Game Set Match

by Greywaves

Rating: teen
Tags: Crossover, Alternate Universe, Sad, Adventure
Length: 8441

Once dropped in a city, 5 ODST ponies find themselves in more trouble then they ever thought possible, and some of them pay the ultimate price.

Epilogue
"What? Did you think that by cowering in the dirt… You could escape the coming fire?" A small blue translucent hologram of an Alicorn with an elegant headpiece was broadcast onto all the screens in New Mombasa. From the smallest Tv screen in the electronics store to the 40ft wide mega view plasma screen on the Traxus building, the entire city was plagued with the Prophet of Truth's scratchy voice. Whether it was to deter resistance from the citizens, or implant fear, no one knew. As the small TV screen flickered, the message looping, a bullet tore through it, ending one of the many of loops through that district of the city. The smoking barrel of a UNSC grade magnum was the source of the bullet, held in the hoof of an ODST. His black armour and light blue visor gave him the look of more machine than organic. He holstered his pistol and pulled him his map of the city.
"……….." He stated solemnly at it, 5 x's ticked on various locations. The one nearest to him was the New Mombasa Shopping Centre. That was where Pawns went missing. Pawns, the youngest of chess squad was always the most eager and reckless. No wonder he went missing first. He remembered briefly the mornings mission briefing.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-12-04 00:45:20 UTC

Chapter 1 -Free Falling-

"Rook! Get your flank in gear, we got a mission briefing!" Pawn's eager voice was heard through the door of Rook's room. He groggily got up, and stretched weakly. He puts his armour on, and carried his ODST helmet in his saddle bag. He trotted down from his room to the mission briefing room, a dark area with a giant holo table in the middle. He could easily see that Pawns, Bishop, Knight, King and Queen were all waiting. The order of command in Chess Squad went as so. King rarely fought, but instead was the tactical part of the squad. Queen was one of their best assets, her Spartan Laser and captured Mauler made her a force to be reasoned with. Bishop was next. A cold calculating sniper, he used a DMR and Sniper, taking his enemies out with deathly accuracy. Knight was very headstrong and aggressive, with his shotgun and dual magnums. Rook preferred to use his standard issue smg and magnum, and hardly talked. Pawns was like the little brother of the group, and he played the part. Always getting into trouble. He used an assault rifle and strangely enough, was given a target locator. On the field, wraiths, ghosts and shades lasted not more then a minute if Pawns was able to see them. The Havok-7 mini nukes easily made his kill count on of the highest in the ODST devision of the UNSC. Rook took a seat beside bishop, who was sitting with knight. "A'right chess squad. We have an entire 20 click area of NM(new Mombasa) to clear of aliens. Now, well send you all in together, so you don't get split up. I know it's brief, but there isn't much else for me to say to you. Except good luck." King saluted, and rook knight and bishop saluted back. As the three trotted over to their pods, Knight nudged Rook. "Hey lover boy, have a dream about your girlfriend?" He laughed and smacked his teammates back. Bishop sighed and just stepped into his pod to avoid conflict between the two. Rook said nothing as usual, to busy getting ready to drop. Knight laughed again, and hopped into his pod. Rook, the last one in his day down, and strapped on his safety harness. He looked over at Knight, the Pegasi's pod decorated with pictures of scantily clad mares. Bishop's pod was more... Clean, with a cross hanging over the emergency hatch and a small Bible tucked Into the corner. Rooks pod was clean and normal, save for one small picture he had. A tan bodies earth pony mare with a chocolate brown mane was sitting with rook on a bench, and they both were smiling and nuzzling. He smiled at the picture, and put his helmet on. Instantly, 2 small images of Knight and Bishop appeared in the left hand corner. They all had solemn faces, waiting for the drop. Suddenly, an automated feminine voice came over the pods speakers. "Dropping in 3" Rook clenched his chair. "2" he looked down and saw a head of sweat roll down Knight's face. "1" they all closed their eyes, and braced themselves.

Chapter 3 -first strike-

"Did you hear about what happened with Bebap and Jen-Nor?" One of the grunts told his squad mate. They were resting on a bench in the city, talking about a recent fight between a grunt and a jackal. The one grunt who was ready for battle was a grunt ultra, who was leaning on a plasma turret. Rook crept along a roadblock, staying low to avoid the grunts line of sight. He peeped his head out, and pulled the pin on a frag grenade and let it fly. The baseball sized explosive bounced off a pole and rolled beneath the canon. As the grunt ultra looked under the weapon to see what landed under it, he screeched in fear. The group of enemies had no time, nor chance to react. The methane in their tanks, combined with the plasma canons fuel and

the grenades explosion instantly vaporized the ultra and one of the other grunts. The one to the far right, however, was still alive. Half it's face was covered with a hoof, it's body burnt and charred. Rook casually stepped towards it, and kicked it over.

"The great journey will end us all!" It blurted out between gasping breaths.

"Not today it doesn't." Rook pulled the trigger 2 times, the first shot knocking the grunts helmet off and boring into the skull, the next one taking its head clean off. He put his pistol away, and tapped his helmet.

"King? What do I do first?" No sooner did his words leave his lips as he saw an ODST pod whizz overhead, directly into the front doors of the NM shopping centre.

"Well for starters, go check on Pawns. That was him who just went by. Don't worry about Knight. Bishop's doing his best to find him." Rook nodded, and galloped silently towards the building.

