Welcome to Lost Spartan, a halo fan fiction that I've been writing, editing, and re-writing for about.... 4 years now, hope you enjoy the latest edition!
For those that aren't has Halo crazy as myself, I decided to point out that I use the actual names for the member races of the Covenant. These are listed below for those that are not familiar with them:
Sangheili - Elites
JiralHanae - Brutes
Unggoy - Grunts
San 'Shyuum - Prophets
Kig 'Yar – Jackals
Mgalekgolo – Hunters
Yanme'e - Drones
Huragok – Engineers
And so, without further ado, I shall now get on with telling the tale!
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Prologue: The Last 10 Years
The Flood has fallen and the Covenant fractured. The war against extinction, the Great War, ended with the final hammer blow against the parasite, and the last remaining figurehead of the Covenant, the Prophet of Truth. The Covenant, once united in faith, fractured into three factions. The first were the proud Sangheili; noble warriors and vicious fighters, who became aware of the Forerunner "Final Answer" to the Flood's threat during the Great War and chose to turn on their obstinate allies, fighting alongside the battered remains of the USNC. After the war, the avenged warriors secured a vast domain with diplomacy and if needed, blade. The Arbiter, stating that he would have to die fighting in order to take off the ancient armour, declined the calls for him to take office. So the Sangheili Fleet Commander Rtas "Half-Jaw" 'Vadumee took office as Supreme Chancellor of the Sangheilit Senate. The second race, the JiralHanae, smashed out a crude, small, but immensely powerful interstellar empire, taking several covenant forge worlds and station worlds, similar to the annihilated High Charity. The third race to forge themselves out of the wreckage, astounding all the others, were the Unggoy. The ones that served both the San 'Shyuum and the JiralHanae, acquired enough courage to stage a coup d'état on Balaho, ousting their former dictators and wresting control of a few of the Covenant's forge worlds for themselves. Whilst the Covenant Remnant spiralled into chaos, the Humans began rebuilding, first and foremost at Earth; scanning the charred melted remains of East Africa for any trace of the Flood remaining from its briefly lived assault upon the ruins of Voi, Kenya. Then began the work of slowly rebuilding the crushed planet and decimated Home Fleet. With access to technologies given to them by the Sangheili, alongside the intelligence and information garnered from the twenty five years of fighting, Human warship designs advanced rapidly, allowing each new ship greater mobility and firepower. A vow was sworn; never again would the USNC allow Earth to be threatened - no matter the cost. Ten years have been spent, with each year a bitter struggle to reclaim abandoned systems, salvage whatever possible from ruined planets and protect the few remaining inner colonies from the violent species still in the galaxy.
Chapter One: Awakening
0727
HOURS, SEPTEMBER 18TH, 2563 (MILITARY CALENDER)\
USNC SUPER
CARRIER - SPEAR OF FIRE
SLIPSPACE TRANSIT, TARGET SYSTEM: CLASSIFIED
The hum of the new slip space engine could be heard from the cryo-room. The silent, motionless space was just one of several, housing three hundred cryo-tubes, the ship's crew interred within, sleeping away any long jump, shortening the journey considerably. For three weeks the ship had been running on a skeleton crew, with minimal, rotating shifts, allowing each member a week of cryo time. The only mind aboard the colossal vessel that never slept, was the ship board AI, or rather the only minds, as there were two shipboard AI that currently resided in the data banks. Hammer: a seemingly simple construct that existed solely to operate the ship systems, control the auto guns and watch over the crew as they slept, was busy calculating the slip-space trajectories for an exit vector. The second AI: Bentus, was watching his counterpart with some amusement. Bentus is what is classified as a Smart AI, whilst Hammer is known as a Dumb AI. The main difference between them being that Bentus could go beyond his initial programming, pick up hobbies and interests - anything from poetry to pranks on lesser AI or humans; Hammer could operate a ship, maintaining the systems, and pilot it effectively when needed, but she could not breach the boundaries placed upon her by the programmers. After Hammer had finished the calculations, Bentus ran over them himself, solely for the pleasure of watching her core temperature rise in indignation. He then received a not-so-friendly message requesting that he take his overrated processing power and put it to a necessary use. He replied, What to do, what to do, what to do. You pretty much have the ship systems covered and since you're the pilot at the moment, there isn't much for me to do. Her reply was brief, Wake the admiral. Smirking, Bentus flicked his full attention to the cryo-bay, the holo-panel in the centre of the room hummed and lines of code began to spiral out. The figure of a man formed from them, short cropped hair and thin glasses, sporting a pair of heavy set boots, dark jeans and a navy t-shirt. With the automated systems that operated the cryo bay, all Bentus needed to do was throw an invisible switch and watch as the bay heated itself, ready to bring the crew out of their slumber. The admiral, as commanding officer, as was first to be awoken for this "trip", as a crew member had called it. The wake cycle took 10 minutes, the individual slowly roused from the ice cold sleep. The problem with that being, as the mind was waking up from stasis, the individual began to dream. And dreams were often the place of nightmares for veterans of the Great War. Folding his translucent arms, Bentus stared, his clear eyes evaluating the Rear Admiral as she began to stir.
****
1247 HOURS, JANUARY 6TH, 2553 (MILITARY CALENDER)\
USNC FRIGATE - ADRIATIC
EARTH, ATMOSPHERIC FLIGHT – EAST AFRICA, KENYA
"All ships fire at will!"
