Chapter 2: Surprise!
June 5th 2555, unknown time,
Unknown location
The room had a slight chill to it. The air turned to well below average room temperature. The entire room was black with only a couple dim lights. In the middle of the room was an obsidian table with a beautiful woman and an older slim gentleman with a pair of eagles on his uniform. He sat there silently shuffling papers and occasionally drinking coffee. Every so often his AI, Erebus, would pop in with information. The man sat here going through data, looking for some type of information that continued to elude him like the plague. The laptop before him bristled with a sound and drew his attention.
"Ah here we are Ms. Cole. The file that Section zero was so gracious to send me." He opened nonchalantly.
In this file was the entirety of her life and what made her "special" to ONI. For many years ONI had wanted her, but she was protected so well. After Reach she had managed to contact someone who got her away from ONI. But as always, once a light has burned out, darkness swarms the location. ONI had pulled 'strings' and found Ms. Cole before she could manage to get away. Now her grandmother and her 'friends' lay in pulls of blood and their asteroid base a massive rock of blackened char.
Gene sat there in tears. Her face red and her hair ruffled. She had spent many months with her suppose to be dead grandmother, Lyrenne Castilla. Her grandfather had made a brief appearance but had to bug out for unknown circumstances. How ONI had found them was still somewhat a mystery. What was an even greater mystery was what they wanted her for. They had run a multitude of medical tests on her and for what she had no idea. They tested everything they could find and really only remarked on how 'perfect' her DNA was. She kept hearing words such as 'telepathic' and 'triple helix.' All of which scared her into wondering what the hell ONI was going about.
"Ms. Cole your track record with the excavations we've sent you on is quite profound." The man put on his best poker face. No need to be rude. "Looking through your logs, most, if not all the Forerunner artifacts that you came across, 'opened' themselves to you. Such data has helped the war effort against the Covenant of course. But we were wondering if you would be so kind to help us with Project Pandora?"
Gene looked up, anger in her eyes. Never would she help with such an atrocity. "With all due respect Captain, you can go fuck yourself."
His smile quickly turned to a frown. "Have it yourself Ms. Cole."
June 6, 2555, 1030 Zulu
Geneva, Earth, Sol System
President's Office
Throughout all of his term, President Jack Anderson had been a driving force for rearmament. The military may have taken over in the early years of the war, but they still didn't have the treasury to fund their war. This is where Anderson comes in. He had served 10 years on the frontlines of the Covenant and had used his parent's wealth and influence to get into politics right after. He started as the Secretary of the Treasury and supported bills that brought in new weapons and armor that would never have happened otherwise like the Mjolnir V and VI. He had even seen to the development of shields for a select number of ships and the making of the burst MAC system that allowed 3 rounds to be fired on one charge. Money went a long way, but more was needed to see the tide turn.
The senate had controlled the finances and had slowly choked the funding to the military. Only when military veterans start getting elected did things actually take a turn for the better. Funding was allocated to Research and Development for a multitude of different projects. But that still wasn't enough; drastic measure had to be taken as the majority in the Senate was still held by rich snobby bastards. Anderson went on the campaign trail and with his influence and connections, managed to get footage of the glassing of colonies, the slaughter of civilians, and showed the outrageous brutality of the war. Overwhelmed, the public and media outlets cried out for action against the Covenant. Those politicians who didn't want to lose their seats immediately supported the President's new Rearmament bill. The military finally received the money it needed to combat the Covenant. But it came all but too late as the Covenant sacked Reach and shortly afterward hit Earth. Of course that didn't mean that the R&D mooks hadn't cooked up anything.
The new weapons of war came to be of great effect against the Covenant, albeit in limited numbers. At least one infantry division at the battle of Paris was completely armed with new rifles, armor, tanks, and aircraft. The Covenant was unprepared for the amount of Carnage that followed. 20,000 marines of the 754th Infantry division not only pushed back three legions, but completely annihilated them from the face of existence. Granted a Covenant legion is around 10 to 12,000 in total number, they got completely ousted from France in the following campaign as the 754th and the 1013th armored division bulldozed all the way to the beleaguered defenders of Berlin.
Through the hallways of the Presidential Palace marched a trio of men in black uniforms. Crisp and clean cut, these men walked in perfect unison to the President's office. Behind them walked a legend. The search for him had been nothing if not exhausting.
Jack was a tough man to impress or even surprise, but who stood before him surprised him enough to control his facial features. Before him stood a legend among humanity. Two men who had saved humanity and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.
"Welcome home Admiral Cole." Jack grinned.
Cole saluted, "Thank you sir. But I also wish to find her."
The lead Spook step forward. A pair of bird wings on his uniform. "Admiral rest assured. We will find your granddaughter." The mans face a warm smile.
June 8, 2555, 2200 Zulu
Raptim System, Azterc
3 klicks from Covenant 'Absolution through Faith'
UNSC Frontlines
John Everest stood still as he viewed the amount of wounded coming from the lines. The Covenant had recovered and were steadily pushing the UNSC back. What was worse was that the UNSC actually outnumbered the Covenant here, nothing they seemed to do actually helped the situation. But the thing that seemed to be the worst of all the news coming in was that there was a prophet directing the Covenant forces directly. And not the standard 'watch the battle and issue orders from the bridge type'. This Prophet was athletically built and was wearing the armor of a councilor and directing the forces expertly. Footage this new Covenant leader tango one on one with a Spartan, of which they seemed evenly matched, and only by the intervention of another Spartan did this Prophet break off.
