1- Random Jump
1
November 25th, 2551
Aboard the UNSC Pony Express, uncharted space
Three people looked out of the viewport of the starship. One three, a middle-aged man with a close-cut, polished head and large mustache, looked to the other two.
“This planet looks just like Earth; do you realize that?”
“It can’t be,” said the second man, consulting a small data pad. “According to the ship data, we’re hundreds of lightyears away from the Solar System. This can’t be Earth.”
“So what planet am I looking at, Officer?” demanded Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb, rounding on the younger officer.
“Uh,” the young man tapped furiously on his data pad, trying to make sense of the impossible. “I – I don’t know, sir.”
“Well don’t just stand there,” the Vice Admiral said. “Get a team and figure it out!”
“Yes, sir!” the officer snapped to attention then darted off to find other deck officers working to solve the problem and relived he wasn’t scolded for not having the answer.
“We should send a team down to the surface,” the third man spoke. He was seven feet tall and encased in a thick suit of drab green armor. The only other colors present on the suit were the bold 008 stenciled on his chest in white block lettering and the two orange stripes painted on the man’s bicep armor.
Whitcomb looked up at him. He couldn’t read the man’s expression through the bubble-like polarized, gold visor of his helmet.
“Go down?” he asked. “Without any intel? Spartan, I understand you are the best of the best, but we can’t risk lives just to satisfy our curiosity unless we know exactly what we’re walking into. What if this is the homeworld of one of the species in the Covenant? It’s too much of a risk.”
“If it were a Covenant homeworld, we’d most likely be under attack right now,” said Li-008. “And there aren’t any ships around, either. That means there isn’t an outpost here. If we’re the first to discover this planet, we can set up a supply base or outpost here and figure out what’s close by. We could even make this a third base for humanity, like Reach.”
Whitcomb scratched his chin, thinking. The SPARTAN was right. Covenant would have attacked by now if they were around, and the UNSC needed all the outposts they could get, given how quickly they were losing ground in the war. Desperate times called for desperate measures. And someone had to make the call for those desperate measures to be taken.
“Alright,” the Vice Admiral conceded, turning to face the much taller man. “Take a squad of marines with you and head down to the surface. Wherever you think looks like a good spot. Do not take any unnecessary risks and keep in constant radio contact with the ship. Understood?”
Li stood at attention and saluted. “Yes, sir. Right away.”
The seven-foot-tall man turned and swiftly exited the ship’s command center; off to find a squad of marines and a ship to take down to the planet’s surface. As the clunk of the soldier’s boots faded away, Whitcomb turned back to the viewport and stared out at the mysterious planet. He squinted slightly as the planet’s sun came into view.
He knew the decision he just made would either get him commended for discovering a new system in which to place an outpost and possibly gain an advantage in the war, or would give him the reputation as the man who foolishly sent another SPARTAN to their death.
_ _ _
Twilight Sparkle squinted up at the sky. It was the middle of the day, but she thought she had seen a star. She must be imagining things again; whatever she had seen, there was nothing there now.
“Twilight, watch where you’re going!”
“Oof!”
Twilight suddenly found herself sitting on the ground, covered in what seemed to be long pieces of fabric. For a few moments, she wasn’t sure what had happened or where she was, then she felt herself being guided to her feet and the fabric being pulled off her.
Another girl was collecting what Twilight realized to be dresses from both the ground and both of their bodies. She was rather tall, with pure white fur, large, blue eyes and deep purple hair. Her makeup was applied with an expertise that Twilight rarely saw anywhere else, and she was dressed in sleek, expensive-looking clothes.
“Twilight, darling, you really must watch where you’re going when you go outside,” she said. “Now I’m sure all these dresses have dirt on them. What will my clients think? The gala is next week and I must get these out as soon as possible.”
“Oh, I’m sorry Rarity,” Twilight apologized, accepting the other girl’s hand and allowing herself to be pulled to her feet. “I don’t know what happened; something in the sky just caught my eye. I thought I saw a star.”
“A star?” Rarity asked, raising an eyebrow. “In the middle of the day? I hope your fiction books aren’t going to your head. Here, would you mind helping me collect these?”
“Of course,” Twilight said, setting about picking the dresses of various fabrics and colors up off the ground. “I’ll help you clean them too, if you’d like. I know this is a busy time of year for you and I don’t want to make it any more hectic.”
“Oh dear, you’re too kind,” Rarity said, smiling. “I would be delighted for your assistance, as long as it doesn’t interfere with your studies, of course. The Princess won’t mind?”
