//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Crimson Man, Blue Spartan // Story: I Have Returned 2: The Broken Ones // by EPiiCx5587 //------------------------------// I Have Returned 2: The Broken Ones Chapter 3: Crimson Man, Blue Spartan 5 years ago, 2 days after the defeat of Celestia…. “Reading books, day after day, that’s what I did. Where yesterday was, or tomorrow is, had no concern over me back then.“ Jane said. “I lived a simple life until I became the one of the bearers of the Elements. After then my life went through a whirlwind of change.” It had only just been a few days since Jane returned to Earth from her return to her old planet. Now she stood before the higher ups at the Office of Naval Intelligence to decide her fate. “And how long were you one of these bearers before you joined humanity.” Asked Serin Osman the current leader of ONI. “About four years years I’d say.” “And for how many of these years were you Equestrian royalty?” “That would be only one year Ma’am.” “And you did this all for humanity? Trying to get the Elements for us that is? Because a lot of us here don’t like the idea of trusting an alien pretending to be human. We have no idea if you’re going to eventually stab us in the back. So did you stab your own kind in the back to prove your loyalty?” “To be honest I don’t know. A lot of things were going through my head when I did what I did. Part of it was to end any possible threat against the human race, part of it was myself believing that no matter how I tried to get the Elements of Harmony that my old kind would hate me. I was so convinced that they would despise what I’ve become that I grew to hate them myself. So I slaughtered innocent ponies looking for every reason I could to justify it. It was almost a kind of revenge, except that what I was getting revenge for was all in my head and not real. “So where does that leave you standing? With everything that has happened do you identify yourself as a human, or as a pony?” “I’ve done what I’ve done. I made a choice to stay as a human, and I’ve done too much as a human to turn back now. My old life is gone, and I can never get it back. There is no point in even trying to try to make things like they used to be. My name is no longer Twilight Sparkle, it is Jane Arimondo, and I am a human.” “I see Jane. Do you regret at all what you’ve done?” “I don’t regret getting humanity the Elements of Harmony, but I do regret the actions I took to get them. The very least I hope you all can at the very least make my actions not be in vain.” The other higher ups and ONI started murmuring to themselves before Osman raised her hand to silence them. “Is that all you want Jane? Because this seems rather noble for someone who is technically begging for her freedom, or at the very least begging to not be thrown in a jail cell for the rest of her life.” “I just want to be able to atone for all the deaths I’ve caused, I can’t do that from a jail cell. I want to be able to do good for the galaxy. I’ll never forgive myself for the deaths I’ve caused, but at the very least I want to do enough good so I can live with myself.” A smirk ran across Osman's face in response to Jane’s words. “How very noble of you. I’m going to be honest with you Jane, most of the people in this room want you dead, and I’m sure some ponies from your old planet feel the same. Luckily for you your fate ultimately resides on my shoulders. Jane you’re going to be working for ONI now for the rest of your life, doing whatever I ask of you. You belong to me now, if I say jump, you say how high.” “I guess I have no other options then?” Jane said, folding her arms. “Absolutely not. Welcome to the rest of your life Jane. I’m putting you in charge of an old black ops team I used to lead, you’ll find plenty of work with them.” Jane didn’t like this, ONI knew she was scared and was now using it to their advantage. Nevertheless she didn’t have any other choice. “Very well then Ma’am.” Was all Jane could say. “Good, you are now dismissed.” _____________________________________________ Present Day, Planet Kamchatka A Spartan wasn’t your typical slugger for the UNSC, they were more than that. They were the crowning achievements of what human beings could be capable of. The best of the best, the ones who could handle any challenge that faced them. The original Spartans II’s were considered gods among men, capable of anything. The brand new Spartan IV’s were only considered to be demi gods, but that was more than enough to get the job done. Jane was considered to be one of the toughest of the Spartan IV’s, but if there was anyone who stood even close to her it was Spartan X89 most commonly known to his peers as Spartan Crimson. The name was fitting despite the fact that his armour was blue, he had a fiery passion for what he believed was right, and wore his name proudly. He knew Jane since the very start of her journey as a human, he fought alongside her, and even stood up to her at her worst times. It had been five years since he had last seen Jane, and now he lived his own life as a lone wolf UNSC agent. Often stuck in behind enemy lines, he pulled off countless operations on his own. Today was just another mission to him. Even though at this point in time important tasks were not new to him, the importance of said tasks still kept him on his a game. Currently he was tracking down a insurrectionist trading route which lead him deep into the snowy mountains of Kamchatka. He was hunched over a cliff overlooking a valley with his SRS99-S5 AM sniper rifle trained on one particular spot of