September 21st 2552
“Discharge level nominal, light heat bleed at four point zero zero two percent. Roughly two hundred and forty watts.” James glanced over at the ornate alien weapon before him as the long barrel began to glow again. Its breach was open and there was no ammunition inside of it, a plastic zip tie kept the long thin trigger activated.
“On time discharge in two, one.” With a crack the weapon ceased to glow and a stump of wood collected from the sparse forest on the butte set up at the other end of the room exploded.
“Resolving, six thousand fifty one jules. Discharge level nominal, light heat bleed at four point zero zero three one percent.” The woman across from him shook her head in disbelief.
“Where the hell is this coming from? Six kilowatts every five seconds for three hours and we only lose three percent efficiency. Not to mention the rate of efficiency loss is all over the place!” James shrugged as the weapon discharged again.
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic Kat, no idea what to tell you.”
“It has no power source, even the metal is dead on the scanner!” Kat pulled herself to her feet and walked over to get a closer look at the weapon. At first glance it seemed to simply be an overly ornate bolt action rifle, sized for the massive griffon aliens. Green, red and shimmering silver metals were inlayed into dazzling patterns merging seamlessly into a cherry red wooden stock. However the thing could fire even without being loaded, the power behind the invisible force the weapon discharged was immense. Just under one fourth the energy of an Anti-Materiel rifle round.
“It could have a generator we are not recognising, the symbols light up when it's about to fire right?”
“The little glowing lights are producing what? twelve thousand kilowatts? And still going?”
“Well closer to fourteen thousand but not only that but we don’t understand how to change fire modes or how to make it discharge the energy that took down the Covenant gunboats. That was significantly more than six kay. More like what, one hundred thousand?”
“Depends how the energy is applied, We have no way of telling considering we can't even detect a projectile. It was also several kilometers away, all we have here is a glowing front and backsight, no rail for magnification. Yeah you would need good helmet magnification to hit the shots they were making, they could use the armour to operate the weapon?”
“This is the first time we are encountering this style of tech, this makes covie shit look like sticks and stones.” James ran his hands over his head scratching a bandage. The brilliant white material starkly contrasted with his dark skin, once smooth and handsome after a near miss from a plasma pistol he now suffered a horrible blistered mess for a face, his right ear had been flash burned away leaving a melted lump that rang horribly until a medic had torn out what little remained of his eardrum. “Damn, if that thing is telling the truth and it aint Covenant? What does this mean? We got another enemy alien empire out there?” Kat shrugged her prosthetic arm holding a metal canteen, they had all lost bits and pieces James supposed.
“Might be the ones that made this ring? They only show up when we get here and they are using technology entirely distinct from the Covenant. Covenant are religious fanatics, they might worship the birds.” The Spartan slumped back down in her chair.
“Then why are we only seeing a few of them? Why make a ringworld if you are not going to live on it? And the shield system it had used a Covenant power source.”
“Who knows.” They sat quietly for a while, simply watching the weapon discharge every five seconds, growing negligibly more inefficient with each shot. At this rate the weapon could fire continuously for weeks and still produce a lethal, undetectable projectile.
“That alien knows.” James surprised himself, the thought sneaking up on him and escaping before he could think through the implications. Of course the spartan across from him was nodding.
“She does, let's have a chat with her.” James suppressed a groan and got up rubbing his back and bouncing softly on the balls of his feet to get circulation going again.
“Fine let's go see the big bird.”
The rain was warm as it pitter pattered across the transport craft as it hovered just over the rippling muddy swamp on the way to the last known site of Halsey and the demon rescuer. The twin transports were somewhat overloaded, with several Unggoy, Kig Yar, Twilight and Jacob standing atop the crafts as they raced over the unpredictable terrain.
The pair stood in silence, now and then Jacob would steal glances at the dour mare but whatever thoughts he had were kept to himself, the pair of them did not have the right attire for the environment and both were wet and miserable.
The transports arrived at a grand and well lit opening, descending into the ground, despite the forerunner structure being below the level of the muddy pools of stagnant swamp water the structure itself was dry and as the transports entered the structure it felt dry and cool compared to the oppressive heat of the swamp.
The two transports disgorged the occupants as Twilight hopped down onto the ground and resisted the urge to shake herself dry.
“No dropship outside.” Zuka 'Zamamee clambered from the drivers seat of one of the transports and loped towards Twilight “Could we have missed the Demon?”
“Unless they hid the craft, it would be irresponsible not to investigate this installation regardless.” Twilight turned looking deeper into the structure, there was a large room with an elevator in the middle, with nowhere else to go she simply trotted forward as the Griffon’s and Special Operation team darted forward weapons at the ready. Jacob at her right and Zuka on her left.
