Halo: Aftermath (Post Halo 3 Fanfic, super WIP)

[Arachnidus]

Just a little thought that I've been toying with for quite some time. This one doesn't center upon the Master Chief at all, and I will not cross into any field involving the Spartans in Onyx, as all that is better tended to by Bungie. Aftermath will deal with the fallout of pretty much everything post Halo, such as the current status of the Covenant and Humanity's road to recovery. Anyway, here's what I've got.

March 3rd, 2553 (UNSC Solar Calendar)
As Thel 'Vadam stood beside his friend Rtas 'Vadum on board the Shadow of Intent, a sharp voice echoed through the otherwise quiet, Sangheili manned bridge.

"Ship Master, we are receiving a message from the humans."

The Shadow of Intent was just breaking atmosphere to leave Earth after a somewhat underplayed memorial to the last great battle of the war, to which Thel awkwardly, but honorably, attended. As the last military Covenant Separatist ship in the Sol System, all of the UNSC's remaining eyes were on them as they taxied out to space. Over the last few months, the purple, sleek hulls of Covenant vessels had been an all-too-familiar sight in the skies of Earth.

"Give voice to it." The Ship Master said.

"Sanghelios One, you have been cleared for Slipspace transition at your earliest leisure. Admiral Hood sends his regards." Thel mentally chuckled at the notion of humans doing flight traffic over their broken homeworld mere months after the Covenant invaded it and the Flood almost overran it. However, he understood why; even he needed a change from the 25 year war that had almost ended the lives of trillions of innocents. The faster they put it behind them and moved on, the better for everyone. 'Vadam also felt somewhat shy at the humans' callsign for the Shadow. He was told it symbolized the ship's status as carrying the defacto leader of the Sangheili, which terrified Thel more than anything else in the past three months. As the Arbiter, he now held the highest station in Sangheili society, and for the first time in over a millennium, his species was without the powerful union of the Covenant to give them guidance, so it was now up to him to take the first step in the new society. The problem was, he did not fancy himself the leader of his people. He had lead armies and fought, however misguided, for decades in the service of the Covenant. Being a politician was never at the top of his expectations in life. Then again, neither was being The Arbiter. I shall have to find a way, then. He mentally remarked.

A few of the newer recruits on the ship, those so young who had not yet learned proper command etiquette (at least, not the way Thel had) stealthily glanced their heads away from their holographic displays and took a quick look at their leader's response. Thel stepped forward and spoke.

"Well taken, controller. Give him the same. May fortune be upon us all."

With that, the comm channel closed and Rtas stood. He barked an order in his native Sangheili and the Shadow of Intent cleared the debris-filled atmosphere of Earth and the war-torn solar system for his home. It was time to return to Sanghelios, and bring order to the chaos that now reigned.

UNSC High Command, North America, New York City
As Terrance Hood looked out the window of the United Nations building on the east side of New York, he couldn't believe how fast the city had bounced back. Before the attack on Earth, New York was the capital of mankind; the United Nations building was there, and everyday, delegates from all the colony worlds met there. More commonly were defense meetings between the numerous branches of the UNSCDF, the last of which had been held this morning. Lord Hood had just stepped off a Pelican after a grueling three hour flight from Voi to New York, and he still couldn't wrap his head around the contrast. New York was the shining beacon of the UNSC, a massive city dating back to the eighteenth century. The Empire State Building, Freedom Tower and most other landmarks still stood tall, a testament to the city's resolve. And now, they'd survived the first, and hopefully, last, alien assault on Earth. Sure, the Statue of Liberty was hit by a stray Archer missile, resulting in the legendary statue's destruction, but it could have been much worse. The admiral turned around and walked into the central chamber where the UNSC council was meeting, again, to discuss post-war reconstruction.

"Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen." The council chairman, Fleet Admiral Allison Montgomery announced as the respective heads of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Cyberspace, WetNavy and Colonial Militia took their seats at the half-circle table. "We're all getting tired of these things, so let's get started. Admiral Hood, how did this morning's precession go?". The memorial was one of the few post-war ceremonies to not be broadcast on any extranet channels.

"Very well. The Arbiter was very pleased to be invited to something that personal. He believes it will go a long way towards making an alliance work." He still couldn't believe that only six months after the fall of the Covenant, they were already making plans to cooperate with a species that had spent the better part of the last 25 years trying to exterminate humanity.

