//------------------------------// // Jericho Base Recovery // Story: Recovery ten // by Carmine Prophet //------------------------------// A message to the UNSC Office of Naval intelligence. Thank you very much for your recommendation and the new position. I will take your advice and recruit this “Reach”, I already have the perfect partner of him. A young recruit codenamed Onyx. He shows much promise in his field. He comes from a military family, his mother and brother being in the UNSC during the first encounter with the covenant. He showed great skill in his basic training and during his tour in the ODST’s and was offered a position in the Spartan-4 program. However we quickly swooped him up before he made that terrible decision. I think they would work quite well together. And will provide many positive results. Thank you very much, The Director of project freelancer mark two ============================================================== “Uuuuug!” “Hhuuuuuuuurrg!” “Almost got it!” Rainbow Dash and Spike grunted as they tried to open a door. However this ended when Onyx walking up shouldered his SMG and kicked the door in. when he entered he saw that they had reached the some kind of armory. Lining the walls were SMG’s, Plasma Pistols, Needlers, some old 2552 MA5C assault rifles, and the older model Battle Riffle the BR55. Then he saw IT a weapon from his days in the ODST’s in a rack he walked over and put his SMG on the magnetic strip on his left thigh. “Aaaaaaaa!” came an angelic voice from nowhere, as he held up the SMG And light seemed shined down from the sky thought he ten foot thick sealing and shined on the fire arm making it sparkle in the light somehow despite its mat black finish but the lights and the night sights did shine. He then looked to his right and saw that there were four M6 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle’s or Spartan Lasers. “Hello Beautiful.” “Hay what’s behind that door?” Pinkie asked as Onyx and the others turned and looked at the door that she was pointing at, it was marked Forerunner Research lab. “I don’t know. But stay tight and stay low. Pandora?” “Yes?” “Take the other SMG and lets go.” he ordered making a Hologram appear. They then continued into the underground facility after Pandora had hacked the door open. However unfortunately they failed to notice that the Facilities AI was watching. “Warning. Un cataloged Non-human Life forms Detected, Activating Defense Protocol Alpha.” The A.I said as it activated a silent alarm. With Reach. “Right. Clear.” “Growl.” “Excuse me Reach?” “Ya Cadence?” He asked turning towards his group of mares and lowering his weapon. “Well Twilight and I were wondering. If you are trying to find a new vehicle, why don’t you go where they are all stored?” the pink alicorn asked. “Well that would make more sense than just wandering around. Zeta bring up a 3-D image of the complex, mark our group and Onyx’s group.” He ordered making a large three-dimensional map appear in front of them. The group of five mares and two freelancers then gathered around the holographic display. “Alright we’re here.” Reach said pointing to a large purple triangle. “And Onyx and the others are here. Looks like they have found a Forerunner Research lab.” He continued pointing at a large grey triangle on the opposite side of the complex. “And here is the ONI ship yard. We are the closest to the ship yard and it looks like there’s still one here.” Reach commented before continuing through the hallways with his finger until he reached his group. “Ok it looks like we have to head through the motor pool. And through something called the… DRN Lab?” Reach said questioningly as they saw him looking at his hand where cadence had cleared some of the ash. “DRN?” they heard him whisper to himself before they saw the red eye of his helmet shoot to the corridor they had just walked through followed by him quickly raising his assault rifle, and him going full soldier mode. “Growl?” “What is it Sir Reach?” Cadence asked consigned Reach raised his hand in a fist silencing the mares that were trying to ask him questions. He swiped his hand in a panning motion from Maine to the corner and received a nod in return, prompting him to move to the right of the hallway. And Reach teleported to the left and ordered the mares to get agenized the wall behind Maine. “What do you think is going on Princess?” Twilight whispered “I don’t know Twilight?” The princess of the sun answered as they watched Reach rise three fingers and count down slowly and silently. “3…2…1.” Reach reached to his belt and took out a cylinder pulled a pin and tossed it around the corner without looking, and after a very bright flash of light and sparks both he and Maine rounded the corner but found nothing? “What the hell?” reach commented as his mono-eye scanned the area not finding any thing he turned around and walked back the way they came signaling them to follow. (With Onyx) Onyx and his ensemble walked the empty halls of the forerunner facility. The dim lights making him activate his flashlight. “So what are we lookin’ for again?” Applejack asked. “We’re looking for a control terminal.” Onyx replied. “A control what?” “A giant slab of metal with a shit-ton of buttons on it.” Onyx said, rolling his eyes. “It’s kinda spooky in here.” Spike said, walking alongside Onyx. “Don’t worry Spike, this place hasn’t been active for a LONG time.” The freelancer reassured the young dragon. Onyx took a turn into a room, finding his objective. He walked over to the massive control panel and called upon Pandora. “You know what to do.” Onyx said to his trust AI. She gave him a nod and got to work. Within a few seconds the lights flipped on. “I didn’t do that.” Pandora said to Onyx. He shrugged it off, leaning back against a wall. About a half an hour passed. Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, and Onyx where playing Go Fish, Fluttershy was Chasing Pinkie through the corridors of the building, and Spike was standing in the middle of the room, jumping at ever sound. He shuffled over to Onyx. “Are you sure this place isn’t active?” “Yes Spike, just rela…” Onyx was cut off by the sound of metal on metal out in the corridor. He pulled out his SMG and inched his way towards the door. The metal clanking grew louder until the source of the noise was just outside the door. He turned the corner only to meet face to face with Pinkie. He lowered the gun and let out a sigh of relief. Pinkie let out a giggle with a cute little snort, “What are you doing silly?” “I thought I heard some big machine.” Onyx face palmed. “Oh that wasn’t me, that was him.” Pinkie said, stepping aside. Behind her was a promethean dog. Onyx grabbed Pinkie and swung her around, encapsulating her in a protective ball just as the machine opened its faceplates and fired a scatter bolt shot into Onyx’s back. Most of the shots were absorbed by his energy shield although a few slipped through, causing minimal damage. Onyx spun and unloaded a clip from is SMG into the dog, Pinkie still in his arms. Smoke still rose from the barrel as he slipped another mag in. He and Pinkie walked back into the control room, finding the rest of the group huddled in to corner. The guns of two promethean knights trained on the scared little ponies (and dragon). To loud thumps came from behind Onyx as two more knights drop from an unknown vantage point. The knights pushed Pinkie and Onyx to the corner with the rest of the group. Three brandished their arm sword and raised them over their heads, while the three one just stood there. Then the fourth turned on its brethren, vaporizing two with a collateral shot from a Binary Rifle and finishing the third with a thrush of its sword. The faceplate opened, reveling a brilliant pink glow instead of the standard red. The light down out and the machine toppled, and behind it stood Pandora. Onyx gave her a congratulatory nod and she stepped back over to the control panel. Before they group could recover from the traumatic experience the sound of more promethean knights approaching sent Onyx into defense mode. He used his grenade launcher to fire a shot into the hallway. Just enough so that he could still see the shell. Holding down the trigger, he waited for a knight to step into view. He released the trigger, causing the shell to explode and sending the Promethean’s corpse into the adjacent wall. “Find a way to stop these things!” Onyx shouted, firing another grenade down the hall. “I’m working on it!” Pandora replied. A knight stepped around the corner and fired its light rifle, narrowly missing the freelancer and striking the wall next to Rainbow Dash. “Everyone behind the control panel!” He commanded, one-handing the Silenced SMG firing at it and gesturing to the panel for them to get behind. Everyone quickly complied without complaint. Onyx continued to hold of the promethean onslaught for a few moments, nearly wasting all of his ammo. Finally, without warning, the assault stopped and all the machines casually slumped over into nothing more than a pile of scrap electronics. Onyx ran over and air hugged his AI. The celebration was once again cut short by the sound of hydraulics. The control panel lowered into the flood, as did the wall behind it, revealing a large rotunda. Fluttershy sat in the middle of the room, clutching her head in her arms. Two knights were on either side of her. She looked up at the group and then at her would-be assaulters. As the pushed herself to her feet the floor began to rumble and split apart. Frozen by fear once again, Fluttershy locked up and fell into the ever growing chasm. The split formed a perfect circle, and from that circle rose a thirty foot tall promethean mech, with Fluttershy clutching desperately onto the beast head. The thing let out a furious metallic roar that shock the entire facility. Onyx aimed his grenade launcher at the mech, but had his aim botched by Rainbow Dash, sending the shell off to the right to connect with nothing but the wall. “You idiot, you could have hit Fluttershy!” She said, slugging him in the exposed part of his arm. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK!” Onyx shouted. The ponies recoiled at the anger and foul language, they watched as he made a hologram and Pandora pulled up one of the Spartan lasers they had found in the armory, they saw her charge the weapon as the targeting laser painted the target’s leg and after the charge a giant red beam fired from the end of the weapon. The shot hit and made the forerunner Mech stumble back a little not all tough but enough for Fluttershy to be knocked off and bought enough time for her to make it to the others. “Alright, everyone fall back. I’m going to call Reach and try to stall this thing until he gets here.” The ODST freelancer said as he led them to the surface with Pandora in the back providing suppressing fire. With Reach and his team 14 minutes prior “What is that?” they heard and when they turned they saw twilight drooling in front of a giant 29 foot mech it was indeed a technical marvel and it was just sitting now. “That? That’s HRUNTING Mark II [D] Exoskeleton or a Silver Back. The baddest ass of all bad ass of all covenant ass kicking technology. It’s a shame they preferred the mantis over this...” He said proudly “Growl?” “Yes I know it’s not silver.” “Growl.” “I don’t know why they call it a silver back, at least it’s not called a Puma!” “What like the horseshoe company?” Twilight asked. “What!!? You seriously have a shoe company called puma.” “Well they went out of business a while ago but ya we did.” Twilight answered “Why would your kind make something this dreadful?” Rarity asked “Um hello thirty year war agenized genocidal aliens.” He responded “Hiss, Growl?” “Fully automatic arm mounted .21 caliber heavy chain rail gun, the thing works through using a series of electromagnetic coils other rather than chemical propellants, as a source of kinetic energy, and