“Oh, no,” Twilight assured her, waving her hand dismissively. “My lessons have been put on hold until after the gala; she’s busy this time of year too.”
“Excellent,” Rarity said, clapping her hands together excitedly. “Just follow me back to the boutique. While you’re there, I might as well get you fitted for a dress as well. I told the other girls to meet me there sometime today so I could get everything taken care of. We simply must look perfect for an event such as this. Especially after you were granted such a high position!”
Twilight pursed her lips, choosing not to say anything. While it was true that it was an immense honor and privilege being chosen out of so many candidates to study magic under the guidance of Princess Celestia, she had to admit that the one major flaw in the position was all the public attention it got her.
Moving to the small town of Ponyville earlier in the year had helped curb that publicity – not to mention getting her the best group of friends any girl could ask for – but whenever she was spotted with the queen or performing some difficult feat of magic, there was certain to be an article about her in the next day’s paper. She could only imagine how publicized her presence at this year’s Winter Gala was going to be.
All the same, she followed Rarity through the town, her arms full of dresses and black hair ruffled from the fall she’d had. It would certainly be fun to get fitted for dresses with her friends, regardless of where said dress was going to be worn. Rarity always gave them good discounts, too. At least for today, nothing seemed as though it were going to go wrong.
Twilight and Rarity approached her boutique. Well, it wasn’t really Julia’s boutique, but she referred to it as such and she often took the lion’s share of the work.
“Oh, I can’t wait until you see the dresses I have picked out for you and the girls,” Rarity said, looking over her shoulder at Twilight. “I’ve got plenty of options – and a few of my own design! I’m sure you’ll all be able to find something you like.”
“Knowing you, I have no doubt,” Twilight remarked.
Then, something made her stop in her tracks. A distant sound caught her attention; like some sort of creature roaring. Silvia turned in the direction of the forest, her eyes narrowed and scanning the tree line, looking for anything out of place. Everyone knew the forest was full of creatures; it could have been anything. This just seemed . . . different. Twilight couldn’t explain it if she tried, but she knew something out of the ordinary was making that sound.
By this time, Rarity had noticed that Twilight was no longer following her. She stood on the front steps of the boutique – a large, cylindrical building with various circular windows and colored glass – dresses in hand and a puzzled expression on her face.
“Twilight, dear, is something wrong?”
“No, I’m fine,” Twilight said, pausing. “Don’t you hear that?”
“Hear what?” Rarity's gaze flicked to the forest. “Oh, that? It’s probably just some dreadful creature fighting another over food or land. Nothing for us to worry about.”
“No.” Twilight shook her head. “This is something else. I –”
She couldn’t finish her sentence, as at that exact moment, something huge and dark flew out over the forest, the roar getting louder as it approached. It spun in the air, emitting flames from its stiff wings, and descended. After only a few seconds of being in view, it disappeared below the trees, far out into the forest.
Without hesitation, Twilight dropped the dresses she was carrying and bolted for the forest.
“Twilight, the dresses!” Rarity shouted after her. “Where are you going? No, not the forest! It’s too dangerous! Twilight, wait!”
Her cries fell on deaf ears, as Twilight crashed through the undergrowth and onto a dirt path that lead deep into the heart of the forest.
_ _ _
SPARTAN-II Li-008 stared out the viewport of the D77-T Pelican Dropship. As the ship neared the planet’s surface, it was becoming increasingly clear that this planet wasn’t uninhabited, as he had previously assumed. Farm below, he could see towns, cities, and villages dotted across the vast landscape of the continent they were flying over. To make things even more confusing, the architecture had a much closer resemblance to human styles rather than alien.
Li placed a hand to the side of his specialized Extra Vehicular Activity helmet, activating his communications link back to the Pony Express.
“UNSC Pony Express, this is Spartan zero-zero-eight. Do you copy?”
“Yes, Spartan. We read you,” came Vice Admiral Whitcomb’s voice over the link. “What do you see?”
“Civilization, sir,” Li replied. “It looks almost human. Are you sure this star system isn’t in our database?”
There was quiet for a few moments, then the Admiral returned.
“No, Spartan. This system is absolutely not in any of our records. No human has ever set foot on that planet.”
“Well, someone’s here.”
“Looks like you’ll be the ones to find out exactly who they are,” Whitcomb said. “Have you found a landing site?”
“Not yet.”
“Uh,” spoke up the pilot, suddenly sitting up straighter and pointing out of the cockpit. “Sir? I’d say that place looks pretty important.”
