Slavegear - Part 3

(Tarmikos/Omega)

The shadow moves from behind Eva reappearing in front of her, but as a very familiar figure. Omega.

He seems to be much older than the last time Eva saw him. Despite it being only 14 months since he mysteriously vanished right before the battle of Adelheid, he looks to have aged about 10 years.

Tarmikos opens his mouth to argue with Eva about laying down but sighs and complies with her anyway.

Kaylee Brown wrote:
As the walking centipede catwalk began to descend upon the battlefield, a significant amount of Artemis soldiers stopped and looked at the unsettling sight.

Their moral began to visibly falter. Some began taking steps back, visibly considering a retreat.

Lord Wyvern directs the walking centipede catwalk across the hall, leaping over the various personal duels going on, with unnatural movements. Its swords and electricity stun gun lunge at the unengaged Artemis soldiers, but deliberately missing them by just inchs, to encourage them to flee and even the odds for the others.

(Everyone)

General Dakova gritten his teeth, staring at Fire with hatred in his eyes. The two handed sword fell out of his hands, as he was no longer able to carry its weight with his wounds:

"You... have no idea.." he slowly muttered, pulling a combat knife from his vest: "..the sacrifices one has to make, for the benefit of his country..
Run?... you don't expect an Artemis soldier to run. You expect him to charge, UNTIL THE LIGHT FADES FROM HIS EYES!!!"

The General barked, then suddenly turned into a blur, rushing toward Fire and wildly singing his knife.

A second before he neared her though, he suddenly changed direction and charged at Derpy, kicking her in the ribs with frightening strength, throwing her off the soldier she attacked and reaching out with his knife, aiming to hit her neck.


Elisabeth dropped to the ground and rolled with the motion, stopping next to Kaylee and pushing her away from combat:
"Sister!" Elisabeth yelled: "You're injured! Stay back!"
"Eli stop it! I'm fine!!" Kaylee shouted over the racket, trying to get passed Elisabeth, but to no effect. Elisabeth was firmly blocking her way to the battlefield.


As the purple orb of kinetic energy discharged from Twilights hands, the Artemis mage briefly looked up at it in horror, before the orb hit him dead on, exploding with a deafening racket.


As the walking catwalk centipede rampaged across the room, Rain Runners arrows rained on the enemy soldiers and V'tara shifted into her new form, the enemy's moral wavered.

The Artemis soldiers began to disengage and slowly pull back toward the windows, still keeping their swords up and wildly swinging at their attackers, discouraging potential pursuit.


As Radiance slashed one of the mages across the chest, the mage screamed in pain, loosing balance and falling hard on his back.
The ice spheres above his head, spinned out of control and flew all over the room, before suddenly exploding in a deafening hail of ice.

One of the spheres went off too close to Radiance and Twilight, sending a painfully cold wave of frost to wash over them, almost knocking them out of the sky.


Another sphere went off, in close proximity to Marek and Moon. The Artemis Officer attacking them, briefly staggered and Moons attack connected, making the officer scream in pain.
The next second Marek ran behind him and attacked him again with his sword.


"COWARDS!!!" General Dakova shrieked, as his men began to slowly retreat: "STAND YOUR GROUND AND FIGHT!!! NO RETREAT!!! OR I'LL CUT YOU DOWN MYSELF!!!"
He barked at the top of his lungs, then fixed Derpy and Firewing with a blood chilling stare and rushed forward, pushing through his pain and wildly swinging his knife.

(Tarmikos, Omega)

Eva briefly acknowledged Omega with a nod, before looking at Tarmikos again:

"Hang on Tarmi, you're gonna be okay. The ambulance should be here any minute now" she said, looking at him with worry and trying to assess his breathing and pulse.

Kaylee Brown wrote:As the walking catwalk centipede rampaged across the room, Rain Runners arrows rained on the enemy soldiers and V'tara shifted into her new form, the enemy's moral wavered.

The Artemis soldiers began to disengage and slowly pull back toward the windows, still keeping their swords up and wildly swinging at their attackers, discouraging potential pursuit.

Lord Wyvern now directs the catwalk centipede to smash the doors to the room open with its 'limbs' and then start herding the Artemis soldiers out of them, snatching up any that stay and dropping them through.

(Derpy)

Derpy picked herself off the ground, grabbing the soldiers sword in one hand and clutching her ribs as Dakova attacked. Stepping to his side, she swung upwards with practiced skill, nicking an artery.

