Hard Landing
“Got it! I Got It!” Cpl. Yao sprinted back with a syringe of liquefied oxycodone, before throwing it to the doctor who straight away shot a dose of it into her system.
“Lift her onto the table,” Dr. Stamford instructed, pointing to the two crewmen holding her down.
“Get her head Laura,” Bunting ordered and the two of them lifted her up gently and placed her carefully on the table.
“Makeshift scalpel,” Stamford said and Yao passed him the sterilised weapon. Stamford counted to three and stabbed with the scalpel, into the flesh surrounding the eye.
Cassandra screamed like something out of hell, and began to flail wildly with all her limbs, forcing Laura to grab her arms again and hold them down. Stamford grabbed the needle again and doubled the dosage, emptying all of the serum into her bloodstream. Her screams quietened as she fell into a drug induced stupor.
Stamford breathed out heavily. “Just a simple ocular exenteration,” he said to himself as he picked up the scalpel once more, gently lifting the eyelid and sticking the scalpel into the eye socket. He cut a clean circle around the inner circumference trimming the muscles around the ball, allowing him to reach in and pluck the entire ocular muscle out entirely. There was minimal blood, but a procedure like this had a high chance of infection. To combat this he took both lighters from the table and lit them, passing them along where her eyelid met her face, cauterising it shut by forcing scar tissue to form.
“That should have worked, but we won’t know for sure until she wakes up,” Stamford announced to the worried crowd. He then realised that Captain Lairsey and Isao Okano hadn’t returned from their hunt for some analgesic. “Who’s second in command then?” he said as an idea hit him.
“I guess it’s me.” Sgt. Bunting stepped forward. “As the highest ranking military member still alive, I would assume command if the captain died.”
“Technically Mackellar was second in command on deck, with Kendrick as third,” Johnston argued.
“In an emergency situation the highest ranking marine assumes command if the captain dies,” Eriksson countered.
“While onboard ship, the marines always answer to the navy,” Sinclair debated.
“Will you guys just break it up?” Flight Officer Pritchard said exhaustively, “it’s been a long day. Why don’t we do something useful and salvage some supplies.”
“Good idea Hannah. If me and Eriksson take the armoury, then Stamford and Yao can take medical, while you and Johnston can check the flight deck, to see if we’ve got a ride out of here,” Bunting announced his idea, pointing to each person as he named them.
“What about us?” Victor and Laura asked in unison.
“Watch over the injured and unconscious. If Waters, Kowalski, Stevens or Kendrick wakes up, give them a quick medical assessment and send for Stamford or Yao. Everyone know their job? Good. Meet back here in thirty," Bunting instructed.
Lairsey and Okano had gone to the bridge, only to find the place a complete mess. Cables were torn apart and strewn everywhere, several of the consoles having been torn out of their fixed positions and were lying on their side. Chan’s stockpile of drugs that he kept to deal with his cancer had been littered all over the bridge.
“At least the bridge isn’t breached,” Okano said nervously as he walked back over to his own console which was now lying on the floor.
Lairsey just sighed and sat down heavily in his chair on the bridge, when he noticed a single blinking light on his console. That’s right! Emergency protocol allowed the captain’s computer to remain active! He remembered, opening the virtual interface.
“Okano! Over here!” Lairsey called out and the Navigator walked back over to see the captain’s interface open.
“You’ve got a computer working. How did you do that?”Okano looked confused.
“Emergency power keeps the captain’s computer powered as per protocol,” Lairsey said dismissively. “But look at this! Emergency power is going to cut life support in two hours!”
“What?! What the hell do we do?!” Okano flew into a panic.
“We gather supplies, collect the others and hope to hell we still have a ride out of here,” Lairsey instructed, "I’ll get what information I can from this console, then head to the flight deck while you grab the others from the cryolabs and get supplies.”
“Yes Sir.” Okano nodded and turned around before sprinting back out of the bridge.
Lairsey breathed a sigh and, once Okano was gone, called out quietly, “Patton. You still there?”
“Sir?” Patton’s voice replied but the dais was no longer functional so no figure appeared.
“Do we still have any means of contacting command?”
“No sir, communications have been obliterated. We’re on our own on this one.” Patton’s gruff voice always gave the facts straight.
“Any life detected in the system?”
“External sensors have been blown to hell.”
“How about internal?”
“Still functioning, do you want me to…?”
“Yes, scan the chamber. A single crack and we’re all screwed.”
“Doing this will take fifteen minutes off your life support.”
“Never thought I’d see the day where you’d warn me off something,” Seth laughed, it felt good.
“Running the scans now, scanning… scanning… done. Containment chamber six has been breached, the flood are loose.” Patton was incapable of real emotion, only relying on the fake personality he was created with, so spoke as gruffly as he always did.
“Once again. We’re all dead.” Seth stood up and sighed, he always thought better while standing. “Can we blow the ship?”
“Only while we still have power, I’ll take a further forty-five minutes off of life support.”
“That’s our only option, in an hours time, auto-initiate self-destruct sequence as per order 73-XV.”
"I need consent from the acting marine commander on board.”
“All the marines are dead! Just follow the order!” This was not going to plan for Lairsey.
“Negatory, scanners revealed that Sergeant Bunting is still alive and is now the highest ranking soldier on board. Bring him here and get him to authorise it; only then can I initiate self-destruct.”
“Fine. I’ll be back, stand by for now,” Lairsey said as he walked out of the bridge.
“Damn,” was all Eriksson could say as they walked to the armoury door only to find it jammed shut. The only reason a door would be locked down under emergency power is if the other side is a vacuum.
"Now what the fuck do we do?” Bunting said as he slid down the wall he was leaning against.
Eriksson paced backward and forwards for a few minutes before breaking into a smile and announcing, “I’ve got it! We go to Environmental Control and get us some space suits, then we spacewalk out of the ship and round to the armoury through the inevitable hole.” Bunting sighed and Eriksson instantly regretted speaking out.
“It wouldn’t work, firstly Environmental Control is on F-deck, secondly all exits to the ship are locked down under emergency power unless we have the captain’s code, and thirdly we don’t know how big the breach is in the armoury,” Bunting listed the flaws in a dejected tone.
“Well how about Naval Security, don’t they have a separate armoury?”
