RD-079: Welcome to Reach

“Most of the crew - not to mention your fellow jarheads - will be leaving the ship in lifeboats. They'll ride to the surface in air conditioned comfort, sipping wine, and nibbling on appetizers. Not you, however. Oh no, you're going to leave the Pillar of Autumn in a different method. Tell me boys and girls… how will you leave?” -Major Antonio Silva, aboard the UNSC Pillar of Autumn.

"WE GO FEET FIRST SIR!" -ODST response.

“Oh my head." Rainbow let out a groan as she began to regain consciousness. “Stupid talking…thing…”

She cracked her eyes open and was greeted by a myriad of blurry lights. Blinking to clear her vision, the first thing that grabbed her attention was the small, electric blue dot right in the middle of her vision. Thinking it was just her eyes playing tricks on her, she blinked again and shook her head. Upon moving her head, the dot, along with several other images and markings, moved to follow her.

Deciding to ignore the strange blue markings for now, she took in her surroundings. From a quick glance around, it appeared as if she was sitting inside a small, rather cramped tube.

Directly in front of her was a narrow window stretching from floor to ceiling, giving her a view that looked a lot like a night’s sky full of stars. On both sides of the window were small screens projecting a sickly green color across the inside of the container and had strange images and lines of text scrolling across them.

“I wonder if Twilight would know what this stuff is…”

Her brow furrowed in confusion as she continued to look around the container.

That is, until her words caught up with her.

“Oh my gosh! TWILIGHT!”

Frantically, she looked around, struggling against the restraints holding her in place as she tried looking behind her.

“TWILIGHT! WHERE ARE YOU!”

She could hear a faint groaning sound as her restraints fought to keep her still. In frustration, she beat the back of her head against the headrest.

“LET!” *WHAM* “ME!” *WHAM* “GO!” *WHAM*

Her concentration was broken as a peculiar sensation blossomed at the base of her skull, feeling as if liquid ice was spreading down her spine.

She heard three high pitched chirps and saw a line of bright blue text blinking in the corner of her vision. Letting out a groan of annoyance, she turned her head to read the text, only to have it move along with her. With an aggravated sigh, she kept her head still as her eyes read the text.

“What the…”

// Initializing Installed A.I. Module:

= (TLT 1-9681-2)

// Retrieving Data………..… Complete

// Verifying COM Connection…..Complete

// Initiating Handshake Protocols……..Complete

// Initializing……………………………………….

//……………………………………………………

//…………..Complete

// Generating Visualization……….Complete

// Initialization Complete

A short buzz of static sounded throughout the container before it was cut off by a familiar voice.

“Calm down Rainbow, I’m right here.” Relief washed over Rainbow like a tidal wave.

“Twilight!? Oh thank Celestia!” She cast another glance around the container. “Um… Where are you?”

A long pause filled the cramped space as she waited for the unicorn to respond.

“Uh… Twi?”

“Oh, right. Sorry. Um, I’m right…… here.”

One of the screens in front of Rainbow switched off for a second before an image of a purple unicorn appeared in a flash of static. “What the?... How the hay’d you get in there?”

She reached out to poke the screen that a rather spaced-out Twilight was currently residing in, only to abruptly stop mid gesture.

“T-t-t-t-t-wwiliiight?”

Another pause. She didn’t want to tear her gaze off the strange object in front of her.

“...Yes Rainbow?”

“W-what is that?”

“...That would be your arm.” The unicorn deadpanned.

Rainbow’s jaw dropped as her brain tried to reboot itself. Following the length of the large, blue, metal-clad thing, she realized that it was indeed attached to her body, which was also covered in the same strange blue metal and, oddly enough, featured rainbow accents.

“W-w-what the buck am I?”

“Well, according to the database and based on your current musculature, neural activity, and the rather obvious presence of what appears to be a suit of Mark-V MJOLNIR-”

“EQUESTRIAN! SPEAK EQUESTRIAN! I’M FREAKING OUT HERE, AND YOU’RE PULLING WORDS OUT OF YOUR-”

“RAINBOW DASH!” Rainbow’s eyes snapped to the screen with the now-agitated Unicorn on it. “Compiling, categorizing, and compressing data is rather difficult when you’re being constantly interrupted. Besides, I believe we have bigger things to worry about.”

Almost as if it was possessed, the tube she was sitting in slowly rolled over. As it did, a very large blue and green object began sliding into view.

“...Is that a-”

“Yes, Rainbow, we are currently on an intercept course with a planet.”

Sure enough, the planet in question was rapidly approaching.

Rainbow’s heart was racing as she started pulling at her restraints with renewed vigor.

