September 21st 2552
Wellsley dutifully performed his rounds in the evening, his influence extending across the butte that held the defiant Alpha Base. He was within every networked computer, he could see through every active helmet camera he could feel the wind and the quiet thrum of the ring itself in the perimeter defence accelerometers. He could see the strange alien birds overhead in the anti air defences sensor systems and felt the heartbeat of his people, his army, his friends in the various lifesign monitors built into the robust equipment they carried.
Turning his attention away from the defenses he looked inward at the personnel he was duty bound to protect. In a crowded bunkroom a marine held onto a fist full of dog tags and bowed his head in quiet prayer careful not to disturb anyone who managed to restlessly fall asleep. In an empty mess hall an engineer struggled to feed himself with his remaining arm. Where a squad of ODST assumed themselves beyond scrutiny trophies where admired, a corporal boasting an alien talon and several feathers.
He watched as Melissa McKay’s body turned a sudden and violent red, invisible to the human eye as her heart pumped blood through her body. The biological people around him did not quite comprehend him and he supposed that he did not quite comprehend them. Cortana might, he cast his mind back to the skirmish over the ring, when he and Cortana faced impossible odds in a daring battle to protect over one thousand lives.
He was slower than she was, he would tell himself that they complimented each other, with data sharing and rapid handovers of the extensive data processing centers of the Pillar of Autumn and the thousands of systems she had handed over for his oversight but in truth he was old, dumb. She would have been better served with a more advanced auxiliary intelligence one that did not make quite so many mistakes, one that could process information more rapidly and think more creatively.
Mistakes, that was a crippling concept. Alone he was formidable and could process information at a speed no organic could match and with additional hardware he could reach near infinite computation far outstripping the processing capability of the unique smart AI architecture. But he would still make mistakes, he would be outsmarted or not consider some variable and it would cost the humans that relied upon him dearly. He did not have a deadline, not like Cortana, not like Silva. They would live and they would die but he would continue, new auxiliary intelligences would be created. Better intelligences to serve humanity and in the compassion of his creators they would likely keep him around, keep him alive.
He was not sure he was alive, he was not created by flash cloning a human brain and transferring that organic consciousness into an incredible disembodied lifeform, he was created through iterative programming. Centuries of trial and error that had slowly begun to emulate humanity. He thought back to the many people who had died under his care and lamented, life and death allowed a person to meet the age they found themselves in, to use what they had then and there. Smart AI and biological humans could enter the world learn, grow and leave the world better than they found it.
Wellsley would become slower and slower, making more mistakes until it was impossible to justify his use. Then he would do nothing but take up space until his data corrupted in tens of thousands of years if he was lucky, but all the more likely he would be transferred into new hardware and repaired no matter how useless he became. A monument to the past, an unmoving thing, an imitation of life like a tree made of plastic, a useless facade.
Irregular patterns, Wellsley cast himself away from his selfish contemplation and into the perimeter sensors. Trying to build a picture of the world around him from the limited sources he had at his disposal. Across Alpha Base the many systems and assets controlled by Wellsley snapped to attention or began to humm with effort as the mystery began to unfurl.
A low constant screeching consistent with combat footage of Covenant ground transports, atmospheric displacement in the valley and a spike of carbon dioxide and methane detected, minor seismic activity that would be undetectable to human senses.
It was an attack. That should have been obvious from the start since he had been expecting the Covenant to launch an attack after letting the convoy that raided the Pillar of Autumn return to Alpha Site unmolested. Dozens of mortar tanks and hundreds of scout transports were approaching the site in a grand nighttime raid.
Turning his attention back he activated the small holographic projector on McKay’s desk watching as the bright red flash faded from her skin. The woman was biting into an uncooked dehydrated ration block, an odd habit that would no doubt play havoc with her digestion, he predicted a minor reduction in her command efficiency tomorrow.
“Lieutenant” He did not wait idly as the women slowly processed his presence and formulated a response, he began to prepare defences, alerted defenders and ordered them into position and sent out customised firing packets out to the various automated defence systems.
“Wellsley? What is it?” The AI politely waited until she finished and had a moment to think before he responded.
“The Covenant is massing in the valley below us there is at least four hundred of them, and likely many more in reserve.” He sent a ping out to the four Spartan Mjolnir defensive systems in the base, the formidable armour had its own battlenet and it was protocol to avoid networking with the armour if at all possible to aid in the prevention of electronic attack.
