Jerome rocked back and forth in the small pilot’s seat as the lifeboat flew through the atmosphere. Being the farthest behind, he was able to watch Alice tumble through the sky and crash into a mountain, and Douglas glide into his own mountain. Jerome risked aiming a tad bit downwards to get a hopefully less dangerous crash-site.
Professor Anders sat in one of the chairs behind him, holding tightly onto the safety harness. Without a pressure suit, chances were she would be unconscious for the crash. He resumed paying attention to the task at hand.
As he flew downwards, he noticed something peculiar. A cloud, with... rainbow rivers. And rainbow waterfalls. Now, obviously, Jerome knew clouds were made up of water particles and dust, and rainbows were merely the reflection of the sun’s rays on the water, but this appeared to be an actual liquid, flowing through the sky and onto other clouds, forming small ponds.
He stared a bit longer when a rough shaking brang him back to his senses. He was starting to drift off course. Again readjusting his position, there was a small pop and sudden deceleration as the parachute opened. Jerome jerked forwards slightly, creating a small screech from the metal chair he sat on.
Soon, he was able to make out little landmarks, like a forest a far ways off and a lake in between the mountain range and where he was going to land. As he got within a few hundred feet, he got out of the chair and pulled himself into the chair in front of Professor Anders to shield her from the incoming crash. He looked over to her. Just as he predicted, she was unconscious.
The pod smashed into the ground, the front mirror exploding inwardly, sending shrapnel throughout the pod. It skipped once, twice, and three times before smashing into a tree and skidding to a stop. Jerome snapped open his harness and stood up. He looked over to Anders. A few cuts here and there, nothing a bit of bandaging won’t help. He collected his gear and walked over to the pods ‘door’.
With a loud clank, the entrance hissed for a moment, but other than that, nothing. He tried again, slightly harder. Again, nothing. With one final tug, he ripped the handle off. A bit more hissing, but still nothing. Great. He turned back to the half-buried front end, then back at the door. He could probably man-handle the thing, but then again, it is made to keep out the vacuum of space. Also, why waste some energy when there was an alternative?
He turned back around at the front of the pod. Dirt and rock covered the entire dashboard. Walking over, he started to dig a bit off. He found what he was looking for under a small rock. A conventional giant red button with a hard plastic cover over it, the words CAUTION printed in red.
The button turned the door of the pod into something similar of an ODST pods door, High pressure was kept and could be used to blast the door straight off its hinges with the push of this button. As he flipped open the plastic cover, he heard something at the door. He turned and looked in its direction; hand over the hilt of his pistol. He quickly discarded it as the pod merely buckling slightly under its weakened armor.
He continued opening the cover and punched the red button. There was a sudden plume of steam and the door shot away. There was a high pitched screech as it flew through the air. It sounded like a living thing…
This time completely taking out his pistol, he crept towards the outside world. He checked each corner, and, making sure nothing was there, more carefully checked his surroundings. Far to his left, a light forest area began. To his right, the mountain range. He could see the lake from here.
He took a look at where the pod door had landed. It was indented into one of the few trees in the grassy area. He shrugged and looked away for a moment. As he turned away, he did a double take. He noticed something at the last moment. He carefully watched a green feather gently float to the ground. He looked at the door, then back at the feather. Did he? No, what were the chances. But that would explain the screech… But still, the chance was too slim.
He carefully walked over to the tree, pistol raised. He stopped in front of it and slightly lowered the gun. He raised a hand to move the door, but it dropped by itself, revealing something behind. A green horse with a lighter green mane was planted into the tree, a wide circle around it, marking were the door had been. Upon closer inspection, it had wings.
Well, that explained it. He was going crazy. A pegasus. The stuff of ancient myth and kids stories. How this thing wasn’t obliterated was a mystery, too. As a matter of fact, it looked like it wasn’t that badly damaged. A few broken bones, maybe a bit of internal bleeding, other than that, it was a miracle. He grabbed the poor thing and took it out of the trees grasp. He looked back at the tree. It had left a rather comical outline of the small horse.
One thing was for sure though, they wouldn’t have to worry about a shortage of MRE’s for a bit. Circle of Life.
He heard a noise behind him, and turned to watch Anders undo the harness around her chest. She stood up and attempted to stretch. This ended with her painfully holding her head. She walked out and shielded her eyes from the sun. “Were on Earth did we land?” she asked nobody in particular.
