Covenant Story (Halo)
this is my eighth time trying to post this. If you like it, then you should like my more recent work. If you don't like it, I don't blame you. ___________________ Noga ‘Putumee could hear the explosions getting closer, it probably was an air strike taking out the outer defenses of his encampment. He ran out of his tent and saw a cloud of smoke and fire over the rolling hills, on the horizon. The sky was glowing red with the early-morning sun. In the distance, he could see his encampment’s defensive towers on fire and half-collapsed. The small gate that was the entrance to the encampment is now open half way and partially melted. A green blast hit near the hinges of the remaining gate and it blew apart. A dozen rebel Banshees flew over the towers and the gate toward ‘Putumee, they fired at another tower and the tower exploded into flames and large chunks of the tower came crashing down and a team Banshees, that belonged to ‘Putumee’s encampment, chased after them, they began to engage each other. The towers, that were hit, weren’t too high so the Elite that was manning the gun in the tower, had jumped and ran back, deeper into the encampment. The location was miles of green rolling hills, on one side of the rolling hills was a forest which was near ‘Putumee’s encampment. On the other side there was a small, sandy beach and an ocean beyond, but the ocean was out of sight from ‘Putumee’s location. The Elite race had rebels split apart and cause hell on their government for many years, it was a constant civil war. And this was just one more battle over another planet. “‘Tahamee, call for evac and prepare for battle,” ‘Putumee ordered his personal assistant, as he ran back into his tent to get weapons. He grabbed his plasma rifle, plasma pistol and his energy sword and ran back out. ‘Tahamee ran for the radio and a rebel Banshee came out of smoke from the sky and fired its main cannon. The explosion engulfed ‘Tahamee. ‘Putumee tried to rally up some more Elites, he tried to get about fifty guys, but most were killed before ‘Putumee could help them. When he had fifteen Elites, he and the team went to a trench. “What do we do now?” a Elite asked desperately. “Fight back, off course,” ‘Putumee answered, “what do we have?” “We have one plasma rifle and pistol per Elite,” the Elite responded, “plus a couple grenades each. That’s just about it.” “We have a crate of grenades back here and a few mines,” an Elite, in the back, screamed. “Okay,” ‘Putumee said, “let’s find weapons and ammo, meet back here in a few minutes.” When the first few of the team climbed out of the trench, they were killed by the rebels. The rest of the team stayed in the trench. “We can’t get out,” an Elite said. “Does anyone know where they fired from?” ‘Putumee asked. No one answered. “We are going to need where they are at, if we want to get out of here,” ‘Putumee said. “Why don’t we send a decoy?” suggested an Elite “Then who wants to be it?” ‘Putumee responded. No one answered again. “Fine, I’ll do it.” ‘Putumee jumped out of the trench and looked around. Sure enough he was fired at, he found out where the rebels were hiding. ‘Putumee jumped back into the trench with his shield depleted. “Okay, they’re hiding behind a tent, twenty feet away from here,” ‘Putumee reported. “Throw grenades, then we will charge up there while suppressing fire. We should be able to take them off-guard and flush them out.” The other Elites poked their heads out of the trench to see exactly where the rebels are at. The rebels fired and most of the Elites ducked again. A couple remained up there to judge are far the grenades had to go. They ducked their heads also. “Okay, I see them,” the Elite said. “Alright, then lets get ready to throw the grenades,” ‘Putumee said. They all lined up against the trench wall and got their grenades ready. They threw them as far as they could toward the rebels, they all got out of the trench and started to charge them. They were fired at and two Elites went down, they returned fire and when they reached the tent where the rebels hid, all hell went loose. There’s hand-to-hand combat and Elite’s firing point-blank. After a minute of that, all the rebels were dead and many of ‘Putumee’s team are dead. A Elite scout ran toward ‘Putumee, the scout looked injured. “Heavy weapons coming through the gate,” the scout said. “What kind of weapons,” ‘Putumee asked. “Tanks and Ghost,” the scout said. “Thanks, we need to head toward the gate and take out as many of the vehicles as possible before they enter the camp,” ‘Putumee said. The scout ran off again when a sniper shot him. “That way isn’t safe, go through the remains of this camp toward the gate,” ‘Putumee ordered. “Scatter and stay alive. We’ll meet at the gate’s towers.” The team scattered across the rubble. ‘Putumee couldn’t see them soon as they hid and they steadily advanced toward the towers. He continued on as well. ‘Putumee walked carefully towards the gate. On the way he saw many dead bodies, he collected as many supplies he could on the way. He even found a portable turret several more grenades and a lot of weapons. When he reached the towers all the other Elites were already there. “Okay, I want two gunners in each tower,” ‘Putumee said, “go up carefully, don’t let it collapse on you. Here take this turret.” Four Elites went up the two towers. ‘Putumee turned toward out of the gate and saw five Ghost and a lot of infantry behind them. “All right,” ‘Putumee said, “everyone go on either side of the road and wait for the Ghost to come within range. I want grenades to take the Ghost out. Towers! Wait for the Ghost to enter the encampment to open fire.” The tower gunners, nodded. ‘Putumee went to the left side of the blasted gate and hid himself the best he could in the remains of it. Soon he could hear the faint rumble of the Ghost engines and he saw three enter through the gate, followed by the other two. The towers opened fire on the Ghost and on the troops that were behind them. Grenades were thrown at the Ghost and soon after that, all the Ghost were nothing more than smoldering chunks of metal. The infantry fired widely at the towers and both sides of the road, where the Elites were hiding. The Elites returned fire and the towers also fired, the rebels started to fall quickly. It took another minute until all the rebels were dead and five of ‘Putumee’s team were dead. The Elites started to come out when a large ball of plasma hit the tower and it exploded. A tank was here. Another explosion hit the center of where the Elites regrouped, and a third ball of plasma hit the other tower. Both towers were now completely destroyed, ‘Putumee turned and ran back, deeper into the encampment. The counter-attack was completely ineffective. He risked turning around and saw two tanks plow through the gate entrance, firing at the bunkers and the tents. ‘Putumee knew that he needed to get out of here, his encampment would be fully overran within minutes. ‘Putumee ran through a tent and luckily enough he found an energy sword. He took it with him. He sprinted as fast as he could and stopped on the crest of a neighboring hill with explosions all around him. He saw a dropship stop within the boundaries of his encampment and drop dozens of rebels, as more marched in from the north. His encampment was being destroyed by the Elite rebels and he watched legions of rebels storm over the rolling hills, that were once green and grassy, are now smoldering and glassy smooth, thick with smoke. ‘Putumee could hear constant explosions, dying screams and the whine of plasma rifles being fired all over. One of the rebels appeared behind ‘Putumee and at him with a plasma rifle, ‘Putumee ducked, rolled to the left and pulled out his energy sword and cut the rebel in two. ‘Putumee’s shield took the brunt of the fire. He would avenge his team that was just brutally slaughtered