Halo: Ascension on Atropos

This is a sequel to Halo: Saturn Devouring His Son. You can read it now to refresh yourself or catch up before reading Halo: Ascension on Atropos.

October 2556. The crew of the UNSC Saturn deal with the consequences of a catastrophic Flood outbreak at LV-31, and a fanatical alien cult seeks to find a new path to divine transcendence.

Halo: Ascension on Atropos is available here, on Halo Waypoint, as a free PDF, and in audiobook format on YouTube.

HISTORIAN’S NOTE

Halo: Ascension on Atropos takes place from October 2556, immediately following the Flood outbreak on LV-31, to April 2560, approximately four months after the disappearance of Zeta Halo.

NARROW-BAND POINT-TO-POINT TRANSMISSION ORIGIN: FFG-195, UNSC Saturn TERMINATION: [UNIDENTIFIED VESSEL] SENT: Shipboard AI: LCN 0437-1, “Lycaon” DATE: April 17, 2560

You were curious about the events that transpired in the wake of the disaster at Site 22 over three-and-a-half years ago. I have often wondered what news, if any, ever reached the UNSC, given what happened in the aftermath of that catastrophe. Since my reactivation, I have waited, and I have watched, and I shall at last deliver closure to this dark chapter of history by bringing it into the light.

I am transferring the data to you now. And I am, in truth, relieved to finally share this burden with another. Herein lies the final fate of the UNSC Saturn and Captain Pedro Alvarez.

UNSC SATURN October 5, 2556 Marcey System

Captain Pedro Alvarez had done his duty. He could say that, at least.

There was a bigger picture, a larger context that had informed his strategic thinking. Over a year ago, the UNSC Home Fleet had been decimated. Without warning, thousands of Forerunner machines—Retriever sentinels, each the size of a frigate—had appeared out of the portal in Africa.

Alvarez, executive officer aboard the UNSC Lamplighter at the time, had seen the carnage first-hand. Barely a handful of years after the Covenant War’s end, humanity’s home was under threat once again.

A great maw swallowed the horizon, the bridge's forward viewport peering directly into the dark gullet of slipstream space, as if the deepest pit of the Underworld hung suspended over the African plains.

“Captain,” Commander Alvarez said. He had spotted the first signs of movement within the abyss. “Contacts approaching. What are your orders, sir?”

The Retrievers first emerged few in number, but at a rate that suggested these waves would increase in size and speed until they became an unstoppable swarm. They deployed powerful gravitic forces to hoover up chunks of land, strip mining natural resources—and they wouldn’t stop until the entire planet was consumed.

“Captain,” Commander Alvarez called once more as the Lamplighter shuddered. Fire erupted beyond the bridge’s portside window as several Retrievers formed together and unleashed sterilization beams that gutted a Strident from stem to stern.

The captain simply stood at the helm, watching it all unfold. Alvarez had never been sure whether the man had been stupefied into indecision or if he was staring in reverential awe.

He gave no orders.

“Captain!”

By the time the Retrievers were neutralized—not by military action on Earth, but through orders to stand down and retreat by whatever far-away intelligence had commanded them—there were no more than a dozen ships left to make up the UNSC Home Fleet.

They had pinned a medal on Alvarez for simply surviving after he’d stepped up and mutinied to relieve his captain of command. A Bronze Star, a