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Aftermath Part 1
Posted By: Alex Ross<aross8@cinci.rr.com>
Date: 30 March 2002, 1:38 am
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Approximately 1 day A.H. (After Halo)
The covenant armed forces focused specifically on finding away to regroup their forces after the heavy losses at Reach and to try and ascertain the location of earth. That's exactly what Omnitus had in mind, but he found something that distracted him. A remarkably tall golden elite soldier, he is both an excellent field commander as well as a remarkable fleet commander. However, he ordered all his fleet to intercept the human that had destroyed the sacred object, Halo. He questioned his own orders about diverting the fleet to intercept one Longsword fighter, but after witnessing the destructive capabilities this human possesses, he was taking no chances.
His fleet was consisted of his cruiser, 2 destroyers, and 4 frigates. Covenant orders on board a ship were harsh. Disobeying or even questioning a commander's orders either meant instant retaliation or simply death by the commander. No one was about to question Omnitus, not even the boastful hunters because after the destruction of Halo and loss of many covenant troops, he was in a very bad mood.
Covenant rankings were based on a combination of the warrior caste system and their religious devotion to the gods. On the bridge of a covenant vessel, the chain of command goes like this; the elites were the top military commanders, no question, and any covenant on board the bridge was either an elite or scientist. The scientist was a floating slug like creature with tentacles and they were in charge of everything technical such as radar, engine, and shield monitoring. The hunters are in charge of manual labor on board the ship, such as refitting generators or carrying cargo. Yes, they are higher in the caste system then the grunts or jackals and manual labor is such a plebian task, but they were the best at this type of labor. If they were not doing manual work, they just waited in the quarters for the upcoming battle, for their best occupation is as soldiers. As for the grunts and jackals, they were in charge of engineering, the reactor, and anything else not associated with the bridge. Some elites supervised them and gave orders to each one. Omnitus is a golden elite for a reason, which is the highest of the elite color ranks, the others being blue, black, and red. His heroic and honored commands of the ground forces on planet Reach moved him quickly up through the Covenant ranks, surpassing some of his superiors in a heartbeat.
"Tucan drek?" a red elite shouted as he pointed on a screen that viewed the space in front of them. He basically asked, "is that him?"
"Sine comrado sine lech." "Yes comrade yes it is." This was of course referring to the Master Chief in the Longsword. The covenant tongue had evolved into more of a Germanic tongue (as you can see from comrado=comrade) because the humans don't know it, but a major revolution in language occurred on the Covenant home world led by the "scientist" reformer Secondus. Secondus believed it was an easier language to speak and could be expanded upon more easily, but he was persecuted by the prophets (the highest covenant of the caste system) for going against the old language, which they believed, was the language of the gods. However, after much persuasion, Secondus forced the prophets to accepting the new changes for the language, believing the language would be useful for communicating with the humans if necessary. Most combat personnel were required to learn some English if interrogation practices were also necessary. Thus they incorporated the English language, a derivative of the Germanic tongue, in their language and the Covenant language itself is still constantly changing. (for the rest of the story the Covenant will speak English)
"Prepare to dispatch interceptors."
"How many, lord?"
"10. If they alone cannot handle the human, then we will have to move quickly to get the fleet into battle." Elite pilots went to their banshees, but not before the ritual of the sacred light. Every covenant soldier about to go into battle dips their fingers in a dish of a glowing blue liquid water and rubs it on their chest. This leads to a mistake that many humans assume. The Covenant do not have one home world. They actually have 5. One is the main capital of the Covenant Axis and is where the prophets reside. All of the planets orbit a bright blue star that is to them what the sun is to humans. The glowing blue liquid actually comes from a rare vegetation on the Covenant capital planet. Chlorophyll is what makes the planets on earth green, while the "chlorophyll" of the covenant planets is blue. A glowing blue if it is mixed directly with water. Their bright blue star gives the Covenant and plants life, which is why they view the bright blue liquid as a sacred symbol of life.
This ritual was interrupted brusquely for all the sudden, 10 UNSC warships came out of slipspace right in front of the Covenant fleet in an effort to defend the Longsword. The stars twirled around in a fast circle as the slipspace portal closed behind them. This was a pretty good jump for a species with inadequate slipspace technology. All the covenant troops instantly went into panic and were all headed to their posts or ships. Omnitus just growled at the sight, caring little for the other humans.
The Longsword fighter however docked with the UNSC cruiser, Liberator, and now Omnitus had no choice, but to engage the fleet with both plasma missiles and the standard boarding parties. The drop ships were necessary in case the Spartan did not fight in outer space and he wanted to try and ascertain the location of earth.
"Triple the amount of interceptors and get the minion divisions (jackals and grunts) as well as the behemoths (hunters) to their transports. Wait...make that 31 banshees."
"You're going too lord?"
"This destroyer of Halo is one persistent human. I can read his mind. This one is different from the others. He was obviously bred for combat from the day he was born. There were others like him on Reach when our dropships landed. According to the study of human tongue they were called the Spartans. I have a little knowledge of human history and what I do know of the original Spartans is they were a war-like culture that almost never lost a battle."
Omnitus was different then the other elite commanders. He may be born for war's combat and strategy, but he had an affiliation to study his enemies' culture. On many worlds he has conquered, before each planet is glassed, he secretly takes human artifacts just to observe and study. During his studies he has learned most of the human language, for covenant were faster learners than humans. He is currently reading an artifact book he found in a human museum, Greece: The Pinnacle of Civilization.
"The name certainly fits. For the first time in my life I feel challenged by a human, but I will treat him like any other human that we have encountered from the beginning of this conquest. You don't have to worry about that."
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