Epilogue
Dash walked forward in a half crouch, keeping a firm grasp on her battle rifle. The weapon felt cold to the touch, due to the frigid external temperature. Nevertheless, she pushed her squad forward, through this muddy ditch. Her breath turned to fog before her eyes in the crisp night air, obscuring her vision slightly. She kept the weapon in front of her, lowered slightly so that her line of sight would be unhindered.
Dash held up a hoof signaling ‘freeze.’ Every pony in the squad froze where they were, some halting mid-step. Breathless seconds passed while Dash scanned the area before, trying to figure out what was wrong. Something was wrong. What was it? She could hear her heart beating in her chest as she scanned the burnt countryside for that missing component. From her vantage point on the hill she saw everything. Charred corpses, smoking skeletal buildings, burnt grass, and destroyed hills. This was what she had been looking at for the past ten kilometers, why was this different?
Maybe it wasn’t something she could see. She closed her eyes, listening intently to the surrounding environment. Fires crackling, her soldiers breathing, a few bugs clicking… nothing really out of the ordinary. Oh, there we go. Smell. Something smelled different. What was that odor? Something smelled horrible… rotten almost.
A hail of plasma fire erupted less than one hundred meters or so below their position. All the troopers splashed into the ditch with a grimace as the freezing mud started caking their suits. But the fire wasn’t aimed at them. Dash had expected to see a hail of plasma fire come flying over their position, but nothing was happening. She crept forward, peering down below. She could make out the Covie positions easily, blue and purple flashes illuminated their covered positions within the ruinous town. Plasma sizzled through the air, burning holes in… what the hell were those? Brownish figures distorted in ways too hideous to describe sprinted towards the Covie line wailing inhuman howls. Dash made a snap decision, once those things had finished off the Covies, they’d surely come for Dash and her squad. She had to work with the enemy.
Dash motioned thrice, and a hail of grenades landed in the open space that these new-found foes were storming across. Dash’s squad lit the area up in a firestorm of death. Tracers licked back and forth across the open field, sometime starting small fires in the crispy grass. These sons-a-bitches did not care about losses. The squad was quickly running low on ammunition. As Dash reached for her last magazine, they suddenly stopped coming. Dash doubted highly that they were out of personnel. More likely they decided it was going to be easier to attack from elsewhere. Needless to say, Dash didn’t stick around to find out. They were out of ammo and deep in enemy territory. Time to haul ass back to base camp to report what they saw and re-arm.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Lord Hood apparently had some genius plan to follow the Covenant through a portal and attack them on their own turf. Dash didn’t really care where they fought. The best part about this whole plan was that they finally got to use the Navy’s ships for a bit. Showers and hot food. Finally. The rest of her squad stormed the showers first, but Dash opted for food. As soon as she entered the mess hall she realized this was probably a bad idea. She had her helmet tucked under one leg, and needless to say nopony there was expecting her to walk in the door. Every pair of eyes in the entire place tracked her every movement up to the counter to get a tray.
The chefs gawked at her until she motioned towards the tray, irritably. They slowly ladled some of the ‘food’ onto her plate, never taking eyes off her. She rolled hers in annoyance, not making them feel any more comfortable. She grabbed the tray off from the counter, striding over to a table and promptly sitting down. Despite her ravenous hunger, she forced herself to eat in a civil manner. Some random buck private showed up at her shoulder, staring down incredulously.
“Hey, who the hell let horse in the mess hall? Why is it even on the ship?”
“You mean, ‘who let a pony in the mess hall, sergeant.’ “ she said, stressing her rank. She gestured to the stripes adorning the shoulder of her ODST armor.
“I… uh…”
“Oh, so no you want to address me, instead of talking about me and referring to me as an ‘it’? Genius plan there, private.”
“You’re a horse.”
“Pony.”
“But that’s not the point. How are you talking? I’m not the only one hearing this, right?” He glanced around, noting the incredulous nodding of the deathly silent mess-hall.
“Well, private, I’m not from around here.”
“Obviously.” Dash raised an eyebrow.
“Might want to watch your tone there, private.” Dash glanced down at her rank again. “I’m not from your dimension. Me and my troopers are here to help though. Show some respect.”
“Er, ok. Sorry.”
“Want to try again?”
“Yes, sergeant. My apologies, sergeant.” The private left with a bewildered, ‘what just happened’ look on his face. Dash looked across the table at a human staring blankly at her. She noticed he also wore Sergeant chevrons. Dash grinned lopsidedly at him.
“Fucking privates, am I right?”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“You know, I never did get to say goodbye. The war’s over now, but somehow that doesn’t seem to help. You even gave your life for a group of ponies who you just recently met. Hell, we weren’t even your same species!” Rainbow Dash stood in front of a lone piece of granite. Sure, there were thousands of other slabs of nearly identical rocks in perfect rows, but this one was special. This one bore the name and rank of Jennings.
