• Published 6th Dec 2013
  • 12,051 Views, 794 Comments

Guardian - Requiem17



After making an emergency slipspace exit Spartan II Ale finds himself the last survivor of UNSC Enduring Ember. Ale becomes the defender of Equestria. But there are dark forces rising. Can Ale defend our beloved ponies?

  • ...
54
 794
 12,051

Discovery

Ale regained consciousness slowly. The first thing he registered was the pounding in his head, the muted alarm of the ship providing the rhythm. He slowly opened his eyes, only to see the dark gloom of the room with some of the consoles occasionally sparking. He strained to sit upright, groaning with the effort. The red emergency lighting came on and Ale gasped in surprise. It wasn't in what he saw; it was the lack of what he should be seeing. Ale slowly stood up and peeked over the captains’ balcony. The floor was littered with debris and piles of ash. He backed up and took a closer look around. ‘Where did all the staff go?’ Ale thought. He walked over to a console and pulled up the crew log. Not a single IFF tag was shown to be aboard. ‘This doesn’t make any sense.’ Ale called out to the ships 'dumb' AI. "What happened?"

The AIs’ avatar flickered to life on a holopad. Her chosen form was a slim woman in civilian clothing. "There was a massive radiation burst as we fell into an unknown slip space anomaly. Unfortunately, the blast was potent enough to dissolve all living tissue." Ale started at this.

"I'm still here,” he countered.

"Your recent armor upgrades were constructed in such a way that the molecules curve outwards. This was intended to resist plasma rounds at a much greater level then your past armor. It seems to have resisted the radiation in an unforeseen way. If you wish I..."

"Yeah, yeah I don't need a lecture on this. The point is I survived and no one else did. I assume the Covenant weren't able to follow us?"

"That is correct."

‘Alright Ale, pull yourself together.’ Ale took a few calming breaths before he asked, "So where are we?" The AI remained silent for a few seconds.

"I do not know."

Ale closed his eyes and hissed slowly through his teeth, "What is that supposed to mean?"

"There are no known star systems that I can observe." Ale shook his head.

"So what you’re telling me is that we could be anywhere? In a different galaxy for that matter?"

The AI replied, "I would say it's safe to assume that."

Ale stood stock still as he processed this. He shook his head and tapped a few controls to see his surroundings. The external camera feed showed that the system he was in consisted of an Earth like yellow sun and three planets. Two of them were gas giants and were far away from the sun and one of them was rocky and was in what was dubbed as 'the Goldilocks Zone'. This planet had a moon and looked to have water. He was about to dismiss this until he looked closer. Ale couldn't believe his eyes. "What the hell!?" The sun was orbiting the planet. Ale had seen lots of things that didn't make sense, but he didn't think that even the forerunners could pull this off.

Ales headache wasn’t helping him process this so he soon got over it as he had other objectives at the moment. He took stock of his armor and its equipment. All of his equipment was unique as he didn't posses any ballistic weaponry. His assault rifle was magnetized to his back. It was sleek in design and had a special type of magazine. Within the magazine there was super condensed plasma that glowed an electrifying blue. The plasma recharged itself thus enabling the user to have unlimited ammo. All of his weapons possessed this technology. Ale didn't question how this worked. He was a soldier, not an egg head. There was also a secondary trigger on the assault rifle that shot a round of charged electricity that would stun his enemies if he wanted them alive. He had a pistol on his hip and a pair of SMGs that fit within grooves on each thigh. They were well hidden.

Satisfied that he was still in one piece he began to turn towards the console to see the state of the engines. "Sir, there are two intruders aboard the sub level decks."

"Intruders?" Ale wasn't sure what to think of this. "Can you pull up a video feed of them?"

"The lower decks sustained too much damage. All systems are non operational."

"Can you tell me what deck they're on?" Ale asked.

"They are on sub level D." Ale turned and walked out of the command room.

He found a service ladder a few meters into the hallway. He climbed down four levels and stepped into a dark hallway. He took a step and winced when it made a dull thud. He then took lighter steps and was satisfied that he was quiet enough. ‘You’d think that with all the fancy upgrades they would at least put noise suppressors in the feet,’ Ale thought. As he approached an intersection he heard voices. They sounded feminine in nature. Ale placed his back against the wall and slowly peeked around the corner and almost gasped at what he saw.

There were two horses observing a wall mounted defibrillator. One was black and had a mane that was starry like the night while the other was white with a multi hued mane. ‘This isn’t possible,’ Ale thought. He double checked and confirmed that there was no atmosphere in this deck. As Ale looked closer he noticed that they both had horns and wings that looked like they couldn't lift their bodies off the ground.

Ale knew of the myths about unicorns and pegasi but he didn't know what they were called when mixed. He would have thought he was crazy or that he hit his head too hard if it wasn’t for his vitals confirming that he was fine. ‘Well they’re not Covenant. First Contact protocol still hasn’t been updated since Harvest,’ Ale thought. ‘Better just observe them.’

He was so lost in thought that the sudden spotlight that flashed at him caught him off guard. He looked up and saw the horses staring at him. The spotlight was emanating from the white ones horn. ‘What!?’ Ale immediately pulled back around the corner and began sprinting, abandoning stealth for speed as he thundered down the hallway. He heard a voice but couldn't make out what it was saying. Ale placed a marker to the relatively undamaged hangar on his HUD. As he neared the elevator shaft the spotlight was on him again. He knew he didn't have much time before they caught up to him.

Ale put his fingers in the crease and wrenched the elevator doors apart. He slipped through and let the doors slam shut behind him. Ale dropped down six levels with a heavy thud, denting the ground beneath him. He began to wrench the bottom doors apart when he heard a loud bang. He looked up to see that the horse things had somehow pulled the doors completely out of the shaft. Ale quickly slipped through the bottom doors as the spotlight shined down the elevator shaft. He sprinted down the hallway and onto the balcony that surrounded the hangar on three sides. Right in front of him he saw a Sabre fighter hanging in its launching harness.

Ale made a running leap across the gap and landed on the wing of the fighter. He climbed into the cockpit and hit the start up sequence. Ale was focused on strapping himself in and was just about to reach for the harness release when he looked up to see the two horses flying a few meters away in front of him. ‘That’s impossible!’ Ale thought. The white horse seemed to be speaking and was slowly approaching. Ale wasn't having any of that. He pulled the release lever causing him to drop a few meters; punching the thrusters he blew past under the horses and out of the hangar.

The blackness of space surrounded Ale as he headed straight for the planet at full burn, leaving the impossible horses behind.