Sons of Equestria

Chapter 9: The Sacrifice

  I hopped into the jet-helicopter along with several other men. I took my seat that faced towards the outside. I saw several transport pods taking of carrying their cargo of land based Ion cannons. Our vehicle lifted up, and soon we were speeding towards the attack zone. In the short time before now the ponies had been trained enough to be left with the care of Ponyville with only a few humans on hand.

  A few minutes after I had suited up, the Doctor had arrived and told us that several U.N. ships descending on what Twilight identified as Trottingham. By what the Doctor said, there were a large number of ships, larger than the number in the fleet we had.

  The helicopter stopped with a jerking motion as the engines pointed down to ease our descent slightly. While we were still five feet or so in the air, the unit jumped out and the helicopter zoomed of to pick up the next unit.

  The scene we were met with was worse than that of the Gohoritykah home world. With Max at my side, we charged up to the nearest cover, which appeared to be a ruined house. I shouldered my sniper rifle, while Max made sure his energy repeater was properly loaded. He both came out of our cover and began charging towards the main hub of the disaster.

  I fired of several rounds at the different assailants, and soon I had to release the clip and slam in the next.

  “We need to clear out a landing zone for the jet-helicopters so they can evacuate the civilians.” I said over the radio. Max nodded and began to shoot off move rounds as I began to shove away several boulders that littered the area. Suddenly a blast of energy slammed into the ground, causing Max and I to fall down.

  I looked towards the crater, then up to what had caused it. It was a covenant ship that was activating its levitation and lowering fields onto the site. I unpinned a grenade and set it to ten seconds and threw it into the levitation field. Soon an explosion was seen and both fields turned off, but that didn’t stop the covenants from coming. Soon a black field was seen as they jumped out from their ships.

  “We need to get rid of these guys and clear the area as fast as we can. I’m going to set up a support beacon.” I said as I grabbed the blue beacon from my pack and placed it in the ground and activated it, which caused it to send out a radio signal.

  I put away my rifle and took out my heavy energy repeater. I pulled the second trigger, which caused it to launch an extra battery like a RPG with about the same effect on those who were unfortunate enough to be in the area of effect. I loaded in another battery into the compartment as I pulled the first trigger, causing it to unleash a swarm of energy bolts.

  Max and I jumped behind the same cover as several Combines, robots, and Forerunners joined the field. I looked over our cover and unleashed some more energy bolts which killed a few Covenants, Combines, and Forerunners, but only succeeded in charging the robots. I ducked behind our cover and replaced one of the three batteries plugged into my gun. I checked my ammo stock and noticed it has running dry, only five sniper clips and six batteries.

  “How much ammo you got?” I said to Max. He checked inside his pouch and counted the clips as fast as he could.

  “Seven clips for my assault rifle and two for my energy repeater.” He said looking around our cover and releasing a few more shot, only to be quickly met by several clicks of an empty clip. He threw the dry clip away and took out another clip and slammed it into place. “Make that six for my assault rifle.” Suddenly several drop pods slammed into the ground, and released several U.S. soldiers that all either had L-W or normal W suits on. They began making their way towards our position while firing at our enemies, and soon ten other men where with us behind our wall.

  “Glad you could make, we were in a slight pickle for a second.” I said to the men who had joined us.

  “We you aren’t out of it yet, we didn’t get to stock up so well back on our ship.” One of the men said to me.

  “What do you mean?” I asked, just before an explosive round landed near our bunker.

  “Our ship was falling apart and as a last desperate attempt of fighting, our captain charged into a Reaper, we were given thirty second to get out, and that didn’t really give much time for us to stock up on ammo. We got a total of ten batteries and seven normal clips.” The man replied after the shrapnel stopped falling. I sighed and lifted my gun out from cover and shot at the enemy line once again.

  “Well at least we can fire from more angels.” I said as I came back into cover and unloaded an empty clip and replaced it with a full one.

