Prologue: Enter Sgt. Drake
Sgt Drake Alexander sat in the ruins of Fort Homestead, chewing on his cigar. The rain splattered against his helmet through a hole in the roof. He would move from this spot to avoid being dripped on, but he had no choice in the matter. Moving would cause the rain to land with a diferent sound, and then the Marro Warriors on the other side of the wall, not ten feet away from his location, would discover his hiding place. The Marro were a weird race, and Drake couldn't figure out exactly where they came from, but they were here in Valhalla, a place in constant war. Valhalla isn't on a map, so don't go looking for it. Drake was encharged with watching the parimeter of Skullhead forest, which Fort Homestead was just on the outskirts of. This was the fort that watched over the northern pass of the forest, and he had allowed it to fall.
Drake cursed himself for letting his guard down. he had gone away to light his cigar. All was quiet when he left to light it, leaving Kade in charge. When he returned about a minute later, Kade was dead and Utgar was launching an attack on the fort.
Utgar had captured the fort in just a few minutes, killing off all of Drake's men. Now Drake was almost alone, in the last room of the fort, the treasury. It was looted, of course, ages ago by other tribes, and was almost empty, except for a weird, purple outline of a door at the very back of the room.
The room was square, built with large, stone bricks, and a torch sputtered on the wall every few feet. This was the last room that Drake and his men: Buck, Kyle, Richie, and Scott were in. They were the Airborne Elite, a small group of soldiers that speciallized in parachuting down on their enemies. they were also very skilled fighters and marksmen.
There was a scratching at the door. Marrden Nagrubs. Little mutated dog-like things the Marro used to track things down. Other than that they had little use. Drake hand signalled for the Elite to prepare themselves, while moving to the door. He didn't care about the rain anymore. The Marro knew where they were. Checking back with his men, he leaned up against the doorway to listen in on the enemy. Drake heard a voice that sent fear through his heart.
"Well, we have found it. After all this time, it was in the looted treasury of Fort Homestead. Hegh hegh hegh..." Ne-gok-sa's voice trailed off into gurgling laughter as he chuckled to himself. Ne-gok-sa was a Marro Warlord, and a ruthless one at that. he was like any Marro, with the bodies that looked like skin was melted over bones, but he was different. His left arm was completely metal, being able to block any attack, even Drakes prized katana. Ne-gok-sa's right arm, however, was melded into a huge metal blade, which streched from his elbow to about seven feet away. It was smaller before, but with Ne-gok-sa's growing power, he had enlargened his sword, and learned how to effectively utilize it. Another fearful thing Drake knew about Ne-gok-sa was his mind shackle. He could enter your mind and explore your darkest secrets, eventually finding the right memory to tug at. Drake didn't know how exactly he did it, but at the end of a mind shackle you became a vegetable, doing whatever Ne-gok-sa would command you to do. Or He would just eat your brain, which made Ne-gok-sa more powerful in the process. Drake shivered at the memories of some of his best men being mind shackled. Drake returned his attention back to the door.
"ALL OTHER THREATS HAVE BEEN NEUTRALIZED" A robotic voice echoed through the room. That was Deathwalker 9000, a huge robot about ten feet tall with multiple weapon attachments for his arms. Deathwalker was backed up by his two smaller minigun-weilding twins, the Zettian Guards.
"Good, good." Ne-gok-sa answered impatiently. "Now, Nexus, break this door down." Nexus must have been one of the Marro Warriors, with their Larva Cannons, a gruesome way to die. But Drake didn' have time to think about that, because he heard the heaving of a crudely-made battering ram about to smash in the door.
Drake dived behind one of the two sandbag bunkers in the room, joined by Scott and Buck. Richie and Kyle took the other side. "Whatever happens men." Drake spoke quietly. "I'll always be proud to have fought by your side." With that, he drew his machine gun and kept the aim locked on the door. His men did the same, propping their weapons up on the sandbags. The door took a hit, almost falling, but staying up. The marines held their ground, determined to hold the room. The door took another hit, and fell to the floor. the torches closest to the door sputtered and died, leaving all but the back of the room, where the marines stood, in some light.
