Her eyes were hard as steel.
Her wings were dripping with green blood.
Her augmented heart was beating out of her chest.
And her shields were flaring as another panicked burst of green energy blasted against her flank. Getting in was easy, actually staying in would take some work. Work she was all too happy to carry out, but it seems she may have been a tad too good at her job.
Six turned her head, its golden visor reflecting the panicked changeling's look right back at him causing him to freeze. A single line of dark green blood trickled down the corner of her visor as a look of pure terror made itself known on the small changeling's face.
That bug was the first to run.
Then another. And another. And another. A full-on retreat by the local changelings followed suit. Warriors and soldiers she had seen staring at her not so long ago with stoic looks of focus were running with fear in their eyes. Their normally unbroken and swarm-like cohesion had completely dissipated leaving only a buzzing mess to retreat into the almost honeycomb-like walls of the cavern.
Within moments all was silent, only the dripping of green blood from her wings and the whirr of her shield recharging filling the entrance zone of this changeling hive.
With but a flick of her head Six signaled to her partner.
“Let’s move quickly before more show up.” The voice of Spirit came from behind her.
“You know where our objective is?”
“Yes, follow me.” The undisguised changeling wings began to buzz before she hovered past the bloodied Spartan. Six watched as her underling's face turned when she witnessed the Spartans' carnage in full. More blood than she had ever seen before painted the nearby walls and floors.
“Okay… the engines are this way.” Continued Spirit as she landed at a tunnel entrance roughly 30 meters off the ground. Inspecting the entrance and sharpening her senses Spirit could feel the panicked messages being sent all throughout the local aural network. The tunnel was clear as far as her eyes and ears could see, only the light sounds of distant skittering filling the air.
Looking back down from her vantage point, Spirit scanned the cavern for the much larger Spartan. She didn’t have to search long however as she could see the disappearing tail of the Spartan entering a nearby room made from royal green glass.
Spirit watched the Spartans' silhouette through the glass. Something was happening in there judging by the sudden influx of noise and movement emanating from the area.
Suddenly, with a muffled battle cry, the glass was shattered as the Spartan was tackled through it by a large praetorian class changeling.
Before Spirit could jump in to help her however movement in her peripheral vision gave her another target.
Trying to slink away through the now rather large hole in the glass was a changeling in a rather ornate uniform. Spirit had a choice to make, and it would have been a hard one was she an average soldier.
Unfortunately for that changeling, however, Spirit knew that one praetorian class was no match for what they called ‘Demon’.
With a powerful buzz of her insectoid wings, Spirit pounced on the fleeing officer. The unsuspecting changeling was unable to even realize he had been caught in the spider's web until he was already eating dirt. Spirits holed hoof pressing forcefully against the top of his head and neck.
“*pfff* *ack!*” Gasped the officer as he suddenly found it very difficult to breathe. Spirit paid it no mind as she focused her aura on delivering a single command to the restrained officer.
‘Sleep’
Under the sudden aural intrusion, the officer stood no chance as their breathing involuntary slowed and their brain entered a deep sleep. Relaxing her hold on the changeling Spirit returned to reality just in time to hear the praetorians neck be sliced open by Six’s bladed feathers.
With a heavy *thump* the large Praetorian's head hit the ground before the cavern glowed golden as Six’s shield recharged to full strength. Six’s helmeted head turned to look at where Spirit was standing, her hidden eyes behind the visor no doubt inspecting the unconscious changeling below her.
“VIP?”
“Uniform certainly screams that.”
“Intel?”
“Give me one moment then.”
Six watched as her underling closed their eyes in deep concentration, their horn glowing ever so faintly a shade of red. The Spartan paid it no mind as she turned to pace around the changeling pair like a lion would patrol their pride. Her eyes darted from entrance to entrance on the honeycomb ceiling, watching for any potential counterattack. She didn’t like staying in one place for too long, they were on their own until those engines were destroyed and the cavalry could arrive.
They were well and truly on their own behind enemy lines, and Six hated that with a passion.
“Hurry it up.”
“Yes yes give me one minute. This isn’t easy you know.”
Six said nothing in response and continued in her circling.
“There, I got it.” Began Spirit, opening her eyes and stepping off the unconscious officer below her.
“And?”
“They're evacuating the hive.”
“What?” She couldn’t have heard that right.
“They're preparing for something called ‘Rot’, he didn’t know anything more than that.”
“What about our objectives?”