  I looked in one of the building that still stood and saw a sniper scoped in, but where exactly, I couldn’t tell. I switched from my heavy energy weapon and to my sniper rifle. Suddenly the sound of a sniper round going off was heard, and I was the muzzle flash coming from the guy in the building. At the same instant I was Max fall down to the ground in a puff of white. I quickly scoped in, and without calculating for more than a second, I pulled the trigger and was met by a red mist as my target fell.

  “Max, are you alright?” I said as I turned to him. I was him taking out his hand from the hole made by the sniper round, and as he did, he showed his finger to be covered in something white.

  “No, I’m not alright. Death pollen is coming from the wound.” Max said simply. I knew instantly what he meant. The reason a Rahgahgogarian can regenerate his body part is because of his pith, but when it is destroyed or damaged severely he can no longer regenerate damaged part and will slowly decay. Death pollen is the body’s last attempt at rebuilding itself, but instead it releases white pollen like substances being as all regenerative cells are now dead cells, being as all regenerative cells are generated in the pith and since the pith can no longer sustain them, they die before they can regenerate any part of the body.

  Max sat up and looked at me one last time, then he vaulted over the wall. I jumped over the wall and watched as Max ran towards the line of enemies, unloading his assault rifle as fast as it would go.

  Max slid under several U.N. allies and sprayed them with lead. He rolled into a crouch and released the clip and slammed in the next clip, the last clip. He fire at the units around him, but soon he ran dry. He then grabbed a shotgun that a dead man had been holding, and released all of its rounds as he grabbed a Forerunner repeater. The shot tore through all of the surrounding men, covenants, robots, Gohoritykah, and Forerunners. Max then threw it at a Heavy robot. He then jumped over a U.N. regular, and grabbed his assault rifle. He landed and grabbed the plasma repeater that lay beside him. He aimed one to his left and the other to his right as he mowed down several more units.

  “I’m sorry, Jason, but I’m not about to simply fall apart in some bed when I could have aided you. Take this action as my final gift.” Max said to me, and to me alone, as he continued to fire at the U.N.s around him. All the men, including me, where so shocked we didn’t move to assist him; instead all of the men, except me, crouched behind the bunkers.

  Max threw the Plasma repeater at a nearby U.N. regular and slammed the assault rifle over a scout robot’s head. Max grabbed a plasma sword off of a dead Gohoritykah’s belt. He squeezed the handle’s two parts together, and the beam came alive with a hiss. He slashed a Combine in half and grabbed its pistol before it hit the ground. Suddenly a plasma bolt sliced through his left arm, the one that held the sword, and caused it to hang from his main body in a grotesque manner. Max knocked off the useless appendage and continued to fire, but soon several more bolts hit him in the chest, but he did not care, this was his last battle any way, and he might as well make it a good one. A Covenant Brute swung his hammer towards the Rahgahgogarian’s face, but Max was able to jump back, increasing distance between him and death, but it was still able to scrape across his right cheek, causing several plates to fall off, exposing a pink tissue that soon morphed into small scales and convert into a darker shade of green.

  Max turned to the Brute and shot off several bullets into its chest, causing it to fall dead in a heap of blood. Max shot off the remaining bullets from his pistol, then threw it at a Covenant Elite, who would have cut off his head with his plasma sword. Max punched a Gohoritykah Elite in the chest and grabbed his plasma repeater, and quickly fired of several rounds until the battery has empty.

  He grabbed a Jackal and punched it in the face. Max then grabbed its Needler and quickly finished of the Covenant soldier. Max let go of the pistol and grabbed one of the sticky grenades it had been carrying. He primed it and lobbed it at a Gohoritykah Aggressor, who was soon reduced to rubble. Max then grabbed the dead Brute’s gravity hammer and slammed it down on a group of Gohoritykah and Covenants, causing their quick demise.

  The man beside me grabbed my shoulder and whispered into my ear.

