Chapter 20: The Ark
"Scootaloo what's the flood exactly?" Twilight asked the pegasus as she was running after the Chief, the pegasus seemed pretty disturbed from the moment the ship had exited slipspace.
"Parasitic organism I had the displeasure of meeting once." Scootaloo replied as she twitched at every slight bit of movement in the environment, "Its sole goal is to assimilate all life in the galaxy into itself." She said as she turned back to look at Twilight, fear glistening in her eyes. "You haven't heard the abomination talk, it has to be stopped."
"The Flood - it's spreading, all over the city." The voice of captain Keyes came over the radio as she relayed a report to Admiral Hood.
"How do we contain it?" The admiral asked.
"Find the crashed Flood ship; overload its engine core. We either destroy this city, or risk losing the entire planet." The captain said as she lined out her solution, Twilight felt a shiver go up her spine as she realized the extent of the danger.
"Do it." Lord Hood said as he approved the rough plan, "Chief, make your way to the crash site." Keyes immediately ordered the Spartan. The group was shortly followed by the other ODST's and the Arbiter as they ran back into the factory they had just left, a certain stench started to fill Scootaloo's nose as her helmet had gone down with the gunship.
"All squads, report!" A soldier asked over the radio, "Multiple contacts, unknown hostiles." Another soldier reported as the group arrived at the front gate of the factory they had just fought through. A squad of soldiers had taken up defensive positions as meaty abominations dropped down onto them and instantly seemed to infect the soldiers and turn them into larger versions of the abominations.
"Celestia what has it done?!" Twilight said as she leveled her magnum at the creatures and started firing, everyone else following suit. It took an excessive amount of ammo to kill all the creatures but they mostly survived mostly due to the fact that chief charged forward and took the brunt of the attacks.
"Calm yourself, little demon." The arbiter said as Twilight started hyperventilating, "This battle is far from over and the parasite will not show you or your kin any mercy."
Twilight nodded and did some quick breathing exercises before following the rest of the group into the factory. Fighting their way through more of the creatures, seeing more marines get infected. They found a sobbing marine surrounded by the bodies of his squad mates before leaving on the other side of the factory.
As they looked up into the sky they could see three Elite controlled CCS-class Battlecruisers fly overhead while an assault Carrier exited slipspace, "Hail, humans, and take heed. This is the carrier Shadow of Intent, clear this sector, while we deal with the Flood." An elite spoke over the radio.
This somehow seemed to bring a smile to Scootaloo's face, "Rtas 'Vadum!" She shouted, letting out a laugh as elites started dropping in to join the battle.
The Arbiter ran up to an elite major, "My brothers, I fear you bring bad news." He said.
"High Charity has fallen, become a dreaded hive!" The elite answered, something that visibly troubled the Arbiter. "And the fleet? Has quarantine been broken?" The arbiter continued to inquire.
"A single ship broke through our line, and we gave chase." The same Elite told him once again as the group continued their way to the crash site, "But we had a fleet of hundreds!" The arbiter said incredulously, "Alas, brother. The Flood... It has evolved!" The other elite said, the Arbiter grunted but said no more. Twilight alongside the other ODST's excluding Scootaloo felt slightly uncomfortable fighting alongside the Sangheili.
After having fought through another factory Captain Keyes could be heard over the radio again, "Chief, the Elites are looking for something. We didn't believe them when they told us." She said, Johnson radioing in immediately after. "It's Cortana, Chief! She's on that ship! Find her - get her out!"
A phantom dropped off another squad of elites that hooked up with the Chief's squad, "Hurry, Demon! We seek the same prize. But our Ship Master will sacrifice all to stop the Flood." He said, the combined force pushing their way through the crash site, the flood seemingly sending increasingly larger combat forms as they made progress. Eventually, they found a hole in the hull of the cruiser, "I shall remain here. We will let nothing pass." The Arbiter Told the Chief who wasted no time jumping down into the cruiser.
The flood had given the group a small reprieve which they used to take up defensive positions. Twilight meanwhile was testing her magic as the portal they had been opened by the covenant was bleeding a respective amount of magic into the atmosphere.