Chapter 4 -Black Friday-

          Chapter 3 "black Friday"

-Pvt Pawns Marshall

04:56 o clock

New Mombasa Shopping Centre

"Urff, talk about a crappy landing.." Pawns groaned, and unclipped his safety harness. He pushed on the release of his pod, but it stuck fast.

"What the hay... This stuff always happens to me!" He sighed and pushed a button on his helmet.

"Pawns to King, requesting immediate pod release." He signalled over watch that his pod wouldn't open, and then waited. Pawns was a young earth pony, with a black messy crop of a mane on his head, and a red coat of fur. His green eyes twinkled with excitement. His pod was clean, but much like Rooks, had a picture in the top left corner. This one was of Queen, holding her helmet and dragging Pawns out of a burning warthog jeep. He sighed happily, and picked the picture up, and held it to his heart.

"If only I could tell you how I feel. Maybe you feel the same my love." Unbeknownst to him, his com was still on, and his love proclamation was being spread through the main area of the Alicorns Horn. "Your deep blue-". He was interrupted by the sound of Queen clearing her throat.

"Hey Romeo! Get your head out of the stars, and get your flank out there! Your pod unlocked five minutes ago." Pawn's red face turned an even darker shade, and he quickly put on his helmet and hopped out of his pod, opening the side on it and grabbing his assault rifle and target locator. He turned on his VISR and looked around the area.

"So Rook's over there... Guess I better meet him half way." He didn't notice the massive group of red dots moving in on his location to investigate the explosion. He steeped around the mall in awe.

"I heard this place was big, but this is just unreal!" He said, amazed at the size of the complex. For fun, he downloaded the mall map from a Kiosk and looked at it.

"Hmmmmmmm.... I think I'll check out the Desert Gem Jewelry store. Maybe I can pick Queen up something." He put away his rifle and dashed off to the store. As he passed an open window, a pony with compound eyes, a hard shell on its back which housed powerful thin wings, and four mandibles clicked its jaws curiously at the thing it observed. It the crawled out of the window frame and flew elsewhere.

Pawns Turned one last corner, and hopped over a collapsed cell phone stand, and smiled as the store met his eyes. "Now lets see... What would Queen want?" He trotted slowly into the store, trying to find anything in the destroyed remains of the store. Most of the pricey items had already went missing, this store having being raided more then once by the looks of it. As he looked under the counter, he heard a soft clicking noise. He stiffened and jumped behind the counter, arming his rifle and pressing his body against the counter's wall. He cautiously peeped his head out, and made a small terrified squeak. A drone had managed to find its way to him, having found his location only by pure luck. It's emerald body glittered in the light of the store, and it stared curiously at some of the gems, infatuated by their shimmering properties. Pawns slowly pulled his rifle up, and aimed at the drones head. "Just keep looking, give me just one more second... There!" He smiled as the rifle's reflex sight Lined up with the drone's head, and he squeezed the trigger. Shell casings fell to the floor as the .25 caliber shots flung the drone backward, and over a display stand, it's head pocked with bloody holes. As green blood flowed onto the floor, Pawns grinned and put his rifle away, and added another tick mark to his kill count. "Sorry buddy. Better luck next time." As he went to leave the store, he bumped Into something. He looked up, and saw it was a crowd of drones, having come to investigate the noise of his rifle.

"Buck! Forgot you guys came in swarms!" He pulled out his rifle and started to spray the crowd. Blood flew and screeches pierced the air as some of them fell, the others extending their wings and taking flight, shooting their plasma pistols and needlers at him. Pawns barely dodged the wave of green and purple projectiles flung at him, and he retreated down an escalator. Sliding down the railing, he took the small break to reload, and get into a defending position. As he pulled up his map, he cursed. In his pursuit of gems, he had went in the complete opposite direction of Rook, his teammate now not visible. "Damn!" He yelled as he shot more rounds off at the drones. They advanced relentlessly, the bullets whizzing harmlessly by them. As Pawns tried to take down his air borne foes, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his side, he looked down, and saw his armour was cracked from the fall from space, and a needle had embedded itself In his side, blood pooling under the wound. He grunted and pulled it out. Bad idea. The jagged spikes made the exit wound bigger, blood pouring freely from the wound. He yelled in pain as more shots from the enemy flew by him. He picked up his rifle and shot blindly. Suddenly, a loud ringing filled the air. He looked up, and a green glowing orb smashed Into his body. He fell back, and his visor blacked out, his armour sparking. The drones looked at their enemy, and one of them flew down to him. The armoured ponies helmet had a needle sticking through the visor, and it wasn't moving. Convinced they had killed him, they grabbed his legs and flew off. Unable to see anything, save for a massive purple spike inches from his snout, Pawns decided it was best to stay dead and they hopefully might leave him alone.

Chapter 5 -sand and sun-

(30 minutes after Pawn's abduction)

Rook slide down the corridor, and pointed his smg down the hall. Blood, spent assault rifle shells and dead drones had led him to this location. He stepped down the escalator, and looked at the overturned table where Pawns made his last stand. There was a sizeable pool of blood, and multiple blood covered needler shots littered the floor. He crouched down by the skirmish zone and looked up in his VISR. Pawns was out of range. Or dead. Rook sighed, and put his smg away. He decided it would be best to find where his squad mate went to.

(100 clicks away, NM beach front)

Knight woke up groggily, his pod's light flashing red as water spilled into it from the cracked plexi glass. He sat up swiftly, but sat back and yelped. His left wing was bent at an unnatural angle, and his pods broken glass was covered in his blood from the crash. He groaned, and sat back to think.

