Ace suddenly awoke from the void, this time in the midst of a square. Resistance were in another firefight with the Combine, Ace stood, shocked by the rude awakening. Suddenly, a grenade sailed through the air and landed next to Ace's hoof. Ace levitated it as it started to tick faster and flung it as fast as he could, it exploding in the air. A Resistance pony galloped past him only to be hit by Combine fire, dropping her gun, a Submachine Gun as it seemed. He used his horn to levitate it, firing at several Combine soldiers. They all fell just short of range.
Ace picked up one of their rifles, firing it at a post with a mounted gun, a soldier manning it. The recoil surprised Ace, almost making him drop it.
A giant, spider-like creature strode across the area, firing into the crowd. "We got a Strider!" A stallion called out.
Ace noticed the Combine rifle had a secondary trigger, pulling it. The gun charged energy, a vacuum started forming at the end of it, suddenly, it released a ball of energy, hitting and bouncing off of the spider. The spider slowly disintegrated while floating into the air before disappearing out of thin air. The energy bounced off the walls, hitting several Combine soldiers. The Resistance ponies marched down a narrow road to the point of which they were one large mass. A Combine wall with several barriers, emplacement guns attached to them blocked the way. Ace, a drop in the sea of Resistance, galloped to the wall, firing the Combine rifle blindly.
The sea was gunned down, the front lines fell, then the next, until Ace was almost at the front when a mare with a rocket launcher fired at the emplacements, the Combine manning the emplacement guns flew back from the blast as the barriers were destroyed. The wave of ponies proceeded. Sniper's lasers emerged from building windows, picking off some more ponies. Another rocket fired at a building, the wall segment collapsed from the blast, Combine bodies fell limp from the gaping hole. Ace switched out for the SMG, lobbing a grenade from a secondary trigger.
The Resistance continued around a turn in the street, the road was blocked by wheeled, jet black vehicles. All seven vehicles started opening fire, shooting pulses, not bullets. The vehicles created a rain of projectiles upon the ponies.
A mare shouted above the crowd as she fired a rocket at one of the APCs. The blast hit right between the vehicles as two caught fire.
A roaring pierced the air as a ship carrying a building-sized steel crate landed in front of them, dropping the crate and flying off. The crate's lid burst open as an amount of Combine almost equal to the Resistance forces flooded out, firing.
A grenade flew into the crowd, the ponies where the blast was were flung into the air. The sea was wearing down to a river.
A whirring of fan blades approached the fight, when suddenly an airboat cut through the crowd, firing a helicopter's machine gun mounted onto it. The pulses cut through the Combine force. It stopped at a drift, Gordon Freemane jumped off. He fired a rocket launcher, creating a huge hole in the opposing force. Barney Ironbuck emerged as well. The remaining few of the Resistance continued through the streets to the new main Combine building. Suddenly, a burst of energy hit the side of the mass of Resistance ponies. Another burst hit the other side.
"We're at the suppression field, don't stop moving! Scatter!" A stallion shouted over the crowd.
The Resistance scattered into individuals. Ace galloped as fast as he could, into the building. Freemane galloped with him, turrets popped out of the floor and automatically fired. Combine soldiers galloped into the room, firing shotguns. Ace and Gordon Shot pulses into them, they fell to the floor.
Some resistance made it into the building, the rest fighting the forces outside. A stray gunship roared as it crashed into the building, smashing through the wall, sending a piece of the wall onto Ace. The energy bursts outside started to cease. Sparks shot from fallen wires, arcs bolting across the walls. A piece of ceiling collapsed, hitting a Combine soldier's body.
Ace awoke with a segment of wall on his body. Ace tried getting up, dragging his hooves across the floor. Suddenly, a piece of the ceiling fell onto him, burying him completely.
Ace awoke once again, in total darkness. He tried to breathe, but all he inhaled was dirt and powdery concrete. He coughed, sending more into his lungs. He started involuntarily inhaling, getting no air. He heard muffled speech.
"I think I hear something." A mare's voice observed.
Hooves started digging at the rubble, a sudden light blinded Ace as he gasped at the air. He coughed up concrete dust.
"Ace!" A mare wearing a hoof band with a red cross called from on top the rubble.
"Help..." Ace begged, most of his bones probably broken.
A stallion looked over.
"Don't worry, Ace, we'll get you out of here in a second." He reassured.
Ace felt the weight lift off his body, the rubble revealed his mangled hooves, a gash in his stomach. Ace winced, the pain almost unbearable. He shakily tried to get up, to no avail. The mare and stallion took him by the hooves, Ace groaned from the touch. He looked down at his hind legs as he was dragged, blood trailed behind them. He started to close his eyes from blood loss.