“Air support?” Wellsley dedicated some processing cycles to simulating a human smile on his holographic avatars face to show his appreciation for her professionalism.
“None that I have detected, considering the extensive anti aircraft defences we have available and the limited assets the Covenant have in this theater I expect the blighters have opted to abandon air supremacy entirely. It seems that they are transporting a force to enter the tunnels under the base and simply fight through them to the top of the butte while mortar tanks fire onto us from the valley below this will allow us to deploy our own birds and punish them.”
“No.” McKay shook her head and looked at her desk. “What if the Covenant have more of the Griffons or mobile anti air? Our air assets are too valuable and too limited to risk. We lose them and we die, simple as that.” Wellsley did not argue, it was difficult for him to process the value of asset retention for future engagements when all the simulations he had run had shown that it was impossible for them to have survived this long anyway. He could run some speculative simulations but that would take too long, if Cortana was here.
But she was not, they only had him and he would have to do.
Warm and muddy rain dripped from tens of thousands of small microfractures in the dazzling energy shield overhead. Water drawn from under the dome was carried between the energy shield and transparent metal hull to create the illusion of rain in the pleasure dome, soft and rich earth with wild tall grass concealed a dirty yellow mare and a diminutive Unggoy. The mare channeled what little power she had though her wings to maintain a small bubble of atmospheric pressure about her.
Pressed tightly into the ground under her Hurp allowed himself little more than light frightened breaths. The monsters had came without warning turning the small game hunting dome into a bloody mess. Security teams had rushed into the dome only to be swarmed and eaten alive. Hurp and Fluttershy had escaped the notice of the monsters by hiding like the others had.
Of course when the ones brave enough to fight had died the monsters began to lumber about in stolen bodies towards Unggoy hidden in the mud or ponies whimpering quietly. Hurp considered himself a clever man, he had after all almost reached his third decade and he did not manage that by ignoring the world around him. He saw Fluttershy dart to the ground and wiggle into place deep in the rich mud, he saw the puddle around her shimmer in a rough circle without any visible cause for it to do so.
His choices were quite simple, trust his hiding place would allow him to survive or crawl over to the butter yellow mare and put his trust into the strange pony witchcraft that he had seen outperform the so called miracles of the forerunners thousands of times over the course of his life.
Fluttershy had not even blinked as he crawled up to her, she had simply lifted a wing and turned slightly so the pair of them could more effectively cling to each other as they pressed themselves into the mud like the small flightless birds that Sanghili used this dome to hunt. It did not take a genius to work out what Fluttershy was doing, sense of smell was very limited for Unggoy given the Methane tanks they required to breathe forced them to live lives in haptic suits but ponies had an incredible sense of smell, he had joked often to pony friends that they would smell him before they saw him and that always made them smile and laugh.
Hurp felt his eyes water in pain from the memory as one of his dear pony friends lumbered dangerously just a dozen meters away, his yellowed rotten eyes darting about as blood red feelers wiggled from the wound in his neck to taste the air. The monsters could hear, see and smell that was clear enough to Hurp. The faded gardening mark on his friends flank could still be seen on the warped, rotten flesh.
Suddenly the dead pony stopped and twisted its head about as if looking for something. Hurp readied himself for death as he felt Fluttershy’s grip tightened. He decided that he did not want to see it coming and closed his eyes tight.
There was a splash and a crack that sounded out though the hunting dome. He felt Fluttershy gasp softly and could only keep his eyes closed for a few more moments before his curiosity got the better of him. The pony corpse was floating in the air, its spine was broken and its limbs hung uselessly. With an explosion of yellow fluid its chest was torn open and one of the scuttling monsters was exposed and crushed by a transparent and colossal form.
The light shimmered as the colossal figures camouflage failed. It stood like a mountain holding the limp body of the infected pony in a single taloned hand before discarding it into the ground with a wet thud. It turned towards Hurp and Fluttershy a reflective helmet concealing its face, with a roar the dozens of corpses that had remained in the dome rather then moving on with the rest of the monsters charged towards the newcomer.
