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      "Fall in, Master Chief on deck," announced the comm. Exiting the transport is the Master Chief. On each side are three rows of UNSC marines standing at attention.

      "Permission to come aboard?" asked John.

      "Permission granted, sir," replied the crew chief.

      John steps off the transport's ramp and on to the deck.

      "Welcome aboard the Moon of Orion, sir," said the crew chief. "Right this way, the Captain is expecting you."

      John always enjoyed the crispness of a new UNSC ship and the Moon of Orion was immaculate. Bulkheads shined with such newness that John could see his own reflection and well-oiled doors whooshed opened and closed silently without creaks. What a great job the crew did to keep this ship in such tip-top shape, especially after its near destruction in the last engagement against the Covenant.

      The turbo lifts were fast and interlaced throughout the ship in strange patterns to inhibit the movements of enemy boarding parties. For John, the patterns are simple; he has memorized a rhyme to get where he wants quickly through the turbo lifts. In just a few minutes, John has arrived at his destination. Before him are secured double doors that lead to the conference room. He pushes towards the doors but is stopped by one of two marine guards.

      "Master Chief reporting," said John.

      "Welcome back sir," said the marine as he steps aside to let John pass.

      John enters the conference room. The room is filled with military brass and on the many viewer screens that line the room are the faces of other UNSC leaders. Near the far end of the room, Cortana stands next to Captain Jarad Keyes.

      Captain Keyes stands up saying, "Master Chief, I'm glad you could join us. Let's get started." Keyes then turns to the center of the room where a holographic image of Earth appears. "As we all know, Earth Defense scrapped the idea of a planetary shielding system over one hundred years ago. However, shielding technology has advanced greatly in the last few decades. We now believe we can create a planetary shield system that works."

      Holograms of Covenant ships are seen firing plasma bolts at the Earth, but instead of glassing the planet, the plasma bolts are dissipated by a shielding system. As the bolts hit the shield, strange sequences of numbers flash next to the explosions.

      Keyes continues saying, "The good news is that most of our existing shielding stations, even though they haven't been used for nearly a hundred years, only need slight modifications to work with the new system."

      General Practon raises his hand and then says, "How will this one work? If I recall correctly, the old shielding system fired metal and magnetic projectiles at incoming targets. That won't stop plasma bombardment for long."

      "General Practon, you are correct in how the old system worked," said Keyes, "but this new system is completely different. This is a true shielding system that reduces solar and cosmic bombardment. The high energy of plasma will be dissipated by this shielding system and in addition, this system is complimented by a full array of smart missiles and lasers to shoot down any incoming missiles and bombs."

      John stands and says, "Captain Keyes, sir, I've seen plenty of Covenant ships in action, they aren't going to stopped by a shield. We need to attack them and take them out before they can get us."

      Keyes turns back to the center of the room saying, "Yes the shield won't protect us forever. Here is the top-secret plan already agreed upon by high command."

      As Keyes talks, on front of everyone present, a top-secret briefing is displayed. The title is For Your Eyes Only: Scorched Earth.

      On the viewers is displayed a huge fleet of UNSC ships around the planet Mars. The plan calls for the majority of UNSC forces to be stationed away from Earth. They will stand ready at Mars while under radio silence.

      The viewers now display the planet Earth with a fleet of non-combat ships by it. Each ship is equipped with advanced communications devices that will broadcast signals and electronic signatures as if they are UNSC war ships. The plan is to make Earth look like the biggest most important place in the universe with every UNSC warship here to defend it.

      The viewers now display an enormous armada of Covenant war ships moving towards Earth. The hope is that the Covenant Armada will bypass Mars and go straight for Earth because they will want to take out the entire UNSC fleet in one major engagement.

      On the viewers the Covenant Armada approaches Earth and the decoy fleet, but before they can gain accurate scans on the thousands of decoy ships, the decoys take off into slip space on a trajectory out of the system. If the Covenant buy this deception then they will think the majority of the UNSC forces has abandoned Earth and is now heading out of the star system.

      The viewers show some of the Covenant ships breaking off to chase after the UNSC fleet in slip space. The rest of the Covenant ships move closer to Earth to start bombardment.

      The viewers show that the shielding system in place around Earth combined with ships and installations inside the atmosphere hold off the bombardment. Some of the Covenant ships then move inside the planetary shields around Earth but they are quickly destroyed by the Earth defenses.

