Disclaimer: I do not own Halo or My Little Pony. They belong to Microsoft/343 Industries and Hasbro respectfully but all original content is mine.
Chapter 1: The Galaxy is a Weird Place
There was nothing to see out there.
No radiating warmth from the stars. No thrilling views of planets, their many unique colours and forms they come in. No cosmic sights such as moons orbiting objects that trapped them with their own gravitational pull, smears of nebulas displaying stupendous colours, chunks of rock and ice of all sizes hurtling through the depths of space to God knows where.
Just not one single one of these, at all, period.
Nothing but complete and infinite darkness to the eye.
Infinite darkness if you had organic eyes that is.
Smart-class Artificial Intelligence Leio: Serial number LO 0876-8, age three years, belonged to the Combined Sangheili Empire, carefully observed the ever changing quantum filaments that were, what only she could see, intricate gravitational influxes caused by the many celestial objects they were passing by in the normal plane.
She detected a troubling amount of turbulence acting around the United Nations Space Command Gallipoli that made up this realm of reality.
The UNSC Gallipoli.
Motto: Duty Ante Nos - Duty Before Us.
Commissioned as a Stalwart-class light frigate. Battle scarred, a decorated service career including several battle engagement commemorations, and still going strong dating back to the middle years of the Great War. The almost three decade years of genocide conflict between humanity and the religious alien conglomerate of species known as the Covenant.
This particular one was just one of three of the specific eleven sets of non-dimensions existing brushing against each other like the creases of a crumpled ball of paper, or as it's more simply known to the wider populace as the dimensions of slipspace.
Detecting a less of a disturbed path among the twisted paths of the matrices that make up this plane of slipspace, she nudged the ageing frigate ever so slightly towards it. The stresses acting upon the outer hull lessened while the ship skimmed by the patch of turbulence created by a sun going supernova, not that any member of the crew would ever experience the sight or feel anything of it.
The pedestal near where the commander's chair would've been glowed brightly in a basking soft grey before springing forth from the light, a beautiful form of a female Sangheili in a dress that looked a lot like a roman toga emerged gracefully from it.
Even though she was an AI comprised of just information, created from mapping from the very neural patterns of the donator's brain to the avatar which is just motes of light. She stretched her back and arms just for the fun of it, but also it grabbed the attention of some of the crew, which made her smile.
A low, yet considerate masculine voice started speaking to her in the common Sangheili dialect, "Leio? I trust everything is alright?"
"As far as I can report, Shipmaster. All systems are operating well within their limits and I had to adjust our course to avoid some turbulence." Leio stated, looking over at the imposingly tall for a Sangheili, at eight foot three and clad in basic combat harness, albeit deep crimson with a white trim.
"Was it of much difficulty?" he asked, giving the slightest hint of concern in his tone only she could've pick up on.
"Not even a shudder this time," she shrugged, expressing little worry. The AI knew fully why he was looking for an answer. Just because the last he asked about such a thing about a in-slipspace course correction, the results she gave wasn't that bad in her eyes‒
There was a resounding irked clack as the Sangheili Shipmaster pressed his mandibles together. "I would like it if you apprised me of anything else like it before you do it."
‒ Maybe that should have been rephrased as to say: The failure of the energy containment shields, resulting in a decompression of a hangar or two as she made the course adjustment around an anomaly that closely resembled the same effects as being near the event horizon of a black hole.
Leio bowed at the waist slightly, "Of course."
Breep.
Both AI avatar and shipmaster turned towards the trill sound. Even though Leio was basically the ship, her lifeblood of code an information flowing through its systems and knowing all, she still turned to the noise out of respect and more so to appear more lifelike and to have feeling of belonging to the crew and military forces stationed aboard.
The source of the beep like noise? A steady flashing light over at a technician's workstation.
The human stationed at the terminal half-turned in his seat, "Shipmaster 'Surum, sir. We are approaching our exit vector given to us by the prowler Echo of Stars."
The Shipmaster nodded and leaned forwards on the back of the wepps station's chair. The Sangheili manning the terminal didn't pay any attention as his seat reclined a little backwards.
"Leio, ready the drive for transition and inform the rest of the crew while we get in touch with the destroyer escorts."
Said escorts, Halberd-class Mk II's - aptly named Halberd because of their pointed arrowhead hull design to the original, and Mk II because of the retrofit for in-atmosphere capabilities and manoeuvrability - Call Me Maybe and Arkhangelsk were what task force the Gallipoli was key centre to.
Task group Bellerophon. This group was one of the few rapid response battlegroups out there that are only crewed of a fifty-fifty mix of both humans and Sangheili.
"It will be done," the AI quipped off cheerfully.
The motes of light that made her form dissipated and she vanished from her podium in compliance of the orders. 'Surum and the rest of the bridge crew started on the procedures for the decorated aging frigate's exit.
Recreation room. Deck 12, Room C.
The spacious rec room was typically full to over-crowded like it had been yesterday, but tonight it had no more than two-dozen people. A mix match of Marines and Sangheili of various rank, a few technicians, and two helljumpers.
Of the number, over half were watching a recorded replay of last nights live Ricochet championships finals game, discussing tactics, mistakes and plays while in a booth, far off in the corner sat the two Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, casually talking to each other while playing a holographic turn based strategic board game of the series 'Fleet Battles: Human/Covenant War'.
The steel grey door to the rec room slid open with an almost silent hiss to reveal a hunched over lone Sangheili, clad fully in dark wine red Special Operations combat harness. The swept back helmet with a curved bright blue visor was attached to its harness.
The Sangheili took a cursory glance around the room with his green eyes, before his gaze settled on the the two ODSTs in the corner. Without making much of a sound, other than the noises of its armour plates sliding against each other as it moved, the Sangheili casually strode over and pulled up a study chair to watch the miniature space battle from the sidelines with piqued interest.
The supported formation of a CCS-class battlecruiser fragmented apart violently on Lance Corporal Nathan O' Donnell's screen as MAC rounds gutted it from stem to stern from two attacking trident formation of Paris-class frigates, much to his annoyance as well as the deep chuckling laughter that emanated from the observing SpecOps throat nearby.
"So do you see my predicament here, Hark?" Nathan O'Donnell asked the other trooper, his Australian accent tracing back to where he was born and raised for a good time of his life before he joined the corps. The atypical Sydneysider.
