Chapter Eight
September 20th 2552.
It was shocking how quickly the Kig Yar and Uggoy had adapted to the Pillar of Autumn, bunk rooms and messing halls were put to use in a near identical manner to the old human inhabitants, even the maps and markings on the walls had quickly been adapted and glowing notes in Sangheili had been pasted over the human english for convenient navigation of the colossal maze-like ship.
Infusion supplies and Methane tanks filled supply cupboards with Human tools and equipment dumped out of breaches in the hull, the heat resistant material that made up the ship allowed the atmosphere inside to remain cool in contrast to the near unbearable heat outside. In places the soft grey and vibrant orange found throughout the ship had been coated with black soot from internal fires or breaches in the hull as the ship entered the atmosphere.
As hundreds of personnel trickled in from the Sacred Inquisitor the halls and rooms began to fill. there were still large stretches of abandoned maze like passages and dark fire scorched sections but the lonely screeching of protesting metal was dulled by quiet and sometimes boisterous conversation.
Twilight was sat in a small room, not much bigger than her own little office she was using back on the Sacred Inquisitor. There was a worn wooden desk at witch she was currently sat as well as a cabin bed against one of the walls, small storage spaces dotted the room but held not much besides clothes.
The surface of the desk held the few interesting artifacts that Twilight had found after her search of the room. A glass bottle sealed with an amber fluid within, a clear plastic bag with dried plant matter inside, a long flat box with colourful ribbons and metal disks with pictures and words engraved into them. At the end of the desk was a small picture of a human female in the white uniform of a human admiral or captain.
Sighing Twilight collected herself and left the room, casting a sealing spell on the door to prevent the place from being looted. She did not know what she expected to find, more than anything she wanted to investigate the insane claims Keyes had made to prove him wrong and defend her Covenant from the slanderous lies he had dared to speak.
Food had not helped quiet the empty, clawing feeling deep within her gut. The sickening feeling of wrongness and guilt, a feeling that should not plague her for her cause was righteous and her mind pure of heresy. She had stopped and the quiet griffon guardians had halted without a word, Twilight stared out into the empty desert looking out at Halo, how it reached up and around with blues and greens and yellows dotting its magnificent surfice.
This place was beautiful beyond measure, a truly holy place left behind for the faithful to find and follow in its creators footsteps. The heresy within her took the opportunity to strike.
If this place is truly only fit for the eyes of the righteous why did we follow the humans here, how did they know to come here?
Twilight turned away, she did not have a right to bask in the radiance of the Forerunners with her mind disquiet and full of evil.
The human ship was easy to navigate, every few halls there was a map with brilliant and vibrant colours painted in lines on the walls, following a colour would lead you to where you wanted to go, at times the paint was burnt away but finding the right colour again was normally quite a simple affair.
When changing elevations Covenant ships would use ramps, gravity lifts and elevators. When changing elevations Human ships could use anything, ramps, ladders, sloping pipes, steep stairs, ramps that led into steep stairs. There was no consistency and every hall was distinct from the last with a new navigational hazard to contend with.
Eventually with screaming, protesting muscles Twilight reached the top deck of the ship. There were dozens of airlocks and cargo elevators leading out onto the hull of the ship. A quirk of human design was the odd use of external structures turning the outside hull of a ship into a maze of towers, tunnels and ramps. All considerably harder to navigate then the inside of a human ship.
“It is from here we will fire upon approaching human dropships” Twilight’s Campion strode forward to stand next to the Unicorn.
“From one of the taller structures, it should allow you a commanding view of the area and anything that approaches.” Twilight glanced about but found little besides melted metal and the occasional breach in the hull, very few people had bothered explored the upper decks of the ship given the lack of gravity lifts and the fact that the mechanical analogue the humans used were largely destroyed or damaged to the point of unusability.
“The raid could happen at any time, we will remain here in wait.” The Griffon began to set out rounds for her rifle in a row before her as the rest of the griffons flew about to find good vantage points to fire from. While the large projectile weapons carried by her bodyguards could fire simply from collected ambient magic the destructive force would barely be enough to wound a pegusi, the large glowing arcanite rounds placed in a neat row could penetrate the thick hull of a spaceship.
“Right, I expect that they will try to secure the top deck with a dedicated force, I will make sure that N’tho and Tath’s forces are ready for anything that manages to land.”
Keyes turned as the door to his makeshift cell opened and Twilight stood expectantly just outside the cabin room.
