Halo: The Interlopers

At seven PM, Mark spoke to the two soldiers and one civilian he had available to him for this operation.

“Gentlemen, the clock stops in five hours. If we succeed, by that time the whole God-damned target building will be a pile of rubble that will put the fear of God into any being stupid enough to fucking think of committing a terrorist act like these rogue Solar Sabers are. If we fail, then any of us with the misfortune to survive will have the solemn duty to euthanize any human or pony still alive and suffering. Understood?”

Carpenter, Wall and Twilight all nodded; they grasped the severity of their situation.

“All right, let’s roll.”

The four of them had their equipment ready, and they proceeded to their objective, exiting the building they’d stayed in. The trek was short and uneventful, and they set up the decoy rocket launchers at the positions they had planned, rigging the remote firing mechanisms to them. The trip to the positions and setting the decoys took an hour total.

Four hours to midnight.

From there they proceeded to the power station. It was already very dark despite the early hour, with the smoke blocking what looked like a full moon. The area of operations had literally heated up, enough that the team had to roll up their sleeves to cope. They kept their newly-acquired gloves on, since it’d be easier with them on when they had to climb later.

“The fuck is with this weather? Yesterday it was colder than a witch’s tit in a brass bra, and now it feels like a damn jungle,” Carpenter complained.

“Probably Covie plasma fucking up the weather system up north; I’d say the op that kept us from getting more backup isn’t going too well. Or they blew a Covie ship in the same area and the reactor going critical glassed several square miles. I can see either of those messing up the whole region’s weather,” Mark explained. He knew from experience the effect that a single Covenant ship could have on the weather if it glassed an area or exploded. “With any luck, the guys up north blew an attacking Covenant ship and turned the area into a glass wasteland.”

“Target in sight. I see three guards in the south side of the substation, none in overwatch positions,” Wall reported.
Mark checked his weapon. His M392 DMR had a suppressor attached, so he would be able to eliminate the guards stealthily at range. Up close, the suppressor would sound like a loud hand clap.

Mark took aim and dropped the three guards in as many seconds. They hit the ground, the resulting noise no louder than the noise of the substation itself.

“Move up,” Mark whispered over the radio. His team obeyed, and they entered the substation silently. “Wall, Carp, plant on the west side; Twi ‘n me will take the east. Go.”

They hid the bodies afterwards, desiring to avoid setting off any alarms.

Twilight was wielding an MA37 assault rifle with a suppressor attached; it had the same effectiveness as the one on Mark’s, although the shorter range would diminish the advantage somewhat. Still, the noise the strained power nodes made would drown out the sound of their weapons.

Twilight stopped, and pointed to a lone guard pony near their objective. Mark had given her a crash course in the skills she’d need for the op a few hours ago. He also told her to let him handle any close encounters if possible.

Way to go, you’ve turned her into a professional killer like you.

I did what I had to. It was either teach her to kill or let her get killed.

Mark crept up behind the pony, took a firm hold of its head, and twisted it quickly. The pony’s neck snapped, and his head was stuck facing backwards. He dragged the limp body into a locker.

Twilight Sparkle moved up to Mark’s side, and Mark took a charge from her backpack. He hid it in a nook near a control panel and a power node, and set the charge to be remotely detonated. The explosive he planted would probably be able to level the building and accomplish the objective on its own, but “probably” wasn’t good enough given the nature of their mission. They needed certainty.

“This is Team One, we’ve planted the charge,” Mark whispered into his comms.

“Team Two, charge planted,” Wall responded.

“Copy. Exfil and head to the rendevous.”

Mark and Twi covertly left the building, and headed north to the RV point. It took twenty minutes for them to reach it without being discovered, but when they did reach it, Wall and Carpenter were waiting for them. They could see helicopters overhead, buzzing about the exterior of the building. They opened the manhole to the sewer, dropped in, and closed the manhole behind them.

The sewer stank of decay, probably a result of the sanitation plant being abandoned during the invasion. They stayed on the small walkways where possible, but they had to trudge through the muck eventually. It seeped into their boots, soaking their socks with a horrid filth that would require them to change socks as soon as possible. For Twilight, there was nothing protecting her hooves from the sludge.

They soon reached the maintenance tunnels, which would allow discreet and direct access to the building itself. At that point they wiped the mud from their boots and hooves, and changed socks where applicable. They didn’t want a trail of sewer scum to give them away, or a matching stench.

“Okay, I’m blowing the substation in thirty seconds, and beginning the decoys’ firing sequence a minute after that. Thirty seconds after the first rocket hits, we move in. The decoys will fire two rockets every twenty seconds, so we’ll have two minutes of rocket fire totaling twelve rockets. We need to be in the elevator shafts by the time the firing stops. From there we plant charges on the tenth floor at key load bearing columns; we’ll have to do it before we disarm the bomb instead of after like we planned, because of the helicopters watching the outside.”