"Well indeed. With that aside, and a bit of a burden off my mind, I've called you all here today for the final meeting in this series. A representative of ONI has agreed to join us today as we debrief on our current post war casualties. As you all know, this is all privileged information. We already have our AIs working double time to clean up most of the info that was leaked during the invasion.

"Let's start from the top. Terrance, if you'll continue."

"Thank you ma'am." Lord Hood stood, exhaled and began to address the council once more.

"Current statistics point to fairly significant losses across the board. We'd already taken major hits from Reach, and the fleet yards just couldn't keep up. Our fleet is now at the lowest it's been since the invention of the Shaw-Fujikawa drive. The Project: PHOENIX fleet not counting, we're down to around 47 ships in the inner colonies and 12 in the outer. 32 of which are now at Earth. Our orbital stations, surprisingly, faired better than we'd hoped. Once the Brutes started homewrecking, the attention was diverted from them and the Separatist fleet arrived in time to keep Cairo, Sydney and Moscow from being destroyed. Beyond that, all other orbital stations were either destroyed or damaged to uselessness at this time. For the ones we can salvage, we estimate six weeks until basic life support can be restored. As for the fleet, we're estimating six months before we can even begin to fill thirty percent of our required prewar capabilities, and seventy percent of our current needs. We're going to be spread pretty thin for awhile."

"And the status of the Spartans?" The ONI representative asked.

"Search drones are still scouting the area around The Ark searching for signals from Cortana, but right now, it seems as if Spartan One One Seven will remain missing in action. A full manned search is going to be impossible for a few months until the radiation exposure from the Halo settles. Luckily, this also means the Flood is effectively neutralized. As well as-" Terrance was stopped by the ONI Rep. He always hated spooks.

"Admiral, what of the remaining Spartan Twos?"

"We don't know. Cassandra-075 and Maria-062 are operational and on the ground, but both were accounted for at the time of the attack on Earth. All Spartans that returned to Earth with John-117 after Operation: First Strike are now MIA, presumably lost during the Onyx Conflict." With the mention of Onyx, the ONI officer was taken aback with surprise. "You spooks really need to cover your black ops up better."

Fleet Admiral Montgomery could see where this was going, and decided to let everyone take a few minutes and calm down.

"Thank you for that recap, Admiral. With that, we'll temporarily adjourn and reconvene here at 1300 hours."

[Caiaphas]

Not bad. Gotta watch sentence structure in a few places, like

Thank you, Admiral, for that recap.

to keep it from being too awkward--in this case, it'd probably sound better as "Thank you for that recap, Admiral." You kept in character for most all of the characters that spoke in this little excerpt, minus the exception quoted, so that's good.

For the part where Thel' Vadam is stated to be "terrified," you might want to do a little better job on clarification. You seem to meander a bit with the backstory, and by the time I get to the part where it (probably) states that he's terrified because there's no longer the guiding influence of the Covenant, I don't know what you're talking about anymore.

Other than some minor spelling errors, I can't really see much else to comment on. You have a good, solid start here. Keep it up.

[Darth Yan]

truce was march 3. What of the spirit of fire? and have you heard of the fanfic enemy of my enemy?

[Arachnidus]

truce was march 3. What of the spirit of fire? and have you heard of the fanfic enemy of my enemy?

Edited the date discrepancy, thanks for the heads up. I'm going to be covering the issue of Spirit of Fire soon, as I doubt the UNSC would miss a supernova. And I think I've seen it before, but it was a long, long time ago.

Not bad. Gotta watch sentence structure in a few places, like

Thank you, Admiral, for that recap.

to keep it from being too awkward--in this case, it'd probably sound better as "Thank you for that recap, Admiral." You kept in character for most all of the characters that spoke in this little excerpt, minus the exception quoted, so that's good.

For the part where Thel' Vadam is stated to be "terrified," you might want to do a little better job on clarification. You seem to meander a bit with the backstory, and by the time I get to the part where it (probably) states that he's terrified because there's no longer the guiding influence of the Covenant, I don't know what you're talking about anymore.

Other than some minor spelling errors, I can't really see much else to comment on. You have a good, solid start here. Keep it up.

Glad to hear, mate. I'm going to be editing it this afternoon after I get home from school.

