Chapter 14
CHAPTER 14
Adam exited the sixth set of ruins shown to him by 401 Lamenting Chorus, his mission there a successful one. Over the past six days, he had been performing several operations against multiple Forerunner monitoring stations. They had been taken and damaged by the griffons, thus cutting off the Forerunner monitor’s connection to them. After his first successful op, he had returned to the pelican, and began planning the second one. Once the second one went off without a hitch, he continued on, and on the next day, he hit the third. Once again, his mission had gone perfectly according to plan, but, as he expected, his luck soon ran out. Word of his assaults had begun to spread across the griffon population, as well as rumors that he was targeting the ancient ruins only. Therefore, when he arrived at the fourth set of coordinates, he was the one who was taken by surprise. Stationed at the base had been dozens of griffons, all of them watching every possible direction. Initially, Adam had simply tried attacking using brute force. But, even for a Spartan, fighting dozens of the griffons at once was not easy. Eventually he was hit hard in the chest by a large hammer, and had been knocked backwards. He had then fallen back to recuperate. Normally the hammer wouldn’t have harmed him, but the constant barrage of arrows and spears had taken his shields down. Therefore, when the hammer hit him, his armor absorbed most of the hit, but sent the shockwave right through his chest. This resulted in him bruising a few ribs, but it was nothing that the automatic biofoam injectors couldn’t take care of. After he had healed, Adam had returned to the task at hand. In order to deal with the much larger numbers, Adam had decided to use hit-and-run style tactics to weaken the griffon forces, then went in for the kill. This tactic had worked over the past few days, and had resulted in the success of clearing out ruins four, five, and six. All that remained now was number seven, which he was sure would not be easy.
Adam reentered his pelican dropship, strapped in to the cockpit, and spun up the engines. The next set of coordinates would take him five kilometers away, closer to the western Equestria border. As he saw the border on the map, his mind briefly returned to the last night that he had seen the ponies. He had defied royalty, spoken rashly, and left to go incite violence with an alien race that he knew little to nothing about. And while Princess Celestia was not his superior, which he made perfectly clear to her, Adam still respected her authority and position, and did not want to do anything to endanger his relationship with the peaceful ponies. Even so, if this was his best chance at returning to the UNSC, he was going to take it. Still, Adam decided that as soon as he was finished at the seventh set of ruins, he would return to the palace to wish them all farewell, before he would then return to 401 Lamenting Chorus.
The flight to the ruins was a short one. At normal speeds, the pelican arrived in only fifteen minutes. Once there, he set the pelican down a short distance away, and walked out into the troop bay. He grabbed his usual kit, the suppressed M7S submachine gun, and the M6C/SOCOM pistol. Adam quickly checked his ammo for each weapon. While the pistol still had quite a fair bit of ammunition left, he had used most of the rounds for the SMG. Adam briefly wished that he had his old pelican, with the extended weapons bay. The extra ammo would definitely have come in handy here. Either way, Adam was a good shot with the pistol, so he decided to save the SMG for the close-quarters nature of the ruins, and use the pistol outside. Quietly, the Spartan crept towards the ruins, and activated the zoom function on his visor. As he expected, he counted 60 griffon soldiers guarding the outside of the ruins, and there were very likely more inside. This was a larger number than the previous ruins. Even with their reinforcements, ruins four, five, and six had only had about 30 or 40 griffons each. Either way, this is was no difficult task for a Spartan. Even as an ODST he had had worse. Activating his active camouflage, Adam began crouch-walking forwards, SOCOM pistol at the ready. He decided that the same hit-and-run tactics would be useful here, and took the last of the C-12 shaped charges from his belt. The griffons mostly maintained the same defensive tactics: they stood in small delta formations of five griffons, spread out across the perimeter of the ruins, watching every direction. He had four charges left, he counted ten of these formations. Adam began looking around the area, looking for something to help amplify the damage caused by his explosions. At the back of the perimeter, he spotted it. There was a tall guard tower sitting at the back of the camp, standing about 20 feet high. Flanking it were two of the formations, standing about 7 feet away from either side. A well placed