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Halo - Halo: the Fall of the Covenant, Chapter 1
Posted By: Dav Flamerock<magicthegatherr@sbcglobal.net>
Date: 28 July 2006, 2:30 am
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AN: This is a story set in the Halo universe. This is INSTEAD of the canon events of Halo and Halo 2. None of the characters from the games are in this story, but there are some parallels.
Halo: the Fall of the Covenant
Chapter One - Halo
Ninth Age of Reclamation, Step of Silence / Covenant Holy City "High Charity" Sanctum of the Hierarchs
The Covenant elite Ttoa 'M-bosee stood before the Prophets of Truth, Regret, and Mercy. The three High Prophets were majestic in their tall crowns, and always kept their gravity belts on. 'M-bosee's fellow elites had not been admitted. He had to speak on their behalf, as the leader of the Sescorheisa squad.
"What happened to the transmission?" Prophet Mercy asked him.
"It was cut off from the source. I believe that your hunters realized somehow that the human ship was intercepting it." 'M-bosee answered calmly.
"Why didn't you destroy the human cruiser when it intercepted the transmission?" Regret asked him angrily.
"By the time the ship was in range, the transmission suddenly ended. I targeted the ship with my plasma turrets, but it jumped out system at the last moment. I was unable to follow it; my Slipspace reactor was damaged in the battle. I was able to pick up enough of the transmission to decipher the coordinates." 'M-bosee explained.
"What happened to the Forerunner artifact?" Truth asked the elite.
"I do not know. I had to leave the system as fast as I could. I was able to get around the planet, and there my crew and I fixed the Slipspace reactors enough to get us here. I'm amazed I even survived." 'M-bosee told him. "Why do you ask?"
"So far, we have not heard from the hunters who were tasked to retrieve the Forerunner artifact." Mercy told him.
"I will take a fleet to the system, and decimate -" 'M-bosee began.
"No! No. You will not take a fleet to the Sigma Octanus system." Regret informed him.
"We have another task for you. Go to the coordinates from the transmission, and find whatever it is that the Ancients left there for us. The humans must not desecrate the Ancient's artifacts with their filthy footsteps." Truth said.
"However, you have proven that you cannot successfully command a fleet, so we have decided to remove you from command. You and your Sunghiesa will be half-commanders in the Lightbringing Hierarch. We will be sending one of our lower prophets with you. Now go with our blessing."
The Lightbringing Hierarch left Slipspace near a gas giant known as Threshold. In between them and the planet, however, was a strange object of unknown origins. It was a ring, of huge proportions.
"So this is what the Ancients left here. One of the sacred rings." Ship Master Obsi 'Pacolee muttered to himself.
"Let us go down to the ring, and find out how to activate it." Oporome Suchora, a lesser prophet, said.
"Prepare dropships. We are going down to the surface to find out how to activate the sacred ring." 'Pacolee said over the comm. to his half-commander Ttoa 'M-bosee.
'Pacolee looked up at the display, studying the ring that appeared in front of them. Suddenly, the prophet next to him screamed. 'Pacolee looked hastily at the rest of the screens before him. When he saw what was on the aft camera, he froze.
"Cancel that order. Fire all plasma turrets at that alien ship." 'Pacolee had no idea where the human vessel had come from. Then he recognized the ship as the same one that had intercepted the transmission at Sigma Octanus. They must have acted on the coordinates relatively quickly, in order to have arrived so suddenly.
"Send out the seraph fighters. We don't want the aliens desecrating the great ring." 'Pacolee scrutinized the hologram of the human ship. It had one MAC gun, and twenty-six Archer missile pods. If used in coordination, they could destroy the Covenant ship easily. A wave of plasma flew away from the Covenant ship. A moment later, a heavy round shot from the human ship, and a wave of rockets followed. The heavy MAC round impacted immediately and the Covenant ship's shields fell to zero.
"Fools." 'Pacolee said to himself. "By the time the rockets hit, our shields will be back."
The rockets hit, and the shields fell back to zero. At the same time, the wave of plasma torpedoes hit the human ship. It was burned in several places, and 'Pacolee could see small holes in the ship.
Once again, the human ship fired a wave of rockets at the Covenant sent a wash of plasma.
"Focus all shields on the front of the ship." 'Pacolee ordered.
Just before the rockets hit, the humans fired a heavy round. The MAC round obliterated the Covenant's shields, and before they could recharge the rockets struck.
"What's the damage to our ship?" 'Pacolee demanded.
"Sir, the forward levels have sustained heavy fire. Most of the upper levels are ablaze. There are scores of punctures in the outer plating. Venting atmosphere now." 'M-bosee called through the comm.