“You’d be proud of the good work your Troopers did. Well, they’re my Troopers now. So I guess they are our Troopers. They fought hard. We lost some good ponies. Gained a lot of good friends. And we fought the Flood. Never even imagined such a thing could exist. Sure was a shitty war. And hell, we were only part of it for a few days. You fought it for years without the slightest complaint.
“But now, the Elites and the Humans are working together. Kind of weird to think about. We both had the war introduced to us with Elites killing our family and friends. But in a weird turn of events, I ended up fighting alongside a bunch of them against Brutes and Flood. Kind of crazy to think about. I try not to picture what would have happened had one of them decided he’d had enough of this UNSC-Elite truce. They could have killed a lot of people. They were already in our lines. Would have been bad.
“Speaking of never saying goodbye, I never said thank you either. You saved my life in that house. I never even saw the jackass coming, but you did. You finished him off even after you’d been stabbed through the gut. I’ve seen more ponies… er people… aliens… whatever, get stabbed by those swords, and most of them just flop over and accept death. Not you. I have to give you some serious kudos for that. Ah, shit. Looks like somepony is telling me I have to go. Don’t worry, Jay. Earth’s safe. We did everything we could to make sure it’s safe. Some eggheads in Canterlot made a device that opens a small portal between Equestria and Earth, so we’ll keep coming and going, probably even start trading after a while. Who knows, we might even start vacationing to each others dimensions. You never know. Anyways Jay, I gotta go. Thanks for the chat. I’ll be back when I can.” Dash rendered a crisp salute, facing the white slab. She turned to leave, forcing herself to walk out without looking back. It was hard.
Dash was part of the last group to leave Earth. She glanced back over the still-smoldering landscape with sadness. Countless had been lost. Only very rough estimates could be made as far as the combined number lost between Human, Covenant, and Equestrian. She was going to have some heart-wrenching letters to write when she got back home. She sighed, and stepped through the portal.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Their ranks had been depleted. It was high-time they start filling them again. Fortunately, Jennings’ plans for training were still there, the framework was still there, Dash only had to restart everything. It had been relatively easy, too. Just lots of paperwork to do. Forms for this, forms for that. I mean seriously, who needs to eat on a daily basis? Absurd things like that were just endless paperwork. Troopers can survive on a meal every three months or so… right?
In processing was over, and Zero Day was about to begin. Dash watched with impatience as the clock finally clicked past midnight. 0001. Dash grinned, tossing the flashbang grenade she held in her hoof. She depressed the button, tossing it inside the bay. Screams of pain and confusion came from those poor souls inside. Dash smashed the door open with her shoulder, ramming it in painfully to an unlucky Trooper.
“Wake the fuck up!”
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“Wake the fuck up!” oh my sides
great story bro.
could have used "wake up MAGGOTS" but still awesome.
1560940
that sounds..... sure..... why not?
I love caboose : blue is magic! Dark wing finished that story a couple of hours ago I believe, and I enjoyed every chapter of it!
I encourage you to read it! I'm on my 3rd reread of it right now.
Back to the point though, spending 6 weeks on recon?
What a wake up call.
Brilliant way to end.
no
1561000 The reason why I wrote it in that specific wording was because I was trying to show how Dash had changed to become the next version of Jennings, since that was how he had woken Dash on Zero Day.
1561021 I've only made it to about Ch. 30, but it's been fun. Right now I don't even have enough time to write (except late at night on weekends), so I doubt I'll be able to finish it any time soon.
1561095 Indeed.
1561469 Thank you.
The real loss was The Chief
1559389 I get that. Your story is one of the best I have seen for a while and I really enjoyed it, thank you for sharing
1563302 No problem, thanks for reading! It was a fun to watch the story develop.
1562679 Chief didn't die. Jennings did. If anything, Chief has been sleeping for the last few years and needs to get off his lazy ass and get back to his job.
Could have been longer but hey, this is one of the few halo fics that are actually complete!
I loved the reference to RvB in the previous chapter.
Manly tears were shed! Laughing...
Bravo
1566908 See? I set the standard. For completion. Folks can actually enjoy it from start to finish.
1567689 I tried to work in as many as I could.
1569329 Thank you.
1570193 Oh you sneaky bastard you!
Jennings went out Emile style.
Except he did it with a grenade. "I'm ready, how bout you!?"
1582069 If Jennings were any better, he'd be a Spartan.
And maybe I do know you. Maybe I chose those songs because I was in your house listening to your music... WITH A KNIFE!
Ok, that got needlessly creepy. Obviously, we both have fine tastes in music. And stories.
1585910
LOL OH GOD WHAT IF YOU'RE BEHIN-
turns around
1586134 You never know when an invisible demon is standing behind you ready to party. It might happen... RIGHT NOW!
here have a semi-appropriate song(minus second whatever the hell its called, stanza maybe? meh whatev)
1665391 That... was awesome. You obviously have great taste in video games and (and stories
) You also must know me really well, because Mass Effect is one of my favorite video game series of all time. So fantastic.
