Discoveries...
Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 11:13 pm
Captain,
Contrary to popular belief, Orions weren't the only ones to field Kavacha armor. Though they were the only ones to field the final models, many of the test models were used by groups of volunteers for specific missions. You don't put your best in untested technology, after all.
One squad in particular was sent on an extremely dangerous mission. After learning that the Covenant were being highly selective in glassing a certain planet, they were sent to do the impossible; retrieve an Elite commander alive for interrogation. While they had three full squads of Orion-IVs and one squad of Orion-IIs at their backs, it was still considered by some to be a suicide mission.
This is also why the prototype Kavacha Mk 3 suits used by the marines were fitted with backpack nukes.
Though the suits didn't have the shielding technology (much of which was only created thanks to the capture of a certain Covenant warship) that would become synonymous with Kavacha Mk 3 personal battle armor, they still completed their mission with only one casualty. As they pulled out, the suit was blown – I'm told it was in the process of being transported to one of the ships in orbit. There's an official reprimand by an Orion-II for not having waited until the craft had docked, but time constraints prevented such forward thought.
The captured Elites we interrogated revealed a great deal of information to us, some of which has never been made public. Though the year-long interrogation resulted in its death, we learned the Covenant's power structure, all seven races that made up the Covenant (if you wish to count the Jackals and the Engineers, which apparently some don't), and the bloody turmoil that brought the Elites into the ruling class.
To say that this information was invaluable to the UNSC would be an understatement. Not because it helped us win the war, but because we finally understood why the Covenant called us Corruptors.
Their entire society is based around an ancient spacefaring race called the Forerunners which predated even the first homosapien. The remainders of their great culture can be found around the galaxy, apparently. However, they left on some “great journey” to become gods. Thusly, the Covenant was formed to try and retrace their steps through what artifacts could be found.
And their “luminaries” detected us, all of humanity, as being Forerunner artifacts.
This information was collaborated by a few of the Grunts we captured. Sadly, many of them knew virtually nothing. Apparently, keeping the lesser races informed wasn't part of the program.
It was this intel, combined with the Kavacha Mk 3 modular armor system that truly brought the Science Corps of the Orion-IVs into the limelight. The Cole Protocol was quietly amended to include the retrieval and study (when able) of such artifacts as a hope of winning the war. In the field, the people best suited for this role were the Science Corps.
Up until now, F484 had been somewhere in the lower-middle of the program. His tendency to go “404” (to wander off on his own during an operation) earned him many reprimands, though his ability to make such actions useful to either the operation or the UNSC as a whole made it go mostly ignored. His “chatty” nature to other Orions tended to earn him their ire, though some welcomed the chance to talk. His thoughts were random, often skipping from one subject to the next seemingly without focus; some reports suggest that he may have had a mild form of autism, though no evidence collaborates this.
However, these two things earned him a respected position within the Science Corps. During the Christmas “leave” of 2539, he absorbed massive amounts of intel on all known Forerunner artifacts. His thoughts and ideas were discussed with other members of the Science Corps, and with any authorized ONI personnel willing to listen. The Field Geeks, as the other Orions called them, put together massive amounts of observation as to where locations of Forerunner artifacts might be located. Even more interestingly, on the next two missions he went on, he returned with items that were later identified as Forerunner in nature.
Needless to say, after that, he wasn't reprimanded for going 404 again.
Sincerely,
Chair
P.S. It should be noted that not all test groups for Kavacha armor went as spectacularly as that one did. Even more troubling, there were reports of the nukes occasionally not going off. Some diplodink decided there was no way that the Insurrectionists could reverse-engineer the armor, and that the backpack nukes were so tamper-resistant, and so tied in with the micro-nuclear reactor, that even if they tried it would end spectacularly. He has since retired, obviously.
*************
Note by Hive: Captain, I have encountered additional encrypted data within this message. The encryption keys are old enough to be added to my own databanks upon my creation due to our frequent status in the outer regions of humanity's occupied zone, in case we encountered any of the number of missing ships from the war. Below is the unencrypted message.
*************
The first time they didn't yell at you for wandering off, you were so lost. I've seen the videos of you for the following week after you got back to Fort Iroquois for your debriefing. It was like your world had shattered and you didn't know what to do.