is very similar to the M68 Gauss Cannon. Due to the high force imparted on the rounds the rounds create shockwaves as they passes through the target. In the case of material targets, this is a minor explosion, allowing them to tare through polycrete pylons like tissue paper. And in the case of um… ‘soft targets’, it rips apart and pulverizes the body around the impact area.” He said giddy as a schoolgirl. And despite the destructive nature of the machine in front of her twilight looked like she would orgasm right there just at the thought of studying the thing. “Why would…” Was all Celestia got out before he continued. “And it fires them at a rate of 6000 rounds per a minute with a muzzle velocity of 15,000 meters per second or 33,554 miles per hour. And a SAM battery installed on the other arm.” Reach finished “Growl?” “I wish we could. But only a synthetic or two trained people can use it.” Reach said solemnly “The things a mean machine it’s a damn shame to watcher her sit here and rust.” He continued patting it on the leg “You act like you have seen it before?” chrysalis said “I have, once.” Reach said as they walked away from the machine towards the DRN lab. “When?” the princess of the sun asked. “During the battle for earth. When the covenant invaded.” “Whatever could have happened?” rarity asked “We won.” He said flatly shocking them all, as they walked on the mares spared one last look at the machine behind them. 14 minutes later We find Reach punching in a code into a wall terminal and the door to the DRN Lab opened up the room glowed blue light inside. “Reach! Come in Reach!” they heard onyx yell over the radio over explosions and silenced SMG fire. “Onyx what’s your status!?” Reach asked as they gathered around. “We’ve been engaged! Requesting assistance on the surface!” onyx yelled as they heard a Spartan laser go off. “What has engaged you?” Reach asked. “Promethean mech! And a few knights but there numbers keep growing!” “Fuck! Everybody get down! Requesting assistance.” then they heard a huge explosion. Turning to Maine both nodded. “Reach we have to go, our friends need us.” Twilight pleaded. “I know, Maine go with them take them topside and help Onyx.” Reach ordered but just then there was a flash of blue light revealing promethean knight that stabbed Reach through the back with its arm sword narrowly missing his jetpack, and lifted him in the air. “Reach!” The Knight was about to finish him off when it was hit with a cobalt energy bubble knocking it to the ground. And dislodging the sword from Reaches chest making him collapse on the floor. Cadence then ran to his side as he got to his feet despite the hole in his chest. He didn’t respond just nodded then tackled her to the ground to avoid a light riffle shot. “Reach your hurt!” she said as the red eye of his helmet shifted to her. “No shit what was your first clue.” Reach said “Cadence go with Maine. Everyone get out of here ill handle this.” He ordered more than said. As he and the knight stared each other down “But what about you? You can’t fight that thing by alone, your injured. I won’t let my first friend throw his light away!” Chrysalis said as they watched him take out his assault rifle. He then ran towards the knight, light riffle shots flaring his armor’s energy shields and melting the parts of the wall they hit. They watched as he jumped and smashed the butt of his riffle into its head making it whirl around and try to cut him In half with its arm sword, but reach spun around behind it and grabbed its arm and stabbed it through the wall he looked up to them as they were still watching. “This could be the only chance I get to learn who I am! GO!” he yelled “Growl, grunt.” They heard from Maine and followed Maine as he turned and left with them close behind. When they ran they looked back and saw that the knight had dislodged its arm and kicked Reach making his assault Rifle and Needle Rifle go skidding across the floor, and making him crash back first into the mettle wall denting it. They saw Reach defiantly get back up and unsheathed his knife. “Let’s go tin man.” With Onyx 15 minutes later Onyx fired another grenade at the Promethean mech doing nothing to the advanced machine. He then had to jump back and duel weald his two SMG’s to take down a knight that had gotten two close. “What are we gonna do Onyx?” Pinkie and Apple jack asked in unison. “Stay down! So far that thing is having trouble sighting us through the pelican’s armor. But I don’t know for how long. Let’s hope they get here fast.” He responded as he popped back up and fired his silenced at three crawlers, he supposed the only good thing was that these knights didn’t seem to have watchers thank god. “Heat out!” He yelled as he took out a thermite grenade at two knights armed with incineration canons turning them to molten slag and electronic scrap. He was low on ammo and grenades and the Prometheans knew it and to add insult to injury nothing seemed to scratch that thing’s armor! If there was ever a time that he regretted his choice of weapon it was now, we needed more explosives. Boom Boom Boom Boom. Onyx and his group looked up to see four glowing streaks hit the mech in the head gaining its attention. They all turned to see Maine leading the charge of Reaches team, he gestured for them to get to the crashed pelican as he fired his bruteshot into a Knights face bowing it up. He then went over and ripped a Crawler in half. He looked over to a small building and found what he was looking for, ran over to it and made his way over to the others. “Is everypony ok?” Twilight asked as she and the rest of the ponies embraced each other in a hug. “Fluttershy look out!” Onyx yelled when they turned they saw two knight paladins about to blast her with scattershot, so she closed her eyes and looked away and wanted for the pain but it never came. Crash! They looked up and saw Maine crash a warthog into one of them and jump out and land on the other crushing it