- soulguard
- |
- Exalted Mythic Member
NOTES: As of "GHOST OF ONYX", these rules apply to the Side Story Trilogy;
A) Spartan 087 (Kelly) and Doctor Halsey are not on ONYX (Though the Events of Onyx have occurred.
B) Time Difference is off by 5 days
* B-1) Time shifted due to Seed Ship Traveling in slip space. Time Paradox.
C) William (spartan 043) is not dead.
D) The Spartan III training program on ONYX is the result of what Ackerson's team discovered while testing on human subjects on Troy.
* D-1) Resulting in the creation of the Black Ops
More notes as thy become relative.
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The Halo Side Story
Book 3
“The Path of Reclamation”
Kelly, Spartan 087, sealed her helmet as she looked back toward Major Rawlings. “I have to go, Ma’am. My duty as a soldier is to eliminate any threats to the UNSC and Earth. I don’t care about the details, or about being a descendent of the Reclaimers.”
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So far ...
After being separated for several months, the Black Ops reunited at the Elite home world of Dorenth, however the battle upon the Elite world was harsh, and the appearance of a Gravemind creature brought unforeseeable peril. Doctor Catherine Halsey, along with Spartan 087, arrived and made several marvelous discoveries, including a possible cure to the Flood infection. Yet she discovers that the Forerunner Legacy left behind a Super Soldier Gene within each of the “higher” ranking races of the Forerunner Empire. This Gene, if infected by the flood, ultimately becomes a Gravemind. No cure for the Gravemind strand has been found.
The Black Ops, along with the Mirratord, Spartan 087, the countless Elite Civilians, thousands of Grunts and the Grunt King, escaped the doomed world of Dorenth via the Seed Ship; an ancient Forerunner Instrument buried deep within the planets core. A ship so vast that even the entire population of Grunts and Elites could not fill its hull. This Seed Ship recreated life in the galaxy several years after the Halo’s fired one hundred thousand years ago.
On the edge of the Sol System, High Charity appeared, most likely under flood control and it is making its way to Earth. Deep below Camp Eden, Rose, the lead engineer of the MJOLNIR Mark V project, along with Doctor Smith, the doctor that protected the Black Ops from Ackerson’s Spartan III research death watch, and Doctor Halsey continue to explore the massive cavern beneath Camp Eden’s massive underground fortress. Rose and Doctor Halsey quickly realize that the cavern is almost identical to the cavern on the Elite home world.
Under the order of Admiral Sir Terrance Hood, the Black Ops have landed on Earth and teamed up with the Master Chief Spartan 117, to breach the Brute controlled front in the Eastern African desert. The Mirratord gave aid in the initial battle, but were ordered to the aid of the Arbiter on another battlefront. After protecting the civilian shelter of Camp Eden, the Spartans and the Black Ops board the Rogue Fantasy and make there way to the quickly approaching Forerunner ship, however….
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Level 1: The Power of Truth
East Africa
Rogue Fantasy
High Orbit over Ark Excavation Site
New Mombasa Crater Site
October 29, 2552
Sergeant Eric Raynord, Black Ops 19, sealed his helmet and walked off the bridge, “Good luck, Captain.”
“The same to you, 19. Come back in one piece.” Captain Monroe watched as Eric walked off the command deck. His modified ODST armor was soaked in alien blood, plasma burns, and his own dried blood. He was a Spartan, a product of Colonel Ackerson’s Spartan III research, trained to kill and be victorious in combat. She knew that what he and the other Spartans were about to do would be suicide, but suicidal tactics was what he had been doing for years on board her ship. However, she couldn’t escape the felling that this was his last mission, and that she would never see him alive again. The door to the command deck opened and the last of the Black Ops awaited him; Melanie 05 and Mathew 08. Their helmets were on and weapons at the ready. Eric nodded toward them and they responded likewise. They then looked onto the command deck and Captain Monroe stood and gave them a firm salute. Eric returned the gesture as the door to the command deck closed.
Monroe returned to her chair, filled with a heaviness she had not felt since Kim 04 had died several months before. She ran her hand through her soot filled hair and fought the emotion to cry. Eric had told her long ago that she was the Captain of the ship, and no longer a child; tears solved nothing.
Her command crew looked at her as she gazed at the ever approaching forerunner ship, “Cortana, Siren … tell me what we need to do.”
