The Exiles:A New Power

Prologue:Departure

Mars Orbit

Sol System

11:00 Hours, October 20th 2552, UNSC Standard Military Calendar

The Red Planet that had been the dream of the earliest of humanity's colonists sat below. It was now the biggest remaining Shipyard of the UNSC Navy and home to the Reyes-McLee headquarters. Several dozen orbital cradles and stations stood tall in the uppermost areas of the planet's atmosphere, alongside a slew of UNSC vessels currently preparing for their departure from the Sol System. Fifteen UNSC Phoenix-class warships and thirty other assorted older vessels currently sat in orbit over Mare Erythraeum, with several of the Phoenix-class ships undergoing refit to support combat and military operations.

Among the ships defending them were some of the oldest models of UNSC vessels that had been pulled out of mothball now. Among them was the only Thermopylae-class Supercarrier of the UNSC Navy. A gigantic brick layered with the black Titanium-A armor that was standard to their naval forces, as well as several hundred arrays of weapons, including a total of a hundred and sixty ARCHER missile pods. The command vessel for the fleet, this was the UNSC Moscow, the Navy's last and greatest warship that could be pulled for this duty.

Around her, several Charon-class frigates and Corvettes patrolled, with the escort of half a dozen Paris-class Heavies, six Halcyon-classes, three smaller escort carriers and squadrons upon squadrons of Longswords. Beside these ships, the UNSC had also brought forth two of the biggest modernized vessels they could spare. Valiant-class cruisers hanged in orbit, beside the mothership of the fleet. Bulked up and armored to the very core, the Valiant-class Heavy Cruiser family presented some of the meanest and most heavily armed vessels the UNSC had at its disposal.

And, currently, they and the Carrier made up the command section of the fleet. Aboard the massive battleship-like Carrier, the commanders of what was set to be the biggest evacuation in the history of the UNSC. The Admiral in command of this fleet was a Rear Admiral that had dealt with fighting retreats beforehand, when he and his naval forces were pulling out of another doomed colony.

Matthew Higgins, UNSC Rear Admiral, age 71, narrowed his eyes at the holographic table in the middle of the cavernous bridge of his command ship. Around him, a dozen different holographic figures, ranging from Frigate commanders to the Captains of the UNSC Navy's Valiant-class cruisers to even Hillsborough-class destroyer officers. They all concerned themselves with what was to come.

The word had been given. The Covenant knew about Earth. It was only a matter of time before they would send a fleet to deal with them and the greatest Battle in this damnable War would begin. He knew damn well it'd be the deadliest fight, with the UNSC giving it their all. Several hundred ODPs and hundreds of ships had been brought in to secure Earth's orbit.

"How many...?" He asked of one of the captains commanding the UNSC Phoenix-class refit Shelter from Deluge, a young woman who'd just been given the position aboard the old vessel

"Counting around one million after the modification of the cryobay, sir. We've added layers of armor to it, too, so we could've fit even more, but..." The woman replied shyly. The Admiral nodded. There needed to be protection so they'd have people to evacuate. One million cryo-tubes was nothing to scoff at... And if every single Phoenix-class refit for combat duty could fit that many, they had at least six million people in half their Phoenixes, plus an uncounted number more aboard the Carriers, the Valiants and the other ships that had extra cryo-tubes fitted in, stacked and pressed together like sardines in a can.

His own ship had at least another seven million people stacked together in the up-armored belly of the vessel. It'd take the Covenant several Plasma torpedoes focused at just the right spot to burn away the plating and kill those inside. He'd made sure of it when he asked for this old beast to be retrofitted, just after arriving above Earth. Still, that he was put in charge of an Evacuation Fleet, rather than a battle group defending Earth... It stung. And told him more than he needed to know about what HighCom and Lord Hood were expecting of the upcoming battle.