  “We need to go; he’s holding them off for us.” Almost as if I was in a trance, I turned and ran towards the jet-helicopter that hovered only a foot above the ground. I climbed in with the last man only steps behind me. I reached out and grabbed his hand, but just as I was pulling him up, a sniper round went off, and he slumped over as the round pierced his chest, with the round lodged deeply in the helicopter’s floor. A man grabbed my forearm, causing me to let go of the dead man. The man slumped over into the pool of blood, amongst the rubble and all the other dead corpses.

  I looked back towards where Max fought on with his adversaries.

  Max grabbed a plasma grenade and charged a Brute, and with one surge of strength, he lodged it deep within its armor. The Brute’s tiny eyes grew slightly larger with fear, and he ran as he tried to pull the heavy piece of armor off, but soon he was destroyed along with many who were close to him.

  A Covenant Elite sliced at Max’s head with his energy sword, but only succeeded in cutting his chest as he jumped backwards. Max landed and grabbed his wound. He grabbed a combine focus rifle and shot off several blasts at his enemies. He then flipped it in the air and grabbed it by the shooting end, and used it as a club as he brought it down on a Covenant Grunt.

  Max punched the Gohoritykah Runner and grabbed its light pistol, and shot of as many shots as the battery contained. A Covenant Brute slammed its hammer down near Max, causing him to fly a distance.

  Max landed a skidding stop, but he soon got up. He grabbed a drop shield from a dead Gohoritykah Elite and attached it to his chest belt. He then grabbed the same dead body’s sword, and sliced at the charging Gohoritykah Runner, who soon lost his life.

  Max sliced and hacked, but soon the battery of the sword died, and he was left with a hilt. A Gohoritykah Runner with his plasma knife charged Max and stabbed his several times in the chest. Max kicked the little warrior in the chest, and then stole its knife, only to throw it into the chest of a Combine.

  Max readied himself in a jumping position, and with the power of his reversely jointed legs, propelled himself into the air. He then spread his wings giving himself a little more height. Bellow him the combined forces of his assailants rushed to be nearer to their target, and pointed their weapons up to destroy him. Max unclipped his drop shield and threw it as hard as he could at the forces bellow. He then looked up and closed his eyes as the crystal slammed into the ground and exploded, releasing a wild field of energy that quickly expanded towards him.

  “I’m sorry, Jason, sorry that I couldn’t see this war through until the end with you, but it is my time. I’m sorry, so sorry.” With that the field of energy reached him, and quickly made work of him as he turned into ash.

I walked through the halls of the base. I did not feel, I did not see, I did not walk, and I did not care. Max was dead, and I was still retracting from this event. I had just watched him run into the enemy line and die. I couldn’t even help.

  I walked past the Doctor, who asked me a question, which was left unanswered.

  I had just seen him sacrifice himself for me and the rest of the men. I had just seen him charge the Gohoritykah’s and the U.N. lackeys plasma and bullets, and destroy them all, as he fell apart. I was there… and did nothing. I had my rifle, and shot at nothing, I had my wits, and thought nothing, and I had a friend, and did not help him in the moment of need. I had shot and fought with anger before that point, but I had frozen when the white powder was revealed. I had seen the sniper… I had seen him aim for him… and yet, I did nothing.

  I turned the corner to walk down the hall where my room was.

  I… I had failed. Equestria may live on, we may win the war, but I had failed where it mattered most. I had… let him down.

  I opened the door and walked inside my room, the door closing behind me with a soft thud. I took off my helmet and tossed it on the chair that was nearest to me. I walked over, off-handedly hearing the dull thuds of my feet striking the metal ground under me. I reached my shelf, and grabbed the holographic frame that contained the last memory. It was a picture of me and Max. I looked at it, tears forming at the corners of my eyes.

  “Why, Max, why?” I said in a whisper. I touched the place where Max was in the picture. The picture morphed around my finger as it attempted to make contact. And the tears finally let loose as the dams behind my eyes broke forth.

  “WHY! WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE HIM AND NOT ME?” I shouted as I crushed the pad.

