"So, let me get this straight," Sawn said. "We are currently in orbit above an unknown planet, trying to contact a ship of unknown origin, and the sensors say that there is civilization down on that planet. That's it, I have got to be dreaming."
"I can assure you, Sawn, you are not dreaming," Artemis told him.
"That's exactly what a dream version of someone would say!," Sawn yelled. To be honest, though, just about everyone on board felt the same, even if they would not admit it.
Ken looked at Sawn, though his expression could only be read from body language, as he, along with Lily and Maruco, had their helmets on, as did everyone else in case they were boarded. He. Was. Pissed. Not at Sawn, but the hand fate had given him this mission. Unknown creature who could bend, if not outright break, the laws of physics first, than an unknown solar system that went completely against the laws of the universe. It was, instead of every other solar system, which was heliocentric (sun at the center), this system was geocentric (planet at center), which was impossible, since only the gravity of a sun could be strong enough to pull on planets. This system not only broke that with the planet pulling the sun, it broke it with two gas giants being kept in system by said planet.
And then there was the unknown ship. Now, Ken, Lily, and Maruco had seen some shit together that not even John could honestly say he saw, and came out of it sane as well. Namely, an entirely flood infested halo ring. They had not only gotten off of it, they had gotten off of it with no one dying, which was officially impossible. You would think ONI would want something like that out there, if only to inspire the rank and file. NOPE.
But this took the damn cake. The entire thing. Not one part of it, but the whole bomb, nuclear core and all.
"Detecting something coming from the planets surface, Ken," Artemis said, worry in her voice. "Holy hell. You guys are not going to believe this."
"What is it, Artemis?" Maruco asked, doubt in his voice for the reason mentioned earlier. "Is it a rainbow? With the stuff we've all seen collectively, that is probably the only thing that can surprise us anymore. Am I right, or am I right?" he said, spreading his arms to show his self confidence
"Actually," Artemis said, "Yes. It looks like a rainbow. Coming RIGHT FOR US!"
All Everyone could do was stare at her like she was crazy.
"WHAT?!" Everyone shouted.
Then the rainbow hit.
The ship noticeably shook from the impact. "Artemis, damage report, NOW," Ken said, getting up from the floor, as the impact made the ship shake with enough force to make everyone lose their balance, anger and surprise in his voice.
"That hit took out our shields, Ken. You and everyone else need to get to the drop pods now. I'll launch supply pods just before you drop. No telling how much damage the next one will do, assuming they can fire another shot," Artemis said, her voice filled with urgency, which also filled her face, as well as concern.
Ken nodded. "Alright everyone. Get to drop bay alpha NOW. We need to get off the Spear before it's hit again. And Maruco,"
"Yeah?"
"You have permission to get our drop song going once we head down," Ken said, knowing Maruco would ask this once they were all in their drop pods.
This brought a non-visible smile to Maruco's face under his helmet. "Got it."
Before they went to the drop bay, though, they stopped by the armory to get weapons. Thel chose a storm rifle and two energy swords. Hades, a concussion rifle and a needler. Sawn, a carbine, plasma pistol, and a shield gauntlet. John and Lily chose an MA5D (or whatever the designation for the halo 4 assault rifle is) for primary. John took a magnum pistol for secondary, while Lily took a sniper rifle. Ken took a battle rifle for primary and a standard DMR for second. Maruco took "Honest AJ" as his primary, a DMR with a primary color of orange with a secondary of red, and a shotgun for secondary.
As they made their way from the armory, the ship shook again, this time worse than before. "COME ON, PEOPLE. MOVE IT, UNLESS YOU WANT TO DIE IN SPACE!!!" Ken yelled at the others. This caused everyone to triple time it to the drop bay, which had four HEV (ODST drop pods) and three covenant drop pods along the walls.
As everyone made their way into the pods, which were labeled with an IFF for quick identification of whose pod it is, the ship shook for a third time, this one being the most violent.
"Ken," Artemis said over the radios, concern in her voice. "The ship is starting to fall apart. It can only stay together long enough for you, the others, and the supply pods to drop."
"Right. Thanks for the info, Artemis," Ken said as he got settled into his pod seat, sadness in his voice, as the ship being destroyed would most likely mean both Artemis and Apollo's deaths, and both AIs had been with the group since the beginning.
"Of course, Ken. And good luck," Artemis said just before the drop song started playing.
(00:16) The drop pods flew out of the drop bay. When Ken looked up, as his pod had cameras on the top, bottom, and sides so he could see at all angles, he saw the main portion of the ship falling into the planets atmosphere with them when he saw something new.
The part of the ship was surrounded by a yellow glow, and if Ken didn't know any better, he would say that it was affecting the trajectory of the piece of the ship.
The drop pods flew down through the atmosphere for what seemed like an hour when the pod jerked to a sudden stop, indicating that it had landed, or, more accurately, crashed.
He rubbed his head to clear the disorientation from the crash. Once he had cleared his senses to a degree to where he could breath without becoming dizzy, he brought his hand up to his helmet and activated the radio. "This is Ken. Are the rest of you guys there?
"Yeah, Ken. We're all just outside of your pod," Maruco responded.
"Right, stand clear of the door. I'm getting the bolts primed."