“Couldn’t tell you, Ma’am.”
“Oh, quit with the ‘ma’am’. It’s annoying and I don’t like i-“ She stopped mid-sentence and look at what was in Jerome’s arms. “I- Is that?”
She walked over to the green horse in his arms. “A pegasus? This is supposed to be a myth! And what happened to the poor thing? We gotta fix it up!”
Well, so much for trying something new.
“Oh… uh, yeah. I was going to do that.”Jerome replied as he walked over to get a medical kit.
Anders stayed inside for a moment, probably looking for a tech pad to record science-y stuff. He gently set down the pegasus and opened up the med kit. He cut open a tiny hole in its chest and inserted a can of Bio-foam. The white liquid quickly expanded into a soft solid, blocking any internal bleeding. He bandaged the area and searched for anything else. Its right wing was bent unnaturally. Nothing bad, just a bit dislocated it seemed. He snapped it back into place.
The horse suddenly came to life and yelped loudly. It stared at Jerome and backed away, breathing heavily. As it put a good two feet in-between Jerome and itself, it became aware of his injuries. It gave another yelp and held its bandaged chest. Jerome continued to sit there, legs crossed patiently, his hand still holding the bandage rap. Ander’s head poked out of the pod behind him. “What happened, what did I miss?”
Her eyes focused on the pegasus. She still couldn’t believe it! A real live pegasus. Which wasn’t really possible, but still! Here one was, right in front of her. She would like to see Dr. Halsey’s face right now.
“Oh! Don’t worry, we won’t hurt you!” Anders moved slightly towards it.
The pegasus looked towards Anders this time, still hyperventilating. Its breathing sounded different, almost human-like. Anders continued to move towards it.
“Don’t, you’re just going to scare it. After all, you did just come out of the thing that nearly killed him.” Jerome continued to watch the pegasus.
“Speaking of which, you still haven’t told me what happened.” Anders said, curiosity easily heard in her voice.
Jerome simply pointed over to the tree. Anders followed his finger and stopped at the tree. She saw the door on the ground, the indent of the pegasus in the tree, and a few green feathers on the ground.
“YOU BEAT IT WITH THE DOOR OF THE POD?!” Anders yelled.
Jerome inwardly face-palmed. “No. The door was stuck and I had to blow it off. It was lucky enough to be standing in front of it.” For a moment, he wandered what Alice and Douglas were doing. Maybe they had found some other mystical creature? Heh, for all he knew, this entire world was inhabited by pegasi.
Either way, he was sure that his team was OK. The pegasus again attempted to put some distance between them, but failed for asecond time. Jerome laid down the bandage and put both his hands out. It was starting to calm down, but they couldn’t sit here all day. He tried whistling for it. He tried handing out some grass. Finally, he was out of patience. “Alright then. It’s getting late, we need to move. Anders, grab what you can. We are leaving.”
“But what about the pegasus? You’re not going to leave it, are you?” Anders asked.
“I’m not going to take it with me, no. It would only cause problems. Come on. We will get Douglas first, he’s closer.” Jerome harshly stated.
Anders took one last look at the green pegasus in front of her. There would be more, right? Were there’s one, there is another. She obediently turned to follow.
“W- Wait! Hold on!”
Jerome and Anders stopped and turned around, looking about for the source of the noise.
“Don’t leave me here! I can’t even walk!” the green pegasus begged.
Anders and Jerome stared for a moment. “…Say again?” Anders asked; a hint of confusion in her voice. It…. Spoke English?
“I can’t be out here during dark, who knows what could be lurking around!”
Anders looked at Jerome, but the Spartans didn’t stop looking at the pegasus. There was no way of knowing what his thoughts were behind the gold faceplate.
When he spoke though, he didn’t seem surprised at all. “You had your chance. Like I said, you’re only going to cause problems. I can’t go around carrying some random talking myth everywhere I go.”
Jerome turned back around and continued walking. Anders looked at Jerome, then back at the pegasus. “Jerome, we have to take it. It’s a talking pegasus! Think of what we can learn! We can’t leave it here to die!”
Jerome stopped and turned back. “With all due respect Professor Anders, my Spartans are more important to me than some horse. I have control of this mission, and you will obey my commands.”