Magic she could use.
Everyone tensed up as they heard a screech coming from up ahead, Twilight lit up her horn and prepared a telekinetic push to see how much power she could use with the strengthened magic.
A very large flood form came charging at the group alongside countless infection forms. That was the moment Twilight released her spell, the small infection forms flew back and squashed against the rubble behind them.
"Hoorah, Sparkle!" Lucy shouted while shooting the large form that was picking itself up to continue its charge, Twilight meanwhile was drawing as much magic from the environment into herself as she possibly could. The amount of energy she managed to draw into herself would have astonished magicians on Equis but it came at the cost of returning the local magic field back to its former barren state.
"EVERYONE DOWN!" She shouted, she might not have been schooled in the combat magic of the guard, only ever learning Shining's shield spell, but there was something else she could do.
The world briefly turned purple as Twilight released the majority of her magic in a beam of pure energy, obliterating everything in the firing arc of the beam. Magic fires dotted the landscape in front of them as no flood forms were present any longer.
"Overkill much." Mack commented as the fires started choking due to the lack of magic in the environment. A phantom came flying overhead and hovered down to the defending party, revealing an elite.
"Arbiter, the Demon has reclaimed his AI and is headed for the Shadow of Intent with the Oracle." He said, motioning for everyone to get on board. After the doors on the dropship closed the crew compartment fell to an awkward silence as the ODST's were standing on one side of the ship while the Elites were standing on the other. This remained the case for the entirety of the short flight up to the carrier that was floating above the city, outside the cruisers went to work on glassing as much of the city and surrounding land as possible to prevent the spread of the flood.
As the Phantom came to a stop in one of the carrier's hangar bays and an elite major approached them, "Arbiter your presence is requested by the Shipmaster, the Ponies have been requested as well."
The Arbiter nodded, "Come, my friend, Little Demon. We are needed." He said as he motioned for Scootaloo and Twilight to follow him, Twilight looked back at Mack and Lucy.
"Go on Sparkle, we're going to stay nice and cozy in this dropship." Mack told the Alicorn, as he sat down with his assault rifle at the ready. Twilight grimaced a bit at the two ODST's who were clearly on edge but continued to follow the Sangheili to the command center where the Shipmaster was waiting.
As they walked into the command center they found Captain Keyes, Lord Hood, and the Chief standing around a holo-table as the monitor was screwing around with a covenant storage device, "Will it live, Oracle? Can it be saved?" Rtas 'Vadum asked the floating machine.
"Uncertain. This storage device has suffered considerable trauma. Its matrices are...highly unstable." It answered as it shot a glance at both the Shipmaster and the Admiral.
"Perhaps one of our technicians-" The Admiral offered but was cut off by the Shipmaster, "That will not be necessary." he said but before the conversation could escalate further the storage unit sprung to life, "Chief!" the AI suddenly said.
"Success!" The monitor shouted as Cortana continued, "High Charity, the Prophets' Holy City, is on its way to Earth. With an army of Flood. I can't tell you everything. It's not safe. The Gravemind...it knows I'm in the system."
"It's just a message." The chief observed, somberness in his voice, something Twilight picked up on.
"Let it play." The shipmaster said as he wanted to hear the rest of the recording, the monitor fiddling with the data-core again making
"But it doesn't know about the Portal, where it leads. On the other side, there's a solution. A way to stop the Flood, without firing the remaining Halo rings-" Cortana's hologram fell down as if in pain, the Chief making an instinctive move to help her. "Hurry, Chief...the Ark...there isn't much time." she begged as the recording stopped.
"I'm...sorry." The monitor apologized to the Chief as the Spartan was visibly disturbed, something Twilight had thought she would never see.
"No matter, Oracle. We've heard enough. Our fight is through the Portal, with the Brutes and the bastard Truth!" Rtas 'Vadum said, the other Elites around the room roaring in approval.
