Halo_ Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe - Eric Nylund [189]
With that in mind, I still believe that safeguarding Earth’s position is of vital importance. I plan to immediately implement the directives I drafted and sent to ONI for review, namely:
1. All UNSC and civilian ships that come into contact with alien assets must have nav computer network/AI erased—destroyed, if necessary—to prevent capture of core world locations.
2. ALL human vessels fleeing alien forces must do so on randomly generated vectors away from UNSC core worlds.
3. ONI Section II to begin slipstream space attenuation broadcast of prerecorded human carrier signals from antiquity to prevent triangulation of Earth.
But, like I said, some things about this do not add up.
First, I do not understand why the aliens DON’T know where Earth is. They have technology hundreds of years more advanced than ours. All one has to do to find Earth is stick a radio antenna into space and triangulate on the source. I suspect something is occurring within the Covenant hierarchy that has prevented Earth from being targeted, or perhaps appreciated . . . something our captured alien had no knowledge of.
Second, my recommendation for ONI to obfuscate the radio signature in slipstream space (directive 3) might be our best bet to keep rogue elements within the Covenant military from finding Earth and preemptively attacking. Considering the dangers of any energy manipulation in slipstream space, however, I’m going to need your support with Parangosky to use her assets in what she’ll consider an “extreme-risk” operation.
Third, I need solid intelligence on the enemy. Do they seem to see us as some kind of religious aggressor . . . following some hitherto unknown ritual that accounts for them destroying our Outer Colonies before Earth? Or another possibility—an anthropomorphic gulf—that we have so many inhabited worlds, some more powerful militarily, economically than Earth—what if they’re not interested in our homeworld strategically—but rather for some other, unknowable reason?
I can fight them, Harold, but only so effectively without knowing why they hate us.
I keep thinking of Sun Tzu: “If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.”
I look forward to your thoughts on this, my old friend.
Be well.
Preston
Personal log (audio), Vice Admiral Preston Cole, Commanding
Officer UNSC Everest \ June 27, 2541 (Military Calendar)
Tonight a bottle of Capellan Vodka and I reviewed some of the old battles.
The Origami Asteroid Field in 2526—My fleet of one hundred seventeen UNSC ships of the line fought twelve Covenant vessels. We won that at the cost of thirty-seven ships.
Xo Boötis in 2528—Seventy ships versus eight Covenant. Another “victory.” That time I lost thirty ships.
Groombridge 2530—Seventeen against three. We lost eleven destroyers. Still a win.
Leonis Minoris in 2537—only ten UNSC ships lost, but the Covenant glassed the other two colonies in system. God—I couldn’t save them all; I had to make the choice.
Another twenty-three engagements (or was it twenty-four . . . does Alpha Cephei count?) like those over the past ten years . . . or is it fifteen? So much travel in slipspace. So much subjective time lost to damnable Heisenberg uncertainties and in cryosleep.
It’s killing me . . . although I seem to have somehow, technically, lived through it all.
They told me to fight, and that’s what I’ve done. Let historians sort through the wreckage, bodies, and broken lives to figure out the rest.
Yet, how many men and women have I had to watch die? How many would have perished on colony worlds if not for their sacrifice? I look into space and no longer see wonder and stars and the endless possibilities that