Haylo 3: Orbital Drop Shock Ponies

---Lunamumba District. Immediately after drop---

The recording began with a view of the Slipspace shockwave washing over the city from the perspective of one of the security cameras. The blue particles in the air stopped speeding away and began drifting down to the ground. A low roaring noise could be heard in the distance, growing louder until its source came racing across the sky, bouncing off a skyscraper and smashing the camera. The static screen quickly replaced itself with another view as the drop pod bounced across the street, hit a balcony, flipped through the air and finally crashed in the corner of the balcony in a cloud of dust.

Spitfire's voice crackled onto the comm channel. "Nrgh...Come in squad...You still alive out there, Rainbow?"

While Dash was very much alive, her eyes refused to stop spinning. "Yeah, I think so..."

"My manual release isn't working, I can't get out. How about yours?"

Dash's hatch swung open the wrong way and the mare tumbled out, landing on her back. "Ow...Yeah, it's working juuuuuust fine..."

"Right then, once you're done trying to get a perfect score from the Covenant you can come give me a hoof." Spitfire told her dryly.

Dash flipped over and went to get her weapons from her upside-down pod. "I'm sorry, did I do something wrong? Last time I checked, YOU were the one who left the Wonderbolts." she retorted, pulling her pistol over and snapping it to her side. She heard the Captain sigh.

"Not this again...Look, I thought  we all agreed it was for the best. Besides, working directly under Princess Luna isn't an opportunity somepony can just pass up."

"Oh yeah? Try telling that to Soarin'." she replied, tugging at her assault rifle which had gotten jammed in the crash.  "Do you *grunt* even *grunt* realize *grunt* how crushed he was?" The rifle popped free with the last grunt.

"H-he what?"

Dash smirked, as she could almost imagine the Captain's cheeks turning red. "You heard me. Now then..." she said, taking advantage of the pony off her guard. "Mind telling me why you decided to pick my squad for this crazy mission?"

"First, you're the most loyal pony I know, and second...don't you remember, that night after the show where Scootaloo and Fleetfoot were betting on us? What you asked me in the morning?"

Dash looked up and saw a Phantom flying overheard, its turret trained on her. "I remember never getting an answer..." she mumbled.

"Say again? You're breaking up, Dash."

"I said sit tight! I'll be there in ten seconds flat!" she yelled, then ran to the edge of the balcony and took cover behind the sandbag walls. "Just be careful. We missed our LZ and landed right in Covenant controlled territory." Spitfire remarked. Dash simply replied "Relax, Captain, I'll be fine."

"Well I'm curious about how you plan on rescuing me when you're dead..."

The dropship flew down to the streets and deployed a few Brutes and a pack of Grunts at the bottom of the slope, who immediately began making their way up to her. Dash gave a grin and loaded her rifle, before hopping off the ledge and into the fray.

The first Grunts dropped dead with a few quick shots from her pistol and she got airborne, using her rocket boosters to propel herself into the nearest Brute, breaking his shield and knocking it to the ground. Dash took no time in blowing its brains out and leaping to cover. The remaining Grunts panicked and ran in all directions while she quickly switched to her assault rifle. She popped up, intending to gun them down quickly, when a gold Brute knocked the box away and almost smashed her into the ground.

Rolling out of the way, the pegasus unloaded a full clip into the alien, then zipped behind and bucked it, snapping its spine. A few more pistol rounds picked off the last of the Grunts and Dash continued down the road. A voice lit up her helmet radio as she went through a tunnel.

"Trooper! Over here!"

The voice's owner emerged from behind the wreckage of a Warthog, a griffin accompanied by two other soldier ponies. "We saw your pod hit. That must've been a wild ride."

"Yeah...Have you seen any others hit?"

"Ah, negative. But it was hard to see anything after that flash..."

One of the ponies spoke up suddenly, "Actually, I saw a pod near yours. I think it crashed near Hayari plaza..."

"Roger that, thanks!" Dash replied, setting a marker on her HUD. Before she could take off, the griffin held up a claw. "Don't suppose you could give us a hoof? We were trying to get to a rally point when this fog appeared and scrambled our long-range radios."  Dash nodded in reply. "Some of these buildings are open, so you might be able to use that to flank the Covenant on the streets."