"Copy that."
As Ken got the explosive bolts activated, he began to think. Or more accurately, what they were going to do without AI support. I suppose we could just use what Intel we get with our own eyes, but that isn't exactly accurate, he thought to himself, just as the last bolt was primed. It only took a second for the door to fly away from the pod, and as Ken stepped out, what he saw amazed him beyond words.
What he saw was a dense forest, one that wouldn't look out of place back on Earth. The trees looked like the standard varieties that grew everywhere back on Earth, as well as some of the other plants. Really, the only plant that looked out of place was a small flower, or, more accurately, a large swath of the flower, that looked as if it was entirely blue. Wonder where we are, he thought to himself before turning to his left to see the others checking their weapons to ensure they worked. Maruco walked up to him, his helmet still on.
"Good to see that you're still with us Ken," he said jokingly. "You took the longest to wake up, and we thought you were dead. Glad to see we were wrong."
"Yeah, well if the devil wants me," Ken started, "He's going to have to pay me in whatever currency they use in hell to even make me consider that." When ever the three dropped, they always made jokes regarding death, as no Spartan had ever died from an ODST like deployment. Well, the deployment part of it, anyway. "So, any idea where the supply pods came down?"
Maruco shook his head. "Nope. I only know where three are, and that's because I saw them land after I got out of my pod. As for the others, tracking systems aren't working on any frequency, even covenant ones. The three I saw are about a click that way," Maruco said, pointing with his thumb to just behind him, which was compass south. "Also, as far as we can tell, there is wildlife near our position, but we can't tell what they are, though we're thinking wolves due to periodic howling."
At this, a howl rose from just north of their current position, followed by another, than another. Eventually, howls were coming from all directions. "Looks like we're surrounded," Hades said, a smirk on his face.
As the group got into a circle, they prepared their weapons, Thel activating his twin energy swords and Maruco pumping his shotgun, saying, "Looks like it's wolf season, and I got a license."
Sawn activated his shield gauntlet and brought out his plasma pistol. "I say we kill them. Kill them with fire," he said grinning like a madman.
At this, the first of the wolves came out of the brush, and everyone looked confused, as it looked like the wolves were made out of wood. Before anyone could say anything, though, the wolves charged.
What followed was a massacre.
As the first of the wolves got closer, those with medium ranged weapons opened fire, Hades' needler causing the most damage, as the projectiles exploded shortly after impact. When the wolves got closer, they felt the searing heat of Thel's energy swords cutting through them and the blasts from Maruco's shotgun tear them apart, the intestines of the poor bastards, which were mostly vines, hanging out of their bodies. The second wave appeared, with slightly larger wolves in the mix. Lily brought out her sniper and shot their heads, completely obliterating said body part, before they could even get close, with the others falling like those before them. Then hell came knocking.
After all of the timberwolves of the second wave had been, for lack of a better word, completely FUBAR (fucked up beyond all recognition), the group saw the second weirdest thing of the day. The remains of all the wolves, small pieces and large together, started to merge into a scarab sized version of the wolves.
They all looked at the massive wolf. Thel then looked to the Chief, who nodded. Thel took one of his plasma grenades off his belt and tossed it to John, who caught it single handed. Ken saw this and remarked, "Bet you can't stick it."
"You're on," was all John said before the massive wolf roared, spraying tree sap on all of them. John simply activated the grenade and threw it like a baseball down the things throat.
It took only a few seconds for the grenade to detonate, but it was already in the things stomach by then. The beasts legs were knocked out from under it by the pressure wave. Maruco then walked up to it as if he was strolling through the park. "How you doin'," He said, as if he was trying to flirt with someone, just before pulling the trigger on his shotgun, blowing enough of the timberwolfs head away to kill it, or at least keep it from reforming for a while.
"Well," Lily started, while putting her sniper rifle on the ground. "That was interesting."
Thel nodded. "Agreed, especially as that thing looked completely natural, which means it probably wasn't built by the Forerunners, which begs the question: How did it do what it did?"
No one had an answer to this, so Ken said, "That doesn't matter right now. What does is that there are, hopefully, more sapient species on this planet, preferably peaceful ones. Besides, we need to contact the UNSC about this, see if they can send a ship here to pick us up."
No one disagreed with him, but it was Maruco, still making sure he had enough ammo for another fight like this, who told them, "Yeah, that's great, except for the fact the only transmitter we know of that can contact them on this planet is with that large chunk of the ship, and while we're on that topic," Maruco said, anger now coming into his voice. "Is anyone else wondering HOW THE HELL DID A FUCKING RAINBOW DESTROY A SHIP THAT HAD THE STRENGTH OF THE SHIELDS THAT ARE ON A DAMNED CRUISER!?!?!," He yelled at no one in particular.
"Hey," Lily said to Maruco in a calm voice, though it was obvious she was trying not to yell. "Calm the hell down, Maruco. You, me and Ken have been in worse spots than this, so I'm certain we can get out of this with John and the others helping us." She looked to where the others were standing. "Isn't that right?"
John nodded. "Agreed. Though the flood was less weird than this place already."
"I hear that," Ken said.
