The SPARTAN and The Princess

Kerra carefully guided her Pelican down onto the uneven landscape of the Moon, near the terminator line. She had flown the entire mission so far with the dropship’s cloak activated to prevent any Earth based telescopes and the variety of satellites orbiting the Moon from spotting her as she made her descent.

“So would someone explain why I am doing this solo?” She asked into her suit helmet’s radio as the dropship’s ion drives kicked up the lunar regolith.

“Because they still haven’t gotten anything that would perform better than the old A7L suits that the Apollo astronauts used and the suits that you designed for us haven’t passed through their certifications yet.” Came the reply for Lt Colonel Cameron Mitchell. “You and I both know that they will, but you know they won’t let us take them out until they are certified.”

Kerra sighed. “Yeah, that sounds about right. I can’t believe that I submitted those suits for certification two years ago and they still aren’t cleared for use.” She groused as she shut down the drives. Unbuckling her harness, she stood and stretched.

Standing at five foot eleven outside of her MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor, Kerra was a tall specimen of a woman, even discounting that she was not human. She flexed her twin tails carefully as not to let them hit anything in their armored casings.

Walking into the cargo bay, she pressed her back up to the PLSS backpack she had developed for long duration EVAs that her suit’s scrubbers couldn't last for. Nominally, her suit would provide her with just over an hour and a half of air depending upon the circumstances. With the PLSS, she now had the capability to go for days outside of a ship or on a planet with a hostile atmosphere.

Now it would be used to investigate an anomalous signal that had originated several miles into what was currently the ‘dark’ side of the moon as it made its slow, monthly rotation as it orbited the earth.

Ensuring that the PLSS was connected securely and that it was feeding into her suit’s life support system, she grabbed her P90 and attached it to one of the side mounts of the PLSS. She then triggered the troop bay to depressurize and the rear ramp to open.

Stepping out onto the lunar surface, she smiled slightly. “That’s one small step for vixen, on giant leap for foxkind.” She said, a smile evident in her voice.

“Very cute Prower. Now get your head in the game and proceed on mission please?” Cam said, a smile in his voice.

“Yes, Sir. Sierra-048, Oscar Mike.” Kerra said as she began moving towards the nav marker on her helmet’s HUD.

Thanks to her armor’s strength amplification she was able to maintain a reasonable pace across the surface, her suit’s lights showing her path as she entered the shadow of Earth.

“With the progress you are making, I know that the Apollo astronauts would have killed for a suit like that.” Cam said as he monitored from the orbiting USS George S Hammond.

Kerra chuckled. “I know right? But there would have been weight issues. The A7L weighed about a hundred and eighty pounds before it was used. This suit is around half a ton. But my EVA suit that I developed for you guys is still a couple of hundred pounds. The only reason that it doesn't feel like it is the semi powered aspect. It will take the strain off and provide some augmentation of your strength, but nothing on the scale of MJOLNIR.” She replied. Checking the distance to her target she slowed to a halt. “Hammond, I am less than five hundred meters from the target. Going dark.” She said killing her suit’s external lights and activating the helmet’s VISR mode, which showed outlines of the various rocks and craters in her path.

Unlimbering the P90 from her backpack, Kerra carefully made her way forward towards the waypoint.

As the tactical information on her HUD updated, she began to see the outline of what appeared to be a body on the surface of the Moon.

“Hammond, I am almost on top of the anomaly, and it appears that there is a body there.” She said over her radio.

“Say again last, did you say a body?” Cam inquired.

“Affirmative. There is a body on the surface. Doesn’t look like there is a suit on it though, but it is hard to tell from the VISR overlay. I am activating my suit lights now.” Kerra said as she shut down the VISR display and hit her suit lights.

The powerful LEDs lit up the area, causing her visor to polarize slightly to compensate.

“Hunh.” Kerra said tilting her head to the side.

“What is it Kerra?” Cam asked.

“It looks like a female. Definitely alien. Bipedal, wings, horn, fur, hooves, hands with five fingers.” Kerra said as she played her lights over the figure.

“Sounds like a horse. What condition is the body in?” Cam asked.

“Surprisingly for being exposed to hard vacuum and solar radiation for who knows how long, it looks like she is just sleeping, rather than dead from decompression and radiation poisoning.” Kerra said. “It is very odd. Scanning her now.” She said as she let her suit’s bio scanners run over the figure.

