Noble Six was a hero. He is remembered for his death. He will be remembered for how he continued living.
Heroes are remembered. Those who give their lives are ingrained in our hearts for all eternity. However, it is often more beneficial, while perhaps more difficult, to continue living for one's family, community, or country. Death brings a simple end for the loyal soldier, while survival entails a complicated road ahead.
Those with power are by default the bearers of choice. The mighty cannot stand idle. The fate of whatever world the Spartan enters rests upon his shoulders.
Many believe that Noble Six gave his life. What they don't remember is that Spartans Never Die.
Noble Six watched as shining Phantoms flew in from the sky, accompanied by screaming Banshees. The world around him was nothing but a barren wasteland, with small, partly destroyed concrete buildings all around him.
Noble Six was holding a DMR, a UNSC grade semi-automatic rifle. At his hip was a Magnum, a UNSC grade handgun. But in that moment, it didn’t matter what weapons he had. He knew his time was about end
He had already watched as his comrades fell. The rest of Noble Team, Carter, Kat, Emile, Jun, Jorge… all dead. He was the last man standing.
He also watched as Reach burned. The once prosperous planet, home to the Spartan program, now incinerating into glass.
The Covenant, relentless aliens who would do anything to destroy mankind, had overrun Reach. The UNSC had tried to resist, but in the end, all for nothing. Or, almost nothing. In one last desperate attempt to save the human race, he himself had brought the Package, the key to humanities' salvation, to the Pillar of Autumn, which made it to safety.
Noble Six snapped back into reality when he realized his time here wasn’t quite done. He wasn’t going to go down without a fight. Quickly, he sprinted down the metallic structure he had been resting on. A couple of moments later, he encountered a small building, more like a fragmented concrete hut. He knew it was going to be the best cover he was getting. He then located a spare Spartan armor ability: Armor Lock. It had the ability to send the user's armor into overdrive, protecting him from the strongest anti-personnel rounds for a few moments. The only drawback was immobility while in use.
He then turned around to look for any Covies. He saw three Grunts, the main foot soldier of the Covenant, on approach. They were stumpy, rather pathetic creatures, armed with the most inexpensive weapons the Covenant could supply them with. They were essentially fodder for the stronger troops of the Covenant. Often, they were sent into battle completely unarmed, simply to take incoming fire.
Noble Six aimed down the sights of his DMR and fired three semi-armor piercing bullets. Every single one hit a Grunt square between the eyes, immobilizing them instantly. Noble Six admired his skill, but he knew he would shortly run out of ammo, regardless of how accurate he was.
He realized that a DMR and a Magnum weren’t enough firepower for his given situation. Quickly, he started looking for another weapon. Outside one of the openings of the building, he found an Assault Rifle, an automatic grade weapon, useful for taking down stronger targets like Elites.
The Elites were a much more difficult to defeat than Grunts They stood at least seven feet tall, always had tough armor on, and had a bad attitude. Driven by their religion, they thought that humanity was a threat to the Great Journey, and had to be eliminated. Not that the Grunts didn’t think the same way to, the Elites just had a stronger conviction.
Once about ten feet away from Noble Six, a Minor class Elite, the lowest among their ranking, opened fire at Six with his Plasma Rifle, a Covenant plasma-based weapon with high enough internal temperatures to melt flesh and bone.
Before the Plasma Rifle devoured his shields, he ducked behind the cover of the building. He then waited for a few seconds for his shield to recharge. Before it had completely done so, the Elite walked into the building. To Noble Six’s surprise, the Elite didn’t seem to notice him, and walked past where he was standing.
Quietly, he walked behind the Elite, and jumped on its back. Before it could do anything about it, he stabbed the Elite in the neck, and it collapsed on the ground, dead.
After this, he quickly continued to look for more Covenant. It didn’t take long for him to find some. Four Elites accompanied by five Grunts were quickly making their way in a haphazard formation towards his position.
Most of the Grunts were carrying Plasma Pistols, a Covenant plasma-based handgun that is only slightly less deadly than the Plasma Rifle. One was holding a Needler, a Covenant weapon that shoots pink needles of death at you. If enough stick into you, they chemically react with each other, and explode in rather violent spectacle.
Noble Six already had his DMR raised, aiming for one of the Grunt’s head. He let off a round, penetrating the thick skull of the gray-armored Grunt. He aimed to fire another shot, but before he could do so, a Ranger Elite, a breed of Elite skilled in search and destroy tactics opened fire with a Plasma Repeater, a higher tech weapon that has the capability to sustain a longer stream of fire than the Plasma Rifle.
Before Noble Six could get behind cover, his shields were disintegrated by the melting power of the plasma. A Grunt then shot him with a couple blasts from his Plasma Pistol, injuring him slightly. Before anything else shot him, Noble Six took cover behind a rough concrete wall. He was a little surprised to see a crack in his visor that disabled his HUD, removing all of his armor's tactical abilities.
When his shields were recharged, he went from out of the cover of the wall, into the open air. He still saw the remaining four Elites and four Grunts. They had already started shooting at him, but Noble Six was evading the shots. Quickly, he traded his DMR for his Assault Rifle, aimed at one of the Elites, and started shooting. Though the Elite tried to evade the incoming fire, he was still no match for Noble Six’s excellent accuracy with the Assault Rifle.
Once the Elites shields were down, Noble Six pulled out his DMR, aimed for the head of the raging Elite, and fired. The Elite went down instantly, dead. A second after this, Noble Six was surprised to see a blue ball of energy hurling towards him. It took him a second to realize what it was.
It was a Plasma Grenade, a Covenant plasma-based grenade. If it stuck to you, you’re dead. Almost involuntarily, Noble Six activated his Armor Lock, an ability that makes you invincible for a few seconds. To his relief, the Plasma Grenade bounced off his Armor Lock, and exploded on the ground, leaving him unfazed.
Noble Six then released the Armor Lock, the invincible field of energy popping and disintegrating away. After thanking himself for picking it up in the first place, he looked to see what the Covenant was doing. They looked enraged, probably because they didn’t like that the human would cheat like that.
All of them now opened fire against Noble Six. His shields were gone in two seconds. Now that they were gone, he could feel the frying power of plasma eating through his armor. He had no cover to hide behind. His Armor Lock was still recharging. Noble Six quickly chucked a grenade at a group of Grunts, hopefully to buy himself some time. His throw was good, the frag grenade caused the sad Grunts to fly dramatically away, but it wasn’t enough to stop the charge of the Elites.
Noble Six’s helmet was now too damaged to be of any use. He took it off, and after taking one last look at it, threw it on the ground. He knew he was being barraged by tons of plasma, but he could hardly feel it through his warrior's instincts.
At the moment that he threw his helmet on the ground, a white armored Ultra Elite charged at him, Plasma Rifle blazing. Noble Six quickly killed the Elite with his Assault Rifle and it collapsed to the ground in a crumpled heap. But more Elites came charging from over hills, behind buildings, dropped from Phantoms, on all sides . Noble Six suddenly found himself surrounded by Elites. He now pulled out his Magnum, holding both that and his Assault Rifle at the same time, and tore int Elites from all sides. Elite after Elite fell, but they always seemed to be coming, an endless tide of anger and destruction.
A few seconds later, Noble Six was knocked over by a red armored Zealot class Elite. He fell to the ground, and the Elite was moving in for the kill. Before it could impale him with its Energy Sword, Noble Six kicked it, and it went staggering backwards. At this moment, Noble Six abandoned all weapons, and used only his fists.
Another white armored Ultra Elite tried to impale him with an Energy Sword, but Noble Six kicked this one away too. Shortly afterward, the red Zealot Elite that Noble Six had kicked a few seconds before recovered, and moved to impale Noble Six with his Energy Sword.
“There will be a mighty storm tonight, I can feel it.”
Two elderly ponies sat in old wooden rocking chairs, gazing into the night sky. Life had been easy for them, not a terrible thing had happened to them their entire life. Formally retired, the pair could sit back and gaze at the night sky for the rest of their days.
“Of course not, there’s not a cloud in the sky! And the Weather Ponies haven’t scheduled a major downpour for at least a weak.”
For a few moments, the other old pony sat and stared into the starry night sky.
“I didn’t mean that kind of storm. I meant the kind of storm worse than all others. The kind of storm that can’t be controlled by anything and it ain’t inclement weather.”
They both sat in silence for a few moments, wondering what the other was thinking.
“I don’t think I understand you.”
The other elderly pony looked into his wife’s eyes.
“I don’t think I understand myself. I don’t know if anything will happen. I only said I could feel it.”
Noble Six stood still for a fraction of a second, wondering how he was going to die. Was he going to be impaled by the Elite charging him with its Energy Sword? Would another finish him off with a Needle Rifle? But then, Noble Six realized that he was a Spartan. A UNSC super soldier made to save humanity. And most importantly, he was a Noble. Noble Six resolved that his time here wasn’t done. He still had a duty towards not just his country, but his fallen comrades. For Noble Team.
Before the Zealot could finish his strike, Noble Six punched the Elites hand, the one that was holding the Energy Sword. The Elite was caught off guard, and the Energy Sword went flying off to the right.
“This one’s for Noble 1!”
Noble Six stabbed the Zealot Elite in the neck with his combat knife. The Elite didn’t have time to react.
Now on his feet, Noble Six saw the Ultra Elite charging at him with his Energy Sword. Before it could land a killing blow, Noble Six backhanded it in the side of the head.
“This one’s for Noble 2!”
The Elite went flying off to the left and landed on the side of a cliff, dead.
Noble Six now darted for the Energy Sword the Zealot had been using. After dashing to get it, he saw a gold armored General class Elite charging at him with an Energy Sword. Before the Elite could make a move, however, Noble Six jumped in the air, and came smashing down upon the Elite, impaling it with his Energy Sword.
“This one’s for Noble 3!”
The Elite never knew what hit him.
At that moment, a blue armored Minor class Elite was trying to be a hero. It was holding two Plasma Rifles, one in each claw, and had them blazing at Noble Six. The Elites mortal mistake, however, was that it thought that if it got close to Noble Six, it had the capability of dealing increased damage. Noble Six knew this was his chance.
Once the Elite was a meter away, Noble Six darted forward, in front of the Elite, and sliced it across the chest with his Energy Sword. The Elite staggered back, its chest dripping blood, and fell over, dead.
“This one’s for Noble 4!”
Noble Six’s heart started to drop again when he saw the endless tide of Elites charging towards him. But there was no way he was going to surrender. He was going to fight until death. Like Noble Team.
Noble Six looked for the closest Elite too him. He saw a rare sight, a Field Marshall class Elite, the highest rank in their army, rushing towards him an Energy Sword.
The Elite raised his Energy Sword wielding claw up for a downwards strike, but before it could do so, Noble Six caught it by surprise when he impaled it in the chest. The Elite went down in an instant.
“This one’s for Noble 5!”
Noble Six felt his adrenaline pumping. He felt like he could take on anything. But the endless tide was still coming.
Then all the sudden, it stopped. The dozens of Elites just stopped in their tracks. Noble Six starred at them in utter confusion. Why on Earth would they stop? For that matter, why would they stop and not shoot at him?
Noble Six was still too shocked to do anything but watch. He looked closer at the Elites. From what he could see, their strange mandible like faces seemed to be curled in their equivalent of a smile. They also seemed to be looking past Noble Six, as if something behind him was more interesting. Noble Six sensed something horribly wrong.
Involuntarily, Noble Six turned around. He saw before him the most terrifying sight of his life.
It looked like an Elite on steroids. It stood at least nine feet tall. It's armor was deep black, as if the night sky itself had been welded into its frame. The Elite wielded dual Energy Swords, one of which, were aimed at his head.
Before Noble Six could do anything, the Elite, he supposed, dropped one of its Energy Swords, and picked up Noble Six with its free claw. Its grip was so tight that Noble Six was forced to drop his Energy Sword. Now at eye level with the Elite, he could see its terrifying yellow eyes, burrowing into his very soul. Then the Elite spoke with a voice like thunder.
“I admire your valor, human, but all who oppose the Great Journey must die. You are no different.”
Noble Six was surprised to hear it speak in English. Very few Covenant were that fluent in English. Most of them only new how to curse in all human languages. Noble Six knew he had to respond somehow.
“You speak of valor Elite; you don’t know the first thing about it. Your vision of valor is murdering another species. You’ve killed the best examples of it you can find.”
The Elite was enraged. It now brought up its Energy Sword wielding hand, and aimed it at Noble Six’s heart. Before it could do finish its mortal blow, Noble Six pulled out his combat knife with his free hand, and drove it into the Elites shoulder. The Elite cried out in pain as it immediately released its grip on Noble Six.
“And that one…that one’s for me.”
He watched as the Elite was desperately trying to remove the knife from its shoulder. Noble Six now picked up another Energy Sword, and moved to finish the job. Before he could do so, however, the dozens of Elites behind him saw that their leader was in trouble, and started shooting at Noble Six again.
Noble Six didn’t have any ranged weapons. He would likely be dead before they got close. But then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw something purple coming towards him. It was a Banshee, a Covenant air vehicle. It was raining plasma down upon him. Noble Six suddenly realized something. A way out. The Banshee was now using its boost ability, moving twice as fast towards Noble Six, attempting to splatter him. Noble Six waited patiently for the perfect moment. Then, when the Banshee was right next to him, Noble Six grabbed on to one of the wings, lifted up the hatch that held the pilot, kicked out the Elite that was driving it, and got in himself.
With this done, Noble Six flew away from the mob of enraged Elites, who were screaming curses at him. Noble Six looked down at the land bellow him. It was starting to grow dark, and he could see less and less. From what he could see, the planet bellow him was not yet completely glassed. At least he would get too see it one last time. About two minutes later, he pointed the nose of the Banshee up, and began to fly upwards. Now he could see a Covenant cruiser moving quickly over a snow peaked mountain. Noble Six could only watch as the cruiser engaged its devastating cleansing beam, incinerating a huge portion of the landscape into nothing but glass.
After witnessing this, Noble Six continued to fly upwards. He was unsure whether or not the Banshee could fly in space, but he had seen it happen before, and it was worth a shot.
About five minutes of flying later, he finally exited atmosphere. He now could see an armada of Covenant ships orbiting the planet. There were so many, no wonder Reach fell. As he grew closer to them, he saw a squad of Banshees nearing him. He was about to shoot them, before he had a flash of sense, and realized that they had no idea that inside his Banshee there was a Spartan. They just thought he was a Covenant.
With renewed confidence, he flew past the squadron of Banshees. They barely even recognized his presence. If he were in a Saber, it would be a different story.
Noble Six turned his Banshee around too look at Reach one last time. The planet was currently in the process of being glassed. He watched as huge green portions of the planet were burned into nothingness.
One day, Noble Six thought, I will have my revenge.
After he had seen enough, he turned the Banshee around again, and flew away from Planet Reach, never once looking back. He continued to fly away from Reach until he passed by all the Covenant cruisers. He was never challenged, because he looked like any normal Banshee on patrol. After he had flown past all the cruisers, he began to wonder what he would do now. Banshees didn’t have slip space control, he knew that. He wasn’t going anywhere. He also wasn’t sure whether or not this thing had an oxygen generator on board. If it didn’t, he was screwed.
Noble Six looked around on the control panel for anything that could be helpful. He found a Plasma Rifle and a Plasma Pistol resting in their individual holsters. Other than that, just flashing buttons. He was only trained to fly one of these things, and that was it. He then decided that pressing a button would be better than not.
He pushed a random flashing yellow button.
Immediately, a long piercing sound rang, and Noble Six could no longer hear himself think. Then, a secret compartment opened from the control panel, revealing a mask of some kind. That mask then shot out from the compartment, and onto Noble Six’s face. The mask wasn’t made for humans, obviously, and it fit awkwardly. Then, Noble Six started smelling something foul coming from the mask. And before he could do anything about it, he was unconscious.
Noble Six awoke gazing into the dull, brownish visor of his gray helmet. He was riding in a Warthog, a UNSC ground transport vehicle. He had no idea where he was or how he got in a Warthog, but something seemed familiar.
Suddenly, the Warthog stopped, and Noble Six stepped out onto the asphalt pavement. Noble Six looked around. A UNSC outpost stood modestly a few meters in front of him. A few UNSC and ONI operatives were hustling about their business of making sure that humanity didn’t go extinct. Noble Six even spotted a Spartan sitting in the rider’s seat of a Falcon as he passed by, walking briskly towards the UNSC outpost before him.
He entered the building, and was startled by what he saw. It was a group of four other Spartans, Kat, Emile, Jorge, and Carter, Noble Team. Kat walked towards Noble Six and said,
“You could’ve saved me, you know. I wouldn’t be dead if you had shot that Elite sniper before he shot me.”
Noble Six flashed back to when Kat was murdered, a terrible experience he never wanted to go through again.
Noble Six, Jun, Carter, Emile, and Kat, were all running through one of the many towering buildings that made up New Alexandria, Reach’s capital city. The expanse of open air between them and the other side of the room was about thirty feet. Noble Six was sure that he and his fellow Nobles could make it unscathed.
Then, it was as if time slowed down, and Noble Six saw everything in slow motion. An Elite sniper riding in a purple Phantom aimed for the first Spartan it saw, Kat. Noble Six couldn’t do anything but continue to run forward in slow motion. It was as if he was part of a game, doomed to repeat the same mistake over and over again and never chance the outcome.
Noble Six could see every detail as that Elite pulled the trigger of its Needle Rifle, the pink shard of energy hurling in slow motion straight towards Kat’s head.
The Elite found its mark, and the bolt of pink light went straight through Kat’s head. She was dead the moment the bolt struck her. She never knew how she died. Then in a flash, Noble Six was back at the UNSC outpost. Kat was still standing, but the hole in her helmet where the pink bolt went through was clearly visible.
“I died that day, and you didn’t. What kind of justice is that? What kind of hero are you?”
Noble Six tried to answer, wanting to apologize for not saving Kat, for living on without her. But before he could, he blacked out. A moment later, he found himself staring at the control panel of the Banshee.
“Just a dream” Noble Six told himself.
The control panel was going insane, it was flashing lights everywhere and that cursed beeping sound wouldn’t stop. Noble Six also couldn’t breathe properly, and feared that the oxygen in the Banshee was depleted. In his confusion, he accidentally hit a flashing green button. The beeping and the flashing lights stopped. A few seconds later, the mask that was on his face hissed another gas. Noble Six quickly found it easier to breathe.
The controls panel the displayed symbols of some kind. Noble Six looked at them for a few seconds before recognizing them as the Covenant language. They read: Warning, gravitational body in near vicinity. Gravitational body, what could that mean? Noble Six now looked in the viewing monitor of the Banshee. He was shocked by what he saw. It was a planet. And it wasn't Reach
The planet looked very lush and green, if he was going to land anywhere, it would be there. He then looked around for any sign of a UNSC or Covenant presence. There were no Covenant or UNSC ships anywhere. The planet was remote.
