All halo ships have been sized up to 2.65 scale according to the Installation 00 corrected Scaling video.
This is my first rewrite, which I felt was needed because the first chapter kinda needed some stuff to it. I'll leave this one as a separate chapter for now so that people can compare it before I delete the original. A lot of stuff didn't make sense with the first and had a lot of grammar and story issues so a lot of stuff was changed. Please review this so I can improve this rewrite.
Chapter 1: Contact
July 12th, 2561. (1822) 6:22 PM
UNSC Planet of Charis.
Perseus Arm Exploratory sector.
The rain drummed heavily upon the humble coastal city of Rozvadze, one of the few ten cities in the UNSC's far outlying colony. After the war ended, the Perseus arm (just above Orion's arm) of the Milky Way began colonization after the war had ended in conjunction with the Sanghelli who offered their aid. While its other sister planets had much more impressive industries than it, they all depended on its agricultural exports.
As the sun fell, leaving a bright violet glow on the horizon as a heavy downpour fell on one of the UNSC Army squads which patrolled the city, for dangers such as the recent Banished raids as the sounds of heavy raindrops fell upon their cold greyish-green helmets. Corporal (CPL) Cameron, the leader of the squad, watched as a small group of kids played in the street near Cameron and his squad. From the time he was stationed there, he had gotten to know them as the Kováč kids, who had easily proved to him as single-handedly the most hyper group of kids of all time.
Cameron couldn't help smiling though; his kids were similar though nowhere near as hyper. The moment they spotted his squad, they rushed toward them. Chattering their ears off and playing with the soldiers as they marched in step with them. After a good while, the storm had noticeably picked up with the night. The UNSC Army troopers returned the kids to their father. The father, much like the kids, spoke rapidly as he shook everyone's hands.
"Thank you, I hope they weren't a bother," he said in a thick Slavic accent.
One of Cam's men nodded, "No problem just doing what we can for the community, these kids of yours, they're good kids you know that?"
The father chuckled, "I know but you should have seen what they got up to last week," he joked
"I think we all saw that," Cameron laughed, "Well it's been a pleasure, but we ought to get going,"
The man nodded as he shut his door. Not shortly after they left, Cameron spotted something. Up in the dark sky and clouds, a bright light shone through. Orange and violent it broke the cloud cover as it headed towards the city.
Cam enjoyed the peace. He remembered signing up to fight during the war. What got him to fight was the destruction of Reach. It was home, where he grew up, and now where the glassed remains of his family lay. Of course, that had been many years ago.
Cameron's radio crackled to life, a faint static with it, "All unit's head south to the waypoint marker, caution is advised, reports indicate an alien craft of unknown origin or tags, possible Banished ship. ETA in 14 minutes"
Alderaan system.
BBY 0
After minutes of long confusion over the sudden presence of a moon-sized space station and an entire Imperial fleet. An eerie green glow flew past Keissa's CR90 Corvette in the form of a beam. Keissa had been part of the Alderaanian shipping economy and was a young captain of 28.
Keissa in fearful recognition muttered, "What in the-"
A shockwave violently rocked the ship. A bright white glow flooded her window from behind. Large chunks of rock flew past her as the Corvette sped up.
In as little as a few seconds, her home had been obliterated right before her. Her whole family and bloodline were wiped out without a trace. Her kids and husband lost to the Empire. She stared out into the cold void of space surrounded by rubble.
The ship rumbled again, snapping Keissa out of her daze, "What'd just hit us?"
A symphony of chaos erupted throughout her cockpit crew, "Turbolasers ma'am! The Empire, they're firing on us! Shields down to 50%! The others are turning on us!"
Sure enough, once the other two nearby ISDs cleaned up the other fleeing ship, they turned toward her. Turbolaser on top of turbolaser slammed onto the ship's shields and soon its hull ripped out vital chunks of durasteel from the ship.
"Ma'am COMS are down! Sub-light engines failing! Hyperdrive receiving damage!" her copilot exclaimed
In a few seconds, maybe around half a minute, she and the rest of her crew would be destroyed. Little choice remained. A hyperspace jump had to be made despite their lack of calculations.
The CR90 Corvette sped past the Imperial blockade.
