Negotiations
Seth awoke with a start, the troop bay was still bathed in dark red light from the emergency bulbs. “Fuck! My head…” he groaned as he unbuckled his harness and landed on the roof with a hard thud. “Gah!” he shouted in pain as he dragged himself to his feet. The Pelican must have turned upside down at some point, he thought to himself as he walked over to the pilots’ partition. He opened the door to see Johnston struggling with his belt, before turning to the pilot. Pritchard was dead, the glass had smashed inwards, spraying its deadly payload all over the interior of the cockpit. Pritchard’s hand was still on the brake but her head was bowed and she was coated in her own blood. A massive glass shard was stuck in her chest. Lairsey walked over to Johnston and released the harness, catching him before he hit the roof.
“Thanks man,” Johnston said as Lairsey put him down. “Fuck! Hannah tried to control the descent but a piece of fucking debris knocked us way off course! We touched down on the nearest planet, it had water so we assumed it had a breathable atmosphere.”
“Well you were right. Look, the cockpits breached, yet we’re still breathing so at least we’re still alive.”
“Good one Hannah!” he cheered turning to see the lifeless corpse, “Fuck! She’s not… is she… fuck!” he shouted in disbelief. Her piloting skills had just saved their skins and she didn’t even survive the landing. “Argh! Fuck!” he shouted again, kicking a pane of glass that had somehow remained intact.
“Calm down, Darrell. We’re still not out of the woods yet.” Lairsey’s head was thumping as he tried to concentrate. “Let’s get the others up and try and set up a base, okay?” he said calmly, despite the fact that he was equally confused and angry. “Now, do you have any idea where we are?”
"We’re on a planet, it has water and trees. That’s right, we crashed into a forest, Hannah brought us down into the forest saying that the trees would cushion the impact,” Darrell said slowly as his memory returned to him.
“Good. Good. Let’s get everyone up and start planning,” he said as the two of them returned to the troop bay and sealed the door behind them.
Earnest Starstruck couldn’t believe his eyes, he was sure that this was an alien craft. “Look at those, those must be engines but not powered by steam,” he said excitedly to the group of ponies that had assembled, “And what are these? Giant fireworks? Maybe a weapon derived from fireworks!” he mused aloud to the assembled crowd. He continued to obsess over all the details speaking in excited, quick tones.
Neil turned to Luna and implored her, “my Princess, we should contact Celestia immediately and assemble the rest of the Royal Guard! There could be some… things still alive in there! Hostile things!”
Buzz stood on the other side of Luna and urged her to do the opposite, “Mistress, this could be a brilliant discovery! An actual alien craft, I say we grab it and bring it back to Canterlot castle for examination, inhabitants and all.”
Luna turned to each, unsure of who to side with when one of the royal guards shouted out, “Over here there’s an opening!” Ernest galloped straight over to see the smashed in cockpit. The guardspony looked in and screamed out, “an alien! An actual alien! I think it’s dead though!” Ernest galloped faster and pushed him out of the way in his haste to get a look.
“By Celestia! It is, look at it! Bipedal from the look of it, just look at the way it’s sat! We have to get in there!” He examined the interior through the window, searching for an opening. He noticed a large red button labelled in clear Equestrian. “Open hatch… wait a second! They write in Equestrian! How is that possible?!” Luna immediately rushed over and took a look with her guards trailing behind her.
“Go! Go! Go!” Bunting shouted as the rear door opened up, he and Laura advanced left whilst Johnston and Leif moved right. “Secure the landing zone!” He stopped as he noticed a small white horse dressed in elaborate gold armour staring back at him.
“Sir?! We have a situation!” Leif shouted to Bunting as his team ran into another armoured horse, this one with wings. The horses seemed equally shocked at the sight of the Humans. Lairsey walked forwards with a stride, in one hand he had his pistol trained on the winged one, his other hand clutched his head that was still throbbing with pain. He walked up to the winged one who he assumed was the leader and spoke slowly and clearly.
“Friend or foe?” he cocked his pistol dramatically to emphasise his point.
The pegasus had no idea how to react, he could understand the thing in front of him clear as day, but he had no idea what the thing pointed at his head was. He tried to speak but his mouth was dry, whatever the thing pointed at him was he assumed from the way it was held that it was a weapon.
“Friend or foe?” Lairsey repeated before pointing to the ground directly below the winged horse and letting of a warning shot.
The horse jumped back in fright and stammered back, “friend… friend!” Lairsey hadn’t expected the creature to reply, he just wanted to see how intelligent it was. It was then that Luna and the others walked around the front. The Captain suddenly found himself surrounded by horses, he swung the pistol wildly aiming at each of them individually. His head was practically tearing itself apart and he was finding it exceptionally difficult to focus. “Where the fuck did you just come from!” he shouted out loud at their leader.
This… thing made Buzz’s blood boil, nopony insulted the princess like that, not even these oddities. Luna gave him a reassuring look to try and calm him down but the Human walked forwards flanked by two of the armoured ones who Buzz assumed must be his guard. They were all holding some kind of weapon in their hands, each was different yet similar. They waved them around as if they were swords but kept their distance. The Human who he assumed was the leader, the one with a large cut on his head, walked forward then back, he seemed to be pacing.
Lairsey didn’t know how to react, there was something almost… noble about the dark blue winged unicorn. Listen to me, winged unicorns, Lairsey laughed inwardly. He then turned to face the aliens and started talking, “something is definitely wrong here. I don’t know what you are and what you want. You can understand us right?
“That is correct,” the blue one replied who Lairsey assumed was the leader of the group; the two flunkies on either side of her looked angrily at him as if ready to pounce.
“Tell your boys to calm down then. They’re giving my trigger finger an itch,” Bunting said from Lairsey’s left. The two horses stopped growling and tried to ease up.
“Look, we don’t want to have to shoot you. I’m sure that you can be reasonable and that you can let us unload our ship then walk away. I’ve had enough of aliens and I just can’t trust you. We are going to restrain you and you are not going to resist,” Lairsey said to their leader, before turning to his subordinates. “Johnston, do we have any rope?”
“I think there’s some in the emergency kit in the craft. I’ll just take a look,” Johnston said as he climbed back into the crashed Pelican.
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Twilight Sparkle awoke to the smell of something delicious, wafting through the crack under her door. “Hmm, Hragh, Huu,” she grunted as she rolled onto her back, the scent drifted along up to the bed and over her face. She inhaled deeply triggering a content smile that spread across her face as her eyelids fluttered open to the sight of a bright and sunny day, passing beyond her window. Her smile widened and she sat up gently with a yawn. From downstairs came the faint sound of Spike whistling from the kitchen. She yawned again and clambered out of bed and to her hooves slowly, before trotting over to the mirror and picking up her brush using her unicorn magic. She ran it through her mane gently, straightening it out. She checked herself in the mirror. “Everything looks right as rain,” she announced proudly to herself before opening the door and heading out.
She walked downstairs to find Spike stood over the stove simmering an Omelette Du Françoise. Twilight’s mouth watered at the strong scent of spices and eggs. “Morning Spike,” she stated announcing her arrival. She sat down at the table just as Spike dished the omelette onto a plate which he placed onto the table in front of her.
“One Omelette du Françoise, exactly how you like it. Mildly spiced with extra cheese and only lightly simmered with dragon fire,” Spike announced full of pride.
“Fantastic job, my number one assistant,” Twilight said digging in with a fork telekinetically.
