Chapter 6

Daniels and his squad moved back to Ponyville, the citizens panicking at the sight of a giant ship in the sky

"You never answered my question" Twilight was still following the ODSTs, "What do we do?"

"The Humans have to leave" Princess Celestia was in the library where the team met, "Perhaps the Covenant will leave us alone then."

"So that's it" Daniels crossed his arms, "Leave us out there to die? Who's to say the Covenant won't enslave your race?"

"I will not allow such." Celestia answered back sharply

"What chance would you even have?" Harvest asked

"They have a point Princess" Twilight said, "From what I've heard, the Covenant would obliterate Equestria."

"Besides the point" Young interjected, "We don't exactly have a ride out of here just yet."

There was another flash of purple in the sky

Daniels looked out the window, "Something's telling me they're not here to kill my squad."

"What is that Joseph?" Celestia questioned

"That's not just a cruiser" Daniels turned around, heart beating faster, "There's a whole Covenant fleet."

---

The elite minor rose from his deep freeze, shaking off its effects

"Come my brothers, we will take this world and recover the Artifact." the commander said over the loudspeaker

There was a chorus of cheers from the elites, who quickly suited up for battle. There would be unknown dangers of this planet, and they had to be prepared for anything, this elite was loading up the Phantom they'd take to the surface.

An elite walked up, "Qualomee, how goes the Phantom?"

"We are almost prepared, we have all needed weapons. We only require our pilot." Qualomee answered

(Yeah, that's his name.)

Qualomee and his brothers loaded up onto the dropship, which began it's descent to the surface

---

Daniels was barking orders to Harvest and Young, the citizens of Ponyville had panicked even more once the other ships arrived

Twilight and her friends had gathered the Elements on the Princess's orders. After that they had met in the library, to wait for any news

Daniels had grabbed his rifle, plenty of clips and some grenades. He held onto the sword as he felt it wasn't something he wanted to leave laying on the ground.

"Even though we know they're here" Harvest walked up, "How exactly are three of us going to take down a Covenant fleet?"

"Who said we'd win?" Daniels flicked the safety off his rifle

"I was afraid you were going to say that." Harvest sighed, "Well, send us out with a bang right?"

---

The rookie of the ODST squad on the ship was the only one not on ice, he was in charge of navigation while the rest of the team got some shut eye

His curiosity of the Delta squadron was raging ever since he had seen their apparent leader. Even more so since the Captain seemed so unwilling to help them

He pulled up the records of the Delta squadron on the computer, apparently they were a crack team of ODSTs who were rivals with his own team, the Alpha Team

The files read like this:

The Delta Squadron apparently has a sort of need to prove themselves against our hand chosen Alpha Team. As our team is highly skilled and both leaders are quite... conflicting, we have a volatile mix on this mission that you intend to send them on.

Mission Log: June 26th 2552, planet Reach

Jacob: "I told you, that I can easily sneak up and assassinate that elite without risk to anyone else!"

Alex: "And I'm telling you that my sniper will easily be able to pick that elite off!"

Joseph: "Calm down both of you! We're going to attract all of the Covenant in the nearest mile!"

Alex and Jacob ignore the Delta Rookie Joseph

Alex: "You know, you think sooo highly of yourselves, even though you're just volunteers!"

Jacob: "So what if you were hand picked? We're all fighting and dieing for the same reason!"

*Elite plunges energy sword into Jacob's back*

*Joseph fires assault rifle at elite*

Alex: "Ambush!"

File missing, please try again

the Rookie pressed a key, but it didn't show any new messages

The ship beeped, signaling that the ship would arrive at the planet any moment now

The rookie quickly went about setting the thaws for each of his teammates

---

The inhabitants of Ponyville quickly had themselves shut into their homes, lights out and as still as possible

Daniels was in an alley between Sugarcube Corner and one of the side buildings, relaying orders to his team and to Twilight, whom he lent a communicator

The sound of three Phantoms was unmistakable, as once Daniels had taken control of one for a mission, it didn't end well

"How many squads of Covenant do you think are going to be here?" Harvest asked

"I'm guessing at least twelve, depends if they jam packed those Phantoms" Young answered

"I'm not sure they expect us to be here" Daniels said, "They wouldn't need a whole fleet to wipe us out."

"They'll need more than that if I can help it" Daniels heard Harvest cock his gun

"Keep it together" Daniels warned, "They're dropping squads now."

The three covenant phantoms dropped off in a triangle around the town, not yet within its borders

"They're obviously looking for something" Daniels whispered, "Twilight, what's in the center of the triangle they've got?"

"Hard to tell" Twilight seemingly ruffled through some papers, "Could be town hall, could be anything at this point."

'I swear to god if it's the library they're going for...' Daniels didn't finish that thought

A few grunts were waddling through the town, not raising their guard in any way possible. Daniels smirked underneath his helmet

Before he could go out and kill the grunts a few elites followed up, and Daniels decided it was best to remain hidden, with the element of surprise on his side he could do quite a lot in this situation

'Remember the civilians' he could hear his old captain's warning, a distant memory, 'We're reckless, but we still do our job.'

That thought threw grenades out of the equation, they were simply too destructive for use in a civilian occupied town

There was the sound of a door opening, Daniels remained completely still, then there was the sound of plasma fire. And screaming.

---

Qualomee remained inside the phantom, watching the scanner for the Artifact, it was a bit boring but it suited the mission so he'd have to do it.

That was how it was for him, being one of the lowest he always had to do others dirty work. It didn't suit his honor nor did he find it fitting of an elite

The scanner pinged

Qualomee looked at a screen, there were strangely colored equines panicking and running around, being slaughtered by plasma

He may not have been a soldier on the field, but he could tell that they weren't fighting back

"What are they doing? These creatures seem like they don't want to fight."

Qualomee ran over to the weapons locker, he wasn't sure what he was planning but he knew that this slaughter had to stop

The scanner pinged again, and it showed some signals he didn't see for himself, but knew what they were

"Humans" Qualomee muttered, "Something else for me to deal with."

He jumped out the side

---

Daniels snuck up behind an elite, and snapped its neck

"These things really want this town" he whispered to himself, "What do they think they're going to find here?"

There was a discharge of plasma, Daniels wheeled to see Ponyville's residents being attacked

'So much for stealth' Daniels whipped out his assault rifle, "Going loud!"

Several grunts saw him and panicked, they must not have expected him. Another elite aimed his plasma rifle at Daniels, shouting a warning through the K-band

"Time to blow these suckers to hell!" Harvest said

"Watch out for the ponies, we don't want any casualties." Young pitched in

"Wasn't planning on it" Daniels gritted his teeth and fired

---

Twilight and her friends stayed inside the library, not one of them intending to go outside and risk getting killed

Twilight looked over the papers some more, with the Covenant's new locations she could tell what they were triangulating towards

It was the library

"Joseph" Twilight hit the COM, "We have a problem."

Chapter 7

Daniels keyed the COM, "What is it Twilight?"

"The Covenant, they're going towards the library"

Daniels swore under his breath, "Great, Harvest, Young, converge on the library. And kill any Covenant that get in your way."

"Roger that" Harvest said

"On my way, don't party without me." Young had a smile in that tone

"Ooh! A party?" Pinkie Pie's voice came through

"Not now Pinkie"it sounded like Twilight took the COM back, "Hurry, they're getting close."

Daniels reloaded his rifle, and turning to walk towards the library

[…]

There was little resistance and the squad met up at the library fairly easily, they had gathered up their ammunition and technology in the giant tree and this would be where their final stand would be

"There are several Covenant on their way here" Young said, "Did you get the chain gun fixed yet?"

Twilight nodded, as the giant weapon was ready for use, she seemed nervous that she was technically wielding it

Daniels checked the rest of their weaponry, they had a rocket launcher and two shotguns, a grenade launcher and several pistols, the chain gun and quite a few grenades

Harvest loaded a grenade into the launcher, "Not the way I expected to die."

"I always knew I'd die fighting" Daniels stated

"There are worse ways to go out" Young agreed, checking to see if her scope was working

"What's the plan now?" Rainbowdash asked, "Is there any was we could-?"

"There's no way for you to help us" Daniels interrupted, "Unless you can pull the pin from a grenade, you're better off inside."

"And it's either them or us" Harvest sighed, "Ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be" Daniels gestured outside, "Here they come!"

The sound of bullets and plasma filled the air, there were cries of pain from the grunts and several grunts of pain from the ODSTs who were able to avoid the shots better from a place with cover

Harvest ran out of grenades that the launcher could use, he swapped to the rockets instead

The Covenant attacked seemed to never end, and very soon Daniels found that the ammunition supply was getting low

"We're running out!" Young shouted over the racket, "What do we do?"

Daniels didn't get a chance to answer as several explosions on the Covenant side of the battle startled him

Rainbowdash was flying around the Covenant lines, dropping grenades that decimated the unprepared troops

Daniels had felt a lighter note in his heart, one that signaled that he feeling better

"Lay them out troopers!" Daniels called, to which his friends did in kind

The Covenant suddenly stopped firing, they parted and an elite in quite ornate armor walked up, pointed to Daniels and drew his sword, shouting a battle cry

Daniels stood up, jumping down from the top level of the library and exiting the front door

"What are you doing?" Twilight asked

"This elite is challenging me, leader to leader." Daniels answered, "I'm doing what needs to be done."

Daniels drew his energy sword, still unsure of how to use it, he mirrored the elite's fighting stance

The swords clashed, and Daniels felt the massive heat coming off of the energy blades, along with the Elite attempting to push him down

Daniels rolled to his left, as it quickly became a deadly dance of blades. He ducked and dodged, doing whatever was necessary to avoid the energy sword swinging at him

"He's not doing so well is he?" Applejack asked Young

"He's doing great, anyone else would've been cut to ribbons by now." Young answered

[…]

Daniels was beginning to tire out, all this constant movement was normal but the sheer stress of nearly getting sliced any second was taking its toll on him

The elite was evidently getting annoyed, as he swept out his foot and tripped Daniels, causing him to fall flat on his back

The elite raised his sword

"Stop right there" an elite minor was standing there, his weapon cocked

"Qualomee, what is this heresy?" the elite zealot demanded

"I have seen the deeds you and those you command have done" Qualomee stated, "These equines are not armed, they flee yet you slaughter them without mercy, can you tell me why?"

"The Artifact may lie within any one of them" the zealot said, "Either way, do you intend to stop me?"

"Give me your sword human" Qualomee said to Daniels

Daniels didn't hesitate, he wasn't sure what was going on but this time he followed his instinct to get back to safety

Qualomee took the sword, and assumed a battle stance

Daniels had made it back inside the library, and he used his VISR to see what was happening at this point

Qualomee and the zealot were in a similar deadly dance, however Qualomee was getting hits in as Daniels seemed incapable, and the ODST easily hid his annoyance

The zealot swung out his sword, and Qualomee dodged, bringing his sword down

For the zealot timed seemed to slow down, his life flashed, "By the prophets..."

Those were his last words

But it wasn't Qualomee who caused him to say that, Twilight felt chills as the zealot fell to the ground

"He died with honor" Qualomee said to the crowd, "Do you intend to do the same?"

Now since the squad of ODSTs had taken out most of the elites the crowd was made of grunts and jackals, who quickly fled

[…]

Daniels watched as Qualomee approached the door of the library, keeping tense in the case of any attack

"Human, I shall be keeping the sword."

"Yeah?" Daniels said, "Good to know."

It was an awkward situation, nobody really knew what to say or do, all except one certain pink pony

"Wee! This calls for a party!" Pinkie thrust a hoof in the air

Daniels looked at Harvest and Young, both of which seemed unsure but couldn't find much else to say

"I don't see why not" Daniels said, "What do you say, squid-face?"

"I believe you heard my name, use it." Qualomee made what Daniels expected to be a grin, "And I shall be there for your celebration Human."

"How can we be sure to trust him?" Rainbowdash asked Daniels

"We can" Daniels said simply, "Anyone who breaks their covenant is considered dead meat, even if undercover."

"So he's stuck with us you're saying" Harvest simplified

"Pretty much" Young took off her helmet, "While we wait we should gather up the last of our stuff, Benjamin that's up to you."

"Come on!" Harvest groaned, "You always leave this stuff to me!"

"Because you're just so good at it." Daniels smirked behind his VISR

Harvest swore under his breath

"Now then" Daniels looked at Qualomee, "How will we get this one acquainted?"

"I can sleep in my phantom" Qualomee said, "I'm the only one here who can fly it."

"Pinkie's parties usually happen late" Twilight said, "That should give us time to assess the damage and repair most of the major problems."

"And console for the casualties" Daniels said, "The Covenant had killed quite a few."

The room was silent, death wasn't common in Equestria, let alone an attack that caused it

"Come on" Young said to Harvest, "I don't think they'll want us at the funerals."

The two left

Daniels looked at Qualomee, "Hey, do you have access to the Covenant battle net?"

"Quite limited, but I believe I can supply you with important information."

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but Spike coughed out a scroll before she could

My faithful student Twilight

I am sorry for not being able to help during the attack on Ponyville, but I will be there at Pinkie's inevitable party, and make sure that the humans are there.

-Princess Celestia

"So she's still suspicious of us" Daniels was right behind Twilight, making her jump

"We don't know for sure if she's suspicious of you" Rainbowdash said, but they all could tell she didn't have her full heart in that statement

Chapter 8

Daniels had cleaned up most of the mess left in front of Twilight's library, while Harvest and Young had helped around town repairing buildings and such

The clock turned, and the sun began to set, marking the beginning of Pinkie's 'Thank you for not letting us get killed' party

Daniels had been asked not to bring his rifle, but he remained in his armor and still carried a sidearm just in case. He had ordered the others in his squad to do the same

The party was awkward at first but once the punch had been passed out the ponies seemed to relax, Daniels could easily tell that a large portion of the ponies were drunk

It went straight against regulation to drink on the job, and as long as that cruiser was in the sky the ODST squad considered themselves on the job

Daniels and Harvest were talking by the snacks, discussing their next move

"Why were they even going to the library anyway?" Harvest asked, "It isn't like that's the biggest source of knowledge on this rock."

"That's what's got me confused, they must have been after something specific." Daniels shrugged, "But as far as I can tell there wasn't anything that they'd be after at this point."

