September 20th 2552
The Sacred Inquisitor’s hanger bay was a mess, wreckage had been pushed to the walls and a token effort had been made to clean the dull cyan bloodstains that coated the floor in horrid patches, a grim reminder of the events that transpired. Twilight trotted forward with Keyes and her ten remaining griffon guard making her way directly to the bridge.
“Looks like you had a guest while we were away.” Jacob lengthened his stride to keep up with Twilights rapid gate.
“Nothing you need to worry about, just stay close to my guard” Twilight glanced around at the Covenant crewmen stealing glances at the Inquisitor and the human walking in her wake.
Eventually the group made it to the meeting rooms were Twilight was to speak to Savo. Leaving keyes and her guard outside Twilight trotted into the room to find the form of Savo 'Sralcamee hunched over a holographic projection. The door closed with a hiss.
“Inquisitor... Twilight, there has been a tragedy.” Savo turned away from the projection and threw himself into a chair to brood openly, cocking her head in confusion Twilight made her way over to the projection to see what Savo was referring too.
It was a recording taken from the holding cells she had placed Halsey inside to keep her away from the other humans. Two shimmering forms of cloaked Sangheili guards paced around the long room room on a wide patrol, It was protocol to maintain a cloak when guarding prisoners but to maintain it for hours the system would be set to low complexity mode. Each patrol would bring them together close to the control panel at the far end of the room.
Twilight watched the recording passively until the unthinkable happened, without warning one of the cloaked Sangheili ignited his energy sword and plunged the deadly blade into his fellow guard. The active camouflage failed for both of them and she watched as the murderous Sangheili simply pushed his fellow off of his blade and turned towards the control panel as the mortally wounded prison warden clutched at the wound convulsing on the floor.
The shields that comprised the cell doors powered down and Doctor Halsey walked out with an odd calmness and spoke to the murderer, a moment later the door at the end of the hall opened and the unmistakable figure of a Demon in dark brown armour entered the room its weapon held casually as Halsey and the murderer turned to speak to it.
As casually as one would swat a fly the Demon lifted its rifle and shot the mortally wounded Sanghili and the trio turned to jog from the room.
“This is unbelievable.” Twilight turned to look at Savo, the shipmaster had his face buried in his hands as he sat still. “Who was that traitor?!”
“A dead man. I contacted N’tho and requested he search for Zasze 'Rasumee and I was sent a picture of his corpse. He died fighting the Humans at the Pillar of Autumn at your command, whoever this is they are an imposter.”
“Major Dash told me that the Demon had access to the ships systems and knew exactly where to go” Savo nodded.
“At first I considered that one of the abominable constructs the Humans use was to blame for the Demon bypassing our security, but to think that one of my kind would betray the Covenant in such a manor, to deprive you and I of our honour! To have a brother turn and thrust a blade into your belly!” Savo clicked his mandibles in despair.
“There could be more traitors, what can we do about it?” Twilight looked Savo in the eyes as the Shipmaster regarded her.
“You must leave this ship, it is not safe to keep you here when I cannot trust my own crew, I tracked the Phantom to a forerunner facility on the ring. The traitor and the Humans have chosen to stay far away from the other humans on Halo for unknown reasons. However this provides us with an opportunity.” Savo stood and moved over to the holographic projector. “There is a Special Operations force currently engaging in reclamation activities close to the facility the traitor and the humans landed. This Special Operation force is led by Usze 'Tahamee, an old friend of mine, recently they requested additional supplies.”
“Can this Usze 'Tahamee be trusted?”
“Absolutely, he graduated with Thel 'Vadamee at the collage of war on Sanghelios. I have prepared a ship to carry supplies to the Special Operation force, you will go there with your honour guard and N’tho and from there you can requisition transport and the Special Operation forces present to find and eliminate the Demon and the traitor, we can then recover the Human command crew and the sleeping Demon and salvage our honour.”
“You want me to requisition a Special Operation force? I should go speak to the Supreme Commander before I do something like that.” Twilight looked over the manifest displayed before her and made note of the excessive number of Plasma Capacitor units requisitioned by the force.
“That would be unnecessary, the fleet is currently unaware of the Demon attack on this ship. While you are on the ring I will conduct a sweep of my personnel to find and remaining traitors”
“I don’t know about this Savo, what if other ships have traitors?”
“Trust me on this Twilight, I will sweep this ship of traitors and then I will investigate the Penance too and speak to Figa 'Nrazumee on this, if knowledge of traitors becomes known within the fleet it would start a panic that could not be quelled, brother must trust brother here Twilight we are in a precarious situation.” Twilight nodded with a sharp sigh.
“Very well, I will deal with the Demons, you are right knowledge of this betrayal is dangerous.” Twilight left the room shortly thereafter Keyes and her guard falling into step beside her as she made her way to the hanger to find this supply ship Savo had prepared.
CHECKING FILE SYSTEMS...
DONE...
CHECKING SECURITY : STATD
ENCRYPTION CODE : BLACK
SUBMIT SECURITY CREDENTIALS:
SPARTAN-B312
IDENTITY CONFIRMED...