“Mmm, just perfect,” she sighed with satisfaction. Spike beamed rubbing back his head spikes with a slick claw.
“So what’s on the agenda for today?” Spike asked as he placed two mugs of steaming herbal tea on the table and sat down opposite Twilight.
“Do you remember the other day when I found that old book? An Alchemist’s Guide to Equestria. Well, I want to visit Zecora and get some ingredients, so that I can take a crack at a few of those potion recipes.”
“So you want to go into the Everfree Forest again?” Spike began to look a little worried.
“Yeah, but this time you’re coming with me. That way if I run into a cockatrice or something again, then you can run for help. You know. A buddy system,” she stated as if Spike had already agreed but he had other plans.
“No,no,no! I’m not going into the forest, I volunteered to help Rarity fill that big order.”
“But Spike…” Twilight pouted and looked pleadingly but Spike wasn’t swayed. When it came to Rarity it would take a lot of convincing to persuade Spike. Twilight sighed heavily, “Fine. You know you’re lucky you’re such a good cook.” Twilight placed another forkful of omelette in her mouth savouring the taste. “I guess I’ll see if anypony else is available.”
Thirty minutes later Twilight left the library that she lived in, her saddlebags loaded with supplies to trade with Zecora. It was a beautiful day, ponies lined the street of the town of Ponyville, talking and bartering with one another. Twilight knew that Rarity wasn’t the only one busy today, both Applejack and Pinkie Pie were also hard at work themselves, preparing for the upcoming Summer Sun Celebration. Even though it was being held in Manehattan this year, the citizens of Ponyville would still throw a big party and watch the sun rise for the longest day of the year. That left just Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash available to accompany her. Fluttershy was still terrified of the forest so Rainbow seemed like the only candidate for the job. The only problem was finding her. Let’s see, Twilight thought to herself, it’s around midday so naturally she’ll be napping. Probably on a cloud near town… there! She spotted a large cloud sat directly above Sugarcube Corner, on it she could see the cyan pegasus’s unmistakeable rainbow mane.
“Hey Rainbow!” she called to the mare lying stretched out like a cat on her cloud. “Rainbow Dash! It’s Twilight!” she shouted up again. Rainbow Dash scratched her nose with her hoof and started mumbling. Twilight was growing more and more irritated. “RAINBOW!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. Rainbow Dash began to sit up then slumped straight back down again turning over. Twilight sighed and looked back down to see some of the other ponies were giving her inquiring looks. Twilight blushed, her cheeks turning scarlet as she mumbled, “sorry everypony.” The other ponies gave her a reassuring smile and continued with their work. A small orange pegasus filly with a dark purple mane walked up to her as the others dispersed.
“Need a hoof? I can definitely wake her up. I’ve got this new rock ballad that she’ll love,” she said pointing to the cyan pegasi.
“I might as well let her sleep. I was just going to Zecora’s and thought it would be safer to travel as a pair…”
“Cutie Mark Crusader Bodyguards!” two voices shouted deafeningly in unison from behind Twilight. A white unicorn filly with light green eyes and a mixed pink and purple mane bounced over. Following her was a yellow earth pony filly with red hair and a big pink bow on her head.
“Yeah! We could help you out Twilight!” the unicorn filly said.
“Oh, Sweetie Belle. Uh, I really appreciate the offer but the forest can be a tad dangerous for little fillies.”
“We flirt with danger every day!” The orange pegasus pulled a pair of shades from nowhere and put them on. “Live life on the edge!”
“Scootaloo, we both know that’s not entirely true…”
“Please Twi, Ah do so want mah Cutie Mark,” the yellow pony spoke with a Southern accent. She gave Twi both barrels, an unrestrained puppy dog eyes look, boring into Twilight’s soul.
“Apple Bloom, look, uh, I would love to let you come with me. But Applejack forbade me from bringing you to Zecora’s again after you mixed up that potion and gave yourself Cutie Pox.”
“But, but, but…” the three began to say in unison.
“No buts, my little ponies, I’m just going to have to brave Everfree Forest on my own.”
“No one fear, your friendly neighbourhood Rainbow Dash is here!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she landed in front of them.
“Finally! What woke you up?”
“Take a guess,” she said, motioning towards the CMC with her eyes. Twilight smiled and let out a snicker before she could catch it.
“Rainbow Dash! Hey Rainbow Dash! I got a new song you just have to hear!” Scootaloo hopped over, fluttering her small wings to get better airtime.
“Maybe later pipsqueak.” She said ruffling up her mane. “I’ve gotta help my friend Twi through the dark and creepy, Everfree Forest.” The CMC started giggling as Rainbow chased them around while waving her hooves and making ghostlike noises.
“Sure thing Rainbow. I’ll catch ya on the rebound,” Scootaloo said, turning around and walking away as coolly as she could.
The other crusaders sang in chorus, “see you Twilight, See you Rainbow Dash.” Before galloping after Scootaloo.
Rainbow Dash and Twilight began their walk into The Everfree Forest. Rainbow Dash hovered slightly off the ground while Twilight trotted along. Both of them followed the path that cut straight into the woods. When they had faced off against Nightmare Moon a few years ago, they had followed the path all the way to the centre of the forest where the ruins of Celestia’s old castle lay. Today though they were only going to visit Zecora, a zebra that lived on the outskirts of the village. Zecora was a shaman, specialising in healing potions and the spiritual arts. After Twilight had wrongfully accused her of being a witch, they made up and became fast friends. Whenever Twilight had problems with the supernatural, Zecora was always willing to lend a hoof, whilst Twilight helped her procure rarer ingredients in return. Today though she planned on getting some ingredients from Zecora but she had brought her a copy of The Potioneer’s Prize in return.
“So then I swooped in and caught it just in time! Twilight, are you even listening?!” Rainbow Dash turned to her friend who appeared distracted.
“Sorry Rainbow, I just noticed that.” Twilight pointed towards a trail leading off from the main path.
“So what?” Rainbow Dash said contemptuously, “I’m telling you about my super sweet save!”
“It wasn’t there before, and look, in the distance.”
“What?”
“Something knocked that tree over.”
“Do you think it’s some kind of m...monster? Not that I’m scared or anything.” Rainbow scanned the area keeping an eye out for ghosts and ghouls.
“I don’t know, think we should investigate?”
“You’re the egghead. What do you think?”
“What if it is dangerous?”
“What if somepony else runs into it! We should go check it out.” Rainbow Dash sped off, following the trail. Twilight chased after her, but she couldn’t keep pace with the speeding mare. Rainbow Dash suddenly stopped in her tracks, she could see some kind of metal thingy upside down on the ground, next to it though sat Princess Luna and her guards, as well as some other ponies tied up with rope. Rainbow Dash did the only thing she could do in a situation like this. “CHARGE!” she screamed, shooting towards the assortment of beings surrounding the Princess.
A rainbow came shooting towards the group from out of nowhere, slamming straight into Berneche and knocking her flying into a tree. “We’re under attack! Execute the prisoners!” Bunting screamed pointing his battle rifle towards the guard who’d been giving him the evil eye for the last five minutes. Before he could fire though he found his gun wrenched out of his hands, coated in a dark blue shimmer. “Open fire! Multiple Hostiles!” Bunting screamed again before his gun flew back towards him and slammed into his forehead, throwing him to the floor.
