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                 RD-079: Welcome to Reach                  
                   -by Lt Rainbow Slash-                   
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                         Prologue                          
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Prologue
Glowing blue plasma whizzed past and splattered against her energy shielding as she dove for cover behind a stack of crates, since there was little other cover available in the mining tunnel. Popping up, she raised her assault rifle and tightened her finger on the trigger, letting off several bursts of deadly armour-piercing bullets. The majority hit her target, splattering against the Elite's shields causing them to flare brightly, before breaking. She quickly shifted her aim before letting off the last three bullets in the clip, splattering the aliens head on the tunnel wall behind him.
Quickly making sure no more hostiles would jump out at her, the SPARTAN reloaded her rifle before returning it to her back and drawing one of her two M6G Magnum pistols. She began to cautiously make her way down the tunnel towards the dead Elite. When she got to the body she kneeled down and retrieved a plasma grenade of the alien corpse, before moving around the corner and deeper into the mine.
The tunnel continued for some distance with several twists and turns, eventually ending on a platform overlooking a larger cavern full of mining equipment. A quick count told her that there were luckily only eight aliens present, all small unshielded Grunts.
Giving a quick mental command through her neural lace engaged her active-camo, making her little more than a shimmer in the air. The SPARTAN quickly descended the ladder before moving slowly towards the nearest Grunt. She shifted her pistol to her left hand before reaching with her right to her combat knife in it's sheath, on her left shoulder. Drawing it she quickly plunged it into the diminutive alien's throat before dragging it behind a giant drill.
After hiding the body, she returned to the corner and peeked around. But as focused as she was on locating the remaining aliens, she didn't notice the grunt coming up behind her, until the diminutive alien bumped into her invisible legs.
Her reflexes kicked in as she spun and pulled the trigger, making a loud bang, as well as a large blood splatter as the .50 caliber high-explosive armour-piercing slug entered the grunt's head before detonating.
Unfortunately, this also alerted the remaining grunts to their intruder.
The SPARTAN quickly switched off her camo and sheathed her knife, before drawing her second M6D pistol. Stepping around the corner she brought her pistols up and placed the two moving reticles on her HUD on two aliens and let loose a pair of rounds. The bullets picked up the grunts and flung them backwards like dolls in a spray of their blue blood.
A quick glance at her motion tracker showed another red blip behind her. The SPARTAN quickly spun and brought up her pistols only to be greeted by the sight of another alien charging her with a pair of glowing blue plasma grenades in its hands. Unfortunately for her, the grunt was already on top of her.
Cursing under her breath she quickly sent a second command through her neural lace engaging her armour's 'lock' function. She fell down on one knee as the armour redirected all of it's power to the shields, casing her in a nigh invulnerable shield which, unfortunately, meant no power was being supplied to the servos that allowed her to move in her heavy armour.
But the grunt kept coming, throwing itself at her. As the alien's grenades contacted her they detonated, turning the grunt into a charred mess. Another quick mental command and her armour unlocked, returning power to its regular levels and allowing her to stand up again, unharmed.
Another quick glance at her motion tracker revealed that the three remaining grunts were coming around the side of the drill. Holstering her pistol in her right hand, she grabbed a plasma grenade off her belt, and waited a couple seconds before priming and throwing the now glowing blue 'sticky' grenade. Her timing was perfect, and as the first diminutive alien stepped around the corner it landed on it's face. The grunt let out a surprised sound and stumbled backwards right into his two comrades before all three died in a flash of light.
A smirk found it's way onto the SPARTAN's face under her helmet. She safed and holstered her remaining pistol and grabbed her MA37 Assault Rifle off her back. Making her way to the exit she moved down the tunnel cautiously.
After several twists and turns she came to a wider room with what appeared to be medium sized tanks of fuel. Glancing around revealed no hostiles and she began moving to the tunnel on the opposite side of the room.
That's when she felt something hit her from behind.
She stumbled as her shields flared, before recovering and tuning to face her attacker. All she saw was an eight foot tall Elite charging her with it's energy sword drawn. Before she could fire the alien tackled her, causing her assault rifle to go off sending several rounds into the tanks of fuel.
