Straight up, HE-spewing, Dee-vine Intervention

Chapters

Left Behind
A Bigger Plan
Reveille
Disarmament

Left Behind

Nothing will go wrong, ‘cause you’re in a friggin’ tank.

That’s what the Marines commented on Captain Lorenzo and his main battle tank, who was thinking back to the times on board the UNSC Spirit of Fire just before they were assigned to assist the ground forces on the inner sanctums of this strange planet. Now being transported by the means of a D77-Troop Carrier, or as it was commonly known as throughout the UNSC Navy and Marine Corps as the Pelican, Lorenzo was busy maintaining his personal tool of destruction for the upcoming fight with the zealous mixture of various alien species that was the Covenant.

He had participated in the events that unfolded on Harvest, Arcadia and now here. Even before that, he had partially served in a Insurrectionist culling that stayed in his mind until now. It was only until after the incident was he given the control of a tank, in the form of a M808A Scorpion tank. After being enlisted into the many men and women of the platoons on board the Spirit of Fire, commandeered by Captain James Cutter, he had plowed his way through the hordes of Elites and Wraiths along with the various campaigns and managed to earn the ever worthy respect of Sergeant John Forge, the very man who asked him to commandeer one of the most fearsome vehicles in the UNSC’s armories, and the Marine who would be the one to end the shield world.

He felt depressed, knowing that such a brave Marine will be one of the many heroes to have died in the Human-Covenant war. Engorged in his stress, it was only when Specialist Russell snapped him out of his trance.

“You ready?” Lorenzo shook his head and responded.

“Of course, always ready.”

“Good, we’re ETA with ground forces in about a minute,” Russell responded as the Pelican rattled, causing them to dig into their leather seats. Even though they were encased in almost bulletproof armor, he could hear the faint thumping of missiles and the zapping of plasma.

“Sorry about the bump, Vampires are filling up the sky with needles. We’re moving to an alternate rendezvous with Triton 4. You know those guys,” the Pelican’s pilot chimed in as the both of them felt their stomachs lurch, corresponding with their backup plans.

“Wait, don’t we have Wolverines?” Lorenzo asked the pilot sternly as he checked the ammo counter installed onto the frame of the Grizzly tank. M9 MAATs, or as commonly designated as the Wolverine, was the premier anti-air combat support vehicle in the arsenal of the UNSC. Having grown used to serving with these useful units and their respective commanders, it was no wonder that their personal squad would have such a unit. Labelled as the ‘Hell’s Jokers’ for their highly unorthodox but efficient ways to clear out the Covenant, they were quite a surprising force to be reckoned with, provided they were actually in the mood. Lorenzo and Russell were also actual jokers onboard the refitted colony ship, and proved to be one hell of a pair.

“We’ve got ‘em, but they’re busy taking out the Banshees assaulting Spartan 0-92 and his fire team down in the field,” the pilot explained as the tank buckled under a close explosion. “There’s your buddy down there with his Wolverine, so you’ll do just fine. He’s got more of his buddies too, including another Spartan.” Another Spartan? From what Lorenzo remembered while slagging Covenant armor, there were only three of them who actively served on the field. They made up Red Team, and was the key to gaining ground on the planet both inside and outside.

Actually, the whole situation would’ve made Lorenzo’s brain melt as where they were right now, was inside of a planet. But it would do no good, as he was already here and was now going to support his squad mates as they duked it out on the ground. But who was the Spartan? It didn’t change anything, as he or she was still a Spartan. It was good enough for moral support, but maybe a Grizzly should help, Lorenzo thought as the Pelican groaned under the stress.

After a heart-racing minute, the Pelican stopped dead in the air and descended to drop off the tank. “Alright boys, time to shine!”

Lorenzo smiled and flicked open a case, promptly pushing a single black button that released the heavy vehicle from the magnetic holders of the Pelican. As the screens of the Grizzly came online, he could now carefully observe the surroundings. In front of him was a squad of suppressed marines, one who looked to his flank and waved to Lorenzo, which Russell responded to by turning his turret to his left, finding a Wraith pinning them.

“Thank god! A Grizzly! Wraith’s pinning us down and there’s about two Locusts tryin’ to take out the Spartan!” The marine barked into his radio as he swerved to pull out a rocket launcher to destroy the Wraith up ahead. As a resonating boom of a Locust sounded behind, Russell quickly adjusted the tank’s calibration and acquired lock after a second.

“Shells out!” The Grizzly roared as two 120mm HE shells went soaring straight into the armor of the Covenant artillery, shattering it to purple, slagged bits and its occupant fried. The Marines raised their MA5Bs and M45 shotguns into the air before heading out to cover behind the armor plating of the Grizzly.

“Thanks for saving our asses!” The commanding Marine said as Lorenzo gave a thumbs up.

“Always a pleasure, Triton!” At that moment, a Fuel Rod almost hit the armor and the Marines gathered around the tank from a screaming Banshee that pursued two fleeing M12s, or known as Warthogs, as their LAAGs spun and sputtered high velocity armor piercing rounds that ripped through the attacking Banshee. Lorenzo picked up on the ‘Hog’s driver and gunner as they spat out insults at the destroyed air vehicle.

“How you’d like that?! Covvie bastard!”

“Man, this thing rips stuff apart!” Then their LAAGs spun and found the Grizzly as it reversed and slowly spun to find the Spartan. “Hey! That's one of our tanks!”

“No shit! Good to know you’re here, anyway!”

“As always,” Lorenzo replied as the in-built screen of the Grizzly lit up, revealing a blinking green dot and three red dots moving erratically. This must be the Spartan, Lorenzo thought as he stepped on the gas and headed out into the thick forests of the Shield World, as the raging battle continued between the Covenant, the UNSC and the Flood, a race of parasitic organisms that consumed every sentient being in their paths. “Follow us, we’ve got a Spartan to help!”

“Aye, aye!” The Warthog convoy veered forward and matched with the speed of the tank, which was quite fast. Moving forward, Russell picked up a hostile Flood bomber form hovering towards them and adjusted so that the smoothbore cannons could blast it to pieces. Although the tank wasn’t fully adjusted to combat aerial threats, it had the capacity to take out low targets like unfortunate Banshees, Phantoms and Vampires. This bomber form was no different, as it exploded into fleshy, green blood with the thumping of the Grizzly’s cannons.

“You like that?!” Russell cried out as the Grizzly began to roll over various conifers, slowly presenting them the skirmish ahead, the Spartan and his or her green clad armor in view along with a squad of advancing ODSTs. On the opposing site was a well entrenched squad of Jackal snipers, four Ghosts, a Locust and the Honor Guard elites, emboldened with ceremonial armor and energy swords. As Russell switched his aim, Lorenzo tapped into the ODSTs and the Spartans communications line.

“Hey buddy! Here comes dee-vine intervention!” He exclaimed as the cannons flared and took out a Ghost, sending it sky high along with its driver. The Locust which was focusing its energy projector at the pinned down Spartan and ODSTs changed targets and focused on the Grizzly, scorching the thick armor plating of the tank that made Lorenzo grunt.

“And that! Take some of that!” The Spartan barked as her, judging from her voice, Spartan Laser let out a damaging stream of crimson at the Locust, causing its shield to dissipate and leaving it vulnerable to the Marines who fired upon it. Taking the brunt of the hail of armor piercing bullets, it was finally finished off by a newly arrived Sparrowhawk VTOL that ripped the Jackals apart with its autocannon.

“This is Eagle Six Oh Five, we’ll be your tour guide today to the battlefield today!” The pilot of the Hawk cheerfully announced as her gunner let another gazing blue laser beam that sliced through a fleeing Ghost. Then a fuel rod struck Eagle Six in the starboard side, causing slagged metal to steam and let out. The Banshee who swooped in to finish off the attracted VTOL burst into showering debris as the aforementioned Wolverine rolled in to finish off the job.

“Tasmania Three One, just slagged a shrieker!” Lorenzo chuckled, knowing that voice anywhere. It was one of his friends, Sergeant Macbeth, who piloted this decorated anti-air vehicle along with its prototype inbuilt AI, a first for any land based vehicle in the UNSC. The fact that Macbeth had one was worth dying for, as it gave out tactically viable options.

“I love it whenever Mac shoots down a Banshee, so romantic,” came the voice of the AI, who was...modified by himself to sound like it actually fell for him. Mac always carried a portable hologram projector for use with the AI, and her form was actually quite surprising.

It was not a human, rather it was a pony. Lorenzo silently chuckled again and reminded himself of the times when Mac tried to convince him and Russell to watch the show that the pony came from, which they politely declined. He didn’t know how he got such old artifacts, but whatever made him happy, made the squad happy. In his squad was the same Marines he rescued and the Sparrowhawk too as she was Colby Atkins, one of the flying aces of the UNSC flight academy on Chi-Ceti 7. The head of the Marines was named Douglas Gene while the Spartan, who Lorenzo recognized as an old friend, was codenamed ‘Snowdrop’. It was a subtle name amongst the brutal war, but it gave Snowdrop’s allies a morale boost.

“Well, if it isn’t Lorenzo and his best pal!” The white striped Spartan waved to him, Russell also nodding with the use of the smoothbore. Lorenzo then focused on the objective and zoomed out the map on the screen, until he realized something very, very bad.

On the corner of the screen was the time before detonation, and it was now barely a minute before the explosion. In panic, Lorenzo echoed into his radio. “By Jove! We’re going to get blown up!”

“D’awwww, shit!” The driver of the ‘Hog cursed and his gunner looked up, to see the blue luminescent lights of the portal’s gate ascending as well as the Pelican dropships that were moving to enter the outcoming Spirit of Fire. Then Snowdrop gasped audibly through the radio and started jumping to let one of the Pelicans know they were left behind. The ODSTs ahead started to scatter within the radius of the Grizzly who moved forward along with Macbeth and the Marines. Colby landed her damaged Sparrowhawk next to Lorenzo’s tank, not wanting to just leave them behind like that.

“Atkins, you’ve got a Hawk! Get out of here!”

“No can do, sir! I’m not ditching any friend of mine!” she answered back defiantly as her co-pilot started to panic to.

“C-colby! We’re not going to die now! We’ve got a war to fight on, let’s get outta here!” But she vehemently refused to abandon Lorenzo, Macbeth and Snowdrop as the AI began to send out frantic electric signals to Serina, the Spirit of Fire’s onboard AI as the Phoenix class ship hovered high up into the air, facing the sun.

