Rise of the Covenant

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[Reyona te Tsateka Ray'i'itan]

Rise of the Covenant

The year is 2525. The date is October 7th. You are a new recruit in the UNSC, be it ODST, Marine, or legendary Spartan II. The outer colony of Harvest was just discovered to be decimated by an alien cruiser of unknown origins. An intercepted transmission identifies the enemy as The Covenant. Their message, "Your destruction is the will of the Gods...and we are their instrument." Now, less than a month later, Vice Admiral Cole has commandeered the largest fleet in human history. The mission: retake Harvest.

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[Reyona te Tsateka Ray'i'itan]

Member List

http://forum.learnnavi.org/info-support/rise-of-the-covenant-character-profiles/

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OOC Thread

http://forum.learnnavi.org/out-of-character-(ooc)/rise-of-the-covenant-(ooc-thread)/

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[Reyona te Tsateka Ray'i'itan]

2525
0800 Hours
UNSC Tharsis

Chris felt his consciousness slowly filter back through a haze. He coughed, loosening the mucus-like substance that anyone in cryo storage inhaled. "Nasty stuff, tastes like bitter almonds," he thought to himself. Still coughing, he punched the capsule lid release and exited the chamber. He stretched out and cracked his neck and knuckles. Yeah, cryo storage was definitely not a fun thing.

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[Duma Vadamee {Aungia Tsawkeyä}]

2525
0801 Hours
UNSC Tharsis, Cyro Chambers

     Duma sat on a crudly-welded pole inbetween cryo pods as he waited for his "assiment" to wake from deep slumber. honestly, he could of cared less if the man ever woke from cyro; it would of just qickened his day. Presuming that the admiral didn't give him s*** about the guy's death.
     But orders were orders, even for a spartan. He looked down at his gloved hand and sighed. He had woken an hour before in his Mark IV E. V. A. power armor with a horrible rash from cyro sleep. you were suppose to have nothing on, like the man he waited for, when you were frozen. but for spartans you must have your armor on a all times in case of a flash-thaw for immediat action.
     It wasn't like he couldn't ignore the pain; he could. it was part of his training to ignore pain. But he still hated the rule. he hated all rules by the UNSC. the only reason he was still within the militaries tight clockwork was of two things: John and Dr. Catherine Halsey.
     He smiled behind the socalled "fishbowl" E. V. A. helmet. He remembered John. Like the other 300 or so canidates for the Spartan II project, he had worked with every single brother and sister of his, but none fasinated him more then john. the guy was such a luck-horder that he gave up trying to beat him at one-on-one boxing during there "breaks". He missed him. it was a shame he wasn't with them now. he could of used the help.
     and the Dr. he really didn't dispize there socalled "mother", even though he knew what she had done to get all of his teammates to where they are. still, sometimes she-
     his thoughts were interrupted by a cyro pods lid next to him opened and a nude man stepped out. finally, i thought i was going to be here all day. he stood as the man coughed. he may have been late teens, but standing over 7 feet tall and a husky voice gave way to his rank.
     "ah, sargent Chris, glad your up. thought you were never going to wake." he chucked. "get dressed. Cole wants you to haul your ass upstaires to the control center ASAP. I must accompany you. seems like we got a monster of a problem from the sound of his voice."

[Reyona te Tsateka Ray'i'itan]

8010 Hours
UNSC Tharsis, Observation Deck

"They had to throw a Spartan on top of the rude awakening from cryo," Chris mused. He didn't necessarily despise the Spartan program, but it had stolen the ODST's hard earned spotlight. "That and the several less-than-friendly encounters between the ODST's and Spartans."

Chris studied the man. He was easily 7 feet tall, and despite the augmentations he was probably at least 6 feet prior to the surgeries. He was broad, a very physically imposing man. He commanded an air of authority, though it was likely that Chris outranked him. Chris found the man's helmet, nicknamed "The Fishbowl" somewhat unnerving. He could only imagine the face behind the polished reflective visor, and that bothered him. He preferred to see his allies; and enemies, face to face.

Vice Admiral Cole spun at the sound of their approach. Chris snapped a smart salute, not expecting the Spartan to do the same. "Sir."