under his weight. He then looked down at her and let out a low guttural moan. Hearing this Fluttershy opened her eyes and saw the large Freelancer standing over her the light from the sunrise reflecting from his visor. He extended a hand and helped her up. “Thank you.” She said as she hugged him making him look down at her in surprise before nudging her off and pointed to the other ponies who were either shooting magical bolts of magic at the Prometheans or handing Onyx ammo. Maine nodded to her and patted her on the head and took a position on the line knelt and returned fire with his brute shot. “Twilight?” spike asked as he handed onyx a new magazine. “What is it spike?” the young princess responded as she narrowly avoided a binary riffle shot. “Fuck sniper get down! Reach get on that warthogs turret and take it out!” Onyx yelled. He was actually surprised that these ponies could fight or help in any way even though it was still him and Maine doing most of the work. “Reach! Where is reach!?” he yelled as he saw Apple jack jump on the turret and scrap the sniper. “We got attacked inside when we got your transmission so he stayed to buy us some time.” Celestia said solemnly. “How could he!?” Rarity asked distraught “If that’s true then where are cadence and Chrysalis!?” Onyx yelled as he thrust his un-silenced SMG into Spikes hands and gestured for him to get on the line. “What!?” they yelled With Reach The Beta-5 Merc had finally found his opening and cut the arm off of the knight and stabbed it with its own sword. But just as he was about to turn to the door crawlers came up and were about to attack him before a storm of green and blue magic destroying them. When he turned around he was expecting another human or something, not Cadence and Chrysalis holding his weapons that he had dropped. “What are you doing here? It told you to go.” he asked “We don’t take orders form you Reach.” Chrysalis said handing his assault rifle to him with Cadence doing the same with his Needle Riffle. He took it and attached it to his back and walked up to the open door of the DRN lab. “Well I guess I should say thank you.” He said as he took off his helmet. “So thank you both.” This made them blush for some reason. “Alright let’s find out what’s in here.” He said as he walked into the room followed by the two royal mares. As he walked in there was a huge contrast with the rest of the complex it was spotless clean. As he walked threw two poles they flashed blue and a robotic voice came on. “Welcome Freelancer agent Reach. Agent Reach you are damaged?” A voice said. “Who’s there!?” Cadence demanded. “Relax.” Reach said as he walked to a computer motioning for them to follow him. “What are you doing?” chrysalis asked “Getting accessing this bases data files. What’s this?” Reach found. As he found a file titled the fall of the UNSC so he saved it and moved on. “Agent Reach you are damaged.” The voice said again. “Why do you keep saying that?” the freelancer asked. “Because you are in need of repairs. DRN4.” It responded “Wait what did you say?” reach asked standing up. “Agent Reach you appear to have taking damage to have taken head damage, thus deactivating your functions. Pleas step into the repair chamber.” The voice said before a cylinder on the wall opened up. “Wait? What are you saying?” Chrysalis said confused “I am saying Agent Reach is a Series 4 DRN Android. The original DRN android model was developed for the Police Department to assist the Human officers in performing their duties in the year 2048. Your series however utilized the endoskeleton of the T-888 series terminator. However we were unable to successfully program out there base programing from skynet. And as a result some would go on genocidele killing sprees. Resulting in the DRN4 recall and deactivation, But as it turned out they were actually quite effective againzed the Covanent.” It responded “No I’m human! I have emotions. Memories.” “Correct. Your memories are a result of collected data and given perspective to ad relevance and as for your emotions your series’ The DRN’s operating system was designed to emulate human emotion. This system is commonly referred to as Synthetic Soul. The models are highly intuitive and resourceful, with the ability to learn from observation and operate from a course of 'free will'. Also externally, the DRN model is an anatomically correct human male, complete with genitalia. And in your models case a synthetic DNA reverse engineered from Forerunner technology.” it said nullifying his argument. “As it stands the DRN four series is the closest thing to a true cyborg in existence do to there existing Hyper-alloy endoskeletons. They were decommissioned in 2459 for production cost, and their ability to delete and rewrite there programing. However since the reverence protocol was instated all synthetics have been brought back online, Models like yourself for example. However like before five DRN4 models rewrote there programing and went on their own. You Agent reach DRN4- 71828-39917 are one of those that did so.” The voice concluded. “Zeta is what it is saying true?” “Yes. Agent Reach I have not told you this because of the directors orders after the operation with Spartan Palmer.” The now Gold and blue AI said appearing next to him. “And what do you girls think?” “You’re still the same guy we care about this doesn’t change anything just makes you more interesting.” Chrysalis said with a seductive smirk. “REACH! We need those two up here NOW! Promethean reinforcements have arrived and that Mech has us pinned down.” a voice said over Reaches radio. He looked to his AI and nodded. The two Royals looked at him angrily. “Reach don’t you…!” was all they got out before they were teleported to Onyx’s location. “Reach they are here but they are pissed. Holy shit! Chrysalis just vaporized a Knight!” Onyx yelled. “Onyx hold them off as long as you can.” Reach said over his radio “Got it. Everyone we need to buy reach more time. Everything you’ve got!” “Ok. Let’s do this.” Reach said as he walked into the chamber, it removed his armor and magnetic arms came down and began their work. “Computer what is the status and class of the ship in the hanger bay?” reach asked as an arm took off his chest. “It is an ONI experimental Marathon 2 class super-heavy cruiser." (Marathon 1 class heavy cruiser.) "At nine thousand-nine, hundred-fifty feet long, and Nine hundred feet in width, and a height of eight hundred fifty feet, it is the second largest ship in the UNSC Fleet. It is fitted with chip that allows it to fly itself better than any Smart AI. It is fitted with a full complement of both Android and non-android synthetics. 