The Battle for Equestriaby GhostRaz6ChaptersChapter 1: Not Alone After AllChapter 2: Enter the YamatoChapter 3: Chasing EchosChapter 1: Not Alone After AllUnknown UNSC Shipyard. Date: September 27, 2548 “I don’t care. The build remains on schedule. Finish it no matter what happens. I don’t care if the Covenant starts glassing the planet.” “Sir. It’s not a matter of progress; it’s a matter of supplies. We only have enough for one ship.” “Are you saying her sister ships won’t be able to be completed?” “Not as the current classification, no.” “Fine. Make the Grim Torment a Destroyer.” “And the Dusk?” “Use her for pieces for the Yamato.” “Yes sir.” Eight years later… Slip space Rear Admiral Travis Stevens awoke in a cryo-pod and to a female voice saying, ”Good morning Admiral. Sleep well?” The pod opened and released the admiral as he coughed, spitting up the crap they made him swallow before the sleep. Sure, he knew the actual name, but it tasted like crap so that’s what he always called it. “I slept fine, Lusankya. But will you please learn how to drive?” He said going around to the other crew members who were also waking up after their jump from Earth. Lusankya laughed, ”You know I fly better than anyone else on this ship.” Her figure appeared on a nearby holoprojector. Her figure appearing as a woman clad in white flight armor without a helmet and her hair cropped short to regulation standards. The AI proceeded to look around the cryo-bay. “Well, that’s everyone we need right now. The marines will stay asleep until we exit slip space. You know how they complain about not getting their beauty sleep.” The admiral smiled while the rest of the bridge crew chuckled at the AI’s joke. A couple of the ensigns were already getting dressed and heading for the bridge when the admiral stopped them. “Go eat first, then head up to the bridge. I don’t need my crew thinking on empty stomachs.” Stevens said pulling on his pants and reaching over to grab his uniform shirt. His light grey hair cut marine short. He had always liked it that way, ever since he was a marine fighting insurrectionists until now. He had just gotten out of the corps when the Human-Covenant war had started so he decided to head to officer school for the UNSC. He got average grades when he attended there and when he graduated he got stationed on Earth. Not a lot happened so he was stuck just doing paperwork for some admiral he didn’t remember. That is until he was reassigned to Reach as one of the ODP commanders. That was two years before the Fall of Reach. After Reach fell he was given a ship two months before the first invasion of Earth. He survived the first invasion only to have his ship destroyed in the beginning of the second invasion. How he made it out of that mess alive, he’ll never know. His dark green eyes watched as the two nodded and said, “Yes sir.” Before heading out the door. As Admiral Stevens finished buttoning up his uniform shirt, Lusankya spoke again, “Ten minutes until we exit Slip space.” When she finished speaking, Stevens headed to the door and made way to the ship’s bridge. As he entered, he walked over to the main display in the center of the room. “Lusankya. How are the reactors?” He spoke pulling the information up on the screen. “Reactors 1 and 3 are operating nominally, I’m just bringing reactor 2 online.” She spoke as the holoprojector by the display lit up and her figure appeared again. “Why was number 2 offline?” He kept his eyes on the screen switching it over to the weapons display. In the upper right hand corner, the ship’s name was displayed: UNSC YAMATO. Admiral Stevens had read up on the history of the name. It was named after the Japanese super weapon back in the Second World War. The Yamato, along with its sister ship the Musashi, were the largest battleships built in the world. It boasted the largest guns and the best armor. Too bad it went down the way it did. The UNSC Yamato was like its older counterpart. It is the first and last of its kind in the UNSC navy; the only Battleship-class in the entire UNSC fleet. It had been commissioned during the tail end of the Human-Covenant war by a private company who had planned on building three but apparently only had the resources for one and a smaller sister ship. So the Yamato was the only one of her kind and the admiral got the personal honor of being on her maiden voyage. “Sir, reactor 2 experienced a slight malfunction once we jumped from Earth so I shut it down and had the engineer crew work on it while everyone else slept.” Lusankya explained turning to face Admiral Stevens. “Anything serious?” He asked glancing over at her as she crossed her arms. “No sir. Just a burnt up cable leading to the weapons. Nothing that couldn’t be fixed. All MAC guns are still functional.” Her figure turned just as the rest of the bridge crew started to enter the room. “Well with where we’re heading nobody will see the explosion.” He looked at the reports that were just coming in. MAC gun 1, 2, 3, and 5 were online and ready to fire while 4 was offline for maintenance and all 1,000 Archer missile pods were online. Point defense turrets were just coming online as they were slowly decelerating from slip space. “Sir, five minutes until we exit slip space into neutral space.” She spoke. “Wake the marines now Lusankya. We need them ready, just in case.” Stevens watched as the status on MAC gun number 4 switched from red to green. He smiled inwardly. He felt like a kid in a candy store. Big guns. He’d always been a sucker for a big boom. And that’s exactly what a MAC gun delivered. A big gun with a big boom. The ensign that oversaw the weapons turned in his chair to look at the Admiral. “Sir? Should I bring the Super MAC gun online?” The ensign spoke uneasily. This is the first time he’d ever seen an admiral, much less been in the same room with one. “Bring her online.” Stevens turned to face the view of space. Currently the metal shutters on them were still closed until they exited slip space. Admiral Stevens made his way over to the captain’s chair and just sat there, waiting for the shutters to open so they could get a good look at stars. Near Ponyville, Equestria Twilight Sparkle set up her telescope on hill as Spike came up carrying a large book and a blanket. As she finished making adjustments, Spike was finishing setting up the blanket on the ground and putting the book on it. In the distance she could hear the beat coming from Vinyl Scratch’s home. Twilight just smiled as she opened the book with her magic. A Guide to the Stars. It had proved an interesting read so she had brought it for a reference. Sure she already knew about most of the star formations and the night sky but it was still interesting to watch Princess Luna’s handiwork. “Thank you, Spike.” She said turning back to the telescope. “No problem Twilight.” The small purple green dragon said back to the purple mare. Looking through her telescope she saw a beautiful array of stars in the night sky. She kept admiring the view, going from star cluster to star cluster; studying each one in turn. Then she noticed something off. One of the star formations that were usually there was gone. “That’s not right.” Twilight said mostly to herself. “What’s not right?” Spike asked waking rousing himself before he fell asleep on the blanket. “Well I was looking from constellation to constellation and one of my favorite ones isn’t there, even though it should.” She said taking her eye away from the telescope to look at Spike then eventually to the starry sky. Sure enough, the same constellation was still missing from view. Then a few seconds later another constellation disappeared and the previous one appeared. “What’s going on?” Spike said as he watched the disturbance next to Twilight. Meanwhile, in the Everfree Forest, another being was watching the stars also. His face shrouded by a black helmet and the rest of him obscured in black body armour. When he saw the same thing Twilight was seeing not far away, he sprinted to his damaged craft. When he reached it, he found the transmitter beacon, recorded a new message and sent it on a UNSC band. He sighed, “I hope this one gets out. Not much life left in the reserve battery.” He grabbed his suppressed SMG from the storage crate nearby. It’s not like he needed it. The creatures that inhabited this planet were peaceful… and primitive compared to