“WE GOTTA GET OUT OF HERE TWI-” She was cut off as Twilight interrupted her again.

“RAINBOW! STOP! We’ll be fine!”

“What do you mean!? We’re about to crash into a PLANET!”

Twilight’s image gestured at the metal tube they were in. “We’re inside a Single Occupant Exoatmospheric Insertion Vehicle, Dash.”

“...What?”

Twilight sighed. “A Drop Pod. It’s designed for this very purpose. Once we breach the planet’s atmosphere, the, in lay-pony terms, ‘parachute’ deploys and slows us down for a nice, soft landing.”

Rainbow fidgeted in her seat. “If you say so, but even if we somehow manage to NOT turn into pancakes when we crash, what happens next?”

The pod rattled and shook as it cut through the atmosphere at several times the speed of sound, leaving a smoking trail as the air friction heated up the outer layers. Rainbow could see the ground quickly approaching through gaps in the clouds, the sight of which caused her to wonder if she could still walk on them in her current form.

The parachute Twilight had spoken of had deployed a few minutes ago as the pod first contacted the atmosphere, but as far as Rainbow could tell, it barely had any affect.

As the pod continued it's high speed plunge a small bit of worry began to find it's way into her mind. Was this what was supposed to happen? How would the pod survive impact? But these thoughts were quickly pushed to the back of her mind as they broke through the cloud layer.

The ground rushed up to meet them, and the former pegasus' felt herself pushed into her seat as the pod rapidly decelerated as it's breaking rockets activated. There was a thud as the pod came to a instant stop on the ground.

The pods hatch in front of her hissed open and she instantly stepped out, happy to be out of the cramped pod. She immediately began to take a look around.

She seemed to have landed on the roof of a structure. She was standing on some grey metal, with boxes of sorts scattered all around and a set of stairs behind and to her left. Beyond the edge was a landscape that reminded her of a mountain top, or the tundra in Equestria's north, all rocks and dirt with snow and small plants scattered here and there. In front of her was another large structure with some black multibarreled stick mounted on it, as well as another grey building off to her right. Behind her below the ridge she was on was large group of structures around several runways, many of with were on fire.

But during her quick two second scan, Rainbow spotted something else, and it was standing not ten meters in front of her. From what she could tell, it was bipedal, and stood eight feet tall, as well as being covered in what appeared to be white armour of some kind, with a face concealing helmet that had two glowing blue eyes.

And it was looking straight at her.

The pegasus was frozen in fear, but not her body. An eerie calm descended on her as her body began to move seemingly on it's own, as newly implanted reflexes kicked in.

She charged.

The Elite was bored. Really bored. Killing all the humans at the anti-aircraft gun, and shutting it off had been all too easy. Now he had been ordered to sit here with his troops and defend the gun to prevent the humans from reactivating it. He hadn't worked so hard to attain the armour of an Ultra to just sit around all day!

But there was little he could do about it. An honourable warrior followed orders, even if it meant sitting around doing nothing, so he had made his way to the roof of one of the adjacent buildings to keep an eye on the grunts and jackals under his command.

Thirty minutes of waiting later he was shaken out of a daydream by a loud THUD on the roof behind him. Turning around, he recognized one of the human's drop pods.

Good. He thought, something to do!

But what stepped from the pod wasn't the ODST he was expecting. As his eyes locked onto the figure, he felt fear, no, terror grip him.

DEMON!

Rainbow's legs and arms began to move their own, charging the Elite before he could react. As she reached him the SPARTAN threw herself on him, tackling him to the ground. Her right hand quickly went to the combat knife on her left shoulder plate, pulling it from it's sheath before winding up and slamming it into the alien's neck. A glowing layer appeared around him before dissipating as the eight inch blade found it's way though the Elite's under-suit and into his neck, severing flesh, arteries, and even his spine. The affect was instant, the alien going limp and ceasing all movement.

The SPARTAN withdrew the knife and stood up, seemingly emotionless. She took a glance at the blood soaked knife clutched in her right hand. That was what it took to snap her out of her trance.

"Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!" She exclaimed recoiling from the corpse and dropping the knife. "I-I...I didn't mean to! I-It...It was an accident!" She exclaimed as she sank to her knees a couple meters away from the dead Elite.

"Rainbow! I need you to calm down!" Twilight exclaimed, "Your heart rate and breathing have spiked to dangerous levels! I need you to take off your helmet and calm down."

The former pegasus quickly took her friend's' advice, reaching up and removing her helmet, dropping it at her feet.

Ok, just calm down. She heard Twilight's voice say, somehow in Rainbow's head. Deep breath in, and out, in and out.

With the claustrophobic helmet off and Twilight's breathing exercises, Rainbow got her panic attack under control.

