Chapter 4 – Waking Spartan
1323 hours, October 20, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Aboard UNSC orbital defense platform Cairo Station, Geosynchronous Earth Orbit
As the coordinating platform and flagship headquarters for the entirety of the Earth Defense Coordination Zone, Cairo Station's security was of paramount importance to the UNSC. As such, it was stationed within the heart of the vast network of Moncton-class orbital weapons platforms that defended humanity's homeworld and final bastion of civilization. Consistent with its name, Cairo Station, along with the nearby Athens and Malta stations, were situated in geosynchronous orbit over the Mediterranean.
In addition to the three hundred "super" MAC platforms, hundreds of UNSC warships of various classes drawn from an assortment of fleets - now assembled within a singular Home Fleet - patrolled Earth's orbit. Following the loss of Reach, UNSC High Command had marshalled the entirety of their remaining naval forces in order to defend humanity's homeworld. The presence of such an extensive array of defenses ensured that Earth was virtually unassailable from any form of outside attack.
Even now, ships continued to arrive, abandoning far-flung deployments to rally in defense of humanity's most important planet. With the knowledge that the unstoppable Covenant Empire had its sights set on Earth, all of humanity now stood ready to defend their home planet.
The Cairo Station itself was also home to a contingent of some of the most well-trained members of the UNSC Marine Corps. Equipped with the latest weaponry, armor and equipment, these men and women stood ready to defend the station should any boarders somehow make their way past the station's formidable defenses.
And at that present moment, the Cairo's armory was occupied by the individual many in the UNSC considered humanity's greatest warrior and single best hope for survival. This person, a member of the venerated Spartan-II program, was one of humanity's most well-respected heroes, responsible for countless Covenant casualties during the nearly-thirty year long Human-Covenant War.
Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 stood impassively as Master Gunnery Sergeant Noah Henderson examined a small datapad that displayed the schematics of the suit of armor that had served him faithfully through what had been the most harrowing several months of his entire military career.
The MJOLNIR Mark V powered armor he had first equipped immediately prior to the fall of Reach had been the most advanced piece of military hardware ever developed by humanity, with each suit costing as much as a UNSC destroyer.
The culmination of years of research and development by the Office of Naval Intelligence's Materials Group focused on improving upon the Mark IV, the Mark V had been the first set of Mjolnir armor to incorporate energy shielding. Reverse-engineered from captured Jackal point defense gauntlets, this massive improvement had been crucial to John's survival throughout the following battles.
John had just finished equipping the next iteration of the Mjolnir line, a task that had required a full team of technicians to assist him with. The new Mark VI possessed a whole slew of improvements over the previous version – the suit was an across-the-board improvement to the Mark V. Virtually every component had been improved upon in some way. Several of these changes were more significant, however.
One of these was an upgrade to the suit's reactive liquid crystal layer that granted the Spartan an increase of five times their unarmored strength as opposed to the Mark V's two times strength multiplication.
John hoped that this would give him an edge when he next found himself in close quarters combat with the stronger Covenant species. He had never felt as outmatched in terms of physical strength as he had when he had been manhandled by a Brute on the Unyielding Hierophant.
The other significant improvement was a more efficient energy shielding technology, which he was due to test within the armory. He needed to ensure that his new suit was fully operational after its field testing by Maria-062 earlier that morning.
As the technicians wheeled a card laden with the pieces of his old Mark V onto the service elevator, Henderson's eyes widened as he scrolled through the report on his pad. "The plating was about to fail. There's viscosity throughout the gel-layer," he stated.
John thought back to the battering his suit had taken since he had first equipped it on Reach. He had taken several heavy hits during his time on Halo. During his mission to the ring's Cartographer facility, he had taken a round from a Hunter's assault cannon to the chest before his suit's energy shield had been able to fully recharge from a previous battle.
He knew that that shot would have vaporized his old Mark IV suit. Another of the massive aliens had breached his armor with its razor-sharp arm-mounted pavise shield during that same mission.
Later engagements with Covenant and Flood forces on the ring had further punished his Mark V, pushing it far beyond what he expected any of the suit's developers believed was possible.
During his capture of the Covenant flagship following the destruction of Halo, plasma fire had compromised his shielding system, leaving them unable to recharge until a Covenant Engineer had fixed them. His suit had also been breached by an energy sword during a hand-to-hand battle with an Elite on the bridge of that ship.
