1046 Hours, November 11th, 2552 (Military Calendar)/ New York City, United Republic of North America/ Earth/ Sol System
Tucker Jacobs sat in his cubicle, surfing the internet. He scrolled down news stories on the site he was visiting, reading over each headline. One of the fleets had destroyed a Covenant shipyards a few days ago, and the female Admiral was being hailed as a hero. Overshadowing this, the Elites had completely annihilated the Brutes' homeworld by glassing; something Tucker and the rest of humanity were taught to fear. But now, all of a sudden, the military decided that the Elites were on the good side, and now humanity was friends with the Split-Lip bastards. Tucker and his girlfriend had taken part in multiple protests against the alliance, which grew to number in the low millions. The streets had been shut down, and regular military forces had been deployed to keep the peace. Unfortunately, the protests turned into riots, which had consumed many of the poorer neighborhoods. Surely the military knew this would happen if this alliance were to happen.
He glanced over at an advertisement running alongside the side of the page showing a marine in full battle armor pointing at the viewer, with the words 'Your People Need YOU!' running below the marine. Tucker rolled his eyes, and closed the annoying ad that appeared on every single website. Suddenly, Tucker's boss appeared at the edge of his cubicle, holding a cup of coffee. "Jacobs, got that report I asked for?"
Tucker rubbed his eyes and minimized the page, bringing up a document he had been working on, "Uhh yeah, just wrapping it up. I can get it to you by lun-"
The boss rose an eyebrow, and crinkled his nose. "Before eleven."
"Sir, that's," Tucker began, looking at his watch, "In about ten minutes."
"If I could have it in my inbox by then, that would be great," the boss said, leaving.
As the boss left, Tucker whispered, "Asshole." He then typed a few things on the document, wrapping it up. He then sent it to his boss at 10:52, which would hopefully appease his boss. He then opened up a webpage for a band that he and his girlfriend wanted to see, looking at ticket prices. Turns out this specific band was playing a show the next week, with few tickets left. Tucker smiled, and gladly paid for the tickets. Being in the upper echelon of this company was nice, as extra money always helped, especially when you're a twenty four year old male living with his girlfriend.
Tucker kicked his feet up and leaned back, putting his hands behind his head, closing his eyes. Just then, the building shook, and the lights cut out. His coworkers called out in frustration, and Tucker laughed. Then, the building shook again. Tucker got up from his chair, and walked over to the nearest window, opening a blind. He saw thousands of people running down the streets, screaming. He looked up, and saw the silhouettes of small Covenant ships in atmosphere.
"Holy shit!" he yelled, running back from the window.
"What?! What?!"
"The fucking Covenant! They're back!" he cried, running to his coworkers.
...
11:00 AM, November 11th, 2552
All across the planet, Covenant ships jumped into atmosphere, and just waited. The Home Fleet had detected Covenant near Jupiter, and deployed over half of the fleet there, as the force looked massive. Four hundred ships under the command of Fleet Admiral Hood remained near Earth. All systems fleetwide shut down, and the fleet flew blind. Sixteen cruisers and their escorts flew on basic radar as they were surrounded by Covenant ships.
"This is the cruiser Ulysses, we've got bogeys inbound!"
"Roger that Ulysses, we are unable to track the hostiles due to a system error," Lord Hood replied.
"Red Squadron, prepare to engage!"
Just then, a Covenant virus uploaded to the fleet from the planet Nohiri by the humans own troops infiltrated all ships in orbit of Earth, and then the network crashed. Longsword fighters' had their complex systems begin to malfunction, and then their engines switched off. Then came the warships, who were preparing to engage the massive Covenant fleet. All defending UNSC ships suddenly stopped, and started free-floating in space. The fighters and ships of the fleet drifted helplessly in space as the Covenant bypassed them. The Covenant ships then launched hundreds of missiles towards the surface of the planet. Nuclear detonations went off across the planet, incinerating two billion in an instant. The Covenant armada then turned on the orbital guns blanketing Earth, who were also helpless. One by one, the mighty guns erupted in balls of flame, and then dissipated. Just then, the Longswords' engines kicked to life, followed by the frigates in the Home Fleet. The Covenant fleet now attacked, unleashing nuclear weapons on the defenseless fleet. Cruisers absorbed four to five warheads as their engines flared to life before they imploded.
"Son of a bitch! All ships, execute emergency jump! Alert all ships in the fleet, wipe the networks!" Lord Hood yelled.
"Slipspace drives are down!" came the cry from all commanders.
Fleet Admiral Terrance Hood's ship, the heavy cruiser UNSC Temple Mount, exploded after ten direct hits from nuclear missiles, taking all hands with her. The four hundred vessels at Earth were all destroyed, and Fleet Admiral Steven Harper, after realizing what was happening, rushed back to Earth will all ships. By then, the Covenant fleet was disappearing into Slipspace, leaving behind a burning planet.
