//------------------------------// // Chapter Sixteen // Story: Halo, Equestrian Covenant // by Shady Steps //------------------------------// September 22nd 2552 Agony, a fire licking across an ill defined body with an intensity that left no room for coherent thought. Then it was gone, utterly and completely gone. Pain that had become a constant companion in life, a sore back, old scars or an old hoofball injury that had never quite been bad enough to bother her. Pain that had become familiar, a companion that hurt all the more for its absence. Muscles rippled with undeserved might and her skin and fur felt as soft as fine silk, almost fluid in its perfection. Twilight opened her eyes, there was not a moment of adjustment, not a single instant of mortal confusion. One moment she was blind and the next she could see. Bright rich purples surrounded her on all sides as she stood tall in the middle of a raised section overlooking the bridge of a warship. Across the walls there were solid masses of yellowish rot leading up into a great tumor in the middle of the raised surface just behind her that was connected to the ceiling, walls and floor by taut cables of green muscle. Ash and molten flesh dripped from a large gorge in its middle as fire consumed the abomination, the entire thing starting to deflate as it burned uncontrollably from the inside, corpses that melted nightmarishly into its irregular form burning away leaving nothing but rotten and twisted bones leeched of any strength. With an unceremonious thud a pair of skulls hit the ground, fused together in an agonised scream Twilight felt an odd sense of detachment as she noted the horn jutting out of one side of the fused bone. A polite chime rang out as one of the doors to the bridge opened and from it surged two sangheili and a human infected by the flood. They let out enraged garbled screams as they dashed forwards discharging weapons into the air in a manic attempt to kill the interloper. Twilight felt herself turn to face the threat, her muscles moving in a way she had never before experienced a strange weight on her back as she posed to meet the charge. A shield, one of her brothers formulations, startlingly beautiful in its simplicity but demanding incredible power to bring into reality. It shimmered before her and deflected the seven point six two millimeter rounds spat out from the MA5B rifle held by the lead flood’s host. The powerful armour piercing rounds thudding into the shield and turning into little metal mushrooms before trickling to the ground. With a thought Twilight created a condensed ball of matter and sent it curving around the shield to smack into the middle of the flood form before bursting outwards like a grenade, shards of magical matter dissipating as they tore through diseased flesh. As the form staggered and fell to the ground Twilight reached out and grasped the rifle it had carried before it could hit the ground and pulled it back towards herself. Bracing the rifle against the edge of the flat shield floating before her Twilight sent two controlled bursts of steel tipped rounds into the sangheili flood hosts arresting the charge. With practiced ease Twilight ejected the nearly spent magazine and collected fresh magazines from the twitching corpse on the ramp leading up to her. It was only after she had reloaded her pilfered weapon and tried to pocket her spare magazines that she noticed she was naked. Sighing she left the spare magazines floating in a lazy orbit around her head careful to keep them from restricting her vision. Looking about Twilight saw her pipe discarded on the edge of the platform. She quickly pulled it up to her face to inspect it and found that it was still loaded from the last time she used it. With a flash a flickering dot of purple fire floated next to her and Twilight set the pipe in her mouth gently clutching the bit between her teeth as she carefully lit the tobacco while inhaling. Twilight allowed herself a moment to enjoy the familiar warmth filling her lungs before shifting the pipe to the corner of her mouth and working through the formula in her head. With a flash the mare was gone, only a cloud of exhaled smoke left twisting in the air. “... Which means that any organism with sufficient mass and cognitive capability is a potential vector.” In a burst of golden shimmering light 343 Guilty Spark and Amanda appeared on the long bridge leading to Halo’s control console. “The risk is made even greater since I have detected artifacts using neural physics to be present on the ring, such formidable devices should have been destroyed with the last activation of the array, I am glad that some have survived even if they are currently at risk of falling into the hands of the flood.” Amanda looked up at the glowing ball. “Neural physics?” “Come on we cannot dawdle, with every moment the containment breach grows more severe” with a bobbing glide characteristic of the ancient intelligence guilty spark began to hum to himself as he approached the holographic console at the end of the room followed by the Spartan ‘Reclamer’. The Forerunner construct twisted about as he hovered over the holographic console his eye seeming to shine brighter for a moment as