"Fine. We'll remain here. Hold out as long as we can." Lord Hood said wearily which surprised the Shipmaster, "Did you not hear? Your world is doomed." He started as he stood up from his chair and walked forward, "A Flood army, a Gravemind, has you in its sights! You barely survived a small contamination."
This enraged the Admiral, "And you, Ship Master, just glassed half a continent! Maybe the Flood isn't all I should be worried about..." He raged but was cut off by the Shipmaster again, "One single Flood Spore can destroy a species. Were it not for the Arbiter's counsel, I would have glassed your entire planet!"
Keyes jumped between the pair "Sir, with respect, Cortana has a solution." she said.
"Cortana? Did you see her condition? How damaged she is?" He asked the captain incredulously, the chief meanwhile had bent down and observed the frozen AI's hologram, Twilight could almost feel the hurt coming through the spartan's thick armor.
"She could be corrupted for all we know. Her 'solution' could be a Flood trap!" The admiral continued prompting a reply from Keyes, "We should go through the Portal, find out for sure."
"What we should do Commander, is understand - clearly - that this is humanity's final stand - here - at Earth. We go, we risk everything; every last man, woman and child. If we stand our ground, we might just have a chance." Lord hood answered angrily but the Arbiter rebuked him, "No. If your construct is wrong, then the Flood has already won."
The Chief lifted his head and also spoke up, "I'll find Cortana's solution. And I'll bring it back." He told the Admiral, Twilight also stepped forward, "Although I'm also concerned about Earth, my greatest responsibility as Princess of Equestria is to safeguard the safety of my ponies." Twilight could see Scootaloo raise an eyebrow as the alicorn as she recited something she had been taught by Celestia. "The only way to do that is to go to the Ark and prevent the firing of Halo."
The Admiral nodded to Twilight, "You must do what you think best for you people." He said as he turned to the Chief, "Earth...is all we have left. You trust Cortana that much?" He asked him.
"Sir. Yes, sir." The Spartan responded, Lord Hood let out a sigh. "This is either the best decision you've ever made or the worst. Hell if it is, Chief? I doubt I'll live long enough to find out which." He said as he walked out of the room turning back for a moment, "Take your ship and follow the Sangheili, Captain. You have operational command." With that, he left.
"Captain I need to make a detour to the Stalwart Dawn." Scootaloo spoke up, "My helmet got destroyed and I need to pick up the custom made one I left on the frigate."
"We can arrange a dropship to be flown over to the frigate." Rtas 'Vadum told the pegasus, "Take her to the human's ship." he ordered a Major who led the pegasus back to the hangar. Twilight meanwhile followed the Captain and the Chief back to the hangar where Johnson and a couple of other Marines were joined by Lucy and Mack.
Sergeant Johnson was carrying various pieces of Covenant weaponry to the marines just as the Arbiter had UNSC weaponry and was passing it to a group of Sangheili. "What's going on here?" Twilight asked Mack as she walked up to him.
"Cultural exchange." he shrugged, "We're leaving the moment Hurricane arrives back at the Forward Unto Dawn."
"Well, in that case, we should get ready for a jump." Twilight said as she stepped onto a parked pelican waiting for transport.
1 Month Later
Scootaloo dropped out of the cryo-pod that had just opened, a month ago they had left Earth through the portal at Voi with the Elite rebel fleet. Beside her she could hear Twilight flopping onto the floor as well, the Alicorn in the two month period before the battle of Earth had figured out that cryo wouldn't hurt either pony so they had opted to sit the ride out in cryo.
"I feel like Crap." The filly said as she got back on her hooves, a general call went out throughout the ship.
"All crew report to your station in as short a time possible, expect enemy contact the moment we exit slipspace in thirty minutes." Keyes announced.
Scootaloo walked over to the locker where she had stored her armor an started putting it back on as it was going to be a long day, "You guys good?" She asked as Mack and Lucy had also exited cryo, with a bit more grace than either ponies.
