//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 (Edited) // Story: Halo:Resurrection // by Me101Puck //------------------------------// Lieutenant Mikel Dakre stood in the command center of the Hall of Heroes, watching the projection in the middle of the room. He was there in place of his commanding officer, who had become ill as of late. He released a breath he had been holding, then sucked in another gulp of air and held his breath again. The crew of the Hall were looking out into the vast expanse of space around us to see of the covenant were anywhere within a thousand light years from the planet they were currently orbiting above. Dakre was an ODST, or Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, for the UNSC. He was on the Hall of Heroes, a ship commissioned by the UNSC to find another planet to colonize away from the covenant. He was waiting for the results of the scan to show on the projection, because it determined whether the planet below was safe for human existence. A sudden ping came from the intercom as an announcement started. The hall had been in sllipspace for about nine months, so they were very far away from their origin, Reach. Reach was the UNSC's largest colony, and it was just recently invaded and destroyed by the covenant. "Sector all clear, ODST team report to hangar for flight to the surface!" the female voice of the captain shouted over the intercom. "You know, I'm right here. You don't have to use that thing." Dakre said to Captain Falan. Hannah Falan was a twenty-eight year old woman who was promoted to captain just before Reach was invaded. "I know, but I wanted to let everybody know about the all clear." She responded. Dakre shrugged. "I guess that makes sense." He said. "Here's your mission instructions." she said, handing him a small chip, which he inserted into his wrist computer. Dakre put his helmet on. His armor was pitch black, except for the team leader's red stripes on his armor. He had a MA-7D slung across his chest, with at least thirty magazines attached to his armor's clips. The MA-7D Infantry Carbine was an assault weapon chambered in the 8.8x44 specialized caliber. It was specifically designed by the Hall's scientists to be effective in all environments, and pack a harder punch than the standard assault rifle. It closely resembled a 21st century F2000, but had electronic sights and a smaller frame. All of the ODSTs carried these rifles because they had an abundant supply of lightweight ammunition. The ony exception was the squad sniper, who preffered to carry the older DMR because it had a greter accuracy at long distances. Dakre walked down the halls of the ship toward the hangar, whistling a little to himself. He was excited that his team would finally get to carry out a mission, something they had yet to do. As he approached the hangar, he stopped whistling and began to focus on the mission at hand. He walked into the hangar and proceeded to his assigned pelican to take him to the surface of the new planet. His squad had already boarded, and were talking to each other. It was just some idle chatter to pass the time until Dakre arrived. Things like, 'what do you think is down there?'. His squad was unusually small, only three including himself. His two squad mates were Sergeant Jan Pulad, a sniper, and Jackie Westley, a medic. Jackie was a young woman of only twenty-two. She was about six foot three inches, and was easily excitable. Despite this, she was extremely serious about her military career. Pulad was twenty-seven and six foot nine. He was a hulk for a regular human. He had a deep voice, and only really spoke to his friends. All three had fought on Reach to defend the LZ for civilians getting into pelicans to take them to the Hall. Back then, they were just partisans fighting for their lives. Now, they were elite soldier His two squad mates stopped talking when the lieutenant entered the pelican. Both had their helmets off, revealing Jackie's short, blonde hair and Jan's bald head. They both reached for their helmets and put them on when they got them. "You guys ready?" Dakre asked his squad. "Just a little nervous, that's all" Jan replied. "Lieutenant, what are we looking for down there?" Jackie asked. "We have to look for signs that this planet is habitable. Mainly water and breathable air." Dakre said to the corporal. She nodded at him and picked up her MA-7 off of the bench next to her. Dakre proceeded to the cockpit, where he saw the pilot going over the final flight check before taking the ODST squad to the surface of the planet. When he finished, he turned to Dakre a thumbs up. He nodded and returned to the crew compartment. He sat down in the rearmost seat and closed the ramp. As it closed, the ODSTs continued to talk to each other, while on the outside of the pelican, an insurrectionist, disguised as an engineer, placed a small explosive charge over the fuel cell of the aircraft. The pelican began to come to life as the pilot started the engines. As the engines finished starting up, the pelican lurched slightly backwards and began to move. The pilot flew the pelican out of the ship and into the space over the unknown planet. In the crew cabin, the ODSTs were all preparing for the mission. It was quiet, except for the roar of the engines. Dakre was reading a book on his wrist computer, while Jackie prayed silently. Jan was playing with the mechanics on his rifle, and adjusted his scope again to pass the time. While the soldiers busied themselves to pass the time, a quiet beep began to sound through the cabin of the aircraft. It got steadily louder as time passed. Jan was the first one to pick up on the sound, since he was closest to it. "Hey, can you guys hear that?" He asked. "Hear what?" Jackie asked