Fourteen hours ago...
Fleet Admiral Jason Lasky stood at the helm of the UNSC Lightning-Class Cavalry, looking out into the void of space.
This was one the newest battleship models and outclassed practically all before it. It was the new Flagship of the Expeditionary Strike Group One, having just replaced the previous head-of-the-fleet Infinity. Now, it had huge shoes to fill. Even so, the Infinity itself was still a part of the fleet, but just as a long range battleship, serving its time for almost sixty years.
Looking like any other UNSC made battleship, it was long, dark, and spherical in nature. With huge guns scattered amongst all sides, with a gigantic mac cannon down the middle.
But in the back, it had three gianormise pulsating blue engines, with eight smaller ones encircling the larger.
Six hundred extra meters in length compared to its predecessor the Infinity-Class made it a true beast, putting it at almost 6300 meters. Added to this, being similar in design and shape, its size was very noticeable. The Cavalry was much smaller in diameter, making it excellent for speed, and especially for battle recovery.
Even though it is smaller and faster, it did not cause less durability. The ship was just as durable as the Infinity, made of the same alloy and thickness. Yet the slender shape made it harder to hit, especially for Covenant and Banished starships. It was a huge win for humanity, as this was the design's intent.
With the bold, white logo "Cavalry" on each of its broadsides, this truly felt like a beast of war.
Jason Lasky may have only served as a petty officer aboard the UNSC Infinity, but now he is in command of his own ship. In fact, an entire fleet at that.
His father may have passed long ago, but he did not let him down.
Now the bridge he was on was not any different from any other UNSC ship. Having thick sealed glass windows encircling the entire command deck. Busy men and women in their grey and red uniforms moving about their various stations. Almost thirty people were on the bridge alone with another eight thousand throughout the rest of the ship.
The officers were at work doing their jobs, while some conversed at stations and others were on their almost glowing computers.
Fleet Admiral Lasky stood amongst the crew in the center, around a circular table. On it were faint projections of holograms, with designs of tanks, armaments, and other items that would be aboard such a vessel.
He wore a light grey naval uniform, with his colored stripes and the UNSC eagle on his chest. Both of his shoulders had five silver stars encircled around each other, symbolizing his rank.
His hair was jet black like his fathers, but his face did not resemble in any form. He was far younger, almost too young to be in the rank he was in. Being the top of his class, Jason Lasky was the perfect candidate.
Taking a sigh, he turned to the dim holotable. It was dark green in its glowing light, and had many projections on it. From tanks, to weapon schematics, to even other various armaments, it was just like any other brief-table.
And with this, now a glowing green projection of a human male pixelated into view. It was the ship's onboard AI. And he seemed to look like a scientist in a lab coat, with doctor-like utensils in his chest pocket.
This was in fact Matthew, ONI's new pet-project. The first of his kind, Matthew the EAI (Enhanced Artificial Intelligence), was a sight to behold. His new capabilities outmatched almost every smart AI before it, and could use tactics and calculations like never seen before. It was a bold move putting such a new fortune of military intelligence and technology upon such a defense vessel like Cavalry.
And strangely enough, Lasky was weirded out by the look on his intelligent green face. As the admiral saw something in its eyes… confusion.
No AI he had ever seen had looked this off before, which for this type of intelligence, was a problem.
Now Matthew was looking at some sort of clipboard in his hands. With another strange glance, he turned to his commander, "Admiral?"
"Yes Matthew?" responded Lasky.
"I uh… don't know how to explain this…"
With an eyebrow raised, "what do you mean?"
"Best you take a look at this sir…" swiping to the left on the clipboard, the seemingly glowing panel appeared below in front of the Admiral on the table. It was flashing, as numbers and words showed up. The panel itself was glowing blue, showing its importance. Now seeing the EAI has his commander's attention, he spoke with a soft yet confused tone, "The Registration Identifier has a rough location and coordinates. How could this be sir?"
Eyes going wide, and jaw almost dropping, Jason Lasky snapped back to his EAI, "there is no possible way! It's been almost sixty years!"
"With all due respect, his CNI reads active and registered."
"Check your systems… wait, it says he is in another galaxy?"
"Sir, I checked it thirty two times since we started this conversation, his CNI still stands. I don't know how, but our Locational Registrator has him listed."