Lily was about to say something when she saw ten grey dots appear at the edge of her motion tracker. "Guys, we got contacts inbound," She warned them. "Outer range of my tracker."
John was in the process of reaching for his assault rifle when a beam of energy hit him in the back, knocking him out cold. Hades saw another coming for him and dodged out of the way. "What the hell was-" was all he said before another beam hit its mark on his chest and threw him backwards. He hit a tree with his head, and though the tree split, he was knocked out cold.
"Damn it," Ken said. "GET TO COVER," He yelled, though he was the next to be hit.
Sawn stayed where he was, getting into the standard pose Kig-yar are in when using shield gauntlets so it covers their body. Two bolts hit the shield, but the shield stayed up. The only reason Ken and John had been knocked out was because their shield systems were resetting due to something in the atmosphere, while said "something" seemed to strengthen Sawn's gauntlet. He fired a bolt of plasma each at the location where the other ones had come from, to be rewarded with a scream of pain, indicating he had hit one and either missed or outright killed the other assassin he fired at. Nine bolts, indicating he had missed, were aimed at Sawn. Though most hit his shield, one got lucky and hit his arm, where the shield doesn't protect the user so the can fire, and put him to sleep.
By this point, the others were all in cover, but the unknown contacts refocused on them and they be came pinned. "Well," Maruco said. "This is just peachy," he said, the sarcasm not really dripping in his voice, more rushing like a tsunami. At this, one of the contacts stopped firing. Maruco saw one of the dots disappear on his motion tracker, only to reappear to his left, a perfect flanking position. Well, fuck me, was all he thought before he was hit by another bolt.
Thel and Lily were the only ones still conscience, using the body of the dead timberwolf for cover. As soon as Maruco had been hit, their shields had finally started to recharge. You couldn't have come back online sooner, Lily thought angrily, swearing that the next time she was at a UNSC research facility that worked on Spartan armor, she would make sure they worked on a backup shield system for circumstances just like this. Thel looked at the charge meter on his sword.
"One," was all he said, though Lily knew what he meant. He only had one use of the sword left before he had to recharge it, and they both knew that whatever happened to the others would happen to them before they got the chance to do so. Lily then looked toward the ammo counter on her assault rifle.
"Thirty-two." She had spare magazines, but she knew she wouldn't be able to reload with the mess that was going on. They both nodded and stepped out of their cover.
Thel went to grab his storm rifle and was able to grab it and fire off a few shots before he was hit in the torso by one of the enemy bolts, falling to the ground out cold. Lily got lucky and was able to fire off a few mags worth of ammo before her shields were taken down and her, hit.
Note from author: Don't go raging about how Thel was knocked out by one bolt of magic. When I said one, I meant nine bolts combined into one, it just looked like one, got it? Now back to the story.
As Lily started to black out, she could have sworn she saw their attackers. They looked like they walked on four legs, and all looked like they had protrusions coming out of their foreheads. Her last thought was, Oh god. Unicorns.
...
Shepard, upper Equis orbit, meanwhile
"Are we able to contact that ship, Garrus?" Liara asked.
Garrus shook his head. "No. It's like something is actively keeping us out of their communication net." He looked at Liara. "You don't think this has anything to do with that thing from earlier, do you?"
Liara simply shook her head. "Probably. Who knows what that thing put in our systems before it left, assuming I wasn't dreaming."
Garrus chuckled. "I doubt it. If you were, I doubt I would be saying you weren't."
"That, actually, is what a dream version of someone would say to keep the person asleep for as long as possible." Little did she know, she said this at the same time Sawn said the same thing, or at least the same message.
Garrus simply chuckled at this. "Don't you remember Therum, Liara," He said, referring to how she thought Him, Tali, and Shepard were her sub conscience trying to make her see what she had done wrong that led to her being in a prothean security field.
"Garrus."
"Yeah?"
"Shut up."
Garrus was about to retort when Jacob came over the radio. "Uh, guys. Something weird just happened to that other ship. And I mean weird, even by our standards." His tone said he was serious.
Zaeed came over the radio next. "Oh, and what might that be. A Reaper sending us a request to a picnic? Cerberus with non human agents? A fuckin' space rainbow."
"In order, no, no, and yes."
Unbeknownst to the others, Zaeed's eye twitched as if he had enough caffeine in his system to give an elephant a heart attack. "WHAT THE FUCK!!" He yelled.
Jack, the resident psychotic biotic, came over the radio next. "Yeah, what the hell do you mean by that Jacob?"
"Exactly what I said. I'll put out on the comm frequency so you can see it."
As soon as he said this, both Liara's and Garrus' Omni-tools started beeping, indicating a message. They both pulled up the call to see the other ship getting blasted by a rainbow. After about ten seconds, they saw it get hit again, only this time it was cut through the front. Twenty seconds later, a third shot hit it, leaving the center the largest remaining piece of the ship. Liara, though, noticed something.
"Are those escape pods coming from it," she said, as she saw the drop pods being deployed.
"Can't be. Too small for more than one crewman, even Volus wouldn't be able to fit more than one of their guys in those." Garrus shook his head. "Who ever was on that ship is dead, and if they survived those shots, they'll die from their ship hitting the surface. Can't help them." Disappointment was in his voice as he said this.