He opened them in a makeshift infirmary, an old, rusty bedframe under him, the most clean thing in the room was an IV sticking in his right pastern. He felt almost no pain. A Resistance pony with a red cross hoofband checked on Ace. She took out the IV.
"You should be fine. Now, go fight for us." She encouraged.
Ace galloped out of the room, picking up his weapons outside the door. There was another firefight outside, Three striders roamed in the open, firing their underslung cannons. One suddenly roared, a giant ball of energy formed from the cannon and the orb shrunk quickly as a beam of pure light fired. The beam hit a building. The building exploded outward, hitting multiple Resistance ponies. A gunship screamed outside as chopper's rotors whirred. A rocket hit a strider, it fell onto a building, caving it in. A gunship dropped a crate containing more Combine. Strange, three-legged creatures with two blue lights on the front dashed around the ground, screeching. One shot blue glowing needles at a stallion, the stallion froze up, paralyzed, the needles exploded into fragments. The stallion fell over, bleeding on the ground.
Ace galloped into the battle, Freemane dashed over, giving Ace a rocket launcher. Gordon gave him a confident look. Ace fired a rocket at the gunship, it roared as it exploded in midair. The chopper skimmed over the ground, dropping spheres with red lights in the center, making ticking noises. A stallion galloped just past one when they exploded suddenly, launching him limp into the air like a ragdoll. The chopper flew low once again, this time dropping clawed, jet black mines. The mines dug their claws into the ground, making a beep indicating they were activated.
A purple-coated mare galloped over to Ace, levitating a strange device to him.
"Ace, you're going to need this." She advised.
Ace took the device, looking it over.
"What is it?" He asked.
"It's the Zero Point Magical Field Manipulator." She answered.
He thanked her and galloped to a mine. The mine started beeping faster the closer he got. It made a deeper tone, jumping out of the ground. Ace pulled the trigger on the device, a crash sounded as it was launched into the air, into a mass of Combine. The mine blasted into the mass, sending some flying. Ace looked up as a rocket flew into the chopper, sending it into a tailspin into a structure. A gunship started charging energy, a beam shot the square, a giant blast launched Resistance into the air. A rocket fired at the gunship, but the ship shot the projectile down with it's mounted cannon.
More resistance ponies flooded into the plaza, most equipped with rocket launchers. An APC with a giant Lambda symbol painted on the side wheeled in, firing a mounted gun at the remaining Combine ponies. The APC launched missiles at the gunship, it screamed as it was sent crashing into the ground.
"Haha! Got them!" A mare shouted out.
A buzz of small rotor blades echoed through the streets.
"We got marehacks!" Another mare shouted.
"Haaaacks!" Somepony else called.
Suddenly, the sky was blotted out by rotors. They started lowering themselves as missiles darted through the air, hitting a few, but not enough. When the cloud was low enough, razor-sharp blades popped out of their sides. The Resistance started to gallop away, but most were too slow.
Button Mash, now a stallion, sat at the cabinet machine at the Marehack Arcade, playing their only game. He laughed when a citizen mare galloped for her life, only to be sliced open by his blades.
Elsewhere, Carrot Top Galloped for her life, she felt the blade cut through her neck. She fell, bleeding on the dirty streets.
The mare next to Button was very high level, she had an entire swarm of Marehacks, she was killing all kinds of Resistance.
Button envied her, he wished he was that good. The graphics of the game were surprisingly exact. Realistic blood.
Elsewhere, Gordon Freemane, Ace Sparks, and an army of Resistance were being rained on by Marehacks, fighting for their very lives.
A stallion threw his hooves up in the air, standing on his hind legs. His screen said:
'Congratulations, you have won the game. Collect your reward at the Citadel.'
Metropolice pulled him out of the arcade, he was being taken for his 'reward'.
"I wish I could beat the game..." Button Mash seemed to lament.
The stallion was forced to the Citadel for his 'reward' of invasive surgery to become a Combine soldier. He was injected with anesthetic and laid on a table. Lasers cut the flesh off his skull. Lower, another laser cut into his chest, opening the heart, a pronged arm modifying it. The upper laser opened the skull, another arm inserting wires into the brain, connecting it to a communication system. He woke as a lobotomy was being performed. He screamed as his vocal chords were being augmented. His scream from the sheer pain echoed into the streets below.
The stallion was raised upright, the mask assembled onto his bare skull, all that remained was a few ligaments for the jaw and his eyes.
The stallion's blue uniform was removed from him, lasers cutting through them. A heart valve was pressed into the bare chest. A cable was inserted into the valve, pumping raw energy into it, this was his food. The cable removed itself, Combine armor was outfitted. The stallion was dropped off the table, on his knees and hocks. He tried to speak.
"What am I!?" The robotic, muffled voice that was not his own rang out.