"Alright then, let's get to work!" The mare said, then galloped down an alley and turned sharply through the first open door, shooting up the stairs and checking that her weapons were all fully fully loaded.

She was so busy she stumbled over a corpse of an Elite.

After pulling herself off the ground, she saw the corpse, plus a few more of both Elites and Brutes, all with plasma burns. The Superintendent's voice crackled over a nearby loudspeaker. "PLEASE, SLOW DOWN."

"The buck happened here?"

"FINAL NOTICE: BILL PAST DUE."

She would've paused to process what just happened, but the growls of Brutes down below took her attention. She quickly swapped her pistol for a nearby weapon and readied her assault rifle. The squad in the alley signaled to her, and Dash took aim at the nearest target and opened fire, the spray of bullets startling the five Brutes in the courtyard. The shield broke, and the alley squad followed her lead.

The Brutes were quickly dispatched, the last one getting executed by Dash's newly-acquired Mauler as she dropped down onto it. The squad moved down the street easily breezing through the Covenant patrols, until reaching a raised platform. As they cleaned out the groups there, a Grunt ran up to the edge and put down a Plasma turret. One of the pony marines noticed and turned to warn the others, but was immediately gunned down and thrown back.

The other pony watched as her partner went sailing overhead, eyes wide. "GRAPHITE, NO!!!" she screamed. The corpse landed propped up against a car and sat there, twitching slightly for a while. The mare watched him for a second, then angrily turned to the turret. She flicked her wings open and readied a grenade. "You two go on without me. I'm taking that sonuvabitch out!" The griffin lunged to stop her, but she was already flying at the turret, screaming her head off with the live grenade in one hoof. Dash and the griffin ducked for cover, avoiding the bloody explosion.

The two remaining troops came out of cover to inspect the damage. The ledge was coated in a large splatter of red and blue blood, some of it covering the car they were hiding behind below the platform. Dash turned to the plasma-burnt trooper, closing his eyes with a sigh and turning back around to see the griffin picking up the plasma turret. "What?" he said when Dash shot him a look. "I'm not gonna let free ammo go to waste!" Regardless, they moved on down the street towards the rally point and Hayari Plaza.

The next bend took them right into the heart of a Jackal patrol, but before the duo could move in for the kills a beam of plasma shot between Dash's ears.

"SNIPER! FIND SOME COVER!!"

Her ally, however, was one step ahead of her. The griffin had already grabbed her and flown behind a nearby footbridge, dropping the ODSP off and flying onto the bridge for a better position. Dash picked herself off the ground and looked around. She was suddenly knee-deep in another kind of carnage. Surrounding her was another group of dead Brutes and Elites, all with plasma burns.

It was then and there that Dash decided enough was enough. Hoping she was still alive, she radioed Spitfire again. "Hey Spitfire, what's with all the Elites?"

"What do you mean?"

"I haven't seen any in the patrols, and the ones I have found are all dead, surrounded by Brutes both with plasma scars."

The following sigh crackled over the headset. "I wish I could tell you, Rainbow. I really do. But I'm afraid that's-"

"Classified, yeah...Guess some things never change..."

She meandered through the corpsefield towards another dead body - a zebra marine - and tried to get its field recorder out. As soon as she popped open the storage panel, a cloud of blue smoke burst forth. The wiring had been burnt by a plasma rifle and rendered useless. Just as she stood back up, the sound of a Beam Rifle went off on the bridge. Dash flew up, intending to gun down the Jackal holding it, and found the griffin on the far end holding the rifle, picking off Covenant down the road. The griffin glanced over at Dash and shouted "Well don't just stand there! Get down there and give me a hoof!"

Dash raced into the fray, eager to comply. The Jackals had set up camp right in front of a security gate, deploying a sniper nest in the road. The nest's occupant took aim at the pegasus before suddenly ragdolling, tumbling off the tower and into its allies. Dash used the temporary distraction to lob a grenade in, picking off several of the shielded bastards. The Mauler and the griffin's sniping quickly dispatched the others, The last Grunt went down (after some amount of its panicked screaming) and the marines regrouped in front of the security door. "The rally point should be just through here..." the griffin said, shouldering his turret. Dash turned to him and replied "You don't sound all that happy."

"If the Covenant have gotten this far, then they might've already killed the others."