he regarded the armoured women approaching him. “Unfortunately my role in this particular endeavor has come to an end. Protocol does not allow units from my classification to perform a task as important as the reunification of the Index with the Core.” Guilty Spark hovered closer to Amanda and presented the index in a crackling antigravity field “That final step is reserved for you Reclaimer.” “How does this work? How do I control the array?” Amanda slowly reached forward and plucked the Index from the air as the glowing orb began to hover higher to give her space. “The firing parameters are pre selected from successful simulations for the best possible lethality, you will simply have to insert the Index and activate the firing sequence.” Amanda could see the correct location, a T shaped slot that would fit the Index perfectly. “It's set to destroy the flood, what about the Covenant?” Guilty Spark twisted to the side in confusion. “While the array could be recalibrated to target particular Covenant species that is not the intended use of the array and would take a projected sixty one thousand three hundred and twenty hours of simulations and would likely still fail to meet galactic saturation.” “After we destroy the flood we-” with a thundering magnetic clack the door to the control room began to slide open and Amanda spun about drawing her rifle and aiming at the huge entrance. “This is most improper! Access to the control room is strictly restricted to Reclaimers, this is absolutely against protocol!” Amanda crouched, with an utter lack of anything resembling cover she would have to rely upon her marksmanship to deal with whatever came through that door. When the door had opened wide enough the Spartan sent a burst of armour piercing rounds at the mulberry speck though a widening gap in the door. There was a flash of bright purple light followed by a barrage of thuds and metallic ricochets. After a moment the door was fully opened and in the middle of the giant corridor stood the Covenant Inquisitor with a glowing rounded purple shield before her and an unamused glare for the Spartan. “Care to explain why you tried to shoot me Lieutenant?” The equine took a step forward as she exhaled a plume of smoke, it was then that Amanda noted the absurdity of the alien horse smoking a pipe. “Smoking is absolutely forbidden in critical command and control facilities! Put out your recreational implement this instant!” Guilty Spark zipped forward to berate the Covenant unicorn as Amanda reached for a grenade at her belt. The Inquisitor still had a shimmering purple shield between her and Amanda but seemed to be focused on the sputtering angry little orb. With a rapid overarm throw the Spartan sent the grenade towards the alien and aimed her rifle to send another burst of armour piercing rounds into her when her heart suddenly started to thump in her chest. Her armours friend or foe identification system was green, with an ID hovering over the unicorn. She shook in place as she read and reread the text. CPT.J.KEYES “Go, go, go!” Special Operations Commander Rtas 'Vadumee Thundered down the ramp of the phantom. He ran abreast with his team as they thundered into the expansive and eerily still hanger bay. As the last foot found the ground there was a buzz from the communicator built into the assault pattern helmet Rtas had chosen for the mission. “When you are ready for extraction contact me and I will return, Glorious Advance out.” Rtas did not miss a step and the soldiers under his command rapidly took up sightlines across the hanger calling out when they had secured there sector. “Secured!” Rtas was the last voice to join the choir as he neatly swept his plasma rifle across the room looking for any Human ambushes, if any threat remained it was likely deeper in the ship. “The hanger is ours. Use the forward doors and move to the bridge, four by four cover pattern.” “Uhhh, Commander? I found something.” Rtas strode forward to meet one of his Unggoy as the first two teams advanced towards the bridge. “At least eight Unggoy died here and were dragged through this door.” “I had no idea that Humans were interested in the dead? Perhaps they are barbaric enough to consume the fallen?” Rtas blinked and crouched to the ground. The blood trail leading to the bridge was fresh but there was a dried pool of blue blood under it with neat paw prints and a trail leading to one of the ventilation systems towards the rear of the ship. “A Griffons prints, the Equestrians met the first boarding and later Unngoy had an encounter with the Humans?” The sangheili behind Rtas shook his head as he speculated. “What happened, did the humans attack the rear sections first and then move on the bridge?” With a shrug Rtas stood. “We will not find our answers here, we press on to the bridge.” With a confidant stride he lead is team forward. Something was deeply wrong here. “Lieutenant! What is wrong with you!?” As the deadly ball flew in a perfect arc through the air Twilight's eyes snapped to it and redirected it over the side of the walkway with a flash of her horn, far below them the grenade detonated. Steeling herself Amanda sent another burst of gunfire suppressing the flood of warnings from