Noble Six

by InfinitySlayer


Sacrifice

If there was one question you could ask yourself at the end, what would it be?
For Julius Caesar, the question might've been: "What did I do to deserve this?"
For Charlemagne of the Frankish Kingdom, it might've been: "What could I have done better?"
For Adolf Hitler, it might've been: "Where did I go wrong?"

For Noble Six, the question in his mind might be the question that many of us will ask ourselves at the end. One simple, infinitely powerful question.

"Did I help?"

Six didn't know whether he was dead or alive. He supposed it didn't make much of a difference either way. He could neither see nor feel anything around him. He could only think, and, on occasion, dream.

There would be long periods marked by nothing but black silence. Once in a while a vision of some sort came to alleviate the stillness. It was usually a flash of something from Six's past. Sometimes the flashes were from distant memories, other times from recent ones. Very rarely, Six would see something he didn't recognize. He assumed that it was something forgotten from the past, but the power and realism of the vision would provoke him otherwise.

At some point in his quiet afterlife or dream, Six saw a most disturbing, and emotionally provoking, vision.

In his vision, he saw a quiet, dull brown landscape dotted by rolling hills as far as his eyes could reach. The musty smell of old grass and the humid air clung to his being. On the hill closest to his observing, he saw a professional, somber row of UNSC Marines facing a simple, dark green slap of metal. To Six's utmost surprise, he saw with the Marines a group of equally somber Elites also facing the metal plaque. Neither of the species were in battle, as Six obviously expected. Instead, they were all listening to the UNSC general addressing them in front of the metal square.

Six couldn't quite hear what the old, awe inspiring general had to say, but the message was clearly respectful and somber. Some time later, a group of Marines in the classic drab green uniform performed a ceremony that Six clearly recognized, though they used weapons unknown to him. They fired one shot into the air, put down their rifle, then did so again two times. This respectful act was reserved for the honoring of the fallen, a funeral ceremony for the killed and missing in action. After the act finished, one menacing Elite, clearly larger and higher ranking than the rest, did the unthinkable. He somberly approached the UNSC general in the plain sight of dozens of Marines. None of the loyal Marines did so much as swat a fly. Once at speaking distance, the general spoke to the Elite.

"I remember how this war started, with your kind starting the fight." The general stared unblinking into the Elite's yellow, alien eyes. Without pulling a knife, he extended his open hand to the Elite. The huge creature extended his menacing claw towards the general without pulling an Energy Sword.

"I can't forgive you, but you have my thanks, for standing by in the end." Then, in an act never before seen, the two races, equally spiteful of each other, shook the others hand in an act of mutual respect.

Six's view immediately changed from this scene to the next. He was standing just in front of the dark green object. Now he could see the numerous pictures adorning its face. All of them were faces he had never seen, but he still knew who they were. They those brave men and women who fell in the line of duty. They were the faces of those who bravely gave up their lives for their race, though they had little inclination to believe in it. They were those people that Noble Six as a child dreamed he could one day become.

As his eyes observed every one of those heroes, his gaze fell upon something distant. Leaning against the very farthest corner of the metal plaque, was something Six never thought he would again see. Resting somberly upon the ground was his silver-gray helmet he lost from Reach. Its visor was split apart and cracked. Its titanium alloy frame was dull and its initial allure faded. But it was, for sure, there. It was included among the honorable fallen who gave their lives saving billions. It was included among the immortal heroes who won the war against the Covenant.

"You asked yourself if you helped, and I believe the answer is standing right there in front of you."

Six turned around to identify the person who spoke. The speaker was a woman whom Six recognized from his recent past. She was old but not at all feeble, her hair had turned gray, and she was dressed in a plain white lab coat. Her eyes twinkled with admiration and respect.

"Doctor Halsey?"

Halsey gave Six a warm smile and nodded gently. She continued speaking in her usual serious but comforting tone, "When I finished downloading the Package from the relic site, I realized that it was unlikely it was to ever reach safety. I consulted Cortana, the Package, about who could possibly get her to safety. She chose you, Noble Six. She told me that there was no other person who could help more."

Halsey gestured to the metal frame behind Six. She spoke to him in a raised tone, "Look at those men and women, Noble. They gave their lives to the human race. They left behind their beloved parents, sisters, brothers, friends, and countrymen for the continued survival of us as a whole, though most of that whole didn't care if they were killed." She pointed at Six's battered helmet.

"They were they bravest of the brave, and through their courage they won the war against the Covenant. You are one on that wall, Noble. You are the reason that mankind survived. You are the one who saved billions of men, women, and children who had long since given up hope."

Six looked Doctor Halsey straight in her eyes, waiting for her to confess that it was all false. She gazed back into his eyes, unwavering. She was telling the truth. Humanity had won the war against the Covenant, and they only could have done it because one man transported one small cylinder of information to one lone vessel.

"We won?" Six hardly had to ask more.

"Yes. But the war isn't over."