“Serina! We need evac now!” The AI or more commonly referred through in Hell’s Jokers as Rarity, began to chirp rapidly.

Lorenzo then looked back at screen, to find that the red dots are slowly scattering away from them, fleeing from the soon-to-degenerate artificial star. Then the portal let loose a burst of intense energy that stunned the abandoned UNSC personnel, as Cutter’s voice reverberated through their radios.

“Sergeant Forge, all ground forces are evacuating back to the Spirit of Fire.”

Lorenzo realized that Cutter hadn’t figured out that they’re missing them, before Sergeant Forge’s voice rang in, signalling the end.

"Copy that. Get our people out of here, I’m blowing the core!” Damn it! They were left behind! Someone rescue us, Lorenzo screamed into his mind as the Marines started panicking and the Warthogs shuddering under the increasing gravity well of the degenerating sun. As bits and pieces of the inner planet began to get sucked in, the Grizzly grinded along the grassy knolls helplessly as Rarity and Colby screeched to get them out of the blast zone.

Snowdrop, who was done tired of doing jumping jacks, sat on a fallen log and shoved her helmet into her gloves in despair. Although there were many advantages to being a Spartan, Snowdrop had developed human feelings after a while, and now she demonstrated it. “Jerome...Alice! They left me behind...”

Lorenzo couldn’t help but feel dread and pain as Russell picked up the accelerating black rectangle that was headed for the sun. “Hol-ee shit! Cutter’s going to do a slingshot!”

This made Colby angry. “He’s going without us?!”

Lorenzo tried to cool her down. “It’s only because he doesn’t know we’re not there!”

Snowdrop cut in, practically sobbing. “But they... The rest of them will notice I’m gone...!”

Then followed by the commanding ODST as he threw his sniper to the ground in anger. “Fuck me with a loaded M45! We’re Helljumpers, and nobody ever forgets Helljumpers!”

Now they were all going to die, and they could do nothing but watch as the Spirit of Fire disappear into the sun, only to emerge two seconds later, headed for the portal. The gravity well was now lifting up the Warthogs, as the drivers and gunners held on for dear life. Following that is the flailing Marines themselves, followed by the struggling ODSTs. Then surprisingly, a hidden squad of Hellbringers emerged from the forest line, as if nothing had happened beside their accidental abandonment.

“Hey! The fuck is going....WHOAAAA!” The lead Hellbringer yelled as they were sucked into the sun. Colby’s Hawk was the next to go, and she screamed for help.

“LORENZO!” He felt total despair as he couldn’t do anything as her inactive VTOL was spirited away. Then the AI and Macbeth was the next one to go, screeching too.

“Shit! I didn’t want this! I didn’t want this-

“It’s okay... At least we helped save the Spirit of Fire...” The Rarity AI sadly said, admitting their incoming sacrifices. Russell silently prayed, and Lorenzo began to tear as the Grizzly was slowly lifted up into the air into the sun, with him remembering what he would be hopefully remembered for.

The Insurrectionist Culling.

The Battle of Harvest.

The Battle of Arcadia.

And now, the battle for the alien world. But he knew that without the FTL drive, the Spirit’s crew wouldn’t be able to make it back to UNSC space. He had played his part, and now he would be relieved of his sins as the Grizzly was hurled towards the degenerating star.

Then it imploded, destroying the planet and seemingly scorching Snowdrop, Colby, MacBeth with RarAI, the ODSTs, Gene and his men, the unaware Hellbringers and finally, Lorenzo, Russell with their fateful Grizzly.

It was a starry midnight in Equestria and Luna was enjoying every bit of it. It was a while since she last visited Ponyville for Nightmare Night, and now that she had recently cured young Scootaloo of her nightmares, she felt quite happy of herself.

Gazing out into the skies, she observed the moon and sighed. It painfully reminded her of the time she had spent as Nightmare Moon, banished by her own sister because of her enviousness. But even the toughest of punishments can have its benefits as she remembered her writings of her observations of various intergalactic species that had crossed the stars. Even though she was Nightmare Moon, she still had that insatiable hunger for knowledge coupled with her enviousness during that time.

Trotting back to her room and going to her small, cobalt oak chest on her table, she used her magic and opened it up. Its contents was a notebook and several memory orbs that she stored her viewings of battles far and beyond. Hovering the notebook up, she flipped through it, finding her own writings and accounts of the unknown throughout the blackness of the galaxy. Then she put the notebook down on the table and started using the memory orbs to recollect what she saw.

The first orb contained a battle between a massive, intimidating orb orbiting a moon which in turn, orbited a red gas giant and a fleet of bristling starships, as she would come to call them. Shortly, the starships were victorious and the orb was destroyed in a fantastic display of fiery galactic fireworks, as she heard her Nightmare Moon form chuckle at it. Sighing again, she moved on to the next one.

The second orb was one on a planet as she was using her enhance Galaxy vision in that time, between red painted and hulking machines that fought with gangly, dark green beings that made her think of Ogres except equipped with strange objects and contraptions that tore apart the red machines, who in turn blew them apart. Then through the orb, she heard herself yawn and promptly, the battle was cut out by a black void where she grunted and scowled at. Dismissing the orb, she then moved on to the next one.

The third orb showcased a ferocious battle between purplish starships which colorings made her think of Twilight Sparkle, the element of magic, and the desperate grey ships and their massive stations that let loose projectiles into the formation of purple ships, utterly decimating most of them. Then the bulbous purple ships fired at the grey ships, destroying most of them too. But from this particular memory, she could somehow feel the desperateness of the beings fighting against the purple aliens, and had a feeling that she might be able to see some of them here. Then she waited until she saw a terrible sight: the planet being scorched by the same starships, with the wrecks of the valiant grey starships floating in orbit around the planet. She didn’t want to meet the purple ones for sure, as they destroyed almost everything that the greys desperately fought for.

Then it came to the last one, but this one was emanating with vileness. Shaking it off, she went on with viewing it. This one showed a fleet of many varieties of starships facing the planet, that eerily resembled the status of the last planet she saw being scorched, with fresh ones warping in from sectors unknown. Then from the planet, she saw black squid-like starships emerge and engaged with the fleet waiting just for them. The black starships were the first to sustain casualties, but then the tides turned as they destroyed the fleet in retaliation. It was then she heard something echo in her head.

Princess Luna...

She shuddered, was this the foul essence she sensed? Or something much greater?

Do not fear me, for I am your redeemer...

I am Harbinger... the Overseer of the Reapers...

I am the destroyer, the being that you will know salvation through my wrought destruction...

Shepard... the human who made me turn against my original objective...

I was forced to help the ones I wished to destroy... But I still retain part of my old consciousness...

And so... I ask of you for help...

She took a step back and looked around in building fear. This entity was filled with total darkness, and instantly she refused to hear its plea.

“No! I will not help you destroy anything! Not anymore!” Although she was not involved in this ‘Harbinger’s during her banishment, it was now contacting her, seemingly as if it were still alive.

Irrelevant... you will help me regardless...

Luna felt something evil invade her soul, and it was none other than Harbinger’s dark intentions and will. “NO I COMMAND THOU TO LEAVE OUR BODY!” She roared in her Royal Canterlot voice as she fought against the Reaper’s growing influence.

Luna, you cannot stop me, you cannot kill me...

Assuming control...

She screamed as Harbinger took over her mind. Then threw her head back and laughed, as her irises changed to a predatory yellow that glistened in the night.

I always survive... Always.

A Bigger Plan

The first thing Lorenzo imagined about the afterlife, before his eventual demise, was a field of snow-white clouds and the golden gates that led to Heaven, where the brave souls who sacrificed their lives go as they deserved it. He was one of them, and he was damn proud to be one.

Unfortunately, where he was didn’t seem like the afterlife. Staring up into the grey void and the blue luminescent lines that rimmed the ceiling, he groaned and blinked thrice, moving his numb arms around. Quickly reverting to military training, he reacted and immediately gained ground to find that he was in some sort of a chamber, probably alien because of the glyphs that glowed on the struts of the room. Then he noticed he was not in his Grizzly and that Russell was not anywhere to be seen. In fact, nobody was here except for him.

He let out a depressed sigh and patted his body to find that his emergency M6B still in its holster. Reacting, he quickly pulled it out and attempted to lock on to the scenery to no avail as it was clear he was the only organic lifeform here. This didn’t meant he would re-holster the pistol, no. He was still keeping it steady on several openings that white light shone through, expecting a nasty surprise in the form of an Elite or a Flood combat form.

Then he saw a tall and alien-like shadow moving into the chamber and he quickly shifted his steady aim towards it, fearing it might be something malevolent. But something in his mind told him to stand down, and he followed the mental order begrudgingly. As the figure came closer, he heard a serene voice speak to him.

“Hello.” It was the first thing he heard from the figure as its features became visible to him, an almost human face being the first thing that struck him hard in the head. “Sorry to be so impromptu, but I had to do it.”

“Who are you?” Lorenzo asked it as he watched it move along with such grace that even ballet dancers couldn’t match. Both awestruck and curious, it was the best of his interest to find out why was he still alive after the supernova. “And what is this place?”

“I am the Librarian, and I’m assuming you are wondering why you have not been incinerated?” She hit the jackpot, and now Lorenzo was certain there were going to be answers. It was interesting enough to talk to an alien, more or less survive a fucking supernova at point blank if it can be considered. Her elongated arm then swept across the place and she spoke. “This is the Sanctum of this shield world. Beautiful, isn’t it?”

“Depends,” Lorenzo grunted as he loosened a little bit while maintaining full alert on her next move. “So, how in the hell did you save me from a supernova?”

“It’s a little hard explaining Forerunner technology to a human, but I’m sure you’ll figure it out yourself,” the Librarian replied and was promptly asked another question by the concerned human.

“Okay... so where’s my men?” Lorenzo questioned as he raised his brow, his hand still on the pistol. The Librarian sensed his state of alert and calmed him down.

“Do not be afraid, I will not hurt you,” she responded and instantly, Lorenzo felt no need for his pistol to be withdrawn and holstered it back before she continued on with answering question. “As to where your fellow soldiers went, I’ve just sent them to another world, they will most likely reach their destination after our little conversation.”