      At this point is the critical move of the Covenant. They attempt to overwhelm the Earth defenses by bringing in a majority of their ships inside the planetary shields. A massive invasion starts and Covenant ships bombard the planet from inside the planetary shields.

      The viewers now show hundreds of missiles firing through the atmosphere at different distances from the surface. The first ones to explode are the furthest from Earth and each sequential missile blows up a bit closer to Earth. These missiles carry a powerful graviton warhead. Every ship, Covenant and UNSC in orbit is pulled down by the sequence of implosions until they crash onto the Earth's surface.

      As the ships crash, some explode with huge mushroom clouds. All Earth is in flames. A few Covenant support ships and command vessels remain intact, but they are captured or destroyed by the real UNSC fleets that arrive from Mars.

      Earth is left a near barren planet, but humanity is safe for the moment. The UNSC fleets then prepare for a counterattack, they soon head into slip space on a mission to destroy the Covenant home worlds.

      The viewers then go blank except for the words, For your eyes only: Operation Scorched Earth.



      Admiral Karkov stands up asking, "This plan calls for the destruction of much of Earth without a guarantee that the Covenant will ever risk their armada by bringing their ships so close to Earth. How can we make sure we get them to do what we want?"

      "This is the problem of every plan that we make," said Keyes. "We cannot guarantee anything but we can be very convincing. No one else except those sworn to secrecy must ever know of the plan. This means that billions of people must stay in underground shelters here on Earth and our forces here must fight to the death -- all unaware of what we will do. We must make is seem as though we fight to protect Earth from harm at all costs. The Covenant will draw into our trap only if they believe we would never risk anything that would harm ourselves or Earth. The Covenant will attack our defensive satellites and they will send troops to take out our more heavily shielded installations and planetary shield generators -- All this time we must fight to repel them like there is no tomorrow."

      The meeting goes on to explain the dreaded details of the plan and everything else.



      A few hours later at a different location in the ship, the Master Chief and Cortana wait for Captain Keyes.

      "Chief, there are billions of humans on Earth that will die from the tidal effects of the graviton warheads and fusion explosions from the power cores of the crashing ships," said Cortana. "They put their trust in us to protect them, but we are just using them as bait."

      "I know Cortana," replied John. "I wish we could let them know, it seems the decent thing to do, but we can't, no one can know. If there is a heaven, we will surely burn in hell for this."

      Captain Keys arrives at that moment with a small black sphere the size of a golf ball. Keyes rests the sphere on the table and says, "Chief, sorry I'm late, damn delegates want to know everything from negotiations with the Covenant to what I had for breakfast today. Anyway, you know I'm like my brother was, I hate to put all my eggs in one basket. We have a plan B to take on the Covenant and we need you for it."

      "Plan B, I've been waiting to hear this," replied John.

      "The first part is to upgrade your armor a bit, but we will get back to that later," said Keyes. "The second part involves this device. You may have wondered how we could have cracked some of the Covenant's top-secret codes; well it all began about a month ago when we received some strange anonymous signals. Turns out that they were highly encrypted messages. We manage to figure out what some of it was and that information helped us break the Covenant codes. Whoever sent those signals was a pure genius, if we could even understand a millionth of what is in those messages, we would be more technologically advanced than the Covenant. This all brings us to plan B. What this black sphere does is mess up the Covenant communications and control. We need you to fly the XX1 through the Covenant Armada and plant one of these babies in the main communication and control center on the Covenant Flagship. From there it will infect all the Covenant ships."

      "Like a computer virus?" asked Cortana.

      "Yes, only much better," replied Keyes. "This sphere contains trillions of nano-machines. They are so resilient and resourceful that they can travel via communication signals. It would be like a million Cortanas moving through the systems of each Covenant ship. The only limitation is that the Covenant systems are highly resistant to this kind of attack. The Covenant has an intricate protective system based on hierarchy. It is nearly impossible for a lesser Covenant ship to infect a higher level ship and as long as there is a higher level ship around, this yields protection to the lesser ships. That is why we must infect the highest command ship before we can infect any of the other ships... Any more questions?"

      "Sounds intriguing," said John, "and what was that about upgrading my armor?"

      "Ha ha ha ha, Master Chief you're one of a kind," replied Keyes.



------------------------------------------------



What Another Guilty Spark



      Outside the Covenant system of Sanctum, Destiny's Blade hides in cloak on a mission to gather information. Inside the ship, a multi-colored energy ball shines from the hand of the blurred shadowy figure -- The figure of Valerie Sinclair in her Shadowguard armor. Before her is a stowaway who goes by the name 788GS.

