Chapter 5: The Kig-yar Rebellion
I've actually just realised that there is no disclaimer in this story. So here's one: I own nothing, The Halo franchise is owned by Microsoft.
Common Room, The Spearhead of Dawn, Janurary 13th, 2553
The common room was not the best place on the ship to be, but the Chief wished to see how his new Squad relaxed after a mission. The grunts were charged up with energy, and chased each other around the room. Zhab and the Brute, Jimaenius, played what seemed to be the former Covenant equivilent of Go Fish.
John leaned on the wall beside a couch in the common room. Jimaenius growled as the Kig-yar won yet another game. He immediately challenged the Jackal to another game. As far as the Chief knew, they weren't gambling over anything.
Suddenly, the Arbiter's voice blared over the Interaship COM. "Brace for impact!"
Everyone in the common room froze, including the Chief. After a mere second, his instincts kicked in, and he seized a metal bar attached to the ship wall. Before anyone else had moved, the Spearhead's hull moved rapidly. But only once. The two grunts were thrown to the ground, yelping as they did so. The Kig-yar and Jiralhanae barely moved at all.
John released the bar. Above them, he heard a missile pod detach from the hull. For a minute, there was silence, then Cortana's voice broke over the COM:
"Target destroyed."
The Chief paused. That was extremely quick for a space battle. He hadn't even heard the MAC discharge. He turned and left the common room, heading to the bridge. The elevator took about thirty seconds to reach the bridge floor.
He walked down the hallway and into the bridge. The Arbiter was alone in the room, staring out into space. Outside the ship, asteroids drifted around the Spearhead.
"What just happened?" The Spartan asked, walking into the room.
There was no etiquette for a non-human captain that the Chief knew of. The Arbiter turned to locate him.
"Some foolish Kig-yar pirates attempted to attack us. They were no match for our weapons." He replied.
John nodded and sat in a chair on the other side of the holotable.
"Where are we going?" He asked.
The Arbiter returned his gaze to space. "We have coordinates, but I... Do not know."
"Our hideout." Cortana answered. "A large enough unnamed asteroid in the field. Apparently, it has a large hollow for us to dock the Spearhead inside."
"Very well." The Sangheili replied. "How fare the rest?"
"They're fine." The Chief sighed.
"In all honesty, spartan, what do you think of the rest of them?" The Arbiter asked.
The Spartan paused. "They hold no resentment or anger over the war. We were the only two who actually fought the war. I feel like they're new hands and we're the old veterans."
The Arbiter tilted his head slightly at the remark, not understanding some of what was said.
"I think the same, If that's what you meant by that... Pah. We're friends, I should believe, or as close to friends as we're going to get." He paused.
The Chief nodded slightly.
"Out of all the being in the galaxy that have tried to be my friends, none, excluding Johnson, have come this close to being my friend... And an elite, in the end." He shook his head.
"Where did the Spartans come from?" The Sangheili asked.
He paused, and then proceeded to tell the Arbiter the story of the Spartan IIs and how he assumed he was the last one. The Arbiter, in turn, told the human his story. Neither left any details of what they'd done out. And when they were done, John felt like some barrier between them had lifted. During the talk, John had removed his helmet. The two looked on each other with their own eyes. They did not judge the other on the experiences of the other.
"So. What now?" The Arbiter asked.
The chief got up and headed to an elevator, which would take him to the ship's armoury.
"I'm going to get this suit cleaned." He replied. "I've been wearing it for several months now."
The Sangheili snorted.
The Spartan walked out of the room.
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Unknown location; January 14th, 2553
Around two dozen figures offloaded boxes after boxes. The room they did it in was illuminated by few lights. It was nearly impossible for the mission coordinator to see what exactly was going on. However, the workers had better eyes then him.
"We have nearly finished offloading the weapons, most noble Prophet." A brute informed the Prophet floating beside him.
"Do the Kig-yar have the supplies nessesary for the trade?" He asked quietly.
The Jiralhanae held up a quota.
"Yes, Holy One."
"Very good. I want to get out of here before the Galactic Alliance fleet starts snooping."
"We've offloaded 172 Crates of weapons, 230 Crates of ammunition, 2 Anti-Matter charges and three human nuclear weapons. The Kig-yar rebels have supplied us with sixteen tons of grians, two tons of fruits, and a tonne of haircare products."