“Wait, what?” Lorenzo took a step back and processed the Librarian’s words. How on earth... It’s not possible! Where is their ship? He didn’t see any, and it was enough for him to tell that this was complete bullshit. But somehow, he trusted her as she did in fact, save him from being scorched.

“Indeed, our technology works wonders,” she responded, proceeding to explain why the confused Marine captain was here in the first place. “And it helped me bring about a plan I compiled over the eons, which is why you’re here.”

“Hmm...” Lorenzo hummed, now eager to listen to the reason why the Librarian had brought him here, instead of Snowdrop or even Douglas. It could be anyone in fact, but why him? “Go ahead, I’m listening.”

“Very good, now then,” the Librarian continued. “Let me enlighten you on your task.”

“We are the Forerunners, a race of intelligent beings that disappeared into the farthest rims of the universe after the activation of the Halos, and I am a Lifeworker. Since the discovery of your species, I have studied you for eons and watched your empires fall and crumble even after the activation of the rings. But you, out of the billions of humans out there, are special.”

“Uh-huh,” Lorenzo responded as he leaned against the cold glistening walls of the sanctum, rubbing his beard.

“During the indexation of your kind, I have placed many seeds throughout your genes. Some of which will become in my primary plan, while you are my other...plan,” the Librarian stated as Lorenzo’s concern heightened. Was there something nasty in store for them? “The idea for a tracked war machine, the invention of combat suits, ancillas and finally, the remarkable idea of subjugating a fully grown adult to watch a child’s program.”

“I’m a little slow,” Lorenzo cut in. “I know about the suits and the tanks and yadda yadda, but what about the last part?”

“Do you not know of your friend?” The Librarian asked him calmly and Lorenzo instantly had MacBeth appear into his mind. He was a pretty decent guy and a good friend to be paired up with, but had an odd taste for that little girl’s show that was shown almost four centuries ago. It had its charms, like any other TV show, but what made this one so different in that the Librarian had to include it into their genes?

“You mean Mac?”

“...Yes, the one you call ‘Mac’” She replied uneasily as she didn’t like to use odd slangs, even though she respected the humans. “He is one of the major players in this plan as his knowledge of the race inside it will prove to be useful, along with his ancilla.”

“Guh...Ponies?” Lorenzo stated after he remembered the time when he and Russell, along with an unwilling Atkins, watched it with MacBeth who already had modified the AI to resemble one of the elements in the show. “Man, and I thought it was only for lil’ girls...”

“Ah, but sometimes, an odd one out might be the key to victory,” the Librarian calmly declared and went on to explain the more darker side of the plan.

“Now then, are you familiar with the term ‘destroyer’?”

“No shit,” Lorenzo boldly replied and sighed.

“Good, then you will know what is coming up,” the Librarian explained as she continued on with a more secretive side of Forerunner projects. She remembered the race that ended up almost extinct because of them in another reality and their horrible machines that would repeat the cycle of destruction every millennia.

“Long ago, during the war between your ancestors and ours, we tried to find a way to build a war machine powerful enough to subjugate a planet’s populace into surrender without harm. In doing that, we built an enhanced version of our slipspace engines and we discovered more than a million different realities in which your kind exists in. Amazing, isn’t it?”

Now Lorenzo was getting many other ideas. Different realities? Holy shit, did this mean that the old sci-fi shows that premiered on the silver screens of old was actually real? Not that it mattered, since they already had something compared to hyperspace from Star Wars. But never the less, an interesting revelation.

“In one particular one, we found a race of highly intelligent beings that called themselves the Leviathans. They were willing to help us, and so we started Project Reaper. But in the end, we caused more destruction than we ever wanted to, more so to the species we nearly killed off.”

“We made them, we made the Reapers,” the Librarian sadly confessed, as Lorenzo tried to scrounge up what a Reaper was exactly. Surfing the UNSC Net during his free time had given him plenty of information and other... things, and he remembered an old video game series, primitive to what they could whip up now, in which a human commander allied the entire galaxy to fight cuttlefish-like sentient ships.

Then he realized those very ships were the Reapers, and it dawned on him that the Librarian’s kind made them. How was this possible? It was only a game, how can it be he met a being whose species made these nightmarish entities? There was more headaches than answers, even more so than the logic of the shield world.

“Jesus...” Lorenzo gasped as he slapped his face. “You...you made them?”

“Yes... yes, we did,” the Librarian guiltily replied as she turned away, almost close to shedding a tear for the many deaths of the Leviathans she witnessed. The Reapers were as powerful as the Forerunners, but were more sophisticated and cold-blooded which proved the Librarian’s attempts to shut them down little more than just a nuisance. Shortly, the Forerunners were forced to leave the doomed reality and hoped that it would find a way to deal with itself, as she put her hope high within that realm’s humans. “I designed them, the Leviathans created them.”

“So...you drew out... the Reapers?” Lorenzo shakily asked her as he remembered the old gameplay videos he watched for his own amusement and the amount of carnage showcased in the actual game. “I thought it was a game...too.”

“It’s not just a little game, it’s real,” the Librarian replied as she bulked up herself and prepared to tell Lorenzo about the heavy task that would be bestowed upon Hell’s Jokers. “Are you ready?”

“Wait, you want...us, to stop the fucking Reapers?!” Lorenzo screeched and knew that even the weakest of the Reaper’s ground force would send them into the bowels of self-inflicted insanity because of their twisted and malevolent bodies, similar to the Flood’s combat form.

“No... not the entire Reaper armada,” the Forerunner explained. “There must always be a first for anything, and for the first of the Reapers we built Harbinger, a self-thinking Reaper that is more dangerous than even the Didact himself. The reality’s humans have already stopped and turned them into helpers using a device they made, but somehow Harbinger has kept his original objective as I had predicted eons ago.”

“You knew about this?”

“Not really,” the Librarian shrugged ungracefully, Lorenzo taking it as a no.

“Continuing on, Harbinger has somehow found the link between the multiverse and has possessed one of the beings in one of them, which I have sent your troops under your command into.”

“You mean the ponies...?” Lorenzo was still having a hard time taking in the fact that talking, colorful and intelligent ponies actually exist, albeit in another reality. “Damn...that’s bound to be bad.”

“Worse to come, the being he chose to control had previously become overcome with vileness the likes of the Flood, and he will stop at nothing to rid his own reality’s organic lifeforms. That’s why you’re going to be sent there,” the Librarian responded as Lorenzo began to sink into hysteria.

“No, no! I will not go into that pony place just to get lasered by a fucking cuttlefish demon!” He shrieked and starting panting, the Librarian tried to cool him down.

“Please, you must cooperate with me! If you don’t, Harbinger will find a way to reboot the Reapers’ original purpose and once he’s done with destroying all life in his reality, he will destroy everything in all realities!” The Librarian pleaded and Lorenzo quickly calmed down and gained back his wits, while reaching for his pistol out of self-precaution.

“Whew... I’m so sorry, it’s just that... I’ve been through the Covenant and the shitty parasites, but fighting a ominous and almost invincible intelligent ship?” Lorenzo panted and took a quick breather before going back to what he was saying. “Couldn’t you choose Red Team instead? I’m just a tank commander!”

“That’s why I chose you,” the Forerunner revealed to him on his choosing. Lorenzo tilted his head and raised his brow again at what the Librarian revealed to him. “You might be the playful one, but you and your men are the culmination of a thousand lifetimes in planning.”

“Huh... does that make me God or something?”

“No, it means that you are going to play your part as the commander of these brave souls,” the Librarian bestowed the role upon him, with Lorenzo feeling a little over weighted.

“Damn... that’s going to be tough as nails,” he remarked as he pulled out his pistol not at the ready, but just to carefully study it as he reached the closing lines of his conversation with the Librarian. Could he do it? Be the commander of Hell’s Jokers and possibly save millions, or trillions, of organic life from the Reapers? He had recalled one of the fearsome blares of one of them, and it made him shudder. But they were not unstoppable, just like the Covenant as he remembered watching ships and ships overwhelm two or three with heavy fire.

If the Librarian was indeed telling the truth, Harbinger only had a possessed body and not his ancient Reaper form while they had the firepower to take on a Scarab. Whatever the odds are, Harbinger was outnumbered and outgunned, Lorenzo then reconsidered his hasty decision of ditching it and just dying.

Then he made a decision that in the future, he will look back and say, “Maybe it wasn’t so bad after all.”

“I’ll do it.”

“Good, now then,” the Librarian said as lifted up her hand to project a holographic screen, which showed the remaining time needed for the slipspace warp to complete to Lorenzo’s surprise. The Forerunners were this advanced, no wonder why the Covenant wanted the shield world for their inactive and most likely destructive armada of ancient starships dating back before the Stone Ages, as he predicted. “It is almost time, I hope that he hasn’t picked up on the energy being radiated from the slipspace warp...”

“You mean Harbinger?” Lorenzo said as he clenched onto his pistol, just as a precaution.

“Indeed, that rampant machine is powerful enough to detect incoming signals from starships that allow him to coordinate defence tactics to repel any invasion force,” the Librarian explained as suddenly, the screen shuddered and flickered red to her horror.

“No, please! It is too soon-Then the both of them heard a deep rumbling emit from within the chamber as it darkened, the blue lights slowly dimming.

So you have returned to stop me.

The Librarian huffed and stood her ground against the newly-arrived Harbinger, who was now studying the anatomy of an alert Lorenzo as he made his move to guard the Lifeworker from the Reaper.

“I have indeed, for you are my mistake and I regret ever designing you.”

Ah, but you have created the master of many, the deceiver of the galaxy and the destroyer of civilizations, so that your own war could be settled.

“The war has past by! We no longer needed the monstrous construct the likes of yours!” The Librarian sturdily responded as her holographic projector rippled in front of Lorenzo before the particles turned blood red and replacing the timer was the terrifying form of Harbinger, the alpha Reaper.

Irrelevant, you should be proud that you’ve created me. Instead, you sent humans to deal with me, how pitiful.

“They will stop you! I have faith in that and no faith in a monster!”

Humanity is the monster, Librarian. You cannot see it, but the Didact could. He was right about the extinction of humanity, on how it will benefit the galaxy. They are not meant to uphold the Mantle, and your kind not fit enough too.