"Never been better." Mack answered as he quickly donned his own armor. Scootaloo meanwhile was holding her helmet in her hooves, it was the one that had been damaged by the energy sword. She had replaced the visor to restore its integrity but it still very visibly showed the damage. Quickly putting the helmet on she grabbed two SMG's and attached them to her sides, a flick of her wrist activated the energy dagger which she deactivated again as she found it to be at full power.
"I'll go ahead to the pelican, see you guys in just a bit." Scootaloo said as she walked down the hall into the lower hangar bay where she took a seat.
This should have been Zoey's seat. If I hadn't suggested flying that gunship she would be here right now.
She was pulled from her thought as someone heavy stepped into the pelican, Scootaloo looked behind her to see the Chief walking up to the cockpit. "Slept well, Sir?" She asked as she started her pre-flight checks, the Spartan didn't respond.
Scootaloo took occasional glances at the Spartan who just stared out of the cockpit, "Can I ask you something, Sir?" She asked, the Chief glanced at her and nodded.
"Have you lost someone you care about before?" She asked the Spartan, the Spartan looked at the pony for a couple of seconds.
"Yes." He simply said as he turned and walked into the back of the pelican. Scootaloo wanted to ask another question but the other ODST's, the Arbiter, Johnson and a few marines joined her on the dropship.
"Thirty seconds to slipspace exit." the Sergeant Major announced. Scootaloo lit up the engine as Johnson stood behind her. "Here goes nothing." Scootaloo said as she felt the ship drop out of slipspace, the hangar door opened beneath the pelicans revealing a massive eight armed megastructure.
"Truth's ship isn't taking part in the attack. He must've gone to ground!" Keyes told Johnson, "Roger that, Ma'am! We're on him! Kick the door." The pelican along with several others dropped from the hangar bay of the Stalwart Dawn. Around them, the two fleets started to clash as they fought for dominance. One of the pelicans next to her exploded as it was hit by flak from an enemy vessel, Scootaloo cursed as she passed the burning wreck and made it out of the range of the flak.
"We good, Hurricane?" Johnson asked, Scootaloo quickly checking status on all systems. "She's a little cooked, Sergeant Major... But she'll hold."
Behind her, the Chief and Arbiter stood at the ready with a sniper rifle and beam rifle respectively. "Alright. Pop the hatch!" Johnson ordered, two button pushes later the ramp at the back of the dropship opened.
"That's some view." Twilight commented as she got her first view of the megastructure.
"Enjoy it while you can, Sparkle. Soon as we land, we're right back to it. Priority one: Secure a Landing Zone for the Commander's Frigate. Keep your eyes and ears open. We need all the Intel we can get... on wherever the hell we are."
Hocus, the co-pilot, took control of the craft as Scootaloo followed the rest of the troops out of the pelican, "Go, go, go!!" Johnson shouted as he ushered everyone out of the pelican.
Scootaloo and Mack pushed ahead to scout out possible paths for the Chief to take, traveling through similar structures like those on halo, they eventually came upon a group of enemies. They took up firing positions on a ledge as Lucy, Chief, and Arbiter came running towards them, "Chief, eyes on." Mack said as he pointed at the squad of brutes supported by jackals and grunts. "You take the first shot." Mack said as he had lined up his rifle.
The moment the Chief opened fire a hail of bullets descended on the enemy position, downing them with relative ease.
As all the Covenant loyalist forces were downed Twilight came gliding down from a short flight she had taken, "There's an AA Turrent being constructed on the other side of the Hill." She reported to the Chief, "The cave down there should lead you to it."
The squad split up as the Chief, Arbiter, Mack, and Lucy went into the cave while Scootaloo and Twilight flew up the hill to attack from above. Twilight glanced at the crouched pegasus as they landed on the top of the hill, Scootaloo had painted her armor entirely black and the visor she had replaced the damaged one with was a dark shade of blue instead of the former orange one. "Ready for assault on your mark, Chief." She radioed to the Spartan.
"Copy that Hurricane, Mark." He immediately answered, Twilight immediately pulled the trigger on her sniper rifle and took out a jackal sniper. The Covenant loyalist immediately dropped the work they were doing on the turrent and tried getting into defensive positions.
