane’s soldier quickly turning the angered spartan’s attention towards him. “Get a hold of yourself Jane, before you do anything that you’ll regret.”
Jane shoved his arm off of her in a fit of rage. “I don’t regret anything I do!”
“Okay, okay, just don’t hurt anyone who doesn’t need to get hurt.”
“She punched me earlier, she deserves it.”
“Yes, because we left the ship without authorization. She has every right to be mad at us.”
Jane was left with a face of disgust. “Are you honestly siding with her!?”
“Only because you’re losing it. Look Jane, you need help!” He shouted. “You haven’t been right in the head since we got here. I want to help you Jane, and prevent you from destroying your homeworld.” Crimson was getting desperate, Jane was practically going insane at this point. He couldn’t do anything though, as long as she had those freaky alien superpowers.
“If you want to help me Crimson, then you’ll stand by my side.”
He sighed. “You know I can’t do that with the stuff you’ve been doing lately.”
“I told you things were going to go back to the way things were after this!”
“How do you honestly think things can go back to the way things used to be after this Jane?” Crimson questioned. “After discovering that you’re an alien, after you betraying your own kind, and after you going insane about it?”
Jane was absolutely appalled at this as her rage soared through the roof “Are you sympathizing with them Crimson!? I would have thought that you of all people would understand why doing this is the right thing for humanity. We may have slowed the covies after the Halo event, but we didn’t stop them. Were almost faced with extinction at this point, and any other outcome no matter what the cost is preferable to that!” Jane was breathing heavily at this point. Sweat was running down her brow as she got worked up due to her anger.
Jane started moving forward, backing Crimson up into a corner. “Listen Jane.” He said. “That I understand, we must have to do everything we can to save humanity, but I can tell that that’s not your only reason. It’s obvious that you have some sort of personal vendetta against your species, just please tell me what it is so we can talk it out.” Crimson pleaded on his knees now in hopes that she would listen.
“Who cares about them? They’re just a bunch of filthy, pathetic animals who have no idea of the hardships humanity has been through. We have been through so much, and they have been though nothing at all! It’s best for them to get a taste of what the real world has to offer!” Jane exclaimed.
Crimson got back up to face Jane eye to eye. He could tell now that practically all sanity was gone from Jane now. Tears started rolling down his face as he tried one last time to bring Jane to her senses
“So that’s it then? One race goes extinct so that the other doesn’t have to. Do you honestly think you have the right to make that call?” He put his hands on her shoulders, trying to reach out to her or make her understand. “Jane you’re losing your grip on reality. All of the pain you’ve gone through in the last six years has gotten to you, and that’s only amplified by the fact that lived in a peaceful world before.” He cried out giving her a hug in the hopes that it would calm her down, and bring the Jane he knew back.
Immediately she shoved him off of her sending Crimson crashing into some of doctor Glassman’s equipment.
The room went silent save for the sounds of the computers in the room running. All eyes were on Jane who could only look at Crimson with disappointment. “You’re pathetic.” She said.
Jane stormed out of the lab leaving the rest of the spartans, and doctor alone, and in shock.
The silence was finally broken by Palmer speaking up. “What the hell was that Crimson? And what’s this about her own species, and most importantly what the hell did she do to me?!” Palmer demanded.
Crimson could only sit down weeping. He was a strong person emotionally, but even he had his limits. Seeing this, Roland decided to respond for him. “It’s a long story Commander Palmer, so I’ll try to keep it short. We recently just found out that Jane used to be a member of the indigenous population of the planet we’re in orbit of. There are six artifacts of great power down there, one of them we have here. It’s the same kind of power that Jane used on you, but far more amplified. She wants to use it for humanity, and is killing members of her own kind to get them. Plus as you already know she’s convinced that they’re responsible for the death of Captain Lasky.”
Sarah couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Is this some sort of sick joke Roland?” She asked.
“I couldn’t make this up if I tried.” The A.I. responded.
Palmer didn’t look angry, but more...disappointed. “Damn, this shit gets crazier by the day.”
Glassman pulled Crimson out of the equipment he crashed into. He was still sobbing slightly as he left the room with Palmer quickly following behind.
The two silently walked through the hallway with Palmer trying to think of something to say to the spartan to cheer him up. In the end though, she couldn’t think of anything. Palmer wasn’t exactly very good with emotional support, so instead she tried to change the subject.
“An accident happened with Pearl. Apparently some unknown entity got a hold of her, and convinced her that humans have abused her, and erased bits of her memory when she left.”
