Chapters “Did you check the fuel tanks?” asked Twilight.
“For the twelfth time Twilight, every part of the ship is completely fine! Why are you so paranoid about this?” replied Rainbow Dash.
“Would you prefer paranoid or sudden painful death by explosive decompression?”
“I’ll have to think about that. Check back with me in an hour.”
“Just fly the ship Rainbow.”
“Twilight, don’t you think the time to be paranoid was before launch? You know, before we had been in space for five hours?” asked Rarity.
“Be quiet.”
Then Derpy spoke up from the navigations seat.
“We’re approaching the moon captain, but it looks like there’s an artificial structure or something just past it.”
“Let’s go take a closer look.”
As they approached the construct there was a sudden flare of bright blue light. The power went out and they were plunged into complete darkness.
“Is everyone alright?” asked Fluttershy. The others called out that they were fine. The lights turned on, flickered for a moment, and then stabilized. The ponies looked at each other. They were a group of young humans wearing orange uniforms. The symbol of the Equestria Space Program(the Elements of Harmony on a backdrop of stars) was on the right sleeve. For a few moments they just stared at each other. Then the proximity alarms went off. They ran to the viewport and saw two much bigger ships in front of them with a massive ring world in the background. The ship on the right was red and made of ovals and curves. The ship on the left was all straight lines and made of grey steel. Painted on it in white were several words, only two of which could be determined at this distance. Rainbow read them out loud.
“UNSC Excaliber...”
“What the hell is going on here!” yelled Captain Harris as he strode onto the bridge.
“We dropped out of slipspace near Epsilon Halo sir, but the Covenant are here too.” replied Commander Watkins, “They haven’t fired yet, but we should remain on alert.”
“Red ships are Storm Covenant right?”
“Yes sir. There is also a small craft nearby. Its design matches 21st century Earth space craft.”
“Any life signs?”
“There are seven life signs onboard the craft. They appear human, but are very erratic.”
“Could they be infected by the Flood?”
“It’s a possibility.”
The captain took a moment to think. If those were Flood he would be putting the entire ship at risk, but if they were human the Covenant would kill them. The soldier at tactical interrupted his thoughts.
“Sir, the Covenant are launching Banshees towards the other ship.”
“That settles it. Watkins, I want two Longswords to bring that ship in. Then station two full squads of ODSTs in the hanger. Give them all shotguns.”
“Right away sir.”
The captain watched as the two fighters tore across space towards the small shuttle. He held his breath as his ships met the Banshees. Then there was a brief flare of plasma and missile fire. The Banshees disintegrated and the Longswords attached grappling cables to the small ship. They were pulling it in.
The seven ponies(now humans) watched as all four fighters closed in on the shuttle.
“Hey Twilight, any idea why we’re humans and why there are four other ships heading for us?” asked Rainbow. Twilight shook her head. The shuttle shook as two of the ships fired at the other two, destroying them. Then the two surviving ships attached magnetic ropes to the shuttle.
“Do ya think their takin’ us back to their ship?” asked Applejack. Twilight gulped and nodded.
“We’ve got ‘em captain.” said Commander Watkins, “The ODSTs are in position.”
“Good. Get down there and help the Helljumpers crack that thing open.”
Watkins stepped into the elevator and disappeared from sight. The Captain turned to the officer at tactical.
“What are the Covenant doing?” he asked.
“They’ve scrambled their fighters and are arming weapons.”
“Do the same. It looks like we’ve got a fight on our hands.”
Watkins ran down the hallway to the hanger as the ship shook. The Captain’s voice came over the intercom,
“Alright, everyone pay attention. We have engaged a Covenant ship in the vicinity of Epsilon Halo. No one panic, the situation is entirely under control.”
Watkins ran faster. As he ran he was joined by Spook. Spook was an ONI operative that had been assigned to the Excaliber for the trip to Epsilon Halo.
“I heard about the ship we pulled in.” said Spook, “Pretty strange readings.”
Watkins nodded. The two arrived in the hanger and joined the ODSTs gathered around the ship. Watkins gave the order.
“Alright gentlemen, crack it open.”
“What do they mean, crack it open?” asked Derpy.
