Author Disclaimer: I do not own the Halo Franchise in any way, shape, or form.
Prologue – "...our fortress among the stars." – Doctor Catherine Halsey
August 22, 2552 1600 Zulu
Epsilon Eridani System, Reach
New Alexandria
Screaming, explosions, beams of light, tracers, engines, all of it was apart of a horribly fantastic show taking place for the fates of the inhabitants of this once peaceful city. The 419th Marine Division fought tooth and nail for the city alongside the Revered Saint an UNSC frigate assigned to evacuate the city. In the end the Covenant overpowered them with sheer numbers and firepower. But what the UNSC lacked in those categories made up in sheer tenacity, tactics, and bravery as they led the civilians out. Entire units destroyed just to save the innocent. The brutish covenant advanced with murderous intent in their malicious eyes. Entire city blocks were leveled from the exchanges of ravenous fire. The covenant may have taken the city but they paid for each inch of it with their stained blood all over the pavement and walls.
Through the chaos Genette Cole was moving to the evacuation station as the pelicans started loading civilians to take to the frigate stationed above. Banshees flew overhead dropping green orbs among the civilians. AA guns opened up and hornets intercepted. The flight of Banshees fell from the sky as high velocity rounds ripped them apart with apparent ferocity. Gene watched with awe, as the UNSC response was swift and brutal, it made her think back to John and wonder where he might be.
She shook her head, now was not the time to think on such things. She made it to a pelican. The marine directing traffic stood next to a terminal. "Ma'am the AI here says here you are to take Bravo 34 up to…wow says it classified, some type of spook ship leaving the system I guess. Your lucky, the pelican is here for you especially." Gene stood their dumbstruck. What was so important about me that I got my own ship?
The marine gestured towards a completely black painted pelican with the ONI seal on the side. A gentleman stepped out with a squad of ODSTs. He wore a black and white uniform and cap. The ONI symbol present on his collar and cap. He appeared as an older gentleman, a cluster on his shoulder indicating the rank of Lt Commander.
"Ma'am we have orders to escort you to the Leviathan and take you back to Earth. Wouldn't be here if you weren't the grand-daughter of the late Preston Cole if you don't mind me saying." The man saluted and gestured to the pelican. "We are in a hurry, the Covies are taking the air slowly but surely, soon our departure window will close."
Gene shifted uneasily, her brunette hair swinging around from the wind produced by the pelican's thrusters. "Well I see nothing left here, but what about these people, they deserve to leave just as much as I do!" The ONI hearing an explosion close by accompanied by screams walked up to her, produced a needle and stabbed her in the neck before she could recover. Gene collapsed into the man's arms and was hauled into the pelican.
"Make sure she is comfortable when she wakes up, Everest wouldn't be happy if he found out she was mistreated." The mysterious officer gestured. The pelican took off and proceeded to high orbit.
Unbeknownst to them the marine who had been manning the terminal had been shot and did not register that a certain Ms. Genette Kimberly Cole, Age 20, had indeed been able to leave the planet and the black ops pelican had picked her up.
The jackal sneered as he looked upon his fresh kill at the human terminal. All the women, children, and elderly screaming and running in circles, the elites in their cloaking fields, deactivated, and started shooting indiscriminately into the mass of humans. Hundreds were hit and lying in pools of blood with cauterized wounds, terror still etched on their faces.
Over 7 Covenant legions numbering 10,000 each marched against the beleaguered defenders of the 419th. They held firm against wave after wave of grunt and jackal forces. Elites and Hunters made their way into the fray, many finding death to snipers and heavy ordinance. The 419th itself numbered at least 20,000 experienced marines. Armor, aircraft, and artillery joined in the cacophony of noise throughout the city. The Covenant would bombard a particular section and the UNSC would counter barrage.
The two armies danced with each other for what seemed like an eternity in an urban hell. Marines fought valiantly to hold onto this former paradise, only to fall to the covenants superior numbers. For the Covenant this was a lousy victory, the marines inflicted upon them over 50,000 casualties along with the Revered Saint shitting on all three Corvettes in station over the city. A CSS Battle cruiser came on station and dueled with the Revered Saint, which resulted in it taking heavy plasma scoring and its tactical retreat. Over 12,000 civilians remained on the ground to be slaughtered by the religious fanatics of the Covenant.
In the end only 5,000 weary marines made a last stand defending the star port of civilians from the alien horde. As Everest watched the recording he snorted with disgust. His love was one of those civilians down there yet rumors were that a VIP named Cole was evacuated as was told by some of the survivors of the engagement –those who had evacuated to the frigate before it left-.
John continued the holographic battle. He watched as the Covenant battled it out with the marines in the streets and complexes. Snipers sat in their high perches dueling each other for the skyline. Aircraft fought over the dark stormy skies and their right to soar freely. Tanks engaged each other with bestial vigor. Rocket crews countering with fiendish grins as specters, hunters, and wraiths shared grizzly fates at the hands of the tenacious marine garrison. Colonel Howe held the line and fought off the horde as best as possible and in the end when all was lost, the civilians themselves having been slaughtered and only battalion remained, the valiant defenders set off the Havoc that consumed the entire covenant ground force and most of the city. The Holy Entity merely shrugged off the nuke as its purple shields shimmered and shined bright.
The storm protested the miniature sun with rain and thunder as if to remember the valiant and brave defenders who had stood to the last. Who are we if but human? Thought Everest. We have as much a right to this Galaxy and right to exist as anyone else. He started to walk away from the holo projector sighing, but then Daelus appeared. The smart AI had been given to him by Captain Cole, the son of the famed Admiral and the father of Gene.
" Hit the play button John." The AI broke the silence that instilled the cold room. John sighed and hit 'play'. The explosion continued, but what happens afterward was the real show, the cruiser, having completed its task of eliminating humans in New Alexandria started to move back into orbit with the rest of the fleet for glassing procedure. Then just as the cruiser reach formation, it exploded from the inside out and unto itself was a star of its own creation. John smirked seeing that somehow in the last stand, the marines had gotten a nuke onboard the cruiser.
This is why we will win. We are stars. We may die off, but we are reborn. We will reforge ourselves and become stronger. We will build another fortress among the stars again and humanity will reign supreme again.