15 feet of titanium A3 armor, three thousand ARGUS drones, seventy Long sword interceptors, fourty five short sword stealth fighter bombers, twenty broadsword fighters, one hundred and one hundred A.G.R 2 support and attack drones, Three Mammoth ground vehicles, and two heavy magnetic accelerator cannons, with the Main gun being a Super-Heavy MAC.” The voice paused as it took part of his head off and began repairing his cranial damage. "What am i gonna do with this? How does this not win a war? Its just uncalled for!" Reach pleaded only to find out it wasnt done yet “Over one thousand HEV pods, one hundred scorpions, 200 hornets, 100 falcon attack craft, 200 pelicans of mixed types, one hundred AC-220 Vulture gunships, Advanced shielding, 100 YSS-1000 Saber star fighters, five hundred F99 Osprey Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle or wombats, seventy five 70mm Point Defense Turrets, ninety over sized M42 Archer Missile pods, six Grendel anti-ship turrets they are essentially turrets with two giant Spartan lasers attached to a swivel mount, and twenty Shiva-class Nuclear Missile’s, thirty Fenris Nuclear Warheads, and the most powerful weapon in the UNSC arsenal nine NOVA class bombs. As well as a full stock of UNSC vehicles and a small complement of covenant vehicles, a fully stocked armory with weapons up to 2815.” the computer finished "Uncalled for. just uncalled for. My tax payer dollars at work." Reach said “Why is this ship such a power house it seems like it could have really made a difference?” Reach asked as his coolant was replaced unfortunately the noise didn’t allow him to hear that is recovery beacon had been activated when his chest was removed. “It was designed to buy time for earth in the war, with hopes that they would find a way to win but with the death of the master chief early in the war we didn’t stand a chance. But it happened too late.” The voice said as it finished its work and he was re-booted before the door opened and his internal HUD came online. If you were to look you would see blue, red, yellow, and white lines go traverse the right side of his face as his databanks were updated. “Wait how long was the war when did it start?” reach asked as he walked towards the closed door of the DRN lab with his helmet strapped to his belt. “The war started in 2567 and ended in 2830.” The voice said “Send ten MX’s to help them out topside uploading IFF’s, and activate take off procedures for the ship.” Reach said as he walked off but not before seeing a small glass looking it was about one foot in height and two feet in length box with small cylinders in it about an inch and half each in height. He reached over and picked up the box by the handle and walked over. With onyx “Dash get down!” Onyx yelled as he dove on top of her as a crate exploded absorbing the blast with his shields so she wouldn’t get hurt. “Onyx…” the cyan mare began before he turned around and returned to firing his weapon. “Beep! Beep! Beep!” “Fuck that’s Reaches recovery beacon!” Onyx yelled as he reloaded his second to last magazine. “Reach is hurt?” Rarity asked “Onyx I am getting nothing from Reaches vital signs.” Pandora said appearing next to him. “Are you saying…?” Cadence choked out tearing up for some reason. “Fuck! I’m jammed!” Onyx yelled as he tried to unjam the spent cartridge. “Growl!” they looked over to Maine who appeared to be out of ammunition for both of his weapons “I can’t… too… tired.” They heard and they then looked over to see Celestia, chrysalis and Twilight were too tired to fight any more. “aah horse apples!” they could only guess at what had happened and looking up there assumption was correct the turret of the Hog had ran out of ammunition so the farm mare jumped down and took cover with them. “Princess I’m scared.” Twilight said hugging her mentor. “I’m scared to twilight. What will Equestria do without us? And to think it is Hearts and hooves day.” she said just then a Promethean knight teleported on top of the wreckage they were hiding behind. “This is it. COME ON!” Onyx taunted as he pounded his chest with his palm and even the Meta let out a defiant roar as it aimed it incineration canon at the group. “Reach.” However just as there end was near a shot cracked through the air splitting the knight’s head in two making it disintegrate like all Prometheans when they die. Looking to the direction of the shots they saw ten figures approaching firing in short bursts with their weapons killing Prometheans left and right as they ran up to the wreckage they were hiding behind they noticed that most of them looked the same. They saw red lines appear on the side of their faces before they disappeared and they spoke. “Freelancer agent Onyx you are in need of assistance. We are here to assist.” One of them said. “Who are you?” twilight asked. “They’re old MX-43 combat androids. But why are they here?” Onyx asked. “We are here as per agent Reaches orders.” A dark skinned one said in the same voice as its lighter skinned counterparts. “Well fuck! Let’s do this!” Onyx said as he finished un-jamming his weapon and firing at the Prometheans. “Yes sir.” The MX’s said emotionlessly as they got on the line and began firing there weapons, one gave more rounds to Maine which he gladly accepted. To