//-------------------------------------------------------// Beacon 428: Spirit of Fire -by Zaelex- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// Prologue //-------------------------------------------------------// Prologue Prologue “What’s wrong Serena?” Captain Cutter was no stranger to emergency cryo thaws, but he knew that a thaw that quick meant something was up. “Captain, a malfunction in our reactor caused a burst of the engines, and we are now entering the gravitational pull of the planet we have been orbiting for approximately 3.7 months. Due to the malfunction in the reactor, our engines are offline, and we are gaining velocity.” Serena, the “Smart” AI aboard Spirit of Fire, could find and solve many problems faster than most AI, but this problem she could not solve by herself. “Serena, what planet is that?” Captain Cutter sounded less than enthused, still sore after the quick thaw. “This planet is not a UNSC colony; it isn’t in any known star maps. It is not likely covenant either, as there are no spacecraft anywhere. However scans do show signs of life, unknown if covenant or not.” Serena was still analyzing the data she collected. This place had many… odd forms of life. Not covenant, not human, but similar to Earth creatures. Serena saw she was pondering the subject far too long, and decided to let it rest. “Serena, thaw out everyone.” Captain Cutter gave Serena the order without even a hint of his previous annoyance. “Thawing out everyone so we can crash while awake. Aye sir.” Serena’s hologram disappeared from the panel and she began to thaw out the crew rather fast, while she thawed out the soldiers slower, trying to prevent anything that would affect their combat skills. A few minutes later the bridge was filled with its crew, all entering commands furiously into their consoles, directing repairs, diverting power, firing up weapons systems, etc. “Weapons systems online in 2 minutes!” “Reserves on standby, diverting all unnecessary power to weapons and cryo!” “Reactor is offline! Cooling tanks 1 through 3 are leaking!” “Pumping in coolant from tanks 4 through 7!” The sounds of the bridge were what Cutter had missed. Though they could have been under different circumstances. “Captain! Reactor is offline, estimated repair time is 2 months, if we had the material.” Ensign Levell sounded as if he were facing an Elite Honor Guard with a slingshot. Scared, but somewhat determined. Captain Cutter grunted unhappily. “Alright, men! Prepare the Spirit for a crash landing!” Almost immediately the bridge crew started entering commands, faster than before. Captain Cutter took the time to give orders to his passengers. “Attention, all combat teams except for Omega are to report to the barracks, Spirit of Fire is initiating an unassisted landing. Omega team, report to the bridge ASAP!” Captain Cutter’s voice blared through the intercoms as he continued to issue orders. Within a few minutes, Omega team entered the bridge, and all activity stopped as the crew stared at them. Spartan 092 Jerome, Spartan 130 Alice, and Spartan 042 Douglas.Captain Cutter finished giving orders and walked over to the Spartans. "Omega team, pleased you could make it." Captain Cutter tried to lighten the mood of having three men who looked as alien as the covenant in the bridge. "Traffic wasn't too bad, sir." Douglas joked. That got a smile out of Levell. "Spartans, we are about to land on that planet," Captain Cutter told them, while heading to the holoboard. "We need you to scout and observe the possible intelligent lifeforms Serena found in her scan. It looks like there are towns and cities all across the planet. You will use drop pods to land in this forest, then you will head to the town marked on your HUDs. Stay away from the locals, and transmit visuals as soon as you get eyes on. You are NOT to fire unless fired upon." Captain Cutter explained their mission to the Spartans. "Yes sir." The Spartans said in unison. "Oh, and one more thing. You will need to stay light on your feet, no heavy equipment." Captain Cutter broke the news, and the Spartans thought of their new weaponry. As soon as they got to the armory, Jerome took a Sniper Rifle, along with 2 SMGs, 4 mags for each gun. Alice took a MA5B Assault Rifle, and the standard issue magnum. 10 sixty round magazines for the MA5 and 7 mags for the magnum. Douglas took the M319 Grenade Launcher, 2 SMGs, and a medic kit. 10 HE/EMP Nades for the M319, and 6 Magazines for the SMGs. While the Spartans were getting their weapons and equipment, the Spirit of Fire started to enter the atmosphere. === Twilight just couldn’t sleep tonight, she felt something important was going on, but what would happen at 4:00 AM? The sun would be up in an hour or two, and she hadn’t been asleep since 3! She felt a sudden urge to go outside, at first she resisted it, but she finally gave in, deciding it was too much to handle. Twilight stepped outside onto the balcony, only to see that the lights at the top of Sugar Cube Corner were on. That’s odd…why would Pinkie be up so late? She decided against going to see Pinkie, not wanting to wake up the cakes. Twilight returned to her room in the library, but she still had that urge. She decided to look through her telescope, she hadn’t done that in weeks. Maybe the urge was to look into space? She decided to try it, the urge was becoming stressful. Twilight walked over to her observatory, and looked through her telescope, only to see an eye. She jumped back, startled. Just then, Pinkie Pie fell through the hole in the roof of the hollowed tree. “Pinkie?! How did you? Nevermind. What are you doing here?” Twilight asked the pink pony. “Hiya Twi! I couldn’t sleep, and I had a feeling that I needed to look out the window. So I did, and your lights were on, so, I came here! Can you not sleep either? Wait! Don’t tell me you’re having a Friday party without me!” Pinkie enthusiastically said to Twilight. “What? No! So, you are here to visit? At 4 AM?” Twilight asked, confused by Pinkie. “Yep! Why? I thought we cou-” Pinkie’s sentence was cut short by her tail twitching, the twitch was so violent that it