“It is foolish to take the Human with you, he is a very valuable prisoner.” Twilight nodded.
“Far too valuable to let into the hands of the irresponsible Prophet of Stewardship, you told me yourself that he dismissed the danger of the Demons” Zuka looked at her with an odd expression as he stepped onto the elevator.
“Yes, I suppose you have a point, even after the Demon team raided the Truth and Reconciliation the Prophet chose to banish me to this dreadful reclamation duty rather then allow me to hunt them.” As the large party all stepped onto the platform Twilight lit her horn and activated the lift, there was a lurch as the ancient magnetic locks around the edge of the lift platform disengaged and the entire transparent lift rose upwards before rapidly beginning its decent.
The large group found itself in a large room with a single door leading deeper into the facility, several discarded food nipples and biological waste had been left in the corner of the large room causing the entire room to have a repugnantly rank smell. Twilight ignored the mumbled comments at the expense of the humans and made her way to the door, it slid open as she approached and her griffons and the special operations team hurried through to clear the room for her.
After a moment one of her griffons nodded her though with Jacob and Twilight could finally hurry out of the waste room. Into a scene of utter horror. The room was long and had twelve metal slabs with holographic displays over them lining one of the walls, on the other wall was a ramp leading to a raised platform with a glass floor. Three empty human stasis chambers had been put up against the door on the other side of the room to make a makeshift barricade but something had thrown them aside. There were plasma scoring on all of the walls and hundreds of human ammunition casings littered the ground.
Three of the slabs were occupied with naked dead humans, neat incisions had been made to them indicating a horrific surgury had taken place with blood coating the ground and several discarded organs left on the ground. Several other bodies were in the room, Twilight recognised the red haired human from the command crew she had captured. Her face was locked in an expression of utter horror and her remaining arm clutched a plasma pistol that had melted from overuse, her body was badly mangled. Another Human lay crushed under one of the stasis chambers but it was the mangled figure in the middle of the room that drew the most attention.
It had four legs and was vaguely equine but its body was covered in a crushed and cracked greenish black segmented exoskeleton that oozed a purplish grey fluid. Its face had a pair of prominent fangs and blueish insectoid eyes.
“Friend of yours?” Jacob was pale as he looked about the room.
“I have never seen anything like it” Twilight responded looking around as she felt her stomach turn horribly but found herself unable to look away.
“What terrible thing could have caused this?” As if in response to Zuka’s rhetorical question the room lit up with a dazzling golden light and a glowing blue orb appeared before them spinning in place as it looked about the room before settling in on Twilight.
“An unregistered sentient lifeform?! Oh how exciting! It is an absolute pleasure to meet you welcome to installation zero four. Did you migrate to this galaxy recently or did your species engage in targeted evolution within the last one hundred and one thousand years?” The Oracle paused but continued the moment Twilight opened her mouth. “Oh how irresponsible of me, we cannot engage in pleasurable conversation when containment protocol is in effect! All local forces must form a joint emergency council immediately to coordinate forces in order to halt the spread of the flood!”
“The flood?” Twilight had time to ask before the Oracle continued turning away from her and looking closely at Jacob.
“I had hoped you would have a suitable geas or at least had the capacity to recover the index but you won't do at all, I'm afraid I will have to search for another subtable candidate to recover the index.”
“Great Oracle, are you asking us to join forces with the humans? They are unprecedented sinners and heretics!” Zuka asked in shock and horror.
“Sin, Heresy? Whatever religious conflict has caused you to fight the Humans on this ring is utterly meaningless, containment protocol is very clear. Anyone who is considered a criminal is to be pardoned immediately in the event of a flood outbreak in order to aid in containment, this ruling from the Ecumene council supersedes any local or religious law.” The glowing blue orb paused before turning away and lifting into the air and vanished in shimmering golden rings without another word.
“What the hell just happened” Jacob looked about in confusion as Twilight turned to regard him with wide eyes.
“The Oracle just absolved Humanity! T-this means the end of the war! So long as this flood is dealt with and the Humans aid in this matter then by the words of the Oracle itself any crime is washed away.”
Zuka was about to speak when from the darkness of the barricaded door came a low horrific growling. The Griffons and Covenant rushed to find firing positions weapons trained on the door.
“It seems we will find out what the Oracle meant by ‘the flood’” Zuka remarked.
The hanger of the Infinite Succour was cramped with strange pipes and power conduits bulging out of the walls in odd places almost like the functionality of the room was an afterthought. Unggoy ran about doing the million little tasks a hanger demanded with a professionalism that would normally be uncharacteristic of the species. Rainbow trotted along doing her best to avoid getting in the way of the crewmen as they worked and spotted a light brown stallion waving at her from across the hanger, redubling her speed and hearing the long quiet strides of her griffon companion behind her Major Dash quickly made her way to the tired looking colt.