the UNSC. So it meant that they were not part of the Covenant. He turned on his armor’s built in cloaking device. Being a Spartan-III has its advantages sometimes. He slowly made his way out of the forest, taking note of the purple pony and purple green lizard on the hill. He gave them a wide berth and moved slowly towards the town and into its main market area. He quickly made his way over to the apple stall and grabbed a sack of apples, turning off his active camo at the same time. No point in being invisible if you’re carrying a sack that will give you away, he thought. He then made his way over to a pastry stall and grabbed a few slices of bread and slowly made his way back to the forest. Funny, the purple pony and the lizard weren’t on the hill anymore… Author's Note First chapter. I'd appreciate all criticism and any suggestions you peoples might have. Thank you! Chapter 2: Enter the YamatoUNSC Colony World Aegis 1000 Hrs As the Yamato left slip space, the whole bridge crew stood in total shock. Almost the entire planet had been glassed. Billions of souls. Dead. Admiral Stevens slammed his fist down onto the arm of his chair. The trip had only taken them a week yet they were still too slow to save the dead from their fate. “Admiral. I’m picking up the Grim. She just exited beside us.” The ensign in charge of the sensors said looking over to him. He could see the look in her eyes. Sorrow. Most of this bridge crew had seen the tail end of the war and had seen Reach being glassed on the net. Yet, witnessing it first hand was something completely different. “Get me a comm to the Grim’s captain,” Stevens said standing up and heading to the display screen, “and bring up the sensor scans. I want to know if the Covenant is still in-system.” As the information for the sensor readings was brought up a small video feed to the UNSC Grim Torment was opened revealing a younger looking man. His green eyes and brown hair had a calming sense to them. His face was tan as if he’d never even been on a ship a day in his life. “Admiral. Captain Woolf reporting sir.” He snapped a salute that the admiral quickly returned. “Admiral. We’re preparing to launch fighters now to be sure there are no Covenant surprises in the area.” “Good. Tell them to be careful out there.” Now that the prophets were no longer leading the Covenant, the Elites had become even more fanatical to the point that they were even more desperate to stop the human advance on Forerunner tech sometimes even ramming their damaged vessels into their adversaries ships. Admiral Stevens had seen a couple of times where a Covenant frigate would run itself straight into a UNSC carrier to try and stop it. As both the Yamato and Grim Torment came closer to the planet in space’s dark silence, a mushroom cloud was seen from the planet’s surface. “Lusankya. Get me a scan of the planet’s surface.” Admiral Stevens went forward to the forward viewing platform and kept his eyes transfixed on the planet. “Sir. Scans show a small force holed up against a larger one. Judging by the IFF tags, it’s more than likely UNSC.” Lusankya reported back in a calm tone. She had already processed how the admiral would respond and was simply waiting for him to give the order. “Send a message to the Grim and tell them to send in Fireteam Winter.” Stevens turned back to the weapons display, checking the charge on the Super MAC gun. 55%. Hopefully, if the Covenant was still in system, there wouldn’t be any assault carriers in their battle group. Pelican H897 en route to UNSC Outpost on Colony Aegis 1045 Hrs Carmichael waited silently with the rest of his squad as they descended to the planet. Fireteam Winter had originally been slated to go with the UNSC Infinity but was assigned to protect the UNSC Grim Torment and the UNSC Yamato. Carmichael turned his helmet covered face to look at the rest of his squad. On his left sat the only female in the squad, Alison. He didn’t know much about her besides the fact that she almost rarely talked. That and she never removed her armor. Across from him sat Alexander and Erast. Alexander who was an ODST before joining the ranks of the Spartan - IV's, had been on Sigma Octanus IV when the Covenant had attacked. Erast came from good old Earth. Carmichael thought about his own history. His homeworld, Reach, had been glassed when he had been off assigned to a different system. He had been so angry with command that he had almost gone AWOL. The pelican kept descending down to the planet, approaching the firebase. Carmichael opened up his comm channel to his team,"Alright. Check mags and get ready for a fight. Let's show these split jaws what we can do." Firebase Echo Zulu, Colony Aegis 1045 Hrs Another bolt of searing plasma splashed against the polycrete building making the building give off a cherry red appearance. “Damn it Corporal! Fire that rocket already!” Lieutenant Greives shouted to the shaking man next to him. “Sir, the snipers!” The corporal protested, leveling the rocket launcher on his shoulder. “I don’t care. If the base takes another hit like that, we won’t be here to worry about snipers." It had only been 20 minutes prior since the Yamato comm-ed him and said that support was on its way. 15 minutes ago the Covenant had launched another assault on Firebase EZ. A smoldering Scorpion tank sat outside the front gate as a Wraith lobbed bolts of face melting plasma at the base from a nearby hill. At least its not that accurate, he thought. However... He looked over the lip of the bunker’s window and saw the hunter pair that had been giving them trouble. He lowered his head just in time as a beam rifle shot went through the spot where his head had just occupied. “Shit. Sergeant! Were you able to get a hold of Fox Base? We could really use their support.” The other man holed up in the bunker, turns from the radio,”Sir, they say they’re dealing with their own assault right now. 10 until they can free up a bird to do anything.” “We won’t be here in-” His sentence was cut off by a combined shot from the hunter pair and the Wraith as the polycrete bunker’s face is vaporized and the three men that were in there suffered the same fate. LZ, Fireteam Winter, Colony Aegis, 15 minutes later The Pelican lifts off after dropping off it’s four man cargo. The ravine that leads right to Firebase EZ is eerily quiet. No birds chirp from the surrounding trees. Carmichael opens a secure comm to his team,”Alison. Find a spot to cover our approach, don’t fire unless it’s an HVT or they open up on us. Let’s try and take them by surprise.” A green light in his helmet lit up as her acknowledgement came back to him. He saw her slowly fade and start blending in with the environment around them and take off heading for a cliff he had seen on their approach. “The rest of us will hike it there. We’re only a couple of klicks off.” Two more green lights appeared on his hud. Carmichael gave them the sign to follow him and they took off, hiking through the brush and trees to Firebase EZ. It was only ten minutes later when their motion trackers picked up movement on either side of the small ravine. They quickly found cover as a column of grunts led by jackals made there way out from behind a pair of rocks. They looked like they were on patrol. Erast comm-ed to Carmichael,”Do we let them pass Mike?” “No.” he comm-ed to Alison,”Do you see them?” Her voice was but a whisper,”Yes.” “On my mark. Three...” They all readied their weapons as they inched closer,”Two...” A few feet away now,”One... Open fire.” The grunts and jackals danced in the hail of lead that was shot at them, not even having time to react. “Good job. Let’s keep moving.” Alison, Spartan IV-498, Overlooking Firebase EZ 1110 Hrs Alison slowly crawled up to the lip of the drop off she had chosen. It gave a good overview of the entire firebase sprawled out below. Bringing her sniper rifle in front of her, she clicked on the 5x zoom and watched the world in front of her leap forward. The base was completely over run. A burnt up Scorpion still sat in front of the base while a couple of bunkers had the fronts melted off. Poor bastards, she thought. As she lay there watching the Covenant patrols and marking them with NAV points for her team, her mind began to bring up her past life before being a Spartan and before she had joined the UNSC... Unnamed UNSC Colony, Five years ago... She watched