Arrival
“Mayday Mayday Mayday. This is UNSC FFG-201 Forward Unto Dawn, requesting immediate evac. Survivors aboard - prioritization code victor-zero five dash three dash Sierra-117.”
The transmission played over and over in the emptiness of space. Four and a half long years has it been playing: as if playing a symphony for an audience that wasn’t there.
The source of the transmission was coming from the aft end of a ship once called Forward Unto Dawn. She was a frigate class warship made by humanity for their struggle against an alien coalition named The Covenant. Many died in the struggle, leaving many planets no longer inhabitable, their surfaces nothing but glass. And when it looked like all hope had been lost, a rebellion shook the Covenant apart, giving humanity its first bit of hope in years.
The Sangheili, know by the humans as Elites, took a stand with the humans on their homeworld. However, what remained of the Covenant found a portal to a Forerunner installation known as the Ark. That is where the last battle was held. Not just any battle, however. It was a battle for all life itself.
In the battle, four names stood out above all others. One, was an ordinary marine with extraordinary luck and determination. He survived the horrors of the Flood on two different Halo arrays, faced off against the brute chieftain, Tartarus, and led humanity in the first engagement on the Ark. Unfortunately, he was met with his untimely death at the hands of the Forerunner monitor, 343 Guilty Spark.
Another was a Sangheili, who was the face of the rebellion against the Covenant. His title was granted by the very coalition he fought against. Taking the name granted to him, he rallied his species and led the revolt when the Covenant betrayed their trust. During the assault on the Ark, he commanded ships before landing on the surface to end the Prophet of Truth. He stayed on the installation, before finding a way to get rid of the infestation that made its way to the Ark. After finding a way to purge the infestation, he fought his way back to the last ship on the installation. Taking the bridge control, he and two others flew the ship, Forward Unto Dawn, into the portal before it was cut in two. He was the last one to make it back to Earth after the destruction of the Ark.
The last two were on the other half of the ship, continuing to float in unknown space. One was an A.I. constructed from living brain tissue, giving it an unique advantage on other A.I. units. The other was an experimental super soldier, raised to live and die for all of humanity. They were the heros of mankind and all sentient life. When they did not make it to their destination through the portal, the soldier froze himself and was left under the care of the A.I. unit. The last words that were exchanged between the two still echoed in the A.I.’s mind.
“Wake me, when you need me.”
2000 hours, July 21, 2557 (Military Calendar)
Equis System, Ponyville Castle, Planet Equis
“Spike! Where are the charts of Griffonia Constellations!?” Twilight yelled to her dragon helper. It was the middle of summer and there was no way in tartarus was she going to miss one of the brightest nights of the year. This was the perfect time to study different culture’s mythology and history. More specifically, the constellations they named.
“Right here!” exclaimed the drake as he jogged into the room. “You left it on your desk when you passed out from all the studying.” Twilight gave a light blush at the comment. Back when she was just a student, passing out from intensive studying was a normal occurrence. Ever since she moved to Ponyville, she has tried to tone down her obsession for knowledge.
“Thank you, Spike. I don’t know what I would do without you.” She gave Spike a pat on the head, which made him swell with pride.
The charts were levitated into her saddlebag that was laying on the large dining table. Scattered on top of the table were telescopes of many calibers, along with charts from other nations. Being the Princess of Friendship, Celestia thought it would be appropriate to let Twilight handle any and all diplomatic issues after the birth of the castle in Ponyville. Taking the task head on, Twilight could always be found reading something about a foreign culture, even if half mindedly.
“Alright. Once we double check everything, I’ll be good to go.” Twilight stated as she levitated a checklist over to a dumbfounded Spike.
“Only double? You used to triple check the double check, and then you still checked when we were only halfway to wherever we were going.” Embarrassment started to paint its pink color on Twilight’s cheeks as she remembered a few of those times.
“I know. I know, but I’m getting better.” Twilight defended. “I made sure I limit my studying to five hours a day and my royal duties take up most of the afternoon, leaving me with plenty of time to hang out with my friends. I’m not the filly that came to Ponyville all those years ago.” She finished up her speech while loading the last item from the table to her saddlebags. Looking at the clock, she was about to miss her meetup with the girls.
“Is that the time? Sorry Spike, I have to go.” The saddlebags floated up off the table and strapped onto the mare’s back. “Make sure to get to bed on time and there are some leftovers in the fridge.” Twilight informed her drake as she trotted to the door. The said door glowed a purple hue as it open and shut behind her. Right when Spike was going to make a mad dash for the kitchen, Twilight peaked back through the door.
