1100 hours, November 25, 2555 (Military calendar)/UNKNOWN SYSTEM, UNSC Destroyer Pandora, Bridge
“Exiting slip space Captain” the ship's on-board Smart AI spoke
“Good… Where are we?” replied CPT Brown
“According to my calculations we should be at the far end Covedent space”
“Captain?”
“Yes? What is it?”
“You might want to take a look at this”
“Bring it up on the Main Screen.”
“Aye”
For a second the large screen remained black, then it glowed to life to reveal a blue and green earth sized planet with a sun and moon orbiting around it.
“Put us into orbit were going in for a closer look”
“Sir, there appears to be artificial light coming from the dark side of the planet”
The captain’s eyes widened then over the ships comm. He said “Havoc to the bridge”
~=~
In The Cryo Bay (First Person)
I awoke from the freezing confines of my Mark VIII (8) Cryogenic Suspension Chamber or as you may have heard it called “Cryo tube” to hear people calling my name.
“Come on Captain, wake up!” Shouted my second in command
“UGH, Isaac you don’t have to yell I’m up”
“Well you sure took your time, common the captain is calling you”
“Alright, let me just get my armor on. Now where are those technicians?”
Isaac pointed over his shoulder to two crewmen standing next to a large box that contained my Modified MJOLNIR armor and my left arm. If Halsey knew what I had done to her armor she would have had me shot for treason or something. But what she doesn't know won’t hurt her.
With my armor on I walked down the hall and into an elevator. Pressing the button to go to the bridge, a familiar voice spoke over the elevators speaker.
“Where were you, the Captain is having… a fit”
“Sorry the tech’s took a while suiting me up.”
…
“WAIT A SEC! Did you say that he was having a fit?”
“Yes, he seems to be very excited about something”
“Common Holly, you just gave me a heart attack. I don’t think ‘fit’ would be the right word in this case”
“What do you mean?”
“Well ‘fit’ to me implies that he is angry about something.”
“Oh what would you suggest?”
“As I said, I would say ecstatic”
Before the lesson could continue the doors opened to a very chaotic bridge.
I coughed and the entire bridge became silent, all eyes were on me and they all had large smiles on their faces, really creepy smiles.
“Captain you wanted to see me...” I trailed off.
“Yes Havoc, I want Reverb team to go down to the planet to initiate first contact with its inhabitant”
“First contact sir?”
“The planet below appears to have sentient non space faring life. When will your team be ready to go?”
Barely able to contain my excitement I said “My team was ready yesterday Sir. Will that be all?”
“No, you will also take the AI with you. Other than that you are dismissed”
He handed me the transfer unit and I plugged it into the base of my helmet and felt the AI enter my mind. I then saluted and Headed to Armory D.
“What the plan?” Holly asked
“Well I’m gonna go with peace through superior firepower”
“That is not advisable, but it’s your call Cap”
“You're damn right it’s my call” I thought sarcastically but unfortunately my AI friend doesn't get sarcasm yet.
“Well if you don’t want my help FINE.” It sniffled that’s right sniffled. I didn't even think that was possible for an AI.
“Holly” I sighed
Apparently that was out loud and I got some interesting looks from the crew.
“Holly, I was being sarcastic” I thought
“Oh sorry about that” then she flashed an J emoticon on my visor.
Thorough our conversation we arrived at the Spartans armory.
“Dan to Reverb” I announced over team com
“Go ahead Cap, everyone is up and ready to go” Replied Isaac
“Excellent, we have a mission send everyone to the Armory”
In response I got five green confirmation LEDs in my HUD. While waiting for my team to arrive I grabbed my gear which included a M395 Designated Marksman Rifle (Bulpup variant), M6C/SOCOM Pistol (Suppressed), a standard issue combat knife, a trauma kit, three M9 high-explosive dual-purpose frag grenades and my trusty jet pack. While gathering tranq rounds along with normal ammunition for my weapons, Katelyn entered followed by Isaac, Markus, Juliet, and last through the door was Alexandra.
Now before I get ahead of myself I need to write this down.
Katelyn or Kate as she like to be called is 5’8, Caucasian, with blond hair and green eyes and a burn scar running from her ear to just below her chin. She is the team’s medic. Call sign Echo.