“Enough!” The Librarian shouted at the red holographic projection of Harbinger, its glowing yellow eyes boring into Lorenzo’s soul.

You simply cannot accept the truth, that the Reapers are the true holders as we were always destined to.

“The Mantle states that only the righteous will uphold it! And your kind are the complete opposite of that rule!”

Enough of the small talk, altering slipspace stream...now.

The Librarian’s face turned to shock and looked back at the newly formed readings of the slipspace stream, as Harbinger made several adjustments to it so that her plans could not succeed.

Now your plans are put to rest, with the humans scattered across this unhealthy world. This entire system is a joke, a sun orbiting a planet? We are much more capable than doing that.

“By doing what? Shitting on our stuff with your big ass scary lasers?” Lorenzo cockily answered back at the Reaper with newfound courage and a sense of justice, to the Librarian’s initial shock. “The Covvies are much more scarier than you!”

The Covenant is merely a tool of trade that we simply chose to ignore.

“Really now?” Lorenzo replied as the slipspace stream was intensely distorted by the Reaper’s intense scramblers onboard the actual ship a reality away.

Indeed. Now that I notice, you are a peculiar human in the sense that you have an aura similar to the human who turned us against our will, Shepard.

“What now?” Lorenzo huffed. “If she’s the one saying we’re going to have to slag you, then we’ll slag you!”

Foolish talk. I will not be entertained anymore by your insignificant speeches, and so I leave you with a message.

The Reapers will return, and there is nothing the universe can do about it.

With that, Harbinger’s model disappeared from the Librarian’s projector, causing the Forerunner to scowl in disgrace. “No! That accursed Reaper has altered the stream!”

“And that means?” Lorenzo questioned her as he took up a defensive position, in case. “What, we’re going to be ripped apart by the space-time continuum?”

“No, it means that all of you will be scattered in different places,” she replied and immediately, Lorenzo understood the situation and its term. Without the complete formation of Hell’s Jokers, they wouldn’t be able to fight Harbinger or his new form. “But the fortunate thing is that Harbinger wasn’t able to completely isolate everyone from each other.”

“And so? That means I’m still with my gunner?”

“Yes, and that the other vehicle with your friend and his ancilla will be accompanying you,” she explained. “Let us not waste anymore time, Harbinger will strike any time now.”

“Alright, so what am I going to do?” Lorenzo asked and straightened, as if the Forerunner were his boot camp CEO. Then she waved her hand in front of his face and he immediately became woozy. “Whoa...”

“It’s simple, my dear human,” the Librarian said as the tank commander got down on his knees from the sudden exhaustion.

“You need to wake up.”

Reveille

Lorenzo flickered and gasped.

It wasn’t some hallucination, he presumed as he stared straight into the void ahead of him while thinking back to the time he spent with the Librarian, after learning of the immense task bestowed upon him and his men with the introduction of the machine that would fuck up his entire day. Devoid of any activity, he struggled to jerk his arms around only to find them completely numb. It hurt like hell, but eventually he was able to move them and quickly looked for the unlit LED screen. Finding it, he tapped it and soon it came back online.

With the cold boot of the Grizzly’s onboard computer, Lorenzo’s eyes darted around the cockpit to make sure he was still in his tank and that Russell was alright. After the initial boot-up screen, it asked for verification, which initially ticked off the rudely awakened Marine as he pulled out a keyboard. As he typed in the codes to bypass the security check of the tank, he noticed that he felt dizzy and sick. Wondering where was he exactly, he looked up and used his hand to push up against the hatch. After it refused to budge, he then realized that he had to get the actual thing working before anything could happen.

Feeling stupid, he went on to finish the verification process and immediately, the screen chirped and an emergency light flashed to life.

Authentication valid. Welcome back, Captain Donald Lorenzo.

The Marine sighed and skimmed the screen to open the hatch of the Grizzly as he heard something mumble inside the dimly lit cockpit of the tank. Upon hearing the groan, he immediately started to speak with his somewhere-inside fellow gunner.

“Russell? Is that you?”

“Mmmph...” responded the recovering gunner as he lifted his hand up to soothe his aching cranium.

“Dude!” Lorenzo yelled and moved to shake him awake, only to find that he still had his seatbelts on. With the hatch grinding open, he wasted no time and quickly attempted to snap back his friend into reality. On the screen after the command, there was an IFF signal right next to them which he was not immediately aware of as he woke his friend.

“Fuck... what in the motherfucking hell?” Russell stirred and finally to began to see light, albeit an emergency light that was not even helping anyone at all. “Are we in the afterlife, momma?”

“Nope,” Lorenzo replied, anticipating for the gunner to freak out and struggle because of that realization. Even he was panicking inside, but held his ground after remembering the Librarian’s word. Still, where the fuck were they? He remembered the blood red hologram of Harbinger saying something about altering the slipspace stream and the Librarian’s words.

But it wasn’t the time for that as the hatch was halfway opened, revealing a brick red sky laced with the string of clouds. Lorenzo noticed it was stuffy for some reason, and quickly diverted attention to monitoring the system of the tank. After reading the temperature, he was stunned to find out how hot it was.

Average temperature reading: 155 Degrees.

“Shit...” Lorenzo groaned to himself and he quickly felt sweat droplets beading down through his neck. Wheezing, he sought to look for his combat helmet and his back-up rifle, in case the tank in any way was compromised by hostile forces.

“Ren, where are we?” Russell asked after shaking his head and flexing his muscles.

“I don’t know,” Lorenzo replied as he found his helmet and hastily put it on, activating its in-built sensors and ammo readings. Then he turned his attention to the Grizzly’s screen and activated its smart scanning systems, that would allow it to map out the terrain and provide them with viable options.

On the outside, a small cylindrical object was deployed on the surface of the tank and it emitted a bright blue light that surrounded the area in waves of spectral data that would be transmitted to any UNSC combat helmets in the area. With the process of mapping estimated to be around five minutes, Lorenzo took the liberty of exploring this new world to Russell’s surprise.

“You sure we’re not dead?”

“Not dead, just yet,” responded Lorenzo through the visor blocking his eyes. Retrieving the BR55 firmly placed into the wall, he gave it a good pull of the bolt and used his free hand to get a good grip on the outside.

With his strength, he pulled himself outside of the tank only to fall down flat on his face.

“Ow, fuck...” he groaned to himself, and slowly put two hands onto the ground to lift himself up. After getting up, he dusted himself and checked the battle rifle for any damage. Finding no mechanism damage and having a full magazine, he looked around the place and was awed by the towering cliffs that reminded him of Harvest. With the atmosphere just as intense, Lorenzo set out to study the terrain before he could start up his battle-ready tank and move out. Even though the Grizzly was built to survive a Scarab, it might not be powerful enough to take out whatever was here.

When he turned around, he noticed his motion sensor was not only picking up the detailed image of the Scorpion colored in yellow, but also the previously unnoticed IFF (Identification of Friendly or Foe) tag that lay just on the other side of where the Grizzly was in.

In actuality, the reason why Lorenzo dropped out of the tank was because it was in an awkward position. Remembering about Harbinger’s interference, he wasn’t all too surprised to find that it somehow caused their tank to end up like that on the rocky cliffside. Noticing a small cave that led straight to the other yellow dot, he slowly approached it as he contacted an awaiting and dazed Russell.

“Lorenzo to Russell, do you read?”

“I read you, fucking hell... that helmet took forever to find,” Russell replied, still hostile after his awakening.

“You still found it though,” Lorenzo jokingly replied as he was just a few meters from the cave entrance and the tilted Grizzly. Looking at it, he was going to need a lot more than just his hands to get the Grizzly back to prime state and since the Forerunner had implied Mac and Rarity might be here too, it was the best of his interests to get their own vehicle up and running first. “Alright, hang on in there. I’m going to scout out the terrain and look for Mac.”

“Roger, but where’s everybody? My sensors are picking up another IFF tag just across whatever is blocking us.”

“That’s why I’m moving out,” Lorenzo gruffly replied as he took up cover at the side of the cave entrance. “Take a rifle and lock up, it’ll be a while before I come back.”

“Aye, aye.” That was all Lorenzo needed to hear as he activated his helmet’s flashlight and entered the looming darkness of the cave. Cautiously proceeding through it with his rifle’s barrel being leveled at nearly everything, he failed to spot something very large and sleeping.

Fortunately, Lorenzo had an instinctive feeling to just stop walking and stopped dead in his tracks. Looking forward, he realized he had illuminated a gigantic reptilian beast which he instantly recognized as something out of mythology, and maybe out of that show.

“My god...” In front of him was a great sleeping dragon, coated in dark blue and striped with black. Making sure not to awake it, he tiptoed past its head and gripped onto his rifle to prevent any noise from being made. Although he doubted their existence, he admired dragons for their sheer size, their abilities and just because they look damn cool as he remembered during his youth on Mars. But he never expected to meet an actual one, more or less stand in front of the snout of a slumbering behemoth. As he slowly walked past the dragon’s right eye, it suddenly opened to his surprise and watched the Marine as he stood completely still.

If you stand still... it won’t see you...

Damn it! To him, it sounded like a brilliant idea but he knew better than to trust old movie quotes over real scientific facts. Elites belonged in the reptile category as spoken by UNSC scientists and they could see anything whether they moved or not like an eagle, and Lorenzo knew that this applies to dragons, in fact anything that is in the reptile category. Slowly backing away, the dragon’s eyelids slowly shut and he sighed in relief that it did not awaken to burn him alive.

He sprinted forwards, noticing the high change in temperature as opposed to outside. It was frigid inside the cavern, and he was lucky to still have his Harvest campaign uniform. Designed to both soak plasma fire and prevent the wearer from getting frostbitten, he felt safe indeed. But it wasn’t enough to sate his paranoia as he went deeper into the labyrinth. Then he noticed there were...astounding amounts of minerals scattered around inside, as his boots crunched several emeralds and rubies on the ground to his surprise.

He had no need for such useless objects, and so he quickly took up position as he heard something familiar crackle over his active radio.

“This is RRY 0892-3 transmitting emergency distress signal! Can any stellar or ground UNSC force hear me, over?”

Rarity’s voice was all he needed to confirm that Mac and his Wolverine was close. Tweaking the helmet’s microphone, he updated his interface and spoke to the AI. “Hello? This is Captain Lorenzo of Grizzly 054-7!”