"Sir," Ewsa 'Dneolee, one of the Sescorheisa squad, announced, "the leader of the seraph fighters is calling for a retreat. The human's point-defense system is wiping them out."
"Order them to -" 'Pacolee began.
"Load the dropships immediately." The prophet stood next to the controls, and a hologram of a section of the ring floated in front of him. Small dots labeled "Human HEV Drop Pods" fell through the atmosphere. Behind them were larger dots labeled "Human Lifepods." Just behind the lifepods were five figures labeled "Human Pelican Dropships."
"Bring the seraphs above the ring." The lesser Prophet ordered. "The humans are landing on Halo."
1740 Hours, September 30, 2547 (Military Time) / Cryo-chamber of UNSC Frigate Great Prophet, Harbinger System
The hunter slashed at Captain Dav Flamerock with its shield. Out of impulse, the Spartan ducked under it. For some reason, there was no armor in the center of the hunter's chest. Dav plunged his fist into the Covenant soldier's unnaturally tender skin. He reached around inside the screaming hunter's chest, and pulled out the hunter's heart.
Instantly, a wave of heat washed over Dav's body. His vision blurred, and a room came into focus.
"Sorry about the quick thaw Spartans." A man said as he popped the seal and opened the hatches of the Spartans' cryo-capsules. "We are going to do an abbreviated diagnostic to make sure nothing went wrong with your cryo-sleep. Bring their bio-monitors online."
The last command was given to a man in the hallway above them. It was quickly followed by the appearance of a green bar in the upper corner of Dav's Heads-up Display.
A female voice was heard over the comm:
"This is Petra. The commander has made a combat error. All ODSTs are to evac in their HEV pods now. All pilots are to fly out in their Pelicans with either a Warthog LRV or a Scorpion-class MBT. The Spartans are to escort the pilots out. All other personnel are to evacuate in a life pod. Petra out."
"All right, please take a quick walk around the cryo-bay and meet me at the shielding station." The technician said.
The five Spartans, (as was normal on a ship this size) jogged around the cryo-bay. Dav's skin stung, but that was because he had gone into cryo-sleep wearing his MJOLNIR battle armor. Normally, people had to go into cryo completely naked. But, being a Spartan, Dav was able to ignore the pain as he stopped next to the doorway-like shield-charging device.
"We're going to do this snappy. Starting with the Captain, you're going to charge your shields one-by-one. Once your shields are charged, you will go through that door and grab weapons. In the armory, you will also pick up your AI. Captain, you will pick up Petra at a pedestal near the other AIs."
Dav stepped onto the circular platform, and promptly the two metal rods that were next to him began revolving. They started slow, but sped up. Dav felt a static pop, and a bar appeared above his health monitor. It slowly filled, and once it was full, the shield-charging device slowed to a stop. Dav stepped out of the device and strode through the door into the armory.
Once inside the armory, Dav grabbed a pair of standard-issue magnum pistols, a MA5B Assault Rifle, six MA5B clips, fifteen magnum clips, and a quartet of fragmentation grenades. He walked briskly to a pedestal on the other end of the room. Next to the pedestal were four data chips, with AI names written on them. Knowing that Petra was not one of them, he pressed a button on the pedestal.
A hologram of a young, attractive girl appeared on the pedestal. She was dressed in all white, and her left arm was completely mechanical. It had what looked like a metal snake wrapped around it.
"Hello Captain. Sleep well?" Petra asked lightly.
"No thanks to your driving, yes." Dav replied.
"So you did miss me." Petra concluded. "Sorting for a hardware transfer. There's a backup AI on the system to take control of the point-defense system against their seraphs, and to do basic calculations." Petra looked around the interior of the armory, as if she would never see it again. "Alright, you can pull me out."
Dav tapped a few buttons on the pedestal, and Petra vanished. A moment later, a data disk identical to the other AI's disks popped out of the pedestal. Dav removed it, and inserted it into the slot on the back of his MJOLNIR armor. As usual, he felt the cold sensation of mercury entering his mind as the AI joined him in his brain.
"Everything functioning within full parameters. Let's show the Covenant who they're dealing with." Petra said. Her voice seemed to come from his mind and his helmet speakers simultaneously.
The last Spartan entered the room, grabbing a sniper rifle, an assault rifle, handfuls of clips, and three grenades. He jogged over and inserted his AI into its receptacle in his armor.
"Everyone ready to go?" Dav asked. Four acknowledgement lights winked green his HUD. "Move out."
