0555 Hours, November 30, 2552 (Military Calendar) / Epsilon Eridani System, Reach UNSC Military Complex, planet Reach, Section Three secure facility.
Dr. Catherine Halsey knew this day would come, the day the Covenant would find Reach. The Collectors warned for years that whatever projects, prototypes, and specimens they were working on, they needed to be ready to be packed up at a moment's notice. She watched as both collectors and scientists worked to pack up. As soon as an item was ready it was moved to the subterranean tunnel which was roomy enough for two pelicans to fly comfortably side-by-side. The tunnel led deeper underground to another facility which housed one of the three Collector cruisers. The Collectors only allowed a few select individuals to visit their ship in a conscious state.
Halsey watched as a pair of Praetorians lifted a Grizzly and take off down the tunnel. While Cole protocol dictated that research materials and prototypes be destroyed, the collectors were the exception. The collector cruiser was buried under several kilometers of ice, next to the ruins of an ancient race. The ruins were found by the advanced sensors of Agriculture, who had planted a seed that grew into an interconnecting tunnel and vertical docking section for the collector cruiser. In side the ruins they found numerous artifacts which had been stowed away aboard the cruiser. Halsey was thoroughly impressed by the numerous technologies the White Reapers commanded and in spite of the fact that they chose to share only a small portion of what they knew, they had proven to be invaluable allies.
There were also a few Covenant defectors among the Collector ranks. When she had been introduced to the aliens twenty years ago, she was hesitant to trust them like all the humans on the base but as time went on she came to understand them. Huragok, Unggoy, Lekgolo, and Sangheili had proven to be sincere in both speech and action. It was being proven now as the Sangheili defectors aided in the defense of Reach by explaining Covenant tactics. The Lekgolo, which in the Covenant were used to run various types of machinery, had volunteered their services as long as they were permitted to breed. They were being deployed as both vehicle operators and in Mgalekgolo pairs that were seen so often in the employ of the Covenant. The Unggoy were actually very helpful and friendly as they often volunteered to carry cargo, function as lab assistants, and assist with equipment maintenance and calibration.
Halsey left the loading bay and took the elevator to the war room where several ranking officers, collectors, and Sangheili where looking over a holographic map of the battle in orbit. The map shifted to the thousands of Covenant dropships approached the orbital guns' power generators and their facility. Suddenly the dropships were dropping like flies.
"I don't remember having anti-aircraft guns that far out." Said one of the ONI officials.
"There are no UNSC anti-aircraft guns out there," replied one of the Collectors.
"Then what is shooting down those dropships?" asked the official.
"They are being shot down by Szn'ftel anti-air cannons." Replied the Collector, "By the way it is time to load personnel."
"Szn'ftel? I flew over that area the other day. There was nothing out there but trees." Said a pelican pilot as he left the room with everyone else.
"Precisely." Answered the Collector as he activated the implosion charges for the base.
"If I remember the files the Reapers gave us, the Szn'ftel cultivated plant life that functioned in conjunction to their technology." Said the ONI official, as they got into the elevator.
"You mean they have weaponized Reach's forests?" asked the pilot, stunned at the revelation.
"Yes, Agriculture cultivated them when we first arrived, preparing for this eventuality." Replied the Collector.
"Repelling the Covenant from Reach?" asked the ONI officer hopefully.
"No, to buy us the time to evacuate Reach." Said the collector. The doors of the elevator opened to civilian and military personnel alike climbing into and being sealed inside Collector stasis pods.
0615 Hours, November 30, 2552 (Military Calendar) / UNSC Pillar of Autumn, Epsilon Eridani System, Planet Reach.
"Say again?" Asked Captain Keyes to the life-sized hologram of Admiral Stanforth, transmission courtesy of Military.
"We are going to buy time for an evacuation." Replied the Admiral.
"Sir, we are abandoning Reach?" Asked Keyes.
"I don't like it either but Military has proposed a bold plan that will allow us to hit the Covenant from behind and catch them with their pants down. But that first involves the rapid evacuation of Reach." Said the Admiral.