"How's the magic here, Twi?" Scootaloo asked the alicorn who was picking of brutes one by one. "Terrible. Bit better than Earth but I'd recommend not trying to fry anything with lightning." She answered sensing the pegasus' intention.
"Copy that, see you in a bit." She answered and took to the sky, using the sun as cover she dropped from the sky onto an unsuspecting jackal who was firing pot-shots at Lucy from his cover. Not even bothering to use the energy dagger she smashed down on his spine and a gruesome crack later it was lying motionlessly on the ground. She suddenly heard the whine of a phantom as one of the dropships delivered two Hunters.
"Focus fire on the hunters." Chief ordered, Scootaloo aimed one of her SMG's and put a burst into the back of one of the hunters. The armored hulk immediately turned around but to its peril, this gave Twilight the opportunity to fire a round into its back. It didn't go down immediately but that was soon rectified as the Arbiter put a lance of hot plasma into the alien. Its mate roared in anger as its colony mate was killed and fired a plasma blast at Lucy, Scootaloo saw the ODST duck behind cover but the plasma seemed to burn it away.
"Lucy!" Scootaloo shouted as she charged forward fast the Hunter who took a swipe at her but missed, behind the rock where Lucy had taken cover she found, to her relief, the ODST with a partially melted shoulder plate. "I'm good, Hurricane. Go get the Fucker." She said as she injected biofoam into a slot on her upper arm.
Behind her explosions went off as the Chief was lobbing plasma grenades onto the vulnerable spots on the hunter's body, the individual worms that made up the large alien either burning off or being ripped to shreds as Twilight fired one of the sniper's rounds into it.
"Chief, I'm giving the Brutes all I've got...but this is a heavy-weight fight! The Dawns only got the tonnage to last a few rounds. Find me a place to set her down. Over!" Keyes ordered as the second hunter collapsed.
"Roger that, Sierra-117 out." Chief answered as he ran on into a cave that contained an old structure and out of it on the other side. A longsword bomber pilot called out a mayday as the burning craft flew by, an explosion followed shortly after.
"Flak got our Pelican too, sir. But before we went down, we spotted a good LZ. If we can get to our vehicles, we'll lead you to it." A marine stated as he pointed to where a pelican had crashed into the ground.
After a short fight, they had cleared the crash site of brutes and grunts, the Chief picked up a rocket launcher and continued. Not a moment later two Brute vehicles came charging to the squad but with two well-placed shots with High Explosive rockets, the brutes never got a chance to fire on the marines.
After mounting the remaining brute vehicles the group went on to find a suitable landing place for the Forward Unto Dawn. Fighting they way through a canyon, killing a couple more loyalist vehicles along the way before finding another structure that had a couple of Sentinels flying around.
"Ma'am, Hocus almost got her wing shot off. But we spotted a structure on the other side of this wall. It matches Cortana's description of the map room from the first Halo ring." Johnson reported, "A Cartographer. Good. Should help us fix Truth's location. Secure the LZ, and we'll push through that wall." The captain ordered.
"Roger that. Follow my Pelican, Chief! The LZ's this way." Johnson replied as his pelican flew overhead. The group continued on foot as the Sentinels continued to follow them but other than that did nothing of significance.
"The LZ's through this cave, sir. Watch yourself; they've got Covenant heavy armor!" A marine said as the Chief reached the entrance of the first cave. On the other side, they could see two anti-air wraiths along a regular one with infantry supporting them.
"Arbiter, pass me a grenade." Scootaloo said as she took to the air, the Arbiter throwing a plasma grenade into the fillies hooves before she shot up into the air and moments later crashed down on the hatch of the purple tank, lobbing it into the driver's compartment.
The wraith started shuddering before plasma vented from the hatch, Scootaloo managed to somehow drag the corpse of the brute out of the driver's seat and get in herself. The chief and Arbiter meanwhile had focussed on the two anti-air wraiths while the rest of the marines and ODST's were taking out all the supporting infantry.