The five Spartans jogged towards the elevator to take them to the flight bay. As they passed through a door into the hallway that led to the elevator, Dav tripped over something.
He leapt up, and just as he brought his head up to look at the rest of the Spartans, a bright blue flash blinded him. He was thrown back a few meters, but then felt himself get sucked forwards. Dav hung in zero gravity, trying to get his vision to come back.
"Come in Ben, Rachel, anyone? Do you copy?" Dav called out to them.
"Save your breath. You'll need it out here." Petra explained to him. "The others are gone, dead. As you might have noticed, we're out in space right now. I'll alert Skyhunter and have her come pick us up."
Stars appeared in Dav's vision, and they were abruptly replaced by the ruined hull of a ship.
"Come in Skyhunter. This is Petra and the Captain. Do you read us? Over." Petra called out.
"I read you Petra. Go ahead." Skyhunter's voice came through the speakers as Dav finished running a diagnostic on his armor. The shields system had been damaged; it had to be manually recharged. It also looked like the air-recycling mechanism was malfunctioning. He could only stay out here for another ten minutes or so.
"Skyhunter, we are the only Spartan left. You and all of the other pilots should leave now. We need a pickup ASAP. I'm sending you our coordinates." Petra alerted her.
"Roger that, I'm on my way." Skyhunter responded. "Skyhunter out."
A few minutes passed, and then a pelican dropship barreled around the side of the ravaged hull of the cruiser. It flew up next to Dav, and he grabbed on. He swung himself around to the troop entryway as it hissed open explosively. Dav pulled himself into the ship, and the atmosphere door closed behind him. Air returned to the docking bay, and Dav deactivated the air-recycling mechanism. A quick test showed that it wouldn't come back on.
Looks like I won't be going outside anymore. He thought to himself.
"How you doing Captain?" Skyhunter's voice came through the speaker above the door that led to the cockpit. "Come on it!"
Dav opened the door and entered the cockpit. It was full of people: one marine, a second lieutenant who Dav didn't know, and Skyhunter, the pilot.
"Hey, you ready to kick some ugly alien ass?" The marine asked Dav. Dav glanced at the marine's tags.
"Corporal Basri." The Corporal struck a crisp salute. "I hate those damn lifepods. No control. I hitched a ride with Skyhunter here."
"I know how you feel." Dav told him. Then Dav leaned over the pilot and peered out of the view screen.
"Follow that lifepod." He ordered Skyhunter. "We will need to pick up the people in it before the Covenant does."
"Aye aye sir." Skyhunter shifted her course to follow the lifepod.
"Petra, revert video feed from the aft cameras to my HUD. I want to see what's happening between the two ships." Dav said to Petra inside his helmet.
"You won't like what you see." Petra replied, uploading the video feed to Dav's HUD.
The first thing Dav saw was a cloud of Covenant dropships following them. A couple of them fired plasma at the pelican, but the shots died away long before they reached the human dropship.
Behind the cloud of Y-shaped Covenant dropships, the Covenant cruiser charged its plasma turrets. It fired a volley, and just before the superheated plasma impacted with the ship, the human cruiser fired an MAC round. It punched through the Covenant ship's shields and ripped through multiple decks. The plasma, however, did much more. It flew through the fore of the ship, and the entire front vanished. The bridge, the commander, everything. Without the bridge, commands couldn't be sent to any part of the ship. The humans had lost their only way of leaving the system.
"I'm picking up a transmission," the other lieutenant said, "it's Major Dougal. Broadcasting."
The Major's voice came through the cockpit speakers.
"This is Major Andrew Dougal. All UNSC personnel are to rendezvous at sector Halo-050. Pelican pilots are to pick up any lifepod survivors, and bring them back here. Dougal out."
Knowing that Major Dougal's orders would have no effect on them, Dav turned his attention back to the video feed in his HUD. He was expecting the Covenant to spread out and follow all of the lifepods and pelicans so they could destroy them upon landing. He was, however, very surprised to see all of the Covenant dropships turn as one and fly away from their pelican. He was even more amazed when the pelican turned, and he saw the dropships were not following any of the pelicans or lifepods.
They must be forming a headquarters on the ring. Dav thought. It wasn't a very good idea, when they could just follow the humans and blast them into oblivion upon landing.
"Alright, hang on. We're entering the ring's atmosphere." Skyhunter declared.
The pelican shook violently, and Dav minimized the video feed to the corner of his HUD. The lifepod they were following glowed, and two of the stabilizing fins snapped off. Skyhunter slammed on the reverse thrusters as they exited the atmosphere layer and entered the air. She fought for control of the pelican, and managed to bring it out of the sharp dive it was experiencing.