“Lorenzo? Where are you? I’m picking up your IFF tag inside the cliff next to us!”

“That’s where I am!” Lorenzo responded as his boots thumped on the illuminated floors of the rock corridor, the sun shining through the holes in the walls. “And keep it low, will ya? Just passed a friggin’ dragon who happened to be taking a nap!”

“...a dragon? Where are we?”

“Let’s say I don’t wanna talk about that,” Lorenzo grunted, not wanting to tell the AI about the Librarian just yet. “Anyway, can you help me find a way out? Can you map the cave system at all?”

“I can...but give me a while, darling. I have to wake Mac up, he’s still out,” Rarity replied to Lorenzo’s satisfaction as he nodded and sprinted out further into the cave system, presuming that he was close to reaching his friend. After what the Librarian had said about Mac, he felt that he was now more important than all of them, if they were around at all. Now, where was the Spartan and Colby? If they were caught in the supernova, then they had to be somewhere out there in the vast unknowns of this world.

Then his sensor picked up two slow moving red dots that were coming in from the right, and immediately he sidestepped into the shadows of the intersection he had reached. Whatever it was, he knew it meant trouble. Cursing at his lack of X-Ray vision, he readied himself for a fight.

The two dots came closer and closer, until they reached the middle where Lorenzo took a small peek at what were they. He noticed they were also dragons, but the more active and lighter versions of the gargantuan he saw slumbering behind. He heard them mutter incomprehensible words and shrugged, not wanting to jeopardize the rally with the Wolverine. After the two red dots moved towards the next corridor on the left, he slowly crouched past them and eventually, they were out of ear range. Breathing a sigh of relief, he continued on towards the exit and he reached an opening that led right where he wanted to, outside. Contacting Rarity, he hugged the wall just in case anymore bipedal dragons was wandering outside. With the temperature reverting back to outside’s heat, he grunted and checked his battle rifle again, before holding it up with one hand and pulling out his M6B to check it. After he confirmed that it had sustained no damage at all, he holstered it and re-equipped his rifle as he stepped outside. The sun was bringing its full wrath upon him, making it almost intolerable to stand for even a second. Lorenzo quickly hurried away, following the yellow dot that was now closer.

“Mac, dear! Please get up!”

“I’m approaching your vehicle! Stand by, I need your help later!”

“Be patient! This lazy man wouldn’t get up!” Lorenzo snickered before sliding as he saw the same two dragons from before in the cave system, now stopping to look on their own left to find something odd in the distance. As he observed behind the rocks that covered him, they slowly talked in an alien language and took a few slow steps forward in curiosity on their discovery.

He was now on a deadline, Mac was still unconscious and with the dragons approaching their presumed location, it was risky to move on without engaging. Lorenzo then slowly moved out of his cover and sneaked his way behind a rock monolith, getting ready to take out the would-be target. Hearing the chattering of the dragons and their hisses, he silently contacted Rarity and hoped Mac was up.

“Rarity? You guys got incoming, twelve o’ clock!” Lorenzo barked into his headphone and hoped that they didn’t hear him.

“I have them on the radar!” Rarity frantically replied back as the Marine heard the grunting of the newly awakened MacBeth. “Thank goodness, he’s awake! Quick! Put on your helmet, Mac!”

After hearing his friend groan and seeing the dragons getting closer than ever to the unseen Wolverine, his mind raced fast. They might be civilians even if they were dragons, killing them was an untactical decision. He had to draw their attention away without causing too much of a commotion. Then he remembered a contingency plan that Forge laid out during the battle of Arcadia, to let the civilians escape on board the transports. That plan saved many, but in the process he and Russell were nearly killed by overwhelming amounts of plasma fire and energy lasers only to be saved by Red Team in the nick of time. If it weren’t for the Spartans, he might’ve not been here.

But now, it was him. No longer was Forge around, or his fellow tank commanders. Just him, with the curious multi-colored dragons between the Wolverine with Mac and Rarity inside and him. Lorenzo thought fast and checked the ammo counter on the battle rifle. He had enough to take them down, but first he surveyed the area. Spotting a pile of diamonds, rubies and emeralds, he came up with a better plan. Patting his vest, he found that he still had three M9 HE grenades all ready to be primed and detonated.

Already it has been less than a day, and he was faced with an increasingly difficult decision and a risky plan that would hopefully give enough time for Mac to fully awake and reoperate the still Wolverine with its arsenal of Argent V missiles and grenades. Pulling out one M9, he silently prayed to the gods above and pulled the pin before getting out of cover, flinging it towards the pile of minerals across the canyon.

The grenade went straight and true, arcing in the air before finally landing with a loud think on the diamonds. The dragons stopped and lifted their snouts in the air with their ears in response to the think. In a heartbeat, the frag exploded and caused the dragons to stumble back in confusion and panic. As they tried to gather themselves, they took the liberty of what caused the explosion to Lorenzo’s delight. All was going to plan, he thought to himself as he sprinted across the red rock plains and reached the Wolverine just as he heard Mac grunting and complaining.

“Jesus... Lorenzo? Do you hear me?”

“Copy that, Mac. I read ya,” Lorenzo said as he stood outside the Wolverine, battle rifle stowed away and now currently preoccupied with observing the behaviour of the stunned dragons, as they found that their minerals were all shards and bits. “Get this thing up running, now!”

“What for, mate? Where the fuck are we? Thought we got vaporized by that sun!”

“Long story, now we have to get moving!” Lorenzo’s head spun back and found that the dragons were now facing them. With looks that could kill, they roared and charged at the Wolverine in retaliation for the destruction of their treasures. “Fucking dragons are going to pound us!”

“Dragons? Oh fuck, better not hope we landed in the middle ages, yeah?” Mac responded as he tapped buttons after buttons, activating the engine of the Wolverine and causing it to rumble to life after being transported by a mysterious force that only Lorenzo knew about.

“Go, go, go!” Lorenzo shouted as he sat behind the grenade launcher and took out his battle rifle before aiming it at the foot of the dragons. He clicked the trigger and it spat out three rounds that impacted the ground, momentarily dazing them. “If you bloody lizards come a single foot closer, I’ll blast those scaly snouts of yours back to High Charity!”

They looked at each other, still angry, and tilted their heads. It was all too clear that they didn’t know what the Marine was speaking of as they had no idea what he was even saying. Lorenzo steadied his aim and hoped that they heeded his warning shots, now thinking of Rarity’s translation program that UNSC engineers installed to make sure that they could listen in on local Covenant networking.

“Rares, you still have that translation lingo program?”

“Still have it within my memory core. What for, dear?” Lorenzo nodded and still kept his aim on the dragons who instinctively took a few steps back, ready with their own surprise.

“I need it now!”

“But Ren! It doesn’t accurately translate alien language! More or less, dragon!” Rarity chimed out, a little irritated and still in a state of panic.

“Just install it into my helmet HUD, I’ll do the rest and see if they listen!” Lorenzo shouted and prepared for a fight, just as he saw the dragons look at each other and nod before they looked back at the now moving Wolverine with their jaws wide open and red glows emitted from their throats.

Lorenzo was in the shit, he remembered that dragons could breath fire and he needed to think fast before the Wolverine was scorched. Even with its heavy titanium armoring, it wouldn’t last long against the intense flames of a dragon, let alone two. He didn’t want to kill them, but the situation was going to the red zone way too fast.

It was to either get melted into nothing or take the shot.

Lorenzo pulled the trigger and sent a burst of bullets into the leftmost dragon’s throat, gutting him and causing him to shriek in agony and bark intangible words until Rarity had finished installing the translation software into his helmet.

“There, it’s done deary! Be thankful that I’m the element of Generosity!”

“Thanks, Rares,” Lorenzo responded as the dragon looked at his fatally wounded accomplice who shortly fell to his knees and finally died due to the bullets ripping through his skin. Lorenzo then bulked up and started to converse with him, using the newly installed software.

“If you do not want to end up like your friend over there, I suggest you back off and let us go.”

“Bastard!” The dragon spoke out as the software worked its magic to Lorenzo’s delight, now that his message could be delivered.

“You get the warning?”

“You... killed him!” The dragon cried out before he turned his seething eyes towards Lorenzo, who immediately gulped. He had just incurred the wrath of a dragon, and he knew better than to piss off a dragon than to kill one of a single Hunter pair.

“Raagh!” He charged at the Wolverine, completely berserked. Lorenzo raised his battle rifle to deal with the rampaging dragon, but the Wolverine’s MLRS suddenly swerved to life and he could hear the Argent missiles warming up for launch.

“Don’t worry, Ren. I got him.” Then in a loud series of shrieking missiles, the spot where the dragon was before was now a smoldering crater thanks to the Wolverine and Mac who smiled inside the cockpit of his vehicle, which Rarity sighed at, not out of dissapointment though.

“Generous enough to use your missiles?”

“Yep, still generous.” Lorenzo chuckled but immediately, he told them about their own stranded Grizzly.

“Alright, I need you to help me out with something.”

“What do you need, mate?”

“This thing got tow cables?”

“Sure thing, always used to pullin’ out Elephants and other shit in the bogs,” Mac responded as he tapped a button, causing the tow cable behind to whir in response.

“Good, we need to get to the other side of the cliff ‘cause I just left my Grizzly there.”

“I was wondering where is that tank of yours, anyway,” Rarity responded as she did a quick scan on the geography of the valley with the Wolverine’s computer-controlled CITV station. “Let me guess, did it get stuck upside down?”

“It’s stuck, not upside down though,” Lorenzo replied as Mac nodded and hit the gas, causing the Marine who sat on the vehicle to hold on to the many grips of the Wolverine which proceeded to advance towards where Lorenzo’s tank was, still with Russell inside. With no contact for almost an hour, the tank commander began to feel terribly worried for his friend and hoped that his beloved heavy vehicle was still there.

Ten minutes later, the Wolverine’s exterior cameras finally caught glimpse of the massive war machine and confirmed it was just up ahead, with Lorenzo being correct about it being stuck in a dreadfully awkward position.

“That’s such a terrible fate!” Rarity remarked on the Grizzly as the Wolverine progressed towards it, with Mac readying the tow cable and Lorenzo ready to help get them out of this valley of dragons. Now that he thought of it, maybe he should ask Mac about anything dragon related in the show to get an idea of what they should be expecting on... wherever they are. After a minute of Mac’s driving, the Wolverine grinded to a halt next to the Grizzly and Lorenzo jumped down to get ready the cable. As he was doing it, he let Russell know it was safe to ease down.

