Twilight looked out of the bay doors of the Pelican Dropship as they flew over the Mesa. She was strapped on one of the many seats in the Pelican, each of them taken by a heavily armed Marine. The Chief stood at the edge of the bay itself, His left arm holding a hand rail from the ceiling, while the other hand held his Sniper Rifle. Cortana was also present, inside the Chief's helmet.

Before they left Alpha Base, one of the Marines had a pouch and weapon strap custom made for her, allowing her to carry ammunition for the MA5B on her back, and the pistol hanging from the strap on the side. However, she was mainly planning on using magic for the mission, as she felt she hasn't mastered firearms yet. If she had to use them, she would, but she decided that she would act as a support for the Chief and the Marines.

Together, they, along with the group of marines led by Sergeant Parker, were to infiltrate the Covenant Warship, the Truth and Reconciliation, and rescue Captain Keyes. First though, they had to pass through the defended valley beneath the warship so they can enter through what the humans called 'the grav lift'.

A mix of feelings including determination, anxiety, horror and guilt all clashed inside of Twilight for what she was about to do. It was one thing to kill another living creature in self-defence, no matter how horrible it is to kill something. But this will be different. This time she would be on the offensive, trying to kill others in order to achieve a mission. But she had to, if she was to gain the trust of some of the humans in command.

However, most of the humans had been quite friendly to her, and were appalled when Silva forced her to join the assault. Some had even objected to it, though to no avail. Humans apparently have a strict structure of command, unlike Equestria.

After Captain Keyes has been rescued, though, the humans would be commanded by someone a lot more friendlier to her, so maybe she might be able to avoid being sent to war. She doubted this, as the humans may need her help to survive the ring world.

She was shaken back into reality by Sergeant Parker, who stood up and eyed the group. "All right boys and girls...and pony....lock and load." he said through the team frequency on the radio. "Our Captain has been taken by the Covenant and shut away in a purple tin can, and we're here to take him back. Remember, the Master Chief takes point, so follow him and his instructions. We also have a extra terrestrial guest with us, so make sure you have her back."

Parker turned to the Chief, and gave him a thumbs up, which the Chief offered the same gesture in return. Somehow, this brightened Twilight's mood, having seen humans react in a more...accepting manner to each other.

"Thirty seconds to dirt!", the pilot of the Pelican announced over the interior radio. "Make sure you get the Old Man back, and leave those bastards dead on the floor."

As the Pelican swooped down and hovered a hoof above the grassy surface, Twilight was amazed at the engineering and flight achievements of human technology as demonstrated by the Pelican, being able to hold its weight off of the ground, and fly in the sky. All of the marines unstrapped themselves and stood up, ready to embark out of the dropship.

Parker yelled "Go, Go, Go!" and all the marines, the Chief and Twilight leapt out of the dropship, landing on the smooth grass and dust. Twilight noticed that it was really dark. It was in the middle of the night, and barely any light other than that coming from the strange work lights littered around the place. Though her eyepiece had night vision, she cast a minor, simple spell allowing her to see well in the night.

After depositing the marines, the Pelican closed the doors, and flew off into the distance. Soon after, the Chief crept along a rocky footpath to the right, with Twilight following close behind. It soon rose to a two-meter high embarkment, with clusters of rock providing plenty of places to hide behind.

"Warning", Cortana said on the comm freq, "Covenant Stationary Guns are guarding that pass. I recommend using that sniper rifle to take out the gunners." What she was talking about was a deep pit that was several meters ahead of the footpath. It was filled with Grunts, Jackals and Elites, with two purple, hovering seats which had a weapon attached to them set up on converging line of sights. Both of the seats had a grunt sitting in them.

The Chief found a patch of cover next to a large stone, and motioned for Twilight to move to the next rock. She complied, and waited as the Chief raised his rifle. After a moment of nothing but waiting for any sign of attacked, Twilight turned back to the Chief, and witnessed him practicing moving his rifle to aim from one of the armed seats to the other as fast as he could.

After several attempts at this, the Chief pulled the trigger and the Rifle kicked against his shoulder as a loud bark was heard. The Grunt in the first Shade had his head blown off, sending blood everywhere. As the body fell out, the sniper rifle had already fired another shot, killing the Grunt in the second Shade.