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[Duma Vadamee {Aungia Tsawkeyä}]

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The spartan also saluted. "spartan-109, Sir."
     "good work, spartan." He nodded to him. "Your team is waiting for you in the hanar bay. Dismissed."
     His stance faultered but did not show. He had expected a congrats or something bigger, not a pat on the head. still, the admeral gave an order. He saulted again and left the bridge without a nother word.
     The admeral watched the spartan leave and did not adress the sargent again until the soldier was out of his sight. His grayed mustache quivered as he said, "Sargent, it is good to see you again. Although I was hopping for something less formal in the equation..."
He shook his head and turned back to the front of the bridge, where several screens covered the wall. Cole walked to one of these, watched it for a min., and said grimly, "Sargent, I wish to ask you something, and you granted to speak freely." He turned his uniformed body to show him a screen showing empty space and the horizon of Harvest to the left of the vastness. "What is it that you see here?"
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[Reyona te Tsateka Ray'i'itan]

8015 Hours
UNSC Tharsis, Observation Deck

Chris let out an audible gasp. "Oh my...I was aware of the damage, but I didn't expect this." Harvest's surface let off an eerie glow, with patches that glistened like glass.  Cole grimaced, "Agreed. And we're going to take it back." Again Chris gasped. "But, sir! Whatever could do that kind of damage to a planet is likely to be able to crush us without an effort!"

Vice Admiral Cole turned and fixed Chris in an icy glare. "Is that cowardice I hear soldier?" Chris thought about the statement for a minute. Cole was right, it didn't matter what had decimated Harvest. The UNSC needed to be assured that they could fight back. "No sir."

"That's what I thought. Now, what we are up against." He brought up an image of a vessel of massive size. "That, is what took Harvest. The Heracles, Arabia and Vostok made contact with the vessel. They intercepted a message broadcasted from the cruiser: 'Your destruction is the will of the Gods... and we are their instrument.' Oddly enough, the message was broadcast in English, so we can assume that this, "Covenant", has been studying us much longer than we've known about them." Chris took a minute to study the cruiser.

It resembled something out of a science fiction film that Chris had enjoyed as a child, no vertical faces and clearly not of human origins. "And yet here we are now." He grimaced at the thought. It seemed to hum with energy, and although no weapon systems could be seen on the hull, Chris knew they existed.

"So what's the plan?" Cole smiled. "I thought you'd never ask. While we engage the cruiser in-orbit, a select group of ODST's and Spartans -" Chris scowled "-will be dropped planetside to investigate the surface and look for survivors." "So a search and rescue mission. All stealth, no guns?" "You've got it. You're free to go." Chris saluted again. "Sir." Cole returned the gesture, and Chris spun and strolled out of the bridge.

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[Duma Vadamee {Aungia Tsawkeyä}]