in horrid fascination as her commanding officer was disemboweled in front of her. It almost looked like the elite smiled at her and took pleasure in watching her horror. As the elite slowly withdrew the sword from her commander, it turned on her. No, please no. She thought, as her grip tightened on her MA37 assault rifle. Come on move. She tried to will her body to move but she just couldn't. As the elite slowly advanced towards her a sniper shot tore through the elite’s head. As he dropped, a dark figure moved up to check the now dead elite. It wore a black helmet with a silver visor. The rest of the figure was also clad in black armor and it carried a sniper rifle with a battle rifle slung on it’s back. She had seen these guys before. UNSC ODSTs. And that’s when she recalled what side she was on. She was an Insurrectionist officer, and she had her duty. As she pulled the charging handle back on the rifle, he turned to face her, his mask unpolarized so she could see his face. He had a tan complexion and cold blue eyes. Her finger froze before she could pull the trigger. He smiled at her and said,”Come on. Let’s get out of here.” “Alison. we’re in position.” Carmichael spoke quietly over the comm. She could see their IFF tags in the hills below. “I’ve got you covered.” She said softly as she zoomed in on the highest ranking elite she saw and took aim. She waited for just the right moment before she squeezed the trigger. Ponyville, Equestria 8:30 AM Spike just stood there and watched as Twilight slowly wore a groove into the floor of the library. “I’m sure they’ll be here soon, Twi. Don’t worry. I’m sure what you saw last night is nothing more than some hungry pony who needed that food.” Spike said trying to calm his friend down. “Yes but the only pony we know that lives in the Everfree Forest is Zecora, and she’s not even a pony.” Twilight kept pacing as she spoke. A knock at the door came just as Twilight finished her sentence. “They’re here.” She went to go open the door for her friends. The first through her door was Rainbow Dash, a cyan colored pegasus with a rainbow colored mane and tail. Applejack followed closely behind her. The orange earth pony worked Ponyville’s local apple orchard that her family owned. “Where are the others at?” Twilight closed the door and turned to her friends. “Well. Rarity was finishin’ up a dress, if ah remember right.” Applejack said looking to Rainbow Dash. “Yeah, and Fluttershy was helping Pinkie Pie with Gummy.” Rainbow looked back at Applejack before looking at Twilight. “What’s wrong with Gummy?” Twilight asked going over to one of the shelves and grabbing a book. “Stomach ache.” Rainbow said nonchalantly. Twilight came back over to them holding the book she had grabbed with her magic. “What’s that?” “It’s a book on all of the creatures known to Equestria and from what I saw last night... It isn’t native to Equestria.” Twilight said flipping through the pages of the book relatively quickly. “So if it ain’t native here. It’s an-” “-Alien?” Rainbow Dash finished Applejack’s sentence. They all stared at each other in complete silence. “We need to go warn Zecora.” Twilight said rushing to the door. She opened the door just to have Rainbow Dash fly by her. “Yeah. Before that alien eats her!” Rainbow flew a few feet away from Ponyville’s library. “Come on!” The group of three quickly hurried off to the Everfree Forest to warn Zecora of the alien that was hiding there. As the group rapidly approached the edge of the forest, Applejack halted the group. “Hold up, y’all. Look at this.” Applejack pointed to a small brown package lying on the ground. Printed on the package in bold letters was: UNSC Ration Protein Bar. Twilight lifted the object up and examined it closely. “UNSC... What could that stand for...” She turned and looked at the Everfree Forest, still holding the protein bar up with her magic. I’ll find out soon enough, she thought. He watched the three ponies from the edge of the forest. Careless, he thought. As the three ponies galloped into the forest, looking for him, he turned and raced into the forest back to his pod. I have to hide it before they can find it. He ducked and dodged past branches, his armor’s active camouflage barely able to keep up. As he reached his pod, he froze immediately. Standing by the downed UNSC slipspace pod, was a zebra who was currently looking through his meager stash of equipment. Author's Note Sorry this one took so long guys. I couldn't get a hold of anyone to help me proof read, so please tell me about any spelling errors or grammatical errors I may have missed while looking over this. As always, comments appreciated and loved. Ghost Chapter 3: Chasing EchosEverfree Forest 9:00 AM Twilight knocked sharply on Zecora’s hut door. Applejack and Rainbow Dash stood behind her watching the forest for any signs of movement. “Zecora! Are you in there? We need to talk to you!” Twilight knocked on the wooden door again. No response came from the hut. “Maybe she went out for a walk?” Rainbow suggested as Twilight was about to knock on the hut’s door a third time. “If she did, we have to go find her.” Twilight turned and looked at the rest of her friends. As they discussed what they were going to do, Zecora looked over the strange equipment she had found. Most looked like metallic squares with writing on them. As Zecora poked and prodded among the crates, she heard a twig snap behind her. UNSC Colony World Aegis 1155 Hrs The warthog that Fireteam Winter had commandeered rocketed over the first tiny hill. Music from an older generation blared through it’s tiny speakers as it landed hard on the other side. Behind them, flying low and firing at them, were two banshees that had been tailing them for the past ten minutes now. Every once and awhile, one would get brave enough to attempt an attack run but would get shot at by Erast who was on the anti-air gun mounted on the back of the hog. Carmichael turned in his seat and fired at the pursuing banshees with a rocket launcher he’d found back at the half destroyed firebase. As the rocket left the tube and streaked towards its intended target, Carmichael watched as the banshee easily maneuvered out of the way, letting the rocket fly past, detonating harmlessly in the air behind it. Carmichael turned back around letting the spent rocket launcher tube fall from his grasp and out the open side of the vehicle next to him. He hit the comm switch in his helmet as he pulled out his pistol,”Alison, we’re 3 klicks from the LZ. Advise on your position, over.” At first, all he heard in return was static, then gunfire followed by a few shots of a plasma pistol. “Alison?” “Carmichael keep going straight. I can take out one of the banshees... Now.” As she finished her sentence, it was punctuated by a sniper rifle shot that tore into the leading banshee with deadly accuracy. As the banshee turned to find this new assailant, another shot tore right into where the pilot sat and caused the banshee to explode, sending the flaming debris into the other chasing banshee. As the still pursuing banshee dodged the flaming wreck, it was lit up by Erast on the AA gun. A couple of seconds later, it joined it’s comrade on the ground in a burning heap of metal. 