And of course, his bout with the Brute on the Covenant space station had inflicted even more damage on the battered armor plates.
Upon reflection, John was surprised his suit had held out for as long as it had.
Henderson turned to a small table next to him, on which sat John's new Mark VI helmet, along with several components from his old armor that were in such bad condition that they would need to be scrapped. He scooped up one of the pieces, the internal components of his helmet's optical suite. "Optics? Totally fried." He dropped the ruined equipment back onto the table before lifting an elongated battery-like device: the power supply control unit that once went into his suit's miniature fusion reactor. "And let's not even talk about the power supply."
John surmised that this had been damaged not only by the extensive damage he had received during his battles over the preceding months, but also by his use of his suit's energy shields to forcibly disable Halo's phase pulse generators during his race to stop the installation's caretaker, 343 Guilty Spark, from activating the ring.
With Cortana's assurance, he had walked directly into the beams of light of three of these generators. At the time he had been anxious of permanent damage to his suit that could result from doing so but his AI companion had insisted that there would be no lasting damage.
Even more likely to damage John's armor's power supply had been Cortana's manipulation of Halo's teleportation grid to transport him from the final pulse generator into the interior of the Covenant cruiser Truth and Reconciliation during his mission to recover Captain Keyes' neural implants, needed to destroy the Pillar of Autumn and thus, Halo. Cortana had acknowledged that the jump would require a massive amount of energy. Lacking access to the ring's power systems, she had surmised that they should be able to use his Mjolnir's energy to perform the jump without it permanently damaging the armor.
While the jump had been successful, John was sure that it was a contributing factor to his Mark V's now thoroughly burned-out power supply.
Henderson looked up at the towering human in front of him. John's skin was abnormally white, a side effect of having spent most of his life within his armor. He had pale blue, serious eyes which were lined with crow's feet hinting at his older age. Beneath his left eye ran a scar that terminated near his mouth. He had a strong jaw, upon which the first signs of stubble was just starting to show. The Spartan had recently shorn his red-brown hair.
"Do you know how expensive this gear is, son?" Henderson questioned, shaking the unit for emphasis before dropping it back on the table next to the optical sensors.
John reached down and picked up the helmet on the table; the final piece of armor he had yet to don. Henderson could not help but loose a small smile as he watched the Spartan place the helmet over his head, a faint hiss-click audible as the helmet perfectly connected with his suit's neck seal. John turned to face Henderson; his face invisible behind the helmet's golden visor.
"Tell that to the Covenant," remarked the Master Chief.
As his helmet clicked into place, the Mjolnir's firmware came to life, and lines of code flickered to life on the inside of John's visor. His eyes tracked the data, his enhanced mind granting him the ability to read the information in its entirety as it flashed in and out of existence. The suit's Basic Input/Output System quickly ran its processes, and an assortment of displays manifested across the interior of the visor.
Much like his previous Mark V armor, the heads-up display contained readouts that were necessary to the application of the suit in a combat situation. In the bottom left corner, a small circle appeared; his suit's motion detecting system. At the very center of the circle, a yellow blip identified John himself and to his immediate front-right, another yellow blip appeared as the Master Gunnery Sergeant moved slightly.
At the top of the display, a long blue bar indicated that the Spartan's energy shielding was fully charged.
"Well, I guess it was all obsolete, anyway." Henderson said, glancing at the ruined Mark V components on the nearby table. "Your new suit's a Mark Six, just came up from Seongnam this morning. Try and take it easy until you get used to the upgrades."
The Spartan didn't reply; instead, he turned his attention to the metallic toroid structure next to Henderson. Four small inward protrusions were present at the upper, lower, leftmost, and rightmost points of the frame. John had seen many similar devices of varying configurations during his time as a member of the UNSC.
"Okay, lets test your targeting, first thing." Henderson said, turning to the nearby metal frame. John noted the small blue cross in the very middle of his heads-up display and knew that was where a weapon's targeting reticle would be projected once he came into possession of one. The Mjolnir targeting suite was compatible with any UNSC weapon and was even capable of interfacing with Covenant weaponry.