However, the bark from the rifle was so loud, it immediately alerted the Covenant forces, who began firing at the Chief, but fortunately they hadn't noticed Twilight yet. That would change as Twilight used her magic to throw an Elite into the air, and smashed him into the ground, breaking every bone in his body, killing it instantly.

A second Elite turned to see what had happened to his comrade, when his head exploded from a sniper shot. Though the results was disgusting, Twilight was amazed how the sniper managed to break through the Elite's shields and cut through the body only when aimed at the head because she witnessed a third Elite moving just enough to avoid getting hit in the head, but still having his shields go down from the sniper rifle. The kinetic force must be extreme on that weapon.

Unfortunately, the Chief had to reload his sniper before he could fire again, and the remaining Covenant forces attempted to take advantage of this, but were flanked by the marines, who had waited until the Covenant were preoccupied to join the fight. Within a minute, every Covenant lay on the ground dead, and the extraction team moved on through the pass.

The pass gave way to a slope, with the left being the edge of a cliff. A trio of Jackals were squatting there, waiting for the humans to come, but were unaware of Twilight, who teleported behind them and used her magic to throw them off the edge. She looked towards the Chief, who had snuck up to her.

They arrived at a semi-open area, where there was a path to the left that was covered by a rocky landscape and an elevated footpath, and a gap through the middle, revealing the middle of the area. It was also filled with Covenant forces. The Chief motioned for the group to halt, as he moved down the left path.

Twilight decided to sneak behind cover, and take a peek at the Covenant forces. There were three Elites in three different sections of the area, the middle one having red armour and carrying a dark purple rifle, with green lights on it, unlike the usual blue plasma rifle the other Elites carried. Similarly, in the distance was a Jackal without a handheld shield, but had an eyepiece and carried a long rifle that was different from the Elite's one, with a large hole in the middle of it, and a glowing light flowing through the middle of it. Scattered around the three Elites were numerous Grunts and a few Jackals.

One of the Grunts that was near where the Chief had gone was suddenly hit by the back of Chief's rifle, the body falling to the ground without alerting any of the other Covenant forces. The Chief then leapt out of cover and fired a single shot at the Jackal with the rifle, shooting it in the head. As the bark of the rifle echoed through the open space, the Marines and Twilight, who telekinetically carried an Assault Rifle, opened fire at the surprised Aliens, mowing down the Grunts and Jackals.

One of the humans threw a metal ball at the feet of a Jackal and two Grunts. After a brief pause, the ball exploded, sending the burnt and shredded body parts of the Aliens across the area.

While the Grunts and Jackals were disorganised, the Elites rallied and ran towards the Marines, the two blue ones firing their plasma rifles, while the red one focused on the Chief, firing accurate shots with his purple rifle that were green and thin instead of the usual bolt shape of plasma. Twilight held the trigger of her Rifle at the nearest blue Elite, using up most of the ammo in the mag before it fell to the ground. So, to help the Chief, she enveloped him in a magical force field before the red Elite could take down his shield.

Enraged, the Elite now focused on Twilight, firing at her in a methodical manner. She raised a shield in front of her, but the impacts seemed to be continuously degrading her shields, as if it was radiated. but the shots ceased as the Chief vaulted behind the Elite, grabbed its head, and twisted it with a loud crack.

The last Elite was quickly finished off, and the team was on the move, going down a path away from the open area, that lead to an enclosed arch and eventually, after twenty minutes and a few Covenant patrols, arrived at another large open area, where at the centre of a steep dip in the ground of rock and glass lay a large metal disk. Purple light seemed to shimmer and float up to the belly of the Covenant Warship just above them.

On the edges of the dip were three Shade turrets, and a garrison of Covenant troops. As soon as the extraction team entered view, the Covenant troops started to pour down fire at them.

"That's our way in", the Chief shouted, pointing at the Gravity lift. "We need to deal with these forces beforehand so we can land some reinforcements", Cortana added in.

"That's going to be a problem!", Twilight shouted as she blasted a nearby Elite with her magic. "What about those Turrets?"

"I'll deal with them", the Chief growled out, then aimed at the nearest Shade with his sniper rifle, killing the gunner. He then rushed up and vaulted into the now vacant seat. Twilight couldn't help but feel a sense of irony as the Chief used the Covenant's own turret against them, sending purple-white energy first at the other shade turrets, then at the Covenant Troops. Within seconds, they were cut down.

