User:StoneGhost/Archive

Cold Storage- where everything goes that was, or that may be one day, but isn't cooked yet. All the stuff that's on ice, or that got cut and replaced by newer stuff. Also contains some archival stuff from pre-Halo Fanon.

Tank Armament
120mm HESH

A normal Electro Thermal Chemical (ETC) cartridge has a fuse of tapering cross section which enables higher impulse energy to be imparted to a projectile by means of complete controlled burning of propellant. A long, narrow tube filled with propellant has a fuse on its inside surface with a cross section that tapers toward the discharge end, separated from the electrical ground of the cartridge casing by a layer of insulation sufficiently thin to be destroyed as the fuse ignites the propellant. A high-voltage electrode connected at the back end of the tube provides for application of a pulse of sufficient current density to ohmically heat or burn the fuse in a controlled fashion from the discharge end to the back end. A Solid Propellant Electro-Thermal Chemical cartridge as used in the Panther II cannon uses an internalized block of solid propellant (unlike traditional powdered or flaked fillings) and oxidizer poured into the cartridge in much the same way as a rocket does, this system however uses a plasma flash chamber that allows for higher initial peak bore pressures and more consistent burn profiles due to an inward-out burn profile that allows for a larger surface area as the round progresses giving the best performance and consistency for a given shell size. The solid propellant is immune to field temperature changes and operates efficiently even in the most extreme of circumstances.

120mm RAPID
The main round of the L120 gun was the long used and lethally effective RAPID round. The Reactive Armour Piercing Incendiary round was comprised of a Laminated Tungsten alloy (known as Tungsten-Cerium-Copper Carbide or TC3 alloy) which was designed to provide similar effects of a DU round (Pryophoric, self-sharpening, Super-dense, etc) but without the side effects associated with a moderate radiological material. This new generation of armour piercing sub-calibre ammunition was developed to defeat multiple layers of monobloc, composite, fifth generation ERA, motion transfer, and spaced armour targets found on the battlefields of today or the foreseeable future. The flat projectile trajectory and a short flight time significantly increased the hit probability with an increased ability of the ultra low drag tungsten alloy long rod penetrator to defeat armour, even at very long angles of obliquity at extended ranges, made the RAPID round the essential choice for vehicle armament.

120mm HEAT

30mm AP

30mm Incendiary

30mm HEPAB

F2 GPMG
The F2 GPMG (General Purpose Machine Gun) series was the standard Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW) and Heavy Machine gun of the Royal Allegiance. It was designed to give infantry squads a compact and mobile source of suppressive fire, in addition to a heavy multi-purpose machine gun. There were two variants, the first being a single-barreled, smaller version which was used as a SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon). The second variant was a triple-barreled version which was larger and too heavy to be carried by infantry. It was mainly mounted onto a vehicle to provide a powerful anti-infantry and anti-light vehicle weapon. The SAW variant of the weapon fire 9mm SAP rounds while the HMG fired 15mm (0.59 inches), and the HMG had three barrels to the SAW's one. The series was introduced in the 2630s, and continued to be in use for over two hundred years in similar forms. By 2700 the design had be refined to perfection. It was designed before the Swarm War but nonetheless excelled at piercing insect carapace and shredding the Swarm bugs to pieces.

SAW Variant (F2A GPMG)
These weapons were rapid-fire, air-cooled, continuous fire weapons. In principal they were nothing more than assault rifles, modified to withstand the stressed of non-stop firing. However, in reality, they were very different. They were used by infantry more widely than heavy Machine guns, which were expensive, heavier and took longer to prepare for firing, a notable disadvantage when in battlefield situations. The weapon was not unlike many other SAWs, focusing on suppressing the enemy to reduce their return fire's effectiveness and accuracy. This variant of the weapon was supplied through a disintegrating belt although could be loaded through magazines too- however this increased loading time substantially.

In Allegiance field Squads, one of the four fire-teams were designated to carry and operate SAWs such as the F2 GPMG. One soldier would shoot, with another would reload, one would allocate targets and the fourth man would prevent flanking. These weapons were light enough to be carried by a single soldier although the ammunition was heavier than the gun itself, and required an additional person, usually the loader. It was easy to prepare for firing, with a bipod to aid in steady fire. Measures were taken to reduce recoil including muzzle breaks on the barrel.

HMG Variant (F2B GPMG)
These F2s were mounted onto vehicles such as the ATL-772 Sabre Dropship, which had one in its rear troop hatch, or the Peregrine Air Assault Craft, which a turreted external version with an exposed gunner. In this capacity they were useful against numbers of enemy infantry, even when taking cover, and to a certain extent, light vehicles and light aircraft. On occasions they were used as stationary defensive turrets mounted on fixed emplacements. They were also frequently mounted on tanks to provide close-range protection, including the H-47 MBT. This variant was also chain-fed and, although it had a capacity to be magazine-fed, this was rarely used.

Replacement
As the Swarm War forced military advancement at a faster rate, projectile based weapons began to be looked on unfavourably. With the advent of Particle Cannon variants that could be used in small-arms-sized weapons, the projectile rifle was gradually phased out. By 2750 all projectile-based small arms were replaced by their energy-based counterparts. However, despite intense research and testing, a Particle cannon with continuous-fire abilities could not be made on a scale small enough to replace GPMGs (The rifles and other energy-based weapons did not fire for continuous periods). As such, the F2 GPMG remained in service until after the Swarm War had ended in 2878.

Peregrine Air Assault Craft
Peregrine Air Assault Craft

The Peregrine Air Assault Craft was a small close air-support gunship employed by the Royal Allegiance.

Introduction
As the Swarm War progressed, it became obvious that the Allegiance forces were ill-eqipped to fight massive insects with shredding jaws. A request for a heavily armed, well-protected, rapid anti-vehicle anti-infantry VTOL was put out to the major arms manufacturers of the Allegiance and the UNSC. So high were the requirements that none of the arms companies responded. The craft was designed in secret by the Allegiance and the plans sent to Frasier Fleet Industries, famous for designing and building the successful ATL-772 Sabre Dropship. It functions as a rapid, potent anti-ground weapons platform, but is acutely vulnerable to other airborne targets.

Appearance and Layout
The Peregrine's design was very similar to the UNSC's Hornet of the Human-Covenant War. However, the cockpit was less exposed and the engines were made larger. Between the engines was the cockpit, housing the gunner and pilot. Flanking the cockpit were two rapid-fire Particle Cannons. From behind the main section a tail-like protrusion extended backwards, culminating in an array of verticle fins. From beneath the end of the tail, a long, vertical fin stretched downwards. Behind this and underneath the tail was a chaingun turret, suspended from a metal arm on a fast-tracking mechanised joint. Mounted ont he outside edge of the VTOL engines were two small winglets which provided a small amount of lift in level flight. Built into the front of the VTOL engiines, beside the air intakes, were the two missile pods.

Weapons
The Peregrine possessed a well-rounded weapons complement. On its chin, it mounted a general purpose 45mm armour-piercing cannon. On either side of the cockpit, it had two rapid-fire Particle Cannons, effective against infantry and to a certain extent, light vehicles.

Outisde of the VTOL engines, two ordnance pods provided a flexible and versatile edition to the armament. They could be armed with THOR general-purpose missiles, effective against all types of ground targets. To counter aerial targets it could also be armed with INTERCEPTOR Air-to-Air missiles, however this sacrificed the Peregrine's potent anti-armour capabilities. The Peregrine was rarely employed as an anti-air unit due to its slow speed and vulnerability to fast-moving targets.

At the rear of the craft, it mounted a small, highly exposed 15mm triple barrel machine gun turret, an F2 GPMG. This was mainly to fill a gap in the main gunner's field of fire, providing all-round fire and covering fire in close air support roles. Unlike the rest of the craft, the turret and gunner were vulnerable to small-arms fire, specifically sniper and long range weapons.

On the exterior of the engines were two dual 30mm Machine guns for anti-infantry and anti-light vehicle purposes.

Strengths and Weaknesses
The Peregrine was similar in its stengths and weaknesses to a Hornet. However, it had better armour and weaponry, allowing it greater survivability while engaging ground targets.

The Peregrine was slower and less maneuvrable than the Hornet generally, but had a high cruising speed nonetheless thanks to its oversized engines. It was effective against all kinds of enemy ground armour, equipped with THOR anti-armour, anti-infantry missiles.

The Peregrine was effective against infantry to all degrees. However, it was very vulnerable to surface-to-air or air-to-air missiles, frequently not withstanding a single hit. In addition, it was weak against Anti-Aircraft Artillery.

The Peregrine was vulerable against rapid-moving aerial vehicles such as fighters. It was effective as a deterrent against larger, slow-moving transports and dropships, providing it stayed out of its missile's field of fire.

It was for the most part resistant to small-arms fire. However, the tail could be damaged by concentrated fire.

Heat-seeking missiles made short work of the Peregrine due to its large VTOL engines.

The Peregrine did not benefit from any kind of stealth features vhatsoever. However, its mission profile dictated that these would be unnecessary and would simply add to the cost.

It was extremely at risk from high-powered, high speed linear weaponry, like the SPARTAN Laser.

The rear gunner was highly exposed to enemy fire.

It needed ammo reloading very regularly during combat. It could last for short battles or a small number of skirmished without needng reloading but was not built for endurance in this area. They regularly operated close to large bases or cruisers where they could be quickly and easily resupplied. They were often deployed from airborne warhships hovering in atmosphere. They had an effective combat radius of 345km.

They were not space-capable. Their height ceiling was just under 5km.

Crew
The Particle Cannons, armour-piercing cannon and missile pods were too much for the pilot to operate while piloting the craft. As such, the Peregrine featured a pilot and a co-pilot, seated in tandem inside the cockpit- the pilot at the fore with the best view, and the gunner behind, using image monitors to fire upon targets. Controlling the rear-mounted 15mm chaingun is another gunner, highly exposed to enemy fire. Laterally mounted jumpseats are not included but can be added if the chaingun turret is removed, for example for troop insertion missions.

Freya-class Destroyer

 * The Freya-class Destroyer is a mid-sized warship specialising in ship to ship combat. It boasts a large amount of weaponry for its size, which it uses to engage and destroy other large warships. It is capable of taking on anything up to a light capital ship. As a result it is not capable of atmospheric operations and only holds a limited ground and fighter complement. Due to its large power requirements it has one onboard zero-point reactor.
 * Length: 1,123m
 * Armament: 10 Heavy Particle Cannons, 5 Prow Heavy Missile launchers, 1 Ventral Axial Particle Cannon, 3 dorsal Heavy Warhead launchers, 8 side-mounted Light Particle Cannons, 26 Warhead launchers, 70 General Purpose Cannons, 40 Flak guns, 35 General Purpose Machine Guns
 * Consumables: 1.5 years
 * Maximum speed (in atmosphere): N/A
 * Maximum speed (in vacuum): 1500 kph
 * Crew: 2,570 naval crew excluding onboard Army forces
 * Troop Capacity: 800 Allegiance Troops, 300 assorted Combat Drones
 * Starfighter Complement: 30 Alpha-1 Flashfighters, 12 Bombers, 5 Assault Dropships, 10 Sabre Gunships, 10 Warbird Support Craft
 * Weapons: 1 Prow Axial Particle Cannon, 6 Heavy turreted Particle Cannons, 8 Light turreted Particle Cannons, 40 Warhead launchers, 8 Prow Heavy Missile launchers, 120 General Purpose Cannons, 80 Flak guns, 50 General Purpose Machine Guns

Britannia
Britannia, also known as the Jewel City or Gateway to the Core, was one of the most important worlds held by the Allegiance. Were it not for the political and spiritual importance of Thera and Avalon, it would easily have been the unofficial capital of Allegiance space. It was the third most populated planet after Avalon and Thera, the main supplier of civilian spacecraft and the third largest manufacturer of military warships. The Allegiance Marine Corps and the Allegiance Army both had their headquarters located on this planet, whilst the Navy headquarters was located on Avalon. The Royal Family had a residence on Britannia, and spent time on there while away from their main residences on Thera and Haven.

The planet was located in the Cycnos system relatively central in terms of Allegiance holdings. As a result it benefited from large amounts of trade and commerce from visits to the other core worlds. As a result, Britannia was given the nickname ‘Gateway to the Core’, based on the fact that the vast majority of journeys made to Haven, Thera or Avalon from the rest of Allegiance space passed through Britannia. It was located in NAVGrid Sector 002, making it a central and well-traversed location. The planet’s facilities were arguably the main source of technological advancements and research within the Allegiance. As well this, the planet possessed a rich source of raw materials needed for starship manufacture. Traditionally, ships were built in the docks above Avalon and Thera, but, due to Britannia's attractive material deposits and research centres, more and more military projects were diverted to Britannia during the years leading up to the Swarm War.

Due to its highly valuable and strategically important location, it had a large naval garrison protecting it, also serving to safeguard its resources and large population.

In 2841, it was invaded by The Swarm, and was defeated. Its population were consumed by the Swarm, shearing a chink in the Allegiance’s armour and paving the way for the Swarm’s assault on the core.

778 million kilometres distance from sun (s)


 * Acheron


 * Avalon


 * Britannia


 * Brontes (moon)


 * Chiaras


 * Coeus


 * Eden


 * Haven


 * Miranda


 * Salvo (moon)


 * Thera

Sharpshooter Variant
The AR-14 Sharpshooter variant featured an elongated barrel with increased energy channeling features, increasing range to about 1,050m. The Sharpshooter variant was still capable of full automatic firing mode but it was largely overlooked in favour of burst fire and single shot instead. The weapon included an advanced optical sight to aid considerably in aiming. The sight was similar to the SUSAT-style sight fitted to the BR62 Battle Rifle. The weapon was not designed to be used as a sniper rifle, but merely to provide extra range for a few select troopers in a squad. The gun was made from the same lightweight materials as the standard model though it was heavier due to the additional channeling mechanisms in the barrel and the large scope. The magazine was kept at 100 rounds. As a result of its heavier weight and longer range, the Sharpshooter variant was often referred to as a battle rifle itself, despite technically being an assault rifle.

Carbine Variant
The AR-14 carbine variant had a shorter internal barrel, meaning that the gun was much shorter than the standard model. The heavy stock on the standard model was replaced with a much smaller, retractable one that could also be completely removed. The removal of the large stock made recoil a significant problem, although shock absorbers neutralised most of the recoil from the weapon. The accessory rail on top of the weapon was made much shorter, and the heavy underbarrel grenade launcher was also removed. This made way for a new handgrip under the barrel which was necessary to control the weapon in fully automatic mode. The magazine was more than 60% smaller than the standard variant although could hold around 45 shots depending on the power settings. The rapid-fire capabilities meant the weapon was extremely potent at close range, though the much shorter length of the gun meant that range was decreased to about 180m. The weapon was popular with pilots, vehicle crews and HALO Pod troops, who either were limited for space or weight. The weapon was also popular with Marines, who used the carbine to great effect in close-quarters firefights in tight ship corridors and areas.

Automatic Rifle Variant
The AR-14 Automatic Rifle or SAW (squad automatic weapon) variant was for use as a fully automatic machine gun-substitute by one man, portably on the battlefield. With this weapon, a single soldier was able to lay down heavy covering fire to assist his squadmates, or quickly set up a mobile field turret in a defensive location. It featured a heavy purpose barrel, both internal and external, enabling sustained fully automatic fire. The weapon did not feature a single-shot or burst fire mode. The magazine was increased in capacity to 150 rounds. The weapon featured a folding bipod attached to the forward handguard and a small, ACOG-style 2x scope for more accurate firing. It had an effective range of 900m and was the heaviest variant, similar to a dedicated SAW in terms of weight and usage.

HISTORY
Born from cruisers of old, the Liberator-III draws its name from two cruisers before it, each the strongest and most resilient and versatile ships of their day. The Liberator-I, used during the colonisation era, and the Liberator-II, used during the Reformation Wars, each had a fearsome reputation among their commanders and enemies alike for being able to dish out massive volumes of firepower, without sacrificing speed, resilience or versatility.

Liberator-I
Not much is known about this ship, no examples or blueprints survived the Reformation War. However we know from surviving ship’s logs that they were extremely large, powerful, and strong for their age. One surviving, damaged holo-image tells us its size and relative dimensions. They also had a fearsome reputation among the admiralty.

Liberator-II
Introduced at the end of the Reformation Wars, which lasted over 100 years, this ship was equally awesome as its ancient predecessor. After the war the majority of the ships were stripped of their armament and sold to the private sector. While all remaining military models have long since been decommissioned, it is not uncommon to see these ships on the market or in private ownership, although likely heavily modified.

Liberator-III
The latest version of the ever-feared name, this ship, like its predecessors, is the pinnacle of warship building. It cannot be matched by another ship of its class.

Armour
The third reincarnation of the name is no different to its ancestors, being able to outgun ships of twice her tonnage, while still maintaining speed and armour. Armour on the hull has a minimum thickness of 4m and a maximum of 12m (around the FTL drives and two reactors), meaning that she can withstand salvos that would reduce other ships to atoms. In addition to this, the armour is made up of several layers, with differing metals of varying properties, an idea first coined by the Liberator-II.

The first layer is super absorbing, heat-ablative armour plate that absorbs the blasts from Particle cannons and explosions, while maintaining adequate protection from missiles and other penetrating projectiles.

The second layer, millimetres thick, takes in the energy from the weapons blasts and channels it into the ship’s shielding system. The third layer is specifically designed to lessen the impact from explosive projectiles, should they ever penetrate that far.

The fourth layer is a silicon-carbon composite that is tougher than most metals and specifically aimed at withstanding directed energy weapons. On the inner edge of this layer is a layer where nanites repair damage to the armour, although not at a pace that would defend a ship under fire. This feature is primarily for replenishing a damaged ship after a firefight.

The next layer is extremely dense, being approximately 0.2% proton star matter, which is extremely dense. As a result of this the armour is beyond the artificial gravity field generated by the ship, or it would weaken the ship and collapse in on itself under stressful conditions (i.e. a battle).

The fifth layer is standard battle plate with no specific features and after that is a layer of electrics, circuitry, and the constraints for the gravitational field. Also contained in this layer is a force-field system which activates within 0.3 seconds of a hull breach. It holds the ship’s atmosphere in but, as it is not a defence shield, draws heavily from the ship’s power supply if under fire.

Shields
However, the powerful defence of the armour plating is rarely used, due to the immensely effective shields. The Council recognises that shields can take punishment and then be replenished, while armour cannot. Due to this The Liberator-III’s shields use up more energy than any other ship before it, even those that are over three times its size. This would present a significant disadvantage and would render the ship’s design unusable is it were not for recent advances in power sources. The shield, while under moderate fire from missiles and particle cannon fire, uses more power in one minute than the city of Delnau does in 24 hours. (Moderate fire is classed as at the rate in which the shield is depleted at the same rate as it is replenished.) This increases when the shields are under extra stress.

Most warships have a designated amount of energy diverted from the core to shields, for example a Freya-class Warship has 40% of it energy diverted to shields during a battle, and this number stays fixed. As you increase the bombardment, the shield will be (sooner or later) overwhelmed. But with the Liberator-III, the shield’s energy requirements are proportionate to its depletion rate, that is to say, the harder and faster you hit it, the stronger it gets (because it draws more power.) And because the energy source for the ship is almost limitless, the bombardment needed to take the shield down is improbably large.

In addition to this, power can be concentrated in places without diverting them away form others (which is a risky strategy) due to the near-infinite energy the shield capacitors can draw from. Also, because energy absorbed by the armour is channelled directly into the shields, this reduces their dependency for main reactor power and frees up spare energy to be diverted to other energy-critical systems. As a result of an emphasis on defence and most importantly impenetrable shielding, the ship is resilient because its shields can replenish very quickly, and versatile because it can withstand many different weapons and offensive tactics.

Main Particle Cannon
As the Liberator-III is mainly an assault cruiser, its offensive capabilities are also important. Its main armament is an immense Particle Cannon which runs over half the length of the ship, drawing fore directly from the Main reactor itself. It requires a massive amount of power and would be impossible to effectively use without the Liberator-III’s power source. The concept and design itself is nothing new; it was developed over 100 years ago during the Reformation Wars. However a viable power source was not found and so, the plans were stored, until they could be properly used.