Li followed the marine’s finger and saw what she was referring to. Oh, yes. An immense palace sticking out of the side of a huge mountain certainly must be important. Li had never seen anything like it. How could something like that be structurally sound? Who lived there? Why were they important?
“I might be able to set us down in that forest,” said the pilot, gesturing to a large, dense forest in the shadow of the mountain. “But it’ll be a bit of a hike to get to the palace.”
Li nodded. “Do it.” He then returned his attention to the Vice Admiral. “Never mind, sir. We have a landing zone.”
“Excellent,” Whitcomb replied. “Be careful, Spartan. And radio in once you contact the inhabitance. Handle this carefully; the last thing we need is a second war to fight.”
“Understood, sir. Spartan out.” Li terminated the link and strode out of the cockpit, joining the twelve UNSC marines strapped to the seats in the Pelican’s troop bay.
“We settin’ down soon, sir?” piped up one of the marines, a younger man with some brown stubble gracing his chin and upper lip.
“Yes,” Li answered. “Everyone check your weapons; we don’t know what kind of environment we’re landing in.”
As the marines pulled various types and calibers of rifles from the racks above, besides, and below them, Li retrieved an M7/Caseless Submachine Gun from one of the higher racks. The moment Li’s hands made contact with the cold metal of the weapon, the sensors built into the gloves of his suit activated, providing him with a recital and weapon readout in the center and top right of his helmet’s Heads-Up Display, respectively.
Holding the SMG in one hand, Li also grabbed an M6C Magnum pistol and two M9 High-Explosive Dual-Purpose grenades, both of which appeared as icons in his HUD as soon as his fingers touched them. Clipping the grenades to his belt and the pistol and SMG to the magnetic holsters on his thighs, Li turned to face the marine sergeant as he unclipped his harness and stood in the troop bay, addressing the other soldiers.
“Listen up, men,” he bellowed, his voice carrying in the confined space. “We’re walking into a situation no soldier wants to find themselves in. No intel, no map, no direction, no idea of what we’re up against. The only consolation we have is that there doesn’t seem to be any Covenant around. And we can’t even guarantee that.
“Once we land, our goal is to secure the drop zone. After that, we split up into fireteams. Fireteams Alpha and Beta – led by myself and the Spartan – will head into the surrounding area and search for any living beings or signs of what lives around here. Fireteam Gamma will remain with the Pelican and keep the pilots nice and cozy while they wait for us to radio back. Keep communications with the ship and each other alive at all times. Be ready to radio in at a moment’s notice if something goes wrong. We could be making history today, gentlemen. Act like it!”
“Sir, yes sir!” chorused the marines, unclipping themselves from their harnesses and joining Li and the sergeant in standing.
The voice of the pilot came over the intercom in a wash of static. “Alright, boys, we’re coming in for a landing in a clearing. Heavily wooded area. Be ready for anything. I saw a town a couple clicks to the north west, so you might want to try and head there after you secure the landing zone. Opening the hatch now!”
There was a hiss as the pneumatic hatch began to descend, providing the occupants of the troop bay a breathtaking view of the forest and surrounding mountains as the dropship descended ever closer to the earth. The ship rocked a little as the landing gear engaged and the Pelican touched down.
“You’re all clear!” shouted the pilot. “Good luck out there, boys.”
The instant Li’s boots touched the ground, his weapon was at the ready and his eyes were scanning the clearing they had landed in, watching for any sign of movement among the trees.
“Alright, men,” called the sergeant. “Spread out and secure the clearing!”
The thirteen men formed a circle around the dropship and began walking out towards the edge of the clearing. Given the clear sight lines and brightness of the sun, it was quickly made apparent that the men were completely alone. At least for now.
“All clear, sarge!” called the same Marine from earlier who was so eager to land. His Friend-or-Foe tag identified him as Private Jamie Hendricks.
“Good,” replied the sergeant, lowering his rifle and turning to face the rest of the men, who had all assembled before him. “Now we’re dividing into fireteams. Four of you are staying to guard the ship, three of you are with me, and four of you are going with the Spartan. Any volunteers for any of the three teams?”
After a few minutes of hashing things out, the teams were set. Four of the Marines began setting up defensive positions around the Pelican, even bringing out an M247H Heavy Machine Gun and setting it up at the back of the dropship, so that it would be able to cover one entire side of the clearing. Three marines had stuck with the sergeant, and four – including Private Hendricks – had grouped up with Li.