The Master Gunnery Sergeant pressed a button on the connected console, and a red light came into existence on the structure's upper protrusion. "Please look at the top light," he instructed. John obliged, and as he looked up at the light and the small cross touched it, the light disappeared. Henderson nodded.
"Good. Now look at the bottom light." John looked down at the light that had appeared on the bottom of the frame and similarly to before, it vanished. After a brief test involving all of the targeting frame's lights to ensure that the suit's targeting suite was fully functional, Henderson nodded in satisfaction. "Alright, everything checks out. Standby, I'm going to offline the inhibitors."
John paused for a moment, waiting until the metal hoop that had served to anchor his Mjolnir armor while it was being fitted was lifted, granting him the ability to move. The Spartan stepped off the red square in front of the calibration station.
"Move around a little, get a feel for it," Henderson said as he turned to make his way across the room. "When you're ready, come meet me by the zapper."
John took several steps forward, ensuring that the new suit of Mjolnir was fully functional. As with his previous Mark V set, his armor reacted instantly to his every thought, a feat made capable by the unique neural interface. Thanks to the reactive circuits within the suit, his reaction time was extraordinary. His new armor fit him as comfortably as if he had worn it all his life.
Satisfied that his armor was in full working order, John crossed the room to where Henderson waited. The Master Gunnery Sergeant stood next to a red square on the ground, above which a metal beam shaped like an inverted "U" was connected to the armory's ceiling. The tips of the metal beams ended several feet above the ground.
The energy shield test station, or "zapper" as it was nicknamed, was the method by which Mjolnir energy shielding was tested to ensure that it functioned properly. John had utilized an identical piece of machinery on the Pillar of Autumn, shortly after the vessel had arrived at Halo.
The Spartan stepped onto the red square, taking his place between the metal rods comprising the test station. In front of him was a small console with a screen that displayed a red human palm on a similarly colored background.
Henderson turned his attention to a control panel in front of the zapper. "Your new armor shields are extremely resilient, very efficient. Much better than the Covenant tech we used for the Mark Five."
John nodded but didn't say anything. He knew that he would get the opportunity to test this in combat very soon. The Covenant were on their way to Earth. Although he and his team had dealt them a heavy blow with the destruction of the space station Unyielding Hierophant and its five hundred-strong fleet, John knew that this was only a temporary setback for them; the aliens never stopped once they decided they were going to attack a human world.
He had ordered his surviving team members from the mission to destroy the Covenant armada to report to HIGHCOM Facility Bravo-6 in Sydney, Australia, to inform the Security Council of the operation's success… and to warn them that Earth had been discovered.
In truth, the Spartan was still inwardly shaken by the fact that the Covenant knew Earth's location in the first place. Throughout decades of war, humanity had done all in its power to hide their home planet from the Covenant. Even as countless world were burned to char by the unrelenting alien onslaught, the location of Earth had been protected by the highest levels of secrecy possible, thanks largely to the Cole Protocol. And yet now, the enemy were coming for the planet, scarcely seven weeks after the fall of Reach – the UNSC's military stronghold and the metaphorical final stop before Earth.
John banished these thoughts from his mind. He had to focus on winning the war one battle at a time. When the Covenant did come for Earth, he was ready to fight.
The Spartan placed his armored gauntlet flat on the hand icon. Instantly, the screen flashed green, and the metal frame flanking John began to spin rapidly. Golden energy flowed around him as the machine built up a powerful energy current. After a few moments, the energy discharged into his suit, draining the bar at the top of John's heads-up display.
The Spartan observed that the pulse used to knock out the shield was far stronger than the one that he had been subject to in the Pillar of Autumn's cryo bay. In addition, the shield began its recharge cycle almost instantaneously and recharged to full strength significantly faster than his old Mark V. This across-the-board upgrade would be useful when he re-engaged the Covenant.
As the zapper came to a stop, the heavy blast doors behind Henderson slid apart, and a dark-skinned man in a set of spotless dress whites entered the armory. The newly promoted Sergeant Major Avery Johnson managed a small grin as he observed John in his new armor.
"You done with my boy here, Master Guns?" Johnson asked with a hint of amusement in his voice. "I don't see any training wheels…"
"His armor's working fine, Johnson, so shut your chili-hole," Henderson barked. He turned back to the Spartan. "You're free to go, son. Just remember, take things slow."
"Don't worry, I'll hold his hand." Johnson quipped.
