"This is insane..."
"I know, right?!"
"It accurately matches the reports and what I heard from John and Cortana, at least..."
Halsey was now playing through what was (chronologically) the last 'Game' in the series. Halo 3. She had found several discrepancies in the games, but the direction through which the games went was still accurate. The entire 'story' of the main three, with the necessary air-quotes, followed John's and Cortana's adventures post-Reach and through into the last stages of the War as known to the UNSC, although the record was...
She paused, watching as 343 Guilty Spark's beam of energy shot out of its burning eye, melting Johnson's chest wide open. Although the fidelity of the graphics was questionable, the ensuing fight between the Arbiter, Chief(Halsey's player character) and their little Forerunner enemy. The lancing beams of light, the Spartan Laser's two blasts, the death of the orb and its explosion... And the final moment between the Chief and Johnson. All of it was followed by the eerily-accurate rendition of what fans of the game had dubbed 'The Warthog Run'.
She blinked, setting the controller down after finishing the run, then said, "Some bits and pieces were a little overblown, as per standard with most of the games," as she jotted down notes into her tablet, "Else, the reports match John's description of the situation. The only game with severe discrepancies I myself can confirm is 'Reach'. The Covenant assault had already begun not too long after Noble Team was deployed to seek out the missing Troopers and encountered the Zealots, Carter's death was on the ground, by Emile's side after the injuries he had sustained, Jorge... Well, that part I can confirm from a mission report and the Cortana fragment? It was not powerful enough to show its own Avatar. It was just data."
"Huh," Shino raised a brow, "So, what you're saying is that the most accurate renditions of your stories are the original trilogy? And what of Wars? Anything you can tell me about that one?" And she saw the doctor shake her head. She took her glasses off and rubbed her eyes, to which Shino looked toward her windows, which were covered by curtains. Pulling them aside, the woman was surprised to see that, instead of daylight outside, the street lamps of the base had been turned on alongside lights within the buildings themselves.
Halsey yawned, then said, "Yet more questions to answer and so little time... I will read the three books you brought over tomorrow," before standing up and turning to leave. She looked to Shino from the door, stating, "I appreciate the chance of playing these games, Sergeant Kuribayashi. It's... Interesting, to say the least. Perhaps, in the future, these games will serve as a sort of memorial for our people as well, in regards to the sacrifices our best made to protect them."
"Sure hope so," Shino smirked, "Take care, doc, good night."
Halsey nodded, then departed, leaving Shino to her own thoughts. Well, first of all, that was freaking impressive. For Halsey's age, the woman had incredible hand-eye coordination, enough so that she kept up with most of the games. The only sections she was surprised by, understandably enough, were the Flood sections, so the lattermost parts of the games, when things were really heating up.
She smirked, then bobbed her head left to right. She'd gotten frickin' Doctor Catherine E. Halsey to play videogames about her totally-not-son's adventures during the waning months of the Human-Covenant War. That was possibly the most surreal experience the young woman had ever gone through. Also probably the most amazing one. Well, no, that would be meeting the Master Chief himself.
She changed out of her uniform into her sleepwear and plopped herself down on her bed, a smirk on her face as she wondered just how the boys and girls of the UNSC were gonna be while working with'em. As she leaned back and prepared to fall asleep, her thoughts went to the wounded, as well as the newcomers. The elves, the mages, the people of that village and the 'Apostle' of this place's God of War. This was gonna be an experience.
As the morning came, the aforementioned Apostle continued her trek through the base, watching as what was called the United States Marine Corps and the UN Peacekeeping Forces were welcoming the civilians into their temporary abodes. Constructs of metal stood, aligned in rows, behind fencing that had a three-language sign written in English, local Latin with the proper characters and the third language, Japanese, that of the SDF. It read 'Temporary refugee quarters' and had several smaller symbols below it, including the symbol for 'plumbing'. What an endearing subject that had been to discuss with the UNSC's engineers.
She watched as a pair of green-clad soldiers of the Russian Military passed by. Younger men, these ones were Privates, the lowest rank of soldier. Both were talking, the UN straps on their shoulders shimmering blue in the sunlight. One of them noticed Rory, then gave a friendly smile and a quick salute which she returned in kind. She had complained about the Russian troops, admittedly, but not all of them were pigs. Most were just normal youngsters, looking at what must've been the adventure of their lifetimes.