"I don't got much time till this tin can fills with water." He lamented as the water reached his thighs. He grabbed his shotgun from its holster and slid an explosive round into the receiving chamber and pumped it. He looked up at the pictures and smiled.

"Wish me luck ladies~" he pulled the trigger, the and quickly jumped as the pods hatch blew off, and water poured In. Knight jumped into the water, and felt it push him up. He broke the surface and gasped as he gripped his shotgun tightly, and swam to shore.

Knight was laying on the beach, snoring softly as he rested from

his horrible event. His shotgun and magnums lay within his hooves reach as he sat up and yawned.

"All righty, I'm dry and so are my weapons. Now I can get to work." He put his shotgun on his back and holstered his two magnums, trotting along the beach. The bushes along the costal cliff shifted slightly, and a skinny unicorn with a spiky thin mane and an optic zoom over one of its eyes popped out, carbine in its hoof. Jackals, the snipers of the covenant, were stealthy and cunning fighters. One on one they were easy, but if they could ambush you, the Chances of you surviving the attack were much lower. It laughed dryly, and pulled up its carbine to the zoom optic, getting a bead on Knight's head. As he was about to pull the trigger, the ODST dove behind a rock.

"Hey! Might wanna put some camo on that gun of your's! Stands out like a plant on a rock farm!" The jackal hissed, and looked down at the carbine. It's bright purple colour didn't fit in with the bushes.

"Stupid wretch. I will let your corpse bake in the sun!" It spat venom in its words at Knight. The ODST smiled, and slid a small scope onto his pistol, and attached a small globular object to an under barrel launcher on his pistol.

"Here's a gift for you!" He leaned over the corner and shot the object into the cliff, missing the jackal by a few feet. The jackal snickered, and pulled up its carbine again, being able to see Knight's head.

"You missed. Good thing I won't." Just as it went to pull the trigger, the object fired from the magnum exploded, causing the cliff to collapse, and send the jackal tumbling down. It slid to a halt by Knight, its optic shattered and the carbine busted. As it weakly tried to stand, it found itself looking down the barrel of a shotgun.

"How did you do that?!" It croaked weakly at its foe. Knight smiled, as he pulled the trigger, turning the jackal's head to a bloody purple mushy mess.

"Exploding proximity mine launcher. Thank King for that." He put his shotgun back in its holster, and pulled up his VISR." Ok, so it says Bishop is close to my location." He galloped off to his friends location, happy to see a familiar face.

Chapter 6-When Paths cross

(4 clicks away, in Cafe Sahara)

Bishop was enjoying himself quite alot, having used his sniper to take out the 2 brutes and 5 grunts in a patrol he saw, leaving one grunt alone. It was very panicky, and constantly dove for cover. It had no idea where it's attacker was, so it blindly fired, screaming in its native tongue. After a couple minutes, Bishop found this boring, and zoomed in for the kill. As he lined up with the grunt's head, it suddenly jolted sideways, it's arm torn off at the socket. Another jolt sent it to the grass. Bishop raised an eyebrow and watched curiously. Knight stepped into view, and pointed both his handguns at the grunt, unloading the rest of the clips into it.

"Of course. The first guy I find has to be him...." Bishop sighed, and lit a signal flare to tell Knight where he was.

As Knight reloaded his magnums, his sighted the flare and smiled.

"There he is. Chilling in a cafe. How predictable." He trotted casually to the building, and once he arrived, kicked down the door and stepped in. He found Bishop leaning back in a chair, drinking a coffee and grinning.

"So Knight, how many covies you kill so far?" He sat up and pulled a chair out for his squad mate. The Pegasus sat down beside his friend, and stretched out, gripping his wing a bit.

"2." He blurted gruffly. Bishop chuckled, and jabbed a hoof at the many sniper magazines on the floor

"54. And rising." Knight glared at Bishop, and frowned.

"Yeah well that's only cause my wing is broken." Bishop laughed, and stood up.

"I'm sure that's all that's ailing you. C'mon, I sighted our next target. Covenant plasma storage tanker, flying low to the ground. We got 2 ghosts patrolling the area while it unloads the fuel, and snipers and brutes every 1/2 click." Knight smiled, and grabbed his shotgun, pumping it.

"Maybe I can make my kill count go up.

(Alicorn's Horn Drop Station)

Queen hopped into her pod, and set her drop location to where she knew Pawns would be.

"The buggers dragged him down to substation-117. I'll take point and land by the power station." She dropped her pod, and fell towards the planet at high speed.

(New Mombassa substation-117)

Pawns groaned, and woke up. He blearily looked around with bloodshot eyes, his helmet and armour not to be seen. He tried to move, but found he couldn't. As he struggled, he heard a soft snore.  Looking up from his prison of wires and cable, he saw them. Hundreds of thousands of drones. Sleeping on the ceiling. Pawns knew if he tried to fight, he would die almost instantly. So he took his knife, and began his slow, quite cutting spree on the cables.

Chapter 7- Explosions R us-

(New Mombassa boardwalk)

Bishop was right. Two ghosts and patrols protected the Plasma Tanker from initial assaults.

"I really wish Pawns was here. He always has that target locator." Knight grumbled. Bishop frowned and set up his sniper.

"That's because Pawns doesn't know how to fight. Now get down their and fight." Knight almost laughed, so he held it in instead.

"You mean me? All alone against them?" Bishop nodded.

"I'll give you over watch don't worry." Knight sighed.