her armour as it protested against shooting a superior officer. “What did you do to the Captain!?” Amanda advanced as Twilight retreated the alien shield holding firm against the withering fire from her rifle. “Jacob? He is right-” Twilight glanced about with a frown on her face. “He was right, right with me.” her voice cracked as Amanda ran dry and reloaded her weapon with practiced ease. “What- where could he have gone?” “You have his cybernetics wh-” Amanda was thrown backwards by a burst of furious purple energy and a piercing panicked scream. “Stay away from me!” In a smooth motion the Spartan was on her feet again putting out an arm to catch her balance as the Inquisitor flared her wings and lit her horn with a plume of angry purple fire. “I am alive! I am Twilight Sparkle service number zero one nine two-” The mare let out a panicked squeak and fell to the ground as she violently pressed her hooves to her mouth. “No no no no no. Please no its not real.” Amanda twisted to the side and sent another burst into the prone mare and the flat shield separating them began to shimmer violently ask cracks began to dot its surface. With a shriek of rage Twilight was gone, Amanda felt the displaced air play over her back and twisted to the side dodging out of the way of the savage buck aimed at her spine. The pair of them turned and rapidly backpedaled as they unloaded rifles at each other chipping away at the shields protecting the other, magical and conventional shields crackling under the strain of each others attacks. “Please cease this pointless combat! Every moment we wait the Flood outbreak spirals out of control, we have to act before the infection spreads beyond this installation!” Rtas held up a clenched fist as he approached the Bridge and his team halted as the Commander addressed the strange readings in his combat display. “One life form ahead, I am getting some strange readings.” Rtas looked about the room before him, it was an expansive bath house adjacent to the bridge deck, with the elevator locked down they had to take a roundabout way to the critical objective. “Some sort of parasite infection that does not match anything in our database.” “A biological weapon?!” One of his Unggoy shouted in surprise. The diminutive soldier was secured from such an attack by his breathing apparatus but Rtas had not ensured his warriors were secured from such dishonorable weapons. Any local equipment to secure one from the void or a hostile atmosphere would be suited to an Equestrian pony or an Unggoy. Utterly useless to him. “Take heart, our faith will shield us from this insidious weapon!” The commander found himself calling out as he advanced into the still bathhouse, the ship had not been host to any of the other ships so the facility was not in a state of readiness when the attack had taken place but a thick layer of dried blue and red blood indicated that Equestrian and Covenant workers had been working here or had fled from the attack only to be cut down. Again any body had been stolen away for some inscrutable reason. “Sub commander, take the first squad and the Unggoy and move through the side rooms, I will take the second squad and meet the life form. If it is hostile we shall eliminate it.” Rtas moved forward in the vanguard his plasma rifle at the ready as they stepped between empty baths set into the ground a thin layer of water coating everything and only the flickering lights to illuminate his way. At regular intervals in the grand room there was a large ornate door in the Equestrian style leading to the maze of side rooms, and storage spaces required to keep such a grand facility functioning. A low broken growl, wrong somehow with an edge to it, filled the room and Rtas’ saw the shifting of shadows as something moved in the darkness at the edge of the room. He ordered his team to halt and with a thought activated his armours shoulder mounted light. Batlike wings that had been torn apart, turned ragged and coated with a layer of green slime, sections of them bulged horribly as if they contained an insidious tumor. Its body fared even worse, once the lean from of an Equestrian Manticore kept for its majesty and value in the grand sport of hunting now the giant predator had gouges dug from its body that gave way to a rotting, yellowed flesh underneath. Its face was lax and pushed to the side as a mass of twisting and snapping tentacles with red sensory organs pointed right at him while tasting the air. “This is no human attack.” Rtas lifted his plasma rifle as the monster began to lumber towards him. “All soldiers destroy the Manticore!” Bolts of superheated plasma played across the Manticores side as the Sanghili dove to the side into a roll to avoid the deadly sting of its tail. It was when the Unggoy and his soldiers had moved into a rough circle around the beast to pepper it with fire that one of the vents high overhead burst open and little clicking balls of razor sharp tentacles and bright red feelers fell upon his men. In an instant the battle turned into a rout as his soldiers darted about falling and swinging weapons wildly to attack the smaller parasites that tried to cling to them. Ripping into exposed tissue and sending panicked soldiers