Rainbow scored a direct hit knocking one of the creatures into a tree when suddenly everything went crazy. The air was full of flying metal and the sound of small explosions. She turned trying to acquire a new target when, from her high perspective, she could make out a pair of them at Zecora’s hut. “Damn, Luna takes priority though,” she whispered to herself before charging back into the fray. She spotted a new combatant slink out of the hunk of metal and shot towards him.
Luna did not like being tied up but stuck with it in the interest of keeping the peace. As long as they keep to their word, this may end up being the best outcome, She thought to herself, everything is still going well…wait, what was that? She focused her eyes on the flash of multicoloured light heading straight towards them. “Oh no,” she whispered aloud.
“What did you say?” Laura Berneche asked, approaching the restrained alicorn when she suddenly found herself flying in the air and then into a tree.
“Run,” was all Luna said as she untied the rope magically. Celestia’s guards grabbed Earnest and pulled back. Luna’s guards remained by her side however, one of the Human soldiers turned, rifle in hand and aimed at Buzz so she grabbed his gun with her magic and pulled it off of him, before throwing it back at him. She nodded to her two guards who charged forwards, towards a trio of the creatures still holding their ground.
Corporal Yao would not abandon his charges. Whitmore stood by his side with Yao’s SMG taking pot shots, but with only one eye she was missing by miles. Kendrick was reluctant to fire her pistol, just waving it around and trying to look threatening. Yao himself had a machete from the survival kit.
He noticed two armoured aliens charging forwards and threw himself at them, trying to keep his body between them and the injured. One of them effortlessly hopped over him, using its wings while the other smacked out with his hoof, straight at Yao’s head. Yao met its hoof with the side of the blade parrying the hit. He sliced forwards but the pegasi effortlessly evaded and kicked back, Yao flung himself out of the kicks range and rolled to his feet. His opponent snorted and started circling him. Yao breathed deeply and ran forward, blade raised, the horse turned and bucked sending Yao flying backwards but the machete fell, embedding itself into the horse’s rear. The horse cried out, staggering backwards, Yao dragged himself back up and turned to find Whitmore on the ground with the other guard atop her, pinning her down, and Kendrick nowhere to be seen. He charged towards the horse and tackled it as hard as he could to the ground. “Run Cass!” he shouted as he smashed into the armoured grey enemy.
Cassandra pushed herself to her feet and fled in the direction she’d seen Kendrick run in less than a minute ago. Yao struggled with the horse trying to get an edge in, but the combination of heavy armour and hooves had him at a complete disadvantage. The horse stomped down with his hoof, hard, on Yao’s head and everything went black.
Neil gave the beast a hard pound to make sure he stayed down before running over to help Buzz. “Argh! Get it out! Get it out!” Buzz kept spinning around, the machete stuck in his flank.
“Focus, Buzz! We’re still fighting here!” Neil shouted back. As if on cue, a bullet flew right through his helmet ridge, shattering it into pieces.
“Get down!” Neil jumped on Buzz just before a hail of bullets hit. The two of them leapt into the wreck for cover. Inside the wreck however were two more of the creatures.
“I surrender!” the one in white shouted putting his hands in the air. Next to him the other appeared already wounded.
“Francis, you cowardly fuck! Grab that pistol and put ‘em down!” Kowalski turned to him with daggers in his eyes.
“And then what?! This isn’t cowardice, this is rationality! We can’t win, we’re outnumbered, outmatched! Besides they don’t exactly scream hostile intent!” Stamford backed slightly away from Kowalski just before he took a swing at him.
“It doesn’t have to look dangerous to be dangerous you arrogant arse! Come back here so I can hit ya!” Kowalski shouted at the top of his lungs, and then fell into a coughing fit as a side effect.
“Sorry about this, necessary precaution.” Neil said as he trotted over then tapped them on the head with his hooves, both fell instantly unconscious.
“Where the hay did you learn that! Can you teach me?!” Buzz jumped excitedly then remembered the machete in his flank with a sharp cry, “argh!”
“Let me get that,” Neil said as he grabbed the hilt and pulled, the blade came free easily enough and clattered to the floor, but so did a river of blood. “Uh oh!”
“What?! What’s happening back there?!” Buzz said trying to turn around and look. Neil noticed some bandages in the bag the cowardly one was holding and pulled them out. He then swiftly patched up Buzz’s flank as best he could.
“Thanks pony,” Buzz sighed relieved. The sound of bullets seemed to have stopped so they poked their heads back out of the craft.
Rainbow Dash tried to dodge the bullets but there were way too many. Duck, dive, twist, dodge left then right, up then down; all in the space of five seconds before she slammed into the Navigation Officer. They two of them flew up over each other rolling across the ground. Rainbow Dash had been hit twice in her left wing and once in her chest. Okano was first up but without his gun he had no confidence, so he did the only thing he could do, flee. Rainbow Dash caught up in seconds and tripped him up, he fell flat on his face with a smash. Okano scrambled upwards again but this time tried to fight back. He threw a pathetic punch which Rainbow Dash just sidestepped before socking him one in the chest.
That was his limit as he fell to the floor in tears, “Please don’t kill me!” he cried. Rainbow rolled her eyes then knocked him out with a hoof to the face before collapsing on top of him from her wounds.
Twilight teleported in to find all the action had already taken place, or so she thought. She suddenly found herself being held at gunpoint by a very desperate sergeant.
“All of you motherfuckers back off or I’ll blow her head off!” he said walking back to the tree cover while holding her in front of him. “I see your horn glow and I’ll pop you anyway,” he added quietly to her. Neil and Buzz came out of the wreckage at the exact right time, finding themselves in the perfect position to grab him from behind. Neil did just that, knocking the gun out of his hands again. He turned and started running but Twilight teleported right in front of him making him fall backwards.
“Pop me will you!” she screamed at him before putting him to sleep with a touch of her horn to his forehead. She then turned to Luna who seemed to be staring sorrowfully into thin air. “Princess are you okay?”
“Hmm…” Luna turned to face the worried unicorn. “Yes, I am unharmed. I wish I could say the same for our friends.”
“Our friends? They tied you up and tried to kill us!”
“Only one of them harboured us any ill intent. This was simply a case of one rotten apple spoiling the bunch,” Luna said all this extremely calmly, considering what had just happened.
“That crazy one stabbed one of your guards with a sword!”
“To defend those weaker individuals, that shows compassion,” Luna spoke as if she had already thought it through.
“Are there any more of them?” Twilight looked around for more and then realised the absence of a certain cocky mare, “Where’s Rainbow Dash?” she asked Luna quizzically.
Luna began to concentrate and her horn flashed once, then twice before she turned abruptly and galloped into the woods. Twilight and the guards hesitated for a moment before sprinting after her.
“Princess! Where are you going?!” Neil shouted a she chased after her. Luna suddenly stopped; the other ponies caught up to her and gathered around. Rainbow Dash was lying at her feet in a pool of blood beside another incapacitated creature.
Twilight gasped in shock and fell to her knees. “Rainbow… no…” she mumbled.
Rainbow Dash opened an eye and coughed more blood onto the ground, “I’ll be… fine egghead.” She tried to stand back up but collapsed back to the ground. “I just… need a little… water,” she coughed out again.
“I noticed medical supplies back in the alien craft. I think the one in white was a doctor, maybe he could help,” Neil suggested.
“Go get him, quickly,” the Princess said quietly, her voice sounding mechanical, devoid of emotion. Neil and Buzz sprinted off back to the crash site.