"I don't have much of a choice do I?" Bishop barely shook his head.

"You. Move. Now." Knight mockingly imitated Bishop's voice and got up, trotting off the ridge and down the boardwalk. The first thing he sighted was a brute. God, those things were tough. Massive, armoured, hairy beasts. They didn't know when to quit, and they shrugged off small arms fire like rain. The best way to kill them, Knight found, was a shotgun to the face. He grabbed his shotgun and fully loaded it, moving slowly towards the brute. It stood at the ready, it's hoof near the spiker rifle it carried at all times. Knight dropped his shotgun and instead grabbed his karambit knife. This weapon was perfectly curved for going past a small slit in the skull and into the brain. He uses his VISR to mark where to stab, and went to work. He jumped at the brute, and slipped the knife into the brain. The brute's eyes widened, and he fell dead. Knight ticked one kill, and dragged the brute under the boardwalk.

"Knight. You got a brute major moving to your most recent kill. Stay low." Knight winced a bit. Majors were near impossible to kill in a one v one fight. Only teamwork or high explosives could kill them. Suddenly, knight had an idea.

"Don't worry bishop I got em." He planted multiple c-4 charges under the boardwalk where the brute stood, and dove to the sand." The brute major called out for his comrade, but to no avail.

"Blasted fool. Always slacking off on the-" the boardwalk went up in flames and smoke as the c-4 plastics completely obliterated that section. Wood and dust rained down on Knight as he laughed happily.

"Buck yeah! Style points!" He chuckled and climbed up the boardwalks steps and back on it."

"Uggggh, you just got the attention of the ghosts. And the 3 brutes nearest you. Have fun."

"You've gotta be kidding!" Knight yelled, as he turned around, shotgun in his hooves. The first brute rounded the corner, and yelled as he charged the ODST. After his first step he fell dead, and Bishop's sniper bucked. The second brute looked around before running out, the one taking a bullet to the neck and falling Into the hole in the boardwalk.

"Thanks buddy, I owe you one." Knight sighed and relief, and saluted Bishop.

"It's not over yet, they still have ghosts. And there's still- never mind, got em." The last brute toppled over with out a large section of his chest, thanks to Bishop's sniper. The two grunts in the ghosts signalled each other, and flanked Knight. The floating gun platforms moved in for the kill, and started to unload multiple plasma rounds at their enemy. Knight jumped, flipped and glided away from the shots, taking cover behind a small store. He attached the explosive launcher to his magnum, and leaned out. The grunts started to shoot him again, and just as he was about to pull the trigger, a shot hit his hoof. He bounced a bit, and the explosive flew.... Directly onto the plasma pipeline. Knight suddenly dropped everything, galloping at full speed towards Bishop, waving his arms.

"THAT PLASMA TANKER IS GONNA BLOW!" He ignored the burning pain of the occasional plasma round hitting his back as he dashed past Bishop, picking the smaller unicorn up and dragging him along.

"HEY I CAN WALK MYSELF!" He yelled at the sudden action. The grunts in the ghosts, now just having realized what happened, screamed in terror and went as fast as their vehicles could. There was a sound like a thunder clap, and then the ground shook violently. Knight yelled as he urged his aching muscles to move faster, spotting an open man hole and galloping as fast as he could. He wondered whether the ghosts or the explosion would flatten him first. As he felt the plasma filed explosion licking his back, he yelled again and everything went black, Bishop's yell mixed with his.

(15 clicks away, NM subway)

Rook looked up as he heard a massive sound, the glass around him breaking. The sky went slightly red as the cloud of heat and smoke rose.

"King what was that?!" He yelled into his com.

"That was a Plasma Tanker. Bishop and Knight where in that general area. I can't find them now." Rook set his coordinates to the explosions origin, and trotted off.

Chapter 9- Revelations-

Pain....pain....burning pain... That was all knight felt. He groaned and tried to sit up, but the pain was to great. He found himself looking at the sky, or what he could see of it.

"So we made it into the man hole.... Thank god..." He coughed up a bit of blood, and looked around." Where'd Bishop go?" He groaned again, and flopped onto his back. He suddenly noticed Bishop's helmet and armour along with his weapons stacked in a neat pile, and he heard running water coming from around a corner. Fearing a covenant, he grabbed his magnum and limped along the hallway, tracing the sound of the water. As he rounded the corner, nothing could prepare him for what he saw. An orange coated unicorn mare with a red mane and tail was letting the water of a ruptured pipe wash over her, rinsing the massive amounts of blood and dirt off her bleeding body. Knight wondered what she was doing down her and cleared his throat. Instantly the mare jumped, and looked behind her, her eyes wide and she gasped as she tried to cover herself.

"KNIGHT? W-WHAT THE BUCK ARE YOU DOING?" The afore mentioned Pegasus tilted his head and stepped a bit closer.

"How do you know my name?" He asked. The unicorn suddenly realized what she said, and coughed a bit.

"L-lucky guess..." Knight flicked his eyes downward, and noticed her cutie mark. It was a sniper and DMR.

"B-bishop?" He stuttered weakly. Bishop nodded slightly, and Knight grabbed his head and sat down.

"B-but how?" Bishop still stared at Knight, but shrugged.

"I never removed my armour, and I used a voice changer to change mine to a more masculine one." Knight tried to relax, but just found himself in a bigger panicky state.

"How did we not know?" The unicorn stepped out of the water and shook herself off, slipping on her jumpsuit.

