//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: The Last One Standing... // by Promethean 27-B //------------------------------// THE LAST ONE STANDING A My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and HALO crossover 109,067 years ago… 27 was slammed into the bulkhead once again as the ship vibrated under the stress of another blast. Her ship, the Unyielding Pursuer, was a destroyer class ship the Forerunners gave her temporary command of. The Unyielding Pursuer was a large, triangular ship, similar in structure to a Forerunner Capital ship, but smaller and bulkier and bristling with turrets. At 638.9 meters long and with firepower that can gut most of the opposition, it was a force to be reckoned with. But today was not the case. The Flood knew the Forerunner’s last ditch plan, and was initiating a final assault to destroy the Ark, Installation 00, to stop the firing of the Halos. But before they could reach the Ark, they had to bypass the Forerunners first and last line of defense, the last of the Forerunner Fleet, comprised of 56 carriers, 146 cruisers, 18 Dreadnoughts, 187 destroyers, and 34 scout ships supported by nearly 700 flights of fighters and drones, under the command of Offensive Bias, all in all, 441 ships and 4,200 fighters. But there was a catch… They were outnumbered ten to one… During the course of the battle, the Unyielding Pursuer had sustained heavy damage, taking two bombing raids and nearly three plasma torpedoes. Decks 2-8 are damaged in multiple places, Decks 9 and 10 were venting atmosphere, and parts of the outer hull were raging fires as fire control systems worked for the past 10 minutes to put them out. The command deck looked no better, one of the consoles even took so much damage it burst into flames. ‘I hate space combat’ 27 thought grimly. “Commander, that is it!” a Promethean at the helm said “This ship can’t take much more! The reactor has taken too much damage! Turrets 4, 5 and 7 are the only operational turrets ant the main gun is damaged!” “I will NOT retreat as long as a single weapon on this ship can fire!” 27 shot back “This is our last stand against Mendicant Bias and our only shot to win this war! If you wish to be labeled a coward and a traitor to the whole galaxy, then please SPACE YOURSELF!” “We are with you Commander!” another Promethean shouted. 27 nodded at their quickness to recover, and began barking order once again. “Navigator, come about 140 by 347 on that Flood cruiser!” she ordered. A Promethean checked her course and plotted it in. “But Commander, That is a collision course!” the Promethean remarked. 27 smirked. “Indeed it is…” she said, and turned to a monitor to her right, “can the hanger still hold an atmosphere?” “Yes Commander, Hull integrity around the starboard section has not yet been compromised…” “Seal it and fill it then!” she ordered and turned to her navigator once again “Execute course!” “Executing!” the navigator said, and the ship lurched forward with its five large engines. The Flood Cruiser, or human infested Cruiser, was much larger than her ship, but more bulky and slower, so the ship did the only thing it could, it charged its main battery. “Commander! Flood ship has spotted up and is preparing a firing solution!” the Helm said. “Hold fire and stay on course!” 27 ordered. The Cruiser’s Main battery charged from a dull grey, to bright blue, then white hot, and launched a salvo of six plasma torpedoes. “Commander, Six Torpedoes incoming, time to impact, six seconds and counting!” helm shouted. “Roll 90 degrees to port and hold course” 27 ordered, and the ship rolled left, now making the flood ship appear on its side. 27 turned to the monitor, “prepare to vent atmosphere from starboard hanger!” then she turned to the Promethean manning the weapons console “Overload all remaining turrets and aim starboard!” “Yes commander!” it said. “Four seconds!” helm shouted. “Hold course!” “Three seconds!” “Two seconds!” “VENT THE ATMOSPHERE NOW!” 27 shouted. There was a large BOOM as the pent up atmosphere was released in the blackness of space, shooting the ship to port and avoiding the plasma torpedoes by near meters, causing the Unyielding Pursuer’s weakened shields to flayer up just from the bleed of the torpedoes alone. The Flood ship’s weapons strained to track the ship as it escaped from its view. Now position under the enemy ship, 27 said the one order the Promethean's just loved. “FIRE!” 27 roared and the remaining three, now over clocked turrets opened up, firing a straight beam of hardlight. The turrets shot out the shields in a second, then began to neatly bisect the flood ship, cutting it in half from stem to stern. But as soon as the turrets finished their work, they overheated and turret 5’s guiding rail’s had melted and deformed, rendering it useless. “Turret 5 is destroyed and the other two need at least five minutes to recharge” the Promethean at the weapons console said. 27 nodded. “Helm, turn us around, we are in the cavalry’s way” she said, referring to the other destroyers. “Yes ma’am!” it said, grinning. The ship came about and face its allies who also fought their own battles, holding a lose formation together. But unknown to them, the neatly cut in half cruiser still had survivors, and from one of its undamaged bays and maneuvering around the debris field, were three boarding ships, all of which flew in undetected, and latched on the Unyielding Pursuer’s third deck with a loud Clank. “INTRUDER ALERT!” the ships AI sounded off as warning lights began to strobe. 27 cursed under her breath, and turned to the Monitor. “You have the Conn…” she said, “I will deal with this personally…” “Yes ma’am” XXX 27 crouched low to the ground on all four legs as a plasma round sailed over her head. 27’s Promethean form stood at a whole 8 feet tall, and her tail, which was separated into segments and levitated in place, twitched in annoyance. 