In essence the weapon is just a common Particle cannon used on hundreds of thousands of warships on both sides- only scaled up to epic proportions. The main advantage of this weapon is its power; it is capable of taking down a larger ship with two or three shots or a smaller one with one or two. However, due to its recharge time, about 4 minutes for each shot, means that to take out a ship that needs three shots, you would need at least three Liberator-IIIs. This is because in order for the ship to shoot three times at a target it would nee a minimum of twelve minutes- and no ship would be stupid enough to stare into the ship’s maw for that long. The reason the cannon must charge up is because the energy directly form the core in one go would damage the cannon’s massive capacitor coils, which would only allow for one more shot before catastrophic weapons failure. Instead the energy is fed through a regulator first which makes the weapon more stable and reliable.

Flanking the central main cannon are two smaller ones, which, although are much less powerful, have a higher rate of fire and longer range.

Another disadvantage is that a ship has to be dead ahead for it to be fired upon. This, however, can be used for specialist tactics; it can easily pierce a hole in blockades or fleets and slip through to the other side. In addition to this it is usually used at the tip of attacking fleets, where the main cannons weaken the fleet up ahead and then the following ships join in the cleanup. Additionally some commanders have taken to the tactic of ambushing ships from below, where armour is normally weakest.

Prow Missile launchers
Because the Liberator-III favours head-on combat, several heavy missile launchers have been fitted to the prow of the ship, which complement the main cannons. It is a truly disheartening sight to see the bow of this ship turn on you and have it fire, multitudes of devastating warheads steaming at you at the speed of a starfighter. These warheads are effective against warships of all sizes, and can be launched into fighter clouds where proximity alarms detonate them and send shrapnel everywhere within the blast radius. Liberator-IIIs have eight of such weapons, but the capacity can be increased if required. Unlike the main cannon, foes do not have to be directly in front of the weapons, to a degree. This is because the warheads, while not manoeuvrable, can change course and head for enemies slightly out of weapons targeting zones.

Port and Starboard Heavy Particle Cannons
All successful Assault cruisers need to be able to hold their own in a broadside- and this certainly is true for the Liberator-III. It has an armament of eight Particle Cannons and six Heavy Particle Cannons, the largest amount of such weapons that has ever been fitted to an Allegiance warship. This is because the technology to power such devastating but power-guzzling guns was not available until recently. If ever a ship were to engage the Liberator-III from port or starboard, they would soon be destroyed by the guns. Besides the main cannon, these are the ship’s primary armament and so have the ability to face targets in a 170 degree radius around the guns. This means that the turrets- and subsequently the ship- can perform many roles, and specifically, the numerous turrets and wide range means that several targets can be assaulted at once- ideal for the heart of naval engagements. Here the Liberator truly earns the name ‘assault’ cruiser.

Orbital Bombardment Cannons
With the role of a multi-purpose warship, all duties must be fulfilled. The Liberator-III is required to bombard land-based military targets from orbit or high atmosphere, and that is what it can do. At the front end of the ship, on its ventral side, are six massive, hugely armoured hatches. Not normally opened due to vulnerabilities, these conceal massive orbital destruction cannons, with their blast being diverted from the main cannon. These weapons have longer range and higher accuracy than just using the broadside cannons to do such a job. A disadvantage is that while opened, they are vulnerable to enemy fire, so this is not usually done by a lone ship or one in hostile (naval) territory. Also, because the shot is diverted from the main cannon to the orbital guns, the main Particle weapon cannot be used during bombardment, which makes the ship slightly more vulnerable to counterattack. One way around this problem is to use the main gun and the prow missile launchers to pummel a target from orbit instead, but these are less precise, and too powerful, and mean that taking a base or city in one piece is simply not possible this way.

Other Weapons
Rounding off the ship’s weapons complement are 80 flak guns, which help to keep starfighters at bay, 40 turreted warhead launchers, which can fire torpedoes, missiles etc, and 120 general purpose cannons, which fire large explosive shells at enemy cruisers. In addition to this there are 50 large scale machine gun turrets which rip up incoming starfighters and missiles easily. They are the last line of defence for close-in targets and are not effective against cruisers.

Triton-class Heavy Destroyer

 * 6 Prow Heavy Particle Cannons
 * 4 Prow tactical Nuclear missile tubes
 * 6 Prow Anti-capital ship cannons
 * 16 Light Particle Cannon turrets
 * 6 side-mounted Heavy Ship Cannons
 * 28 Heavy Autocannon turrets
 * 10 Variable-configuration Missile pods
 * 20 General Purpose Light Autocannons
 * 30 Flak Guns
 * 12 General Purpose Machine Guns
 * 5 Point Defence Particle Cannons
 * 10 Point Defence Missile launchers

Scattered sparsely on the ship's surface were Heavy Cannons, which fired anti capital ship shells. These were for the most part identical to high-penetration, high explosive rounds designed to penetrate the ship's armour and damage it from the inside. However, each large shell contained a minute amount of antimatter, contained in a small forcefield. Once the shell impacted on an enemy warship and burrowed deep into it, the forcefield would fail, causing a massive matter/antimatter reaction and causing catastrophic damage to the ship.

Later models were equipped with ten variable-load missile pods. These functioned in a similar role to Archer pods. They could be loaded with HE missiles for anti-armour capabilities, nuclear warheads, tactical for use in battle, or strategic for land bombardment, or high-fragmentation anti-starfighter missiles. This ability gave the Triton-class a useful versatility and configurability that helped it considerably during the course of the Swarm War.

Rounding off the ship's armament were the CIWS (close-in weapons systems). These consisted of thirty Flak Guns and twelve Heavy Machine Gun turrets, designed for intercepting incoming starfighters and projectiles such as missiles, fragments or debris. These weapons had neither the range nor the firepower for engaging armoured, shielded or anything further than short-range targets, so were reserved for fighters and missiles only. Also, ten anti-fighter missile turrets maintained the ability to destroy single ships quickly and efficiently.

Also for anti-fighter purposes were five prototype Particle Cannons, with the ability to track small and fast targets- something previously impossible for such large weapons. These fired in rapid succession until they overheated or their target was destroyed.

Victoria Griffin
Victoria Griffin was the Leader of the UNSC during the Swarm War. She led her people by example, always wishing to be on the front lines commanding rather than on Reach with the rest of the leaders.

Her mother came from Luna and her father from Haven. When she was young, the desicion was made on her behalf to raise her in the UNSC and not the Allegiance.

It is known that she was torn between her love for Matt Saren, a pilot in the Royal Allegiance, and her duties to protect her people.

She was killed by The Swarm as she attempted to single-handedly save Matt Saren from captivity on the Crucible. She died in the arms of her lover. She was buried on Haven in the Hall of Heroes in Delnau.

Overview
The primary aim of the [parody=SPARTAN//Lazarus_Project] was to create supersoldiers that could function for an eternity, therefore greatly reducing the replacement cost, and increasing the value of the supersoldiers. Such soldiers already existed within the Allegiance that could perform with reactions, strength, intelligence and durability many times greater than normal humans, however had abnormally short lifespans due to the increases and prolonged stress to their bodies. The Lazarus Project intended to create effectively immortal, efficient, supersoldiers, but failed in almost all respects.

Candidates
Unlike other, entirely more successful programs, the most notable of which being [previous=S-II(possible data corruption or link error)alternate_epoch], the Lazarus project had a 0.25% success rate. Out of 6250 selected candidates, only 15 survived. The rest died long, painful deaths caused by the nervous system going into shock. The candidates were selected from the Allegiance’s finest, in secret, and were brought to the unknown_location=designation_CRUCIBLE_containment//?] for the procedure before being monitored. The time taken to die varied- some candidates died almost immediately, while others took many months to die.

[unknown=security_breach(trace)]
Two of the candidates, [unknown=parents_of_matt_saren], who had previously worked together as spies, escaped from the containment and ran away. They joined with rebels and lived far from civilisation, hoping to distance themselves from the Allegiance agents who they knew were following. Both lived for 9 months together, thinking that they were both survivors. An assassin and a small Allegiance strike force tracked them down though, and while the rebels defended them, the female gave birth. The father was mortally wounded, and while the few surviving rebels escaped, he elected to stay behind and defend them, putting his child’s life before his own. The remainder of the force managed to escape while the Allegiance officers stormed the building and the assassin killed the father. The mother presumably died afterwards from effects of the machine, but the child lived on without the Allegiance’s knowledge.

Variants
Several variants of the Atlas were produced, providing individual roles that they were specifically adapted to. Many, such as light tank, and APC, already existed within the Allegiance arsenal, but were not as advanced, or, for example, were not propelled by anti-gravity. Others, such as combat reconnaissance vehicle, did not exist in the Allegiance armed forces and so the Atlas variant provided the sole example of that type.

M47P Warden
The M47P Warden was a light tank based around the basic chassis of the Atlas. While less heavily armed, it was faster and more agile, and more suited to engaging fast, light vehicles and light/heavy infantry. It saw the DX55 Particle Cannon replaced with an L82 Cannon, the coaxial DP41 moved to the top of the turret to provide 360 degree protection, and a DP55 turret on the rear of the vehicle. It was heavily used in urban combat where its wide field of fire and agility gave it the advantage over other armoured vehicles.

M48 Stalker
The M48 Stalker was a Combat Reconnaissance Vehicle (CRV) based on the Atlas. It saw most of its weapons removed and its interior gutted to make way for advanced stealth devices. As standard, it was armed only with one DP55 and one DP41 Particle Cannon, mounted on IRONHAMMER Weapon Mounts. It was slightly less armoured than the Warden and Atlas, and was faster than both.

M49 Raider
The M49 Raider was a heavily modified Atlas used as an advanced Infantry Fighting Vehicle. While it was less widespread than the Marksman IFV, it was more well armed and slightly faster, not to mention being able to cross most difficult terrains due to its anti gravity propulsion. The hull was extended and raised to make room for up to 6 fully armed combat troops. It was armed with one L82 Cannon, one DP55 and one DP41 Particle Cannon. While externally it was quite similar to the Atlas, in reality the entire interior had been stripped and altered to accommodate a troop bay.

M50 Marauder
The M50 Marauder was a heavily modified Atlas variant designed for Anti aircraft purposes. As with the Raider, its interior was entirely reconstructed to turn it into a full artillery unit, rather than a converted main battle tank. It was equipped with four modified DP41 Particle Cannons, with an effective range of 15km and a combined rate of fire of 5,200 shots per minute. It was also fitted with an 8-tube vertical missile launcher, inside the rear of the gutted turret. it carried one DP55 Particle Cannon for defence.

M8 Series

 * M8A1 Infantry Fighting Vehicle- A variant that replaced the rear troop bay and fitted a vertical-launch M125 Missile Launcher for engaging both air and ground targets. It also featured a DX52 Particle Cannon turret for engaging armoured targets.

Known Royal Allegiance Weaponry

 * BR62 Battle Rifle- A long range, high-powered weapon used by the Allegiance between 2607 and 2800. It was accurate, powerful and had good range but was heavy and somewhat outdated towards the end of its service life. Its recoil was low and its rate of fire high, though its magazine did have a tendency to be depleted very quickly.


 * AR-14 DEW Assault Rifle- A short to medium-range rifle issued from 2724 onwards. It had a decent rate of fire, was pretty accurate at its intended usage range, and dealt large amounts of damage. It was heavily customisable and adaptable, and came in many useful battlefield variants. it was rather long at almost a metre in length and quite stocky, which made it awkward in close-quarters situations. It had high recoil and but was lightweight considering its size.


 * J21 Pistol- The main Allegiance sidearm issued to the vast majority of combat personnel. It was rather large and heavy for a pistol, but dealt large amounts of damage. It had high range and good armour piercing qualities, making it an excellent personal defence weapon. It suffered from high recoil which meant it had a low practical rate of fire.


 * RA-26 Tactical Combat Blade- The mainstream combat knife issued to Allegiance combat personnel. It was equally at home in use as a tool or CQB weapon, though it was always a last resort. It was relied upon and trusted, though its actual usage as a weapon was quite rare compared to its usage as a field tool.


 * BRP32-SHR Battle Rifle- It was this weapon that replace the BR662-SHR. Unlike its predecessor it was an energy-based weapon which gave it better damage qualities, increased ammunition capacity and far better battlefield versatility. Design was completed in 2715, and served alongside the weapon it was intended to replace from 2719 (the year tests were completed and it was distributed) until 2800.


 * SPBS-I Battle Armour- The standard issue battlefield protective armour system issued to all Allegiance armed forces in one variant or another. It offered almost complete protection from ballistic weaponry and a decent standard of protection against directed energy weapons. It was highly customisable and adaptable and as a result highly effective in most combat situations. It offered complete protection from chemical/biological threats in the air and also from vacuum, hostile atmospheres, extreme variations in temperature and exoatmospheric conditions. It offered limited protection against radioactive attack. It was used from 2577 onwards.

History
Until the end of the Reformation War, the Unified Coalition of Systems had not existed, and every Theran in the galaxy was a citizen of The Royal Allegiance. The war itself, a short but bloody civil war that nearly ripped apart the Allegiance from the inside, was eventually one by Royal forces loyal to the monarch, but at a terrible cost to their military. Although there were several other minor factions involved, the largest opposing force was that of The Guild. Having been crippled during the war, their primary planets of support, located in close proximity to each other, seceeded from the Allegiance at large and, along with a handful of newly established fringe worlds, formed the Unified Coalition of Systems. Many other rebelling groups, while sharing different political and economic motives for participating in the war, nonetheless wanted out of the Allegiance, and jumped at the opportunity to do so. Within less than a year all factions of note and their remaining forces had joined under the banner of the UCS, safely screaming defiance at the Allegiance from their own territory.

However, the leaders of this new and somewhat precarious alliance knew all too well the Allegiance would not let all this go unchallenged. Knowing that in conventional warfare they stood no chance, the UCS instead resorted to assassinations, terrorist attacks and other methods that did not need large numbers or military might to accomplish. The campaign lasted for 4 years and wreaked devastation throughout the Allegiance, not just physically but through the fear and panic it caused. The Allegiance navy ran search and destroy missions against the enemy fleets, but their vessels were smaller and faster, and it was rare the the Navy even picked one up on sensors as it hurriedly vacated the system.

The skirmishes were growing ever more unpopular with the Allegiance people, seen as a pointless continuation of the devastating civil war. Bowing to the huge pressure as well as the economic strain it was putting on the war-ragged nation, the Allegiance officially accepted the existance of the UCS on 12th February 2428. However, this did little to end the problem as the UCS only grew more militarily powerful, and armed conflict seemed inevitable by the end of the decade. Both sides engaged in a massive arms race, with heavy concentrations of forces along the tenuous border. Small skirmishes were frequent but often mere 'cat and mouse' fights with neither side willing to engage in another full scale conflict. The UCS, although far smaller, had tripled its military power by 2460, whereas the Royal navy was little more than 30% larger than its size immediately after the Reformation War. In the UCS armed forces were seen by the general populace as necessary to defend against the oppression of the Allegiance. On the other side of the border, armed forces were unpopular, disliked, blamed for the wars and seen as a huge drain on resources as the nation tried to repair itself. By 2550 the UCS had expanded to encompass over 15,000 densely inhabited planets and a military force of over 80,000 vessels, against the Allegiance's 26 million worlds but a naval force spread extremely thin throughout this territory.

On what seemed like the eve of war, in early 2553, The Allegiance became engaged in what was later known as the latter stages of the Human-Covenant War. Ideally the UCS would have used this situation to take advantage of the Allegiance, however it fell under numerous attacks by the Covenant and was less able to take these hits.

Battle Rifle Concept
Prior to first contact between the Royal Allegiance and the UNSC, the former had phased out their equivilants of battle rifles, instead making more extensive use of assault rifles, carbines and SAWs. The Allegiance found that most battle happened at distances of under 300 metres, therefore a heavy rifle designed for longer range was less useful. Battle rifles were generally heavier than assault rifles and harder to use due to their size. As a result of this, the Allegiance's last true battle rifle before 2553 was nearly two centuries earlier.

Aquirement
In spite of this, the Allegiance saw that the UNSC used battle rifles to great effect, not just at long ranges but at medium and sometimes even short ranges too. Instead of funding development for a new weapon, the Allegiance simply gained permission to produce a licence-built, heavily modified battle rifle for their own use. The UNSC was happy to comply, considering the massive regeneration of UNSC territory the Allegiance was helping to make possible.

In time, the Allegiance continued to produce such derivative weapons until the BR662 was produced. The weapon was completely flawless in every way, the result of decades of continual refinement. At this point the gun could be improved on no longer. The weapon went into service in 2607, and continued to be used until the early 2800s.

Replacement and The Swarm War
By around 2700, Particle Cannon technology had progressed far enough that prototype energy-based small arms were being trialled. At this stage, the BR662, along with most of the Allegiance's ballistic weapons, began to be replaced by their energy-based counterparts. This was true for the BR662; which was gradually replaced by the BRP32-SHR Battle Rifle between 2719 and 2800. However, the BR662 continued to serve alongside its replacement for much of the Swarm War, even longer on the civillian market.

Usage
The BR662-SHR was one of the most advanced weapons of its kind when it was introduced in 2607. It was used on an infantry level in conjunction with assault rifles to provide a squad with a variable range capability. It could also be used as a designated marksman rifle, with one soldier using it in lieu of a dedicated sniper weapon. It saw popular use throughout its lifespan, favoured alongside later, Allegiance-designed weapons such as the AR-14 DEW Assault Rifle. Its main advantage over other weapons was its range, accuracy and penetration/damage ability, which was sorely needed in the Allegiance inventory and was not filled by another weapon until the BRP32-SHR Battle Rifle was introduced in 2715.

Design
The BR662-SHR made use of the bullpup configuration, allowing for a smaller weapon for the same overall barrel length because the magazine was further back on the weapon. It was more confortable to grip and stable in user's hands, allowing for a more accurate aim. The weapon was rather heavy even by Theran standards.

Mark III Magnetic Accelerator Cannon
[20:53]	<|AR|>	Err...

[20:53]	<|AR|>	[Leo] ; http://halofanon.wikia.com/wiki/Mark_III_Magnetic_Accelerator_Cannon

[20:53]	<|AR|>	Why would you need a Mini-MAC?

[20:53]	<|AR|>	Oh wait

[20:53]	<|AR|>	Wrong person >.<

[20:53]	<|AR|>	[A32] ; http://halofanon.wikia.com/wiki/Mark_III_Magnetic_Accelerator_Cannon

[20:53]	<|AR|>	<|AR|> Why would you need a Mini-MAC?

[20:54]		http://kotaku.com/5623423/its-not-2001-its-halo-reach/gallery/

[20:54]		I. WANT. THIS. IN. MY. DRIVEWAY.

[20:55]		AR point defence and to act as deck guns

[20:55]	<|AR|>	See, the thing is

[20:55]	<|AR|>	MACs have low rates of fire

[20:56]	<|AR|>	And with a Point-Defence Gun or CIWS, you /need/ a high volume of fire

[20:56]	<[A32]>	have you read the article?

[20:56]	<|AR|>	Slow, accurate fire isn't ideal when you're faced with droves and droves of enemy fighters

[20:56]	<|AR|>	[A32] ; Yea

[20:56]	<[A32]>	if that were true, you would know it's primary purpose was antiship roles

[20:56]	<|AR|>	Too small to do much damage against a larger enemy vessel, and its status as a MAC make it an inefficient Point-Defence Gun

[20:57]	<[A32]>	I disagree. a battery would provide valuable fire support to both its vessel and others

[20:57]	<|AR|>	[A32] ; Assuming we're using Covenant ships as the OpFor, then the small calibre slug wouldn't be able to do much damage.

[20:58]	<|AR|>	Mind you, it'd be relatively effective against opposing /Human/ ships, being that they lack shielding systems, but against a Covenant vessel, they wouldn't be very effective.

[20:58]	<[A32]>	265,000 Petajoules, to be precise

[20:58]	<|AR|>	Even larger primary MACs weren't the most effective weapons against Covenant ships

[20:58]	<[A32]>	not true, of course they were

[20:58]	<[A32]>	why is it that MACs have such a slow rate of fire?

[20:58]	<|AR|>	[A32] ; They required shields down to be of use. Shields alone could take the brunt of a MAC slug.

[20:59]	<[A32]>	they required shields down to be of use??

[20:59]		Wait, do we fight in Sword Base during Reach's campaign?

[20:59]	<|AR|>	Well to do actual damage to a Covenant vessel, yes

[20:59]	<[A32]>	so, three slugs to down a covvie shield /isnt/ useful

[20:59]		Nevermind, found a video

[20:59]	<|AR|>	[A32] ; Damage as opposed to lowering shields.

[21:00]	<[A32]>	you can'd damage it without first lowering its shields, disregarding flying a fighter in there with a SHIVA

[21:00]	<[A32]>	MACs are the single biggest weaponry advantage the UNSC have over the covenant

[21:00]	<[A32]>	the latter just happen to have energy shielding

[21:01]	<|AR|>	I'd disagree on that bit.

