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That sounds pretty cool actually. I'm excited to read more.

Will John 117 and Cortana be featured, or just the other characters(Buck, Dare, and the rest)?

Good call on the Haloverse, imho.

Glad to have some positive replies! Picking a nemesis to fight was a very difficult decision they had to be powerful enough to give the Tau'ri and Kobolian forces a good fight, but not so powerful they can be overrun in minutes.

And of course, the Ori may try and attack at the worst possible moment.

John and Cortana should turn up, as will Keyes (both of them). Buck and Dare, probably not since I only played the first three games and read the first five books, so stuff from Reach or ODST I don't know well enough.

And no, Cortana won't get to run rampant in Nemesis' computer systems, if only because they had help from the Asgard to make them secure, and a very real example of why cybersecurity on your warships is important (namely, that whole Fall of the Colonies bit).

Anyone have any thoughts on the entry point? By which I mean, what point in the Halo timeline should the unvierses meet?

Either Sigma Octanis or Reach seems good. Over New Mombassa, not so much, especially since you're not that familiar with ODST.

Shame about Dare(voiced by Tricia Helfer, in case you didn't know).

Well I'm not saying Buck or Dare won't appear, just that it's not as certain as John, Linda, Fred et al and Cortana and Keyes.

And yeah, Sigma Octanus is looking like a good bet. Perhaps after the first battle but before the second, with the Covenant finding that map/beacon in Cote D'Azur being what brings the attention of the SG/BSG crew.

Right at the end of the first battle would work for maximum dramatic paranoia.

Hmm good point. I've got to plot out what will happen after that though, no point just writing a cool battle and leaving it at that.

Especially when you've shown yourself capable of so much more. Maybe have a Terran captain - Pendragon? - lampshade it?

Someone refresh my memory. Are the Cole Protocols in effect at the time of Sigma Octanis? Cause that will definitely make things interesting.

Here's a vid of the Keyes Loop, if you think it will help, E_F.:

[youtube]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tgwxHsdFzgU[/youtube]

Yeah, Cole Protocol is in effect, so telling the Battlestars where Reach or Earth is might be a bit difficult...though they'll already know where Earth is of course.

I know Reach is meant to be Epsilon Eridanii and thus only about 16 light years from Earth, but that's way too boring. I might stretch just how big the UNSC territory is. I'm thinking of making Terra the SG/BSG location of either Reach or Harvest.

Kobolian forces are definitely going to wind up involved in the Battle of Reach (the book version, not the months-long game version, urgh) and they'll have a few tricks to help out the UNSC forces beyond just their ships.

Incidentally, I'm thinking of how strong/weak ships will be. At present I'm working on pulse lasers and Terran laser cannon PD mounts being equal in power/rate of fire. I can't have plasma torpedoes and turbolasers being equal, since Covenant ships mount a lot fewer plasma weapons than human ships carry turbolasers.

So at present:

-Covenant Frigate is tactically equivalent to Terran Challenger-class destroyer
-Covenant Destroyer is tactically equivalent to Terran Legend-class cruiser
-Covenant cruiser (a la the Truth and Reconciliation) equivalent to Warspite or Lionheart class Battlestar
-Covenant Carrier with energy projector or Covenant Flagship (like Ascendant Justice) is equivalent to Phoenix or Eridanus without using superlaser
-Covenant Assault Carrier (the 6km beasts) equivalent to Nemesis, again without using the superlaser

Obviously they haven't got anything that can stand up to the Covenant Supercarriers one-on-one, but that's where cunning plans will come into play.

At present I think that gives things a fairly balanced outing that allows the Kobolians to provide a strong assist to the UNSC without being an overwhelming presence, I want the UNSC to be able to fight effectively as well.

EDIT: And before anyone wonders who powerful UNSC ships are/should be, Jacob Keyes mentally remarks in Fall of Reach that four Covenant frigates would be "an even match" for seven UNSC destroyers like Iroquis, so the humans ships are not that much weaker, it's the lack of shielding that really hurts them.

I like it. Would heavier versions of Covenant energy projectors mounted on largest ships be somewhat equivalent to Terran superlaser?

Since I'm going by the books more than the later games (by which I mean games made later but set earlier), Energy Projectors are rare weapons only seen on Assault Carriers, Supercarriers and Supercruisers (and that seemed to be a specialist "sniper" ship), Given how dangerous energy projectors are against UNSC ships, I would say they are about the same level as the Ancient Satellite Weapons, they're enough to break small/medium ships in half and mission-kill heavier vessels in one hit, but don't outright vaporise targets like the main guns on the Nemesis or Phoenix.