“Staff Sergeant Avery Johnson and Staff Sergeant Marvin Mobuto” Twilight fixed the Captain with a look. “The two people who were assigned this cabin, good men. I hope they are still kicking out there”
“You must be hungry, I secured a Kig Yar food nipple and a portable console” The items in question floated in a lazy orbit around the Unicorns head. Before being gently thrown to the soft mattress of the bottom bunk next to Jacob.
“What is the console for?” Jacob picked up the round device letting it sit in the palm of his hand, with a flicker of Twilight's magic a holographic projection came into being in the shape of a fan, pressing a finger to the light Keyes found it was almost solid, but he could push his hand though it with effort.
“I have configured the device to work in English standard, it has reports of every battle and encounter of the war.”
“Do you have permission to give me this?”
“I don’t need permission, I am an Inquisitor, the High Council and the Princess commission me to find the truth and that is what I will bring them. You have lain allegations of war crimes against the Covenant, you will review the reports and you will make a note of any of your alleged discrepancies with the official record that were not corrected by Covenant tribunal.”
“I would need to have reports from the Human side to do this accurately” Twilight waved a hoof.
“Reports that were destroyed when your artificial intelligence fled this ship?” Keyes looked at the console running his had across it and getting used to the alien interface.
“I will only be able to correct a small number of the reports here.”
“If you are telling the truth, then you will only need to correct one, I will investigate.” The door closed with a hiss and later a clang indicated that the Covenant magnetic lock was secure, Jacob sighed and adjusted the M6 pistol hidden in his uniform.
“Marvin you paranoid bastard.” Jacob slowly got to grips with the fan-like computer and got to work correcting things from memory, he doubted that it would matter. If the Covenant had its own ONI then doing this would simply cause Twilight, if she was telling him the truth, to disappear.
But it was not like he had anything better to do.
“I see them” fourteen heads snapped to the voice that filled the sound proof helmets. Honour Guard Adlar was leaning against one of the melted bulkheads gazing out over the desert as he slowly filed one of his talons. “Two Human dropships, carrying something under one of them. Seven Phantom’s around six kilometers away.” There was a flurry of activity as the other Honour Guard collected the ammunition they had laid out and moved over to Adlar’s perch standing in a row and getting the large weapons ready.
“I see them, looks like they are coming in quickly, if they reach that rise they will be able to deploy any ground vehicles unmolested.” Erion loaded his first round into the rifle and stood on his hind legs holding the colossal rifle up in his forearms and looking down the glowing sight rail.
“Well we better molest them quickly!” There was a pause before the sheepish voice of Gabby sounded in the closed Griffon battle net. “That sounded better in my head.”
“Ready yourselves, we will volley fire on my shot.” At the word of a wing Champion the griffons all settled down and took up a firing stance, all of them stood up on hind legs with rifles in talon ready to fire at the dropship formation still five kilometers away. “Aim for the Phantom gunships first, remember five guns on them rather than three, fire in concert.”
There was a pause as all of the griffons picked targets and looked along the sight rails getting ready to fire. Several Covenant made there way over to see what the silent lion eagles were doing, some asking questions that were ignored. With a thunderous roar they fired, not as one but within milliseconds of the Champion’s rifle screaming out with murderous intent. One Sanghili who had stood far too close screamed out in agony as he clutched his head and stumbled away hearing nothing but constant ringing. As one the griffons all ejected the spent arcanite casing, the burnt mana starved material turning to ash as it hit the ground.
“Oof, embarrassing. Looks like we tickled one of them” Gabby fed another round into her rifle and closed the breach.
“Yeah, one of them is making a controlled landing, damaged but its not a kill.” Kody added bringing his rifle up ready for another shot. “Looks like we get another volly before they reach the rise, they are coming in fast!”
“Again on my shot.” The Covenant around the griffons all made sure to cover their ears and give them a lot of space this time. And the crowd did not have long to wait as the second volly sounded out. In the distance a popping sound could barely be heard as a bright blue and purple explosion flickered into being.
“Kill that time, still we must be rusty or something” Gabby rolled her neck and flicked her wings as she loaded in another round.
“They are at the rise, we will have to wait for them to co-” Erion let out a screech of surprise as he fell to his rump and dark blue energy shields shimmered around his prone form.
“Was that a bucking sniper?!” Gabby threw herself to the ground her head snapping about as she scanned the horizon.
“How in Tartarus did a Human make a shot like that?” Nell closed the breach on his rifle and turned to his fellow Honour Guard holding up a dull shard of metal in his talons. “It's a Feathering Human weapon!”