The Chief, similarly to Scootaloo, managed to lob a grenade into the cockpit of the craft but the Arbiter had less luck and got thrown off before he could use his grenade. The wraith, not wasting any time, lit up his boosters to attempt to ram the elite.
Like hell you will. Scootaloo thought as she fired the main turrent of the wraith she had captured at the AA one. The large blow of plasma immediately melted through the outer shell of the craft, shorting out its anti-gravity system, making it come to a screeching halt in front of the Arbiter.
"That did it. LZ's clear." Johnson reported to the captain, a couple of seconds later they could see a grey dot rapidly growing as the frigate descended to the surface. The Dawn firing its retrograde thrusters to slow down and eventually set down on the surface.
"Thanks, Chief. I wouldn't have lasted much longer up there. Come to the back of the frigate." Keyes said as the Dawn's engines shut down. Out back, the hangar had opened up revealing three scorpion tanks and a warthog.
"That's What I'm talking about." Scootaloo said as she had ditched the wraith. "Johnson, have the Elites found anything?" Keyes asked the Sergeant Major.
"A structure on the other side of that wall, ma'am. But it's surrounded by Brute heavy armor." He replied.
"Don't worry; I've got a plan. If we can't fly over the wall, we'll go right through it. Chief, take one of the tanks, lead the way. If you find any locked doors, Spark will be happy to pry them open." She finished, the monitor had joined them down at the tanks, "I will certainly try my best, though I am unfamiliar with this facility." It said.
Continuing on with the overwhelming firepower of the three tanks they made quick and good progress towards the cartographer. A couple more warthogs joined up with the group as they continued to fight on against heavy resistance, after another fifteen minutes of intense fighting they finally reached their destination.
Suddenly they heard heavy thumps as they dismounted their vehicles, some of the marines tried to identify where the sounds came from but Scootaloo knew full well what it was.
"SCARAB!" She shouted as she left gunner's seat of the warthog he had mounted and flew up into the air. Twilight, for once, was close on her tail. "Pass me one of those SMG's!" She shouted at the filly who tossed one over with a couple of mags, Twilight niftily caught them in her magic and attached them to her armor as the scarab came into view of the tanks.
"What's the plan? You've done this before!" She asked Scootaloo who angled herself to the land on the walker.
"There's an energy core at the back, two grenades is all it takes to kill this thing." She answered as she landed, along with twilight they quickly killed the grunts occupying the top of the craft, "Go on, I've got your back." Twilight told the filly as they made their way down into the scarab, Scootaloo cut down a few brutes with er energy blade while Twilight alternated between the SMG and her sniper. At the back of the scarab Scootaloo stuck two plasma grenades to the energy core and jumped off before the large craft exploded in a bright flash.
"Not bad, Hurricane. I saw that explosion from orbit. Truth's fleet lies in ruins. Find where the liar hides...so I may place my boot between his gums!" Rtas 'Vadum said as he observed the ground progress from the Shadow of Intent.
"We'll know soon enough, Shipmaster." Keyes answered as Scootaloo followed the Chief with the other ODST's and the Arbiter.
They found the monitor trying to unlock a door on the upper level, "Hey, what gives?" a marine asked as sparks came from the door, "It seems I've...crossed a circuit." he answered as he continued working, the marine stepped forward intent to help. "Well, let me have a look."
The machine quickly turned and shot a blue laser at the marine making him yelp and stumble back. "Oracle!" The arbiter said with his rifle at the ready.
"Little bastard stung me!" The marine said, "I did not want you to come to any harm." The monitor said as he returned back to work, "You've got a funny way of showing it." the marine muttered as the door sprung open.
"Excellent! This way." The monitor said as it took the lead, the group stumbled upon a group of sleeping grunts and a brute that was urinating in the corner of the room. The chief snuck up to the brute and severed its spine with his combat knife while the others were silently taking out the grunts.
The group continued to take out small pockets of enemies as they moved through the hallways of the structure, eventually after clearing a larger room the monitor spoke up again. "Your goal is just ahead!" It happily said as the group moved through a final hallway into a large room, "The Cartographer! Come, it awaits your approval." The monitor told the Chief who placed his hand on a scanner which activated the machine.