to the ground screaming in agony. Igniting his plasma sword Rtas charged forward cutting through the smaller parasites as they lept at him before twisting expertly to dodge the Manticores deadly attack. Caching his balance now that he was past the guard of the infected monster Rtas dove his blade into its neck and pulled upwards sending the beast thudding into the ground as he cut through its spine. “Follow me! Go Go Go!” He called out as the door they had entered through burst open and another swarm of the small parasites scuttled though followed by a stampede of rotting and dead Ponies. The survivors quickly rallied to him and formed a rough squire with the Unggoy in the middle surrounded by sword wielding Sanghili. They charged desperately away from the horde and towards the bridge. The moment his team had left the baths hall Rtas slammed the emergency lock and the door slid closed. “We must continue on, the bridge is not far.” Rtas nodded at his sub commander. The beleaguered group made their way through the twisting halls that comprised the secondary route to the bridge. In places blood lined the walls, masses of red, blue and the yellow rot of the infected. Rtas led his team around another corner when a flurry of burning green bolts slammed into him causing his shields to flare, he quickly darted back out of the line of fire. “You are not getting me! I will kill you all!” Hearing the panicked voice Rtas held up a hand to prevent his team from engaging his assailant and called out. “We are not here to get you! I am Special Operations Commander Rtas 'Vadumee. I am present to aid you!” There was a pause and some muffled voices down the hall. A moment later a door opened and he heard the footsteps of a newcomer. “I am Royal Cloudsdale Lancer Major Rainbow Dash! Come around that corner and keep your hands where I can see them.” With a glance to his Sub Commander Rtas clamped his weapons to his armour and held up his hands as he stepped around the corner and finally got a good look at the defences. Rubble had been piled up and fused together with intense heat to form a barricade that Rtas would have to duck down and turn to his side to pass though, to the sides there were slits that weapons could be fired from into the long hall with the bridge’s blast door just behind the formidable barricade. Major Rainbow Dash had chosen to stand in the open to meet him but though the slits he could see the worried and tired faces of several unicorns and an Unggoy. “As you can see, I am not one of the monsters that infest this ship.” Rainbow nodded. “Yes, not quite ugly enough for that, come on then, don’t take offence at High Standard she has good reason to shoot anything that comes around that corner.” “Of course” Rtas nodded to his men who quickly moved around the corner to join him as he approached the Bridge. Rtas and his forces entered the bridge finding that beyond the ragged force defending the long corridor there were dozens of wounded Unggoy and Ponies nursing wounds in out of the way sections of the room. He did his best to ignore the still bodies pushed to the farthest corner. “About time you lot showed up! This situation is a bucking mess, some sort of parasite that reanimates corpses came off of that ring and this entire ship is a biohazard zone, at this point I would be activating the self destruct but that system was disabled.” The armoured pegasus spun about neatly and looked up at Rtas. “So we are going to have to go down to the engine room and make sure this mess cleans itself up explosively, after you call in your transport to get the civilians out of course.” “Our orders are to manage the situation and secure the safety of the Legate.” He saw that most of the consoles in the room had been destroyed with only a single main command console still active and managed by an Unggoy that stared blankly into space. “That creep? No idea where he went but he has been locking down the ship from somewhere. Quite frankly I don’t give a buck about that waste of air so how about you call in that ship now.” Rtas was taken aback at the direct order from the Equestrian and carefully thought about how he would respond. “I would like to see you try to force us to do anything little pony!” Rtas winced and looked to the side as his sub commander laughed at the Pegasus. “We will see how funny you find this when my hoof breaks the sound barrier on your face.” At that his sub commander activated his energy sword and leered dangerously down at the mare. “You would not survive the attempt.” “Silence!” Rtas shouted, glaring at the pair of them. “Think about your words before uttering them!” The two of them shared another glare before backing away. “Major, your concern for the Civilian presence is respectable but we only have one dropship in range we can contact, we need to ensure that all civilians are present before we leave this ship.” “I am supposed to let you waste lives for him!” “You do not have a choice in the matter it is my duty to find him and should we die the dropship will never again dock with this vessel.” The little mare let out a sequence of Equestrian curses before letting out a resigned sigh. “I have a Griffon working her way to the engine room, most of the