//------------------------------// // Chapter one: Lone wolf. // Story: Halo: old conflicts, new locations. // by acmincorporated //------------------------------// Date: August 30, 2552. Time: 2000 Hours. I stood on the radio platform, looking over the battlefield, dead spartans, marines and covenant littered the ground. what happened here I thought to myself as I walked to the edge of the platform. Suddenly a loud roaring filled the air, I looked up and saw two banshees and a phantom flying overhead, the phantom moving to drop troops. I sprinted down off the platform and made my way over to the dead bodies to scavenge weapons and ammo. This is gonna be a long day. I thought, dodging a few shots from the phantom. Date: August 30, 2552. Time: 2040 Hours. I looked around me, I was under the protective cover of a bubble shield, dead covenant soldiers littered the ground around it, the visor of my helmet had to big cracks in it rendering my H.U.D useless, I ran out of ammo for my DMR, I had five mags for the pistol, and three for the assault rifle, and the shield was about to break. Covenant soldiers surrounded the shield as it started to flicker, they pointed their plasma weapons at me, waiting for the shield to give out. I raised my assault rifle ready to begin round two. The flashed a bright blue and then collapsed in on itself, the covenant wasted no time in firing at my location, I quickly dropped to the ground, letting the plasma shot fly harmlessly over me. Most of the plasma impacted with the covenant on the opposite side of their circle. Killing most of the enemy forces, I managed to kill another ten or so grunts and jackals with my assault rifle before I had to take cover behind a large rock. I pushed the mag release button and pulled the empty magazine out of the gun and pulled a fresh mag from my chest rig attached to my armor. I slapped the new mag home as an elite officer jumped over the rock, swinging his energy sword, I dived out of the way dropping my assault rifle a few feet in front of me. I reached up and took off my helmet, letting it fall to the ground, an elite ultra charged at me, firing a plasmarifle. I quickly reached over and picked up my assault rifle and walked toward him, firing on him until he went down, the officer tried to skew me from behind, I turned right and slammed him to the ground, finishing him off with two shots from my pistol. I quickly re-holstered my pistol and raised my assault rifle at the incoming elites, the plasma bolts from their weapons splashed over my armor, I reached over with my left hand and drew my pistol, as I hip fired my assault rifle at one elite, I fired my pistol at two more, killing one of them. The other tackled me to the ground, drawing an energy sword to deliver the final blow, I kicked it in the gut, knocking it backwards as an elite zealot came over to slice me with its energy sword, I punched it in the jaw as the ultra came over and held me down, I punched it a couple times to try to get it off of me. I heard the familiar hiss of an energy dagger as the zealot came in for the final blow, I closed my eyes, tired from the non-stop fighting, I was finally gonna join the rest of noble in death. Date: Unknown. Time: Unknown. A few seconds later I opened my eyes to find myself in a marketplace of sorts, with fruit stands around a giant cobblestone plaza. I looked around and saw the elite ultra starting to get up as well, I grabbed the combat knife that was strapped to my chest and started to charge at the elite. He looked in my direction when he heard my charge and tried to ignite his energy dagger. I closed the distance and tackled him while he was trying to get his dagger to work. He threw a right hook trying to knock me off of him, i ducked out of the way as I brought my knife underneath his chin, I thrusted it up into his brain, his body convulsed a couple of times before going completely still. I removed my knife and wearily stood up, I looked around and saw a group of four legged aliens dressed in some form of metal armor running down the street towards me, they were armed with swords, spears and crossbows. I reached for my magnum, but found that it was missing, I checked around but the only weapon that I had was my 20 centimeter combat knife. I held it up in my right hand in a reverse grip, and got into a fighting stance as they surrounded me. One of them stepped forward, while the others had on golden armor, this one had purple armor, he must be their leader I thought as he started speaking. “By order of princess celestia I hereby place you under arrest, you will relinquish all weapons and follow us to the dungeon where you will be questioned.” I stared at the creature dumbfounded, did he really think I would just give up my weapons? “And what if I