Date: April 2nd
Reach main hall
The past few weeks had been hard because of the training the taskforce had to go through, but, and they were glad to hear this, it was starting to draw to an end. Today was the first day since March when they were jot to have any training. Instead, they were being taken to the main hall where they would be debriefed on Covenant aliens, as there were members of the taskforce who had rarely fought the Covenant in a ground battle and needed to be updated on who it was they were fighting, and then they would be given their details on their first mission, which was to take place soon.
In the corridor leading down to the main hall, the taskforce was walking towards the room to be debriefed on the Covenant forces. At the back of the taskforce walking towards the main hall was Marcus. With him was Tyler, Tanya, Brian, Alice and a former ODST soldier who was heavily built and had brown hair and blue eyes. He was from Chicago on Earth and was wearing a green bodysuit. His name was Simon, but he had been an ODST Stinger Type II rocket launcher holder when he was in the ODST so he had been nicknamed 'Stinger', which he preferred to be called.
When the group reached the main hall, they saw it was a large square shaped room with a large computer screen attached to the wall at the opposite end. In the middle of the room was a set of hover chairs about thirteen across and five down. The taskforce members sat down on the chairs. Marcus, Tanya, Brian, Alice and Stinger sat down on the right end of the third row of chairs with Brian at the far right end, then Tanya, then Alice and then Stinger and then ending with Marcus.
"I do not see why we are to be," Tanya said, obviously annoyed. "We already these aliens,"
Stinger nodded in agreement. "It's stupid," he said.
"Well, at least it gives us a day off from the training," Alice told them.
The others nodded in agreement and looked at the computer screen as Sergeant John, who was standing in front of the computer screen, turned to face them.
"Good morning troops," he announced. "Lucky for you today, there will be no training. Today, we are going to show you troops of the Covenant and then assign each of you your tasks for your first mission,"
Tanya sighed in annoyance. Marcus felt the same way. Why did they all have to be taught about the Covenant when he had fought for much of the past year? Most of the taskforce had fought them as well and to them, this part of the day was a waste of time, but, unfortunately, they were not the ones to decide what they were to do. They would just have to go through it and wait until it was over, which they hoped would not be long.
"Now," John announced. "Here is the first alien,"
The computer screen lit up to life and the picture of a small alien with a large triangle armour piece sticking out of the back of the creature, a small head with a methane breather mask and large scaly arms and hands with large elephant-like feet appeared. It was a Grunt, which most of the taskforce recognized easily.
You never forget them Marcus mentally said to himself.
"This alien you see before us is called an Unggoy," John explained. "We call 'em Grunts, mainly because of their size and because they are not hard to kill. But be warned, troops. Even on Earth the hardest of creatures can still put up a brave fight, so remember they are easy to kill but they will put up a fight."
"Wow, this is boring," Brian said.
Tanya had decided to amuse herself by staring at the floor whilst rubbing her arm which was covered by the sleeve of her bodysuit, which was white. Alice's bodysuit was green and Brian's was red, both of who were also looking as though they would rather be back at the barracks and then go the next room to be assigned rather than come here to learn about the Covenant aliens they already knew about as they had fought them through much of the past year. Even Alice, who was part of the engineer force at TechCorps, which had barely come into contact with the Covenant, had fought them when the company's HQ building on Lupo was attacked and she had to join in the defence of the buildings until they were eventually withdrawn from the building, so even though she had only fought the Covenant once, she already knew a lot about them.
"Anyway," John went on. "Grunts fight in packs of up to four or five strong. They will, almost all the time, be in a pack when fighting. The only time when they are not is when they are on a turret or piloting a vehicle. They are usually led by either a higher ranking Grunt or an Elite. However, most Grunts will flee if confronted by superior enemies, unless they are being led by someone. I also suppose you're wondering why they have a huge triangle piece of armour on their backs. The reason is because the Grunt home world's atmosphere is mostly comprised of methane. In that armour is a methane tank that connects to the methane breather they wear over their mouths."
