Chapters Halo the Deltan Chronicles: Harbinger's Hunt
Chapter 1: A New Battleground
Chapter 1:
---- Planet surface, 1 hour after drop ----
A warrior in black MK IV like armor crouched behind a bush, he had only just an hour ago dropped from orbit onto this lush world filled with colorful equines among other creatures from Earth Human mythology. His gold visor dulled itself so that the bright sunlight wouldn't give his position to the enemy he had pursued from deep space. The warrior pulled out a rectangular metal object which transformed into a long sniper cannon, he laid down and took aim through the bush. His targets were corralling the ponies of the settlement a few miles ahead into what looked like the town square, lining his shot up so the bullet would ricochet into multiple of the Blight that the traitor had somehow managed to gain the loyalty of.
"This is for Ashley you shit bags." he said under his breath, his voice sounding like a metal grater mixed with a old radio.
He pulled the trigger just as one of the arachnid-like humanoids picked a cyan pegasus up with the intent to skewer the rebellious mare. The shot turned the hostile's top half into orange dust instantly, though the warrior didn't stay put to check his shot as smoke billowed outward several hundred feet and the sound of the bullet echoed throughout his surroundings, sounding much like the crack of thunder overhead. The armored warrior activated his active camouflage before he could be spotted, though he knew that his foes were well aware of his presence. Checking his shot he saw that the nine ponies and a dragon had started running to his position, though as they got closer his neural implants began to ache.
"Interesting." he muttered, curiosity in his voice as he once again took aim with his thirty thousand year old rifle that he refereed to as 'Furies End.'
He lined up another shot on one of the larger Blight Females, since the males were much smaller and easier to kill at closer range. Kneeling, he cut loose the round, the black smoke and debris showering his surroundings and uprooting many small plants. The ponies and dragon that had been running his way stopped cold as a Blight burst from the ground before them and only a few feet from the soldier.
"In the name of the Mantle, you shall have no mercy!" the soldier screamed as he dropped 'Furies End' and jumped forward onto the females back.
"Deltan!" it hissed in a high pitch voice before shaking the massive soldier off of herself.
"How'd ya guess?" he replied as he landed on one knee and pulled out a short cylinder that extended into a pump action shotgun.
"Your kind always meddles in our affairs insect!" the Blight replied, aiming its two glowing plasma cannons at the Deltan Soldier.
The soldier replied with a blast from his shotgun that tore apart the torso of the spider-like lady with four arms as well as releasing a plume of black smoke and a sound similar to that of three thousand pound GP bomb.
"Who the buck are you?" the cyan pegasus that he had saved with his first shot questioned.
"Doesn't matter right now, just focus on getting someplace safe." the soldier commented as he calmly put his shotgun back into a small armored fanny pack over his butt plate.
"I would argue, but things are trying to kill us right now, come on girls!" a lavender unicorn with large wings shouted as she began to run with the other eight ponies and dragon past him.
The soldier turned slightly to see them vanish into the forest behind him as he extended his right hand, allowing his sniper to fly into it, before changing back into its storage format as he placed it into his pack, "Good luck ponies." he muttered.
Glancing at his scanner he then noted several hostiles closing in on him from the town, puling out a small pistol on his hip and flipping a switch so it would extend into a large service rifle resembling a UNSC Assault Rifle he readied himself for the oncoming attack. He stood as still as a statue in the clearing smoke from his earlier battle when a single hostile unit jumped out of the bushes behind him. He spun around and smacked it with the butt of his rifle before crouching down as another tried to latch onto him. The small, about three foot wide, spiders were in high numbers all about the Deltan soldier. He opened fire with his service rifle from the hip, using his targeting system to tell him where he was aiming while he jumped out of the way of more of the Maggots.
A Maggot then got lucky and latched itself onto his back, digging its dagger like legs into the soldiers armor. Multiple flashes of orange flashed on his HUD, warning him that the hazard layer had been breached as well as the power cells for the enhanced motor drives that gave him no resistance from moving.
"Get off!" He yelled in pain as he grabbed the Maggot by the head and ripped it off his back before stomping on it with his right boot.
Engaging his thrusters and hopping to the left he fired his service rifle and scored two more of the Maggots. four more popped up in front of him and he pumped the grenade launcher, sending a ball of energy outward and into the middle of the group vaporizing them upon detonation.
"Time to get the Hell out of here." he said as he turned to leave and was forced onto his back by a Blight Stealth Unit.
His larger foe held him to the ground as it studied him, then it raised one of its bladed limbs to strike. But before it could it was lifted with a golden aura that tossed it aside as if it was weightless. At the same time the soldier noted that his headache had gotten worse and would be physically impairing had his suits AI not shut down a vast majority of the nerves that detected pain.
"Are you alright noble warrior?" a large white unicorn with massive wings asked as she landed ten feet away, her glowing multicolored mane and tail flowing though there was no wind.
"Thanks to you, yes." he replied, his voice rough as he swayed back and forth trying to regain his balance.
"Is something the matter?" she asked, concern in eyes.
"I'll tell you later!" he replied as he gained enough focus to stare down his primary target, the age old Titan.
"Well, well, well, look who they sent to take me down, is Xenon too busy to visit me now?" The massive, fifteen foot tall, skeletal super soldier asked, his glowing green eyes staring at the dazed warrior.
The warrior didn't reply, instead he deployed two hardlight blades built into his wrists as two sentinel drones deployed from the pillars on his back and charged up their weapons. Raising his blades he stood still, waiting for his foe to strike.
"I am surprised at you Obsidian, no conversation between family?" the taller being asked as he drew two curved blades from his back.
