I Have Returned Chapter 21:
Introduction
“Good news captain, we have communications online for the INFINITY.” Roland said just as Jane was fixing up her hair.
She played around with the bangs trying to make them look different than her old ones. Eventually Jane just decided to run her hand through her hair and go with the results. It looked a little scraggy, but it was different. To Jane though, that all that mattered.
Once she was finished, she turned back to Roland.
“Good. Those huragok are very helpful indeed. I have a job for you roland.”
“And what would that be?”
“I need you to send a file containing all of the information about what we've done here to an Admiral Serin Osman.”
“All of it? Including the ugly parts?”
“Everything, including the information about me being of Equestrian origin. Attach to it a message saying that I want to speak with her about this.”
“I hope you don’t mind me asking but why?”
“You were right about what you said earlier, the UNSC isn’t going to be happy with me. They’re stupid that way, anyone with a brain can tell that I am doing good here. Osman on the other hand can get me out of whatever the UNSC tries to do to me.”
“I’m guessing that that’s all that you’re going to let me know.”
“Dam right it is. Just do it.”
“Already done.”
Jane smiled. It was good having an A.I. as a companion. They’re smart, and extremely fast. They were also loyal, because if they ever want against you, you could just activate an override obedience code word.
“I don’t know what I’d do without you Roland. One other thing though.”
“Yes Captain?”
“Send the rest of my fire team to the forest in which you said the opening to the planet is. Tell them to find it, and open it.”
“Already doing that as we speak.”
It was amazing what A.I.’s could do. Right now chances were that Roland was having a conversation with Jane, and each individual member of her fire team. That would be four different conversations at once, and he could do it.
Roland continued. “Might I ask why you’re sending them right now? Why not wait, and all go together.”
“I have a lot of work to do here Roland. I trust my fire team, they can get the job done. For now though, I have another matter to attend to.” Jane said looking outside at the mob of ponies.
“Very well then.”
“And prep a pelican for me once I am done.”
“Yes Captain.”
With her conversation done, Jane left the throne room. She continued down a hallway until she reached a the doors to an outside balcony that looked over the courtyard.
It wasn’t going to be easy addressing them. Especially on the topic of the princesses. The solution though, was easy, lie. Make the lie big, make it simple, keep telling them it, and eventually they’ll believe it.
Of course though she’d have to sprinkle in some truths to the lie. Such as the benefits of having humanity govern them. New technology, cures for diseases, the works. Yes, life for them will be better with humanity. Eventually they’ll come to thank the human race for what we’ve done.
She opened the door, sending a gush of cool air into her face. She could smell the freshness of it. The air here was much better than what she was used to on the INFINITY.
Stepping out onto the balcony, she could see the angry mob of ponies just outside the castle gate.
Just like that all of the pissed off ponies fell silent as they looked up at her. All that was left was the sound of the calm breeze that flowed through the city.
The whole city must have been there. Jane would have to be fairly loud for all of them to hear her. With that in mind she focused her magic on her vocal chords. It was time to use the Royal Canterlot voice.
“Citizens of Equestria!” She shouted, her booming voice soaring like a bird. “I am a representative of the human race! We come here in peace from our home planet of Earth! The human race is a space faring species that has great deeps throughout the galaxy! Right now we are about to do another one by technologically uplifting you! This means longer easier lives, and better healthcare for all of you to enjoy! We are not here to enslave you, and I swear that all of your lives will be bettered by us being here.”
That seemed to satisfy most of the crowd, but one rose up and shouted. “What about the princesses! Where are they!”
Upon this the crowd went into an uproar again, before Jane silenced them by raising her hand. Now it was the time go give her lie.
“It is sad for me to report that when we confronted your princesses they refused us! They didn’t want to trust us, and said that they didn’t want our generous help! Alas we kept on trying to push for their approval for your sake, but they choose to retaliate! Their violence forced us into a horrible battle in the place your kind calls the Crystal Empire! It was horrendous, and we didn’t want to do it, but we had to defend ourselves! Sadly in the end we were forced to take their lives.”
This only got them more riled up though. That didn’t matter, part of a succesfull lie was to keep telling them it.
The same pony from before shouted out again. “Then why is the sun and moon still moving!”
“Well then they must be both violent, and liars!”
The ponies at this point started throwing rocks, and other objects over the castles fence, and gate. Jane almost wanted to laugh. She knew that in time once they started to bask in the wonders of human technology that they’ll never want their princesses back again.
She turned around and left back into the hallway to be greeted by an UNSC marine.
“Captain Arimondo, your pelican is ready in the castle gardens.” He said, saluting her.
“Thank you.”
Jane silently walked down the hallway passing by multiple soldiers on their duty. Soon she found herself just outside in the castle gardens.
Back when Jane was a child she would roam these gardens when she wasn’t reading. To this day all of the smells of the flowers were still fresh in her mind, and she remembered them all. It was so peaceful, yes peace, the peace that she would bring to humanity with the Elements of Harmony.
The pelican was in the middle of an open field, the gust wind from it’s engines blowing plants and flowers out of the ground.