“Yeah, but we’d need a member with naval security clearance…” Suddenly Bunting jumped back up. “Ensign Kowalski! He’s technically head of Naval Security now! Come on, let’s go!” Bunting turned and sprinted back to the Cryolabs with Eriksson hot on his tracks.
Dr Stamford and Cpl Yao entered observation, the only part of the medical wing still airtight.
“There must be some equipment in observation, right?” Ming said as the door shut behind them.
“Chances are there won’t be. I run a tight ship and all medical supplies are kept in that supply cupboard over there.” Francis pointed through the observation window to a door in the room on the other side. The room itself was completely missing a back wall and they could clearly see the black of space through that hole. “That’s now a vacuum and security protocol will keep the door locked down. Even if we could jimmy it open, we’ll probably just kill ourselves.”
“Is there no other way into that supply cabinet?” Ming asked unable to give in.
“Only entrance is through that door. Unless…” Francis began but then stopped himself.
“Unless what?” Ming tried to force him to follow up his train of thought.
“There was a large grille on the ceiling that led to a ventilation shaft. There happens to be another large grille right over there, perhaps they're connected,” Francis said fairly uncertainly.
“Perhaps? What if that ventilation shaft leads to oblivion?”
“Exactly why I wasn’t going to mention it, there’s no way I’m going in there,” Francis said adamantly, crossing his arms.
“Fine, I’ll do it,” Cpl. Yao announced.
“But, what if it’s suicide!” Stamford relaxed his arms and leaned forwards slightly.
“There’s a good chance at least one of our three injured is going to die from their injuries. Medication of any kind and a basic antiseptic increases all of their chances tenfold.”
“Is one life worth three potential lives? They may all live anyway and you’d have thrown away your life… meaninglessly!” Stamford shouted in shock.
“Or the three of them die, and then we’d have to live the rest of our lives knowing that we had an opportunity to save them and we didn’t take it,” Ming countered, annoyance entering his voice.
“You know what! You’re… completely right,” Francis sighed deeply before continuing, “I’ll do it; I know the supply cupboard a lot better than you do. No offence, but I probably also know pharmaceuticals better than you too. Just wait here and I’ll chance the vents.” Stamford walked past Yao and opened up the grille.
“Here.” Ming walked up and yanked one of the loose electric cables from the ceiling. “If you tie this cable around your back then I can try and pull you back up.”
Francis nodded in return and complied, fastening the cable securely around his waist before entering the grille gingerly. It was more than wide enough for him and high enough for crawling. He crawled through the space, following the vent, it wasn’t too long before he saw the other grille and looked through it. Sure enough the supply cupboard was still secure although the crash had thrown the shelving units over. He opened the grille and lowered himself into the room. “Easy as A, B, C.” He said as he stood up and looked around. He would need: antiseptic, analgesic, antibiotics, bandages, and hopefully he’d left his spare bag full of basic medical instruments. He found the spare bag almost straight away thanks to the black showing up clearly against all the clinical whites and greys. He then began the hard process of sorting through the various pills and serums, to find exactly what he needed.
Ming assumed Francis wasn't dead as the cable still had some slack whereas if he had been sucked into the void of space the cable would have gone taut and ripped. He held the cable dutifully and looked out through observation again when a flash of orange caught his eye. He moved to the window for a closer look when suddenly a bulbous, yellow, tentacled creature threw itself at the window, bouncing harmlessly off of the security glass. Ming’s blood froze. A flood infection form, how the hell did that even get onboard! It took all of his willpower not to run screaming back to the cryolabs but Stamford was still down in the cupboard. The repulsive creature threw itself once more at the window, tendrils flailing before falling to the floor again. It stood up on its multitude of small tentacles that it used as feet; its main body was like a mutated bulbous squid, from the front protruded three extra long tentacles acting as “feelers” ending in a large cluster of orange hairs. The creature didn’t just kill you if they got close, they assimilated you. They used their tentacles to bore into your nervous system through your spine and hijack your mind, if you were lucky you died there and then, if you weren’t then you became a prisoner in your own body. Ming had seen it happen before; He had been at Voi when the flood arrived. If it hadn’t been for Master Chief, that one man army, then he would have died too like the countless patients of his that had been transformed before his eyes. He was lucky to catch a Pelican Dropship and get back to HQ alive.
Stamford managed to shut his now overflowing bag and had found one of his white coats, using the pockets to carry everything else he could. He climbed up the one remaining shelf unit and re-entered the vents, crawling back through the small grey crawlspace. He arrived at the other grille and opened it up again, climbing through to find Cpl. Yao stood staring out of the window.
“I got the stuff, there’s more than enough here,” he exclaimed happily holding out his bag.
“Look,” Ming whispered pointing out the window. Stamford immediately began to worry and approached the window to see a writhing mass of flood. Not just infections forms though, human combat forms now joined them, probably the remains of the crew that once manned the lower decks. Flood could also infect the recently dead and did not need oxygen to survive. One of the combat forms walked right up to the window. Its head was no longer completely attached to its shoulders, instead hanging limply to the right. Its chest cavity was burst wide open, leaving a clear hole in which the flood infection form had nestled snugly, dangling its telltale orange feelers out through the hole. Its left arm had widened and hardened, forming a claw-like appendage, while the other arm remained entirely human. The remainder of the former engineer was still relatively intact, even still wearing its yellow jumpsuit and name badge clearly labelling the flood as one Technician Davis.
Stamford recoiled in horror at the sight and fled the room, running back to the Cryolabs. Ming returned its cold dead stare for a few seconds, before turning away and sprinting after him, catching up in the corridor. “Stamford! Listen to me, we cannot tell the others about the flood, they’ll freak out and panic. They’re trapped on the destroyed side of the ship, by the time they find a way in we’ll be gone anyway!” Yao shouted as he grabbed Stamford and pinned him against the wall. “Okay?” he demanded. Stamford nodded vigorously and Yao released him. The two then walked back to the Cryolabs.
Hannah couldn’t believe her luck. Her own Pelican Dropship that she had flown in herself, was sat on the pad, fully fuelled and ready to fly. It would be an easy matter to take off, all she had to do was load it up.