the valley. Yesterday he intercepted a transmission detailing exactly where the meeting would take place. In the snow all over the valley he placed drones that would pick up sound and send it to his helmet letting him listen into whatever they talked about. The innies were getting weapons from someone and now he was finally going to find out. Out of the sky Crimson saw a small ship come into view and land in the middle of the valley. Out from it came one humans came out holding a probably stolen UNSC rifle. The back hatch of their ship opened up and a team of more humans started unloading some crates of weapons from their ship. A few moments later another small ship landed right next to them. What came outside of the ship though wasn’t human at all, it was a single Equestrian pony. “What the hell.” He said to himself, his eye widening. “What the hell are Equestrians doing so far from home?” Ponies from Equestria rarely left their planet. Emigration from their home planet was very uncommon. They were still new to this world, and thus rarely ventured off to other worlds save for a few. Regardless he started to listen in. “Do you have the weapons?” The pony said. “Yeah we have just what you asked. All of them were modified so your race can use them just as you asked.” The human responded. “Good I’ll need them. I have a very important operation that I want to make sure goes smoothly. Don’t worry though, it’ll hurt the UNSC only, so you’re only helping yourselfs by doing this.” “I see, now I held up my end of the deal, now you hold up yours. I want that information.” Information? Since when did the innies trade crates full of weapons for just simple information. Couldn’t they get that on their own, why did they need ponies to get if for them? “Straight to the point I see, I admire that.” “Just tell me, lives are at stake here.” Lives at stake? This sounded important. “Meridian is next, I suggest getting your men out of there as quickly as you can. It’ll happen soon.” “I see, thank you. I’ll get right on it. One last thing though, I forgot to mention it earlier. Did you take any precautions to make sure nobody is listening in?” Crimson’s heart skipped a beat. “Yes, I have. My scouts are combing the area right now, if anyone is watching, we’ll get them.” Crimson’s heart skipped another beat. “Oh shit.” He said to himself as he jolted up to get out of there until he heard a voice behind him. “Oh shit indeed human scum.” He heard before getting in the back of the head sending him almost over the cliff. Crimson activated his thrusters to send him backwards before doing a backflip over his assailant. When he caught a glimpse of his attacker his mouth dropped. It was a pony clad in a humanoid like Forerunner armor. He was clearly a pony, but he was completely bipedal with hands. “What the fuck.” Crimson said. “Just how?” “Don’t get too excited.” The pony said. “Under this armour I’m still a regular pony. This is just a set of armour shaped like a human. Think of it like a robot suit, I put it on, it connects to my nervous system and just like that I can walk around on two legs. It’s amazing what the Forerunners could do.” “So that thing is Forerunner. Nevertheless it was a mistake telling me that. You sure seem to like to divulge information easily.” Crimson responded as he cracked his knuckles. “Ha, I feel no fear in telling you.” The pony said clenching and raising its mechanical fist. “You’ll be dead in a few minutes!” The pony lunged right at him at full speed and slammed its fist right into Crimson’s gut before he could react sending him flying back. He used his thrusters once again, this time to make a recovery. Quickly he raised his sniper rifle to fire off a shot, but the pony had already caught up to him and smacked his weapon away before grabbing both of Crimsons arms and pinning him down. “With this suit I am more than any human, Spartan or not could ever achieve. I am stronger than anyone in your pathetic race.” “Don’t underestimate us you bastard.” Crimson said before using both his feet to kick the pony off of him. Immediately Crimson stood up again, and lunged at his enemy readying his fist. It collided with the pony’s face knocking out a tooth and sending the pony back a few meters. He readied his fist for another punch, but the pony quickly reacted and kicked Crimson in the gut before giving him an uppercut sending him once again to the ground. The punch also knocked his helmet off. The pony pounced on him again having him completely pinned, his legs too, making him completely helpless. “So that’s what your ugly face looks like. I’ll enjoy seeing the pain in your eyes.” The pony said. “First though, I want to see you freeze.” The pony grabbed onto his front armour plate with Crimson helplessly not being able to do anything about it. He tore the plate completely off of his chest and whacked him with it breaking his nose. Out of the corner of his eye a few feet away Crimson saw his sniper sitting in the snow. It was his only chance. As the Pony started tearing off his arm plates Crimson headbutted him staggering his enemy just long enough to free himself. Quickly he moved his arm and grabbed his rifle. Once the pony gained his composure he was faced with the barrel of a gun, his eyes widening as he just realized that this was it for him. Crimson fired, and the bullet cleanly tore through the pony’s head, the limp body falling over Crimson. After a few seconds he got up, and used his arm computer to call his Prowler ship back to him. It was a risky move doing that, but his gunshot must have already gave away his