CHAPTER 1
1523 hours, April 03 2542,
High orbit above Cattonia
Two small dots of light apeared against the massive darkness of space. The UNSC This is it, approached the two massive objects that materialized moments before. The light frigate fired twenty archer missiles at one of the massive objects. Plumes of deadly light from pulse laser turrets caught the archer missiles before they hit their mark. The UNSC ship primed it’s MAC and fired at the battlecruiser. The MAC hit it’s target dead on and disabled the energy shielding. The ship accelerated towards the CCS-class battlecruiser like a raging bull. Bolts of light charged up on the sides of the battlecruiser and fired at the light frigate. Fires and chaos raged as the plasma hit it’s target but it did not decelerate, instead it moved faster.
The covenant ship prepared for another round of plasma, but the human ship was closing in… five kilometers… four… three… It fired every single archer missile it could. Two… one… The light frigate initiated self destruction and rammed into the CCS-Class battlecruiser. The UNSC This is it, sacrifcied itself to disable one of the covenant CCS-class battlecruisers. Slowly, it began to plunge down into the atmosphere. Plasma fired raged on and escape pods launched.
In the dark sky above the capital city, a new star came into view. It grew bigger and bigger, ever more brilliant. But it wasn’t a star. The cool air around the ship turned into a searing mantle covering the falling ship as the friction heated it. In the middle of the city the Goodwealth financial tower stood proudly. The tallest structure in the city took a few years to construct but in vain, it was in the path of the plunging ship. The shipmaster slowly stabilized the ship, too slowly. The tower was anahilated, sending clouds of debree all over. A few kilometers ahead, the ship came to a full stop in the city outskirts, leaving a trail of destruction that split the city into two.
Evacuation alarms went off, it had all happened too quickly. The brewing panic grew as the second battlecruiser came above the city. It floated about for a few seconds then moved towards the crashed ship. It carved it’s own path of destruction around the burning trail as it bombarded the city down below. The ship stopped as it hovered above the crashed ship and it then turned around, facing the city. Phantoms descended to recover survivors.
Seraphs flew out of the battlecruiser then into the city. They bombarded civlians on the streets. A few human ships lifted themselves upwards but only for a few seconds as the seraphs fired plasma bolts, bringing them down. Phantoms moved towards a big human stadium. They deployed lookout towers in a hexagonal formation and sangheili armed with carbines. More fleets of phantoms came off the battlecruiser and surrounded the city outskirts. They deployed more lookout towers and their infantry, kig-yar snipers and sangheili commanders. Even a few tyrants were deployed to shoot down any escaping transport. The city was quarantined, by foot anything leaving would get sniped, by air, the tyrants would make short work of it.
By the morning, the covenant had brought down the militia and moved a lot of the population to the stadium using shades. Unggoy and Sangheili patroled the streets along with kig-yar and the occasional mgalekgolo pair. The floating fortress had deployed huragoks to repair the crashed behemoth. It would take a long time but not before having found it.
CHAPTER 2
2352 hours, April 03 2542
Patelonia, Cattonia
Two lances entered the Office of Naval Intelligence building situated behind the stadium. Led by a sangheili major, the two lances burnt there way trought locked doors. The building had already been sabotaged by the humans themselves. Unngoy firefighting teams had combated the fires the before. The few humans who had fought trying to defend the building were ashes. Few were the covenant casualties and even then it had only been a few unggoy. Even fewer were spared and kept as prisoners, not a very common pratice amongst the covenant but the Shipmaster had been clear. Many in the covenant doubted his methods but despite a few occasions they proved effective. These few occasions had been the limit. One more mistake and he might be executed, which is why he needed to push the common practices aside even more and spare a few ones for interrogation.
The lances entered a spacious chamber after going a hundred meters down. It seemed as if there were eyes observing them, little cracks and machinery noises made the grunts uncomfortable. In the middle of the room was something in a pedestal. It wasn’t human, it wasn’t covenant. Silver in color, cables and probes attached, it remained inert resting like a sick dormant infant. On the side of the pedestal, a small plaque indicated:
MARCH 15th 2542
PATELONIA STADIUM ARTIFACT
The sangheili major exclaimed by the name of his gods. He barked orders at the unggoy and soon after, the methane breathers advanced, going near the sentinel. They retrieved it, manipulating it like a glorious trophy. They then took it back to the two sangheili. The major looked at it, puzzled; three small green devices were tucked in the sentinel. The three M9 HE-DP grenades burst into a bright light. Shrapnel launched into every direction, transpiercing the unngoy’s skin, shattering the sangheili. Fluorescent blood spilled out like a disco ball’s light. A few humanoid figures came out from the shadows, double checking if they were dead. Some of the humans had gone into hiding deep into the ground and this was going to be a cat and mouse game.
The CCS-class battlecruiser charged one of it’s frontal pulse laser turrets. It aimed at a park situated a few hundred meters from the stadium. With a lot of precision, it fired, vaporizing any structures and trees in the park. It then flew over the park deploying a temple for the San’Shyuum on board to contemplate on, a hall for the troops to be coordinated along with a few turrets and a shield generator covering the park. It was going to be their ground base for the operation. A San’Shyuum had been brought aboard due to the supposedly holy nature of the mission: Retrieval of forerunner artifacts. The shipmaster had been tasked with similar missions in the past, one of them lead them to this world. But this world had humans on it and it was going to make the task easier for the covenant. Indeed, the shipmaster had seen holy relics activate with the touch of the humans there where the covenant failed. He had started questioning himself and wondered why the humans weren’t accepted into the covenant but nonetheless, he was still a loyal warrior to the covenant.
A phantom dropped off three lances of spec-ops at the entrance of the ONI building since contact had been lost. It surely meant human activity and that meant they were guarding something. This time they would be more careful. With the ground field post, things were going to be better coordinated.
The humans prepared themselves, they knew more were coming and it was going to get pretty bloody. They prepared again, they could run for a while, but not forever. With some luck, they might stop them, but luck is something everyone was short of right now, that and the human’s food rations. However, they had an advantage over the covenant: what is sacred to some is not sacred to everyone.