A soldier inside of it waved her over. Jane compiled, and entered the pelican. Strapping herself in, Jane told the pelican pilot to take off and dock with the INFINITY.
It was a fairly short ride, after all, the INFINITY was hovering directly above canterlot mountain. After a few short minutes the pelican the entering one if the INFINITY’s many docking bay’s.
The hatch in the back of the pelican opened up to reveal a young soldier saluting her.
“Yes what is it?” Jane asked.
“I am here to inform you sir that you have been having multiple incoming messages from someone demanding to speak with you.”
It must have been Osman. Good, this meant that she had her attention, something that isn’t easy get with CINCONI.
“I’ll get out of my armour, and head right for the captain quarters then. Thank you private.”
______________________________________________________________
UNSC INFINITY’s Captain quarters.
The door to Lasky’s old cabin swished open. The air inside felt cold and stale. It was hard to believe that just the other day Lasky himself was killed in this very room. The feeling of being where he had died felt wrong, and Jane wanted to leave the room. Nevertheless this was the only place where she privately converse with Osman sense she didn’t have any com devices in her own room.
Wanting to get this over and done with Jane sat down in Lasky’s desk, and hailed Osman. In Front of her, the massive TV lit up with a very angry looking Serin Osman.
“Ah Admiral Osman, I see that Roland was successfully able to deliver the information to you regarding the recent events that have occurred here.” Jane said, trying to be as calm as she could be. You had to do that with dealing with the higher ups at ONI.
“You have to shitting me if I’m going to believe that you’re a magical Pony Princess with superpowers. This better be a fucking joke Jane, or I am going to have you locked up in a psychiatric ward for the rest of your days. Hell, if Halsey didn’t run off to the Storm Covies I would have let you be her guinea pig.”
“I assure you that everything in that package is the truth Osman.”
“I can’t believe I thought I could trust you to be an ONI agent. You’ve gone off the deep end Jane. Chances are judging from this report your A.I. has sent me, I’m going to guess that this is all bullshit and you’re an insane psychopath who killed Lasky.”
“That’s quite the accusation.” Jane said, levitation a nearby glass with her magic. “But if I am lying, then how do you explain this?”
“This has to be some sort of camera trick.”
“Really then, what about this.”
Jane reached farther into her magic, and activated a teleportation spell on the glass. It disappeared, and reappeared on Jane’s other side. It started to fall, but Jane caught it with a levitation spell, and placed it onto the desk.
Osman was left speechless, but she seemed to keep her composure.
“Alright Jane, lets say for hypothetical reasons that you are telling me the truth, what do you want from me?”
“I think that much is obvious. You’ve read the other parts of the report right? You know that we’ve had to do a lot of killing to get the elements.”
“I think I see where you’re going with this.”
“Yes, the UNSC isn’t going to be pleased with me. ONI on the other hand can keep me safe.”
Osman paused to stare at Jane for a moment. Jane could see in how Osman gritted her teeth that this wasn’t an easy choice for the Admiral.
“I made a big risk making you a spartan alone, and now I’m beginning to wonder if that was a mistake. I’m not sure if I want to take another large risk with you, or whether I even believe what you’re saying.”
“You’re also making a big risk by not trusting me. If the UNSC punishes me, they will probably take over this operation and return all of the assets we’ve gained to the ponies, including the elements.”
“Yes, Glassman’s report on them was in the file that was sent to me.”
“Then you know that if I am telling the truth then the UNSC will feel that they should return the Elements. They’re wimps, not willing to go the extra mile that I’ve gone. If this becomes an ONI operation we will be in the clear. Those elements could very well give us human dominance in the Galaxy, against the Sangheili and beyond.”
“How do you suppose we do that?”
“When I come back with the elements, we can do more research on them. Eventually we will find a way to syphon their power. From then on we can contain that energy, and put it in every human ship in the Galaxy. This means stronger weapons, and will let us put energy shields around ships.”
“The UNSC will have a lot of questions about where the energy came from. How will we get around that?”
“Simple, we’ll tell them we found the energy source on the Trevelyan shield world.”
Osman seemed to contemplate her next words for a moment, before saying. “If by the end of this I find out that you’re lying to me, I’ll make sure the UNSC puts you in the darkest hole they can find. If what you’re saying is true though, and you bring me the elements when you return, I’ll keep you safe from the UNSC.”
“Glad to hear that. I won’t disappoint.”
“You better not. From now on this is an ONI operation. I’ll leave you in charge to oversee everything. I guess that means that you can finally break out your ONI uniform.”
“Indeed it does. I haven’t gotten a chance to wear it due to my affiliation with you guys being a secret.”
Yes Jane remembered the say Osman gave her her uniform. It was back when Jane was just about to get her Spartan augments.
“Very well then Jane. Now if you excuse me, I have work to do. You better make this worth it.”
“I will Osman. Jane out.”
The TV’s screen flickered off, and Jane breathed a sigh of relief. She was safe, the UNSC couldn’t touch her now. All she had to do was get the Elements of Harmony safely to Earth. Sadly the slipspace drives were still under repair. For now she would focus her attention on the inner planet, and finding out where Celestia was. As of right now Celestia, and whoever kidnapped her were the greatest threat to Jane. They have to be eliminated at soon as possible.
