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On A Pale Horse: The Beginning of the end
Posted By: Silent Hunter<silenthunter18509@yahoo.com>
Date: 6 August 2003, 1:19 AM


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Note from the Author: I'm Back! Okay, so stop E-mailing me! j/k... I made this one short, so I could get it in As soon as possible, the others will be longer

-CHAPTER II--
-The beginning of the end-

2101 Hours, September 17 (Military Calendar) /
UNSC Space Station Number 257, in orbit above Earth


      "At ease, have a seat." Freemont said. The Spartans relaxed, and sat down. "You have completed your training, and will join the ranks of the Spartans. I am sad to say that there is only one survivor of the original Spartan Class...Number 117. He said gesturing at John. Anyway, down to business."

      "Covenant Fleet Inbound! All personal to General Quarters. Man your Battle Stations! This is not a drill, repeat, this is not a drill" Than the alarms for Battle Stations blared.

      "shit..." the Admiral said in a low voice "Men, we will have to rush the mission...I have not anticipated that they will be back so soon...I must give you a new mission..." He cleared his throat. "Using the data obtained by the Master Chief, 117, and Cortana, we have located what we believe to be a high population covenant world..."

      John shifted his weight...this was going to be his most dangerous mission..."you will go there...and try to capture a covenant prophet...you will have 3 hours, then, we will get you out of there, launch every nuke we have, and get the hell out of there. If you can, try to salvage any covenant technology, including, vehicles, databases, or anything else..." A Spartan raised it's hand "Yes, 236?"

      "What are the Rules of engagement?" He had a deep voice

      Shoot-first, ask-later. But, try not to kill any non-combatants...but if any of them express any hostile action, shoot.

      "Spartans, this will be your finest hour. You are in the Hopes and prayers of every human-being. You are proof...that we will not go down without a fight...We will survive...Many of you may not be alive to see the day that the Covenant are defeated, but god-willing, that day will come!" Every person in the room began cheering "Dismissed!"

2110 Hours, September 17 (Military Calendar) /
UNSC Battlecruiser Atlantic


      The Atlantic was the newest class of UNSC ship, and only one of it's kind. It was easily the biggest ship in the UNSC. It was also the only ship with a designation above cruiser made by the UNSC. It had 4 layers of Titanium-A armor Each 4 inches thick. The layers are 3 inches apart. In the space between are compartments filled with liquid Nitrogen, used to cool the plasma. An enemy ship using plasma would have to hit it at least 4 times in the same area to breach the hull. It had 7 MAC guns, 10 Shiva Nuclear missiles, and over 100,000 Archer missiles. It is so massive, that they have high-speed monorail trains so people can get to places. It has 5 fusion reactors, so it is one of the fastest ships built. The Atlantic also features the same design principals of the old Halcyon class ships, making it one of the strongest ship ever built. All the usable captured covenant technology has been used also. It has energy shields, but only protecting the engine room, because the massive power used to operate them. It also has artificial gravity, and improved Trans-light generators. Not perfect, but still a big improvement over the old ones.

      John couldn't believe the sheer size of the ship. The had been in a monorail for 5 minutes, and the speedometer read 120 km/h. He had seen it from the outside, but he never got a good sense of the size, which was normal, because it was painted with a low gloss black. John had been talking with several other Spartans, all of which were in the young thirties. The monorail slowed, and stopped. The doors opened, and they stepped out, and turned to a person standing there. "Follow me please" He said. He led them to a cryo bay...

      The ship accelerated, and disappeared into the slipstream...


2130 Hours, September 17 (Military Calendar) /
UNSC Battlecruiser Atlantic


      Cortana had been placed in cryo sleep with John. New technology allows the Spartans, and their AI's to discuss possible battle strategies. The ship wasn't expected to arrive at the covenant planet until late December. This was a huge gamble, if the Covenant didn't follow them out of the system, Earth would be doomed. More than 3 quarters of the entire fleet made the jump with the Atlantic...but little do they know, that when they exit the slipstream, the covenant will have gathered every covenant ship available to beat the humans back...

TO BE CONTINUED





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