charge could take out one of the formations, and take out the legs of the guard tower. This would cause the tower to fall onto the other group, taking them out too. The rest of the charges could then be scattered around to eliminate as many griffons as possible. Nodding, Adam began to get to work. He transferred more energy from his reactor to the active camo, and began crouch-walking over to the guard tower. Undetected, he reached his location, and set the first charge between the tower and one of the formations. He then slowly crept away, and set the remaining three charges around where they could cause the most damage. He then went back to his position overlooking the camp, and pulled out the detonator. A light on it blinked green, indicating that it was ready to go. He flipped open the safety cover, then pressed down on the trigger with his thumb. He then pulled out his M6C/SOCOM, and sent five shots at one of the groups not within range of the explosives. Each shot went right through their skulls, killing each of them. Half a second after, barely enough time for the other griffons to realize what had happened, he depressed the trigger of the detonator, blowing up the four C-12 explosives. They all exploded at once, killing the groups within range. As he had expected, the charge near the guard tower sent it toppling over, killing the griffons on the other side. When the explosions had cleared, only three groups of the formations remained. Of course, there were still ten more not in groups, so he still had 25 griffons to deal with.
In the midst of the confusion, Adam jumped down from his overwatch, and began firing on the remaining griffons. Before they had regained their senses, already ten more had fallen. Finally, the remaining fifteen came back to their senses, and raised their weapons, rushing at the Spartan. Most wielded long halberds, their sharpened ends pointed directly for him. Adam’s shields deflected the blows, allowing him to take shots from his pistol into the griffon’s heads, killing the first few to rush him. Of the few remaining griffons, four were archers, and they were taking shots at him from above, attempting to whittle down his shields. While they did that, the other griffons readied their weapons, and again charged the Spartan. Adam fired off two more shots, but then found that his clip was dry, and so he lowered the pistol, and unsheathed his knife. As the first griffon approached, Adam side-stepped him, allowing him to pass right by. Adam then jammed his knife into the back of the creatures head, then brought it forward, right between the eyes of the second. The third griffon began running in random directions, attempting to throw off Adam’s perception. This ultimately failed, as Adam ran right towards the griffon and jammed the knife up beneath its beak. The fourth creature began cautiously approaching, which made him as easy target for Adam to simply throw the knife. As Adam went to retrieve his blade, he noticed that the archers were still firing on his shields. Of course, their inability to reload quickly was ultimately their undoing, as by the time they were ready for another salvo, his shields had already begun to recharge. Adam sheathed his knife, and pulled out his SMG. He climbed up to where the four archers were, and fired into the group, killing all of them, but emptying the magazine.
The fight outside left him with two mags of the SMG rounds, and two of the pistol rounds. Hopefully the interior isn’t as heavily guarded, Adam thought. The large Spartan brought his SMG to bear, and entered the depths of the ruins, not noticing that one griffon had survived the initial explosions…
To his surprise, Adam found the interior of the structure to be almost devoid of life. The tight corridors had never worked in the griffons’ favor, so it was likely that they were waiting in the main chamber to attack him, where they had more room to maneuver. Quietly, Adam crept down the last hallway, trying to see through the window in the small triangular door. The window was tinted to be harder to see through, but Adam could still catch some movement from the other side. Preparing his SMG, he approached the door, and hit the button for it to open. Waiting on the other side were eight more griffons, and one (what he assumed to be) scientist, who was in the corner. Adam sprayed at the first set of four, killing them all. As the second set rushed him, he reloaded his magazine, and then emptied it on the rest. His weapon now empty, he replaced it on his hip, and drew his M6C/SOCOM, then approached the scientist. He looked to the scientist, then to the panel that had been removed. During his last few operations, he had taken careful note of exactly what to do to repair the machinery. He had paid enough attention that he was confident in his ability to repair it without help this time. Therefore, he fired five shots into the griffons head, and walked over to the panel.