ACCESS GRANTED
TARGET PROFILE:
TWILIGHT SPARKLE, INQUISITOR, COVENANT
Inquisitor to the Combined Fleet of Righteous Purpose, Inquisitor to the Fleet of Particular Justice, Inquisitor to the Fleet of Profound Solitude, Inquisitor to the Fleet of Tranquil Composure, Inquisitor to the Fleet of Inner Knowledge, Inquisitor to the Legion, Sister of the Grand Inquisition, Noble of House Midnight, Student to the Resplendent Crown of the Undaunted Sun, Student at the Equestrian Academy of Natural Sciences, Student at the Equestrian Academy of Religious Studies, Student at the Equestrian Academy of Gifted Unicorns, Accredited Master of Sorcery.
TARGET VALUE: ALPHA
REPORT COMPILED BY: LT. COMMANDER JAMESON LOCKE
Pursuant to Office of ONI Retrieval and Acquisitions inquiry of 22 September, 2551, the following is a target profile of Inquisitor Twilight Sparkle compiled by Lieutenant Commander Locke. Report supplemented by documents provided by ENIGMA (See attached file).
Height: 4'7 (excluding horn)
Weight: 274 kg
Age: 23 (Earth standard?)
Appearance: Resembles purple a terrestrial pony with a mythical Unicorn horn.
Note: ENIGMA has demonstrated strange supernatural abilities it refers to as magic (See attached file) and has assured us that Twilight Sparkle demonstrates such abilities also.
First confirmed by alien entity calling itself ENIGMA Twilight Sparkle has been a unique element within the enigmatic Covenant as a wartime investigator and civilian leadership figure. Twilight Sparkle appears to be the mastermind behind the grand deception regarding the treatment of Humanity at the hands of the Covenant. While Humanity is regarded as a heretical species all reports of battle indicate that Human civilian elements are being relocated to a prison planet. ENIGMA has informed us that what civilian elements survive to reach the prison planet are quietly and discreetly disposed of.
The following is from an interview with ENIGMA conducted by Commander Serin Osman
January 3rd 2551:
“Who are we talking about today little ape?”
“Twilight Sparkle, from report forty six.”
“Celestia’s (See attached file) insipid little sycophant? Twilight comes from a very respectable and noble family dating back thousands of years. Purported descendants of the great Unicorns (See attached file) that built the white city on the mountain, lies of course. The Midnight Family was started by a thug mercenary that made a name and fortune hunting down Sangheili (See attached file) and Kig Yar (See attached file) Pirates in the early days of space exploration.”
“Before Equestria (See attached file) joined the Covenant?”
“Roughly a hundred or so years before Equestria joined. Midnight Spear, she was a colonist that started destroying Covenant ships in a converted commercial freighter, ended up leading a fleet of six hundred ships, dwarfing the Equestrian Royal fleet. To bring her into the fold Luna (See attached file) commissioned the mare as an Admiral and gave her a noble bloodline and some princeling husband.”
“Back to Twilight Sparkle.”
“Ah yes, Twilight is an excellent practitioner of magic and a fervent academic, the little worm is a genius and utterly devoted to Celestia.”
“Not the Covenant?”
“Oh she is an utter zealot, indoctrinated into the Great Journey (See attached file) at a young age and any time she does not spend studying she spends praying and debating religious interpretation. Of course when Celestia needed dirt on the Covenant military Twilight was the only mare the Prophet (See attached file) Councilor’s would allow unrestricted access to the fleet records, so she becomes the youngest Inquisitor in history and rushes around the front lines of the war. Not even my considerably skilled agents are able to get close to her, they might have a better chance if they approached from the human front”
“Incorporation of (REDACTED) elements into the ONI is pending, you know that.”
“Of course, in anycase Twilight is a powerful and influential figure and likely the most important mare alive right now even if she does not know it. Celestia genuinely loves the pathetic little thing like the daughter she never had. If you want to destabilize the Covenant then killing Twilight slowly and painfully and making sure video footage and a corpse is sent to Celestia is the way to go.”
“Would that not simply galvanize a largely disinterested civilian element of the Covenant against Humanity?”
“The Covenant is what you would call a house of cards. The Sangheili don’t trust the Equestrians and the Prophets don’t trust the Sangheili or the Equestrians and the Equestrians don’t trust the Prophets or the Sangheili. You kill Twilight and Celestia is going to burn like the sun itself and build the biggest fleet she possibly can before smashing it into Humanity. Of course the Sangheili and the Prophets won't allow this and would get in her way, suddenly you have a nice little civil war to take pressure off of you lovable apes.”
“Sounds more like a gambit then a plan.”
“Oh my dear sweet little Serin, you don’t win a war without taking a few risks.”
Interview Ends.
In the opinion of this investigator, Twilight Sparkle is one of the most valuable assets on the field. Not only does she provide an opportunity to gather an incredible amount of intelligence but she can be used as a potent bargaining chip against one of the most powerful elements of the Covenant.
The plan proposed by ENIGMA is deeply immoral, risky and uncertain to have the desired effect. Not to mention the questionable loyalties of ENIGMA. However ENIGMA is right about one thing, the capture or elimination of Twilight Sparkle is vital to ending the war, one way or another.
TARGET PROFILE END...
LOGGING OUT...
Amanda blinked as the report ended and turned to regard Doctor Cathrine Halsey looking impatiently at her.
“Well, did you learn anything?” Halsey crossed her arms tapping her foot on the transparent metal floor.
“Yes, quite a bit.” Amanda turned to pick up the rifle she had left leaning against the cryopod and checked how many bullets she had left.
“Then tell me who is this Twilight Sparkle.” Halsey let out an exasperated sigh as the Spartan did not even glance at her.
“My next target.” Amanda punctuated her words by chambering her rifle and stepping forward into the darkness.