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Operation Sunlight by Gruntkiller
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Operation Sunlight Part 1: Aftermath
Date: 25 June 2003, 4:31 PM
Operation Sunlight
Chapter 1: Aftermath
0526 Hours, August 32, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Location: unknown
Admiral Randal stood in front of a video screen watching the seemingly endless coverage of the attack and glassing of reach only 2 days earlier. The UNA (United News Association) had been running the near endless footage of human ships desperately trying to defend Reach from Covenant ships within 1 hour after the retreat from Reach was ordered and since then it had only stopped for the occasional public announcement concerning the incident.
Randal pressed a button turning off the screen. He turned around and faced a long narrow table that was lined with high ranking military officials save one seat at the head of the table for him.
"We lost a lot of lives and ships there," said Randal taking his seat at the table. The room was dark illuminated only by a dim light casting shadows over the faces off every official at the table. "Most of those ships were supposed to be part of the force sent for Operation Sunlight too," he added in a sad voice.
"What's the news on the Pillar of Autumn," said a voice from the far end of the table, "the Spartans and it were supposed a major part of the operation."
"From what we have been able to find the Pillar of Autumn fled into slip space following the Cole Protocol so there's no telling where it is," said Randal, "all but two of the Spartans were killed, Master Chief John 117 is believed to have escaped on the Pillar of Autumn and James, He was picked up by a retreating frigate the Henry IV. He's currently in critical condition on his way to Earth, when they found him he was on the edge of death."
"Will we be able to amass a force to replace the ships that were lost a Reach," asked the voice again.
"I'm working on that now," said Randal in an exhausted voice. "Were stretched way to thin as it is and our building docks are working overtime just to try and replace some of the ships that have been lost, they can't change priorities to help build a force to launch an offensive with the Covenant on our front step."
"This mission is vital," said another voice, Randal automatically recognized it as the head of ONI. "If we can't capture a Covenant ship or at least make an impact on their fleet strength and moral we will be sitting ducks. We can't keep Earth hidden from the Covenant for much longer."
"Yes, but it seems that the Prime Minister and his cabinet don't want to risk losing too many ships in what they see as an unnecessary risk," said Randal. "Even if we somehow get a hold of enough ships to launch the attack we still don't have nearly enough Spartans to pull of a boarding action. One alone even with a large force of Marine's will get slaughtered."
"We must come up with an alternative," said the head of ONI. "Other special forces could be used, like Helljumpers or maybe some of the Black squads."
"That could be a solution but the Prime Minister isn't about to let us take a couple of squads form the Helljumpers or Black for a mission that he never approved of," said Randal thoughtfully. "Almost all of Black is out on other missions anyways."
"The Prime Minister can be persuaded," said the head of ONI grimly, "we can get those squads from Black easily, just pull them out of the field."
"Their not under any of our command though, the Prime Minister has direct control over the complete force."
"We can find ways around that, you just get a fleet together and bring up a large enough force and well take care of the 'legal' work," said the head of ONI in an even grimmer voice.
"Good, just make sure it can't be traced back to us."
~
The Prime Minister John Azari walked out of the parliament building flanking him were 6 members of Black assigned to be his personal guard. High above him from what appeared to be a news ship about the size of a pelican a small window opened up and from it a shot was fired off by a sniper. The Prime Minister fell to the ground the bullet went straight through his heart killing him instantly.
Next: James
Operation Sunlight Part 2: James
Date: 29 June 2003, 2:40 PM
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
Operation Sunlight Part 3: Black
Date: 4 July 2003, 11:45 PM
Operation Sunlight
Chapter 3: Black
0600 August 36, 2552 (Military Calendar)
UNSC HQ Earth
The Pelican that took James from the hospital gently touched down and shut down just outside UNSC HQ. The back hatch opened and the squad of Marine's jumped out and began to make their way to the barracks.
"James you follow me," said the Admiral climbing down from the pelican he waited for James who hopped out onto the ground.
