Halo: Revenge

Halo: Revenge is a short-story in the Halo universe, co-written by Jonathan 'Bac' Karlsson and Matthias 'Survivor' Karlsson.

Prologue
1801 HOURS, DECEMBER 15, 2538 (MILITARY CALENDAR)/ROMEO ALPHA SYSTEM, LISTENING POST ALPHA-TWO, G2-41

Corporal Marcus Damon walked briskly along the trench, constantly watching out into the distance. He saw nothing but tall mountains or winds full of dust. He sighed quietly to himself, making sure no one else among the thirty-two men on guard heard him. Nothing ever happened on this barren rock. He wasn’t even sure why he had chosen to be here in the first place. He wanted to be on the front, fighting humanity’s new mortal enemy, the Covenant. No one knew exactly what they wanted, where they came from or why they wanted to exterminate humanity. What everyone did know, however, was that they wouldn’t stop until humanity was wiped out from the face of the galaxy. However, they had been very quiet recently. Ever since the UNSC’s well-earned victory at the Siege of the Atlas Moons, no new colonies had been attacked. Many thought they may have dealt the Covenant a critical blow by destroying most of that assault fleet, that the Covenant might actually be suffering an internal collapse because of the defeat. Morale throughout the UNSC had gone up over a hundred percent after hearing these rumors, and the Navy was now dedicating a considerable amount of stealth ships to the attempt of locating Covenant worlds, in the hope that they may be able to strike back and destroy the Covenant once and for all. However, Marcus and several others weren’t so sure. Considering the Covenant consisted of so many races, it was surprising if their fleets weren’t larger than humanity’s. However, Marcus had chosen not to voice his opinion, as he knew the belief that they stood a chance was important to humanity; morale had to be raised somehow. However, despite this new surge of UNSC activity and Covenant inactivity, Marcus was still trapped on this darn listening post out in the middle of nowhere. The Listening posts had been constructed out in unsettled UNSC regions either during the Insurrection, during which they served the purpose to track ‘innie’ activity, or during the war with the Covenant, where they were repurposed to track Covenant formations. Success in tracking enemy activity was minimal, usually just the interception of slipspace anomalies indicating ships travelling through slipspace, and even that kind of discovery was extremely rare. The post Marcus was stationed at, Alpha-Two had never intercepted anything as far as he knew. The most exciting thing that happened here was when the monthly freighter arrived to deliver supplies so they could survive another month. The post consisted mostly of internal buildings built on the underground caves of the asteroid, although part of it (the barracks, to be precise) was built on the surface. Around it, the Marines had constructed a trench line in case of danger (mostly to have something to do). A large hatch covered by dust lead down the hollowed-out caves into the landing bay, where the Freighter docked, although there were also some old Pelicans placed there in case the Marines needed them. Marcus continued his brisk walk around the perimeter, just to do something. He wished at least something would happen. He didn’t care what; he (and the other men) just needed some action.

Lieutenant Gerard pressed the entrance code and the door opened. He walked through the opening and into the control room. A dozen screens covered most of the small room, but there was enough room for a chair in front of the main panel. Currently, a very broad-shouldered man with the insignia of a Lieutenant Junior Grade sat in the chair, apparently sleeping deeply. Ignoring his loud snores, Gerard walked over to the broad-shouldered man and grabbed his shoulder. The man woke quickly, spinning around and checking what touched him. “Damn, Gerard!” He shouted, while correcting himself in the chair and scratching his back. “Do you always have to do that? I mean, you’re scaring the shit out of me every time you do it.” Gerard laughed quietly, while making a friendly grin. “Maybe you should get used to it sometime? Anyway, you’re dismissed; I’ll take it from here.” The man simply nodded and walked out, continuing to scratch his back. When the door shut behind the Lieutenant Junior Grade, Gerard sat down in the chair and checked all the screens. After checking all of them, he guessed it would be another shift of nothing happening, like usual.

However, he was surprised to find that something did happen. A few minutes into the shift, one of the screens beeped. He rolled the chair over to the screen, realizing what it meant the second he saw it; something had sent a message to the outpost. He pressed a button, revealing the message.


 *  PALLAS.AI.ATHENA >> LISTENING POST ALPHA-TWO
 * 

Gerard had been through this before. It was standard procedure; he had done this almost every month since being assigned to the outpost. He typed the usual response calmly.


 * >> CLEARENCE GRANTED, PALLAS, YOU MAY BEGIN YOUR APPROACH. TRANSFERRING YOU TO THE OPERATORS IN THE DOCKING BAY. HAVE A PLEASANT DAY. <<

He pressed the enter button, and the screen replied that the message had been sent. Knowing that his job was finished, he relaxed in the chair and placed his boot-covered feet on the desk. A short while later he fell asleep, after mumbling ‘nothing ever happens here’.