“Come in, Russell!”

“Ugh...yeah? Pretty damn stuffy here...” Came the voice of Russell as he shook himself awake and checked his MA5B, still with its safety on. Sighing, he then asked where Lorenzo went all this time.

“Went out for a little searching, came back with an AI and a friend.”

‘Ello, mate! Been enjoying your sleep?”

“Ah! It’s so good to see you, Russell dear!” The gunner grunted and tapped the screens of the Grizzly, reigniting it. As he was checking up on the system, Lorenzo outside was busy pulling the tow cable out to attach it to the front hinges.

“Mac! I’ve attached the cable to the Grizzly, get ready to get rolling!”

“Whoa...what? We’re gonna get outta this place? Fucking finally!” Russell groaned inside as he stowed away his assault rifle and took over the driver’s seat to help push out the Grizzly. Activating the engine, the Grizzly rumbled to life to Lorenzo’s delight. It was good to see that his beloved tank could still operate amidst all the trouble they been into. Lorenzo took a few steps back after attaching the cable and told Mac to start up the Wolverine.

“Aye, aye jefe!” Lorenzo nodded and quickly backed away from the Grizzly. The Wolverine’s engines started to roar loudly, and the Grizzly was finally pulled out of its rocky entrapment onto the earth. Letting out a victorious cry, he quickly sprinted to man the Grizzly once again. Russell, knowing this, moved to his gunner seat and checked the weapons system so that they could fend off any kind of attacks. Opening the hatch, Lorenzo jumped in and quickly got into the driver’s seat, proceeding with the next part of his plan.

“Rarity, I need you to locate the rest of Hell’s Jokers.”

“But dear! I don’t even know where to start looking without a satellite!”

“Then try to find their IFF tags, faint or not-Then the Grizzly’s sensor picked up a humongous red dot that passed over the Grizzly and the Wolverine. Grunting, he quickly informed Mac to ready his missiles for fire while pushing the Grizzly ahead. “Russell, get ready the guns.”

“Already ready, Ren!” Russell energetically responded and continued maintaining the smoothbore cannons and the co-axial M247T machine. After loading up a pair of HE shells into the cannons, Russell edged to fire.

Meanwhile, Mac was reloading another batch of Argent V missiles when something dropped down in front of them, something very big and pissed off. With the radar picking it up, he slowly put his hand on the CITV’s controls and locked on to the thing that was in front of them, revealing it to be a gigantic dragon that looked hungry. “Guys? There’s a fucking dragon...”

“Knew about it,” Lorenzo grunted and signalled for Russell to maneuver the cannons to fire upon the olive colored dragon, that reminded him of the UNSC’s coat. Shaking it out of his head, he then spoke into the microphone built onboard the Grizzly while the translation program did everything for him. “Alright, sir! I need you to step away from us if you don’t want to get overkilled!”

He heard the dragon huff and it spoke back, the translation program still working out. “Diplomacy isn’t my kind of thing, you know. And I’m hungry as a hydra!”

“Then you’ll never be hungry again,” Lorenzo declared and sent out the go signal for Mac to fire. “In Hell.”

Russell pulled the trigger while Lorenzo quickly stepped on it, propelling the tank forward and flaring out its shells while the Wolverine’s Argent V missiles screamed and decimated where the dragon was. After the initial launch, Mac quickly activated the XM511 grenade launcher and sent 40mm rounds straight for the center of the resulting black smoke while keeping up with the pace of the Grizzly.

“Woohoo! Never been able to blast a dragon, and its fucking awesome!”

“Yep, never thought about even meetin’ one,” Lorenzo replied as the smoke cleared, revealing just a charred crater and no bones in sight even. As the two vehicles activated their headlights and went into the forest ahead, Lorenzo took this time to check their passive inventory, specifically hoping for a UAV that Rarity could use to locate the rest of Hell’s Jokers. With the temperature dropping to a bearable level, he sighed and whistled at the sight of the forest. It had been a long while since he had seen anything this serene and beautiful, even back on Harvest and Reach during his military leave. Blinking, he kept scrolling down the screen until he found what he was looking for, an ARGUS drone inside a pod of the Grizzly. Remembering that he had extensively modified his Grizzly for long-term engagements and sneak attacks, he told Rarity of what he had found.

“Really? That’s absolutely perfect! Quick, ready it up and we can get to finding our friends!”

“Ma’am!” Lorenzo jokingly replied back as the Grizzly rolled into the foliage. Tapping the option on the screen, the pod opened up on the outside and the drone promptly flew out, ready to survey. Rarity shortly took over the UAV’s systems and it soared off into the skies above, looking for the missing ODSTs, the Sparrowhawk along with Colby, Snowdrop, Douglas and his Marines.

“Okay! Just give me either an hour or two, and I’ll let you know where they are!”

“Got it, Rarity,” Lorenzo replied as Mac spoke through the helmet, bent on asking him where they were.

“Hey Ren, where the hell are we? Dragons...fuck me, are we dead?”

“We ain’t dead, but we ain’t exactly close to home either,” Lorenzo replied. “You know that pony show you scrounged up in the UNSC’s databanks?”

“Yeah...wait, don’t tell me....”

“Yep, it seems like we’re in your paradise now, with a bad start.”

Disarmament

Oblivion

In the pristine gardens of the Canterlot Palace, one could find inner peace with the webs of exotic species of plants from all around the world. It was the pride of Celestia really, having been worked on it more than three hundred years and going through more than a thousand gardeners to keep the garden live and teeming. If one wasn’t satisfied with the greenery, they could also enjoy the colorful display of plumage from residing species of birds, from tiny and verdant hummingbirds and towering flamingoes. It was nice, really.

But that changed after something huge zapped into one section of the garden, followed by many others cloaked in strange black armor. It had been less than a hour and already one of them was stirring, a green suited behemoth among those who had arrived.

:// REBOOTING CRITICAL MJOLNIR SYSTEMS>

://VOICE-LOCKED: PASSCODE: _____

Snowdrop flickered amongst the reeds of her snow colored hair and groaned as all she felt was coldness flowing through her blood. She might’ve been a Spartan, but she doubted that even Spartans could survive a point-blank supernova. But she just did, miraculously and wherever she was, it looked bright as hell.

It reminded her of Reach, how she was one of the many hand-picked subjects for the SPARTAN II project under the care of Doctor Catherine Halsey, who she admired. During the forest drills, she took some time off to lay down to see the azure tinted skies through the foliage before her team, Tempest, found her and asked her to hurry up with their task before Menendez got pissed and sent an ODST squad after them. It was all fun and games to her, but when she reached the frontline she immediately changed. Training didn’t help her overcome her fear of death, as she saw the cold bodies of both Marines and civilians.

Now it was different, as she slowly voiced out the passcode for the suit’s reactivation.

“…Tempest.” The suit processed the word and her acknowledgement light blinked green.

://PASSCODE ACCEPTED, SPARTAN S-082>

://PLEASE MOVE YOUR LEGS TO ALLOW GRAVITATIONAL ADJUSTMENTS>

She groaned and moved her aching legs, tensed by her almost-unbearable suit that she had to wear due to regulations. It was fairly shitty, and so was the rest of the trip from Harvest to Arcadia and finally, the mysterious planet that turned out to be artificially made and containing dozens of ancient, dormant warships that the Covenant wanted so badly.

://ADJUSTING TORQUE JOINTS>

://ADJUSTMENTS COMPLETE: YOU ARE NOW FREE TO MOVE>

She raised up her hand and waved it at the sky before she pushed herself up. After getting a good position, she took both of her hands and twisted the helmet to ease her neck pain.

://HEADS-UP DISPLAY ONLINE>

In an instant, her view was filled with information surging in from her pre-installed programs. It made her dizzy, but finally the HUD settled down and on her screen was just a circular echolocation radar and her shield levels on top, which were empty. She simply sat on the grass and waited for the suit to recharge its shields.

://REACTIVATING ENERGY SHIELDS, STANDBY>

She felt a tingling sensation that made her grunt before her meter filled up, signifying that it was fully recharged. As she swerved her helmets sideways to look out for her fellow UNSC personnel, she was initially surprised when she saw a brownish pony with a straw hat, a white beard and a shovel looking at her.

“Whoa!” She grunted and stood up, causing it to back away while dropping its shovel. “What in the hell…?”

The pony didn’t react, as if she was not even unusual in wherever she was and proceeded to speak in an unknown dialect. Snowdrop realized that it didn’t talk English, and quickly activated her translation program.

“Activate language translator.”

://ACTIVATING TRANSLATOR VERSION 4.132>

://TRANSLATOR ONLINE>

Now the pony started to make sense, which greatly confused her and caused a little bit of shock for the Spartan. It took ages to translate even a single word of alien, and all it took was a second to translate whatever the hell this pony was saying?

“Whoa there, critter. I ain’t gonna hurt you or anythin’.” It sounded like an old quack, and she took it as she thought of it. Not wanting to be rude, she tried to communicate with this pony.

“I didn’t expect you anyway,” she calmly replied and now it was his turn to step back in shock.

“You can speak Equestrian? Mighty odd…” Equestrian? What the hell was that? It made her brain melt slowly, as she tried to process what happened. “Anyway, welcome to Canterlot. Saw you make a great mess out in this here gardens.”

Garden? She looked around and found an exotic array of flora that blossomed here. With the equally strange stone arches and the statue of…something eternally stuck in the pose of surprise, it made her reconsider the whole meaning of ‘strange’.

“Okay…” Then she went straight ahead for the first rule of war; get a weapon. She turned to look for her M6 Grindell Nonlinear rifle, only to find it missing. Where did it go? It must’ve came with her if she was here, so where was it? Then she decided to ask the pony where it was, not expecting a viable answer.

“Oh, you mean that funny block that came flying out with ya?” It replied, its straw making the Spartan a little irritated before turning around and pointing out to a recently disturbed bush nearby with something familiar sticking out of it. “It’s over there. And if you need anythin’ else, there’s a big thingy that also came with ya, but the guards already blocked it off for investigatin’.”