Twilight and the Marines were about to rush forward when one of the Marines yelled "Look at that! There's more of them!" as a dozen figures floated down from the Warship through the gravity lift and landed on the disk. Two of them were Aliens that Twilight had never seen before.

They were huge, mostly covered in steel-blue armour, their wormy, orange skin only exposed in two points: the neck and the back. On their left arm was large, handheld shield that allowed them to provide cover for most of their body when they crouched, which they did a lot. Their right arm had a new weapon, with green bulbs and three small claw like appendages on the sides of the front. Their backs had six spikes attached, all of which seemed to become erect at the sight of the humans. While the regular Covenant forces spread out, the two new aliens roared in unison, a sound that felt like a town shouting than two individuals.

Whatever they were, the Marines became temporarily spooked, but opened fire anyways. While many of the Covenant Troops fell to the human onslaught, the new Aliens, which Twilights eyepiece gave the title of "Hunters", simply raised their shield, causing the bullets to ricochet off of them. Their weapons glowed green until they fired at the marines, making a 'whoop' sound. The green blasts hit two Marines, causing them to literally melt.

One of the Hunters jumped off of the disk, and charged straight at Twilight. Though they looked bulky in nature, the Hunters were remarkably swift. A Marine made an attempt to distract the Hunter, but he was simply crushed by the shield when the Hunter swung at him. She teleported several feet away in order to avoid getting hit by it, but heard one of the Hunters weapons discharge, saw the blast flying towards her face, and teleported once again out of fear.

She flashed into existence on the other side of the dip, and aimed a beam of magic at the Hunter, who turned around in the nick of time and blocked it with its shield. However, the beam did manage to burn it significantly, so Twilight poured as much power into another beam, and unleashed it in a much grander scale than the previous one in terms of raw power.

The Hunter attempted to just block the beam again, but the beam began to melt its armoured shield, much to everyone's, including Twilight's, amazement. The only thing that prevented her from totally destroying the shield was the blast from the Hunters weapon that came flying at her, making her use up her magic to teleport away.

Once again, she appeared in a flash at another area of the dip, though this time she had to contend with the Elite that was there, trying to kill a wounded Marine. Because she had used up a considerable amount of magic and won't be able to use any for a brief period of time, she bucked him so hard, he flew over the edge of the cliff. She turned around to deal with the Hunter, only to find the Hunter right in front of her, in the process of swinging its shield at her.

She closed her eyes, bracing herself for the impact, but it never came. Instead, she heard a groan, then a loud thump. She opened her eyes and found the Hunter dead on the ground, with the Chief standing behind it, his Sniper rifle being lowered.

As soon as the Hunters arrived from the Gravity lift, the Chief felt his blood run cold. He had faced them many times before, which meant that he knew how deadly they could be. With their Fuel-Rod Cannons, their metal shields and their ability to leap into motion within a heartbeat, the two Hunters could very well kill the entire extraction team.

So the Chief began the motion of swivelling the turret round to fire at the Hunters, when the closest Hunter fired first. The Shade took a direct hit, flinging him to the ground as the momentum of the impact flung the Shade off of the edge.

His shield display flashing red, causing an alarm to shriek at his ears. He grabbed the nearest weapon to him, his fallen Sniper Rifle, and raised it, only to find an Elite in front of him. The Hunter was distracted by a Marine, who was using cover to protect himself, popping out at opportune moments to shoot the Hunter, only to slip back before the Hunter even spotted him, a smart move. However, the Chief still had to deal with this Elite.

The Chief fired a single round at the Elite, breaking his shields down, and followed up with the back of the Rifle being smashed unto its face. The Elite was knocked back by this, his face broken and bruised, but still alive. That is, until the Chief fired another round through his chest, puncturing his major organs, killing him.

After a brief pause, letting his Shields recharge, the Chief spotted Twilight duelling the second Hunter. He witnessed her teleportation after her super beam, pinpointed her new location, and saw the Hunter charge after her. Realizing the danger she was in, his eyes looked at the top left of his HUD, and saw dismal news. He only had one bullet left in his Sniper Rifle.