"T-thanks Twi." She said, standing up, "But aren't you…alarmed that I-I just…k-killed something?"

Uh…no actually. The A.I. responded, Put your helmet back on and I'll explain.

The SPARTAN reached down to retrieve and replace her helmet on her head but bought a glance of her reflection in the visor. Her fur and muzzle had disappeared, replaced with pale skin and a pointy nose with her mouth below that. Her eyes had shrunk but kept their cerise colouring, and her hair hadn't changed keeping its rainbow colours that her name suggested.

"I though you would be…Stunned and angry." She said as she flipped her helmet around and replaced it over her head.

"I can't be angry at you Rainbow." She said, as Rainbow scanned her surroundings, "The thing is…it's kinda what you are designed to do."

"What do you mean 'designed to do'? Twilight I know when you are hiding things, and this is one of those times! Buck! What the hay am I anyway!? What are you!? And where the FUCK are we!" Rainbow yelled, throwing her new arms up in the air as her confused anger began to subside. Luckily for them Twilight had shut off Rainbow's helmet's outer speakers.

An audible sigh came from Twilight before she spoke. "I guess I do owe you some answers. Just retrieve your knife and be quiet and careful. There are more aliens on the ground below us."

Rainbow grabbed her knife, avoiding looking at the body. Just the sight of it made her want to empty her stomach. She began to clean off the blood with her shoulder pauldron as Twilight began to speak.

"First of all you are currently a Human, a sentient bipedal omnivorous species. Or more specifically, you are a SPARTAN-II super soldier."

"Wait. That Bi-whatever part went over my head, but I'm a soldier?" Rainbow asked as she replaced her knife in it's sheath.

"Yes. That's why you killed that Elite. The monitor seems to have given you the reactions of a battle hardened SPARTAN. Walk back to the pod."

"But why did I... I...kill him?" She asked as she complied, tuning around and walking to the black pod she arrived in.

"That alien, a so called Elite, is part of a group of alien races called 'The Covenant'. They are currently at war with the Humans and will shoot any Human on sight." Twilight explained as Rainbow approached the SOEIV. "Here, grab that rifle."

"What?"

"That black stick thing on the left of the seat."

Rainbow quickly looked where Twilight had indicated spotting an angular metal device clamped beside the seat. She quickly undid the latches as her friend continued explaining.

"If you hadn't killed him, he would have killed you."

"Oh…" The SPARTAN said as her eyes widened in realization.

"I'll explain more later. I need to teach you how to use this-" Twilight began to say before she was interrupted by a loud bang. Half a second later a small figure went flying straight up beside the building trailing a trail of green mist.

There were several more bangs and alien yelling from below inside the building, before something else caught her eye. A large purple…thing was flying towards her.

"Phantom! Take cover!" Twilight exclaimed, just as a small barrel mounted on the 'Phantom' began launching glowing reddish-purple bolts at her. Rainbow's newfound combat instincts once again kicked in and she dove behind a nearby metal crate as the bolts began to impact where she had been standing a second before, causing small explosions where they landed.

The Phantom flew past over the roof she was on with a strange whine and lowered itself to hover just above the ground nearby. Two doors opened on either side of it and Rainbow watched as a large group of aliens jumped out and fell out of sight behind the railing on the edge of the roof. She stood up only to hear another strange sound, this time a dull roar.

"Look out!" Twilight warned.

Turning around she spotted another Elite fly up to the roof and land not even a meter from her on what appeared to be a jetpack. This one was wearing armour much like the first one she fought, except that this one's helmet had a large navy blue visor in the front.

The SPARTAN ducked as the alien swung the purple thing in its right hand at her head. Drooping the 'rifle', she sidestepped a kick and threw a punch which the Elite blocked with its right arm, though the alien had underestimated the SPARTAN's strength. There was a CRACK and the Elite stumbled backwards roaring in pain. It looked at Rainbow with fury, and rushed her.

She had no time to react as the alien bowled her over onto her back. Her eyes widened as the Elite landed on top of her and wound back with its remaining good arm, only for a purple-white blade to extend from its gauntlet. She raised her arm to meet the strike and caught the fist only inches from her helmet with the blade almost touching it. The SPARTAN and the alien struggled against the other, one trying to drive the blade forward, the other, back. While Rainbow had the advantage of pure strength, the Elite was able to put his full weight into the blade.

They would have stayed in such a situation, if not for a third combatant.

Rainbow was using everything she had to prevent the blade from piercing her armour, when a grey blur came from her right and slammed into the Elite, sending both flying and giving Rainbow a brief respite. She quickly got to her feet to see a grey armoured figure slam a knife into the alien's neck.

