Prologue

0432 Hours, July 28, 2564 (Military Calendar) \
Slipspace, en route to the Herculis System

UNSCDay of Wrath

Routine.

It doesn't seem like much to most people, but it made up the majority of basically every day for Commander Jurgen Wagner. From the moment when he climbed out of his bunk in his quarters to start his duty as First Officer on the Day of Wrath to the moment he returned to it every night, Commander Wagner's life was as uneventful as that of a goldfish in an empty bowl, swimming around and around in a perpetual circle until it moved on to the next life.

Each day was an identical clone of the last; nothing new or interesting ever occurred, there were no mind-blowing discoveries, there was never any action. Life on the UNSC frigate was uninteresting, uneventful, boring. And Commander Wagner loved it that way.

He had survived the Human-Covenant War, which had ended eleven years ago. He had been a lieutenant serving on the UNSC Spear of Destiny, another frigate in the then-shattered UNSC fleet. His ship had gone through the Portal in Africa and had fought in the Battle of Installation 00, or the Ark as it was more commonly referred to.

He had been to Hell and back, and he had survived it all, something the majority of the Human race hadn't been able accomplish in the war. After surviving through a huge ordeal like that, an uneventful life of routine on board a frigate for a couple of years wasn't too bad at all for the battle-hardened commander.

The recently awakened from cryo-sleep commander was in the prep room adjacent to the cryo-chamber, in the process of slipping into his uniform when the holo-pad near the door pulsed to life. A shimmering, one foot-tall male figure appeared over the white circle, appearing as his chosen avatar; a short, plump, eighteenth century butler complete with a black frock coat, a balding head, a shiny top hat, and a cheery, rosy complexion. "Good morning, Commander. If I may say so, it is a pleasure to see you up and about again," the shipboard smart AI greeted Wagner in his light, formal British-accented voice.

"You too, Jarvis," Commander Wagner finished putting on his uniform and stood up, glancing in the mirror and straightening out any defects, "How're you holding up?"

"I am functioning optimally, thank you for asking," Jarvis smiled, "Now that you are actively functioning as well, the captain wishes for you to report to the bridge. We will be dropping out of slipstream space momentarily."

"On my way, thank you."

Jarvis gave a small nod and vanished, his task completed.

Commander Wagner left the prep room and strode into the mostly empty corridors of the frigate, making his way towards the nearest lift. He passed several members of the ship's technical staff on his way, exchanging respectful nods with them as he walked by. Save for the techies, the corridors were mostly empty, as all of the ship's complement of marines and most of the deck crews were still in cryo-sleep, due to the slipspace jump into the Herculis System the Day of Wrath had been ordered to execute two weeks ago.

Wagner reached the Section Four lift and waited as the weight sensors in the floor right in front of the lift door detected his presence. Several seconds later, the doors hissed open and Wagner walked inside. "Bridge," Wagner stated. The lift whirred to life and ascended for another few seconds up through several decks, a barely detectable lurch being the only warning before it reached its destination. The doors hissed open again, revealing the bustling bridge of the Day of Wrath. The bridge crew were all at their respective stations and posts, all of them also recently awakened from cryo-sleep.

"Morning, gentlemen," the commander yawned as he strode onto the bridge, making his way over to his post, a tactical console station situated behind and to the right of the captain's chair. The low hum of quiet activity was broken by remarks of "Welcome back, sir" and "Good morning, sir" from the bridge crew.

"Good to have you back, Jurgen," Captain Anatoly Raemius rose from his chair and gave Wagner a light clap on the shoulder.

"And you as well, sir," Wagner returned the gesture to his commander and friend.

"Impeccable timing, Commander," Jarvis, who was hovering over the holo-pad next to the captain's chair, said cheerfully, "We are returning to normal space…now—" the AI paused briefly as he interacted with the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine. The familiar rushing sound which accompanied all slipspace transfers was heard as the frigate emerged back into reality. Data flooded back into the ship's systems, sending readings onto consoles and images to screens. The main viewscreen flickered to life, showing an image of Cibola, a medium-sized class-M planet, and the star Herculis way beyond it. The star-sprinkled darkness of space filled the entire background.

Cibola was one of the many planets which had been considered for colonization years ago, but then Harvest happened in 2525 and put any colonization plans on hold indefinitely. Soon after the war's end, dozens of planets had been scouted out for colonization. After all, the UNSC had lost all but a handful of its worlds; it needed more planets to live on. Millions of refugees had been sent to some of the aforementioned planets over nine years ago, along with millions of Elite refugees from the destroyed High Charity and other worlds ravaged during the Great Schism. Together, they had formed joint Human-Sangheili colonies on dozens of planets so far, combining the superior Sangheili technology with Human ingenuity and innovativeness to make those colonies thrive. Most of them had full-fledged cities and increasing populations by now.

The world of Cibola was one of those colonies.