John stepped away from the shield test station and made his way into the elevator with Johnson. The Spartan knew that the Sergeant Major and himself were due to attend an awards ceremony on the Cairo's command deck. John would have preferred to sit the event out; he disliked the public affairs that he often had to attend.
None of the Spartans cared for the attention that such functions heaped upon them. But he was aware of the morale-boosting effects such ceremonies produced. And with the loss of Reach, humanity needed this boost more than ever. Johnson had told him beforehand that no cameras would be present, which as a small relief.
"So, Johnson," Henderson said as the Sergeant Major and Spartan boarded the elevator. "When are you gonna tell me how you made it back home in one piece?"
"Sorry Guns, it's classified," Johnson replied as the elevator's heavy metal shutter slammed down and the armory's blast doors began to close.
"Huh! My ass!" Henderson snapped. "Well, you can forget about those adjustments to your A2 scope! And your…" The rest of the man's sentence was cut off as elevator ascended and the armory's blast door sealed closed. Johnson chuckled quietly.
"Well, he's in a particularly fine mood," the Sergeant Major said with a layer of amusement in his voice. "Maybe Lord Hood didn't give him an invitation."
The elevator brought the two to an elevated walkway, next to which was a section of the Cairo's station-wide tram system. A tram car sat waiting for them. Johnson and the Spartan crossed the walkway and entered the tram.
John's attention was immediately drawn to the dark curving arc of the planet that was visible from the large windows of Commons Blue below the tram. He had only ever set foot on the planet once before – he and Blue Team had undertaken a mission to disrupt Insurrectionist activity in the western Pacific Ocean over twenty years prior… back when humanity had a vast network of interstellar colonies, and the Covenant threat was still in its infancy.
Earth now stood as the final stronghold of humanity. Aside from a small number of smaller Inner Colony worlds, Earth was one of the few human planets that was thus far unmolested by the Covenant. After the loss of Reach, all the UNSC's remaining military forces was marshalled at Earth. If the planet fell to the Covenant, humanity would likely be mere weeks away from complete extinction.
As John gazed at the blues and greens that stretched across the surface of the world, he knew that the UNSC would fight tooth and nail to defend their cradle planet. Whatever the size of force the Covenant brought, it would take a beating.
"Earth," Johnson remarked from beside John. "Haven't seen it in years."
As the tram car slowly slid away from the station and through a short tunnel that partitioned the various sections of the Cairo off from one another, Johnson turned around to look out of the opposite window of the tram, where a large viewport offered an unobstructed view of the gargantuan magnetic accelerator cannon that comprised the bulk of the station.
John craned his neck, taking in the sight of the enormous coilgun which stretched just shy of a kilometer into space in its entirety. The massive cannon was lined with hundreds of asynchronous linear induction motors - like rifling within a gun barrel but on a gigantic scale. These accelerated the weapon's ammunition, a three-thousand ton ferric-tungsten slug, to a speed of four percent of the speed of light.
While the platforms that had defended Reach had relied on ground-based generators to provide power, Cairo Station and the other ODPs surrounding Earth drew power from on-board reactors that were housed within the lower stalk of their superstructures. John recalled how quickly Reach had fallen once the Covenant had neutralized the generator complexes, leaving the orbiting platforms helpless, and was gratified that such a vulnerability didn't exist here at Earth.
"When I shipped out for basic, the Orbital Defense Grid was all theory and politics," Johnson said. "Now look! The Cairo is just one of three hundred geo-sync platforms. That MAC gun can put a round clean through a Covenant capital ship." John detected the combination of glee and awe in the Sergeant Major's voice, no doubt trying to comprehend the sheer power that the cannon possessed.
The three hundred orbital platforms were stationed at various points around the globe in clusters of three, providing overlapping fields of fire to cover the entire planet and ensuring that no Covenant vessels would be able to slip through and assault the surface. In addition to the significant naval presence in nearby orbit, the defense grid would serve as an effective deterrent for any would-be attackers.
As the tram car emerged from another tunnel, both Spartan and Marine gazed out again at the gentle curvature of Earth that was visible from the station, and at the two nearby defense platforms that drifted in space nearby.
"With coordinated fire from the Athens and the Malta," Johnson continued, pointing to each platform as he spoke, "Nothing's getting past this battle cluster in one piece."
