Fireteam Firefly walked into the mess hall, which was currently packed with a variety of Marines, Naval personnel, and Spartans, all eagerly waiting for Captain Del Rio to make his announcement. On the holoscreens displayed throughout the mess hall was a message alerting people of the impending announcement.

Buck looked over to Monk, the squad’s former rookie, and pointed him over to an empty table in the Spartan portion of the mess hall. The Spartan nodded, getting the message, and made his way over there to save the spot for the rest of his fireteam.

The fireteam quickly made their way through the grub line, Buck getting a sizeable portion of chow mein for Monk as thanks for him saving their spot.

“So, what do you think this announcement’s about? Must be pretty big.” Dutch mused as the fireteam took their seats, Monk nodding in thanks to Buck as he slid the plate of noodles and assorted vegetables over to him.

“Maybe the brutes decided to make a return?” Mickey suggested.

“That’d make things... interesting,” Romeo said, unconsciously placing a hand over the spot where he was impaled by a brute chieftain’s gravity hammer four years earlier.

“What if FLEETCOM is actually sending us to a flood-infested ring?” Buck asked, earning a few chuckles from his men.

“That’d be bad news, for the flood,” Romeo said.

Monk nodded in silent agreement.

Before the fireteam could discuss the topic any further, the face of Captain Del Rio appeared on all of the holoscreens all at once.

“Crew of the UNSC Infinity, this is your Captain speaking,” his voice boomed.

“Recently,” the Captain said, “one of the drones tasked with exploring space outside of former and current UNSC controlled territory has come across something very important. A beacon.”

A nearby technician looked from his station and recognized his cue, pressing a button, playing the transmission for all to hear.

“Mayday, mayday, mayday,” the transmission boomed, “this is UNSC FFG-201 Forward Unto Dawn, requesting immediate EVAC, survivors aboard. Prioritization code Victor 05-3-Sierra 0117.”

The Captain noticed a few heads poke up upon the words 'Sierra 0117'.

“As some of you may know, the Forward Unto Dawn was involved in action in the later stages of the Battle of Earth, as well as the Battle of The Ark. In the end, the Dawn and three individuals stayed behind to destroy The Ark and the newly constructed Halo ring, destroying the flood from infecting and killing everyone, and stopping the Halo rings from activating and killing us all. After this, half of the Dawn returned to Earth, with only the Arbiter on board. It was revealed that Sergeant Major Avery Johnson, one of the three who stayed behind, sacrificed his life for us all. The other half, as well as its one occupant, went missing and was presumed lost.”

“Crew of the UNSC Infinity, this drone has found the Dawn crashed in a previously undiscovered Earth-like planet.”

“We have found Spartan-117, and we have been tasked with recovering him.”

Spartan-117 hid and watched for the rest of the day and the next night, watching the equine camp for anything suspicious or any changes in their behavior, only stopping to change position if any of the sentries patrolling the perimeter got to too close for comfort. From what he saw, the forces stationed here were armed with swords and spears, though the unicorn soldiers could use powerful magic spells against enemies. Even a few soldiers, who were dressed olive green uniforms, carried what looked like firearms from the late 19th century or the early 20th century. There was also a few cannons set up here and there, which the Spartan could easily dodge. Such a military force wouldn’t prove a challenge for a platoon of Marines, let alone a half-ton Spartan.

All the Chief knew was that he needed to get into Dawn. He needed food and ammo, as well as transport. Sure, the Spartan could easily survive by himself, but eventually, the fusion pack powering his armor would fail, leaving it useless. He would also eventually run out of ammo, leaving him to his fists and his wits. While this wouldn’t be an issue in normal situations, from what he saw in the past twenty-four hours, this forest was filled with all sorts of dangers, including those timberwolves from the first night, hydras, manticores, and even a dragon. This planet was like something out of a fairy tale, just much more real and dangerous.

It was either he made contact with the equines and hope that they would be peaceful, or he would have to remove them.

“Cortana?”

“Hold up Chief, something’s happening,” the smart AI said, “look.”

Captain Firewall stood at attention, Sergeant Silver Bullet by his side, as the Princesses’ chariot descended from the heavens, landing perfectly in front of them. Two Royal Guards rushed forward and opened the chariot’s door, revealing Princesses Luna and Celestia.

Everypony in the immediate vicinity bowed before them.

“Rise, everypony, please. Do not let us get in the way of your work,” Luna said.

As everypony got back to work, the princesses approached the awaiting officer and Sergeant. “Good morrow, Captain Firewall, Sergeant Silver Bullet,” the Lunar Princess greeted.

“Your Majesties,” both of the stallions greeted, bowing before them.

“Please rise, we have much to discuss,” Celestia said.

Both of the Royal Guards rose off the ground. “Follow me, please, Your Majesties.” Captain Firewall requested.

The Master Chief watched through the scope of his sniper rifle as two equine soldiers, one wearing dark crimson armor instead of the usual golden armor, lead two much larger equines into a much nicer tent compared to the surrounding ones--likely a command tent.

The larger equines were adorned with jewelry and wore crowns. The white equine had the symbol of the sun on its flank, and the dark-blue equine had the symbol of the moon on its flank. They also seemed to have a lot of protection, as roughly a dozen of the soldiers followed them and guarded the tent’s entrance.