Noble Six wondered how long he had been asleep, if he was. He looked back down at the control panel of the Banshee, searching for anything that would give him indication of this. After a minute of searching, he found nothing that indicated him being asleep at all. Maybe he had been, but he would never know. Noble Six knew that information wasn’t important anyway. The priority now was landing on that planet.
Quickly, Noble Six grabbed the piloting control of the Banshee, and pointed the nose of it at the planet. Slowly but surely, the Banshee began to move towards the planet. Noble Six wasn’t completely sure whether or not the Banshee could take entering atmosphere, but it was worth a shot.
The newly crowned Princess Twilight Sparkle was strolling down one of the massive hallways of Canterlot, moving towards the equally huge dining hall. She still couldn’t believe what had transpired over the past day.
In one day, she had finished a spell that even a great unicorn such as Starswirl the Bearded couldn’t have finished. She had saved her friends from a fate that would have changed their lives forever. I mean, changing cutie marks, seriously? After this, she had been transformed into an alicorn by Princess Celestia, and shortly after that was crowned a princess herself! It all just made her head spin. And she still couldn’t get over having wings, and it didn’t make things better that she didn’t know how to use them.
Princess Celestia had prepared a feast to be held in her honor just the same night, and Princess Luna had even scheduled a meteor shower to celebrate! When Princess Twilight Sparkle finally arrived in the dining hall, she was greeted by her best friends, the rest of the Elements of Harmony.
They all rushed towards Twilight, and gave her a big hug. They all were congratulating her on her achievement, but Twilight couldn’t understand much through their jumbled voices. There were many other ponies inside the dining room, all seated at huge tables made out of oak wood. There were golden chandeliers hanging from the stone ceiling, lighting up the room in a cheery golden light. But the best sight of all was Princess Celestia, who was sitting next to Princess Luna at the table where only royalty sat.
After her friends finally released their bear hug, they all moved towards one of the tables. Before they were able to sit down, however, Princess Celestia said,
“Princess Twilight, won’t you and your friends come and sit with us?”
Twilight was caught off guard by the question. Even she had never sat at the royalty table before. But, Twilight rationalized, she was royalty now. She knew, in her heart, that she was never going to get used to being a princess.
“Uh…okay.”
Twilight said, somewhat unsure of herself. Twilight could see the hesitation in her friends eyes’ as well, but Celestia reassured them, saying,
“It’s all right, come dine with us.”
They all now moved towards the royalty table. The table itself was much grander than the others; it was plated with what seemed to be solid gold, and was adorned with jewels.
Already seated at the table were Princess Celestia and Luna, of course. With them was Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, or Princess Cadence, as she liked to be called. Sitting next to her was her husband, Shining Armor, who was also Twilight’s brother. There were multiple other royal dignitaries, princes, dukes, and the like. The only bad thing at that table was Prince Blueblood.
“Oh, but Auntie, why let commoners sit at the table with us, it’s against the royal code!”
Prince Blueblood complained to Celestia. Celestia almost rolled her eyes, but summoned all her willpower and replied to Blueblood, “These ponies have saved Equestria on more than one occasion; the least I could do is let them sit with us.” Prince Blueblood just scoffed in reply as the Elements of Harmony sat down. As Rarity did so, however, she literally fell backwards when she saw Prince Blueblood. Her friends watched in surprise as Rarity scrambled to her hooves. When they noticed Prince Blueblood, however, they instantly realized what the problem was.
“You!”
Rarity screamed at Prince Blueblood once she had recovered.
“You!”
Prince Blueblood screamed back at her.
What happened next, nopony could exactly figure out. From what anypony could understand, Prince Blueblood and Rarity were locked in an argument, but nopony could understand a word they were saying. After a few seconds of arguing, Princess Celestia became tired of it and said, none to calmly,
“Enough, stop arguing or both of you will be removed from the table!”
Both Blueblood and Rarity instantly stopped arguing; only sharing angry glances with each other. Both were quite shocked by Celestia’s tone with them, and knew very well that stretching her boundaries was a very bad idea.
“Now that were back in order, let’s eat.”
Celestia said as ponies dressed in tuxes brought them platters of steaming vegetables and sides of hay. After about thirty minutes of chatting and Rarity and Blueblood saying absolutely nothing, ponies began leaving the dining hall. For the first time that night, Princess Luna spoke up, saying,
“Come with us, Twilight and friends, for the meteor shower is about to begin.”
A few awkward seconds later, Princess Luna said,
“No rhyme intended.”
So, the Princess of the Night escorted Twilight, her friends, and many other ponies towards the hallway going out of the dining hall. Around ten minutes of walking later, they reached the outside courtyard. Many other ponies were already seated on the green grass, admiring the beautiful night sky. Then, Twilight, her friends, and the two Princesses sat down as well.
“The night’s beautiful, Princess Luna, you really did a great job.” Twilight said to Luna, awestruck by the beauty that she had made.
“Well, it’s the least we--I could do for our new Princess.”
As Princess Luna stared up into her night sky, she realized that she had said our instead of my. She decided it wasn’t a big deal, and continued staring up into her marvelous work of art. Twilight's friends were busy admiring the night sky as well.
“You see that one constellation; I call that one the Lasso, look how it looks like a rope with a loop at the end.” Applejack said to her friends, pointing to the night sky.
“Yeah, it does sort of look like a lasso, but I think it looks more like… a bubble wand!” Pinkie Pie responded, pulling a pink bubble wand out of nowhere and beginning to play with it.
Then, as everypony was watching, something amazing happened. Suddenly, it looked as if the stars themselves were flying across the night sky, in innumerable numbers.
“It’s the meteor shower, girls, its happening!” Twilight exclaimed. It was dazzling, the meteors fell gracefully across the night sky, and away. As everypony was admiring however, something strange happened. One of the meteors wasn’t gliding across the night sky with the others. Instead, it was growing larger, or it seemed to be. Princess Luna was startled the most.
“I didn’t plan for this to happen…” Luna said to herself. Within a few seconds, everypony else began to feel like something was wrong as the unknown object grew closer and closer.
Suddenly, it grew so close that everypony could see that it was…purple. A strange purplish color that almost seemed to be on fire. Then, in a huge flash of light, it soared directly above them, so close that it barely missed the castle walls, and continued descend, moving lower and lower.
That’s when everypony began panicking. Everypony was running in their own direction, sometimes bumping into each other. Princess Celestia was desperately trying to calm them down, but it was hard to calm something when you yourself were terrified. Then, with a resounding boom, the, whatever it was, crashed somewhere outside Canterlot. Immediately, Shining Armor, captain of the Royal Guard, yelled at the top of his lungs,
“All available troops; front and center!”
Within a few seconds, thirty golden armored royal guards were assembled in front of Shining Armor, in perfect formation among the confusion. They wielded shining silver spears that each of them either held in their hooves or with magic levitation.
“Find where that unknown object crashed, I want it found!”
Immediately, Shining Armor’s troops fanned out, and began looking for the crash site. It didn’t take long for them to find it.
“Captain, over here!” one of the guards called out.
Immediately, Shining Armor and his guards went towards the location that he shouted. Twilight, her friends, and the two Princesses followed up pursuit. Shining Armor was about to object to this, but he knew he had been unsuccessful in every other attempt, and kept his mouth shut.
Around a minute later, they found themselves outside the main castle of Canterlot, and in a street called Mane Street. There, they found it. It was a burning pile of purple something. It was quite large, and it was obvious that it wasn’t a meteor.
All of the ponies in the area were already panicking, running in different directions and causing a mob. Celestia knew it was hopeless to console that many ponies, and did nothing to try. Shining Armor and his guards grew closer for a better look. As they did, one of the guards jumped backwards, screaming in surprise.
“What is it, sergeant?” Shining asked, startled by his soldiers tone. What happened next, nopony would soon forget. From inside the wreckage, something was moving. It was pushing the wreckage of itself, and was trying to stand up. It was obviously not a pony.
Noble Six found himself standing in front of Captain Keyes, the captain of the Pillar of Autumn. Noble Six was handing him the Package, the supposed salvation of the human race.
"Halsey assured me I could count on you," Captain Keyes said as he turned to get inside a Pelican.
“Not just me, sir.” Noble Six responded.
Keyes felt the Spartan's remorse for his fallen comrades. War was ugly, and the captain knew from experience that great heroes, no matter how hard anyone may wish, are not immune to the horrible fate of those around them.
“They will be remembered.”
Suddenly, a massive Covenant Cruiser came into view, flying quickly towards them.
“Covenant Cruiser inbound, Noble Four I need fire on that cruiser!” Captain Keyes exclaimed.
Noble Four, also know as Emile, was currently in control of the MAC cannon, an orbital defense cannon capable of destroying almost anything.
“You got it, sir!” Emile replied, turning the Mass Accelerated Cannon to aim for the cruiser.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a Phantom came into view, and destroyed one of the Pelicans that were near Noble Six. Captain Keyes was lucky that the Phantom aimed for the one that didn’t have him in it. Noble Six barely avoided the Pelican before it crushed him, and crashed on the land bellow.
The Phantom moved towards the MAC cannon, and once it was close, Elites started jumping out of it, moving to attack Emile. Emile was busy shooting one with a shotgun, when another red armored one came out of nowhere and impaled Emile in the chest with his Energy Sword.
“I’m ready, how about you?!” Emile said as he went down, still fighting the Elite.
Captain Keyes Pelican had wheeled back around, and was moving back towards Noble Six. Once close, one of the Marines inside held out his hand towards Noble Six and said,
“Lieutenant, get aboard, we need to get the hell out of here!”
Noble Six knew this was his only way out, but he also knew that the Pillar of Autumn wasn’t going to be able to get away if the Covenant Cruiser attacked it.
“Negative, I have the gun. Good luck, sir.” Noble Six responded.
“Good luck, Spartan.” Captain Keyes responded, both sorry for the Spartan that was doomed to die and admiring his courage for giving up his life.
With that, the Pelican flew away, leaving Noble Six stranded.
Noble Six turned around and found Emile standing behind him, perfectly fine besides for the massive wound in his chest. He seemed not to notice it.
“I don’t blame you for living, but I hope you’re ready when you die.”
Noble Six tried to say something, but he quickly blacked out.
When he awoke, Noble Six found himself staring at the control panel of the Banshee. He felt like he had just been smacked by a Gravity Hammer. Almost involuntarily, he tried to get up. He found the effort itself a lot harder than it should be. Then he realized what the problem was. The top of the Banshee was still on top of him.
Noble Six, with more effort than he thought it should take, pushed of the top of the Banshee. He nearly fell back down because of what he saw.
Noble Six seemed to be in some type of city. There were small buildings all around him, and a ridiculously large castle around thirty feet away. But the sight that shocked him the most was the creatures that were surrounding him.
They seemed to be horse like in nature. They had oddly colored bodies and manes. There were a lot of them running around in circles, screaming random things. Noble Six almost thought he heard them say things in his language, but shook he decided that couldn’t happen.
Directly in front of him, however, was a group of creatures that were wearing golden armor, with spears of some kind either being held in their hooves or being held aloft by some form of levitation. Noble Six didn’t thing these things were part of the Covenant, but he didn’t like to take chances. Feeling much better, he stood to his full height. The creatures took a step back when he did so. Then, Noble Six did something very irrational.
“Where am I?” Noble Six asked the creatures in a raspy voice. The creatures suddenly looked surprised, but did not answer him. The creatures in armor pointed their spears at Noble Six directly.
Alarmed, Noble Six took out the Energy Sword he took from Reach, and turned it on. The blue hard light sword popped out of its sheath and glowed menacingly. The creatures took another step back.
“Where am I!?”Noble Six asked again, much louder than before. Again, the creatures did not answer him. Noble Six now took a step forward, towards the creatures. Then one of them shot some kind of purple energy at Noble Six. Noble Six barely avoided the shot.
With instincts indicating that these creatures were hostile, Noble Six jumped forward towards the creature that tried to shoot him, and almost to impaled it with his Energy Sword. Before he could do so, Noble Six suddenly felt something hit his side. A moment later, he blacked out.
Princess Twilight Sparkle watched as the unknown creature rose from inside the object. It stood on two legs, was at least seven feet tall, and wore strange armor. It had no helmet, and on its face was a dumbfounded expression.
Everypony was in too much shock to do anything but watch. The Royal Guard was trying their best to not completely freak out. The creature seemed to be looking around, surveying its surroundings. Then, the creature did something nopony expected.
“Where am I?!”
Everypony nearby was astonished to hear it speak in Equestrian, but were still too shocked to do anything about it. The Royal Guard, put on edge by this new development, pointed their deadly silver spears directly at the creature.
The creature suddenly looked very alarmed, and out of nowhere a blue sword of light popped into its paw, or claw, nopony was sure. The sword was at least two feet long. When it did this, everypony, including the Guard, stepped back.
"Where am I?!" The creature asked again, much more aggressively than before.
Again, nopony was able to answer. A few seconds later, the creature took a step forward, towards the Royal Guard. Then, Shining Armor did something exceedingly stupid. He shot at the creature with a magic blast from his horn.
The creature evaded the blast with relative ease. Now it charged at Shining Armor, covering ground faster than a cheetah, and aimed its sword of light to pierce him. Before the creature could harm her brother, Twilight shot a magic blast from her horn at the creature. It hit it right on the side, and it was unconscious in a second.
After this, everypony stood in stunned silence. Nopony knew what to do at this point. Princess Celestia tried to assess the situation. An unknown creature had just landed in Canterlot. It was armed and dangerous and tried to impale Shining Armor. Now Celestia was stuck figuring out how to deal with the situation. Then she had an idea.
Celestia quickly trotted over to Shining Armor, who was also standing dumbfounded. Quietly, she whispered into his ear,
“Lock down the castle, I want nopony coming in until further notice. Give me a few minutes, but when I get into the castle I will perform a mind wipe spell over all of Canterlot.”
Captain Armor nodded his head, and said to his Guards,
“Lock down the castle, nopony gets in besides those who the Princess lets in.”
"Yes, sir!” the guards bellowed and proceeded to do as Captain Armor ordered.
After this, Celestia picked up the strange creature with her magic, finding it quite heavy and moved towards her castle. Already many of the startled civilian ponies were following her, hoping to seek some kind of refuge from the monster that had just attacked. The Royal Guard had already seen this coming, and assembled into a row, blocking the civilians from the castle.
Twilight and her friends were blocked as well, and even they were complaining about it. Celestia knew she would probably need their help with the current situation, so she said to her guards,
“Let Twilight and her friends in.” The Guards immediately opened a hole in their formation, and let them pass.
Now they caught up with Celestia, who was stepping into her castle. They continued to follow her, unable to say anything. Vaguely, they heard voices outside the castle, they sounded like arguing. Twilight rationed that the newspaper, and all the other random media ponies, were trying to get through.
“Princess, how do you expect to handle this situation?” Twilight asked as they walked up a flight of stairs.
“Once I get up to my room, I’ll go onto my balcony and perform a mind wipe spell over the entire city. After that, we’ll figure out what to do from there.”
Twilight and her friends nodded their heads. It seemed like a good plan. It also was their only plan.
Noble Six found himself inside a Pelican, a UNSC air transport vehicle designed to transport troops and cargo to combat zones unscathed. He was standing next to Emile, whom was currently shooting his grenade launcher at some Banshees that were following them.
“Noble leader, seek immediate medical attention.”
Auntie Dot, the AI that was given to Noble Team, was becoming exceedingly worried about Noble 1. Carter was currently piloting the Pelican. The Pelican itself was badly damaged from the barrage of plasma fire coming from the Covenant Banshees.
“Noble leader, please respond.”
Auntie Dot requested again. Carter was too busy piloting the Pelican to say anything. He also was in too much pain to do anything else. Emile, still shooting with the grenade launcher, managed to hit one purple armored Banshee, which in turn crashed into another in a blaze of blue fire. Noble Six was moving towards the front of the Pelican, to see if Carter was still alive.
“Noble leader, please respond. You are alarming me.” Auntie Dot requested again, even more anxious then before.
“Not sure how long this bird’s gonna last. Her engines are done anyway. You have to get of her, Lieutenant.” Carter said to Noble Six, who was standing behind his seat.
“Get the Package to the Autumn.” Carter finished, his voice raspy and forced.
“Done” Noble Six responded.
“Not yet it’s not. Emile, go with him, it’s a ground game now.” Carter said to Emile, who was standing at the back of the Pelican, waiting for any more Covenant to get close enough to blast them to the stars.
“It’s been an honor, sir.” Emile said to Carter, knowing that this was his final day on Reach.
“Likewise.”
Noble Six now turned towards the other end of the Pelican, but as he walked away, Carter said,
“Six…that AI chose you. She made the right choice.”
Noble Six was now standing at the back of the Pelican with Emile, ready to jump out to the land bellow.
“On my mark,” Carter lifted two of his fingers.
“Mark!” Carter closed his fist.
At this moment, both Emile and Noble Six jumped out of the Pelican, hurling towards the earth. A few seconds later, they crashed into a cliff and slid down it, ending up on the ground. As Noble Six got up, he looked at the Package, and put it on his back. A few seconds later, Carter was standing in front of him, his once shining blue armor broken and burned from the explosion that would occur in the near future.
“As your leader, it was my job to ensure the operation’s success, no matter what the cost. It’s your turn to be the leader.”
Noble Six tried to tell Carter that he could be leader, that he would carry on the cause that Noble Team fought for. But he suddenly lost his strength and collapsed, unconscious in seconds.
He slowly opened his eyes, exhausted from the scene that had just transpired. He didn’t want to get up. For once, he didn’t want to act. He felt like he couldn’t do anything. But a small part of him, his Spartan training, urged him to push on. Noble Six looked around the room he had found himself in.
The room itself was quite large and seemed to be made out of some kind stone. The walls were adorned with pictures and bookshelves, with dressers and tables around the floor. What surprised Noble Six the most were the creatures that were in it. There were seven creatures in total. All of them were horse like in nature, vibrantly colored, and seemingly unarmed. All of them had their backs toward Noble Six and were facing the largest one in the group, who was currently on a balcony of some kind nearby.
“So you’re sure this will work, Celestia? A mind wipe spell at this magnitude hasn’t been preformed since Starswirl the Bearded accidentally summoned the MegaBear of the North to Canterlot and tried to cover it up.”
A purple horse-creature asked. Noble Six was stunned to hear it speak in English. He was even more confused by what it just said.
“I’m sure of my capabilities, Twilight, and if I need help I always have you.” A much larger, seemingly regal creature responded.
“By the way, my room alone is built with a rare type of stone that resists all magic. You’re all safe from the mind wipe spell in here.” It finished.
Then, the purple one said, “Why did you put the creature in here again?”
The big one looked down at the purple one, and said in a slightly impatient tone, “Because I don’t want anypony else to see it.” The purple one nodded its head slowly.
Then, the larger horse-creature said to her…or himself, “I’d better remove the wreckage before I do anything.”
Then, its horn lit up with a fierce golden light, reminding Noble Six that he had no idea what was going on. After a few seconds, the light died away.
“I teleported the wreckage to a secret location. Now to perform the mind wipe spell.”
