Chapter 10
CHAPTER 10
Adam navigated the pelican dropship to a position about a hundred meters off the starboard side of the ship. Landing was more difficult than taking off, especially without ventral thrusters, so it took Adam a while to find an area flat enough. But once he did, he set the ship down, and helped unsecure the ponies from their seats. Luna then flared her horn, and nodded that she was ready. Adam hit the button and the back hatch lowered, revealing the stark landscape of the moon beyond, and looming ahead of them, the crash of Lightning. The ponies all stepped out of the pelican, and stared in awe at the frigate.
“Wow…” Twilight said, mouth agape. “How do you build something so large?”
“Actually, this is one of our smaller ships,” Adam replied. “We have some ships that are standard in the fleet that clock in at around a kilometer. We also recently finished a massive warship that’s six kilometers in length.” This shocked all of the ponies, and their mouths all opened in surprise.
“Shall we get moving?” asked Luna. “I’m not sure how long I can keep up this spell so that we all fit in the radius.” Adam nodded, and began walking towards the hull of the frigate. If Adam remembered correctly, then the lower starboard airlock would be nearby. They could enter through there, pressurize the ship if needed, and then continue on. They continued walking for about a minute until they reached the hull, and Adam found himself correct. The heavy doors of the airlock were now right in front of them, with a control panel next to it.
“Here’s our entrance,” he said. “Let’s get going.” Adam approached the console, and began typing on it. He entered several command codes, and finally, the doors opened with a hiss. The ponies and human all stepped inside, and Adam pressed the button to close the door. Immediately after, oxygen started flooding the room, and Luna dropped her spell. After another few seconds, the oxygen stopped flowing in, and the personal assistant came online.
“Airlock oxygenation complete,” it said in a soft female voice. “Warning! The hallway beyond is not pressurized. Would you like to pressurize the ship?” A computer panel lit up next to Adam, and he pressed the confirmation button on it. Through the set of doors adjacent to the one that they entered through, they could hear another hissing noise. Thirty seconds passed, and then the personal assistant spoke again.
“Ship pressurization complete. Sealing bulkheads. Isolating breached sections.” The doors then opened, granting the group passage into the ship beyond. Adam stepped into the hallway, and saw that it was a mess. The metal walls were scorched, panels had come loose, and wires were hanging free… And the bodies. Down the hallway were two bodies of dead technicians who were likely servicing this area when the ship crashed. Adam slowly approached one of the bodies and flipped it over, so that it was facing him. The eyes were glazed over, and the face was very pale. Whoever this man had been, he had been dead for many days.
“Oh, my…” Luna said, approaching Adam. “Delta I’m… sorry.”
“There may still be survivors,” he replied, and he called up his motion tracker. He extended the range of the life signs scanner, so that it encompassed what remained of the ship. Throughout the whole ship, the only life signs were coming from right where Adam was standing.
“We’re alone…” Adam sighed. “It’s likely that they all died in the crash, or died afterwards when the ship depressurized.” Adam leaned over and closed the eyes of the crewman, then stood back up and began walking down the hall.
“Where are we going?” asked Doctor Gazer.
“Luckily, the front of the ship was almost completely devoted to the main cannon,” Adam said. “Anything important that we need to access should be in these back sections. First, we’re heading to the AI core. If he’s still online, we may be able to get some answers.” Twilight perked up, excited at being able to possibly speak to the AI. Adam noticed, and nodded at her. Then he began walking, until he came to a stairwell.
“AI core is two decks up, and further aft from where we are,” he said. “Let’s get there quickly.” Adam then began running up the stairs with the ponies following him. Once they were two decks up, Adam began navigating the various hallways, picking the course that would get them there the quickest.
“How do you…” Twilight panted. “Know where to go…?” Adam turned to look at her.
“I’ve been stationed about this ship, and others like it, several times,” he explained. “I know the layout like the back of my hand.” He then faced forwards, and continued running towards the end of the hall. Once he reached the end, he slowed to walking, and came to stop at a reinforced door marked “AI CORE”. Adam pressed a button on the side, and the door slid open. The AI core had fared no better than the rest of the ship. Many of the wall panels had come loose, dislodging any computer parts or wires that once ran through them. The actual core itself seemed to be mostly undamaged, but the lights on it were dim. Adam approached the hologram panel next to the core, and turned it on. He then activated the AI core. On the holo panel, a flickering and unstable apparition of an American Civil War-era general appeared. He looked around, then noticed Adam.
