Join Isabel “Rainbow Dash” Miles on a journey through-out the cosmos as she jumps into hell, makes new comrades, crack some alien skulls, get shot, lose friends, and then back again.
When a strange being crash land onto Equestria and claim to be Rainbow Dash. The Mane six was skeptical, was this the same Rainbow Dash they knew? Or was this some Changeling's pathetic attempt to infiltrate into their lives?
To gain the Mane six's trust, Rainbow Dash talk about her tales of traveling through out the cosmos, jumping into hell, making new comrades, cracking some butt-ugly alien skulls, getting shot, losing friends on the battlefield, and then back again.
One of these days though, you wish you’re really dead. But hey, it’s like what they say… Only Death Stops Them.
In the unfathomable reaches of the universe, a vast lump of metal could be seen in the distance. The bulky entity drifted by as small fragments of steel and rubble followed behind it. Upon closer inspection, there were numerous entrances into this great beast. However, they were not entrances at all, but in fact were gaping holes that punctured through the remains of the ship.
Within the walls of the former spaceship, were a number of lengthy tubes that stretched nearly fifteen-feet long. The room itself though, is where they would cryogenically freeze non-essential personnel for long periods of time. The Inside of these containers however, housed actual beings that were under the influence of cryonics for a number of years. Years of being in the cold depths had made the glass of the cryo-chambers practically opaque in their thin layers of ice, which made it nearly impossible to see who those individuals were.
Not very far from the metallic body was a white ripped-shaped portal vast enough to devour the metropolis of New York, and unfortunately enough, the remnant of the ship was heading straight for it. The bowels of the ship all of a sudden lit up, prompting alerts to the impending catastrophe. The frost covering several of the containers’ glass surfaces began to defrost, but the action was slothful, and by the time the cryo-chambers fully thawed, it was already too late.
The vessel rapidly advanced into the portal. Had the occupants of the ship been awake at the time, they would have faced the full force of the gravitational pull of the gateway. When the opening completely consumed the spacecraft, it abruptly closed upon itself. And as fast as this part of the universe grew into pandemonium, it transformed back to its peaceful state.
The craft burst out of the entryway of the anomaly, dragging pieces of itself through with it. The portal flickered after the craft’s exit for a moment as the debris continued to follow the metal beast’s wake, still spewing from the portal. Then it was suddenly gone; the portal had flickered for one last time before it imploded in on itself, leaving behind a space of nothingness it had once occupied, and the craft now seemed to found itself adrift. It was a close call too, if it had sealed any earlier, the portal could have liquidated one third of the already torn ship.
Eventually, one of the sleepers rose to the sound of an alarm above their cyro-tube.
“Ugh,” the figure groaned, “my aching head.”
The siren shut down and a voice replaced it instead. "Chief, can you hear me?"
“Cortana?” Strangely enough, the AI had called the occupier her designated Spartan for some reason.
"I thought I'd lost you, too."
“Where’s everybody else?”
"What happened?" A new voice came out of the speakers.
“Chief?” confused, the figure started scanning through the somewhat-icy glass to search for the man in a bulky green combat suit, but the attempt was in vain. She could not find the big guy.
“Ah, must be a recording.” The occupant presumed.
"I'm not sure. When Halo fired, it shook itself to pieces.”
A blurry hand could be seen through the glass, grasping and pulling the tube’s manual release lever.
“Did a number on the Ark, The Portal couldn't sustain itself,”
The cryotube’s hatch opened to reveal a freezer-burned woman.
“We made it through just as it collapsed,"
She then collapsed onto the metallic floor. “Where. Is. Everyone?” she wheezed in between breaths.
"Well... some of us made it,"
She glanced over to see multiple cryo-chambers surrounding her.
“That’s all I need to know.”
Meanwhile before dawn, in a remote cottage far-off from the village of Ponyville, a creamy yellow pegasus with a pink mane was sipping a cup of tea while reading a newspaper. Her friend, Rainbow Dash, a pegasus just like her, had to leave for the weekend to Cloudsdale. So it was relatively quieter around these parts, as she tended to practice her aerobatics near the edge of the Everfree forest.
Even though she missed the wild mare, she welcomed the new found peace. Now she was able to finally enjoy her nice cup of tea without any intrusions.
A figure gazed at the large sphere in the vast emptiness through one of the ship’s tattered openings. The planet was as big as Earth, but the landscape itself was highly questionable. It looked like someone had splattered the surface with paint, twice.
“So, is this the only way?”
Instead of getting a vocal reply, she received a blue cyan text message within her helmet’s visor.
>> Affirmative
She wondered what can possibly be expected for them down there. Could it be a fresh new UNSC colony? Perhaps it was a Covenant stronghold? Or worse, it might even be a Flood infested world...?
No, none of those were possible; The Chief killed off the Empire’s leadership and long since destroyed The Arc in the process. The Covenant was no more, as was the flood. There would be no more death left behind in their wake. However, the only way for her to cast aside her doubts was by having her own boots on the ground and to see it all for herself.
Still, she wished that Cortana was actually here. The one she was talking to was just a fragment of the artificial intelligence, and the years of deterioration had forced it back to its ‘dumb’ AI state. But all that mattered now was that this Cortana would be able to assist the group in getting them back home, and that was good enough for her.
“Alright, I want all of you to ready up and prep to go.” She said to her squad mates behind her. “We’re gonna land feet first, people.”
The pegasus had recently concluded her reading, and was now stargazing through her window. Princess Luna did a terrific job tonight, the stars were sparkling with life and the moon was brighter than she could have imagined. She relished the gorgeous night sky and wished it could always be like this every night. She even saw a number of shooting stars passing through the dark, navy sky. If only she could reach out and touch those stars and see what made them so beautiful.
But her stargazing ended when Princess Celestia raised her very own star. She sighed, knowing that the bright sun would replace the moon and its surrounding stars. It’s true that most ponies would rather bask under the sunshine, herself amongst them. But when you are at home and staring at the sky before daybreak, you just cannot pull yourself away from it. You can’t help but to just stare up at it and wonder what's up there. One could even ponder whether somepony up there is also wondering what it's like here-
Her thoughts changed abruptly when she saw the same shooting stars from before still remaining visible high up the sky. It’s not possible, how can those stars still be there? Did Princess Luna miss them? And if so, how could she? Many questions ran through her mind, not knowing that they were incoming drop pods.
The woman’s metal package cracked through Equestria’s orbit. The pod’s exterior looked like it was about to fall apart, although in reality it was just its black coating slowly breaking off, the true vulnerability was what lay inside of it. The red illuminations in the pod meant it was under emergency power, with only the necessary functions required to operate. Still, it was a high risk dropping down like this. Also, with it being in the absolute zero of space for many years like the others, nearly every corner inside the pod was left frozen and covered in frost for the most part.
The frost predicament soon disappeared once the metallic casing heated up in the atmosphere. But this also became a problem when the ice turned into water, then into a murky steam. The glass frame of the pod soon became fogged up, rendering the occupant both visionless through it and leaving her completely blind.
She tried to contact her squad mates but to no avail. The icy slush must have disabled the pod’s communications, and she could not communicate with her comrades through her helmet’s comms since there’d be too much interference while dropping. She also knew her other comrades had their pods’ insides covered in ice as well, so they are also in the same position as she was. All she could do now was hope that everyone would survive this jump.
Having no idea what was going on, the pegasus stepped outside and saw that the shooting stars were heading away from Equestria. But, then, the entire meteor formation suddenly jerked about in an organized fashion, now heading straight for Canterlot instead. It was like watching a WonderBolts flying routine.
But the meteors’ sync ended when they dispersed away from Canterlot, and all over the skies of Equestria. She couldn't see where the incoming objects were headed, nor how many there were, but one thing for sure was that one of the dwindling fireballs was directed at her.
This was the best time for anypony in their right mind to panic.
She hurled herself into her homestead and hugged the nearest thing she could find, which was a fluffy, white rabbit. Her embrace was so tight it could have popped the poor creature’s head off. Her house began to shake, compelling the items on her tables and shelves to collapse onto the floor. Then, a loud crash came from her front lawn. Some of her possessions kept on juddering due to the impact’s thumping of the earth.
The quaking then stopped and the pegasus’ belongings ceased their wobbling. Everything had become silent. She examined her home to find it in devastation; her paintings were crooked, some of her vases were shattered, and many of her animal friends were hiding in a corner of her living room. Shortly after scanning the room, she felt a furry kick on her tummy, reminding her that she was crushing her pet bunny, Angel.
After Fluttershy released Angel from her death grip, the bunny rabbit hopped away from her in annoyance, not looking content in the slightest. The other animals on the other hoof were slowly crawling to her window and looked out through it. They must have been very interested, for they were staring outside intensively.
Curious herself, she opened the front door, but only ever so slightly. She was dumbstruck. Her pasture was covered in mud, one of the nearby trees had fallen, and half the bridge she used to cross over the creek was now crumpled by an eighteen hoof-long metal mess sticking out of the stream. She wanted to go outside, to calm down her animal friends who were still outside, but before she could even do that, loud smacks came from the metallic box.
The pegasus hastily shut the door and stood on her hind legs while her back pressed against the door. But what she heard next made her even more confused.
“Hello, is anyone out there?!” a tomboyish voice called out.
“Rainbow Dash?” the pegasus whispered.
She peered through her door again to see the same outlook of her property, and no sign of her friend. She looked up into the air to see if she was hovering above her, but she was not there either. And again, the same voice could be heard, but strangely enough it came from inside the metal shell.
“Gah, this thing won’t budge!”
Hearing her friend in danger, the creamy mare rushed to the object, not even questioning why Rainbow Dash was in there, instead of up in Cloudsdale. When the mare got to it, she wasn’t able to distinguish who was in the metallic box through its glass because of the smoke gathering inside of it.
“Rainbow Dash, are you alright?” asked the pegasus worriedly.
“Fluttershy, is that you?” she replied. “Help me get out of this pod, will ya? The water must have fried the electronics controlling the explosive bolts.”
Those few last words coming out of Rainbow Dash’s mouth was completely foreign to Fluttershy. Electronics? Explosive bolts? It sounded like she was attempting to make new stunt moves, but did she really go so far as to involve metal boxes? It didn’t really matter, her friend needed her help, and if she didn't aid her, she might get herself hurt, or at least more than normally.
Her struggling to pull the metal door was fruitless, it was sealed tight. Her friend was stuck in this metal thing, and she couldn't do a single thing about it. An idea then came across her mind.
“Uh, wait right here, Dash. I’ll get Rarity.”
“You found Rarity already? Good, I’m sure she can yank this hatch open with those muscles of hers.”
Now this has gotten Fluttershy worrying. Rainbow Dash must have hit her head really hard when she crashed, and she was now confused between her friends, Applejack and Rarity. She needed medical attention right away or her head trauma might get worse.
With those beliefs in her mind, she soared as fast as she could to the Carousel Boutique.
Half an hour later, Fluttershy and a spotless white pony with a mauve-purple mane and a horn on her forehead could be seen trotting along the dirt path to Fluttershy’s cottage.
“Darling, could you explain to me why you have dragged me out here?” the white unicorn asked with a subtle flair of annoyance.
“First there was this big boom outside my house and I went out to see Rainbow Dash was in some metal box and now she's hurt and I need your help to pull the metal door and, and-”
With her friend clearly panicking with her explanation, the unicorn silenced the terrified pegasus by placing a hoof over her mouth.
“Now, dear, please, one word at a time. I cannot understand what you are saying if you say it all at once.”
Once she lets go of Fluttershy’s mouth, the creamy pegasus took deep long breaths to lessen her anxiety.
“Relax, calm, don’t lose your nerve Fluttershy.” She said to herself.
Fluttershy clarified the incident clearly this time, from her watching the stars at night, to the metal pod crashing into the stream, and then to Rainbow Dash somehow being in the metal husk.
“And strangest thing of all is that she said something about eh-low-throw-nixs and exploding bolts. She even said that your muscles would get her out. I think she might have hit her head during the crash.”
“Clearly she must have! I will not defile my hooves to tug that, that, whatever you call it.”
“Of course not, we just need you to use your magic!” the animal caretaker exclaimed.
The unicorn had been startled and Fluttershy gasped at her own interjection.
“I mean… you know… if you want to...” she tuned her voice down.
The white mare regained her composure. "It’s okay Fluttershy, we are all worried about her safety. She is our friend and we will save her, even if it means that I have to get my hooves dirty." the hygienic white unicorn shuddered at the vile word she just said, but kept to that promise.
When they both arrived at the cottage, the unicorn was horrified to see the once-pristine garden turned into a mudded crash site with the mentioned metal hull being the epicenter of it. As they walked to the metal pod, the white mare avoided the mud puddles and mucks like they were the plague.
The two finally reached the shell, and then there, they heard the loud kicks of their friend coming from the pod’s hatch. Unfortunately, the smoke was still blocking the view of Rainbow Dash through the glass.