Ten seconds later, he began the first diversion. They could hear and feel the faint rumble of the explosion from where they were, as the substation was blasted into nothingness, taking the guards with it.

A minute later, he set off the decoys’ automatic firing sequences. They would now fire at the intended intervals on their own, with no input necessary. A few moments later, the first rocket hit, and they began counting down to entering the building.

“Go,” Mark whispered after what felt like an eternity.

Carpenter began climbing the ladder up, Wall followed him, and Twilight jumped onto Mark’s back as he brought up the rear. They entered a cramped room, filled with pipes and valves. Sealing the entrance behind them, they drew their weapons.

One by one they stepped out of the room, weapons ready, only to find the hallway they entered was empty. They proceeded slowly, avoiding making the slightest sound. They could hear weapons firing upstairs, almost certainly at the faux attackers.

Good, the decoys are working.

They reached an elevator. Mark holstered his rifle, and began to pry the doors open using his augmented strength. It took several seconds, but the doors opened.

The team entered the shaft, and Mark closed the door behind them most of the way. They hooked up their rappelling harnesses to the cables of the elevators, and began the long climb.

It took them fifteen minutes to reach the tenth floor, where Mark again pried open the elevator door. When he opened it, there were two guards looking at him. Before they could fire, Mark’s team shot them, their suppressed weaponry ripping the ponies into chunks.

They all exited the shaft, and proceeded to their assigned positions. They planted the bombs on the supports without incidents of any kind. After that, they regrouped by the elevator shaft and hooked back up to the cables.

They climbed to the fourteenth floor, one short of their objective. It would be too dangerous to assault them while opening an elevator door by hand and unhooking from harnesses, so they were going to attack from the stairwell.

They entered the staircase from their level and proceeded upwards. When they reached the door to the fifteenth floor, they unscrewed their silencers and stacked up. Carpenter was in front with his M45 Tactical Shotgun, then Wall with his MA37 assault rifle, followed by Mark with his M392 DMR and Twilight in the rear with her assault rifle.

Then something happened they hadn’t planned for; the electricity came back on. With it came music, light and air conditioning.

“Fuck,” Carpenter said in a loud whisper. “Do we go on boss?”

“Seeing as cutting the power was meant to aid infiltration, and we’re at the target location now, we keep going and stick to the plan. Too late to turn back now,” Mark answered. He began counting down. “Three, two, one, go!”

Carpenter kicked down the door and the team rushed through it. The first thing they saw was a Saber hit a button on a computer, and the first thing they heard was music over the PA system. Mark recognized the tune from one of the many movie nights he’d attended aboard UNSC vessels.

Wall delivered the first shots of the battle, killing a pair of Sabers. The bodies hit the floor, although the sound was drowned out by the gunfire that followed.

The team rushed for cover, hiding behind pillars and desks as they returned fire. Bullets chipped the floors, walls and columns of the room, filling the air with dust and littering the floor with dust and chunks of concrete.

Mark popped out first, running from one pillar to another, taking pot shots as he went. He managed to hit three different Sabers, the powerful 7.62x51mm rounds his rifle fired taking each of them out of the fight. He rolled into cover, enemy fire following his path.

Carpenter leaned out and fired his shotgun, the massive pellets suppressing the defenders and gouging baseball-sized holes in the room’s furniture and floor. He tossed a fragmentation grenade to finish, and the explosive sending lethal fragments in all directions, piercing the armor and helmets of the defending Solar Sabers, killing everything within ten meters of the blast’s center.

Wall dove from his current cover to another refuge, firing as he went. Upon reaching fresh cover, he peeked out and fired several bursts at the Sabers, scoring several hits. Twilight leaned out and fired a few bursts of her own. Return fire grazed them, just some barely missing vital arteries, and some hitting them directly in their body armor. Fortunately, their UNSC armor was more than a match for the weapons the Sabers wielded.

Mark charged at a distracted Saber, flipping the pony’s shotgun around and blowing his head into chunks. He followed by swinging the shotgun at another Saber, hitting her upside the head and breaking her neck. He finished by throwing the weapon at a Saber twenty feet away, stunning him.

As he did this, Twilight saw a pair of machinegunners train their weapons on Mark, and she erected a magical barrier. The purple shield held long enough for Mark to return to cover, by which time the barrier wilted under the hail of bullets. He looked at Twilight and gave an appreciative nod and smile, which she returned.

