//------------------------------//
// Chapter 01 
// Story: Second Contact 
// by SpartanD014 
//------------------------------//

CHAPTER 1


UNSC FFG-818 “LIGHTNING”
MAY 21ST, 2556
DESTINATION: DEEP SPACE MONITORING OUTPOST ALPHA-6
0616 HOURS, EARTH STANDARD TIME

Spartan Adam-D014 was where he always was on the UNSC Lightning: in the hangar bay, working on his custom retrofitted Pelican dropship. Adam was a SPARTAN-IV, the newest generation of UNSC supersoldiers whose purpose was clear: protect humanity at all costs. Unlike most S-IV’s, Adam chose a lone-wolf lifestyle. Most of the others he knew in training had been grouped up in four-to-five man squads, but Adam had didn’t work well with other people. On solo training missions, his scores were above average, even for a SPARTAN. But whenever he was paired up with another person, he always felt that they got in his way. Because of this, the navy had decided to put him by himself, throwing him into more reconnaissance/assassination missions. It wasn’t that he couldn’t work well with others, it’s just that he preferred not to. Not anymore…

And that is why Adam spent most of his time in the hangar. Usually, it was quiet. Occasionally a tech would come in to check that all of the smaller craft were secure, or to fix a small mechanical problem. But most of the time, the hangar was a land of peace and quiet. This was the case on this particular day. Adam had followed his morning routine: he woke up, showered, ate breakfast, went to the fitting room to get his armor on, and then came here. He always would work on the custom D79H-TC Pelican dropship that the UNSC had commissioned for him. Unlike most Pelicans, this one sacrificed room in the troop bay for an expanded weapons rack, and had extra space in the ceiling where a small active camouflage unit was installed. Of course the Pelican was always in perfect shape, but Adam still liked to work on it. He felt like there was always something to do; increase engine output, improve active camo efficiency, whatever came to mind. 

Today he was cleaning the missile tubes. Due to several weeks of neglect, they had accumulated a thin layer of grime and dust. It was nothing too serious, but Adam did not want to risk having a missile jam in its tube, and explode while still inside. Once he finished this rather quick and easy task, and had placed the missiles back inside, he entered the cockpit. He turned on the small craft’s computer, and checked system diagnostics. Everything was running perfectly. Adam spared a glance upwards, out of the cockpit and through the thick glass windows in the hangar doors. Slipspace looked strange, like a tangle of blues, whites, and greens, all travelling at faster than light speeds. But there was something off; a flicker here, a lapse in color there… it was not normal. Slowly, the Spartan began to reach his hand up to his ear to activate his comm. But before he could reach it, the ship’s emergency alarm began to ring out. The view of slipspace began flickering and flashing with increasing intensity, and looked as though it could collapse at any minute. The intercom buzzed on, and the captain’s rushed and anxious voice filtered through. 

“All crew, prepare for emergency slipspace departure!” He said urgently. Adam felt the ship begin to shudder, as though it was going to tear itself apart. Following procedure, Adam did the safest thing possible, and strapped into the Pelican’s pilot seat. The view outside began flickering and flashing even more, until it finally glowed a brilliant white. Adam held his arm up in front of his visor as it struggled to polarize to block the sudden burst of light. The ship began shaking even more intensely, and Adam began to hear the groaning of the ship’s superstructure. His visor finally polarized, and he lowered his arm. All around him was chaos. The extreme turbulence had caused many of the other craft’s securing straps to snap in half, and the docking clamps to demagnetize. To his right, an F-41 Broadsword lifted up off of the deck as artificial gravity briefly cut out, only to slam back down onto the ground, creating a large hole in the floor. To his left, two Pelican dropships that had become unsecured crashed into one another. One had its fuel tank breached, spilling oil all over the deck. The oil soon caught flame, and sent the two Pelicans roaring up. The flames triggered several fuel tanks on the wall to explode, breaching the hull in several areas. The large room started decompressing, and while it put out the flames, it also sent any small objects not secured to the deck flying out of it.  Finally, the white light outside subsided, and half of the ship was flung unceremoniously out of slipspace. 

The stress on his Pelican’s securing straps was too much, and they finally snapped. As a last ditch effort to save himself, Adam turned on the engines, and deactivated his docking clamps. From somewhere behind him, another Pelican fell towards the hangar door, smashing it open and sending various other items out into the vacuum of space. Debris was raining all around the hangar, and power continued the flicker. The lights cut out, but the klaxons continued blaring on emergency power. Ship stabilization was lost, and the ship continued to tumble violently through space. Adam set his Pelican’s thrusters to match the random rotations of the frigate as best as they could, and as soon as he had an opening, he fired the main thrusters and flew through the destroyed hangar door. On the way out, a warthog that had become unsecured from the deck slammed into the starboard side of his Pelican, damaging the engine. As he frantically sped to control his descent, Adam barely noticed the massive moon looming in front of him. Adam hit the ventral thrusters, pushing him upwards and away from the gravity well of the rocky satellite. 