For a few seconds, nothing happened. sweat formed on Drakes forehead, and Drake foolishly went to wipe it off. At that moment, the Marro Nagrubs charged in by the dozen, falling quickly to the fire from the marines. In the back entered the four Marro Warriors, shooting their Larva cannons. the bullets came out in the shape of eggs, because that is what they were. a shot hit Kyle right in the face, causing him to drop his gun and claw at his head in terror, rolling on the floor, much to the amusement of the Marro. Richie bent down to try and help Kyle, but it was too late. The Larva had already dug into his skin. Within minutes, Kyle would be dead. But it didn't matter, because a grenade flew through the doorway and landed beside Richie, who looked down at it in disbelief. Deathwalker. That robotic bastard would get what's coming to him. Kyle heroicly got up, Larva and all, shoved Richie aside, and dove atop the grenade. The explosion was muffeled by Kyle's body, killing him, but saving Richie's life.
Drake kept his aim on the warriors now that the Nagrubs were dead, but every time he killed one, another cloned itself to remake the other. It was useless. Deathwalker, fearless in his robotic pride, crashed through the door's archway, scattering debris in all directions. his right arm, a big laser, charged up, aiming right at Richie, who lay there, too far away from his gun to make a difference. Richie drew his pistol, firing at Deathwalkers' big red eyes, but the bullets just bounced right off.
"ELIMINATE ALL TARGETS" Deathwalker stated, as his shot vaporized Richie, and at the same time firing his left arm, his grenade launcher, at Drake's bunker. the grenade exploded in mid-air, right in front of the bunker. The explosion sent Drake flying, rolling back against the wall of the room.
Drake looked up, his cigar gone, and dazed. he slowly looked around, and accepted the fact that it was hopeless. buck was dead, destroyed by the explosion, bits of him scattered around the floor. Scott, with his back to Drake, had a blade clean through his chest. It was the familiar blade of Ne-gok-sa, who gurgled with laughter as he threw Scott's lifeless corpse down.
"Hegh hegh, there it is." Ne-gok-sa said, pointing his sword-arm to the purple outline. "The source to win the war! Stand back, Deathwalker! I will open it. I know the Words to unseal it." Ne-gok-sa walked forward, ignoring the bleeding body of Drake. He had no battle with this man, he had just foolishly been at the wrong place at the wrong time. Ne-gok-sa approached the purple outline, raised his arms, and began whispering words that Drake couldn't understand.
"This cannot be allowed to happen!" Drake thought, clutching his chest, where grenade shrapnel had pierced his body. "Not on my watch!" he stood, drew his katana, and charged at Ne-gok-sa. whatever he was doing had to be stopped. he swung his sword in a sideways arc, going for his enemies head, but Ne-gok-sa ducked under the attack, apperently ready for resistance.
"Hegh hegh hegh!" Ne-gok-sa gurgled with laughter. "You've lost, human! My incantation is complete!" The purple thing opened up now, revealing a purplish void, which seemed to be pulling Drake and Ne-gok-sa inwards. "Once you are dead," Ne-gok-sa spat. "Nobody will be able to stop me! Hagh hagh hagh!" Ne-gok-sa was hysterical now, some kind of Marro blood foaming in his mouth. It was disgusting up close.
"ELIMINATE ALL TARGETS" Deathwalker repeated, aiming his grenade launcher at Drakes' feet.
Ne-gok-sa looked over in suprise and anger. "No! you'll hit me!" he yelled, trying to mind shackle Deathwalker. but it was no use. Deathwalker was a machine and had no memories. He shot anyway.
The explosion lifted Drake and Ne-gok-sa off the ground and into the purplish void. they both flew in, unable to move. there was a searing pain that ripped through Drake, and he lost conciousness.
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"ALL THREATS HAVE BEEN NEUTRALIZED" Deathwalker spoke, with his Zettian Guards nodding in agreement beside him. Nexus, one of Ne-gok-sa's prized Marro warriors, stared at the ruins of the portal with his jaw almost hitting the floor.
"Stupid machine!" Nexus yelled, veins popping out of his Marro head. "It's gonna take forever to rebuild this!"
"IS MY COMPLETED OBJECTIVE NOT SATISFACTORY?" Deathwalker questioned, curious as to why he was being yelled at.
