Shadows of an Empire: Prologue
Posted By: tsukahara10<st.krueger@comcast.net>
Date: 21 September 2006, 4:45 pm
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Prologue: Shadows of an Empire
0930 Hours, March 15th, 2561 (UNSC Military Calendar)
Oslo, European Union, Earth
Markus Gundersen walked out onto his front porch and looked up at the sky. On that clear day it was easy to see the numerous defense stations the UNSC still had in orbit around the planet. It had been eight years since the war against the Covenant ended yet the UNSC insisted on keeping everything in working order. In fact the military had nearly doubled in size since the war. And with the continuing peace with the three races that broke off of the Covenant, the safety of the Human race was ensured. Why the need for such a large military?
Technically Markus was still in the UNSC Marine Corps, yet he hadn't been on active duty for several years. Markus joined the Marines late in the war and only saw the last year of it. He didn't even see the Covenant invasion of Earth. He was in the Corps when it happened, but the brigade his platoon was a part of was assigned to defend the last of the Inner Colonies. He wished he could've been there to defend his homeland, but it would've taken too long to recall his brigade back to Earth. The battle would've been over by the time they arrived, and despite the outcome of the battle at Earth another Inner Colony would've been lost due to the removal of its defense.
Markus saw plenty of action however. The colony his brigade defended, Kappa Arcanus II, was invaded by the Covenant just before Earth was. And like all Covenant invasions they came in search of a Forerunner artifact. Yet unlike all the others, the Covenant failed to recover the artifact they sought. The Marines successfully held them at bay for several days until the Covenant forces eventually were defeated. The victory at Kappa Arcanus II earned Markus a promotion, a Colonial Cross for carrying his wounded commanding officer from the front lines of a battle to safety, and a Purple Heart for several severe plasma burns he sustained while evacing his CO.
Now a Captain in the inactive reserves, Markus was eagerly awaiting his next assignment.
As he gazed out over his front lawn and down the street towards the city, Markus couldn't help but think about how lucky this region had been during the Covenant invasion of Earth. The attack had left Africa in ruins. The entire continent was a burning wasteland, completely uninhabitable, while Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Australia were left untouched.
Earth's armed forces had been decimated while trying to defend the planet. Millions of troops from all over the world were brought to Africa to try to stop the invading Covenant, but all were killed. Civilians were mindlessly slaughtered. Once Africa had been completely annihilated, it seemed like nothing could stop the Covenant, until one single man changed everything. The man known to the public only as Master Chief. This man, this biologically enhanced Spartan-II supersoldier, was said to have sacrificed himself to save Humanity. Nobody outside the ONI knew exactly what happened, and the ONI weren't giving out any details.
Some believed the Master Chief was still alive. The ONI built him up so much that it was believed that he simply could not die. The ONI just wanted a valiant story to tell the civilians that would raise their hearts. They wanted the Spartan-II project to go out with a bang.
Now that the war was over, life was good again. The Human race started to expand again. The once great empire contained over a hundred worlds before the Covenant first appeared at Harvest. Less the twenty remained after the war, and most of those were cut off from Earth. Now Humanity was trying to regain contact with the colonies that had been separated and reclaim the planets that had been lost to the Covenant. The Earth government had never been so stable. Unfortunately, the longer they went without war, the less stable the government became. The Humans may have been regaining lost worlds, but the small emerging empire was spreading itself thin.
Markus sighed, and picked up the morning paper at his feet. He walked back inside and sat down at his kitchen table next to his wife, Britta, and read the first headline.
Rebel insurrection swiftly quelled on Alpha Tichondrius V.
Markus instantly knew that in a few hours he would be receiving a new assignment from the UNSC Marine Corps in the mail. Rebellions had begun already, and the UNSC wasn't ready. Inactive reserves were going to be pulled into active duty, and the military was going to go into overdrive to keep the empire from falling apart. Maybe even a supersoldier would be resurrected from the dead…
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