A large projection of the milky way appeared in front of them, "That's...our galaxy. We're beyond the rim." The Chief said surprised. "Two to the eighteenth light years from galactic center, to be precise." The monitor confirmed.
Twilight stepped up next to the Chief, "Spark, can you pull up Earth's location?" She asked, the hologram zoomed in on the Orions arm. "This is the location of Erde-Tyrene as you asked but I fail to see the relevance to our current situation."
Twilight waved him off as she looked at the hologram, "Now can you show me my homeworld relative to Earth?"
"Miss sparkle I must insist-" Guilty Spark started, but was stopped by the Arbiter. "Please do at the pony asks, Oracle."
The hologram zoomed out a bit and showed a second dot with a line and a set of coordinates, Twilight let out a crazed laugh as she pulled out a notebook and a pen from beneath her armor. "These are slipspace coordinates!"
The monitor seemed confused, "Yes, of course they are." he said but he didn't inquire further and changed the hologram to the megastructure they were currently on. Scootaloo ignored the rest of the conversation as the Chief and Guilty Spark started playing twenty questions with each other.
"Twilight?" Scootaloo asked at the alicorn had placed her helmet beside her and was writing down calculations.
"Twilight." She repeated but still didn't get a reply. "TWILIGHT!" She shouted finally getting the attention of the princess.
"We found it!" Twilight said with a manic smile, a couple of hairs had sprung up. Scootaloo rolled her eyes and hit her with a right hook, "Focus, Twilight. We still need to get out of here alive, something that might be much harder than we think right now."
Twilight restored her mane and safely put her way the notebook. "Your right I-"
"Phantom!" Mack shouted pulling everyone's attention to the sky. They all jumped into cover as the dropship started firing on their positions and dropped off enemy units before flying off again.
"Chief, you got a whole mess of hostile air inbound. Get back inside while we take 'em out." Johnson called in via the radio. A banshee started to make an attack run on the Arbiter but the Elite evaded its fire and somehow managed to board it, killing the Brute pilot. Scootaloo saw another Banshee approaching and also took to the air, her small frame allowing her to get behind the craft and emptying her SMG into the pilot capturing the second aircraft.
"I will help your Sergeant clear the sky." The arbiter told the other over the radio as Scootaloo fell in formation behind him. "I've got your back, Arbiter." Scootaloo reported as she reminded herself how to use covenant flight controls.
She could see Twilight, Mack, and Lucy follow the Chief as they started making their way to the extraction point. An enemy banshee came up on the Arbiter's and opened fire.
"I've got him." Scootaloo simply stated as she pointed her craft and fired the plasma cannons, a purple fireball barreling past the two banshees as they continued to the pelicans in the distance.
"Phantom headed for the extraction point." The Arbiter said as he made a hard right turn, Scootaloo following him closely. The pegasus switched from the plasma cannons to the much bigger plasma Launcher and took aim at the Phantom alongside the Arbiter, the moment the dropship came into range they both fired their weapons. Green plasma slowly arching towards the craft before hitting it and melting away one of the gravity engines, making it lose altitude rapidly.
"Thanks for the help you two, Hurricane form up on me." Johnson said as his pelican made a beeline for the extraction point. Scootaloo could see the Chief fighting a pack of brutes at the extraction point, one with a gravity hammer getting incredibly close to getting a clean hit. As the Spartan rolled out of the way the brute spotted Twilight who was firing her sniper at various targets and started charging her with his hammer.
Shit, nnononono.
Scootaloo switched weapons again and opened fire on the brute with her plasma cannons but those did little more than make the brutes shields flare, Twilight meanwhile had noticed the chieftain and also opened fire but it definitely seemed like the alien was going to reach the alicorn.
No you don't, not now we've gotten this far. She thought as she activated the boost of the banshee and immediately ditched the ship. The two-ton craft hit the brute at full speed, squashing him like a bug. "Twilight! You ok?" She immediately asked the alicorn who had jumped out of the way of the banshee just before it had hit the ground.
