Forced to crash-land on a mysterious ring-shaped construct, the crew of [i]The Pillar of Autumn[/i] must rely upon the last known Spartan-II - and six top-secret Spartan-IIBs - for their survival.
The year is 2552. Humanity is locked in a struggle for survival against the Covenant, a collective race of aliens that have declared humanity's existence as an affront to their gods. The planet Reach, a major naval shipyard, has fallen to the Covenant. Forced to make a blind jump into Slipspace during the battle, The Pillar of Autumn carries onboard what may well be the last Spartan-II, Spartan-117, known only by his rank, Master Chief. But he is not the only Spartan onboard. Sealed in six cryo tubes are the only Spartan-IIBs ever created. The crew assumes that they're the results of the Spartan-II enhancement project that was occuring on Reach at the time the planet fell.
They're wrong.
There's a number of odd things about the Spartan-IIBs. For one thing, they're all female. For another, they seem to posess abilities no human has ever had. And there's a reason... but it's one not even the Spartan-IIBs know about - or expect.
As The Pillar of Autumn emerges from Slipspace in unknown territory, the Covenant closes in...
Note: This is a Halo crossover, with an altered continuity. I'll be drawing heavily from the first Halo, and from the book The Flood.
0204 HOURS (SHIP'S TIME), SEPTEMBER 19, 2552 (MILITARY CALENDAR) / UNSC CRUISER PILLAR OF AUTUMN, LOCATION UNKNOWN
Master Chief was flabbergasted. "The crew did WHAT??!!"
Cortana emitted a sigh, then spoke. "The crew set the thaw timers on the cyropods, then placed them into the specialist HEVs. They were launched right before we were boarded."
The Master Chief had known that there were six Spartan-IIBs onboard The Pillar of Autumn. What he hadn't known until about 15 seconds ago was that the secrecy that still enveloped them meant that they'd been placed in prototypes of a new variant of Human Entry Vehicles and ejected immediately upon the impact of the first Covenant boarding pod as it slammed into the ship's hull.
He silently cursed the security measures, as the Marines could've used their support. As he shot another Elite in the head with his pistol, he silently hoped that they made it down to the ring's surface safely. Then a squad of Grunts rounded the corner, and his mind refocused on the task of getting himself - and Cortana - safely off the ship.
DEPLOYMENT +00 HOURS:07 MINUTES:32 SECONDS (SPARTAN B-597 MISSION CLOCK) / HEV SPECIALIST VARIANT SP-II PROTOTYPE ALPHA-I, ON THE SURFACE OF RING STRUCTURE OF UNIDENTIFIED ORIGIN AND PURPOSE, REFERRED TO AS "HALO".
Spartan-IIB Alpha, known as Spartan B-597, awoke, her eyes opening to the sight of fellow Spartan-IIB Beta, whose official designation was Spartan B-913, opening the lid on her cyro tube.
"Welcome back to reality, Spark!!"
"Uugghh, my head feels like an entire Covenant cruiser crashed inside of it", Spark groaned as she pulled herself up and out of the tube.
She shook herself, ridding herself of some residual grogginess. She then stepped outside the HEV and surveyed her surroundings.
They were in a canyon, which had a stream running through it. Of much more interest to Spark, however, was the fact that they appeared to be on a giant, ring-shaped structure.
"How is this even possible? The amount of energy needed to power such a massive construct would be..." Spark trailed off as she started to run mathematical calculations in her head.
"INCOMING!!!"
Spark ducked and rolled, her trust in Pink's strange precognitive ability absolute. An instant later, a massive green explosion rocked the downed HEV.
"Hunters!!" Pink yelled, simultaneously rolling and unslinging a rocket launcher that had been brought down in her HEV. She came to a kneeling position, aimed, and fired, all in the space of 1.47 seconds.
The first Hunter was running down the hill, and wasn't able to evade in time. His head was blown off by the 102mm rocket, and he collapsed, his momentum sending his corpse careening into the escape pod.
The second Hunter, however, was still alive, and he roared in anger at the loss of his bond brother. His fuel-rod cannon glowed green, charging up for another shot.