Darrell stood back and watched the gleeful girl run forwards with a squeak, and attempt to hug the dropship. He smirked before heading up to the control room and its security console, the only console that he knew remained active during emergency power as it was crucial for opening up the hangar bay doors for takeoff. He logged in, as Chief Engineer he had access to almost any computer on the ship. The network was down however so this console only allowed a simplified hangar display. In front of him on the touchpad were three options: Open hangar door; obvious enough, seal off flight deck; in case of attack this would block off the hangar, and activate security; A few ceiling mounted turrets would engage hostiles normally except it didn't function under emergency power.
Hannah came running in still smiling broadly. “Charlie zero-six-niner is hooked up and ready to launch. I will need a co-pilot however… and if you wanted the role I could show you the basics now.”
Johnston looked up from the console and smiled back. “Sure, I don’t think any of the others know a thing about flying and, you know, I always kinda wanted to be a pilot.”
“Well today’s your lucky day then. Don’t worry it’s not difficult, she is an older model D77-TC however, but I would never trade her for any D77-TCI,” she said as they approached the hulking green beast. “Let me give you a brief overview of the Pelican first,” she said as they walked around the large awkward bird, “this Troop Carrier sits at a length of 100 feet with a wingspan of 76. It’s a 34 feet tall beast of a transport, easily able to accommodate up to fifteen people in the back and two pilots up in the bridge, with a weight allowance of 70 tons.”
Johnston whistled in admiration, he knew these things could carry a lot, but 70 tons, damn.
“This ship features two engines, along with a further ten thrusters housed in four vector pylons. This armour plating is heat and radiation resistant, allowing for safe orbital entry,” she said giving the metal hull a tap with her knuckles, which was answered with the clank of thick metal. “Coming round to the front you can see the chin mounted 40mm calibre auto-cannon and, under the wings there, Two ANVIL-II ASM Missile Pods each carrying four missiles.”
Johnston nodded in appreciation. “That’s some firepower.”
“Come inside and I’ll show you how to operate her,” she shouted excitedly as she ran up the landing ramp and into the troop bay. Johnston walked after her and through the troop bay and then the dividing door, heading into the cockpit.
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Celestia awoke as if by clockwork at exactly 6:30 a.m. She climbed from her bed and placed on her tiara and hoof cups, still a bit groggy. That astronomer had disturbed her beauty sleep and she felt more tired than usual. Still, her sacred duty called and she would not fail her subjects, she put on her best smile and trotted out onto the balcony using her best regal walk.
There were always some dutiful ponies who waited outside the balcony for the raising of the sun. Celestia lifted gently into the air and stretched out pointed upwards, her horn radiated a bright orange light and the sun rose behind her, cresting the horizon and bathing the land in its warm orange glow. The tourists and early risers applauded, before they dispersed slowly out of the castle and back to their lives.
Celestia sighed as she trotted back into her room. She had been ruler of Equestria for millennia and politics never changed; the same old boring conversations and ceremonies full of unnessecary pomp. Twilight’s letters were the highlight of her day now, she could see that life was still full of wonder for the young mare. How stagnant life has become, she mused, I wish something different would happen for once. At least Luna was back to ease her burden. “Speak of the draconequus,” she laughed as a dark blue alicorn with a flowing bluish black mane, dotted with stars forced her way into her room looking a bit miffed.
“Dearest sister, my guardsponies happened across an astronomer in the castle during the dark of the night. May I ask why he was not brought before me? As a fellow pony of the night, I’m sure he had much to discuss with you.”
“The foal though that aliens were going to take over the world or some other such nonsense.”
Luna’s eyes went wide, “Aliens,” she squeaked, “quick Sister! We must rally the PDF and purge the xeno scum!” She galloped around the room in a panic.
“Calm down Luna. We both know there’s no such thing as aliens, or have all those video games rotted your brain,” Celestia joked. Luna stuck her tongue out petulantly and the two of them burst out laughing.
“So... why... why was he here then?” Luna spoke between fits of giggles.
“Apparently a shooting star or something collided with the moon. If you want all the details I appointed two junior guards to assist him in investigating it, he should be in the castle right now."
“Really? Where?” Luna began to hop in excitement.
"Calm down, he’s just an astronomer.”
“One of the few ponies who shares my love for the night sky!” Luna shouted with another hop.
Celestia rolled her eyes. "If you really want to meet him I granted him use of the astronomer’s tower here in the castle. Maybe you’ll be able to help him with your intricate knowledge of celestial bodies?” Celestia smiled warmly.
“Thanks Tia, I’ll see you later.” Luna galloped out of the room.
Celestia’s smile grew wider, she may be bored with ruling but she hadn’t given up on life just yet.
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Captain Lairsey walked down the corridors to the cryolabs, his head was ringing and his eyes were finding it hard to focus. Maybe I should get my head checked out, he thought to himself as he almost tripped over a loose wire. He stumbled into the Cryolabs to find everyone arguing. From what he could tell, Yao and Okano wanted to treat Ensign Kowalski and the others and get off the ship as soon as possible. The marines needed Kowalski to get into the Naval Security Armoury and wouldn’t leave the ship without weapons. Waters had woken up and was apparently paralysed from the waist down much to his displeasure. Kendrick was rocking in a corner while Laura tried to calm her down and Stamford was busy redressing Cassandra’s wound. Seth managed to pool his remaining energy into a shout, “Attention!” Everyone shut up and turned to him as Lairsey regained his composure. “Yao and Eriksson will take Kowalski to the armoury now.”
“But sir, he needs treatment or he may lose that leg!” Yao protested.
“We need weapons to deal with whatever hostile life forms we’ll inevitably encounter in this harsh universe. So head to the armoury now, grab enough guns for the team and a ton of ammunition, and ferry them to the dropship."
“Yes Sir!” Eriksson and Kowalski replied with salutes. After a hard stare Yao mumbled it too and helped Kowalski stand up.
“Lean on me and I’ll support you as we walk there,” Yao said as he took Kowalski’s arm and placed it around his shoulder. The group of three then left the cryolabs.
Captain Lairsey turned to the remaining crewmen. “Okano, Kendrick, take Waters to the Pelican. Stamford, finish up Stevens’s eye and then escort her there too. Sinclair, Berneche, head to the officer’s kitchens and grab some food and drink, there’s no telling how long we’ll be in the Pelican. Bunting you’re with me, I’ve got something to show you up on bridge.”