Wait a minute, big thingy? Oh shit, she hoped that it wasn’t the AV-22 VTOL that was present during the battle, along with Colby and her co-pilot. If it was, then she was going to have to find them. Thanking the pony, she walked over to the bush and stuck her hand inside it, pulling out the Spartan Laser with ease. After remembering she had something else along with her, she reached for her back with her free hand and found her customized Covenant carbine intact. She sighed and pulled it out to check it more closely, the custom grey skin over it made her smile a little. She had got it off a Elite that nearly killed her, promptly gutting it with its own Energy sword that she kept the holder, strapped on to her left shoulder armor as a warning to any Covenant scum who dared faced her. Checking her belt for her depleted uranium rods, she found that she still possessed an adequate amount of them and nodded in satisfaction before wondering where they were. For some odd reason, their IFF tags weren’t on her radar, but a dozen red dots were.

Remembering the brown pony, she thought that it would be best to ask him where the thing was now. Walking back, the pony raised his head and saw her again.

“Well, what do ya need now?”

“Um...” Snowdrop hummed. “Where’s the thingy?”

“Oh yeah, just go straight and turn right, you’ll find it there,” the pony said slowly and Snowdrop nodded. Just as she was about to go, the pony asked her something. “Excuse me if I’m a little too curious, but what are you?”

“A Spartan, and that’s all you need to know,” Snowdrop replied as she took off on the paved path to where the pony had pointed out the location of the object. Then her eyes darted around and scanned the environment as part of the second rule of engagement; check your surroundings for possible ambushes or traps.

It wasn’t the nooks or crannies that she was scanning, but rather the masonry of this odd place and how beautifully done they were. Were these alien constructs, or the middle ages? She presumed it was the middle ages and promptly established the fact that these…ponies didn’t possessed anything more dangerous than a lance or crossbow. They did her no harm even, but she kept her guard. After striding down to her left, she heard two voices talking out through her helmet and quickly looked around for a place to hide. Spotting a maintenance closet next to her, she quickly opened it and slunk inside, shutting the door. After locking herself in, she immediately halted her movements and waited for the voices to pass.

Then her radar blinked, two yellow dots coming in from behind the dots. She wondered who these dots were, until she heard radio chatter coming in from her helmet. As she tuned in to this new event, she heard the quick cries of pain before two audible thumps.

She hoped they weren’t dead and promptly found the frequency. “Hello? This is 082, is there anyone on this comm?”

The response was just as surprising. “082? Snowdrop? Where the hell are you?”

“Inside a closet, had to jump in to get out of view,” she replied. “What did you guys nail?”

“Not entirely nailed, just knocked them out for safety,” the voice assured as her helmet’s light blinked green and signaled that it was clear to move out. Reaching out for the knob, she turned it and came out with her Carbine ready, only to meet four familiar black armored troopers advancing down the hallway. ODSTs, the very ones who fought next to her against the Covenant strike force on the alien planet. They had been dragged along with her, what else?

Raising her hand up, the lead ODST nodded and called for his men to calm down. As she watched two of them drag the unconscious bodies of another two ponies, now white and clad in golden armor, the leader came up to her and took off his helmet, revealing black hair and two sets of yellow irises.

“Well shit, Snowy. Didn’t expect you to be out here,” the ODST joked and the Spartan gave him a nudge with her hand, sending him stumbling back a bit.

“Didn’t expect you guys too,” the Spartan responded and looked to her right, as the two ODSTs ungraciously dumped the two ponies into the same closet she hid in. “Where were you?”

“Landed in a garden,” he responded and looked to his right as the ODSTs shut the door. “Then the next thing we knew, three of these same buggers found us and kind of…interrogated us.”

“Too bad for you,” Snowdrop replied. “Brown one found me, pretty nice pony too.”

“God damn it,” the ODST groaned. “Why’d the Spartans get the good shit?”

“Well, Ethan,” the Spartan said to the leading ODST. “It's just luck.”

“Right,” he replied as he signaled for his fellow ODSTs to get into combat mode. “Anyway, we were thinking of getting outta here with a bunch of explosives until you came along.”

“Bad idea,” the Spartan disagreed, knowing that such a reckless course of action will lead to a whole lot of trouble. “And that pony told me he saw our VTOL too.”

“Holy shit,” Ethan exclaimed as he gripped his SR99SC sniper, looking around for any more guard ponies as Snowdrop was presuming. “Colby’s here too?”

“Hot damn she is,” the Spartan replied as she pulled out her Carbine and walked forwards to the intersection, looking at the entrance far ahead. “And we’re going to look for her.”

“Sounds like a good idea,” Ethan said as he followed Snowdrop, putting back his helmet. “Might be out ticket out of here, if they don’t find us.” The Spartan nodded and looked around, spotting the shadows of more ponies. Quickly directing her hand to the entrance straight ahead, the ODSTs hurried and so did she while keeping an eye out on her radar. Spotting additional red dots, she broke into the sprint and finally reached the next section where on the top leftmost corner was at least six dots. Quickly hugging the walls, she signaled for the ODSTs to lay low as she processed a plan in her head. Taking a small peek outside, she saw a flight of steps nearby that oversaw the garden in which the ponies were gathered around the now visible Sparrowhawk.

Turning her head, she called for Ethan. “Yeah, boss?”

“Okay, I need you to get up this stairs and provide over watch,” she ordered as the ODST stepped out of line, pulling back the bolt of his lethal anti-armor sniper rifle. “If they start getting unfriendly, then you’ll do the same.”

“Got it, and one thing,” Ethan said as he stopped before the staircase. “These guys are trained for close combat, so just watch out. Okay?”

“Got it,” Snowdrop replied as Ethan disappeared upstairs. She looked behind to the waiting ODSTs and began her next step. “Alright, as for you all.” She stuck out two fingers, pointing to two ODSTs who nodded.

“You two go left, the other two take right.” They all nodded and started to shuffle out with their weaponry at the ready. Snowdrop huffed in approval and went on to her next plan, which was to figure out whether Atkins and her co-pilot survived or not. Looking out from her cover as the ODSTs moved, she scanned the VTOL and only found minor damage to its top and the same cauterized metal as when it was struck by a fuel rod. She then contacted Atkins and received nothing, making her worry a little bit. Then she called up a small panel that monitored her squad mates’ vital and checked up on Colby’s vitals, finding that she was just knocked out along with her co-pilot. As she picked up chatter from the ponies ahead, she spotted one blue-maned one, which wore a bright red uniform of such, making her think that he was the leader of the other ponies.

Now that she established the current facts about the situation, it was time to make her public. Stepping out into the open, she watched as the previously ordered ODSTs take up positions and with Roger’s IFF tag on top, ready to blow off anyone of their heads off. As she walked up to them, they turned around with their weapons pointed at her in response. The red coated one called out to her and asked her to stop dead in her tracks.

“Halt! What are you, creature?”

“Just someone who wants their stuff back,” Snowdrop coolly replied to the shock of the ponies that were surprised that she could speak Equestrian. Raising her Carbine up, she moved to the left and made a signal for them to move away from the downed VTOL. “Now step away from the vehicle and nobody gets hurt.”

“How dare you? Having the audacity to threaten Captain Shining?” The white one on the right barked back and stepped forward, his lance at the ready. Snowdrop responded by moving a step forward in defiance.

“Try me,” she dared the pony as he growled. She huffed and got ready for any advances that the pony tried. He looked pretty pissed off with the fact that she threatened his captain, and judging from his stance, he was going to attack anytime soon. As he took a step forward, Shining blocked his way and cleared his throat, not wanting any more trouble inside the palace grounds and that picking a brawl with strange, heavily armored creatures would be anything more than wise.

“Please, let us not start a fight,” he said as Snowdrop grunted and re-calibrated her aim. “I’m terribly sorry for that, the recruits are a little too…feisty.”

“Seems pretty damn obvious,” Snowdrop replied as he stepped forward, the shadowed ODSTs having their guns trained on him just in case.

“Ahem,” he coughed, now standing right in front of her and clearly shadowed by her massive stature. He gulped before proceeding to introduce himself. “I am Captain Shining Armor of the Royal Guard. What may your name be?”

She didn’t reply, to his ire. “No need for names, just let us do our business and get out of here.”

“Us?” Then Snowdrop raised her hand and circled it, summoning the ODSTs out of the shadows that promptly scared the guard ponies around the Hawk.

“Sir! More of them!” One of the recruits shouted as he pointed his spear against one of the soldiers, prompting the pointing of his shotgun right in his face. “Orders?”

“They won’t shoot, Captain, unless I say so,” the Spartan replied, waiting until they could get the opportunity to recover Atkins and her co-pilot. “And I presume your…men won’t attack us too?”

“They won’t,” he chuckled, unaware that Ethan had him in his sights. “Anyway, please elaborate to me what in Faust’s name just landed there?” He asked, turning and pointing towards the Hawk.

“It’s one of ours,” Snowdrop replied as she started moving towards it, the ODSTs having secured it and signaling for her to get over there. “It’s our priority now that we secure it, before anything else goes FUBAR.”

“Okay…” Shining replied, still uneasy about these strange figures that reminded him of smaller Minotaurs but heavily armored and armed with unknown devices that outmatched their crossbows. He decided to comply with these creatures, for the fear that if one of them were suddenly attacked, the whole palace might burn down. “I’ll let you through now, but make it fast. It’s not very often we get strange green things just appearing out of nowhere.”

As Snowdrop approached the fogged up Plexiglas of the Hawk, she heard the stampeding of hooves and turned to find three very ticked off and battered ponies looking around in anger. She signaled for the ODSTs to ready arms and went on to knock the cockpit to wake the unconscious Atkins up. The three guard ponies looked to their right and the lead pony raised his hoof at the ODSTs.

“There they are! Get them!” They all rushed towards the ODSTs and Snowdrop to Ethan’s dismay and he quickly re-aimed for the would-be assailants. Shining was quick to react and stopped them dead in their tracks, wondering why his fellow guards were so ticked off.

“Whoa there! Stop!”

“Captain! These strange creatures knocked us out and left us for dead!” Oh boy, this was going to end up bad. The ODSTs grunted and hesitated to fire, knowing that they were the culprits. Ethan looked upon the ponies as catalysts for a fight that will hopefully not involve deaths. Although ready to fire, Ethan had his fair share of bad situations that was what was taking place now.