He closed his hooves over his face as he was dragged out of the room.
Button Mash was never aware of what he had done to ponykind's only hope, nor did anypony know.
Carrot Top had held critical knowledge of the Citadel needed by the Resistance for their plan to take down their oppressors.
Ace galloped away from the marehacks alongside Gordon, the sound of rotors behind them. A ringing came from the hacks as their blades pushed outward. A Resistance pony fell behind, the hacks surrounded her, tearing through throat and body. Gordon started lagging behind a bit, Ace nudged him, pointing to the hacks. Ace levitated his rocket launcher off of his back, pushing Gordon forward as much as he could. He fired at the hacks behind him. Gordon just escaped out of the radius of the blast, Ace flew forward like a ragdoll, along with the marehacks.
Ace lay on the ground, legs spread out away from him. He slowly bled out, his vision fading as a ringing in his head blared.
He opened his eyes wide shut in the void once again.
A strange stallion in a business suit stared him in the eyes, a little too close.
"Mr. Sparks, I thought you were not the one to take... The honorable way out... I'll be giving you a second chance to prove yourself... Once again." He dragged on in his unsettling tone.
"Wake up."
Ace opened his eyes once again, he got up, shakily trotting to Gordon. Gordon looked at Ace as if he were a ghost.
"What?" Ace questioned.
He pointed a hoof over at the pool of blood Ace had left.
More hacks whirred in behind them. Ace Levitated his Combine rifle, aiming towards them. He fired an energy blast. The whole group of hacks disintegrated. The two rushed into a building, the Marehacks flooded in through the doorway. Ace fired his Combine rifle, Gordon with his SMG, fired as well. The hacks were shot down, one by one. Both Gordon and Ace trotted out of the place. Far off they heard the Citadel drone on.
"Attention, ground units - anti-citizen Freemane and Sparks reported in this community. Code: lock, cauterize, stabilize. Individuals, you are charged with capital malcompliance."
"Looks like they have our names on the list." Ace stated.
Seven Combine soldiers galloped towards them with shotguns. Gordon fired a grenade from his SMG, sending the soldiers into the air. APCs wheeled in, blocking the way, firing a rain of pulses toward them. Gordon grabbed Ace with both hooves and turned him toward the APCs.
"What are you doing!? The other way, Gordon, the other way!" Ace urgently tried to break free of Gordon's grip. Gordon pushed Ace down, sending him to a slide under the chassis of one, Gordon himself sliding under as well.
The APCs slowly turned their guns the other way. Gordon and Ace dashed over to an alleyway. They climbed a ladder onto a rooftop. The Citadel started a second announcement.
"Attention ground units. Mission failure will result in permanent offworld assignment. Code reminder: sacrifice, coagulate, clamp."
A helicopter flew overhead. A red laser from the chopper pointed directly on Gordon's snout. Ace pushed him out of the way just as the sniper shot. Ace aimed his Combine Rifle at the sniper's snout. He fired repeatedly until the sniper fell out of the helicopter. Ace had had enough of running for his life. He had felt a hatred he never did. He continued firing as the helicopter moved forward, hitting the back rotor. The hit caused the blade to jam, forcing the chopper to a tailspin. The choppers momentum ripped the tail off, crashing it into the APCs. Ace continued firing until he couldn't see the helicopter anymore.
Gordon looked at him like he was an escaped mental patient.
Gordon and Ace Galloped toward the end of the rooftops. A gunship flew above. Ace started firing at the ship. Gordon pulled him away, as the Gunship started charging an energy beam.
Gordon galloped away from the ship, Ace getting the memo. They slid down the ladder, bucking off the wall to get a start. The beam fired, sending a chunk flying off the building. They dashed towards what looked like a Resistance battle. The ship was in hot pursuit, charging another beam. A stallion fired a rocket at the ship, cheering as it went down.
"Got one!" He hollered.
The Citadel read another announcement.
"Attention, community. Unrest procedure code is now in effect. Inoculate, shield, pacify. Code: pressure, sword, sterilize."
Striders towered above the structures, the ground shaking every step.
"Striders!" The same stallion warned.
The striders roared as they entered the area. A rocket shot at one, the strider shook from the hit. More rockets soared through the air, hitting most of them. One fired a beam at a grouping of Resistance, disintegrating them. One fell from all the hits. A helicopter with a Lambda spraypainted on the side flew into the sky. Surprisingly, the chopper was shooting at the Striders. The heli dropped bombs on the spider-like creatures until there were only a few barely alive. More choppers flew over, aiding the one.
Two gunships attempted to shoot them down, but the helis severely outnumbered them. A helicopter landed, Barney Ironbuck jumping out.
Although they couldn't fully defeat the Combine, they could try.
