Chapter Eighteen

****Everfree Rainforest****
Night time

As the heavy downpour of rain drowned out most of the usual sounds the rainforest made, Josh and Nightmare looked upon the sleeping form of Hank. A quick glance at the squad health monitor told them that Leon was also asleep on the other side of the cave. That was a small miracle in itself.

They had just gone to sleep and Josh had first watch, not that the spartan would get much sleep now anyway. Taking another deep breath and looking around the cave, Josh tried to think of anything to get out of what he had to do. Thankfully he had somepony to set him straight.

“I know they’re your friends Josh, but we need to leave now.” Nightmare stated as Josh slowly looked to the cave’s exit.

“I can’t leave them here Moony.” Josh stated as he leaned back against the rock wall, “We don’t ever leave anyone behind. We just need to solve what the hell is going on.”

“Something is messing with their heads, we can’t do anything ourselves with Leon controlling all the comm traffic. That should of been our first warning right there.” Nightmare stopped for a second as Josh looked back to the sleeping form of Hank, “Then he got sick just like Leon and now he hardly talks and moves like he’s a zombie... We need to get out of this forest and tell the others before we’re next.”

It was sound logic and Josh hated every bit of it, “... Can you fly the Pelican if we can reach it?”

“No... I don’t think we could make it that far anyway. Once they wake up they’ll go straight for the Pelican, it’s the most obvious choice we could make. We need to do something unexpected, something they wouldn’t think of us doing...”

“It doesn’t matter what we do. They’ll still be able to track us if we’re within a mile of them.” Josh said sadly as he stood up, “We need a faster means of travel than running. Something discrete...”

“I can block your signal, it’s simpler than you think, but we better start thinking on our hooves. We need to leave now to put as much distance between us and them before the next shift.” Nightmare stated as Josh began to move out the cave.

Josh stole one last look at the two before he entered the dense jungle foliage, “You don’t think the others are in trouble... do you?.”

“No, or, not right now at least. Chase contacted Leon yesterday over something but he has called just because he was bored before.” Nightmare was quiet for a few seconds, “He’s in the middle of the Changeling hive and the others are in Equestria, they should be safe.”

“I hope he’s fine, otherwise it’s going to be a long trip to warn Ally and Ethan.” Josh said as he tried his best not to leave a trail behind him as he went. Something easier said than done with somewhere around a third of a ton worth of armor.

Nightmare was quiet for a few seconds as Josh moved through the dark, wet, and dreary canopy. The rain hammered them relentlessly as Nightmare voice came broke the monotonous sound, “They’ll get their before us... What are we going to say when they inevitably mark us as enemies?”

“The truth.” Josh sadly stated.

“With my old track record before I joined-”

“That doesn’t matter to Chase, Ally, or Ethan. You’re one of us and you’ll get the same treatment no matter what happened before you joined. If, and I can’t stress that enough, if Leon and Hank go back to label us as the enemies, we’ll just turn ourselves in. I trust Chase and the others to give us fair trial.”

Nightmare sighed inside Josh’s helmet, “I’m afraid I don’t have as much faith in our friends as you. We need a real plan.”

“I think you do. If you come up with a plan though, or, hell, anything be sure to tell me.” Josh said, ending the conversation.

As the spartan moved through the dense foliage, and into the night, something much different was happening in the cave. Something much darker.

Leon stood over Hank, having watched Josh walk out the cave entrance with a smile. That spartan was too big a risk with that spirit in his helmet, but his leaving couldn’t of been timed more perfectly. They’re comms were blocked and weren’t receiving the signal, but he was getting it clear as day.

Pulling up the squad health monitor for the entire team he saw one of the images flashing red. Above the spartan’s silhouette was a name and three lines of words that brought a smile to the spartan’s face: CHASE BLAKE, Last known status: INJURED, No longer receiving signal. The words were like an artists painting and the sounds of the fighting earlier that day was the beautiful orchestra.

The spartan smiled under his helmet as he looked upon the helpless form of Hank. He had work to do for the King.

****San Palomino Desert****
Earlier that day

The San Palomino Desert. A place almost truly devoid of life. At the bottom of a large sand dune a snake rested in the sand from the heat of the mid-day sun. Soon it would begin to hunt for whatever little vermin lived in the desert with it. Such is what would've happened, had Chase not wanted to re-enact the Dukes of Hazzard and raced past the little creature with music blaring.