"You betrayed us Henry, you shunned the Mantel and betrayed both the Deltans and the memory of our people, the Forerunners, by aligning yourself with the Blight. I have nothing left to say to you!" the Obisdian growled both in pain and anger.
"Oh please Nick, spare me your nobility nonsense, I am doing this to restore order, the Mantel failed, it is time for a new system." Henry replied.
"And what does killing my little ponies have anything to with this?" the white alien standing alongside Obsidian asked.
"Oh, we will try to keep the killing to a minimal, but we need your race for labor and technological advances." Henry replied as he got into a ready stance.
The Deltan Soldier charged, his drones following close behind before splitting off to kill the Blight that had begun to charge their master. The Deltan parried both strikes from the traitor before rolling to the left and using his thrusters to back off his target.
"You run?" the traitor asked.
"No, I re-position!" the soldier replied as he jumped his foe and slashed his back before landing on both feet and locking blades.
"I see now why they named you Harbinger, Nick." the traitor commented, trying to spark a conversation.
The Deltan ignored him as he was pushed off of the larger warrior, stumbling to regain his footing he was knocked back further by repeated strikes from his target. His implants spiked with pain when the flying unicorn shot a Blight with a beam from her horn, causing him to stumble before receiving a near fatal blow to the chest from his target.
"And this is why they call me Death." Henry shot as his face mask retracted and his actual skull smiled down at the wounded soldier.
Harbinger looked up at him before firing his thrusters as one of Death's blades impaled the ground where the Deltan had been. He rolled to his feet and drew his shotgun, taking careful aim he pulled the trigger and blasted Death away from his sword which was still stuck in the ground.
"Ah, so you have special equipment I see." noting that he had just been shot by a discontinued weapon.
"Death, this is Goliath, one of my oldest friends." Harbinger replied as he stood up and pumped the ancient shotgun for his next attack.
Before Harbinger could aim Goliath again he was picked up and thrown by a Blight Female and then covered by Maggots.
"But you see, I have friends too." Death snickered as his face mask slid back down.
Harbinger shot his slug from Goliath at the Female before ripping and punching the Maggots off of him. His implants screaming once more as the winged unicorn blasted Death away and grabbed him.
"We must retreat, we cannot defeat him like this!" she shouted as Harbinger kicked the last Maggot off of his leg while they flew threw the air.
"Very well." he replied, gripping his shotgun with his right hand as he was carried away from the battleground.
---- 1 hour 30 minuets after drop ----
The flying unicorn dropped Harbinger onto a balcony of a grand castle he had seen earlier from a distance while he was dropping onto the planet.
"Sister!" another, dark blue, winged unicorn shouted as the white one landed in front of her.
"Luna, Ponyville has been overrun by monsters that are not of our world." the white one said worriedly.
"What of Princess Twilight?" Luna asked.
"From what this noble warrior who fought the beasts said she and the other elements managed to escape." the white one replied, a grateful smile shot towards the wounded soldier.
"What beith thou name warrior?" Luna asked.
"I am Centurion II-064, the Harbinger of the Apocalypses, Major General Nickolas Obsidian." he replied, shaking his head as he tried to gather himself.
"I did not properly introduce myself earlier, my name is Princess Celestia, and this is Princess Luna, we are the rulers of this land known as Equestria." Celestia stated, her eyes showing signs of coming tears.
"I have my orders to bring down Death, those orders coincide with protecting your planet from him." Harbinger said with a grunt of pain.
"You are in pain again?" Celestia asked.
"It is something about the unicorns on this planet, my implants seem to be susceptible to their magic, your magic, at least that is what I've gathered." he replied as he clutched his helmet in obvious pain.
"Implants?" Luna asked.
"Neural enhancements that allow me to think faster, move faster, and understand other species such as I am now, they aside from my genetic augments make me a super soldier." the General answered.
Luna gave a nod to the nine foot tall soldier before looking to her sister who had walked away with a letter that had appeared from green smoke.
"Tia?" Luna said.
"Its from Twilight, they are safe, and she mentioned General Obsidian, though they didn't know his name, had saved them." Celestia turned and galloped over to the super soldier and before he could react gave him a hug, "Thank you for saving my former pupil!"
"I did nothing but my duty, I require no praise ma'am." Harbinger replied, his hands in the air.
Celestia released him and gave him a nod before turning around, "I shall have one of the guards escort you to a room while we figure out how to help you with your implant problem, then we will strategies on how to defeat Death."
"That last one is simple, I kill him." Harbinger replied, receiving a shocked expression from both Princesses.
"But wasn't he your friend?" Celestia asked.
"Once, but all things come to an end." Harbinger replied in a low, almost reminiscent voice before following the guard out of the throne room.
Author's Note
So I have been working on the timeline for a fanfic series I have yet to release completely, and Harbinger is the primary character followed throughout the different stories. I decided to cross it with ponies in this fashion since Harbinger is a lone wolf hunter and is sent on suicidal missions in which most would fail. Though as you read above he is out of his league here and may require help from those who do not share the same views as him in dealing with this problem.
In Chapter 2: The Plan, the backstory of Death and the other Titans will be uncovered amongst other events transpiring.
Until then, Tempest out
Halo the Deltan Chronicles: Harbinger's Hunt
Chapter 2:
The Plan
---- 3 hours after drop ----
The general sat on a comfy chair in the corner of the guest room that the guard had taken him to. He had removed his armor's outer layers and set them on the bed as well as allowing his Forerunner combat skin over his head retract into his back plate.
"Tex." he muttered as he rubbed his temples trying to stop the pain.