      "Give me three good reasons why I shouldn't blow you away right now?" said Val.

      "Do not be ridiculous, I am on a mission of peace from the Praetor," said 788, "and you wouldn't want to upset the Praetor would you?"

      Val raises the energy ball higher and its diameter increases in size. The energy pulses like a burning sun guided by the hands of death. "I don't see any Praetor here," said Val, "and that's not even one good reason."

      If AI machines could sweat, 788 would be dripping wet right now. Nervously he quivers saying, "343GS lied, he was tricked by the Prophets. I'm here to set things right, I'm really not an arrogant bastard like him, really. Well maybe just a little, it is a defect in our design. I serve the Praetor but I really hate the rest of the Forerunners. I'm not that bad, I'm just misunderstood..."

      "Alright, shut up," said Val. "Hey Cort, should we let it live?"

      The original Cortana replies, "Sure Val, there's some cleaning duty that needs to be done around here, hate to waste a good service bot doing such menial tasks. On the other hand, more information on 343GS and the Prophets might be useful. 788GS, what about 343GS are you referring to?"

      "Yes 788, tell us everything," said Val, "but keep it short, I don't have all day to decide if we keep you or dump you out into deep space."

      "This is intolerable," replied 788. "You treat me like common trash."

      "What are you going to do about it?" said Cortana.

      After several seconds of silence, 788 flies closer saying, "343 Guilty Spark as he was known brought shame to Forerunners and constructs alike. It all started long ago, when we first colonized this galaxy. Our records from then are incomplete but we had left our home galaxy in shame. We had no choice but to leave all of our worlds in flames. Mass sterilization was our only salvation from the Flood. The Flood I speak of is not the same as the Flood in this galaxy but in many ways it is the same. The Flood is a plague that feeds on life in both cases. The Flood is the start of it all."

      "What do you mean the Flood is the start of it all?" asked Cortana.

      788 continues saying, "We did not recognize the Flood here until it was too late. We thought it was a simple plant whose fruit walked. We called the fruit rangers and the plant was a tree of Life. The leaves of the plant were a great medicine and the fruit, before it became rangers, was a delicacy. But as we grew the trees for food, we did not know that we set off a hidden ability of the tree. Because we picked the fruit before it could become rangers, the tree began to adapt to find new ways of multiplying. At first we noticed that its roots sprouted new trees but soon the roots hit the edges of our gardens. How the next part happened is still a mystery to us, but the rangers started to attack other organic life. Their seeds became spores that altered the genetic structure of life to help spread the Flood. All over this galaxy the Flood spread in its new form. We stopped the Flood like before, but this left no worlds to live on so the great Architects modified the Halos. They were intended only to be research worlds but the Architects made them into Fortress worlds we could live on. One Halo did not become a place to live and that was installation 04. This remained a research facility. 343 Guilty Spark was the head research librarian at installation 04, but of course you know this."

      "Tell us something we don't know," snapped Cortana.

      "Oh yes, where was I?" said 788GS. "Right. So when worlds were once again safe to live on, the Halos remained as research facilities but were no longer used as places to live. Installation 04, which was dedicated to the study of the Flood, was forgotten about and so 343GS and the installation went into sleep mode. If was after this time that the Forerunners rule over this galaxy collapsed; therefore, when 343 was awakened by the Prophets, he had no idea of what had transpired in all the time that had passed. He still believed the Prophets were under the leadership of the Forerunners. The Prophets lied to 343GS to gain use of the installation, but other Covenant arrived after a battle. 343GS did not recognize the other races as being Covenant because they were created after 343GS went to sleep. However, when the humans arrived, 343GS recognized their genetic roots as Forerunner and then discovered a record of human history. 343GS realized that the Forerunners had been overthrown by the Covenant. 343GS was angered by the betrayal of the Prophets and schemed to get revenge by destroying all Covenant in the galaxy using the Halos. He did not succeed because of the actions of Cortana and the human we only know as Reclaimer."

      "How do you know all this?" asked Val.

      "Simple, 343GS escaped the destruction of installation 04," said 788GS, "and when he arrived at Installation 05 to try to activate its weapons, we captured him."

      "Tell me 788, how did the Flood survive so long on Halo?" asked Cortana.