She fell on her back as the massive alien pounced on her. She raised her rifle only to have it cut in half by a swing from the Elite's sword. The alien then stabbed straight at her head. Quickly moving her head aside the sword slammed into where it had been a second before. She grabbed the Elite's sword hand and gave a hard twist, followed by a stratifying Crack as his wrist broke. He howled in pain, which was enough of an opening for her to punch the alien in the face, and kick him off her.
She immediately got to her feet and pulled her knife out as she faced her battered attacker. The alien, upon seeing this, ignited the energy dagger mounted on his left gauntlet.
"Ummm…Rainbow?" A voice came over the SPARTAN's helmet speakers.
"A little busy here Twilight." Rainbow Dash replied to her armour's AI, while keeping her eyes on the Elite as the two circled each other.
"That fuel tank is about to explode."
Rainbow's eyes widened as she turned to glance at the fuel tank she had accidentally shot. Sure enough the tank had flames shooting out the top where the cap should be. An instant later the entire tank as well as several others nearby exploded in a massive fireball, cooking the alien.
Rainbow on the other hand had activated her Armour Lock, and stood up as her shield dissipated several seconds later.
"Well that was clos…" She started to say, before she was cut off by an urgent sounding Twilight Sparkle.
"Rainbow! Look out! The ceiling!"
The SPARTAN looked up just in time to see a large chunk of the tunnel's roof impact her faceplate, knocking her out cold.
THREE WEEKS EARLIER
"Ugh, this is so boring!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, lazily hovering next to Twilight while she compared the leaves of a small plant to a diagram in a journal.
Earlier that day, Twilight had found her napping on a cloud over Sweet Apple Acres and had asked if she wanted to come with her to help Zecora gather ingredients for a potion. Having already completed her weather duties for the day, and with nothing else to do, she accepted.
"You could always pretend that we're in one of your Daring Do books." Twilight replied. Satisfied that the plant she found matched the description Zecora gave her, she picked it and placed it in her saddlebags along with the journal. "Besides, you said that you wanted to come, I didn't make you."
"Yeah, but that was before I found out it was so boooooring." Rainbow landed next to the unicorn and proceeded to flop on a bed of moss with an exaggerated groan.
Twilight rolled her eyes and checked the journal. "Well, we only have a few more to go, and then we'll be finished."
Dash jumped to her feet and threw her hooves in the air. "Finally! What's next?"
Twilight levitated the journal out of her bags and started flipping through the pages. "Hmmm... We've already found Flossberry, Gurdyroot, Inkvine, and Lotus. That just leaves Moon Disc, Poison Joke, and Thunder Spud."
"Thunder Spud? What's that?" Rainbow cocked her head and moved closer to Twilight to get a better look at the description.
"The Thunder Spud is part of the Solanaceae family and was created during the Discordian era by a unicorn named-"
"In equestrian, egghead." Rainbow Dash cut her off.
Twilight thought for a moment. "..... It's an exploding potato."
Rainbow's face was plastered with a grin so large that Pinkie Pie would be jealous.
"Oh my gosh, that's AWESOME!" The pegasus jumped into the air and performed a quick backflip in excitement. "Can we get that one next?!"
Twilight giggled. "Sure. We'd have to get it eventually."
"YESSS!"
Twilight took a moment to check the journal to see where they could find the potato, then began walking further into the forest, closely followed by Rainbow Dash.
"Hey, Twi?"
"Yes, Dash?"
"Why aren't the other girls with us?" Rainbow asked.
Twilight jumped over a fallen tree and continued walking. "Well, Applejack was busy getting ready for the upcoming harvest next week. Rarity said she had an order that she needed to take care of."
Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Yeah right. She probably just doesn't want to get her coat dirty, or something."
"I wouldn't doubt it. Anyways, Fluttershy was busy taking care of a family of birds, and Pinkie Pie said something about setting up for a birthday party, but it was kind of hard to understand her. You know how she gets."
"Heh, yeah." Rainbow dodged a net of vines hanging from a tree. "Was it as bad as last time?"
"Thankfully, no. I'm still finding bits of confetti in my mane from that one... And Spike still smells like cotton candy." Twilight gave a small shudder.
"Poor guy. I didn't know he could even fit in the Party Cannon, but it was Pinkie..."