[21:01]	<[A32]>	they're more powerful than covvie weapons, they just seem less so due to inferior UNSC armour, superior covvie shielding and alloys

[21:01]	<|AR|>	Energy Projectors proved to be equally as effective in ship-to-ship combat during the Great War

[21:01]	<[A32]>	equally effective as MACs....against ships armoured with titanium-A

[21:02]	<[A32]>	try that against a shielded, super-armoured covvie ship and the results would be very different

[21:02]	<|AR|>	[A32] ; We've yet to see.

[21:02]	<[A32]>	it's obvious, given what you're saying

[21:03]	<|AR|>	What I'm saying is that MACs aren't /superior/ gunnery

[21:03]	<[A32]>	if an energy projector against titanium battleplate is just as effective as a MAC against shields/armour, of course the MAC is far superior

[21:03]	<|AR|>	[A32] ; That's assuming its equally as effective.

[21:03]	<[A32]>	assuming what you assumed.

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[21:04]	<|AR|>	Perfectly equal in efficiency*

[21:04]	<[A32]>	that's what you were working on, so that's the assumption I worked on

[21:04]		http://kitup.military.com/2010/08/alert-female-soldiers-are-not-as-straight-as-men-are.html

[21:04]		Needs to be tighter, more blacker, and more plastic-er.

[21:04]	<|AR|>	Lord_Strathcona ; Looks a bit... wide.

[21:04]	<|AR|>	You sure that girl is a soldier?

[21:05]		Who knows.

[21:06]	<[A32]>	anyway, MACs have long reload times and low RoF due to energy requirements

[21:06]		http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kyusz9x8PZ1qzwtdlo1_500.jpg

[21:06]	<[A32]>	post-Great War in AAO, UNSC reactors are on a par with covvie ones

[21:07]	<[A32]>	the SMAC could reload a /3,000 ton/ slug in five seconds, so reloading isn't the issue. its power.

[21:07]	<[A32]>	a MAC firing 20-ton shells with a constant supply of energy would, well, pwn

[21:08]	<|AR|>	It wouldn't be ideal as a Point-Defence Gun, though.

[21:08]	<|AR|>	As a light deck gun against nonshielded ships, yes.

[21:08]	<[A32]>	>.<

[21:08]		Really? A MAC CIWS?

[21:08]		Ugh...

[21:08]		Just go with heavy artillery on a rapid and larger scale.

[21:08]	<|AR|>	[A32] ; I'm just doubting its efficiency against shielded targets, and against masses of enemy fighters.

[21:09]	<[A32]>	it isn't used against enemy fighters

[21:09]	<|AR|>	Point Defence is mentioned >.>

[21:09]		Point Defense is all about the volume of fire, not necessarily the lethality.

[21:09]	<[A32]>	point defence doesn't mean anti-fighter, not in this sense anyway

[21:09]		You have enough point defense, and the lethality is met.

[21:09]	<[A32]>	point defence merely refers to defence of a 'point' in this case the warships

[21:09]	<|AR|>	[A32] ; When it comes to warfare in space, fighters are just about the only thinks to defend against at close range.

[21:09]		So your point?

[21:10]	<|AR|>	Things*

[21:10]	<[A32]>	in space, weapons have epic range

[21:10]		Seems like AAO loves to turn the MAC into an all-purpose weapon.

[21:10]	<[A32]>	so defensive fire could be stretched to hundreds of thousands of kilometres

[21:11]	<|AR|>	Even against enemy missiles, for example, volume of fire would be more useful.

[21:11]	<[A32]>	tony how many AAO articles have you read?

[21:11]	<Lord_Strathcona>	Anti-ship, Anti-fighter, Anti-Personnel, etc.

[21:11]	<Maslab>	?

[21:11]	<Lord_Strathcona>	XD

[21:11]	<[A32]>	it isnt an anti-missile armament, thats ridiculous

[21:11]	<Maslab>	The MAC is actually our most under-used weapon...

[21:11]	<[A32]>	its anti-ship

[21:11]	<Maslab>	I would argue more that our DEW have become the answer to everything

[21:11]	<[A32]>	and volume of fire is taken over by 50mm railguns

[21:11]	<|AR|>	[A32] ; Point-Defence could apply to small vessels or incoming munitions

[21:11]	<[A32]>	'could'

[21:12]	<[A32]>	in this case, does not

[21:12]	<|AR|>	Then what else would it apply to?

[21:12]	<[A32]>	how about the only thing I have said the weapon is designed to engage?

[21:12]	<|AR|>	If used against enemy vessels, it ceases to be a Point Defence Gun, and rather, an anti-ship weapon

[21:12]	<[A32]>	and it doesn't reference point defence anymore

[21:13]	<|AR|>	Then I suppose we're arguing over semantics now.

[21:13]	<[A32]>	the main point we disagree on is the effectiveness of a small calibre MAC against covvie shields

[21:13]	<|AR|>	Well the point I'm trying to make

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[21:14]	<|AR|>	Is that as it takes several MAC slugs already to punch through intermediate Covenant ship shields, it would take many more smaller slugs to do the same

[21:14]	<|AR|>	Several standard MAC slugs*

[21:14]	|<--	Sona_`Demal has left freenode (Quit: ChatZilla 0.9.86 [CometBird 3.5.2/20090804181313])

[21:14]	<[A32]>	indeed

[21:14]	<[A32]>	it's not like a vessel would be armed with one, and no other armaments, and expected to drop a covvie ship's shields

[21:15]	* |AR|	shrugs.

[21:15]	<Lord_Strathcona>	Comparing the Iowa-class Battleship to a UNSC warship

[21:15]	<Lord_Strathcona>	16 inch guns = MAC

[21:15]	<[A32]>	Often used as supporting, covering or suppressing fire in engagements, Mark IIIs held a higher rate of fire than other MACs and were effective at engaging multiple targets...

[21:15]	<Lord_Strathcona>	5 inch guns = 50mm Point Defense Guns

[21:15]	<Lord_Strathcona>	Archer missiles = Harpoon ASM

[21:15]	<[A32]>	that analogy is false

[21:15]	<|AR|>	Lord_Strathcona ; Modern naval warfare places more emphasis on missiles than deck guns nowadays.

[21:16]	<Lord_Strathcona>	Yep

[21:16]	<[A32]>	i doubt a 5 inch gun has 0.00000000000000000000001% the energy of a 16 inch, as is the case between the MAC and 50mm railgun

[21:16]	<Lord_Strathcona>	I'm saying it in terms of what it relates to, not it's firepower.

[21:16]	<|AR|>	With modern warships equipped with deck guns, their usage is more equivalent to an offshore artillery battery

[21:16]	<Lord_Strathcona>	The 16 inch guns compare to the MAC with it's complement of long-range firepower

[21:17]	<Lord_Strathcona>	The 5 inch guns compare to the 50mm PDG's with it's complement of Anti-Air defense

[21:17]	* |AR|	hates talking about topics outside of his area of expertise >.>

[21:17]	<Lord_Strathcona>	The Harpoons compare to the Archers for it's dual-purpose anti-ship/anti-fighter capabilities.

[21:17]	<|AR|>	?

[21:17]	<Lord_Strathcona>	Large weapons aren't made for point defense.

[21:18]	<|AR|>	It wasn't my impression that Archers were anti-fighter weapons

[21:18]	<|AR|>	I'd imagine they'd be much bigger than a fighter themselves

[21:18]	<Lord_Strathcona>	Large weapons generally take a million years to rearm.

[21:18]	<Lord_Strathcona>	Point defense is about volume of fire,

[21:18]	<[A32]>	for the last time, it ISN'T point defence.

[21:18]	<Lord_Strathcona>	|AR|: http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/File:13101574-Medium.jpg - Looks just a bit smaller.

[21:18]	* |AR|	stopped with that bit >.>

[21:19]	<[A32]>	and to repeat myself, the SMAC can reload a 3000 ton slug in under five seconds.

[21:19]	<Lord_Strathcona>	Oh, we aren't talking about point defense? B)

[21:19]	<Lord_Strathcona>	S = Small or Super?

[21:19]	<|AR|>	[A32] ; Trollface.

[21:19]	<[A32]>	super

[21:19]	<Lord_Strathcona>	Ugh...

[21:19]	<|AR|>	Lord_Strathcona ; Put a Seraph next to that for reference sizes >.>

[21:20]	* |AR|	always thought archer missiles were rather large.

[21:20]	<|AR|>	On par in terms of size with a modern ICBM

[21:20]	<Lord_Strathcona>	Nah

[21:20]	<Lord_Strathcona>	That's the Shiva.

[21:21]	<|AR|>	The Shiva is a warhead o.o

[21:21]	<Lord_Strathcona>	http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Shiva_missile

[21:21]	<|AR|>	Huh..

[21:21]	<|AR|>	Oh

[21:21]	<|AR|>	Getting names mixed up

[21:22]	<Lord_Strathcona>	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-300_%28missile%29 - Big ass SSM. XD

[21:22]	<|AR|>	I was wondering...

[21:23]	<|AR|>	Lord_Strathcona ; If one emitted an EMP next to a shielded Covenant ship, would its shields go down?

[21:23]	<Lord_Strathcona>	I couldn't tell you.

[21:24]	* |AR|	is curious >.<

[21:24]	<|AR|>	Space-based naval warfare and all that scientific shite isn't my specialty

[21:26]	<TheLegion>	An EMP would most likely damage the generators

[21:27]	<|AR|>	Just wondering if the pulse would be able to travel through plasma-based shields.

[21:27]	<|AR|>	The way I see it, the possible outcomes are either shields down, shields down and engines dead, or nothing.

[21:27]	<|AR|>	At any rate

[21:28]	* |AR|	goes to clean his rifles.

[21:28]	=-=	|AR| is now known as AR|Away

[21:29]	<[A32]>	the standard UNSC MAC gun (600 ton slug, 40%c) has impact energy og 4,250,000,000,000,000,000,000 joules or 4 250 000 petajoules

[21:30]	<[A32]>	the Mk III mini-MAC (20 ton, 57%c) has an impact energy of 265,000 Petajoules

[21:31]	<[A32]>	so it has sixteen times less impact energy

[21:32]	<[A32]>	given its high relative RoF and larger numbers than standard MACs, i would say it's more than capable of supporting, suppressing or covering fire

[21:35]	<Maslab>	Heh

[21:35]	<Maslab>	"clean your rifle"

[21:35]	<Lord_Strathcona>	Technobabble fail.

[21:35]	<Maslab>	Sure

[21:35]	<Maslab>	*fapping

[21:35]	<Lord_Strathcona>	You should have mentioned that the first time bro. b)

[21:35]	<Lord_Strathcona>	* B)

[21:35]	<[A32]>	technobable fail?

[21:35]	<[A32]>	I just proved you wrong :P

[21:35]	<[A32]>	according to Halo: FoR, three slugs are needed to destroy a covvie ship, that's 12 750 000 petajoules

[21:36]	<Lord_Strathcona>	Nope, you didn't prove me wrong, just stated a bunch of information that I have no idea what the hell your talking about. XD

[21:36]	<Lord_Strathcona>	That and we weren't talking about Point Defense, remember? B)

[21:36]	<[A32]>	who said point defence

[21:36]	<Lord_Strathcona>	Apparently you and AR did.

[21:38]	<[A32]>	we finished that like 20mins ago

[21:38]	<Lord_Strathcona>	Mmmkay, time to clean my rifles.

[21:38]	<Lord_Strathcona>	XD

[21:38]	<Biscuits>	Are there any modern day vehicles comparable to the Elephant?

[21:38]	<[A32]>	I'll work out how many guns and how long it takes for mini-MACs to destroy a covvie ship

[21:39]	<[A32]>	one gun=5.61320755 minutes

[21:39]	<[A32]>	six guns can kill a covvie ship in under a minute

[21:40]	<[A32]>	not bad for a secondary armament

Poetry
"I

He disappeared in the dead of winter:

The brooks were frozen, the airports almost deserted,

The snow disfigured the public statues;

The mercury sank in the mouth of the dying day.

What instruments we have agree

The day of his death was a dark cold day.

Far from his illness

The wolves ran on through the evergreen forests,

The peasant river was untempted by the fashionable quays;

By mourning tongues

The death of the poet was kept from his poems.

But for him it was his last afternoon as himself,

An afternoon of nurses and rumours;

The provinces of his body revolted,

The squares of his mind were empty,

Silence invaded the suburbs,

The current of his feeling failed; he became his admirers.

Now he is scattered among a hundred cities

And wholly given over to unfamiliar affections,

To find his happiness in another kind of wood

And be punished under a foreign code of conscience.

The words of a dead man

Are modified in the guts of the living.

But in the importance and noise of to-morrow

When the brokers are roaring like beasts on the floor of the Bourse,

And the poor have the sufferings to which they are fairly accustomed,

And each in the cell of himself is almost convinced of his freedom,

A few thousand will think of this day

As one thinks of a day when one did something slightly unusual.

What instruments we have agree

The day of his death was a dark cold day.

II

You were silly like us; your gift survived it all:

The parish of rich women, physical decay,

Yourself. Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry.

Now Ireland has her madness and her weather still,

For poetry makes nothing happen: it survives

In the valley of its making where executives

Would never want to tamper, flows on south

From ranches of isolation and the busy griefs,

Raw towns that we believe and die in; it survives,

A way of happening, a mouth.

III

Earth, receive an honoured guest:

William Yeats is laid to rest.

Let the Irish vessel lie

Emptied of its poetry.

Time that is intolerant

Of the brave and the innocent,

And indifferent in a week

To a beautiful physique,

Worships language and forgives

Everyone by whom it lives;

Pardons cowardice, conceit,

Lays its honours at their feet.

Time that with this strange excuse

Pardoned Kipling and his views,

And will pardon Paul Claudel,

Pardons him for writing well.

In the nightmare of the dark

All the dogs of Europe bark,

And the living nations wait,

Each sequestered in its hate;

Intellectual disgrace

Stares from every human face,

And the seas of pity lie

Locked and frozen in each eye.

Follow, poet, follow right

To the bottom of the night,

With your unconstraining voice

Still persuade us to rejoice.

With the farming of a verse

Make a vineyard of the curse,

Sing of human unsuccess

In a rapture of distress.

In the deserts of the heart

Let the healing fountains start,

In the prison of his days

Teach the free man how to praise."

- In Memory of W.B Yeats, W.H Auden (1907-1973)

"The singer is old and has forgotten

Her girlhood's grief for the young soldier

Who sailed away across the ocean,

Love's brief joy and lonely sorrow:

The song is older than the singer.

The song is older than the singer

Shaped by the love and long waiting

Of women dead and long forgotten

Who sang before remembered time

To teach the unbroken heart its sorrow.

The girl who waits for her young soldier

Learns from the cadence of a song

How deep her love, how long the waiting.

Sorrow is older than the heart,

Already old when love is young:

The song is older than the sorrow."

- Maire Macrae's Song, Kathleen Raine (1908-2003) "In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,

He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If poetry could tell it backwards, true, begin

that moment shrapnel scythed you to the stinking mud ...

but you get up, amazed, watch bled bad blood

run upwards from the slime into its wounds;

see lines and lines of British boys rewind

back to their trenches, kiss the photographs from home -

mothers, sweethearts, sisters, younger brothers

not entering the story now

to die and die and die.

Dulce - No - Decorum - No - Pro patria mori.

You walk away.

You walk away; drop your gun (fixed bayonet)

like all your mates do too -

Harry, Tommy, Wilfred, Edward, Bert -

and light a cigarette.

There's coffee in the square,

warm French bread

and all those thousands dead

are shaking dried mud from their hair

and queuing up for home. Freshly alive,

a lad plays Tipperary to the crowd, released

from History; the glistening, healthy horses fit for heroes, kings.

You lean against a wall,

your several million lives still possible

and crammed with love, work, children, talent, English beer, good food.

You see the poet tuck away his pocket-book and smile.

If poetry could truly tell it backwards,

then it would."

- Last Post, Carol Ann Duffy (1955-) "Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at the end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

- Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) "Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"

- The Second Coming, W.B Yeats (1865-1939) "Shall we, too, rise forgetful from our sleep,

And shall my soul that lies within your hand

Remember nothing, as the blowing sand

Forgets the palm where long blue shadows creep

When winds along the darkened desert sweep?

Or would it still remember, tho' it spanned

A thousand heavens, while the planets fanned

The vacant ether with their voices deep?

Soul of my soul, no word shall be forgot,

Nor yet alone, beloved, shall we see

The desolation of extinguished suns,

Nor fear the void wherethro' our planet runs,

For still together shall we go and not

Fare forth alone to front eternity."

- Love and Death, Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)

"The singer is old and has forgotten

Her girlhood's grief for the young soldier

Who sailed away across the ocean,

Love's brief joy and lonely sorrow:

The song is older than the singer.

The song is older than the singer

Shaped by the love and long waiting

Of women dead and long forgotten

Who sang before remembered time

To teach the unbroken heart its sorrow.

The girl who waits for her young soldier

Learns from the cadence of a song

How deep her love, how long the waiting.

Sorrow is older than the heart,

Already old when love is young:

The song is older than the sorrow."

- Maire Macrae's Song, Kathleen Raine (1908-2003) "In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,

He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If poetry could tell it backwards, true, begin

that moment shrapnel scythed you to the stinking mud ...

but you get up, amazed, watch bled bad blood

run upwards from the slime into its wounds;

see lines and lines of British boys rewind

back to their trenches, kiss the photographs from home -

mothers, sweethearts, sisters, younger brothers

not entering the story now

to die and die and die.

Dulce - No - Decorum - No - Pro patria mori.

You walk away.

You walk away; drop your gun (fixed bayonet)

like all your mates do too -

Harry, Tommy, Wilfred, Edward, Bert -

and light a cigarette.

There's coffee in the square,

warm French bread

and all those thousands dead

are shaking dried mud from their hair

and queuing up for home. Freshly alive,

a lad plays Tipperary to the crowd, released

from History; the glistening, healthy horses fit for heroes, kings.

You lean against a wall,

your several million lives still possible

and crammed with love, work, children, talent, English beer, good food.

You see the poet tuck away his pocket-book and smile.

If poetry could truly tell it backwards,

then it would."

- Last Post, Carol Ann Duffy (1955-) "Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at the end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

- Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) "Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"

- The Second Coming, W.B Yeats (1865-1939) "Shall we, too, rise forgetful from our sleep,

And shall my soul that lies within your hand

Remember nothing, as the blowing sand

Forgets the palm where long blue shadows creep

When winds along the darkened desert sweep?

Or would it still remember, tho' it spanned

A thousand heavens, while the planets fanned

The vacant ether with their voices deep?

Soul of my soul, no word shall be forgot,

Nor yet alone, beloved, shall we see

The desolation of extinguished suns,

Nor fear the void wherethro' our planet runs,

For still together shall we go and not

Fare forth alone to front eternity."

- Love and Death, Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)

Wars
The Allegiance had been aware of another race of humans existing in the galaxy called The Order. Not much was known about them, they were very secretive and kept to themselves. The Allegiance had rare, minor skirmishes with vessels believed to belong to The Order, these usually fared ill for the Allegiance forces involved.

In late 2553, a few months after the Battle of Installation 00, an Allegiance task force of fifteen cruisers, frigates, destroyers and carriers slipped into the Sol System. The still-rebuilding Home Fleet, fearing the worst, scrambled all available ships- including a Sangheili battlegroup garrisoned at Earth. The resulting armed stand-off was averted the new warships broadcasting the Allegiance fleet's purpose- to aid in the fight against the now dissolved Covenant. After a difficult first contact, the races of the UNSC, the Allegiance and the Sangheili all found each other close allies- and over the decades that followed, a new era of peace and prosperity began. Trade routes established, multi-species colonisation began, and Earth's human race flourished under their older cousin's wing. The Allegiance, along with the Sangheili, gave vital support, resources and logistics to begin rebuilding the human race. The Allegiance, the more advanced of the two different human civilisations, found themselves embarrassed and humbled by how the lesser of the two saved the entire galaxy from death at the hands of the Rings and the Flood, neither of which the Allegiance had encountered.