location. This way at least he’d hopefully get off there faster before the others could get here. In a few minutes he could see his coming from the distance, so he picked up the body as he planned to take it with him. That armour had to be analized. The ship touched down and crimson loaded the body on and rushed to the pilot seat to take off. The Prowler was soon outside the planet's atmosphere and in space. Dammit, he wanted to possibly get a tracker on one of those innie ships, so at the very least he could see where they were going. Nevertheless he was left with only one option, go to Meridian. Just what the hell was going to happen there anyway? _______________________________ UNSC Port Stanley On route to Equestria “Ow dammit!” Vaz said as Jane pulled out the bullet from his shoulder and placed it next to the bullet she took out from his back. “You’re a Spartan Vaz, suck it up.” Jane said. “You’re tougher than this and we both know it.” “Genetic enhancements or not bullets still hurt Jane.” “Yes, and one of those enhancements is faster healing, so I have to get these out of you before you wounds heal around them.” With both bullets out now Jane started to clean said wounds to make sure they wouldn’t get infected. The chances of a Spartan getting infected were low, but there still was a chance so Jane had to make sure he would be fine. “How does it look back there?” Vaz asked. “The bullet in your back was small and didn’t do much damage, your advanced accelerated healing will take care of that on your own.” “So what you’re saying is that for a bullet wound I only need a simple band aid?” “I wouldn’t have put it that way, but yes.” “Damn, I feel like a superhero.” “If you want to get technical about it you are a superhero. It sure as hell makes all of those nasty surgeries to get all of these biological enhancements worth it when you can just take a bullet out of you and be on your merry way like nothing happened.” “Yeah, but damn were those surgeries painful. At least we didn’t get the worse of it, when they did this shit to the Spartan II’s most of them died.” “Indeed. Sadly though the bullet that went in your shoulder was far bigger, even with your healing I’ll still need to put a few stitches in there.” “Dammit really?” Jane sighed. “Yup, sorry Vaz. Naomi is better with these than me though, so I’m going to see if she’s up for the task.” “Not feeling confident in your abilities Jane?” Vaz chuckled. Jane smirked back at his remark. “Oh I can do it just fine Vaz. It’s just that Naomi is a little more gentle than me, and since you’ve already been whining like a little baby I thought I’d get her to do it.” Jane shot right back. Vaz laughed at her comeback. “You’re never one for letting anyone under you give you a good roasting are you Jane?” “You got that right. In all honesty though, I still haven’t had my morning coffee, and I’ve done enough for you already today, so I’m going to go get Naomi to take care of it.” “Haha, okay sure Jane, just leave some in the pot for me.” Vaz said as Jane started to leave the room. “Sure thing, no problem.” She said right as the door closed behind her.” From the speaker on the right wall Roland’s voice came through. “You want me to get Naomi on that Jane?” “Sure go get her, I want my coffee.” Jane made her way to the mess hall hoping to finally get her hands on a hot cup of coffee. The day had already been stressful for her on two fronts with the operation failing, and her having to return once again to her homeworld and face all of those whom she had wronged once again. Upon entering the mess hall, Jane found it to be empty. The others must have all been busy with either regular maintenance, working out, or just lazing about. Thankfully though there was still plenty of hot coffee left in the pot. She poured herself a cup, and let out a breath of relief as the energy hit her. It was good coffee too, Godot Blend 107, her favourite brand. One of the perks of being an ONI agent was that you actually got good food and drink. When she was just a simple UNSC marine the meals tasted like shit, and the coffee fared no better. Regardless though she lived fine with it, back then she was more concerned with other things such as the next possible attack from the Covenant. Infact back then she rarely got a chance to sleep due to her constantly having to be awake and prepared for an attack. It was that which started her love of coffee, on those nights in which she never got a chance to lie down it was her one saving grace giving her the energy she needed to be on alert, even if said coffee at the time was terrible. “So Jane how are we going to handle this.” Roland said, his small avatar appearing on the table next to Jane. “It’s not going to be fun I’ll tell you that.” Jane said. “We have to make sure our mission goes well, but at the same time we have to look for the fuckers who know about me and take care of them. If we don’t ONI will have me on an ever shorter leash, and I’ll never be free from them.” “That’s going to be hard to pull off without them finding out.” “I’m an ONI agent, keeping things from other people and going behind their backs is part of my job. I can do it, I have no other choice but to do it.” “Very well, and I take it you want me to leave the pony part out of my report back to ONI?” “Obviously.” “Alright just checking.” “Anyways once I finish this I’m going to go work out then do some paper work. Make sure to let me know when we’re close to Equestria.” “Will do Captain.” He said before he avatar disappeared. Jane sighed. The next few weeks were not going to be easy on her.