The feeling of consciousness began to return to the sleeping Spartan. The buzz of an empty radio frequency and the crackle of faintly burning embers filling the silence of Six’s camp. Faint sounds of birds flying overhead could be heard as Six gently began to open her eyes.
Her visor's field of vision was completely covered in black and white thread. Yawning, Six moved her head upright revealing that it was her tail which was covering her visor. It seems that during that night six had tucked her head right against her barrel and subsequently her tail.
Six chuckled slightly at the mental image of a hyper lethal and battle-hardened Spartan sleeping like a common house cat before getting up fully. After briefly stretching the knots out of her body, Six looked towards the glowing embers of her campfire before kicking some nearby sand onto them, extinguishing it.
The sound of empty radio frequencies was still audible inside Six’s helmet, prompting her to turn it off. If she hadn’t got any response after 8 hours, she wasn’t going to get one now over her radio.
Moving to the edge of her makeshift camp, Six scouted for any points of interest. The smoke was back on the horizon to her south-east and the lights of civilization were no longer visible without the help of a night sky.
Six estimated that the trek into the visual range of the town/city would take roughly two hours from what she could tell. Once Six has a line of sight to the town she would scout it out first, making sure it was either
A: Filled with a bunch of lazy ass ONI Operatives who couldn’t use a radio to save their lives from behind their cushy desk jobs.
Or
B: Occupied by Covenant forces.
And the unlikely third option.
C: Filled with aliens that looked like her or vice versa.
Personally she was hoping for option B, oh how she wanted to make the Covenant pay for not killing her properly. Now with nothing left for her to take with, she abandoned her makeshift camp, once again trekking through the desert towards civilization… or the Covenant, either option worked for the Spartan turned alien.
Two hours of walking later it became obviously clear that Six’s estimates were off...way off. But on the plus side, however, she had found a river. The sandy environment around her turned into a lush green forest instead. It was a welcome change of scenery for the Spartan, she had been in enough barren wastelands on Reach.
Unfortunately, the river was blocking her path. There were no obvious land bridges in visual range and she didn’t want to waste any time looking if a bridge was located somewhere. The river was a clear blue and moving rather calmly. The perfect conditions for a crossing, but first things first as Six hadn’t drunk anything for a while now.
Without her cantine, gathering some water for later wouldn’t be possible but as for right now, Six needed to drink something. Although Spartans are able to be effective longer than normal humans without food or water, they still had their limits and Six was reaching hers. The water was running down from a nearby mountain into presumably a nearby ocean or lake meant it was fresh and as such safe for consumption by the Spartan.
Quickly checking her motion tracker and it coming up empty, Six removed her helmet. Another hiss of her armor’s pressure seal being broken, scared a few nearby curious critters into hiding, as Six bent her head down to the running water before eagerly beginning to drink her fill.
It might have just been dehydration speaking but it was the most satisfying quenching of thirst Six had ever experienced. Her eyes widening after the first droplet reached her mouth. The freshness of the water combined with the abundance of minerals not found in the standard-issue water rations was simply Dev-.
That’s when Six realized something was wrong. It was quiet, deathly so. The sounds of birds chirping in nearby trees were gone. The only sound about being the running water and Six’s eager gulps of said water.
A predator was stalking her.
Ceasing in her drinking of the river water, Six swiveled her ears focusing her hearing whilst slowly grabbing her helmet. Six was careful not to make any sudden movements before she got her helmet on. Keeping her head low to the water, Six equipped her helmet.
Checking her motion tracker she saw a greyed out marker to her left. Slowly pulling out her knife and getting into a low combat stance, she changed the target's motion tracker marker to red. Now facing the direction of the hostile she saw a rustling come from the nearby bushes.
The animal stalking her now realizing it had been made, moved out of its hiding place revealing itself to its prey.
‘The hell are you?’ Thought Six as the creature fully revealed itself to the Spartan. It was big, much bigger than her and looked like a mish-mash of a Lion, bat, and scorpion if the wings and tail were anything to go by.
It growled and snarled aggressively at its prey, it’s claws extended, green venom dripping from its tail, his sharp teeth glinting in the sun at the Spartan in front of it. For the manticore, this pony seemed like an easy kill, as it lowers itself into an attack stance as well.
It was a stare off before both creatures began to slowly circle each other, their stances held low. The Manticore growling and snarling in an attempt to intimidate its prey. Six however was as calm as ever, her eyes studying the Manticores every movement and weakness she could exploit. The wind was calm, a few stray leaves falling in-between them before being dragged off by the surrounding breeze.
The sounds of armored hooves hitting the ground and the manticores snarls filling the air.
They both stopped in their circling, neither of them backing down.
A fight was inevitable now, but a question still remained unanswered.
Who was the predator and who was the prey?
With a violent roar, the manticore pounced at Six at a blinding speed intent on ending this fight in a single blow.
Already anticipating such an action, Six waited until the last second before rolling off to the side. Narrowly avoiding the manticore’s attack before slashing at the creature’s hind legs eliciting a howl of pain from the creature.