“I think they’re going to use a crowbar to open the door, and then they might shoot us.” answered Twilight.
“But they’re humans! The Ancelstierrans helped us, so why won’t they?” asked Rainbow. Then the door was wrenched of its hinges.
“How’s the ship holding up?” asked Captain Harris.
“We’re taking quite a beating sir, but so are they.” replied the tactical officer.
“Can we hold against the Halo’s gravity?”
“I don’t think so sir. Both ships are already beginning to slide towards the Halo. I think we’re both going to crash.”
“Are the Pelicans and Longswords fueled?”
“Yes sir.”
“Alright, dispatch all fighters and gunships to protect the Excaliber as we go down. The Covies will probably do the same, so tell the pilots to be ready for some fancy flying.”
The elevator chimed and Commander Watkins stepped onto the bridge. With him were four marines and seven young women who appeared no older than twenty. They were wearing uniforms remarkably similar to 21st century NASA outfits, but orange and with different insignias. They had some interestingly colored hair…
“Watkins, who the hell are these people?” asked Captain Harris.
“They were on the ship we pulled in sir. They say they’re from a nearby planet. Judging from their descriptions it should be about a minute away by slipspace travel.”
“Impossible, the nearest habitable planet is a good ten minutes away! You know what, just get them off the bridge, we’re in the middle of a battle!”
“Excuse me sir,” said the navigations officer, “but there is a Forerunner artifact near that location. It appears to be emitting a strange energy field.”
“We don’t have time for this! We’ll deal with it later.”
One of the astronauts spoke up.
“Um, we aren’t in any danger are we?”
The Captain hesitated about whether or not to lie.
“Actually, you’re in a lot of danger. Both our ship and the enemy ship are about to crash into a ring world that has a bunch of dangerous parasites living imprisoned under the surface. The crash has a good chance of freeing them and of killing us all.
“Oh.”
“Watkins, put them with two marines and Spook and give them a Pelican. It’s their best chance. Give them some armor and guns while you’re at it.”
Harris turned back to the astronauts.
“Stick with the marines and don’t trust Spook too much. If we live we’ll try and find this mystery planet of yours. If we don’t, then God help you.”
He saluted and turned back to the view screen.
The seven followed Watkins through a maze of corridors crowded with pilots and marines rushing to their stations. He led them into an equipment storage room and popped open a few crates.
“Suit up in that marine armor, get a few grenades, then grab an assault rifle, pistol, and ammo for each. Oh, and don’t forget a knife.”
It was only a few minutes later that they entered the sixth Pelican hanger. The commander ushered them onto the gunship where they sat down with three men in marine armor. One of them was very young and looked like a new recruit. Another had sergeant’s stripes and several scars to match. The third wore black armor and had a pyramid style insignia on his right sleeve. The commander saluted and closed the hatch. One of the marines turned to Rainbow.
“I’d hold on if I were you.” he said, “We’ll be launching under fire, and that is a really bumpy ride.”
“How would you know?” asked the sergeant, “This is your first combat experience.”
“This was covered in training!”
The one with black armor looked up from the book he was reading.
“Training isn’t like real life. That’ll be the first thing you lot learn. This isn’t a simulation. We will be facing aliens that think we are a threat to their religion and way of life. They will be trying to kill us-”
“Shut up Spook, no one asked you!” said the rookie. Twilight looked at the man with the armband.
“You’re Spook? The commander warned us not to trust you.”
The man snorted.
“So will everyone else. No one likes Spooks. Do you know why?”
“I do,” said the sergeant, “You don’t feel. You’re only interested in yourselves.”
The Spook looked up at the sergeant. He smiled.
“We think of the greater good. What we do we do to keep humanity alive. Whatever the cost.”
Pinkie broke the tension.
“I thought we were under attack or something.”
Then there was a lurch and the intercom crackled.
“Alright ladies and gentlemen, hold on to your helmets and try not to lose your breakfast! Complementary peanuts can be found under your seats.”
The Pelican rumbled, the hanger door opened, and the gunship shot out of the ship towards the ring world. The sergeant turned to the newcomers.
“My name’s Ryan by the way, and this,” he nodded to the rookie, “is Alexander.”