John glanced at the man next to him. He sincerely hoped the Sergeant Major was accurate in his assessment. John knew that if they hadn't stopped the Covenant armada at Tau Ceti, the sheer number of enemy ships would have easily overwhelmed Earth's defenses. Even the sheer number of orbital defense platforms would have been unable to stop a force as great as the one that had been mustering to assault Earth only a month ago.
If the Covenant assembled another force on that magnitude, Earth would fall.
As the tram passed through Commons Red, John spotted several Marines below, donned in full body armor and equipped with M7 submachine guns. While they appeared outwardly calm, John's practiced eye noted that the Marines were on edge. The knowledge that the Covenant were coming to Earth was widely known, and this fact was enough to have the entire battle group on high alert.
At that moment, a shadow cut across the Commons. Outside the large window, a pair of frigates passed by Cairo Station. John noted that they were part of the UNSC's Seventh Fleet, one of many expeditionary fleets that had been recalled to Earth from far-flung deployments.
"Ships have been arriving all morning," Johnson remarked. "Nobody's saying much, but I think something big's about to happen."
John nodded. It had been over a month since the destruction of the Unyielding Hierophant and its fleet, and he sensed that the reprisal for that action was likely to occur at any time in the coming days.
Once the Covenant has rebuilt their invasion fleet, he thought.
The tram car passed through a final bulkhead before easing to a stop at their destination. John noticed that the area outside the Cairo's bridge was crowded by a huge number of Marines, most of whom wore clad in armor and fatigues. As the tram doors opened, John's ears were met by the sound of cheering, clapping and whistling of dozens of men and women.
As the two stepped off the tram and John looked at the beaming faces around him, his motion tracker picked up a several small, moving contacts. He noticed several small hovering drones, each a recording device held aloft by two air propellers on their flanks. The small machines hovered near the gathered Marines; one following the Spartan and Johnson as they made their way through the crowd towards the blast door that served as the entrance to the bridge.
John looked sideways at Johnson, frowning inside his helmet. "You told me there wouldn't be any cameras,"
"And you told me you were gonna wear something nice," Johnson retorted with an amused smile. "Folks need heroes, Chief. To give 'em hope."
As the pair came up to bridge doors, a pair of Marines in dress whites snapped to attention. Johnson removed his white peaked cap from his head, ran a hand across his close-cropped black hair, and placed it back on his head. "So, smile, would ya?" The Marine said to John, "While we still got something to smile about."
John had nothing to say to that, but he agreed that his presence at the award ceremony would be incredibly beneficial for humanity's tattered morale. This had been the primary motivator behind Office of Naval Intelligence Section Two's decision to go public with the Spartan II program in 2547. People knew there were still heroes – men and women like John who were willing to face down an otherwise unstoppable enemy to prevent the extinction of their entire species.
The heavy blast doors opened and the Marines in dress whites dropped their salutes and turned smartly, facing inwards at attention. Beyond the now-open door, a large crowd of Naval officers stood, celebrating the arrival of the surviving heroes of the battle at Halo with the same gusto as the Marines outside the bridge.
John and Sergeant Major Johnson marched through the door and onto Cairo Station's massive bridge. Gigantic windows set in the ceiling offered an unobstructed view of space. The lower level was filled with various workstations and displays from which the bridge crew carried out their duties.
Due to the Cairo's status as the command-and-control center for the entire defense of Earth, the bridge had been specifically constructed to be larger those of other Moncton-class platforms. As such, it required a significantly larger number of crew to operate effectively.
The upper walkways of the bridge were filled with Naval officers and crewmen who whooped and cheered as the two arrivals made their way to the head of the bridge, where a vast tactical display was situated. At present, the screen was clear aside from the UNSC's logo: an eagle perched atop a globe and a banner with the words "UNSC" upon it. Next to the bridge stood a line of officers in their dress whites.
One stood slightly forward of the others. An older man who carried the unmistakable air of command, Fleet Admiral Lord Terrence Hood was impeccably dressed and groomed. The left side of his dress jacket had a collection of medals upon it, beneath with was a rainbow array of ribbon bars while several golden aiguillettes decorated his right shoulder.
John and the Sergeant Major stopped in front of the Admiral and saluted.
