For a lost moment in time, Six felt nothing around him. No air, no pain, no space. Noting but white, blinding light.
Then he crashed onto the hard metallic ground beneath him. He slid another few feet across the cold floor, pushed by the sheer impact of the combined Hunter assault cannons. Six wasn't able to get up for a few moments too late. As he first opened his eyes, he saw the circular, purple door to the cargo bay in front of him close and lock. What happened to his last group of allies, whether or not they survived, was a complete mystery.
Six slowly came to his feet, shaken by the terrible force of the impact of his crash. More than that, he realized that he was all alone. Even if his allies were alive, getting to them was impossible. They had to fight by themselves, if they survived the combined power of twenty Hunter assault cannons.
Only one course of action remained. Destroy the Covenant cruiser, or the entire planet will be destroyed. The question was, how could one Spartan, armed with only an Energy Sword, destroy an entire Covenant battleship? The odds were slim to none, and that was discounting the five thousand or so remaining armed Covenant warriors.
Then Six realized what he had to do.
With no time to spare, Six bolted down the twisting metal hallway. He was surprised to come upon no enemies for the first few turns he took. They must've thought that he was destroyed...along with his allies. As long as he was believed to be dead, the Covenant wouldn't come charging after him.
Six sprinted around another corner and ran through an automated door. He was surprised to see two Grunts, sitting around a floating metallic table, playing what seemed to be...cards.
"Got any threes?" The Grunt on the left side of the table asked his companion.
"Go fish." The other Grunt replied. The Grunt smirked to himself. He was lying, most of his cards were threes.
"Got any chance?"
Both Grunts turned towards the now opened door. They froze solid when they saw the Spartan standing inside
A few seconds later, Six walked out of the room. The two Grunts did not.
After this pleasant experience, Six continued to run down the halls, searching fervently for the place he needed to find. He was still uncontested, even after five minutes of continuous running. Something was suspicious about nothing fighting him. Even more suspicious was that he hadn't even come upon any Covenant besides the two card playing Grunts.
Some time later, Six finally came upon the room he was looking for. Above a very large, heavy purple door, in the Covenant language, was a sign.
The Bridge
Cautiously, Six approached the menacing door, keeping as silent as possible. He thought he might have too forcefully hack the door with his fist, when the door opened by itself. It was unlocked the whole time. Six stopped before entering. The Covenant were many things, but they weren't that stupid, generally. They didn't get ridiculously close to exterminating humanity by leaving everything unlocked and unguarded.
Six had no choice but to stealthily enter the Bridge.
The Bridge was very large, purple, and menacing. It was a sturdy part of the ship, the strongest in fact, it could survive a direct it from a small UNSC MAC cannon. As the heart of the entire ship, it held much of the key components for running the vessel. For example, the Covenant version of a Faster-Than-Light Energy Drive, much more efficient than the human version, was kept directly underneath in a sealed bulkhead.
Still uncontested by any Covenant, Six moved towards the largest Covenant system on board, the Master Control Panel. To any other human, it was an awkward grouping of flashy buttons and colorful lights. To Six, it was his key to saving the planet. With no time to waste, Six put his plan into action.
As he worked, he thought about how, and why, the Covenant would continue to not resist him, even when he was on the brink of destroying their battleship. In fact, the more and more he thought about it, the more and more the Covenant seemed to be laying a ...
Just then, the ground suddenly decided to be nonexistent, violently. Six was forced upwards by the sheer power of the explosion, and then came back down, through the blue of plasma flames. A second later, he crashed onto the ground with a sickening crunch. Terrible, searing pain shot up his left leg. He suddenly realized the horror of what happened. He had fallen about forty feet and landed on his left leg. It was broken.
He tried to get up. Slowly, with all his might, he managed to stand up, putting most of his weight on his right leg. His other leg hurt like nothing Six had ever felt in his life.
Suddenly, from behind him, a deep, menacing voice chucked in victory. Six recognized the voice. It didn't make his situation any better.
Then, from behind him, Zin'Onon spoke,
"How does it feel, human? How does it feel to get so close to victory, and then have your entire world ripped from under you?"
Zin'Onon finally had what he wanted. The Spartan, standing limply in front of him, ripe for the fate Zin'Onon had in store. Zin'Onon laughed again as he watched the wounded Spartan pathetically hop on one foot around to face him. He stopped laughing when he saw the Spartan's eyes. They showed no sign of pain, no emotion of despair. Only the same look Zin'Onon, along with the rest of the Covenant, had come to fear.
Without a word, Six drew his Energy Sword. He knew this would be the last battle of his life.
Astonished that the Spartan had the determination to fight, though enraged that he dare try to oppose him, Zin'Onon drew his Energy Sword. For a second, both warriors stared into each others eyes. Then, they clashed.
Zin'Onon struck first, with such lightning speed that Six barely managed to parry the blow. As fast as he could, Six retaliated, bringing his Energy Sword across Zin'Onon's chest. The blow was enough to wound the Elite, but didn't go deep enough to kill him. Enraged, Zin'Onon backhanded Six with all his might on his unprotected head. Six flew backwards and crashed into a large Covenant machine in the middle of the room.
His Energy Sword trailing along the metal floor, Zin'Onon moved towards the severely wounded Spartan. Unmercifully, he picked up Six by his neck with his free claw. Six desperately slashed at the Elite with his Energy Sword, but Zin'Onon deflected the blow, and the sword flew out of Six's hand.
"It's over, human."
Zin'Onon brought his Energy Sword to Six's neck.
Six knew that this was the end. He tried as hard as he could, yet it wasn't enough. Equestria would burn, it would roast until it was as lifeless as Reach.
Then, in a flash, Six realized what it was he was pinned against.
With all his might, Six kicked Zin'Onon in the knee with his good leg. The Elite staggered back, clutching his wounded knee in pain. Then, Six grabbed Zin'Onon's Energy Sword wielding claw, and pulled it as hard as he could into the machine behind him. His Energy Sword stuck deep into the machine.
Horrified, Zin'Onon realized what the Spartan had done. Warning lights flashed and alarms blared as the central AI of the ship said,
"Warning, FTL Drive critically damaged! Immediate assistance required!"
The FTL Drive, damaged beyond repair, began to leak energy and ignite fires. Sparks began to fly from the huge device. Those sparks quickly turned into small explosions as the entire ship rattled and banged.
"What have you done? You'll kill us all!" Zin'Onon said as he frantically tried to remove the sword, to no avail.
Six said nothing to the doomed Elite. He looked straight ahead. He finally won. The world below him was saved.
Six closed his eyes. On his face was the first happy expression he'd ever shown. A smile.
Then, nothing.