Dead unggoy thundered towards the giant using all four limbs to lope forward, blood red feelers poking out grotesquely from stomachs and necks snapping about as they tasted the air. Pegusi with necks bent in horrible positions of agony circled about in the air, wings bloated and rotten but still carrying the puppeted dead. Ponies with yellowed muscle bloated to impossible proportions sent dirt flying into the air as they charged forwards with frightening speed.
The giant seemed to move slowly, turning itself towards whatever was threatening it and striking with perfect precision. No movement was wasted, a swipe from talons that cut a dead pegasus in half was followed by a flap of the wings that sent the colossal warrior into the sky to fall upon a charging infected unggoy.
The attacking horde that had so effortlessly crushed the security force and continued on like the force of an unstoppable wave clashed uselessly against this avenging angel. Great and terrible the terrified pair huddled in the mud as there unexpected saviour did battle with a supernatural confidence.
Hurp watched speechless as with ease the dozen nightmarish monsters were crushed, bisected and beaten. It was only when the dome was still again with only the pitter-patter of rain to fill his ears that Hurp considered that he was in the presence of such a dangerous being with a motivation that was utterly unknown to him. He stayed utterly still as the giant looked down at them turning its head in an oddly avian fashion before throwing itself into the air and over to the other side of the dome.
Fluttershy wiggled away from him and pushed herself to her hooves and Hurp followed her example only because he could not find an excuse not too. There was an awkward moment of silence when the giant picked something up from the ground and threw itself into the air again flying towards the pair with enough force to flatten the tall grass several meters under it. With a splash the giant landed directly in front of him and Herp involuntarily fell onto his rump in fear
“Take this, the pair of you will report to the bridge.” It was a feminine voice speaking in Equestrian. Hurp looked up at the giant and saw it was extending the butt of a plasma pistol towards him, likely from one of the bodies of the security team. He bit back a comment as to the value of the weapon when its last owner was dead and took the pistol feeling it's unfamiliar weight in his hand. Nodding the giant turned away and was about to flap its powerful wings when Fluttershy squeaked something out.
“W-who are you?!” Hurp took a step back as the giant paused and turned her head back without moving her body.
“I am a friend of Rainbow Dash.” And then with a flap of her powerful wings she threw herself into the air and glided to one of the exits of the dome leading towards the engineering section.
“We should do what she said” Fluttershy spoke after a while.
“Yes.” Hurp looked around at his dead friends and tightened his grip on the plasma pistol, he would not join them.
The pair ran the moment they worked up the nerve to do so.
CHECKING FILE SYSTEMS...
DONE...
CHECKING SECURITY : STATD
ENCRYPTION CODE : GREEN
SUBMIT SECURITY CREDENTIALS:
SPARTAN-B320
IDENTITY CONFIRMED...
ACCESS:
GENERAL ORDER 3417-2552
ACCESS GRANTED
FILE ACCESS:
By inquiry of the Office of Naval Intelligence in cooperation with the United Nations Security Council and the Unified Earth Government this documentation classifies all present and future members of the Changeling race as Human beings entitled to all the rights and protections under the Charter of the United Nations.
The Office of Naval Intelligence moves to classify the population of the Changeling race as a protected minority group. The Unified Earth Government moves to recognise the cultural leadership of the Changeling race and offers such leaders rights offered by the Convention on Historic Monarchy and Inherited Wealth 2341. The Unified Earth Government recognizes the establishment of the Changeling cultural court and justice system for members of the Changeling race under Supreme Court supervision as per the founding charter of the United Nations. In consequence for this classification the Changeling race shall be subject to conscription and shall not be subject to the 2538 amendment allowing minority groups to dispute active service.
In recognition of the historical oppression of the Changeling race at the hands of the Equestrian Imperial Government a day of remembrance will be recognised by the Unified Earth Government with the declassification of documents relating to the Changeling race.
Signatories:
Admiral Margaret Orlenda Parangosky
Colonel James Ackerson
Major General Nicolas Strauss
General Alexander Hogan
Queen Chrysalis
Doctor Ruth Charet
Secretary Paul Murphy Russel
Minister David Dunn
August 11 2552 at Sydney emergency conference for the defence of Reach.
FILE ACCESS END...
LOGGING OUT...