but he couldn’t kill all the rebels down there so he waited. After the rebels have destroyed most of ‘Putumee’s encampment and moved on, he activated his camouflage and went down the hill, into the carnage that once was his encampment, to finish off any rebels that stayed behind. ‘Putumee saw more that what he had expected, around fifty to sixty rebels were still around , that didn’t matter, he’d still kill them all. Luckily, they must have been trying to save their energy packs, but they had their energy shields off. ‘Putumee couldn’t see all the rebels because of all the smoke that rose off the ground and looked like a heavy fog, and the tons of trash of tents, weapons, destroyed vehicles and bodies that littered the ground. He unsheathed his combat knife, approached the rebels from behind and started to slit their throats. By the time the surviving rebels realized what was happening, more than ten rebels were lying on the ground, dead. The survivors looked straight at ‘Putumee but they couldn’t tell if it was him or just more heat radiating off the smoldering, blackened ground. They all fired in about a two meter diameter of where ‘Putumee was, he was on the edge of that circle. His shields started to flare and the rebels noticed him and the plasma fire became more concentrated on his position. ‘Putumee ducked under a smoldering Ghost, that has been blown in half earlier. He pulled out his energy sword again and started to slay the rebels. ‘Putumee watched the final rebel scream, collapse and die. He let his tortured shield recharge. For another hour he explored what was left of the battle, checking the dead members of his company. He used the remains of the radio to call for an evacuation. A few minutes went by, before he noticed a large shadow eclipse the far hills, he looked up and saw one of his ships, a carrier, come in through the haze, smoke and clouds. The ship was badly torn and cracked, with dozens of large dents, debris fell off the ship and one small piece came straight for ‘Putumee, a heartbeat later he noticed that it was a dropship, his evacuation ship. Two minutes later, he had boarded the dropship, which had boarded the carrier. ‘Putumee and his company was sent to planet-side to re-seize the communication HQ of this planet. When they had landed, he set up an encampment with some defenses and when he finished setting it up, he saw that the rebels have launched dozens of small dropships near the boundaries of the encampment was. He, of course, called for reinforcements but when they saw the large dropship break through the haze, a plasma torpedo raced toward it and impacted on it. The remains of the dropship fell toward the planets surface, leaving a trail of thick, black smoke and plenty of debris scattered over the hills. When it crashed, there was a slight tremor and ‘Putumee team was still severely outnumbered. The rebels attacked two days after that. But for now all he could hope for was to get out of there alive. After a week of constant fighting and planning, ‘Putumee was exhausted. ‘Putumee went to the command deck to review what happened to all the other encampments, he knew the ship master well, they were good friends. “Your excellency,” ‘Putumee said as he approached ‘Gullamee, the ship master. “How are things holding out here?” He looked at the view screen that ‘Gullamee was staring at. ‘Putumee was a field commander, who is close to being promoted to ship master. “Not well, the rebels have us greatly outnumbered,” ‘Gullamee replied, still staring at the view screens. “Any other ground forces get evacuated for the surface?” ‘Putumee asked. “Sadly, not many have been evacuated, the rebels had several sudden, surprise attack on most of the encampment, similar to what happened to your encampment.” ‘Gullamee answered. “Whoever ordered these attacks must be a great strategist.” ‘Gullamee hit a button on a panel that seemed to be made of entirely light. As he touched the button, it turned from yellow to sky blue. “Get us out of here, we’ll be overrun soon,” ‘Gullamee said into the intercom, that was opened by the press of the button. “Yes, your excellency,” the navigation officer replied through the com. ‘Putumee looked at the view screen that showed the space battle and one-third of the planets surface. There are dozens of broken ships and smaller pieces of debris littering the area around the planet. On the planet there were patches of forest, rolling hills and grassy plains that were set ablaze and were visible from orbit. ‘Gullamee’s ship retreated back to the voids of slipspace, an alternate “vacuum” that ships could travel much faster in, along with a half a dozen of other ships that belonged to ‘Gullamee’s battle group. ‘Putumee watched the view screen that was playing a special report. The report announced the Elite race had made contact with another alien race. This alien race was extending an invitation to the Elite race to have an alliance with each other, if the Elite’s joined the aliens military. The military had two other unknown aliens races with them, called “Grunts” and “Jackals,” the aliens that are extending this invitations are called “Prophets,” together they called themselves the “Covenant.” The Elites are to lead the two smaller classes, and the highest ranking elites were joining the Covenant council and were given improved armor. The Covenant ships and the Elite ships are somewhat similar, one or the other had a few things that could have been improved that has already been solved by the other, and all the ships became twelve point five percent more effective in battle now. ‘Putumee is on a Covenant destroyer and is headed into uncharted territory. He is to go and destroy one of the planets in that system and that planet is believed to be occupied by a hostile race. The planet is called “Harvest.” “Our orders?” the navigation officer asked over the speakers as the report, ‘Putumee was watching, came to an end. ‘Putumee keyed the com for navigations, “take us to these new coordinates that these ‘Prophets’ have sent us, we are suppose to destroy a planet in the system,” ‘Putumee answered. The planet was long flight away so he read the reports of the enemy race that he was going to eliminate. They enemy aliens have evolved on a planet that is not in any of his maps and that the aliens are far behind the Covenants technology, these aliens are called “humans”. They also have pirates, that are part of their own race. These pirates capture space vessels and kill or capture the crew, and then they sell the vessel and its weapons, illegally. But the pirates are now disorganized, and are hiding in some asteroid belt of some system, but they were no threat to the Covenant. The Prophets also have studied the aliens for some time so they know how to translate their language and a message has been prepared to send to the humans. ‘Putumee continued going through the files on the humans, when he finished only one hour has gone by so, with more time to kill, he read the informational file on the Prophets. They are highly religious about gigantic rings called “Halo.” That when these rings are activated, they will make all who are worthy immortal and all-powerful. But the only star map to one of these rings was on a small ship that crash landed on an uncharted planet. The planet is believed to be hostile now. ‘Putumee continued to read about the Prophets until the ship was nearly at the edge of the system. The ship decelerated as they exited the voids of slipspace, the view screen showed the far green and blue planet, called Harvest. The planet was still far off and ‘Putumee thought that the human hostile race could get a good look at his ship so he keyed for navigations, “Jump us closer to the planet, we’ll begin ASAP.” ‘Putumee switched the com to weapon control, “Prepare all plasma turrets to set fire upon the surface as soon as we are in range.” The ship