Bullets continued to fly at them, whizzing through the air and impacting the polished granite walls of the building’s interior. The team fired back, their weapons chattering as they blindly aimed them in the general direction of the defending soldiers. Not a single round of that volley hit.

Suddenly, the return fire stopped, and a bounty of clattering could be heard.

“We surrender!” Several of the Sabers shouted.

Mark picked up a piece of shattered glass and used it to peek around the corner. They had indeed tossed their weapons aside, all out of reach. Their heads were on the ground, and their bodies were splayed neatly to show they were serious. Mark motioned for his team to form up.

“I don’t buy this,” Mark whispered.

“No way they can attack us now; not the way they’re positioned. I think they’re serious,” Twilight responded.

“Can’t risk that; some of them still have magic.”

“Then what do you propose we do?” Wall asked.

“Kill them. I’m not taking any chances with assholes as slippery as these guys are supposed to be.”

“They’re unarmed! You can’t just kill unarmed soldiers, it’s against the Geneighva Conventions!” Twilight protested in an elevated whisper.

“Fine. You think you can check them with magic, Twi?”

“I know I can.”

“Do it.”

The four of them stepped out from behind cover. As they did so, a series of explosions rocked the room as the ponies committed mass suicide with their grenades. Their bodies formed a gruesome sponge for the shrapnel, and Mark and his companions were miraculously unscathed.

“Mother of Celestia, they just…” Twilight trailed off, horrified by the fanaticism of these soldiers. These soldiers who were sworn to obey Princess Celestia killed themselves without hesitation. This wasn’t self-sacrifice, it was suicide.

Mark, Wall and Carpenter simply rushed through the smoke, hurrying to reach the bomb they had come to defuse. They approached it, and stared at the weapon of mass destruction before them.

“What now?” Carpenter asked.

“Now… Now you two and Twilight secure the area, see if there are any survivors. If that Major commanding these bastards is still alive, I want him to stay that way so I can interrogate him.”

The two soldiers silently complied. Mark turned his attention to the bomb.

It was a binary agent, just as Emmerich had said it was. The whole device was a meter tall, a meter thick, and two meters long. It had two transparent canisters containing blue and orange liquids, and an empty chamber where they would presumably mix. On the side facing Mark, there was a small display and keypad, presumably to be operated by using some object to push the buttons, although Mark’s fingers meant that he needed no such thing.

Two hours left.

“Boss! We found the major.”

Twilight carried the blue pegasus to near where Mark was by using her magic, and set the pony down by him, leaning the officer against a nearby pillar. Mark walked up to her and knelt to her level.

The major stared coldly at him, her blue eyes attempting to bore into Mark’s very psyche through sheer intimidation. On many men, women and ponies she would have succeeded, but Mark had beaten death in many a proverbial staring contest, and wasn’t bothered in the least.

“Thanks. Get back to securing the area.” Mark ordered his team, who promptly complied and left him alone with her. “How do I disarm the bomb?”

The major broke into raucous laughter after Mark asked her that question.

“What? You think I’d just tell you?” The major retorted with an obnoxious grin.

“No, but I was hoping the sequence to disarm it would be easily obtained. Might I ask if it will?”

“I’m afraid not.”

“I see.”

Mark grabbed the major by her blond mane, and ripped out a bloody chunk. The unfortunate officer screamed in agony as her captor tossed her golden lock, now mixed with red, to the side.

“It’s a simple request, I’m not asking you to tell me the name of every citizen in this city. The numbers, Major.”

“Fuck off.”

Mark gave her a right hook, sending her the floor, where she lied on her side. He followed up with a kick to the stomach.

The major yelled more profanities at him defiantly through gritted teeth.

“Fucking lunatic!” Mark said, kicking her in the ribs, a thud coinciding with the impact.

“Overgrown, shit-eating monkey!” The major was beginning to cough up blood.

Mark lifted her up by the mane. “Does this hurt?” He asked. The mare simply spat in his face. Mark wiped the spittle off of his lightly-tanned features and out of his black-brown beard. “Let me ask you something. Would you like me to let you go after this little session, turn you in to the authorities, or for me to let you bleed out when I’m done? Because the first one is only an option if you cooperate.”

The major looked at him fearfully now. “L-let me go?”

“Good choice. Now hold up your end of the bargain.”

“The code to disarm is 13576.”

“Thank you. Now if you gave me the wrong info, I will toss you out of the building before the bomb can detonate so you have enough time to think about what you did.”

Mark walked over to the bomb, sweating as he did so, and adding a new layer of stink to his body on top of the ten hectic days he’d been in Manehattan. After a quick prayer, he punched in the sequence he was given.

“Come on, come on,” He breathed.

