Halo:Firestorm: Prologue
Shanxi, a world located on the very edge of UNSC space. A large planet orbiting an energetic white star, and a gravity 1.2 times that of earth's, Shanxi was not a comfortable place. Forty degrees in the shade, Shanxi was hot, humid and sprawling with jungles. Although many would say that the view of the mass of sprawling jungle canopy of the world was oddly breath taking in its alien beauty.
However the blood red canopies, beautiful from an observation deck, were an all together different story on the ground. The jungle was home to venomous insects the size of grown man's fist, deadly snake like reptiles, viscous predators, and toxic plants who flowers expunged a foul, flesh rotting virus.
But still the brave colonist had persisted, clearing out the jungle, and making great artificial plains in which to build their settlements and farms. The reason? Titanium. Beneath the dense crust of Shanxi the valuable mineral was located in abundance, despite the hostility of the planet, the colony boomed on the lucrative titanium trade.
It was due to the valuable asset that lead the people of Shanxi to begin protesting the Colonial Administration Authority's chaffing bureaucracy. These protest became negotiations, which turned to demands after years of frustrating talks. In the end, like many of the other outer colonies, Shanxi rebelled against the United Nations Space Command.
The rebellion was not taken lightly. Due to the planet's immensely valuable resources, the UNSC responded with a half a dozen ships of the 51st fleet, a regiments of marine, and a Spartan. Needless to say the rebellion was utterly crushed, and hundreds of civilians perished in the fighting. The brief uprising against the UNSC had ended disastrously for the population of Shanxi: thousands had died, the UNSC declared martial law, and to make matters worse, the Insurrectionists, in a final gesture of defiance, had sabotaged and destroyed much of the essential mining equipment for Shanxi's vast titanium mines.
The results of the destruction and sabotage were predicable. With Shanxi's only valuable industry destroyed, many colonials, tired of the fighting, tired of just trying to survive the death world, left for more prosperous pastures and a better life in the Inner colonies.
Yet the colony survived. Those who remained were determined to make their world liveable once again, and put their misfortune behind them. It took five long years but the colonies mines became profitable once again, mostly due to the rapidly increasing demand of the metal.
Many on Shanxi dismissed the UNSC reports of a coalition of aliens, known as the Covenant, waging a genocidal campaign against humanity as mere propaganda. At least, that was until a Covenant battle group consisting of a carrier, three battle cruisers and a dozen smaller ships entered the Shanxi system and set a direct course for the planet.
Shanxi was lost. Even if beyond all possible odds, the mere six ships were successful, the Covenant would send a larger fleet, and then Shanxi would burn, and the three million inhabitants who called the world home, would be consumed in the fire. No trace would remain. Except, for the sheet of glass that would cover the surface. The inhabitants only hope was for the six ships to buy enough time for them to be evacuated, and for that to happen, the Covenant's capital ships had to die.
With the main striking force of their group gone, the smaller ships, which were obviously, due to their lack of aggression, not commanded by Elites, would hopefully retreat to Covenant space, giving the populace of Shanxi the time they desperately needed to evacuate the planet. At least that was the plan
Out-numbered, out-gunned, and hopelessly out-classed, the small group of UNSC ships numbering only half a dozen immediately moved to intercept. All that stood against the alien ships was a Halcyon cruiser, two destroyers and three frigates. The logs of the lone survivor of the battle, the frigate, Wolf's Comet, and the testimony of many of the evacuees confirmed that the small group had traded their lives for time.
The late group commander Captain Charles Whitecomb's speech, had given evidence of their courage, and determination even in the face of the genocidal aliens:
"Men, this is our hour. This is our time. This is where we face death with our knees unbent and our heads unbowed. And when we meet again in Valhalla let it be known that we few sent one hell of a vanguard to guide our way!"
The battle group had often joked that the cruiser that Whitecomb had commanded was appropriately named: Soul of the Poet.
The Ship Master of the Covenant carrier Unyielding Solace and commander of the battle group, as aggressive as any sangheile, eagerly engaged the humans. To do anything less, would be a sign of disrespect to such an enemy who was willing to fight and die despite being so out numbered. What the Ship Master did not realise however, was that the radiation from the systems white star, was playing havoc on his shields, something that the humans, thanks to the Soul's smart AI Freddy's quick observation of the Covenant battle group as it entered Shanxi's system, were well aware of.
As the Covenant attacked Whitecomb ordered his two destroyers to engage the battle cruisers, and for all three of his frigates to fire on the Unyielding Solace leading the charge. Three MAC rounds. Three rounds that in a normal situation would have barely been felt, depleted the powerful shields that protected the ship. Whitecomb gave the order to fire. The Soul of the Poet rumbled as the massive gun fired its six hundred tonne slug straight at the charging, and now unshielded Unyielding Solace.
The six hundred tonne projectile slammed into the carrier, gutting the ship from bow to stern. Immediately the smaller Covenant ships had broke away from their charge, as though thoroughly intimidated by the sight of four human ships killing a target that would have had no trouble obliterating the small human group on its own.
The battle-cruisers on the other hand, now reduced to two, continued their charge, obliterating the two destroyers who had bravely moved to engage them. The plasma torpedoes had burn through the armour shells, causing them to explode in brief, bright flashes of light.
