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Strange Aeons by Berconius
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Strange Aeons - Chapter 0: Prologue
Date: 14 September 2004, 3:04 PM
AN: Please note that this is an ELSEWOLRDS. Thus, I shall change many aspects of Halo along the way like the Covenant hierarchy. I also try to align my title thingy to make it look cool, but varying monitor resolutions make it come out funny. Ciao!
Strange Aeons - A Halo Elseworlds
The fall of Reach left Earth in a panic. A population of billions scrambled to get away in anything that could fly. The UNSC gave no hope to the defense of their home. Rather, they spent the last of their funding on something far more reasonable and at once far more inane...
0100 Hours January 2nd 2553
Orbital Dock A - 191, Earth
T minus 83 Hours, estimated Covenant arrival
High above the quickly vacating surface of Earth, one ship floated behind large Titanium sheets with the word "Long Goodnight" stenciled in large block letters. Shining armor plates, often no less than twenty meters thick, were drawn into place and connected to the superstructure by countless construction teams. Weapons systems, waste recyclers, and other necessities were being tested, retested, and fine tuned.
After months of hiding behind those Titanium curtains, she was almost ready. The most thoroughly conceived vessel throughout the history of UNSC research and development was taking shape.
With onboard construction bays, advanced stealth capabilities, more guns than any previous ship built by human hands, R&D facilities to rival most planet bound laboratories, and science labs worthy of a research vessel, the Highborne cost as much as an entire battle group to build. It was, of course, the last ship that Earthly shipyards would ever produce so it made sense to hold nothing back.
The Project known as Long Goodnight was set into motion immediately after news of Reach's fall came to light. In effect, it was Humanity making sure that if they didn't live on, no one would. The construction plans for the Golgotha class Long Range Heavy Cruiser had existed for years and were constantly updated, but the thought had been that the resources for such a ship would never become available.
The Highborne's mission was simple by principle and could be summed up in the statement "I'm taking you with me." To use its superior stealth, firepower, and range to find, isolate, and destroy the entirety of the Covenant race. Evade capture and destruction at any and all costs. Live off anything that can be taken, whether it be from friendly forces, or the broken remains of the enemy. In the immortal words of ancient Earth: Fuck 'em all, no mercy.
The backbone of the operation was a combination of the Golgotha Class LRH Cruiser, and a certain practice that the general public was kept unaware of. In order to raise a trained and effective force of infantry to raid or board the enemy's ships and installations, soldier quality and longevity made the use of normal Marines and ODSTs impractical. For a mission that is intended to run forever or until the destruction of every last aspect of covenant culture, human lifetimes became a serious limitation. The only remaining option was to raise a ready population of soldiers and crew aboard the Cruiser and replace older personnel as necessary.
For a solution to this, the UNSC turned to cloning. Deep within the cavernous bowels of the Highborne, clone bays and artificial wombs had been constructed before the project was made visible to Earth's population in an effort to prevent civil unrest. DNA from practically any family line without genetic defects were held onboard and mixed at random by the onboard AI constructs for each batch.
Each generation of clones would be raised as Born on Boards by existing crew and trained almost from birth to be soldiers. Essentially, the Highborne was to be a fighting colony ship.
1233 Hours January 5th 2553
Earth Lunar Perimeter
T plus 33 minutes, estimated Covenant arrival
The hour had come. Thousands of Covenant ships exited slipspace, bypassing Mars and her orbital defenses. It didn't really matter. Both Earth and Mars had been totally evacuated of anyone who wasn't insane, terminally ill, or otherwise not worth taking.
Automated defenses hummed to life and fired MAC rounds at the enemy at Earth's gates. Dormant mines were remotely activated as the Covenant fleet swept through the darkness of space. Sensing objects nearby, they detonated, catching the unwary ships in a veritable maelstrom of nuclear fire.
Unfazed by the setback, Seraphs withdrew to their carrier ships and the fleet marched on amidst a mostly harmless fireworks display of low powered nukes. Then the real trap was sprung.
As soon as the main body of the ships were caught between the Earth and the Moon, both began to rumble and crack all over. Hundreds of gigatons of thermonuclear explosives detonated from subterranean storage caverns near the core of the Moon. The portions that weren't immediately turned to plasma flew out at the crest of a giant shockwave that completely demolished many of the nearby spacecraft. Before the fleet could scramble out of the way, Earth met a similar fate with even more explosive force. As the molten contents of the planet flew into space, the outside layers cooled to solid rock. These rocks slammed into hapless frigates and Cruisers in the forward portion of the fleet formation, spilling molten magma on their hulls that hardened instantly, only to be driven deeper by liquid rock colliding from behind.
Shields from every part of the fleet formation flickered and failed as nuclear detonations, their consequential shockwaves, and the remains of two celestial bodies tore at the Covenant with power that was likely the most destructive and balanced combination of Nature and Man. Who needs to hide under defiled terrain when you can send it flying at your enemy at over a thousand meters per second?
When the explosions, secondary explosions, accidental collisions, and fires stopped for the most part, the once proud Covenant fleet could barely form an escort for their Flagship, much less an armada. Their prize stolen and their numbers broken, it may well have been considered the most successful human victory throughout the war.
Statistically speaking.
In retrospect, it may be decided that this was the battle that turned the tide of the war against the Covenant.
Statistically speaking.
With few to no human casualties, no intel for the enemy to gather, and only death for them to gain, it was at best a disastrous outing for the Covenant.
Statistically speaking.
Even better, now that the entire planet and its satellite were gone, there would be no trace of the platform that harbored the Highborne during construction. The operation had gained secrecy for the hunter. Surprise.
Statistically victorious again.
But as the saying goes, how much just for the planet?
Answer: Satisfaction. The Journey has only begun. The battle, the losses were just the start of the Covenant fall. Statistically, a thousand ships could be neglected as a minor mishap for a race so prolific and economically stable. But this marked a new phase of the conflict.
"I'm taking you with me" - Humanity, innumerable times
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