“Wha who!” the spartan screamed as he ramped the large sand dune with the warthog just as an explosion went off behind him. Duct taped to the front of the warthog was the spartan’s helmet, catching everything on video.

In the passenger seat was Chrysalis holding a bow in her magical grasp, a stetson cowboy hat on her head, and shouting in fun as they flew through the air. She had no idea what the Dukes of Hazzard was, but Chase had let her shoot an arrow with a lit stick of dynamite on it. She was happy to finally do something exciting, but sad they paid for the explosives instead of stealing them like she wanted.

The look on the Appleloosans’ faces when they drove up in front of the hardware store though, that was priceless. As was the resulting one stallion police chase as she was still wanted for the whole wedding thing.

As they came to a hard landing and the warthog slowed to a stop, Chase turned off the music just as it sang ‘The mountain might get 'em, but the law never will’, “Chryssy can you get my helmet? I don’t have a magical bandana to cover my mouth like you.”

With a secret smile under her bandana, Chrysalis levitated the helmet off of the hood and gave it to the spartan, “How much longer till we get there. Not all of us come with a built in bathroom.”

Chase took off his ten gallon hat and opened a compartment on the front, outside edge of the door frame. After wedging the large hat into the smaller space and shutting it, he donned his helmet and grasped the wheel, “Looks like we’ll be there soon.” he looked around at the mountains to his right and the rock formations in the distance to the left, “The entrance is supposed to be right by where the water runs underground and we’ve been followin the river for a while now.”

The changeling cast a glance at the water at the base of the mountain quite a ways to their right. She couldn’t see the water, but she couldn’t wait to take a dip in the cool refreshing water when they finally stopped, “So, what do you think made the miners disappear?”

“Hard telling.” Chase said as he floored the gas pedal, “I would of guessed a cave in, but that doesn’t explain the recon team going missing too.”

A slight feeling of excitement began to creep into the changeling’s stomach, “You think it’s something got them?”

“Not li-...” Chase stopped for a second before he continued, “Considering I’m a firm believer in Murphy’s Law, it’s probably something serious. With Ally and Ethan on the train to the Crystal Empire and Leon a probable sixty-six with the other three members of our group, it’s ripe for something bad to happen.”

Chrysalis looked a the spartan with a smirk under her bandana, “Do you think you can handle whatever it is?”

The spartan glanced at her, but his smile was not seen because of his helmet, “Of course I can, I’m a Spartan. Whatever evil thing that’s more than likely waiting to ambush us will not succeed with me around. I even have a surprise for you in one of the side compartments to keep you safe.”

“Ooh, considering your last gift was your old shotgun, do I get an old set of your armor?” Chrysalis smiled as Chase shook his head, “Oh well, can’t blame me for trying... You know it’s a good thing you brought me along. I’ll have to make sure you don’t do anything too stupid.”

“Yeah, you’ll be in the safe Warthog and you’ll be able to watch me while I’m having the time of my life shooting anything that isn’t a changeling down there.” Chase gloated, “What are you going to do without your tv in the middle of the desert for the hours it’s probably going to take me to search for the mine?”

Chrysalis looked at the spartan as the warthog went down the sand dune smoothly. He stopped the engine and put a finger to his helmet to shush her. Looking out ahead of them and when she turned to look she could easily see why he had gotten cautious.

In the middle of the sand she could see a crevice that the water poured into at a ‘T’ angle with the water being the middle line. The wide gap in the sand proposed the first problem, Chase would have to climb down into the place before he could start his search. From the discarded equipment nearby, half buried in sand, to the small broken crane on the side of the gap, the entire place gave off an eerie feeling.

Chase climbed out of the warthog with his MA5D assault rifle raised and Chrysalis levitated her M45D shotgun. The little headset that was fit snugly on her head suddenly came to life, “In the compartment on front of the doorway by you, put on what’s in it.” the changeling wasted no time in levitating a black bundle of clothing and armor from the compartment and putting her bandana and Stetson inside.

Leaving her to figure how to put on the armor, Chase moved towards the small canyon with caution. He looked around the open desert and at the nearby mountain, but saw no sign of anything to warrant any suspicion. That is, besides the pickaxes and shovels haphazardly dropped in the sand.