"Damn!" Imperial Admiral Voss cursed as he slammed his fist.
"Do we have their hyperdrive trail?" he asked one of his subordinates.
One of the bridge officers nodded, "Their hyperdrive was damaged heavily, we've got a good chance at catching them,"
CR90 Corvette APRICIVE VI
Something had pulled the Apricive VI out of hyperspace. The blue streaks of hyperspace faded to a reddish glow as the ship exited forcibly. In front of them was a majestic sight. An artificial ringworld stretched out before them. Its surface was covered in a lush green with sprawling mountains and oceans before it. Its grand scale dropped Keissa's jaw. Despite it feeling incredibly advanced it seemed ancient in a way, a sort of majestic grandeur about it.
In its center, a vast dark orb of some kind rested. It glowed a visible blue to it with elegant streaks of energy traversing it.
Keissa in open amazement asked, "What is that?"
"I have no idea, but that thing in the center seems to be some type of wormhole," one of her cockpit crew said.
"Ma'am I'm detecting hyperspace signatures behind us!" another interjected.
Keissa nodded, "Engage thrusters, that wormhole might be our only hope," she ordered.
Behind them, the Imperial fleet chased after them. The Admiral on board the lead ISD watched as the strange black hole consumed the corvette.
"Admiral Voss!" One of the young officers on board yelled.
The Admiral glared at the officer, "Lower your tone officer, I expect a certain discipline to be kept,"
"My apologies but I'm detecting signals from that Corvette inside the anomaly,"
Voss turned surprised by the young officer's statement, "You mean they survived!?"
"It would appear so indeed," He replied nervously.
"Then follow them into the anomaly, we cannot allow them to survive, for their existence is a crime against the order of the Empire! Send word out to my superiors and our coordinates," Admiral Voss commanded.
At his command, the three ISDs accelerated to a high speed as they approached the rift in space-time. Their edges now touching the black void causing a wave of energized blue to light up upon the Star Destroyer soon engulfing every part of the ship.
Milky Way Galaxy, Above the Planet Charis
July 12th, 2560.
The tattered, barely functioning Corvette used the last of its fuel and thrusters to crash land on the alien planet. Molecules of air compressed under its speeding size quickly burning around it in a display of violent red before the ship's thrusters managed to slow it down before it burnt up. The ground neared closer by the second as the Corvette continued forward on its descent. Finally, at a 10° angle, it tore up the dirt around it, sending it high into the air. The durasteel bent and groaned as parts of the ship ripped from it until it finally slowed to a stop.
Keissa looked to her left as she struggled to get to her feet and she began to notice a slow steady warm trinkle flow down. To the left of Keissa, a slow quiet groan was let out. Keissa slowly looked to the left, one of her co-pilots was impaled by a sharp beam of blood-stained durasteel. Keissa felt sick in her stomach as she looked. Elsewhere the others didn't seem to be breathing.
Staggered, she made her way to the airlock. The corridor was pitch black only illuminated by her flashlight. The floor grew wet with water until she reached the end of the corridor or at least part of it. The CR90 had ripped into two, and Keissa could see the other side which held on through a few wires and plates. A flash of light illuminated the vessel briefly followed by a thundering crack.
Around the ship a small group of survivors remained, numbering 29.
"Boss! We were worried you didn't make it," he exclaimed.
"What is that?" she inquired.
"I don't know, maybe help?"
"I wouldn't count on it," she remarked gravely.
As the noise grew, they could see the groups of wheeled vehicles that were heading towards them. They came to a stop and with the clacketing of boots. The soldiers who came out of the vehicles were definitely not Imperial judging by their appearance but were wary of them as they pointed their weapons at them. Keissa and her crew quickly raised their blasters in response. Shouting was exchanged between the two as tensions rose.
"Lower your weapons or we will shoot!" a soldier yelled
"Kriff that! We'll lower ours if you lower yours!"
One of the troopers lowered his weapon to defuse the situation quickly followed by the others. Keissa nodded to her crew as they reluctantly lowered theirs as well.
The trooper who defused the situation introduced himself as CPL Cameron of the UNSC Army.