"Well, there's only one way to find out." The ODSP said, fiddling with the door controls. The security door slid apart to reveal a large crossroad with multiple bridges, and a group of marines under fire. One of them, a unicorn mare, saw them  from her vantage point on one of the bridges. "Hey, mules! We could use some help here!" Dash flew up to her, taking a few shots at the Covvies before asking "What's the situation looking like?"

"Not good, ma'am. There's only about 5 of us left of the 30 that came here, and we've lost our sniper."

"Where was the sniper nest?"

"See that Jackal on the far building?"

Dash peeked around the corner and indeed saw the Jackal, who tried to shoot her mane off.

"She was in there, on the left-hoof side! Only way in is through the overhang just below it."

"I'll see what I can do! Hold this position and fall back if it gets too hairy!"

"Cut through those buildings and try and flank the bastards! That should buy some time!"

Dash nodded, zipping into the building. She exchanged her Mauler for an ENSC shotgun on a zebra's corpse and went down another flight of stairs to a small alcove. Just as she leapt out and ambushed the enemies nearby, Spitfire crackled onto the radio. She was panicking.

"Dash, location?!"

"Nearly there! What's going on?"

"Multiple hostiles approaching my position!"

"Ah, crud. Hang tight, I'll be right there!"

"No, it's too late! Listen carefully! If I die, you-"

The rest of the message cut short when Dash took an overcharged plasma bolt to the head, scrambling her comms and rendering her temporarily blind. "Dammit, NO!" she shouted, swinging wildly with her back legs. As soon as her systems recovered, the comm channel popped open again. "Spitfire, say something! Don't move, I'm on my way!" The ODSP wasted no timed in disposing of the nearby enemies, using her shotgun to plow through the Brutes and ducking inside the middle alcove. She galloped through the building and came upon the Jackal that shot at her earlier, who immediately received a back full of shotgun pellets for its effort. Dash continued through the building until arriving at the sniper nest, which had a clear view of the other marines. Swapping for the sniper rifle, she immediately started picking off the remaining Jackal snipers and covering her griffin ally as he plowed through the smaller infantry. The rifle ran out of ammo quite quickly and Dash switched it with her shotgun again and flew across the intersection to take out the Brutes she had missed.

After blasting through the platform the Brutes were camping out on, she went in the building, hoping to find some more marines that tried hiding there. All she got was more ammo and a few firebomb grenades, plus finding a few more corpses which didn't help her confidence at all. She trotted back down the stairs, planning on going straight to the Captain's drop pod.

So of course she never saw the blue giant bearing down on her from another hallway.

Both she and the giant went through the building wall, Dash being thrown across the intersection and colliding with the griffin defending the marines. She pulled herself up and got a better look at it, seeing the shielded arm and fuel rod cannon on it. "A Hunter?! Oh Luna dammit, I do NOT have time for this!" she groaned. The marines were too injured to take on a Hunter, so she quickly leapt to her hooves and held its attention with quick bursts of rifle fire. She kept dodging the fuel rod beams and leading the Hunter away from the marines, trying to get behind it with her shotgun. Eventually the Hunter charged her and she was able to get behind it, emptying a full clip into its exposed back.

When she looked back at the marines, the looks on their faces had her confused. The griffin was running at her full throttle, turret at the ready. "TROOPER, MOVE!" he shouted, and then realization hit her. Hunters travel in pairs, and one gets really ticked off when the other gets killed.

Time seemed to slow down as she slowly turned to see the golden Hunter charging at her. its shield held out in front of it blocked any potential weak spot, and its back was to the marines. Just as it pulled its arm back to hit her, the griffin shoved her out of the way, and time flowed normally. The griffin went flying, smashing into the wall over the former Jackal Dash had killed earlier and finally rested on the balcony. The mare slid back, and looked up just in time to see the Hunter coming for her again. She willed her thrusters to push her in reverse and she slid under the Hunter just as its shield came down on the spot where she was. Her shotgun aimed at its unguarded back, and simply said:

"Go to Tartarus."