She paused as she saw the Marines belonging to the US being assisted by one of Third Platoons Warrior Bunny attaches with translation. She was guiding a gaggle of civilians to their assigned sleeping quarters, pointing at them and the likes. Two of the refugees approached her. A young elf woman with blonde hair, blue eyes and a standard High Elf green outfit and another with aquamarine, chin-length hair, robes and a staff.
Hodolew's daughter and a newfound friend, it seemed. A mage girl one of the UNSC Marines had rescued from a stampeding horse. The Warrior Bunny turned toward them, shifting her MA37 assault rifle onto her back via the strap, its barrel pointed down at the floor, but not touching it. She then smiled and spoke to them while the Marine beside her continued to give guidance to the civilians.
She approached the compound where the civilians were being kept, then heard the chop-chop-chop-chop of rotor blades. Gazing up, she saw a black-colored helicopter heading off on patrol from the local airfield. Above them, a few other choppers also ran a patrol pattern, several of them armed with rotary cannons resembling those she had seen on most of the UNSC's gunships.
She hummed, then turned as her thoughts wandered on just how both variations of Earth fought their wars. Driven to such brutality without honor. She sighed, then walked toward the officer guiding the refugees and said, "Lieutenant Torres. I see you're busy," which caused the man to turn toward her. His lips became razor thin as his eyes grew somewhat wider.
"Oh, hey, Apostle," He nodded, slightly concerned, "Yeah, we were just guiding the Civvies for now."
"I hope Renate is behaving," She smirked, then looked over to the Bunny-girl with the ash-colored hair. She stood ramrod straight all of a sudden, her words stuck in her throat as she turned to face Rory. Two dark-green eyes locked onto the woman, who simply offered a smirk and teased the girl, speaking in Latin, "Are you, my girl? I would hate to give a bad impression to our allies to be."
"I am, Your Holiness..." She squeaked out, slightly embarrassed.
Rory chuckled, "Understood..." then she turned to face the two girls who were in the place. Both of them waved at Rory, slightly surprised. She said to them, again, in Latin, "Stay calm, ladies. I am certain you are in good hands here. And Tuka, where is your father? I have something to talk to him about in regards to your people's stay in this military camp."
"Father is currently talking to the Council," She replied, smiling, "Said he would go engage in talks with the general commanding this place."
"I hope he intends to behave as well," Rory quipped, which garnered a chuckle out of the Elf girl. Rory then looked to the girl and asked, "Who are you, then, mage student of the village of Coda?" before watching the young girl register her.
"I am Lelei La Lelena, Your Holiness," She replied, "Temporary pupil to Cato El Altestan."
"I presume you are from Rondel, are you not?" Rory inquired. The girl nodded affirmatively, to which Rory smirked. The group then heard the rumble of engines and wheels against the road. Coming out from the motorpool was a squad of three vehicles. Resembling boxes, with several angles including on the forward hull of the vehicle, with thick windows and four seats, plus a machine gunner in a reinforced turret, with a large trunk that also had an angled armor plate as its cover and with a massive bumper and powerful lights, US High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles, or simply Humvees, rolled forward. The middle Humvee carried a Mark-19 automatic grenade launcher in the turret, while the other two carried fifty cals.
"Seems like HOUNDEYE-3's going out for their own scouting op," Torres noted, then waved to the lads and yelled out, grinning, "Hey, Redfield! You fellas better not be too trigger happy! You remember what happened the last time Reservists were assigned with you! Half the Hajis we ran into fucking hated you bastards after that! Wouldn't even talk to us!"
"Haha, fuck you, too, Torres!" One of the men flipped the bird at the Lieutenant, despite grinning as well. Rory and the other two gasped, as did a few of the civilians, before Rory turned to Torres with the most demanding glare ever. The other two also seemed to be confused as to why Torres hadn't responded more aggressively. The Warrior Bunny, meanwhile, was simply giggling.
"What?" He raised a brow.
"... Do you not see an issue with him showing you such a vulgar sign, Lieutenant?" Rory almost demanded, surprised. Torres seemed even more confused by the actively stupid question put out by the warrior lady. She took a moment to register the fact that he seemed totally unopposed, then stated, "That was pretty much a declaration of war, my friend!"
"Do UNSC Servicemen not jokingly insult each-other?" He inquired, dumbfound.