John had to hand it to this guy, he had balls. Not something he could say about the rest of the San'Shyuum.
"Sir the Covenant are broadcasting signal over the band." A tech on the other side of the elephant relayed.
"Patch it through Corporal." On the screen John watched a muscular Prophet appear.
"Flee before the might of the Covenant you pathetic humans. The day of your judgment comes! We shall watch over you like a mighty ocean of righteousness. Even now your mighty demons cannot stand before me. Behold! I am the Prophet of War! A reckoning shall be had. Truth, Mercy, and Regret were weak. The true San'Shyuum will bring about Salvation!" And with that the message ended and on the other side of the valley a Supercarrier appeared. On the screen it showed the Spartan beheaded by an energy sword.
Multiple grav-lifts appeared along the ships entire length, or what could be seen, and tens of thousands of Covenant poured out. On the frontlines prophets were appearing, carrying energy swords and honor pikes.
"Oh shit." Muttered one of the techs. John turned around and silenced him.
"Pull all companies back to secondary positions. Contact Highcom for reinforcements."
John ordered. This battle was already going bad, and now bad just went to worse.
"Sir Highcom says that the 319th Marine Division is coming up from reserve to replace us on the line. Noble-four reports enemy armor formations on our western flank."
As the wraith armor formations moved into place around their Scarab counterparts, a massive explosion took place to the rear of the lines. A Squadron of Sparrowhawks flew out from behind two smoldering scarabs and headed for the UNSC lines. An entire quartet of Seraphs followed them, shooting down three before in turn being shot down by UNSC AAA and Sabers.
John watched the brief skirmish in the sky before setting his eyes on the command screen for his battalion. For 6 days they had duked it out with the Covenant military for control over the Forerunner facility with no end in sight. The Covenant fleet had destroyed two Neptunes in orbit and then made its way through the UNSC blockade completely unmolested and landed an additional 45 legions on the surface of Azterc.
The core of marines pushing this region were already having casualties in the low hundreds of thousands and outnumbered 3 to 1. This was a shitty situation, despite the technological difference in the fighting. The Covenant had finally gotten smart and reserved Wraiths for Artillery only. Now they had a new tank with a turreted straight firing energy projector that could roast any UNSC armor on the battlefield short of the Grizzly. Armor battles were pretty much whoever gets the shot off first wins, knowing either side could one shot each other. Infantry were on the UNSC side were faring better than their Covenant counterparts since they had better training, weaponry, and in some cases protection. Airpower was the Quality of the UNSC versus the Quantity of the Covenant. If the UNSC could field more Air, then victory was assured short of a cruiser shooting them down with pulse lasers of they got too close.
The death of the Spartan however decided that moral was with the Covenant. Not to be mistaken, the marines were enraged by it, but that also meant hesitation on command's part on sending Spartan's on deep missions for the duration of the battle. These San'Shyuum were unlike anything they had ever encountered, they actually fought as well as the Sangheili, but had more brains for tactics. It was a scary Recipe, someone who could match the UNSC in tactical situations. These prophets weren't pulling the forerunner relict bullshit either to hinder their forces, they were going all out.
Present time
Orbit over Azterc
UNSCS My Foot, Neptune Class Battleship, 3rd Fleet Flag
Rear Admiral Miranda Keyes watched as another Covenant ship went up. The entirety of the UNSC 4th Fleet had been slammed. 110 ships had been here a week ago fighting over orbit of Azterc. Now only 43 ships remained. The 3rd had been called to reinforce the 4th after the Covenant had brought in another 200 ships to reinforce the original 224 they had in orbit. The UNSC Navy could take the Covenant head on now with some odds being as great as 1:4 ratio, but it normally hovered around 1:2. But with the recent message, Keyes was expecting that to fall to 1:1. This new Covenant leadership was no joke, they're fleet was massing and was executing maneuvers that hadn't been seen since the Elites still ruled the Covenant Military scene.
The Coalition as they called themselves, had lent a fleet of 133 ships to the aid of the humans, bringing the fight to a even enough pace. But that wasn't what had Keyes smiling at the moment. The fact that the 'Wrath of God' would be making its debut here any moment was the one thing that would turn this entire battle around.
Office of Naval Intelligence / 2187-120972-292 / Eyes Only
Name: Wrath of God
Class: Super Battleship
Length: Thirty-one Kilometers
Crew: 6500
Armament: Prototype hyper MAC
2x rotational Super MACs
600x Pulse laser Point defense turrets
600x Rail gun Point defense cannons
500x Oversized Archer Missile Pods
Varying number of Nuclear armaments
Compliment: Capable of Carrying a core of marines for a short time to and from battlefields.
350x Longsword Interceptors
900x Sabre Fighters
Misc other armaments depending on mission to be carried out.
There would truly be a reckoning for the 3 Covenant Supercarriers in Orbit. Even the Coalition would be in for a surprise as the Hyper MAC put the enemy down like the animals they were.
"Ma'am the 'Wrath of God' has arrived." The comm. Officer sounded off enthusiastically.
"Good patch me through to the Commanding Officer." Keyes ordered.
The screen flickered on and an older gentleman turned around to address Keyes.
"Ah the daughter of Doctor Halsey and Captain Keyes. Quite the combination really." The man smiled. Miranda just stood slack jawed with the rest of her crew.
"Admiral Cole…"