20 Minutes Earlier... “Carmichael. I need your squad to go into the research facility and retrieve an artifact the egg heads unearthed the other day. Apparently, it’s why the covenant attacked this system.” Captain Woolf spoke as another grunt fell to an onslaught of lead. “Yes sir. We’ll get it for ‘ya.” The three spartans moved out of their hiding position. They had had a hell of a time trying to infiltrate the over run firebase. The wraiths were probably the most difficult part and had used up half of their rocket launcher ammo. To make matters worse, the covenant had had almost three squads of elite zealots guarding the entrance. The spartans cut across the parade grounds of the firebase and quickly entered the R&D area of the base. Inside they found a couple of grunt bodies intermingled with dead UNSC marines. Ignoring the bodies and moving deeper into the facility, the group saw the dead slowly turn from the occasional grunt and marine, to dead scientists. Carmichael fumed silently to himself as they continued on, farther into the bowels of the research facility. As they rounded another corner, Alison spoke over the comms,”Carmichael. Two phantoms on approach, with four escort banshees.” He keyed his comm,”Roger that.” Guess we better hustle then, he thought as he took off at a mild jog which turned into a run as they rounded another corner. The group ran for another five minutes before they came to a sealed blast door and had to stop. Above the door was painted in bright red lettering: Artifacts & Weapons Research Authorized Personnel Only Alexander chuckled at the last line as he stepped forward with a block of C5 explosive in one hand and the detonator in the other. Erast just shook his head and said,”We could always just run the hacking program and open the door that way.” Alexander, in the meantime, had already placed the explosive on the center of the door with the two heavy pieces of metal met and spoke,”Yeah. But I like my way better.” Turning, he sprinted for one of the last corners they had rounded followed closely by Carmichael and Erast. Three seconds later a loud boom shook the hallway as Alexander peered around the corner. Sure enough the door was no longer an obstacle for them and neither were the two elites who had thought it was a good idea to stand behind the door. “Well look at that sir. I got three birds with one explosive.” However, the victory was short lived as the remaining elite and his entourage spotted Alexander's head peering around the corner and opened fire. As Alexander ducked behind the wall again, his translator picked up what the elite said to the grunts. "Carmichael. The elites keep mentioning some 'relic' left by the Forunners. I think this might be the artifact we're looking for." Alexander readied his rifle to go around the corner. "Then let's go get it." Carmichael spoke as he pulled the charging handle back on his assault rifle. UNSC Colony World Aegis 1156 Hrs The artifact rolled around on the floor board. Carmichael picked it up before it decided it didn't like the ride and jumped ship. It fit perfectly in his gauntleted hand as he examined its surface features. No blemishes or imperfections marked its smooth surface as it glowed a faint blue. What secrets do you hold? As ke kept looking, he failed to notice the scenery changing around him. When he did look up, he noticed he was not longer in the passenger seat of the warthog, but was standing in an ancient catacomb, with what appeared to carvings of horse heads on nearly everything. "Where am I?" As he kept looking around, he noticed a set of ornate stone doors. On closer inspection, Carmichael noticed that the door had Forunner symbols inscribed into it. Where am I... He blinked just a second and found himself sitting in the warthog with Erast yelling at him. "Yo Carm. Earth to Carmichael! We're here." As Carmichael looked up he saw Alexander halfway to the pelican while Alison was just leaving the woods. As they all boarded the pelican and it took off, Carmichael reflected on what he had seen when he looked into the small sphere in his hand. Horses and the Forunners... It just doesn't make any sense. As the pelican left orbit, a video feed was directed the the Spartans by a shaken pilot. It showed the UNSC Yamato getting fired at and returning fire with a Covenant assault carrier. Tiny explosions pockmarketed the space near the two giant ships. Yet, the Yamato easily towered over the assault carrier by probably four more whole carriers. As the Spartans continued watching there was a bright flash of light as the UNSC Grim Torment came out of slipspace in between Fireteam Winter and the Covenant ship. The pilot of the pelican slowly brought his tiny ship closer to the Grim Torment. As they got closer in the empty void of space, Captain Woolf's came over the comms. "Hurry up Pelican 897. I don't think you want to be out there when the Yamato comes about." UNSC Yamato 1215 Hrs Admiral Stevens watched in silent excitement as the Grim picked up the Spartans and jumped to slipspace again right as the Yamato finished turning towards the advancing assault carrier. "Ensign." He spoke to the thin man that was currently rechecking targeting coordinates on the weapons console. "Fire when ready." "Yes sir. Firing Super MAC-" everyone on the ship felt a considerable lag as the 3,000 ton round was loaded "-... Now." The Yamato shuddered through all her decks as the round was launched, pushing the ship back slightly in space as it traveled at four tenths the speed of light. As soon as the round struck the assault carrier it was almost blown inside out before it exploded in a blue plasma ball in space. The entire bridge crew of the Yamato cheered as the Grim reentered space right next to them. In all, Stevens thought it was a very productive day. Canterlot Excavation Site B 9:15 AM Melody Delta looked at the large stone door as ponies behind her were busily cataloging every ancient artifact they could. This door had her perplexed. None of there spells could get through it and every other way they tried ended up breaking tools. The inscriptions on the door were amazing. They weren't any other none written language in Equestria or even on the planet. She walked closer to the door, her poofy brown mane almost touching it as she got closer to inspect what appeared to be a print of some kind. It wasn't a hoof print. It looked more like a dragon's claw print except without the claw part. Reaching forward with one hoof she touched it and a deep rumbling was heard throughout the catacombs. "What in Celestia..." She was cut off as a loud whirring noise pierced the once prevalent silence of the room and the large door started to lower, revealing a cleanly polished room made of... "Metal?" She finished her own thought as the door finally lowered into the floor and locked into place. She could hear the various "Oooo's" and "Aaaaahs" of the workers behind her as she turned to see a dark green earth pony bump into to pegasi statues that were facing each other with their hooves covering their faces. "Careful with those! They're antiques." She scolded the stallion. "Sorry ma'am." He backed away from the statues sheepishly. One crisis averted, she thought turning back to the metal room in front of her. It looked like the room had dozens of gems embedded in the walls and they all sparked with life of their own. Walking in Melody heard another whirring sound, this time however, a platform had risen in the center of the room with a large projected green button. Getting closer to the platform, she noticed the same writing all over what appeared to be some sort of console. Everypony froze when a voice rang out out of the blue. "Greetings reclaimers. Your species has been dormant for some time. Are you ready to light the 'torch'." The voice was oddly feminine. "Who built this place?" Melody asked looking around. "The Forerunners did. Your planet being the farthest away from the Halo rings so as life would not be interupted by their being fired." The voice replied calmly. "Why was it built?" Now she was even more confused. Halo rings? Forerunners? "To study the odd energy exerted by almost every creature on this planet. If you wish to know more. Please press the icon in the center of the console. All will be explained then." The voice spoke. As far as Melody could tell, it wasn't trying to bring them harm, so she went ahead and pressed the button. As she did, a strong pulse of light shot out of the console and towards the ceiling of the room. As it touched the wall, it winked out of existence. "Well that was... Different." She spoke as she moved away from the platform. "Somepony go and inform the Princesses of what we found." UNSC Yamato 1230 Hrs Admiral Stevens looked at the Forerunner artifact lying on his desk. It pulsed a faint blue color as he watched it. I sure hope that whatever this thing holds is useful. Lusankya's voice came over the comm in his office,"Sir. All non-essential crew have gone to cryo. Your turn." I'm getting to old for this shit, he thought as he slowly got out of his chair and headed towards cryo. "Lusankya. Wake me if anything important happens." He said as the door to the cryo chamber closed. Author's Note Yay I finally got around to finishing the third chapter. It on;y took me a couple of weeks into AIT to do it also. Sorry again guys, it took so long. I got a case of severe writers block and the Army. I plan on starting chapter four sometime tomorrow after 1800 formation. Until next time. Later! P.S. I'll give someone a cookie if they spot the references in here.