parasites seem to have collected in that area. While the engine room is sealed most of the rear of the ship is exposed to the void and I no longer have access to that system.” “That is because I have disabled all primary systems onboard the Infinite Succour” Rtas and Rainbow whirled around to look at the large holographic projection of the Legate that overlooked the entire bridge. “Legate, please return to the bridge and allow us to activate the self destruct system to destroy this infestation.” Rtas walked forward with his hands outstretched to talk sense into the Legate. “I will not commander.” “Listen! This ship cannot be saved, do you know how many bodies this infection has taken? It's a deathtrap!” Rtas nodded at Rainbows words “She is correct, we must destroy this ship to defeat our enemy.” “On that we agree Commander, but how can I trust you are not infected yourself? If I expose myself or open one system you might find a way to access other systems such as the slipspace controls.” The Legate glanced between Rainbow and Rtas before continuing. “The Flood cannot be allowed to escape. You may be assisting it, I do not have accurate information on how quickly the infection spreads. Your men and the Equestrians are suspect.” “We are not Infected you idiot!” “While I would of course take your word for it Major in this case I am unable to do so, Commander, take your men and the survivors to a medical bay so I might examine you remotely.” “We don’t have time for this, we have lost several men and we are low on ammunition and-” “We can't move some of the people here!” Dash cut in “They are too hurt.” Rainbow shouted her wings flared and face contorted in fury. “Then they are lost.” With that the communication cut off and Rainbow cursed again as she twisted about to buck against a console shattering the armoured plating in her frustration. “Attack! Attack! They are coming again!” High Standard called out as she lifted three plasma pistols in her arcane grip while she screamed in panic as the haggered defenders rushed to meet the newest assault of the now named Flood. Without a word Rainbow and Rtas joined them. Amanda pressed herself to the round using the thin rail along the edge of the walkway for what limited amount of cover it offered. She could see the Inquisitor doing the same. The pair of them watching each other intently through the transparent material that protected them. “This is pointless, we need to deal with the flood!” The monitor overhead pleaded with the pair of them. “He is right, the flood must be stopped.” Her voice was quiet, scratchy from her panicked screams during the fight. Screams not directed at Amanda but at whatever she had done to Keyes. The Spartan reluctantly picked herself up as her shields recharged and slowly moved towards the control panel. “You stay right there!” She warned the alien as she kept her rifle trained on her. With a quick glance she pulled the index from a magnetic clamp on her hip and slotted the device into the holographic terminal. She tried to keep her eyes on the Covenant but her gaze was drawn to the holographic console as the green index began to glow and from the console spinning disks of Forerunner text began to spin about Amanda. A low thrum began to sound out across the room before slowly pittering out. “Odd, that wasn't supposed to happen.” Guilty Spark remarked as there was a sudden flash of light and Cortana’s holographic avatar appeared standing like a giant over the three of them. “Oh, really?” With a gesture the monitor shuddered in the air before falling to the ground with a loud clang. “Cortana!” Twilight shouted in surprise. “I spent hours cooped up in here watching you toady about helping that thing get set to slit our throats!” The AI stood with hands on hips and after her eyes flicked to Twilight she added. “All of our throats.” Amanda whirled around and held up an open hand to the AI. “Cortana he is helping us against the flood. He is a friend.” “Oh, I didn’t realize. He’s your pal, is he? Your chum? Do you have any idea what that bastard almost made you do Lieutenant?” The Spartan paused and looked over at the Covenant, despite the assault rifle floating beside her she seemed content to watch how things played out. “Yes,” Amanda began. “Activate Halo’s defenses and destroy the Flood. Which is why we brought the Index to the Control Center.” Cortana’s image plucked the Index out of its slot and held it out in front of her the Spartains mind boggling at the impossibility of the insubstantial hologram holding the very real device. “You mean this?” With a buzz Guilty Spark flashed to life again and began to hover just off the floor. “A construct in the core? That is absolutely unacceptable!” The Forerunner construct screamed out. “Piss off.” Cortana retorted her eyes glowing a dangerous red as she loomed over the trio. “What impertinence! I shall purge you at once.” The Monitor darted higher looking down at the Human AI as the constructs faced off against each other. “You sure that’s a good idea?” Cortana inquired as she waved the Index, then added the data contained within it to her memory the physical artifact destroyed with a thought. “How dare you!” Spark exclaimed. “I’ll-” “Do