disappeared, then reappeared, much closer to the planet, in a heartbeat. The ship shuddered on an almost unnoticeable level when the first of the plasmas bombardment raced toward the surface. ‘Putumee was also ordered to take photographs of the planet and its inhabitants. This planet seemed to be more of a peaceful planet with no military threat at all, there were few cities, if there was a city it would be small. No large military bases could be found and there was no shipyard anywhere in orbit. But ‘Putumee was not to question orders so he continued to burn the surface, ‘Putumee’s ship orbited the planet, firing, it took a good part of two hours to vaporize all the rivers, lakes and oceans. And to level all the forests, cities and mountains. No survivors. When he was done, the planet looked like a big red, glowing ball of glass. He sent a probe out with the message, and his ship turned, entered slipspace and headed back toward High Charity. High Charity was the Covenants main base that was about the size of a medium-sized moon. As ‘Putumee went back a small battle group went to the Harvest system to wait for any counter-threats. Several months later ‘Putumee heard rumor that one of the Covenants ships were attacked and destroyed outside an adjacent system to Harvest. Right now he was headed toward another planet called Draco III, so he spent the time reading about the attack on the Covenant ship. One of the human battle ships attacked a Covenant frigate. The battle ship launched a salvo of missiles and a different weapon, that looked somewhat similar ‘Putumee’s plasma projectiles. This human projectile was a long streak of white, and had a very high velocity. It smashed into the frigate then soon after all the missiles hit it but the frigate was not destroyed. The frigate got into position to fire the plasma turrets and the human destroyer fired another white projectile. The frigate held its ground and fired the plasma turrets, the human projectile slammed into the frigate and burned a large hole right through it and bending the entire ship by thirty degrees. However the plasma hit the destroyer, destroying many decks and vaporizing a lot of its armor. After that, the destroyer launched single fighters called “Longswords,” according to the records. The destroyer retreated away from the frigate when a bright light enveloped the frigate and the single fighters. The light remained surrounding the frigate for a few seconds, but when the light dimmed away, the frigate was still there. The frigate also move away from the other ship. Field repairs were going on through the ship and after an hour, the frigate went back to engage the human ship. The humans ship fired missiles, however the frigate destroyed them with its point-defense lasers after that a lot of confusion went through out the ship’s battle frequency. A few minutes went by without out much activity but the confusion grew throughout the ship until the ship exploded. Three days after the attack, the Covenant destroyed that system’s planet. But ‘Putumee was headed toward another plant that most likely had a repulsion force. The battle group that ‘Putumee was in charge of, was almost there. As ‘Putumee’s battle group neared the exciting point, he read about the planet. It had a small ship yard orbiting the planet, it had cities and about thirteen million civilians. Since there was a ship yard there were bound to be battle ships nearby and they would fight for the planet’s inhabitants. The ships exited slipspace on the edge of the system, the battle group scanned the region near the planet for the human battle group and when it was located, they accelerated toward it. “Your excellency,” the communication officer said, “we have picked up a transmission form the planets surface, it looks like they’re trying to evacuated all the civilians.” “We’ll send ground forces to the surface,” ‘Putumee said. “They can stop the civilians from leaving this planet.” ‘Putumee switched the com to all the ships speakers. “All ground troops, prepare to be launched to the surface. Take out the civilian-evacuation ships before they have a chance to take off.” The Covenant ships sped toward the human battle group and started to engage on another. ‘Putumee’s ship stayed behind, for two reasons. One, because he needed to get his troops to the surface safely. And two, he wanted to tackle the humans most powerful ship, since his ship is the strongest in this fleet, without interference from all the human weaker ships. He observed the battle, found the strongest human ship (a destroyer) and engaged. As ‘Putumee ship got closer, his ships shield dropped to thirty-two percent. After he’d finish off this ship, he would launch his ground troops. “Fire the main plasma turret,” ordered ‘Putumee. His ship fire but the human destroyer suddenly jumped out of the way when the plasma bolt came near, the human ship returned fire by launching several missiles. ‘Putumee smiled as he watched the plasma bolt make a sharp turn and strike the lower decks of the destroyer. ‘Putumee thought that the destroyer would not be a big concern now. “Fire the point-defense lasers when the missiles come in range,” ‘Putumee ordered. Small puffs of fired popped up around his ship as the defensive lasers destroyed the missiles. The energy shield began to recharge. “There is no more threat, get us closer to the planet and send the dropships to the surface now,” ‘Putumee ordered. He switched the com to navigation, “Head toward the rest of the battle and when we have destroyed all enemy ships prepared to set fire upon the surface.” ‘Putumee’s ship turned 180 degrees and headed back to the battle when the shield collapsed and several decks collapsed as a large hole was burned right through the middle of ‘Putumee’s ship, he was thrown to the floor. “Report!” ‘Putumee screamed while getting off the floor. “The human destroyer, that we thought that we destroyed, is still active and fired its missiles, followed by one of their more heavier guns,” the damage control officer replied calmly enough. “Putumee keyed the com to weapon control. “Fired rows A and B of our torpedoes at the destroyer, that should finish them off.” “Yes, your excellency . . . torpedoes away.” A dozen explosions blossomed on the destroyer’s side and one must of hit the engines as for the vessel exploded, sending hundreds of small glowing fragments into space. ‘Putumee’s ship continued toward the battle when he was close enough to see more detail, he saw a human ship destroy a Covenant frigate. ‘Putumee was greatly outraged by this. “Fire the main turret at the ship that just destroyed our ship.” The plasma bolt raced toward the human carrier that just destroyed the frigate and ‘Putumee watched it get struck in the side and the plasma continued on through and out the other end. Life pods started to leave the ship. “Aim us toward that human ship,” ‘Putumee ordered navigations. “We’ll go through it, literally, to join the rest of the battle. ‘Putumee’s destroyer sped toward the human ship and when his ship reached the carrier, the nose of ‘Putumee’s ship started to through where the humans ship was burned through. The carriers hull scratched terrible at ‘Putumee’s shields, the shield dropped fourteen percent. As the destroyer continued through, like a wedge, the human ship snapped in half and both pieces started to slowly drift away. “Fire row C at the front end of the ship,” ‘Putumee ordered as his ship’s mid-section was between the two halves of the carrier. The torpedoes raced toward the front half of the humans ship and hit it, completely vaporizing the control room, and ‘Putumee hoped that the high-ranking humans were also killed. (But the Captain and Lieutenants, who piloted the ship, all got on a life boat and boarded a friendly destroyer, which will retreat soon.) ‘Putumee joined the battle and it lasted for only the next five minutes