Then, its horn glowed again, and it continued doing so until he could see little sparks popping of it.
All of the creatures were distracted. Noble Six saw his chance.
Slowly, Noble Six rose from the bed, and onto the floor. He made no noise as he did so. Then, he stealthily made his way to the door of the room, a large wooden one, making no sound. It took him agonizing seconds to get there; but Noble Six knew from years of training that it was better to be, “patient rather than pwnd” as the old saying went.
Once there, he opened the door a slowly as possible. Fortunately, it made no sound as it swung open. When it did, however, Noble Six was startled to see another creature standing on the other side of it.
“Auntie, what is going…?”
The creature was never able to finish its sentence. Before it could speak further, Noble Six grabbed by the neck, and was about to snap it before the creature could give away his position. Before he could do so however, the seven other creatures behind him had turned to see what was going on.
“Princess Celestia!” The purple horse-thing cried, “The thing is awake!”
The big one immediately stopped whatever it was doing and turned around. It was poised to strike in an instant. Noble Six thought the creatures were going to shoot him, but that’s when he had an idea.
“One move and I snap this thing’s neck.” Noble Six said as he tightened his grip on whatever he was holding.
All of the creatures froze in place. A few seconds later, one of the creatures, a yellow one with a pink mane, said, “Please don’t…” Noble Six thought about this for a second.
“Answer my questions, and I let this thing go.” Noble Six said. “Don’t, and it dies.”
All of the creatures looked at each other nervously. Then, the large one said,
“Fine, but you must promise to let him go.” Noble Six thought about it for a second, and then said,
“Done.”
“First question, where am I?” Noble Six asked calmly. He no longer thought that these creatures would pose a threat as long as he held this one captive.
“You are in Equestria, Canterlot to be precise.” The purple one said, trying to answer as politely as possible.Noble Six thought about this for a moment, and then said,
“Never heard of it. Next question. What are you?” The creatures looked at each other, rather taken aback, and then an orange one said,
“Uh…we’re ponies, of course. What did you think we were?”
Noble Six chuckled in spite of his current situation. He mentally slapped himself in the face for breaking UNSC conduct. A few seconds later, the yellow pony asked, trembling,
“Please put Prince Blueblood down now, you made a deal.”
Noble Six wasn’t known to back down on his word. He put the terrified, well groomed creature down. The moment he did so, the creature known by the locals as Prince Blueblood ran out the door faster than a Mongoose on steroids, screaming,
“A monster, run!”
All of the creatures, Noble Six saw, realized their mistake. Noble Six knew that he himself was probably a secret, for obvious reasons.
“Hurry, get Prince Blueblood!” The big one yelled, more forcefully then Noble Six had seen it speak yet. Immediately, all of the creatures ironically called ponies ran out the door. Before the large one did, it turned, and shot a golden blast at Noble Six from its horn. Noble Six was caught off guard, and was not able to evade. A moment later, Noble Six felt the blast hit his chest, and he was knocked to the ground.
Noble Six’s vision was fuzzy as he watched the big one sprint out the door. But this time, he was determined not to black out. A few seconds later, his vision cleared. Then, using a nearby table for support, he pulled himself up. The blast hurt terribly, though his shields took most of the impact, it felt like he had just gotten punched by an Elite. Noble Six was trained to take harder hits.
Ignoring the searing pain in his chest, Noble Six walked out of the wooden door of the room. He found himself looking down a stone spiral staircase, descending into the unknown. He quickly then started running down the staircase, moving towards whatever lay for him on the bottom.
A few seconds later, he reached the end of the staircase. He found himself staring into a large hallway. It was made out of the same kind of stone the staircase was. It was brightly lit with lamps and chandeliers that hung from the ceiling. There were strange stone statues that stood on either side of the hallway, standing at regular intervals.
But there was a problem. Two armed pony guards were running towards Noble Six, their spears raised to impale him. A few seconds later, they called out to Noble Six, saying,
“Creature, stand down or be destroyed!” Noble Six wasn’t known for standing down.
Noble Six continued to stand, fists raised, ready to fight. He had no weapons, but then again, he knew his fists were the ultimate weapon A few seconds later, the guards charged at Noble Six with their spears raised in some form of levitation. When the first guard was right next to Noble Six, Noble Six dodged the guard, and it crashed into the staircase behind him. Then, the other guard saw his mistake, and slowed down. Then, he threw his spear forward at Noble Six.
Noble Six grabbed the deadly spear in his hand, tore it from the levitation grip of the guard, and hit the guard square on the temple with the wooden part of the spear. The guard was unconscious instantly
Noble Six wasn’t sure what to do at this point. He knew he had to escape, but there could be hundreds, even thousands of guards more to deal with. Unarmed and outnumbered, he knew that he couldn’t escape alive.
A few seconds later, he saw something running towards him from the end of the long hallway. As they got closer, Noble Six could see that it was eight of the ponies, the ones he had saw before. One of them, the purple one, was carrying another by levitation. Noble Six held his spear up, ready to strike. He knew that these creatures would try to attack him again. A few seconds later, they did something that surprised Noble Six immensely. They stopped about ten feet away from where Noble Six was standing. Then, the big one spoke to Noble Six,
“Stand down, creature, we mean you no harm.”
Noble Six considered the statement, and then realized that he had just gotten shot by the same creature minutes before.
“Explain shooting me then.”
The big one stammered for a few seconds, and backed down. Noble Six called its bluff.
“Now you listen to me. I am getting out of here one way or another. I would suggest staying out of my way.”
Noble Six said, making sure to keep his tone threatening and brutal, as his expression suggested. The “ponies” began stepping back to avoid getting killed. All of them were, except the large one, whose horn was glowing an even fiercer gold then before. Noble Six brought his spear up to impale it before it could shoot him again. But right before he could do so, his world suddenly disappeared.
For a half a second, he saw a white light at the end of an infinitely long tunnel. Then, he found himself in another room. His vision was fuzzy when he first got there, but it cleared quickly, and he realized that he was standing in the room he had first woken in. The spear he had been holding was nowhere to be seen. The creatures were also there with him, standing confused. All of them, except the large one. The big one, which Noble Six had decided to call Shiny, was standing about three feet in front of him.
Then, its horn glowed, and Noble Six found himself thrown up in the air and pinned to the extravagant bed that lied around five away. When Noble Six tried to move, he found he was immobilized by a golden field that enveloped him
“Now, I don’t have the patience to go on with this struggle! I didn’t want to resort to these measures, but you’ve forced my hoof!” Shiny said, the ponies’ rage bubbling up for the first time that day.
Noble Six was struggling to get up, to move at all, but he was effectively immobilized by Shiny.
Noble Six continued to struggle. After a few seconds, he could feel the energy barrier beginning to give way. But then, the purple creature’s horn lit up ,and now both Shiny and the purple pony were keeping him down.
“Now that we have everything under…relative control, I’ll perform the mind wipe spell.” Shiny said as it released its grip on Noble Six.
It was clear to see that Noble Six had stressed it over its limit. Trying to break free of the energy grip that the purple pony had him in was growing very tiresome for Noble Six. He stopped moving to recoup his energy for a future escape The purple pony sighed out in relief when he did, but it never released its grip on Noble Six. It was obvious to Noble Six that all of the creatures were tired. It was night time, Noble Six assumed, for the sky outside was dark. And most sentient creatures were exhausted by nightfall.
Noble Six now focused his attention on Shiny, who was standing outside on a balcony. Its horn was glowing a fierce gold, growing brighter by the second. After a few seconds, something happened. The horn seemed to gather all its energy, and explode. Then, a huge blast shook the entire city, covering it in a fierce golden light. The light swept into buildings, filling up any space it could. It spread in all directions, seeming to cover the entire city.
A few seconds later, the light dimmed out, and faded away. It seemingly had no effect on anything within the city. The whole process took about ten seconds. After this, Shiny stumbled back, and almost fell on the floor. It was caught by a blue field of energy, caused by a white pony standing near it.
“Are you all right, Celestia?”
The cry rang out from all of the ponies at once. They all moved towards…Celestia; Noble Six found out, and were trying to help “her”. The purple one also jerked forwards, forgetting Noble Six. The purple field of energy disappeared.
Almost shocked by how convenient this event was, Noble Six jumped up, and ran for the door. As he put his hand on the bronze doorknob, he felt a small ping bounce off the titanium alloy plating of the back of his armor. Perplexed, her turned to face the unknown, rather futile force that attempted feebly to oppose him. To his surprise, he witnessed an orange pony in a brown Stetson hat reeling in pain, clutching its injured foreleg in intense anguish. To his slight amusement garnering the situation, Noble Six decided that the rather pathetic creature had attempted to kicked his back in attempt to halt his escape. Obviously, the gesture was futile. It would be like taking a foam pool noodle to a Scarab. No matter how determined the small pony had been, she now felt the immediate ramifications of her error quite thoroughly, howling out to her comrades with an oddly southern accent.
His slight smile faded as he witnessed the purple pony, who had previously been tending to her wounded mentor, bolt 180 degrees around to face him, her teeth bared in feverish rage and a form of annoyance. Without hesitating, it shot a purple bolt of magical lightning from its glowing horn, punching Six directly in the temple of his forehead. Within moments, the super soldier found himself fading into the black reaches of unconsciousness by a small pony one third of his height for the second time that day.
Zin’Onon was monitoring the main control monitor of his ships computer, searching for anything that needed attending. Being the Commander of his vessel, the Night Stalker, wasn’t an easy job. A lot of things could go wrong.
At the moment, there wasn’t anything that needed attending too. Unggoy workers were repairing minor damages that the vessel had sustained in the previous battle against a human vessel. The cursed human vessel had come out of nowhere, exiting out of slip space without warning. Then, it began firing upon the Night Stalker as if it already knew of its presence. Zin’Onon, knowing that he was outgunned by the larger cruiser, managed to escape before his ship had sustained any major damage.
Zin’Onon was aware that the Covenant had lost to the cursed human race at the end of the war, right before the Great Journey was about to begin with Prophet Truth lighting the Halos. But that had been prevented by the Demon, who somehow managed to stop it. Now, the Covenant was little more than scattered and battle weary troops, trying to make their way home to their home world. Now, the humans were attempting to finish them off, finding and destroying Covenant ships as they went.
Zin’Onon grunted in disgust. He still couldn’t believe that he and his fellow brothers had lost to such scum. It was all because of the Demon, he knew. If it weren’t for him, they would’ve won the war and terminated the human race.
It had been over four years since the war had officially been declared over, but small skirmishes were happening all the time. One good thing that did happen over this four year period was the finding of the Diadact, the last Forunner in existence and the only hope the Covenant had in finally destroying the human race.
The Diadact was as bent on destroying the human race as the Covenant was, perhaps even more so. But the Demon had repelled his assault on Earth, and the Diadact has since been declared MIA.
Now, a month after the event, the Covenant was feeling more defeated than ever. The remaining Prophets decided that, for the preservation of the Covenant, that all followers be called back to friendly planets as soon as they can. That’s where the Night Stalker was heading now, towards the Covenant occupied planet Reach. Though it had been glassed four years earlier, the Covenant decided to make it a forward operating base for the rallying of all Covenant troops. Reach was the front line of defense, as well as temple for resting and regaining strength.
Zin’Onon remembered Reach, one of the greatest victories the Covenant had achieved. In about two days, the Covenant completely took over and glassed the planet. Zin’Onon remembered when he himself was there, a Zealot at the time, assisting with the destruction of a stubborn group of Spartans.
The Spartan team had put up a fair fight ever since the Covenant first arrived, but in the end it was all in vain. Zin’Onon remembered when he himself killed one of them, thrusting his energy sword through the preoccupied gray armored Spartan. He had heard his last cry as he brought him to the ground.
“I’m ready, how about you?”
Even then, Zin’Onon barely escaped with his life. The Spartan had thrust his knife through his shoulder, and severely damaged his skull.. Still, the fatally wounded Spartan was no match for the Zealot’s skill and discipline.
Zin’Onon was pulled out of his thoughts when he was addressed by one of his fellow Sanghelli.
“Field Marshall, we have intercepted an emergency distress beacon.” Zin’Onon was perplexed, but gestured for the Minor to go on.
“Our sensors indicate an emergency distress beacon, but…look at this, sir.” The Minor said, slightly confused. Zin’Onon was feeling the same way, but he looked at the screen of the small hand held device the Minor was holding.
It was an three dimensional image of of the galaxy. In it were uncountable blinking dots, indicating a multiple of different signs. But one was standing out of the others. It was an orange blinking dot, appearing in an unexplored part of the galaxy.
“Magnify the view.” Zin’Onon ordered the Minor in his usual impatient tone.
The Sanghelli did as he was told, and slowly, the screen focused in on the dot. It zoomed closer and closer to it, until it pin pointed its exact location.
“But that’s in the middle of nowhere.” Zin’Onon said, more to himself.
From the three dimensional picture he was seeing, the dot was in the dead center of blackness, no identified solar system or celestial bodies of any sort. It was just there, standing in the nothingness.
“Odd…Minor, patch me in with High Commander Kesh’Tin.” Zin’Onon ordered the Minor.
He wasn’t completely sure what action to take at this point, but contacting higher command may help him decide. “Yes, sir!” The Elite barked back at Zin’Onon as he saluted, and walked towards a purple control panel a few feet away. The Minor pressed some buttons, and picked up a Communicator.
“High Commander, Field Marshall Zin’Onon wishes to speak with you.” The Minor said into the Communicator. The Elite then rushed to where Zin’Onon was standing, and gave him the Communicator.
“High Commander, I wish not to trouble you, but we have a situation.” Zin’Onon spoke. There was a pause, then he heard the High Commander’s voice, saying, “Continue, Field Marshall.”
“Our ship has intercepted a distress beacon from an unknown area of the galaxy. I think it wise to go towards that location, just to see if it is of any importance.”
There was a pause, and then Kesh’Tin said, “It’s your ship, Field Marshall. The regrouping of Covenant forces will take a year, at the least. You’ll have time to inspect this anomaly. Again, it’s your ship; you can decide what action to take. High Commander, out.”
Zin’Onon then set the Communicator down on the control panel. He still wasn’t sure what to take, but at least he had clearance from command. Then he settled on an idea.
“General Tash’Bin, front and center!” Zin’Onon bellowed. General Tash’Bin was his second in command; a well trained solider whom Zin’Onon trusted. And there weren’t many people he trusted.Immediately, General Tash’Bin ran up to where Zin’Onon was standing, saluted, and stood silent, ready for orders. His armor shone gold in the bright light of the control room, and he looked just a menacing as ever.
“Ready the ship for slip space travel, our time of Reclamation has come.”
Princess Celestia didn’t look too good. She was suffering from Overspell Syndrome, a condition that is caused by a spell being to powerful, and the spell maker not being powerful enough to control it.
Though the mind wipe spell was successful, it left Celestia in shambles. Never before had this happened to her, and Twilight was worried. Celestia was even more powerful then she was, Twilight knew, and seeing her like this made everypony anxious.
It had been about three hours since the spell had happened, and at least the creature was under control. It had tried to make a run for it while everypony was preoccupied helping Celestia. Just before it could escape, Applejack attempted to buck it in the back, but the hard outer shell of the creature had nearly broken her leg in the process. Therefore, Twilight zapped the creature in the head with a knockout spell in rage and irritation, causing the beast to collapse onto the floor in a crumpled heap.
After this, Twilight secured the beast in magic hoofcuffs and set the creature leaning on a nearby wall. Although she didn’t like to do that, she knew it was necessary. That creature was making enough trouble to rival that of Discord, Chrysalis, and Nightmare Moon combined.
Since then, they had not been bothered by the creature. The public wasn’t an issue any more either, because everypony except Twilight, Celestia, and her friends had been mind wiped, and found themselves fighting the Royal Guard for no reason. The mob quickly apologized, disbanded, and went back to their daily lives.
Now, the only problem at hoof was Celestia. She was still asleep, knocked out by the sheer force of her own spell. Fluttershy was helping the most, using special herb medicines that she carried with her all the time. She was always ready to help a creature in need.
Slowly as the hours passed, everypony began to see that Celestia was getting better. Though not awake yet, at least she looked more peaceful, as if she weren’t in as much pain as she was. Now, everypony began to relax a little, realizing just how tired they were.
Twilight looked at a clock that rested on one of Celestia’s desks not far away. It read 1:17, though Twilight usually stayed up that late reading and performing assignments, she knew her friends weren’t as used to staying up this late.
“Girls, you can go home now, if you want. I’ll take care of Celestia from here.” Twilight said, gesturing towards the door.
All of them shook their heads at the same time, especially Fluttershy, who said, “I couldn’t abandon Celestia now, in her time of need. I’m staying here, Twilight…um, if that’s okay with you…”
Twilight conceited to letting her friends stay. It was understandable that they wanted to stay and care for Celestia. And if Twilight put herself in their hoofs, she knew that she wouldn’t go either.
“Of course its okay, I’ll need all the help I can get.” Twilight said. Though none of them were leaving, it didn’t change the fact that they were all bone tired. Scratch one individual pink pony.
“Besides, I’ll need to throw a get well soon party for Celestia as soon as she wakes up!” Pinkie Pie said ecstatically.
Nopony knew where she got it, but somehow she had found a kazoo. Just before she could abruptly awake Celestia from her slumber, her friends stopped her with a simultaneous, “Shhhh!” They all knew Celestia needed to rest, and Pinkie Pie partying with a kazoo probably wasn’t going to make that any easier.
A few seconds after this, everypony heard something strange. They stopped what they were doing to listen. It seemed to come from the other side of the room. A few seconds later, everypony realized that it was the creature, stirring from its slumber. Cautiously, everypony approached the strange creature. Now that it wasn’t trying to kill them, Twilight could examine the creature more closely. It seemed to be wearing some kind of armor. It was at two and a half meters tall, at the least. It had four appendages, two arms and two legs, somewhat resembling Spike.
Something that confused Twilight was its lack of helmet. From the very little she knew about war, most soldiers came with helmets. This one didn’t, but at least, Twilight thought, she would be able to examine its face. It was covered in scars; probably from all the battles it had been in. it had a mouth, nose, and two eyes, not hugely different from hers.
But now, the creature was stirring, mumbling random things. Twilight and her friends thought they heard the words, “Package”, “Covenant”, and “Reach”, but that didn’t make any sense. Then suddenly, with no warning whatsoever, the creature screamed. It bellowed in a voice that sounded tortured, as if it were in agony.
This yell startled all of the ponies out of their hoofs, and even awoke Celestia, whom was desperately trying to get up. “Stay down, Celestia!” Fluttershy said to her before she could get up. It was rare for Fluttershy to command anything, much less the Princess. But Twilight didn’t give it much thought, she had bigger problems.
The creature was trying desperately to break free of the magic hoofcuffs Twilight had placed “him”, Twilight decided, in. For a moment the cuffs seemed to be giving way, but Twilight reinforced the cuffs, preventing the creature from escaping.
Even still, the creature was still trying to break free of the hoofcuffs, and Twilight was concerned it would. But she put her fear aside for the moment as she went to help Celestia. Princess Celestia was lying in her bed, awake, and looking very terrified.
