This is where the inspiration starts to develop more; enjoy, review and pm me. Updated as of 9/27/2014
"Spartans never die, huh, that sounds like a load of bullshit to me. I've seen at least three Spartans die defending humanity."
MSgt. Richard Harrison, Able Company, 12th Shock Troops Battalion, 506th Shock Troops Regiment, 501st Shock Troops Brigade, 105th Shock Troops Division, UNSC Infinity Marine Forces, c. 2554
Chapter 1: God's Catapult
0650 Hours, July 27th, 2557, 4+ days, Post New Phoenix Incident
On board the UNSC Second Chances (CA/V-067), in orbit of Delta Halo, Joint Occupational Zones
This escort mission that HIGHCOM gave him was taking so long. A man of German descent stood at the bridge of the Diablo-class aviation cruiser Second Chances, a class of cruisers that resembled the old Marathon-class heavy cruisers, was growing impatient to take the expedition through this artifact that the spooks codenamed God's Catapult, which was found by a patrol of URS ships six days ago.
"How come HIGHCOM is taking so long to give me the go ahead." Captain Jacob Rommel growled.
Jacob Rommel; as the last name implied, that he is a modern descendent of the infamous Erwin Rommel, the German counterpart to George S. Patton, both having their respective nicknames of the Desert Fox and Ol' Blood n' Guts.
"Captain Rommel, HIGHCOM is just trying to not let another New Phoenix happen, a disembodied voice said, and the ship's smart AI Suzana appeared on the AI pedestal, she looked like a 15 year old girl in a pair of blue jeans, tennis shoes, a t-shirt with an image of some early 21st century vampire media franchise, she's wears glasses and has brown-blackish hair with stripes of hair dyed red; she has also been known to have an M45 shotgun strapped on her back. Most of the younger crew finds her appearance very cute. The both of them knew each other for a few months now, she was assigned to his old ship an Autumn-class heavy cruiser UNSC Last One Out, which was destroyed when human insurgents boarded the vessel. And it happened because of Codename: Black-Knight and a terrorist group called Cerberus, (supposedly not related to a rouge ONI Black Ops division called Cerberus).
'That ONI bitch got my ship blown up, my crew massacred out save for Suzana, Evan, and Alexis, almost killed me, and all because of a some god damn human supremest group, that she was going to join," Captain Rommel thought, "calm down Jake she's dead now.'
Rommel was the third youngest man or woman in the UNSC Navy to make Captain, right after Vanessa Forge (aged 29), and he also had heard rumors that Miranda Keyes survived the Battle of the Ark was promoted to Captain as well (aged 27). Last time he heard of Captain Forge, she was serving in Task Force Infinity the escort force for the UNSC Infinity on board the heavy cruiser UNSC Savannah II respectively.
"I know but we've been out here for hours, He said to his AI friend, I want to quick get this expedition done and get home."
"Can we at least wait for the green light from Lord Hood, another voice chimed in, I think he'll be pissed, if we go without the go ahead."
This voice belonged to his XO; Commander Alexis V. Hood, She's ironically the Chairman's own niece, Jacob and Alexis have know each other since Luna OCS, the pair we're surprised to run in with the each other onboard the Last One Out 4 years ago.
"Sir, Lord Hood wants to open comms." The Comm Operator said
"Put him through ensign." Rommel ordered the rookie.
On the CIC's vidscreen a man of high rank appeared on the screen, he was Admiral of the Fleet Lord Terrence Hood, he'd been known for choosing defensive and offensive plans at the right times since he made Commodore Admiral in 2536. A member of the British Nobility in the UK on Earth, he joined the Navy at age 18 at the urging of his friends, enrolling in Luna OCS and graduating at the rank LtJG. He was put in command of his first vessel, the UNSC Roman Blue (CL-704), a Halcyon-class cruiser in 2530 and participated in the final hours of the First Battle of Arcadia.
"SIR!" Captain Rommel saluted.
"Hey uncle." She greeted her relative.
"At ease captain, he replied, returning the salute, he turned his head towards his niece, good to see you Alexis, alright Congress and HIGHCOM wanted me to tell you that they gave the go ahead for Expedition: God's Catapult."
"Wait you told Congress about this, sir?" Suzana said in alarm.
"It's not the Human-Covenant War anymore Suzana." He said in his usual calm tone.
"Sorry, sir." She apologized.
"It's alright Suzana, Hood replied, if anything bad happens I want your ship, the civilian research vessels, and the UNSC Dusk to bug out, if possible."
"Yes sir." The Command crew said in unison.