“Heavily defended, they’re to be the last ones to leave.”
“Then our mission remains the same. We destroy the engines, secure the entrance, and await reinforcements. Now, you good?”
“Golden”
Six nodded and followed a now flying Spirit with her eyes as the changeling flew up to the tunnel towards their objective. Walking up to the wall Six gave her armored wings a few experimental flaps. She couldn't even feel any sort of strain on her hooves. Sighing inside her helmet Six reared up and began to look for a path to climb up.
Bringing her hoof to bear the Spartan smashed it into the stone creating the outcropping she would need to get started. Extending her wings she also buried them deep into the stone with a powerful swing providing her with the extra stability she would need to make the climb.
“You alright down there?” Came a call from above. Looking up from her position halfway up the wall the Spartan didn’t need to give a verbal response. The featureless look her visor gave the changeling said all it needed to as they promptly disappeared back into the tunnel with a hastily “Nevermind!”
Several moments later and a near fall due to a particularly weak section of rock the Spartan stood side by side with Spirit once again. The pair looked down the dark tunnel that led to their objective, the faint sound of defenses being prepared told them it would not be a walk in the park.
Heading down the dark tunnel towards an unknown number of changelings, Six's mind began to wander. Her thoughts turned to the substance of their two-person (or pony in this case) operation, and what failure would mean.
Waiting just outside the fields of sulfur was the largest army Equestria had ever fielded. Its number even outdoing that of Equestria’s ancient warlike history. A force to rival any on the continent, and unless the two Spartans could clear a path they would have to resort to magical clearing. A plan Six knew would result in many deaths should the changelings counterattack the then exposed ponies.
They were on the clock so speed here was key. Whatever that ‘Rot’ was would have to come later. If it even was anything important at all. It could, to Six’s and Spirit's knowledge, just be an evacuation order for all civilians in order to prevent collateral damage in the fighting.
‘But wait…’ Six thought ‘if that's true, then why were they evacuating military personnel as well?’ She stopped walking and focused entirely on solving the problem in front of her. Spirit did not fail to notice her superior's sudden stop.
“Is there something wrong?”
“Spirit, did that officer know of any other locations that were to be evacuated last?”
“There were a few but they're nowhere near our objective… nor any other important area. Just some of the rooms near the center of the hive… but there is nothing important there other than… oh, crap.” The changeling's eyes widened considerably and Six found her suspicions confirmed.
“Goddamit… ‘Rot’ is scorched earth! How far away is the center?!”
“Other side of the hive! W-we won”t have enough time to get there if we go for the engines!”
“Then we split up. I’ll deal with the engines, you stop them from bringing this place down on top of us.”
Spirit's face hardened at Six’s proclamation as she gave a forceful nod and began galloping back down the way they came. Six did the same in the opposite direction, her wings fully extended in front of her with her razor-sharp feathers pointed outwards. Their tips sliced into the wall every now and then as Six ran full-speed towards the light at the end of the tunnel.
A green light that slammed into her chest making her shield flare a brilliant gold as more and more bolts of green fire began to fire down the tunnel. Pushing through the magical onslaught Six exited the tunnel and rolled to the side behind a nearby pillar.
The changeling that has been waiting there in ambush was swiftly dealt with in a single flap of her wing and buck of her hoof. Taking a moment to let her shields recharge the Spartan took a deep breath as she heard the war cry of a charging squad of changelings supported by magical fire approaching her bloodsoaked pillar.
‘Their land’
She lept from cover and sunk her blades into the leader of the charge. A veritable fountain of green changeling vitae covered the ground below her as she began to slice and dice her way through the swarm and towards the engines that stood in her comrade's way.
‘Their blood’
A trio of larger figures jumped in her way, praetorians with fangs bared and swords of dark steel at the ready. They swiped at the Spartan in unison, their blades aimed at her head and sides, an attack from three angles. There was no room to dodge, but Six didn’t need to.
Removing her wings from the necks they had been implanted in she caught the sideswiping blades between her feathers as she gave a furious headbutt into the center blade.
Her shields exploded and shattered in a brilliant gold as her helmet collided with the metal of the oncoming sword and turned it to dust. Arcs of unrestrained golden electricity danced all across her body and the blades caught in the space between her feathers.
Everyling around her froze in fear as they witnessed the praetorian's blade shatter into a thousand pieces and fall to the ground. Bolts of energy jumped from the Spartan's wings, burning into the exposed chitin of the praetorians whose blades were trapped.