In the books, the Pillar of Autumn was able to tank at least one hit from an energy projector without serious impairment of her combat abilities, so they aren't that powerful. The frigate Ghettysburg takes a hit and is put out of the fight, but only because the hit burned clean through the ship, disabled the reactors and vented every compartment to space. The beams don't seem to be all that powerful, it's more the focused power and long-range that made them deadly.

Compare that to the Warstar's superlaser, that outright vaporised a sixty cubic km nickel-iron asteroid. Now I'm not saying the Nemesis can one-shot a Supercarrier, because those are big ships and very powerful, but honestly I think the superlaser on both Nemesis and Phoenix (which is about half as powerful) are much more potent than Energy Projectors.

A further update, ladies and gentlemen!

I now have most of a plot worked up. Act 1 will be clearing up various minor threads leftover from the first story, ending with the Furling/Forerunner appearance and leading in to Act 2, starting with Sigma Octanus. Act 3 will then continue efforts to shore up the UNSC, search out and contain/eliminate the Flood, culminating in the Covenant arriving at Reach. Act 4 will mostly be taken up with that battle. Beyond that, I have yet to decide.

In case anyone is worried, the plotline I had written up for The Thirteenth Tribe only went up to SG-1 arriving at Terra after the Cylons were defeated, the rest of the story followed on from there without any initial planning.

I have also worked out just what the assorted Kobolian and Tau'ri forces will have at their disposal, suffice to say it's quite a bit. With the Stargate and alien life being revealed, and the fact that most major governments were in on this to begin with, the UN has effectively become a world government and almost all military budgets are being devoted to space forces. As such, they now have Prometheus plus nine upgraded 304's with a further 16 building, divided between American (4 active and 4 building), Russian (2 active and 4 building), British (1 active with 2 building), Chinese (1 active, 3 building), French (1 active, 2 building) and German (1 building), plus a handful of heavier vessels being worked on by America, Russia and Britain (6 in total).

The Kobolians have 1 Warstar, 2 Heavy Battlestars, 11 Battlestars, 30 Cruisers, 60 Destroyers and 24 Explorers (now refitted to include sophisticated Asgard/Ancient cloaking and phase cloaking systems).

The Atlantis Expedition also has the Aurora and Hippoforalkus/Orion at the fleet base in orbit being studied, they are not combat vessels however.

So, the stage is set. What I need now though is a name for the story. Which is proving difficult to dream up!

The Thirteenth Tribe: Hail Imperial Terra!

Terran Commonwealth dude. Terran Senate. Terran President. Try again

But, but, but, the Systems Commonwealth had an Empress.

You're too smug. Cease and desist

Any serious thoughts? Or about the plot/ship equivalency ideas I posted?

You're too smug. Cease and desist

Any serious thoughts? Or about the plot/ship equivalency ideas I posted?

Humans flood the galaxy?

To pardon the pun, Symphony of Terra ?

How big are the 305s(?) going to be?

And the Prometheus is underpowered as is to deal with present threats, let alone the Covies.

Is she going to be repurposed as an all-up missile boat, an explorer, or refitted as much as practical with Asgard beam and shield tech, and assigned home guard duties?

Symphony of Terra is an interesting suggestion.

At present there are 305's, 306's and 307's in the works by America, Britain and Russia respectively, they agreed to use the common class numbers for ease of reference, especially since they're all flying F-302's anyways.

The "heavy" Tau'ri ships will be in the 800-1000 metre range, comparable to Terran Legend-class cruisers but with as much of the latest Asgard tech included from the ground-up, so they will be quite powerful. Each of the three national designs will reflect historical national warship conventions. The Americans are building three CV-305 Yorktown-class supercarriers (Yorktown, Enterprise and Constellation), the British are building one BB-306 Dreadnought-class battleship, and the Russians are building two BC-306 Potemkin-class heavy missile battlecruisers (Potemkin and tentatively Kirov).

The Prometheus simply can't be a frontline combat ship, as mentioned int he Epilogue post, she's been completely refitted to act as a flagship/rear-line support ship, with proper Flag facilities, no fighters or missiles, heavy ECM/ECCM gear and powerful sensors. The only weaponry she mounts are Terran laser cannon PD mounts and a big spinal-mounted Asgard plasma beam cannon (think Asgard-refit 304's beam weapons turned up to 11) which takes up a good chunk of the ship. She sits back, coordinates the fleet, helps mark targets and acts as a sniper.

And if anyone is wondering how Earth is able to gather needed materials, they have the Terran plasma forges/furnaces, plus Asgard transporters, not to mention that massive naquada-laced asteroid Anubis sent their way that's still buggering about the inner solar system. Lots of resources there. Plus recycling all the world's rubbish tips with the aforementioned plasma furnaces is producing plenty of other material.

Art of those designs would be an amazing addition to the story.

Will America be the exception among the Tau'ri by having its air force, rather than its navy, operate starships?

HMS Dreadnought rocks out again!