before all the surviving human ships had turned and retreated in different directions. The ground forces were only able to destroy three human evacuation ships and when the ground forces came back, ‘Putumee noticed that many did not return. The world was fired upon shortly after the ground forces were pulled off the surface. Later, back on the way to High charity, ‘Putumee read the report of what happened to his troops. The reports that came in said: “We have successfully taken control of this city. Ah, he comes more human troops in one of their dropships.” Nothing was reported for a while after that until a rough report came in: “We’re under attack! Humans in s— have taken over much of the city. We can’t — they’re dodging a bolts and using the environment well. They surprised us and killed many warriors— Whoa, watch out! My team is being slaughtered.” The firing of plasma bolts and human guns filled the radio. “I have not seen a single one of their guys fall. I’ve been hit, aghhh— they stopped advancing. Hurray! They got back on their dropship and are leaving. Medic!! After the attack another message came nearly an half hour later. “I’m fine now, get off me! Damn. Look at this mess. You guys! Look for survivors! My radio is still on.” The radio must have been accidently turned on but when it came on again a minute later, it was intentionally. “Our losses are still be counted, so far it’s over four-hundred. However the human civilian loss count is still also being counted and it’s over ten-thousand. But the human solider count has been finished and it’s only thirty. We’re leaving now, getting back onboard the dropship, some dropships are full of Covenant bodies. Signing out.” The actual report read that the human group that killed most of the ground troops were all evacuated and none have been found dead. Three civilian-evacuation ships have been destroyed along with the civilians in it. About six years later the Covenant suffered their first space battle defeat and it wasn’t even as the humans were on defense. The humans attacked the Harvest system with three times the amount of ships that the Covenant had. However, the humans suffered more damage though, two-thirds of their fleet was destroyed. When the Covenant ships had finished a bombardment of a planet, the humans dubbed it “glassing” the planet. It made sense since when the planet was completely destroyed, all that was left was a smooth reflected surface that looked similar to a big, red, glowing ball of glass. The Covenant has glassed dozens of planets up to this point and destroyed hundreds of human warships that were guarding the planets but more and more still seemed to come out of now where. When the Covenant think they have finally destroyed a major shipyard, human warships are still as dense as before. The humans are starting to evacuate all planets that were near the Covenant boundaries. The humans were getting better, more desperate. Their fighting more wildly, yet accurately. The planetary defenses have been improving and the Covenant troops began to lose a little morale. ‘Putumee was now in a Seraph single fighter, that was docked in a carrier; the carrier was part of a battle group with three frigates, one destroyer and the carrier. Their mission was to attack and take out a human Outer Colony shipyard. “Five minutes ‘til launch,” said the ship master. ‘Putumee had his ship prepared to exit the carrier. As the next few minutes went by, ‘Putumee made himself comfortable with the Seraph controls. “Prepare to be launched in twenty seconds,” announced the ship master. ‘Putumee turned on the central screen, that showed the battle outside the carriers hull. The Covenant destroyer fired its turrets at a human cruiser. The cruiser was hit and started to fall into the planets atmosphere, the engines flared trying to stabilize again. As the cruiser fell toward the planet, one of the three Covenant frigates took a direct hit by a MAC round. The frigate returned fire at the light destroyer and it received heavy damage. That’s all that ‘Putumee could see when the ship master said: “All Seraph fighters launch and engage.” ‘Putumee fired up the engines, went out of the carriers bay and into the battle. When he cleared the ship, he saw a Longsword fighter go beneath the carrier. He nosed down and chased after it. He fired the rapid-fire pulse lasers and the Longsword swayed from side to side, avoiding the plasma then it took a few hits and veered away trailing smoke. ‘Putumee chased after it and continued to fire, the Longswords nosed up and went around an asteroid. When ‘Putumee went around the asteroid, he couldn’t see the Longsword anymore. A missile struck the Seraph’s shield and it flared. ‘Putumee turned his ship around and saw the Longsword coming straight at him. He fired the pulse lasers, the Longsword took several hits on the nose, the Longsword exploded soon afterwards. “Got ya,” ‘Putumee said, smiling. The flaming ball of the Longsword’s momentum kept it going, ‘Putumee dodged it and it finally crashed into an asteroid. ‘Putumee turned his single fighter around, surveyed the battle and headed toward a human destroyer that has a lot of large holes in it. When ‘Putumee neared it, he fired two plasma torpedoes. The torpedoes left a rather thin trail of blue smoke and raced toward a hole that was near the engines in the destroyer, ‘Putumee continued toward the destroyer to make sure that it is destroyed. A hail of bullets hit the two torpedoes and they both blew up before they ever got near enough to the destroyer to do any damage. A Longsword fighter came through the cloud of blue smoke that was left by the two destroyed torpedoes, it fired at ‘Putumee’s ship and passed over the top of the Seraph. ‘Putumee’s ships shields took a beating and went down to fifty-four percent. Smart pilot, it just saved that destroyer, ‘Putumee thought. ‘Putumee turned toward the Longsword that just flew by and accelerated after it. ‘Putumee fired his lasers at the Longsword then the Longsword turned toward a Covenant frigate and lined up with one of the frigate’s turrets. ‘Putumee continued to fire the pulse lasers that continued to miss the Longsword. The stray plasma lasers hit the shield around the frigates turret that the Longsword was targeting. The Longsword fired a missile, at the turret just as the turret warmed preparing to fire, then the Longsword nosed up and turned 180 degrees so now that it flew “upside down” relative to ‘Putumee’s single fighter, it headed toward ‘Putumee’s ship and flew above it. The missile hit the turret when the shield around it was let down and disabled it. ‘Putumee knew that this would be a worthy pilot to take down so he reported it in. “Seraph fighter Two to Seraph fighter One, come in.” “This is Seraph One, squadron leader, here. Do you have a problem?.” “We may have a Longsword threat, it disabled one of our frigates turret and saved one of its destroyers from being destroyed, single-handedly,” ‘Putumee reported. “I’m placing a Nav point on it.” ‘Putumee placed a Nav point on the Longsword. “Roger that, we’ll take care of it. Just sit tight.” ‘Putumee watched the other Seraph fighters falling in behind the Longsword and started to pursue it. The Longsword’s back hatch opened and a dozen mines laid out in the Seraphs fighters path. One of the four Seraph fighter hit the mines and exploded and turned into a blue cloud of smoke, the others took some damage as well. The Longsword started to rotate in order to make hit harder to hit, it headed toward an untouched human cruiser. The cruiser faced toward the Longsword and Seraph fighters, then two other Longswords joined the first, taking escorting positions. All six ships headed toward the cruiser. The Longswords turned sharply in different ways to give the cruiser a clear shot at the Seraph fighters. The cruiser opened fire with its defense guns and two of the