Chapter 1: Not Alone After AllUnknown UNSC Shipyard. Date: September 27, 2548 “I don’t care. The build remains on schedule. Finish it no matter what happens. I don’t care if the Covenant starts glassing the planet.” “Sir. It’s not a matter of progress; it’s a matter of supplies. We only have enough for one ship.” “Are you saying her sister ships won’t be able to be completed?” “Not as the current classification, no.” “Fine. Make the Grim Torment a Destroyer.” “And the Dusk?” “Use her for pieces for the Yamato.” “Yes sir.” Eight years later… Slip space Rear Admiral Travis Stevens awoke in a cryo-pod and to a female voice saying, ”Good morning Admiral. Sleep well?” The pod opened and released the admiral as he coughed, spitting up the crap they made him swallow before the sleep. Sure, he knew the actual name, but it tasted like crap so that’s what he always called it. “I slept fine, Lusankya. But will you please learn how to drive?” He said going around to the other crew members who were also waking up after their jump from Earth. Lusankya laughed, ”You know I fly better than anyone else on this ship.” Her figure appeared on a nearby holoprojector. Her figure appearing as a woman clad in white flight armor without a helmet and her hair cropped short to regulation standards. The AI proceeded to look around the cryo-bay. “Well, that’s everyone we need right now. The marines will stay asleep until we exit slip space. You know how they complain about not getting their beauty sleep.” The admiral smiled while the rest of the bridge crew chuckled at the AI’s joke. A couple of the ensigns were already getting dressed and heading for the bridge when the admiral stopped them. “Go eat first, then head up to the bridge. I don’t need my crew thinking on empty stomachs.” Stevens said pulling on his pants and reaching over to grab his uniform shirt. His light grey hair cut marine short. He had always liked it that way, ever since he was a marine fighting insurrectionists until now. He had just gotten out of the corps when the Human-Covenant war had started so he decided to head to officer school for the UNSC. He got average grades when he attended there and when he graduated he got stationed on Earth. Not a lot happened so he was stuck just doing paperwork for some admiral he didn’t remember. That is until he was reassigned to Reach as one of the ODP commanders. That was two years before the Fall of Reach. After Reach fell he was given a ship two months before the first invasion of Earth. He survived the first invasion only to have his ship destroyed in the beginning of the second invasion. How he made it out of that mess alive, he’ll never know. His dark green eyes watched as the two nodded and said, “Yes sir.” Before heading out the door. As Admiral Stevens finished buttoning up his uniform shirt, Lusankya spoke again, “Ten minutes until we exit Slip space.” When she finished speaking, Stevens headed to the door and made way to the ship’s bridge. As he entered, he walked over to the main display in the center of the room. “Lusankya. How are the reactors?” He spoke pulling the information up on the screen. “Reactors 1 and 3 are operating nominally, I’m just bringing reactor 2 online.” She spoke as the holoprojector by the display lit up and her figure appeared again. “Why was number 2 offline?” He kept his eyes on the screen switching it over to the weapons display. In the upper right hand corner, the ship’s name was displayed: UNSC YAMATO. Admiral Stevens had read up on the history of the name. It was named after the Japanese super weapon back in the Second World War. The Yamato, along with its sister ship the Musashi, were the largest battleships built in the world. It boasted the largest guns and the best armor. Too bad it went down the way it did. The UNSC Yamato was like its older counterpart. It is the first and last of its kind in the UNSC navy; the only Battleship-class in the entire UNSC fleet. It had been commissioned during the tail end of the Human-Covenant war by a private company who had planned on building three but apparently only had the resources for one and a smaller sister ship. So the Yamato was the only one of her kind and the admiral got the personal honor of being on her maiden voyage. “Sir, reactor 2 experienced a slight malfunction once we jumped from Earth so I shut it down and had the engineer crew work on it while everyone else slept.” Lusankya explained turning to face Admiral Stevens. “Anything serious?” He asked glancing over at her as she crossed her arms. “No sir. Just a burnt up cable leading to the weapons. Nothing that couldn’t be fixed. All MAC guns are still functional.” Her figure turned just as the rest of the bridge crew started to enter the room. “Well with where we’re heading nobody will see the explosion.” He looked at the reports that were just coming in. MAC gun 1, 2, 3, and 5 were online and ready to fire while 4 was offline for maintenance and all 1,000 Archer missile pods were online. Point defense turrets were just coming online as they were slowly decelerating from slip space. “Sir, five minutes until we exit slip space into neutral space.” She spoke. “Wake the marines now Lusankya. We need them ready, just in case.” Stevens watched as the status on MAC gun number 4 switched from red to green. He smiled inwardly. He felt like a kid in a candy store. Big guns. He’d always been a sucker for a big boom. And that’s exactly what a MAC gun delivered. A big gun with a big boom. The ensign that oversaw the weapons turned in his chair to look at the Admiral. “Sir? Should I bring the Super MAC gun online?” The ensign spoke uneasily. This is the first time he’d ever seen an admiral, much less been in the same room with one. “Bring her online.” Stevens turned to face the view of space. Currently the metal shutters on them were still closed until they exited slip space. Admiral Stevens made his way over to the captain’s chair and just sat there, waiting for the shutters to open so they could get a good look at stars. Near Ponyville, Equestria Twilight Sparkle set up her telescope on hill as Spike came up carrying a large book and a blanket. As she finished making adjustments, Spike was finishing setting up the blanket on the ground and putting the book on it. In the distance she could hear the beat coming from Vinyl Scratch’s home. Twilight just smiled as she opened the book with her magic. A Guide to the Stars. It had proved an interesting read so she had brought it for a reference. Sure she already knew about most of the star formations and the night sky but it was still interesting to watch Princess Luna’s handiwork. “Thank you, Spike.” She said turning back to the telescope. “No problem Twilight.” The small purple green dragon said back to the purple mare. Looking through her telescope she saw a beautiful array of stars in the night sky. She kept admiring the view, going from star cluster to star cluster; studying each one in turn. Then she noticed something off. One of the star formations that were usually there was gone. “That’s not right.” Twilight said mostly to herself. “What’s not right?” Spike asked waking rousing himself before he fell asleep on the blanket. “Well I was looking from constellation to constellation and one of my favorite ones isn’t there, even though it should.” She said taking her eye away from the telescope to look at Spike then eventually to the starry sky. Sure enough, the same constellation was still missing from view. Then a few seconds later another constellation disappeared and the previous one appeared. “What’s going on?” Spike said as he watched the disturbance next to Twilight. Meanwhile, in the Everfree Forest, another being was watching the stars also. His face shrouded by a black helmet and the rest of him obscured in black body armour. When he saw the same thing Twilight was seeing not far away, he sprinted to his damaged craft. When he reached it, he found the transmitter beacon, recorded a new message and sent it on a UNSC band. He sighed, “I hope this one gets out. Not much life left in the reserve battery.” He grabbed his suppressed SMG from the storage crate nearby. It’s not like he needed it. The creatures that inhabited this planet were peaceful… and primitive compared to the UNSC. So it meant that they were not part of the Covenant. He turned on his armor’s built in cloaking device. Being a Spartan-III has its advantages sometimes. He slowly made his way out of the forest, taking note of the purple pony and purple green lizard on the hill. He gave them a wide berth and moved slowly towards the town and into its main market area. He quickly made his way over to the apple stall and grabbed a sack of apples, turning off his active camo at the same time. No point in being invisible if you’re carrying a sack that will give you away, he thought. He then made his way over to a pastry stall and grabbed a few slices of bread and slowly made his way back to the forest. Funny, the purple pony and the lizard weren’t on the hill anymore… Author's Note First chapter. I'd appreciate all criticism and any suggestions you peoples might have. Thank you!