"Well let's think about their usual strategy" Harvest held his helmet tightly, "They usually look for artifacts that they have in their bogus religion."

"There must have been some object of power in the library, but what could that be?" Daniels scratched the back of his head

"I will wait until the leader of this rock arrives" Qualomee seemed to have faded into existence, "Then I shall explain what the plan was, I know exactly what they're here for."

Daniels was surprised the ponies were so calm with Qualomee here, drunk or not they had the right to be terrified

"That's a fair point" Daniels looked around, "Where's the princess?"

At that moment the doors opened wide, two quite tense looking guards had opened the doors, they looked at Qualomee but made no sudden movements

Celestia entered the room, walking straight up to Daniels

"I want you to explain"

"The Covenant showed up, and attacked" Daniels said, "We fought them and won, but they'll be back, anything else?"

"What were they after?"

"I believe I can explain that" Qualomee said, "I believe you know of the Artifact?"

"I think she'll need you to elaborate on that" Twilight said sheepishly

Daniels took note that all activity in the party had stopped, every one of the ponies were staring

"The Artifact of Ages" Qualomee said

Daniels was easily able to see Celestia tense up, "I have no idea what you're getting at."

Daniels motioned for Harvest and Young to guard the doors, to prevent anyone from leaving

"I think you do" Daniels said, "Because you wouldn't be so quick about if you didn't have at least the vaguest idea."

"Don't accuse me of anything"

"I'm accusing you of hiding something" Daniels said bluntly, "and I expect you to tell us what it is."

The mood in the room instantly turned tense, it was palpable

Nobody moved, nobody even seemed to breathe

There was a flash of purple, something Daniels recognized as a slip-space jump. He casually walked over to the window expecting to see more Covenant, instead he saw what appeared to be a salvage vessel

'Human engineering, no doubt.' Daniels thought

He exited the building to get a better look, as the ship didn't appear to be doing so well, crashing somewhere in the Everfree

"This is Alpha team captain Alex Johnson!" the transmission came through, "Something's attacked our engines! We're going to crash!"

Daniels swore under his breath, "Looks like we're going to rescue the rescue team, and the Alpha team of all people."

"What's the plan?" Harvest asked

"You're going to make sure nothing levels this town" Daniels said, "Young and I are going to move in and secure the crash site, use everything you can to keep this place living."

[…]

Real quick before they left Daniels and Young had grabbed their respective rifles, grenades and what little ammunition they had left

Qualomee had decided to stay and help Harvest, "I see no point in getting killed by your uninformed comrades."

Daniels and Young were ready and had almost began their trek into the forest before getting interrupted

It was Twilight and her friends, they told him to be careful and good luck and all that stuff, to which Daniels simply grunted in response

They weren't sure what it was they were fighting, but guns tended to be the things you used in those situations, Daniels had turned on his VISR to see in the dark forest

The motion of the trees signaled quite a bit of life, although nothing attacked and nothing was likely to, what with the manticore showing exactly why not to

The crash site was about one click east, and that would take some time to get through the thick underbrush, luckily they could handle anything that tried to get at them

Young had set a HUD marker for the two to follow, as it would get irritating to constantly check their maps, they weren't very accurate

[…]

It was only a ten minutes at a quick jog, they were getting within 50 meters when they were attacked by strange mushrooms in a swarm, the tentacles were what had Daniels firing in a heartbeat

Soon enough they were being attacked by larger beings that bore little resemblance to anything they knew about, these things were mutated and rotting, Daniels could tell that they were already dead

Young signaled Daniels out of his thoughts, and the pair continued as they drew nearer to the crash site

Once it was in view they could plainly see that whatever this parasite was, it wouldn't be getting at that ship very easily, it appeared that Alex had managed to get the emergency landing gear in the proper position

The lasers that were attached to the front were laying waste to at least hundreds of mutations, looking like a battle right in the middle of hell itself, with the horrid things attacking a new arrival

And they were going in

[…]

Harvest had set up a little nest of weaponry in the top of town hall, the Covenant was making a smaller second assault on the small town, with Qualomee on his side the only thing against him was lack of ammunition

Harvest was manning the machine gun turret, taking down elites, jackals and grunts alike

Qualomee had out a beam rifle, and was picking off the elites who lost their shields, as Harvest wasn't the one with range on his side

Then the turret ran out of ammo, Harvest switched to dual pistols, before long even that was out of ammo

He felt panic rising in his chest, and fought it back down, this was not the time for any rash decisions

Time slowed down as he turned to the left, and snapped up a sniper rifle

These were a weapon that he had never really gotten close to in his line of work, it was surprising on how he had never touched a certain weapon his entire naval career

Harvest wasn't the best with it, as his aim faltered, he missed several times. But then he took a deep breath, picturing the elites as moving targets from boot camp, scoring three headshots in a row

As he picked off more and more Qualomee went down to the entrance with his plasma rifle in hand, taking out the shields for Harvest to destroy

How come he had never used one of these before? He might have just found his secondary job

Chapter 9

Daniels and Young were sneaking their way to the salvage ship, he wasn't sure why but he found the whole deal of Captain Alex with a salvage ship funny

They made it to a door on top, which the parasite hadn't seen. Daniels knocked on the door, it opened and revealed a heavily armored ODST wielding a SMG

"About time you showed up." The female voice said, "The captain wants a word with you."

Daniels looked at Young, who shrugged, then turned and entered the ship

Captain Alex Smith was standing by the monitors, Daniels had always thought that his name was hilarious and made a point to tell him that constantly

His face looked aged, even though he was a similar age to Daniels, he had sharp brown eyes, frown lines creased his face, and he was six inches taller than Daniels

"Private Joseph Daniels" he said, "Good to see you again."

"It's lieutenant" Daniels corrected, "And I'm not so sure about that second part."

"I see you've been recruiting" Alex gestured to Young, "How many have you accepted into your little squadron?"

"There's three of us" Daniels answered

"And you intended to take out an entire Covenant fleet?"

"As soon as we got our pelican together, yeah." Young shrugged, "But then we were told about your camera."

"So there are non-hostiles on this planet." The female ODST said, "My name's Abigale Lincoln by the way."

"You saw them, those things with us?" Daniels said, "You should pull up the video."

Which the rookie promptly did, there was a freeze frame of Daniels and Young, Twilight was half in frame

"My armor's in really bad condition" Daniels observed, "And the thing on the far right."

"You found unicorns?" Alex sounded incredulous, "How is that even possible?"

"I try not to think about what's possible here" Young said, "Like how they raise the moon and sun."

All room activity stopped

"They do what?" the rookie asked

"This world's main driving force is an alternate form of science" Daniels said quickly, "They refer to it as magic, and that's pretty much right."

"So you end up crashing on a future Covenant war site, discover that unicorns exist, and magic too?" Abigale whistled, "Someone's been busy."

"There's more" Daniels said, "But we should get to town first, then we can figure out our next game plan."

"Our engineer got injured" Alex said, referring to an ODST in the corner with bio-foam in his hand, "We need your tech master to help."

Daniels nodded at Young, who grabbed the equipment bag and went to the engine room

"If you're here I might as well introduce you to the new squad" Alex said, "Our engineer is named William Buchanan, our pilot you already met, our explosives expert is named John Morris, as well as being our rookie."

"Quite a structured squad" Daniels said stiffly, "Did they get upgraded like you were?"

"Yes, but only about half as I was."

"Private Ashley Young" Daniels offered, "She was the one who went to the engine rooms, then we have our explosives expert named Benjamin Harvest."

"Only three of you" Alex shook his head, "No wonder they know you for suicide missions."

"Do you have any places I can repair my armor?" Daniels asked, "This suit's a bit past its prime."

"Follow me to the armory" Alex said, "We can catch up later."

[…]

Twilight was hiding in the library, as gunshots and plasma fire could be heard across town

"I wish there was something we could do" Rainbowdash complained

"If any of you so much as stuck a hoof outside you'd be toast" Harvest said over the COM, "Best leave it to those who've been trained for this."

"It's a miracle they've been keeping my brothers at bay for so long" Qualomee said, "They are thirsty for blood."

"It's only been fifteen minutes" Twilight pointed out

"With an attack force this large against two?" Harvest scoffed, "We should have been dead fourteen minutes ago."

"Fourteen and a half" Qualomee chuckled

Harvest cracked a laugh, "At least we've got the funny elite on our side."

"That should be the last of them" Qualomee sighed, "We will have time to rest now."

The sounds of a ship launching shook the ground beneath their hooves, Twilight looked out the window

The ship that had crashed had now taken off and moved to a field nearby Ponyville, in the field, several strange creatures she didn't recognize fell off and burned up

[…]

Daniels looked at the helmets, they were all only one model

"These are prototypes" Alex explained, "They come with an experimental motion tracker."

"I see they're waning you on similar equipment of a Spartan" Daniels noted, "What about body armor?"

"Yours is too damaged to repair, so you'll get a set similar to mine." Alex said, "As for the Spartan comment, shut up."

Daniels rolled his eyes, Alex had always had this kind of humor, and it was hard to take him seriously

"It appears as if Young has completed the engines for a short hop, mind setting a LZ?"

Daniels took out a rough map he had made, and set the HUD point outside of town in a nearby field

"Ready to jump"

The rockets activated and they took off, landing a short time later

Daniels and the others converged in the observation deck

"Nice new suit" Young said

"I need to break it in first" Daniels commented, implying the motion tracker, "Anything I should know about this thing?"

"You've seen the alternate VISR color, otherwise there's nothing to note." Abigale said

The new VISR was golden, to signify that of a higher ranking UNSC member

The body armor was also quite a bit stronger, and he had been able to transfer his gauntlets in order to maintain a pressurized zone inside his suit

"I disabled the experimental shields" Will said, "So don't go out thinking you're god or anything."

"I'll try not to" Daniels smiled a bit, maybe he could avoid talking about his past with Alex

"As for the town, I think it's time we met the natives." Alex clapped his hands together

[…]

Harvest walked up to Daniels, "Someone's decked."

"I try" Daniels shrugged, "We brought the bacon."

"Bacon?" Twilight asked

"And they talk" Abigale sighed, "You three hit the jackpot didn't you?"

"Who're these guys?" Rainbowdash asked, flying and looking at Alex's VISR

"These guys are the Alpha Team" Daniels said, "They're the UNSC's best ODST team."

Each of the squad introduced themselves

"Pegasi too?" Alex face palmed, "This is too weird, did we die in that crash?"

"I asked myself the same question" Harvest shrugged, "You get used to it, in the end."

"The UNSC's best team?" Rainbowdash asked, "Better than you guys?"

"We've received the augmentations and training that a Spartan would have." Will said

"Although at a later point in life" Alex finished, "We're not Spartans that's for sure."

"But we're better than this run-on-the-mill squadron" Will folded his arms

"I'll show you run of the mill…" Young held Harvest back from punching Will

"You've already done that" Will had the smirk in his voice

"Lock it down, both of you." Daniels said sternly, "We need to assess what we have and what we need to do with what we have."

"We need to take out that Covenant fleet." Young said, "And as for what we have, the Captain should explain that."

"They have a salvage ship" Harvest crossed his arms, "They should be outfitted with mining junk."

Daniels sighed, "Did you set up the beacon yet?"

"Right before we got off the ship" Abigale answered

"Good, so the UNSC can get here." Harvest let the sarcasm ooze, "Because that's what this planet really needs."

"It wouldn't be a good thing for your friends to show up?" Twilight quirked an eyebrow

"Employers, and I don't think they'll be as open-minded as we are." Daniels put his hands on his hips, "I think it'd be very bad if they showed up."

"We need all the backup we can get" Alex asserted, "This is the invasion force the size that attacked Earth, assuming you've heard how that went."

Daniel grunted, he didn't want to know how humanity did in that fight

"We're winning so far" Abigale said, "But that tide could turn any way at this point."

"No thanks to you" Will said snidely

Daniels looked at Harvest, who shrugged

"We've got something you likely haven't in all your hours." Daniels said cautiously

"What do you mean?" Alex was intrigued

"We have an elite that's in no position to kill us, therefore…" Daniels nearly laughed, "He's stuck with us."

"I wouldn't trust him." Will said quickly, "He could easily be a spy."

"Because spies kill several dozen of their own team, and let them know it." Harvest sighed, "How thick are you?"

"Alright smart guy" Will stood VISR to VISR with Harvest, "How many buildings have you blown?"

"Too many to count" Harvest bragged, "More than fifty of them with several platoons of Covenant in them."

"My record states I destroyed 343 in the last six months" Will countered, "And I don't use explosives."

Daniels decided to cut in before anything went sour, "Right, so what's in the what do we do tab? Any ideas?"

"Well I have one" Young said, "Your ship has slip-space functions right?"

"Yeah, but they got damaged. We can't use them without risking getting killed." Alex answered, "Why?"

"Well, we might have use of it, as the Covenant have slip-space too, the 'accident' would be well placed."

Daniels nodded slowly, "A slip-space sabotage, like on Reach right?"

"Kat was my inspiration." Young shrugged

"How about getting up there, any ideas?" Alex crossed his arms

"Your ship is outfitted with ODST pods" Daniels pointed out, "So why not use them to get on board?"

"The shields would take us out, if the Banshees didn't." Will said, "Unless…we use decoy pods, that's pretty clever."

"The shields have to drop in order for them to fire" Harvest smiled, "That means we can have a clear shot in."

"And then there's the threat of the Covenant in the bay" Morris spoke

It was the first time Daniels heard him say anything, he sounded more like a recruit than anyone else

"Except anything in the way of a pod would get obliterated." Young reasoned, "Then we have the advantage."

"Someone will have to keep the weapons systems focused on our ship though" Will looked at Morris, "Rookie, that's your job."

"Now that we've got a plan" Daniels clapped his gauntlets, "Anyone have any objections?"

"How are you getting down?" Twilight finally asked

"We're not" Alex answered, "We're going out, with a bang."

Daniels nodded, it wasn't the worst way to die

No, that worst way was currently preparing to storm Ponyville

A/N: This isn't any special thing, I just had the motivation for nearly 2000 words, yay me!