“A-A-A-Ada-am?” he said, his voice unstable.
“Ulysses!?” Adam yelled.
“Ad-d-d-am,” Ulysses continued, still unstable. “Li-i-i-ste-e-e-e-e-en. Our tu-urning up he-e-re. N-ot -oincidence. Sca-a-ans show --rerunner struc-c-c-tures unde-e-er-gro-o-o-ound. –epeat, Forerunner stu-u-ctures. –ou must investig-a-a-ate.” Ulysses went on to say something else that was entirely unintelligible. Adam grabbed each side of the holo panel, urging Ulysses to continue.
“What do you mean!?” Adam yelled. “What’s going on!?” Whatever Ulysses said in response was consumed by static, and the hologram cut off. The lights on the AI core faded out, and the room went silent. Luna then approached Adam.
“So, ‘Adam’, is it?” she said. “It would seem that your appearance in Equestria is more than mere coincidence.” Adam stood back from the panel, and turned to address the ponies.
“Yeah, I don’t know…” he said. “But what I do know, is that we need to finish our mission here. Come with me.” A few nights prior, Adam had recorded a very long message, detailing everything he knew about Equestria. He intended to upload this as an attachment to his SOS message. But to send out the message, they needed to get to the comms room.
“Come on,” Adam said. “Comms room is this way.” Adam exited the AI core, the ponies behind him. He then turned down several more hallways, until he came to the door leading to the comms room. The door slid open at his command, and revealed a dark room beyond. The lights had been taken out, and the computers were offline, leaving the room in complete darkness. Adam blinked at his HUD several times, and the helmet-mounted flashlights came online, illuminating the room. When they came on, the ponies all reeled back in disgust. Sitting in two of the chairs of the comms room were two dead technicians, both staring endlessly at the ceiling above them. Adam sighed sadly, and picked up one of the dead crewmen from his chair, and relocated him to the wall. Adam then took a seat in the chair, and powered on the computer. It lit up with a screen of all available comm buoys situated throughout the Orion Arm, which, in their current position, was none. Adam switched the screen to the SOS recording screen, then pressed the microphone button.
“Mayday, mayday, mayday,” he said. “This is UNSC FFG-818, Lightning, requesting immediate recovery and assistance. This is Adam, Spartan D-014, sole only survivor of the crash. Attached to this message is a data packet with all necessary information. Please render assistance. Spartan D-014, over.” He stopped recording, then uploaded his data packet to the message. With the message recorded, and the information attached, Adam saved the SOS, uploaded it to the beacon, and began broadcasting. Any ships looking for them within this sector would then be able to locate them, and provide rescue. Adam stood up from the chair, and turned to face the ponies.
“Okay, that’s that, now I suppose we can-,” Adam was interrupted as a notification inside his suit began beeping rapidly. He checked the notification, and it read “SUIT REACTOR LOW. PLEASE SEEK RECHARGE.” Adam cursed under his breath. He hadn’t realized that he had been running continuously on full power for so long. Plus, his tangle with the manticore several days ago probably damaged the power systems. He would have to get it to a repair bay, and soon.
“What’s the matter?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“My suit reactor is low on power,” he explained. “I need to get it to the repair bay, follow me.” Adam exited the room, the ponies following closely behind him. He reached the stairwell once again, and climbed up two more decks, then ran to the armory section. He was the only Spartan stationed aboard, so the armor fitting area was only a single room. The rest of the military complement was comprised of ODST’s and normal marines. Adam located the door to the fitting room, and stepped inside. The fitting room was, fortunately, situated in the middle of the deck, and was on one of the upper floors. This meant that damage was almost non-existent, though a few wall panels were crooked.
“What are you doing?” asked Twilight, curious.
