Cold. Dark. Damp. This is what the young girl could only think of to describe the life she had grown accustom to over the last couple of days on a UNSC frigate. They had just cut power to their section to save it for vital areas. The cargo bay once filled with tanks, ammunition, and other supplies was now dormant. The only signs of life that one could see would be the hundreds of bonfires made by refugees to keep warm. The Rimouski was one of the hundreds of ships that collided in combat over her now dormant home, and the signs of battle were easily seen. It was a struggle to repair the hull breaches in time for the last evacuation of the planet.
The child thought of nothing, staring blankly at the flames, illuminating her emotionless face and it’s features. Smooth yet frizzled auburn red hair stopping halfway down her neck. the girl had icy blue eyes, and had pale white skin, with two bloody bandages on both of her cheeks, beginning to peel off. The bonfire distracted her mind from the horrors that had taken place on the now glassed planet, but on that day, flames were all she saw.
The experience on the Rimouski was almost as horrid as the experience on the planet. Once she had gotten off of the pelican she saw hundreds of people, bruised, dirty, bloody. All horrified at what had just happened. Some still didn’t even believe what the events that had taken place. Once they had settled in she saw the wounded. The soldiers had the worst. The lights illuminated the entire area, and she hated it. Hundreds of people, lined up in rows. Their flesh burnt and rotting, some missing limbs, but one hurt her the most. A man in her town’s local militia, one of her father’s friends. He had these bright pink things lodged into his stomach, and they turned into tiny shards that sparkled as bright as the sun, if they hadn’t done what they did she would think they were pretty because they looked like glitter. They broke apart and stabbed into his stomach. He groaned and screamed from the pain, but it never got better. His cries for help were mixed in with the other injured, but his was heard above the others. The unique high pitched wail he had was something that stood out, and the girl never forgot. A few mornings later she stopped hearing the screams.
Then the power went out. The heating and the lights went out in the cargo bay. The soldiers said the generator was shorting out, and power was saved for the most vital areas. The people there were given anything burnable to use to burn for light and heat. The girl was happy the power went out, she couldn’t see the injured. The people did not care that much about the power though. They said there wouldn’t be anything to eat anymore. Every so often the soldiers would come in to tend to the wounded and hand out food. They had come less and less. The nearest planet was weeks away, and it seemed all hope was lost.
The girl’s clothing consisted of a tank top, cargo pants, socks going up to her knees, and tan work boots, all military issued, and all, very oversized. Her other garments were all shredded from the attack that had taken so many of the people she had once known. No pity was shown though, all of the unfortunate residents the Rimouski had lost friends, family, and lovers. The girl stifled a yawn, exhausted. It was time for bed, though she didn't know whether it was mid afternoon or midnight. Laying on a pile of empty trash bags, she rested. The true tragedy was that this was to be the girl’s last moment of tranquility she would ever have, and it wouldn’t last long.
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Awakening her eyes the spartan cracked her neck. Sleeping against the trunk of a tree was uncomfortable. Though something felt off, like a creeping thought in the back of her mind. It was the dream. The day her entire life was destroyed. What led to her joining the spartan program, led her to kill thousands and what inevitably lead to her death. closing her eyes and sighed, she shook the thought out of her head, it was Daring’s turn to rest. “Hey, it’s your turn.” six spoke aloud
“Huh? Oh, alright.” Daring said, snapping out of her trance “Ummm, just a half hour, got it?” Daring ordered, attempting to cover up her spacing out. Though she wouldn’t admit it Daring needed the catnap. It had been four days since the two had met, and they had few conversations, mostly relating to Equestria. Daring figured it best to steer away from the sun and the moon, it seemed to trigger something in the soldier, though her helmet hid any emotions. The only glimpse at what lay beneath it Daring saw was when she took it off, facing away. Six took a canteen and drank it, but that wasn’t the interesting part. She had hair! Well, Daring didn’t expect that all. It was dark red, and was kind of long. Enough to hide her face entirely, at least from the back.. Daring was still very curious about the creatures face. Putting her thoughts aside, she snuggled into her makeshift blanket and slipped into a blissful rest.