"Good, now let's get this done before lunch, Hood out." Hood said as he ends the transmission.
"Helm, move use towards God's Catapult right away." Captain Rommel ordered the NAV officer.
"Copy that." NAV Officer; Lieutenant Junior Grade Matthews acknowledged.
Meanwhile...
0700 Hours, July 27th, 2557, 4+ days, Post New Phoenix Incident
UNSC Supreme HeadQuarters, New York City, United States, United Republic of North America, Republic of Earth and Luna, UN Core Systems, UN Space
UNSC Supreme HeadQuarters, like the rest of New York City was a fortress like the infamous city of Metz of World Wars One, Two, and Three. After the Bravo-6 bombing by insurgents, who aimed at killing the UNSC leadership, which was destroyed by said bombs, they moved to the old World Trade Center Complex, at the behest of the Secretary-General of the United Nations: Ruth Charet renaming it the UNSC Supreme HeadQuarters.
Lord Hood walked back into the command room, as he'd been slated as Hargrove's successor, and shortly after the ship that he was leaving Reach on, the UNSC Roar of Humanity; a Marathon-class cruiser was destroyed when it attempted to flee the system. The UNSC Chairman noticed a woman in a suit typically worn by United Nations politicians, she had greying brown hair and when someone took a closer look, you could tell that she also had a concealed M6/SOCOM pistol to which everyone thought it was "insurance" against assassins; human or otherwise.
"Well I don't see you here often, your Excellency." The UNSC Admiral addressed Ruth Charet.
"Well, I come here to escape some of the bullshit at the Capitol Building." UCE President replies, her French accent revealing that she was of French descent.
"So your here to see how the expedition goes, Ma'am." Terrence said in a questioning tone.
"Yeah, I just want to see what happens." Ruth answered him.
"Sir, uh your Excellency." a voice came out from the balcony that stood over the command room, interrupting their conversation. They both looked up towards the balcony and they saw Serin Osman and Kilo-Five standing on the balcony above them.
"What is it, Serin?" Lord Hood asked the future director of ONI.
"Sir, you have to cancel the expedition." was all the S-II washout could say.
"Why?"
Meanwhile...
0710 hours, July 27th, 2557, 4+ days, Post New Phoenix Incident
On board Lisbon Station, in orbit of Delta Halo, Joint Occupational Zones
As the Second Chances slowly moved towards the artifact, Lisbon Station had picked that the artifact had been giving off crazy dark energy readings and they were trying figure out why it was doing that. Elsewhere on the station was a woman of 65 years of age, she'd been transferred to this Station so the UNSC could make sense of the Forerunner Data that they recently uncovered, in the i05's archives, who they'd gotten from 2401 Penitent Tangent, the ring-world's monitor, who said at the time of the Flood outbreak he was observing the artifact and that he was unsure of it's purpose, he also theorized that it could be anything from a weapon of mass destruction to a new form of faster-than-light travel. Catherine Halsey was sent here to figure out on what it was.
"Doctor, Fleet Admiral Cross is calling you," The station's administrator: Jeffrey Louis said over the intercom, "it's sounds urgent, transferring the comm to your room's holo terminal."
The holo communicator in her room projected Arthur Cross on the projector, he looked like every UNSC flag officer, but he's prior experience as the CO of NAVSPECWAR Development Group also known as DEVGRU or SEAL Team Six (a remake of the United States' SEAL Team Six) which was what gave his edge in tactics. He was asked to command the supercarrier UNSC Enterprise the lead ship of her class after most of his men were killed during Operation: TOMAHAWK (c. 2538), an ambitious attempt to break the Siege of Chi Rho which ended in February 2543 with a pyrrhic victory. Arthur or Artie as his friends call him, he had a haircut similar to John-117's, a trimmed buzzed cut and whenever he was on his ship he wore the UNSC Navy's new Battle Dress Uniform with his ranking on his left shoulder, and the UN Coat of Arms over his heart, along with the medals he received below it. He was also from New York City, the capital of United Nations; and his family was well known in both the military and the corporate world. He took command of the Third Fleet after Admiral Cole's death during his famous last stand, becoming the first Fleet Admiral to command it after the Inner Colony Wars. He was also the youngest to achieve the rank at age 31, and after his predecessor's death became the leader of Colonial Special Operations Command, otherwise known as C-SOC.
"Doctor Halsey."
"Now what does the commander-in-chief of C-SOC would want with me?" Halsey asked him.