"Finally, Grunts have five ranks in their race in the Covenant. The first is a Grunt minor, they are always on the battlefield and wear orange armour. The second is a Grunt major, they are also on the battlefield and they usually lead minor Grunts if an Elite is not around. They wear red armour. The third is a heavy Grunt. Heavy Grunts are mostly used for defensive positions and are mostly seen on Shade turrets. They wear green armour. The fourth is a Special ops Grunt. These Grunts a mostly used for special missions. We have had very little combat with them, so don't worry too much about them. They wear jet black armour. The final rank is Grunt ultra. Grunt ultra's are the top Grunt commanders. They wear silver armour, but they are also rarely seen on the battlefield." John concluded, which caused Tanya to look up at him at hearing him stop, believing he was done talking.
"Is he done?" she asked hopefully.
She got her answer when John said: "The next alien you will see is known as a Kig-Yar," John said. "Or, as we call 'em, a Jackal," and she sighed in annoyance. Marcus groaned and rubbed his hand down his face. This was getting annoying. Hopefully, there were not many of these left to go for.
The image on the computer screen changed from a Grunt to a six foot tall creature that looked like a mutated vulture with no fur and a snout with sharp teeth and large purple eyes that gave the creature on the screen a look as if it were ready to kill. It was a Jackal.
However, it did scare a few people around them, which Marcus noticed as the man next to him muttered "Whoa!" and a woman in front of him gasped. He smirked.
There's a lot worse than this he mentally said to himself.
"The Jackal is an extremely cautious creature," John explained. "They are a lot better in combat than Grunts. This is mainly because they have amazing vision, hearing and smelling. Also, they have good climbing abilities with their hands and feet, which can allow them to climb trees and small buildings. The wrist device they carry is actually a shield which they use to defend themselves and wounded in combat. The shield is pretty much bullet-proof. Only rockets, grenades and weapons from vehicles and turrets can destroy those shields. However, instead of wasting your ammo, the best thing to do is to wait for the Jackal to return fire because he moves the shield from in front of him to his side, completely exposing himself. However, if you manage to destroy the shield but the Jackal still lives, it'll flee until the shield activates. So a word of advice, you see a fleeing bird, kill it."
Marcus managed to stifle a yawn and Stinger chuckled a little. A moment of amusement in this boring time. There were only a few more left to go over but he was wishing he could staple his ears shut.
"Before we move on," John added. "There are two known ranks in the Jackal race. The first is a minor Jackal. The second is a major Jackal. These two Jackals are no different in appearance or armour or weapons. The only difference is their shields. The Minor Jackals' shield is always green. The major Jackals' shield is always a purple/pink colour. Remember that."
"Wow, this is getting more boring by the minute," Tanya muttered, which made Alice smirk and Brian nod in agreement.
They watched as the image on the computer screen changed again from a Jackal to a tall bulky alien with light blue armour on It's torso, head, arms, legs, hands and feet. It had a helmet on, which only just revealed two pairs of mandibles below it, which was the mouth of the creature. It was an Elite.
Tanya looked up, this time a little amused. "Ah, at least they have something here that is worth going over," she said.
"This alien you see now is called Sangheili," John explained. "We call it an Elite. The reason we call this alien an Elite is because they are the backbone of the Covenant army. They are very aggressive, strong and fast. Their height is about eight and a half feet tall. The way their legs go in a backwards curve beneath their knees allows them to jump over great distances. Their armour is like steel. It covers pretty much all of their body. Also, their armour has a built in shield that recharges, much like your own. Also, their armour has some sort of active camouflage. They are invisible, but they can easily be seen by the outline of their armour. If you can kill them, the camouflage will be disabled and you will see their bodies."
"Or maybe not," Alice said.
"We only know a handful of ranks in the Elites army." John continued. "The first is an Elite minor. They were light blue armour and they are easy to kill. They mostly lead Grunts and Jackals and are always on the battlefield. The second is an Elite major. They were red armour and are slightly stronger and more deadly than Elite minors. They also lead Grunts and Jackals, but can sometimes lead two or three Elite minors. The third we know about is known as a 'Zealot' by the Covenant. They were gold armour that is quite difficult to penetrate. It is common to see them on the battlefield, but they will only appear if their other troops are dead or if they are defending important areas of the battlefield. They are like battlefield commanders and they can fire their weapons like hell at you. And if that wasn't enough, they have a weapon called the energy sword that is probably the only proper weapon that can kill you with one swipe."
