Halo: Gauntlet

Prologue

July 18, 2556

Four years after Operation: Blind Faith, AKA: The Battle of Installation 00

Space. A neverending void of nothing. A black nightmare once thought unexplorable. 

But we did explore it.

Humanity sparked a flame of discovery, searching the galaxy, hoping to uncover its mystery. Instead, we found the fires of war.

Our enemy was ruthless and efficient. Millions would fight, and millions more would die. It was a war that would change the course of the galaxy.  

But we survived. We found Halo, unlocked its secrets, and shattered our enemy's resolve. We won. We had achieved peace. Or so we thought. 

Our enemy came back, fractured, but strong. To many, it seemed like the war would never truly end. That perhaps, peace was never an option. But it will be. Until that day comes, however, there are those that still must fight, and keep the fire lit. 

*                                                                      *                                                                             *

Somewhere in unknown space, a black void dotted with distant stars, the inky darkness seemed to spark and split, and with a sudden and loud CRACK, a blue portal opened up, and out came a large Paris-class heavy frigate, plunging out at full speed, guns still red hot, with smoke pouring out of its portside. Its painted-on name, scratched and dirty, yet bold and readable, was the UNSC Houston.

On its bridge, Captain Grant Taylor scrambled back up to his seat and tried to secure his once-proud ship.

"Status!"

"Multiple casualties on the port decks sir! The aft engine has taken heavy damage! Multiple guns disabled!"

Sparks began to fly out of a panel, blown out by a quick bang. One of the crew members rushed in quickly with an extinguisher, killing the small fire that had formed.

"We barely have control of the ship!" 

"Somebody tell me where we are! Are we being followed?"

"I can't tell, sir! I'm not picking anything up!"

Captain Taylor sighed with relief and wiped his forehead. They had barely made it out of Ballast where Covenant Remnants rushed at their UNSC Fleet, which was refueling before a long journey back to Earth. The ambush had taken out 2 destroyers and 1 corvette before Taylor could order a random jump to escape. 

"Someone tell me where we are," Taylor reiterated. 

"Still unknown sir! Trying to contact fleet command now!"

"Then keep us moving forward."

"Uh, Captain?" said a voice.

"What is it, Paxton?"

Paxton was the ship's AI. Top of the line, he was almost human in nature, his hologram manifesting in a bright, aquamarine color sporting an unbuttoned military jacket and slacks. With his help, many lives had been saved in a myriad of operations. He was undoubtedly the crew's most reliable member. 

"There's a large object 50 klicks away, on the edge of our sensors."

Taylor checked the readings on the screen in front of him. The scanners were poor and outdated, leaving the object a shapeless, unidentifiable blob. Regardless, if they could get to it, it could provide enough cover to start repairs and assess casualties. 

"Helm! Take us closer to the object! We'll hide out there until we can contact Fleetcom." 

The ship turned to face the object, and the ion engines were fully powered. The broken, beaten-down ship trudged towards what they thought would be safe from all of the bloodshed back at Ballast. 30 klicks in, and they finally got close enough to see the so-called "planet". They immediately noticed something was wrong. What should have been a relatively spherical object, like a planet, moon, or even an asteroid, was instead a ring-shaped man-made structure of some kind. There was bright green land and cool blue water on the surface,  like a planet, but with a silver metal lining its outer edge. 

"Uh, sir? Is that...?" Paxton questioned.

Taylor swallowed and his eyes went wide. It was at this moment that he knew everything he had trained for couldn't prepare him for this. With a heavy, bated breath, he states to all of his trusted crew members on the bridge what they already know:

"It's a Halo ring."