Keissa took his hand and shook it, "Captain Keissa Embitian of Alderaan,"
"Alderaan? Never heard of it, how'd you get here?" Cameron puzzled.
"I'll have to explain that later, my people need medical aid,"
The Alderaanians were quickly transported to the city's hospital by the UNSC's many warthogs and ambulances, while Keissa was treated quickly and taken to Fort Campbell which was relatively close to the city. The city itself was modest and built onto hills that supported low-rise buildings with an occasional skyscraper or two on it. Once they crossed the bay, the urban environment gave way to rural golden hills until they finally reached the fort.
Escorted by the troops, Keissa limped forward. Many squads of various UNSC personnel patrolled the fort while others sat and cleaned their gear. All of them perked their eyes up at the bruised civilian coming through. A faint murmur rang out between them as she entered the colonel's office.
His office was simple and rather neat, making it all very minimalistic in a way. In front of her was simply a clean desk, a wooden chair, and the colonel who had been sitting down waiting for her arrival.
The man who appeared to be in his 40s reached out with his hand, "Colonel Ivanov at your service, I trust my men have treated you and your crew properly?" he asked.
Keissa nodded as she shook his hand.
"Where are we?" she said looking around the office and specifically the window.
"That would be Charis, UNSC Perseus Exploratory Sector Colony,"
"UNSC? Perseus Sector? I've never heard of that," she stated
"You're human are you not?" He responded in confusion
"Why yes, but I'm from Alderaan," she cleared
"My men told me that, but what and where exactly is Alderaan? I haven't seen logs of it anywhere,"
"It's not that unknown, it's one of the core worlds, an important part of the Imperial Senate, don't you know?"
Ivanov rubbed his forehead, "Core worlds? Imperial senate? You've lost me here, Campbell bring up a map,"
An artificial voice sprung up inside the room, confirming his request as a map appeared on a screen on top of his desk.
Keissa looked hard but couldn't find any recognition through the map. It simply did not match, no planets she recognized, nor any formations, systems, landmarks, or stars seemed similar.
"Oh dear," she muttered
"What?"
"I don't think I'm from here,"
The colonel looked at her with a small twinge of doubt before a wave of bewilderment flashed through his face.
"Tell me, how did you get here?"
Milky Way Galaxy
July 12th BBY 0
Within a strange ring in space, a light emerged from a steady rift in space-time. From it, a trio of Star Destroyers emerged with a swarm of TIE fighters by their side. The first thing Voss noticed was his shipboard's readings which made no visible sense to him. He'd have to find out about that later, but for now, that had to finish their pursuit. A trail seemed to continue forward and without a word, the ship continued into hyperspace toward some unknown planet, most likely habitable.
UNSC Fort Campbell (1932) 7:32 PM
"… And that's when we found the ring world and a portal, which brought us here,"
COL Ivanov nodded in understanding, "I'm sorry about what happened to Alderaan,"
Keissa's eyes had been watering talking about Alderaan. In the doorway, a few UNSC Troopers stood before her.
"These men will escort you and your people out of here to Novgorod, where we can get you to Earth," COL Ivanov explained.
Keissa wiped her tears out of her eyes, "That would be good," she whispered as she got up and left.
Ivanov looked towards Campbell, their AI which was of a similar model to AUNTIE DOT from Reach, "Did you record that?"
"Affirmative, would you like me to send this out to command?"
Ivanov confirmed, "There're going to want to hear about this."
"On it sir- There seems to be a problem."
Ivanov looked at the AI curiously
"Our long ranged signals have been jammed alongside a number of the civilian radio broadcasts. I'm also detecting multiple unknown energy signatures above us," she continued robotically.
Unknown planet
July 12th BBY 0
The fleet of three emerged out of hyperspace in front of a planet. Stretched out around it were great oceans and sprawling continents which seemed to glow with a warm gold all the while wispy clouds hovered lazily around. Between them and the planet, two ugly ships stood. They were similar in size though smaller. Other than that, they were pure opposites of Imperial design philosophies. Their lines were brutish and blocky, unlike the smooth angularity of the ISD's design. It was shaped like a cannon with two little "wings" attached to it.
"Open up our coms," Admiral Voss said to which the crew immediately complied.