Adam set his pistol on the floor, then set to work replacing the various wires that had been tampered with. It took several minutes, but when he was done, the lights dimmed, then came back on, and, as he had gotten used to, the Forerunner monitor came on the intercom.
“Excellent work, Reclaimer!” it said. “I once again have full control over the monitoring stations. Well done!” The voice cut out, and Adam got set to stand back up, when he saw a shadow fall over him. Discreetly, Adam reached down to pick up his pistol, but found that it was no longer where he had put it. He heard five soft pops from behind him, and he felt several impacts along his back as his shield went down. There was one more pop, this one hitting right in the center of his back, the thickest part of his backplate, before he heard a clicking noise. Quickly, Adam turned his head, and came face-to-face with a furious griffon. Half of the creature’s face was burnt beyond recognition, which Adam recognized was his own doing. The griffon threw Adam’s now spent pistol away, and unsheathed a wicked knife from his belt. Before Adam could react, the creature punched Adam very hard in the helmet, which shook him fairly hard without the protection of his shields. The griffon then put his talons beneath Adam’s helmet, and began to pull. The griffon was surprisingly very strong, and ripped the helmet clean off of Adam’s head. He then drew the knife upwards, cutting from his lower right lip to the top of his right eyebrow. Adam screamed in pain, and fell backwards, just barely missing being cut again by the now-bloody knife. Desperate, Adam punched outwards with his fist, and hit the griffon right in the chest. This pushed him backwards, knocking the breath out of the creature. Adam took the opportunity to draw his own knife, then cut it across the griffon’s throat, killing it. Adam then dropped to his knees, and held his gloved hand to his face. When it came away, it was sticky with blood, and he could still see it dripping onto the floor.
He was losing blood fast, Adam knew that much. He grabbed his helmet off of the floor, and put it on before he quickly began to totter for the exit. Already vision in his right eye was beginning to disappear, and he noticed that his left eye was becoming blurry as well. He felt the metallic taste of blood on his tongue as it continued to drip down out of his new wound, and it also began to accumulate on the inside of his HUD. Finally, Adam reached the outside, where he then made a bee-line for his pelican. Before he entered, he could already see that it had been discovered. The inside had been ransacked, and many items were missing, the medical kit included. Adam decided that his only option was to look for help in Canterlot, so he ran into the cockpit, and took off without even strapping in. He could feel consciousness beginning to slip away, so he quickly set the autopilot for the castle gardens, and then slipped away into blackness.
Princess Luna exited the dining room after their evening meal, and began to walk through the castle, ready to begin her nightly duties. Princess Celestia had just retired to her chambers, and the guards were beginning to cycle their posts. Luna made her way to the highest levels of the large palace, heading for her large observation tower. She had made a point of watching the skies every night this week, hoping to catch a glimpse of some of Adam’s compatriots. That way, should he return, she would be able to give him some good news to help calm him down. As she came out onto into the cool night air on the top of her tower, she began to hear a strange whining sound coming from far off, to the north. She squinted her eyes, and began to see a dark shape moving through the nighttime clouds. She smiled as she recognized it as Adam’s ship, his “pelican” as he had called it. While she was glad that he was returning, the night princess wished that she could tell him that his friends had arrived, and he could return to them. Luna excitedly ran down the stairs of her tower, and began heading for his usual landing place in the castle gardens. As she exited the large doors and entered the enclosed gardens, she could see his ship already beginning to descend. It landed, the front of the craft facing her, and she could hear the back hatch as it lowered. Luna then heard the sound of slow, uneven footsteps against the metal floor of the craft. Out of the pelican limped Adam, slowly walking towards Princess Luna. Luna smiled in greeting as the human began to approach her.
“Adam,” Luna said warmly. “I am glad that you… Adam?” He continued walking towards her, until he collapsed about a meter from her forehooves.
“Adam!?” Luna called out nervously. “Oh my…” The princess then noticed a large pool of blood beginning to leak out of his helmet. “Guards!” she called. “Get a medical team here now!”
