The Spartan Effect

The Ringworld

Eternity's Bridge, December 1st, 12:02

     Thomas had left his helmet off and was staring with hatred at the hologram of the Ring in front of him. It had been two minutes since he had ordered the ships docked inside Eternity to begin scoring the surface of the Ring for its control room and any signs of the Flood. He had seen the report of what the Master Chief had to do on Installation 04 and had seen firsthand how close Earth had come to being consumed entirely by the parasite. Those screams still showed up at night when he tried to sleep. So far, none of the eight frigates present at the Ring had reported anything besides deserts, but the spartan knew there were structures underneath the sand and rock.

      Thomas turns to the Comm officer and, in an authoritative tone, says. 

     "Enact Halo protocol. I want all nearby fleets in position around this Ring an hour ago."

     "YES, SIR." the comms officer replies and immediately begins sending out a call over comms. 

      Horizon, Anhur, Arvuna, and Maskawa fleets all heard the announcement and began the formation of the response fleet. 

     The fleet was arranged as such.

     Pheonix class CVV-01-001 [Will of Anhur] as the flagship until rendevous with INF-002 Eternity.

     Autumn class CGN-01-001 [Broad Horizon] and CGN-01-002 [Wrath of Asteria]

      22 Paris Class FFGs, 12 Stalwart Class FFEs, 4 Charon Class FFLs, and 8 Halberd Class Destroyers.

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Below is for clarification. I pulled this both out of my ass and off of Wikipedia.

Hull Classification symbols.

DD - destroyer. Insert titty joke here.

FFG - Frigate with guided missiles

FFL - Light Duty Frigate. Atmosphere capable

FFE - Escort Frigate. Suitable For Anti Air Screening and ground support

CGN - cruiser-guided nuclear missiles

CVV - carrier variable use

SCVV- Supercarrier variable use

INF- Infinity class supercarrier

     All clear now? Good. Back to the story.

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Anhur, 12:02.

With a Rally point set, ships from the four UNSC-controlled colonies began moving for their jump points. Thomas knew it would be a few days at least before they began arriving because of their subpar slipspace drives, but it would still be an immense accomplishment compared to the traditional FTL of this galaxy. Between the ships in the newly formed fleet, the Will of Anhur sent out a message.

     "Form up and proceed to rally point Alpha, ETA 3 hours. Once the fleet has assembled, proceed to rally point Charlie." 

     While this was happening, many of the colonists noticed the large number of ships moving into formation. They grew worried about the implications of such large-scale deployment, but no one could begin to guess the reason. Those who crewed the large ships had an extensive period in the Avery Johnson naval academy, going over the many scenarios for which the UNSC had special protocols. Many had not believed it at first when the Halo Array was explained, either from ignorance or a lack of evidence, but the UNSC had plenty of videos to back it up. Besides, it didn't matter if they believed. As long as they followed protocol, they would see soon enough. Those on board who had served previously were either officers or captains and knew how close the end was for everyone during the war.