"This is the Rear Admiral Voss of the Galactic Empire. Do you read?"
The Coms crackled before the Admiral. "Yes, I read this is Rear Admiral Kenny of the UNSC NAVY at your service,"
"I suspect that a wanted Corvette has landed on your planet. I would like some information about their location."
"Look we don't know anything, I think you might be mistaken."
"I think you do know, perhaps you are even harboring them. We know this because their hyperdrive trail leads directly to this planet. But I am a reasonable man by my standards and willing to make concessions," Voss replied
"So, what do you suggest? Kenny cautiously inquired
"A simple meeting, onboard our ship," Voss suggested.
Onboard the UNSC Martyr's Resolve, Admiral Kenny considered his options. This was clearly a first contact situation but much already seemed to go wrong right away. From the word groundside, these guys weren't exactly friendly. He had already pissed them off by lying. Still, it was salvageable in Kenny's eyes.
Slowly the Paris-Class shifted forward to the ISD and once they were stationary with each other, one of the D77-TC Pelicans launched from the ship and docked with the Arrowhead-shaped ship. The RADM stepped out greeted by a battalion of white-plated soldiers and a single man in a naval dress uniform, who Kenny assumed was Voss. By his side, a squad of armored troopers clad in reflective black stood at the ready menacingly.
With Kenny, several ODSTs stood on standby as his guards alongside some marines.
Fluorescent lighting surrounded the halls and ceilings of the ship, Kenny noticed as he walked forward. One of the officers pointed to a room where Kenny and Voss would sit down around the table. Any weapons were not allowed inside the conference room, causing Kenny to give up his weapons while the Imperial and UNSC soldiers stood just outside the door
"What do you propose?" Kenny asked as settled himself into his chair
"Simple really, if you continue to harbor those fugitives, I will burn your ship, then every last person on this planet will burn alongside the Alderaanians." Voss stated arrogantly.
Kenny was tempted to punch the smug sonuvabitch in his mouth, "While I don't appreciate that last remark, I see no reason to start a war over this matter. But I ask what exactly did they do?"
The Imperial admiral hesitated "... Let's just say they were planning a terrorist plot,"
Kenny raised his eyebrow in questioning but ignored it, "So let's just say I accept, what happens from there?"
The Imperial admiral smiled, "Then this system will be annexed as an Imperial sector, meaning stability, control, and protection through the Imperial military, once you affirm your loyalty of course,"
At those words Kenny knew this wasn't going to work out, "I'm afraid I'll have to decline on that, but we'll still handover those fugitives if it means peace between our governments,"
The admiral seemed offended by Kenny's remarks, "Why exactly not?"
"Because what you just told me, essentially meant conquest," Kenny rebuked.
"If you refuse then it shall be a conquest, any blood shed will be on your hands," The Imperial defended.
Tensions began to rise between the two admirals as they both began to grip their weapons, which they had both concealed, tightly. Both pointed at each other.
Underneath the table, the Imperial reached for his communicator.
CLICK!
Immediately muffled blaster fire rang outside the room's door, silencing the UNSC forces.
"Bastard!" Kenny roared as he and Voss discharged their weapons at the same time.
Kenny felt an excruciating surge of white-hot pain as the smell of smoke filled his nostrils. At the same time though the Admiral clutched his sides before he collapsed over, somehow barely breathing. As Kenny made his way out of the door, a squad of black reflective armor troopers stared at him with their green-tinted visors. Their figures grew blurry to Kenny as he stood. With one step he could barely stand before he collapsed onto the floor
UNSC Lone Wolf.
Captain Cooper listened as Kenny's audio played out in real-time. They had been tricked, backstabbed, and possibly bamboozled.
"Oh my God!" someone cried as the gunfight played out.
As Kenny's death happened, Cooper snarled, "They killed Kenny! Those bastards!"
The UNSC Martyr's Resolve quickly came under fire by the Imperial ships within minutes of Kenny's death. The combined ISD's turbo lasers bombarded the Martyr within seconds. Onboard the lead ISD, the newly appointed admiral smiled as the UNSC ship ripped apart its debris flying off wildly.
