Prologue (optional)

Prologue

The blackness of space was torn asunder as a behemoth of metal flashed out of the black realm of Slipspace. The behemoth, a Halcyon-class Battlecruiser, was dwarfed by the sheer size of the silver colored object in front of it. Angry red lights danced across it’s surface as it was surrounded by dozens of smaller, purple colored ships. Each one, a mere fraction of the magnitude of the planet sized, roughly knife-blade-shaped object in front of them.

Aboard the bridge, sirens wailed as a middle aged man in a pressed white naval uniform stood stoically behind the helm, along with the blue, ghostlike image of a woman projecting from a small pedestal beside him.

“Cortana, all I need to know is did we lose them?” The Captain asked the ghostly blue Artificial Intelligence construct. The black nameplate on his chest displaying in bold white letters: Keyes.

The ghostlike female image of the AI seemed to drop to a darker shade of blue as she frowned, “I think we both know the answer to that.”

Keyes let out a quick sigh, before asking quickly, “We made a blind jump how did they…?”

“Get here first?” Cortana interrupted him mid sentence. “The Covenant ships have always been faster. As for tracking us all the way from Reach? At light speed my maneuvering options were limited.”

Keyes frowned in displeasure, raising his grandfather's pipe to his lips to chew on the end nervously before asking, “We were running dark, yes?”

Cortana’s imaged flickered with a few lines of data that crept across her blue skin like ants, “Until we decelerated. No one could have missed the hole we tore in subspace. They were waiting for us on the far side of that object. Scans come back conclusive for a vessel. Slipspace drives, life support, the works. Surprisingly no weapon signatures.”

“Good, then we can worry about the ship after the Covenant are dealt with. So where do we stand?” Keyes asked, his eyes gazing at the magnificent, and somehow beautiful ship.

“Our fighters are mopping up the last of the recon picket now, nothing serious. But I've isolated approach signatures from multiple CCS class battle groups...make it three capital ships per group - and in about ninety seconds they'll be all over us.”

With a loud intake of air, the captain grasped his hands together behind his back, “Well that's it then. Bring the ship back up to combat alert alpha. I want everyone at their stations.”

“Everyone, sir?” The AI asked, concerned for the human.

“Everyone.” The Captain said simply, “And, Cortana…” He added.

The AI let out a ‘Hmm’ in response.

The Captain let out a smirk as he brought his right hand around to chew on the end of his grandfather’s pipe again, “Let's give our old friends a warm welcome.”

“I've already begun.”

Cortana began broadcasting through ship, ordering with as much enthusiasm as an excited human, “Attention, all combat personnel! Please report to your action stations.”

In one of the hangars of the Pillar of Autumn, a Sergeant Major strode towards a ramp with marines dressed in heavy combat armor on either side of him. As he walked, he spoke loudly, “Men, here is where we show those split-chin squid-head sons of bitches that they could not have picked a worse enemy than the human race. We are going to blow the hell out of those dumb bugs until we don't have anything left to shoot 'em with! And then, we are going to strangle them with their own-living-guts!” He paused before yelling loud and precise, “Am I right, Marines?”

Each and every assembled human gave a sharp, “Sir, yes sir!”

“Hm hmm, damn right I am. Now move it out, double time!” The sergeant ordered as his platoon began to rush past towards awaiting Pelican Dropships to board the strange craft.

Before anyone in his platoon made it to the dropship, a Covenant boarding party detonated an antimatter charge and began to board the Pillar of Autumn.

The explosion shook the bridge crew. A crewman at his terminal reported to the captain, “Sir, that boarding party knocked out firing control to the main cannon.”

Cortana pursed her lips, “Sir, that cannon was my last offensive option.”

Keyes frowned in displeasure as more explosions rocked the Pillar of Autumn, “That’s it, I’m initiating the Cole Protocol Article Two. We’re abandoning the Autumn. That means you too, Cortana.”

Before Cortana could argue, she gasped, “Sir, the ship-” but was cut off as a flash of multicolored light exploded outward from the silver vessel the Covenant were on; the wounded Pillar of Autumn disappearing upon contact with the light.

<~-~>

Keys groaned as he rose to his feet, the Master Chief, Spartan John-117, giving him a helping hand.

Looking to Cortana, Keyes asked the obvious, “What just happened?”

The AI gave no response but to put a digital hand against her blue colored face, “That’s strange. We moved… quite a lot actually...”

Wiping his forehead with his right hand, Keyes looked and saw blood covering his palm. As he waited for Cortana to continue, Keyes picked up his grandfather’s pipe with his left hand.

“If the astro-navigational charts are correct, the stars around us are all wrong in relation to where we were. It’s like we made a long range slipspace jump, though I have no record of the Shaw-Fujikawa drive discharging after our escape from Reach. Even stranger, I’m no longer detecting the Covenant fleet, but rather a nearby planet. It’s In camera range actually.”

“Bring it on screen, Cortana,” Keyes ordered, wiping his hand clean on his uniform.

A holographic display screen flickered into life, showing the planet like it was a green and blue marble amongst the black sea of stars.