“And no ice cream. It will give you a stomach ache.” With that, she shut the door and made haste to her friends, leaving a disappointed Spike behind.
“Rats.”
2000 hours, July 21, 2557 (Military Calendar)
UNSC Vessel Forward Unto Dawn, unknown system
Cortana sighed as she played the distress beacon again. Normally, she would have set a subroutine to play the beacon automatically. However, she knew in the long run that she would have to keep herself as busy as possible.
Rampancy was closing in around her. She could still remember when she passed the seven year mark. Every second after that mark, she praised that she could still function properly. A.I.’s, such as her, deteriorate after seven years of service and have to be disposed of soon after. While she would have accepted her fate any other time, she had to keep herself together for the last living passenger of the ship, the Master Chief.
She could still remember the day she chose him for a top secret mission. They, and the rest of the spartans, were meant to capture a Covenant vessel, find their homeworld, and kidnap a prophet in order to try and end the war. Fate had other plans that day.
Nevertheless, she had to stay focused on her current task. The reactors couldn't run for too much longer due to the trail of leaking coolant behind the engines. In normal circumstances, she would have announced to the crew so they could physically fix it. However, there was no crew on board and most of the tools needed for a patch job were lost in the portal. Even if she did wake The Chief, there wasn’t much he could do.
Luckily, a sensor picked up a large mass. A mass that was soon going to start pulling the ship into its gravitational field. Cortana cursed herself that she wasn’t able to spot it sooner.
“Let’s see if this rust bucket has anything left in her.” Cortana increased the power to the external sensors, trying to get a read on the gravity well size. What little information that she could gather came back showing a decent sized gravity field, which she assumed would have quite a lot of mass to back it up.
Screens flashed by as she ran countless calculations on the little information she had. Having nothing else to do for the fast four years, Cortana felt the boredom she was forced with turn into excitement as each equation was processed faster and faster.
Calculating the speed that the ship was going, she estimated that the gravity field would start pulling them in little over an hour, and it takes, roughly, that long to thaw someone out of cryo. While she might have been able to speed it up, she would have risked putting Chief into a state of shock. Unfortunately, she didn’t have much of a choice.
“This is probably going to hurt, but we don’t have time. I need you, John.”
Cortana immediately started working on the emergency thawing process while simultaneously tracking the ship’s movement towards the object. She effectively reduced the time by half, which would give him just enough time to find a suitable place to be when the ship reached the gravity well. Most of the ship sensors were either disabled from lack of maintenance or were cut off during the collapse of the portal. This made Cortana’s job a lot more difficult determining if the large mass was either a giant floating rock, a habitable planet… or worse.
The ice on the interior of the cryotube started to fade away as Chief’s faceplate came into view. It wouldn’t be long till he would be in the Non-REM sleep cycle. That was the most dangerous part of the thawing process. If rushed, it had the chance to put the occupant into a state of shock. On a fully crewed ship, the medical team would help deal with the victim, but this wasn’t a crewed ship, and Cortana couldn’t take the chance of losing the Chief to something that could be easily avoided.
While the cryo systems were doing their best to awake the Chief, Cortana started to work on analyzing the gravity well. Or at least, what she could analyze. Most of the sensors on the outside of the ship were destroyed when the portal destabilized. Only a couple of external cameras and one sensor array was left operational. None of which was any use. They were all pointed away from the object. The array could pick up the gravity field, but nothing all that specific about the object. Taking a chance, she fired what was left of the docking thrusters in order to get a better angle at the object.
As the ship turned, the forward momentum was left unchanged. This would probably be their last chance to find someplace to land before the reactors shut down. Once the first camera came into view of the object, Cortana felt joy surge through her emotional matrix.
Through the camera, there was a world not unlike Earth or Reach: deep blue oceans, green landmasses, polar ice caps. Everything looked too good to be true. Not wanting to take another chance with the thrusters, Cortana attempted to align the array towards the habitable planet. Unfortunately, it would not budge.
“Well, judging by the size, shape and distance fromt the sun, it looks habitable. It certa-” Cortana stopped mid thought. She had just realized that she was broadcasting though the ship’s speakers. It was stupid and sloppy. And it brought up thoughts of a time where she was bloated with data from the first halo ring. The data slowed her processing, causing her to make mistakes. Ones that put her allies in danger.
“Never again.” Cortana thought. Looking back at the cryo tube, she watched as the ice was removed from the glass. There, slumbering in the “freezer”, as some marines called it, was one of the last Spartans.