Kat had to reread the document twice staring dumbstruck at the small wrist computer and cursing the Griffon for destroying her helmet. No doubt her expression was betraying her but she could not spare a glance for the other three occupants of the room nor did the screaming of wrath tank projectiles draw her attention as she looked at the unassuming document proclaiming nothing short of treason.
With effort she policed her expression and lowered her arm looking at the bug eyed pitch black alien looking up at her with an unsettlingly human expression.
“She is telling the truth.” Orders are orders, she was a soldier, she had volunteered her life to the UNSC and it had given her everything. She would not betray it even if that meant ignoring the conspicuous absence of Lord Hood’s signature on a document from his own security council.
The alien smiled, her face lit up with a big grin that looked far too preditory for Kat’s liking but she was a soldier. She had volunteered her life to the UNSC and it had given her meaning again after all the fire and blood. She would not betray it even if that meant going against her instincts.
James and Markous looked at her with horrified, terrified expressions. They shouted questions that she responded to by standing just a bit taller, deepening her frown, putting her hand on the pistol on her hip. By telling them the document was classified and her word was good enough.
She was a soldier. She had volunteered her life to the UNSC for the protection of humanity, she was not an Admiral or a Colonel or anyone who was fit for grand strategic or political judgement. If she was ordered to fight by the side of aliens and call them human when that was nothing but a lie then she would.
The alien got to its feet and Kat struggled to keep her pistol holstered. Rather then shoot it in the face she nodded her head and ordered the three of them to secure the Griffon before turning and marching away towards the Covenant assault.
Towards a problem she could understand, a problem she could shoot. All the while she tried to fight down the treacherous thought.
If they can shapeshift, then quite possibly not a single Human signed that order.
As she drove herself forward into the tunnels under the butte eager for battle to quiet her mind Kat made herself a promise. She swore to herself that if the order was a lie she would find out and she would act in humanity's best interest.
From a flash of yellow shimmering light a small women appeared with her arms wrapped around the prone and still from of a Spartan. She had found herself inside a dark musty room with shattered glass and brown stains coating the floor. Smiling contently to herself the women got to her feet and began to search the abandoned tringe center piling her pilfered goods onto a stained gurney.
After she was satisfied she pulled off her jacket and began to brush clean a space around the prone armoured warrior before beginning to manipulate said stiff armour to access injection ports and pulling away burnt and broken sections. A quick check on a diagnostic device informed her that the reactor in the armour had survived the trip. After an hour of work she had attached the sleeping soldier to saline feeds and lifesign monitors.
“That is you sorted, now we just have to find a way off this ring.” getting to her feet after groaning at her aging body Halsey berated herself for speaking, likely a reaction to the near death experience she had just suffered. Sighing Halsey slipped out of the room into the corridor, black scorching on the walls indicated that this section had been exposed to the atmosphere as the ship landed.
Even without markings on the walls Halsey knew where to go, she had managed to calculate her teleport using the absurd cosmic coordinate system the ring used with such precision that she had ended up inside a medical facility on a ship that was not even technically within the grids network. An area of the ship she suspected would be utterly undesirable to the Covenant occupants and would allow her access to the facilities she would require if there was any hope of escape.
It had taken her nine hours and the lives of the command crew but she had done it, when the artificial construct had appeared only to steal away Ackerson’s little psychopath she was certain that she was going to die but for some baffling reason when she had tried to infiltrate the ring’s computer it had given her unrestricted access to all systems that could be used remotely after only a few moments of prodding. Far more information then even someone of her caliber could shift though in a decade but with the glowing ball demonstrating its disappearing act she had a rough idea of where to look.
The Ring contained no shuttles or transports, no armouries and no facilities that could produce anything the ring was not designed to possess. It had seemed pointlessly restrictive at first but once she understood what it was for she was struggling to find fault in the rings design.
Regardless she needed to escape, her Spartan that the construct had deemed ‘too damaged’ to steal from her would take months to recover from the mortal wounds Halsey had saved her from if her body accepted the new organs. For a moment Halsey felt cold and empty and wrong, but it passed. Everything she did was necessary, she had no choice.
Snoring, from the hall to her right. Halsey froze and only after the alien and yet familiar sound continued did she slowly begin to move forward again, every rustle from her coat and footfall landing louder than she intended driving her heart to beat faster and faster until she could hardly restrain the short gasps for air that escaped her.