8027 Hours
UNSC Tharsis, Hanar bay

     "So what your saying is," Spartan-072 Jessica sneered, sitting across from Duma on a crate of ammo, "We should disobey orders?"
     "No d******, thats not what i said." He sighed. Jess was a good looking girl, a blond 18-year-old with the attitude that matched any 21-century biker, but even with the spartan training she tended to never listen to anything anyone said, including their leader...which was himself. "I wouldn't, ever, disobey orders. You know that. I'm trying to tell you that Cole gave us premission to sepperate from Sargent chrise's command when we felt it is nessessary at the given time. Its a rescue mission, but its also more then that. We-"
     "Yeah, yeah, we know this." Spartan-165 Ryan snorted next to Jess. He shifted his one-ton weight in the crate. "Maybe if someone listened to 'O fearless leader' here, maybe he wouldn't have to repeat himself every 5 seconds."
     "Oh shut up." She playfully sluged Ryans shoulder, which didn't do much with armor on.
     With a playful growl, and blinding speed to any non-Spartan, He got her in a head-lock and started rubbing his fist into her short hair. She sqieeked quietly like a little girl and tryed to grab his face, but he was stronger then her, even though he was skinny. Bronze hair waved as he laughed her pitiful efforts.
     Duma sighed, but in a good tone. He'd known these two since they were young; this type of horseplay wasn't new to him. It was a mirical that all three of them got into the Spartan program. He didn't think any of them would of took it well if one of them up and disappeared in the night-
     "So, O fearless leader," Ryan said, letting his team out of the head-lock, "What do we do know?"
     "Wait. Chris will come to us; no need to rush things."
     "That doesn't sound like any fun," Jess scoffed.
     Duma shifted his weight to oneleg to the other, irritated. They were always questionable, but sometimes it felt like 3rd grade between them all the time. "Would you rather have the ODST get on our bad side?"
     "No...but if he messes with us i wouldn't mind banning introdusing his head to a nearby wall."
     "I second that," Ryan said, cracking his knuckles.
     "No...iv got a better idea. we can-I mean, you guys can tourchure him once we are sent to the serface. I wont take any part of that. You know my morals: if they dont mess with me, i wont mess with them."
     The two other members of Nova Team grinned at each other, liking the idea. It still stunned Duma how much playfulness was in these two after so much training. He didn't know hwo they delt with it.
     "Alright, now go get your weapons ready and take some R&R until i signal you. I'll wait for Chris here."
     "Alright man," Ryan said. They both got up and went to another section of the Hanar Bay, still horsing around and, in the process, freaking some techs out. He sighed again.

[Reyona te Tsateka Ray'i'itan]

UNSC Tharsis
ODST Barracks
8050 Hours

"So we're shipping out?" Mark, or Boom, as known by the team asked. He was a man of about 30, short but well built and firey red hair. "Yes Mark. Simple search and rescue mission." Mark scowled at the statement, but didn't challenge orders. That didn't mean that Kara wouldn't. "But why us? I mean, a search and rescue mission, come on!" "I don't even know that Kara, but I'm not going to ask questions-" he drilled her with a stare "-and I know you'll do the same." Kara was about Chris' age with long blond hair and blue eyes. She was bold, preferring to take action than to sit around and idle. That also meant she was prone to rash decisions that endangered the mission. Granted, Chris liked some excitement. This particular character trait was one of the only reasons that he kept her on the team.

That left Ricky, or Patch. The man was a whiz with technology. He was quiet, in fact, he hadn't spoken a word since Chris had broken the news. He looked at Chris and nodded. And that was that. "I'll leave you to pick up your gear. Get your SOEIVs loaded. Once you've done that, hit the cryo." Two "Yes sir"s and a salute greeted his order. He nodded and left to pack his pod.

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Chris chose to use a SRS99D-S2 AM Sniper Rifle fitted with a silencer and thermal scope and a silenced M7 SMG. They were going to be moving fast and quiet, so he preferred this weapon combination. Kara's words echoed in his mind. He wasn't going to question orders, but he did wonder if there wasn't something more that Vice Admiral Cole wanted with this mission. He dismissed the thought with a shrug. "I guess we'll see when we drop, won't we?"

After he packed his pod, he set off to find the Spartan that he had met earlier to brief him and his team about the upcoming mission.

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[Duma Vadamee {Aungia Tsawkeyä}]

OoC: i think we had the times switched accidentaly. also if there is a dotted line, (----), means you can continue it instead of starting a now entry.

0901 Hours
UNSC Tharsis, Hanar bay

     Snap! was the sound created from the DMR as he slid a mag home. THe sound made him sigh for the millionth time in satisfaction. The aliens would have a run for their money when he unleashed with this bad boy.
     It was practiclly the only weapon Re used. range of a sniper but power of a battle rifle, the spacific weapon hed used for 2 years had saved his life on numerous occasions. Once he went solo with it into a pirets HQ and came out with little injery with the same weapon at his side.
     Some days it just felt good to be a spartan.
     A hissing noise behind him announced that someone was using the elevator. in a smooth, liquid motion, he turned his head to the elevator's doors as they hissed open.
     "Ah, Chris," the spartan said behind his 'fishbowl' helmet, "Good to see you again. Your just in time." he he grabbed a knife from the supplies he had and slid it home into its shead at his hip. "Preparing for a welcoming party for the aliens and your invited."
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[Reyona te Tsateka Ray'i'itan]

0900 Hours
UNSC Tharsis, Hangar Bay

"Ah, Chris," the spartan said behind his 'fishbowl' helmet, "Good to see you again. Your just in time." he he grabbed a knife from the supplies he had and slid it home into its shead at his hip. "Preparing for a welcoming party for the aliens and your invited."

