Epsilon Eridani System
Twelve Hours After Departure
Cloud Runner

If I’d have been asked a few years ago if I ever thought I would be one of the first ponies to step foot on another planet, I’d have called whoever asked me that question insane. But as I woke up from my nap in the passenger compartment of the prowler, I was reminded that I was among that group. Yet even though it would stand to be a momentous part of Equestrian history, no one seemed to be all that interested. If anything it appears that I only noticed it due to my educational background.

But even with that in mind I can’t say I feel any different. Just like in the aftermath of Carniola, I don’t know how I truly feel… I should feel a bit excited but something in the back of my head is nagging at me, telling me that our destination of Tribute has some sort of importance. Maybe it was mentioned in some of the human historical files that I had read right after Carniola?

But as I heard the hum of the engines sputter and die off, Dusk sat up in his seat across from me. “We just came out of slipspace.” He groaned.

“So we’re almost there?” I asked.

Dusk got up and looked down at the pipbuck that he was wearing and shook his head. “No… We dropped out a few minutes early.”

Dusk didn’t say anything else, and I simply followed him up the rear stairs to the upper control deck. It was a long and open affair, with control stations spaced every few feet on either side. The only true windows were the small viewports in front of the pilot’s station, But outside those windows… That was a different story.

There was a large piece of hull plate floating in the void in front of us. Even with all the scorch marks, the white letters spelling out the word ‘Musashi’ were still legible. “Did something happen?” I asked.

“Something did…” The female Spartan at the controls muttered. “It wasn’t recent though.”

Something must’ve clicked in Dusk’s head, because he seemed to realize where we were. “You dropped us out in orbit of Reach, didn’t you Alice?”

“Didn’t have a choice.” The Spartan replied. “Tribute Control sent out a navigational warning. We would’ve dropped out right in a debris field.”

“And this is better?” Dusk asked.

Alice shook her head. “Not by much, but I needed to drop us out of slipspace early. It’s part of the protocol if you receive a navigational warning.” She pressed a few keys and signed. “We’re in a dead zone. Comms are down.”

I heard the other two Spartans cross the deck behind us before stopping, likely to look out the viewscreen. “What’s a dead spot?” I asked.

“Any place that subspace transmissions can’t be sent or received.” One of the Spartans behind me replied. “I guess there’s still enough residual radiation out there to create one…”

Just how big of a fight was this? And how long ago? Its obvious that the Spartans know something about this planet when their somber behavior is taken into account. “Reach was your home, wasn’t it?”

“It was the closest thing any of the Spartans had to a home.” Said Alice. “We weren’t there when she fell, but by that point in the war all bar three of the survivors were there to defend the planet.” Alice took the stick and rolled away from the piece of hull. “Most of them died down there trying to hold Reach. Some died during the siege of Tribute covering civilian evacuations… But it didn’t do anything. Every single colony in this system was attacked by the Covenant, but Reach took the worst of it. It’s barely habitable anymore.”

As we passed more debris of Human ships, I started spotting chunks of purple metal floating out in the void, then finally dismembered ships of the same color. “I take it that your military didn’t just let the Covenant have the system.”

“They didn’t.” Alice muttered. “But after was said and done, there were just over a billion lives were thrown away either protecting our territory or trying to escape the system.”

Outside the viewport I saw a burnt helmet tumbling in zero gravity as we passed. That acted as a trigger and got me thinking… There isn’t even a billion ponies on all of Equis, yet humanity has those numbers in spades. “Just how long did your people fight the Covenant?”

“I don’t know… Close to thirty years?” Alice replied. “It’s hard to tell if the war really ended when we’re still fighting a bunch of Covenant splinter groups.”

While the last of the visible debris zipped past the viewscreen, I got the impression that we’d be seeing more signs of battle eventually. You don’t simply lose so many lives and not leave plenty of scars. But at that the comms panel crackled to life. “Tribute Control calling UNSC From the Ashes, please respond.”