The seven nodded hello.
“What’s your real name Spook?” asked Derpy.
“My name is classified. Just call me Spook.” he replied. The Pelican shuddered and the lights flickered. The intercom crackled again.
“Alright folks, we’re heading into the atmosphere. This is gonna be a bumpy ride!”
The ship hit the atmosphere and joined the fight already happening below. Covenant and UNSC fighters darted about firing missiles and plasma bolts. The Pelicans and Phantoms plummeted towards the surface, which appeared to be completely jungle with no visible water sources. The pilot spoke up again.
“Alright, we’re coming in for a landing. Wait, what’s happening!? The ground looks like it’s opening up in front of us! Oh my G-“
There was a massive impact that caused the passengers safety straps to snap. They were thrown around the cabin and slammed into walls. There was a horrible crunching sound over the intercom and the pilot screamed, then the wall between the cockpit and cabin seemed to crumple and cave in. The lights went out. Everything was quiet. For a few seconds everything was still and silent. Then Spook turned on his helmet lights, and so did everyone else. Spook grabbed his rifle and walked over to the door. The panel was completely smashed.
“We’ll have to use explosives. Check the crates.” he ordered. No one moved, “I don’t have time to argue! Check the crates!”
Alexander started rummaging through a crate and pulled out a few C4 charges. He tossed them to Spook, who stuck them to the door’s corners. Alexander rummaged a bit longer and eventually found the detonator. Spook ran to the back of the cabin.
“Everyone form up and ready your weapons. Safeties off.” They clicked off the safeties on their rifles and aimed them at the door. Spook detonated the charges, blowing the door out of its frame. Ryan walked forward and looked around the side of the doorframe. He motioned for the others to come out, which they did. They took a moment to look around. The Pelican had smashed nose first into a solid rock wall. The cockpit was completely flattened. A few yards away was a crashed Phantom drop ship. As they stepped towards the Phantom, weapons raised, its drop doors hissed open. Five aliens stepped out with their hands raised in surrender.
“Please,” one said, “Do not fire.” He and the others raised their right hands so the marines could see the glyphs burned into their hand’s backs. Spook gasped.
“That’s the Forerunner glyph for Reclaimer. You’re Separatists!” he said excitedly. The alien leader nodded.
“We infiltrated the Storm Covenant many months ago. When our ship attacked yours we hoped we could escape in this Phantom, but the ground seemed to open in front of us and swallow our ship!”
Spook nodded.
“The same thing happened to us. Our pilot and gunner are both dead.”
Suddenly Alexander cried out. The ground above them was beginning to pulsate and writhe. Spook raised his rifle.
“Shoot it, it’s Flood biomass!”
The aliens grabbed their weapons and everyone started shooting the ground above them. There was a monstrous roar of pain, and then a hole opened in the wall to their left. Small bulbous creatures began to pour out of it, jumping at the humans and aliens. They switched targets and fired at the new attackers.
“There’s too many of them!” yelled Alexander. Spook tried to reply, but one of the creatures launched itself at his face and knocked him over. An alien kicked it and it exploded in a puff of spores and dust. Spook scrambled to his feet and yelled for them to run. They all took off down the passageway, not knowing where it would take them or what monsters might be ahead. All they cared about was getting away from the monsters behind them.
Ivan’s vision swam as he opened his eyes. He felt a sharp pain in his right front leg. Wait, right front leg!? As his head began to clear he realized that he was lying face down on what felt like leaves. He tried to stand up, but the pain in his leg nearly made him pass out.
“So, if I’m a pony, this must be Equestria.” he thought, “I know I should be freaking out, but I’m not. That’s weird.”
A white unicorn with a brown mane stepped out of the trees. As Ivan glanced around he noticed a sword leaning against a tree. Charter marks glowed faintly on the blade.
“Guess that unicorn’s Hayes, but what’s with the creepy glowing red irises? I never noticed those before.”
Hayes looked over at him.
“Oh hey!” he said, “You’re awake! Something tore your leg up pretty good. It’s a good thing I woke up, otherwise you would’ve bled out.”
“Where are the others?” asked Ivan.
