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!