“Yes Sir!” They all saluted too and headed off to their appointed duties. Bunting followed Lairsey out into the corridor.
“Why we heading to the bridge, Sir?” Bunting asked quizzically as they walked.
“I need your consent as acting commander of the marine forces,” Lairsey said without missing a step.
“For what?”
“The self-destruct sequence to blow this ship,” Lairsey announced in the same tone as one would use to announce the football scores. Bunting stopped in his tracks, but Lairsey kept walking, forcing Bunting to do a short sprint after him to resume his place at his side.
“Why?! Why we would activate that?!” Now Bunting was seriously confused.
“I can’t let any damn xenos that live out here get their grubby mitts on Human technology this advanced. We activate the sequence then take off in the Pelican, no harm done,” Lairsey continued.
“But… how do we get back?”
“We don’t. Communications were fried before we hit slipspace; there is no way to contact Command.” Lairsey finally stopped and turned to Bunting grasping his shoulders and staring into his eyes. “We’re all alone out here son.” He then turned and entered the door to the bridge.
Bunting had to do another short jog to catch up. The two of them entered the bridge and approached the captain’s chair. “Patton!” Lairsey called and once again the gruff human sounding voice emanated from the speaker that lined the chair.
“I see you brought the marine with you. So you consent?”
“Yes sir, can’t let any intelligence fall into enemy hands.” Bunting didn’t quite know how to address an A.I. so kept with the standard honorific, “Sir.”
“Good man. Activating self destruct countdown now. You have fifteen minutes until this ship blows, booking you a one-way ticket to hell. Gentlemen, it’s been a pleasure,” the voice said before cutting off.
“You heard the robot, let’s get the hell out of here and back to the ship,” Lairsey shouted and the two of them sprinted back out of the bridge.
“And that is all you should need to know. I’ll handle most of the actual flying stuff, the co-pilots main job is to handle the weapons while I fly, oh and pitch in on landings and take-offs. We shouldn’t need the missiles but I think you’ve got the hang of the autocannon,” Pritchard said rewarding Johnston with an encouraging smile. “I don’t think we have time to go over th…” she began but was cut off by the sound of the door opening.
Okano stood in the doorway; his hands were covered in the strong unmistakeable colour of blood but flecked with some kind of greyish-green mould.
“Waters… he just… exploded…” Isao stuttered before collapsing to the floor.
Johnston leapt to his feet and bounded through the door to find Kendrick lying on the floor, also passed out, next to a huge red bloodstain flecked with the same greyish mould. There was no trace of Waters however. Darrell heard a noise halfway between a rustle and a squelch and saw a flash of green rush past. Johnston ran back into the cockpit. “Hannah, do you keep a gun in here?” he tried to ask quietly and calmly.
“O-o-of course,” she replied in a staccato fashion, “all pilots are required… to hold firearms… in case of emergencies.”
“May I borrow it? We might have a problem."
The squelching noise was heard again and Hannah opened a compartment, pulling out another magnum before she handed the sidearm to Darrell, inadvertently letting out a small squeak.
Darrell checked it was loaded, turned off the safety and peered around the corner. A small upside down squid was creeping towards the unconscious form of Kendrick. The pistol rang out once and the flood infection form burst in a spray of greyish-green. He stood up and walked over to secure Kendrick when he heard a hiss and two more launched themselves at him. He opened fire at the pair hitting one mid-leap before diving to the side dodging the other. He fired again. Once, twice, three times but each hit the metallic interior of the Pelican as the creature dodged. The thing then pounced onto his leg, knocking him to the ground and throwing his gun out of his grasp, before it began crawling up his leg. Johnston smashed wildly at the creature trying to pull it off and kill it, but it resisted and slowly advanced up his leg. Darrell was panicking now, he kept pummelling the form with no result, if it reached his torso he was a goner. He made a desperate grab for the pistol but it eluded his grasp once more. The creature reared back about to burrow into his chest when it inexplicably exploded coating Darrell in the greenish grey juices.
Boots clomped against the ground as Leif Eriksson walked forwards toting a shotgun. “This is my boomstick!” he laughed out, god he loved old movie quotes. “It’s a pity this is the M90A CAWS though, nothing beats the kick of the older models.” Over his shoulder was a duffel bag loaded with guns. Eriksson held out a hand and Johnston grabbed it accepting his offer for aid as he was dragged up onto his feet.
Corporal Yao was behind him with another bag of guns over one shoulder and Kowalski’s arm around the other. “How did the flood get into this part of the ship?!” he demanded helping Kowalski sit into one of the cleaner chairs in the troop bay.
“It was Waters, he just ... burst and then there were Infection forms everywhere,” a very dazed Okano said rubbing his head as he stood back up.
“Burst?”
“Yeah one second we were carrying him and the next he was a bloodstain on the floor. I heard a popping sound but I had my back turned at the time. Kendrick probably saw it happen,” he insisted before noticing Kendrick’s limp form on the floor.
“Is she…?” he began.
Yao kneeled over her and checked her pulse, then he said, “No, just unconscious.”
“Thank god, if she was dead then I don’t know what I’d do with myself.”
“Wait, what did you mean by this part of the ship?” Hannah said walking out of the cockpit.
“When me and Francis went to the Medical Bay, we found that the only room still accessible was the observation room. The rest of the bay had been breached so, you know, there was no air. Through the window however we saw flood inside Ward A, several Infection Forms and a Human Combat Form,” Ming said slowly, to the shocked onlookers.
Eriksson placed his bag on the ground and motioned for the rest of the group to come take some. “Who here hasn’t had weapon training?” Eriksson asked the small crowd.
Okano raised his hand and Leif handed him an MA5C Assault Rifle. “Hold down the trigger and point in the enemies’ general direction, at least some of your shots should hit them. Remember when in doubt, just spray and pray.” Okano gulped but accepted the rifle.
“Got any rifles? My dad and I used to go hunting with bolt-actions,” Johnston said peering into the bag. Leif pulled out a M392 Designated Marksman Rifle and threw it to him.
“It’s not Bolt-action, but it is single fire and scoped.
“This should do nicely, thanks,” Johnston replied stepping back and examining the rifle.
“Pritchard?” Leif said turning to the Flight Officer.
“I was only trained with pistols. I got my own M6D Magnum Sidearm but if you’ve got any clips?” She said picking up the pistol that Johnston had dropped earlier.