"So you got your mission brief from Cole after I left eh? No worries, I wouldn't have even thought of leaving you behind. To make it clear, you are to accompany us on drop and into the city. Once we reach the perimeter, you are freed to your secondary objective as stated by Cole. Am I clear?"

"Abundantly."

"Good. So get some rest and get set for drop." He saluted, turned, and disappeared into the depths of the ship as soon as he had appeared.

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[Reyona te Tsateka Ray'i'itan]

October 8th, Military Calendar
0200 Hours
UNSC Tharsis Drop Bay

"Call in." Chris barked into TEAMCOM.

"Onyx 1, standing by."

"Onyx 2, standing by."

"Onyx 3, ready to roll."

"Blue Lead, primed and ready."

"Blue 2, standing by."

"Blue 3, ready."

All accounted for. "Get set laddies, first feet into hell. Let's make sure it's well populated when we get there eh?" Chris popped the cover on the countdown and thrusters. He thumbed the switch and noted the timer that appeared on his HUD. 3..2..1.. The pod dropped and Chris felt a momentary sense of vertigo from the weightlessness. He focused experienced eyes on his target, monitoring squad status and trajectories in the same instant. The pod hurtled through the atmosphere, beginning to glow from ionization. "Standby to deploy drag on my mark." He waited 3 heartbeats, then barked "Mark!" The sudden change in momentum slammed him into his harness, but he remained steadfast. "Here it is ladies, brace yourselves!"

The ground exploded as the pod impacted. Chris was jostled, but the pod did it's job. He primed the explosive release and blew the cover off the pod. Within the first second, Chris keen eyes took in and processed every detail. He had landed in a clearing, west of his location was a plateau of considerable size. Night was falling fast, as they had used the cover of the setting sun to make their entry. He flashed his status indicator three times, the check in signal. He watched as 3 ODST tags and 3 lights appeared on his display and sent out coordinates for a rendezvous, approximately 2 kliks west, at the base of the plateau. The squads flashed their acknowledgment. "See you there."

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Chris arrived at the rally point just as Kara entered the clearing from the opposite direction. "Rough drop?" Chris said as he depolarized his visor. "No." "Seen the others?" Kara removed her helmet. "No." Chris sighed and took off his helmet. He always took off his helmet when another member of their squad did, out of courtesy. No one likes to talk to someone that they can't see clearly, in Chris' opinion. It was one of the reasons he found the Spartans unnerving, because they rarely depolarized their faceplates, which made them feel distant and un-human. "Come out with it. What did I do?" "You really want to know?" Kara spat, an edge creeping into her voice. "Of course." Chris replied, undaunted. "You had to bring those freaking behemoths along, that's why." So he wasn't the only one who harbored a distaste of the Spartans. "I was under orders, even you should understand that." "But you could have declined, Admiral Cole knows you, he trusts you. But instead you had to brown nose and be the proper military man." She had crossed the line. In two quick strides he barreled into her chest, knocking her onto her back and winding her. "Listen," he spat, "I didn't have much of a choice. I have a reputation to keep and an example to make for the UNSC. We have a reputation to keep. Marines idolize the Spartans, it's a source of morale for them. So how does it look if the ONI's pet project is hated by the UNSC's best foot soldiers?" He released her and stood. "So grin and bear it, don't let it cause a division. Especially between us." He offered his hand, and she took it, nodding, but still grim. They both replaced their helmets as the rest of the ODST squad and the Spartans entered the clearing.

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[Eaite Randjam]

Covenant Battleship Joyous Clarity, Shuttle Bay
Ninth Age of Reclamation
71st cycle, 200 units
{October 7th, approximately 1600 hours}

"...Fasu, your lances will be responsible for patrolling the foothills surrounding the small river in that region.  You'll be supported by the lances of Ustaf."  The Zealot moved along to the next two Ultras in line as Ustaf and Fasu rounded up their lances.