"Darkova, you've got less then two minutes before you bleed out. Your soldiers are fleeing," She spat out, coughing up spittle's of blood. "Just surrender and I can help you."

(Radiance)
Radiance by this time had flown over to help Fire and Derpy fight Dakova. His blade simply being used to block any strikes that ego driven general sent out.

"ENOUGH" she roars and charges Darcova, attempting to drive him through, "I WILL NOT LEAVE HERE UNTIL YOU ARE DEAD!" she says clearly full of rage and hate tward this being.

Rain targets whatever mages are left firing arrows off at tlthe soldiers, "This is not your home... Your doing the right thing rain..." she whispers to herself questioning if what she was doing is morally correct.

Moon blinked and looked around for anyone else to attack. And as she saw the closest enemy, she would charge head on.

As the wave comes closer, Twilight raises her arms to protect herself, and the resulting explosion throws her down. This time, however, she stays consious, due to the lingering effects of the defense robe. After the landing, she takes note of her surroundings.

She sees she's rather closeto the fight between Firewing, Derpy and Dakova. A quick sight of it makes the action she want to take clear.

She rears her right hand so it's facing away from the fighters. In it, cold energy gathers there, forming a glowing, pale blue sphere. With a strange toss, she throws it to the trio of squabblers.

"Back to where you all belong..."

When the sphere is dangerously close, she clenches her fist, causing the orb to explode in a mass of frozen spikes. With all the danger those posess for the flesh of everyone...

(V'tara)

Her new form seemed to be working as she attacked, feeling the determination of the Artemis forces dissolve into fear and panic. She glanced over to Twilight and stopped, looking on in horror as the spell was cast. "DERPY!" She screamed, her form flickering as V'tara's concentration collapsed.


(Derpy)

"Firewing, no!!" She said, trying to stop Firewing before she drove her sword into Dakova.

Suddenly she felt the air around her turn icy cold. Hearing the warning of V'tara she turned, seeing the incoming projectiles that Twilight had cast.

No time to run. No time to fly away, She thought. No time...

"GET DOWN!" Derpy heard herself scream as she tackled Firewing to the ground. Instinctively she spread her wings around both of them, hoping to protect Firewing with her body.

Rain shoots herself over to harle and grabs her, pinning her against against a nearby wall, her wings open, sheilding the batpony mare.

As shes tackled, "Derpy im an etherial being wearing thick steel armor! Im already dead!" she says turning around and holds her in her arms, her wings closing around her, "GOLD STEEL!" she sticks her hand out and a golden sheild of light surrounds them.

Velvet_horse wrote:As the wave comes closer, Twilight raises her arms to protect herself, and the resulting explosion throws her down. This time, however, she stays consious, due to the lingering effects of the defense robe. After the landing, she takes note of her surroundings.

She sees she's rather closeto the fight between Firewing, Derpy and Dakova. A quick sight of it makes the action she want to take clear.

She rears her right hand so it's facing away from the fighters. In it, cold energy gathers there, forming a glowing, pale blue sphere. With a strange toss, she throws it to the trio of squabblers.

"Back to where you all belong..."

When the sphere is dangerously close, she clenches her fist, causing the orb to explode in a mass of frozen spikes. With all the danger those posess for the flesh of everyone...

Lord Wyvern hears the commotion behind him and turns to see Twilight lobbing the mass of ice spikes at the others, "What are you doing?!" he shouts at her "Those guys are with us!"

Twilight watches as the spikes just themselves against the group. She follows with making lightning.

"The undead are not on my side."

(Radiance)
"Who gave you the right to take away their life? Whether they've lived once or twice is no excuse!" Radiance shouts as he starts to walk towards her.

(Everyone)

As the blue sphere explodes, the ice spikes flew across the room in random directions, some of them loudly bouncing off the golden shield around Firewing and Derpy.

A few more spikes flew dangerously close to Radiance, Rain and Harlequin. One of the spikes making a light cut over Rains shoulder.



The next second, an empty cardboard box suddenly flew across the room, straight into Twilight's face. Apparently thrown by Elisabeth:

"Twilight! Stop hurting my friends!" Elisabeth shrieked over the battle: "Don't make me come over there!!!"




For a brief moment, the deafening racket of battle died down, and all sights fell on General Dakova, standing at the center of the room, most of his body covered in ice spikes.

He was heavily breathing, slightly wobbling and trying to stay on his feet. His eyes slowly rose up and looked at everyone in the room.
A streak of blood ran down his face. He smiled:


"...you think.. tonight's events will change anything?... we control the media... how long do you think it will be.. before we spin your story to our benefit?...