Isaac is 6’, Asian, with black hair and brown eyes. Lucky bastard managed to get through all we've been through without a scratch on him partly due to my help. Call sign Dictionary or Dic
Marcus is 6’9, African, with dark brown hair and blue eyes. Poor guy got hit in the face with plasma and because of that he has a large burn across his face. He is the team’s tech expert. Call sign Joker
Juliet is 5’5, albino, with dyed, short, light blue hair and red eyes. Juliet has had temper ever since the augmentation because she wasn’t an albino before and she isn’t happy about her current situation. She is the team’s sniper. Call sign Sapphire
Alexandra or if you don’t want to wake up in hard vacuum, Alex. Alex is 6’2, Latino, with dyed purple hair and Gray eyes. She has a crooked nose due to a large piece of a building deciding it wanted to land on her helmet. Call Sign Dodge
Oh and I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Daniel but I prefer to be called Dan, although my team seems to refer to me only as cap or captain. I am 6’, Caucasian, with Light brown hair and Blue eyes. I lost my arm due to an incident with Isaac. I don’t like talking about it. My call sign is Havoc
Right, now with the introductions out of the way let’s go back to the story.
As they entered they gave me a nod and began equipping themselves.
Kate picked up a M392 DMR, a M6C/SOCOM Pistol a standard issue combat knife, a Humbler stun device (think purple tazer sword), a Standard issue med kit, and a Portable Drop shield.
Mark geared himself with a MA5D Assault rifle, a M7 Case-less Submachine Gun, combat knife, three M9 high-explosive dual-purpose grenades, and a hologram unit.
Isaac grabbed his kit which included a M7S SMG (Suppressed), M6C/SOCOM, a combat knife, a Humbler stun device, and a hologram unit.
Juliet went for her baby a 99D-S2 Anti-Matériel sniper rifle, a M6C/SOCOM, combat knife, and a hologram unit.
Alex headed straight for the explosives ordinance locker and grabbed both C-7 a foaming explosive and C-12 a shaped explosive, along with that she grabbed a Spanker missile launcher and a M90 shotgun.
With every one equipped we headed for the hangar. There in the massive chamber stood several vehicles from mongooses to long swords and everything in between. Several of the ships techs stood around a pelican attaching a M12 Warthog and driving three mongooses into the pelican’s belly.
As we approached I saw my copilot wave to me thru the cockpit, I gave a wave back then boarded the vessel. It was cramped in the bay of the pelican but we all managed to fit.
After going thru the preflight checks I said something along the lines of this over the pelican’s internal speakers.
“Reverb, we are about to initiate first contact with the Population of the planet below us. We don’t know if they will be hostel so I am going to make the rules of engagement crystal clear. You are not to fire unless fired upon and you will use tranq rounds unless specified by me and me only. Is that understood?”
“Uh… cap?”
I sighed, “Yes Mark”
“Cap, you know we all love your speeches but… do you have to do one before every mission.”
“Only the important ones Mark”
With that, I got green LED’s across the roster. I turned to my copilot and asked “Reddy?” he nodded in response. I then engaged the engines and left the hanger.
Author's Note
The editing process for this is getting there. I'm hopping for maybe one or two more passes of editing and re-writing and then I will up-lode the change.
1330 hours, November 25, 2553 (Military calendar), UNKNOWN SYSTEM, UNKNOWN planet, upper atmosphere, UNSC Pelican dropship
As we neared the surface Holly marked a suitable landing zone for us about 3 klicks from a small settlement in what appeared to be a large clearing. Deciding it was a good of a place as anywhere I touched down the craft with barely a sound.
With the landing out of the way I dropped the ramp along with the hog dangling from the tail and gave control over to the now pilot of the craft. After pulling the three mongooses from the bay of the craft, I radioed the pilot.
“It’s all clear, pick us up here in twenty four hours”
“Understood, Reverb don’t die down there ya hear”
We all looked at each other and then said “We’ll try, mom” trying our damndest not to burst out laughing.
With that the pelican shot towards the sky.
“Wow cap” Remarked Kate in pure shock
“Wow what?” I asked hesitantly
“Well we all had a bet that you lost your sense of humor” Juliet said a little disheartened
“Well losing an arm will do that to a guy… who won the pot then?” I said a little more confidently
All eyes went to me of all things. Confused I asked “why are you looking at me.”