"Damn rights it's not satisfactory!!!" Nexus screamed. "Switch to labour mode, bot, because you're the one who has to repair it!!"
"AS YOU WISH, MASTER." Deathwalker called anyone who gave him an objective master, unless of course they weren't on his side.
Nexus, frusterated from the major setback, turned to another Marro, Kreig. "What now?" Kreig whispered.
Nexus looked back at Deathwalker, making sure it wasn't listening "I know the words too, Kreig. It'll take two to four days to get the magic working on it again, depending on the actual idiocy of these bots. But when it's done, we go through, find Ne-gok-sa, find........... IT, and utilize it to win the war."
Kreig nodded along. "What if we enounter resistance?" Kreig asked, licking his lipless face with a half molten gray tongue.
Nexus walked over to one of the dead marines, the big one that Ne-gok-sa had stabbed. "This was resistance." The warrior rolled it over with a clawed foot. "If anything gets in our way, we kill it."
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Drake woke with a start. he was in a... forest? Quickly leaning up, he looked for his sword, which he found out was still gripped tightly in his hand. He remembered Ne-gok-sa and looked around for him too. But he was nowhere to be found. A sharp pain in his chest reminded of the battle wounds he still bore. Bleeding out, he stood, in an uncharted land, and set out.
It wasn't long before he found his way out of the dark forest, and into a way nicer one that had apple trees growing everywhere. he walked along a crude path, grabbing an apple as he went. taking a bite, he realized that he hadn't eaten in days, what with the defences of Fort Homestead. Grieving for his lost men, he bit into the apple. It was delicious. he had just decided to get up high somewhere when he heard a cracking in the trees around him. He swung around, sword in hand, to be greeted by a...... very strong kick in the groin. Drake got a look at the attacker, some small brown animal wearing a cowboy hat. Drake couldn't piece anything together, because with the pain of the bleeding wound, and the recent ball-shot, he passed out from the pain.
Ne-gok-sa wasn't as lucky as Drake. And that's saying something. When Ne-gok-sa came through the void, he appeared high in the sky. He fell, cursing his luck as well as Deathwalker for injuring him and tossing him through the portal. He fell down through the sky, falling to what he noticed as a small house on the outskirts of some town. Ne-gok-sa didn't have time to think about that though, because he crashed onto the roof of the house, bounced off of it, hit a tree, hung limply on a branch for a moment, fell to the ground, and rolled down a little hill. He then, with what energy he had left, lifted his head to see an angry looking rabbit frowning down on him. Ne-gok-sa tried to get up, move, anything. But it was no use. most of the bones in his body were broken. He was also bleeding out from that damned grenade. Ne-gok-sa closed his eyes and waited for death.
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Sgt. Drake Alexander woke in a dark room. He was strapped down onto a chair, unable to move. His katana and pistol were gone, but he still had his grapple arm attached. (Did I mention he had one?) He struggled to break free of his bondings, all the while his eyes grew accustomed to the darkness of the room. Just then, a large lamp in front of him flashed on, blinding him once again.
"Now what were y'all doin' stealing from my apple orchard?" A voice said to him from the darkness.
Drake, being honorable and such, decided that no harm could come to him if he told the truth. "I had no idea that the apples belonged to you. I apologise for my theft, but I am very hungry." As if on cue, Drake's stomach growled.
"Well." The voice said. Why didn't you just say so?" The voice said again. The room was flooded with light when a few windows were opened, and Drake got a good look around.
He was in a large barn. it was very clean, the hay on the ground was flattened and somehow fluffy and more yellow than usual. He was sitting in the far back of the barn, with the door on the other side. his weapons were propped up against the wall, beside the door. It was only then that Drake noticed the...... thing. It was smaller than he was, although it was on four legs. It had brownish fur, long, yellowish hair and tail, and wore a cowb....
"You sacked me!!!" Drake yelled at it. It turned to face him now.
"I did say you were stealing from my apple orchard." The thing replied calmly. "I'd say we got off on the wrong hoof. I'm Applejack. I run this apple orchard."
"Applejack? Ok, then. I just have to ask. I've seen a lot of strange creatures in my day, but..... what are you? A horse?