Eriksson nodded and tossed her a pair of clips that she pocketed. Eriksson turned to Yao who pointed at the M7/Caseless Submachine Gun on his waist so he then turned to Darius.
“And then there’s just you, Kowalski.”
“I’m in Naval Security; I’ve trained with all those guns. Throw me a BR.” Eriksson pulled out a BR55HB SR Battle Rifle and tossed it to him. Kowalski caught it smoothly. “Gotta love the 3-shot burst,” he said gruffly then coughed loudly.
“Uh? Anyone know about Kendrick?” he asked the group.
“I’ve never seen her around the firing range.” Ming shrugged.
“I’ll just give her a M6D too. Pistols aren’t too hard to use.” Eriksson returned the shrug and pulled out a pistol, placing it on her chest.
“Then why’d you give me this assault rifle.” Okano confronted Eriksson waving the rifle to illustrate the fact.
“Pistols are pretty useless against flood; by the time she wakes up we’ll probably be far away from here, and the damn flood,” Eriksson replied honestly.
Dr. Stamford was carrying Private Whitmore’s unconscious form awkwardly in his arms. He had previously been walking slowly but the flood combat form pursuing him had given him a sudden sense of urgency. Despite the terror bounding after him, Stamford managed to keep focused. The patient comes first, safety comes second, He continually repeated in his head as he dodged left and right, avoiding loose floor panels and draping cables. He wasn’t far from the hangar when he turned a corner to find his path blocked. A piece of the deck below had shot through into A-Deck obstructing the corridor completely. Stamford placed Cassandra gently on the floor and propped her against the blockage. He reached into his doctor’s bag and pulled out a bone saw he had brought with him on the off chance that Kowalski’s leg would need amputating. He inhaled deeply and repeated his mantra once more in his head.
The flood form came around the bend and stopped, noticing its prey was trapped. It rushed forwards with a roar, clawed arm first. Stamford swung wildly with the saw, grunting with the effort of his swing, and it buried into the monstrosity’s arm with an audible thwack and jammed there. The beast’s swing was knocked off centre and it tripped over a loose cable tumbling to the ground. Stamford’s survival instinct took over and he walked over to the creature and stomped on its head. The head burst, spraying greyish fluid mixed with scarlet shocks of blood everywhere. Stamford was still breathing deeply, his body shuddering involuntarily. He turned to Whitmore when he tripped with a crash. The flood had grabbed his foot with its clawless hand, the saw seemed to have disabled its ability to move its clawed hand. Stamford was dazed from the collision of his face on the ground and was unable to resist, the creature picked him up by his throat and raised him off the ground. The creature held him off the ground, choking him. Francis couldn’t breathe, his throat burned and he clawed at the hand holding him up. Everything began to blur together when a dull bang sounded off somewhere in the distance. He dropped to the floor again as everything faded to black.
Lairsey and Bunting were sprinting through the corridors. “How much longer do we have?” Bunting shouted to make up for the fact they were running.
Lairsey checked his watch and shouted back, “Eight minutes and counting.” They turned the corner when they heard a loud roar coming from a side corridor, followed by the sound of metal hitting flesh.
Bunting stopped and pulled out the pistol he had used to take down Barbanos earlier after his psychotic break. Lairsey stopped too and motioned for Bunting to go first. They heard what sounded like someone fall to the ground and then the sound of a struggle. Bunting jumped around the bend to see a headless flood combat form throttling Dr. Stamford. He lifted the pistol and shot it in the back, in the dead centre of the hole the infection form was nestled in. He heard the shrill death cry of the infection form as the body fell forward releasing Stamford from its grasp. Bunting ran forward to check Stamford was still breathing. Lairsey walked to the flood and turned it over noting the bone saw buried into its arm with a smile.
“Captain, he’s still breathing,” Bunting stated as he lifted the unconscious doctor up.
“Good. Let’s get these two to the Pelican,” Lairsey replied as he walked over to Whitmore. He cradled her in his arms and lifted her off the floor before turning and sprinting back down the corridor, Bunting and his charge followed behind swiftly.
The door to the hangar bay opened again so Okano let out another spray of bullets. “Die already!” he shouted wildly.
“Stand down Okano, it’s us!” Lairsey shouted from around the corner.
“Sir?! Of… of course sir.” He stuttered lowering his gun as Lairsey and Bunting came in with Stamford and Whitmore in their arms. The room was sprayed in gore, that grey, mould like substance lined the floor and walls, blood stains were everywhere and transformed corpses covered the floor. Lairsey counted fifteen corpses; fortunately none of them were of the survivors. Okano, Johnston, Eriksson, Yao, and Pritchard were all armed and watching different entrances into the room. Bunting and Lairsey entered the troop bay and placed their injured onto the benches in the Pelican besides Darius.
“Status report officer Kowalski,” Lairsey ordered.
Kowalski turned to look at him and lowered his rifle. “Things just went crazy, for the past five minutes flood keep pouring through the vents. We’ve got someone armed watching each entrance now.” Just as he finished speaking the sound of Eriksson’s shotgun rang out along with the dying cries of another combat form.
“Crew members, in five minutes this ship is going to cease to be, self-destruct is counting down and we need to be gone by the time she blows. So Pritchard, throw me your gun and take the helm.”
“Yes Sir!” She saluted and threw him her pistol then added, “I’ll need Johnston too.”
“Johnston, get up here, give Bunting your DMR and follow Pritchard,” Lairsey ordered.
“Sir!” Johnston replied as he sprinted to the Pelican. He handed his rifle to Bunting and ran into the dropship, heading to the cockpit with Pritchard.
The door opened again to another spray of bullets from Okano.
“Shit! It’s fucking us!” Sinclair shouted, barely dodging the shots.
“Sorry man, flood are everywhere! Get on board.”
“Flood?! Fuck!” Sinclair shouted in reply as he and Berneche walked into the hangar carrying boxes of supplies. They rushed to the troop bay and locked the crates into place. Laura noticed Kendrick was still lying on the floor and picked her up, placing her into one of the seats and buckling her up.
“Three minutes!” Lairsey shouted as he ran off into the control room and logged into the console.
“Patton! I need you to open the hangar bay doors in exactly two minutes,” He shouted at the computer.