The singular honour of subjugating Doisac fell to the Elites, but the Allegiance committed one of its five Sector Fleets to diversionary invasions and secondary objectives, totalling thousands of warships. The Hunters joined the Sangheili at once after the death of Truth, which stirred up old allegiances between them. The Brutes refused to surrender, and vowed to fight until every one was dead- something which the Sangheili were all to happy to do. Once the Brutes on their homeworld had been virtually wiped out, the Jackals withdrew their services from the Covenant and had all their armed warships confiscated by the Allegiance. Seeing a stronger overlord, they offered their services to the Allegiance for a price- the Allegiance responded with this bargain; never fight again, or face the consequences from the Elites. The Unggoy defected to the Elites also, and the Prophets vanished without trace. Some say they committed mass suicide rather than see their empire fall into the hands of the Heretics. As the Allegiance and the Sangheili destroyed the last remaining Brute footholds and pockets, they built up a respect for each other that can only be obtained by fighting alongside one another. The two races both saw how much they had in common. For the next few centuries, as the UNSC was helped to rebuild, rearm and re-colonise, and a new era of exploration, trade, commerce and peace began.

Therans
In terms of appearance, Therans differed in the fact that long hair was deemed socially standard- anyone without long hair, especially females, was considered to be an outsider. This has led to social confrontation when it came to Allegiance soldiers, male and female, who had to keep their hair short so they could wear the battle armour of the Allegiance. This led to an isolation of the already socially shunned Allegiance Armed Forces, who were wrongly seen as the symbols of the bloodshed within the Allegiance and related to war in general.

In addition, the people of the Allegiance had notably different facial expressions. They were more subtle and less noticeable, so much so that, to the untrained eyes of humans, they were often be mistaken as indifferent. The emotional feelings of Therans were much the same as normal, but their expression of these emotions was markedly less pronounced.

Also, the Allegiance race of people had little or no body hair aside from their face and head. Therans had a slight average height increase on humans, normally for men this was not noticeable, they just appear slightly taller. However, with the women, they were almost as tall as the men, making a Theran woman unmistakable. Both male and female, were more slender than their Earth brethren, being thinner, more agile and more wiry. This was attributed to their higher muscle density.

The word 'Theran', as well as referring to the species, was a demonym for Allegiance citizens from the planet Thera. It was also the Allegiance name for their language, and occasionally used to describe all citizens of the Allegiance regardless of their species.

Technology
Similarly, with the advent of the 28th century, many projectile-based small arms were replaced with energy-based weapons. The Allegiance had Particle Cannons for centuries, mounted in huge turrets on warships, but only small enough to mount on fighters in 2690, and only small enough for small-arms from 2700 onwards. As miniaturisation occurred, they soon became standard for small arms throughout the Allegiance, allowing small, incredibly powerful weapons to be widespread and very numerous.

Planets

 * Acheron- A small, pleasant administrative world near the edge of Allegiance space, Acheron's terrain was mainly urban sprawls spread between mountain ranges and dense woodlands. It was the first world to be attacked by The Swarm.


 * Astrea- Sharing the Apollo System with Avalon was the world of Astrea. Developed moderately though not massively, the planet benefitted from a close balance between urban areas and developed sectors and natural, untouched expanses. The planet was besieged by the Swarm in 2842. The Allegiance did not have enough forces to protect both Avalon and Astrea and so abandoned the latter to its fate. Avalon was scarred after its siege and Astrea was virtually leveled. Astrea itself was left in ruin for hundreds of years after the battle, a silent memorial to the billions who died there.


 * Aurelia- A large, distant though heavily populated and well-traversed planet. The vast majority of the planet's surface was expansive, dense forests and massive flat, green plains, though there was a large mountain range on the far northwest of the continent. The Royal Botanical Gardens were located on this planet, a favourite of the Queen Mother. During the Battle of Aurelia in 2735, she along with hundreds of millions of soldiers and civilians died when the Swarm invaded. The massacre at Aurelia continued to be used as powerful propaganda for the remainder of the war.


 * Avalon- Avalon was the first planet to be colonised by the Therans. It was almost completely covered in an entire city, and was a hub of commerce and trade. The planet had the highest population in the Allegiance. Nicknamed the 'Throne of the Monarch', it was here that the Allegiance monarchy mainly resided.


 * Bastion- Bastion was a large, industrial but mainly clean planet relatively near the Allegiance core. Many of the Allegiance's top brass lived here, along with the huge military barracks, training facilities and military hardware company headquarters.


 * Britannia- Britannia was a large, centrally-located planet in the Cycnos System. Due to its location it benefited from one of the few early terraforming successes, allowing it to grow into a rather wealthy and prosperous world. It was in close proximity to large resource deposits in the asteroids of the Mayu Belt, and as a result several refineries and shipyards were located on and orbiting the planet. It fell to the Swarm in 2841, allowing the Swarm a path into the Allegiance's core and signalling what looked like the beginning of the end for the Allegiance's fight.
 * Brontes- Brontes was a small artificial moon built in 2612, orbiting the planet Coeus, a small mining world. Because the planet's surface was so inhospitable, Brontes was constructed to serve as a foundry, and to refine and process the raw materials that arrived from the planet by space tether. Much of the labour was done by automated Drone workers, but this was overseen by Theran, human and Sangheili foremen. In addition to this there was a garrison of five thousand Allegiance Marines. It was equipped with hundreds of weapons emplacements to act in a secondary role as a defense platform. It was heavily damaged in the Battle of Coeus in 2740, but escape harm during the Second Battle of Coeus because its orbit had hidden it behind the planet and away from the Swarm Fleets.


 * Coeus- Coeus was a small, inhospitable, rocky world abundant with resources. With the assistance of the Allegiance, several private companies set up a mining operation here despite the adverse conditions. Brontes was built in orbit to process the raw materials mined on the planet by automated worker Drones and sent up via space tether. It was invaded by The Swarm in 2740, but after two consecutive battles the Allegiance successfully fought the insectoids off. However, it was invaded and defeated in 2830 by The Swarm.


 * Eden- Eden was a small, relatively undeveloped core world. Its population was the smallest of all the core planets at under 14 million. In the latter part of the 28th century (2750-) its potential was recognised and rapid development started. Though it still remained agricultural in its role, others were rapidly establishing themselves alongside it. The planet fell to the Swarm in 2846. Due to its position, the Allegiance had to gain it back by any means or watch the core fall through it. It was reclaimed with assistance from the UNSC and Sangheili, but nothing of value save its strategic location was recovered.
 * Haven- One of the more untouched worlds in the Allegiance, Haven was the third world colonised by the Allegiance and the first one not to become massively overpopulated. It was one of the more popular holiday destinations for citizens of the core worlds, some of whom didn't see open spaces on their homeworld. It was relatively undeveloped save for a few, small, clean cities. It was the only core world not to be destroyed, damaged or even invaded by The Swarm. The same could not be said for Thera, the closest planet to Haven.


 * Miranda- Miranda was a large, mainly urban planet near the periphery of Allegiance space. It was famous for producing the best civilian ships in the galaxy, though possibly also the most expensive. It was invaded in 2738 by The Swarm, and this time, once the Swarm fleet had been destroyed, the Allegiance engaged them on the ground rather than bombard the planet, mindful of the large media presence and many millions of civilians. The planet was reclaimed though at a terrible cost to both the military and the planet's citizens.


 * Radiance- Radiance was a tiny colony world far from the core of the Allegiance. It was the furthest inhabited world from the core, populated only by a small force of 5000 marines, 400 scientists and technical experts, around 4,000 civilians, a frigate, a destroyer and a corvette. Its purpose was to attempt to contact life in other galaxies. The colony only reported back to the Allegiance at large every 12 months, other than that it was completely cut off and isolated. It was cold, icy and largely unpleasant. In 2614 The Swarm invaded the world, killing every single person. The Allegiance did not discover until almost nine months later, when there was nothing to be found but wreckage and debris. The incident was investigated but the Swarm were not seen again for over a hundred years, and the event did nothing but haunt the minds of those whose job it was to prepare for the future.


 * Salvo- Salvo was the only natural satellite of the planet Britannia. Its terrain was rocky and its climate cold. It was the location of a large and powerful sensor grid spanning the entire system. It was used by a 'Dumb' AI to track every single asteroid in the Mayu Belt, a relatively calm asteroid belt towards the periphery of the Cycnos System.
 * Thera- Thera was the homeworld of the Allegiance and its spiritual heart. Every Theran felt a deep-seated connection to the planet from which he or she came from, that gave the entire race their technology, built by the Forerunners, those who enhanced the Therans from mere humans. It was imperative to the Theran way of life, more important than any other place. It was a planet augmented by Forerunner city, in essence it was one big Forerunner city, with constructions stretching kilometres both into the sky and underground. The heart of every Theran in the galaxy was crushed in 2876 when the planet's citizens were feasted on by the Swarm and then it was pounded into dust from orbit, and the Allegiance's tactics changed to incorporate a weapon so destructive no one thought it would be used again, and a plan so risky, and on which so much rested, that the entire galaxy hung by a thread.

Systems

 * Acheron System
 * Apollo System
 * Camulos System
 * Cycnos System
 * Delph System
 * Helios System
 * Kaeden System
 * Mira System
 * Nox System
 * Theran System

Warship Classes

 * Triton-class Heavy Destroyer - A powerful, versatile destroyer class. It was excellent against the vast majority of warship classes, and weak against large numbers of starfighters, particularly bombers. The class had a rather small ground forces complement and single ship capacity.


 * Apollo-class Frigate - A small, fast warship class, capable of easily defeating smaller vessels and dealing with starfighter threats. Was vulnerable to larger warships, particularly destroyers, cruisers and carriers. The Apollo-class had a large onboard forces complement and starfighter capacity.


 * Ares-class Battleship - A large, powerful battleship with an impressive array of armaments. It was slow but had long range, also very effective against other warships. It was weak against bombers and the largest enemy warships such as battlecruisers and 'super'-class vessels. It had a large fighter and bomber complement but no ground forces at all.


 * Artemis-class Patrol Ship - A small, fast and maneuverable vessel designed to engage and destroy fighters and bombers. It was extremely capable in its task and packed a large punch for its diminutive size, being able to destroy larger ships such as frigates in small groups. It was vulnerable to most larger warships such as destroyers, cruisers and battleships. It had no fighter complement and only possessed a limited onboard troop count, mainly for defensive purposes.


 * Athena-class Cruiser - A large, extremely powerful cruiser class vessel, capable of taking down even the largest and most dangerous warships. Holding large amounts of ground troops and many starfighters, there was not much the Athena-class was vulnerable to. Notable exceptions include 'super'-class vessels such as a supercarrier, or massive amounts of bombers.


 * Hera-class Carrier - A large, potent warship capable of defeating most smaller vessels including some destroyer classes. Its main role was to carry large amounts of fighters into battle, forming an effective protective screen to defend allied ships. Its armament was more than sufficient to protect it from most vessels.

(coming soon)

 * Centurion-class Gunship -
 * Archer-class Gunship -
 * Regent-class Heavy Frigate -
 * Gladiator-class Frigate -
 * Bow-class Artillery Frigate -
 * Guardian-class Escort Destroyer -
 * Liberty-class Light Cruiser -
 * Trafalgar-class Heavy Cruiser -
 * '''Vanguard-class Strike Cruiser
 * Raven-class Heavy Carrier -
 * Crown-class Dreadnought -
 * Celestia-class Assault Ship -
 * Spectre-class Salvage Vessel -

Starfighter Classes

 * AL-56 Flashfighter - The Flashfighter was a small, fast and extremely agile fighter class. It was very well armed for its size though lacking completely in shielding and possessing very limited amounts of armour. They fared well against hostile starfighter classes and were capable of extended in-atmosphere operations with little loss of effectiveness. They were widespread throughout the Allegiance, and easily the most common ship in the Navy.


 * AH-17 Raptor - The Raptor was a potent anti-warship bomber class. It was extremely powerful, well-armed and well-protected by armour, though its speed and maneuverability suffered greatly as a result. It was quite capable of destroying the vast majority of warships provided they were protected from starfighters. Raptors normally fared extremely poorly against enemy fighters and interceptors due to their poor speed and agility. When used in conjunction with AL-56s or AL-61s, they are extremely effective as they can attack warships without harassment from hostile single ships.


 * AL-61 Valiant Interceptor - The Valiant was an extremely fast and agile fighter/interceptor introduced in response to the Swarm problem. Flashfighters fared well against enemy fighters but only on even terms, but the Swarm used mass tactics. The Valiant was basically the answer to the problem, a small, tremendously fast ship able to cut up Swarm fighters quickly, function alongside Flashfighters and assist them in battle, and be small and fast enough to never get hit. Their speed allowed them to avoid most fire offering them a higher chance of survival, but the ships were not protected by shielding and featured no armour at all.

Unknown Class

 * HMS Marchestra - The Marchestra was the last of her class, a massive, multi-kilometre long vessel designed and used during the Reformation War. They were massively powerful but extremely impractical and hugely expensive to maintain. As a result all save the Marchestra were scrapped, the Marchestra herself being kept as a command ship, literally a mobile base, similar to the role a planet would play during a war, though with the added advantage of being mobile. The Marchestra was the flagship of the Royal Allegiance navy until her destruction with all hands at the Third Battle of Thera in 2876.


 * HMS Ardent - The HMS Ardent was a small to medium-sized frigate in service with the Allegiance Navy in 2614. Much of the information about this class is not known, the only known example of this class fought in the Battle of Radiance in 2614, where it was destroyed. It is unknown when the frigate was introduced or retired, though it was withdrawn from service at some point before 2700.


 * HMS Hope - Hope was a cruiser which served in the Navy from 2421 until 2553. She served briefly during the Reformation War, and extensively afterwards. In 2553 she traveled to Earth as part of a Battlegroup making first contact with the Humans. After this she was presented to the UNSC as a symbol of the Allegiance's future assistance, and was renamed the UNSC Glorious Horizon.

A Darkening Horizon
This story is about The Royal Allegiance's first contact with a terrifying alien race known as The Swarm.

Light The Way
SEPTEMBER 22 2614

06:52

 'SABRE' DROPSHIP NUMBER 472 'SKYLORD', OCCUPANTS 17 

RADIANCE, AIRSPACE SECTOR 4, ALTITUDE 2150M AND DROPPING

The red lights danced around the darkened troop bay in blurred swirls, adding to the panic in the ironically coffin-like space. A warning tone screamed defiance over the rushed thoughts of the armoured soldiers who huddled in the bay, clutching anything they could grab, it's frantic message repeated over and over; death, death, death...

The dropship was falling, plummeting without control down to the ground of Radiance. Is this it? Drake thought. 'This is how it ends...

Drake thought something, and a small rapidly changing number appeared on his HUD. 1966m...'

This is how we die. This is it. The troops stood shoulder to shoulder, mere crimson silhouettes in the flitting red lights. The ship shook relentlessly, overpowering the interial compensators and rattling the troops.

1625m...

The squad's coffin continued to shake violently, as if trying to shake them loose. And still they hurtled inevitably down towards the cold, hard, unrelenting ground.

916m...

Drake tried to blot out the thunderous sounds of alarms and thoughts of approaching death, dashing lights and terrified soldiers, to no avail. He thought of his family, back on Haven...but he could not get the sounds and sights out of his head. He was about to die, violently, and life wanted him to know it right to the end...

350m...

Drake looked at the trooper next to him, and their eye met. In her eyes he saw the same wildness, the same raw fear, as she saw in his. She was pretty...Drake felt a strange peace looking into her eyes.

And still the alarm relentlessly sounded, over and over.

142m...

Drake almost laughed as he saw a small sign light up. It read; CAUTION: PASSENGERS MAY EXPERIENCE TURBULENCE.

Understatement of the century, Drake thought.

Then it all went black.

Better Days
''Drake saw a beautiful little town square, the old cobbles awash with the last remnants of a blood-red Haven sunset. Cafés sold steaming coffees to the last of the day’s tourists, who sat talking animatedly on the terraces filled with tables and chairs. A light breeze ruffled Drake’s hair, the air pregnant with the aromatic scent of the flowers from the square centre and fresh bread from the baker’s opposite. In the centre of the square a statue stood proudly, saluting some long dead hero. His marble chest adorned with medals, the imposing edifice silent to the beauty surrounding it. Long shadows cast themselves indifferently onto the ancient stone ground from the attractive buildings wrapped like a jacket around the square, while nearby an elegant bridge spanned a small, gurgling river. Drake breathed deeply in and sighed in musing. He was perfectly happy. There was no where in the galaxy he would rather be.''

''Though deep inside him, a voice shouted in protestation. No, it said. This is not right. You are not supposed to be here.''

''Where then? Drake answered it.''

''Not here! Not here! was its only reply.''

''Suddenly Drake’s vision began to blur, as if blocked by some invisible force. It flickered, as would a candle before a storm, before it faded and disappeared. Drake screamed, but no sound came from his mouth. Panicking, he tried to move but realised he had no body. He opened his eyes but saw only darkness as if staring into the maw of Death itself. What seemed like minutes passed, trapped in this appalling nothingness.''

''From somewhere distant, his feeling began to slowly return to him. Explosions, shouts, ricochets of bullets surrounded him, faint but unmistakable.''

Boom.

''No! Drake shouted at the top of his voice, though little more than a whisper escaped his mouth. Take me back! Take me back!''

''Why! replied the voice inside him. You don’t belong there. You belong here!''

No! he screamed back, but the voice gave no reply.

The sounds of battle grew steadily louder, still little more than echoes but becoming stronger with each passing second.

Boom.

''Why? Drake yelled. Why do I belong here? Tell me, why!?''

''Because, a new voice hissed, this one slimy, serpent-like and menacing, full of hatred and spite. It is your fate. You are destined to die here. You, and all the rest.''

Boom.

Battlecries
SEPTEMBER 22 2614

08:13

Drake opened his eyes with a jolt, his heart racing. In front of his eyes was a HUD, flashing, and his neural interface flooded his brain with information. Instantly his mind was inundated with information- and Drake was overwhelmed by what he saw. Aliens...alien insects...attacking them, and winning. Like a train he was hit with the memory of what had already transpired...the space battle...the Ardent…...the crash.

Drake's mind let out a tendril of thought, and his neural interface displayed what his gun sight saw. Lifting his assault rifle up over his cover, a low sandbag wall, he let off a burst of fire towards a thing behind a corner. He was still in shock, they all were. Everything had happened so fast. From the most boring, remote outpost in the Allegiance to fighting off unidentified aliens in less than four hours.

Disoriented, Drake looked around and saw what remained of his squad in cover, heavily under fire. And damn did these aliens know how to fight.

"We thought we lost you there Elias!" shouted his commander, Sergeant Neil Ryans over the shriek of gunfire. "You owe me one for dragging you from that damn ship!"

"Sorry Sir!" Drake called back. Ryans said something about not apologising, but Drake didn't hear him properly. A trio of energy blasts dashed over his head, grazing his shields. Drake lowered his head a little more instinctively and to his left, a trooper dashed a frag grenade towards the enemy. It blossomed into fiery life and one of the creatures made a rapid clicking sound as it dropped, dismembered. Grabbing its sidearm it continued to shoot wildly, and for a second Drake thought he saw anger in its beady round eyes. Another soldier, probably Radner, Drake thought, put a trio of bullets into its head and it finally lay unmoving.

"Sir, to the right!" Drake called as a human-sized enemy began to flank them. It fired over its cover, hitting Ryans in his shoulder, but the bolt of energy splattered against his shields. The creature drew itself up to full height and fired its rifle again, hitting an unshielded soldier in the neck and flank and mortally wounding him. Somewhere a grenade went off, and a human voice cried out in pain. A small, triangle-shaped segment of shrapnel embedded itself shallowly into Drake's armour, white-hot at the edges and glistening with blood. Drake fired in automatic into the beast's stomach, but watched in dumbstruck horror as its insect-like carapace protected it from the most of the shots. Major Ryans ran at it, quickly closing the gap of four metres or so between them. A large man and a good fighter, Ryans dived into the creature's mid, knocking it to the ground with his armoured shoulder. He pulled his combat blade from his boot sheath and with one swift motion, slit it's throat. Greenish blood spurted everywhere, soaking the Major's legs. He looked quickly up, seeing one of his men get hit squarely in the chest by an energy bolt, sending him flying onto his back, never to rise again. A stream of bolts forced Drake to duck behind his cover, the sandbags now riddled with holes and scorch marks and quickly losing their protective power. Drake blind-fired his rifle over it and knocked down a flanking creature, maybe wounding it.

"Major, we're taking heavy casualties!" Radner yelled as he was hit in the torso by an energy bolt. His armour's protective shields flickered and faded. "Sir, we gotta fall back! We just lost Company B barracks!"