Zaeed came back over the radio. "Damn. Whatever that thing is, it's got to be powerful to be able to cut through an entire damned ship."
Miranda came over the radio next. "Agreed. We need to get out of system asap before that weapon's turned on us."
"That might be a problem, Miranda," Tali said. "Our FTL drive was knocked out by that wormhole. Until it's fixed, we're stuck here."
"Great," Miranda said sarcastically .
"Guys," Jacob said over the radio, alarm in his voice. "I'm picking up an energy spike from the planets surface! It matches the same signature that came up from just before that beam hit. Chances are, they see us and getting ready to shoot us."
"Damn," Garrus cursed. "We need to get to the escape pods before even one of those beams hit."
""Garrus is right, Liara. If even one of those damn beams hit, we'll probably die," Zaeed said.
"Zaeed is correct, Liara," Samara, the other Asari on board said. "The natives of this world are most likely firing on us due to simple misunderstanding. And we must meet their leadership to remove said misunderstanding."
"Look, we can handle this on the escape pods," Garrus said.
"Agreed," Wrex said. "Move it, princesses, unless you want to die in the void."
Everyone rushed to the nearest escape pod. There were thirteen people on board, and each escape pod could hold eight, so there were four escape pods, two as backup. It took about a minute for every one to reach their escape pods. Just as Grunt got in his escape pod, the ship shuddered, which threw Grunt onto the floor of the pod. The pod launched before he could get into his seat, which caused him to slide to the back of the pod. Wrex, who was in the same pod, just chuckled at this. "Well, I thinks it's obvious what just hit the ship," Jacob said.
All of the work was done by the automatic systems in the pods, which resulted in the two pods landing close to one another. It was a short ride down to the planets surface. It was every one in Liara's pod (herself, Garrus, Zaeed, Kasumi, Miranda, Jacob, Samara, and Jack) who landed first and were able to survey their surroundings.
They were in what appeared to be a swamp. The water was as brown as mud, with bubbles popping up from time to time. Just behind them was a thicket of trees, while, as far as they could tell, in front of them was more swamp that lead to a cliff.
"Can anyone raise the others on comm?" Garrus asked as he got out of the pod.
"No, haven't been able to contact them," Jacob said. "But that might just be because they haven't landed yet."
As soon as he says this, the other pod soars over their heads. A few seconds pass before the ground rumbles with the impact of the pod near them.
"Well, looks like we're heading there," Kasumi said.
Ten minutes later
"Why did the damn pod have to land so fuckin' far away?"
"Stop complaining, Zaeed," Liara said. "Besides, we're almost there." It wasn't that hard to tell they were almost there. There were skid marks along the ground where the pod had landed.
"Yeah, Zaeed. Stop being an ass."
"Fuck you too, Garrus."
Just before Garrus can retort, the group comes over a ridge in the forest where the pod landed to see those in the other pod (Wrex, Grunt, Ashley, James, and Tali) just getting out. "You guys need any help?" Jacob asked.
"Nah, we're good," James said.
"Yeah." Ashley said. "Besides, it's not like we have a lot of gear. Just our armor and weapons."
"Plus," Wrex said. "The heaviest non-living stuff we got are our heavy weapons."
"Which means," Grunt started, "Fun." He then puled out an M-920 Cain. "Heh, heh, heeeeh."
(That is Grunt's laugh, for those who don't know. Also, for those of you who don't know what the Cain can do, here's a vid. The second large weapon is the cain. First is a rocket launcher)
(Yeah. Don't want to be on it's business end.)
Liara sighed. "Grunt, I don't think we're going to need that."
"Meh. Can't have too many large guns," he said, grinning like a kid in a candy store who was told he could have all the candy he wanted.
ROOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRR.
"What the hell was that," Ashley said as she drew her usual weapon, an M-8 avenger rifle.
"Must be something native, or it wouldn't be here." No one laughed at Garrus' terrible attempt at a joke. "Stick to your day job, Garrus," Miranda said.
Another roar was heard, closer this time.
Everyone drew the weapons they had on them, which was to say, small arms, as the heavy weapons didn't have enough power to fire.
"So," Kasumi said. "Any idea what it is?"
As soon as she said this, the creature came into view.
"What the fuckin' hell is that?" Zaeed said, disbelief in his voice as he saw it.
The animal was about two stories tall and had orange scales. It had four heads and walked on two legs. And the hydra looked hungry.
"Well, this is going to be a cake walk," Wrex said. At this, two more of the creatures came into the clearing.
"Hell," Garrus exclaimed.
"Move!" James yelled. Everyone started to run for the swamp, where they would have longer sight lines and more room to maneuver to fight the hydras.
Halfway there, Wrex tripped over a fallen log. One of the hydras saw this and went after him. It got to him in seconds. It stood over him, all four heads licking their lips, eagerly awaiting food. Just as the far right head started to come down, a clap of thunder could be heard, and the head practically explode, only a few pieces of flesh and muscle still connected to the body. Wrex looked behind him and saw Garrus kneeling, his usual Mantis sniper rifle in hand, the barrel smoking. "Boom."
"Jeez, Garrus. I didn't know you liked exploding rounds," Wrex said.