Alice simply reached over and flicked the broadcast switch. “This is From the Ashes, Sierra-130 reporting, go ahead.”

“Sorry for the sudden navigational issue Spartan, but we’ve got a bit of an issue on our hands.” The controller explained. “Some insurrectionist ships dropped out of slipspace, and you would’ve slammed right into them.”

Alice turned around and looked at one of the Spartans standing behind us. “That would mean they dropped out inside the orbital perimeter.”

“Indeed they did, although I seriously doubt that was their intent. With that in mind one of the ships has gone to ground about a click north of your landing site. The other two are being pursued by Midsummer Night.”

“That's a bit too much of a coincidence…” One of the Spartans muttered.

“Douglas does have a point.” Dusk added. “Control, was their anything that predicted any hostile actions in recent days? Maybe a reason why the insurrectionists decided to visit?”

“Not that we’re aware of…” The controller stopped, seemingly having realized something. “Wait, I think there was a senator visiting on some inspection tour.”

“Then it’s a hit job.” Said Alice. “There must be someone tailing this senator. And if he’s doing an inspection, what’s to say he didn’t stop at the Materials Group lab?”

Dusk stepped forward and keyed up a map of the area surrounding the lab we were headed to. “There’s nothing else to see out there… They’re definitely after this senator.”

“Control, what’s so important about this senator?” Douglas asked.

“He’s a retired navy officer, has some serious connections with both the fleet and the political circles back on Earth.”

“Alice, get us down there.” Dusk ordered. “And Control, I need a name.”

“Just a moment…” The computer screen next to the comms panel lit up and showed the image of an older human male. “It’s Senator Andrew Del Rio.”

***

Casbah City Outskirts, Twenty Minutes Later…

“So there’s been no word from the lab?” Sky asked as she stuffed rifle clips into storage pouches on her armor.

Dusk shook his head as he swung his own rifle onto his back. “Not according to Tribute Control. Data uplinks to the lab are down in addition to the comms, so the assumption is that they’re being jammed.”

Sky nodded and grabbed a battle rifle out of the gun locker. “Then what’s the plan?”

“Sombra and Radiant will stay with the prowler.” Dusk explained. “It’s our only line of communication, so we can’t just leave it alone. The rest of us will head for the lab and assess the situation. After that… We’ll have to figure that out once we know what’s happening.”

The prowler shuddered as the landing struts made contact with solid ground and the ramp smoothly swung down to rest on the pavement. “Then let’s go find out.” Sky retorted, marching off down to solid ground.

By the time that I made it off the Prowler it was starting to slowly drizzle, going well with the somber atmosphere of the night in what appeared to be an abandon part of the city. While there were scorch marks along the walls left long ago, the streets were otherwise clear of rubble and debris.

The main thing that I noticed was the noise, more accurately the lack thereof. “I’m not liking this…” I heard Dusk mutter as our group rounded the corner of what looked like a warehouse. “Jerome, do you have anything on the comms?”

As I looked around the street, I blocked out Dusk’s conversation. Across the street I saw something shimmer in the dim moonlight, and whatever it was it was moving down the opposite sidewalk. I glanced down at the EFS indicator on my heads-up display and saw that there was a yellow dot on it. “Hey, you Spartans have motion trackers, don’t you?” I called out. The shimmering form stopped, and after a few moments I couldn’t tell where it was.

“We do.” Alice replied. “I’m just not seeing anything on it.”

Another look at the EFS confirmed that something was still across the street. That's when I remembered that Dusk was wearing a pipbuck. “Dusk, drop into SATS.”

Dusk froze for a moment, before instantly snapping out of his apparent stupor. “There’s something across the street using active camo.” He said as he shouldered his rifle. “Doesn’t seem to be hostile.”