27 unfolded her wings and placed them in front of her as a shield, her wing membrane being made of hardlight. 27’s commander designs flared bright red in further annoyance as the Binary Rifle mounted on her back fired again and again, trying to keep the flood pinned down. ‘Screw it’ she thought, and sprinted forward to her enemy’s location. Plasma bolts flew passed her head and hit her sides, but her powerful shields took the blow for her, once in range of the flood’s makeshift cover, they didn’t have a prayer. 27 jumped over the barricade and slashed at the first flood infected human with her hardlight claws. The second one roared a challenge, but was quickly put down by her Binary Rifle. As soon as the round from her rifle hit it, three combat forms dropped their weapons and vaulted high into the air, as if content to land on her and crush her with their combined weight. 27 saw them, and quickly teleported to the right avoid their attack. The combat forms landed as soon as 27 re-materialized, and engaged her. 27 jumped forward and landed on her first assailant, crushing it on the ground with tremendous force. The second was in 27’s face quickly and raised its tentacle arm for an attack, but the attack was intervened by 27’s hardlight tail blade shooting over her head, like a scorpion would, and stabbed it in the chest where the infection form resided. The third just got shot to death by her mounted rifle. “Commander, Halo activation in 5 minutes… just kill the Flood off until then!” a Promethean said over her comm. 27 didn’t reply, more focused on the task at hand. Just then four more combat forms emerged, and 27 turned to face them, and cursed. Three of them held Light Rifles and took aim, but the last one was a Flood Pure Form; a tank that held an Incineration cannon. That was a very big problem. The Flood wielding light rifles had already gotten a bead on her and opened up, sending hardlight rounds downrange to meet her. 27 rolled to the right, switching out her Binary Rifle for her Suppressor and sent her own rounds down range. 27’s rounds hit her intended target, one of the light rifle wielding combat forms, that was picked up and torn apart by her Suppressor, and the other two fell behind cover. But the Tank with the Incineration Cannon remained there, and launched an Antimatter round down range. 27 jumped out of the way, but the resulting blast created a hole in the deck where she once stood. 27 landed behind the hole, and smiled darkly with a blood thirsty expression. ‘Finally… A challenge’ 27 thought. She backed away a little more and summoned the famed sentry gun that only a chosen few Prometheans could summon. She tasked the floating gun to focus fire on the light rifle wielding combat forms as she focused on the tank. 27 then jumped over the hole and sprinted to the tank that towered over her. 27 knew that the Incineration cannon can kill the person wielding it if the intended target was to close, so she closed the gap between her and it. Once close enough, 27 vaulted into the air, intending to throw off the tanks aim as it tried to fire upon her again, and the Antimatter round passed harmlessly under her. 27 landed on the tank’s back and her claws dug into its shoulders as it tried to throw her off by shaking like a dog. As it bucked, 27 fired a whole magazine of her Suppressor into its back, weakening its armor. It roared loudly, it was angry or panicking now and ran backwards into a wall, crushing 27 between it and the hull. 27 coughed up a mixture of blood and coolant as her body was caught between the wall and the tank. “No… you… DON’T!” 27 growled as she placed all four legs on the flood tank’s back and pushed with all her might. The tank roared once again, in anger for certain this time and pushed against 27’s force, but losing. Its feet began to drag forward on the ground away from 27, and it was pissed. With one final push, the thing was off her and 27 rolled away from it. But it charged forward with a massive arm low to the ground, intent on crushing her to a pulp. 27, however, had other ideas. She stood up on her hind legs, her forelegs stretched out in front of her, and she caught its massive arm, and with effort, ripped it off. The tank roared in rage and pain and raised its other arm, intent on killing 27 with the Incineration Cannon once and for all. “30 Seconds to Halo activation!” a Promethean announced over the ship wide intercom, and 27 smiled. “You will be dead before then…” 27 said to the tank and leaps for it. The tank, in a last ditch effort, fired once again. XXX Blood… Blood everywhere… But no bodies… no hosts… no Flood… 27 sat on the deck, a large amount of green, viscous glue stuck to her maw, as well as beads of her own orange blood. She sighed and closed her eyes wearily. ‘100 million years of war… finally over’ she thought. A smile creased her face, blood staining her metallic teeth. 27 began to quietly laugh, not in joy, but in revenge. She had her revenge, and her family can finally rest in peace with all the billions lost in this bloody fray. But she was not at peace. 27 was no fool, she knew a lot of work and rebuilding must take part now the installations have fired. Life must once again take the place of death. But that would take a lot of time. “Commander, you are requested Installation 00” a Monitor spoke over her comm. 27 closed her eyes and sighed. ‘No rest for this weary soldier after all’ she thought grimly. “Understood…” 27 said quietly “I will take my fighter, you will take the ship and sweep the debris field for any survivors…” “Understood Commander” the monitor replied. 