the peaceful equestrians the sheer tenacity of the humans to not give up like they had done was nothing short of inspirational, and with the arrival of these new soldiers they were beginning to see why. For a race with no magic or special powers at all they had achieved so much, come so far on their own with no outside help and faced imposable odds and had come out on top trough nothing but sheer willpower and ingenuity, they were truly a powerful race, there courage and audacity in the face of certain death. Their inability to use anything as a crutch just a tool to make things a little easier for them to do. Their unwillingness to go quietly into the knight. They watched as Onyx and Maine fought bravely to protect them even as there new troops were starting to be picked off they still fought picking up the slack from the fallen Synthetic. “I wish Reach…” Rarity started as a tear ran down her cheek before the ground began to shake casing the fighting for a second. Everybody looked up and saw a massive section of the mounting start opening up everyone even the Prometheans watched in amazement as the massive hole appeared and were shocked when a massive ship emerged from it. It was gun mettle grey and was armed to the teeth, it also had the letters UNSC. HARBINGER on the side along with the UNSC’s symbol. It just continued to fly into the air until it hovered above the mountains and stopped. Then it happened they get more shakings turning around and looking behind them Onyx and the others saw the ONI symbol on the base floor open up slowly the same way the Forerunner mech appeared opened up. The MX’s began returning fire on the Prometheans but the equestrians and the two freelancers aimed there weapons at the door and waited as it stopped. “What do you think is going to happen?” Twilight asked. “I don’t know twilight?” Onyx said bewildered. But then the Forerunner mech started firing on their position vaporizing two MXs. “Reach would know what to do.” Cadence said solemnly “Fuck everybody down! Return fire!” just as they were about to fire they heard what sounded like someone blowing a raspberry they immediately looked to Pinkie who just shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. Then they then saw about fifty knights be blown to shreds. They then saw two missiles streak over their heads and impact the Forerunner Mech. “Hay ugly!” they heard a voice say gaining the attention of the Forerunner Mech. To Onyx and Maine’s surprise and the amazement of everypony present they saw what appeared to a giant olive green machine behind them. “I’m gonna blow out your optics!” They all heard the voice say again. “Reach!” they then saw his machine step over them shaking the ground as it walked. “Come On you big silver bastard. You’re not the only bot with a mech.” Reach said. His onboard scans found a weakness in the enemy mech. “What? What is he talking about?” they asked onyx who only shrugged his shoulders as Reach stepped over them accidentally crushing an MX as he and the forerunner mech squared off. “You all get back. Ill handle this.” They heard Reach say. “Reach NO! It’s two dangerous! Not even auntie celestial and chrysalis combined could damage it!” Cadence shouted “Well I’m not them. I was made for this.” he stared before they saw the cylinder on its right arm in between two massive green blocks start spinning. The forerunner snapped its arm up to fire but wasn’t expecting Reach to fire first the storm of Gauss like bullets tore through its armor like nothing. When Reach brought up his SAM missiles and locked them on the target it dodged to the left making the missile miss and explode behind it destroying 50 knights. It then returned fire with a massive energy blast from its left arm. They thought that that would end it for sure but Reaches mech made a partially domed energy shield appear absorbing the blast. “What Power!” Twilight commented as they watched the fight. Everyone was watching the fight between the two giant war machines. The battle field was littered with parts of forerunner technology. “There is one thing I don’t understand though?” Celestia asked “What ever could it be princess?” Rarity asked “Do you remember what Agent Reach said to the Meta before we left the vehicle room? He said only a synthetic or two highly strained people could pilot it. And since the only other humans here are Onyx and Maine that must mean…” “That he is a synthetic!” Twilight finished however her sudden realization was drowned out by chain gun fire... “Hay I don’t much appreciate that term.” They heard Reach say as they saw him sever the forerunners arm with his machine heavy rail gun and fired two more SAM missiles at the enemy Mech. “We didn’t get the whole story so he will have to explain it.” Cadence said as an explosion rocked the area and when they popped up to see they were hit with a wave of heat from a large fire with smoke billowing up for miles. They were worried because they couldn’t see anything. When a gust of wind blew through and they saw in the center of the fire not looking at them was the Silver Back, the large war machine barely visible through the smoke and fire its lower torso illuminated as orange flames licked it Titanium A-3 armor plating. Its intimidating silhouette sending shivers of fear down all of their spines. “What the…?” Spike got out before there was a washing over their heads and they saw a new pelican drop ship fly down with a large Robot on its rear suspended somehow when it got close enough it dropped it next to their current position and land engines still activated as its rear door opened up. The Robot had no head no arms just two forward pointing gun placements where its arms would be, it had legs like a chicken except they were large and thick with what looked like large square blocks jutting out of the back of its legs possibly to counter balance. Its feat ended in three tows with two facing the left and right and one facing the front. On the sides of its flat core it had one glowing red eye slit it had the numbers ED 209-C, it then lumbered over to them and scanned them with a red beam. “No injuries detected. Please proceed to the Evacuation vehicle.” It said with an uncaring synthesized voice before turning around and lumbering over to the back of the pelican. “What was that about?” Rainbow dash asked obviously not caring for the large robot that was now secured to the back of the pelican. “Let’s move I’d rather not stick around here.” Onyx said flatly as he and lead the others to into the pelican followed by himself and the MXs. And they all appeared a look in the direction of the silver Back as and they saw a large Pelican like ship with no cargo bay fly down and pick up it up the same time they lifted off the ground. 