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Earnest and the guards fled the scene, sounds of small explosions coming from the crash site filling their ears. “Thank god! Somepony must live here; this forest is so bucking crazy!” one of the guards announced to the other and ran up to the door, rapping on it with his hoof. “Open up! We need assistance!” he shouted through the door. There was no reply. “Tertius! Check that window!” he ordered and the other guard walked over to the window and peered through. The hut looked devoid of life, a candle on the table sat unlit. Tertius turned to leave when he noticed a metal crate sat in the corner, the initials UNSC printed on the side of it in bold white.
“Quintus! There’s one of those boxes from the alien craft in there!” Tertius shouted to the other guardpony. He turned back to the window to see two armed humans climb out from under the table. “There are two of them in there! They’ve got those fire weapons!” he shouted once more to the other guard. One of the humans pointed out the window with his gun, after ensuring the pony dived away, he then shot it out. “Bucking hell,” he cried as he landed on the ground, glass scattering all around him from the window.
“Back off!” Leif shouted out of the window. He didn’t want to hurt them but he had to make sure they stayed away. He knew it was vital they guarded the supply crates they had managed to secure thus far. He had no idea if the food and drink available on this planet would be compatible with their digestive system. Despite the blandness of standard ration bars and sterilised water, he’d rather not chance the local food. They also had half of the guns stored there along with an ammo cache. Lairsey and Johnston were meant to be back any minute now with a second crate of supplies.
Seth and Darrell sprinted along the road carrying another UNSC crate between them, this one containing mostly survival supplies: knives, rope, sleeping bags; back to basics. As they approached the hut, the sound of Leif’s shotgun blasted out. “Johnston. We need to secure that other crate by any means necessary. Any. Means. Necessary,” Lairsey ordered quietly as the two of them placed their crate upon the ground, drew their weapons and peered around the corner. The two white armoured ponies from earlier were stood beside the door, whispering to each other.
“Back off equine scum!” Sinclair’s voice called out from behind the door, “I can hear you whispering out there!” The two ponies stopped and seemed to agree on something before nodding to each other and charging in, right into a trap. Sinclair had set up an impromptu ram that came down the second they opened the door, knocking the two of them flying backwards and to the ground outside, unconscious.
“Fuck yeah Vic! That was badass.” Leif high fived him and then walked outside. Lairsey and Johnston cornered, guns cocked, to see Leif standing over the unconscious guards. “Hey boss,” Leif said as he turned to greet them.
“We’ve lost this store room, we’re grabbing these supplies we’ve already secured and getting out of here, let’s move it.”
“Um, excuse me! Aliens?” Earnest strode forwards out of the shadows. “I, uh, don’t suppose you’d mind a quick interview before you leave.” He tried to give an encouraging smile but it fell flat.
“What do we do with him?” Leif turned to Lairsey who cocked his gun.
“Wait! Wouldn’t it be best to grab a hostage?” Victor said as he emerged from the hut with the supply crate. “And considering that this individual is the only non-combatant it stands to reason that he would be the best candidate.”
“That’s… actually a good idea Vic, give yourself a pat on the back. Leif, secure the hostage.”
“This isn’t exactly what I meant, you see I’m just an astronomer, you don’t want to…” Thwack went the butt of the shotgun as it collided with the pony’s head. Earnest collapsed backwards.
Leif picked him up, “They're surprising light,” Leif announced to the others. Darrell sniggered as he walked back around the hut and grabbed the second crate.
“Alright team let’s head out,” Lairsey ordered, “Keep to the edge of the roads, not actually on the roads. If they get winged horses to search for us from the sky, then we’ll need the tree cover.”
“Yes Sir!” they all shouted in unison and started to head out when Kendrick and Whitmore burst from the trees ahead.
“Sir! The Crash Site…” Kendrick announced breathlessly before stopping to take a gulp of air, “it’s been taken over… they’ve captured or killed everyone else.”
“Shit!” Darrell shouted, kicking at the ground.
“How many of them were there?” Lairsey adopted the same steely gaze he always put on when given bad news.
“I only counted four, but they were quick and strong. They took down Corporal Yao and Sergeant Bunting with ease. I don’t think the others stood much of a chance,” Private Whitmore spoke up.
“We cannot catch a fucking break can we?! A crew of around four hundred reduced to six. We might as well have all died,” Johnston ranted to the others.
“Shut up Darrell.” Seth said quietly, “we can still do this, we continue heading deeper into the woods, we locate a new,base of operations and we set up shop. Eventually we send out scouts, we find out where these horses have taken our fellow crewmen. Then we kill every. Single. Alien that stands between us and our crewmen.” Seth’s voice grew louder towards the end but his face betrayed no emotion. “But first, let’s go find us a new HQ,” he announced then started to walk off. The others nodded and followed him, Sinclair and Johnston each carrying a crate while Leaf had the prisoner on his back.
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Neil ducked into the crash site to find the doctor still unconscious, slumped against the back wall next to the crippled one. He grabbed him and slung him over his back, before grabbing the bag he had found the bandages in earlier with his mouth and galloping back out again. “Buzz! Gather the other creatures together and tie them up in case they wake up again,” he ordered through the bag in his mouth, before turning and sprinting back to the injured pegasus.
“Yes Sir!” he heard Buzz reply from behind him.
Neil arrived to find the pegasus was unconscious once more with Twilight standing over her, looking very worried. “I got him!” he shouted as he placed the bag upon the ground then turned the creature to Twilight. She placed her horn against his head and he instantly snapped awake falling to the floor.
“Goddamn it!” he shouted picking himself up and dusting off, he then looked up and see a purple unicorn, staring him in the eyes.
“Please, whatever you are, you have to help my friend!” she cried hysterically pointing to a blue winged horse in a pool of blood with a bullet hole in her chest.
“Do you have my supplies?” he turned to her and she nodded at the bag by his feet. He nodded back grabbed his bag and rushed to the horse’s side. He opened the bag and pulled out some tweezers and gauze. He hoped it didn’t have any internal injuries, this medical kit was quite basic, most of the larger stuff had gone in the supply crate that the Captain had picked up moments ago. “Do you know if your friend is allergic to anything?” he queried as he pulled out a shot of Factor VII, a coagulant that should cause the blood to clot, lowering the chance of a bleed out.
“No… I don’t think she is.” Twilight tried to regain her composure. The creature seemed capable as he pulled out several odd devices. It gently pushed an odd metallic instrument into the hole and pulled out a small, cylindrical metal object.
“Bullet has now been removed. A shot of this and some gauze and your friend should hopefully stabilise,” Francis said, turning to the unicorn and picking up the syringe, jabbing it into the hole and releasing it into the blood stream. He then picked up the gauze and applied it to the wound, sticking it to the ruptured flesh. He felt her heartbeat, it was getting pretty weak. Ideally a shot of adrenaline would get it right back up again. “Wait a second,” he suddenly said out loud, “Corporal Yao had some adrenaline in his pocket! Uh, you there,” he said waving at the dark blue winged unicorn that was clearly in charge. “I need to get back to the crash site so I can get something.”
“As long as it isn’t a weapon, I don’t see why not. Neil, escort mister…” She paused to let the creature identify itself.
“Stamford, Doctor Francis Stamford,” he replied on cue.
“Escort Doctor Stamford to the crash site and bring him back, quickly.”
“Yes, Ma’am.” The guard saluted and began to walk back to the crash site with Francis by his side.