"Sir, I am detecting major energy spikes from the other ship!" cried one of his officers.
"At this range!?" yelled the rear admiral, "Take evasive manu-!"
To the left of the admiral, the ISD accompanying them exploded as an orange-whitish streak tore through its hull. The tungsten rod accelerated to a lethal velocity and cut through the ship like butter. Its pure kinetic energy erupted in a massive explosion of sparks as the screeching hunk of metal made its way toward the engine. Massive plates of durasteel were sent out to the void of space. The ship finally ripped apart in one great explosion which lit up the bridge of the admiral.
"By the force! What just hit them!" the admiral exclaimed in wide amazement.
"Sir apparently by our readings, they were just hit by a mass driver," one of the pit technicians reported.
"You mean to tell me, that one of the finest ships of the Imperial navy was gutted out by a lowly, primitive, mass driver?" he intoned.
The rear admiral immediately ordered that all ships were to put up their particle shields. Perhaps those mass drivers would have a tougher time going through these.
"Set engines at full thrust!" the admiral said.
He then turned to one of his officers, "What's our ETA to engagement range?" he questioned
"Approximately about two minutes sir," the officer responded.
The two Star Destroyers advanced quickly closing the approximate 10,000km gap between them. The anxiety throughout the bridge was immense, they'd seen what that ship had done and at any second it could fire.
"Sir one minute left to ETA,"
One of the officers interjected "Wait... Sir we're seeing a massive energy spike!"
A MAC round impacted the second ship, its particle shields had just managed to deflect it before losing power.
"Sir, readings indicate a lower powered charge!"
Within 30-45 seconds a second round hit the second ISD, its metal composition slid through the top of the ship, gashing a line into the ship and decapitating its bridge deck from its neck in a silent explosion.
"Karabast! How much longer until ETA!" the admiral scowled.
"Few more seconds... NOW!" shouted one of the crew.
"Fire at will!"
The Star Destroyer let loose a volley of turbolasers upon the ship which impacted its Covenant-adapted shields. Each hit sent out sparks of blue and gold energy. The Star Destroyer shrugged off a shot from the ship, which dropped its shields, as it continued its barrage. A final shot exited from the UNSC ship and with a short flash the great Imperial Star Destroyer ceased to exist.
A swarm of TIE Fighters were just arriving at their destination when behind them their capital ship exploded into nothingness.
"Those Kriffing bastards!" One of the pilots cursed.
The tie fighters swarmed the Lone Wolf as point gun defenses launched. The 50mm rounds shredded through the tie fighter's plating. Multiple windows were painted red with blood as the bullets littered their stomachs with holes.
"What the... they're using slugs!?"
The radio chatter was chaotic as the confusion set in. They launched their bombs and retreated as the "slugs" ravaged their ships. The proton bombs tore open the hull sending great chunks flying. In return, multiple archer missiles ended the threat as they destroyed the rest of the fighters.
UNSC Lone Wolf
The entire crew cheered as they took down the last fighter. Still, the captain of the Lone Wolf nodded calmly, not being overtaken by emotion.
"Damage report?" asked the captain
"Shields are offline with hull integrity at an average of 34%, with the most notable damage done to the bow of the ship. The mid-section was heavily weakened by enemy fighters but still holding up," reported the dumb AI Campbell.
"Damn that was close," the captain remarked, "Send a slipstream packet to HQ. They are going to want to hear about this,"
"On it s- energy signature detected; Imperial signature detected, Imperial -," she said tone decreasing with every word.
In front of Cooper, a large armada appeared one by one. Easily outnumbering the damaged UNSC ship.
UNSC Fort Campbell.
The alarm blared as it covered the halls in a red hue as Cameron and Keissa ran through the base.
"Please evacuate the station to the nearest bunker. This is not a drill. Pleas-"
The CPL pulled aside one of his men who was heading towards the hallway to the left, "What the hell is going on, private?" he shouted.
"Sir didn't you hear? We've lost the Martyr's Resolve and Lone Wolf," exclaimed the private.
"It's the Empire they've come for us!" Keissa declared panickily.
"Come on! The Pelicans are just over there," Cameron shouted as he pointed towards the door.