He tapped something on his holo-map back aboard his ship, and after that it showed Earth still the same after 4 years; but there was a ship of Forerunner design battling the Home Fleet. Then said ship fired something towards the mega city of Phoenix specifically the sector of New Phoenix. Then it showed the ship exploding in a nuclear fireball.
"That is a Forerunner Assault Ship called the Mantle's Approach and that beam it fired was from a weapon called the Composer, it's capable of turning any living being organic or not into an Advanced Defense AI called Prometheans, and when it hit Phoenix it digitized every man, woman, and child in the city, The former Navy SEAL said, his voice said in a trembling tone, but that's not all, we found the Chief." Doctor Halsey stood there astonished, not sure of what to say.
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Thought you would like to know, The Admiral answered, and I personally don't give a damn about what ONI thinks."
"Still trying to get ONI to be shut down?" Halsey asked, Cross was a well-known Anti-ONI supporter, and rumor has it that he got his information from either an intelligence agency he formed to counter ONI, information brokers, or both. Due to the several incidents that related to ONI being involved, he'd managed to get a intense hatred towards the Office, mostly due to ONI not informing the public of Covenant in 2526; which resulted in the near-decimation of the civilian population of Circinius IV, and he also wished the Spartan-II Program was like it's predecessor: Project Orion.
"Yes, Arthur answered her, but Cortana sacrificed herself for Chief, she's dead."
"Oh my..., Halsey stuttered out, how's John handling it?"
"He's mourning her, He informed, Parisa is giving him a hand and so is Lasky; Catharine I need you to come the Infinity and talk to him."
"If the rumors are true, Catharine theorized, Lasky, Orenski, Parisa, and Sullivan were Corbulo cadets, but not just them; but yourself and Alison were cadets there too."
And Arthur just nodded and said: "Is there anything you can do?".
"I'm not sure."
Meanwhile...
0745 hours, July 27th, 2557, 4+ days, Post New Phoenix Incident
UNSC Supreme HeadQuarters, New York City, United States, United Republic of North America, Republic of Earth and Luna, UN Core Systems, UN Space
"Why?"
Rear Admiral Serin Osman and Kilo-Five just showed up and told Lord Hood that he needs to cancel the expedition. While ONI is still one of the anomalies to most of the United Colonies' citizens, though Arthur Cross' temporary directorship from November 2553 to February of 2554 none of ONI's brass wanted to share DNI's agenda with him; he only managed to declassify some of the SPARTAN-II data, including personnel files.
"I did some digging and found out that ONI was hiding the fact that the device was a form of a FTL."
"Not surprising, Terrence said in a flat tone, anything else."
"It leads to somewhere occupied by a group of unknowns." Serin told Lord Hood.
Upon realizing what that meant, Lord Hood looked to Charet: "Did you know?", and she put her hands up in defense and said "They didn't tell me Terrence.". Why was ONI trying to cause a incident and possibly a war?
"We need to warn them, sir." One of the ODSTs named Vaz said in a heavy Russian accent.
"Already on it, one of the comm operators said, what the hell?"
"What's wrong?" Her co-worker asked
"Something is jamming the ships communications arrays, I can't reach them."
Then alarms started blaring in everyone's heads. Their communications were being jammed by something, he knew it was bad. "Tell the ships at Delta Halo, to forward the message then."
"Their being jammed too, but Lisbon Station should receive." she replied.
"Good enough."
Back at the Second Chances...
1258 hours, July 27th, 2557, 4+ days Post New Phoenix Incident
On board the UNSC Second Chances, nearing unknown object dubbed God's Catapult, Delta Halo System
"Sir, we are nearing the unknown object." Ensign McCharleston, navigation reported.
"Good, let's get started, give the word." Rommel ordered
"Yes sir." the ensign went back to steering the ship.
"Sir, I'm getting heavy amounts of an unknown element powering it." Doctor Christina Vance, the ship's chief scientist and engineer said to him.
Dark energy was dangerous substance, mostly because it was one sources of power the Halo Array uses for it's tactical pulses. The group of eight ships moved towards the device at a slow pace, then as they got close enough to it, the device which had been encased in ice began to increase it's power levels. Doctor Vance looked at him with concern and said: "Sir, the artifact is beginning to increase it's power levels and the ice around it is starting to break off!"; then Rommel looked at the device with an equal amount of concern, 'What the hell is going on?' the Berliner thought. His question was answered as the last piece of ice completely fell off.
"Move use closer." Captain Rommel ordered.