Crimson stayed silent for a moment. The two just walked aimlessly around, with Sarah right behind Crimson hoping for a response. Palmer opened her mouth to speak again, but was interrupted by Crimson himself.
“Is Pearl ok now?” He spoke in a very quiet depressed tone.
“I’m not sure, she’s showing signs of rampancy now, which should be impossible at her age. Then again though, she is an experimental A.I., and I have no idea what kinds of fucked up things that entity did to her.”
The conversation couldn’t get anymore awkward for them. Suddenly though, the ship's PA system turned on stopping both Spartans in their tracks. And then Jane’s voice came through.
“All military personnel report to S deck, main room, for an announcement.”
“Oh shit.” Crimson said. “That doesn’t sound good.”
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INFINITY S DECK MAIN ROOM
S decks main room was by far the largest room in the entire ship. It was where the Spartans all put on their armour. The entire room was packed shoulder to shoulder, making it hard for Palmer, and Crimson to move around.
There was a small balcony towering above the whole room, and there stood Jane wearing an officer's uniform. Her presence was unmatched as all of the soldiers stared up at her.
From the looks of it Jane had calmed down, but that didn’t stop the two spartan’s from worrying.
Jane brought up a microphone to her face, and tapped it a few times to make sure it was working. “Attention all personal” She said, her voice echoing across the room. “Over the past few years, I have gotten to know you all as brothers in arms, as family. I value each and every one of your lives, because I know you are all good people.”
“Oh shit.” Crimson said. “I hope to god she isn’t doing what I think she’s doing.”
Jane continued. “I speak to you all in a time of distress for all of us with the death of our good Captain, Thomas Lasky. He was an incredible man, and captain. It was an honour knowing him.”
“Oh god no. She’s doing it.” Crimson said, getting worried now.
“And it pains me to say that I have reason to believe that the lifeforms from the planet down below are responsible for his death.”
The crew started murmuring together in confusion of Jane’s words.
“It has also come to my attention that the populus of the planet also have artifacts of great power that could save us all, and yet they withhold them from us because they don’t believe we have the ‘right’ to them.”
The other soldiers at this point in time were completely fixated on Jane’s words.
“I have seen you all struggle through tough times, facing challenges that they would never believe. You all deserve a free life in which you can sleep easy at night. No, scratch that, humanity deserves that. Believe me when I say that I am not going to pass up this chance for our freedom, your freedom. I say we go down there, and show them the power of humanity!”
The room erupted in a frenzy of cheers for Jane, chanting her name over and over again. Jane tapped the mic a few more times again to calm everyone down. “I know this doesn’t follow normal protocol, but for the time being I shall declare myself Captain of the UNSC INFINITY until further notice. Now, who is with me!?”
Once again, the crowd cheered, save for Palmer, and Crimson who could only stand there. They quickly snapped out of it though, turned around and made a beeline for the nearest elevator. They had to confront Jane.
__________________________________________________________
UNSC INFINITY BRIDGE
Crimson, and Palmer assumed that Jane would would head towards the bridge after her speech, and right they were.
Jane herself stooped over the holographic projection desk in the middle of the room with Roland on it.
“Have you found it yet Roland?” Asked Jane to the A.I.
“Yes.” He said bringing up a holographic representation of the planet. He quickly zoomed into the northern section of the planet to see a city encased in a dome. “You were right when you said that there was a warm section amongst the tundra.” He continued.
“That’s where I believe Luna took the rest of the elements. I’m positive that they must be there. I know Luna, this is the first place she would go to in an emergency.”
Crimson wasn’t planning on letting her finish her conversation though as he walked up to her and said. “What the hell Jane, you said that we were going to use your old friends to get Luna to hand over the elements, and now you want to invade them!” Crimson was far done with being sad now, he was angry, and he knew that Jane had to be stopped.
Jane turned around to face Crimson. She had looked calm before, but her rage flooded back into her at an instant. “They killed Lasky, they don’t deserve our mercy!”
“But innocent lives could get hurt Jane, you have to at least give them a chance to surrender.”
“Did the Covenant ever give us a chance to surrender, no they didn’t.”
“And that’s what makes us better than them. If we just attack then we would be stopping down to their level.”
“No we wouldn’t. The Covenant is bent on wiping out our species, I am bent on getting those elements.”
“I don’t believe that for one second Jane. You’re probably not going to stop until that planet is in ruins.”