"Ah, shit!" exclaimed Ryans as he violently rammed a fresh mag into his assault rifle. He stood up and fired a long burst from the hip, striking a small scorpion-like creature in one of its oversize claws and shredding it to pieces. Suddenly a huge, wolf-like monster jumped over the sandbags and grabbed a trooper in its massive maw. It shook him vigorously and blood flew everywhere. Then it dropped him and he remained where he fell, lifeless. Rounds bounced off its carapace and others pierced into its flesh as startled and desperate troopers tried to take it down, but it only growled and shook them off. It went for Ryans, running at full pelt and knocking aside briskly another trooper on its way. The Major had his back to it; Drake picked up a fallen blade quickly and rammed it into the beast's path and watched the thing impale itself on the point, going all the way in; The monster growled and writhed; Ryans turned around just to see its grizzled, plated head sink to the ground with the creature's final sounds. Drake saw his superior pale even through his semi-darkened visor.

"I guess we're even," said Ryans, losing his usual cool for a split-second.

"Yes sir," Drake replied. "I think I'll keep this," he said, attaching the long blade to his back.

Ryans nodded curtly, and activated his comm. Drake's helmet comm buzzed and a voice appeared in his ear and his mind. "This is Major Ryans, all forces fall back to Defensive Point C, the forward outpost is being overrun. Repeat, the forward outpost is being overrun. All forces withdraw to Defensive Point C."

As the Allegiance soldiers fell back, the enemy advanced. And instead of pursuing them, they bent down and feasted on the brave warriors they had slain.

The Unknown
SEPTEMBER 22 2614

09:42

Far from the sandbag defenses of the outer perimeter, Defensive Point C was a heavily fortified post. The interior of the compound, the scientific research compound, was located on an artificial plateau. Along its edge were entry points, guarded by numerous infantry bunkers, heavy weapons turrets and light weapons emplacements. The Swarm- for that was what the soldiers had christened them- would have a tough time breaking in. The thousands of civilians and scientists inside would be safe- as long as the wall wasn't breached.

Drake stood on the open top level of the fortification, the freezing Radiance wind biting into his cheeks like a cold knife edge. Behind him, what remained of his squad conversed about something grim and bleak; Drake wasn't really paying attention. He thought of the other marine squads, just like his, that fate had decided would die aboard the Ardent. Drake's squad had survived through sheer luck- they were already in a hangar when the Swarm attacked. And when the Ardent blew....

"Elias!" snapped Ryans, and Drake nearly dropped his Assault Rifle. "We're in enough shit as it is without you going all starry-eyed on us!"

"Yes, sir! Won't happen again sir," Drake replied. He had the utmost respect for Sergeant Ryans; the man never ordered his lads to do something he wouldn't do himself.

"So, what do we know about these Swarm folks then?" asked Private Darren Radner. Radner was rather short for a Theran, though strongly built. Drake looked at him, seeing his angled jaw and familiar, kind brown eyes, before Radner replaced his helmet. Darren was a seasoned combat veteran, and probably, Drake thought, his closest friend on the squad.

"Apart from that they're ugly as hell," said Corporal Roslyn Lanford, "and shoot worse than my grandma?!" Through her visor Drake glimpsed her copper hair and emerald eyes, which lit up when she frequently made smart remarks. Drake didn't know her too well, but she seemed from what he saw, like an honest person. The word 'Joker' was roughly scratched into her armour's chest plate.

"Can it Ros," ordered Sergeant Ryans. "Check your neural interfaces- control just updated everyone's HUDs with all the battlefield telemetry we've gathered so far. It looks like there's three kinds; the human-looking ones, or Drones, which are the basic troops, the wolf ones, which sort of act as a rapid attack...thing, and the scorpion ones, which are like armoured units. All of 'em are very deadly, whatever you do don't engage them at close range unless you have to."

Jamie Helsley|Sergeant Helsley stepped forward, his polarised helmet shielding his face from view. Jamie Helsley was an experienced and dedicated soldier, second in command to Ryans. His helmet was engraved on the left side, "SERVE TO LIVE" and on the right side, '"LIVE TO SERVE"''.

"Sarge, this can't be right," said Helsley. "It says the wolves are two metres tall and nine feet long...is that correct sir?"

"Unfortunately," replied Ryans. "Looks like they're vulnerable to blades though, Drake managed to down one about an hour ago. Isn't that right, Drake?"

"Yes sir," said Drake. "Though it did run into it. What's the plan then Sarge?"

Ryans made a kind of grunting sound, then roughly pulled off his helmet to show his grimaced face, short blonde hair and a roughly shaven face. "On our own, we're buggered, so we have to contact our forces elsewhere. Unfortunately, Our long range relay got blown up with the rest of the satellites. There are relays on the bug's ships, the smallest is a frigate, still probably heavily guarded. They have warships, infantry, air support, the lot. I've heard the plan is to send a small team to activate the databurst. But before that we need to secure our immediate area."

"Uh, aren't we kinda short on numbers?" said Ros. "How're we gonna get to the relay if we're guarding the base?"

Ryan's eyes pointed skywards. "Most of our forces will hole up here and hold off as long as possible, while a small force hits the ship, activates the relay and send the databurst."

"What do we know about their numbers? And who's in charge now that the Navy snuffed it?" asked Radner.

"How long do you have? We've got air support, vehicles and infantry, not to mention a few fortified positions. The bugs have air superiority, more fighter craft and warships. They outnumber us in terms of infantry but don't have any armoured vehicles. I have no idea who is in charge, probably Baley or one of the other ground commanders. Anyway, the talk is that they'll send us marines to secure the long range relay. We're better trained for that sort of environment. Not wanting to sound pessimistic, but to me it sounds like a suicide run. How many other marines made it off the Ardent?"

"Just two squads," replied Drake, as he sifted through huge amounts of information to find out.

"Only two? Damn..." said Ros, her voice trailing off slightly. "Whose was it?"

"Colour Sergeant Robert Mast, and Sergeant Matt Saren," replied Darren. "That guy from D squad. Remember him? You asked him out that night of the officer's dinner."

"How could I forget," laughed Ros. And later that night as well-"

"Corporal! Watch it. We are in the middle of quite possibly the most dire situation a Royal Marine has ever faced, but don't think I'll be soft on that sort of thing. Now, where's the other marines. We've gotta do a bit of resource pooling."

"Right here," said a voice, deep and rather slow. The squad turned to face the new person, and saw a man tall even by Theran standards, clad in armour. His face was solemn, and his mere presence cast a gloomy aura on the group.

"Ah. You must be Sergeant Mast. This is Helsley, Lanford, Elias and Radner, my squad. There's not many of us, but we'll certainly make a big dent," said Ryans.

"Good. We're under attack, if you and your men would like to follow me, the marines will be defending the compound from internal attacks while the Army engages the main Swarm force."

Nearby, a siren began wailing, and Drake's helmet comm buzzed. "Incoming Swarm forces. All personnel prepare for combat. Repeat, all personnel prepare for combat."

The two marine squads descended into the compound. And in the distance, a black smudge could be seen on the horizon, and the terrifying war drums began to beat.

The Nightmare in the Dark
SEPTEMBER 22 2614

10:09

Drake felt the strange combination of anticipation and dread mingle uncomfortably inside him, as he followed his squad, micro shotgun poised. The hallway was less than barely lit, but their HUDs attempted to compensate for the dark, resulting in an eerie other-worldliness about the place. They knew there were enemies, and close by, but in the dark the cold-blooded fiends would appear on sensors as mere spectres. This thought terrified Drake; he could walk right into a seven foot insect and not even notice in these conditions. Though it had seemed a good idea at the time, he now realised how woefully inadequate his miniaturised shotgun would be against one of those monstrosities. A small sound in the distance made everyone freeze, ears pricking and Theran eyes scanning for the slightest sign of movement; but this nor sensors and flashlights revealed the distant nightmare responsible. The tension was excruciating. They were supposed to be on a search and destroy mission to clear the building of hostiles; instead it was like they were being hunted.

And again- a scuttling sound off somewhere in the darkness, still far off but much closer than last time; Drake felt the hairs on the back of his neck prick even under his armour; no one dared move. The squads stood motionless before a junction of four hallways, each one as black as midnight, opened up like a terrifying maw ready to engulf them in eternal silence. It oppressed them, preventing them from moving and sheltering their stalkers within its shadowy nothingness. Sergeant Ryans waved his hand in the direction of the left and right halls; swiftly and silently troopers from both his and Sgt Mast's squad had taken up positions, aiming along their sights into perpetual darkness.

Another sound, this one like scuttling and definitely much, much closer; several soldiers whirled instinctively to face the sound, facing the corridor from which they had just come, the corridor which Drake had his back to at that very moment, having been positioned at the back. Slowly he turned, trying not to think of what he would face- and as if mocking him all he could see was a dense wall of black, hiding in silent secrecy its deadly foe. Drake attempted to peer down the corridor; somewhere down there, he thought, is a monster waiting to devour us. He tried to look deeper into the dark, to try and uncover what lurked in its depths, but his eyes could not penetrate the abyss. He imagined what the creature down there saw- did it see him? Could it see heat like a snake? Were he and his squad lit up like fireworks on a dark night? Drake resisted the primeval urge to turn and run- somewhere, anywhere but here. But he fought it off, as he thought of his squadmates behind him, probably thinking similar things.

Another sound- this one like a blood-chilling metallic scraping- and so, so awfully close. The thing- the horrible unknown thing- should have been right on top of them. Drake stared fruitlessly down into the hallway's maw- he should be able to see the thing. To actually see it. Where was it?!

The first trooper was dragged into the darkness, without warning. His agonised screams could be heard as he was rapidly dragged down the hall by an unknown aggressor, terrible, hideous sounds of wrenching bones and tearing flesh emanating from the direction.

"Kian!" shouted Mast, desperately firing his SMG down the hall after it, hitting nothing but an impenetrable wall of darkness; Drake instinctively shielded his eyes from the muzzle flash, even though his visor had automatically compensated- and the trooper's increasingly demented and wild tortured sounds became more distant and faint.

And as quickly as it had started, he was gone. Vanished into the darkness.

Ryans shone his gun-mounted flashlight onto the ground, revealing a jagged and gruesome trail of blood, fragments of armour and human flesh. Ryans swore, and the other sergeant looked broken. Some of the other squad hung their heads, no doubt remembering their comrade with whom they had come through so much.

"There's a time and a place for remembrance, but this isn't it. We find those bastards, kill 'em, and rescue what civilians we can", said Sergeant Mast, his voice wavering slightly. His squad, visibly shaken, led the way, with Ryan's stunned troops following behind.

After what seemed like hours of moving in total darkness, the marines reached a metal blast door. The two sliding halves were wrecked, savagely bent and beaten inwards, with a large burn hole and scorch marks from what looked like a heavy energy weapon. Parallel scraping marks ran down the entire length and across the width of the door- claws, while indentations of sizes both tiny and huge pockmarked its surface- teeth marks. Drake shuddered. What would they find inside? Friend? Enemy? Neither?

Ryans stepped cautiously through, scanning the room with his eyes for movement and hostiles. But all was still. After a few minutes, he beckoned the following troops through- and only then, only when he stopped looking for enemies and started looking for anything, did he see the appalling sight before his eyes. Ros, the second soldier through, dropped her submachine gun which clattered to the ground, the noise seeming for all the world like thunderous echo in the eerily still room. Not still- dead. Drake's mouth dropped in horror as he too saw what Ryans and Ros had. There were no words to describe what he saw. He was...wordless. His mind ceased to work as it struggled to comprehend what it had seen, attempted to accept that something like this could exist in the galaxy. Around the room, strewn in their hundreds like playthings, were dead, mutilated, agonised civilian corpses. On the ground, blood and organs and clumps of hair lay where they had fallen from some innocent, defenceless person. They had obviously tried to defend themselves, though they had no weapons- tables turned on their side, blunt or sharp objects scattered around- but they clearly had no chance against the Swarm. In some places the corpses were piled up; in others they just lay where they died- on the ground face down, slumped against a wall, on top of another of the dead- but it was clear that none of them had died peacefully, none had died painlessly. The lucky ones had fatal melee wounds to the head or neck, perhaps arteries, and they were lucky because they died quickly. Others were not so fortunate- bodies missing limbs, bodies ripped open by claw and feasted upon by gaping mouths, some bodies so mutilated beyond recognition. No one had been spared- women, men, the old- even the few children on the mission, all slaughtered. It was a bloodbath. It brought tears to Drake's eyes. He tried to imagine them as they watched, hiding behind tables, corners, each other, from the snarling and brutal beasts breaking through forty centimetres of reinforced blast door- and watching as they rushed in, cut down friends, colleagues, family, lovers, as they were ripped into pieces before you- and then to have the beasts turn on you- it was all too much. It was unimaginable, horrible, sickening. Drake resisted the urge to throw up. It defied belief...

The troops remained silent as they passed through the massacre. No one spoke, everyone was stunned into silence. They moved carefully through the room, trying not to disturb the mutilated bodies that littered the ground.

"Sergeant Saren, this is Ryans. We've found the civilians... no survivors. Suggest we rendezvous and clear the building of hostiles."

"Copy that," Saren replied over the radio. "We're just about to restore lighting and power to the building, afterwards meet in corridor 4 section 2. We've intercepted and killed several enemy squads, I don't think there's too many more. Even still, be careful."

"Acknowledged. We're proceeding to that location."

"Good hunting boys. Saren out." Leaving through another blast door, equally distorted, they once again found themselves in the unlit cavernous halls. There was a low, resonating hum from far off, and the light flickered slowly into life. Drake looked down the corridor, seeming completely different in the harsh, artificial light that now flooded the hall. The walls were soaked in blood, some old, and dark, some very recent, fresh and dripping. Before they had even taken a few steps down the very different environment of the fully illuminated corridors, Private Radner bent down and picked up a rounded metal disc, attached to a broken chain and covered in blood. "Sergeant Major Levi Turek," he read.

"Damn," said Ryans. "Army B company. "I knew him when we were younger. We signed up together. He paused for a moment.

"Come on," said Mast. "We better get moving."

Radner handed the dog tag to Ryans, who took it. As everyone else continued down the corridor, he stood still and just kept staring at it. Finally he dropped it, and jogged briskly after his men. He would die pretty soon himself anyway, no ;point in keeping hold of it. It wouldn't do any good now either. The tag fell clattering to the ground, and came to rest in a small pool of red.

A few minutes later, a four-legged insectoid beast, wolf-like, appeared from an ajoining corridor, growling softly. It lowered its head, and, having gathered a scent from the fallen dog tag, set off down the corridor, in the direction Ryans and the others had just gone in.

Matt silently shuddered involuntarily as he watched the battlefield telemetry recordings from Ryans' HUD, which he had just accessed. He struggled to think of anything he would say to justify it, to raise morale in his troops. It was horrifying.

The hairs on the back of Matt’s neck prickled and raised, seemingly for no reason. Out of habit he looked around for threats, and checked his weapons yet again.

He heard what sounded like a growl, but it was gone almost before he recognised it.

"I think we got something guys," he said to his squad behind him as he saw definite movement ahead, "three targets, dead ahead, fifty metres," he whispered to them. "I'll take point, Dan on the other side. Mia and Eli, in the middle, heavy fire. Don't shoot until me or Dan does, got it?"

Mia and Eli nodded, and the four slowly crept down the hall, weapons poised.

"I have a bad feeling about this," said Ros.

"Quiet," whispered Ryans. "Saren, we're at the rendezvous point. What's your position?"

"About half a klick north west of you, in corridor 5," replied Matt, equally covert. "Hold your position. We are about to engage multiple hostiles, requesting radio silence."

"Copy that, radios cold," said Ryans.

"Sir!" Drake whispered, "I think I heard something behind us!"

"Ah, shit," said Ryans. "Well, we gotta hold this position until Saren tells us otherwise. Stay frosty, Ros, take that direction with Drake. Shoot anything that moves."

Matt kept his SMG deadly still, looking through his reflex scope for the slightest sign of movement. Then he saw it, and he knew Dan beside him had too; a wolf-thing, running at insane speed towards them, followed by three human-shaped ones. Matt opened fire with his weapon, sending hundreds of armour piercing bullets at the charging animal's face. Howling wildly, it just kept running, right at them down the narrow hallway. Dan had already opened fire, returning it at the human shaped monsters, who were shooting at them with their strange energy weapons. Mia and Eli opened fire; Mia with a light machine gun, which finished off the wolf-dog-thing and made one of the human ones trip over its shredded legs. Matt took a blast from one of the energy bolts square in the chest; his shields absorbing the blow. Eli removed a grenade from his belt with one hand and dashed it down the hall, having been activated and the timer set by his neural interface. It landed right at the two remaining insect's feet, while the rained fire on Matt's squad and resisted most of the fire they took with their exoskeleton. The grenade detonated a split second after it hit the ground, and Matt turned his head, while the corridor was showered in fragments of metal. The squad kept their weapons poised even after the smoke had cleared, their heat sensors near useless against the cold blooded insects. Waving his arm behind him to his squad to hold, he ran forward, gun loaded in his hands, and stopped by the bodies of the creatures. One was completely obliterated by the blast, with nothing recognisable left. The other lay there, frantically trying to move even though its body was missing below where a human's hips would be and one of it's arms was half-missing. But the thing wasn't trying to escape; even now it was trying to hurt and kill them, despite it's grievous wounds. The thing reached for it's weapon with it's remaining arm, propelling itself with its short stump arm, and when Matt kicked that away it tried to reach for his feet. But what scared him and his troops so much was the malice and anger it showed in it's eyes even now.

Even this close to death. All it wanted to do was to cause pain, to hurt, to kill. It was relentless. Its beady, evil eyes seemed to emanate pure hatred. It made Matt sick, that something so sick and twisted could exist, no less an entire race of them. And then he thought back to the massacre that the other two squads had discovered. It reminded Matt of some of the worst fighting of the Human-Covenant War.

"Whadda we do with it, Sarge?" asked Mia. Matt drew his pistol from he magnetic grip on his thigh, and thought about this very hard. "I dunno. I wanna cause it as much pain as I can in as short a time space as possible," he said, a little too truthfully. Then he just decided to end it. He replaced his pistol, grabbed his SMG, and shot the creature in its chest in fully automatic. He thing hissed and made it's last angry sounds, before a few gurgling noises.

"Come on," Matt said. "We're done here. Sergeant Ryans, what's your status?"

The sound of heavy gunfire and Ryans's frantic voice returned over the radio. "Saren, we are under heavy fire, cannot hold rendezvous point, I repeat cannot hold. We're falling back to corridor five, suggest we meet in section four. There's a blast door there we can seal to buy us some time."

"Received, we'll meet there. Saren out."

Drake quickly reloaded another round into his assault rifle, having replaced the shotgun on his back since the lighting was restored. He took aim down the hall and, hitting an insect in the head, the first few bullets bounced off its armour, while the last two dug deep into its head, blowing it backwards all over another. Then he turned and ran after his squad, who were pelting down the hall away from the enemy, who had attacked in overwhelming numbers. Drake took a grenade and dashed it over his shoulder, and, a few seconds later, the device engulfed several enemies.

"Ryans!" shouted Mast at the front. "I see the blast door but it's closed, the blast door is closed!"

"Shit!" Ryans exclaimed. "Mast, you and your men get that damn door open! We'll keep them off as best we can!"

"We're on it," he said, as he and the remainder of his squad reached the sealed door. A bolt of energy blazed towards Drake, but he dived and missed it, his shields depleted. It hit a soldier way in front of him, digging deep into his unshielded back. "I'm hit, I'm hit!" he called in agony.

"Brennan!" called one of Mast's men. He grabbed him by the arms and propped him up against the door, while Brennan fired his SMG wildly at the enemies approaching from behind.

"Saren, we are stranded in corridor five section three. We are cut off, I repeat we are cornered, under heavy fire! What's your position!" But there was no answer, only the never-ending torrent of fire. "Shit!"

"Sir, the door won't budge!" one of Mast's soldiers shouted, seeing to Brennan's wounds. "We're trapped!"

"Lauren, keep trying!" Mast yelled back. Lauren turned back to the door, and tried again to pull it apart, its sliding halves not moving even slightly. "It's the automatic defence!" called Radner over the hail of bullets and energy assailing them. "It's sealed off from this side to stop the Swarm!"

"Yeah!?" shouted Ryans, firing from the hip with his weapon, "well we all know what those things think of blast doors! So keep shooting goddammit! Mast, how's that door coming!?"

"Nothing! It just won't move!"

"Sir, last mag!" Ros shouted back from her prone position. "Same here!" Drake added.

"Mast, Lauren, give us a hand here!" said Ryans. "Saren, we are in need of immediate assistance! I repeat, we are so in the shit here! Aww fuck, Harris, check on Brennan, his vitals just flatlined!