The other helljumper, the one called Hark, watched as Nathan rolled his holodice, "Yeah, I do. But come on Nate, do you really think she'll go for it? I mean, think about it for a second. Her name is Violet after all, why not Cass?"
If anyone were to ask the difference between Corporal Jason Harkness accent patterns, most would typically say about his Republic of America accent could be distinguishable by pitch alone in any weather condition, even one during the worst of blizzards. He also has a twisted way of impersonating voices of people as a party trick when he's drunk, in particular girlish voices.
Nathan scratched the tip of his shaven chin, thinking about what his best friend in the corps was suggesting but dismissed it with a casual wave and lined out his shots for the next phase. He rolled the boarding action dice for two ships, "Nah, you're overthinkin' it. Vi is definitely the one. Now, are we playing this or what?"
Jason sighed dejected and he rolled his own dice to see if Nathan was successful on the attempts. The dice revealed that he had made a success on one but before he could roll again for the other, the frigate they were on wide alarm for general quarters went off.
"Aw nuts. Well, we know the music," Hark stated, hardly looking up at the noise as the marines in the room scrambled out as fast as they could, the others and the Sangheili followed soon after the rushing Marines.
"To be continued then?" Nathan asked, saving the game's progress onto a data chip and depositing the chip into his back pocket.
The SpecOps that had been quietly watching the game stood, slipping its helmet on as it did before striding calmly for the exit.
"Yeah sure," Hark said looking behind over his shoulder. The room was empty. "Now come on. It's time to get off this perfectly good flying brick, kick ass and take names by hard-core son-of-a-bitch marines!"
"Ooh-rah to that!" Nathan smirked at Harks comment and jogged for the door.
Princess Luna's dream started out routinely enough.
She told the Tantabus to do its worst like usual, and as usual, it did. But then halfway through its punishing deeds she had created it for it all went sideways. The Tantabus had suddenly shrieked in pure animalistic fear, withdrawing its tendrils of the purple fog made of nightmare fuel from around her and disintegrated into wavy wispy pieces, with whatever had remained behind was blown away a sudden gusty wind.
Luna's mind screamed out mentally in fear, No. No no no no! Not again! as the floor beneath her hooves was swept away violently.
She stumbled and fell through the pit of darkness as throbbing pain tore through her mind while blinding flashes of pure white light, blurred shapes, and changing scenery ranging from a setting sun, an ocean, to towering mountains continued to show up before her eyes. While this still happened a wide variety of distorted and distant voices began etching through her mind like a claw nails down a blackboard.
'Do you think this is wise… I HAVE SEEN… if only thou… WHEN YOU HAVE ASKED… the sickness followed…
Weren't it not… AS I HAVE LISTENED… was another way… for thee be safe… THROUGH ROCK…
But would we… AND METAL… condemn thee to not know… and yet need to know… AND TIME!
THEY WILL YIELD… nay, it best they… AS ALL WORLDS HAVE BEFORE… look out for each other and others… TO THE FATE THEY MUST ABIDE!'
The myriad of voices screamed out as one in unending suffering agony at the harsher of the voices and the flashes of changing scenery cut to black as she made contact with something solid.
Opening her eyes a crack, Luna found herself standing atop a grassy hill. She immediately squeezed them shut.
Out there, snaking away out ahead was a narrow dirt path that headed directly into a dense pine forest.
Luna knew what the path detailed, where it went.
She had traversed this vision of a single trail through the forest many times over to know by memory what lay at the end, and she definitely didn't want to experience it again. But again, just like every other time, her legs refused to listen to reason of her mind and started to move her down along this path, whether she liked it or not...
Cryo Bay 02, Cryo Unit 07.
The frigid cold air tickled his burning lungs as he tried to open his eyes in the bright blue light, when he did, he thought he caught the blurred shape of something standing in front of him.
"Take a deep breath and swallow," said the blurred image.
He did as suggested. However it had the immediate effect of triggering the gag reflex and to make him almost collapse to his knees to the gridded deck, all the while violently coughing up the long loogie looking white surfactant from his burning lungs. "Oh god, that stuff is disgusting!"
"Always tastes the same doesn't it, Lorenski?"
The reddish haired woman standing before him was of Eurasian descent, born Cascade as far as he knew as Maria K. Taylor, as she remarked with a sly smile while she watched her close friend and teammate groggily get back onto his feet and rub his face miserable like.
"Yeah, it does. No matter how many times they change the flavour of the formula, it still tastes like lime flavoured mucus, yelch!"
The male Spartan was Michael C. Lorenski, born Luna, Mare Nubium. Lived his younger years on the planet Emerald Cove. He had black hair with silver streaks running through it and multiple scars all over his body from plasma burns. One scar in particular was more visible than most and that was a grisly faded one that ran from his left temple, going behind the ear before ending at the base of the back of his neck.
Lorenski coarsely coughed again to clear the remainder of the substance from his throat and began to draw in the frigidly cold air through his nose.
"So, dream well?" she said locking her arctic blue stare with his glacier green ones.
Lorenski took in a long breath and stifled a yawn that came shortly with it, "I don't think I've needed to tell you enough that you never dream in cryo, just you get some weird visions of something foreboding that's about to occur in your life, all due to the subconscious of the mind. Why? How much did yours change?"
"A lot. From a sparse open reddish orange canyon to a mix of charging scorpions and warthogs in a sandstorm, you?" Taylor said raising a questioning eyebrow. She'd had fought alongside Lorenski long enough to know that he always seemed to get the oddly weird and cryptic ones, she knew enough about his past.
Lorenski bent over to touch his toes as he continued to go through the motions of the rudimentary exercise that had to be done when coming out of a long suspension in cryo, "A grey metal floor, plasma fire, a few dozen unmoving blurred unrecognisable shapes then open blue sky with the tips of pine trees on the edges, and that was it."
Taylor rapped her knuckles against the outside of inactive cryochamber eight next to his. It was the one she had been suspended in a little over awhile ago, "Huh, that's more vague than everything else you've gotten. You wouldn't happen to know what all of it means?" the last bit said in a joking manner.