“Major Rainbow Dash?” His voice was pleasant enough for someone at that awkward time in life were a colt would become a stallion, his body was largely obscured by a dirty armoured worksuit with well worn tools hanging at his belt. If the Stallion had been born on Equis he would no doubt be agonising over what he wanted to do with his life between state mandated holidays across the paradise planet and virtual reality games. Here and now however he held himself with a confidence that only came from hard won experience.
“Reporting, here for a pickup.” The stallion nodded and inclined his head towards the door as he turned, Rainbow followed him.
“Yeah you want to steal Shy right? Gunna mess up our shifts. What is a Lancer and a Knight doing out here anyway?” Dash glanced back at Gilda and then to the Stallion again.
“Stealing Shy apparently.” Rainbow was led to an elevator that opened almost the moment the trio reached it forcing them to move to the sides of the corridor as a flood of Unggoy rushed out to meet some workshift. “You lot seem to be a bit overworked.”
“Yeah it's been busy, even the bossmare is working overtime with so many of us down on the platform.” He activated the elevator with a bright flash of greyish blue magic, having so much light bleed ment that he was very powerful or more likely, he had no magical education at all.
“Bossmare? What about the Legate?”
“Oh he is in command because of reclamation protocol, the ship is owned by an Equis Baroness and was captained by a Sanghili who died in a tragic accident just a few weeks ago.”
“This Baroness is working?” Dash grinned at the stallion who snorted and shook his head.
“Its crazy but for a citizen she aint bad honestly. It's a good job, well was.” The conversation that had flowed with ease ceased with that and the trio exited the elevator to a much cleaner and pleasant deck, there were no exposed conduits or odd protrusions on the walls. They walked down a quiet hall to one of the doors. “Well, this is where I drop you off, good luck in there.” Rainbow watched the stallion hurry off to his workshift and turned to the door, with a quiet chime it opened as she trotted towards it.
The rank scent of cheap incense and intoxicants rolled out from the room like a fog causing Rainbow to question her choice to take off her helmet inside the ship. Sitting reclined on an ornate gravity throne was the withered form of a san'shyuum, his skull was triangular with thick hide like skin that hung loosely like the bright expensive looking robes and precious metal that adorned the wizened figure.
“Ah you must be Twilights Pilot, would you care to join me? Both of you, I can have a good platter delivered and I have quite the respect for Equestrian cuisine.” Rainbow fixed the Legate with a stoic expression and trotted forward followed by Gilda.
“I have eaten sir, I am here to transport the crewman Fluttershy and I will be out of your way.”
“You will at least join me in my sermon while you await the little mares arrival, she is finishing her final work shift before I turn her over to you.”
“We will wait in our transport if that is the case sir, no need to bother you.”
“Come now I insist that you join me, it's not everyday that you are offered a chance to pray at the side of a prophet.”
“Thank you for the offer sir but it would be wasted on us.”
“Oh I see, what a terrible burden it must be for Twilight to endure the presence of heathens, or worse atheists. Truly it is the most repulsive trait of your kind, this tolerance of the few of you ignorant enough to deny the clear truth of the Great Journey.”
“I am sorry Twilight did not have time to attend your sermon sir, it must be very important for you.”
“What a wretched little thing, I shall have to spare time to pray for Twilight’s strength as she endures your repugnant presence”
“I am sure she would appreciate that sir.”
“She would in fact, the mare is wise beyond her years, a true progany.” The Legate sighed and relaxed once more into his chair as he took a long drag from some burning intoxicant Dash could not identify. “If she were a few decades older and walked the great journey in the body of a san'shyuum maiden she would make for the most coveted of wives.” he exhaled slowly his eyes glazing over and Rainbow was suddenly very thankful for the loose robes covering his body. “Even as an Equestrian when she ascends beyond her unseemly youth it would be... a pleasure.”
“Isn't unbound lust a sin you lecherous little thing?” Gilda’s voice cut through the smokey air like a knife and caused the Legate to tense and coil in rage.
“How dare you speak to me like that! How dare you address me in such a way!” The chair bound prophet shook with fury as he gestured madly coughing as he shouted “I should have you flogged and beaten you insolent worm!” Rainbow looked back at Gilda to regard the static hen, even among griffons Gilda was large and predatory it was almost laughable for the old chair bound fool to threaten her but she did wish her old friend had waited until after they had Fluttershy.
“We will just be le-” Without warning there was a thundering clang that rippled through the ship sending loose food, drugs and furniture flying across the room. The Legate looked about in a panic and collected himself before the door opened with a chime and a scared looking pegasus barged in.