“Stand over there,” Adam commanded, pointing to the wall opposite the fitting area. While in Equestria, Adam had been cautious of taking off his helmet for fear of becoming vulnerable to the guards. Here, he had the upper hand, as he knew the way around the ship. That, and the ponies were all unarmed. Either way, he had no choice. If he didn’t get the suit off and get it recharged, then the hydraulics would fail and it would instantly become much heavier. Adam walked to the control panel on the wall, and started the suit fitting initialization sequence. In the center of the room, on the floor and ceiling, were two circles.
Each circle slid open, and vertical beams ascended from the bottom circle to the top circle. Then, a ring with several robotic arms lining the inside descended from the ceiling, and spun so that it was facing upright. Adam stepped forward, and the robotic arms moved aside, allowing him to enter the fitting cylinder. Adam stepped into it, placing his feet into the two slots on the floor, and his hands into two circular handles on either side of him. He then stood still, back rigid, and let the machines get to work. First, the circle tilted him upwards, and an arm with a small square on it descended from the ceiling. It connected to his chest piece, and unscrewed all of the various seals that connected it to him. It then pulled away, taking the chest piece with it. The same was happening simultaneously to the back piece, and soon his torso was bare of armor. Next, arms extended from the ring and began unscrewing his shoulder pads and thigh plates. Once they were unscrewed, they too were pulled away. The same arms then returned and removed his gauntlets and the upper section of his boots. These were taken away, and the handles that he was holding on to removed his armored gloves, while the foot pads removed his armored boots. Finally, a single arm descended from the ceiling, and latched onto his helmet. It unfastened his seals, and slowly pulled the final component of his MJOLNIR armor away from him.
Twilight watched as the series of strange arms that moved by themselves rotated around Delta – Adam, she reminded herself – and relieved him of his armor. The way the arms moved and rotated around him was so perfectly orchestrated it was almost trancelike. Finally, all of the body armor had been removed, leaving only his reflective gold helmet. A final arm descended from the ceiling of the room and latched on to the helmet. Twilight her a pop and a hiss, and slowly the arm removed Adam’s helmet, giving Twilight her first look at a living, breathing human. She had briefly seen the faces of the dead crewmen in the hallways, but she had chosen not to look at them, as it made her nervous. But now she was staring at the face of the human whom she had come to know over the past several days. He had a long, flat face, with incredibly pale skin. He had two blue eyes that shone brightly, and atop his head was a “mane” of very short brown hair. The circular device lowered him back down to his original position, and he stepped out of it, now clad only in the black suit that was underneath his armor. He rolled his shoulders several times, and flexed his hands, clearly glad to be free of the armor. The circular machine that had removed his armor retreated back into the ceiling, and the hatches closed, sealing the chambers beyond shut. He noticed all of the ponies staring at him, and he looked back, smiling.
“What?” he asked. “Never seen a human before?” The ponies all stared at him in silence for several more moments, before they all smiled. Twilight scrutinized every inch of his form, and, though it was still mostly covered, she did notice one strange thing.
“Adam,” she said. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but… I notice that you’re much larger than the rest of the humans aboard this ship. Why is that?” At this, Adam’s smile disappeared.
“Yes, well, I mentioned before that I was a soldier?” he said quietly. The ponies all nodded. “I’m not just a normal soldier. I’m what we call a Spartan: a genetically enhanced super soldier designed specifically for incredibly high-risk missions, and to be able to tolerate extremely high amounts of pain.”
“Why would you become such a thing?” asked Luna. She did not understand exactly what he meant by “genetically enhanced”, but she knew that it did not sound too good.
“I volunteered,” he replied. “When the Covenant were finally driven off, we were still quite paranoid. Many years before we had developed the Spartan-II and –III programs, but I won’t get into those. Most of it is still classified. Anyways, we were still very paranoid, so we developed a new Spartan program, the Spartan-IV’s. We were trained extensively, then given surgical augmentations to enhance our strength, vitality, agility, everything. The process was incredibly painful, but when we made it out, we were prepared to take on anything…” Adam looked down to his feet, clearly not happy to be talking about it.
“What shall we do now?” Luna asked, attempting to change the subject. Adam perked up, glad to have his mind taken off of his recent past.
“Not sure,” Adam said. “I honestly hadn’t anticipated having to stay here longer while my armor got repaired…” Adam scratched his short mane, and rubbed his chin. Finally, his eyes lit up, and he looked to the ponies.