three Seraph, that were left, exploded. The last surviving Seraph fighter turned back and headed toward the carrier that it belonged to, while the Longsword fighters boarded the cruiser. ‘Putumee slouched in his seat, putting his hand to his head thinking, how could four Seraph fighter not even take out one Longsword and lose three of the four ships. The battle was over, all the human ships retreated in their usual random exit vector directions. ‘Putumee boarded the Covenant carrier and the planets ship yard was destroyed and the planet was glassed. ‘Putumee was to be assigned to a permanent position when he goes back to the base. It was voluntary to be assigned to all the positions before choosing a permanent one first. But by doing so, one can earn respect and climb rank faster. This idea was introduced a couple years ago by a Prophet, it wasn’t the smar-*test*-('") idea but the purpose was so that there is enough troops to be evenly spread out through the Covenant military rather than having thousands of infantry and few pilots. Many are killed while doing this program, all who volunteer for this program is usually sent to the front lines to fight the humans. ‘Putumee chose to do this to earn the respect of the Prophets. When the Elite race joined the Covenant, ‘Putumee was not treated with the respect he deserved by the Prophets and even by the Jackals and Grunts. By doing this program he received three promotions and now he has the respect he deserves, even by the Prophets. Although when Elites do this, they usually don’t get the position they want, so it was a rather big risk to do this program. Mostly only Elites sign up for it but every now and then a Jackal or a Grunt will sign up, if they survive it they are usually only given command of a large group of Grunts. ‘Putumee went through the heavy security to the Council Chamber, he sat and waited in the lobby. The Prophets finally called him in about after an hour of waiting. ‘Putumee walked to the raised platform where he was to stand. He noticed two Prophets sitting on the far end of the Chamber on the other end and on both sides of them sat two very high-ranking elites that belonged to the council. They wore their usual councilor helmets and their white armor, their armor shields could with stand and enormous amount of damage before breaking. ‘Putumee reached the center platform and stood their while the two Elites and two Prophets spoke among themselves. They spoke to each other and pointed at papers that were in front of them laying on the desk. “Noga ‘Putumee, you have finished all positions in a battlefield, both ground and space battles. Am I right?” One of the prophets said, finally acknowledging ‘Putumee presence. “Yes, your excellency. I have just finished my Seraph single fighter battle.” ‘Putumee answered. “So,” said the Elite Councilor on the right, “of all positions that you can be assigned to, which one would you prefer most?” “Your excellency, in my twelfth exercise I was signed to ‘ship master,’of course I met the requirements to be in that exercise, and I believe that I was fairly well at commanding a warship.” ‘Putumee answered, seriously. “Ah, the one positions that everyone would like,” said the same Elite. “Why do you think you should have the rank of a Ship Master?” ‘Putumee knew that if he suggested a position anywhere it would have been the same question, except for the lower positions. “Well, when I did the exercise, I was in command of a frigate and in that frigate, I was able to take out two human frigates and one destroyer in a single battle,” ‘Putumee answered. “Much of the crew did not like me being their ship master, although most of them were in their exercises as well. Anyway, I kept them under control. “Okay, go wait outside,” the first Prophet said. “We will call you back in a moment. “Yes, your excellency,” ‘Putumee said respectfully. He turned around and went out the room. On his way out he noticed two Honor Guards on both sides of the doorway, he hadn’t noticed them before because they haven’t moved a muscle since ‘Putumee has entered the room. ‘Putumee went back and sat in the same seat that he was sitting in earlier. There he saw only two other Elites go in before he was called back. When ‘Putumee re-entered the Council Chamber, he didn’t see the other Prophet, that never spoke to him, nor the guards that were at the entrance. One of the Elites were gone and the other was standing up to leave. “Noga ‘Putumee,” said the remaining Prophet, the Elite went out a door behind the desk and spoke to some one else quietly, the door shut. “After reading your report, we have decided to assign you to ship master of Nebulous Pride. This ship is an average destroyer, so you should be comfortable in it. We will send the appropriate documents over time, for now your new equipment is in your locker storage. “But if you fail as a ship master or if you request to a different unit,” the Prophet said, “you can also be promoted to a Zealot unit, the highest-ranking field commander. Do you understand?” “Yes, excellency.” “You are excused.” ‘Putumee bowed, and left the Council Chamber. He met a minor Elite outside the door, who led him to a shuttle bay where we got onto a transport ship and headed to a shipyard.. ‘Putumee entered the Covenant shipyard and found his destroyer getting its finishing touches, he entered it and went to a room that’s designed for the comfort of the superior officers. ‘Putumee first went through a list of officers so he could pick out his crew. Some of them were easy to pick out like a weapons control officer, he hired a Elite who had been in four battles against the humans and won them all. However, for navigations he found it more difficult to choose one. There was one Elite who had plenty of experience but did not do so well in combat situations, the other Elite had passed all navigations -*test*-('") easily and was one of the best students in the class, but has no experience. ‘Putumee sent request form for the Elite with no experience, he would get his experience and hopefully prove himself worthy in a combat situation. Next he looked at an officer list for communications. He narrowed it down to three, one had plenty experience and could transfer important messages to the ship master quickly. The second one was also fresh out of schooling, he graduated at the highest of the class and one of the highest graduates ever. The third was a human-computer specialist and could hack into just about any computer within a few seconds. He already had one inexperienced officer on board and his missions wouldn’t really require hacking into a human computer so he hired the first one. And for the rest of the crew, it was rather simple. ‘Putumee easily found a damage control officer and some assistants. He also received the default crew including twenty engineers for field repairs, four dropships, seventy-five ground troops, which had fifty Grunts, five Elites and twenty Jackals. When ‘Putumee had finished hiring a good number of crew, he checked his ships status. The ship had the usual, standard engine, it had three plasma turrets, about one-hundred large plasma torpedoes and a shield that can withstand two direct shots of the human MAC guns. It took a day for all the crew to report to the ship and when they all arrived, ‘Putumee was ordered to patrol the area around High Charity along with the other 700 warships that were patrolling it. It was rather a boring job and ‘Putumee had to do this for a couple years. “Destroy that human scout ship!” screamed ‘Putumee. He has been ordered to search systems for more human colonized planets but he ran into a scout ship that could be trouble for him later if it survives. “We’re on it, hold on,” announced the Seraph squadron leader. The human scout ship was the size of about a Longsword fighter and it was nearing the systems asteroid belt. The five Seraph fighters