“There’s a very interesting answer to that question…” Hayes picked up a newspaper that had been lying next to the sword and tossed it to Ivan. Ivan took a moment to read it.
“Wait, they went into space? Outer space? Like with little green men? When did that happen!?”
“Well, from my calculations, it took us a year to get here.”
“So what do we do now?”
“I don’t know…”
“We could always go after the necromancer.”
“Ivan, the necromancer is back in the Old Kingdom gloating about killing us. “
“The necromancer is a pony.”
“Damn it, that changes everything! Alright, don’t move. The less you strain it, the sooner your leg will heal. I’m going to go scout around. The necromancer probably has all sorts of Dead roaming around here. If something bad comes for you, just yell. I’ve already figured out how to teleport.”
Ivan nodded. Hayes levitated his sword and walked off into the woods. Ivan laid his head back down onto the leaves and closed his eyes. After a few minutes, he fell asleep.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ivan’s eyes snapped open as he heard twigs break off to the side. Hayes stepped through the trees into the clearing.
“Well, I didn’t find anything.” he said, “So I guess we’re good for now.”
“Hey, you wouldn’t happen to have my spelled sword would you?” asked Ivan.
“Even if I did have it, I wouldn’t give it to you. It would just be an incentive for you to try and kill something. You’d just hurt your leg more.”
“So how long do you think I’ll have to wait?”
“It’ll heal quicker if you eat these.” Hayes tossed a bundle of plants to Ivan.
“Wait, eat them raw?”
“Yes. I’m not sure what they taste like since I’ve never had to eat them.”
Ivan took the plants into his mouth. His face contorted in disgust, but he managed to swallow.
“Did you just poison me!?”
“I don’t think so…”
“Thanks Hayes, that was very reassuring.”
Hayes’ horn glowed and Charter marks swirled around Ivan’s leg. The pain ebbed away and then disappeared. Ivan tried standing and found that he was able to.
“Will this be permanent?” he asked, “Or will I collapse after a few hours?”
“It should be fine now.”
“Then can I have my sword?”
“I think you’d be more suited to a bow actually.”
“Why?”
Hayes conjured a magic mirror out of thin air. When Ivan looked into it he saw a white pegasus with a short blonde mane. He had corporal’s stripes on his flank and a slight scar on his previously wounded leg. Hayes made the mirror vanish.
“Quick question. If I have hooves, how can I hold a bow and arrow?” asked Ivan.
“Really, you’re asking that now? After we watched Rainbow and Fluttershy use bows that entire time. Ivan, we’re magical ponies. Who knows what we’re capable of!?” replied Hayes.
There was a rustling noise in the trees to a left. Hayes quickly levitated a bow and a quiver of arrows over to Ivan.
“I got these from the magic bag.” he whispered, “The quiver will never run out of arrows and both the arrows and the bow are spelled.”
Ivan nodded and started hovering just a few feet above the ground. Hayes drew his sword and held it in front of him. Twigs cracked and branches shook, causing leaves to gently float to the ground. Then a chestnut pony with a spiky brown mane burst into the clearing, running straight at Hayes. Hayes managed to move his sword to avoid impaling the pony just seconds before he was knocked over. The other pony tripped and fell. He sprang to his hooves and turned back to Hayes and Ivan.
“Run for it, there are zombies chasing me!” He yelled. He went to run, but Hayes teleported in front of him.
“No one’s running anywhere. What the Charter is a zombie?” asked Hayes.
“You know, a walking corpse.” answered the pony. Ivan turned back towards the trees and aimed his bow at the place where the pony had come out. Then the sound of crunching leaves started again. Several shambling ponies emerged from the tree line. They screeched as they smelled Life, and began to move faster. Ivan shot one in the head with an arrow, and Charter Fire consumed it as it walked. Hayes fired a bolt of pure Charter Magic at another, leaving behind only a wisp of smoke. The remaining Hand went straight for the brown pony.
“Catch!” yelled Hayes. He threw his sword to the other pony, who caught it in his mouth. He swung it clumsily, barely managing to cut off the Dead pony’s head. The body stumbled around for a few seconds before Hayes burned it. When the chestnut pony had spat out the sword it was still a few seconds before he spoke.