“I could show you some cool human stuff,” he said. The ponies all exchanged glances, and then nodded at Adam. He smiled and exited the room, walking out into the hallway beyond.
The next several hours that Twilight and the other ponies spent aboard Lightning were consumed by touring the ship, and Adam showing them various pieces of technology. He had taken them to the “R&R Room” to show them what he called “videos”. Twilight was surprised to find that they were similar to the short movies that were occasionally shown in Ponyville, but were of much higher quality. They were shown many different videos throughout human history, from the launch of their first spacecraft to their own moon (which excited Princess Luna quite a bit), to the first slipspace drive test. Rainbow Dash was, as Twilight had expected, intrigued by all of the various flying machines that were shown. For most of her life, she had known herself to be the fasted Pegasus in Equestria. But to see these vehicles going many times the speed of sound, and even reaching FTL speeds, was incredible to them all. As the video that they were currently watching ended, which was a simulation of something called the “Keyes Loop”, Adam stood up and stretched.
“What’s the next one?” Doctor Gazer asked. As he watched, he had been hurriedly writing down as many notes as he could on what was occurring. Adam walked up to the large flat screen that was projecting the images, and tapped it. It gave way to the library of videos that were available to watch, and Adam began scrolling through them.
“Hmm,” he said. “I guess we could watch-.” He was interrupted as Princess Luna’s head jolted upright, and her pupils shrunk. Adam heard the sound of her back straightening, and he turned around to face her.
“What’s the matter?” he asked, concerned. Luna did not move for another few seconds, before she shook her head, then stared at Adam gravely.
“We must go,” she said sternly.
“Why?” Adam asked. “What’s going on?”
“There had been an incursion,” Luna explained, standing up. “We must return to Equestria, quickly. Please, will you allow me to teleport us?” Adam shook his head.
“What about the pelican?” he said. “You can’t teleport all of us, and the pelican, all that way. You’d kill yourself.” Luna nodded, knowing he was right.
“Very well,” she said. “I shall teleport back, you all shall fly. I will meet you in Canterlot. Land in the royal gardens.” Adam stepped forward, about to protest, but Luna lit her horn and suddenly, was gone. Adam turned to face the other ponies.
“Alright,” he said to them. “Let’s go.” He exited the room, walking quickly. Twilight shot up from her spot curled up in a chair, and followed him out. She followed him back to the armor fitting room, beginning to grow nervous. Trotting behind her were Rainbow Dash and Star Gazer, both equally as nervous. Adam entered the armory, and once again started the fitting process. Only this time, everything was done backwards, with the gauntlets and boots going on first, and the rest of the armor on after. As the armor was assembled around the human, Twilight noticed that the dents caused by the manticore several days prior had been repaired. It also seemed to have been cleaned, and she noticed that some parts of the armor looked a bit different.
“Did you get new armor?” she asked him as he spun around in the circular fitting mechanism.
“Just got a few upgrades, is all,” he said as the helmet descended over his head, once again sealing it from view. The arms retracted and the circle restored its original position, and Adam stepped out. He looked to the ponies.
“This way,” he said. Twilight noticed as he led them throughout the ship that they were going a different way from the way they had come in.
“This isn’t the way to the airlock!” Twilight called out to him. As he ran, he turned his head to face her.
“We’re not exiting that way,” he explained. “Well, hopefully.” Adam then once again faced forwards, and kept running. Twilight was curious as to what he meant, but continued to follow. He led them down two more flights of stairs, then down a long passage. The passage ended at a large door labeled “HANGAR”. Adam stopped in front of the door, then turned around to face Twilight.
“Do you know that atmosphere spell?” he asked.
“Well, yes,” Twilight said, confused. “But I’m still not very good at it. I can only maintain it for a couple of minutes.” Adam nodded, and turned back towards the door.
“That should be enough,” he said, and began typing on a panel next to the door. At the end of the passage behind them, a large door closed, and alarms began to go off.
“What are you doing!?” Twilight asked, becoming afraid.
“Getting us a ride that still works,” Adam said. “Turn your magic thing on… now!” Twilight lit her horn, and a small radius of breathable atmosphere expanded over the ponies. The large door in front of them opened, revealing a massive room, filled with debris and wrecked items. On either side of this massive room were two walls exposed to outer space. Twilight recognized several of the vehicles in the room as being “pelicans”, though most were completely wrecked. All except one, which was still miraculously tied down at the end of the hangar.
