A/N:
The four engine fighters here are Sabres.
Armed with dummy warhead missiles.
And yes, they can carry nukes.
Enterprise rammed shot in her Springfield. She pulled the trigger, spewing out a pair of Dauntless at their target. Her fighters soon returned, leaving her with her left arm extended to land them, as she surveyed the results, with great satisfaction.
When suddenly, she heard a loud noise.
It sounded like a mix between an Me-262 jet engine and a Stuka siren.
Looking up, she saw a pair of four-engine fighters sweeping overhead. They swooped in, launching missiles that struck their targets with insane accuracy. Turning around, she saw Eternal.
"Hi there."
"Heya, how've ya doin'?"
"Nothing much."
"Yeah, kind of. Is this a shooting range?"
"Yep, I thought that there was a sign."
"In kanji."
"Yeah, and you can read romanji and hiragana, but not kanji."
"No, I don't."
Eternal stared at the destroyed targets.
"Listen, have you ever fought a war, where your enemies have all the advantages?"
To her surprise, the American replied in the affirmative.
"The war for Independence, if I recall. However, we had French assistance, so kind of."
Eternal stared at the water as she spoke.
"They made first contact in 2525. That was with the Covenant. However, the first recorded contact with ships resembling Fog was thirty years ago, in 2495. Nobody knew what was the deal with them, but everyone knows how it started:
"Your destruction, is the will of the Gods, and we are their instrument."
Enterprise nodded.
"This is what Harvest was telling me."
Eternal continued her gaze out onto the ocean.
"We were pushed back so far, and it got so desperate the situation that the government authorized the use of chemical weapons on the Covenant. At the same time, a new weapon entered service."
"I've never heard of this."
"This weapon is essentially a Teflon pipe hooked to a pump. It squirts a stream of sulfuric acid. It is useful in ship to ship engagements, and yeah."
"I've heard of this war being grim, but it never occurred to me that it would be this bad."
"'Your destruction, is the will of the gods, and we are their instrument.' They declared a holy war of freaking genocide of all things."
"Genocide? You're serious?"
"They landed on planets, murdering without mercy. And not only military people, but civilians. All of them."
"All so terrible."
"They never expected to be dissolved by acids for gods sake."
"And?"
"The Treaty of Sanghelios formally ended the war, late 2552. A mere two years later, however, a new war began."
"What?"
"In mid-2554, UNSC forces were attacked by Fog ships. However, they resembled Covenant warships so much that we mistook them for Covenant. The government threatened to go to war, only to hear that the Covenant themselves, had indeed been attacked by the same foe."
"Which was around the same time as us."
"They adopted a blitzkrieg tactic, sweeping our outer colonies in a few years. Until recently, UNSC forces under the command of Richard Saunders, James Sandecker, and Rudi Gunn, managed to turn the tide at Midway and Saratoga, and start retaking colonies."
"I understand."
"The OSA had met recently. Apparently, they've decided to delay the final push until you're capable of spacefaring."
"And at least gain pre Covenant status."
"When you gain the status of the pre war UNSC."
"Did you know what the Infinity-class was intended for?"
Enterprise nodded.
"Harvest told me that it was to find a safe haven for humanity should Earth fall."
Eternal continued.
"Something tells me that you won't like what I'm about to say."
"What?"
"The Infinity, at the same time as finding a new haven for humanity, it was designed to wage a campaign of biological warfare."
"What?"
"It was a last resort. Luckily, they never had to use it."
"Unbelievable..."
A/N:
A couple of days ago, a guest(let's just call him Stan) posted a review that asked:
If this is intended as a sequel to For Earth and Her Colonies, why is Enterprise, Nagato, and Harvest, are so in the dark about the UNSC?
Well, bear in mind that is is set a decade after the prior. In fact, Harvest cannot say how many branches are in the UNSCSF(Special Forces)
Two new branches are added after the war.
The two cruisers here have the revised emblem.
They are postwar variants (shields, advanced slipspace drives, lasers, etc.)
In the ten years since Harvest's construction, the UNSC has gone through so many reforms that they are unfamiliar to Harvest. (In fact, she did not recognize Eternal as being UNSC until she introduced herself because of her revised emblem)
Which explains how.
However, thanks, Stan!
'Cause you asked me, and all questions are welcome.