“Four, five Kilomiters? Impossible, Humans don’t shoot that good!”
“Knocked out my shields, hit my chest and it bucking broke something!” Erion rolled onto his back and clenched his left talon with a hiss.
“Calm down, they must have simply seeded a Human somewhere closer before they made the approach, get ready for the ships to clear the rise. Erion, Find the Inquisitor and keep her safe.” At the words of the Champion Erion pushed himself up, picked up his rifle and scampered off to find where the little unicorn.
“The Humans are taking their time, they must be dropping off ground assets.” Gabby pressed her form against the bulkhead below her and kept her eyes trained on the sheer rise in the distance.
“Yeah, when they come over that raise that is like, two and a half kilometers, they can get to us in twelve secconds.” Nell rolled his neck as he watched the raise.
“One volly then scatter, the sniper knows our perch and likely relayed that information to the pilot.” Just as the Champion spoke two gunships broke the rise and fourteen shots rang out and one of the gunships lit up like a miniature sun. In reply all five guns on the last dropship began to spray superheated plasma directly at the scattering griffons before dozens of black armoured figures dived from its gravity lift onto the labyrinthine hull of the Pillar of Autumn firing into the scattering Covenant forces the moment there boots touched the ground.
Gabby scrambled, blinking the superheated form of Kody from her eyes as she activated her cloak and skidded down a sheer ramp, her clutchmate had been just a second too slow. Screeching with uncontrollable rage Gabby slammed the breach of her rifle closed as she reached the end of the ramp and threw herself into the air twisting as she lined her rifle up with the Gunship overhead.
At this range it seemed impossible to miss and with Gabby’s wrath another explosion rocked the Pillar of Autumn.
Twilight watched from a jagged hull breach as Dosa and two dozen scouts moved towards the rise the remaining human dropships had used as cover to deploy ground assets, the only warning of attack had been the thunder of Griffon rifles sounding throughout the ship.
From the rise as if to challenge Dosa and his forces four human Warthog transports leapt over the rise skidding towards the scouts and Dosa’s tank followed by the rumbling form of a Scorpion armored vehicle no doubt deployed by one of the Human dropships. While the lighter vehicles swerved to meet each other the two behemoths of the battlefield turned almost lethargically to regard each other before they both fired in the very same instant.
Dosa’s tank rang out as it was struck by the Human projectile, even as far away as Twilight was she could hear the clear almost musical note as the shell bounced off the Wraiths armour. The plasma lobbed by Dosa’s tank reached its apex as the Human driver spun the body of the Scorpion about with unreasonable agility to change directions while its turret remained fixed on the Wraith.
As the first ball of plasma harmlessly struck the cracked earth a second was lobbed towards the Scorpion and a moment later the almost musical note of a bounced shell reached Twilights ears as Dosa’s tank withstood the Human weapon. Oddly Twilight found herself thinking about the permanent hearing loss the Major was likely suffering. Despite the clear skill displayed by the Human driver they were unable to avoid the second arcing shot from Dosa’s tank and Twilight felt a strange rushing satisfaction at watching the resulting explosion as the Scorpion was destroyed.
Satisfaction that was wiped away as a Human dropship launched a barrage of rockets at Dosa’s tank turning it into little more than melted scrap as its anti gravity drive’s plating was breached causing an explosion to scream out across the battlefield.
The Human dropship twisted towards the Pillar of Autumn's vehicle stockpile as Twilight turned away from the battle below her, she could hear gunshots and screams, clear signs of battle coming from overhead. Her Honour Guard must have been forced to abandon their perch, that meant that the Humans had deployed forces to secure the top deck. Throwing herself into a gallop Twilight raced to the staircase that would bring her to the battle at the top deck.
Gabby bounded forward throwing one of the Humans in black armour from the top of the Pillar of Autumn before setting upon his companions with her talons and a predatory screech. In the distance she watched a Sanghili throw a plasma grenade onto one of the audacious Humans only for said Human to dive forward into the Sangheili and his squad turning them into a fine purple and red mist.
Plasma and conventional ballistics filled the air in a mad skirmish, there was no battle lines drawn only a maddening flurry of bloodshed as the seemingly fearless Humans threw themselves into battle. A bonded Mgalekgolo pair pushed out into one of the larger open sections of the battlefield trying to bring some semblance of order to the battle but the instant they appeared rockets thundered into them demoralizing the Covenant defenders.