"So do we finally get to learn why we're here?" Wagner asked Captain Raemius. He was ignorant of the reason why the Day of Wrathhad been contacted by HIGHCOM two weeks ago and ordered to proceed directly to the Herculis System. The Wrath had been the closest ship to the distant star system, but Raemius hadn't told anyone what the reason for the jump was. The crew had been put into cryo-sleep and that was the end of it.

"The Elites received reports of unknown hostile ships in this system," Raemius explained, "According to those reports, those ships destroyed the corvette stationed near the planet when it attempted to contact them. HIGHCOM sent us in to investigate because we are the nearest. Sangheili forces were sent as well, and they will be arriving shortly. For now, we're on our own."

"But why would someone attack Cibola?" Wagner put forth the question everyone was thinking.

"Because Cibola has a fusion warhead facility which has produced several NOVA warheads, bombs capable of destroying or at the very least severely, severely damaging entire planets," Jarvis explained after Raemius gave him a nod, "During the war, a single NOVA warhead ravaged a large Covenant planet, destroyed its moon, and obliterated an entire fleet of Covenant capital ships. If someone were to attack Cibola, I cannot think of a more logical motive other than its supply of NOVA warheads," the AI finished, falling silent.

"Sir!" Lieutenant Gervais exclaimed from the tactical post, "Multiple contacts detected in orbit around Cibola."

"Show me," Raemius ordered.

Gervais input several commands into his console at the captain's order. The viewscreen flickered and magnified by several times. Cibola ballooned in size, big enough to fill most of the screen. A cluster of seven ships was visible, all of them in a standard orbit above the planet. Five of them resembled UNSC frigates, but somehow weren't; the design and make was different, more advanced. The other two ships were completely alien; they were a golden hue, shaped like large streamlined cones, starting out wide and broad in the back with the engines and tapering off to a point in the very front. They weren't just blank golden cones, though, their surfaces were broken by features such as observation decks and weapon systems.

"Who the hell's ships are those?" Lieutenant Shields asked in a very confused tone, "I've never seen or even heard of ships like those yellow ones."

"They aren't responding to my hails, captain," Gervais reported, returning the viewscreen to normal, "Sir, that's gotta be them."

"Helm, take us in, full impulse power," Raemius ordered, taking a seat in the captain's chair, "Bring weapons systems online, charge the MACs and plot a solution. Ready Archer pods One through Eighteen and power up our plasma turrets."

The plasma turrets were a new addition to UNSC vessels as the research and development jockeys reverse-engineered more Sangheili and Forerunner technology. UNSC plasma turrets were still inferior to their Sangheili counterparts; they needed to recharge every few seconds, but they were still a large leap forward. Wagner couldn't help but regret not having this technology discoveredsooner during the war when it was needed most. Billions of lives could have been saved if only the UNSC could have—

Wagner shook his head, clearing his mind. The past existed to be learned from and remembered, not to be lived in. That job was reserved for the present. And the present was now, not during the war.

As the Wrath neared Cibola, the five ships resembling UNSC vessels turned towards it while the other two alien ships began to veer off.

"Sir! I'm detecting slipspace ruptures; those two ships are leaving!" Gervais alerted the captain.

Raemius thought fast, ordering the viewscreen to be magnified once again, zooming in much closer on the two alien ships heading straight towards rapidly-forming crackling circles of purple and white. "Jarvis! Capture that image!" the captain barked at the AI, "When we make our report, I want to have proof."

"Done," the smart AI quickly replied, giving a satisfied half-smile.

As the bridge crew watched, the two alien ships entered the ruptures and vanished into slipspace, heading off to an unknown destination. "The remaining vessels are on an intercept course, ETA: one minute," Jarvis reported, "They are powering up their weapons and preparing to fire. Might I suggest taking evasive action?"

Raemius nodded in agreement, "There's a time and place for direct confrontations; this is not one of them. Evasive maneuvers!" The captain shouted over to Ensign McCaffrey, the helmsman, "Jarvis, take the turrets!"

As the Day of Wrath veered off to the left, Jarvis took control of its plasma turrets. They glowed bright blue and finally white as they warmed up before spitting out huge, precisely measured bolts of plasma at the lead hostile ship. The searing bolts crashed into the ship, melting right through its front and starboard armor. It spun away slowly, venting atmosphere.

"They weren't expecting that," Wagner noted, "They must not know a lot about our improvements."

The other four ships broke off and fired their MAC cannons and what appeared to be advanced energy beams. The MAC rounds, fired while their ships were veering off, all missed the Wrath by a large margin, but the lasers all hit the UNSC frigate. The frigate's energy shields, another new feature added with the plasma turrets, sparkled as they absorbed the lasers. The hull itself was unscathed.

As the Wrath drew up alongside one of the unknown ships, the bridge crew got a good look at the name of the vessel. "URF Balanced Scales…" Wagner read it aloud, his eyes widening as he recognized the three initial letters, "URF stands for United Rebel Front…those are Insurrectionists! I thought they were wiped out; how did they get ships like that?!"

"I'll go out on a limb here and say that they probably aren't in the mood to tell us," Raemius replied, "Fire Control, fire our starboard lateral MAC. Jarvis, you're on cleanup."