The prophet sighed internally. Brutes required tons of haircare products to keep their fur in good shape. Very few will every think of cutting their fur, even to try fitting into their combat harnesses.
"Any speculation on remaining time?" He asked.
The brute turned and yelled something at a group of Brutes hefting some boxes into the ship. They shouted a reply in their native tongue.
"I estimate two more minutes." He finally replied.
"It's about time."
They were watching the operation from a balcony above the shipyard. The Kig-yar commander of the Rebellion here climbed up the ladder to the balcony.
"Our thanks, hierarch, for such magnificent weapons of war. These will be of great use to the cause." The Jackal said.
"Do you have a plan?" The prophet asked.
"Bomb some key cities with these weapons of mass destruction you have given us, then take out the army and seize the government, breaking off of the Galactic Alliance, finally bringing peace to the Kig-yar." The leader snarled, raising a hand in anticipation.
"You have no plans for the off world communication array?" The prophet asked.
"No... But it is unimportant to our pl-" The leader replied.
The hierarch raised a hand.
"The communication array is the key to this planet. If you do not take it, the Council of Queens will request help from the more powerful races of the GA. You and your rebels may be able to take on the Royal armies, but can you take an army of Humans and Sangeheili working with them?"
The Kig-yar paused.
"I was unaware the council could call upon military support." He replied.
"Well, they can. Take out the COM array, and then you'll just have to contend with the Kig-yar of this planet. And maybe even we'll send support of our own." The prophet replied.
The Kig-yar's eyes widened. Having Brutes and Drones supporting the rebellion would be a major asset, even if the GA did arrive.
"Thank you, noble one." He stammered, backing into a bow. "We make our move tomorrow."
"Very Good." The prophet replied. "We'll be waiting."
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Sim room, UNSC Spearhead of Dawn, January 29th,
Zhab snapped in annoyance as his lost shot broke the Elite's shields without injuring the Sangheili. The holographic beam rifle that the sim gave him was good, but nothing could truly replace his own little beauty.
He drew his backup, a modified plasma pistol with a sight and shot delay for accuracy. The simmed Elite drew an energy sword and charged at him. He snapped off several shots at the charging alien, but it was too late. The Sangheili swung the sword, and it cut straight through the Kig-yar's chest. A dull shook and paralysis from the waist down hit him.
He growled in anger for a second, then composed himself. This was the effect of the sim. Instead of cutting him open the Sangheili's blade would pas through him, giving him a mild shock and paralyzing him for the rest of the sim. The shock was not the main deterrent. It was the loss of pride upon getting taken down. It was a completive thing amongst the sim. They worked well as a team, but in Free-for-all survival, there was a definite pride thing about it.
This sim was of a human factory that was a bridge over a river getting overrun by Covenant on one side, and Flood on the other. Liyik and Limid were already downed, but they seemed to lack the mental capacity to care about pride, as when one went down, the other would often stop and start chatting with the down one, until he was downed or the sim ended.
They had been at this for only ten minutes, but this was easily the most hectic sim yet. On one side, the flood poured through smashed windows and doors, the other the Covenant poured in. In the center, they met. The majority of the fighting took place in the center, where the flood smashed into the Covvies without mercy, receiving none in return.
Jimaenius was on the top of a box of crates in the Covenant zone, raining down spikes from his rifle mercilessly, a brute shot strapped tightly to his back, but emptied. His combat harness resembled the ones that the Covenant loyalists had used at the end of the war, except that this one was marked in white. The occasional shots fired at the Jiralhanae were taken by the armor's shields.
The Spartan and the Sangeheili stood in the flood zone, back to back. Their rifles blared almost continuously, except for cooldown and reloading, in which they would melee any approaching enemies. They had a five meter circle of space between them and the flood. The flood seemed to have given up engaging them.
The hunters had participated in this sim as well, unusual as it was for them to do any combat. Impervious to flood infection, and clad in combat armor, their fuel rods blew apart attackers and their shields literally smashed combat forms to pieces. As the Kig-yar watched, one of them smashed through a tank form, sending pieces of the shattered biomass across the room.
Then the room froze. The flood and Covenant stopped moving. Only the actual living beings moved. Their weapons did not. Their armor did not either, as those were generated by the sim.
"Simulation suspended." The human AI said. "The Squad's presence has been requested on the bridge. We have received a message from the Admiral."
The simulation faded, leaving an empty white walled room. There was silence for a minute.