As Chase neared the neared the edge he noticed the distinct sound of falling water. Looking over the edge he saw the tell tale green construction of the changelings forcing the waterfall from the edge to a cave on the other wall. The water had some force behind it as it flowed quickly down the ling-made canal and gushed over the side’s a little bit.

Chase opened up a com channel to Cocoon as he looked into bottom of the crevice, “Ghost Three to the Hive, Ghost Three to the Hive, do you read me?”

“I read you, what’s wrong?” Cocoon’s voice answered back.

“Nothing, but we’ve reached the mine and have found tools scattered around in the sand, but no signs of any bodies yet. Hopefully we’ll have more information when we check in later. Do you have any questions?” Chase said as he looked towards the sand on the other side of the hole in the ground. Even as he looked around, Chryssy's dot was always visible in on his motion sensor.

“Only one, how is Ghost Eight faring?” the spartan looked back to see Chrysalis was struggling with putting on her armor. It was similar in appearance to ODST armor, but lacked most the technology. The chest piece was on correctly and she was trying to figure out how to put on the armor for her rear legs.

“Well armed and protected. Any other questions?” Chase said honestly.

“No, that will be all, Hive out.” Cocoon said before the line went dead.

Chase shook his head as he looked around. Not a thing moved for miles except the wind picking up sand off of the dunes. Looking back towards Chrysalis, the spartan just shook his head in disappointment. Somehow she had gotten the leg armor on backwards.

“And you’re the one that’s gonna make sure I don’t do anything stupid?” Chase said as he walked back towards her, “How did you get those on backwards? I thought it would be pretty straight forward with the hole for your tail.”

The changeling opened her mouth to reply only to shut it and growl a few curses. The spartan paid no mind to the words and continued looking around the area for any movement as Chrysalis readjusted her armor. Something was wrong here, Chase could see that much.

“No signs of fighting.” he whispered as he looked at the discarded tools.

Chrysalis looked up, “What are you talking about? There’s shovels and picks everywhere. They would make the best makeshift weapons-”

“But there’s no blood.” Chase stated, “No bodies from changelings or whatever attacked them... This whole situation looks like something out of a horror movie.”

Chrysalis looked around as she fitted the armor on her legs. The spartan was right, no signs of a struggle were in sight other than the discarded tools, “... So what do we do?”

The spartan looked at the Changeling, “The plan remains the same, though I think when they check in I’m going to tell Ally and Ethan to get the hell down here. This is a bit more important than playing nice with the ponies.”

Chrysalis nodded as she put her shotgun in the back of the warthog. Slowly, she began to stretch her limbs and see how flexible the armor was. On the outside the armor looked like it only covered a few key places, but Chrysalis could feel between the two layers of fabric were armored plates.

Weight didn’t seem to be an issue as Chrysalis had no doubt the entire thing had been magically lightened. Shaking her head in approval she felt the fabric only restricted her back legs a little bit. To top it all off, her wings were able to fold out nicely from the two little slits in the armor on her back.

It was almost perfect, “Where’s the helmet?” she asked Chase who seemed to be standing still.

He turned to look at her, “What? Oh, the helmet is still being made. Got to get Ethan to do the wiring in it.” he turned back to the crevice, “I’m going down, you remember how to set up the monitors like I showed you?”

“Yes yes, it’s not exactly that hard.” she climbed into the warthog as the spartan moved to the front of the vehicle. A short clang sounded and Chrysalis watched as Chase moved towards the hole in the ground with the tow line of the warthog in his hand.

Sand crunched beneath each step as Chase moved towards the hole in the ground. So badly he wanted to just turn and go back to the Hive with how many red flags this mission sent up, but someone had to save those changelings. Silently he wished that someone wasn’t him though.

A bit of rock crumbled down into it’s depths as he looked over the edge and into the shadowy depths. After putting his weapon on his back, the spartan crouched down and sat on the edge while pulling the tow line from the warthog. The hook at the end of the line slowly made it’s way down into the murky depths of the cavern.

As he watched the hook disappear he talked over the open comm channel to Chrysalis, “You remember all the stuff I showed you in the hog, right?”

“Yes, it’s all pretty straight forward. I’ve already got the three different screens showing what your visors are seeing.” the changeling answered back.

“Good, good.” a small little cling signaled that the hook had hit the bottom, “Alright, lock the wench.”

