Chapter (18) The Day Humanity stood Still

November 2, 2525

Castle Base, Reach

"The Day Humanity's Shadow Grinded to a Halt"

(Alpha Pov)

"I am telling you something big is about to go down," Kelly warned the team seriously as she shoveled down yet another forkful of eggs.

For a moment Fred, Linda, John, and I all glanced at her as though we were listening before we all went back to what we were doing. Fred went back to reading from his glass tablet, it seemed as though he was reading military reporter articles (basically the UNSC News Network). John and Linda were currently discussing bullet grains and whether we should swap from brass to steel cartridges. And I… was leaning back in my seat with my head pointed at the ceiling with my eyes closed trying to get some rest.

"Come on, I am serious. Those ONI agents have been swarming like wasps since Monday," Kelly said continuing to grab our attention and…yet again none of us paid her any attention. Instead, we all continued to do what we were previously doing.

I sighed as I realized Kelly was probably pouting, and decided to throw her a bone. Cracking my right eye open slightly I spoke tiredly, "And what do you suppose is so important?" I couldn't be bothered to express much of an interest in her answer, and she picked up on that.

"Why are you bitchier than usual?" she asked bluntly putting the other matter to the side for a moment.

"When did you begin talking about the spooked agents?" I asked her, even though I definitely remembered this conversation happening on the past Tuesday.

"Last Monday…why?" she asked, curious to see what I was trying to point to.

"I haven't slept since the Saturday before that," I said with a wry smile that made me look like a smart-ass.

"And why is that?" Linda asked intrigued to hear my answer. It seemed our conversation had grabbed the other's attention because now all three of them along with Kelly were staring at me waiting for my response.

"You guys remember that ODST that was being a dick the other day right?" I said only getting confused head shakes in return. I sighed again with the hassle of explaining, "I think his last name was butt-licker or something… I snuck in and removed the firing pins from all his guns. Ring any bells?" this time they nodded in realization.

"His last name was Butticker, but yeah I know of the guy," Fred said clarifying and gesturing me to continue.

"Well butt-whatever-the-fuck figured out I was the one that messed with his gear, and decided that a boxing match was the only way to 'settle this grievance in his heart'," I held up air quotes with both of my hands as I articulated his words.

John's eyes widened for a moment, "Please don't tell me you killed another one," he said worried about the trooper's safety.

"No, don't worry I didn't box him. Even if I did I can control my strength enough to not have a…repeat of last time," I said remembering cleaning off the blood of those other ODSTs a couple of months ago.

John along with the other members of blue team let out relieved sighs as I cleared the possible charge of murder from the air, "Instead I picked him up and put him head first into a trash can. I locked the lid on it too, before I wheeled it in front of their barracks, and left him there," I nodded with a smile as I recalled my actions.

Fred and Kelly both burst out laughing after hearing what I said, and even Linda looked amused by my actions. John also had a smile but was rubbing his temples with his fingertips, "Of course, you would do that," he remarked 

"Anyway I was hit with non-stop training since then, and only now am I beginning to feel exhausted," I said moving out of my original place stretching my arms, and leaning forward. I reached over the table and snagged the apple off of Kelly's tray, to which she shot me a glare.

I shrugged and took a bite out of the green apple tasting the sour flesh of the fruit, "Back to the original topic we were discussing. What do we think is going down?" I asked wondering if anyone's guesses had changed since last week.

"We came to a consensus that it was probably some big Operation for all Spartan teams, remember?" Kelly said while still glaring at me munching on her stolen apple.

"That reminds me, I haven't seen Halsey since the 31st," Linda said mentioning the oddity.

"Our training has been bumped up too," John nodded, "Something above even our pay grade. From all the exo-suit training, I'd say we are about to get a nice little gift from Doctor Halsey," John said intrigued by the surprise Catherine might gift us.

"That reminds me, I haven't seen interact with the Doctor lately," John suddenly asked me with a furrowed brow

"I haven't seen nor talked to her in almost two months. Why do you ask?" I answered in an annoyed tone looking at John before sipping my glass of water. I maintained eye contact with me focused glare staring through John.

John sighed shaking his head with a wry smile, "No, never mind," he said dropping the subject altogether before looking across the table, "Fred you haven't said a word. What are you reading that is so interesting?" John asked curiously.

Fred's head snapped up from the article he was reading before he apologized and explained, "My bad, I was just reading up on an article written by one of the new Captains of Vice Admiral Cole's fleet," Fred turned his pad around to face us. The datapad showed a view of a re-fitted Phoenix-class support vessel with the large white words 𝘚𝘗𝘐𝘙𝘐𝘛 𝘖𝘍 𝘍𝘐𝘙𝘌 running along its hull.