[Arachnidus]

Edit is now up, with a few grammatic changes and clarifications made. I will be posting the new chapter tonight(tomorrow if I'm unlucky).

[declan]

Posting for subscription

I like it

Declan

[Darth Yan]

my advice focus first on how the sanghellei have to survive the prophet and brute remnants. And have you played halo reach yet?

[The Vortex Empire]

I like it so far. If there's one thing Halo has always lacked, it's detail on the cultures of the covenant races. Should be interesting to see how the Sangheili work under their own command.

[Arachnidus]

Glad to hear you guys like it. Sadly, a series of AP essays have diverted my time from writing, but I plan on taking an hour out later to finalize chapter 2. The Elites return to Sanghelios and the Hunters show up on Earth's doorstep.

...okay, I couldn't hold back much longer. Here it is. (as of first posting, the human section will come later)

March 12th, 2553
On the bridge of Shadow of Intent, things were heated. Thel could practically feel the worry in the air. None of the crew had lived in the times when their homeworld was under the impending threat of destruction. Today, they knew how they'd made the humans feel for decades. It had been nine days since the Shadow had departed from Earth, and they would've arrived much earlier if it weren't for numerous stops along the way to pick up support vessels and a few allies. In total, the fleet that Rtas 'Vadum now commanded was consisted of twelve corvettes (two of which were docked inside the carrier bays of the Shadow of Intent), seven CCS-class cruisers, eight destroyers and one super carrier and one assault carrier. The number of troops aboard was in the hundreds of thousands; a fleet almost as large as the one Regret commanded to attack Earth. If the rumors were true, they would be needed; the Jiralhanae and San'shyuum had turned their eyes towards Sanghelios as home of the resistance. Even though the majority of the Covenant fleet was annihilated in the Battle of The Ark, there were just enough to put the Separatists in very uncomfortable shoes.

"Fleet Master! We will reenter the void in thirty seconds."

With the ship navigator's announcement, the crew steeled for battle. Across the ship, a low pitched pulsating sound emanated, signaling a call to general quarters. Thel and Rtas tensed up, expecting the worst. The ship dropped out of Slipspace seamlessly, along with the rest of the fleet. Below decks, the two corvettes joined the battlegroup and the Shadow's own little armada of Banshee Interceptors and Seraphs spilled into space. The Shadow emerged at the planet's L2 point, and was rapidly approaching the world. The crew gazed in awe at their world. Below, in the lush forests, dry deserts and few beaches of the harsh world, not a fire could be seen. No scorch marks from plasma. Lights were on across the continents. It looked as if the rumors weren't true at all.

"Seer, what is before us?" Thel questioned the situation. He certainly wasn't expecting this.

"Arbiter, the wreckage would seem to be of several hundred Parlethfor and Adamalekgolo ships, the rest is too devastated to be determined. We are receiving a communication."

"Display it."

On the holographic display in the center of the bridge was a sight not many expected to see. Imperial Lord Namoos Jar Utaan stood before them.

"Fleet Admiral, Arbiter. I am pleased to see you have survived. Word has spread of the great victory you have won! The shattering of the writ of union is truly upon us" he spoke. Thel nodded to Rtas.

"My lord, it is true. I saw the destruction of the relic, the parasite and the false prophets myself." Rtas spoke with great emotion and emphasis on the victory that he and the others of his fleet had won.

"And of the humans? I trust they no longer welcome us as enemies?". With that, Thel stepped forward.

"It is so. They were essential to the victory. It would have been much harder won without their assistance. The demon, the one referred to as Master Chief, is of special note."

"Understood, Arbiter. He shall be given a warrior's title, as a sign of good will."

The Arbiter looked down with dismay.

"That will not be possible. He was lost during the battle of the relic."

"I see. He died an honorable death. With his sacrifice of blood, he has begun the Great Journey."

The CIC crew bowed their heads in respect. One does not merely ignore such a grand statement from the military leader of the Sangheili.

"Brothers, join us on the surface. There we will honor the dead and celebrate our victory. There is much to discuss."

[Just a Crazy-Man]

So is ONI going to come clean with the S-III program?

[Arachnidus]

So is ONI going to come clean with the S-III program?

They have to. Nobody's gonna be able to ignore an entire fleet going missing during the Battle of Earth.