“What happened!?” Princess Celestia called as she quickly trotted into the palace medical wing. Princess Luna looked up at her sister, her brow furrowed with worry. Luna stood and approached Celestia.
“I saw him approaching from my observation tower,” the princess of the night began. “When I went down to greet him, he collapsed, and a pool of blood began to leak out of his helmet.” Celestia began to look around the medical ward, seeking the human.
“Where is he?” she asked. Luna directed her head towards one of the isolated medical rooms, and began to lead the way. Two guards flanked the door to the room, but opened it when the two princesses approached. They both entered the room, which was full of ponies, all of them crowded around the wounded human. Luna began to look around for the pony she was looking for, and finally her eyes came to rest on Doctor Star Gazer, the scientist who had helped Adam to restore his original ship. While his knowledge of medical science was rusty, they needed all of the help they could get. The princesses approached the light gray unicorn, and his attention directed to both of them.
“Your highnesses! I am glad you are here!” he said. He stood up straight, and began to walk over to Adam, who was lying on a bed, unconscious.
“What is his condition, Doctor Gazer?” Princess Celestia asked anxiously. Doctor Gazer sighed.
“Not good,” he said. “While the wound itself isn’t too bad, on the flight back from Gyphonia, he lost a lot of blood. Even for a human of his physical condition… He can only take so much.” Luna nodded.
“What can we do for him?” she asked.
“Right now, our best option is to cure the wound with magic,” Doctor Gazer replied. “But before we can do that, we need to alleviate some of the pain somehow. Otherwise, the process of stitching him back together could be too much.”
“Then why haven’t we given him some painkillers?” Princess Celestia asked, confused.
“I was going to order it but…” Doctor Gazer began to falter. “I don’t know if it will be safe.” The pony pointed a hoof at the human. “I mean, this is a completely different anatomy. For all we know, one of our painkillers could make things worse!” The two princesses nodded in understanding.
“For that reason, I sent your student, Twilight Sparkle, to investigate Adam’s ship,” he said. “I am hoping that something in that computer of his will contain medical information that can help us to heal him. Hopefully, she will be back-.” He was cut off as the door burst open, and Twilight Sparkle ran inside, panting heavily.
“I… I…” she struggled to speak between breaths. “I… I found… I found it!” She slowly walked over to Doctor Gazer. “The humans have a particular painkiller very similar to one of ours. It’s easy to administer, and the humans use it in small combat medical kits. If we give him it, it should do the trick!” Doctor Gazer smiled and nodded.
“Show me,” he said, leading the lavender unicorn over to the medicine cabinet. Princesses Celestia and Luna slowly walked over to the unconscious human. Half of his face was covered in bandages, the blood already seeping through them. Occasionally he would grimace in pain, and jerk around on the bed. Luna frowned, and put her hoof on his shoulder. She looked up as Twilight and Star Gazer pushed their way through the crowd of doctors surrounding the human, with Doctor Gazer holding a small potion bottle with his telekinesis. He approached the human, and Twilight opened his mouth with her magic. Doctor Gazer put the end of the bottle to his mouth, and the liquid painkiller drained down his throat. Almost instantly Adam stopped twitching, and he settled down.
“Okay,” Doctor Gazer said, turning to face the medical doctors. “We must remove the bandages. Then, we shall get to work on repairing him.” Two earth pony doctors stepped forward, and began to take off the red bandages. When they were removed, Princess Celestia and Luna were given a view of a long, gruesome scar that ran up the right side of his face. Blood still continued to ooze out of the wound, staining the bed beneath him. The earth pony doctors stepped back, and one unicorn doctor, a brown pony with a darker brown mane, stepped up. His horn began to glow a light blue color, and the area around Adam’s scar was enveloped in the same aura. The doctor closed his eyes and furrowed his brow, deep in concentration. Doctor Gazer walked to the other side of the bed, and approached the princesses.