“Who the hell are you people!?” asked the new pony.
“You want the truth?” asked Hayes as he cleaned off his sword with a cloth. The pony nodded.
“Ivan is a human who got turned into a pony when we got here and I’m a powerful magical being of pure fire and chaos, and would currently be destroying everything, except for the fact that I’m bound by this incredibly annoying leather wristband.”
The pony just stood there for a second. Then he spoke.
“Ok.”
“WHAT!? YOU AREN’T FREAKING OUT!?” yelled Ivan.
“No, I find that pretty reasonable.”
“HOW!?”
“I’m a Timelord from the planet Gallifrey, I have a blue box called the TARDIS that’s bigger on the inside, and I can use it to travel anywhere in time and space.”
“Oh I get it, sarcasm.”
“I’m being serious…”
“I totally saw that coming.” said Hayes, “So what’s your name?”
“You can call me Time Turner.”
“As a Timelord, do you have any combat experience?”
“I fight killer robots and evil statues. However, I don’t like weapons.”
“It’ll have to do. We need to find the necromancer who raised those Dead Hands and kill him. If we don’t he might threaten this entire world. Will you help us?”
“Sure I’ll help you! Saving planets is part of my unofficial job! Follow me, we can use the TARDIS as a base. I suggest hiding your weapons, the ponies might not react well to them.”
The Doctor walked off into the woods, with Hayes and Ivan following close behind him.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Is that it?” asked Ivan.
“Yeah. What’s wrong with it?” asked Time Turner.
“It looks like a small blue phone box…”
“It’s bigger on the inside, trust me.”
“Yeah, I’ll get right on that.”
“Ivan, just get in the box.” said Hayes. Time Turner opened the door and let Ivan in. Hayes entered behind him, followed by Time Turner. Hayes just glanced around before moving on, but Ivan gaped at the giant control room. Time Turner closed the door and turned to Ivan.
“Impressed?” he asked. Ivan gulped and nodded slowly. He followed Time Turner up the steps to the control panels. Hayes was already spray-painting a pentacle on a large piece of cardboard.
“Alright, I’ll go through this in steps.” began Hayes, “Step one is to monitor everything. That way we’ll know where and when he’ll strike. Step two is to search all nearby cemeteries for clues that will help narrow down the list of suspects. Then step three will be to track him down and take him out. It shouldn’t be too hard.”
“Who are our current suspects.” asked Time Turner.
“Everyone except for us three, so don’t trust anyone. Is the door to this thing locked or something?”
“In more ways that you could possibly imagine.”
“Excellent. Come on, let’s go find a cemetery to search.”
“There can’t be too many graveyards around here.” said Ivan, “So the right one can’t be too hard to find.”
“Not true.” replied Hayes, “He could be carting in the bodies from somewhere else, and there are probably lots of uncharted gravesites in those woods. The right place is going to be a lot harder to find than you’d think.”
“So where do we start?”
“We ask around and see if there’ve been any grave desecrations lately.”
“Wouldn’t that have been in the paper?”
“Maybe, but I prefer asking my own questions. Let’s get started.”
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Hayes.”
“Yes, Time Turner?”
“We’ve been asking around for five hours. The sun’s going down and no one will even talk to us.”
“Are ponies usually chattier than this?”
“Some of them are, but they’ll usually politely answer questions.”
“Alright, you go find Ivan. I have something I need to do. Do you know where a pony named Rarity lives?”
“Yeah, but why do you want to know? Didn’t she go to space or something?”
“She’s my niece, and I need to break into her house and steal a set of magic bells.”
“She’s your niece!? How old are you!?”
“You don’t want to know…”
“Alright, just follow me.” Time Turner led Hayes to Rarity’s house. It was white with cloth drapes hanging from a central spire. The spire was surrounded by columns with pony statues on them. Hayes noticed that Time Turner wasn’t blinking.
“You go find Ivan.” said Hayes, “I’ll get the bells.” Hayes turned himself invisible and teleported inside. There was a young pony staring out the window at the stars. Hayes snuck past her and began searching the house for the bells. He spotted them in the corner, grabbed them, and turned them invisible as well. He was about to leave, but then the young pony walked over to the corner. Hayes had to dodge out of the way to avoid bumping into her.