what?” Cortana demanded. “I have the Index. You can float and sputter!” “Enough!” The voice was powerful enough to be physically felt rippling over Amanda's armour as the Inquisitor stepped forward keeping the purple shield activated between her and the Spartan. “The Flood is spreading, it must be destroyed. If we activate Halo we can burn away this parasite!” “You have no idea how this ring works, do you? Why the Forerunners built it? Halo doesn’t kill Flood, it kills their food. Human, Covenant, whatever. You’re all equally edible. The only way to stop the Flood is to starve them to death. And that’s exactly what Halo is designed to do. Wipe the galaxy clean of all sentient life. You don’t believe me? Ask him!” The ramifications of what Cortana said hit home, and she gripped her rifle tightly. Rounding on the Monitor she found her voice had a harsher edge then she intended. “Is it true?” “More or less. This installation has a maximum effective radius of twenty-five thousand light years, but once the others follow suit, this galaxy will be quite devoid of life, or at least any life with sufficient biomass and complex enough nerves system to sustain the Flood. But you already knew that.” The AI continued contritely. The little device sounded genuinely puzzled. “I mean, how couldn’t you?” “Left out that little detail, did he?” “We followed outbreak containment procedure to the letter,” the Monitor said defensively. “You were with me each step of the way as we managed the process.” The Covenant Inquisitor ears twisted about detecting a sound outside of Amanda’s range of hearing. “Below us, something is coming up.” “I am detecting movement” Cortana agreed. “Lieutenant my chip is in the console!” “Why would you hesitate to do what you’ve already done?” Guilty Spark demanded his attention focused on the Spartan. “We need to go,” Cortana insisted. “Right now!” “Last time you asked me if it were my choice, would I do it?” the Monitor continued, as a flock of hawklike roboting constructs arrayed themselves behind him, each of them humming quietly as a single yellow eye glared down at them. “Having had considerable time to ponder your query, my answer has not changed. There is no choice. We must activate the ring.” “Get Cortana!” Twilight Sparkle shouted at the Human her shield that had been placed between her and the Spartain now turned outwards into a wide dome. Amanda having trouble processing the rapidly shifting loyalties in the room. “Get, us, out of here!” Cortana said, her eyes tracking the Sentinels. “If you are unwilling to help, I have already detected several others.” Spark said conversationally. “Still, I must have the Index. Give your construct to me or I will be forced to take it from you.” The Spartan looked up at Spark and the machines arrayed in the air behind him. Reaching back she plucked the chip containing Cortana from the holographic terminal and slotted it home into the back of her neck. She stepped forward fighting her long honed instincts to stand beside Twilight Sparkle. “That’s not going to happen.” “So be it,” the Monitor said wearily. Then, in a comment directed to the Sentinels, he added “Save the Human’s head. Dispose of the rest.” “Whatever happened here it was not pretty.” John watched as Isaac used his enhanced image capturing attachment to scan the blood coated room. The walls, floor and even the ceiling high above them had red, blue and even yellow bloodstains, plasma burns and hundreds of brass casings littered the ground. “I am getting strange readings too, nothing in our database but there is a lot of it.” “Any clue what happened to Keyes? Or why they burned all the bodies?” Vinh slowly bent down and cocked her head “Hay John look at this.” she stood back up with a ragged chunk of flesh and splintered bone, mulberry fur hanging limply and an unmistakably hoof shaped nail on one end. “Must be that new alien the Helljumpers reported on the battlenet. Whatever got to him must have been real nasty, not much left.” William glanced over his shoulder, his head snapping about and his weapon at the ready. Good, John could feel eyes in the back of his head and it was nice to see that his squad felt the same way. “Movement!” Issac hissed over the coms and the team fell into position aiming down a dark corridor at the end of the bloodied hall. After a moment the sound of footsteps could be heard and out of the darkness stumbled a panicked looking man in the black armour of an ODST. Silva almost fell backwards as he entered the room and spun around a shotgun in his shaky grasp. John quickly stood up and called out to the man only for him to spin about with a startled scream and fire his shotgun wildly over john's head, none of the shotgun pellets connecting. “C-chief? Is that you? What are you doing here!? Nevermind we have to return to Alpha Base right now the situation is fucked!” John slowly approached the man with his hands empty and palms forward. “Calm down sir, what is going on? We are looking for Keyes, Cortana said he was here somewhere?” Silva blinked and licked his lips. “Cortana? You have her with you?” Silva lowered his shotgun and staggered towards John. Despite his limp and haggard appearance the man looked unharmed, he was not