CONTROL was now crawling with the four covenant species under Jul Mdamas rule, including a couple of hulking hunters which seemed to do nothing other than make growling type noises.
At the top of the forerunner construct, where the portal had once opened, several zealots and gibbering grunts stood guard as though they were waiting for the arrival of somebody else. They didn’t have to wait long as a phantom appeared from the sky towards the fourth floor where the zealots and the deactivated portal awaited.
The phantom turned to its side as it drew ever closer to the edge of the metal floor and opened its massive side door. Revealing another elite only this one wore the armour of a general and was escorted by two shock troop elites.
The generals amour was a beautiful golden colour which looked unscarred from any of the battles it had endured. A deactivated energy sword strong enough to cut through the toughest of UNSC armour hung at his side. And finally, he wore no helmet which allowed the zealots and grunts who faced him to see the fury in his eyes which caused a couple of grunts to hide behind their zealot masters.
The general jumped from the phantom, which was only five feet away from touching the ground, and up to the nearest zealot as his two bodyguards followed him, almost as fierce looking as the general himself. The closest zealot walked up to the general and bowed respectfully, placing one of its four digit hands onto its own chestplate.
“General Hal Bjan. We are honoured by your presence and bring great news on the ambush”. The zealot spoke in Sanghelios.
“Rise Glakjul”. Responded the general speaking in the same language. “If you are true to your word then we are blessed. The human scum known as Arrow squad have been dealt with”?
Glakjul stood up gently until he stood face to face with Hal Bjan and told him about the battle.
“Our forces crushed the majority of the human forces as they put up little resistance my general. Many of our brothers were defeated by the humans primitive weapons but we prevailed. The jammer was lost but not in vain”.
Hal Bjan walked past Glakjul with thoughts racing though his mind. The zealots and grunts parted out of his way as he walked slowly up to two large foreruuner doors. A few seconds passed before Glakjul spoke up.
“Something troubles you my general”? Hal Bjan turned back round to face him and walked back up to Glakjul, walking faster than he did when he walked past him.
“You mentioned that the majority of humans were defeated did you not”?
“Yes my general” Responded Glakjul, a hint of panic could be noticed escaping with the words he had spoke. Unfortunately for him, Hal Bjan noticed.
“Your words betray you brother. What have you not told me”?
“… Two of the humans escaped through a portal”. Spoke Glakjul as calmly as he could.
“Which ones”? asked Hal Bjan asked slightly irritated. Glakjul lowered his head, unsure of the identities of the humans who escaped with their lives. Knowing the answer, Hal Bjan snarled angrily.
“And yet you have done nothing about this crucial matter other than wait here while they desecrate the sacred soil of this planet with their filthy footsteps”?
“… My general, there is little to fear. Though we have not killed them, the promethean knights will surely-“. Glakjul was suddenly forced to stop as he felt Hal Bjans hand squeezing his jugular. Out of instinct, Glakjul placed one of his hands onto Hal Bjans as to try to force it off. His efforts were useless.
“Your failure shall not go unpunished brother”! Hal Bjan began. “The human group we know as arrow squad is stronger than you think. Even if most of them are dead, they are strong. Perhaps you have foolishly forgotten but we are stronger in faith. We shall not dishonour the Gods nor the Didacts hand by allowing these pathetic humans to use a forerunner artefact to their advantage and get away with it”!
Hal Bjan released his grip, pushing Glakjul to the metal ground as he did. The shock troops readied their storm rifles, expecting to be dealing with a heritic.
“Stay your weapons”! Commanded Hal Bjan to his bodyguards who obeyed and lowered their weapons. “I know what you think, Glakjul is not committed blasphemy among us. Not yet”. He turned to Glakjul who was using most of his strength to push himself off of the ground and did what he could from coughing and gasping for air.
“My general”? He managed to speak as he got back up to his feet.
“Your honour lies by a thread brother. If you wish to regain it and show your loyalty to our great covenant, you must find these humans and make them suffer for using the technology of the Gods”!
Glakjul respectfully bowed once more. “It will be done”.
“I shall come with you. That way I shall see if you are true to your word”. Responded Hal Bjan, not entirely able to trust Galkjul to his word as he placed a hand onto Glakjuls shoulder. “I hope you will not disappoint me a second time”.
Glakjul nodded as Hal Bjan took his hand off of Glakjul and walked back to the front of the bulky metal doors.
“One more matter of importance brother”. Hal Bjan spoke. Glakjul sprinted up to Hal Bjans side to hear his command.
“Yes my general”?
“As a personal request. Should one of these humans go by the name of RUST, then let me deal with him myself”. He growled. “Now find a way to get the portal running once more. We shall be going nowhere until it does”.
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At this point Rust had been running through the forest known as the Everfree none stop for a good fifteen minutes. He may have been tough but he was no Spartan, he needed to rest for a while.
He sat on top of a large rock and reloaded another two shots into the scattershot in case any of those creepy brightly coloured ponies were following him.
He looked round, it was dark and spooky. The thick fog covered much of the ground and vines hung loosely from the surrounding trees. If you even listened closely, the howling of a wolf could be heard.
“So, lets clarify”. Rust thought to himself. “I’ve been transported to an unidentified location of Requiem, found a forerunner settlement made of wood only to be populated by small talking horses which are now hunting me down while I try to contact INFINITY in the middle of the creepiest forest in the world. Could this get any worse”?