"Let us go." The Sangheili muttered. "I wonder if they've finally got a mission for us."
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The Squad marched onto the bridge. Cortana was waiting on the holotable, an image of the admiral frozen beside her. She looked vaguely curious. John took a seat, along with the rest of the Squad.
"Well, Cortana, What have we got?" He asked.
"This just came in, directed at us, shot through a slipspace cannon." She replied.
"Well then…" The Sangheili said. "Let it play."
Cortana snapped her fingers. The Admiral's image began to move as the recording started to play.
"Hello. This is a recording, so I'm not going to stop for you to reply… Anyway, there has been a rebellion on Eayn, the Kig-yar homeworld." He began.
Everyone turned to the Jackal in the bridge with them. He seemed unfazed by the news. In fact, he muttered that he had no love for Eayn. John tunred back to the message.
"-t approximately 23:42 SMT, January 15th, a small group of Kig-yar rebels attempted to seize Eayn's communication array. After a short firefight, they were driven away by the guards with minor loses on both sides. The rebels then made another attempt to seize the array a few hours later, this time driving away the Royal Guards. As you know, Kig-yar society is matriarchal, so the Council of Queens convened and made plans to respond. During the meeting, the rebels revealed that they had two anti-mater charges along with three HAVOK class nukes, and threatened major cities with bombing. The rebels revealed that they had a sizable army, roughly around 4 million altogether. They also had a large amount of arms." The Admiral paused to take a breath. "The Queens agreed on a course of action and, on the 17th, attacked the array, seizing the array, broadcasting to the Galactic Alliance that they were under attack and needed assistance. The Alliance Council received the message, and a course of action was decide upon. This course of action was a retaliatory strike force sent to Eayn to assist the Royal Army."
The Admiral snapped his fingers, revealing another video, which immediately began to play. It was a news broadcast for the GA, being given by a woman.
"Three hours ago, Word reached that the Kig-yar homeworld of Eayn had been attacked by rebels who were attempting to seize the planet. The council of the GA has decided that military action will be taken, and a 40,000 strong task force has been prepared to depart for Eayn from Sangheilios. This force will consist of 10,000 humans, 10,000 Sangheili and 20,000 Unggoy, and a fleet of 10 ships." She announced.
It seemed as though the news was being broadcast in every single language at once, but only one language at once. It was difficult to explain. The scene switched to a Sangheili who was missing two of his jaws on the left of his face.
"R'tas?" Thel asked.
"We have the leader of the task force, High Fleetmaster R'tas Vadum." The newswoman said, and it switched to the Sangheili talking.
"This is the first joint mission of the Galactic Alliance. The Kig-yar are the mappers of the trade routes for the Alliance. We will not abandon them. At my command, the fleet will depart for Eayn, to victory!" He yelled, and the scene switched back to the newswoman.
"The fleet is set to depart very soon. We will have constant updates for you on the campaign." She said.
The Scene faded back to the Admiral. He was silent for a few seconds, then continued.
"That was on the 18th. Our mistake was limited by the lack of information we'd received from Eayn, we had no idea how large the rebel army actually was. We'd sent 40,000 to Eayn. The Royal Guard and rebels each numbered around 4 million soldiers each. The Rebels have a fleet as well, and they fought the Eayn defence fleet, defeating them with around 13 ships remaining. Our fleet arrived on the 19th at 16:47 SMT. We deployed immediately, dropping pods, along with dropships. The fleet engaged the rebel fleet. Both were around equally matched. Our forces arrived on the surface and made great headway against Kig-yar resistance, with around 5,000 casualties for us and 60,000 for them. The Unggoy suffered the most casualties. Our forces moved to free the array, allowing communications off world. They meet up with around 75,000 memebers of the Kig-yar Royal Army, and then marched on the array, however, they were intercepted by a rebel army of 200,000 on the 21st. Despite heavy casualties, we beat of the army and captured the array. We had around 4568 remaining following the battle. The Royal Army had around 15,984 remaining, but the rebels had lost 183,000. It was a costly victory. Since the battle, we have been stuck on the defensive. The GA Council is still in deliberation on what to do next. The fleet has been severely reduced, having only three ships left, but having destroyed the enemy fleet. However, the ships are too damaged to be of any use to the armies below."
"But, who's arming them?" Jimaenius, the Brute, asked.
As though reading the Jiralhanae's mind, the Admiral answered the question.