Wait? What about Pearl? According to the reports she got from Palmer, she claimed that someone was telling her to rebel against the humans. When Palmer activated the override code on pearl though, the being must have left, and taken all of the memories about it with it. That must be the reason for her recent rampancy outbreak. Maybe, just maybe she might be able to recall a few things.
“Roland.” Jane said.
“Yes captain.” Rolands disembodied voice from a nearby speaker said.
“I need to speak with Pearl. Bring her up for me right now.”
“Yes captain.”
Upon Lasky’s desk, Pearl's avatar appeared. Instead of her normal pink though, she was flashing red. Also Pearl was on her knees crying.
“Pearl, it’s me Jane.”
Pearl instantly looked up at Jane, the A.I.’s facial expression made her look like she was in pain.
“Make it stop! Please, make the voices stop!”
“We’ll try to do what we can once we get back to UNSC space. For now though, I want to find the one who did this to him and eliminate it. Tell me, can you recall anything? Anything at all about who did this to you?”
Pearl burst completely red.
“Why don’t ask her yourself! Oh wait, you can’t because you’re incompetent!” She shouted before turning pink again. “Ugg! I’m sorry! I can’t stop them. They’re too many voices. I can’t control myself.”
Jane felt bad for Pearl at this moment. It must be tough to have all of that going through her head.
“It’s ok Pearl, you can go now.”
With that Pearls holographic projection disappeared.
Dam. Jane couldn’t get any information out of Pearl. Who ever did this must have been thorough with deleting the memories.
Wait a second though. What did pearl say earlier. ‘why don’t you ask her yourself’. Pearl said her. Yes! This was good, looks like whoever this ‘her’ is slipped up.
Who could it be though? Crysislis? Maybe? Jane didn’t have enough info at this point, but Pearls statement sure helped.
Suddenly Roland's avatar appeared in front of her.
“Jane.” He started. “Your fire team has opened up the entrance to the planet. It’s a gravity well just like Requiem's, except smaller, still very large though. The opening is right in the middle of the forest.”
“Fantastic! I’ll make sure to congratulate them when they all return.”
“There’s one problem though.”
Jane paused for a second looking at Roland. This couldn’t be good.
“And what would that be?”
“We’ve lost contact with them.”
_______________________________________________________
Applejack had just finished telling Palmer about the time they all saved the Crystal Empire from the evil king Sombra. It was nice being able exchange stories with friends. Sarah had never really ever been able to do something like this before with the crew. She finally had friends. Perhaps she could use the skills she was gaining her to finally improve the crew’s image of her.
“That’s pretty damn cool.” Palmer said. “I guess that son of a bitch wasn’t counting on your little dragon buddy.”
The door to the room whooshed open with two ODST’s just outside.
“Commander Palmer we’re here to relieve you of your duty until further notice.” One of them said.
Palmer almost spoke up in protest, but stopped herself. Most of the soldiers at this point believed that the ponies were bad, trying to stay here would make her look like a sympathiser, and that wouldn’t go over well with Captain Arimondo.
With Jane in charge, Palmer was powerless to do anything to help her new friends. She had to find a way, a way to get them out of her, and to take down Jane. How though? She was just one Spartan IV after all, and Jane had magic. Palmer was powerless against Jane.
As for now though all that Sarah could do was leave as she was told. On her way out though she made sure to give her new friends a wave goodbye. Also she mouthed ‘I will be back later to them’.
Once Palmer was outside the two ODST’s entered the room, and closed the door, leaving Sarah alone. She just hoped that the ODST’s would go easy on the girls.
Fuck, what kind of luck did she have to be in this position. With an insane alien captain, and to be one of the only ones to know the truth behind everything.
A sound made Sarah look up. From the other side of the hallway, she could see a handcuffed Crimson being escorted down the hallway. He wasn’t going down without a fight though as he kicked around, and did everything he could to get free. Sadly though he was without armour, and an entire fire team of fully suited up Spartan IV’s were the ones escorting him.
All while he was doing this, he was yelling. “You don’t understand! Jane is crazy! She’s lost it! You have to believe me! I’m telling the truth I swear!”
In response though, one of the spartans just punched Crimson in the stomach, and said. “Shut up traitor.”
This seemed to stop Crimson’s resistance, but it didn’t stop him from giving them a dirty look.
Eventually they passed Palmer. She gave him a sympathetic look as if to say ‘I’m sorry this had to happen’.
The ground turned into another hallway leaving Palmer alone once again. Dam that Jane Arimondo. There was no doubt in Palmers mind right now, Jane had to pay for her crimes.While Palmer maybe outnumbered and outgunned, she had to be the one to stop Jane.
This had to end here and now so no more pony lives could get lost. All that Palmer needed though was a plan, a good plan. For now though, she had to speak with Crimson in whichever cell he was put in.
Sarah clenched her fist in determination. Right now, she had to do what she did best, be a Spartan. It was time for Jane’s reign as the INFINITY’s captain to end once and for all, for pony kinds sake.