Spark closed her eyes and concentrated. The Hunter was suddenly flung away by an invisible force, the shot from his fuel-rod cannon hitting the nearby mountainside. Pink fired a second rocket, which caved in his armoured chestplate, killing him.
"Pink, are there any nearby Covenant troops?"
Pink concentrated. "There are two Banshees 1.45 kilometers upspin from our position. There are also a large number of Covenant ground patrols nearby, and they're searching for any survivors."
Spark grabbed an MA5B assault rifle out of the HEV, and rammed a full clip of ammo into it. She then grabbed a quartet of frag grenades, checking the pins on them. As Pink grabbed more rounds of ammo for the rocket launcher, then added a shotgun to her arsenal, Spark grabbed a sniper rifle. She sighted through the scope on a tree on the other side of the canyon, test-fired the weapon, then, having satisfied herself of its accuracy, she turned back towards Pink.
Celestia stood upon the parapet of Canterlot Castle, looking out across Canterlot. Fires were burning, and the walls were under attack.
Luna landed next to her, her figure backlit by the moon. "Sister, there's something you need to know."
Celestia continued to stand silently, her mane barely flowing. Luna tilted her head in sympathy. "You're wondering where they went again, aren't you?"
Celestia sighed, as she stared out at the pony-shaped abominations that were attacking the walls. As she watched, ten yellow spheres with tentacles jumped one of Luna's thestral guards. He screamed in agony, and a nearby guard turned and shot him through the heart with a crossbow bolt.
"Twenty years, and not a clue as to where they've gone. We've searched every inch of Equestria and not a single trace has been found." She gestured with her horn at the creatures that had once been ponies, who were continuing to assault the walls in seemingly endless waves. One of the numerous bulbous forms that waddled forward exploded, releasing more yellow spheres into the air. "The Tree of Harmony still repels the creatures, but we cannot use the Elements."
"At least that indicates that they're still alive." As they looked on, forms that had once been Pegasi attacked, diving out of the darkness. Normal Pegasi attacked, and the aerial assault was converted into a furious dogfight.
"Yes, but with no way to contact them, what good is it?" Celestia said in a tone of despair.
Luna looked sharply at her sister. She had never in her 2,567 years seen her sibling this close to emotional collapse.
She took a deep breath, and spoke. "Actually, I may have found them."
Celestia's head snapped up and around, her eyes filled with renewed hope. "Where? How?" As she looked at Luna, a thunderstorm began to form, lightning bolts frying thousands of the monstrosities. Emboldened, the army fought with renewed vigor, driving them back.
"I found Rainbow Dash while I was dreamwalking tonight."
Celestia's mane began to flow more rapidly. "What happened?"
"Well..."
DEPLOYMENT +00 HOURS:3 MINUTES:17 SECONDS (SPARTAN B-045 MISSION CLOCK) / HEV SPECIALIST VARIANT SP-II PROTOTYPE ALPHA-IV, EN ROUTE TO SURFACE OF "HALO".
Rain was dreaming as her cyropod slowly thawed out according to its preset timer.
But her dream was anything but peaceful.
She stood alone, with a frag grenade in one hand and a M6D pistol in the other. A horde of Covenant headed straight towards her position, howling for blood.
Rain threw the grenade, blowing a cluster of Grunts into oblivion, then jumped up.
Far up, farther than even an unarmored Spartan could do. Her helmet located what she was looking for, and she dove down, rocketing straight through a hail of Needler fire.
She landed on top of a Hunter and, using her armored fingers, ripped off the arm with the fuel rod cannon.
As the Hunter reared back in surprise, orange gunk spraying across Rain's armor, she leaped off, tackling an Elite to the ground. She punched her fist straight through his face, then threw her pistol at a nearby Grunt, who got solidly conked on the head. She grabbed the energy sword the Elite had carried, then whirled around and sliced another in half. She grabbed his as well, then wielding both swords simultaneously, she tore through the Covenant ranks with a vengeance, not noticing the flying figure that silently watched her.
Finally, all the Covenant on the battlefield were dead, piled in heaps. Rain impaled her energy swords in the ground, then proceeded to disengage the safety interlocks on her helmet. She looked out at the battlefield, her rainbow-colored hair streaming in the wind.
"Rainbow Dash..."