15 minutes later “Where are we going mister?” Pinkie asked a nearby MX who just stood there motionless. “What’s with them?” a particular rainbow hared Pegasus asked as she snapped her fingers in front of a MX’s face that was standing stock still with its hands at its sides. “There in sleep mode.” Onyx said as he and Maine raised to their feet as they felt the small transport shift meaning that the pelican had just entered the artificial gravity well of a capital ship. They however didn’t get a chance to see out of the rear of the aircraft do to the closed rear hatch and the only slit of a window being a view of the back of the robot dangling from the magnetic clamps. “Pandora? Here are we going?” twilight asked. They felt the pelican touch down and the metallic clang of metal legs and landing gear gained the metal floor of a hanger bay they then watched as the rear door opened letting them out and when they emerged they were in shock at the sheer scale of the hanger even Celestia and chrysalis who were the largest there were nothing in comparison to the size of this place. They looked to a hanger entrance to see the Silver Back being brought in by the large armored construction pelican. “Please step aside.” An MX said as they moved allowing the Silver back to lower to the deck. And when the magnetic clamps released they watched as the flying as it flew over they saw it was called an albatross. They watched as the giant machine walked itself over to a station and magnetic clamps locked it down. They then were fascinated as it lowered as its arms dropped low and its back opened up revealing the freelancer they were all wandering about. He had his helmet off and had a clipped to his waist, his needle riffle was on his back but unfortunately his assault rifle had be bent and damaged by a stray bolt shot and was half melted so he unjust threw it out the bay door and to the ground below. But they saw he had a pistol of some kind on under his left arm in a holster of some kind. It was a modified M6 pistol with its laser right on the bottom of the barrel to allow for better aim. And the hand guard removed. It looked like a silver rectangle for a pistol. “Reach!” Rarity yelled as she practically sprinted up to him quickly followed by the others who thought he was dead. Rarity hugged him attempting to crush his nonexistent ribs. When she finally let go he saw she was crying however before he could say anything she slapped across the face. “Oow!” she yelled out grasping her now slightly bruised hand before looking back up at him. “That was uncalled for rarity.” Reach said they then watched a series of blue lines go from the corners and around his right eye to the back of his cheek they watched fascinated as it pulsed for a second before disappearing. “Rarity. Your heart rate is elevated, and body temperature has dropped to 99.2 degrease indicating a nervous break…” he was cut off when she reached up and pulled him to herself as making him almost drop the case he was carrying, as his mouth met her muzzle. “DRN the Harbinger is ready to be under weigh.” An MX said walking up and ruining the moment. “Any way!?” Onyx asked pushing Reach “What the Fuck man!” The synthetic freelancer said “You never told me you were a synthetic! Give me one reason I shouldn’t kill you right now for keeping secrets!” Onyx yelled pointing his Silenced SMG at his partners head earning screams of protest form the others. “No please!” “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t blow your head off right now!” “Because he is your friend!” Twilight yelled. “Friends don’t keep secrets.” “Because I love him!” a certain white mare pleaded not seeing that Chrysalis and Cadence both also did so. “We do to!” “I don’t give a shit.” “Reach this isn’t you! It isn’t nice!” Pinkie pleaded her Maine having deflated “You obviously don’t know us.” That well. “Ill kick your butt.” Dash answered “You can try.” “I’ve got a reason.” Reach said earning their attention. “What.” Onyx said. “Well actually I have forty three reasons.” Reach said getting questioning looks from them all before they heard a like a chorus. “Surrender your Weapon.” “Surrender, your, Weapon.” They all looked around to see that the nearby MX’s were pointing there riffles at the crimson armored freelancer, his armor covered in green laser sights. All of them still saying surrender your weapon. “You think that…” “Surrender your weapon you have 30 seconds to comply” they heard and when they turned around they saw that the ED-209-C that was on their pelican had lumbered over and was now pointing its weapons at Onyx. “NOPE! I surrender! Naa, no, no sir, no I’m done.” he yelled franticly before dropping his smg to the ground and throwing his hands into the air. “Are you going to listen?” Reach asked “Yes.” Onyx answered. “Good now let’s go pick up your weapon and follow me to the bridge we are about to take off. Ill explained on the way.” They looked at each other and eagerly followed listening intently to Reaches explanation. (Thirty minutes Later) They walked around a corner as Reach finished his explanation and the ponies marveled at the complexity of the Bridge. Not that they weren’t already dumbfounded