“Alright, men,” the sergeant began, turning to address the two teams going into the forest, “the pilots saw a town on the opposite side of the forest to the west. That’ll be our first target. Our second target is the palace built into the mountain. We might be able to find a path from the town to the palace, if whoever lives there know each other. Remember – we don’t want to start another war, so if you encounter intelligent life, do not engage unless they come after you with deadly force. Keep your safties on unless absolutely necessary.”
The marines shouted their assent before turning and flocking to their respective squad leaders. Four marines crowded somewhat warily around Li, who stood at least a head taller than all of them. He could see them all exchanging looks with one another, clearly nervous about standing – quite literally – in his shadow. Li was used to other soldiers acting cautious around him. Even twenty-six years into the war and Spartans were still a mostly unknown quantity to other humans. Hell, even to the Covenant.
“What’s the plan, Sarge?” asked one marine as Fireteam Alpha came to stand beside Li and his team.
“We’re going to sweep the forest on our way to the town the Spartan saw,” the sergeant, who’s IFF tag identified him as Staff Sergeant Marcus Stacker, replied. “We’ll spread out. One soldier every fifteen meters. Stay on the comms at all times and alert everyone if you see anything that looks like a hostile or friendly. We’re going in blind, boys, so be careful.”
“Let’s move out,” Li said, reaching down and taking his SMG from its holster.
Stacker nodded. “Agreed. Move out everyone. Good luck.”
Li and the eight marines stepped out of the clearing and into the forest. The instant change was jarring and complete. The foliage was so dense that almost no sun from above could penetrate it. The trees grew close together, and were thicker around than the engine of a Pelican. Even with his enhanced night vision, Li could barely see further than fifty feet in front of him.
“Flashlights on, everyone,” came Stacker’s voice, fuzzy with static over the communication link.
As he advanced further into the forest, Li reached up with on hand and flicked on the flashlights that were built into either side of his helmet. The four powerful beams came to life instantly, allowing him to get a more clearly colored view of his surroundings. In his peripheral vision, Li saw other flashlights flick on through the trees.
Their progress was slow and methodical. It had to be, given that they were in an alien environment with no map, backup, or intelligence of any kind. Their approach gave Li time to analyze the environment. This forest looked almost exactly like one found on Earth or Reach. How was it possible that no one had stumbled upon this solar system before now? Especially since it contained a planet that humanity could easily inhabit.
Something that set him on edge, however, was just how completely quiet it was. The only sounds Li heard were his own breathing and footsteps, as well as the footsteps of the marines in the trees around him. There was no breeze, no sounds of leaves rustling, no animals, no birds. Truth be told it was a little unnerving. But Li reasoned that if he could survive almost thirty years of a war with a technologically superior race of aliens, then he could handle exploring what seemed to be a planet almost identical to Reach.
Then, somewhere off to his right, Li heard a panicked scream rip through the silence of the forest. He whipped around, bringing his SMG to bear. He quickly scanned his surroundings, looking for anything out of place, waiting for the blue reticle to turn red to indicate an unfriendly presence. But nothing happened. Li knew he had to find the source of the scream. Marines could be dying while he had wasted precious seconds waiting for an attack on himself.
Without another second’s hesitation, the SPARTAN bolted through the trees in the direction the cry had come from. As he ran, he heard voices start to filter in through his comm link.
“Everyone on me!”
“What is that thing?”
“What’s going on?”
“Hold tight! We’re coming!”
Dirt rustled, greenery crunched, and branches snapped as Li ran. Sounds were becoming louder as he got closer to the source. Gunfire erupted. People were shouting. An inhuman roar seemed to reverberate through the forest. What was going on? That didn’t sound like any Covenant Li had ever encountered before. There was always the possibility it was something new, though.
With that in mind, Li burst through a tough patch of foliage and found himself on a wide dirt path. He turned one hundred and eighty degrees, covering the whole path. Just twenty feet to the left, he saw something that gave him momentary pause. A group of four marines were facing down an enemy taller even than Li himself by at least four feet.
It almost looked like a wolf, with the same shaped head and body as a wolf from Earth. The only differences Li could discern were its immense size and the fact that it seemed to be made of wood. Living wood? There wasn’t time to ponder the particulars of the situation; he needed to act before the creature killed all the marines.
One man was already lying against a tree on the side of the path, one large gash through his green chest plate and two through his green battle dress uniform, right over his stomach. He was already leaking plenty of blood.
Li darted forward, raising his SMG and holding down the trigger, spraying rounds at the creature. His caseless bullets did nothing more than dent the wood that the wolf was made out of. Even the higher caliber assault rifles that the other marines were using only managed to punch nickel-sized holes that didn’t seem to do much more than make the wolf angrier.
