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Chapter One: Part II, Discovery of an Enemy
Posted By: russ687<russ687@hotmail.com>
Date: 14 May 2004, 3:34 AM
Read/Post Comments
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Chapter One: Discovery of an Enemy
PART II
0930 Hours, July 19, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Aboard ONI Stealth Frigate Valiant Knight, en route to:
System Designation Classified, Planet Codename Milestone
Two Days Earlier
Lieutenant Kren rubbed the back of his freshly shaven head as he walked down on of the long steel hallways aboard the ONI vessel. He wore his pressed Class B uniform and his shined boots. His cover was tucked neatly under his arm as he made his way towards one of the briefing rooms aboard the ship. Normally, Kren wouldn't have been too anxious to go and hear someone green Navy man talk to them about information that was usually wrong, but this time was different. After being hastily put aboard this ship with his platoon of thirty six Marines and not being told why, then being put on a thirty-two day trip to some unknown system, surrounded the whole time by ONI spooks who would like to keep their meals classified until the last moment, all began to wear on him, and his patience.
He rounded the corner and saw the room ahead. He walked briskly to it and entered the door. The room was one of the briefing rooms used by the ship's executive staff, and it had exceptionally nice seating, oak tables, and framed pictures that were probably worth more then Kren's monthly salary.
Seated around the large wood table were his three squad leaders and each squads' two fire team leaders. At the head of the table, the ships Captain sat, stirring his coffee impatiently, obviously waiting for someone to make this briefing begin. Kren started for one of the few empty seats left just as his platoon executive officer came through the door.
Second Lieutenant Damon Meyers briefly studied the room, then followed Kren's direction toward one of the empty seats. Meyers was very much like Kren, personality wise at least. Both officers had noticed the ship's CO impatient body language, but neither of them cared. Despite their most-of-the-time respect for the chain of command, they had learned over the years that caring too much about any superior officer's general mood did not get them, or the war with the Covenant, any farther along.
Meyers, who was almost four inches shorter then Kren, took a seat next to him and placed his cover squarely on the table, as did Kren. The two officers looked up towards the CO, who still waited. Obviously, whoever was late, it was not them.
Kren looked down the table at his line of NCO's. All sat straight up and waited in what most Navy men would call the seated position of attention, but in reality his men were just well disciplined, and had extremely good posture....
Three officers came through the door finally, causing the ship's CO to look up, then take a deep swig of his coffee. "About time," he muttered as the thick door closed behind the officers.
"My apologies, Captain." The highest ranking officer, a Major, said, moving towards the head of the room and pulling down a projector screen sheet. The other two officers moved to the rear of the room to activate the projector. The screen lit up as the officers prepared their briefing.
The Major, wearing an Office of Naval Intelligence patch on his uniform, pulled out the podium and set a stack of papers on it. After the officers in the back nodded, he cleared his throat and looked at the row of men who waited for him.
"What you all may be wanting to find out is why ONI has sent us, and this group of spec ops Marines, on a month-long trip into deep space." The feedback of his crowd was exactly what the Major expected; impatience. "So right now, we will inform you of this assignment.
"Let me first start by stating the authority of this mission, so that there is no question later. This assignment does originate at ONI headquarters, but the authority and the order to launch this mission was actually by Supreme Naval Command. So in case you were wondering, this assignment is not something to be taken lightly, and after get into the information, you will indeed see why."
The Major hit a button and the screen came to life, showing black space with thousands of stars. "Some of you may recognize this view from a deep telescope space shot from Reach. And, as you may see, nothing especially special about it. "He hit another button on the remote like object. The view zoomed in what Kren thought looked like, literally, a trillion magnification. The sight was a very concentrated area that was previously not seen in the first image. "This is a high telescopic zoom of something that has not been seen before. Many people would have suspected it would take us decades, possibly centuries to locate, but we got tipped off a few months ago.
"When the attack and subsequent invasion of Cote d' Azur happened, and we were able to recover the alien artifact, there was something else we were able to find. Similar to the star coordinates discovered on that artifact, we were able to transcribe and second set of star system coordinates. I'll save you all the technicalities, but through days of analyzing and deciphering, this system..." he pointed to the projector display. "....was found. It hasn't even been named yet, but the single planet orbiting the star has a set of very perplexing properties, which has motivated headquarters to endorse this endeavor.