fired at the scout, and the scout ship turned behind an asteroid while the Seraphs torpedoes and lasers hit the front side of the asteroid. The Seraph fighters went around the rock and found no ship in sight. “Your excellency, the scout ship has disappeared,” said the Seraph squadron leader. “Well find it, if it gets away then the humans will send a battle group after us and we can’t leave this system until we are sure that no humans are inhabited in this system,” ordered ‘Putumee. The single fighters and ‘Putumee’s destroyer searched the asteroid belt for the ship for about an hour and that’s when the humans ship decided to make a run for it. The ship cleared the asteroid belt and started to go into slipspace. “Fire!” ‘Putumee screamed. “Take it out, don’t let it get away!” ‘Putumee’s destroyer fired at the human ship, but the ship vanished in slipspace. The ball of plasma slashed through where the scout ship was just at, and it impacted on a large asteroid. “Damn it,” ‘Putumee said. “Call for backup, a human battle group will be here shortly. And continue scanning the system for any human civilian presence.” ‘Putumee scanned the area and found no humans present. While he was scanning his reinforcements had arrived, two frigates. Before he had finished completely scanning the area the human battle group arrived, containing one destroyer, one carrier and three frigates. ‘Putumee’s ship and the two frigates headed toward the human battle group. “Fire all three turrets at the destroyer,” ‘Putumee ordered the weapon control officer. “Firing . . .” replied the weapon control officer. All three turrets fired at the human destroyer, the two Covenant frigates also fired, but at the human carrier. The humans fired dozens of missiles and their MAC guns. The three balls of plasma headed straight for the destroyer, the destroyer jumped out of the way and two of the three plasma balls turned sharply and impacted the destroyer. The destroyer was knocked off course, meanwhile the human carrier received the frigates plasma. The carrier was destroyed. The humans MAC guns slammed into one of the Covenants frigate, which exploded and left a large blue haze where it was destroyed. And all the missiles were headed for the other frigate, although they didn’t do much damage individually all combined they knock down the shield and left many craters in the side of the frigate. Fires flickered inside the frigate, the ship was burning and the ship master was trying to put the fires out. The ship burned through and became useless. The humans did not fire at ‘Putumee’s ship because it would not have done as much damage to the Covenant. Instead they took out the lighter ships that were guaranteed to be knocked out by the hellish fire. “Fire each turret at each human frigate,” ‘Putumee ordered. “Yes, excellency.” The plasma turrets fired again but this time each plasma ball headed in a different direction, at each of the frigates. Fire splashed along the nose of one of the frigates and it detonated, another one took the plasma in the side which gutted it and now there was a large hole through the middle. The third frigate fired, what looked like, all they had at the plasma ball. The plasma ball disappeared in the explosion of all the human missiles. The frigate turned and fled back into slipspace. “Good,” ‘Putumee thought. “Now finish scanning the area and lets get out of here.” ‘Putumee finished scanning the area and turned back to High Charity. ‘Putumee did several searches like this one, he would enter a region, a human battle group would show up, attack and retreat. He found the location of three human held colonies and they all were eventually glassed. Every time he went on a search more and more human ships showed up, eager to destroy as many as Covenant ships as possible. He was getting rather tired of it, so were the Prophets. They wanted to find the human main shipyard and take it down. Now in 2552, human time, the Covenant had a new alien race join them, called Hunters. These Hunters are to be given heavy armor with a Fuel Rod Cannon, mounted on their left arm, for better planetary engagements They naturally have long, razor-sharps spikes on their backs. And the Hunters will have mounted shields that is so thick and dense, it is nearly impossible to break through it. The Prophets wanted an igneous specimen that was on a planet inhabited by the humans. A battle group is being prepared to engage this planet and drop ground forces, with some Hunters, to retrieve this specimen. ‘Yortumee was a ship master on a carrier and he was to lead this assault on the human-held colony. The battle group was ready to go. “Take us into slipspace and head toward the planet with the igneous specimen that we are to collect,” ‘Yortumee ordered. “Yes, excellency.” The ship accelerated and vanished with its escort ships into slipspace. ‘Yortumee wondered what was so important about a single specimen, that make an entire battle group to go retrieve. It must have been very precious to the Prophets. But as an Elite, he should not question the Prophets orders. ‘Yortumee had a lot of time to kill off so, since he was not quite a veteran, he read dozens of battle tactics. He went to his headquarters and fell asleep as he was reading them. A buzzer went off in ‘Yortumee headquarters and he awoke. “Excellency, we are an hour off from the planet,” said an assistant. He got up and went to the command deck and waited there for the remaining time. Finally the ships exited slipspace and are near the planet. “Check the area for a human-defense group,” ‘Yortumee ordered. “There’s one ship headed straight for us and . . . that looks like that’s all.” “Frigate ship masters,” ‘Yortumee said. “Engage the human ship, while the destroyer and my ship will continue on.” The carrier and destroyer accelerated toward the planet. “All warriors that are to go to the planet side, prepare to be launched, in five minutes,” ‘Yortumee announced. A few minutes went by and the ship vibrated very slightly. ‘Yortumee thought it was nothing more than a large obstacle that the ship might of ran into. The destroyer could no longer be seen in the forward screens, ‘Yortumee must have passed it. The dropships were launched toward the surface. “Turn us around, see if the humans are answering our presence yet,” ‘Yortumee ordered. “Yes, your excellen—” the navigation officers voice died in mid-sentence. “You may want to see this.” “See what?” “Look at the aft view screen.” ‘Yortumee looked at the view screen and saw the destroyers hull, burning in the planets atmosphere. One of the frigates were missing and debris was everywhere, the other frigate had so many holes in it, it was hard to identify. The previous vibration must have been a nuclear explosion or the missing frigate explosion. “Who the hell did this?” ‘Yortumee barked. “It’s that ship that approached us when we first entered this system, it destroyed all three ships, alone,” announced the communication officer with his voice slightly shaky. “Get us our of here, it may take some time for the ground forces to get the specimen, we’ll come back later,” ‘Yortumee ordered. The Covenant Hierarch’s knew that more human ships would come to help defend the planet, so they decided to send a battle group for a diversion while a stealth ship will get the recording of the specimen. ‘Yortumee was going back to fight. The Covenant battle ships set off for the planet a few hours ago and they are now close to the exciting point. The ships decelerated after a few minutes and exited out of slipspace near where ‘Yortumee first appeared. They found the human ships close to the planet and there was a new, non-documented ship hovering over the human’s formation, giving the Covenant the smallest target it could. The ship is massive and about one kilometer square of armor plate. The human ships got into a tight Phalanx formation. The Covenant