"The Captain's name is James Cutter, and he wrote some interesting stuff on Navy Leadership doubling as ground force Commanders during planetary assaults. He's got some pretty interesting ideas and concepts," Fred said in an admiring tone as he spoke about the strategy.

Just as we were going to respond, everyone at the table received a message through our neural interfaces. Dictated by the high-pitched chime in my head rather than my surroundings, and everyone's head snapping up as we paid close attention to the message.

The voice of Mendez began to speak spouting off quick bursts of key details, 'Briefing in exactly 1 hour in the Amphitheater. Mandatory. Priority level: ALPHA,' and just like that we were left with silence.

Messages through the neural interface were… unheard of. In fact, none of us would think they had that function if not for the fact we were informed of the special interfaces after they were implanted during augmentations.

Usually, I would just skip most briefs unless they were for a mission, and have my teammates fill me in on the important parts, but this time it's different. Not only did Mendez decide to use the neural interface, to inform all Spartan teams if I had to guess, but the last part of the message made me get serious.

'Priority level: Alpha, huh?' I thought to myself as I threw the apple core across the cafeteria into the trash can, 'Last time the UNSC used that high of a code was during Operation: Trebuchet back in 2513. That must mean something pretty fucking big is going down,'

[Author's Note: Operation: Trebuchet was a full-scale military response to the civilian uprisings in the Outer Colonies. The operation spanned from 2513 to 2525 and was only temporarily suspended due to the beginning of the Human-Covenant war in early 2525. It was one of the largest and furthest-spanning military actions in the entirety of the UNSC's history. Operation: Talon was actually a derivative that stemmed from this original Operation]

I concluded my thoughts and looked at John, as did the rest of the team seeing as he was the team leader. He noticed our gazes and nodded, "You heard the Chief, we'll be there EARLY," he emphasized the last part staring at me before adopting a wry gaze, "And please dress appropriately. We'll most likely be dealing with High Command," he stressed.

I mock saluted him, "Aye Aye Captain, I'll doll myself up nicely. Just for you," I said sarcastically.

He could only shake his head as we got up from the table to get ready for the briefing.

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(3rd Pov)

Silence

Silence filled the room as a meeting of the most influential UNSC personnel took place 30 minutes before the greatest fighting force under UNSC command was informed. It wasn't that the air was filled with a hostile intent but rather a foreboding sense of anxiety and fear.

Nevertheless, the high command presence consisted of Admiral Margaret Parangosky and Vice Admiral Hieronymus "Harold" Michael Stanforth. As the leader of the Office of Naval Intelligence Parangosky had to see through making sure her pet project was sufficiently prepared for the news that they would be delivered so that they could begin sharpening their swords. Vice Admiral Stanforth similarly had an obligation as well due to his service as ONI's head of Section Three, the special projects division. Therefore their presence was understood without question by the twin leaders of the Spartan-II program, Dr. Catherine Halsey as well as Senior Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez.

"What are your thoughts on Staff Sergeant Johnson's report Doctor," Admiral Parangosky asked as the pair across from her had finished reading the documents she had placed in front of them.

Slowly Halsey looked up and began to respond with a stern expression, "It's much more informative compared to the other reports you had us read days ago," she said almost complimenting it, "Most other first-hand accounts did little to shed light on our new adversary, but Staff Sergeant Avery Johnson was able to give fully detailed descriptions. From their appearance to the weaponry he didn't leave any detail out,"

"It's still difficult to believe that we lost Harvest in a matter of weeks," Mendez commented before looking at Parangosky, "Are we sure negotiations are off the table,"

This time Stanforth spoke with an icy tone of voice, "Did the 'Your destruction is the will of the Gods...and we are their instrument,' give you the feeling that they were the negotiating type?" he asked sarcastically

"Gods? Their culture must be quite spiritual if they are willing to start a war with a species they haven't interacted with. Do we know anything about these 'gods' they speak of?" Halsey asked after making an observation.

Parangosky shook her head before calmly stating, "We have some Anthropologists looking into it, but as of now we have nothing," she said before resting the side of her head in her hand, "But that's a minor problem compared to the fact we have no understanding of their technology. No samples gathered, and so we are still in the dark about this 'Covenant' in all regards,"

She continued wanting to wrap up the meeting, "Go over all information in the report with the Spartans. Leave no detail out, but do not give any conjecture that is not confirmed," she said strictly as the dark circles under her eyes twitched with exhaustion. She then looked at Dr. Halsey, "And Halsey I want those Spartans in their armor by the end of the month. I don't care what you need to do, but they need to be combat-ready as soon as possible. The same goes for their training, by December they will begin the plunge,"

"Understood," Catherine said nodding before turning to Stanforth, "Vice Admiral would you mind assisting us?"