"Nope, not in the faintest this time," he said with a sad shake of the head and started on checking over his titanium nanocomposite bodysuit.
The bodysuit was what had the hard points that connected all the external armour to a body of a Spartan supersoldier. It also added that extra protection from ballistic and plasma based weaponry. For any problems that he missed now that might arise later, will greatly hinder the attachment of his armour components.
"So, good to go?" she asked with a smile.
"Yeah," he jumped twice in quick succession, getting the blood pumping more to his extremities. "All set, how 'bout you, Mia?"
"I'm fine, you're the lucky bastard who got the luxury of an extra half-hour of cryo time. So, yeah, I'm good."
Oh great, what did I miss out on this time? he thought but his mouth had other ideas.
"Oh lucky me..." he quipped off sarcastically as the ship-wide PA system activated overhead with the frigate's smart AI Leio coming over it.
"Attention all hands. The Gallipoli and her escorts are nearing the designated exit slipspace jump coordinates. Make sure that all equipment is safely stored and secured for transition."
"Armoury then?" Lorenski asked as the message over the PA was repeated.
"Meh, it's always given, Mike. We're Spartans, and taking into account on what always seems to lie at the other end of a jump, there is always–"
"All hands, prepare for transition in seven… six…"
"–Trouble to be stirred into something wicked," he said finishing her statement off as the deck rumbled with a reverberating thrum.
UNSC Gallipoli's bridge.
The frigate's navigator looked at his watch out of habit, "... four… three… two… Mark!"
The Gallipoli shuddered as a wash of electric blue like static travelled over the exterior of the hull and the frigate exited the physics rule-breaking realm of subspace. The billions upon billions of the scattered masses of un-twinkling white pricks of stars of the galaxy sprung up on external cameras and forward view screens.
Of one thing to note as the destroyer escorts slipped into view a few thousand dozen kilometres away on either side, the planet in question they were here to investigate the sudden Covenant Resurgences interest in, the little blue dot of the planet showed up dead centre of the forward view screen.
"Helm, new course. Burn seven-seven-two by zero-six-zero. Wepps, bring weapon systems online."
"Shipmaster Thel 'Surum, are we expecting them to ambush us so early?" Xavier Viago – the Gallipoli's second-in-command said warily, turning to face the Shipmaster as the frigate adjusted to the new heading, her two destroyer escorts following suit one after another.
"We may be of few, Viago," 'Surum replied, his jaws flexing strongly with an air of wariness. "But the potency and first strike capability of human ships are still enough to be of concern in their eyes even if commanded by people of less experience."
"Hyperion's aren't to be much to laugh at either,"
"To which we do not carry."
"Because of the hawking radiation emissions when transitioning. Excavation grade HAVOK's on the other hand..." the officer trailed off with and moved to the woman manning the communications terminal who had caught his eye, "Hmm, what is it?"
"Sir, Call Me Maybe has retrieved the intelligence package beacon left behind by the prowler before she left the system."
The XO leaned over her shoulder to have a look, "Echo of Stars? The forty-eight hour advance?"
"Yes sir."
"Good. Ask them to transfer the recovered data over and put it up on screen two."
"Aye, sir, screen two," her fingers danced and dragged across the holo-keyboard and glass like screens. "Bringing it up now."
First off, it was just lines upon lines of random and jumbled bits of code before a decryption key was imputed to start unscrambling the transfer of data. As the data became readable, most of the very first things displayed were the number of planets and celestial landmarks found in this system.
"Nine core planets with a single white-yellow star, of the nine four are gas planets, our target is the third from the sun and has one moon, expansive asteroid belt between the third and fourth planets..." Leio started to list off even though she wasn't prompted and the bridge became alive of whispered and spoken thoughts.
"Kinda looks a bit like Sol really," remarked a crewmember as he observed the information for himself.
"A bit? Are you kidding me!?" remarked another sitting near him. "The entire system look like someone came along and went copy n' paste, and don't get me started on the Jupiter lookalike that's blue and green!"
"... Atmosphere is a typical nitrogen oxygen mix, so it's breathable, nothing new to note there…"
"So?" another one asked.
"So?! Just take a look at the spot in the lower half!"
Yep, it was true. There was a massive swirling storm spiralling in the lower hemisphere, but all this wasn't the most disconcerting, as what came next was the information regarding the predicted orbits, which revealed a few glaringly obvious anomalies.
Xavier inputted his own observations on the matter, "Hmm, apparently the entire system here orbits around the third planet, and that includes the star."
"It doesn't take a bloody genius to know why the Shadowed Blade found this place so tantalizing. A star－a massive active ball of fusion－that revolves around a planet. Got to be at least some freaky powerful source at play there, one heck of a navigation hazard too if I ever saw one," a male crewmember spoke his thoughts about the situation before frowning as he recalled something. "How did the over zealous cloaking freaks find this place anyway? I thought the recovered information we got from Janus Key showed everything?"
The girl at the comm station inputted her own words to the answer, "The data from the Key showed zilch, I heard it has something to do with an Forerunner artefact that was taken during a raid on the Facility on Aegis Seven."
The guy who asked was aghast, "No way?! Aegis-VII?! They would've had to go through the grid to get there!"
"Yeah? And they had the same damn setup the Midnight Facility did and now look what happened because of the measures. As to how they found the damn ONI backwater station in the first place, that is way beyond my pay grade pal," she retorted.
Leio coughed getting Xavier's attention from the crew but not from shipmaster 'Surum still studying the system projected from the centre of the holotable, "I'd hate to interrupt your discussion but the Arkhangelsk has detected impulse drives belonging to two seraph squadrons. Looks like a patrol picket."
"Have they detected us?" Xavier inquired.
The AI shook her head and placed a hand near the curveblade attached to her hip. "Negative. Although it would be prudent that they are to be dealt with soon, you know, before they uncover how many there are of us here and bug out to warn the rest."
"How far?" 'Surum said, still not looking up from his observation of the representation of the planet's surface.
"At their current velocity and ours... fourteen minutes separation, give or take a minute before they will be on us."
"Turn loose Echo Three and Two," the shipmaster waved a hand dismissively in her direction.
She took the hint, nodding in understanding and disappeared from her on the bridge podium to give the escort Broadsword pilots and navigators their orders personally.