Chapter 10

Daniels was as ready as he could be, wearing his new armor and wielding his trusty assault rifle, he tried not to think about how easily he could get killed in space, without any way to fight back

He could tell the rest of his squad we also nervous, as was told by their tense movement and clipped speech

Harvest had a shotgun, Young had her battle rifle, Alex wielded a turret, Will had a SMG, and Abigale had a sniper rifle

The team each carried four grenades, while Harvest and Will carried six, four frag and two plasma

It was nothing new that this was a suicide mission, but Daniels couldn't help but calculate their odds of survival, say if they managed to steal a phantom or something

It still boiled down to heavy losses to all out wiped, there was nothing he could think of that would save them

So here he was, inside a drop pod and waiting for the order to release, in normal circumstances the sideways position was ludicrous, but since they were in low-orbit they could use their air brakes and thrusters to get through space

His squad and Alex's faces appeared on the screens as they linked up

"We should be ready within the minute!" Alex called

"This is gonna be fun eh guys?" Harvest laughed, "I'd like to see their faces when the UNSC catches wind of what we're up to!"

"Let's stay focused" Daniels advised, "I don't want anybody getting cocky and winding up dead."

"I'll be fine thank you very much" Will said, "I'm Alpha after all, you're just…Delta."

"Don't even start" Abigale warned, "We don't need you to get us into any arguments."

Will grumbled but didn't protest, which meant Abigale was a higher rank

Daniels realized he had never been told their ranks, as if it was imperative he didn't know

"Launching in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…" Daniels counted down, "Troopers! We are green and very, very mean!"

Harvest laughed as he launched, the rest were silent and serious

Halfway through Will began to laugh as well, and then it was just those two on the COM, while Daniels and the rest of the occupied pods began to avoid Banshee fire

"They're charging up!" Young's voice cut through

The plasma cannons indeed glowed a hellish red as they began to warm, now noticing the UNSC ship and the swarm it had sent out after the troopers

"Activate your boosters!" Daniels advised

The team did so, as they shot right into the Covenant's cruiser bay

Daniels wasted no time as he shot the explosive bolts off the door, allowing him to exit the pod

Several grunts and elites were running around, putting out fires and fixing broken pipes

Will had him backed up as they let loose with a flurry of bullets and the surprised Covenant were cut down easily, which just so happened to be a portion of them in the room

Daniels saw a red blip on his motion tracker, out of instinct he ducked and rolled, avoiding a plasma grenade that was thrown at him

Then Harvest climbed on the elite's back, shoving a grenade down it's throat, causing brains to explode all over the room

"That's a pretty sight" Will commented

"Well it can only get worse, take of your helmet for example." Harvest cracked

Will ignored him as they checked to see if the room was clear

Morris was in charge of keeping the battle-net focused on himself, and avoid going onto the subject of the pods that crashed in the launch bay

It was easier with the help of Qualomee, who was still in town using a wireless transmitter to stay in touch

"I look forward to seeing you again" Qualomee had told Daniels, "I wish to go myself, but your superior will not allow it."

Daniels had taken that as something to fight for, he still had to get back to his friends on the surface

"What's the condition of the bomb?" Alex called

"A bit roughed up" Young looked it over, "The timer's knackered but it should still explode."

"So we set the timer and get out?" Will asked, "It's never that easy. What's the catch?"

"We need to kill the fleet admiral" Daniels said, "That'll keep them confused long enough for us to make this happen."

"Abigale, Will, with the bomb" Alex ordered, "Young and Harvest, sabotage their slip-space drive if you can, Daniels and I have the admiral."

"Right" Daniels agreed, "I think this'll work."

And so they split up, ready to tackle this problem

[…]

Daniels had snuck up to the room with Alex, he was unsure of what to do once they got there so he was going to follow Alex's lead

Alex had snuck behind one of the barriers, sneaking from one to the other, Daniels had wired up eight total grenades to the walls most important wiring

Not lethal, but should cause one heck of a show

Alex had the admiral in his sights, but Daniels knew this plan was flawed, there were too many elites on red alert from the attack, and they were all armed

It hadn't taken long for one of the elites to spot Alex, but it was too late by that time

Daniels had fired a single magnum shot at one of the grenades

It had caused a chain reaction that destroyed a large portion of the controls, the lights flickered and all of the elites were watching Daniels

"Okay here's the deal" Daniels stalled, "You want something on this planet, the Artifact of Ages, but what exactly is that?"

"Like we would tell you human-scum!" One elite said

"I think he deserves to know" the admiral faced Daniels, "If he has made it this far, he must be the one in charge."

"Then gut him and we can take the Artifact!" One elite suggested, "It has been a while since the brutes ate a human."

"The Artifact requires patience" the Admiral scolded, "And this human deserves to know why we want it."

"Alright, explain it." Daniels crossed his arms

"The Artifact of Ages, a special item that the Holy Ones have given us in order to destroy mankind and all that stand in our way, those equines do not know what their land holds, and therefore they must be brought down." The Admiral said, "We can cut down this petty war at its roots!"

Then Alex successfully thrust a wayward energy sword through his chest

The rest of the elites roared in rage, turning to fire, but Daniels had his rifle out and was shooting

Chapter 11

Harvest and Young were having an uneventful time, the slip-space drives had too much security on them, but physical sabotage was easy enough for them to do, Harvest stood guard

"Do you think this is a smart idea?" Young asked

"I'm sure we have to do it." Harvest said, "I've already thought about anything else we could do."

"Dying with the Alpha Team" Young stood up, "How about that?"

"Dying in battle after all" Harvest shrugged, "How about that?"

"Equestria doesn't deserve this" Young spat, "Why should the Covenant do this?"

"They want us dead, no reason." Harvest reasoned, "So it makes sense they want something else dead too."

"We're surrounded! Activate the slip-space bomb!" Will's voice cut through the COM

"Harvest! Young we could use some backup!" Abigale called

Harvest and Young then began to sprint back through the corridors

[…]

Just to finish off Daniels had set the self-destruct sequence in the engines, it should go right after the slip-space drives do, allowing for the best explosion possible

"Daniels, they need our help by the bomb!" Alex ordered, "Come on!"

Daniels got up and rushed through the corridors back towards the launch bay, he could hear the angry howls of brutes, he had hated fighting those things before and now he'd have to deal with them again

Once the doors opened he could see Harvest opening the door on the other side of the room, they nodded at each other and rushed the room

Harvest chucked two frags at Daniels, who caught them and threw them at Young, who snuck up on the brutes and shoved them in their belts

Alex took his turret and let loose a flurry of bullets and cutting off most of the brutes, Abigale used her sniper to get those that were distracted and Will killed any that were trying to rush Abigale

Soon enough the room was empty except dead bodies and the firefight carnage

"How much longer until it blows?" Daniels asked

"Less than a minute" Young answered

Daniels swore, "Everybody follow me I have an idea!"

The ODSTs followed him to the hallway, where Covenant drop pods waited for them

"You're joking" Will sounded incredulous

"You have any better ideas?" Daniels was already settling in, "No? Then hurry up!"

Daniels closed the pod and launched, hoping his squad was following suit

[…]

Daniels was attempting his best at piloting the purple drop pod but it wasn't exactly in English, he stayed in contact by using his COM

"Are you sure this was a smart idea?" Young asked, "I don't want to die in space."

"We'll make it" Alex said, "Because we have to."

"At least it's better than on that junk heap." Will commented

"This is awesome!" Harvest cheered, "We should do this more often!"

The COM began to cut out, Daniels noticed that they were going to land right next to Ponyville

What was that mass of god-knows-what heading there?

"Uh guys?" Daniels swallowed, "I think we forgot to mention the parasite to anyone in Ponyville."

[…]

Qualomee had his phantom and was already assaulting the massive hoard trying to get into Ponyville, luckily he had the fact that he was in the air or the Flood would have gotten him

The databanks showed the parasite to be named the Flood, and it was older than he might have expected

"The holy ones faced you" Qualomee caught himself, "The Forerunners, they defeated you and so can we."

The Covenant ship above them had long since exploded, leaving Qualomee as the sole defender of Ponyville, a title he'd wear with pride

And a little humiliation

Twilight had already said her goodbyes to the team that saved Equestria, and now she had her hopes lying in a lone elite who had abandoned his entire race in the name of honor

Not the best, but it would have to do

He missed the human teams already, they had a charisma that was rare in his own brethren, and they also had their charms, strengths and code of honor

The explosion that devoured the super-carrier was one that contained both fire and consuming void, taking in every ship too close

[…]

Twilight was in the library, feeling dejected and useless. Why couldn't she do anything against these things that invaded her home?

Fluttershy said that she would have to calm down, and take care of her friends. That was all any of them could do at this point

Still, the lack of contact that they had received from any of the ODSTs really hammered home the facts for her, they all died to save Equestria and they wouldn't be coming back to save them, only the eight foot tall alien was their hope

Justified worry? Very much so

[…]

The flood spread and rushed through Ponyville, although more times than not they couldn't get into the houses, most of them were really secure and the infection forms were just not cutting it

Qualomee wasn't able to keep the Flood at bay even with all three turrets working full blast, there was very little he could do here

Then something touched down from space, and it wasn't the purple pods that launch from covenant vessels

Mining lasers blasted the Flood to kingdom come, and Morris's voice cut out of an intercom on the massive hunk of steel

"Come and get it, if you think you're tough enough."

Chapter 12

The Flood weren't much of a match for a full-fledged flying vehicle, especially one that utilized superheated plasma, this ship was perfect for taking down the Flood

Morris had the weapons set on automatic, as he perused the files left on the computer, he trespassed onto a clearance level 10-X file, and it held the rest of the file he had been reading before

Planet Reach

July 29th 2552

Joseph: "Sit still, you'll jostle one of your ribs."

Alex: "That was a complete disaster!"

Daniels: "You're telling me."

Alex: "There were eight of us! And now I'm the last one!"

Joseph: "Sorry I don't happen to be on your important radar."

Alex: "The pelican should be arriving sometime within the next three hours, you finished yet?"

*Joseph puts medical tools away*

Joseph: "You'll be fine, those upgrades saved your life then."

Alex: "Then what saved your butt?"

*Joseph shrugs*

Joseph: "Luck? Just got here so it wasn't like I'm good at this or anything."

*Alex nods slowly*

Alex: "Not special at all…"

Subjects Joseph and Alex only survivors, extracted from the planet reach on the ship Essence of War, a UNSC battle cruiser that had been stripped of its dual MAC-Cannons. Subjects left to recuperate

They have passed their test

End File

Morris scratched the back of his head, what on earth did that mean?

[…]

Qualomee was tracking several objects falling from the wreckage, they seemed to be moving in odd ways as they nearly crashed into Ponyville, landing in the field

He saw a large amount of Flood amassing there, he went to the controls and flew his phantom over to the crash site

[…]

Daniels heard them hit their target, several bangs on the outside signified life, he found the release and shot the purple door off of the pod

Then he began to fire as he was quickly besieged by the Flood

His backup came quickly as the other pods landed, and the rest of the teams were now forming a semicircle Abigale, who still clutched her sniper rifle

Ammunition was low after the assault, grenades were vital to this fight and now they were out, thinking fast Daniels ripped open a compartment in the pod

There sat a plasma rifle, and several grenades

"Get your ordinance from the pods people!" Daniels shouted, "We'll need everything we can get!"

Everyone else soon wielded Covenant weapons, Daniels heard something power up behind his head and instinctively ducked

Right as several plasma grenades were launched at some more flood, Harvest was holding a Covenant grenade launcher

"These babies pack a punch!" Harvest laughed

Daniels smiled and quickly got back to work, even with these weapons they were quickly running low on breathing room

Then he heard a phantom behind them sounded, so Daniels turned to look

Qualomee turned on the gravity lift, "Come humans! We must be swift!"

Alex looked at Daniels, who nodded, they had no time for doubts now

One by one, the ODSTs loaded up onto the phantom, and it took off back towards Ponyville

[…]

At first, many of the ponies had been incredulous that that troopers had returned, but true to their word, they had survived the battle on the super carrier

Morris had the systems set so no Flood were able to enter Ponyville without being obliterated, it was so precise that not even an infection form could trick it into destroying a house

Daniels looked at his new armor, it wasn't too worse for wear, comparing to Will and Abigale

Their armor was dented and singed, blood and the occasional brain chunk stuck to it like flypaper, naturally Rarity was appalled more than anyone at the sight of their outfits

"You simply cannot go around wearing that dear!" she fussed over Abigale's suit

"It's my job, I'll be fine." Abigale persisted

"Captain, I assume you have spare suits for them?" Rarity asked

"Uh…Yeah why?" Alex questioned

"Perfect! I will have to start designing on them immediately!" Rarity brightened, "Don't you worry! I'll have those suits ready for fashion's eyes in no time!"

Daniels suspected she just wanted to be out of there

Twilight took a more logical approach to their appearance, asking questions on how it happened and how they survived

"I had told Princess Celestia about your team going up there" Twilight said, "She hasn't written back."

"Wee!" Pinkie bounced, "Sounds like fun! Did you enjoy the ride?"

"It was amazing!" Harvest took off his helmet, "Nobody's done that in the UNSC before!"

"Really?" Applejack looked at Daniels, "Then how'd you figure it out?"

"I wanted my team out of there alive" Daniels said, "I just found out how to do that."

"It was a bold move" Alex conceded, "It worked, that's all that matters."

"We could have blown up any second" Will sounded excited, "That was the best drop I've had yet, and I didn't even know how to fly it!"

Daniels tuned them out, he could taste something in the air, something odd

Spike burped, a scroll materialized but in the talk nobody noticed

Spike waddled up (even though he wouldn't say 'waddled') and gave it to Daniels, telling him to give it to Twilight while he went to help Rarity

Daniels had no qualms, he sat back and read the scroll

My faithful student Twilight

It is a true shame that Joseph and his friends had to die, as they have left some threats uncared for, and it is not convenient for us to handle them ourselves

As much as I had dislike for him, he was well spirited, if not a bit foolish, there was a large amount of sacrifice they all gave, however I do not believe this does halt the Covenant, if they know about the Artifact of Ages, then they'll do what it takes to get it, and use it

I have not been entirely honest with you, I do know what it is, and now that Joseph and his friends are gone we will have to use it, gather your elements and meet me in Canterlot as soon as it's safe

-Princess Celestia

'Well she cared' Daniels thought to himself, his own thoughts dripping with sarcasm

"Hey Joseph" Twilight was looking at him, "Was that for me?"

Daniels tossed the letter to her, "We're going to Canterlot."

