User:XW3 AR3 L3GION/Operation: HOSTAGE

Operation: HOSTAGE was the proposed covert mission where the last of the remaining SPARTAN-II Generation, a two Battalion of ODST's and Marine respectively, aboard the Pillar of Autumn were to locate the Covenant homeworld, infiltrate and capture a Covenant Prophet to force a truce with the UNSC. The Operation was considered humanity's last chance of survival if Reach was to fall to the Covenant onslaught. Unfortunately, the mission was scrapped when Reach was attacked and all available warships in any nearby systems were to response with due haste and instead the Pillar of Autumn fought in Reach's defence before fleeing to Alpha Halo.

Alternative
In an alternative history, Operation: HOSTAGE proceeded and Reach wasn't attacked:

One-Way Ticket In
The Pillar of Autumn infiltrated Covenant space and remained undetected for three weeks before being found by a patrolling Covenant Reverence-Class Cruiser - the Ascendant Justice. The PoA attempted to look abandoned by venting part of her vehicle cargo into space, making seem like she was drifting, allowing engine coolant to escape into space while all the time sending out a weak SOS signal. Curious, the Ascendant docked with the craft and Ship Master Sesa 'Refumee sent over several Lances of Sangheili, Kig-Yar and Unggoy. Those Lances were promptly destroyed by a combined force of SPARTAN's, Marines and ODST's which promptly stormed the vessel erdicating all Covenant species, save the majority of the Huragok Engineers and for a few seriously wounded Sangheili.

Taking the Ascendant Justice as their ticket in, they gutted then scuttled the Pillar of Autumn as it would have compromised the entire mission if still attached to the Ascendant. From there, they also managed to take another Covenant vessel the Truth and Reconciliation, a CCS-Class Battlecruiser which signalled the Ascendant for deuterium before being promptly boarded. By checking both navigational logs on both ships, the AI Cortana managed to locate High Charity, which she presumed was the Covenant homeworld. As they exited Slipstream Space, they found that High Charity was a Mobile Planetoid station with thousands of Covenant vessel protecting it. Despite this, Both the Ascendant Justice and the Truth and Reconciliation managed to get through without detection. However, the Prophet of Deliverence who was aboard the Truth and Reconciliation was to recieve two Lances of Honour Guards to escort him to the High Council - the Prophet in question was actually dead, floating around in the cold vacuum of space.

Infiltration on a Grand Scale
Instead of a Prophet, the Honour Guards were met with fiece resistance from the Charlie Company of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers led by First Lieutenant Melissa McKay, while the SPARTAN's quickly inflitrated the city. Cortana played a heavy part as Marines, ODST's and SPARTAN's raced towards the Sanctum of the Hierarchs, as she brought down communications between Covenant Lances, redirected Covenant forces to chase down sensor ghosts and shut down nearly every door except the ones the UNSC personnel would and will be using. As chaos was brought across all of High Charity, none of the Fleets outside knew what was happening inside until the Incorruptible another Reverence-Class Cruiser docked for supplies and saw the human forces protecting the Ascendant Justice and Truth and Reconciliation. Although Cortana tried she was unable to stop the Incorruptible from broadcasting the Ascendant's and Truth real operators causing the entire of the Second Fleet of Homogenous Clarity from converging on High Charity and the two commandeered vessels.

Acting quickly, Cortana ordered all remaining UNSC personnel off the Ascendant and Truth while firing an energy projector at the Incorruptible. As soon as the UNSC Personnel had left, she transferred herself into High Charity's computer system, vaguely aware of some other "presence" in there besides her and overloaded the reactors on both stolen ships, just as Covenant forces had begun to storm inside. Moving around the Covenant computer system, Cortana discovered that the Forerunner Dreadnought was powering the city and could easily carry all the UNSC personnel with room to spare, while giving humanity another bargaining chip or if not a powerful naval vessel. Cortana redirected the small group of Naval personnel to a Phantom-landing pad known as the Far Tower. From here, the Naval Personnel with their Marine escort commandeered the Phantom's and transported themselves to the Forerunner Dreadnought, nicknamed rather grimly as, Earth's Last Hope.

With a Boot to the Door
Meanwhile, the combined force of SPARTAN's, ODST's and Marine had nearly reached the Sanctum of the Hierarchs and all had run out of ammuntion for their human weapons forcing all to pick up and use Covenant weaponry, which gave them a tactical advantage over the Covenant forces as they could replenish their own ammuntion from the dead bodies of the Covenant. Surprisingly, casualties had been light; out of 1000 Marines only 89 had died while another 390 had suffered minor wounds, out of 1000 Orbital Drop Shock Troopers only 30 had died whilst 137 had suffered minor wounds and another 18 had major wounds that would need medical facilities, none of the SPARTAN's had died and only two had recieved wounds worth mentioning. When the UNSC Force breached the Sanctum, a small force of two hundred Honour Guard Sangheili tried to make a last stand. The SPARTAN's quickly circumnavigated the Covenant force by Major Antonio Silva's request, allowing the SPARTAN's to catch up to and capture the Prophets, while the Marines and ODST's made sure no Covenant forces followed.

The SPARTAN's and a small force of ODST's under Master Sergeant Lister's command began ransacking the Prophet's Resting Chambers capturing and tying up Prophet's and their families while also fighting off the last remains of the Honour Guards. All in all two hundred and eighty five Prophet's were captured and were awaiting transport from an fleet of human-controlled Phantoms. Whilst this was happening, the Marines and most of the ODST's were fighting off a Covenant assault from the combined forces of nearly every ship from the Second Fleet of Homogenous Clarity but all were forced into a bottleneck and even then they were restrained to not fire their weapons; fearful that they would hit a Prophet in the cross-fire. The Marines on the otherhand had no quarrel and killed droves of sword-wielding Sangheili before they even got within two-hundred metres of the UNSC position. Slowly as the Phantoms took the wounded, tried soldiers and Prophets back to Earth's Last Hope, the outgoing fire began to slacken allowing the Sangheili to edge closer and closer to the Sanctum. A general retreat was called amongst the UNSC forces and as the last of the Marines, ODST's and SPARTAN's fell back into the Sanctum, Cortana set off a series of LOTUS Anti-Tank Mines killing the Sangheili assault.

Last One Out - Get the Lights
With the Sanctum's heavy door locked close, the remaining UNSC Personnel awaited pick-up and the Prophet's were now all under armed guard aboard Earth's Last Hope. Unfortunately, not all Prophet's had been captured, a key poltical figurehead the Prophet of Truth (the only un-captured Hierarch), had been waiting for a time where the Jiralhanae could rise up and over-throw the Sangheili. The Sangheili's unsuccessful charge of the Sanctum was a perfect motive and within a matter of minutes, the majority of the Sangheili Councilors were dead by the hands of the revolting Jiralhanae and replaced by one figurehead - Tartarus, Chieftain of the Jiralhanae. The Jiralhanae stormed the Sanctum caring little for any Prophet's that still may be inside and a short but vicious firefight began only to be broken by the arrival of the human-controlled Phantom's whose heavier weapons allowed them to beat back the Jiralhanae. The SPARTAN's retreated, all the Marines and ODST's that were with them had died during the firefight whilst five SPARTAN's had also died with them.

The Phantom's raced towards Earth's Last Hope, which had begun final lift-off procedures.