It was dark outside but was slowly becoming brighter as daybreak approached. They were on a huge landing strip for craft capable of landing vertically there was another strip not to far away for craft incapable of vertical landing and takeoffs nearby.
The Admiral walked towards a small building only about the size of a garbage shed next to the main hanger. The Admiral stopped in front of the door and typed in a code on a panel next to the door. The door opened up with a click revealing a stainless steel elevator. Quickly they both walked in and the door clicked shut behind them.
"This elevator will take us down to the main war rooms. You'll meet with the other troop commanders that will also be participating on the mission there too."
James nodded. The elevator came to a stop the door opened up to reveal a black painted corridor, the walls were covered with pictures and charts from previous conflicts dating all the way back to the old World Wars.
"The last room down is a large barracks and in a room attached to it an exercise area and firing range,' said the Admiral pointing to a steel door at the far end of the hall. "You'll get to know the rest of the team there later but now we got to go to the briefing room."
The walked up the hall to a black shiny door with the number "5" on it in gold, the Admiral put his hand on a panel on the door which scanned his palm.
"Access granted, welcome Admiral Randal," said the AI system running the base.
Randal opened the door and walked in James followed him closely. The inside of the room was dark, in the center there was a long oval table surrounded by seats all but two occupied. On the wall there were several video screens on of them had the UNA on it reporting the latest news on Reach and the Prime Ministers assassination, the news reporter was speaking most of the room was watching the screen with interest.
"Late yesterday ONI head Thomas Hans took up temporary head of government until an election could be held." Said the female news reporter, "Many experts believe that this is a move by the research core of the UNSC is to gain access to a larger pool of scientists and to break down current laws that set boundaries for their research in fields like cybernetics and biogenetics..."
"Well can we get on with this thing," said Randal flicking off the screen and sitting down in one of the empty chairs, James quietly took the other empty chair and opened up the folder that lay on the table in front of him.
Inside the folder there were two lists of soldiers under the headings of Black and another under the Helljumpers. At the vary top of the page the words "Troop Commander Master Sergeant James."
"As you all know we now have a troop force sufficient to commence a boarding action," said Randal, "but getting a sufficient fleet is proving to be more difficult. As you know our total strength is down form 2650 capital ships at the beginning down to a mere 921 and most of those are seriously damaged, that is 66% of our force eliminated."
The table turned tense, most of the people there already knew these statistics but Randal bringing them up again brought a new urgency to the meeting.
"The only way for us to gather up a large enough fleet would be to withdraw ships from the main defensive only fleets. Which as you know the Prime Minister opposed deeply, but now with him out of our way we have already begun forming a fleet which will be composed of 900 ships of various classes and about 1500 fighter and corvette class ships."
"That only leaves us with 21 ships if this mission fails." said someone down the table, "We can't even hold off a raiding party with that number."
"This is a necessary risk, if we don't launch this attack they will just march right over us." Said Randal, "even if this attack fails it may be enough to scare the Covenant, and once there scared they may retreat or possibly consider making peace with us."
"But they may also redouble their efforts," said the person.
"We don't know but we have no choice but to go through with this it is our only real chance."
~
James walked out of the room into the hall. Most of the meeting was deciding which defensive garrisons they were going to withdraw ships from to form the fleet. James was left to sit and read through the files given to him, his only concern was commanding the troops. He was the first to leave everyone else had questions or were making suggestions as to who the captains would be. James still wearing the cloths given to him at the hospital made his was down to the troop quarters where he was hoping to find his armor, after so much time in it he felt almost naked without it.
As he opened up the door to the troop quarters he was met with the stairs of dozens of Special Forces which also called it home. Most of them were in training suits while a few were adjusting their armor, which looked like a larger version of the standard Marine armor built to cover more area.
James made his way to a cot near the entrance to the quarters which had his name on a sheet of paper on it, below it was a not. Your armor is in a room off from the main armories, it will scan your handprint for access. Everyone here is under your command, including Black.
James looked up and noticed that several of the soldiers a crest with a black raven on their cloths or armor.
Next: Upgrades
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