//------------------------------// // Getting to know each other-Pt 1 // Story: A Rarity of a soldier // by Lon35hadow //------------------------------// "So, if I may ask," Rarity asked the UNSC marines that had saved her as they made their way to the UNSC ship in orbit, "how is it the five of you speak perfect Equish?" "Equish," Jacob said. "I don't know what you mean, Rarity, but we aren't speaking your language, your speaking english, our's." "But that's impossible," Rarity said. "I mean, I don't have a large intelligence like my friend, Twilight, but even I know it shouldn't be possible for two different species to have two names for the same language." "Well, how'd you get here?" Josh asked. "I mean, that might be the explanation. You know, it somehow making you hear our language as yours, and vice versa. And I'm reminded of an old earth book series that had that in there." He shook his head. "Regardless, how did you get here?" "Yeah, I mean, you did appear in a flash of light," Tony said. "I-I don't quite remember," Rarity said. "In fact, the last thing I remember is walking through the two square back home." "Huh," Bishop said. "What ever it was, it must have caused some degree of short term memory loss." "Probably," Patrick agreed. "But I'd still like to know who you people are, and what are you running from, and why are you all dressed in green. It doesn't make fashion sense. It's absolutely horrendous." "Okay, two things," Josh said. "One, my name's Joshua Miller, but every one calls me Josh. I'm the analytical part of our team. As for green, that's because of the procedures done to the armor so we can wear it. And it isn't a horrendous color. It's my favorite. Want to know why?" "Well, yes, actually," Rarity said. "Because of a simple reason: Life. Green is the color of grass and living trees. It's the color evryone thinks about when it comes to being ecofriendly. In my mind," Josh said, "hating green is like you're saying you hate life, and to me, horrendous is synonymous with hate." "I hadn't thought of that," Rarity said, now slightly ashamed given the new outlook on the color green she knew of. "Yeah, that sometimes happens when you talk with Josh," Bishop said. "He uses logic in most arguments. Oh, and I'm Emily Bishop, the tech expert. Nice to meet you, Rarity." "Nice to meet you too, Bishop," Rarity said with a smile. "Oh, would you two please just stop with all the lady talk?" Tony said. "Oh shut it, Tony," Jacob said. "The wise ass here is Anthony Dinozzo, though every one calls him Tony. He's the lovable asshole with an obsession for old movies." "And I'm Patrick Beward," Patrick said. "I specialize in sniping and close quarters combat." "And just what do you fight," Rarity asked. "An alien alliance known as the Covenant," Jacob said. "And I'm Jacob Harken, though every one call me Jacob. Squad leader." "What's the Covenant?" "Well, there goes the ONI theory," Josh mumbled. "The covenant, Rarity, is, basically, how to put this?" H e snapped his fingers. "Got it. They're basically very zealous religious people who are trying to kill all of those they call heretics simply because we are different from them. Hell, they probably would have killed you if we hadn't killed them first." "Y-you killed them." "Hey, they started to kill us first," Tony said. "With no reason, either." "Why didn't you try to make peace with them?" Rarity asked, appalled. "Because they wouldn't give us a chance," Patrick said. "They always attacked us before we could do anything. Eventually, we just decided to try to blast the hell out of them." "But they're still living creatures!" "And we aren't," Jacob said. "Rarity, if you had to choose, with no middle ground what so ever, would you kill a single living being, or let him live, even if doing so, in any form, meant your friends, your family, died?" "It's a question everyone in the UNSC has faced, Rarity," Tony said. "And I'll give you three guesses as to what they chose." "I. . . guess you're right, but I still don't like the idea of killing." "No one said you had to," Bishop said. "I don't like killing, but I do it any way because for every covenant I kill, that's at least ten more humans saved." Even if only for a while, she added mentally. "So I almost died?" Rarity asked. "Nearly," Josh confirmed, much as he didn't want to. Really, if we hadn't been there, the covenant there would have killed you." He glumlu added. "Maybe even eat you." "What?" Rarity asked in shock. "They eat others?" "Yeah, some of the covenant species," Josh said. "Brutes, basically