The rain was relentless, dripping through the foliage, forming thick puddles. The droplets fell onto the soldier’s helmet, dripping onto her narrow visor, clouding her vision. She didn’t bother wiping them off, only more would come. Six just looked straight ahead, leaning against a tree, looking at the endless sea of green the rain forest had become. It was filled with exotic animals and plants she had never seen before. Some even seemed to come straight out of a myth. It was a change of pace from where she had just came from.
Still, she hated it. It wasn’t her place. Part of her was happy though for getting out of the pure meat grinder that Reach had become, and she felt guilty for those thoughts. Another part of her knew she wasn’t going back anytime soon, and she had to adapt as she always had. What would she do when she got back to this civilization? What would the rational humans of the 26th century do with an alien with technology a few millennia ahead of their own? Then again, these aliens didn’t have ONI, otherwise known as the peacekeeping government organization that ironically enough also japanese language translates into demons, evils, ogres and trolls. Six thought it was an accurate description of the agency.
Six had pulled out one of the dog tags from one of the pockets on her waist, which had now seemed to be more of a cemetery. Jorge. Squeezing her eyes shut and sighing she had remembered the giant. Towering above her very small frame for a spartan at just six foot four, due to how young she was when the augmentation started. At seven foot four Jorge was not the tallest spartan, but still very heavy, and very strong. Ironically, the threatening and intimidating hulk was one of the kindest and worldly people she ever met, and the first to actually socialize with the enigma she had become out of all of Noble Team. She remembered his last words to her that fateful night. “Tell em’ to make it count”. She wished he never did what he did. Blowing up one ship out of a fleet of hundreds was a waste of life, even if it was the only covenant ship orbiting Reach at the time, not including the one they hijacked. At Least he thought he saved the planet he lived on for so long. None of the others were lucky enough to have such a fate.
Six slowly shook her head, heartbroken and thoughtlessly standing. This isn’t helping. Putting the dog tag back in it’s pouch, she woke up Daring Do, looking forward to the new day. She had to distract her mind from the memories. Six had an eery feeling it was the explorer’s turn for twenty questions today.
As the two walked neither of them talked. A fact Six seemed very contempt with. Unfortunately for her, Daring didn’t feel the same way. “So, what do you eat other than berries?” Daring asked, trying to spice up the hike somehow
The spartan decided to try to be a little in depth with her explanation to keep her mind from drifting. “Pretty much anything edible. Fruits, vegetables, mea-”
“Meat?”
“Yeah, where i came from we mostly ate fish. Really healthy.”
“Heh, I don’t really mind, since I practically live with meat eaters, but we don’t eat meat and some of the folks back home won’t really be comfortable with that. Does help you’re an omnivore though.” Daring honestly said.
“Tell me a bit about yourself.” Six asked to the surprise of Daring Do. Six honestly just wanted to have as little questions asked about herself as possible. It was getting very tedious, and the last thing Six wanted was old wounds reopened.
“Well where can I start. My father, well, was an interesting character. He was a famous writer. Not the novels, no. He made this new kinda thing called a comic book. It’s kinda like a kid’s book, with pictures and words together, but more of an adult thing I guess you could say. but anyway, he had an idea of this brave courageous explorer who stopped these evil ancient villains and guess what he named it? Daring Do Right. Yeah, very cheesy, and also I would never guess how I was named. But anyway, it was very, very popular back in his day, but the series only lasted like, five years I think. When my mom gave birth to me they were both about forty years old, and I guess out of cruelty that’s what he name me. Thankfully barely anyone remembered it by then, and i think i would changed my name if they hadn’t dropped the Right off of Daring Do.”
“Well that’s certainly a unique story.” Six said, unable to think of much else to say. Her explanation was very in depth. Six had never really thought the pony would have much to explain, and just about her dad and name alone. It wasn’t the most bizarre origin six had heard, but it dawned on the Spartan that these ponies weren't so different from humans. Still, Six was curious about one matter. “Why are you out here anyway? I don’t think someone would just look through ancient ruins for fun.”