"It's better if you don't know." She mumbled and put her helmet back on, tapping a button on the side, her voice instantly becoming more calm and deep. "Now lets go, we got to get out of this place." Knight shook his head, and stepped up weakly, putting his weapons on his back.

"I'm never gonna look at you the same way again, ya know that Bishop?" Bishop instantly turned on him, taking off her helmet and pinning him against the wall, grabbing one of his magnums and jabbing it against his throat.

"You tell anyone and the covies will be the least of your worries, got it?" Knight smirked, and nodded.

"Whatever you say~ I like how you got all aggressive for no reason. I guess my personality is rubbing off on you huh?" Bishop made a disgusted face, and slapped the magnum back in its holster.

"You're wrong on so many levels. Now like I said, lets move it." Knight chuckled, and rounded the corner, bumping Into Pawns.

"Pawns what are you doing down here bro?" Knight asked, a smile stuck on his face in seeing his friend. Pawns embraced Knight, and he laughed.

"Queen just saved my flank from a big hive of buggers. Right ma'am?" Queen was to busy staring at Bishop, who had forgotten to put her helmet on.

"So all this time, you were a mare, and told no one?" Bishop shrugged.

"What are you gonna do about it?" Queen shook her head.

"That's for King to decide. Not me. What are you two doing down here anyway?" Knight flicked his head up and grimaced.

"Looks like a nuclear fallout up there. Plasma tanker blew up and the entire park area is obliterated." Pawns tilted his head.

"So is that what that massive explosion was?" Bishop nodded solemnly.

"Now lets move. The city is still safe. Somewhat." The squad moved onwards, hoping to find a way out.

Chapter 10- regroup-

Rook sat down, and took off his helmet, running a hoof through his sweaty, damp black mane, his brown eyes dull with boredom. The entire city seemed to be empty, ever since that tanker exploded. He assumed most of the covenant had retreated to their stronghold to regroup, and his squad must be dead or POW's by now. A manhole popped open, and Rook grabbed his rifle, aiming at it. His glare melted away to relief as Bishop appears first, dragging Knight with her, then Pawns and finally Queen.

"Well well, the gangs all here I guess." Bishop stated gruffly, and set Knight down. Rook trotted over to Knight and took off his helmet.

"You gonna be ok bud?" He said softly, and Knight nodded.

"Just some burns and cuts. I'm good for it." Rook handed him a bottle of water, which the Pegasus drank greedily.

"Thanks Rook! I needed that." He sat up a bit, and looked around the dark city." So where are the covies at?" Almost as if on que, a brute stumbled weakly out of a corridor, it's armour torn and removed In Multiple areas, its eyes darting as it grunted inaudible nonsense. All the ODST's pointed their weapons on it, but it didn't seem to notice.

"They don't die... They get shot but don't die.... Don't let them touch you...." It blurted out as it stumbled along its wayward path.

"What do you think he meant by that?" Pawns asked

(45 minutes earlier)

Jartas, a brute minor, sat in his clan's tent on the grounds of the Covenant camp. Word had spread via the lone surviving grunt of the plasma tanker incident that Kartas-Shan, Jartas's clans leader had been killed. Now the question on everyone's mind was who would lead the Shan clan? Jartas knew it wouldn't concern a minor like him, so he ignored that talk. He had heard the Jackals talking about "a falling star", but the Engineers, basically floating supercomputers, said no such event would occur. But the Jackals insisted on it.

"They will fall tonight!" Kal-Jor, a jackal ranger hissed at an Engineer Jartas didn't know, who just clicked and grunted at him. A grunt deacon, acting as translator, looked very terrified at what would happen. Kal's cronies, two jackal snipers, already had their rifles out, and the engineer looked all the more scared. Suddenly without warning, Kal jumped on the engineer, tearing it with his sharp teeth and hooves. It screeched in fear and pain as the deacon ran off, the two other jackals laughing. Jartas grunted, and tromped off to stop the fight. Without warning, however, Tyranus-Zal, the chieftain of the Zal clan, grabbed Kal, hoisting the small unicorn over him, and slammed his head multiple times into the ground, brains and skull fragments littering the ground as Kal only uttered a surprised squeak before his demise.

"Foolish wretch! We need the engineers to support us, yet you insist on killing them. You've already killed 5 this morning about your falling star idea." He lifted up the dying jackal, and tossed him to the ground. Kal's friends looked terrified, and they dropped their rifles and ran. Jartas snorted in approval, an sat back down. The jackals and brutes hated each other with a passion, so this was yet another reason for them to go at each other's throats. Suddenly, an alarm went off, and the camp members scrambled to their defensive positions.

"UNIDENTIFIED OBJECT MOVING IN!" Tyranus yelled as an object hurtled down from the sky, towards the camp. It plowed through the forward walls, and started mowing down the poor souls who couldn't get out of its path. Tyranus gripped his hammer tightly. "No one move!" The covenant held their ground, as more meteors, or whatever they were, plummeted down, smashing ontop of troops. Jartas held his ground, as his blood brothers from

his clan were either crushed or maimed as the rocks fell down. Suddenly, a chunk of one broke of, and flew at Tyranus. All the surviving troops watched in awe, seeing if he would move or not. He casually sidestepped, the melon sized chunk obliterated a jackal sniper's head. All the troops stared in wonder as the rock lay where it fell, the jackal twitching. Suddenly, a spine chilling scream pierced the air. A grunt was grappling with something that at one point may have been Kal-Jor. Its head hung at an odd angle, tentacles sprouting from its neck as massive boils popped and bugled from his massively deformed body.