“So, uh Neil, are you the same type of horse…”
“Pony, we’re ponies not horses,” the guard stated tersely without even turning to look at him. After a few seconds of awkward silence Stamford piped up again.
“Ponies, right. Uh, so you’re a winged pony…”
“Pegasus pony, and we’re here,” he said gesturing to the site. Buzz had gathered the four creatures together and tied them up with the same rope they had tied them up with previously. Francis ran to the prisoners and straight to Yao’s unconscious body. He pulled the syringe of adrenaline from earlier out of Yao's pocket and placed it in his own before turning back to Neil.
“Got it! Let’s head back,” he said running over. The two of them then strolled back. On the way, it was Neil’s turn to ask some questions.
“So if I’m a pony, what are you?”
“I’m a Human, we hail from the planet Earth.”
“Earth, huh, never heard of it.
"It’s in a distant system, possibly even galaxy. To be honest, I don’t know where we are now.”
"This is the land of Equestria and we’re here again,” Neil replied pointing to the injured pegasus.
Francis nodded and pulled out the needle crouching once more next to the injured pony. He checked her heart rate again, still falling. There was nothing for it, he held the needle high and stabbed it as hard as he could into her chest.
Twilight gasped in shock as Francis stabbed her friend, but Rainbow Dash woke up with a massive inhalation of air. She shook her head and saw a creature stood over her with a sharp needle. Instinct took over as she kicked his legs out and leapt on top of him.
“Wait Rainbow Dash!” she shouted and the cyan pegasus stopped mid-punch and turned to look at her. “He just saved your life.” She looked down to see some white cotton object attached to her chest and looked below her as she realised she was sat in a pool of her own blood.
“What?! Why would you do that?! Your friend here was the one who shot me!” she exclaimed incredulously gesturing to Okano.
“We’re not all fools. If you would be so kind as to release me, then perhaps I could try and treat your wing too,” Stamford said uneasily with Rainbow Dash sat atop him. Rainbow turned around to see two small clear holes through her left wing. She tried to hover but screamed out in pain as she tried to flutter her left wing. Stamford pulled an antiseptic cream and some more gauze out of his bag.
“I don’t know if wings require any special treatment, so I’ll treat them as I would hands,” The doctor said to the patient.
“I don’t know any of that science stuff as long as you can make me fly again, I don’t care what you do.”
“I haven’t got a clue on how fast you ponies heal, but I would advise a fellow human to keep off the injured limb for at least four weeks.
“Buck that! Flying is my life; get me back up in the air by the end of the week.”
“I wouldn’t recommend that…”
“I could assist there.” Twilight interjected, “If you just stop the bleeding then tomorrow I can try and brew her an accelerated healing potion, from the tome I recently rediscovered.” Twilight smiled helpfully. Francis nodded back.
“Okay, uh, Rainbow Crash I need…”
“Rainbow Dash, as in Dashing with a D,” Rainbow Dash said through grated teeth.
“Oh right, sorry. Uh, this is going to sting, a lot. I need you to bear with it and it’ll stop within ten seconds. Okay?”
“Bring it on,” Rainbow replied, gritting her teeth in anticipation. Francis squeezed out two dabs of cream and applied them gently to the injured areas. Rainbow gritted her teeth more, and then relaxed. Francis then gently applied the gauze to those two holes too, on both sides.
“There we go, that should significantly lower the risk of infection.” Francis smiled calmly.
“Thank you doctor Stamford.” Luna said as she approached the doctor as he stood up. “I’m sorry about this, but we need to keep you a secret as we transport you to Canterlot.” She then lowered her horn to his forehead and cast a more refined version of Twilight’s sleeping spell, bestowing the doctor with pleasant dreams. Neil picked up Okano and Stamford and carried them back to the crash site, where he tied them up with the others.
“All humans secure and ready for transport Ma’am!” Neil saluted formally.
“Excellent good then let’s head back to Canterlot,” Luna replied and approached the prisoners.
“Um, Princess!” Buzz shouted nervously. “Uh… what happened to that astronomer and the other guards.”
In the excitement Luna had completely forgotten about the other ponies. “Oh my!” She exclaimed aloud then began to focus once more as her horn glowed with the dark blue energy. She galloped off and everypony moved to follow her.
“Buzz, stay here and guard the prisoners.” Neil shouted back and Neil pulled back from the group to return to the prisoners. Rainbow Dash could only move a fraction of her speed while on foot, but she still easily outpaced the others. Luna twisted through the undergrowth, sprinting in a straight line when the burst through the foliage to find themselves at Zecora’s hut. The two guards lay battered on the floor, while the door to the hut was burst open. Twilight checked the guards, they were breathing regularly despite the huge dents in their armoured chest plates. She then placed her horn upon their foreheads and woke them both up. Quintus leapt to his feet instantly while Tertius attempted to drag himself up.
“Guardsponies, may I inquire as to what happened here?” Luna asked cordially.
“Those foals ambushed us when we tried to take the hut. I only counted two of them but I heard them mention two others. Argh! My head is swimming!” Quintus shouted, stumbling a little as he clutched his head.
Tertius took over. “They booby trapped the door with a buc…” He started casually then realised he was talking to Princess Luna. “A battering ram, Ma’am.” He saluted and stood to attention. “They were guarding some supply crates they took from the crash site.
“Hmm… where’s Starstruck?
“Who?” Quintus asked releasing his head.
“That astronomer, the alien theorist.”
“Oh right, he was right… behind us…” Quintus trailed off as he turned around to see nopony there. “Buck. I don’t know what happened to him… he was nearby when we were knocked out…"
“Perhaps they took him with them?” Tertius suggested.
Twilight finally gave in and interjected Princess Luna herself, “That’s all well and good, but where is Zecora?”
“Who?” Tertius replied.
“The zebra who lives in this hut,” Twilight said exasperatedly, this whole incident had her on her wit’s edge and Twilight was not a pony that responded well to pressure.
“We never saw a zebra,” Tertius continued, “the hut only contained those things.”
“Humans,” Luna corrected him.
“Yeah, them hoomans,” Tertius accepted the correction
“Then where is Zecora?” Twilight asked nopony in particular.
Zecora had retrieved some hydra scales from Froggy Bottom Bog, a quest that had taken her the entire day. She had managed to use an invisibility potion to sneak up unnoticed and pluck some of the beauties. With these shiny scales she hoped to make a plethora of different potions, hydra scales had a surprising amount of alchemical uses, from healing poultices to potions of flame resistance and stamina poisons. She had decided to take a shortcut through the forest on the way back, normally a risky manoeuvre but she was still experiencing the rush that accompanies a job well done. She stopped as she heard a rustling noise and concealed herself behind a bush.
“Well, exxxxcussseee me for taking the initiative,” a feminine voice said.
“You abandoned me and Yao! We might have been able to fight them off if you had actually helped!” another voice replied.
“We didn’t stand a snowballs chance in hell of getting out of there alive!”
“We could of, if you had actually fired your damn weapon!”
“If I had fired, at least I would have hit something.”
“I have one eye! One.Eye!”
“That thing had full auto, you should have just sprayed in their direction.”
“Will you two just shut up?! Please?!” a third, masculine voice pitched in.