“Calm down, Celestia, everything is all right.” Twilight said, trying to comfort Celestia. However, she knew that everything was most certainly not all right.
Suddenly, there was banging on the wooden door. “Princess, are you all right?” A voice sad from behind the closed door. Twilight recognized it as Shining Armor’s voice, and now she had a serious dilemma on her hooves. If Shining Armor saw the creature, the entire mind wipe spell would be in vain.
“Umm… yes, everything is all right, Shining, just a little mishap!” Twilight said, trying to sound calm as possible. “Okay…are you sure everything is all right, Twily?” Shining asked, quite anxious and largely confused. The strange scream had awoken Shining from sleep, and most of his men as well.
“Yup, no reason to come inside whatsoever…” Twilight said, the faintest sign of nervousness on her voice. Then suddenly, without warning, the creature that had halted his escape a few moments before began again, this time even more powerfully.
The creature continued to bellow as it managed to break the magic hoofcuffs it had been trapped in. When this happened, Twilight was too strained to try to restrict the creature, and overcome by the exhaustion of the entire endeavor, fainted on the floor. Now Shining Armor was absolutely sure something was wrong. He opened the door to the room to be greeted by something slamming into his face. A moment later, he blacked out.
The rest of the ponies in the room watched in horror as Twilight fell on the floor. They were even more terrified when Shining Armor opened the door and was immediately hit in the face by one of the creature’s claws. He went tumbling back down the stairs, and landed seconds later with a crack that made everypony wince.
Rarity tried to stop the rampaging creature with her magic, but the creature broke the magic field with relative ease. Rarity wasn’t as magically talented as Twilight and much less Celestia. Luckily, nopony was stupid enough to try to challenge the rampaging creature directly.
Now, the creature began walking towards where Princess Celestia was lying on her bed. Everypony felt helpless when they realized there was nothing they could do. Then, once right next to Celestia, it picked up her by the throat, lifting the alicorn to eye level with its as if she weighed nothing. Then with its free claw, it punched a nearby mirror that was standing on a desk, and picked up one of the larger shards of broken glass. Once it had, it held the shard to Celestia’s throat.
Everypony felt sick with terror. Fluttershy had already fainted. At any moment, the creature could kill their beloved Princess.
“You do as I say, or you die. Am I understood?”
For a few seconds, Celestia said nothing. Then, the creature pushed Celestia’s neck further with the glass, causing a small trickle of red blood to flow across her white coat. Now it was Rarity’s turn to faint, and she didn’t even manage to grab a sofa to catch her fall.
Now with the prospect of death clear, Celestia croaked a “Yes.” Satisfied, the creature eased the pressure on Celestia’s neck slightly.
“Good. I need to get off this planet as soon as possible. My only way out is the spaceship I landed in. Tell me where it is located immediately.”
Celestia knew there was no way that she could get out of this. The creature was holding her on the point of death, and Celestia couldn’t even remember the last time she ever lost blood.
“Over there…pull the red book on the shelf…” Celestia said, trying to breathe. The creature looked confused, but walked over to the book Celestia had indicated, and pulled it. Immediately, a part of the floor under the bookshelf disappeared, showing a staircase that lead down into the unknown.
The creature smiled, but that smile never reached its eyes. And its eyes looked evil and menacing, as if it were perfectly able to kill something and had done it before.
“If any of you others try anything, this creature dies.” The creature said, its voice disturbingly calm.
The remaining ponies that didn’t faint, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and oddly Pinkie Pie, were already thinking of a plan to save their princess. Now all hopes of that were skewered.
Now, the creature was starting to walk down the dark stone staircase, descending into the unknown. At safe distance, the remaining ponies followed. A few seconds later, they all reached the bottom of the staircase.
They were surprised to see that the room they had ended up in was brightly lit, with many large torches standing on the walls. There were many artifacts and strange items, all standing on white marble pillars, some of the larger ones standing on the limestone floor. The creature was standing in the very center of the room, where its prize lay.
Everypony in the room didn’t have the faintest idea what the thing was, but the creature seemed to know. It was going about it, picking up strange things that nopony could recognize either.
“Plasma Rifle, check.” It said, holding one of the strange items. Then, the creature held the strange device, aimed it at a wall, and blue orbs of light shot out of it, putting black holes into the wall five meters away.
Holding the strange blue weapon to Celestia’s head, the creature put her down. The moment it did so, the creature said, “One bad move and I fry you in plasma and eat you for dinner. I’m feeling quite hungry.”
Nopony was sure whether or not the creature was serious, but it made them feel sick nonetheless. Celestia sat where the creature put her down, unmoving. She was frozen in place from the terror of what the creature might do.
“You’ve done what I’ve asked, you can go. Whatever troops you send down here to try to apprehend me get turned into dinner.” The creature said, still disturbingly calm. Everypony was glad to go, but the thought of leaving the creature to its own devices was unbearable.
“What kind of monster are you?” Celestia asked, wanting to know what she was dealing with. The creature looked at her square in the eyes and replied,
Princess Celestia paced nervously up and down her bedroom. She was still in shock of the situation that had just arose, but only now had she realized the ramifications of this newcomer. She hadn't previously had time to think properly about what this new monster could do, not only to her, but to her kingdom.
She imagined that creature, "Noble Six", as it called himself, charging up those stairs and killing every last one of her subjects with it's terrifying light-weapon, including her. She could see the triumphant look on that beast's face as it continued it's massacre throughout the rest of her royal palace. Then she could see the creature continuing it's killing spree through Canterlot, and then Ponyville. Then all of Equestria. Nothing could stop the huge beast as it killed where it went.
For the first time, Princess Celestia realized that she was powerless to do anything. She had tried fighting the beast before, but all of her combined efforts, even with her favored student and her friends, weren't enough to stop it. The creature got exactly what it wanted in the end, and left her closest friends either unconscious on the floor, or scarred for life, or both. Probably both.
For the time being, the creature was out of Celestia's hooves. But that was a loose statement at best. She had no idea what diabolical plot the creature could be hatching in the dark corridors of the Royal Artifact Holding Cell. Whatever the thing was doing down there was most certainly not beneficial to her kingdom.
Even with the creature momentarily not trying to kill everypony, Celestia still had to deal with her wounded subjects, and her wounded neck. The cut the creature had made in Celestia's throat was not at all deep and somewhat superficial. It wouldn't, and didn't, kill her. But the wound hurt nonetheless. She gingerly treated the wound with a small healing spell to dispel the pain, but didn't have the magic currently in her to heal the scar completely. She still felt magically exhausted, and even that spell made her collapse onto her bed. She wanted to fall asleep, but she needed to stay awake for her subjects, who were in the same or worse condition she was in.
Every one of Celestia's mentor's best friends lay unconscious in random places around her bedroom. Either overcome by exhaustion, or knocked out by the beast, every one of her little ponies were down for the count. Celestia looked at them sorrowfully. She knew that they would never forget this experience. The scars obtained here would never heal. Celestia knew the same went for her. This, "Noble Six", had been the most ruthless, heartless, and savage out of all of the beings she had battled before. This creature was a new level of terrifying. It actually tried to kill ponies... no villain had ever gone so low.
And Celestia knew that the creature had to be dealt with. But their was nothing she could do. The beast wielded a magic weapon more brutal then any she spell could conjure. It was much taller then her subjects, including her. It was strong enough to escape the power of the Mane Six and Celestia combined.
Now the creature was tinkering with the strange device it had crash landed in. Who knows what it could be doing?
Celestia continued to lay on her bed, trying desperately to come up with an idea. The creature had to be restrained. If need be, destroyed.
Celestia shivered at the thought of destroying something, even if it wasn't a pony. She had never killed a single thing in her entire life. And, she could easily tell that the creature was sentient. It had a soul, even if it wasn't a good one. No, she had to use a different tactic.
A few moments later, an idea popped in her head. It was a long shot, to say the least, but it was the only plan she had.
Quickly, Celestia got up from bed, and briskly walked down the stairs of her bedroom. She continued walking down the long, carpeted hallway that led down the hall to the Barracks.
The Barracks was essentially the home for all of her enlisted troops in Canterlot. At this time of crisis, she would need all of the troops she would muster. Celestia also needed the finest.
She opened the large wooden door into the Barracks with her front legs, still unable to use enough magic to open the door. Inside looked as she expected. Like any other barracks in the kingdom, it was a simple building. Made of gray stone, it was sturdy enough to withstand the basic calamities of nature. It was a long and narrow, holding dozens of bunk beds along the wall. The soldiers inhabiting the place were doing what soldiers do. Chatting about battles, contests of strength, and Celestia thought she spotted a game of poker in the back of the room, though gambling was strictly outlawed in the kingdom. She would deal with it later. She had a much bigger problem on her hooves.
"Guards, ATTENTION!" Celestia knew enough about warfare to call her troops into attention. The troops suddenly dissipated from their previous locations, appearing in perfect formation in front of Celestia. Shining Armor, of course, was in the front. Celestia looked at him with disappointment when she saw poker chips still levitating in front of where Captain Armor was standing. Shining suddenly realized that he forgot to leave the poker chips at the table, and they magically teleported away like they never existed.
Perhaps not the finest in the kingdom, Celestia thought to herself. It didn't matter, She needed the job done, and they were the most capable of making that happen.
"Princess, Royal Guard awaiting orders, ma'am." Shining Armor used very formal titles, still embarrassed about the poker incident.
"Excellent. Now, you all are the finest, yes?" Celestia asked, already knowing the answer, but wanting to hear what her troops would say.
"Yes ma'am!" There was no hesitation.
"Then prove it. Here is your mission. In a secret basement under my quarters, there is an evil, unidentified creature. It possess strength, size, and magic power unknown to any of us. I need you to solve this problem, by any means necessary."
Shining Armor involuntarily gulped. He wasn't afraid of what the creature might be until Celestia said, "by any means necessary."That meant, whatever was down there, Celestia wasn't calling on the magic of friendship to take it out. Actual force was to be implemented. And that meant whatever was down there was the most formidable opponent that Celestia had ever encountered.
"Right then, men. Follow me." Celestia led them out of the Barracks and down the long hallway to the stone stairs. They climbed up the spiral staircase, the soldiers' armor and weapons clanging together as they moved up the cramped space. Once at the top, the troops looked around. The majority of them had never seen Celestia's bedroom in their lives. They didn't have much time to admire the decor, as Celestia quickly led them to a bookshelf, and then pulled a red book down. A hidden staircase suddenly opened out of the floor, and into the darkness below.
"Captain Armor, are you ready?" Celestia suddenly became nervous as she realized what she was doing. She was doing exactly what the creature wanted her to do. She could remember it's voice as it said, "Any troops you send to try to apprehend me get turned into dinner, by the way." She had the horrific thought of the creature cooking her subjects with the magic it possessed.
Little did she know that Noble Six would be doing that, just without eating them. Plasma doesn't cook meat very well, it gives it an odd flavor.
Noble Six tightened the last of his screws into place with a small screwdriver he always carried. As a Spartan, it payed to be prepared. At least Noble Six got to use the screwdriver for the first time. His job usually involved breaking machines, not fixing them.
He found out, very quickly, that there was no way he could repair the Banshee to flying status. The Covenant machine was to destroyed to be put back together. Plus, many of the essential parts were missing. But he could still fashion the wreckage into something useful. The Banshee, flying or not, would still be his ticket out of here.
Noble Six suddenly detected danger. It was his Spartan sixth sense kicking in. He turned around, and looked directly at the stone staircase leading up to what he assumed to be a bedroom. Gray light was showing near the top of the staircase. Moments before, there had been nothing but blackness.
Noble Six quickly grabbed his Plasma Rifle from where it was magnetically held in place on his back. He aimed it directly at the door. Not having his helpful HUD showing the AutoAim feature before his eyes was annoying, but not detrimental. With or without AutoAim, Noble Six was a deadly shot.
A few seconds later, he heard multiple footsteps from the top of the staircase. Noble Six took a deep breath in, then out to calm his nerves. He hadn't thought the horse-creatures he had encountered would actually be stupid enough to attack him. He knew that he had to shoot to kill. It didn't seem right, killing what seemed to come out of a four year old's imagination. But then he remembered what one of his Spartan drill instructors said to him when he was training on Earth. "Don't have any pity for anything you kill. Pity slows you down. As innocent as an alien might seem, it isn't. Shoot to kill, Six."
And Noble Six would shoot to kill now, just as his drill instructor said. The creatures he was attacking were far from innocent. Noble Six had done little more then crash land on their planet, and the next thing he knew, he was detained by the creatures for no reason whatsoever. Time for a little payback.
As the creatures grew closer, he saw a purple shield of light protecting the horse things like a wall. As they entered the room, Noble Six saw that the ponies were using it like a riot shield. The shield expanded to make a wall spanning all sides of the room, with no gaps at all.
Noble Six then saw the ponies stop in surprise when they saw him. There were about twenty soldiers forming a row behind the shield. Three ponies with horns on their heads supplied the energy for the shield to operate. The rest carried a mixture of spears, swords, and spiked maces somehow in their hooves, without any thumbs to keep them in place. All of the ponies were wearing golden armor, that was likely made of gold. Noble Six knew that, though shiny, gold wasn't a very good element for making armor or weapons. It was too weak.
"I'm giving you one last chance to back down before I have to...use extreme force. Do you comply?" Noble Six wanted to give them a second chance to save themselves before he did what he had to do.
"We are loyal to the Princess, we never back down!" One of the ponies triumphantly bellowed. The other joined the cheer, screaming and waving their weapons in the air.
"Wrong answer." Noble Six said as he held up his Plasma Pistol at the shield. All of the ponies stopped cheering. Noble Six held the trigger of the Covenant weapon until a large green orb of light materialized at the front of the Plasma Pistol. Noble Six knew that and overcharged bolt from this weapon could destroy any shield. Even magic ones.
He let go of the trigger. The green plasma bolt shot out from the weapon and moved at lightning speeds towards the ponies who stood behind the shield, aghast. The bolt connected with the shield, and the shield quickly dissipated out of existence. Green electric bolts, remnant energy from the plasma, quickly sped down towards the three ponies who were formally powering the shield. The electric bolts did as electric bolts do. Those three unlucky ponies suddenly were electrocuted by green energy that coursed all over their bodies. In a few seconds, the energy dissipated, and the three ponies were left smouldering on the floor, either dead or unconscious.
The other ponies recoiled in shock and terror as Noble Six drew his Plasma Rifle from it's holster. By the time the ponies realized what was going on, it was to late.
Noble Six breathed out one more time before he unleashed his power on the ponies. He pulled the trigger of the Plasma Rifle.
Blue bolts of plasma shot out like shooting starts towards the unprotected ponies. The bolts connected to one of the ponies, and melted it's armor like butter , frying the skin of the helpless pony. The pony collapsed under the power of five frying plasma bolts, screaming in pain and terror as the plasma quickly burned it's skin and flesh.
The remaining ponies were appalled. And terrified. Noble Six used this terror to his advantage. He quickly switched targets to a pony on his left, and let lose three bolts into the creature. Noble Six was trying to conserve ammo, as well as not completely killing the creature.
The pony screamed and fell just as the other one did.
Most of the remaining ponies were now completely frozen by fear. The liquid fire Noble Six possessed was unlike any power they had ever seen.
One of them, however, was not as terrified. One of the soldiers who looked different from the others, likely the leader, drew it's shining silver sword from its scabbard and charged at Noble Six. Noble Six drew his Energy Sword in response, the blue light popping from the weapons hilt as he raised to counter the brave pony.
Either brave or stupid. Probably stupid.
The pony slashed at Noble Six with an upward strike, hoping to kill him there and then. Noble Six was better then letting a three foot tall pony beat him in a sword fight.
Noble Six parried the sword stroke with his energy sword, the two weapons clashing together in a storm a white hot sparks. Noble Six expected his Energy Sword to slice through the metal sword of the pony, but his enemies sword stayed in tact. The pony came in for another blow, lunging its sword in an impaling jab at Noble Six's chest.
Noble Six lunged to the side to avoid the fatal blow. A split second later, he slashed the bewildered pony across it's side. The pony stopped in it's tracks, looking over at his gashed side in terror.
Noble Six intended the would do be non-fatal, but he wasn't sure whether or not it would actually be. Either way, the pony was effectively incapacitated, sprawling over the floor as crimson blood trickled out of the wound in it's side.
After this development, the rest of the ponies had completely lost their resolves. They turned 180 degrees around and bolted for the staircase. Noble Six didn't try to stop them. This is exactly what he wanted to happen.
In a few seconds, all of the ponies were out of the room, besides the six wounded ones that lay on the floor, either groaning or unconscious. Noble Six knew he had won the battle. He had finally stood up to the oppressing power of the creatures that captured him before.
Noble Six held his ticked out of that basement in the palm of his hand. A small Covenant device called a Plasma Detonator would blow the Banshee he had fashioned into a bomb to smithereens. The section of castle he was standing in would be completely destroyed. And, obviously, a gaping hole would open his way into freedom. As he ran the plan through his mind, Noble Six thought it to be perfect. But in reality, though Noble Six would shield himself from the blast using Armor Lock, everything within a 300 foot radius would cease to exist. Was his escape worth hundreds of innocent lives? Noble Six corrected himself. Those lives were far from innocent.
Noble Six looked behind him at the ponies he had incapacitated. After checking their vital signs, Noble Six found that, somehow, all of them managed to stay alive. The creatures with horns on their heads had somehow healed themselves with unknown power, but remained unconscious on the floor. The ponies that he had burned with plasma weren't so lucky. They were barely clinging to life as the remaining plasma evaporated out of their systems. Noble Six could do nothing for them, nor did he want to. He had finally won a battle. He didn't want to start another one.
Noble Six looked down at the purple Plasma Detonator in his hand. He noticed the blue flashing button in the center, urging him to press it and be done with the entire problem. Though that button was the ticket to his freedom, the ramifications of pressing it would be irreversible. It didn't matter, Noble Six realized. He now considered the alien life forms on the planet to be against humanity. For all her cared, they may as well be The Covenant. Certainly, the small, colorful, somewhat adorable creatures were doing a better job keeping him detained than any other Covenant species had ever done. It was time to put an end to this, once and for all.
Noble Six put his thumb on the flashing button. He hesitated. He was doing exactly what The Covenant would do. Those merciless alien life forms would push that button without a moment to lose. They wouldn't think of all the creatures the blast would murder. Noble Six wasn't a Covenant. But then again, the locals hadn't hesitated to engage him.
Noble Six looked back at the wounded soldiers behind him. They were in agony. Noble Six knew how plasma felt when it melted through flesh and bone all to well. There was no worse pain he could describe.
Noble Six suddenly remembered that he had a duty. It had been in the back of his head, in his dreams, since he had escaped Reach. He remembered what Noble Team had done for humanity. Noble Six had an obligation to them as long as he was alive. He had to fight for humanity, because there was no one left to fight for him. Humanity would go extinct if Noble Six did nothing to intervene. He still had a fight to fight, and it wasn't with these creatures. Although, Noble Six thought, these local aliens are still in my way.