Her Spartan.
Large wooden poles.
Some had rope and bridges between them, but they were all just poles. However, these poles represented something far more terrifying and yet, they were things of comfort.
John readied himself as he stared at the poles. The goal was simple, ring a bell. Knowing that he could easily reach it from multiple paths is what worried him the most.
It was too simple.
As soon as he heard a whistle blow, he took off at superhuman speeds, closing the distance from the playground in just a few strides. However, once he reached the obstacle course, they grew taller. The wooden poles started to turn a silver color as the wood poles were transformed into metal pillars. Chief was so mesmerized by the sight, he almost missed the brutes walking out from behind the newly formed pillars.
“Kill the demon!” Chief rolled out of the way of the initial volley of spikes and made a dash for the pillars. His shields would be able to take the brunt of most attacks, but they wouldn’t last long. Once he felt a safe distance away, he hid behind one of the pillars.
Reaching behind his back, he grabbed onto his MA5C Assault rifle. Checking the ammo counter, it read fully loaded. Still, he pulled out the magazine just to make sure.
“Machines break. Eyes don’t.” His training instructor's voice rang loud and clear as he looked into the magazine. Fully loaded. Slapping the magazine back into the butt of the rifle, the Chief checked his motion tracker to see that the brutes were combing through forest of metal.
“I smell something.” The closest red blip started to move towards his location. This was one of the things that John hated about Brutes. They could smell him out.
When the blip was only five meters away, Chief turned around the corner, leveled his rifle and let his finger depress on the trigger. He was rewarded with the surprised brute losing its shields. Once the shields when down, the rifle was aimed at the head of the brute. With a quick burst, the brute fell over, dead. The rest of the squad quickly zeroed in on the Chief’s position, firing wildly at the pillar he ducked behind. Luckily, the metal was not melting, even as it was being bombarded with plasma and spikes.
Right when he was about to make a run for better cover, the firing stopped. No more sounds were made from the brutes as everything went silent. Even their blips disappeared.
It was strange, and John didn’t like it.
As he pressed himself back into pillar, he started to sink in. Chief launched himself away, turning around to see a sickly green tentacle. Soon enough, all the pillars morphed into identical tentacles.
“You will be food; nothing more…” The hairs stood on the Chief’s neck as he listened to the twisted voice of the Gravemind. Right when John was going to take aim at the former pillar, something hard hit his back, causing him to fade from consciousness. The last thing he saw was a giant form of biomass, smiling as it lifted him to its mouth.
“Do not be afraid. I am peace; I am salvation.”
Cortana was going through the ship manifest when Chief’s vitals went critical. Pushing everything else to the side, Cortana combed through all the data the cryo pod could give. He was still in a dream state, and his heart rate was accelerating to ridiculous speeds. The sped up unfreezing process was putting Chief into shock.
“No. No. No. No. NO!” Cortana flashed between blue and red many times while trying to think up a solution. Her rampancy hindering almost all the processing power she had. Right when she was about to lose hope, she thought of a solution. Rerouting some extra power, she charged up some electricity from the ship’s systems and let it loose in the pod, hoping that it would wake him. The result was immediate.
Master Chief’s eyes shot open as he attempted to run, only to be stopped by the glass casing of his cryo pod.
“Chief?! Chief! It’s okay.” The Chief calmed down once he saw his A.I. companion outside of the glass door. Once his mind figured out that he wasn’t in danger, his body relaxed and he leaned back into the padding.
“Where are we?” Cortana smirked at the directness of the question. John never was much for small talk.
“It’s good to see you too. We’re still adrift aboard the Dawn, in route to an unknown planet.” Cortana said as she fiddled with some of the ship’s systems. “Hold on, let me activate your systems.” In a few seconds, Chief’s visor brought up his heads up display. Everything looked similar to what he had before, but there were a few differences. Right when he was about to ask, Cortana spoke up.
“I re-wrote your suit’s firmware while you were out.” Chief took this time to familiarize himself with the new system. The basic systems were the same: shield bar at the top, motion tracker on the bottom left. A few more things were changed too, but they were mostly cosmetic.
“Hold on while I activate the gravity generator.” Chief took his focus away from his HUD and readied his body for gravity. Cortana gave a few commands on a holo screen before all the floating debris in the room dropped to the floor. His body ached as his muscles were having the force of gravity applies on them in years. Normally to Chief, pain was good. It meant he was alive. However, every muscle in his body was screaming, wanting the cruel force of gravity to stop. Being accustomed to pain, he banished it away from his mind as he stood back to full height.