You've changed - nothing. You have only delayed the inevitable.

My country will rise to its glory... and I.. will be known... as the one who brought justice to the butchers of Slavegear..."



He slowly rose his head, his eyes crazed. With a single motion, he suddenly pulled a pin on a grenade, still attached to his belt. A crazed smile spread through his face:

"AND IF I'M GOING DOWN HERE - I'M TAKING YOU WITH ME!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!"

With the grenade's pin pulled and stuck to his belt, he emitted a deafening roar and charged toward Derpy and Firewing.



Before he could make it, Marek suddenly flew down from above, and drop kicked Dakova out of the window.


The glass shattered with deafening impact. Dakova's rage consumed scream, echoed throughout the room, as he fell out of the window.

A second ticked by, an a massive explosion rang from outside, knocking you off your feet.






A few small fires from the explosion reached the room, raising clouds of smoke. A few seconds later, the buildings fire control system kicked in, releasing the water sprinklers on the ceiling, activating them and sending rain across the room.


During the aftermath of the explosion, the Artemis soldiers stopped fighting.

Those who were still conscious, slowly dropped down their weapons and sat down on the floor, with their hands up.


A few moments later, the sounds of numerous police helicopters began to echo and approach the building.

The police and ambulance sirens began to sparkle below and Kaylee finally released a slowly sigh of relief:


"...its over" she released a small, tired smile.




Marek slowly looked at everyone in the room, his expression unreadable. After a moment he looked down and slightly nodded:

"...thank you" he quietly said, before looking up at you again and pulling on his balaclava mask, making him indistinguishable from his Vampire comrades.

The next second, the Vampire Unit faded into shadows, without making a sound and completely vanished from view, as if they were never there to begin with.



Drasko smiled to you and gave a low bow, before rising up and grinning from ear to ear:

"...we won't forget this, everyone... I'll see you around" he winked at you with a smile and faded into shadows as well.

Kaylee Brown wrote:
With the grenade's pin pulled and stuck to his belt, he emitted a deafening roar and charged toward Derpy and Firewing.



Before he could make it, Marek suddenly flew down from above, and drop kicked Dakova out of the window.


The glass shattered with deafening impact. Dakova's rage consumed scream, echoed throughout the room, as he fell out of the window.

A second ticked by, an a massive explosion rang from outside, knocking you off your feet.

"Try coming back from that one..." Lord Wyvern says as he gets down from the catwalk centipede and looks out the window Dakova fell from. As he sees the police helicopter searchlights, he turns to the others "So, what's the plan for the encore?"

Moon coughed from the smoke and moved to a wall. Dropping the spell she had held, her eyes returned to their normal blue colour and her fangs sunk back into her mouth. Faltering for a moment, she smiled before turning and coughing, trying to conceal the blood that came from her mouth, an unpleasant side effect of her spell.

Rain releases harle and holds her shoulder, "ah... God damn..." she looks over moving her shoulder a bit flinching, "its nothing much... This'll just be sore for a while.

Fire moves over beside wavern and tilts her head looking down, "good ridins..." she huffs before her glare turns to twilight, "you know... I never took you as someone who would friendly fire... So much for the princess of friendship huh?" she spits, "glad to know you would risk an old friends life just because they died..." she shakes her head and opens her wings. She flys out a window and out twards the sky.

Twilight looks at Firewing as she leaves. Her gaze is cold.

"I did not take you for someone who deemed herself important enough to spit on death. So much for a 'hero' "

She turned to Kaylee. "Call the base. We're done here."

Sinner Firewing wrote:Rain releases harle and holds her shoulder, "ah... God damn..." she looks over moving her shoulder a bit flinching, "its nothing much... This'll just be sore for a while.

Fire moves over beside wavern and tilts her head looking down, "good ridins..." she huffs before her glare turns to twilight, "you know... I never took you as someone who would friendly fire... So much for the princess of friendship huh?" she spits, "glad to know you would risk an old friends life just because they died..." she shakes her head and opens her wings. She flys out a window and out twards the sky.

"So long" Lord Wyvern waves Firewing off.

Velvet_horse wrote:Twilight looks at Firewing as she leaves. Her gaze is cold.

"I did not take you for someone who deemed herself important enough to spit on death. So much for a 'hero' "

She turned to Kaylee. "Call the base. We're done here."

"And just how does coming back from the dead exclude you from hero status?" Lord Wyvern asks Twilight.