Admiral Hood returned the salute, "Gentlemen, we're lucky to have you back." The man's unwaveringly confident voice did not betray any emotion. As he spoke, an officer approached Hood from behind and whispered something into the older man's ear. Hood frowned and turned to a nearby holo-projector.
"Go ahead, Cortana." Hood said.
Above the tank's flat upper surface, a blue glow emanated, and a small fount of holographic mist quickly resolved into the image of a young woman. Standing less than half a meter in height, her small holographic form was alive with data streaming up along her body.
"Another whisper, sir, near Io. We have probes en route." Cortana reported. Lord Hood returned his attention to the Master Chief and Johnson.
"I apologize, but we're going to have to make this quick." The Admiral said before turning around to one of his junior officers, who carried a small box. Inside, sitting on a red velvet cushion was a series of medals and another, smaller case. As he did this, Cortana glanced at John and Sergeant Major Johnson, her eyes quickly flashing over the Spartan's new suit of Mjolnir armor as well as the Marine's spotless dress uniform. The corners of her mouth quirked into a smile.
"You look nice," the AI commented.
"Thanks," both men replied simultaneously, before glancing at one another, unsure who Cortana had been addressing. By now Hood had turned back to the pair.
"Sergeant Major," Hood began, "The Colonial Cross is awarded for acts of singular daring and devotion." As the Admiral spoke, he reached into the opened box held by the officer next to him and retrieved a medal, the solid red ribbon and golden cross that signified the highest decoration a member of the UNSC could earn during wartime.
"For a soldier of the United Nations Space Command, your actions on Halo are deserving of the highest level of commendation I can bestow. We are truly fortunate to have Marines such as yourself who are willing to go above and beyond in the name of duty." Admiral Hood continued, pinning the medal onto Johnson's chest. The gathered officers applauded as the medal was placed beside Johnson's Purple Heart, which gleamed, polished to a high sheen by the Sergeant Major.
While he faced forward at attention, John's eyes flicked to the Sergeant Major as he received his commendation, and his briefly thought about the choice he had been forced to make during the events following the battle at Halo. Dr Halsey had given him two data crystals – one containing details on her analysis of the Flood and a possible counter to an infestation, and another containing the same files but in addition to medical data from Johnson and the possible link of the man's Boren's Syndrome to his surviving the Flood outbreak on Halo – and gave him the choice of which to deliver to ONI.
John had ultimately destroyed the second crystal. He couldn't condemn his friend to a certain death at the hands of ONI who he knew would experiment on him despite their chances of being able to replicate his extremely rare disease to be astronomically low. And John had learned the difference one single person could make to the war effort after witnessing Admiral Whitcomb's heroic self-sacrifice to draw in the Covenant fleet to the exploding Unyielding Hierophant, ensuring their near-complete destruction.
Sergeant Major Avery Johnson was vital to the war against the Covenant. John couldn't be responsible for his death.
As the cheering subsided, a woman in her late twenties with short brown hair and shoulder epaulets that displayed the three gold bars and star of a Naval Commander stepped forward from the line of officers near the bridge's tactical display. John recognized her as the daughter of Captain Jacob Keyes, and he twinged uncomfortably as his mind flashed back to the events on Halo.
The young officer came to a stop at the Master Chief's right side before about-facing and coming to attention as Hood approached.
"Commander Miranda Keyes." Hood began, his voice carrying a slightly sympathetic edge as he retrieved the tiny case from the box. "Your father's actions were in keeping with the highest traditions of military service. His bravery in the face of impossible odds reflects great credit, upon himself, and the UNSC. The Navy has lost one of its best."
Commander Keyes accepted the case. John could see the emotion in her eyes as she looked down at her father's Colonial Cross contained within. She straightened, swallowing a deep lump in her throat as she stood at attention. Captain Keyes had been a master naval tactician and had won numerous engagements with Covenant forces over the course of his career, often against insurmountable odds.
And in the end, he had suffered a horrific fate at the hands of the Flood. After his assimilation by the nightmarish parasite, John had been forced to euthanize the Captain on the bridge of the Truth and Reconciliation during the final hours of the Halo conflict.
Hood's words were a certainty: Captain Keyes was one of the Navy's greatest officers, and his loss was a devastating blow to the UNSC.
The sound of emergency klaxons suddenly blared through the bridge, and red lights suddenly began to flash throughout the room. Admiral Hood turned to the holotank, where Cortana had already appeared.