"Is this as much detail the prowler could manage?" Shipmaster 'Surum said as he indicated to the displayed images of the planet's surface. "I thought you humans had better imaging and mapping technology on your stealth vessels?"
"We do, but according to the observational notes here and if I'm interpreting them correctly," Xavier furrowed his brow in concentration as he ran his finger underneath the line of scientific words he was reading. "'Apart from the sun orbiting the planet, the inability to acquire clean imaging scans of the entire surface of the planet is highly likely due to a variety of different influencing factors. Most of these key influencers include: High and low concentrations of electromagnetic radiation, gamma and various unknown type of neutrino radiation emissions as well as sporadic unusual weather anomalies.'"
Apart from the electronic noises of terminals whirring, the bridge fell silent for a few, and in between those minutes twin simultaneous flashes of white blue pin picks appeared against the black backdrop of space.
The comm came alive briefly with chatter from a deep male sounding broadsword pilot, "Echo Two to Gallipoli Actual. Targets neutralized. Returning to previous escort duty with Echo Three."
"Gallipoli Actual copies, Seraph scouts destroyed."
"Can these interferences be used beneficially?"
Xavier was taken completely off guard by 'Surum's abrupt question. It was so much in fact that he didn't quite know just what the Sangheili had asked of him. "I'm sorry, sir, what?"
"If we were to park our ships near the surface, over by one or two of these marked high concentration areas, would our foes still be able to detect us?"
"Uhhh…" Xavier turned back to the information acquired from the once observing prowler and went through the data again. "By direct line of sight they would, not fooling anyone like that, but as the data here is telling me, they will have a more than a difficult time using their scanners to successfully get a lock on our position due to this interference clutter. But this is a double edged sword sir, it goes for us too."
"The time until sunset for this continent?" 'Surum said, clearly forgoing the part about the double edged sword.
Leio popped up on the holo-pedestal, "Three hours. Surprisingly this planet has an exact twenty-four hour day/night cycle. Twelve day from sunrise right on the dot of six am, to sunset at six pm and vice-versa for the night cycle, the moon rises and sets with the night every time."
"What is last known position of most of the Resurgence ships?"
"Last count was of fifteen, all last reported holding steady between the world of interest and the fourth red rock. Three capital ships, four battlecruisers, and the rest: a mix-match of corvettes and destroyers as support. Also detected, even with the anomalies that are ever prevalent on the planet of interest, are heavy energy signatures relating to cloaking towers or teleportation spires and dark zone generators on all three main continents, less periodic over the surface of the one you're indicating to."
Xavier was at a miss, as was everybody else including the female lieutenant, half turned in her seat, manning the frigate's navigation controls, "Sir, what are you suggesting?"
"Doing, not suggesting," he stated quite curtly.
"Okay then, what are we doing then, sir?"
"An into atmosphere slip-jump," he said indicating to a specific point on the holographic representation of the continent on the world he inquired about. A long and wide running gorge bordering a dense forest, west-south-west of the center of the two heaviest concentrations of emissions.
Both of Xavier's eyebrows went up but quickly returned as his eyes narrowed. Ahhh, right.
He finally understood what the Sangheili Captain was planning. He kinda wished he had been the one to come up with it, he needed to be faster on the ball next time.
Xavier turned to Leio, "Can it be done?"
Leio stroked one of her lower jaws in contemplation, "Difficult... but not impossible."
"Leio, can you do it?"
She took on what looked like self-assurance stance for a Sangheili and smiled, "Just say the word."
Main Armoury, Deck 3, one deck above primary hangar.
Spartan Lorenski stepped out of the armour assembly machine, turning his hands and flexing his fingers before testing the rest of his body. It felt great to get back into his armour, always felt like a second skin to him.
The master gunnery sergeant admired the dark steel blue and midnight purple Spartan clad in MJOLNIR [Gen2] Powered Assault Armour/FOTUS-class. It is a class of armour that has incorporated reversed engineered Forerunner technology by 343 Industrial.
"So, how'd it feel?" the MgySgt remarked as he watched the Spartan move around the bay slowly in it.
"Like I never left, sir." Lorenski replied with noticeable glee.
"Ha, I'll bet," the MGySgt chuckled as he waved a data pad in his hand, "I need to give your armour a few checks over before I can let you off the hook and do kicking ass stuff, alright?"
Lorenski nodded and stick figure posed: Arms out, legs spread. The gunnery sergeant moved close and began tapping a few inputs into the pad and checking them. After a full minute, he lowered the pad with a questioning look.
"Okay, I've got good news and I've got bad news. Good news most of everything checks out, the bad news however your targeting, radio comms, and shielding systems don't. But this is nothing to cause a panic over as it is still good news, there are just some minor discrepancies, really simple fixes, easily done in the field but we're going to rectify that now to save time… and maybe a little face, yeah?"
Under his helmet, Lorenski raised an eyebrow and he asked in a questioning tone, "What do you need me to do?"
"Just stay put and keep doing what you're doing. We're going to start with your targeting systems first thing, then I going to let EJ deal with your comms systems and shielding when he is done with Spartan Taylor." still looking at his datapad, he gestured with a thumb over his shoulder to the huragok.
Easily Adjusted or EJ for short, one of the two resident engineers on-board was running one of its tentacles over Mia's helmet that was part of her MJOLNIR [Gen 2] Powered Assault Armour/Pathfinder-class, manufactured by Imbrium Machine Complex.
A glint of reflected light off from an electric blue visor caught Lorenski's eye, and he shifted his head ever so slightly to look beyond her. Standing back there, almost immobile as they talked to each other, were two Special Operations Sangheili, both clad fully head to toe in their deep wine red SpecOps armour and an energy sword hilt ‒ that when activated, glowed a bright crimson red ‒ each on their legs.
He personally knew and worked with the closest Sangheili standing near Mia, a competent warrior by the name of Xytas 'Doravoai.
A master in the arts of blade combat and Close Quarters Combat, and holder of the title of Swordmaster in the complex Sangheili culture, that is if the prefix of 'ai' at the end of his bloodline name didn't give it away first. The other Sangheili standing by him however, Lorenski knew little about.
Yes, she was female, which was rare sight on the battlefield or anywhere else not their home keep, but they are also a someone not to be made fun of especially if it came during to proving one's self, if most the plentiful rumours he had heard about how the female Sangheili warriors were true.