ships slowly started to approach the formation. “All ships launch the first salvo of plasma and head toward the human ships to engage,” the fleet commander ordered. “Fire all turrets,” ‘Yortumee said. As his ship fired, all the other Covenant ships fired, as well as the human ships. The plasma raced toward the human formation and the massive ship maneuvered in front of the human formation, to take all the hits. Many plasma bolts impacted on the ship’s surface, the ship rotated slowly to spread out the damage so a hole was not burned through and the remaining bolts could hit the formation. Meanwhile, the human shots smashed into the Covenant ships, some of the MAC rounds completely missed but most hit. They lost three ships. ‘Yortumee was annoyed that the large ship took all the hits for the humans. The humans ships fired again. “Fire,” ‘Yortumee ordered again. The space between the two giant ship formations looked like a scene from hell. The human ships broke formation as the Covenant got closer. The battle was a disaster. “Fire plasma torpedoes,” ‘Yortumee ordered. The torpedoes headed toward a human frigate and it took several hits but was not completely destroyed. “That ship has been damaged enough to not cause anyone any harm, engage the other humans ships,” said ‘Yortumee. ‘Yortumee realized that his ship was in the middle of the battle. He couldn’t get out of the battle and from the looks of it, the other Covenant ships were not doing so well. The human ships were everywhere. A nearby Covenant ship exploded and another ship took several human MAC rounds in the side, four MAC rounds went clear through the ship. ‘Yortumee’s ship took a hit in the side, a cruiser fired at it. Shortly after a dozen missiles also struck the side and nine got through the shield, hitting the ships hull. The human cruiser turned as a Covenant destroyer engaged it. ‘Yortumee was about to go help the destroyer when his ship was hit again, this time by a human frigate and the MAC round went through the upper decks of the ship. “Fire rows A through C of the torpedoes at the human frigate,” ‘Yortumee ordered. His ship fired and the human ship was hit, the outer shell of the frigate was gone and what was left on the front end of the ship was glowing red. Fires started to burn through the ship. ‘Yortumee’s ship was hit again, this time by a human carrier. Six Longswords came in low and fired and his ships’ lower shield. The shield steadily went down, three percent every second and all the MAC rounds that hit it, the shield was only at four percent. There are several holes in the ship now, and many small fires. ‘Yortumee was taking a big beating. “Get us out of here,” ‘Yortumee screamed at the navigation officer. There was no response and a message came through the speakers. The Covenant were told to retreat: Mission Failed! flashed on the screen. ‘Yortumee’s ship, however, could not run, it was too damaged. The humans ships closed in around the carrier and fired. ‘Yortumee was thrown the floor. ‘Yortumee reached for the weapon controls, hoping that he could take out a few ship before he was destroyed. A blast engulfed the command deck and tore through many decks, the engines also took a hit and the carrier exploded. During the battle a destroyer has launched a small camera out into the debris field, the cameras purpose was to attach itself to a human ship and take several photographs of the star formations which will hopfully find more human held colonies. ‘Putumee read the report of Sigma Octanus IV battle, the Prophets announced that they have gotten enough of what they wanted there and it seemed to be a star map of some kind, that leads to one of the holy rings. Meanwhile, the Covenant have found the human main base. It was an entire planet, heavily guarded and had a large ship yard. The humans named it “Reach.” Three-hundred Covenant ships were to assault on Reach. They were launched over four days ago and they were getting close to the systems edge. ‘Putumee thought that three-hundred ships was over doing it but he wouldn’t have taken his chance either. ‘Putumee was in control over about twenty ships, a lot of frigates, three destroyers and one carrier. Although ‘Putumee was master of all twenty ships, each one still had a ship master aboard. He went over his mission objective, he was to blast a way through the human defenses, send his carrier to the surface and take out the Super MAC gun generator that was buried below the surface, ten other ships had the same objective and the Prophets thought that only a couple would accomplish its goal. The Super MAC gun was believed to be the humans strongest weapon, few reports about this weapon have been recorded. The guns were defensive platforms that orbited a planet and they could tear through nearly any Covenant ship with a single round. As ‘Putumee mentally prepared for the invasion a few hours went by until Reach was only one hour off. “All crews report to battle stations, Reach is one hour off,” ‘Putumee ordered over the com to all his ships. ‘Putumee stared at the view screen, although there was only blackness and emptiness in the voids of slipspace. As the hour went by, he could hear the movement in the upper and lower decks. “Your excellency, all drops ships has been prepared on the carrier.” the carrier ship master reported. “But I request to just land my ship on the surface to get as many troops onto the ground as possible.” “Request granted. I’ll send all three destroyers to blast a weakness in the humans’s defense so you can land and deploy your ground forces,” ‘Putumee answered. ‘Putumee was on a frigate, although weaker, his ship would not be specifically targeted, when there are dozens of destroyers, carriers and cruisers for the humans to aim for. ‘Putumee’s ship decelerated as did the rest of the fleet and they entered normal space. The planet had more than a hundred human ships in orbit, but the Covenant ships, nonetheless, headed straight for the Super MAC guns. The human ships were all clustered together, more human warships exited slipspace and headed to group with the other humans that are near the planet. The Super MAC guns were aimed toward the Covenant ship, the humans knew they were coming. All three-hundred Covenant ships fired at the Super MAC guns as the MAC guns and the human fleet fired as well. Three massive ships went to intercept the plasma bolts. The first fifty or so plasma bolts completely vaporized the three star ships. ‘Putumee smiled as he watched the other two-hundred plasma bolts race toward their target. But when they reached where the three ships were vaporized, the plasma was absorbed and made a hellish red glow in the haze. Meanwhile, the human fleet shots raced toward the Covenant formation. The smaller shots took two or three to wear down a ships shield but the Super MAC guns pulverized any ship the round touched. One of the rounds struck one of ‘Putumee’s destroyers and the shield collapsed almost instantly then the round went clear through the destroyer. The entire ship shattered into millions beyond billions of small fragments. If that wasn’t enough, four nuclear mines went of right in the middle of the Covenant formation. But the fleet still moved forward leaving barely over a hundred of their ships behind that are to damaged to continue on. Most ships were not accounted fore, a lot of them must have been into a field of debris. “Your excellency, we’re receiving orders from the flagship,” the com officer announced. “Let me see it,” ‘Putumee answered. To all Covenant ships, ships A1 to M6, attack the MAC guns. The rest will attack the fleet. “Okay, we’re going for the human fleet, pick your target and fire at will,” ‘Putumee announced to all his ships. As the other half of the Covenant fleet went after the MAC guns, ‘Putumee’s ships as well as a few dozen other ships went for the human fleet. ‘Putumee’s ship couldn’t