The lifepod, however, had no such luck. It shot down like a rocket. The pilot of the lifepod was able to bring the nose up, so the lifepod slid thirty meters when it hit the ground.
Skyhunter's pelican floated to the ground, its jets keeping it slightly above the ground. Skyhunter opened the atmosphere door as Dav and Corporal Basri left the cockpit. They trotted to the wreaked lifepod, and Dav wrenched the pod's door off. Basri stepped inside. All of the occupants were slumped in their seats, and although most of them wore helmets, they all looked dead.
"Man, this sucks. They all died." Basri complained.
"I've reverted the video feed back to the dropship." Petra said to Dav. Then, through the external speakers of Dav's armor, she said,
"Actually, I've picked up the bio-readings of the people in the lifepod. Most of them are actually still alive. I recommend loading them on the pelican and getting out of here before the Covenant arrives."
The pair gathered bodies in silence, with Petra telling them each person's status. Almost everyone was unconscious, but some, the pilot included, were dead.
As the pelican lifted off with all of the survivors plus Dav and Basri in the troop bay, Petra was heard through Dav's external speakers:
"Banshee pair inbound at five o'clock."
"I got 'em." Dav reported, grabbing his pistol pair and striding to the edge of the troop bay. He looked out, and saw two small blue dots in the distance. The dropship turned, and Dav lost sight of the banshees.
The pelican flew towards the general area of the banshees. It passed over another canyon, but this time the dropship dipped down into it.
"We're picking up the survivors of another lifepod." Skyhunter announced through the ship-wide speakers. Then, she made a secure channel with Dav.
"Once we hit the ground, load out and kick some banshee ass. Then we'll get ourselves back to Dougal's 'Alpha Base.'"
"Roger that." Dav replied, closing the link.
The ship disappeared into the canyon, and it stopped just above the ground. Dav grabbed an M19 SSM Rocket Launcher and strode out of the dropship.
"I'm putting two nav points where I'm estimating the banshees will come over the edge. I'm also putting a countdown timer next to each one. Once the timer reaches zero, launch your rocket at that target. If my guesses are correct, then the rocket will impact the Covenant flier just as it comes over the lip of the cliff." Petra explained, as two small red triangles appeared on Dav's HUD with timers next to them. He targeted the one farther away from him, and took careful aim.
The moment the timer reached zero, Dav pulled the trigger. He dropped the launcher, and pulled out his MA5B Assault Rifle. He took careful aim at the other target, hoping that the rocket would obliterate the first banshee.
The rocket flew past the lip of the cliff, when it suddenly exploded. Dav tracked the wreak of the banshee with his eyes momentarily, until the other banshee cleared the cliff. He waited until the alien ship was in range, and he mashed down on the trigger. Bullets spewed from his rifle, and Dav stood his ground as the banshee fired back with its heavy weapon – a fuel rod cannon. Dav continued to fire until the last second, when he dived to the side. The explosion caused by the fuel rod cannon sent him flying a few extra meters, and lowered his shields by about a third. He spun around, targeted the banshee once again, and fired. The alien ship targeted Dav, and spewed plasma from its main plasma cannons. Dav stood his ground, watching the plasma wash over him, while firing at the Covenant ship.
Just as his shields were about to die, he leapt to the side again. Rolling, Dav fired whenever his gun was facing the sky. He couldn't roll that fast, but he could roll faster than the banshee's plasma could fly. He rolled for a few seconds, until he heard an explosion from the ground near him.
Dav returned to his feet, but before he could do anything else, he heard a soft pulse. The Spartan spun around, recognizing the sound. Sure enough, there stood a red-armored elite, holding an active energy sword. Behind the elite was the ruined hull of a wingless banshee. The alien slowly began to approach. Dav backed up at the same speed, slamming a fresh clip into his rifle. He loosened his left-hand pistol in its holster, and then got down on one knee and pulled the trigger of his assault rifle. The elite responded by jumping towards him, easily flying at least five meters. Bullets pinged off the elite's shields, and the elite raised his sword.
Just before the elite hit the ground, Dav dove forwards, rolling underneath the alien. The elite couldn't turn in time, as Dav spun around and whacked it in the back of the head. The elite doubled over, and the Spartan fired a trio of bullets into the Covenant's shield system. The elite turned around, and Dav fired a pistol round into its face. It fell over dead, and its sword's fail-saves activated. The blade vanished for eternity.
Dav leapt back onto the pelican, and called to Skyhunter:
"Alright, let's get back to Alpha Base. We'll probably need to pick up some more survivors."
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