even breathing heavily. “No sir, she is in Halo’s control center.” John watched as the man’s face stretched out into a repulsive and uncharacteristic grin. “Excellent, we have to return to her so we can secure this installation! Keyes is not here, he must have been taken away by the Covenant.” John paused and looked back at his team before nodding. “Understood, we have some time before exfiltration is necessary that we can use to search for the Captain” Silva set his face in a repulsive sneer as he looked around at the Spartans but gave a curt nod before staggering behind them in an uncoordinated gait. Beams of burning yellow light impacted the purple dome protecting Amanda and Twilight sending spiderwebs of burning cracks across the magical field as they impacted. Twilight grunted under the strain and redoubled her focus the light from her horn obscuring her face as Amanda drew the plasma pistol from her belt and charged up a projectile. “Drop the shield!” she called out and Twilight did so jumping behind Amanda for protection as the Spartan sent and overcharged bolt of green plasma at one of the floating sentinels. The orb of green light impacted with a crackle and the Forerunner guardian was reduced to warped metal as it fell into the darkness below the walkway. The Sentinels began to swarm forward as Twilight peppered them with armour piercing rounds and Amanda sent highly charged balls of screeching green plasma at the deadly flock. Under the concerted attack the Forerunner guardians were quickly cut down, some attempted to flank behind the two of them but their attacks were met with a powerful purple shield. When the last Sentinel struck the walkway in a brilliant explosion there was an awkward moment of tension between the Human and the Equestrian. “So.” Twilight looked over at the Spartan as she checked the ammo counter of her weapon, found it wanting and dropped the assault rifle unceremoniously. “You have a plan?” “Yes,” Cortana replied, her voice sounding out though the Mjolnier armour of the Spartan. “I do. We can’t let the Monitor activate Halo. We have to stop him—we have to destroy Halo.” Twilight stared open mouthed at the armoured women before her and lit her horn to catch her pipe as it fell. With a flash of her horn she relit the smoldering tobacco shaking her head as she considered where she could possibly acquire more despite the health risks Jacob knew about. That was if she was even vulnerable to the damage smoking caused after Twilight and Jacob died. She tried not to think about it. “I must be insane, this is heresy.” The mare closed her eyes and let out a long suffering sigh. “How do you plan on doing that?” “According to my analysis of the available data I believe the best course of action is somewhat risky.” “Of course” Amanda groaned. “An explosion of sufficient size.” Cortana explained. “Will help destabilize the ring and will cut through a number of primary systems. We need to trigger a detonation on a large scale, however. A starship’s fusion reactors going critical would do the job.” “You want to use the Pillar of Autumn!? You want to blow up m- Keyes ship!” Twilight held the pipe in her arcane grip and pointed the spout at the Spartan to punctuate her sentence. “You have his command codes” It was not a question but Twilight lowered her head and looked to the side as she answered anyway. “Yes.” “Good, then all we need to do is buy some time, acquire the Spartan team I sent to save you and get to the ship.” “Sounds like a walk in the park” Amanda grossed as she turned to leave the control center, the pair of them walking down the long corridor to the exit. “What of the Oracle finds a way to activate Halo without the Index?” Twilight slowly let out a plume of smoke as she thought about the situation. “Oracle?” Amanda looked down at Twilight. “The annoying genocidal ball.” “Ah” Amanda nodded and activated the door leading to the winter canyons surrounding the control room as Cortana thought through the question posed. “The machines in the canyons outside are Halo’s primary firing mechanisms.” Cortana began. “They consist of three phase pulse generators that amplify Halo’s signal and allow it to fire deep into space. If we damage or destroy the generators, the Monitor will need to repair them before Halo can be used. That should buy us some time.” Twilight nodded. “And after that you are going to pick up the other Spartans, good luck.” Twilight turned away from the Spartan as snow whirled about them and in the distance gunshots and plasma discharges could be heard as the Covenant and flood fought a desperate battle far below. “Where are you running off too?” Amanda demanded. “The Pillar of Autumn, Cortana should be able to triangulate the location using the... My cybernetics. There is a garrison there and I need to at least try to convince them to follow me before the Demons show up and all reason goes out the airlock.” “We will meet you there” Cortana’s words were met with a curt nod before Twilight Sparkle disappeared in a flash of purple light. “I’m marking the location of the nearest pulse generator with a nav point. We need to move and neutralize the device.” Amanda turned to the battle below and began to jog towards it.