Chapter 2: Enter the YamatoUNSC Colony World Aegis 1000 Hrs As the Yamato left slip space, the whole bridge crew stood in total shock. Almost the entire planet had been glassed. Billions of souls. Dead. Admiral Stevens slammed his fist down onto the arm of his chair. The trip had only taken them a week yet they were still too slow to save the dead from their fate. “Admiral. I’m picking up the Grim. She just exited beside us.” The ensign in charge of the sensors said looking over to him. He could see the look in her eyes. Sorrow. Most of this bridge crew had seen the tail end of the war and had seen Reach being glassed on the net. Yet, witnessing it first hand was something completely different. “Get me a comm to the Grim’s captain,” Stevens said standing up and heading to the display screen, “and bring up the sensor scans. I want to know if the Covenant is still in-system.” As the information for the sensor readings was brought up a small video feed to the UNSC Grim Torment was opened revealing a younger looking man. His green eyes and brown hair had a calming sense to them. His face was tan as if he’d never even been on a ship a day in his life. “Admiral. Captain Woolf reporting sir.” He snapped a salute that the admiral quickly returned. “Admiral. We’re preparing to launch fighters now to be sure there are no Covenant surprises in the area.” “Good. Tell them to be careful out there.” Now that the prophets were no longer leading the Covenant, the Elites had become even more fanatical to the point that they were even more desperate to stop the human advance on Forerunner tech sometimes even ramming their damaged vessels into their adversaries ships. Admiral Stevens had seen a couple of times where a Covenant frigate would run itself straight into a UNSC carrier to try and stop it. As both the Yamato and Grim Torment came closer to the planet in space’s dark silence, a mushroom cloud was seen from the planet’s surface. “Lusankya. Get me a scan of the planet’s surface.” Admiral Stevens went forward to the forward viewing platform and kept his eyes transfixed on the planet. “Sir. Scans show a small force holed up against a larger one. Judging by the IFF tags, it’s more than likely UNSC.” Lusankya reported back in a calm tone. She had already processed how the admiral would respond and was simply waiting for him to give the order. “Send a message to the Grim and tell them to send in Fireteam Winter.” Stevens turned back to the weapons display, checking the charge on the Super MAC gun. 55%. Hopefully, if the Covenant was still in system, there wouldn’t be any assault carriers in their battle group. Pelican H897 en route to UNSC Outpost on Colony Aegis 1045 Hrs Carmichael waited silently with the rest of his squad as they descended to the planet. Fireteam Winter had originally been slated to go with the UNSC Infinity but was assigned to protect the UNSC Grim Torment and the UNSC Yamato. Carmichael turned his helmet covered face to look at the rest of his squad. On his left sat the only female in the squad, Alison. He didn’t know much about her besides the fact that she almost rarely talked. That and she never removed her armor. Across from him sat Alexander and Erast. Alexander who was an ODST before joining the ranks of the Spartan - IV's, had been on Sigma Octanus IV when the Covenant had attacked. Erast came from good old Earth. Carmichael thought about his own history. His homeworld, Reach, had been glassed when he had been off assigned to a different system. He had been so angry with command that he had almost gone AWOL. The pelican kept descending down to the planet, approaching the firebase. Carmichael opened up his comm channel to his team,"Alright. Check mags and get ready for a fight. Let's show these split jaws what we can do." Firebase Echo Zulu, Colony Aegis 1045 Hrs Another bolt of searing plasma splashed against the polycrete building making the building give off a cherry red appearance. “Damn it Corporal! Fire that rocket already!” Lieutenant Greives shouted to the shaking man next to him. “Sir, the snipers!” The corporal protested, leveling the rocket launcher on his shoulder. “I don’t care. If the base takes another hit like that, we won’t be here to worry about snipers." It had only been 20 minutes prior since the Yamato comm-ed him and said that support was on its way. 15 minutes ago the Covenant had launched another assault on Firebase EZ. A smoldering Scorpion tank sat outside the front gate as a Wraith lobbed bolts of face melting plasma at the base from a nearby hill. At least its not that accurate, he thought. However... He looked over the lip of the bunker’s window and saw the hunter pair that had been giving them trouble. He lowered his head just in time as a beam rifle shot went through the spot where his head had just occupied. “Shit. Sergeant! Were you able to get a hold of Fox Base? We could really use their support.” The other man holed up in the bunker, turns from the radio,”Sir, they say they’re dealing with their own assault right now. 10 until they can free up a bird to do anything.” “We won’t be here in-” His sentence was cut off by a combined shot from the hunter pair and the Wraith as the polycrete bunker’s face is vaporized and the three men that were in there suffered the same fate. LZ, Fireteam Winter, Colony Aegis, 15 minutes later The Pelican lifts off after dropping off it’s four man cargo. The ravine that leads right to Firebase EZ is eerily quiet. No birds chirp from the surrounding trees. Carmichael opens a secure comm to his team,”Alison. Find a spot to cover our approach, don’t fire unless it’s an HVT or they open up on us. Let’s try and take them by surprise.” A green light in his helmet lit up as her acknowledgement came back to him. He saw her slowly fade and start blending in with the environment around them and take off heading for a cliff he had seen on their approach. “The rest of us will hike it there. We’re only a couple of klicks off.” Two more green lights appeared on his hud. Carmichael gave them the sign to follow him and they took off, hiking through the brush and trees to Firebase EZ. It was only ten minutes later when their motion trackers picked up movement on either side of the small ravine. They quickly found cover as a column of grunts led by jackals made there way out from behind a pair of rocks. They looked like they were on patrol. Erast comm-ed to Carmichael,”Do we let them pass Mike?” “No.” he comm-ed to Alison,”Do you see them?” Her voice was but a whisper,”Yes.” “On my mark. Three...” They all readied their weapons as they inched closer,”Two...” A few feet away now,”One... Open fire.” The grunts and jackals danced in the hail of lead that was shot at them, not even having time to react. “Good job. Let’s keep moving.” Alison, Spartan IV-498, Overlooking Firebase EZ 1110 Hrs Alison slowly crawled up to the lip of the drop off she had chosen. It gave a good overview of the entire firebase sprawled out below. Bringing her sniper rifle in front of her, she clicked on the 5x zoom and watched the world in front of her leap forward. The base was completely over run. A burnt up Scorpion still sat in front of the base while a couple of bunkers had the fronts melted off. Poor bastards, she thought. As she lay there watching the Covenant patrols and marking them with NAV points for her team, her mind began to bring up her past life before being a Spartan and before she had joined the UNSC... Unnamed UNSC Colony, Five years ago... She watched in horrid fascination as her commanding officer was disemboweled