Rory paused, then hummed and said, "Every so often? But never with that sign!"
Torres shrugged, "They're missing out, haha," And he smirked. The group was even more dumbfound, save for the Warrior Bunny that was currently translating. Torres turned back to work, leaving the stunned Rory to process the information. So, this was a common situation between the various combat arms members of military units? To joke with each-other in such vulgar ways?
Huh.
"Such a strange people, humans from Earth," Murmured Rory, crossing her arms to her chest.
"Pardon, but what language are you speaking, Your Holiness?" Inquired Tuka, looking at her.
"English, my girl. A seemingly universal language for people to understand each-other."
"I see... Can it be studied?" The mage seemed curious to a fault. Rory smiled, then nodded. She began explaining to them that the UNSC had aid systems for translation between the two languages:English and what the woman called Latin. It was going to be an easy matter to see to once the UNSC agreed to offer the translators and the lessons to the people that required them.
That seemed to garner a glimmer of excitement that appeared in the eyes of Lelei. Of course, a girl from Rondel would be deeply interested in studying newcomers and their languages. Rondel was a center of knowledge and magical beauty. That fact made the Empire's action of recruiting from Rondel even more painful to consider, taking into account she had an old friend in that city.
Rory caught a glimpse of Richard approaching. He had ditched his armor and weapons in his rooms and was simply wearing his BDU, cap and all, as he walked toward them. The man greeted, "Yo, Torres. How goes it with filtering the refugees?" and got a thumbs up from Torres. Despite the setbacks of Rory talking them up, the group was doing pretty well, clearly.
"How're you doing, Samuels?" Torres then inquired as he set the clipboard with the names and everything aside.
"Getting my damn bearings in this place," He smirked, "Good thing it's a military base. Setup hasn't changed much in the past five centuries, so," And he then shrugged. He turned to face Rory, then asked, "Behaving yourself, I hope, right, Rory?"
"Doing my best," She smirked mischievously, "Oh, speaking of. Lieutenant Torres, where is Lieutenant Itami?"
"I think he's doing paperwork in the admin building," The man replied, then jabbed a thumb back toward the building itself. She smirked, then gave a quick mock salute and stepped off. Torres sighed, then chuckled and said, "I think I just fed poor Itami to a very hungry and/or horny shark..." as he picked up the clipboard again. Richard snorted, then nodded.
"You did. Behaving, my ass," Richard chuckled, then crossed his arms to his chest and watched Torres and Renate continued guiding the locals. He then stated, "Hope you folks are leaving some for us. Herons are gonna come in to retrieve our half of the refugee crisis," before turning to see Tuka and Lelei staring at him, somewhat surprised. He hummed, looked to Torres and waited for the answer.
"We're aware. We've already sorted them out. Kept families and friends together on this side. Other half's all yours," He smirked as he wrote in the laast name on the list, before setting it aside. He nodded to Renate and said, "Thanks for the backup," before motioning to Richard to follow him. Renate was left to deal with Tuka and Lelei while the two men moved on out.
Richard inquired, "What's up?"
"You folks alright in here? Hope we're treating y'all alright, considering everything," Torres asked, watching as a patrol of Russian troopers marched past them. Some of the lads smirked at the UNSC Marine and promptly saluted him, while others seemed a hint concerned at one of their future counterparts marching around the base they were in. Alas, Richard returned the salutes and the stares.
"Eh," He shrugged, "We've barely been here a day, man."
"Fair enough. Just asking for posterity's sake, y'know?" He quipped, then flashed the man a grin.
"Yeah, yeah, so far it's been alright," Richard shot back, "Beds are surprisingly comfy."
"SDF Standard-Issue. Apparently they really like having it comfortable when in FOBs. Out on the field? Eeeh, I don't know, but I'm expecting Itami and the gang wouldn't have problems with normal operations bunking... Which is usually just the hard floor as a bed and your kit as a pillow," He offered another quick joke, which seemed to have gotten the man to laugh.
"Aye, fair enough. You been to war before?" He asked.
"Afghanistan for about seven years of my life was the latest combat op. Prior to that, I helped a few peacekeeping missions in Africa," The Marine answered, "Then, I got sent to Japan as we were pulling out of Afghan thanks to the new administration upholding a deal."
