Post by Taonas Deridran on Mar 4, 2009 20:07:52 GMT -7
Halo:
The year is 2552. Planet Earth still exists, but overpopulation has forced many of her former residents to colonize other worlds. Faster-than-light travel is now a reality, and Earth's unified government, through the United Nations Space Command, has put its full weight behind the colonization effort - millions of humans now live on habitable planets in other solar systems. A keystone of humanity's colonization efforts is the planet Reach, an interstellar naval yard that builds colony ships for civilians and warships for the UNSC's armed forces. Conveniently close to Earth, Rech is also a hub of scientific and military activity.
Thirty-two years ago, contact with the outer colony Harvest was lost. A battlegroup sent to investigate was also completely destroyed; only one badly damaged ship returned to Reach. Its crew told of a seemingly unstoppable alien warship that had effortlessly annihilated their forces.
This was humankind's first encounter with a group of aliens they eventually came to know as the Covenant, a collective of alien races united in their fanatical religious devotion. Covenant religious elders declared humanity an affront to the gods, and teh Covenant warrior caste waged a holy war upon humanity with gruesome diligence.
After a series of crushing defeats and obliterated colonies, UNSC Admiral Prestion Cole established the Cole Protocol: no vessel may inadvertently lead the Covenant to Earth. When forced to withdraw, ships must avoid Earth-bound vectors-even if that means jumping without proper navigational calculations. Vessels in danger of capture must self-destruct.
On Reach, a secret military project to create cyborg super-soldiers takes on newfound importance. The soldiers of the SPARTAN-II project rack up an impressive record agains teh Covenant in test deployments, but there are too few of them to turn the tide of the war.
Existing SPARTAN-II soldiers are recalled to Reach for further augmentation. The plan: board a Covenant vessel with teh improved SPARTAN-IIs adn learn the location of the Covenant home world. Two days before the mission begins, Covenant forces strike Reach and annihilate the colony. The Covenant are nw on Earth's doorstep. One ship, the Pillar of Autumn, escapes with the last SPARTAN-II and makes a blind jump into deep space, hoping to lead the Covenant away from Earth.
Halo 2:
To: Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI)
From: Cortana, UNSC Pillar of Autumn shipboard AI
Re: SPARTAN-117 and the Destruction of Halo
Sir. As the rich data-bursts attached in this transmission make clear, we have been to hell and back. I'll be brief.
After Reach fell, I followed Cole protocol and slipped the Pilliar of Autumn. Usitn astronomical symbols SPARTAN-117 captured from a Covenant vessel, I chose an exit-vector that would place us in an uncharted system near a late-life gas giant planet (new classification, "Threshold"). To my considerable surprise, in orbit around the planet was an artificial ring construct, 10,000 kilometers in diameter.
Initially, I feared the ring was a Covenant installation. It was not. But the enemy had tracked us and was lying in wait around the ring. Rather than risk capture, Captain Keyes ordered my upload into Spartan-117's neural network. While we abandoned ship, the Captain managed to land the Autumn on the ring, saving the lives of many of the crew.
When we realized that Halo could destroy all life, Spartan-117 and I decided our only choice was to destroy Halo - stop 343 Guilty Spark from completing his assigned task, and deny the Covenant a weapon of unthinkable power. We used the Pillar of Autumn's fusion reactors to start a chain reaction that utterly destroyed the ring. I'm sorry to report that Captain Keyes was lot to the Flood.
With respect to our ongoing fight against the Covenant, our time on Halo was well spent. I have gathered a wealth of new information for our database of Covenant weapons, technology, tactics, and society. Additionally, Spartan-117's proficient use fo arms, and the destruction of the ring, resulted in a significant loss of enemy personnel and material.
That being said, I fear that the Covenant will take kindly to our obliteration of their holy relic. Having thus struck the hornets' nest, we are now heading home with all speed.
The year is 2552. Planet Earth still exists, but overpopulation has forced many of her former residents to colonize other worlds. Faster-than-light travel is now a reality, and Earth's unified government, through the United Nations Space Command, has put its full weight behind the colonization effort - millions of humans now live on habitable planets in other solar systems. A keystone of humanity's colonization efforts is the planet Reach, an interstellar naval yard that builds colony ships for civilians and warships for the UNSC's armed forces. Conveniently close to Earth, Rech is also a hub of scientific and military activity.
Thirty-two years ago, contact with the outer colony Harvest was lost. A battlegroup sent to investigate was also completely destroyed; only one badly damaged ship returned to Reach. Its crew told of a seemingly unstoppable alien warship that had effortlessly annihilated their forces.
This was humankind's first encounter with a group of aliens they eventually came to know as the Covenant, a collective of alien races united in their fanatical religious devotion. Covenant religious elders declared humanity an affront to the gods, and teh Covenant warrior caste waged a holy war upon humanity with gruesome diligence.
After a series of crushing defeats and obliterated colonies, UNSC Admiral Prestion Cole established the Cole Protocol: no vessel may inadvertently lead the Covenant to Earth. When forced to withdraw, ships must avoid Earth-bound vectors-even if that means jumping without proper navigational calculations. Vessels in danger of capture must self-destruct.
On Reach, a secret military project to create cyborg super-soldiers takes on newfound importance. The soldiers of the SPARTAN-II project rack up an impressive record agains teh Covenant in test deployments, but there are too few of them to turn the tide of the war.
Existing SPARTAN-II soldiers are recalled to Reach for further augmentation. The plan: board a Covenant vessel with teh improved SPARTAN-IIs adn learn the location of the Covenant home world. Two days before the mission begins, Covenant forces strike Reach and annihilate the colony. The Covenant are nw on Earth's doorstep. One ship, the Pillar of Autumn, escapes with the last SPARTAN-II and makes a blind jump into deep space, hoping to lead the Covenant away from Earth.
Halo 2:
To: Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI)
From: Cortana, UNSC Pillar of Autumn shipboard AI
Re: SPARTAN-117 and the Destruction of Halo
Sir. As the rich data-bursts attached in this transmission make clear, we have been to hell and back. I'll be brief.
After Reach fell, I followed Cole protocol and slipped the Pilliar of Autumn. Usitn astronomical symbols SPARTAN-117 captured from a Covenant vessel, I chose an exit-vector that would place us in an uncharted system near a late-life gas giant planet (new classification, "Threshold"). To my considerable surprise, in orbit around the planet was an artificial ring construct, 10,000 kilometers in diameter.
Initially, I feared the ring was a Covenant installation. It was not. But the enemy had tracked us and was lying in wait around the ring. Rather than risk capture, Captain Keyes ordered my upload into Spartan-117's neural network. While we abandoned ship, the Captain managed to land the Autumn on the ring, saving the lives of many of the crew.
When we realized that Halo could destroy all life, Spartan-117 and I decided our only choice was to destroy Halo - stop 343 Guilty Spark from completing his assigned task, and deny the Covenant a weapon of unthinkable power. We used the Pillar of Autumn's fusion reactors to start a chain reaction that utterly destroyed the ring. I'm sorry to report that Captain Keyes was lot to the Flood.
With respect to our ongoing fight against the Covenant, our time on Halo was well spent. I have gathered a wealth of new information for our database of Covenant weapons, technology, tactics, and society. Additionally, Spartan-117's proficient use fo arms, and the destruction of the ring, resulted in a significant loss of enemy personnel and material.
That being said, I fear that the Covenant will take kindly to our obliteration of their holy relic. Having thus struck the hornets' nest, we are now heading home with all speed.