“Rainbow Dash, dear, are you alright?” the white mare said with a worried tone.
“I’ll be alright when you get me outta here, Rarity.” The response was a little muffled but it confirmed that Rainbow Dash was indeed in the metal vessel.
“Okay, I suggest that you stand clear.” she said as her horn’s magical aura filled the metal pod’s opening.
Had the pod’s occupant been able to see the blue aura covering the hatch, she might have actually questioned who was truly outside.
Rarity’s effort was not in vain when the hatch popped open, and flew a few feet away from the pod. Unfortunately, the amount of energy she’d expended prying the metal doorway clear had left her feeling completely drained. Due to her endeavor, she was left drenched in sweat from head to hoof.
Both of the mares then looked upon the metallic bowl, expecting to see their loveable cyan-colored pegasus fly out of the husk, but what came out in her place dazed them.
Out of the smoke emerged a large being standing on its hind legs, making it nearly as tall as Celestia, and having strange looking claws instead of hooves. This Diamond Dog-like figure wore some sort of black protective gear, covering it completely. The most intimidating feature of all though was that it was completely faceless, instead, they could only see a reflective silver shade glinting back at them.
But yet, there were also signs of their beloved friend on this being. A rainbow strip could be seen from its forehead all the way to the back of its crown, so were sky blue shoulders and chest with an outlandish word right below it. But the most distinctive of them all was what was on her left shoulder. Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark for her passion of soaring through the skies.
Rainbow Dash stepped onto the watercourse and began to wipe the liquid that had condensed on her visor.
“Thanks guys, for a moment there I thought I was a gone-”
Her chatting clogged when she saw the two ponies. She then eyeballed her surroundings as if those miniature horses never existed.
“Very funny, guys,” she said with a mocking tone. “But this isn't the best time for pranks.”
The two ponies just stood there solid. The poor creatures must be in shock after what her friends did to them, adding extra appendages and painting these animals like mythical creatures, well, sort of.
Rainbow Dash then ambled up to the little horses.
"Hey there, sorry what my friends did to you, but have you seen them?"
As she expected, the ponies didn’t reply, and kept on staring at her.
"Yeah, that’s what I thought." She said and turned away from them.
She was about to climb out of the stream when suddenly she heard a voice call out to her.
“Rainbow Dash?”
She caught the familiar posh accent of one her companions. She then turned to the source of the voice to see the same two ponies gawking at her.
Dash inspected the unicorn.
That white horse looks awfully like Rarity though, she thought. It even has her hair color.
Yup, it’s official, she had finally lost it. She knew being in those freezers for too long would have an effect on her. And now she was seeing things, like this for example: one of her best pals now looked like a diminutive little pony. A definite sign of her going insane, or was it?
She slowly stepped closer to Rarity, and did the most predictable thing Rainbow Dash would’ve done.
She repeatedly poked her.
"Will you stop that?!" Rarity demanded. "You are ruining my exquisite appearance."
"Yup, you’re Rarity alright," Dash said dryly. "What the hell happened to you though? No wait, what happened to the both of you?" Pointing at Fluttershy, who was hiding behind Rarity and in her mane.
"Darling, I think you have got it all wrong. The real question is what happened to you?"
What happened to me?
Dash thought for a moment.
I’m fine and I’m still me… I think.
Rarity looked up at the towering figure. "I mean look at that dreadful outfit. Black and azure? This will not do, not at all."
"Hey! You said it yourself that I look fabulous enough not to break any uniform protocols." Dash said angrily while slightly imitating Rarity’s voice when she said fabulous.
"And besides, I think blu-" this is the point where Rainbow Dash realized she was distracting herself. "Wait no! I mean look at you," she pointed at the white mare. "You’re a tiny horse!"
"Pony," Rarity corrected the large figure.
"Whatever!" Dash raised both of her arms up in frustration. "All I want to know is how the hell you both turned into ponies."
Rarity and Fluttershy were befuddled. ‘Turned into ponies?’ They had always been ponies for as long as they could remember. How could they be turned into another creature if nothing had been changed to them in the first place?
"Darling, I think you are mistaken. It is not us that were altered, it was you." The white unicorn claimed.
"Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, hold on there. Last time I checked, I had my fingers ever since I first gazed upon the stars, not hooves."
This had sparked utter confusion between both of the two. What was going on? Both of them knew themselves, but yet they did not fully know each other. And so, the weird creature and the unicorn kept on arguing on who was truly who.
"This is where you are wrong my dear. You are Rainbow Dash, are you not?"
"Well yeah but-" Dash attempted to counter the mare’s speech, however, she was interrupted by the white mare.
"Then there you have it, you were once a pony and you will be again. We just need to find T-" It was her turn to be interrupted by the bombastic dare devil.
"Just stop right there buddy, there is no way in hell I’m turning into some pink fluffy unicorn." Rainbow Dash protested.
"Well technically darling, you are a pegasus-"
"Same thing!" she said as she stomped the stream beneath her, sending a minor surge of water and mud at Rarity.
Rarity attempted to jump away from the incoming muck, but her reflexes were sluggish and some of the muddy projectiles impacted on the sanitary pony.
"My coat!" she cried.
"What’s wrong, Rarity? Can’t handle a little dirt? Ya know, no matter how long we’ve been fighting together, I still don’t understand-" However, before she was able to continue, she was tackled into the muddy watercourse by an enraged Rarity.
"You ruined my coat! Do you know how long it takes to clean my coat?!" Humorously enough, her actions caused her to gain added filth to her already muddy fur.
But as soon she finished those words, she was toppled back down by the bigger and stronger Rainbow Dash.
As the mudslinging duelists battled one another, the creamy yellow pegasus attempted to calm both of them down.
“Uh... could you both stop fighting?” Fluttershy whispered.
The sounds of the water thrashing between the duelists was too loud for them to hear Fluttershy’s pleas.
“Please?” She attempted to gain their attention.
And again, the combatants kept on ignoring her and focused on fighting each other.
“If we could just-” Her eyes suddenly darted to the creature. It was attempting to reach out to grab hold a black handle attached to it’s chest piece. Whatever it was, it could potentially harm Rarity.
When the creature grabbed the handle, a scream could be heard next to the pair.
"STOP!"
The thundering scream was enough to cause all the nearby birds, who were on top of the trees at the time, to flock away from the scene in terror.
Rainbow Dash winced to the sound of the scream and let go of the combat knife’s handle. She then twisted her head to the source of the scream, which was the yellow-furred pony. Meanwhile, popping head first out of the water was the once pure snowy-white Rarity, now covered in swamp foliage and sludge.
"Um… sorry to bother you both… if you two don't mind… but can we just… you know… talk?" There were a lot of pauses in Fluttershy’s words but it was enough to convince the two mud wrestlers to agree to her proposal.
"Alright, I’ll talk. But only to figure out what the hell is going on here." Dash said as she crossed her arms.
"I’m afraid that I must agree with her. I want to know what took place that made Rainbow Dash," -Rarity then pointed at Dash with both of her hooves and raised them up and down- "this."
This is when Rarity's eyes finally trailed down to look at her own hooves. She shrieked in horror, and hastily jumped out of the water. She then rubbed off all the nasty, unwanted undergrowth and sludge on her coat.
"Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew." Rarity whined.
Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash calmly wiped off some of the mud that was on her armor and, walked back to the pod which was now free of smoke.
"Um, Rainbow Dash, what are you doing?" Fluttershy asked.
"Just getting my stuff from inside the pod,"
After a moment or two of rustling through the pod’s storage, Rainbow Dash jumped out from the crashed bowl carrying a metal bag in one of her hands, another one on her back with a short black pole stuck out of, and a long green, metallic tube over her shoulders.
Fluttershy and Rarity watched Rainbow Dash carry the excessive amount of baggage away from the pod. Whatever happened to her must have made her really robust. Even Big Mac, an earth pony, might have a problem carrying that much weight at once.
"Sorry, but I need to properly clean myself," The unicorn said while scraping the last pieces of muddy flora off of her fur. "I'll come back later. And dear, please do not start your story until I come back. I do want to know what happened to my dear friend, after all."
She was about to set off but suddenly she turned back to face Dash.
"Oh and I am sure that our dear Twilight would also like to know what has just transpired here."
And with that, she trotted away from the two in the direction of the Spa.
Rainbow Dash just watched as Rarity went on her way and motionlessly stood there for a few seconds, but quickly shook it off a minute later and spun around to face Fluttershy.
"Hey, do you know where I could sit down? Because these things are getting heavy, ya know?"
"Oh… um… right, come with me then."
And so, the two strolled towards the cottage; leaving behind the empty drop pod.
"Would you like some tea?" Fluttershy asked.
"No thanks," Dash politely declined.
Fluttershy placed the teapot back on the table in front of her. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were sitting on their respective chairs, waiting for Rarity to come back.
When Dash had first arrived, she had thought of sitting down on one of Fluttershy’s chairs, but when she saw them, she’d thought that she might break the chair with her own weight. Fluttershy assured her that they were made with the one of the toughest trees in the Everfree forest.
Currently, Fluttershy was warily gazing down at the floor and trying not to make eye contact with Rainbow Dash, but she glanced at the large tall black figure once in awhile out of curiosity. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash just stared at the wall and entertained thoughts of her own.
What’s going on here, am I hallucinating? Or maybe I'm in some sort of coma while the girls are actually trying to wake me up somewhere out there?
Her contemplations paused for a minute before she started her theories again.
Or I could be dead. And if so, is this where everybody stops and finally takes the big break? Is that why-
Then, there was a knock on Fluttershy’s door.
"Darling, I’m back, and I brought a friend along too." Rarity said from behind the entrance.
The door opened, but not to reveal the spotless white pony, but instead a purple-coated unicorn with an indigo mane bearing a consecutive pink streak running down it. Rarity, meanwhile, was behind this purple unicorn and was intrigued to see what happened next.
When the purple pony saw the tall, black, shadowy being, she was perplexed to see an undiscovered sapient species in front of her. And so, she slowly walked towards the creature.
Rainbow Dash simply glared at the fascinated unicorn as she crept in the woman’s direction, making her helmet's silvery visor follow her every movement, even when the purple mare made a full circle around her like a fascinated scientist examining a new specimen found in the wild. Fluttershy wasn't sure who to be frightened of, the tall faceless black biped, or her friend now eyeing the creature like a predator circling around it's prey.
When the purple unicorn stopped in front of Rainbow Dash, she finally spoke.
"Hello there, my name is-"
But before she could introduce herself, Rainbow Dash interrupted her.
"Twilight Sparkle," Dash said darkly.
"Ah right, Rarity told me that there was somepony who claimed to be Rainbow Dash, but didn't look like her." Twilight Sparkle attempted to sound as equally menacing as possible.
It was true that Rarity came to the library earlier this morning, talking about some strange creature coming from the sky, claiming she was Rainbow Dash, but it didn't mean she believed everything from just one source. So she accepted Rarity’s offer to come along with her to investigate on this ‘Rainbow Dash’.
"Yup, that’s me alright." She smirked under her helmet.
Twilight inspected the large black armored being closely again.
"What are you?"
"I’m human,"
"I see," Twilight absorbed that information. "But are you not supposed to be a myth?"
"Excuse me?"
"Humans are just folklore and fairy tales made up by parents to scare their colts and fillies,"
When those last words came out of Twilight’s mouth, the woman could not hold it any longer. And with that, Rainbow Dash laughed like there was no tomorrow.
"What’s so funny?" Twilight asked in confusion and annoyance.
She kept on giggling but she eventually got herself together.
"It’s just that I could say the same thing to you."
This earned her an elevated eyebrow from the purple librarian.
"When I was a kid, my mom used to tell me about unicorns and pegasi in some far away land filled with magic and sunshine. When I got older though, I figured out that it was just, quote in quote, ‘folklore and fairy tales’." She explained.
This is when she finally put the pieces together.
"And I think figured it all out."
"The Rainbow Dash? The egotistical mare who charges head first without rational thinking, figuring things out? Ha! Now I know that you are definitely an imposter!" Twilight pointed at the phony dare devil.
"Whoa, hold on there ponygirl, hear me out first. After we woke up from cyro-sleep, Cortana told us that the ship was forced into a wormhole or a portal of some kind which had unidentifiable energy patterns. And when reached the other end, Cortana couldn't find the proper coordinates of this star system, it was almost like it never existed.
"But since she was in the stages of rampancy, we first thought that she was unreliable, but then she told us the sun had a strange orbital pattern. So we took a closer look, and there it was: the fucking sun was orbiting the even more fucked up-looking planet."
She hesitated for a moment before speaking again. "Ugh, no offence."
There was an awkward moment of silence between all of them before Rainbow Dash spoke again.
"You have no idea what I was saying, do you?" She asked all three of the ponies.
And it was like they were telepathically linked; the mares shook their heads in sync.
"Okay long-story-short, I think I’m in an alternate dimension… or something."