"Sir." a disembodied voice replied in a British accent.
"Can you diagnose what is wrong with my implants, did my sniper jar them, or did someone hack in and modify their settings?" the soldier said as he opened his dark blue eyes and stared out the window on the far side of the room.
"The first idea seems logical, though I am not detecting any displacement..." the voice replied, "The second seems unlikely but I ran a scan anyways, I have nothing to report."
"Then what could it be Tex?" Harbinger asked as he stood up and walked over to a mirror, his black hair and stubble overgrown and itching his face.
"Perhaps it is related to the natives of this world with horns sir, we should study their physiology." Tex responded.
"My head already hurts Tex, you do it." Harbinger replied as he tossed a small disk from his belt and a Forerunner Monitor constructed itself from thousands of silver nanites.
"Very well, I am certain that I shall uncover something from this bookshelf." Tex charmed as the monitor projected an energy field and began sifting its way through books.
Harbinger didn't reply, he instead unsheathed his knife and began to shave with it when a loud knock hit the door to the room.
"General, the Princesses wish to see you as soon as you are available!" the same guard said through the door, his voice low so that it wouldn't further his guest's headache.
"Sir, you go once you are finished shaving, I shall remain here and learn more of the creatures on this world." Tex said as Nickolas finished shaving, not a scratch on his face.
"Find me when you get something." the soldier replied as he disengaged his Forerunner combat skin and deployed a black dress Uniform with red trimmings and silver tassels on the shoulders, before walking out of the door and greeting the guard with his officers cap under his left arm.
They walked for some time before the guard glanced at the general, "Where did you get the sword?" he questioned.
"It was the knife you saw me with earlier." Obsidian replied, giving a small smile at how the pony was so intrigued by his great grandfathers blade.
"So it can shrink down into a knife?" the guard asked.
"Among other things, yes." the soldier replied, "What is your name guard pony?"
"Crimson Wing sir, sergeant of the Canterlot Royal Guard." the pony replied.
"Crimson?" Obsidian noted.
"The armor I am wearing is enchanted so that we all appear the same, for both uniformity reasons and security reasons." Crimson replied.
"I can see why, its not a bad idea actually." Harbinger said as they both stopped in front of the royal court's doors, "I suppose that I shall see you later Crimson."
"I'll wait here general, they did assign me to help you with whatever you needed." he replied with a smile before stepping off to the side as the doors swung open and Harbinger walked inside.
"General Obsidian, we wished for you to join us to discuss events." Luna said, though she did keep her voice down some when she noticed Nickolas rub the side of his head with a silver glove.
"Princesses, ponies, dragon..." Harbinger addressed each of them with a single salute before dropping it, "What is it that you need answered?"
"Who is this Death guy, and why is he trying to kill us is a good start!" a cyan pegasus rushed forward into the generals face.
"Rainbow!" a lavender unicorn with wings scolded, though the flying pony ignored her.
"Death is, was, part of the Deltan Titan initiative." Harbinger sighed as he looked out a window at the setting sun.
"What was that sir." the purple pony who had scolded Rainbow asked more formally.
"Our last chance for survival, nothing was guaranteed and out of the thousand who applied only one hundred survived the genetic augments. Those who did managed, at best, ten or twenty years before their bodies began to fall apart due to degeneration of their DNA, the effects and mannerisms of each Titan was different, in the end only four lived." Harbinger looked straight at Rainbow, "X-01 Death was one of the lucky ones, at least that is what we thought."
"What happened?" Rainbow asked, dropping to the floor after receiving the hardened stare of a cold warrior.
"About two years after the four remaining Titans were 'stabilized' he was declared the first MIA Titan." he paused as a fresh pain invaded his head, "He returned three years afterwords as when seven colonies dropped contact, we thought it was Blight, but when first response got there the marines were barely able to send out the details to command before they were brutally slaughtered by someone they thought to be a friend."
"He killed his own?" Luna asked, Celestia stood next to her speechless.
"Man, woman, child, it didn't matter to him." Harbinger replied with a pained expression on his face, though nopony could tell if it was from the headache or memories.
"How did you stop him last time?" the lavender mare asked as Rainbow backed away.
"I didn't, I was nothing but infantry back then, but the other three Titans were sent to combat Death and kill him for his crimes. It took them a week of combat with him, and the death of X-76 Stalker, but the combined efforts of a badly wounded X-151 Shadow, and X-54 Oblivion subdued the traitor long enough for containment." Harbinger stopped as he looked towards Celestia.
"They didn't kill him as you said you were going to." she stated.
"No they contained him because through the course of the battle of four Titans, Stalker was killed when they had believed they had won, Death's head laying on the ground several feet away from his body didn't stop him from ramming his swords through him." Harbinger replied with a frown, "I have no choice but to kill him, or die trying."
"But if they couldn't what makes you think you can?" Rainbow inquired with a hint of attitude.
"Do I have a choice, he escaped a dwarf star that had three shields, a twenty thousand foot think technorganium case, and the entirety of the Second Fleet, which was the second largest Naval group we had until he wiped it out in a matter of days?" Harbinger shot back, "That is well over two million ships and I don't even want to try and look at the number of personnel."
Everyone in the room was now wearing a shocked expression with their mouths wide open, "Then what hope do we have?" a yellow pegasus in a barely audible whisper asked.
"I am your hope." Harbinger stated calmly as a silver and red ball flew into the room.
"General Obsidian, after analysis of possible reasons that Unicorns and Alicorns are overloading your neural net, I have deduced a way to negate the effects of their abilities to your implants." the monitor said.