"Tell me that's not its name…" Will groaned

"Apparently" Daniels shrugged, "But I did have it called that the princess knows about the Artifact, and we all know that the Covenant aren't done yet, they'll be back."

All of the relief from the victory drained out of the room, they all had fought the Covenant, and the Covenant didn't give up.

"Get yourselves equipped" Daniels ordered, "The Captain will stay here with his squad and ship, while Harvest, Young and I will go to Canterlot."

"Not happening" Alex asserted, "Harvest can stay, I'm going."

"Why do I have to stay?" Harvest complained

"I'll stay" Young diffused the situation, "You three go ahead."

Daniels regarded the Captain, "She doesn't like me, I'm pretty sure she won't like you."

Harvest laughed, "Nor will your armor stand as well."

"So the princess did that to your suit?" Alex sounded approving, "When did that happen?"

"It was a misunderstanding" Daniels said, "Before we got communication up and running."

"Then I won't have to snap anyone's neck" Will cracked his fingers

"Ignore him" Alex advised Twilight, "Never knows when to shut up."

"Off to Canterlot, once we get equipped." Daniels said, "You may have the military control, but you're the opposite of diplomatic."

Alex snorted, Harvest laughed, while Young and Abigale exchanged glances

"Fine, you're the Human-Equestrian Ambassador" Alex conceded, "But one sign of trouble and I'm pulling the trigger, got it?"

"Understood, Captain." Daniels rolled his eyes behind his VISR

Chapter 13

Daniels was sitting in a rather small bunk on the train to Canterlot, Harvest had the bunk on the other side

"An ambassador to an alien race, wish it was under better circumstances" Harvest sighed, "Still, you're the best choice for this sort of op."

"What do you mean?" Daniels asked

"You've changed since we first got here" Harvest shrugged, "Started caring for something other than your squad."

Daniels opened his mouth to protest but stopped to think, normally saving civilians was part of the job, but over the course of the crash he found that he was starting to become attached to this place

It wasn't nearly as hellish as war back on Reach was, he vowed to not let this planet end up like Reach

"I'm hungry" Harvest said, "Let's go to the dining cart."

Daniels left his helmet by the bunk as he and his best friend walked to the dining cart, as they sat themselves down they began to chat a bit more

"This place is really weird" Daniels looked at Harvest, "But in a way it's sort of nice."

"Won't be much longer if the Covenant get what they want" Harvest pointed out, "Guess that's why you're so determined to keep this place intact."

Daniels nodded, "I think it should stay like this, I don't want this place becoming like the rest of the war."

"We have the guns to do it" Harvest cracked, before flexing

Twilight trotted into the dining cart and sat next to Daniels

What was strange is that she was the only element bearer allowed to go, Twilight had insisted that she had protection so the royal guards would not have to escort her

Twilight seemed nervous more than Daniels felt, which was saying a lot, being an ODST going into a potentially dangerous situation and not being allowed to shoot your way out does that to you

At least Daniels knew where his loyalties lie, or so he wanted to believe, he had been finding it hard to believe some of the policies he had followed and even carried out after seeing how this place handled things

Twilight wanted there to be no troubles with this meeting, and the princess didn't even know Daniels was going to show up

Twilight made sure to order for the two ODSTs, as neither of them knew much of the cuisine here, during their stay they usually had their MREs

This was their first real meal in a while

Young was making herself busy inside the laboratories and the weapons upgrading facilities

She had Daniels' assault rifle as he was only allowed to bring his sidearm under ambassador laws, in other words the UNSC friendly contact protocol

So she was taking the time to work on the rifle, with some technology 'borrowed' from the Alpha Team the private was creating some stronger alloyed bullets and explosive rounds

Young also took it upon herself to repair all of the damage the weapon had suffered since their crash, as the alloy on the bullets was cooling she heard the doors open

"Your friend Rarity is looking for you" Abigale said as she walked up, "Something about 'stylish new armor'"

Young rolled her eyes, this shouldn't take too long

"Alright, she did use your stuff after all, want to take a look?"

"Sure" Abigale answered, "I haven't had a chance to do much since we landed, and nothing's happening."

Young and Abigale got out of the ship, which on closer inspection was very closely shaped to a Halcyon class cruiser, but smaller

They took the short walk from the town hall to the boutique, Rarity was waiting for them inside

"Ah, good to see you darling." Rarity said upon seeing Young, "Are you ready for the new suit?"

"Alright" Young said, "Might as well."

*One Armor Change Later*

Young had initially denied wearing the pink suit, as she had disliked the idea of strutting around wearing a bright pink ODST uniform, but when she saw it she had seen it was more of a magenta

She also knew that bright colors would blend in well with the bright colors of Equestria, it was a no brainer

"I took the liberty of changing the color of your visor" Rarity said

Indeed it was now a lighter magenta, and it went well with the color swapped symbol of the Delta Squadron

Abigale had also been given a suit, this one was purple and black at her request

Morris walked in, nearly doubling over in laughter

"You're not catching me wearing a pink suit, no way." He managed to get out

Abigale and Young exchanged glances, before nodding

Soon Morris was sporting a bright pink suit, adorned with flowers and the occasional bumblebee

"And…Shot." Young sent a picture to Daniels, "The boys'll love that one."

[…]

Daniels had nearly sprayed Twilight with his water, before gaining control of himself

"Harvest, behold, the newest member of the Alpha Team." Daniels showed Harvest the picture

Harvest did end up spraying Twilight with his water, who quickly proceeded to glare at him

"Oh my god, that's amazing!" Harvest ignored Twilight

Daniels got up and grabbed a towel, tossing it in Harvest's face, "No need to overreact, he's just a rookie, no reputation to protect."

Twilight looked at the picture, taking the towel from Harvest, "Do you do this sort of thing often?"

"You have your friend Rarity to thank for that" Daniels said, "That and the ingenuity of the boredom that can come from two off-duty ODSTs"

"The rookie will have a lot to do if he wants to get his rep out of the trash" Alex appeared behind Twilight

Twilight nearly hit the ceiling, "Don't sneak up on me like that!"

Daniels regarded the Captain, "I take it you've been enjoying your time here?"

"The sooner I'm off this rock the better" Alex said, "But that's up to the UNSC, not to me."

Daniels grunted

[…]

The next day

[…]

Young woke up, Rarity was beating down the door to the ship

Young opened it to ask what was going on but was soon met with a scroll thrust into her face

She read through the scroll

"Mother of god…"

Chapter 14

Daniels stepped off the train, the air smelled of money, not too far off from the train station was a load of high end shops

Harvest stepped behind him, "I was hoping we wouldn't have to walk through this sort of place."

"The princess was clever in choosing who would live here" Alex said, "We can't get through without her catching wind of us being here."

Daniels nodded, "Snooty people, the best defense system."

Twilight remained silent as they walked to the castle

The walk was uneventful, the town seemed empty, Daniels wasn't familiar with the town, but based on Twilight's nervousness he could tell something was off

Upon reaching the gates they weren't met with an impractical pantheon of ponies

(See what I did there?)

Instead the gates had no guards, it was abandoned

"Stay on your guard kid" Alex said to Harvest

Daniels was supposed to be the one not to draw his gun, so instead he made sure to stay taut in case of any sort of hostile interference, even though he wasn't expecting it

They advanced through the empty corridors of the castle, soon reaching the throne room doors

Twilight went ahead, and knocked

The doors slowly creaked open, and Princess Celestia was looking out the window, she seemed hurt fairly badly, with several cuts and a large gash on her right flank

She looked over to look at Twilight, then registering the ODSTs

"It's a miracle…" she said, "We may stand a chance now."

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight exclaimed, "What happened?"

"They came quickly, taking as many of us as they could" Celestia looked haunted, "Those infectious beasts."

Daniels tensed, "You mean the Flood?"

"They were distracting us!" Alex slapped his COM, "Abigale, Will, How are things down there?"

"Things are fine down here, but we got the message." Young said, "Should we get moving?"

"Take a warthog, and get over here." Daniels ordered, "I think I'm getting something on the E-band."

Indeed the E-band was reacting, there was a flash of purple as a UNSC ship came into orbit

"This is fleet commander Charles Cutter, is the Alpha Team reading me?"

"Alpha Team Leader Alexander Washington" Alex said, "We read you."

"You've got a large swarm of Flood heading towards the castle on the mountain" Cutter said, "We're going to extract you there!"

"Young, Will, Abigale" Daniels said, "Double time it! We're not letting you stay behind!"

"They'll never make it before the swarm hits!" Harvest said

"No, but I know what's going to keep them at bay." Daniels walked up to the throne and lifted the cushion, finding a UNSC weapons crate

"I'm glad I forgot to grab all of the equipment from the pelican." Daniels grabbed a few rifles, a rocket launcher and grenades

"Suit up people" Harvest said, "We've got some MVPs to take care of."

Daniels made sure he was fully equipped, grenades and a rifle, they would have to take up special positions in order to protect the underground areas where the ponies had been kept in hiding

[…]

Daniels held a spot by the train station, where the Flood would have the easiest chance of getting in

He had made sure to booby-trap the entrance, as it was simple to rig up a few grenades and prevent the combat forms from getting anywhere close

He could see them approach, and all hell broke loose once again

Daniels had to make sure to stay light on his feet and not get surrounded, chucking grenades into the fray, and firing his rifle to thin out the opposition

As skilled as he was, the sheer numbers soon began to drive him uphill, as the fight became more and more close quarters he began to wonder where his backup was

[…]

"You heard the man! Move it!" Will shouted as Abigale down the rail road tracks

"This is the quickest way to the castle" Young said, looking at the map, "We'll have to keep any Flood away from us as we get moving."

Will took up the position on the turret, cutting down any and all of the Flood that were foolish enough to rush them

"Are we forgetting something?" Young asked

"Not that I know of" Abigale said, "Why?"

"I feel like we've left something important behind" Young said, "What about your ship?"

"Its fine" Will said, "The ship was dispensable."

Young settled in uncomfortably, she wasn't sure what she was missing, but it could very well mean life or death

[…]

Harvest had the rocket launcher, there were so many rockets he had little trouble, as he had no qualms about the windows of any high end shops

Besides, would it matter if the ponies survived? They could rebuild their shops, but life was more important here.

"Woo! Take that!" Harvest shouted, "You're not getting past me!"

Then all at once the Flood retreated from this entrance, he would have been relieved, except where were they going?

[…]

Daniels was struggling to fight off the sudden influx of Flood infection forms, he was lucky his suit was made for the raw powers of a solar flare or he might not be alive at this point

Then there was the sudden roar of an engine, a warthog tore past him and the turret obliterated any and all Flood at the point

"We've wasted the gas" Young said, hopping out, "Where's the evac?"

"Top of the castle" Daniels said, "Let's move troopers!"

They retreated to the castle, the Delta Squadron taking up defensive positions as the Alpha Team got on board

"Come on!" Alex shouted at Daniels, "We can make it!"

"This planet is not going to become a breeding ground for the Flood" Daniels said

"What about you?" Will asked

"We're dispensable" Daniels said, "You go, they need you in the war."

"Goodbye" Alex said, "And good luck"

"You too captain" Daniels waved, and the ship soon left atmosphere

"Daniels! Get down here we need backup!" Harvest shouted

"On my way!"

Chapter 15

After the ship had shot off like a rocket, the Flood simply found it useless to continue, there was no more orbit capable transport to allow passage

At least that was Harvest's theory, saying how it was great that they survived and all that, even at what they'd gone through

"So when shall the rest of you depart?" Celestia asked

"We can't" Daniels said, "The Alpha team burned out the Scavenger's engines."

"So you're stuck here again?" Twilight asked

"Yeah" Harvest sighed, "What we really need to do, is get some new suits, these are going to smell horrible."

"Is this permanent or a vacation?" Young asked

That one hadn't taken Daniels by surprise, but he wasn't sure what to do

"I don't know" Daniels said, "But we should prepare for either."

Harvest took off his helmet, "Then we better start."

Daniels could tell this was no time for jokes, especially because Harvest wasn't cracking anyway, but he tried

"Put your helmet back on, we don't want our eyes to burn out while we're here."

It didn't work at lightening the mood, but then again there wasn't much that could

"The UNSC Scavenger" Young said thoughtfully, "If you're the highest ranking officer, doesn't that make it yours?"

Daniels thought about it, "Maybe, that might be our best bet off planet too."

"The sooner we get the transport the sooner the Flood might have transport" Harvest insisted, "We'd have to be careful."

"I believe we can allow for you to stay in Equestria" Celestia said, "To defend from any further Covenant attacks."

Luna entered the room, there were bloodshot-eyed guards behind her

"Hello sister, Joseph." Luna greeted, "I heard their ship take off, I assume they're staying?"

"Yeah" Twilight looked to the Princess, "You said you knew what the Covenant were after?"

"I feel as if the time for that secret to be told is nigh" Celestia sighed, "Follow me, you will learn a lot."

[…]

Daniels wasn't sure what he was looking at, the Princess had led him and his team to a large series of pictographs in the mountain behind the castle

The biggest one showed a giant behemoth, something that didn't look like anything Daniels had ever seen

"These are all figurative" Luna explained, "We believe this one represents chaos."

"And that tiny little gem is the Artifact?" Daniels pointed at a gem in the beast's forehead

"What does the Artifact even do?" Harvest asked, "Nobody ever told me."

"It allows you to harness the power of all that is good and tear a hole in time, granting access to the past without worry for a paradox." Luna answered

Daniels swore

"If the Covenant were to get their hands on it…" Young trailed off

"That's not going to happen." Daniels asserted, "We can make sure of that, the three of us."

"These pictures aren't exactly the most pleasant things ever." Twilight remarked

Luna frowned, "Care to hear the last one?"

"Alright" Harvest said, "I'd love to know how we get off this rock."

"It speaks of the deaths of all the defenders" Celestia answered, "In a noble blaze of glory."

Harvest was silent, then shrugged, "Well at least it's a blaze of glory"

Daniels remained silent, trying to figure out exactly what to do

"Joseph" Celestia snapped him back to reality, "When do you expect the next attack to occur?"

Daniels checked his HUD, "Not soon, the Covenant will need to learn that they lost that fight, and the Flood don't have any need to attack until they arrive."

"Then you may relax" Luna said, "You and your squad have been overtaxing yourselves."