"Wait, how are you sure? You also mentioned we and something about a spaceship. Are you planning to invade Equestria?!" Twilight said, adding more paranoia into the situation and herself.
Twilight wanted to further study this ‘Rainbow Dash’ but there was a chance that she could be a changeling, or some space invader that only wanted to gain access to their personal lives. And if she posed a threat to her friends and family, she would gladly strike her down and bring her in front of the Princesses herself.
"If that space ship was just floating debris and only six people, including me, being the invasion force, then I would say yes." Rainbow Dash said sarcastically.
"Alright Rainbow Dash," Twilight said, not fully convinced by her words, "tell me everything I want to know."
"Okay," She shrugged.
Twilight stepped back slightly at her last statement. Was she willing to give it all up, or was this some kind of trick?
"That’s it? No confidential information that you're going to keep to yourself?"
"Well, actually yes. To begin with, under The Cole Protocol, I’m not to under any circumstances convey the location of mankind’s home planet. Furthermore, I would like to keep my private life aside thank you very much, but other than that, yeah sure, I’ll talk."
Interested, Twilight and the other ponies sat down on their respective seats and listened to what this ‘Rainbow Dash’ had to say.
"One thing you should all know, is that my name isn't really Rainbow Dash."
The purple pony nearly shot to her hooves to protest, but Rainbow Dash quickly put a stop to that by facing towards Twilight.
"Rainbow Dash is just a nickname I earned when I was in the academy."
"So then, what is your actual name?" Twilight asked.
"Isabel Miles."
"It must be a very big coincidence, since the real Rainbow Dash’s middle name is Isabel."
"Huh interesting," Rainbow Dash uttered. "So Carmen, what would you like to know?"
"How did you-"
She was surprised to hear her middle name because only her closest friends knew it.
"Oh right, the ‘I'm Rainbow Dash from a parallel world’ theory of yours." She realized.
Twilight scratched her chin, wondering what question to ask next.
"Hmm… where are your other companions, the ones you mentioned earlier?"
When Isabel was trapped in the pod, she attempted to contact the rest of the group, but there was still too much interference in her helmet’s comms, so she really couldn't tell whether they survived the crash or not.
"I don’t know," she answered.
"And what are those things beside you." Twilight gestured at the three metallic boxes beside Isabel.
"None of your business," Isabel said menacingly.
"Okay… where are you from?"
"Mars."
"And what does U-N-S-C mean?" The purple unicorn pointed at the bottom of Isabel’s chest plate.
"It’s short for United Nations Space Command."
"So, you're in the UNSC?"
"Yes."
Twilight observed the chest plate to see an angled sentence she could not describe.
"And what does this mean?" She motioned at the two grouped words.
"Semper Fidelis, it means Always Loyal."
"That sounds a lot like you," Twilight said to attempt to sway Isabel off.
"Yeah, a… friend of mine said that it suited me well. He was a nice guy and a great friend too." Isabel said with a saddened tone.
Hearing Dash's sudden depressed voice, Twilight’s paranoia evaporated, only to be replaced by pity.
"Oh, I didn't mean to-"
Twilight wanted to apologize but Isabel cut her off.
"It’s not your fault,"
This was not going very well for Twilight, she needed answers but now she had already upset the human. She needed to find out why she was here, and figure out whether she was a threat or not.
"Do you want to explain it from the beginning?" Twilight asked.
"You mean, like how it started?"
"Yes, tell me how it all began."
"Okay, but I suggest you make yourselves as comfy as possible, because this is going to take a while."
Following Isabel’s advice, the ponies sat in the positions they were most comfortable in, and began to listen to her story.
UNSC CORVETTE PONY EXPRESS, HARVEST, FEBRUARY 23, 2525 (MILITARY CALENDAR)
A lone figure slept peacefully within the confines of her pod. She was dressed in full combat gear consisting of a set of charcoal-colored fatigues, and matte-black impact plating that protecting everything vital from her neck to her knees. The helmet which she donned obscured her features, the silver-mirrored visor on it made well sure of the fact; the only lively detail about her was the rainbow streak run down it.
She was known as an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper –ODST for short– and also for their more famous moniker, Helljumpers. They conducted special operations and specialized in orbital-drop insertions with the aid of drop-pods. The pods were often used so they could land in terrestrial environments, but in some cases, they acted as shock infantry whenever the situation arises.
The Helljumper fidgeted a little, but kept on sleeping, as she began to dream of her early days in the Marine Corps and how her ODST career jump started on to a whole new level.
When she enlisted for the Corps, she intended to join the ODSTs. When she said intended, she actually meant she was hell-bent to enroll with the best of the best.
With one goal in mind, she easily became the most agile and fastest recruit in the entire camp. These feats caught the attention of her commanding officers, who were in fact assigned at the camp to look out for potential ODST candidates at the time.
Because of her performance, and her ‘unique’ family history, she became the runner-up on whether she might able to join the Helljumpers or not. All she had to do was pass a simple test to get what she wanted.
She was assigned to lead a squad –who were also selected to become ODSTs– of three men through a simulated training exercise. The officer at the time only told them to "search and eliminate any enemy combatants inside The Training Complex" which, of course, wasn't very informative.
At the moment, she was sitting on a crate with an MA5B assault rifle already in hand. The other marines were busy going through the weapons rack to choose a weapon that was best suited for them.
She then impatiently roared at them to hurry up. In retrospect, the squad leader arrived in the armory much earlier than the other marines.
After a minute of frantically searching for their favorite armaments, her fellow marines finally found what they were each looking for and joined her enroute to The Complex.
Before they even reached the armory’s exit, they received a mysterious call from their instructor to wait up for another recruit to join up with them, forcing them to delay their departure by a few minutes while they waited for him. But a few minutes seemed like hours for the athletic, eager-to-be ODST. She told herself that she needed to teach the late-comer a lesson after finishing the course. Heck, she could even sabotage the man’s effort to become an ODST by making him take the bullet for them if she wanted to.
When the Johnny-come-lately finally arrived, he apologized for his tardiness and grabbed the nearest MA5B rifle, which was evidently filled with Tactical Training rounds (TTR). He formed up with the rest of the squad, and they promptly left the armory.
The Marines soon found themselves at the entrance of the complex, preparing for the breach. The squad leader knew that if she was hit, she would be eliminated and she would be unable to join the men and women of the ODSTs. Just so she wouldn’t be the first to lose the opportunity, she ordered one of the other marines to take point and began to count down with her fingers.
As she pulled down one of her fingers, her squad mates' sweat began to cover their skin, and apprehension was written across their features, all except for one.
Another one of her digits dug into her palm, to only show a lone finger left before they breach the door.
Johnny-come-lately was behind her in position, and was ready to jump the enemy like it was a routine walk in the park. He showed no fear, no regrets, not even determination; not a single hint of emotion.
She was about to close her last finger down into a fist, but then she hesitated. She realized that she was also sweating, was she nervous like the rest of the marines? How come Johnny-come-lately isn’t shaking in his boots? What’s behind those doors?
Another realization came to her mind. Even if she couldn’t see them, there were cameras hidden from view. She was, at this very moment, being watched by her superiors, officers and probably other Helljumpers watching them. All of them were going to judge her performance on whether she was going to be one of them, or just another washout in the Corps. If she botched this, she’ll never get to be with the ODSTs. What will her mother think if-
Her thoughts were interrupted as she suddenly felt pressure on her shoulder. It wasn’t too tight, but it was enough to make her snap out of her frozen trance. She looked over her shoulder to see Johnny-come-lately holding her joint with his left hand, a half-smile on his face. He then nodded while retaining his smirk. He didn't really say anything but it was the push that she needed.
With renewed vigor, she clutched her hand into a fist and raised it up slightly above her head, and then proceeded by pulling an imaginary pull cord of an old 17th century train whistle. The marines stormed the building and rushed to the nearest cover, which were the pillars holding the complex together.
The wannabe ODSTs scanned the room, only to find dust and echoes. The squad leader expected to fight against rival marines who also wanted the same goal of being Helljumpers. She sighed at this fact and ordered two of the marines to move ahead. What came next made her slump back into shock.
Two rounds came streaking through the air and covered the advancing Marines with red paint, which rapidly paralyzed them and forced them to collapse to the earth.
Even though the athletic marine was in cover, she still exposed herself enough to see an odd blur further back at the end of the pillars which she had not seen earlier. Unfortunately for her, the blurry figure quickly turned towards her and pointed its barrel at the shocked soldier.
Another bullet came streaming out of the shadowy dispatcher’s weapon. This was it, her lifelong dream, her chance to become an ODST, it was over. Suddenly, she felt immense pain all over her face.
UNSC CORVETTE PONY EXPRESS, HARVEST, FEBRUARY 23, 2525 (MILITARY CALENDAR)
A pair of doors automatically opened to reveal a man who wore a standard ODST Battle Dress Uniform (BDU), with a steely-gray stripe on his helmet and identically colored chest plate.
He steadily walked to a slumbering trooper in her pod. He stopped in front of the marine, hesitating for a second as he considered what to do next.
A thought came to his mind. He might regret his next actions, but it was going to be worth it.
He promptly raised his knee up to her face, hitting her hard enough to make the napping marine’s helmet hit the metal behind her and clank loudly.
"Rise and shine sleeping beauty," he said. "We’ve got a job to do."
The stirred ODST attempted to rub her face, but was denied due to her helmet. She then glared at the man to politely ask why he jolted his knee up her face.
"What the hell was that for?!" she yelled.
"One," he said with solemnity.
He then pointed at the flashing yellow lights with his thumb over his shoulder.
"The siren stopped a minute ago and you were still asleep."
"And two," He said this time with a calmer tone. "You’ve hit my blueberries one too many times at the academy." He spoke with a gloom.
"You don’t have to be a wuss about it." She rolled her eyes behind her visor.
"I’m not a wuss," he whispered, but sounded to believe her statement.
She saw that she pushed him a little, so she then attempted to cheer him up. "Oh come on, you’ve dealt worse."
"Yeah, whatever," said the man, not accepting what she said.
He strode away from the formerly sleeping Helljumper, and made his way towards the sliding doors. She saw this, and ascended from her napping spot.
When she finally stood up, she saw that the man was already halfway through the hall. She hurried after him.
"Dude, wait up!" She bayed at him.
He simply ignored her and kept on walking in silence. Frustrated, she quickened her pace to catch up with him.
"I’m sorry, okay?" By the time she said that, the other marine was already in an armory, reaching for an assault rifle in the weapons rack.
She stopped a few feet away from him and continued to apologize. "I didn’t mean to hurt you, alright? I know I can be a klutz sometimes, but I’ll never let a friend down."
The man clutched the MA5B, and threw it to the trooper. She caught it mid-flight, but she still felt guilty with herself.
"Apology accepted," he said as he depolarized his helmet, showing the face of a man of Arabian descent with golden eyes.
"Besides, I wasn’t upset in the first place." He nonchalantly said with a grin on his face.
This made her raise an eyebrow. "Huh?"
"Just pulling your leg kiddo, and also," he turned back to the weapons rack and pulled out an MA5B. "Wuss, really? I know you can do better than that."
She had to admit, it was a pretty lame ass insult but it still didn’t explain why he became a drama queen.
"What’s with the act then?" the rainbow helmeted trooper said as they began their walk back to the drop pods.
"You could say it was a test."
"A test?"
"Yeah, just to see how you’d react."
"What do you mean?"
The ODST paused and attempted to scratch his jaw, only to have his helmet block the way, but continued to do so anyways. "Well… "
After a second of thinking, he carried on talking. "Okay, what did you do when you saw me get distraught by your statement?"
"I apologized."
"Exactly, you could've just sat down and zipped that mouth of yours, but instead you stood up and apologized," he explained. "That act of selflessness showed me that you’re loyal."
"But you already knew that, we've known each other since the academy!"
"Yes, but what if you hadn’t known me in the first place," the man exemplified. "Would you still attempt to ease my discomfort then?"
It was her turn to pause and contemplate those words.
"I’ve never thought of it that way."
"Of course you haven’t, you may be loyal but you’ve never been bright."
"Says the egghead."
"Says the egghead who made sure you made it into the Helljumpers."
She braced herself for the impending doom, but unbeknownst to her, she was already pulled halfway to safety by Johnny-come-lately before the unknown assailant even pulled the trigger.
The round hissed by, missing her face by mere inches. Johnny-come-lately came down with her into a pile, and quickly pushed her off of himself. He then tried to snap the stunned squad leader out of her trance.
UNSC CORVETTE PONY EXPRESS, HARVEST, FEBRUARY 23, 2525 (MILITARY CALENDAR)
"Yeah… " She said with a saddened tone.
Her pride was wounded on that day. All her life she believed that she would join the orbital troopers all on her own. But when the moment came, she froze up in the middle of a simulated combat zone, nearly getting herself shot which could’ve ended her dreaming of becoming an ODST then and there. She was saved though, saved by a marine who was late to attend the course in the first place.