With this in mind, he charged after the Hunter, and, before it started to bring its shield up to smash Twilight, aimed through the 2.5x Scope at the exposed part of the Hunter's back, seeing all of the worms that made up the Hunter's body.

Certain he had the right mark, he pulled the trigger and watched with satisfaction as the Sniper bullet penetrated the exposed worms, and ricocheted off of the inside of the armour, killing more and more of the worms, until the Hunter died.

Discarding his rifle, and ignoring Twilight's gratified expression, the Chief spotted a fallen Assault Rifle next to him, just as the first Hunter roared out a cry of anguish as it witnessed the death of its bond brother. The Chief lunged at the Assault Rifle, narrowly avoiding being shot by the Hunter as it solely focused on him now, trying to avenge its brother's death.

He brought his AR up to bare, and fired a short burst to enrage the Hunter further in a successful attempt at causing the Hunter to charge at him. He sidestepped the oncoming Juggernaut and managed to dodge the enormous shield by a few centimeters. He aimed for the unprotected area of the back once again, emptying the Rifle's magazine into the back. Killing it with the last bullet.

As the Hunter fell to the ground, the Chief fed a fresh magazine into the MA5B, scanned the area for enemies, and called out "All clear."

Twilight trotted up to him, her body shacking from adrenaline rush and shock. Her head was looking side to side at a fast rate, as if she expected an attack to come up out of nowhere. However, the Chief had no enemy indicators on his motion tracker, and the remaining marines were calling in all clears. The Gravity Lift was free for use, and Cortana used this opportunity to call in Echo 419 for reinforcements.

He looked down at Twilight, and though no words exited his lips, she understood his unspoken question. "I'll... be fine", she said, looking right back at him, forcing a positive expression to her face. "We've made it."

"This was the easy part", he said, much to her obvious dismay. "Now for the hard part."

"He's right", Parker said, walking up to the pair after having scolded some of his troops for keeping their eyes off of looking for any signs of trouble. "This was only a small guard force. There will be a lot more of the bastards up there, though we do have some advantages."

"Like what?", Twilight asked.

"The tenacity and skill of my marines here", Parker pointed at his squad, "you with your powerful magic that could melt Hunter armour, and not to mention the Chief here, the last god damn Spartan alive. Hell, I believe he could achieve this mission by himself."

The Chief felt his gut go heavy at the mentioning of him being the last Spartan, though he understood that Parker didn't mean that in the bad way. His brothers and sisters were all dead now, and all he could do was continue on fighting without them, even though many of the soldiers on this ring, including Silva, considered him to be a freak.

Twilight looked at the Chief with a surprised expression on her face and opened her mouth when Echo 419 arrived in her Pelican. After she unloaded a group of fresh Marines, he waved them over to join the Extraction team, and walked up onto the lift pad, joined by Twilight and the other Marines.

"Looks like we made it", a Marine said just as an invisible hand plucked him off the surface to pull him up to the Ship. Parker was next, remarking in a sarcastic tone about them being the lucky ones before rising up.

Twilight gave a yelp of surprise as she was lifted off of the ground,her hooves temporarily waving in the air as she struggled to control her anxiety from it, and was pulled up like the others. Cortana took this moment to comment about her plan. "I can home in on to the Captain's Neural Interface once we're in the ship, and will use that to lead us to him, though he will most likely be placed in the ship's brig, or at the very least near it.

"Glad to hear it", he dryly remarked in reply, before he felt the beam pull him up towards the Ship. Within moments, every Marine, Pony and Spartan was flying towards the Ship. The Chief tightened his Grip on his Rifle. Things were about to get hectic.

Author's Note

Hi Everyone.

So I've added a few deviations from Halo lore in this chapter with two things. Firstly, there will be Jackal snipers on the Halo ring. Secondly, the Covenant Carbine is around in Halo CE. I've done this because I thought that from a lore point of view that the Covenant would have had Jackal snipers and carbines on the ring.

Note that I won't have the Battle Rifle in Halo Ce because they mostly became used during Halo First Strike, especially by the Chief, so I am leaving both it and the SMG out of this for a while.

If you see any errors or inconsistencies, please post in the comments below.

Next time: The actual battle inside the Truth and Reconciliation