Suddenly, Six saw an entirely new vision. The days of his recent past flew by in waves of memories. His violent crash on the strange planet Equestria and his initial conflict with the supernaturally empowered locals. His first escape to his crashed Banshee, soon turned to a bomb in a desperate attempt to flee the castle. The lightning sprint out of the city and the dozen lives taken as its cost. The Covenant siege against the city and his sacrifice to save its leader. He remembered his capture and near execution. But what he remembered most of all was the rescue attempt to save him, and the innocent lives given in his own defense, though he didn't deserve it.

He flashed back to the musty hillside. Doctor Halsey stood ready for him, looking him straight in the eyes.

"Those innocent civilians gave their lives for you, Noble. They knew that you were their best chance for survival. And they were right."

Six's vision again flashed away from that hillside in a blast of white light. A moment later he stood bedsides Doctor Halsey on a vibrant green pasture dotted by lively trees and bright yellow flowers. Hanging alone in the sky was the Covenant invasion ship besieging the planet. In a noise that tore apart the silence and thundered through all the land, the ship exploded in a flash of blue and orange fire. A black sphere materialized inside the ship and grew to engulf half of the vessel. The two opposite ends of the ship flew apart and descended down in a slow, dramatic wake, as if it were sinking into the sea. When the black orb of dense energy dissipated, the middle of the ship had disappeared into the void. Six understood what had happened, he caused it. An FTL Drive malfunction led to a slip-space anomaly. Essentially, most of the ship had been hurled into another dimension.

With Noble Six on board.

He turned slowly to face Halsey, who stood staring at the destroyed Covenant battle cruiser in both awe and dread. Halsey looked back into his eyes. Tears rolled slowly down her face. Six couldn't tell if they were tears of sadness or tears of joy. Perhaps a little bit of both.

Halsey broke her gaze and straightened her lab coat. She wiped the tears from her eyes and said to Six with a definitive tone,

"The Covenant will be back, don't be mistaken. This world has only been given a taste of what is yet to come. Without allies, every inhabitant on the planet will be burned."

Six gazed into the sky as if he was looking into the very heart of the cosmos.

"How can I help when I'm..." He couldn't finish his statement.

Halsey looked straight at Six's face, her expression as solid as stone.

"You're not the only one who knows the meaning of sacrifice."

Six broke his gaze from the sky and looked back into Halsey's eyes. They sparkled with tears of sorrow.

"What do you mean?

Halsey didn't answer.

"Tell me doctor...please."

Halsey cleared her throat, then straightened her lab coat. She spoke in a wavering voice.

"One of the planet inhabitants, Princess Celestia as you may know her, teleported herself and her subjects away from the Covenant battle cruiser just before they would've been destroyed by twenty combined fuel rod cannons. All of them were saved. However, some time later she watched as the battle cruiser began to explode. She had a choice to make. She could keep herself and her subjects safe by letting you go, or put her own life at risk for you."

Six began to realize what had been done.

"Abandoning her subjects even after massive pleading, she teleported aboard the ship. She found you just before the FTL Drive created a hole in slip-space. She managed to teleport you to safety...but not herself. She was absorbed by the tear made into the alternate dimension just moments after rescuing you."

Six shook his head in disbelief.

"She died to save you. For reasons I do not understand, she gave up her own life for the life of an alien, an outsider, someone who killed a dozen of her loyal subjects. Perhaps she understood that you are the planet's best chance for its continued survival."

Halsey paused to wipe her face clean of tears.

"Don't let her sacrifice be in vain."

Six could think of no words to say.

"Time to wake up, Noble."


Noble Six awoke to the most pleasant of sounds. The sound of an orbital MAC cannon fired from a UNSC war ship in atmosphere. Of course, sound alone isn't enough to describe this experience. The force of this MAC cannon alone was enough to throw Six into a ceiling, leave him pinned against it for a full second, then come crashing down to the floor like an asteroid. This isn't even accounting for the aftershock caused by the continued momentum of the shell as it drives into the ground. That kept Noble Six bouncing up and down on the floor for the next thirty seconds. You see, shooting a land borne target with a MAC cannon while in atmosphere causes its own little artificial earthquake that can be felt by everyone and everything miles away. In fact, while testing that theory on Mars when the cannon was first created, the force of the accelerated particles broke open a fault line a mile under the planet's surface. This caused an actual earthquake that nearly destroyed a human settlement thirty miles away.

This is why the UNSC refrains from firing MAC cannons while in atmosphere, except, of course, when destroying all things Covenant. So whatever a UNSC warship could be shooting their MAC cannon at while in atmosphere had to be along that line.

Six forced himself to get on his feet, terribly shaken by the impact. He looked around at his surroundings. The sun hung brightly in the sky, projecting a comfortable warmth around his being. He was in a recently demolished square stone room. It was, of course, recently demolished by the MAC cannon. To his right was a large white bed, now covered in loose stones and bits of rubble. On and around this bed were various tubes and other equipment. All around him was destruction. Recently abolished walls and smashed columns littered the ground in an uneven ruin. Shattered glass lay strewn about him like crystal daggers strutting from the ruin. Marble statues of equine beings lay broken amongst the rubble. Small fires burned on nearby beds and other fabrics. From the long lanes of beds, Six could tell he was in a hospital. A destroyed one at any rate.