"It's our job to make sure everyone on this planet is safe" Daniels said

"This is a royal order" Celestia said, "You and your team must get some rest."

Daniels rolled his eyes, but didn't protest

[…]

Daniels and the others were back in Ponyville, Morris wasn't surprised to hear that his squad had been evacuated without him

"It's nothing new" Morris shrugged, "They did that twice on the Halo ring."

*Knock Knock*

Twilight was at the ship doors, "The princess said relax."

"Maybe we find preparing for an inevitable invasion and our demise relaxing" Harvest cracked

"Which reminds me" Daniels said, "Young do you have the satellite functioning yet?"

"All we need to do is launch it" Young answered, "We can then get some better maps of this place."

"I don't think you can get an ODST squad to relax when they're the only thing standing between this planet and a Covenant invasion force." Daniels remarked, "The better prepared we are, the higher chance we have of survival."

Twilight shook her head, "The princess thinks that if you relax you won't be shooting at your own shadows."

"We haven't had that problem since rookie training." Morris said, "When we first joined the UNSC."

"You mean last week for you right?" Harvest smirked

Qualomee came back from the weapons testing room, hefting a plasma cannon that took advantage of the UNSC's MAC systems

"This is officially a weapon of destruction" he said, "You're going to need some new testing dummies."

"We had fifty of those things!" Morris protested

"You're out now." Qualomee said bluntly, "This weapon is really destructive."

"How many shots did it take?" Harvest asked, interested

"One, but it does take a while to reload." Qualomee said, "Magnetically accelerating a depleted plasma slug takes some time."

The rest of the team continued chatting away about all sorts of things, but Daniels sat down in the captain's chair out of habit

Twilight took note of this, "If you're the highest ranking officer here, doesn't that give you the rights to this ship?"

Daniels thought about it, "I'm not sure, I haven't been officially promoted so it's in highly debatable territory right now."

"That's stupid" Harvest said simply, "You're in charge, and since we're the only UNSC here, that puts the UNSC Scavenger under your jurisdiction."

"Technically none of us are under UNSC control right now." ,Daniels shrugged, "Twilight, anything new with you?"

"Ponyville is almost completely rebuilt" Twilight said, "But it'll take a while for most of the ponies to get used to the fact that you're staying."

Daniels remained silent, unsure of how he felt about it

On one hand, this was a great place, which needed defending, but on the other hand the UNSC needed him and his team for the war effort

But did they really? The only thing that kept the Delta Squadron coming back in one piece was the fact that they could take care of themselves, the UNSC had extracted without them on many occasions

This was a new line of thought, one that Daniels decided to return to later

"When do you think the Covenant will come back?" Twilight asked

"Once they find out that their attack force wasn't supposed to be here in the first place" Qualomee said, "They'll be more furious at the dead admiral than at the ones who killed him."

"They weren't supposed to be in Equestria?" Daniels stiffened

"The admiral detected the Artifact, but never alerted the Hierarchs in hopes that he could get ahold of it with little trouble, securing a place in the Great Journey."

"And then we blew up his command ship" Harvest finished, "Locked and loaded!"

"So they won't care that he died" Daniels said, "But they will send a team to get the Artifact, which we need to keep safe."

"You speak like you know its location" Qualomee questioned

"That's on a need-to-know basis" Daniels asserted

Twilight shook her head again, "That's not the point, Princess Celestia ordered you to relax, and right now she's the one you have to answer to!"

The room went silent, Twilight sheepishly attempted to reword it

"I mean…Princess Celestia is the…"

Daniels nodded slowly, "She's the one allowing us to stay in her kingdom without too many restrictions, I think we may have to suck it up and take a few days off."

Harvest sighed, "Fine, but don't be surprised if I spend my vacation time in bed."

"We won't have to worry about food anyhow" Young said, "We have plenty of MREs to keep us fed, disgusting as they are."

"Alright people" Daniels clapped his hands together, "Time for a little R&R"

Chapter 16

The night saw Daniels inside the weapons testing room, working on a small little 'project' that nobody needed to know about

The door opened and he heard footsteps, his HUD told him that Harvest was inside the room

"I thought I was the only one who came in here at night." Harvest quipped

"That princess isn't telling us something." Daniels said simply; hefting his creation, "I intend on finding out what that is."

What he held in his hand looked to be a standard pistol, the butt of the gun was a tad wider, to compensate for the alternate ammunition: knockout darts

Harvest looked at it, "We can't just go and waltz in, salsa maybe, but not waltz."

Daniels ignored the dance joke, "If she expects us to protect her country when she's incapable of it, then I'd like to know the details."

"Should I get the others?" his fellow ODST asked

"No, I'd prefer that they don't get involved." The squad leader looked around, "I had initially planned on going alone."

"We can take the Phantom, it'll be a quiet enough ride."

The pair walked up to the alien vessel, the scuffs and burns a testimony to what it had seen, Daniels floated up the Grav Lift

Harvest went to man the controls, Daniels checked the equipment locker to check if they had proper tools

"It won't be an hour, I'd say about fifteen minutes and we'll be there." Harvest said, "Then again I'm not the pilot."

Daniels settled in for a quick power nap, he'd need all the energy he could get

[…]

When he woke up he could see the moon had hidden itself behind an overcast sky, seemingly aware of the plan set in motion

"I can drop you in the courtyard" Harvest said, "From there I'll need to find a spot to park, you'll need to be ready for a bit of a drop."

Daniels got ready by the door, Harvest dropped it and Daniels dropped out

As he fell he spread his arms and legs out spread-eagle, in order to slow his descent into the courtyard

Daniels hit the ground in a couple of bushes, grunting slightly at the impact

'Thank god for this armor' Daniels thought to himself, 'That would have hurt like hell.'

But this was a vital part of the operation, he would have to make it inside the castle without getting caught. It wasn't like this was his first stealth operation, he just didn't have much scale for how dead he was if he got caught.

The lone ODST snuck through the bushes, a few guards passed by but didn't see him, they looked different to the normal royal guard; the most discerning features were their bat wings and sharp yellow eyes

Daniels had almost forgotten to turn off his external speakers, once they were off he would become an almost imperceptible shadow

By now he had managed to sneak in through an open window, now he needed to think of where he would search for the information he needed

'Where oh where, has the intel gone?' he thought to himself

[…]

Qualomee was asleep inside his new cabin, the bunk bed had been made for a human and wasn't fit for his height or weight, Morris had spliced a stronger metal to the wall to hang this from for him

At least the ponies were hospitable, they could sleep without worrying about suddenly getting attacked by the-

*BOOM*

His eyes instantly flicked open, it had sounded like something had landed on the roof of the ship

*BOOM BOOM BOOM*

There it was, like something forcing its way in. Without thinking about it he had already hopped to his feet and equipped a plasma rifle, ready to shoot whatever wasn't polite enough to knock

By now the Elite had exited the barracks, heading for the boarding bay

Once he got there he could see Young and Morris already had taken up defensive positions and set up barricades, they worked quickly

"Settle down and take some grenades." Morris said, "Something's coming in and we're gonna blow it apart."

It was evident that the massive boarding bay had been riddled with traps, but the enemy would have to disarm them or fight their way past them

The doors began to move apart, and then there was a maelstrom of bullets and…

Magic beams?

As Qualomee turned on his night vision he could see an invading force of several hundred ponies, all of them wearing bright golden armor

"That's Celestia's royal guard!" Morris shouted over the hail

"I don't care who they are!" Young answered, "They're attacking so give them hell!"

Qualomee remained silent, where was Harvest and the Leader?

[…]

Harvest began to pick something up on the ships radars, "We've got something going on back home."

"I don't assume it's another of Pinkie's parties?" Daniels quipped over the COMM

"I'm getting transmissions of some kind of invasion, I think our ship's under attack!" Harvest switched into combat mode

"The others can handle it, we need to focus on the main objective." Daniels said calmly

As for Daniels, he had entered the throne room. The princess would have to keep any and all information close by in the case of sudden assault

He scanned the room, before going around the back of the throne, a small and almost imperceptible button was there. He pressed it

A trapdoor opened beneath his feet, and the ODST dropped down into a slide like tunnel that dumped him out into what appeared to be a small stone room full of old papers and documents

"Jackpot" Daniels smiled slightly, he realized now was how he acted when he was behind enemy lines, which seemed oddly appropriate here

He then realized that all of his COMM communications had been cut, there must've been some sort of shield around the room

The ODST then began to go through the papers, before uncovering a small little glowing flat square

"Well hello there…" Daniels picked up the datapad, this was standard UNSC equipment, looked like something he'd expect to see on the Scavenger…

It dawned on him, the princess had stolen a datapad. But what for…?

He opened up the files and found a very official looking message, it appeared to be something from a high up UNSC general, general Higgins? Nobody he'd ever heard of before…

As he quickly skimmed down it said something along the lines of 'destroy' and 'kill' and it seemed to be talking about the natives of Equestria

Before he could reach the bottom he found that it cut off unexpectedly, Daniels felt his gut tighten

There was no General Higgins, there was Princess Celestia.

She was planning on using this to convict his squad of attempted genocide! That was what the invasion was! Princess Celestia was conducting a little 'search' of their ship, where she could claim she found this datapad

"If she thinks I'm going to take this lying down then there's another thing coming." Daniels said to himself, before turning around and leaving the room by a nearby stairwell

Once he had reached the top he found he was inside a small room, it was decorated with murals of humans and filled with old and dusty books

One look at these behemoths told him that they were storybooks, old legends and mythology. This shouldn't have mattered besides the fact that each book contained a picture of a human, upon closer inspection showed they wore armor

This armor looked about as techy as the suit that he wore, gold visor, it was kind of disturbing

After snapping several pictures Daniels continued until he found a window, he then called the Phantom

"We're moving out, our ship may have been compromised."

Chapter 17

Daniels and Harvest were in the Phantom, cooking up a couple of MREs

"Any signal from the others?" Daniels asked

"Not since the attack" Harvest answered, "We may have to go on a rescue op."

This was nothing new, neither was having a vehicle parked in the forest as you ate and prepared for an upcoming battle

Of course thinking about it was a big factor, the initial message came with a small little video clip, it showed the strike force. Daniels could tell something was off; the princess may have been lying sure, but there was no way she had that many guards.

That was the main thing on his mind, that many guards simply didn't make sense, that and the fact they looked exactly the same? He would have to get there and take a look as soon as he could

Harvest finished his MRE and stood up, "Right, off to Ponyville then."

Daniels didn't complain, the sooner they fixed this the sooner they could get back to stopping the Covenant

The UNSC troopers were tough, but that was just unfair. Qualomee most likely obliterated more than half of the invading force with that massive weapon he made.

Harvest was silently piloting the Phantom as Ponyville was twenty minutes away

But a lot can happen in twenty minutes

[…]

Twilight wasn't left in the dark when the attack struck, instead she was left in a panic as her door was bashed against

Even she could tell something was off, each guard had his own tell, a slight gait, an accent of some kind, eye color, but these guards all were the same

Magic copies? Or something else, she retreated into her basement which had an iron reinforced door in order to protect from any magical accidents that might have occurred while experimenting down there

There was no sign of Joseph or his squad, then again that appeared to be one of the first things under attack, at least that's what Twilight suspected from the sounds of gunfire and magical blasts coming from that area

She should have been able to tell what was going on, but princess Celestia appeared to be the cause, and the town was in just as much a state of panic as she was

Twilight was in a huge state of panic, she could feel her magic begin to respond, her horn felt like it was about to explode

[…]

Daniels could see the town in the distance, but Ponyville looked pretty worse-for-wear, being covered in craters and some sort of slime

The Phantom descended, Harvest would park somewhere near the Scavenger while Daniels assessed the situation on the surface

"I'll see you in hell" Daniels said before saluting and turning to go down the gravlift

Daniels had grabbed a shotgun from the weapons locker and left, the slime covered most of the buildings and was seemingly blocking most points of passage

'Right, first things first.' Daniels made his way through the town, it seemed as if nobody was there

Only a few guards walked through town, accompanied by some strange black bug-like things, they were around the same size to the resident ponies, Daniels would have to move quickly and stay in the shadows. The last thing they needed was a single-man confrontation

"I've parked, I'm going to take a look at the Scavenger." Harvest patched through

"Alright, I want radio silence while we're here. Unless it's vitally important." Daniels ordered

Harvest's acknowledgement light winked green, Daniels would make his way there and avoid anyone except Harvest

Right now, he was behind enemy lines

[…]

'I need a vacation…' Harvest thought to himself

After disconnecting from Daniels he had picked up a plasma rifle, the only weapon left the in the locker

'At least it's better than a plasma pistol.'

He turned off his external speakers and turned on his VISR, he'd need to be able to see in complete darkness which wasn't possible if he had a flashlight

Harvest dropped down onto the ground, the Scavenger was in sight, a large amount of green slime was covering it and the entrances

Almost all of them, but Harvest remembered there being one on the top of the ship for maintenance

It would be a hell of a climb, but it would be worth finding out exactly what happened to his fellow ODSTs, and a really tall alien thing

Once he managed to get to the top he could see the door was seemingly left untouched, aside from a small amount of slime on the top of the doorframe

The lone ODST queued the door, and it slowly slid open

'Ambient to say the least.' He cracked

Then he raised the rifle and entered the darkened ship

[…]

Daniels had nearly made it to the library, if anyone would know what was going on Twilight would

There had been several close calls, at one point he had nearly tripped a small trap, it was hooked up to the school bells, if he had set that off the whole town would have known he was there

But the library was in view now, it only had the green slime on the possible entrances, this slime was odd, it gave off a sickly greenish glow

Daniels jumped up to a lower branch, then climbed up to the balcony, then further still until he was near the top of the tree

From this vantage point he could see a few more buildings with glowing slime on them, the bakery, a strange building with some sort of clothing shop on the bottom, and the Scavenger's silhouette was visible through the night haze

The ODST could drop into the attic from here, this thing being a tree and all, but when he was getting close he could see a barrier of branches weaved together by magic

Not an issue, as long as he didn't get caught he could force entry into the attic, and did just that

His boots hit the wooden floor with a dull thump, at least the library was made out of stable oak wood, now Daniels had to find Twilight in this dust factory

The library was solid, so it didn't creak as much as any normal house would. The downstairs was in a state of disarray, books strewn everywhere, and the door to the basement looked incredibly battered

Daniels walked up to it, trying the door, but despite how beaten it was, it didn't give way, must've been magically reinforced, but every lock had a breaking point

He braced himself, dug his boots into the hardwood floor and gave the door a good shove, the door was strong, but he could feel the hinges start to give, they creaked and then bent out of place, the door collapsed inward

The basement was dark, and the sickly yellow glow of the VISR outlined everything in the room slightly worse for wear computer technology, a few things he couldn't tell what were, but Twilight wasn't in sight

While he was there he decided he had to take a look for clues, the computer screen flickered to life and displayed a message

HELP ME

Chapter 18

Harvest was walking through the dark corridors of the Scavenger, ready for any sort of ambush, the sickly yellow light of the VISR was irritating and made him feel as if he were back in boot camp, ah boot camp. He'd never forget the day he put 'toilet cakes' in the commander's locker, he had to scrub the bathrooms with his toothbrush for weeks

A strange light snapped him out of his thoughts, it was glowing green and seemed to be coming from somewhere in the direction of the bridge

The lone soldier hefted his rifle, god knew what lied in wait for anyone foolish enough to tread this path

It was all in the job description

"Feet first into Hell…" Harvest muttered to himself

Then he walked to the bridge, and almost certainly danger awaits

[…]

Daniels sat on the stool in front of the decrepit CPU, it looked like something from the year 2013, ancient technology. How those humans got on with it was a mystery, but the bigger mystery was what was happening on the screen

Are you going to just sit there or help?