"You and your entire unit, I assume? Any particular reason for reinforcements like that moving to Japan?" Richard looked ahead as the two marched toward the mess hall again, probably for breakfast. They spotted a Chinese unit training to the left, their QBZ-95 bullpup assault rifles ringing. One of the officers supervising the training noticed them. She smirked, then ran up to them.
"Torres! Ni hao, my friend! It's been almost a decade!" She greeted, "And hello to you as well. Lieutenant Richard Samuels, I assume?"
"Lieutenant Li!" He smirked as the two shook hands, "Hell yeah, it's been a while! Last I saw you was during that peacekeeping op in Burundi! Dick, this is Lieutenant Daiyu Li, belonging to the Third Independent Mechanized Infantry Division of the PLA. She was just a private, like me, during the Burundi peacekeeping op. Command saw fit to send us in alongside the HUMAID convoys in the area and we just happened upon their troop as they were stationed near the capital outskirts."
"Ma'am," Richard extended his hand.
"Please, it's just Li for a fellow Lieutenant," She stated and shook his hand. She smirked and said, "I didn't know we'd be getting the Sci-Fi type of backup here."
"Unforseen consequences," Richard shrugged, "Glad to be here, though."
"Should be an interesting mission, I'll say this much," She grinned.
Torres leaned in and whispered to Richard, "Don't start mouthing off near her superiors, but Li doesn't have such a great view of the PRC. She's serving in the army because the pay's good and her mom needs it," To which Richard nodded. He looked to Li and made the 'closing zipper' motion over his own mouth. She nodded thankfully, then pushed a strand of her jet-black hair out of her eye.
"Been a pleasure seeing you again, old friend. And good to meet you, Lieutenant Samuels."
"Just Richard for friends," He tipped his cap to her, "Take care, Li."
"You, too, fellas," She smiled, then stepped off back to aiding with the training to keep the PLA's UN soldiers in top shape. The two men then marched into the mess hall, being met by the scent of the food served at the buffet. Seemed today was Italian day at the base. SDF, US and UN troops were enjoying their meals, while a few Warrior Bunnies had also come about to get something to eat, considering it was lunch.
Richard noticed a familiar face reading through a small, but thick novel, a bowl of spaghetti Bolognese in front of her and her tablet to her right. He tilted his head toward Doctor Halsey. Noticing the reading woman that was the commander of the task force, Torres said simply, "Tell me what you wanna eat, man. If you wanna go talk to your boss, I'll get us the food."
"I guess I can go for a couple of slices of Pizza," The boy replied. Torres gave a thumbs up, then walked toward the line and picked up two trays while Richard walked up to and sat down in front of Halsey.
Halsey looked over her glasses and greeted, "Good morning, Lieutenant Samuels."
"Doc," He replied, "How's the research going?"
"Decently," She hummed, then set aside the novel, which read 'Halo:Ghosts of Onyx' on its cover and showed a picture of several Spartans in a forest, before she took a mouthful of spaghetti, chewed and swallowed. She stated, "Halfway through this book and there are already dozens of discrepancies I can count... I'm saving the first and foremost of the books, the Fall of Reach, for last."
"Oh," Richard paused, the words 'Fall of Reach' bringing back some not-so-good memories. He squelched the thoughts.
"Yes, indeed..." She sighed, then said, "But I can thankfully say this universe does not know everything about us, Lieutenant. The last book I am going to read should fully confirm that," and she continued reading. Richard sighed, somewhat relieved to know that, for the most part, it was very inaccurate. Halsey then added, "However, the game events are something I've yet to find an explanation for. At least the original trilogy is very accurate to John's reports and his own tales."
"... Wow," Richard hummed.
"Mhm," Halsey nodded, "Which means something strange is afoot... I would not be surprised if, perhaps, the person that had helped write the games had been on Installation 04 and worked side-by-side with John since then. The only persons I can think of that could've done that are either dead, or they're still working closely with the Master Chief right at this moment..."
"The world's just continuously throwing curveballs at us, ain't it?" He asked.
"Indeed..." She hummed, then changed pages for the tenth time since they started this conversation. She closed the book, pocketed it and turned to finish her food, before stating, "I will be returning to our FOB to bring forth the Research teams and the diplomats needed to verify the Gate itself. In the meanwhile, I expect you will all be on your best behavior, Lieutenant."
"When ain't we, ma'am?" The man smirked.