“Yes sir!” a voice replied.
“And Patton. Its been an honour.”
“Same to you sir,” Patton said in his usual gruff tone. Lairsey nodded to the console and ran to the dropship.
“Everyone get in and buckle up, we’ve got three minutes before this entire place ceases to exist!” Lairsey shouted to the crowd. Bunting potted one more flood and then pulled back as they all rushed into the Pelican. Everyone got into their seats and buckled up. “Shut the hatch Okano!” Lairsey shouted to the navigator, who hit the green button next to the door. The ramp raised and folded over the hole, sealing itself and making the craft airtight. The engines raised to a high pitch whine as the ship left the ground, hovering slightly above the floor. Flood forms rushed into the hangar and bashed against the metal outside. Exactly on time the hangar bay door opened and all the flood forms were dragged out into the vacuum of space. The Pelican’s main engines engaged with a loud bang, hurtling the ship forwards and out into the depths of space. The ship began to accelerate rapidly but mere seconds after clearing the hangar, the Frigate’s engines detonated, causing a chain reaction up the ship as multiple large explosions joined together to form one huge explosion. The Pelican managed to just clear the blast radius in time, slowing down as they left the moon. However, a piece of debris from the ship propelled from the explosion, flew with force into the rear engines of the Pelican. The bird span wildly as Pritchard fought with the control stick to stabilise.
“Oh, Hell no!” Hannah screamed as she fought the Pelican. “I’m going to have to pitch us down on that nearby planet!” she shouted to Johnston pointing out through the window to the large blue planet below. "It looks like its got water! Let’s hope the atmospheres breathable!” She forced the Pelican down towards the planet fighting the buffeting forces of the atmosphere and the Pelican’s own rogue engine. “There’s a forest! I’m going to try and put her down in the trees! They should absorb some of the momentum!” She kept shouting to Johnston who just nodded in agreement, not quite sure what exactly was happening.
The crewmen in the back didn’t know what was going on. They had been sat in utter silence, with their fingers crossed. Due to the fact they were in space they couldn’t hear the explosions of the ship behind them, only feeling the vibrations from the force acting on the ship as it rattled their own craft. They were seated horizontally along the craft, eight seats on each side, only ten were occupied by people with a further six by supply crates. The troop bay was illuminated by red lights although each person may as well have been staring into darkness. The craft suddenly span to the side but the sound-proof partition meant that they couldn’t hear Hannah and Darrell up front. The craft twisted and turned, Okano griped his harness so hard his knuckles turned white. The crewmen all suddenly shot upwards as the Pelican hit the ground once, then twice. Lairsey’s head smashed into the ceiling, wounding his head even further and plunging him into unconsciousness.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Luna marched regally once she was had left Tia’s room and was following her guards to the observatory tower. She knew the importance of keeping up appearances, despite the fact it would have been so much faster to just fly there. Besides, her guards were not accustomed to the sunlight due to their training in near pitch darkness, this increased their reaction times and vision in general in low-light environments, specifically the Everfree Forest and other such dangerous areas. The castle was so busy during the day and many of the staff weren’t accustomed to her roaming around after dawn. They hurriedly bowed stiffly as she passed and moved out of her way to which she replied by smiling and nodding, trying to show that she was still personable. Nopony rose to the bait though and she sighed as each passed without stopping to converse. They finally arrived at the astronomy tower and began to ascend the many, many, many steps that lead to the highest tower of the castle. For the next five minutes they proceeded in silence, only the clip-clop of their hard hooves on the stone surface of the stairwell before finally reaching a trap door. One of the guards pushed it open and unfurled the wooden fold-out staircase which the three of them then ascended.
The tower was covered in papers; apparently the astronomer had moved all his equipment into the tower last night straight after leaving Celestia’s chambers. Two exhausted guardspony rookies stood beside him, as he scrawled over another sheet of papyrus with a quill he was holding, using the innate telekinesis ability that all unicorns possessed. One of the guards turned on their arrival and shouted in surprise, “Princess Luna?!” The other guard turned and saluted which the first guard then quickly mirrored.
“Just one moment!” Earnest said without stopping his work. Luna instead opted to approach the desk and looked over his shoulder. His quill danced across the page making intricate lines, carefully and precisely documenting the lunar structure of the moon. Luna knew the moon exceptionally well, after being imprisoned there for a thousand years when she had been possessed by the evil miasma and became Nightmare Moon. Thankfully Nightmare Moon had been defeated and the miasma destroyed, thanks to Twilight Sparkle and her friends, who became the Elements of Harmony. She shook her head and focused once more on the picture. Something was amiss; there was some rock formation that hadn’t been there before.
“What, pray tell, is that?” She spoke loudly to the astronomer.
“That is exactly what I was talking about, the telescope is lined up, and I don’t feel my illustration does it justice.” He still kept focused as he drew craters and started shading. Luna approached the telescope and peered through its lens. Sure enough there was something that shouldn’t be there, but with the clarity of the telescope she could clearly see it was metallic. As she weighted up the idea of flying up there and checking it out, the object exploded with a huge outburst of orange flame, throwing debris everywhere. One particularly large piece of debris seemed to be heading for the Everfree Forest.
“Loyal subject! Come hither and look at this!” she shouted to Starstruck who waved dismissively in reply. She rolled her eyes but held a hoof to order her guards to hold position. “That metal thing just exploded!” The astronomer dropped his quill and galloped swiftly over. Luna moved to the side as the astronomer grabbed the eyepiece and looked down it. Sure enough there was now a large crater where most of the ship would be and pieces of fragmented debris littered the lunarscape.
“This could be bad! A second explosion would hint that it was detonated, possibly manually.” The old grey unicorn started to pace anxiously, “What to do, what to do, what to do?” he said out loud as he paced.
“I saw a piece of large debris crash into the Everfree Forest,” Luna replied helpfully. The pony suddenly ran up to her and got uncomfortably close to her face.
“You must assist in claiming this piece of debris. It could be alien! Imagine the technology required to travel across space itself! This could revolutionise our entire perspective on the universe. It could help us make leaps and bounds in our own technology! You must come!” he began at rant. Luna’s guardsponies moved forward to restrain him but Luna held up her hoof once more.