The bomb’s display lit up green. “Detonation sequence aborted” it read on the top line, under it “Agent mixing sequence aborted”, and “Destroying chemical agents” on the bottom. Mark breathed a sigh of relief. He wouldn’t have to worry about this particular bomb or its components again.

He strode over to the Major and picked her up.

He carried her to a window, and punched a gaping hole in it. He then held her through the hole, over the street hundreds of feet below.

“What the fuck are you doing!?” The major demanded.

Mark released her and let her fall the hundreds of feet to the street below.

“Team, regroup!” He barked. Within twenty seconds Twilight Sparkle, Lieutenant Curtis Wall and Warrant Officer Eddie Carpenter were assembled before him.

“Bomb’s taken care of; it’s time to exfil,” Mark said quickly.

“What did you do with the major?” Twilight Sparkle queried.

“I let her go,” Mark replied.

Carpenter and Wall looked at the hole in the nearby window and smirked at the not-so-subtle play on words as they realized what he did. In an uncharacteristic display of obliviousness, Twilight assumed he had simply allowed her to live. All three of them ignored the obvious signs of torture that surrounded them, ignorant to the hints of Mark’s enhanced interrogation. That suited him just fine.

The ragtag team assembled by a nearby window, fixed their harnesses to their rappelling cables, secured their lines, and descended the exterior of the building. They took four minutes to reach the bottom, and they disconnected from their cables when they did.

The group began to head back to their base of operations back at Wall’s marefriend’s place. When they were two blocks clear of the building they had just escaped, Mark blew the charges. They all turned to watch.

The top floors of the building came collapsing down in a cascade of concrete. The weight of the impact caused the floors below them to collapse in turn, creating an avalanche of steel and stone as the building tumbled to the ground. The instigating explosion had created thunder, albeit thunder that paled in comparison to the deafening roar created by the falling architecture.

The group began to turn around and head back to Helia’s when a “natural” disaster struck; a quake to be specific. The ground began to shake, asphalt and concrete cracked under the strain, and gouts of flame rose from sewer ponyholes. In response the team sprinted as fast as they could towards their destination, and hopefully away from the epicenter. As it turned out, they weren’t fast enough.

One of the skyward ponyhole covers fell onto Wall, impacting his left shoulder and glancing his head. Carpenter grabbed him and carried the semi-conscious soldier over his shoulder.

An exploding vehicle sent shrapnel their way, some of it connecting with Twilight, and leaving deep gashes in her right side. Mark turned and saw her lying unconscious.

“No!!” He shouted. He rushed back to grab her, and threw her over his shoulders, her legs dangling on either side of his neck. He grabbed her legs to hold her securely, and ran towards Helia’s.

When they finally arrived there, Carpenter and a now-conscious Wall were the first in. Helia gasped as she saw the blood dripping from each of the four returning champions, crying as she saw the state of Wall.

“Dear Celestia…” She whispered.

“I’m fine, babe,” Wall replied with a weak grin. He found his bed and fell onto it in relief.

Mark took Twilight to their room, stacked his sleeping bag on top of hers, and set her down on the now thicker padding. Mark felt her pulse and found it to be below normal. He rushed back into the main room of the apartment to find Wall with a white bedsheet wrapped around his head, blood staining the spot where his wound was.

“Do you have a first aid kit?” Mark demanded.

“No, sorry,” Helia replied.

“Okay, I need some sheets, rubbing alcohol or booze, and any medical materials you might have. Got it?”

Helia trotted around the apartment gathering things, and returned to Mark a few minutes later. He carried his supplies back to the room Twilight was in. She was conscious now, and the pain was obvious on her face.

“What happened?” She asked in a groan.

Mark set down his supplies “You were hit by shrapnel from an exploding vehicle after that quake. I think I may have caused an explosion in the sewer when I destroyed the building, but I could be wrong.”

“A-am I going to die?” She whispered.

Mark’s eyes started to water when she asked that, as the stone mask that was his face crumbled. He wore a look of genuine concern, rested his hand on her cheek and stroked it gently with his thumb, wiping away dirt caked on her face. “No-no-no-no-no-no-no, you’ll- you’ll be fine! Just- just stay with me okay?”

Mark poured vodka into a cloth and began to clean Twilight’s wounds with it. She screamed as it burned her wounds, and quickly passed out. Mark continued to sanitize her wounds, and when he finished, he began to tear up sheets to use as bandages. He wound them tightly around the wounds, the makeshift bandages tied tight enough that they stopped the bleeding quickly. After that he tucked her into her sleeping bag, his under hers so that she could rest more comfortably.

Mark moved into a corner to pray.

He began to cry silently. He knew he couldn't afford to let anyone or anypony know how he felt, but he couldn't take seeing Twilight like this. So he wept until his tear ducts ran dry.