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The Second War: Prolouge (My triumphant comeback!!)
Posted By: FOrunnER
Date: 21 December 2003, 8:19 PM


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January 8, 2557, 500 units (Covenant Standard), Aboard Covenant Flagship Gods Will, in orbit around Covenant World Fayer (translated roughly to: Jewel of the Stars)

      The High Prophet of Birth sat majestically on his hover chair, his spectacularly encrusted headpiece reflecting the artificial light produced by the bridges lighting equipment. His golden-red robes flowed down to the floor, and his frail yet majestic appearance made him look like a holy relic himself. Ship Master 'Tobamee felt awed at being so close to such a holy creature. Inner light and tranquility seemed to radiate from his pores. It truly was an honor to be so close to a holy one, however, he reminded himself, that he was not here simply to worship the Prophets holiness, there was a very good reason why he was here, and it wasn't good. In fact if he wasn't careful it could end in his prosecution.
      "So", began the Prophet, his frail voice amplified ten times over by the microphone implanted in his robes, "what news on the new threat".
      'Tobamee cleared his spoke in a calm steady voice, totally contradictory to his feelings, "They struck the holy world of Shawr, at the same time another attacked was launched at the Tabliss shipyards. Both worlds were lost, over five hundred ships lost between the two of them", he paused, then reluctantly said, "Neither the Prophet of Light or the Guardian of Gods Truths managed to escape Shawr before the enemy destroyed it".
      The Prophet nodded and turned his back to him and spoke in a cold voice that chilled him, "And were you and your ship not stationed at Shawr?"
      "Yes", he spoke, unclear of where this was going.
      "And as soon as the fighting began you were given specific orders to make sure no harm befell the Holy prophets stationed there, correct?"
      "Yes, but..."
      "Then why did you retreat before you and your crew had completed your task and gotten my fellow Prophets to safety?"
      There was nothing unclear now. He knew exactly where this was going, he had seen it happen a dozen times before to other Ship Masters when they failed there duty. Slowly, he spoke, "Because sir, 2/3 of the fleet surrounding Shawr were destroyed and the enemy was already beginning procedures to destroy the planet. Trying to rush in and save them would have resulted in certain death for me, my crew, and the holy ones".
      Everything was quiet, the tension in the air was so thick it was clogging 'Tobamee's lungs, causing him to breath in short, panicky breaths. Finally, the Prophet of Birth broke the silence with a snap of his fingers. Immediately, four Brute guards rushed him, two grabbed his arms, one held him in a choke-hold, the fourth pointed a gun to the back of his head. The Prophet spun back around to face him, "You should have taken certain death, it would have been quick and painless. Instead you dishonored yourself by being a coward and running, now you will face a very slow death, which will be carried out by my personal guards, they have quiet a knack for torture, as you will soon find out".
      'Tobamee roared in rage and tried to fight off his captives, but he didn't even get a swing off before he was knocked out. As his unconscious body was dragged out to be used for the Brutes personal pleasure, the Prophet turned to the view screen of stars and whispered, "The second war is near, and the prophecy will be fulfilled"....................
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       Sparks whirled up from the striking of metal to metal, quickly being snuffed out by the vacuum of space. Jacob Vernades lifted up his diamond-edged power saw. The glowing square in the metal quickly faded and the two meter chunk of titanium floated out into space. Planting his feet on the ships hull, he firmly pushed the metal chunk to the nearest retrieval drone. It grabbed the chunk and sped of back towards the piece of space commonly known as the junkyard, where all the metal obtained from asteroids and broken down ships was used as raw materials for whatever purpose the governor could think of. He was retrieving metal from the latter now, a water merchant's vessel had broken down and Governor Durch had confiscated it to use for scrap. Poor guy would probably have to buy an entire new one instead of being able to remodel his own for free, but whatever. It was either kill or be killed, and if that meant tearing up a guys ship then so be it.
      Jacob Vernades was a titanium worker for the Bercondius Asteroid Belt Station, or B.A.B.S. It was about five years after the human-covenant war, and they had lost. Billions had been murdered when Earth had been glassed, hundreds of billion more were lost when the Covenant came for the rest of the Human colonies. In the end, the only place that survived the Covenant onslaught was the Bercondius base, a small in-the-middle-of-nowhere rebel base, now, or at least as far as they knew, the only human base left. The Bercondius 'government' (led by a rich tyrant and a 'council' of his closest friends with no political expertise) were trying to terraform the only Bercondius system planet, appropriately named Bercondius I (roman numeral for 1). And for that they needed raw materials, thus the B.A.B.S. was formed, a company that exported titanium. Jacob had been working here for three years, he was 19 now. He had lived in the Bercondius system with the rebels ever since he had been born, his parents had been taken from him when he was only fourteen. Supposedly a mining accident (for his parents had worked for B.A.B.S. too), a support column had collapsed and crushed them. But anybody with have a brain knew it was no accident, it was sabotage. His father at the time had been campaigning to overthrow Governor Durch, it was to convenient. He would have his revenge. Oh yes he would, Durch would pay so badly for his crime it would haunt him in hell........................
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      Meanwhile a stealth ship observed the floating square block that was the B.A.B.S. station, workers scurrying around the exterior of nearby asteroids like ants, stripping them bare. The ship was neither Human nor Covenant, the race that had built it was only known by 'the enemy' to the Covenant. Its camouflage generators shrouded it in a cloak of black to match the void of space. Buried within the center of the ship, a lower ranking general consulted with his superior.
      "Sir, are you sure these are the subjects species? Granted, there is remarkable resemblance, but the subject we have in custody is much more heavily muscled, has more cerebral capacity, not to mention the technology he was found with is much more superior to anything these creatures have, perhaps even in par with our own", he said.
      The Captain nodded, his dagger-like teeth glinting in the light, "Yes, these are the subjects species. Lost, scattered, confused, and thoroughly beaten after the Covenant almost wiped them clean off the galaxy. Even our own race would seem primitive after that".
      The General nodded and cracked his jaw, a sign of skepticism and disturbance. The Captain turned to a side screen, where the warrior encountered in space was being put in stasis. To himself, he whispered in almost a prayer, "The second war is near, the prophecy will be fulfilled"......................................

-FOrunnER
P.S. Sorry for my lack of stories. Major case of writers block. I'm probably going to work with this for a while, my Spartan III's will have to wait. I know this is short, but its just the prologue.





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