Operation Sunlight Part 2: James
Posted By: Gruntkiller<ttavenor@nf.sympatico.ca>
Date: 29 June 2003, 2:40 PM
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Operation Sunlight
Chapter 2:
James
1109 hours August 35, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Earth
The news was split 50/50 between the attack on Reach and the recent assassination of the Prime Minister which everyone though to be the works of a Covenant preemptive strike on Earth. Everyone was glued to their video screen trying to see what was happening and what could happen.
James was among the many who was glued to their video screen. He sat upright propped against several pillows in a large military hospital. He had the entire floor to himself and only the seldom official from the military disrupted him, usually to question him about the happenings at Reach.
"...The latest on the investigation on Reach right after the break," said the news broadcaster.
The screen changed running an advertisement for a soda, James clicked his fingers and the screen turned off. James slowly got up from the bed and looked around the room before walking out the door into the hallways outside. The halls were deserted the brass made sure that nobody unwanted caught site of the Spartan and James was quite happy about that. The walls had numerous framed pictures of fields filled with flowers and various other calm landscapes, James slowly walked past the pictures to a door not far down the hall and walked into the room.
Inside there were various pieces of exercise equipment James walked up to a weight bench and quickly began to work out. He worked out for a half hour in peace with only the noises that the equipment made. There was suddenly a click and the creak of the door opening James dropped the weights and got up to see who was coming.
In the doorway stood a figure outlined by the brighter lights in the hallway he wore a grey officer's suit with all the markings of an Admiral.
"Sit down James," said the man in a calm voice. "As you are aware of the Prime Minister has been assassinated."
"Yes sir," said James wondering why he was being told this it was on every station.
"Well that's why I'm here," said the man he walked in a few more steps and closed the door behind him. "He was assassinated because he was not competent."
"Excuse me sir," said James confused.
"He was holding back a mission that could have potentially changed this war," said the Admiral in a faster voice. "And now that he's gone it can be carried out."
James sat quietly absorbing every word the Admiral said.
"As you know you and the other Spartans were supposed to infiltrate and capture a Covenant ship, but what you were not told was that a massive assault was supposed to take place simultaneously to insure that the Covenant would not rush to the ship you were capturing aid. This went down the drain the minutes the Covenant attacked Reach, all but two Spartans dead."
James was surprised for a second he thought that he was the only one alive, "Excuse me sir but who was the other survivor?"
"From what we could tell John 117 escaped on the Pillar of Autumn but we have yet to make any contact with it so as far as we know he's not going to be back for quite some time if ever. Back to the mission 90% of the ships that were supposed to take part in the assault were destroyed or were damaged to the point where they could only limp away from the battle. After that the Prime Minister stopped all advancements in the mission in an attempt to defend what few planets we have left."
To James this sounded sensibly but the Admiral obviously thought otherwise.
"We realized that the only way of protecting Earth from the Covenant would be to risk it and gamble an assault with whatever forces we could gather up and launch the mission. The only way for us to do this would be to get you back on your feet for the mission and use Special Forces to accompany you."
"What special forces?" asked James.
"We were thinking Helljumpers and some squads from Black," said the Admiral.
James looked at the Admiral with an expression that said that he did not believe what he was hearing.
"As you know Black has been only a rumor for years, they were under the Prime Ministers direct command but now that he's dead there under our control. Most of Black is in the field now but is being called back now all their mission terminated."
"Sir why are you terminating their missions, with that secrecy level value any mission their on must have a huge value."
"This is more important then any battle that we have and will participate in. This could be the point where we could overcome many of the barriers that the Covenant has put up. It could close the gap between us technologically and give us the upper hand with maps of the space they have explored along with ours."
"When do we start," asked James.
"Get yourself ready we will be taking you to the main base of operations at 0300 tomorrow. Then we will get into the details."
~
0300 hours August 36, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Earth
James sat on the edge of his bed wearing the scrubs that were provided to him that was all he had. He sat their waiting in the semi darkness of his room. From down the hall their was the sound of a squad of Marines rushing up James stood up and walked out of his room he stood in the middle of the hall staring at the squad who now all had the flashlights on their MA5b's pointed at him. All the lights in the hall were off.
"Come James, there's been a breech just before we got here. We got to get out of here, the fact that you remain unharmed and your stay here unknown is imperative," said the Admiral who stood among the Marines.
James walked forward and the squad of Marines began moving towards the exit, on the floor below them shots could be heard. The Admiral picked up a radio and began talking.
"Rebels, five of them they were here for you James."
Next: Black
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