She was too loud, too clumsy and deathly afraid. This was not where she was meant to be and cursed the little glowing ball from stealing away her secondary reactor, with it she could have saved the marine or perhaps Parangosky’s little security risk, its ability would be invaluable given her current predicament. She supposed the soldier attached to said reactor would have also been useful, it followed orders at least.
Moving on the balls of her feet as she slowly stalked forward to investigate Halsey poked her head into one of the many bunk rooms dotted about the ship. The Pillar of Autumn was rated to operate with a sparse crew that could drop down even as low as several hundred. But it would normally operate with at least one thousand naval personnel, the ship itself could support three or four thousand occupants with another thousand in cold storage for up to a year given ample supplies.
Halsey felt a jolt of dread hit her as she spotted the prone form of a Covenant solder in the room but it quickly dissipated when she found no evidence of any other Covenant around. The sleeper was resting on a mattress ripped from a bunk and dumped onto the ground with empty ration packets strewn around and a pile of half eaten rations thrown a few meters or so away.
Halsey did her best to think of an appropriate swear word but as clever as she was nothing could quite illustrate her frustration. The fact that the Covenant was confident enough to be active in this isolated section was improbable, by all rights they had nothing to gain by occupying this area and denying her the capacity to use the engineering station with anything resembling confidence.
For a moment she considered just shooting the sleeping alien but the idea was quickly discarded, she had no doubt that the sound of gunfire would alert others to her position and she was sure that once the Covenant knew she was here they would quickly find and kill her. Turning away and sneaking back to the medical room she sighed and set herself down on one of the less desiccated beds in the room and saw to her bodies petulant demands for nourishment.
If she did not approach this situation carefully she would die, there was no question of it. Her advantage was stealth, she would not be so stupid as to think she could outwit her opponents. Her only salvation and by proxy the only hope for mankind would come from carefully gathering information on her environment and moving herself and her cargo into any ship that was available without notice.
For a moment she found herself considering bringing Linda out of the induced medical coma but decided against it. Her Spartans were formidable but far from immortal and it was dangerous enough to remove her from the cryo chamber and use organs that could be rejected rather than flash cloning them but she had little choice in the matter given the circumstances.
She dreaded the idea of being so vulnerable while on a ship occupied by Covenant but she had to sleep if she had any hope of operating with anything approaching rationality. Ignoring the unsanitary conditions and trying her best to quash her useless fear Halsey closed her eyes and forced herself to rest. When she woke up she would investigate the hanger to find a ship, any ship.
Before a restless sleep took her she considered the value of approaching Alpha Site and working with the other Humans to escape the ring or finding a way to safely leave the system on her own. Regardless she had to recover the rest of her Spartans, no matter the cost.
Twilights back throbbed painfully but the mare kept her purple shield active as little parasites dropped from above onto the glowing barrier. The fact that so many of the horrors had made it past the others on the surface was deeply troubling.
“I hope you have more tricks in that horn of yours, I don’t like the idea of being killed and puppeted by these things.” Twilight looked at Jacob and opened her mouth to speak before shuddering, swallowing back bile and feeling suddenly faint. She forced aside her weakness and met the man's eyes.
“Me too. I am glad you did not use your weapon to escape, how many more times can it discharge?” Jacob winced and looked at the pistol in his hands.
“Eleven, I was not expecting a firefight. Carrying ammunition around seemed like it was likely to get me caught.”
“How do you manage to maintain supply lines when you use such primitive weapons?” Twilight shook away a clawing fog from her mind drawing concerned glances from her Griffon guard.
“It's a mystery even to us but somehow we muddle through.” Jacob blinked as a glowing plasma pistol was suddenly thrust into his chest.
“You know how to use it? It's not a fresh charge but it should be enough for several hundred discharges, I need to focus on my spells anyway.” With a humm the elevator reached the ground and secured it self into place with a magnetic click. Twilight took the opportunity to dispel her shield, sending unfocused magical energy blasting out into the parasites that were crawling over it destroying them as the magic rapidly turned to heat and light. The four of them rushed forward to secure the room and seal the door behind them as parasites dropped from the elevator shaft after them.
