//------------------------------// // Spartans never die... they're only Missing in Action // Story: Halo: A Spartan Will Rise // by LazyAva2004 //------------------------------// 10th Feb 2554 Just outside Covenant controlled space Spartan Ava-127 was regretting this mission so far. Everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong. She had lost two of her squad attacking the Covenant CCS-class battlecruiser that was now firing plasma at her Pelican dropship, leaving only one other Spartan-II in her squad, Spartan Jake-039. Her mission to find out the location of the Covenant's home planet was also unsuccessful, the Covenant ship was already preparing for a slipspace jump. The Pelicans right wing and engine had sustained extreme damage, and it was only a matter of time before it'd explode. Ava had nothing to lose, so she flew the Pelican as close as she could to the Covenant ship, dodging the AA fire from the ship. She had to get in the slipspace jump with the enemy ship. It was almost impossible, but maybe she would survive the jump. "Come on... just a little closer..." she whispered, deep in concentration. The Covenant ship entered slipspace, bringing Ava with in the Pelican dropship. The Pelican was barely staying together, but soon the Pelican would enter normal space. 11th Feb 2554 Equestria Twilight Sparkle was having a great day so far, she was having a lovely picnic with her best friends Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. Spike was there too, as well as the Mane 6's pets. They had all sorts of snacks, including hay burgers, apples (With apple juice), and daisies, as well as some boardgames to play. It was a lovely sun filled day, with only a few clouds to be seen. "I'm so glad we can finally spend some time together, being a princess and going to all the different hearings and meetings in Canterlot is really stressful, and I've really missed you girls." Twilight said as she sighed, finally relaxing with no worries on her mind. "Ah'm glad you're here Twi, we've really missed you too, although we've all been busy too. The apple business has been really busy, and everypony else has hardly had any time to hang out." Applejack said, lying down on the picnic blanket underneath her and looking at the sky. Everypony was relatively silent for a little bit, until Applejack suddenly sat up, pointing to the sky "Are y'all seeing what ah'm seeing?!" She shouted. Fluttershy looked up first, and saw a large object entering the atmosphere, burning and falling towards the Everfree forest, close to where they were having a picnic. "W-what could it be Twilight? You know stuff about space, right?" Spoke Fluttershy, startled by the large space object nearing the ground in the nearby forest. "I don't know what it is... It didn't look like an asteroid... We should go check it out! There might be some rare stuff in it!" Twilight was practically jumping from hoof to hoof in excitement, and Rainbow Dash was already flapping her wings and flying to the forest to check out the crashed object. Applejack was running after Rainbow Dash, clearly racing her. The two had always been competitive. Fluttershy was clearly very nervous about going to the Everfree forest, and Pinkie Pie was literally bouncing up and down, excited for any potential "alien" visitors that she could throw a party for. Rarity, like Fluttershy, was clearly nervous. Twilight just rolled her eyes, smiling. These were the friends she had known for a long time now and she loved them so much. 11th Feb 2554 Equestria, inside of the Everfree forest Ava-127 awoke with her limbs aching, and her head throbbing in agony. Her MK.VI Mjolnir Powered Assault Armor had "Armor Locked", essentially saving her when the Pelican she was in crashed. It stopped her bones from breaking, but it still hurt. She disengaged the armor lock, and stood up, heading out of the Pelican cockpit, walking into the troop holding bay where the extra weapons her Spartan squad, Obsidian team, had packed. She found Jake-039 checking the ammo and explosive ordnance. It seemed that they had packed well. "039. What's the situation like? Where are we? Covvie or human planet?" Ava-127 asked, greeting Jake-039 with the usual "Spartan Smile", swiping two fingers over her helmet's visor. Jake returned the gesture, and reported on what little intel he had. "We're probably not on a Covenant planet, but of course we won't know unless we find some of the bastards here. The comms are also fucked up, I can't get a link to the UNSC. We're best off hiking to see what we find. Maybe we'll find help, or maybe we'll find a Covenant Phantom we can, uhhh... "borrow" to get back to the UNSC. In terms of supplies, we're good. enough meds and biofoam to last a while, as well as enough ammo and weapons to keep us going. MRE's too, even though they taste like shit." Jake-039 said, passing Ava-127 her usual weapons, a BR-55, as well as an M90 shotgun. She nodded, and smiled behind her helmet as she realized that Jake was going with his usual loadout, an SRS99 Sniper Rifle, as well as an M6C/SOCOM Silenced Pistol, otherwise known as an "Automag". "I'm gonna go and scout around. You stay here and protect the ship. We'll make it a temporary base for now." Jake said, holstering his M6C and holding his sniper, stepping out of the Pelican and taking off into the jungle. Luckily the Mjolnir armor systems as well as the Spartan's augmentations allowed them to communicate seamlessly, either using a simple acknowledgement light in their helmets, or by directly speaking on team comm channels. If Jake ran into trouble, he'd have backup really quick. Ava-127 stepped out of the Pelican, and looked around the strange forest. it almost looked like the ones back on Earth, a bit like the ones on Onyx too. Just out of the corner of her eye, Ava saw something moving through the bushes, and heard what sounded like english. Were there humans? As if to answer Ava's question, something walked out of the bushes. It looked like a horse, just... colorful, and smaller. That wasn't what freaked out Ava-127, it was the fact that this horse had wings, and a horn with the lavender colored body. Then it spoke perfect english. "H-hello? My name is Twilight Sparkle, welcome to Equestria! How exactly did you... get here?" Ava shook her head, and chuckled softly, as if amused by the situation. "Talking horses? I'm really going fucking crazy."