A Kig Yar sniper tower was torn from the air by another rocket sending its occupants into the harsh ground with distinct cracks, the skirmishers lay still were they landed.
Overhead the damaged gunship from the very first volley shot into view dropping human reinforcements, Gabby looked about for any of her fellow griffons but could not make any of the semi transparent warriors in the area about her, she could not call any of them over the battle net as she had somehow lost her helmet in her frenzy.
Her shields flared as a Human rounded a corner and fired one of the close range shrapnel weapons at her. Gabby was upon him in an instant slamming his smaller frame into the ground with a sickening thud, a second human darted around the corner for an instant to throw a grenade of some kind, the griffon tried to dive away but she was too slow and her world turned into a blinding white light.
Twilight arrived to a massacre, the ground was slick with a terrible waste of lifeblood with prone forms that lay still all about. Human forces had pushed the Covenant, what little remained of them, back to the main staircase leading into the ship. She spotted eleven of her guard and her Champion darting in and out of cover discharging the long rifles into the amassed Human shock troops.
Humans hefting huge weapons ran from cover and took a knee in a dozen places firing rockets at her honour guard before the mare could respond. The world around her seemed to slow as Twilight found her hooves carrying her forward, the warm words of her older brother filling her mind.
“When the plasma starts to fly, it's not Princesses or Empires you fight for, it's the ponies under your command, for them you can withstand anything.”
Her horn lit aflame as she drew magic from the plasma scorched battlefield around her, the distant yellow sun overpowered by purple light as Twilight threw herself into the middle of her remaining Covenant forces, a solid domed wall of shimmering light growing outwards from her as she worked magic that would have turned a lesser unicorn to ash.
The light shot forward detonating the rockets and blocking the projectiles as both sides of the mad skirmish stood in awe at the impenetrable wall now firmly between them.
“Fall back to the stairs!” Twilight found her voice as she focused on maintaining the spell, dozens of formule filling her mind making thinking of anything but intoxicating magic difficult. Stunned Covenant troops stood lamely but here and there Unggoy and Sangheili turned and barked at each other to fall back, injured comrades were carried or dragged away from the fighting.
“Inquisitor, you came just in time!” N’tho loped over to Twilight carrying a badly bleeding and unresponsive Tath Kem in his right arm, his left hung bleeding but still had the strength to carry a depleted and partially melted plasma rifle.
“The stairs, NOW!” Twilight's eyes burned with arcane might and her voice seemed distant as the Human shock troops began to fire at the purple dome protecting the remaining Covenant forces. The Sanghili rushed to follow Twilights command, out of the one hundred and twenty five Covenant deployed to the top deck of the Pillar of Autumn only thirty six, including her griffons, remained after only five minutes of fighting.
Twilight slowly shrank her shield as she walked backwards, the Humans walking confidently forward firing all the while until the mare found herself in the stairwell and activated the starwell blast doors, a moment later the exhausated Inquisitor felt darkness overtake her.
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Nothing wrong with varying the POV from character to character from time to time as it can only add to the story flow with seeing things from different views. Keep up the good work.
9786237
Its designed so a Sanghili can pull the weapon up without any resistance but firm enough that the weapon itself will not fall to the ground, not exactly a high powered magnetic seal. :)
9786238
That's why you code the weapon to it's owner, comes free easily for the wielder, may as well be part of the armor for anyone else.
I must say, this is a clever story you're writing, I'm quite enjoying myself.
9786251
Thank you, also thank you for your comments! This story is flowing very well and I have a few ideas that I can't wait to see people react to!
9786229
I will be doing it more in the future I just don't want to confuse the reader.
It had too have been a Spartan that made that shot. I’m not sure if gabby survived that explosion griffins have provers themselves terrifyingly effective. Twilight proving once again she’s a badass.
That is one hell of a display of power, the humans will defiantly be interested in what Twilight is. Another good chapter will be interesting to see what happens next now Twilight is taking a nap.
An AWESOME chapter! Loved the battle scene.
9786348
Baddasses on all sides at the moment :D
9786404
Yeah its a hell of a way to announce yourself, ODST however do pride themselves on refusing to consider the implications.
9786438
Thank you!
I have the feeling that the covenant should not have lost the battle for the dorsal surface there, that's a big problem I have with using dice rolls for combat encounters outside of actual tabletop RPGs.
Gotta say though you're doing well so far.
I hate how large you've made the gryphons, they are not that big, but I can ignore the hell out of that if you keep this up.
Loving it, you are to be commended.
9786348
You underestimate modern munitions and advanced munitions.