Beacon 428: Spirit of Fire

Hard Landing

The Spartans of Omega team proceeded to the drop pod bay, to be stopped by 3 “Helljumper” ODSTs.

“Sirs, we’ll strap the weapons and equipment into your pods. Professor Anders requested you meet her in the lab.” The Gunnery Sergeant said to Douglas. The Spartans gave the ODSTs their materials and proceeded to Professor Ander’s makeshift lab in the ship’s observatory. Alice walked in first, almost tripping over one of the many wires that were around the floor.

“Ma’am, you wanted to see us?” Jerome asked the professor, wondering what was so important.

“Correct, Spartans, using data collected from the covenant technology that our forces recovered, I was able to create a shield similar to what the jackals use. Although it is in a riot shield form, it is still just as powerful. The shield’s health is determined by it’s color. Simple color coding, you should be able to figure it out. Remember that these are experimental. Try to use them as little as you possibly can.” Professor Anders continued to explain the arm-mounted shields to the Spartans, when the intercom interrupted her with one message.

“Spartan Omega team, we are being dragged into atmosphere. You have an estimated 12 minutes before we activate emergency thrusters.” Serena didn’t sound pleased, if an AI could have any emotion.

“Ma’am, with due respect, we need to go now.” Jerome pointed out to Anders.

“Alright Spartans, you are free to go, just remember that these shields are experimental, use them only when absolutely needed.” Professor Anders emphasized that statement, and the Spartans just nodded in acknowledgement .

The Spartans re-entered the drop pod bay, finding the ODSTs playing a game of cards. The Spartans weapons and equipment were already in their pods, as the ODSTs said they would be. Jerome and Alice got into their pods and waited for Douglas to enter his so they could begin their mission. Douglas started to get into his pod, when one of the ODSTs flicked an Ace of Spades toward him. The Spartan looked at the ODST, who just nodded.

“We won’t need it.” Douglas said to the ODST before his pod closed. The pods were turned around and moved, hanging under the bottom of the ship. The pod’s electronics came to life, in the right hand side there was an internal radio, launch countdown timer, and two of the 5 explosive bolts that were used to blow off the door of the pod. On the left hand side were 3 more explosive bolts, and visual screens that would show the heads of the occupants, in this case, Spartans Alice and Jerome.

“Comm test! Omega report in!”

“130 reporting in!”

“042 reportin in!”

“Copy, dropping in 10 seconds! Trajectory change 0094209 ten seconds after launch!” The squad was ready to drop. Though everyone, even Spartans, who use the ODST pods are always nervous of the outcome of the drop. Some pods decompress, some fall off course, and some melt. Though Douglas couldn’t shake the odd feeling, not nervousness, but the feeling that something weird was about to happen. He was broken out of his thoughts by one beep, which seemed to slow down time. Another beep, and another. A final beep, distinguishable from the rest, and his pod jerked downward. “Pods away! God be with you!”

===

It had long been since nighttime, when Pinkie’s tail had its violent twitch.

“Alright, twi. Mind if I ask ya why we’re all here?” Asked an orange pony with a  southern accent.

“Yeah! I mean, its 9 AM. 9 AM! I should be sleeping right now!” A slightly annoyed cyan pegasus pony said to her.

“Alright, here is what happened. I was up last night because I couldn’t sleep. Pinkie couldn’t either so she came here. When I was trying to find out why we couldn’t sleep, and both had the same urge to look into the sky, Pinkie’s tail started twitching so intensely it knocked her down. She said that her Pinkie Sense thinks it is something REALLY huge. So, we are here to find out what is going to happen. Though, we don’t know when it is going to happen.” Twilight explained to her friends.

“Okay, now I’m interested. So, what do we do?” The cyan pegasus asked.

“Well, we’re going to wait for it to fall out of the sky. We don’t know when, so I guess we all can stay together for the whole day, right?” Twilight asked everypony. All the other ponies nodded in agreement.

“Ugh, Twilight? It’s almost midnight, shouldn’t we go to bed now?” The cyan pony was obviously exhausted.

“I’m afraid I have to agree there dear, it is simply much to late to be walking around town.” A white unicorn said to Twilight.

“Mighty sorry Twi and Pink, but I reckon Big Mac n’ Granny Smith are waitin’ for me back at the farm.” The orange pony apologized to Twilight for leaving.

“Oh, it’s alright everypony, I guess it is pretty late.” Twilight sounded disappointed. Just then, Pinkie’s tail started twitching, not as violently as before, but still pretty badly.  This time Pinkie held onto the Yellow pegasus beside her for support from the twitching.

“Aww, what now?” The cyan pony sounded disappointed and annoyed at the sudden twitching.

“Hey, Twilight! Look! A meteor shower!” A purple reptile on the pony’s back pointed at some red-hot projectiles leaving a trail of gray steam headed towards Canterlot.

“Uh oh…” The ponies said before the projectiles hit the peak of the mountain and disappeared. About 10 seconds later, the ponies heard a very faint, but audible CRACK.