Installation 09

Noah woke up. He checked himself for any damaged. He felt alright and his H.U.D said he was alright. He checked his mission clock. He awoke three minutes after impact. He did remember dozing off a bit after the landing. Three minutes was good, longer and something could've found him, if something dared to find him.

He checked his equipment. While it could've been his armour that protected him, his equipment doesn't have armour. His M7S and M6  SOCOM were fine. He kept those two weapons inside incase he needed a quick escape and the suppressed weapons were suitable for that, not to mention they were also light.

He opened the hatch of the pod and climbed out with the two firearms. He closed the hatch and went around to the back. He opened up the back where the rest of the firearms were located. All his firearms were fine apart from his DMR which its scope had broken off. He remembered to bring a replacement and fixed it on.

This place. It was quite natural. But what could he say about a forerunner creation? Noah walked through the forest. It felt quite gloomy. But at the same time, it felt full of life. Noah switched on his energy shields, in case anything were to come. His shield booted up and a spark surrounded him for a second. His hand slightly moved as the shield came around.

Noah exited the Forest. He thought that the walk was long, but he was also missing all the action he had on Draetheus V. The Covenant were probably on their way here, it was either that or they already were here.

Noah came across a mountain. But it wasn't just a mountain. There was a city lying on the top. Sticking out the side was a castle. He took a closer look and his suit zoomed in. But what he saw was not covenant or sentinels. He saw a bunch of horses; ponies to be precise. He huffed. He didn't know what the Forerunners were planning to do with them. They were probably reclaimers too.

He tried to contact Lazarus. There was only static. He realised the problem. One of the layers of atmosphere was a large storm. Maybe he could find a way to turn it off. The city was probably a forerunner structure.

He slowly walked up the mountain to the top, careful to avoid any ponies for now. There was a way up, but that was used by the locals. He heard chatter from some nearby ponies.

"Did you see that meteor crash before in the forest?"

"I did. I would've thought they would've sent somepony, but it's just a meteor right?"

That was good. They took it off as a meteor, just like they'd planned. That could make them less suspicious about something coming.

He made it to the top. There was nowhere else to go that wouldn't be in public, but he was sure this was a forerunner structure. The only other way to go was inside the city. But he also noticed some guards. He activated his camouflage module and snuck inside. He snuck past some guards. There was quite a lot considering it was the border section. There were different types of pony's. Some looked average. Some had wings, other's had horns. But they were all colourful.

He went onto the nearby wall, hoping to easily get around to the other side. His sound was muffled and they weren't trying to shout. He saw a pair of guards ahead. They were blocking his path. He tried to scoot to the side to let them pass, but he didn't even think about the width of the wall. He stepped off the edge and fell 10m to the ground. His shield didn't really take any damage, but his module was on verge of shutting off to prevent permanent damage.

A guard turned around and faced him. Two more did the same and approached him. His camouflage hit the edge and it shimmered off.

"What the hell is that thing?" one said getting the attention of a few more guards.

Noah ripped off his helmet, hoping they would recognise him as a human. If they knew anything about their world builders, he'd look quite similar. A guard who looked of higher rank came out of a nearby building.

"Alright everypony! Restrain it!"

The Unicorn's horns glowed as a field formed around Noah. His shield reacted and sent out a shock which transferred to the Unicorn's. The Unicorns were blown back a metre as the field disappeared. Some of the pegasi had already gotten their weaponry out.

"It attacked! Wound it!"

A Pegasus threw a spear at him hoping to penetrate him and wound him. The Spear bounced off the armour and flew back hitting the ground. Magic, what kind of place is this?

"That's armour sir," a lower ranking pony said. "I don't think it's Head is protected."

"Right! Aim for the head!"

They threw several more spears, while trying to stay away. One hit the shield around his head and his shield glimmered. He reacted quickly and pulled out his m7s and shot the wooden spears to bits.

"I don't want to kill you, you won't kill me."

He holstered his weapon as a White pony, taller than the other's approached them. The ponies bowed in response. Freaking royalty I guess, are they going to kill me if I don’t do it?

"Guards. How 'bout you let me take care of this, you can get back to business."

"But, your highness-"

"It said it was no harm of us, if we deem to leave it be. Now I’m sure it won’t assassinate me."

The pony said nothing and walked off with the other guards. The royal pony approached him.

"You made a welcome surprise. But at least you know our language."

"I'm surprised too. Your apart of royalty right?" The pony nodded. "What rank are you?"

"I'm a Princess. One of four, I'm the eldest." The princess replied. It was then Noah noticed she had both a horn and wings.

"So, you're not the highest ranked here?"

"Oh I am, but I can see where you're confused. You see, all four of us rule equally here, we don't feel that having a rank of queen would suit us. Normally there's only one queen. My name is Celestia."

"And, should I be formal around you? I mean, royally formal. I’m part of the military and I don’t want to act formal to something they say not to act formal to"

Celestia chuckled. "No, You're clearly not a pony. You bowing will mean you're automatically an acquaintance in other's eyes. That will count for speaking formally too.  May I ask, is that armour around you?"

Noah smiled, but also hit himself at the same time. He was talking to a colourful pony. That felt kind of awkward. Like, really awkward.

"Yes, it is armour. But that's all I'm going to tell you."

"That's quite fascinating. What about those tools on it?" Celestia asked as her horn lit up.

"Don't try to touch them!" Noah exclaimed as the weapons got engulfed.

Celestia jumped as the shield reacted to the aura.

"Thanks for the tip, that really drained my mana. How do your tools work?"

"It would be better off if I showed you. Got any targets?"

The two went down to the local archerfield. Several ponies were training their skills on the range. Some guards turned, but Celestia told them to continue as if Noah wasn't there.

"Now, The best way to demonstrate this is if you got one of your guards to fire an arrow with as much accuracy as they can."

Celestia called a guard to come over and told him to fire three arrows. The unicorn levitated the bow and fired off 3 arrows. None of them hit center target, but one was close.

"You're going to try and beat that?" The guard said as Noah took out his DMR.

"Let me try something different."

The safety clicked off and Noah aimed down the scope at the target. He fired Three shots down and hit the Targets dead on, leaving three holes.

Celestia and the guard were amazed at the fact that he got 3 perfect hits.

"Amazing!" Celestia exclaimed. "How much penetration does it have?"

"It has a lot of penetration, way more than your bows at maximum velocity. But the strength doesn't matter. It's use is mainly for accuracy."

"That sounds like a very good tool for combat."

"Yes it is, but I'm not here to make friends with you. I'm here because I believe there's something inside your castle that could help my race, and possibly help yours too."

Celestia was confused. "How could it possibly help us? We wouldn’t know anything about it."

"I'm certain there's an organisation coming. This organisation almost defeated my race. It's now broken up, but I know some are still going to come here too, and I'm certain there's something about this place they want, and they won't like you here."

"Care to join me inside the castle to talk about this organisation?"

End black box recording II