Your Human And You: Feet First Into Hell

Maelstrom watched as several thousand memories played through his mind in fast-forward, likely burning his eyes as he watched countless others die in combat. Not only was he reliving his memories of the Covenant War, but also his few skirmishes against Insurrectionists. Blood of different colors stained his hands, armor, weapons, and everything else that constantly changed around him. He tried to scream out or simply close his eyes, but was unable to control anything around him. Barely audible voices started to cut into his hearing, fading in and out of the memories.

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"Shit, what's going on!?" Icepick panicked as she opened the first-aid kit.

"I don't know, just try to stop it!" Sputnik shouted.

Maelstrom continued to thrash about on the floor of the tram car, his limbs going about in random motions as his face contorted in pain. The Sergeant was held down by Sputnik while Icepick dug around for any kind of medicine that could help in this scenario. As she did, Maelstrom began to experience something beyond his own memories.

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Familiarity left Maelstrom's senses as he watched several different alien species battle across a large field. Blue lights began to flash around him as the visions changed over and over again, progressing through them similarly to his own memories. After what felt like an eternity, the visions finally paused.

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Icepick and Sputnik watched in horror as Maelstrom simply fell limp to the ground, his thrashing finally ceasing as he laid still. Neither noticed the faint blue glow in his eyes.

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Maelstrom finally felt a sense of freedom as he began to move about the strange landscape, his armor fully donned. As if out of nowhere, his Magnum was now in his hands, and fully loaded. The ODST began to lift it up, and scanned the area around him. It looked as though he were walking around some kind of star-map, with images of aliens similar to Meadow flashing in and out. Some of the images had Humans in them, but were disturbing to say the least. A large number of the ones with Humans involved sexual acts, while a few showed them as slaves being whipped into submission. Just as he was about to do something, however, a voice spoke to him.

"What art thou doing in mine realm?"

Maelstrom spun around and leveled his Magnum at the face of a new alien. It was likely a related species to Meadow, he assumed because of its four-legged form and large head. However, where as Meadow had wings, this one had wings and a large horn on its head. Its body was largely navy blue, with a blotch of black on its rear. The hair and tail, however, were something else entirely. Both groups were waving around in some kind of breeze, and seemed to be made of the blackness of space, with stars dotting it in fixed places. As the creature shifted, its hair continued to change, the stars within shifting around and being replaced with new ones.

"Halt," it spoke in a female voice, "We recognize thee. The locomotive. Seven of thy kind, warriors of some sort. We are correct, would you say?"

Maelstrom felt conflicting emotions as he stared at the creature before him.

"We know this must confuse thy senses, considering where we speak now."

Cautiously, Maelstrom finally spoke.

"Who's 'we'?" he asked.

The alien tilted its head to the side a bit.

"What doth thou mean?"

"You keep saying 'we'. Who else is here?"

"Ah, you mistake our tongue for another meaning, soldier. We only announce ourselves as such for royal purposes."

"Do all of your kind speak like that?"

"Hath you not met more of our subjects?"

'So this is their ruler,' Maelstrom thought. 'Weird mind-shit aside, this could be worse.'

"Only spoke to one so far, so not much to go on."

The alien nodded.

"We apologize for intruding upon thy personal space. All we wanted was a perspective on thy and thy company's motives."

"So you tried to get into my brain?" Maelstrom asked, slightly raising his Magnum.

"We only wanted a glimpse, not to cause trouble. If anything, we wish to help thy kind."

Maelstrom hesitated the thought of leveling the Magnum with the alien's head as it said this.

"I'm listening."

The horn atop its head began to glow as the image around them shifted from a starry expanse to a large, bright castle. Hallways zipped by in a flash before stopping in front of a large chamber.

"This is where we shall wait. Once hast found solitude for the innocent ones, we wish to meet with thy fellows as well."

"How will that help us?"

"We will help in thy search of thine vessel."

Maelstrom edged the end of the Magnum's barrel at the temple of the alien.

"What do you know about our ship?" he demanded in a threatening tone.

The alien looked to him cautiously, but not with anger. Instead, it looked almost sad.

"We wish we knew more than we do now. However, with mine sister's assistance, we shall find thy vessel, and aid in thy escape."

Maelstrom hesitated his finger on the trigger for a moment before pulling it back, but kept it in his grasp.

"Where was all this willingness to help when the first of my kind came here?"

"We weren't present at the time. Only today had we been freed from a thousand years of confinement."

'Christ almighty, a thousand years?' Maelstrom thought to himself.

"We understand if thou are hesitant. All we ask is for your consideration."

The ODST thought for a few moments, weighing the options between searching for the Lost in the Stars with just his squad as back-up, finding it with the help of an alien leader, or being betrayed by said leader only a few minutes later. All things considered, he knew that his ODSTs would make it out in one piece. Without further prompting, Maelstrom holstered the Magnum and held out his hand to the alien.

"Maelstrom. Member of the 105th Shock Troops Division and leader of ODST fire-team Nightmare."

A smile came to the face of the alien as it picked up one of its appendages and placed it in Maelstrom's hand.

"Princess Luna. Entity of the Nightly Power, raiser of the Moon, and co-ruler of Equestria. We thank thee graciously for this chance."

Before he could respond, Maelstrom felt everything around him be pulled out at once as he felt a sharp pain in his lungs.

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Maelstrom woke up in a coughing fit, the world around him a dark blur. He put a hand out to the ground and slowly started to move. When he began to stand up, he felt a pulsating sensation in every part of his body. Blinking to adjust his sight, Maelstrom looked around the immediate area. Sputnik and Icepick were both watching him closely, the former offering his hand to the Sergeant. Maelstrom firmly grasped it as he was hefted up onto his feet.

"Thanks," he groaned to Sputnik.

"Sir, what was that?" Icepick asked.

The ODST paused as he tried to think back to decades-old medical records.

'Shit, what was it those ONI spooks called it? Bornes? Broens? Come on... oh, right!'

"Boren's Syndrome," Maelstrom stated.

"Never heard of it."

"Rare neurological disorder. Only a few in a million get it."

"Sir, are you gonna be alright for combat?" Sputnik asked hesitantly.

"I'm fine. Docs said that the build-up of stress would either kill me or just... whatever just happened. I'm still here, and I'm fine."

"With all due respect, sir," Icepick argued, "you're clearly not fine. You almost died right then and there! Maybe we should find the ship first and get you some medical attention."

"Private, I've survived the entire Covie war with this disease, it's not gonna kill me now," Maelstrom stated.

"Maelstrom-" Sputnik started.

"SERGEANT, Maelstrom, trooper," Maelstrom corrected. "I'm perfectly fine."

"Permission to speak freely, sir," Sputnik asked.

"Denied. They told me it'll only happen once, and then that's it. No more worries," Maelstrom lied on the spot. "Now, let's focus on the mission at hand, understood?"

The other troopers exchanged a concerned look before nodding towards Maelstrom.

"Good. Meadow, how long til we get to wherever we need to go?" Maelstrom asked the alien.

"Three hours," it answered.

"Alright. Icepick, Sputnik, go check on the civies."

"Yes, sir," they responded, giving a salute.

The two troopers left Maelstrom as he looked around for his helmet, unaware of the stare that Meadow was giving him.