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Chapter One: The Rise of the Phoenix
Posted By: Blue Jaguar<crazymadSh33P@netscape.net>
Date: 1 September 2003, 7:36 PM


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This is not part of the TF Resolution book, this takes place before then, and immediately after Stranded Eagle.

Chapter One

06:10, November 24th, 2554
Manaus, Brazil



Adrian reached the top of the building and climbed outside. He looked at the city of Manaus around him. It was completely ruined, bodies lie everywhere, and large pools of blood flooded the streets. Human blood. A pelican roared overhead, causing Adrian and the rest of the marines to look up. 4 Pelicans had landed already, and 20 more were circling overhead. The wounded were loaded up on the dropships, and then the pelicans would rise back up into formation. Rashon jumped on the last pelican and they lifted off.

"Captain, we gotta go pick up some more guys south east of here, hope ya don't mind!" The pilot said.

"Not at all major, it's your plane, i suppose you could always pull rank too."

"Heh, yeah i suppose i could. I heard there was some big battle at the place, its outpost 218 or something."

Rashon thought for a second, then spoke. "Outpost SA-118?"

"Yeah thats it, command is all excited about it, supposedly they lasted out longer than anyone else did on the continent." The pilot responded.

"Actually major, we are from oupost 118, are you telling me that the Covenant took over all of South America?"

"Holy shit, well then I guess I cant pull rank on you, MAJOR Rashon. Command said you got a promotion, not that it'll help, cuz not only did South America fall, but just about, well, everything fell." The pilot said.

"Oh, is that why all those nukes were launched?" Rashon asked.

"Yeah, command was waiting for the main Covenant group to come closer to the planet, otherwise we would have hit them earlier. We really blew the shit outa them, just estimates right now, but command figures we got at least 300 of the bastards."

"Holy shit, are you serious?" Rashon questioned excitedly.

"You bet your ass, the Covenant fleet is back regrouping around Reach, command is already preparing a strike to finish it off, only problem i can see is we don't have a fleet."

"Yeah, why do I have some crazy feeling that we still have a bunch of ships hiding somewhere." Adrian said.

"I got that feeling to major. Outpost is up ahead, we'll be landing on the north edge of the base, we had an airstrike go through and wipe out most of the covies, then the troops on the ground went in and wiped the rest out."

The Pelican dropped down below the light cloud cover and landed at the north end of the base. Rashon jumped off the back of the craft and turned to see Major Alexei standing there with all of his men, and all Rashon's ODSTs.

"I see you took good care of my men!" Rashon said.

"Ooh I don't know, they didnt get too many kills, oh and shouldn't you be saluting me right now?" Alexei said.

"Guess you haven't heard, I'm a major now!" Rashon replied.

"Guess you haven't heard either, I'm a Colonel now." Alexei said.

Rashon immediately saluted, and Alexei saluted back.

"All right, lets load up, command wants both of us to report to the Frigate Reshiya, it just came into orbit about 10 minutes ago." Alexei ordered.

"All right marines, lets go home." Rashon said. Then thought about what he had said and changed his statement. "I mean, lets go up...to that boring...dull...ship of ours." The marines laughed and then boarded the pelicans. They took off and broke for orbit.

As the Reshiya came into view Alexei could tell this was a new ship. It was not shaped like a traditional UNSC ship. It was very smooth, with no real corners or edges. It's MAC cannon was not slung under the ship like usual, but rather straight in the center of the ship. As they approached the ship a pair of doors opened on the ship and the pelican entered into the landing bay of the ship. Other Pelicans came in and landed next to theirs, when the last one had landed the door closed. Adrian stepped down from the pelican and looked for Colonel Alexei. When he found him he followed him to the ships debriefing room.

The two entered the room and saluted. Inside was General Yoshi Tasatka, the head of UNSC Offensive Operations Command, in the Lalande 21185 system.

General Tasatka saluted and then sat down at the head of the table. "Have a seat please, we have much to discuss." Tasatka said.
Both sat down and then the General spoke again. "I would first like to congratulate you both on your success during the battle. I must say that both of you did an excellent job. Colonel Alexei, we have found the bodies of the Covenant commanders you killed to be those of several extremely high members of the Elite caste. It seems the covenant were aware of our nuclear capabilities and felt safer to move their commanders to a base on earth. I believe you proved them wrong."

"Thank you sir, but what is this meeting really about? We already know about our promotions." Alexei responded.

"Yes, well I'll just get straight to the point. All of our senior commanders died on earth. We selected you two because you had the best records of any of our junior officers. We are sending you to Reach to command our ground forces there. Major Rashon, you are to command a team of ODSTs and board a Covenant vessel and try to discover the location of the Covenant homeworlds, while Colonel Alexei will be taking out Covenant ground batteries on Reach in preparation for a naval strike against there fleet. Now before you respond, we do have the ships to make an effective strike, and since the Covenant fleet is already badly damaged, finishing them off will be not much of a problem, especially after the ground batteries are eliminated."

Major Rashon spoke. "General, just exactly how many ships do we have, and why weren't they used to protect earth? I mean, wouldn't it have been easier to defeat the Covenant fleet there."

"Ah yes Major, our ships were undergoing refits at the naval yards on Talos IV. We have a colony there that is not part of the UNSC, they have grown quite advanced, in fact more advanced than us. They however, did not want to risk a war with the Covenant and refused to offer their ships to assist us. They did however, offer to upgrade our ships with some of their advancements. But it took some time before they were ready. As of now they are still under construction and will not be ready for another week." The general replied.

Both Major Rashon and Colonel Alexei sat in their chairs, completely in awe. Then Colonel Alexei asked "Just how many ships do we have left though? The Covenant we know have at least 200 at Reach."

"We have about 90 warships, this frigate, was the first ship completed, it will be joining a new task force next year once the rest are completed. Oh and in case you havent noticed, this ship does have gravity." The General said.

Both of the officers looked around the room, acting as though they could actually "see" the gravity. Rashon had noticed a lot of differences in this ship, maybe the MAC gun was a lot more powerful on this ship, or maybe this ship didnt have a MAC gun at all, but it was something else.

The general finished the briefing and both the officers departed. Rashon was to organize the remaining ODSTs and prepare training for the assault. While Alexei was mainly concerned with trying to figure out how to get past the Covenant defense forces around the ground batteries.





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