"Help me!" The grunt wailed as Kal hungrily snapped his jaws at the grunts neck, inching closer. Jartas acted first, grabbing his mauler and slamming his body into Kal's. The jackal's body broke from the impact, green yellow fluid leaking out of its broken body. The grunt nodded at Jartas, and picked up a plasma pistol. As Jartas turned around, his eyes shrunk in fear. The covenant camp had gone to hell. Deformed and infected soldiers of all kinds where massacring their normal counterparts. An infected grunt tore ravenously at a brute, eventfully getting him down and drawing the attention of more infected as they tore him limb from limb. Jartas looked bleakly around him, the screams and yells of his allies flooding his ears. He saw a jackal run at the exit, suddenly being leapt upon by an infected brute, who tore the jackals head off, purple blood spurting everywhere as the brute lapped it up.

"BACK YOU FIENDS!" Jartas heard Tyranus yell, as he beat back horde after horde of infected with his hammer, the gravity effect sending them flying. Suddenly an infected brute picked up a mauler, and fired. The slug sent the chieftain reeling, just enough for a grunt to chomp down on his Achilles' tendon. He yelled in pain as he fell, and looked up at Jartas.

"HELP ME YOU FOOL!" He reached a hoof out weakly, and Jartas turned, galloping out of the wrecked covenant camp at full speed,leaping over bodies, both alive and dead, as he left the burning camp behind, and ran into the city, leaving Tyranus and any other unlucky souls to their doom.

(Present time)

Chess squad had set up a small camp, with a fire and tent. Pawns and Bishop took guard, with Rook and Queen tending to Knight.

"You think he's gonna be ok?" Bishop asked Pawns, who sighed and nodded.

"For the billionth time yes... You know, you ask so much, I'd think you have... Feelings for him?" Pawns chuckled, and looked down at Bishop's icon, which had just previously showed her calm face, was now bright red and smiling.

"I-I do-do not!" Pawns chuckled and shrugged.

"Whatever you say... Whatever you say." Bishop hissed at Pawns, but made no move to fight. Rook stepped out of the tent, and was followed by Queen.

"Hey Bishop? Knight wants to see you." Bishop bolted up right, and dashed Into the tent.

"See? I knew it." Pawns smiled and went back to lookout, as Queen laughed and Rook just shook his head.

Knight lay on medical cot, his sides wrapped in gauze and his wing in a splint. Bishop opened the tent quickly and pulled up a stool and sat beside Knight, smiling at him, her armour and helmet removed.

"You ok?" She asked curiously, rubbing his forehead softly. Knight nodded a bit, and smiled, happy to see Bishop.

"Yeah I'm good, thanks for asking." Bishop scooted knight over a bit, and lay down beside him, causing the Pegasus to blush intensely.

"This ok?" Bishop asked as she snuggled close to him, burying her face in his furry chest. He nodded, and wrapped his good wing around the orange unicorn, kissing her forehead. She blushed heavily and looked up at him.

"Knight?"

"Yeah Bishop?"

Bishop kissed his lips softly, and pulled away, looking down.

"I-I think I love you.." Knight smiled warmly and kisses her back, rubbing her forehead.

"I love you to." Bishop grinned, and cuddled closely to the larger ODST, sighing contently." But why me? Why not Rook or Pawns or King?" Bishop lowered her gaze slyly.

"It's just..... Your aggressive attitude and recklessness..... Turns me on..." She purred lustily, and kissed Knight deeply, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him into a lover's kiss. Knight could've sworn he was dreaming, but he wasn't. He kissed Bishop back, and settled in for the events to come.

Chapter 11- sacrifice-

Pawns was sitting on the edge of the camp, whistling and trying everything he could to forget what he heard last night. Rook just insisted on leaving the camp multiple times, but every time he returned, he swore Bishop's moans got louder. Queen was stuck with a massive amount of red on her face, her cheeks very hot. Suddenly, the tent flaps parted and Bishop trotted out, stumbling a bit, and smiling dazedly, her mane tussled and her face damp from sweat, her face red as fire.

"G-good morning guys." She stuttered as the unicorn lay down, trying to regain her composure. Rook nodded, and looked in the tent. Knight was laying on his back, legs sprawled out and his wings twitching.

"Well, when you were busy getting it on with Knight, we found something out." Pawns said triumphantly, for he had discovered this all on his own." I snuck out last night and got some info on where the Covenant went." Everyone leaned forward slightly, and even knight seemed to stir in his sleep." The covies are all dead." Queen tilted her head, and Rook just shook his.

"Impossible, there is no other ODST squad to do that." Pawns stamped his hoof down.

"That's the point. It wasn't UNSC personnel who did that. I saw a bunch of dead bodies, but the wounds.... They weren't inflicted by bullets or blades. They were organic, showed signs of infection. They were killed and infected by a parasite."

"You mean like zombies?" Rook asked quizzically. Pawns nodded.

"Yeah, and we gotta get the buck out of this city. Gimme a sec I'll call King for EVAC." A pinging noise was heard as Pawns used his helmets com link to contact the squads Overlord. The three others just sat around." Ok good news and bad news. We got a pelican dropship inbound. Bad news, it picked up so much civilians it can hold all of us. Except one." The camp suddenly went dead quiet. Even Knight's snoring stopped.