The ODST reached for the keyboard

Who are you?

The name's Tatyana, I was the Scavenger's AI

The Scavenger had an AI?

It had to, did you think Morris handled everything himself?

I'm sure he thought he did

He didn't. Now in the USB port of this computer there's a chip, I need you to take it out and insert it into your helmet

How do I know this isn't a trap?

Have you ever Joseph?

Daniels shrugged, he never did, and nothing ventured, nothing gained

Where do I put the chip?

There's a slot on the back of your helmet, it should fit in there.

Daniels kneeled down, there was indeed a chip in the USB port, he removed it and held it up to his view

It was a UNSC standard AI chip, exactly what would need to hold a smart AI that Tatyana claimed to be

He reached the chip around his shoulder, before sliding it into a slot he didn't even notice existed on his helmet

Daniels flinched as an insanely cold fluid filled his head, it felt like frozen mercury was entering his skull

"Sorry about that, it's not always pleasant the first time." A voice said through his helmet speakers

"I wouldn't imagine" Daniels retorted, "Do Spartans have to deal with this?"

"Only the ones with AI." Tatyana answered

"How did you end up down here?" the ODST asked

"Did you think Twilight was doing 'spring cleaning'?" she said flatly

"Of course not, but you could have just said so." Daniels rolled his eyes

"The town of Ponyville appears to be covered in a restrictive goo that saps a sort of energy from it, we may need a sample for analysis."

"Save the town first, samples later."

Daniels checked his ammo, he had to find Twilight and the others, and for that he needed to go back outside

[…]

Harvest was nearing the bridge when some movement caught his eye by the barracks, inside a large portion of the strange slime was blocking off a corridor into the weapons testing rooms

He fastened his rifle to his belt and tried to punch through the slime, it simply bounce him back off

Now the ODST had to think of a clever little scheme like Daniels would, the slime reflected his punch with equal force, but if he were to slowly come at it?

He stuck his finger into the goop, it was cold and had the consistency of snot, but wouldn't let him get through, he retracted his hand and wiped the strange gel on the wall

In the event of an emergency that would prevent a crew member from reaching the escape pods from the bridge, where would they go?

Harvest snapped his fingers, "The service corridor!"

It wasn't too difficult to find, the corridor was enough for one human to walk through with little trouble, this path was usually unnoticed unless it was being specially looked for

The doors slowly slid open, these corridors could be specially used in the case of emergency to hide certain items or people if the need be

Harvest checked the plasma rifle, it wouldn't be quiet if he ever had to fight something, and it was perfectly likely that he was going to fight something

The further he went into the corridor the more it became difficult for his suit to filter the air, apparently there was something in the air that was clogging the filter

Luckily being close to the weapons room he could find some spare air tanks, he queued his suit to scan the residue in the air

While that was running he opened the door to the weapons room, being a service corridor it opened to a catwalk that was meant to service the lights. Down below were some weird looking piles of goop, one of them appeared to be shaking…

Harvest took the strong metal coil that was kept up there and tied one bit to the pole, the other end to his waist, and slowly began to slide down

Once his boots hit the metal of the floor his suit had made a ding, no sooner had he realized his mistake

He hadn't checked underneath the catwalk on the way down, and several thousand flood infection forms swarmed downwards towards him

Without thinking he lifted the rifle, but once thought kicked in he sprung towards the gooped up doorway, using it as something to back up against

Harvest began to fire the plasma rifle into the swarm, luckily enough there were no combat forms and all he had to deal with was the little mushroom-like infectious manifestation

"Joseph's gonna be pissed" Harvest muttered to himself, "He doesn't like it when the home base gets compromised."

[…]

Daniels was going through the town, the only place big enough to hold several hundred captives would be in the Scavenger, so it would be best to take a look there, strangely enough Tatyana wasn't bad company, even though Daniels had never taken much of a liking to AI

"Unfortunately I believe we are dealing with something you may be familiar with, especially considering your record." Tatyana said

"And what would that be?" Daniels asked

"You may not have noticed, because of your vacuum sealed suit, but there's this alteration of the atmosphere, and the only thing on this planet that does that is…"

Daniels swore under his breath

"I remember, the Flood have to be back." Daniels paused, "Then what are these bug things? They don't seem very Flood-like to me."

"I'm guessing a native species, but this is only speculation."

The ODST checked his ammo counter, it read at a full 32

"We've been compromised! Flood infection forms in the Scavenger!" Harvest's voice keyed through the COMM

"On my way." Daniels cut the link, he didn't need any panic from his friend right now

Besides, when it mattered most Harvest always seemed to make it out one way or another, he just had to do it one more time

[…]

Through rock and metal and time, it has waited

With the Artifact it would sweep the universe, and embrace all into its grasp

Once the reclaimers were erased, and the Artifact out of their grasp, it would finally take victory

Chapter 19

Harvest threw the spent plasma rifle to the ground, it wouldn't be of any use after its core was depleted, he had managed to eradicate all of the infection forms, they popped like popcorn

He went up to a weapon rack and pulled off a shotgun, it would be perfect to fight the Flood, and turned around to check out the weird moving slime blob

It seemed to be moving more erratically, as if something were trying to burst free

The ODST knelt down next to the strange pile of goop, the green light had to be emitting from the center. He put his hand up against the outside, and the slime parted to reveal a sort of window

This window was made out of a more compact slime, clear and strong, Harvest guessed it was some sort of containment glass

On the inside he could see a small huddled figure, and he decided to knock on the window a few times

The figure perked slightly, and turned around to look at him, all he could see were two whites of eyes, and the irises were a blue

Harvest could easily tell what was inside, one of Ponyville's civilians, he balled his fist and smashed it into the glass, it crumpled and cascaded down onto the ground

Inside the containment glop was Fluttershy, her wet face suggested that she had been crying

"What happened?" Harvest asked

"It's the changelings" Fluttershy answered, "They've taken Ponyville."

"I can see that" Harvest frowned, "But you'd know that."

Fluttershy cocked her head

"If I were to take an enemy ship and leave traps all over the room" Harvest stood up and leveled the shotgun, "Then I'd make sure that there was something to get them if they made it past the first trap, I'd also never keep a large threat too far from where I could get it if needed."

The Fluttershy frowned, before a bright green energy began to cover her form, then out popped a bug like thing, exactly the same that he saw on his way over to the Scavenger inside the Phantom

Before it could move Harvest put the barrel of the shotgun directly to its head

"I'm going to ask a series of questions" he said bluntly, "The first one: Where the hell are my friends?"

[…]

Daniels had made it to the front of the Scavenger, the ship was about half the size of a halcyon class cruiser, and several massive dents and burns showed its experiences as of late

"It appears as if the Scavenger's entrances have been sealed." Tatyana said, "It would be possible to sneak into one of the ejected escape pod launch bays."

"This is going to be a nice little fun climb" Daniels smiled slightly

The dents in the ship's hull made it easy to get somewhat of a firm grip, the ODST knew that Harvest will have killed the Flood by now, superheated plasma always was pretty effective

Once he got to an escape pod launch bay, he could see the town even better than when he was on top of the library, the town was being patrolled by those bugs, but now they seemed to be converging towards the Scavenger

Daniels shook his head slowly and entered the ship, he'd meet up with Harvest inside

The dark corridors of the ship seemed slightly fitting given the situation, the same strange slime was getting more frequent the further he went into the ships depths

The bridge would be the best destination, it was nearby the weapons testing room and would easily be the most logical spot for the enemy to hole up

"I'm getting strange readings, I don't think we've encountered life like this before." Tatyana warned, "Your guns may not work on them."

"I'll fire a few rounds, see how that does." Daniels smirked slightly

[…]

Harvest closed the doors to the weapons testing room, he had the information he needed, but the bug-thing would make a decent hostage if he ever had to

Harvest didn't like taking prisoners, it wasn't something he was used to, it was always shoot first ask questions later

A length of rope was tied around its neck, and it was sort of like walking a dog, a horribly deformed and insect like dog

He decided that Daniels would have gotten inside the ship already, but he decided to secure the bridge

The doors to the bridge were seemingly untouched, but the corridor around it was practically dripping with slime

Harvest leveled his shotgun, punched in the code on the door and it slid open, the creature seemed to react, and backed away in a sort of terrified manner

Harvest let the rope slide off his wrist, he didn't want to deal with anything like that at the moment, but the bug seemingly said something before it slid into the darkness

"Infestation…Follow the Queen…"

Now good ol' Benjamin wasn't sure what that was supposed to mean, but he set up a visual COMM with Daniels, so he would know what was going on

"I'm going in" Harvest said, "See you in hell."

"I would tell you to not go inside" Daniels said, "But I can tell you wouldn't listen to me."

"Don't do anything stupid while you're in there." A female voice said, "We don't need any less firepower."

Harvest shrugged it off, shoot first and ask questions later, then he went inside the bridge

[…]

The bridge had several of those strange glowing pods, a few of the Flood infection form pods were hanging on the ceiling

"Somebody call an exterminator?" Harvest quipped

The captain's chair swung around, and Harvest nearly gagged at what he saw

It looked like a larger version of the bug things, except it had several Flood infection forms feeding off of it

"Sweet Jesus" Daniels said over the COMM, "What the hell is that thing?"

"I am…Queen…Chrysalis of the…Changelings…" it, SHE, sounded like she was in immense pain

And being taken by the Flood usually did, or so Harvest had naturally assumed

"Get those things off of her" the female voice said again, "We can ask questions later."

"Tatyana's right, we need to take this ship back before those things get inside." Daniels ordered

Harvest wasn't sure how to go about this, he usually would've fired his shotgun, but he was specifically told not to damage this thing unless vital

He walked up, the Flood sacks moved slightly, he'd have to be quick

Before he could do anything he was suddenly launched backwards, and he slammed into the doors of the bridge

Pain spider-webbed across his back, Harvest struggled to his feet and leveled his shotgun, firing several shells

The doors to the bridge had locked, he would have to figure out a way out of here, that way would have to be by shooting most likely

He fired off two more shells, then he heard the empty chamber click

He grabbed the gun, and forgot the ammo, what was wrong with him?

He braced himself as a the creature poised to assault, a bright flash enveloped the room, and Harvest was gone

Chapter 20

Daniels saw the flash on his HUD, and the feed simply led to static, as far as he could see, his best friend hadn't made it out

In a sudden flash of anger he slammed his fist into the wall, leaving a small dent, it was his fault that Harvest went in there, if he had simply told him to wait then he would still be

"Shut up." Tatyana said, annoyed, "Until we know what happened to him, he's MIA, now stop dwelling on it and get to stopping the Flood."

Daniels did his best to calm down, if he kept acting in anger he would get himself killed, and that would save nobody

"What kind of energy was that?" he demanded, his voice cold

"It wasn't the Flood, it seemed more like magic than anything else." Tatyana said, "There's no scattered atoms so he wasn't vaporized, it could be something along the lines of a teleport."

"Magic can do a lot" Daniels said, "But I doubt Harvest learned how to teleport while he was gone."

He half hoped that Harvest did know how, but that was half past not happening

"Give me a marker" he ordered, "I need a tab on any and all life signals on this ship"

"Why all the life signs?"

"Because there won't be any when I'm done."

[…]

Harvest felt like he was being thrown like a ragdoll, wind whipped past his face and he realized his VISR must've shattered, the pain in his back intensified, darkness was all around him, he could see a light as he was freefalling towards it

It is not yet your time

He wondered if that voice was him going insane or if he had died, a split second later he slammed into the square of light

It felt like fire and ice were running through his veins, the air was ejected from his lungs, and he coughed out the MRE he had the previous night

"Some are more subject to this than others after a rough rescue" a familiar voice said

He looked up, and three figures that he recognized were there, a small purple unicorn, a battered ODST, and an even more battered alien

"What…the hell…was that…?" He managed to get out

"Twilight's got this magic spell to teleport, as long as she knows what the place looks like." Young said, "Joseph had let her into the bridge at one point."

"But the time of the parasite is now" Qualomee looked off, between the trees, "If it is not stopped than this whole world will be destroyed."

Harvest managed to get his double vision out of the way and saw they were in the Everfree Forest, a clearing where a UNSC pelican was hanging on the vines and branches

"Where's the Rookie?" Harvest asked

"Morris is still on board the Scavenger" Young answered, "He went to look for Daniels, hopefully we can get the COMMs array back up, we have no signal out here."

Harvest sat up, and swallowed his pride, teleportation must've had more of an effect on him than he thought, his lunch was the only one spilled on the grass

"This isn't good" Harvest's mind caught up, "You certainly took a beating."

"We took down more than they had predicted" Qualomee made a gesture Harvest assumed was a grin, "Yet not a single life was lost on our part."

"Those ponies know how to hole up in an emergency" Young laughed, "I doubt an anti-wraith mine would get through."