They began to yell out and pain as they tried to scurry away, but their hooves would not obey them. The electricity forced their muscles to grasp their blades ever harder as their innate magic began to go haywire. Their hooves spasmed with green flame as their forms rapidly changed from pony to griffon to zebra.
Six cared not for their struggling as she coldly looked up and into the praetorian's terrified eyes. All around her silence reigned from the surrounding changeling warriors that watched on in horror. Noling made a move as the emotionless and cold visor stared into the soul of all who stood before her, the screams of the electrified praetorians trying desperately to get away only heightening their fear.
‘For Spear’
Six took a breath and within a flash, the two praetorians at her sides were a head shorter, her wings now covered in a fresh layer of green blood that dripped to the ground below, bathed in the golden light of her reforming shield.
At first, there was silence, then there was a yell, a desperate change soon came… and a massacre followed. The Demon of Las Pegasus had returned…With a Vengeance.
That seems about right, Six would basically be walking through any soldiers that try to fight her. I do wonder exactly what the "Rot" is and how they think it would be able to take out the whole hive with Six in it.
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well you are in luck good sir!
You have seven minutes to neutralize the city. Ready? Go!
Rest in peace, unfortunate ones, your blood falls squarely at the Queen's hooves...
Rot might be some kind of structural collapse, since it's possible any supporting structure is organic in nature. Or it's some kind of acidic cloud with a short half-life that does out not long after deployment to stop it from spreading. Or it's both. I dunno.
But yeah, *insert Kingsman Freebird scene here*.
I do kinda feel bad about the rest of the changelings. I've seen better of them. I know their command and hierarchy could be better and then they wouldn't need to do all this (unless you want to change how that works, it's your story). So while she's got the righteous fury, I can see a lot of otherwise incapable or comparatively non-combative bugs getting killed from this.
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Admittedly I'm not super familiar with the HALO franchise, but I'm pretty sure in Six's experience the concept of 'enemy non-combatant' isn't really a thing.
in another universe John is noddign in approval
11313751
Not to mention there were rarely any encounters of the UNSC and Covenant non-combatants. It was almost universally the other way around / army-to-army. I think ONI knew about non-combat roles, but wouldn't have cared much for them save anything that messed with the religion. Covies didn't really do civies. Just underdeveloped soldiers.
This all reminds me of WW2, german leader killed of all opposition in their own nation than go full on war and when it could not longer win try erase itself.
The mad Changeling Queen/Empress needs to be removed and her fanatic officers need to follow, so the Changelings race has a chance to recover by slowly recovering. Repopulation and adaptation, since the Changeling race needs a lot of good PR after the war...
The Changelings are paying in blood... And won't be happy with the results. But it seems their scorched earth tactics may still work.
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also when one side is committing everything to the extermination of your species, rules of war go out the window.
anyone who's had about say 600- 800 planets reduced to glass in front of them including families & loved ones, will be extremely cross with just about anyone involved.
when a war is one of extermination, there are no such thing as noncombatants.
only more enemy targets.
The last line has a slight error. It says the demon "has" returned, but the rest of that paragraph was written in past tense. It should probably read, "the demon had returned."
Great story, as always. Here's a question, though. What if a Praetorian shapeshifted into Six? Their transformations are so good, the subject's friends can't tell the difference. Granted, Chrysalis has a lot more power, but the soldiers' power levels never seemed to interfere with their ability to mimic others. The armor would be more difficult, but ironically, not the shields. That would just be a modification of a standard Equestrian shield spell, to make it a skinfield instead of a sphere.
In such a confrontation, I suspect the mimic's armor wouldn't be as good, and would be fairly easily sliced up by the superior Mjolnir armor's blades and structure. But the more the chrysalis ponies study the transformation and play with the variables, the closer they might start getting to the armor's performance levels.
At the most simple level, the armor physically exists in Equestria. With enough magic to study it, it could be duplicated. Even if they lack easy access to the metals and ceramics, magic can substitute for a lot of that. The question is if they have anyone good enough to make stuff like that.
(And, now that I think about it, if Twilight's been conned by the chrysalis ponies into studying this exact problem, coming up with an Equestrian version of the armor and shield, and then promptly lost it when the chrysalis ponies stole it... )
11313873 Never played Halo 3 ODST, have we? The twist at the end is, your secret objective is to free an engineer from the covenant.