by the rest of the ship. Absolutely no magic used by the ship it went agenized everything they knew about technology. “Alright ladies and spike pleas take your seats and get ready to exit the atmosphere. And you’re in for a treat this bridge is also the one of the observation decks.” Reach said as he pressed a button on his wrist. They marveled at the sight as the ship angled itself skyward and began to fly off into the sky. They marveled at the sight the concept that something this large could even move let alone move. They watched as the sky became darker and darker until it was nothing but Black and stares. They marveled at the beautiful sight they could barely see in the pelican but this was marvelous they all could see everything. “It’s beautiful.” Chrysalis said looking out into the stars. “Hay chrysalis look.” Cadence whispered to the changeling queen not knowing that the others from Sidewinder had heard her. As the ship reached a geosynchronous orbit. “What?” She asked before looking out where Cadence was pointing and they saw Reach standing on a glass looking floor. They saw that the Android was being illuminated with a beautiful blue light form the planet’s atmosphere. The three mares that were attracted to him watched with slight blushes all imagining different things. But then they saw him pick up a clear box with small cylinders in them. They saw him hold it in both hands and bring it to his forehead as he closed it reminded them all that even though he wasn’t organic he was still a person with feelings. “Um Reach what’s that?” Cadence asked carefully trying to not make him more upset him further gesturing to the object in reaches hand. “These?” Reach said holding up the case. “Here hold this would you please?” he asked Celestia who took it as he walked up and handed it to her. “Thank you.” Reach said doing a scan of the sun alicorn his HUD sensing a 0.14 rise in pheromone output usually given off when attraction is present. “Now then gather around. This…” He said opening the box and tacking one of the cylinders in his index finger and thumb. He then held it up for them all to see even Onyx and Maine wanted to know. He leaned on a holo display on the threshold between the observation section and the bridge section. “This is the crucial part, the most precious thing to us androids with free-will.” Reach said pausing to acknowledge an audio log that had been uploaded from the bases computer to the ship. “What is it? Something that small can’t be that important?” Twilight. “Something that all DRN units are built with. These are what makes me, me. They are synthetic souls.” Reach said he said this is what separates us form other synthetics like MX’s or ED-209’s. Reach then “I’m all that’s left, every DRN has been destroyed. These are there souls. Darious, Franklen, Wash, Cooper, Johnson, Davis, Dorian. They’re all here” Reach said solemnly “Dorian he was the only DRN activate in 2048 after the recall in 2044. He was a Series 1 a legend.” “You talk about him the same way twilight talks about the princess.” Rainbow Dash said “Because he was the one who woke me up he gave me a purpose, a reason to live. Without him I would be nothing just another nameless android and another casualty.” Reach said before holding up the synthetic soul in his hand. Its glowing core had long since died been deactivated. “Is that who’s that is?” chrysalis asked putting a hand on his shoulder as he leaned there steering at it. “It… was its dead … it’s been active for two long with no power source. Now it’s just a shell.” He said about to drop it before a pink hand stopped him. Looking up he saw that Cadence had come over. “It’s not just a shell. It’s a peace of the stallion who changed your life.” She said with a kind smile. He then saw the small glasslike cylinder section of it flash blue for 1.23 seconds before going dead again. “I just wish I could talk to him again.” Reach said before it was taking in a flash of blue light and there it was again in a small glass cylinder the same color’s as the synthetic soul. With a pink string coming from the top. The clear hard plastic portion of the Synthetic soul where it should have been glowing a dull peaceful blue thanks to the fibers in side was now a clear blue crystal allowing you to see inside of it and inside was the original synthetic soul. The rest of it was a greyish metal or maybe crystal he couldn’t tell it wasn’t in his databanks. He looked at it and held it up. “Cadence how?” “I’m not the princess of the crystal empire for nothing.” She said. "I dont know what to say?" “I believe the word you are looking for is thank you.” They all heard a voice say and when they looked over they saw a hologram appear the image was of a milk chocolate skinned man with black hair. He had on a dark blue coat with its color pulled up, with black pants and a grey shirt, with black boots on. “Dorian?" "What are you doing here? Your dead?” “You’re right but I was put into this ship as its operating system. Unlike AI units I have no operational time man.” “Alright talk to you later Dorian.” Reach said putting the pendant on and followed by his helmet as the hologram diapered he then hit a button on a console and a man appeared on a glass Paine in the middle of the room they all gathered around. “The year is 2830 UNSC calendar. This is colonel Jack Fillmore UNSC High command. Earth has come under attack from multiple fronts, the Arachnids a race of insectoid gigantic alien bugs, our ancient enemy the flood, and a new race called the protheans. Our synthetics are all but gone, our fleets have been destroyed, and the Elites have fallen back to our home world. Humanity and our allies will survive but they will have to rebuild… together. I activate this Distress beacon in hopes that there are still at least some UNSC remnants left. Please understand that Earth… Earth is all we have left, and so I am going to activate a controlled burst of our greatest weapon agenized our enemies… HALO”