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