"Needle in a Haystack"

From: "Trisha Allara" allara_.mil

To: "Sword A80-427" sword_.mil

"Hey There"

How's the tour going? I haven't been keeping track of your mission as much as I'd like but I've heard a few whispers here and there. Earth is pretty calm at the moment, people are getting the feeling that it's a calm before the storm, that something is coming our way pretty soon but they don't know what. I'd don't really prescribe to that but then again I've always been an optimist, lol. How is Nathan doing for you? I scanned over some of the logs from your mission on the Kendreth and it seemed like you guys hit it off pretty well. I need to get back to work though, the whole 'saving humanity' thing can't wait forever!

-Trish

Scanned remotely by ONI security systems on 22 July 2549 at 17:35:14. Delivered 24 July 2549 at 09:12:58.

Dear Dr. Allara

The tour is fine. You're right though, it's been quiet. Captain Ambresio said that the last time it was like this was during the first years of the war when the Covenant seemed to attack only when the stumbled across us, not out hunting us. He's worried some of the younger recruits (It's weird not considering myself "young") are going to get complacent because they think the Covenant are getting low on reserves or they're losing the stomach to fight. I'm sure we'll see who's right soon enough. In case you were wondering, the rest of the squad is doing well. We're all a little bored and there's only so much to do on a ship that's sneaking around but once we get into combat we'll probably be changing our tune. Anywho…I'm going to end it here. Looking forward to your emails. Sword.

Luke pushed himself away from the computer terminal and shut the screen off as the message was beamed back to Earth. It would most likely take a few days to get there unless the ship's communication computer attached it to a higher priority message. He was happy that the doctor was maintaining contact with him while they were away, sometimes sending pictures of things she saw or snippets of articles that she read, just things to keep the squad occupied during the trip. Sitting in his quarters he had nothing to do as they made yet another Slipspace jump to a location where Covenant forces might have been recently, sensor buoys picking up whispers as the ships jumped past. It felt like a game of cat and mouse but Luke wasn't sure who was who in the equation. Unable to sleep, he pulled the chair away from his desk and put a comfortable pair of laced booties onto his feet and tucked his black shirt into his pants as he wandered into the halls. Ambresio had a nice little computer routine running that had the lights match the time of day on Earth to help with the long periods in Slipspace and the potentially long days on station. The jump was short enough that there was no need to go into cryo-sleep so he had the lights extra dark with just the inlaid ceiling lights casting a soft yellow glow on the walls. Heading towards the bridge, he passed by a blurry-eyed enlisted man who was either just getting off his shift or just getting onto it. Two Marines stood at attention as he walked onto the bridge, the lights dimmed as a single man stood staring into the darkness of Slipspace.

"Sir?" he said as he took a few steps in, not wanting to startle him.

"How are you supposed to protect my ship if you don't have any sleep?" he replied back, unmoving.

"I'll be fine, sir."

"I'm sure. What can I do for you Lieutenant?"Ambresio turned around and stepped away from the small view port of the Kamiak and towards his chair in the center of the bridge, a number of consoles arranged on the sides along with the navigators in front and below him.

"Nothing particular, sir. I'm just not very tired and I figured you may want some company." The Captain seemed to weigh this for a second or two before he nodded and motioned towards one of the unused chairs. Luke went over and managed to fit his enormous frame into the small but comfortable chair and spun around as Ambresio faced him. "I got another e-mail from the doctor earlier, she said that everything is good back home."

"You two seem to have become quite the pen pals lately," he replied.

"It's nice to get outside of the echo chamber sometimes. Talking to a bunch of military types who experience the same thing as you day after day gets a little tiring after a while."

"I understand. My brother was a civilian contractor and he and I talked frequently until he was killed. It's nice to have that connection to the outside world when you're out here, gives you something tangible to fight for." Luke nodded slowly in understanding.

"If I may…why do you think things have been so calm lately? I can't think of a time where we had so few Covenant attacks or even skirmishes." Ambresio contorted his face when Luke asked and he shifted slightly in his seat as he searched for an answer.

"My gut is telling me they're getting ready for something big. The Covenant may be stronger in every way but they still need time to maneuver and prepare their resources for large scale battles. The Inner Colonies are all that's left and we're being condensed down so the fighting is going to get vicious soon. Let's just hope they don't stumble across Earth accidently."

