Forgive and Forget

Chapter 5

Twilight rolled over in her bed. She couldn’t sleep, she was worried about Frank. Suddenly she heard banging on the door to her house. She shot up wondering who could need her at this time of night and ran down the stairs to the door. She opened it revealing Frank who was standing there breathing heavily.

“Frank what are you doing here? I thought you were gonna be back till tomorrow?”

“We have a problem.” She moved out of his way, and he entered the house.

“Twilight it seems someone above me has ordered a platoon of troops down here.”

“And? What are they here for?”

“I don’t think they are going to be friendly.”

“What can’t you do something about them?”

“No…their orders were given by somebody higher than me. I can’t do anything but sit here and wait for them. I want you to get as many ponies out. Do it quietly and quickly.”

Frank sat up on a roof keeping his eyes glued to the trees of the Everfree. He heard a click and some static. “Hey Frank you there?”

“Kingston?”

“Yeah. The ODSTs are headed your way. They are armed with MA5C’s this is not a peace mission.”

“Alright. Any other info?”

“None at this time. I will try to get some more. I’m calling in some favors back on the ship.”

“Alright.” Another click and the Com-Link was offline. He sighed, “I don’t know what I’m gonna do…” He picked up his rifle and jumped down onto the road.

The ODSTs approached their objective. They split into three squads. “Alright Squad One you are to take the east side, Squad Two takes the west. Squad Three will clear the middle stretch.”

Three lights flashed on the CO’s HUD.  His squad being squad three was overlooking the center of town, “Commander, there is an unidentified signal on the Coms.”

“Can’t you figure out who it is?”

“No whomever it is has this encrypted beyond our access codes.”

The Commander stopped and thought about it for a moment. Encrypted Com signals, the voice in the Commander’s head stirred again, “I hope you know it’s a UNSC member.”

“Yes I know who it is exactly.” He told the voice.

“Alright then should I send a report to The Mandrake?”

“No Helios. It would make the Captain suspicious. We will just have to kill him and bring the body back. We’ll have to fake an accident.”

“Easy.”

“Indeed.” He stood up and followed the rest of the squad into the town.

The roads were empty but Frank picked up the ODST orders. He knew Harris’s voice, “Alright Harris let’s play a game.” Frank picked up his rifle and ran towards the east side of town. The only large target was either Sugarcube Corner or Carousel Boutique. He ran along the road. Over his Com-Link he heard the first squad, talking with each other. He climbed up onto the roof of a nearby house when he heard their footsteps. He laid down and waited waiting to strike, “So where are all the aliens?”

“Probably in bed, Mike.” These two were alone. They were to scour this block.

“The Commanders spooked about who’s listening in on the radio.”

“Could it just be Kingston back at his Pelican?”

“No they would know it then this guy’s radio is encrypted.”

“Well he’s gonna die nonetheless.” They walked into an alley between the house Frank was on and the one next door. Frank crawled to the edge and got into a crouched position. He looked at the two ODSTs. He jumped down behind them making almost no sound. The two ODSTs didn’t notice him and wouldn’t even know that he killed them. He stuck both of them with his two knives. Their bodies dropped to the ground, and he dragged them out of the way and hid the bodies making sure to grab ones grenade belt.

“Funny thing is you ODSTs think you guys are gods. A single platoon of you is only twenty men.” He walked out of the alleyway. He ran back out and down the road.

Harris was with his squad soon men started going off the grid. “What the hell is he doing!?”

“Your men are dropping off the grid…They are dead.”

“He’s killing ODSTs! He must know that he’s going to be court marshaled and executed.”

“He does, but he’s not going back.”

“You think he’s staying?”

“Yes he’s lost everything back on Earth." Harris shook his head, Helios fell silent. Harris looked to one of his men. "Corporal get the explosives ready." The Corporal nodded and reached into his satchel, "Ready to cause some chaos sir?"

"Hell yeah set it on that building there." The building Harris was referring to was town hall.

Frank heard radio chatter about explosives. He started to head into the next area that the ODST's would be situated entering what would be the central sector. "Now where would Harris be?" His thought process was cut off by a large explosion, the shock wave broke windows and awoke the rest of the ponies who were still in town. Frank looked towards the explosion. "Town hall..." He ran, his breath erratic.

The ODSTs cleared the entire town hall and found a group of the aliens. "So what do we have here?" The Corporal who was handling the explosives turned and saluted Harris. "Seven prisoners sir!" Harris knelt and look into the eye of the one in front. The pony stared right back, "Frank won't let you get away with this..." the voice was the voice of Rainbow Dash. She spat in Harris face, he smacked her and looked to the Corporal. "If she moves shoot her." The message was delivered, Rainbow Dash laid on the ground unmoving breathing.

Frank slowed as he got close enough to see the gaping hole in the side of town hall. He zoomed his helmets optics, he saw the ODSTs holding ponies hostage. He saw Rainbow Dash lying on the ground with the guards talking to the rest of them getting them to move. Soon he heard more shouts as a team of two came into the building with another group of ponies, including Twilight, Applejack,Rarity, and Fluttershy. He wondered where the hell Pinkie was but he put it out of his head if anything she might be dead the ODSTs probably shoot her when she threw them a party. Out of the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of pink. "Maybe she's still here after all..."

Frank tried to find Pinkie but she had disappeared, "Where the fuck did she go?" He gave up after about twenty minutes. He started to head back to town hall.

"Commander we have a large group of aliens in the town hall. Should we maybe excute them and play it over the radio so he'll hear?"

"A fine idea Lieutenant. Grab one of them and excute it after ten minutes."

Fuck, that was all that went through Franks mind when he heard the message. He started to quicken his pace.

The guards chose a Fluttershy to be the first. All of the other ponies faces were dark. Fluttershy was crying, she was sat in front of a radio transmitter. Harris stood near the transmitter, "Morris if you can hear this you should give up we have the aliens. Listen..."

The crying played through Frank's helmet, he couldn't take it. He ripped the helmet off and tossed it to the ground. "I don't know if I can take this..." He kept moving but a slowed pace. He could still hear the crying, it was horrible.

"Frank...Frank?" The voice startled Frank, it was Celestia's voice.

"Celestia?"

"Yes Frank it's me. Calm I'm speaking through your mind."

"Celestia no offense but I don't have time I either move or Fluttershy dies."

"I know. I just want you to remember no matter what happens you won't be at fault."

"Celestia what are you talking about?"

"Your putting all the responsiblity for this incident on you."

"No Celestia. I'm not responsible Commander Harris is." He shook his head as if to signal Celestia to stop talking. Of course she noticed it being able to see the movement so she left his mind.

"Fucking magic..." He continued onward into the clearing surrounding town hall. No guards in the windows from what Frank saw so he ran across. Frank tried the back door and it was unlocked but must have been blocked as it wouldn't open into the building. He went around to the where the hole started in the wall. "Is everyone inside?"

"No we are just waiting for you."