“It rammed us! Right into the hanger!” She had a neat uniform and a colonist merchant navy cap that looked several sizes too big for her covering a light blue body and very short pink mane.
“What rammed us? Take a breath and calm down.” Rainbow addressed the mare as she pulled her helmet from the magnetic lock on her side and put it on twisting it to form an airtight seal.
“It was a dropship, a heavy lift platform tagged Brilliant Gift. It was heading towards us but did not request to dock and ignored our messages, it just crashed into the hanger!” The mare hoped from leg to let bouncing in place with a terrified look on her face. “What if it's humans! What if they want to kill us! the dropship did come from the ring!”
“We will go back to the bridge and report the incident to the Supreme Admiral, G you go and investigate the hanger, if its an accident let the Unggoy deal with it. If its humans go and disable the slipspace drive.” Gilda nodded and shimmered in place for a moment before her cloak became active and she stalked out of the pleasure cabin utterly invisible.
“You can't order my crew about heathen!” The Legate screamed “I am in command here!” Rainbow turned towards the Legate.
“You are welcome to tag along sir but I would recommend against getting in my way. I can move very quickly and I would hate to make a mess of your lovely ship.” Rainbow turned away and ushered the scared mare before her out and towards the control room, thankfully it was on the same deck as the Legate’s dingy little pleasure room.
Following the panicking mare to the control room Rainbow found herself in a raised space with dozens of little alcoves below her with Unggoy or Equestrian crewmen manning stations. Before her was a great domed wall of transparent metal that looked out over the ship. Unlike a combat rated vessel the Mjern-pattern ship did not have its control room buried within the ship but rather had it overlooking the vessel. It was massive, great transparent domes dotted about its Kilometer and a half length with dense biomes to allow sport hunting or recreation. At the very front of the ship was a domed farming space for producing conventional fresh fruits and vegetables using traditional Equestrian techniques.
Deeper within the ship would be more intensive farms and tracks of hydroponics growing fungus and base vegetables to produce enough food to feed a fleet many times the size of what it was currently attached too. The ship would normally contain roughly two thousand crewmen, often Equestrian Colonists, with an additional seven thousand menial workers and tens of thousands of animals.
Dash turned away from the awe inspiring sight of the massive ship and towards the console several of the command crew were standing about looking afraid. Trotting forwards she shouted.
“Report! What is going on down there!” Several of the crewmen jumped and quickly backed away from the armoured lancer as she confidently trotted forward but the crewmen at the console turned to look at her, an Unggoy with a shaky voice he quickly filled her in.
“A dropship crashed into the main hanger, it hit a conduit and destroyed all the dropships in the hanger, including yours. It also knocked out the cameras but we still have audio from down there.” He leaned forward and began tapping at the holographic console activating a recording.
Screeching of metal and fire as well as hissing no doubt from damaged conduits, then the shouting of Unggoy emergency teams as they tried to fight the fires and save the wounded. Then it started, the distinctive crack of human weapons fire and the screams of fleeing Unggoy and Ponies. Rainbow waved a hoof and shook her head.
“Cut it off, send that sample in a package to the Seeker of Truth, tell them humans have boarded the ship and we need support. How many security personnel do we have?”
“Including me?” The light blue pegasus mare from before asked her voice cracking somewhat. “Seventy three, we would have more but they are down on the Forerunner platform on the gas giant.”
“That will have to do, split into two teams, and have them secure this deck and the engine room. See if you can disable any slipspace and weapons systems from here we cant let the humans get there hands on them nor can we allow them to steal the ship while we are onboard.” Rainbow glanced back at the Legate behind her “I am in command now.”
Nestled within a colossal canyon rising up against the snow capped cliffs was a great temple the walkways that led to the great doors were protected with hundreds of loyal covenant troops.
“The entrance to the control center is located at the top of that pyramid, let's get up there.” John loaded a fresh magazine of seven point six two millimeter rounds into his rifle and took a single step only for the world to shake as his foot touched the ground.
“Oh dear, we might need a bit more firepower.” From over the cliffside crawled a colossal hunched figure of reflective purple metal, dozens of meters tall it crawled into the box canyon a great glowing eye scanning for the Spartan attackers as the Scarab moved to defend the control room. John paused to regard the new obstacle as William strode past him hefting a SPNKR rocket launcher.
“I don’t know about that Cortana, the joints at the legs look a bit thin to me, what do you think John?” The Spartan in question glanced out at the arrayed covenant defences before turning back towards William.
“That might just work.” Cortana might as well have read John’s mind.
“You sure you want me to open this sir? The Covenant seem to have tried real hard to lock it down?” Private Jenkins turned back to look at Major Silva.
“Do it, lets see what the Covenant wanted to hide.”