"Just shut up and get off your ass, Wrex, before that thing has it for lunch."
Once Garrus had finished talking, the hydra, just getting over the surprise of one of its heads blown apart, looked at him and roared angrily.
"Right." Wrex got up as fast as he could, getting at top speed as he did so. Just as he got to where Garrus was, Garrus began sprinting towards the swamp as well. Fortunately for the both of them, they had the lightest of their weapons on them, the heavier ones either at one of the escape pods or on what was left of the ship, with mods, some not entirely legal in citadel space, to make them deadly compared to the off the shelf versions. Well, deadlier.
They were the last ones to arrive where Liara's pod had landed. "You guys okay," Kasumi asked as they got close.
"Yeah," Garrus said. "Just showing those things who's boss."
"Well," Zaeed said, "You might want to do that a-fuckin'-gain, 'cause we got more of those bastards inbound."
"How many?"
"Two of 'em, which means," Zaeed paused for dramatic effect, "eight heads."
"Great," Miranda said sarcastically.
A minute later, the hydra that was missing one of its heads. "So, that's the thing you beat up, Garrus," James asked.
"Yep, though I actually used my Mantis, and all I did was make that thing uglier."
"Obviously," Ashley said.
The hydra than roared. Its mouth being opened, and it was Kasumi, with a scorpion pistol (see vid below if you don't know what it is) who shot each head in the mouth.
(Also note: the first alien next to the human, who is a female shepard, is Liara. She is an asari, a monogendered race. The third is Garrus. The guy next to shep near the end is james.
(Also, the next vid is overdue and meant to show you guys what Wrex looks like and to show what a Krogan looks like in general and why they are badass.)
(The alien next to that shepard is Tali.)
The projectiles launched by the scorpion detonated a second later, and killed the hydra.
"Well, there goes one."
"Yeah," Zaeed said, "except that one wasn't in the count. We still got two of the things coming, and things are gonna get ugly."
Five minutes later
Everyone was waiting for the hydras to arrive, and it had been a while since one with four heads had been seen. They were debating heading to another location for their camp when Garrus, as well as Jacob, who had been on patrol, came running in. "Behind us. . . eight heads. . . inbound," Garrus said between gasps.
"Damn," Zaeed exclaimed. He put his hand to his ear to activate his communicator, as the bulk of the squad was spread out around the pod's landing site. "Okay people, back to camp. We got two of those things comin', and I want to give 'em a warm welcome," he said.
Within a minute, everyone had made it back to what was camp and had gotten into what was an effective formation for their circumstance. The sniper group, which consisted of Ashley, Garrus, and Zaeed, took up position at the far end of the swamp, which allowed them practically full view range of the swamp. Those with assault rifles or submachine guns took up position close to the pod. Those with shotguns, Wrex, Grunt, Jack, James, and Tali, took up positions close enough to the forest for their shotguns to be effective, but far enough away so they could dodge any attacks from the hydras.
Both hydras stepped into the swamp at the same time. The leading one, which seemed to have many scars, was the first one to feel the heat of the weapons. To keep it short and clean enough for those of you with a weak stomach, but where it still fits with the gore tag, let's just say everyone with a shotgun was bathed in blood and guts, only a puddle of blood remaining where the lead hydra once stood. The second hydra was smart enough to go in for one of the squad who had a shotgun. Though it failed in that regard, the action of its heads going for a person each saved it from losing its heads, the sniper shots sailing just over them.
"Damn it," Ashley exclaimed. She went to reload her Mantis, as it only had a single-shot capacity before reloading, but before she could even start, she heard something fall down to the ground hard. She looked and saw the hydra dead on the ground one of it heads missing, and standing where it would have been was Grunt, covered in blood and brains.
As the shock of seeing Grunt covered in the things blood and brains faded, something else happened that immediately brought that shock back. As Grunt was laughing, five bolts of light came from the forest, each one hitting one of the group with a shotgun, knocking them un conscience. Five more bolts came from the left of the location of the first volley and hit everyone that was next to the pod.
This all happened five seconds after the hydras were killed, the second happening right after the first. "The hell?" Zaeed whispered, not wanting the attackers to hear him. "You guys got any idea what just happened, cause I sure as hell don't."
"No," Garrus said. "But I'm still getting vitals from everyone's omni-tools, which means that they're alive."
"Would you two just shut up and look at the others with your scopes," Ashley said. "You aren't going to believe this."
After she said this, both Garrus and Zaeed looked to where the bolts had come from to see the weirdest beings they had ever seen.
"Are. . . are those fucking unicorns?" Zaeed said, to which a voice behind all three of them replied, "I wouldn't say 'fucking', but, yeah, we're unicorns." Before the three of them could turn around, they were hit with the same bolts that had hit the others, knocking them out cold.
Canterlot observatory; one hour earlier
Stargazer was in the Canterlot observatory, waiting for the Princess and the elements to arrive. He had rushed back here as soon as Celestia told him that the problem will be taken care of, but they would need his trained eye to aim the elements power at the two meteors.
He was currently looking at the larger of the two meteors, running calculations on how bad it would be if it came down at even half its current mass. It wouldn't be pretty, especially for Canterlot and Ponyville, the two closest population centers to the projected impact area, mostly because the two locations would be vaporized.