Another soldier ducked over his fallen comrade, checking him for signs of life with his neural interface and his medic skills. He turned and shook his head, his shields dispersing two or three bolts of energy.

"Sir we lost Joel," said Lauren.

"Shit!" exclaimed Mast. He pulled his last grenade from his belt, threw it down the hallway and detonated it remotely, cutting up a Drone while others shielded themselves. Still the relentless hail of fire flew at them down the hallway, the squad cornered with no cover. Another soldier fell; his shields down, he took an energy bolt to the neck and fell, unmoving. Mast took one look at him, no doubt checking his life signs, and carried on firing.

Drake fired his AR20 into the creature's chest, its hideous mouth hissing awfully. He fired into it, and heard it gag and splutter over its own throat. Taking a dual blast from another, he fired down his sight, the first few shots hitting, one penetrating its exoskeleton, before his weapon ran dry. "Ryans, I'm out!" he shouted. Ryans pulled a fresh mag off Joel's body, which just lay there silently, occasionally taking a stray hit. Ryans tossed it to Drake, who caught it with one hand, and quickly shoved it into his weapon, pulling back the charging handle. Just slightly in front of him and on the other side of the hall, Ros emptied her last mag into a wolf-monster, which screeched and clicked, mortally wounded. But still the flood of enemies poured down the hall; they were Swarming at them, like a horrible disease. Their bodies lying in the passage did not hinder their movements, they simply climbed over their dead allies. One fired a burst of energy at Ros, hitting her square in the chest. Her failing shields took the first three but the next two hit her armour, sending her flying onto her back. "Ros!" called Ryans and Drake together, Ryans emptying his gun into the monster while Drake dived over to her. "Drake!" Ryans shouted.

"Its alright sir, she's good! I got her!", he yelled back to Ryans. "Ros, your shields are down. Get behind me!"

She got up, slowly, and crouched behind Drake while his shields and chest took the tumultous fire. She fired her pistol at the beasts, its AP-HE rounds making satisfying holes and small booms in their shells. Lauren behind them took Brennan's fallen weapon and shouldered it, though it made a small click when she tried to fire it. Dropping it roughly, she drew her machine pistol, and cut down one final enemy. There seemed to be a lull in the fighting; no more monsters were looming at them down the hall. Drake looked behind him. He saw Ros, her face pale and her blue eyes wide with fear. He saw Ryans, a wild look in his eyes that reflected the ferocity inside him. He saw Radner and Helsley, exhausted and covered in scorch marks. He saw Sgt Mast, and Lauren, last survivors of their squad and peppered with burns. He saw Brennan, and two others, unmoving and silent.

"Everyone, status report," said Mast.

"Ros and I have four J21 mags between us., one pulse 'nade, shields are good but our armour's pretty beat," said Drake.

"I got half a SMG mag left, I'll shoot in semi-auto," said Ryans. "Two pistol clips, no 'nades, ditto on the armour."

"Me and Radner got one machine pistol and two J21 mags, one grenade," said Jamie. "Oh, and My shields are down, for good."

"I've got half an AR mag, plus one spare. And the door's still closed," said Lauren.

"One SMG mag and one pistol mag. Brennan's dead, so are Brady and Holden," finished Sgt Mast.

From down the hallway, more sounds echoes of approaching foes. "Alright boys and girls," Mast started. "Make 'em wish they'd never been born."

The first Drone came into sight, falling from a burst of Ryan's SMG and Ros's pistol. Three or four followed and the Allegiance troopers were immediately beseiged again; the Swarm were surging at them more ferociously than ever. A wolf-monster ran through the Drones firing their guns wildly, and charged right at Drake and Ros. "Look out!" Darren shouted, cutting it down with a machine pistol burst. The beast, mindless, slammed instead into Radner hard and sent him and Helsley onto their backs. A Drone, half-dead on its feet with bullet holes all down its side, took shots at Sgt Mast, being felled by Drake and Ros's shots but scorching Mast's armour on his lower legs. Three more came, and although the troopers kept firing they accurately hit Lauren, whose shields failed and armour resisted the bullets aimed at her. Radner got to his feet just in time to block a shot at Jamie; he jumped in front of it, his shields fading, the bolt deflected away instead of hitting Helsley's head. "Fuck," he said.

"Thank me later," replied Radner, passing his last grenade to Jamie, who threw it, landing at the feet of four beast and a split-second later incinerating them.

"Oh, shit," Drake said as he felt the ground vibrate slightly. "Get ready people, something big coming our way!"

As the grenade's smoke cleared, a huge beast stood in the hallway, occupying its height and width. It was at least eight feet tall, but like a scorpion: its body rose up at the front, where two massive claws snapped ferociously at them, turning their blood to ice. On top of its body was a head like a wasp’s; only with two large pincers made for slicing. They glistened with flesh blood, dripping from its hideous maw. Two horrible, intelligent eyes gleamed like black jewels in the dark, as Drake was looking into the dark heart of the universe itself. They glared at them, calculating, examining, planning how best to devour them.

At the end if its body, a long, thin tail rose up, terminating in a series of serrated edges that looked as if they could tear through metal as if it were air. It was just like the scorpion monsters from the first skirmish, only so much closer, and so much more terrifying.

And even more terrifying was the rotary cannon mounted on its right shoulder.

"Open fire! Hit the face!" called Lauren. They fired on its chest and head but the rounds just ricocheted away harmlessly. Ros threw the team's last grenade, which rolled under its many legs and blew up, and when the smoke cleared the creature still stood. It hissed menacingly, and its cannon slowly began to spin up, ready to make mincemeat of all of them. "Alright guys, this is it, but keep firing anyway!" shouted Ryans.

And there was another explosion, a massive deep boom that reverberated in the ground and would have blown out Drake's ears if not for his helmet. Drake looked up, amazed to still be alive. He looked at Ros, showing the same emotions. The dust cleared only slightly, and the monster was gon, buried under tons of stone and metal. In place of the wall behind where it stood was a hole, and in the hole stood four fully armoured soldiers, in stark silhouette to the light behind them. They stood their, weapons shouldered and poised for a few seconds, before the middlemost two stepped forwards. "Sergeant Mast?! Sergeant Ryans!?" called Matt Saren's familiar voice.

"Saren! Over here!" shouted Ryans, and through the dust cloud emerged Matt and his three other squadmates. "We lost three men, where were you?" inquired Mast.

"Through there," Matt replied, pointing towards the still-sealed door. We couldn't get through, its magnetically sealed. So we blew a hole through the wall instead once we figured out where you were."

"Why didn't you just blow a hole in the door then?" retorted Jamie, his armour charred and smoking slightly.

"Because, Helsley," replied Eli, the other 's squad's demolitions trooper, "it's a blast door. You know, one that is made to withstand blasts?

"Stow it Marine," ordered Matt. "How many we got?"

"We lost Kian, Brennan, Holden and Brady," said Mast. "That leaves seven of us, plus you four."

"How come we couldn't radio you?" asked Radner.

"Honestly, we dunno," replied Mia, one of Matt's squad. "We reckon they're jamming us, so..."

"Wow, that's bad," said Jamie.

"Yeah, real bad. We don't have contact with any other Allegiance forces. We don't know how the fight's going, we don't know who's in charge, we don't know anything."

"That's pretty bad," said Ros.

"Come on," said Matt. "We're done inside this place. Let's get out of here."

Flight of the Intruder
SEPTEMBER 22 2614

11:38

AUXILIARY OUTPOST DELTA

Drake stood just outside the heavy metal door, which had just slid shut behind him and his squad. In front of him, a large landing pad stretched out, with three dropships squatting heavily on their landing gear, rear hatches open and waiting. Other than the three marine squads and a handful of automated turrets, the small base of Auxiliary Outpost Delta was deserted. Silently, the squads boarded each dropship equally, spreading their numbers in case less than all three made it. Drake and Helsley boarded the vessel along with Mast's squad, to balance out their numbers; Drake watched as the hatch closed through the ever-decreasing gap, and briefly saw Radner nod to him as he stepped onto his craft after Ryans.

"Alright Delta Flight, let's go," said Helsley, who was a qualified pilot. Drake's stomach lurched as the inertial compensators came online, and he looked nervously at Helsley in the cockpit, his polarised visor giving nothing away. A small hologram appeared in the centre of the troop bay, showing the Sabre's orientation relative to the ground. Presently it showed the large craft slowly moving off from the landing pad of Auxiliary Outpost Delta.

"Mast, Ryans, the Army are initiating a last-ditch aerial attack on a warship pounding their ground troops. Our numbers are thin on the ground, and if this attack fails, the planet will fall. But that won't matter, as long as we warn people. We're Marines- we were picked for this because no one else would be able to pull it off. As long as we succeed, what happens to us won't matter. Think of your homeworlds, your families. This is for them. Resistance will be strong, but fight hard enough and we'll get there. Our squads are going separate ways inside the ship, we'll meet up again at the relay. All of you has had the databurst loaded to your armour. This is it. Good luck men and women, Saren out."

SEPTEMBER 22 2614

11:51

 'SABRE' DROPSHIP NUMBER 215 'DAREDEVIL', OCCUPANTS 4 COMBAT TROOPS

RADIANCE, AIRSPACE SECTOR 26, ALTITUDE 2851M

The four soldiers sat in the troop bay, reluctant to talk. Drake thought about whether he'd ever see his world again...his family....

"Hey", said Lauren, the last soldier in Mast's squad. "You okay?"

"Yeah, fine," replied Drake. "Actually no, not really."

She feigned a small laugh. "Yeah, I know the feeling. You're Drake, right?"

"That's me. You're Lauren?"

"Yeah... Corporal Lauren Harris," she said wistfully, showing a strange pensive sadness. She gazed at the expansive azure sky through the open cockpit hatch. "Look at that sky Drake. You think we'll ever see our own skies again?"

"Don't think like that," he replied. "Think of it as you fighting these monsters so that everyone you know gets to carry on seeing their sky. That's the sacrifice we're making here, in orbit, in the skies, on the ground. And if we manage to activate that relay...well. Even if we're here to see it or not, those bugs will pay."

"Smartest thing I've heard all day Elias," commented Mast. I think our men would want to go knowing what you just said, that was true wisdom- and you're half my age."

"Wisdom begins at the end," he replied.

"Hmmm," said Mast, not quite understanding. "Jamie, how're we doing in there?"

"'Bout another ten minutes until we reach their firing range. If they were going to detect us they would have already, though they have patrols of fighters that we have to avoid."

"Sir, if we actually pull this off," said Lauren, "I'll buy the entire regiment a drink."

"Wow, I'd better make sure we get through this then," Mast replied.

"Incoming! One fighter, fast-mover, approaching from behind," shouted Helsley. "Control, this is Sabre Dropship 215, Operation Deep Strike under attack, incoming fighter, no ordnance to engage. Requesting fighter support, repeat, requesting urgent fighter support."

"Negative, negative, all fighter support is currently engaged. Hold out until it becomes available, we will dispatch as soon as. Control out."

"Shit!" exclaimed Jamie. "Alright, I'll try and hit it with the cannons, I'm jamming its communications so it can't contact our target. Hang on everyone, things are gonna get rough."

"Helsley, Ryans, evasive action!" ordered Saren. "Open fire!"

The orientation hologram showed the dropship wheeling around, spinning up its two M204 Autocannons and single M700 Heavy Machine Gun. The Sabre was travelling fast, but still the fighter overtook it in seconds and raced past it.

"That was just a buzz to test our capabilities. This time it'll open fire!" exclaimed Jamie.

The dropship vibrated as Jamie opened fire with the frontal guns, filling the air around the fighter with HEPAB air-bursting ammunition. Jamie dropped the heavy craft lower, avoiding a stream of energy fire from the fighter's front. It loosed a trio of missiles which streaked towards the Sabre.

"Fuck, it's got a missile lock! Brace for impact, brace for impact!"

Point defence beams blasted two of the three hypersonic missiles but the third got through and smashed itself into the dropship's side, mauling the two port engines.

"Main engines out, I can't control her, we're going down!"

"Helsley, get her safely to ground. We nailed the fighter, just hold on!" shouted Ryans from another dropship.

"Jamie!" called Drake over the blaring alarm. "Jamie, get out of the damn cockpit! You'll kill yourself!"

"No way! I'm getting you three through this!"

"Fuck Jamie, get outta there!"

Helsley turned around and depolarised his visor, showing the determination on his face. Drake pushed through Mast and Lauren and dived towards the cockpit hatch but Jamie slid it shut with his interface, and the door severed the gaze between Jamie's hard, dead-set determined eyes and Drake's frantic wide ones.

"JAMIE!"

"Like you said Drake," Jamie said over the comm, "I'm doing this for our worlds. I do this so you survive and complete the mission. This is my sacrifice. Goodbye Drake."

"No!" Drake hammered on the door but it was locked, he desperately tried to pull to open, to no avail.

"Drake..." said Lauren softly. "Let him go."

"Brace for impact everyone," said Jamie. "Here we go. Brace for impact."

Drake smashed against the internal bulkhead as the ship buried itself into the ground, and blacked out.

Deep Strike
SEPTEMBER 22 2614

12:18

EXACT LOCATION UNKNOWN

 'SABRE' DROPSHIP NUMBER 215 'DAREDEVIL', CRASH SITE, OCCUPANTS 3 COMBAT TROOPS

Drake...Drake...Drake...

"Drake!"

Drake opened his eyes slowly, and was instantly hit with an enormous headache. Lauren was bent over him, a worried and exhausted expression on her face.

"Dammit Elias!" she scolded.

Drake was sore all over, but his HUD informed him that he wasn't badly injured. Aching, he slowly eased himself up, to see Mast squatting on the ground outside the dropship.

"Drake, get up, we gotta go," said Lauren. "Swarm infantry saw us go down, the place is crawling with them and they're all coming here."

"Elias, I'm sorry about Jamie," Mast said. "But mourn later, survive now."

The three survivors took as much ammunition and supplies as they could carry. Drake took an AR20 Assault Rifle, a submachine gun and a few grenades. Lauren grabbed a BR62 Battle Rifle and a shotgun, and Mast took a small sniper rifle and a submachine gun.

"Alright you two, let's go, stay close, I'll take point, Drake take the rear," ordered Mast. Drake looked at his HUD and saw that the Sabre had crashed on the edge of an open, exposed plain, near a thick wooded area. "There's an Allegiance outpost about two hundred klicks northeast of here, with a communications relay we can use to call support- that's our best bet. In the forest the Swarm should have a hard time following us."

"Sir, can I ask you something?" said Lauren.

"Course," replied Mast.

"Why haven't the other dropships come back for us?"

Mast paused for a moment. "Maybe they don't think anyone survived the crash. Maybe they got shot down afterwards. Maybe they're leaving us to complete the mission. I don't know. They might come back, but I doubt it. We're on our own for now."

"We should try and contact them from the outpost," said Drake. "Maybe they don't know-"

Drake froze and crouched, as did Lauren. Mast stood in front of them, his arm raised to signal danger. Drake shouldered his assault rifle and made a quick check of their surroundings, seeing nothing.

"Sir?" said Lauren quietly, her battle rifle poised.

"Quiet!" whispered Mast frantically. "About a dozen hostiles, Drones and Reapers, dead ahead, two hundred metres. They haven't spotted us, stay still."

Drake magnified the area Mast had pointed to- and saw them, barely, hulking forms flitting through small gaps in the trees. At this distance they were more shadow than anything else- but they were definitely Swarm.

"Shit! They're coming this way!" whispered Lauren, exasperated. "Sir, orders?"

They had to move. The monsters were moving towards them, they couldn't stay still or hide. They could run, but they'd be seen. They could open fire, but every bug in the area would hunt them down.

"Open fire, on my mark. Then get ready to run like you never have before!" Mast said finally. "While we have the element of surprise. Three, two-"

"Sir, wait!" exclaimed Drake. "Grenades! We leave them here on proximity activation, then run, it'll give us more of a headstart and we won't alert every bug in the valley!"

"Alright, do it!" replied Mast, who began quickly but covertly burying his three pulse grenades, as did Drake and Lauren.

"Targets at eighty metres, let's get out of here!" whispered Lauren.

"Okay, move!" replied Mast. The three soldiers began sprinting through the dense forest, jumping powerfully over gnarled roots and darting in between huge trunks. Almost immediately they heard hissing and clicking sounds behind them of the Swarm, but their M14 Powered Assault Armour allowed them to run at over 180kph for short periods and outpace the Reapers and Drones pursuing them.

SEPTEMBER 22 2614

14:02

EXACT LOCATION UNKNOWN

198KM FROM 'SABRE' DROPSHIP NUMBER 215 CRASH SITE

"Sir," panted Lauren, "we gotta stop."

"We've been running...for hours..." heaved Drake.

"Alright...let's stop," replied Mast.

Drake stopped running, relieving his exhausted muscles. They'd lost the Swarm a while back, but had continued running towards the outpost. Drake leant against a tree trunk, collapsed, and tore off his helmet, as Mast knelt on the ground and Lauren lay on her back. They remained motionless except for the heaving of their chests, for several minutes, finishing the last of their water reserves. Lauren pulled off her helmet, letting her long brown hair cascade slowly out. Finally, she exhaled, "How far to go, sir."

"Less than a klick," Mast replied. "Come on. We can rest there."

Lauren and Drake replaced their helmets, and the three walked, recovering, towards the outpost. A short while later, they emerged from the dense woodland onto a clearing. A small circular landing pad, only big enough for one dropship, stretched out next to a small building compound.

"Look sharp people," said Mast, still breathing more heavily than usual. I'm reading three life signs inside, looks like three Swarm judging by their weak thermals." Drake mounted his assault rifle onto his back and drew his shotgun, which he racked and shouldered. Mast and Lauren took one side of the door, weapons poised, while Drake took the other. Through his polarised visor he nodded to Mast, who signaled the door to open through he neural interface. It slowly slid open, that familiar sense of anticipation mingled with dread in Drake's stomach as the door slid open to reveal...nothing. The long metal corridor that greeted them was well-lit, in good condition, not drenched in blood or corpses.

"Elias, take point!" ordered Mast, signalling with his hand for him to move forward.

"Yes sir," Drake replied, moving into the hall gripping his shotgun tightly. Lauren and Mast moved in behind him, guns raised.

"Nothing ahead for ten metres," Drake said.

"Guys, hold up," Lauren replied. Replacing her SMG on her back, she accessed a computer display on the wall. "The base's sensors are down. Records show it was attacked by a Swarm squad, and the Army squad stationed here evac'd by Sabre. Comms relay is online but we need to be in the control room to use it."

"Okay, let's get there," said Mast. "Drake, you still got point?"

"I got it sir," replied Drake. "Control centre's second corridor on the left, right?"

Lauren nodded, and Drake set off down the corridor, Robert and Lauren in tow. Drake turned left into the Control room, and the metal door slid open automatically.

A Reaper stood there, half a human arm in its huge mouth, its saber-like teeth deep in its flesh. The Reaper turned its head and growled, and took a step towards Drake menacingly. Drake blasted its face open with a shotgun round, leaving the semi-headed body to drop to the ground. Lauren and Drake came in behind him, surveying the room.

"Drake, you okay?" asked Lauren.

"Yeah...yeah I'm good," he answered. "That thing just...looked at me, and I just...froze. I don't know why."

"It surprised you. It's a normal reaction, don't worry about it," reassured Mast. But Drake wasn't so sure.

"Oh, my..." said Lauren, almost to herself.

"What is it?" asked Drake, still in relative shock. He moved round the cluster of consoles in the centre of the room, and saw. A soldier lay slumped against the wall, the floor around him smeared with blood and his armour mangled. A gaping hole in his side marked where he had been mauled, and his left arm terminated at his elbow. Lauren bent down retrieved his ID ring, held it up to her chest, then discarded it. "We just missed him...we were so close..." said Lauren, tears welling in her eyes for the first time.

"Lauren, help me activate the comms array," ordered Mast. "Lauren!"

"Sorry sir," replied Lauren, snapping out of a sort of reverie. She did so, accessing a console adjacent to Mast's one. The something caught Drake's eye. Moving to another console he accessed its data, and gasped when he saw it.

"What are you doing Drake?" asked Lauren. "What is it?"

"Oh dear Gods," gasped Drake. "The main compound just got overrun. Auto self-destruct just took it out. The Army's aerial assault on the warship failed, the ground forces are pinned down without proper air support. We're leaderless. We're outnumbered and outgunned ten to one. That's it, we've lost. Radiance is going to fall."