"Sir, what if it's a WMD?" A marine asked
"Nothing ventured," He said in calm, yet curious tone, "nothing gained." echoing the words of a human scientist that had found a Forerunner artifact on Harvest in 2531. The ships moved ever so closer to their objective, as this was happening the crews of every ship in the convoy started to noticed some Forerunner and Unknown designs on it. As they stopped something happened, the two rings began spinning even faster.
"What the hell is it doing?" A crew member asked.
As the crewman said this energy sprang out from the object and became glued onto the ships, realizing the severity of the situation Rommel yelled out orders: "I want all ships to begin evasive maneuvers!"
"TOO LATE!" NAV Officer Matthews yelled. Immediately after he said the group was sent into something that reminded everyone of Star Wars' hyperspace and as quickly it happened, it stopped. They had exited in a star system with an identical God's Catapult to their port.
Oh shit...
CODEX:
Ruth Charet: A native of Paris IV, she joined the marines in 2510 as a CQB specialist, but she eventually became the commander of the Hades Corps in 2534, she was present at the battles of Highland, Taris (a Halo version of Star Wars' Taris), Skopje, and on her home-world of Paris IV. After seeing so many UNSC military personnel slaughtered in the chaos, she briefly suffered PTSD, after recovering from the battle, she retired and went into politics, volunteering to be the replacement for the original senator of Paris IV so she can represent the refugees from her home planet. In the wanning months of Great War, the victories at Halo I04 and New America gave the UNSC a much needed boost in morale, as well as the liberation of the Epsilon Eridani system executed by the 3rd and 5th Sector Fleets, and the success of Operation: FIRST STRIKE, along with assistance from a group of Sangheili revolutionaries calling themselves the Freedom for the Sangheili. Herself and the rest of United Colonies Congress saw that the tide was turning to humanity's favor, so she requested that a new secretary-general is needed to lead a post war United Colonies and at this time the current SecGen Adrian Beland's health was ailing, and decided to retire after the war was over, and allowed for the elections go on, Ruth won a in a land slide victory and took office in January. Ruth Charet is the current chairmen of the reformist political organization called the Federal Republic Party.
Marathon-class heavy cruiser: Originally intended to replace the ineffective and expensive Halcyon-class light cruisers, it saw many battles against the Imperial Covenant Navy in the early years of The Great War where most ships of the Mark I's Flight I were either destroyed or abandoned (one notable case was UNSC Dresden, when it was hit by a plasma torpedo that costed the ship it's engines, and with the ship's weapons disabled and unable to move, the crew abandoned the Dresden, the Covenant boarded the ship after it was abandoned by the crew, after finding nothing to salvage they moved the ship to one of Biko's magnetic poles), after the Mark I's Flight II were began construction, all surviving Mark I were pulled to Reach for much need refits and repairs. While most Mark Is were destroyed during the Great War, a few dozen survived and were put up as museums. It's successor the Diablo-class were introduced mid-2553, they would serve alongside the Autumn-class cruisers, the Northampton-class cruisers, and the Springfield-class cruisers, as escorts for various capital ships. Two ships of this class were converted into cruiser-carriers: the UNSC Leviathan (CA/V-099) and the UNSC Key of Life (CA/V-104), unfortunately both were destroyed at the Fall of Reach and the Siege of Earth in 2552. All of the remaining Mark Is that were too damaged were turned into museum ships; the naval branch of the United Nations Colonial Guard had took it upon themselves to keep the Marathons in production to serve as command vessels for UNCG fleet formations alongside UNCG-grade Halcyon-class light cruisers.
Diablo-class heavy aviation cruiser: The Diablo-class vessels were designed as heavy aviation cruisers in order to counter the Covenant Remnant's increasing number of DDS-class carriers, so far the captains of these ships have taken this very well. Compared to Mark Is' 24 F-709 Longswords, 24 F/A-712 Katana strike fighters, and the 3 squadrons of D77H-TC Pelicans; the Mark II Marathons have about 5 F-41 Broadsword fighter squadrons, 6 B-712 Longsword bomber squadrons, 1 A-26 Skyhawk Wild Weasel squadron, 6 D79H-TC Pelican Dropship and G79H-TC/MA Buzzard Gunship squadrons, 1 V78H-TC Osprey Dropship Squadron and a single AC-250 Thor Support Gunship that could be dropped in-atmosphere as well as a squadron of Longswords convert into UCAVs. The Standard issue UNSC Atmospheric and Ground vehicles such as the Scorpions and Falcons are also on board. The crew of a Diablo-class cruiser is at 1,200 men and women including a regiment of the UNSC Marine Corps is stationed on board these ships, along with a ODST and Force Recon Battalion each being assigned on them, along with the Carrier Air Group stationed aboard. The Marathons' new role is escort and provide support for UNSC carriers and ground forces.