“What the hell?” Kerra said out loud, shock in her voice. “Hammond, are you seeing these results? Somehow this woman is alive. Not sure how, but she is.”

“Didn’t you survive hard vacuum after blowing up that planet a few years ago?” Cam asked.

“I did, but I was in my super form. It basically makes me invulnerable while I am in it. I barely made it into the ship that came to get me. As it is, I was suffering from hypoxia when the airlock finished cycling. I healed from it thankfully, but not an experience I want to repeat.” Kerra said.

“Alright, Command wants you to bring her back to the ship.” Cam said after a few moments.

“Understood. Collecting the package and egressing back to the Pelican.” Kerra said as she stowed her weapon.

Carefully picking up the alien woman, taking care not to damage her wings, Kerra made her way back to the dropship.

Entering the troop bay, she set the woman down on the seats on one side before closing the ramp and re-pressurizing the bay. While it was cycling, she pulled a litter out from the emergency kit and opened it up. Once it was open, she transferred the woman to the litter and strapped her to it before securing it to the deck.

This done, she entered the cockpit and quickly had the engines running and left the surface, engaging the cloak as she did so, causing the dropship to disappear with a slight shimmer.

“Hammond, Sierra-048. I am enroute to you. ETA twenty minutes.” She said as she adjusted her course to rendezvous with the Daedalus-class carrier.

“Roger that. See you in the hangar.” Cam replied.

Soon enough, the Pelican had landed in the Hammond’s hangar bay. Kerra quickly shut down the ship before moving to the troop bay to open the rear ramp.

Once the ramp was lowered, a medical team came on board and took the unconscious woman to the ship’s infirmary.

Kerra removed her helmet and ran a gloved hand through her close cropped hair.

“This has been an interesting day. It will also confuse the hell out of future explorers on the moon when they see my boot prints.” Kerra said.

Cam chuckled. “It probably will. Go ahead and get out of your armor and get it cleaned up. We will be back in Earth orbit in a few hours. We’ll transport down with our guest when we get there.” He said.

“Yes sir.” Kerra replied to her team lead.

‘A random alien woman shows up on the moon and is somehow alive despite having no protection whatsoever. This is beyond odd. I just hope she is friendly.’ Kerra thought as she moved to her armory aboard the ship.

Removing her armor took little time, but cleaning the moon dust from it took quite a bit of time and several gallons of water, trickled out of a small nozzle.

‘Gonna have to tear it down completely when we get back to Earth. Who knows how much got between the segments.’ She thought as she cleaned up the runny grey mess.

As she finished mopping up the gunk, Cam walked in.

“Good news is that she isn’t a Goa’uld. No traces of naquedah in her system and nothing is showing up on the MRI.” He informed his teammate.

“That’s good news and one less thing to worry about.” Kerra said. The fact the signal could be some new Goa’uld trap was the reason the SGC had her fly a dropship to the surface rather than using a transporter.

“It is. But it opens a whole new can of worms about who and what she is, as well as how she got there and why she isn’t dead.” Cam replied, leaning against a bulkhead.

Kerra sighed. “I’ll watch over her.” She said as she grabbed a weapon belt with her two .45 caliber handguns holstered on it.

“I was going to ask you too while I went to the bridge. General Landry is going to want to do a debrief when we get back to the SGC.” Cam replied.

The two officers went their separate ways, Cam heading to the bridge and Kerra heading to the infirmary.

As she walked through the halls, Kerra contemplated their guest. How she wound up on the moon, how she survived the hard vacuum and the radiation, and most importantly, what her intentions were.

Entering the infirmary, she nodded at the medical staff before moving to a chair across from the bed the mysterious woman rested in. She felt a slight tingle as her chaos abilities were dampened.

Looking around, she spotted an Anti-Prior device active on a nearby table.

She then turned to the figure in the bed. She looked young, about Kerra’s age, with dark blue fur and a lighter blue mane and tail. Her wings were impressive, nearly ten feet across when they had been fully extended to gather information about her physiology. She also had a horn that extended from her forehead that was nearly a foot long and came to a sharp point.

The MRI had shown that the horn extended into her skull and that there was an extra lobe of her brain that it was directly connected to.

Kerra sat there observing the woman for sometime before she felt the subtle slowing of the ship as it settled into Earth orbit.

“Kerra, get ready for transport. Dr. Lam wants to check you out before debrief.” Cam said through her earpiece.

“Roger. Standing by.” Kerra said as she stood up.

A bright flash of light and both women disappeared from the ship.