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Forgotten World by guyw1tn0nam3
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Forgotten World
Date: 1 April 2008, 1:37 pm
Prologue: Outcast Protocol
In reality, no protocol had been made by the name of the Outcast Protocol before the year 2525. In fact, Vice Admiral Preston Cole didn't establish it until two years after the event of the devastation and recapture of the Harvest colony. At the time, the Office of Naval Intelligence, or ONI for short, was divided only into a dichotomy instead of the four sections that it was split up into. The reason for four was simply because ONI needed each task to be special and focused. With a war that was being won faster than the UNSC could mobilize their troops from their toilet seats, it was quite obvious ONI needed to be able to operate as fast as possible.
There were indeed four sections of ONI, each particularly operating with different forms of intelligence. The first, hence the name, was Section One, which was the main body of ONI. They gathered everything from Covenant and Human force deployment to evaluation of certain colonies across the galaxy. This section handled data with extra care, and is the main reason why much data over the course of the war was inevitably lost. Information even in the heavily encrypted databases could easily cracked and seen.
Section Two dealt with propaganda, and made sure that the common public did not overreact to the destruction of certain planets, strongholds, ships, and high military figures during the war. Because of Section Two, Reach, a devastated world, remained an impenetrable fortress in the eyes of common public. And it is because of Section Two, that Spartans were never allowed to officially die, due to the fact that the death of any Spartan would cause uproar and loss of morale would spread through the ranks faster than the Covenant could fire their plasma turrets. Thus came the reason why every dead Spartan was not marked with the marker KIA, but with the marker of MIA.
Section Three handled the most dangerous operations during the Human-Covenant War. Spartan Two's, Nova Bombs, MJOLNIR armor testing, all were guided and overseen by Section Three. Although they didn't handle the most secretive of projects, Section Three was the section that was supposedly the division that would guarantee the prolonged war. And in fact, it did. The arrival of Spartan II's greatly influenced the war, and ironically, instead of prolonging the war, the Spartan II project won the war with the existence of a single man.
Finally, however, was Section 0, and in the eyes of many, Section 0, didn't exist, and would never exist. After the war, Section 0 unleashed files of its project, and the subsequent events that followed lead to Section 0's abolishment and termination. They handled heavy data encryption projects, and the infamous Spartan III project, which inevitably failed in the end, due to the heavy loss of life. ONI's biggest prize was indeed Section 0, who until 2553, only was known by a few people. Out of those people, there were very few even in ONI, who knew about Section 0's existence.
Section 0 also dealt with the highest priority jobs. These jobs were probably the opposite of what Section Three was designed to do. Instead of the "illegal" use of human beings and deadly study of a nuclear cataclysm, Section 0 prioritized with jobs such as terminating illegal programs that were not authorized by anything other than the Office of Naval Intelligence. Not only that, they wrote the fundamental laws that made up the UNSC's guidelines. Laws such as the Cole Protocol, was verified by Section 0, and the Outcast Protocol was specifically outlined and written by Section 0 itself.
If Section Three was considered the "black op" of the Office of Naval Intelligence, then Section 0 could be considered ONI's "white op."
It was due to Section Two and Section 0, that the Outcast Protocol was passed. It was obvious, that a single battle could cripple the UNSC Navy and influence the outcome of an already devastating war. It was already seen when Vice Admiral Cole retook Harvest and lost most of his ships, even when he outnumbered the Covenant three to one. Retaking Harvest was indeed suicide, and in the end, nothing was learned about the Covenant, except that their technologies inevitably were light years ahead of the UNSC's.
No shit.
And so, Section 0 wrote the Protocol, and outlined it specifically, and Section Two was given the task to publish it. As it came out, people were outraged, and people became frightened. Those on the fringes of UNSC held space became frightened of the Protocol's reality, and dozen's of planets were abandoned due to the UNSC's utter and final decision. The knowledge that UNSC conventional weapons almost had no effect on a new technologically advanced species frightened the media, and Section Two, for the first time, had failed in what it had designed to do.
The Harvest conflict proved one inexorable thing. Once a planet was taken, the Covenant was absolutely vicious in defending their prize. Religious fanatics already, the Covenant mobilized better, reacted faster, and fought harder when it came to defending their own grounds or grounds that they had already taken from the UNSC. And another win like the Harvest Conflict might spur morale boosts, but victory would again come at a huge price for the UNSC while the Covenant continued to feast off seemingly infinite resources and hundreds of ships and millions of disposable soldiers from only God knows where.