"Did you say that Morris was inside the Scavenger?" Harvest nearly lost more of his lunch

"Yeah, why?" Young looked at him

"There may be a worse issue than the Flood." Harvest began to recount the tales of what he found in the weapons room

[…]

Daniels had been cutting through the Flood forms he found, before breaking into the weapons room and heading straight for Qualomee's assigned locker

He disregarded the green slime blobs, as he'd seen enough of them before, he tore open the locker and uncovered the elite's little project

The ODST hefted the enhanced plasma cannon and hefted it, testing its weight which was rather heavy

The sound of a door opening caught his attention, and Daniels turned around to face several dozen flood combat forms

'Looks like about 50 of them, just as many training dummies.' Daniels hefted the weapon and aimed towards the horde

He fired once, a massive flash of purple was accompanied by a hallow thump and a massive wind that knocked him backwards into the locker

As he pulled himself together Daniels saw that the slime blobs had been blown apart by the blast

Some of the bug things that he had seen in town had been set free, they quickly caught sight of the lone trooper

Surprisingly, most of them scuttled behind him seemingly cowering in fear, once Daniels turned around he understood why

The blast had caught the attention of a giant form of the Flood not seen on the Halo ring, but on the planet Harvest back in 2531. A Flood Thrasher.

"Sweet Jesus." Daniels readied his rifle, "This isn't going to end well."

Intelligence suggested that this thing was an infected brute, even if it wasn't the sheer force this thing could put into someone's skull was mind-blowing. If it got hold of him or the bugs they'd be toast, with brains on the side

It sniffed, and began to feel its way around the room, Daniels nearly laughed, it couldn't see! He held a finger up to where his mouth would be in order to tell the bugs to be quiet, this would be insanely risky

Daniels picked up a piece of the locker, looked up at the catwalks above, and gave it his hardest yet most accurate throw, time seemed to slow down as the piece of battered metal slammed right into the catwalk, knocking it downward

At that exact moment he gave a cry, he hoped it sounded something similar to speech because he had intended to shout 'run'

The bugs picked up on it, because as one they began to rush towards the doorway, Daniels hadn't looked back, nor did he intend to

The catwalk crashed down behind him, blocking the pathway inside

Daniels put his hands on his knees and breathed deeply, he had dropped the giant gun inside the weapons room, now he'd have to make do with his rifle

He remembered the bugs, they seemed to look around confused, the ODST noticed that several of them hadn't made it through

"Just one thing" Tatyana chimed in, "We've got company, right through that door."

[…]

Morris was wandering his way through the ship, near the cargo bay, fallen bodies of Flood and changeling were everywhere, he checked his COMM again, it was still damaged from the fight, no channels available to anyone

"Where the hell is he?" he complained to himself

The sooner he found Daniels the sooner they could clean up this mess

The lack of enemy contacts was fraying his nerves, as if there was something ready to jump out and attack him any second

His weapon was a basic pistol, he hadn't found much else in the wreckage of the battle, he'd have to make his way to Communications; namely he'd have to get to the bridge

He pressed the controls of a metal door, and found the barrel of a gun right in his face

"Fancy meeting you here" Morris quipped

"What the hell are you doing here?" Daniels demanded

"Looking for you, you'd get yourself killed on your own." Morris rebutted

Daniels breathed deeply, "Fine, but don't expect me to get you out of Hell alive."

Morris nodded, before looking at the Changelings

"What are those things doing in here?"

"I got them out of a situation with a Thrasher, they haven't stopped following me since." Daniels shrugged, "As long as they don't get in the way I couldn't care less."

"So, what's the plan, we've got a lot to do if we want to get everything together for the next Covenant assault." Morris looked around, "Where to first?"

Daniels hefted the rifle, "We go in and fix the source of the infection"

[…]

Harvest put his left hand first, finding a nice perch in the growth of the Everfree, his position in the trees would make it much easier to see if any danger was incoming

"Keep me covered!" Young called, "I've got to fix the COMMs on this junk-heap!"

"Not a moment too soon Grunt" Qualomee called into the trees, "The parasite is upon us!"

'Grunt?' Harvest thought to himself, before firing his DMR that was in the weapons stash

The Flood wasn't going to let up any time soon, it was quickly and efficiently sweeping through the camp, before striking and vanishing back into the trees again

"I want a defensive perimeter set up around the camp" Harvest ordered, "Put up anything you can find to make a barrier."

"There's nothing useful in this pile of garbage" Young shook her head, "The signal is next to dead, we're gonna have to trust Morris on this one."

"Woman, we can still fight the parasite!" Qualomee raised his plasma rifle, "For glory!"

At that exact moment, the forest exploded into chaos

[…]

Tatyana began to run some scans on the town from the ship's sensors, something was wrong, it was almost as if she could taste it

Joseph and his squad were an odd bunch, they got the job done where most others couldn't but the fact that their behavior (especially Joseph's) had altered since their initial landing

The AI had burned through nearly half of her seven year life, living as a ship AI for a search and repair vessel, it was almost the most boring thing ever. Then the Alpha Team came along, they typically left her in the ship, Tatyana suspected they weren't aware she was there, as she was the one who deleted the second file from the Reach Archives

Despite her limited understanding in human emotions, what she had seen the young Rookie Harvest endure during his time with the Alpha Team, he wouldn't bode well with the events on Reach

Even though she deleted the files, she kept a copy for analysis later, they may prove useful in her study of the ever growing Delta Squadron, the now five troopers were all very alternate, yet the cooperation they had was undeniable

Then they picked her up, after Twilight had taken her for study in her basement, the attack of the Changeling-Flood Forms, and the rescue enacted by Joseph, she had found that field research was quite enjoyable, it gave her information the UNSC may be able to use later

'Why now?' a sudden thought struck her, 'We can't get off planet, what does the Flood hope to gain?'

Unless of course there was a loose end that wasn't tied up, but the likelihood of that was… rather large knowing the group she was now a part of

There was more she needed to know, the insatiable desire to study this squad was powerful, and she came to the conclusion that she may not return to the UNSC

'This can only end in one scenario' she thought solemnly, 'Time for some more dedicated research.'

Chapter 21

Harvest quickly saw how desperate the Flood was to take his little encampment, there were next to no combat forms, they must've been all in town, because mostly animals were the main driving force of the assault, that and infection forms

An assault rifle was much better suited to this kind of combat, where a single bullet could pop an infection form, much rather than a slow deliberate shot

Young had a pistol, and was emptying magazine after magazine of ammo into the massive force of Flood that attempted to take them

Qualomee's plasma rifle was perfect for the Flood, their weakness being plasma, and cut swaths into the oncoming force of parasitic life

A single combat form knocked Young to the ground, Harvest didn't think, time slowed down and he jumped from his tree

The next instant he was landing on the Flood combat form's back, crushing its skull, and twisting around in order to combat the rest of the tide

Admittedly, the tide was very weak with the combat forms cut down, and was easily forced back after the intense moments of combat

Harvest noticed Qualomee holding his side, upon closer inspection there was a bullet wound

"A stray shot" Qualomee gritted his teeth, "Come Grunt, we have little time for pain."

Young's armor was more than a little battered, and the ammo was depleted

"We can't stay here, and the Flood smashed the communicator." She gestured to the pile of shrapnel spread throughout the battlefield, "Don't know much else of where to go."

"Daniels's got something" Harvest tapped his temple, "He'll take down this infection by dinnertime."

"For the good of us all" Qualomee turned, "The parasite has been defeated, let us enjoy the moment."

"Then why do I feel like something's wrong?" Young asked

"Because something is" Qualomee did his equivalent to a frown, "I feel as if a great evil is now covering these lands."

"We need to get some food, an army marches on his stomach." Harvest laughed

"It always comes down to food with you doesn't it?" Young rolled her eyes

[…]

Daniels had reached the exterior of the Bridge, holding his rifle and signaling Morris to stack up

"What are we going to do?" Morris asked

"We're going to figure it out" Daniels answered, "It's not as if we've got something else to do here."

The doors to the bridge opened, and the pair entered the bridge, Flood infection form pods lay wasted on the floor, Harvest did a decent job in here

The new yet not quite finished Hive Mind was on the Captain's Chair, the bugs that had been following the duo quickly rushed in front of the ODSTs, before looking to each other and nodding

"What are they saying?" Daniels asked

"It seems that the translation from the magic field doesn't extend to them." Tatyana answered, "I'd guess that the Flood thing there is their queen, as their resemblance to bees is quite strong: they may be planning to save her."

"That thing's a queen." Morris repeated, "Because who needs logic anymore?"

"Look at the planet you're on for a bit longer, then get back to me." Daniels smiled slightly

The Changelings began to form a circle around their queen, their horns glowed green, and some sort of ghostly energy began to flow out and into the jagged horn of the flood queen, whom began to convulse

"What do we do?" Morris sounded urgent

"We find out what the hell this is, then we do something." Daniels answered

The changelings staggered, then collapsed in a heap on the floor of the bridge

Daniels took a step backwards before pulling Morris towards the doors, whatever happened here it wouldn't be pretty

Morris held his pistol at the ready, while Daniels kept the rifle pointed straight at the queen, unsure of what was about to happen

The Flood seemed to retract from the queen as a bright light began to build, then Daniels pulled Morris out into the hallway right before a massive surge of light and energy swept through the ship

[…]

Harvest looked up and grabbed his sniper rifle, a massive green beam of light was erupting from the Scavenger, and the Flood seemed to be incapable of stopping the massive waves of energy that demolished the infectious parasite

The waves passed by them harmlessly, nothing but wind

"Well" Qualomee looked at his friends, "I did not expect that."

Harvest took a deep breath, "You did it Joseph; you did it again."

Then they began the trek back into town

[…]

Daniels stood up, his armor was a bit singed but nothing beyond that, Morris seemed alright and their weapons were fine

"I see you two are alright." A distorted female voice said

Daniels looked at the queen, who now was Flood-Free

"It is not usual to which I would say this" she looked out the window, "But thank you for saving my people."

"We did what we had to" Daniels answered, "I'm glad this was with little casualty."

The doors to the bridge opened, two familiar princesses walked in, neither of them wore casual expressions, Luna looked irritated and Celestia looked tired, but that quickly changed into a stern look

"Joseph"

Daniels put up his hand, "Before we hear any more bad news, I want to point out that the Flood could have easily spread onto the train."

Celestia shot him a look, "I was going to say congratulations."

Morris shrugged, "He predicts things when he's tired, and he's usually wrong."

Chrysalis looked at the group, "I believe I'll be taking my leave."

"I don't hope to see you in my kingdom again" Celestia said as the queen left in a huff

"What was that abo-"

Luna cut Morris off, "It is better you do not know."

Daniels looked at the town through the window, "That was a catastrophic assault."

"You and your squad have saved Equestria yet again." Luna said, "However it appears as if casualties were minimal, as no one has been reported missing."

Footsteps in the hallway evidenced the return of the Delta Squadron, when Daniels saw Harvest the results were not pretty

"What. The. Hell. Are you doing here?" Daniels' voice was restrained, "You didn't COMM in or anything, letting me think you died."

"The Grunt had no choice" Qualomee stepped forward, "All communications were down, that and we had clashes with the parasite in the forest."

Daniels stepped back, but his angered and hurt air remained in the room

"You have all taken on danger when it was not your responsibility to assist" Celestia said, "Making sacrifices and even losing much, being stranded here."

"Not like we have much of a choice" Harvest shrugged, "It's fun, to say the least."

"Also going to get your head blown off of your shoulders, sound fun?" Young rebutted

"I would offer you time off of your jobs" Celestia continued, "However it appears that even if you are not required you have full intent to show up anyway, therefore it appears there is only one thing to grant you."

Morris shrugged, Harvest looked at Daniels and Young looked at Qualomee, what could this thing be?

"I apologize, I truly do." The sun princess used magic to pull a datapad from Daniels' belt, "I have not been truly honest with you."

"We noticed." Harvest crossed his arms, "Thanks for that, by the way."

"I did not trust you, nor your people." She said, "Once I found it not in the archives, I knew you had found it. Despite your discovery you decided to save my people once again."

"We do our jobs" Young said, "Even when we know we're about to be backstabbed."

"We cannot thank you enough" Luna finally piped up, "Without your assistance, Equestria would surely lay in ruins."

"I'm just glad we can fix the ship and get back to some peace and quiet." Harvest sighed

They had peace and quiet for a time, three weeks passed before the next incident. However, this was a far more pressing matter.

Chapter 22

Daniels screwed the last bolt into place, being the one responsible for the damage inside the weapons room he was left to fix it; all of it.

The ODST sighed, three weeks it had taken him, finally finishing meant he would be able to spend some time in the town, and maybe have some form of social contact

Daniels walked into the daylight, the fields that the ship remained in was a great spot to get used to seeing the sun again, several clouds were in the sky, otherwise it was a bright spring day

The residents of Ponyville gave the ODST a wide berth, a few of them had decided to get brave and see who could stand near him the longest before cowering out

It didn't bother him very much, Daniels was used to seeing this type of behavior around the troops of the UNSC who were well known for their capacity to kill fairly easily

Upon reaching the library, he found that Spike was dusting a counter and wore a pink apron with a heart on it

"Hey Joseph" Twilight said upon seeing him, "Have you been relaxing like the Princess said?"

"You know me well enough to know the answer to that one." Daniels answered

"Right" Twilight rolled her eyes, "So you've been working these past three weeks?"

"My squad and I got the ship back into a manageable condition" Daniels looked towards the Scavenger, "It's not easy with resources low like they are."

"Well, want some tea?" she offered, "Spike's just made a batch, the girls are coming over."

Daniels shrugged, there was no real reason not to; then he walked inside and took his helmet off

"Harvest and the rest of the squad are either asleep or doing something around town" Daniels said, "I think Morris might be sneaking a trip to the spa, you never know with that one."

Spike poked his head around the corner, "The spa's great, you should go."

"A six foot tall alien bipedal that has taken place in countless wars is not going to the spa." Daniels rebutted, "If Qualomee were to I'd have a conniption."

Spike put down the teapot, before taking off the apron and sitting down with a pile of gems on a plate

"Dragons eat gems then?" Tatyana asked, surprising the Equestrian pair

"Who's that?" Twilight asked

"The AI you took from the Scavenger three weeks ago." Tatyana answered flatly, "I've been having a whale of a time in this troopers head; it isn't like much goes on in here."

