Red vs. Blue: The Changing Face of War (Section 3)

Part 5: "In the meantime, some guys got all pissed off."

It has been proven many times throughout history that making those loyal to you hate those who are not is a successful strategy for winning a conflict. The Red and Blue leaders were no exception, portraying their foes as the enemies of humanity and worthy of nothing less than total annihilation. Somehow, their forces obeyed these new orders without question, launching themselves into the crucible of civil war. Never mind that humanity had won peace long ago. Never mind that he had been pushed to the brink by alien species. All that mattered to these soldiers was following orders, even if those orders were to kill those who were once your allies.

As appalling as the conflict was to Earth, it was glorious to the Covenant. The incident at Halo had stripped them of the bulk of their fleet, seemingly crushing their dreams of conquest in an instant. The unexplained civil war amongst humanity however, rekindled those dreams in an equally short amount of time. Still, the Covenant held back. One strike would be made and in that strike, final victory would be made.

In principle, the plan was foolproof. However, Earth's civil war was based on irrationality and having fought a war for survival over the past 27 years, few people were willing to fully commit themselves. The sight of numerous Covenant ships invading Earth was more than enough to prompt temporary unification. Clearly, the Covenant had overestimated humanity's willingness to tear themselves apart and before long, they were the ones in pieces.

The war was over.

Some however, were not so ready to accept that fact, namely those in command of the Red and Blue Armies. No-one wanted to see conflict continue, but having taken control over Earth and its remaining colonies, humanity's empire had become polarized. It was a war that no-one understood and few wanted to fight, but as both Red and Blue Command stressed, no-one really had a choice in the matter.

The battle to save humanity was over. Now, as the year 2553 dawned, it was simply a question of who got to pick up the pieces.

Part 6: "Why are we here?"

It would take many volumes of literature to tell the full story of the war that was waged between Red and Blue over the initial three years, but to date, no attempt has ever been made. This has been due to the fact that nothing ever really happened and when it did happen, was driven by insanity. Areas such as Battle Creek featured eternal war between Red and Blue, neither side giving ground due to harmonic resonance technology being present in the Revilee that sounded every few minutes. In this case, a strange culture began to spring up, with terms such as "gg", "lol" and "rocket whore" springing up, along with strange beliefs such as that the flags were safeguards against the Beast, a creature that would come and rule the combatants for seven years, forcing them to take out the trash and go afk.

Battle Creek was an exception however, not only due to the fact that its inhabitants were frankly insane. For the most part, the forces would remain static, doing nothing but complaining about the lack of action and finding things to complain about. An exception to this came about in 2556 however. An exception that started in Blood Gulch, made its way to a nexus of teleporters known as the janitor's closet, Battle Creek itself and finally to the planet of Sidewinder. An exception that involved a gruff sergeant, an unlucky ghost, two psychotic mercenaries, a sarcastic slacker, an unrepentant kiss-up, two morons, a robot stuck on the Spanish setting and an AI that wanted to destroy and/or conquer the known universe.

Oh, and it also involved a weather machine and bomb that tore a hole in the fabric of time and space, catapulting all but the ghost 856 years into the future and said ghost 1000 years into the past. Go figure.

"Go figure" was what the galaxy did in the aftermath, the time bubble encapsulating a seizable portion of the galaxy. Many of the galaxy's species were either engulfed by the blast or fragmented by it. The sangheili were one such example. The Covenant having long since splintered, times were hard enough for them without stupid pimps detonating bombs that destroyed the present. The bubble cutting their territory in half, the sangheili began to de-evolve, coming to the point where all they could say was "blarg" and "honk". Survival of the fittest began, a select few ruling the aliens. Aliens that were effectively slaves.

Earth's empire fared slightly better, but that wasn't saying much. Earth itself was spared the blast, but many of its colonies were encapsulated, cut off from the outside universe. The war with the Covenant had reduced the number of those colonies to a handful and for all intents and purposes, the bomb detonated on Sidewinder had finished the job. Civil unrest, the continuing Red vs. Blue War and a lack of raw materials prevented any technological progress being made for centuries. Ironically, Earth had been spared going into timelessness. However, what with the static nature of development and the ever continuing war, for all intents and purposes, time had stopped.

Gradually, after centuries of infinitude, the people began to strive for unification. Agreeing to set aside their differences for the good of humanity, Red and Blue Command came together, agreeing to rebuild Earth's stellar empire. There were those who opposed this unification, but the majority of people were glad to see all aspects of the Red and Blue Armies being brought under a sovereign government known as the United Nations Space Command. A millennium ago, space was where mankind's destiny lay. Now, as the time bubble began to recede, it was space where humanity would seek his destiny again.

The Blue Special Forces were an exception though…