Thanks for the awesome feedback guys and gals! I'm really happy you all mostly enjoyed the timeline and the ideas in it. I made this as soon as possible. Although I had some trouble lengthening everything to make it an appropriate size, whatever, I'm sure you're not even reading this, and why would you? Get your butt to the story you dingus!
Section I: Aggressive Expansion
Chapter 1
July 3, 2532 (UEG Calendar)
Reach, Epsilon Eridani System
Bighorn River Base
Private Steven Hernandez collapsed to the mud covered ground with a grunt. Training rounds barely grazing over his helmet. The turret fired a constant barrage of rubber rounds, carrying enough force to knock a regular human on his rear.
Gal 'Monrara lifted the the twenty nine year old marine to his feet, and back to his cover behind the prop of a damaged wraith.
"That was reckless Hernandez!" Sergeant Avery Johnson barked. "Stupid shit that like will get you killed in live combat!"
"Sorry Sarge, I just thought I could-" Steven tried to apologize while looking at his dirty SPI armor, rubbing mud off the shield generator pack on his backside.
"Can it marine! Wait for the order, got it?" Steven nodded in response, gulping his saliva as he wiped off the mud on his face.
Gal glared at the frustrated Sergeant, then looked back to the AI controlled turret in the bunker. Lius 'Kalami lifted his plasma rifle, gesturing the rest of the squad to move on them as the turret continued its barrage.
The war simulation started as a disaster, enemy marksmen and turrets managed to disable most of the platoon, all the grunts were downed after falling into an ambush, nearly a dozen grunts were now out of the 'game', all for just one of the three flags. It was captured of course, as well as another placed in a tower. All that remained was the final flag in the bunker. Out of the thirty six troops, only seven remained. Dagger platoon used to have a record of efficient wins, now they might as well be recruit level with the losses amounted in a simple capture the flag simulation.
The Elite and human joined their comrades, one less than what Johnson previously known remained of his platoon. The Elite fired off rounds to cover his and the marine's advance, more muscle memory than anything, there was no point in shooting at somewhere that no real enemy resides. Nothing to frighten with plasma bolts. The human rolled by the end, creeping her head over the cover to get a better look. The Elite also crouched near the end of his cover, examining the battlefield for a weakness. Little cover, just a straight line to the small bunker.
"Where's Taco?" Johnson asked the two soldiers.
Gal snorted at the humans mispronunciation of the missing Sangheili's name, then gestured to the said Elite. "Blademaster Teko seems to be sneaking away from his previous cover."
"Comrades!" Teko 'Kadam's voice shouted gleefully through the comm. "I will distract our adversary, advance and capture your objective!"
"What is he doing?" Private Tamera shook her head as the young blademaster began to charge, firing his plasma rifle in defiance of the turret.
"There!" An enemy marine shouted. "Fire on that Elite!"
Two marines armed with training assault rifles fired several bursts at the swordsman. His shields shrugged off the training rounds and he continued his charge to the enemy.
"Well," Steven shrugged as Teko roared a battle cry, "I guess we better get moving."
Gal nodded, leading the charge against the distracted turret. The turret switched targets faster than anticipated, firing into Gal and Tamera, essentially knocking them out of the game.
Steven and Johnson took the opportunity, diving past their downed teammates and around the turret's line of site. No one else managed to get inside, but the two could still hear Teko's roars, he was obviously enjoying himself too much. Teko was naturally acrobatic, proving his skill enough to become a blade master despite his young age.
Teko rolled away, ducking and jumping as much as he could while Johnson and Steven made their way inside.
Rubber bullets ricocheted off Teko's armor and he barely kept himself up.
Johnson sighed, catching his breath before disabling the turret, Steven grabbing the purple-gold flag, ending the simulation.
The platoon reassembled, eighteen grunts, six elites, and twelve marines all walked back to their 'spawn base'. A hologram of their score lit up as they walked outside the simulation zone, their platoon title went from second to fourth place, they didn't score well.