"Okay, how do we go about this Tex?" Obsidian asked as several guard ponies charged into the room.
"I need to modify your lowest level armors shield, the only layer of armor you are currently wearing emits an extremely low grade shield that does absolutely nothing for you in combat, by reformatting it I can effectively shield your implants from the effects of the ponies." Tex responded as a small and rather long barrel deployed out of the bottom of the monitor.
"Do it please." Harbinger ordered.
"At once." Tex replied as he shot a small orange beam the hit the general straight on the chest, after a few minuets the beam ended and the super soldier gave a sigh of relief.
"Was it successful sir?" the monitor asked as it bobbed up and down.
"Yes, thank you Texaco." Harbinger replied before realizing where he was and that he was surrounded by ten guards, though one of them seemed more at ease.
"Guards stand down, it seems as though this little ball of light has helped our friend with a problem." Luna commanded, to which every guard stood down and when back to their posts, except for one.
"Crimson, that you?" Harbinger asked the lone guard.
"Yes sir, do you mind if I stay in here since I am you escort about the castle?" he asked.
"Not at all, keep and eye on Tex, make sure he doesn't get into any more trouble." Harbinger laughed at the thought of ponies chasing the poor AI.
"You got it!" he chirped and ran off after to flying orb who had since floated away.
"So what was that?" the lavender mare asked.
"That was my Artificial Intelligence Unit code-named Texaco, though I just call him Tex." Harbinger answered her with a small smile, again at the curiosity of these ponies.
"What did you mean by you are our hope?" Rainbow asked.
"If you take into account my weapons and training, I may be classed as a Centurion II, the project after the Titans, but I am the closest thing we have to the Titans anymore, lest they want to pull a terminally ill X-151 off of the home world and a X-54 who is trying to beat back the Blight which has returned to our home system and we can no longer track to where they are hiding and doom my race, I am what you've got." Harbinger remarked, "Besides we are both former Forerunners, I know his tactics, only he doesn't know mine."
"So I take it you have a plan?" the lavender mare asked taking a step forward to become the center of attention to him.
"Thin out the Blight, if we can take their focus away from their new ally, perhaps I can get close enough to fight him without interference." he replied.
"But you can't take him on alone, can you?" Rainbow asked, worry spreading through her eyes.
"I sure as Hell can try, besides, I've got a few toys he doesn't know about." Obsidian grinned.
"Like?" Luna inquired.
"Classified, I am not allowed to disclose that information for security reasons." he replied, a frown ending his grin.
"But?" an orange mare looked at him.
"It is a newer version of the devise used by Oblivion to over power Death last time, that's all I'm allowed to say, regs are regs." Harbinger added.
"Very well, would you like to join us for dinner girls, Spike, General Obsidian?"
"Sure" Rainbow chimed.
"Um... Okay" the yellow pegasus said.
"Absolutely" the lavender one smiled.
"Oh, you don't need to persuade me princess." a white unicorn replied with an upper class tone.
"Darn right" the orange mare flipped her hat.
"YAY FOOD!!!" the pink pony practically teleported to the front of the crowd.
"Uh huh" the dragon muttered.
"Certainly ma'am." Harbinger said as he began walking to catch up with the group when he almost stepped on a small pony.
"Hey!" the orange and pink pegasus yelled.
"Pardon me, I didn't see you down there." Harbinger said as the miniature pegasus was joined by a white mini unicorn, and a yellow and red mini pony.
"Eh, I see no harm done." the yellow one said before helping her friend up.
"Yeah, lets go get some food!" the white one shouted before the three of them charged off.
Harbinger sighed once they were in the hall and looked out the window, "I hope I'm right, cause if I'm not... I just condemned them all." he muttered before smiling at the fillies he had accidentally frightened, "I can't fail."
Author's Note
Glad for the good reception thus far. What are your (readers) opinions of the back story that was explained by Harbinger, and what do you all think could happen, don't worry I do have a plot for this
Halo the Deltan Chronicles: Harbinger's Hunt
Chapter 3: Ghosts of the Past
Chapter 3:
---- 4 hours after drop ----
Harbinger sat in his dark room, thinking about his plan, the part of it he didn't tell the ponies, the part that made him apprehensive. Really it was more of a contingency plan to the original, use the X-17 Minotaur and beat Death to a pulp, that while being what Oblivion did to him some thirty thousand years ago did work, this time he had no way to contact command for pick up. He fished out a small, pistol like object from his pack next to him, it glowed a soft red and lit his surroundings a little, a obvious frown across his face. The objects sleek Forerunner design coupled with the sheer unpredictability since not even his former race had ever perfected it set the old soldier on edge, but it was still better than contingency number three where they blew up the planet if he failed and generated a new star here to imprison Death.
"I can't fail, there is no room for it." he said as he put the unnerving devise away.
He then pulled out dog tags, with only four hour old blood on them, before a single tear dropped from his eye. Before he could recompose himself a blue alicorn walked through the door, though he knew not why.
"Are you alright?" Luna asked him.
"To be truthful with you, no I am not." he replied as she closed the door, the room becoming dark again.
"What happened before you saved our subjects in Ponyville from the Blight creatures?" she asked, sitting on the bed next to him.
"Command assigned me to give final field evaluations to a Centurion IV, C-1034 Wild Card, they wanted to know if she was ready for solo deployment." Harbinger replied, pain obvious in his voice.
"But she is not with you?" Luna acknowledged.
"We had fought together before, she, Shadow, and myself made up the only surviving portion of Centurion Black Team, I thought that she could perhaps help me by dealing with the Blight while I took care of Death, I was wrong." more tears fell from his dark blue eyes as he passed the dog tags to the alicorn.