And ever so slowly, the Autumn was pulled closer by the planet's gravity well. The controls of the Autumn long forgotten as the entire bridge crew stared at the planet.

“Atmospheric scans detect an almost Earth-like atmosphere… roughly seventy eight percent nitrogen, twenty one percent oxygen, and the rest of the percentage of gases are exactly what we would expect on Earth. If my scans are correct, there also appear to be several large cities. Note the patches of concrete grey.”

Another explosion rocked the Autumn and Cortana almost let out a curse, but settled on groaning in frustration, “Captain, that was either a freak accident or a Covenant saboteur, but it just knocked out our sensors. I’m blind to what’s happening on that planet now.”

Captain Keyes looked to Cortana and the Master Chief, “The Autumn’s going to fall apart. With no idea where we are and our sensors down, I’m giving the order to abandon ship after Cole Protocol is complete.”

Cortana nodded in agreement before addressing the Captain, “Sir, I may have picked up something interesting before my sensors went down, but I don’t know what to make of it.”

“Send the information to my neural implants and I’ll take a look myself.” In an instant, the information was streaming into Captain Keyes’ eyes as fast as he could read.

“Since when did either side’s ships look like that?” He asked as an extremely long range camera image played real time in his vision. From the range they were at, it was only a grey and red blur.

“I don’t know, but get this. Before my sensors were lost, I detected energy weapon signatures.”

“Has it spotted us?”

The AI shook her head, “I don’t think so. I’ve maxed out the zoom, and to your eyes it seems fine, but to me it appears that it has taken damage.”

Another explosion rocked the crew of the Autumn.

Keyes rolled his eyes, “We should start a damaged ship club,” he stated sarcastically. “Set us on a crash landing with the planet and sound the alarm to board the escape pods. I’ll land her myself.”

“Sir, I can stay and pilot the Autumn in for a hard landing, we’ve lost enough heroes already.”

Keyes shook his head, “Sorry Cortana, but Protocol dictates I either remove you from the ship or have you destroyed.” Looking to the silent soldier looming over him in power armor, Keyes gave a simple order, “Take good care of her, Chief.” With that, he removed Cortana’s storage chip and handed it to Master Chief.

With a nod, Master Chief left the bridge with the rest of the crew.

<~Earlier, in another galaxy~>

Admiral Yularen was commanding a task force of ten Venator-class Star Destroyers against a single Droid battleship. It was the Malice; the sister ship of the Malevolence, but lacking the massive Ion Cannon on both sides.

Generals Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi were on the bridge with him, watching the battle with rapt attention.

The fight wasn’t going well. The Resolute had already taken heavy damage to the port side, and two other Venators had been taken out of the fight.

When retreat seemed like a viable option instead of losing men and resources, the unexpected happened…

The Malice was cut in two by a ship coming out of light-speed travel. A massive, silver, knife shaped craft crawling with angry red lights. Admiral Yularen gasped at the size of the ship, which was almost four times as large as the ship it rammed. Even the two Generals were stunned silent at the new ship.

Four smaller ships flanked the side, made of purple metal; they drifted lazily as their lights flickered on and off.

Yularen then noticed one of the Venators had gone missing, the Requiem. It had been close to the Battleship when it had been rammed. Looking towards a Clone working at a station, Admiral Yularen gave an order, “Hail those new ships.”

Almost immediately, the image of a tall, mandible-mouthed warrior appeared above a holographic projector.

The image then flickered out, the only sound muttered by the Corvette’s captain was an annoyed grunt.

A Clone by a control panel shouted, “Sir, the four smaller ships are targeting us!” Alarms began blaring on the bridge, but Yularen remained stoic, along with the two Generals.

General Skywalker let out a chuckle, “It seems you made a new friend, Yularen.”

The aging Admiral gave the ghost of a smile, sending a fleet-wide order, “Target those ships. Aim to disable, not destroy.”

Six battle ready Venators squared off against four Covenant Corvettes. The lateral lines of the Corvettes burned baleful green and blue, before discharging balls of plasma.

One Venator attempted evasive maneuvers, but the plasma ball banked, following the dodge before slamming right into the bow’s shield. The shield rippled like water before it failed,  and the bow hangars were breached by the remaining plasma.

The three other plasma balls were shot down by heavy blaster fire from five separate ships.

Back on the Resolute, Yularen gasped, “That shot melted right through their shields!”

Ship mounted turbolasers began to send hot blue death towards the Covenant, the shields rippling under the assault as the massive silver ship just drifted.

Then a Corvette exploded, a single escape pod jettisoned into space as two other Corvettes were caught in the blast of the first. The plasma fueled explosion sent pieces of debris slamming hard into the two other Corvettes, bringing down their shields.

In moments, they both were torn asunder by the energy weapons of the Galactic Republic.

The remaining Corvette made a blind slipspace jump away from the battle. The lone pod drifting towards the fleet.

Yularen hailed the escape pod, and a middle aged human woman answered, her grey hair almost noticeable in the hologram.

“My name is Dr. Catherine Halsey,” she said glancing around, “and you sure as hell aren’t the UNSC.”