Halo: Retaliation

This is the sequel to Halo: Annihilation, and as it's precursor, this is pretty off from canon.

Summary
3 Weeks have passed since the Human-Separatist alliance had retaken Earth. The small force had successfully defended the Human city Last Hope from the Covenant Loyalists, and have total control of the planet, the Moon, and the surrounding space.

The Next goal for the alliance is to gather reinforcements, and ultimately head for High Charity to destroy the Covenant once and for all.

Prologue
Several Covenant frigates drifted through space, gathering every functional UNSC ship they could find.

The Humans would be useful in ground engagements, but they hadn't the slightest idea how to control Covenant ships. Thus, the Alliance gathered every UNSC ship remotely within operational function, and repairing them.

Thus far, a good deal of ships were in working order:


 * 18 Frigates
 * 11 Destroyers
 * 7 Halcyon Cruisers
 * 5 Marathon Cruisers
 * 4 Wyvern Battlecruisers
 * 2 Carriers
 * 1 Repair Station

These ships were enough to match about a quarter of the Separatist fleet, but it would have to do.

...

On board the Covenant Frigate Divine Intervention's bridge, Spartan-118 Allen, and Spartan-007 CJ, were directing the ship's search for any remaining ships.

Allen scoured the radar, looking for any heat from a ship's reactor. Finally, he succeeded.

"There." He pointed on the map to a ship floating, dead in space. It was a Marathon Cruiser, one of the most powerful ships in the UNSC's fleet.

The Frigate pulled alongside it, and several dozen boarding craft, including the Spartans, and the crew and soldiers needed to man and garrison the ship, pulled into the airlocks.

The ship was surprisingly intact. It seemed as if the Covenant had shot it once and then forgotten it. As the two Spartans, along with the bridge crew, walked towards the bridge, Allen became more and more suspicious. Finally, they reached the bridge. One of the Crewmen opened the door, and without warning, over a dozen balloon-like creatures tumbled out of the bridge.

The Spartans reacted immediately, taking out the balloons with quick bursts of their Assault Rifles. Less than 10 seconds later, they were all dead.

"Jesus!" CJ remarked. "Were those what I think they were?"

"Yes." Allen replied.

"Flood."

Preparation
Meanwhile, the rest of Hammer Team, and Blue Team, consisting of John a.k.a. "The Master Chief", Fred, Linda, and Kelly, were in the Captain's bunk of the UNSC Carrier Antietam. They had just gotten the message from Allen about the Flood, and had every ship, UNSC and Covenant alike, scoured for more of the disgusting creatures. They had found nothing, and were currently reporting back to Allen.

"I see." Allen said. "I'm relieved and disturbed that there weren't more of them. They always seem to travel in large numbers."

"Perhaps most of them starved?" John replied.

"Possibly. Either way, keep your eyes open. With what we'll be dealing with the next few weeks, the Flood will be the least of our worries."

I doubt that. John thought to himself.

...

The Bridge crew for the recently-commandeered Marathon Phoenix had finally settled in, and CJ had been put in charge of the ship. He approached the Captain's chair, and sat down. It barely held his weight with the Mjolnir armor, but it was comfortable anyways. He nearly jolted when light began to swirl around the holo-projector next to him. It finally settled and formed into a human figure. That of a young girl, probably only 10.

"Hello, there! I'm Mariah."

CJ was terribly confused. And angry that she had been able to scare him.

"Hello. Are you the ship's AI?"

"Yes, I am."

"I see. Could you answer a question for me? Are there any more of those Flood on the ship?"

"Flood? Scanning... Oh, I see. No, there are no more Flood on this ship. But I can't say for the others. My scanners can't detect the interiors of the other ships. You'd need a stealth ship, like a Prowler to do that."

"A Prowler, huh? Figures we're fresh out."

...

On board the Assault Carrier "Joyous Repentance", The Grand Commander, leader of the Covenant Separatists, was directing the entire Separatist fleet of nearly 150 ships at once. It was difficult, but it needed to be done if they were ever going to leave. After 3 weeks of Preparation, the final countdown had begun before all Alliance ships would jump to the nearest Covenant fleet, to spread the words of the Separatists. The Grand Commander recalled that just a day's jump from Earth would lead them to an extremely large fleet of over 300 ships. Hopefully, the Elites would join their cause. If not, they would move on.

"Sir. Exactly 2 deci-units" (20 minutes) "until the jump. The Human's will jump just before us, due to their slower jumps." Rtas 'Vadum, the Grand Commander's second-in-command, stated.

"Very well, Rtas. Send the message now."

All of the ship, Human and Covenant, lined up in formation, with just five minutes before the Human's jump.

The counter clicked down, until there were 5 seconds left.

5...4...3...2...1...

The Human fleet took off all at once, making a huge white rip in space. 10 minutes later, the Covenant followed.

The beginning of the end, had begun.