The figure stood up and turned to the former pegasus, spinning its knife in its fingers. As Rainbow got a better look at the figure she began to realize that it looked much like her armour from what she could see of it.

The figure was, like every other living thing she had seen on this world, bipedal and wearing dark grey armour with a helmet, much similar to Rainbow's armour. Said helmet had a attachment on top making it seem larger, and a muted orange visor in a similar shape to her's but the bottom edge was flatter.

Then the figure took Rainbow completely by surprise.

'It', or rather judging by the tone, she, talked.

"You alright?" She said in a voice that sounded like a lower pitched version of Rainbow's own, sheathing her combat knife and pulling out a 'rifle' from her back, much like the one Rainbow had been carrying before the Elite attacked her.

"Uh…Yeah." Rainbow said in surprise.

"Good," The Human said sweeping her helmeted eyes over the former Pegasi's Drop Pod, "Designation?"

Under her helmet Rainbow raised a confused eyebrow. Luckily Twilight quickly came to her rescue.

"Read what I put on your Display. And grab your rifle while you're at it."

True to her word a line of text quickly popped up in front of Rainbow's eyes.

"Lieutenant SPARTAN Oh-Seven-Niner." Rainbow read out as she quickly looked around for her rifle before spotting it on the ground a few meters away.

"Good to have you Lieutenant." The other SPARTAN replied as Rainbow retrieved her rifle, "Lieutenant Bravo Three-One-Two. Callsign Noble Six. We can use all the SPARTANs we can get."

An all too familiar sound caused 'Six' to look over Dash's shoulder. Rainbow looked behind her to see another one of the flying alien transports heading for them.

Six turned and walked over to the edge of the roof where a small yellow screen was. Rainbow watched as she hit a few buttons on it, and with that one of the other structures came to life.

Rainbow watched as the structure turned and pointed it's multiple barrels at the flying machine. What happened next was unexpected.

BRRRRVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV!

The barrels began spinning before flashes of flame began to erupt from the ends accompanied by a sound like ripping paper. She looked as the alien machine seemed to stagger as sparks and holes blossomed across it's surface. After a few seconds of this treatment the ship seemed to lose control, rolling sideways and falling to the found before exploding.

"Come on. We could use your help with the com relay." Six said as she pulled a handle on her rifle, followed by hitting a small button on the opposite side.

"See what Six did? Do that to load your gun. Then point it at an enemy and pull the small handle under the button." Twilight instructed as the human passed Dash heading for the stairs.

"What will it do?" Asked Rainbow, quickly following Six.

"Ummm…Kill them."

Rainbow let out a sigh as she did as Twilight asked before saying "Please don't tell me I'm going to be doing this a lot? We need to find a way home!"

"To get home we need to be alive Dash. It's either you kill them, or they kill you. I can explain more about this world and figure out how to get home later when we aren't getting shot at." Twilight explained.

Rainbow let out a sigh as she entered the structure from the stairs to be greeted by another human in armour talking with Six. Another female judging by the voice, her armour was blue with the standard black under suit. Her helmet looked very similar to Rainbow's own, the only difference being Rainbow's visor was a bit flatter. But what stood out the most about her was her obviously mechanical right arm.

She glanced over at Rainbow before turning to Six, "Who's this?"

Rainbow quickly replied before Six could, making sure to use the designation Twi had told her. "Lieutenant Oh-Seven-Niner."

"She dropped in on the roof." Six added.

"Good. Lieutenant Commander Three-Two-Oh. Callsign Noble two." She said in a accent Rainbow couldn't place. "Let's go."

With that Four turned and jogged out the door heading for a strange wheeled vehicle. Rainbow and Six glanced at each other before following.

The vehicle had four wheels and was painted green. In the mid-section was what appeared to be a pair of seats, while at the very back was what appeared to be a miniature version of the weapon that had shot down the alien flying machine.

"Six. Take the wheel." The Lieutenant Commander instructed as she clipped her rifle on her back and climbed up behind the turret. Six went around to the left side leaving Rainbow to hop into the right seat. She hopped in and the vehicle immediately began rolling.

"There. I've shut off your helmet's external speakers. We have some privacy now." Twilight said as Six guided the vehicle along a dirt road.

"OK." Rainbow replied as they bounced along, "So where are we, and what are you."

"As far a I can tell, the monitor turned me into an Artificial Intelligence. Simplified, I'm now a machine that can think for itself." Twilight explained over the helmets speakers.

"Oh..." Rainbow trailed off, "And where are we?"

A small window appeared on Rainbow's visor reavealing the smiling unicorn. "Rainbow. Welcome to Reach."