“It’s locked.” with a small pull on the line to confirm Chrysalis’ statement, Chase got ready to descend. To get ready he lowered the shield strength on his hands and maximizing it on the soles of his feet. Afterwards, the spartan began to slide down the rope into the abyss. Taking it slow and steady, so the warthog above wouldn’t lose traction in the sand.

The only sound that greeted the spartan as he slid down the rope was the whistling of wind through the caves, giving the cavern an eerie sort of ambiance. The entire place just hit every nerve in Chase for inducing fear. Without a sound, thanks to his shields, the spartan touched down on the rocky floor.

Immediately the shields on the bottom of his feat and around his hands returned to normal strength. His assault rifle was in his hands and pointed around to look at the walls of the cave. Then his sighted the nearest cave, “Chryssy, how's it looking up there?”

“Thermal, night vision, and basic filters are all looking good.”

“Alright then, get in the driver side seat just in case something happens. Oh, but if you move that Warthog and your life or the hog’s not in danger, you will never sit in the front seats again. Just like Josh.” Chase stated before he began to move towards the cave.

The channel was quiet for a few seconds, “... Oh-kay, sure.” she replied awkwardly.

“Just wanted to make that cle-” something moved across the edge of Chase’s radar, “Contact. Going silent.”

While Chase began to move towards the dot that had disappeared, eight eyes looked from the darkness of another cave, but never moved. This cave’s entrance was covered with light from the afternoon sun, holding it’s secrets at bay. Soon though the first pair of eight eyes was joined by eight more and then another eight. Behind the first eyes an army of others opened and watched together as the spartan ran off.

Just like an unsuspecting fly into a spider’s web.

****

Chrysalis watched as Chase moved lower into the caves, following a mine cart track. Rocks where all she saw though as there was no sign of whatever had caused the blip on his radar. Occasionally he came across dead ends and such a search went on for an hour, till Chase came upon a large drop off at the end of the last tunnel. Lights came turned on from either side of the spartan’s helmet.

“Looks like it’s a little ways down, not to far. I’m coming back, we can check this out tomorrow.” Chase’s voice came in over the radio, slightly distorted.

“Your voice sounds messed up, but it’s barely getting dark out, why not search more?” Chrysalis asked as she saw the sun begin to move down in the sky, “Celestia’s only now lowering the sun, it won’t be dark for another hour or two... You’re not scared of the dark are you?”

“I’m fully in the dark now, it’s just with the night vision that I can see around me. I’m not risking your life out in the middle of the desert after the sun falls.” the spartan answered back, “Your voice is kind of distorted too, I’m marking the depth for tomorrow.”

Chrysalis just nodded as she looked around the surrounding desert. Besides the sand dunes and the occasional tumbleweed, there really was nothing to look at. A sudden beep caught her attention. Looking at the three monitors, it didn’t appear to come from Chase’s side as he was still just looking around the cave.

Narrowing her eyes in confusion, Chrysalis looked up at the monitor fixed to the inner roof of the warthog. Her eyes widened as she saw a single red dot moving towards her, “I’ve got a contact on the Warthog motion sensor.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Chrysalis saw Chase take off down cave, “Do you got a visual?”

Chrysalis looked out in front of the warthog where the blip was slowly moving towards her from, “No nothing.” slowly it got closer. Not taking any chances, Chrysalis spread her wings and took off out of the Warthog, “I’m in the air now, but I still don’t see anything.”

“Good thinking, just wait for me to-” the rest of what he said was cut off as a searing pain shot through Chrysalis’ left wing.

She gave a cry of pain as she fell to the ground, closer to the crevice than before. Looking over, a black crystal the size of one of her legs was impaled into the sensitive tissue of her wing. As she tried to ignore the pain and look for her attacker she felt the ground shake under her.

She quickly rolled away just as another black crystal spike shot up from the ground where she had been. With in a second she was on her hooves and looking around for her attacker. Nothing but sand and the black crystal pillar could be seen.

The ground under her shook again, but she had plenty of time to move out of the way from the black pillar of crystals. Another glance around and she spotted something, tracks in the sand. A trail of hoof prints that she never made.

Quickly, she lowered her head and shot a condensed beam of her green magic at the concealed attacker. She silently cursed that she had left her shotgun in the back of the warthog and was forced to use her magic wastefully like this instead. Though her aim was true, the spell around the hooved assailant shimmered in the air and came down.

Standing with a smirk on his face was a grey unicorn with a black mane and a curved red horn. Her moments hesitation to identify her target gave Chrysalis’ enemy the perfect opportunity to sneak in a strike.