“Uh” Isaac began “Holly actually won the bet”
I was going to have a long chat with that AI, but that was for another time.
“Ok everyone listen up, we don’t know how advanced these people are so we will go by call signs only.”
Everyone nodded.
“Right mount up.” I said in a determined voice “Were going in.”
When I finished there was a chorus of “I CALL SHOTGUN”s followed by the slower ones saying “F***”
In the end Echo was in the passenger seat, Joker up on the chain gun and me driving the Warthog with Sapphire, Dodge, and Dic driving the mongooses.
It took us 30 minutes for us to get through the forest. Damn trees were closer together than I originally thought. So after we carved our path thru the woods we entered into a field large hilly field.
“You know what, I F***in hate forests!” Joker yelled
No one paid him any attention because all eyes were on the blue Pegasus on a cloud. What? Just because I’m a Spartan doesn’t mean I don’t know my mythology.
“Uh, earth to reverb, what are ya looking at”
We all pointed to the cloud. Looking up Joker yelled “WHAT THE F*** IS THAT?!?!”
Apparently that was enough to wake the Pegasus. It took one look at us pointing at it screamed then took off at a rate that shouldn’t be possible for a creature of flesh and blood and headed straight for the town. Oddly enough it trailed a rainbow behind it.
“Great nice going Joker you scared her” Sapphire scolded
“How do you know its female Jules” I asked
“Cap did you not hear it scream it clearly is female”
I just shook my head then showed her the chart of gases on the planet 76% nitrogen, 22% oxygen, 1% Helium, and 1% other gases.
She gave me a shrug “women's intuition then”
I sighed and shook my head there was no use arguing with her.
“Ok well they know we are here, so I guess we’ll just sit tight and let them come to us.” I said
Now it didn’t take too long for one of the ponies to show up. In fact it was exactly 3 minutes 23 seconds and 55.3333 milliseconds. (Holly was keeping track)
I was sitting on the hood of the Warthog when something impacted the back of my head hard enough to make my shields flare. It didn’t take me long to figure out what had happened because there were two LARGE EYES looking into my visor. Amber if I remember correctly.
“OH MY GOD A HUMAN, Bon said I was crazy but hear you are and…”
Her excited ramblings stopped when she heard the sounds of my team chambering rounds, the excitement turned to pure fear when she realized she had walked right into the lion’s den.
“Please don’t hurt me” she squeaked
“REVERB STAND DOWN” I shouted, probably scaring her even more, but I heard safeties click on.
I slowly reached up with my right arm to try to pry the now shaking creature off my head. As the cold titanium touched her she froze and gripped my helmet tighter.
“Common now, I can’t see with you on my head” I said gently, and with that she released her death grip on my helmet and I lowered her to the ground.
Apparently we went alone any more. When I heard the rounds chamber they weren’t for the mare that until recently was on my head. We had been surrounded by snow white Pegasus, unicorns and a few ponies, all wearing what appeared to be roman armor.
My Spartans had taken up defensive positions around the vehicles.
Over the team com I heard Dodge say “What do you want to do Havoc?”
“DO NOT fire whatever you do, this is a very sensitive situation and I don’t want to start another inter galactic war.”
“Havoc, there appears to be duplicates” said holly
“What do you mean?”
“Well one just changed into another one”
“Okay what Does tha…”
“CHANGELINGS” Cried the mare the mint green mare
And with that they attacked.
Pulling out my DMR I started to engage the creatures in front of me when one of the flying ones latched onto me.
“ones in my back” I called to the team and in response I felt 3 rounds impact the unwelcome passenger.
“There’s too many” Dic callout
“No there’s not” growled Dodge
The next thing I heard was chain gun fire. Alex had apparently fought her way to the warthog’s mounted M41 light AA gun and was firing the entire belt into the horde of the now undisguised changelings. Until now, we had all used the tranq rounds we had brought, but that stopped as soon as the Vulcan started firing molten lead into the sky.
Switching mags I brought my gun up to the last remaining changeling who was trying to fly away. I shot once. The bullet impacted at the base of its skull and the high powered round punched a large gory hole on the other side.
As it fell to the ground what I assumed was the real guards came running and flying up.
Author's Note
Here is chapter two. Hope you like it so far. Again this is my first fic and would like all the help I can get.