As on cue, a mighty roar broke the silence as a giant lion emerged from the darker part of the forest with bat wings and a giant scorpion tail. It stood not too far from Rust as it sized him up, getting ready for lunch.
“And of course, there’s giant monsters. Thank you so bloody much universe! What did I ever do to you to deserve this”? He said to the sky. He second he looked back in front of him, the manticore had pounced into the air with a mighty leap and swung its left paw backwards ready to knock Rusts head off.
“SHIT”!! Rust yelled, caught off guard by how fast the beast had moved in the two seconds he had taken his eyes off of it. He managed to roll backwards just in time as the manticores paw smashed into the ground where Rust had been standing less than a second ago. Rust backed up at least twenty feet and readied his forerunner weapon.
“Bring it you big bastard”! Rust taunted as he aimed the scattershot in front of the manticore which did not see the weapon as a threat what with the fact that it had never seen or dealt with a gun before and charged once again.
Rust kept a steady aim until the monster was close enough to shoot. The scattershot was a shotgun after all and was useless at long range, but up close, well the manticore would find out soon enough.
30 feet away, Rust softly put a finger on the trigger.
20 feet away, He aimed at the beasts massive head.
10 feet away, Rust moved his left leg slightly to the side, ready to dive out of the way.
5 feet away, Rust pulled the trigger.
Luckily for the manticore, its huge arm took the impact as it had swung its arm a little earlier to catch Rust off guard and paid for it dearly as bright orange bolts dug deeply into its skin, tearing though muscle.
The manticore was too big to die from the powerful weapon or be incinerated by it. But the shot had pretty much damaged its arm, maybe even broken it, from trying to attack something it had never encountered before although the same could be said for Rust who remained unharmed, barely.
Knowing the danger the human posed, it headed back into the deeper parts of the forest from whence it came.
“HAH! That’s right kitty cat! YOU BETTER RUN FOR YOUR LIFE”! Yelled Rust with overwhelmed joy at easily beating a monster more powerful than a hunter and could tear a Spartan in half.
Given the time, Rust took a glowing bolt from his pocket and placed it into the ammo slot of the scattershot. No way did he want to be unprepared for anything else the forest had to offer. Little did he know that six ponies were now on the hunt for him.
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Now that Twilight had rounded up the girls, and Rarity was done with her third bath, all the elements of Harmony stood at the edge of the Everfree forest with five of them stood in a line apart from Twilight who went over the plan with them.
“Okay girls listen up. As you now know there is some sort of new monster now roaming around in the Everfree and we must find it and stop it from hurting anypony. Last time was too close and it could have rampaged through the town if it wanted to, so now”- Twilight was quickly interrupted by a blue Pegasus, who flew into the air several feet and spoke.
“So now we need to kick its behind and show him who he’s messing with”! She spoke before zooming into the forest only to have Twilight use her magic to catch the over enthusiastic Pegasus by the tail and left the rest of her body dangling in mid-air as she was dragged back to the group and face to face with Twilight.
“Not so fast Rainbow Dash”. Scolded Twilight like a mother would do to a disobedient child. “If that thing is as smart as we think it is, then we should try to at least communicate with it first and find out why it tried to attack Ponyville in the first place. Right girls”?
Her gaze turned towards Fluttershy and Rarity who remembered their first encounter with Rust all too well as they slightly blushed. Twilight dropped rainbow Dash who quickly recovered before touching the grass.
“Alright girls, lets do this. If we all stick together then there is no obstacle we cannot overcome, no river too deep, no mountain too high, no”-
“Uh, Twi? Ah think we all get what yer sayin sugarcube”. Spoke the orange pony with a western looking hat on its head which caused Twilight to give her own blush of embarrassment.
“Sorry girls”. She apologised to the group. “Lets do this”! All of the ponies said in unison before charging into the Everfree forest, apart from Fluttershy who remained at the edge.
“Ummm… Perhaps I should check on Angel. He tends to get cranky when he doesn’t have his afternoon lunch. So- EEEP”! Fluttershy was cut short as she was picked up by a purple aura surrounding her whole body and was forcibly taken into the dark forest.
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“INFINITY! Do you read? Come in INFINITY this is Arrow squad leader Rust reporting in. Need immediate evacuation. Four casualties reported in. One soldier M.I.A. INFINITY, do you read? I repeat, DO. YOU. READ”?
Either the trees were thicker than they looked or INFINITY’s communications array was down. Either way there was no response which left Rust to utter out one simple word.
“Shit”.
What seemed to be Rusts main worry at the moment, according to the position of the sun, it would be dark in a matter of hours. Looks like Rust would have to prepare for a long night.
An hour slowly passed and Rust had managed to cut off some branches and sticks no thicker than his own arm with his own strength and gathered them all into a pile before surrounding them with a bunch of smooth stones. Now all he needed was something to light the fire. He grabbed two of the stones and scraped them together as hard and as fast as he could.
A minute or frustrating scraping and Rust was victorious as one of the sparks managed to set one of the sticks on fire. The sun was still out but it didn’t stop the Everfree forest from becoming any darker.
As Rust warmed himself up, he took his helmet off and placed it to the side and looked into the flames.
“What I wouldn’t give for one of Forest’s shitty jokes right now”. He joked improving his mood slightly.
But it didn’t help him forget everybody else he had lost no less than three hours ago. Shame there was nothing he could do about it. So which that thought he laid onto his side and prayed that he wouldn’t be attacked by crawlers while he slept. The fire was enough to keep the predators of the forest away. However, it wasn’t enough to keep away six figures standing only a few feet away from him.