"The Dust of Dead Stars"

The Human-Covenant war (Prologue part 1)

(Narrator POV)


-"27 Years, 8 Months, and 9 Days, thats how much it took to destroy hundreds of years of progress and colonization, thats how long it took the Covenant to Ruin the future of Humanity, to Kill Billions, to glass tens of planets, thats how much it took them to Slap us with Reality and to destroy our homes.

It all begun on the 3rd of February, on the faithful day where we found the Alien Bastards, we had a Skirmish after they raided 2 of our ships, and that lead to some meetings, which then, Led to the very first ground engagement of our war for survival, a very large one.
we are of course talking about Harvest. Yes, we Evacuated the Civilians, Yes, we gave them a Bloody Nose, But we lost our first ships in the entire war, and they Partially Glassed Harvest, and after 5 years of Fighting, we retook Harvest

But they kept pushing, of course they did, because they outmatched us, we needed a 4 to 1 Advantage to win against Covenant flotillas, and world after world, we kept falling back, until eventually, the Outer Colonies were no longer there for us, over 60 million Died, and Hundreds of our ships, along with the tens of Thousands of Sailors that crewed them died, for what? some years of stalling? 

But Ground battles were not that hopeless as the Space ones, we had one ace up our sleeve, the SPARTANs. Our Supersoldiers are really Living Heros and Angels, just a few Spartans were enough to turn the tide of campaigns, The Covenant felt they were such a threat, that they started calling them "Devils", and Believing that we kept reviving them over and over with Necromancy, Because of their combat effectiveness, you have been given another second, minute, hour, or day of life

But of course, they didnt stop there, and the nightmare continued, they came for the Inner colonies, and we fought with tooth and Nail, our biggest ships, our most effective tactics, our most numerous fleets, we threw everything we had at the covenant, and they kept coming, winning battle after battle, and then, they reached our Final Fortress, our biggest stronghold in Space, we were Ready to fight them to the very Last man, it was Then, when they found Reach.

Reach was a disaster for them, we sunk their biggest ship in the vicinity, they lost Hundreds of ships, they lost millions of troops, and we kept pushing back, we kept Holding, we were not giving Reach that easily.

So they resorted to glassing the entire planet, at least half a billion civilians died, and as much of our troops died on the ground too, our entire navy over reach got crippled, and our Biggest Ship, the Trafalgar, which held its ground for day after day.

Some of you are Veterans of Reach, some of you are newbies to the Craft, but you have to understand that you are one of our aces, one of our best resources for this War against the genocidal Religious Zealots, every one of you has the Chance to cause considerable damage to even the bigger Covenant ships. Some of you are Equipped with mines, others with missiles, and others with Nuclear Weapons, and are Tasked to defend the very home and craddle of Humanity with your life, and we trust you with it. Today, we know that they are Genocides, they want to destroy us all, they dont want to conquer us, they want to Exterminate, this is what you fight for, if the Covenant breaks through, we will all be killed, all your families will be glassed, they dont forgive, they dont have Mercy, they will assasinate the very last of us, and i dont mean Us as in the Crew of the Orbital Defense Platform, or the high command of the fleet, or even the UNSC, But in "Us" as in the entire Humankind, remember, every second you distract or Damage the Covenant Ships, is another second the ODP's have to Fire again, or another second our navy has to Recover and rest.

And right now, we are on Thin Ice, the way to Earth is open, they have not found us yet, but knowing what they have done so far, they will eventually find us, and we will have nowhere to hide, we will have to face them at last, at our Home turf.
But anyways, Its time to do what we came here for, what you enlisted for, To Defend Mankind From Extinction, to aid our brothers and sisters from the Navy, Congratulations for the Graduation, and good Luck out there"

-Speech of Fleet Admiral Harper on the Celebration for the Forming of Longswords Squadron Epsilon, on Board of the Orbital Defense Platform "Tripoli Station" 3 days before The beginning of the Battle of Earth-