Taking a breath, the other officers, somewhat listening on the bridge, stopped in their tracks hearing this. Lasky took another moment to think, then made his decision, "send this information to ONI, they would probably want to hear this..."
Almost a half an hour had passed since the incursion. Fog and mush of the swamp had infiltrated the hanger, taking it over. The strong smell of sulfur filled everyone's noses, along with the pungent smell of marsh.
Jorge stood next to General Kenobi, almost two heads taller, and dulled gold in color. His armor configuration, although varied in gold and orange, looked old and faded. Especially in the dim light of the swamp. His blaster cannon was placed right on the floor next to him, fairly small compared to himself.
His bright crimson visor was reflecting a bit off the sun's touching glare. The thick coat of fog and trees made it a bit softer, and stranger, but it was still there.
Now with Red Team, they stood in their matching green MJOLNIR armor. Alice though was not as muddy as Douglas, and was a bit shorter by a few inches. She had her two DC-15S blaster rifles crossed and magnetically attached to her back. Arms crossed, and head tilted down, she was quite intimidating.
Douglas though was messing with his commando rifle, tweaking its hinges and strange switches. He quickly found out that the front short barrel was changeable, actually easily moved. Almost as if it could be replaced for other pieces or parts.
Yet in the center, Jerome stood, his red stripes along his helmet and chest told of who he was. His long rifle that he had in his arms, was in a relaxed state and pointed downward. It did look a bit small in his arms, but not enough to notice too much.
All three spartans had reflective gold visors, not any dull to say the least.
But this strange silence was quickly removed by Kenobi's communicator, as it glowed bright green.
"General Kenobi, we were able to track the ship, but we have a problem."
The static started to interfere with the conversation a little.
"What is it Cody?" said the General.
"I don't know how to explain this, best you come up here and see for yourself."
"Alright then." with a nod, he turned around to the remaining seven or so clones behind them. Their blankless faces behind their helmets told a story of their own. And now Jorge sees it. These soldiers were silent as they were supposed to be… the perfect soldier. And yet this silence was a way of mourning the lost. It would be confusing to someone who cannot tell the difference. But he could, Jorge could feel the weight in the difference.
As such, the next ten minutes were slow. Each second took forever, no matter who's perspective it was. Jorge though felt the slowest, still looking back to the hanger which they had just come from.
The battle they were in though was quick, and did not account for the losses. Forty seven clones went in, only seven came out. This should have wrecked the minds and souls of the survivors, but it seemingly did not.
These clones did not say a word, or a thing. Sure they did look around to their surroundings, and occasionally back to the hanger, but not a single one of them uttered a word.
The only ones who dared to speak were Waxer and Boil, who occasionally asked Jorge questions about his armor, capabilities and weaponry. Even then, it just added more weights of grief in a sense.
But once a LAAT gunship arrived, they finally got onboard. The weight of each Spartan pressed the dropship down a bit, causing a stutter in its revving. Never affecting the ship's capability, they soon were underway.
Jorge quickly noticed that the gunship was half filled compared to the previous loadout. A third of the amount of clones from before filled up the room.
Taking one last look at the carnage scene at the mouth of the hanger, the Spartans looked away. Another group of men… gone to such vile beasts. Everyone had heard rumors that the Covie's were brainwashed, but it was all ONI spoofs. Nothing changes, they are monsters, and they will continue to and always will be.
As the silence persisted, the dim red light within the gunship showed from the top. It was starting to weigh on everyone's spirits, and Kenobi sought to break it.
"So are there more of these 'Zealots'?"
"I don't know," said Jorge grunting once before bending over, putting down his Z-6 blaster cannon, "possible, but I think that Field Marshall was their leader."
"You sure?"
Nodding, "Positive, it was the same Zealot group who attacked Visegrád Relay a month ago."
Jerome, now interested, turned to Jorge who he was standing next to, "Reach's long ranged satellites?"
"Yes sir, they took out our eyes so we couldn't find their mothership. We did though, and well, we took care of it."
"Hm," he took a pause, "I don't know Jorge, Covenant invasions are never with one capital ship… especially on a planet like Reach."
Nodding again, "Which is why we need to head back, to see if our home is alright."
"First thing we need to do is find you home. And your world, I assume, is in the Outer Rim?" said Obi-Wan with a reassured look.