large apes, and Jackals, a mix of reptiles and birds, physically speaking." "Grunts, too," Tony said. "Not really a way to describe them aside from a chimpanzee fucked a dog and they had a kid." "Why is it you use such crude language?" Rarity asked. "Short and sometimes funny," Josh said. "Like you haven't cussed at some point, Rarity." "I haven't," Rarity said, small anger in her voice. "I do call bullshit," Tony said. "Everyone cusses, even Josh, who is more like you in his view of it then us." "Go to hell," Josh said, which got laughs from his squad mates. "Seriously, you haven't once had the urge to cuss," he asked Rarity after he stopped laughing. "Not at all," Rarity said. "Well, we can get back to this later," Jacob said. "We're almost to the ship, and I told the pilots to tell the captain we had something, said something being you, Rarity, by the way, he had to see. Security precautions and everything." "I suppose that's fair," Rarity said. "What's the name of your ship, anyway, if I may ask?" "The UNSC Antieatam," Jacob said. "And, again, what's the UNSC?" "Human military," Patrick said. "Hell, with the Covenant, we're practically the government." With that, the remaining part of the ride was in silence, Rarity thinking over what the others had told her. "And that's what happened to me just after I arrived," Rarity said. "So I assume Twilight's part is next?" Rainbow asked. "Yeah, but first," Twilight said, "what's with you, Rainbow? You seem more militaristic, and the both of us know what we're talking about." Rainbow chuckled. "Well, you see, after a year of you guys being gone, I kinda asked Princess Celestia to make a division of the guard in honor of the both of you." "Which she quickly took command of," Celestia added. "She's been in that position since four years ago." "And I'm her second in command," Spike added cheerfully. Twilight smiled. "Well, I'm happy for you, Spike," she said before she began her part of the tale. Equestria-Twilight's castle Twilight sat worried upon her throne in the main room of her castle, constantly looking over at Rarity's, hoping her friend was alright. She was so worried, in fact, she didn't even notice Celestia and Luna teleporting in behind her until the solar alicorn spoke up. "Twilight, is everything alright," she asked in a concerned voice. At the sound of hearing her teacher's voice, Twilight jumped out of her throne and turned around. Out of old habit, she bowed. "No, nothing's all right," she said as she remembered she didn't have to bow. She continued, not giving Celestia or Luna a chance to stop her. "You see,I was working on that long range teleportation spell experiment you wanted me to, Celestia, when Rarity walked in, scaring me and making me jump to face her, which made me lose concentration on holding the spell in, which means I accidentally teleported Rarity, and I'm not even certain if she's alive!" "Wait, you did what," Rainbow said as she and the other four Element bearers walked in, which made Twilight cringe, especially as she looked at Spike, who had a devastated look on his face.. "Don't worry, I already have a way to fix it," Twilight said. "And, pray tell, what might that be, Twilight Sparkle?" Luna asked. "Well, you see, with each of the spells, I wrote down what I had as spatial coordinates for it, and ensured they were in planetary systems that had planets that are hospitable to pony kind, as well as what our spatial coordinates were relative to those, should I accidentally teleport myself to one of those said planets." "Twilight, you don't plan on following Rarity?" Celestia asked. "Not alone, I hope." "I do, princess," Twilight said. "This is my mistake, and I should be the one to fix it." She stamped her hoof down, indicating she wouldn't back down on that decision. "Even with me in panic mode, I still had enough sense to pack for it, so there isn't any need to worry, girls." "Are you sure, Twi," Applejack said. "I mean, how will we know if you survive?" "Oh, I brought enough paper for a letter every week for a little over a year, if I don't write a lot, so if I stop sending letters, well, at least you girls won't need to waste energy worrying for me." As the last part of the sentence left, she took on a somber look, as did the others, as how she had said it, well, there was a finality to it. Regardless, the other seven embraced Twilight, smiles on their faces. As they pulled back, Twilight said, "I'll see you all in less then a year," hopefully with Rarity, being the unspoken but clearly heard