Beyond the moon was a view that surprised Adam: a planet. It appeared terrestrial; it seemed to be mostly water with one massive supercontinent and several islands surrounding it. From what he could see beneath the cloud layer, it seemed to have a landscape not dissimilar to that of any other UNSC colony, like Reach. But Adam allowed himself too long of a look, and soon heard a loud alarm ringing in the cockpit. Adam looked down at the diagnostics, and saw that his starboard engine had completely blown out from its collision with the warthog, and was now completely useless. Adam tried using the other engines, but power was not reaching them, there was likely damage to the Pelican’s small reactor. As his orbit began to decay, Adam frantically tried anything he could to save himself. Backup power wasn’t responding… he could jump; his armor would absorb the impact of the collision, but he didn’t have anything to use as a heat shield. Still, Adam tried all that he could to get power flowing back to the engines. The outside of the hull was beginning to glow, and the ship was shaking. Every few seconds, Adam allowed himself a glance at the altimeter. 20,000 meters, 15,000 meters, 10,000 meters… He was falling too quickly. There was no doubt now, he was going to crash. Adam looked up out of the window and saw before him… a town? Adam blinked, believing that it was his eyes fooling him, but when they reopened, it was still there. Though it was clearly early morning on this planet, he could’ve sworn he saw movement in the town as his doomed ship fell overhead. Beyond the town lay a large, expansive forest. There seemed to be no clearings in the next few miles of it, so crash survival was unlikely, not unless he could slow down. Frantically, Adam continued issuing commands on the Pelican’s terminal, and finally managed to divert just enough power to the ventral engines for a small burst that would slow him down. Adam looked out of the window anxiously. He had to fire the thrusters at just the right moment or he wouldn’t make it. 5,000 meters, 2,500 meters, 1,250 meters… When the altimeter read a mere 300 meters he hit the thruster activation switch, and felt a sharp jolt as the ventral thrusters briefly activated, slowing the ship down just enough to keep him alive. Adam now only had a few seconds before he would hit the trees. With nothing else left to do, he locked his armor, closed his eyes, and hoped for the best…




Princess Luna, diarch of Equestria, had not been having a good day so far. She usually was asleep during this time, having already lowered the moon, but today her sister had requested her attendance at a small meeting with several of Canterlot’s chief scientists. 5:30am was an odd time to meet, but she and her sister had a pressed schedule. This was the only time that they would be able to host this meeting. After an hour of listening to a plethora of scientific jargon, they finally broke for an early breakfast.  Luna, being much more anti-social than her sister, opted to eat in her room. She knew Celestia didn’t like it, but Luna still felt uncomfortable around the castle staff after her return from banishment a mere three years earlier. She had spent a thousand years on the moon. This was only a fraction of her lifetime, but when it was spent all alone, it seemed a million times longer. Luna sadly placed her plate of food on her desk, and cracked open the door, looking at one of the guards.

“I am not to be disturbed for the next several minutes,” she commanded. The guard simply nodded, and looked back down the hallway. Luna closed her door, and walked into the center of the room. Her horn glowed brilliantly for a moment, and when the light subsided she was in a far different place. She looked at her surroundings, taking in all of the lack of color. The moon may have appeared bland and boring to most ponies, but Luna had always had a connection to it. She was princess of the night, after all. She sighed, and soaked in the beauty of the gray, cratered orb around her. This was her special place, where nobody else could find her. She came here often after her banishment, seeking solitude in a place that was familiar to her. It was always quiet on the moon. There was nothing to carry sound, offering a perfectly serene environment for her to relax. 

Seemingly, this was not the case today. Off in the distance, only a few hundred kilometers from her moon, there was a small distortion, like a tear. The “tear” slowly grew until it formed a white, luminous light. Out of this light emerged a large metal construct, the likes of which the lunar princess had never seen. It spun at incredible speeds towards the moon, while hundreds of pieces of debris flew out of it. Multiple explosions tore at the outside of the thing, sending even more debris flying into the moon. One piece in particular seemed to be heading straight for her, but then it suddenly changed direction and began heading right for the planet. Bewildered, Luna stood frozen for several moments. The large construct continued hurdling right for the moon, before it finally impacted on the surface, skidding for dozens of miles before coming to a complete stop at the edge of a large crater. 

Luna spread her powerful wings and began to fly as quickly as possible over to the crashed construct. She was about 500 meters from it before she stopped herself. What if it’s dangerous? she thought. Luna decided that the best course of action would be to return to Equestria and inform her sister immediately. Lighting up her horn, Luna teleported back to her quarters in the Canterlot Palace, and immediately rushed out to inform her sister of what she had seen.