“No! Once we get those elements we’re leaving. After this I don’t ever want to see that planet again!”
Crimson was left speechless. He realized at that point that nothing he could say would persuade her in any direction. It was hopeless to even try to stop Jane with words.
Jane attention turned towards Palmer who stood at the back of the Bridge watching their conversation. She shoved Crimson out of her way and walked up to her. “As you already know we have a few prisoners aboard the ship. I am ordering you to guard them from this point onward.”
Palmer opened her mouth to refuse her order, but closed it, and lowered her head upon realization that it was a fight she couldn’t win. The crew recognized Jane as of right now as their captain, going against Jane would be going against the crew. If she even tried to disobey her, she would be locked up. Palmer sighed to herself, and looked up at Jane. “Yes sir.” She said in a hushed voice of defeat, and walked out of the bridge to fulfill her order.
Jane looked back at Crimson again who just stood there staring angrily at her. “Now if you’ll excuse me Crimson, I have to check up on preparations for the attack.” She said before leaving as well.
“Roland.” He said, gaining the A.I.’s attention. “You said that you found out where Jane is planning on attacking right?”
“I did, she called it the Crystal Empire.” Roland said curious as to where Crimson was going with this.
“And Jane believes that Luna is there.”
“According to her yes. What are you trying to get at here?”
“Roland, prep me a pelican with the coordinates to this Crystal Empire. I’m going to warn them of Jane’s intentions, and hopefully get them to surrender the elements.”
“Good plan.” Roland said quite impressed. “And let me guess, you want me to distract Jane for you so she doesn’t find out?”
“Bingo.”
“Ok then, but be quick, Jane wants to attack before sunrise.”
“I will Roland, I will.”
If Crimson couldn’t get Jane to stop this, then he would have to get Luna to stop it. It wouldn’t be an easy task, but if he could convince Luna to hand over the elements, Jane wouldn’t have to attack the Crystal Empire.
________________________________________________________________
Crystal Empire - night time
Crimson’s Pelican flew over the the Crystal city awakening it’s citizens from their slumber. He could see from the cockpit lanterns being turned on, and ponies leaving their houses to look up at the alien spaceship. Most awe stricken, others were in full on panic, and some were so scared they couldn’t even move.
They were all innocent civilians, and if he failed tonight, all of their lives were at stake. Crimson shook his head, he had to push those thoughts away from him for now, and focus on his goal. Still though, his actions could determine whether some of them would live or not, and that scared him.
He looked up at the massive tower in the middle of the city. It was obvious that that building must be the capital of the Crystal Empire. With the pelican Crimson circled around the tower until he found a small landing strip extruding from it. It was just large enough for the pelican to fit on it as he landed.
The cargo bay door opened up with a hiss as he exited the flying vehicle and onto the strip. Immediately though, he noticed a passed out pony on the strip itself.
Upon instinct he ran up to it quickly to provide assistance to find out that the unconscious pony was none other than Princess Luna. He guessed that she must have passed out trying to make her way here from Canterlot.
Crimson quickly picked her up and ran for the door inside the tower when a bunch of guards came running out of it pointing their spears at him. Putting two and two together, Crimson instantly guessed that they think he harmed her, and spoke up against it.
“Don’t worry I’m friendly.” He said. “She’s passed out from flying all day, she needs rest. I found her like this on the landing strip when Landed.”
The guards however didn’t budge. “Do you have any weapons?” One of them said.
“No.” Crimson responded. “I came unarmed.”
“Why are you here, and what are you?” It asked back.
“I came to give a warning to Luna, but I guess that I’m going to have to wait until she wakes up. I’m from the species known as a human, I guess you could say that I am an alien.”
A voice came from behind the guards. “Well then human, you can tell me your warning.” Out from behind the group of guards came another pony, this time it was an alicorn. It was shorter than Luna, but still very tall compared to the rest of the ponies. It had a light pink coat, and a purple, pink, and white mane.
“I am princess Cadence.” She said. “Come inside, we can talk in there.”
Cadence, and the guards led Crimson who was still carrying Luna inside. Crimson noticed that Luna still had the bag with the elements on her. If he wanted to, he could grab the elements right then and there, and make a run for it. As tempting as it was, he conflicted with his moral code, plus he had done enough wrong to their species already.
It was strange of this Cadence pony to so easily trust Crimson. But maybe it was just her nature he thought. Either way it was good for him.