“We should go,” he suggested to them. “This could take a while.” The two princesses nodded, and turned around to leave the room. Doctor Gazer, Twilight Sparkle, and several other doctors were right behind them. They stepped out of the room and entered the main medical wing, letting out deep breaths that they didn’t know they had been holding.
“Your highnesses,” said Doctor Gazer. “Like I said, this could take a while. I shall inform you of any progress that is made, or of any updates on his condition.” Celestia and Luna nodded in thanks, and walked out of the medical room.
Several hours later, Princesses Celestia and Luna, along with Doctor Gazer, Twilight Sparkle, and her five friends, were in an observation room, overlooking the unconscious human lying in a bed. His face had been completely mended, only leaving behind a very faint scar spanning the right half of his face. The unicorn doctor had been successful in stopping the bleeding and mending the cut flesh of Adam’s face, and they had since left him in this isolation room to keep him comfortable.
“When will he wake up?” Rainbow Dash asked Doctor Gazer worriedly.
“It’s impossible for us to tell,” the scientist replied. “He lost a great deal of blood, and with no other humans on this planet available for a transfusion, his body will have to regenerate it on its own. It could be hours, or even days. For now, we must let him rest.” Twilight frowned nervously, and put her hoof to the glass of the window overlooking the room. There were two guards on station inside of the room, along with a few doctors checking on Adam every few minutes. His armor still completely covered his body, sans the head, which made checking his pulse and breathing a difficult task. Fortunately, they had discovered that the small screen on his left arm showed his medical status, making the task of monitoring him much easier. Adam’s damaged helmet had been taken to a lab in the other half of the palace for studying, so that they could both fix it, and try to learn from some of the technology that it employed.
Twilight noticed curiously that the human was beginning to stir on the bed that they had provided. His fingers were beginning to twitch, and she could see his eyes starting to flutter.
“Or,” Doctor Gazer corrected. “He could wake up right now.” The pony doctors in the room below noticed that he was regaining consciousness, and they quickly ran to his side. Twilight, her friends, Star Gazer, and the princesses all quickly trotted out of the room, ran down a flight of stairs, and entered the isolation room beyond. Adam was already sitting up, his legs hanging off the edge of the bed. With his right hand he carefully traced the area where the large cut had once been. At the appearance of the new ponies, he looked up.
“Adam!” Princess Luna said happily. “How do you feel?”
“Fine,” Adam said, coughing. One of the doctors handed him a glass of water. “What happened?”
“As soon as you landed, you fell unconscious,” Luna explained. “We discovered your wound, and had it treated as soon as was possible.” Adam finished his drink, then felt the right side of his face again.
“Well you did a good job,” he said. “I don’t feel a scar.”
“Magic does a very thorough job at healing,” Twilight said, stepping forward. Adam nodded.
“I know a few people who would love to have some of that ‘magic’…” Adam noted. He then stood up, much to the doctors’ displeasure. One ran forward and tried pushing him back down onto the bed, but Adam ignored him and stepped forward, approaching Princess Celestia.
“Look…” he began, rubbing the back of his head. “I’m…”
“It’s okay,” Celestia said. “I understand why you left. And while I still believe that it was a rash decision, I am simply glad that you are okay.” Adam nodded, then looked around the room.
“Where’s my helmet?” he asked.
“It was damaged,” Doctor Gazer said. “We are working on fixing it in one of our laboratories.”
“Take me there,” Adam said. The gray unicorn nodded, and walked out of the room. Adam followed closely behind, as did the rest of the ponies.
Doctor Gazer led Adam and the ponies through countless corridors through the mazelike palace, finally stopping after several minutes of walking in front of a small door. He pushed the door open with his magic, and the ponies entered, with Adam having to bend down to fit. Through the door lay a large room populated by multiple tables, chalkboards, and scientists scurrying about. On a table in the center, and surrounded by scientists, was Adam’s helmet. The Spartan approached the table, and coughed loudly to get the attention of the ponies who were scrutinizing the piece of armor. They all jumped backwards at his sudden appearance, and Doctor Gazer approached to pick up the helmet.