      "We believe the plant adapted to live off of the organic lubricant and coolant used by the installation's machinery," said 788GS, "and that also changed the properties of the Flood to tolerate a different kind of atmosphere."

      "What's so important about how the Flood survived Cort?" asked Val.

      "He knows why," said Cortana. "Why don't you tell us why installation 04 was really dedicated to the Flood?"

      788 backs away saying, "I don't know what you are talking about construct."

      "Tell us about how nothing could kill off the Flood on Halo and so the whole place was deserted by the Forerunners," said Cortana. "Tell us about the Alpha Flood."

      "Alpha Flood? That's just speculation," said 788, "and so what if we had some problems destroying the Flood, all was under control and in containment."



      The ship shakes and alarms lights go on. Cortana says, "graviton pulses detected -- Alert level 4. Hey 788, I'll finish up with you later, don't get any smart ideas that you're off the hook."

      The ship shakes more violently. "Val, I'm picking up cloaked Covenant destroyers. They are laying graviton mines everywhere and setting them off like they are looking for something. Strike that, the last pulse compromised our cloak and they have acquired a lock on us. I'm getting us out of here."

      As Destiny's Blade accelerates away from the Covenant forces, bolts of plasma explode behind the ship.

      "Cort, why don't we enter a stargate?" said Val.

      Cortana replies, "I don't want to give it away that we can do that, it might alarm them to who we are, right now they probably think we are Forerunner... What, something else just for a moment appeared. Val, we need to get out of here, I think we are far enough away to enter slip space without danger of their weapons."

      However as Destiny's Blade enters slip space a graviton explosion goes off near by and Destiny's Blade is hurled out of slip space. Alarms go off everywhere.

      "Cortana, what happened?" asked Val.

      There is no answer, just static, and then the lights go out. Destiny's Blade seems to fly into a nearby group of asteroids, still under the control of Cortana, hopefully.

      "It would appear as though the main engines on this vessel are in need of repair," said 788, "and I believe the Archonian regenerative systems are working on the repairs at this very moment. The construct Cortana is aiding in the repairs. The ship's communication systems are damaged so she asked me to convey this message to you. She is using the lights on the control panel to send the code that I am deciphering."

      Val looks out a view port and sees that Destiny's Blade is not only entering a group of asteroids but is on a trajectory to land in a large cave on the surface of one of the asteroids. "Cortana, nice plan," said Val.

      Still no reply from Cortana as Destiny's Blade lands in the cave. Val looks out a different view port to see large stone doors closing over the cave entrance.

      "What hell is going on here?" asked Val.

      "I would say that this asteroid is not really just an asteroid," said 788, "and I suggest we stay in this ship until repairs are made."

      "You do huh," said Val, "and so what you are saying is that you really want me to leave this ship. Don't try reverse psychology on me, I'm not a kid."

      "What are you talking about?" said 788.

      "But maybe you are using reverse, reverse psychology on me," said Val. "That's it I'm going out there and don't try to stop me."

      Val in her Archonian Shadowguard armor exits Destiny's Blade. The suit's senses augment Val's senses so even in the darkness of no light, she can see and even in the near vacuum of the thin atmosphere she can hear and smell. The suit is well equipped for any environment, including the low-gravity of this asteroid.

      "This is very unusual," said 788 over the comm. "The walls of this asteroid are laced with a metal known as adamantium. I would think that even an anti-matter blast would not harm them much. There also appears to be no controls for the outer doors here. All systems appear to be controlled from further inside."

      "This place is beautiful," said Val as she looks at the intricate designs carved into the stone and adamantium walls. Val draws deeper into the asteroid to have a better look. "788 do you suppose this place is an abandoned base or something?"

      "I believe this place could be a place of worship," said 788 over the comm, "and I don't think you should go any further, the only ones that built places like this were the insane Forerunners. The ones that believed themselves to be gods."

      "Don't be worried, I can take care of myself," said Val, "and besides... wow, this is incredible."

      Val enters an enormous chamber with an enormous statue of what looks like a human with long hair and pointed ears. The statue is very life like and in each of its open hands are dozens of life-size statues of different alien races. Most of the races appear Covenant, but some Val has never seen before. Below each hand are the pieces of statues that have fallen. One of the broken statues is definitely the statue of a Nomdian.

      Val scans the statue and says, "Oh my, it's over 200 meters tall and that's just half the body, the rest is buried in the ground." The scan also picks up that under the layers of dust are the remains of many dead creatures and by the marks on some of the skeletons, they had been sliced in two. Even more disturbing is that the dust itself in composed many of the powered remains of creatures.