Cadence let Crimson into a large well lit living room. It looked like a place where the 1% would live, filled with elegant pricy looking furniture, and covered with portraits of what Crimson assumed to be famous ponies. To the right of the room was a large couch, and a mahogany coffee table next to a fireplace which was currently heating the room.
Cadence motioned for Crimson to sit down which he eagerly did to please the pink princess who did the same.
Two ponies came by to take Luna to a guest room to rest leaving the Spartan and the Princess alone.
“I’m sorry for coming to this place at such a late time, but what I have to say is very important.” Crimson said.
“Very well then, but tell me what is your name human?”
Crimson wanted to get right into the heart of the conversation and tell her of Jane’s intentions, but he was willing to humor her if it would yield better results for him later. “My name is Brennan, but my friends just call me Crimson. I am a soldier as you can probably tell from the armour.”
“That’s very fascinating Brennan, or would you rather me just call you Crimson?”
“Either works.”
“Very well then Brennan.” Cadence said with playful little smile. Crimson never really liked people calling him by his name after he became the leader of fireteam Crimson. People would always mispronounce his real name, so he gladly wore the nickname of Crimson once he got it. If it made Cadence happy though, he would be more than willing to let her use his real name.
“I am Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. I reside over the Crystal Empire with my husband Prince Armour. Now tell me Brennan, why would an alien come to warn Equestria of anything? Is there some natural disaster coming up that will harm us?” Cadence asked.
Crimson shook his head. “No, not a natural disaster. It’s that a member of my species or I guess you could say a member of your species is planning on attacking this place. Actually, it’s a bit of both.”
“What do you mean by that.” Cadence asked.
Crimson took in a deep breath, this was going to be the hard part. “Well you see, a member of your species long ago snuck into my species. Nobody knew this until an accident happened aboard our spaceship leaving it stranded in orbit around your planet.”
Cadence started to look a little worried now, but she nodded in response to him which told Crimson to continue. “She seemed obsessed with getting your elements of harmony and using them for our species.”
“Why would she want them?” Cadence asked.
“My species been fighting a losing war for the past thirty years against an alien alliance. We are nearing the brink of extinction at this point. She thinks that the elements can change the tide of war. She forced me against my will to help her invade your capital and take the elements.”
Cadences mouth opened in shock. “Wait that means you…”
“Yes, and if I had the choice I would of never done it, but she threatened me with your guyses so called magic. Doing that is probably going to be one of the worst memories of my life. Believe me when I say that I wish I didn’t do it. She managed to get one of the elements, and Luna escaped with the other five”
Cadence was not happy with this, but she chose to let the alien finish before she took any action. But she could tell from the look on his face that he did not enjoy what he did earlier that day.
Crimson continued. “Actually that’s also where I learned of her identity. I don’t know if you would have known her, but she was a princess to. Her human name is Jane Arimondo, but I think her pony name was Twilight.”
Crimson had done it now. Cadences calm mood was quickly whisked away as she stood up in anger. “Is this some sort of joke!? You, an alien come to my castle, tell me that you assisted in an invasion of Equestria’s capital, and then claim that the mastermind behind it was my sister in law!”
Panic quickly came over Crimson. He was not expecting the two to be related. He suspected that they might know each other being Princesses, but not this. “No, I’m telling the truth. Look, the captain of our ship was just murdered, and Twilight has convinced the crew of the ship that your kind is responsible for it. She’s using that as a means to get an army to invade your empire in a few hours so she can get the elements!”
“Listen here alien! I know my sister in law. She would never do anything like that. For all I know you could be saying that as a coverup for you being responsible for all of this.”
“I understand why you may come to that conclusion, but look at this.” Crimson said while pulling a photo out of his armour, and handing it over to Cadence. “It’s a photo of me and her.”
Cadence looked down at the photo in utter disbelief. It was of Brennan and another human that looked just like Twilight with their arms around each other in a friendly manner.
“Still though, Twilight would never dare harm another pony, and I know that.” Claimed the Princess.
“A lot can happen in six years.” Brennan stated.
Suddenly though the two beings ears picked up weeping? They both turned around to be faced with three more ponies. Crimson didn’t know them but Cadence did. Twilight Velvet, Shining Armour, and Night Light.
“Who are they?” Crimson asked utterly clueless as to who they were.
“They’re her family.”
Crimson gasped. He fucked up now. He upset her whole entire family.
Quickly their weeps turned into full on crying making Crimson feel terrible. “I’m so sorry.” He said, with his head hanging low. “I wish it wasn’t true myself.”