Feyo 'Nrahom. Lorenski believed he had heard her name was.
"Alright Spartan, look up for me here please."
Lorenski took his gaze away from the two Sangheili and looked at the gunnery sergeants' data pad he was holding above his head, then to the side as the man moved the pad to a different spot.
As this was happening in the meantime, the engineer offered Taylor back her helmet.
"Thanks, EJ," she nodded curtly, putting the helmet back on with an almost silent hiss.
The huragok gave a small tilt of its seven eyed eel like head accompanied by a soft cheerful trill in return. He about faced and began drifting off towards where Lorenski stood spreadeagled, still following the data pad.
The MGySgt lowered the pad and tapped a few symbols. "Alright, your tracking is good to go. EJ, you're up!"
Taylor watched as the huragok chirped with another soft trill, floated in behind Lorenski and seemingly latched onto his back. She didn't see what the engineer did next, as the comm terminal across from her caught her attention as it began flashing with a message marked urgent.
Striding quickly and calmly, the Master Gunnery Sergeant reached the terminal and tapped the screen. The letters of urgent disappeared from the screen and the weathered face of the Gallipoli's second-in-command, Xavier Vaigo, showed up on it.
"'Ello, armoury here, what's up?"
"Are the Spartans out of cryo?" Xavier demanded rashly.
This line of response didn't faze the MGySgt, this was typical because he got the same thing every time. "Yes sir, they're armoured up and rarin' to go to get geared, so are many of the Sangheili. I've already got two SpecOps of the sort down here all ready."
"Who have you got?"
"'Doravoai and 'Nrahom, sir."
As the XO and MGySgt conversed heatedly to each other about something that sounded very one-sided and it was happening soon, Spartan Taylor had gotten up and walked over to where Lorenski was still standing awkwardly, the engineer also still attached to his back.
"So, Mike, what does it feel like?" Taylor asked, stopping before him.
Lorenski remained stationary, but she could tell under that helmet of his, he was raising his up eyebrows at her, "What does what feel like, Mia?"
"To have EJ attached to your back," she indicated to the huragok with an armoured finger.
"Annoyingly unbalancing," he muttered, shifting his shoulders slightly. His abrupt movement earned him a chirping huff of annoyance from the engineer still latched back there.
The MGySgt practically yelled at the terminal, "... we're gonna do a what!? When was this planned!?"
The image of Xavier was unfazed, "Already done and thirty minutes ago, and once we're there and they've geared up, send them to pelican Four-zero-Four awaiting in hangar bay two and don't forget to tell them they have a unit from the 74-MWD goin' with too." and the call terminated before anything else could be said.
The MGySgt exhaled and sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck and continued to watch the black screen with a slowly rotating ships emblem with the Gallipoli's motto on it.
He turned around sharply, his face was flushed almost a ruddy red. "EJ! You finished yet?"
At that exact moment, there was a successful chirp from the engineer, quickly followed by an audible pop, then a buzzing noise of vvmmmm as the Spartan's shields came back online. The outer skin of his armour shimmered briefly with a golden glimmer.
The engineer replaced the reactor housing back with little effort and released its hold on the Spartan's back before floating away to do something else, doing so without making another noise.
"What's going on, sir?" Lorenski asked dropping his to arms to the side.
"Slip-jump into atmosphere and you're getting armed up, heavy loadouts," he looked past both Spartans, "You two are gearing up with them as well."
The two Sangheili acknowledged the master gunny with a simple nod.
"Slip-jump into Atmo," Taylor wasn't exactly surprised but she still showed it. "Huh, not unheard of but a risky move. You know where we're going to come out at?"
"Above some gorge and into some strange weather at the same time. Not too close to the disturbances and yet not too far, the reasons are in the briefing I'm transmitting to all of you, so you know what's going on better than I ever could tell you," he rattled off, now in a calmed state and rather bored like as he inputted in a code into a nearby wall keypad.
"Seventy-Fourth K-9 Military Working Dog Unit. Interesting," Taylor noted as she read the information she brought up on her internal helmet display, "And we've got Nipper, even better."
A series of clunks reverberated throughout the room as every weapon locker unlocked and opened wide, exposing every weapon known from the UNSC to Combined Sangheili Empire, there was even three lockers solely filled with Forerunner promethean weapon tech.
"What are those?" 'Nrahom asked, pointing up to a certain ceiling rack with piqued interest, all the while taking a Type-51 Carbine and a few cylindrical magazines, a plasma pistol, and then acquiring a UNSC ARC-920 railgun.
"Those?" the MGySgt replied in distaste after handing 'Doravoai a Type-58 Plasma Caster before he came over. He looked up at the three long silver sniper like rifles and four shorter ones with disdain.
"Those things are supposed to be the cream of the crop in high tech weaponry between both our species," he reached up and took down one of the shorter silver rifles for 'Nrahom to examine more closely. "Supposed to be self-sufficient, so no need for magazines to reload, all powered by energy routed from a Spartan's or Sangheili's armour power cell. But as you can basically tell by my tone of voice, they're no more than worthless malfunctioning pieces of junk, well they are until I try to fix the stupid firing mechanisms in the flimsy things."
Spartan Lorenski grunted as he attached an M6 Spartan Laser to his back clamps before taking out a few magazines for a suppressed version of the BR85HB battle rifle and a regular M6H2 magnum. Taylor did the same for the heavy, sidearm, and primary weapon, only she replaced her flashlight on the bottom rail her battle rifle to an M301 grenade launcher.
The AI of the frigate came in over the PA system, "Attention all hands, coordinated Micro-jump commencing in three... two... one..."
The Stalwart frigate surged forwards, as if it had just been shunted in the rear by a dozen freight MagLevs all at once.
"Alright people, gather round and listen up!" Taylor addressed loudly to the two Sangheili and Spartan as she then strode over to a inactive holo-table, "As to the briefing you have received I will go over it once with you. As you know all of us with be working together on this, teammates look after each other. No going lone wolf shit."
Taylor palmed the holo-table's controls. "There are energy spikes correlating to a dark zone generator pylon somewhere in the vicinity up on this mountain range near the most strongest of interferences, there is also a spire over the other side of said range."