Jorge turned bewildered, "Eh, well, it is the closest livable system to Earth?"
"My apologies, I don't think I am not acquainted with this planet 'Earth'."
Now all four of the Spartans turned to Each other, completely lost with blank faces underneath their helmets.
"Am I supposed to know that system?" he asked, interested by this pause from the Spartans.
"It's where humanity came from?" gestured Alice.
"Well that is interesting," General Kenobi then stroked his beard once, "the republic archives have humanity's origin as unknown."
Now even more confused than before, they looked to each other again, not knowing what to think.
But this moment was cut short by the speaker from above. It was the pilot speaking over the intercom.
"Approaching the cruiser now, prepare for landing."
Immediately, everyone fel back to silence again. As they felt their ship enter the cruiser, a weight hit their vessel. Like gravity coming upon it, they knew they had reached their destination.
Took all of another thirty seconds for them to land. From there, the bay-doors opened up revealing the light of the hanger around them.
Boxes and metal crates were everywhere, telling of this area. The clone engineers in their yellow and orange leather suits stopped in awe looking at the Spartans.
They all disembarked, and were quickly met with Sarah the engineer, and General Windu, who both had concerned faces jogging over to them, "General Kenobi!"
Now he too with a concerned look, moved close to the general, "Master Windu?" He said, "What is the problem?"
Gesturing to Sarah, she looks even more concerned than the General. As such, she was looking down to some strange metal glowing clipboard, "We received a strange message on the wide-broadcast about half an hour ago, best you come to the hangar and hear it for yourself." she then turned to Noble Five, "They are looking for Jorge."
Obi-Wan quickly turned to the four Spartans, then back to her, "Right then, lead the way."
Jorge's heart began to pound a little. They found them? Took them a bit and he was honestly expecting just to be him and Red Team. But now, was he going home? Was it finally here?
Without further question or word, the four Spartans followed in behind the Generals, and the woman. Sort of speed-walking, it was interesting seeing from behind they super-soldiers actually needed to slow their pace to not outpace the others. They passed down three corridors, their loud metal stomps telling all clones of who was near.
Every clone in their stainless white armors backed up and got out of the way of the group as they passed down the hall.
Of course it did not take long for them to reach the bridge. The metal door opened diagonally, to reveal the scene. It was the same bridge as before, but every single station was hard at work. Men conversing and moving at fast paces… something is up.
A blue holo-table in the center of the bridge, with a clone officer in his dark green uniform. Next to him was Commander Cody in his orange faded armor.
There was a strange projection on the holotable, and as the seven approached it, they were drawn in.
They all encircled the holo-table, it being about fifteen feet in diameter. As they did, Jorge took off his helmet, for the first time in almost sixteen hours. As normal, a puff of air was heard, and his old and faded face was that for everyone around to see. The others including some bridge officers took quick glances to see what he looked like, but it was not too much of a fuss. The dim light of the holo-table reflected bluely onto Jorge's face, making the details of his scarred face a bit hidden.
And with this, Douglas saw something in the Hungarian's eyes, something he hadn't simply seen before, or at least in a very long time… a smile.
Not a fake smile that one would show to a crowd or group of people, but a genuine and happy smile.
Jerome then too took off his helmet, the puff of air followed by the scarred young face. He was quite the opposite, cold and up-straight, with a mindset that he was on some sort of a mission. The face of a leader.
Following suit, Douglas and Alice did the same, taking off their masks. Douglas face by the looks clearly did not match his deep raspy voice, along with his face having no indication of scarring.
Alice though, her face was young, and did not place well with the others. She seemed contemptuous, and not as old as everyone else, especially compared to Jorge. Even though Red Team was around the same age, they clearly aged differently.
As such, Red Teams red markings and designs on their chests and shoulders were almost muffled by the light of the dim blue. It may have not been much, but it was there.
Seeing now that Mace Windu had everyone's attention, he turned to Jorge, "General Kenobi tells me that you are searching for your government?"
Nodding, seeing the preplexion and movements of his natural face, felt nice for a change. Considering that is all what the Jedi General's see, it was nice.
"Yes sir," responded Jorge with a quick nod.
Windu took a pause, "Well I think we found them."
