(Attention: Permanently Cancelled) The UNSC Hastings crashes into Equestria's moon after a slip-space incident. The survivors make it to a pelican and crash-land in the Everfree forest. Their arrival throws Equestria into turmoil as an ancient cult plots its return. On top of that, a disillusioned officer in the Equestria military plays her hand.
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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.
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..
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.
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.
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.
On a side note, the word mite means lice, like the bug. If you are using it in a context like: "Today I might go to the store" It is spelt: "might"
And another note, The Covenant did not immediately declare war on the humans. A grunt shot on a human by accident on Harvest, which started a firefight. Also, the humans are do not agree with the Covenants suicidal religious quest. (To activate the Halos)
Anyways, great job, and I am excited to see what happens next!
I sware to god, if they do anything to fluttershy all hell will brake loose.
Good. ^^
During some of the early interrogation, you mixed up Luna and Celestia once, maybe twice.
73445 Glad you liked it, wasn't sure about the structure but I wanted to have three stories going simultaneously. Worked on character development a bit more, though they're all still a bit shallow.
I was using mite as the colloquial term for a small amount, not to mean a louse.
Oh right, I haven't read Contact Harvest, but I remember reading that the Covenant struck first and hardest on the wiki... or was it a fanfic? The Covenant's Suicidal mission though wasn't revealed until the events of Halo 1, so the war had gone on for quite a while before then.
I'll start on Chapter five but I really do need to start revising so, the next chapter should take longer, sorry.
73512 If they get that far...
73674 Ah, found it and caught it. Thanks for that. Glad you enjoyed it, I hope my chapters don't keep getting longer though.
73436 The ship slipped in directly on course with the moon, so there was no need for gravity wells. If they went in at an angle, then the ship would have taken all the force on certain areas, shredding them instead. For the Pelican, gravity was acting on it so it would have been pulled down by gravity, aiding its descent, it would probably have taken loner, but the longer that took, the less exciting the story would have become. I suppose the burning up thing might have been an issue... but I can take certain artistic liberties right?
The cryopods scene... 
I hate that scene so much, but there was no way a crew of 400 would be reduced to a crew of around 20 through a conventional ship-battle. They didn't shut down due to the crash though, the power was drained from them to power the Shaw-Fujikawa translight drive so they could leave slipspace after the main reactors bled too much energy to power it.
I thought Earth was the only world left after the Fall of Reach, hence all the hullabaloo when the Covenant arrived on Earth, and practically the entire army and navy being stationed there. Perhaps I was wrong however. Why wouldn't the captain be able to activate self-destruct? I'm sure the highest ranking Naval officer on board would be able to trigger it if. They have to stop Human tech falling into Covenant hands, don't they?
Well, I've tried my best to justify these points, but if these reasons are flimsy and the idea behind it is actually flawed. Then maybe I'd have to make some changes. Thanks for pointing them out and I appreciate the feedback, but I'm sure that some of these points are justified.
73436 I had also assumed that earth was the last human controlled planet. Never have I heard otherwise.
In the event of the death of a Captain, the Highest ranking crew member on board becomes the captain and gains access to the self-destruct sequence.
Also, the Pelican was propelled by the explosion of the ship towards Equestria, giving it a higher rate of speed.
I thought that Cainiam did a very good job with the Canon.
73818 I hope they do. :|
The dmr stopped being used by the UNSC navy ages ago, just saying. Great story and I shall read more!
74240 Ah, did not realise that.
Just wanted a bit of variety to my arsenal
.