"Oh great, I made the great Rainbow Dash blue," The now revealed Johnny-come-lately said to her. "I guess I’m the one that needs to say sorry now, huh?"
The ODST, now identified as Rainbow Dash, replied by throwing a clenched fist towards Johnny-come-lately’s shoulder for his remark of her pet name.
"I guess we’re good then?" he said while rubbing his sore joint.
"Yeah, we’re good."
"As I was saying, my test proves that you would sacrifice some of that ego of yours to treat your friend’s fretfulness. You can also experiment this yourself if you wanted to."
"How the hell do I do that?" she questioned.
"Just do what I did, be overemotional on something rather meek."
"Now you’re just messing with me."
"It worked didn’t it?"
Dash wanted to argue but remained speechless. She did respond to a down-to-earth reaction and she fell for it.
The troopers became silent after that, with the exception of their boots clanking on the metal floor as they continued walking back towards the pods. When the marines finally reach their drop pods, Dash examined her pod and Johnny-come-lately proceeded on a new topic.
"So, aliens huh?" The man said.
"Aliens or not, we’re still gonna kick their asses." She said this as she attached her assault rifle to her pod's weapon rack.
"If they even have any asses," he remarked jokingly. "And don’t you know that we’re evacuating the civvies?"
"We’re falling back already?"
"Dash, you either fell asleep during the briefing before we were put to ice or you don’t read the news often."
She turned her head towards Johnny-come-lately and depolarized her helmet to show a Caucasian woman with magenta eyes. The Helljumper had an obvious awkward smirk which told the man that it was the former. He sighed, and knew what he needed to do next.
"Listen up and listen well, because I’m going to say this once and only once," he exclaimed with a commanding voice.
His sudden change from best bud to an authority figure was not very new for Dash, but it astounded her the first time when she met him.
Tiny chunks of their cover were slowly blown off as Johnny-come-lately attempted to snap the marine squad leader out of her trance. On the other side of the pillars, one of the marines kept her head down to avoid the incoming projectiles.
But as fast as the shootout began, the firing stopped. The squaddie sighed in relief and focused attention at the latecomer and the squad lead. One thing for sure was their commanding leader was not very commanding. The poor girl looked like she was in total shock as she was being shaken by the guy.
The Marine wondered why the gunfire ceased, but her thoughts were interrupted by distinctive metallic clicks of a rifle. That all too familiar sound hit her harder than the training rounds that were flying over their heads; their assailant was reloading. This was her chance to end this match once and for all.
The man’s efforts to wake the woman from her spell was not successful, she just sat there motionless and was babbling something about her failing. He then looked over to see if the other greenhorn was unharmed. She was fine by all means, but her next actions would turn into her biggest slip-up in her entire military career.
The grunt raised her rifle and hastily fired from the hip, but only a dozen volleys came out of her assault rifle before she was splattered with red paint which promptly caused her to fall on her back. The shady figure had already reloaded its weapon before she had even fired those shots.
That was the final straw for the entrant; he needed her now more than ever.
"Goddamn it ma’am, if you don’t get your shit together, pull that brain of yours out of your ass and put it back into your skull. I swear I’ll throw you into the middle of the crossfire myself!"
UNSC CORVETTE PONY EXPRESS, HARVEST, FEBRUARY 23, 2525 (MILITARY CALENDAR)
He didn't usually do this, heck, he would rather avoid it if he could, but when responsibility came down on his shoulders, he would do it with extreme prejudice. He was generally quiet around people he didn't hang around with. Yet, he was usually a little clumsy and sometimes acted silly when he was in front of his best buddy. Don’t get him mad though, unless you wanted a full blast of either his ‘Sergeant Mode’ or his ‘listen to an intellectual’s speech’. Either of the two could make you want to jump out of an airlock. But in the end, he had the best of intentions at heart.
She merely rolled her eyes, and focused back on her drop pod, saying "Yes mom."
"It’s yes, corporal mom to you," inserting his authority by enlightening her of his rank. "So here’s the deal, we've got civvies falling back to the Space Elevators, and the Colonial Militia aren't going to endure long enough with those space invaders probing up their asses all day.
"That’s where we come in. First, we jump feet first into hell, pull their pants down long enough so that the Militia can get the civilians into the Elevator, and then fall back to the Pelican."
"What Pelican?" Dash turned back to question him.
"The Pelican that Sarge told us about during the meeting. Dang, that’s how long you slept, Dash? How do you do it?"
"Oh I have my ways," she said proudly as she polarized her helmet’s visor.
"You had your helmet on, didn’t you?"
"Well-" Her speech was interrupted by a masculine voice coming from alongside her ear.
"Stop with the gibbering you two and get into the pods, we’re late as it is."
Johnny-come-lately pushed his COMM beside his helmet to link his communications with the Sergeant. "Yes Sergeant."
"You heard the man, let’s move!" exclaimed the corporal.
"You don’t have to tell me twice," said the athletic marine.
Dash positioned herself on the seat and double-checked her pod and weapons. She was all prepped and ready to drop. The hatch, however, didn't seal as she expected it to. Dash looked up to see her friend standing there, staring at the opposite side of the pods. He was unmoving, like he was in deep thought.
The man turned his head to face her, his back still toward her, and helmet polarized.
"Isabel," he spoke with a tone she never heard from him before in her life. "Today is a historic moment for humanity, and for better or worse, Dash, we will never forget."
His whole body spun to confront her. "And no matter what, we’ll always be friends. Can you promise me that?"
This was something totally new for her. She'd never seen him like this, sure, he did turn into a drama queen a few minutes ago, but this was truly authentic. She was sure of it.
"No matter what," she promised.
"Good." He slapped her shoulder.
He was about to leave, to board his own pod, but he a felt pressure on his forearm. He turned to see Rainbow Dash gripping him tightly.
"Deen, don’t get yourself killed, I don’t want to lose you out there."
"Don’t worry-" but before he could carry on those words, a near identical interruption emanated towards their earlobes.
"God, what’s wrong with the two of you? I know this may be your first drop for both of you, but please, don’t make a mess in the pods just yet."
If anybody could see through Dash’s helmet, they would have seen a vast amount of inflamed blood that had pumped up into her cheeks.
Deen heaved a sigh and replied "Sergeant, you know that we’re just friends. Besides, I’m-"
"Yeah, yeah we know. Real men worry about their 'length' below their belt, while you only worry about whether if your fly is zipped up or not, now get into those pods. That’s an order."
The corporal complied and seated himself in his pod. Dash recoiled back onto her chair, feeling a little disappointed. The hatch closed in front of her and the platform, from which all the pods were dangling, reclined into the launch bay.
Dash’s view screen on each side of her came to life, and displayed Deen’s gray striped helmet on the right. On the left, though, was a near identical ODST helmet with the exception of a crimson stripe across his helmet instead.
"Alright ladies and gentlemen, I hope you’re all briefed on what’s what." The man in the crimson helmet crackled through the speaker in Dash’s pod.
"Yes, sergeant, all except one. But don’t worry," Deen mouthed calmly, "I’ve already dealt with it."
Deen tried his best not to specify a certain speedy Helljumper. But alas, the sergeant picked up the boy’s words faster than a heartbeat.
"Good, I don’t want to explain to Isabel the technical stuff into that vacuumed skull of hers."
"Hey!" Dash groused through her receiver.
The pod monitors flickered with static as the platform ground to a halt.
"Now remember Marines, there are literally only half-a-dozen of us here," the sergeant said, ignoring her exclamation. "So don’t get cocky and get yourselves killed. We already don’t have the manpower to fend off those ETs."
"You heard what the sergeant said," Deen brought himself back into the conversation. "Don’t fire your weapons unless he says so."
"Helljumpers! We are green and very, very mean!" The sergeant cried through the comms as his pod detached from the ship.
Almost instantaneously as that happened, Deen’s pod disengaged and began its own fall to the planet’s surface. After a similar descent of another three metal human packages, it was Dash’s turn to plummet down from the heavens.
After being peppered by a countdown sound, her pod departed from the launch bay to an extensive sight of Harvest. Her pod’s frame displayed the stunning night sky, and the surface below that was covered with luscious crops, along with the landscape’s rising and falling of the hills and its abundant amount of lakes. If she could see through the dense forests, she would have seen swooping bats consuming the unfortunate hovering bugs that got in the flying mammals' way.
However, Rainbow Dash wasn’t fixed on the scene. She was absorbing the sensation of cracking through the atmosphere. That feeling of hurling yourself straight into the battlefield was the most amazing thing she had ever felt. The adrenaline pumping through her veins, flowing behind her eyes and into the brain, the sudden upsurge of her heartbeat, and secreting sweat like it was nobody’s business. She felt like she could take on the universe and all who lived in it.
There’s a lot to know about the Single Occupant Exo-atmospheric Insertion Vehicle (SOEIV), commonly referred to as the Human Entry Vehicle (HEV), or drop pod, and it was also known as the Egg to the cautious. But unfortunately for Dash, reading manuals was for eggheads. She didn’t care what it was called or any of the details, as the pod had single-handedly given Rainbow one of the greatest thrills of her entire life.
But, unbeknownst to her, an ODST in one of the pods kept on complaining to his NCO about his navigation computer.
"Sir, I can’t get this piece of junk working," he nagged.
"You better get that thing going before we reach the atmosphere."
"S-sir?" his voice quaked.
"Relax, just do what you need to do trooper." The corporal intervened into the conversation.
"I’m gonna die, aren’t I, sir?"
The man was referring to the pod’s braking rockets, if there were any malfunctions with either the computer or the rockets themselves, then the pod’s occupier would die on impact. It was the demise that every single ODST feared.
"Oh god, oh god please, I don’t wanna die." The man wept.
"Calm down, just do what I tell you to do. First-" Deen was interrupted yet again by the sergeant.
"He dug his own grave."
"No, no, no, no, this can’t be happening! I can’t die like this, I just can’t. I’ve got to do something, I-I-I… " He kept on shuddering until he did the unexpected.
He grabbed the controls and wildly strained the joysticks in an attempt to slow down his egg.
His pod all of a sudden maneuvered into Dash’s pod's proximity. Dash was too engaged in her elation to notice the metal coffin coming right at her. Even though it moved sluggishly, she could have avoided the doomed HEV if she had been concentrating.
"Private, what the hell are you doing? Stay in formation or I’ll shoot you myself." The sergeant bellowed at the condemned trooper.
And with that, he spoke his final words before the private slammed into Dash’s airborne insertion pod. "I’m already a dead man, sir."
The impact caught Rainbow Dash by total surprise, her pod suddenly spinning like a 21st century American football. Her excitement turned into distress as she was forced to hold an insane amount of g-forces, far more than the normal amount for any ODST.
Deen frantically gave her instructions on what she had to do. "Dash, just hold on and do what I say! Look for a hidden compartment at the bottom left corner, there’ll be a lever which you can pull, which will manually activate your chute."
She absorbed those guidelines like a sponge. Dash looked for the slot that Deen had told her, and without difficulty, she found it. She pulled off the cover to find the lever, but as she vainly attempted to pull it, her world began to blacken.
Her hands were mere inches from her savior, if only she could just reach it. The Blackness then started slowly consume her vision.
Today is a historic moment for humanity, and for better or worse, Dash, we will never forget.
In near obscurity, her fingers were millimeters away from the only thing that could prevent her from being turned into a soft, juicy pancake. Just one more push, that’s all she needed.
And no matter what, we’ll always be friends. Can you promise me that?
At this point, darkness had finally consumed her, but not before pulling the one thing that prevented her from an eternal slumber.
No matter what.
First Battle Of Harvest II: Sky Chocked With Ashes
CAMP RÉVOLUTION, NEW PARIS, MARS, JANUARY 21, 2524 (MILITARY CALENDAR)
Isabel Miles was having a really bad day, I mean a really bad day. Not even thirty seconds into the course, she had already lost two Marines under her command and the barrage of bullets suppressing her was not helping her self-confidence.
As the bullets continuously kept on targeting her position, her mind was also under its own constant fire, but instead of bullets, it was fear.
What do I do?
“Private!”
Everybody is gonna see me fail!
“Come on!”
The Helljumpers will never let a loser like me join!
“Snap out of it!”
Mom will probably kick me out of the house!
“Gah!”
MY LIFE IS RUINED!
“Goddamn it ma’am, if you don’t get your shit together, pull that brain of yours out of your ass and back into your skull. I swear I’ll throw you into the middle of the crossfire myself!”
The sheer thunder of the Marine’s voice brought Isabel back into reality. Even though her expression was still in its terrified state, she wasn’t afraid of the incoming projectiles anymore, she was afraid of the man in front of her.
“H-huh?” She shuddered.
“Under the United Nations Space Command Defense Force directive number seven, paragraph six of the immersive training environment program charter, I am authorized to relieve you of command for the duration of this training exercise until proven otherwise. Do you understand?”