“Huh,” she said, “I thought that Rarity kept her bells over here. Maybe she took them with her and I didn’t notice. I’ll just cast a quick reveal spell to see if they’re here.”
The few seconds it took Hayes to process what she said was just enough for there to be a dim flash of light and a gentle humming. The young pony and Hayes both froze, staring at each other.
“Hey!” yelled the pony, “Who are you!?” Hayes vanished in a flash of golden sparks. In a few hours the local Watch was on alert and posters describing Hayes were all over the town. It was like the week after Barhedrin all over again.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Wow, the great Calarenthor, beaten by the most basic of spells.” said Ivan smugly.
“Shut up. That Mordicant would have eaten you if I hadn’t blasted it.” retorted Hayes.
“This is serious!” said Time Turner, “Hayes can’t leave the TARDIS with the Watch looking for him. They’re using reveal spells too, so invisibility is out of the question.”
“What about a Glamour?” asked Ivan, “It’s Charter magic, so pony magic might not affect it.”
“Magic is universal.” said Hayes, “Humans just have to constrain raw magic into symbols since you aren’t magical creatures. It makes it easier to use. Even Free Magic has symbols. Unicorns are magical beings, so they can harness raw arcane power. I can too, but a Glamour is a symbol spell. Symbol magic is much weaker than raw magic. You two go look for the necromancer. I’ll stay in the TARDIS and provide technical support.”
Ivan and Time Turner left the TARDIS and stepped into the street. They were immediately surrounded by Constables. One of the Watchmen stepped forward.
“I need you to come with me.” he said, “The sergeant has something to talk to you about.”
“Just keep running!” yelled Spook. Flood poured out of the walls and great swarms of infection forms chased the group of fifteen down the corridor. One of the Elites tripped and fell behind, not by much, but enough for the Flood to catch him. He screamed as their tentacles bored into his brain.
“Ignore it!” ordered Spook, seeing the looks of terror on the new recruit’s faces. He drew his pistol, turned, and shot the Elite in the head. He kept on running. The next moment proved impossible for the recruits to ignore. Flood tentacles reached down from the ceiling and grabbed at the group. The tentacles snatched Pinkie Pie and an Elite, dragging them up into a vent. Just before they vanished Spook shot them as well. The group turned the corner and found a large door in front of them.
“Hold them off!” ordered Spook. He ran over to the control panel and started pressing symbols on the screen.
“Does it need a password?” asked Rainbow sarcastically.
“Actually…yes.” answered Spook, “Well then, I guess we’re going to die. I suggest shooting yourselves, it’s much quicker than being infected.”
The Flood rounded the corner. There were humanoid Flood now as well. Spook yelled something about combat forms, but no one heard him. The door opened. The Flood stopped moving. The twelve soldiers slowly turned around. Five metal eyeballs were floating in the doorway.
“Spook, what are those things?” asked Alex.
“I think they’re Sentinels.” replied Spook.
“What? I don’t speak science.”
“They’re Forerunner constructs that protect Forerunner installations.”
“Will they attack us?” asked Twilight.
“Not unless the Monitor orders them to.” answered Spook. The Sentinels flew out into the corridor and attacked the Flood. They fired orange beams into the mass of infection forms. The combat forms began jumping to attack the Sentinels, but they couldn’t reach. A few combat forms that had weapons started firing them clumsily at the Sentinels. Unfortunately, one of them was so clumsy that it didn’t even fire at the Sentinels. It fired its SMG at the escaping humans and Elites. Most of the bullets hit Derpy in the back. One of them hit Applejack’s upper right arm, shattering the bone. The door hissed shut. Spook checked Derpy’s pulse, found nothing, and examined Applejack’s arm. He took a small medkit from his belt, then cleaned and bandaged the wound, making sure to splint the arm as he did so.
“It’s the best I can do right now. Just try not to jar your arm too badly.”
“Aren’t we going to do something about Derpy’s body?” asked Fluttershy.
“Like what, bury it? This floor is solid metal.” replied Ryan.