"I'm sorry." Luna replied looking at the tags in her hooves before shedding a few tears herself.
"You should know, that there is a contingency plan if my primary fails, I didn't want to say anything about it, but I thought it over and I see no reason to keep secrets." Harbinger began as he stood up.
"Yes?" Luna asked, still looking at the tags that had a foreign language on them.
"Its a device meant to turn organics into data, against many of my peoples wishes and better judgement it was recreated in a smaller scale for this mission alone." Harbinger said, fear clawing its way back into his voice.
"You sound afraid?" Luna asked worried that something was wrong with the device.
"Two million or so years ago this devise was used to compose an entire race into machines, I don't want a mistake to happen like that again, and to be honest, it scares me to think that I have it in that bag." he replied, visibly shaking.
"Get some rest Harbinger, you deserve it." Luna ordered him as she stood and gave him the tags back before walking out of the room.
The old General put the tags back into a small pouch on his under armor right leg before laying down on the bed. The bed moaned slightly under his five hundred pound body but held firm. The faces of the ponies he talked to earlier flashed through his mind, Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Scootaloo, Sweetie Bell, Applebloom, even the drake Spike. He told them of the technologies and cultures of his people, how they lived for fifty thousand years. How he had seen many aliens and visited other dimensions unintentionally, what the Blight were, and how we stopped them the first time. He thought of the meal, though the lack of meat annoyed him he couldn't blame a vegetarian race for not having it on hand, he smirked at how Fluttershy cringed when he mentioned his usual diet of chicken meat and different noodles when he wasn't deployed, before he drifted into a dream.
---- Inside of Harbinger's dream ----
A soldier stood with a massive rifle, far too large to be standard issue, his gold visor shining at the rising sun as he leaned against cover.
"Sergeant Obsidian, cover the right flank, don't let any of those Blight bastards though!" another soldier wearing the same brown and tan armor with a matching black face mask yelled as he ran over to a crumpled wall.
"Yes sir!" Obsidian replied as he peeked around the corner of the bunker he was hiding behind.
A massive spider's leg crushed the corner of the building where he was, as he jumped with his rifle over his head and landed a few feet away to witness the officer who had ordered him to watch the right flank get grabbed by the spider and eaten.
"Damnable shit bag, let me teach you a lesson!" Obsidian screamed as he carefully aimed the rifle while it was braced against a rock in the sea of sand.
The spider turned to be greeted by the snipers fury as the bullet ripped apart the arachnid's head, dropping it to the ground.
The scene shifted, Harbinger knew something was off, he didn't usually dream about the Titan Wars, Hell he didn't usually dream about anything. He thought perhaps that being in this world with these magical creatures may have something to do with it, or maybe this was just going to be one of those nights where he didn't get any good sleep.
His vision cleared, he could see himself when he had first become a Centurion standing with his fellow soldiers in his silver armor.
"Captain Obsidian!" A man in a dress uniform like what Harbinger had worn to dinner shouted as he entered the room.
"Sir!" the silver soldier responded, giving a salute and dropping it when it was promptly returned.
"We have come to learn of a race of humans, their military is refereed to as the UNSC, command wants to know how far advanced they are." the higher ranking officer paused before handing Obsidian a data pad, "We want you to find out, your cover is that you are a Spartan II working directly for ONI, the Office of Naval Intelligence, this will get you around without too many questions. Study the pad and get ready for your deployment."
The scene once more shifted to what looked like a battlefield, the terrain was rocky with sparse vegetation among the plentiful amount of dirt.
"Spartan assist!" a marine yelled as she was blasted onto her face by a fuel rod cannon.
"On it." Harbinger calmly stated as he ran from out of his cover, his borrowed SMG's discharging in his hands as he dropped the Elite, "Are you alright?"
"Fine, didn't think there was anyone left but me on this planet anymore." she replied.
Before Harbinger could reply he threw her to his right when a beam rifle nearly took her life, but merely bounced off of his armor, "Stay down!"
"Yeah, don't need to tell me twice." she replied as she watched the Spartan walk towards the sniper.
A Covenant ship blasted the ground in the distance as another flew overhead, the planets situation was deteriorating quickly, but Harbinger paid no mind as he put away the SMG's and pulled a Energy Sword off his back. The Elite who had shot him dropped the Beam Rifle as it clicked empty and pulled out his own sword, his red and black armor symbolizing his high authority as a Zealot in the Covenant.
"Do you truly believe you can survive this demon?" the Elite spoke in a grumbled voice.
"Is that what you call us now that we no longer protect you?" Harbinger replied in a tongue that the marine didn't recognize, but made the Elite step back.
"By the gods!" he said before Harbinger charged.
They clashed blades three times before Harbinger cut off his foes hand and ran him through, the red energy sword he had been using flickering out of energy. He looked to the Marine before the sky flashed red and debris was thrown everywhere.
"Spartan!" she yelled before getting hit by a Forklift and landing at his feet.
Picking her up he ran off a nearby cliff and splashed down into a lake.
---- Inside a cave on a burning world ----
Harbinger stood at the edge of a cave watching as the planet he had been deployed to assist burned, his distress beacon sitting just outside as he awaited pickup from command. He looked back to the unconscious marine, her long brunet hair covering half of her face as she lay by the fire with her armor off to the side. He had removed much of her clothing, leaving her undershirt and pants out of respect, so that she could warm up after he dragged her through a river to this cave. Taking another short look out of the cave he walked back over to the fire and took off his helmet, tossing it to the ground as he sat on a boulder.