“I think my spot in ONI overpowers you!” Anders remarked.
Jerome thought for a moment. She was right, even if Cutter gave him control. “We are light-years from any human civilization. For all we know, this war is over. ONI doesn’t exist here. I. Said. No.” Jerome spat.
“That doesn’t make a difference! Even if I am a civilian, I have just about as much power over you as Dr. Halsey!” Anders ran back over and gently cradled the pegasus in her arms, being careful not to harm it. It was very heavy,
considering it was a pegasus and all. Yet, it was very small, and chances were, its bones weren’t that dense (probably so it would be able to fly), so she would be able to manage. "You're a Spartan. You follow higher officials no matter where you are.
Jerome scowled at her. In a sense, Dr. Halsey was a mother to all the Spartans. He knew Halsey and Anders had some kind of rivalry, and was surprised she brought her up in the first place. “OK then, it’s yours. Don’t expect me to ‘care’ for it or anything.” Jerome angrily said as he resumed walking.
The pegasus let out a sigh of relief. Then something struck his mind. “Wait, I live the other way!”
“Darn. We’ll drop you off on our way back.” Jerome continued walking.
Anders kept her distance; she knew she had really pissed him off. To pass some time, she asked the pegasus questions. The usual ‘what planet is this’, ‘are there others’ and ‘how do you fly’ stuff. The pegasus was still nervous talking to an alien that fell from the sky, but after a while, he became comfortable with talking to the Professor. She was in the middle of asking what other kinds of species were on this planet when she accidentally bumped into Jerome.
Jerome stood still, like an iron wall. He held his sniper up to his face, as if he was scanning the area. Anders noticed the lake getting closer. She squinted and looked off into the difference. She didn’t see anything.
Suddenly, Jerome spoke up. “I got Douglas on the Comm. We’re going to meet him at the other side of that lake. C’mon.” Jerome continued walking.
Anders was glad to finally be able to stop and rest. Her arms were starting to burn. She didn’t dare ask for a break, it would only piss Jerome off more. Not to mention she still had a point to prove.
As they reached the other side of the lake, Anders was able to spot the second Spartan sitting down, a small bit of wood and dried grass in a pile in front of him. Douglas spied the two. He dragged two fingers across his faceplate, the Spartan ‘smile’ sign. He then noticed Anders new pet.
“I see you met with some of this worlds inhabitants?” Douglas asked as they got closer.
“You don’t seem surprised. Have you?” Jerome replied with another question.
“Yeah, except bigger, scalier, and not good at making friends.” Douglas told them.
“Oh? Would you mind telling us more?” Jerome sat down as Douglas started the fire, ignoring Anders behind him, who was re-bandaging the pegasus. The sun started to creep down over the horizon.
“Sure” Douglas explained everything that had happened in the mountains. The pegasus cringed at the details.
Anders noticed this and continued asking more questions. “So, I never did catch your name.”
The pegasus turned his attention to the Professor. “Huh?”
“Your name.”
“Oh, I’m Wind Storm. And you?” the pegasus pointed at her with his nose.
“I am Professor Ellen Anders. Pleasure to meet you! I have to admit, you acted calmer than I expected you for meeting aliens. Especially after we accidentally crushed you with the back of our pod…” Anders chuckled to herself, making it slightly awkward.
“Why were you by the pods anyway?” Anders asked.
“The same reason you probably would’ve. Curiosity.” Wind Storm simply stated.
She nodded in agreement. Immediately, the saying. ‘Curiosity killed the cat’ came to her mind. Except, the cat had wings and was hit by a giant piece of space metal. She felt it was getting to awkward, and stopped the conversation.
She listened back to Jerome and Douglas.
“I don’t suppose you know anything about Alice?” Jerome asked in a somber tone.
“No, just that she landed pretty hard into that mountain.” Douglas replied, nodding towards the strange looking mountain in the distance.
“Well, for now, all we can do is hope she’s okay.” Jerome said.
“Don’t worry, I’m sure she didn’t even have it as bad as me.” Douglas assured him. “Cmon, you get some sleep. I’ll keep post.”
Jerome nodded to himself. Not bothering to use his thermal blanket, he simply laid down next to the fire and drifted off. ‘Yeah… Alice can handle herself. What’s the worst that could happen?’