27 stood up on all four legs, her powerful claws capable of tearing apart dreadnought class hull armor felt weak after years of fighting. Slowly, she walked to the hanger bay where her fighter awaited. XXX 27’s fighter was a large multi role fighter capable of fighting in space and almost any atmosphere. The triangular ship was large, almost as big as a small house, but this fighter was built with operators like 27 in mind. With twin hardlight cannons mounted in the nose and a plasma torpedo launcher mounted in the belly, it was a force to be reckoned with in the terms of space combat. 27 moved up to it and crawled in through the top hatch, closing it behind her with her tail. She took up the seat that was designed for her behind the controls and locked herself down. “Unyielding Pursuer flight command, this is commander 27 requesting authorization to leave, are the skies clear?” 27 asked. There was a slight pause over her com before someone answered. “Commander 27-B, roger that, hanger bay clear, you are clear for takeoff” the AI responded. 27 nodded. “Roger that, beginning takeoff…” 27 said. She then reached for a button and pressed it. Outside, the ships engines groaned and roared to life, the sound echoed throughout the hanger. The rear engine pointed down and the ship lurched up about a meter before shooting out the hanger like a bat out of hell. The fighter, now clear of the hanger veered hard left in the direction of the ark, but to get there, 27 had to go through the debris field. 27 flew through the debris field, and slowed her ship down. She looked around at the multitude of ships, all very different. The field of death seemed to go on forever in all directions, almost like a graveyard. How many people died here? A gutted human cruiser floated just off the left wing and she watched it tumble, like it was participating in a silent ballet. 27 sighed and looked around at the ships. Forerunner, San'Shyuum, Unggoy, Kig-Yar, Sangheili, Human and many more races of ship made up the death toll. 27 stopped her ship in a nearly open spot and closed her eyes, fighting back the horrors of the war, fighting back the tears. She just wanted the war in her head to end. The constant battle between machine and Dragoness raged inside her almost every time she had a moment to stop and think. She opened her eyes and looked down at her claws. ‘I’m still here; I’m still alive… why though?’ 27 wondered ‘so many others could be alive…’ 27 then shook her head ‘No, I ran the simulations, I ran the problems, and this was the only way…’ 27 looked back up to the debris field. This was the only way That thought echoed through her head and it tore what was left of her heart apart as a small piece of debris bounced off her fighter’s shields. 27 sighed and looked at the piece of debris that hit her ship to find… a floating stuffed animal, half its face gone. 27 tried to look away and dismiss it, but found she couldn’t. This was the only way 27 recoiled a bit. Were there uninfected survivors on those ships? The Flood would never keep objects like that on their warships unless it was of strategic value. 27 scanned the area around her for any sign of life. There were no results, nothing survived the Halos. 27 leaned back and sighed and looked at the navigation console and discovered she was 338 kilometers away from the Ark. ‘No need to keep them waiting any longer’ 27 sighed, and ignited the engines of her fighter again and begun to speed along the debris. WARNING! SLIPSPACE DRIVE RUPTURE DETECTED! 27 spun the ship around to the source of the rupture and found that the same human cruiser as before with its slipspace drive exposed, leaking its fuel into the blackness of space. 27 scanned it further to find that the damage to the reactor was extreme. 27’s eyes widened. ‘It’s going to blow!’ 27 calculated and reacted with the speed only a machine could produce, and slammed the ship around 180 degrees and hit the afterburners. The Fighter rocketed forward and the drive in the human ship detonated. The ship, moving at about 443.7 meters per second dodged the ships left and right, rolling around the debris to avoid the all consuming blast chasing her. 27 was moving fast, but the blast was faster. Slowly, but surly, the blast was catching up. ‘Come on, COME ON!’ 27 thought as the blast closed in. She banked left to avoid a dislodged engine then right again to dodge a large, warped piece of metal. There was now a whole Human carrier in front of her, and without the option to go around, she flew through a large hole in the plating, spinning to avoid the edges. But all this dodging, fancy or not, is slowing her down, and the blast was almost upon 27. Now inches from the rear of her ship, the fighter’s sensors (as well as her own) were going crazy. Audible alarms rung over the ship, and before 27 knew it, she was engulfed in the slipspace explosion. The fighter tumbled end over end in the artificial worm whole. The fighter, not designed for solo operations in slipspace, began to warp and violently shake its self apart, and 27 did the only thing she could do. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the ride. XXX The slipspace rupture opened, spitting the ship out before collapsing on its self. The wreak of a fighter tumbled through the upper atmosphere, breaking apart. As it tumbled, the dragoness inside has shut down due to the exposure of slipspace radiation, and was blissfully unaware of her possible doom. But the ship did finally make landfall in a dark and murky forest. The ground under the fighter shook as if in pain when the ship struck in the middle of a clearing, and was left to rest. It’s sole occupant still offline, waiting to be revived. XXX