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(Alpha Pov)

I stood alongside my team at attention as we watched Catherine, Mendez, and….. an Admiral walk onto the main stage in the center of the Amphitheater, 'This is going to be something fucking huge,' I tell myself as I notice the grim expressions on the trio's faces.

As they reached the center of the edge of the stage a holographic display lit up showing the planet of Harvest. I admittedly, had not researched much about the outer colonies. It was embarrassing especially because of the fact that the outer colonies were the main hives of Innie activity. The image displayed a planet that didn't look too distant from Reach or Earth. Bluewater filled the sphere from edge to edge with flourishing green plantlife all over the landmasses.

"At ease Spartans," the Admiral said and we sat paying close attention to the words he would say next, "I am Vice Admiral Stanforth and this is Harvest," he gestured to the hologram, "Harvest is a nice farming world in the outer colonies being one of the largest agricultural producers in the sector,"

The hologram changed. Orange lakes of fire were spread out like burning pimples along the face of the world. The landmasses no longer looked ripe and bountiful for harvesting but were now bone-chilling grey marred by piles of ash. Though it seemed like part of the world still had been untouched by the scourge it had encountered I saw few remaining havens of life from the hologram. Annihilation was the word that came to mind as I took in what I saw, 'This…wasn't done by insurgents,' I concluded

"On February 3rd at approximately 14:23 hours the Harvest orbital platform made long-range contact with an unknown object before Harvest abruptly went silent," Stanforth said and the hologram shifted to show a foggy image of the spacecraft. I say spacecraft because that is all I assumed it to be. It appeared sleek and rounded with a long neck and a circular center along with a pair of what I believed to be engines at the rear.

"Because of this, we sent in a battle group to investigate. To which they found that Harvest had been decimated. The population of Harvest was approximately 3 million, and at least 3 million lives were lost during this incident," Stanforth then paused, "That was until our battle group stumbled upon this spacecraft of unknown origin. The CMA Arabia and CMA Vostok were both destroyed in under a minute. Their opponent used highly advanced weaponry along with impenetrable shielding. Luckily the CMA Heracles escaped with severe damage and brought us this intelligence,"

The hologram that had shifted to the image of the unknown spacecraft disintegrated into nothing as all attention was placed on Admiral Stanforth, "They cannot be reasoned with. They cannot be negotiated with. And they cannot be bribed nor can they be bartered with. They want nothing more than to see every human colony burnt to ash," he stood in the middle of the stage and glanced at every one of us making sure to look us in the eyes, "Humanity will fight back, but we cannot do it with the inaccurate strength of a fleet, but with the precision of a scalpel we will overcome this new adversary. The Spartan-II program shall be that scalpel,"

He looked over to Mendez after finishing his words, "We received a message in English before the attack. Play it for them," 

Suddenly the hologram display lit up again. This time it showed a dark shadowy figure. The figure's skin was grey from what I could see and it seemed to be wearing some sort of crown. In the background there seemed to be some type of throne the alien was sitting on, "Some type of King?" I mumbled to myself as I wondered what that thing was.

"Humans…." Its voice sounded nasally and foreign. Its voice was filled with contempt as it began to speak, "Your destruction is the will of the gods…and we are their instrument," and just like that, the message ended.

"He sure didn't waste words," John whispered with some venom in his voice.

"Your already accelerated training will be taken up another notch, and by the end of the month, you will be equipped with the other half of the Spartan program. Project Mjolnir will be the shield to your already trained sword," Vice Admiral Stanforth said before he began to conclude, "That is all I have to say. I trust that each and every one of you is more than eager to get in the field but be patient and keep that excitement focused on training, the last thing we need as a species is complacent warriors. Now, are there any questions?" he asked

Hearing his final words I waited for a moment. It seemed as though his message had been clear as no one had any questions, but I still raised my hand. My action made him cock an eyebrow meanwhile Catherine seemed to be worried as she saw my hand.

However, she seemed to relax as she saw my deepened frown with my jaws firmly locked shut. That along with the aggressive look in my eyes showed that I was not trying to be funny or make light of the situation, "Your question Sierra Zero-One-Seven?" The Admiral asked,"

"Yeah…When do we start?" I asked with a stoic demeanor and enraged tone, and for the first time, I saw the side of the Admiral's lips curve into a slight grin.

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Boom war has begun.

Still working on the Star wars fic. About to drop the fourth Chapter already have over half of it written. Just need to stop getting off work at 9 pm.

I have a math test tomorrow so wish me luck, also Helldivers 2 == Halo Infinite: ODST. Kinda embarrassing a Sony studio did ODST better than Xbox, but I think 343 now has the re-assurance that an ODST game would be pretty great as long as they don't do anything fucking stupid.

Anyway if you have any questions drop em.

And I hope you have a blessed day and I Shall See You Star Side.