“Besides, we don’t have time. We need to get out of here, and the sooner we do the better.” said Spook. He turned to the Elites and the other recruits, “We never learned any of your names. I suppose extremely quick introductions are in order.”
The Elite major stepped forward, turning his armor a muddy brown color as he walked.
“You may call me Kirl.”
The Elite minor on the right stepped forward, turning his armor the same brown.
“You may call me Viln.”
The second minor stepped forward, his armor also becoming brown.
“You may call me Narv.”
The humans nodded. Spook nodded to the recruits. One of them, who had black hair with a purple stripe, spoke up.
“I’m Twilight Sparkle. My friend with purple hair is Rarity, the one with rainbow hair is Rainbow Dash, the one with pink hair is Fluttershy, and the one with blonde hair and a broken arm is Applejack.”
The others just stood there for a second.
“We’ve got a problem here.” said Spook, “As an ONI agent, I had access to the troop roster aboard the Excaliber. I didn’t see your names there.”
“You probably just forgot them.” said Rarity nervously.
“No, he would have remembered names like yours.” said Alex, stifling a laugh. Ryan punched his arm. Twilight put on a bad poker face and glanced around. Spook squinted at her for a moment before turning towards the rest of the group.
“How they got here is beside the point. We need to keep moving before more Sentinels or Flood come.” he said. Another door hissed open, but there was nothing on the other side. Spook raised his rifle and led the way down the corridor. Halfway down the corridor the group spotted a large amount of blood splattered on the wall. Bloody footprints led down the hall and around the corner.
“Those footprints were left by marine boots.” said Ryan.
“No, those are ODST boots. You can tell because the soles are different.” replied Alex. Spook motioned for them to shut up. He slowly turned the corner, rifle raised.
“All clear.” he said, “Nothing alive here but the metaphorical rats. This one corpse has a sniper rifle though. Dibs.”
“Aw man.” said Alex.
“You’re just going to loot the corpses?” asked Rarity, “Disgusting.”
“Why not? The ammo will just be wasted otherwise.” said Rainbow. She took a hand grenade from a dead ODST. Kirl knelt to examine one of the bodies.
“These wounds were caused by Covenant weapons, probably storm rifles and fuel rod cannons. This man has had his bones almost powdered. Their bodies have not decomposed very much, which leads me to concur that there is a squad of Hunters and Elites patrolling this area. They are probably still close.”
“Alright,” said Spook, “Stay in formation and move forward slowly. We don’t want any surprises.” They entered the next room. There was a large depression in the floor that would have been spanned by a light bridge. However, the control panel had been smashed and burned out. Twilight looked over the edge of the depression and spotted movement at the bottom.
“I see three Elites and two…things.” she reported. Spook looked down into the depression as well.
“Kirl was right, they were still close by. I guess it took them a while to climb down. Now listen, I’ve got an idea.”
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
“This is such a dumb plan.” said Narv, “I feel like one of us isn’t going to survive this.”
“Be quiet. That Human is smarter than most of them. He knows what he’s doing.” replied Viln. Kirl gestured for silence, and then approached the Covenant. The three Separatists had changed their armor back to the regular Storm Covenant colors.
“Halt!” ordered the Elite Major, “Identify yourselves!”
“I am Major Kirl. This is Minor Viln and Minor Narv.”
“It is good to see a few friendly faces. The Flood and the Humans have already decimated and scattered our forces. There is a sizeable outbreak of the parasite on this installation.” The Major turned back to his troops and Spook gave raised his hand and slashed it downwards. Kirl, Viln, and Narv raised their carbines and shot all three Elites in the head at once. The Hunters roared in surprise and charged the Separatists. Kirl and Viln dodged out of the way but Narv was too slow. A Hunter smashed him with its shield, sending him flying into the side of the depression. There were several sharp cracks as his bones shattered, and blood stained a large part of the wall. Spook turned to the other soldiers.
“Slide down the side and roll at the bottom! It should prevent you from breaking your feet!” The marines slid down, bombarding the Hunters with frag grenades as they went. They all managed to roll when they hit the bottom, and Applejack cried out with pain as her arm hit the ground. Spook, Ryan, and Alex were on their feet immediately. The others took a few more seconds to recover. Now the Hunters started to waver. They were badly outnumbered and might not be able to withstand such a large attack. Then one Hunter charged the Humans. Its bond brother, automatically attuned to it, attacked the Elites. Chaos ensued.