It was time to get back in the fight.
Noble Six looked again at the flashing blue button of the Plasma Detonator. He had already set the timer of the bomb for two seconds, long enough for him to enter Armor Lock safely. He pushed the button without hesitation.
Princess Celestia, like most alicorns and unicorns, could sense danger. Princess Celestia had been sensing danger ever since the monster had arrived at her castle. Most of the time, this sixth sense only kicked in when times of extreme peril were imminent. For the past few seconds, for some reason that Celestia couldn't identify, that danger sense was of the charts. Something of unbelievable destruction was about to destroy everything. Celestia could just feel it.
Celestia had been anxiously waiting in her bedroom for her troops to finish the job. She had vaguely heard some type of weapon go off, and she hoped that it was her unicorn soldiers blasting the creature to pieces with their magic. It had been a few minutes since she had heard those shots. Celestia hoped that her loyal troops were still alive.
It was around five in the morning, and Celestia realized that it was about time to raise the sun. Her faithful student and her companions were still fast asleep, Celestia didn't expect them to wake up for a long time. They had been through a level of trauma none of them had been through before. They needed time to rest and recover.
Celestia wanted to do something about the creature herself. But, she realized that nothing she could do could stop the horrible monster. That creature had her in his grasp, on death point, just a few hours ago. If Celestia wanted to keep on living, the best thing she could do was avoid getting fried into dinner.
However, that danger sense of hers was still growing fiercer by the second. Celestia had to find out why. Summoning all the magic she could possibly muster, Celestia began a Foresight spell. It was an extremely difficult spell, even for a perfectly healthy alicorn. But Celestia had no choice.
Golden light shimmered and danced of Celestia's horn as she began the impossible spell. As her strength quickly waned, Celestia began to doubt she could complete the spell without frying herself again. But, she just before she was about to give up, the spell was complete, and Celestia saw what was causing that intense danger sense inside her.
Through her vision, Celestia saw the creature standing in front of the odd ship it had crashed in. The craft had been built into something else, it looked even more dangerous than before. What terrified Celestia the most were her loyal soldiers,scattered around the floor, seemingly dead.
Without warning, the strange ship erupted into a flash of blinding white light. For a few seconds, Celestia could see nothing but whiteness. Then, the light ceased, and she saw the horror of what it caused. A huge hole had been carved into her castle right where her underground basement would've been. Everything around her was blackened and crumbling, and most everything else was on fire. Ponies, her loyal subjects, were running around in circles, completely panicked. What startled her the most was the creature standing in the middle of the chaos, completely unfazed by what had just happened.
As suddenly as the spell started, it ended in a flash. Celestia found herself back in her room, exactly where she had been before. Now she knew what was going to happen in the next few seconds. There was no time to lose.
The spell she had just performed did the opposite of what she expected it to do. Instead of feeling drained, Celestia felt more powerful then she had that entire day. It was as if that spell revived the magic inside her.
Summoning every single ounce of magic power within her, Celestia performed a Protection spell over herself, those in the room, and everypony else in all of Canterlot. The gigantic spell barely took anything out of her. Celestia felt like she could do anything. For the first time, Celestia felt like she could actually beat the beast, not just hold it of for a little while or keep it detained for a few minutes until it eventually escaped and killed a bunch of ponies,
Quickly, Celestia, and every other pony in the entire mega-city were shrouded in an invincible golden shield of magic. The powerful magic shield only had one drawback, while shrouded in it's magic, the user was completely immobile. It looked to everypony in Canterlot like some golden glue suddenly stuck them to where they were standing, making them completely unable to move.
In a blinding flash, what Celestia saw in her Foresight spell came to be true. For a few moments, Celestia saw nothing but white light. Then the light dissipated as swiftly as it came, and Celestia saw the same amount of destruction she had in her dream, only none of her loyal subjects were injured in the explosion.
Of course, a huge gaping hole had been blown into her once beautiful castle. The remainder of the castle was not left unaffected, it was mostly on fire and chard, as were the surrounding buildings. Everypony in Canterlot would be panicking, only they were still encased in the Protection spell, only able to scream and run around in circles in their minds.
A few seconds of gawking at the destruction later, Celestia released the Protection spell. She was confused by the sensation that then occurred. It was like she was...
Celestia hit the hard, cracked ground like a sack of potatoes. She was completely unable to move for a few seconds, the wind knocked out of her. Gasping for air, Celestia slowly got up on her hooves. Her vision was blurry initially, but the pain in her eyes and head subsided quickly. As fast as she could, Celestia looked around her surroundings. She, and all six of her accompaniment, had fallen from her no longer existent bedroom into the crater the human had caused. The rest of the citizens of Canterlot, now free from the Protection spell, were panicking, aimlessly running around in circles, just as Celestia saw in her vision.
Most terrifying of all, just about five feet in front of her, was Noble Six. The creature seemed to notice Celestia's hard landing, and turned around.
In one of it's claws the creature held it's liquid fire weapon, in the other the shimmering sword of blue light. Both were directed towards Celestia. The creature looked...satisfied. Like it had finally got what it wanted all along.
"If you interfere with me again, I will kill you. Do you understand me?" The creature did not look like it was kidding. At all. Celestia tried to reply, but all that came out of her mouth was a croaking groan.
"I'll take that as a yes, for your sake." After saying this, the creature turned around, and started running for the gates of Canterlot. Again, Celestia was completely helpless. If the creature decided to kill all her subjects, there wasn't a thing she could do about it. Her six most loyal ponies behind her were far to injured to even get on there hooves, the fall did a lot more to them than to Celestia. There was obviously no way to use the Elements of Harmony.
For the very first time in Equestria's history, there was absolutely nothing anypony could do. They were all at the will of the merciless creature known as Noble Six.
Noble Six didn't stop sprinting after he started.
The panic his explosion had caused was enough for him to run through the city undisturbed by any of the creatures around him. They were all to busy running aimlessly around in circles and screaming to even try to do anything about his presence. If anything, him passing by only caused more panic in the city. As long was the ponies were distracted, leaving the city would be an ease.
Fortunately, Noble Six didn't have to wind down side streets to find the gates to the city. There was one long, wide road that lead straight to the end of the complex. A few minutes of running down this main street later, he found the large gates. They were decorative but practical, made out of a dark black metal that Noble Six couldn't quite identify.
The only problem was, the gates were shut and bolted, and around thirty or so armed guards were preventing anything from leaving or coming through the gates.
Noble Six gradually came to a halt around twenty feet away from the somewhat pathetic pony guards. When they caught sight of him, they almost proceeded to panic just like the civilians surrounding them. They just managed to keep it together long enough to pull out their short, silver tipped spears and organize into formation.
"Ready soldiers, on my command, charge the beast!" The leader, who was wearing silver colored armor to single himself out from the others, called the command. All thirty of the soldiers held their spears directly at Noble Six's chest.
"Charge!" The command guard shouted as he and his fellow troops rushed towards Noble Six, their deadly spears raised. Noble Six pointed his Plasma Rifle at the group in response. He hesitated for a moment before pulling the trigger. It was still somehow hard to justify killing the adorable, pastel colored ponies. Then he realized he was never going to get of the planet with them in his way. Noble Six pulled the trigger.
He moved his arm in a sweeping motion from left to right while firing the Plasma Rifle to get maximum coverage on all of the creatures. The ponies were smothered by a barrage of plasma as the boiling heat quickly disintegrated their armor. Within a few seconds, the rushing formation the ponies had assembled themselves in had completely fallen apart. Every creature in the front of the formation were completely overwhelmed by plasma. The ponies behind scattered in all directions.
Soon, there was no ponies left to challenge him. Around a third of the initial charging formation were lying on the ground, deep in the melting power of neon blue plasma. There was no way they were going to survive, magic healing abilities or not. Among these fallen was the distinguished leader, also slowly being disintegrated by plasma.
Noble Six felt a swift pang of guilt. Death by plasma burns was the least pleasurable way to go he could imagine. He wished he had a UNSC rifle of some kind, to at least kill the ponies swiftly instead of the slow, immeasurably painful death they were all going through.
Noble Six turned on his Energy Sword, the blue blade of light popping out of it's sheath. He then walked over to where the leader lay, curled up in a ball, it's face marked with indescribable pain.
"I'm sorry. You shouldn't have stood in my way."
The pony used the last of it's energy to speak. "It's..your.. a TANK! A ONE MAN TANK!"
Noble Six lifted the Energy Sword above his head, and brought it down. The pony died instantly.
Noble Six looked up and around himself. The gates were unguarded, and breaking them open wouldn't be a problem. For once, nothing stood in his way. He bolted towards the gates as fast as he could, desperate to get out of that forsaken city. None of the ponies panicking all around challenged him as he sprinted headlong for the gates. He didn't stop once he reached them, using his momentum to break open the gates. The fell over like they were made out of paper. Noble Six just kept on running without looking back.
Around twenty minutes of continuous running later, Noble Six reached a small, scraggly woodland. Because he was on top of a mountain, as Noble Six quickly found out, the trees on the rocky hillside were few and far between. At last, he had found at least a meager forest, hopefully containing water, as his supplies available were dwindling. Noble Six didn't come all this way to die of dehydration.
He stopped, sensing something wrong. The air didn't feel right. It was as if the atmosphere itself was being broken by something huge. Then Noble Six heard it. The huge, banging roar of a ship first entering the atmosphere of a planet.
For a few seconds, Noble Six thought that help had finally come. He hoped beyond hope that UNSC forces had located his IFF tag and found him at last. What he saw then, however, quickly dispelled all hopes of rescue.
Breaking through the clouds was a huge purple and steel colored ship. A Covenant battle cruiser.
Noble Six stood in denial for a few seconds. There was no possible way that the Covenant were actually on this god forsaken planet. As much as he might've willed against it, the deadly Covenant cruiser did not stop its decent. Nor did it disappear as a dream. The cruiser existed. The Covenant were on the planet.
If given a choice, Noble Six would much rather fight millions of pony guards than thousands of Covenant troops. Now he had to fight both. Perfect.
As the cruiser continued it's decent towards the city that he had just escaped from minutes before, Noble Six's denial turned into blinding rage. How on Earth did the Covenant find him? Why were they so determined on ending his life? Would they follow him to the end of the universe just to end his miserable life?
Since Reach, and the training previous, his life had been nothing but a nightmare. Noble Six hadn't seen much more than death and destruction in his entire life, since he was a boy training to be a spartan on Onyx. His drill sergeants had been merciless beasts designed to make his life as terrible as possible. Even after surviving initial training, the chemicals they injected into him to make him stronger, faster, and generally better than the average human had been so indescribably painful that it hurt him to think about it.
After he was transferred to Reach, he got to see billions murdered, his entire fellow team of Spartans killed, and planet Reach burnt to a crisp. Was that life? Was his entire life going to contain nothing but blood, death, and destruction?
Then again, Noble Six thought, his entire life wasn't going to be that long. The Covenant were quickly moving towards the castle, probably searching for him. If the Covenant found him, there was no way that he could beat them all alone. Armed with nothing but a half empty Plasma Rifle, a Plasma Pistol, and a nearly drained Energy Sword. It was an impossible task to undertake alone, without any cover besides a scraggly forest and a couple of rocks.
This is it, Noble Six thought. The day I die.
He wouldn't go down without a fight. Noble Six will never go down without a fight. Every Covenant he killed was one less for the rest of humanity to deal with. Every single Covenant death meant another human lived. His own death was meaningless compared to the rest of humanity. What was meaningful was that humanity survived the Covenant onslaught.
Noble Six thought about his options. The forest he was standing in front of now would give him absolutely no cover whatsoever. Nor was there any other defensible location nearby. Except one. The castle he had just escaped from.
If I go back, Noble Six thought, I'll have to deal with ponies on one side and Covenant on the other. Noble Six could see no other option. The city was full of defensible positions and ambush locations. He could pick of a lot more Covenant there rather than standing in the middle of an unprotected forest.
He quickly made up his mind and began sprinting back to the city he had spent hours trying to escape from.
Zin'Onon stared at the pathetic excuse for a fortress through the huge monitor that filled most of his command center. His comrades were also busy gawking at the strange and impractical fortress-thing that they had discovered. This wasn't at all what they were expecting. Zin'Onon and his fellow crew were expecting to come upon some abandoned, lifeless world in the middle of space. The ship's sensors picked up millions of life forms inhabiting the strange world. Those sensors also detected huge bounties of mineral riches, more then any known world contained. The world was bursting from the seams with gold, precious stones, and geothermal energy.
Claiming this world would not only boost Covenant economics, but get Zin'Onon promoted to Fleet Admiral in a heartbeat. Initial scans reported that the inhabitants of the rich planet hadn't even reached the Industrial Age. It would be too easy to glass all their strongholds and get rid of every last one of those creatures. Zin'Onon would start with the biggest stronghold his ship's sensors detected. Even though it was the largest one, it was still laughingly pathetic. Made out of stone, Zin'Onon could easily just burn it with his ship's cleansing beam. But, he needed a command post to begin his conquest of the world. More often then not, it paid to have two bastions rather than one. Just in case any surprises show up.
"General Tash'Bin, how close are we to the alien fortress?" General Tash'Bin, who was busy checking the internal workings of the ship for the millionth time, reported, "Thirty kilometers and closing, sir."
"Excellent, general." Zin'Onon turned on the intercom of the ship so all fellow crew could here his orders.
"Followers of the Great Journey, we have finally arrived on our luck. This world in ripe for the taking, plump with riches beyond measure. Protected by small, pathetic creatures, it will be beyond simple to take this planet in one quick strike. Prepare your weapons, we begin our assault in six minutes."
Zin'Onon put down the intercom and checked the scanners again, just to see if this perfect situation was a dream. The scanners had picked up multiple life forms and precious metals. The purple, digitized screen had a list of what it had found.
MULTIPLE LIFE FORMS DETECTED:
/Plant-based life forms, estimated count: 1000000000000000 /Oxygen-breathing/Animal-based life forms, estimated count: 100000000000 >>>SPECIFIC READINGS:<<< /Equine-based life forms detected, estimated count: 100000000 >>>INTELLIGENT /Reptile-based life forms detected, estimated count: 100000 >>>INTELLIGENT /Insect-based life forms detected, estimated count: 1000000000 >>>/PARTIALLY INTELLIGENT/
None of this particularly interested Zin'Onon. He had seen many worlds with similar amounts of life. However, another reading suddenly appeared at the bottom of the screen.
>>>ALERT!!!<<< /HUMAN LIFE FORMS DETECTED, ESTIMATED COUNT: 1 >>>ADVISE IMMEDIATE CLEANSING
Zin'Onon stood completely still, awestruck. There was no possible way humans had reached this planet. That screwed up everything. Humans had a habit of getting in the way, to the point of completely denying the fulfillment of the Great Journey. Sure, lighting the Rings would lead to galaxy-wide extermination, but that was nothing compared to the riches that lay in the life beyond.
Zin'Onon ran a systematic check to confirm the readings. They were true. The Night Stalker's navigation system had even pinpointed the human's exact location. Zin'Onon ran another test to find out the abilities of the lone human.
>>>ALERT!!!<<< CONFIRMED, HUMAN OCCUPATION: SPARTAN III >>>ADVISE IMMEDIATE CLEANSING
Zin'Onon was about to order the Night Stalker to turn headlong around back towards the Covenant home world, but stopped himself. It was just one Spartan. There was nothing to fear. It would be simple to blast the human with all the plasma they could muster. Zin'Onon ordered his Unggoy brethren to put live feed of the Spartan on the huge central monitor for all to see. The Spartan appeared on screen, running towards the structure they were about to capture. His fellow followers were quite surprised to see a Spartan on this unexplored planet. None of them flipped out, however. They had dealt with the strongest Spartans before.
Zin'Onon, however, thought the Spartan seemed familiar.
His mind flashed back to the fall of Reach. He was in the ruins of one of the destroyed planet's many cities. He had just finished killing a Spartan III completely clad in gray armor with a skull on it's visor. He drew his Energy Sword out of the dead Spartan's chest. That was four down, two to go to finish of the infamous Noble Team. The only two Spartans that remained were a deadly sniper called Jun, and a mysterious, shadowy Spartan known only as Noble Six.
Spartan Jun's location was unknown, and remained so indefinitely. Noble Six was felling Elite after Elite with his weapons. The Spartan was unstoppable. Zin'Onon desperately wanted the privilege to kill the strong warrior. However, he was denied the possibility of doing so, as he was called back to High Charity as a hero of war. His accolades and awards for the destruction of Reach were uncountable. He was a hero. However, he always lived with the nagging thought that he was unable to kill the last of Reach's strongest protectors. It haunted his dreams.
And now the Spartan was here. Noble Six. One of the demons of mankind. Zin'Onon would have the personal privilege of ending it's life. It was far to good to be true. The Prophets had finally blessed him. After many years of consistent service after Reach with few rewards, he had chanced upon the opportunity of a lifetime. It was too good to be true.
"Tash'Bin, ETA?" Zin'Onon asked the General. Tash'Bin was busy preparing his armor and weapons. He wielded his signature Energy Sword that had brought him the deaths of hundreds of humans. His golden armor gleamed in the purple light of the Bridge. The General was thirsty for blood. He would have all he could drink. However, the human belonged to Zin'Onon. It was his prize.
"Two minutes and closing, sir." Tash'Bin answered, his voice growing more and more excited no matter how hard he concealed it. They were all excited. Everybody aboard the Night Stalker was going to be rich and powerful beyond measure once they took the world before them.
Zin'Onon hefted his Fuel Rod Gun to his shoulder. With it, he would lead the Covenant charge against the pathetic stronghold. It would be a swift battle. His Fuel Rod Gun would tear apart everything, including the Spartan.
Now, the inhabitants of this world would burn. Most of all, the Spartan would die.
Princess Celestia was more than a little bit confused by the purple thing growing closer towards her castle. She, her subjects, and everything on the globe had never seen the likes of it before. It was kind of like a ship, only it floated in air. A revolutionary concept, indeed.
Celestia did not think it was a friendly...whatever it was. After the recent turn of events with Noble Six, Celestia deemed anything coming from outer space not friendly.
The human had killed twelve of her loyal soldiers. Twelve. It was an unbelievable massacre. Over all of Equestria's history, maybe two or three ponies had been killed forcibly. This was unprecedented.
The time for mourning would come later, Celestia decided. Now she had to deal with this new threat. It had not been a very good day at all. Celestia thought that it wasn't about to get any better.
She was right.
Celestia was standing in the open courtyard of her castle, along with all the soldiers she could muster. She had in her command about two hundred Royal Guards. It was probably the highest concentration of Equestrian Armed Forces since the war against Nightmare Moon. Hopefully, it would be enough.
She, of course, had no idea what the floating craft was planning to do. Celestia hoped that, perhaps, it was some sort of a diplomatic mission from outer space. Most unlikely indeed.
After about another two minutes, the craft hovered directly above Canterlot. For a few anxious seconds, it did nothing. Then, Celestia and her troops spotted little purple dots coming towards the city.