“Have you made any progress in repairing it?” he asked them. One of the scientists nervously stepped forwards, staring at Adam the whole time.
“Yes, we… we have,” the scientist said shakily. “It looked like some of the seals had been bent out of place, so we restored them to their original positions.” Adam then grabbed the helmet from the telekinetic grasp of Doctor Gazer, and examined the bottom. He looked at the seals, and noticed that the area that the griffon had damaged had indeed been repaired. Quick learners, Adam thought. Deeming the repairs sufficient, Adam slipped the helmet on over his head, and activated the seals. Sure enough, they all locked into place, sealing Adam in his armor.
“Well done,” he said to the scientists. They smiled at the human’s pleasure, and Adam turned to face Princess Celestia.
“Thank you, Princess,” he told her. “For everything.” Princess Celestia frowned sadly.
“I assume that you will be leaving now?” she asked. At this, the other ponies in the room stared at him as well, all of them wearing expressions of sadness.
“Yes, I will be,” Adam replied. “But I’ll inform the UNSC of your existence, I promise. I won’t be the last human you see.” He smiled under his helmet, and though they could not see it, it seemed to comfort them a small bit.
“Farewell, Adam,” Princess Celestia said.
“Goodbye,” he replied. With that, he left the room, and began retracing his steps to find his pelican.
“Farewell, Adam,” Princess Celestia said sadly to the human who stood before her. Luna watched her sister’s expressions carefully, trying to get a read on her emotions. While she was definitely sad, there was something else. Something she was hiding.
“Goodbye,” Adam replied, and left the room. The ponies turned to watch him go, but they did not follow. He closed the door behind him, and the thumping of his footsteps could be heard echoing back down the hall.
“This is not the last that we will see of him, is it sister?” Luna asked.
“No,” Celestia replied. “No it is not. In fact… I fear that he will return to us much sooner than he expects.”
Adam landed his pelican back at the pony camp next to the outside of the Forerunner ruins. A few of the soldiers on duty seemed curious as to why he was there, but otherwise did not question his presence. As Adam exited the craft, he thought back to his leaving the ponies. They had shown nothing but kindness to him, and now we was just leaving at the first chance he got. But still, he owed his allegiance to humanity. They needed him, and every second that he was not there was another second that the Covenant remnant could launch an attack. Adam entered the main door of the ruins, and began running down the passages. He retraced his steps down the various corridors he had gone the first time, and after a few more minutes, he found his way to the ruins. Still lying by the busted open wall was the corpse of the griffon, who had already begun to decompose. Adam carefully stepped around it, and entered the Forerunner ruins beyond. Once again he rode down the elevator, made a right at the junction, crossed the hardlight bridge, and he was once again met by a sentinel.
“401 Lamenting Chorus has been expecting you,” it said in its flat, mechanical voice. It then spun around, and slowly began hovering down the very long hallway. Finally they reached the end, and the sentinel opened the large doors, once again revealing the massive chamber beyond. Floating around the hologram of the solar system was 401 Lamenting Chorus, who was humming a tune. When it noticed Adam entering, it stopped circling around the visual and flew over to the Spartan.
“Reclaimer!” the monitor said happily. “I have been expecting you! Well done restoring the monitoring stations to working order!”
“Uh, thanks,” Adam replied.
“The data that they have been sending has already revealed much!” it said, still cheerful. “In fact, I have identified what the strange force that restored balance to the solar system is!”
“Really?” Adam asked. “What is it?” The monitor hovered back over to the hologram in the center of the room, and it zoomed out quite a bit. Then, a field extended from each side of Equis, soon encompassing the whole system.
“Due to the presence of a yet-unidentified element in the planetary core, a strange field is being emanated outwards, surrounding the solar system,” said Chorus. “It would appear that this field is heavy with the presence of exotic particles, and it seems that the inhabitants of this world, these ‘ponies’, possess the ability to manipulate it.”