Even though she did not apprehend half of the words coming out of his mouth, Isabel nodded shakily.
“Alright, from what I heard, you’re the fastest runner out of the entire training facility, am I correct?”
And again she irregularly nodded.
“Okay good, I want you to run” –he pointed at one of the columns at the far end of the hall– “to the third last pillar over there.”
She hesitated for a moment but obeyed anyway, fearing that the rookie-turned-superior would have her hide if she did not do so. But before she was able to turn away from the man, he grabbed her forearm to signal her that he was not finished with his instructions.
“But first, I need your helmet.”
Okay, this had her question the man’s orders.
“Trust me on this,” he said with assurance in his voice.
Convinced, Isabel turned her helmet over to him. As she pulled off her headgear, her multicolored hair was exposed to the hot and dusty air of the Complex. Her hair had colors of perfect vertical rainbow stripes; they were short but disorganized due to her irregular combing.
“Huh, nice hair you got there,” the man said amusedly.
The man removed his own helmet to reveal his short shaggy chocolate-brown hair. He then pulled out three odd-looking black flash bang grenades, a detonator and a bio-foam canister in his rucksack he brought along.
Isabel’s eyes widened at the sight of the flash bangs. “Like, what the heck?! Why didn’t you use those in the first place?!” She bawled.
“The target is too distant to be subjected to the stun grenades’ effect unless she is not taking shelter. So I need some way to keep her eyes open and herself exposed for them to produce proper influence,” he said in an emotionless tone.
“How do you know the sniper is a she, and why don’t you just pass those blinding-light-in-a-can to me? I can just run over to that pillar there and toss the flash bangs at her hidey-hole.”
“First, I know her. Second, you may be fast but her itchy trigger-finger is faster,” he said bluntly. “Besides, I like to keep things interesting.” He smirked.
That caught Isabel’s curiosity. “Alright, keep talking.”
Meanwhile, at the end of the hallway of the Training Complex, a lone silhouette figure could been seen crouching behind a support column, firing at the Marines who were taking cover behind another pillar farther up the hall with her trusty XBR55 Battle Rifle, having it set to semi-automatic.
She recalled the moments when the Marines arrived at the scene.
After those two idiots walked straight into her line of fire, they were dealt with swiftly and without hesitation. While the woman who had simply fired at her with abandon suffered the same fate as the first two. Now there were two more Marines left she had to deal with, the squad leader and Him.
No matter how many times she tried he always seemed to win these kinds of training simulations. Unfortunately for him though, his assailant was prepared and had an advantage of her own. She was recently able to ‘acquire’ a prototype infiltration armor which used photo-reactive panels to simulate the surrounding environment like a chameleon, rendering her almost invisible. The only problem, though, was that she had to stay still to blend into the background. Nonetheless, the assailant kept on firing at the last two last soldiers.
She then looked down at her rifle’s mounted ammo counter to see that it had five more rounds left before her magazine exhausted all of its training ammunition.
Once she fired her last shots and the weapon’s ammo counter finally reached to zero, her reflexes took over; her finger pressed the magazine release button located on the left side, shaped as an arrow pointing down towards the housed mag in the stock.
Suddenly, the squad leader threw a large olive object towards her and sprinted in the direction of one of the nearby pillars. Luckily though, she had already replenished her weapon by the time the object was in mid-flight.
The assailant had to eliminate the closest hazard so she swiftly aimed her battle rifle at the threat and fired upon the incoming object.
The object was knocked back to the ground by the sheer kinetic force of the tactical training rounds, before the assailant then saw that the object was, in reality, an olive-green combat helmet.
She silently cursed herself for falling for such a simple trick. The assailant then marked her weapon towards the pillar where the squad leader took cover.
The assailant held her fire, waiting for the squad leader to pop her head out of her cover.
Suddenly, another helmet was thrown at her by the other Marine. Knowing that it was another diversion, she fired at him instead of the distraction. The man, however, had already taken cover even before the assailant fired her weapon, thus most of the rounds simply spattered red paint onto the concrete pillar instead.
Great, now she had two separate and distant targets to deal with. She directed her rifle back to the pillar where the squad leader was taking refuge.
Then a thought came to her mind, why did he chuck a second helmet at her anyway? He knew that he was not able to trick her twice… unless.
The assailant looked back down at the second helmet that was thrown at her.
It was definitely your average standard CH252 helmet, but the strange thing was what was inside it. There was a yellowish white foam-like substance covering the insides of the helmet and it looked like someone jammed three black canisters into the substance as well.
The assailant tried to figure out what those canisters were, before it hit her like a ton of bricks.
Ah crap.
Those words were the last thing on her mind before she was blinded by the cleverly placed flash bangs.
When the flash bangs were remotely set off by Johnny-come-lately’s detonator, Isabel did what the man instructed her to do. She stuck her rifle around the corner of the pillar and fired her weapon blindly at the general direction of the bio-foam covered blur, making sure she didn’t expose herself along the way.
The assailant fired her weapon wildly in response to the suppressive fire and completely missed Isabel due to the blinding and deafening effects of the flash bangs. The assailant’s rapid movements made her infiltration armor materialize, leaving her wholly exposed to the opaque world.
After exhausting a full mag of TTRs, Isabel pulled back her rifle and began to replenish its ammo. After she reloaded her weapon, she fixed her rifle on the assailant to finish her off only to see Johnny-come-lately was aiming his M6C Magnum Sidearm at the assailant’s back.
A single bang echoed throughout the entire compound, ending the training exercise.
FLUTTERSHY’S COTTAGE, DATE UNKNOWN
Twilight was still trying to grasp what Isabel had told them.
Advanced ranged weaponry, dropping onto the battlefield from orbit with the usage of metal pods, containers that can blind and deafen anypony. The things he would do to get one of those.
Twilight gulped at her last thought.
“S-so you’re a soldier?” asked Twilight.
“Well Duh,” Isabel said bluntly, “haven’t I made it clear to you guys?”
“So, did you kill anypony?” said a voice coming out of not Twilight Sparkle but somepony else. The two unicorns and the human turned to face the direction of the voice to see Fluttershy riddled with anger. “I said, did you kill anypony?” Fluttershy said again grinding her teeth.
“Yes,” Isabel nearly hesitated to speak.
“Pull out that thing on your chest,” Fluttershy gestured at Isabel’s sheath on her chest plate.
Even though Isabel knew the consequences of taking it out in front of the ponies, she cooperated anyway. As Isabel breathed out noisily, she pulled out the weapon. The weapon in Isabel’s hand is revealed to be a twenty-centimeter-long combat knife. In Equestria’s standard, it was considered a short sword.
“While in the water you tried to use that on Rarity, why?” Anger still in Fluttershy’s voice.
Rarity mumbled an “oh my” upon hearing that she could have been a potential victim.
“Hey, what else am I suppose do? I had to force her to yield before things could get nasty!” Isabel bellowed.
This is when Twilight intervened. “You tried to kill Rarity?!”
“There’s a difference!”
“I can’t believe that our dear Rainbow Dash would attempt to harm me in such a way,” Rarity joined in the argument.
“I told you, I’m not the Rainbow Dash that you know!” Isabel spelt out to Rarity.
“Where’s the real Rainbow Dash then?!” Twilight brought herself back into the fray, attempting to gain the upper hoof in the argument.
“How the hell am I supposed to know?!”
The argument between the ponies and human persisted for the next few minutes which felt like hours for one little reluctant creamy pegasus. Fluttershy, now regretting having even brought up the subject, slumped back down and curled herself into a ball. She was until that time angry at this strange being, Isabel, who could have harmed Rarity or worse. She was no stranger to death, burying her animal friends who could no longer keep their little hearts going or more natural causes. But all she wanted now is to stop the fighting before things get out of hoof. The quarrel, however, had nearly come to a conclusion.
Twilight attempted find a loophole in Isabel’s story. “How about the theoretical alternate dimensions you brought up, what made you think you’re in one anyways?”
She couldn’t contain the truth anymore, Isabel’s rage had reached its boiling point. “Because-”
But before she could give Twilight a piece of her mind, knocks on Fluttershy’s door created a cessation amongst the combative arguers. Nopony in the room could undertake such a task of answering whoever was at the other side of the door.
“Sugercube, are ya'll alright?!” a southern drawl shouted in concern for the shy pegasus behind the door.
Then another burst of knocks came on the door, trying to get somepony to answer it. When the owner of the voice was unwilling to wait any longer all the ponies and the human could do was stare as the pony let herself in.
She was an orange pony with a blonde mane and tail wearing a Stetson. She had no appendages showing that she was either a pegasus or a unicorn, the only thing Isabel could describe her as was a ‘regular’ pony.
“I saw one of ‘em flyin’ thingamejig came crashin’ near yer place, so I came runnin’ as fast I-” Her concerned speech came to a halt as soon as her vision came across the object that the black beast was possessing. Isabel took notice of what the orange pony had been staring at. Isabel looked down at her combat knife.
Fuck me.
“Everypony run! Ah’ll hold her off,” she said as she came charging headlong at the dangerous creature.
Isabel’s ODST training kicked in, she flipped her combat knife to a reverse grip and brought herself up to a fighting stance, knocking over the chair she had sat down on earlier.
But before the orange pony could buck the defiling creature, a purple barrier was placed between the cowpony and the soldier, causing her to slam right into the magical wall.
“What in tarnation?” she yelped in surprise. “Twilight, get out of here! That thing is going to rip ya into shreds!”
“Relax, Applejack,” Twilight reassured her as the magical aura around her horn vanished along with the purple shield. “She’s with us.”
“But the thing got its sword out!” Applejack protested, her eyes still narrowed at the beast.
“It’s just a big misunderstanding,” Twilight faced the battle-ready human, “right, Isabel?” The marine simply nodded and placed her combat knife back into her sheath. She then turned to the fallen chair, reverted it back to its original standing position and promptly sat on it, arms crossed.
“Why does it have Dash’s middle name?”
“It’s complicated, I will explain everything later once-” Suddenly, Twilight’s discussion with Applejack was interrupted by the hotheaded dare devil.
“Hold up.” Applejack was fazed to hear the creature talk in Rainbow Dash’s voice, especially without a mouth. “What’s up with the light show?”
“What do you mean?”
“The force shield you seemingly laid?”
“Oh, that? It’s magic!” Twilight’s enthusiastic response seemed like she wanted to show her magical abilities in front of Isabel just to show that ponies are not totally defenseless.
“Riiight,” Isabel said not entirely convinced.
“You don’t have any magic?” This might be the advantage Twilight needed over the human if she tried anything funny.
“Heck, magic isn’t even supposed to exist.”
Isn’t supposed to exist? Twilight’s mind repeated those words.
All the ponies exchange glances at each other.
“Will you give us a moment please?” Twilight asked Isabel.
“Yeah sure, you guys do that.”
With Isabel’s approval, the ponies huddled in a circle.
“Twilight, what the hay is going on here?” said the enquiring cowpony.
Twilight murmured something about how it was possible for Isabel to do half of the things she did without magic before she answered Applejack’s question. “I’ll explain everything once we bring her to the Princesses.”
“How do ya reckon we do that?”
“Simple, I’ll just put a knockout spell on her.”
“Do you not think it is somewhat harsh knocking Rainbow Dash out cold and dragging her all the way over to Canterlot?” Rarity said.
“I have ta agree with Rari-” Applejack was now even more confused by the mention of the aerobatic speedster. “Ya say what now?”
“Applejack darling, did you not notice the dreadful armor she is wearing?”
The apple bucking cowpony took a glance at the mysterious figure, spotting the cutie mark on her shoulder pad before she retracted back at her friends.
“Rainbow’s cutie mark… ”
“Horrifying, is it not? Having delusional memories and being trapped in a body that is not truly yours.” Rarity said with certainty of Dash’s fate.
“Wait what?” Twilight was boggled with Rarity’s idea of Rainbow Dash being turned into a human.
“This is taking us nowhere,” the librarian let out a breath in frustration. “Lets take a vote on whether we should take her to the Princesses or not.”
Twilight turned towards Applejack. “I say that we ought to let her talk.”
Next was Rarity and she had a disappointed expression. “I’m sorry Twilight dear, but it seems that this is one of the few times that I have to agree with Applejack.”
And lastly was Fluttershy who had been silent for the most part. “I… umm.”
“So, what is it going to be?” Twilight demanded.
“I think we should let Isabel stay.”
“What?!” Twilight said in disbelief. “Fluttershy, you were mad at Isabel a moment ago and now you are rooting for her?”
“I’m- I’m sorry, she mentioned about being a soldier and the knife and…” Fluttershy was about to burst into tears before Rarity stepped in to soothe her sorrow.
“It’s okay Fluttershy, I am sure Rainbow Dash did not mean to do it.” Rarity’s persuasion seemed to relax the Pegasus.
“I guess it’s settled then. We’ll listen what she has ta say.” Applejack said.
Everypony turned back to the Human to see her fiddling with a strange silver curved object.