The citizens of Canterlot, by the way, were pretty much so panicked by everything that it was a completely hopeless endeavor to calm them down. Celestia decided not to spend her energy trying to do so, and put up with the mob's screaming and running around in circles.
The purple dots swiftly grew closer. Celestia and her troops were growing more nervous by the second.
"Princess, what are those things?" Celestia was surprised to hear Twilight's voice coming from behind her. Without Celestia's knowing, Twilight and her friends had assembled in a group behind her. They looked just as nervous as she did.
"I honestly don't know, Twilight. Whatever it is, I doubt it is friendly." Twilight and her fellow friends nodded in somber approval. Celestia was probably right.
Celestia was proven right when the purple dots that turned out to be smaller purple ships started blasting the city with burning purple energy.
The crafts descended upon the city quickly, not stopping their ferocious purple magic blasts from toasting the city and it's citizens. The ships were like phantoms as they swiftly glided through the city, blasting at the closest thing they could find. They were unchallenged until they came upon Celestia and her troops.
"Unicorns, FIRE!!!" Celestia ordered loudly as the ships approached. Every unicorn in the formation, including Twilight and Rarity, started blasting the ships with powerful magic blasts. Surprisingly, it worked. The ships, strong as they were, began to crumble before the powerful magic the unicorns were blasting into them. Pieces of the crafts were torn apart and blown to smithereens, and eventually every single ship, seven in all, either exploded in a great ball of blue fire or crashed to the ground in front of the formation.
Every pony in Canterlot opened their mouths to cheer, but that cheer never came. Suddenly, several more ships began dropping troops and other cargo around the entire city. Canterlot was completely surrounded.
Strange, alien creatures converged on the city from every side. For a few minutes, nothing happened. There was complete silence, besides for the screaming mob running around in circles, so there was of course no silence. Then, an ear deafening roar split Celestia's ears. For a few moments, Celestia could hear nothing but a high pitched ringing. She could see nothing but blue and white light. Then, her vision and hearing returned, and Celestia saw the horror of what had just happened.
The alien invaders had planted powerful explosives around Canterlot's walls and blew them up. There was nothing left but ash and chunks of blackened stone. Nothing stood before the aliens now. Celestia and her troops could see them quickly moving towards their group.
Every citizen who stood before the invaders were brutally killed in ways that nopony in Equestira could imagine. It was not worth thinking about. Celestia and her remaining warriors faced the oncoming storm charging towards them.
Celestia's troops were terrified. Celestia couldn't deny the same about herself. However terrified, they needed to work together to survive. No matter what the cost, Equestira must go on.
"Friends, Equestrians, countrymen, lend me your ears. Today we fight against hell itself. If these aliens want a fight, their sure as hay getting one!" Celestia said, rallying all her troops to her side. All of them, now motivated, stood in a compact circle, completely surrounded by alien forces.
The first alien to fire was a red armored, huge bipedal creature that terrified Celestia more than any other alien thus far. It fired from a huge weapon a green shaft of light that sped quickly towards Celestia's head. It came to suddenly for her to do anything. After all that, she was going to die by this?
Suddenly, something sprinted in front of Celestia. It stood directly between her and the green shaft of light. It took the death blow for her.
The creature flew backwards into the crowd of ponies behind her. All of them parted as it landed with a crashing thud. It took Celestia two seconds to realize that the creature that saved her was Noble Six. She was completely awestruck.
Noble Six lay in a crumpled heap, his face blackened by the explosion the weapon had caused. Somehow, it was still breathing. Miraculously still, it weakly spoke,
Noble Six knew nothing but pain. It encircled his entire being. He felt like his bones had been crushed, while his entire body was on fire. That was, of course, what had happened. Getting hit with a Fuel Rod Cannon should've meant certain death. Somehow, Six was still alive. He wasn't entirely sure whether or not he wanted to be.
Noble Six couldn't feel his face. If he had his helmet, he might've been able to properly withstand the blast. But, he obviously had left that important piece of equipment back on Reach. He wasn't expecting to survive this long at the time. His world was nothing but hollow blackness. Noble Six feared he had gone blind. But, he was able to slowly open his eyes. It hurt with every blink, but he wasn't blind. He was able to clearly see the horror that surrounded him.
From every side, ponies fought desperately against the Covenant for their lives. They had formed a compact circle, completely surrounded by Covenant forces. The merciless aliens were unrelenting. Plasma bolt after plasma bolt burned into the pony defense. Pink shards of death fired from Needler wielding Grunts stuck into whatever they ran into, and exploded into a pink cloud of sparkles. It would've be an adorable spectacle, if the unfortunate pony hadn't exploded with it. Elites charged into the pony lines almost unchallenged, and those wielding Energy Swords impaled whatever was closest to its grasp. Covenant Jackals wielding Plasma Pistols and plasma shields equipped to their arms marched forwards in a phalanx, approaching from the left side of the compact formation. Thrown spears and swords were unable to penetrate their lines. Hunters were laying waste to whatever unlucky group of ponies were shot with it's overpowered Fuel Rod Cannon.
The only thing that gave the ponies even a fighting chance was their strange, unknown energy abilities. Ponies with horns atop their heads had been blasting the Covenant lines with energy blasts, and continued to hold back the brunt of the onslaught. Grunts and Jackals were completely defenseless against the deadly bolts, and dramatically flew away into the Covenant lines whenever they were hit. Elites and Hunters were able to withstand the laser beams, and continued to plow forwards into the pony defense formation. Other gifted ponies created energy shields that were able to block most plasma attacks, but crumbled if destroyed by a Hunter Fuel Rod round.
There were ponies with wings, hardly noticed by Six before, that also assisted in the battle. Flying overhead, they were unnoticed by Covenant forces until too late. Somehow, the majority of the pony air force was armed with buckets filled with hot lava, which they gracefully dumped on the heads of the alien invaders. Everything hit melted almost instantly. Noble Six also spotted an unidentifiable rainbow streak bouncing in and out of the Covenant lines. Everything touched by this rainbow streak died instantly. About an eighth of the Covenant forces were destroyed by the mysterious rainbow streak.
The remaining ponies without any special magic abilities still put up a grandiose fight. Although spears and swords were not effective weapons against the Covenant, as Noble Six found out, a hoof in the face was. The Covenant found that a buck to the face by a certain orange pony with a stetson hat was as powerful as any Gravity Hammer they could use. A pink pony armed with a pink cannon blasted acidic confetti into whatever unfortunate Covenant it found. It proved to be more than an effective weapon to melt the Covenant with.
Six had been lying on his back, unable to get to his feet. He knew that lying there forever would mean certain death. Slowly, he used his hands and all the strength he could muster to clumsily rise to his feet. Every movement burned like fire, but he had no choice. It was either fight or die.
Once on his feet, he could see the full scale of destruction the Covenant had caused. The city was ruins. Buildings, homes, shops, and work places, had been completely decimated. Nothing was left of them besides crumpled heaps of stones and ash. The huge castle in the center of the city suffered the same fate. Worse still, as far as Noble Six could tell, the small army of about 150 remaining pony warriors were the only living ponies in the entire city.
Six suddenly felt that same burning hatred for the Covenant that he felt since the fall of Reach. This was the epitome of the Covenant, destroying absolutely everything in their path to get what they wanted. The ruins of this pony city didn't look that different from the ruins of New Alexandria.
No more, he thought. The Covenant must be destroyed.
Six hefted his Plasma Rifle to his hip, aiming it at the first Covenant he saw. It was a puny Grunt, who was currently shooting pink shards of death into the pony lines. Six pulled the trigger. The Grunt was instantly smothered in blue plasma, and died immediately.
The Covenant armies' reaction to Noble Six's survival from the Fuel Rod shot was almost comical. The fighting stopped abruptly as the Covenant gawked at the super soldier that miraculously survived the death blow it had been dealt. The pause in the fighting didn't last more than a few seconds before the entire Covenant assault force converged on where Six was standing. Every one of them, from the lowliest Grunt to the highest ranking Elite, wanted the privilege to kill him. This was not a very good turn of events.
The pony soldiers were unable to hold back the combined power of the Covenant forces as they zealously sought Noble Six's life. The alien force wedged open the pony defense, and started plowing a large lane to where Six stood, awestruck. At the front of the spearhead was the Elite that shot him with it's Fuel Rod Cannon moments before. As hard as the small pony army tried, it could not hold back or divert the path of the Covenant forces. Everything that stood in the Covenant's way was destroyed.
With his left hand, Six activated his Energy Sword. In his right, he primed his Plasma Rifle. He knew in his heart that this was the last stand. He could just give in to the Covenant forces and suffer a relatively swift death. If he did, however, ever single life form on the planet would be exterminated. Six hoped that he could kill enough Covenant to force a retreat before his time came. The closer and closer the endless tide of aliens grew, however, he began to doubt his strength.
Within a few seconds, the force was upon him
Noble Six fired plasma into the head of the formation as swift as his weapon would allow him. In two seconds, however, he was shocked to find the Plasma Rifle not functional. It was out of ammo. Perfect timing. He didn't put a dent into the Covenant forces.
Six, Energy Sword in hand, darted as fast as he could towards his attackers. The Covenant were taken by surprise by Six's sudden courage. He was given enough time to engage the first Elite he saw. It was a golden armored, General class Elite armed with an Energy Sword of it's own.
Noble Six's Energy Sword and the Elite's clashed together in a shower of blue sparks. A sword fight erupted between the two experienced fighters, both jabbing and parrying the others attacks. Six was able to take the Elite by it's Energy Sword wielding claw, and pull it downward into the ground. The Elite's sword became stuck in the rubble. As the creature desperately tried to free it, Six impaled the Elite through the back. The Elite crumpled to the ground, and died instantly.
Not even a moment after this, Six was blown clear off his feet by some unknown power. He soared through the air for a full three seconds until crashing face first into the ruins. He tried to get to his feet, but something was holding him down. He was able to turn his head far enough to see what it was. The Elite that had blasted him with the Fuel Rod Cannon had pinned Six to the ground with it's massive foot. As hard as Six tired, he was completely unable to move. He was at the will of the Elite.
The Elite said nothing. It stared directly into Noble Six's eyes with a look of blazing hatred Six hadn't seen in Elites before.
All around him, the remaining pony soldiers were fleeing for there lives. Once they saw Six down, they bolted as fast as they could out of the city. Six could hardly blame them. Staying in the city meant certain death. The battle was over. The Covenant won.
The Covenant troops did not pursue the pony soldiers. They were much more interested in the collapsed Spartan on the ground, and what their leader was going to do with it.
"It is the second time we meet, demon, and the last." The Elite took hold of Six's head, and brought Six's face directly in front of his, hefting the huge super soldier to it's eyes.
"I could easily kill you now. But that is not a fitting end for such a noble warrior. Rest assured, you die today. By Decimation."
The entire Covenant army cheered hysterically at this proclamation, banging their weapons against the ground, each other, or just shooting rounds into the sky. Six had no idea what Decimation was, but it probably was not a pleasant experience.
"I see the look in your eye. You do not know what Decimation is? You will see, Spartan. It is our greatest form of torture, reserved only for traitors and blasphemers. I see you as both."
The Elite did not let go of Noble Six as he barked some orders in the Covenant language to his fellow followers. Within a few seconds, a Phantom was hovering directly over Six and the Elite. It took them both inside by it's gravity lift.
Six had never felt so hopeless in his entire life. His life was going to end in the worst way imaginable, by Covenant standards. Frankly, his luck being as it was, he wasn't all that surprised.
Celestia had never ran so fast in her entire life.
At first, the battle that she had just fought seemed winnable. For a while, she believed that her pony soldiers and her were holding together just fine. Celestia thought they could have a chance of actually defeating the alien invaders. She was proven very wrong as the alien forced plowed straight through her compact defense and attacked Noble Six.
After that, there was nothing she could do. For Noble Six, for her fellow troops, for herself. There was nothing left to do besides run. And run she did. Following her lead, the rest of her loyal subjects fled behind her. Within a minute or two, every remaining pony inside the city had made it to the outskirts. Here, a small, scraggly forest stood. It was the only place left for Celestia and her followers.
Everypony stood in random places, gasping for air, falling to the ground out of exhaustion. The battle they had all just fought was easily the fiercest battle waged on the planet in all of history. Celestia searched frantically for her faithful student and her friends. After a few anxious seconds, she found them huddled up together under a unusually large tree. They also were gasping for air, they had fought as nobly, if not more so, than the rest of her soldiers.
Celestia approached the huddled mass, the look of despair clearly evident on her face. She had no idea what to do. Celestia had no way of feeding her subjects, all nearby food was left in Canterlot. The scraggly forest before them was nothing but a mass of dead trees. No sustenance would be found there. Eventually, all of them would starve if they sat and did nothing.
"Princess Celestia...what are we going to do?" Fluttershy, who was trembling with fear and shock, didn't understand what just happened. All she knew was fear. She had seen death before, but never on this scale. This massive genocide had never before been even imagined by ponies in all of Equestria's history.
Celestia's heart completely shattered when she saw the look on Fluttershy's face. Utter hopelessness and fear. It was on all their faces, including Celestia's own.
"I...I honestly don't know." Was all Celestia was able to say in response. It was true. Celestia usually had a fallback plan. That fallback plan usually was the Elements of Harmony. They were back in the ruins of Canterlot, likely destroyed. Celestia shuddered at the thought of the Elements being obliterated by the aliens. Or worse, captured.
"Well, we can't just sit around and wait!" Rainbow Dash, though exhausted, knew that sitting around and doing nothing meant certain death. "Something has to be done! I say we take that thing head on," Rainbow gestured to the huge purple ship floating over the ruins of Canterlot. "If we can take that thing down, Equestria wins."
Celestia liked the prospect of destroying the foul ship that had destroyed her city, but she saw no way how.
Rainbow Dash was quick to reassure them. She turned and faced the entire crowd of hopeless ponies, and said, "Ponies of Equestria, here me out! Rest assured, I'm just as tired as all of you; just as hopeless as many of you. But I know one thing, if we sit around here and do nothing, we'll all die! That evil ship up there, must be destroyed if we want to keep living."
The crowd of ponies mumbled about themselves doubtfully. There was no way they could take on that massive alien vessel without dying.
Before the remaining fear-driven ponies abandoned all hope, Celestia spoke with a regal tone,
"I know this is a daunting task to ask of you. I can hardly ask you of anything more. You all have performed your duties nobly. You all helped each other in our darkest hour. You are all heroes, warriors who fight against unbeatable foes." Celestia gestured to the fearsome purple ship hovering in the sky.
"No matter how hard the task, no matter how unbeatable the enemy seemed, you all have beaten them before by the same power that lets you stand alive today. The magic of friendship. How Discord was imprisoned in stone, how the Nightmare Moon was reformed, you know the stories. Today, let's show those aliens just how friendly we are!"
The crowed cheered and applauded, throwing hats and helmets into the sky. For the first time that day, every single pony felt the spark of hope in them again. They could actually destroy the alien invaders, and bring peace to Equestria once more.
Celestia felt something tap her lightly on the shoulder. She turned around and saw Fluttershy hovering inches away from her.
"Um, sorry to bother you, but how are we all supposed to get on the floating thing?"
Celestia hadn't thought about that small problem before. Not all of the ponies in their wandering band could fly.
"We'll cross that bridge when we get there," Was all she could think of at the moment. "Right now, I'm more concerned on how I'm going to keep everypony alive long enough to get there."
The battle hadn't gone exactly to plan for Zin'Onon and his fellow warriors. What was planned to be an easy assault with no casualties received turned into a major firefight. Although most of the inhabitants of the ruined city were dead, the Covenant assault force had suffered over 40% casualties.
Zin'Onon counted his blessings, however. He had the Spartan in his possession. He would now do to the human as he wished. Zin'Onon planned for the human's punishment to be as severe as any invented by the Covenant. On top of this honor, the world he attacked was practically his. Everything had gone according to plan.
Now the time had come to destroy the human, as slowly and painfully as possible. Zin'Onon, his followers, and the Spartan were all assembled in the main holding deck of the Night Stalker. Cheers and jeers coming from the Covenant army surrounding him and The Spartan added to the humiliation the human would face. Along with the pain. Especially the pain.
The Spartan was on his knees, his head bowed low to the ground. His hands and feet were secured with plasma shackles. If the human tried to break free, which it had on multiple occasions, the plasma in the shackles roasted his wrists and ankles. There was no escape for the Spartan this time.
Zin'Onon held an Energy Sword in his right claw. He was anxious for the human to suffer. However, before he caused him physical pain, Zin'Onon decided to cause him the worst pain of all. Utter despair, and absolute defeat. The human would finally realize that it had absolutely no hope left in him. Nothing could save it's miserable life now.
Zin'Onon pulled the human to his feet unmercifully. The plasma shackles around the human's ankles dug into his flesh and melted bone. Zin'Onon stared directly down into the Spartan's eyes, eager to see it's expression. He expected it to be full of despair, pain, and utter anguish, as it should be. He saw in the human's eyes something quite different. A different, rarely seen type of expression.
Calm anger. It was as if the human could not feel pain at all, and was completely at peace. Along with that emotion was a peculiar expression that Zin'Onon correctly interpreted as, "I'm not concerned in the slightest, you are going to die shortly."
Zin'Onon was enraged by the human's arrogance. How dare it mock the painful death it was about to receive! Zin'Onon backhanded the Spartan across the face as reward for it's determination. It flew in the air for a second, then painfully crashed onto the metallic flooring. The plasma shackles burned fiercely around the Spartan's hands and feet. The room fell completely silent. All were anxious to see what Zin'Onon would do next to the pathetic human.
Instead, the room was shocked to see the human rise to it's feet, despite the plasma shackles operating at full capacity. More shockingly, Noble Six found the strength left in him to speak. He raised his shackled hands at the crowd, and spoke with a voice that shook the Night Stalker,
"If they came to hear me beg, they'll be quite disappointed."
Zin'Onon decided that enough was enough. The human had to die for it's heresy. Now.
Zin'Onon raised his Energy Sword above the Spartan's head. There was no time for torturing the human any more. It's voice had to be silenced. Forever.
Just then, the most unexpected, pathetic thing happened. For a split second, the air was filled with one loud, quick pop. Every alien in the room was blinded by a white flash of light. It was seconds before anything could see anything again. Once Zin'Onon's vision cleared, he wondered if he had somehow been rendered unconscious. For packed together on one side to the huge room aboard the Night Stalker was a small army of pony warriors.
Zin'Onon, along with the rest of the Covenant crew, was having a hard time accepting that the pony army standing menacingly before them was real. As a result, none of them actually did anything but sit quietly and stare. Stupid Covenant.
Without warning, the largest pony in the formation cried, "Charge!" The Covenant army was taken completely flabbergasted. None of them were even armed with weapons besides for Zin'Onon. They thought their weapons too heavy to lug around to an execution for no apparent reason. Stupid Covenant.