“My guardsponies and I will assist; the six of us should be able to handle the Everfree forest, right?” she turned to her guards. They both were grey pegasi wearing light purple armour carefully fitted to their form. Where their manes and tails should be there were dark purple spiny adornments to the armour. Instead of the usual pegasi feathery wings their wings were enchanted to mirror the leathery wings of a bat, but dark purple. The two guards were named Buzz and Neil respectively. Neil was the older of the two had been around before Luna’s return, a veteran of the force while Buzz had only joined after the Princess’s return.
Neil replied truthfully, “if we take Celestia’s two rookies with us, then most beasts will look the other way.” The rookies looked at each other and sighed, just their luck, after heaving mounds of research material and equipment up this damnable tower all night, they were now being dragged miles away to the one of the most dangerous place in Equestria, the Everfree Forest. They were both too tired to be scared but they put on their best professional pose and tried to take it in stride.
Celestia’s royal guard, the more prevalent and numerous of the two, wore golden armour in a traditional Roman-officer fashion. Their armour was a lustrous gold and adorned with blue sapphires that twinkled when the light hit them. The helmets featured Romanesque plumes of blue and white. One of the Guards was a pegasi whilst the other was an Earth Pony. They both looked almost identical though other than one lacking the golden armoured backing, due to the presence of his large feathery wings. They were both white in colour with deep blue eyes that mirrored the sapphires they wore. Here in the forest, their ceremonial armour looked ridiculous. They followed the plume of smoke into the forest where they saw a massive drag mark as if something had crashed into the ground at an angle. There were two more big dips where it must have hit the ground twice, before they looked up to see the dropship.
“What the hay is that?” Buzz whispered to Neil.
“Not a clue, never seen anything like it,” Neil replied.
“Come on then, we haven’t got all day. Let’s hurry up and secure this and bring it back to base." Ernest hopped excitedly.
“Wasn’t the ship grey?” Luna asked the astronomer before adding, “This piece has a dark green tinge to it.”
“Does it matter? Let’s go,” he said excitedly, charging wildly towards the crash site, the two white guardsponies rushed after him. Luna sighed and then motioned her guard to accompany her as they walked after them.
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Tracking.
Wow...Just wow...This is amazing!I need moar!!
Woooooo-wee. Keep em comin!
Orbital command/ Terminal code accepted/ Locking on/ Fireing in 5...
4...
3...
2...
1...
MMMMMMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRR!!!!!
sir .. much respect is duw i am a halo vet and love the lore of halo and i must hand it to you very well done
(enter slow clap here) ^^ cant w8 to read more
Thanks, guys. I tried my best to nail the Halo terminology, I've played all the games but have only read the first three of the books so I've been using the wiki quite a lot. I'm still working on Chapter 3, just wanted to make sure I had enough to post properly. I don't see the point in posting small chapters so each chapter should be between 5000 and 10,000 words. My pace is kind of fluttery at the moment, I'm still ploughing through Skyrim and have exams in January. But hopefully I'll have the next chapter done by the end of the week. *fingers crossed*
This has been great. It truly has been fun reading.
Can't wait to find how the two cultures will get along. xD
Also, This is how I picture the astronomer: http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/392840_245541915502406_100001397986386_702447_1019699067_n.jpg
It's not quite perfect, but fun is what I aimed for.
Lol, but in this case the astronomer is actually right and not just crazy.
58558 Even crazy people get lucky...
Hmm, well as far Halo crossovers go this is certainly the best one I have read so far. You have a better scope of the intricacies is the haloverse then all the others to date, but it isn't without some rather significant flaws and time line issues. I'm a guy who likes to think he knows a lot more about then most, if you'll allow me to be so vain; I own every game, I own every book(including the encyclopedias), I own every graphic novel, I own toys and models and even some Lego stuff. I've written fics, I've written and edited more articles at Halo Nation wiki then I can remember, and I've been a fan of halo for over ten years my friend, since before the first game was even released. I like to think I know Halo pretty damn well, so I'll tell you some what I think.
First I'll start off with a few things that impressed me; I won't say them all since most of them are those good little details, just the few ones that stood out to me particularly. First was the inclusion of the Stalwart class light frigate, so few people care enough to make the distinction between ship class variants so thank you for that. Another part was the doctor talking about various medical drugs, I'll admit I was thoroughly impressed by that part. Oxycodone is a painkiller that does not inhibit cryostasis? That's an awesome little detail, and Halo is all about little details like that, its what makes it so fun to write about! Lastly you portray little fear of killing named characters, but on the flipside you've barely characterized anyone yet so it's not quite a big deal when someone dies.
Now for a few gripes, the first is oh which is the very confusing and constant shifting point of view. Combined with the amount of characters you've introduced so quickly, it got pretty difficult to keep track of so many people doing so many different things and I often got confused with who was with who, where they were, and what they doing. There also wasn't any significant characterization for anybody, for example; you tell us what everyone is doing, but almost never what they are thinking. Or You tell us their decisions, but almost never explain why they made them. You can fix both these problems by picking one specific character for a scene and writing from his/her point of view (whether in a first or third person perspective is completely up to you). This way you focus on readers experiencing things from one unique point of view and allow them to grow a certain attachment with the character as they go on. Not only that, its just a much cleaner way to write, especially if you put clean breaks in between scenes. After that, just split scenes equally amongst your most important characters and with any luck the readers will grow fond of them over time.
My biggest grip however, is the almost stark lack of Whys you currently have. The most of which are apparent at the very beginning of the story. You mentioned at one point the only reason one character was alive was because of the Chief's interference at Voi (You say the Mombasa ruins, but there isn't any ruins. Mombasa, new and old, was completely annihilated). Judging by this your story begins roughly sometime during the battle of the Ark, it is shown earlier that the UNSC still has several frigates at Earth but within atmosphere since orbit is far to dangerous for such low tonnage ships. This is where my questions begin. Why is the Hastings in space? Why is it alone, where are the other ships? Why are they fighting several ships much bigger then they are? Why are there still Covenant loyalist ships on this side of the Portal, is it a rear guard? Why aren't the Covenant Separatists helping them, where are they? And more questions only build up over time as things go on. Why did that guy go crazy? Why is Patton such a flawed AI that he can't make slipspace calculations but can make weapons solutions? Perhaps, considering Patton was a World War two army general, Patton the AI is likewise an army AI and not a Naval one? If so, why is he on the Hastings and not ground side with the army on Earth? But most of all, why the hell is there Flood on the ship!? In the chaos of everything thats happening on Earth, why did they take time to get some samples of the most dangerous thing in the entire known universe when at the time it intended on devouring everything on their species home world? Does Lord Hood know of the Flood on this ship, if so then why the hell is he allowing it there? He'd want to kill the Flood right away so they'd better be a good reason for him allowing its continued existence.