"How quickly do you think the UNSC would collapse if Earth fell?"

"Fast. There'd be no central command structure in place anymore and very few commanders in the field would know the entirety of the UNSC deployment and war planning. I'm sure ships will begin jumping out to the most remote colonies to try and wait it out. Who knows…maybe they'll survive this whole ordeal." Ambresio seemed to trail off when he finished, looking away from Luke and instead glancing at the bridge of his ship and the different screens that glowed dimly.

"There's no way I could surrender like that. I've encountered them firsthand and they've already killed someone close to me."

"Son, you're absolutely-."

"Captain! I'm detecting an enormous Slipspace anomaly dead ahead. Dropping the Kamiak out of Slipspace…now!" Machiavelli, the ship's AI appeared on every holotank on the bridge as his voice was projected over the speakers. Red alarms blared and Ambresio was up and on his feet instantly, running to his chair which he slid into and began to strike holographic keys on the armrests. As all of this was happening, the black outside of the ship was replaced with millions of stars and a dead and rocky planet out to their right, illuminated by a star that was further out of their field of vision. Luke slowly got up out of his seat as his eyes settled on the scene directly in front of them. Glistening bright purple in the starlight was an enormous Covenant fleet floating stationary near the planet. The four largest ships were sitting in the center of the group, the crafts having three distinct bulbous sections with the front nose being much large than the rest of the body while hooking back under itself. Surrounding the largest ships of the fleet were a large amount of ships about half the size and much thinner, a number of fins extending from the rounded nose section, a set of two engines glowing brightly in the rear section. The smallest ships floated on the outside of the battle group, about four times as small as the largest ships and consisting of a single bulbous section in the front with a small body on the back with two sets of vertical wings on either side of it.

"Oh…my god…" Luke said as he took a few steps forward, stunned at what he was seeing. Other bridge crew came running in as he was walking around and he moved out of the way so that they could do their jobs.

"I'm detecting four CKM-Class Assault Carriers, 13 CCS-Class Cruisers, and 26 CPV-Class Frigates."

"This ship hardly has the firepower to take on one of those Frigates let alone an entire god damn fleet! Machiavelli, I want us running silent. Shut down all sensors aside from the bare minimum you need."

"You've got it Captain."

"Sir, I'm going to suit up," Luke said as he turned to leave the bridge.

"Son, what the hell do you expect to do? I appreciate the enthusiasm but we're sitting this one out. No one is going to die to today." Luke clenched his fists but stopped himself from leaving, walking back towards to the Captain and standing beside him. Sweat was beginning to appear on Luke's skin as he tensed up while looking at the fleet in front of him, unable to do anything. Ambresio brought the Kamiak to a stop as it lurked thousands of miles away from Covenant fleet. The fact that none of them broke formation seemed to indicate that they hadn't been detected yet and were free to figure out what a fleet of this size was doing in the middle of nowhere. Breathing slowly to keep calm, the bridge was deadly silent as everyone looked out into space at the enemy that was arrayed in front of them.

"Captain, I'm currently attempting to hack into their BattleNet but at this distance the signal is weakening. I have located a position that should allow me to double the strength but keep us in out of sensor range."

"Do it," Ambresio replied tensely, his navigators who had just arrived moments earlier bringing the ship to the coordinates. "Let's get a message prepared to send to FLEETCOMM to warn them about this, we'll send updates as we go. Drop a sensor buoy and bring me to the dark side of the planet, I don't want us out here in the open any longer than we have to."

"Aye, Captain," the navigator responded as the ship continued towards Machiavelli's coordinates to drop the buoy off before moving back behind the planet. As the edged in closer they could see a few of the ships shifting their position slightly which made Luke's heart jump but they seemed to just be repositioning themselves and quickly fell back in line with the others. Feeling and itch on his foot, he knelt down to stick his finger into his shoes to scratch it.

"God damn't!" Ambresio yelled out and Luke jumped back up to see what happened. It took him a second to realize what had happened but it quickly hit him like a brick. The entire fleet was missing save for a single one of the small Frigates that was sitting on the outskirts. "Where'd they jump!?" he yelled out, standing up out of his seat.