The holo-table activated, displaying the mission objectives and data. Including a very low resolution scan of the terrain.
"At eighteen hundred hours we are to be deployed to our objectives by pelican dropship. In addition to that, we'll be given three F-99 drones for escort to the first objective before they split off to commence proper terrain scanning the prowler couldn't manage with theirs. Now, our goal with the first objective is to identify and locate it, then prep it for demolition so we can have relative clean comms. After the pylon is dealt with, we're to go on a hiking trip to get recon data on that spire for an infiltration and information mission for later. So, Lorenski," Taylor questioned, turning her gaze over to him. "As for your long serving experience and training tutelage for others in controlled demolition, have you got a charge for the dark zone?"
He nodded, "Yep," and half turning to her request, revealing a single thirty by thirty centimetres of black and green square shaped M169 Det-charge with a specialised det-link, attached securely above his left hip. "It's remote or manual triggered ― whichever is preferred, also brought enough C-7 as an alternative if it is the older type of a darkzone generator."
"Good..."
There was a loud bark from a dog causing everyone to turn their heads in the direction of the door, they all saw a female marine with a black and tan kelpie on a long leash confidently strode into the armoury bay.
"K-9 Nipper and his handler Kirsten Viago, reporting in for assignment." she said standing ramrod straight and quickly saluting, more specifically directed over at Taylor. The dog, Nipper, sat next to Viago patiently as he had always trained to do and barked once, his tail wagging, indicating he was ready to get to work too.
"At ease marine and welcome to the team Viago, and you too Nipper," Taylor said warmly. "Glad to have both your unique skill sets. I'll brief you on what is going to go down while you gear up, as we'll be leaving once this frigate emerges."
"Well, that sure sounds like fun, don't it mate?" she said in return, bending down to scratch behind the back of both of Nippers' ears. The tail wagging intensified and he went to lick her face in appreciation.
Canterlot, Celestia's bedchambers, Tuesday, 5:50 pm according to her bedside table clock.
It was quiet enough that the sole clopping hoof steps of one pony echoed in the room as Princess Celestia paced slowly around her chambers, her horn encased in a golden glow, and a lengthy written scroll she had yet to finish off before her eyes.
She had read it twice aloud through already, and was on the third read through making sure she wasn't over extending her condolences on the princess alicorn. She was family after all now and after what has been occuring recently in Equestria, Celestia had been taking things slow with her.
She took a quill from off a nearby table and dabbed the tip into a hovering inkwell before moving it towards the scroll.
… I hope this is what you are looking for. Be strong in heart Twilight, just like your brother always had been.
– Celestia.
It was never easy writing that and what she finished on the scroll as she scanned over each word before rolling up it up and sending it with a burst of a spell with a greenish hue. The tragic and heartbreaking loss at sea that occurred three days ago hit everypony in Equestraia very hard.
It was one thing dealing with such loss of a family member, that much she knew very very personally but to deal with this loss that the two that was lost was her adoptive niece Princess Cadence and Princess Twilight Sparkle's brother Shining Armour along with everypony aboard was gone forever, never to see their warm smiles or speak their caring thoughts, was truly a long lasting, painful taxing testament on the very heart and soul.
Celestia held back a sigh of despair as she walked out onto her balcony to raise the moon for her sister tonight. Although it wasn't her job anymore of raising it, Luna really needed the rest as she and herself have been plagued by strange vision like dreams that always happened to end every time in a pine forest and a cold clingy feeling of dread and loss that clung to their minds long after they awoke.
Gazing far out to the west, Celestia could see that a large thunderstorm had been gathered for tonight and was beginning to roll in. As if we ever did need it tonight, she thought to herself.
As the moon began to peek up from above the horizon, Celestia thought about the series of events that lead up to what happened in court today. Ever since the liner ENMS New Harmony up and disappeared without a single trace apart from an SOS from its crossing roughly in the middle of the Sunset Ocean, a great amount of bad luck seemed to have descend and smothered itself all across of Equestria.
Apart from the odd report of strange blue, green and pink lights seen in the sky at night to simple everyday spells suddenly going haywire, the most of what was covered in the day court today was that there has been a sudden influx of pony disappearances over the past couple of days, many without explanation. Occurring from farming communities to small towns, even some have occurred on the outskirts of major cities, which also included Canterlot.
Two particular reports came immediately to mind from the meeting with the council that about a third of both Appleloosa and Dodge Junction's population had just vanished without a trace in one single night.
Even though there wasn't much evidence in support, many ponies still had pinned the blame on the sudden disappearances as the result of poorly reported changeling activity around those areas, but for both population's not to hear or witness one bit of the intrusion was very unsettling.
Very unsettling indeed.
Which made Celestia wonder to herself aloud. "Was this really the fault of changelings or something more?"
There was a ruffling of wings and Celestia felt something land on her back and give out a lengthy squawk of appreciation. She turned to see her pet phoenix with a happy grin on its beak. "Yes, it has been indeed a long day, Philomena. Thank you."
The phoenix sensing that her master was feeling down, she shuffled up towards Celestia's face and nuzzled her beak against the alicorn's ear. Celestia's mood of woe and despair was lifted, replaced by the warm sensation of belonging and comfort in her heart and a small smile upon her lips.
The moment was interrupted by a roll of thunder accompanied by a trio of lightning flashes off to the west. It was going to be one rough long night tonight.
UNSC Gallipoli, Hangar 2.
Everyone but Taylor took a seat as they boarded the pelican, she instead stayed standing by the ramp. "I have a question, Xavier."
The Gallipoli's XO, for reasons unknown had come to see them off, took note of the use of first names and responded in kind, "What is it, Maria?"
"If by the slimmest chance the interference encountered from the failed attempts of the scanning of the planet is caused and somehow belongs to an undiscovered civilization, what are our orders for proceeding to such an encounter?"
Xavier's features hardened to a stern look as he looked at her unbelievingly like she had suddenly become highly radioactive, "I don't know how or where that question of an thought you just asked came from, but to your answer, there are still protocols in place for just such an event. If you want to know about such, it should be under contact protocols in the list of engagements." he scratched the stubble on his chin, "Why? Have you seen something in the recovered data that correlates to your question that we might've have skimped over?"