"Sir, with all due respect, aren't we trusting these aliens a little too much?" Asked Keyes, wary of the Collector General behind the console behind him.
"Son, I understand how you feel but if these guys wanted to stab us in back they would have done so years ago. They knew Earth's location long before we told them and they have given us the upper hand in numerous engagements saving countless lives in the process. And seeing as the Covenant have not attacked Earth yet, I think they have at least earned a little trust." Said Admiral Stanforth.
"Understood, Sir. Where will our fallback position be?" Asked Keyes.
"As much of an advantage the Pillar of Autumn has been in this engagement, I want you to take her on mission she was intended for: the capture of the Covenant Prophets. If you can get them, we can end this war." Said Admiral Stanforth.
"When do you want us to leave, sir?" Said Keyes.
"Atta, boy. When the Covenant come about, we are going to coordinate with the orbital guns and punch a hole through them and you're going to soar right past them, execute a random jump as per Cole Protocol, and start your mission. As High Charity is a city ship, you will need the Covenant defectors and the Collectors you have aboard to infiltrate one of their ships and find it." Said the Admiral.
"Yes Sir."
"Look alive, Keyes, they are coming about ." Said the Admiral as his hologram disappeared.
Keyes looked at the holographic display as the Covenant fleet approached. He noticed that the Super Carrier was back.
"Cortana, coordinate with their fire and get ready to put us through there at full burn." Ordered the Captain.
"Aye, Sir. Prepping element zero drive cores for rapid acceleration." Said Cortana.
"Slipspace anomaly." Reported Cortana.
"Where?" Asked Lieutenant Hikowa.
"Behind us." Replied Cortana.
Keyes rotated the hologram to show the large anomaly. Out of it emerged a vessel that appeared to be a fusion of Covenant, Collector, and Reaper technology. Keyes recalled that the White Reapers had initially captured a Covenant Battleship, this vessel must be what had become of it and why they needed to capture a Covenant vessel instead of taking the one the Reapers had acquired. The vessel appeared to have had a strange tuning fork-shaped device affixed to its rear by Collector technology. Keyes also noted that the Covenant battleship was sporting several holes in the hull where Keyes guessed technology had been removed.
He watched as the familiar form of a White Reaper destroyer detached itself from the vessel. As Military was with the Leviathan, Keyes guessed this one was Industry. Civilian ships began to exit the atmosphere and approached the vessel. The rings on the tuning fork-shaped device began to spin and a sphere of energy glowed. At first Keyes thought the ship was there to transport the civilians when energy arced out of the massive device and launched the ships at incalculably fast speeds.
The display and window was suddenly filled with several bright lights before the glass transitioned to filter it out.
"What was that?" asked Keyes.
"Remote detonated Nova bombs." Replied the Collector General.
The holographic display, which was a combination of both UNSC and Collector sensors, reset itself. The UNSC displays, highlighted in green and blue, indicated the oncoming fleet unaffected. The Collector hologram, overlapping the UNSC hologram with higher detail, displayed the same thing with one fundamental difference… the fleet was now shieldless. The Super carrier still had its shields but the collector highlights indicated that they held at a mere 9%. The deck rumbled as the engines prepared for the inevitable acceleration.
"Tectonic anomaly detected." Said Cortana.
The display shifted to a particular point on reach where a layer of ice collapsed and a Collector cruiser emerged from the resulting cloud, accelerated away from the planet before disappearing through the device.
"Firing engines in 5…4…3…"
Keys watched the UNSC Fleets fire their MACs at the same time as the orbital MACs.
"2…1… firing."
The deck shook as the Pillar of Autumn took off behind the training rounds. The first of the rounds bounced off the shields of the Super Carrier which flickered and died. The rounds fired from the Super MACs gutted the carrier with the Autumn speeding behind. The Carrier exploded around the Autumn before the ship cleared the wreckage and disappeared into Slipspace.