The buckshot tore into it. The orange ooze sprayed onto her helmet but she kept firing, not giving it a second to run. Eventually the gold-plated giant finally fell, and Dash slowly got to her hooves. She stumbled a few times from her injuries from the first Hunter, but eventually got to the mangled alien. It was still alive somehow, and turned its head to look at her. She pulled the shotgun off its niche, and aimed at the creature's neck. The reticule on her HUD was gone, but she didn't care. Using her wing's armor to pull the trigger, she let the final shot ring out as the creature's head disconnected from its body and rolled down the street. Dash let out her breath, letting the adrenaline finally burn off. Before she could fall over, the other marines got to her and held her up, one of them even bringing her a medkit. Rainbow hadn't even noticed that her health meter had dropped into the red, much worse had barely any of it left. The marines assured her that they'd bring the griffin with them and patch him up. Dash nodded and went towards the security door as a Pelican swooped in to pick the marines up. She really didn't want to leave them behind, but she had more important things to do. The Captain's been kept waiting too long.

Hayari Plaza was empty for the most part. The Covenant forces seemed to be uninterested in the district, except for the Phantom pulling out of the area. The dropship had left three Grunts below, who were shooting plasma pistols at-

"The Captain's pod!"

"ATTENTION PARTY OF ONE, COME IMMEDIATELY TO LOST AND FOUND! LOWER LEVELS." The Superintendent crackled.

Dash raced over to the stairs, ran off the edge of an overhang, and glided down behind the Grunts. They never heard her coming.

A few quick bursts from her assault rifle sent the Grunts tumbling to the floor. Dash wasted no time in getting to Spitfire's pod. "Hang in there Captain, I'm here!" she said, positioning herself next to the door. She wasn't as strong as AJ, but she still had a hay of a buck. The hatch popped open after the third kick and Dash poked her head in, expecting the Captain to be ready to eat her words. The eating of the words would be delayed, however, since the pod was empty.

Dash heaved a sigh. "Of bucking course..." As she examined the pod for what might've happened, a piece of debris floated up, revealing itself to actually be a floating armored squid creature. Just as Dash turned and saw her guest, it flared its fins and activated some kind of spotlight. "Ohmygosh!" she shouted as she backed up quickly, falling over bits of debris and having to scoot away on her back. The squid made an odd, whistling kind of roar, and Dash spotted something that scared her even more: one of the thing's tentacles had Spitfire's helmet, with a large slash going up the middle. "Whoa!" Suddenly a white line shot through the thing's neck as a loud bang echoed through the plaza. She followed the fading line and spotted Twilight at the other end, who gave her an impromptu salute. Dash breathed a sigh of relief and motioned for her to come down, when a low whining filled the air and the fins on the squid creature began to close up.

Dash thought quickly and turn on her rocket boosters, sending her sliding across the floor and shooting out sparks just as the squid exploded in a cloud of plasma.

Fluttershy watched as the camera paused and zoomed in on Spitfire's helmet, outlined its trajectory, and opened the window she was currently sitting next to. The Superintendent's avatar in the corner made a happier look as the helmet went sailing in, then changed the view back to the two ODSPs.

Dash clambered back to her hooves and trotted back to the pod, meeting up with Twilight. "The hay was that? Any of your books ever said anything about them?" she asked the sniper, brushing off dust from her slide. Twilight didn't answer.

Dash popped her helmet off and held it under her wing before asking, "Hey egghead, you listening?"

Twilight just looked at the pegasus and stored her sniper rifle back onto its weapon niche.

"Ooh, I get it. Permission to speak, smartaleck."

Twilight's visor turned transparent as she replied, "No, I haven't seen those aliens before. You're welcome, by the way Sergeant." Dash sighed at the change of tone in the last word.

"Not this again...Look, how many times do I have to say I'm sorry? It's not my fault I outrank you..."

Twilight just grumbled as Dash trotted over to a piece of the squid's armor that had embedded itself in the nearby wall. A piece of Spitfire's armor was pinned to it, swinging slightly from the earlier explosion.

"Any word from AJ and Rarity?"

"Negative..."

"Flutters?"

The unicorn was silent.

"Darn...We need to get out of this fog, link up with the B-net. Maybe one of our birds saw where they crashed."

"Finally, a good idea. Let's get going."

The duo cantered off, heading into the adjoining district. The Super's camera panned back to the open window, jumping to a camera inside the building and showing the helmet buried in the sparking monitor. The video then fast forwarded to Fluttershy trotting into the office, then turned to static.

==================