“What?” Shining said and turned back to Snowdrop, who looked back with her sensors spiraling into the danger zone. “Is this true?”

“I’m not so sure,” Snowdrop replied as she heard Atkins groan inside the cockpit, the blinking lights on the dashboard of the Hawk blinking yellow. “Wasn’t with them.”

“Ma’am?” the ODST on Snowdrop’s right asked her. “Should we respond?”

“That’s a negative, soldier,” Snowdrop replied as Atkins raised her hand to rub her skull and used her other hand to grab her flight helmet, cursing away under her breath. “No KIAs, they’re friendlies.”

“But ma’am!” The ODST responded, still thinking away on whether to shoot the ones that they knocked out. “They’re riled up!”

“Soldier,” Snowdrop replied, still trying to communicate with Atkins who was putting on her helmet and shaking her head in disorientation. “If they hit first, you hit back. Rules of engagement, remember that.”

“Aye, aye!” He complied, still having his silenced M72 SMG ready and with plenty of ammunition. As Atkins’s eyes began to dart around, she gazed upon a blurry outline of a Spartan and the black shape of an ODST. Mumbling something intangible, she slowly spoke through her helmet’s microphone while sitting upwards and reaching out to reactivate the VTOL’s systems.

“Bloody hell…what happened?”

“Atkins?” Snowdrop responded as Shining tried to talk the ponies out of their revenge against the ODSTs. “You’re alright, it’s okay.”

“No shit, Snowy,” She gruffly responded back, cracking her back and straightening up, the Hawk’s screens coming back to life and all its various switches and buttons flickering to life. “What the…where the fuck are we?”

“In a garden, somewhere inside some kind of palace,” Snowdrop responded as she looked up into the sky, finding that the Hawk was able to fly itself out of here to her relief. It was as useless as a BB gun against Hunter armor if it weren’t able to get back to its regular combat elevation. “Get this bird up and running, we need to get out of here and regroup with anyone who happened to come here.”

“How’d you know if anyone came here?” Atkins remarked and struggled to use her fingers to flick everything on and do pre-emptive flight checks before checking on her co-pilot who as still knocked out.

“I have a feeling about it, since our Helljumpers are here,” Snowdrop replied as she turned her attention to the enraged ponies, with Shining failing to keep them in check.

“Watch out!” The first pony tackled one of the ODSTs and attempting to beat the ever loving shit out of him, but instead being countered by a strong jab to the jaws by the pinned soldier. The second guardspony somehow managed to use some kind of power to surround his lance and swung it at one of the ODSTs who nimbly dodged it and hesitated to fire his MA5B.

The third one went straight for her, even though she was not part of the ODSTs’ earlier conflict. It was ultimately a bad choice as she dodged it and even managed to grab his lance before she swung him into the air, slamming him onto the ground with a crunch. “Wrong choice.”

Shining watched on with fear, knowing that he had ultimately screwed up in failing to keep his recruits in check. He would have to discharge them, if they managed to survive what the creatures dealt out. But now the rest of his recruits joined in with the fight, and he had totally no control over them as they ignored his pleas to cease hostilities. Fearing the worse, he backed away from the fight as two of his guards engaged two separate black armored figures while another pair was busy engaging the figure, which he had spoken to. She was no doubt a powerful fighter, seeing that she managed to lift a pony up with ease and slam him with such ferocity. It had been a long time since something this powerful came into Canterlot, much less almost five of them.

Ethan however was screaming inside his mind to pull the trigger as he saw Snowdrop effortlessly counter one pony’s lunge and threw him before engaging with his comrade armed with a lance. As she and the ODSTs were fighting, Snowdrop decided to halt the conflict through the use of Ethan’s SRS99C and contacted him. “Ethan, end the show now!”

“Got it,” he responded and pulled the trigger, sending an anti-armor 14.5 APFSDS cracking that left an impression on everybody who immediately stopped fighting, except the ODSTs who took them by surprise and pinned them down. Atkins, watching the carnage from inside the Hawk, decided to reboot her bird as ordered by Snowdrop and activated the propulsion system of the VTOL, only to find it malfunctioning.

Meanwhile, Snowdrop took charge of the situation and attempted for one last time to negotiate before she was forced to use lethal force. “Captain, tell your ponies to stand down. Now!”

“They won’t listen!” He complained, causing her to scowl and flinch.

“You’re a fucking captain, tell them off or we’ll have to start shedding blood!”

Shining was repulsed. Blood? They were really meaning it this time, especially by that cracking of something powerful in the floor above. Dang it! Shining, get a hoof on yourself! He shook his head and went on to thunder with all his might in order to avoid any more chaos.

“STOP!” All fighting ceased, and the ODSTs stopped pummeling the ponies. “STAND DOWN!”

“Boys, do it,” Snowdrop ordered as the ODSTs withdrew and went back to the Hawk, keeping an eye out for the battered ponies. She breathed a sigh of relief as the pony grappling her let go and backed away, snorting away with anger. Still alert, she didn’t hesitate to lift up her rifle and maintain it at eye level in case they made anymore moves. The ODSTs responded too and slowly withdrew back to Atkins and her awakening co-pilot.

Colby wasn’t having much luck either, as she cursed away while analyzing what was wrong with the propulsion system of the Hawk. It must’ve been the fall or something, because it was blinking vibrant yellow and to her, it meant serious trouble. Pulling up Snowdrop’s line, she immediately contacted the Spartan to inform her of the bad news. “Hey, Snowy?”

“What?”

“I think the Hawk’s outta commission."

The Spartan felt anger surging up her veins, they went for a small battle and now she decides to announce that their fucking way out was out of order? She lost her cool and decided to pull out a plasma grenade, startling the ODSTs and Ethan who looked on with disbelief that the Spartan could become this angry.

“Snowy! Calm down!”

“I’m not…going to!” She roared and flung the plasma grenade high into the air, Shining and his men moving away from it as they didn’t know what it could do. Shining acted out of instinct and he, being a unicorn, used his magic to stop the trajectory of the grenade before turning to the enraged Spartan who pulled out her Spartan Laser in anger.

“You little-the Spartan was cut off by the sound of their weapons being lowered and pointed at her in response, the ODSTs responding with the same. Ethan was conflicted, what could he do now? They couldn’t understand any of them except for Snowdrop because of her in-built translator program, but he had to make it clear for the white unicorn captain that whatever he was hovering was extremely dangerous. He knew of Spartan behavior, and knew if Halsey was here, she would’ve instantly reprimand Snowdrop for her immediate rage.

There was little option left, and with only so much time. He switched his aim and pulled the cold trigger of the sniper rifle, sending another round cracking towards the floating and unstable plasma grenade, causing a tremendous shower of plasma to vaporize the air and causing the ponies to stumble back including Shining.

“What in Tartarus…?” Shining mumbled, rapidly recovering from the explosion and quickly turned his attention to the Spartan, whose body language told him she immediately regretted in throwing that explosive. It was alien and it outmatched anything they could make, so he took it as a sign that maybe his recruits were right about them.

The Spartan had her massive laser locked on to Shining, still venting anger while trying to cool down on the inside. With the Hawk out of commission for now, there was little they could do unless the ponies attacked and gave them the signal for shoot-to-kill. Calming down, she kept her aim and looked behind to signal for one of the ODSTs to help Colby with any repairs that were needed for the AV-22’s systems to work once more.

“Snowy. That was a very bad, bad decision.”

“I’m sorry, just a little angry and all.”

“Little angry? Did you just know I had to put a fucking 14.5 bullet into that ‘nade so that no one could get hurt- Hold up, more red dots coming from the corridor that we took.”

As Snowdrop looked to her right, she could see additional reinforcements coming in with more diverse weaponry and the same strange auras that surrounded their weapons. She readied herself for a fight, as the ponies formed up and turned their weapons against her. “Captain! We heard the blast and-

“Save it, they mean no harm,” Shining replied and he silently hoped that it was just an act of careless anger, not just anything else. He knew that anger could lead to tragic incidents, and he had learnt to overcome that. The recruits were no different from the hulking green figure that stood there with her heavy device trained on him. “Just keep watch, they might do anything if anyone of you react.”

“Aye, sir!” They barked back, still keeping their lances and spears in the direction of the Hawk, along with some of them who had crossbows to Snowdrop’s dismay.

This was one hell of a way to start a string of badly timed events.

See?

Princess Luna shook her head in dizziness as Harbinger boomed in her mind, having kept her awake throughout the night with endless demands for his own objectives that she vehemently refused to listen. But now, it was showing her the live strings of events that had happened recently in the gardens, with Captain Shining Armor and his guards surrounding about six or more humans that fiercely guarded a downed vehicle of unknown workings.

These are humans, but they are not the ones I’m familiar with.

“Why should I care?” Luna groaned back, still trying to fend off Harbinger but was already low on power and sleep. “They might’ve tossed and tumbled, but at least nopony was injured or such.”

Trust me, I’ve seen what these mortals can do even to the Reapers.

These are no different, except they are little more…primitive.

“So? They might’ve advanced weaponry that might be able to kill a dragon with ease, but they have showed great hesitation in trying to kill my ponies.”

But alas, they are still human.

Give the order, the order to kill.

“No!” Luna cried out, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to even if she was forced as Shining only took orders from Celestia herself, not her. “They haven’t done anything wrong?”

The green one might have not, but the black figures have.

Hurting your little ponies, that is.

She took a step back and sat on her bed, hovering the orb closer so that she could still keep an eye out for the humans. She hoped that no harm would befall them, and somehow felt like they were here as if they were passed on from a great leader to her as a gift of some sort.

Unaware of what to do, she watched on with curiosity on what they would do, with Harbinger watching in her mind with disgust that Luna didn’t obey his whims. He needed more incentive, so that Luna could change her perspective of the situation and the entire view of humans. But he sensed another…potential target within the hallways of the castle and promptly thought of another emergency plan. One that involved many expendables, just like the Collectors. Luna herself was powerful indeed, but there wasn’t many of her, wasn’t there? Harbinger need something with a large army of minions under their control to build the nodes needed to bring his full form into this universe, if the Librarian didn’t interfere that is. Once his Reaper form was here, then only he could signal for the other Reapers to resume salvation through destruction, and spread that not only from their universe but to the other unclean ones.

This was only the beginning of the end.