Halsey sighed, then stood up. "Good day, Lieutenant. And to you as well, Lieutenant Torres."
"Ma'am," The man replied as he approached the table. He slid the tray with Pizza, a soda and an assortment of other foodstuff to Richard, then sat himself down with his own tray that had a plate full of Chef Boyardee's Ravioli. Halsey nodded to the two, then departed, which let the two men continue their random set of talks. Specifically, as Torres poked at the ravioli in red sauce with his fork, he asked, "So... You and the Warrior Bunny queen, man?"
Richard staggered and nearly choked. He had been taking a sip of the Cola that Torres had brought him. He furrowed his brows and asked, "Fuck are you on about?!"
"You and Tyuule. Ain't you a thing?" Torres asked, smirking. He was doing this to tease the Marine a bit. A less-harmful kind of hazing, to be quite honest, but it was still hazing. Seeing the UNSC man glaring at him, however, put a damper on any kind of joke he wanted to make about fucking like rabbits for the time being. Better to not piss off the guys with orbital superiority and artillery. He paused, noticing the previously-mentioned queen entering the place, then murmured with a grin, "Speak of the devil..." before eating a forkful of Ravioli.
Tyuule approached their table, greeting them, "Lieutenant Torres. Richard."
"Ma'am," Smirked the US Marine.
"Hey, Tyuule," Richard greeted her back as she sat down. He asked, "How's everything? People here treating you alright?"
"Just fine. There were a few incidents where Russian troops were ogling me, but they never deteriorated beyond that," She offered a reply which seemed to slightly irk him. Torres had noticed the slight twitch of the man's eyelid, but ignored it, chuckling as he ate. Tyuule, meanwhile, added, "I also spoke to Doctor Halsey when we met outside. She says that only the three main 'games' of the series are accurate enough. The supplemental materials are strange."
"Told us much the same," Richard noted, with Torres humming. That was good news...?
"Good to know that whoever wrote them didn't get everything right. Still, I want to try the games myself," She smiled, "To see how the last few months of the war had been for your people in some form or another."
"Yeah, that'd be fuckin' wild..." Torres murmured, continuing to eat. He quickly finished, stood up and said, "I'll leave you two alone," before grinning and giving a wink to a glaring Richard. The man then stepped away, leaving them to their own devices and grinning all the while. He wondered hos Itami was doing as of right now. And why the Doctor had left so quickly.
Perhaps they were both dealing with their own issues right now. Was a good idea not to disturb either.
Heh. Poor Itami, though...
FOB 'Kingdom'
As Halsey landed at the Forward Operations Base, she was greeted by a sight that caused the blood in her veins to freeze. She watched the Dragonborn flying in, some carrying the wounded of their ranks. Men and women of the medieval tribe alike hauled their wounded over the walls. Those who could fly, which included Jeanne, were not spared injury themselves, each baring the marks of blades on their bodies and on their plate armors.
Jeanne landed in front of Halsey, dropping to her knees and gripping her right side as blood seeped through her fingers. Halsey ran up to her, then called out to the flight crews, "Call medical teams on-site, NOW!" before saying, "Lady Jeanne, lay back and let me take a look at your injuries..." as she plucked a medical kit from her pocket and started checking the injury.
"Doctor... We're sorry..." She said weakly, extending a hand to Halsey, which she took as she was working to close the wound.
"You have nothing to apologize for, my girl..." Halsey murmured as she closed up the wound with biofoam. It was a stab wound, deep. It'd cut clean through one of the woman's kidneys. She was lucky she managed to fly all the way here without bleeding out, Halsey thought. "Who did this...?" The Doctor then inquired, feeling a fury bubbling up in her heart the likes of which she hadn't felt in forever.
She knew the answer that would come, however. It made her fury grow ever-more as she heard it, however. "The... Empire... They found out we were housing your..." The girl coughed to the side. Halsey now noticed the second injury that was below the armor plate, a burn mark that scalded her entire chest and left a massive carbon-black mark on the breast plate, having partially melted it.
Halsey frowned. This was their fault... Her fault...
"I'm sorry, doctor..." Jeanne began to weep, "We couldn't protect them... The Imperials took your scientists..."
Halsey shook her head, despite the combination of absolute hatred and regret she felt. She spoke, "It isn't your fault, Jeanne. Where did they take our scientists?"