The Outcast Protocol stopped another Harvest Conflict from happening every again. It stated that no colony that was taken from the Covenant could be retaken, and was punishable by marshal law to do. It also stated that colonies that were either surrounded by Covenant controlled planets or were avoided by the Covenant but now outside UNSC controlled space could also not be rescued, in case that the Covenant was nearby. The second area was designed specifically to make sure that avoided planets stayed avoided, and that no more loss of human life was going to occur.
Cruel, but necessary. The UNSC fought a losing war, and with the Outcast Protocol in effect, at the year's end, the loss of ships had been cut down by half. This lessened each year, as less rescue missions were carried out each year, and the Covenant found themselves fighting an adapting enemy, and with more ships at their disposal. More battles were won, and more of Covenant technology was discovered because the Outcast Protocol also limited the use of Prowlers and other reconnaissance vehicles from venturing into unknown space. The reconnaissance vehicles were then used for other important tasks, which led to the development of the MJOLNIR armor and its regenerating shield technology.
Punishment for breaking the protocol was rather severe. First offenses would be stripped of their rank and would have their ships decommissioned and given into more "capable" hands. The crew of the captain or commander would also be demoted for not having the sense to stop their captain from breaking the law. A second offense would mean being shipped to the most outer regions of UNSC controlled space, where they'd cause no more harm to International Security.
Although this kept the UNSC from closer defeat and might've been a prime reason for a prolonged war, there were still millions of lives lost because no one was allowed to go to the aid of an already doomed world. Millions were killed, and a billion more were glassed under Covenant plasma fire. It was ruthless, and the onslaught continued in the Outer Colonies as governments over each world began to wonder why the UNSC had abandoned them.
Citizens of colony worlds that were avoided by the Covenant or were under siege became outcasts, hence the name of the protocol. They became outcasts, undesirables, and the forgotten deaths of the war. The kill ratio of citizen deaths and the deaths of outcasts were near an even keel. Just like that, because of a single protocol, a fourth of human population was swiped clean off the face of the galaxy. Was it really necessary? Perhaps, but the loss of citizen life was something that no human being other than Section 0 would ever understand.
But in terms of efficiency, the number of times the Outcast Protocol was broken was almost none. The effects and consequences, as well as the risk, of breaking the protocol made people realize how lucky some of them were to be able to survive the battles of Jericho, or the Atlas Moons, or Sigma Octanus. It was because of this protocol that people not only questioned sacrificing millions for billions, but if their lives might be the ones to save the world from a catastrophic apocalyptic doom. In their minds, a single shot from an archer missile pod could decide the balance of a battle or fate of the conflict.
Of course, all laws were made to be broken, and it was broken only once by a single ship who attempted to rescue a colony world that hosted up to ten million souls. The ship never returned, and ONI shook its head, making an example of how it was futile to try to conflict with a law that was obviously made to ensure the continuation of mankind. It was not to save a million souls. If ONI sacrificed ten billion souls to keep the human race alive and allow it to reproduce, then that was what they would do.
The only problem was that it still spurred the moral debate, and the prime example, would be the horrifying experience that no one would ever truly remember. It only exists now as a monumental document, transcribed by a weak file, that tells the truth. After hearing it, the Outcast Protocol was abolished, although it was no longer necessary to start with.
That morality was questioned, with the fate of Zion II.
Zion II was a large trading colony for the fringe worlds of the Outer Colonies. In reality, it was only a few minutes away from Harvest when using the Shaw-Fujikawa Slipspace Drives, which made it very close to the very edge of UNSC controlled space. It was rather a merchant's wet dream, and was dubbed the largest trading outpost in human history. But as a large recession of the economy came into motion, traders began to pull away from Zion II, simply because the flight was too costly and time wasting. Because of the lack of traders, the UNSC took Zion II into its own hands and made it a military shipyard of both naval and ground purposes.
Because rebel raiders or pirates usually attacked the Outer Colonies, Zion II was outfitted by the UNSC a large amount of ground troops, weapons, vehicles, and personnel. By Section Two's propaganda, it was to keep the rebel's away from an important trading outpost, but it was obvious that they were protecting Zion II from the Covenant. Zion II delivered food, money, weapons, and other assortments across the Outer Colonies. The reason why the first conflict during a conflict with an opposing rebel faction was won by the UNSC was because Zion II was able to ship a rather large amount of weapons and assorted equipment which tipped the conflict in the UNSC's favor.