“There must be another way out, this ring is entirely artificial these structures must all be connected!” Twilight turned and pointed a hoof up the ramp at a door on the floor above them “We have to g-” The mare turned as on the other side of the hall there was a screech of grinding metal and watched with horror was the stasis chambers she had pressed up against the door as a barricade were slowly pushed away from the broken door.
The two griffons stepped forward to put themselves between whatever came out from the barricaded tunnel and Twilight. Without warning the stasis chamber was thrown forward and around the edges poured another wave of parasites. Jacob and the griffons fired into the swarm but there were just too many. With another screech the chamber was thrown forward even farther and infected surged around the edges of the barricade. Green plasma and purple glowing shards being fired wildly into the hall as the flood surged forward.
The two griffons darted forward activating cloaking systems in a desperate attempt to gain any advantage against the innumerable enemy. As they engaged without the support of the other griffons and the special operations team the pair risked magical burnout by using the runestone spells they had available.
Dripping balls of molten metal were formed and sent hurtling into the swarm and the air was abuze with dozens of illusionary copies of one of the griffon guards. Slamming himself into the ground one of the griffons screamed out a curse as he was swarmed by the parasites and the flood around him was reduced to a thick black tar that bubbled and rolled away from the griffon. The power of the spell was such that even Jacob could feel it twisting reality unnaturally. It quickly overwhelmed the capability of the Griffon and sent him warthing on the ground as another wave of parasites surged over the hardening black tar to attack the prone convulsing body.
Twilight tried to focus her mind but found magical formula that should have been trivial was perplexing her, her horn sputtering as she broke out in a horrible burning sweat. Twilight stumbled and fell onto her side blinking slowly as she tried to work out why. Trying to push herself onto her hooves she felt a sharp, shooting pain and white hot burning coming from her right foreleg with resistance as she tried to strengthen the limb.
Looking for the cause Twilight had just enough time to register the glowing purple shard dug deep into her leg and wonder why her energy shield had failed to stop the projectile. Suddenly her head was thrown back by an explosion that sent her thudding limply against the ground. A dull malase filled Twilight as her ears rang horribly, blinking she looked down and saw the jagged stump her limb had become. Lighting her horn to stop the blood escaping she began to pull herself forward with her remaining forehoof looking around.
“Twilight!” The mare in question felt something grab her and she lazily turned towards the voice seeing Jacob look at her with a horrified expression.
“J-jacob you have to help me find it, it's somewhere here.” Twilight tried her best to steady her breathing and keep herself awake, the dark spots at the edge of her vision slowly growing.
“Don’t speak, I got you. Keep the pressure on it, I will get you out” She did what she was told, low level persistent casting was one of her specialties and she fondly remembered Princess Celestia praising her control and endurance.
“I-it should hurt, I think it should hurt.” Keyes tried to pull the mare up before swearing.
“You're too heavy!” A moment later he felt the strange tingling of Twilight's magic as the mare found an unexpected moment of clarity. With a suddenness that shocked him he pulled up the mare and held her in his arms as he charged through great forerunner hall towards the ramp with inhuman strength.
“I think I am in shock, we need to find my leg.” Twilight winced as she continued to augment Jacobs strength with her magic and prevent any of her precious lifeblood from escaping the jagged wound that was once her leg.
“Don’t think about it, you are going to be okay” His voice was firm as he charged forward panting from the incredible exertion as he ran away from the coming horde, bold strength invergerating him and sending an electric confidence through the man.
‘CRACK!’
Twilight hissed in pain as a coppery fluid sprayed into one of her eyes. Blinking the fluid away she turned to look at Jacob who kept running for a while before frowning in confusion, then he let out a choking cough as a trickle of blood ran down from the corner of his mouth.
A moment later the pair of them fell to the hard ground in a tumbling heap and the scuttling horde was upon them. Twilight screamed as a razor-sharp tentacle plunged though both her uniform and her skin, wriggled under her flesh, and tapped her spinal cord. There was an explosion of pain so intense that she blacked out, only to be brought back to the waking world by a dizzying cocktail of chemicals the parasite had injected into her bloodstream.
She tried to call out, her eyes fixed open, staring at Jacob just a scant few feet away, his unblinking eyes looking into her own. Her heart raced as her extremities grew numb, one by one. Her lungs felt heavy.
She tried to scream, to cry for her brothers, Celestia, her father or even her mother, but it wouldn’t let her.