Survivors
SEPTEMBER 22 2614

14:05

REMOTE OUTPOST GAMMA 4B

"When we start transmitting, every bug in range will know where we are," said Lauren. "We better hope allied forces get here before they do."

"We all know that's not very likely," said Mast.

"It doesn't matter anyway," replied Drake. "We're not going to complete our mission now, we're going to die. At least this way we create a distraction for our forces elsewhere. Buy them some time."

"He's right sir," said Lauren. We have to do it."

"We can activate the beacon and run," said Drake.

"You know we can't do that Drake. We'll be running right into them," replied Mast. "And besides, if we leave the array unguarded they'll just destroy it when they get here, and there goes our distraction. We have to hole up here."

"The teleporter here is working," said Drake. We can fight 'til we get overrun, then teleport somewhere less hot."

"We won't know where we end up," answered Lauren. Besides, the network is down, so we'll get thrown out into the middle of nowhere."

"I think it's worth a shot," said Mast. "Drake, go check the teleporter and make sure nothing is blocking our route there. We'll have to move fast. I'll check out the ammunition stores and get some heavy weapons. Lauren, activate the comms array. Then go get some auto-turrets set up, on the roof, around the perimeter. That should give us a fighting chance."

FOURTEEN MINUTES LATER

"Three heavy machine gun turrets, two autocannons, four rocket launchers and one Particle Cannon auto-turret all set up and ready," reported Lauren. "Oh, and I got the short range sensors back online."

"Excellent," replied Mast. "Drake, how's the teleporter?"

"Ready and waiting. Path is clear."

"Here, I found one of these," said Mast, hefting an M620 Light Machine Gun. Who wants it?"

"You take it Drake, I prefer my battle rifle," said Lauren. Drake put his shotgun on his back with his AR20 ICWS and tested the LMG's weight in his hands, then shouldered it and looked down the receiver. It felt heavy and powerful in Drake's arms, so he picked up four box magazines, which he attached to his armour.

"I'll take it."

"Sir, we have incoming," exclaimed Lauren. "Verifying targets....they're not ours. Six Drones, heading right for our HMG's field of fire. Turret is engaging..." Drake could hear the heavy machine gun's distinctive crackle as it opened fire on the six humanoid-shaped insects. "...Targets destroyed. I'm seeing a few- no, dozens of new contacts, incoming. The walls are too thick for them to break through but that door is putty to them. Sir, we should get ready."

"I agree," replied Sgt Mast. "Drake, lay down some heavy fire for us okay?"

"Yes sir," said Drake, pulling back the LMG's bolt as if to signify readiness.

The Gatekeeper
SEPTEMBER 22 2614

''14:26'

REMOTE OUTPOST GAMMA 4B

"Mast, Harris, fall back! I'll cover you!" shouted Drake over the hail of machine gun fire, bullets and energy bolts filling the air like angry wasps.

"No, Drake, there's too many!" exclaimed Mast, tearing off a grenade from his waist and dashing it towards the gaping entrance door, torn open in seconds. Lauren did the same, and Drake backed away after them, firing his LMG from the hip into the masses of Swarm flooding into the building. As he fell back behind a corner in the corridor Mast set an ambush charge, and they chased down the hall after Lauren. A few seconds later the device incinerated several Drones but more followed, and where they turned the corner were deluged by fire from Drake and Lauren, falling back rapidly through an open blast door. Mast took a huge particle blast to his chest and fell against the wall, shields depleted and wheezing.

"Sir!" called Lauren, turning back and rushing towards him, ignoring the dozens of enemies firing at them. But Mast closed the blast door and sealed it. "SIR! Sir open the door! We can get you out just open the door!"

"I'll slow you down, Lauren. I'll stay here, hold them off as long as I can. I never did tell you how much of a good soldier you were. Now go! You know this door won't hold them for long!"

"Lauren, let's go!" called Drake from the teleporter room. He powered the teleporter up with his neural interface, activating an ovular greenish-blue field of energy. He looked back just in time to see Mast's life signature vanish from his HUD. He had detonated his armour's self-destruct, taking dozens of enemies with him.

"Lauren, come on!" Drake called again, and Lauren ran down the hall and onto the teleporter room, sealing the door shut after her. Immediately they could hear the beasts pulling the door open, and a Reaper got its foreleg through and started striking mid-air inside, poking its evil-looking head into the room. Any second now they would break in. Lauren fired a 3-round burst from her battle rifle and the thing dropped to the ground.

"Lauren, it's ready, come on!" Drake shouted frantically at her.

"Go through, I'll be right behind you!

Drake jumped through the portal, and hung in senseless suspension for a what seemed an immeasurable period. Finally he was hit by the cold Radiance air, and flew out a portal onto the hard, rough ground. Heaving himself up, he made a quick check of his surroundings- all clear- before pointing his remaining weapon at the blue portal behind him. Drake had dropped his LMG and his shotgun when he jumped. He waited, poised completely, for minutes. But nothing happened. Panicking, he tried to think of why Lauren hadn't followed him through. Maybe she's still in the system. Maybe she got thrown out at another terminal. But one thing kept surfacing in his mind.

Maybe she didn't make it out.

Giving up, Drake did a more thorough check of his surroundings. The terminal he had been ejected at was in the middle of nowhere. All that existed was a small landing pad and a refueling connection. That was it. On the edge of a forest and an empty, lonely plain.

Then it dawned on him. He was alone, completely alone. Stranded in the middle of nowhere, no food, no supplies, no squad and no hope. He wasn't going to complete the mission; he was going to die here of thirst; or be discovered by the Swarm beasts that were no doubt nearby. Operation Deeep Strike must have been a failure; no reinforcements had arrived and none would. His squad, Mast's squad, Saren's squad, the last forces at the compound- they were all dead. Drake checked his assault rifle and, finding himself out of ammo, threw it as far as he could. He removed the pistol from his thigh.

Drake very quickly realised what a dreadful mistake he had made when he heard an awful hissing sound immediately behind him. Drake paled and turned around, seeing a huge, terrifying Swarm beast looming over him. A Dragon. Drake turned and ran, but the creature leapt at him, easily closing the distance between them, its terrible mouth making rapid hissing and clicking sounds. Two massive claws snapped ferociously at him, turning Drake’s blood to ice. Its large pincers glistened with flesh blood, dripping from its hideous maw. Two horrible, intelligent eyes gleamed like black jewels in the dark, as Drake was looking into the dark heart of the universe itself. They glared at him, calculating, examining, planning how best to devour him.

He ran as fast as he could, trying but inexorably failing to ignore what was pursuing him. It was hopeless; the monster effortlessly closed the gap. Hissing wildly, it swept its heavy claw to the side, knocking Drake flying a dozen yards as if he were a ragdoll. He rolled as he hit the ground, dispersing the impact. His last weapon, his pistol, was hurled out of his hands, and already the creature was upon him, saliva, warm blood and digestive enzymes dripping from its hideous gaping mandibles. The beast turned its heavy claw and brought the blunt side of it crashing down onto the ground in an effort to crush Drake- but he rolled to the side and jumped up, barely holding his footing as the claw smashed heavily onto the ground. As he sprang onto his feet he tore his blade from its sheath on his calf and sent it cleaving against the monster's chest- but the thick carapace deflected the blow. The insect lunged dreadfully at Drake with its pincer-mouth, lightning-fast, but Drake sidestepped awkwardly and jabbed into the air with the knife, fending the monster off. It hissed and recoiled somewhat, but its eyes did not move from Drake nor the claws cease their terrifying snapping.

The thing lunged at him again, and Drake was caught heavily in the chest with an almighty whack from its huge claw. He was knocked off his feet a second time, and the beast towered over him and reigned blows all around him with its many legs. One almost impaled him but he rolled frantically to the side, seeing with shocked horror the razor-edged claws on each of its legs. A leg went straight for his chest and he tried to dodge, but the monster was too fast and it plunged agonisingly into his left shoulder, tearing indiscriminately through armour, muscle and flesh. Drake yelled out as hot blood gushed from the wound, and his shoulder exploded violently with pain. Very suddenly, he felt dizzy. He could not keep fighting.

But he must.

Ignoring his clouded vision and his burning shoulder, he grabbed his knife and rammed it hard as he could against the fiend's underbelly, praying to find it less protected. The blade slid with difficulty through the thick exoskeleton. Drake pulled it out and stabbed it again- and the monster reared up and recoiled, a terrible shriek emanating from its mouth. It chilled Drake to the bone; it felt as if all the happiness in the world had been drained. The foul beast kicked Drake with its forelegs and he felt his knife slip from his grasp. He flew threw the air and landed on the rough ground, spent of his energy. He staggered to his feet, expecting to find the beast tending to its wounds or retreating maybe. he saw with dread that instead it was already upon him, stinking, gaping mouth ready to engulf him. Drake was unarmed, defenseless, exhausted. The hopelessness of his situation hit him in one moment and suddenly he felt very, very lonely. So this was where he would die. But if he was going to die, he would do it like a Theran- fighting to the last.

Drake, strangely somewhat empowered by the realisation that his days were done, threw his right fist at the hideous monster with what little strength he could muster. In the milliseconds before, his neural interface had detected Drake's intentions and extended the three spikes in his hand's armour. The blow alone would've knocked out a grown man- but the creature was unfazed by this or the row of three dents in its carapace. It struck Drake powerfully in his chest and he, yet again, was sent dashing to the round. Drake groaned and tried to get up, but he couldn't. He raised his head and looked at the creature. It hadn't moved, it merely looked at him with malice from its evil, angry eyes. It had sensed the end just as surely as Drake had done. If he was going to die, at least he would do it standing up. He struggled to heave himself to his feet but his arms shook violently and failed him. The creature began to slowly move towards him, the slow, agonising procession of an executioner. Drake shook all over, not from fear but from exhaustion. He had accepted his death a long time ago. The creature hissed slightly. There was no doubt in its mind, or Drake's, what the outcome would be. It was only a short distance away now, the creature and Drake's death, creeping slowly and silently, without remorse or pity, as death does.

Drake could stand up, he thought, if he tried hard enough. He could stand up and face his death on his feet. But something stopped him from doing so. Instead he dragged himself backwards, on his back by his arms. One of his legs bent at an odd angle. But if he really wanted to, he could stand. He should do it.

No.

He continued his slow but futile retreat from the creature, which seemed almost to smile. Drake couldn't tell, maybe that was the blood loss talking. As prepared to stop moving, to stop crawling backwards like a coward, something happened. He put his hand back just a little further, oblivious to what was just out of his reach. One of his fingers clipped it- a metallic object of some sort. Drake grabbed it and whipped it in front of him- it was a pistol, his pistol. He gripped it tightly in his hands and raised it, looking along the ironsights straight into the monster's malevolent eyes. His arms shook violently, as did his entire body. He could not hit the creature. Even if he did it was armoured. He did not even know if his gun was working or had ammunition. He shook from head to toe, covered in mud and slime and blood. The gun rattled slightly in his hands. The beast realised what was happening, just metres from him now. It began to hiss, and once again Drake felt all hope and good feeling sapped from his weary, beleaguered body. What was the point? As if sensing Drake's reaction, the insect opened its dreadful maw wider and screeched all the louder.

Drake pulled the trigger. The bullet impacted the beast on its open upper jaw, and the creature's head exploded backwards. The monster flailed in the air and collapsed, mindless, and was finally, thankfully still. Even in death its eyes radiated malice.

Drake breathed a sigh of relief, though he wondered how many more he would take. He collapsed onto his back, shattered. His pain and raw fear were replaced by a sort of dull, numb emptiness. His suit must have injected something into his bloodstream, though his HUD still flashed a red symbol in the corner. Drake let out a weak tendril of thought and shut off the symbol, something along the lines of 'death is imminent'. Drake didn't care any more. He felt warm, though he knew he shouldn't. He didn't smell the rancid stench of the beast's corpse, nor did he feel the strange coldness of his left arm. He didn't see the strange angle at which his ankle bent, nor his HUD's insistence that he find a weapon of some sort, nor the numerous red dots that represented hostiles, showed all around him on his sensors. All Drake felt was the odd warmth in his spent body, and the deep, agonising despair in his heart. The world was crumbling, he would never see the ones he loved ever again, and he and his comrades, who had laughed and wept and bled together, were dead or would die very, very soon. He had defeated his last enemy, the gatekeeper to his demise. Now he was free to die alone, empty, and cold. The drug was wearing off. He began to feel cold to his core once again. He cursed the world, cursed the Swarm, cursed his own foolishness. Oh, to see the world end like this! To die in such a depraved, pitiful state!

Gathering the strength he had left, though where from Drake would never know, he rolled over onto his front, curled up with his back to the sky and his knees on the ground. He cradled his head in his arms, pulled off his battered helmet to expose his battered face to the cold, vicious wind. Hot tears streamed down his cold face. He raised his pistol to his temple, stone cold just as he now was. He touched the muzzle to his skin, whispering faintly of death as if it was far off, not close enough to sense as it was. He tried to think of reasons not to pull the trigger- but nothing came to mind.

He took up first pressure on the trigger. One quick squeeze now and all the pain and suffering and despair would be over. He should control his own death, rather than leave it to fate. He should do it.

Click.

Drake opened his eyes slowly. Nothing had changed. He was still freezing and shaking and dying both inside and out. His gun was empty. Fate had outsmarted him. He rolled over, with great effort, onto his back again. Let death take him now, he thought, before those beasts catch my scent and come looking for fresh meat. Take me now. "I'm ready..." he whispered quietly, and his eyes closed very slowly, and his consciousness began to fade like a bright light being extinguished. The last tendril of thought left his body, not reluctantly...he did not hear the distant whine of a Sabre, faint but unmistakeable.

Final Flight
Drake woke abruptly, jolting slightly from where he lay in the back of the dimly lit dropship. He saw Ryans and his squad facing away from him, battered but alive. He looked down at the wound on his shoulder and his leg, and saw that they were healed. A wall of pain hit him like a bullet as he struggled to get up. Radner saw and stowed his weapon, then offered Drake an arm, and Elias staggered to his feet.

"Slowly mate," Darren said, easing Drake up. "You were near dead when we found you. Took an hour just to stop the bleeding."

"How did you find me?" he asked, and as he spoke his chest felt as though it was being crushed.

"We were monitoring the teleporter networks for survivors," replied Ryans.

"Survivors?" said Drake worriedly, and Ryans gave a resigned look.

"Yeah, the main compound was overrun, the last survivor activated the self destruct," answered Darren."We think we're the last ones alive."

"What about Lauren? Did you find her too? Did you see her go through the teleporter?" Drake said anxiously, slurring his words.

"Sorry Drake...it was just you. No one else went through the teleporter," replied Ros.

"What happened to you? Where's your team? Where's Mast?" inquired Ryans.

"Helsley died when our bird went down. He piloted it into the ground, saved our lives. We found an outpost but we were attacked. Mast was killed and Lauren was right behind me- I don't know what happened to her. Why didn't you come back for us?"

"Swarm set up triple A in the area. We couldn't attempt a rescue without jeopardising the operation," answered Ros. "We're sorry. Saren and his squad went down trying to reach you, we've lost contact."

"Shit," he swore. "Where are we going now?"

"Where else?" replied Ryans. "To do this thing. We're gonna call in the big boys and exterminate these damn bugs."

"Yeah, so get yourself ready," said Radner. "ETA seven minutes, then we go in hot."

UNSC Ammunition
Listed here are the different ammunition calibres and types of the small arms used by UNSC. Though greatly differing in calibre, these ammunition types provided a wide range in power, range, weight and accuracy, each providing the most imperative characteristics to each weapon, and each role. These ammunition types frequently were available in both the conventional chemically propelled rounds and the more powerful Electrothermal Acceleration propelled rounds. The latter method required both a capacitor and an energy source; the former needed only a standard mechanism to ignite the propellant. A weapon could accept electrothermal accelerated rounds in the same way as standard ones, the only difference being that their casing contained gas ready to be ionised by the energy source in the magazine and the capacitor in the weapon, while standard magazines lacked the energy source in the magazine and were ignited and propelled normally.

Ammunition Types
On top of the many calibres of weapons in the Allegiance arsenal, many different forms of ammunition were available in each calibre, substantially increasing the variability and potency of the Allegiance Armed forces. The following ammunition types were commonly available in small arms calibres:


 * RAPID/RAPID II: The RAPID round, or Reactive Armour Piercing IncenDiary, was an incendiary armour piercing round with a penetrator of tungsten, cerium and copper carbide (altogether known as TC3). This was designed to provide similar effects of a depleted uranium round, such as self-sharpening, pyrophoric and super dense, but without the side effects associated with a radiological material. The armour piercing nature of the round, coupled with the secondary incendiary effects, made the RAPID round highly effective against armoured targets, though less so against shielded ones. The RAPID II round improved the weapon's original performance and also increased its effectiveness against shields, using an condensed CVT (Chromium Vanadium Tungsten) and Austenitic Steel alloy tip coupled with a secondary TC3 penetrator. The round was coated in an advanced polymer which acquired an electric charge while in flight, aiding in shield depletion, an effect which was more useful the further the bullet travelled.


 * HEPAB: While not used as regularly as most ammunition types, HEPAB, or High Explosive Programmable Air Bursting, was a powerful munition capable of taking out multiple armoured targets. The round was fed date from the user's battle armour, which detected the target's movement, distance and such. Upon leaving the barrel the bullet was provided with data on when to burst, so that it exploded in mid air in close proximity to the target or targets, with devastating results. The bullet was composed of dozens of sub-projectiles or bars, most often condensed tungsten carbide or CVT/Austenitic Steel alloy. These were set in a powerful plasma based explosive, detonated by a timed programmed fuse. The electronic timer was programmed by inductive coupling through a device installed in the muzzle of the weapon, or through the armour itself. The timer initiated the ejection charge which released and dispersed the sub projectiles before impact with the target. The ammunition was effective against armoured infantry targets, and moderately useful at depleting shields. However, it was quite dangerous for use in close quarters, though IFF constraints in the armour usually avoided any friendly fire incidents. Nevertheless it was often used most in open or expansive battlefields.


 * HVS/AP-HE: The High Velocity Shield/Armour Piercing High Explosive was the most common form of ammunition used on the battlefield, due to its high damage and multi role nature. it was in essence the basic, standard form of ammunition used when an all round munition was needed, and was highly popular throughout the armed forces. The round consisted of a deforming ballistic cap, a dense treated CVT/Austenitic alloy penetrator, a minute particle forcefield generator to neutralise shielding, and prefragmented tungsten carbide with a high explosive in the centre. The round was able to bypass any present shielding, pierce virtually any body armour and then fragment inside the target, with devastating results.


 * HPHE: HPHE, or High Penetration High Explosive rounds, were a powerful anti armour round able to engage armoured vehicles to a limited degree, in addition to shielded and armoured targets. The tip of the shell was TC3, a laminated tungsten alloy, comprised of tungsten, cerium and copper carbide, which gave the shell extreme armour piercing properties, as well as being self sharpening and pyrophoric. The rest of the shell was prefragmented tungsten carbide, with a small hollow space in the interior. Within this space was a small forcefield generator, powered by a minute power source. Suspended within the field was a microscopic amount of antimatter, which did not come into contact with matter. Once the shell impacted on the target, the deliberately vulnerable power source would be destroyed, causing a matter-antimatter reaction and devastating any armour or targets within the blast radius. The ammunition was not very often used as it caused quite uncontrollable collateral damage, and so was unpopular for use in small arms.


 * HEPA:


 * HPSDAP:


 * HESH:

BR62 Battle Rifle
The weapon was rechambered from the older, less potent 9.5x40mm experimental UNSC round, for use with the Allegiance calibre 9.5x60mm. The round saw an increase in casing length, increasing the bullet's velocity and providing higher kinetic energy on impact. The round's increased velocity considerably increased its kinetic energy, meaning that upon impact with a target it imparted a significant amount of energy. The round's impact energy, accuracy and range contributed to its potency; it was effective against body armour and even energy shielding employed by many forms of infantry. A standard magazine held 36 rounds in three staggered columns of twelve rounds each.