“We’re not doing a damn thing!” cried one of the marines, a young woman. “We need heavier weapons!”
Two of the marines backed toward Li, while the third dashed to the other side of the wolf, drawing its attention with his rifle fire.
“Any ideas, Spartan?” asked the second marine, a man with a Canadian accent.
Li eyed the situation, both in reality and on his HUD. The beast would only be distracted by the other marine for a few more seconds, after which it would either get bored of and turn on them or just kill the marine that was currently distracting it. Their bullets weren’t doing any real damage to the creature. They needed to use something else. Li’s eyes darted around his HUD, alighting after a few seconds on his grenades. Those would surely do the trick, but just to be safe, the detonation should occur from within the creature.
Li said, clipping his SMG to his thigh. “Keep it busy.”
“Yes sir!”
Li darted into the woods as the two marines began shouting and firing their rifles at the creature. It turned away from the third trooper, who it had pinned against a tree, and began stalking back toward the others, as if it had no fear of being harmed. With any luck, that would make it overconfident as it tried to finish off its perceived prey.
Li used the trees around the path as cover as he circled behind the creature, his feet making little noise despite the almost one-thousand-pound armor he was wearing. As the hulking creature closed in on the marines, Li stepped out from the tree line, directly behind it. Not wasting another moment, Li leaped onto the back of the beast, hands digging into the bark that made up its hide with enough force to send cracks spiraling out from beneath his clawed fingers.
Howling in pain and rage, the wolf-like beast reared onto its hind legs, its front paws flailing wildly. Li clung onto its back, quickly ascending to the level of its head. With one hand, he grabbed the creature’s jaw, holding it open. With the other, he removed one frag grenade from his belt and primed it, holding it just over the gaping maw of the beast’s mouth. He let go, and the explosive devise fell down its throat.
The instant the grenade disappeared, Li dove off the creature’s back, hitting the ground with his shoulder. The SPARTAN executed a surprisingly acrobatic roll that found him crouched on one knee, SMG drawn and aimed directly at the beast, just in case it tried to get one last swipe of its claws in. He needn’t have worried, as just as its front paws touched the ground again, there was a tremendous explosion as the grenade detonated, ripping apart its torso and causing it to be lifted at least a foot off the ground.
It crashed back down to earth in a heap, limp and unmoving. There was no blood - or anything like it - despite the gaping hole in the creature’s chest cavity. What the hell was going on here?
Slowly, Li got to his feet, weapon still aimed at the supposedly dead foe. In four quick strides he was standing over the corpse. Cautiously, he prodded the creature’s head with one foot, just to see if there was any life left in it. It didn’t move.
He looked up. “Is everyone alright?”
“Willa and I are alright,” reported the marine with the Canadian accent.
“Jones is dead,” muttered the female marine, Willa. She was crouched next to the body of the marine Li had first seen, with numerous claw marks through his chest.
The marine that had been pinned against the tree stumbled over, clutching his left shoulder. “I . . . I think my arm’s broken.”
The was a rustling in the trees and out came the rest of the marines, including sergeant Stacker, who stopped dead in his tracks, taking in the whole scene. Li standing over the dead wolf-creature made of wood, the man with a broken arm, and the dead marine clawed up and bleeding.
“What the hell happened here?”
Before anyone could answer, the sound of running feet drew everyone’s attention down the path. Before the girl had even come into view, Li had drawn his pistol, aiming one-handed towards the sound. There really was no telling what they were going to run into now.
A purple girl with a horn protruding from her forehead, no older then perhaps twenty, turned the corner at top speed and came up short as she took in the eight soldiers staring at her.
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Besides the ponies being human and twilight doing something so stupid as running into the everfree all alone to find an mysterious ship, this is good.👍
I see at least 3 errors present, but theyre minor and can be glossed over or corrected.
Was this story slightly different originally?
10083733
Yes, things were a little different originally. I have a rough timeline laid out concerning major events in the story/Halo universe, but as I actually write and edit, things change overtime and apparently stuff slips through the cracks.
I only have one problem with this chapter. Spartans don't die, they go M.I.A.
that D77-T dropship looks like a big version of a Danish F-16 Fighter-jet, and i love that, :D
10012896
Not human, it is tagged anthro (incorrectly) or, more precisely, a kemono, i.e. humanoid with equine traits. Difference between anthro and kemono is in facial structure, latter would be human or near-human.
Sorry you lost me with the ponies being pointlessly almost-human
This Spartan isn't long for this world. What kind of idiot goes into an unknown world's forest with an SMG..... proof being it was useless against wood... WOOD!