“My guess is that they are this nation’s or state’s rulers,” Cortana said. “The regular soldier with them is the squadron leader you encountered, so they are likely being briefed on the Dawn’s crash, and you.”

“Cortana, I need to get to the Dawn. If we can’t get in there, we can only operate for so long,” the Chief said. “Either we go in there and wipe them out, or try some diplomacy.”

“Taking them on is out of the question. From my count, there is over a thousand soldiers in the area, plus probably more in the nearby settlement. Most are armed with swords and spears, but there are also the soldiers in the olive drab uniforms armed with primitive firearms. Also, those unicorns seem to wield some powerful--as much as I hate to say it--magic. I don’t know what they can do with those horns, so I wouldn’t want to risk it, especially when one out of every five soldiers are unicorns. No, diplomacy is the only option. Let’s save blasting our way out as a last resort.”

“Agreed,” the Spartan said. “How should we go about this?”

Private Lucky Clover and Corporal Horse Shoe walked along the perimeter of the Royal Guard encampment, their semi-automatic MK3 Colt rifles hanging loosely at their sides. They were two of just fifty-two members of the Equestrian Army sent to reinforce the Royal Guard. They had been sent in response to the Guard learning the aliens were armed with projectile weaponry, superior to their own, as reported by a member of a pegasi squad who encountered one of their soldiers. Apparently, they were surrounded by a pack of timberwolves, and out of nowhere, an alien soldier came out of the treeline and wiped out the entire pack without even getting his armor scratched. The two soldiers prayed to Celestia that they did not get in a firefight with one. It would surely be the end of them.

“Pleasant morning, isn’t it?” Lucky Clover asked, watching his breath come out as a mist.

“Indeed,” Horse Shoe agreed.

The two continued their patrol along the perimeter in silence, enjoying their pleasant morning walk. Though most of the Royal Guards would hate to do patrols this early, the members of the Equestrian Army stationed here reveled in it. Most of their soldiers were stationed in extreme environments, areas too dangerous for the Royal Guards to police, and, of course, combat zones. To the Equestrian Army platoon stationed here, it was like they died and found paradise.

However, the pleasantness of the morning couldn’t last.

“H-H-Horse Shoe...?” the Private asked shakily.

“Yes?”

“I-Is that w-what I think that is?” he asked, pointing into the distance.

The Corporal looked into the distance and stopped dead in his tracks when he spotted what the Private was talking about.

There, walking towards them, was a seven-foot tall bipedal creature, dressed head-to-toe in olive-drab armor, carrying what the Corporal guessed was the automatic firearm that the member of the pegasi squadron told them turned half a pack of timberwolves into splinters into a matter of seconds.

This was the last thing that the two soldiers wanted to encounter this morning. Even the Corporal, a veteran of two wars, could feel his bowels ready to release.

“Come on, Private,” the Corporal said with a gulp, “we have orders.”

“You can’t be serious, Horse Shoe,” Lucky Clover said, looking at the Corporal like he was a madpony.

“We all gotta go sometime, kid,” Horse Shoe said as he started walking towards the alien. “Besides, Firewall will likely do much worse to us if we fuck this up.”

Lucky nodded, following the Corporal. “At least this will be quicker.”

“Indeed.”

“Looks like we attracted some attention,” Cortana said. The Chief noticed too. Two of the equine soldiers dressed in olive-drab fatigues and armed with primitive firearms on patrol noticed the super-soldier heading towards the camp and were now heading towards him.

“Let’s hope that they are friendly,” the Chief said.

The Chief stopped his approach and let the equines come to him. In an attempt to come off as less threatening, the Spartan clipped his assault rifle to his back and let his hands fall to his sides, though he was careful to keep his magnums within reach.

When the equine soldiers eventually reached, they stood there for a few moments and looked up at super-soldier, their eyes filled with a mix of fear and awe.

One of the soldiers shook his head, shaking him out of his trance. “Good morning,” he greeted simply.

“Morning,” the Spartan responded.

“Off to a good start, I guess,” Cortana commented.

“Corporal Horse Shoes, Equestrian Army, 22nd Infantry. This is Private Lucky Clover, also a member of the 22nd Infantry.”

The Spartan nodded to them. “Spartan-117, UNSC Navy, Master Chief Petty Officer.”

From the way the two equine soldiers stiffened upon hearing his rank, the Spartan guessed that there was some sort of Navy within their military, and that they were aware of his status as a NCO.

“I’ll be honest, sir, this isn’t how I expected first contact to go,” the Corporal said with a side. “Captain Firewall, the pony in charge of this camp, ordered everypony here to attempt to make communication with you or any other aliens... I guess the next step is to take you into camp to talk with the necessary ponies. Would you mind following us, Chief?”

“We came this far,” Cortana said.

The Spartan nodded to the Corporal.

“That’s about it, Your Majesties,” said Sergeant Silver Bullet. “I personally don’t believe these aliens wish to harm us, despite what Miss Sparkle may think. If they truly wanted to kill us, why did that soldier save us? Why didn’t he just watch those timberwolves tear us apart, or kill us himself?”

“We agree with the Sergeant’s analysis, sister,” Luna said.

“Captain Firewall!” A guard said as he entered the tent, “Pardon my interruption, but we have a major situation that requires both your and the Princesses’ attention.”

“What is it, Private?” the Captain asked.

“You’re gonna want to come out here and see for yourself,” the guard said before leaving the tent.