  “NO! PLEASE NO!” I shouted as I realized what I had done. I fell down to my knees and searched the bits and pieces of electronics, searching for the info card… which I did find… in three pieces.

“NO! WHY? WHY DID I DO IT? WHY OH WHY OH WHY?” I screamed in agony as the last thing of Max in this world was gone. Gone… why does a word like that exist? Is it to torment a soul and give a word lacking so much to give the feeling of despondence at the thought of how something is no more?

  ‘Why… why did it have to end? Why did anything have to end? Why couldn’t those blasted Russian and Chinese idiots have to start this war? WHY!’ I thought to myself as my agony grew tenfold and my hands met my eyes as I cried and cried. A puddle formed around me and the small pieces of hardware that laid in pieces on the floor in front of me.

  If I had strength I would have made the floor in front of me a crater, but my arms lacked the power and I lacked the will. I fell face first onto the bits of the broken pad and cried harder. The world slipped away as all this around me faded to black. This was not sleep… this was despair. I felt the floor soaking under me, yet I did not feel it. I felt a tap on my shoulder, yet I lay motionless, except for the occasional skip in my breathing as my lungs tried to give me more air, while my brains systems asked for less to ease itself with death.

  ‘Gone… why…how… no.’ I thought slowly. My mind began to kick, as it had all the way down the hall.

  Max: the one who had filled the gap of Pershing. Max: the one who had saved me on several occasions. Max: the one who I considered my best friend. Max: The one who I did NOT repay the debt to. Max: the one who died… because of me. Max: the one who died as I watched.

  A poke touched my side, but I did not feel it. All I felt was sadness and it consumed my whole.

  Max: the one… the one and only… the one… who will never be again. Sanchez: The unseen traitor who killed two of them, the one I could have and should have seen. Pershing: The one who had died on our tenth mission as a team… the one who died by a plasma rifle that I saw and could not stop. Zimmerman: the one who I loved as a brother. Henslowe: The one, who I hated to play cards with, yet loved to be with. Max: the one…. who I cared most for. All of them were dead… because of my inaction or own actions.

Why… why was my pain so great? And why must I alone feel it… why oh why oh why. Why was there no shoulder to lean on, no voice speaking words of comfort, not presence to drive the shadows away from my mind?

  Again, something touched my side, and this time I felt it dully pestering at my mind to respond. I wiped the tears from my eyes and looked too had been touching me. My visor cleared out, and I was the Equine face of my father. He looked at me with watering eyes, almost as if he had been feeling my pain. I grabbed him and brought him into a hug.

  “Why, why did he have to go, and why must I stay here?” I whispered into his ear as I continued to cry.

  “I don’t know, Jason, but what I do know is that he made this sacrifice so you could continue on, and not to wallow in the bogs of despair.  We need to pick ourselves up and fight on for what they sacrificed themselves for, we must continue.” I pulled him away, feeling a flicker of anger in my chest.

  “He sacrificed himself so I could live, they all did. I could have saved them, but I didn’t. Father, you have no idea how it feels to have been able to save a person and…” He put his hoof over my mouth before I could continue on.

  “Yes I do, son. I could have stopped yelling at the doctors and spent some research time to develop a cure for my father. I could have been there for my mother, but I was being useless in the lab instead. I could have saved you from the torment you now feel, but I was to scared, I was afraid you and your mother might not make it through the portal, so I pushed you out.” I grabbed his hoof and shoved it aside.

  “I could have saved Max. I saw the sniper scoping in, but I didn’t take the shot. I had suspicions about Sanchez, but I didn’t act, and now both Henslowe and Zimmerman are dead along with him. I could have… I could have shot the Gohoritykahs as they charged Pershing, but… but I didn’t. I could have saved Baedeker by staying inside that jet-helicopter, but I got scared by the missiles, and jumped before I could help him.” My father’s eyes dilated slightly.

  “Baedeker is… is dead?” He asked, gulping about the probable answer.

  “Yes, he’s dead, along with Hartman… and… and Mom.” I said crying even harder. I fell on my father’s shoulder. He tried to comfort me as best as he could as he patted me on the back.