1670577 oddly enough ive never actually played mass effect (ive wanted too but never gotten a chance)
1687264 That's truly a tragedy.
1709397 Well, then I guess I made a mistake. Drat. If you have a link to the canon method to discover/make covenant names, that'd be awesome. Glad you enjoyed the story!
1923192 To be fair, Jennings is kind of a badass.
2069797
if its the story is Not Exactly Green; No ODST Is
don't pm me
If not pm me
I love this story
In real life I am an ODST like Jennings and Rainbow Dash and I know what it is like. I know this sounds whierd but I am on Equestria and Rainbow Dash is a legend in the ODST ranks. I once even saw her with my own eyes. She and I look similar. I am cyan blue and a pegasus pony. Equestria's technology has changed quite a bit. I fought along-side her and I know the story after this ends. I also created a new weapon called the Inceneration Cannon like the ones Master Chief had to fight in the other universe except they have 2 modes. One is a rapid fire which has 5 shots like the Fuel Rod Cannon and the other is like the ones chief fought. I even have a rainbow mane except hers is red, orange, yellow , green blue and purple. and mine has 1 extra color. The extra color is a light shade of pink. I have experienced combat before as i said but with 1 twist. I was one of the highest ranked ponies in the Equestrian army except Rainbow Dash is the same rank as me. I had augmentations like the Spartans did except i was like 2 of the Meta from RvB. Also if you think I am lying call me crazy then.
2454808 no I am seriously telling the truth. I am using a quill to type.
2456359 you really think I am lying?
2456594 I know we don't usually resort to violence verbally or physically ,but seriously I never lie
2456649 Okay, your a pretty silly troll. but this conversation is done.
That Is An AWESOME Story! Love The Ending "Wake The Fuck Up!"
Please make a sequel my friend.
2554558 I'd love to, some day. My only minimal thoughts for a sequel involve Dash becoming a Spartan IV. Other then that, I don't really know what I want to do. I just finished writing a story that I'll probably start releasing later today, after I edit some of my messy writing. Then after that I have a really good idea for what to do for a oneshot. After that, I'll probably do a sequel. We'll see.
wow i just read this in one siting and i have to say this was grade A work
good job and a sequel would be awesome
2893147
Maybe I got inside your head. Who knows. It's a great song, nonetheless.
2905398
Thank you. In due time I will put up a sequel. I already have a vague plan for a sequel, something to do with Dash joining up with the Spartan IVs. Right now, though, my next plans include a story I'll be putting up today (Fallen Apples), one that is entirely written but not edited (and probably won't be posted, it was mostly written for myself. Well to be fair, that's most of my stories, but this one in particular was something just for me. Serial killer in Ponyville. Sort of.) And I've been throwing around the idea of Twilight goes power mad, kills Celestia, but in the power struggle the Sun drops really close and burns/destroys most things, thus bringing about the end times, sort of like the Book of Eli. Not sure which one I'll write next, the sequel to this or the apocalyptic story.
2918423 NO!!! Please sir, in the name of all that is Halo, do not bring those S-IV abominations into this!!!
5295495 That makes even less sense.
Combat magic is, in essence, not complicated. Yes, it is limited by line of sight and the caster's own abilities, but a blast of arcane energy is still a blast of arcane energy.
It'll still hit like a damn truck, and something simply being of a non-magical origin will not effect that.
Yes, the shields used by the Elites can be damn tough, especially the higher-ranking ones, but that does not make them immune to magic. Being hit by something will make the flare, which is very noticeable.
While yes, bows and arrows and swords will have about as much effect on a shielded Elite as trying to take down a professional wrestler with a paper fan, magic should have been more effective. The blatant invincibility is nothing more than Halo wank, and while I may be a fan of Halo, I do not approve.
Sure, Shining and those soldiers were right fucked from the git-go, and I won't ever say otherwise, but they should have been able to take down at least the damn GRUNTS and a few Elites with magic.
5295557 And they did, Pretty much the elite was the only one they didnt kill, since that was the only one Jennings fought, Shining crushed the two grunts under a boulder. (quite funny to picture in a way) not sure how they dispatched the jackels, but i digress.
I am an idiot, sorry for my last comment (if anyone of you had read it in the 5 seconds it was up) as I just spoiled the entire story. Anyways, 10/10, 3 thumbs up 5 stars yadda yadda, sorry, i wrote this more enthusiastically in my last comment until I realized what I had typed then had to hastily delete it.
5295502
Because rvb is a beautiful thing
5702946 here have a like
This story kinda reminds me of Man of War, well a very shorter, less suggestive, slightly less awesome and emotional version of it.
Me when I finished this story: "OMG. I need to favorite this. How do I favorite this?!?! EEERREREEEDEGJBVJKJGJ JGGXJHGXJHHXJGXJ!!!!!!
I loved the story...so frckin much.
Holy shit, this is awesome. Rest in peace, you damn Badass, Jennings (Salutes)