"We'll cross that bridge when it comes. Until then, we wait." Queen stated, and pulled up her spartan laser, her helmet having detected something." Chess squad enemy inbound!" The troops got into a defensive position, and waited. To their surprise and fear, a pair of hunters stomped around the corner. They had massive bulky shields and armour, and a high powered fuel rod gun mounted on their shoulder. The first hunter gave a grunt of surprise, and pointed at the ODST's." Someone wake Knight up! We gotta hold this position!" Rook yelled and opened fire. The billets harmlessly bounced off the hunter's shields, and the trudged forward slowly. Bishop's sniper jolted, and the high powered rounds barley scratched the armour.

"These things shrug off bullets like nothing!" Queen yelled, and tossed a frag at the two enemies. They just pulled up their shields, the explosion bouncing harmlessly off them. Pawns ran off and woke knight up, handing him his shotgun." No time to explain just fight!" He yelled, and ran back out. The hunters had now flanked the camp, firing their file rods and causing massive craters to form around the stranded ODST's." Pawns the hay is that EVAC?!?!" Queen shouted and fired her laser at a hunter, the scorching heat of the laser inflicting minimal damage on it. As it reared up to shoot her, the sound of shells hitting the ground was heard as the hunter was torn to bloody ribbons. A pelican dropship had came around, and used its minigun to destroy one of them.

"This is Dragon 1-1, we have room for four of you, get one." Rook hopped on first, along with knight and Bishop. Queen stated behind, along with Pawns." Pawns get on that dropship!" She yelled and tried to fire her laser, but it didn't work."it's jammed? Dragon 1-1 fire support!" The pelican just levitated instead.

"Bingo ammo, get on or get left behind." The pilot said. The second hunter suddenly went ballistic, seeing its brother killed. It beat Queen to the floor, and raised its massive shield. Chess Squad watched, frozen in fear. Queen closed her eyes, but instead of feeling it crush her, she felt something warm drip on her. She looked up, and saw pawns had taken the hit, the jagged shield having torn his chest and back, blood dripping off him.

"Oh my god..... P-pawns?" Queen stuttered weakly, as Pawns grinned, and pushed the hunter off, and picked Queen up, tossing her onto the ship, using his last bit of energy to do so.

"Guys hold her down ok?" He mumbled, as Knight and Rook held the screaming mare back. The hunter growled again, and kicked pawns down, planting a massive hoof on his head. Through tears, Queen thought she saw Pawns mouth the words I love you.

"PAWNS NO! DONT DIE PAWNS! I LOVE YOU!" She sobbed and yelled, struggling against her teammates. Pawns smiled, and saluted her, as the hunter brought down its hoof.

The dropship flew off, leaving the hunter victoriously roaring and hoisting up Pawns broken body. Queen lay in the dropship, curled up and sobbing.

"W-why not me? Why him...." She cried and lamented loudly, Chess Squad watching sadly, Knight crying a bit.

"He sacrificed his life for you Queen. He must've loved you a lot." Rook said, and patted her back. Queen looked up with tear stained eyes and blinked.

"W-w-why d-didn't he tell me earlier? I always did kinda like him...." She moaned and went back to her quiet crying. Suddenly an alarm went off, and all the ponies heads went up, looking at the red light.

"D-dragon 1-1 is losing altitude, reason unknown, brace for impact!" The civilians crouched down, and Chess Squad put on their armour, and opened the door of the dropship.

"EVERYONE JUMP NOW! YOU HAVE A BETTER CHANCE OF SURVIVING  THE FALL!" Knight yelled, and hurried the people out, some more reluctant then others. As the last one got out, Knight grabbed his shotgun, and flicked his head.

"Hey, are we going or wh-" his words where cut off as the pelican spun wildly by a broken building, a rebar that was jutting out had impaled Knight and sucked him out of the dropship. Bishop just stared blankly, and stumbled forward, as the ship slammed into the ground...

Chapter 12-loss-

Knight grimaced, and looked down. The rebar had punctured his lower torso, his large intestine dangling out slightly. He moaned, and leaned his head a bit, seeing he was atleast 30 feet off the ground, the burning wreckage of the Pelican below him. As his visor started to spark out, it being linked to his heartbeat, the last thing he thought was "heh.... I didn't die a virgin...."

Bishop came to, laying on her back, her body burnt and cut. She panicked, and remembered what happened with Knight. She tried to stand, but found she couldn't. She looked down, and found the reason. Her legs where broken and bleeding . She started to panic even more, the blood having stopped flowing after  all of it flowed out. She lay down, and looked over at Queen. The poor Alicorn was obviously dead. The minigun of the pelican had broken off, and smashed her chest, her visor red from all the blood she would've coughed up. She whimpered a bit, and tapped her helmet.

"K-king?" She got the respond of something she didn't account for.

"Bishop, I-I ain't gonna be taking for long.... Covies took over the station and slaughtered everyone, I'm hiding in a closet... We didn't complete this mission I guess. Sorry buddy. I called in a Havok-8 gigaton nuke to clear out the city. Maybe you and Rook can AUGGHH!" A scream was heard and then static, as shots were heard from a plasma rifle. Bishop sighed, and sat up.

"Killed by friendly fire huh?" She cried softly, and a hoof touched her shoulder. It was Rook, his armour torn and bloody.

"Come with me." He stated blankly, and picked her up, setting her in a warthog jeep that had survived the crash of the pelican.

"B-but what about?" Rook didn't look at her, but gruffly remarked.

"Their all dead. We're all that's left." Bishop cried a bit, and nodded, as Rook slammed down the gas, and the jeep tore off. The ride was full of panic and suspense, as they passed multiple camps of civilians, all

Trying to stop the jeep with wails and moans.

