Lord of the Fleet Ruta ‘Vogamee studied the holographic star system model in silence, mentally calculating jump points, logistics problems, and orbital ellipses. He did not hear the other being quietly glide into the chamber behind him.
“Something troubles you, Fleet Lord?” The prophet’s gravelly voice echoed from the curved metal walls of the planning chamber as he joined the tall Sangheili at the projection table.
“No, your grace. I just…” ‘Vogamee’s voice trailed off in silence. “Why this system? The humans couldn’t possibly know, could they?”
The prophet waived a shriveled arm dismissively. “Whether they do or not, it is no matter. Our scouts tell us they are not sufficiently advanced to use the technology, even if they could find it. They would be as an Unggoy contemplating a supernova; they would discern it, but have no idea of it’s significance.” He was silent a moment. “Our agents tell us they call the system ‘Jubilee Three Sigma’, whatever that means in their abominable tongue.”
‘Vogamee grunted. “Indeed, but what if they damage it? Or worse yet, destroy it? They may not understand, but their weapons are crude, and they could yet cause us trouble.”
“That is why we are sending you, Fleet Lord. Find what we know--what we believe--is there. And do not return empty-handed.”
The prophet glided back out of the chamber as silently as he had entered, leaving ‘Vogamee to his contemplations.
Light-years away, Vice Admiral Michael Stanforth hurried into the executive briefing room aboard the UNSC Olympus Mons. He found Lord Hood scanning over a tablet, while his intelligence chief fidgeted a few chairs away.
“Sorry for the delay, sir”, Stanforth said, rubbing at the moisture on the back of his neck. He’d been forty-three decks below in one of the flagships many gyms, grinding out his daily routine on the elliptical, when Hood’s runner had found him. Stanforth had barely had time to wipe the sweat off and put on a fresh uniform before he rushed up to the senior staff levels of the mighty ship.
Hood waived absently at the seat beside him, not taking his eyes off the tablet. “It’s ok, Mike, have a seat. Commander Rollins here was just telling me that the last piece of the puzzle has finally dropped into place.”
Rollins shifted nervously in his chair, arranging the papers and charts in front of him. “Lord Hood, sir, we think it’s fallen into place, but we-”
Hood cut him off with a wave of his hand, putting the tablet down in the process. “It’s okay, son. We pay you for your best estimates, and that’s what we’ve got. Please explain it to Admiral Stanforth.”
Rollins cleared his throat. “Well, sir, we’ve been monitoring Covenant fleet signals for weeks now through our system of deep-space listening posts. Based on the traffic we’ve deciphered, to include high-grade Covenant orders and logistical directives, combined with fleet movements over the past eight days and pre-positioning of-”
Hood cut him off again with a more impatient hand wave. “Cut to the chase, son. Admiral Stanforth has a fleet to prepare.”
Rollins shifted again in his seat. “It’s Jubilee Three Sigma, sir. That’s where they’re headed. And they have at least one assault carrier with them.”
Stanforth sat back in his seat, tapping his lips with his forefinger. Jubilee Three Sigma…”You’re sure, Commander Rollins?”.
“As sure as we can be, sir. It is highly unlikely they are heading anywhere else.”
Stanforth looked at Hood. “It must be the Forerunner artifacts. I saw the science team’s debriefing on that system. One of the highest concentrations of Forerunner sites in any system we’ve encountered thus far.”
“Agreed,” Hood rumbled. “Better get over to your ship. Beowulf will be happy for some action, I think.”
“He’s never happy, sir,” Stanforth said, smiling as he thought of his curmudgeonly AI. “Do you have any SPARTAN assets to spare?”
“I might be able to chop a couple over to you. I know that’ll make Colonel Holland happy.” He tapped the screen of the tablet. “Just sent your orders over. Defend that system at all costs, Admiral. We need a win, and we need to make the Covenant bleed. I know you’re the man for the job.”
“Thank you, sir,” Stanforth managed. “We’ll do our best.”
“That’s all I can ask for,” Hood said as the two men stood and shook hands. “You move out at 0400 tomorrow. Good hunting, Admiral.”
==================
After much planning and discussion, forum member Quickdraw and I have finally started a combined Halo Fleet Battles and Halo Ground Command campaign! We're fighting for control of the Jubilee III Sigma system, which contains several planets with Forerunner sites and a few abandoned Forerunner stations in various orbits around the system's star. We've already found a few tweaks to make to the main campaign document and I'm sure we'll find more, but when we both feel it's straightened out I'll post it in the Downloads section of the site for people to take a look and use themselves if they'd like. I'll also upload the system map that I drew up to keep track of how things are progressing. We'll be using this thread to report progress in the campaign. The basics:
-we are fighting for control of the planets in the system. When one player has won a ground engagement at the majority of the Forerunner sites on a planet, the planet is considered controlled by that player and no more ground combat can occur on that planet. When one player controls the majority of the planets in the system, the campaign is over (not wanting to throw good money after bad, the overall commander will choose to cut his losses at that point and pull out of the system).
-Forerunner tech can be scavenged from the various Forerunner sites both in space and on the ground. Some of these have immediate effect, some have persistent effect throughout the campaign. Sometimes the sites literally blow up in your face, however.
-we've both built 5000-point lists for H:FB and H:GC, and have named or otherwise designated all individual elements and units. After each engagement, we make saving rolls for all units/elements removed from play during that engagement (I've built a "saving roll table" that shows the rolls needed for each unit/element type); if the saving roll is made, the unit/element is considered "damaged" and cannot be deployed again until repaired. If it fails its saving roll, the unit/element is considered "destroyed" and cannot be used again in the campaign.
I imagine it will take a us a few months to go through this campaign, as we can only get together a couple times a month to play, but that's ok. Keep an eye here for campaign updates!