"I'm good." She said as the Chief finished the last brute and walked to the edge of the platform they were on. The arbiter had also ditched his banshee and joined the group.
Suddenly a large flock of sentinels appeared from below and everyone raised their weapons in alarm, "Commander!" The Chief said in alarm.
"Johnson! Look sharp!" Keyes ordered as the pelican swirled around bringing the chaingun in its hatch to bear, "I got it!" Johnson said while the turret's barrel started spinning.
"No, don't shoot! They mean us no harm! Those units have a priority task." Guilty Spark interupted, the Sergeant Major clearly being annoyed at this. "Oh, yeah? And what might that be?" He asked.
"I really can't say... not for sure. But if you allow me to find a terminal closer to the Core-" The monitor rambled but was interrupted by the Arbiter, "No, Oracle. We must keep the Prophet of Truth firmly in our sights."
The monitor seemed taken aback by that, "But what about your construct? Her solution to the Flood? With more data, I-" Guilty Spark was interrupted again but this time by Captain Keyes,
"The Arbiter's right. We have priorities too. Until we kill Truth, stop the Rings from firing..." She said as everyone jumped into the pelican which immediately started to fly away with three others.
"...nothing else matters."
I won't be writing any more this week because military but I'm hoping to finish the story before the years' end. 
Next up: Installation 04B/The way the World ends (Haven't decided the exact name).
After that, Heroes Fallen and at last, Equis
I'm extremely excited for the rest of this, see you all next time! 
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very interesting concept. I shall give it a read.
9339055
hopefully it won't disappoint I made some pretty serious mistakes when I first started
Such an exciting story, it is not normal that so few people are watching it...
Flood.
Here.
Dagger.
Thumps. Also there’s a missing they either side of the suddenly.
9339058
Don't worry at least you're writing a story with a theme people like.... Unlike my stories. 'Drugs use, slavery... etc....'
9339143
Fixed
Thus ends the beginning of the end of the story.
9339058
You've come a long, long way since then, it's been quite impressive.
And for the $20 question, will sergeant Johnson make it off of the Ark this time around? I see that alt-universe tag there, anything could happen!
9339143
But surely Pinkie WANTS a large food form to appear... she gets terrible midnight munchies doncha know
Another great chapter of course!
I can't wait to see scootaloo's cutie mark when do we get to see it?
9347101
Soon enough :3
when I'm not freezing on a military base and am back at my pc.
9347508
That's fair
9347508
Where are you stationed?
9349903
I'm a in a military school, every four weeks we go to a base to practice what we learned in the field.
Rn we're going to the Johan Willem Friso kazerne in Assen, Netherlands.
After I'm done with school, in about a year, I'll go into basic.
9350477
Nice.
There's no such thing as overkill just open fire and reload.
9378433
*grunts* no such fing az to much dakka!
9465169
Uv kourse 'der isn't.
See, some things shouldn't be kept from your troops. The Flood is one of them. Now they have to learn how to fight it the hard way like the crews of the Pillar of Autumn and In Amber Clad did.
In hindsight, I wonder if a Keyship or other Forerunner vessel would even be capable of firing on Reclaimers or if Truth assumed it would not and didn't bother trying to.
Arbiter's Counsel: "They have NOVA Bombs and know the location of Sangheilios"
R'tas: "I changed my mind, we're not glassing Earth."
Arbiter: "Also, they still have like, a bajillion nuclear missiles on the planet and stuff, soooo...
R'tas: "I have decided we are to avoid pissing off the humans."
Arbiter: "and really glassing only the areas infected is enough otherwise the Flood could just pop up anywhere and we'd kill ourselves."
R'tas: "....are you done or do you want to keep making me feel stupid."
Arbiter: "I am not making you feel anything, you simply are."
Twilight went insane for a minute I would too after I found my way home.
Damn fine chapter. Great to see them having located the ponies homeworld.
One of the best Halo stories on Fimfiction ♡