1330 hours, November 25, 2553 (Military calendar), UNKNOWN SYSTEM, UNKNOWN planet, upper atmosphere, UNSC Pelican dropship
As we neared the surface Holly marked a suitable landing zone for us about 3 klicks from a small settlement in what appeared to be a large clearing. Deciding it was a good of a place as anywhere I touched down the craft with barely a sound.
With the landing out of the way I dropped the ramp along with the hog dangling from the tail and gave control over to the now pilot of the craft. After pulling the three mongooses from the bay of the craft, I radioed the pilot.
“It’s all clear, pick us up here in twenty four hours”
“Understood, Reverb don’t die down there ya hear”
We all looked at each other and then said “We’ll try, mom” trying our damndest not to burst out laughing.
With that the pelican shot towards the sky.
“Wow cap” Remarked Kate in pure shock
“Wow what?” I asked hesitantly
“Well we all had a bet that you lost your sense of humor” Juliet said a little disheartened
“Well losing an arm will do that to a guy… who won the pot then?” I said a little more confidently
All eyes went to me of all things. Confused I asked “why are you looking at me.”
“Uh” Isaac began “Holly actually won the bet”
I was going to have a long chat with that AI, but that was for another time.
“Ok everyone listen up, we don’t know how advanced these people are so we will go by call signs only.”
Everyone nodded.
“Right mount up.” I said in a determined voice “Were going in.”
When I finished there was a chorus of “I CALL SHOTGUN”s followed by the slower ones saying “F***”
In the end Echo was in the passenger seat, Joker up on the chain gun and me driving the Warthog with Sapphire, Dodge, and Dic driving the mongooses.
It took us 30 minutes for us to get through the forest. Damn trees were closer together than I originally thought. So after we carved our path thru the woods we entered into a field large hilly field.
“You know what, I F***in hate forests!” Joker yelled
No one paid him any attention because all eyes were on the blue Pegasus on a cloud. What? Just because I’m a Spartan doesn’t mean I don’t know my mythology.
“Uh, earth to reverb, what are ya looking at”
We all pointed to the cloud. Looking up Joker yelled “WHAT THE F*** IS THAT?!?!”
Apparently that was enough to wake the Pegasus. It took one look at us pointing at it screamed then took off at a rate that shouldn’t be possible for a creature of flesh and blood and headed straight for the town. Oddly enough it trailed a rainbow behind it.
“Great nice going Joker you scared her” Sapphire scolded
“How do you know its female Jules” I asked
“Cap did you not hear it scream it clearly is female”
I just shook my head then showed her the chart of gases on the planet 76% nitrogen, 22% oxygen, 1% Helium, and 1% other gases.
She gave me a shrug “women's intuition then”
I sighed and shook my head there was no use arguing with her.
“Ok well they know we are here, so I guess we’ll just sit tight and let them come to us.” I said
Now it didn’t take too long for one of the ponies to show up. In fact it was exactly 3 minutes 23 seconds and 55.3333 milliseconds. (Holly was keeping track)
I was sitting on the hood of the Warthog when something impacted the back of my head hard enough to make my shields flare. It didn’t take me long to figure out what had happened because there were two LARGE EYES looking into my visor. Amber if I remember correctly.
“OH MY GOD A HUMAN, Bon said I was crazy but hear you are and…”
Her excited ramblings stopped when she heard the sounds of my team chambering rounds, the excitement turned to pure fear when she realized she had walked right into the lion’s den.
“Please don’t hurt me” she squeaked
“REVERB STAND DOWN” I shouted, probably scaring her even more, but I heard safeties click on.
I slowly reached up with my right arm to try to pry the now shaking creature off my head. As the cold titanium touched her she froze and gripped my helmet tighter.
“Common now, I can’t see with you on my head” I said gently, and with that she released her death grip on my helmet and I lowered her to the ground.
Apparently we went alone any more. When I heard the rounds chamber they weren’t for the mare that until recently was on my head. We had been surrounded by snow white Pegasus, unicorns and a few ponies, all wearing what appeared to be roman armor.
My Spartans had taken up defensive positions around the vehicles.
Over the team com I heard Dodge say “What do you want to do Havoc?”
“DO NOT fire whatever you do, this is a very sensitive situation and I don’t want to start another inter galactic war.”
“Havoc, there appears to be duplicates” said holly
“What do you mean?”
“Well one just changed into another one”
“Okay what Does tha…”
“CHANGELINGS” Cried the mare the mint green mare
And with that they attacked.
Pulling out my DMR I started to engage the creatures in front of me when one of the flying ones latched onto me.
“ones in my back” I called to the team and in response I felt 3 rounds impact the unwelcome passenger.
“There’s too many” Dic callout
“No there’s not” growled Dodge
The next thing I heard was chain gun fire. Alex had apparently fought her way to the warthog’s mounted M41 light AA gun and was firing the entire belt into the horde of the now undisguised changelings. Until now, we had all used the tranq rounds we had brought, but that stopped as soon as the Vulcan started firing molten lead into the sky.
Switching mags I brought my gun up to the last remaining changeling who was trying to fly away. I shot once. The bullet impacted at the base of its skull and the high powered round punched a large gory hole on the other side.
As it fell to the ground what I assumed was the real guards came running and flying up.