He sat there for a few minuets, stroking the stubble that had grown on his face, as he thought about what he was going to do with the marine. She wasn't exactly supposed to know that he wasn't UNSC, and by evacuating her she would definitely find out. He was so stuck in thought that he hadn't realized that she had sat up and was staring at him stare at here but not all the same.
"Spartan, you okay?" she asked, a look of confusion on her face.
Harbinger looked up and opened his mouth, but was silenced by the sounds of plasma engines at the entrance to the cave.
"Centurion sixty four, evac is here!" a young male voice yelled from the entrance.
"Grab your gear, we're leaving." Harbinger said as he grabbed his helmet and stood up.
"Who are you talking to?" an infantry man asked before stopping in his tracks when he spotted the UNSC marine.
"A stranded soldier with no place to go and no one else to turn to." Harbinger replied as he walked up to the corporal and leaned against the cavern wall.
The dream began to fade, but before everything went black Harbinger saw a dark blue alicorn who was familiar to him run through a small rift in the fabric of his dream.
---- Canterlot, 12 hours after drop ----
Harbinger opened his eyes slowly, allowing them to adjust to the light shining through his window. Texaco was nowhere to be seen in the room as the old soldier sat up in bed, his relived memories now fresh in his mind, the reasons he fought, and the reasons he grieved. He looked towards his door as it opened to reveal the blue alicorn he had seen exit his dream.
"General, good to see that you are awake, I wished to personally invite you to breakfast with myself and a few of other guest." Luna stated.
"I would have told you everything Luna, you didn't need to sneak into my head." he replied, his face like stone and unfeeling.
"I am sorry that I let my curiosity get the better of me." she replied, blushing through her midnight blue coat.
"It's alright, just do me a favor and don't snoop around in my head all night next time, its hard to sleep with painful memories haunting me at every turn." Harbinger said with a sincere tone.
"You are not upset?" Luna inquired, curious as to why he was relaxed about this.
"I'm old, I've seen a lot, the distant past doesn't bother me too much, and besides, if that is what you needed to do to trust me, then so be it." he replied, a small smile upon his lips when he saw her breath a sigh of relief.
"Let us not keep Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo waiting then." she said as she walked out of the room.
Harbinger took a moment to stand up and deploy his dress uniform through he nanites once more before walking out the door after Luna.
Author's Note
I know a bit of back story, but then again, I have to give him a soul don't I? Who wants to watch a 9 1/2 foot tall, 3.5 ton, 47,285 year old Super Soldier beat everything up without a story, huh?
Besides, this should clear up a little of Nick's past for you guys as you read on, and it probably won't be the last time Luna snoops about his head.
Feel free to tell me what you think so far, if there is anything I should improve. And don't you worry, I promise that the next chapter will have some action in it as I imagine you all are going to get bored without Harbinger squishing some spiders soon, the question is, will they be spiders?
Halo the Deltan Chronicles: Harbinger's Hunt
Chapter 4: Less Talk, More Action
Chapter 4:
---- 12 hours after drop ----
It didn't take long for Harbinger to catch up with the Lunar Princess. Matching pace with her he began to fidget with his uniform, mostly his collar that no matter how many times he programmed the nanites always seemed to be slightly off.
"Thou doesn't like thy dress uniform?" Luna asked, attempting a new conversation with him.
"Its not that, though it is a rarity to see me in it." Harbinger laughed before his face grew grim.
"What is wrong?" the dark blue alicorn inquired as she looked around.
"I really have no times for formalities at the moment princess, every hour we wait Death and his Blight grow stronger and more and more fall to them." he replied as they reached the dining hall.
"We must support you in the fight Harbinger, you cannot win alone." she replied, a look of determination spreading across her face, though a hint of worry could be seen in her eyes.
Harbinger stopped in his tracks, as his body shimmered silver and his combat armor materialized, "I told you my plans, inform Celestia and prepare your people for mass evacuation out of range of the fight to come."
"But..." Luna was cut off.
"That wasn't a request, I'm sorry, you have been kind and I cannot allow anything to happen to you or the other ponies." Harbinger boomed, dropping a small disc on the ground which expanded and became a Forerunner Terminal but pony sized, "Anything you need you can find on this terminal, all you must do is walk near to it and you may interface."
"What are you going to do?" Luna asked, shocked by his sudden change in demeanor.
"What I do best." Harbinger said darkly as he turned a dial that was hidden on his belt and folded into slip-space.
Luna was left with a 'pop' in the hall next to the strange half cylinder machine that's face slid open when she neared it, revealing a large orange sphere with a black center.
---- The plains between Canterlot and Ponyville ----
Harbinger literally popped out of thin air and drew his service rifle from its pistol holster. A train roared past with many frightened ponies who were staring towards the direction of which they came, paying no mind to the lone sentinel. On the horizon the soldier could see the eight legged monsters who had claimed so many of his friends and comrades, gripping his rifle he stood ready for them. His long range scanner was filled with a red blob that spanned out to Ponyville and into the forest nearby the small town. He remained still as he waited, checking and rechecking his armor systems, part of him wanted to pull out Furies End, another part wished to deploy the Minotaur, but he remained still with his rifle clutched in his hand.
"Well Apocalypse, looks like its you and me versus plenty of ugly again." he muttered to the tattered black rifle with a silvery shine.
---- Canterlot ----
Luna had entered the machine with her mind, though she knew not how she had done so. She put that thought aside when it began to show her the history of the Deltans that Harbinger explained the night prior, though within this machine were images and sounds that the Princess had never heard. She witnessed a massive mechanoid slam its way through what had been described to her as the Blight, she watched as massive warships that were the size of other worlds were built in the matter of hours. Then the machine implanted images of schematics and battle plans that it had modified to fit ponies and their physical needs for combat, armor, weapons, even vehicles.
