So, this was an idea I had after finishing the game Halo: Reach. Everyone sees the Fall of Reach as a major turning point in the war against the Covenant, and I wondered what it would be like if there was a war to get Reach back. If you've beaten the game, you know that there is some missing time between the end of Halo 3 and the final cutscene of Reach. There's a lot of empty space in there, and do you really think the Covenant wouldn't get back up after getting sucker punched by Chief in Halo 3?
So this is my answer, and my idea. I may make it into something more than a oneshot, but probably not until my other story, In Nomine Luna, Requiescat in Pace is finished. Till then, enjoy.
...And They Called it Sparta.
They said that we had won.
The Prophet of Truth and his Covenant Loyalist forces had taken a most heavy blow imaginable when they went down with the Ark. The Flood was contained, permanently. The Covenant was to be broken.
But even a broken piece of glass is dangerously sharp.
The Arbiter and his Separatists had been effectively crippled by the remaining Loyalist forces, calling themselves the Remnant. The Arbiter himself had been assassinated by a group of Elite Zealots. "We remain behind." They claimed, "We were passed over as unworthy for the Great Journey that the Prophet of Truth had shown to us. We, the Remnant, will stay and honor the will of our Prophet. He wished the humans dead. This will be our gift to him that he may find us worthy."
There was word of a new Prophet of Redemption, who had been gathering his forces in the Epsilon Eridani System. They had decided to terra-form a previously glassed planet into something usable by the Remnant for a main forward base of operations. The Remnant had envisioned a new unbreakable fortress, built upon the triumph of previous conquest. The UNSC saw this, and couldn't believe the hubris of the so recently broken Covenant forces. They were building their base upon a world-wide battleground.
They were building on Reach.
Now, everyone knew from the propaganda campaigns that the main ONI office was stationed on Reach. It was their fortress, their home. It was from there they sent out their mighty SPARTAN soldiers to attempt and succeed on missions that would obliterate any lesser man. The information was given to the public so that when they saw the iconic MJOLNIR assault armor, the people knew that they were looking at a hero, a demigod among men, sent to achieve victory against impossible odds. The original SPARTAN-II program yielded some of the most powerful soldiers a general could only dream of commanding. The SPARTAN-IIIs were some of the most dedicated weapons fashioned by man. So it came as no surprise that the moment the UNSC found that these Remnants were building up their armies on Reach, that they began building up something of their own.
They decided upon a new SPARTAN program. SPARTAN-IV would be the creation of not a handful of small squads, or at largest a regiment. This program, after seeing the abilities of John-117, had a much grander scale. After all, if that long combat record was what a single SPARTAN did for the war effort… think of the possibilities of a grand scale SPARTAN program.
Humanity was building an army.
Every colony, every settlement, every world humanity had staked a claim for itself was notified, and they all rose to the task of helping create this new breed of warrior. The colonies sent their best and brightest children to be trained in the SPARTAN-IV program. Every orphanage notified was handing off children by the hundreds, telling them that they would all get a chance to be heros. The numbers of this new army were going into the thousands. The entire human race had united and began preparing for a war against these Remnants. They could do no less if they were to have any chance of survival.
Training was set up to resemble the original SPARTAN-II program. The children were split into regiments of three hundred for education and training. They were taught to be universally perfect soldiers, able to effectively assume any position in the field, while focusing on specific specializations. They were all trained with a single purpose: Reclaim Reach.
For fifteen years, the Remnant and Human forces were content to bide their time. The Great Journey that had taken a majority of their Elite warriors, along with Separatist rebellion, had cost the Remnants greatly. Their once proud Battle Fleets were a mere fraction of their former strength, and while they might be able to defeat their human enemies, the Demon they feared had leveled the playing field significantly. The terra-forming was a slow process, and only served to inflate their ego. After all, if it took fifteen years to breathe new life into a planet they had destroyed, even with their tireless and ceaseless work, how strong did that make the destroyers?
Calling the force that gathered upon Reach "Remnants" only truly served to inspire more fear at just how massive the Covenant armies truly had been. The battle fleets gathered in orbit could have blotted out the skies of Earth with ease, and then have enough for the next few planets over. It seemed that Reach was to be their new home. The UNSC, when discovering this fact, had one collective opinion on the matter.
It was our Jericho. Now it will be theirs.
But not everyone was calling the new fortresses on Reach "Jericho." The newly trained 1st SPARTAN Legion, fifteen thousand strong, had a different name for the lost fortress world. Every Spartan knew what Reach used to mean to their ranks. Devotion to that world was built into their training. Spartans belonged to Reach. It was their true home. The SPARTAN-II's were housed, trained, and based on Reach. It was more important to them than even Earth. And combined with the knowledge that the first operation of the SPARTAN Legions was the reclamation of Reach, this gave birth to a new name for the fortress world. The Spartans had been bred and trained to take over a planet...
...And they called it Sparta.
So yeah. There it is. Review, tell me what you think, if you like the idea of a Halo story like this, I might make it more than a oneshot. But who knows? I'll be coming out with a new chapter of INLRIP as soon as I can, so bear with me and allow me my stray thoughts.