Storm 2022: Celebrate, Lusitania

While subject to some unqualified dispute, it is a little-known fact that the greatest Christmas party of all time – in all of human history, taken together – happened on the Inner Colony world of Lusitania. There may be larger Christmas gatherings in the past or in the future of humanity, of course, and there will be those who disagree with this declaration. Those dissenters will produce meaningless statistics about alcohol consumed, the valuation of gifts given, the magnificence of holiday decorations, the songs and stories told, and other such useless points of data in support of their assertion that the greatest Christmas party ever did not happen on Lusitania on December 25, 2552. And they will still be hopelessly wrong, because on December 24, 2552, colonial and UNSC forces evicted the last Covenant soldiers from the planet, and chased their broken fleet out of the system. One thousand and seventy-nine days after the Covenant entered the system, they were done, they were beaten, and they were gone. And the next day was Christmas. And the Lusitanians partied, and they partied hard. 
Taken with the news of victory at Earth, and the news of the Covenant unravelling itself into oblivion, the collective spirits of Lusitania and its defenders soared to heights not seen in perhaps a hundred years. Doubts and fears were washed away by a tide of joy and excitement and relief. The Covenant was defeated, Lusitania was saved, and everyone has a tomorrow. To borrow the words of the captain of the UNSC Majestic, the people of Lusitania were “seeing daylight after a century of darkness.” Religious structures the world over hosted more congregants than they could hold. Public announcement systems and radio stations broadcast songs and speeches and personal messages. Heroes alive and dead were remembered and celebrated as special rations were issued out in a flood. The Lusitanian parliament building, still damaged by recent fighting, was draped with an enormous banner. In great letters it carried the words of the phrase of the hour, “LUSITANIA: NOT IN VAIN”. Similar banners draped other government buildings and industrial centers, with many bearing the names of great ships lost with many Lusitanian sailors and marines aboard: Bonaparte, Formidable, Quos Ego, Trafalgar, Challenger, Fidelity, Ever Onwards. Lusitania had always honored its fallen, but today they could celebrate the victory realized only by such tremendous sacrifice.