Zecora peered from her hiding place to see six odd creatures walking alongside the road. They stood on their hind legs kind of like Spike, and carried some large crates. The one at the back appeared to have an unconscious pony slung over his shoulder. He was whistling a jaunty tune, as if this was routine. Zecora didn’t know how to react, she could rush out and confront them but she couldn’t see that working out well for her, or she could wait for them to pass then rush to Ponyville for aid. It didn’t take much convincing for her to decide on the latter and she waited with bated breath as they passed.
“I don’t know Captain, this forest looks pretty dangerous, and I would recommend we find somewhere more secluded to set up shop,” a fourth voice stated in reply to a question she couldn’t quite make out.
“Fine, let’s keep moving everyone, first structure we find is ours,” an unenthusiastic voice called out to a chorus of equally unenthusiastic cheers. The footsteps passed and vanished into the distance. Zecora checked the coast was clear and emerged from her hiding place. She sighed in relief and galloped back to her hut.
She arrived home to find her door burst open and her window smashed. She peered through the window to see Twilight and Rainbow Dash sat at her table. Twilight wore a worried expression whilst Rainbow Dash appeared to be struggling to keep awake. Zecora walked in through the open door, marvelling at the battering ram that had been fashioned from her bamboo stalks. “Would somepony like to explain? What happened here boggles the brain.” Twilight leapt up at the sound of Zecora’s voice and galloped to the zebra to hug her. “What’s with the sudden show of affection, is it because I evaded detection?” She laughed as she returned the hug.
“You’re alive! Thank Celestia, when we found your house like this we thought the worst.” Twilight sniffed.
“No need to be so down, I’m fine so don’t frown.” She gave Twilight a smile. “I journeyed far for a certain component, many uses has this ingredient.” She reached into her saddlebags and pulled out a set of murky brown scales. “Scales of a hydra, to make a potion for Lyra”.
“Those… humans tore through here; they used your house to store their supplies before Celestia’s guard assaulted them. We captured some of them but the others escaped into the forest,” Twilight answered Zecora’s previous question.
“I met them on the road, they carried a worrying load. A pony weak and stricken, bound up and trussed like a chicken,” Zecora told them.
“Was this pony a grey unicorn?” Rainbow Dash asked, remembering the small pony she had seen earlier.
“A quick look did betray, he was definitely coloured grey,” Zecora replied after a brief pause for thought. “If I may request your acumen, what exactly happened to them?”
“The humans who were captured were taken to Canterlot for interrogation. Princess Luna herself will be leading inquiries,” Twilight answered before adding, “Luna will be pleased to know that Starstruck is still alive, even if he is in enemy hooves.”
“So that is it? All she writ.” Zecora inquired. Rainbow Dash nodded lazily but Twilight had one more thing to do. She reached into her saddlebags and pulled out her copy of The Potioneer’s Prize.
“Actually I was wondering if I could get some ingredients off you in return for this book,” Twilight said with a smile.
“An exchange? How strange,” Zecora said as she trotted over to see the book. “Ah, a book on potions, what a kind notion.” She smiled. “I will be obedient, name your ingredient.”
“I need some manticore poison, a sample of poison joke, a pair of Luna Moth wings and a Blue Dart wing.”
“All of these you can take, as well as some scale of drake.” Zecora nodded happily and gathered the ingredients from her storeroom and handed them to Twilight, who placed them carefully in her saddle bags. “Now I think it’s time for you to leave, I’m sure you have much to achieve,” Zecora said smiling again and waving them off.
“See you later Zecora.” Twilight Sparkle waved back.
“Catch ya around,” Rainbow Dash said as the two friends departed and began the walk back to Ponyville.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Everyone know their job? Good. Meet back here in thirty.” A gruff voice shouted to the assembled crowd. Cryotechnician Rodrigo Barbanos's corpse lay there motionless, waiting for the thudding of boots against the ground to finish. Berneche and Sinclair were stood together sharing a smoke. What was once Rodrigo opened its eyes and dragged himself up off of the floor as quietly as he could. This body had not yet begun the unfortunate process of rotting but it was sure to happen soon enough. It knew then in its currently weakened state it wouldn’t stand a chance against the pair of technicians. The urge to spread its toxic spores was strong, the scraps of rational thought that remained advised strongly against it though. It had targeted the technician originally due to his distance from the others and unconscious state. It gurgled quietly as it turned to observe the remainder of the room, looking for easier prey. Two unconscious forms sat in eyesight of the smoking technicians, slightly less risky than assaulting them directly but the spores would need time to convert their host to its purpose, much as it had for him. He gurgled again discontentedly when he spotted a third unconscious form sat significantly further from the other two. If it was quiet and they kept distracted then it had a good chance of success.
It approached the prone form of Communications Officer Waters, luckily he was lying face up.
“That’s what she said!” a feminine voice cried out followed by loud guffaws of laughter before they quietened back down again.
The creature took this opportunity to let out a low cry, as a tentacle burst from its chest with a spray of blood, prising its ribs open. The appendage stabbed into the back of Water's neck and pulsed, channelling a thick viscous liquid as quietly as it could. Waters snapped back into consciousness but was still paralysed and unable to fight it off. He gurgled thickly, his throat jamming with the gloop as he drowned on the fluid. After a few minutes, the thing gently withdrew the tentacle and retracted it back into its chest. With the urge to infect temporarily sated, it slithered out of the door and into the wrecked corridors, the technicians none the wiser.
It crept quietly through the corridors, it was vaguely aware that it had to get off the ship, but beyond that it didn’t know what to do. It heard someone sprinting down the corridor and ducked into a side section, hiding in the shadows. “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!” a voice shouted before the sound of someone hitting metal was heard. “Okay?” the voice repeated then the footsteps resumed. The creature resonated with the word flood; that is what the humans who created it had called him, years ago “Flood Alpha” they had said. If there were more like him trapped outside the ship, it figured it better let them in.
After some more trekking it made it to the bridge, now devoid of life but sat in the centre was his prize, the Captain’s Console. Rodrigo was not the most stand up guy, he had a few vices that he liked to keep hidden. While the Captain was under he had hacked the console and “corrected” a few of his files. Alpha found that it could access these memories if it concentrated hard enough and typed the password, logging into the console. With the captain’s authority it allowed him to open the security doors that had blocked off half the ship and let the flood back in. Now with that task completed Alpha checked and sure enough, in a part of the ship he had just unlocked sat a few intact Bumblebee Escape Pods. Alpha curled Rodrigo’s lips into a smile, logged back out and it rushed off to the now accessible area of the ship.
With the huge explosion from the engines filling the sky, no one noticed a small metal object hurtle out of the moon’s atmosphere and shoot down towards the planet. It tore through the atmosphere bearing down towards Equestria.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seed Sower put down the watering can and stood back up, her soft brown fur clung to her in clumps, due to the beads of sweat running down her body. With the sun beating down on her she had struggled to get the job done, but get it done she had. She picked up a glass of apple juice that she had left on the table, and took a long draught of the cool refreshing liquid. She sighed contently, there was nothing like the feel of accomplishment after a hard days work mixed with a refreshing drink. “Could this day get any better?” she wondered aloud.