When Isabel saw that the ponies were done with their convention. She placed the object back into one of the bags. “You guys done?”
The ponies nodded with the exception of the purple librarian who simply gruffed.
“Okay, as soon as we landed…”
HARVEST, FEBRUARY 23, 2525 (MILITARY CALENDAR)
Rainbow Dash slowly regained her senses. There was static interference in her visor and multiple cracks in her pod's windows. The monitors that were still working were filled with static.
The static interference vanished in her visor. Rainbow Dash scanned through the pod’s glass to find that her drop pod had landed her into a dense forest. She took a glance at her pod to see if her equipment was still attached to their respective positions. Thankfully, they were still in place.
She still had the assault rifle that Deen gave to her, an integrated sound suppressor and muzzle brake SOCOM pistol, and a couple of frag grenades. Pleased with her armaments, Rainbow Dash activated the explosive bolts, leaving a satisfying boom as the HEV's hatch burst outwards.
Her boots took their first steps out of the titanium pod and onto the crunchy dead leaves. She trained her rifle in search of the enemy only to find the sound of wind breezing off her armor and heavy breathing within her own helmet.
Sighting the non-existent threat, she lowered her rifle and attempted to contact the rest of her teammates.
“Hello? This is Private First Class Isabel Miles to Echo Team, please respond if you receive, over,” she said over the radio.
“This is Corporal Deen Kaleel, are you alright?” She heard him crackled over the receiver due to the reception.
“Yeah I’m good, what about you, Deen?”
“Oh, well, it could have been better…”
“Meaning?” Dash questioned.
“We’ve lost two of our guys to one of those aliens. Apparently they have some kind of agglutinant spherical explosive composed of, my guess is, plasma and has sophisticated internal mechanisms that even I could not apprehend.”
His complex and intellectual exchange, unfortunately, was not able to penetrate Dash’s dense skull. “What the hell are you talking about?”
She was rewarded with a sigh from Deen. “The ETs have sticky grenades, so if you see anything sparkly and blue, don’t get in its way. The grenade detonated when one of us tried to pull the explosive off his chest.”
“So who’s left?” Rainbow Dash said, dismayed to hear that they already lost two ODSTs.
“Just you, me and the Sarge.”
“Damn it, I thought that old man would finally get what’s coming to him.”
“You know he's listening to this, right?”
Dash’s eyes widened. “Wait what?! Sir I didn’t mean to-”
Deen chortled at Dash’s gullible fright at the mention of the non-commissioned officer tuning on their frequency.
“I’m just kidding Dash, I’ve isolated this transmission just between you and me, besides Sarge is too busy taking potshots at some diminutive looking ETs, most likely just cannon fodder by the looks of it.” And as if on cue, two digestive shots of a M392 Designated Marksman Rifle (DMR) crackled through Deen’s side of the receiver and a cheerful cry from the sergeant rang afterward.
Rainbow Dash’s distress instantly turned into annoyance. “Deen, when I get my hands on you I’ll-”
“You’ll what, kick my blueberries?”
“That’s exactly what I’ll do!”
“If you say so Dash, I hope you don’t mind walking twelve miles if you’d like to do so.” Deen said cheerfully.
“What?”
“That’s what I said, you’ve crashed twelve miles off course from our original objective.”
“Great…” she said in an irritated tone.
“Hey, come on, look at the bright side, Sarge authorized us to go weapons hot a couple of hours ago so now you can shoot anything that moves, well except for me of course.”
“Very funny,” Rainbow Dash deadpanned, “and what do you mean by a couple of hours?”
There was a moment of silence before Deen spoke again. “Hey Dash, may I suggest looking up?”
She complied and what she saw made her murmur a curse. The sun was steadily rising from the distance indicating that it was nearly dawn. She then checked her Heads Up Display (HUD) in her helmet’s visor to see how long she had been unconscious. It turned out she had been out cold for several hours.
“You missed a lot of action Dash, the Sarge and I took out a platoon of those little rascals, Sarge says that you missed all the fun too. We had to fall back though after they brought out the cavalry. It seems they have, let make it simple for you, gorillas.”
“You’re kidding, right?” Dash said, not believing what he had told her.
“I only kid’ when it’s appropriate, Dash.” Deen made it clear to her. “But other than that, they seem to resemble a cross between a large ape and a rhinoceros, very fascinating extraterrestrials indeed.”
Rainbow Dash cracked a smile. “Whatever floats your boat, egghead.”
“Dash, when are you going to stop calling me an egghead?”
“Until you stop being one,” she replied gleefully.
Deen heaved a sigh. “Well anyways, we’re held up in a hotel not far from the seventh space elevator, waiting for the militia to recapture the Tiara space station. Once they’re done with that we’ll call in the pelican for evac, I suggest you should find your own holdout. We’ll pick you up until then.”
“I don’t know if you can see this but I’m smack in the middle of a forest.”
“Hold on, let me see your position’s coordinates.”
After a full minute of only the sounds of leaves being blown by the wind, Deen responded back.
“Alright, I’ll send you a waypoint that will lead you straight to a farmstead not far from there.” A cyan diamond navigation point and a distance indicator, in meters, showing how far away the waypoint was from her position flashed on Dash’s visor.
“I don’t think a cowshed would be very protective,” she flippantly said.
“It’s either that or the trees, your choice.”
“Fine,” she said in an annoyed tone.
“It’s good to hear some rationality in you, Dash. And remember what I said.”
She recollected what Deen had told her earlier. “Avoid giant monkeys and sticky blue balls of death, gotcha.”
“Good, I’ll see you in a few, Deen out.” Deen cut off the signal.
After spectating her surroundings once more, Rainbow Dash began her jog to the designated route that was given to her.
Rainbow Dash kept her pace and her rifle directed as she trekked through the countless number of trees and trod on the dead leaves underneath her feet. The number of trees was staggering, they were organized in a lined fashion and it looked as if the forest could go on forever.
Her journey was about to end though, Rainbow Dash’s nav point showed that she was less than four hundred feet from the objective.
Then suddenly she was assaulted by a round object dwelling on her helmet. Startled, she shrieked in fear when she thought of the clingy grenade that Deen had told her about. She removed her helmet and threw it as far as she could. Rainbow Dash then ran behind one of the trees to shield herself from the blast.
And then she waited for the non-existing detonation of the equally non-existing grenade. A considerable amount of time later, Rainbow Dash peeked around the tree’s trunk.
Her helmet was lying on the decayed leaves and next to it was an unevenly round red object. She regained her footing and strolled to the mysterious object. Dash calmly picked it up and studied the object, studying its details.
She then took a bite of it.
“Just an apple,” she said to no one in particular while chomping the juicy apple.
Dash eyed her surroundings to see a number of apples attached to the trees’ branches.
She swallowed the grinded mush of the bitten apple. “I knew that,” she swayed herself.
Throwing away her unfinished snack, she picked up her helmet and positioned it back onto her head. Rainbow Dash was glad that she didn’t damage the faceplate, but the truth was that she essentially needed to exert a force stronger than a swinging titanium baseball bat to crack the resilient glass-like material.
Rainbow Dash resumed her trek. Later, while on her way she found a dirt path leading to the farm. So she marched along the pathway knowing that she was not far now.
Upon reaching the farm’s entrance, Rainbow Dash’s HUD flashed a three worded text displaying the property’s name.
>> Location: Sweet Apple Acres
FLUTTERSHY’S COTTAGE, DATE UNKNOWN
“Wait one gosh darn minute, yer saying that mah home on some alien planet?” Applejack said.
Twilight and Isabel had already told Applejack most of the details of Isabel’s story earlier but the mention of the Apple’s farm on entirely different world had raised a few eyebrows.
“Yes,” Isabel said, “wait no you’re Jack from this universe and the Jack I know is from another so it’s not the same.”
Isabel gave out a short pause before realizing what the cowpony had just said. “Hold on, did you just say that Sweet Apple Acres is like right here, like, right now?”
“I did.” Applejack answered Isabel’s question.
“Oh god, she’d been fighting for so long…” Rainbow Dash muttered softly.
Rarity overheard Isabel’s near unintelligible words. “I’m sorry, did you say something darling?”
“Nothing,” It was obviously a lie, “everything’s fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah I’m fine,” she retorted. “Can I just get on with the story?”
“Whatever makes you happy, dearie.”
Isabel took a moments pause and released the lungful of air she had been holding before carrying on with her tale.
SWEET APPLE ACRES, HARVEST, FEBRUARY 23, 2525 (MILITARY CALENDAR)
The rainbow-helmeted orbital trooper sauntered on the footpath as she observed the scene around her. The landscape was filled with dead mottled gray and brown stumpy creatures with pointy packs of different colors on their backs; the carcasses’ cobalt blood gave out a metallic scent as it entered the trooper’s nose receptors.
“Yo Deen,” Dash patched her through to Deen’s receiver.
“What’s up?”
“I think I found your buddies.”
“Come again?”
“Short, stubby, pointy backpacks,” she said straightforwardly.
“Ah the methane breathers or at least I think that’s the compound they respire through the containers on their backs.”
“Deen.”
“It’s amusing to see their oversized forearms supporting them to move in a similar manner to chimpanzees.”
“Deen…”
“Hey, have you noticed that their blood is blue? Probably due to high copper content. It could also be possible that they’re somehow related to crustaceans or-”
“Deen!”
“Oh! Ugh, sorry about that. Force of habit I guess.”
“Uh-huh, did you guys pass through here or what?” Dash said as she gently kicked one of the lifeless grey aliens’ bodies, checking whether it was indeed dead.
“Wait, you mean the farmhouse?”
Dash’s pupil’s dilated at that very moment. Her muscles tensed and her body went to a crouch position as she leveled her assault rifle, its barrel swinging left and right in search for its concealed target.
When Dash did not respond to his last statement, Deen had already guessed that whatever killed those aliens might still be in her vicinity.
“Relax Dash. Whoever killed them could be friendly.”
“Or they could be hostiles and this might as well be a trap for all I care,” she said dryly.
“Okay there’s that, but either way you should approach the farmhouse with caution.”
Dash looked up ahead and saw what she was searching for, the farm house that Deen had spoken of. Right beside the farmstead was a ruby red barn, a coup occupied with lifeless chickens, and a couple of animal pens which is filled with numerous farm animals that suffered the same fate as the flightless farm chickens.
Isabel gazed at the homestead, looking for any signs of life. The only thing she saw was darkness within the structure, indicating that either the resident had already left the premises or remaining hostile alien forces had set up an ambush and were now waiting for the right moment to ensnarement the ODST.
“Dash, the ONI officer just called in. The Militia are about to recapture the Tiara and we’ve got orders to move out now. Looks like we’re going home earlier than expected.”
Before she could ask about the ONI officer, she heard distant cracks in the sky and felt the soft rumble beneath her feet. Dash turned to the source of the disturbance only to see one of Harvest’s space elevators in the far distance slightly bending off course from its original position.
“Wha-” It was the only thing Deen could say before loud snaps were heard miles around as the soaring tower began its screeching collapse.
“Deen!” Dash cried through her receiver.
“Get to shelter, now!” he ordered.
Rainbow Dash could not tell whether he was ordering her or possibly the people around him. Whomever he ordered though, Isabel followed them and made her way to the farmhouse.
After she reached the homestead, she leaned on its door and watched the destruction unfolding in front of her. The space elevator’s long carbon nanofiber thread burned through the atmosphere, creating a long red flaming spectacle of devastation across the yellow sky. The starting ends of the thread finally came down screeching as it began to wrap around the planet.
Dash kept observing the space elevator to see the base of the structure was somewhat intact. The enormous thread had nearly crushed one third of the platform and smoke began to appear around it. There was numerous metal debris all around the platform; debris that used to uphold the tether.
“Deen?” Dash asked, partially expected to receive only static.
Which it did for a moment, before she heard someone picked up Deen’s helmet. “It will take more than forty miles of falling metal to stop this sergeant!” he shouted loud enough for the helmet’s receiver to pick up his voice.
“Good to hear you’re still kicking Sarge. How’s Deen?”
“Corporal, Miles wants to talk with you!”
She heard the helmet being tossed, whishing through the air and landing on top of the palms of someone’s hands. Next was the sound of the helmet being sealed in somebody’s head before a familiar voice reached Isabel’s ears.
“Sup,” Deen calmly said, sounding like the fiery space tether had never crashed over his head in the first place.
“Sup? Sup?!” Rainbow Dash’s fury burned through the receiver. “After nearly getting killed by a tumbling space elevator, all you could say is sup?! I should have been there, I could have-”
“And do what? Use your hidden inner super strength to stabilize a seventy-thousand-kilometer tall space elevator?”
The large silver haze began covering the platform as tiny flakes of ash descended from the firmament within and around the ruin’s vicinity.
“Okay I’m sorry about that, but there’s nothing you could have done. You’re miles away from where we were and there’s no way you could have stopped the lift from falling.” There was some sympathy in his voice, but only just .