“Chief, I can’t get the pod open, you are going to have to pull the lever above your head.” Chief reached up to the lever and gave it a hard pull. The pod door immediately burst open, giving him the opportunity to exit the pod. Once out, his muscles flared as he strolled over to the podium Cortana was stationed at. Four years of being frozen did take its toll, as his steps were uneven and sloppy.
“Status.” stated the Chief, to which Cortana raised an eyebrow.
“That’s it? Not a hi or hello? Just, status? I’m hurt John.” Cortana made a pouting look and crossed her arms. The Chief let himself smirk behind his visor.
“I thought you liked it when I was direct,” said Chief as Cortana let out a little laugh.
“Nice to have you back.” Cortana said after her chuckle.
“It’s good to be back.” said Chief as he nodded to his A.I. companion.
“Well, let me give you a rundown on what’s going on.” Cortana bought up a picture of a green and blue world. “In 28 minutes, we will hit this world’s gravity well and will be pulled in. I’ve already went through the manifest of the ship and there are plenty of weapons and ammunition left over. I suggest dumping them in the ODST Drop pods so there is a better chance that they will survive the crash.” Chief nodded in agreement.
“After that, I suggest either saving a drop pod for yourself, or strap yourself in a warthog.” Chief tilted his head after she mentioned the vehicle.
“Warthog?” questioned the Chief.
“There have been numerous reports of them being found planetside in ship debris, unharmed. They are quite durable so it’s as good of a place as any.” Cortana closed all the rest of her scenes and looked at the Chief.
“Copy that.” He then reached out his hand and removed the chip. Bringing it back to the back of his helmet, he slid the chip in its slot. A cool mercury feeling ran through his skull as Cortana integrated with his armor’s systems.
“Home sweet home.”
2200 hours, July 21, 2557 (Military Calendar)
Equis System, Ponyville Park, Planet Equis
Twilight made it in time to meet her friends for supper before heading out to the park. Ever since the castle sprouted the seven thrones, she has made an effort to include her fiends with her diplomatic studies. And what better way was there than camping out under the stars.
Not all her friends were so enthusiastic about learning new cultures as she was. Pinkie and Rarity seemed the most interested while Applejack kept on commenting how silly their culture was. Rainbow straight up didn’t care unless it was about a battle, and Fluttershy just made small comments when asked how she felt.
“...and this is is the great minotaur warrior, Khalon, known for lifting his entire village to safety during a devastating flood.” Twilight pointed to the sky and made some lines with her magic to connect the stars. After the word warrior was mentioned, Rainbow perked up.
“Yeah, cool, whatever, but what did he fight? Changelings? Griffons? You said he was a warrior, not a village mover.” said Rainbow. Twilight just sighed in exhaustion. There was no way that Rainbow was going to learn anything if it didn’t have to do with fighting. Luckily for Twilight, Rarity stepped in.
“Rainbow, dear. Not everything has to do with fighting. Now Twilight wants us to help her with her new diplomatic duties. Could you put in a little effort please?” Rainbow huffed at Rarity.
“I AM trying, but all these stories are just so booooooring. The only ones that were any interesting was the one where that griffon fought off some kind of cyclopes and the pony who went back and defeated the windigos.” Rainbow jumped on her back legs, imitating a boxing pony.
Looking back at the rest of the group, Twilight saw only Pinkie and Rarity were the only one interested anymore. Applejack was just looking at the stars, pointing out the constellations that dealt with apples and Fluttershy was about asleep. She hated to admit it, but the constellation lesson was over. At least she got through the griffon and early minotaur star maps. Right when Twilight was going to call it a night, Pinkie pointed up to the sky.
“Wow! I didn’t know constellations moved!” said an excited Pinkie. Twilight turned around to inform her that they didn’t, but was cut off by the sight of a certain patch of stars zooming across the sky. During their movement, many little stars died out, but the big one only grew brighter. At this time, all the ponies were staring up at the sky, tracking the star with their eyes. It took only a few moments for Twilight to realize that the star wasn’t getting brighter. It was getting closer.
“Whatcha think it is Twi?” asked a dumbfounded Applejack. Twilight was too mesmerized by the sight to answer. Her mind raced through all her knowledge about meteorites and stars. It didn’t take her long to deduce that it wasn’t a star or a meteorite, but for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out what the falling object was. If it was a comet, Princess Luna would have surely notified somepony and taken the necessary steps.