Within about ten seconds, half of the entire Covenant army was utterly defeated. The other half ran helplessly through doors and down winding hallways. One Grunt had the sense to lock all the doors on his way out. He took all Honors classes in Covenant high school. Among those Covenant who ran was Zin'Onon, who left his Energy Sword behind in his frantic fleeing. Stupid Covenant.
Twilight Sparkle, noticing Noble Six still in shackles, rushed to his side and teleported them away. Six was free. Limping slightly, he walked to where Zin'Onon's Energy Sword lay pathetically on the ground. He retrieved it, and put it at his side. He turned, and stared in wonder at the pony army that had rushed to his aid. He himself was flabbergasted. Why would these ponies come to save him, even after everything he had done to them?
Princess Celestia seemed to read his thoughts.
"This may sound somewhat cliche, but we saved you because that's what friends do. Despite everything you did to our kind, and despite everything we did to you, you still came to our aid to defend Canterlot. As the old saying goes, one good turn deserves another."
Six was speechless.
"Are we good then?" Celestia extended her front hoof to Six. In turn, Six shook it.
"Twilight, are you sure you can do this? Covenant blast doors can survive a 11mm shell fired from a Scorpion."
Noble Six, along with the rest of the small pony army, were faced with yet another difficult task. Noble Six, in the few short minutes since his rescue, had come up with a plan for pushing back the Covenant from Equestria. However, this plan meant they had to make their way to the bridge of the ship, the head of control for the entire Covenant attack. Getting there was already challenging enough, as the ship still contained 1000 plus Covenant soldiers and weapons aboard. However, the obstacle most pressing now was figuring out how to get through the tightly sealed Covenant blast doors that bared their path.
It was Twilight's guess, as much as anypony's, that she would be able to blow a hole through the blast door. She had no idea how strong it could be. She also had no idea what an 11mm shell was, or what Noble Six meant by firing it somehow from a scorpion. Twilight didn't think that scorpions could shoot things in the first place.
"I have to try. It's only a matter of time before the aliens send reinforcements down here, and I doubt they'll be unarmed this time."
Noble Six admired Twilight's courage and tenaciousness. They would need it to get out of the Covenant ship alive.
"Then when your ready, do whatever it is you do and blast a hole into that door." Twilight nodded, and slowly approached the silver, purple, and menacing door that blocked her path.
Six was more nervous that any other creature in that room. He understood Covenant battle strategy. It had already been about ten minutes since the Covenant retreated. It was only a matter of time they would send troops to finish them off. Six doubted that the Covenant would send generic troops to kill them as well.
Celestia could sense Six's distress. She was feeling twice as nervous, she needed an encouraging word as much as Six did.
"It'll be alright Six. For one, Princess Twilight is plenty strong enough to blow that door clean off. Secondly, if there's one thing I've seen, its that those six over there have never let me, or anypony else down. We'll get through this."
Suddenly, from behind the pony army, Six heard one of the blast doors open. He turned as fast as lightning towards the open blast door, his Energy Sword grasped tightly in his hand. But nothing came out, so it seemed. The blast door simply opened, and shut again a few seconds later.
It took Six a few seconds to many to realize what had just entered the room.
Suddenly, from out of thin air an Energy Sword, as blue and deadly as lighting, impaled a mint green pony, taken completely of guard. It did so so silently and professionally that no other creature besides Six even recognized that the murder happened.
Then, every other blast door around the room opened, including the one Twilight had been intending on destroying. Everypony in the room, who had intently been staring at the door Twilight was going to blow up, thought that she had opened every door in the room by mistake. Some even cheered her for doing so.
Twilight knew that this was not her doing.
Six's blood turned cold when he realized what was happening. He, and the entire pony army, were completely surrounded by Energy Sword wielding Elites, under the protection of Active Camouflage.
Before Six even had time to warn the ponies, it was too late.
The Elites started to kill every pony on the outside of the formation, one by one, stab by stab. By the time Celestia and the others realized what to do, every single pony on the outside of the formation was destroyed.
Celestia knew she had to act swiftly, or her and all her subjects would die.
"Shield wall, now!"
At Celestia's command, the best of the unicorns under her command created one unified shield above and around them, separating the flabbergasted ponies from the onslaught of invisible Elites. Not even a moment after the shield was created, the Elites slashed and cut at the shimmering shield, slowly but surely disintegrating the magic barrier.
Six knew he had to get his small army of ponies fighting as one, or they would all die in vain.
"Form up, press together to make a tighter defense. Use whatever weapon in your possession to repel the Elites."
The ponies tightened together, and made a small circle of defenders. Everypony on the outside of the circle had whatever weapon in their possession drawn towards the advancing enemy, which would soon collapse the waning shield around them. Those ponies inside the circle were ready to take the place of any comrade who fell before them. The ponies had created a phalanx.
Time grew still as the magic shield collapsed. Everypony held their breath as they waited for the worst. Once the shield fell, the Elites, their Active Camouflage depleted, charged towards the ponies and Noble Six head on, swords raised.
When the two sides clashed, the world moved in slow motion. Energy Swords glided through skin and bone. The sharpened steel weapons the ponies wielded punched through Covenant armor. The Elements of Harmony fought in the front lines, using magic, strength, and party cannons to stay alive. Six fought for his life outside the phalanx, cutting down Elite after Elite as he had done so often before.
The number of Elites was dwindling with every stroke of a sword and blast of magic. Soon, only five Elites remained, then three, then one.
Six was the one fighting the last remaining Elite. Unlike the others, Six planned to take the creature alive. As he found, it was much harder keeping an enemy alive then making him dead.
Energy Sword clashed against Energy Sword in a dangerous spectacle of one-on-one combat. Sparks flew in all directions as both trained warriors fought to claim the others life. Six knew he couldn't fight this Elite forever. With a flick of his wrist, Six cut the Elite's Energy Sword wielding claw. The Elite howled in pain and the sword fell to the floor. Six then grabbed the Elite's thick neck with his hand, and held his Energy Sword to it's throat.
"You're going to tell me what your friends are planning, or I'm going to do to you what your leader planned to do to me."
The Elite remained silent.
"Answer me, now." Six pressed harder against the Elite's throat.
The Elite chuckled to himself, and looking directly into Six's eyes, said, "It's all over. For me, for you, and for those pathetic creatures. Kill me, if that is your wish. You will die very soon."
Six silenced the Elite with a turn of his hand. The Elite slumped to the floor, never to be heard again.
Six turned to face the remaining ponies. Only about twenty remained, including Celestia, Twilight, and the rest of the Elements of Harmony. They were all terribly shaken and terrified, Six could tell that just by looking at their faces. But those ponies weren't looking at him. Every pony eye in the room was fixed on the fallen ponies around them. There were no tears, nopony had enough energy to weep. Only looks of sadness and remorse for the fallen dead.
Six was used to his allies falling around him. There was nothing to be done for the dead. However, he knew that those poor ponies probably hadn't seen death and war on this scale. He gave them a few moments to pay their respects.
"I'm sorry for those lost, but we can't stay here. Nor can we bring them with us. We have to move on."
Noble Six began to move towards one of the open doors, when another sound came from behind him. It was the sound of another door sliding open, only much louder than he expected. He turned, and saw, on the far left side of the room, was a huge bulkhead. This bulkhead slowly opened towards the ceiling. Standing on the other side of the bulkhead, were the creatures Six was counting on not showing up.
Standing inside the bulkhead, were ten pairs of Hunters, twenty in all. All of them were poised to completely obliterate the mass of ponies in front of them. All at once, the massive Fuel Rod Cannons attached to the hunters glowed a fierce green as their weapons charged.
"Move, now!"
That was all Six had time to say before the cannons fired.
For a lost moment in time, Six felt nothing around him. No air, no pain, no space. Noting but white, blinding light.
Then he crashed onto the hard metallic ground beneath him. He slid another few feet across the cold floor, pushed by the sheer impact of the combined Hunter assault cannons. Six wasn't able to get up for a few moments too late. As he first opened his eyes, he saw the circular, purple door to the cargo bay in front of him close and lock. What happened to his last group of allies, whether or not they survived, was a complete mystery.
Six slowly came to his feet, shaken by the terrible force of the impact of his crash. More than that, he realized that he was all alone. Even if his allies were alive, getting to them was impossible. They had to fight by themselves, if they survived the combined power of twenty Hunter assault cannons.
Only one course of action remained. Destroy the Covenant cruiser, or the entire planet will be destroyed. The question was, how could one Spartan, armed with only an Energy Sword, destroy an entire Covenant battleship? The odds were slim to none, and that was discounting the five thousand or so remaining armed Covenant warriors.
Then Six realized what he had to do.
With no time to spare, Six bolted down the twisting metal hallway. He was surprised to come upon no enemies for the first few turns he took. They must've thought that he was destroyed...along with his allies. As long as he was believed to be dead, the Covenant wouldn't come charging after him.
Six sprinted around another corner and ran through an automated door. He was surprised to see two Grunts, sitting around a floating metallic table, playing what seemed to be...cards.
"Got any threes?" The Grunt on the left side of the table asked his companion.
"Go fish." The other Grunt replied. The Grunt smirked to himself. He was lying, most of his cards were threes.
"Got any chance?"
Both Grunts turned towards the now opened door. They froze solid when they saw the Spartan standing inside
A few seconds later, Six walked out of the room. The two Grunts did not.
After this pleasant experience, Six continued to run down the halls, searching fervently for the place he needed to find. He was still uncontested, even after five minutes of continuous running. Something was suspicious about nothing fighting him. Even more suspicious was that he hadn't even come upon any Covenant besides the two card playing Grunts.
Some time later, Six finally came upon the room he was looking for. Above a very large, heavy purple door, in the Covenant language, was a sign.
The Bridge
Cautiously, Six approached the menacing door, keeping as silent as possible. He thought he might have too forcefully hack the door with his fist, when the door opened by itself. It was unlocked the whole time. Six stopped before entering. The Covenant were many things, but they weren't that stupid, generally. They didn't get ridiculously close to exterminating humanity by leaving everything unlocked and unguarded.
Six had no choice but to stealthily enter the Bridge.
The Bridge was very large, purple, and menacing. It was a sturdy part of the ship, the strongest in fact, it could survive a direct it from a small UNSC MAC cannon. As the heart of the entire ship, it held much of the key components for running the vessel. For example, the Covenant version of a Faster-Than-Light Energy Drive, much more efficient than the human version, was kept directly underneath in a sealed bulkhead.
Still uncontested by any Covenant, Six moved towards the largest Covenant system on board, the Master Control Panel. To any other human, it was an awkward grouping of flashy buttons and colorful lights. To Six, it was his key to saving the planet. With no time to waste, Six put his plan into action.
As he worked, he thought about how, and why, the Covenant would continue to not resist him, even when he was on the brink of destroying their battleship. In fact, the more and more he thought about it, the more and more the Covenant seemed to be laying a ...
Just then, the ground suddenly decided to be nonexistent, violently. Six was forced upwards by the sheer power of the explosion, and then came back down, through the blue of plasma flames. A second later, he crashed onto the ground with a sickening crunch. Terrible, searing pain shot up his left leg. He suddenly realized the horror of what happened. He had fallen about forty feet and landed on his left leg. It was broken.
He tried to get up. Slowly, with all his might, he managed to stand up, putting most of his weight on his right leg. His other leg hurt like nothing Six had ever felt in his life.
Suddenly, from behind him, a deep, menacing voice chucked in victory. Six recognized the voice. It didn't make his situation any better.
Then, from behind him, Zin'Onon spoke,
"How does it feel, human? How does it feel to get so close to victory, and then have your entire world ripped from under you?"
Zin'Onon finally had what he wanted. The Spartan, standing limply in front of him, ripe for the fate Zin'Onon had in store. Zin'Onon laughed again as he watched the wounded Spartan pathetically hop on one foot around to face him. He stopped laughing when he saw the Spartan's eyes. They showed no sign of pain, no emotion of despair. Only the same look Zin'Onon, along with the rest of the Covenant, had come to fear.
Without a word, Six drew his Energy Sword. He knew this would be the last battle of his life.
Astonished that the Spartan had the determination to fight, though enraged that he dare try to oppose him, Zin'Onon drew his Energy Sword. For a second, both warriors stared into each others eyes. Then, they clashed.
Zin'Onon struck first, with such lightning speed that Six barely managed to parry the blow. As fast as he could, Six retaliated, bringing his Energy Sword across Zin'Onon's chest. The blow was enough to wound the Elite, but didn't go deep enough to kill him. Enraged, Zin'Onon backhanded Six with all his might on his unprotected head. Six flew backwards and crashed into a large Covenant machine in the middle of the room.
His Energy Sword trailing along the metal floor, Zin'Onon moved towards the severely wounded Spartan. Unmercifully, he picked up Six by his neck with his free claw. Six desperately slashed at the Elite with his Energy Sword, but Zin'Onon deflected the blow, and the sword flew out of Six's hand.
"It's over, human."
Zin'Onon brought his Energy Sword to Six's neck.
Six knew that this was the end. He tried as hard as he could, yet it wasn't enough. Equestria would burn, it would roast until it was as lifeless as Reach.
Then, in a flash, Six realized what it was he was pinned against.
With all his might, Six kicked Zin'Onon in the knee with his good leg. The Elite staggered back, clutching his wounded knee in pain. Then, Six grabbed Zin'Onon's Energy Sword wielding claw, and pulled it as hard as he could into the machine behind him. His Energy Sword stuck deep into the machine.
Horrified, Zin'Onon realized what the Spartan had done. Warning lights flashed and alarms blared as the central AI of the ship said,
The FTL Drive, damaged beyond repair, began to leak energy and ignite fires. Sparks began to fly from the huge device. Those sparks quickly turned into small explosions as the entire ship rattled and banged.
"What have you done? You'll kill us all!" Zin'Onon said as he frantically tried to remove the sword, to no avail.
Six said nothing to the doomed Elite. He looked straight ahead. He finally won. The world below him was saved.
Six closed his eyes. On his face was the first happy expression he'd ever shown. A smile.
POINT OF ORIGIN: COVENANT BATTLECRUISER NIGHTSTALKER
RECEIVING: UNSC SCOUTING VESSEL VALKYRIE
MESSAGE AS FOLLOWS, FOR UNSC ATTENTION:
---> This message is cleared for any and all UNSC personnel.
This is an emergency transmission to any UNSC contacts in vicinity. All information following is NOT sent by the Covenant, I am hacking their transponder to send this message.
Recently identified planet, Equestria, is to be recognized as a formal ally of the UNSC, ONI, and all of humanity as our first extraterrestrial friendly contacts. As such, they are subject to our aid and protection in times of crisis, being either economical, physical, or military based. Likewise, they have, and might continue to, benefit humanity in more ways than we can imagine.
PLANET COORDINATES- 104R-564F-BB76-QQWG-MIKE
Spartan B32---Noble Six
MESSAGE ENDS
"With all due respect sir, this is crap mail sent by the Covenant."
Lieutenant John Walker had good reason for believing so, the captain could obviously see. Indeed, the emergency transmission from out of the blue did seem more than a little bit suspicious. Just the fact that the person who wrote the message specifically said that it wasn't sent by the Covenant was convincing enough. On top of that, the point of the transmission's origin was a Covenant Battlecruiser! Plus, it was very unlikely that any known UNSC personnel could get up the the cruiser's bridge to send the message, after fighting and surviving thousands of zealot Covenant soldiers.
However, Captain Marcus Andrews was perhaps the only human aboard Valkyrie that recognized the name of Noble Six. He had seen him before, back at the fall of Reach.
The day just hadn't been going all that well for Lieutenant Andrews, or the rest of humanity, for that matter. In fact, things didn't seem like they could possibly get worse.
Indeed, the situation did seem disastrous. Andrews could tell that by looking outside the Pelican back hatch. Pretty much, the entire planet was on fire. If it wasn't, it was dead. The Covenant completely destroyed the planet. Andrews thought that perhaps he and him men could organize some kind of defense plan, but obviously to no avail. Now he and those aboard the Pelican, and the Pillar of Autumn, were just about the only remaining humans on the planet.
One last thing needed to be done, however. If there's one thing that the UNSC hammers into your head at basic training, it's to never leave a man behind. For honor reasons, of course, but leaving Noble Six behind to die on Reach was just plain stupid. He was an extremely valuable asset to the survival of humanity as one of the last Spartan III's in existence. Not having him aboard the Autumn was near suicide.
So Captain Keys organized a rescue party to save the valiant Spartan. And here Andrews was, aboard the Pelican with Keys and a few other good men, rescuing the best chance for their survival. Andrews could see him in the distance, standing on the metal platform, just waiting to be rescued. Around him were a comical amount of dead Covenant bodies. It was then that Andrews realized that they really really really needed him to survive. Without him, they were toast with butter, and maybe a little honey on top, depending on the situation.
Just then, a Covenant Battlecruiser flew in on a mission to destroy the Autumn. It was not an encouraging sight, but Andrews was encouraged to see another Spartan aiming a huge MAC cannon at the belly of the beast to destroy it. Then Andrews was not as encouraged to see the Spartan killed by about ten Energy Sword wielding Elites.
Once just a few feet from the Spartan, Andrews called out, "Get aboard, we need to get the hell out of here!" He was quite anxious to get the Spartan and go, seeing how they were still very surrounded by hundreds of thousands of Covenant troops.
Then, Noble Six said something that blew his mind.
"Negative, I have the gun. Good luck, sir."
There was no way that they could save the Spartan if he mounted the MAC cannon, Andrews knew that. They needed to escape as soon as possible, or they would all die. Yet, Andrews marveled at the courage of this warrior, knowing that by staying behind he was calling his own death. Andrews also took Noble Six's last statement to heart, even if it wasn't especially directed to him.
"Good luck, Spartan." Keys somberly replied as the Pelican began it's flight back to the Autumn, leaving Six there to cover it's escape, and give his life in the process.
Four years later, Captain Andrews never forgot Noble Six's final act of courage. He knew that if this message was sent by Noble Six, then two things change for humanity. One, Noble Six is alive and ready to finish the Covenant with a vengeance. Two, this planet he listed, Equestria, was on the side of humanity. At last, some perhaps lasting alliances with extraterrestrial beings.
If the message was sent by the Covenant, however, those planet coordinates listed were likely the coordinates into the middle of twenty other Covenant Battlecruisers. The Valkyrie had no chance of fighting that many and surviving.
Andrews had a decision. Input the coordinates into the NAV computer and risk the destruction of the Valkyrie, or leave what could be the alive Noble Six to die an eventual death.
"Captain, what are you orders?" Lieutenant Walker asked, eager to do something rather than watching his captain have flashbacks.
Andrews made his decision.
"Lieutenant, is the Valkyrie ready for faster than light travel?"
The Valkyrie, being one of the best scouting ships in the UNSC fleet, was equipped with one of the most advanced FTL Drives in history. It was a mash up of human, Covenant, and even Forerunner systems, creating an FTL Drive that could travel further, faster, and recharge more swiftly than most any other in existence.
The day is bright and warm. A gentle breeze blows through the tops of green leafed trees. Two young boys gaze up at the blue sky, under the shade of an kind, old oak tree.