Applejack looked confused. "What's a horse? I'm a pony." She then undid the ropes holding Drake in place.
Drake calmed down a little after that. This.... pony, wouldn't be much of a threat to him now that he was ok. He checked his wound. It was bandaged and seemed to be healing well. Drake stood up.
"Thank you for your, um, hospitality, but I'm here by accident, and I need to finish what I started."
"What did you start?" Applejack asked.
"I need to kill someone." Drake said, heading for the door. He never made it far, because he took another kick in the back. The kick launched Drake forward, and he hit the ground hard.
"I'm afraid I can't just let you go waltzing around killing everypony." Applejack said, moving towards Drake.
"Not a pony, a Marro!" Drake coughed, standing again.
Applejack was confused. "What's a Marro?"
"It's like skin melted over a skeleton!" Drake said impatiently. "And if you hit me again, I'll be forced to hit back!"
"There's no Marro here." Applejack answered. "And if there was one, what kind of skeleton are we talkin' about? A human one, or a pony one?"
Drake smiled. "A human one, of course. And how do you know what a human is?"
"Twilight told me horror stories about humans once."
"Who is this Twilight? Where is she?" Drake asked, moving to the door again, with Applejack close beside him.
"Prob'ly the smartest one of all of us! She lives in the library in the centre of Ponyville."
"All of you? There are more of you?"
"Sure is! Ponyville, just down the road."
They reached the door, and Drake grabbed  his weapons, putting them back in their places. "Then that's where I need to be." He said.
"I'll join ya!" Applejack piped in, imagining the face of Twilight when this guy came through her door.
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Ne-gok-sa woke, still in too much pain to do anything. But he did feel better, and he felt his Marro bones slowly knitting themselves back together again. He looked around. he was in a well lit room, with the window open, a nice breeze came through, the smell of some kind of food cooking from downstairs came to him, birds chirped from outside, and someone was humming downstairs. He was lying on a well made bed, with his wounds bandaged, and his head was propped up against a pillow that was fluffed just right.
It was revolting. If he could move, he'd trash the place. He tried to get up, but couldn't. He was stuck here, in this place. He had no choice but to wait until the thing downstairs came up, then he would have to kill it somehow, and find the artifact. some great weapon that could be used to win the war. His thoughts were interupted by a small, yellow thing with pink hair and a pink tail.
The thing flew over to him with it's small wings. It looked scared of him, as all smart creatures should be, but it was holding a bowl of steaming soup in her front..... hooves? Oh, these must be the legendary ponies, said to be the guardians of the artifact. It looked down at him for a moment, then spoke.
"Oh, you poor thing! You showed up outside this morning so hurt! I had no choice but to nurse you back to health! Didn't I? Yes I did!' This pony seemed to be trying to be nice to Ne-gok-sa, but he saw through the witches plot: She had poisoned the soup. She was planning to kill him from the inside. This bitch must die.
Fluttershy leaned in to feed the poor creature the soup she had made, but it seemed to be trying to squirm away from her.
"Oh, no, you have to eat it all up! It'll fix you in no time!" She said, but this made it seem to squirm even more. She didn't even know what it was, but it was hurt, so she had to make it better. But what was wrong? She leaned in again, this time determined to force feed it if she had to.
"Get back you crazy Bi..." he stopped, staring into her eyes. She had widened them, and she was staring at him now. Ne-gok-sa wanted to run, get out, kill her, destroy all of these damned ponies, find the artifact, drink the soup. What? He drank the soup.
"What? Why? When? How?" Ne-gok-sa thought, swallowing. "How did she do that? She IS a witch! She...... mind shackled........ me?" That's when a plan formed in Ne-gok-sa's evil mind.
Fluttershy looked down at the creature, who was now staring back at her, It's one, cycloptic eye staring into hers.
"Oh, you must want more soup!" Fluttershy said, and quickly flew back downstairs, humming once again.
"Unbeleivable!" Ne-gok-sa thought."She must be a master witch of all the magical arts! She is even immune to my mind shackle abilities! How am I suppost to get out of here anytime soon?" Ne-gok-sa lay still once again, more sinister and violent plans forming in his mind.