It was then she heard a distant rumbling and looked up to see a meteorite hurtling towards her freshly watered fields. She stared at it mouth agape and dropped the glass, it felt to the ground wand shattered. She shook herself, upturning the table and diving behind it for cover. The ground shook as the meteorite smashed into the field with an almighty crash. Smoke filled the air and the strong smell of ash was everywhere. Seed Sower emerged from behind the makeshift barricade of the table and peered over to see a chunk of solid metal now sat in a crater in the middle of her field. She ducked back behind, pondering her next move. She had moved to Sugar Lump Farm four years ago to escape these kinds of crazy goings-on. The nearest village was miles away so there was no chance of help. She decided to investigate it herself so she nervously approached the object. The air around it simmered with heat, she grabbed one of the chairs that had been tucked under the table and threw it at the object. The chair combusted as it hit the object, rapidly burning away to more ash. Seed Sower decided that she was going to need help in the end and decided to begin the long journey to the village. She returned to the farmhouse and fetched her saddlebags and put on her sun hat before embarking on her quest to receive aid.
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The floood are here!!!!!!!
i love how that went down :D very well don
and im gessing that the flood are still a threat.. i think that defeats the purpose of a self destruct system.. and i dont know if you you have ever seen a fusion core melt down but nothing can survive that type of bang... omg i went halo nerd there sorry but i get what your trying to do.... but realy see the ending of the first game and you will understand... other then that 5/5 XD
63941
Yeah, I see what you mean about the fusion core melt down, I hoped that perhaps the explosion was weakened by the fact that the primary reactor was already destroyed and the two seconday reactors had been bleeding energy for awhile. But I don't honestly know what effect that would actually have.
63885
Batten down the hatches, boys! Come get some!
http://cyb3rwaste.deviantart.com/art/Six-barreled-and-pissed-273635030
i had one thing that irked me about this story is that how a pony's iron or steel armor somehow deflected a bullet did i read that part wrong?
Other than that I cant wait for the next part and I do hope good relations with the humans can occur after this situation has stopped I always like when the humans and ponies can become allies. So keep up the great work
God, those humans are such assholes. Bringing violence to equestria and the flood. fucking humans are nothing but trouble. those assholes SHOT RD!!!!!
64191 A .556x51 has difficulty piercing a car windshield due to the angle. It very easily could have refracted off war armor, if the iron was hard enough.
Also, you MUST include "Confound these ponies: They drive me to drink." SOMEWHERE in the story. Maybe not next chapter. But SOMEWHERE.
64026 Also, you can't truly 'disable' a nuclear reactor in a way that would render it unsuceptable to intentional detonation.
If anything, it'd make it MORE likely to explode due to it taking out all the cooling systems.
There really isn't a switch for nuclear fission..
64191 You're probably right there, A little research shows that the armour would most likely be too cumbersome if it was thick enough to deflect bullets. Might edit that so instead it just misses him.
64220 Compared to the ponies they probably seem that way. Bunting and Lairsey hate aliens with a passion but at least Lairsey's hatred is justified. The others are mostly just following orders, and are considerably more reluctant to open fire on them, hence Kendrick, Stamford and Eriksson either refusing to fire or purposefully missing. You have to remember that the Covenant, also aliens, tore apart the entire Human Empire inflicting billions of casualties. I personally would be quite wary of aliens after all that, even pastel coloured ponies.
64242 I might have to fit that line in somewhere.
Hmm... the reactor becoming more unstable, that makes it considerably more difficult to suggest that the Flood survive. Without a Gravemind I seriously doubt I these flood would have the intelligence to save themselves... I have an idea, will edit it in later.
64353 Thank you, I try to research things before I put them in but every so often a detail or too slips. I doubt this stuff is grade A, maybe grade B at best. Every time I reread it I end up with a long list of corrections.
I will be doing some edits to Chapter 1 now to make it fit slightly better with established Halo Canon. I don't think the changes will be significant enough for a reread. When I'm done I'll point out all the major changes with a comment. I may also make some changes to chapter 3, using the new information you guys have provided. Once I get that out of the way, I'll start on Chapter 4.
Very good job, I enjoyed reading this chapter. I can see how their hate for aliens is justified, the war between the Covenant started when the humans gave them a gift. They have no way of knowing that the Equestrians are not members of the Covenant, as there are a multitude of Covenant speiceis that the humans have not yet discover. EX: The Huragok was only discovered during the battle of New Mombasa. Even though I love the ponies, I will always cheer for the UNSC. I'm excited to see how the Equestrians react to the flood. A question: Can group of flood transfuse in order to create a Gravemind?
64047 While ponies with guns looks pretty cool, I personally think that if our soldiers could fly super fast or had extremely powerful magic then we probably wouldn't have bothered with guns ourselves. Besides ponies are peaceful folk, I'm acting on the idea they wouldn't have guns. Whether they use some of the marines' weapons though is a different matter...
Okay, made a small but relatively major change to Chapter 3. Inserted a small section just before the Seed Sower sequence at the end. Also removed the bullet pinging off his armour as that was relatively unrealistic.
64026 hmm.... ok i can role with that :)
ow and if your going to do what i think your going to do, plz be gentle and so help me, if you hurt applejack i will come down on you like thunder on toast..... <(0-0)>
Purely awesome story good sir, so much so that I simply cannot physically wait for the next chapter MOOOOOOOOOORRREEEEEEEE!!!
icanhasmotivation.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/300-you-sir-awesome.jpg
BTW can you make an estimate on when the next part is coming out????????????????????
65210 Good Question. I only just today started writing chapter 4 and I have a point of not publishing anything less that 5000 words. I'm not as fond of fics that update frequently in short bursts as I feel you just get into it then it's over. Based on the prior chapters I would give it a week, but I have exams in January and I'll need to step up revision to match. I will try and have it up by next Monday, if I cannot then I'll leave a comment here with an update. Some days I can turn out thousands of words with ease while others I'll slowly chip away with small additions. So, yeah, I'll try my best to get it up by Monday night GMT.
65153 Thanks for that, I try my best.
<rant class="nerd">
You can ignore this critique. I'm going to get overly technical to a degree that the average reader who hasn't researched nuclear energy would overlook.
I'm going to assume the back half of the ship, with the reactors, is the 'destroyed half' as they could still access the bridge. Though it could be the side that's on the ground or the bottom half. I don't remember anymore.
But, if the reactor was destroyed, especially one powerful enough to be seen from a personal non-orbital telescope (atmosphere causes fuzz. Hence the need for Hubble), would be an unfathomable amount of power. And you said both primary reactors were destroyed.
Radiation has a habit of reflecting off of hard metals. Say, the metals used in a futuristic spacecraft. This means the radiation would be pouring down the hallways of the ship. If the human body is exposed to over 10,000 RADS, they're dead. Not deadly cancer. Dead. Less will still kill and deform many cells (Radiation will not grow you a third arm, it will just make your flesh fall off), irregardless of if you're dead or not, because your cells are mostly alive.
Nuclear radiation also generates heat, and in that amount, would leave the back half of the ship literally glowing from the heat.
I remember a quote from one of the technicians during a nuclear meltdown (Three Mile Island or Chernobyl, I don't remember) that compared opening a massive hatch to the facility, not to the reactor even (in radiation gear), and compared the feeling to having a bucket of molten lead poured on his skull.
Sadly, I don't have an xBox (PS3), so I haven't played Halo too much, so I don't know what the Flood is capable of past me shooting them while playing co-op with a friend. But I do know that Bungee does their research, and their games are realistic for the technology, and they explain the technology pretty well.
</rant class="nerd">
I was a bit startled at their lack of situation assessment (When a civilian interferes with military action to protect their own faction, you're supposed to shout out to the captives to object before you shoot) or target identification (In the hanger. Wasn't it three groups of friendlies almost shot?).
