Therum Falling
LOCATION: MILKY WAY/ARTEMIS TAU/KNOSSOS SYSTEM/THERUM
DATE (IMPERIUM CALENDER): 22-10-51618
ONGOING EVENT: SIEGE OF KNOSSOS, SECOND HUMAN-FORERUNNER WAR
Therum was one of the few fortress worlds that survived the Human-Flood War, but it did not survive unscathed. The Flood never managed to land troops en masse before their demise, but they did significantly damage Therum's planetary defenses, defenses that were not completely repaired before the Forerunners arrived. The repairs of the orbital bombardment defense shields for the land masses were completed, but the repairs of the shielding over the oceans were only beginning initial preparations two days before the attack.
The Humans had made the Forerunners pay with entire generations in every battle of the Second Human-Forerunner War, but after the San 'Shyuum surrendered, winnable battles became one sided sieges as the Forerunners whittled away at the exhausted humans who could no longer afford to deploy reinforcements to halt Forerunner aggression. Therum was now suffering from the new found confidence that the Forerunners were feeling from finally gaining the upper hand after a millennium of total galactic war. The moment the Forerunners entered the Knossos System their scanners detected the lack of planetary shields over Therum's oceans. The Forerunners saw this as an opportunity to possibly lighten the heavy casualties which they already knew they were going to endure.
Every battle was the same. Hundreds of forerunner ships were lost to bring down one human ship; dozens of forerunner soldiers were lost to bring down one human soldier. In an effort to reduce losses as much as possible, the Forerunners ignored the human fleet that was cutting through them like hot steel through butter and concentrated fire on the oceans. The unshielded planet was devastated, reduced from a lush garden world into a fiery hell-hole. Oceans of water turned into oceans of lava. The tectonic plates shifted as the planet's crust was shattered by particle cannons punching holes straight through the planet's core. The atmosphere was ignited and the resulting firestorm destroyed the planet's defense platforms, providing an opening for the Forerunners to land an invasion force. What would've taken the Forerunners decades was achieved in years due to this advantage.
Therum had a large influx of refugees from the Second Human-Forerunner War, and the evacuation of the increased civilian population was only 38% complete. The evacuation would have been completed a long time ago, but the relentless orbital bombardment had been scrambling the planet's teleportation grid, causing it to malfunction.
"The evacuation portal just went offline again!"
"Shit! What happened!?" Sergeant Alexandria, a revered Titan super soldier and the daughter of the legendary Lord of Admirals Forthencho, blasted two Forerunners with her purple-fire multipurpose particle weapon system, disrupting their atomic and molecular structure, shattering them like glass, as her AI Companion Nikias alerted her to the situation. Forerunner combat skin offered no protection from human weapons, but that was irrelevant during the war since the Forerunners outnumbered the Humans over a thousand to one.
"Bombardment destroyed the slipspace generators, and over half of the repair crew was killed in the explosion." Alexandria could tell from Nikias's voice that he had lost hope. "There's nothing more we can do. This is it."
"Don't say that. Don't you ever say that."
Humans never gave up, and they sure as hell never surrendered. They fought, they sacrificed, and if there was a way to survive, then they would find it, but not this time.
"The battle is lost, you know tha- Alert! Enemy forces are converging on the evac bunker! The bastards must have noticed the loss of power!"
"Dammit." Alexandria cursed under her breath. She knew that any attempts to save them would be in vain, but that wasn't what she needed to do. She needed to make sure that none of them were captured, or else the Forerunners would download their memories and potentially gain dangerous insight into human technology. She knew that none of them would ever surrender, but human civilian grade weapons and armor were more balanced with the Ecumene's arsenal. The Forerunners would be able to take them down with non-lethal weapons. She could not allow that to happen.
Taking a moment to think, as well as blast six more Forerunners, Alexandria opened her neural link to the twelve men and women fighting along side her behind a improvised barricade of cars and debris that they had thrown together with psychokinesis. She had lost her original fireteam of three other Titans, and had now been with these new brave warriors for the past eight years of the battle, forming an effective team that stuck it to the Forerunners both on the ground and in space. When the Forerunners landed a new wave of reinforcements, her team was there. When the Forerunners started to form a staging area on one of the other planets in the system, her team was there. When the Forerunners brought in a new dreadnaught that needed boarding, her team was there. When the Forerunners needed to regroup, they spent all of their moments of pause recuperating together. They were more than a fire team, they were a family. Four of them were civilians, having received only the basic military training that was mandatory for all citizens of the Imperium before they went into the civilian occupations of their choosing. They were especially brave, and Alexandria admired them for making it this far. She knew this would be the last time she ever saw them. There was so much that she wanted to say, but there was no time. Every second she spent saying her goodbyes would be a second spent letting civilians be captured.
"We can't lose this sector, not now. I'm heading to the evac bunker. Hold the line for as long as you can. Give these slit nose freaks everything you've got. Good luck. I'm...proud of you, all of you."
She received several protests. None of them wanted to part ways with the woman who had become more like a mother to them than a commanding officer. Alexandria had become a symbol not just to those under her command, but to all of humanity. She was well known in the galactic community for her role in the First Human-Forerunner War. She became known as the Savior of Humanity for her heroics during the Human-Flood War and the Second Human-Forerunner War, the period that became known by historians as the Dark Times. She was the light that shone defiantly during humanity's darkest hour. She lived up to the meaning of her name. Alexandria: defender of mankind.
"That's an order. No arguments, I have to go. I'm sorry."
Alexandria uploaded a digital copy of her and Nikias's consciousness to the teams mini battlenet in order to leave them with leadership. And with that, she was off. There was a terrible knot in her stomach and throat, as well as tears streaking down her face. Every fiber in her body wanted to fight and die with her team, her family.
A few steps into the direction of the bunker she stopped. Her eyes dropped to the ground and she almost turned around. Nikias was in equally hurt to leave the team behind, but he managed to weakly urge Alexandria to continue. "You know what we have to do."
"I know."
Alexandria raised her head high and charged off to the bunker as fast as she could.
A/N: Material that either contradicts canon, or is not clear whether or not it contradicts canon will be identified in author's notes.
In Halo canon, there is only one confirmed conflict between the Humans and Forerunners. In my story there are two.