The most common and effective type of ammunition the BR62 employed was HVS/AP-HE, or High Velocity Shield/Armour Piercing-High Explosive. Probably the most advanced and effective feature of the round was its ability to penetrate powerful shielding. Towards the rear of the bullet was a small particle forcefield generator. This was powered by a minute power source which activated as the round left the barrel, providing more than enough power for a few seconds in flight. The shield was arranged in a conical shape, with the narrow point projected out in front of the bullet. Upon contact with a shield, the forcefield would force a small hole in the shields, indiscriminate of their strength. The hole would only be maintained for a split second and would thereafter collapse, though it was enough for the bullet to pass through the gap. As the shield was particle based, it was equivalent to a conventional penetrator; instead it was projected out in front of the bullet and specifically aimed at piercing shielding. Generally, however, the round's extreme stopping power would ensure shield depletion; this way it was preserved for armour penetration instead. As a result of the forcefield, the area of high pressure usually occurring at the front of a fast moving object, such as an aircraft or bullet, was shifted instead to in front of the forcefield. This did not deplete the field’s power by a noticeable amount, but allowed the bullet to travel faster than it would normally without the presence of a forcefield. This effect, although widely documented, is in essence a side-effect of the shield defeating field, albeit a welcome one. As a result the bullet had roughly a 30% velocity increase over other, similarly weighted bullets, disregarding its exotic propellant method. The armour piercing component of the round consisted of a ballistic cap, a lightweight synthetic material designed to deform on impact, and arranged in an aerodynamic shape. Below that was a penetrator core of CVT (Chromium Vanadium Tungsten) and Austenitic Steel alloy. This alloy had been condensed using gravitational field manipulation, achieving an 82% smaller material for the same weight allowing it to be used in larger quantities and higher masses. It had then been liquefied by ion fusers, then bombarded with charged particle vibrating waves as the material cooled. This dramatically improved the bonding strength of the molecules and guaranteed the penetrator would hold its shape on contact with the target. Behind this was a pre-fragmented block of TC3 alloy, composed of tungsten, cerium and copper carbide, with a delayed fuse in the centre. Once the bullet penetrated the armour, the fuse was activated on a split second timer. This fuse contained a plasma based high explosive compound, which fragmented the pre-weakened TC3, in turn heavily damaging organic structures and internal organs. As a secondary function the TC3 was incendiary, causing severe secondary damage to soft targets.

Unlike some Allegiance infantry weapons, the round was not caseless, the magazine containing both bullets and their attached casings. Rather than using a plasma-based propellant in these casings, they instead contained gas which was ionised, super-expanding and forcing the bullets out of the barrel at a muzzle velocity of just under 3,500m/s. In order to partially ionise this gas, the weapon utilised a miniaturised Electrothermal Acceleration system. The system used a plasma discharge rather than a chemical reaction to force the bullet down the barrel. A high current, high voltage energy source was used along with a capacitor bank. The capacitor was located inside the weapon itself towards the rear, had a life span of 8 to 10 years and was removable through a mechanism in the stock. The energy source was a small device located in each magazine, providing a high voltage and current energy source capable of providing power for propellant of that magazine's rounds. This system replaced the older method of a single power source located in the weapon that needed to be reloaded every so often; this way the magazine was the only thing that needed to be changed. Both were attached in series to the electrode system in the BR62's barrel. The capacitor was loaded with as high a voltage as possible, and the capacitor was then discharged. The gas in the gap between the electrodes would ionise, turning the non-flammable propellant into superheated conductive plasma. At this point, associated volumetric expansion would propel the projectile from the barrel at very high velocity. This greatly increased the bullet's velocity, lowering its transition time and increasing kinetic effects and penetration on contact with the target.

M45 Compact Ranged Weapon System
The M45A utilised the calibre 11.4x60mm. This was a long range, accurate and high velocity round with crippling stopping power. The M45A most commonly accepted this round in 10-round single column or 15-round staggered column magazines. While this round had not unsubstantial recoil, inertial compensators integral to the weapon negated the majority of this and allowed for rapid groups of shots to be fired, with a very short target reacquisition time, even when using the 3-round burst firing mode. The 11.4mm round was capable of piercing the strongest infantry shielding and armour, especially in ammunition types such as HVS/AP-HE, HPHE, HPSDAP and HEPA. Upon leaving the barrel, a microprocessor in the bullet was fed the target the user was aiming at, this having been detected by the user's neural interface. Using small steering vanes the bullet had an active ability to self-correct its path, adjusting in-flight for windage and other conditions, and even the target's movement. At 3500m the round had a 99.975% chance of hitting its target. In the event that the target was not hit by the bullet, for example being killed by an ally or ducking behind thick cover, the microprocessor would guide the bullet to the target's previous position, and, providing the bullet had an explosive or incendiary component, would activate it, wounding the target or surrounding enemies. Similarly, the user of the weapon could utilise air-bursting ammunition using a rangefinder affixed to the weapon or integral to their armour, or via satellite link. The ammunition would then burst mid-air at the appropriate distance.

The most common and effective type of ammunition the M45A employed was HVS/AP-HE, or High Velocity Shield/Armour Piercing-High Explosive. Probably the most advanced and effective feature of the round was its ability to penetrate powerful shielding. Towards the rear of the bullet was a small particle forcefield generator. This was powered by a minute power source which activated as the round left the barrel, providing more than enough power for a few seconds in flight. The shield was arranged in a conical shape, with the narrow point projected out in front of the bullet. Upon contact with a shield, the forcefield would force a small hole in the shields, indiscriminate of their strength. The hole would only be maintained for a split second and would thereafter collapse, though it was enough for the bullet to pass through the gap. As the shield was particle based, it was equivalent to a conventional penetrator; instead it was projected out in front of the bullet and specifically aimed at piercing shielding. Generally, however, the round's extreme stopping power would ensure shield depletion; this way it was preserved for armour penetration instead. As a result of the forcefield, the area of high pressure usually occurring at the front of a fast moving object, such as an aircraft or bullet, was shifted instead to in front of the forcefield. This did not deplete the field’s power by a noticeable amount, but allowed the bullet to travel faster than it would normally without the presence of a forcefield. This effect, although widely documented, is in essence a side-effect of the shield defeating field, albeit a welcome one. As a result the bullet had roughly a 30% velocity increase over other, similarly weighted bullets, disregarding its exotic propellant method. The armour piercing component of the round consisted of a ballistic cap, a lightweight synthetic material designed to deform on impact, and arranged in an aerodynamic shape. Below that was a penetrator core of CVT (Chromium Vanadium Tungsten) and Austenitic Steel alloy. This alloy had been condensed using gravitational field manipulation, achieving an 82% smaller material for the same weight allowing it to be used in larger quantities and higher masses. It had then been liquefied by ion fusers, then bombarded with charged particle vibrating waves as the material cooled. This dramatically improved the bonding strength of the molecules and guaranteed the penetrator would hold its shape on contact with the target. Behind this was a pre-fragmented block of TC3 alloy, composed of tungsten, cerium and copper carbide, with a delayed fuse in the centre. Once the bullet penetrated the armour, the fuse was activated on a split second timer. This fuse contained a plasma based high explosive compound, which fragmented the pre-weakened TC3, in turn heavily damaging organic structures and internal organs. As a secondary function the TC3 was incendiary, causing severe secondary damage to soft targets.

Unlike some UNSC infantry weapons, the round was not caseless, the magazine containing both bullets and their attached casings. Rather than using a plasma-based propellant in these casings, they instead contained gas which was ionised, super-expanding and forcing the bullets out of the barrel at a muzzle velocity of just under 3,500m/s. In order to partially ionise this gas, the weapon utilised a miniaturised Electrothermal Acceleration system. The system used a plasma discharge rather than a chemical reaction to force the bullet down the barrel. A high current, high voltage energy source was used along with a capacitor bank. The capacitor was located inside the weapon itself towards the rear, had a life span of 8 to 10 years and was removable through a mechanism in the stock. The energy source was a small device located in each magazine, providing a high voltage and current energy source capable of providing power for propellant of that magazine's rounds. This system replaced the older method of a single power source located in the weapon that needed to be reloaded every so often; this way the magazine was the only thing that needed to be changed. Both were attached in series to the electrode system in the M45A's barrel. The capacitor was loaded with as high a voltage as possible, and the capacitor was then discharged. The gas in the gap between the electrodes would ionise, turning the non-flammable propellant into superheated conductive plasma. At this point, associated volumetric expansion would propel the projectile from the barrel at very high velocity. This greatly increased the bullet's velocity, lowering its transition time and increasing kinetic effects and penetration on contact with the target.

M8 Submachine Gun
The M8 utilised advanced and powerful ammunition, a result of its need to overcome powerful organic and non-organic ceramic and composite armour. There were many ammunition types available in the M8's calibre, such as HVS/AP-HE, HPSDAP and HEPA rounds. The weapon's calibre was 5x23mm, which was a miniaturised round developed for use in SMGs and some pistols and personal defense weapons. It increased substantially the carrying capacity of the ammunition, and in some cases, for example submachine guns, its rate of fire. The associated decrease in mass and therefore power and penetration was combated by use of more advanced, and more expensive, ammunition types. The round was caseless, decreasing the mass and cost of the ammunition. Instead of using the traditional method of a plasma-based synthetic block of propellant that combusted in the barrel to provide the bullet thrust, the M8 instead utilised a miniaturised Electrothermal Acceleration system. This gave the weapon an impressive muzzle velocity of 2,140m/s.

The system used a plasma discharge rather than a chemical reaction to force the bullet down the barrel. A high current, high voltage energy source was used along with a capacitor bank. The Capacitor was located inside the weapon itself towards the rear, had a life span of 8 to 10 years and was removable through a mechanism in the stock. The energy source was a small device located in each magazine, providing a high voltage and current energy source capable of providing power for propellant of that magazine's rounds. This system replaced the older method of a single power source located in the weapon that needed to be reloaded every so often; this way the magazine was the only thing that needed to be changed. Both were attached in series to the electrode system in the M8's barrel. The capacitor was loaded with as high a voltage as possible, and the capacitor was then discharged. The gas in the gap between the electrodes would ionise, turning the non-flammable propellant into superheated conductive plasma. At this point, associated volumetric expansion would propel the projectile from the barrel at very high velocity. This added to the M8's already potent battlefield ability.

The ammunition could be loaded either using the standard, quadruple stacked, 80 round box magazine, which was the most commonly used method. Alternatively, a cylindrical 160 round helical magazine could be used, providing extended firing periods at the cost of a more bulky and heavier magazine. A favourite of troops going into combat was to load their weapon with the 160 round mag and then carry 80 round ones for when the former ran dry.

L534 Grenade Launcher
The L534 Grenade Launcher was a heavy infantry weapon in use with The Royal Allegiance.

History
Conceived during the Remnant War, the L534 was issued to heavy infantry and was used to great effect against shielded infantry and light vehicles. While considered by most to be a rather primitive weapon, none could disagree with its astounding power, the reason it was still in service when the Swarm War erupted. Designed and introduced in 2554, and heavily influenced by earlier designs, the L534 was the oldest weapon still in use in 2733. As Particle-based weaponry and directed energy beams began to sweep aside older cannons and grenade launchers, the first steps in an eventual replacement of conventional weapons with energy based ones, the L534 remained as one of the few weapons with no energy weapon counterpart. While eventually retired in 2891, it was one of the most successful and widespread conventional weapon in use as directed energy weapons began to dominate the theatres of war.

Usage
The L534 was often used as a close, medium and mid long range suppression weapon. However, it was useful against a wide range of ground based targets. It could quickly mow down a group of infantry in the open or taking cover, and could engage lightly armoured vehicles and rapidly destroy them. It was useful against slow moving low flying aircraft, but was not as effective as other weapons. It could be used either on its own by a single infantryman, or mounted onto a bipod or tripod. Additionally, it could be mounted onto armoured vehicles via the IRONHAMMER Weapon Mount, giving vehicles a good multi purpose weapon. When used by a single soldier it was often drum-fed, though its 50-round drum went dry after only 8 seconds of continuous firing, unless using semi automatic mode of fire. At its most effective when mounted onto vehicles, it could be belt-fed meaning a better efficiency and more reliable weapon. The weapon was well-liked for its light weight, low recoil, and power against infantry and light armour. Unfortunately its high rate of fire meant soldiers often overlooked it, only being able to carry a few of the large magazines and knowing that after only a few minutes they would be out of ammunition. It was designed mainly for vehicle-based usage and so infantry use suffered slightly, dismounted troops favouring smaller, lower velocity, slower firing and sometimes underbarrel grenade launchers.

Design
The launcher was fed by a 12-round, cylindrical drum magazine underneath the weapon, which fed into the barrel directly. It utilised Electrothermal Acceleration technology, rather than combustible propellant, to launch the grenades, which decreased the weapon's recoil and meant higher muzzle velocity, in turn increasing the penetration and lethality of the weapon. Underneath the large barrel was a foregrip, which had an accessory rail mounted underneath to allow modifications. Similarly another rail was located above the barrel, for flashlights, target designators and other such attachments. The fire mode selector was located behind the magazine, and just above the large pistol-style grip and conventional trigger. Behind this, a large, adjustable stock extended from the weapon, with an ergonomic buttstock and a cheekrest on the top side. On the top of the L534 was another rail, accommodating sights and scopes to increase the weapon's capability. The weapon featured a venting system that recovered part of the gases generated by the round, and pushed it back in a space located behind the bolt during the cycle. The bolt 'bounced' on a sort of 'gas cushion' that acted as a buffer, dramatically reducing the weapon's recoil.

While fed by a drum, fire modes were restricted to three round burst and single shot modes only, to conserve ammunition and maintain weapon controllability. While fed from an ammunition belt, however, especially when used in conjunction with a mount or tripod, the weapon was more potent and effective in fully automatic mode.

Ammunition
The L534 utilised the 40x56mm HE ammunition, which killed any personnel within a 7m radius and had a casualty radius of up to 100m. Unlike underbarrel grenade launchers, the L534 fired high velocity 40x56mm grenades, with a penetration sufficient to penetrate APC and other light armoured vehicle's armour. Alternatively the RAPID ammunition was used, which was a miniaturised version of other ammunition types. The RAPID round was designed to defeat armoured vehicles using reactive armour, which became increasingly widespread throughout the late 2500s. It saw great success against reactive armoured vehicles, though was somewhat less effective against non-reactive armoured targets. The round was also effective against armoured and shielded infantry targets.

The RAPID round was made up of a laminated tungsten alloy, comprised of tungsten, cerium and copper carbide (altogether known as TC3). This was designed to provide similar effects of a depleted uranium round, such as pyrophoric, self-sharpening and super dense, but without the side effects associated with a radiological material. The flat projectile trajectory and a short flight time significantly increased the hit probability with an increased ability of the ultra low drag tungsten alloy long rod penetrator to defeat armour.

The Electrothermal Acceleration system used a plasma discharge rather than a chemical reaction to force the grenade down the barrel. A high current, high voltage energy source was used along with a large Capacitor bank. Both were attached in series to the electrode system in the cannon's barrel. The capacitor was loaded with as high a voltage as possible. However, a militarily useful energy was achieved with as little as several kilojoules. The capacitor was then discharged. The gas in the gap between the electrodes would ionise, turning the non-flammable propellant into superheated conductive plasma. At this point, associated volumetric expansion would propel the projectile from the barrel at very high velocity.

The advantages of this method of propellant were clear. It increased the round's velocity by up to 480% over conventional techniques, aiding in accuracy and penetration characteristics. It used electricity as energy source, eliminating the need for explosive and vulnerable propellants. The power of the round could also be determined, unlike traditional methods. The more energy was supplied the faster the gases expanded, and the faster the projectile was accelerated. This made it possible to select any velocity desired and also allowed the projectile to reach speeds at which it would outrun the burn rate of a conventional propellant.

Gallery
The Battle of New Seville was a bloody engagement taking place between the United Nations Space Command and the Covenant Religious Hegemony, occurring on the planet New Seville in 2540.

The AH-17 Raptor was the primary spatial and naval bomber for The Royal Allegiance during the Swarm War.

Role
The AH-17 Raptor was a heavy bomber in use with the The Royal Allegiance. They excelled at destroying undefended capital ships. Their primary role was that of capital ship killer, but they were also very occasionally capable of planetary bombing missions. They could not function as fighters due to their large size and clumsy maneuverability. They were often deployed alongside AL-56 Flashfighters and AL-61 Interceptors, which would then engage enemy fighters allowing the bombers to begin their attack freely. As such, they were a common sight in naval engagements, though usually moving fast and avoiding confrontation with enemy single ships. Usually only seen during the latter stages of a battle, unless it was a tough fight and the Allegiance forces needed to bring as much fire as they could onto the enemy.

Usage
AH-17s were almost exclusively employed to engage hostile spatial armour. The only other role they were often assigned was that of an atmospheric bomber, though they were largely ineffective in this, resulting in the introduction of a new craft, the R41 Phoenix. Raptors were extremely expensive, valuable, and vulnerable. Allegiance commanders were reluctant to deploy them unless in must-win situations because they feared they might not receive replacements. Reflecting this, an Ares-class Battleship only carried two squadrons, an Apollo-class Frigate only two, and the Triton-class Heavy Destroyer no squadrons of Raptors. From 2738 onwards, Raptors were replaced in the atmospheric bomber role by the multi-role R41 Phoenix, which functioned as a ground attack fighter and an atmospheric bomber in one.

Layout
In comparison to most other Allegiance designs, the Raptor was relatively smooth and sleek, and almost reminiscent of UNSC craft. The craft was dominated by a long fuselage, with the cockpit situated at it's fore. Aft of the cockpit was the large triple 65mm autocannon, and under the large, forward-swept wings were numerous large hardpoints to facilitate heavy payloads.The bomb bay was located on the ventral side of the fuselage, and two twin 20mm machine guns extended from the wing's leading edges. The Raptor's main thrusters were located at the aft of the fuselage, with two secondary ones located just underneath and two tertiary ones to aid in maneuvering on the wing's trailing edges. Two large tail fins extended from the large wing's dorsal surface, adding stability and control for atmospheric flights. The appearance of the Raptor had been compared to that of its namesake, birds of prey or 'raptors'. Its pointed nose, large, swept-forward wings and tail fins all contributed to its striking appearance.

Armament
The Raptor's primary light armament was its two twin 20mm machine guns in stationary positions to port and starboard of the cockpit. These were for light purposes only, they would have no effect on warships. As a result they were reserved for any starfighters that strayed into the Raptor's path.

The Raptor's main anti-armour weaponry were two torpedo tubes concealed underneath the cockpit. They could fire a wide range of ordnance, from standard torpedoes to high explosive warheads. These tubes were unable to carry nuclear warheads.

Some models stripped all of their armament save for the tail gun, for replacement with a single, large Particle Cannon mounted underneath the cockpit. This provided the Allegiance with a versatile, small heavy weapons platform other than large, slow warships.

For the main defensive armament, the AH-17 mounted a triple 65mm autocannon to the aft of the ship. This filled a gap in the ship's field of fire that would otherwise render the Raptor a tactical failure- an enemy ship approaching from behind would be able to easily destroy this craft, as it lacked maneuverability. This turret was quite powerful, being considered by some as the Raptor's main advantage.

Underneath the large, forward-swept wings were two large hardpoint racks, capable of accommodating ordnance in numbers far greater than the Flashfighter. The racks were quite long which means each one could normally accommodate more than one warhead, unless the payload was HE warheads, in which case it carried one on each hardpoint, and nuclear warheads, which were carried one warhead to two hardpoints.

Rounding off the Raptor's offensive armament was the ventral bomb bay. It could carry up to 3,000kg of payload but this severely impeded its wing hardpoint capacity. Also, in space combat, where there was no gravity, a bomb could not be 'dropped' onto a target- it would just float away. Therefore the standard configuration was an empty bomb bay and full hardpoint rack in space, and the opposite in atmosphere. A favourite of atmosphere pilots was to fill the bomb bay up with ordnance for a drop on targets, and use the hardpoints for WASP Air-to-Surface missiles.

Weaknesses
The Raptor suffered from rather poor maneuverability, stemming from its large mass; though it was faster than most fighters, allowing it to escape through speed rather than agility. In atmosphere it was largely useless as a ground attack bomber due to its focus on engaging capital ships. The rear of the craft would be dangerously vulnerable if not for the triple 65mm turret, and the underside of the craft was still extremely exposed. This problem was exacerbated by the Raptor's large wing surface area, which presented a large and tantalising target from below.

Operational History
Introduced in 2638, the AH-17 Raptor served as the mainstay bomber within the Allegiance forces. For many decades it remained untouched in its filling of this role. However, with the start of the Swarm War, bombers took heavy losses fighting through massive numbers of Swarm fighters to reach their warships. As a result the Allegiance began introducing fighter/bombers that could fulfil the role of bomber and still defeat fighters in dogfights. In addition, the Raptor's armament had been outdated by several decades by the Swarm War and this was beginning to tell in their combat effectiveness. This, coupled with the introduction of newer fighter/bombers such as the F/A-240 Scythe, led to the decline of the Raptor. It was officially replaced in 2774 by the BH-21 Valkyrie.