  “It’s alright, but there is something you are wrong about.” I pushed him away to see him face to face. “You mother is not dead, far from it, see is alive and… slightly well.” I looked at him in disbelief. “I had told Baedeker to tell no one this, and it seems he stay true to his word. I told him that if for some reason I or one of you made it, and the others did not, to release he code to teleport them through as soon as possible. Your mother came through two years ago, and I had expected you to come soon after her, but it seems that Baedeker wasn’t able to fulfill his promise before the war got to him.” I looked at him, wandering how it was possible my mother was alive.

  “Where… where is she?” I said through the knot in my throat.

  “She is in the Ponyville hospital; she was due to give birth to your sister today or tomorrow.” He said with a small smile. “But you can’t visit her quite yet, you need some rest before you do anything.” I smiled at him and hugged him one last time.

   I walked down the hall of a ship of some sort. The hallways were dark except for the red light that appeared ever so often down the hall. The place was filled with dead bodies and was covered in the stench of decay. I walk lowly, having no weapons or armor on my person at the moment, but still hoping for some to be looted from the bodies. I entered a doorway that had a picture of a rifle above it, signifying multiversaly that it was the armory, and if no weapons or armor where inside this room, there none to be found anywhere. The room usually would have racks that were lined with cartridges, guns, and suits of armor, but instead of those things, they were covered in heads, other body parts, and blood. A figure slowly rose from the thick pool of blood on the floor. I readied myself for a fight, but soon recognized the figure.

  “Max, what are you doing here?” I shouted to him. He then grabbed an energy sword from off the floor and a rifle in the other. He was shot in the arm, and he knocked it off. I looked towards the approaching foe, and saw Sanchez with his full armor and heavy duty plasma cannon.

  Sanchez fired off several more rounds at Max, but Max dodged them with ease. A figure rose from the blood and revealed it to be Henslowe, who quickly attempted to tackle Sanchez. But even though Sanchez had a heavy weapon, he was able to swing it up and catch Henslowe, who turned into a red pulp and faded back into the mulch that covered the room. I ran to attack Sanchez, but was tackled by a Gohoritykah Aggressor, who proceeded to shred me into confetti. I punched the Aggressor in the face and quickly chocked him in the blood that covered the room. I looked up and saw Max slicing at Sanchez, but missing terribly. Sanchez ducked to the side and swung his hefty cannon into position, and blasted Max to bits. I screamed as Max was torn apart. Sanchez turned to me and opened his mouth.

  “Jason, Jason wake up! Wake up, Jason!” He shouted in a voice I recognized. But despite the new feminine voice he had, his face still had murder painted all over it. He raised his cannon and released its bullets at my chest.

  I woke up with a start, gasping for air and sweating profusely. I looked beside me and saw Twilight looking extremely concerned for me.

  I sighed; it was a dream, and a terrible one at that. But since it was a dream all of its parts were false. Then it hit me like a train at full speed, Max WAS dead. With that I broke down into tears.

  “What’s wrong, Jason?” Twilight said trying to comfort me. I looked up at her.

  “In these five years, did my father ever tell you why he cried under the tree by the path to the Everfree forest?” I asked her. Twilight was silent for a moment.

  “No, he never said why he was crying, but I know if he was crying and doesn’t want me to know why, it’s for a good reason.” She said with a small smile.

  “Well, I’ll tell you why. He had held in the grief of years; almost decades of sadness, all bottled up. Then it broke open on him that day.” Twilight’s eyes watered slightly. “But we are two different people, he bottled up his grief for later, but I suffer it now. Twilight, do you remember the Rahgahgogarian that was with me and who told you about his kind?” I asked her, with my eyes slightly drier.

  “Yes, I remember him.” She said as she nodded. I sighed as I whipped the tears from my eyes.

  “He was killed yesterday in battle…” I said as I felt a pang of guilt shoot through me.