"Numbers are still coming in, sir, I need a little bit more time," someone to Luke's left responded uneasily. Seconds passed as the data streamed in and Machiavelli and the other computers worked overtime to cram the numbers. "Ok…ok…c'mon you son of a bitch, give me something…got it!" Everyone on the bridge turned around when the tech cried out. "Judging by the jump vector they're most likely head towards Paris IV."

"That's a major population center…the fleets there might be able to stall but they're not going to be able to hold for long. Machiavelli, I want you to send a message out to every nearby planet and ship warning them about the fleet. Before you do that, crunch some numbers and get an estimated ETA for their arrival and package that in."

"Of course," the AI responded.

"Let's stay focused people, we still have a Frigate here and I want to know why it stayed behind."

"Sir, I'm detecting a large amount of radiation spewing from the ship as well as multiple hull breaches which are venting atmosphere. She's in bad shape," another officer replied from his console. With the Kamiak near the planet, it came around to face the frigate as it sat in space, the faint glowing of plasma visible on the black backdrop.

"For once we may actually have an advantage over these bastards," Ambresio said. "Warm up the Archer pods and bring the SHIVAs online as well. Fire off two pods of Archers to mask the warheads. I'll be taking manual control of this ship from here on out." The bridge erupted into a flurry of activity as the call to general quarters was made and the lights in the bridge dimmed. Luke looked around to try and figure out what he was going to do but as he looked towards the entrance to the bridge he could see that the door had been locked shut.

"There's a jump seat near the Captain," a young woman said when she noticed him unsure of where to go. Walking back towards the Captain he saw the seat nestled into a wall and flipped it down and took a seat.

"Do we have targeting solutions yet?" Ambresio asked as he sat back down into his chair, putting the straps over his chest but not tightening them yet. His hands rested on two black sticks that had risen up out of the seat, a number of different buttons located on them.

"Aye sir, weapons are ready to fire," the weapons officer replied back from the starboard side of the bridge.

"Alright, stagger the SHIVAs and aim for the rear section, let's try and cripple them right here. Fire on my mark." Luke's heart began to beat faster as they were about to fire off the missiles. Something on the ship started to change though and it began to turn towards them.

"Sir! They know we're here!"

"Lieutenant Clarence! Fire those missiles!" Ambresio called out. A second later, sixty missiles leapt out of their pods and streaked past the bridge on their way towards the ship quickly followed by a large SHIVA warhead and then another. The Kamiak didn't stick around for long as it rolled port and headed back towards the star and the planet, golden light filtering into the bridge before the windows polarized.

"We've got multiple detonations along the shielding…warhead impacted on the shields!" Clarence replied. "No response from the second nuke, might've been taken out by their defenses." As the Kamiak continued to pull port, the engines kicked up to full power and the ship aimed itself right towards the planet. The g-forces of the maneuver pushed Luke into his seat and he pulled the restraints over him and tightened them up. "Incoming fire!" A number of jolts rocked the ship as the frigate's shots impacted the rear of the Kamiak. Luke was expecting something more but they were relatively minor compared to the rocking that was caused by the forces beginning to be put on the ship.

"Uh…there are no breaches…the shots hit us but hull integrity is still at 100%," someone reported, the astonishment clear in their voice.

"Must've been their pulse lasers. They might not have enough energy to bring the big guns to bear," Ambresio responded. The Kamiak was now only a few hundred miles away from the planet as the engines were brought to full power, the forces pushing Luke back into seat and causing him problems when he tried to breath. The black ship continued to hurtle over the planet, it's rocky and charred surface clearly visible from the main window. "Deploy MORAY mines now."

"Aye sir, deploying mines." They couldn't see it but hundreds of the small metallic orbs were ejected from the rear of the Kamiak and began to arrange themselves into a large cloud of explosive ordinance. They remained in contact with the ship to use it's sensors as they continually moved to intercept the Covenant ship which was quickly catching up to them.

"Captain, may I ask what you're doing?" Machiavelli asked.

