Halo: The Chronicles

Halo: The Chronicles is a collection of short stories about everyday warriors who fight for honor, survival, heritage, and freedom. All stories occur during the Second Great War, a war that pushed the galaxy to the near limits.

Book One: The Civil War
Location: In orbit around En Date: Late 2586 (43rd Age of Conflict)

Levithus stood almost courageously in the bridge of the Omniscent Spirit, a Dauntless-class Cruiser-Carrier. This vessel was one of the many workhorses of the Covenant Navy, and heavily modified to boot. Levithus was not in the bridge as a crewman seeing as he was a Chieftain of the Army (though he still wore his favored Captain Major armor for its light weightedness). He was, however, observing the battle ongoing around the small moon of En.

The moon itself was barely just more than half the size of Pluto, but the fact that it had an ideal atmosphere to begin with and was near Doisac made it the fourth colony of the Jiralhanae race. Despite its size, En maintained a population of one billion Jiralhanae, which lived in space stations, mile-high complexes, and underground structures spanning for miles. Its shipbuilding array, which orbited the gas giant Kibo'mandi (En also orbits said planet from a safe distance), produced many ships for both commercial and military up until four months before present. During this time, a rickety Old Covenant task force began suicidal missions in order to terrorize and weaken the planet until fourteen ships, including the Omniscent Spirit, arrived to patrol the system (the twelve-strong defensive fleet could never catch on in time) and have effectively done their job until now. Twenty-seven old CCS-class Battlecruisers and destroyers assaulted the system, which was still ongoing.

"Ship Master, I advise you to prepare boarding craft for that destroyer just ahead. It is all to well caught up in skirmish with the Endless Truth," Levithus suggested. Levithus himself was extremely tall for a Jiralhanae at ten feet, six inches tall; he outstretched the Ship Master Maccaebus (not from HCH) by nearly a foot and a half and outweighed him by 350 pounds, though neither felt anything but respect for the other despite their differences.

"I see your strategy, Levithus," Maccaebus sharply replied. "I will send four boarding craft immediately. Will you be departing with the team?"

"No, not yet. I will board their flagship, the Final Revelation in hopes of locating their data."

"So it will be, Levithus. Weapons Master, begin the power-up sequence for the energy projector. When ready, fire at will."

"Yes, Ship Master," the younger Jiralhanae replied. He wore the armor like that of Tartarus' pack: a small headpiece, left pauldron, a diaganal belt, and a smaller waist belt.