Crimson could feel the entire room staring at him with hatred, and disgust. That didn’t last for long though as they all heard a groan come from another room. It was Princess Luna waking up.
___________________________________________________________
UNSC INFINITY BRIDGE
Jane stared down at the planet below from the bridge of the INFINITY. Them and their pathetic undeserved peace. She hated it. They dare call her a monster after all she went through. She would show them, she would show all of them.
Roland appeared on his pedestal. “All equipment, vehicles, and personal accounted for.” He said. Little did she know though that he was lying.
“Where is Crimson Roland? I haven’t seen him in awhile.” She asked.
Roland instantly knew that he had to change the subject. If Jane knew that he escaped down to the Crystal empire to warn the ponies, go knows what she would do to him. “Jane tell me, how did you get that name of yours. Your new name I mean, not your old one.”
Jane was confused for a second by Roland not answering her question. She passed it off as nothing though, and decided to answer her question. “Jane Harold, and Jessica Arimondo.”
“Huh?” Roland said in confusion.
“Two people I met when I joined humanity. When I first got there, I was confused and scared. It was just a testament to how weak and pathetic I was back then. They didn’t know my secret, but they conforted me in my time of need. I came to this world via a portal, and I immediately wanted to go back. After a day I made a break to go back to the portal. I convinced them to follow me in hopes that they would help me get back to it.”
“And?” Roland asked.
“I made a selfish move doing that. Both of them were killed by the Covenant on our way there. I felt awful, and I couldn’t push myself to go back through the portal, not after what I had seen. I vowed that day that I would become a hero for humanity, and help stop the Covenant, and here I am today about to do that. When I went to sign up for the military they were so desperate for soldiers that they would take anyone, no papers asked, just your name, so I told them that I was Jane Arimondo. Does that answer your question?”
“Yes it does.” Roland said. There was a lot he learned about Jane today, and it all just kept on getting more depressing.
__________________________________________________________
Crystal Empire - guest room
“Princess Luna, my name is Brennan, but you can call me Brennan.”
Princess Luna screamed in fear, and backed herself up to the other side of the room. “Stay away from me you beast!”
“I am not here to hurt you. Jane is coming here in a few hours with an army to take the rest of the elements.”
“So you’re here to taunt about it. You sicken me!”
“No, I’m here to warn you about it.”
“And why would you, her right hand man who helped slaughter the guards back at the castle tell me this!?”
“I had my hands tied back then. Jane gave me no other choice but to help her back then. I didn’t want to do what I did back there. And now I’ve snuck away from her to warn you.”
“Humph! And what good would that do, your kind is far more advanced than ours. What good would a warning do?”
Crimson braced for what he was about to say “That’s the thing. Jane claims that all that she wants is the elements. If you give them to me right here and now, we can avoid the loss of anymore innocent life by her hands.”
Luna was downright pissed at this. “Oh really, and what would Equestria do then now that we would be defenceless!”
“Look, after all of this, the existence of your species will get out to the higher ups of my species, who would probably send military personnel to guard your planet. We would integrate you into our society, technologically uplift you. This means things like more food, cures for diseases, and longer lives.”
Luna wouldn’t budge though. “Do you honestly think I will trust you after what you did. Leave this place immediately you beast, before I have to remove you myself.”
Crimsons heart sank. He had failed. It was admirable that he tried, but the fact that he failed made him feel empty inside. “Then I’m sorry I wasted your time Princess. I only wanted to prevent any more innocent ponies from dying. I’ll leave now.”
“Good.” Luna said.
With a heavy heart Crimson returned back to his pelican. He was about to step back into it before Cadence came up behind him.
“Brennan, your actions were unforgivable if what you said earlier about what you and Twilight did in canterlot were true.”
This only serviced to make Crimson feel even more horrible inside.
“But thank you for trying to do the right thing in the end, but you know we can’t hand over the elements to you.”
“I understand.” He said back. “I wish Twilight wasn’t doing any of this in the first place. The past six years have been hard on her. All the death, and killing has bottled up inside of her, and now she’s finally snapped. I’ll continue to try and stop her before she can do more harm, but I’m afraid that it’s a battle that I cannot win.”
“Good luck then Brennan.” Cadence said before going back inside.
Crimson entered back into the pelican. It soared up through the air giving him one last look at the Crystal Empire before he soared through the clouds. It was beautiful, it was just a shame though that all that beauty was about to be torn down by one of their own kind.
Indeed, dark days were about to fall upon Equestria...