Now fortunately a lot of these questions can still be explained, whether over time in future chapters or by editing existing ones. I would suggest a mix of both myself. The reason why the Flood are on the ship lends an air of mystery and can potentially be the focal point of the stories plot, with the survivors and their new pony friends try to piece together the mystery of why the Flood was on their ship. All the while battling an infection of it upon Equestria. The reasons as to why they were in space getting their asses kicks can also be added in future chapters, but I think it would be wiser to edit those into the first chapter.
And I really don't mean to be mean, but there are some other things I could still point out. But they're pretty unimportant in the grand scheme of things so I ain't really going to bother, the foremost that comes to mind is the Bridge crews awkward and improper conduct. But considering where the story currently is I would consider it satisfactory for now.
Now I apologize if I came across as mean or overly critical, but I only want to see you get better and succeed. I did mean it in the beginning when I said this fic, to me anyway, is the best current Halo/MLP I've seen to date. But like I said, it could still use quite a bit of work. However, I don't expect you to become a literary master after this review or anything, just do what you can, hell you don't even have to do that. Lot's of people have already told you they enjoy your story as it currently is, so if you want keep writing as you currently are.and ignore my advice and don't feel pressured to live up to my standards, I'm just one person after all. I do believe you story has the potential to be much better, but the main reason any writer should write is because they enjoy what they are writing. If trying to fix the things I pointed out take the fun out of it, then simply don't fix them and continue as you are.
I do believe I've finally reached the end of this long winded review; the rest, as they say, is up to you! Good luck and keep writing!
Thanks for that in-depth review. Without criticism I wouldn't make much improvement, as none of my friends are that in to Halo. As I said previously I have only read the original trilogy books by Eric Nylund and have completed every game bar Halo 2 as I never had an original Xbox, instead playing Halo:CE on the P.C and I refused to upgrade to Vista for Halo 2. I do have a 360 however and have played every other Halo game on that. I will cover the flood thing later, as you said, I have planned for it to become a plot point. I originally planned an ONI officer on board but cut the character due to some issues with command structure and general plot. I like the idea of Patton originally being a Military A.I but repurposed for the navy due to the lack of A.I's available, hadn't thought of that. I figured that if Patton was a "dumb" A.I. then it would lack the creativity to apply targeting calculations to slipspace.
I didn't want to develop the characters, at first, due to the fact I didn't actually know at that point who was going to survive and who would die. The scene where Rodrigo went mad, I originally tried to write it from his point of view, but it felt forced and weak. I instead jumped to another character's view. I have received similar feedback from a friend about the confusing way I jump from character's first to last names, but to be entirely honest, I have a real problem with writing every sentence syntactically similar with repetition of "he" and "she". By giving names and roles, it helps me keep the sentence structure without it seeming too repetitive. I myself have a notepad document detailing the crew members who are dead and alive at given times as it can get confusing even to me.
I believe I state that the Hastings was part of a small fleet spared by Lord Hood to face them down but the Hastings is the only one left when the story starts. I suggested the Covenant Loyalists came from Onyx but a double-check now shows that they were all destroyed, so I think that warrants a rewrite. I wanted Corporal Yao to have witnessed flood before, the only possible occasion where he could have survived it is during that mission in Halo 3, Floodgate I think. I thought that took place in the ruins of Mombassa but a double-check there shows it was indeed Voi, thanks for pointing that out. The Crew do come across as disrespectful and rebellious but I wanted to get across Lairsey's do or die character but couldn't do so if they actually died, so that was an, admittedly lazy, easy option.
I have the character's basic traits worked out, but a few of them don't really get a chance to show it. I didn't want to leave the pony aspect out for too long, for obvious reasons, yet the scene still dragged on for a bit long I thought. I originally told half of the first chapter from Okano's point of view but it painted Lairsey in a bad light. Lairsey is the only solid character so far, the others are still in flux really. I tried splitting them into pairs to try and get some of their personality across as each character gets a chance in the limelight, bar the technicians.
Thanks again for that, criticism is always appreciated and necessary in order for this to be as good as it can be. I've seen much more critical reviews than this. You put across your points rather eloquently and justified most of them, much better than some feedback I've gotten from other sources.
Once I have finished Chapter 3 I may go back and make these edits on Chapter 1 before starting Chapter 4.
Amazing, I have read every single halo book there is. I am incredibley impressed by the amount of knowledge and details that you put in this fic. My guess is that the flood are on the ship, because they were to be brought in as evalutation samples? Anyways, this is grade A stuff worthy of a legitimate halo novel. Keep up the good work.
Eh, there's just a lot of little things that add up in this story that make it too hard to read. Mostly all the inconsistencies.
Like, the ship crashed into the moon, it would have taken hours for it to fall into the gravity well. Otherwise if it fell directly at the moon it would've just been a crater. And Twilight seeing the ship in detail despite using a basic telescope. The Pelican that travels hundreds of miles with a damaged engine and manages to enter the atmosphere just lightly enough to avoid totally burning up in reentry.Then there is just some other things you got wrong, like Earth being the only human world left. Self destruct can only be activated by the Captain. The cyrotubes have their own internal power supply and should have been ejected before the crash.
It reads better than most of the other Halo fics I've seen, but it doesn't really show a complete understanding of the canon.
The dmr stopped being used by the UNSC navy ages ago, just saying. Great story and I shall read more!
74240
and the Marines.... And the air force.... And ONI.... And the miltia..
THIS IS BUCKING AWESOME!!!!!!!
I just hope I will get through this epicosity without exploding
60608 I concur with everything you have said and that this could be spruced up a little
Luna’s eyes went wide, “Aliens,” she squeaked, “quick Sister! We must rally the PDF and purge the xeno scum!” She galloped around the room in a panic. that was the most awesome reference to warhammer 40k ever
they open the rear hatch and all the marines look at them