He then pressed a few buttons on the control panel in front of him, causing a few beeping noises.
But then… an audio recording came with voice and static. It was only a handful of words, but just enough to have the Spartans souls leap for joy.
"This is Rear Admiral Rathfield of the UNSC Battle Group Lexington… Noble Five, if you are reading, please respond."
Anyway, secondly. I RESEARCHED CNI. So before anyone yells out and says I am not lore accurate, let me explain...
CNI or Command Neural Interface is the metal chip you see behind officers heads, along with Spartans. It is the chip that Master Chief dug out of the proto-gravemind in the mission Keyes in halo 1. As such, it contains information based upon the certain user. Weapon, schematics, NAV data codes, etc. It's main function is literally just to store data. Added, there is not that much lore, so for me to play around with this, I think is a little fun.
With this, I see no reason why they could not have a GPS system of some sort built into the system. From a military prespective, if not a GPS, then the information could be gathered from a super advanced AI (like Matthew for an example). But, this does bring up one huge question that I will answer now, rather than later.
What about the Spirit of Fire? If CNI are meant for officers and Spartans, then why couldn't the UNSC just find Red Team using this Fanfiction's logic?
Well first off, if you watch in cutscenes, Captain Cutter does not actually have a CNI. granted his ship has a smart AI, so him not having one (if they existed at this time period) would make no sense. With too Spartans, I see commanders and lead officers getting CNI long before Spartans ever do.
Anyway, that's the only big one I can think of right now, but if you have anymore, I will actually edit this A/N, and put your question with an answer in personally.
Not that I am trying to always be right, but I would like this story on both sides to be as lore accurate as possible.
Here we go then, after almost a month, the LEGENDARY, THE ALMIGHTY FIRST COMMENT SHOUT OUT GOES OUT TO... Drum roll... Jctherebel !
Holy crap man, it hasn't even been an hour yet at the time, and you commented? Awesome bro, cheers! This is so cool!
eclipse metastar - well bro, I can't really say something too much about it because shhh, spoilers. But thanks for noticing, I wanted to make it even between the two, not really wanting it to be too unfair to either side. You get what I mean right?
TwinkieMain - Arashi Uzukaze - pretty good point you guys both brought up, but honestly like I said, I still think it comes down to the morality of the situation before. Reach was such a big event in the halo universe, that I don't see Isabel telling them, just because of the emotional conflict it could cause. To prove my point more, throughout Halo Wars 2, you notice despite yes Isabel knowing all what happened throughout the way, the only thing she really says, is that the Master Chief stopped the Covenant.
Honestly, it comes just down to the opinion of the situation. Logically, I don't see a time in place were Isabel could sit the Spartans down and just tell them, "hey, reach is gone." you know?
but for the time thing, I could see that, maybe Jorge jumped in time? Who Knows?
someguy420 - Yea man, I fixed it, sorry for the mistake :)
zanzara - mhm, I am pretty proud of that scene, probably one of my favorites yet. hah thanks.
rvbwby - oh man, hah longest comment I have had yet, thanks for the feed back I really do appreciate it and I took some time with yours.
You cannot really use historical events to help your stand point of saying "numbers don't matter". Battle of Thermopylae is a good example of this. You can't say numbers matter when the weaponry was different. They were using spears, swords, shields right? While here they are using blasters, Archer Missiles, augmented SII and robots. Very, very different.
Added, yes, numbers sometimes are not always the answer. But, the Spirit of fire as said in chapter IV, was torn in two in the atmosphere. Alice literally said most the crew died on impact. Like I said in the previous A/N, added that the Spirit was already half-staffed, most the crew died on impact. a ship tearing in two would do major damage to well, everything, regardless of what or who's ship it is.
and even then, the fact that maybe 300 men and 3 Spartans held off a droid invasion, was honestly, amazing. I would LOVE to have seen that in IMAX lol.
.9279 - yea, considering how brutal elites are, I think it was fitting for them to do the same to the clones.
Anyway, all your comments mean a lot to me, and are really good ways of testing my story to see if it is in fact lore accurate. I hope I answered those questions in the best way I could. Hey if you have any more questions, please comment, and I will answer it in the best way I can.
I love where this is going, and like I said, chapter 8 will come out shortly.
As always, stay safe, stay healthy,
~NoXXiMillioN