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Classified communique from Vice Admiral Preston Cole to

Admiral Harold Stanforth \ May 2531 (Military Calendar)

UNITEDNATIONSSPACECOMMANDTRANSMISSION102482-02

ENCRYPTIONCODE: RED

PUBLICKEY: FILE/ VEGAS-ANACONDA-MOCKINGBIRD-ZERO/

FROM: VICEADMIRALPRESTONCOLE, COMMANDINGOFFICERUNSC E VEREST /

(UNSC SERVICENUMBER: 00814-13094-BQ)

TO: ADMIRALHAROLDSTANFORTH, USNC REGIONONECOMMANDER/ REACH

CENTCOM (UNSC SERVICENUMBER: 00834-19223-HS)

SUBJECT: SAFEGUARDING NAVIGATION DATA – MORE THOUGHTS

CLASSIFICATION: SECRET (BGX DIRECTIVE)

Harold,

I‘ve gone over this a dozen tiation of the alien creaturewith my tenuous conclusions and recout tellsthat we have

overlooked

First, and foremost, the Elite was xenophobic The venom hich it spoke of humanity and its one desire--even as it bled out on the table--to find Earth and burn it to hot ashesleft zero doubt

With that inEarth‘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 huenerated vectors away froin slipstreanals froulation of Earth

But, like I said, sos about this do not add up

First, I do not understand why the aliens DON‘T knohere 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 so within the Covenant hierarchy that has prevented Earth fro our captured alien had no knowledge of

Second, nature in slipstreaue ele Earth and preeyto need your support with Parangosky to use her assets in what she‘ll consider an ―extreence on the eneressorfollowing so our Outer Colonies before Earth? Or another possibility--an anthropoulf--that we have so many

inhabited worlds, some more powerful militarily, economically than Earth--what if they‘re not interested in our hoically--but rather for soht the 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 in one and lose one; if you do not know your enele battle"

I look forward to your thoughts on this,(audio), Vice Ad

Officer UNSC Everest \ June 27, 2541 (Military Calendar)

Tonight a bottle of Capellan Vodka and I reviewed soami 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 Bootis in 2528--Seventy ships versus eight Covenant Another ―victory" That tiainst 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 theements (or was it twenty-fourdoes Alpha Cephei count?) like those over the past ten yearsor is it fifteen? So much travel in slipspace Souncertainties and in cryosleep

It‘s killing h I seeh it all

They told ht, 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 I did when I was a cadet I see nothing but a cold death

I hope CENTCOM can see farther than I do and planned for all contingencies: including not winning this war

If the unthinkable happens--Earth and her colonies reduced to ash as promised by that Covenant Elite--where can humanity escape to? Perhaps there are already plans in motion: a colony vessel en route to some secret distant world where we can start over

So this sacrifice we endure has purpose

ANALYSIS

Cole won every ainst the Covenant On only two occasions did he encounter an enee to take, and then he would return in both cases with reinforcements--most notably at the Battle of Psi Serpentis (more on that fateful encounter in a moment)

The losses of ships and people under Cole‘s coroup would have been disiven some rest--but Cole was a victim of his own popularity CENTCOM could not allow their sy Cole with new ships and crews--and kept their fingers crossed that he wouldn‘t snap frorad and Cold Harbor and defending the Hot Gates with three hundred

Spartans and repelling the Mexican Ar to repeat those lopsided, ihts over and over

Certainly Cole knew this that first time he faced that Covenant super-destroyer at Harvest His unheard ree of Everest , ―Fix bayonets," is a reference to Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chae down Little Round Top at the battle of Gettysburg

Chamberlain had orders to defend the far left end of the Union line, and had repelled numerous assaults upon his position When the Fifteenth Alabaed up the hill toward

Chai