“So that’s their ‘magic’ then,” Adam noted.
“’Magic’?” the monitor asked. “Interesting…” The hologram then zoomed back in to its normal image of the sun orbiting around Equis.
“Right,” Adam said. “Now, as I recall, you said that if I helped you, you would send me home.” At this, the monitor quickly spun around to face Adam, almost looking surprised. It then flew very close to the Spartan.
“Send you home!?” Chorus yelled, surprised. “Why, you have not yet expended your usefulness! The ability of these ponies to alter the world around them is a clear threat to the Forerunners! They must be eliminated!” Adam stared at the monitor, a mix of emotions beginning to flood him: surprise, confusion… anger. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. This monitor had been stuck in these ruins, totally cut off from the outside world, for thousands of years. The truth became clear to Adam: 401 Lamenting Chorus was rampant.
“What do you mean!?” Adam asked. “The Forerunners are gone! They’re dead! All of them!” The monitor froze for a moment, before the large green photoreceptor briefly blinked red.
“Impossible!” it shouted. “The Forerunners cannot be destroyed! And it is my duty to keep it that way!” Adam looked down at his motion tracker, noticing that several yellow blips were converging on him. He looked around, and saw multiple sentinels closing in, the red lights of their beam weapons glowing brightly.
“They’re gone!” Adam repeated. “Now send me home!” The sentinels continued to move forwards, coming closer to the Spartan. He reached for his hip to equip his magnum, only to find that it was not there. He had left it cast aside after his battle with the griffon, and even if he did still have it, he did not have enough ammo to take on every sentinel in these ruins.
“Very well!” the monitor replied. “If you will not cooperate, I will find somebody else who will!” It then looked to the sentinels. “Deal with him.” The monitor was then surrounded in a bright yellow cylinder, and when it faded, it was gone. The sentinels stopped moving, and began to charge their beam weapons. Adam was intent on not letting them kill him, so he quickly sprang into action. Jumping up, he grabbed onto the underside of one of the sentinels, and began punching it with all his might. Finally, the weight was too much, and the sentinel crashed to the ground. The other sentinels began to fire at where Adam landed, but he dodged out of the way, running to the incapacitated sentinel. He spotted the beam weapon still attached to the automaton, and quickly he bent down and ripped it off, still running from the fire of the other sentinels. After a quick look at the weapon, Adam found a small switch on the top. Assuming that this was the trigger, the Spartan aimed it at the closest sentinel, and pressed it. A bright orange beam shot out and impacted on the sentinel, cutting right through the Forerunner metal and causing it to crash to the ground. While still dodging the fire of the other sentinels, Adam continued to shoot the beam, destroying several more. All the while he worked his way back to the entrance of the room, and finally when he reached it, he hit a holographic button and the door slid open. Floating beyond it were several more sentinels, who fired their beams at him. A few landed on his shields, draining them rapidly, but most shots missed and burned long lines into the ground. Adam fired at them as they got in his way, destroying several more, before he quickly made it to the other door, and opened it.
Adam continued running through the ruins, destroying any sentinels that got in his way. Finally he made it back to the exit into the other ruins, and he took off at a sprint down the long hallways. As he neared the exit he could hear the sound of sentinel beams and screaming from outside. Oh no, Adam thought. As he exited the ruins, he saw multiple sentinels flying around, slaughtering the pony soldiers who were stationed there. A few tried fighting back, but their arrows and spears were no match for the armored machines. The only effective weapon that the ponies had against them was magic, which a few unicorns were using to fire on the sentinels. However, the beams that the unicorns used were still not enough, and only slightly damaged them. Adam ran through the exterior of the ruins, continuing to fire his beam in an effort to save as many ponies as possible. However, after a few more minutes of firing, the beam stopped, only emitting smoke when he pressed the button. Adam threw the spent weapon onto the ground, and began running for where he had landed his pelican. It had fortunately remained untouched, as the sentinels seemed unconcerned with anything beyond the perimeter of the ruins. Adam quickly ran inside, along with several guards who saw him and decided that he was their best chance.