“It’s headed right for us!” shouted Rarity. Soon enough, the great fireball was coming directly at them. The princess attempted to reach out and grab the object, only to have her magic lose its grip. The object was simply moving too fast for her to even focus on. Right when she was going to announce their fate, something amazing happened.
Pillars of fire shot out of the bottom of the the object, causing it to level out. When it did level out, the entire trajectory changed. Now, it shot directly over the hill Twilight and her friends were standing on. As the ponies were awestruck as they watched it fly over their heads, only to have them hold down their ears when the sound of it hit their ears. The noise was so loud, it caused even rainbow to fall on her side, still gripping onto her ears.
Once the object flew past them, the noise died down as it angled down towards the other end of the Everfree forest. Judging by the size and speed, Twilight guessed that it would be about a day and half worth of walking to reach the largest mass: only a day if they flew. Once the object hit the ground, it caused the ground to shake under their hooves. Many lights in Ponyville were flicked on as ponies looked to see what caused the disturbance. Twilight was only shaken out of her stupor, by Applejack.
“Twilight!? What in Granny Smith’s dentures was that?” yelled Applejack. Twilight still didn’t know how to respond to the apple farmer. In her vast array of knowledge, nothing came close to explaining what just happened.
“I- I don’t know…” The fear in the rest of the ponies eyes were clear as day. When Twilight didn’t know about something, it usually wasn’t a good sign. Seeing this, the princess thought up a solution.
“But I think I know a certain princess that can help us out. C’mon girls. Let’s calm everypony down, then you are all welcome to sleep in the castle, “ said Twilight.
“Sleepover at Twilight’s! I’ll bring the snacks!” With that, Pinkie set off to town, no doubt to cook up some sweets, while putting smiles back on the rest of the townsfolk.
The rest of the ponies packed up their notes before heading back to town, still wondering what they witnessed.
2200 hours, July 21, 2557 (Military Calendar)
UNSC Vessel Forward Unto Dawn, unknown system
The Chief shifted uncomfortably in the warthog’s driver seat. He was always too big for the vehicle, but it still offered the best protection in his current state. He had already checked for any functional Pelicans or Longswords. Sadly, he was unable to find any. That left him with only a few choices since the weapons, ammunition, and some tools took up all the three available drop pods.
“How much longer till we start to crash?” asked the impatient spartan. In truth, the Chief never liked ships. He didn’t like the helplessness during a ship battle. He didn’t like the limited maneuverability if he had to fight in the ship corridors. He especially didn’t like how he would just have to hope to survive during a ship crash.
“We have already hit the gravity well, and we should be close to the point where we start to pick up speed and enter the atmosphere,” answered Cortana. Before he sat down in the warthog, the A.I. insisted in letting her create a subroutine to help the ship land cleaner. No matter what, a crash was a crash, but both of them wanted to survive it. So Chief let her create the program. All they had to do now, was wait till the ship entered the atmosphere, then the program would adjust the ship accordingly.
Right when Chief was going to ask for a time, the ship started to shake. Gripping onto the wheel, he activated his gel layer to go into armor lock mode. It would let the gel absorb most of the kinetic energy before it cause any real harm to the spartan.
“This is the part where it gets bumpy,” stated Cortana. Bumpy was a gross understatement. If the Chief hadn't locked down his suit, he would have been bouncing off the walls.
After what felt like an eternity of shaking, the bottom thrusters fired. The Chief could feel his organs move toward his feet as the ship leveled out. The only thing keeping the spartan conscious was all his training. Otherwise, he would have blacked out long ago.
“Brace for impact!” ordered Cortana. It was a bit redundant since Chief had been bracing since they hit the gravity well. Either way, it was only seconds after when the ship touched down on the planet.
The ship pitched and screamed while it scraped the planet’s surface. The shaking got so bad that the warthog broke out of its restraints and tumbled around the vehicle bay. Once again, the Chief was thankful that he locked down his suit as the warthog crashed into the remains of the vehicle bay. Just as Cortana said, the hog refused to bend or break with the force of metal hitting metal. Still, John was starting to regret jumping into an drop pod so he wouldn’t be thrown across the room.
It was hard to tell in the moving jeep but the ship was slowing down at a steady rate. The Chief could only tell once the warthog stopped tumbling and settled on its side. He stayed locked for a few more moments before Cortana spoke up above all the creaking metal.
“We’ve touched down. I’d go ahead and scout out the rest of the ship while I figure out where we are and if this place has breathable air.” John unlocked his suit, feeling the gel layer shrink back down, giving him room to move.
“Time to get to work.”
Author's Note
I'm not getting back into writing, just posting what I had in my archives.