I flared my wings and smirked under my helmet. “Then let's introduce ourselves.” I whipped around and launched myself forward with one strong flap. As I reached the other sidewalk it's seemed as if my surroundings were slowing down just as the shimmering form of an invisible fist appeared in my vision. I managed to kill my momentum and skidded to a stop a few feet from the curb. Right in front of my visor was clearly that invisible fist, the arm it was attached to now fully outstretched. “Well that’s one way to say hello.” I noted aloud.

“Son of a bitch…” I heard the shimmering being exclaim. The active camouflage that ‘he’ was using shut down and revealed the form of another Spartan, this one wearing a slate-blue set of armor. A quick glance at the hand that the Spartan was going to hit me with revealed an interesting detail; it was a robotic appendage. “What the hell are you?”

With it clear that in the Spartan’s moment of confusion that he was no threat, I reached up and pulled my helmet off. “I’m what you could call an Equestrian.” I replied. “And you… You’re a Spartan.”

As the three members of Red Team took positions behind me with weapons raised the opposing Spartan seemed to relax and tugged his own helmet off, revealing his red and grey-streaked hair. “I take it that those three are with you then?”

I nodded and motioned to the Spartans to relax. “What can I say? I tend to roll with the best.”

“Roll with the best…” He mumbled, mulling over what I meant. After a moment the Spartan’s eyes went wide. “They’re Twos.”

I nodded. “If you haven’t already met, these are the badasses of Red Team.” At that point I turned around to face Jerome, only identified by the numbers ‘092’ on his chestplate and shrugged. “You know, I don’t think I caught this guy’s name.”

“Frank Kodiak.” The Spartan replied as he grabbed Jermome’s hand. “So are you guys our rescue team?”

I turned around and cocked an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

“The only thing out here is the lab.” Frank retorted. “Where it’s an ONI facility I can see them sending some of their own Spartans… But aliens too?” He said, gesturing at Dusk, Dart and Sky.

“I get the feeling that you’ve been having insurrectionist troubles.” Dusk observed.

“Ya… Wait, how’d you know?” Frank asked. “The distress call only went out a few minutes ago.”

“We were here for an unrelated mission.” Jerome answered. “ONI removed an artifact from the Equestrian homeworld a few years ago. We were tasked to escort these individuals to it’s last known destination so they could try to reclaim it.”

Frank looked rather confused. “Since when does ONI give anything back after they’ve taken it?”

“Since I asked Admiral Osman so nicely.” Dusk said. “Believe it or not, it’s a fragment of the crystallized form of an important leader of my species. We’re hoping to recover it and reconstitute her.”

The poor Spartan’s confusion seemed to only deepen. “Uh… What?”

“Look, we just want something of ours back.” I said. “And according to ONI’s records the artifact we’re searching for was taken to the lab that you were apparently protecting.”

“Right…” Frank replied. “Well then, we need to move quickly. I left the base to try to find help after the comms got cut.”

“What’s the strength of the opposing force?” Jerome asked.

“Twenty strong.” Said Frank. “All armed with old rifles… But get this, they’re all equipped with some sort of Mjolnir setup.”

“Uh, Mjolnir?” Alice asked. “Are you sure?”

Frank nodded. “They’ve got the shields, and the strength that comes with the suit. Looks rather crude, but the stuff works.”

“Then that complicates things.” Jerome stated rather firmly.

“Well… Is this stuff shielded against electromagnetic pulses?” Dusk asked.

Frank seemed to think about what Dusk said before he shrugged. “It could be… But it might not be either. What are you thinking?”

Dusk simply smiled as a few sparks skittered off the edge of his horn. If that grin is any indication, he’s already got some sort of idea.

And judging by the feeling in my gut, this might not end all that well.

Author's Note

Another short chapter, but up next we fight some insurrectionists. And that cobbled-together armor? Ya, it's Buccaneer;

In the meantime, anyone got questions? Like what you're seeing so far? Hell, maybe have some gripes? There's a comment section and the Mirrorverse Codex. Read and comment away, because I want to hear from you fellow denizens of this corner of the internet. Until next time gang!
-Striker