"I don't know," The girl replied as the doctors rushed onto the scene. The men picked up the injured and placed them on stretchers, Halsey ordering that they immediately be taken to surgery. They had arrived quickly enough to be healed. She stood to her feet and bolted toward the command center, already finding it on full Red Alert. UCAV images were already playing on the screens as Doctor Halsey burst in.
The Colonel turned to face her, then said "We're tracking the raiding party that took our scientists via UCAV. Managed to pinpoint them via the Neural Lace trackers."
"What the hell are the Imperials doing? Haven't some of ours attempted to send letters to Emperor Molt to settle this situation down?!" Halsey demanded, her voice oozing anger as she gazed at the men on horseback carrying scientists over toward what seemed to be a larger enemy encampment. Two, however, veered off the route, turning toward... Toward the FOB. She scowled, then said, "Let me know when they make it to the front of our gates. They want to gloat..."
"Aye, ma'am."
Halsey stepped out of the command deck and marched toward the main gate of the base. Behind her, John and the others had already rallied up, weapons at the ready. As had the two wounded of the Third Platoon. Ivanov stepped up behind Halsey with his SAW, while Ikari held close her sniper rifle. Both still wore bandages over their burn marks, but they cared little for whatever pain remained. They all knew something had happened when the Dragon-Born landed here with wounded.
"Ma'am, what's going on?" Chief inquired, keeping his rifle close. Of course, John and the others hadn't been properly briefed...
"The Empire attacked our research site within the realm of the Dragon-Born. Presumably killed several Dragon-Born in the assault..." Halsey replied, anger visible on the woman's face and audible behind every one of her words for the first time since John had known her. How had the enemy even found out about the research site? She continued, "And they took our researchers prisoner..."
"Bastards," Ivanov growled.
"Indeed," Halsey replied. The group climbed atop the wall just as the Colonel pinged Halsey about their arrival. Above, two UNSC Gunships and a single UCAV orbited the base, each tracking the two men that were sat atop a hill. Their horses were behind them, but each man had their weapon drawn. And each man had a scientist on their knees. A man and a woman, both bruised and injured, were sat on their knees, their hands raised.
"Linda," John ordered. The Spartan sniper leaned against the rampart and scoped on one of the men before giving a nod. Ikari also joined her, aiming at the second man.
"I want one alive. Preferably the officer on the right," Halsey ordered, "Aim for the knee if he tries anything..." And she received an approving nod from Ikari. The officer lifted the man by the scruff of his neck and pushed him forward. He started yelling toward them, his voice reverberating across the field and toward the UNSC base. Halsey translated, "These two, alongside others of their type, have trespassed in and been housed by the Dragon-Kin, vassals to the Empire of Sadera! The Dragon-kin have been punished severely for their transgression...! YOU shall face punishment next! AVE IMPERATOR!"
Before Halsey could reply, the officer gave the order to his subordinate. A blade pierced through the male scientist's back and exited through the front, blood glimmering on the tip as the blade pierced the heart. Behind the officer, the woman screamed a blood-curdling wail of fear. Before long, her throat was slit by the Imperial soldier. Both corpses fell to the floor.
"SON OF A...!" Ivanov snapped, slamming his fist into the concrete rampart, his eyes burning with hatred.
Halsey's heart stopped. Her head began to hurt as she clenched her fists. Images of the carnage on their worlds, carnage wrought by the Covenant and by Insurgent alike, played in front of her eyes. Through gritted teeth, she barked toward Linda and Ikari, "FIRE!" and watched with some hint of pleasure as the 14,5mm rounds left trails of smoke through the air. The Soldier's head exploded in a shower of scarlet, while the officer's leg was taken clean off at the knee.
The Imperial screamed bloody murder as he fell, grabbing at the stump. Halsey ordered, anger boiling over in her voice, "Get that Imperial cur inside and begin interrogating him... All political ties with the Empire are to be cut! Attempts at peace have failed and we are officially in a state of Total War! Master Chief, take BLUE Team and formulate a plan to rescue our scientists from the enemy camp. Everyone else!" She switched on her com, broadcasting across all UNSC frequencies, "Prepare for mass mobilization of all available assets and find me a suitable target to respond to the Empire with! As we said 'never again' to the Covenant... Let these barbarians learn what that means!"
A war they wanted, a war they would get!