• Published 10th Jun 2013
  • 8,341 Views, 247 Comments

A Noble Cause - Sarkastik Menace



Death. All that remains on this planet are the martyrs who gave their lives to ensure the others could escape. Humanity’s greatest has fallen. 23 Billion humans died in the war, and only more would follow. The few strays on Reach were quickly f

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Wish I had an angel

Death. All that remains on this planet are the martyrs who gave their lives to ensure the others could escape. Humanity’s greatest has fallen. 23 Billion humans died in the war, and only more would follow. The few strays on Reach were quickly found and slaughtered. The last soldier died fighting, a fitting tribute to the planet humanity fought so hard to protect. Still, the story is not over for mankind, just as the story is not over for this lone soldier. This, is the story of Noble Six.

B312
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “She’s too young! Do you really think she’ll survive the program?”

“I wouldn’t have handpicked her myself otherwise if I didn’t think she could.”

Plasma seared past six as she sat behind the back of a burnt out wraith, waiting for the smallest window to take a shot with the last round of her fuel rod. She had forgotten how long she fought, and six grew weary. After the remnants of Noble team delivered the top secret AI to Captain Keyes, and ensured his ship’s escape, trading their lives for what one person said would win the war; This was how desperate humanity had gotten. The only member of Noble Team that even had a chance of surviving was Jun, the talkative sniper. Even then those odds were slim. Stories of ships making it through armadas of covenant ships were virtually unheard of.

The Spartan’s train of thought was snapped by the crackle of an energy sword, and she sprung into action. Using her lightning fast reflexes to her advantage, she popped out of cover, and fired. The elite, sprinting atop of the corpses of his fallen comrades couldn’t even dodge the giant ball of plasma, and was thrown back off his feet. He groaned, too weak to scream as the heated gas burnt through his armor and flesh as he embraced death. Six barely noticed the flame-like sound of a plasma grenade a meager foot from her boot. Realizing her cover was no longer an option, Six rolled backwards, dropping the fuel rod. Unfortunately Six was too late to save her shields. As soon as the soldier had recovered and stood up her visor was hit by by a volley from a plasma rifle, and she was blinded. The fluids dripped through six’s now useless helmet and burnt her face. With a deep breath she threw her helmet to the ground, picking up an assault rifle and began shooting at an elite with pinpoint accuracy, dropping him in under a few seconds. Six hadn’t even noticed being shot at.

Even without their motion tracker Spartans were still an extremely deadly threat for an enemy in close quarters. An elite general learned this the hard way, as he positioned himself behind six ready to pounce, mere milliseconds from sending an energy sword through her spine.The sangheili never had a chance. Without even turning, the veteran butted him with her assault rifle and knocked him to the floor. Six pulled at her pistol as the grizzled Elite snarled at her, granting him his death wish.

Another elite began firing, then shortly joined by another. She was thoughtless, emotionless. Six began firing her assault rifle in one hand and a magnum in the other. both her targets were mere feet from reaching her, but collapsed in their own blood. but a third reached Six, and had no time to react as the ultra knocked her to the floor with his foot. As Six was winded, the elite took his chance to finish her off. The elite aimed his energy dagger aiming at the soldier’s throat. Six put her foot up as a last ditch effort to stop the elite, if only for a second longer. The elite had no time to react and ran into Six’s metal boot and she kicked as hard as she could, and he stumbled backwards. This only made him angrier.

Another elite, zealot, raised his arm and activated his energy sword and struck downwards, aiming for her chest. the Spartan grabbed his wrist, forcing the sword to hit the ground. Six reached out with her right arm and punched him square in the mouth, jolting him upwards, and his sword flew backwards.

The ultra that had been repelled came back for revenge. and Six’s life flashed before her eyes. The moment played in her head. She would dodge and elbow him in the face, only in this motion would the zealot pick up his sword and plunge his sword into her.This was it. Unless...

disregarding her original plan she had attempted another motion. Sideswiping the ultra, he fell, once again, to the bloody dirt. The zealot raised his hand to stab her, but this time, Six was ready. She grabbed the ultra attempting to getting up, on top of her, letting the elite kill his own companion. The veteran moved the now dying elite off of her, and jumped on the zealot, and took out a combat knife and plunging the knife into his neck and twisted it. The dying beast choked something out in his language. Six immediately took the knife out, letting the sangheili die on his own.