He was halfway through the worst case scenario when Celestia, Twilight, and the others walked in.
When he saw them, he nearly scrambled out of his chair and bowed to the two princesses. "Your highnesses," he said.
Celestia smiled at this. "How many times must I say it, Stargazer," she said, "you don't have to call me anything other than Celestia, and Twilight still isn't used to being called a princess either."
"Of course, but I've simply grown used to that, and old habits are hard to break," Stargazer said, returning to a stand. "Well, anyway," he said, turning towards the elements, "Princess Celestia has tasked me with being your eyes as you six take out the meteors heading towards us. I assume you six are ready?"
Twilight nodded. "We are." She then turned to her friends "Alright, girls. Lets go." The other elements nodded. It was discovered shortly after Twilights second escapade through the mirror portal that the bearers of the Elements of Harmony could change into their super forms at will, so long as it was done near the others and not used for personal reasons. Which means that Rainbow couldn't use it to do a double rainboom.
The transformation wasn't all that spectacular compared to the first. It was really just the six of them glowing, their mane, tail, and their wings, if they had any that is, growing longer. When the glow died down, the bearers were standing there, looking exactly as they had when they took down Tirek.
Stargazer than went to the telescope, which was already pointing at the larger meteor. "When ever you six are ready," he told them.
The bearers almost immediately began to glow with rainbow light. A second passed before the first beam went into space. As it was fired, Celestia could have sworn she saw two flashes of green, one in the part of the rainbow that represented Rarity, the other in Twilights. She dismissed these as a trick of the light after they had disappeared not a second after she saw them.
Stargazer saw the beam hit the meteor, but it remained intact. "That was a direct hit, your Highness, but the meteor is still intact," he told Twilight.
"Right," she said. Two more beams of magic followed, each one hitting the ship and cutting it where it was hit. Just after the third hit, Stargazer saw that a large part of the meteor was still coming on the trajectory he had plotted. He told Celstia this, and she enveloped the meteor in her magic, steering it to a place where nopony would be harmed. Stargazer noticed debris falling from the meteor, but assumed they would burn up before they could do any harm. He and the elements then turned their attention to the smaller meteor, which didn't require anything to make to where it wouldn't harm anypony. Celestia, though, had other thoughts on her mind.
When she had moved the large meteors remnants, she sensed a vast presence, or, more accurately, two. She had never felt something like this before. What she did know is that this could only mean one thing.
Pony kind was not alone.
While all of this was going on, a pony that no one would pay attention to was hidden in the rafters, watching the scene unfold. He was a white unicorn, with a green mane and tail. His eyes were red, while his cutie mark was that of an eye, plain and simple. Nopony knew his real name, not even him, so those that knew him simply called him Observer. "Lone needs to know about this," he said to himself, then left the rafters.
He was just outside the observatory when one of the guards Celestia had brought with her spotted him.
"You there, what are you doing here? This is supposed to be a restricted area."
Buck me, Observer thought to himself.
He turned to see a standard solar guard coming towards him. "Well sir, last I checked, the observatory was public property, and I was coming here to look at the stars." Yeah, Observer, go with an excuse that can be defeated simply by being told "look up," he thought to himself.
The guard continued to get closer. "You do realize you can do that by just looking up," Called it. "But you still haven't told me why you're here."
The guard was practically in front of Observer now. He knew there was only one way to get out of here. So he punched the guard in the jaw and ran for it. "GET BACK HERE!!" the guard yelled and ran after Observer. It lasted for ten minutes before the guard followed Observer into a crowd of ponies. He randomly grabbed a pony from the crowd and said "Have you seen anypony with a white coat, a green mane and tail, and an eye for a cutie mark?"
The pony shook his head, and the guard left and grabbed another pony, asking him the same thing. The first pony the guard grabbed walked away from the crowd and into a back alley. He looked around to ensure no one was around to see him. When he had confirmed that no body was looking, he sighed in relief, and, in a flash of green flame, the random pony had become Observer. The changeling smiled to himself, knowing that guards were too stupid to consider anything but a pony unless all the evidence said otherwise. He set back off towards his original destination, the destination being Canterlot castle. In another flash of green flame, he became a lunar guard, knowing that no one would expect a lunar guard to be a changeling.
Canterlot castle; outside the personal chambers of Princess Luna; Five minutes later
Lone was standing at attention with Nightengale when a third lunar guard walked up to him and saluted. "Lone, I think Pranksters 'reinforcements' just arrived on Equis, or are at least close to it. What should we do?" Observer asked.
Lone and Nightengale looked at each other, worry on their faces. Lone then looked at Observer, as he knew it was Observer, because he had personally tasked him with looking over Celestia, knowing a changeling could do wonders in espionage, and said "Right now, we pretend like we don't know. Most likely, the brotherhoods forces will find out about this, and we can't give any indication that we do. That said, we will take precautions." He then looked directly at Observer and said, "Get a message out to the others here in Canterlot, as well as everyone in location bravo as to this. I want everyone aware of what's going on." He then turned to Nightengale and told him, "Nightengale, go alert the others in the guard yourself and tell them we're in threat condition orange, and any and all members of lone team in the guard are to be at full alert. I will personally tell Scarab, Raptor, Hermit, and the others tomorrow via message about this."