A phantom flew overhead with its complementary escort of two banshees, changing course to avoid the large energy spire that stood above all else in the entire region.
Squads jogged around the perimeter of the mess hall, saluting at the passing scout warthog, it's passenger being one of the most important military officials on the planet, the Master Brigadier.
The thirty six soldiers of three different races all lined up and formed into three long rows, each standing to attention while in face of the Master Brigadier, Jonathan Price.
"Dagger platoon has failed the time limit portion of the simulation, by several minutes. Rome and Noble platoons finished their simulations in half the time of your score. Do any of you understand why this troubles me?"
No one answered until he asked for the Sergeant. Johnson quickly spoke up, "You worry about planetary security, sir!"
"Yes." He nodded, pacing down the line of troops. "Every soldier in our military serves purpose, each are the bricks in our wall of defense, but if one of the bricks is loose or not strong enough, it can cause severe damage if an enemy finds that weak brick in the wall." He paused for a second to emphasize his analogy. "Need I remind you all that the URF and Prophet Loyalists still roam the stars? Terrorism and rebellion is not tolerated in our Covenant. We must always show our superior strength, and never stop preparing for attacks."
Everyone saluted, most wanting to leave from the lecture.
"Yeah, like they're ever gonna attack Reach." Steven muttered silently, knowing best to keep his thoughts to himself and not to the Master Brigadier. He did not want toilet duty again.
Reach was a military focal point in the Covenant Empire, a major human military world right on the doorstep of Earth, the human homeworld. Reach was one of the most essential planets in the Covenant Empire, with millions of soldiers training for any conflict and with dozens of bases researching forerunner technology to upgrade just about everything in the Empire. Human engineers and tech specialists would constantly study the forerunner relics on the planet, using what they learned to advance engines, shielding, and energy output in their starships.
Saying it was well defended would be putting it lightly, with a massive defense fleet protecting it, consisting of not to mention the twenty orbital defense stations placed around the vital world. Hundreds of capital ships and frigates guarded the planet and the system around it, making it one of the most well defended systems in the Covenant Empire.
Everyone in the Covenant knew that attacking the planet would be suicide. The best fighters, the best ships, and the best commanders in the sector were all stationed at Reach. With it's soldiers training to be the best.
"Good, now get some rest, you will try again at 0500 tomorrow." He finished before his warthog drove off.
Covenant World, Second Spark
Edge of Unggoy Ricefields
Jerap was about to fall asleep again. He and his fellow Unggoy, more commonly known in the Covenant as grunts, had been working with little breaks for several hours farming in massive fields of rice. Second Spark was a small agriculture world, its main produce was cash crops like rice, Irukan, and wheat.
Second Spark was only protected by a small fleet, a single carrier and a mere three cruisers, nothing serious to protect a small world. But it did had numerous transports and large human freighters delivering goods from the world to other colonies in the sector.
A single battalion of Jackals and Elites were detached on the farmlands, providing security against thieves and wildlife, and to keep everything in check. Single Jackals and Elites were positioned over every half mile of the rice fields.
Jerap scratched the top of his head, looking around to see the nearest Kig-yar sentry. Jackals were often placed to watch over grunt workers to keep them from wandering off or falling asleep.
The Jackal's back was turned, not looking in Jerap's direction. Good. His eyes blinked slowly, leaning on his rake, he slowly drifted to sleep.
The crash snapped Jerap awake, his fellow Unggoy were all chattering about the sudden object that fell from the sky.
Jerap turned his head, curious as to what had landed so close. The Jackal pulled his carbine, and slowly walked from his small encampment and towards the site of the crash. Several curious grunts followed behind, Jerap slowly did the same.
The site was just barely behind a set of rocks, smoke calmly rose, but there was little debris to be found.
Suddenly, a red flash of energy fired into the side of the Jackal, wounding the creature and causing him to shriek in pain. Many grunts yelled in fear, which grew as a black robot of unknown origin slowly floated into the clearing, firing it's weapon at the confused grunts.