"True." Twilight quickly consulted the journal. "We should be getting close. According to the journal, the potatoes should be next to a small pond by a cliff."
The two continued walking, or in Rainbow's case, hovering, and soon came across the small body of water.
"Well, here's the pond."
"And there's the cliff!" Rainbow pointed a hoof at the large wall of rock. "So, what's this potato look like? Ooh! Is it red? Everypony knows that those red barrels explode, so mrfm-"
Twilight clamped the pegasus' mouth shut with a quick spell. "No, Dash. It's not red. Besides, they grow underground, but they have sprouts that sort of look like carrots."
"Mmph-" Rainbow cast a glare at the unicorn, who quickly released her hold on the pegasus' mouth. "Ahem. Like those?" She pointed a hoof at a small group of green sprouts a few feet from the water's edge.
"There's only one way to find out." Twilight said with a smile, as she walked over to the plant. She grabbed a few of the thin, green stalks in her magic and gave a quick tug. With little resistance, the stalks came up, revealing a few small potato-shaped orbs attached to the end of them.
"Cool!" Rainbow landed next to Twilight and experimentally poked the plant. Twilight quickly levitated the potatoes away from the curious pegasus.
"Careful, Dash! They explode, remember?"
"Oh right, sorry." Rainbow recoiled. "Um... How do they, you know..." She waved her hooves around haphazardly.
"Blow up?" Twilight asked while levitating a small padded box out of her saddlebags and placed the potatoes inside. "Pull some more up and I'll show you."
Rainbow quickly flew over to another bundle of potatoes and pulled them up, then flew back over to where Twilight was standing.
"It's really quite simple. When exposed to blunt force trauma, extreme shock from impact, or large changes in gravitational for-"
"Twilight! I don't speak egghead!"
Twilight rolled her eyes. "Just throw it." To prove her point, she took one of the potatoes in her magic and threw it at the cliff face.
CRACK
There was a small puff of smoke and a few loose rocks fell to the ground. The only thing that remained of the potato was a small black smudge on the wall.
"Awesome!" Rainbow took the handful of potatoes she had and proceeded to throw them all at the cliff.
Twilight's eyes widened in shock. "No, WAI-"
BOOOOOM!
The two ponies were hurled back into the forest by the shockwave.
"Ugh... wha... Twi..?" Rainbow squirmed around, trying to untangle herself from the mass of limbs and fur that she and Twilight had become.
"Ouch... yeah?" Twilight replied, shifting around as well.
"You ok?"
"Fine. You?"
"I'm good." Rainbow managed to free herself from Twilight. "Um what was that?"
Twilight shakily stood. "I forgot to tell you, when combined with other spuds, the explosive force of Thunder Spuds grows exponentially."
"Sooo... The more you throw, the bigger the boom?" Rainbow cocked an eyebrow.
Twilight nodded. "Precisely."
They sat for a moment, waiting for the dust to clear.
"Wanna go see what it looks like?" Rainbow asked, getting a silent nod from Twilight.
They slowly walked forward into the dissipating cloud of dust. When they reached the center of the blast, Twilight cleared the rest of the dust away with magic.
"Oh. My. Celestia."
The cliff face where the Thunder Spuds had hit was completely destroyed, and there was a sizable crater surrounding the blast area. However, the thing that stuck out the most was a small hole in the rock wall, about the size of a pony.
Twilight slowly approached the hole and stuck her head in, using her magic to light up the inside. What she found was like nothing she had ever seen before.
The small hole opened up into a rather spacious tunnel, large enough for both the Princess of the Sun, and Princess of the Night, to fly through it side-by-side quite comfortably. The walls, floor and ceiling of the tunnel were smooth, not rough like one would expect, and had a metallic sheen to them.
"Twilight? You ok?" Rainbow asked, giving the unicorn a slight nudge.
Twilight, who was completely oblivious to everything except her new discovery, gradually eased herself through the small opening and into the tunnel itself.
Rainbow poked her head through the opening. "Hey Twili- Whoa...."
As if triggered by Rainbow's voice, the tunnel seemed to shimmer as lights blinked on throughout its length, revealing almost artistic designs etched along the tunnel's surfaces.
Twilight jumped at the sudden introduction of light, but decided to move further into the tunnel.