Both Nightengale and Observer nodded before Observer went to let everyone in Canterlot that knew of Lone team that wasn't in the guard about this, and to be ready for combat. Bloody combat that often results in deaths.
Five minutes passed before Lone and Nightengale heard something behind them. They turned and looked to see the doors to Princess Luna's bedchambers open and Luna herself walk out. They both saluted as she looked to the both of them. "Your Highness," Lone said, Luna having made a point within the Lunar guard shortly after the incident in ponyville a few years ago on nightmare night that her guards were not to bow to her, but rather salute, something that had been quickly integrated into new recruits as they still had the habit of bowing to royalty.
As soon as Lone saw her, he felt something in his chest he had never felt before, except when he had been in Luna's room earlier to heal her. He truly didn't know what he was feeling, only that it came around when ever he saw her, whether she be asleep or awake.
"Though we are happy to see two of our own guards, we must ask: why art thou here instead of Princess Twilight Sparkle?" Luna said in her trademark speech, which for some reason Lone found bucking adorable.
Nightengale answered her. "Ma'am, your sister tasked us with guarding you this week. She did so only an hour ago. She was hoping seeing two Lunar guard would help to cheer you up."
Luna chuckled at this. "Aye, that does indeed sound like our sister. Now, pray tell, what are your names. And also, at ease."
Both Lone and Nightengale relaxed. "Ma'am, I'm Private first class Nightengale."
Lone followed. "Ma'am, I'm Lieutenant Lone Shadow." Wait, did I just give my actual name. Buck, Lone thought to himself. "Though evrypony calls me Darkness Strider, though I'm not certain why." Nice save, moron.
Luna raised an eyebrow at his name. "Thou hast an. . . interesting name. Not many are named for a legend these days, let alone one in that regard," she said.
"Well, my parents thought I was special, more so as I grew older. Not certain why, though." This wasn't exactly a lie, more the partial truth.
"Well, regardless, do either of you know the location of our sister?"
Nightengale spoke up. "How about running towards us, looking like a happy cannonball aimed for the Princess," he said in a deadpan tone.
Both Luna and Lone ducked just as a white bullet came over their heads. "Sweet you, Luna, are you sure your sister can't do a sonic rainboom," Lone said, smiling as he said so. This got a chuckle from Luna, which made Lone feel happy all of a sudden. As the both of them were getting up, she said, "We are reasonably certain that I not the case, though I once thought the same of her being able to devour an entire cake in less than an hour, and I mean those large cakes, so that is in the air at the moment." Both of them laughed at this. That is before Luna was tackled by six more bullets, each a different color.
"PRINCESS!!" the element bearers shouted, happiness in their voices. Celestia than walked up, a few scuffs from her crash landing a few seconds ago. There were tears of happiness in her eyes, as she assumed that Luna, who was always sad but hiding it, was truly happy for once since this whole thing started, and she hoped that this meant it was over for good.
She then looked towards the two Lunar guards and said to them, "You both have my thanks for helping to cheer my sister up, but I am afraid I have another request for you two."
"What is it, your Highness?" Lone asked.
"Have you heard anything about meteors heading towards Equis?"
"No, ma'am. Why?"
"Because they may have been carrying intelligent life. What I am asking you to do is to take a contingent of guards trained in the use of sleep spells and attempt to make peaceful contact. The trajectories of the smaller debris of what may have been their ships landed somewhere within the everfree. If there is any indication of hostility, whether to you or any native wildlife, with the last being if there was no way to get out of it otherwise, I want you and the guards you take with you to knock them out and bring them here, where they will be put in the dungeons so I can interrogate them as to their reason being here on Equis." She paused, looking at her sister and the elements, who were talking about their adventures over the past month. She then looked back towards the two guards.
"You do not have to accept this task if you don't want to."
Nightengale responded for the both of them by saying, "We would be honored to take the mission, your Highness.
Everfree forest clearing; One hour, thirty minutes later
The op had been a success. The first group the guards had encountered went down with only threr having been missed in the first volley. Lone had made sure the guards were not only trained in sleep spells, but actually had a good amount of accuracy. The second group of aliens had been found twenty five minutes later. The reason why the task force, which consisted of five Lunar and Solar guards, hadn't tried to establish contact with them is because one of the guards had over reacted to them killing two hundred timberwolves and fired off a shot, which hit one of the armored aliens in the back. This group had put up more of a fight, wounding one of the guards who had come.
Most of the team was secretly a part of lone team, and knew how to handle threats, which is why only one guard, who wasn't a part of lone team, had been wounded. Everypony was in the process of getting the second group ready for transport back to Canterlot, the first having been carried away via pegasai chariot earlier.
Lone was overseeing the preparation when Iron Shield, a member of the Solar guard and lone team, walked up to him with Nightengale by his side.
"Lone, you need to see what me and Nightengale found," Iron said, his face blank, but his voice had urgency in it.
"Right," Lone said, getting behind the two.
Iron was a stallion of average height, his coat, instead of the usual Solar guard white, was iron in color, while his mane and tail were the color of rust, his cutie mark, whenever one could see it, was a shield, his eyes the same color as his mane.