The older of the two brothers, about 12 years old at the time, looks down at his little brother. He's sprawled comfortably across the hard pavement, enjoying the moist, fragrant Arcadian air.
The littler brother, around seven years old, looks back into his brother's eyes. They had been together since the younger of the two brothers was evacuated from planet Harvest in the first of the Covenant attacks. His parents had been brutally slaughtered by the Covenant in the very first assault they launched against mankind. Narrowly escaping onslaught aboard an evacuation vessel, the little boy survived the onslaught. Orphaned, the boy had nothing but the clothes on his back and the tears in his eyes. The older boy's parents found him alone, and adopted him. His newly adopted father, a Major in the UNSC, treated the small child as his own.
A few years later, his parents saved enough money to take a surprise vacation on the recently discovered planet Arcadia.
"Life's been pretty good lately, huh bro?"
The younger boy nodded in response. Life did seem pretty good. It didn't get much better than chilling under a tree, with no responsibilities.
The older boy smiled warmly. "It'll be you and me forever, bro. Nothing in the world will change that, you know that, don't you?"
The younger boy nodded again. He returned his brother's warm smile. He knew that he'd found a family that loved him ever since he first met them. Yep, the younger boy thought, nothing will ever change that.
Suddenly, the breeze picks up speed and turns into a forceful gale. Leaves are blown away from the branches they once stood proudly on. The two boys look up into the sky at the purple intruder invading the glorious day. Both of them instantly recognize it as the source of all their sorrows. A Covenant invasion ship.
Then the two boy's father bursts from out of the vacation home. In his arms is an Assault Rife. He's just finishing getting dressed into his brown-green UNSC uniform. He looks at his sons in pale terror.
"Quick, take these."
The boy's father passes two objects to each of his sons. They are two Magnums, one for the each of them.
"Dad...what's going on?" The younger boy asks, hoping his asking would disprove everything around him.
"The Covenant are invading. I have to join Sergent Forge in his effort to evacuate the city. Jake, its up to you to get your younger brother to the cargo ships."
Jake tries to plead with his father, to say he can't do it, but the screaming of Banshees overhead blocks out all other noise. Right behind them a group of civilians is destroyed by a Banshee's fuel rod cannon. Another is quickly surrounded by squads of Elites who show no mercy to the defenseless humans.
"The cargo ships are that way," Their father points to a group of three large evacuation ships in the distance.
A loudspeaker frantically announces, "This is Sergent Forge, we need any and all UNSC forces at the firebase, ASAP!"
The boy's father turns towards the UNSC base in the distance.
"I'm sorry, I have to go. Take care of each other, get to the cargo ships." Tears fall from their father's eyes.
"But...promise us we'll see you again!" Jake says, his eyes blinded by tears. His father starts to move towards the base.
"Just get to the cargo ships! Go, now!" Their father sprints towards the firebase. The two boys run without looking back. They keep sprinting and sprinting, running through plasma fire from surrounding Covenant forces. The younger boy swiftly tires, and comes to a halt. Jake turns and ushers him forwards.
"Come on, bro! We have to keep running! We're almo..."
The younger boy watches his brother get shot in the side by a pink crystal shard. Nonetheless, he stays on his feet. He hefts his Magnum and shoots the Grunt who shot him. He's shot by another shining pink shard in his opposite side.
"Go! Keep running, don't stop!" Two more pink crystals stab into his leg. He collapses to his knees. His younger brother can't do anything but watch.
"Go!" Jake continues firing rounds into the Covenant troops. His younger brother obeys and runs faster than he'd every run in his life. He can hear nothing but his brother's Magnum rounds penetrating the Covenant. His final stand.
The younger boy finally reaches one of the cargo ships. He rushes aboard just as the ship begins to ascend.
"Quickly, boy, get on!" A large man reaches out his hand and pulls him into the ship. The door to the ship fastens shut just as he gets in. The boy collapses into a comfortable leather seat.
"That was a close one. Glad we could get everybody aboard that we could." The large man says to the boy. He looks down at the small child, and sees the tears rolling down his cheek. He's looking out of one of the circular windows at the land bellow them.
"I'm sorry. I know you've got family down there. So do I. But at least we're alive, us lucky few."
The boy is hardly listening to the man. His thoughts are placed on his brother's last stand. Why did he fight? He was as good as dead when he first got shot. Why did he keep standing? What was he standing for?
"Thank God for those brave men and women willing to give up their lives for us" The large man said to himself.
The young boy turned to face him. "Why do we fight them? We can't beat them."
The large man scratched his beard. "You know what? You're probably right. It'll take a miracle for us to survive. But as long as we stand we'll keep on fighting. Because if we don't we'll die anyway. And even if we do, at least we know that we died fighting for the rest of humanity. For our brothers."
A tear rolled down the young boy's cheek. For our brothers.
If there was one question you could ask yourself at the end, what would it be? For Julius Caesar, the question might've been: "What did I do to deserve this?" For Charlemagne of the Frankish Kingdom, it might've been: "What could I have done better?" For Adolf Hitler, it might've been: "Where did I go wrong?"
For Noble Six, the question in his mind might be the question that many of us will ask ourselves at the end. One simple, infinitely powerful question.
"Did I help?"
Six didn't know whether he was dead or alive. He supposed it didn't make much of a difference either way. He could neither see nor feel anything around him. He could only think, and, on occasion, dream.
There would be long periods marked by nothing but black silence. Once in a while a vision of some sort came to alleviate the stillness. It was usually a flash of something from Six's past. Sometimes the flashes were from distant memories, other times from recent ones. Very rarely, Six would see something he didn't recognize. He assumed that it was something forgotten from the past, but the power and realism of the vision would provoke him otherwise.
At some point in his quiet afterlife or dream, Six saw a most disturbing, and emotionally provoking, vision.
In his vision, he saw a quiet, dull brown landscape dotted by rolling hills as far as his eyes could reach. The musty smell of old grass and the humid air clung to his being. On the hill closest to his observing, he saw a professional, somber row of UNSC Marines facing a simple, dark green slap of metal. To Six's utmost surprise, he saw with the Marines a group of equally somber Elites also facing the metal plaque. Neither of the species were in battle, as Six obviously expected. Instead, they were all listening to the UNSC general addressing them in front of the metal square.
Six couldn't quite hear what the old, awe inspiring general had to say, but the message was clearly respectful and somber. Some time later, a group of Marines in the classic drab green uniform performed a ceremony that Six clearly recognized, though they used weapons unknown to him. They fired one shot into the air, put down their rifle, then did so again two times. This respectful act was reserved for the honoring of the fallen, a funeral ceremony for the killed and missing in action. After the act finished, one menacing Elite, clearly larger and higher ranking than the rest, did the unthinkable. He somberly approached the UNSC general in the plain sight of dozens of Marines. None of the loyal Marines did so much as swat a fly. Once at speaking distance, the general spoke to the Elite.
"I remember how this war started, with your kind starting the fight." The general stared unblinking into the Elite's yellow, alien eyes. Without pulling a knife, he extended his open hand to the Elite. The huge creature extended his menacing claw towards the general without pulling an Energy Sword.
"I can't forgive you, but you have my thanks, for standing by in the end." Then, in an act never before seen, the two races, equally spiteful of each other, shook the others hand in an act of mutual respect.
Six's view immediately changed from this scene to the next. He was standing just in front of the dark green object. Now he could see the numerous pictures adorning its face. All of them were faces he had never seen, but he still knew who they were. They those brave men and women who fell in the line of duty. They were the faces of those who bravely gave up their lives for their race, though they had little inclination to believe in it. They were those people that Noble Six as a child dreamed he could one day become.
As his eyes observed every one of those heroes, his gaze fell upon something distant. Leaning against the very farthest corner of the metal plaque, was something Six never thought he would again see. Resting somberly upon the ground was his silver-gray helmet he lost from Reach. Its visor was split apart and cracked. Its titanium alloy frame was dull and its initial allure faded. But it was, for sure, there. It was included among the honorable fallen who gave their lives saving billions. It was included among the immortal heroes who won the war against the Covenant.
"You asked yourself if you helped, and I believe the answer is standing right there in front of you."
Six turned around to identify the person who spoke. The speaker was a woman whom Six recognized from his recent past. She was old but not at all feeble, her hair had turned gray, and she was dressed in a plain white lab coat. Her eyes twinkled with admiration and respect.
"Doctor Halsey?"
Halsey gave Six a warm smile and nodded gently. She continued speaking in her usual serious but comforting tone, "When I finished downloading the Package from the relic site, I realized that it was unlikely it was to ever reach safety. I consulted Cortana, the Package, about who could possibly get her to safety. She chose you, Noble Six. She told me that there was no other person who could help more."
Halsey gestured to the metal frame behind Six. She spoke to him in a raised tone, "Look at those men and women, Noble. They gave their lives to the human race. They left behind their beloved parents, sisters, brothers, friends, and countrymen for the continued survival of us as a whole, though most of that whole didn't care if they were killed." She pointed at Six's battered helmet.
"They were they bravest of the brave, and through their courage they won the war against the Covenant. You are one on that wall, Noble. You are the reason that mankind survived. You are the one who saved billions of men, women, and children who had long since given up hope."
Six looked Doctor Halsey straight in her eyes, waiting for her to confess that it was all false. She gazed back into his eyes, unwavering. She was telling the truth. Humanity had won the war against the Covenant, and they only could have done it because one man transported one small cylinder of information to one lone vessel.
"We won?" Six hardly had to ask more.
"Yes. But the war isn't over."
Suddenly, Six saw an entirely new vision. The days of his recent past flew by in waves of memories. His violent crash on the strange planet Equestria and his initial conflict with the supernaturally empowered locals. His first escape to his crashed Banshee, soon turned to a bomb in a desperate attempt to flee the castle. The lightning sprint out of the city and the dozen lives taken as its cost. The Covenant siege against the city and his sacrifice to save its leader. He remembered his capture and near execution. But what he remembered most of all was the rescue attempt to save him, and the innocent lives given in his own defense, though he didn't deserve it.
He flashed back to the musty hillside. Doctor Halsey stood ready for him, looking him straight in the eyes.
"Those innocent civilians gave their lives for you, Noble. They knew that you were their best chance for survival. And they were right."
Six's vision again flashed away from that hillside in a blast of white light. A moment later he stood bedsides Doctor Halsey on a vibrant green pasture dotted by lively trees and bright yellow flowers. Hanging alone in the sky was the Covenant invasion ship besieging the planet. In a noise that tore apart the silence and thundered through all the land, the ship exploded in a flash of blue and orange fire. A black sphere materialized inside the ship and grew to engulf half of the vessel. The two opposite ends of the ship flew apart and descended down in a slow, dramatic wake, as if it were sinking into the sea. When the black orb of dense energy dissipated, the middle of the ship had disappeared into the void. Six understood what had happened, he caused it. An FTL Drive malfunction led to a slip-space anomaly. Essentially, most of the ship had been hurled into another dimension.
With Noble Six on board.
He turned slowly to face Halsey, who stood staring at the destroyed Covenant battle cruiser in both awe and dread. Halsey looked back into his eyes. Tears rolled slowly down her face. Six couldn't tell if they were tears of sadness or tears of joy. Perhaps a little bit of both.
Halsey broke her gaze and straightened her lab coat. She wiped the tears from her eyes and said to Six with a definitive tone,
"The Covenant will be back, don't be mistaken. This world has only been given a taste of what is yet to come. Without allies, every inhabitant on the planet will be burned."
Six gazed into the sky as if he was looking into the very heart of the cosmos.
"How can I help when I'm..." He couldn't finish his statement.
Halsey looked straight at Six's face, her expression as solid as stone.
"You're not the only one who knows the meaning of sacrifice."
Six broke his gaze from the sky and looked back into Halsey's eyes. They sparkled with tears of sorrow.
"What do you mean?
Halsey didn't answer.
"Tell me doctor...please."
Halsey cleared her throat, then straightened her lab coat. She spoke in a wavering voice.
"One of the planet inhabitants, Princess Celestia as you may know her, teleported herself and her subjects away from the Covenant battle cruiser just before they would've been destroyed by twenty combined fuel rod cannons. All of them were saved. However, some time later she watched as the battle cruiser began to explode. She had a choice to make. She could keep herself and her subjects safe by letting you go, or put her own life at risk for you."
Six began to realize what had been done.
"Abandoning her subjects even after massive pleading, she teleported aboard the ship. She found you just before the FTL Drive created a hole in slip-space. She managed to teleport you to safety...but not herself. She was absorbed by the tear made into the alternate dimension just moments after rescuing you."
Six shook his head in disbelief.
"She died to save you. For reasons I do not understand, she gave up her own life for the life of an alien, an outsider, someone who killed a dozen of her loyal subjects. Perhaps she understood that you are the planet's best chance for its continued survival."
Halsey paused to wipe her face clean of tears.
"Don't let her sacrifice be in vain."
Six could think of no words to say.
"Time to wake up, Noble."
Noble Six awoke to the most pleasant of sounds. The sound of an orbital MAC cannon fired from a UNSC war ship in atmosphere. Of course, sound alone isn't enough to describe this experience. The force of this MAC cannon alone was enough to throw Six into a ceiling, leave him pinned against it for a full second, then come crashing down to the floor like an asteroid. This isn't even accounting for the aftershock caused by the continued momentum of the shell as it drives into the ground. That kept Noble Six bouncing up and down on the floor for the next thirty seconds. You see, shooting a land borne target with a MAC cannon while in atmosphere causes its own little artificial earthquake that can be felt by everyone and everything miles away. In fact, while testing that theory on Mars when the cannon was first created, the force of the accelerated particles broke open a fault line a mile under the planet's surface. This caused an actual earthquake that nearly destroyed a human settlement thirty miles away.
This is why the UNSC refrains from firing MAC cannons while in atmosphere, except, of course, when destroying all things Covenant. So whatever a UNSC warship could be shooting their MAC cannon at while in atmosphere had to be along that line.
Six forced himself to get on his feet, terribly shaken by the impact. He looked around at his surroundings. The sun hung brightly in the sky, projecting a comfortable warmth around his being. He was in a recently demolished square stone room. It was, of course, recently demolished by the MAC cannon. To his right was a large white bed, now covered in loose stones and bits of rubble. On and around this bed were various tubes and other equipment. All around him was destruction. Recently abolished walls and smashed columns littered the ground in an uneven ruin. Shattered glass lay strewn about him like crystal daggers strutting from the ruin. Marble statues of equine beings lay broken amongst the rubble. Small fires burned on nearby beds and other fabrics. From the long lanes of beds, Six could tell he was in a hospital. A destroyed one at any rate.
He looked up into the sky at something quickly descending towards him. He blinked twice in confusion. He then rubbed his eyes in disbelief, thinking that the apparitions in the sky would disappear. They did not.
Approaching from the sky were five UNSC warships of varying sizes and shapes. All of them were built in the standard UNSC titanium alloy frame with outside support energy shields. They were fully armed with anti-naval cannons, anti-air support guns, barrage cannons, hailstorm missiles, and MAC cannons. Propelled by the most powerful and efficient interplanetary engines ever created, they were directly above Six's head in a matter of moments. From this overhead view, the sheer size and mass of the vessels awed anyone who saw them. Moments later, a squadron of three fully armed Pelicans descended directly towards him. The wind caused by the force from the Pelican engines swirled around Six's stunned frame. As the Pelicans landed in a line in front of them, their back cargo doors fell open to the ground.
Six saw then the things he thought he would never again see. Ten Marines dressed in olive drab battle dress uniforms sprinted out of the Pelicans towards Noble Six. They were outfitted with the most advanced military technology Six had ever seen. Metal alloy helmets laced with different sorts of gear ranging from tactical head lights to long range communicators. Advanced rifles and improved body armor. They were Marines, yes, but much different from the kind he was used to seeing. Marines dressed in old, faded uniforms with helmets equipped with the most basic technologies and weapons that worked properly about half the time.
These advanced Marines surrounded Noble Six in a compact formation and ushered him to the center Pelican. He was too stunned to do anything but obey in confused silence. Once aboard, the back hatch to the Pelican closed, and the Pelican ascended in the center of the formation.
Six fell to one of the small chairs that lined sides of the Pelican in awe and confusion. In a matter of moments, he had just been rescued by his fellow humans, a species he thought he would never see again. Then another thought occurred to him. From what had he been rescued?
"Sir, if I may?"
Six snapped out of his thoughts to look at the Marine addressing him. He was tall and somewhat lanky, but still quite burly and muscular. He spoke in the old Australian accent that marked many UNSC personnel. His expression was clearly awe and admiration, as well as a quite a bit of nervousness to be speaking with the giant Spartan nearly as tall as the Pelican cargo bay while sitting down. This was the general mood of the other dozen or so Marines staring at the huge Spartan. The nervous Marine cleared his throat and continued.
"The whole situation is a bit confusing, but I'll explain it the best I can." He stopped speaking again, his nerves getting the better of him. One of his fellow Marines elbowed him in the shoulder.
"Alright, alright, I'm talkin', geez." He hissed to the Marine.
"Anyway, about three weeks ago a UNSC scouting vessel, Valkyrie, received your distress signal. After scanning the planet we traced you to, it detected a large Covenant presence. The ship's captain sent for reinforcements. A few weeks later, a whole bloomin' fleet of our warships show up, with nothing to fight. The Covenant presence on the planet had vanished."
"What about the MAC cannon? The UNSC doesn't authorize an in atmosphere shot without reason." Six asked, his voice making all the hardened Marines tremble a little bit. The lanky Marine continued in a deeper, more serious tone.
"We sure as hell had a reason. The moment our fleet enters the atmosphere, the planet's inhabitants start blasting our ships with crazy multicolored laser beams. We don't know if they're Covenant or not, but they were definitely hostiles. All our ships were badly damaged, we almost lost the Hammer. The fleet admiral ordered an in atmosphere MAC round before it was too late. After that, we tracked your transponder, rescued you, and here we are."
Six took a few moments to process the information.
"You did what?" Six asked in mock disbelief and terror. The Marine had to be joking with him. They couldn't have just destroyed the very beings that saved his life.
"Like I told you mate. We took out most of the settlement with one well aimed MAC blast, and the rest of the surviving defenders ran away. Job well done, if you ask me..."
The Marine's voice muffled in Six's head as he realized what had been done. He felt sick to his stomach as he rose to his feet and stumbled towards the back cargo gate. He pressed the emergency release button. The gate slowly descended, and sunlight poured into the Pelican. Cool wind blew around Six's shocked frame as he saw the sight before him. In the distance was the destroyed ruin of a small town. A huge, black crater had been made in the town's center. Most of the buildings around it were nothing but piles of rubble. The once happy village had been decimated into a smoldering ruin by the press of a button. A disgusting smell filled his nostrils, either real or put there by his own disgust. The smell of death.
Six lost control of of his legs and collapsed onto the metallic flooring of the Pelican. He couldn't hear the surprised voices of his Marines, nor the roar the Pelican engines. He could hear only a voice inside his head as he descended into unconsciousness.