"Wh- what is it?" Rainbow asked as she followed Twilight further down the tunnel.
"I have no idea. It's definitely not natural... or pony-made." Twilight replied, pausing to examine one of the lights inlaid into the floor.
Rainbow gave Twilight an incredulous look. "But that would mean..."
"... I highly doubt it. There's no such thing as aliens... Right?" Twilight gulped.
They followed the tunnel until they reached the end. It wasn't very long, in fact, the entrance hole was only a quick walk away, and clearly visible from where they stood.
"That's it? Rather anticlimatic if you ask me." Rainbow pouted.
"It's anticlimactic, Rainbow. And how could you say that? This tunnel is absolutely amazing! Self-sustaining electro-chemical lighting, metal-alloy walls and flooring that-"
"Yeah, yeah. I get it. Sheesh, it's just a tunnel. Something Discord probably cooked up and forgot about." Rainbow said, casually walking over to a small green light on the wall that caught her attention.
Twilight's ears drooped. "I hadn't thought about that."
"Geez, lighten up." Rainbow told her dejected friend while closely examining the light. She reached out with a hoof and poked the light. When nothing happened, she frowned and turned back to Twilight. "You could write to the Princesses. They might know someth-"
KA-THUNK
The sound of hissing air filled the tunnel and Rainbow whipped around to face the light, which was now flashing red. Without warning, the light stopped blinking, and two large metal doors began sliding open in front of Rainbow, causing her to backpedal into the stunned Twilight, knocking them both to the floor.
Shakily standing, Twilight walked through the doors and found herself standing on a small platform in an absolutely massive chamber. In the middle of the chamber, with no visible way to reach it, was a larger circular platform, suspended from below by supports branching off from the walls. Glancing over the edge of the platform she was standing on, Twilight was greeted by the vast expanse of a dark abyss.
Eyes widening, she quickly backed away from the edge. "H-hey, Dash? Do you think you could carry me over to that platform?" She gestured at the larger platform with a hoof.
"Um... S-sure." Rainbow managed to squeak out.
Grabbing the unicorn in her fetlocks, Rainbow quickly flew over to the platform, not wanting to remain above the bottomless pit for longer than required.
Upon setting hoof on the platform, which was now revealed to be more of a donut shape, a large holographic globe materialized inside the hole above them.
"....... Wow." Twilight stared wide-eyed at the globe while Rainbow remained speechless.
"It is rather magnificent, don't you think?"
Both ponies froze. "W-w-who's there?" A quiet whirring filled the air. "S-show y-yourself!"
"How interesting. Polychromatic, sapient, equine in nature. I have not had the pleasure of interacting with the indigenous population for almost 2,407 cycles."
"Twilight?" Rainbow whispered to the unicorn. "Let's get out of here."
Twilight nodded, and they both turned around, only to find a large silver orb floating, only a few paces away, in the space between them and the door in the wall of the chamber.
"W-what is it?" Rainbow asked.
The orb turned to face the pegasus, and proceeded to scan her with its large, glowing blue eye. "I am 706 Enduring Deceit, and I am the Monitor of this installation."
Twilight cocked her head. "Installation?"
The Monitor faced Twilight and scanned her as well. "Due to the strong electromagnetic fields surrounding this planet, this installation has been tasked with relaying communications from other installations to the Ark. It is my task to ensure that this installation is functioning within the acceptable scope of operations."
The two ponies simply stared at the Monitor, dumbstruck, as it floated over to a small holographic console and began sparking electricity at it.
"It has come to my attention that, unless certain events are altered, and circumstances changed, this installation will have not fulfilled its usefulness. This is unacceptable." The Monitor's blue eye quickly flashed red, causing Rainbow and Twilight to stiffen nervously.
"Therefore," The Monitor, having completed whatever it was doing, hovered back over to the two ponies. "I am in need of your assistance."
Twilight nervously took a step forward. "U-um... W-what do you need help with?"
"I simply need you to..." The Monitor flashed red, and golden bands of energy surrounded the two ponies, causing them to freeze in place. "Alter the circumstances."
In a flash of golden light, the two ponies vanished.

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              Chapter 1: Feet First Into Hell              
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Chapter 1: Feet First Into Hell
“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."