take on a full operational destroyer, carrier or cruiser so he would tackle damaged ships or other frigates. ‘Putumee scanned the humans and found a frigate that was not taking its chances and was shooting from a distance, ‘Putumee didn’t like that so he would take it out. “Head us toward that frigate,” said ‘Putumee as he sent the image of the frigate to the navigations officer. He keyed weapon controls. “Prepare our main turret, a couple torpedoes and fire as soon as we are in range.” “Of course, your excellency.” ‘Putumee’s ship rocketed toward the frigate. The human ship shot a handful of missiles toward ‘Putumee’s ship. “Turn us ninety degrees and accelerate for four seconds, then head back to the human ship on my mark,” ‘Putumee ordered the navigations officer. Frigates don’t have such accurate point-defense lasers as the destroyers, carriers and cruisers. So he would just have to throw off the missiles guidance system. ‘Putumee waited for the missiles to get closer, “Now!” The ship spun and shot out of the way, most of the missiles missed but some shill struck the shield, making it go down to seventy-eight percent. ‘Putumee’s ship spun back toward the human frigate and fired. The plasma bolt and torpedoes struck the frigate. The frigate shuddered as the bolt and torpedoes caused the upper decks to collapse and it spun out of control. It started to get sucked in by the planets gravity force and heat up and burn in the outer layers of the atmosphere. “Destroyers, clear a way for the carriers,” ‘Putumee ordered the ship masters. The destroyers found a few ships guarding the planet, they fired at them. The ships were destroyed. The destroyers tried to defend the area to let the carrier to go through. “Carrier ship master, head toward the surface now,” ‘Putumee ordered. The fleets attacked one another for a few minutes before the communications officer spoke up. “Receiving orders from the flagship,” the communication officer announced. The message read, Dropships were launched, all Covenant warships retreat out of the range of the humans Super MAC guns. Wait for the guns to go offline. “Pull back, we are to regroup,” ‘Putumee ordered. As the remainder Covenant fleet started to break and retreat the flagship, which was just out of the accurate range of the Super MAC guns, shot its main turret and a heartbeat later fiver human ships exploded and the flagship started to pull back. The human ships also regrouped near the planet. As the flagship retreated, a lone human cruiser approached it. The flagship fired but the cruiser rolled out of the way, a clean miss. The human cruiser fired over five hundred missiles followed by three rounds of its MAC gun. The missiles and rounds struck but only a dozen missiles got through and struck the hull of the flagship but the shield, the strongest defense of the ship, is gone. The flagship fired again and the cruiser attempted to get out of the way but it was struck and badly wounded although it was still in one piece it fired the MAC gun again. ‘Putumee noticed a Longsword crash land on the flagship and had a large nuke attached to it. “Tell the flagship it has a nuke on its hull,” ‘Putumee screamed. Too late. The cruiser turned and sluggishly went away from the flagship and the nuke detonated. The shield held the explosive force inside and the flagship was enveloped by the light. Fire hit the shield of the walls and they flared, debris bounced off the shield and rocketed back into the white light, trailing smoke. The shield finally gave and the ship exploded. The Covenant strongest ship was destroyed by one single human ship, as well as the fleet commander too. “We’re receiving a report from the surface, but it’s not from our carrier that we sent down,” the communication officer said. “Oh, and we’re also receiving orders from High Charity.” A voice broke through the speakers, The carrier that was sent down to destroy the Super MAC generator has been nuked but the MAC generator was knocked out by the EMP wave, barely. Super MAC guns are now inactive. That was my carrier, damn, ‘Putumee thought. He listened to the High Charity report: “Warning!” A human cruiser is headed toward the holy ring, any ship who receives this message is to pursue the human ship immediately, if you’re unable to destroy it, follow it and destroy it once it exits slipspace, the ship in NOT to harm or land on the holy ring.” “All ships follow the cruiser through slipspace,” ‘Putumee told his ships. ‘Putumee only counted seven of his ships left and they were all frigates; after that cruiser took out the flagship, ‘Putumee hoped he could take it out. The ship has a very smart captain piloting it. The cruiser rolled as the frigates fired, clean misses. Then it entered slipspace. “All ships follow the cruiser coordinate,” ‘Putumee ordered his ships. “Your excellency, it appears that the flagship has launched a life boat, transporting a high-ranking Elite, onto one of our surviving ships before the flagship was nuked,” the com officer reported. “Any orders from him,” ‘Putumee asked. How did this Elite get off the ship in time and how did he know to abandon the ship in the first place, ‘Putumee wondered. Yes, I’ll play it,” the com officer responded. “Ship Masters of frigates and master of frigate battle group, I am now taking command of these ships. Continue to follow the human cruiser and we will destroy it when it exits slipspace,” the Elite announced. “Okay, we are now going to follow this Elite into battle,” ‘Putumee said to his ships. “Follow his orders and don’t be requesting them from me.” “Thank you for your cooperation,” the Elite answered. The frigates, shortly after, jumped into slipspace and followed the cruiser. “Find out which ship the Elite is on,” ordered ‘Putumee. “Of course your excellency . . . he’s on this ship.” “Where is he?” “The engine room.” ‘Putumee went to the engine room to speak with the Elite he went down the elevator and the communication officer told him that the Elite is named ‘Rolamee. ‘Putumee reached the engine room and found ‘Rolamee observing the engines. “Your excellency, welcome to my battle group,” ‘Putumee greeted ‘Rolamee. “Quite thank you, I’ve called in a battle group, that is going to meet us at Halo,” ‘Rolamee started. “A minor Prophet with legions of ground troops will be there. They have calculated the cruisers exciting point and its too close to the ring where we are not allowed to open fire on them, so we are going to have to kill the humans on their own ship or maybe to the ground. Have you been promoted to Zealot unit?” “Yes,” ‘Putumee said. ‘Putumee requested to be promoted to Zealot unit last week. Although, the transfer had not been completed so that’s why he is still ship master. The Prophets okayed this because both ‘Putumee and the councilors knew that the humans were better than the Covenant during ground engagements and after the councilors have reviewed ‘Putumee’s full report, and the number of enemies he has killed and ships he has destroyed, they decided he is better on ground engagements. ‘Putumee received the promotion to Zealot unit, and was given the Zealots golden armor that had one of the strongest individual plasma shields. “Good, I want you to lead the ground operations of defense and assaults on the humans if they land on Halo,” ‘Rolamee said. ‘Putumee was reminded of his carrier and was curious, why did the humans nuke his carrier, that went on Reach, when it’s obvious that the EMP would knock out the generator. So he asked ‘Rolamee. “Did you get a full report on what happened to the carrier on Reach’s surface?” “Yes, I did, I’ll send the full report to the Control Room,” ‘Rolamee answered. (To be continued . . . ) ________________________________ trust me the other half of my story is a lot better.

ugh, this is pissing me off. It spaced it all wierd and cut almost the entire story. I'll just post it in sections.