First Contact
All his life, Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 had been shot at, had giant, worm-filled mechanical suits charge him, hit with lasers, and even rode a bomb in the middle of space. But nothing, not training, Insurrectionists, Covenant, or Flood could've prepared him for a colorful horse.
The day had started out normally: he had woken next to the same truck he'd laid his head against the previous night, checked if Cortana was still with him, checked his ammo count, and if any of the marines were still alive with to fight with him. All had checked out, so he went on a short patrol. Of course, nothing attacked, and the only signs of Covenant activity were the corpses of Grunts, Jackals and a few Elites, all picked off by snipers over the night. Good thing too, because there were only a handful of UNSC troops left to defend New Mombasa from Covenant attacks.
Apparently, the so called "Prophet of Regret" had ordered an all out raid on the city, so it was pretty hard to find a spot where a Jackal Sniper wouldn't take your head off with a Beam Rifle or where an Elite Ultra wouldn't jump down and slice you down the middle with an Energy Sword. Now was one of those times. In fact, the quiet made the Chief more uneasy, since he knew that there were Covies still out there.
If it weren't for the fact that he knew that the hand that suddenly touched his shoulder was in fact human, he would've blown whoever it belonged to's head off with the M6C pistol on his belt.
"Ain't it a little too damn early to be up on patrol?" a gruff voice said.
John turned to face the voice. It belonged to Sergeant Major Avery J. Johnson, the only marine in the squad John could fully trust and one of the few people whom he considered a friend. Johnson had his trademark Sergeant hat on and a BR55 Battle Rifle strapped to his back. A lit cigar hung from his mouth, a thin trail of smoke coming from the end of it.
Cortana suddenly sparked to life inside John's helmet, "Just gotta make sure the Covenant doesn't get any bright ideas while the marines are sleeping, Sergeant."
Johnson chuckled, "Don't worry, those split-lips are smart enough not to mess with a group of sleeping marines with a Spartan watching the streets....at least I hope they are..."
With a shake of his head, John returned his gaze to the streets below the barricades. Even with his enhanced vision, and with the help of his MJOLNIR Mark VI helmet, John could barely make out anything that was over 500 yards away.
"Cortana, run a scan for that tunnel over there."
It took about fifteen seconds, then the A.I. relayed the data to John's HUD. "Nothing but corpses and a few sleeping Grunts, but without any Elites to lead them or snipers to cover them, they won't be much of a threat."
Johnson raised his hands in the air and said in a mocked praise, "Well thank God Almighty for that! Our only problem now is deciding who's gonna go in there and slit the little guys' throats!"
"Who's gonna slit who's throats?"
John and Johnson turned to see two of the marines walking towards them. They were Corporal Alex Turner and Private Jack Menendez, two of the marines on Johnson's squad. John knew Turner well, as the marine had been one of several who had fought with the Chief during the Battle of Halo Installation 04. Like Johnson, all of Turner's previous squad had been killed by the Flood when the parasite was awakened. He managed to escape with a Marine Force Team in a Pelican, and was later placed on Castle Squad with Johnson. However, John had never met Menendez before. Although, he did know that the Private was a rookie who had just gotten out of training, and had never even seen a Covenant troop before, at least not in person.
Both were armed with Battle Rifles. Turned glanced nervously around while Menendez walked with mock courage.
"Come on, who's getting their throats slit?" Menendez asked enthusiastically.
Johnson took a puff from his cigar and pointed at the Private, "It's your lucky day! You get to go kill a few Grunts in that tunnel over there, then report back and tell us if you've seen anything else!"
Menendez looked disappointed, so Turner put a hand on the rookie's shoulder, "Hey, just be happy you at least get to go out into the field. Plus, you'll get to see a Grunt up close!"
Their conversation was interrupted when Cortana blared a notice in their ears, "Heads up, marines! We got contacts coming from the tunnel!"
John and the marines aimed their BR55s at the entrance of the tunnel, waiting for the Grunts or whatever else was coming through to appear. Ten seconds. Thirty seconds. One minute. Nothing happened, John heard Turner lower his rifle in confusion. It wasn't even ten seconds later when Cortana spoke in surprise, "No, this isn't...this can't be right!"
"Cortana, what is it?"
"The two Grunts in the tunnel, they're dead! And it wasn't any human or Covenant that killed them, it was something similar to a slip space rupture..."
Johnson took another puff from his cigar, "How the hell could the Covies get a ship engine into that small of a tunnel?"
"No, it definitely wasn't Covenant, I just don't know how...."
Cortana was interrupted by a flapping noise, followed by a loud thump. John and the others turned, guns ready, waiting for the expected Covenant ambush, only to find that there were no Covenant behind them, but that didn't mean they were alone...
It was a small horse, but with unrealistic features. First off, it had a very cartoonish appearance, looking like something out of a television show from the 21st century. It had a light blue coat, maroon eyes, a rainbow colored mane, and a very human-looking facial expression. But the most prominent detail was the fact that it had wings.
John simply sat there, lowering his rifle but not taking his eyes off of it. Johnson, Turner and Menendez just sat there with confused looks on their faces. About a minute passed without any movement or sound. John and the marines watched the winged horse, and vise versa. Eventually, Turner broke the silence, "Okay, anyone else see the small, winged horse?"
Suddenly, the horse spoke up, "Hey! It's 'pony', not 'horse!' And I'm called a pegasus!"
When it spoke, Turner and Menendez almost jumped over the barricade, Johnson's cigar fell out of his mouth, and John raised his Battle Rifle again. The "pegasus", obviously female, glared at them with an annoyed expression on its face. Another minute of awkward silence followed, until Cortana broke it again with a question, "Wait... You're sentient?"
The pegasus, confused, looked around for the source of Cortana's voice. When she couldn't, she glared at John, "Was that you, Shiny?"
John lowered his rifle and stood to his full, seven foot height. The pegasus backed away slightly when she saw how big he really was, but kept glaring at him.
"Let's just say it was a voice in my head, pegasus," John said calmly.
The pegasus leaned a little closer, "Well tell your egg headed voice to shut u-", she didn't even finish her sentence.
No one had noticed Menendez, who had snuck behind the pegasus while her and John were speaking, as he smacked her head with the end of his rifle, knocking her to the ground. He got a stern yell from Johnson as soon as she hit, "Private! What the hell?!"
"I freaked out, okay!"
Johnson sighed, "Turner! Check her, make sure she's still breathing!"
Turner knelt next to the pegasus and put his ear on her stomach, after a few seconds, he got up and turned to the others, "She's just unconscious, she'll probably be fine in a couple of hours, unless her anatomy is entirely different from regular horses."
Johnson stepped on his cigar, "I'll take that as good news. Alright, whatever this is, we sure as hell aren't letting the Covies get it! Suit up, we're up and moving in ten minutes."
As the squad began gathering their supplies, and as John slung the unconscious pegasus over his shoulder, Johnson tapped into the COMM link, "Private Lewis! This is Johnson! We gotta package over here that needs to get to a UNSC base ASAP. Since there aren't any damn Pelicans available, we're gonna need you guys' Troop Transport Warthog. So tell Drakes to move his ass, pronto!"
"Wilco, Sergeant, on our way!", a female voice responded.
With that, Johnson cut the link, grabbed his BR55, and strode over to John, "Looks like this shit is getting weirder..."
The Spartan and marines walked past the barricade, waiting for Lewis and Drakes to arrive, so they could bring their "package" back to HQ.
Yep, this was gonna be one weird day at work.....