The three walked for ten minutes before they got to their destination. What they saw was what looked to be an arsenal of weapons. "Well, whatever we're supposed to go against, Lone, we'll apparently need a lot of weapons, few, if any, being of Equis origin."
"You think, Iron," Lone said, more a statement than question.
"Oh, shut up, Lone," Iron replied
"Hey, Lone," Nightengale spoke up. "Think we should try to integrate some of this tech into our gear? Never know when this stuff might come in handy."
Lone thought this over for a second. Then said, "Yeah. Get as many invisible as you can. The smaller weapons only. Drop a few off at party animals house on the way back. That mare can work miracles with tech. Bring the rest back to Canterlot with us. If I'm right about the brotherhood's next move, we're going to need these things in the coming weeks."
Both Iron Shield and Nightengale nodded, placing an invisibility spell on a quarter of the smaller weapons, half of which were to be brought to Canterlot, the other half to be left with agent party animal for modification of them to be able to be wielded by non-unicorns, or anything that didn't have anything equivalent to fingers.
It took a minute for the weapons to be cloaked. After this, the three walked back to the clearing, where pegasai chariots were waiting for them. "You guys go on ahead without us," Lone said. "We need to see what the residents of ponyville heard about this." He wasn't lying. They were going to see what the residents of ponyville had heard, but also to spread word of this among the lone team agents in ponyville as well.
The guards leaving saluted and left on the chariots. Once they were gone, the three remaining guards made their way to ponyville.
Ponyville; ten minutes later
The look the three guards had gotten from the residents was anything but awe, fear, respect, or whatever usual emotions came from normal ponies seeing guards. No, the emotion on their faces was hate, anger, and whatever synonyms you could think of for those two words. "Be on your guard, guys. I don't like this," Lone said, his eyes scanning the crowds that appeared before them.
The three of them walked to a two story house that really wasn't that different looking from other houses in the town. Lone walked up to the door and knocked on it in a pattern.
Knock-knock. . . knock,knock
The door was almost immediately opened, the pony who opened it staying out of sight but saying, "Get in here, guys. They've been acing like this since those meteors came down, or are those Pranksters reinforcements that made all that noise?"
Before they answered, they walked into the house. When they were all inside, Party animal, better known as Vinyl Scratch, or DJ-PON 3 to use her stage name, closed the door and locked it, which ensured that no angry pony would be able to get in easily.
Nightengale responded by saying, "Yeah, but the Princess gave us an order that if they showed even the slightest hostility to sentient beings, we were to knock them out and take them to Canterlot. The rest of our group is en-route to Canterlot now, but we haave a new objective we wanted to give you personally.
Vinyl raised an eyebrow. "And what might that be, Night?" she asked, using his nickname, not his codename.
Iron, at Nightengales signal, uncloaked the weapons he had been carrying. "We need you to work on these. Modify them so they can be used by pegasai and earth ponies, maybe even use your creativity to convert these and a few of your own tech into covert weapon platforms."
Vinyl simply stared slack-jawed at this. Sure, she was lone teams best tech, but she had never been given this kind of job before. But she knew that since it came right from Lone, it was important.
She nodded and said, "I'll do it."
Iron nodded. "Right. We also need you to spread word to the others here about this."
"Got it. You guys may want to teleport out of here," Vinyl said. "The others outside look like they're ready to tear you apart."
Lone replied, "We were going to do that anyway. Still need to make sure everyone in Canterlot knows about this.
Vinyl nodded. "Right See you guys later. Tell Classic I said 'hi', by the way, would ya?"
Still trying to get yourself a mare friend, Vinyl? Can't say I'm surprised," Nightengale said. "Can say I'm surprised you're still after her, though."
"Buck you," Vinyl said in a friendly, joking tone. "See you guys later."
"You too, Vinyl," Lone said, grinning, before he, Nightengale, and Iron teleported to Canterlot in a flash of light.
Canterlot castle; twenty minutes later
Celestia had been at the landing zone with Luna and the Elements to see if the aliens were conscience or not. When the chariots landed, they saw that the aliens were un conscience and one of the guards were injured. They were not surprised, as Darkness Strider had teleported into the throne room and told them of the casualty, but withholding if all of the aliens were awake or not. Twilight was the first to speak up.
"Are those humans?" she asked, which got an eyebrow raise from Celestia.
"Twilight, I thought you said that they lived on the other side of the portal, and that they didn't wear what appeared to be armor?"
"I did, but that was an entirely different universe, so there might be cultural differences between the world my canterlot high friends are a part of and the world these come from," Twilight said.
"Perhaps," Celestia started, "you can ask them tomorrow after I am done interrogating them as to their purpose here."
Twilight wasn't the only one who thought they looked familiar, though. The last part of Luna's dream from six months earlier coming back to her. No longer was it just her and her sister she could clearly see, but also Twilight and her friends, as well as these beings, leaving only three in shadow, one of the other ones to have been cleared revealing Nightengale. She had no Idea what this meant, and knew she would not find out any time soon, so she dismissed herself for sleep, her sleep schedule having been aligned with everypony else's due to her nightmares, and hoped they would give her answers.