“What’s going on!?” one of them yelled as Adam strapped himself in.
“Strap in, I’ll explain on the way!” Adam replied. The several pony guards complied and strapped in, and Adam spun up the engines, then began flying for Canterlot.
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I still hope for promethian allies. Please. Make this happen
I guess I agree with Lamenting in a way, i mean just think about it. A whole race with god like power and the ability to move the celestial bodies. This is very scary, and a potential threat for the whole galaxy. But if you look the other side, these ponies not hurt a fly with this love and harmony attitude. Oh c'mon, just exterminate all of them, blow up the whole freaking planet. Who cares anyway, nobody even know they exist in the first place. Ok, just Adam, but he is a Spartan, has seen worse things.
Mein gott!
This chapter woodshed by so fast I didn't even see it!
Seriously though, the story is going too fast.
THE INTENSE BATTLE DOOOOOH! Great job on replicating the scene from Halo where 343 Guilty Spark has the Sentinels attack the Master Chief! This has got to be my absolute favorite fanfic! Please get the next chapter out soon!
Ups looks like this Monitor too is crazy. Well great chapter
100 like
well then, TO WAR... with forerunner sentinels and a madman AI.
this isn't going to end well...
Considering that a spartan's armour is completly airtight and that the gel along with the components and locks that hold the the pieces together can withstand over 2 thousand pounds of force I would find it hard for a crature that is lowly as a griffin could cause such strife for some one of his skill. I dislike when a Spartan is under-powered.
>>TR NINJAKILLER
Spartan IV's don't have the ability of "Spartan time" and Adam is a IV.
Well crap... shit just hit the fan!
6116715
Jesus Christ. Nobody wanted your opinion!
Ok, so, Adam has military training and is a Spartan with enhanced abilities as per Super Soldier arsenal, yet, he has no concept of stealth or taking cover and firing from range to avoid, say, primate bows and arrows and a hammer?
I can see why some people were complaining in earlier chapters. A trained military soldier would:
- Recognise levels of threat and react with various tactics according to which was best for the situation, I.e. stealth, hit-and-run, confusion.
- Use every available advantage, I.e. knowledge of terrain such as cover and high ground, higher levels of technology compared to primitive weaponry including guns and a rechargeable shield that would allow them to take some damage before having to take cover.
- Analyse threat levels of the various hostiles and remove the largest threats accordingly i.e. taking out hostiles which are getting too close, or taking out ranged hostiles if they are harassing, etc,
- Use munitions efficiently I.e. using a knife if it is all that is needed, firing only enough to kill and not wasting ammo on hostiles already dead, using explosives in groups of enemies to take out the max possible with a single explosive.
Adam has done this wrong in:
- Choosing tactics that make no sense given the situation. I.e. brute force where stealth could have served better. Brute force again when sniping could have served better.
- Not using any advantages. I.e. running directly into the full force of gryphons and not allowing his shields to recover. Not using any cover at all.
- Not taking out higher-threat hostiles. I.e. randomly shooting at hostiles rather than taking out the ranged attackers that were quite obviously harassing him.
- Inefficient use of munitions. His first battle, he used two grenades, and a lot of bullets on unaware hostiles that he could have strangled, used a knife, or dealt with any other way. He was a metre away from the first one, for goodness sake! He used 10 bullets on another where it would’ve taken 1 to the head to kill! Half a clip for a show of force!
My conclusion is that Adam has 0 military training and little to no common sense.
8724948
I agree that while this is a good story, its certainly not portraying the Spartan in a good light. He acts like a CoD player rather than the professional soldier he's supposed to be. Having served in the Army as a 12B combat engineer, seeing how he reacts and handles these situations makes me cringe.
the fuck? that does NOT happen with a PELICAN
a Cloak Capable, LOCKABLE, PELICAN DOES NOT GET RANSACKED BY BIRDS! WHAT THE HELL?
darn.
Fucking Rampancy