Snarling in rage the manticore swung his tail, catching the Spartan off guard as her shield’s flared from the impact before getting thrown several feet away.
Hitting the ground with a small roll, Six used her momentum to land back on her hooves.
Her shields had taken minor damage and she would not be underestimating that tail again as the manticore turned to face her once again, limping very slightly from her attack, before charging at her.
Dodging, Six once again avoided the manticore’s sharp claws as they slashed against the ground where she once stood.
Not wanting this fight to drag on any longer, Six jumped at the manticore’s now exposed neck using her agility to climb up onto the manticores back.
Thrashing wildly, the manticore tried to throw the Spartan off only managing to knock the knife out of Six’s grip causing it to fall to the ground with a thump.
Six held around the manticore's neck even tighter, intent on trying to either break its neck or choke it out.
This did nothing as the manticores gave off another enraged snarl before trying to stab the Spartan with his tail.
He hit his mark as the Spartans shield’s flared gold once again, only to immediately cry out in pain as the still intact shield began burning his stinger.
With Six unable to choke the manticore out and her shields now at half strength she would need to get creative.
Her knife now somewhere on the ground and the manticores thrashing getting ever stronger she wouldn’t be able to stay up there for much longer unless…
Flaring her wings out to their full length Six kicked herself off of the manticores back up into the sky.
The combined strength and weight of the spartan jumping off the manticore slammed it into the ground, kicking up dirt and breaking a few of the creature’s ribs leaving it dazed.
Now above the manticore, Six reoriented herself head first, before pulling her wings in front of her face, razor-sharp feathers facing outwards.
Before long gravity began to take its course, pulling the Spartan back towards the ground.
‘I hope this works!’ Thought Six as she came falling onto the manticore below her, her sharp feathers creating a low whistling sound as air rushed past them.
The sound of flesh and bone being cut tore through the surrounding air, as a gurgled roar escaped the manticores bleeding moar before collapsing to the ground, dead.
Six let out a relieved breath from atop the now dead manticore before pulling her now blood-soaked feathers from the manticores back. Jumping off of the corpse, Six got a good look at her handiwork before glancing back at her still flared wings.
‘Well... I guess there is another use for you bad boys after all’ She thought with a small smile and laugh looking at her extended limb, her feathers now no longer black but a dark crimson. She was definitely noting that technique down for later as it basically made her into a living missile.
A consequence of this, however, would be the sudden literal bloodbath her armor was subjected to. Now with that out of the way, and thirst now no longer an issue for the Spartan, Six looked for the shallowest part of the river to ford it.
She debated on taking some meat with her for later but decided against it as if she were spotted by someone whilst holding a slab of meat under her wings would be the textbook definition of ‘a bad situation to be in after changing species when dealing with an unintentionally xenophobic race’.
She did, however, consider maybe taking some samples for the local biologists as Six didn’t recognize this species and it could be one that had yet to be discovered by the local scientists but decided against it. Finding out which planet she was on came first, before discovering new species.
The hum of her shield regenerating back to full strength brought Six’s mind back to the issue of fording this river before picking up her discarded knife as it glinted in the sun nearby. Sheathing it, Six began walking downstream looking for such a path, and after several minutes, she found it in a nice and shallow in a calm part of the river.
Wading into the water Six slowly began to make her way across, making sure her armor was thoroughly soaked by the river washing most of the blood off of her. A red streak was now visible in the water behind her as her armor turned black once again, the blood running downstream.
Having now crossed the river, Six continued on her journey once again now no longer surrounded by desert and sand but grass and trees.
your early
Another awesome and engaging chapter! Looking forward to the next one!
~EMBERSPIRITSHIELD
10417928
I am still trying to decide. Is Six mute or just one not to talk
10417935
understandable.
side note in some storys changlings have numbers and then get names so if you want a break chapter you could do something with that.
also
i.chzbgr.com/original/8800150016/hB0B6F906/funny-video-game-moment-halo-cortana-logic
10417961
No, she talks just not alot.
10417985
Ah cool
Next chapter as soon as possible please
I would at least replace
With
Other than that, looks good!
That's a pretty awesome history, loved the Idea
10417197
Noble six is canonically a guy
One hell of a first contact... well done
I love her bladed wings!
10418039
I like to think Noble six is canonically whoever you picked during your first play through of reach
10417985
Did she pick up/find her knife?
10418076
She has now, thanks for pointing that out :D
Living missiles are always fun
As someone who enjoyed Reach, I will be watching this
New ability unlocked: Dive bombing
10418578
I think you mean Spartan 2’s
Spartan 3’s were means to be a cheaper and expendable Spartan the UNSC could train In mass.
Also I’m getting my info on noble 6 from halo pesos and it is clear there that Six has dealt with human militia groups, which she made disappear all on her own. She was the ‘personal grim reaper’ of her CO after all
10418738
I'm also not kidding when I say that most if not all the operation Spartan 3's are given have a 100% casualty rate. AKA: When sent on a mission Spartan 3's didn't tend to come back. They were that expendable to the UNSC
I will point out one thing; Spartan (and Covenant) shields do not seem to be designed for CCQ. Both the game and the lore (what I've seen of it) seem to support that fact, with shields either being broken on contact or ignored entirely.