knocked the pony off her hoofs, and started bouncing her on the floor, into the wall. “Pinkie!” Twilight screamed. She was as startled as Pinkie was. “Make it stoooop!” Pinkie said, her voice sounding distorted as she bounced off the floor. Twilight immediately grabbed Pinkie, only to be bounced with her. As soon as Twilight was shaken off Pinkie, the twitching stopped. “Oh lookie there! It stopped!” Pinkie said, as enthusiastically as if it never happened. “Pinkie? What caused THAT?!” Twilight asked, still frightened about the intensity of the twitch. “Dunno, but since it was a twitchy tail, something must be falling! And something big!” Pinkie said, with her usual joy. If Pinkie is right, and her Pinkie Sense has never been wrong, then what could the object be?! I better get the rest of the girls. This is my first attempt at writing a fic at all, critics are welcome! //-------------------------------------------------------// Hard Landing //-------------------------------------------------------// Hard Landing 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. //-------------------------------------------------------// Subtle as Always //-------------------------------------------------------// Subtle as Always Subtle as Always Douglas’s Pod jolted downward, dragging him down as his inertia wanted him to stay still. The shaking drop pod soon started to heat up as it entered the upper atmosphere. As it cooled down, his pod door’s translucent material slowly ceased the orange coating around it. In turn, Douglas looked out at the planet below him, there were some mountains, lots of grassland and a forest here and there. He saw what thought to be a town, but his pod radio interrupted his observations. “EMERGENCY COURSE CORRECTION! 0490217! NOW!” The intensity of Jerome’s voice was enough to let the Spartans know that there was a problem. Which, there was. They could not enter the forest they were assigned to drop into, the Spirit launched the pods at an angle, not straight down like regulation drops were. The Spartans corrected their course, slamming into a mountain. Douglas checked his surroundings through the “windows” in his pod. He had slammed onto a flat part of the mountain, with plenty of room to exit. He activated the pod’s five explosive bolts, and after a hiss, his door flew off with a bang. Douglas stepped onto the snow-covered ground, surprised it was only ankle-deep. He quickly looked around for any hostile forms, and grabbed his equipment from the pod. All of his equipment was fine, save for one syringe from his medical kit. He checked his HUD for the callsigns of his squadmates, which miraculously landed in another flat spot of the mountain, only a kilometer away. “042! This is 092! I have 130 with me, what’s your status? Over!” Jerome asked him through the short-range comms. “This is 042, I’m green. Equipment is fine, cept for a medical shot.” Douglas quickly replied, he was ready to get off the mountain, itching to get on with his mission. “Copy that 042, we think we see a town, or a city, on the cliffside. Can you confirm?” Douglas looked over the edge of the clearing and sighed, he hated the cold, but the mission came first. “Confirmed.” He tried to hide his disappointment. “Doug, sending you cords for rendezvous point, meet us there. Out.” A new blue diamond appeared on his HUD, about 3 kilometers up, but only half a kilometer northwest. “Copy all, out.” Just as he was about to begin his climb, he thought he saw a dark-blue horse, with wings and a horn, and a flowing, midnight blue mane that seemed to sparkle a bit. “Man, I’m gonna need to see a doctor after this mission…” Just for future reference, he played back his helmet cam, and snapped an image of the abnormal creature. === “Twilight, YOU don’t know what it is? YOU?!” Asked the cyan pony. “No Rainbow, I don’t.” Twilight responded, insulted by Rainbow Dash. “Well, whadda ya think it is Twi?” Applejack was curious to know what she thought it could be. “Well, it looked like it was burning, and it fell onto a mountain near Canterlot. So, it could be an asteroid. Wait, no, it changed its flight path midair. Uh, what COULD it be? I don’t know.”Twilight was getting annoyed that she of all ponies didn’t have an idea of what the thing could be. “OOH! Maybe it’s a metal pod with a thing wearing total body armor and has miniature cannons that shoot miniature cannonballs!” Pinkie guessed, getting nothing but confusion out of the other ponies. “What? Don’t you ever read crossover fanfics?” Pinkie responded, confused by their confusion. “Uh, anyway, I think we should check it out.” Rainbow Dash loved adventure, ever since she discovered Daring Do she loved adventure even more. “I have to agree, maybe there are some jewels in it!” The white unicorn seemed eager to find out if it had any valuable materials inside of it. “Alright, we’ll go first thing tomorrow morning.” Twilight said, much to the relief of  everyone but Rainbow and Rarity, who were ready to look for it that instant. Yes, I know the chapters are short. I don't have writers block as bad as some people, but I do have it. Might add-on to chapters later on. Give the story some more detail, instead of some unnecessary crap focused on one item. In other news, I'm fixing the dialogue issues. Critics are still welcome! //-------------------------------------------------------// Notice //-------------------------------------------------------// Notice Apparently some people want chapter quantity, while others want quality. Which do YOU want? Also, for those of you wondering, I have been having some...how do I put it? Problems. I have no idea when the next chapter will come out, due to these problems. //-------------------------------------------------------// Cancelled //-------------------------------------------------------// Cancelled The story is cancelled on account of the fact that reading a fictional character's mindset is nearly impossible. Though to replace this, I'll be adding another story with modern warfare...ponified, for once. Trust me, the new story will make up for this one's cancellation. No, it is not Call of Duty. HELL NO.