A grey morning appears as Angel wakes to get his things ready for the day. The barracks is full of other members of the branch getting ready to grab breakfast and start out for training. With the news of ships being found blown apart in distant sectors many of the other recruits are nervous of the coming months. Angel gets his gear on and starts his normal route to the mess hall. As he walks down the metal lined hall of the building, he notices one of the commanding officers in a adjacent hallway talking with someone he has not seen before. Keeping this in mind with the recent news he thinks to himself "maybe something happened to the convoy that was heading here from Reach".
The spartan had recently transferred from there to start a new training program at this base and was going to assist with the colonization of the small planet for future ore mining. With the outer rim of the galaxy getting more dangerous the humans were looking for all the resources they could get their hands on. Angel was among a few others from Reach who had finished their Spartan training and were looking to assist in other locations but those who came with were not as equipped or augmented as he was. After the normal morning routines he was setting out to do the first patrol of the area. all things were calm on the small planet. Plant life and strange animals were inhabiting the blue grassy knolls of the area but none seemed to mind the spartan as he walked about the route. Things seemed as if it was a normal day throughout the base.
As he made his way to the first small outpost he came to find that the other members there were all but missing, one member sat in the control center watching over the comms while he slightly dozed off. Angel spoke up: "where is the rest of the squad that was stationed here? They weren't supposed to swap shifts until 1500." As the now surprised soldier noticed the large spartan standing at the doorway he got up and saluted. "Sir, the squad noticed some strange energy fluxes causing communication outages in the distance and decided to head over and check it out." Just as Angel went over to check on the command center screens they heard a low crack and the power flickered at the station. Surprised with this Angel went to a window to check outside. The planet was known to have minor earthquakes due to the mining rigs getting set up but nothing that would cause any power issues at a command post.
As the soldier checked the panels camera monitors of the area the pane went black. He radioed in to the other members of the scouting party to head back and check on the local scan system but there was no reply. Thinking they were messing with him he went outside to go and check if the camera was being covered up at the side entrance to mess with him. As this was going on Angel went over to see if he could contact the main base and radio in about a larger earthquake that may be cause for concern about the base. No answer. The radio was silent as if something was interfering with the signal. As Angel went to go and check on the soldier he heard a sizzling sound and then a thud from the other side of the door. Concerned he opened the door to find the soldier with a giant purple crystal like shard in his back.
Angel grabbed his rifle and closed the door, rushing over to check the cameras throughout the station. One by one the cameras went black until only one remained, the camera for the room he was in. Within minutes he was getting his gear ready for a possible human push as there were those on the planet who wanted to be left alone and not have to waste their lives mining resources for the colonies space fleet with little to no compensation. Thinking it was a rag tag team of humans who had gotten ahold of some weapons he went to the roof latch to get to higher ground to scout the area.
Once he made it to the roof he spotted a what appeared to be a foreign enemy. He had fought on the battle of Earth during the first invasions of the covenant but had not seen them active for a while after a bulk of the enemy ships were destroyed. Seeing this he tried his suits comms to radio in to base. With no answer he decided that with one soldier down and the others possibly dead he had to do something to prevent more of the outposts from falling. The outposts had a tunnel system in them to go to an outcropping in the mountain side in case something were to happen. Angel traversed the tunnel and made it to the main opening. As he went to the mossy opening he saw a large covenant ship that had landed with some of its hull damaged. Coming off of the ship were platoons of grunts, a few brutes and two hunters. They had already set up a perimeter around their damaged ship and appeared to be making the repairs, at the base of the ship by the storage containers he saw part of what was left of the missing scout group.
In the top mountain outcropping the soldiers liked to keep a rifle in case anything should occur. Due to this Angel took full advantage of the situation and picked up the heavy caliber rifle setting to aim at the closes troops that were at the now burning outpost. Seeing as they had not found the underground tunnel he set up to aim the rifle at the first grunts back. As he fired a faint crack rang through the valley. The first round hitting the grunts breathing tank causing it to explode. This sent the other grunts flailing away and screaming. With the other ones being picked off easily Angel kept in mind the lone sniper that he spotted on the other mountain side.
Knowing that this was going to require a heavier arsenal and more reinforcements to take on the ship he set back to the base by foot to gather a few Warthogs and rocket launchers to prepare to rescue the two alive prisoners that were at the ship. Along the way picking off small groups of grunts and other covenant ruminants that were looking to scout the area. Upon reaching the main base he was shocked to see that there had been minor fighting there while he was gone. Seeing a few officers inside he stepped up to see what the situation was.