“Come on!” Adam yelled, and he began running for the intact craft. They reached it in just under a minute, and they all clambered inside. Adam closed the back hatch, and while he walked into the cockpit, Twilight, Dash, and Doctor Gazer all secured themselves into the seats. The overhead lights came on, and Twilight heard the sound of the engines spinning up outside.
“Life support is on,” Adam called from inside of the cockpit. “You can drop your atmosphere field.” Twilight did so, and began panting. It had taken a lot out of her, only a few more seconds and it would’ve dropped on its own. Adam pressed a few buttons in the cockpit, and the pelican hovered off the ground. Vertical takeoff, Twilight realized. This one must be undamaged. The pelican hovered for a few more seconds, before it shot forward, out of the large frigate and into the space over the moon. Twilight looked out of the forward window, and saw the distant orb of Equis looming ahead of them, steadily growing closer.
“These engines are in better condition, so we should arrive in only a little over an hour this time,” Adam said as he floated out of his seat, then magnetized himself to the deck.
“Adam…” Rainbow Dash asked nervously. “What do you think Princess Luna meant by ‘incursion’”? Adam shook his head.
“Yeah, I don’t know,” he said comfortingly. “But I’m sure everything will be okay.” None of the ponies were very eager to talk this time, so Adam walked back into the cockpit, and strapped himself back into the seat. All Twilight could do was watch out the window as Equis grew larger, and hope that everything was okay.
Princess Luna disappeared from the R&R room in a flash, and an instant later, she was standing in her sister’s quarters in Canterlot Palace. Princess Celestia was pacing nervously, an ethereal map of Equestria hovering in front of her. Luna noticed with dismay that the area around the ruins on the Gryphonia border was highlighted red.
“Sister,” she said, snapping Celestia out of her trancelike pacing. “What has transpired?” Celestia stared at her sister gravely.
“The Griffons have attacked the contingent of guards we had securing the ruins,” Celestia replied. “Many are already dead, and the Griffons are amassing around the ruins.” Luna’s heart sank at the news, and she felt sadness for the guards. But there was something else she felt… Something she had not felt since she had faced down Discord, all those years ago. For the first time in two millennia, she felt fear.
Stats
Page generated in 0.037 seconds
Total duration
603 users online
893,671 hits today, 2,280,440 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Amazing. Absolutely amazing. Great work on this story, I'm enjoying this a lot.
Can't wait for more, and I have a feeling the griffons are going to unveil some fancy new toys that are way more advanced than the griffins should have.
~Crystalline Electrostatic~
well... shit is about to hit the fan
...Okay, well, Griffons aren't going to end up too happy. Just a.. prediction I'm making.
Niice
“I could show you some cool human stuff,” he said. The ponies all exchanged glances, and then nodded at Adam. He smiled and exited the room, walking out into the hallway beyond
Sigh.
This is what the A.I. was thinking
welp, the griffins are dead.
Time to kick some ass Spartan style.
Prepare to fire the orbital friendship cannon!
4582362 So I am not alone in this universe?
My pleasure to meet you.
Buckle your pants here we go!
Everyone hold your hats
Cuz Adams gonna unleash 157,000 gallons of untreated spartan whoopass!
4793005 spartans dont just attack a random species just like that but since i'm commenting this a bit late
4793005 Fuck the Imperial system of units, its 594.31 Cubic meters.
5771907 is that a lot
#$@* just got REAL!
6116650
You also need to understand that was Spartan III armor. These changes could of happened to reduce the cost to make the armor, as well as to adjust to the changing of Spartans. Spartan IV are not as strong as Spartan III, and defiantly not as strong as MC.
Fucking griffons, it's always those oversized birds
Blasted Gryphons... they picked the wrong nation!
well im getting my KFC bucket
I CAN'T BE THE ONLY ONE NOT SEEING THE FUCKING FLOOD COMING OUT OF THE RUINS!!!!
I wouldn't say flood. Maybe forerunners
9614672
I hope it's the Flood... Just to spice things up a bit.
Fear