Six turned around and saw four elites, of different ranks armed with plasma repeaters. reaching for her magnum, and found nothing. It must have gotten knocked to the ground. This was it. Knowing her fate, the doomed soldier closed her eyes and had remembered everything.

“Listen. Reach has been good to me, it’s time to return the favor. Tell ‘em to make it count.”

“ You’re on your own noble. Carter out.”

“I’m ready! How ‘bout you!?”

“I guess i’ll See you soon noble.” Six whispered aloud, drowned out by the merciless pounding of plasma.



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Daring Do

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“Sheesh it’s humid.”

The veteran explorer said aloud, tired from nearly a day’s journey. The jungles were harsh and merciless, yet so very beautiful. That was the only reason the adventurer had volunteered to trek all the way out here. Many ponies disliked the idea that a wild creature so elegant would likely end up eating you for dinner the second you let your guard down, but Daring respected it. She loved the wild, and felt home. No rules, no limitations, at the end of a day survival was a victory.

Three weeks she had been traveling, all the way from a small Royal Guards outpost on the western border of Equestria, but Daring finally arrived at her destination. An old temple built inside of a mountain. She stepped inside the narrow entrance and turned on her flashlight. All she saw was mold, grass, even plants. She rubbed the muck off of a wall, and saw a chrome-like metal, spotless. This wasn’t something Equestrian, she knew that much. She went onwards, inspecting for traps of any kind, but none were found. The interior was fairly simple and bland. A narrow corridor, with twists and turns, always at a ninety degree angle. There were occasional small rooms, with text that wasn’t of any pony, griffin, zebra, or of any origin she had any knowledge of. This was something she had never seen before.

After about, 10 minutes of vigilantly looking for booby traps, Daring Do eased up her muscles and, walked more casually, investigating the walls, ceilings, looking for something familiar, but the flashlight wouldn’t help her do that. But her ears did. She stopped at a sound, seemingly pony like, but at the same time not.humming? Daring thought to herself. The noise came from around the corner, and she hugged the wall, creeping forward to peek her head around it. She made sure to turn off the flashlight. The humming stopped strangely enough.“There’s no way it could have heard me...”She worriedly perceived. Sweat dripping down her face, she craned her head around the bend, not even exposing more than an eye, which couldn’t even be seen in this dark. All she saw was a bright yellow light. “That’s weird.” She whispered to herself, half relieved.

“Hello, creature. May you repeat your last statement louder?” The monitor stated, though it had no idea Daring spoke a different language.

Her pupils shrunk as she backed away from the corner, taking out her knife, and cautiously backing up.

“Wait! I have so much to ask!” It said more gibberish, at least according to Daring Do's ears.

the light popped up a yard in front of her she shined the flashlight in it’s direction and saw it wasn’t just a random light, but a floating sphere... of sorts. It had curves and its own unique shape. It was green, but showed obvious signs of aging. Dents, even it’s yellow light, which was at the center, had a large crack in the left of it.

“You are an.. interesting specimen, to say the least.” The monitor stated, probing her whilst trying to seem harmless, floating in the air innocently

As Daring was inspecting it it was inspecting her. She saw that the thing floated, and was quite agile, despite how unaerodynamic it looked, it’s looks were deceiving, It was spinning around her, under her legs, over them, inspecting every detail of her body, while she could only watch, less agitated but confused. Had this thing never seen a pony? Then again, she was pretty sure nopony ever saw it. . All of a sudden though, the floating... Creature? stopped and flew right in front of her face.

“Hello equine, I am 526 Broken Shard, and I am the monitor of this installation. Who are you and what brings you here?.”

Equine? That's the only intelligible word she heard in that entire sentence. she couldn't think of much to say herself,, so she simply tried to see if it was a different language, or the robot simply was broken. "Are you speaking Equestrian, or what? I cant understand a single word your saying.

"Ah, a different language." The monitor said in what only Daring could assume was it's native language. this thing was never even mentioned or seen in her years of exploration. Though it said moments later "Partial translation complete. converse additionally." Converse additionally? Partial was right, but still... it was amazing if this was a new language to the thing and it was already learning so much from a few words. She had a pocket dictionary, less than half a pound. It could probably help much more.

"Here, take this." Daring opened up one of her saddle bags and took the book out. The monitor took it curiously, the book levitating just like it was. it levitated in front of the yellow light, or probably it's artificial eye or something. The pages started turning fast on their own, and it closed the book and put it back in it's saddle bag.