Taylor shook her head, "No sir, just a gut feeling. A sixth sense if you will."
Just by the tense pause that followed, she could feel that Xavier was mulling this over in his mind for a moment, "Well, I don't care to know why I'm even agreeing to your gut feeling, but lets hope if you are right about it and you ever do bump into any of the sort, they're more of the friendly kind. We've had more than enough first contacts gone awry of our history as humanity as it is."
"Sir, hypothetical question on that," Taylor said as Xavier turned around to leave.
"Yes?" Xavier said with a sigh, not bothering to look over his shoulder, quite disinterested now.
"If such intelligent life forms do exist, what of the Resurgence presence in the area? That is if they haven't been… well exposed to the eyes of the supposed hypothetical others?"
Xavier shrugged, sighing and began to walk away, "A gorge to be spanned, Spartan. It's a bridge to be forged if we ever-" the pelican's door ramp sealed closed, shutting out the rest of his words.
The engines ramped up and the pelican dropship thundered out of the hangar as the frigate exited its jump and flew straight into the twilight, the transition between day and night with the three escort F-99 UCAVs in tow.
Instead of the vision ending like had did every other time as she started to squeeze past her sister's large frame and another pony, the view shifted and Luna had suddenly felt very small as the sight shifted into a grey interior with four very large blurry figures sitting across from her and accompanied by a strange never-ending whirr of a rumbling sound.
Luna had the sudden urge to speak and when she did, instead of words, she barked loudly thrice, exactly like a dog would do. What is this? She turned her gaze down at the floor and saw that her hooves had changed into padded paws of a glossy black dog.
Of what breed? And was she even female? She had no clue, not without a mirror or something with a reflective surface. Her thoughts were interrupted by a coughing mix laugh of sounds and gruff garbled voices.
'-ey, wh-s -ng -ith h-'
'-st -cit-d -or -rk t-ts -ll, a-n't -hat rig-'
Luna turned her head to the right to see where the closer noise was coming from. Sitting there she saw another burred figure, this one a little smaller, and it was reaching over to her.
Wincing for reason, Luna felt something begin to stroke her head softly and then move on to scratch behind her ear affectionately. She couldn't help herself – well, rather the dog couldn't since she was the one looking through the eyes of – jaw from opening and allowing the long tongue from rolling out to the side.
The view moved as the dog stood, and the cruel irritating, yet satisfying tingling sensation went down her back as the blurred figure moved its claw to start scratching up and down along the spine.
The urge of howling out stayed put thankfully, the panting and the thudding of the tail on the other hoof however didn't let up.
Nightfall, edge of a large forest, world's surface.
Even with the sounds of growling warthogs driven my combat engineers with trailers full of equipment and even a Special Purpose-42 MBT otherwise known as a Cobra slowly rumbling in behind them, all it took was the heavy mechanical stomping sounds of two Mark IX Mantises walking down the ramp of the hovering frigate to really drown out half of a helmetless helljumper's rant while he walked out with another in tow into the dusk.
"… It really sucks, you of course know that of all people, don't you Hark? It's been like that for three months straight. Doesn't it ever change?" A guy by the name of Reilly with brown curly hair and a ruddy complexion, whinged as he walked out into the drizzle drenched sunrise to join up with the rest of the squad, all clustered in a tight group with their helmets also off.
"To be honest, Pokey," Jason said stopping with Reilly with the rest of the squad they belonged to, "Once the Arbiter is shot in the face by a flood infected Jul 'Mdama and the eventual climax of the Final Fantasy franchise as well as the ultimate heat death of the universe, Jinjy will get off his lazy ass and change the quote of the day on the Gallipoli's newsboard." he took out a pack of smokes from his combat webbing chest pocket and removed one of the tightly rolled sticks with his teeth.
He offered the opened packet over to the other five drop shock troopers. Violet refused politely with a wave as did Nathan, but Reilly, Chris, and Tanner didn't. Tanner stuck hers behind the ear and popped out her MA5D mag to check it over for a seventh time ― and many people say she is the less jumpy one before any mission.
Jason put the packet back and replaced the cancer stick in-between his lips, "But I digress for everything I just said, as it'll probably only happen and I mean it, no matter how, it will only be when we come face to face with four legged intelligent ponies, in relative harmony with others, capable of understanding us, their multi-hued colour chart coats shining in the light of the sun and moon, all the while the sprouting of their angelic avian genes along with the blissful magic of friendship across the universe."
Everyone was silent for a few as they stared at Jason before they were all overcome by the hard to control giggle fits at the outlandish comment.
Still laughing and clutching his sides, Nathan jerked a thumb mockingly over at Reilly. "Wow dude, and here I thought Pokey came up with the most screwed up predictions!"
"Hey!" Reilly retorted loudly, feeling quite insulted by the remark and jabbed a finger at Nathan's chest. "It wasn't MY fault that 'dear squad us' came across records regarding… ahem, 'Ursus sapiens'."
"Wise bears..." Chris muttered, translating the science-y words for the normal people while he lit the end of his up with an UNSCMC flick lighter.
Reilly turned his attention from Nathan and shot an irked look over at Violet, who was failing to do her damned best to suppress herself from sniggering from recalling the event.
"Ha, yeah, well I try," Jason continued on shamelessly with a shrug. "So, with that in mind, I'm going to get a nicotine hit, keeping all my wits about me, and when we're done from getting some, I'm gonna drink a pint from this here flask before heading for the head."
Reilly, now having stopped giving Violet the eye, examined his unlit cigarette making sure it wasn't getting as damp as he wanted it to have liked to, "So... what it is, that as for all of eternity, the quote on the board will always remain to be," he cleared his throat noisily. "Hell hath no fury like a Sangheili's mate scorned?"
Jason struck a 'strike-anywhere' match on Tanner's left forearm armour plate and brought the licking yellow flame to the end of his cigarette then over to Reilly's before it was extinguished in the rain drizzle, "Yep, only this time it won't be an active gravity-hammer that's thrown through the barracks window of the result."
The helljumpers grinned, chuckling lightly for another round as the three of them exhaled the second hand smoke. After a minute the dull distant rumbling whines of a pelican and UCAV F-99 Wombat drones added a new layer of sound to the backdrop of an approaching night lightning storm. There was a sudden snap of a branch as their squad leader – First Lieutenant Ricky Lorraine – walked out through the low mist from discussing the plan up with the his equal of the other squad.