*************
Contrary to popular belief, Orions weren't the only ones to field Kavacha armor. Though they were the only ones to field the final models, many of the test models were used by groups of volunteers for specific missions. You don't put your best in untested technology, after all.
One squad in particular was sent on an extremely dangerous mission. After learning that the Covenant were being highly selective in glassing a certain planet, they were sent to do the impossible; retrieve an Elite commander alive for interrogation. While they had three full squads of Orion-IVs and one squad of Orion-IIs at their backs, it was still considered by some to be a suicide mission.
This is also why the prototype Kavacha Mk 3 suits used by the marines were fitted with backpack nukes.
Though the suits didn't have the shielding technology (much of which was only created thanks to the capture of a certain Covenant warship) that would become synonymous with Kavacha Mk 3 personal battle armor, they still completed their mission with only one casualty. As they pulled out, the suit was blown – I'm told it was in the process of being transported to one of the ships in orbit. There's an official reprimand by an Orion-II for not having waited until the craft had docked, but time constraints prevented such forward thought.
The captured Elites we interrogated revealed a great deal of information to us, some of which has never been made public. Though the year-long interrogation resulted in its death, we learned the Covenant's power structure, all seven races that made up the Covenant (if you wish to count the Jackals and the Engineers, which apparently some don't), and the bloody turmoil that brought the Elites into the ruling class.
To say that this information was invaluable to the UNSC would be an understatement. Not because it helped us win the war, but because we finally understood why the Covenant called us Corruptors.
Their entire society is based around an ancient spacefaring race called the Forerunners which predated even the first homosapien. The remainders of their great culture can be found around the galaxy, apparently. However, they left on some “great journey” to become gods. Thusly, the Covenant was formed to try and retrace their steps through what artifacts could be found.
And their “luminaries” detected us, all of humanity, as being Forerunner artifacts.
This information was collaborated by a few of the Grunts we captured. Sadly, many of them knew virtually nothing. Apparently, keeping the lesser races informed wasn't part of the program.
It was this intel, combined with the Kavacha Mk 3 modular armor system that truly brought the Science Corps of the Orion-IVs into the limelight. The Cole Protocol was quietly amended to include the retrieval and study (when able) of such artifacts as a hope of winning the war. In the field, the people best suited for this role were the Science Corps.
Up until now, F484 had been somewhere in the lower-middle of the program. His tendency to go “404” (to wander off on his own during an operation) earned him many reprimands, though his ability to make such actions useful to either the operation or the UNSC as a whole made it go mostly ignored. His “chatty” nature to other Orions tended to earn him their ire, though some welcomed the chance to talk. His thoughts were random, often skipping from one subject to the next seemingly without focus; some reports suggest that he may have had a mild form of autism, though no evidence collaborates this.
However, these two things earned him a respected position within the Science Corps. During the Christmas “leave” of 2539, he absorbed massive amounts of intel on all known Forerunner artifacts. His thoughts and ideas were discussed with other members of the Science Corps, and with any authorized ONI personnel willing to listen. The Field Geeks, as the other Orions called them, put together massive amounts of observation as to where locations of Forerunner artifacts might be located. Even more interestingly, on the next two missions he went on, he returned with items that were later identified as Forerunner in nature.
Needless to say, after that, he wasn't reprimanded for going 404 again.
Sincerely,
Chair
P.S. It should be noted that not all test groups for Kavacha armor went as spectacularly as that one did. Even more troubling, there were reports of the nukes occasionally not going off. Some diplodink decided there was no way that the Insurrectionists could reverse-engineer the armor, and that the backpack nukes were so tamper-resistant, and so tied in with the micro-nuclear reactor, that even if they tried it would end spectacularly. He has since retired, obviously.
*************
Note by Hive: Captain, I have encountered additional encrypted data within this message. The encryption keys are old enough to be added to my own databanks upon my creation due to our frequent status in the outer regions of humanity's occupied zone, in case we encountered any of the number of missing ships from the war. Below is the unencrypted message.
*************
The first time they didn't yell at you for wandering off, you were so lost. I've seen the videos of you for the following week after you got back to Fort Iroquois for your debriefing. It was like your world had shattered and you didn't know what to do.
*************