Prologue

<<Incoming Transmission>>

Timestamp: 00:00 04/08/2555 Standard Reach Time

Source: Human Transport Vessel

To: UNSC Command

--Message Begin--

Mayday, mayday, this is the human transport Amata, we were attacked by loyalist forces approximately 10 minutes ago, our escort was destroyed and we proceeded with standard random vector jump; when we exited slipspace we were assaulted by numerous hostiles of unknown origin, we destroyed them but took heavy damage, our slipspace generator is destroyed and our weapons systems are offline, life support is stable but we have several hull breaches. What little sensors we have functional tell us that we have more hostiles incoming, requesting IMMEDIATE assistance, our co-ordinates are 0359236-023602874, requesting im…

--Signal Lost--

The New Dawn was an experimental warship with the most advanced technology that both Humans and their allies had to offer, with both MAC and excavation laser technology; it carried a REAPER-class AI and used an untested slipspace generator, it was the size of a Covenant Assault Carrier and its used hybrid Covenant-Forerunner shield technology; it was manned by 300 humans, 50 elites and numerous grunts and engineers, it also housed a collection of 25 Spartans on standby. Captain Ryan Anders lay in an uneasy sleep, remembering the horrors he’d survived.

***

Timestamp: 00:00 04/08/2553 SRT

Location: Acheron, Human Colony

The sounds of heavy gunfire filled his ears, brutes and hunters tearing through the marines without breaking a sweat, if they actually could sweat. He was the one who got to climb a goddamned mountain to take out the covenant bastards from above. He steadied his rifle, a bog standard KD920576 sniper rifle that he’d modified to hold a larger payload, so he could use explosive shells; he looked down the sight and the targeting HUD came up, his uplink specified priority targets and he quickly took them down, he almost laughed at how easy it was, before remembering that they were to busy slaughtering civilians, he growled angrily and focused on the last target, a hunter, these bastards can kill a Spartan, quite an accomplishment but that didn’t matter, he loaded the High Yield Explosive rounds and took aim, as he fired a marine charged at the hunter, probably to distract it from the fleeing innocents and as the explosive charge hit it blew them both to oblivion, he cursed loudly and punched the rock face beside him, Stupid bastard, he thought angrily to himself, his comm. bleeped at him and he answered in his gravely voice “What is it?” A softer feminine voice came through the built-in headset

“Now, is that any way to talk to a friend?” He chuckled softly

“Hey, what’s the situation?”

“That’s better; The Covenant forces are falling back, you’ve done your job, now get to Rally Point Zulu and get the hell outta there,” He cursed again and stood up, his dull grey armour moving silently, the armour was one of the perks of being an ODST but it could get uncomfortable at times. He began the climb down the mountain to the marked evac point.

When he got there he was in for a shock; the evac zone had been hit by the Assault Cruiser’s Excavation laser, completely glassing the area, he activated his comm. and linked to the overhead human cruisers

“This is Sergeant Ryan Anders, requesting immediate evac from Rally Point Zulu, the landing zone was hit by an excavation laser; no survivors,” There was the hiss of white noise for a few moments, before a hard voice came through

“Copy that Sergeant, a pelican is inbound,” He turned and observed the destroyed area, there was a glint and he moved to see the source; it was the experimental bubble shield generator, known as the ‘Super Bubble’ by the human forces. He frowned behind his helmet and looked at the surrounding area, there was a small crater surrounding the device and that was it, no bodies, no other details; he picked it up and put it in his pack, The engineers will want to look at this, he thought to himself as he stood again. Soon enough the familiar drone of a Pelican drop ship could be heard, he waved it down and hopped aboard; the marine manning the turret grinned at him

“You lucky bastard, how’d you get out of the battle?” Ryan scowled at his from behind the opaque visor

“Watch your tone private, and anyway I didn’t, I was up the mountain, taking out the priority targets,” The marine’s grin vanished

“That was you? I owe you an apology, if you hadn’t taken out those hunters I’m be dead meat; shame about Jones though,” Ryan grimaced and the Pelican took off, heading for the orbital platform as the blast door closed.

***

Timestamp: 00:10 04/08/2555 SRT

Location: Captain R. Anders’ Quarters

A bleeping sounded in the room and Ryan groaned as he woke, he rolled onto his side and pressed on a panel beside his bed, a tired face looked up to see a holographic woman in her mid-twenties with dark brown hair and deep brown eyes staring back at him, the AI smiled “Sorry to disturb you, Captain, but we have orders to ship out, a human vessel was attacked by loyalist forces and escaped at a random vector after their escort was destroyed, they exited slip space only to be assaulted by an unknown force, we have been ordered to investigate and assist as we are the only ship that has the capability to get there in time,” He groaned again and sat up

“Ok, Miranda, I’ll be at the bridge in five minutes, get us there pronto, priority Sigma One,” Deep within the depths of the vast war machine, a roar signalled the engines starting up. They were in dry dock above earth, as the vast ship wouldn’t be able to escape the gravity-well if it had been build groundside. The clamps released the enormous vessel as the ship began moving.

Once the ship was a fair distance from the station and the approach vectors where correct, the New Dawn made the slip space jump, it only took several seconds before they reached their destination. Captain Anders arrived on the bridge as they saw the remains of a ship drift past them, a civilian would have no idea what they were but Ryan did; they were forerunner warships, similar to the ones found during the war and destroyed by Sergeant Forge, a damned good man by all accounts.

His mind snapped into focus on the battle raging ahead of them, he growled as he sat in the command chair, he activated the comm.

“Let’s give ‘em hell,” He half shouted the catchphrase of the ODSTs and every weapon on the ship fired simultaneously, tearing a gaping hole in one of the eight remaining warships, a pause and then the vessel detonated, obliterating a farther two ships that had strayed too close, the four of the five remaining ships switched their focus to the New Dawn with a vengeance, their weapons did nothing to the magnificent warship as the shields absorbed the damage. The excavation laser charged in seconds, and fired, cutting another ship in half, the New Dawn made short work of the other three and turned to assault the final ship.

The human transport vessel was a sitting duck and the remaining warship was blasting enormous chunks out of it, a stray shot hit the main fusion reactor and it detonated, completely destroying anything within several hundred kilometres of its present location, including the forerunner ship.

Ryan cursed loudly, hitting the arm of the chair, and then realised that the comm. was still active, he deactivated it

“Miranda, get us home,” He sighed as he prepared to inform the command that the mission had failed; from his current position he could see the planet clearly, when suddenly an enormous energy pulse came from the planet just as the slip space window opened, the pulse hit the window and it glowed a brilliant gold as the New Dawn entered it, unable to abort, and the world went dark as the light consumed the ship and vanished.