As they exited the dark hallway into the storming weather, a screeching howling sound reverberated throughout the rainfall. Bright streams of green bolts appeared from thin air, assailing the UNSC's Pelicans as they took off.
Cameron ran as one by one the Pelicans were destroyed by the lasers. Pulling Keissa with him they almost made it to the last one when several bright red globs of energy streaked toward the Pelican. On contact, the Pelican blew apart as the warmth of explosion crossed the corporal's face.
"Look!" Keissa said as she pointed up.
The rain had suddenly stopped as Cameron observed the Imperial fleet breach the clouds. Their dark silhouettes blocked out the stars above.
Suddenly a Warthog pulled up to them. It was the same private that they had run into, "Sir, get in!" he shouted.
Cameron nodded as he hopped into turret position with Keissa settled in the passenger seat. Up above the Star Destroyers began firing. A mix of heavy and light turbolaser razed down the city, ensuring no Alderaanians remained.
Elsewhere on the planet most of the major forts were destroyed along with any of their assigned urban centers.
Driving quickly the Warthog had dodged the onslaught of the devastating bombardment. Far behind them, several Warthogs succumbed to bombardment as vast swaths of dirt flew up into the air. Only four Warthogs made it out.
Suddenly a twin pair of viridescent green lasers collided with one of the Warthogs, sending it flying. Its burnt husk flew through the air in front of Cameron's warthog which swerved wildly to avoid it.
Cameron's turret swerved around and fired at the approaching TIE fighters as they fired bursts of lethal plasma toward him. The 12.7x99mm rounds ricocheted at the durasteel before piercing through. The bullets tore apart the TIE fighter as he slumped over against his controls, causing them to shift left. The dying starfighter crashed into the other, taking it down. In a fury, the other TIE pilots shot down the other Warthogs with ease. Cameron's own Warthog took a hit to the left side and tumbled to the right.
The TIE fighters flew overhead as Cameron and Keissa crawled their way out of the burning wreckage. To the side of them was the private. Cameron rolled over the private only to find the left side of him burned off, his remaining flesh grafted onto his bones.
"Jesus..." he muttered weakly.
Both Cameron and Keissa soon collapsed.
Cold
Wet
Dirt
Light?
Cameron's eyes fluttered open as he awoke to the sight of several white-clad soldiers, their faces obscured by their helmets. They were dragging him to some large 10-wheeled vehicle, its white headlights beamed down uncomfortably into his eyes. To the left of him, Keissa was dragged along the dirt unconsciously. Cameron weakly kicked against their grasp to no avail. Once he was on the ship, he had begun to see some familiar faces. There Ivanov's second in command stood.
"He didn't make it did it?" Cameron somberly asked. The second in command nodded slowly. The transport bumped along the scorched dirt as up ahead a quickly built FOB appeared. They made it the outside of the FOB where about 32 UNSC personnel were shoved along in a line to a freshly dug trench. Quickly the Stormtroopers lined up, prepared to fire on them. So, this was it Cam thought. After a few hours, the surviving civilians were brought in to watch the execution. Each of them was shaken by the destruction of their city. The Stormtrooper shoved the prisoners into a neat little line so that they would land in the trenches properly.
"Any last words, scum?" one of them taunted as he prodded Cameron
"Fuck you," Cam said looking up at the dark black visors.
The Stormtrooper paused in momentary confusion.
"Yeah, go back to hell ya pansy ass bitches!" an older Irish trooper yelled.
Immediately all of the UNSC soldiers began launching foul curses at the faceless troopers. The Stormtroopers were all confused at these foreign yet clearly insulting words.
Keissa turned to the Stormtrooper, "I think what they mean is die you Fierfe-"
She never got to finish it as the Stormtroopers fired on them. Leaving them with golf ball-sized holes and burns on their bodies. The downpour seemed to stop by this time, instead of being replaced by ashes and smoke. Almost all of the city was destroyed only a small church had somehow managed to survive. Craters littered the site.
Elsewhere the planet had been relatively unscathed from the bombardment, but where once a city stood an ugly collection of blackened craters resided. The smoke thrown from the bombardment coated the planet, changing its once clear night sky into a hazy hellhole.