“Dash, the pelican will arrive shortly and that farmhouse you’re at sounds pretty comfy right about now.”
“Is that a suggestion or an order?”
“It’s an order, Dash. The elevator’s destruction was the biggest bonfire on this planet’s history and most likely caused every ET within a hundred clicks to start heading in our direction. So bunker up ‘til we get there, alright? Deen, out.” Deen clicked off his helmet’s receiver, ending the conversation.
With no other options, Dash placed herself beside the farmhouse’s door preparing to breach inside. She activated her helmet’s Visual Intelligence System, Reconnaissance’s (VISR) low vision enhancement feature, causing her eyes to wince marginally due to daytime-lighting she was in but she quickly regained her focus. She kicked down the door, producing a loud thump and moved into wholly pitch black room.
The only thing Isabel saw inside after entering was complete darkness. Before she figured that her VISR was busted, her prophecy of a possible ambush had come true.
The room’s inbuilt ceiling luminosities turned on without warning and a single bubbly voice cheered out afterwards.
“SURPRISE!”
Dash’s VISR magically decided to start working and promptly introduced her vision to the solid white wall of blindness due to amplified effects of both the room’s lighting and the low vision enhancement feature of her VISR.
The sudden sightlessness caused her to accidently send out a burst of her assault rifle. Each round landing directly on all three of the room’s ceiling illuminations. The last thing before the darkness consumed Rainbow Dash’s vision again was a bright flash of pink.
CAMP RÉVOLUTION CAFETERIA, NEW PARIS, MARS, JANUARY 21, 2524 (MILITARY CALENDAR)
The camp mess hall was bustling with Marines and their fellow trainees. Hungry soldiers formed a line at the food-serving counter, each of them waiting for the cue to move up as their stomachs ached for sustenance. Meanwhile, the Marines who had already queued earlier and taken their trays were sitting at their tables. Some of them ate a quick meal and quietly left the premises, while others would make small talk about their day alongside their friends as they ate.
The sliding door leading to the mess hall automatically opened to reveal Isabel in her trainee uniform. Once she stepped into the cafeteria, she spotted a recruit waving at her, greeting Isabel to the table she was sitting at. The woman had tiffany blue colored hair, turquoise eyes and a somewhat short haircut. Once Isabel got closer, she saw that the woman was with her fellow recruits.
“How’s your chest, Uteki?” said Isabel.
Upon hearing this, Uteki looked down at her bruised rib and gently rubbed it. “The corpsman said I shouldn’t move too much but he did give me the rest of the day off for it, so it isn’t so bad.”
During the exercise, she had exposed herself so that she might be able to take the shot; thinking that if she was able to take down the sniper before she had reloaded, she would have ended the shootout.
She then looked up at Isabel with a grin. “Enough about me, what about you, Miss Helljumper?”
The athletic Marine’s ego had caught up to her, bringing up a wolfish grin on her face. She casually sat down next to Uteki and said, “Oh nothing.” She then leaned slightly closer to the woman before shouting the greatest thing that could have happened to her military career, “Except that I got invited to the most awesome military academy out of the entire Inner Colonies!”
Isabel pulled out her COM pad and passed it to Uteki. The woman started scanning through the pad’s screen, reading every word on it. “For your outstanding performance on the course…” She continued reading the details until she nearly shot up from her seat when she read the last line, “You have been invited to the Reach Marine Military Academy?!” Uteki shouted in surprise. Isabel simply rested both of her hands behind her head and closed her eyes, basking in her own pride while slightly leaning on the table’s bench in response. “Wow, this is amazing! I don’t know what to say.”
One of the recruits in front of Uteki cleared his throat. She then looked over to the source of the interjection to see that everyone on the table, with the exception of Isabel, was gazing at her, hinting her of a particular subject the rest of the Marines had been talking about earlier before Isabel’s arrival.
“Actually, I think I do.” She looked back at Isabel with a frown. “What happened back there at the Complex, who shot us?”
Isabel’s eyes shot open in surprise, and she slowly brought her arms down to rest on the table. “I’m not sure, it was happening so fast. All I remember is when after the sniper went limp I could see through her, like she was invisible or something.”
“So what, you think they’re making some kind of stealth suit?” asked one of the trainees.
“It’s got something to do with ONI, I can feel it,” a Marine dressed in full body gear whispered.
Another recruit overheard what the Marine said and replied, “maybe, I guess. The Insurrectionists are getting stronger every day and the United Earth Government is getting pretty desperate, at this rate they’ll do anything to stop it.”
Everyone on the table turned toward Isabel, looking for more answers.
“What? I don’t have the slightest idea what’s going on!”
Meanwhile, Uteki glanced surreptitiously out of the corner of her eyes at someone that caught her interest. “No arguments there, but I know who does.”
Uteki gestured at the far end of the cafeteria, directing the group’s eyes to a single man sitting by himself at one of the officers’ table. He was drinking down a glass full of vanilla milkshake while wearing a pair of dark silvery tactical glasses.
“Isn’t that the new guy?” said a recruit.
“He’s going to get in trouble for sure if any of the officers here catches him sitting there.”
Silence was in the air between the Marines at the table after that.
But the silence was soon broken by another trainee. “You think the new guy is maybe, I don’t know, an ONI agent?”
This had intrigued the recruit next to him. “Whoa, I think you're onto something. I mean, if what Isabel said was true then the whole training run was just to test an experimental prototype, and we were the freakin’ guinea pigs.”
Uteki rolled her eyes. “Still doesn’t explain why he could be a spook.”
“Don’t you see? He just appeared out of nowhere just as we were about to leave for the course, then somehow this guy knew what to bring and what to expect.” The man explained with utmost certainty, “Not to mention he’s just sitting there, alone, all mysterious like!”
Thar was when Uteki introduced her palm to her face. “Shut up, Mel. Nobody wants to hear your bull.”
“I’m telling you, he’s a bloody spy!”
“You guys want your answer? Fine, just shut your traps after this!” Isabel, fed up with the constant babbling, arose from the bench and started walking towards the enigmatic man.
But all of a sudden Isabel was stopped by a single yank on the collar of her shirt. “Easy there, kid.” Isabel turned around, catching a glimpse of the armored Marine who was at the table previously. “What do you think you're doing?”
“What do think I’m doing?! I’m gonna find some answers from this guy so that I can put a stop to all of this bitching, and get back to how I got invited to the most badass academy out there because of my sheer awesomeness!” She smacked the Marine’s arm off and carried on marching toward the officer’s table.
A man sat alone on the comfy soft seat, appreciating his delicious vanilla milkshake with each sip. And right now, he was enjoying his solitude. Nobody to interact with and no one to disturb him, which was the only thing he wanted right now, just peace and quiet.
The officer’s table was truly the best place to ward off any nosy trainees. True, the officers themselves might barge in and toss him off the seat right onto the cold floor, but not after being discharged for insubordination. And the base commander’s order to all the officers in the camp not to touch him reinforced that as well, so there was not a lot to worry about.
Well, there was still a chance someone with a curiosity more than a month old kitten might turn up at the officer’s table and try to talk to him, but that was very unlikely. Whoever walked up to him right now was either extraordinarily brave or incredibly—
“Hey you, yeah that’s right, you!”
— Stupid.
The man took a quick glance at the direction of the shout. He sighed and went back to sipping his milkshake as the technicolor-haired woman marched toward him.
The woman soon found herself standing over the mysterious man. “Here’s the deal, I don’t usually do this and I’m sure as hell you don’t too, but I need to ask you some questions or else my friends over there won’t stop yapping.” She gestured to the table full of Marines staring at both of them.
The man took a short peek over where the woman gestured, only to go back to his ongoing drinking of his milkshake.
“Hey, I’m talking to you!” the woman bawled.
He just kept on sipping, completely ignoring the nuisance who was attempting to strike the foundations of his solace.
“Dude, are you even listening?!” she bawled again.
Frustrated, the woman attempted to grab hold of the man’s shoulder to gain his attention, only to have her wrist swiftly clutched by the man’s free hand. He looked up and fixed his eyes on her behind his silvery tactical glasses.
He let out a low growl before loosening his grip, allowing the woman to yank away her arm.
“Yesh, no need to make fuss about it.” She rubbed her wrist, “But this doesn’t mean I will stop before I get what I want!”
Again, the man ignored the woman and continued drinking.
“Alright fine, but I want those answers when I get back,” she mumbled.
She left the officer’s table, leaving the mystery man alone for now.
Meanwhile, the Marine had returned to the table. He turned to face the rest of the group who were observing Isabel’s actions.
“What the hell is she doing now?” a recruit asked.
“She’s queuing up at the counter,” Uteki replied.
“So that’s it, a minute with the guy and now she’s hungry?”
“When a girl’s gotta eat, a girl’s gotta eat I guess,” said Mel.
“Wait, does that mean she just quit?”
“No son, she hasn’t given up on him yet. I haven’t known her for too long but I know Isabel’s kind. She’s the type who has a shorter attention span than a four year old when it comes to things like puzzles or waiting in line,” –a tomboyish shout was heard somewhere between the lineup near the counter– “but she can wait for eons when people she cares are involved. Especially the ones who had saved her ass and helped her become an ODST,” the Marine said.
“So why is she at the counter getting some chow if and not with the new guy?”
“Just wait and see, kid.”
And so they did.
After an agonizing 3 minutes of waiting, Isabel finally got what she wanted and was now returning to the shadowy man’s table.
The woman placed her tray on her end of the table in front of the man, determination plastered on her face.
“Now then, you’re going to tell me what I want and you better make it quick.” She said as she sat at her end of the table.
And yet again he simply sat there, drinking his beverage.
“So that’s it, you’re gonna just sit still there like some jerkwad all day?”
The only reply she received was the man slurping his vanilla milkshake.
“Come on dude, I just want to get this over with.”
The woman’s efforts to make the man talk felt like trying to beat down the Great Pyramid with her bare fists.
“Geez fine, we’ll do it your way then.”
The woman then grabbed a hold of a canned beverage off her tray and pressed a black button on the bottom surface of the can, causing a valve that extend through the base of the can to release high-pressured CO2 gas in a cylindrical chamber from the bottom of the can and into the air. The gas now expanded, it soon absorbed the heat from the surrounding liquid, lowering the temperature and causing the can to instantly cool itself.
After pulling the can’s tab, she gulped down the contents of the instant self-chilling drink, appreciating the wonders of today’s technology.
Multiple eyes were staring at Isabel and the proclaimed ONI Agent, wondering what would happen next.
The trainee yawned. “They’re just sitting there,” he exclaimed.
“Yup, this is getting boring, I’m going back to the barracks.”
“Same, just finished eating anyway, see you later guys.”
“Hey, wait up!”
Saying their goodbyes, the recruits picked up their trays and left the three occupants of the table, the heavily-built Marine, the outlandishly colored hair and eyes girl Uteki, and the unusually bizarre rookie Mel.
“Right, that’s my cue,” the armored Marine said, “need to train up those wimps at RMMA.”
“Wait, you work at the same academy Isabel is going?!” Uteki asked.
The Marine nodded.
“Why are you here instead of RMMA?”
“Officially, I’m here to supervise Camp Revolution’s officers. Unofficially, I’m here to keep my eyes on Kaleel if things go out of control.”
“Who?” Uteki raised an eyebrow.
The Marine then pointed at the man at the officer’s table nonchalantly.
“You know him? Why didn’t you tell us earlier?”
“He’s… complicated.”
Uteki glowered at the Marine. “Try me.”
“Look here missy, when I was assigned to the academy I was also told to look out for the boy. At first, I didn’t care why and they didn’t care how I protected him. As long he’s safe, he’s safe. But the longer I looked after him, the more protective he became of his agendas to the point he would avoid me whenever possible.”
“Why are you leaving if your job is to protect the guy?”
“He can take care of himself every now and then. Truth to be told, I’ve more stopped him from making trouble than stopping trouble coming to him. Even now, he thinks of me as dead weight.”
“Trouble, you mean like drunken brawls?”
“No, nothing like that, he isn’t that kind of person.”
“But you said trouble, right?”
The marine sighed. “Yes, whenever he gets the chance to leave the academy for… vacations, he lets himself loose and hunts down every criminal and insurrectionist scum he can find.”
“Alright, he’s a vigilante, so what? It can’t be that bad.”
“You heard about the crime rate suddenly dropping by twenty-four percent on the Atlas Moons, and the several Insurrectionist camps that were discovered and destroyed on the very same moons last week?”
“Yeah,” she nodded
“That was him.”
Astounded, she turned toward the man at the officer’s table. “This… Kaleel guy just blows up rebel bases, on his free time, all by himself?”
“That’s the problem, no one could have done it without some kind of help.”
“Your point?”
“He’s working for ONI.”
“Now you’re just talking like Mel over here.”
“Hey!” Mel protested, but the pair ignored him.
