For a full five years, UNSC and Covenant forces fought harsh battles for control of Harvest. The UNSC sent battlegroups after battlegroups to push back the alien invaders, while also scavenging any intact technology they could. The Covenant, however, had a different objective.
They took no prisoners, they cared not for civilians, they only wanted to slaughter every human they came across, and they did just that. Now nearing the end of the year 2531, almost nothing was left of Harvest's bountiful fields, no food left to feed others, only war and blood were sown now.
What was worse was that Covenant forces had now started to appear closer and closer to other outer colonies, and so the ship Spirit of Fire was sent to hold Harvest, to tie up as many Covenant as they could before falling back to aid others. The ship's Captain was James Cutter, and though he was less than pleased to be back in this icy hellscape, he would hold the line.
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HARVEST- EPSILON INDI SYSTEM
FEBUARY 4TH, 20 YEARS BEFORE THE HALO EVENT
Captain Cutter watches as Pelicans and D20 Herons leave the Spirit and make for the planet. "Status?" He calls and the ships A.I, Serina, answers.
"Standard orbit achieved. All systems normal." She says manifesting on a display stand as Cutter nods. "Prep for pod launches, bring weapon systems online."
She does so while asking "Expecting trouble, Captain?"
"Harvest may be ours again, but I don't think the Covenant appreciate that yet."
As Dr. Anders walks in, Sgt Forge joins via radio as they discuss dealing with the Covenant who are currently excavating something in the polar ice caps of Harvest.
While they were talking about the ground situation, Serina was preoccupied with keeping the ship in orbit, when she suddenly received a transmission, not to the ship, but to her.
[Hailing ship A.I codenamed 'Serina'
From SHPRO-6490-S-118: Requesting permission to dock with ship.]
Serina was confused, cranking the thermal and optical sensors to the max to try and find any other ship, there was none. She sent a query asking for identification, upon receiving it she notified the Captain who was just as surprised. "I didn't think we'd have any visitors, tell them they can dock. "Yes sir."
Outside the ship, space seemed to ripple as a Sahara-Class Heavy Prowler lowered its stealth field and floated over to the Spirit, sending out a docking tube that latched on with no problem. Serina could still not get any information on the ship in any of her databases, she knew what the ship was, but not what it was, or why it was here. When the occupant inside entered the Spirit, she was surprised to see what had found its way the their ship.
"A Spartan?" Cutter and Anders both said in confusion. Cutter had been expecting someone high up from ONI, here to push some shady agenda, not expecting a Spartan, a lone one at that, to be behind this.
Entering the bridge, the crew stopped for a moment to take in the mountain of armor that was the Spartan. He was tall, taller than all of them. With deep blue armor, a few spots were singed from combat, he had an assault rifle on his back, but what caught the Captain attention were his sidearms, a small palm-sized handle, and a Covenant energy pistol.
"Greeting Captain Cutter, apologies for abrupt arrival." It said with a mans voice as it saluted. "At ease soldier, what brings you here, I don't think I've stepped on any toes lately." Cutter said with a wry smile as the Spartan lowered his salute, inserting a chip into the center console.
Serina was immediately alarmed, there was another A.I on that chip, in HER ship! [Relax, I'm just here to help] It told her before sending an info packet, she calmed down after going through it, everything would be ok.
"I've been sent by ONI to assist you in recovering something that the Covenant are digging up on Harvest." He said as his A.I showed them satellite footage of Covenant soldiers digging something up in the North Pole. Dr. Anders started to speak up but the Spartan cut her off. "I'm not here to steal your credit Dr. I am here to make sure whatever is down there makes it into human hands, the Covenant cannot have what is down there." He said seriously as she backed off, for now.
Down on the planet itself, Forge had already gotten Alpha base up and running, though he was a bit tired to fighting back any Covenant who got too close, he was ready to fight back!
"This is Forge to Spirit, Alpha Base is up and running. Your orders sir?"
"Gather a force and find out what the Covenant is digging for, reinforcements will be dropping in shortly." Came the reply from the Captain.
'Reinforcements?' Forge thought a bit confused, yes it was important to retake Harvest, but surely the Captain wasn't going to drop in ODSTs right away?
As he set up more base modules and organized the incoming soldiers, he saw the blazing comet of a drop pod race towards the base, just as a trio of ghosts arrived on long range sensors.
"Get ready, form up!" He yelled as he watched the drop pod race towards the speeding ghosts, wincing as they collided with a loud boom! He jumped into his Gausshog to go investigate.
Reaching the smoldering remains of the ghosts he found the drop pod mostly intact. "Stand back, the doors about to blow." A voice crackled in his earpiece as he back up the hog, just as the pods door blasted off just missing him.
thud thud "Sorry for the rough landing, I think I hit something." A voice said as the smoke cleared and Sgt Forge came face to face with a Spartan. "That was one hell of an entrance!"