The doors opened and the rest of Twilight's friends entered the room, before sitting down

"So the Freak likes tea?" Rainbowdash quipped

"The 'Freak' is trying to get some rest before the Covenant inevitably make a move." Daniels countered, "It only ends with one of us dead anyway."

"I was not aware you were going to tell war stories darling." Rarity sounded uncomfortable

"I want planning on it." Daniels looked around, as the rest of the group got on with their conversations, he could feel it, something was obviously wrong here

He saw it, but for some reason it didn't add up, the glass case by the stairs was empty, how did that happen?

He was sure of it, without hearing anything from his friends he stood up and walked over to the glass case, before getting on his knees and finding exactly what he dreaded to see, a circular hole with plasma burns on the edges

"Twilight, why didn't you tell me?" Daniels turned around, "The elements are gone, and I know why."

"I…" Twilight looked around nervously, "I was busy"

"Busy doing what?" Rainbow demanded, "When was this?"

"I'm not going to assume." Daniels said, "But I'll take a stab at three weeks ago."

Tatyana was alerting the rest of Delta Squadron, they'd board the Phantom and get ready to find the Artifact

"Why didn't she tell us?" Harvest was highly aggravated, "We could have avoided a disaster a long time ago!"

"It appears as if we have a Covenant galaxy destroyer in orbit, it could have blown this planet into shards of glass in seconds, why it hasn't I don't know." Tatyana said, "We need to go in, retrieve the Artifact, and preferably blow it up."

Daniels checked his armor, it was insanely battered at this point, plasma burns and all sorts of dents and scratches were left on nearly every part of the plating

The Covenant ship likely had bugs in the room, or they knew that now they had the Artifact there was no need for stealth, the squad had finally assembled and planned on landing in the giant vessel

Celestia stopped the ship before takeoff

"I do not believe this is a mission you will return from" she said, "You truly are heroes of Equestria."

"This fight isn't over" Morris looked at the crowd next to the Phantom, "And I doubt all of us will make it, we're going to stop them from using the Artifact, and we will have to survive."

"We fight, and we will have to win." Qualomee was calm, "Survival or not, they shall learn the error of their ways."

Twilight pushed to the front of the crowd, "Joseph, I hadn't told you because…I didn't want you to die out there."

"We're coming back" Daniels said, "The question is in how many pieces?"

And with that, Young closed the doors and took off

[…]

The Phantom was reasonably comfortable, better suited for elites and Covenant species but at the very least they'd have something to sit on

"Several phantoms raised into the air to reunite with the Station" Young reported, "We're disguising as one of them."

"Once we're on board, I want radio silence" Daniels ordered, "We need to find the Artifact first, then we can either blow the place up or get the hell out of there."

They had a perfect amount of weapons, a few rifles, a plasma cannon, a few grenades, several pistols, two shotguns, deployable shields, the strange dart gun Daniels made, incendiary ammunition, DMRs, and even two rocket launchers, ammo for everything

Harvest smacked a silencer on his DMR, "Best keep it quiet."

The battered Phantom approached the landing bay, Tatyana began to run scans from the Phantoms external cameras and radios

"We have massive chatter on the J through O bands." She reported, "Taking out the COMMs would make it easier to be undetected."

"The Artifact comes before destroying the station" Morris said, "I don't think we should have to sidetrack too much."

Daniels may not have looked it, but he was impressed with how comfortable Morris was with this, it was a suicidal mission, they had next to no chances to survive and yet he was pumped anyway

'Proper ODST material' he smiled a bit, 'This should be fun.'

The line of Phantoms touched down in the bay, as the squad drew weapons from the stash it became apparent who used what

Daniels took a pair of assault rifles and slung them over his back, clipping two pistols to his hips and taking a shotgun in his hands, before attaching two of each grenade to his belt

Harvest took the silenced DMR and a sniper rifle, a rocket launcher and two grenades, the weird dart gun went with him as well

Young picked a bit lighter equipment, going for the dual pistols and a shotgun, before grabbing the deployable shields

Morris went for the balance, taking a DMR and a pistol, two grenades and the other rocket launcher

Qualomee got dibs on the massive Plasma cannon, four plasma grenades, the plasma pistol and repeater

Daniels pointed at Young and Morris, then made a circle gesture and pointed at a monitor that showed the door at the end of the bay before pointing at Qualomee and Harvest and gesturing to the screen with the few grunts working at the repairs

Harvest shrugged his shoulders and pointed at Daniels, Daniels pointed at a small access terminal by the airlock, then jerked a thumb towards himself

The acknowledgement lights from the rest of his squad blinked green, and once the doors opened each member set about their stealth tasks

Morris and Young quickly made it to the doors, however on the way a strange purple and blue tentacle creature spotted them, it quickly began to investigate the two troopers

Qualomee walked up to the two grunts, they were unaware of his approach and were quickly dispatched, the strange alien tentacle creature went about, ignoring all of them

Daniels was by the control panel, he took out Tatyana and slipped her into the terminal

"I'm in the systems" she said in his helmet, "I'm setting up a secure COMM for you."

"Alright, how is it for you guys?" Harvest asked

"Leave that Repair Drone to its job." Morris suggested, "They're not hostile, and we need a ride out of here anyway."

Daniels waved to the group as they met back up, "We have to stay on task, the Artifact is priority one."

"And the Covenant know that" Tatyana sounded distracted, "It's near the engine rooms, in one of the most secure rooms ever made, can't get a radio wave through."

"That room is a wild card" Young said, "Three of us should go there, the other two to the engines."

"Morris, Young, Harvest, you're on the room." Daniels ordered, "Qualomee and I will get into the engines."

Harvest nodded, "Make sure you come back in one piece."

"Likewise corporal." Daniels smiled slightly, "And make sure you don't blow everyone up with that rocket launcher."

Then the two groups split up into their separate destinations, little did either know that death was right around the corner

Chapter 23

Harvest held up his hand and curled it into a ball, before poking his helmet around the corner to peek out into the giant room

The massive dome had repair catwalks around the sides, in the middle was some sort of temple that would have to be gone through if the trio intended to get through on time

"Whatever's up with that temple, it's got some E tags and possibly a direct route to the dark room." Tatyana reported into their helmets

"Don't get into an ambush." Young warned, "A place like this, they'd might as well have brutes."

Morris nodded, "There's almost definitely a passage in that temple."

Harvest sighed, "Then into the temple we go."

The trio formed a triangle and made it to the entrance, fearing for their lives every step of the way. Upon entering the temple they could see several cages

"These are the E-tags I guess" Young spat, "Captured humans, knocked out and possibly brainwashed."

"What do we do about them?" Morris held his DMR, "We can't just shoot them can we?"

"As long as they don't see us" Harvest said, "But if one wakes up then this silencer will come in handy."

Near the center of the temple was a gravity lift, Harvest stepped forward and found a panel for passengers to stand and float down safely

"If that gets us there, I don't care if an elevator is the devil's stairs." Harvest jutted his jaw, and stepped forward

[…]

Qualomee signaled Daniels to run, and the pair quickly made it across and onto the catwalks above a shrine or something, then back into the shadows towards the service vents

"These are intended for the Engineers" he explained, "However we should be able to fit."

"Tatyana, give me a HUD point for the engine room." Daniels said, "And if you can find the one that requires the least amount of shooting."

"We all know you like you're shooting Joseph." Tatyana had a smirk in her voice

"Once we get out of the corridors we will have plenty of room for combat" Qualomee warned, "Be prepared for an assault."

Daniels nodded and went forward, the yellow of the VISR lining every dent and curve of the corridors, without it he wouldn't be able to see

The corridor ended fairly quickly, and soon they were in a well-spaced area where several plasma cores were being moved by Engineers and grunts

"Where are all of the Elites?" Daniels wondered, "This place is armored to the teeth and yet doesn't have those to operate the weapons."

Qualomee nodded slowly, "This is truly bizarre, come Human, let us solve this mission."

Daniels nodded, holding the shotgun ready before lobbing several grenades into the crowd, which promptly panicked before getting blown into several thousand pieces

Qualomee opened up, firing several blasts of hot plasma into the panic-stricken grunts before taking cover from some fuel rods

"Let's blow this thing and get back to the Phantom!" Daniels shouted over the chaos

[…]

Morris watched behind them as the pathway led deeper into the shadows, something was going to happen, the question was what, and when.

"I think those two have started making some noise" Young noted, "That means we're low on time."

The trio then began to briskly jog down the corridors, the yellow light of the VISR allowing them to see

"We'll deal with whatever's waiting as soon as we surface" Harvest said

"The Dark Room is only twenty yards, you'll find it; the door is rather impressive." Tatyana said

And the door was impressive, a large door with two massive halves, leading into the arch that formed the door

"How will we get through that?" Morris asked

"The chamber is insulated against any waves, but a couple of decisive rocket shots should do the trick." Tatyana marked the spots, "One rocket each spot, make them count."

Harvest took the rocket launcher off of his back, then fired the first two, besides a small dent there was no response from the door

The next three spots made a loud groaning sound, but somehow the door held

Harvest had one last rocket, and a HUD marker appeared in the center of the door, taking aim he launched and struck the center

A massive groan filled the room as the metal strained under the weight of the door, but miraculously the door managed to stay in one piece

"Now what?" Morris threw his hands up

"I think I know…" he pulled the dart gun from his hip, before screwing with the air pressure

"A shot at this range with that thing…" Tatyana paused, "Try hitting here."

A final HUD marker appeared in the center of the doors near the floor, Harvest took aim with the dart gun and fired its single shot

Unsuspecting of the kickback, Harvest nearly broke his hand, luckily the armor took most of the blow

A small hole had appeared at the shot, big enough for a single file line

"Let's finally get that Artifact and get out of this place." Young fell in line

[…]

Tatyana was quickly performing scans, the UNSC marines were stirring, and quickly set up a perimeter, but it wasn't a defensive one

The heating for the engines skyrocketed, meaning Daniels and Qualomee were doing their job, the life sign scans for the ship showed no Elites on the entire station

Grunts Engineers and Humans, the only Elite on this ship was Qualomee. What was so important for not having any other driving force except for Humans?

Then it hit her, like a truck, right as the ODSTs exited the hole

It was a murder hole now

"Harvest! Take to cover!"

[…]

Harvest ducked, and then slowly rose out of the small gravity lift on the floor. The Marines had the hole surrounded

"You will stand down!" he ordered

The marines stayed silent, something kept them from attacking

A hologram appeared, one of the weird aliens known amongst the Covenant as a Prophet

"This is the little squad that has been causing us so much trouble?"

"They appear so" a marine said

'What the hell?' Harvest thought, why was he taking orders from that thing?

"I don't want any blood on the Artifact, however it cannot be helped." The Prophet made a slitting motion across its throat, "Kill all of them."

The marines charged their plasma weaponry, Harvest tensed, he could tell Young and Morris was ready to fight

Daniels' acknowledgement light winked three times, the signal for Get the Hell down!

Two rockets left grey trails in the air as they exploded on the makeshift forts the marines had made, all attention shifted to Daniels on one of the many catwalks above

"I don't know about you, but I'm not sticking around to watch the fireworks." He voice came through the COMM

"Make for the exit!" Harvest shouted, before firing off several rounds and sprinting away

He had what they wanted, the Artifact, a bright magenta crystal plate, this was what the Covenant wanted so badly

Daniels and the rest of his squad met up at the cross section

"Let's blow this popsicle stand" Morris joked

"There are about fifty marines on your tail" Tatyana said, "Unplug me and we'll get off this deathtrap."

Daniels grabbed Tatyana off of the database and plugged her into his neural link

"Let's not stick around" Young suggested, "I'll take the yoke."

The doors began to bang, Daniels Harvest and Qualomee all took on a defensive position

"Get to the ship you two" Daniels said, "I'll keep the door covered."

"Not on my watch Human" Qualomee said, "This is not the time for heroics, I owe your men my life; now is finally the time to repay that debt."

Daniels motioned for Harvest to get on the ship, the trio slowly began to give the door some berth as they stepped away

The doors exploded into plasma, Daniels was knocked down by the concussion, Harvest already stood in the Phantom bay

"Now is not the time for your death!" Qualomee shouted over the plasma fire, easily tossing Daniels into the Phantom

Qualomee unslung the plasma turret from his back, firing into the crowd of marines as they swarmed the doorway

Daniels stood up, "It was good knowing you Qualomee, you were a true hero."

"And we're off!" Young called from the ship's control room, "Next stop: anywhere but here."

The squad was reduced to four, losing a most loyal member in saving the planet yet again

"Set us down near Ponyville Fields, we should fix up our armor and-" a violent jerk cut Harvest off

"Banshees" Morris sighed, "They'll blow us out of the sky!"

"Plasma Power Core reaching critical" Young reported, "Even if we survive the Banshees we'd explode on impact."

"We're not going to die now" Daniels reviewed his options, which were dwindling by the second

Morris took a deep breath, before stepping towards the ship bay doors

"It's almost funny" Morris said sadly, "See you in Hell."

"Morris, don't you dare touch tha-" Daniels' protests were drowned out by the howling wind outside the Phantom

Morris waited for one second, before thrusting himself out of the Phantom, spreading his legs like a parachute he slowed down, before a Banshee attempted to knock him out of the air

Latching onto the outside of the vehicle, he tore open the cockpit, taking the pistol from his hip and point-blank firing at the pilot's skull

Taking control, he maneuvered the air assault vehicle towards the other Banshee, with this rust bucket's weapons down, there was only one option

Taking the yoke, he smashed the boost as far as it would go, the anti-grav pods quickly hit max as he approached

The magnificent flash of blue plasma was the last thing he ever saw

[…]

Daniels shut the bay doors, Harvest was fiddling with a pouch on his belt

"The Banshees are gone, but we'll still blow on impact." Young said over the COMM, "I can't stop it, but we're landing in the field so nobody's getting hurt."

"Get in the trooper bay" Harvest held out the Artifact, it glowed steadily

Daniels put a gauntlet on the Artifact, it was imbued with power, he could practically taste it

Young followed suit, the glow became brighter

"Is this going to work?" Daniels asked

"It better" Young said, "Otherwise this was a terrible plan."

"One way to find out" Harvest smiled a little, "See you in Hell."