Prologue: October 14th 2542
Location: Orbit above New Eden
"Will the Captain please report to the bridge immediately." These were the words which Captain Alexander Wallace awoke to. He gazed around his cabin in a sleep induced daze and muttered several curses under his breath having realised that he must have fallen asleep while writing reports. He sat up and straightened his collar, it would do no good for his crew to see a disheveled Captain.
In his short time as Captain of the UNSC destroyer Illustrious he had enforced high standards on a vessel which had, until his appointment, had something of a reputation in the fleet. Drinking, womanizing and in many cases drugs, had caused the last Captain to request a transfer and it had fallen on Wallace's shoulders to sort things out. Since his introduction to the ship there had been several cases which had left crew members in the brig or worse, in prison planet side. All in all though, the ship now had a reputation for high standards and discipline which was yet to be tested in combat.
As he hurried along the short corridor between his room and the bridge he contemplated what could be the problem but he chose to not make assumptions.
When he arrived the bridge was frantic and it didn't take long to see why. On the main view screens were views of a Covenant carrier with two escort Destroyers and a CCS class battle cruiser. All seemed dead in space, recharging power after their return to normal space. "Sir", began his Lieutenant, "four Covenant ships have just appeared out of slipspace and appear to be powered down." Damn, he thought to himself, what would the Covenant want with a small, backwater planet like New Eden? "Okay", he replied, "Bring the ship up to combat alert alpha, I want a message sent to FLEETCOM asking for back up, and start charging the MAC gun, this is our chance to try and save some lives."
"Sir, the enemy ships are under power and their trajectories suggest that the carrier is moving towards the planet while the destroyers are moving to intercept local friendly forces. The battle cruiser is on a course for the Illustrious, your order Sir?"
Wallace contemplated the information quickly, "Bring us in on a course two, nine, three and give me full power capacity to the engines."
"Sir, that puts us directly between the two groups of enemy force?"
"Exactly, they can't fire if they might hit each other."
He felt the tug as the ship accelerated between the Covenant warships, "How long until the MAC is fully charged? He asked.
"Ready to fire on your order Sir' replied the officer on weapons control.
"Good, I want the shot timed so that when the battle cruiser begins charging weapons the MAC round hits it as it fires, that should throw off their aim. Give me a review of how the rest of the fleet is doing."
"Not good Sir, the destroyers have wiped out our forces and the destroyers have already began glassing… wait ... I'm getting strange readings from the carrier Sir, it seems to be building up a huge amount of energy."
"What are those bastards up to?" Wallace asked, half to himself.
Suddenly the carrier seemed to ripple in space and and blueish purple wave seemed to spread out from it. As the wave passed both Covenant and UNSC ships all signs of power vanished from them. "EMP", yelled Wallace, "Cut all power!" He was too late, his ship was sapped of all power, life support failed and the ship was filled with the sound of thousands of people asphyxiating.