“Hold on there missy, unlike you I don’t fuck around with things I shouldn’t, but the boy… there’s something about him. Because the biggest question on my mind right now is: If he’s a Spook, then what does he need my protection for? He can already kill a man in a hundred different ways, and me… well, I’m just an old timer who’s seen one too many battles in his lifetime.”
There was stillness in the air. Neither the girl nor the flamboyant rookie replied to the old Marine’s words.
“I better leave,” the old veteran said, knowing that the two had heard enough.
And again there was silence. Well until the showoff Mel broke it that is. “So, it’s just you and me then, huh?”
“Nope, just you. Good luck on stalking those two.” And with that, Uteki left the table, leaving the poor trainee to his business.
A full minute went by as Mel sat there in utter silence. He was watching the pair at the Officer’s Table stare down at each other but he also had a bored look on his face, like he had already seen this happen nearly a thousand times. And with that he promptly left the scene, but not before he muttered something.
“Nah, I know what’s going to happen next.”
The cafeteria practically became a ghost town after nearly an hour had passed, leaving only the shadowy man and the tomboyish woman alone, with the exception of a janitor who was cleaning the cafeteria’s flooring.
The rainbow-haired woman who had an irritated expression long ago was too weary to preserve her appearance and now replaced it with an uninterested look, plastering it clearly across her entire face.
With her meal now consumed, her eyes began to stare at the empty can she had finished drinking long ago. She soon found herself toying with the canned beverage, directing the canister aimlessly around the table with her index finger.
“You are aware that you no longer need to stay here, correct?”
The woman nearly jolted up in surprise by the unexpected sound of a masculine voice, accidentally triggering the canister’s descent onto the table’s surface on its side. She then looked up to see the man in front of her had his hand holding his tactical glasses slightly down on his nose, revealing his golden eyes.
Regaining herself, she acted as if she had not been startled and proceeded to slouch down and cross her arms in an uncaring and lazy matter.
“Yeah but the guys will be in the barracks waiting for answers when I get back,” she responded back.
“Right.” He readjusted his glasses, covering his eyes from the world once again.
Another awkward silence fell upon the cafeteria, and especially between the two Marines, the overall stillness only being disturbed by the sound of the floor being swept by the janitor.
It nearly took a full minute before the man brought up another question.
“Have we met before?”
Upon hearing this, the woman replied, “You never heard about me? Well, let me introduce myself. I’m Isabel Miles, fastest runner in all of the colonies! You probably didn’t recognize me back at the Complex, which you should have, but I’ll let it slide this time.”
“Uh-huh,” he said while scratching his somewhat shaven chin.
“Oh, and thanks for the save back there, but really I totally could have handled it on my own.”
“No, I mean, had we ever seen each other before that?”
Isabel leaned in slightly to take a better look at the man.
At first glance he looked young, perhaps within his early 20s. He also had a slightly bigger than an average body build, but only just. His size was not something to be impressed or intimidated by, really. His skin tone, though, was quite fair, but they soon looked paler when it reached down the tips of his fingers but that was actually the lighting in the cafeteria causing it.
Even with his glasses on, Isabel could see his 5 o’clock shadow, causing one-third of his face with his re-growing beard to have a somewhat darker skin tone. Next was his chocolate brown hair which was simple really, it was cut short and shaggy but also had a clean look in a way.
Then there were his eyes. Well, Isabel couldn’t completely see them due to the gray-tinted tactical glasses he was wearing, but she distinctly remembered that his eyes were gold, and they were a rather nice kind of gold, because his iris pigment was much brighter than others. It was like those people with blue eyes, very bright and very beautiful. Somewhere within the confines of her mind, she wanted to see those eyes again. Something about his eyes made Isabel, for the most part, calm.
“You alright ma’am?”
Knocked out of her trance, Isabel replied, “Yeah, no. Haven’t seen you before.”
“O-kay, next question. Why are your eyes changing?”
“Uh, 'scuse me?”
“Your iris pigment, they’ve changed color. During the course your eyes were… crimson red I believe, and now they’re violet.”
“Oh that? Yeah they change on random at times. Mostly red, purple, or pink. But they usually jumble up and go all technicolor on me.”
“Interesting… but that’s not normal, is it?”
“Well no.” Isabel scratched her neck.
“Care to explain?”
“All right, have you heard about Voltech?”
“A bio-engineering corporation which was shut down in the year twenty-five-fifteen after an incident that left a large number of children in nearly all the colonies to develop genetic dysfunctions.”
“Egghead,” she whispered.
“I’m sorry, could you reprise that?”
“Nothing,” she lied. “So, you heard about the accident?”
“Yes, but I like a refresher from someone else once in awhile.”
“Hmph, fine, but you better answer my questions after this,” she said in annoyance.
He only glared at her, waiting for her to continue.
“I’ll take that as a yes. So, when I was eight there was this big new thing about this reverse genetic engineering candy that can temporarily change your hair and eye color for a day.”
“The Sassafras,” the man pointed out the sweet’s alias.
“Right, the Sassafras. They were the hit with all the colonies, well until one day every kid who had taken the thing didn’t change back to what they were suppose to look, and even a couple of them had side effects. Some were good and others… not so.”
“Let me guess, you took the dangerous gene-manipulating drug when it was hip and trendy.”
“Kinda. A kid gave me his coupon code to a contest to win a one of a kind Rainbow Sassafras after I saved his life, which was of course awesome of me. By now I’m sure you know who won the prize.”
“Oh gee, I don’t know, your boyfriend perhaps?” he said sarcastically but retained his blank appearance.
She returned the favor by letting out a sarcastic laugh of her own. “Ha, very funny.”
“Okay, as you were saying,” He said, wanting to continue with the subject.
“Right, so, after taking the Sassafras, it took a whole hour to completely change my hair to what you see today.” She showed the man her perfectly vertical rainbow striped hair by gently tugging a strand of it down with her two fingers.
“And I suppose those multicolored irises came from the Sassafras’ side effects.”
“Yup, it’s pretty awesome actually. And if I focus hard enough I can change it to any color I want. How lucky was I?!”
“Yeah, lucky you,” he said again with an expressionless face but this time with a slight angered tone.
“Ugh, sorry man, did something happen to you?”
“No, not to me, my cousin.”
“What happened to your cousin?”
“She bought a Sassafras, ate the damn thing, and became wall-eyed after an hour!”
“Whoa, that’s-” Was all she could say before the man interrupted her.
“Then we brought her to the nearest hospital only to be told that it was permanent for life!”
“I-”
“All because she wanted to have golden eyes just like mine.” He ended his sudden outburst with a sigh.
There was a moment of silence before Isabel whispered, “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.”
Again there was stillness in the air, the two only replied in silence to one another.
“So, that friend of yours with the tiffany blue hair. She took the drug as well?” He said, breaking the awkward silence.
“You mean Uteki? Yeah, she did. Her eyes changed color too.”
“Hmm, that’s an interesting name. Uteki, Japanese for Raindrops.”
“Ack, freaking eggheads.” Isabel grunted upon hearing the man’s vibrant intellect.
Upon hearing the woman’s gabble, the man raised an eyebrow.
“Are you sure we haven’t met?” he said, intrigued by Isabel’s choice of words. They sounded rather familiar to him but he simply could not determine where he had heard it before.
“Okay, stop!” She slammed the table with her palm, causing the man to lift his already raised eyebrow even higher. “Can we just answer my questions now?”
“Technically, I did not agree to answer your questions.”
Isabel was dumbfounded, had he just played her?
“Oh you got to be kid-”
“But okay, shoot.”
“What?”
“You gained my complete and ample attention, ma’am. I will answer to any requests for information you desire. So I will say this again: Shoot.”
Regaining her senses, Isabel began shifting her head left to right, making sure nobody was tuning in. She gave herself the all clear, with the exception of the janitor, and began her first question.
“Alright, first thing I want to know is: are you a spy?”
“Hmm, what kind of spy?” The man enquired.
“Come on, you know what I’m talking about!”
“Do you?”
“For crying out loud,” she roared. “Are you working for ONI?”
“You mean the Office of Naval Intelligence? The intelligence service division of the UNSC that conducts counter-espionage and propaganda across United Earth Government controlled space?”
“Stop stalling and tell me already!”
“Yes,” he said with a completely straight-face.
Isabel at this point was stunned. He had just said what she wanted to hear, but she was having difficulty accepting the man’s straightforward answer.
“Or at least used to,” He continued.
“You’re bluffing…”
“Well, I did eradicate sixteen Insurrectionist bases on the Atlas Moons last week, which did require some assistance from ONI, and I also eliminated a dozen crime lords while I was at it, but that was because I felt like it.”
“You destroyed sixteen insurrection bases because you felt like it?”
“Mmhmm,” he confirmed his statement.
Then the silence once again returned to the cafeteria. She simply could not believe it, a spook was sitting right there, having a conversation with her of all people! This was unbelievable, and coming from the hard-to-impress daredevil herself, this was truly awesome.
But then a thought came to Isabel’s mind, explaining to her what was really happening in front of her.
“I get it now.”
“I’m sorry?”
“You’re hilarious, you know that?!” She laughed. “And to think you’re some kind of super spy.”
“I don’t quite follow, ma’am.”
“You were being sarcastic, weren’t you?”
He kept his mouth zipped, but retained his emotionless expression.
“I knew it! You’re just like the rest of them. Bah, you guys and your need to impress me. Well sorry buddy but this girl isn’t for sale.”
“Whatever you say ma’am.”
“Don’t pretend you’re not interested in me, and especially these.”
She then pointed down at her chest right in front of the man’s eyes. The man then did something Isabel had not expected.
He cringed.
During the entire exchange between the pair the man never smiled, frowned or showed any reaction for that matter, but the mere suggestion of Isabel’s breasts had caught him off guard.
“I think I better go, ma’am.” He then stood up and started walking away from the woman.
She could have let him leave and end their conversation there, but there was an aching feeling in her heart, a feeling that she was about to lose something once again which she had lost long ago.
Almost like she had been possessed, Isabel began rising up from her side of the table and moved toward the man.
“No, wait!”
He stopped and turned towards Isabel standing in front of him, “What?”
“I-I’m sorry.”
“… Go on.”
“I sorta, maybe, perhaps, ugh… overacted there. And I’d just like to say sorry.”
“Hmm, I see. I accept your apology. I suppose there was some kind of misunderstanding there.”
“Yeah, let’s try this again, what do ya say?”
“Hmm, seems fair enough.” He shrugged.
“Okay. Hi there, the name’s Isabel Miles, fastest runner in all the colonies and soon to be Helljumper! Have I ever told you that?”
“Heh, well my name is Deen Kaleel, full-blown genius and ODST officer in training.”
“Let’s just hope I don’t get to be under your command one day.”
Isabel gave out a hearty laugh at her own joke while Deen simply smiled.
After Isabel let a mouthful of air return into her lungs once she had halted her laughing, she noticed that Deen looked rather pleased with himself.
“Hey Deen.”
“Hmm?”
“Back at The Complex when we were at the doors, you patted me on the back and smiled, why?”
“You were under pressure, ma’am. The most effective course to remove the liability was to provide you with reinsurance.”
She scratched behind her head. “Ugh, right, thanks I guess.”
“You’re welcome ma’am.”
“Deen, another thing I gotta ask you.”
“Yes ma’am?”
“Can you stop calling me ma’am? You’re making me sound old.”
“Yes ma- yes Miss Miles.”
“Cool man. Mind if I ask you something else?”
“Sure.”
“That biofoam you had in your pack when we were at the Complex, it wasn’t normal biofoam was it?”
“Sorry, that’s classified.”
“And the invisible woman?”
“Classified.”
Isabel paused.
“Wait, are you playing games with me again?!”
“No Miss Miles, all the things of interest you have just said are top secret and I’m not allowed to disclose them in any way.”
“Dude, stop it! I thought we agreed not to do this!”
“Yes we did Miss Miles.”
“Hell, even your sarcasm is getting lame!”
“Miles, are you by any chance in denial of my former occupation?”
“No!”
“If you are not in denial then you wouldn’t be shouting.”
“What?!” she shouted. “Forget it, I shouldn’t be wasting my time with you! I got better things to do, like getting ready for Reach’s Marine Military Academy!”
Angered by the man’s persistence, she pushed Deen away and marched toward the exit. But as she walked away, she could hear the man returning to the officer’s table, and strangely enough she also heard the footsteps of another person walking toward the table as well.
After a few more steps she took a short glance just out of curiosity, Isabel then saw the janitor had seated on the other side of the table facing Deen.
“What the hell was that?” the janitor asked Deen.
“Well-placed words, sister.”
Upon hearing this, Isabel quickly left the premises and went for the barracks. Later on as she packed for the academy, she would tell her friends in the barracks that the reason why she was in a hurry was because she was enthusiastic to go to RMMA, but she would never admit the real reason was the rush of fear of being devoured by the shadows of ONI’s wrath.