Luna was then back in the hall, the cylinder-like machine closed once more, and her eyes wide open.
---- The plains between Canterlot and Ponyville, 13 hours after drop ----
Harbinger stood perfectly still, the massive collection of hostiles before him had stopped short and filled his line of sight in both directions as they fanned out to form a semicircle about the lone soldier. No sign of Death among them, but that meant that he would just have a simpler time in the fight, not that fighting the Blight was easy. The largest Blight Female stepped forward and shrieked a call to battle as the entire force charged him. Harbinger's training and experience kicked in, and the next hour or so was spent dodging their massive bladed scythes and blasting the smaller units to dust as he avoided the larger ones.
The most common mistake for a Centurion to make is to focus on the big and ugly one first, as it is truly the smaller ones that you must take down before the wise soldier engaged the titanic soldiers that could tear him apart with ease. Harbinger ran forward, ignoring the Blight Female who had issued the charge, and grabbed hold of one of the smaller Blight Males. Ramming his triple pointed bayonet with plasma lacing he felled the eight legged beast and rolled to the right just in time to avoid a scythe coming down upon where he had been. Since he had a moment in the chaos of war, and was practically underneath of the female he turned Apocalypse upwards as he slid under the titanic brown and black spider woman, unleashing a stream of red accelerated particles that cut through her weak point and blasted through her head.
Harbinger then flipped forward and landed on both feat as he began to run from the crowd of Blight that were now surrounding him, knowing that if they succeeded they had a good chance of taking him down. Rolling forwards he turned around and cut loose his rifle once more, aiming for the ones closest to him and their heads, which popped when the stream of red contacted them. He then pumped the grip which shot out a massive ball of white energy that created a blinding light where the bulk of the Blight had been climbing over one another to get to him. The Blight hissed and kept coming even despite the massive crater in the center of the plains, Harbinger though did not let up his fire, the constant stream of red blowing chunks of the Blight off as they advanced, once again he was focusing on the smaller males and the Maggots as his position was once more overwhelmed by the aliens.
He checked behind him and saw that he was coming up to a wooded area and that Centerlot was not much further away, looking back to his foes he noticed that their numbers had dropped significantly since the engagement had begun, but his scanners were still full of red. He stopped backing up and held a perfect stance as he blasted any of the Blight that got close, he could not allow them to pass. Slowly he began to push forward, driving them back with every step, in the distance he could see white plumes of smoke moving closer and closer, a train was coming and the Blight were on the tracks. Silently he prayed to the Creator that the Blight would remain focused on him as he pulled out a heavy duty fragmentation grenade and threw it towards the center of the Blight army.
"Take it you meat bags!" Harbinger yelled as he rolled away before a Maggot could latch onto him.
Standing back up h slammed the Butt of his rifle into a male's head causing it to cave inwards before grabbing the body and throwing it towards a Blight who began firing plasma bolts at him. The train was now barely within sight and the Blight were still near the tracks, Harbinger ignored those who were closer and began to duck and weave until he had clear shots on the ones in the back. Taking his shots with care he dropped each on before getting grabbed from behind and jerked upwards. He flared his thrusters and the Blight let go of him as it shrieked in pain. He ensured that he landed on the final females face in the group of roughly twenty other males and countless Maggots.
"You like the taste of Deltans so much, how about feet first?" Harbinger yelled as he crushed the female under his mass and rolled around to blast apart the males about him.
The train roared past his backside and he could hear ponies inside screaming as they realized that they were in the middle of a combat zone. Harbinger paid them no mind, he merely ensured that none of the Blight hit the train or escaped, he only stopped firing from his position once the final Maggot had burst into a puddle under his boot.
"Well then, that takes care of that." he said to himself as he flipped the switch on Apocalypse, turning it back into a pistol, and holstering it.
The sun was now high in the sky, and his mission was far from complete, deciding that it was best to end it as soon as possible he set off towards Ponyville, and the traitor Death. What he didn't see was the cloaked figure behind the very tree he had been forced back to disengage his cloak, revealing backwards knees and four mandibles on its reptilian face.
Author's Note
COMBAT AS PROMISED!!!
Sorry if he seems powerful, just keep in mind that he has been fighting these things for 30,000 years and knows how to avoid them for the most part.
Oh and look, an Elite... But is he friend or foe?
Halo the Deltan Chronicles: Harbinger's Hunt
Chapter 5:
---- Ponyville 20 hours after drop ----
Harbinger marched slowly into Ponyville, his service rifle raised and headlamps on. He wasn't hiding this time, this time he was making himself plain as day with the thought of gorilla warfare in his head. Eyeing his surroundings he already knew of eight ways he could out flank his foes using only the buildings around him, there was only one problem, he couldn't find his foes. The town was deserted of everyone but the dead bodies of unfortunate ponies.
"Harbinger!" a gruff voice shouted from behind making the Deltan spin around ready to strike with the fury of his ancestors.
"Who goes there?" Harbinger inquired, his rifle raised and ready.
"It is only your reinforcements general." the same voice that sounded vaguely familiar to old soldier replied.
"I didn't call for any." he replied, his rifle still raised as he looked around to find the possible hostile.
"Command sent us, said you could use the help." the voice replied.
"Commander Tarket?" Harbinger replied as he placed the voice and the said Elite de-cloaked, his midnight black armor seemingly negating all light surrounding him.