part of the sentence. With that, she took a hold of the same crystals from earlier, and lit her horn with the same teleportation spell before she vanished in a flash of light. Human colony Shakespeare Ruso 'Tafamee, a Sangheili Ultra with his Type-25 Directed energy rifle, or Plasma rifle, as it was commonly called, stalked around the corner of a human warehouse, his active camo active. As he turned the corner, he brought his weapon up, pointing it at an unaware human soldier, who was looking the other way, its own weapon, one Ruso recognized as one of the more common assault rifles, up as well. Ruso smiled, as much as one of his species could, under his helmet, and unleashed a small burst at the filth, killing it as one shot hit its head and making its brains flash vaporize, causing a small, wet pop. As the human fell, Ruso saw a small flash, his helmet polarizing to compensate, from just beside the corpse. When it faded, to his surprise and befuddlement, there was a small creature with lavender skin, dark purple hair with stripes of fuchsia, and a horn from it's forehead and wings of the same color as it's skin.(1) He growled and raised his rifle at the creature, speaking in sangheili, "What are you?" The creature looked at him with a confused expression, not unlike a human's, and, in perfect English, the main human language, said, "What?" Ruso repeated the question, this time in the creatures tongue. "My name's Twilight Sparkle," the creature said, "one of the four princesses of Equestria. What are you?" Ruso bowed his head, mandatory when addressing royalty, and brought his rifle to his side. "I am a Sangheili," he said, "right arm of the Covenant, highness. If I may inqure, how did you come here, and why?" "I'm searching for a friend of mine," Twilight said. "I came here using a teleportation spell. Is there any chance you can help me." Ruso thought for a second. On one hand, this thing could be a human experiment, made to make its way into the Covenant hierarchy and destroy it from within. On a second, it was quite possible, given how it arrived, that it had come from the gods as a sign. Of what, he did not guess, as it was above his position. The third possibility was the creature's race truly did have what Twilight called spells, and, if he and the covenant did indeed help her, then they may very well gain a new ally. In the end, he decided it was a mix of the last two, the gods having sent her here by manipulating her spell. He bowed his head again, saying, "It would be my honor to assist you, your highness, but not here. It is much to dangerous for one as important to your people as you. This is a war zone, and those my kind fight would gladly kill you, as they are nothing more than animals. Please, if you would follow me so that I might escort you to our base and to the ship from which I was deployed so that we can make full use of our resources." "You're a soldier?" Twilight asked as the two began to walk. "Indeed I am," Ruso said. "I am a holy soldier of the Covenant, those destined to follow in the footsteps of our gods, the might Forerunners. Our mission is to find the Halos, the holy rings, and to cleanse humanity, a heretic race, from the galaxy." "Um, by 'cleanse', do you mean 'kill'," Twilight asked uneasily. "Indeed I do," Ruso said. "But why?" "Because they deliberately destroy the artifacts of the gods," Ruso said, hatred in his voice. "They have no honor, killing my people while our backs are turned and resorting to cheap tactics to win. Killing them is below a Sangheili, but we must to move along the path." "Haven't you tried to make some kind of peace with them?" Twilight asked, horrified. "That was tried with first contact, but they fired upon the covenant forces there as they searched for holy relics. What we do is in both retribution and to ensure they do not taint the path." "I assume that 'the path' is what you believe the Forerunners were on?" "Indeed, highness," Ruso said. "If first contact had ended better, the humans would be following the path as well, but they decided to fight us, and by extension, our gods, and so the prophets decreed they must die." "Well, would you kill me if I said it sounds like your 'prophets' are morons?" "The more zealous of my kind most certainly would try, highness, but, unlike them, I understand that you have not yet seen the glory of the path, nor of High Charity, our holy city." That, and I do not believe in it as much as my brothers, he silently added. "Now come. I do not know how many humans are between us and the outpost."