I'm being so critical of these issues because these are the only ones I've found. Everything else was great. Even a couple of my non-br0ny friends read this because it was well-done and Halo.
65529 Ahhh, I'm not particularly knowledgeable when it comes to Physics. One thing I will point out though is that these are supposedly nuclear fusion reactors not fission, I don't know if they'd react any differently as a result though. Could I have radiation blast shields or something designed to block the radiation deploy when a leak was detected? As another fan pointed out the engine explosion would have wiped out the flood easily which is why I added a small bit to chapter 3 just before the Seed Sower sequence at the end.
Any good science fiction franchise will try to explain everything in a reasonable way, I'd be the first to admit that perhaps my Halo knowledge isn't strong enough to write a top calibre cross-over. When I originally planned this the characters were going to start in a crashing pelican, but now that doesn't happen until two chapters in! I do know however that the Bridge is definitely at the top-front of the ship while the reactors would be at the bottom-rear near the engines.
Okano is a Navigation Officer so I would assume that he would have very little combat training. He is also pretty intimidated by the flood, so when you give a rapid fire weapon to a jittery crewman with very little weapon experience, well that happens. By situation assessment are you referring to when the ponies are captured? Or the technicians? Among the survivors you have two distinct groups: The trained marines and the naval crewmen. The only naval personnel with extensive weapon training would be the Head of Security, which is Kowalski.
I'm glad you liked it, there's plenty of parts I would pick out as weak particularly the whole Cryolab scenario...
What I mean is the Flood, which, if I understand correctly, were in the back part of the ship. The broken half. With the reactors.
And the only difference between fission and fusion (as far as theoretical generator designs go) is space and radiation. Fusion is smaller, more radiation than fission.
Anyways, unless the flood can withstand roughly 50,000 RADS (Radiation Units / Second), and walk on metal (this is a guess based on steel) of around 4000F, they'd have died shortly after the blast, as well as destroy all human remains to the point where they would not be good hosts.
I'm saying the bottom levels and the rear would have been hard-pressed to survive the radiation and would be dead before the explosion.
For your sake, I won't touch on how radiation effects the electronics to detonate..
I, by no means, expect you to rewrite all that for the sake of realism.
I'm just pointing this out in case you want to write a new story that uses this science. :3
You could, however, make a mention to it with something akin to the northern lights. All they are is radiation against the magnetic field.
When the US would test nuclear bombs in Nevada, the following week, the area would have a very faint orange version.
The cryo-lab scene was good, actually. The only weak part was no one was smashing the chambers open with a chair or anything after the power went out. Humans are stubborn like that and would have carried on for a good five minutes. Though they were interrupted by a moon before five minutes, making it not missed too badly.
The only other issue I have, and it may just be me and my lack of Halo, is the humans' dialog seems.. flat. I can't tell who's who.
During the firefight, I couldn't tell if it was Buzz, Neil, or one of the soldiers shouting things.
Not a huge issue. I get the point of the dialog: Everyone was attacking each other and a horse had a machete in it's ass.
Just keep in mind not all of your characters can talk in the same mannerisms as you do.
I hope I'm not coming across as too nit-picky. My intention is not to tear you down. Not even close.
You're good. Good enough for me to spend the time pointing out various specific things so your next chapter can be even better instead of a pat on the back and keep going, to get around to reading the next release whenever instead of finding time for it like I did with yours.
Hence the massive comments.
65950 You're not tearing me down, any criticism is appreciated. Anything you point out as slightly flawed may be a massive weakness that ruins the story in someone else's eyes. I am not the most creative when it comes to dialogue, I've had the same complaint received on both my previous stories. In my previous story, I received complaints about how clichéd the characters were, but that had only six real characters so each had time to get characterisation. This story is much more event driven than character driven, that's not really an excuse for poor dialogue though. The big chapter 3 fight scene wasn't the best but I thought it carried significantly more characterisation than most of chapter 2's functional speech. I still thought the fight scene as much better than the aftermath bit with Stamford and RD, rereading that bit made me cringe a little, it drags on too much for what it was.
I probably won't edit based on this new nuclear knowledge, it would involve pretty much rewriting the entire story to compensate. Thanks for the information though, it may come in handy one day.
I like the idea of Northern Lights but in this case wouldn't that be on the moon as that was where the explosion took place. Would probably still be viewable from Equestria though. True, I rushed that scene and when I went back I couldn't find anything significantly flawed about it but it just seemed weak, too convenient and pretty short. Especially when they simply state who they go out of the pods. Bleh
Thanks for taking the time to comment. I promise more significant characterisation for most of the humans in the next few chapters. So far, it seems that some aspects come out of nowhere, like Kowalski's rant at Stamford. As stated previously though I have a habit of creating stereotypes, they're easier to write and imagine although some can be difficult to associate with. Still, I'll try my best.
The moon doesn't have a magnetic field, so the radiation would drift through space where a decent amount would hit Earth / Equestria's atmosphere. Most would drift into spaaaaaaaaaaaace.
I don't expect you to get it 100%. I couldn't do that. Too much restriction when most people's knowledge of radiation comes from Fallout.
To be honest, Fallout made me curious, so I researched the fuck out of radiation. I've used it as my "Meh. I'm too lazy to research." topic for school many times. :P
66541 I keep forgetting to tag you in the comments. >:@
66709 Okay, I don't think I'll bother with the Northern Lights thing then, sounds a bit too confusing, thanks for the idea though.
Yeah when I think of radiation I think of Fallout. I never bothered background research though. I've always been more into Biology then Physics.
I only discovered the whole tagging thing the other day, as long as it's clear you're replying to me then tags aren't really necessary.
66826 You don't have to explain why it happened. :P
The humans would just assume its just the norm for this planet.
The ponies would take it as some kind of omen.
66845 Hmm... an ill omen, you say. While I love ill omens, the reason why Luna is there with the greeting party is that nopony takes her seriously. If there was something like that then Celestia and her royal guard would be there to kick the Human'a arses the second they landed. I could take it that the reason why Celestia is busy is because of the Northern Lights creeping out everypony. Hmm, will think on this. Still slowly plodding along on Chapter 4 only just hit 2,000 words but half of them are naff, I really do suck at dialogue. Once Chapter 4 is done, I may go back to chapter 3 and add in some Aurora Borealis or whatever the other one's called.
So, that part with the flood took place right before the human crew escaped the ship and the engines blew, right?
70098 Yeah, sorry if that wasn't clear. I wanted to end the chapter with them arriving but somepony pointed out that there was no chance of the flood surviving a fusion reactor explosion. I wanted the emphasis of this chapter to be on the reaction of the Equestrians to the Humans and vice-versa, so I put that section right at the end as a kind of cliffhanger.
64220
Aren't we all thankful for RD getting shot?
65153 I couldn't have put it in better words
Hmmmm...
Taking a hostile aproach to the story, eh?
I'm ok with this... For now. Just tread lightly.
UGH, chpaters are to long for my little brain!!!
. sad 
there like 5 times larger then regular storys(not that im complaining). i had to stop because it was getting late
but awesome story, keep it up!
Personally, I find these fics better without the flood, but I'll go with it.
This has my morbid curiosity, I can't stop reading it even with the mistakes.
LOL halo CE get it?
64026tha blast will be weaker yes but tha moon and flood would still be gone i have tested this on my pc in a sim that i made and yes i made it so i can build stuff from halo
That was a very bland fight. The outcome kind of ruined the whole setting for me.