Harper fell to his knees when his beloved home planet came into view. He grabbed the brass railing ahead of him tightly, and placed his head against it, throwing his cap to the deck. The officers on the bridge were silent, in complete shock. Admiral Harper's face went red, as he tried to contain tears. He looked up, and saw Earth on fire. The puffy white clouds were replaced by radioactive mushroom clouds, and explosions were still going off every few seconds. Every single ship left at Earth was now charred metal, rich in radiation.
"Sir, I'm ordering the fleet to deploy S&R birds," an officer on the Knossos said to the Fleet Admiral.
"What is there to rescue? Look at it," Admiral Harper yelled, holding his hand out at the planet.
"Admiral, we have contact... it's the Hive! Looks like someone made it out," the communications officer said.
One hundred Covenant ships jumped into Earth's orbit, led by a supercarrier. The Elites had arrived a bit too late.
"Sir, the Elite leader is on the horn."
Admiral Harper got up, and sat back down in his chair, taking up the handset.
"This... this is Admiral Harper," the Fleet Admiral said shakily.
"We received distress calls from your homeworld, I came as soon as I... by the Gods," the Imperial Admiral began, before getting a look at the planet. "I... you were the only human forces we detected when we slipped in. Did anyone else make it?"
One of the officers made eye contact with Admiral Harper, and shook her head.
"Negative. Everyone's dead. We're sending out rescue birds. If you could...," Harper began.
"We are immediately deploying soldiers to assist in the search for survivors. We will assist in anyway possible," the Imperial Admiral interrupted, his tone generous.
Hundreds of Pelican and Phantom dropships left their home vessels and dropped into the atmosphere of the destroyed human homeworld. Sangheili soldiers, armed to the teeth with state of the art medical equipment and wearing protective armor, held on as the Phantoms began dipping into destroyed human cities. UNSC marines sat in the Pelican transports, none speaking. The dropships unloaded the troops, who quickly went to work scouring the wreckage for survivors. Pelicans used their spotlights to shine on the rubble, illuminating the darkening skies. The Elites located Tucker and most of his coworkers in a bunker under their office building, quickly providing them with anti-radiation medication and sending them up to space. HIGHCOM Facility Bravo-6, the formal headquarters for the UNSC, was untouched, and all personnel, including the Security Council (excluding Admiral Hood), had been evacuated underground.
Word quickly spread across the colonies. Every single human being had the same emotions: sadness, shock, and anger. Billions were dead. The heart of humanity had been ripped out, stabbed repeatedly, and then been clumsily shoved back in. Sure, it was still there, but it would never be able to sustain much life ever again.
November 15th, 2552/ UNSC September Rain
Fleet Admiral Steven Harper, now the third highest ranking official in the fleet, rose from his seat, and slowly walked up to the front of the large chamber aboard the space station, looking at the rows of coffins with UNSC flags draped over them. A priest stood at a podium in the middle of a walkway between the coffins, waiting for the Admiral to begin. The Admiral looked at the lines of caskets, and then he looked at the one with Fleet Admiral Hood's name on it.
He turned back at the large funeral procession, consisting of mostly humans, but also a few Elites scattered here and there.
"Are they the lucky ones? That's what you're thinking, isn't it? We're a long way from home. We've been forced off of our home world, away from the planet that started it all for us. Now much of what we knew... is gone. Maybe it would have been better for some of us to have died quickly, back on Earth with our families, instead of dying out here slowly, in the emptiness of space. Sure, we may have many worlds left, but our heat... our soul, has been ripped away from us. Should we just give up? Embrace the death that awaits us all?"
He looked out over the crowd; many were staring at the ground, and others were weeping in their hands quietly.
"Or, do we fight?! Do we keep on doing what we have been doing for millennia? With the help of our allies, the Elites, many of us wouldn't be here today! Many of us may have a grudge against them for the war between our peoples that has taken the lives of billions. But they are in the same boat as us now! We have largely destroyed the homeworld of the Brutes', but I don't think even they realize the significance of that! Now, we are an exiled people, kicked off of our planet! While we have the colonies, they say there's no place like home. From this point on, there will be no defeat! We shall press, and press, and press until the Covenant have nothing to press back with! It won't be an easy campaign. It'll be long, and arduous. But I promise you one thing: on the memory of those lying here before you, we shall find victory, and Earth shall become our home once more!"
He looked back at the caskets, and then back at the crowd.
"So say we all!" he yelled.
Nobody replied.
"So say we all!" he shouted louder, stepping closer to the crowd.
"So say we all," a few said, rising from their seats.
"So say we all!" Admiral Harper roared, walking to the crowd.
The Elites were all standing up, and the Imperial Admiral bellowed, "So say we all!"
"So say we all!" Steven Harper yelled one last time.
By then, everyone was up on their feet, screaming back, "So say we all!"