refuse?” I asked in a shaky voice, I had to get my wounds treated soon, otherwise I'll pass out from blood loss. “If you refuse we will use anything we deem necessary to subdue you.” He replied, locking eyes with me. We stood there staring each other down, I glanced at the other guards every now and then, some were standing brave, others were visibly shaking, I took notice that one with a crossbow was looking rather terrified, as he looked between me and the dead elite not fifty feet away. And that one guard was all it took to ignite a hellstrom of destruction in the market, he saw me looking at him and accidentally fired his crossbow, it bounced harmlessly off my armor plating, I lunged at the nearest guard, tackling him and providing non lethal cuts to his torso and limbs, I just wanted to put them out of commision not kill them. Two of them jumped at me, I dodged out from under one, the other one landing on me only to be thrown off into the one that missed, three down, nine to go. I charged at the leader of the group and tackled him, slicing up his right foreleg and the right side of his torso, easily cutting through the weak metal that made up their armor. He yelped in pain and threw me off, my knife flying out of my hand , I landed in a basket of apples, and the remaining seven guards, surrounded me. As I stood there waiting to see who would make the first move, I noticed for the first time that they were similar to earths horses and ponies, weird. “Surrender or be killed” One of them threatened as he held a spear to my throat, he was trying to sound intimidating but failed as his voice cracked with fear. I grabbed the end of the spear and flung the guard on the other end into two of his friends, Eight down four to go. i grabbed a spear from the ground and proceeded to stab one of them in the left foreleg just above the knee. Three left. I looked at the remaining three guards and they were huddled together with a look of panic and fear on their faces as the looked at me. I picked up two of the crossbows and shot two of the guards on the hind legs, causing them to fall over, screaming in pain. I grabbed my knife from where it sat on the ground and walked over to the last guard, he was sitting there staring blankly at nothing. Great, now who am I gonna question. I thought to myself, I heard a groaning from somewhere behind me. I turned and saw the leader was laying there, looking at the mess that I had made of the market, I walked over to him and crouched down next to him. “What is your name?” I asked him, holding my knife to his neck. “Shining armor” “Where am I?” I asked, looking at the damage I had caused. ”You are in canterlot, capital city of equestria.” He answered, this time suppressing a moan of pain. “you'll be fine buttercup.” I said looking at his wounds, passing the time until more guards showed up. “I made sure to keep any wounds I caused you or your men non-lethal.” “Why?” He asked with a groan of pain. “Because while I am built for war, I don't like killing if it's not necessary.” I answered. I could hear hooves pounding against the cobblestone as more guards came running through the streets. I stood up and watched as twice as many guards showed up and surrounded me. pointing their crossbows in my direction while they examined the damage done to the other guards. “I'm done fighting here, I don't want to kill any of you.” I yelled to the guards as they formed a circle around me.“I just want to have a peaceful conversation with your leader to figure out what needs to be done.” I yelled as some of the guards started to check on the wounded. “Then why did you attack the first squad sent to arrest you?” Yelled one of the guards angrily as he prepared his crossbow to fire. “one of the guards opened fire on me with his crossbow, and I retaliated.” I said in as calm a voice as possible. Another guard, one more in control of her emotions than her friend, started talking next. “If that's true, then you have nothing to be afraid of, just surrender your weapons and follow us to the castle and we'll see what we can do.” She said in a calm soothing voice. I gripped my knife tighter in me hand. causing some of the guards to be more on edge, I let out a sigh and loosened my grip on my knife, the guards seemed to relax when I did so. I quickly flipped my knife over, caught the tip of the blade and tossed it into a building right next to the female guard, causing most of the guards to freeze in place, while the others dove for cover. “Fine.” I said in an aggravated voice. “Have it your way, but if you double cross me, everyone in this city will be dead by the end of the week.” I said as the guards started coming out of their cover. They ushered me forwards, I took two steps before collapsing on the ground due to blood loss.