He looked up into the sky at something quickly descending towards him. He blinked twice in confusion. He then rubbed his eyes in disbelief, thinking that the apparitions in the sky would disappear. They did not.

Approaching from the sky were five UNSC warships of varying sizes and shapes. All of them were built in the standard UNSC titanium alloy frame with outside support energy shields. They were fully armed with anti-naval cannons, anti-air support guns, barrage cannons, hailstorm missiles, and MAC cannons. Propelled by the most powerful and efficient interplanetary engines ever created, they were directly above Six's head in a matter of moments. From this overhead view, the sheer size and mass of the vessels awed anyone who saw them. Moments later, a squadron of three fully armed Pelicans descended directly towards him. The wind caused by the force from the Pelican engines swirled around Six's stunned frame. As the Pelicans landed in a line in front of them, their back cargo doors fell open to the ground.

Six saw then the things he thought he would never again see. Ten Marines dressed in olive drab battle dress uniforms sprinted out of the Pelicans towards Noble Six. They were outfitted with the most advanced military technology Six had ever seen. Metal alloy helmets laced with different sorts of gear ranging from tactical head lights to long range communicators. Advanced rifles and improved body armor. They were Marines, yes, but much different from the kind he was used to seeing. Marines dressed in old, faded uniforms with helmets equipped with the most basic technologies and weapons that worked properly about half the time.

These advanced Marines surrounded Noble Six in a compact formation and ushered him to the center Pelican. He was too stunned to do anything but obey in confused silence. Once aboard, the back hatch to the Pelican closed, and the Pelican ascended in the center of the formation.

Six fell to one of the small chairs that lined sides of the Pelican in awe and confusion. In a matter of moments, he had just been rescued by his fellow humans, a species he thought he would never see again. Then another thought occurred to him. From what had he been rescued?

"Sir, if I may?"

Six snapped out of his thoughts to look at the Marine addressing him. He was tall and somewhat lanky, but still quite burly and muscular. He spoke in the old Australian accent that marked many UNSC personnel. His expression was clearly awe and admiration, as well as a quite a bit of nervousness to be speaking with the giant Spartan nearly as tall as the Pelican cargo bay while sitting down. This was the general mood of the other dozen or so Marines staring at the huge Spartan. The nervous Marine cleared his throat and continued.

"The whole situation is a bit confusing, but I'll explain it the best I can." He stopped speaking again, his nerves getting the better of him. One of his fellow Marines elbowed him in the shoulder.

"Alright, alright, I'm talkin', geez." He hissed to the Marine.

"Anyway, about three weeks ago a UNSC scouting vessel, Valkyrie, received your distress signal. After scanning the planet we traced you to, it detected a large Covenant presence. The ship's captain sent for reinforcements. A few weeks later, a whole bloomin' fleet of our warships show up, with nothing to fight. The Covenant presence on the planet had vanished."

"What about the MAC cannon? The UNSC doesn't authorize an in atmosphere shot without reason." Six asked, his voice making all the hardened Marines tremble a little bit. The lanky Marine continued in a deeper, more serious tone.

"We sure as hell had a reason. The moment our fleet enters the atmosphere, the planet's inhabitants start blasting our ships with crazy multicolored laser beams. We don't know if they're Covenant or not, but they were definitely hostiles. All our ships were badly damaged, we almost lost the Hammer. The fleet admiral ordered an in atmosphere MAC round before it was too late. After that, we tracked your transponder, rescued you, and here we are."

Six took a few moments to process the information.

"You did what?" Six asked in mock disbelief and terror. The Marine had to be joking with him. They couldn't have just destroyed the very beings that saved his life.

"Like I told you mate. We took out most of the settlement with one well aimed MAC blast, and the rest of the surviving defenders ran away. Job well done, if you ask me..."

The Marine's voice muffled in Six's head as he realized what had been done. He felt sick to his stomach as he rose to his feet and stumbled towards the back cargo gate. He pressed the emergency release button. The gate slowly descended, and sunlight poured into the Pelican. Cool wind blew around Six's shocked frame as he saw the sight before him. In the distance was the destroyed ruin of a small town. A huge, black crater had been made in the town's center. Most of the buildings around it were nothing but piles of rubble. The once happy village had been decimated into a smoldering ruin by the press of a button. A disgusting smell filled his nostrils, either real or put there by his own disgust. The smell of death.

Six lost control of of his legs and collapsed onto the metallic flooring of the Pelican. He couldn't hear the surprised voices of his Marines, nor the roar the Pelican engines. He could hear only a voice inside his head as he descended into unconsciousness.

"Don't let her sacrifice be in vain."

End of Book One