Spook removed his helmet and wiped orange blood off of his face. Rainbow had managed to stick a plasma grenade to a Hunter’s “face”, and the creature had splattered everywhere. The other Hunter had been felled by a few sniper rifle rounds to the back. Alex threw his rifle on the ground.
“Damn it, I’m out of ammo.” he said.
“Well maybe if you hadn’t shot from the hip like a moron…” replied Ryan impatiently. Spook, Twilight, and Rarity dropped their assault rifles as well.
“We’ll need to conserve whatever ammunition we have left.” said Kirl, “Hunters are very resilient, and we may encounter more of them. Now, there are two ways out of this chamber. Shall we take left or right?”
“Well, thay always say ya should keep left in a maze.” said Applejack, “Maybe we should do tha’”.
“Alright,” said Spook, “Any volunteers for point?”
“Me!” yelled Rainbow. Spook nodded and Rainbow led the way down the left corridor.
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“I think it’s time we admitted that keeping left is getting us nowhere.” said Rarity.
“Yeah, we’ve been walking for about two hours.” said Twilight.
“How can you tell if there’s no sun?” asked Rainbow.
“There’s a clock on the helmet readout…”
“Oh…shut up.”
The group walked up to another intersection. There was a hallway going to the left and right and another door to the front. This door had lines of glowing green light snaking their way across the metal. Spook tried the panel, but the door wouldn’t budge. He tried the panel again, but this time the door opened. There was a spherical green floating eye hovering there.
“You rang?” it said, “My name is 16807, oh, do come in. I just made tea, would you like some?” The eye turned and floated back into the room.
“That’s the installation’s Monitor, but it’s obviously gone insane.” said Spook.
“Don’t AIs go rampant instead of insane?” asked Ryan.
“There’s a theory that Forerunner Monitors are actually created by putting a Human consciousness in a Forerunner made shell. Based on this theory Monitors would go insane rather than rampant. Either way, he’s completely nuts.”
“He sounds British.” noted Alex. The Monitor reappeared in the doorway.
“Please come in, you’ll get dreadfully cold out there in the snow.” he said. Spook shrugged and followed the Monitor into the room.
“I believe there was a promise of tea?” asked Rarity.
“Oh yes.” replied the Monitor, “Just place your hands on those two panels and the tea will appear!”
Rarity looked at Spook, who shook his head.
“Oh, please do it.” continued the Monitor, “Or else the tea will get cold!”
The group noticed the Sentinels gathering around them. Spook stepped forward and placed his hands on the panels. They began to glow. Then the floor in front of him opened and a giant sphere lined with green light rose out of the pit. It cracked open and a voice boomed out of the darkness inside it.
“16807! WHERE ARE YOU!?”
“Right here your majesty!” answered the Monitor, “I am so pleased with your return, oh the happiness!”
“That is definitely not tea.” muttered Spook.
“WHAT!? WHO’S THERE!? IS IT HUMANS!?” yelled the voice.
“Yes my lord, there are eight Humans in this room right now!”
“I hate those vermin! I gave them technology because they were so nice, and what did they do!? They attacked us Forerunners and got me locked up! KILL THEM IMMEDIATELY!” The Monitor turned to the Humans.
“I’m sorry about this, but I have my orders from Lord Prometheus. Sentinels, kill th-wait, where did they go?”
“16807!!! FIND THEM YOU MORON!” yelled Prometheus.
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“We used to think the Forerunners liked Humanity, but now I think we were probably wrong…” said Spook.
“Gee, ya’ think?” asked Applejack.
“We need to get out of here very, very, soon. We should break into Fireteams of two and recon the area for a ship. A pelican or phantom would do, but a Covenant lich would be preferable. Twilight and I will be Alpha, Ryan and Alex will be Beta, Rainbow and Applejack will be Charlie, Fluttershy and Rarity will be Delta, and Kirl and Viln will be Foxtrot. Move out and watch for hostiles!”
