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Shadows of Archon (part 1) - Destiny's Blade
Posted By: Wado<wyamauchi@msn.com>
Date: 7 August 2002, 5:08 pm
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I know you think this is just like before. Who are we to believe any different? Day in and day out the cycle continues. We find ourselves alone, afraid of shadows -- Frightened by those things that go bump in the endless night. So we find comfort in things. We find peace in our own insanity. Why in all humanity did we ever, ever come here?
Just a thought to all you Terrans out there.
Next up on CBN, the Covenant Broadcasting Network, an oldie but a goodie, but first a message from GEO-Comfort.
Can't get a good night's sleep? Back bothering you? Well no more. Announcing the new GEO-Comfort 2500 packed-sleep system. Yes, enjoy the comfort of GEO-thermal energy and get 6 hours of sleep in just 1 hour. Imagine the savings. Yes, you heard me right -- that's real GEO-thermal energy we're talking about. Order now. Supplies limited. Offer not valid in the quarantined zone. May cause extreme burns in 20% of test subjects.
Now a special message to all you SLEEPERS out there; WAKE UP in a new GEO-Comfort today. Don't REACH for those pain killers any more.
As promised, here's another classic by Commander Thom and those whacky grunts.
"Kill the Spartan, kill the Spartan. With my sword and cloaking shield, I will kill the Spartan, kill the Spartan..."
--------------
There's nothing like a little entertainment laced with propaganda to get you through another cold and boring night at the front. Such is the life at CLIS-35, a frontier Covenant listening station on the out skirts of the quarantined zone. At one time this rock in space was a staging area for a great Covenant Armada, but now it is just an early warning station; one of 48 stations built around the quarantined zone. On the side of CLIS-35 in the place of a name, in big letters, is the word Expendable.
Inside CLIS-35 sits a slender Covenant Elite. This is Commander Thom. Yes the one and the same, famous hero to the Covenant. He and his whacky grunts would tour military bases and put on quite a show. Somewhere along the way, however, he goofed up and got canned, err... promoted to a nice desk job in the middle of nowhere that is. Might have been that thing with the High Commander's daughter, who knows, there were so many.
Thom looks around his office, "Ga! I'm so bored. Isn't there anything to do around here? Hey, sub-commander anything unusual in today's reports?"
In walks the sub-commander; a Covenant grunt dressed in the colors normally reserved only for Elites. Around his identification symbol are the distinguished stars of valor, honor, and a dozen other medals. In a deep and sincere voice the sub-commander says, "Commander, as usual there's nothing unusual to report. Here are today's logs, and might I remind the commander that it is not necessary to yell down the hall, we have communicators - sir."
"Wipe that smile off your face, sub-commander Zax. Dismissed."
Just as sub-commander Zax turns to leave, he is stopped by Commander Thom, "Zax, hold on, close the door. At ease sub-commander. You know Zax, in the year that I've been your commander, you've never have told me why you volunteered for duty out here. I know we've discussed this before and it's none of my business and all, but look Zax, I'm a screw-up as is most everyone stationed out here. You're not, and it's not your fault you weren't born an elite. It's just not fair that command would hold something like that against you."
"May I speak candidly sir?"
"Yes."
Zax looks out a large window and gazes upon the stars, "Thom, if you order me to tell you I will, otherwise, it's none of your business. (sigh) It's nice..."
"What's nice?"
"The stars. I've almost forgotten what it is like to just look at the stars; I'm stuck looking at monitors and scanner displays all day."
Thom looks out the window, "What are those crews doing out there?"
Zax replies, "Just doing a physical check of the scanner array. The full diagnostics did not find anything wrong."
"Did something happen?"
"No just a malfunction earlier in the day. It's in the logs. Nothing to worry about, it seems the system has corrected itself."
Thom looks over the logs, "Sub-commander, why was I not notified, this log is from over 4 hours ago?"
"Commander sir, nothing that small could move so fast and it only showed up on our peripheral scanners. It must be a ghost image."
"Malfunctions don't show up on peripheral scanners from 6 different listening stations. Sub-commander, bring us to alert level 3."
"Yes sir."
Thom knows in the back of his mind that this is probably nothing. All the listening stations share communications with each other, often before when a malfunction has hit one station, a few others suffer the same. Hey, but anything to break up another boring day.
In the command center, as Sub-commander Zax goes through the motions, 5th class science officer grunt Noc reports, "Sub-commander, alert level 3 in effect. Sir, is the commander at it again?"
Zax replies, "Yes, he's at it again. Now get moving science officer."
Science officer Noc scratches his head as an access denied message appears. "Sub-commander, on a hunch I checked the archives for anything that might match what we saw earlier today and I got a match, but I don't have the security clearance to see it."
Neither does the Sub-commander have access rights to these archives. They call upon Commander Thom. The commander never has had to use the security clearance only granted to one of his rank. He brings out a special set of encoders from inside his personal locked vault and proceeds to a secured viewing room.
Inside the secured room, Thom sits alone. The monitor reads access granted.
-----
I could go on to describe in detail all the events locked away in the archives but even Thom is not that bored. The summary of the story goes something like this:
Three years ago, shortly after the destruction of the great Armada near Halo, a small ship was detected moving through jump space at speeds faster than anything the Covenant have. It was believed to be forerunner technology. Its course was away from Halo. It quickly left sensor range and was never see again -- At least so far as these archives say.
Within one month after the sighting of the mysterious ship, the enemy called the flood started infesting ships and colonies in the area that is now known as the quarantined zone.
Today's sighting was of a ship with a similar propulsion signature as the ship seen three years ago, but not exactly the same. This one was faster and smaller.
The last critical piece of information is that today's ship wasn't heading out of the quarantined zone, it was heading into it.
-----
Thom leaves the secured room. "Sub-commander, ready our scout ship. We are going into the quarantined zone. Here's the mission briefing. We leave in one hour."
Sub-commander Zax looks at the mission briefing cover - There in big red letters is written: Operation Destiny's Blade.
-- Next, The Return --
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