“I’m in the Royal Guard.” Daring said, closing her eyes and putting on a sly grin as she walked.
“Ummm, and that is...” Six said, dumbfounded
“Oh, right, sorry. It’s a branch of Equestria’s military. The most prestigious one, if the name didn’t tell you that much. Only the best of the best can join their ranks.”
“Still, you wouldn’t be too far away from your unit if you were just a grunt.”
“I’m technically a scout, but that’s mostly because there isn’t really anyone else that does stuff like I do. Nowadays I explore certain areas by the princesses’ orders, which no one else does. It’s usually drawing a map of the terrain, but I was told to investigate some ruins like, three times now.” Daring was answering the alien’s questions as sincerely as possible, she needed her trust, especially the alien being a soldier. Those metal objects on it’s back were dangerous, but how?
“So how ‘bout you? What are you in your military?”
From that point Six’s brain race a mile a minute. “Assassin? No, too threatening. Guerilla? No, and she probably doesn’t know what it means. Spartan, no. Special operations. Yeah, that’ll work.” The soldier concluded in her mind. Six was fairly confident that Equestria didn’t have wars, partially from the frilly name, and special operations gave the right factor of intimidation but not too much, but also not saying the extent of how much she had killed. “Uhhh, special operations.”
“Oh, you’re a commando type of soldier? What type of missions you do?”
“Fuck.” Six thought mentally deadpanning. “What can I tell her? Pretty much any operation involves death somehow. There’s no way I can explain what I do without hinting that there’s ‘Bad guys’ and I’m not telling her or anyone about the Covenant. Changing the subject would work.” The two reached a fairly wide and deep river, indicating that there wasn’t anyway around it that wouldn’t delay them considerably. “So how are we crossing the river?” Six asked nonchalantly, though curious.
“We’ll just swim across. The current isn’t that bad, and i’m just gonna assume you can swim good. I haven’t seen a predator in here in awhile, and it was just a baby crocodile.” Daring stopped and looked at the river. She guessed it was around twenty feet deep at max. She was nervous though. She had been bit by a crocodile once, it let her go after she jabbed it in the eye, but she could only walk on three legs for the rest of the three week trip back. The one thing that especially concerned her though was she couldn’t fly with Six there. Daring was practically her guide, and Daring knowing the wildlife and terrain didn’t help anything.
“You have wings though. Couldn’t you just fly across?” Six observantly asked.
“This equipment isn’t light you know.” Daring said, gesturing a hoof at the twin saddlebags strapped to both her sides, covering her wings. “Not to mention I can’t fly with them on in the first place, they keep my wings from expanding. I won’t make you swim alone with my stuff either. Besides, the bags are waterproof.”
Six pondered that for a second. She could carry Daring’s bags with ease as she swam across, and her armor and shields would protect her from any crocodile undoubtedly. Then again, these crocs could be a lot deadlier than the ones she knew, cutting steel open like a tin can. No, If they were that bad Daring would have told her to just avoid the river or wait for a safer crossing, and Six hadn’t seen anything that would need such powerful jaws to kill. And honestly, the worst that would happen from a croc attack would be a flesh wound, which Six had the equipment to deal with, albeit in short supply in a tactical soft case on her left leg, and a medkit on the right. “Alright, i’ll go in first. I’ve got armour to protect me.” Six tapped her her outer thigh casing which produced a light thud. “But you don’t, if you feel something just shout.”
Daring was slightly annoyed. She had done this times before and even got bit in this very river. It wasn’t hard though to get free of a crocodile. A jab in the eye sent it reeling. The nose could also work, and if all else failed there was a flap in it’s mouth that kept water from getting in, if she could open that it would be a guarantee that it’d free her. Still, a simple “Alright.” sufficed for a response.
The two got into the water, and the river was surprisingly shallow save for the middle, and she began to swim. Six could walk until a bit before the deepest points. It was about thirty seconds till Six could walk on the bottom of the river again. Daring couldn’t say the same though. The current was surprisingly gentle, but the water was very murky, with weeds at the bottom, and six could have sworn she felt something nudge her thigh. Six’s knees were above the water and she waited for Daring, who lagged behind the superhuman expectantly. It hadn’t occurred to the soldier to slow her pace, especially since she had been operating with spartans for the last month or so.