From the black pillar she had just avoided, a spike shot out and tore into her side. Chrysalis gave a pained shout as she was forced off her hooves and into the sand some distance away from the sheer force of the blow.

“Pathetic.” Chrysalis heard the deep voice of her attacker before she found herself hit back up into the air. This time, she did not land in the soft sand.

As she tried to look around to brace for landing, she collided with the warthog. Draped over the roof, Chrysalis’ head was swimming with confusion and pain. Though the armor had done it’s job and nothing penetrated, she felt like her insides were all in the wrong places.

It had felt like the energy had been drained out of her from the moment that second black spike hit her. The motion sensor on the warthog beeped and Chrysalis was able to turn her head to see the slowly approaching red dot. Growling, the changeling moved her hoof to the last button on the front console.

With one push a warning came up on the top screen, one Chrysalis immediately hit the confirmed option. A small box appeared over the screens showing Chase’s view of the crevice. ‘LIVE BROADCAST ACTIVATED’

“This is Ghost Eight, the mine was an ambush. Send help imm-” Chrysalis stopped as the entire warthog shook as the sound of glass breaking filled the air. From her view though, the changeling saw that it wasn’t the windshield that had broken.

Fear gripped her as she flipped forward over the seat as the warthog being lifted up, letting her see the unicorn, “You’re not worth the magic to control.”

“Freeze mother fucker.” Chrysalis heard Chase shout before she felt the warthog fly through the air and impact something and slammed her against the console, hard.

“Gah! You bitch!” Chase shouted over her own cries of pain. Warnings popped up on all of the screens showing Chase’s armor as Chrysalis felt herself starting to fall.

A few seconds. That’s all the fall was, but to the changeling it felt like eternity. Her chest hurt, she had an aching pain in her head, and Chase was still shouting profanities as they fell. Then it all came to a stop as the warthog hit the ground, and she was knocked out cold.

****

Chase was pissed, and that was putting it lightly. His armor was blaring warning after warning from three of his ribs being either cracked or broken, to his breaking of the safety parameters to use the thrusters on his back to slow his descent.

None of that compared to the absolute hatred he held for the unicorn that looked down on him with a sadistic smile, “Your fear should feed them nicely.”

Chase raised his assault rifle, but the unicorn was already gone, ‘Last time I turn somepony away for sounding crazy.’

Shaking his head, the Spartan went to the warthog to see Chrysalis’ beaten form, never once lowering his rifle. She had a line of green blood coming from the side of her head and dripping onto the seat. The only silver lining was that she was still breathing steadily, no sounds of it being labored.

As fast as he could while still being careful, he moved the changeling into an upright position in the passenger seat. With one arm holding his assault rifle towards the open crevice, Chase used his robotic left arm to fasten the seatbelt on the changeling. Pulling it all the way out and letting it lock into place before letting go.

A glance in the back of the warthog shocked the Spartan, as he saw Chrysalis’ shotgun resting on the floor, ‘A stroke of luck I will not question.’ Chase thought happily as he grabbed it and put it on his back.

A small chattering sound made the Spartan turn and look to the other side of the warthog, assault rifle raised. In the dark cave on the other side of the light from the soon to be setting sun, a horde of yellow eyes watched him, ‘Horror movie situation, I hate being right sometimes.’

Chase slowly moved around the warthog, never taking his sights of the creatures. He climbed into the warthog and watched all the eyes follow his every move. For the first time, Chase looked down at the warthog’s screens and saw that the distress signal was on.

No such signal had reached Chase though, ‘Signal jamming? You'd need a Spartan to...’

Suddenly, everything lined up and Chase’s anger boiled ten fold as he started up the warthog, ‘Fucker got Leon...’

With a snarl, Chase floored the gas pedal and spun the warthog to face the cave he had come out of earlier, 'I'm gonna make him wish he was never born.’ the warthog lurched forward and into the cave.

Behind him the army watched as he took off. Soon the sun would move away from the cave’s entrance and the hunt would begin.

Author's Note

Well, I completely forgot that February only had 28 days so quickly whipped this up. Leave a comment, check this out, whatever.

Seriously though, comment, or else.

Community Question: Who's your favorite Spartan out of the six? Enough answers and I might focus on them more.

My answer: Ethan, because I know his back story.