She whirled around, and saw a sight that was both strange and yet oddly familiar. A winged quadruped - with a horn - that resembled a horse alighted on the ground in front of her.
She fell into a martial arts stance, and called out, "Who are you???!!!!"
The dark blue-black creature opened its mouth and spoke once more. "Remember who you are, Rainbow Dash." Suddenly, moving with impossible swiftness, it was in front of her, and its horn touched her forehead.
A wave of images started rushing through her head, and Rain/bow cried out in surprise...
Spartan B-949, better known to her teammates by her nickname "Bear", aimed her sniper rifle carefully, targeting the red Grunt that was leading the small squad down below in the canyon.
"Any more information on what they're doing?" she asked her teammate, Spartan B-544, known to the squad by her nickname, Shy.
"The orange Grunt behind the leader just said that the search was pointless, that no survivors had landed here", Shy answered.
Once again blessing whatever enabled Shy to translate alien languages with ease, Bear centered her targeting reticule on the lead Grunt, aiming at the soft spot in his skull.
"We could let them live, you know", Shy suggested to Bear.
Bear shook her head. "They're getting too close to where we concealed the HEVs." She re-aimed at the leader's head, her breathing slowing down.
And fired.
The leader collapsed, dead before he hit the canyon floor. Before the following Grunts could react, a frag grenade bounced off the ground, then exploded.
Bear looked at the crater on the canyon floor with satisfaction. "We'd better get a move-on. The Covenant will investigate when their team doesn't report back."
Bear and Shy moved out, running towards the parked Ghosts that the Grunts had arrived on. Bear set two of her remaining frag grenades on two of the Ghosts, smiling in satisfaction as they detonated, rendering the vehicles into twisted hunks of scrap metal. She swung herself onto one of the remaining Ghosts, Shy already mounted on the other. They accelerated away from the canyon, traveling towards the nearby hills.
Spartan B-473, known as "Jack", looked out over the landscape. She hissed at the sight of a squadron of Elites deploying from a Covenant dropship. The dropship lifted off, heading back over the mountains from whence it came. She ducked back down under cover, and slapped Rain across the face.
Rain, whose helmet had been removed by Jack, emitted a slight groan, then turned her head with its normal human features but strange cyan-colored skin and rainbow-colored hair to the side, her magenta eyes closed as she mumbled something about ponies.
"Come on, Rain! I need you!! There's a squadron of Elites heading towards our position!!" Jack begged.
But Rain remained unconscious - as she had been ever since Jack had opened the cyro pod.
Jack groaned in frustration. She resealed Rain's helmet onto her face, then peered cautiously over the parapet of the strange structure that she had set up position in.
The group of Elites was headed towards her position, but fortunately appeared to be unaware of her presence. Jack squatted back down, and looked at the weaponry she had: a quartet of frag grenades, a MA5B assault rifle, and a M6D pistol.
It wasn't anywhere close to the worst situation she'd ever been in - but it was her first actual combat outside of her extensive Spartan training.
Jack waited until the Elites had gotten within ten meters. Then she hurled two frag grenades, catching the Elites off guard.
The grenades detonated, and the Elites transcended the physical realm.
Jack scowled, as she knew that when the Elites didn't report in, the Covenant would send a large force to investigate. She silently cursed whatever had caused Rain to pass out when they needed to have mobility.
Then she heard a voice crackle over her comm.
"This is Echo-419. Does anyone else read me? Over."
Jack replied. "Echo-419, this is Spartan B-473."
"Spartan B-473, what is your situation? Over."
"I and Spartan B-045 are currently 1.45 kilometers from your position. We skirmished with a squad of Elites. Spartan B-045 is currently unconscious. Request immediate extraction. Over."
"Roger that, Spartan B-473. Echo-419 en route. Over and out."
Just a few moments later, Echo-419 was hovering over the ground next to the steep cliff. A number of rescued Marines and Spartan-117 were already on board as Jack heaved Rain's unconscious body into the Pelican before climbing inside.
Jack then took her seat and turned her helmet towards Spartan-117 as the Pelican lifted off. "Where are we going?" she asked over a private comm link.
"Apparently Major Shiva's ODSTs took a tall butte away from the Covenant. It's been designated Alpha Base."