"Translation complete, or at least assumed so. Now, let me introduce myself. I am 526 Broken Shard, and I am the monitor of this installation." The floating orb said.

"Installation?" Daring asked, wondering if the monitor knew what it's installation was more similar too. "This place looks alot more like ruins, honestly."

"Ruins? Well, that's degrading. Granted, this station's power supply has been rendered inoperable for a great measure of time. Though, all I ask of you now is your cooperation."

Weighing her options “What’s in it for me, if I do cooperate then?” Daring asked.

“I will show you the purpose of this installation and answer any questions you have about me or my origins.” obviously curious now that the orb revealed his friendly intentions, she silently followed him the other way, further into the 'installation,' As the orb turned on a light of it’s own.

“As I have previously stated before, my superiors have named me 526 Broken Shard, and I am the monitor of this installation. I am one of the few surviving pieces of evidence here left behind by the Forerunners, and safekeeper of the only intact installation on this planet. At this current time this facility is without power. This would explain the darkness and uncleanliness. I require an organic creature’s touch in order to restore power, and from there I can return my installation to a more optimal state.”

Daring thought about what Broken Shard had said, and let her natural cautiousness kick in. “Why would you need this place on anyway? I don’t think there’s anything to do in here.” Daring perceptively stated.

Broken Shard thought of something to say to ease the equine’s understandable concerns, whilst giving it a reason to let it restore power. “As you must have realized by now, this tangle undergrowth does not meet safety standards, and as a result over periods of time I was required to fight off any hostile creature that entered this installation. As a result, my operational ability has been lowered. This would also explain the damages on my exterior. If you were to restore power I would regain access to any of the systems which have survived the time, wildlife and other misfortunes to befall my installation, giving you and any of your possible acquaintances almost entirely unrestricted access to them.”

Daring once again thought deeply as she weighed her options. The creatures Broken Shard had to fight off that lived in the jungle were potentially more than capable of tearing through a squad of royal guards, and some of the beasts she thought of rarely traveled alone. Cringing at how powerful this tiny orb had to be to survive for years in the jungle, she figured it was safer to agree with it, although she couldn’t imagine it being the type of thing that would attack without being provoked. At the same time, knowledge of an ancient likely spacefaring race would be invaluable to Equestria, and she would get all the credit it for it... She chuckled inwardly at the thought. She was still somewhat worried. She put her flashlight up, pointed it at the orb and saw something black behind it, and it looked like a mark of some sort. Could this thing use magic? The Burst looked very powerful, considering it looked almost half her size. “Uhhh... Broken Shard. If all you needed was an organic creature’s touch, couldn’t you simply get a small animal to do it?”

“Oh! I almost forgot. The science behind the console we will be using to turn on the power requires that the key be held by a creature intelligent and trustful enough to wield it. Anyone else who would hold it would be pacified the second they laid hands, or in this case hooves, on it. After mathematical analysis i have concluded that the odds of you receiving a major physical injury are fifty eight thousand, nine hundred and twenty eight to one. Of course, these chances may concern you If you are hoping to exploit for evil gain I would advise you to say so now. Also, if you are not willing to do it say so now, or you may be pacified, quite fatally. There is no way around these protocols, for obvious safety reasons.”

Broken Shard waited for any of Daring’s responses as she thought “My causes aren’t evil right? No, they couldn’t be. Equestria won’t gain some groundbreaking knowledge they’d use to conquer the world." And she wanted to activate the facility, that much was certain. All explorers would crave to be in her position. “Excellent! this Now if you would follow me, We are arriving at our destination.”

The two arrived in another room, roughly the same as the others. Diamond like, but this seemed to be the end of the hallways, as there was no other exit to this one. There were two more tubes, with strange rods inside of them, which Daring could only think powered the facility, but unlike the rest of the building, they were clear as day.

“Please step into the room to your left, and I shall retrieve the key.” Daring obliged the monitor, knowing she was powerless to say otherwise, since she knew nothing of how to turn on the “installation”. She stepped inside the room, and observed it briefly with her flashlight. It’s shape showed a lot resemblance to that of a block, and what she could only assume was a control panel was smack in the middle, almost as high as her head. The height made her wonder though, who were these “forerunners”?

“Who are the ‘Forerunners’ Shard?” Daring asked, feeling stupid she hadn’t asked earlier.