"Aye sir, opening fire," Lieutenant Compton said as he complied. Wagner heard the familiar BOOM of a MAC cannon firing. The viewscreen changed to a side view of the passing ship as the MAC round tore right through its hull, creating a sizeable rip in the armor. Jarvis then fired the now-recharged plasma turrets straight into the rip, causing a large amount of havoc on the Insurrectionist ship.

Still not satisfied, Captain Raemius turned back to Lt. Compton and ordered him to fire Archer pod Six, sending a hail of thirty archer missiles streaking into the gash in the Insurrectionist ship's hull. At least one of the missiles must have hit something vital, because myriad small explosions erupted all over the enemy ship's hull until, several seconds later, the whole vessel exploded in a brilliant ball of flame which vanished just as quickly as it had appeared due to the lack of oxygen in space.

As the Wrath cleared the wreckage, the other three ships turned towards it, trying to surround the UNSC frigate, but Captain Raemius continued to evade them. As this continued for several minutes, the whole ship rocked suddenly as a MAC round from one of the enemy ships scored a hit.

"Status report!" Wagner shouted as the red emergency lights activated, bathing the bridge in a hellish glow.

"We've taken a hit to our port side," Lt. Gervais reported, "Slight hull damage in section five on decks fourteen through sixteen…our energy shields are down as well. If we take another hit like that before they recharge, we're done."

As the bridge officer spoke, the Insurrectionist ships formed up in front of and to the sides of the Wrath, cutting her off.

"Orders, sir?" Ensign McCaffrey asked, a nervous edge in his voice. Raemius considered the situation for a moment. It was not a good place to be in; shields down with hostile ships blocking your way forward.

"Jarvis, how long before our shields come back online?" the Captain asked the shipboard AI.

"Approximately five minutes, sir," Jarvis replied, "Too long to be of any immediate use. I would suggest activating the emergency thrusters—"

"Sir, new contacts slipping in!" Gervais exclaimed as the readings on his console began to beep.

"Onscreen," Raemius ordered. The viewscreen changed to a rear view, showing three crackling slipspace ruptures emerging behind the Wrath. From those ruptures came three Sangheili battlecruisers; the promised, expected, and incredibly convenient reinforcements. Their weapons glowed brightly as they warmed up before they all fired plasma torpedoes at the three Insurrectionist ships.

Gervais returned the viewscreen to a normal view in time to see the searing plasma burn right through the three ships. The one the Day of Wrath had damaged beforehand instantly detonated in a bright conflagration while the other two took heavy damage. One of them still had its engines intact and, before the Sangheili vessels could fire again, it vanished into slipspace. The other was not so lucky, having been completely disabled by the plasma torpedo which had hit it.

Captain Raemius opened his mouth to order the helmsman to take the Wrath in closer to the helpless Insurrectionist ship to negotiate its surrender when it suddenly exploded in a white flash before the captain had a chance to speak. "What the—"

"They must have initiated their self-destruct protocol," Jarvis mused, "I believe you were telling quite the truth when you said that they were not in a talking mood. Shame…"

"Did you pick up anything from them? Data readings, transmissions, anything?" Wagner asked Jarvis, "Who, what were those alien ships that they were with? What were they doing in this system? Where is their base of operations? Anything?"

The miniature holographic butler gave a delighted nod, "I was able to pick up several coded transmissions before they became aware of our presence."

"Were you able to decipher them?" Wagner asked the smart AI.

Jarvis cocked an eyebrow, surprised at the question. "I will pretend I did not hear that, Commander. Of course I deciphered it; what do you take me for, a floppy disk?! I merely believed that informing you of the fact in the middle of a battle was neither the most favorable time nor place. If you desire, I can play it back for you now. I think you will find some of the answers you have been looking for."

"Do it," Raemius ordered the AI. Jarvis nodded again and played back the transmission. The bridge crew listened intently, picking out human voices interspersed with unknown alien voices speaking perfect English. They spoke for a full minute before stopping abruptly, obviously the point when they noticed the Day of Wrath's presence.

The bridge crewmembers' faces went pale as they comprehended what the Insurrectionists were saying. Even Captain Raemius looked pretty shaken, and captains weren't supposed to show their emotions.

"Oh my God…this is not good…" Wagner murmured.

Raemius grunted in agreement. "So the rebels are much more powerful than we thought…and they have powerful new friends…" he summed the transmissions up, "Hail the Elites and thank them for me," he said to Lt. Gervais, "Then I want us back in slipspace heading for Earth. We have to inform HIGHCOM of what we've found out here…"

Wagner sat down at his post near the captain's chair verifying the transmissions Jarvis had shown him. They all alluded to an unknown advanced alien race—obviously the owners of those two ships the Wrath had run into earlier—and several other things including a huge Insurrectionist fleet. But there had been one other thing which had been mentioned several times, obviously a point of interest. It had been a name.

Wagner murmured it to himself, as if just saying the name would unlock its mystery.

"Ambrose…"