"Sure, I'm going to slingshot us around the planet and come in behind these bastards and put another salvo into the damaged rear. That's the plan at least. Please drop a sensor buoy and target it towards the minefield, I want to see what they're doing." A few seconds passed before an image appeared on one of the side displays where it initially showed the Kamiak flying away before rotating around towards the Covenant ship. It was just beginning to come towards the planet while the Kamiak was beginning to make the slingshot maneuver around the backside. The g-forces continued to increase as Luke tried to keep his breathing under control and body upright. Focusing on the screen he saw the ship enter the minefield as a hundred small explosions boiled over the skin of the ship, the flashes of orange and white flickering for a second before disappearing. As it continue through the field the other mines activated their engines and launched themselves towards the ship as sporadic explosions lit up the rear portions of the ship.

"Based on my calculations, our speed will require us to fire the missiles before we've sighted the ship on our return trajectory. I'm still getting a final set of firing solutions," Machiavelli said. The Kamiak continued to hurdle along the opposite side of the planet as the ship, a violent vibrating engulfing the entire ship as it was pushed to it's limits and then shoved even harder past them. The whole time Ambresio was completely calm as his hands deftly moved the ship in the direction that he wanted although he guessed Machiavelli was doing some of the work behind the scenes. Continuing around Luke was beginning to feel sick to his stomach as they passed their original entry point to the planet and began their second trip. Looking ahead back towards the star as he felt the content of his stomach rising to his throat, the Covenant ship wasn't visible but faint trails of atmosphere and plasma still lingered in space. "Firing missiles." The contents of the Archer pods emptied as hundreds of missiles streaked away from the ship and hurtled around the planet, two more SHIVAs following behind. The white trails curled towards the surface of the planet, a number of them exploding as they hit the atmosphere and burned up. Still, a majority made it through and continued around the horizon towards an unknown target. Finally, the purple metal of the ship became visible as the Kamiak came around, the Covenant stopping and coming back around to presumably take them head on. However, the missiles were ready for them as they continued on their trajectory. The first few began to impact, then more and more until the entire rear was engulfed in flames from the hundreds of missiles impacting the engines and hull. Then the first warhead hit. A blinding flash of white light engulfed the ship as the engines were obliterated and the rear section shredded itself, plasma and atmosphere spewing everywhere. Debris was flung in all different directions as the lights flickered and dimmed along the sides and inside breaks on the hull. The second warhead detonated a few seconds later, obliterating what was left of the ship, a cloud of tiny pieces of metal spewing in all different directions before a third explosion went off as the reactor detonated. Still carrying an enormous amount of speed, the Kamiak tore past the debris field towards the star as it began to fire it's retrorockets in the front to slow down. Unable to hold it any longer, Luke leaned over to his left and emptied the contents of his stomach onto the floor, coughing and sputtering after it was over.

"Don't worry son, it happens to everyone after their first time," Ambresio said with a laugh at the end, obviously letting the tension out after the ordeal.

"I'm not really sure what got to me, either the flying around or the whole fighting a Covenant ship," he replied, wiping some vomit away from his face.

"Based on your stress patterns and the g-forces that were being applied to your body, both would've had a likely impact," Machiavelli interjected awkwardly.

"Alright, that was one ship out of a helluva lot more," Ambresio said loudly, regaining composure. "I want a combat report written up and forwarded to FLEETCOMM. Let's get teams down to the rear of the ship and make sure we didn't miss anything when they hit us and we're alright. Navigation…bring us around and let's make a jump to Paris IV."

"Jesus! What happened? I wake up to alarms blaring and a Marine comes by and tells us to stay in our quarters!" Dagger said, emoting wildly while walking in the center of their room as Katana leaned up against a bulkhead and Claymore sat in one of the bunk beds. Luke stood in front of the room, the calm back in his body after watching the fight from the front row.

"We jumped into a Covenant fleet. Big one, something like forty ships were just sitting there. All of them jumped and they left behind a ship that was damaged so the Captain engaged it and destroyed it," Luke responded. "We lured them into the planet's gravity well and used it to slingshot around and come in behind them before firing off some nukes and other missiles."

"So where are we headed now?" Katana asked, finally speaking since the group had convened.

"Paris IV. Judging by their coordinates the fleet is headed there so we're on our way to help them out. If the planet is still there when we arrive we'll be going groundside immediately." Claymore and Dagger let huge smiles creep across their faces when they heard this but Katana remained expressionless. "Just be ready when we finish this jump because we'll be hitting the ground running."