Jerap also ran, for cover. His fellow grunts were not warriors, they were but farmers, not at all prepared for any attack.
Jerap looked around, spotting the now dead Jackal and his two guns, the carbine, and the plasma pistol holstered on his side. Jerap knew how the pistol functioned, and decided to use what little knowledge he had.
Jerap dove for the Jackal's body, allowing the others to be a distraction. He quickly reached for the plasma pistol from the magnetic holster, almost dropping the weapon while he fiddled with it.
The Imperial probe droid turned its head, and fired towards Jerap, barely missing the methane tank on his back as he ran back behind an old tree stump.
This was his chance to prove that he was more than just some worker. He ran out from behind the stump, and fired the charged bolt of plasma into the floating robot, shutting down it's systems and completely disabling it. But not before it was able to transmit what it was designed to find.
Sangheili Colony, Rahnelo
Southern Hemisphere
Keep of Clan 'Zahran
The two massive doors of illuminating purple and gold opened silently, as the large Sangheili Kaidon, a high ranking Sangheili of the world, slowly wandered into the courtyard. His feet rubbed onto the soft grass, relieving the itch under his foot.
Vien 'Zahran looked to the night sky with a sigh, his cool robe fluttering by a sudden, yet calm, gust of wind. Breathing slowly through his nostrils, he felt relaxed. The moon illuminated the night sky like plasma in a dark hallway.
The porch was barely lit by large, ceremonial candles that made their way from the keep to the edge of the cliff.
Everything was peaceful, exactly what the old Sangheili was in the mood for after yet another restless sleep.
That was, until an unarmed Spectre drove through the dark forest, it's pink armor contrasting against the dark greens and brown that made up said forest.
The Spectre slowed it's drive, turning when it neared Vien. The Passengers got out quickly, pulling a large sack from the back. The driver slowly walked to the Kaidon, kneeling in sight of the important ruler.
"My Kaidon!" The driver Sangheili spoke up. "We've discovered an intruder while on a hunting expedition, a machine of unknown creation."
"What happened?" Vien examined the strange droid. He had never seen anything like it, except like some nightmarish version of a huragok. It was made of a dark black metal, multiple legs and weapons. Most likely designed to scout.
"It fired on us, so we fired back." The driver chuckled, patting the sizzled remains of the droid. "We were hunting when this machine fired refined plasma, but my shields were more than capable to deal with the surprise. It didn't stand a chance against our rifles."
"Notify the council, this is clearly of foreign design." He observed. "And bring the machine to the humans, they'll know how to crack open anything useful."
"Right away my Kaidon." The much younger pair of Sangheili bowed before returning to their Specter with the probe droid.
Jah 'Zahran stood next to the Kaidon, crossing his arms as the two young Sangheili carried the probe off in the Spectre.
"What do you think uncle? Have the bastard Shyuum and their puppets dared to make a return?"
"Unlikely." Vien paused. "As I said, that was of a foreign design, and the deceivers are decimated, we sought to that personally when we dealt with Mercy and Regret remember? And with Truth's death by the hands of Commander Thel? Not a chance in the after life. Despite what the humans fear, they are of no concern."
"Then what?" Jah questioned again, feeling insecure that an intruder of unknown entity managed to sneak into his world.
Vien didn't answer, instead, he took a moment to look at the night sky, and the stars above. He could only hope that whatever was out there, that they weren't looking for war.
For their sake.
Please leave reviews, because guys, I was really happy with the positive reviews from my little timeline alone. Thanks for reading, please, tell me whats right or wrong to you, I want this to be enjoyable for me and you all, and quality feedback is important!
Oh and special thanks to swordofsangheilios, Usernamesarebad, and reza0807 for creative assistance!
And on top of that, this is my least favorite chapter that I'm working on to be honest. It's just so, dull to me, I guess I had a somewhat difficult time setting up the scenes. But who cares? You're probably not even reading this!