"In the flesh." he replied as nine more elites in the same armor, though significantly younger than his, materialized.
Harbinger lowered his rifle as he recalled his many missions with this Shengheli, under his helmet he began to smile, but then noticed that a nearby pony was freshly dead due to a energy sword.
"Surprised to see me old friend?" Tarket asked as he approached Harbinger, his heavy foot falls shaking the ground.
Harbinger moved with surprising speed as he closed the gap between him and his old friend, his service rifle tight in his grasp. Tarket and Harbinger stopped mere feet from each other, Tarket looking down upon Harbinger as the latter stared up at him, knowing something wasn't right.
"What is the status of the hostiles?" Harbinger inquired, still unsure of if he should trust Tarket.
"They have vacated this area major." the Elite replied, confirming Harbinger's suspicions.
"I hadn't realized that I had been demoted." the old soldier replied, taking a few steps back from his old friend.
"Now why would you say that my friend." Tarket asked as a white and blue pony ran from her shelter, and stopped dead in her tracks, her mouth moving as if to say 'Oh Celestia no' but without sound coming out of it.
Harbinger paid her only a moment of his time as he noted the nine other Elites drew their weapons. Harbinger himself actually put his rifle away upon his belt, and without them noticing began to prime his wrist mounted mini-guns hidden inside his armor. The pony turned around and saw two Elites slowly walking towards her with black energy swords drawn, she backpedaled into Harbingers leg and looked up, her shattered blue glasses showing her frightened red eyes.
"Halt!" Harbinger bellowed, raising his arms towards the approaching Elite traitors.
"End them." Tarket said as he vanished into his cloak and the Elites charged.
Harbinger cut loose his streams of fire from his arms, forcing the two Elites to move away from the pony. He turned in time to block a plasma sword with his arm brace as he used his left fist to knock the hostile back a few feet.
"When I say run, I am going to give you cover and you must move for Canterlot!" Harbinger said quiet enough for the pony to hear, but with an amount of urgency that she had no questions.
The pony nodded back as she tried to find the best way out of Ponyville, only once Harbinger was certain she was ready did he deploy his hardlight blades and charge.
"RUN!" He yelled slashing at an Elite before thrusting back and parrying a strike that would have killed the small pony.
The pony ran out of sight and Harbinger tracked her on his scanners, once satisfied that she was out of harm he came to a complete stop and waited for the traitors to attack. Glancing down he saw a grey earth pony mare with a small bow upon her neck that had just freshly died, steeling himself he raised his blades and prepared for combat once more.
"Harbinger, why fight us when all we are trying to do is obtain order?" Tarket asked, once again materializing.
"Order? You have forsaken the Mantel, you shall have no mercy for what you have done!" he growled back, his anger finally showing through.
"I had hoped it wouldn't come to this old friend." Tarket replied, his team surrounding him.
Harbinger stayed silent, flexing his left fingers up and down toward Tarket and his Elites. They advanced at incredible speeds indicating augmentations had been applied. The old soldier spinning about as he parried each attack, coming out of it with a rushing stab into Tarket's second in command. Ripping his two blades from the staggering Elite who held his wounds he charged once more and decapitated him with ease, landing several feet behind him. Standing to his full height, Harbinger shot a stare off to Tarket as he dared him to try again, the blood of the dead Elite slowly spilling out towards his the Commander.
"You shall pay for that Harbinger!" Tarket calmly stated as his team backed off.
"Make me." Harbinger calmly ordered as he moved to charge, but stopped when he heard the might roar of a giant.
"Oh we shall, for Master Death has more than just my team behind him." Tarket laughed wickedly as a full grown Equestrian Dragon descended down into the middle of Ponyville.
Harbinger spared a quick glance at the mighty beast before looking back to where his foes had vanished, "I'll deal with you nine later." he responded as he took off to defeat the dragon.
---- Canterlot Castle ----
"Sister, how do I look?" Luna asked as she entered the war room where Celestia and the elements stood around a massive round table.
"Luna, what are you wearing?" Celestia gasped.
"We cannot leave Equestria to be protected by a lone warrior, even if he has an impressive track record." the Princess of the Night replied.
"But how did you?" the Day Princess inquired.
"Harbinger has granted us the tools to protect our home, I left the terminal in the throne room, through it we may stand ready sister!" Luna exclaimed, her midnight blue armor shining with two silver Gatling Guns running over her wings and sticking out on either side of her neck.
"That is awesome!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, doing a loop int he air.
Fluttershy remained silent as she cowered behind Rarity, though the latter's expression could not be any more different.
"Why Princess you look dashing!" Rarity gawked.
"Those look like ah mighty fine caliber alright." Applejack couldn't help but appreciate the massive cannons on Luna's back.
"Terminal?" Twilight questioned.
Pinkie Pie merely looked around and turned back to the all with sad eyes indicating she wanted a suite as well. Spike was left speechless alongside the crusaders at the sheer power that radiated from Luna now.
"Take us to the terminal so we may stand ready with our guard to save our little ponies!" Celestia commanded her sister, who smiled the moment she did.
"Spike you stay here with the Crusaders and stay out of trouble!" Twilight shouted as she and her friends followed the Princesses.
Author's Note
Key note:
Tarket was the first Centurion of another species within the Deltan Republic, (Centurion II grade). The other Elites with him are Centurion IV level. What gave him off was that he referred to Harbinger as the rank he had when they had fought back to back on a former UNSC planet that they had been sent to by command, (Whole other story though I may take a few exerts from it during a Luna moment).
As for the Dragon, well you shall have to wait and see.
Sorry if you find this a tad short...