in front of her. It almost looked like the elite smiled at her and took pleasure in watching her horror. As the elite slowly withdrew the sword from her commander, it turned on her. No, please no. She thought, as her grip tightened on her MA37 assault rifle. Come on move. She tried to will her body to move but she just couldn't. As the elite slowly advanced towards her a sniper shot tore through the elite’s head. As he dropped, a dark figure moved up to check the now dead elite. It wore a black helmet with a silver visor. The rest of the figure was also clad in black armor and it carried a sniper rifle with a battle rifle slung on it’s back. She had seen these guys before. UNSC ODSTs. And that’s when she recalled what side she was on. She was an Insurrectionist officer, and she had her duty. As she pulled the charging handle back on the rifle, he turned to face her, his mask unpolarized so she could see his face. He had a tan complexion and cold blue eyes. Her finger froze before she could pull the trigger. He smiled at her and said,”Come on. Let’s get out of here.” “Alison. we’re in position.” Carmichael spoke quietly over the comm. She could see their IFF tags in the hills below. “I’ve got you covered.” She said softly as she zoomed in on the highest ranking elite she saw and took aim. She waited for just the right moment before she squeezed the trigger. Ponyville, Equestria 8:30 AM Spike just stood there and watched as Twilight slowly wore a groove into the floor of the library. “I’m sure they’ll be here soon, Twi. Don’t worry. I’m sure what you saw last night is nothing more than some hungry pony who needed that food.” Spike said trying to calm his friend down. “Yes but the only pony we know that lives in the Everfree Forest is Zecora, and she’s not even a pony.” Twilight kept pacing as she spoke. A knock at the door came just as Twilight finished her sentence. “They’re here.” She went to go open the door for her friends. The first through her door was Rainbow Dash, a cyan colored pegasus with a rainbow colored mane and tail. Applejack followed closely behind her. The orange earth pony worked Ponyville’s local apple orchard that her family owned. “Where are the others at?” Twilight closed the door and turned to her friends. “Well. Rarity was finishin’ up a dress, if ah remember right.” Applejack said looking to Rainbow Dash. “Yeah, and Fluttershy was helping Pinkie Pie with Gummy.” Rainbow looked back at Applejack before looking at Twilight. “What’s wrong with Gummy?” Twilight asked going over to one of the shelves and grabbing a book. “Stomach ache.” Rainbow said nonchalantly. Twilight came back over to them holding the book she had grabbed with her magic. “What’s that?” “It’s a book on all of the creatures known to Equestria and from what I saw last night... It isn’t native to Equestria.” Twilight said flipping through the pages of the book relatively quickly. “So if it ain’t native here. It’s an-” “-Alien?” Rainbow Dash finished Applejack’s sentence. They all stared at each other in complete silence. “We need to go warn Zecora.” Twilight said rushing to the door. She opened the door just to have Rainbow Dash fly by her. “Yeah. Before that alien eats her!” Rainbow flew a few feet away from Ponyville’s library. “Come on!” The group of three quickly hurried off to the Everfree Forest to warn Zecora of the alien that was hiding there. As the group rapidly approached the edge of the forest, Applejack halted the group. “Hold up, y’all. Look at this.” Applejack pointed to a small brown package lying on the ground. Printed on the package in bold letters was: UNSC Ration Protein Bar. Twilight lifted the object up and examined it closely. “UNSC... What could that stand for...” She turned and looked at the Everfree Forest, still holding the protein bar up with her magic. I’ll find out soon enough, she thought. He watched the three ponies from the edge of the forest. Careless, he thought. As the three ponies galloped into the forest, looking for him, he turned and raced into the forest back to his pod. I have to hide it before they can find it. He ducked and dodged past branches, his armor’s active camouflage barely able to keep up. As he reached his pod, he froze immediately. Standing by the downed UNSC slipspace pod, was a zebra who was currently looking through his meager stash of equipment. Author's Note Sorry this one took so long guys. I couldn't get a hold of anyone to help me proof read, so please tell me about any spelling errors or grammatical errors I may have missed while looking over this. As always, comments appreciated and loved. Ghost
Chapter 3: Chasing EchosEverfree Forest 9:00 AM Twilight knocked sharply on Zecora’s hut door. Applejack and Rainbow Dash stood behind her watching the forest for any signs of movement. “Zecora! Are you in there? We need to talk to you!” Twilight knocked on the wooden door again. No response came from the hut. “Maybe she went out for a walk?” Rainbow suggested as Twilight was about to knock on the hut’s door a third time. “If she did, we have to go find her.” Twilight turned and looked at the rest of her friends. As they discussed what they were going to do, Zecora looked over the strange equipment she had found. Most looked like metallic squares with writing on them. As Zecora poked and prodded among the crates, she heard a twig snap behind her. UNSC Colony World Aegis 1155 Hrs The warthog that Fireteam Winter had commandeered rocketed over the first tiny hill. Music from an older generation blared through it’s tiny speakers as it landed hard on the other side. Behind them, flying low and firing at them, were two banshees that had been tailing them for the past ten minutes now. Every once and awhile, one would get brave enough to attempt an attack run but would get shot at by Erast who was on the anti-air gun mounted on the back of the hog. Carmichael turned in his seat and fired at the pursuing banshees with a rocket launcher he’d found back at the half destroyed firebase. As the rocket left the tube and streaked towards its intended target, Carmichael watched as the banshee easily maneuvered out of the way, letting the rocket fly past, detonating harmlessly in the air behind it. Carmichael turned back around letting the spent rocket launcher tube fall from his grasp and out the open side of the vehicle next to him. He hit the comm switch in his helmet as he pulled out his pistol,”Alison, we’re 3 klicks from the LZ. Advise on your position, over.” At first, all he heard in return was static, then gunfire followed by a few shots of a plasma pistol. “Alison?” “Carmichael keep going straight. I can take out one of the banshees... Now.” As she finished her sentence, it was punctuated by a sniper rifle shot that tore into the leading banshee with deadly accuracy. As the banshee turned to find this new assailant, another shot tore right into where the pilot sat and caused the banshee to explode, sending the flaming debris into the other chasing banshee. As the still pursuing banshee dodged the flaming wreck, it was lit up by Erast on the AA gun. A couple of seconds later, it joined it’s comrade on the ground in a burning heap of metal. 