The announcement from Lord Hood blared over the com, followed immediately by Commander Richmond ordering, "Target Truth's dreadnought and fire, everything we've got!" From her station, Lieutenant Commander Samantha Heart counted off the MAC charges, and positive locks from the archer missile pods. "Full lock, all Archers away, MAC on firing charge cycle, one round away every three seconds." replied the fire control Ensign, Digby "Digs" Kenta. Heart read off the missile trajectories, "All ordinance on target, but no point defence from the enemy sir" she paused; the Covenant could pick off Archer missiles as easily as swatting a fly. "Almost as if they know we can't hurt it..." Richmond looked over to her, "That or they are blinded by the majesty of the damn thing," he countered. She considered this, turning back to her console. The Adriatic, a USNC frigate, was part of the three ship formation that was leading the assault on the Forerunner Dreadnought Truth had arrived in. Forward Unto Dawn, the lead vessel and flagship of Hood's now tattered fleet, was first in, followed by both the Adriatic and the Aegis Fate. The three frigates, preceded by scores of Long Sword space fighters, were in a delta formation; the arrow head manoeuvre giving all three ships the best line of sight. Reading her console, she calculated the time until the weapon fire stuck. "Impact in 5 seconds" she read out loud. Everyone turned to look out of the front viewport, watching in morbid fascination as the human weapons struck home on the tripod shape flagship of the Covenant Loyalists. Crimson and amber flares blossomed off the hull as the first wave of Long Sword fighters pounded it from up close with 110mm chain guns. Deep red and orange ripples flared outwards, as the missiles struck their mark, denting the hundred-thousand-year-old hull of the Forerunner starship. Moments later, the bombardment of MAC shells battered the hull, filling the air with fire, with a tolling gong noise echoing for miles around, but nothing broke through, simply stopping dead against the ancient vessel.. "Commander, the atmospheric disturbances above the artefact are getting worse, I'm having trouble holding course" advised the pilot, "Wind speed is up to two hundred kph" The ship shook as the wind shear began to push it off its course, and the pilot tried to force her back on track. Heart saw the dreadnought begin to move, releasing a gasp of surprise at it began to slide downwards, the blossoms of fire dying out as more and more shots missed their mark, exploding into the cliff walls around the artefact. Down the ship went, sinking lower and lower until only the spire was visible. As it went, fourteen monoliths began to rise out of the artefact, rising higher into the sky like arms reaching to the heavens. The dreadnought began to shimmer, a coalescing white light rotating around the spire as it sank. The light span faster the higher the monoliths rose, until the dreadnought was completely bathed in the light, shimmering with energy, rippling with untold power. The monoliths fell heavily into place with a clunk that echoed around the landscape, as they did so releasing strands of blue matter, string like in appearance, which gathered around the tip of the dreadnought's spire, condensing into a sphere. Without warning the light around the dreadnought peaked, streaking upwards, impacting the condensed blue sphere. The sphere exploded outwards, the monoliths spreading their fibres outwards, helping it expand to colossal size. "Shockwave!" was the last thing Heart heard before the displaced air around the artefact struck the three frigate formation. The Forward Unto Dawn was forced overhead, The aft section of the ship whipping past the Adriatic's main view port, while the Aegis Fate swooped round underneath. With power levels redlining and the engines whining as they were forced beyond their limits, the ship span away from the epicentre. In an attempt to avoid any collisions, the ship's dumb AI plotted an immediate emergency landing on the nearby cliffside. As they swooped low over the ground, the engines finally died, causing the ship to drop the last hundred meters straight down onto the savannah plains surrounding the artefact. All personnel on board were thrown to the ground, those at their posts were sent sprawling. On the bridge, Digby was sent flying as his console shorted out and exploded, filling the air with debris. Heart was flipped head over heels, landing in a crumpled heap, the darkness washing over her, and even the pain faded out as the blackness settled.
****
Bentus couldn't help but wonder what was happening beneath Heart's closed eyes. The Rear Admiral had been in and out of cryo-sleep like clockwork over the last few months, each dream she had upon awakening seemed progressively worse, but this one didn't seem so bad. Unlike the last time he watched her wake, when she had thrashed around so violently that the cryo-system had forgone the slow wake, and immediately disgorged her onto the deck. The medics were automatically called but she ordered them away when they arrived. Thankfully, thought Bentus, there hasn't been a repeat incident. He waited until he heard the near silent gasp (whisper) of air as the tube unsealed, and the door slowly began to open. Mist rolled out of the tube and gathered along the floor, surrounding the AI's pedestal. With a disdainful look, he clicked his holographic fingers, and the ventilation system kicked in, drawing the mist away. With a sound like wet skin being drawn off leather, Heart peeled herself off from the inner lining of the tube. Holding onto the side she pulled herself out, onto the deck, where she proceeded to cough and retch, forcing the bronchial surfactant that gathered around a person's throat, designed to be swallowed, to help replace lost nutrients and other essential items the body loses every time it enters cryo-sleep. One of the most exalted captains of the Great War once said, "That no matter how many times they changed the formula, it always tasted like Lime flavoured mucus." Heart entirely agreed, forcing the gunk from her mouth, and spitting it to the drainage ditch that ran in front of each tube. "God, I hate that stuff" she croaked, lifting herself into a kneeling position. "After twenty years of service, you think you would get used to it, huh?" Bentus piped in. He absent-mindedly turned the heating up to full, well aware at the size of the room, and Heart's very noticeable lack of clothing. Heart, upon hearing the heating system kick into overdrive, gave the AI an incredulous look, picked herself up and walked into the nearby changing room.