Enterprise-class Supercarrier: a subclass of the Thermoplyae-class Supercarriers (introduced in 2514) which were despite being highly effective, they were too costly to field in large numbers against the Covenant Navy's vessels especially the CAS-class assault carrier. The Enterprises were produced to counter this disadvantage, and after the UNSC Enterprise (CVN-26) successfully held off a Covenant Assault Carrier that was holding position over the city of Omelas allowing the transports leaving the colony of Xavier, with only minor damage. The Big E and her sister ships are the brain child of FADM William "Bill" Harper and Harold McLees. 7,248 military and civilian personnel who call these carriers home, while many citizens of Earth and Her Colonies call them beacons of hope.
Autumn-class heavy cruiser: At 1,425 meters (4,674 ft) long and 3.52mm Titanium A1 armor plating plus five additional metres of Titanium A3 armor plating, and UNSC Cruiser grade energy shielding; the Autumn-class cruisers are the brainchild of Fleet Admiral Cross and various shipbuilding firms/subsidiaries; the Autumn-class vessels are the first heavy cruisers designed for the Post-War era; using the remains of various Halcyon-class light cruisers found in ship breaking yards and space graveyards. Most of these Halcyons were transferred to Project: HOPE (first started in 2533), the first of which was the UNSC Pillar of Autumn II (CA-221). These heavy cruisers (armed with a single MAC Gun that is capable of firing in a three round burst or a single shot, a wide array of missiles (conventional or nuclear), a few hundred point-defense-guns, and Onager cannons) are the middle point between the Valiant-class and Marathon-class cruisers, the UNSC has so far received 146 of Autumn-class cruisers with 15 of these ships are typically seen to be escorting the newly named flagship of the UNSC Navy: the UNSC Infinity (INF-101), the UNSC Admiralty Board had plan on getting a minimum of 224 for the newly expanded UNSC Navy, while the maximum of 287 to about 302, (AN: The UNSC Navy's pre-war number of heavy cruisers were 178, and the requirement expanded to 312) they were were introduced in early 2553. Two squadrons of sixteen F-41 Broadswords each, the one squadron of B-709 Longswords, a Wild Weasel squadron consisting of the accomplished A-26 Skyhawk ground attack crafts, and five squadrons made up of the D79H-TC Pelican Dropships and G79H-TC/MA Buzzard Gunships. The standard issue UNSC Atmospheric and Ground vehicles such as the Scorpions and Falcons are also on board. With . The Autumn's crew includes 2,650 men and women, including a UNSC Heavy Cruisers' standard UNSC-MC detachment is a Marine Corps Regiment, a ODST Battalion, and a Force Recon Battalion.
United Nations of Earth and Her Colonies: Formed on July 4th, 2170; the United Nations (more commonly referred to as the United Earth Government) reformed at least three times it it's history. The present amendment to the Federal Charter of Earth and Her Colonies is based off the constitution of the old United States with the colonies forming their own governments as long as they are democratic. The UN have a prospering mixed capitalist economy, with trade resuming between it's pre-war allies after the end of Great War.
Kilo-Five: A former ONI Black Ops Unit under the leadership of RADM Serin Osman, Kilo-Five was responsible for the Sangheili Civil War and after being exposed for that conflict they made a deal that they'll operate under the auspices of UNSC Joint Special Operations Command to prevent terrorist attacks.
"The Galactic Federation of Interstellar Nations is the culmination of two years of hard work between us, our older, and newer allies."
Ruth Charet to SPARTAN-117 on the Galactic Federation, 74th Secretary-General of the United Nations, c. July 24th, 2557
A/N: There's a few of OC's in this fic. (SPOILERS GO TO next chapter when available) Chief meets his new AI (I'll come up with a name later) and members of the 1st Spartan Regiment.
Hey after I finish this fic, I'm going to make a backstory of Captain Rommel's previous command, and Cerberus are the main bad guys :). And before you start making reviews that Miranda Keyes should be dead, I wanted her to be alive because she's a good character and she's the daughter of Jacob Keyes, I'll write a fic on how she would've survived. And Ruth Charet's appearance is what I think she looks. I'm also trying to promote a expanded universe project on the Halo Fanon Wiki called Commonwealth. Note: some of the vehicles are made up and having two Pelicans is confusing; thus the name Buzzard came into play!
EZP OUT!