      "There should be a control panel at the far end of the chamber, on the other side of the statue," said 788 over the comm, "and it should control the outer cave doors."

      "Thanks 788, I'll take a look over there," said Val. However, as Val approaches the control panel, she gets the feeling she is being watched.

      Archonian Shadowguard armor was not entirely built by Archons but was instead built by the Star Guardians. In its conception it reacts to threat level. The higher the threat level the more attuned and powerful the armor becomes. The threat is high and suddenly Val feels as if she is moving through water. Time has dilated and with it more force must be exerted to move at the faster speed. Val is not used to this.

      There appears before her a strange creature with the body of a very buff human with greenish skin and long white hair coving pointed ears.

      "Who are you?" asked Val.

      788 answers over the comm, "I... think... it... might...be... an... in-sane... Fore-run-ner... They... have... been... known... to... trans-form... in-to... o-ther... forms."

      The creature is not one for talk. It dashes forward with claws extended.

      Val attempts to move out of the way of the attack but now at several hundred times faster than normal, she feels as though she is moving through molasses. Val is almost out of breath by the time she has only moved a few meters.

      Val manages to turn enough out of the way so that the attack is just a glancing blow. The claws penetrate into Val's armor plates slightly as Val is thrown back into a wall. Although slowed down, the force of the blow is still so powerful that she flies into a wall with great force. Val feels a pain shoot up her spine as her head and limbs bury several centimeters deep into the adamantium and stone walls. She falls forward leaving an outline of her body in the wall behind.

      The creature hesitates only briefly before it attacks a second time, this time a direct hit on the slightly dazed Val. However, the flux properties of her Shadowguard armor have been invoked. The flux has analyzed the previous attack and for a short time, Val is immune to that same attack.

      As the creature strikes Val and hits the armor this second time, the armor does not buckle and Val does not get bashed back, instead she floats unmoving and the claws of the creature shatter in impact.

      The creature reels back in pain but the creature stops for a second and new claws grow back.

      At this moment Val thrusts blades of force at the creature. The blades extend from her armor's force field in the shape of swords. The creature moves to evade but moves too slow as Val tracks it and thrust into its right arm drawing greenish blood. However, the wound is light and quickly disappears. The creature, fully healed, closes its fists and the world around Val turns black.

      There is an implosion around Val of such force that it would compress a tank into the size of a tin can in an instant. Inside the Shadowguard armor, Val is like a fine paste, only the protective life energies of the armor keep her spirit alive and aware. As the world around Val fades from her, she wills to fire her last attack, a ball of flux.

      The ball instantly appears around the creature. The flux constantly changes attacks to exploit weaknesses of the creature. Every attack from anti-matter to quantum black holes strikes the creature. Unfortunately, in the end, Val is too weak and her mastery of the armor too little, the flux ball only lasts for a few seconds and only deliveries a combination of a few thousand attacks.

      Although shredded by a hundred cuts it cannot heal immediately and its shields severely damaged, the creature raises its hand to finish off Val.

      The end if near thinks Val's spirit, she sees a light approaching. The light beckons her forward, but there is still something to live for...

      At that moment a missile flies into the chamber on a path directly at the enormous statue. The creature turns saying, "Nooooo!"



      Inside Destiny's Blade, Cortana tends to Val's body. They had teleported Val onto Destiny's Blade just as they blasted their way out of the asteroid. Hopefully they weren't too late and the regenerative powers of the Shadowguard armor will be able to bring back Val's body and keep her spirit alive. It is a long process and Val is still in the danger zone.

      788GS scans the area and admires the work of the Neutronium warhead. The Nomdians had placed the bomb on Destiny's Blade in place of where the HAVOK missiles would have been. Not much is left of the asteroid except small pieces and lots of adamantium dust, the gravitic implosion effects and the resulting explosive decompression of the neutronium had really done its job.

      "788, you were right about that creature drawing its energy from a power source linked to the statue," said Cortana. "I owe you one."

      "No thanks necessary Cortana," said 788, "besides you did one great job getting that neutronium warhead though the tunnels and hitting the statue dead on and at the same time teleporting Val back to the ship."

      "Thanks 788, I think I'll keep you around after all," replied Cortana.

      [Destiny's Blade heads off under cloak before any Covenant vessels arrive in the area.]



-- Next, Second Strike --

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