"Rook we gotta save them!" Bishop yelled, and looked back.

"We can't, this jeep won't hold more people. I wish we could but we can't. Either the flood or the covies or the nuke will kill em." As they smashed through a small covenant blockade and boarded the Tsavo Highway, Bishop curled up and fell asleep.

Knight suddenly woke up again, his helmet sparking and turning on. A small clock readout in front of him showed 2:31 till nuke impact.

"Son of a.." He mumbled, and looked around. The sun had stared to rise, and it gave the city the light of something you would only see in heaven. He smiled, and looked across the skyline, and saw his saviour. A Phantom dropship was flying low enough for him to board it. He pushed back, and winced as the rebar pulled out of him. As the dropship

Passed Into view, Knight grinned. It was full of engineers. Those things were harmless. He grunted and shoved off the bar, flailing his arms as he landed in the troop bay, nearly sliding off it. He gripped the edge with all his strength, and pulled himself up. He snuck into the cockpit, and saw a grunt driving it. He grabbed a plasma wrench off the floor, and hit the grunt as hard as he could with it. He pushed the body out, and sat down, trying to figure out how to fly the ship." Maybe I should read the instructions..." He mumbled, and suddenly the ship bucked, and started to fly straight towards the ground. Instantly an engineer woke up, and flew over to Knight, and took control of this ship. Knight smiled, and said "take me to Tsavo Highway." The engineer just grunted, and drove the ship along.

Chapter 2 -Look Ma no hooves!-

          Chapter 1 "free Falling"

The three black objects fell from the "Alicorn's Horn" drop station with intense speeds. The inside of the pods rattled and jolted, but didn't break. As they entered earths atmosphere, Rook heard Knight's com turn on. "So buckos, how's the ride?" He grinned, and mouthed the words "fun" as bishop just shook his head. As they continued their slow descent to the ground, Knights face suddenly turned to that of fear. "Buck.... My rudder won't work..." He could be seen leaning over and pulling on something.

"You're fine, we won't run Into anything. King plotted out the course, and we won't hit anything." Knight sighed, and lay back a bit.

"You better hope he's right. I don't wanna be a PHANTOM RIGHT I-" knights terrified voice was cut off as his pod slammed into the side of a covenant drop ship, punching a hole almost all the way through it. The smoking flaming wreck of both pod and ship started to veer towards the ground. Rook and bishop watched in silent awe and fear.

"D-did you see that?" Bishop's cracked voice came on weakly and in shock. Rook nodded softly, and just gripped the handle tighter."we better not end up like him. Is he still alive?" Rook looked up and checked his scanner. Knight'a heart beat was not visible.

"None of his systems are on. He could be dead or alive." Bishop nodded, and pulled the cord on his pod.

"I'm gonna land on the beach front. Good luck." As Bishop's pod was sucked out of view, Rook nodded, and kept up his flight to the centre of the city. As his pod slammed into the ground and bounced and skidded, he was jolted forward in his seat, and bounced up and down as the pod ripped up the pavement. The pod screeched to a halt by the entrance to a building. He kicked off the lid of his pod and hopped out, grabbing his magnum and smg from a compartment on the side of his pod. He checked his VISR map, and noticed a small grunt patrol on his left, 2 clicks out. The grunts were short ponies, almost as small as a colt. They had massive packs on their back that held the methane gas they breathed. They were generally bad fighters, and even more so when taken by surprise. Rook grinned in his helmet and flicked the safety off on his magnum, and slowly trotted over to the give the enemies what they deserved.

Chapter 8-bugs-

(NM Substation-117)

Queen pried open a manhole, and jumped in. The Alicorn wore light blue ODST armour, and her visor was a bleach white. She carried her mauler in one hoof, looking around the dark corridors carefully. After she landed, she contacted King about where Pawns went. When King had asked why she wanted to find him first, she bluntly replied that he was in a bad situation and needed help. That was true, so King had linked her's and Pawn's locations. She found that he was being held captive by drones in the substations. She stepped into puddle after puddle of oil and other liquids as she made her quiet and slow trip to Pawn's location.

"Why did he have to be captured by drones? They always sleep in massive numbers, so the slightest sound will wake them." She grumbled to herself as she found herself face to face with a rusty door. By the looks of it, no one had opened it in years. She tried it, and it didn't budge. Queen sighed, and pulled out her Spartan Laser. She backed up a couple paces, crouched, and held down the trigger. First a small blinking light formed on the end of it. The. The blinking light turned into an orb, and finally it grew to the size of a saucer, and released, the beam slamming into the door, and melting a massive hole through it. Queen smiled and gave the laser weapon a pat, and folded it back up, stepping through the hole and then climbing down a ladder.

"Well, I think I'm getting closer." She whispered as the number of drones on the ceiling suddenly spiked, till eventually the ceiling was one massive moving, clicking, snoring mass. "Pawns? Pawns where are you?" She hissed as she looked around quickly. Suddenly something pushed her against the wall, and held her there. As she went to scream, she heard a soothing voice quiet her.

"I'm right here. Now don't yell. You wake them and we all die. Nod if you understand me." Queen nodded, and Pawns smiled cockily, letting her go." Good to see a friendly around here." Queen sighed and smacked her teammate upside the helmet.

"Well at least you didn't wake up the drones. Lets get the hay out of here." Pawns nodded eagerly, and the pair slinked off.