But in the year 2525, just a few months after the loss of Harvest, and the Battle of Harvest was still only in the beginning stages of the to-be "greatest" naval battle in the history of mankind, a strange phenomenon occurred. In mist of the chaos, Zion II disappeared, and a complete radio black out emerged in between the UNSC and it's Outer Colony weapons provider. The Outcast Protocol was still not in motion, but the idea had begun to simmer in the minds of everyone at the Office of Naval Intelligence. Too much attention was now focused on Harvest, and ONI simply believed Zion II had probably been hit with the same fate. With Vice Admiral Cole and his gargantuan fleet still not sure about what took Harvest, no one gave a second thought about Zion II, and the large military force stationed there.
In reality, no one knew about Zion II except perhaps Harvest and a few other colonies. But Zion II, despite its small popularity level, bloomed with economic growth. But with Zion II gone, and Vice Admiral Cole first making contact with the Covenant, ONI conveniently forgot about Zion II, knowing that the public would not want to hear that two colony worlds had been completely obliterated in just a few days time. Large amounts of fear would spread, and the worlds would stumble into chaos.
ONI wouldn't let that happen.
Section Two and Section 0 both destroyed the files ever linking to Zion II's existence. Every trade, every ounce of money ever transacted there was forgotten and lost. The soldiers stationed there became KIA, and were said to have participated in the battle of Harvest, where their sacrifice allowed a large contingent of soldiers to break through enemy lines, and lead the UNSC to victory against a higher foe. Every scrap of metal that made up the machines of war that were crafted by the UNSC were listed as damaged or destroyed.
Zion II no longer existed.
But it did exist. And the men weren't just sacrifices for a brave cause during a large conflict. They were the targets of a slaughter, a helpless and reckless onslaught, where the foe was neither pitiful nor merciful. It was the story of a struggle, and the story of a forgotten world, where no one bothered to look. They were the first outcasts, and they were the first to cry for help, and get nothing in return.
The Outcast Protocol did not exist then. But the men and women who fought against an impossible enemy were the first of the millions and billions of Outcast, who were lost to the aliens and harbingers of death that strode through the UNSC as if it was a park that was to be trampled upon.
It was the story of an epic struggle to survive, and the story told through the eyes of a single strand of data that survived the bitter conflict that occurred on Zion II. The truth, embedded and fired in a ray of light and energy, was finally given to Section 0, just days before its termination. The signal was weak, but the truth was there, and the first to read the horrifying glimpses of the deadly struggle between man and beast became visible to the naked eye once more.
But it was not a message of just truth. It was a distress signal, made in 2525, during the radio blackout that occurred, blocking ONI's communication with Zion II. It was a cry for help. A cry that was never answered, and the ones who cried out for salvation from the obliteration were lost. Every single one, fighting or hiding, was inevitably lost. Either by the cruel fate of time or ONI's deadly and cruel destruction of information, every man or woman who fought on Zion II was destined for ultimate extinction. None survived those few weeks on Zion II.
The distress signal came into Section 0's hands in 2556.
By then it was too late, and Zion II was never recovered. It was never remembered by anyone at that time, and the only one old enough to remember what happened had retired, not willing to do another job for Section 0, terrified at the deeds he had committed, and regretting the sins he had to take to save humanity. So instead, the document was given to ONI's top brass, where it was published and a monument was built in its place for the brave heroes of Zion II, for everyone to read.
But no one can visualize the devastating terror of the conflict. They can only read. They can only imagine, what it was like, for the battalions of troops, stationed on Zion II, doomed to die, but fighting for a cause that they knew that their fellow military men would fight for until the war was won.
It was because the human race was designed to survive. Their competitiveness drove them to claw for the top dog in the circle of life. They wanted to live, whereas others were content with dwelling low in the societal hierarchy of nature. Because of this, Zion II continued to fight, until every last man and woman had died. Until every last weapon was spent, and every last bullet fallen to the floor and every last vehicle smoldering in plasma burns, with no more oil in the tank.
They continued fighting until the last breath had escaped their bodies, and the last light faded from their eyes, and every last resource slowly drove itself into extinction, and every last glimpse of hope and salvation were gone, and every last option had run out.
As a result, their compelling battle and the slaughter of everyone on Zion II outraged the common public. Because of Zion II, Section 0 was terminated, and everyone in the sector decommissioned, never to tell what had happened during those years, locked down in a military secure building, deleting away at files that no one would ever see.
But the story got out.
Here is their story.
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