"Why do you think these heretics are fighting back?  Cannot they accept the will of the gods?" Fasu postulated as he motioned his Minor Elites to get the grunts onto the Spirit Dropships.

"They are greedy and self centered.  I heard from the Ship Master that the Humans destroyed holy artifacts instead of handing them to the prophets.  They will certainly regret being uncooperative."  Ustaf said as he climbed aboard his dropship.

"Unwise of them to resist with the sort of weaponry and ships they have."  Fasu likewise climbed aboard the opposite dropship as the hanger grew louder with the hum of Covenant power cores.  "Since you lead the last patrol, I shall take command of this one."

"Haha, are you sure you can handle it?  Last time you lead the patrol you fell into a river and got water in your helmet!"

"Haha indeed," Fasu sneered grumpily.  "I blame the Unggoy who decided to sleep right behind me!"

The hatches of the Dropships closed, cutting off Ustaf 'Santomee's chance to retort.  One by one the dropships exited the shuttle bay and into space above Harvest.  Fasu's voice briefly broadcast over the Covenant battlenet.  "Eighth patrol is en route to the surface of the planet."

[Duma Vadamee {Aungia Tsawkeyä}]

October 8th, Military Calendar
0210 Hours
Harvest, groundside

     I f***ing hate droping in those things," Ryan grumbled as they headed over the hillside towards the rally point.
     "Maybe you shouldn't of joined the Spartans, whiner," Jess teased.
     "No choice. It was either this or jail time with yea dad."
     "Smart-@$$."
     Duma ignored both of them. Such squabblings were above him. Still, he couldn't help feeling like snapping at them to radio silence, but he didn't.
     The armor He hade wasn't the same thing as before. He actually wanted to show chris the new shiny toys, but ONI didn't want anyone knowing about the prototypes until field work started. For himself, he had the prototype JFO spartan helmet, set of prototype ODST inproved and revised shoulder guards, regular knee guards, the prototype HP/HALO chest plate complete with gernade belt, and TACTICAL/TACPAD on his left rist with the UA/NxRA hard case on his right thigh, which was holding the really important item for the mission.... He didn't understand why ONI command gave him the mission to test it out and his team didn't, but hey you cant argue with those type of people. (See profile for images.)
     As they came closer to the small ODST "group" he could tell by their stance that they just missed a argument of sorts, and desided to play it safe. "ODST's," he acnolaged. He turned to chris. "Sargent. Seems to me everyone is here. Thats fine. We are off, if you wish to know. We might be seeing each other, maybe we aren't." He shrugged. "doesn't matter. our mission is above yours as far as ONI is conserned. Good day Sargent."
     He turned to go towards the river area he'd seen wile droping and saw the female ODST standing next to chris staring at him. well, compared to his partners mark IV armor to his, almost all of the group was staring at him. But this one seemed to make the stare behind the visor threatining.
     He took off his helmet to give the idividual his full attention. She took a small step back at the sight of his eyes-and his age.
     "And for those of you who haven't gotten it in their thick skulls that were allies, remember that were are above chris's command. so....I'd say try not to look like you'd like to rip my head off for the pleasure of it." He nodded to his team, and they left for the river."

[Reyona te Tsateka Ray'i'itan]

0215 Hours
Harvest, groundside

As the 3 Spartans moved east, Chris turned to address the group. "Right, with that, let's go over the mission." He brought up TACMAP and indicated for the others to do likewise. The Spartan's NAV markers still showed on his HUD and TACMAP, and he purposely locked them in, making sure he didn't lose them. He wanted to keep an eye on their section of the op as well. "The city of Gladsheim, here. Second point on Harvest to go dark. Our job is to get in, find out what happened, and get out. Simple reconnosiance mission. Any hangups we find we report to FLEETCOM. Am I clear?" "Aye," Mark replied, "So let's get to it, eh?" "Agreed. We move now. Go comm quiet, silenced weapons only." Mark's gaze dropped a little bit as he re-racked his SPNKR RPG. Chris hoped he wouldn't have to use it, for their sake.

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