Cortana, the AI that had aided the Master Chief throughout the last several months, spoke over the command deck’s speaker, “Siren and I will take the helm. This may get a little bumpy as we get closer to the forerunner ship. Hang on.”
The Rogue Fantasy, UNSC Jefferson Class Stealth Ship, rumbled as it climbed into the atmosphere, leaving behind the remaining ships of the UNSC fleet. Their orders had come directly from Lord Hood, “Rendezvous at the Rally Point and defend it from Covenant attack.” The location of the Ark had been discovered by the Prophet of Truth’s ground forces, and everything that the UNSC had left was making their way to the RP. Yet the Rogue Fantasy and her crew of Spartans were on a different mission; to intercept the Prophet of Truth.
The hull began to vibrate as the Rogue Fantasy accelerated to escape velocity. The Forerunner ship was skipping along the atmosphere and would soon be heading toward the Ark’s coordinates. Lord Hood had received word that the Spartans had successfully defended Camp Eden from attack, and with the return of Cortana, he felt that this was the best mission for the Spartans. There was no clear way of knowing what Truth was planning, but one thing was for sure, the battle was only beginning, and the Earth forces were losing.
In the realm of digital information, Cortana ran thousands of calculations, “Siren, I can’t find a proper frequency to breach through that Forerunner ship’s defenses.”
“That’s my job, Cortana. You worry about steering the ship and avoiding incoming fire.” Siren returned. Siren, the one time leader of the Black Ops, was a Virus AI. She was designed specifically by the ONI R-and-D team to do exactly what she was doing; hack in and take over. Thanks to her, the Black Ops were able to successfully find one of the Covenant home worlds. Yet upon their arrival, they found that humanity had formed an awkward alliance with the Elites. They successfully helped millions of Elite civilians, and the remaining ex-covenant members, escape a world which was being consumed by the Flood. However, it will all be for nothing if Truth reached the Ark.
“Scanning. Scanning. Damn it!” Siren yelled in frustration. “We’re moving to fast. The real world time is still catching up. Every second here is less than a tenth of second out there. The channels aren’t opening up fast enough for me.”
“You really are new at this aren’t you?” Cortana Commented. “Slow down your processor to half-relative. Reduce … bandwidth to a factor of point nine-nine. That should bring you into a staggered alignment of … relative time.”
Siren looked quizzically into Cortana’s digital persona. “Why did you pause?”
“I didn’t pause.” Cortana returned.
Siren did the recalculations and everything went smoothly. “Not bad.” Siren smirked. Cortana had the added advantage of sharing her functions with a human host for several weeks, meaning she understood ‘Real Time’ better than most Artificial Intelligence. “Okay, more frequencies are opening up on the Covenant Band, yet nothing from the Forerunner ship. Truth isn’t talking to anyone.”
“Contacts! Multiple … Contacts.” Cortana shouted. “Captain, brace for emergency course corrections.”
Again, Siren noticed that Cortana was pausing. Something she never would have noticed beyond the digital realm. Her hesitation to complete the sentence was well beyond the fraction of a second but it was there, and Siren heard it. Cortana was slightly off.
In the physical plain, Captain Monroe gripped her arm rests tightly and powered on the ship wide communications. “All hands, brace for evasive maneuvers.” She released the com. “What is it, Cortana?”
The commend deck intercom buzzed to life. “Truth has two battle cruisers in his wake, most likely for added defense. They just launched several waves of Plasma in our direction.”
The helmsman shifted in his seat at the words. “An in atmosphere plasma volley? What are they, nuts?”
“I don’t think that’s a concern, Private.” Cortana shouted over the vibrating hull. The ship slowly shifted and everyone leaned with the gravity shift. The Rogue Fantasy was now in High Orbit and moving twice the speed of sound, yet they needed more speed in order to intercept the Forerunner ship. “Captain, weapons are hot, ready return fire?”
Captain Monroe released the main weapons safety controls via her armrest and looked into the forward view portal. “Cortana, Siren, you have Tactical. Take them out!”
“Transferring main power to Mac 3.” The ship jolted as the engines momentarily died. “Adjusting for inertial drift. Firing, Mac 3.” The ship jolted forward as the super heated Ferric-tungsten projectile escaped the forward mounted Class 3 cannon. “Returning engines to full, Archer Missiles away.” Forty archer missiles then spat from the missile pods on a pursuit course of the MAC round.
[Edited on 3/5/2007]