"First of all, some sort of radiation field has encompassed the planet, making radar or radio wave sensors ineffective against the planet from orbit, but radiation and IR sensors have been able to penetrate its system; only, of course, at relatively short range.
"Because ONI was not able to detect anything on the surface because of the radiation field, and because this star system was found after investigating the alien artifact from Cote d' Azur, ONI sent a small stealth ship out to investigate. As we all know, if the Covenant want it or know of it, we must take it away from them. The war is not in our favor, so we must hurt them any other way possible, which is the logic ONI used to send out the ship, which leads to what the stealth ship discovered four weeks ago when it entered this unknown system.
"Aside from observing massive Covenant ships in orbit around the planet, the IR sensors we able to detect installations planet side. After careful reviewing, we have noted them as some sort of structures that are being occupied by Covenant forces. They do not appear to be made by the Covenant, but they resemble some of the technology the Covenant posses; such as plasma weapons and systems for instance."
The ships' captain spoke up, addressing the major. "So you're saying these structures do not follow Covenant building patterns, but they contain similar technology?"
The major hesitated for a moment. "Actually, sir, most components are exact technology matches."
"So how can you make the statement that the Covenant did not build those structures...hell, how do you know this isn't some sort of Covenant home world?" The Captain asked.
The major set his briefing papers down and looked intently at the ship CO. "Naturally, every thing here is classified," he saw the look change from impatience to anger on the captain's face. The major sighed and continued. "It has been speculated for some time now that the Covenant is possibly not the only alliance of aliens out there. When we first encountered them, the thought was that they were a single alien race. After time progressed and we met the Covenant in battle on the ground, we witnessed that there were actually many different species within the Covenant alliance. So far true, but after we captured weapons and other technologies from them, and after we were able to improve upon some of it; the shielding used for the SPARTAN-II Project for example, many, especially at ONI headquarters, are beginning to think that the Covenant are either too dumb to improve upon weapons or even design new ones. Or that the technology they have really isn't theirs."
The captain leaned back, gesturing for the major to continue.
"This would then mean that the Covenant has acquired this technology from an outside source, yet they refuse to improve on it. And we know that the Covenant are a deeply religious group of aliens, so one would think to believe that these technologies have been acquired from another species of technologically advanced beings that have some sort of deep religious importance to the Covenant. "The major paused for effect. "There is some race of beings that the Covenant outstandingly reveres." There was a pause.
The then major continued. "But again, one would think that if one of the races in the Covenant created it, why can't they continue to improve upon it? Because of the fact that they do not improve upon the technology they have, the only logical conclusion on why they do not improve their tech is because the race or beings who created this technology, the beings that they revere so much, no longer exists, therefore they view them with deep religious standpoints, almost like this other race were some sort of martyrs or gods."
Kren leaned forward and spoke up. "So, the Covenant have acquired their technology from some long-dead race that they think are gods, are using it against us, and this planet we're going to contains more 'technology' from this long lost 'godly' race?"
"That would be a correct assumption, Lieutenant." The major replied.
"Have you ever thought," the ship Captain interjected, "that the Covenant haven't improved their technology because they simply can't?"
"Yes, but if that were true, how did they get that far in the first place?" The major replied. "Think about it; if we humans can improve upon a technology we have never seen before in mere years, how come they cannot do the same? I'm not saying we can improve upon their weapons, per se, but rather their shielding and ship systems, which still classify as something they can improve upon. The fact of the matter remains; this technology must be from a foreign source, and because of the religious significance of it, that 'source' dictates that they cannot improve upon it...maybe they view it as blasphemy, who knows?"
The ship's CO let out a long sigh. "Okay, so that's the rundown on why we're going to this planet? To acquire technology?"
The major looked away. "Not merely for the technology. This is the first planet we have ever encountered that harbors Covenant forces that we as humans have never been on. Intelligence is the other half of the reason for sending this spec ops mission."
Everyone one in the room, save the three ONI officers, remained silent as they digested the information they had all received. Even if what the major said was half-true, the situation was now very delicate, and confusing.
Kren rubbed his forehead as he addressed the major. "So, what can a platoon of Marines do to this so-called Covenant world. This sounds like an exercise in futility, and from what I've seen over the years, we need less of those."
"That brings me to what the actual mission briefing is." The major replied, moving back to the podium to retrieve the papers. "Gentlemen, welcome to the first phase in Operation Gallant Strife."
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