Then she fell. A fully grown crocodile knocked the one ton soldier off her feet and ripped into her unarmoured inner thigh, yet it still wasn't enough to rip through her suit, though it had no trouble draining her shields.. Six took out her knife, knowing she would trap it in her grip and finish it off. It wasn’t until a a scream, well, a grunt awakened Six from her tunnel vision. the noise ripped into her brain. Daring was in trouble. Six sank to the bottom on purpose and jumped up to the croc's jaws and tried opening them. It was a strong beast, that was for sure. Six gave it alot of her strength to unpry Daring's leg, but eventually it backed off. Six had no time though, because the creature dragged Daring Do under.
Six had ran only to dive into the water meters later. The soldier saw Daring, jabbing the croc’s eye repeatedly until it gave way and scurried off into the river, knowing full well there was probably another creature on it’s way, maybe to even claim it’s kill. Daring couldn’t get to the surface. She had been bitten in her hind leg and the bags also weighed her down. Flailing her harness, she couldn’t get it undone. Her hooves struggling frantically to undo the binding. All of a sudden something gripped her sides and before she knew it she was gasping for air. Looking to her right she saw her rescuer.
Though Six wasn’t looking at her she wasn’t definitely thinking about her. Six was mentally panicking. Daring couldn’t die, she just couldn’t. The grizzled veteran let her instincts kick in seconds later, cutting off all emotion with her muscle memory. Dragging the patient to shore, Six instantly made a plan of action.
Daring on the other hand was attempting to even think. The pain had burned her along half her leg. Six poked and prodded, examining it, only to be awarded with a flinch and a grunt of pain. She needed the bio foam, and it wasn’t going to be pretty.
“Daring.” Six said, attempting to distract her companion from the pain, though it wasn’t received. “Daring!”
“Wha-ow!” Daring yelped loudly as six did a final look at her wound.
“I know your in alot of pain right now, but see this?” Six poked the small can. “It’s gonna make you feel alot better. But first, it’s gonna hurt. Alot.”
“Do it.” Daring struggled to respond through gritted teeth. She closed her eyes, feeling Six’s hand grip her hind leg. Tssssssss! For the first seconds, Daring felt a tingling sensation run through her leg, almost as if a bunch of bugs were crawling through her skin, until a blinding pain hit her. Screaming she wrapped her left hoof around her eyes, pounding the ground with her other hoof. It felt like those bugs she imagined in her leg before dug into her leg and bit, all at the same time. Though the pain passed very soon after. Her appendage was now numb, and felt very cold. It was as if the unbearable agony she had just experienced never happened. She still couldn’t walk, And Six bandaged the wound.
Gazing about she spotted a body in the water with blood surrounding it, was it another crocodile? The one that attacked six seconds before she was dragged under. It’s head was completely caved in, like someone stuck some excavation explosives inside of it. Did Six do that?
“Daring, we gotta go.” Six bluntly said.
“We’re still a good two days away from anywhere.” Daring replied.
“Yeah, but this bio foam only lasts about sixteen hours or so. All I have is first aid medicine. and I don’t have much to keep you going.”
“We could double time it, but I can’t with my leg like this. Even with the painkiller it hurts if i move my leg.”
“Well I’ll carry you. We don’t have a choice.”
“No. I’ll walk. I do have three more legs to use after all.”
Sighing, Six rolled her eyes. She dealt with her type many times. The spartan remembered, putting a wry face at Emile’s hate for bio foam, doctors, medics, or anything related to the field of medicine seemingly as much as he hated the covenant. “Alright, but we aren't stopping for rest then.” Six stated, walking on at her normal pace. “You coming or what?”
Grumbling, Daring regretted what she said, she limped onwards. “By the way, what do you do again?”
“I’ll tell you when you let me carry you.” Six walked on, unable to resist smirking.