Fall Of Jericho

by KiloActual

The Covenant have found one of humanity's outer colonies, a planet by the name of Jericho. The story follows a couple of marines in their efforts to fight a losing battle against the Covenant on the ground and in space. Rated T for language and violence and stuff.

1. Chapter 1

Prologue

Command center of orbital platform, Warsaw

"Slip space drive detected. Counting multiple jump signatures. Sir, its them. Its the Covenant." yelled one of the officers.

"Triple check that signal. We have to be sure. Lieutenant, contact the UNSC and ONI." said the admiral walking over to the scanner screen

"Sir, signatures confirmed. Reading 3 cruiser and 5 corvettes and a carrier. Long range scanners are picking them up now."

"How long till they're with the range of the orbital platforms?" he asked assessing the situation on hand.

"Ten minutes, sir." said the officer

From across the room, a lieutenant yell, "Sir, ONI wants an immediate sit-rep on the Covenant fleet. The UNSC says that Battle Group A will be assembled by the time the Covenant fleet gets in range of the orbital platforms. Battle Group B is still planet side and in Dry Docks and Battle Group C is away on the orders from ONI"

The admiral runs his hand through his hair and sighs,"Lieutenant, send a report to ONI. Hercules, what's the ETA on the Covenant fleet?"

A hologram of the Greek mythological hero appears on the pedestal next to the admiral. "ETA, 4, hours and 13 minutes until they're with in range of the orbital platforms. Orders, admiral?"

"Initiate Cole Protocol, Hercules." the admiral said. "Once the Covenant gets into range of the platforms, light those the bastards up. Do the other platforms know of the Covenant fleet?"

"Yessir, they were notified by their on-board AIs. Hold up...heads up, we have several more slip space jump signatures. Counting about 5, wait no, 10 new jump signatures."

"Copy that. Hercules, make sure this is intel is sent to both the UNSC and ONI. Lieutenant, have you figured out who those jumps signatures belong to?"

"Yessir, they're all Covenant."

One of the operators on thee other side of the room stands up and yells,"Sir, scans show that the Covenant has deployed long ranged fighters and boarding crafts. ETA 3 hours."

"Alert the marines that we're in threat of the being boarded. Hercules, make sure the other platforms are aware of the new contacts." ordered the admiral before pushing the intercom button, "We all knew this was coming one day, people. As much as we wished for it not to happen, the Covenant are on our doorsteps. Let's show them that they're not welcome and kick their E.T. asses back to whatever hole they crawled out from."

As the admiral released the intercom button, he mutters to himself,"May God help us all."