A bright flash illuminated space as the UNSC Cruiser Gladius exited slipspace, tearing a hole in the vacuum. Although this method worked, it was quite inferior to the Covenant's alternative, enabling their warships to keep formations to the meter, even through the complex nature of slipspace. The shipboard Smart A.I., Charon, let a sigh exasperate from his holographic lips as he remembered the battle fought not 2 months beforehand over the military stronghold Reach. The loss of this inner colony had demoralized the entire Navy, even the crew, though Shore would never admit it. Although ONI had selected Captain Maxwell Shore for their unique mission, in part because of his reputation as a loyal and an impressive leader, he was not a Spartan. His mind was susceptible to even the smallest of possible instabilities, caused by emotion and stress alike.
"Orders, Captain?" Charon inquired, an eyebrow raised.
The Captain looked over, eyes narrowed in confusion. "What's our location, Charon? This isn't a system I'm familiar with."
"One moment. Checking the UNSC Database for matching solar system variants… done. No systems match, Captain. Unless Centarus Beta adopted another sun, were in unknown, possibly Covenant controlled space," Charon responded, an edge of doubt creeping into his vocal receptors. He quickly modified the emotion transponders to keep his appearance stable and strong. The Captain had noticed the change, much to the A.I.'s chagrin.
"Damn," he muttered. "Bring up the view screens. I want a full 360 of what's out there on deck five seconds ago Lieutenant."
Lt. David C. Riopelle had joined the Navy after the destruction of his home world, Harvest. Itching to fight the Covenant and avenge the deaths of his friends and family, Lt. Riopelle had expected to be put on a destroyer and sent into the fray. Instead, he proved himself to be an expert on the technological aspects of the war, and had been placed on the Gladius as a helmsman. Although his rage had been obvious throughout the first week aboard the vessel, he had grown to be an elite crewmember, and a great asset to the ship's operation. He had become accustomed to the Gladius's special mission, assigned directly from ONI: The hunt for Forerunner artifacts that could help Humanity win this war.
"View screens up, Captain," Riopelle stated after a fluster of movement at the controls. "Binary suns and three orbiting gas giants. There's nothing here, sir."
Captain Shore frowned in frustration. He had ordered the coordinates for their jump set for Earth, watched the numbers punched in, and had expected nothing out of the ordinary. He thought back on his briefing of the current mission by the Spook who had visited him in the hospital after his cruiser had been badly damaged in the Battle of Installation 04. What had been a supposed Recon mission had quickly turned into a battle his ship and crew barely left in one piece. In a split-second decision, Shore had decided to follow the Pillar of Autumn out of Reach's orbit, knowing his ship's minimal value in the fight over Reach, as it had no magnetic accelerator cannon or nukes of any kind; something you don't leave home without if your hoping to take out a covenant battleship. Using the wake the Autumn created, Gladius had no problem following Captain Keyes out-of-system. Upon arriving, however, the image of Keyes' ship plummeting into the atmosphere of the Halo superstructure had stopped Captain Shore dead in his tracks. Whilst staring in awe at the horror his situation presented, the Covenant had targeted the cruiser and opened fire. Taking multiple plasma rounds, one almost gutting the ship down the center and killing the entire bridge crew, Shore had retaken the reigns and dispersed the chaos long enough to make their escape. The 2-day trek of short jumps to Earth had left the ship exhausted and beaten, with morale hitting absolute zero.