him. "That beep. It's getting annoying." he said, "Just like you." he added, a smirk on his face under his mask. "Hey, I'm not annoying!" she said in an obnoxiously high pitched voice. "There you go. Mike, don't you think that's annoying?" Jan asked Dakre as he continued to read his book. "It's definitely more annoying when you interrupt my reading over stupid arguments like this." Dakre said in an irritated tone. "Oh come on, you read enough that the occasional argument can't put you that far behind." Jackie said, the obnoxious tone still lingering in her voice. "God! Please stop with that voice!" Jan yelled. "What voice? This Voice?!" She yelled in his ear, emphasizing the voice he hated so much. "Stop it now!" Dakre shouted, but his shout was drowned out by a deafening explosion to the right of the cabin. The charge had exploded the fuel cell, igniting the right engine in a ball of flames. It shook violently, and sheared off of the vehicle, falling to the surface of the planet, along with a few pieces of steel from the fuselage. Inside the pelican, it was chaos. The pilot was trying desperately to regain control of the aircraft as it spun out of control. He eventually slowed the spinning and extinguished the engine fire, but there was no stopping the crash. Inside the cabin, It was almost as much chaos as in the cockpit. there was a gaping hole about a meter from where Jan was sitting, and he was thrown out of his seat onto the floor of the pelican. Dakre and Jackie had pulled down the emergency harnesses above their seats and locked them down. Jan managed to climb into a seat and pulled the harness down across his waist. "Impact is imminent! Brace yourselves!" the pilot yelled back to the ODSTs. They all braced for the crash, just as the right side of the pelican smashed into a tree, then slid along the ground, spinning and crushing several other trees in the process. In the quiet town of Ponyville, a young unicorn by the name of Twilight Sparkle was reading a book on the stars and constellations on her bed on the second story of the Ponyville library. Suddenly, her studies were interrupted by a large piece of steel crashing through her window, nearly decapitating the startled mare. She tapped the foreign object to see what it was made of, before looking out of her obliterated window to see where the object might have come from. As she peeked her head out of the obliterated window, and saw a glowing orange object plummeting straight toward the surface of Equestria. She watched with fascination as the object began to come closer to the ground. She followed it until it landed in a cloud of dust in one of the fields of Sweet Apple Acres. She yelped and immediately got up. Surprisingly, it made no loud noise upon impact. She wrote a quick note to Spike before running out the door to see if Applejack and her family were alright. Dakre came to a few minutes after the crash. He took his helmet off, since the visor was cracked in multiple places, and began to escape from his restraints. He eventually got out of his seat, which was bent inward. Dakre stumbled around for a second, before finding his bearings. He picked up his helmet, and put it back on his head. He walked up to the cockpit to see if the pilot was alright. When he entered the cockpit, the pilot was sitting in his chair, knocked out, with a tree branch impaled in his left shoulder. Dakre checked his pulse, which thankfully was still there. He cut the tree branch off of the tree with his knife, and lifted the pilot out of his seat. he walked back through the crew compartment and to the rear ramp. He opened the rear ramp and set the pilot against one of the nearby fallen tree trunks. He reentered the downed pelican to find his squad, who were thankfully getting up. Though slightly dazed, they were fine. Dakre's side of the ship took most of the impact, so he was the worst off of the three, with a split visor and maybe a minor concussion. "That's one way to make an entrance." Jan said as he got up. He had taken his helmet off and was rubbing the back of his head. Applejack was roused by the sound of cracking wood. She sat up in her bed and looked out her window over the orchard, where she saw a huge cloud of dust surrounding the center of the orchard. "What in tarnation is going on out there?" she asked as she jumped out of bed. She trotted down the hall and woke up Big Macintosh. "Big Macintosh, wake up!" she whispered as she shook him, "Something's going on out in the orchard." The giant stallion slowly began to stir. After a minute, he rolled out of bed and stood on his hooves. "Ready to go, big brother?" AJ asked. "Eeyup." He replied. They walked downstairs and opened the front door. They were met by a panting Twilight, who had obviously ran all the way there from her library across town. "Uh, Twi? What are ya doing here?" Applejack asked her friend as she caught her breath. "Applejack, something landed in the orchard! I came to make sure you were all safe!" She said. "Oh, we were going to go see what that cloud of dust was, but ah guess that the thing that landed here caused that." Applejack said, "You want to come along Twi?" she asked. "Yes I would like to go. I want to see if I can learn anything from it. It came from space!" Twilight said, she seemed to brighten up as she imagined the educational possibilities of studying a space object. "Alright Twi, let's get going. We ain't gonna find anything standin' round here." Applejack said as she began walking into the orchard. Spike woke up after rolling out of his basket onto the hard floor. He stood up and rubbed the back of his head. "Ow! That hurt." Spike said as he stretched out his arms. He was about to go back to sleep when he saw a note for him on the table from Twilight.