  “I’m… I’m so sorry, is there any way I can help you?” She said as he climbed up on the bed beside me, being as I was in a sitting position now.

  “No, I just need some R and R for now.” Twilight nodded at me and headed out the door. She turned back before she was completely through.

  “If there is anything, just tell me, alright?” She said to me while looking back. I nodded and stood up and whipped the pieces of metal of the floor. She smiled and walked out the door.

  The door closed with a dull thud, and I was left with the pieces of metal scattered on the floor and my lonely thoughts.

  I remembered the first time Max had joined our unit. We had just come back from the Gohoritykah home world campaign. He was young and his dark chitin plates were more of a lighter green than the dark green they shaded to be later on. He was a lot more reckless back then than we had been in recent memory, but then again that recklessness might have been the cause for him to charge. I chuckled as I remembered our first training battle. He had challenged us all to fight him with our favorite weapons with him only having a practice knife and a stun pistol; of course he lost in the end.

  I tossed the pieces of metal into the can in the corner of the room. I walked over to the chair where my helmet still laid. I placed it on, and saw Orion’s face showing unnatural compassion for an A.I., especially for Orion who had been made steelier than any A.I. before or after his recoding after the death of Arnold Johnson, the original soldier to have Orion.

  “I… I don’t even know what to say.” Orion said with his voice faltering slightly. I sighed and walked out into the halls. They were empty and cold as ever, most soldiers having been tiered or injured from the last fight. I walked outside into the fresh air. I popped out Orion’s chip and attached it to my shoulder pad and pressed the wide display, which caused him to appear full body beside me, almost as if he was a human. I put my helmet under my arm as we walked towards the Ponyville area. By what my father had said, my mother was about to give birth to my extremely little sister.

  I chuckled as we walked, approaching the Ponyville hospital. Because of the time difference between the two worlds, I was only missing around ten to thirteen years on my parents, and my sister would be extremely younger than I was, being as I was already closing in on my thirties.

  I opened the door and Orion quickly walked through, with me right behind him.

  “We are here to visit Miss Rose Webster, which room is she in?” He asked the desk manager, who for the most part flipped through her books.

  “She is in Room 212, second floor, on the left side of the hall.” She said rather plainly as she closed the book and went back to reading her ‘Daring Do’ book.

  Orion and I soon arriver on the second floor, much to my concern because of my large amount of weight, but Orion calculated my weight was one and a half ton short to make the solid oak floors collapse.

  The numbers on the doors went by quickly, and soon we were at Room 212. I knocked on the door, and soon motion came from the other side. My dad opened the door and smiled at us and allowed us to enter.

  “Who is it, a doctor? I think I’m fine for now, also I think little Erika is also fine, aren’t you?” I heard a few squeaks and squeals replying to her in a happy tone. My father walked into the room, and motioned for us to follow.

  “No doctors, just two visitors.” I heard him say as me and Orion ducked under the doorway, even though Orion could have just walked right through it seeing as he was not truly tangible but merely acting like it. My mother looked at me with a little unicorn filly in her hooves.

  “Oh hello there, I heard humans had come to Equestria. How are you two?” My mother asked, cheery as ever.

  “I’m fine as I can be.” Orion said as he stayed by the back wall.

  “I couldn’t be better.” I said with a smile. I placed my helmet on the floor as I knelt beside the bed. “May I?” I said motioning to the little filly. My mother looked over at my dad, who nodded with a smile.

  “Alright, but be careful with her, she is only a day old.” I scooped the little filly up in my arms. She was so small and fragile, yet so cute. She blinked her brown eyes at me. I smiled at her as I held her carefully in my arms.

  “I want you to know you have the best Mom and Dad in the world. I should know I had them for ten years myself.” He squirmed and giggled at me, while my mother gapped at me.

  “J-Jason, is that you?” I looked up at her and placed the little filly back into her care.

  “Yes, it’s me, Mom; it’s good to see you too.” Tears formed at the edges of her eyes. We both smiled at each other, and cried for the years we had missed.