“The Forerunners are, well, technically were a race similar to yours. Intelligent, organic, physically skilled, but very advanced. Any other details you might want to know can be answered when the power is restored, and I can access historical archives. Now, if you would grab this.” Broken Shard had a floating virtual key in front of it, as it burnt the muck off of the control panel, revealing a slot that seemed the size of the key. Still, Daring was obviously confused

“But that’s just a hologram. It’s not even a real object. How can that power a facility? And why do you need me to do it? Daring asked.

“I can only go so close to that panel. I cannot physically enter the room, let alone turn on the facility. Only I can turn on the facility, but to do so I require assistance by a sentienti being. Back when I was created the forerunners believed that monitors should be treated as an ally that could defect, so as a result all installations required an artificial intelligence and an organic touch to be activated. This is the result of an incident that took place during the Forerunner-Flood wars, when an AI, specifically titled 05-032 Mendicant Bias, went rampant and defected to the flood. The key on the other hand, is not a physical object, but if touched is programmed to act like a key would, in weight and motion. My personal advice would be to treat it like it was a real object.”

“Wait, what is the flood, and how many AI’s like you are there?” Daring asked, momentarily stopped.

“The flood... Hmm” Shard thought aloud, trying to make the briefest summary possible. “The flood are parasites, now stored and contained in much larger installations than this. They fought against the forerunners, but were eventually wiped out. A much more factual recount is available on the archives, after we turn on the power.”

"So your telling me about this key.... Your telling me that you are completely, literally unable to turn this on. No way around it, and you almost died from that. Doesn't seem like smart engineering there, pal."

"It was not me who created this facility, and if I had my wishes I would have full operational control over it. Unfortunately, after Mendicant Bias' corruption me and my kind were given much, much less trust over any matter. After that point we were all unable to almost anything without approval of a Forerunner, hence this key."

"And why can I use it then, if im not one of these 'forerunners'." Daring asked, wondering if this would even work.

"Now that, not even I know. maybe it was intentional, maybe not. Still, I know for a fact you are capable of activating the installation via that key

Daring carefully wrapped her off around the key, and shook her hoof slowly, finding it fit just like a real world key. She cautiously walked towards the podium and lifted the key, placing it in the slot, and heard a crackle of electricity from the rods as the key began to shrink in the slot. As it got smaller and smaller, the sounds got louder and louder. Lights began to blink, and the grass and mold began to burn up, revealing the facility’s true color. she looked around and saw that the two tubes crackled with electricity, as the lights kept blinking. They kept intensifying more and more, until the lights were on completely. Daring looked at Broken Shard as it disappeared from her view, probably to manage the power up. “Last time I accept a mission from motherbucking Celestia.” Daring muttered, growing tired of that floating monitor.

Then something unexpected happened. She was lifted into the air. Daring flailed her limbs and even tried to fly free from the unknown force’s grip, but to no avail. She couldn’t budge an inch, and was lifted further and further. Something hit her as she went numb. The lights brightened even more as the noise grew to a near deafening level. Daring shut her eyes to protect them, but all of a sudden the noise stopped, and she was dropped from the field. She was immediately was propelled towards the wall to her side, and the light in her eyes was replaced with darkness.

Opening her eyes, Daring stumbled to her hooves. Her ears were ringing, and her head felt like it had been hit with a hammer. The noise stopped, and she could see fine, so that was good enough. She turned around, and the two tubes which a few minutes ago were surging with a
ludicrous amount of electricity, were now dormant. That wasn’t the generator then. “Then what the buck do those do?” Daring looked around and half turned her head to the room she had activated the generator from. Something had caught her eye, and that was weird. nothing was in the room before. as explorer turned her eyes she grew more and more worried. Something was on the floor, and it was alive.

Daring went numb, thinking in her head what to do. She was dumbfounded at the site of the creature. It seemed to be wearing armor, green and white, with large gaps in the encasing filled in with a dark grey. “Only the second extraterrestrial being I saw today.” Daring muttered, frustrated. The explorer slowly approached the thing, one step at a time, examining it. Bipedal, with a helmet covering it’s face, if it had one. Daring thought of a plan on what to do. First, she would check for a pulse, and if it had one she would tie it up by it’s appendages, which she assumed would contain it. Magically enchanted rope could keep manticores at bay. The adventurer felt calm, for the first time of the day. That was, until the creature moved.