Marcus rubbed his hands over his eyes. This was starting to really get to him. He was mentally praying this would not go on for much longer.
"Now, the last alien you will see is a very hard alien to kill," John said.
Thank God! Marcus' eyes lit up when he heard this. Only one more and they were done! Tanya and Alice felt the same way, as did Brian and Stinger.
The image on the computer screen changed from an Elite to a huge alien about twelve feet tall with a large cannon on one arm and a huge metal sword-like object attached onto the other. It had huge bulking blue armour on and large feet that looked as though they could crush a man. It was a Hunter, an alien Marcus had only thought once and he had almost been killed at the time, and since then he had hoped he would not face a Hunter again.
"This alien is known as a Mgalekgolo," John explained. "We call it a Hunter. The reason is because although they are not fast like Elites, they can easily take down an enemy within a range of around two to five hundred metres away with It's cannon. Because they don't have any eyes, they find their way around through sense of smell and strong hearing, but this hearing does not work like the Jackals. Now this cannon can fire heavy exploding plasma projectiles that can devastate an area of up to twenty yards. So a word of advice, you see one of these things, either get behind a big rock or kill it using a grenade. However, these guys do have a weak spot. On their back is an exposed part of orange skin. A grenade or burst of ammunition from a heavy weapon can kill them quickly. These aliens mainly work in pairs for heavy attack or heavy defence and there are no ranks in their army."
When he stopped, Marcus smiled. Finally, he was done, but why were they still here? Wait, did he have any more aliens to go over? Hopefully not, or he would end up nailing his head to the floor and stapling his eyes shut.
The image of the Hunter disappeared and was replaced by an image of about fifty Covenant assault carriers and scores of Covenant CCS battle cruisers. How someone had been able to take this picture must have been on a suicide mission.
Upon seeing this, Marcus shot up in his seat. This attracted Tanya and Alice's attention, as they had been staring at the floor, zoned out from this debriefing, and they looked up and went wide-eyed at the sight of the enormous Covenant fleet. Brian and Stinger went wide-eyed as well. That was a big fleet, the biggest any of them had ever seen.
"This Covenant fleet is part of the main fleet that launches the attacks on our colonized planets," John explained. The image zoomed in closer on an assault carrier that was in the middle of the fleet. "This assault carrier is the head of this fleet," John continued. "Our sources tell us that this ship is carrying Intel on the Covenant home world. Like them, we don't know where their home world is. But if you can board this ship and get to the bridge, we will learn the location of the Covenant home world. Our very survival could depend on the outcome of this mission."
Marcus and Stinger turned their heads to look at each other, wide-eyed. Tanya, Alice and Brian did the same, as did other people around the room. This mission was then obviously very high risk if it involved Humanity's very survival and even now Marcus was thinking as he looked back at the image of the Covenant fleet on the computer screen: would they succeed? If they did, then Humanity might just have a chance in winning this war, but if they did not, then Humanity's days were more or less numbered to a matter of weeks, months if they were lucky.
"This mission will take place in ten days' time," John said. "Now before we go, I have one more thing to say: Eve will be leading the assault,"
At these words, Marcus and Stinger looked over at the left end of the second row of chairs at a woman with silver hair. Eve. Tanya, Alice and Brian looked over at where she was sitting as well.
"Eve is here?" Tanya said, aghast.
"Yeah, I saw her come in on the first day," Marcus replied.
"I didn't know she was here," Stinger piped up.
"As Eve is the best in the UNSC, she has been chosen personally by the BnL president to lead you against the Covenant." John said. "Now, go back to your barracks and rest. You will report to the mission hall later today to go over the mission's objectives."
The taskforce got up, Marcus and his group a lot quicker than everyone else as they wanted to get out of the hall in a hurry after being bored to death in this debriefing. However, as Marcus left the main hall, he began to think over the mission. Our very survival could depend on the outcome of this mission. Those words stuck to him like glue. If they succeeded in their mission, then Humanity could win the war, but Marcus was thinking of what would happen if they failed. He could only imagine the death and destruction that would follow if that happened.
Shaking the thoughts out of his mind, he walked on down the corridor with Tanya, Brian, Stinger and Alice, passing Eve and her friends who were laughing at something Allison had said.