The surviving UNSC ships turned to engage. The battle had turned into a deadly game of tag, the human ships attempting to keep away from the enemy, and their deadly plasma torpedoes, while the Covenant sought to chase them down and destroy them. Despite the best efforts of the AI Freddy the Soulwas hit, and wounded several times, but she was a Halcyon class cruiser. Designed to take the punishment, and keep going.
In the end, the Covenant battle-cruisers, far superior in speed and turning, were able to close distance with the human ships. The frigate Thunder Child was the first of the remaining ships to die, in a desperate, brave, gamble to by time for the small group, she turned to face the enemy ships.
David versus Goliath. Except that in the tale David killed Goliath with a single shot from his sling. The frigate charged firing everything she had.
It wasn't enough.
The battle-cruiser's torpedo ripped through the ship. But even as the ship exploded, her half charged MAC gun fired.
The battle-cruiser shields barely felt the blow, as it turned away from the debris field that marked Thunder Child's grave.
Thunder Child's sacrifice, was not in vain, as she and her brave crew, had bought the group enough time for the group's MAC guns to fully charge. As one they turned on the Covenant and the two remaining frigates fired. Their target's shields collapsed, and the Soul fired. The round slammed into the battle-cruiser's unshielded broadside, sheering the stricken craft in two.
Now all that remained of the Covenant capital ships was a single battle-cruiser. A lone battle cruiser against two frigates, and a single, damaged, Halcyon cruiser. To make matters worse, the smaller Covenant ships seemed to regain their nerve, and were now on an intercept course with the depleted human battle-group. If the population of Shanxi was to survive, that last battle-cruiser had to die. And quickly.
The three ships formed up. The Wolf's Comet, on the portside of the Soul, her sister ship, August Wind, on the starboard. The three ships charged. Whitecomb had ordered his ship's nuclear arsenal be primed. The was no way that the warheads would reach the battle-cruiser if they were launched in the traditional manner. Covenant point defensives were too good. His only choice was to deliver the payload in an untraditional way, he would ram his ship into the cruiser, then Freddy would remotely detonate the nuclear payload. Most of the Soul's crew, had already abandoned ship, only Captain Whitecomb remained.
Onward the three ships charged, as plasma torpedoes sailed in as quickly as the enemy crew could fire, several struck home, but the wounded Soulcontinued on.
A torpedo that would have struck the Soul's bridge was intercepted by the August Wind, the brave ship was destroyed, sacrificing itself for the mere chance that Whitecomb suicidal run would be successful.
It was.
The Soul of the Poet struck her enemy mid-ship. For a few heart stopping moments the two ships remained entangled, stuck together by webs of twisted metal. Then the voice of Captain Charles Whitecomb was heard singing the final choirs of Waltzing Matilda over the battle net.
As the final verse was sung, the two ships were engulfed, in a bright and deadly light, as the Soul's nuclear payload was detonated, destroying both ships and killing a brave man. The remaining Covenant ships retreated into slipspace. The battle for Shanxi was over, the population was saved.
When the Covenant returned to the system a few days later, all that remained was the debris fields that marked the battle, and the empty homes and abandoned homesteads on Shanxi's unforgiving surface.
Shanxi was forgotten as humanity struggled to survive against the Covenant onslaught. Then ten years later, the SPATAN II soldier known as the Master Chief discovered the Halo rings, broke the enemy's resolve, and a Great Schism, divided the Covenant Empire in two, as Elites and humans joined forces and after twenty-seven years of war, finally won.
The war had been devastating. Twenty-three billion humans dead, their fleet and armed forces ghosts of their former might. Most of the colonies were nothing more then sheets of radioactive glass.
While the elites, the sangheile returned home, to wage their unfinished war with the remains of the Covenant, what remained of the san'shyuun and their jiralhanae bootlicks. Humanity turned to rebuilding the shattered remains of their empire. Tensions between the two species would remain high for many years to come. Though dialog was maintained, both humanity and sangheile were content to leave each other be.
Over the next forty years, humanity concentrated on rebuilding its shattered military, conscription was introduced, and over the years the UNSC fought a dozen campaigns against both the jiralhanae who occupied dozens of worlds, and against the Insurrection, who were loath to give up their new found freedom from the UNSC.
Many of the human worlds however were simply resettled, or underwent a process of terraforming. Shanxi, one of the few planets to be spared from a Covenant glassing and was quickly resettled, and mining operations were restarted almost immediately.
What no one knew was that humanity and the UNSC were on a collision course with another alien coalition, and the one of worst threats to all sentient beings was waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
Well here it is. This has been bothering me for a while now, and I've decided to put it on to paper finally. I know that a Halo, Mass Effect crossover isn't very original, but I'm hoping that my ideas are.
What tends to bother me about a lot of HaloxME is that the author tends to make humans and elites BIG time allies almost like the USA and the UK despite the fact that elites killed, helped kill, or was compliant in killing MORE THAN FIFTY PERCENT of the human population. Or how the UNSC have a fleet that rivals the Covenant at the being of the Human-Covenant War, as all of their ships are equipped with powerful shields and energy weapon.
But that is just my humble opinion which is worth as much as the air I used to say it.
I'm going to warn you that if you like to see advanced human race saving the galaxy and being best friends with everyone, with their elite buddies, you are not going to like this at all.
Anyway read and enjoy this prologue as it will probably take me a year to put out another chapter.