"Slipspace ruptures, directly off our battle cluster," the AI reported.
"Show me," Hood's voice was characteristically calm. All the other officers in the room scrambled to their stations, the awards ceremony now completely forgotten.
Cortana turned around to face the tactical display. "Fifteen Covenant capital ships, holding position just outside the kill zone," she said.
The display came to life, showing the positions of all the UNSC assets around Earth. On the left side of the screen, outside the effective range of the orbital MAC platforms, the images of Covenant vessels appeared. Cortana quickly identified thirteen of the enemy warships as CCS-class battlecruisers, and the remaining pair of ships were tagged as CAS-class assault carriers.
John felt his adrenaline spike. This was it; the enemy had arrived. Humanity's final stronghold and home planet was now under direct threat. He had known that this day was coming, sooner or later. He had done all he could to stop them at the Unyielding Hierophant, but even then, he had known that that had only delayed the inevitable. The aliens were here to finish what they had started nearly thirty years ago.
A man's voice came in over the Cairo Station's COM. "This is Fleet Admiral Harper. We are engaging the enemy." On-screen, a circular image highlighted a collection of UNSC vessels; the eight Marathon-class heavy cruisers and sixty-seven Stalwart-class light frigates of the Admiral's Fifth Fleet. The assembly of warships began towards the Covenant fleet in an attack vector.
"Negative, Admiral," Lord Hood said. "Form a defensive perimeter around the cluster."
John agreed with Admiral Hood's decision. The enormous Covenant assault carriers were incredibly dangerous vessels of war. They bristled with energy projectors, plasma torpedo silos and pulse laser batteries; enough firepower to wipe out an entire UNSC fleet single-handedly. With two of them present, along with thirteen supporting cruisers, the enemy warships would easily devastate Harper's forces especially without the support of the MAC platforms.
Admiral Hood turned to face Keyes, "Commander, get to your ship, link up with the fleet," he ordered.
"Yes, sir." Commander Keyes snapped off a salute before making her way off the bridge. Lord Hood turned around to the holo-pedestal, where Cortana's avatar stood.
"You have the MAC gun, Cortana," he said. "As soon as they come in range, open up."
"Gladly," Cortana responded.
Hood turned his attention back to the tactical display. "Somethings not right," he stated grimly. "The fleet that destroyed Reach was fifty times this size."
John had come to the same reluctant conclusion. He remembered the massive Covenant armada that had wiped out the UNSC forces above Reach before bombarding the planet with plasma. If the Covenant had come with the goal of conquering Earth, they had to have known that the planet would be incredibly well-defended. Fifteen warships could not hope to best the human forces, despite their technological advantage.
John figured that it had to be a ploy to draw out the UNSC fleets away from the MAC clusters in order to whittle down their numbers before more ships arrived to overwhelm the platforms. He had seen the Covenant use a similar tactic at Reach. It was that, or this was the first wave of a far larger assault…
The Spartan's thoughts were interrupted by a panicked shout from one of the Naval officers manning a nearby console, "Sir, additional contacts! Boarding crafts, and lots of 'em!"
Admiral Hood's gaze returned to the tactical screen. John watched as hundreds of tiny icons representing Covenant boarding crafts and their fighter escorts streamed from the two assault carriers at the head of the Covenant fleet and split into three groups, each bound for one of the orbital defense platforms in the Cairo Station's cluster. When Hood spoke, it confirmed in John's mind what it was the enemy was attempting.
"They're going to try and take our MAC guns offline, give their capital ships a straight shot at Earth." The Admiral glanced at the Spartan, "Master Chief, defend this station!"
"Yes, sir." John replied immediately, before turning to Johnson.
"I need a weapon," John stated, and the trace of a smile appeared on the Sergeant Major's face.
"Right this way."
As the two turned and made their way off the Cairo Station's bridge, a wedge of Longswords flew by the station, visible through the overhead bay windows. The small fighters were escorting an enormous Marathon-class cruiser as it formed up with its assigned battle group in preparation to face the Covenant fleet.
John didn't pay the overhead warships much attention. His focus would be on any would-be boarders that made their way onto the platform. With the promise of a weapon, and Covenant forces inbound, the Spartan was ready to get to work.