20 Minutes Earlier... “Carmichael. I need your squad to go into the research facility and retrieve an artifact the egg heads unearthed the other day. Apparently, it’s why the covenant attacked this system.” Captain Woolf spoke as another grunt fell to an onslaught of lead. “Yes sir. We’ll get it for ‘ya.” The three spartans moved out of their hiding position. They had had a hell of a time trying to infiltrate the over run firebase. The wraiths were probably the most difficult part and had used up half of their rocket launcher ammo. To make matters worse, the covenant had had almost three squads of elite zealots guarding the entrance. The spartans cut across the parade grounds of the firebase and quickly entered the R&D area of the base. Inside they found a couple of grunt bodies intermingled with dead UNSC marines. Ignoring the bodies and moving deeper into the facility, the group saw the dead slowly turn from the occasional grunt and marine, to dead scientists. Carmichael fumed silently to himself as they continued on, farther into the bowels of the research facility. As they rounded another corner, Alison spoke over the comms,”Carmichael. Two phantoms on approach, with four escort banshees.” He keyed his comm,”Roger that.” Guess we better hustle then, he thought as he took off at a mild jog which turned into a run as they rounded another corner. The group ran for another five minutes before they came to a sealed blast door and had to stop. Above the door was painted in bright red lettering: Artifacts & Weapons Research Authorized Personnel Only Alexander chuckled at the last line as he stepped forward with a block of C5 explosive in one hand and the detonator in the other. Erast just shook his head and said,”We could always just run the hacking program and open the door that way.” Alexander, in the meantime, had already placed the explosive on the center of the door with the two heavy pieces of metal met and spoke,”Yeah. But I like my way better.” Turning, he sprinted for one of the last corners they had rounded followed closely by Carmichael and Erast. Three seconds later a loud boom shook the hallway as Alexander peered around the corner. Sure enough the door was no longer an obstacle for them and neither were the two elites who had thought it was a good idea to stand behind the door. “Well look at that sir. I got three birds with one explosive.” However, the victory was short lived as the remaining elite and his entourage spotted Alexander's head peering around the corner and opened fire. As Alexander ducked behind the wall again, his translator picked up what the elite said to the grunts. "Carmichael. The elites keep mentioning some 'relic' left by the Forunners. I think this might be the artifact we're looking for." Alexander readied his rifle to go around the corner. "Then let's go get it." Carmichael spoke as he pulled the charging handle back on his assault rifle. UNSC Colony World Aegis 1156 Hrs The artifact rolled around on the floor board. Carmichael picked it up before it decided it didn't like the ride and jumped ship. It fit perfectly in his gauntleted hand as he examined its surface features. No blemishes or imperfections marked its smooth surface as it glowed a faint blue. What secrets do you hold? As ke kept looking, he failed to notice the scenery changing around him. When he did look up, he noticed he was not longer in the passenger seat of the warthog, but was standing in an ancient catacomb, with what appeared to carvings of horse heads on nearly everything. "Where am I?" As he kept looking around, he noticed a set of ornate stone doors. On closer inspection, Carmichael noticed that the door had Forunner symbols inscribed into it. Where am I... He blinked just a second and found himself sitting in the warthog with Erast yelling at him. "Yo Carm. Earth to Carmichael! We're here." As Carmichael looked up he saw Alexander halfway to the pelican while Alison was just leaving the woods. As they all boarded the pelican and it took off, Carmichael reflected on what he had seen when he looked into the small sphere in his hand. Horses and the Forunners... It just doesn't make any sense. As the pelican left orbit, a video feed was directed the the Spartans by a shaken pilot. It showed the UNSC Yamato getting fired at and returning fire with a Covenant assault carrier. Tiny explosions pockmarketed the space near the two giant ships. Yet, the Yamato easily towered over the assault carrier by probably four more whole carriers. As the Spartans continued watching there was a bright flash of light as the UNSC Grim Torment came out of slipspace in between Fireteam Winter and the Covenant ship. The pilot of the pelican slowly brought his tiny ship closer to the Grim Torment. As they got closer in the empty void of space, Captain Woolf's came over the comms. "Hurry up Pelican 897. I don't think you want to be out there when the Yamato comes about." UNSC Yamato 1215 Hrs Admiral Stevens watched in silent excitement as the Grim picked up the Spartans and jumped to slipspace again right as the Yamato finished turning towards the advancing assault carrier. "Ensign." He spoke to the thin man that was currently rechecking targeting coordinates on the weapons console. "Fire when ready." "Yes sir. Firing Super MAC-" everyone on the ship felt a considerable lag as the 3,000 ton round was loaded "-... Now." The Yamato shuddered through all her decks as the round was launched, pushing the ship back slightly in space as it traveled at four tenths the speed of light. As soon as the round struck the assault carrier it was almost blown inside out before it exploded in a blue plasma ball in space. The entire bridge crew of the Yamato cheered as the Grim reentered space right next to them. In all, Stevens thought it was a very productive day. Canterlot Excavation Site B 9:15 AM Melody Delta looked at the large stone door as ponies behind her were busily cataloging every ancient artifact they could. This door had her perplexed. None of there spells could get through it and every other way they tried ended up breaking tools. The inscriptions on the door were amazing. They weren't any other none written language in Equestria or even on the planet. She walked closer to the door, her poofy brown mane almost touching it as she got closer to inspect what appeared to be a print of some kind. It wasn't a hoof print. It looked more like a dragon's claw print except without the claw part. Reaching forward with one hoof she touched it and a deep rumbling was heard throughout the catacombs. "What in Celestia..." She was cut off as a loud whirring noise pierced the once prevalent silence of the room and the large door started to lower, revealing a cleanly polished room made of... "Metal?" She finished her own thought as the door finally lowered into the floor and locked into place. She could hear the various "Oooo's" and "Aaaaahs" of the workers behind her as she turned to see a dark green earth pony bump into to pegasi statues that were facing each other with their hooves covering their faces. "Careful with those! They're antiques." She scolded the stallion. "Sorry ma'am." He backed away from the statues sheepishly. One crisis averted, she thought turning back to the metal room in front of her. It looked like the room had dozens of gems embedded in the walls and they all sparked with life of their own. Walking in Melody heard another whirring sound, this time however, a platform had risen in the center of the room with a large projected green button. Getting closer to the platform, she noticed the same writing all over what appeared to be some sort of console. Everypony froze when a voice rang out out of the blue. "Greetings reclaimers. Your species has been dormant for some time. Are you ready to light the 'torch'." The voice was oddly feminine. "Who built this place?" Melody asked looking around. "The Forerunners did. Your planet being the farthest away from the Halo rings so as life would not be interupted by their being fired." The voice replied calmly. "Why was it built?" Now she was even more confused. Halo rings? Forerunners? "To study the odd energy exerted by almost every creature on this planet. If you wish to know more. Please press the icon in the center of the console. All will be explained then." The voice spoke. As far as Melody could tell, it wasn't trying to bring them harm, so she went ahead and pressed the button. As she did, a strong pulse of light shot out of the console and towards the ceiling of the room. As it touched the wall, it winked out of existence. "Well that was... Different." She spoke as she moved away from the platform. "Somepony go and inform the Princesses of what we found." UNSC Yamato 1230 Hrs Admiral Stevens looked at the Forerunner artifact lying on his desk. It pulsed a faint blue color as he watched it. I sure hope that whatever this thing holds is useful. Lusankya's voice came over the comm in his office,"Sir. All non-essential crew have gone to cryo. Your turn." I'm getting to old for this shit, he thought as he slowly got out of his chair and headed towards cryo. "Lusankya. Wake me if anything important happens." He said as the door to the cryo chamber closed. Author's Note Yay I finally got around to finishing the third chapter. It on;y took me a couple of weeks into AIT to do it also. Sorry again guys, it took so long. I got a case of severe writers block and the Army. I plan on starting chapter four sometime tomorrow after 1800 formation. Until next time. Later! P.S. I'll give someone a cookie if they spot the references in here.
