Another Halo, Another hot drop into hell
The Unsc Lazarus came out of slipspace in an unknown area, just off the grid. The ship had just left from Draetheus V and was ordered with the task of exploring unknown regions in hope of finding another habitable planet. Searching around the Crew found nothing of relevance and marked it on the grid that were to be uploaded to the universal network when it can.
Johnathan Howard, Captain of Lazarus, stood at the bridge of the ship and looked over the vast empty vacuum that laid ahead. A couple asteroids were present but it was nothing to fear about.
"Michael, Perform a scan over the area. I want to know what's ahead before we get to it."
A Hologram flashed up on the table behind him showing a American Soldier outfitted in battle gear.
"Yes captain. Scan in progress."
Johnathan was getting rather impatient over the time it took to scan.
"How long does it take to scan an area?"
"I'm sorry sir, but this is unknown area, we have to do more than just scan it."
Johnathan sighed at the reply that Michael just made. Ever since the battle of Draetheus V, time seemed to go slower, and when they left it after Cleaning up, time seemed to go even more slower.
"Captain, I'm picking up signs of a rather large object close ahead," Michael said in an interested tone. "I can't quite pick up what it is. But I don't think it is that bad."
"Well than," he said as he sat down in the captains chair, "I guess we should go find out. Set a course over there. And get some Spartans ready just incase."
Noah sat in the cafeteria with his friend. The cafeteria is where they always seem to hang out around, probably originating from when he was in highschool. Noah's friend Mark laughed as he begun to recount a time he had before.
"So, I saw a group of Unggoy ahead and there was no Sangheilli with them. I activated my camouflage, walked up behind one and ripped off it's Methane tank and chucked it to the side. It wasn't for a while later that it started noticing the lack of methane coming and started screaming around. But in that time, I also managed to rip off all the others methane tanks. When they noticed their bud running that they noticed their lack of methane as well. They hurried over to a nearby methane station, but little did they know I rigged it up to blow."
"Four melee's would've done the job just as well you know that right?"
"It wouldn't be as fun! Besides I destroyed the Methane station for other Unggoy as well."
Noah suddenly got a message on his Data pad. He picked it up and read it over.
"What does it say?"
"It says I have to get ready and head over to the drop station. They expect to find a new thing up ahead and want me ready incase."
Mark was confused.
"And it had to be you why? Don't ODST's Normally drop first?"
"They don't actually know who's there so they're sending someone tougher, a Spartan, like us. They also don't want to send a pelican down for it might alert anything down there. I know how to use a Drop pod, so that's probably why they're picking me," Noah replied as he got up and started heading up to the S-deck to equip his armor. Being a Spartan IV, his armor was easier to don and remove as it was designed to accommodate it; by leaving on a single part of armor which meant the armor wouldn’t have to be precisely measured to be placed in a correct position.
“Is that,”
“Yes, it is.”
Johnathan Howard got up from his chair to get a closer look. Up ahead was a giant Ring like structure.
"Dear god, I Never thought we'd finda another halo. What is this? 06, 02, 01?"
"The Ring appears to be larger than Normal. I think we have to go down there. If we don't the covenant will get to it first."
"I'm not to sure, even if the covenant gets to it, we still have control of the third halo and we can stop anything that happens," Jonathan said with concern. While the covenant could fire the from this halo, any other halo can stop it.
"No, as I said, this one is different," Michael said as a signal was received, " Hold on, I'm getting a message. Michael brought the message up on the deck where it could be easily observed.
Welcome traveler to installation 09 of the Greater Ark. We advise you not to interfere and try to land on this as this is here to protect the galaxy and you may damage something. However, if the galaxy already is in danger, Go right on ahead.
"Installation 09? I thought there were only seven halos," Jonathan said confused. He had a choice, he could risk his crew and ship, or just leave which could also risk this halo being discovered by the covenant remnant.
"The only way we're going to get more answers is if we go down there."
"Well I guess that's the answer then. Send a pelican down there."
"Sir, I've actually got a spartan ready to go. This spartan was once a ODST so he can easily handle an SOEIV. The insertion vehicle also looks like an asteroid when in atmosphere so it should be mistaken for one and not alert anything down there to our presence. Atleast, not straight away."
After the engineers equipped his armour, Noah made his way down to the Drop bay where he was to be dropped down onto the surface of the newly discovered Halo ring. His armour was a new prototype. It was like the standard issue Warrior armour, but it also had a feature where the energy shield projected even if a piece of armour was missing.
Another halo ring? One that's bigger than the others? Sounds like the creators stuffed up the process. Noah thought as he entered a Drop bay.
SOIEV's were positioned on either side of the bay. A total of 30. The number of drop bays was according to the number of ODST's that were to be positioned on the ship. Noah was to use one to drop down to the surface of the ring while the insertion would look like a normal asteroid.
Noah went over to the supply racks in the middle of the bay, several bits of weaponry was present here. Several MA5D's, M7's and their suppressed counterparts. M90 Shotguns and several more weapons. He went over and grabbed a M392 DMR, a M90, a m7s and a Socom m6. He also grabbed a SRS Sniper rifle just incase, although he wouldn't be lugging it with him that far. He grabbed a nearby module. It was a camouflage module. Unlike in war games, the module lasted on a battery that took longer to recharge. He grabbed some ammunition for himself and inserted the gear into the nearest SOIEV.
He turned on his comms and sent a message to the captain signalling he was ready.
"Sir, I got a message from Spartan Noah. He's ready to drop onto the ring. I'm going to move the ship between the ring to enter the gravity field. The Atmosphere is quite dense, so anything down there shouldn't notice us."
Jonathan made no action against it and gave a slight nod.
The Ship had positioned itself so that the SOEIV could easily be dropped onto the surface. Noah could see the ring below, but he couldn't really see anything through the atmosphere. It could be all ocean down there, however halo rings normally don't share the same landscape as another. There already was a ring with an ocean landscape.
He got a signal telling him that they're ready for him to drop. He climbed into the pod and closed the hatch. He gave the all go. A panel slid up infront of the pod sealing it off. It was almost time to drop. He remembered back in the old days where dropping was actually way more hectic like the time he was to drop onto the carrier over Mombasa. The carrier jumped away before any ODST's could land on it, but luckily for him, he hadn't dropped yet and it was aborted.
But this wasn't all hectic, and there was no carrier that was going to enter slipspace. It should be a smooth trip.
There was a sudden jolt as the pod was released, No countdown due to the fact that he was going alone. The Pod fell through the tube and out of the ship. There was no turning back now, and he knew that perfectly clear.
The Pod shook as the gravity of the ring pulled it closer. He did this many times, and he knew that there was no chance of dying, if he believed in himself. Although he didn't believe that either.
He entered the atmosphere and was met with the first layer of atmosphere, which was quite dense. His Navigation System suddenly shut off and a warning appeared on his Heads up display. If Michael was accurate enough, he wouldn't need it so he turned off the warning.
The pod made it through the first layer and he saw a forest. A forest, was not exactly a great thing to land on. He deployed his chute and that slowed his decent, however that was still not going to stop a tree in the way of the ground. He slammed into a tree and was thrown a significant distance away. In the last moments before hitting, he wondered if he was going to live. His Armour said yes, but there's always a No.
End Black Box Recording I
another landing, another world to progress
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