From what I can tell (and remember) the shields block bullets and other high-velocity projectiles, with a relatively slow-moving arm/hand either passing right through or just breaking the shield.
With this in mind, I would argue that Six's shield would suffer more than just "minor" damage in this fight.
On another, earlier note. The motion tracker should be assuming "hostile unless specified otherwise". (Its odd for the motion tracker to be able to distinguish in the first place given it tracks motion but that can be ignored). With that in mind, the Manticore, and likely every living thing on Equus that the Spartans/UNSC are unaware of/haven't encountered will be marked red. The reason I say this is because its combat armour. In combat situations, everything that isnt a known non-combatant/ally is considered hostile. This is so you avoid death, and with technology it is to avoid said technology ignoring the unknown big bag monster as it sneaks up and eats people.
10418072
No bungie and 343 have said that the female one is non canonical
10418874
Give me a source and you win and we call it there
10418881
https://www.halopedia.org/1045242
10418883
10418889
:)
You were wrong
10418891
uh huh
10418895
Now, because you lost an argument to a random stranger on the internet. You have to rewrite the whole story!
10418898
It's a good story no matter what that's all that really matters in the end
10418898
Does it really matter that much to you? Seriously its just a fan made story, its not like this is cannon or anything you know? Anyway I hope you have a great day!
10419060
I think we all just got r/wooshed
I mean just look at his name XD
Correct spelling is maw
I like it
So her armor is pure black? Seems odd
Hahahaha
10444880
Noble 6 is completely customizable so it's one of those things up to the author.
Good intuition on the 'no sound= predator'
I mean, if Spartan upgrades include immunity to parasites like giardia, sure. Otherwise, she’d know from basic survival training that drinking untreated stream water means she risks that she shits her guts out and dies again.
Don’t drink mountain stream water IRL, kids. Not without some means of purifying it first.
Luckily for our intrepid interloper, additional hoofwavium explanations for why she won’t get sick include “ponification made her immune” and “Equestria doesn’t have parasites because magical pony paradise.”
10866580
Or to sum it all up, it's the Magic of Bul- I mean Friendship !
10866580
Spartans were actually picked for a rare mutation that naturally enhanced their immune response, as it (somehow) reduced issues with rejection (and thus death) during the gene editing procedure. Said procedure also further enhanced their immune system to the point that a fully modded adult Spartan-II simply didn't get sick any more. This was strong enough that even the Flood (literal magic zombie parasites - because, yes, magic straight up is a thing in Halo) found it nearly impossible to infect Master Chief.
The later Spartan-IIIs, although not quite as powerful due it being redesigned to accept adult subjects, would also benefit from this. While no longer capable of shrugging off the Flood, mundane parasites and diseases would have to be particularly virulent and deadly for the Spartan-IIIs to feel it.
So, for once, it isn't magic pony bullshit but rather Halo super science bullshit.
11076970
The Spartan-III program used children, the same way the Spartan-II program did. Only difference being they used orphans from the Covenant war instead of kidnapping them from families. The Spartan-IVs was the program that recruited adults again, much like the initial Orion program (Spartan-Is).
10866580
I am not sure if Six has with her standard UNSC MedKit, but nanite enhanced pharmaceuticals of future humanity and by extension the UNSC according to the books make even frigging cancer seem like a joke by the 26th century. (I always found it funny that humanity really did advance in practically everything but Flying Cars because thy were considered stupidly impractical and that firearms still look somewhat the same despite being made from completely different materials, explosive gel replacing gunpowder, composite materials replacing lead effectively creating above titanium strength bullets, and guns and bullets working perfectly fine underwater and in the vacuum of space, and having holographic interfaces with HD Digital Displays.) Even then much like modern militaries shouldn't a UNSC soldier carry water purifying tablets, or even just do the old fashion boiling and filtering of the water with cloth technique that even the Boy Scouts know?
Shouldn't Spartan shields consider Manticores to be a joke? Brutes and Elites are one thing, they are insanely strong and can rip horses' heads off with a single swipe. But Manticores I assume must have the muscle density and strength of a lion. Which Spartan Shields can TANK effectively with minimum loss considering they are designed to handle Hot Plasma, Radioactive Rounds, and UNSC compisite above titanium strenth space flying and underwater traveling bullets.
Yeah! It was bad enough that they killed you, but now they didn't even do it right!
11078360
Maybe it counts thatt poison as damage I mean theoretically speaking the poison could act like plasma to The Shield or at least make it register as taking damage
11078355
oh, you reminded me of several novels by Gordon R. Dickson, where the opposite happened:
someone invented chemicals that could render gunpower useless, so ground combat was fought with guns that used SPRINGS or COMPRESSED AIR to propel the bullets!
11541622
"Here at Aperture Science we fire the whole bullet! That's 65% more bullet per bullet!"