"We sent several spies into Eayn to find out where they were getting armed from. We revealed that the rebels were being armed by the Covenant Loyalists. We tracked fleet of their own, hiding out in the Eayn system, arming the rebels and preparing to take their own strike. So, your mission simple. Disable the Loyalist fleet and stop them from arming the rebels, for as long as possible. This will give the Council time to form up fleet an launch an attack against the rebels. How you disable this is up to you. This message was sent on the 29th." The Admiral finished, and his message faded.
John scratched his chin. The mission was given. He turned to the Squad behind him. He grinned slightly.
"Everyone, get your gear, and let's go." He ordered.
Thel turned to Cortana.
"Fire up the slipspace drive and take us to the Eayn system." He told her.
"Aye." She replied, and space in front of the Frigate distorted.
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Eayn System, in orbit of planet ES IV, 30th of January 2553, 1:57 SMT
The Prophet watched as his fleet moved over the surface of the planet below. Thruf, it was called. The planet was brown and heavily cratered. Their time to jump was almost nigh. The GA wouldn't wait forever before they sent reinforcements.
"Prepare for slipspace jump!" He barked over the intraship com.
He listened to the responses from the fleet. All were affirmative. The Brutes all around the bridge tapped the buttons of the Bridge, preparing for the jump. The ships of the fleet began to glow slightly as the slipspace capacitors charged.
"30%" A brute reported.
"Good." The Prophet said, his fingers aligning.
There was a sudden humming around the bridge. Several brutes jumped in shock.
"What is that?" The prophet asked in annoyance.
"Some kind of signature… Slipspace signals!" Yelled a Brute.
"Slipspace rupture detected!" Another one yelled.
A flash in the distance appeared. The Prophet squinted. A ship exploded out of slipspace. The ship accelerated towards the fleet.
"It's a human ship! Headed straight for us!" A brute yelled.
"Hard to starboard!" The prophet yelled. "All ships, charge weapons!"
The battlecruiser veered to the right as the human ship veered to their left. It was too close. The two ships shields collided. The battlecruiser rumbled.
"Shields at 66%!" A brute screamed. "The human ship has shields, too!"
The prophet swore. "Cancel the jump and destroy the humans!"
The fleet opened fire. The human ship was all too pleased to spit back. The Covenant loyalists had a fleet of around 30 ships, including 2 CAS class assault carriers and 24 CCS class battlecruiser.
Torpedoes from the Covenant whizzed towards the human ship, which fired dozens of torpedoes of its own. It was a single ship, it easily dodged the fire spat at it. The human torpedoes slammed into shields, breaking them and tearing hulls asunder.
"The Loyal Faith is down!" The Brute on the sensors yelled. "So is Our Quiet Solace!"
Ventral beams and lasers shot through space, slamming into the human ship's shields. The human ship suddenly turned to the right and fired its main cannon directly into one of the Carriers. It struck in the bridge between the main body and bulbous nose. A mighty explosion split the deck, and the ship was ripped in half. A hush grew over the COM and the bridge as the fleet watched the 5.3km ship slowly blow itself apart. The human ship pulled away from the fleet, attempting it's escape, the prophet assumed.
"Follow them! Catch them, Break them! For the Direct Fervor!" He yelled.
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The Spearhead of Dawn, Thruf, 2:00 SMT, January 20th
The Squad watched the battle from the bridge. The team was kitted out with their gear. Their armor and weapons gleamed. Cortana suddenly pulled the ship to the right. The SMAC charged. She fired into the bridge of the CAS class in front of her. The ship exploded before them. The Spearhead pulled up and began to distance themselves from the fleet. The Squad watched as the ship closed on the planets.
"Let's go." The Master Chief said, and the Squad headed for the hangar bay at the bottom of the ship.
Cortana watched them on the sensors. The Covenant fleet accelerated after them. The Squad climbed on a modified longsword, which had shields and lasers. The enemy fleet closed on the ship. Cortana was letting them, of course. The Captain (The Arbiter) had given her orders to jam the Covenant's COMs with the planet to mask the Squads arrival as the longsword descended. First, however, they had to survive the crossfire. The longsword lifted off. She sent a final COM.
"Good luck."
The longsword blasted out of the hangar… and turned into the maelstrom of the battle above the planet.
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So, No reviews… ah well. We recently 1000 reads, so thanks, people.