Kix gazed in disbelief out at the wreckage of the of the Covenant cruiser Truth's Light and couldn't help but feel a little disgust. He didn't like the Covenant nor the purple metal they favored, but something about this particular ship and it's position screamed dreadful. It lay in two halves, with the forward-half of the ship dug into a crater in what was known as the "Everfree Forest", while what was left of the rear after the explosion had disintegrated upon entering the atmosphere and lay scattered across the landscape. Purple and blue flames lapped at the broken hull while alien wires sparked and shuttered as Kix made his way towards the main wreck, carefully watching his step and ignoring the voice in his head yelling to turn around and go back to the room Celestia had prepared for him.
As Kix approached the hull, he noticed the increased number of Covenant dead, the sight bringing little relief to the ODST as he quickly passed the by. When he reached the broken ship, he circled around towards the back half, which had been ripped open when the back half had broken away. The forward hull had come down at an angle, so Kix would have to go down beneath the surface and into the darkness to look for anything still usable. The entrance loomed in front of him like gaping jaws, twisted into a gruesome purple scream, and he resisted the urge to turn around and go back to the room Celestia had prepared for him. Instead, he unlatched his shotgun from his back, and after flicking on the light attached to it, slowly began his decent into the ship.
It was a tight squeeze at first, with Kix having to hold his shotgun at eye-level in order to slip between any crates that were too heavy to shove aside, but the further he went, the more the halls began to open up. The light from the fires quickly receded as Kix slowed his pace in order to scan every inch of the ship with his flashlight. It was a bit unnerving, being this deep in an enemy crash site, but what worried Kix was not the number of living Covenant he had seen, but rather the lack thereof. It was strange that the Covenant wouldn't have used the broken ship as their temporary outpost, and if they weren't here, Kix couldn't help but wonder where else they would be hiding. He knew for a fact that there were living Covenant on Equestria, he just didn't know where, or how many. What worried him above all else though, was the thought of a full-scale invasion. The ponies appeared to lack any form of self defense, let alone world defense, and there was only so much he as a single ODST could do. If the Covenant were planning to strike soon and in force, in wouldn't take long for Equestria to fall.
Kix quickly shook the thoughts from his head as he realized how far he'd traveled without watching his surroundings. If he got sloppy, he'd most likely end up trapped with no hope of rescue, which would mean he would be as good as dead. Or worse. Much, much worse. He shook the thoughts from his head as he marched forwards, stepping over shattered consoles and sparking wires. Ever since he'd landed on Equestria, he felt his concentration had been...lacking, as though there was always something on his mind, distracting him from whatever task he was trying to accomplish. Maybe it was the thoughts of seeing the equines slaughtered at the hands of the Covenant, or perhaps of was the feeling of helplessness that plagued him, knowing that he could never hope to protect an entire planet by himself. Even if he tried, he would surely be slain, and Equestria would become just another ball of glass drifting aimlessly through space, another testament to the Covenant's madness.
Suddenly the hull shook around Kix, as though something had forcefully slammed into it from the outside. Kix halted as the hull shook again, this time harder, and braced himself up against the wall. It was obvious that something was hitting the ship, and Kix suspected that something was the Covenant. If they had known he was inside and were trying to destroy the ship, he would trapped inside and would surely perish. He was hit with a strong sense of dread when he realized that he needed to get out, and fast.
He retraced his steps, leaping over familiar obstacles he had seen on his way down as he ran back towards the exit, but the cramped and cluttered halls made it difficult for him to keep a consistent pace, as he had to slow down repeatedly to side-step around debris. Still the hull shook, briefly disorienting Kix as he ran. He could see the exit growing larger and felt a brief sensation of relief, which was quickly shattered when a sizzling ball of molten plasma arched over the hole's lip and and into the corridor, hurtling straight towards Kix. Luckily, he happened to be next to a metal plate that had detached from the wall and dove behind it right as the plasma roared past where he had just been standing. He quickly peered out around the sheet, looking for any more incoming wraith mortars as well as any place to take shelter from them. Finding only the latter, he darted out and continued for exit, from which he could feel a growing draft when another mortar appeared. Kix had to fall back in order to take shelter though, and he narrowly escaped. The shots were becoming more frequent the closer he got to the exit, no doubt because the Covenant were monitoring their motion trackers. Kix had also been glancing at his, and the amount of red had made him consider staying inside the ship, but they would no doubt send a team to search the entire ship for him. As fun as it sounded, Kix didn't feel like being cornered in a dark ship by angry brutes today.
Kix was now within arms reach of the hole's edge, and he was prepared to jump out when he heard the familiar launching sound of a wraith's mortar. The outer edge of the ship was illuminated a bright purplish-blue as the plasma streaked closer, and even Kix's polarized visor wasn't enough to block out the rapidly increasing light as the plasma drew nearer. Making a last second decision, Kix dropped to the ground and lay flat on his back, just barley underneath the plasma, which scorched his chestplate as it soared over him and exploded somewhere inside the ship. Using his hands and legs, Kix pushed himself into a roll and dropped off the ship and onto the hard ground, where he quickly got onto his feet, shotgun ready. Hovering just inches off the ground in front of him sat the purple beast, fins gently wavering as it drifted slightly to the left. It's mortar finished venting and ascended, only to jerk back suddenly as it fired a plasma shot that Kix was quick to evade. The mortar shot exploded harmlessly in the background as Kix sprinted right for the wraith, which responded by boosting forwards, intending to splatter him. But that was exactly what Kix had wanted, and right before it ran full force into him he leapt to the side, letting the wraith pass right by him. He was now right where he wanted to be: behind the wraith. He dashed forward and jumped onto the wraith's back, and before the pilot figured out what was happening, shoved one of his last spike grenades into the opening in the armor before jumping off and rolling away into the brush. The wraith turned one-eighty, and just when it seemed it was about to fire, as massive explosion sent it up in flames and blew it's mortar to pieces. Kix was about to step out of the brush when he heard the scream of engines approaching, and craned his neck just time to see three banshees fly over, oblivious to the smoking wreckage below.
And just where are you headed off to? Kix thought as he stepped out into the clearing and took off in the direction the banshees had been heading. He had been trailing them for little over fifteen minutes before he finally lost sight of the alien craft, which had blended in to the purple sky that signaled the final hour of sunlight, but Kix was too intrigued to turn back now. And so he trekked on into the early night, weaving expertly through the dense forest. He had entered the woods little over half an hour ago, and he was beginning to notice that the trees were thinning out, until he was standing right on the edge of the woods, overlooking a clearing that went a little ways before dropping off into a sheer cliff. As Kix made his way over to the edge, his radar suddenly went static, and Kix knew it had to be Covenant jammers. He fell to a crawl, and looked over the edge, expecting to see a small encampment of brutes, but the reality was so much worse. In the center of the valley below stood a spire, over twenty stories high, surrounded by the glow of phantom and banshee trails, while over a hundred Covenant foot soldiers patrolled the surrounding area.
Oh my God, Kix thought with wide eyes, it's Reach all over again. But why here? Although Kix always had trouble determining the Covie's reasons for doing what they did, he couldn't even begin to imagine just what they'd want on a planet inhabited by little talking equines, but he wasn't about to ask now. He crawled back to the edge of the woods, and the second he was on his feet he ran. He had to warn Celestia of the imminent danger. He had to warn Equestria.