Sinner Firewing wrote:Rain releases harle and holds her shoulder, "ah... God damn..." she looks over moving her shoulder a bit flinching, "its nothing much... This'll just be sore for a while.

(Radiance)
From his inside pocket coat, Radiance pulled out one of his spare sets of bandages. He passes it Rain.

"You should probably cover up the wound before it get's infected."

Twilight looks to Wyvern, with one raised eyebrow.

"Since she died, as stated herself, she came back from the dead, by an outside source. This means either one of two things. The first is that it was necromancy, making her controlled by someone else in the form of an undead. What that person will do afterwards with her, is not in my head yet. But it would mean that her body and soul were defiled by those dark arts of perversity."

She puts her hands behind her back. "The other way is that it was a particulary potent family member of healing magic, called ressurection. But that would mean another problem... That all those that have died in our slavegear rampage, in the sprawl, and all kinds of other disasters... Mean absolutely nothing. Find the body, and they can be brought back. Hell, given Firewing's state after a bomb blew up there, not even that is needed. If that means an ally of her has such magic... Why don't they apply it?"

Her gaze lowers. "In my time as apprentice, I was pestering Princess Celestia about outlawing ressurective spells and necromancy, specifically for the fact people would get selective with it. It seems to me, other nations don't mind the perversion of life itself. And the selectiveness I just mentioned reigns particulary strong here... Because if that ressurected pony wasn't Firewing but one of the architects, you would be crying that he was playing god and should stay dead."

She takes a moment to think. "... Well, if she can come back anytime she wants, it doesn't matter if we take advantage of that, right?"

"So, Derpy, Radiance and Rain are also undead?" Elisabeth quietly asked with a frown:

"Is that why you felt appropriate to detonate a fragmenting sphere, in close proximity to them, that sent a number of razor sharp spikes, flying in random directions across the room, possibly endangering the lives of everyone in the vicinity, and one of those spikes has, in fact, nicked Rain on the arm.

You know, you're really lucky that spike didn't poke her eye out. That would've been really awkward"





"Alright enough" Kaylee quietly called: "..its over. Dakova's dead. For good this time..
And after the live broadcast we filmed, the Union will make sure Artemis leaves Nyx.

We saved a nation today.. its something to be proud of. Lets not ruin the moment.

Maybe we all met by chance, but we're a team now. We're in this together. All the suffering, and the relief, the good and the bad, we go through it together.

If we will be more conscious of other peoples feelings, help each other, support each other, then the burden we carry, will feel that much lighter..." Kaylee looked at everyone in the room and released a small smile.





As you look out the window, it seems that not much was left after the explosion. The helicopters bearing a Union insignia slowly circled the building, until the Union authorities slowly came down and placed the Artemis soldiers under arrest.

The next few hours flew by in a haze, as you mind struggled to process all that has happened in the past few days.


The ambulances parked outside, released a swarm of paramedics, that quickly went from person to person, assessing his condition and patching his wounds with calculated efficiency.

The Union police slowly took the Artemis soldiers into custody and slowly drove them away. The entire area around the building was teaming with government and military officials, but it seems even though they fully recognized you, no one was in a hurry to make any arrests.
A consequence of Councilor Mercer's influence, Kaylee had speculated.



Come morning, when the rare ray of sunlight, finally appeared over the horizon, the country of Nyx was officially free.

The Union has formally issued an order, to withdraw all Artemis forces from Nyx. And in the aftermath of General Dakova's actions, the country of Artemis now faced heavy sanctions from the Union.



Shortly after Nyx's formal liberation, Marek had briefly appeared on national TV, declaring a new age of freedom for batponies. And with seeming reluctance, he accepted his role as the official leader of Nyx.


Much to Kaylee's dismay, Harlequin remained convinced that she shouldn't try to push herself as another possible candidate, to lead the people of Nyx. At least for the time being.
Each time Kaylee asked, Harlequin kept repeating over and over, that she has no idea how to lead a nation, and challenging Mareks authority now, would not bear any fruit.





As the sunrise finally settled over the city of Drahoslav, Eva finally returned with good news:

"...its official. Artemis just agreed to share the video footage with us" she said with an excited smile:
"Using that, we can finally track down the medical trucks, that carried Slavegear out of the HGTS tunnels. We'll finally be able to find that wretched robot.

Artemis even agreed to help us analyze the camera footage. I think they're trying to make up for Dakova's mistakes"




"I guess its back to tracking down Marek and his robot huh?" Kaylee quietly asked, looking at everyone: "..do you think he'll consider a peaceful surrender to us, after we helped him free Nyx and all?"