"Alright ladies, put 'em out. Time to hoof it and get paid," he said sternly and waved out south east-ish. "There's a ruin like structure somewhere over there that Call Me Maybe spotted visually before she went out south west up to the dense cloud layer and the heads want us to check it, then clear it out."
"So why have we got Mantises as support? I feel a bit exposed with them stompin' around in the dark," Violet grumbled.
"Aw come on, Vi," Tanner teased half-heartedly. "You want the demons and special alligators to turn tail and act as our support instead?"
As a response, Violet unlimbered her Sniper Rifle System 99-Series 5 Anti-Materiel and adjusted the custom Oracle sights of it at a nearby warped tree trunk. "And miss the fun of plastering some covies that are sure to be there through the brain pan? Nuh-uh!"
Tanner punched Violet lightly on the shoulder, "That's right, go girl power!"
Violet lowered the rifle to rest and shied away so that no one else could see her cheeks go rosy red in embarrassment. "Aw shucks girl, you always did know to play me right."
Lorraine looked over to Hark, Reilly and Chris. "Take your last, I have a feeling it's a goin' to be a long one for awhile."
The three helljumpers took the final drag before they grinded the barely smoked sticks into the soil under the heel of their boots. "All done now, Lt."
Lorraine motioned with his head into the confines of the forest, "Right, lets go."
To the rhythmic clicks of safeties flicking off, everyone's visor polarized on the lieutenant's words and began moving for the edge of the tangle of forest, their silenced SMGs and assault rifles pointed roughly ahead of them.
With the other squad of shock troopers already pushing through the mossy and lichen covered trees a ways out ahead, the only other sound's of the early night was the ever encroaching storm, the twin thudding mechanical thuds accompanied by the odd crack of the Mantises as they pushed through the brush when there wasn't a cleaner path.
It still felt like a dream that was for sure but it still looked like a vision while the tall blurred shapes before Luna ambled about to and fro and she felt compelled to move herself to get closer, but before she could, Luna was interrupted by something immensely strong that seized her by neck, pulling her away from what she could see before whatever it was then lifted her clean off the ground.
Turning her head up and around in the direction of what held her aloft, Luna could see the blurred form of her attacker quickly formed into a less than blurred focus, and what it was scared her more than Tantabus ever had did to her.
The daunting bipedal black monster sneered louder, harsher than the other times she had heard before in her ears and tightened its grip around her neck. Luna found herself starting to lose focus, struggling to barely breathe in its grasp.
As her vision started to go dark at the edges, Luna lashed out at the monster with her hind legs and then with a blast from her horn immediately after causing it to let go in a howling angered roars. She didn't want to even care to know if that solved the problem as she just turned tail and flew away fast, and fly fast she did, as fast as her wings could beat to keep her aloft so she could to get away.
She weaved too and thro through around offending trees in her path of the forest, but still the shadowy figure that grabbed her not a moment ago came closer, its guttural growls and mocking sneers getting louder as it somehow gained ground faster on her than she could fly.
She tried flying above the forest but there was something holding her back, something was keeping her from not ascending no more than about a meter or two above the rushing ground that streaked below.
Angered and bitter words of a foreign language she could not understand was bellowed directly into her ears, 'Domo'Ingannon! Karumshurah ree chitakorru!' and suddenly she found herself back in the grasp of the black monster and was treated to a blue glowing object held in claw that was then plunged straight through her chest.
Princess Luna screamed like she never had before.
The writhing agony Luna was feeling wasn't like anything she had ever experienced before. The closest thing the searing burning pain could've only been described as she had been forced to drink the lava out of an active volcano.
The experience to endure it any further was too much for Princess Luna's mind and the pure torment ejected her from the dream. Luna's eyes flew open as she bolted upright in her bed, rivers of perspiration streaming all over her and the crisp and clean bed sheets she was once under were now wrapped tightly around her body, the tightest of which was wrung around her neck as she continued to scream at the top of her lungs.
CRASH!
The double doors to her bedchambers burst wide open almost off their hinges. Standing in the middle of them revealed a very worried Princess Celestia who was accompanied by five Royal Guards of both day and night. Their expressions were stern looking as always but their body language told otherwise.
"Lula! Are you okay?"
Luna was far from okay. She was still trembling and sweating profusely from the experience of the last vision like dream whilst trying to unwrap herself from the tanglement of tight bed sheets around her body.
The guards stayed outside of the room but blocked any entry as Celestia moved to her distraught trembling sister's side on the bed and wrapped a white feathery wing around her, in an attempt to calm the shaking alicorn princess. It worked, the shaking eased to nothing and the sweating stopped.
Celestia whispered with concern into Luna's ear, "What happened?"
When the midnight alicorn didn't reply, Celestia asked again, providing the answer to Luna's terror vision. "It was the same one, wasn't it?"
Luna wiped a tear that had formed again from her eye with the tip of one of her wings and looked back into her sisters. "Yes it was Tia, but this time, this time the ending changed and it went on far longer than it had previously."
Celestia's features hardened as she frowned in concern. "It was different? Different how?"
Luna didn't hesitate to launch into the retelling of the strange vision events for Celestia of what happened after she had tried to pushed past her in the pine forest.
Somewhere...
A silver solid door retracted in upon itself and five, four legged, shadowy figures of varying height, all with horns and wings, came out of the lengthy hall behind. Two of them split off immediately, each going their separate directions while the rest strode comfortably out into a gigantic open cavern, and then straight onto a thin partially see through silver platform that jutted over the edge without any means of support to keep it the way it is.
Two of the smaller figures, the ones with green spines down their necks and that flanked the tall middle one, looked up for guidance.
"Go," the middle one rasped, expressing little emotion.
The two that looked for guidance on what to do leaped off the platform without question and plummeted down into the cavern.
The taller one hadn't felt like this in untold millenniums, it was great to be back doing what it was originally out here to do and so it smiled in genuine glee for the briefest of moments. The tips of its fangs became exposed and glinting in the soft blue light that emanated from around the illuminated both halves of the broken cruise liner suspended in whitish blue stasis beams down far below.